The Runesmith

Four guards were standing by the entrance gate to Albrook City. This gate had two large towers to its sides with even a few archers keeping watch. The whole city was still in the development phase but most of the walls that surrounded the insides were already built.

It was early in the day so there wasn’t much to do for these guardsmen. They were here to keep immigrants outside if they weren’t able to pay. Even now people kept pouring into this city in hopes of earning money and starting a new life.

Most of the heavy hitters had been entrenching themselves in the city like the adventurer guild and some wealthy merchants. It was now very difficult to start your own business without stepping on the toes of some powerful people. Which caused most of the new arrivals to search for work in some of those companies.

The day had started off slow with not many new merchants coming in but soon something interesting would come walking by. One of the guards nudged another one that was slowly dozing off on the side.

“Hey, get a load of that.”

This guard gave out a grunt as he was still a bit hungover from the day before. His vision was a bit blurry but soon it focused on the dark red blob in the distance. What the sleepy guard saw was a man in a full suit of armor.

“Wait… what is that on top of his head?”

The guard asked while squinting, the armor in itself wasn’t really that interesting. Many adventurers wore similar ones and even more extravagant looking than this one. What was out of place was a little red wolf pup sitting on this large armored man’s head. It had its head raised up high as if it was some kind of proud noble creature.

Behind this armored man, there was another person that was smaller in stature and wearing a large backpack. The guards didn’t really know who these two were, Roland’s fame was on the rise but that didn’t mean that everyone in the large growing city was aware of him. He sparsely visited the city and he also went through other armors. This new look was not something that the other residents associated him with.

Soon the strange duo with the monster puppy arrived by the gate. Normally the guards would just let Roland through without really asking any questions but this time it would be different. He was bringing in a strange creature into the city, there were certain procedures that needed to be done to allow something like this.

“Halt!”

The guard shouted which caused Roland and Bernir who was trailing a bit behind to stop.

“Is there a problem?”

Roland asked while the ‘problem’ started barking at the guards that he was talking to. Obviously, the guard that was talking to him pointed to the creature on top of his head.

This made Roland think back to about half an hour ago. He and Bernir finally decided to set off into the city but then a problem arose. The red dog wasn’t having any of it as Roland tried to lock it in his shed. It started barking around furiously the moment he closed the door. This was followed by the sounds of clawing, chewing, and metal tools falling over as the creature started running around the closed shed.

It was clear that the wolf pup didn’t want to be left in there. The other option was to leave him in the yard that was fenced off or in his house. Both options weren’t possible, the area around his house was filled with runic mines against unwanted guests. The inside of the house on the other hand would have probably been chewed to bits.

The best option would be to stick it in a small cage through which it couldn’t burst through. He didn’t have one though and smithing one into existence would take quite some time. Then finally Bernir chimed in, advising Roland to bring the dog along to the adventurer’s guild.

Monsters like this needed to be registered and examined by specialized personnel in the guild. There were classes like Tamers and Summoners that used monsters for battling purposes. Each new monster would need a permit to be allowed into the city, some that were deemed too dangerous would be banned from entering.

Roland was kind of familiar with this process due to him spending some time adventuring now. He didn’t look into it too much as he didn’t think that he would be an owner of such a monster. At most he might get his hands on a summoning spell rune that he could use for some assistance. Such runes were quite rare and could cost a small house for even a lesser version of it. Depending on the rune type the prices changed even if they were of the lesser variation.

“Do you have a license for that beast?”

The dog growled menacingly at the guard that was looking at it, but to the man, these sounds sounded rather cute.

“No, it just hatched yesterday. I want to register it at the guild.”

The guard nodded while calling out to another person. There were special people with higher level identification skills at this checkpoint. Such a person was called over to take a look at this puppy. After checking the monster’s level and stats Roland was given some paperwork to fill out.

He was a bit surprised that these people were taking things so seriously but even the smallest monster could turn out to be a calamity if it was untended. They needed to note him down as the owner, if this creature caused havoc in the city he would be held responsible and would have to pay for any damages. Then if any deaths occurred he would also be put on trial as if he was the killer.“Move along.”

Something like this would happen each time he came by, getting that license would be the only way to hasten this process. He also needed to pay a small fine for bringing in an unregistered monster into the city without a proper permit. The only reason it was allowed in was due to it being only at the first level. In this world monsters had danger levels applied to them and this creature was judged to be on the lowest of low.

“That went well, though they didn’t need to charge Mr. Wayland a whole silver coin for it, this is clear extortion!”

“Is that so?”

“Bork!”

Roland replied, his sense of money was a bit skewed compared to the other people here. He was someone that could earn something like a silver coin back with one scroll. It only took him a few minutes to get it done. He actually thought that it was quite cheap to bring in an unregistered monster like this into the city. What if it was some kind of rare poisonous creature that caused a plague?

“Quiet down you…”

The puppy raised its head high up once more. The only reason Roland allowed this dog to ride on top of his head was because otherwise, he wouldn’t shut up. He even tried placing it on his shoulder but the red ball of fuzz just wanted to be on top for some reason. Was he the wolf pup's master or was it the other way around?

The two young men continued to attract gazes from the people around them all until they arrived at the guild. Roland thanks to Bernir’s help was able to put on his suit of armor much faster, so he was now thinking that it might not be such a bad idea to get himself an assistant.

Roland pushed the door open to get inside and was greeted by the usual looks. Soon those looks turned similar to the ones that the guards showed him. The dog on top of the fully armored man’s head was clearly something unusual.

There was some luck on Roland’s side though as the usual spot at his receptionist elf lady was free. They arrived early enough for the place to be partially empty so they were first in line. He was quick to go over to the elf that gave him the silver rank test.

“Mr. Wayland, back so soon? Did you take care of the quest already? Want me to call over the butcher to go over the corpses? Oh my, what is that cute creature you have there? Why is it on top of Mr. Wayland’s head?”

The lady smiled and started going through her receptionist pitch fast before spotting the pup on top of his head. The little guy gave out a loud high pitched bark which brought even more attention to his master.

“Ah yes, there is a reason for this…”

Roland grasped the little pup with both his hands and removed it from his head. The ball of fluff was placed on the receptionist’s desk but he didn’t let it go in fear that it would just run off and cause some unnecessary damage.

“I would like to register this monster… and I would also like to make a report about the deaths of some adventurers… Bernie here was part of that party. He will tell you more about that.”

“It’s Bernir…”

The half dwarf with the large backpack stepped forward and looked at the elf lady. She nodded with her head while telling the two to wait for a moment. Soon another staff member came out and took Roland to the side. Bernir on the other hand remained with the receptionist elf to give a recount of what transpired the previous day.

“Mr. Wayland right, please follow me.”

Roland looked at the new person, it was someone that he had never seen before. The man was an old gnome similar in size to the old manager from Edelgard. He had the usual gnome beard and a monocle garnished his face.

After following the smaller gnome he found himself in a separate office.

“Please place your tamed monster on the table.”

He followed the instructions and placed the puppy on the table. The inside of this office looked a bit like a smaller veterinary clinic room. On the sides, he could see some large hand drawn anatomy drawings of strange monsters. There were also some medical instruments here and there.

“A Ruby Wolf, quite a rare find…”

Roland could see that the monocle that the man was wearing was a standard identification tool. With items like that you didn’t really need people with high identification skills. His new dog clearly didn’t like to be touched by the other man as he started to bark. The old gnome didn’t seem to care much as he continued to look over the small creature while also touching it.

“Yes… it looks fine, it has clearly imprinted itself upon you Mr. Wayland, and should stay loyal for now. Is this your first tamed monster?”

Roland nodded at the answer.

“Mhm, it happened by chance… Is there a possibility of it accepting a different owner?”

He grumbled slightly as he wanted to sell this wolf, keeping pets was never really his thing. This only brought more troubles to him as he would need to get this puppy up in levels before it became useful.

“You don’t wish to keep it? Hm… A high-ranked Tamer could probably override the imprinting but it would be hard to find such a person. The longer you wait the harder it will be, I’d advise you to keep this monster, it's a rare breed of a canine type, these types always stay loyal to their owners. Its evolutionary options should also be quite powerful if you raise it well.”

“Evolutionary options?”

“Ah, excuse me, I forgot that this is your first tamed monster, let me explain.”

Roland raised a brow at the old man that brought his attention to a diagram on the wall. On it there were various monster drawings with arrows, the first one was an egg similar to the one that this monster hound hatched from.

“These monsters begin with an egg, there are various requirements needed to be taken into consideration to have one hatched but you seem to have triggered it by luck already.”

The old man chuckled while pointing to the next drawing that was of a lizard-looking monster.

“After hatching the monster will try to form a bond with the first being it comes in contact with. When this occurs the person that the monster imprints on will be deemed as the creature's master. This allows the master to see their tamed monster’s stats thus helping them track their progress. With this, you’ll be able to plan out its evolutionary path. If for some reason a creature hatches without any person to tame it, it will become feral and just act as a regular monster.”

Roland looked at the small pup, he had previously used his identification skill to figure out its type but he wasn’t able to see detailed stats.

“I should be able to see its stats?”

“Ah yes, the first time might take time getting used to. You need to access it through your own status screen, try focusing on it.”

Roland raised an eyebrow while then bringing up his own status screen. It was easy to bring it up as it came quite naturally, he had learned this skill just by getting transported into this world and getting some of the real Roland’s memories. Now he needed to try something else but when he tried thinking about the tamed monster another window was brought up.

“Oh?”

“I see that you have figured it out.”

Roland could see all of the advanced statics of this monster. There was also something like a type attached to this puppy but no classes. This was probably due to the monster’s name containing its type which was also more or less its version of a class.

Only intelligent beings of the various races in this world were able to have classes. Monsters on the other hand would get evolutions which would always change their appearance in one way or the other. It could be something minor like a change in the color of its fur or something grand like a more than twice increase in size.

Besides the main statics, he could also see the little guy’s resistances. His resistance to the fire element was at 40% while earth was the second highest at 25%. The creature also possessed elemental affinities, he himself still had them on 0% while this little pup surpassed him in almost all of them.

Things like the elemental affinities could later be improved with further evolutions. Higher affinities would empower various skills and magic attacks for the corresponding element. It also looked like the higher tier element affinities like Lightning were not showing up at this point in time.

‘He also has some skills…’

Roland squinted at the explanation of the last skill that didn’t really add anything new. His pup already had some good skills that he could use. The discharge of flames looked like a good skill as it probably added magical properties to the attack. He wasn’t really sure about the tail attack though, the pup was a bit too small to do much damage with that ruby tip. Though it might work against smaller creatures like monster rats.

“I think we can safely give you out the license Mr. Wayland but if you wish to sell this creature it would be good to part with it now. The longer it is around you, the harder it will be to break the imprinting. I'm sure we could agree to a good price.”

“Sell it…”

Roland looked at the red puppy that stared at him back. It was as if the creature knew what the two people were talking about here. Roland could see those big puppy eyes watering up and it even started to whine.

“Don’t you look at me like that…”

The more he stared into the eyes of this small monster the harder it was to make a decision. Soon he finally spoke up while being unsure of what to do.

“I’ll think about it… for now give me the license.”

“Sure, you’ll have to fill out some papers, I’ll bring them over.”

The moment he spoke out the puppy started wiggling its rump side to side. Its ruby-tipped tail started even smacking into the table the little monster was sitting on. When the old gnome left the room the puppy decided to jump on Roland’s head once more, looking proud and victorious.

“Stop climbing on my head you red potato!”

“Borf!”

The puppy replied while Roland’s head rattled from getting his helmet hit by the puppy's ruby tail.

“Is it too late to sell it?”

“Bork!”