The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 732: The Busy Proceedings of the Courtroom 2

There were more or less three groups in these meetings: first, the Dawnstar lords whom Souldealer favored. Then Damian himself and all the lords who listened to his orders without a single doubt in their heads—Sam and Lucian supported him no matter what. And the last was Evrin, Einar, and some lords who actually wanted the management of the Sanctuary to progress with the same stability it always had.

Concerns of common people? What were those?

Everyone had their own internal power struggles going on. Most of it was easily solvable, but calling it out would only make it worse. Until he changed the system, he could work with this.

“We don’t have enough people,” Damian said. “Demons are taking a huge risk entering unknown dungeons just to have enough monster meat to fill the bellies of their people. They will enter ten dungeons today. I have set up the waygate points. Just need to assign officials to work there. They are checking which dungeon has what in it—we will receive each dungeon entry report every day. We will have enough time to level after that. Dungeons are from the divine, right? If demons are taking the risk, a little reward is well deserved.”

His friends smiled. They knew very well Damian did not believe much in the divine. He was just using it to get his point across.

“Lord Keeper, when will our Sanctum be ready to send the villagers and border town people to their homes? A few civilians asked me and I didn’t know what to say,” another lord asked. This one was from Dawnstar.

“That’s what I will be doing today,” Damian replied. “First I will connect the borders to our Sanctuary city, then all the dungeons. Then we will see which region could still benefit from a waygate before going forward.”

“Dungeons?” Prince Lean asked. “You mean all the major towns where dungeons are?”

“No, the dungeons. I have already asked Lady Einar to make teams of our capable knights and first-rankers who could benefit from entering a dungeon. I need reports about each floor of all 32 dungeons of ours.

As soldiers of the Sanctuary, the army and its officials have the right to all the dungeons—not just the ones they are tasked to protect. Once I install the waygate points in our city today, any pathfinder who has served in the army for more than six months can apply to enter any dungeon he or she wants. The selection of candidates and team creation will be solely managed by Lady Einar. It’s part of the reward for believing in Sanctuary’s purpose and fighting to protect it for so long.”

“You are opening dungeons for everyone?” Souldealer asked, forgetting the place they were in.

“Weren’t you the one advocating for our people’s right to level in dungeons?” Damian shot back.

Souldealer noticed the gazes of every person present in the room landing on her. The Dawnstar section would indeed be the one most affected by this decision of his. Einar did not have strong second-rankers in her army before the Dawnstar refugees came along. All the major dungeons which most towns were built around were in charge of these Dawnstar officials who both ’trained’ the new recruits in the dungeon from their region and controlled who entered.

Needless to say, being in the alliance of Dawnstar lords was rewarding for all their lords because it gave them a chance to enter these dungeons if they wanted to. Hierarchy in access was there too, and not everyone got a chance. Damian legalizing entry in all the dungeons would make the incentive of Dawnstar lords joining under one banner a little less than before.

Along with making the dungeon diving more efficient as a resource for the Sanctuary—since he would be taking 30% of all loot earned as ’Military Funds Tax’—this would be him saying to all the lords present that under his rule, no groups forming under different country names would be tolerated.

It was a warning for them to accept Sanctuary before their origins or leave this place. He wouldn’t force them to change their beliefs, since it was a Sanctuary at the end of the day and everyone was free to believe in whatever they wanted—they would still have a place here. But that did not mean he would keep such people with divided loyalties in prominent places of his government.

Also, Damian wanted to find iron and other materials he could mine in large amounts from one of the floors of these dungeons. He had also instructed Lazrin to look out for that thing first and foremost.

The Souldealer did not say anything and just sat down. Her own people had turned on her. Legal entry into the dungeon for all officials and soldiers meant the lower nobles did not need to suck up to others—giving them a very good incentive to support Damian.

They were all thinking too much though—Damian had already planned to open all dungeons in his control to all people of Sanctuary and even the other people of other regions. In effect, when he had built a waygate point to all the underwater dungeons, he was going to promote the event like a grand opening of sorts. His goal was to attract all spellswords working under other lords to come to Sanctuary and work dungeons day and night for him.

Money was not much use to him other than doing some transactions with other countries. But the materials—the ores and unique monsters with wonderful new spells and biology which could give him new spells and mimicry potions—would be the most invaluable in the coming years. His Sanctuary was small compared to the three kingdoms. The only way he was going to gain superiority was by making the most advanced and beneficial place to live in.

More materials meant Damian could do big projects that would make the everyday lives of people so much better and more enjoyable. Just simply having runic light lamps on every street would make his city the most unique one in this world. The other kingdoms could not afford to spend so much steel and mana stones behind simple lighting. But Damian, with his dungeons earning him resources in heaps and bounds and his mana generators, could do literally anything.