The Runesmith

“There, will you get off my back now?”

“Aye, dis will do.”

A certain large, bald guild master was frowning while looking at a smaller dwarf. Both of them didn’t seem to like each other but they were in the process of signing a contract. The two dwarves were the same that Roland had seen a few days ago and they were now looking over some signed documents.

“Good, now stop price gouging my stores.”

“Ye don’t need tae worry, dwarves aye follow a contract!”

Aurdhan gave out a snort while watching the two bearded men leave his office. He glanced at the written contracts one more time before remembering a certain runesmith that he once employed.

‘The kid should be fine.’

His eyes soon turned to a different kind of parchment. It looked somewhat strange as the paper was black as coal while the writing was white instead.

‘Seems he had a little run-in with the locals though…’

“Guild master, can I come in?”

Without answering back Aurdhan glanced at the piece of paper. In a matter of seconds, it went up in flames after he injected a tiny bit of his own mana.

“Come in.”

A certain young woman with glasses and her hair up walked into the room. Aurdhan nodded at her while handing her the contract that he signed with the dwarves. It would have to be stored down in the vault together with all the other contracts the guild had made.

“You can leave now, that will be all.”

He noticed that this guild receptionist had been taking interest in this whole case. Even now he noticed that she took a longer glance at the piece of paper. This was somewhat out of character as she was normally somewhat more professional.

‘Is there something going on between those two… well not like it matters?’

Aurdhan pulled out an empty piece of paper. This little shop enterprise that he created might have gone under but this didn’t mean that the work was done. Even though he wouldn’t be able to undercut the dwarven magic items he still had other venues he could profit from.

Then there still was the dark horse, Wayland the Runesmith. It seemed that he had followed through with his advice and would be remaining in the city even with the dwarven resistance.

Aurdhan knew how those drunks operated and they would certainly not get involved with the black market merchants. From his perspective both the regular market and black market were the same thing, one just had fewer restrictions.

‘Time to get back to work…’

While the guild master was busy with his own business Bamur and Dunan were walking back to their workshop. The two were quite happy about how they managed to handle the issue with the runesmith.

Thinking that the young human had no right to delve into something their ancestors were known for was enough to justify the actions that they took.

“That shuid dae it.”

Dunan said to Bamur while walking through the large iron door of their headquarters. The moment they entered they could feel the heat going up. Inside were various other dwarven craftsmen hammering away at various metals, shaping them into swords and axes.

“Dae ye think that ‘uman wull come tae us?”

“If he does, we'll juist send him awa', we don’t need him aroond 'ere.”

Dunan replied to Bamur and the two soon went on their own way. While the two had the highest levels from the smiths here, they were still young craftsmen with a lot of pride.

This debacle had already taken away from their own work and now with it being done, they wanted to concentrate on their own craft. Thus the two delved into their own private workshops that were dug into this large building.

Dwarves liked to operate underground while being surrounded by heavy machinery and heat. The sound of hammers was like music to them and being intoxicated while working was just part of the course.

A day turned into a week and then a month had passed, this was the time for their monthly meeting to discuss how the Albrook project was underway.

“Kin we git this ower, a'm needin' tae finish that set o' arms.”

Dunan said in a grumpy voice while the group of dwarves sat down around a table. While he looked a bit annoyed the others weren’t saying much.

“Whit's wrong wiyh ye, did yer mums die or something?”

“Na, we juist hud word aboot th' ‘uman runesmith, he is actually expanding 'n' building a shop, it doesn't look he is struggling at all.”

One of the dwarves that was responsible for gathering information spoke up. Dunan was the last one to come to the meeting so he was not informed about this information. From the reports that they were given the human runesmith was close to finishing building his workshop.

“Impossible, did he hae more coin than we anticipated? building a damn shop 'n' stocking it up shouldn't be this easy, did th' guild lie tae us? ur thay aye helping him git by?”

Dunan asked while the other dwarf shrugged.

“We checked, it doesn't seem lik' he is getting hulp fae other sources.”

The dwarves didn’t just let this slide, the moment they noticed that Wayland was doing fine they investigated. Their informants stated that neither Wayland nor his assistant was getting anything from the marketplace. The people that they knew like the other shop owners were not helping them either, he was getting his resources from an unknown place.

“Either someone is providing him th' metal or he is usin` some auld stock tae git by, ah say we hold 'n' see…”

Bamur spoke out this time around. Knowing well that it would be hard to compete with runic items with a runesmith he didn’t see a way of pricing him out of business.

While he could go for the lower-level adventurers, the ones with a lot of money would not skimp out on good gear. Their lives were on the line and they knew that paying a bit more was better than being dead.

There was also the perception of price to quality that was attributed to magical weapons that Bamur knew existed. If he lowered the prices of his enchanted items people would think that there was something wrong with them. Thus before acting, they decided to wait, more information was needed.

….

“Hm… they sure do work fast in this world…”

Roland stood before the new building that had been created in a bit over a month's time. It looked like a nice small brick cottage with a slanted roof that made it look like a pointy triangle. There was a large round window on the upper floor where the attic was at. This place was now empty and still required furniture that would be arriving soon.

He wasn’t sure what he would do with the attic that could be accessed by an extendable ladder. The space up there had enough room for someone to sleep or it could serve as a storage facility.

The store was built into the wall that was going around Roland’s house. It wasn’t that far from the main gate and behind it was an additional storage where most of the goods would be placed.

The plan was to place the less costly items up on the display while the good stuff was placed in the back. This would keep people from touching dangerous runic weapons that could blast a hole through his store.

“Well, there she is, what a beaut.”

“She?”

Roland looked to Bernir that eyes were sparkling. It seemed that his assistant was happier than even he was that this store had been built. While Roland was somewhat happy that he could make this, it was just the beginning of his journey.

For him, it wasn’t really about building a store and more about being free. This store and company that he was trying to create was in place so that he could be independent of others. His true wish was just to someday relax without feeling the impending doom coming from all directions.

“Aye, you come up with a name for it yet?”

“Name huh?”

Roland looked at the spot above the large wooden entrance door. There he saw nothing besides the brick wall, soon he would need to place a sign that would give the people an idea about what was inside.

He also intended to put a sign at the road where the adventurers were heading towards the dungeon. It would point them in the direction of this store with the promise of high-quality runic items.

These items would range all the way from weapons to his mapping orb that he also intended to sell for a hefty sum. With some work on the orb's inner workings, he hoped to include a smart mapping system that would work somewhat like a GPS.

With a lack of satellites though he needed to figure out a different way of keeping track of the person holding it. Maybe in the future, he could build some kind of tower that gathered some signals and helped him map the whole dungeon but that would need to wait.

“How about we just call it the runic shop?”

“Eh? That’s a bit too simple, shouldn’t it be something grand like the Godly Runeforge?”

“Runeforge? It’s not a forge, it's just a store for runic items…”

Roland went back and forth with Bernir as his assistant was resolute in giving the store a good name. Roland on the other hand didn’t want to be too cheeky with the naming sense as it might give the customers the wrong idea.

There was still a need for something catchy that would bring the people over with an idea in their head that they would be getting some high-quality runic items.

“I guess… ‘Wayland’s Runic Emporium?’ should do the trick…”

After going through the shops in this city and the others he noticed that everyone seemed to put their name in front of it. With that in mind, he decided on something that would encompass a larger range of runic wares than just armor and weapons.

“Emporium?”

“I know, it's somewhat small to be called an Emporium but didn’t you say that I should think big?”

Roland gave Bernir a pat on the shoulder while heading out of the store. It had a large reinforced door that was hard to close due to its weight.

“Now comes the hard part…”

There was still some time before this place became ready to receive customers. First, it needed to be furnished and he needed to place something shiny behind those reinforced windows that could take a gunshot.

Then the next important part would be getting the right people to work here. He was slowly running low on funds but he was able to sell some protective trinkets down at the black market.

Due to his moral compass, he didn’t feel like selling deadly daggers would be the correct way of proceeding there. The black market was there to help him get the base materials for his wares but not for him to fold it with weapons meant for killing.

Instead, he chose to buy some cheap items from the goldsmith and place some barrier runes on them. While they wouldn’t last much, they would be able to protect the water from a few sword strikes.

“Okay boss, I’ll go get the sign done.”

“Thanks, I’ll head to the city.”

“Take care.”

Bernir and Roland parted ways, Agni was left behind to chomp on more mana stones while also training his mana skills. With how the ruby wolf was doing it wouldn’t be long before he could advance to a tier 2 stage.

What Roland was setting out to do today was to find some help for the store. Elodia was still someone that he would like to hire but he didn’t really have time to pay her another visit. Today would be the end of the deadline.

If she didn’t want the position Roland would be forced to place a job offer and try to hire someone adequate for the position of the shop clerk. Elodia was a good pick for him as he hoped that she could take on tasks that required more than looking good and being able to sell.

He needed someone to take care of the books and also hire other staff members. Her responsibilities would be more in line with a manager status than an actual seller. In his hand, he had two pieces of paper, one a job offer for a shop clerk while the other for a guard.

While he was pushing on with his golem initiative it was far from being perfect. He needed more time before he could place metallic protectors around his land. Thus the best option was to hire some adventurers as they did take on boring tasks like this and didn’t require as much payment as professional guards.

There was also something that was a requirement to have a successful business, advertising. He knew very well that if a person was fed advertisements through the day they would sometimes develop a craving for that advertised item. While there was no internet or TV in this world, there were banners and signs.

Most of the people in this world didn’t really know the proper way to advertise. They usually just placed signs outside of their store and picked names associated with the items they sold in their stores. Outside of this, they sometimes placed one person outside of the shop to shout at the people passing by.

This was something that he also intended to do. The way to the dungeon was free of pesky taxations so he could place a nice large sign pointing towards his home and store. Then hiring a good girl to point the adventurers in the right direction would seal the deal.

His name was already known so he just needed to embed it in his customers further. Whenever they thought about magical items, he wanted them to think about him and his store.

‘First thing first though…’

He looked at the adventurer guild that he was standing in front of and slowly entered. Inside he could see a plethora of people going back and forth. There he saw his favorite guild receptionist that he used to mostly avoid in the beginning. Now on the other hand he much preferred going through her side as it went by much faster.

As always there was a little line that he needed to go through. This was something that he was already used to so he just waited without making much of a fuss. Then before it was his turn a little scene unfolded.

“Hey can’t you give me a better price? These mana stones should sell for at least a few more coppers.”

“Sir, as I’ve explained. The prices of mana stones have gone down this month if you look at the price board…”

It seemed that she was trying to explain to an adventurer that the rates for mana stones were down. This was a normal occurrence as they tended to fluctuate through the month. They had been on a somewhat decline the more adventurer parties formed but not by so much that they couldn’t bring in a livable wage.

While normally Elodia was somewhat stone-faced without any emotion during such matters, today she looked a bit more annoyed. With his now sharpened senses he noticed her eyebrows twitching a bit as the man continued to lean in and talk. Hygiene wasn’t that great here so Roland could only imagine how bad the man’s breath was.

She didn’t break character though and after some back and forth the old adventurer decided to take his money and go. He didn’t look happy and he displayed it by spitting to the side on the floor.

It was finally his turn but before he got there he saw a woman in the same receptionist getup as Elodia approach her from the back. The two started to whisper between each other and the other girl seemed somewhat apologetic for some reason. This was followed by more eyebrow twitches from Elodia as she turned to face him.

“Ah Mr. Wayland, how can I help you today?”

While she was holding it back Roland could tell that she was angry. He didn’t really feel like it was his place to ask her about her daily life so he decided to go with what he rehearsed earlier today.

“Um, yes. Did you think about my offer Ms. Elodia? It’s still open, it would be…”

Before he could continue and list some perks of being his employee, Elodia decided to slam her hands on the counter and look at him with wide eyes.

“I accept!”

“And I could offer you a free… huh, you accept?”

He was baffled by her reply and this was noticed by some other people in the guild. Mostly her co-workers looked at her in astonishment with wide eyes. It seemed that Roland had gotten his second worker, now together with Bernir he would have two people to command!