[System]
You are a skilled LitRPG progression fantasy author. Write chapters based on the story bible and instructions provided.

## Premise
The Runesmith — a LitRPG progression fantasy. It was getting late, the street lights flickered around while someone coughed in the distance. The wind howled while people were trying to get to their homes. Little drops of water started appearing on the glass windows, followed by gentle tapping. A certain man was sitting in a lit room, holding what looked to be a soldering iron. His hair was slightly unkempt and you could see a reflection of some kind of schematic coming of the glasses he was wearing.

## Main Character
Name: He | Gender: male (he/him)
Key supporting characters: Roland, Baron, I'm

## World & Power System
level-based progression; class system; skills (e.g. Common,  Main ,  Secondary ,  Highest , Temporary, High,  Temporary )

## Writing Style
third-person limited narration, past tense. Dialogue-heavy (35% dialogue). Balanced pacing.

[User]
Write Chapter 240 – Time to get to work.
Target length: ~2800 words
Key events: class event, dungeon content

[Assistant]
‘Should I take more?’

“Are you finished Mr. Wayland?”

“Ah, give me a minute…”

Roland had been going around the auction house storage facility. It reminded him of the last tier 2 class change quest that he had been through not so long ago. There was a lot of useless clutter but some of the items would hasten his research.

At this very moment, he was looking at a simple orb that looked like a giant pearl. When injecting it with his mana the orb started giving out a radiant glow. For the uneducated eye, this item would look like a low-quality magical lamp but he could recognize what it truly was.

‘An empyrean crystal must be inside of this thing, this isn’t just a yellow light, the mana pattern is similar to a healing spell.’

There was a certain warmth to this spell that was different from a regular heating spell. It was a phenomenon that was difficult to discern but thanks to his various mana-sensing skills, Roland was able to see through it.

Orb of mending light

Lesser Mending Rune, Lesser Light Rune.

‘So it had two different runes on in, the craftsmanship isn’t too great… the Runesmith was unable to combine both of the structures into one to lower the mana expenditure. These people really like to stick to their old schematics…’

On multiple occasions, he had seen magical items be inscribed in this way. He was always reminded of how most magical craftsmen stuck to the old trusted methods. It was quite rare to see something unique being made. The usual reason was either fear of failure or the astronomical costs of doing proper research to improve on an older design.

Then there was also the problem of limited mana reserves. Most craftsmen still had to make a living by creating various artifacts. After a full day of work, it was normal for them to be tired. Thus if they reached a point where they could sustain their lifestyle they would choose to take it easy.

At least that was Roland’s point of view, there also existed idiots like him that would risk their health just to make a tiny improvement on an existing rune. Even in this case, if a person combined the two runes into a Lesser Mending Light Rune, the improvement would be more than five percent. In the case of a tiny rune like this, the mana expenditure wouldn’t matter that much. Only when the runes became grander and grander, did that five percent become a serious advantage and a worthwhile endeavor.

“I’ll be taking this one if that’s alright with you?”

“I’ll note it down in the book Mr. Wayland.”

Mary nodded while writing something into the large ledger that was on the side. Everything that he took out of here would be written down, if he would be later charged for the items if they were destroyed he wasn’t sure.

‘The mending spell is the lowest healing spell that even a tier 1 cleric can perform, will this be enough to cause an adverse reaction from a parasite? It’s best if I get more runic variants for research…’

There wasn’t really much to work with here, they were still in a developing town. After going through the whole place he ended up with two other items besides the mending orb. This together with some separate empyrean crystals would have to be enough to create his new contraption.

‘There really aren’t that many divine artifacts with actual runes, most of them are just regular enchantments…’

Talisman of Faith

Shield of Faith Enchantment

Mace of Lesser Smite

Lesser Smite Evil Rune

Luckily he had a skill that could see through other spell languages. With it, he would be able to get the runic versions out of enchanted weapons. Yet considering that it had a massive drawback, he still decided to go with the few runic variants that were here.

‘I should get home and test these out…”

“This will be enough.”

“Are you sure Mr. Wayland? If you require anything else, please look for me at the mansion and I will gladly grant you access to the storage facility.”

Mary just smiled at him while continuing to note down the items that he took. Roland still wasn’t sure what he thought about this woman. Each time that he turned his back to her, it was as if something bad could happen. She gave him the vibe of some thieves guild members that he bumped into at the black market.

‘She is being awfully nice but that might be just an act…’

It was clear that the woman was dangerous and not to be underestimated. He felt that he would have a better chance of taking out the two armored knights that protected Arthur than this one maid. There were rumors of butlers and maids being trained fighters or retired adventurers. They acted as both servants and bodyguards for nobles, sometimes sticking with them from a young age.

“Sorry for making you wait, let's go back…”

“...”

On the outside, he encountered a rather floppy ruby wolf. Agni was forced to remain chained to a post like a dog waiting for its owner at a supermarket. He was visibly unamused for being forced to remain in one spot for this long.

“I’ll see you in a week then Mr. Wayland, please contact me through the usual means if any problems arise.”

Mary covered her mouth while looking at the large tamed monster being overdramatic. Luckily for Roland, the moment he took the doggy leash into his hands Agni was more than willing to move from the spot he was previously in.

“Stop acting like a little kid Agni, after we’ll out of the city I’ll remove that muzzle.”

“Awoo!”

After he mentioned the device that was making his muzzle itch being removed, Agni started pulling him towards the exit. Night had already fallen on the city and some guards started patrolling. Armand, Lobelia, and Elodia were both safe from the cult influence and spent the night at the orphanage. Yet, one person from the city had already been infected. Being that it had happened to a person from the thieves guild, it could have happened anywhere.

‘Is this a coincidence or part of their protocol?’

Jasper was part of the guild and this made him think of the one in Reeka. There he witnessed a secret passage that probably went to the cult's secret lair. There was a chance that the same thing was happening here, the cult might already be here. If the cult possessed a strategy of creating underground lairs, infecting thieves that created a foothold in developing cities would be part of the course.

Albrook’s dungeon could have been enough reason to invest in the takeover. Many adventurers wandered through this place and would be perfect hosts for their monsters. Roland was unsure what the cult's true purpose was or what was the deciding feature of the city they took over.

There was a possibility that they started out whenever a promising area appeared. Albrooks' structure was still growing, nothing was set in stone. It would be much easier to grasp a foothold during this time of development than five years after everything was formed.

‘The underground tunnels and the thieves guild are a good smoke screen for the cult, it wouldn’t be a problem to falsify an identity there and build more tunnels…’

The guild of thieves would defend their assets. They would bribe the officials or use assassination to protect the underground black market. This would allow any cultists to have a safe haven without the need to spend any resources. Even without a mind-affecting relic, they could probably infect people through more conventional means.

‘Even if that’s true and they are here, they will probably hide in the shadows for a while. They might even retreat to areas that are dominated by them to conserve their forces.’

With the high concentration of paladins in the area it would be unwise for the cultists to continue with their usual antics. Everyone had become aware of them, this also included the thieves guild that a member was confirmed to be afflicted by an abyssal larvae. He wouldn’t be surprised if the guild master turned the tunnels upside down to search for a potential culprit.

“Woof!”

His contemplations were interrupted by a maddened Agni. Both of them were now outside of the city gates but the ruby wolf was still muzzled. Roland just gave out a sigh while smiling weakly afterward. Soon Agni was freed of the dreaded contraption that was placed on his snout. This was all signaled by a large sneeze he performed when it came down.

“Hey, stop running around, I’m not going to put it on you again.”

Agni bolted away as if he had spent years in wolf prison. From a distance, he glared at the metal muzzle that was being held in Roland’s hand. It was quickly placed in a spatial bag so that Agni could calm down, only after it was gone did he slowly trot back to his master’s side.

“See it’s gone.”

“Awroof!”

After smelling the air for a moment Agni was back to his old self. His tail started swinging around as the two finally headed back to the workshop. Thanks to this distraction Roland’s mind went back to the problem at hand, he needed to create a device that would bathe a small area in divine energy. He had been at the church before and could somewhat ascertain the amount of this divine mana that was floating there.

“It feels like I’ve been gone for months…”

Not even a full month had passed since he had left Albrook. He wanted to do nothing more than to go to sleep for at least a week but thanks to the cult and the city lord, it was impossible. The nap that he took on the ship and at the port town would need to be enough.

“She’s been keeping the place clean.”

A smile appeared on his usually grumpy-looking face. The whole house was spotless, not a speck of dust could be seen and there was even food inside his runic refrigerator. After going through mostly dried meat it didn’t take him long to grab some leftover stew. Thanks to the runic stove it wasn’t hard to warm it up and then feast on it.

It only took him a few minutes to devour a massive amount of food. Regretfully even if he wanted to toss himself into the bathtub and then sleep everything off, there was more work to be done. After finishing the quick meal and leaving Agni to run rampant in the backyard he descended to his workshop.

“Everything seems to be in order.”

The large metal door slid open after he was identified. On the inside, he was greeted by the sound of mechanical movement. It was one of his spider golems that was hanging from the ceiling and prepared to blast anyone that was not allowed to get into his workshop.

“That reminds me…”

When looking at the golem he started getting mad. He had lost two of such units during the village battle and was only left with scrap metal. This mission was part of his rank-up test so he received no rewards to cover his losses. It was an all-around net loss and most of the money he took along for the trip was now gone. If he wasn’t withholding information about the dungeon mine he would have probably filed a complaint.

Soon he was going around the place to check if Bernir didn’t cause any unwanted explosions. All of his smithing hammers and runic tools were there, nothing eventful seemed to have happened. Everything was in good condition and he could start working whenever he decided to.

“First I need to draw up the schematics of these runes.”

Before starting his work Roland was sure to give his enhanced radar system a look. A whole kilometer around his house could be mapped thanks to him burying signal extending equipment. All humans, monsters, and magical beings would be detected by this system without him needing to use his own mana.

If an unannounced guest showed up he would be informed by an alarm. With how the underground workshop was soundproof anyone outside would not be aware of their position being discovered. There were several ways this system could detect any intruders and it included movement.

Quickly his hand started moving the pen around the large piece of parchment. Within a couple of minutes, he had the improved version of the mending rune up on the board. Next to it, he placed the more complex smite rune that would probably be quite effective against evil chaotic beings like the ones the cultists used.

“This Talisman of Faith can wait for later…”

He didn’t want to risk getting a headache right the moment he started his work. For the time being, he focused on the mace and the orb. Both of these items were in possession of divine runes but both worked differently. When he activated the orb it started to give up a warm glow that was able to slowly mend small wounds like shallow cuts.

There didn’t seem to be a limit to how much healing this item could output. If it was given mana it just activated and the secondary power source that was on the inside took care of the second part of the equation. Only with the help of the empyrean crystal that was on the inside could this artifact function.

Then there was the larger mace that was made of a deep steel alloy. It wasn’t anything special and it was also able to activate the spell effect when he injected his mana into it. There was one big difference though, there was no empyrean crystal or any other outer source of divine energy. This weapon had a limited amount of charges that would quickly get drained the more he used it.

“It has only twenty charges and I already used up one…”

This was an ingenious way of retaining clients. The person getting this weapon would be forced to visit the church to supply more charges. It was a constant stream of revenue that would never dry up until the weapon broke down for other reasons.

‘Perhaps I should make a deal with the Sister… would she be fine with a seventy-thirty split?’

While thinking about a brand new way of earning money he placed the mace to the side. This rune that was meant for smiting evil creatures was a bit more complex than the mending rune. Now with both of the schematics on his board, he could start analyzing them in more detail.

Without needing much time he could already spot a lot of similarities to other runes. The spell effect on the mace just surrounded it by a radiant glow of divine energy. After striking something this energy would be dispersed to the surroundings, similar to a small explosion from an explosion rune.

‘The only problematic part is this holy energy that must be directly injected into the runic structure from another source, either a charge or a more direct way.'

Even without performing a test, Roland was convinced that he could create a working rune like this. This could only be achieved by substituting the divine energy with regular mana, the effect would probably be a similar small explosion of blue mana instead of the radiant divine one that this mace was filled with.

‘Is there a way to emulate this type of energy and forgo the empyrean crystals altogether?’

This was his true purpose for decrypting these runes but he was not that versed in the types of mana or spiritual energies that floated around this world. Thus for the time being he decided to put this thought on hold. There was no time to waste here, the empyrean crystals were provided for him so he could ignore his lack of understanding in that part of the project.

*sigh*

“I guess I should make this before we get overrun by tentacle monsters…”

The difficult part of this project was not actually combining the runes to form a proper spell. It was to refine it enough to only use up the faintest of divine energy. Even though the crystals could be provided by the church, it was a finite resource. Tweaking the area of effect spell to be enough to have the infected exhibit clear symptoms would be the hard part.

Thank you for reading!

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[User]
Write Chapter 241 – Back in the workshop.
Target length: ~3100 words
Key events: class event

[Assistant]
“Wayland?”

A concerned Elodia looked at the unused bedroom before calling out to Roland. Without knowing if someone was listening in she had to stick to his pseudonym. It was clear to her that he had not used his bedroom to sleep which could mean a few things. Yet before she could investigate further the disembodied voice of the house owner sounded out.

“I’m in the workshop, is it already time for breakfast? … I could probably use a break, I’ll be there in a few minutes, I just need to finish this first.”

Elodia looked at the faintly glowing rune that was talking to her. It was inscribed on the wall to something that looked like a small black box. She had actually witnessed Roland connecting wires to this thing previously which was apparently supposed to guide the required energy to make it work.

Even with somewhat knowing how the rune worked she was still not used to all the strange contraptions littering the whole place. This was one of the downsides of being together with a magically inclined craftsman. She never knew if something could appear out of the blue and explode in her face. It was especially dangerous whenever Roland tested new weapons or golems, many times they exploded while causing harm to their creator.

The woman frowned after hearing the one-sided message go through. It was clear that Roland didn’t go to sleep last night and continued to work through its entirety. She had quickly returned to the orphanage to check up on the young ones. There she remained until dawn as it was already too late to head back to the church.

‘He must be hungry and tired… I should make something to recover his stamina.’

Thanks to having a cooking-related profession she was able to inject tiny buffs into the food that she made. It all depended on the correct ingredients and method of cooking, the effects were quite minimal but they were better than nothing. Quickly she put on an apron and got to work in the kitchen while waiting for the man of the house to come back.

…

“Ugh, is it already morning?”

Roland rubbed his eyes while looking at the runic clock that was showing him the time. It was eight in the morning and half an hour before the shop would be opening. He had decided to close it for the time being as he knew that Elodia needed to take care of the kids at the orphanage. He had forgotten to mention yesterday that it had been somewhat hectic.

There wasn’t much that he had achieved yesterday besides examining the divine runes. After scribbling down the two main schematics he used a metal saw to open the Orb of mending light up. Just as he expected on the inside was a small empyrean crystal of a yellow hue. These always took on the color of the divinity they were charged with.

With Solaria being the main god in this kingdom it would take a yellow color pallet. This varied depending on the priest that was injecting their mana into the container. The more saturated the colors became the better the quality was. In this case, the empyrean crystal was a pale yellow which placed it on the lesser quality spectrum.

After getting to the ‘guts’ of this magical device he noted down all the runic pathways and methods that the craftsman used. The crystal was placed into a tiny frame with a socket and then encased in metal to produce the round outer shell. This socket it was on, had small ethereal pathways which were clearly used to guide the energy from it.

The inside was mostly filled out but there were some pockets of air here and there. It seemed that the crystal was able to remain intact even after getting treated by heated metal. This item was clearly placed into a mold and then polished before the outer shell was inscribed. Such a process would not be hard to recreate and it was probably created in this way to protect the gem from outside shocks.

Then there was the Talisman of Faith, this required him to use his most uncomfortable skill. Luckily he had already worked on lesser enchantments like this one so he had been successful in his endeavor. This last task took him most of the night and he had just finished when he noticed Elodia entering his home. Now he had all the basics prepared and needed to draw up the main diagram for the device.

‘I guess I’m going to get another low score for style again…’

While walking away from his workbench he thought back to the class change test he went through. With not enough time for testing, he would need to prepare something basic. In his head, he was looking at a box with a spot to place the divine crystal in. Then in another side compartment some space for mana fluid.

‘Have to make it easily replaceable so that the guards can’t damage it…’

The design needed to be simple so that even the guards could take out a used-up empyrean crystal and also fill it back in with mana fluid. It needed to be as close to what the people in this kingdom were used to. For himself, he would make an altered version that used his own runic batteries.

‘I need to eat something…’

While standing up he could feel his stomach rumbling in protest. The only meal he had yesterday was the leftovers that he found in the runic fridge. With how Elodia had shown up his hunger had been exasperated. It was one thing to eat a cold meal and another to get something fresh and warm. Thus without even realizing it, he started moving faster towards the exit.

“Hey Boss, a good mornin’ to ya!”

“Oh hey, Bernir.”

His assistant had his own workshop through which he could get into the underground main lair. He also came to work at the same time with Elodia and his wife. Mostly the three would meet up in the city and just go together for safety reasons. It was always safer in a group with people that carried magical weapons that Roland made. Once he had heard of Bernir having to use the portable runic gun for self-defense.

“What’s with that eye…”

“Oh nothing, the missus likes to get rowdy from time to time…”

Roland recalled Bernir staring at Sister Kassia’s backside and Dyana’s reaction. To this day he wasn’t quite sure how the two ended up with each other. The size difference was quite large and Bernir seemed like a leecher that had not been able to get rid of that part before marriage.

‘I guess this world's sensibilities are different, if a man has a proper well-paying job or standing, it's not hard to attract them…’

In reality, Roland would also be able to profit from his position. He was not blind to the looks that he was getting from the young women around him. Yet not many of those girls were willing to approach the scary-looking runesmith. His love life was satiated by Elodia who was a great cook and he wasn’t really willing to jeopardize this heartwarming relationship by cheating.

“Well, She probably had a reason for it… try not to get killed over stupid things, but if things get out of hand, I'll talk to her about it.”

He wasn't one to allow spousal abuse even if the morals in this world were different. Yet it didn't seem that Bernir had any problems in getting hit, for some reason it looked like he actually enjoyed it.

“Aye boss, don’t worry, I’ll be more discrete next time!”

Bernir gave Roland a little wink as if the problem was not him going after other women but getting caught.

“That was not… but it’s your life…”

He just shrugged while going up the stairs, if his assistant wanted to risk it then it was fine. What Roland worried about was that he would be bringing a bad atmosphere into the working place if it continued. Perhaps it was not such a great idea to work with your significant other in the same area.

“Wayland?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Wait for a second, I made some stew, this runic pressure cooker is truly something special!”

Elodia had complained about some of her recipes taking too long so he had created some modern tools. A pressure cooker had many uses and wasn’t hard to make with the help of runes. Thanks to it she was able to upgrade her cooking skills to a new level and also hasten the process. Most people in this world were stuck using regular stoves using coal or wood, not many had the leisure of having a set of runic utensils along with a fully functioning enchanted stove.

The moment Roland's nose caught the smell his mouth started watering. His whole lower body trembled as his stomach began growling. If he could he would toss himself at that pressure cooker to devour the hot stew inside.

“You really look famished, sit down and relax for a moment.”

“Sure.”

After a moment the two sat down next to each other and while waiting for the food to get colder began to talk.

“I thought you’d be with the kids, it’s fine if we close the shop for the week, I’ve gotten a commission from the city lord, it should be enough to cover our expenses for a while.”

Roland took a sip of warm tea that had the perfect temperature that he always liked. It seemed Elodia had remembered to prepare it before he got here.

“It’s fine, Armand and Lobelia took them to the church to get examined.”

“Did her friend recover yet?”

“I’m not sure, she returned late at night but poor Jasper hadn’t woken up. It doesn’t seem that he is in danger but the priests aren’t sure why he hasn’t woken up yet, they said that his body is healthy.”

He nodded while putting his cup away. The Abyssal Larva that was in Jasper’s head was close to his brain, it wouldn’t be strange if it affected it in some way. People in this world depended on heating arts and not many had actual medical knowledge. His old world was far more advanced in that field, the brain damage that an afflicted person went through could be devastating.

‘It’s better if I don’t mention the possibility of the man becoming a vegetable…’

“I’m sure the priests will figure it out, perhaps the evil energy hadn’t left his body fully and he just needs to recover.”

Elodia nodded while blowing on her spoon before placing it in her mouth. It was time to eat and remaining silent through this part was somewhat of a tradition. Only after they were done did they resume their conversation while also washing dishes.

“What did the Lord want?”

“Nothing much, just a way to get rid of this problem but I kind of gave him the idea.”

Roland smiled while handing his bowl to Elodia who started washing it.

“There is another way?”

“Not exactly, we still need the priests from the church to heal the afflicted but it’s possible to detect the ones that are sick.”

“There is?”

Roland nodded while giving Elodia a short explanation about how the infected people showed various symptoms when around divine energy.

“It’s not a very precise process but other than x-raying a person’s skull I don’t see any other way?”

“X… ray?”

Elodia looked at him with a confused look while he just shook his head.

“It’s not important but you should probably go back, I wouldn’t trust that idiot with the kids.”

“Hey, he’s not that unreliable…”

She was quick to defend her younger brother but both of them knew that unless it came to fighting Armand wasn’t that useful. Roland also knew that his girlfriend would be worried sick if she didn’t take care of this on her own.

“Agni, come here boy.”

“Awoo!”

“I have a mission for you, take Elodia to the city gates and return only after you are sure that she is safe. and don’t worry, you don’t need a muzzle just don’t go through the main street.”

“Woof!”

The Dire Ruby Wolf gave out a resounding bark while positioning his nose up high. He looked very dependable with that impressive size and level. With not many tier 3 class holders in the city, there was almost no danger with anyone being able to stand up to this powerful beast.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t rest? I’m sure what you are doing is important but you just returned…”

“It’s fine, you know me, I don’t need much sleep, I’ll be fine with a few hours here and there.”

He smacked his chest while smiling while showing off his strong body that wouldn’t crumble under the workload. With his new class, he would be able to almost work nonstop without his mind giving out.

Elodia gave out a sigh after hearing the answer.

“I know that I won’t be able to change your mind but just remember not to overexert yourself.”

“You know me, I always work responsibly.”

Roland found his arm getting pinched by an angry-looking Elodia. She had already bought him passed out a few times from overworking himself or generating dangerous explosions.

“Ouch, that hurts.”

“You deserve it.”

*Thonk*

“Hey, stop it Agni.”

While he was getting the stink eye, his tamed beast decided to ram his skull into his stomach.

“Why are you taking her side, you should always be on your master's side!”

“He knows who controls the food in this house.”

It seemed that he had been betrayed by Agni in this time of need. Food was apparently more important and the person who cooked the most was indeed Elodia. Thus his only retort that he could come up with was to lean over for a tactical kiss on the cheek which caused the reddening of his partner's face.

“Hey, stop that.”

After seeing Elodia’s cute flustered face he could finally go back to work. Soon the two parted ways and he was left with the sound of hammering that belonged to Bernir and Dyana. The two would be able to help him with creating parts for his new creation but first, he needed to get the runic structure to work.

“Hey boss, heard that we are closing shop, does that mean…”

“No, you can’t go home, go back to work, I’ll need your help later.”

“Aye, it was worth a try.”

Bernir chuckled while grabbing some tools. Most of the time his work consisted of producing parts for Roland’s creations. These would be then inscribed with runes and then finally assembled into the finished product. Thanks to the various power tools that run on mana the process of creation was faster than that of regular smiths.

There was only one downside when working with these tools. Most of them wouldn’t count towards any skills. A blacksmith could for instance increase their skill with hammers which would allow them to be more precise while also using a lot of force. There was no skill for using a runic drill or saw but luckily they would still gain leveling experience after the item was created.

“So what are you working on, boss?”

“It’s related to the current issue in the city…”

Roland gave Bernir a quick explanation of what happened after they left. This caused the half-dwarf to whistle while pondering something.

“Isn’t this a chance?”

“A chance?”

“Yes, if this magical item works then won’t we be able to earn loads of cash? We’ll be able to show the union’s bastards our superiority!”

“I guess that’s one way of looking at it…”

The fact that Arthur Valerian commissioned him instead of the dwarven union to prepare the magical contraption showed where his trust was in. Yet Roland wasn’t sure if his new friend wouldn’t go to them if he didn’t finish his work in a week. Perhaps Arthur had already sent someone to the union with a request if he failed.

‘This would probably be the better move, can’t put all of your eggs in one basket.’

“But what if those conniving fiends are already working on it? What if we are too late and they take all the glory?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, the union will probably prioritize their own larger cities and I’m not sure if their Enchantsmith knows how to work with divine ones.”

“That’s true… but boss, have ya already worked with them yourself?”

“No, but I’m a fast learner.”

With the schematics already done and corrected with the help of his debugging skill, it was finally time to get to the drawing board. This process was one of the more tedious ones as he had to calculate everything in his head while bringing it to paper. Only after getting through this process could he have his assistants start preparing the framework for his new creation.

“Aye, I’ll leave ya to it then.”

Roland opened up the door to his private workshop where he created most of his runic designs. The three divine runes that he corrected were all hung up on the board where he could see everything clearly. On the wall, there was a rack with all of his tools and that was his current destination.

“I guess I’m back my old friend.”

After pulling up a somewhat well-used hammer he gave it a twirl. This had been his go-to runecrafting tool for a year now, even though it was used it just felt right when he held it in his hand. Soon the forge sprung to life as he inserted a square-shaped piece of metal into it. The runic heating spell produced a high enough temperature to turn the whole piece red in a matter of minutes.

It was then removed with some deep-steel tongs and brought over to his usual anvil. There he raised his hammer up into the air. Blue sparks of mana filled out the tiny gaps to bring the inscribed runic symbols out into the open. Quickly he brought that hammer down to force it into the piece of metal, the familliar process of runecrafting had begun and Roland finally felt like he was truly home again.

Thank you for reading!

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[User]
Write Chapter 242 – Fiddling with divine runes.
Target length: ~2800 words
Key events: dungeon content

[Assistant]
“Ugh…”

“Boss, your eyes, there is blood coming out of them.”

“Don’t worry I’m fine, give me a moment.”

Roland poured a red recovery potion on his face to make his vision recover. This coupled with a mending spell that had been inscribed on a metallic wand quickly nursed him back to health.

“Maybe ye should take a break, I know that the deadline is in a day but ye must watch your health, what if the missus finds out?”

“I’m fine, also I’ve already finished that project.”

After taking a breather Roland pointed to a box that was to the side. Just as he had planned it out, the runic device didn’t look eye-catching. The most intricate part about it were the various runes and gems placed on the outside.

“I’ve already prepared the diagram so you can start preparing the parts, it’s a basic design so you won’t have trouble in making them.”

“Eh? So this is it.”

Bernir looked at the unsuspecting box and craned his neck back to Roland. He was given a nod which indicated that he could go ahead and examine it. There was a hook latch on the side and small hinges on the other which allowed him to open it up. On the inside, there was a small metal cylinder with what looked to be mana fluid inside of it.

“So you went with the old design boss.”

“Obviously, can't go outside the norm with it yet.”

Bernir nodded as there were various reasons to stick to the usual magical fuel. One of them was just for ease of use while the other was for the better design not to be copied by the dwarven union. They would certainly get their hands on this little box sooner or later.

Regretfully there wasn’t anything like patents in this world, so he could not safeguard his designs from being used by others. The only thing would be the inclusion of passwords and blockades in the code. With their inclusion, a specialist would be needed to crack the code. It was similar to the basic pirating prevention methods from his old world.

There were of course ways of making this prevention software even harder to crack. One of these methods would be a handshake between hardware components, like the batteries that he made. Someone would need to be able to recreate both parts perfectly otherwise the main device would not function and if he wanted, short circuit the runic components.

He had already implemented a simplified version of this system in his golemic products that utilized his rechargeable batteries. With more time he hoped to make his products too bothersome to copy. The real money didn’t come from making large heavy to construct machines, like golems.

If he could become the only supplier of runic batteries while other runesmiths bought them from him to use his designs, then he would be swimming in money while doing minimal work. Then there was also the factory approach if he failed with that endeavor. While he probably wouldn’t be able to design automated systems like in the world he came from, he could substitute them with golems that could be programmed to make separate parts.

While he was thinking about the future of his enterprise, Bernir pressed the activation button. This caused the box to glow faintly, it was followed by a warm tingling feeling that quickly subsided. To the untrained eye, this would look like a glowy paperweight with no apparent use but to someone that could detect mana, the change would be somewhat noticeable

“Will this really help with those squiggly thingies?”

“It should be enough to force out the symptoms, the concentration of divine mana is slightly above the one in the church.”

“So boss, if you’ve completed your work, shouldn’t we bring it to the lord?”

“Not yet, we need to prepare more and I already asked for more crystals and materials from the auction house…”

“Ah!”

Bernir smirked as he realized that his boss was trying to milk his business partner for more resources. This was an opportunity to get free research material from the auction house that he didn’t normally have access to.

“Well, if it’s like that, then I’ll send them in when they arrive.”

After grabbing the diagrams from the table, Bernir ventured out to create a few more boxes. They needed enough to cover all the entrance gates of the city along with places where people gathered. It would be up to Arthur to organize everything as his job would be over after he delivered the runic device.

Roland had actually not expected everything to go that fast. With the help of his skills, there was no problem if he worked twenty hours a day. It was just a matter of assembling the runic components in the right places and then playing around with the code inside.

These divine runes weren’t that different from the ones that used mana, they just required a different power source which was supplied by the empyrean crystals. He had also examined the weapon that used rechargeable charges and applied them to the design as well.

If for some reason the city lord couldn’t provide the divine energy crystals, he could ask the priests to recharge them instead. This change prolonged the assembly by a few days but he did not want to deliver a faulty product when people's lives were at stake. With one and a half days left until the deadline he had shifted his research to another field, divine mana emulation

‘It should be possible if I can find the correct wavelength…’

His eyes had stopped hurting from looking at the divine energy that was produced by the magical devices. The runic components were similar and overlapped with the regular ones that used mana as the only source. They had some additional parts that injected this holy energy instead.

One of these parts utilized the empyrean crystals while the other just absorbed an outside source. Yet there were clues in the design, such parts also existed in regular mana devices. This gave him an idea, what if the mana in this world can be changed, what if it operates on some kind of spectrum or a wavelength. Perhaps if he could alter this wavelength he could produce divine energy by himself or at least mimic it enough to produce a similar effect.

For this reason, he was using his runic eyes of truth. With their help, he was trying to analyze the divine energies that these items he took from the auction house generated. The biggest problem was that runic magic by design worked in reverse. It took mana from outside and altered it to produce things like elemental spells.

What he would need to do was to create a component that altered the mana into the divine mana before being injected into the runic structure. He might have to create a totally separate element that would alter the mana flow before sending it into the runic traces.

‘That will probably be the better solution, it's easier to simulate an empyrean crystal instead of a constant charging feature.’

It would be great if he could just design a whole rune that did all of the work for him. But simulating a whole new energy source seemed like a massive undertaking. He would need to go through many various patterns bit by bit. His eye skill could only marginalize the area of search. By looking at what energy he was producing he could slowly push it in the right direction.

‘So much work to do and so little time…’

His Parallel Thinking trait was working in overdrive as he felt that he would need five more brains to get through this field of study. Recreating a bizarre fantasy world energy crystal in mechanical runic form would probably be quite the breakthrough. It could also put him on the hit list of all the orthodox religions. They would probably not look kindly to someone creating blasphemous imitations of their divine spells.

While he was aware of this, there would always be ways to hide the use of divine spells. The only reason he was willing to go into the field was the looming threat of evil monsters appearing at his doorstep. Roland did not know if the people from the Solarian church that he met were still alive.

Perhaps Loreena had already been forced to talk about his involvement and assassins were on the way. The only thing keeping him calm was the strength of the church, combined with the cultist's target probably being the destruction of their relic.

‘They shouldn’t have any time to deal with me, Loreena also doesn’t know about the nature of my skill and how I really got out of that illusion.’

He could only grit his teeth and continue with the research. The faster he learned to emulate an empyrean crystal, the faster he could outfit his home with defenses. For the time being he could always go to Sister Kassia to recharge the field he would create around his house.

After getting some rest and drinking some water he returned to his workbench where a stack of papers along with his notebook was waiting for him. There he started going through various theories and old research.

Yet even when he tried, time just continued to pass and the crumpled-up papers riddled the whole floor. The task was proving to not be an easy one, thus after the deadline was over he needed to clear his mind and prepare the basic defenses before continuing.

…

“So this is it?”

“Yes Lord Arthur, let me demonstrate. You just need to fill this small canister with Elokin’s Fluid and place the empyrean crystal in this socket, then just press the button on the side.”

Mary placed herself in front of Arthur Valerian while Roland did the presentation. It was funny to see the maid not trust him at all but he could understand it. There was always a chance of things going wrong or people using their skills to impersonate him or even mind control. It wouldn’t be strange if the item exploded if a powerful enough person wanted Arthur dead.

“This does feel like a lesser healing spell and the area should be enough to cover the gates.”

“It can go up to five meters in diameter, use the knob on the side if you wish to lower the area of effect, it will lower the mana usage, and the device will last longer.”

“So we can narrow the checkpoint size and save us some money, you have outdone yourself Mr. Wayland. Mary, have these placed at the main gates and start informing the guard captains as we have discussed before.”

“Yes, Lord Arthur.”

They were out in the courtyard with the usual two knights watching over the city lord. It seemed that they used the week to prepare a proper plan. Roland wouldn't be surprised if Arthur had already contacted the church and gotten them to agree to help out.

“Mr. Wayland, you will be rewarded handsomely for your efforts, but I think you should rest now.”

Even though Roland didn’t inform Arthur about his other part of the research, his baggy eyes and melancholic way of talking made him seem like someone that didn’t rest for a week or more.

“Thank you, my Lord, I will excuse myself, please contact me if you need more of the items made, of course, at the agreed-upon price.....”

Arthur nodded while Roland quickly wobbled out of the estate to head home. Even though he had arrived here a week ago, only now was he truly free to continue with his life. There was one more small thing that he needed to take care of before returning home and the person helping him with it was already waiting outside.

“Are you done?”

“Yes, here.”

From within his spatial bag, he removed one of the boxes that he had created. After handing it over to Lobelia he was done for now.

“So this is it? Doesn’t look like much.”

“I can guarantee that it works, don’t forget to bring me the money later.”

“He he, I bet those old bastards will pay whatever I propose.”

“Don’t go overboard.”

“Are you worrying about me? That’s cute~”

“I’m more worried about Elodia, if she finds you in a ditch with a dagger in the back she will be devastated.”

“Were you always this melodramatic? Don’t worry, it’ll be fine, they will probably want more of these if they work and I’m the only one that can contact the supplier!”

Lobelia chuckled at Roland who had become the supplier of magical goods for the thieves guild. He had decided to push the items towards the underground to check for any people that could be afflicted. Apparently, during this week a few more people were discovered and quickly treated thanks to Lobelia that spread the information.

Roland was hoping to eradicate any potential cultist lairs from forming in the city and for that, the Thieves guild was needed. They were used to looking for hidden passages, in theory, they should be able to find any hidden tunnels or at least keep the infected from spreading.

For that, they first needed to examine all of the members and also place his divine boxes at the secret thieve guild entrances. With time they should be able to identify the source and hopefully take care of it without anyone from the upper citizens being affected.

“Remember, the fewer people know about this the better, you can’t alert the cultists or they might activate the parasites.”

“I know, don’t worry, I’m good at keeping secrets and so are the people in charge.”

Lobelia smiled while striking a pose. He couldn’t really do much as he was not part of the underground guilds and he had no interest in meeting their leader.

“Let’s change the topic then, how is your friend?”

“Jasper is doing fine.”

“He is?”

The half-elf blurred out the news as if it was nothing.

“Were there any side effects? Memory loss? Blindness?”

Roland on the other hand was very interested in this scoop and started throwing questions at the smaller girl.

“Woah, calm down Wayland. He is fine but he couldn’t remember the past few hours.”

After a quick back and forth he finally received some good news. It was possible to make a full recovery from the larva if it was discovered before being activated. This confirmed his theory that these creatures remained dormant and waited for some kind of activation sequence. Their only defensive mechanism in this state was making their host uncomfortable whenever close to divine energy.

“There is one more thing, remember the thing you asked me about.”

“Yes?”

“The guild received some news, apparently that forest where the church was fighting with those weirdos has become a desolate wasteland!”

“A wasteland?”

“Yes, some sort of spell was used and everyone had to evacuate but It didn’t reach the city. No one can investigate further, the religious nuts are keeping everyone from going in.”

It seemed the battle was over and both the cult had left the danger zone. Some kind of spell had been used to probably destroy any leftover evidence. If the old man that he met that knew his father and his granddaughter got out in time was unknown to anyone.

“Can I ask you for one more favor?”

“Hm, what is it?”

Lobelia looked a bit pouty as he asked for it but this was quickly remedied by his next sentence.

“Don’t worry, I’ll pay you, I need some information and you probably know someone that can get it.”

“That I do!”

“I need you to get me information about two people…”

Roland didn’t want to remain in the dark, he needed to know if information about him was out there. If the two golden order paladins he ran in were safe and sound, then he could relax. Yet if they were found missing then he might have to consider taking drastic measures.

Even without that knowledge he still needed to get stronger. One part was the new divine runes that he was working on but that seemed to be a long-term investment. Another research topic were the spatial runes that he was still trying to figure out. If he could integrate storage technology into his armor, he could bring along heavy armaments for more dire situations. Then there was the dungeon and his secret training spot that he needed to visit.

“Golden order members? Do you have friends in high places?”

“Can you do it or not?”

“Sure thing but it might cost extra!”

Roland nodded as the two finally parted, even though he had the freedom to do anything he couldn’t waste any time. He needed to get stronger and the fastest way for that was to gain more levels.

Thank you for reading!

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[User]
Write Chapter 243 – Time for the hammer.
Target length: ~2800 words
Key events: level-up occurs, dungeon content

[Assistant]
I'll be taking a break for a week, so see you next week o/

“Level 129, it’s close to 130…”

Roland muttered to himself while looking at his status screen which hasn’t changed much since his last level up. His new tier 2 Runic Engineer class hasn’t seen much use since he got it and it was only level 4 and soon to be 5. Due to all the work, he did prepare the new runic items he was gaining experience but not at a rate that would matter.

There were a few skills that he acquired that had gone through rapid growth. His Stress Resistance skill that he just acquired after gaining his new class was already level 4, it was the same for his Resilience skill. The two were getting a lot of usage during his latest endeavor, the latter saw a boost each time he activated his eye of true skill. He had also gained a follow-up skill that made things easier.

Pain Resistance L2

Increases resistance to pain.

The Pain Resistance skill was actually something that wasn’t easy to unlock. A person needed to put their body through a lot of continuous pain and suffering. It was mostly acquired by intended means by putting people through torture or found in victims like prisoners.

‘If someone peeked at my skills they might think that I’m some kind of budding masochist…’

Thanks to pain resistance he could not force himself to last through the runic eye of truth. Along with Resilience, his recovery was boosted and he could quickly recover to restart the process faster. Thanks to leveling up these skills he was able to go through the divine enchantments without a problem and even attempt to work on the spatial rune.

His main goal now was to get to level 150 and for that reason, he needed to abuse his body. With the real threat of the abyssal cult peeking over his shoulder, a need to advance further was there. However there was a problem, should he wait to reach the level cap of his current class or attempt a tier 3 change instantly after he reached the minimum requirement?

Due to him using up 75 levels on three tier 1 classes to unlock his Runesmith Lord class he had some wiggle room. Getting the higher tier 3 stat multiplier would make him a lot stronger and he would also be given even more stat points for each level up. Yet he would be giving up the potential rare skill of the Runic Engineer.

This class was an unknown factor and something probably unique to his situation. It gave him the vibe of being something that he brought over from his original world. In this new one that was filled with fantasy beings and magical contraptions, Engineers didn’t really exist. They were replaced by craftsmen or artisans, the class names were closer to the medieval times.

‘But perhaps I’m just overthinking things…’

The only true out-of-place term that he had was the debugging skill that was clearly only possible by someone that had access to modern-day computers and programming languages. If he was right then perhaps the special level 50 skill at the end of his new class would be quite worthwhile, the one that he received from the Runesmith Lord was really worth the wait.

‘I guess I should focus on getting to 150 first and then I’ll decide. To level up faster I need to go down to the dungeon, luckily Bernir said that he finished the pathway while I was out.’

“Hey, Bossman here it is!”

“Thank you Dyana.”

“No problem, that’s what you pay me for, I just wonder if Agni will really want to wear this.”

Dyana brought over a lot of various pieces of equipment, it was a silver barding made for his Dire Ruby Wolf. After the increase in size, he had enough strength to finally wear some protective gear. It was made from durasteel and would cover all the critical parts like the underbelly that was prone to injuries. It would also be outfitted with some runic spells to augment Agni’s fighting style.

"Also, here."

"What's this?"

“It’s from Lobelia, she said to pass it on and to not peek inside. I hope these aren’t love letters from someone…”

“I’m not Bernir.”

“Good, wouldn’t want to beat up my boss for Elodia’s sake!”

Dyana laughed which also brought a small twitch to his face. He didn’t know if he should just be glad that people were relaxed enough around him to make jokes like this or cry that he wasn’t taken seriously anymore. This envelope contained information from an underground intelligence guild that existed along with the thieves guild. After paying a lot of money he intended to get all the information about the current events in Reeka and any cult movement that he could. He had received some basic information but he required a detailed report of the whole situation so that he could finally put all of this to rest.

“Then I’ll go make those golem parts, I also have some blades for you to go through boss, I’ll leave them at the usual spot.”

The large cow-girl made her way out while her oversized chest bounced around with each movement. Even Roland had to make an active effort not to look, with the help of his parallel thinking trait, he was actually able to peek without his eyes moving to give it away. It was the perfect ability for a peeping Tom and probably better suited for the trio degenerates that now roamed Albrook together.

‘Are they getting bigger? Could she be … ‘

Roland shook his head to get the unnecessary thoughts out of his head. The family life of his workers was not something he should concern himself with. He would also support them with proper parental leave. What he needed to focus on now was the new information that he was given, he quickly popped the seal on the thick envelope and started reading. Only after he was finished was the letter thrown into the furnace for disposal.

‘Good… They shouldn’t know about my involvement…’

His heart was pounding while he was going through the letter. What he wanted it to focus on was the Solarian Inquisitors and the Golden Order. It seemed that both Loreena and her grandfather that was one of the few High Inquisitors had survived. With them not falling into enemy hands, they could not be brainwashed to reveal his secret.

There was nothing specific in the information about the battle that took place only about the aftermath. Most of the flying ships that the church used had been destroyed after a massive magical explosion. The intelligence guild believed that the cultists somehow blew up the entire area after victory was not possible. Some strange occult magical circle was spotted that produced a pillar that reached the sky.

‘So they really did it… perhaps that monolith had some sort of self-destructing feature?’

Roland wasn’t sure, if the relic could have been destroyed from a distance, why didn’t they just do it? Perhaps there was some kind of limit on the range of the church and figured out a way to block it? The cult could have also attempted to get it back and only went with the atomic option after a defeat.

‘The important thing is that Loreena was spotted later in Reeka, they had managed to get everything under control and are now examining the underground where the thieves guild is… but that’s about it for the report…’

After their escape and the massive explosion the golden order apparently pulled out from the forest. They had suffered a lot of casualties and only the strongest members had survived. With the help of the tier 3 paladins, it wasn’t hard to quell the monster uprising in the city but at that point, the damage was already done. It would probably take years to recover losses, and get new workers and merchants on board. Most of them would probably flee to other cities and perhaps even to the mainland.

‘This might even affect the whole Valerian Household… the duke allowed a cult to exist under his nose, the other dukes will see this as a chance. Though Arthurs's brother will take the brunt of this attack, if he was competing for the duke position this will probably exclude him from the competition…’

Roland knew that Duke Alexander Valerian had many offsprings. These young lords would be forced to compete against each other for the duke’s spot in the future. With a blunder like this and all the bad press, whoever was stationed in Reeka would have a hard time bouncing back.

‘His biggest mistake was abandoning the common quarters… even with the nobles and merchants surviving, if there is no labor force to work they can’t do anything.’

Would commoners answer the call to come back to work when they were treated as disposable goods? Even if the merchants tried to entice people with money and good contracts, everyone would think twice before going to a danger zone like that. It would probably take some time before anyone decided to risk it.

Roland shrugged while looking at the smoke coming out from his furnace. After hearing that his acquaintances from the golden order had survived another problem arose. While the cult would probably shift their targets toward Loreena as the person responsible for this debacle. This didn’t put him in the clear just yet. The woman knew that he was able to somehow go around the relic and he had proposed using runic mages to investigate it. It wouldn’t be strange if he was on the church watchlist now.

‘That inquisitor is a problem too…’

He recalled the person that knew his own father. The old man was strong and apparently related to Loreena as he referred to her as his granddaughter. Roland had no idea of knowing what these two individuals would decide to do. Would they just shrug him off as being lucky or turn to him for help? If they used magic for questioning he would not be able to lie and have to reveal his special skill. He would then be turned into a human detection device to disable cult relics.

‘The problems only keep increasing… ‘

For the time being, he decided to not worry about the small things. The city he was in was slowly preparing to counter the abyssal cultists. Even a priest of Sister Kassia’s level would be able to tell if any strange rituals were taking place so they couldn’t do anything in the open.

The thieves guild was already combing the underground tunnels for any potential secret lairs and giving information to their associates. With some luck, this would go away without him needing to involve himself anymore. He only needed to act as a normal craftsman and develop new divine runes that might aid him and others later.

‘This shouldn’t take too long…’

His mind went back to the wolf armor that Dyana delivered. Before leaving on his rank-up test he had already created a schematic for the doggy armor. While it would not be comparable to his own it would give Agni some spell variety. The material was Aether durasteel, it would lower the usage for fire spells while also ad buffing spells, just like Roland’s armor did.

Thus he grabbed his hammer and after organizing the various parts, he turned on the forge. After grabbing large tongs from the side he inserted what would be the chest plate for Agni’s barding. It was angular for the purpose of deflecting blows to the side by making them slide. This piece in particular would be able to generate a mana shield, either a regular one or a fire one.

He was not sure how his wolf would handle the activation requirements so for now, he decided to inscribe spells to different parts. The only thing Agni would need to do was to send a jolt of mana down a specific part. This would be a true test for his partner's intelligence, would he be smarter than the average wolf or just activate each spell effect at the same time and cause a mess?

‘Hm… I should probably lower the output to the minimum for the test.’

Roland’s hammer swung continuously down on the heated breastplate and the runes started to quickly take shape. With his current skill level, he didn’t really need much time to perform his work. Yet while his runesmithing skills were constantly advancing, his regular blacksmithing techniques were not. Since getting two competent helpers he started to get less and less need to prepare the various parts himself.

Yet he had not totally given up on his life as a craftsman. He had actually been getting ready to create his new weapon. After going through his recent adventure, the constant switching between his metallic rod for spell usage and his sword was suboptimal. He decided to combine a weapon with a magician's staff into one. For this he needed the large bulky metal clump that was heating up in his smelter.

This would be the base for his next multi-purpose tool, a large runic warhammer. The design of this runic weapon would have one side of it being flat while the other would have a spike. This rear spike would be great for penetrating hard armor while the flat one for bludgeoning damage. Both sides would have their own runic effects to augment them.

The biggest downside of this construction would be the weight but thanks to his armor that was already boosting his stats, he would have no problems with that part. The shaft would be close in length to the magical rod that he used. It would allow him to perform two-handed strikes if he so chose. Then with the help of his enhanced strength, he would also be able to hold a shield in his left hand if the need arose.

‘Hope the retractable shaft won’t compromise the weapon, the Mythril should be enough to keep it from snapping.’

Roland would be finally including more exotic metals into the mix. By going into this new field some of the old smithing knowledge could be ignored. It was possible to go around the constraints of traditional metals. Something made from Mythril could be made paper-thin but it would still protect a person from a bullet shot more than something made from regular steel. Yet even if it wouldn’t break due to the weight, he still needed to balance it out by taking his armor into consideration while holding it.

The giant slab of metal was quickly getting liquified in the runic smelter. The base would of course be made from aether durasteel but there would be some additives. After a long grueling process of testing, he had finally figured out the correct ratio between the various metals. Etherium would be one of the components along with the red Mythril that he had excavated from the dungeon.

Most of the expensive parts would be gathered in the top part of this war hammer. The shaft would be wedged through the hammerhead as a separate part. While it would be an important component of the weapon it didn’t require Etherium as most of the spell effects would go through the hammer’s head.

After the smelting process was done, he would use the usual blacksmithing techniques to hammer the large slab into shape. With his increased stats and techniques he was already miles away from any conventional or modern blacksmith even if they used power tools. This would be the next creation that he hoped would last him all the way until he reached tier 3. Then perhaps with increased knowledge, he would create an improved version worthy of tier 3 magical rune user.

“Well then, this will be very therapeutic… after this is finished I should get to the dungeon and start leveling up.”

While the metallic concoction was mixing up he decided to peek towards another corner of his workshop. There he opened a secret door that looked like a part of the wall. He did so by infusing a small five-square-centimeter tile with his mana fingerprint. The moment the password was given the wall started to shift to the side.

What he was greeted with was a pitch-black tunnel that slowly started to light up. It had been clearly reinforced by mana but also worked by hand by an experienced miner. The lights continued to flicker up to reveal quite the length that this tunnel had.

“I hope it was worth digging this whole place up, it took years but its mostly finished now…”

After a little look, he decided to close the door. First, he needed to get his weapons in order, and then it was time to level up.

Thank you for reading!

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[User]
Write Chapter 244 – Something for smashing.
Target length: ~2700 words
Key events: dungeon content

[Assistant]
“Come in.”

“Lord Arthur.”

A smiling cat maid named Mary went into the city lord’s office. The door was opened by an armored man that she was familiar with as always. On the inside, the usual sight of Arthur Valerian buried under piles of papers greeted her. Mary could only give out a sigh while going for a stack of papers that was blocking her way.

“Mary, please don’t move those documents. I'm not finished with them.”

She could only give out a sigh while placing the pile back down. Luckily not many people entered this room besides her, if some saw the disorganized room of the city lord they could start spreading rumors. It was already troublesome to shove the ledgers and records to the side when the Runesmith appeared.

“Lord Arthur, perhaps you should take a break, you haven’t left the office for some time now…”

“Mary, you know well that I can’t do that, this is a chance to get some support, luckily my idiot brother estranged a large chunk of his residents. If I am able to get them to migrate here, we’ll be able to increase the budget for the coming year.”

The maid placed a teacup for her lord and was sure to push in some food as well. He had deemed this whole fiasco with the cult as an opportunity for growth. Arthur’s older brother prioritized the nobles and rich merchant side of the city which had a lot fewer citizens. Due to this blunder, the city of Reeka would have a hard time recovering after its workforce had been diminished.

“I must thank him the next time we meet, but perhaps father will order him back to the estate after what he did… but then one of the others will get that city instead…”

She gave out a chuckle after Arthur suddenly started getting depressed. It was a possibility that one of the other Valerian brothers could absorb Reeka into their side but the possibility was minor. While the city had suffered greatly, most of the moguls had survived and new workers could probably be enticed with better wages. This didn’t mean that he wouldn’t suffer a decline.

“Lord Arthur, I have come to make my report.”

“Ah yes… Please go on.”

Finally, she could speak up about the reason she had come here. She was trained in espionage and already had multiple ‘faces’ in the city. Thanks to her disguises she could mingle with the people in the city and get the uncensored scoop.

“First, our friend has a knack for getting involved.”

“Wayland did?”

“Yes, after his little story I went to the church to confirm everything. The person that was afflicted with the abyssal larvae came from the thieves guild and is a friend with one of his acquaintances.”

“Oh? Well, we already knew that he dabbled with the underground world but isn’t he only a black market merchant?”

“Yes but I managed to identify one of his associates, she is a member of the underground guild and probably the way he got in.”

“As long as he doesn’t go overboard with the black market it should be fine…”

Arthur shrugged a bit as he didn’t really care if the runesmith he was working with was an underground merchant. There was a limit to what he would allow, if the runic items were all sold on the black market he would not be able to make any money with his auction house.

“Ever since he started his work with you my Lord, he hasn’t been frequenting the black market but instead contacted me for any resources.”

Mary didn’t have anything specific to go off of, the underground didn’t like it if people asked many questions. Through various ways and rumors, she pieced a few things together to make an educated guess of how Wayland managed to survive through the feud with the union. Now that he had access to their merchant contacts there was no use to sell his items on the black market.

“Have you made sure to not get noticed? I don’t think Mr. Wayland would do anything drastic but those characters from the underground guilds can not be trusted.”

Arthur finally placed the piece of paper to the side while looking into Mary’s eyes. It was clear that he was concerned about the snooping that his little spy was performing. Even if she worked under the city lord, the thieves guild wouldn’t care. They would probably send her body parts to the estate if she stuck her nose where she shouldn’t.

“Are you worried about my safety my lord?”

Mary chuckled while performing a little bow of appreciation.

“Don’t worry, I won’t risk my life, I’m aware that it wouldn’t be wise to underestimate the underground guild leaders or their enforcers.”

“Good, then let's switch to the main topic, how are our Runesmith’s devices working, have there been any more cases?”

“Yes, they have been surprisingly helpful and quite easy to use even for the guards. Still there have been three more afflicted that have been discovered!”

“Three more? Did they have anything in common?”

Arthur furrowed his eyebrows, if it was just one person then it could have just been a coincidence. Now on the other hand, with three more people getting sick it was clear that he had a problem. The news of this affliction couldn’t be contained for long, only thanks to Wayland was he able to react this fast.

“One was a merchant, another one was an adventurer and the third one was an escort. At first glance, it didn’t look like they did but of course, I investigated further!”

“And what did you discover?”

Arthur rolled his eyes slightly as Mary started swinging her hands around to pronounce her speech. It was as if she was some kind of game host that was trying to rile up the crowd.

“While the adventurer and the lady escort were clean, the merchant was actually part of the black market!”

“Is that so… is the guild doing anything about it?”

This was the second person that visited the thieves guild that had been afflicted by the parasite. The escort could have also had dealings with the underground trade as the redlight district was controlled by the underground organizations. This wasn’t a coincidence anymore, a pattern had emerged, and the cultists could be gathering underground.

“Yes, the guild leader is aware and as we speak they are searching through the tunnels.”

“Could they have infiltrated even a small city like this one?”

Arthur became solemn instantly. He knew that things weren’t good if a cult like this was spreading through the kingdom this fast. After the outbreak in Reeka nothing seemed safe, even the capital of the dukedom could have already fallen.

“I’m not sure Lord Arthur, but we have been able to stall the threat. We have placed the magical devices Mr. Wayland created in critical locations just as you commanded. No one will be able to enter the city without being examined. This is the same for the underground guilds.”

“So you have been able to deliver it to them?”

“Yes, my lord. Although that worked itself out on its own. ”

Mary nodded as she didn't need to smuggle the divine device in herself, Wayland's friend by the name of Lobelia carried this out instead. They were now informed about what the city lord was doing and started checking their own people. The infected would not be able to leave the underground without being treated by the runic devices.

Arthur hoped to have the thieves guild take care of their own mess as they certainly didn’t want the cult to control their members. If the underground merchants heard about the potential plague and outbreak like in Reeka they would quickly flee from the city. The guild would do everything to not lose their money and combating the cultists was one of them.

“Good, I think I need to get my speech ready, it won’t be long now…”

…

“So, it’s finally out? I guess it was only a matter of time…”

“Aye, I heard people whispering about strange creatures, the city lord had to make a statement too! I wasn’t there but he gave a heartwarming speech about unity or something, at least that’s what my wifey said.”

Bernir took a swig from a mug filled with alcohol while talking with Roland. Both of them were taking a break from work and discussing the current events. The information about the evil cultists was now mainstream, they had become the boogiemen of the dukedom. The outbreak in Reeka had become widespread news. It was spread by various refugees and survivors from that day. He was one of them and the main reason that the city lord could get everything under control this fast.

‘Did he start preparing after I brought the bad news?’

“Hey boss, I’ve seen you’ve been turning the smelter on, you don’t need to bother yourself with that, I can make whatever you want!”

“Hah, thanks but I want to make this one myself but you can go ahead and prepare the shaft.”

It took quite some time for the large ingot for his new weapon to be produced. This was mostly due to the red mythril that he included in the mix that had an increased melting point. He really needed to crank up the smelter and actually boost it with his own mana. Only after spending many hours together with his concoction was he able to finalize the product.

“Wouldn’t it have been better to use a cast if you’re using mythril? It won’t be that easy to forge that thing into shape…”

“It should be fine, I did all the calculations.”

While casting the melted metal into a mold would be an easier process it also could bring some problems. First of all, in most cases forging the weapon would produce a tougher item. There was more wiggle room when shaping it with the hammer and some blacksmith skills could increase the quality of the produced item.

“If you say so, just don’t burn down the place!”

“I’ll try not to.”

After the break the two parted ways, he had the rest of the day to finish the hammerhead, and perhaps if he hurried up he wouldn’t get Elodia angry. Ever since returning to the city he had been sleeping for three to four hours and staying up for the rest of the day. Surprisingly he wasn’t feeling tired at all, his body was young and strong. The only problem was his girlfriend who was constantly worried.

Luckily down in his workshop, she would not be able to complain. Due to the heat generated by the smelter and forge, someone without the constitution of a blacksmith would have a tough time lasting five minutes in a room with him. From the side, he grabbed a thick leather smithing apron and placed it over his body for added protection. Together with smithing gloves and his hammer he was ready to tackle that large ingot that would be the base for his Warhammer.

The slab of metal was now a rectangular shape with some sharp edges on the side. The coloring was a silvery blue. Even though he mixed in the red mythril, together with the other various metals it produced this color. The runes would light up quite nicely to produce a nice effect on this silvery surface and perhaps take his enemy's attention away from the fight.

Finally, with the help of his tongs, he inserted the large piece into the furnace. On the bottom there was a spot for his feet, through them he could guide more mana inside of it to augment the flames. It would be impossible to work without this runic furnace, reaching the temperature needed with wood or coal would be close to impossible.

On the wall, he had a set of various blacksmithing hammers. Various Forming Hammers with domed faces that were good for producing curved surfaces. Planishing hammers with round and square faces, with curved and flat surfaces. These were more for the finishing touches so he ignored them for now. Instead, he looked to the cross pein hammer section to get himself the best for the job.

He took a moment to appreciate the variety of tools that he had. Some of these were hand-made by him while others by Bernir or his wife. Some were polished down by the runic tools that were in another section of the smithy. Roland was reminded of his progress and the ladle that was his first test when he joined the blacksmith ranks. Even now he vividly recalled how tiresome it was to make and how barely he made it, mostly due to the lack of training.

Then there was the anvil that had lasted him for years now. Without a proper anvil with a horn, rounded edges, and a sturdy face, it would be impossible to fashion anything. This would be the final test for this tool. However, with a proper heated-up ingot, even this anvil would be able to survive through the shaping process.

‘This is taking a while…’

A lot of time had passed since he inserted the alloy into the furnace. Regular low-carbon or medium-carbon steel would be softened up within minutes. But this chunk was taking forever, it was trouly resisting the heat due to the exotic metal he added. Yet, even it wouldn’t be able to last forever and soon it was ready for some pounding.

While to his past self the shaping process might be difficult it wouldn’t be a problem for the current Roland. Even though he left a lot of the busy work up to Bernir and his wife he still continued to train his smithing skills. There was a small workaround when leveling up these skills.

He would be given a bonus after finishing hard-to-construct creations like the golems, even his regular smithing skills would be pushed forward. After several high-quality products were assembled he found himself leveling up his smithing skills faster than he was accustomed to. Each level added to his skills per usual, it was as if months or years of smithing experience flowed into his body just by leveling up a skill.

Thanks to this effect he was feeling great when making this large hammer. The thicker frontside was quickly taking shape. The face started to take on a box-like shape while the rear end was more cylindrical.

To balance out the front part he needed to make the rear spike a bit lengthy. When fighting larger monsters it needed to have enough penetrating power to pierce through-hardened skin and scales. He deliberated on shaping the rear end to be more similar to an axe but this shape somehow fit a hammer more in his opinion.

Soon minutes turned to hours and the day was coming to an end. He did not even notice Bernir knocking on the door to clock out. Everyone had left while he was busy applying the finishing touches. He could not allow the metal to cool down too much, the more he needed to heat it up the longer it would take.

“There…”

With one last hit, he looked at his creation which was slowly getting cooler. The front part was larger than his own fist and the rear end could easily pierce through a grown man’s chest. For the finishing touches, the top required some polishing and then the runes could be added. While the red mythril would normally make it hard to inscribe runes, thanks to the added etherium the process could be made manageable even for him.

His new creation was partially done but this was not the end. While he had decided on the shape he was not quite sure what spells were needed. An impact rune to control the weight was a must but some other ones to augment his new fighting style needed looking into.

‘After I finish this, I need to test it out on something and I already know who.’

Roland continued to add the finishing touches while thinking of the underground dungeon. He hadn’t seen his old friend in a while and it would be the perfect test dummy for his new weapon.

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[User]
Write Chapter 245 – Hastening the process.
Target length: ~3000 words
Key events: dungeon content, combat-heavy

[Assistant]
“That should do it…”

Finally, after many hours of work, his battle hammer was mostly ready. After wedging the shaft into the hammer-head, it was mostly complete. By utilizing some more advanced techniques the shaft would expand at the top slightly for a tight fit. This weapon was closer in shape to a polearm but it was much bulkier to accommodate its user's enhanced strength.

The face of the hammer had a more traditional war-hammer shape, while the rear end consisted of a spike. Roland had thought of making a pole-ax but for the time being, he decided to go with this shape for better penetration. A sharp spike required less force to get through armor than a wider axe blade that delivered a wider cut. There were pros and cons to every design and he felt that this would work better on the larger creatures.

‘There aren’t many creatures that are resistant to both blunt physical attacks and piercing attacks, most of the monster hide and armor is good against slashing weapons.’

A heavy weapon like this would do quite well against armored opponents. Together with the added magical runes, he couldn’t see any human below tier 3 resisting a fully swung blow. The only problem would be with large monsters that possessed a thick layer of fat to absorb the shock. Even the spike wouldn't do any good if he couldn’t get to the vital organs even after piercing through a tough hide.

‘Well, that’s when magic comes in…’

Roland smiled while polishing the large rear spike of his new hammer. This item would be a multipurpose magical tool and not only a big dumb weapon swung by brutes. He had the advantage of being able to access the runic operating system. Making changes to suit the environment wouldn’t be a problem, he just needed to insert the most common spells first. Just by executing a previously prepared section of the code, he would be able to quickly generate the desired spell effect.

‘Though making the multi-purpose spell matrix takes a while…’

The only downside to making weapons like this would be the time spent. Even he wasn’t perfect and going through everything without making any errors was difficult. Then there was also another problem, he didn’t have enough hours in the day to focus.

“Hey Boss, are you finished?”

“Bernir? … Well not really, is there a problem?”

While he was examining his new item his assistant walked in. He was carrying a wooden crate with various metallic items.

“Since you had a break, the backlog for runic repairs has been growing and we need to restock some of the usual…”

Bernir started getting the various items out, on one side he placed the weapons and armor pieces that needed their runes to be repaired. Then on the other side the ones that he and his wife produced. These were made from either durasteel or deepsteel, both the most commonly used materials in the shop.

“Fine… this shouldn’t take long.”

“Take your time boss but it would be better if you did the repairs first, the recent adventurers have been ill-tempered, must be ‘cuz of all this fuss about the cultists.”

Roland saw Bernir frown when recalling some kind of memory. It wouldn’t be strange for some of the customers to berate the craftsmen. The union still continued to spread bad rumors about him and his shop. Probably if he wasn’t the only runesmith in town, he wouldn’t get any attention at all. Only after Arthur appeared did his name stop being dragged through the mud, at least in the open.

After sorting out the weapons from the armor pieces he got to work. Thanks to his new class this part of his work could be done in a blink of an eye. Runic Restructuring was the skill that he would be using. It allowed him to instantly alter the runic structure of his choosing.

There were also another skill that could do the job, which was Rune Mending. There was one downside to this skill though. While it would repair the runic structure it would not correct the faulty pathways. If the rune was an intermediate one it would not upgrade it to a high or highest rune. Yet this was not the case for Runic Restructuring, he could mold it to any structure that he had previously created.

“Hm… Wish there was a way to automate this process, would a golem be able to repair runes?”

He was now looking at a regular longsword that had a damaged ice mist rune. It was a common rune that would produce an icy vapor when swung. It would lower the temperature in the designated area dramatically and was adequate for fighting low-level fire monsters like the salamanders. This would be enough to make the creature sluggish and easy to kill.

‘There is a mana stone in the hilt, the rune was intermediate but it degraded to low already.’

Normally craftsmen would not improve the runic structure. Instead, they would usually use the rune mending skill for a quick fix. Most of the time the customer would need to pay extra for a proper runesmithing treatment that didn’t degrade the blade any further. Roland on the other hand needed to try a bit harder as his standing in the city wasn’t that great.

He had attracted customers by going the extra mile and even improving the runic structures while performing the repairs. This would normally only be possible by restarting the runecrafting process and correcting all of the traces and various components manually. However, with the latest restructuring skill, he could do it almost instantly.

‘Good that I’ve practiced all of these runes before.’

The only requirement for him to use it was to have previously made the rune himself. The higher the quality of the rune that he previously created, the better the chance of success. Thus he grabbed his blacksmithing hammer while the sword’s blade was quickly heated up in the forge. After a few moments, his hammer was already colliding with the damaged structures that started glowing.

‘It’s kind of a waste to use it on something like this, I could easily upgrade it to something like ice burst instead…’

While the runic structures were being molded into a fully functional ice mist spell of the high rating, Roland thought back to some experiments that he performed after getting his new class. This skill was far handier than he originally assumed. It could actually produce higher grade runes from lower grade ones quickly.

For instance when looking at this ice mist rune that just created a burst of freezing air. The base structure was similar to a higher-tier spell. Ice burst spell could create the same cold haze with an addiction of sharp ice crystals forming to damage the enemy and a much stronger freezing effect. Both of the spells were tier 2 common ones but the latter was among the end of the spectrum.

It was possible to cheat the system a bit with this skill. After inscribing the easiest lesser or common rune, it was possible to alter it with this skill. The mana usage went up but it was possible to cut the time needed for work when working with single rune structures. Through this method, he could cut his workload by more than half when making simple weapons for his shop. Thanks to his ever-increasing mana reserves, it was not much of a problem.

There was still a limit on how much he could handle a day. Only with a steady supply of mana potions was he able to finish everything this fast. Yet this was a double-edged sword, there was always a limit of how many of those potions a person could drink without suffering side effects. Only thanks to his willpower stat that was extraordinarily high was he able to counter that effect.

‘Glad the lordling is on my side, those free potions are enough to get the job done.’

After gulping the last mana potion he resumed his work. For the items that Bernir and his wife made, the rune duplication skill was enough. By just copying his old runes onto the previously created blades he could finish work in a matter of moments. The large pile of armaments that would have taken him normally a whole day, was finished in less than an hour.

‘I don’t even feel any migraines now.’

Roland glanced at this mana pool that was at around twenty percent. At such a low amount he would be forced to take a rest or some pain medication. Now, on the other hand, he could go down to about fifteen percent without suffering a backlash. His body was getting used to working hard and the pain was not a problem.

‘The discomfort might be gone but this doesn’t mean that it’s healthy.’

Roland didn’t fool himself into believing that he was fine. The mitigating effect of his skills didn’t do anything about the damage. It only allowed him to power through it, his body was still suffering but he couldn’t feel it. While he was young now, he wouldn’t be surprised that there could be long-lasting aftereffects of pushing his body to the limit.

However, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing either. It wasn’t surprising to get some skills after going through harsh training. Perhaps like with the pain resistance skill, he would be given something to reward him for the hardships. He could only hope that his body would last without any long-lasting damage before he got those skills.

“That should be enough.”

After finishing up his tasks he pushed a button on the wall.

“Hey Bernir, I’m done.”

He leaned close to an outstretched cord with a hand-sized oval iron plate. A rune was glowing on this sheet of metal that allowed him to talk with his workers from inside his workplace. It was similar to old cord phones that connected to specific parts of his home. There was a corresponding button for each specific room that for now was limited to a couple of them.

“Already? Aye, I’ll be right there.”

There was a quick reply followed by some static. Using magic to converse with other people wasn’t anything new. His system was just something he stole from the old world that he came from. For others to use this, they would need many years to build up the infrastructure. It would not be a small task but a wise leader would probably see the value in instantaneous information exchange.

‘That is if someone smarter than me comes up with some encrypting technology…’

As someone that had ‘borrowed’ the idea from one of the research papers from the academy, he knew the downsides. It was easy to intercept the mana signals going through the lines and hear what people were talking about. People in this world were still motivated by wars, unless this technology aided them in their conquest, it would not be worth the risk.

‘I should probably cover the rune up with something or someone will scratch it.’

When looking at a cut-out plate of metal welded together to a cord he frowned. His proclivity to make everything with the least amount of effort still continued to this day. Even though plastic didn’t exist in this world, there were some substances that could mimic its properties. It wouldn't be hard to turn this into an old phone handle, making an outer shell from wood could also work.

“Keep up the good work, boss.”

Roland waved to Bernir that came in to pick up the runic items. Now he could focus back on his new hammer, after that came Agni’s armor that would need some testing. With some luck, by the end of the week, he would have enough weapons to make a quick run to the dungeon. There were also other parts that he needed to get in order like the mining golems that were down by two.

‘There should be some parts to assemble more drones, Bernir should be able to get it done…’

It seemed that his workload was only increasing, while sighing he wondered if there was a possibility of expanding. Now that the dwarven union was taken care of thanks to Arthur, perhaps he could get more help.

Refugees from Reeka were also everywhere, perhaps he could lure someone in with a mild contract. His two workers could take care of the training as the new employees would be there to lessen their workload. Then the two could focus on more important assignments like golems and magical turrets.

“This might take a while, better get to it…”

Roland grabbed the large war hammer that he made. By injecting a tiny bit of his own mana the shorter shaft quickly shot out to double in length. The weapon was better suited for handling with both hands but for someone like him that had enhanced strength, it wasn’t a problem to one-hand it.

“Hm?”

While he was playing with the grip and swinging his new toy around to see if it was handled correctly, he heard a sound coming from his speaker.

“Wayland, your adventurer friends are here to see you.”

“My friends?”

It was Elodia informing him that he had visitors, this was a first as he did not actually remember having that many friends. But he remembered a group of four that followed him here after the fiasco in Reeka. An image of an oversized woman popped into his head. A promise was made and it needed to be kept.

“I’ll be right there… oh and it will be better if you don’t talk to Orson.”

“Which one is that?”

“The one with the stupid look on his face, quite similar to Armand”

“Oh, that one…”

‘I guess this is the downside of having friends?’

While this interrupted his work it was also a good moment to get some news. He had secluded himself in his workshop without going outside for days and somewhat forgotten about his four new acquaintances. It seemed that they had become bored of waiting for him and decided to visit on their own accord.

Within a few minutes, he found himself outside. The sound of large fan blades was quite noticeable and probably peculiar to anyone that was invited inside. His backyard had many wind generators that produced electricity. Their size was a problem, they limited his workspace to the underground workshop. Yet there weren’t that many ways of generating energy otherwise, that is, besides one other that he wished to implement in the future.

“There you are, Wayland!”

“Yes, here I am.”

The whole team was there, Senna was looking through the store’s dagger section. Grisalde had a large bastard sword in one of her hands and swung it as if it didn’t weigh anything. Dalrak was glancing at some of the large tower shields while his closest friend was doing something that he didn’t appreciate.

“Woof!”

“Hey, calm down! Sheesh, can’t even have some fun.”

The last member was being growled at by Agni. It seemed that he was shooting some glances at Elodia whose chest was a bit more pronounced in the store uniform than usual. Everything was hidden and it was proper but this didn’t stop the man from ogling her.

“Sorry about that knucklehead, I think he is still a bit drunk.”

“I see…”

Senna was the one to start the conversation while everyone else finally noticed him. The store was sectioned off by classes. Where Senna came from was specifically stocked with items that agility-based jobs would flock to. Short swords, daggers, and even bows were all there and they were outfitted with runes. There was not a single item that was not runic. This of course heightened the price and also kept people with low amounts of coins away.

“Hey Wayland, I hope you didn’t forget about our little talk.”

“No, I remember.”

Grisalde appeared next, she placed the large sword to the side while dragging her mangled axe. Everyone had a strange look in their eyes when looking at all of these weapons and armor. It looked like a bunch of kids stuck in a candy store. They were all noticeably holding themselves back from touching the more expensive runic items.

“They won’t be free though.”

“Don’t be so stingy, a successful runesmith like you must be swimming in money.”

“That would be nice if it was true…”

Most of his earnings went right back into producing more weapons and expanding his knowledge. What he earned he instantly spent with some side cash being placed to the side if any problems arose. He would probably not gain much money by outfitting these four but he would also not lose any. By just using them and spreading the word they could generate interest in his shop which was slowly building more momentum.

“Go ahead, see if you like something but please don’t activate the spell effects here.”

“You’re the best, Wayland!”

Senna for some reason was awfully happy when glancing through the various items but so were the rest. His intent was to just replace their weapons instead of repairing them. Grisalde's axe that was bent, Dalrak's mangled shield, Orson's two-handed blade that was all chipped up. They all needed tending to but with a lack of time, it would be easier to just replace them.

“Just don’t break anything, or you’ll have to pay for it.”

He shouted while the grown adventures rummaged through his wares. Perhaps by increasing the logos on the weapons that he gave them, he could attract more attention to his store which would lessen the blow of just charging his new friends for the material cost.

Thank you for reading!

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[User]
Write Chapter 246 – Weapon testing.
Target length: ~2800 words
Key events: dungeon content, combat-heavy

[Assistant]
“Haaa!”

“Hyaaa!”

After a flash of green light, a large log descended down to the ground. It looked like it was sliced apart by something sharp but the person performing the attack was quite a bit away. Next to it, another log was engulfed in flames which caused a large pillar of smoke to emerge.

“Wayland, these weapons are interesting… let me just try this out…”

A halfling woman was standing with a dagger in her hand. It was glowing green for the moment but after a few seconds passed it changed color to blue. When activating the spell effect this time around, instead of the green blade of wind one of ice replaced it. The previously sliced apart log was cut again but this time, it was also covered by a layer of ice.

To the halfling's side, there was a human holding a large two-handed sword that had previously been engulfed in flames. Yet after a moment, the flames started changing color to switch to deep blue frost instead.

“Hey, this thing really works… and it’s not that hard to use!”

“If the blockhead can use it, then everyone can use it.”

“Hey, I heard that, screw you Senna!”

An angry Orson fired off a blast of ice energy towards the burning target. After performing this magical attack his head started spinning and he had to catch himself from falling.

“Take it easy, you’re a warrior and your MP pool isn’t that high. It's better if you don’t use that many magical attacks in succession.”

The voice of the craftsman that inscribed these weapons with runes came from the side. He was watching his four adventurer friends playing around with his simplified products. It was a new line of runic gear that was designed for adventurers without mana-related skills.

“Hah, leave that idiot be Wayland, he learns better this way.”

Senna laughed while he glanced over towards Grisalde and Dalrak. While the dwarf didn’t have trouble exchanging the basic mana shield for one made from the earth element, the big barbarian woman was confused. Her weapon was changing colors from red to different shades of blue before going back to the red one.

“Want me to explain it again, Grisalde?”

“N-no… I can handle this myself…”

She replied in a meek voice while turning her head to the side. All of them were gathered in a specially made testing area. It was made so that his clients could get used to some of the more innovative weapons. These testing weapons were made of simpler materials but were enough to show off what the costlier ones were capable of.

“Is that so… anyway let me demonstrate again…”

He decided to grab a large axe from the side that was similar to what the muscle-bound woman was holding. After holding it out with one hand so that she could see what he was doing, he started to talk.

“It’s simple, if you place your thumb into this groove here and start injecting mana, you’ll notice that the color is changing right?”

“Yeah?”

She nodded while looking at the metal axe blade lighting up faintly.

“It’s hard to see because it’s daylight but when you’re in the dungeon it will be easier. What you want to do is stop letting your mana into the weapon after you get to the elemental color you want, see it stopped at green. There is a second when the color won’t change so make your decision fast and remember to remove your thumb from the grove.”

“I see…”

Grisalde continued to nod while looking at her own weapon that was changing colors. After shifting her hand to a more comfortable position the color solidified into a red one.

“Each of the weapons comes with elemental variations of the same spell and one basic non-elemental spell.”

Roland performed a side swing with the axe and directed it towards a log in the distance. A blade of green energy left the weapon, it was much bigger than the one previously released from Senna’s dagger. When it collided with the log it sliced it diagonally before ramming into the stone wall behind it.

“How about you try it?”

“No problem!”

Grisalde started injecting her mana into the axe and stopped the moment it switched to green. She was an experienced warrior so it wasn’t hard to reproduce Roland’s more sluggish movements. Yet the blade that she created was about half the size and traveled in a wide arc into the sky.

“Shit… Hey, why was that green blade so much smaller? Is this axe worse than yours?”

“No, they are exactly the same.”

“Pff…”

From the side, a squeaky voice escaped from a smaller halfling that overheard the conversation. Quickly the giant of a woman turned toward her nemesis with a frown.

“What are you laughing at pipsqueak!”

“Oh, nothing.”

Senna laughed which brought a few veins to appear on Grisalde’s forehead. Before the two started fighting Roland quickly chimed in with another explanation.

“I have a lot more mana than you, magical weapons will always be better in the hands of mages.”

Roland’s high intelligence stat boosted the power of every runic spell. He also had various other buffs which allowed him to raise the power of runic weapons. A regular warrior like Grisalde could not feel mana in her surroundings, she could only use it. This was the same for the other non-mage denizens in the world, they only had an on and off switch when it came to mana.

There weren’t that many people like Roland that had a mana sense, some even died due to mana sickness as the previous owner of this body. However, there were ways of getting that skill later in life. Some advanced classes could unlock it later, there were also things like magical elixirs that could produce it.

There were also less virtuous ways of getting them, red-colored crystals that were sometimes sold at the black market auctions were the usual way. They were gotten from fallen mages that had their skills extracted during their deaths. These were quite rare so they didn’t reach the usual black market and were hidden away in the thieves guild that hosted auctions to gain more money.

From time to time a tier 3 class holder would attempt to get a mana-related skill after gathering enough money. Raising the mana pool was a clear enhancement of one's skill and capabilities. After reaching a high enough tier, magical equipment became far more affordable and a good quick way of bolstering all-around strength.

“And that’s about it, the base effect for the axe is the impact rune, it uses the least amount of mana.”

After the demonstration was over Grisalde began to play around with the new toy. Just as he had explained it went through a set of spells in order. The weapons had one varied elemental spell that could be switched to fit a monster's weakness and then a basic effect like sharpening or impact.

Through experience, he had discovered that most adventurers weren’t that good at handling runic weapons with multiple uses. At most he could add two different spells before it became too confusing for them to use. They could not change the mana frequency or output at all, only turn it on and off.

Thus he decided to try this new system of selecting spells on a timer. By introducing mana into the systems the selection process would start. It was then represented by a faint outside color to make it easier. After the spell was selected it would be the active one and the only one that could be activated.

‘While you can’t switch the effects fast, it should not be needed.’

These weapons were meant to be multi-purpose and for dungeons. In the Albrook dungeon where the monsters were fire-based, ice was the desired weakness. Before even entering the dungeon a person could switch to this effect and be prepared for the flaming creatures inside.

Then when the adventurer decided to go to another dungeon they could switch the spell effect again without having to get a whole new weapon. While the runic components were altered even other runesmiths could repair it with the help of their automatic skills like Rune Mending.

To change the spell the person needed to hold the weapon in a specific way. It would be hard to activate the changing effect mid-battle which was intentional. It was still possible to do it during a pause in combat as long as the enemy didn't pursue.

This was all achieved by changes to the runic operating system. The hardware components of the spells it circled through were very similar. An executable was activated to change into the desired effect to make it all work. Someone like him was able to activate the desired spell without going through all of them. But for people without rune-related skills, this was a simple process to go through.

“These are great but how much will this cost?”

Senna and the others gathered together after testing out the weapons. It was clear to them that the weapons were worth a lot. One of them in particular didn’t have any money.

“I sell them around the market price for common rune weapons, they are all of the highest grade too, so that increases the price slightly…”

All of them headed back to the shop to discuss the price and Elodia was quick to calculate everything along with the friendly discount. They would need some smaller gold coins to cover the manufacturing and material costs but all in all he didn’t think it was a bad price.

“Hmm… this isn’t bad, I’ll take it. With those cult nuts running around it’s better to have a good weapon, do you have any of those divine artifacts though?”

“Those are still in the testing phase, I would also need to get permission from the church if I wanted to actually sell them.”

“You mean… if you wanted to sell them in the open, that is.”

Senna winked toward Roland as she knew what he was leading on to. While it was possible to buy the divine mana crystals from many locations, it was better to announce getting a proper permit at the church. Everything that involved the holy energy of their gods had to go through the temples.

This was clearly in place to pad out the church pockets with money. They wanted to control the market when their items were involved. There also wasn’t really a way around it as all of the magical items either required constant recharging from a priest or an empyrean crystal.

“Aye, it’s a good price, give ‘em my share.”

Dalrak together with Orson agreed to get themselves some upgrades. After getting his shield damaged during the escape he was in need of a replacement. Dalrak decided to get a sturdy shield of a similar shape. It could produce a magical barrier as well as a repelling effect.

Orson on the other hand found himself a replacement sword. Every item they got was made from aether durasteel but there was one person that didn’t look happy. Grisalde was holding a battle axe that was probably heavier than the war hammer he recently made.

“What can’t afford it? Want me to lend you some money? It’ll cost you though~”

Senna started grinning while shaking around her coin purse. Part of the money inside of it had originally belonged to Grisalde. She had lost it due to a couple lost bets. Roland was still surprised that the woman didn’t realize that her opponent was a professional swindler. While she didn’t cheat outright, Senna would only take bets that were in her favor.

“I don’t need your help, I can pay for it myself!”

Grisalde stormed over towards where Elodia was standing which caused Agni to raise his head. Even though he was a dire wolf, the large woman would probably be able to wrestle him down to the ground. Thus he remained warry while showcasing his sharp teeth.

“P-put it on my tab!”

After dropping the axe on the counter Grisalde nodded. It was as simple as that for her.

“Hey you big oaf, this isn’t a tavern…”

Senna started grabbing her sides while trying not to laugh. On the other hand, Roland wasn’t sure if this was such a bad idea.

“How about you work for me instead?”

“Work for you? I don’t know much about blacksmithing though…”

“No, I mean as a guard.”

Today was one of the days that they were without any protection. With Roland being around they didn’t really need anyone else to stand watch besides Agni. Yet a highly skilled thief would be able to grab something and still make a run for it. For that reason, they needed someone to be outside and block the only exit.

“As a guard?”

“Yes, I usually contact someone from the adventurer guild but since the cult incident a lot of them aren’t willing to stay out in the woods.”

It wasn’t a bad deal for him, the barbarian woman was a high level tier 2 class holder. There weren’t that many other adventurers that compared to her. She was also someone that he somewhat trusted not to make off with the items or attack Elodia.

“The store isn’t open every day, so you could still go to the dungeon to earn more if you want. You’ll also be given two meals per day and something to drink but no alcohol.”

“Hmm….”

Grisalde pondered this proposal for a moment. Roland wasn’t sure if she would take it as it wouldn’t be that hard for someone of her level to just go to the dungeon. Any adventurer team would be fine with taking a combatant like here down there. After a month or two she would probably be able to afford this weapon.

‘I guess she will refuse…’

At least that is what he was thinking, for some reason when Grisalde looked towards Senna who was just grinning there, she nodded to agree.

“Fine, I’ll be a guard now give me the weapon!”

“Wait, not so fast.”

While Grisalde was trying to get to her new weapon she was stopped by the store owner.

“Huh?”

“Here, sign this first.”

“What is this?”

What was presented to her was a standard contract that he created himself. It stated the usual terms of the deal and that she needed to work five days a week, for eight hours per day. While they could go through the guild to make this transaction, they could just do it directly like this.

“Um…”

“It’s a standard document, if you fail to meet the terms you’ll be subjected to the usual debuff.”

“Debuff?”

Roland was a bit confused but then remembered that adventurers didn’t really go through the hassle of signing work contracts. They just delivered items to the guild and only got paid for that, they weren’t on the clock so there was no need for them. Only regular people needed to be coerced to sign them as motivation for work.

“Let me explain…”

In the shortest amount of time, he started explaining. The curse that she would be subjected to would place a debuff that lowered her main stats by a set percentage. For someone that worked as an adventurer, it would be a devastating setback.

“That’s about it, if you do your work nothing will happen and as you can see, this contract is just for one month…”

“I’m not sure she gets it…”

Elodia that was behind the counter whispered into his ear while looking at the large woman’s head getting redder. It seemed that the words that Roland was using were sometimes too difficult for her to understand.

‘It’s a miracle that she survived for this long. It’s not surprising that she gets taken advantage of this easily.’

After a little back and forth he managed to get the contract signed. Elodia took over by explaining the working hours and her duties. For the coming month, he had managed to organize a competent guard for the store. This would ease his nerves as he was intending to go down to gain some levels.

While the cultist situation wasn’t resolved, it was being handled by the City Lord. His own house and shop were already equipped with the same divine boxes to check for any potential corruption. What now remained was for him to finish up his new main weapon and assemble more golems, it was time to start his grind.

Thank you for reading!

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