Damian expected the emperor to never agree. Even with such profits, he would be too suspicious to go along with any plans of Sanctuary.

The fact that Damian wished to take a large part of the manpower to clear dungeons with him, so the upcoming conflicts might get delayed, was clear to any political leader with a bit of brain.

'As always, he is trying so hard to keep the peace.' That should be on most of their minds.

Damian hoped that was the case. It will make it natural for Landbreaker to join and avoid the suspicion of the gods.

Duke Halwen spoke up after checking the documents his assistants had prepared to declare how much manpower of the research board and Sanctuary they might need for this.

"Lord Damian, I understand the need for capable elites for dungeon exploration, but do you really need so many lesser pathfinders, researchers, and mundanes for this? With waygates, surely you wouldn't need so many to actively travel with you."

"No need to add Lord. Damian, or Runebreaker, will suffice."

Damian replied with a light smile and then glanced at Celestine, seated beside him, who straightened up and answered,

"The exploration will cover any land that we come across in detail, recording its native animal, mana-beast, and vegetation species. Traversing the region completely so as not to miss anything is the aim. Also, the new long-distance transport machines Runebreaker has designed will require a crew of over a thousand. The goal is to have enough supplies and all basic needs met inside the carrier so we can remain flying for months before using a waygate."

"A flying carrier? Like the ones we already use for public transportation?" Ilvanya asked.

"Didn't you once say the liquid mana cost of operating those platforms placed Sanctuary at a loss?" Moondancer asked with a not-so-nice smile.

It would clearly translate as, 'See, when you spout enough bullshit, eventually you will get caught.'

But it wasn't a lie when Damian had said that.

"These new designs will be different from transportation platforms." Damian clarified, "The use of liquid mana is minimal while increasing speed and size to a great degree. Designed specifically for long distances. If I have to compare, the flying platforms right now are like carriages. What I have in mind is more like a three-masted ship."

"I should mention this. Highsword has records of long travels of our Supreme Commander; there is nothing anywhere nearby for thousands of kilometers other than the ocean and small islands." Voidshaper added.

"Did you travel the whole world?" Damian asked directly to Landbreaker.

"Twice. Our world is massive. Each time, I was eager to return since I had no method to contact my fellow Highswords. But I kept going in a single direction, not diverting much unless my senses picked up something. I must have missed a lot of things. I did see some land from high above and visited them on my travels as well. But it was dense with vegetation, and as I said, the world is massive, and my senses are limited." Landbreaker replied.

"Just having a waygate to those lands would be an admirable success," Sam commented, and several heads nodded.

More land was the most desirable thing for any country. Especially one where, besides them, no other people would live. The natural protection and opportunity to a prosperous life that would be offered were very attractive. Just the demon's massive numbers and advanced tools were proof enough.

"If it were that easy, people would have done it years ago," Vearon commented.

"No offense to your Lord Commander, but the ocean is bigger than any of you can imagine. And it is not empty of things. Even we never dared to go past our limits. On those flying metal lumps, you would need half a century to just make one round around the world."

Landbreaker did not refute his words,

"Even at my top speed, it took me more than a decade to go and come back. One might expect that going around the world, the mainland would be easy to find from the other side, but that's not true. Flying for days on end without sleep was how I travelled."

"We have waygates now." Ilvanya declared, and half the members nodded.

Even if this took a lot of time and somehow they were forced to return halfway through—their progress will not be erased.

Damian shook his head, "It all depends on how efficiently we plan for this and how fast we go."

"There is no way a lump of metal can fly faster than a fourth ranker! At least not with people on it." Vearon exclaimed.

Damian simply smiled and stood up,

"That brings us to the main reason I called all of you. To show you why we can do this."

———

Outside the Sanctum Research Center Building, Ashenrock Isle.

"Zzzshhnnnnn..."

There was no smoke, no fire—just a sudden bend in the sky. The craft cut past, air shivering in its wake, lines of the world twisting where it had been. A thin white flash bloomed along its frame and vanished. A heartbeat later, the sound arrived, sharp and late, as if the sky had been struck rather than flown through.

Hearing the gasps and witnessing looks of absolute shock absolved all dissatisfaction Damian had in his heart about not piloting the runic jet himself.

Reize had only practicing for the past five days, and she was already capable of touching 900 km/hour. The max operational speed they achieved in their tests was 1158 km/hour. The three-engine setup jets should theoretically reach over 1300 km/hour, but anything past 1150 km/hour was too much gravity for the pilot.

Reize, a second-ranker half-demon, slightly stronger than a second-ranker beastmen, passed out at 1200 km/hour despite all the support spells Damian had equipped inside the runic jet for stability. In a straight line, she could go 1220-1240, but the integrity of the craft, air resistance, and insane gravity for minor changes in direction made it impossible to use that for a long time.

Damian had used Blazur as much as possible so he wouldn't have to use Sacrium much. The engines were already full sacrium, and the cost of that was already astronomical. The Blazur was good, but it was not meant for high temperatures and such an insanely fast-moving machine. His support spells did as much as they could to not strain the metal and reduce the load on both the machine and the pilot, but 1300 km/hour was the limit.

"That is.." Voidshaper murmured but did not finish his sentence.

"It's faster than the sound itself!" Orren Halvik exclaimed.

The guy was half asleep in the meeting earlier, but the second the runic jet arrived, he was the most energetic old man Damian had ever seen. All the research center stand-in members who knew how crazy the machine truly was were having a blast observing the thing in action.

"Shaped like a bird! I always wondered if that would make the platforms much faster than facing wind directly!"

"The sound it makes is like a massive monster roaring, but its so small!"

"It just looks small from here. That's bigger than adult wyverns!"

"Only one person could ride!"

"Of course! They are built for maximum speed after all!"

"There is no way a normal, mundane human can endure that much speed!"

For a moment, they all forgot who was from which country and were just saying things left and right.

"Who is inside?" Landbreaker asked.

He already assumed Damian would make something like that. It was a must; otherwise, their dream of travelling would only remain that, a dream.

"A second ranker beastmen," Damian replied.

"Can mundanes fly it?" The next question came from Ilvanya.

"With 70-80% speed of what we are seeing, if they are physically fit and can go through intense training."

"Even with just a hundred of those, you can travel an insane distance in a single day! Then, using waygates, whole armies can reach the end point!" Moondancer evaluated, a slight hesitation in her tone.

"It took me months to build that. Keeping the safety, stability, comfort, and survival of the pilot in mind, it's impossible to build in bulk." Damian replied.

"How many do you have?" The Emperor asked, his eyes regaining that serious look.

"Seven," Damian replied while meeting his eyes.

"The bigger carriers, which will house most soldiers, will not be as fast. Around 35 to 40% of my runic jets."

"And how much exactly is that?" The ex-queen of Faerunia asked.

"Under 300 km/hour. Faster than a fourth ranker." Damian replied casually to everyone's shock around him.

"How fast is that going?" Sam asked, realizing he was no longer the fastest.

"Near 900 km/hour,"

"Ridiculous.." Vearon murmured, and most of the members nodded in agreement.

"Finally, we shall see in detail what our world has to offer!" Orren Halvik said it loudly, "I must do this! I have to come and see for myself!"

"Researchers are always welcome. I will need a lot of us to record every detail of our journey." Damian replied with a smile.

Damian created a giant replica of himself with a spell and gestured for Reize to leave. Moments later, she hit the in-built waygate activation system, and the super-fast runic jet was swallowed whole. The endpoint was a random island in the middle of the ocean that they used for the tests. He had built temporary warehouses and facilities there.

"The speed alone is enough to avoid most monsters, but it has in-built protection and escape spells as well," Damian concluded his demonstration as everyone stupidly stared at him.

With a racing mind full of thoughts, they returned to the meeting room and took their seats.

"As you can guess," Damian started, "We will be finding land and dungeons faster than we can count. Which brings me back to my proposal. Manpower! For both exploration and clearing dungeons. All deals Sanctuary makes will be permanent mana contract deals, and I won't accept or offer hidden offers. All things should go through the board, which is why we are doing this in the open."

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