Chapter 185 – Blasting away.

“…”

Roland rolled over to the side and looked at an unoccupied pillow. This was something that he had gotten only due to Elodia as from time to time she stayed for the night. Without her around it looked out of place but it reminded him of the previous couple of days.

Finally, after all these years he had managed to reveal his big secret to someone. This time without it being forceful like with his older brother Robert. To his surprise his partner had a little tale of her own, while it wasn’t as dramatic as his, she was still shaken up by it.

From what he could tell, the priest that Armand did a number on was probably alive. They left him beaten and bloody there but he did possess a tier 2 class. Thankfully Armand managed to get a drop on the priest that wasn’t a very physical class.

But they would probably face some charges if they were ever spotted in the region this incident happened. Elodia apparently did some digging into the issue after gaining the adventurer guild position.

To her knowledge, there was no wanted poster issued for her or for the others that came with her. There could be various reasons for that, one would be that the priest survived or that the guards didn’t bother with it. They all came from a bad neighborhood, it wouldn’t be strange if they just ignored the issue altogether.

Thus, for the most part, none of them were expecting their past to bite them in the behind. Supposedly Armand even proposed to check their old town of origin out if he ever got a job close to that area.

Elodia being Elodia, of course, thought that was a terrible idea, if the priest was alive and recognized Armand he could get into a heap of trouble. Roland had to agree with her. It would also be unwise to put a reconnaissance mission in Armand’s hands.

‘Knowing Armand he’d just attack a different priest. I think I have grown sentimental these past years…’

Normally Roland would not care if something happened to Armand but for one reason or another, the big idiot started growing on him. The two also managed to talk to each other without a fight almost breaking out.

“That’s enough moping around, I have work to do.”

After a quick roll to the side, he decided to finally get up. A busy day of crafting was before him as this would probably be the last time he was using the old smelter. Everything was ready and most of the work had been done. Now without the Orphanage problem looming over his head, he could think about other more pressing issues.

“Morning Boss.”

“Morning Bernir, hope you won’t be passing out today, I intend this to be the last time.”

Roland replied to Bernir that had recovered since passing out from heatstroke. He and his large wife were ready to do some work.

“My heat and fire resistance has gone up, you don’t have to worry about me boss!”

Bernir flexed his biceps while puffing out his chest. Dyana that was to his side rolled her eyes while pinching some of that belly fat that was on her hubby.

“It would be nice to not have to carry your passed-out body for once, think you need to stop drinking so much you are getting fat.”

Roland smiled slightly while watching the antics of these two. After the pinch Bernir was quite combative for once, he really did love drinking that was for sure.

“How could you even mention taking away my favorite pastime, don’t you have any love for your handsome husband?”

“Okay you two, save this pillow talk for your own home, let us go to work!”

While it was an interesting exchange between a married couple, there were more important things to do. After being rushed by their boss the two could not complain and they all spent the remainder of the day in the workshop.

This time around they were finally able to add the finishing touches to the new forge and smelter. Both of the new creations were made from aether durasteel with a pinch of red mythril. This combination would allow Roland to even work with actual mythril if he so desired.

“Finally it’s done, I guess your resistance did go up but we also spent less time.”

It was finally over, both his assistant and his wife were on the side. Even though they were both covered with sweat they had smiles on their faces. Just like him, they were craftsmen and for people like them, there was nothing better than seeing your creations take shape.

“This calls for a toast!”

Of course, Bernir was quick to propose a bout of drinking but for Roland, this wasn’t the end but the beginning. With the new forge and smelter now operational he could finally start improving his weapons.

Then there was the deal that he made with Arthur Valerian. While he had informed the young lord that it would take some time for him to fashion a worthy prototype he couldn’t wait too long. There was no contract between them so Arthur could pull back his support at any moment.

At minimum, he had to fashion a golem that would be worthy of the lord’s name. If he just pushed forward an inferior product his new backer could decide to make it hard for him. He was also itching to see how much gold the merchants in the city would be willing to spend for one of his creations.

Then there was the last and perhaps the most important issue, the secret chamber in the dungeon. The materials that he had unearthed from there were slowly running out. Most of it went to the new magic smelter and forge. Part of it he had to sell off to the black market as he needed money for other things.

‘I’d like to present a spider drone for the auction house, one made from aether durasteel. The current deep steel models aren’t very resistant, with some of that etherium I gathered, I’ll be able to improve on the magical output and they should be far more responsive to any commands…’

The biggest problem with his current drones was that he designed them for himself. No one could just access the runic programs via their skills as he could. The magical machines needed to be able to perform specific commands.

Luckily for him, there were some basic golem directives that he had gone through his years of research. In about a month’s time, he believed that he could produce a golemic product that would be fit for the masses.

Thus it was time to work, even though Roland wasn’t given a proper deadline he knew that making his new ‘ally’ wait would not be wise. Mary the maid would also be given some tasks to procure some products from the merchants. He was unable to create everything himself even with the ores from the dungeon.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Days turned to weeks as he continued to slave away at his workshop. Most would not believe that he was someone in the graces of the city lord as he worked as if his life depended on it.

This was all done so that he would be able to quickly get back into the dungeon below. While his resources were not quite as low yet, something else lingered in his mind. The secret chamber was hidden behind that wall and the tier 3 monster that he saw there.

If he was able to kill the monsters roaming that other dungeon, he would be able to quickly level up again. With higher levels came better skills and more strength that he needed. In his mind, unless he attained tier 3 he would continue to feel restless.

……

“You wanted to see me, boss?”

“Yes, is everyone here? Great, wait a moment, I wanted to show you something.”

After some days had passed Roland had managed to repair all of the spider drones along with the mule golem. Everything was almost ready for his second expedition where he intended to not only gather materials.

Before leaving though, he designed a few new toys for his assistant and others. Bernir, Elodia and even Dyana were here. They were all gathered in Roland’s underground workshop where he usually tested his long-ranged weaponry.

At the end of it by the wall, there were some targets made from wood. They had vague human shapes and a few circles drawn on here and there to serve as targets.

“Is that some kind of new wand? Why is it so big… and why does it have that cylinder on the side?”

All four people in the room were gathered around one table, on it there was something that the other three didn’t recognize. If a person from the world that Roland came from were here, they would quickly know what this was from how it looked.