Chapter 82 – Runic Gauntlet

A certain runic craftsman was speeding back home with a large backpack strapped to his back. He was sitting on his runic bicycle to which people that were going back from the Dungeon farming still weren’t used to.

He had just gone through some of his savings to buy up crafting resources, most of them being from the top shelf and meant for people at the tier 2 classes. It wasn’t that easy to procure everything he wanted in just one day. After going back and forth several times and waiting a few days he was finally ready to give his new crafting skills a try.

Roland didn’t just sit on his hands through this time, while everything was being sorted out at the stores he was busy with his research. There was his new mending skill, he had tested its applications in combat.

It sounded really good at first, being able to repair runes on the fly was probably everyone’s wet dream that owned a limited use runic weapon. There was one big drawback, it just used up a massive amount of mana. Even with all the skills that allowed him to lower the requirements for any runic skills it took out quite a chunk.

It would certainly not be possible to just continually use this skill. There was also another problem, the runic structure degraded with each time it was mended. Roland attributed this to the skills low level. He gave it a test and after two uses a rune that was rated at ‘highest’ degraded to ‘high’.

There were some drawbacks but it would extend the uses of these runes during prolonged combat. While being a somewhat hybrid class like this Roland also intended to purchase any mana related skills that would boost his regeneration even further. The constant headaches he got when his mana ran low was something that he didn’t want to have to put up with anymore.

Then there was the upgraded version of his Runic Blacksmith’s Eyes that was the Runesmith Lord’s Eyes. The previous version only let him see some imperfections during crafting thus allowing him to be able to avoid or fix them during the crafting process. Now on the other hand this skill had more features while also retaining all of the previous benefits.

The most interesting characteristic of this skill was allowing him to peek at the inside workings of the runes. To someone new, it would look like some chicken scratch of strange symbols and numbers but he could tell that it was very similar to a programming language. Previously he was only able to work on the ‘hardware’ now on the other hand he was able to fiddle around with the ‘software’.

The strange symbols with time started making sense as they looked similar to computer code. With this skill active his runecrafting also evolved as he was able to alter this language. The biggest problem now was figuring out more of the commands that he would be able to use. His class change gave him some basics but most of it still remained to be checked.

For now, he was able to segregate this code into two sections. One was different and quite familiar to him as it was just magical language that a regular mana scribe would use for making magic scrolls. It looked like the runes also used this universal magic language in their structures but it was buried deep inside their software.

These spell structures were just regular basic spells. It wasn’t hard to figure out which parts he could copy and paste to get an effect. For instance, he was able to replace a spell structure that was for an easy light spell with one with a different color. The rest of the runic components were the same so it activated without a problem.

Previously he would need to find a corresponding rune and exchange the whole large component. Now on the other hand, he would be able to fiddle around with the code and alter it. This was possible on an already created magical item.

He had a good idea how to use such a thing in combat. If he placed a flame sword rune on his sword he might be able to change its elemental characteristic to something else. Through some changes in the coded spell, a flame sword could change into an ice sword. This would help him out tremendously against enemies with specific weaknesses.

If he ran into a monster that was resistant to fire he could just switch it to something else. It also didn’t require that much hammering and mana force to change the code, which made this plausible yet not that probable. There were certain aspects during combat that would make concentrating on changing runes quite hard. Exchanging runic code could potentially ruin the whole item if it was done in an unfocused state.

There was an option to get around that though. This would be by including more code in the rune from the start. He would need to just give a jolt into the runic system of which code he wanted to use. It would be similar to old programs from his world with pre-programmed commands. If he learned the in’s and outs of this magical programming language he might even be able to make a multi spell structure. Maybe he could switch between a massive array of spells while not having to cover his crafted items with so many runes.

While Roland’s head was filled with future research and innovations he finally arrived at his house. The backpack he was wearing was a spatial item and he needed it to be larger to insert more crafting materials into it.

After getting inside he placed his bike into his shed that he then closed up. While being here himself he wasn’t that worried if someone would try breaking in and stealing his stuff. Even less now after he crossed the tier 2 threshold. With the tier 2 boost that was above regular classes, he was already stronger than most adults in this world.

He made his way down into his workshop and started unpacking. Today he would be making a specific part of his armor, mainly the gauntlets. They would be made from a special monster leather glove that he would cover in deep steel. It wouldn’t quite reach up to his elbow as the part that covered the arms was separate.

Roland considered just purchasing a set of completed deep steel armor but the costs were quite high. This material was mostly sold with completed generic enchantments or runic ones that increased the price even more. He tried asking around but all the smithies were busy with their own work.

He would need to wait months even up to half a year to get a fresh suit of armor with no enchantments on it. Then also contend with erasing all the old enchantments which would cause loss of materials.

By making his own stuff he would also increase the levels of his skills. It was also good to train skills, with them maxed out there was a possibility for other class options being unlocked to him. Sometimes even some hidden skills required a certain skill to be at a given level before it became available.

This was also what he would be doing for a week or two. A person without any smithing skills would need a lot longer but with skills and eyes that told him where to strike it would be much easier. Though they were just fresh level 1 skills at the moment, Roland didn’t set his expectations too high.

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This would be his very first combat armor that he would make and it would also probably be the worst one that he produced. The only good part about this was that he could fiddle around with the runic programming later without much damage to the prepared armor.

After pushing his reinforced door open with one hand he was now in his workshop. To the side was a board with a diagram of his new armor. It wasn’t anything special just regular looking plate mail armor that would need an arming jacket to go with it.

This type of armor would require a lot of belts and straps to attach to his legs. It would also have some unarmored spots behind him but he was mostly looking to protect his front side. He already dreaded the thought of putting it on and off by himself but he didn’t really have a working design for anything else. Maybe in the future, he could use some kind of magnet design where the armor parts would connect to each other by magical means.

It was finally time to get to work. Roland started taking out all the parts that he would need for his gauntlet design. Most of it consisted of thinner blocks of metal akin to sheet metal but slightly thicker. With the correct design in place, he would just need to cut it into the correct shapes and then attach it to the monster leather glove.

Something like this could be bought for cheap. There were many armor designs in this world that already had gone through a lot of changes. Each blacksmith always gave their own a slightly different design but in the end, it was mostly the same type of armor. Roland was planning to go with a flame design for his, it would go well with the crimson color that he liked to use.