Chapter 88 – Unwanted sleepover.

Roland’s journey back up was mostly uneventful. The monsters at the lower levels were far too weak and his new ‘partner’ was actually being helpful. Any monster that he slew the young man was able to disassemble quite fast. He was also good at pointing out which monster parts would sell for the most coins.

There was only one downside to this as it took him more time to return. Which left Roland prompting him to hurry it up. When the two survivors were out it was already late at night. The adventurer’s guild wasn’t something that was open 24/7, mostly closing at about 10 pm. It seemed that he would have to return tomorrow to make his report.

The biggest problem was this half-dwarf that was following him around. He had a strange submissive look on his face whenever Roland looked his way. Whenever he praised him for giving him some valuable market information or about the monster parts he seemed ecstatic. It was as if the man had never been validated in his life before.

But now they were out of the dungeon he could just meet up with the guy on the next day. There wasn’t really a need to have the half-dwarf testify with him. He was mostly doing it for peace of mind, the adventurers that died could have families. They might have wished to know what happened to their dead relatives.

Roland was unfamiliar with them so the explanation would be left up to the half-dwarf. There was also the info about the rare golem that could be actually sold for money which he was aiming for. This and him slaying it could help him get through the silver rank quest if his new friend confirmed his story.

“Bernie was it? I guess I’ll see you at the adventurer’s guild tomorrow.”

“It’s Bernir… but sure thing Sir. Wayland!”

“Stop calling me Sir, I’m not a knight…”

Roland continued walking as they passed the dungeon guards. They wouldn’t really care about the report as that wasn’t their part of the job. They were only there to keep untrained people with no adventurer cards from wandering into the dungeon below.

His house was between the dungeon and the city of Albrook. It took him about thirty minutes on foot to get there from this spot, then another half an hour to get to town. The walk directly from the city took about forty minutes, his house wasn’t directly between the two landmarks.

So it was time to head back. The path towards his home split off from the main road which made his bike a bit hard to use. This time around he didn’t have it with him, it needed a larger spatial bag that was more of a backpack for him to be able to remove it. He had gone down into the dungeon thinking that he would only need to defeat a couple of tier 2 monsters.

Without his bike, he would need to make the walk back home the old fashioned way. Roland was able to test his new armor extensively and it worked a lot better than he expected. There was a bit of a lag between the runic spells activations which he would need to work on. Other than that his mana stone armor was working just fine. He didn’t get to test out some of the inbuilt attacking spells as he was trying to save up on charges.

‘If I can lower the size of these wands further, maybe if I attach them to my gauntlet or vambrace. I could use them as disposable magic tools…’

This was one of the ideas that he thought up while fighting with this armor. He remembered when he was blasting the monster from afar while using his small scrolls. His rune shrinking skill was now leveling up further. If he managed to minimize the design even further he could start adding small rods or plates with disposable runic structures. Maybe even add a holster for disposable runic scrolls for one-time use.

He wanted to design them in such a way that during a prolonged fight he could just pop a used-up plate out and insert a new one. There wouldn’t even be a need to make these ammunition type spells from better metals, he could use plain steels that would hold a couple of charges.

‘This would be good for my armor’s longevity and would cut the costs significantly…’

Roland was walking towards his house while Bernir was behind him. The half-dwarf liked to talk but it seemed that he had given up on it after Roland started thinking about improving his gear design. In reality, this wasn’t why Bernir was being quiet, he started to slowly fall behind while walking. At first, he thought that the half-dwarf was just going his own way but then he heard a thud sound behind him.

“Hm?”

After turning around to see what the noise was about. He could then see Bernir face planted on the ground with the large backpack covering most of his body.

“Hey, Bernie… are you okay?”

He called out but after a moment of silence, it was clear that his new acquaintance was far from it.

Roland moved over with haste and flopped the young man onto his back. His eyes shone with some light as he used his identification skill on him. This was the fastest way to see if something was wrong. With the new levels in this skill and after it advanced to the higher tier he was now able to see people’s MP and SP numbers.

It was clear after one glance, that Bernir had no stamina points left. He had remained silent and never asked him to take a break during the whole journey back from the dungeon.

‘Was he just being stubborn?”

Why did this guy not tell him that he was close to passing out was unclear. He might have been afraid that he would be left alone to fend for himself or he was just trying to be tough. The reason wasn’t really important, now Roland had another problem on his hands.

‘I… I can’t just leave him here… some stray monsters could get to him. I don’t have any stamina potions either…’

Bernir passed out after they walked for 15 minutes from the dungeon location. They were still close to the main road leading to the city but it was very late. Other adventurers might run into the sleeping half-dwarf but that didn’t mean that they would help him.

There were also monsters living out in these lands, the forests were dense in these parts so some of them hid there. He even ran into some low level creatures from time to time but they mostly fled from people above their level like him. They would certainly not flee from a juicy passed-out half-dwarf though.

‘Do I need to carry him back to the city?’

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Roland had the strength to carry this guy around and the backpack with no problem but going to the city like that would take some time. His own house on the other hand was fifteen minutes away from this spot. The more logical thing to do would be to take him along to his home and let him stay there for the night. But then Roland’s trust issues sprung into action once more which made him question that option.

‘Well… I could dump him into my shed … don’t think he will steal any of those old tools from it…’

After going through some options he decided to take him along towards his own house. He didn’t need to allow him to sleep in it directly as his shed was a good option. Thanks to this being a volcanic area the weather was warm, he wouldn’t freeze even when sleeping in a tool shed. The same shed that he used as a dummy workshop.

With a small nod, he decided on taking the half-dwarf with him. Normally he would sling him over his shoulder but there was still the backpack that would be in the way. He wound up putting it on his back while carrying Bernir in his hands in the front. The monster egg was in one of the side pockets of this large backpack. Roland was sure to check if it didn’t shatter during the fall and it was just fine.

‘I picked up quite the ugly princess…’

Roland groaned inwardly while walking forward. The young man that he was carrying wasn’t the prettiest and also needed a bath after what happened in that dungeon. Though he wasn’t sure if this was just Bernir natural fragrance. He was in the minority of the common people that washed themselves every day. Not everyone could fashion themselves a runic bathtub with clear magical water.

Finally after about fifteen minutes, he was back home. There were no street lights but he had a night vision rune inscribed in his helmet to help him out with that. After entering through the main gate he flopped Bernir down on the ground.