The Runesmith

“Are you sure we should be doing this?”

“Yeah, the boss only told us to scout out the area from outside, he didn’t say that we should go in there…”

“What the hell are you fuckers afraid of? Look at this place, the damn Lich is dead, you can see the bones everywhere.”

“Yeah and we were just supposed to pick them up.”

“Why would we take these scraps when the main dish is inside, do you have a brain in that fat head of yours?”

“What the hell?”

“Think about it, the runesmith is loaded. How much do you think the weapons he makes will go for on the market? I bet there is more loot inside, he has to have a safe there…”

“But what if he is there?”

“Hah, why would he still be here with all these monsters around, you all saw the explosion that monster probably walked into some stupid trap but thanks to it the path is clear, let's go, we’re going to be rich! You have to trust me on this one.”

A conversation between the five hooded individuals continued as they made their way through a path of destruction. They found the exact way the Lich took to get to Roland’s home and were using it to evade any potential traps. It seemed their eyes were being clouded by potential treasures. A magical crafting profession usually allowed a person to amass riches and this was the best moment to get some loot.

Soon they arrived at a mangled entrance gate, it looked like something burned a hole through the middle and then later exploded. The whole thing was blown forward by an explosion that left a strange rectangular-looking hole in front of it. There were strange metallic objects everywhere that the thieves didn’t recognize but it only made them giddier with anticipation.

“I bet we could even get coin just from these lumps of metal…”

The thieves had an eye for making money and the blue stuff was made from some kind of superior metal. They would probably be able to drop it off at one of the dwarven merchants in the city for a nice profit. The only regrettable thing about this was that the margins weren’t high and they had no way of identifying the true worth of these things.

“Leave them, our bags aren’t big enough to take everything, we also don’t have much time, let's find the safe first, it must be in that house.”

“What about the shop? I bet there are some runic items in there.”

“Yeah… let's split up.”

After crossing through the broken gate they had two real targets to go after. One was the store that was known in the city for having quality runic weapons and armor pieces. The only problem with it was that it had not been destroyed by the Lich so getting through the front door could be potentially dangerous. Everyone knew that magical types liked to leave strange traps to protect their belongings.

This didn’t stop the group from going after them, they were experienced burglars and ruffians. They had come equipped with some trap detection devices and a large amount of lockpicking knowledge. While two of these people worked on the shop lock the other three would go inside and target the house. In there they hoped to find the safe that contained what they were really after.

This wasn’t their first rodeo but considering that they couldn’t see or hear anyone they somewhat dropped their guard. The entrance to the home was blown wide open and the prize was before them. No one expected that behind that black entrance only death awaited them.

“Huh?”

One of the thieves felt something as he stepped into the wrecked home. Inside there was a variety of destroyed furniture and holes everywhere but that was not what he was looking at. Further in the back, he spotted three glowing objects, two of them looked like eyes belonging to a predator while the shiniest one made it hard not to see the wolf behind the eyes.

The man could not move, not because of being scared but because of the thing that pierced through his chest. He could feel a metallic aftertaste in his mouth but could not muster the strength to produce any words. Soon the long object that pierced him retracted behind the creature and with it, he fell forward with a hole in his heart.

“W-what is that thing? A stray monster?”

“R-run…”

The man that convinced everyone to come here for a big payday was down for the count and no one would be able to save him anymore. Instead, the two that were with him quickly tossed some magical explosives into the broken home to help them escape. To their surprise, before these objects could produce the distraction they needed, a strong wind appeared to blow them back. Instead of giving them a smoke screen, they exploded up in the air.

Without anything to protect them from this beast, they could only split up and run. They were the speedy type confident in their escaping capabilities but to their horror, this wouldn’t work against this beast. The two scattered which caused the monster to chase after only one of them. This should have allowed the other to get away but the monster wolf was just too fast.

“N-noo…guh…”

One of the hooded men had to look at his partner’s neck being crunched down by sharp teeth filled with fire energy. The bite contained some kind of flame magic that cauterized the wounds instantly and left behind a flaming stump while the head flew through the air. The other man panicked but there was some space between him and the monster. Perhaps if he kept running he could reach the forest and confuse it enough to escape.

That was the plan but right before he approached the exit he felt an increase in temperature. His instincts told him to jump to the side and in the nick of time, he managed to evade certain death. The spot he was standing in was covered in molten flames, a hit that he certainly could not take. In his panicked state, he tumbled to the ground and was forced to look at the large wolf in the distance.

Around the wolf, he could see two large orbs of flames circling its head. Before he could gather himself to his feet one of those orbs shot forward toward his location. This he also managed to dodge but his left arm was engulfed in the flames and he was tossed to the side. Perhaps if this was all then his plan of escaping could come to fruition, it wasn’t meant to be however as the third orb of flames collided with his body right after he barely evaded the second one.

…

“Agni, that’s enough, the other two have already escaped, there is no use chasing after them.”

Roland walked out of his destroyed home while dragging the body of the first thief that was killed. Agni’s ruby tail pierced right through his heart in an instant without giving the man much time to react. The three people here were quite weak and could not contend with a high-level monster in any way.

It was a one-sided slaughter but he was too tired to be lenient with these sorts of people. Probably if they found him with a critical injury inside his house they would slit his throat and take his belongings if they had that option. This didn’t mean that he wanted everyone dead, the two people that were trying to get into the outside store quickly ran away and there was no use in chasing them.

He did not believe that they would seek vengeance for these three that were killed here; instead, they would most likely withhold this information from the higher-ups. Roland's position in the city wasn’t small, his ties to the thieves guild were also known and they probably didn’t want to have him as an enemy.

‘They were probably tasked to scout out the area to see what happened to the monsters and acted out on their own, the job was too sloppy to be something planned.’

People like this were usually just trying to capitalize on the situation. After a big chaotic event like this, there were many empty homes that could be robbed. His home was just the biggest target as he was known as the rich runesmith. In actuality, there wasn’t that much gold in his safe as he usually spent what he earned instantly on new materials for research or expanding the workshop.

This didn’t mean that he wasn’t rich, if people ransacked his whole workshop and sold everything that wasn’t welded down they could probably retire. There were enough runic weapons and magical items to last a regular person their entire life. All things considered, living in this world was not that costly but a life of luxury was something else.

‘It doesn’t seem like he likes the taste of human flesh at least…’

Roland looked at Agni that was snorting his nose at the defeated man. He had gone straight for the jugular and made quick work of the poor fellow. His neck was torn open easily and his body was just there. It looked like some kind of massacre took place here but he did not think that he would be taken to court for it. Defending one’s home was allowed in this world and killing burglars was as normal as breathing.

“Shit, are there more of them coming?”

To his surprise, his mapping system picked up another five people coming. This time around there was a big problem, these people were not simple tier 2 class holders, they were actually strong.

‘Wait, could it be the adventurer party?’

After calming down a bit he realized that this group was coming from the direction of the city. Soon after he also noticed that some other people were following behind this small group. Instead of this being a retaliation force from the thieves guild they seemed to be the party of platinum adventurers. Even if they weren’t then there wasn’t really much that he could do. There were five tier 3 class holders there, even if he prepared some traps beforehand it would be almost impossible for him to come out on top.

This didn’t mean that he wouldn’t make a run for it. The escape tunnel was still there and he could also use the one going toward the dungeon. It wasn’t unimaginable that the five tier 3 adventurers could decide to ransack his home. After going through a lot of situations like this he wasn’t willing to just give everything up. Arthur could not be touched but he probably was not among the people coming this way.

“This is what we are going to do Agni…”

There wasn’t really much time to prepare anything but he still had a few tricks up his sleeve. This gave him enough time to place a few leftover runic bombs in some strategic locations. These would not require any triggering components as the mines did. Thanks to the skill he could use to activate any of his runic creations it wasn’t necessary.

Being able to trigger everything remotely when he wanted to was a game-changer when fighting around a place like this. Nevertheless, it would only be a distraction for him to evacuate back into his workshop. He could not take on five tier 3 class holders, this he realized after trying to take on just one tier 3 monster.

‘Here they come and are those horses?’

His preparation was misplaced as when the people arrived they were accompanied by city soldiers, some of them he even recognized. One, in particular, was Sir Morien, one of the knights that Arthur arrived with. This was an unexpected friendly face that made him think that his new boss was watching out for him. Even if the tier 3 adventurers were brazen, they would probably not try to silence a knight of a noble and the guards around them. Now even less as the monster Lich had already been destroyed and could not be blamed for anything.

“Is that the Runesmith? Was he really the one that took care of the Lich?”

“He doesn’t look like much and isn’t that a wolf behind him?”

“Put down your weapons, that’s a tamed beast.”

What he saw was a group of adventurers in expensive-looking armor. Through his mana sense, he could tell that most of their items were enchanted in some sort of way. The composition of this party wasn’t anything that unique but they did have one actual spell caster. It was a woman that looked to be in her late thirties wearing a prominent pointy hat and the usual robe. She was holding a staff with a large orb at the end which radiated mana.

The next characteristic person was the one that identified Agni as a tamed beast. It was a very handsome-looking sun elf in green archer armor, clearly the tracker and monster detector of the group. The next two were two very similar dwarves, one holding a shield and a mace while the other a bulky-looking two-handed halberd.

Then the last person was quite large, well over two meters but didn’t seem to be holding any weapons. Judging by his physique he was some type of brawler but the animalistic features made him look like a mix between a human and a bear. The group probably consisted of three front liners and the magic user in the back along with the archer as supporters.

“Halt, this man is one of Lord Arthur’s attendants.”

“Is he now? Can he explain those three corpses over there? Thought we were hunting a Lich.”

The witch-looking woman pointed at the three dead thieves that Roland had dragged to one spot. His plan was to draw attention to the corpses before taking a chance to detonate the runic charges and escape. Now that this wasn’t needed anymore it looked like he was hiding a murder spree.

“Those men tried to rob me, so I’ve dealt with them according to the laws.”

“Were these rascals from the thieves guild?”

“That’s right, you’ll probably be able to confirm this by examining their bodies.”

There were various ways of confirming if a person belonged to a thieves guild. One of them was just glancing at the classes they had, if they were all banditry-related ones then more than likely the person was sketchy. Sometimes some of the members carried items from the guild or had special tattoos pointing to their affiliation. This usually depended on the guild’s guild master.

Sometimes a special magical tattoo would be used that vanished after a person died which made it hard to attach the body to anything. Considering that these people still had some pouches on them, there was probably some proof that they belonged to the underground. He would need to relinquish his rights to those but it was better than going to jail for murder.

“That's a' braw 'n' dandy bit where is that blasted lich?”

The dwarven warrior with the shield asked while looking around. There were no bones or remains of any skeletons on his premises as the subjugation took place downstairs. Then the obsidian minion was turned into a leg with the rest of its bones disintegrating in the divine energy blast.

“Aye, where is it?”

This time the dwarf with the larger weapon commented while moving towards the corpses of the thieves Agni killed. Without asking for permission he crossed through the destroyed gates and was on his way to check things out. The other adventurers also started walking forward as if there was no problem but suddenly one of the dwarves stopped.

Roland was probably the only one to notice the reason for the pause. Not far from the dead bodies was one of his runic bombs. The dwarven warrior was not the one that discovered it, instead, he was being held back by an invisible magical hand. The woman with the witch hat had pointed out her staff and somehow instantly produced this spell to block the path of her party member. It was clear that she saw the runic bomb there which could be problematic.

“Watch your step Hermond, how many times did I tell you to watch your surroundings.”

“Whits the problem?”

“There are many magical traps nearby… mind explaining yourself?”

The woman looked towards Roland who she probably identified as the one that placed the traps there. He did not say that there was any danger which was probably his fault. The runic bombs would not explode without him activating them through his skill but the other party didn’t know this.

“Just some traps meant for robbers and monsters wandering in but I don’t remember inviting you inside, this could be considered trespassing, don’t you think?”

He did raise his voice at the group of adventurers. The two dwarves took a few steps back but also instantly grabbed their weapons. However, before any fights could break out Sir Morien came to Roland’s rescue just like he expected. His bluff allowed him to retain some semblance of authority about this zone and was meant to deter them from snooping around too much.

“Calm yourselves, adventurers, he is not your enemy, do you want to go against Lord Arthur’s orders?”

It was good that he was wearing his helmet so that the adventurers couldn’t see his smile. Finally, this day was coming to an end. The platinum adventurers would not hurt him and now with Sir Morien here he could give him the story and also withhold the Lich corpse as it was something that belonged to him.