Chapter 104: A thousand miles.

Having finished scarfing down his sandwich, Turf finished up his drink and jumped off his seat. He put down a few gold coins and left to his wagon. Crule and Ming followed without saying anything.

When they reached the wagon, it was already prepared and ready to go. Since electricity doesn’t work, the wagon runs on two different fuels. They have a combustion engine which works on most flammable materials. Even if they can’t use electricity, it doesn’t block them from using things made from technology that use other things as a source of power.

The combustion engine has been fitted into the wagon to allow a smooth ride as long as one provides fuel. The other power source was steam. The combustion engine produces huge amounts of heat which is used in a steam generator. Instead of producing electricity, the steam is used to manual turn the wheels instead. Of course this is far more inefficient compare to the combustion engine but it’s another source of power to keep the wagon mobile.

The back of the wagon was covered in a beige tarp and was tied down firmly onto the wagon frame. The tarp was water proof and weather resistant. It keeps the load inside the wagon safe and sound. The frame of the wagon was made from a light metal similar to aluminum. It shines brightly under the suns yet doesn’t absorb much heat from the combustion engine.

Turf climbed the ladder running along the side the wagon to the front seat. The front seat was a sizable couch with a wooden steering wheel fashions in front. It controls the wheels movements quite easily due to hydraulics. There was another beige tarp over the front covering the driver’s area. Turf turns to Crule and Ming.

[Turf]: Hop on. The other three should be in the back.

They heard a muffled agreement from the back storage.

Looks like they were in charge of protecting the cargo while Crule and Ming was in charge of protecting the driver.

The wagon took off from the courtyard with the owner of the Inn waving goodbye. They steadily reached the huge gate in the wall leading into the actual wild.

[Turf]: I never bothered to ask, but how old are you two?

[Crule]: Fifteen.

[Ming]: Fourteen.

[Turf]: Ah, so young yet already bronze rank! Y’all must be some fancy smancy kid from some big hidden martial arts clan or something.

[Crule]: Close enough.

[Turf]: Ha-ha! Never thought I would recruit someone like you. And here I thought I would get mostly rugged muscle men, but I was shocked when Ms. Dante applied with her two cronies. I was even more shocked by you two though.

[Ming]: Yea, we seem to get that a lot…

[Turf]: Ha-ha, let’s chat! The journey has just began and most of the monsters near the gate has been cleared by all the game participants. We should be safe until we hit the forest’s edge.

[Crule]: May I ask where will our trip pass through?

[Turf]: Ah! Let me get my map.

Turf pulled a wooden lever next to him to lock the steering wheel in place. The road was straight anyways for a long, long time and there was no traffic so it was safe.

He reached into the knapsack he had besides time tied to the metal frame and pulled out a scrolled up piece of paper. Since they are now officially in the wind, none of the electronics will work so laminated paper or plastic maps works best.

He pointed toward the long wall section.

[Turf]: This is the gate town we left from. Following the road, we will soon reach the edge of this here Division forest. Our travel speed will slow down a bit but thanks to some adventurers, the road is flat enough for wagons to pass through. This doesn’t mean we are safe though as monsters appear from the forest quite often to attack us since we are in the clearing.

He dragged his finger across the map pointing toward the dense patch of green. It lead up to a red dot.

[Turf]: This is our first pit stop, the town of Janus. It’s a medium sized adventure town created for the guild so it should have enough for us to resupply to continue the next leg of our journey.

He dragged his finger from the red dot toward a bumpier yellow region.

[Turf]: Once we leave the town, we will follow along the border of the Sangrias desert. This part will be the longest part of our trip.

Turf continued to point out the direction.

[Turf]: After the desert fades out, we will hit our half way point in the journey when we reach the smaller pioneer town of Caketon.

[Crule]: I am serious beginning to doubt the naming sense of the pioneers…

[Ming]: I wonder if we get to name a place.

[Crule]: Technically we did. The mountain area we were before didn’t have a name and now it’s called Mt. Tai.

[Ming]: Oh…no fair! I wanted to name it!

[Crule]: Maybe next time.

Turf drone on about the directions.

[Turf]: After we leave the town of Caketon after resupplying, we will enter the extremely dangerous Bourbon Sand Sea.

He points toward the orange colored area on the map. It was connected to the previous desert but was separated by a large strip oasis.

[Turf]: The sand sea is so hot, it creates the illusion of flowing water and waves. The sand is so smooth, they nearly behave the same as water so traveling through them will slow us down greatly, but it’s the quickest way to Lake Trysl.

On the map, after the large blotch of orange, came a small mountain.

[Turf]: When we exit the desert through the Bum’s valleys, we will arrive in a dense forest that eventually exists into the Lake town of Tryslvania besides Lake Trysl.

[Crule]: Who the hell named the mountain Bum…?

[Turf]: Oh, it was one of them pioneers who are now in the top rankings for levels.

[Ming]: There’s a ranking?

[Turf]: Yea, you can have your stats registers to their main web through that there terminal on your wrist. It will add you into the rankings. Of course some people choose not to for certain reasons but most people want the fame and glory.

Crule turned to whisper to Ming.

[Crule]: We will register after we perform something big enough to garnish attention.

[Ming]: Got it!

Turf was smiling that he finished his explanation of the route they were taking.

[Turf]: So hold on to yer butts, we got a long journey ahead of us.

The plains before them seem to be endless but over at the horizon, the forest, the first transition in their trip, looms menacingly with its dark olive green hue.

The other three were awfully quiet in the back. Crule could sense that they were there but two of them seem to have fallen asleep already.

[Ming]: What a carefree bunch.

[Crule]: They need a certain level of power before they can be this carefree.

[Ming]: Hmm, hopefully they don’t try to steal our thunder.

[Crule]: Don’t worry, we will just have to make the storm bigger than they can manage.

With an evil smirk that Turf didn’t notice, Crule cultivating with his eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. He was close to learning the truth of the heavens and thus establishing his ninth gate.

Ming wanted to snuggle next to Crule but there was a tiny man between them…

[Turf]: Ah kids, always sleeping on vehicles.

Ming turned a blind eye to Turf.

______________________

Argggg big or small text size?!