The Runesmith

“Mr. Wayland, Is this necessary?”

“Yes.”

A strange scene was playing out before a couple of auction house workers. They were tasked to help a VIP out in transporting their wares but the man in question made things difficult. Instead of letting them take the crate with the item that would be auctioned he decided to carry it himself.

Roland was somewhat nervous about this day, tonight his golem would be auctioned off. Previously he had agreed to let the people from the auction house take the crate the golem was in and transport it for him. They came with a small carriage that would be large enough to carry the crate and some people in it.

But then strange thoughts of thieves and bandits started clouding his judgment. What if something happened to the golem during transit? What if someone decided to steal it before it reached the city? He could not just let these regular workers go as the guards that were with them would probably be overpowered by silver rank adventurers.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll explain it to your boss.”

Due to the golden card that he showed at the Auction House, he was given the VIP treatment. Thus the workers that came here were scared that their employer would complain that they let an important customer do all the heavy lifting. He could only reassure them that he would not say anything to get them fired.

“Let’s go then?”

Roland asked while holding the large box in front of his body with both hands. The golem did weigh quite a bit and it would normally need two grown men but in this world of fantasy stats, it wasn’t much of a problem. If Roland really wanted he could sling it onto his shoulder and run with it.

“Take care.”

“Awooo!”

Elodia and Agni were there to see him off while Bernir remained back in the workshop. The auction would begin later at night but Roland needed to deliver the goods now. This was an important event for him so he would also stay there to explain a few things to the Lead Auctioneer.

Thus the strange group of people was off, the small carriage was occupied by Roland and the golem. He decided to sit right next to it while using the built-in radar in his runic helmet. Due to his paranoia, he decided to wear his better armor and not the half-plate. If anyone decided to ambush them for some reason he would be able to make quick work of them with the help of his attacking spells.

Of course, nothing like this happened and the dots that were on the radar never went too close to the carriage. This was probably due to it having the seal of the Valerian household. Everyone knew that nobles were very prideful if any bandit dared to attack one of their possessions they would need a quick getaway plan. One that involved hiding from oracle grade tracking magic as the high nobles would spend the extra coin to catch the thief.

Thanks to the noble prestige he was allowed to slip into the city without any need to wait in line. The soldiers just parted to the sides while some of the other carriages had to wait and be inspected. They didn’t even examine the content, they dared not to go against the symbol of power that was the Valerian noble crest.

Thus when he arrived at the Auction House he carried the crate all the way over to the check-in clerk. There he made sure that it arrived at the right VIP storage where he began unpacking.

“The Lord will be here shortly, you probably have about an hour to prepare Mr. Wayland.”

“Okay, thank you for your help.”

The previous time Roland was here there was only the chubby manager around. He had only informed him about the golem being ready and then received the date that he should deliver the goods. While normally there would be some kind of appraiser tasked with the inspection for some reason Arthur Valerian also wanted to see it.

Thus he was now here preparing for his double inspection which reminded him about the recent class change trial. There he also was graded by it while always getting low grades for his poultry design sense.

The golem was made a bit more eye-catching for the potential customers and had many more features than the old variants. For someone that was only a tier 2 runesmith this had been quite the achievement but if other people would see it the same remained to be seen.

Roland gently removed the golem from the crate that was filled out with straw. Arachnea-1 was the name that was written on the underside along with the little sun-like logo that he was using for himself. With how much people liked Solaria around here he somewhat hoped that his logo would help him piggyback from all the believers.

Just like with the other golems inside of the crate there was a handwritten manual. His drawing skills had actually improved and after getting the engineer class he was able to get the ‘artistic drawing’ skill.

Probably the main reason for getting it was the creativity skill, together with them he was able to draw up a realistic representation of the golem on paper. All of the parts were listed and explained, if the owner had any semblance of intelligence they would be able to easily control his creation.

The biggest limiting factor was the metal rod that he was holding in his hand. This was a rather inefficient way of handling the golems. It was a large headache for the craftsman that had to pre-program various commands that the owner would utter. While there was a pre-existing database it didn’t cover all the bases or types of machines.

‘I don’t think the new owner will complain too much, as long as it has all the common command words it should be fine.’

Golems were already widespread magical constructs. They were divided into some categories like battle golems and transport golems. What he only needed to do was be sure to have his creation follow what was seen as common.

If Arachnea-1 wouldn’t be able to perform a backflip it would be fine, it just needed to do what people expected from it, then if he could go above the expectations and add a few innovations it would make his product worth more. That is if the buyers didn’t find the additional functions to be useful.

For the time being his golem was a mix of a few variants but it was not really exceptional at one thing in particular. It could give long-range magical support to adventurers but there were better battle golems out there. It could use some mining attachments and carry loot but there were also better solutions for that. Even his own mule-type golem had a vastly larger capacity for carrying.

“Maybe someone will see the collector value in it…”

Roland gave out a sigh while going through all the small parts. The inspection went by smoothly and soon he heard a commotion outside, the lord had finally arrived. The heavy footsteps of the guards that went to meet him outside were very telling.

“Good day, Mr. Wayland I see you are finished.”

Arthur Valerian was quite a handsome man, he was wearing a somewhat militaristic uniform which made him stand out from the crowd. He could already see the poor young man being sold off to some old rich noble widow if he wasn’t successful in this city.

While bad marriage prospects were mostly forced onto the women, the men weren’t that far behind. Depending on their worth they could be shoved into an unwelcome situation. This might have been his fate if he was ever deemed to remain in the old Arden estate.

He would probably be forced to become a knight and then marry some random knight's daughter to proliferate the line. His kids than would be forced to work under the raining Arden Estate head that would be one of his older brothers. Luckily for the past few years, he was granted respite, Robert had not told his secret either.

“Good day, my lord as you can see, the golem is ready.”

Roland replied while looking at the person standing to the side of Arthur. It was the personal maid that never seemed to stray too far from him. It was clear that she served as more than just a maid. Even when the knights remained outside she was always there with him.

This was nothing out of the ordinary. Most of the high nobles would have some personal guards that always remained with their masters. It was for their noble lord’s well-being as well as for their own. If anything happened to the noble they were serving it would be their heads that were on the line.

Roland didn’t explain much as Arthur was quick to take the control rod from him. Even before activation he also asked for the instruction manual through which he read through at a blazing speed.

“Fascinating… this one is a lot different than the previous one.”

“Yes, I have made some improvements.”

The two started talking while receiving strange glances from the maid named Mary. Roland was quite nonchalant about it but a normal person would have a rather hard time when speaking to a noble. Even though he was looking away he listed some of the commands that the golem was able to shuffle through.

‘This guy really does find these interesting?’

Arthur Valerian’s eyes were wide open, he was like a kid in a candy store. His blue golem paraded through the storage room while he continued to give it some orders. One that even caused the guards from the outside to burst through the room as Arthur ordered it to shoot at the crate, a command that the Lord would not be aware of if he didn’t go through the instruction manual correctly.

“My lord!”

“Haha, don’t worry I’m fine but I think we will need a new crate for this golem!”

Soon the smoking wood was extinguished and the Lead Auctioneer visited him instead. It was a rather alluring looking elven lady with good proportions. It was the oldest trick in the book to have the Auctioneer be attractive to have the buyers show off their deep purses.

The time started passing as he handed over the instruction manual and tried giving this woman some pointers on the presentation. Thanks to him having the VIP treatment he got her to listen well. Normally the presenter wouldn’t go out of their way this much but when a product that was unique came along they would rehearse their words well.

“Thank you Mr. Wayland I think this will be enough, you can return to your home or wait for the auction to take place, we have reserved a seat for you in the hall.”

After showing off the golem to all the important workers it was carried out in a new box. Now he only needed to wait for the presentation to go through and see how much gold he could earn for it. Even now he wasn’t hoping for much, the golem was a custom model from a craftsman that was being shunned by the dwarven union. Normally it would have been a big risk to invest money into an unknown element but he still had some hopes.

‘It’s out of my hands now…’

Roland decided to remain here all the way until the auction was over. His creation would be presented a bit later so that the buyers could get their toes dipped first. After a couple of lesser products, they would start auctioning off the pricey items that they always spread rumors about.

His seat was somewhat in the back as he didn’t want to stand out. This large auction hall looked like it was made for a play. There were three balconies for the more prominent members of the city with the middle one being reserved for important nobles. But with Arthur Valerian remaining in the main office above it was devoid of anyone that important.

‘Those booths are for the rich merchants… wait, is that?’

Roland peeked at the western balcony that was slowly filling up. He was sitting on the opposite side of it just on the lower level. If he didn’t look he would have probably missed it but two bearded men that he was familiar with just entered it.

Normally he was planning to remove his helmet during the auction as there was no danger here. Now on the other hand he decided to not remove it as its feature could aid him. The armor was capable of listening in on people thanks to a simple spell. It was connected to his helmet through which he could hear the conversation that the dwarves were having now.

“Oi do we really need to come fur this?”

“Aye, now held yer whinin we need to see whit that basterd made.”

It was instantly clear that the dwarves named Bamur and Dunan had been informed about his involvement. From what he knew, his involvement in the auction house wasn’t specifically announced. They never mentioned what exactly the runic item would be, not giving the specifics would only entice people to come over.

It seemed that someone from the auction house had talked. Who it was would be hard to deduct as even some of the regular guards could have overheard someone talking. He had also visited the Auction House this week. They could have already had someone inform the dwarves about his visit which correlated with this magical item reveal.

‘This isn’t entirely bad though…’

This was something he expected to happen so he wasn’t that worried. Perhaps with the dwarves being here the product, he was trying to peddle could actually sell for more than he expected. Would a dwarven craftsman let some random merchants get their hands on a golem they had never seen before? Probably not.

While the dwarven union had deep pockets this didn’t mean that there were no other heavy hitters with them. Various rich merchants were also there along with someone he really didn’t expect to see. This man stood out from the crowd as he was very muscular and bald.‘Why is the guild master here?’

The leader of the adventurer guild had decided to show up for some reason. Most of the money flowing into the city went through that guild so his purchasing power was quite high as well. Besides them, he also spotted some store owners and some people from the merchant guild.

After the rich merchants filled up the two balconies, the regular ones started flooding into the bottom section. He would normally be sitting up with the rich due to his VIP status but for now, he refused as he wanted to remain anonymous. Covered in a dark robe and without his armor showing he would somewhat mix into the crowd with all the other people.

Soon the curtain was yanked to the side and the lovely elven lady that he met before walked out onto the stage. She was wearing a form-fitting red dress with a lot of upper chest area showing, clearly to entice the many men that were in the crowd. She gave a little introduction speech that was probably rehearsed many times before the first item was brought out.

The auction was finally in full swing but while Roland was getting nervous two people were having a discussion. They had a nice view over the whole auction from their semi-secret spot that was the Auction House owner’s office.

“He does seem to be bothered by those dwarven union fellows, doesn’t he, my Lord?”

Arthur Valerian was just sitting there together with Mary and looking over everything. It was clear as day that Roland was taking glances to the side from the moment the dwarven union representatives showed up.

“Wish I could see his face, that man is hard to read… Mary, why don’t you go help our friend out.”

“I thought you’d never ask, Lord Arthur.”

Mary smiled while placing a mask over her face along with a somewhat large hat.

“How do I look?”

“Like someone that has more money than reason.”

Arthur replied while Mary slowly walked out from the room. Her body was covered in expensive-looking jewelry and the dress she had on was made from quite the costly material. Soon the auction would start but Arthur knew that with the help of his maid, Roland could potentially make a lot more money than he thought.