‘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.

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... “

Roland noticed his monster's strange behavior but he soon realized what he was trying to tell him.

“Did you get the scent of the one who did this to Bernir?”

“Woof!”

At the question, Agni started bouncing around even more. He was a canine type of monster and after a couple of levels, he had earned a tracking skill as well. With his nose, it was possible to find the perpetrators of this robbery. The only problem was that there was a short window that this could be done.

The trail would go cold in a few hours and then he could only ask Bernir about it. He knew his assistant well enough now.It was probable that he wouldn’t tell him the truth about this attack.

He could have had history with the perpetrators and wouldn’t want to report this to the city watch either. The backpack was his so he didn’t owe Roland anything for it and he would probably work hard to pay back for the copper and money that was stolen.

“Now or never…”

Bernir’s situation was stabilized, the healing potions worked wonders but they wouldn’t help the injured person wake up faster. Roland also wasn’t sure if he wanted him to be awake for the thing that he was about to do.

‘I can’t handle any Tier 3’s… but if it’s only tier 2’s below the 100th level then…’

He grasped the bloodied cloth that he used to clean Bernir’s beaten-up body and looked at it. It was clear to him that the assailants could have gone back to the city. Causing a scene there would bring unwanted attention.

His reputation as a strange runesmith living in the woods made him a neutral element in the city. He felt that the adventurer’s guild would take his side if he was able to prove the theft. Bernir’s bag was something very characteristic among the guild, if the robbers had it on them, it could be the proof that he needed. Roland had told him to mark the backpack with his initials in a hard-to-find spot just for such an occasion.

Roland felt angry, he knew that the rational thing to do now would be to not do anything hasty. The backpack was an item that cost a lot of gold but it was replaceable just like the things in it. But would that approach keep him and Bernir from harm’s way in the future?

“No… this is not how this world works…”

He started going down into his workshop, his feet were slow and a myriad of thoughts was going through his head mostly telling him that this was a bad idea. Roland had hidden himself away in this house to evade trouble but even then it found him.

One good way of showing people to not trifle with him was a show of strength. Reporting it to the authorities could be a dead end as status, power and money were the only things that moved the people on the top.

If he continued to hide people would come. When it came to light that Bernir was living with him and he did nothing about this he could be seen as an easy target. Someone could decide to put that up to the test sooner or later.

Hiding his strength could backfire in the near future but having a high profile also brought in many other issues that he was trying to avoid. If he acted then the news of a particular runesmith would probably circulate through the city. He would alert everyone to his presence, if this would cause more trouble down the road remained to be seen.

He placed his helmet on his head as he was now ready. The weapons that he previously constructed were still attached to his forearms as he decided to take them along. After checking all of his gear he walked out with his shield on his back and his sword to the side. This time around he would go with the classics as a sword and shield were quite versatile against humans.

“Agni, do you still have the scent?”

“Woof!”

The wolf puppy barked and sniffed Bernir some more before charging out through the door. His master was left behind to lock up the entire house. Bernir’s life wasn’t in danger but he probably wouldn’t be waking up before this whole situation was over.

Roland’s stats were much higher than Agni’s so catching up to the puppy wasn’t hard. He saw him sniffing around and running along the usual path that they took to get to his house. There were signs of Bernir moving through here, marks of dried blood, and even where he was dragging his leg.

“This path leads to…”

They came to the fork in the road that was between his house, the dungeon, and the city. With more sniffing, Agni shot towards one of these paths that made Roland frown. He was going towards Albrook which he had hoped to avoid.

This was not a main road path but one that he and Bernir used as a shortcut. It went through the woods and was also the place of the incident. Soon both of them arrived at a spot with a lot of snapped branches and marks of battle. There were even parts of Bernir’s torn-up clothes.

While Agni continued to sniff around Roland examined the crime scene. It was clear that Bernir tried to put up a fight but there were multiple assailants.

“They must have followed him from the city and waited till he was alone, probably a tracker in the party. This isn’t that far away from the house...”

Roland felt a bit dejected that he had no idea that such a thing was happening. While he was consumed in his work Bernir was getting assaulted by someone here. He was already thinking about some sort of communication device that would alert him if something like this happened again.

“Did you get the fresh scent boy?”

Agni barked after sniffing around this area. The trail was still fresh but it went towards the city. The people that did this were probably somewhere there, this could pose a problem.

He had already decided to at least check things out, if the assailants proved too powerful he would have to let things be. On the other hand, if they weren’t, then he would have someone to take out this pent-up rage on.

The two continued all the way to the city gates which they passed now after Roland had attained his monster permit. The combination of a large man in a crimson armor and a small red puppy with a ruby tail did turn some heads. Weapons and armor were allowed so even though he had a shield and sword they weren’t taken away.

‘Where is Agni leading me to…’

They moved past the main street and into the market and continued further. He only visited the adventurers guild along with the auction house. They were going further in, into the more underdeveloped area which some might call the slums.

It was a place that people that came here with high hopes ended up when they failed. Bernir told him once that before he started working as a smith with him, he was forced to live around this area. He told him some tales of daylight robberies and thugs getting into fights. Apparently, the guards didn’t wander in here too often which led to the creation of a more lawless zone.

This was a part of this world, places like this existed in all developed cities. With time Roland also expected the thieves guild to be created if the city’s population kept increasing.

The houses became more shabby and the streets dirtier the further the two went in. Soon they ended up at a larger building with saloon-like doors. Agni started pointing with his nose inside which made Roland believe that the assailants were in there.

“In there Agni? … Good, you should go hide somewhere and don’t come out till I call for you, understood?”

Agni whined a bit but soon followed the instructions. With time he had grown into quite the well-behaved pooch. He was smart enough to realize that he would only hold his master back against the people inside. Roland watched as his Ruby wolf ducked into one of the alleyways to hide. It would be difficult to concentrate on fighting if his puppy got used as a hostage.

‘The assault happened recently, I should be able to ascertain who it was…’

He moved forward to open the door to this run-down pub. It was a seedy establishment that housed all sorts of ruffians that didn’t want to pay the market price for alcohol.

The door parted for him and revealed a somewhat large interior. People were talking and laughing loudly while drinking watered-down beer and wine. His somewhat unique appearance did raise some eyebrows as not many would be able to afford an eye-catching runic armor like he did.

While they were looking at him, he was looking at them. His eyes scanned the area for potential culprits and stopped at one of the tables. There was a group of men sitting there, they looked rough around the edges. They were clearly the ones that he was looking for as there was a particularly large backpack up against the wall next to their table.

‘All tier 2 huh? This should be manageable…’

Roland turned to them and started walking. It was time to get in some trouble.

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