‘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.
looks like that is going to motivate Roland to change his class to be a runesmith that will deal in various types of magical energy sources.
I have high hopes for it to happen. example could be Holy, Divine, Spirit or etc. Runesmith or something.
I feel like that would be to limiting of a choice for our runesmith. It's like when he could have chosen the golem smith option as his class. To limiting, better to keep it broad then force himself into a small area of expertise.
I would think it fun for that to be one of the options he doesn't take his next class change. I'm looking for something in the same line as lord but higher? Duke or something? The problem with that is lord is fairly generic and could refer to a Duke as well as the lower ranked nobles. The only ones that didn't really get called lords were the royals.... and I was expecting king/ emperor to come later.... like 4th. Maybe we have gotten off the noble titles though.
@Ben_house don't worry, @Kuropon will know what to do. the possible classes I mention there is for sure won't be used by the author cause myself knows it will limit our main character's growth horizon. just that I got to hammer something in to kick start a discussion.
King / Emperor level, maybe too over rated. but adding suffix to lord to show improvement in rank is more realistic.
@travisswan86 not worried at all. Kuropon is always better with the naming decisions then us.
I do feel like Roland's first 3rd tier class is going to be a noble named class or something similar. But we will see.
@Ben_house I got to put mine on hole due to my job. aside from that, I need to build the world for the novels I am writing as I am getting a writer's block on what to start for Vol. 2.
More likely a skill like "Divine Runesmithing" that will need to be leveled before his next class change.
Perhaps Runesmith Lord + Runic Engineer will allow him to evolve into a level 3 "Runic Battle Lord" class?
Or, will he finally get that coveted Runic Mage class?
@Ping all is possible. look forward for it to happen.
Or higher people with different energy types to help with this issue, and im not mean he wont be able eventually use all types, but his helps are just so he doesn't have waist his energy all time to test them, or like his mana generator but for each energy type, also thought a end goal is find way make his magitech be compatible with all if not most energy types so anyone can use them least for non specialized magitech, but also make his magitech resident to evil gods or simlair influences, love see golem magitech added into magitech of many levels so they dont have to get right sequence done right golem core or something similar role, maybe make it link to mind or soul, and make it longer someone uses, lets say sword with this golem like core to run runic problem in sword, longer used by someone it builds up a bind with user so people have hard time for enemies taking control of swords golem core, got name for it, mother core like how our world has mother board, magitech uses mother cores, but also if person doesn't use it for certain amount of time the bond it has to person will slowly fade away so in event bonded user dies or does want use it anymore, allowing another eventually bond with them selfs, maybe more advanced forms of mother cores can tell when person dies so can start processing faster or already have heir for sword with mother cores to get immediately, plus other fail safes and quality of life perks of mother core, maybe even use more mother cores in one object serve as sub cores known as child core, mother cores are main child child core helps remove things mother core doesn't need bother with, maybe maybe add a second mother core as backup if mother core fails or something went wrong this second mother core know as daughter cores will take control as new mother core in event it is programmed to do under certain conditions.
@DemeanCosmos ps wrote thing above as i thought it
@DemeanCosmos kindly expand those ideas in the novel of your own.
@travisswan86 cool no problem, love story cant wait for more
@DemeanCosmos like that attitude. Give me a heads up when the first chapter is out.
@travisswan86, im concept and definitely type guy, sorry not good at talking nor writing part of storys, even though im trying, i love make concept and design, so when read chapter my little happy bell rang and mind went work, my mind literally never stops thinking about concepts and designs, ideas etc, i am more times then not conscious in my sleep, still thinking, it pain ass, but life, i use treat others way you wanted to be treated, thats why i love hear peoples ideas even if never use them never know when one gives inspiration, or hear something I don't want that helping remove ideas you dont want that you didn't realize till to lat in writing, plus good stuff i come up with i don't shear less maybe friend or really would compliment story so on whim may still do so, and no don't truly use expect people give ideas or things for inspiration but as saying treat others way i want to be treated, though am still trying writing my own story, but as my mind works best in concepts and designs part more then actual writing it gets hard, i get into like say chapter ten then minds like what's next removing onto next before i even mentally realize, so im having mire fun for now till i manage to find way not losses my focus on it, plus remember story author said, if you cant even finish writing your own story why should others want read it either, or something like that been years since i heard it but still true, can't wait for more chapters
@DemeanCosmos less explaining. More writing.