Chapter 248 – Back in the dungeon.

“Have fun you two, but please be careful.”

“I’m always careful.”

“Aye, he’s right, it’s just his luck that is terrible.”

After receiving a smooch on the cheek from Elodia, Roland was ready for the small one-man expedition. Next to him was his canine companion that was itching to sink his teeth into some salamander meat. Ever since getting back home, Agni had become restless. It was clear that he couldn’t wait to have another adventure with his master, just the two of them as it usually was.

“Agni calm down! You’re knocking down the tools…”

“He is just excited to go outside.”

Elodia placed her hand on Agni’s head which was now covered by a silvery metallic helmet. It covered quite a bit of his head with an empty spot for the large red gem sticking out at the forehead area. His forelegs were covered by plates of metal to protect him from attacks. For his torso and belly, he had a large chainmail jacket with more armored plating for the top parts.

Normally it would be problematic to place this much armor onto a beast that relied on agility. The added weight to the legs and body would normally cause Agni to be much slower and prone to getting hit. However, thanks to all the buffing spells that the wolf-barding had, he would be even stronger. These took a set amount of MP but were worth the increase in stats. Thanks to the mystical evolution variant, mana was not a problem.

“Wish we could do something about that tail… someone could lose an eye…”

The biggest problem with his wolf was the large tail that was moving like a propeller. Whenever the wolf got excited he would cause damage to anything that was behind him. If someone was smacked by that mass of organic rubies they would be in for some damage.

“Hey boss, that thing looks a bit off… are you sure that won’t be a hindrance?”

While packing up Bernir pointed toward Roland’s shoulder-mounted cannon. It was a testing product so he decided to stick with one for now. To balance it out he had to increase the weight on his right shoulder for the time being. For a blacksmith like Bernir the added contraption threw the whole design off, it just didn’t look all that great and didn’t quite fit the aesthetic.

“When I finish testing it, we can try designing something more eye-catching, if you want you can try drawing up some schematics.”

“Schematics… hah, I’m not really good with those…”

“Well, there is always time to learn new skills.”

Usually, Roland was the one that came up with the designs and put them on paper. Then Bernir along with Dyana would give their opinions if it needed altering. His two helpers used a more hands-on approach with not planning things out.

“Hm, perhaps I’ll just make it before you come back Boss, I’d rather use my hammer.”

“If you say so, just don’t forget to finish your daily quota, we have been getting more requests lately, there have been a lot more new adventurers.”

“No problem, you’ll have a mountain of swords to inscribe runes on when you return!”

Roland smiled at Bernir who started flexing his muscles. He would not be gone for more than a week but that didn’t mean that his assistants couldn’t produce a bunch of weapons for him to work with. With their skills increasing and thanks to the runic power tools, the manufacturing process had gotten a lot faster.

“How is our new guard doing?”

“Ah, she is… trying…”

Before going towards the tunnel Roland turned his head towards Elodia. Grisalde his previous party member was on guard duty. Without her there he would not feel comfortable just leaving for a week again.

“Just tell her not to start fights with the customers, I know that she has a short fuse… and if something happens then.”

“You don’t need to worry boss, we’ll be fine.”

“That’s right, have a safe trip and please be careful.”

Both Elodia and Bernir quickly replied to stop him from talking. He had prepared some magical weapons for each one of them to use in the worst-case scenario. After hearing the same explanation multiple times, everyone was tired of hearing it.

“Is that so? Okay then, Agni let’s go.”

“AWOO!”

After hitting a few hammers from the wall stand Agni was ready for some adventure. The door shut behind the two as they entered the narrow corridor. There was not much space to maneuver which forced them to walk behind one another. It was made more difficult due to an overzealous wolf that decided to just bolt forward while leaving him behind.

“Agni…”

Roland could only sigh to himself while checking the third companion that was slowly stomping behind him. It was the same fat mule golem that he had most of his golems and utensils in.

“There he goes… I guess it’s you and me big guy.”

The golem did not reply as it just continued to lumber behind him. This golem was not alive, it was just a complicated program that responded to voice commands. Yet Roland knew that there was a possibility to make it more life-like. There were records of intelligent runic constructs in this world. If they were creatures with actual intelligence was still debatable, it could just be a very intricate program that had an answer for everything.

However, there was a possibility there. Some mages could summon creatures into this world that were able to communicate with them. Perhaps after reaching a high enough tier he could produce more intricate runes that could simulate a human brain or something close to it. If it was possible to create living organisms with the help of magic, then it should also be possible with runes.

‘Doesn’t seem like it’s that far-fetched, I wonder how much more I’ll be able to make after I figure out tier 3 rune stacking.’

This was something that he was looking forward to. For the time being, he was unable to recreate tier 3 runes even though his debugging skill still worked on them. He somewhat knew the theory behind the stacking but he could not perform this task without a higher-tier runesmithing skill. Yet considering that he was able to create tier 2 runes as a tier 1 runic blacksmith. Perhaps it would be possible to create tier 4 runes as a tier 3 class holder.

‘With tier 4 runic magic there wouldn’t be many people that could go against me… but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t possible.’

The professor at the magical academy couldn’t provide him with tier 4 runic knowledge. His knowledge ended at tier 3, without any help Roland would need to get a tier 4 rune to examine. Due to the high rarity, they had astronomical costs applied to them and the craftsmen capable of crafting them were considered geniuses. Apparently, the tier 4 structures were so complex that making one item could even take years.

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“Awoof!”

His contemplations were ended by Agni’s dog-like bark. They were at the end of the tunnel that still needed some work. The area was made a bit more spacious so that his mule golem along with Agni could stand to the side.

“This part needs some work…”

The tunnel ended with no exit, there were just magical lights pointing toward a somewhat unsuspecting-looking wall. When glancing onto his radar Roland could not see anything behind it but this was certainly the spot. To get past this point, some drilling would be needed. Without taking a break the golem was opened up and a large portable drill of immense size was taken out.