The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 765: The Streets of the Sanctuary 3

[The City of Sanctuary – POV of a Kid named Luca from the Streets.]

Luca enthusiastically finished his morning routine, put on relatively better clothes, and stepped out of his hut. He had gotten a new job in the Sanctuary since last week. A factory worker, he was called. And even in that, the job of something called Supervisor. The pay was daily and was far better than anything he had ever done before.

If he could do this for 6–7 months, buying a modest house wouldn’t be just a dream anymore.

After his two friends, the siblings Riky and Ely, had returned to their village Eastmere a few weeks ago, Luca had felt really down. With the three of them together, they often supported each other in times of need by sharing their little income. Somehow, they could even afford good food once or twice a month because of that. But now Luca was alone.

He would never get to see that beautiful smile of that crazy girl.

Luca had already realized there was something more in his heart for Ely than just friendship. But who would want to be with a homeless street orphan? Still, Luca had decided to propose to Ely once he had at least a proper house. Maybe she would say yes—who knew?

She was more than just any girl. She was incredibly beautiful—Luca could swear on that—no girl he had seen could even come near her level of beauty. But then again, maybe the memories of her being with him, laughing with him, talking crazy, and even being sad and supportive might be the reason why Luca just could not see any other girl as someone he could spend his life with. The day the siblings entered the glowing waygate, Luca had felt like he had become an orphan again.

The gods were cruel to give him a family and then take it away, just to see him suffer. But Luca did not put them or anyone at fault. He was glad to have been given the chance to feel loved, understood.

They kept asking for him to join them in their village—they had a house there in Eastmere, they said. But Luca just smiled and refused, encouraging them to go on like a good friend would. He and this city were part of each other now. The streets had raised him since as long as he could remember. He owed too many favors to too many people here; leaving felt like a betrayal of all this city had given him.

Luca shook his head. It wasn’t that bad. They were just far, not unreachable. He could meet her—them—anytime.

He left the side street where his small hut was and joined the main busy market street, going outside the southern gate of Sanctuary City. When Luca finally came out of the crowded gate, the perfectly lined and shaped—over fifty—blue factories came into his view. A smile involuntarily crept onto his face.

He would never get used to this view. They were so neatly placed, the paths were clean and perfectly angled. Many giant monsters were already being pulled out of spatial storage as large sounds of metal straining echoed, mixed in with the chatter of people—fellow workers.

“Come on, Supervisor. What are you waiting for?” One of his men surprised Luca by placing a hand on his shoulder and dragging him along.

“Easy, easy, Flores. I am coming,” Luca replied, trying to get out of the guy’s burly, muscular hands.

When Luca came here on his first day, learning about the labour job from the announcement board, he wasn’t expecting much. The Sanctuary had many times hired civilians for labour—it was nothing new. But when Luca saw Lord Keeper himself waiting for them and explaining in detail how his runic machines worked, he realized it was much bigger than he had imagined.

Seeing the giant metal lizard monster fall had left his eyes wider than coins. But even more shocking were Lord Keeper’s spells that could make anything lightweight and easy to carry—even a giant beast.

The sequence of switches and spells that followed after they pulled the lightweight beast in and it regained its weight was really something otherworldly. The effects before their eyes were so shocking that Luca had a hard time remembering everything that the Keeper tried to teach. Still, the Keeper didn’t just do it once.

For the whole day, Lord Keeper worked beside them, instructing and observing while also helping in between. He even ate with them. All workers were given lunch every day starting from that day, and it was the same food as what the Sanctum officials ate. The food alone, Luca estimated, was worth 1–2 silver coins each day.

At the end of the day, Luca was one of those who had soaked all that Lord Keeper said into their minds and had even led people to do the whole dismantling process on their own with limited added instructions from Lord Keeper. Luca wouldn’t have been able to do it if he hadn’t been practicing memorizing things with Ely and Riky for a long time. Luca felt like even his improved speech was somewhat responsible for Lord Keeper assigning him the job of Supervisor.

Normal workers received 50 silver coins a day—which was already ten times higher than any labour job available in the city. Luca knew that for sure, and those were much harder-working and riskier jobs, unlike this very simple one. For Supervisors, the pay was 80 silver coins per day. For a month, that would be 15 gold coins for a worker and 24 for him.

Before Luca, Riky, and Ely combined could only make 7 gold and 20–30 silver each month. Their daily wage was 8 silver. Not to mention they worked for over 12–13 hours. Their employers were like thugs who never let them take a second’s rest while working. While the factory only started from early 8 in the morning to 6 in the evening. And miraculously, they were all given 2 hours off for lunch—people could eat here or go back to their houses and come back after 2 hours.

Luca had quite some money saved, and if he could continue just like this, soon the day would come when he would be able to afford a real house in the city’s outskirts.

And the most bizarre thing—one day a week, the factories were closed. The workers who would do a month without missing a single day would get paid for these four off days as well. Luca had never thought something this convenient could even exist.

In his first two weeks, Luca felt like he was cheating Lord Keeper by having a day off. He had no idea what to do for the whole day. Since he had extra money for the first time in his life after eating and every other basic need—Luca bought a used knife from the market that he had always wanted to buy. Living on the street, having protection was a must—especially when everyone knew he had gotten a job as a Supervisor in Sanctum factories.

He wasn’t alone though—over 2000 people in the city were working in the factories. It was slowly becoming one of the most coveted jobs. The pay was not announced when they were hiring, or the factory might have been filled with half of the city’s folks.

Luca thought about paying the 5 silver fee for the waygate and going to meet Ely and Riky—but he wasn’t sure if he should do it or not. He knew the village’s name that was near Eastmere town—one day wouldn’t be enough to go and come back for the job the next day anyway. He wished Ely and Riky would also get this job—those two were much smarter than him and would easily have become Supervisors.

When, after lunch, more than 20 people were already in the factory, Luca resumed the work—it had only been an hour, but still they started it. If they could finish three metal lizards in a day early, they could leave before 6 o’clock. The two Sanctum officials assigned to keep watch over every five factories also encouraged it. Twenty people were more than enough to lift the lightweight metal lizard.

The next day was off. The whole city was told to close the shops and everything because of the Sanctum registration. Luca had heard about it for a few days now and finally even went through the process himself. They asked his name, little background, his rank, and stuff. Then gave him a small, palm-sized, blue, thin metal piece that had his name, race, rank, and a number written on it.

Luca was a Rune-shaper. Not a good one though—he was still living his second job as a first ranker. He had the skill to make runic devices, but he had no way to learn spells. All the runesmiths in the city wanted an apprentice with basic spell knowledge, and he didn’t know anything at all. His ascension stone was provided to him by the blacksmith he was working with, so he had to choose the Rune-shaper class.

When Luca’s registration was done, he slowly walked back to his hut—there was nothing much to do with the whole city closed off. But when he took the last turn, his eyes widened seeing two people standing near his hut, most likely waiting for him.

Luca smiled seeing Ely and Riky.