The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 840: Members of Sanctum Research Center

Two days later, Damian, Vidalia, and Ilvanya were ready to perform the dungeon sealing ritual. All the high board members who were notified were present as well. The only problem was..

“Why is she here?” Vidalia asked with a coldness in her voice usually reserved for her enemies.

“She is a noble lady of the Empire. There are no restrictions on her joining, are there?” The emperor said with a straight face, staring back at Vidalia and Ilvanya.

The person in question was none other than Moondancer herself.

When the Emperor traded his dungeons for two seats on the high board of Sanctum Research Center, it wasn’t for him and his wife. One of the requirements of becoming a board member was academic history. The emperor’s wife rather political figure, did not really have an interest in scholarly life.

The emperor had chosen Moondancer as his second empire seat on the high board. Damian was informed via parchment after they discussed the terms. Technically, Moondancer could join legally. In the years after he sealed her mana, she had changed as a person.

She was still a duchess in the empire, and the region she ruled was actually very near the sanctum borders. She was still physically a third ranker, and her martial arts had just gotten better over the years without mana. She had even fought multiple battles against the Faerunians on behalf of the empire, keeping her people safe.

But not having mana had given her a lot of free time. Time, which she used for her academic research, and had even published a book or two, while the mainland was fighting over resources. She always was a lady interested in arts and research, especially her obsession with mana and its origin and effect on humans was quite famous, and even Damian had read some of her work.

He had even pondered over inviting her to the opening event or not, but he ultimately decided not to since Vidalia and Eldoris as a whole had real enmity towards her. She had killed a lot of Eldoris men; her attack on the Eldoris camp after both sides had declared truce for the night was still not forgotten. Damian had witnessed that with his own eyes, so he could understand Eldoris’ vengeance.

But now that things had come so far, if he took steps to remove Moondancer from the board, it would unnecessarily irk the empire side. That was wartime; every country had done less than honorable acts, even Eldoris and Sanctuary. They couldn’t keep a grudge as a country when they themselves had made the requirement rules.

“No, there are no restrictions on her joining,” Damian commented, ending the argument.

Though both Moondancer and Vidalia kept eyeing each other as they moved away. Damian could still feel Moondancer’s emotions slightly through the Divine Seeker Chains spell he had placed on her years ago. She spared a glance at him as well; however, it was less intense than the one reserved for Vidalia.

Even before the wars, with Vidalia’s title as Spellmaster and her fame amidst scholars and mages, Moondancer had always considered her a rival to her own beauty and accomplishments as the duchess of her region.

After so many years, it looked like she had forgotten Threadripper enough to see her situation clearly. Only Damian, in all of mainland and beyond, could give her back the ability to sense her mana. It was really a powerful spell the elves had learned from somewhere that transcended time and space, even, and was still just as effective.

From the Faerunian side, the queen herself was present along with Hellstorm. Hellstorm wasn’t an academic type, but there was a few military and strategy literature on his name. That rule was not absolute; Sam was a member after all.

From the Highsword side, Mindseer and Voidshaper, both members of the board, were also present. Mindseer was holding the runic device, waiting for the right time to hit record.

All the board members had taken their places around the entrance of the dungeon they were about to seal.

It was on another small, rocky island far from the mainland. Damian had brought all high-ranking members of the research center along as well, so everyone could witness the sealing ritual and write their own accord.

They had run the Lantern Grave dungeon all day and night for the past two days. Mindseer’s runic recorder had recorded every floor of the dungeon, every monster type was caught by them and kept for research purposes, even boss monsters. They had hundreds of dungeon cores that their army had earned.

To see what effect the sealing of a dungeon had on all these dungeon elements, they brought many monsters and dungeon cores along with them to see what would happen. Right now, only Ilvanya and Mindseer were on the stony island; all other personnel were on the flying platform placed right beside the dungeon entrance.

Everyone had a full view, and they shouldn’t be affected by the ritual, either up in the air.

Most of these ideas were requests of the high-ranking researchers who were allowed to come and see this. Even the ideas of bringing monsters and stuff. If it were an interesting enough thought, Damian, as the head of the high board, would approve it.

The recordings were going to be more or less useless for him since they did not show any real runic spell circles. So Damian would get only one chance to notice anything unusual going on.

Ilvanya was chanting spells after spells, using a unique spell-holding runic device that Eldoris had in its treasury. It only helped in retaining the spells and did not truly store them like the ring Vidalia and many others had.

It was still up to Ilvanya to hold the mana threads; now only she could reattach the mana threads if she lost the connection. Making multicasting easier. It couldn’t be used in battles, though, the car-sized metal rectangle runic device was too big and full of mana to bring together without making yourself a target.

Finally, after some 30 spells that Ilvanya chanted without a single mistake, the dark dungeon entrance flared with life.