He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for his guide.

Pre-Fall Philosopher

They were going to need new clothes, Johanna thought as the small town came into view.

With April leading into May, and the group going south, the weather had started to become warmer and warmer. Already, it was as if it was the peak of summer back home and the warm clothes intended for the northern Marches were starting to be a bit too much. She wasn’t too bothered – thanks to immunity to heat – but Tom was starting to sweat a lot while walking, and most of the others were feeling the discomfort.

Petra was faring much better, but then, she had multiple sets of clothes to use, while the four were still stuck using the ones purchased in New Benton or White Meadows last year. The short-sleeved vest the former bartender had was much, much more practical, notably when she practiced her Jagged Stone slicing weapons.

Based on the map, this was going to be Walser. So far, they had little problems traveling. The longest part of the trip had been the stretch of mana zones that had them spend eleven days without a road, a farm complex, or a town in sight.

Even ruins were conspicuously missing. The one part that had been extremely frustrating at first was when Petra spotted a mana plume indicating an Artifact… on the other side of the river.

They had spent an hour trying to figure out how to go there. But the river was wide, deep, and the current swift. And based on the map, the closest bridge was a three-day march back northwest.

At least, it was when they finally figured out the effects of the Artifact boots found on Fallen Hill. While trying to figure out how to ford the river, Peter noticed that Laura did not make a splash on the shoreline. A quick experiment later, they all realized her boots didn’t sink into the water at all. It was as if the water was solid under her soles.

That turned into an immediate advantage, although it proved harder to use than expected. After Johanna had put on the boots to try to cross to the ruins and its tantalizing mana plume, she quickly realized that just because the boots did not sink into the water did not make them immune to the current. She had barely started to cross when she discovered she was still being swept down by the current. She wasted no time turning back, before heading upriver to start the crossing. She ended up running, which felt a bit weird on the moving surface of the Missouri, which had started to grow from meltwater.

She made sure the small ruins were safe before checking the plume’s location and finding a small walking cane. She held onto it as she crossed back, while the rest of the team followed on the shore until she reached the side and the current slowed down.

Peter swiftly named the pair of knee-high boots Waterway. As for the new Artifact, a few experiments showed that the cane’s tip turned any surface transparent. So far, only the gloves’ power remained elusive. Johanna suspected they would have to find the right circumstances to find it out. A Water Walking Talent, after all, was nowhere to be seen on the Mages of America compendium.

Glass View

Tier 6

Effective: 107/107 mana (+90/hour)

Passive: 107% better sight

Active: Make a 21.4-inch deep, 2140 square-inch disc fully transparent.

Active cost: 1 mana per 107 seconds.

As soon as they crossed the gate into Walser, they immediately went shopping. Walser was not a big town, far too small to offer truly varied choices in clothing, and there was only one clothing store, albeit a fairly decent one. But it was already over 80°, and if that was what passed as early spring in these parts, she was not eagerly anticipating summer. She’d been assured it was unseasonably warm before leaving their previous stop, but she reserved judgment. The sun’s rays were brutal. Of course, Johanna pretty much ignored that. It was warmth, nothing more. But for the team, it was a different proposition.

“It’s so much better,” Johanna said.

“We should get hats,” Laura replied.

The storekeeper diligently went into a backroom and brought forth a collection of headgear, much better suitable for the latitudes.

“No, it’s too warm for the season,” he admitted when asked. “You’re from the north?”

“The northwest Marches. Montana and Dakota,” Petra replied.

“Well, I don’t know if it’s warm there too, but yes. May shouldn’t be that hot. Later in the month, sometimes. But that early? No way.”

The prices were reasonable, and both Peter and Laura hesitated about getting an even lighter set of clothes, even if Laura did not need to be jealous of Petra’s diverse clothes anymore.

“We’re heading into the central States proper, guys. More towns. If this goes even warmer, we’ll see,” Johanna had to moderate her friend’s shopping ardor.

Johanna tried to grab a newspaper but failed to find anything worthwhile. Walsey was too small to even have a real printing press and relied on newspapers from the west, but those were two weeks out of date and did not include much in the way of news from outside the State.

The town was also where they were going to leave the Missouri behind. The eastern part of Winnebago, the small state sandwiched between Cheyenne north and the True Missouri south, was where you started to have more practical travel eastward.

Like the one they found in the morning.

“Holy hell,” Peter said when he saw the “terminal”.

“We saw something like this last year, but that’s… different,” Johanna said.

The terminal was the end of a railway, pretty much like the one that had been between the Narrows and New Benton, back in the Marches of the Montana. The same metal bars, wooden ties, and carriages with large metal wheels. But there ended the similarity.

The train set on the railway was a set of 4 open-air carriages, all of which sported a huge mast and large sails hanging from them. The train workers laughed when they saw them gawking at the contraptions.

They made their way to the warehouse entrance, where they found a manager.

“Yes, we do twice weekly travel to Malebranche. It’s mostly cargo, but we transport passengers.”

“How does this work?”

“Almost like a ship, but on land. You use beast trains if you are absolutely stuck with no wind for days, but otherwise, it works,” he replied. “Right now, the wind is low but steady. We should make it in two days top.”

The transport price was reasonable, and they were tired of walking for weeks upon weeks. And the speed of transport was unmatched by anything. A hundred miles in two days was unbeatable.

They stashed their bags on top of the crates filling the first of the four carriages and waited until the train workers finished loading the convoy. Then, four of them climbed onboard each of the carriages, the conductor made sure everything was stashed, and with a flourish of flags, the sails were unfurled, and the “train” slowly started. A very slow walk at first, but within minutes, they were at a brisk speed, and the train sped up further until it was nearly at a jog.

The experience of riding the train over the well-maintained Ancient lines was unreal.

“No, the Ancient used some sort of power machinery to propel those,” the conductor said to Johanna, keeping watch on the track for eventual obstacles. “It stopped working with the Fall, like pretty much everything Ancient. But wind… wind is eternal.”

“I wish this was everywhere,” Laura said as she returned from the conductor’s post.

“Me too,” Peter added.

They were riding out in the open, and making a good speed, probably four or five times what they’d get walking. A week-long trip, cut into a pair of days. The conductor stopped the train for the night, but otherwise, it was the most relaxing trip they ever had.

Alas, the line stopped at Malebranche. The Ancient line that once connected to one of the major ruins still lingering around was almost gone. They’d seen the local maps, and the sheer size of those ruins, compared to the one near Valetta was astonishing. Those were easily three, or four times larger.

Of course, almost all of those had been thoroughly scavenged, leaving only an empty skeleton of a city slowly returning to nature. That was the case for most of the ruins in central Union.

That was the part that was slightly worrying for Johanna. They still had some money, of course, but with ruins ransacked, the perspective for easy salvage was dim. And worse, getting Ancient books to prepare for the expedition East might be hard.

“All out,” the conductor yelled as the train finally stopped, sails furled and brakes engaged. The train station was just outside Malebranche, surrounded by warehouses.

They grabbed their packs and jumped down the car. Johanna immediately noted further rails, although they’d been told the train ended there.

“No, it’s still the terminus. They started making the next spur two years ago, but it’s not complete yet. Not enough preserved Ancient rails to salvage and use, you have to get new ones made and shipped there, and that takes time. Otherwise, it’d be all the way to Nedalshe,” the trainmaster said.

Johanna shrugged. They’d been walking all the way from the Marches of the Dakota, they could walk a bit more to the next – and most significant – step on their voyage.

Moore was still weirded out by the various solutions to everyday problems people had invented in the century and a half since he died. But sail-powered trains were probably the top. He couldn’t make out the explanations from the train conductor but could fill in the gaps. Between those trains, triple-spring “repeater” crossbows, and other funky contraptions, the way modern life had adapted to the seeming impossibility of using powered machinery was astonishing.

He still took time to check XP. A new 500-batch of unexplained experience had finally pushed to 13k XP, which made his non-existent fingers itch to raise levels. Laura had finally gotten enough experience on her own, and he’d immediately raised her level to 7, before starting on raising her Perception, as he needed 17 for Regrow, and each individual point was valuable in itself. A few thousand XP more, and he’d have the next step in the build completed. Meanwhile, he’d unlocked the Perception-based Fixer specialization, just for completion’s sake. No surprise multipliers there.

Johanna had also reached 13k XP, albeit just a few days ago. Both she and Laura had improved their main stats “naturally” as well, and the overall combination had expanded his horizon, allowing him to plan the next steps.

The ones still behind were Tom and Peter. This is why the non-finger itched, and he had to steel himself against the temptation to spend his pool.