Runesmith: Chapter 157 – Runic Emporium.

“There, will you get off my back now?”

“Aye, dis will do.”

A certain large, bald guild master was frowning while looking at a smaller dwarf. Both of them didn’t seem to like each other but they were in the process of signing a contract. The two dwarves were the same that Roland had seen a few days ago and they were now looking over some signed documents.

“Good, now stop price gouging my stores.”

“Ye don’t need tae worry, dwarves aye follow a contract!”

Aurdhan gave out a snort while watching the two bearded men leave his office. He glanced at the written contracts one more time before remembering a certain runesmith that he once employed.

‘The kid should be fine.’

His eyes soon turned to a different kind of parchment. It looked somewhat strange as the paper was black as coal while the writing was white instead.

‘Seems he had a little run-in with the locals though…’

“Guild master, can I come in?”

Without answering back Aurdhan glanced at the piece of paper. In a matter of seconds, it went up in flames after he injected a tiny bit of his own mana.

“Come in.”

A certain young woman with glasses and her hair up walked into the room. Aurdhan nodded at her while handing her the contract that he signed with the dwarves. It would have to be stored down in the vault together with all the other contracts the guild had made.

“You can leave now, that will be all.”

He noticed that this guild receptionist had been taking interest in this whole case. Even now he noticed that she took a longer glance at the piece of paper. This was somewhat out of character as she was normally somewhat more professional.

‘Is there something going on between those two… well not like it matters?’

Aurdhan pulled out an empty piece of paper. This little shop enterprise that he created might have gone under but this didn’t mean that the work was done. Even though he wouldn’t be able to undercut the dwarven magic items he still had other venues he could profit from.

Then there still was the dark horse, Wayland the Runesmith. It seemed that he had followed through with his advice and would be remaining in the city even with the dwarven resistance.

Aurdhan knew how those drunks operated and they would certainly not get involved with the black market merchants. From his perspective both the regular market and black market were the same thing, one just had fewer restrictions.

‘Time to get back to work…’

While the guild master was busy with his own business Bamur and Dunan were walking back to their workshop. The two were quite happy about how they managed to handle the issue with the runesmith.

Thinking that the young human had no right to delve into something their ancestors were known for was enough to justify the actions that they took.

“That shuid dae it.”

Dunan said to Bamur while walking through the large iron door of their headquarters. The moment they entered they could feel the heat going up. Inside were various other dwarven craftsmen hammering away at various metals, shaping them into swords and axes.

“Dae ye think that ‘uman wull come tae us?”

“If he does, we’ll juist send him awa’, we don’t need him aroond ‘ere.”

Dunan replied to Bamur and the two soon went on their own way. While the two had the highest levels from the smiths here, they were still young craftsmen with a lot of pride.

This debacle had already taken away from their own work and now with it being done, they wanted to concentrate on their own craft. Thus the two delved into their own private workshops that were dug into this large building.

Dwarves liked to operate underground while being surrounded by heavy machinery and heat. The sound of hammers was like music to them and being intoxicated while working was just part of the course.

A day turned into a week and then a month had passed, this was the time for their monthly meeting to discuss how the Albrook project was underway.

“Kin we git this ower, a’m needin’ tae finish that set o’ arms.”

Dunan said in a grumpy voice while the group of dwarves sat down around a table. While he looked a bit annoyed the others weren’t saying much.

“Whit’s wrong wiyh ye, did yer mums die or something?”

“Na, we juist hud word aboot th’ ‘uman runesmith, he is actually expanding ‘n’ building a shop, it doesn’t look he is struggling at all.”

One of the dwarves that was responsible for gathering information spoke up. Dunan was the last one to come to the meeting so he was not informed about this information. From the reports that they were given the human runesmith was close to finishing building his workshop.

“Impossible, did he hae more coin than we anticipated? building a damn shop ‘n’ stocking it up shouldn’t be this easy, did th’ guild lie tae us? ur thay aye helping him git by?”

Dunan asked while the other dwarf shrugged.

“We checked, it doesn’t seem lik’ he is getting hulp fae other sources.”

The dwarves didn’t just let this slide, the moment they noticed that Wayland was doing fine they investigated. Their informants stated that neither Wayland nor his assistant was getting anything from the marketplace. The people that they knew like the other shop owners were not helping them either, he was getting his resources from an unknown place.

“Either someone is providing him th’ metal or he is usin` some auld stock tae git by, ah say we hold ‘n’ see…”

Bamur spoke out this time around. Knowing well that it would be hard to compete with runic items with a runesmith he didn’t see a way of pricing him out of business.

While he could go for the lower-level adventurers, the ones with a lot of money would not skimp out on good gear. Their lives were on the line and they knew that paying a bit more was better than being dead.

There was also the perception of price to quality that was attributed to magical weapons that Bamur knew existed. If he lowered the prices of his enchanted items people would think that there was something wrong with them. Thus before acting, they decided to wait, more information was needed.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

….

“Hm… they sure do work fast in this world…”

Roland stood before the new building that had been created in a bit over a month’s time. It looked like a nice small brick cottage with a slanted roof that made it look like a pointy triangle. There was a large round window on the upper floor where the attic was at. This place was now empty and still required furniture that would be arriving soon.

He wasn’t sure what he would do with the attic that could be accessed by an extendable ladder. The space up there had enough room for someone to sleep or it could serve as a storage facility.

The store was built into the wall that was going around Roland’s house. It wasn’t that far from the main gate and behind it was an additional storage where most of the goods would be placed.

The plan was to place the less costly items up on the display while the good stuff was placed in the back. This would keep people from touching dangerous runic weapons that could blast a hole through his store.

“Well, there she is, what a beaut.”

“She?”