The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 767: The Reshaping of Sanctum Land

Once the main Sanctum building in the towering knight-with-a-sword shape was fully ready, Damian shifted his focus to the walls.

The four-kilometer-square Sanctum region was surrounded by a small waist-height stone wall that was broken in places. Damian changed the height to two meters; instead of breaking the stone wall, he built around it: a few-meters-thick dirt layer, then a wooden layer, and in the end the outer Blazur alloy layer. The finished wall was two meters high and fifty centimeters wide. He could have inscribed protective spells on it, but Damian decided against it and only kept one simple light orb feature with switches at regular intervals.

Once finished, Damian moved on to the main stone keep. But after looking at it for a few seconds, he decided to leave it as it was. The space was not needed, and it would serve as a very good comparison of their progress, added with the historical significance of being stationed near the main Sanctum tower.

Damian moved on. He flew near the main noble street facing the gate of the Sanctum’s four-kilometer area and started building a huge structure using the left-hand corner. He was making an army headquarters. Currently, they had some ten thousand soldiers in the army. Keeping future needs in mind, Damian used over one square kilometer of land to build large complexes like apartments with many rooms and other facilities an army might need.

He made them in sets of four: four large U-shaped seven-floor buildings, all facing each other with a large square practice ground in the middle. A total of twenty such buildings, five sets. Each floor had eighty rooms. He made them small yet functional for three to four people. Multiple common bathrooms were placed on each floor and a personal toilet for every room.

Runic tech for toilets was simply a low-grade spatial storage filled with liquid chaos that eroded everything it touched, so in theory the storage would never be filled. There was a little physical storage beneath the toilet seats, collecting all that could be sent to these spatial storages once it was filled. The seats had water-flush type runic spells embedded, activated with a switch. Like everything, this too needed liquid mana, but pathfinders could use their own mana to activate it as well.

With the growing need for liquid mana, Damian had decided to find a way to mass-produce it. He couldn’t use his own aura for that; he would have to see how he could make a common aura made of liquid mana that could be used for everyday purposes. His own could be used for nefarious purposes if made public, which was why Damian was unwilling to give it—added with the fact he had no time to make so much liquid mana every day on his own.

Damian built a large meeting room, mess hall, armory, storage lockers, runic lifts, and many needed facilities for every building in all twenty.

The four-kilometer big empty square already looked quite filled with his massive Sanctum building and now twenty of these new headquarters buildings. There was still quite some space to build more facilities, but for now it was already enough. He could always build them as the need arose. For now, their whole Sanctum was the main building for government purposes, and it was also a home for all seven heads of the Sanctum.

The army and some Sanctum officials who didn’t have family in the city or wanted their own place to stay could live in the army headquarters. Only twenty buildings with seven floors were built, but if it looked like they needed more, there was space to add twenty-plus more.

The knights and high-ranking soldiers living on the noble street could finally get a permanent home, and those wooden and stone houses could be used for different purposes.

Twenty-five percent of the Sanctum region was filled with the army headquarters, which was situated in the first right corner. The Sanctum was in the second left corner but not to the side—more like in the center of the four equal squares, leaning slightly toward the second left square.

The front of the Sanctum building, the first left square, was completely empty. Damian first built a series of huge storage warehouses there. The Sanctum basement had a lot of space, but storing large things directly outside without going through the main hallways of Sanctum was needed for a few things. Additionally, the storage of live animals and supplies for the mess could also be taken care of there. It was requested by Evrin herself.

With just that, all work inside the Sanctum region was done. A lot more could still be added, but Damian kept the greenery and open space. He planted and grew lots of trees, wooden benches, and things for people to sit on outside the Sanctum building. A paved road was also something he needed, but that he could leave to Evrin. He did clean the path and made it smooth; they only had to add the stones now.

It had turned to night when he finished everything. The Sanctum was refurbished, and everyone was already taking a tour of the improved facilities. Damian and Lucian ate dinner with their friends after he gave the six heads a detailed tour of their new offices, which they could also use as their homes. Damian knew Sam and Grace were looking for a house, and so were Evrin and Einar, which was one of the reasons he wanted to build this right now.

He had put quite a lot of thought into the Sanctum building and was rewarded with praises upon praises from everyone who took a look at the new building. Sam, Einar, and Souldealer were beyond surprised when he told them there was an entire floor to their name. They went above and beyond in their acts of sucking up to him.

Finally, after finishing the tour, they were having dinner together on Damian’s seventh floor. It was for close friends and family of the six heads of Sanctum. Still, being a last-minute thing, only the people working in the Sanctum were there, with a few close relatives. Along with the six heads of Sanctum, Grace, Baron Goldilocks, the five assistants of Damian, Einar’s son and a couple of her attendants, and a few nobles Souldealer had good relations with.

“Still, do I really need such a large place for myself? Most of the time I am with you..” Lucian said, seated beside him.

People were talking all around them, as some just listened and ate quietly like a few of his assistants. Lucian had said it just for his ears.

“It’s more than just a place to live, it’s a place where every head of Sanctum can work freely. In the coming time, the workload will increase, and all of you will have to do more every day. A separate place for everyone is needed; every floor is for the specific head and the related department the head will lead in the future. We may not be here forever, but our titles will live on. The places will be passed down to successors.”

“It is indeed a much-needed place if we are to have a mundane human as the seventh head,” Einar said from the other side of the table, agreeing with him while feeding little Drona seated on her lap with her own hands.

“When are we doing that?” Lord Silas said. He and Baron Goldilocks were invited by Damian. Lord Silas added, “If you don’t mind me asking that, Lord Keeper. The people, whenever I go out in the streets, always ask that.”

“No, it’s a valid question. I should have done that long ago—but the tower and waygates stole my focus. The initial proposal for the job requirements is already ready—let’s do that in three days when we will be done with mass registration of the Sanctum ID,” Damian replied.

Evrin said, “The IDs are needed for the waygate travel. You were not wrong to put that ahead as priority—I assume you did it to open the long-distance waygate as soon as possible?”

Damian nodded. “Yes. When the waygates are opened for public travel, the region of Sanctuary will get really busy. For starters, I will need the oversight of our transcendents for the three new border cities we will make where these foreigners can trade with our people.”

“You won’t let them travel inside the Sanctuary region?” Baron Goldilocks asked. Many others also stopped talking, the new information snatching their attention.

“If they want to use waygates to reach the other side of our border and enter Eldoris or Empire land, I won’t stop them—the two rulers already told me the strict restrictions they were going to place on those who would enter their countries through the waygates. The three cities we will make on the border will be a joint operation with the authority of these three kingdoms.”

“Eldoris and the Empire are neighbors, but Faerunia won’t have that much authority here..” Sam said.

Damian nodded. “The waygates connecting Faerunia I have placed at Kovalrine town—it’s a small harbor but close to our three islands. I am also thinking about making our second-biggest island, Ashenrock Isle, a place where all people could freely visit from our borders. But that will come after we open the border waygates and see how the limited trade goes. Ashenrock Isle needs to be protected from all outside interference before I can send people there. It will only be accessed through waygates.”