Chapter 252 – Fast progression yet again.

‘This Rapid Assembly skill is actually quite nice…’

Roland thought to himself while looking at the skill that had already leveled up to the second level. While it seemed it was poised for assembling things like golems or machinery with moving parts it also worked on his runes. It didn’t even use up that much mana but made the process of runesmithing faster by around ten percent.

‘The level up added another five percent, that would boost it up to fifty percent when I max it out…’

An increase of fifty percent was quite a large boost. This would allow him to substantially hasten the production process of all of his tools. The skill seemed to work on everything he was working on, even creating tools and weapons was included.

It was an active skill that worked in quite an interesting way. It felt as if time was slowing down around him while he concentrated on his work. He had to go through all the usual steps to create everything. Yet at the end, he would finish everything faster as if he was stopping time for a few moments.

There were similar battle skills that were like this one. It was alike bullet time in the old video games that he used to play in his old world. However this skill could not be used during combat, he actually needed to focus on crafting something. If he turned his attention elsewhere the skill would instantly be canceled.

‘I wonder… there might be a way to actually use this skill during combat…’

Roland remembered one of his traits that he could potentially use together with the assembly skill. There was a small possibility of it working but he would need to make some preparations before using it.

Then there was his other skill, Machinery Affinity which also happened to work on runic structures. Apparently, the system that ruled this reality was seeing runes as some kind of machinery or just adapting to the skills’ modern naming scheme.

This one was a bit more tricky as it had a random chance to trigger. Luckily for him, he had been given ample materials to work with. All the divine swords and spears that Arthur commissioned to be inscribed with runes were used by him for testing purposes. Perhaps it was due to the skill’s low level but only one of the items he worked on had been enhanced.

The highest value corresponded to the rune that he inscribed and it had an additional plus symbol. This was an indication that the rune had gone above its limitation and would achieve some kind of bonus. Regretfully he could not really test it out as these weapons were charge based.

They needed to be powered up by a priest before the smite spell started working. Roland was researching the crystal side of divine weaponry and the two weren’t interchangeable. He would need a whole different runic structure for it to work together with a divine crystal. If he attempted to do that he would erase a large chunk of the old rune and lose the plus bonus.

‘It should probably be more powerful or efficient in some way… I’ll need to see if I can get the same result on the regular magical runes.’

The order was now finished and the weapons only needed to be picked up by Arthur’s people. For two days he was cooped up in his workshop after returning from the underground dungeon. His workload for the entire week had been finished and his new skills and levels made it a lot faster. The constant increase in stats made things easy but this was always what happened when he reached the threshold of another tier.

Even though his level was only one hundred and forty, tier 3 was around the corner. Usually, things became easy at this point before crashing down. He was already apprehensive about the next test that he would be given. The last one made him spend multiple weeks creating strange contraptions while the one before it made him fight multiple monsters at once.

It was a given that the next trial would be the most difficult challenge that he ever faced and he needed to get ready. He was still undecided but not quite sure if he should really progress further without maxing out his current class.

‘I’ll leave that for later… now, should I prioritize leveling or do something about those turrets outside.’

It hasn’t been that long since the Abyssal Cult problem arose. While he had constructed a large wall around his house and placed defensive measures around it, there were ways of improving them. With his recent advancements in both skills and levels, his brain continued to work faster. Ideas were flooding in and perhaps now was the right time to organize everything.

The safety of his home and the people around it was important, perhaps more important than gaining levels fast. There was also a problem with his paranoia, that didn’t let him function normally. Roland didn’t want to make it too obvious for everyone and so made the dungeon visits sparse. Even with the hidden tunnel, there was a possibility that his secret grinding spot was discovered. It could be a reason for him to lose his adventurer license or be fined.

It wouldn’t even be strange to go to jail. The dungeon still belonged to the kingdom and the nobles that ran it. This discovery would fill out the Valerian household’s pockets and Arthur’s the most. If he knew that he could safely farm tier 3 monsters from a distance to gain materials then perhaps his status as a Runesmith wouldn’t protect him.

Roland was sure that the Adventurer guild would create an outpost in that secret location. They would start milking the entrance and even tier 3 adventurers would start to appear. He was in a way blocking the city from expanding further for his own selfish reasons. Yet this was the fastest way of gaining levels and valuable metals. Without proper backing, he just could not let such a chance be wasted.

‘Arthur can wait a few years before I’m done with that location…’

The metals that he gained wouldn’t be wasted as he would be making valuable items for the auction house. Arthur was still making money from the sales that he was presenting. Then he was also giving him quite the deal when inscribing runes on these divine weapons. Then there were the boxes that identified any infection that in Roland’s head justified his deception.

‘Not like anyone else wouldn’t just use that location for themselves.’

It was a cutthroat world without that many rules, he needed to look out for himself and his loved ones first. A lot of people depended on him remaining successful and running this shop and as it seemed, that number would only increase. Some of the orphans would soon be picking up some of the workload.

They would start off by doing some of the easy chores like cleaning and delivering letters but if he continued expanding then perhaps they could also start working as craftsmen. This all depended on the kid’s future classes which would be given to them at the age of ten. It would be very fortunate for them if they could be trained into blacksmiths from a young age. Even if they received a worse production class after leveling to twenty-five they could become part of his workshop if they so desired.

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“Hey boss, I’ve assembled one of the new prototypes, it’s ready to go on the wall.”

“Already?”

“He he, don’t think that you’re the only one that can work for long hours! I’ve put in some work back at the wifeys workshop, it’s not as good as this one but gets the job done.”

Roland smiled but didn’t know if he felt happy about his assistant picking up his bad habits. At least he had superior stats and vitality that allowed him to work long hours without destroying his body. Bernir on the other hand lacked in that department but he was also probably not working as much as his boss.

“Don’t overdo it.”

“Aye.”