The Runesmith

“I’m truly sorry Wayland, if I knew it was you, … please forgive me and these idiots!”

“Hey, who are you calling an idiot!”

“Put your head down you dimwit, do you want to die?”

Roland was now looking at the three people that attacked him. All three of the thieves turned up to be Lobelia and her friends. It seemed that the half-elven girl was actually part of the thieves guild.

“Also please don’t tell this to big sis… or that big idiot… they will kill me… uh, that is if you don’t do it now…”

Lobelia peeked her head up to look at Wayland that had lowered his hood a bit. He was still wearing his mask which would protect him from any gas attacks that these thieves could try to employ.

“I’m not going to kill you, but you’ll have to explain a few things to me…”

“Yes! I’m very good at explaining things!”

While Roland somewhat knew Lobelia he wasn’t so sure about the other two that were with her. For now, he continued to point his hand on them, a small orb of fire was still there and he had no problem in keeping it there.

“First, why did you try to rob me, didn’t you see this?”

Roland pointed to the small emblem that he was given by the bartender at the brothel. This symbol that he attached to his robe was supposed to get him through the thieves guild without a problem. After the guards saw it they did allow him to trade and the merchants didn't have a problem in interacting with him after taking a glance.

“Ah, well…”

Lobelia shifted his head to the side and glared at one of the two young men. Both of them looked to be of mixed races. One had long animal ears that made him seem similar to a fox but was lacking a tail. The other one had floppier ears that were more dog-like.

Sometimes it was hard to tell them apart but most of the time they had less animalistic features. Pure beastmen had more animal-like faces along with fur below their knees and on their forearms. Their fingers also had sharp claws or tallons depending on the beast tribe.

These two on the other hand mostly looked like regular humans with some added accessories. He could also use his analyzing skill to see their race after the scuffle they had.

“Well… that’s just a black merchant insignia… but you didn’t have any bodyguards with you, so we thought you would be an easy target.”The young man with fox ears was the one to reply.

“Renny, I told you that you got ripped off with that thing!”

Apparently, the dog boy was named Renny as the young fox man started talking to him in an angry tone.

“I’m sorry Jasper, but the magician said that it should work!”

Renny slumped his head down even more while Jasper started berating him. Roland on the other hand raised his brow and gave another question.

“That thing? Could you elaborate?”

“I’m sorry Wayland, I’ll explain, you two be quiet.”

This time around Lobelia replied and gave him a more detailed explanation. The thing that the young man was talking about was an identification eyeglass that was supposed to measure a person’s level and present their stats.

Apparently, the young thieves started examining him as he was acting a bit suspicious. The readings that the magic item gave them put him down at a lower level than them. Thus they decided to try their luck and rob him.

“We never intended to hurt you, we would have just taken the money, that’s all…”

Roland frowned but it went unnoticed as he was wearing a mask. While he believed Lobelia as he wasn’t so sure about the other two. During the fight, the half-elf did aim her bow lower towards his legs. The arrow also was coated in some kind of paralyzing agent.

The story somewhat checked out as after he was paralyzed they would be able to rob him blind. If they would have left it at that was anyone’s guess.

It did look like the item that he received from his old gnome boss was still working. It was not a runic item thus he could not examine it. From his testing, he found out that it gave various readings depending on one's skill level and even time of day.

Sometimes it showed him as a totally different class. Other times it would block out the text from showing at all while on different occasions it would present the status window all jumbled up. It appeared that for these three he showed up as a low level merchant which made him appear as an easy target.

“You didn’t think that I was wearing an item that blocks people from seeing my status?”

“It did cross our minds… but we thought that we could still escape from one person…”

Lobelia laughed a bit while slowly sitting up. Roland had slowly started moving his hand to the side as he didn’t really intend to kill these three. This didn’t mean that he would just let it be, they did try to rob him and for that, they would need to pay.

“You two can leave, but you Lobelia, we need to have a talk.”

While he was somewhat annoyed that they attacked him, it seemed like this would actually be something he could profit from. Just as he had an emblem for black market merchants these three had their own. He wasn’t quite sure what rank these three had but they were clearly members of the thieves’ guild.

“Lobelia… are you going to be alright…”

Renny asked her while looking at Roland. This didn’t go unnoticed as he realized that the two young men were somewhat apprehensive about letting Lobelia be left alone with him.

“It’s fine, I know him, I’ll be fine. Just go back and say that everything is alright.”

The two nodded and looked at Roland with a bit of a glare. This stare down he returned in full as he didn’t move his eyes away. Ever since coming to this world, Roland noticed that showing weakness would get him nowhere. Thus he kept eye contact which made Jasper the fox man flinch slightly before vanishing behind the corner.

“First… let us get out of here and then we will have a long talk…”

Lobelia gave Roland a weak smile and the two continued through the path to the nearest exit. On the wall there was a lever and after lowering it the wall shifted in a similar fashion as in the brothel. The two ended up in some kind of basement that was filled with some old tools.

“First time?”

“Is it that obvious?”

Roland replied to the question as he was clearly slow with walking up towards this strange basement. Lobelia showed him how to leave it and the two found themselves in the backyard of some house in the city.

“There are many places that are associated with the underground like this.”

“You mean the thieves’ guild, does that signify that you are part of it.”

Roland pointed to Lobelia’s emblem that was in the shape of a kite with a circle in the middle. It was different from the one that he received which meant that she was not part of the underground merchants like him now.

“You are right, this is a sign of my rank…”

Roland wanted to ask about the thieves’ guild ranking system but they were still dressed in their robes while being in someone’s backyard. The person was apparently affiliated with the guild but this didn’t mean that he wanted to stay here.

The two soon left and removed their clothes along with the emblems that were put into spatial bags. Then they went to the closest tavern as Roland insisted on getting more information from Lobelia’s lips.

While Lobelia gave out a sigh, Roland was quite happy. He had no way of knowing about the inner workings of the thieves’ guild. It was a secret organization that didn’t write down its rules but went by word of mouth. With someone that was a member here, he could get all the information that he needed. Maybe he could even use her to get a better deal on the black market.

“I won’t ask you about why you would be in a place like this… but by what you said, you would like me to not tell Elodia about it?”

“Please, don’t tell big sis!”

Before he could even ask the first question Lobelia had a loud outburst. It seemed that Elodia was her weak point, it was clear that there was something personal there which Roland didn’t really want to poke his face into. This didn’t mean that he couldn’t use this to get more info out of Lobelia.

“I won’t if you answer my questions, don’t leave anything out.”

Lobelia sat down while blushing a little bit as her outburst got some of the other tavern patrons to look their way.

“Sorry about that, what do you want to know?”

“I would like you to give me some information about the thieves’ guild and about the black market, if you’re a member you must know the people that trade there…”

Roland started with an explanation of his problem. He made Lobelia aware that he was looking into the black market for trading. He wanted to know which of the merchants were somewhat trustworthy and for what he needed to watch out for.

It was clear that he made a mistake by looking like a fish out of water the first time he was there. Thankfully the only people that came for him were guild members that he could handle. Normal people would probably not be able to fight off three tier 2 ruffians in a narrow corridor as he did.

Lobelia started listing down the guild’s secrets without going into too much detail. She also made it clear that as a guild member she was somewhat limited to what she could say.

This was similar to the contracts with the debuffs though here on the other side the thieves’ guild use more drastic measures with curses. If she started listing the names of the leaders she would find herself affected by some kind of flesh-eating curse.

The only way to get rid of this high-level curse was to move up in the ranks and become one of the trusted members. Becoming a tier 3 class holder was one of the ways of getting rid of it for good. There was also nothing limiting the thieves’ guild members from traveling, they were mostly free but just couldn’t talk about the guild to non-members.

While their lips were sealed when talking about the more intricate secrets with outsiders this didn’t keep them from discussing it among other members. Luckily Roland had acquired the black merchant emblem which would allow Lobelia to talk about it with him without being in danger of a curse backlash.

First, he got some information about the timeline. The underground had not been there for long as the construction had been started a few months ago. The black market had not even existed for longer than a month and he was informed that it was still in its infancy.

“Is that so, do you know any merchants that could take more specific custom orders? Is such a thing possible?”

“I don’t see why not, the black market isn’t really that much different than the one above ground. Perhaps the disputes are handled differently…”

“How so?”

There was less bureaucracy down there and the guild didn’t care about keeping the peace as much. All the black merchants paid taxes to the guild and mostly had to also use their own bodyguards for protection.

This was also why he was singled out from the crowd as a potential robbery target. Even if he went back to complain he would only be laughed out by the guild top brass. Then he would probably get robbed by them for being a bother.

The talk continued for a bit till it went back to the black market. There Lobelia mentioned a name that he was familiar with.

“I should trade with Skeek?”

“Definitely, those rat people like shiny things like metal and sparkly ores, that’s what you are looking for, right? If you ask him to get you something, he probably will, I wouldn’t really get involved with the other merchants, most of them are crooks. You better watch out a lot of them will try to sell you counterfeit goods.”

It was a bit strange to hear someone that tried to rob him call others crooks but apparently Skeek’s was the person he should invest his time in. The biggest downside of this whole black market deal was that he would need to do it himself. It would be hard to get Bernir down there without some protection.

“You said that a merchant needs protection down there, otherwise they could be picked off like me today, right?”

Lobelia nodded while Roland rubbed his chin and looked at her with intent. While he could probably go down there without protection this wasn’t the same for others. Bernir would be able to get him the required items if he had the right guide.

“Think I heard enough.”

“W-will you keep your word…”

“About not telling it to Elodia? Are you sure you can keep up this lie?”

Roland didn’t want to pry too much in but if he was in Elodia’s shoes he would like to know about his little sister’s involvement in the thieves guild. From his standpoint, the girl was probably afraid that she would be banned from participating in the thieves’ guild activities.

“She wouldn’t understand… we need the money and even if it does look bad, I promise that I haven’t killed anyone!”

Roland recalled the bowmanship that Elodia performed. It didn’t seem that she was aiming for a killing blow, the intent was to injure and not to kill. This didn’t mean that he was fine with what she was doing.

This world was different than his old one, his old morals didn’t really apply to people that were starving and living in poverty. It was easy to tell someone not to steal but when family and friends were on the line, the lines of what was right and wrong became blurred.

“I won’t tell her, but on one condition.”

Lobelia perked up at the first part of the sentence but her brows furrowed the moment the latter part was mentioned.

“Yes, you do remember Bernir, right?”

“You mean that perverted drunk?”

“Yes, that does sound like him, what I would like you to do is…”

Roland started giving his terms. There wasn’t really much that he wanted, Elodia was only supposed to act as Bernir’s bodyguard whenever he needed her to be. If he had a member from the thieves’ guild on his side there would be no problem in sending him to get materials.

She would also be tasked with showing him around. The whole underground life was very new to him. It would be good to figure out how things worked and how he could use it to his advantage.

This was a very critical moment in his life as he was expanding his knowledge and wealth would come with it. If he could get some protection via the local mafia then it might be a good idea to lose some gold. But if it was worth the hassle was the big question here.

From what his friend here told him, the thieves’ guild did make contracts with outsiders. If he could trade some money for their protective services and not be ripped off, then it might be a good idea. Until he got an operational golem and tower defensive system this could save him some trouble.

The biggest problem here was trust, trust that he did not really have. Would these thieves keep their end of the bargain or would they try to squeeze him for more and more cash? Would they actually get involved if he got attacked or would they just ignore his plight when the time came to act?

“I could do that but how long would that take?”

“It would be best if we didn’t need to go there too much, is once every two weeks fine?”

Lobelia nodded at the request and they shook on it. They agreed to meet up later and she would show him the ropes. Now it was time to head home as it was already nighttime. If he showed his face the guards would let him leave as they knew him well.

‘I hope this won’t be more trouble than it’s worth… I need to get stronger.”

Roland gave out a sigh while walking towards the city gates. While it seemed that he would be able to get some crafting materials, working with the black market was still not something he was looking towards.