Choosing Runes

"What happened here?" Charlie was astounded when he arrived on the airship the next day.

"The Beast Wave hit last night." Remian summarized.

They met at the half-built airport. There was a high deck for mooring airships, currently accessible either via a long ramp or a manually operated lift. At present, four Legion trainees were pushing at the wheel powering the lift which had two injured trainees on stretchers aboard. Next to the lift were eight more injured trainees in a row. Down below were four more and other people queued up with their crates for export, still waiting for their turn to use the lift.

"We need more lifts." Charlie observed.

"We need a secure warehouse, so people with goods for export can bring them up here early." Remian countered. "This airport currently only had three people on staff, and two of them work at the air traffic control lighthouse."

All three were hired by Deutero, so Remian had little say over whether more could be hired or what jobs they were to do.

"Before that…" Charlie glanced back to the wounded. "We brought ten more Legion trainees, but at this rate, we'll be bringing more casualties out of the Frontier than fresh recruits in. Also, what happened there?" he pointed.

Remian winced. "That… I had to divert a burning bull through here. I think it's halfway to Fal'Herim by now. We couldn't stop the Beast Wave entirely. In order to avoid casualties, I had to chase the biggest one through an uninhabited area."

"Is that your plan for future Beast Waves? Simply let them through?" Charlie eyed the charred remains of what used to be their construction materials mixing site. "You do know the Iron Legion is planning a road north from here, right? What are you going to do, send them on their way and let Fal'Herim deal with them?"

"I wish!" Remian sighed. "But I don't want to wake up one morning and find an angry Desert King on my doorstep demanding an explanation. Plus, there are going to be a whole lot of casualties in town if we simply let the Wilds run through unhindered. Also, it seems most of our town's economy actually relies on the Beast Waves. Almost all those boxes down there are pieces of Wilds killed by the Iron Legion."

"You said 'almost'. Does that mean there's something more…?" Charlie lit up.

Wordlessly, Remian handed him a small leaf packet. Charlie put one hand on it and grinned. "You found it!"

"I found something. I'm not sure it's what we were looking for."

Charlie carefully opened the packet. His eyes went wide. "No way! This is blue!"

"Yeah. I could tell." Remian said drily. "I'm guessing it's worth a bit more than yellow ones."

"Are you kidding me?!" Charlie jumped up excitedly. "Remian! This crystal here… its worth at least 400 times as much as a yellow mana crystal! Even a green one would be worth at least 20 times as much!"

"Really? I thought the energy difference was just ten times." Remian gulped, feeling light-headed all of a sudden.

"In terms of energy, yes, but in terms of monetary value, considering convenience, rarity, supply and demand… if this crystal were properly refined, we could sell this for forty thousand Lir easily. Fifty thousand, if the buyer was really desperate." Charlie gulped. "Is there… more? Or is it just this?"

"There's more." Remian said in a low voice. "Not very much, but I think we're both going to be millionaires."

Considering that Charlie only got a tenth of the profits, that was practically a promise of at least ten million Lir worth of crystals. Thinking about the crystals embedded in the cave wall, Remian estimated that they could overshoot the required 250 standard sized crystals' worth easily enough.

"The problem is I'm not sure how to cut or prepare them." Remian went on. "I mean… do we just use knives or what?"

"Don't cut them yourself. Just dig them out carefully and bring them here raw. I'll send them on to specialized refineries for processing." Charlie assured him. "The price of raw crystals is lower than the processed standardized ones, but… I think I can give you 25,000 Lir for a single raw piece like this."

Remian had a gut feeling that the price at the refinery was closer to 30,000, but since Charlie had to transport it over to the refinery and guard it the entire way, he didn't argue. At least, for now. There weren't many ways to get money out here, and time was a factor.

"There's something else." Remian handed him a vial.

Charlie froze. "This is… high quality mana potion."

"How much can you give me for it?" Remian asked directly.

Charlie hesitated, then made an offer. "10,000 Lir."

Remian froze. "Wow."

"Where did you get it?" Charlie asked.

"Dead alchemist." Remian answered slowly.

"Is there more?"

"How much more do you want?"

"Everything you've got!" Charlie exclaimed. "I might not have enough coin with me now, but I'll set you up with a Deutero Company account."

Remian hesitated. Deutero was reputable, but there were places in which it didn't operate. A Templar Bank account, on the other hand…

Forget it. Out here on the Frontier, they're the only ones who operated. Remian expected he was going to be buying a lot from Deutero for a long time to come. "Fine."

He brought twenty vials to start with. Putting aside coin, Charlie didn't even have enough cash to cover 200,000 lir. The most cash he brought was a handful of 10,000 lir bank notes. The airship did (the Deutero company had plenty of cash on hand for trading on the Frontier) but Charlie wanted all the vials for himself, personally, along with the crystals.

A Deutero Company account could take a direct transfer from Charlie, but when Remian asked for Tier 4 weaponry, Charlie had to admit they only had one such weapon in stock; it was known as a Pale Dragon Glaive. Supposedly, an enemy of the Dragon Empire built it to kill Pale Dragons.

"Supposedly, there were only 100 of these ever made in the whole world." Charlie commented. "I think whoever made them was destroyed by the Dragon Empire long ago. They're made with materials from dragons, Titan Steel, and stuff our appraisers can't even figure out."

"How much?" That was basically the biggest question in Remian's mind.

"15,000 lir." Charlie reported after a brief check.

Runic Tier 3 spears already cost 1000 to 1200 lir. Non-runic mass-produced Tier 3 spears had cost 400 lir. This glaive… "That's really too expensive."

"It has three Runes." Charlie explained. "Tier 4 Sharpness and Durability, and Tier 3 Strength. That last one's a fully charged active Rune with 20 charges, by the way."

"Only 20?" Remian wasn't faking his disappointment.

"Hey, do you know what kind of power it takes for a weapon to enhance the strength of its user? Tier 3 Strength means even one of your kid Adventurers should have a shot at killing a Tier 4 Wild with that glaive! Power like that is neither cheap nor easy to come by!"

"Just how much strength are we talking about here?"

"100 kilograms or until you reach triple your original strength, whichever is lower."

There it was. The limiting factor. That limit meant that while Markus might be able to go from bench-pressing 200kg to 300kg with that Rune, Remian would be lucky to manage half of that.

"10,000." Remian tried to bargain.

"Sorry. Can't discount this one." Charlie winced. "15,000 is actually the staff price."

He and Charlie ended up going to Burning Steel. "Do you have Tier 4 weapons on sale?"

"We do, actually. We have a Titan Steel spear, and a four-arm crossbow." The bulky salesman reported. "However, we're not supposed to sell them until after we've put Runes on them. The problem is, our main rune smiths can't decide on what Runes to affix."

"Since I'm the customer, don't I get to choose?" Remian asked.

The guy brightened. "Give me a minute. Let's see what they say."

"Actually, I need some time too." Remian mentioned. "I think we need Candice to decide."

***

Candice, to be frank, was over the moon. "I get to choose?!"

"Three Runes." Remian inspected the four-arm crossbow in question.

It didn't look all that strange. From most angles, it looked just like a normal crossbow with unusually thick arms. The whole basis of four-arms was that each end of the bowstring was attached to two parallel arms. It was a bulky solution for a smith who simply didn't have better materials, but Remian didn't really mind as long as it could do the job.

"This bowstring… what is it made of?" Charlie asked.

"It's the tendons of some Wild or the other, I'm not too sure. But it's really strong. Master Andros tried to forge it with just two arms, and both arms snapped when we tried to fire it."

"Can I try it?" Candice requested.

The four-armed crossbow used a crank to reload. Candice had some trouble pulling it, but managed it while the sales guy readied an armored practice target dummy, and then…

"WHOA!" There was a slight jerk, in Candice's hand, and a heavy thud in the air and ground as the entire dummy was blown away. Armored pieces went flying in five different vectors toward the far end of the forge. "Durability! Definitely durability! Lightness would help too! Do you have any runes for bolt speed or stability?"

"Uh… no. Our forge has only two rune smiths and they only know a few low-tier runes. How about an active rune? Something that could enhance the user's abilities?"

"Such as?"

"Eagle Eye? It would help you see further. How about Speed? or Recovery?"

Remian cut in. "She's basically going to be shooting at Tier 4 Wilds from inside a bunker or a tower. There's no need to lug it around or run or scout. She just needs to kill."

"Speed won't help me shoot faster." Candice added. "The biggest cause for slow shooting is the trouble I have turning the crank. Maybe a Strength Rune?"

"We can do that. Andros is especially good with Tier 2 Strength Runes. That's another 10 kg of strength, unless that would more than double your strength, which obviously isn't the case. Andros has been known to achieve as many as 25 charges in a single Rune."

"Great! What about the spear, then?" the sales guy asked.

"Durability, strength, and speed." Remian requested.