Chapter 799: Invitation for the Highswords
The invitations were sent—some through the Sanctum soldiers and some through guilds and letter services. Even though advanced in certain areas, Earth-07, in matters of communications, was still using birds and mana-beasts to send letters.
All other countries were covered with his waygates; only Highsword Island was yet to be invited. For that, Damian was going on his own. That was before he said that to Lucian, after she, too, wanted to come along. Even with Vidalia agreeing to teach a class, they still needed more teachers.
"Ready?" Damian asked.
Lucian nodded, dressed in her rather favourite white dress, her soulbound sword resting on her waist. After becoming transcendent, Damian had noticed this subtle change in her; she was favouring plain white dresses. Even the Sacrium armor he had made for her had replaced her everyday armor.
With her transcendent physique, no other armor was as sturdy anymore.
Mindseer was near the bastion reconstruction site this time. She had grown so used to Damian randomly opening waygates using her that she only nodded when the couple walked out of the blue portal.
Damian gave her the envelope and let Lucian explain. He, himself, moved on towards Land-breaker and Voidshaper. Telling them about his grand event and all the little things they had planned for it. Most likely, the Highswords already knew about it. The rumours have been circulating for a while now.
For the whole month, Damian had even let the voice channel group and the article publishing department advertise the grand opening of the Hundred Dungeons. The information spread by them did not state clearly as to who would be given access to these dungeons; it was left ambiguous whether the Sanctum meant a hundred new dungeons for their country or for the army recruits, to have free access to those newly joining, or something else entirely.
The official channels never confirmed it, but from word of mouth and intentional or unintentional rumours spread by the Sanctum employees, there was a very real possibility that Damian was going to open the dungeons for people. The event was advertised as the first time in history.
After days of reports from his undercover agents, Damian knew his advertisement had worked as intended, and all over the mainland, people were already talking about the event. Now, with the invitation, which Damian had not sent quietly at all, the discussion would begin again.
Through the trade towns, Damian had also given an open invitation to people for the event through big posters and some teenage manpower. Which even mentioned special transportation arranged and free waygate entry to the new Sanctuary land yet to be revealed.
There was still a week to go, and Damian already had too many people asking for that special transportation at border towns, especially the trade towns. The airships were ready; he could put them to work from tomorrow. Just the talks of that alone will attract even more public. Their towns and cities were already seeing noticeable growth in numbers. Some foreigners were even reported searching for this new land that Damian had promised to open.
They were mainly spellswords. Those were the people he had targeted this all towards the most after the researchers and scholars. All his letters to the academic type people and intelligent lords and ladies contained a few snippets of his unique dungeon information. Enough to make a curious person really interested in coming to Sanctuary for more details.
"You are really going through with it, huh?" Voidshaper commented once he finished.
"Opening dungeons for people, even for a short time - I have no idea what kind of effect it will have on all of us." Land-breaker voiced his thoughts from the side.
"For once, we will have a lot more powerful individuals. With gaining levels becoming more accessible, the talented will shine brighter than ever." Damian answered, "All that aside, the most important benefit is going to be mankind’s much-needed advancement in dungeon knowledge. Few groups of people, keeping secrets of the knowledge they gain, would never give us a chance to uncover the mystery behind those windows of other worlds."
"So your aim with this is to study dungeons?" Voidshaper asked.
"Among other things. The abundance of monsters and materials wouldn’t be a bad thing. Sanctuary would, of course, share that with others." Damian replied.
"With greater risk, the greater reward is certainly yours to have," Land-breaker said with his hand crossed on his chest. "I only wish that you would stop all of it if things start to go wrong."
Damian nodded, "That’s why I came here personally. I have invited top scholars and researchers from all around the mainland. With Highswords, I wasn’t sure whether you would accept or not. If you have people interested in such things, I would love to put them together with others. This way you can keep an eye on what new things we are uncovering and such stuff."
"You want us to join you?" Voidshaper asked with a bit of confusion.
"As I said, the more the better. The information is a small price to pay. Besides, I do this only because it’s you guys. For others, it wouldn’t be so simple."
Voidshaper and Land-breaker nodded.
Highswords were different; he didn’t have to worry about them using the dungeon information or some new runic or other knowledge to come after him. Land-breaker could already wreak havoc on his own, but the guy had a code. Damian did not agree with everything Highsword stood for, but their principles were something he respected.
"That aside, what would it take for Edgeheaven to join these trade towns of yours?" Land-breaker asked.
"Just say where, and I will install the waygates," Damian replied.
Both leaders of Highsword looked at him with surprise, clear on their faces.
"Just like that?" Voidshaper even asked.
"The people using their boats and ships to bring people here would lose their business, which was why I wasn’t sure before. But if you somehow limit the entry or take a fee, it should be fine. With waygates, your people can work anywhere in the mainland and come back to their family here in the evening."