The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 776: Sanctum Mall Open for Bussiness

While keeping watch over his trade town, Damian had designed runic tools left and right, along with making several different kinds of potions.

Only a week he had stayed in the town; after that, Damian let the town officials handle the business as usual. He had already given many orders to the runesmiths working for him, and through Evrin he had even received multiple merchants’ wholesale offers for many of his upcoming shop products.

It was all new, yet still the merchants had dared to put their money on the line—no small amount at that—just by seeing a few sample tools and potions. Unlike the Runeshaper Guild, the Merchants’ Guild based in Sanctuary was more than eager to do deals with him.

For craftsmen, his new methods were like threats to their profession, but for merchants all the new creations he had made were like treats they simply could not get enough of. The most popular of his products, other than the massive runic structures he had made, were the street-light pillars.

No one appreciated the vibrant nightlife that had started to come alive with his street lights more than the merchants, who had started to double their sales day and night. It wasn’t just the lights responsible for that though; Damian and the Sanctum as a whole had already created thousands upon thousands of high-paying jobs for civilians. With more money at hand, people’s spending power had increased, and consumership had seen an overnight boom in the market.

So much so that the markets had been needing items like never before. Foreign goods had started flowing into their markets, and people had more varieties of items to spend their money on. Damian had planned to make some rules that prevented market collapse or people hoarding and artificially raising prices.

He had already made a small committee of financial experts, market experts, and accountants to come up with protective laws. He also had many ideas that would protect Sanctuary products and not let the market be flooded or become dependent only on foreign products. That was long-term planning though, and it was okay enough to let people get wild for a couple of months until he had a nice set of rules prepared.

Many big-time foreign merchants had sent messages through their Sanctuary contacts to meet up with Sanctum officials to make various deals. Evrin and Damian only met the very top ones; all others were handled by their attendants. Most people wanted to buy unique runic items Damian had created like the street lamps, advanced public toilets, runic lifts, unique potions, and the most demanded one—the receivers.

They were not that hard to make, and the runesmiths, pumped up about the new job and anvil points, were making them at full force. Already Damian and Evrin had made multiple deals about the receivers and had sold them wholesale to merchants. He was adamant about keeping the price under one gold so everyone could afford it, and seeing the potential of the product, many merchants had agreed to the simple term.

His shop was still not online, but Damian was already prepared. He had made everything he had planned to make in good quantity, and finally he could launch everything at once to the public. Already the Sanctum news articles had mentioned the opening of the Sanctum shop to the public, and the hype was pretty high according to Damian’s hidden agents.

Hidden agents were just a few army soldiers he and Einar had handpicked to serve as their eyes and ears. Damian wanted to make an internal department of information in the future, but for now the soldiers did a pretty good job considering everything.

Thousands of receivers had started to enter the market, and the common people could also use them. The receiver only used a little mana to work. Damian had shaped it in a watch-like design with steel chains and a steel main square that held the spell. This square had a small liquid mana refill area that connected to three separate spells in the square. With side switches, people could choose which channel to activate or keep it completely turned off. The few milliliters of liquid mana should power the spell for at least one and a half to two months if used continuously; for casual use it should stretch to three months.

The liquid mana, which had been a major headache for Damian if he wanted to commercialize his runic tools, had presented a surprisingly simple solution. He had been so focused on finding a trustworthy human who could be used as a liquid mana source other than himself that he never thought it possible to use other creatures.

A mana beast and a monster both could be forced to power the aura-extracting spell needed for making liquid mana. The biggest hurdle in this method was, of course, how to keep all mana similar so all his runic tools could be locked to use this one unique mana. He didn’t want to capture mana beasts either.

The solution was quite simple, and it was something Damian had never given much thought to. The monsters in the dungeon, especially the boss monsters, could be used as a source for the aura extraction spell. Only one boss monster could survive at a time outside of the dungeon—if one was already out, people could not take the same boss monster outside with skin contact. It must have something to do with the fact that no two creatures had the same runic ID.

The boss monster had the same ID no matter how many times the challengers killed it in the dungeon or dragged it outside forcefully.

Damian chose a good high-level emperor rank monster to put in the lowest floor of the Sanctum basement. There he had made a runic prison to keep the thing imprisoned while extracting aura using the monster’s mana. Damian wanted the thing to live as long as possible though, so he had made the place as comfortable and close to the dungeon floor as possible. They even fed it regularly so it could recover the lost strength.

So now Damian had his very own liquid mana factory. He didn’t have to squeeze out his own aura for liquid mana anymore. He had one universal type of liquid mana that he could use for the general runic tools without any worry of the liquid mana being used by the source for anything nefarious. More mana meant more strength—even though humans could not use more liquid mana than what their body allowed. But a person who had a lot of liquid mana could certainly do many things, some very problematic among them.

He didn’t have to make his runic tools environment-mana operated either. He could lock the tools to the monster’s specific ID, successfully preventing the more important runic spells from being accessible by human hands.

With that solved, Damian finally had everything ready for launching his online shop. Tomorrow was a special talk show Damian had planned with the editorial and live-streaming show departments to spread awareness for his many product launches. Everything could be bought from the offline giant Sanctum Mall as well as the shop he had made.

The things he had prepared as the products were;

Cat Balance Potion – improves balance and agility, useful for workers, dancers, acrobats

Eagle Eye Potion – improves eyesight for a few hours, good for hunters, artists, tailors

Fish Breath Potion – lets you breathe underwater for 15 minutes, helps fishermen and divers

Monkey Grip Potion – gives sticky grip for climbing or carrying smooth objects

Hare Sprint Potion – stamina boost for running, useful for messengers and couriers

Bat Hearing Potion – improves hearing for a while, useful for musicians or elderly people

Dragon Bubble Potion – blows harmless smoky bubbles that sparkle

Illusion Dust Potion – creates harmless glowing patterns in the air like fireworks

Chillstone Runic Tool – reusable stone that keeps drinks cold

Heat Stone Runic Tool – keeps food warm or helps with cooking outdoors

Glow Lamp Runic Tool – glowing safe lamp for homes and shops

Firefly Lamp Runic Tool – portable glowing lamp for travelers

Light Bucket Runic Tool – reduces carried weight by half when filled

Hot Kettle Runic Tool – boils water instantly or keeps it at the set warmth

Cold Box Runic Tool – wooden box that keeps food cool, fridge substitute

Forge Plate Runic Tool – heats metal safely without open flame, good for workshops

Grip Metal Gloves Runic Tool – boosts grip for lifting heavy items

Magnet Pick Runic Tool – pulls out nails and metal bits without breaking wood

True Scale Runic Tool – ensures fair weight, cannot be tampered with

Fresh Barrel Runic Tool – keeps stored goods fresh without leaking with water seal

Dry Hook Runic Tool – dries wet clothes when hung

Water Canteen Runic Tool – purifies water inside automatically

Healing Soles Runic Tool – shoe soles that heal ankles little by little

Lock Runic Tool – opens only with a pattern, password

Grip Metal Shoes Runic Tool – soles that prevent slipping even on ice or wet ground

Bug Tool Runic Tool – makes small vibrations that keep insects away

Air Conditioner Runic Tool – cools air on one side and pushes it forward

Air Vent Runic Tool – filters and circulates fresh air indoors