Chapter 162 – Time moves on.

“That will be all for today, you should go over the research material that I have provided you before contacting me again. Also, don’t forget to catch up with the basics my friend.”

“I will, until next time.”

Roland turned off the communication crystal on which a smug-looking cat was displayed. The exchange between the two had been going on for several months but he still had so much to learn.

After turning off the crystal ball Roland looked to the side. There on his desk he could see a large stack of papers, books and scribbles. This was all the research material the cat professor had dumped on him.

‘He really did send me the school books this time around…”

Through the months of their exchanges, Roland had continued to improve on the runic diagrams that he was given while taking snippets of knowledge for himself. Finally, for one reason or another, his associate decided to just give him all of the basic rune-related academy books that they usually gave to their mages.

This was quite a pile of knowledge and it required several gale birds to deliver for a span of a month. Now he had a compendium of materials that could fill in the gaps in his runic comprehension.

It seemed that the cat was fed up with Roland asking questions every time the two were talking. Thus he was given some homework to get through the fundamentals first before their partnership continued.

While Roland was knowledgeable with the outer runic components at this point in time he was unable to affect the runic programming. Most of the time he found himself copying pre-existing code that he discovered in runes and then hoped that it would stick.

All of this research material would guide him from the beginning and teach him the inner workings of the runic code. It was quite a stack of papers to go through but luckily with his increased intelligence and his newest skill that allowed him to read multiple pages at once, he hoped to slog through it fast.

“Hey Boss, I’ll be heading out for tonight, see ya in the morning.”

“Try not to get in trouble.”

“Hah, when did I ever get in trouble?”

Roland rolled his eyes while looking through the window through which he could see Bernir. His assistant was using his newly gained raise to go to town and have a good drink.

It was probably not the only thing that he would be getting there but not like Roland was interested in Bernir’s nightlife. As long as he returned when it was time for work, then all was fine.

A few weeks had passed since his new store opened for business and business was booming. He underestimated how fast the adventurers went through lower level magic equipment.

With the close proximity to the dungeon, these items were being used for all they were worth. Many of them got lost in the process of hunting monsters and the runes were being used up quite fast. Some adventurers instead of using the repairs preferred to just put some more gold down and get an improved weapon after using it for a month instead.

It turned out that there were far many more adventurers in town than there were craftsmen. While regular weapons were easy to find it wasn’t the same for the wares he was peddling. So on the first day, he was able to get rid of all the old stock that was piling up in his workshop. Even with the lowered prices, he was able to make nice profits that translated well into future progress.

Elodia was doing a nice job at selling and presenting everything to the new customers. He had written down all the various runes that the items came equipped with and she was able to learn all of the uses of the items they were selling in just a few days. She was ready to fight through the first day as if she knew that there would be such an outcry for the magic weapons.

Even Roland needed to come help as the people were clamoring to get in. He clearly underestimated the worth of a magic weapon that was going for under the market price. There were even a few merchants that he recognized from the city. They were probably intending to sell the items in different cities due to the dwarves.

Since everything was going well, Roland finally decided to raise Bernir’s wages by a bit. Even though it wasn’t that much, the dwarf was quite ecstatic. Now with the hiring of Elodia both of them had the weekdays off while the store was closed.

While both of his workers would have time to spend their hard-earned money and take a break, he would continue with his grind. He needed to inscribe more runes and produce more wares to sell while also improving on his golem and turret designs.

Now after starting his own business he realized that being a regular employee was not the end of the world. Being the owner of a new shop forced him to work even harder if he actually intended to be successful.

While Bernir was in the tavern getting drunk he would be going through runic diagrams and lists of components. While Elodia finally had some time to spend with her family and watch over them, he would be hammering away on the new golem design that would now have six legs instead of four.

“No rest for the wicked, huh?”
Roland gave out a sigh but he was somewhat feeling content with this new situation. While he was not so keen on working for others it wasn’t the same when he was doing it for himself. Everything was under his control and depending on the circumstances he could always decide to take a break when he wanted to.

While it looked like he was becoming shackled with his new responsibilities he could not be any freer. There was no debt holding him down and his craft gave him something that he could apply in other places. Even if this little business fell through he would still be fine, all thanks to his hard work he had gained a skill that could not be denied by others.

This didn’t mean that he intended his little venture to be a failure. Growing dungeon cities like this were quite rare and he would not be able to fight against monsters like the dwarven union in cities that they had a stronger presence in.

“Before I forget…”

While Roland ended his call with the magic cat he still needed to stay in touch with the person that introduced him to it. This person’s name was Lucille De Vere who came from quite the prestigious count family.

“Good evening Sir. Ro… I mean Sir. Wayland.”

“Good evening, hope I didn’t call at a bad time.”

While Lucille knew about his true heritage he still urged her to call him by his current alias. He had no idea if these magical instruments could be recorded by outside sources. But going by the fact that they had some type of signal that was going between them it was possible that it could be intercepted by a third party.

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“The Professor has been talking fondly of you, I never seen him so cheerful when talking about someone else!”

“Huh? Are you sure that you weren’t talking with some other talking cat?”

Roland was a bit confused as the cat never shied away from telling him how incompetent he was when it came to the basics. All the questions he posed were answered in a smug way and he started to slowly fear bringing up things that might make him seem uneducated.

This was also why he was glad that he was given so much research material to work with. With all this knowledge he hoped that the cat would finally get off his back.

“You must be joking, Sir. Wayland.”

Lucille laughed a bit while looking straight at the crystal ball before her. The picture that he was getting on his side was distorted in a sort of fish-eye lens way. This made Lucille’s nose look a bit unflattering but it also gave him a better look into the room she was staying in.

It was clear that she had relocated from the magical academy to somewhere else. This brought up a question in Roland’s mind that he had to ask.

“Did Robert finish his knight training?”

“Ah, glad that you brought that up, Sir. Robert has left for his home not so long ago, at this very moment he might already be there.”

“By home, do you mean the Arden estate?”