The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 915: The Streets of The Sanctuary 5

Sanctum City, Current Time, Luca.

Dismantling the giant monster with raw metal to turn it into a Blazur ingot was something the Sanctuary had put a big part of its manpower into recently. Luca’s team could complete two to three monsters in a day, and there were hundreds of these facilities installed outside the Sanctuary’s inner walls recently.

The city outside these walls, and inside, had started to become similar in size. Because the monster threat was almost nonexistent with Lady Einar and Sanctum soldiers regularly cleaning large regions, the need for walls had diminished.

They say Sanctuary City is the biggest city on the mainland. Luca had travelled with Ely and Riky to other nations on the new flying transportation platforms and had recently confirmed it themselves. They saw all major cities of Faerunia, the Empire, and Eldoris. Even the parts of Ashenvale that were now Eldoris’ beastmen regions.

Many new people were recruited and had become skilled workers within weeks. At first, Luca wondered what Sanctum was doing with so much metal. But ever since they heard that speech given by the Lord Stormcaller, they finally had an answer.

A gigantic wall surrounding the whole of Sanctuary.

As a person in charge, Luca had bought the big public audio receiver that worked without needing liquid mana. They had that in each street, but the factories did not have them, and people kept using their personal receivers. Their work was mostly physical, so having a constant voice in the background was not distracting at all; instead, it raised morale.

Luca asked every member of his team to chip in, and they all happily agreed. Many supervisors copied them and bought one from the Sanctum shop for their factory. The daily singing, news programs, and information talk shows, added with comedy, were truly popular. The most popular, however, were the interviews they did with various famous people of Sanctuary.

Learning about the personal struggles of such famous people was truly inspiring. The whole city was buzzing with conversations about the audio receivers when Lord Torwin had given an interview describing his story of becoming the seventh head of Sanctuary. Similar buzz was repeated when Lady Ghislain explained her clothing business and how she started.

Luca still remembered people being so shocked when it was revealed that she used to be a prostitute decades ago.

The most important tidbits, however was the ones related to the sanctum heads and specifically the second Lord Keeper. His plans and ideas, discussed by his assistants and other sanctum officials, drew the most attention.

And so after the new keeper announced the plans to build a massive wall, many sanctum officials discussed that in the interviews.

It wasn’t just any wall, but a runic wall that would put a massive barrier around the Sanctuary in times of war and protect the people inside.

Of course, who else but Lord Runebreaker could make it?

When they announced Lord Damian had married the Spellmaster of Eldoris, they were surprised. The talks of romance between Damian Sunblade and Lucian Goldilocks were one of the most popular tidbits people liked to listen to.

Luca knew Spellmaster was staying in Sanctuary and was a member of the research center. She had a whole spellcrafting department to her name. She was not mentioned much in the past. But ever since they announced the marriage and partnership with Eldoris, several people were interviewed who participated in the Broken Greed war and had witnessed Damian and Vidalia fighting together on the frontlines.

A noble called Lord Tristan of Eldoris even swore Lord Damian and Lady Vidalia could not stay away from each other at all at that time because of their deep bond.

People were angry about the fact that Lord Damian married an elf, which was the strangest thing to Luca. Why would people care who he married? The partnership with Eldoris that followed had a good foundation to be built upon; it was not a sudden thing at all.

He was sad that it wasn’t Lady Lucian, just like others, but the audio channels warned again and again that entertainment shows were just for entertainment; they were not facts. The channel made the relationship something really important to people, but in reality, they didn’t know what was happening.

If the rumor was to be believed, Lord Damian, a runesmith transcendent, killed Thaddeus Seablaze, a fourth-ranker. A person with that much power and so many resources could never be controlled by Eldoris. It was so simple, yet people could not understand.

It all stopped, however, that day.

The day Luca and the people of Sanctuary would never forget.

The words of Damian Sunblade had filled Luca with so much fire for Sanctuary that he didn’t know what to do with it. The next day, they dismantled five metal monsters because everyone was so pumped up.

The man was right. He was of Sanctuary, the best country to ever exist on the mainland since the dawn of humanity. Faith in Sanctuary and its grand purpose of helping people regardless of religion, country, or even species. Because Damian Sunblade, as the keeper, made deals with Shadowborn, they were able to have safe access to so many dungeons and could enjoy the resources freely.

Without them people of Sanctuary would have to do it on their own. Luca had heard the soldiers praise the second keeper again and again for not sending them inside unexplored, dangerous dungeons.

They had a lot of dungeons now, and the price of having all those resources and valuable information was the lives of people.

Finishing his work for the day, Luca and his team left to have a beer in the tavern. They did that once a week. It was fun, and they had enough money and time to spend such quality time with work buddies. Luca had made a lot of friends during his time in the dismantling factory, and they often talked for hours.

He always left early, though. Someone was waiting for him back home afterall.

Once Riky started going to the academy and Ely was settled in her new job at Sanctum, they actually had more money than they knew what to do with.

In just a few months, they bought a house in the Sanctuary city. It was near the outskirts, but it was a rapidly growing city, and already many houses and shops were built around it. The house was near the Demon War memorial Lord Damian had built. The waygate station was nearby as well. The location was good.

On just Ely’s monthly salary of 100 gold coins per month, they could easily pay the installments on the house loan, live their lives comfortably, and even save some. They had enough money to occasionally go on trips as well.

The New Dawn island, where the dungeons were, was truly becoming a famous tourist spot. That’s where they usually went. It was given though, since the island’s waygate was placed not just in Sanctuary City but all major cities and towns of Sanctuary as a whole.

In the celebration week, the city was overcrowded by dungeon adventurers. So this was the solution Sanctum came up with. The people who wanted to dive into dungeons could do so while living in the smallest of the Sanctuary villages.

All three of them were busy all day and only stayed together for the night; still, it was the life they were most content with.

However, there was a little part of Luca’s heart that yearned for more. The dismantling job was really good, but now that he had money to pursue his blacksmithing interests, every day he could not wait for the work to end so he could go home and work on this hobby of his.

Becoming a runesmith like Lord Runebreaker was a dream of every kid in the Sanctuary. Luca also had this fire burning in his chest. But the time was very limited, and he could only do small things before getting tired and falling asleep.

“I’m home,” Luca announced while removing his shoes at the entrance of his home.

“Welcome back,” a sweet voice replied from the kitchen.

It never failed to put a smile on Luca’s face. How he convinced this beauty to marry a nobody like him, he would never understand.

He went directly to her, entranced by her voice, and hugged her; a kiss soon followed.

“Uhmm…” She pushed him after a moment and focused back on her cooking, “Go wash yourself! You reek of sweat. Let me focus, or it will burn.”

His wife’s slightly embarrassed, rosy cheeks were his favourite thing to see in the entire world.

Luca joined Riky in the living room after getting refreshed. They talked for a while and started eating together.

“I heard someone in the academy saying Sanctum is about to do a massive hiring for both mundanes and pathfinders for the exploration project Lord Runebreaker announced a while back. Is that true?” Riky asked.

“Whoa, really?”

Luca knew something was going on in the sanctum recently, but didn’t expect them to already be ready for traveling the world.

Ely nodded, “Tomorrow they will announce the job requirements and give dates for opening recruitment camps.”

“Camps? It’s so big that it requires camps?” Riky replied.

“Yes, Lord Damian is personally handling this project. The Sanctum Research Board is involved, and pathfinders from all countries will join as well. Do you guys remember that loud, strange-looking bird sighting news that was related to flying metal machine Lord Runbreaker made a while back?”

Luca and Riky nodded in sync. Luca had seen and heard the thing himself. A distant bird in the sky that was going insanely fast.

“That’s the thing Lord Runebreaker will use to travel the world faster than even fourth rankers, they say.”

She took a bite and continued,

“That will just be for search. Lord Damian will make a giant airship, they say, which will need hundreds of people to fly. It will be much faster than the transportation platforms.”

“I so want to join then..” Riky murmured.

“You can’t!” Luca and Ely said it in sync, then smiled, looking at each other.

“I know I can’t. The academy has too many interesting classes I want to focus on. Like Business Management, Basic Economy, Pugilist Techniques, etc. I have heard they are going to start Runic Exosuit classes soon. It will have multiple classes like maintenance, combat, fighting theory, strategy for facing pathfinders, etc.”

“Ah, that one huh..” Ely added, “In the Sanctum, they say Lord Damian only wanted those suits for the few elite mundane soldiers, but Lord Stormcaller and Lady Einar want to make it standard gear for everyone. With the situation getting tense, no wonder Lord Stormcaller wanted to use even the mundanes to their full potential. Sanctuary has fewer fighting people afterall.”

“Is it true what they say about being an equal level to second ranker pathfinder if a mundane fully masters using the suit?” Riky asked excitedly.

“It depends on what kind of spells the suit is equipped with and many other things..” Ely replied.

“Will these people.. going with Lord Damian, get a chance to enter dungeons with other people?” Luca asked, interrupting the conversation between the siblings.

“Luca, are you interested?” Riky was the first to ask. Ely’s curious eyes held the same interest.

“I was thinking about doing more recently..” He confessed.

“You should,” Ely said, “You always talk about your job and friends with so much enthuasism I thought saying something might not be the right thing. Unlike Riky and me, you are not restricted by the status. Riky will have opportunities to level up in the academy. You should try to work on your blacksmithing class as well. Don’t worry about money at all, I will handle everything. The installment is barely 15 gold anyway.”

Luca was surprised. He knew they would always support him no matter what, but still, it felt really good to hear it from them. 24 gold per month was not a small amount to let go, but it was time for him to move forward in life.

Entering the dungeons was not very profitable for a beginner runeshaper like him, but this new exploration job might need skilled blacksmiths! He will get to work on his interest while gaining experience and maybe money.

“I will try to join the exploration project..” Luca decided.

The two people before him nodded with smiles.

“It’s dangerous, but I know Lord Damian will not put normal civilians in harm’s way. As a blacksmith, however, you might never leave the airships at all..”

That was fine with him. No one knew what the exploration jobs were like anyway. It was all a very exciting new endeavor.