Seventh Floor, Sanctuary City, Damian.

"You shouldn't have done that. I don't want to be the reason for you to.." Vidalia continued talking behind him as Damian worked to finish the seven runic jets with Jacob.

They had built a door connecting the lab to the storage room. A secret room in the storage was where Steelweaver lived. The lab was used by all three of them, but whenever someone came, the old dwarf had to leave for the duration.

"It's just a title. I don't think much has changed for me personally.." Damian replied, finally turning back to face her.

The dark breaches and tucked-in white shirt, despite being hidden behind a leather armor, looked quite inviting on her. It was from one of the new clothing lines they started recently for the online shop. The designs and materials were bought by Sanctum and were given to Ghislain for finding good craftsmen and bringing them to life. Ghislain was given the contract to manage this special department.

Among the many new initiatives they had started since Sam took over was to become as self-sustaining a nation as possible. In case the runic wall that Damian was going to build would be activated in times of war, Sanctuary would have to survive on its own for an uncertain period. If they could limit their import in that time, it would be a great advantage.

Though Sanctuary had hundreds of dungeons full of resources and waygates, so it was just a secondary thing.

If the land was well protected, Sam and Einar could fight on the frontlines without worry. The emperor was doing his best not to start a war despite his wife's crazy religious practice. The second empire attacked Damian, will break all the waygate stations placed inside the empire—that was the fear both in the empire and Faerunia that made them hesitant.

Already, Sanctuary was having a large number of new civilians enter its borders every day. The attraction of dungeons, the abundance of food, and the opportunity for work and a stable living environment that had no nobles. The people who commuted using the flying platforms from their countries to Sanctuary spread the tales far and wide.

It was something the other nations wished to stop, but could not afford to stop it as well.

Noticing his gaze on her curves, she eyed him. Slightly rosy cheeks, but angry because he wasn't paying much attention to her words.

"If you don't want to listen, why did you call me here?" She asked.

Damian washed his hands and face and started walking with her out of the lab.

"How's spellcrafting going?" He asked casually.

"Several promising ones, but there is always too much to figure out, and we have limited people and your time. Why did you spend five days without sleeping or eating in the lab? Are you okay?"

"I had to finish before the meeting today." Damian replied, "I called you here for the same reason."

"The Research Center's High Board meeting?"

Damian nodded.

"It's time to put the exploration plan in action. I know you are representing Eldoris, but I wanted to ask you before proposing to the board. I am going to take charge personally. After building giant floating ships like a combination of Dreamlight and our transportation carriers, I will go explore this world, taking a lot of manpower along."

Vidalia's eyebrows raised in slight surprise, but she didn't fully understand what he was asking. "You want my permission..?"

Damian chuckled. "I want you with me,"

He said it and saw her blush. How could a century-old elf still blush like that?

Damian knew it wasn't her first time being married. But in the past week, Ilvanya once mentioned that Vidalia had never been with anyone for the last 150 years. She once had a daughter as well, who passed too young.

He once glanced into her memories when they were bound by the Divine Seeker Chains, and saw a young elf covered in blood. She looked exactly like Vidalia, so he naturally assumed it was her, but it must be her daughter.

There was too much he didn't know about his new wife. He vowed never to let her feel alone.

Because of his workaholic nature, he had made too many mistakes in his relationship with Lucian. He did not want to repeat that with Vidalia.

Lucian had officially ended their relationship. Damian tried for days to convince her that having or not having kids was not that big a deal to him, but she was adamant in her decision. Damian did not want to let her go at any cost, but then he realized having kids was not that big a deal for him, but maybe for her it was.

He could not promise something he was incapable of doing. Damian personally asked Astraea, Landbreaker, and Sunny after that night and had confirmed that it was indeed true.

The transcendent form that the gods kept default for all third-ranker evolution was actually the ultimate version of human evolution. Being human, they could reproduce with humans. Landbreaker, as a fourth ranker, had evolved into a unique being as well and had lost the ability to reproduce with average humans.

This was something unique for pathfinders. Intelligent mana beasts like Sea Snake had no such restrictions. The Neremyst house, from which Hellstorm and the ex-queen of Faerunia were, was actually a distant line of Sea Snake and human hybrid race. Past Faerunian ruler, Sea Snake's sibling's off-springs.

That place was all kinds of weird. But such was the case in beasts.

Since Vidalia was still silently walking beside him, pondering the implications of his words, Damian added,

"I was thinking, since we have time, why not explore the world, find more dungeons, and enter them together with an elite team? We can bring a few of your spellcrafting people at a time with us to keep working on that while experiencing new spells and civilization firsthand."

"You will propose that to the board?" She finally turned her pretty head.

"Yes," he nodded, "Clearing the Highsword dungeon made me realize I need a lot of powerful individuals to increase the speed of clearing dungeons. The current progress is too slow for my liking. Wouldn't mind copying some new spells that we can use to create things unimaginable in this world."

"Why now? Because you have free time? You have a wall to build though.." She wondered aloud.

Astraea was present with him most of the time of the day, observing his runic jet work in detail. She often came and went, which was why he kept Steelweaver away from the lab for the last week. She was here right now as well.

"It's just a wall. Just mindless work, I will get bored. Can't do that all day.." He made an excuse.

Vidalia saw his expressions and knew it wasn't the full truth. Then, after a few seconds of walking together in silence, she murmured,

"An elite team consisting of powerful transcendents.. to keep them busy.."

Damian merely smiled at her, neither confirming nor denying. The explanation should be good enough for Astraea not get suspicious even when Landbreaker joins.

If the empire saw the advantage and progress of the exploration project and high-level dungeon diving, they wouldn't be too tempted by the sun temple's urge to fight. It would make things easier for Sam and others. Meanwhile, he could make things and do enough preparation that even the gods would think twice before messing with Sanctuary.

The red priests might think they forced him to retire, but giving him time was actually their biggest mistake in this cold war.

He did not want to waste time fighting against the emperor, Eldorians, and Vearon. Keeping them distracted to prepare himself for facing the gods was his actual goal. Other than the Chaos God, Damian knew the other three gods didn't want to get their hands dirty just yet. They were just planning their own schemes.

Until they had an absolute advantage of winning or at least removing others, they wouldn't use any pawn in their hands recklessly. Hopefully, whatever it was that had occupied their attention elsewhere and had forced them to work together would still be effective for a few more years—that much time should be enough for him to come up with some defence.

There was another hope in Damian's heart. Something he wished to work on as an alternative to this fight-it-out plan he crafted with Landbreaker. A way that will render all gods and their threats useless and open so many paths for mankind. But he could only work on it inside a good resource-heavy dungeon, away from all eyes.

Vidalia and Damian travelled to the second-largest island of Sanctuary, Ashenrock Isle, after taking Ilvanya and Sam with them. The two sanctum heads were neck-deep in paperwork, but he had already informed them not to miss this meeting, so they made adjustments.

Sam, especially, was trying his best to handle the various things a Keeper had to do every day. Souldealer, Einar, and Evrin had taken up a lot of responsibilities that Damian used to handle alone, but still, the backlog was hard to get through.

Sanctuary and Eldoris were not the only factions he had notified to attend the research board meeting. Hellstorm and ex-queen of Faerunia were present there as well, along with Moondancer, and the emperor, Voidshaper, and Landbreaker were present as well.

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