The Ruined Death Knight

Walking towards the office of General Nikzel, Danzel remembered what Gerak said to him.

"Listen to me well, Danzel. Though you probably realized I will just say it again." 

"What we are doing right now, is no different as walking on thin ice while carrying a chest of gold in our hands. So don´t you dare do anything other than pick one of those damn scrolls!"

It was one of the few times that I saw Gerak talk so seriously.

The other times that I saw him talk so serious was when he first learned that I was a runesmith and when he talked about this homeland, the dwarf kingdom.

Since I was curious about this homeland, I asked purely out of curiosity.

The most what I gotten though was how the dwarf kingdom was the number one seller of weapons in the entire continent and this clan called Earth Circle Hammer.

When he explained to me all these things it finally hit me why I haven´t seen any other dwarfs in the streets like Gerak.

Apparently in their clan, when a dwarf reaches the level of a journalist in their craft, they are being sent on a journey to a nearby allied kingdom and build their shop for five years. It was like a sacred ritual of their Earth Circle Hammer to send their future craftsmen to gain enough experience of their craft.

In the five given years, there had to make their reputation as a blacksmith and learn to make the exact weapon that their customer wanted. After all, learning to make the sharpest and most durable sword for one not to bring this full potential was seen as wasteful.

If the sword himself feels awkward using the crafted sword that they spent their whole week making, both sides of the trade would feel unsatisfied.

To fix this very issue this sacred ritual was made by the three big groups of the dwarf kingdom. One of them was of course the Earth Circle Hammer, which focused on learning blacksmithing together with enchantments.

When I heard that I subconsciously looked at my enchanted armor that was fixed with the help of a complaining dwarf.

"If I remember right, he mentioned that the ritual would be ending in three months..." Danzel mumbled to himself.

Though the ritual itself was like a tradition to the Earth Circle Hammer and the other two clans in the dwarf kingdom. There was a hidden benefit in that ritual, which was the main cause of Gerak wanting me so much.

That was the chance to get an apprentice by a master himself.

After all, for a dwarf becoming a master of their craft was the same thing as a commoner becoming a noble.

Those chosen by masters will gain enormous resources, further knowledge for their craft, and most important one.

A mentor to guide them.

Though to gain all those benefits you had to prove yourself first.

And how did they do that?

They crafted of course!

The better quality and the more unique the items were, the better the chances to be chosen as a apprentice!

"That´s why Danzel, in my following last months, I will have you put your best runes in the pieces that I will make for the presentation."

"Tch, such an annoying guy..." I cursed to myself while I finally reached the front door of Nikzel´s room.

Though I honestly hated this dwarf\'s guts, I could help but have a grin on my face.

"Hey! You probably think that I am shameless about outdoing that, but let me tell you! Ifachieveive my apprentice, you will have a future connection with a master blacksmith! Considering how young you are I will still be able to craft you something fancy in a decade or so."

It seemed that the dwarf considered me so young, because when he asked me how old I was and I just pointed two fingers at him, which Gerak took as I were in my twenty.

In reality though, by showing him two fingers I didn´t mean that I was twenty years old.

But more like two months!

*Tik Tik

Knocking at the door, I heard some footsteps from the other side through my increased awareness sense.

`The agility increase sure is useful.´

Hearing the footsteps stop, a soldier which I recognised as Archman from our previous meeting opens the door for me.

"Come in."

Nodding to him, Danzel entered the same room he was before.

`It seems they cleaned up this time around.´ Danzel thought to himself as he saw less paper and books on the General\'s table.

"Sir Danzel, please come she in, I prepared the things as promised." General Nikzel, said with a fake smile on this face.

`He probably hoped that the runesmith will come to pick this up. Hehehe, if he knew.´

Removing all the useless thoughts from my mind, I went right into the business.

"Where are the scrolls?"

Surprised of how blunt I was, Nikzel followed suit and dropped this act.

"There are here."

Going back to this desk, he went and grabbed three rolls of paper that were held with a small red string.

Upon watching those three, scrolls shown in front of me, the ethereal flames in my eyes sparked for an instant.

Reaching my hand to take a look at those, Nikzel frowned a little before pulling the scrolls back.

"First though...show us the stuff."

As if someone threw water and extinguish my ethereal flames.

All my previous excitement was gone.

"Fine...take a look." With my cold emotionless voice, I activated the ring of spatial storage.

Then one after the other, weapons and armor pieces started to appear from what looked like thin air. 

Though both Archaman and Nikzel knew what will happend, they still were surprised by the number of weapons that appeared in less than a few seconds.

"Archman...take a look," Nikzel said with an expressionless face.

Archman just nodded and started to take a look at every single weapon that was placed on the ground.

Waiting for Archman to finish this inspection, the two looked at each other in silence.

`Damn that´s awkward..´

"General, the products all seem to be alright."

"So all of them are runed weapons..." Nikzel said while he was having deep thoughts.

Though it would be polite to wait for them to get their minds cleared.

I didn´t care for that.

"Since you now confirmed that they are real, show me  the stuff."

"Fine, take a good look at which you choose. I am not giving you more than one." Nikzel said with this arms crossed.

Opening the magic scrolls, I used them on all three of them inspections.

[Earth Wall]: A lower-tier magic that conjures a wall of earth from the ground.

[Silent Steps]: Through a hellish amount of training you managed to control your body weight to make yourself as silent as an assassin needs to be.

[Leap]: By forcing your mana into your legs, you can jump twice as high as you originally were capable of. Depends on a lot of armor.

"So I can only choose one of them, right?" I said while still looking at the scrolls.

"Yes, as the deal we made you are only able to take one out. I will not allow for any exceptions." Nikzel said with a firm tone.

"Hm..."

While thinking of what I should pick.

A brilliant idea came to my mind!

`Status!´

[Status]

Name: Rue Danzel

Level: 20

Class: [Undead Guardian Lv. 20]

Sub-Class: [Runesmith of Undeath Lv.1]

Health: 5500/5500

Mana: 814/814

Attribute points: 0

Attributes: Strenght 140 Agility 100 Intelligence 74 Endurance 99

Talents: [Superior Undead] [Sin of Wrath] [Reinforced Soul] [Superior Unique Concioness] [Rune Vision] [Dead Rune Knowledge]

Skills: [Intermendiate Weapon Master Lv.1] [Undeath Corruption Lv.1] [Dash Lv. 1] [Shield bash Lv.4] [Gale Mana Blade Lv.3] [Sense Danger Lv.3] [Curse of Exhaustion Lv.1] [Piercing Lv.1] [Mana Arms Lv.1]

[Remark: A Undead of Superior Strenght. One of the strongest natural draugr that there is. Though her tier undead far surpasses this strength. For your current tier of strength, you can be considered a powerhouse.]

[Storage: 23 225 XP]

`Damn I am so ingenious!´

"I even decided," I said with confidence.

"Oho? Which one will you pick?" Nikezel said with curiosity.

"I will pick none!" I declared loudly!

"Huh?"

"What!?"

Both Archman exclaimed and Nikzel explained.

They were confused beyond belief!

While both were trying to see the reason behind my choice.

I laughed internally.

`Why should I pick one if I can learn all three in here.´

I will simple scam you!