Chapter 165: Chapter 164 – Fresh relationship.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you.”

Roland took the salt shaker that Elodia passed him and put some of it into his food. After placing it to the side the two people in the room dug into the homemade meal.

After spending most of his stay in this world eating at taverns and pubs this was certainly a nice change of pace. The food in this world lacked seasoning and the only way to go around it was to have a person with a cooking skill to prepare the meal.

The basic cooking skill was something everyone could learn but it didn’t really help out with anything. Only when it went past the basic one would it allow the user to affect the meal's taste. With a high enough skill, even food that was close to being rotten could be turned into a gourmet meal.

Elodia here was in possession of a higher-tier cooking skill. While her talents were in mathematics she actually was in possession of the Housekeeper class. This was quite the rudimentary class which allowed people to get a plethora of skills to help around the house.

It was one of the bonuses of not being given a proper combat class. Non combat-related classes like these that weren’t proper crafting classes either could be leveled up fast. They were more like side classes that gave people some quality of life skills.

They still counted as proper classes though, even when they required less experience to level, unless a person didn’t intend to go towards the crafter or combatant route, they would not change into such a class.

Elodia on the other hand was actually at a higher level than him. She had leveled many of what would be considered side classes as she was unable to get any of the harder ones. This was nothing out of the ordinary, this was actually what the majority of the commoners were.

When asked about the choice of class, Elodia explained that she mostly took it for the children. He didn’t want to dig in too deep about her past but the orphanage that she ran required someone that could turn meager food into something healthier.

Now he was profiting from her chosen skills as he could receive home-cooked meals almost every day.

The silent meal continued as both of them just ate. Roland thought back to how they ended up in this situation. It was the little things that somewhat pushed the two into each other's arms. Working together at the same spot and constantly bumping into each other while handling runic equipment was a daily occurrence.

It also helped that Bernir along with Elodia’s two siblings constantly egged the two on. After a silly misunderstanding about a marriage proposal they just went along with it. One thing led to another and the two started to slowly grow fond of each others company.

At first, Roland was against the relationship ever-blooming as he was clearly Elodia’s boss. The power imbalance was obvious here but apparently, in this world, this was a given. Unless the man wasn’t in a higher position than the woman she would not take them seriously.

Dating was also something foreign as most couples formed for the sole purpose of starting a family. This was a bit of a shock to him as he never really thought about starting one before. If he counted the years from his old world he would actually be an old man in his forties.

Now he was stuck in a young twenty-year-old’s body that was in his prime. His looks along with his current status as a Runesmith would probably allow him to experiment but he just wasn't interested in such things.

Someone more grounded like Elodia here was much of a better catch as she could help him out in ways that only a woman could. She was already taking care of a lot of orphans so there was no real push of getting any kids. It looked like a good match even though their conversations were quite basic.

“How were things at the store today?”

“It has slowed down lately but we are still making some profits but you did spend a lot on those new wind turbines… and those wall improvements… and those what do you call them… defensive turrets?”

Roland started coughing after hearing Elodia listing all of his expenses. Being that she was an accountant by class he gave her access to his expenses. He had a bad habit of almost instantly spending whatever he had earned on new materials that he still had to use the black market for.

Even though the Dwarve union was unable to price gouge him out of business they still kept him from getting access to the merchants in a normal way. This meant that he had to spend a bit more on those materials and the deliveries were also slower.

His little farmhouse was now surrounded by a large brick wall. The cactus turrets that he previously designed were spread out through this wall and pointing mostly on the inside. They were designed not to harm people that were just there to watch otherwise he would have a lot of dead customers.

“Okay we might be a little bit in the red this month but I’m sure that we’ll manage to get through it eventually…”

Elodia just raised her eyebrow at him while standing up. She grabbed his plate that was licked clean and he could have sworn that he saw her smile for a moment before turning back into mom mode.

“Wayland…”

She wanted to say something but at the last moment stopped herself.

“Never mind, I need to go to the orphanage. I'll see you tomorrow… and try to get some sleep.”

Luckily for him, Elodia was not the type to complain too much. If he asked her if there was something wrong she would tell him but she would not talk his ear off throughout the day.

“I always get enough sleep…”

He replied while also standing up, Elodia just rolled her eyes at him again while he turned his head to the side. After some team dishwashing, she made her way outside the house.

“Hold on, I’ll walk you back to the city, it’s getting late.”

It was after closing time for the shop and his new girlfriend was an easy target for any stray monster or mugger that came around these parts. Before the two started spending more time with each other Elodia tended to go home along with Korgak or anyone that replaced him.

Now she stayed longer to either cook or hand him some leftovers that she made at the orphanage. That place was still her main home and he wasn’t comfortable enough to have all of those orphans move here.

Though depending on how much leftover money from his ventures he would get, he could place another building on the empty plot of land that he bought. Before the city population exploded he did buy out the unused farmland around his house.

This land was barren and the soil wasn’t really something that could be used for cultivation. Instead, he could place a dorm-like building to move the orphans too, that is if he ever got enough gold coins to funnel into his ever-rising runic experiments. As it stood now, he was barely making it through the weeks.

“Agni can escort me, you should get some rest, I know that you didn’t get any sleep yesterday, just look at your eyes.”

Elodia shook her head while putting on her coat.

“I’m fine, I have sleep resistance, something like this doesn’t phase me at all.”

Roland smiled while flexing a bit to show off. He wasn’t lying even though he didn’t look the greatest. His body was young and healthy. Sleep wasn’t something that he needed that much and he would be fine with three hours per day.

“Stop that, you need to take better care of yourself one of these days you will collapse in that workshop of yours”

Elodia grumbled slightly and delivered a smack to Roland’s upper arm as he was showboating.

“I’ll be fine, I’m not a child.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that…”

“Woof!”

Almost on cue, Agni decided to finally show up. The adult Mystical Ruby Wolf was quite large and seemed even taller when walking next to someone like Elodia that was a head shorter than Roland.

“Okay, I’ll get some rest, I promise.”

Elodia petted Agni’s head while narrowing her eyes at Roland as she didn’t know if she could trust those words.

“Take care, call me when you get home.”

“I will.”

Before leaving Elodia moved a bit closer and looked up at Roland. After a moment of silence, he realized what it was about and leaned his head down. A little wet smooch was placed on his cheek but he also noticed her recoil slightly.

“Prickly...”

“I guess I should shave.”

He did tend to lose track of time so he didn’t have enough time to take care of his stubble. While some people liked long or short beards his new girlfriend clearly preferred when he was clean-shaven.

Roland remained in the doorway while Elodia and Agni disappeared into the forest. His tamed beast was quite intelligent and known around the city. While they wouldn’t allow him to wander into it alone, they would not attack him out in the open.

Roland crafted him a special collar with a name tag. This was so that people could identify him as a tamed beast but also acted as a shielding device and a tracker. Agni had leveled up a bit in these years so there wouldn’t be many people that could beat him easily. He was still a monster and he received a slight boost to his stats over human counterparts.

‘Do I really look that tired?’

After Elodia left he examined his face in the mirror. Maybe because he didn’t really spend that much time looking through his features he never really noticed the changes. Elodia on the other hand apparently did, this fact was somewhat embarrassing but yet endearing. Having someone that actually paid attention to him and cared was not something that he was used to that much.

‘I look fine…’

Even then he just shrugged as this was not the time for resting. He was already planning his next move that would fix all of his money problems.

Through the years he kept a close look at a certain spot in the dungeon. Luckily for him, no other person with a similar magic aptitude was able to find the runic markings that led to his next destination. This was of course the cavern where he found the precious metals when his brother visited this city.

That small pocket of treasures would be just the thing that he needed to get ahead. His wares were selling but he was certainly not the only magical smith in the city. The dwarves, the auction house, and even the adventurers guild competed with him for customers.

While he was making enough to sustain his crippling crafting addiction this was slowly reaching a boiling point. His level, knowledge, and skills were reaching a high enough level for him to take the next step and use more exotic resources.

These rare materials were required for better golems and higher grade weapons. While his runes gave him an advantage over the competition, they had better smithing resources. Bernir and Roland improved in smithing but they were nowhere near the experts that some of the dwarves were.

This gap could be closed with a rarer metal that gave a magical sword more uses. These materials would help him put the items he was making in the premium category. For now, he was a bit short of it as he was still sticking to the smelted metals in his runic smelter that to this day was seeing good use.

Roland glanced at his stats that had increased through the years. The slowdown effect was real as even though he didn’t sleep much and visited the dungeon on a semi-regular basis, he wasn't able to progress past his Runesmith Lord class yet.

The monsters in the dungeon weren’t high level enough for him to make any significant gains. The only reason he was able to come this far was through his old experience point trick.

The tier three schematics that he was given to improve upon were a major source of points. Together with his daily routine of crafting runes, working on his golem designs, and battle training, he was able to reach this point.

His skills also didn't level up as fast as they used to. The most interesting event was when he reached over two hundred intelligence points. This gave him the 'Brilliant I' Trait which increased his mana pool even further by a flat one thousand points. It also seemed to further increase his memory and aided his parallel thinking skill. There were some new runesmith-specific skills that he unlocked but for now, he needed to focus on other things.

Even though he was dissatisfied with his progress he knew that not many people in his age bracket had the stats that he did. Probably if he wasn’t incentivized to get stronger he would not have gotten past the hundredth level yet.

The boss that he met there was well past the 100th level and was not the only obstacle. He would need to battle through corridors of strange beings to first get to him. Then after defeating him he would still need to venture towards that cavern with the metals and mine them.

Depending on how long that would take him, the boss monster could respawn and pose a threat once more. He needed to account for this and plan for a prolonged dungeon dive that could even take up a week or two.

Without the nobles holding him back and a few shortcuts, he knew the journey towards the lake of lava wouldn’t take him that long. He also needed to make sure that he wasn’t spotted entering the lake. If rumors spread about a strange individual entering a secret chamber in the lake, others would come snooping around.

There was also the option of entering the cavern from the other side. This could be achieved with a degree of climbing skills that he lacked for now. In the future, he hoped to design some drones that could scale the wall and mine the resources themselves but for now, he needed to be the one to put himself in danger.

‘This is the best time to make a little venture there…’

Robert was out in the field trying to earn his stripes as a Knight. Lucille on the other hand took his advice to heart and decided to become a teacher at the magical academy. He stayed in contact with her and knew that she mostly did it to evade the ever-coming marriage proposals from young lords.

While Roland knew that Robert and Lucille had some feelings for each other, their future looked bleak. He knew that her family would probably start increasing the pressure on their daughter the longer she remained without a husband.

They would certainly not allow her to get with a third son of a baron that was only a regular knight. Unless he proved himself in some way, Robert had a hard path ahead of him. There was a certain event that was coming along that could help him with that but for someone, without much backing, it was an uphill battle.

‘I should probably worry about myself first.’

With the drone testing being done he could move along to the next phase of his plan. With long strides, he walked back into his workshop. There after a few button clicks, he was back in his old workplace.

After years of renovation, this didn’t look anything like a blacksmith workshop. Many large machines with runes on them were scattered around that made the process of crafting streamlined.

For now, he ignored all of those runic tools while going towards a different section of this underground lair. In another room that was also closed off to anyone without a key. It reacted to his mana signature and opened inside the lights slowly went on.

There right at the end stood a large metallic creation. It didn’t look like something made for combat, it was bulky and looked like someone attached legs to a boiler.

“I guess you’ll be seeing some use soon...”

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