The Runesmith

As Roland stepped in through the wooden doors of the brothel he was already happy that he had brought his new mouthguard along. People couldn’t really see it under the fabric but it was made from metal and had several runes inscribed on it.

The strong smell of cheap perfume, sweat, and something unfamiliar made him quickly inject a small amount of mana into this mask. It was a filtering rune that quickly dispatched the awful smell and filled his lungs up with fresh air.

This facemask covered both his nose and mouth. It was specifically made for the sole reason to hide his real voice and filter out poison. He was going into a place filled with rogues and he knew that those types liked to employ various poison gasses.

There were even classes that made these poison attacks more potent. The best and easiest way to protect someone from this type of attack was a gasmask. He made a smaller magical variant for himself that didn’t require him to wear an oxygen tank.

On the inside, he could hear a lot of chatting and laughing. He could see many beautiful women of various races talking to various burly-looking adventurers. There was a stark contrast between them as the men clearly didn’t bother to dress themselves well.

“Welcome weary traveler.”

While the cat lady that greeted him at the building’s entrance went away, another beauty approached him from the front. This girl looked elvish in nature but the ears were somewhat shorter. Her hair also had an uncharacteristic red color which made Roland think that she was probably a half-elf instead.

“Dear customer, you look confused, could it be your first time here? Do you wish for me to explain the rules?”

This was indeed Roland’s first time in such an establishment. Due to the amount of skin that was being shown his eyes did trace to a couple of the scantily clad women. With his new parallel thinking skill, he was actually able to get a good look at all the goods even while talking to this woman.

“Ah… not that won’t be necessary… I heard that you had a pub here?”

While this was mainly a brothel there was a smaller pub inside of it. That was where he was heading as the entrance to his destination was there.

“Would you like one of the girls to accompany you? I’m sure that such a handsome man as you would love to have some company!”

The elven woman got closer. Roland was on the taller side so while looking down he had a clear view at her rather exposed cleavage. If he had to compare the women from this world and his old one, it was obvious that the ones here outranked them by several points.

To this moment he had never seen a bad-looking elf or half-elf. Even the average human would be above average if they visited his old world. He had to attribute that to the stats like charisma that probably made everyone somewhat more attractive if they leveled up.

“No, that's fine, I just need something to drink.”

After a little back and forth he had managed to shake the half-elven hostess and arrived at the bar. Inside of it, he could see some patrons having their drinks poured to them by beauties. It was hard not to notice one of these clients as he stuck out like a sore thumb.

“You’re so strong, Armand~!”

A catgirl was poking Roland’s favorite idiot friend's biceps while he was flexing without a shirt. His face was flushed red so it was clear that he was fully drunk and probably under the effect of some of the aphrodisiacs.

Luckily for him, he was far too busy with what he was doing to notice Roland walking in. After passing some of the drunks he arrived at the bar counter where he sat down.

“What will it be, honey?”

“...”

He looked over to the ‘bartender’ he needed to do a double-take as the person behind him was quite the muscular man. This wasn’t the reason why he was taken aback, the reason was that this man had an awful large amount of makeup on his face. Rosy cheeks, red lipstick, and fake eyelashes.

Then to top it all off he was wearing a one-piece dress with open shoulders. His arms were thick as a tree trunk and he could give the adventure guild master a run for his money.

“Oh, are you a shy boy? I love shy boys. What will it be?”

The bartender giggled like a little girl while leaning in. The moment he did Roland could notice his five o'clock shadow.

“Ah yes… I’m not really here to drink… I seek the passage below…”

“Passage? What do you mean cutie? I’m not sure I understand.”

Roland was not beginning to doubt the letter that he received but it was hard to turn back now. While the bartender ‘lady’ was playing dumb she could have just been warry of people that would come to disturb the guild. This is also why he leaned in so that no one else would hear the password that he was supposed to say.

“...the password is Schwertfisch…”

He felt a bit silly saying it while trying to not stick out. But this was all according to the guild master’s instructions along with the crumpled-up paper. He was supposed to get the password and just tell it to the bartender in this brothel. If this turned up to be some elaborate joke, on the other hand, he would probably have a bad day.

“Oh, haven’t heard that one in a while, do you have the entry fee, sugar?”

Luckily for him, the exchange was going through just as the guild master explained to him. The password that he was given identified him as a newbie black merchant, not as a guild member. It was more of an introduction to the guild and he would need to pay the price to enter inside.

“Of course.”

He placed five small gold coins on the counter and the large person quickly swiped it. Roland wasn’t sure where his gold disappeared to but it was apparent that this bartender was not simple.

This fee was steep but it identified him as a potential black market merchant. The actual thieves that wished to join the guild would go through different testing methods. He on the other hand would be seen as a potential business partner. The coins were there to show that he actually had enough money to use their services.

“Rica, take over, I’ll be back in a moment.”

The bartender was replaced by a tall lady with long white rabbit ears while the man in the dress started leaving. Roland followed behind him and the two entered the back room of this pub.

There was a long corridor through which he went through. There were several tired-looking women smoking cigarettes and putting on various lingerie inside. It looked like this was the dressing room for the working ladies and it reminded him of the backroom of strip clubs from his old world.

At the end of the corridor was a door and before it stood a somewhat imposing-looking man. With the bartender leading him there the man just stepped to the side and both of them descended into this room.

The inside was dark and the smell of booze-filled his nostrils. It seemed that they had entered a wine cellar as there were many bottles and barrels with alcohol everywhere.

“Now listen sugar, I’m not sure who gave you the invitation but you’ll be on your own when you go inside, try not to start trouble or you might regret it~”

Roland nodded as the large man in a dress gave him some pointers. The two arrived at the end of the wine cellar and after pushing one of the bricks in a mechanism was turned on. The wall started to slowly spin and another path was revealed to him.

“Well, good luck~”

“Wait… aren’t you forgetting something?”

Roland asked as the words of the guild master were still stuck in his head. He clearly told him that the person at this pub was supposed to hand him something, something that was paramount to his visit down there.

“Oh, did little me forget something? I don’t think so.”

The man tried playing cute but Roland could see his muscular body getting stiff. It was clear that he was getting ready for battle. Without backing down though he stuck out his hand as if he wanted the item that he was owed.

“Don’t play stupid, I paid for it… are we going to have a problem?”

The two people began staring at each other without saying anything. It looked as if a fight could break out at a drop of a hat. Roland did come with a sword strapped to his side but even without it, he could activate various spells almost instantly.

“Ho ho ho, I was just being silly sugar, here you go~”

The large man that continued to talk like a young girl finally gave in. After a moment he took out an emblem that looked like a triangle with an eye above it. This was the symbol of the underground merchants which he would need if he actually wanted to trade here.

If he entered there without it, he would be able to go around but no one would actually trade with him. Then he would also not be able to return without paying another five small gold coins.

The guild master warned him that the gatekeeper could decide to test him. This was something that he needed to watch out for as there were few rules that these criminals adhered to.

While he told him that no fight should break out, this depended on his deposition. If the large dress-wearing man thought that he was easy prey he would have probably robbed him blind here and there.

Roland quickly swiped the symbol and entered through the opened passage. As it closed behind him he could see his guide smiling and sending a flying kiss towards him. If not for his masked face his frown would be noticed quite fast.

‘Everything is going according to plan… at least somewhat.’

The corridor that he was in now was lit up with some torches on the side. He placed his hands on the walls and could instantly tell that they were hardened through some magic. It felt like this passage was constructed recently.

He continued further and his narrower corridor connected to a larger one. This larger one looked to be the main space and also the gathering spot. There were many other passages connecting to it that he could see. These were coming from other similar locations like the brothel that he came from.

While he was looking around he noticed someone walking through one of the other smaller corridors. The person was dressed up in similar black robes as him but instead of a mouth mask, he or she had a full face mask.

Without introducing themselves the person just passed by him and continued on their way. The way that this person was holding their hand to their hip didn’t go unnoticed though. There Roland saw a dagger strapped onto a belt, the person was clearly wary of him and ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

‘I need to watch myself, this could quickly turn sour if I don’t pay attention.’

This made him be more on his toes. He was now underground in the city where the laws didn’t reach. It was probably a daily occurrence for the people down here to end up dead and never to be seen again if they offended the wrong person.

He continued through the larger passage and soon he could spot more robed people. Some were hiding their faces while others didn’t seem to care. It became louder and louder the more he continued. Then after about five minutes of walking, he found out where the voices were coming from.

It was a large underground cave with various small wooden shacks placed all over it. In these shacks, he could see people peddling their wares. Some had weapons, others had various gems and then others some peculiar-looking potions.

This was the underground marketplace that he had heard about. From what he knew, these kinds of places existed all over the kingdom and their scope increased depending on the city they were placed in.

While he was at first confused about how something like this could exist under the city, he realized that something was off. The crummy shacks looked hastily put together and the ceiling support pillars were even being worked on as he was looking.

It seemed that this underground black market had been hastily put together and it had not yet taken its final form. This made a lot of sense as Albrook was still in the process of developing itself.

‘Okay, I’m here… what now?’

While he had arrived in this place Roland was not sure how he should approach the black market merchants. It didn’t seem like the people here cared that he was here, mostly they were just annoyed due to him just standing there and looking at everything.

It would have been nice to have some kind of guide to show him around but it didn’t seem that there was such a convenient person around here. Though after further investigation he noticed a blackboard with some words written on them along with a sort of map.When he approached it he realized that it was a conveniently drawn layout of this underground. There was the large corridor that he came from and the name ‘Hall of Heavenly Delights’ was written over one of the buildings which were represented by a rectangle shape.

This was quite handy as now he also discovered a few other places that were connected to this underground area. One was the brothel, another was an inn that he knew and then the third one was the tavern that he had the scuffle with that adventurer party.

It seemed that he would probably be able to get here through one of the three. Some of the exits were also marked there but they were in other locations. Apparently, one was not supposed to leave the same way that they came in. The guild master had mentioned something like that and Roland now looked to the passage that would take him to the exit.

With his escape route now being recognized he decided to take a look at the seedy merchant's. For the time being, he was not interested in selling anything, his purpose was buying exotic metals and minerals for his runic creations.

This place was rather large and by each merchant stall, he could at least see one imposing man standing. It was clear that the black market merchants had to hire their own muscle.

When he approached one of the merchants that he was potentially interested in, he heard some noise to the side.

“What are you trying to pull here you bastard?”

“What's your problem, you got what you wanted there are no refunds!”

“This is clearly fake, give me back my money!”

A little scuffle unfolded as one of the customers was not happy about what he had bought. Roland saw him throw some kind of vial with a green potion to the ground. He then pulled out a curved dagger and started pointing it at the person that he bought it from.

Roland wasn’t stupid as he instantly backed away while looking at the other people here. In situations like this, it would not be strange if others used the ensuing chaos to try some tricks like pickpocketing. The other people were of the same mind as everyone was on full alert.

“What’s this noise, calm down you idiots, fighting here is forbidden!”

To his surprise, someone actually confronted the man that was shouting. Two hooded people appeared out of nowhere, their robes seemed somewhat better than the rags everyone else was wearing and there was a certain symbol that indicated that they were actual thief guild members.

When the man that was making noise noticed them he instantly put his dagger away. The bodyguard of the merchant also backed away. It was clear to Roland that there was some degree of protection here and fighting was indeed forbidden. This didn’t mean that this man couldn’t take his grudges elsewhere, the merchant would probably need to worry about getting stabbed in a dark alley now.

With the commotion, Roland turned back to the stall that he previously spotted. There he saw a strange merchant covered in rags. While he couldn’t see his face he could tell that this person was not a human. The elongated fingers that were covered in fur and ended in claws gave it away.

“Welcome, welcome! What're ya buyin? What're ya sellin?”

'If I’m not mistaken, that’s a deepsilver ingot… and is that durium ore?'

After activating his analyzing skill he noticed that this merchant was selling various exotic metals, some that would normally be quite hard to come by. It looked that he would actually be able to trade, now it remained to be seen if this strange merchant gave him the right price for his troubles.