Chapter 200 – Buyers gathering.

“Mr. Wayland, Is this necessary?”

“Yes.”

A strange scene was playing out before a couple of auction house workers. They were tasked to help a VIP out in transporting their wares but the man in question made things difficult. Instead of letting them take the crate with the item that would be auctioned he decided to carry it himself.

Roland was somewhat nervous about this day, tonight his golem would be auctioned off. Previously he had agreed to let the people from the auction house take the crate the golem was in and transport it for him. They came with a small carriage that would be large enough to carry the crate and some people in it.

But then strange thoughts of thieves and bandits started clouding his judgment. What if something happened to the golem during transit? What if someone decided to steal it before it reached the city? He could not just let these regular workers go as the guards that were with them would probably be overpowered by silver rank adventurers.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll explain it to your boss.”

Due to the golden card that he showed at the Auction House, he was given the VIP treatment. Thus the workers that came here were scared that their employer would complain that they let an important customer do all the heavy lifting. He could only reassure them that he would not say anything to get them fired.

“Let’s go then?”

Roland asked while holding the large box in front of his body with both hands. The golem did weigh quite a bit and it would normally need two grown men but in this world of fantasy stats, it wasn’t much of a problem. If Roland really wanted he could sling it onto his shoulder and run with it.

“Take care.”

“Awooo!”

Elodia and Agni were there to see him off while Bernir remained back in the workshop. The auction would begin later at night but Roland needed to deliver the goods now. This was an important event for him so he would also stay there to explain a few things to the Lead Auctioneer.

Thus the strange group of people was off, the small carriage was occupied by Roland and the golem. He decided to sit right next to it while using the built-in radar in his runic helmet. Due to his paranoia, he decided to wear his better armor and not the half-plate. If anyone decided to ambush them for some reason he would be able to make quick work of them with the help of his attacking spells.

Of course, nothing like this happened and the dots that were on the radar never went too close to the carriage. This was probably due to it having the seal of the Valerian household. Everyone knew that nobles were very prideful if any bandit dared to attack one of their possessions they would need a quick getaway plan. One that involved hiding from oracle grade tracking magic as the high nobles would spend the extra coin to catch the thief.

Thanks to the noble prestige he was allowed to slip into the city without any need to wait in line. The soldiers just parted to the sides while some of the other carriages had to wait and be inspected. They didn’t even examine the content, they dared not to go against the symbol of power that was the Valerian noble crest.

Thus when he arrived at the Auction House he carried the crate all the way over to the check-in clerk. There he made sure that it arrived at the right VIP storage where he began unpacking.

“The Lord will be here shortly, you probably have about an hour to prepare Mr. Wayland.”

“Okay, thank you for your help.”

The previous time Roland was here there was only the chubby manager around. He had only informed him about the golem being ready and then received the date that he should deliver the goods. While normally there would be some kind of appraiser tasked with the inspection for some reason Arthur Valerian also wanted to see it.

Thus he was now here preparing for his double inspection which reminded him about the recent class change trial. There he also was graded by it while always getting low grades for his poultry design sense.

The golem was made a bit more eye-catching for the potential customers and had many more features than the old variants. For someone that was only a tier 2 runesmith this had been quite the achievement but if other people would see it the same remained to be seen.

Roland gently removed the golem from the crate that was filled out with straw. Arachnea-1 was the name that was written on the underside along with the little sun-like logo that he was using for himself. With how much people liked Solaria around here he somewhat hoped that his logo would help him piggyback from all the believers.

Just like with the other golems inside of the crate there was a handwritten manual. His drawing skills had actually improved and after getting the engineer class he was able to get the ‘artistic drawing’ skill.

Probably the main reason for getting it was the creativity skill, together with them he was able to draw up a realistic representation of the golem on paper. All of the parts were listed and explained, if the owner had any semblance of intelligence they would be able to easily control his creation.

The biggest limiting factor was the metal rod that he was holding in his hand. This was a rather inefficient way of handling the golems. It was a large headache for the craftsman that had to pre-program various commands that the owner would utter. While there was a pre-existing database it didn’t cover all the bases or types of machines.

‘I don’t think the new owner will complain too much, as long as it has all the common command words it should be fine.’

Golems were already widespread magical constructs. They were divided into some categories like battle golems and transport golems. What he only needed to do was be sure to have his creation follow what was seen as common.

If Arachnea-1 wouldn’t be able to perform a backflip it would be fine, it just needed to do what people expected from it, then if he could go above the expectations and add a few innovations it would make his product worth more. That is if the buyers didn’t find the additional functions to be useful.

For the time being his golem was a mix of a few variants but it was not really exceptional at one thing in particular. It could give long-range magical support to adventurers but there were better battle golems out there. It could use some mining attachments and carry loot but there were also better solutions for that. Even his own mule-type golem had a vastly larger capacity for carrying.

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“Maybe someone will see the collector value in it…”

Roland gave out a sigh while going through all the small parts. The inspection went by smoothly and soon he heard a commotion outside, the lord had finally arrived. The heavy footsteps of the guards that went to meet him outside were very telling.

“Good day, Mr. Wayland I see you are finished.”

Arthur Valerian was quite a handsome man, he was wearing a somewhat militaristic uniform which made him stand out from the crowd. He could already see the poor young man being sold off to some old rich noble widow if he wasn’t successful in this city.

While bad marriage prospects were mostly forced onto the women, the men weren’t that far behind. Depending on their worth they could be shoved into an unwelcome situation. This might have been his fate if he was ever deemed to remain in the old Arden estate.

He would probably be forced to become a knight and then marry some random knight’s daughter to proliferate the line. His kids than would be forced to work under the raining Arden Estate head that would be one of his older brothers. Luckily for the past few years, he was granted respite, Robert had not told his secret either.

“Good day, my lord as you can see, the golem is ready.”

Roland replied while looking at the person standing to the side of Arthur. It was the personal maid that never seemed to stray too far from him. It was clear that she served as more than just a maid. Even when the knights remained outside she was always there with him.