The Runesmith

Roland was now looking at an old man in a robe. The man had placed his hand on a dark looking shoulder. This was the stab wound that Roland had suffered tonight. There were abscesses with yellow pus that had formed and some of those yellow juices were even flowing out. The smell of it all would be truly something that Roland would remember.

This was inside the temple of Solaria and he was just getting his treatment for the curse. The worst part about this wasn’t the pain from being cursed but the sheer number of gold coins he had to pay to get this fixed. If he hadn’t been saving up for the past year and a half he would probably have to cut his arm along with his shoulder to survive instead.

The old man was a tier 3 High Priest and the treatment required Roland to fork over nine small golden coins. Normally he would need months of crafting and making runic equipment to get this back. Luckily he still was a part of a big company and would have them cover the costs. He also planned on getting a severance package as they had failed to keep their part of the contract.

He had specifically fought for adding a clause to his contract. It stated that he would get money if he ever got injured due to them ever again. This included him being collateral damage during an assassination attempt. The gnome probably only agreed to such a clause as the possibility of that becoming reality was meager.

Reality was different though, the company was attacked. He would now receive a large influx of gold coins and would be able to break off the contract entirely. This was something that he was planning to do as he had enough of this city. This was the second time this had happened, first was the incident with the thieves guild and now some strange cult was after him.

From the small amount of information that he had, he knew that this was some kind of assassination organization or guild. This guild of assassins were worshipers of some kind of demon or of an evil god. People were not sure who the being they were worshiping was.

Whenever a Warlock of any kind was involved it meant that some kind of higher being was behind it. Warlocks would gain their special class by forming pacts with demons or evil gods. The one that he saw that night was quite the powerful one. He was versed in shapeshifting magic and could take on a form of some kind of deformed monstrosity.

“Ahh….”

“Relax child, it is almost over.”

He could see his flesh giving out black smoke. This was the curse leaving his body that slowly returned to its original shape. If he didn’t get this treatment the priest told him that he wouldn’t last till the next day. He would be turned into some kind of monster in the process and lose all of his reasoning.

‘I hope that gnome didn’t just die, I still need to get my money from him…’

Roland gritted his teeth while thinking, he had lost sight of the other people involved in this incident and he wasn’t sure where they went. He had a written contract and this was a big company. If his old boss was dead he would probably be able to get his money at a different company store.

The old priest was finally finished with the treatment. Roland was still astonished by how healing magic worked. A person’s wounds would just patch themselves up, he could even see the process of the healthy tissues forming in real-time. It was as if time was wound back to the previous healthy form.

Roland didn’t know how healing magic was exactly different from regular magic. During the procedure, he tried activating various skills that he had like his mana sense and debugging. There were no runes involved so he couldn’t copy it onto a diagram. The priest was still using mana to fuel the spell so maybe it would be possible to emulate these spells in the future.

For now, he removed himself from the temple of the sun goddess. While going through it he could see some other injured people getting treated.

The fight didn’t end just with the destruction of Exeter's Magic Emporium. The unidentified assassins moved into the city and started battling with other high level people. One of them was Zilyana but there were others which Roland wasn’t acquainted with. This in term caused a lot of collateral damage, the horrible-looking shapeshifting Warlock was quite indiscriminate in his attacks.

The battle continued throughout the night and the two assailants were never apprehended. Roland managed to get his tired body to the temple before passing out. He was lucky enough to have brought money with him and they were very eager to take it off him while calling for a high priest.

On the outside, he was greeted with some sunny weather. The clouds had parted and the day was looking bright. It was still quite cold though and the sun did nothing about melting the white snow that covered most of the city.

Roland decided to walk towards Exeor’s Magic Emporium or at least what was left of it. On his way there he could see collateral damage. Some of the buildings in the neighborhood had suffered during the scuffle that ensued. He could even see some red spots in the snow the closer he got to ground zero.

After he arrived he noticed that there were a lot of people around the store. They looked like battle-hardened soldiers but they weren’t part of the city guards. These people were part of the company, they were a bunch of mercenaries contracted as hired muscle. Obviously, they were a bit late to the party as the battle was now over.

Maybe if more of them were here the night before the store wouldn’t have been destroyed this much. Though the tier 3 magical device that was used would probably render them useless. He was fortunate enough that his debugging skill worked on the greater runes and he was able to get out of the world of illusions.

“Halt, identify yourself!”

As Roland was getting closer he got the attention of one of the guards there. They had even fenced the area off with a makeshift wooden fence. He looked at the man, he was quite tall over 2 m, and was of the Goliath race. Before he could mention his affiliation with the company someone else called out from the side.

“It’s fine, let him through.”

It was Zilyana who looked different than usual. Mostly because she didn’t look like a sun elf anymore, her skin was dark caramel and her hair changed from gold to silver. There was no rule against moon elves in this city but they weren’t on good terms with the Church of Solaria as they worshiped opposing deities.

She was wearing some kind of black leather armor and had some weapons strapped to the side. She looked battle-ready, he didn’t see any wounds on her body. She went against those two psychos from yesterday, which made Roland reaffirm his notion about her hidden strength.

The large man just nodded and didn’t question the elven woman’s order. Apparently, the beautiful elf was someone in high regard to these company soldiers.

“This place has seen better days…”

He moved over to Zilyana while commenting on the store’s new looks. The top floor was missing chunks out of it and the whole building was riddled with holes. The Abyssal Warlock had really renovated the place during the late-night melee.

“Well, you seem chipper for someone that almost died Roland. Not even surprised about my new looks?”

The elven woman mentioned while chuckling.

“Why would I be surprised about that? Also, I’ll be more chipper after you give me back the money I’ve spent on that blasted high priest.”

Roland was unamused, he narrowed his eyes at the moon elf. Zilyana just shrugged while turning her head to the side, she did feel kind of bad about the whole predicament.

“Ah, I’m sure the boss will give you back the coins, you did save his ass and mine. I bet he will even give you a big fat bonus!”

The elf tried shifting the conversation to the monetary aspect. She knew that she was mostly to blame for that fiasco that happened yesterday. She had failed spectacularly as a bodyguard. If the boy hadn’t been there she and the manager would have been dead without a question.

She didn’t even see anything wrong in the illusion world. Zilyana had been affected by the magical device first after she opened the door to the gnomes office. Her mind was unable to paste it together and the manager in the illusion just shooed her out of his room.

The whole illusion world then broke down after a few hours when Roland destroyed the runic device. She found herself on the ground with a small headache. Only after that did she realize what occurred and that enemies were nearby.

Her boss had activated one of his magical items and went into hiding while she engaged the assailants in battle. Her co-workers like Zirion were alerted by her boss with a sort of panic button device that was there, the rest was now history.

“Hah, you think a bonus is enough?”

Roland clicked his tongue but he stopped himself. He didn’t really wish to argue with this woman that could probably cut him up into thin slices in a matter of seconds. She was also just a guard and without her, he would have been dead. “That doesn’t matter… where is that gnome anyway?”

He looked around, he could see that besides the group of guards there were other people here. He could even see his own halfling assistant moving stuff around. They were clearly carrying the goods outside, maybe they were even planning on relocating somewhere else.

“The Boss? Oh, he isn’t here, he should be back at his mansion, probably calling the big boss himself. Hah, you should have seen him last night, he was ready to blow a gasket. Have never seen so many veins on someone’s forehead before.”

Roland eyed the moon elf while rising one of his eyebrows. She didn’t look that distraught after facing off against a tentacle monster and a crazy cursed dagger-wielding assassin woman. It was as if she was used to things like this, though judging by the fact that she was uninjured. This might have indeed just been the usual for her.

“Back at his mansion?”

“Yeah, it's in Hightown.”

Zilyana explained in a few words where exactly the gnome manager lived. Roland now had a place to go and complain. Before that he needed to get back to his workshop as he left his contract and some other things back there.

“I bet he will give you a big pay raise, you did save his ass~”

She gave him some reassuring words while Roland just stared at her without any emotions in his eyes.

“Yeah, I should probably ask him to give me part of your salary...”

Roland said while turning around, he didn’t care about getting any raises in his wages. The only thing he wanted to do now was to get the promised severance package. Though maybe if he complained enough he could get even more than that.

Zilyana flinched at the mention of her pay getting cut. She started waving her hands around at Roland that had turned around.

“No don’t do that, hey this big sis here saved your life. I really need that money!”

“I saved your life first.”

Roland said while waving goodbye to her without turning around. He couldn’t see the moon elf's expression too much but not like he cared that much. He was quite pissed that he had gotten involved in some quarrel between two overpowered factions.

He had come to this city to get away from the bloodshed. He just wanted to be left in peace and practice his craft, he hadn’t even gone out to kill monsters in over a year. The only fighting he did was some sparring here and there.

Roland now thought that he had been too naive. There was no way someone like him could make it on his own like this. It didn’t matter if a person could earn money, what was that good for if anyone could just waltz into your home and murder you. Even the gnome that was loaded and had an experienced bodyguard couldn’t protect himself.

‘I need strength…’

He stopped in front of his workshop while thinking. He had already made a decision on leaving this city. In his mind personal power would be the way to go, he wouldn’t be able to achieve this here. He needed to take things into his own hands and get stronger.

He opened up the door to his workshop, before that he deactivated some of the runic traps he had set up. The doors and windows were now rigged to electrocute anyone that tried getting in here without him around.

Roland had figured out ways to activate and deactivate some of the runes made for traps. He could even directly inscribe them on things like metallic doors. He was even thinking of improving on the designs with the sockets and mana stones. For now, they only had one charge, but with a mana stone that filtered and stored some of that mana, they could recharge themselves.

He looked through his workshop, it was a place that he stayed for over a year. Again he would be unable to live in one place for long. He lasted a couple of years in this city but the easy life was now over. He needed to set out into the world and get stronger, only then would he feel confident enough to settle down.

The biggest problem was his class and how it worked. He could see himself doing fine against monsters but at a price. His class only shined when he was using runic equipment and that wouldn’t last forever.

He already knew that steel weapons and armor wouldn’t hold much of the runic charges. He could get around that by repairing it but that required a place to do it. This meant that he needed to find a new workshop, buy new equipment along with finding a dungeon to gain more experience.

For now, he went to his bedroom and lifted up his bed. He poked the floor slightly and it began to shine. The ground rippled for a moment before showing a compartment. He had placed a chest with some of his belongings behind an illusion rune. This rune caused most people to see a regular floor without showing the hidden latch under the bed.

He pulled out the chest, in it were some spatial bags with gold and materials. In one of them was also the contract that he made with Exeor’s manager. It stated that he would be given money depending on the severity of the attack.

“Bet that gnome didn’t think that this would ever be used against him…”

The number he would be getting is 100 small gold coins or 10 regular sized gold coins. This was quite a staggering number, this would let a regular family life for over five years. That is if they didn’t spend it on anything other than taxes and food. For him that needed to buy costly crafting materials and a working workshop, it wasn’t that much.

He took out everything that he needed and started to even place all of the tools that he used from the smithy into his bags of holding. He even tossed the anvil inside but would be leaving the smelter there as it was connected to the wall.

Roland wished that he could just toss his entire workshop into his bag and just go but that would be a pipe dream. He heard there were magical devices that could support a small pocket dimension. The cost of something like that would be what a country like this earns in a year or more.

The easier option was creating a hidden workshop somewhere and placing a teleportation runic array in it. Things like this existed in the magic towers that powerful mages used and were a lot cheaper to manufacture. Still, he would probably need to wait till he was at least tier 3 for something like that.

He had stuffed all of the items he could take into his bags and had them all around his belt. He couldn’t put spatial bags in one another as the magics in them repelled each other.

He took one last glance at the place that he lived and gave out a sigh. Roland didn’t want to leave but he didn’t see a good reason to stay here.

He took out a map of the whole kingdom and glanced at it. He had marked a couple of places that fit his requirements.

They were all close to a dungeon and were growing cities with a lot of opportunities. He had researched them by things like taxation, population, and even by what noble was running it. He couldn’t go into any lands owned by his own family or to people that his family was serving.

This only left a couple of places for him, he would need to decide on them after his talk with the manager. He placed his coat back on and didn’t bother to activate the trap runes in the building, he wouldn’t be returning here anymore.