The Runesmith

Roland in his mismatched armor stood there, before him was a smiling Lucille and a somewhat awkward-looking Robert. He was wearing a new knight half-plate armor that must have been a spare. Robert just like Roland had lost his previous armor during the dungeon expedition.

“Good day Mr. Wayland!”

“Ah, good morning…”

He was wearing a different suit of armor but the parts covering both his arms were clearly runic in nature. Through this, it was quite easy to tell him apart from regular warriors and knights that did not have enough mana to use gear like this.

“It’s surprising how fate works, I was just looking for Sir. Wayland and he is here! Don’t you think, Sir. Robert?”

“Yes, M’lady.”

Robert just nodded, Roland expected him to tip a fedora that would fit that reply. He was still acting very gentlemanly when around this young woman.

“Can I help you with something?”

Roland was still a bit apprehensive about being around his older brother. It was luck that kept his face hidden away for so long but now he was slowly running out of excuses to wear body-covering armor.

“Yes you can! You didn’t think that we would forget about what you did for us down there!”

“That’s right.”

Robert nodded while keeping his arms crossed over and against his wide chest. Today the two were in lighter clothes.

Lucille was wearing a full-blown dress that went all the way up to her ankles. She was even holding a parasol over her shoulder to keep the sun rays from hitting her pale face. Robert on the other hand had a blue tunic under that half-plate armor that made him look like some kind of beefy prince. His look was finished off with a longsword strapped to his hip.

The two actually looked good together, Robert was quite the handsome man with somewhat different facial features than Roland but some parts were quite similar. It was clear that their father’s DNA was running in their veins and if he took off the helmet it would become even more apparent.

“It’s fine, you already thanked me when we were in the dungeon…”

Roland did remember that he was promised a reward but he didn’t care about it that much anymore. The access to that treasure trove was enough for him, he didn’t want to be too greedy.

His plan was to wait a year or two before going down there to face that boss. Maybe longer depending on how much time he would need to make a golem.

That was the thing that he was missing during that fight, something or someone that could tank the hits from that monster. Even at this time, he would probably have enough firepower to pierce that monster’s skin. The only problem would be to keep it in place to deliver a critical blow. For that a tough golem made from fire-resistant metal and that could tie down a large creature like that was needed.

“I must insist, my father always told me to keep my promises! It would be shameful to the De Vere name if I didn’t!”

“The lady is right, we at the Arden Estate have the same rule!”

‘Did we have something like that?’

Roland asked himself as he didn’t really recall things like that being mentioned. This could be due to the fact that he was mostly ignored by his father and the other servants. No one really treated him like a proper noble and he himself was not interested in it.

He spent most of his days training his basic skills and planning his escape after attending the young mage academy. That of course fell through when he discovered his lack of elemental proficiencies. Even to this day, he did not even have a fraction of a percentage in any of them.

“It’s really fine, the guild gave me a nice bonus for my troubles, and didn’t Lady Lucille lose her purse while in the dungeon?”

Roland was sure that all of the girl’s belongings went missing during the dungeon run. Even if she wanted to give him the money she shouldn’t be able to. This is unless she asked for some pocket change from one of the other nobles.

“That is true, but Albrook does have a bank!”

“A bank?”

Roland thought for a second, he recalled hearing something like that being opened a month or two ago. In this kingdom, there was one main bank called the ‘National Bank of Caldris’ NBC for short.

He never really used it as the price of admission was quite steep and also because most of his gold was in circulation. Roland constantly bought new metals and resources. Everything that he earned from selling runic gear was invested into his workshop almost instantly. There was no reason for him to make a bank account.

That wasn’t the main reason why he never used one, it always came down to his true identity. These banks had costly identification devices, the item that was enough to fool the guilds lower quality analyzing item would not work in the bank.

While the adventurer’s guild didn’t care that much about the true identities and criminal history of their adventurers, the bank did. Roland would need to subject himself to their scanning devices and they would probably see his true name on it.

If this information would find its way to his enemies was up to debate. Supposedly the banks were very hush-hush. This didn’t mean that his father would not get this information. He was probably safe from the cult with that as they did not know his real name or association with the Arden estate.

“Yes, luckily I still have my bank card!”

Lucille proclaimed while holding out a dark-colored card with some strange inscriptions on it. Roland’s eyes shone for a fraction of a second as he noticed that there were many tiny runes on it but he also noticed something else that was a first.

‘It’s a runic item… but I can’t debug it?’

Lucille was presenting the card right in front of his face as she stood there proudly. This allowed him to see everything quite well. Even then, when he strained his senses his debugging skill did not show him the correct paths.

It was clear that this was a runic item but the runes were beyond small. If it wasn’t for some larger ones sticking out he would have a hard time telling that it was an actual runic item.

This could mean two things, either this was not a true runic item and thus his skill didn’t work. The other possibility that he was more inclined to believe was that this item was above his skill’s level.

“That’ card, what is it …”

“Ah, this? Did Sir. Wayland never see an obsidian bank card?”

Lucille couldn’t tell but Roland was squinting with his eyes while trying to scan this item with his debugging skill. If he focused a lot of mana into his eyes he could see a hazy image of the schematic. It was not complete and faded almost instantly even before he could make out anything insightful.

“Lady Lucile, thatʼs a bit…”

Robert turned to the blue-haired girl with an awkward expression.

“Huh?... oh I didn’t mean it like that Sir. Wayland!”

Roland snapped back after burning through 30% of his mana while trying to analyze this black card. From the conversation, it seemed as if Lucille implied that he was not wealthy enough to get one of these cards or even worse to visit a bank.

“I’m sure the bank would accept Sir. Wayland as a client!”

Besides the strenuous identification requirement, the bank always did a thorough background check. They sometimes even utilized magicians that could see into a person’s past to see if they weren’t someone in disguise.

This of course only left people like nobles and merchants using the banking system. There was a consensus that only after getting a proper bank card could a merchant see themselves as being wealthy.

It was far easier to get a card like that if someone was part of a noble household. The background checks were also a lot more lenient.

“Ah… no that’s fine, I have no use for a card like that.”

Roland replied while Lucille started flailing her arms around. It seemed that the girl had not yet been pushed through the wringer of the noble life. She seemed overly nice even to someone like him that would be considered a somewhat rare commoner but still only a commoner.

“What Lady Lucille would like to propose is that you come with us to the bank.”

“To the bank?”

“Ah, yes. I might have lost my purse but I left this card at the mayorʼs house!”

Lucille quickly recovered while blushing a bit. It seemed that she did not take all of her possessions down into the dungeon. The card that she was holding would not be useful to anyone besides her as well, so it was even okay to lose it.

‘I will need to buy more materials for this runic forge…’

Even though Roland did not wish to go with these two, he was in dire need of more funds. Even with the bonus, he received from the guild he still didn’t have enough. There were far too many projects that he wanted to sink his time in but not enough gold to go around.

Without the reward that he was promised from these two, he would probably need to spend months crafting runic items to sell before being able to invest his time in more important things, like his golem project.

“Also please take this Sir. Wayland!”

“What is this?”

He asked as Lucille handed him a rolled-up scroll. At first, he thought it was some kind of spell scroll but the lady said otherwise.

“Those are the synchronization coordinates to my own magic crystal, with this we will be able to exchange runic theories even when I leave here!”

In short, Lucille was giving Roland her phone number. Every mage had their own special crystal ball that they were attuned with. On the scroll, there was an encoded magical number that Roland could use. He was a tier 1 mage so he would be able to use any kind of crystal ball meant for communication with ease.

“Runic theories?”

“Yes, maybe I could even introduce you to the Professor!”

“Professor? Wait, you want me to call you when you leave?”

“Um… can’t I?”

Lucille pouted slightly after Roland posed the question. Robert raised his brow a little bit as it looked that the Runesmith wasn’t interested in staying in contact. In reality, this was a very favorable connection that Roland could grow.

Most people would fight to have good relations with a promising tier 2 mage. There were various lucrative opportunities waiting for him. He might even be able to get connections to the magic academy that probably had a whole section of runic scriptures.

The only problem here was her relations with Robert. Even he could tell that the two had a somewhat deeper bond after venturing into the dungeon. Their future would be a rocky one as Robert did not have the status to go with his noble title.

Being only the third son and coming from a commoner merchant side, he didn’t have much leverage. The only realistic shot he had was if he gained a lot of military merit as his father before him.

“Do you have access to more runic knowledge…?”

He asked as it did pique his interest. Even when he stayed in contact with Lucille this didn’t mean that Robert would be shadowing her every move. They both went to different academies and also lived in different cities. It wouldnʼt be strange if the two only had a relationship through letters and magic calls.

“Yes! We also have a knowledgeable runic mage at our institute, I’m sure the Professor will love your take on crafting runes.”

Apparently, this professor was a runic mage, some proper insight from a mageʼs perspective to help him with his research could hasten his progress by many years. This didn’t seem like such a bad deal, mostly because he didn’t have to do anything for it. There were no contracts and dangerous expeditions to the dungeon this time around, it looked to be safe.

“Mmm… I’ll think about it…”

Roland nodded while putting the scroll into his spatial bag. This would also be a good moment to get himself a communication crystal.

“Wonderful! Let us depart to the bank Sir. Wayland.”

After thinking it through there was no real reason for him to refuse more money. He would not be the one using the bank card and they would not be identifying him. This was also a good chance to see how the inside of such a bank looked like.

They started walking, Lucille was quite the chatterbox as always while Robert just nodded his head and agreed with whatever she was saying. Surprisingly the theme this time was not runes but remembering the times down in the dungeon.

As always, Roland wasn’t one to talk. He was more interested in the obsidian bank card that he could not use his debugging skill on. Even against the dark cult, he was able to see the runes in that device that trapped him in an illusion.

When thinking back to that time he was inexperienced but now he could somewhat measure its worth. It was an item at the greater grade which would put it along with tier 3 classes. This meant that this card was above it, either an even higher greater item or one at the grand level.

From what he knew, these bank cards were given to the nobles with a set sum encoded in them. The person that commissioned this card would deposit a large sum of gold into the bank. The bank would then take a slight cut from it and give the person this card.

At other banks, these cards could be read and the client could take out cash. It was quite similar to debit cards from his old world, with the difference that there was no internet to keep track of the exchanges.

After a use, the card would have the funds deducted from it at the bank but there was no bank account that others could deposit their money to. It was just a way to safely keep money while traveling, no one could use the cards and a person could always return to the bank that the card was created at.

There they could recover their money if something ever happened to their card. This process could take months though, as someone needed to check with all the banks in the kingdom to see if the card was ever used and if the client wasn’t a liar. Only after that would a new card be created with a new fee added to it.

It was still safer to have it than to walk around with a large purse filled with gold coins. The cards could be hidden away in various ways which also added to the safety.

“We are here!”

They stood before a large bank building. This building was pure white and made from sturdy stone. There were columns at the front of the large opening which made this structure somewhat reminiscent of old Greek architecture. It also made it stick out like a sore thumb around the more medieval-looking buildings.

In front of it there stood four guards, even without identifying them he could tell that they were quite skilled. As the group approached the guards moved to close the path but as the card was shown they moved to the side.

“Follow me!”

Lucille was quite cheerful for some reason as they entered. On the inside, he spotted a shiny marble floor. On the sides instead of torches, there were some light crystals that were shining even now.

The first thing he noticed were the large columns creating a path forward. Then on the sides, there was something that he was familiar with, iron golems. There were four of them in total and this was probably the main line of defense that this bank was offering.

While Lucille and Robert moved forward he slowed down to look at these runic devices. This time around his debugging skill worked just fine and he could see all the external runic traces and large runes.

‘They are similar but of better quality than of the worker golems I’ve seen before…’

“I welcome you to the official Albrook bank, I apologize for our lack of staff but we are still in the process of building.”

They were met with a nicely dressed elven man. He was wearing a dark tailored suit that made him somewhat look like a high-class butler.

“Good day, I would like to withdraw some coin.”

Lucille bowed politely while Robert nodded at the man as well. It seemed it was time to get his second payday, with so much cash in his possession he could really start expanding his workshop.