The Runesmith

Roland was sitting on a tree stump that was meant for chopping wood. He had some red beans in a wooden bowl that he was munching on. This was the morning of the next day after the fight with the bandits.

It had rained for a couple of hours during the night but soon afterward the clouds had cleared up. The next day was quite sunny and thanks to the rain the stench of blood wasn’t as bad.

While eating he looked at the pile of corpses in the middle of the village that was more of a small encampment of farmers. Golgrim was just pulling the last dead bandit towards this pile.

Roland was a bit surprised about himself and how he was taking this in. He was staring at a large number of deceased but he was fine with it. He was even enjoying a meal and not once did he feel like vomiting. He could only attribute this to his new mental fortitude that came with his heightened willpower stat.

He could also see the bandit leader’s large two-handed ax strapped to Golgrim’s back. The half-orc requested it as a reward and the party obliged. It was a nice weapon made from deep steel that would probably last for a while.

Roland didn’t just hand over the loot to his three temporary partners. He mostly agreed to it as there were more weapons made from deep steel stashed away. The bandits had placed all of their earnings in one of the wagons that had remained.

The party of four wouldn’t be taking all of that though, it didn’t belong to them. There were also survivors from the caravan that were the true owners. The rescue party would be getting something in return, they were free to take things that had no owners. Even though there were survivors, not everyone had made it out alive.

He glanced at his status screen to see that he had leveled up once from this fight. It might have seemed that they defeated a lot of high level foes but that wasn’t the case. Roland’s level was above 70 with all his classes combined. That meant that anyone that was below this level wouldn’t give him that much experience.

He would start leveling up well only after defeating people or monsters above his base level. Most of these bandits were between 40 and 60, while the bandit leader was around 80. It was enough to get him one level but he still had 4 levels to go. Only then could he begin his life as a tier 2.

While finishing up with his food Roland thought back to the previous night and how it went.

They had made a fast plan of action before heading into the occupied village. He used the shadow veil spell scroll that he had. It gave him invisibility in shadows and in dark places, thus making him and Logon practically invisible.

It pained him but he had to use up most of his mine rune scrolls and his detonation ones. Both he and his elven helper planted those mine runes in front of the village house entrances. Others were stuck to doors directly so that when a bandit opened them up, they would detonate. Windows and back entrances were also booby-trapped.

Everything worked out better than expected. The bandits panicked and went right for the openings, if they barricaded themselves inside he just threw in a bomb or two to flush them out. The ones that managed to get outside were dispatched by his half-orc companion. The drunk ruffians were no match for him.

He remained hidden while using some ranged magic spells to help out Golgrim. Aredhel remained on the sidelines buffing him and the half-orc when she could. They had managed to clear out the village of bandits quite fast, after the boss was slain they all crumbled.

Defeating the bandits didn’t mean that the work was over. There were many injured people hidden away in the houses. Some of them were villagers while others were from the caravan. Most of the survivors were women and children as the bandits probably didn’t see them as threats. In all likelihood, they wanted to use them as playthings or maybe sell them off as slaves later on.

Luckily Aredhel was here and she was able to heal most of the physical wounds. At her level, she couldn’t restore severed limbs. Besides those with enough time, any internal or external injury that wasn’t too deep was healed. She wouldn’t be able to do anything about the psychological wounds though.

That being said not all the men perished, most of the farmers from this village survived and just got beat up. They were lucky that Roland and his party arrived on the exact day that the village was taken over. It was quite a speedy rescue still, there were casualties.

Roland didn’t see the family of three anywhere here that he met during the caravan ride.

‘This sure isn’t the old world that I lived in, huh?’

There was no police or army coming. No one would scour the mountains to look for survival. This would only happen if an outsider came to the adventurer’s guild with a job offer. At most, there would be some kind of formal letter to go take out the bandits if news arrived that they were roaming the lands. By then everyone would be dead and the bandits would have probably moved on if they were smart.

Many people were sobbing while putting a cloth over their deceased loved one’s faces. He could only look from afar while thinking about his own future. Even more than before he was contemplating on getting stronger. If he wanted to evade something like this happening to him in the future he needed power.

“We’ll be moving soon, what are you going to do?”

Roland placed the finished bowl of beans to the side and looked up. Logon had arrived and asked him that question. The moon elf had a full set of leather armor on that he had looted from a bandits corps. He had chosen the best parts from a wide variety of leather gear so it didn’t look uniform in color.

“Far away from here. The survivors from the caravan are going to continue towards the port city, I’m going to go with them... after that... who knows...”

There weren’t many soldiers or adventurers left that survived so those people actually needed him to protect the smaller convoy. Roland, on the other hand, didn’t really want to go on foot so this was fine with him.

From here it would only take them about two days to arrive at the larger city. They could also inform the guards stationed there about the bandit problem, maybe they would actually send someone to check out the mountains for any survivors.

“Is that so... I would like to thank you on behalf of...”

Before Logon could go through with his monologue Roland raised his hand to stop him. He didn’t really care to what faction this elf belonged. It would be even better if he had less information as he had a sinking suspicion that these two were involved in some kind of noble squabbles.

This was something he wasn’t willing to get involved in. What if they decided to show up on his doorstep asking for more help later? That’s why he also didn’t say where he was truly headed. From the port town, he could travel anywhere so it wasn’t really detailed information that could give up his final destination.

“Logon is right. If Mr. Carmine ever ventures into the lands of Bolia you are welcome to search for us. I’m sure my father will give you a hefty reward or if you are searching for work we could also accommodate you. You just need to head over to the Irithyl household.”

Aredhel wobbled over from the side. She had been treating injured people the entire night and was probably depleted of mana. Roland knew well the feeling of overworking yourself.

He also thought about her proposal, was ditching this kingdom for another one such a bad idea? But would he have enough freedom there? He could very well be looked down upon as a human being in the land of elves.

He also didn’t want to get involved with that so-called council of elders. It sounded like it worked in similar ways as the nobles in this country. They only had a slightly more democratic way of doing things but he reckoned that in the shadows there were some shady deals being made.

“It’s fine, I’m already set on my destination, and these mana stones and what those bandits had is enough for me.”

He replied while standing up.

“You should be careful from now on. You’ll probably have to take the scenic route to get back to your country.”

By that, he meant that they would need to evade the soldiers at the borders. They were still branded as slaves and would be apprehended if seen.

If they got caught there was still a possibility of someone from their side being called over. Depending on who that person was they could be saved. Keeping nobles from other countries as slaves could be a prelude to war. Normally the people in charge would return them to their homes but could also try to silence them in fear of retaliation.

“You should probably also look into the people who knew about your departure...”

Aredhel moved her head to the side while Logon frowned. He had already mentioned this before and the two knew that the whole thing was fishy.

“Don’t worry, this time I won’t let anything happen to Lady Aredhel!”

The moon elf spoke up as he saw his lady contemplating things.

“That’s very reassuring, I bet my father will hire you as an official warrior of our household when we return.”

This was similar to getting a knighthood. He would be given status and even some land if he got accepted.

“Golgrim hungry...”

The last party member finally showed up. He would also be going with the two elves.

“I see that you got your work cut out for you with this guy...”

The half-orc looked like a liability when trying not to stand out. Yet he was quite a welcome addition in any fight. It would be hard to not stand out with him around but if they kept to the forest they should be fine.

The borders weren’t highly defended and there was no such thing as a wall barricading both sides from one another. Both kingdoms only had large fortresses at strategic locations, three people shouldn’t have much trouble in slipping by.

“Don’t make fun of him Mr. Carmine, Golgrim is a good child! Now come, I think there still was some leftover meat.”

The two left while Logon approached him. He stuck his hand out and the two shook hands together before parting without any more words. He looked at the trio that he traveled with for a few days.

‘I really do keep encountering weirdos whenever I travel...’

First was the initial trio of girls he met in his first city. Then he met the half-gnome along with the gnome manager and his moon elven bodyguard. There were even those three guys he shortly interacted with during the ant monster disaster. They all were kind of peculiar from his standpoint.

‘But maybe I am the weird one here...’

He gave out a sigh while leaving the tree stump he was sitting on. He walked towards one of the remaining caravans that were close to getting packed.

“Ah, Carmine was it? We will be able to depart soon, just waiting for everyone to finish with their meal.”

Roland looked to the back and could see four people eating. One man and three women were the survivors from the adventurer side. They had also explained to him what had happened after the boulder incident.

After the initial hit, a landslide occurred and the caravan was split in two. The worst end was met by the slavers that tumbled down into their doom along with him.

The carriages that were in the front quickly escaped down the mountain. These were the people that were here. They thought that they had escaped the bandits but after half a day of being in this village, they were attacked again.

From over twenty carriages and large wagons, only four remained here. They were lucky that the horses and other beasts were still here to pull the remaining carts.

The villagers would be moving along with them. Some of the bandits had escaped and if more were out in the mountains was unknown. If they gathered up their buddies this village could be burned down to the ground even further.

Roland’s mines and explosive runes had taken out chunks from the buildings and these people were now considering moving elsewhere.

From their conversations, he found out that bandit attacks weren’t all that rare here or in other villages. Most of the time the bandits didn’t go overboard and just took away some food and other resources like clothes or iron tools. The bunch here was more violent than usual.

“This would have never happened if the nobles didn’t have a stick up their arse.”

Roland nodded, it was the responsibility of the governing noble to send soldiers to keep their villages safe. This one was away from the main city and quite small. It was probably seen as disposable as it didn’t bring in much grain or taxes.

“Maybe you should file a complaint with the lord?”

The coachman looked at Roland with a strange expression on his face before bursting out in laughter.

“Yeah and what? Get myself hang up on the wall for insulting a noble?”

Roland shrugged as that should be the proper way of conducting things. Problem was that most of the nobles didn’t care about their subjects but only about their prestige. It was enough for them to appear strong and in control.

They didn’t worry about the commoners complaining. They were only interested in how they looked to the other nobles. They would begrudgingly act if bad rumors started spreading about their territory so they wouldn’t look bad.

There was one way to make most of the nobles act and that was money. They would protect their money-making businesses with quite the dedication but that left places like this ignored.

“I guess you are right, I’ll wait in the carriage.”

The man waved his hand at Roland as he was walking away. He sat in the back so that he could look outside. The villagers were packing up and had some carts of their own. The caravan increased in size yet again, this time around he might have to take a more active role in defending it.

Before they departed the elven duo and the half-orc showed up next to his wagon. They were there to say their last goodbyes, the female one even had tears in her eyes.

“We will surely meet in the future, you have been such a wonderful friend.”

Aredhel sobbed while Roland wasn’t sure what to say, he just nodded while nervously scratching the back of his neck. He was scratching it even more after Golgrim decided to give him a hug and almost broke it. The other two had to pull the half-orc away after they saw Roland’s spirit leaving his body.

Soon the caravan resumed its journey forward. His new temporary party was disbanded and they went on their merry way. He didn’t think he would be seeing them anytime soon. He hoped that they made it past the border, they were peculiar but good people.

“I sure hope that not... almost jinxed myself there...”

He leaned back against a new crate while looking behind him. The survivors were walking together, some were young and some were old. Surprisingly they didn’t look that saddened by the fact that they needed to leave their old home. Maybe they were just glad that they were still alive. None of the children got killed, also the casualties were mostly on the adventurer and caravan side.

Roland pulled out his detection orb and gave it a try. A mass of dots appeared on the display making things difficult to spot once more. He needed to see if he could buy some kind of skill or better runic spell in the future. This device would still probably work inside a dungeon with fewer people and more monsters in it.

For now, he leaned back and closed his eyes. He didn’t get much sleep last night so he would let the surviving adventurers do most of the heavy lifting. They had a scout with them so they didn’t need him to stay vigilant.

He made sure to cover himself up in a way that an arrow wouldn’t pierce his head while he slumbered. After closing his eyes he hoped that when he opened them up again he would be at his new destination.