The Runic Alchemist

"All of them? We have to check all of them?" the Demon Queen asked.

"Yes, but you don't have to. It's up to you—I want to know what's inside, and you have people who can help me with that. I can always hire mercenaries, though.." Damian said.

"No, we will do it," she replied. "You have done more than you had promised. You are even letting my people keep the smaller dungeon relics and things, not forcing us to go deeper or anything. I can't say no to something you want me to do after all that."

"Check these 50 first. I want people entering it soon, so it will help to know which one has what. A few of those are not very pleasant from what the names suggest, so I will advise caution," Damian said it straight.

He had built fifty more dungeon waygates on the island of Malveria. Most of them were the ones on the ocean surface or some island—Damian had thought of launching 50 of these, added with Sanctum's 46, for the grand event of his in which he would make the dungeons public for the first time in history. Evrin and he had already planted people in the crowd to talk about that topic, spread rumors, and create excitement. All of the mainland had heard the news by now.

Before doing that, however, he needed to open the waygates to all three neighbouring countries. Expecting people to travel hundreds of kilometers for his dungeons was unrealistic—some might do it, who knew? But to maximize the people entering, Damian needed to create this easy mode of traveling.

But to do that, he needed to create an ID system—so that's what Damian had on his schedule today to do. Visiting the emperor and talking about the war prisoners' freedom, and entering this unique dungeon Land-Breaker had mentioned.

"Don't worry—I have some prisoners who will be eager to earn their life back through these trials," the Demon Queen said.

"You conquered the other dukedoms?" Damian asked, feeling a quiet chill from the dangerous lady.

"Just had to deal with three, and the other three understood the advantage I held—feels weird to say this, but I have indeed united all of Shadowborne with your help. I can order them all to move now. Did you start the search for our new home?"

"Not yet. I just need to build the flying ship. The traveling itself won't take too long. But still, you should be prepared to stay here for two to six months as I wrap some of my Sanctum business," Damian replied.

"With the food problem resolved, there is not much problem for us to stay here that long—once again I might add that under my rule, no one will ever try to reach the mainland if you let us just be like this here."

"This place is too close to the mainland—the others will never agree. And as I said before, some even try to reach here through ships of their own. You guys have no future on this island with all the natural resources destroyed. Leaving is better for you. In time, talk about what mistakes your ancestors made on this land and make sure you all won't repeat those in a new land."

The Demon Queen nodded, looking at the distant horizon of the blue ocean. Damian got up from his chair and opened a waygate back to Sanctum. The fifty dungeon waygates were already installed by him, and they had hired more people to manage the reports and all.

Damian had spent two hours this morning observing the workers in his factory—the few selected supervisors had indeed learned the sequence of pressing switches in correct order and the importance of the whole metal collecting process. Those taught the new guys, and already his ten factories had started working at full force. Still, Damian had kept a few attendants ready to look after everything and call him through expelling mana in case there was an emergency.

They had also found many blacksmith apprentices who understood the ingot-making process and could control that panel with ease—the supervisors were clever enough to keep a few men with the blacksmiths so they could learn on hand what the needed things to look out for were.

Damian trusted the people to work as intended. Ten mecha lizards getting dismantled every couple of hours was a good rate for the start. He would have more Balzur alloy when he came back from his little trip. Damian asked Einar to keep an eye out for his factories—she was free enough. She could reach him anytime she wanted to if any emergency arose. With Souldealer here and his mana potions, there was no injury they couldn't cure other than death, but still, it was good to be cautious. Damian had plastered the warning boards all over the ten factories.

Damian informed his assistant he was going and left after opening a waygate connecting to his first destination: Eldoris.

Vidalia was reading some books on the balcony of her room—good to know she knew how to relax. Damian would like nothing more than to open some dungeon reports and start brainstorming ideas with her, but he had other things to do. But he remembered there was something he had promised her once. So before leaving her room, Damian asked,

"Do you want to stay in the Sanctuary?"

"Are you trying to recruit me, Keeper?" That was not a good tone. The way she lowered her book with annoyed expressions on her face, he was clearly disturbing her peace time.

"No, no," Damian clarified. "I don't need the Spellmaster—I want the researcher. The time I spend researching new spells and runic designs has lessened a lot recently—I would love to have someone who could make new spells that could be used by both of us. Besides, I have reports of many dungeons, new and old—I want someone who can recruit talented researchers. It would be even better if you agree to teach a class of students in the new academy I am trying to create."

"You want me to make spells for you?"

"For both of us. Wasn't creating new spells what I had promised we would do together?" Damian said, hoping the history would not have changed so much that she wouldn't remember this fact.

"I will think about it.." Vidalia said after realizing he was being serious.

"Sure," Damian nodded. "All the research you do—you can use it for your country too. You are not working for me, more like we are both working together to more efficiently create new spells and use those in real time with my runic inscriptions.."

Vidalia nodded, her eyes thinking about the possibilities it held. Damian took out a small ingot of Sacrium, shaped it into a bracelet, and inscribed the waygate spell that connected directly to him.

"What's this?" she asked as he put it in her hand.

"A waygate tool—it will only connect to me though, unlike yours that use memories as a target," Damian replied, then turned around. "Think about it—I will go meet your cousin and install a bigger waygate connecting Sanctuary."

The soldiers standing guard outside took Damian to the queen, and soon she signed the hundred-year peace agreement—it was a mana contract, so she had many of her people read the prepared documents again and again to see if there was any loophole that put her people in any potential danger. Damian had taken weeks to prepare the agreement, though, and three pages full of details had added all possible scenarios and their solutions.

The biggest thing that should put everyone at ease for signing it was that it required them to uphold the peace only until one of them broke the treaty in any way or form—the second one of them broke it, they had full right to defend their countries and even attack back.

Damian installed the waygate point, as the queen told him, under their divine tree. It was a place that had enough space and could be accessed by all the civilians alike while still being under the control of the authority. Damian installed five waygate points here. Did not activate them yet—he told the queen it still needed time before he was ready to do this.

Five waygate points connected all three places of Sanctuary—the border region where Eldoris ended and Sanctuary started. Then the city of Sanctuary itself, which Damian told the queen was for her own personal use and not for the civilians till he allowed them to pass. It required a prior message before opening. Last was one that connected to another border of the Sanctuary—so they could skip his whole Sanctuary, in case they wanted to travel further. The emperor might not be such a fan of that, but Damian had planned to give one to him too, so the playing ground would be equal.

It was a special thing for just these two countries and probably the Highswords—Faerunia will not have such nice convenient stuff for them.