The Runesmith

“Is he okay?”

“Hah, this is embarrassing, I thought he would be able to last until the very end…”

“It’s understandable, his level is lower than our…”

Roland was looking at a passed-out Bernir that was getting his head rubbed by his large wife. During the upgrading of the forge and smelter, he had hanged in there. Both Roland and Dyana’s levels were over a hundred while Bernir was trailing behind. Thus after working for several days he finally reached his limit.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take him home, he’ll be ready by tomorrow, I’ll be sure to drag his body back if he complains.”

“You don’t need to do that, I’m not in that much of a rush… if he feels under the weather he can take a break. It's also the weekend so it's fine.”

Dyana stood up while grabbing her passed-out hubby and slinging him over her shoulder. To this day Roland was surprised at the size difference between the two. He also could swear that the cow-girl had grown a bit through these past three years making the height gap even wider.

“Is it now? I can never get used to those 'weekends' of yours. You’re too soft on him, Wayland. In times like this, you need to push them harder otherwise he’ll get used to your goodwill.”

The large woman took the lifeless body of her husband away while leaving Roland alone in the workshop. From his perspective, he was only trying to be a good boss. Working his employees could backfire in the long run as he knew that burning out was a real issue.

Back in his world, he had a little taste of it as he was forced to work long hours with meager pay. It was just enough to fuel his lifestyle that consisted of living in a small apartment and having just enough for food and his gaming addiction.

In this world, it was normal for people to work the entire day and not even have any weekdays off. Most of the time the people just went to work, then drank themselves to sleep afterward.

‘Knowing Bernir he’ll probably do that, the moment he wakes up…’

While he worried slightly for his assistant, this was a somewhat different situation than his own world. Here there were skills that alleviate stress, sleep deprivation, and even fatigue. Bernir would probably be back to his old self after a good night's rest, if not there were various potions that would get him back to his feet.

`The forge is coming along nicely but what should I do about that noble?”

Roland gave out a sigh while looking at some of the parts that they had prepared for the new forge. The smelter they were using was really getting pushed to its maximum as cracks in its structure were beginning to form.

He had to actually aid the runic smelting process through his mana control to alleviate the damage it produced. The deep steel it was made off just wasn’t resistant enough for prolonged usage.

Luckily it was somewhat holding out and they were mostly finished with the parts for the main forge. The forge differed from the old designs as it didn’t require any fuel in the form of coal or wood. Everything was done through runic means.

Some parts were still created to mimic more modern-day furnaces. Instead of bowels, there was a runic air blower that he could activate by stepping onto a pedal with his foot. It would then blow oxygen-rich air at the flames to boost the heat even further. It was at a lesser mana cost than if he tried to directly increase the heat by adding more mana.

A new durasteel anvil was also in the works but it wasn’t as important as the smelter and the forge. After the metal he was working was already heated up and softened, it could be worked on an anvil made from plain deepsteel. But after he was done with the upgrade he also intended to make a proper new anvil.

Through the implementation of runes, these tools didn’t take up as much space as they would. The forge only needed to be able to heat up metals for him to pound on while the smelter needed to melt them down.

Thanks to mana he could do it without having to worry about any fuel compartments. Nor did he have to worry about much fumes being produced from the fuel. But that problem had been solved a long time ago through the use of a ventilation system.

Because he was now using a lot more mana he needed to expand his wind turbine farm even further. The backyard that was previously a minefield had been used up. Now it was filled with only wind turbines and a small empty section for some testing.

Luckily for Roland with the help of earth magic, it wasn’t that hard to build down and to the sides of his land. A large testing area for the golems was built down below as he continued to drill into the earth below his house. By reinforcing everything with earth magic there was no worry of it ever collapsing. The walls were quite thick and could even take the force of an explosive rune without cracking.

There was also an unused plot of land that he had bought up near his house. Previously it was just barren farmland without any use now it had untapped potential. He wasn’t sure what to place there, there were enough wind turbines to power his whole workshop so making another wind turbine farm there felt like a waste.

At first he thought that maybe when he figured his golemic creations out further he could make them produce items for him. Making a factory for some basics would be a good idea as he didn’t really want to spend time crafting basic weapons.

Because of the prevalence of skills and a self-improvement mindset, the people in this world didn’t think much of automation. Why would they leave the work up to a golem if they would gain experience and level up their skills while doing the same task?If the people on the top required more goods to be made, they just hired more craftsmen. With a long-lasting contract, they wouldn’t lose much money and the leveling system made these people work almost as fast as modern-day machines.

On the other hand, Roland was kind of forced to go with the automation route. No one would really want to be hired by him when there were businesses run by the dwarven union there instead. Why would they trust the no-name runesmith with their monetary gains when there was a more trustworthy element there.

His mind wavered towards his own workshop but the noble named Arthur was on his mind as well. Ever since he appeared nothing had really changed. Life went on as it did before and from what he knew the noble had remained in his mansion since the speech that he witnessed.

“Would a decorative blade be a good gift?”

Roland picked up an old dagger that he had once made. It was made with his older technique which kept the mana stones on the outer structure of the blade. While it was somewhat inferior to the Aether metals it did look nicer. The mana stones would light up whenever they were used which would serve it better as a decorative piece.

“Or should I try investing more into our little lordling?”

After looking at a couple of old weapons he turned to one of the spider droids that he had made. It was one of the damaged units that he took back from his previous dungeon run. It wouldn’t take that much time to repair as he just needed to replace the legs and smooth a couple of things out.

He could cover the scratches up with a new paint job quite well. The golem already had the basic operating system which would carry out voice commands from its master. While he couldn’t program the new lord in as its new master, he could send it out with a control remote.

Most people called it a control rod in this world but he had made it look more like a TV remote instead. He simplified the design by writing in some symbols as the modern-day counterparts. It would come with an explanation of a scroll so that anyone would be able to use it without any help from him.

A golem or a regular runic weapon, he started looking between the two choices. With a heavy heart, he placed the golem down onto the workbench as it needed some more repairs. He realized that if he wanted to somehow stick out, the golem was the only choice.

While it pained him to give something like this up for free, it was needed to keep him in the noble’s good graces. He did not know if his token of goodwill would be appreciated but if he didn’t send anything over he was worried that it would put him in a bad light.

The dwarven union and the merchants probably already send in their gifts. If he didn’t do the same he would just make himself look like one of the less ambitious people with no money.

‘Is this supposed to be something like networking? Feels more like an obvious bribe.’

Roland shook his head around while grabbing his tools. While the golem didn’t require many repairs it needed to be somewhat stripped down. Leaving the weapons in the golem would probably not be a good idea.

He also needed to replace the battery that he used. For now, he would place a container for mana fluid into it instead. This was somehow a big problem for his future sales, the golem batteries that he was making.

In a sense, this was something that he was probably only aware of. If he was in his old world he would just patent the design and become instantly rich. Here on the other hand, there was nothing of the sort. It was a free for all and everyone could copy the designs if they were able to.

The batteries were a somewhat renewable source of energy. There was a limit to how many times they could be recharged and they lost some of their charges with each refill. Even with that, they were a lot cheaper than using mana fluid.

While he didn’t think that many people would be able to copy his design, it was possible. The debugging skill that he was using wasn’t the only skill in the world. There was a possibility that another runesmith could somehow figure out his manufacturing method.

Thus he was holding off by flooding the market with his golem designs. While this was a big reason it wasn’t the main one, that was still his standing in the city. There was just no real place that he could market his golems to.

A golem came with a big price as a default. The time he invested in making them was immense so he would also not part with them for nothing in return. His store on the other hand was only visited by adventurers, these adventurers would not be able to afford something like a battle golem.

The costs of maintaining something like it would make most people cringe. It was easier to buy a tamed beast and level it up instead. That’s why golems like this mostly saw use in very costly establishments like the bank that he was before.

Only rich merchants and nobles of status were able to afford them. Because of this, he saw it as an investment of sending this golem over to the noble. Maybe with some luck, he could entice him to buy a more battle-ready model which he could sell for an increased price.

‘If only I wasn’t banned from the auction house…’

While working another sigh escaped from his mouth as he thought about the auction house. That place was probably the only venue that attracted people that would be able to afford his golems.

The placement of his store was also working against him. Most rich merchants would not really bother to come all the way over when visiting the city. Not when he was constantly bad-mouthed by the Union and blacklisted by them.

The risks of working with him for them were too high. He didn’t give up though, as his wares improved he hoped to attract someone with deep pockets that would push him into the next level. If not, then he still had the dungeon trove with precious metals that he could still sell off for a huge profit.

‘Instead of a great runesmith, I’m becoming a great smuggler…’

A third sigh escaped from his mouth as he thought about the black market that he was stuck with. After the run-in with the bandits in the dungeon, it left a bad taste in his mouth. He could not trust those people, a lot of them didn’t see the big picture as they just thought about fast income.

“Is everything alright?”

His mood didn’t go unnoticed as a certain shop clerk walked over with a tray. On the tray, there were various sandwiches piled up that made Roland’s mouth water.

“Oh, sorry didn’t hear you come in…”

Elodia just smiled while moving the tray with food right next to Roland’s face. The moment he looked down on the rather filled-out sandwiches he heard a rumble from his tummy.

“Dyana and Bernir left two hours ago, you should take a break, we wouldn’t want our ‘big boss’ to break down from overworking, now would we?”

Elodia smiled while mocking the way Bernir called him all the time. While it might have been a small joke she was right. If anything happened to Roland there three people would be out of a job with only Dyana having her own little forge in the city to go back to.

“Fine, I’ll take a break.”

Roland placed his hammer down next to the golem he was working on. Then he reached out for the tray with the good on but instead of grasping a nice chicken sandwich he grabbed nothing but air.

“Huh?”

He was puzzled by Elodia’s action of pulling back the food from him that she previously shoved into his face.

“You want to eat with those dirty hands?”

Roland glanced at his hands that Elodia was also staring at. These hands did not belong to a small boy anymore but to a man. They showed a history of hard work with the many calluses and thick skin that he had gained through constant work.

“Wait, you can’t deny a man his sandwich after all of that…”

Roland tried going for the food again but was denied access yet again as Elodia took a step back.

“No, wash your hands first!”

She just shook her head around while backing away, Roland on the other hand didn’t really want to go all the way back to his bathroom to do this.

“I see… but do I really need to wash my hands to eat that sandwich or is there another way?”

“Another way? What are you talking about?”

Asked Elodia while Roland was looking at something, this something was a nice clean looking hand that belonged to a woman.

“There is one person here that has clean hands…”

Elodia looked at her hand then back to Roland and after a little pause she figured out what he was alluding to. With a small blush on her face, she grabbed one of the sandwiches that she made and brought it over to Roland’s face. With food now in front of his face, he just chomped down taking in quite a bit with one bite.

It took him a bit to finish up as it was a somewhat awkward way of doing this. Still, the experience of having a cute girl feed you food was something to cherish.

‘Come to think of it, why is she still here?’

He asked himself while looking at the clock. It was quite late and it would be dark outside, normally when he was working Elodia would just go back to the city along with the shop guard and Agni. So when he managed to finish the sandwich he asked.

“Isn’t it late? Did you stay longer to make these for me?”

Elodia looked at the tray of food and then to the side. The previous faint blush that had been there became even more obvious. Without replying she turned around while walking away.

“W-well, Lobelia and Armand said they would be staying over so I thought we could…”

She started to trail off at the end with the sentence while slowly going towards the exit. Then as she vanished behind the door Roland realized what those words really meant. Thus a small dent in the floor appeared as he bolted for the exit.

“Agni, you’ll have to sleep outside… I’m going to be a bit busy...”

“Awooo?”

Soon after a confused Ruby Wolf was left outside of the house. From which he heard some rather peculiar sounds for the remainder of the night...