World Sphere - 208 - Unification Quest

Chapter 208: Unification Quest

It was an ambitious project: reuniting the eight larger islands and a dozen smaller islands of Skyholme. We had discovered ancient maps in the Black Spire, and the island used to be roughly circular, measuring about six hundred miles across. While it isn’t a huge landmass in the vastness of the Sphere, it is large enough to support a few million people if its dungeons were properly delved. Uniting the islands would make defending our home easier and reduce our reliance on skyships for travel.

We were too early in our investigation into the possibility of pulling the islands back together to inform Loriel—at least, that is what I convinced Sana was the reason. From what Sana and her mages had pieced together, the Haikarum Archmage Kurota had pulled aether from the ley lines in the Sphere in an attempt to create powerful aether crystals. His mistake, which threw off his calculations, was that he also drew aether from one of the Sphere’s moons. The influx of aether destroyed the apparatus he had buried throughout the island and shattered the large island.

There were no signs of the ancient apparatus on the islands, but vast networks of tunnels existed. Some had been excavated long before the Haikuram race settled there. Skyholme was also not a unique entity in the Sphere. Dozens of massive floating islands traced the ley lines in the sky, and hundreds of others remained stationary, although not nearly at such a high elevation above the lowlands as Skyholme. What also made Skyholme unique was its consistent path. Most of the other islands that traced the ley lines seemed to flow along them like a leaf in a river. When they encountered an intersection, they could go either way.

Skyholme had been larger than most as well, even the fragments that remained were larger than most floating islands in the Sphere. Due to our consistent orbit, we also had a reliable biome, with our weather and flora, which made it a desirable location. Of course, the limiting factor was our distance from the lowlands required expensive skyships. But now that the portal had been reactivated and more portals were being added, access to the lowlands was increasing.

Sana had also procured all the research and failed attempts from the Triumvirate Library to bring the islands back together. The most earnest attempts were over a thousand years ago and appeared incomplete. Books were missing or expunged on purpose. From what we did read, they had tried magical force, large magical arrays, and even paid for one of the god-like beings on one of the moons to attempt to pull them together. That had not gone well, and he had taken his payment despite failing.

What hope did I have of succeeding? Probably none—if it weren’t for the codex. Right now, we were just beginning to understand the problem and reviewing everything that had failed in the past. I was certain our success would come from replicating whatever Archmage Kurota had done.

After hours of reading Sana’s notes and reading the suggested references, I stored all the research in my dimensional closet and collapsed onto my sofa. Kiara jumped up next to me and rested her head in my lap. “Father, hunt with us now?” I scratched her ears. She was slowly forming sentences instead of speaking each word out. Her purring vibrated the sofa.

“Maybe we can explore a new dungeon below,” I said aloud and through the link at once. Adrial looked up at hearing the word dungeon. I drifted off to sleep after setting some protections.

Adrial hissed, waking me up and ending my privacy screen. I searched the room but didn’t see anything. Kiara glanced about furiously, looking for Bleiz. Her clarity of sight could not pierce his invisibility. This was a same game every morning when he came to make sure I was on schedule. I let the two cats play as I stretched and hit myself with a cleanliness spell.

It was my day off, which meant I would be crafting for most of the day. Kiara found Bleiz behind the sofa where I had been sleeping. He ended his invisibility but looked amused as he tossed her a bloody steak. Adrial looked miffed for not getting a treat, but he tossed her one a quarter of the size of the first a moment later—a second-place reward.

“What does my task master have for me today?” I asked as I started to prepare breakfast for myself and the cats.

Bleiz produced a folder and handed it to me. Scanning it, it didn’t look so terrible. Remy was responsible for maintaining the inventory in the Academy magic store, which meant he gave me a list of what needed resupply. Since you had to be enrolled in the Academy to purchase there, it was generally a short list as most of the students couldn’t afford the items offered. There was a merit-based system for accumulating store credit, but even that might mean a student might earn enough for a minor item or tier-one dungeon essence every other year.

We could contract out this artificing work, but Skyholme’s enchanters would charge us more than we would sell them for—so that left it up to me. Bleiz grumbled, “A few students have been purchasing for merchants again.” I looked up. “Remy froze their accounts for a year with the exception of potions.” I nodded, as that was standard. Since we offered quality items in the store for a reasonable price, it was easy for outside merchants to turn a profit by reselling in the lowlands.

I spent the morning artificing and then took the Maelstrom to the Shiny Platinum. Late morning, I went to the large meeting room where Remy and Talia waited for me. This daily briefing had been Remy’s idea. I nodded as I sat, and Kiara and Adrial went to stand guard at the doors.

“We lost another twenty-nine gold yesterday on the taxi program,” he started.

I waved it off, unconcerned. I had artificed ten of them, and we ran them all day, rotating three different crews through each and having six dispatchers on staff. That was partly why we took a loss—employing so many people when the concept of fast personal transport hadn’t quite caught on yet. “When the new settlers on the capital island start getting investments from the other islands, things will pick up,” I stated confidently. The wealthy immigrants settled on the capital island, and many already had their own skyship.

“We had to fire another pilot,” Remy added. I frowned. “She was one of our best, but broke four traffic patterns and took the regulator off again.”

“Rebecka?” I asked, wincing. Remy nodded. I liked Rebecka. She was a young Wolfsguard who just loved flying. If she wasn’t so reckless, she might be a pilot of one of our larger skyships in a few years. I sighed, “What did her father say?” She didn’t actually have a father—none of the Wolfsguard knew their real father. But Jaesmin, the wolfkin Matriarch, had assigned the children to adults. Rebecka’s surrogate father was Pakkam, the martial leader of all the Wolfsguard. I had hired her as a favor to him.

“He is trying to get her enrolled in Naval Academy now,” Remy replied quickly. I winced as I knew Callem and Sebastian wouldn’t take her.

“Assign her to Cilia’s ship,” I said on the spur of the moment. Remy raised his eyes in surprise. Cilia and Leda ran my three trade skyships. They had both attended the Naval Academy in Skyholme and kept a certain level of discipline on board. “See if they can straighten her out.”

Remy smirked and jotted it down. “Other accounts are doing quite well, with the exception of the deficit at the Academy,” he said a bit tersely. Remy didn’t like that we poured so much gold into the Dungeon Academy. I actually loved outspending the Dungeon Academy in the capital, that was run by the Adventurer’s Guild. He slid a ledger my way, and I just glanced at it and nodded. I looked at Talia, who was a young mage and responsible for all of Shiny Platinum Delving. Sometimes, Sana would be here with a report on the dungeon Academy, or Otto would be here to report on our alchemy projects.

“We are meeting our quotas, but we are slightly behind on acquiring tier one spellbooks. I plan to sell some of our harvests in Goldreach to buy the spellbooks,” she began.

“Not necessary. How are the teams working together?” I asked. A week ago, we had mixed up the delve teams to incorporate a few new additions.

“Aelyn’s team is—managing,” she said cautiously. “The other four teams are slowly familiarizing themselves with each other.”

Remy stepped in, “Revenue on harvests is down 22%.” Talia frowned at Remy. Talia’s teams had been increasing production week over week for months until we changed the teams.

“That is mostly because we lost our delve slots in the Crystal Serpent Dungeon.” I waited till she explained further. “The Adventurer’s Guild ended the auction for the slots and is now awarding them based on merit,” she said snappishly.

“Guildmaster Huckle?” I said, arching my brow. Talia nodded. Huckle was the Adventurer’s Guildmaster in Skyhold. He was quite upset that I would not capitulate and let him manage the Progenitor Dungeon. Then, he was even more upset when Loriel sold me the Dungeon Academy in Aegis City instead of handing administration over to him. Ever since then he had been a thorn in my side, but I ignored him and just outspent him on everything.

I drummed my fingers on the table. Overall, I had a good relationship with the Adventurer’s Guild. I completed several difficult bounties and postings over the last few years. I even had allies high in the guild, like Logan Warren, who served as the Overseer of the dungeons in the region. He had even helped us evolve the Progenitor Dungeon. Unfortunately, he was kept very busy with the World Walkers forcing many dungeons to close their entrances and the damage they caused to dungeon cities.

“Should we focus on a dungeon in the lowlands then?” I asked. “Maybe incorporate a fifth team?” We didn’t delve into too many dungeons in the lowlands.

Remy started shuffling papers, looking over his numbers. “The harvest from the Crystal Serpent Dungeon supplies 8% of our alchemy needs, resulting in an average profit of 30% with each delve. To send a team to the lowlands—if you include the transportation costs, equipping a new dungeon team…”

I stopped Remy, as I was still pretty loose with my coin. The only time Remy was not trying to pinch every copper was when it came to skyships. I had even artificed him one of the sky taxis at his expense, and it was his pride and joy. “Let’s do that then. Pull together a fifth delve team from the reserves and send two teams to the lowlands. I am going to scout a few dungeons this afternoon.” Talia got an excited look. “Just Bleiz and the cats,” I added, crushing her excitement. Then I changed my mind, “You are welcome to come. Both dungeons I am exploring allow five.” Talia nodded enthusiastically. “Be at the Academy in four hours.”

When I ran a delve, we progressed quickly and deeply. There was always a large bonus in coin, and I equally shared the reward chest runic items as well. Talia had become more of an administrator and only delved to do evaluations now. “Anything else?” I asked. I just had some conditioning this morning at the Academy, and then I would take a little adventure to the lowlands. I would still be back for weapons training tomorrow, even though I had joked I wouldn’t be around.

“We will need seven durability long swords and five ever-sharp knives for the next shipment to Llorth,” Remy added with a smirk.

“An artificer’s work is never done,” I lamented jokingly. Llorth was becoming more and more a valuable trading partner for Skyholme and us in general. Mostly because the Duskhunters had a guild hall near the Progenitor Dungeon, but Remy was taking full advantage of the relationship and my contacts in Llorth. Artificing was much more profitable than creating platinum or mithril for me.

“I will get them done with the echo stones while I am on the Maelstrom,” I said tiredly. I did need a vacation. It had been two months since the Shifter had been killed. So far, there had been no repercussions from the Black Marauders or the mysterious figure responsible for the World Walkers. With that, I went to the Academy for conditioning practice.

It was enjoyable working up a sweat with the enthusiastic youth of Skyholme. Next year, they will have tremendous competition with all the recruiting Sana is doing in the lowlands. Erin tried to get me to socialize more and go to another gathering, but I declined. I stopped in Sana’s office after conditioning to let her know I was going to be gone for half a day.

Sana greeted me from behind a stack of papers. “I don’t have any new insights,” she said.

“Just letting you know I am going to the lowlands to explore either the Phantom Emperor Dungeon or the Goblin Vault Dungeon,” I said.

Sana sighed helplessly. “Pleasure or trying for a codex page?”

“Pleasure. I don’t think I will delve deep enough for a chance at a page,” I replied casually. “Can you manage without me?” I grinned. The truth was I did very little outside of artificing and supplying endless coin.

She shuffled some papers. “We have some applications for next year’s class from the capital island. Three sons and one daughter from new citizens.”

I frowned. “Why wouldn’t they just attend the Dungeon Academy in Skyhold?”

Sana gave me a snide look, “If you had to choose between Shiny Platinum Delving Academy or that other Dungeon Academy, what would you choose? Since they are citizens, they are eligible to apply. I can always deny them…” She let that hang in the air.

“No, if they get in on merit, that is fine.” I stressed, “But not because their family donates coin to the Academy.” After that, I reviewed the Academy expenses with Sana for a short time. One wing of the instructor apartments had been finished, and student housing was next on her priority list. We discussed purchasing more land outside of the city, but the only thing that interested me was preserving an area of woodlands. It was a swath of five square miles that had been relatively untouched for a century since lumber was primarily sourced from dungeons and Greatwood Island.

I waved to Mera in the sound booth and headed to the top of the Academy. Bleiz and Talia met me at the Maelstrom’s ramp. Kiara and Adrial were blocking their way aboard—most likely teasing Bleiz. As we all climbed aboard, Bleiz updated me on Freya’s day. She had a number of private magic tutors, and Bleiz was her conditioning and weapons trainer. Truthfully, he was also my spy, making sure Freya didn’t get into trouble, and no one troubled her.

We detoured back to the Black Spire to pick up Tibault and Neoma. They were my guards when I left Skyholme, but more importantly, they were added security for the Maelstrom while I was not on board. We were headed to some obscure dungeons in the lowlands, and I didn’t know what reception we would get at either of them.

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