Chapter 321: Chapter 319– Back Home.

“Hey… what’s wrong with you today?”

“What do you mean? I’m the same as I’ve always been… I think, or was I different before? My memories are a bit cloudy…”

“Did you mean to say that out loud? Also… why is Agni acting like this?”

A confused Elodia was looking at a large ruby wolf peeking through the entrance door. For some reason, Agni was unwilling to enter the house when usually it was hard to keep him away from his owner. She was also in a strange situation as Roland was acting quite clingy today, more than ever.

It was to the point that he was even following her around the house and breathing over her shoulder while she was cooking breakfast before work. It was clear that there was something wrong, the change in his appearance was also apparent to someone like her. It would be strange if she didn’t notice the change in his physical appearance after knowing him for this long. There were only a few reasons that she could come up with for such a change but speculating about it wouldn’t change anything. It was better to prod for some answers and perhaps force it out if he didn’t come clean.

“Oh, perhaps he is going through puberty or something…”

Roland replied while also moving his head to smell himself which made Elodia even more confused. Before she could prod for more she was actually suddenly grabbed by the man of the house that was acting suspiciously. This was the first time that he had been this clingy as he had actually pulled her into his lap. It wasn’t like she was against the skinship but the timing was a bit off.

After breakfast she was supposed to open up the store and get to work, little Marcie was already here and doing a preliminary sweep of the shop. The young girl was quite helpful and even decided to hang outside the shop to greet the potential customers that wandered from within the forest.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“You know… why don’t you just take a day off…”

“You want me to take a day off? What about you?”

“Oh I’m not in a rush, I haven’t had a break in years, I could use a vacation.”

“A vacation?”

She was shocked to hear Roland speak of a break. He was like a possessed workaholic that very rarely left his workshop. Usually, it was her that had to pull him away from his underground workplace. She didn’t really like to be there, the magical light that illuminated the corridors felt somewhat off. It was much better to stay outside where the sun was shining and the air didn’t need to be filtered by runic equipment.

“Are you sick? Perhaps we should go to the church and have you examined, perhaps someone put a curse on you.”

“A curse? No, I’m fine…”

“Then tell me what’s wrong, you’re acting strange, are you hiding something from me?”

She narrowed her eyes while trying to pick up any fine movements in Roland’s face. After living around him for a while Elodia had managed to ascertain a few things. It didn’t always work but if she focused hard it was possible to tell her when he was lying or at least trying to hide something from her. This time around it was a bit harder as his handsome face was a lot more distracting than it usually was.

“Hiding something? Oh right, just look at me through your identification item.”

Roland replied while removing the pendant that was usually around his neck even when he was bathing. This was something that he never did and she knew that he was trying to hide his noble birth and true name. There must have been a reason for this so Elodia was quick to activate the effect of her glasses that could mimic an analyzing skill.

“What is this…”

“Yeah, I’ve gone through a small change.”

“A small change? You better explain yourself to me and start from the beginning!”

…

Roland didn’t leave anything out, it was actually nice to talk to someone real for a change. Even now he wasn’t sure if everything around him wasn’t an illusion but by the way Elodia was acting it felt real. The wooden people didn’t show as wide a range of emotions as the woman before him. Normally he would have probably withheld some information about the trial, the part about it taking more than a year to not trouble her. However, this time around he felt that he needed to dump some weight off his shoulders for once.

“More than a year? What kind of ascension trial takes that long? I’ve heard of them taking a few months but a year…”

Just as expected she was shocked by the length of this trial. Elodia was someone that had worked at the adventurers guild for some years. She had to pass multiple tests about the theory behind passing ascension rituals if the need arose to explain. Beginners could need the information but even gold adventurers that were attempting the plunge could come asking for help.

“Yeah, this one was special, I sure hope I won’t need to go through something like this ever again also… did I change that much? You keep looking at my face?”

“What? You must be imagining things…”

He wanted to smile as Elodia pulled her face away. After she got a read on his status screen through her glasses, she unconsciously started looking at him as if he was some type of rare animal. It was probably the first time she heard of a class called the Runesmith Overlord but it was the same for him too.

Normally he would have taken precautions to not leak information like this outside. After spending so much time in the trial area, he realized that doing everything alone wasn’t the way to do it. Having his strange prestige class be known to others wouldn’t be the end of the world. Some people like the platinum adventurers he met carried those classes like a badge of honor. They actually wanted to show that they were on the side of the elite as a lot of doors opened up before them.

“Maybe I should really close the shop today, the after-effects of a prolonged ascension trial on the human mind could be devastating.”

“Ah, sorry didn’t want to make you worry, I just haven’t talked to someone for a while that wasn’t made out of wood.”

During his explanation, he described the whole trial to her. He did leave out the part about him getting a wooden child for obvious reasons though. It was rather cute to see her so interested in the conversation. There was probably no other ascension trial recorded that was similar to his. She was still someone that used to manage adventurers so this was an interesting topic to speak off.

“A whole nation of wooden people… that sounds like something the kids would like.”

“Now that you mention it…”

Roland was far too busy working on passing the test than processing the information about the world he was in. Now when looking back, it was something that he would have probably remembered until he died. Just the way the whole world worked with the wooden people was quite interesting but the real one was much better. There was also no imposed clock pushing him to do things he didn’t want to.

You are reading story The Runesmith at novel35.com

‘Wait… it’s been so long that I even forgot about that…’

The emotions of seeing Elodia and coming back to this world had taken over his mind. Now after getting it out there by talking, memories of his current situation were flooding back. Yesterday after taking a bath and having some small talk through the crystal ball, he just passed out on his bed. When he woke up Elodia was already around the corner so he forgot about the current situation.

“Shit, I forgot!”

“Huh, what is it now, are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine… how about we don’t close the shop for today, I remembered I need to do a few things!”

Suddenly he lowered Elodia down from his lap and started to storm out of the room while leaving her in the dust. She was left there along with a confused look. It was soon replaced by a smile after she realized that Roland was just back to his old self as he stormed off into the workshop area.

“Well… have fun, I’ll be in the shop if you need me…?”

Yet to her surprise after Roland had left, his heavy footsteps echoed back. He appeared back in the dining room where the two were having a conversation. Before she could ask about what he needed, she found herself getting embraced by the large man.

“Thank you, you know… for everything, I’m not good with these things but I’ll try to be better from now on…”

“Ah, yes?”

Just as quickly as he returned to give her the hug, he was back to running back to the entrance of his workshop. The speed was truly superhuman and something that only a tier 3 class holder would be capable of. Her face was left a bit rosy after the gentle embrace and wondering if perhaps she should have him do those trials more often.

‘What if they make a move now? I just made it into tier 3 but I haven’t been able to prepare anything! What should I do first? What are my options?’

Roland noticed that his body was feeling really light. When he was storming back into the room to give Elodia a hug he felt the wood straining under his feet. His power had multiplied to an unfathomable level. When giving the hug he realized that he needed to be really careful to not apply too much strength. If he did then he could have actually cracked a few bones in the process.

‘First I should get this in check…’

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