Chapter 138 – Busy days of building up.

“Here it is.”

Roland found himself outside of a small shop. The building was squeezed between two others and the entrance was hidden in an alleyway. It looked like the owner of this shop was trying to not sell anything.

The sign depicted a magical staff along with some potions around him. He was not sure why but all the shops in this world had such banners. It made him think of the old RPG games that he used to play when he was still in his old world. In them, all the stores always had a characteristic sign to show the player what was inside.

He took a step forward, once he opened the door it triggered a bell that was above it. Expecting someone to call out and greet him but there was no response. It seemed that the person running this shop was probably in the back room thus he decided to take a look around.

The first thing he noticed was that how cramped the place was. His head almost touched the ceiling and the shelves were crammed with various strange items and potions. With the help of his debugging skill, he could even spot some runic items.

“Is anyone here?”

Roland called out while approaching the shop counter. On it, he spotted a little bell that looked similar to the bells at hotels. He gave it a ring and finally someone called out from behind.

“Hold your horses, I’m coming!”

There was a strange rumbling sound followed by something falling down. The voice seemed to be somewhat high-pitched yet also old. After a minute the cloth that was covering the entrance to the backroom finally moved and the owner of this shop emerged.

“My apologies, must have forgotten the time.”

An old gnome popped his head out. He looked really old and had a very characteristic pointy black hat on his head. This was accompanied by a black robe which made him look like a stereotypical black mage.

Roland had to wait until the small gnome slowly walked over. The store counter also had a little step ladder that he had to climb.

“How can I help you, young man? Do you want to buy some health potions, maybe some herbs for a bad back?”

“Ah, no. I’m looking for a crystal ball, one meant for communication. I heard that I could get one here at a good price.”

Magical items still weren’t that widespread in this city. The dungeon was here but without having tier 3 monsters inside it would not attract the wealthier people. All the strongest adventurers were close to the S class dungeon in the middle of the island while Albrook could attract at most tier 2 ones.

A promising adventurer party would not remain in an area where the monsters were a tier below them. They would just not be able to progress further, the experience gained would be too minuscule.

Besides the dungeon, there weren’t really any natural resources to attract people here. Roland on the other hand knew that there was some potential sleeping deep inside that dungeon. That spot with the rare metals and mythril ore deposits was proof.

Dungeon mines were sought after for one reason, the ore deposits would respawn just like the monsters did. The area he found could be farmed for resources repeatedly. The time of respawning was mostly set and could range from weeks to months.

“A crystal ball? Well, you came to the right place, I think I still have one lying around here, give me a moment!”

The old gnome called out and slowly moved down from the step ladder. He vanished behind that dark piece of cloth. Roland could hear something like pots falling down, maybe some crates it sounded like the old man was tripping over everything.

After about five minutes he emerged back with a round object in his hand. His hat was now turned to the other side and his robe was full of dust.

“Sorry about that lad.”

The old man laughed and placed the object on the counter. Roland looked at it and thanks to his mage skills could tell that this was the item in question.

‘Huh? So those came in runic form as well?’

Surprisingly this magic crystal orb had runic inscriptions on it. They were not visible to the naked eye, without his debugging skill he would also not be able to notice it. The item looked like a clear orb made from crystal how someone forced the runes into it was the biggest question.

Roland was quite knowledgeable about runecrafting when scrolls and metals were concerned. There were far more materials out there that would not be able to sustain regular rune smithing.

He would not be able to make a flying carpet as the runecraft would burn through the fabrics. The only explanation was that such a crystal ball required a somewhat different approach similar to the scrolls.

There was still a big hole in his knowledge. While he was light years ahead in some places like runecrafting there were many basic things he did not know. Just like the magic ink there were various other concoctions that could be applied in various ways.

What he needed is more knowledge and this here crystal ball could help him with that. For this, he needed access to the magic knowledge that was being held behind closed doors. Lucille, his new acquaintance, could help him with that.

The only real problem would be asking for some help, due to Roland’s character he found it hard requesting help from others. Normally he would try to figure it out by himself but a promise was made. If he didn’t contact her, his brother might come looking for him, this time with his father in tow.

“Yes, this looks like the right item, how much will it be?”

“You have a keen eye for such a young lad, just for that you can have it for twenty small gold coins.”

“Twenty?”

Roland almost keeled over as the price was mentioned. This was more money than he was given by his old adventurer party. He was able to survive half a year on that while also crafting scrolls and now this crystal ball cost more than that.

“You might not know it lad but this crystal ball was made by a powerful runic mage!”

“Runic mage? Not a Runesmith?”

“A runesmith making a crystal ball? You must be joking young man, how could those brutes make something intricate like a crystal ball. They are better off making clunky golems!”

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Roland was surprised by the revelation. If this old man was right then this item was quite rare as it was made by the unpopular class of Runic Mage. From what Lucille explained to him they were not proficient at crafting runic items but only using them.

Instead, they were supposed to alter the program inside that was crafted by a proper runesmith. There could be some exceptions to the rule, most of the regular crystal balls were enchanted items. These could also be made by enchanters instead of enchant smiths that just clobbered metals till the enchantments fit in.

‘There might be some special spells that the mages use for permanent enchantments, which would make this feasible.’

From what Roland knew, regular mage enchantments were temporary. They would last a few hours or days at most before the enchantment faded away. Thus the services of these mages were more like a trial which some adventurers used before entering a specific dungeon.

Even though they were not permanent they had their uses. If there was a particular boss that was weak to a certain spell it was cheaper to go with an enchantment. There was no reason to buy a full set of fire-resistant armor to fight a flame dragon if a mage could produce the same effect for a fraction of the price.

“Twenty too much? Well, this is a rather old model…”

The old gnome started thinking really hard. Roland knew that this crystal ball was probably not something that would sell. There was no real reason to get a more pricey runic variant when the enchanted version cost less. The gnome also didn’t know that a person like Roland would probably pay that price just to get his hands on a new rune.

“How about ten.”

Before the old man could answer Roland started bartering himself.”

“Ten? Do you want to rob this old gnome young man? Eighteen!”

“Eighteen? Can you even sell that crystal ball to anyone? New enchanted ones cost ten! Twelve.”

Soon they went back and forth and finally Roland was able to barter down to fourteen and a half. Luckily he still had some found and with the guild promoting him he was getting some materials at a discount or even for free.

“Bah, No respect for their elders.”