“It’s hot…too hot...”

A young lady moved the collar of her robe to the side to air it out. She felt warm and sweat was slowly building upon her ivory skin.

“Charlene please, the knights might be looking…”

The girl quickly moved her hand away while looking to the side, for a moment she forgot that there were many men around this encampment that they were building.

“What are those useless knights doing, is our tent ready yet?”

After the boss chamber was cleared out the group of knights and nobles descended to the large underground volcanic area. However, they had taken quite some time to get through all the levels, mostly because a certain someone that liked to complain a lot had taken many breaks along the way.

The leader knew that everyone was getting tired. Percival decided to build an encampment not that far away from the boss chamber.

There they discovered a large cave, this area was mapped out well so after clearing out some monsters they knew that they could rest here for the night. The monsters would respawn periodically but they would not do it in areas that were populated by many people.

The noble ladies had entered the cave as it was slightly cooler than the outside. The knights were still assembling the tents along with a few porters that were carrying them around.

“Here, this should help.”

Lucille placed a small metal plate and placed it on the ground. On it, there were various runic symbols and a little circular spot in the middle. Into that spot, she inserted some kind of blue marble. The moment she did the magical device activated.

The runes started shining in a blue hue while giving off a nice cool breeze. It seemed like in a small diameter around this device the climate started changing.

“What would I do without you, Lucille!”

Charlene quickly moved over to where the plate was. Soon she looked to the side of one of the knight's that was stationed here as protection.

“Bring us some chairs!”

“Yes my lady!”

The knight nodded and quickly went outside to procure the items that the ladies wanted. Soon the two were sitting around the magical device, looking at the marble in the middle starting to dim.

“This pseudo Elakian gem won’t last for long…”

“I know, but it will take a while to connect the fluid apparatus to everything. We’ll get worse grades if we don’t prioritize our defenses first.”

Lucille replied to Charlene who was in a bad mood. Normally these two were given priority but now they were on a mission. Percival was the leader and if he continued to pamper part of his battalion the teacher from the academy might lower their grades.

The knights needed to set up the perimeter, build tents and add any fortifications that could help against a surprise monster attack. With this, the two people that couldn’t really do much were left here in the cave to their own devices. They were both mages but they were not needed there to assemble the tents.

These tents that the knights had were of the same type that the group of adventurers had. There were no actual craftsmen with them that could do any repairs. Everything would have to be done by the knights or by the people they hired to help them. The adventurers were also part of their forces and even if they acted more as scouts they could be given certain tasks without failing the test.

“GOAHHHH”

“Huh? What was that?”

“It sounded like a monster?”

The two girls looked at each other for a moment and quickly grabbed their magical staves that were placed against the wall. Following the strange sound outside they could hear that the knights were shouting out something.

“Oh… is it dead?”

When the two ladies arrived outside they found two dead volcanic salamanders. One had many stab wounds while the other a severed head.

“It’s dead? Uh, why did no one tell me?”

Charlene complained a bit while pouting. Before the girl ran outside she had fixed her hair and robe so that Lord Percival would see her at her best. With the monsters dead she would not be able to show off anymore.

“Lady Lucille, you should go back inside, it’s not safe out here.”

“Sir Robert, are you okay?”

The blue-haired girl looked at the young man from the Arden house. His silver armor was covered in some blood and so was his sword.

“Don’t worry my lady, this is only the monster’s blood, I am uninjured.”

Lucile took out a piece of cloth and moved over towards Robert. The young froze in place as the lady started rubbing the blood out of his armor.

“My Lady… you shouldn’t…”

The other knights started looking with narrowed eyes at Robert and the mage, soon enough Lord Percival arrived to scold everyone.

“All of you, get back to your posts, lady Lucile please return to the cave, someone explain to me what occurred here.”

Robert flinched and turned back to the commander, after doing a salute he gave a recount of the events that transpired here.

The two monsters crawled out of the small lava pools and attacked them. Robert managed to chop off the head of one while the other was taken out by two other knights.

“Any damages?”

“Commander… one of the monsters damaged our tents.”

“How serious is it?”

Another knight that was there came over and also started making a report. During the struggle with the volcanic salamanders, one of the tents was hit by its attack. The item was mostly intact but its runic structure was damaged so it wouldn’t be able to be operated anymore. The cooling effect wasn’t activated, sleeping in this tent had become impossible now due to the heat.

“One of our tents is already damaged so soon…”

“Lord Percival, can’t we just replace it?”

Charlene moved in from the side. Her shoulder rubbed against the lord while she batted her eyelashes in his direction. The girl wasn’t really that interested in this conversation but if the man she was eyeing as a suitor was involved she saw it as a chance.

“Yes we do but…”

Percival knew that the tent could be replaced but this was still a finite item. This was far too soon into their expedition to be losing their resources. He was already contemplating on letting more of the knights sleep in the cave instead and saving the tents for the future.

“If only we had someone able to repair it…”

Percival mumbled.

“Don’t we?”

“Lady Lucille?”

Lucille looked at Percival and then pointed out into the distance. There the two small tents of the adventurers were situated. They could also see a man dressed in crimson armor looking from afar. However the moment he was noticed he quickly made a 180-degree turn and slipped into one of the tents.

“The adventurers?”

“Yes, I’ve read their roster, that man is a Runesmith, he might be able to repair the tent!”

While most of the nobles ignored the adventurers Lucille had gone through their abilities. The guild supplied them with their names, ranks, and general skills. The man dressed in red armor was quite the particular person as his class was listed as ‘Unknown Runic Craftsman’.

“Are you sure Lady Lucille?”

“Yes, I heard one of his party members mention it, she was quite boisterous about it. That armor he is wearing is also a runic item, I’m sure that he made it himself!

“Hm…”

Percival looked to the damaged tent and then to the group of adventurers in the distance. Using their runesmith to repair the tent would not be seen as a demerit so there was no reason not to try.

“You, bring the Runesmith over, tell him to repair the tent. Report to me when he is done.”

Percival looked over to Robert that was already standing at attention when facing the expedition commander.

“Yes Sir!”

“Oh, C-can I come with?”

Before Robert could leave Lucille poked her head into the conversation. She looked to Percival for approval. The young man looked back, not sure why the young girl wanted this.

“Lady Lucille?”

“Oh, I’m interested in the runes! Aren’t they just so interesting? They are similar to the magical language in so many ways, yet also so much different…”

The girl’s eyes started shining brightly as she started talking about her love for runic items. Her blond-haired friend from the side gave out a sigh while moving over to Percival.

“Lord Percival, why don’t you allow Lady Lucille to leave, the knight will protect her.”

Charlene was quick to wrap her arm around her target while yanking him away. The man looked a bit baffled by this but he didn’t back away. People that knew the ice mage knew that she was quite the brainy type. She loved spending her time reading old texts on magic languages and spells. Even if she didn’t have the class to make them work she would study up in hopes of gathering more knowledge.

“Fine…’

Percival soon gave in to the request and Robert was left with the blue-haired lady there. The two looked at each other for a moment before Robert decided to speak up.

“My Lady, please remain close to me.”

“How reassuring but I can protect myself, Sir Robert.”

The girl raised her magical staff up and gathered up some frost elements as she showed off. Robert gave an awkward smile and the two departed towards the adventurers small encampment.

…..

‘What’s up with them?’

Roland had ducked into one of the tents that he helped set up. There was not much to it as the instructions were quite easy. He had only managed to build this one up while the other one was being fiddled on by Armand and Lobelia.

The two troublemakers started egging each other on and finally, Armand made a vow to set up the other tent himself. He was now in the back, fiddling around with the metal pipes while Lobelia continued to tease him about his slow pace.

“Oh, Mr. Wayland would you like some tea this time?”

“Oh…, no thank you, I’ll have some later, Sister Kassia.”

He and Kassia were the two people that weren’t required to be on guard duty. However, this also meant that they would be staying together in one of the tents while the other party members switched up in the other one. Roland was not really worried about having to sleep next to a rather charming woman.

No, the real problem was that she just wouldn’t stay quiet about the Sun Church. She would offer him tea and crackers but then the sermons would start. She would constantly pray and ‘praise the sun', there was almost nothing else that she wanted to talk about besides Solaria and tea.

Roland gave out a sigh while relaxing. Their encampment was a bit further away but he could clearly see the nobles. He was there when Robert defeated the Volcanic Salamander and he had to give it to his older brother, there was some talent there.

While the other knights poked the other creature to death with their longswords, Robert managed to behead it with one strong swing. It was clear that his swordsmanship was on another level compared to the other young knights.

‘I guess anger does motivate some people…’

Another memory of his brother popped into his head, one of constant training. Even though Robert didn’t have any particular gifts he did have a good training ethic. There was no day that he didn’t see him swinging his sword or doing some weight training. With the stigma of being a bastard son, he did have to prove himself more than the first and second son.

This wasn’t really time to think about the old days. Roland couldn’t remove his helmet outside but he also didn’t want to stay in the tent for too long. With this, he decided to take a step outside and help the others with the second tent as he was also worried about something going wrong.

‘Huh, you really can’t trust this guy…’

After arriving at the spot where Armand and Lobelia were he noticed that something wasn't right with their creation. The leather had not yet been placed over it so he could see the tent’s ‘skeleton’.

“These runic pathways are broken…”

He could see that the tent poles were squeezed in repeatedly into the wrong sections. Some of them were bent out of place or scratched. Runic structures had no protection against physical damage, if the metal was damaged, cut or bent too much they would stop working.

“See, I told you to be more gentle.”

Lobelia delivered a swift boot to Armand’s behind while they continued to fight.

“Can you fix it?”

Silvio asked Roland that was kneeling down and looking over the damage.

“No problem, just give me a moment…”

Roland moved his hand into the spatial bag and went digging. Soon he pulled out his hammer and a thin piece of metal. The others looked with interest, this would be the first time that they would actually see Roland do some rune smithing.

The thinner piece of metal was used to heat up the damaged parts. The sections that were heated up would be then gently struck with the face of his hammer. This hammer was somewhat smaller than his usual crafting hammer and it produced sparks fueled with mana each time it connected with the damaged part.

“Oh, that’s neat…”

With the small hits of his hammer, Roland pushed in his mana into the runic structure. When it was softened up through the use of his wand the runes were easy to mend back up into shape. In this case, he could have even used his rune mending skill, which would make the whole process a lot faster. It would be a waste of mana and resources as the structure would just degrade.

“There… this should do it… Try not to damage it again.”

“Yes Sir!”

Lobelia performed a somewhat half-hearted salute that mimicked the knights. She then turned around and invertedly collided with some chest armor. She fell back onto her posterior only to spot a rather large man looking down at her. This man was the same Knight that visited the guild the previous day and he looked grumpy as ever.

“Hey, what’s the big idea!”

Lobelia wasn’t paying attention as she was focused on Roland’s rune smithing. For someone like her that had a class with high perception, this was quite a blunder.

“Is there a problem?”

Armand appeared almost instantly and placed himself between his friend and the large man. The two had similar builds but Armand was still slightly wider while also wearing less armor.

Roland on the other hand froze in place while holding his crafting hammer. The man that he wanted to avoid was right here and it was still just the first day of the expedition.

“Fascinating! What pristine mana control!”

The silence was broken by the blue-haired ice mage that came from the noble side. She focused on the item that Roland was holding in his hand and quickly moved forward without even looking at the other people here. Robert even tried to stop her but even before he could stretch his hand out the girl was gone. There was also the problem with Armand standing in the way which increased the tensions even more.

“Is this a Runesmith’s hammer? Haven’t seen one like this before, did you make it yourself? I can see that it has some runes that help conserve and control mana, what type of mana stone is this?”

The girl moved over while constantly talking. Roland didn’t know what this was about and the girl kept looking at his hammer. He was quite surprised that she figured out what runes he was using, this wasn’t something a normal person would be able to do.

“Yes, I made it… can I help you with something?”

The moment he casually spoke out to the noble lady, Robert’s face showed a frown. Adventurers were seen as commoners so addressing a noble without the title and proper diligence was considered very rude. Thus he stepped forward but a large tanned hand held him by his shoulder.

“Hey, I’m not done talking to you!”

Armand was also not someone that held nobles in high regard, thus he had no problem stepping forward and get physical. Robert reacted by moving his hand to his hip where he had his sword and giving Armand a quick warning.

“Take your hand away or you will lose it.”

“Hah, try it, greenhorn.”

Armand was not scared, he was facing a novice knight that probably didn’t have that much experience in close-range fighting. He had already made a mistake by stepping into his range, a quick submission move would take care of his opponent swiftly.

‘What’s going on here.’

Roland started to sweat, he couldn’t really hear much as the blue-haired girl was babbling about runes without even looking back to Robert. It seemed that a fight would break out if no one did anything about it…

‘I should have never signed that contract…’