Chapter 795: Days Before the Dungeon Opening Event
Still, considering this was the first real trial of the runic engine, and it had performed better than his expectations, it was a resounding success. Just a few adjustments and some brainstorming, and this can indeed become one of the best runic machines he has made.
His estimate for the simple ’Alpha Sentry I’s top speed was near 460 to 500 kilometers per hour. And that was with just two engines. If he placed five or six on one craft, it could easily achieve Mach 1 speed.
For first edition jets, it would be more than enough.
Damian wanted to hurry up and finish his work on the jets, but he couldn’t stay hidden in the runic lab all his life. Tomorrow was the day the House of Lords would elect the seventh head of the Sanctum. Then the dungeon opening event was also coming closer every day.
Through his assistants, Damian had already selected some businesses and merchants he would partner with for this event. Damian had not sold the land on the island he was going to place all the dungeon waygates on, but he was planning to keep them on rent. But before doing that, he needed to show the merchants and other businesses how profitable the place was going to be in the future to set the right price.
Unlike the runesmith guild, the merchant’s guild was always ready to please him. Of course, they weren’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Every deal Damian wanted to make had plenty of opportunities for them to make money on. Sanctum’s relations with the guild master of the merchant guild based in Sanctuary were pretty good.
Some independent runesmiths or the runesmith guild’s members in hiding had come to the Sanctum, begging for the contract, after seeing the success of the runic tools made by the contracted runesmiths. The Sanctum always offered them the less favourable contract, and they still accepted.
Damian had plans of changing the contract in the future if they did the work diligently, but he did not reveal such an intention to any party.
Damian worked on some final plans for the event with his assistants and other heads participating. The management of security was the army’s work.
After several late-night discussions between Einar, Sam, and Damian, they had all decided to divide their forces into three parts. First, the main army was managed directly by Einar. It consisted of one-third of their force. The Sanctuary’s all-region local security was their main job. All city and town guards would come under her. The wild monster eradication duty will also be her responsibility.
Then, half the forces were directly under Sam; his main duty was dungeon exploration, and some of the regular monster and material retrieval from specific dungeons. Foreign travel security and first deployment for the offensive strategies will also be under his duty.
In short, everything inside Sanctuary was Einar’s responsibility, and everything outside was Sam’s.
One-third of the army was in direct control of Damian. It consisted of all the spies and Sanctum enforcers. They were also sort of reserve forces that could be called upon by Sam and Einar both. Still, everything about this division was in direct control of Damian himself. He could recruit more or fire some, promote the deserving, etc.
Einar was present because she was managing the security of the whole event. While Sam was present because they had sent an invitation to some respected researchers, scholars, knights, and lords, along with the three royal families. He wasn’t expecting the king or queen to show up, but it was mandatory to send the invitation. Especially when he was inviting some of their civilians and lords.
Sam was responsible for getting these people from their homes, and an invitation had already been sent. Going this far to get these people for the event was so that the Faerunians or other authorities wouldn’t stop these like-minded people from visiting and realizing that there were people who appreciated their work and personalities.
The scholars and researchers were an obvious selection. But the lords and knights were selected by their reputation and acts. Damian had invited intelligent people who had shown interest in dungeons and runic advancements in other fields, excluding weapons and traps.
"The invited people aside, who will all use the direct waygate to the city, are we going to let all kinds of people just walk through our borders to come here?" Einar asked.
"Aren’t we already doing that?" Sam added.
"The number of people travelling will increase from now on, Lord Stormcaller," Celestine replied from the side.
"No," Damian replied, "I will arrange a transport system for them tomorrow. It’s one of my experimental projects, but after today, I should be able to do it in a day if I focus."
"Are you talking about the ugly thing you used to soar the sky like a fly?" Sam asked.
Damian glared at the obnoxious lightning fool. Then, realizing something, he broke into a wolfish smile.
"You know? I just used two of my runic engines today, and I already achieved speed exceeding 500 km/h. If I add six-seven more, any person piloting it will be able to fly faster than you."
"You are lying!" Sam pointed at him with a horrified expression on his face.
"Hehe," Damian just laughed like a villain, not replying to his hundreds of follow-up questions.
At last, Evrin ignored them and resumed the discussion without them,
"Is the island decided on yet? Have you guys seen it?"
Hester nodded, "Yes, my lady. It’s a big one, shaped like a stretched egg with over 40 kilometers in length and a little over 23 kilometers in width."
Everyone did their best to ignore the egg reference, focusing on the fact that the venue for the event had already been decided upon. Now they just had to transform it and use a part of it to make the world’s most unique city.
Damian stopped his antics and said, "Yes, I will create some waygate points for it tomorrow near the headquarters. You guys can go there tomorrow after some modifications."