Chapter 199 – Visiting the Auction House.

“Did I overdo it with this one?”

Roland was looking at what was his new golem. At this point in time, the golem was walking around and performing some simple tasks. Its two hands in the front were picking up wooden blocks and bringing it over to another location. While the robotic hands only had a three-digit design they could grab various objects.

In the middle of this hand, there was a focus point. That would dispense spells along with some other ones spread over its spider-like body. This golem would be considered a higher quality product due to how many runes were on it but this didn’t mean that it would sell. This only depended on the use it had for the person buying it.

When it came to the market the best model wasn’t always the one that was popular. Most people wanted the cheapest version that satisfies the given problem that they wanted to solve with the product. The golem that he produced could carry around items, mine minerals, and also protect itself.

Yet with more that he crammed into it, the more it would cost to make. Would a mining company need their golems to have attack spells inscribed on them? Most of the time the specialized products won out over the multi-purpose ones. Thus after this one was assembled he was slowly wondering if he made the mistake of not focusing on one thing.

‘It’s too late to make adjustments now…’

Roland frowned a bit after looking at the slightly larger spider golem that he had made. The more he worked on it the more improvements he wanted to give it. In the end, he produced a multipurpose spider drone that could fight monsters, mine, and be used to transport various items.

‘I might have to bite the bullet and lose some money on this one…’

This made him think of all the resources he used to build this thing. Luckily most of them came from the mining spot he discovered so even if he sold it under the market value he wouldn’t go out of business. But thanks to all of his work he did manage to improve the operating system even further.

In his hand, he was holding a control rod. It had some buttons on it but he decided to make this remote control more similar to what the people in this world were used to. It didn’t need much mana to run so it didn’t require any mana fluid. The person just needed to inject it and then speak the commands out to make the golem perform tasks. Now, what remained was to give it a nice paint job and then do the presentation at the auction house.

“Are we done, boss?”

“Mostly…”

“So if I go by this design, you want me to paint it blue?”

“Yes, just don’t paint over the eyes.”

After performing many tests to see if this prototype was working correctly it was all done. Now he just needed to fasten the bolts and hope that there would not be any problems during the auction house visit.

“So, decided on the name?”

“A name?”

Roland replied to Bernir’s question as he was moving things around to get to the blue paint. Normally a craftsman would give something like a golem a designated name. It was a new custom variant of a preexisting creation but it was different enough to even be called a new model entirely.

“Well… it looks like a spider… how about Arachnea-1?”

“Arach… what? Isn’t that some kind of monster? You sure come up with interesting names, boss.”

While arachnids existed in this world they were not classified as ones. There of course were spiders but the more scientific names that were more prevalent in his old world were different. It didn’t seem that the people from his world cared as much or perhaps they funneled most of their funding into things that could aid the war effort or battling monsters.

“Oh be quiet, don’t forget to put it in the crate when you are gone.”

“Aye.”

The painting process wouldn’t take much as it was magical in nature. The various alchemic concoctions just required a droplet to change the whole outer layer of the metal it touched to change color. What Bernir only needed to do was touch it with the minimal requirement of this liquid for his job to be done. While there was regular paint here this was much easier and at this point, Roland didn’t care about saving a few silver coins by going with the traditional paint job.

With most of the work being done now came the part that Roland was not looking forward to. He would need to inform the lord that he was finished and go down to the Auction house along with his product. Roland was fine working for long hours but when it came to socializing he just lost all of his energy.

While he had been an introvert even in his past life, his reclusive personality had gotten worse. Probably if he didn’t meet up with Bernir or Elodia he would have been living the life of a shut in. Luckily his unwillingness to work with others forced him to start his own business which he could not really do on his own. So while he did dislike it, he was aware that it was a part of life that could not be avoided.

Thus while Bernir was giving the spider golem the finishing touches he decided to pay the city a visit. His robe was in the usual spot along with his half-plate armor that he wore under it. Ever since achieving his new class he had not left his house. Elodia was busy working at the shop and Agni was with her as well.

“Are you going to the lord like that?”

Elodia was the person that gave him the better set of clothes when he met his new ‘partner’. But he didn’t feel that well wearing regular clothes that would put him at a disadvantage. Without any armor that he could inscribe runes on his capabilities to protect himself dwindled significantly.

Perhaps if he figured out the spatial runes he could somehow compartmentalize his armor into a smaller bracelet. How he would get it to spring up on his body would probably be the tough part of the design.

“He didn’t feel like the type that cared about those things that much, the deal has already been made, my clothes shouldn’t matter at this point. I’m also probably not going to meet the lord, I don’t think he spends all his time at the auction house.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“If you say so, just try not to get into any trouble.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not Armand.”

Elodia burst out into a chuckle while Roland felt a bit more relaxed at the expense of Armand’s reputation. Soon both of them said their goodbyes, Agni as always was unwilling to leave his master alone after noticing that he had finally left the workshop. But he had become too large for the city, a large Dire Wolf like him would scare the horses and people.

It was refreshing to finally get out of the workshop. Even though this was supposed to be a volcanic region they were far enough to not get any smoke. The air was nice, clean, and without any volcanic ash or sulfur mixed into it. The people at the gate were letting in merchants as usual.

‘The town sure has grown, not sure if I can call it a town anymore.’

People were now everywhere, while the rush to get a footing in Albrook had died down it only became rowdier. Everyone was working, the power structure had been established which made the workflow more streamlined. But while this might have looked like the right road towards progress he knew otherwise.

Just like in all the other cities that he had seen, the gap between people was increasing. The workers with worse classes or ones just saving up for a class change crystal were down on the bottom.