Reborn as the Fated Villain

Damien opened the car door and looked at the muddy road. Deciding to protect his shoes, he activated Levitation and floated over toward the entrance of the tavern while fixing his suit.

"Are you sure this is a blacksmith, Fay?" Damien asked in puzzlement as he looked at the door.

"I'm sure of it," Fay said as she jumped from the car onto the porch of the building to avoid the mud.

Damien shrugged, and with a flick of his hand, he opened the doors and was greeted with a few empty tables and chairs with a bar at the far end.

"No… this is definitely a tavern," Damien said, gesturing to the room, "And a rather unpopular one at that."

A heavy bang of metal hitting metal resounded through the tavern, silencing him.

Damien raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Fay smirked. "See?" She said, and he could only sigh.

He never remembered there being a blacksmith here. Since drinking in the game was purely for role-playing and was often seen as a waste of time by the players, he had never bothered with this place before.

"Yo, Dalon!" Fay shouted toward the backroom, but she was ignored as the sound of metal clanging metal continued. Damien followed Fay into the backroom where a burly dwarf was hammering away at a sword placed on an anvil.

Despite the extreme heat being emitted from the three forges in the room, not a single drop of sweat could be seen on the dwarf's face. Damien looked over the dwarf's shoulders and inspected his work.

"Oh, you're imbuing that sword with an enhancement rune? Although your version seems overly complicated and would lead to higher mana consumption…" he commented without thinking, causing the dwarf's hammer to stop mid-swing.

Dalon turned around and eyed Damien with a slightly surprised look. "You know runes, lad?"

Damien just nodded and pointed toward the runic inscriptions on the blade. The runes had been melted into the swords structured with mana dust. He calmly ran his finger along a certain line of runes. "ᛁᚾᚲᚱᛖᚨᛋᛖ ᚢᛋᛖᚱ ᛋᛏᚱᛖᚾᚷᛏᚺ means 'Increase user strength' which is a rather long-winded way of just saying 'Enhance.'."

Dalon went silent as he studied the runes he had just inscribed and then shook his head. "I only have C-grade in rune engraving. Such an efficient rune would be impossible for me."

Damien was confused by the dwarf's words. "Why would you need a certain grade in a skill to write a different rune?"

"It's easier to show you lad," Dalon said. He grabbed a blank sword from a barrel and placed the sword on the anvil. He then grabbed a low-grade beast core and smashed it into dust with his hammer onto the blank sword. He then closed his eyes and placed his hand over the sword.

"ᚱᚢᚾᛖ ᛖᚾᚷᚱᚨᚡᛖ (Rune engrave)." He activated his spell, and the mana around him fluctuated, causing his hands to emit a soft blue glow. He then muttered while concentrating, "ᛁᚾᚲᚱᛖᚨᛋᛖ ᚢᛋᛖᚱ ᛋᛏᚱᛖᚾᚷᛏᚺ (Increase user strength)."

The blue glow intensified, and the crushed mana dust started to form into runic words, automatically melding with the metal. Damien watched with interest, as he had never acquired the runic engraving skill in any of his previous playthroughs; crafting classes weren't really his thing. He favored mage or assassin-type characters.

When this was a game, this was how runic engraving must have been done. I guess it makes sense since when this was a game I couldn't read the runic language. It's only now that I can understand it as English for some reason.

Dalon finished his spell and took a deep breath. His mana was empty after engraving the rune into the sword. "Ya see? To answer your question, I can only engrave runes that are imprinted into my mind, as the spell does the whole process without my input. Also, it takes most of my mana just to engrave a single blasted sword. Which is why I sell them at higher prices," he said as he shakily put the sword in a barrel filled with engraved weapons.

"May I give it a try?" Damien asked, and the dwarf hesitated. Although he didn't care too much, the materials to make a sword certainly weren't cheap, but after pondering for a bit, he nodded.

Damien move to the side and grab a blank sword.

Dalon caught sight of Fay, who had been hidden behind his Damien until now and his beady eyes widened in surprise. "Oh lass, it's you!"

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Hi, Dalon." Fay waved back toward the talkative dwarf.

"Is this here yer boyfriend?" Dalon asked with a chuckle, and Fay just blushed without responding.

Damien walked back toward the anvil with a sword. However, the sword was floating next to him, and he had his hands firmly in his pockets.

The sword rested on the anvil, and then a mana stone floated above. It exploded into pieces as Damien surged his own Psychic mana into the stone, causing it to shatter. Damien then activated automatic writing, and the dust particles spread along the sword's surface.

"What the…" Dalon was speechless, "Are you some kind of blacksmithing mage?"

"No," Damien simply replied. He flicked his hand and commanded the mana dust to harden on the swords surface while spelling out ᛖᚾᚲᚺᚨᚾᚲᛖ (Enhance). He then floated the sword over to Dalon.

"This is incredible," Dalon muttered as he inspected the sword. "The runic engraving is indeed there, and only an eight-letter rune!"

He swung the sword but then frowned. "The effect doesn't seem to activate…" Damien was also confused, and the dwarf and vampire both looked at the sword with confusion.

"Perhaps the runes need to be imbued with mana to work?" Dalon suggested.

"Ah." Damien shook his head in disappointment, "How didn't I think about that. What use is mana dust if not imbued with mana?"

"Let me see if I can fix this," Dalon said. He sat beside the sword and activated his skill again. "ᚱᚢᚾᛖ ᛖᚾᚷᚱᚨᚡᛖ (Rune engrave)."

The blue light that appeared around his hand was greedily absorbed by the sword, causing the runes to glow. Dalon almost fainted from mana exhaustion but managed to persist. After a few seconds, the blue glow faded, and the sword took on a new aura.

Despite feeling terrible, Dalon picked up the sword and gave it a swing. Compared to his previous swing, which felt amateurish, this time the sword cut through the wind with power, creating a sudden vacuum of air around it as it descended.

The dwarf's eyes went round with shock. "Despite my fatigue, I was able to produce such a powerful swing!"

Damien was glad to confirm a suspicion he had. It seemed I can indeed write runes, but I need to figure out how to imbue my mana into the runes. Perhaps I can find the records of that spell and how it works somewhere, as 'rune engrave' doesn't tell me how the spell is supposed to work.

Dalon then froze in shock, "I understand the rune… Did I gain enlightenment?" He began running around like a little kid trying to find a measuring stone.

"Darn, where did I put the little bugger?" he exclaimed, and after a few minutes, he gave up. "Look after the shop for me. I'm going to the crafting guild," he said as he ran for the door.

Just after he left, his face and impressive mustache reappeared around the corner shouting, "Take any booze ya want, lad, and if you want a room to sleep, there's one upstairs. Enjoy ya date! See ya!" The merry dwarf didn't even bother to close the door and ran down the dimly lit street toward the west side of the city.

Fay and Damien looked at each other and grinned. "Did I hear free booze?" Even though they had money now, Damien had been drinking cheap servant wine for the last week, and it left a terrible taste in his mouth.

The duo investigated the bar and located a few dusty wine bottles that looked rather fancy. Damien popped the cork and took in the deep fragrance. "That's some good stuff!" he exclaimed as he poured the contents into a wine glass.

Fay also grabbed a bottle of wine and poured herself some. She sat on a wooden stool while Damien stood behind the bar, and they stared into each other's eyes.

Fay blushed slightly as she studied Damien's handsome face that was showing a smile for once. "So…when will I officially become your blood queen?" she said with a bashful smile on her face as she swirled the wine.

Damien chuckled at her straightforwardness and replied, "A few months at least, you still have the smell of livestock to me."

Fay looked down into the wine, feeling dejected. Damien laughed again and added, "Although a few months may seem long…compared to the eternity we may spend together, it is a mere fleeting moment."

Fay was puzzled and tilted her head. "Eternity?"

Damien swirled the glass with a pondering look on his face. "Noble vampires are immortal, so their blood queen will naturally have to serve them for eternity. What use would a blood queen be if they grew old and died after a few years?"

Fay's mouth hung open like a fish out of water. She would become immortal?

Damien added, "But the blood queen's entire existence is to serve the noble vampire. If I die, then you would naturally follow within a few years."

"I see." Fay replied as she stared down into the red wine.

The two drank in silence, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere in the quiet tavern. Even after two hours, the dwarf never returned. Damien let out a sigh. He planned to rent out an expensive inn tonight, but he didn't feel okay with leaving the dwarf's shop unguarded. He seemed like a nice enough guy.

"Let's see the room."

"Hmm." Fay nodded in agreement, and they both went upstairs.

The room was rather basic with just a large bed next to a window. It was a little dusty, which made Damien's nose itch.

Fay noticed her master's reaction to the state of the room and grinned.

"ᚲᛚᛖᚨᚾ (Clean)," she chanted, and a small gust of wind combed the entire room and gathered all the dust. The wind tornado then dumped all the dust and debris outside the window. A small water tornado soon followed and washed the floors and bedding clean. Damien lifted an eyebrow at the sight, but the spell wasn't finished yet. Following the water tornado, a hot gust of air dried everything, leaving it smelling of fresh flowers.

Damien was genuinely surprised. "What level is your cleaning spell?"

"B-grade." Fay said with a smirk, "Impressed?"

It was finally Damien's turn to be surprised. She had learned the cleaning spell to such a high level in only a few days? Was she actually a magic prodigy?

They then both looked at the bed.

"So…are we sharing?" Fay asked.

Damien opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted as the ground violently shook.

Fay grabbed onto his arm, "What the hell is that?"

Damien responded with surprising calmness, as if he had encountered this situation before.

"An A-grade monster is heading this way…"