Chapter 99 – Getting emotional.

Roland stood alone in the wide-open area surrounded by old buildings. Some of them had even caught on fire due to him swinging his fire whips around. Thus he needed to douse them with some water magic, luckily in his bag, he did have the wand he used for cleaning his house with water pressure.

‘I need to report this to the guild… along with that guy…’

He thought back to what happened today. Following Bernir’s beating, he went to the city to disperse some street justice. There he met Armand who attacked him, his reason was probably the test at the guild.

There were a couple of choices here. He could just forget about it, return home with the backpack and that would be it. With the lack of a police force fights like this mostly went unattended unless someone reported them. The party of thugs would probably do no such thing as they were the ones that started this whole predicament.

This left him or Bernir as the witnesses that would need to go to the guards to seek justice. Though after he beat up the other party already they might not even bother in following through. The city guards might even apprehend him for causing damage to the city or performing spells out in the open.

Dropping the case with those ruffians was probably the best choice considering that he did get back his items. That left the guild and Armand who was trying to defend the perpetrators. This was something that he couldn’t just look past anymore. It was clear to him that this person was not thinking straight, just tossing his weight around like he owned the place.

Armand’s level was past the 90’s, which brought him close to the next class change. Past tier 2 a person could change their classes every 25 levels just as with the tier 1 classes. The tier 2 classes could be leveled up to the 50th level. Which most people followed through as there was a certain bonus and special skills if you maxed out.

Some did switch every 25 levels though. For instance, the tier 3 Elementalist mage class required 4 classes of Fire, Wind, Earth, Ice mage to be all leveled up to at least the 25th level. There were other class combinations if a person chose to raise two of those elemental mages to level 50.

Frostfire mage, for instance, there was also supposedly a stronger ‘true’ version of the elemental mage if they managed to max out on all those tier 2 classes before the change. It would take a lot longer but the bonuses a caster would get by maxing out their levels with all the classes allowed for a prestige class. Due to how hard something like this was almost no one actually went through with it.

“Woof!”

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

Roland grasped Bernir’s large backpack and carried it over his right shoulder. It was time to return home and sleep this whole thing off.
His trip back home was luckily not as eventful as his way into the city. He evaded the pub where he fought the party of tier 2 adventurers. While moving he had to look at his armor, he had gone through quite a bit of spells in this fight.

‘Everything seems fine… the armor seems more used out in the dungeon, but the flame whips on the other hand…’

The experimental part that he used against Armand had dug through the steel prototype that he made. He had made it as a reusable part which he could replace later, the spell was on the stronger side as it pushed the capabilities of tier 2 spells to their limit. He also discovered the biggest weakness of this type of design, it was hard to replace during combat.

It was fine in a one-on-one battle but not if it continued for a long time. When the second party member arrived he needed to go back to his sword and shield. The whips would only function if he used his rune mending skill but this would bring the rank down after activation. It was a skill mostly suited for a worst-case scenario and not in day-to-day combat.

‘Unless I can implement some kind of reloading mechanism this approach might prove fatal if I rely on it too much…’

With Agni riding on his shoulder he left the city, the night had already come. With a little jolt to his helmet, he activated his night vision rune. Thanks to it he could comfortably walk without needing to carry a torch. This had the boon of people not being able to spot him from afar as he wasn’t giving off any light.

When they were close to the house Agni was placed on the ground. The little guy quickly ran out to the entry gate and started to scratch against it. He then promptly bolted inside after Roland opened it up.

“Ugh…Gahhh…”

After closing everything tight Roland heard Bernir’s screams. Concerned with his wounds he rushed inside the house only to spot Agni sitting on his chest and licking his face. The half-dwarf was trying to shove the puppy off him but was unable to escape from the long tongue and slobber.

“I see that you are awake.”

Agni finally jumped off Bernir and ran into the kitchen, from it he brought back the wooden bowl that was made for him. He tossed it on the ground and then started barking.

“Sure sure, you’ve earned your reward.”

Roland chuckled as he tossed Bernir’s backpack to the side. His tracking wolf had done quite the good job. The monster wolf’s nose was quite a miraculous thing, with his pet around he would be able to counter one of his biggest weaknesses. This was of course tracking and spotting hidden enemies.

Bernir rubbed his face that was now covered in wolf slobber. The first thing he did was to look around, after being beaten he was still surprised that he made it back to Roland’s house. He then looked at his body, his broken leg was numb from the healing potion but it was well enough for him to stand on it.

“Boss what did you…”

“Oh, yeah. I brought it back from your ‘friends’. I was sure to return the favor, they won’t be walking straight for a while. You should probably rest for the night, you can sleep on the couch if you’re too tired.”

From the way those thugs were talking about Bernir it was clear that they knew him. Roland moved to the kitchen while Bernir slowly stood up from the ground. The half-dwarf started at his backpack with intent without saying a word.

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Roland on the other hand was placing some meat on Agni’s bowl. Thanks to his runic refrigerator it was easy to store. He even constructed an oven for cooking and baking that was powered by his runic engine. After returning to the living room he spotted Bernir, the young man was holding the backpack and looking his way.

“Is something wrong? Do you need another healing potion?”

Before Roland could ask more questions Bernir’s face started contorting in strange ways. It all started with a single tear that ran down his cheek. The floodgates opened up soon after as Bernir started bawling his eyes out. Snot was not far behind as his incoherent wails filled Roland’s room.

“Wait… what…”

He started moving his hands around in a random fashion as he clearly didn’t expect to get this kind of reaction. Bernir was a young man but he didn’t expect him to cry like a child. Even Agni peeked out from the side with a large piece of meat in his mouth. He started running around the crying half-dwarf while mumbling something.

“Uhh… does it hurt that bad?”

“N-no it’s not about that… this is the first time someone has done something like this for me…”

“Ahh…”

Roland scratched the back of his neck while staring at his assistant crying his heart out. He had heard some stories from Bernir’s youth, how his parents died, and how he ended up here with no money, job or friends.

It was respectful that he was able to keep it together for so long while still having a smile on his face. He was also not someone that would blame others for the dark turn his life took. Still, he was a young man that was entering his twenties and alone in this world.

Without no one to lean on, life was tough. Not many people were like Roland that was fine with living alone. He was in the minority as people were social creatures, without others around they would find it hard to live.