The Runesmith
chapter-190

‘There aren’t as many options available as before.’

Roland looked at the choices of monster evolutions for his Mystical Ruby Wolf. While there were four options that he could see, there was only one that was realistic. More time had passed this time and Agni's skills were all leveled up. Monsters had an easier time getting their skills maxed out than people of the many races, thus Roland didn't need to wait like the last time.

“I guess you’re becoming a Dire Wolf Agni.”

“Awoo!”

At this point in time, Roland and Agni were out on the porch. After finishing up his business at the Church it was time to help his beast friend to reach the new form. He hoped to get another new rare variant but it didn’t seem that Agni would be progressing over the Mystical variant. This wasn’t bad but after getting rare classes left and right it was strange to not get anything new this time around.

“Have you decided?”

Asked a womanly voice from afar that belonged to Elodia.

“Hah, I wonder how he will look now!”

Said Bernir that was there as well, his wife was back at her own shop so she would miss this metamorphosis.

“Yes, I think he will get a bit bigger but won’t look that much different, okay everyone just stand back, for now, I’m going to activate the evolution.”

The shop Elodia was in had a window opening towards the inside of Roland’s walled-off home. From there she would be able to see how the house wolf reached a new form. While she had seen some beast tamers working at the adventurer guild she was still quite interested in seeing how Agni turned out.

After Roland activated the evolution option in his system Agni’s body started glowing brightly. The light was contained in one spot which allowed them to see most of the change. His mane expanded and the gem on his forehead started to get longer.

“If this continues he won’t fit in the house anymore…”

The transformation was a success and now everyone was looking at the Dire Wolf version of Agni. His size increased by about twenty-five percent, the mane was covered in even more rubies and his musculature had been enhanced even further.

“AWOOOO!”

Agni howled out which caused Bernir along with Elodia to flinch. This was a level hundred monster with its second-tier 2 evolution now. Even down in the current dungeon Agni would not find many monsters that could keep up with him.

Roland glanced over Agni’s new stats and he could see that his tamed beast wouldn’t have any problems taking out gold-ranked adventurers. Then there was the elongated horn that was supposed to be able to fling spells at people. Previously he only had a smaller gem that could absorb mana, now it was supposed to be some kind of release point.

“Woah, calm down Agni… what did I tell you about licking my face?”

While he was trying to look over Agni’s new status page his Dire Wolf decided to jump on him. If it was Elodia or Bernir they would certainly buckle under the weight but Roland was able to dig his feet in and take it.

“You’re getting heavy even for me…”

His size had increased even more but it also didn’t tell the whole truth. The rubies that were on his body increased his weight even more. His skeletal structure had also been enhanced and the chompers that he had were now even larger and sharper.

Some of the skills had evolved and changed names, for instance, the old Fiery Bite changed into Flame Bite, Ruby Tail Whip became an Enhanced Ruby Tail Whip. There were also some new skills and improvements that he spotted after the evolution finished.

Agni's Mystical tier had increased which gave him even more mana to use. This would probably come in handy, all the mana-related skills like Mana Shaping, Mana Regulation were there along with something new that he brought up.

Instead of a list of spells, he was given a passive skill that was similar to a trait instead. Monsters cast spells in various ways, some used incantations just like humans but for beasts like Agni that would be impossible. Most of the time the monsters would be given various spells to choose from in the form of spell skills.

If he understood the explanation correctly, then Agni was given the knowledge to cast some basic spells, at least at first. It seemed that he would also be able to learn or mimic other fire spells if he ever saw them later on. It was also a dual element trait which meant that Agni could learn earth spells and fire spells at the same time.

“Hm…”

“Well, I have a customer so I’ll see you boys around, try not to destroy too much of the workshop.”

“Huh, what do you mean?”

Elodia shouted out from her window at Roland who was deep in thought and rubbing his chin.

“I know that look, you’re probably going to do some dangerous tests, try not to blow the whole house up.”

Roland rubbed his head while watching Elodia step away. It seemed that after being around him long enough his tendency to perform dangerous tests in his little secret laboratory was known.

“The lass is right but what do you always say? Can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs?”

His assistant just laughed while returning to his own side of the workshop. With so much work on his hands, Bernir was also close to attaining his second tier 2 class. Luckily for him, the higher the rarity of the materials a craftsman worked, the faster they leveled up when working with them.

Thanks to all the new Durasteel that Roland had brought over along with the new smelter, Bernir was going through levels like crazy. Other young craftsmen would need to prove themselves for over ten years to be allowed the same privilege.

“If you need any help just call me but I won’t lie, working with this new smelter and forge is proving difficult even for someone as talented as me…”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think I’ll need any help just focus on your craft, and don’t forget to prioritize those golem components, I need to get that prototype ready for the auction house.”

Bernir’s level was a bit low to work on the new materials. Even though he was leveling fast he could also break the expensive equipment if he didn’t focus enough. For the time being Roland agreed to give him some space until he got used to it plus he had other things to worry about now.

“Let’s go Agni.”

While his workers were busy with their side he decided to move down into the firing range below. There together with Agni he wanted to test how well his wolf was able to perform spell casting.

“Okay, do you see that target? First, show me that new tail dart skill, can you hit that dummy from here?”

It was a little strange to just talk to his tamed beast but he knew that Agni could mostly understand him. Perhaps he wasn’t able to pick up on all the words but the intent of them was understood.

“Woof!”

Agni’s loud bark echoed through the workshop. His voice certainly got a bit deeper after the evolution. One of his dual tails rose up into the air while stretching out to about twice its length.

The red gem on the end of Agni’s tail was already quite pointy. It had changed in form after the evolution and probably to accommodate this new skill. After Agni took his aim, the ruby tip shot out of his tail at an alarming speed. It connected with the wooden dummy with a loud bang and made it through it to the other side. It then shattered into smaller pieces on the wall behind it.

“That would probably hurt a lot…”

Roland looked at the small hole in the target but it was hard to tell how much damage this projectile could do to an armored man or beast. The ruby also was only the size of a dart and had no other special qualities. But it also seemed that the ranged attack could be quickly repeated as Roland saw the ruby on the end of Agni’s tail quickly reforming itself.

“About fifteen seconds with two tails, not that bad.”

Now when facing ranged opponents Agni could pelt them with some ranged attacks that didn’t require much concentration. It would also be a good attack to interrupt any spell casters from casting large spells which made this skill somewhat useful. But Roland didn’t think it would be strong enough to finish anything off, mostly to be an annoyance to look out for.

“Okay then, let us move on, Agni I want you to try casting an attack spell at one of those targets, anyone will do, can you do that boy?”

Now came the real test that he was interested in, could his beast cast spells with that horn? From the traits explanation, it seemed that Agni was given an injection of knowledge on how to use it.

“Awoo, woof!”

After receiving the order Agni turned back to the training dummies. He moved his head down a little bit and pointed with the horn on his forehead towards his target. There he stood for a few moments without doing anything, it was as if he couldn’t do it but soon enough Roland could see a shift in the mana around that horn.

The protruding horn was quite uniform and smooth. It looked quite pointy and could probably be rammed into opponents as well. The mana started swirling around it while moving out of Agni’s body. Soon a red light formed at the focal point atop his head.

The red light started to quickly shift as it became a ball of flames. At this moment Agni raised his head up before whipping it forward to release this concentrated bolt of fire energy. The spell flew forward the same training dummy and collided with the wood it was made off.

A small explosion of flames covered the area around this target made of wood. The wood quickly burst up in flames while some splintered off after receiving the hit. The spell performed here was a simple firebolt spell which was slightly above a regular mana bolt spell.

With the added fire effect it produced a scorching inferno around the point of collision. Alas, this was somewhat a beginner grade spell and it couldn’t eviscerate the dummy it hit. Even then, the wood was clearly burning up, the added flame effect was clearly successful in causing lasting damage.

Roland nodded while pointing out with his hand. The gauntlet that he was wearing started glowing blue before releasing a ball of water towards the burning target. The magical liquid quickly overpowered the flames and caused a lot of smoke and steam to form instead. But with the help of the ventilation system, this room would quickly become clear.

“Good, not bad, there was some power behind that spell but you’ll have to practice Agni, the activation time was quite slow.”

The firebolt spell that he produced was somewhat sluggish. It was as if Agni was a mage that had to chant the whole spell himself. But this was only the beginning of his tamed beast’s spell-slinging days. The skill that gave him the knowledge to cast these attacks was only at level 1, then there were all the mana regulating skills that were also there. If Agni just continued to level them up, Roland was sure that the speed would increase. Perhaps he could even reach his own runic spell casting speed.

“Okay then Agni, show me that fire breath now…”

The testing continued for a bit longer until Roland was satisfied with his partner's performance. He relied on Agni down in the dungeon so he needed to know the extent of his new skills and his physical capabilities. Perhaps with a few more levels, he could task Agni with taking out the boss monster in that cavern to him.

After it was done he released Agni back into the wild which was to guard the shop again. With the more ferocious look that he had, it would keep the troublesome elements from starting anything.

There would be a bit of a problem with the increase in size. First, he would need to go to the guild to get him checked. Now after reaching level 100 and his second-tier 2 evolution Agni would be seen as a dangerous monster. It would be hard to take him into the city without putting a muzzle on him.

He could already see some people screaming out in fear if they ever came across Agni without a leash. It would look like some kind of monster was lost in the streets, then someone of Armand’s IQ could decide to engage him in battle without hearing them out first.

‘The more troublesome part is when he returns after escorting Elodia to the city, luckily he is fast enough to not be caught by any stupid adventurers.’

There had been a situation where on the way home Agni was spotted by some new adventurers. He was fast to duck into the forest and run home without causing any trouble. Now he was larger and rarer, Roland wouldn’t be surprised if some poachers targeted him for the rare monster parts like the horn on his forehead.

‘I’ll worry about that later, I need to focus on myself now.’

Finally, Roland looked at his own status window again, his level was 125 and he was ready to attempt a class change.

Back in his room, he looked at a job change crystal that he recently bought. To others, he would be gone for seconds but he was unable to foresee just how long the next test would take. If he would take it or wait was also up to debate, first he needed to see what the new class options were.

‘I guess here goes nothing…’