The Runesmith

“Hngh…”

‘What year is it? Am I really back or is this some kind of illusion?’

A disoriented Roland grasped his head which was on fire. He could barely keep one of his eyes open as the experiences that he absorbed in the trial came rushing in. This phenomenon wasn’t new to him but this time around it felt exacerbated. The trial space was a big mystery but in theory, a person’s soul was leaving their body. Then after it was finished all of the information that was gained in that space needed to be somehow transferred also into the brain and body.

This time around the transference was augmented by the fact that a change from tier 2 to tier 3 was different. While a person going from tier 1 to tier 2 wouldn’t experience any growing pains, it wasn’t the same in this case. There was a reason that people that managed to get into this rank were called the elites. Their bodies went through a drastic change as they acquired several skills that made them into enhanced superhumans.

‘It feels like I’m getting bitten by thousands of ants…’

Even with his pain resistance and resilience skills working overtime, he felt like he would pass out at any moment. Normally he would have just accepted his fate but after getting through so much time in the trial zone he was fed up with it. His stubbornness had reached a new zenith as he decided to power through the massive migraine along with the pain his whole body was going through. During the whole debacle, he could only grit his teeth and look at the screens appearing to keep himself distracted.

You have gained the Runesmith Overlord Class

You have gained the Overlord’s Organs trait.

You have gained the Overlord’s Muscles trait.

You have gained the Overlord’s Skeleton trait.

They just kept coming and he kept reading through these strange passive skills. Roland knew that something like this would have happened but he didn’t expect to see those names. Usually what a tier 3 class holder would be given were skills like ‘Advanced Skeleton’ not what he received. The probability of this just being a higher form of the same passive skill was true but he had no research or guides to confirm this claim.

You have gained the Overlords Tendons trait.

You have gained the Overlords Nervous System trait.

His whole body was changing, the moment his nervous system got enhanced he could feel the pain subsiding in a more substantial manner. It was as if it gave him some control over the pain threshold even more. His whole body was enhanced and he started to actually feel it. After the worst part was over the feeling of euphoria washed over his pain-stricken body that had gone through a change.

“Why do I feel so light…”

For the time being he ignored the other pop-up messages that this world’s game-like system was giving him. Below him, a puddle of sweat was formed along with some strange puss-like substance. Roland had heard of something like this happening but had thought it were just rumors. It seemed that some of the toxins that were stuck in his body were forcefully pushed out and after the process was over, it was as if all the build-up stress that he accumulated was gone.

“I don’t remember the last time I felt so relaxed, it’s as if I’ve finally gotten a good night's sleep in forever.”

After tirelessly working and not sleeping for more than a couple of hours a day his body was slowly deteriorating. Roland had kept ignoring it but sooner or later it would finally catch up to him. Even when there were potions to alleviate everything he was never really at a hundred percent. Now after going through the tier 3 class change, it was as if his whole body was reborn and he was given a second chance.

“...But what is that smell…”

While he felt refreshed his whole body along with the chair and ground he was sitting previously in, had been soaked by the strange body liquid. He really wanted to look over his new skills but doing it in this smelly room wasn’t optimal. There was also one other aspect of himself that he was interested in seeing as his body had gone through some changes as well. The best way to get around this would be to take a bath and take a look in the mirror.

Thus he headed out of the workshop where he activated the class crystal previously. For the time being he didn’t bother with cleaning up as he was feeling a bit frantic. His mind had not processed everything that had actually happened. The time spent in the trial area was just tremendous and he hadn’t actually realized that he didn’t really have an interaction with a real being for close to two years.

Even the walk from this workshop had him feel that it was all a dream. So much time had passed during the trial with the wooden people and then a period of learning was close to six months. There was just so much theory he needed to absorb and learn how to apply his mana to learn the new tier 3 rune crafting skills. His steps were silent and slow as in the back of his mind he dreaded that he would just wake up back in that library with more texts to go through.

“Woof!”

“Agni?”

Finally, after opening up the door, going out of the workshop, and opening it up, he heard something familiar. Before him stood a large dire wolf with a mane composed of red rubies. He looked at it and the wolf looked back without approaching for some reason. Usually, a tackle would come from the wolf side but instead, Agni was left smelling the air around his master.

“Agni!”

“Worf!?”

Roland was the first to initiate the tackle this time around. This was something that the ruby wolf was not prepared for as he recoiled in fright. The power of his grip had increased by several times so it was quite the tight squeeze. Agni started squirming around while howling and whimpering slightly. This caused Roland to quickly ease up without pulling back.

“Hah, it’s nice to see you… but I guess for you I was probably gone for a few minutes…”

The time dilation in the trial was very real. Before going in he left a little runic stopwatch running out of curiosity. While he didn’t deactivate it instantly, it seemed that the trial took less than a minute perhaps even just a few seconds considering he was shaking in pain for a bit.

“AWoooo!”

“Hey, weren’t you always the clingy one?”

To his surprise, the ruby wolf that usually liked to jump on him and lick his face was trying to pull away. It took him a moment to realize that the reason was the smell he was giving off. The clothes he was wearing were soaked in that puss-like substance that came out of his pores. It was no wonder that his wolf companion that had a more sensitive nose would be affected by it.

“Hah… fine…”

“Woof!”

It took him a lot longer than he expected to let go but Agni was finally freed. The wolf started snorting and sneezing in a silly fashion while jumping away from his master. After an audible howl, he even stormed outside as if the whole house was now some kind of breathing hazard.

“There he goes… I should really take a bath…”

Roland’s clingy behavior was attributed to not being in contact with an actual living creature in a while. His head was already filled with his other companion that he wanted to give him a big hug. Regretfully she was out while he was taking the trial and it would probably not be proper for him to run through the night to go meet up.

For a moment he actually thought about doing it but just being able to look at his home was enough for now. He was finally home and the big ordeal was over, waiting for a few more hours to meet his friends wouldn’t matter as much, and before that could happen he needed to do something about this smell. Then there was also the option of giving her a call through the crystal ball which he was planning to do after he informed himself about his new class and some more skills.

“Hm… I think I lost some body fat, my abs didn’t stick out this much before…”

After taking the bath and filling the tub with the toxic bile he was back to smelling nice. Now he was examining himself in the mirror while looking at his status screen from the corner of his eye. His body looked leaner and his muscles had increased in size slightly. Then he also noticed a slight change in his facial structure. It made him look somewhat more handsome and along with his skin clearing up, he could comfortably say that he had been upgraded in almost every aspect.

“Even my charisma has increased, could this be because the Overlord Runesmith class has high leadership requirements?”

Name

Roland Arden L 176

Classes:

T3 Runesmith Overlord L1 [ Primary ]

T2 Runesmith Lord L50 [ Tertiary ]

T2 Runic Engineer L50 [Secondary]

T1 Mage L25 [ X ]

T1 Runic Mana Scribe L 25 [ X ]

T1 Runic Blacksmith L 25 [ X ]

HP

37335/37335

MP

75312/75312

SP

51516/51516

Strength

247

Agility

Dexterity

291

Vitality

259

Endurance

289

Intelligence

340

Willpower

329

Charisma

21

Luck

12

It wasn’t such a big boost as it only went up by three stat points. Yet from what Roland knew, anything above twenty charisma put a person in the upper echelon in looks. A person with this stat wasn’t necessarily always good looking, they could also instead just have a type of presence around them. This was the case with his own father and other military personnel that could force a reaction just by their leadership skills. Considering that he had to become a lord of a whole kingdom, this made some sense.

“I think there are some charisma-related skills that become open after gaining twenty…”

There were some coercion skills that only had a charisma requirement that he could learn. Even some bartering skills could be affected by this stat and help him get better deals in the future. Yet they could also be countered by some protective charms that usually merchants could buy. Before thinking about those his gaze landed on the two main things he was going for when attempting this trial.

Runesmith Overlord

Class

This class gives a 100% bonus to HP, MP, SP. Mana cost of using runes and rune-related skills is lowered by 60%.

Tier 3 (Overlord)

Trait

Adds a multiplier of 4.5 to all of the basic stats with the exception of luck and charisma.

The first thing he looked at was his new tier 3 multiplier. Basic tier 3 classes had a multiplier of three but his overlord class increased it by fifty percent. His old Runesmith Lord class increased it by a third so this was a nice surprise. Perhaps if he had gone with the High-Lord variant the multiplier would be at four or a bit higher. This meant that for every ten points of raw stats, he would be gaining forty-five while others only gained thirty.

‘Quite the boost, considering that my previous multiplier was only at two, I’ve gained more than twice my old levels. How much would I need to equalize the stats? More than double and that’s without taking the stat growth into account.’

Besides the stat multiplier tier 3 classes gained more of them in general with each level up. Now after making some calculations in his brain he could see how people that attained them were considered the elite. With just one trial even the lesser tier 3 classes doubled their seats to their tier 2 counterparts. The discrepancy between tier 3 class holders only snowballed from the point they attained it. Even more, if they gained a prestige variant just like he did.

Almost all knowledge about these classes was hidden away for a reason, keeping the multiplier and the passives was an edge everyone wanted to have over their competition. In a world as cutthroat as this, there was no reason to make it public and the ones in power would probably not allow anything that could knock them down a peg to get out.

“The Overlord passive is just a better version of the Lord one but It’s probably not cumulative.”

Even though his old Lord class lowered the mana usage by thirty percent and this one by sixty it didn’t mean that he would get a flat ninety percent decrease. If a spell cost him a hundred mana, usually what would happen is first the active class passive of sixty percent would be counted which was forty MP. Then the secondary passive would be implemented by lowering it by another thirty percent from the forty MP. In the end, he would be left with a spell that cost twenty-eight points and not ten. Ten would be the number if it went the pure cumulative way while stat multipliers almost always affected only the base stats without taking into account any of the other skills.

“Even if it’s not a full ninety percent… this is huge and then I even got all these other skills, I can’t see myself running out of mana during combat…”

There were a few level-one skills that he received after attaining the Runesmith Overlord class. After reading some they seemed kind of broken to the point of him not knowing if there would be some side effects. Some of his old skills had also gone through changes as they attained the tier 3 realm. His runic eye of truth was upgraded into the ‘True Runic sight’ and his Runecrafting skill was changed into Expert Runecrafting which was the tier 3 version that every Advanced Runesmith had access to. Yet instead of looking at all the old skills that went through a little name change, he focused on the new ones.

Overlords Might

Active Skill

You gain the power of an Overlord, all your stats are enhanced for a period of five minutes.

Forgefire Control

Active Skill

Allows the runesmith to alter the flames in the forge to their liking, increasing or decreasing their potency to suit their craft.

Expert Forging

Passive Skill

Unlocks the expert forging techniques of the blacksmith class. Aids in managing the forge, crafting, and spotting imperfections in created items.

Rune Authority

Active Skill

Objects containing the runic language and of lesser magical languages can be controlled. An understanding of the runes being used is required to allow this skill to activate correctly.

Mana Overflow

Active Skill

Reduces the mana cost for all skills and spells by 50% and increases mana regeneration by 100% for five minutes.

Manaflow Authority

Passive Skill

Alleviates the side effects of using mana for extended periods of time. The user will not suffer any backlash unless their mana pool goes below 10%.

These were all the new skills that he could spot with a lot of the old ones just switching names to their higher tier 3 variants. The last two that looked like they would fit a rune mage more were somewhat surprising but after considering that his old Runesmith Lord class was a mix of two classes it made sense.

The Manaflow Authority one looked promising as he would not be plagued with headaches even if his man was reduced to a minimum. Then the Mana Overflow one seemed like it would allow him to become a casting fiend capable of blasting everything without the need for any restraint.

Yet this was only the beginning of his new class. Considering that he had a hundred levels to get through, it would be one that he probably was stuck with for multiple years. Some people never even managed to get past the first tier 3 class they gained so he didn’t feel like he needed to rush. With the stat multiplier and the current skills he already felt like he could probably win over anyone from that platinum adventurer party he encountered.

The deed was done, and what he had set out to do was finally achieved. Over ten years ago he set out on a journey that brought him here. The only thing that he wanted to achieve was self-sufficiency and control over his own fate. This was a giant step in this direction as no one would be able to take him lightly anymore. The prestigious variant would put him on the level of other tier 3 class holders in their two hundreds or maybe even higher. He had to consider his power skyrocketing if he was able to create the right armor from the right materials. If he also included some well-made golems, he could become a one-man army.

“I should probably not be thinking about work at a moment like this…”

After going through his status screen he instantly forgot about all the new skills he gained while focusing on the knowledge that was now in his brain. A lot more possibilities were laid before him as he could now actually create greater runes. He already had one in particular rune in mind that he wanted to make first.

However, before making the trip down to the workshop he decided to visit another room. There he got dressed only to quickly go for the inconspicuous crystal ball on the stand. Even though he wanted to just wait until the next day, just talking to someone after all the time spent was what he desired. Quickly he turned it on and waited patiently for a person to appear on it.

“Did something happen? You don’t usually call at this hour?”

“No, I just wanted to hear your voice and see your face, it has been a while…”

“A while? We saw each other yesterday, you look a bit different, or is this crystal ball faulty…”

He could see Elodia fix her glasses while squinting at the crystal ball before her. The only thing he could do was smile. Even though he gained so much power and took a giant leap forward, he was happier to just see her and be back at the place he called home.