The Runesmith

Roland walked and walked, the place he was in wasn’t that large. If he compared it to the cities from his old world, this was more of a small town. A large wall was surrounding the area and the buildings were closely packed together. These types of standard fortifications were there in place to protect the city people from monster attacks. Even in large kingdoms like this, there were certain places that were off-limits. Places with nasty monsters or poisonous terrain that made the area unlivable.

After a long time of walking and getting his adventurer card, he decided to take a break at an inn. Inside there were a lot of people chatting and a bard like person was playing on some kind of lute instrument. Just like the adventurers guild, this establishment’s interior was quite large. There were many tables that already had a bunch of individuals sitting in them. He felt a bit out of place as he didn’t know a single person in this city.

’There is some room in the corner there… do I need to wait for a waitress? Do they call them bar wenches here?’

He wasn’t really sure, noble houses didn’t really have any books about how the commoners lived. For now, he decided to wait and see, he could probably learn from the patrons in here on how he should present himself. He sat himself down in at the free table and looked at the people.

Again he was greeted by a colorful array of individuals. The elves were just as he read in books and saw in fiction, they were tall and slender with pointy ears. Their hair color was either blond or white, he didn’t spot any dark elves though. While waiting a waitress finally appeared and gave Roland a curious look.

“What will it be, little guy?”

He looked up, the woman was quite large and on the wider side. She was wearing one of those wench dresses that made him think of a German festival.

“Ah… I’ll just have some water and something to eat? What do you have?” 𝗼𝐯𝗹．𝐞𝘁

“For a charming little fella like you? How about some of the tasty porridge, or some grilled meat so that you grow big and strong?”

Roland thought about it for a moment and ordered both, he wanted to test the food here out if it was abysmal he would try a different place. The woman smiled and walked away, he saw her move towards the bartender. The woman was quite loud so he overheard the two talking.

“One order of meat and some porridge for our young customer there.”

The man standing at the bar was quite large and muscular, he was even missing an eye and had a large scar in its place.

“What, you got someone to order that shitty gruel? Did you blackmail him or something?”

The woman frowned and tried smacking the man with the empty tray she was holding.

“Shut yer trap, you idiot before I make you sleep outside again!”

The man grumbled and went back into the kitchen, Roland, on the other hand, was deliberating on walking out. He didn’t like the sound of that, could this porridge be spoiled?

’Well… this was … quite bland…’

He looked at the empty plates. The porridge was made from some unidentified grains, the meat was just dried jerky. Nothing was seasoned nor did it taste like anything, the food here was literary hard to swallow.

’Ugh…I’m already missing Martha’s cooking… is this what the common people eat?’

The whole thing cost him 7 large copper coins.

’So I need to kill two goblins to even have enough for a single meal… guess life doesn’t count for much here. I should have asked that guild attendant about how much I can get for a goblin mana stone…I’ll ask her after I get this job done.’

He left the coins on the table, the large lady instantly swooped in to grab those coins of the table. Like a hawk diving for a nice plump mouse on the field. He asked about the lodging fees and was said that it was two small silvers for a night, and five large copper coins extra if he wanted breakfast to go with that. He could also pay a monthly fee that would save him about 10%.

’I have enough money to last me slightly above a month of lodging…’

He needed to go hunt some goblins first, killing five of those a day would be the minimum amount of work. Though, he would probably be starting with only one meal a day with that.

’And that’s not taking any other expenses into consideration. This sword will also need repairing after a while…’

He frowned, this wasn’t turning out to be such a dream job after all. He needed to start somewhere though, he was already used to slaying goblins and was already a L 5 mage. He only needed 20 more levels and he already had the stone for the class change.

’The only thing I still need is a map of this area.’

He had the world map at his old home, but there were no city maps besides the capital and the city his family lived in. He headed over to a library and had to spend another small silver coin to get himself one. He made a mental note to check this place out later, maybe there would be some new books to read. The more he read, the more his identification skill leveled up. Knowledge was power and this skill’s level was an indicator of it.

’It’s strange how that skill works, why would general knowledge help me identify things I have never seen before?’

He left through the main gate again, this time he flashed the guards his new adventurer’s card and was let out without a problem.

’Okay, these are the farms that have been getting attacked…the goblins are probably somewhere in that forest…’

Goblins were creatures that lived in groups. They had a strength-based hierarchy structure similar to some human tribes. The strongest member was the tribe chief. The leader was mostly an evolved monster, either a goblin soldier or a goblin shaman that was more intelligent than his tribe counterparts.

’I sure hope it’s not a Hobgoblin though, I don’t think I’d stand a chance.’

He wasn’t planning on going to close to the monster base or doing a silly thing of clearing it out himself. No, he would just hunt some lone goblins in hopes of getting a free mana stone together with his kill.

’I should be careful, these goblins will probably be of a higher level than the ones they let me kill back at the Arden estate. Though they are still only goblins, even on higher levels they are quite weak.’

He checked his items again and then took out his shortsword, he didn’t bother to talk with the farmers and just went inside. The forest was densely packed with trees but thanks to his smaller stature it wasn’t too difficult to move around.

’This is when someone with a tracking class like a Hunter would be helpful…’

He wandered through the forest while on his toes. He moved slowly while hiding behind the bushes and trees in hopes of getting the drop on the monsters. This proved to be the right choice as he spotted two goblins just lazing around by another large tree.

’There we go… if I only didn’t need to chant this shit…level 3 and a level 4… should be fine.’

He could whisper the chants while casting, but that lowered the spell’s destructive power by a notch. It would be enough for these goblins though, his magic attack was quite high thanks to his high intelligence stat.

“Source of all magic, heed my call…”

While performing the incantation Roland thought back to the time of his spell training. He did a couple of tests, mostly trying to somehow circumvent those chants and incantations. He tried gathering the mana around him and through this body with the help of his skills. It worked great all up to the moment of shaping the mana ball that would be the bolt, right at the end it always evaporated into nothingness.

It just didn’t work unless he chanted while manipulating the magical energies. It was as if the spells required two passwords, one being the chant and the other shaping the mana required for the spell.

“Mana Bolt!”

The mana bolt whizzed through the air and landed straight on the goblin’s face. Roland wasn’t sure why but his aim was quite good, maybe his dexterity had something to do with it. The other theory was the number of fps games that he played in his previous life.

The goblin’s head flew backward as if hit by a bowling ball. The small creature fell back and against the tree, blood gushing from its wound as it slowly faded away into oblivion.

“Gigii?”

The other goblin looked at his companion with surprise in its eyes but soon it realized what transpired. Roland charged out from his hiding place, short sword in hand, and ready to deliver a killing blow. The other monster was slow to react, but it looked towards the charging 10-year old and gave out a high pitched scream. It moved the club it was holding up into the air, bringing it down on its enemy while jumping right at him.

“You goblins are easy to read…”

Roland skillfully evaded the attack and just jabbed the pointy end of his short sword into the goblin’s chest. The moment the attack landed the monster gave out a wail and started thrashing about with its club in hand. The youth backed off letting the monster tire itself out before delivering the finishing blow.

“That’s two… not that hard…”

Roland looked down at the two defeated monsters, he was panting as the adrenaline pumped through his body. Through training and time, he had started getting accustomed to fighting monsters. From his perspective, a clear grasp of the situation during a fight outweighed pure stats.

He pulled out his hunting knife and went for the ears, making sure to get the right one that the adventurer’s guild was asking for. He didn’t feel any mana coming from these two dead bodies which meant that they had no mana stones. This was one of the more useful uses of his mana sense skill. He could easily sense if a creature had or didn’t have a mana stone in its body, thanks to this he saved a lot of time.

“Wonder if how other people do it… do they just butcher each monster to see if it’s there? Maybe they have some detection items?”

He squatted down and looked at the monster bodies, their weapons were just wooden clubs and they had no armor whatsoever. He wouldn’t be able to sell anything off them.

“I don’t think anyone would buy stained loincloths, I should probably…”

His body jerked to the side suddenly, just in time to dodge an incoming wooden spear that came flying in his direction. He brought out his sword to defend himself and saw two other goblins charging at him.

’Did the screams from these two alert the others?’

He had miscalculated and remained here for too long. He was used to killing monsters at a safe location but these creatures were tribal. When one of them fell the others would come to help, the high pitched battle cries that these little monsters gave out were to signal their allies.

“Shit!”

He didn’t think that he’d lose to these two, but there could be more coming. He couldn’t stay in this location for long and his magic bolt spell that he used as a surprise tactic was a one-time thing before the battle. He couldn’t use it while running either if he panted during chanting the spell would collapse.

He ducked for the bushes on the side while the two angry green men chased after him. He wasn’t sure how their tracking skills were, but they shouldn’t be all that great. He was also faster than the two buggers, if he gained enough space he might have been able to recast his spell.

’This class isn’t good for solo leveling…’

He found himself running away just to stop and chant his incantation. When one of the goblins arrived before him he would send a mana bolt spell right at their face. He wasn’t concerned about being quiet anymore either, so his spells were packing a lot more this time around. This had the adverse effect of alerting more goblins to his location.

“Mana Bolt!”

Another Goblin fell, the mana bolt came from somewhere up in the trees, the other green midget didn’t know where the enemy was. He looked and looked only to hear a human’s voice echo through the tightly packed forest.

“Mana Bolt, you little shit!”

The goblin chest exploded as a large ball of mana energy pierced through it. Roland was sitting on top of a tree and just chucking his spells at the dumb goblins. After ruing away for an hour he decided to climb up a tree, luckily these monsters weren’t too bright.

’Think that was the last one of them, glad I have this climbing and sneaking skill unlocked.’

He used a new tactic of just hiding up in the trees and waiting for the goblins to arrive. He delivered sure hit kills from distance and disappeared the moment another monster appeared. Thanks to his sneaking skill the enemy monster had a hard time finding him before they could react they were hit by dense mana bolts. After waiting it out for ten minutes he finally decided to slide down the large tree he was hiding in.

He hopped down and sneaked over to the blast zone, five dead goblin bodies were there. He had leveled up from killing all these goblins and there were even some scattered bodies that he left behind while running away.

’I don’t think It would be smart to go back for those’

He grabbed the five ears from this group and even managed to nab a mana stone from one of them. He was tired and had wandered a bit too far into the forest area, this was the time for a tactical retreat.

’This is enough for today, I should go report and get my money…then take a bath…’

Roland’s first day as an adventurer ended. He managed to return to the adventurer’s guild without a problem and the guards didn’t bother him either. The same lady that gave him the card was surprised to see him at the end of the day and with seven goblin ears to boot.

With this, he had earned 35 large copper coins from the monster subjugation quest. The tiny mana stone he acquired went for 4 small silver coins each, he had two more back from his training days. With this, he was 155 large copper coins richer.

’I can do this… the stronger I get, the more money I will earn. I’m not going back to that log cabin, or that stinky noble house!’

Roland clenched his fist tightly while looking at his coin pouch. He finally saw some light at the end of the tunnel, if he worked hard he would be able to level up his class, gain money, and later achieve his goal of independence.