The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 920: The Grand Exploration Project 2

Damian stood behind the crew flying the Last Shadow.

His personal ship, unlike the other ships, only had a crew of a hundred and fifty people. The ship had his labs, several large storage compartments, a separate workplace for him and Vidalia, many rooms from personal quarters to meeting rooms, and whatnot.

All ships had their own boss monsters kept deep within that generated liquid mana as needed. That whole section was locked and could not be opened by anyone. The way Damian had designed the ships, most of the functions were fully automated, but a capable team was still needed to keep an eye on directions, temperature, elevation, external interfereance and using the right runic machines at the right time to keep flying without many issues.

The top thirty candidates, who were trained by Damian and Reize personally, had trained a team of their own consisting of ten people. So there were over three hundred qualified pilots who had enough knowledge and training to become a captain or vice captain of the Axion ships. Each pair had trained and practiced with their crew of 50 people responsible for flying and controlling the ship for a month.

They had done mock scenario runs and had travelled short distances as practice before finally getting the job to officially become a crew member of the control team. The other staff were trained for internal ship jobs and responsibilities; there was a cleaning department, a mechanical repair & parts building department, cooking, a defence system, etc departments that made the whole crew of 300.

To maximize the time for installing the receiver network, 20 ships were given the training for installation and were equipped to have special meter-sized cubes ready to deploy for network relay.

The way it worked, a team of pathfinders used a special runic device to aid in linking mana threads. Using which one lead mage could operate the high-end giant spatial storage and take out one of the thousands of cubes stored inside. Then, using the same linking mana device, a team of runesmiths could borrow the mana of other pathfinders to place mana nodes inside the cube.

Here, too, one lead runesmith used the runic mold to activate the spell, take control, and place it inside the cube filled with mana nodes. And that’s how one network boosting, self mana gathering, weight reduced, wind pushing runic cube was made.

They just had to put that in the air at high altitude every 30-40 kilometers, and the network was extended just like that.

Because they had limited pathfinders and runesmiths, only a dozen or so cubes could be made in a single ship, and not all ships could do it either. The specific installation crew ships could produce 12-15 in a day, flying and installing those was no issue for anyone at all.

“So we have a week to enter the high-level dungeons present on the open sea and clear them all,” Damian announced to his dungeon party companions.

120 strongest individuals of the fleet. It included Damian himself, Vidalia, Landbreaker, Mindseer, Hellstorm, a Faerunian transcendent mage named Veilpiercer, Bonecrusher, and Moondancer as the heavy hitters.

The rest were second rankers. Some familiar names were Alex, Seraphina, Royce (Served as one of the unit captains in the Pyron training camp)

, Mira (Served as one of the unit captains in the Pyron training camp), Jorven (Damian and Sam’s friend from training camp, lost his cousing in the Demon war), Theren (Damian and Sam’s friend from training camp, white haired plus sized kid now a second ranker handsom young man), Aramis Viranil (Eldoris transcendent seed), Lord Tristan, Xavier (Eldoris transcendent seed), etc.

There were several other transcendent seeds, top knights, and captains from other countries. The elite team was part of the dungeon diving parties on behalf of the Sanctum research board. It was a very coveted position for many pathfinders.

“The dungeons are already selected. The top four hundred level ones will be the first target, then we move on to the 75 and lower level ones.” Damian continued,

“These dungeons are already checked for their initial floors, but the new ones we will encounter on the way will be unknown to us. The shadowborn will enter those first and check the initial five levels. After which we enter as one team if its hundred level dungeon and as two teams if it’s 75 or below. We will aim to clear it while making a record of how to proceed for other pathfinder and Shadowborn teams that will enter for resource gathering and will be led by captains present here.”

“Remember, if even a single one of us dies, our dungeon plane will become fixed forever, and we won’t be able to enter with other teams. That should not happen at any cost. Other than a waste of time and resources, its exact opposite of what we have come to do. Expand the reach of humanity, not shorten it by dying like a fool.”

“Isn’t that a bit too much? On a battlefield, a warrior’s decisions are their own; it’s another thing if they refuse direct orders.” Bonecrusher object.

The man was a mountain of muscles, which only highlighted more when he stood there with his arms crossed in casual, large, specially made clothes.

“All people of the Exploration project will have plenty of chances to kill monsters, too many, even, that most of you will get bored of it. But you will slave away for experience points.” That produced a wave of laughter.

He continued, “The more we bring from these dungeons, the greater your share of profit on top of salaries will be. I meant do not be consumed by greed and eagerness, both as a captain and as a pathfinder, trying to ascend. All your strength is useless once you are dead and cold. There are times for sacrifice and valor, but what we are doing here is simply gaining strength and filling our pockets.”

Another wave of chuckles followed. After that, Damian told them in short which dungeon they were going to clear first. Then let everyone go to prepare for it. All of it had already talked and planned several times; this was just a final go-ahead meeting before actually entering the dungeon.

For the first week in which the Apex Vectors were scanning the region around the mainland in all direction he wanted to clear as many dungeons as he could from the already found dungeons in the sea.

The Apex Vectors had instructions to land on any big enough island they could find that had trees to break a branch and store that in their spatial storage. That’s all Damian needed to get the tree ID and use Waygate to reach there. Of course, it only worked for fresh branches, a few hours after cut from trees. But with spatial storage, that was enough time for Damian to get the IDs.

The Apex Vectors had three separate waygates built into them. One connecting Damian’s Last Shadow ship that had trees inside. The waygate had a distance opening above the ship. The second connects any Axiom ship of their choice, and the last one connects a safe Helios-class ship Damian had anchored high in the air, location unknown. No one stayed in this place; it was transformed into a workshop and safe retreat for Apex pilots.

These three were meant for quick escape in an emergency.

All second-rankers captains, who each were leaders of their own dungeon diving team, left the meeting room of Last Shadow. Damian had stopped Landbreaker and the transcendents behind.

“A change in the plan?” Hellstorm asked.

Damian shook his head and leaned forward in his chair.

“We had talked about the terms and plans long enough. What I am going to tell you now is something you should all remember.” Damian said.

The faces of everyone present grew serious, matching his tone.

“Slow down and be careful is for others. This team. I.. only aim to clear as many dungeons as I can at any cost. The goal is ascending no matter how many Unfathomables I have to kill.”

The thin mana threads were present on their heads, but Damian didn’t care. The gods knew he would try to ascend anyway he could. They would be the most gullible bunch if they believed he would stop trying to get stronger now that Astraea controlled his status.

Several eyebrows raised, but Bonecrusher, Hellstorm, and even Moondancer smiled, a sparkle in their eyes.

Strength. That’s what they all wanted.

They were not close to their patron gods and had no idea their growth was being controlled. Well, for everyone else other than Bonecrusher, at least. The pugilists’ trials rarely changed from simple one-on-one fights. But they were insanely difficult. Other than Beast God, no pugilist in known history had even succeeded in becoming a fourth ranker.

“No matter how fast your growth is, there is no way you can achieve that before me!” Moondancer declared.

Hellstorm, Veilpiercer, and Bonecrusher nodded in agreement.

“But then again, no one in history was even capable of clearing hundreds of dungeons in a single month..” Bonecrusher added.

“Well, it’s just good for me! Kill away, Lord Runebreaker!” Veilpiercer cheered.

“You won’t be leaching off experience.” Damian made a face, “I will work you all to the bone!”