Chapter 96 – Tracking down the perpetrators.

‘What’s taking him so long?’

Roland looked at the runic clock that he made in his free time. Bernir had been gone for quite some time and was running late. Roland had lost himself in runecrafting on one of his newest inventions and didn’t notice that it was already the middle of the day.

‘Did he go get drunk in a tavern or something?’

He started imagining Bernir getting a good deal of the copper and other metals that he sent him for. Roland had stated that he could use some of that money to buy the brand wine that Bernir loved so much.

While holding his new runic component that he could attach to his armor at the forearm. With the improvements to his tier he was able to work much faster even with common grade runes. The need to watch out for his mana also started to fade away.

There was no need to take long meditation breaks between rune smithing. Only when doing some large projects like his whole crimson armor would that be now a requirement. In his hands, he had two new prototypes of a new spell weapon.

The new runic weapons that he made were something he came up after remembering an old movie. It used quite a bit of mana to work but it was something to be feared. There was a possibility of shifting the tides of battle due to the unique movement and destructive power. He had already tested this design out beforehand and now he had just made it connect to his own armor and to the runic program.

‘I’ll have to give these a final test later but now…’

Roland also started to think about having a talk with Bernir about that drinking problem. It was all fun and games to look at a drunkard having fun but when it impacted their work then there was a problem.

Due to the half-dwarf not returning faster he wasn’t able to get his wind turbine up and running. Thus he shifted his attention to weapon crafting but now it was done as well and his assistant was still missing. Before he could think about a punishment he heard Agni barking out loudly.

“What is it, boy?”

The barking was quite loud and prolonged, it was clear that Agni noticed someone or something. The most obvious explanation was that it was Bernir coming back but for some reason, these barks sounded a bit different than usual.

There was no time to put on his armor at this moment but Roland didn’t like the sound of those frantic barks. It was clear that there was something off about them thus he decided to at least put on his gloves and helmet. After grabbing his sword and shield from the side he was finally ready.

“Who is it?”

Rolland called out while going outside but there was no one there, only Agni scratching at the entrance gate. After looking around for some enemies he focused on that gate and could somewhat hear something. There was a certain sound of something being dragged, this was accompanied by heavy footsteps.

There was no answer to his question instead of it a loud noise of someone hitting the ground followed by a grunt. He was momentarily stunned as he could more or less recognize to whom that grunt belonged. This also explained why Agni was scratching at the large gate door to go outside.

“What the… Bernir is that you?”

Without getting an answer he rushed outside, there he saw him. Bernir was down on the ground, his clothes torn up. The characteristic backpack that he always wore was gone. It seemed to Roland that his assistant was robbed. The surprising thing about this was that it was broad daylight and the city was more or less safe.

“Hey, can you hear me?”

Roland ran up to Bernir and handled his body gently. His assistant was breathing which was a good sign but after turning him around he frowned. Bernir’s nose was clearly broken and bloody. His lip was cut up and his face was swollen, if not treated it would balloon even more.

“Who did this to you? Were there bandits on the way here?”

His first thought was bandits as something like this would be hard to miss in the city. The guards would have at least seen him limping away and helped him to some extent. Fights broke out in the city but Bernir here was beaten half to death. Even without looking at his body he could tell that some of his bones were broken.

“Ughhh….”

There was no reply to the question, Bernir was clearly on his last breath. He probably used the last of his stamina to drag himself here, soon he would pass out.

“Shit, hold on…”

Roland placed the bloodied Bernir down gently without moving him inside of the house. It would be dangerous to carry him around without properly tending to the wounds first.

“Drink this.”

While preparing for some home invaders Roland had taken one of his storage bags with potions. He used one of the better health potions on Bernir’s wounds. He splashed one right on his face while another one was used on his banged-up leg.

That is before forcing it in the right place for the healing to start. If done incorrectly the bone would heal in the wrong place which would then have to be broken once more to heal correctly. Bernir was out cold at this point so luckily he wouldn’t need to feel the pain from having his bone set.

Only after doing this did he decide to pick him up to carry him to the house. During the whole debacle, Agni was on the side whimpering with a curled up tail.

Bernir was placed on the couch and Roland removed his clothes with the help of his knife. The clothes that he was wearing were filled with sweat and dried up blood. There was no use keeping them around.

“Damn… did they have to go this far?”

He could see many bruises on Bernir’s chest, stomach, and other vital areas.

“This doesn’t look like a bandit attack… this looks personal…”

After washing away some of that blood from his assistant’s beaten-up body Roland realized this. A bandit wouldn’t go to these lengths, they would also not leave their victim alive unless Bernir was lucky to getaway. His limp leg that seemed broken told another tale.

From what Roland was seeing it looked like Bernir was beaten up thoroughly. It was as if the person that did it had a grudge against him or wanted to pay him back for something. He didn’t really ask about his assistant’s past and he didn’t think someone like him would have many enemies.

The author’s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

These wounds were all done by fists as well. If he was robbed by some thieves, some knife cuts would be there as those types wouldn’t bother with roughing their victims up to this extent. He was also left alive, which indicated that the perpetrators didn’t fear any form of retaliation.

‘He’s not waking up any time soon… could they have been some rouge adventurers?’

Roland started to debate on who could have done such a thing but the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. After living with the silly half-dwarf for a few months the drunk had grown on him. He was his boss and a boss was someone that took care of their employees.

“Fuck…”

His fist descended on a nearby chair which turned to scrap wood in an instant. His increased strength paired up with the deep steel gauntlets that he was wearing caused fatal damage to the inanimate object.

“Bark Bark Bark!”

Agni started sniffing Bernir around and afterward, he continued to bark. He started to run around in a circle before pointing with his nose at the door as if he wanted to go out.

“What do you… “