7 Little Runes with Big Value

Happy that she finally got rid of all these weird people, she wanted to go take a look at the city's shops, wondering if she could find anything of interest. She quickly noticed that most items were rather expensive and the little bit of money she had, would just be enough for her to live a normal life, but not to go shopping for various things she might like.

'I have to make some more money.' Myra thought to herself and it did not take long for her, to decide on runeworking to improve her financial situation. It was a delicate, often time consuming skill, but other than a little bit of precious metal, it would not require a huge investment and basing her estimations on the prices in the shops, even lower rank runes seemed to sell exceptionally well.

She bought some of the metals she might require, before returning to the inn and starting her work. It would still be several weeks before the examinations for the academies started. Initially she wanted to visit Ethan, who should also live in one of the academies, but with the uproar she caused, she decided it would not be beneficial for her brother's safety if she visited him right away.

Slowly but steadily the runes took form. She spent more than two days on a few runes and was very happy of the outcome. They were flawless even for her own high standards.

Putting them all into a bag she hoped it would earn her enough of a profit to finally be able to get a dimensional pouch. She had so many things to carry, but she was not happy about carrying around a big bag or backpack.

Comparing her own runes with the bad quality ones that most of the shops had on sale, she decided to go to one of the bigger places. At least they would be able to appreciate the quality of her work.

The twinkling sound of the little bell at the shop's entrance made several people look at Myra. They did not expect a young girl to enter the shop and wondered what she is doing here. The prices of the shop were too high for most people and except for the kids of the well-known families no kid would be coming here.

Her clothes were good enough to not be mistaken for some beggar, but it was still a far way off from the gaudy clothes most of the wealthy kids used to wear.

'Maybe she's just asking for directions' the shopkeeper thought to himself, but having been in this trade for a long time he knew that it could never hurt to be friendly and respectful.

"Can I help you little miss?" he looked at the young girl, ready to answer her questions if she might be lost, or maybe point her to shops with a price range that might be more suited to her needs.

Myra happily nodded at the shopkeeper, not aware at all what the 'grandpa' in front of her was thinking. "Yes, yes, actually I would like to sell some runes."

"Runes?" surprised by her direct approach and that of all the things she might want to sell it would be runes, he nodded and led her to one of the stores tables. "Could you show me which runes you want to sell? I will take a look and if their standards are high enough for us I can give you a price."

The girl in front of him seemed to act in a natural way and if she really had some runes that were of high enough quality, there would be nothing wrong with a transaction. It did not take long for her to take out a little pouch. Expecting her to take out one or two runes, it was even more unexpected when she took out several dozen tiny runes, each of them barely the size of a nail.

People who had no experience with runes might think that smaller runes would mean they were less powerful, but it was actually a lot harder to make smaller runes. Smaller runes would use up less space, would make it easier to place more runes on a single item and would make it possible to combine a lot of runes to form formations. If the runes were too big, it would require huge items to make proper use of them.

It was rare to see so many tiny runes sold at the same time, and the shopkeeper could not help it but show an excited face. Not only were the runes small in size, but most were also of exceptional quality. Sure, they were all part of the runes with lower ranks, but nonetheless such runes would be able to sell quickly and for a rather high price.

Two thirds of the runes were exceptional, while one third of them looked strange. It looked to the shopkeeper as if these were failed attempts, as he could not recognize any of these runes in front of him.

He just wanted to tell the girl that he would buy the parts he could identify, when a woman stepped next to them and inspected some of the runes he just wanted to refuse. Right when he wanted to tell the rude woman, that this was a business transaction and that they were busy he noticed who exactly stood before them.

"What brings you to our humble shop today Lady Amelia?" the young girl did not seem to know who the woman was and as quite a bit of time passed without any response to his question, the shopkeeper tried to fill the awkward silence.

"Young miss, this is the disciple of the Runemaster of the Heliphos family, not only her master, but also Lady Amelia herself are counted among the experts in runecrafting."

Myra just nodded and looked at the woman suspiciously. She would not have a problem if this woman wanted to buy her runes, but how would she know what the woman planned by suddenly appearing here? Maybe she wanted to steal her runes!

Finally Amelia seemed to break out from whatever she was thinking about. "These runes are exceptional. Who is the master who made them?"

Surprised that even the runes he could not identify at all would be so highly praised, the shopkeeper happily changed his mind about only buying two thirds of them. He would just buy all of them.

"I made them myself. Also I'm not a master." was Myra's reply. She did not think too much about these runes. Sure they were of great quality and she spent a lot of time on them, but she was severely limited in her power and could only forge the most basic runes. Calling herself a master with just a few apprentice level runes would really be disrespectful to all the real masters out there.

"Would you be willing to sell them to me?" Amelia asked, before the shopkeeper could even say a word.

Myra seemed to be thinking about the offer and a worried look could be seen on Amelia's face. She had to act quickly to get them, before the shopkeeper got his hands on them. If they were sold in an auction she might have to pay a fortune just to get a single one of the runes.

These were all runes that were thought lost for a long time. While their basic shapes were well known to an expert in runecrafting, all the details could take someone centuries to figure out on their own. Having a complete rune of such great quality would be like having a blueprint that one could reverse engineer and learn from, cutting down the time it would take to learn the rune significantly. In other words it was an investment totally worth it.

"I am willing to pay a mithril ingot and two star steel ingots!" the shopkeeper gasped in surprise at this number when Amelia continued. "…for each of the runes obviously."

It did not take Myra long to think about the offer. "Sure, sounds good, I can sell them to you for this price."

Star steel was valued at about a ten times the price of gold, while mithril was not just fifty times the price of the same in gold, but also only available in limited amounts. The only mithril mines in the country belonged to the great families and clans, who would not easily share this metal, which was used for various high ranking runework as well as enchantments. It was also often used to give armor some extra durability, while not increasing its weight like other strong but heavy metals would.

Amelia had a happy and a little apologetic look on her face. She quickly took out the promised ingots out of a dimensional pouch and collected the runes on the table before giving a bow to the shopkeeper.

"I hope you won't mind that I interrupted you so rudely. I am very sorry." she told him, knowing full well that she just stole one of the best deals he could have made in a long time.

"Please do not worry my lady, it is our pleasure to find a good owner for such exceptional runes. You do us honor by shopping here."

The shopkeeper did his best to stay polite. While he might indeed have lost a good deal, he also knew that the lady of the Heliphos family, who happily left the shop, would surely remember that she owed them a little favor in the future. Such favors could come in very handy when used at the right time.

Also looking at the young miss in front of him who just got a fortune in her hands, as well as her excited looks at all their other items, he was sure that he would still make quite the profit today.

"Do you have any dimensional pouches for sale?" the voice of the young girl seemed like music in his ears. "But of course, please follow me, I will show you our best wares right away!"

It did not take long for many an item to change its owner and several bars of precious metal to find its way to the happy shopkeeper.

Myra enjoyed her time shopping in the city. She barely spent 10 star steel ingots and still had a good 20 more, not to mention another 15 mithril ingots, which she wanted to save for her own works.

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