Chapter 198 – Back to work.

“Most of it looks to be in order, he is improving but there is still room for improvement.”

After practicing his new skills and taking some time to bounce back from using his new eye skill Roland was now looking over the golem parts that Bernir prepared for him. While he had not abandoned the ways of the blacksmith he somewhat preferred assembling the parts than making everything himself.

Bernir was quite skilled with his hands and had a lot of drive. It was clear that he had a chip on his shoulder and wanted to prove to the dwarves that rejected him that he could be just as good as them at crafting. His current class was Armorsmith but he was leveling up quite fast, soon he would be level hundred.

But this was not the time to worry about his assistant’s progress. He had already wasted enough time on fashioning the new smelter and running into the dungeon to get more materials. This had allowed him to level up faster but he still needed to prepare something special for the coming presentation.

The young lord seemed a bit suspicious but he was the best way of fighting back against the dwarven union. With his help they would not be able to go against him, at least not in this city. They had already wasted some profits in banning him from buying the resources that they could offer.

In reality, a more symbiotic relationship with the union would bring both parties more profits in general. Besides not earning anything from offering him base materials they were in a constant price battle with each other. This was a good thing for the adventurers that could buy cheaper magical equipment but bad for the stores and craftsmen making them.

The only reason to continue on this path was that they wanted to monopolize everything. While they could earn more by directly working with him they could get more out of it later if they managed to remove him from the chessboard. When he disappeared they could increase the prices exponentially and not one would be able to do anything about it.

“Playing the long game huh?”

Roland mumbled while placing the familiar spider golem parts on the workbench. What he was going with would be more of the same yet after going through his last class change he wasn’t sure if this would be enough. His creativity was quite generic and the number of C grades he received for his creations was staggering.

While it was clear to him that outer appearance didn’t matter that much when it concerned weapons he was still selling a product. If the golem that he created didn’t seem unique enough for the rich merchants they would probably be inclined to pay less for it.

This was not a weapon that a poor adventurer slowly saved up for, it was a premium product for the rich. His buyer base was different and he needed to think about who he was targeting this golem with. Would this be a toy a rich merchant gifted to their son or would it be something more?

He somewhat decided on this part already after giving Bernir the order to make the parts out of durasteel. This was a material that was reaching into the upper echelon of magical alloys. It could produce weapons that Gold and Platinum adventurers would use. This was in the ballpark of tier 3 which he needed to take seriously.

‘While I have to limit myself to my old design this doesn’t mean that I can’t change it…’

While some time had passed he still had enough to apply changes. This was not the time to be sloppy and he still had some leftover materials from his last dungeon run. Thus he decided to leave the completed parts here while he returned to his office to draw up some schematics.

It was somewhat a strange feeling to go through his past designs. The drawings started to lack something, he could not put his finger on it but everything started to seem bland and uninspired. Was it the effect of his new class or the skills that he picked up? He wasn’t sure but inspiration hit him hard.

The remainder of the day that he wanted to spend assembling the spider droid frame was instead spent on redrawing the golem schematics. There was much to correct and some of the parts would need to be thrown out or cut up to fit the new design he was going through.

This was not something Roland was familiar with as he found himself spending hours on the smallest details. Solutions that he didn’t previously see became quickly apparent to him as he continued to go through his old research papers. It all clicked into place and when he was giving his drawings the finishing touches he was roused from his trance by a knock on the door.

“… Are you okay?”

“Huh, what?”

It was Elodia’s voice and it was followed by Bernir.

“See, I told you he was doing fine, it’s just a blacksmith thing.”

He could hear the two talking with each other as if there was something wrong. Then he also noticed it, the whole room that he was in was a mess. There were old torn-up schematics everywhere with the new ones pinned to the board on which he finished working on.

“I’m coming in.”

Elodia opened the door that was unlocked with a concerned look on her face. Bernir peeked from behind him with a sorry look on his face, as if he was apologizing for letting her in.

“You really need to take a break, you’ve been in this room for four days, get some sleep!”

“Huh? It has been four days?”

Roland was shocked at the revelation that he had been cooped up in this workshop office for that long. There weren’t any windows here to help him tell the time and he decided to not place any clocks either. Then he had also made sure to make the walls thick enough to not let any sound in from outside as Bernir’s constant hammering could get annoying.

“Look at this place, how can you work in this kind of mess? You didn’t even eat the food I placed outside…”

Elodia looked at the room that was turned upside down, it seemed that the situation was serious as she never really came to the workshop. She knew that he liked to work long hours but even then he never spent this much time without coming out to see the light of day. It seemed that with his new class he really didn’t feel fatigued as much and only now when they mentioned it he started feeling sleepy.

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“Ah… I’m sorry I must have not heard you but I was finishing up anyway, I just need to”

“You want to continue working?”

Roland flinched a bit as he noticed the change in Elodia’s voice. Her eyes narrowed while a glare appeared over her normally cute face. It seemed that if he continued with working he would probably anger this lady. It was a strange feeling to be stared down by a small woman that shouldn’t pose any threat to his life but for some reason, he felt apologetic for making her worry.