The Runesmith

Roland returned to his room, it was still raining outside and the thunderstorm wasn’t letting up. The time spent in the ascension space felt like seconds to the people outside so not much time had passed. Martha had accompanied Roland to his room after the reveal that his elemental affinities were low. She brought over some tea and decided to let the boy cool off for now.

“If you need anything just call me Young Master, The Baron will be returning to the mansion tomorrow…”

Roland just nodded while being quiet, after he heard the door closing behind his maid he flopped on his bed like a dead fish. ．

’What is this shit, what am I supposed to do now?’

He hit the bed with his ten-year-old fists while gritting his teeth. After a bout of rage, he jumped right of and ran up to his desk.

’Where is that book…’

He started flinging the books left and right and managed to find the one that explained the elemental affinities in more detail.

’0% on all of the affinities…this means…’

He already knew the answer, he had gone through these books multiple times, still, he needed to check one more time. He started reading, his eyes going through the information while his brain digested it with astonishing speed.

“Ugh…”

He threw the book he was reading to the side and sat down at his desk, his head moving backward as he looked at the ceiling.

“To change your class to any of the element mages you need to unlock an elemental affinity skill, you can’t unlock it if your connection to the elements is non-existent…”

If you wanted to progress further in your life as a mage this was a requirement. He could not go any further, getting that skill required his affinity to at least be at 1%. This was a rare case, a one in a million occurrence. People like him were considered inept at becoming a mage and mostly strayed away from that path.

He was a special case though. All of his stats made everyone think that he would be a talented mage. He had learned the mana sense skill at a young age and his intelligence was off the charts. In the book it said that most mages had an intelligence stat at 20 when they started out, he, on the other hand, had more than double of that. There was no reason to believe that he could be anything other than a mage.

“Something is playing a stupid joke on me… I can’t even swap this class till I get to level 25…”

He decided to glance at his status screen, he had even leveled up to the third level of mage due to the buildup of his experience. After the 9th birthday, his father arranged a goblin fight. Just as the first time he would fight a one on one battle each week, earning experience along the way that could be then used when he ascended. The experience buildup wouldn’t work for further classes though, this was a one-time thing before the ascension.

He thought about his status, he wanted to see all the new skills that he had gained as well as their explanations.

He then looked at his stats after he was done with reading those, his MP shot up quite high compared to the rest.

He looked at his stats, people at L1 who specialized in a field mostly had their stats at about 20. For instance, a warrior would mostly have a Strength, Vitality, and Endurance rating close to 20. He was a L 3 Mage and his intelligence was getting close to 50, but all his physical attributes were slightly below a basic l 1 Warrior.

“All my stats scream mage, I even got a trait that gives me more useless mana… Even if I respec later I will be behind everyone. My physical stats are below average when it comes to warriors… my dexterity is high though… should I switch to an archer?”

He started scratching his head and brought out the book that had some class and skill combinations. This was something that a noble title got you, most of the people outside didn’t have the luxury of planing and most of the class combinations were off-limits to the commoners.

He had focused on the mage related classes without much thought about the other ones for one reason or the other. He put all of his eggs in one basket and now they exploded at once. He needed to come out with a new battle plan.

“I must think of something plausible… if I leave it to that daddy of mine, I’ll be working in the army for the rest of my life.”

All of his brothers were on a one-way ticket to the army. His father was quite the militaristic nut and didn’t consider people that didn’t work in that field as much. At least that was how Roland saw it, he couldn’t be sure as the interactions with his ’father’ were limited. He also tried to avoid him most of the time along with the other brats from his family.

He was banking on evading the military by becoming a mage. Mages were rarer than the other combat classes and were sought after. He would be able to choose his path if he became one. Apparently, that wouldn’t be an option now, he would have to level up in this class which was a dead end.

“I still have the mage class unlocked… but if I wanted to be a magic swordsman I’d need a tier 2 mage class to unlock this tier 3 class…”

He went through his book once more, most of the better classes that synergized with the mage class required a tier 2 version. You even needed some tier 2 classes to unlock other tiers 2 classes that would let you get a better tier 3 class. The Elementalist class was one of those, that requited all of the element tier 2 mage classes to unlock.

“Damn elemental affinity!”

’I need this skill to even unlock a general upgrade to the tier 1 class, I would be okay with this shitty tier 2 superior mage class that doesn’t really give many bonuses to anything but it also requires those affinities, they are just lower…’

He wanted to strangle the person that decided that you needed to have one skill to unlock any one of those classes.

’The possibility of having this was super low… one in a million or less… does it have something to do with me being from another world or something?’

“Wait, do I really need to have a combat class? … Wouldn’t it be better not to risk my life and just make money in peace?”

He rubbed his chin, he had ignored most of the construction classes that were presented there. Mostly due to the only viable one at tier 1 was the blacksmith. He imagined himself stuck in a stuffy room hammering away on some ingots.

“Well… might not be that bad?”

“Is there anything that works well with a tier 1 mage class till tier 3 at least?”

He went through the book, it had some combinations that could work with the blacksmith class.

’Blacksmith is the first and gives basic bonuses to crafting weapons and armor but nothing special… you can unlock a weaponsmith or an armorer at tier 2. After that, the most common classes are tier 3 Master Smith and Tier 4, Grandmaster Smith.

He started going for the requirements for those classes. The blacksmith class used dexterity as one of its main stats along with strength and endurance. Those two later stats weren’t so high, but he had high dex so this was feasible. Plus he would gain more strength by leveling up his mage class so when he started anew as a blacksmith he shouldn’t have any problems.

’I need to find something that combines with those first…’

He looked for the page that described good combinations withe these manufacturing classes. He knew that enchanted weapons were a thing, so there should be a class that was primed for that.

’Here we go…tier 2 Runesmith… it focuses on enchanting weapons and armor with words of power that are called runes…’

He looked at this class, the description sounded interesting. It allowed the placement of basic enchantments on weapons and other items, there was another class that was similar to this called Enchantsmith. The two differed slightly due to the process of creating their items.

Enchantments and Runes used a different language. If you compared the two to modern-day languages from earth then the enchantment language would be akin to regular English. The Runic language, on the other hand, consisted of symbols and was more similar to Asian languages like Japanese or Chinese.

From the two the runic one was considered better but harder to master. Both of those tier 2 smith classes required him to learn the Scrybe profession. The Mana Scrybe was a special tier 1 class and its requirement was the calligraphy skill along with the mage class. It allowed people to create one-use magic scrolls.

The class sounded special but in reality, it was quite trashy. You didn’t get many skills and the only thing it was good for was for creating these scrolls. Leveling it up didn’t give you many stat points and it was mostly considered a side job. Still, the scrolls that a person produced could be sold to adventurers, the higher tier of scrolls you could write the more you got paid.

Runesmith or Enchantsmith, the first was better but harder to obtain as you had to gain a skill related to runes. It was something you only unlocked by actually learning. There wasn’t really a shortcut as you had to study hard and then you unlocked the skill.

’Heh… well… I have always been a grinder…’

Roland wanted to take it easy, but the thought of living in some shady barracks with some smelly dudes was making him debate on this option. The path towards it was quite convoluted and he would have to work hard for it. In the end, though. This was a money-making class. Even at Tier 2, he would already be able to earn massive amounts of gold and be free from this noble life, it was worth the risk.

“I’d like to go with this… these runes sound interesting and it says that the more intelligence and dexterity the crafter has the better the runes become. Also, the mana comes in handy when making or using them and mana is the only thing I’m good for…”

The only problem was convincing his father. This choice wasn’t a battle class, he also didn’t see any options that hinted about unlocking any combat-related classes after getting to Runesmith. It was still better than working as a soldier though, he’d rather make swords all day than stay on guard duty at some fortress.

’Okay, it’s decided, I’m going with Runesmith! I can make this work, having money is the answer!’

He looked at the book and nodded, he had to prepare before meeting his dad. He needed to explain that this was a better idea and maybe even a blessing in disguise. He already had three sons that were good at fighting, he didn’t need the 4th one to do the exact same thing as them.

“Yes, I bet he will let me do it…I hope… I need to find a location that I can learn blacksmithing and scribing, along with some magic…”

He concentrated, he had gone through all the books in the library and knew how the kingdom looked like. The main plan was to go to a magic academy that was located in one of the largest cities, but that went out of the window now. He needed a less costly option that would guarantee him safe progress.

’Hm, there is one, Lustile city fits the bill… it also has an academy where they train Weaponsmiths and even have some facilities for mages and a nice library.’

The battle plan was set, he went through it for the rest of the day as he waited for his father to come home. He already had an appointment, his father was quite punctual so he knew that he would be there.

The next day Martha brought him food and a change of clothes. She made him look better than usual, she couldn’t let Roland look bad when visiting his father all on his own.

“Everything is going to be fine master Roland, it’s just a little setback!”

She smiled at him, her face showing some wrinkles as she was getting along with her age. Being a maid didn’t really net her any valuable skills besides housekeeping. People needed battle classes to increase vitality that would then let them live longer and look younger. His father was one of those, he was someone that looked to be in his early forties but in reality, he was getting close to his mid-sixties.

“The Baron will see you now.”

Proclaimed the house Arden Butler while opening the large white door that led inside Lord Arden’s office. Roland moved forward, even though he was an adult inside he still felt uncomfortable. It was as if he was getting called into his boss’s office for one of those talks.

There he was in all his glory, looking at some papers that looked really small in those mitts of his. His digits looked like thick sausages and he looked strange in that blue shirt fit for nobles.

“Greetings father, it is me, Roland.”

He announced himself while moving his hand to his heart, which was the national salute that the people did in this country. The man just murmured while looking at his papers, Roland gulped hard and used this chance to pronounce his plan.

“Father, I know that I have no aptitude to be a mage. So I think I should become a Runesmith, it’s a class that my high intelligence works well with.”

He was nervous and talked as fast as he could without breathing in much between the sentences. He presented his plan and the city that had the best facilities to accommodate his progress at a safe rate. As he was finishing up his Father raised his hand.

“Lustile? You want to attend the Lustile academy of arts?”

Roland stopped talking instantly, his large bull of a father was looking at him with quite the intense stare now.

“Y-yes? Think it has good facilities and doesn’t cost that much…”

The man rubbed his chin and replied without thinking for too long.

“No, that’s out of the question. You need to raise your level first. Runesmith… A peculiar choice…”

He placed the papers that he was holding down on the desk and continued looking at Roland, straight into his eyes.

“I’ll allow this, but you must earn your keep. Even as a low-level mage you can find some work, Adam will make the preparations.”

He picked up the papers and started going through them once more. He still gave Roland one bit of advice before sending him away.

“The Arden House is a House of knights, I hope you know what that means? We don’t want it being associated with crafting professions, do you understand?”

’So you’re telling me that it is shameful to work as a blacksmith and you don’t want me to mention my name in public, huh?’

“Understood…”

Roland wanted to say more about this but he didn’t think that the man would listen to the ten-year-old him. So he just nodded and stepped out, Adam heard everything from both of them and would be making the arrangement. His plan of becoming a Runesmith had gone through, but he would apparently have to work for it and maybe even put himself in harm’s way.