Chapter 367 – Setting Up
After Damion deposited his house inside the shell of a house Mage Teft had prepared for him. He went and placed the upgraded auto-mapper inside the top of central tower of Avalon. Once it was placed he opened his tablet and looked at the map to get an idea of the surroundings.
The school was at the center of the circle of mountains and while only one wedge of the city was completed, the rivers flowing down from the mountains and into the central lake were. Once Atlantis was fully built, Damion could say for sure that his city would be the new crown jewel of humanity.
The 50-kilometer range stretched out beyond the mountains, but not terribly far. But still far enough they would have plenty of warning should any Ferocious Beasts or Demonic Beasts decide the mountains would be a good place to make their home. Once he reached A Rank and could upgrade his artifacts to the next level, he was sure the auto-mapper would allow them to detect threats so far out that they would never pose a danger to the city.
“Damion! Mage Teft told me I’d find you here,” Ethan shouted as Damion was returning to the ground floor of the school. “Congratulations on your son man. I can’t believe you got a kid before me.”
“Well, we didn’t exactly…”
“Don’t worry, I understand. Still, unless you want a second and a third on your hands, you better start taking precautions.”
Damion began turning red at his friend’s suggestion. He and Elicia had never discussed such things, but he supposed Ethan was right. If he did not want to end up with a full house, they needed to take some precautions.
“What were you looking for me for?” Damion asked.
“Your labyrinth. The containment chamber is set up and ready to go. You’ve just got to bring the labyrinth in, and we’ll be all set to start making money and attracting new people to Atlantis.”
“Did Mage Thresbane bring his people over?” Damion asked. He did not call them the Protectorate, since Mage Thresbane instructed them not to use that name outside the S Rank Assembly. Apparently, he did not want to reveal that the Protectorate would be living in Atlantis.
“Yes, they number about 15,000. Mostly normal people, but a few dozen knights and mages. They took over a district right near the bridge leading to Avalon. Probably wanted to make sure they would have quick and easy access to the labyrinth once it was set up.”
“Did Leland finally decide to move his shop here?”
“Not exactly. He said he can’t abandon his long-term customers, but he and Flannery also did not want to split, so instead they are setting up a branch store here. They are going to take turns managing both stores until they find someone to take over one.”
“That’s good. It’s important we have quality artifacts for adventurers coming in. What about you? Did your father agree to let you manage the company branch being set up here?”
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“Yep. I’m now the Regional President of Hoyt Shipping. I’ve even worked out a deal with Arica to Portal shipments to Saung for my father to handle distribution on that end. That was really hard to convince her and Teft to do.”
“Well, we don’t want too much wealth flowing out of the city.”
“I know, but if you want a shipping company to flourish, you need to let us ship things,” Ethan said, laughing at his own joke. “With this set up, we can also bring things in short supply to the city. Atlantis won’t be self-sufficient overnight you know. Even with nearly a half dozen S Rankers making this their new home, it will take a while.”
“Wait, how many?” Damion asked confused.
He knew of Mage Teft, Mage Fletcher, who was bringing her whole family as well as Arica, Mage Thresbane, who gathered the Protectorate whom Damion guessed had been scattered around the other White Zones, but he was not sure who the other three S Ranks that were coming.
"Mage Margret Chaparro, Light mage, she agreed to come and be the instructor for healers. Mage Dominic Strand, Wood mage, apparently he’s been fed up with the mages in Viridis for a while, he’s a common born S Rank. And then there is Mage Julia Levine, Lightning mage. I think more would have come too, if Mage Harris hadn’t said no.”
“I didn’t know the S Rank Assembly was so split.”
“Hard to say if they are split or not. I think they just want a better shot at a labyrinth. By being here, they can switch off who is inside and who is clearing the wild around us and who is on duty protecting the city. They’ll probably have a lot more time to devote to training than before, at least until the school reaches a higher level and you all start pumping out mages.”
“Well, that is going to take a few years.”
“This is a long-term investment my friend. We all know that. Now go set that labyrinth up so I can start making money.”
Damion did as Ethan laughingly suggested and after calling Phil to him, who had been exploring the mountains around the city, he headed to the containment chamber. There were no Breaches inside any of the heavy doors that were open in honeycombed chamber built beneath the foundations of Avalon. In the center most chamber, Damion saw Mage Teft and Mage Thresbane waiting for him.
Taking the B Rank containment unit out of the Magic System Inventory, Damion opened it and let the labyrinth take its place in the containment chamber. Mage Thresbane tossed a probe into the shimmering Realm Breach and once he pulled it back out happily reported his findings.
“It really is a labyrinth. Mage Wells, I think you should have the honor of clearing the first floors as far as you can. I suspect the F through D floors won’t slow you down at all, but the C Rank ones might.”
“I’ve been looking forward to this for months,” Damion told him. “Ever since I found the labyrinth I’ve wanted to start clearing floors, but until we had a permanent location for it I couldn’t.”
“Your patience is being rewarded now,” Mage Teft told him. “You should be able to obtain quite a few rare resources in there.”
“I’m sure. I’m going to keep my auto-mapper on while I am inside. Once I come out we can then make the maps of each floor available to teams wanting to go in.”
“Excellent idea. Providing accurate maps of the labyrinth should allow adventurers to have an easier time inside. Though, perhaps I should see Flannery about getting a few more auto-mappers. Since this is a labyrinth, we might be able to just leave them inside. Then adventurers would have access to real-time information on where Demonic Beasts or other adventurers are.”
“It might also be possible to assign certain areas on each floor to different guilds, guarantee them prime spots for farming materials and hunting Demonic Beasts,” Mage Thresbane suggested.
“If we set up an auto-mapper on each floor, then that would be very do able,” Damion said. “Everyone would have access, and it should minimize disputes regarding territory.”
“Should,” Mage Teft emphasized.
“No system is perfect. We can fine tune the details once we have enough groups going in that they are actually running into each other. For now, I just want to explore.”