Chapter 175: Nightless Underpass

There was nothing more important than constructing the highway, and Rino could not do this alone. Hence, for the first time since his founding of the empire, the lich decided to summon everyone aboard to help with the project. As Noir Province, Town Zera prepared for the highway's grand opening, other projects were put on hold.

"Have you thought of a name for this legendary underground highway?" Kragami asked Rino using telepathy while he drew another array on the ground at the marked interval.

It took a while to set the highway up, but thankfully, the monster rabbits were very quick. Despite Rino's rather low mana reserves, the mana array that the genesis fairies worked hard to link up proved useful. Rino decided to ask the elemental sylphs in Spudville to start extending the mana web array from their end so that both sides of fairies could meet in the middle.

Kragami and Rino did most of the leg work, drawing the teleportation array and activating them from both ends of the highway. The killer bunnies were fast even without magic as they travelled, and even Mutt could not keep up with their speed. Hence, Rino sent them out to create markers for the intervals where he and Kragami should create the teleportation arrays. In addition, the rabbits were given light runes to stick onto the mana web array's links to light the dark tunnel up. Not everyone could see in the dark, and Kragami was immensely grateful for the lighting as he worked.

"Not yet," Rino replied to his teacher after activating the newest teleportation array.

He climbed onto Mutt's back as they ran to the next marker. It wouldn't be long before the highway was completed. Rino only had about ten days left to build that windmill. In theory, that was enough time. However, Rino was troubled by the lack of resources. Even with Acht arranging deliveries using the sky palanquin, it took too much time. Town Zera did not have ready building resources, and Rino did not want to use the resources meant for the barn to build his windmill. There weren't enough resources to finish building the windmill, even if he did repurpose them.

Kragami finished another array on his end and got onto the farming cart that Fronzo lent him. The skeleton leg clones pulled the cart as Kragami held onto the sides for dear life. Even if these leg skeletons could not do much around Spudville, they still made very handy transportation minions when the village lacked horses or mules.

"Are you going to name the highway?" Kragami asked Rino as he travelled to the next marker, taking a breather. 

If he were to divide the teleportation array workload evenly with his student, there were still almost thirty more arrays to create. Kragami did not know how many teleportation arrays Rino completed, but he had a feeling Rino was much faster than him.

On the other side of the underground highway, Rino thought about it. Kragami was right. Even in his previous world, there was never an underground highway. The highway was also built with sufficient ventilation using the cheating powers of the mana web array so that the living like Kragami could walk through it safely between arrays.

"I'm terrible at naming," Rino admitted. 

The highway needed a name, but it deserved something grand. RIno did not want it to be written in the history books of undead that the Monarch of Solitude named the highway using the inspiration of mushrooms or something because of some lame joke he had in mind and wasn't serious.

Kragami said nothing. It wouldn't be appropriate for him to suggest a name. Rino might be his student, but he was still ultimately the ruler of this world, even if they were still at the humble beginning stage. However, he might be able to veto some overly creative names that Rino came up with.

Mulling over it as he reached the next marker, Rino worked mechanically, drawing the next teleportation array in record speed without any mistakes. Mutt waged his tail as he watched his master activate yet another portal. If this was a competition, Rino would win Kragami by a landslide. They started this mission only two hours ago. From his communication with Spudville, Mutt knew that Kragami only completed about twenty arrays, but Rino was already a third done with what he had to do.

Hopping onto the sabre tooth wolf again, Rino let his thoughts branch out. This highway was meant to bridge the logistic difficulty between the two regions of his kingdom. If he were to compare this to something similar in his previous world, it was like a hanging bridge between two very remote mountain villages. Rino still did not know how the people of the past built such an impressive but primitive hanging bridge across two mountains. That historical site was preserved with magic, and even the king declared it was one of the empire's most treasured sites.

Come to think about it, Rino wondered if he could borrow the name for his underground tunnel. The pompous Minister of Rites and the church gave it a good name that made everyone in the empire believe it was a prophecy of the higher beings, even if the magical aspects were really the magician tower's doing.

"How does 'Nightless Tunnel' sound?"

Kragami hummed. His student did not have a bad naming sense. Nightless sounded great. However, "Tunnel" made them feel like rats scurrying around in what should be their territory. Why should they feel the need to travel in a fashion that could not be seen so sneakily? This was going to be the Solitude Empire in the future. Such a grand creation shouldn't be just a tunnel.

"How about changing the last part?" the necromancer suggested. "Nightless Underpass. It's more than just an underpass with how long this thing is, but I thought it sounded better than just a crappy tunnel. We worked on this to be more than just a tunnel."

When Rino heard his teacher's suggestion, he declared that the highway should be named as such. Nightless Underpass was perfect! He thought about "Nightless" because it was a very brightly lit tunnel thanks to the light runes and air runes the killer rabbits stuck at regular intervals. If his empire was ever attacked, the Nightless Underpass could act as an emergency shelter. Such things were already within his plan, even if it would take time to sort things out. For now, they were busy enough setting up the mana web array and teleportation points. Once things were smoother and they had more manpower, Rino would assign the security team to weave spells to make the Nightless Underpass a safety bunker should his first defence system fail in either province.

With the name settled, Rino and Kragami moved on to other topics, discussing the best transportation method between teleportation arrays. Currently, both magicians were physically travelling from portal to portal, and it was taking a very long time to cover ground.

"I designed the portals such that once they jumped out of one, they would be propelled to the next portal, so no actual transportation is required as long as the courier person carries everything in a dimensional bag."

As Rino shared the details of his design plan, Kragami wondered just what kind of person would volunteer for this crazy fast speed service? He wouldn't be willing to suffer that level of trauma getting thrown over and over again at the speed of sound for kilometres for over an hour?

"Is there anyone who volunteered for high-speed courier service?"

Rino thought about it for a while. There was a very real possibility of death from the speed, so assigning living creatures this duty was out of the question. For now, Rino already had the names of a few volunteers. His special task force was more than willing to wear the courier service caps if the dimensional bags were something they could carry.

Those furry pawed killer bunnies were physically weak, but they had the intelligence, courage and speed Rino desired. At the moment, he left the dimensional bag design to the brownie stuck in Town Zera. There was no limit to dimensional storage as long as the castor was powerful. Rino might have to enchant several items personally, but it was a low price to pay for convenient delivery.

He thought about making dimensional storage rings instead of bags but left that designing decision to the brownie. As long as it was small and light enough to be worn by the killer rabbits, Rino had no concerns. However, they needed to be durable in potential crashes and not restrict the movements of the wearer.

Kragami was both impressed and mildly afraid of Rino's plan. The things he made his summons do and how he treated them was very unusual for a necromancer. It was true that necromancers abuse their summons as slaves with no right to decide their fate. He made his zombie army battle to their deaths, but maybe eternal rest was better than a cycle of eternal torture?

"Were your special forces army alright with the repeated death? Did you explain it to them?"

Chuckling, Rino only replied with a question that made Kragami shudder.

"Would it make a difference if I did?"