Chapter 27: Chapter 26 – Examining scrolls

“Sign here on the dotted line.”

“Is my name enough?”

“Yeah that’s fine, the contract mostly just reacts to your mana and not your actual name.”

Roland wrote his name into the contract that went through some changes. He managed to get the Gnome to agree to keep his true identity a secret. He also didn’t mention that he was from a noble house. The most important clause though was the one stating that the gnome couldn't undersell his work.

There was a minimal price negotiated while taking into account what the scrolls were selling in the auction. Any other items he created would be negotiated further but he didn't feel like the gnome was trying to rip him off, at least not too much he still wanted to make a profit. 

He wouldn’t be surprised if they knew that, how far the gnomes identification skill was able to peek was unknown. He himself could only use it on certain items and he would mostly just get the general name. He couldn’t analyze people well either, if he looked at Zilyana the only info he got was that she was a ‘Sun Elf’

This was the default elven race around here, besides Sun Elves there were also Moon Elves that were similar looking too dark elves from most stories. For one reason or another, these two races didn’t get along with each other.

The woman rolled up the contract after it was finalized. He had finally accepted the offer and his life as a contract worker had begun. Luckily he didn’t really have to make that many scrolls and should be able to do his research as well. He was even going to receive a personal assistant if he did well.

He was led down into the basement, he didn’t occupy any of the rooms closer to the manager’s room. The place he received was a bit dim and had a very dungeon-like vibe to it. He had gone through some dungeon training against goblins, so he was fine with places like this.

“We weren’t really using this one, that’s why it’s a bit dirty…”

Zilyana said while opening the door and showing Roland in. There wasn’t much inside this room. Some empty boxes in the corner along with a wooden table and some chairs. The cleaning lady would come soon and some furniture would be carried over as well.

“Here is the key, don’t lose it.”

He was handed the key, he would be able to come to this place whenever he wanted and even work through the nights. The Gnome manager knew that some craftsmen liked to work hard, a bed would be supplied for him. Roland was thinking about moving from the inn here. He didn’t need to pay for rent but the air was kind of stale.

“You can start working tomorrow, Welcome to Exeor’s Magic Emporium’s staff~”

“You can call me, big sis from now on!”

The elf struck a pose by placing her hands to her hips while looking at Roland. He just looked back with narrowed eyes while replying.

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“Alright…”

He almost forgot that he was an 11-year-old kid. Which had its pros and cons.

Roland also asked if the manager was the owner of this store and if the store was named after him. It was revealed that he was only someone akin to a regional manager of a larger company. It had a lot of chain stores strung throughout the city and the main one was in the capital city. When he asked the elf about the gnome’s full name she just smiled at him without revealing it.

Roland was getting the facilities and the basic materials. He wouldn’t be getting the research materials though, that was on him. He returned to the first floor and bought out every single runic spell that he could. With the contract in place he felt like he could invest in his future more.

He didn’t inform his new boss about his unique skill. Even if the gnome saw his status screen, the name ‘debugger’ probably didn’t ring a bell. He got some new spells that did various things. The orb of light spell felt similar to his fire orb spell as it just produced a light of a different color.

He made sure to find spells that worked similarly. So if he already figured out how to produce the fire arrow spell, he wanted to get his hands on a water arrow spell or an earth arrow spell. He could then compare the schematics and see if the parts or runes were similar.

This store had a limited variety of these spells. This forced him to search them elsewhere. Luckily the manager had supplied him with an armband that would hide his status. He would seem like an ordinary mana scribe to everyone else.

After a day of searching, he had managed to find a couple of elemental variations of the mana bolt spell and the mana arrow spells. Surprisingly there were none of the basic lesser runes of those two spells. Probably the runesmiths creating these deemed those two spells below them.

He returned to the inn after a full day of running around town. The energetic half-gnome girl was running around the inn again. He was glad that she was still alive, he was slightly worried that she might have wandered into the woods again. He hoped that she had learned her lesson but he didn’t really have the time to be her nanny. She had to make her own decisions.

The next day Roland returned to the store, his ‘office’ was now filled with some boxes that had blank scrolls in them. There were a couple of higher quality inkwells that were supplied and some sketching paper as well. He brought some of his own crafting utensils from the inn as he was already used to the quill he was using. He closed the door behind him and walked around the place before taking a seat at his new desk.

“Well, time to get to work.”

This was still his job so he decided to perform his main task of scribing by recreating his staple runic fire arrow spell. He was able to scribe it down within an hour and had enough mana left to make another one. The contract stated that he was to make a minimum of ten common grade spell scrolls a week. He was of course allowed to make more of them and would get a bonus accordingly.

Roland wasn’t only interested in the money though, he wanted to progress. Increase his levels and also to find out how these runes operated. The problem was that to progress he needed money and lots of it. He managed to get a temporary sponsor but it was on him if he proved himself as a sound investment.

He brought out a scroll that he had bought, it had the runic frost arrow spell on it. He also had a runic gale arrow scroll. He took out a pencil and some paper and activated his debugging skill.

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