Chapter. 20. Off-Road (1)
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Chul-chuk-chuk-chuk!
A day and a half after fleeing from Wigen, I was on the tracks heading to the old Rodrik area.
Hyde was squinting his eyes and looking around on the roof of a moving train.
On the cracked ground, you can see a corpse that has not yet turned white, a half-broken box, and even a fur-footed rabbit that has adapted to the environment of the soft ground.
What Hyde was looking for wasn’t traces of the Warlord or anything for dinner tonight.
He was looking for a spot marked with unimaginable bad writing and graffiti on a piece of leather.
The text is written neither horizontally nor vertically, starting from the outside of the piece of leather and going round inward.
In the middle of it all, there is even a small picture that is unclear whether it is intended to aid understanding or to encourage confusion.
“Let’s see. On the left side of the track, there is a rock that looks like a troll’s nose and a dark elf claw-shaped remnant. Stop at a point where you can clearly see the mountain peak in front and the most
handsome rock on the right….”
.
.
.
“You’re saying the same thing! “How can you describe this piece of trash as a ‘map’?”
grasp!
Hyde threw the damn ‘map’ on the floor with all his might, but then picked it up again from the dirt and started groaning.
For a guide to guide someone, there was more to rely on one’s imagination, but considering the person who gave me this piece of leather, this was an act of great kindness, and I said,
“Think about it. Think like that guy. “A peak you can see, a nice rock, the nose of a troll…”
Hyde was now in desperate need of someone else’s help.
Because even now, the speaker of the train he was riding on is playing the official magic communication of the Wiggen Guard.
Chijik-
『I’ll say it again. ‘Pathfinder’ Hyde. You violated Wigen’s security law, causing chaos in the city, and even hijacked the magic train, which was the lifeline of the city, and the front-line supplies that were supposed to go to the front line.』 『Already,
all stations and fortress cities along the train’s route have been taken over by criminals and hijackers. He promised to cooperate in the delivery of damaged city property. There is nowhere for you to go.』
『Surrender, Pathfinder. If the train and its cargo are returned without loss, the sentence will be significantly reduced, but if not, the sentence will be increased by the amount of the loss. The noble Lord, Abhayel Wigen, has appreciated your reputation and skills, and has promised to reduce all other punishments except monetary compensation to hard labor…”
Chizik-
“You like hard labor. “I’m going to put a slave collar on you and use you for the rest of your life.”
It varies from city to city, but basically compensation for theft is 50 times the amount of damage.
What if I get caught like this?
You have to pay 50 times the price of the magic train in the big city of Wigen, which has two medium-sized magic engines, eight cargo compartments coated with alchemical alloy armor, and three cabins, plus the price of the magicite combustible fuel that fills the cargo compartment. What if you can’t? You have to hit it with your body.
No matter how much money I get, I will never let you go. Since Wigen is their territory, they will end up making the price unpayable by giving ridiculous reasons such as the price of the train being based on the latest model of the magic train or the repair cost being higher than the price of the train because it was operated by a non-expert. .
If you surrender – you will be permanently enslaved by Wigen.
If I continue like this – I will be captured by city guards and knights who have been notified in advance and will be waiting for me, and I will also be permanently enslaved.
This is why it was easy to steal a train from the station in Huyggen, which is every bit as big as a big city. Train robbers also do it – they sell small trains that travel back and forth between outposts and complicated tracks on the outskirts. In a big city like Uigen, which is surrounded by a fortress city, there is no way out even if a train is stolen, right?
The magic train runs on the tracks, and the train that leaves the city has nowhere to go but a single path to the next city.
“If it weren’t for that guy, Pablo, we wouldn’t be going through this trouble.”
I did a few unplanned things to help the newsboy find my way, and my escape route was completely messed up.
Thanks to this, I and the train I stole were stuck between Wigen and the fortress city opposite. It was impossible to go forward or backward on the single-track track.
That was the reason why I let my imagination run wild as I immigrated to the owner of this damn piece of leather.
After struggling for about half an hour, I found a rock that resembled a troll’s characteristic flat nose, and as I hit the rest of the spot roughly, I was able to see it to some extent.
Dark Elf Claws. Corrupted elves, intoxicated with blood and slaughter, were also famous for pulling out their own claws to move more quietly. I’m talking about an empty space next to Kotmangul Rock that looks like something was there and then disappeared.
When I looked at the peak of Asrai Mountain, there was a point where the mountain peak and the track receding towards the horizon seemed to meet. Roughly twenty-five steps from where I stopped the train.
I was able to find the attractive rock by thinking about the body type of the person who created this map.
Not a rock, but a pillar. Someone must have once built a house on the hard terrain next to the railroad tracks, and now only the remains of the house have one of the stone pillars broken at about the height of my waist.
“Stand at the center of the three reference points and pull another one of the surrounding rail joints… Kerujaru, you bastard, if you write like that, who will recognize it?”
Let’s go!
“Because it’s me, I’m looking into it.”
Even after looking for it, I wondered if this was it, but this was the only thing different on the continuous track.
Between the two screwed track joints, only one is held in place with three screws.
When I gently swept it with my fingertip, I felt the strange smoothness unique to Gongma Stone, unlike its rusty metal screw-like appearance. It’s probably a means of hiding the magic power of the magic circuit underneath the screw head.
“You can’t believe they made something like this right in front of a big city like Wiggen without their knowledge.”
I don’t know if it was bold or crazy, but it was clear that it was admirable.
Clap, clap, clap!
Geuung-chagak!
Rising from the floor were a lever for crossing tracks and a small wooden sign, which are commonly seen at station intersections.
[Personal Hidden Line]
[When using, you pay 100,000 admission fee, 100,000 maintenance fee, and 300,000 compensation for the person surprised by the intrusion of outsiders!]
[If you do not have money, you are considered to have volunteered as a test subject for experimental explosives! Squeak!]
“Anyway. “They say money is dirty.”
Just like the leather map that annoyed him, the notice had terrible handwriting and crude drawings.
Hyde sighed as he saw a track covered in dirt coming up behind a pet horse with something that looked like a green cockroach.
“I didn’t want to get involved with goblins.”
Goblin. To be exact, a goblin magic engineer.
They were the originators of magic engineering and retained a part of the ‘free magic engineering’ that human magic engineers voluntarily discarded after the ‘Dragon Vein Twisting’. For that reason, they were one of the few races ostracized in a world where great racial unification occurred.
If they are in the city, they are often killed for no reason, and in some cases, a nobleman who covets their technology will kidnap them and use them as slaves.
The few remaining goblins were living in hiding, using their skills in this way.
And surprisingly, Hyde was one of the few people he knew who had a ‘friendly goblin magic engineer’, and the location of this place was told to him by ‘Kerujaru’, a goblin magic engineer he had met a few years ago.
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‘This! ‘Take a look at this!’
‘From now on, I don’t plan on going to the place you want me to go to, even if it means beating me to death. forever.’
‘That’s not where I am! I live here! Go alone! ‘Go alone!’
‘….why?’
‘Pathfinder! Human overconsumption is inevitable! You live! ‘We sell!’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Helpful guy! Squeak! Squeak!’
‘What are they doing there?’
=========
“Damn it. ‘A person who inevitably overconsumes’!”
There were three leather maps handed to me when I parted ways with him.
I remembered that one of them was near Wiggen, so I stole the train even though I knew it would be useless to drag it out like this.
=========
‘Swallows anything! Make it! live! ‘We sell anything!’
‘If you have money, you can bring in anything! However much!’
=========
According to what he said, this is the gathering place for the goblins scattered all over the world and the place where their species makes a living.
A hidden retreat where the wealth of a race that is greedy and possesses both good and bad dexterity gathers.
Grumble-
clap!
After making sure that the intersection of the tracks that rose like a lie was properly connected, Hyde got on his train and accelerated.
A train that turns its head to the side instead of straight ahead on a track.
“How much do they charge for stolen goods here?”
Entering the rising track with a faint magical glow, Hyde fell into a happy imagination.
‘If you can’t go forward or backward, you’ll end up taking a side road.’
In the first place, he had no intention of taking this train to the Rodrik area, so he boarded the full-filled Wiggen regular train with the intention of selling it off.
As his goblin friend said, he was an ‘inevitable overspender’ and was a person who knew how to be generous even in somewhat illegal activities as long as it made money.
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Rattling rattling.
Rattling rattling.
“Wow….”
The ‘side road’ wasn’t that long.
What’s important is that it extends downward into the ground.
Hyde couldn’t help but admire the underground passage illuminated by the Goblin’s unique ‘exquisitely crude’ magic lamp.
‘Is this possible?’
Technology is technology, but more important than that was creating a rocky area to safely use a road of this size.
Just building a straight line connecting city to city costs an astronomical amount of money. This means that both cities have a yearly plan and bring together people who specialize in this work, such as dwarven architects, earth wizards, alchemists for chemical solvents, and others to build inter-city tracks.
‘Kerujaru said it was at the level of a slightly larger village…’
The outpost accommodates a population of about 40 households, which means it is at the lower level even at maximum.
No matter how small the scale, creating an underground dwelling was something that Hyde could not easily imagine.
Moreover,
Kwaang-!
Kuuuung-!
….If it is an area inhabited by people who specialize in the study of burning, destroying, and exploding things, as evidenced by the explosions heard in the distance.
Jingling jingling!
What woke Hyde up from his thoughts was the sound of a piece of metal hanging from the ceiling scraping against the train ceiling.
[Train at a very fast speed!]
[If you know a goblin, if it is not in the head compartment, take off your clothes and lie down in the cabin!]
“Uh… you mean to slow down, right?”
The purpose of that piece of metal seemed to be to attract the attention of those entering and leaving to read the sign.
I guess it’s really goblin-like to build something like that as a facility while running at the cutting edge of human civilization.
….shake. It rattled.
It took a few minutes to pass the slow speed sign and pass through a passageway with a thin leather strap.
“Kwaaeak! Stop! Stop! Raise your hands! Except your butt! “Come out with a smile!”
Coo!
The train, which was moving slowly, crashed into something soft and came to a halt.
hmm. Let’s see.
‘Pretending to be popular, five. Judging from the sound of his footsteps, his weight is a little heavier than that of a child. Unique rough breathing sound caused by the unique nasal structure. ‘They’re all goblins.’
‘I’m excited and alert. And um… curious? Are you excited?’
Although I didn’t know all of the goblin’s unique emotional expressions, I could tell that they were quite excited.
“you! Who are you! A face I’ve never seen before!”
“If you are not a regular customer, you must receive a 10% increase in price due to ‘psychological boundary costs’!”
“Reveal why and how you came here, as white as snow!”
“First of all, money! Pay the entrance fee! 550,000 shillings!”
The guys, who looked like they were laughing at the fact that they looked like goblins, were rude and forceful, but Hyde did as they were told without saying anything. He raised his hands, pulled up the corners of his mouth, showed a smile, squatted down, pushed his butt back, and got off the train.
Because behind these whimpering green kids, the real monsters were looking down on Hyde and his train.
‘What is that…’
Perhaps… I think the base was something like a large battery for city defense.
There were dozens of secondary gun barrels hanging next to the gun barrel the size of a human body, lines that looked like a lion’s mane extending from it, cooling devices, and what looked like whole magic gemstones that were roughly connected to a magic power transmission terminal and hung with a rope.
All kinds of destructive equipment, such as modified wall artillery and stationary arcane shooters, are poking their heads out from outside the passageway, so of course you have to be polite. If you don’t want to get left behind.
As a person who uses magic engineering equipment in place of an auror, I behaved calmly as I knew that if I made a mistake, I would be harmed.
“It’s business! “Yongkeeoeon!”
“I came to sell radish items! “The train behind me and everything in it!”
“…Everything, including the train?”
“Are you walking out?”
“Oh well. “That will happen, right?”
Wake up!
Squeak! Kkeakkeakkeakkeak!
These guys even jump up and down in their seats when they hear that they are here to sell the entire train. It was impressive that the aiming line of the gun in my hand did not waver even while running.
“…Why did you pass! Then how! “How!”
“That’s… can I put my hand in my pocket for a moment? “I have something to prove.”
“Ohhhhh. Subspace pocket. A precious item! Sell that too!”
“I can’t sell this.”
“I can sell it! All you have to do is adjust the prices! More money! More value! Sell! Sell it!”
Hyde placed the object taken out of his cloak into the hands of the goblin, who was throwing a tantrum like a child.
The silver tickle I used to catch a drug dealer in Wigen yesterday. An object that, when thrown, sends metal threads flying everywhere.
“I heard you’ll understand everything if I show you that? “Goblins recognize goblin things.”
“Squeak. right. “This was made by goblins.”
“Kerujaru. “Your knuckles were pretty.”
“Squeak. “I liked opals.”
A faint light flashed through his narrow eyes, and the goblin, who had been stroking, glaring at, and even licking the silver bead in his hand, turned towards me.
“You passed! “I’m a guest!”
As the person who received the bead shouted, the guy behind me put something that looked like a necklace made out of miscellaneous items around my neck. When I asked about it, I was told that it was something like a sign for a customer.
More than anything else, I was relieved that the humming sound of the modified battery, which could explode at any moment, had died down.
“Welcome to Kaibuen’s junk rebirth station!”
“Kaibuen?”
“grow! “I am the owner of this workshop now!”
Saying that, Kaibuen gestured, and the large batteries blocking the passage moved aside, revealing what was inside.
What can I say, it looks like large waste piled up and the space between them carefully filled with trash.
Nevertheless, there was a strange feeling of life that I couldn’t seem to get used to.
“Awesome! “That’s cool!”
“Uh, it’s okay.”
It was a sight that would be off-putting to the average person’s aesthetic sense, but Hyde truly liked this place.
As a person who feels comfortable only when he finds something, like breathing, unfamiliar places are the places that make him the most comfortable.
Hyde was quite excited and headed into their village with the goblins squealing next to him.
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