Chapter 67: Runist

Arthur had been very careful not to open his status all day so he could savor the changes in their full glory. But he still knew something big had happened. Whatever had clicked into place earlier that day had been tugging at him in a come-look-at-me now way.

Arthur made it back to his room without running into anyone. He sat down on his bed, took a deep breath, and pulled open his status screen.

Level 20 Teamaster

Stats:

STR 5

VIT 8

DEX 10

PER 17

WIS 25

INT 5

Unassigned Stat points: 12

Primary Skills: Teashop Brewmaster (Level 15), Food Scientist (Level 13), Medicinal Brewer (Level 15), Empathetic Host (Level 10), Comfort Baking (Level 4)

Achievements: Shop Owner, Mass Prep, Buffer Against the Wave, Whole-Body Health

There were a lot of changes, but one of them stood out like a sore thumb, demanding he deal with it first.

That’s a lot of stat points. Is it because I hit level 20? But nothing happened at other multiples of five. I’ll ask Eito about it.

Picking out where the stat points went wasn’t that hard. He wasn’t the bumbling neophyte from before. He knew that his class only directly rewarded perception and wisdom but the body stats had their benefits too. The biggest chunk of points went to the class stats while he kept a few points behind to bump up his strength and vitality.

The rest of the status screen review was pretty much as expected. Comfort baking was leveling at a pretty brisk pace, and the rest of his skills had come up nicely as well. Food Scientist was lagging behind the others a bit, but he hoped that would kick into gear during the trip. He should be able to inspect some plants on the side of the road, at least, and hopefully the distance they were traveling would mean some of those plants were novel.

He dumped his points, bringing up his stat screen one more time to take a look.

Level 20 Teamaster

Stats:

STR 8

VIT 10

DEX 10

PER 20

WIS 29

INT 5

Primary Skills: Teashop Brewmaster (Level 15), Food Scientist (Level 13), Medicinal Brewer (Level 15), Empathetic Host (Level 10), Comfort Baking (Level 4)

Achievements: Shop Owner, Mass Prep, Buffer Against the Wave, Whole-Body Health

His body stats were now high enough that he suspected he wouldn’t have to improve them again for a while. Of course, depending on how his class changed and what situations he was in, he might need to throw a few points their way. But he had asked around, and most people seemed to consider ten in the three body stats plenty for getting through their daily lives.

Wisdom increased majicka production, so almost everyone took some of that, even pure-physical warrior classes. And with the feeding directly into most of his skills, Arthur gave it a bit of extra attention.

Intelligence, on the other hand, was in a group all of its own. It would not, he was told, make him smarter. It might increase his magic resistance, but in a world where beasts and dungeon monsters couldn’t use magic, it had very little in the way of use for him. The only people who placed points in intelligence were those with a class or skill that scaled off the stat.

With his primary stats and secondary stats both buffed, Arthur felt the warm glow of becoming stronger, both physically and mentally. He decided to try and fall asleep to the afterglow of that feeling, wrapped in the care of the system like a blanket.

—

Arthur woke up to the mild dread of having to tell Ella something she probably didn’t want to hear. She was nice about almost everything, but that didn’t mean she didn’t get disappointed. Or scared. He cared about her more than almost anyone else in the demon world.

He slowly got up, got dressed, and went downstairs, hesitantly walking into the kitchen to take his Ella-might-be-sad licks.

“Oh, get in here already. Milo already told me about your trip.” She dished up a fried mixture of potatoes, eggs, and leftover scraps of bread into a bowl and slid it across the table to Arthur as he sat down. “And yes, I’m worried about it. No, it’s not a bad idea. You can go.”

“I didn’t really have time to actually ask Milo how safe or dangerous it was out there. I got a little caught up in things.”

“It’s not that bad. As a people, we only increase our territory when there’s an actual economic need to. That means everything up to the border has been fairly thoroughly pacified.”

“Except for monster waves and that sort of thing?”

“Monster waves are still a problem everywhere. You can’t stop them.”

“Hmm.” Arthur idly imagined what a real demon world frontier would look like. Somehow, he couldn’t picture it being all that bad. “I’m assuming we’re pretty far off from the next land-grab. Based on what I’ve seen outside the walls, things aren’t exactly built up.”

“No, they are.” Ella pointed at the kettle, and Arthur gulped down a few more bites of food before moving across the room to pour the boiling water out of the kettle. These days, he was better at tea than Ella was. “All the major resources outside the city are being used. Not far from the point where our ability to profit off the land stops, another city’s area begins. That’s why my husband is out in the wild. Nobody knows exactly when it will happen, but it seems like the government is preparing to incorporate another strip of land.”

“Makes sense. What happens then? Settlers just move in?”

“First there’s a pacification. They set loose all the combat classes and a bunch of support. But then, yes, new territory.” She sighed. “That’s probably where Milo will end up, one of these days. There’s too much of his father in him to not want that. Which kills me a little, but it will be good for him in the long run.”

They sat down with their food and tea, just eating for a bit while they enjoyed the early morning light peeking through the windows.

“So what’s the plan for today? Milo’s already working on finding transport, so I doubt you’ll have much more than today to prepare.”

“I need cooking stuff, for travel. I’m guessing I’ll be doing most of it in the back of a wagon, or by the side of the road. And as much as I like using wood, it won’t be practical all the time.”

“Good thinking. I know a good runist, one who you should probably be talking to anyway. He can help you with that kind of enchanted good.”

“My age?”

“No, as far as I know there are no enchanters in your age bracket. You’ll have to deal with an old timer for this, I’m afraid.”

—

The runist’s shop was simple. Beyond simple, in some ways. It was a wooden space, empty except for a few example pieces hanging on the walls and a large table that Arthur guessed served as the runist’s workspace.

“Empty, isn’t it?” the weasel said, walking slowly from behind the counter with the aid of a silver-topped cane. “An enchanter doesn’t need very much to do business. Just a silver needle, plenty of majicka, and a few books of enchantments. Otherwise, my work is brought to me.”

“You do heat sources and cooling boxes though, right? I can’t imagine you make those on a made-to-order basis.”

The weasel laughed. “No, of course not. But I do those in bulk, and move them to my warehouse out back. I have enough of them stacked up that I’ll probably never make another again, which is a relief. There’s no artistry in that work.”

“Well, I’m afraid I’m going to be pretty non-artistic as customers go, then. Because that’s the sort of thing I need. Ella sent me to get ready for a long trip to the edge of Demon territory, and I’m trying to pack light.”

The old man eyed him in a half-interested sort of way. “I didn’t take you for an explorer type.”

“I’m not. I own a tea shop. But Ella’s husband is out there recuperating, and I told Milo I’d go with him to visit.”

“Ah, the teamaster. Of course. My apologies. Of course, I’ve heard of you, but seeing you, I just assumed you were going to look... different.”

“I get that a lot.”

“Well, then. If it’s just the heating elements and cooling apparatuses, it should be pretty simple. But if you’ll allow me…” The weasel reached behind the counter and grabbed a large, leather-bound book of sorts. Slapping it down on the table, he opened it up near the middle and leafed through until he found a specific object. “This flask is interesting for trips. It keeps hot things at nearly the same temperature you put them in for hours. I’ve known people to make tea and pour it into the flask so they could have tea all day. Or to just fill it with hot water, so they could make the tea fresh whenever they wanted. I’ve even seen people pour soup into it, although that becomes a new difficulty when washing-up time comes along.”

The weasel turned out to have a lot of tricks he could do. There was the flask to keep things at temperature, which was an easy decision for Arthur, who ordered two of them. There were gloves which were enchanted to resist the conduction of heat, but thin enough to wear all day, which the weasel claimed was a real advantage during travel.

“Scrapes and little cuts add up in a jostling wagon. You can get insulated gloves cheaper, but these should last a few years and can just be part of your regular work outfit. Not worrying about burning yourself makes the work faster.”

Arthur couldn’t tell if the weasel was an exceptionally good salesman or if the prospect of magic objects was just too exciting, but the next thing he knew, they had been talking for an hour. He was about to drop a good amount of his funds on a trip, but he was still had on stacks and stacks of coins that he had no good use for. And here, in this shop, he kept finding new things that he wanted to buy.

“I think that’s about it,” the weasel said. “I can make you cups marked with runes that resist breaking, speed up the process of cleaning them, maintain the temperature of the contents within them to a reasonable extent, and self-balance, discouraging the cups from tipping over.”

“When you put it like that, it sounds pretty complicated,” Arthur said.

The weasel pulled its whiskers. “It’s really not. These kinds of combinations have been refined by various runists for centuries. It’s all one big rune, really. Not as hard as you’d imagine. But what you mentioned earlier about the floor cleaning itself, I’m afraid that isn’t possible without more expense than you’d want to pay. I’d have to etch each plank, and it’s a large enough surface area that it wouldn’t work as well as you’d like anyway.”

“What about a stonewashed countertop?”

“That’s perfectly feasible. It won’t keep it completely clean, you understand. Think self-dusting, not spill-repelling.”

“Of course.”

“It’s a shame you’re going on your trip. It’s my slow time of year. I could have given you a good deal on this much work.”

“Oh, I think I have a solution for that, too.”

Arthur had been looking for something to keep Lily busy while he was gone. She might go stir-crazy if she had nothing productive to do for the next few days. Putting her in charge of getting his shop enchanted would give her at least an hour or so a day of checking up on products. He thought that should keep her just occupied enough to take the edge off her boredom.

—

“Is the runist okay with that, Arthur?” Ella was inspecting his new travel goods, which the runist was kind enough to create on the spot.

“He said it was fine once I explained that Lily really did understand the shop and what it needed. He seems to like kids.”

“Well, I’m not going easy on him,” Lily said. “This all seems expensive.”

“It is.” Ella put the insulated travel gloves down wistfully. “Runist workers are rare. Arthur will likely only have one shot at this for a while. Do you feel up to that challenge? Making sure he gets what he needs?”

Lily puffed herself up to a slightly larger size. “Of course. Arthur, I’ll make sure he does the best enchantments. No problem.”