The Runic Alchemist - Chapter 827: The Grand Opening Celebration Week 23
Chapter 827: The Grand Opening Celebration Week 23
As expected, the whole coliseum started talking loudly when the small entrance procedure tutorial on dungeons ended. Mindseer and Ghoslain also gave the public time to discuss it at length while they took a small break.
Damian could hear thousands of voices talking at once in the large gathering. Even in the VIP section, the guests were discussing the newly revealed dungeon rules. Ghislain had also mentioned the rules being released on the receiver channel if someone wanted to revise.
A scene of thousands of people activating their receivers was something worth watching.
The discussion happening was mixed. There were people who expected him to take everything from them, and there were people who expected sanctum not to take anything from their handwork at all. Words like ’I knew it was too good to be true.’, and ’It isn’t that bad, all lord takes some percentage of their dungeon,’ were spoken quite a bit.
“Fifty percent? I thought you would keep it the same as the demons.. twenty percent.” The emperor asked.
Damian shifted his gaze from the excited crowd to the people around him.
“Fifty for my people, foreigners only get 35,” Damian replied.
The emperor squinted his eyes. “You will not let go of any chance to snatch our people, huh?”
“I won’t be collecting their taxes. What more do you want? It’s already a major boost to all the kingdom’s tax revenue. Like me giving free money.”
“Does it mean we can send thousands of people here to level and you won’t mind?” The queen of Faerunia asked.
“Why would I mind? You will be filling up my bags.” Damian replied.
“But we will also get much stronger in the process,” Hellstorm added.
“Come on now. Leveling isn’t that big a deal. People reach their second ranker level cap in their mid-thirties to fifties and then spend decades trying to go further. It’s like money: we all think having more will be amazing, but after a point, it isn’t as desirable anymore. The talented will grow faster, and people have more chances to unlock their full potential.” Einar replied.
“It will throw off the power balance our old systems were based on,” Grace commented from the side.
Sam and she were sitting together. They had given Anthony some time to rest; the third rankers could sense them arriving in the sanctum last night. It was better not to appear in public so soon.
“Good thing we don’t share that system,” Damian replied cheekily, earning many raised eyebrows.
The main event of the day started, putting a temporary stop to the ongoing dungeon discussions. There was no end to it anyway.
The main event was actually the dungeons themselves. Now that the top twenty challengers and their teams were gone. They couldn’t wait to show their journey. So they had decided not to do that altogether. Instead, the teams of Sanctuary knights and the pathfinder soldiers led by Sam were the ones they had decided to use as dungeon teasers.
For days, the army had entered the hundred dungeons and fought off monsters to get the footage they needed. They had enough light mana stones full of footage to last for weeks. They chose the best ones to show the journey of the sanctuary knights for each dungeon, the best monster fights, and the highlight of the party battles.
For an optimal viewing experience, they activated one of the spells Damian had inscribed in the Colosseum metal pillars. It created a dark black colored air wall that covered the whole open top of the coliseum. Converting the open viewing venue into a closed theatre-like experience.
Ventilation and air conditioners with slight light here and there didn’t let it be too suffocating. People were already warned about it multiple times. Just for this reason, big exit signs on the inner gates were runic. It glowed bright red so everyone could see. Fortunately, it did not cause too much panic; even the ones who were too scared and had left seemed to return after their friends brought them back.
The projection of dungeon movies had the intended effect. Even though there was no sound in the video, they had hired multiple musicians to perform live. It was just music without lyrics, yet it created a very alluring theatre-like experience.
One after one, projections continued. Mindseer had a tank full of liquid mana, so she wasn’t going to run out, and the runic projection device did not take too much mana to work. So they could go on for as long as they wanted. Just one dungeon’s footage took an hour to finish. It was a mixture of multiple parties’ journeys, showing the best scenes.
They were showing all their high-ranking officers’ abilities to the public. When Damian had asked the people about their opinion on it, they all seemed to be fine with it. A chance to show off before the entire sanctuary was rare.
Damian had even made a small, runic floating machine for her to record from all angles. The recording was not a perfect rectangle, but Mindseer could cut the unnecessary extra parts and make it presentable while playing.
Without her, the light mana stones with recorded images were just that, a simple mana stone. Only she had the ability to access it. This invention had very high potential, and even Highswords understood that. For the first time in the world, they could give someone an experience of being somewhere where they weren’t present at the time of recording.
Scouting, spying, recording old scriptures and historical books that were too fragile to hold. Needless to say, it could be used in hundreds of ways. Damian had used it to show the common people of this world just how hard the dungeon diving and the monsters present inside were.
The commoners, it was once a lifetime experience. For those who had already entered a dungeon, it was a prelude to what more they could get. So many different places, so many monsters, and so much loot. The excitement of the teaser was enhanced by the knowledge that in a few days, they could also enter these dungeons alone or with friends.
The biggest benefit of this opening of the dungeon was actually for the crafting classes. Now they had an option to gain the levels in their early jobs, other than painstakingly learn the craft and repeating. It would still require skill, otherwise the offered jobs would be of a lower level; but sometimes a person could understand it easily and is capable, still they have to grind away day after day to level up.
Just having open access to dungeons could accelerate their first ranker job upgrades from tens of years to only a few years. Choosing a crafting class wouldn’t be so bad now. With the materials that opening the dungeon would flood the markets, it was like winning a lottery for craftsmen.
It was also better for the warrior class pathfinders. If the craftsmen had better materials available at a low cost, they would get quality items at a much lower cost, too. As a result, they could buy more, sell more, using their strength and exert more strength with better weapons. A boost in the economy was guaranteed.
Damian smiled, watching the faces of the viewers, both the commoners and the VIP guests. It was like they were in a trance, even though the projection plus live music show had been going on for an hour and a half now. One dungeon for one hour. They had chosen only 30 such dungeons. There was no way they could do all one hundred. They would be here for days if he did that.
The plan was to continue this till 3 am. Then they would do the closing ceremony in the morning till afternoon, let people enjoy for a while, and then replay the remaining recording of the 30 chosen when evening starts. When that ends, a half-hour-long firework show was planned to launch as the last thing for the celebration week.
It was called a week, but only five days were the actual holidays. Followed by a weekend, so all the people could get a week’s rest and enjoy. Sanctum had forbidden people to open their businesses from morning to afternoon during the week.
The service industry was allowed to work through. If inns, taverns, and stuff closed, people would go crazy. At night, people could open their shops if they wanted. The market district was fully illuminated, so those who wanted to buy and sell stuff could do so at night.
Another successful execution of the planned event. While the Sanctuary and its guests enjoyed the show, all the sanctum officials had their own small celebration party. It wasn’t anything major; it couldn’t even be called a party.
No one was supposed to serve or anything. Evrin and others had done it in the last minute, so all the sanctum officials who couldn’t enjoy due to work could have something of their own to relax for a while. Especially after almost all their events had ended, and now, after the closing speech, their work will end. There was music here, too. So people could dance and stuff if they wanted to.
Damian had returned as well, giving a small ’good job’ speech to the sanctum officials gathered for the event. It wasn’t mandatory; they could also go to enjoy the dungeon show, which was what most of them would do after eating their fill here.
The sanctum officials were familiar with the schedule and knew the projection show would go on till midnight.
