Struggle in the Steam Age

As a new country in the New World, the White Eagle Federation has learned various experiences and lessons from the Old World, especially the lack of adequate infrastructure in populated areas that caused several large-scale plagues. Therefore, a series of infrastructure construction will always be carried out before the construction of various buildings, including a complete sewer system.

Of course, sewers often mean dirty and dirty. Fortunately, Lawrence and the others entered a newly built sewer that was not in use, so there was only a little bit of dust in the air.

"This sewer is well repaired." Lawrence held up the lantern in his hand and looked at the sewer, which was big enough for two carriages to drive side by side. He sighed with emotion. As a result, the gunman next to him said with a little pride. "Of course. Our boss, Gonzales, specifically requested that this place be at the level of the sewers in the main city, so as not to spend time and energy on expansion in the future."

"What a visionary." Lawrence nodded slightly. He had heard a famous saying in his previous life, that is, if a building is built with the utmost care of saving money, it will inevitably pay more in the process of using it in the future. much price. This is the case with the sewer. If it is not repaired once, it will inevitably be dug and filled frequently in the future. Overall, it is much more expensive than a one-time repair.

"You're right, that's why our boss can become the largest plantation owner on Hiram Island." The gunman nodded with a proud expression. Of course, this is a very normal thing. The gunman who can be called to participate in this kind of thing must be the most elite and loyal subordinate of the baron.

After a group of people walked in the slightly bleak sewer for more than ten minutes, the part covered with red bricks and cement slowly disappeared. The surrounding area has become an original earth-rock cave, and there are traces of digging with various tools on the walls on both sides.

"We dug through here before, but everyone found something wrong in this place." Not long after walking in the cave, everyone was blocked by a stone wall. At this time, Boob, who was the foreman, stood up and said. "We tried a pickaxe, a chisel, even that special-order steam percussion drill, but none of them were able to do damage to the wall."

"Haven't you guys tried to get around this strange place?" asked the younger sister of the witcher siblings. "The sewer doesn't have to be straight. In many places, stones are bypassed."

"We tried." Boo Boo shrugged. "But no matter whether we dig to the sides or down, all we can see are stone slabs." After he finished speaking, he pointed to a few places, and Lawrence took a few steps forward, and then looked at his fingers by the light of the lantern. The place.

From the excavation traces, it can be seen that these workers tried to dig in all directions, but they did not find the edge of the stone wall.

"At first we thought it was the texture of this stone. After all, we have encountered hard rocks in previous constructions." Watching everyone go to check the traces together, Bubu then introduced to the members of the expedition team , "But when we used tools to try to find weak points on the stone wall, we found something unusual."

As he spoke, he raised the lantern in his hand to illuminate a stone wall. This stone wall may have been damaged in the early excavation, causing its surface to peel off, exposing the gray stone behind. It's just that what attracts everyone's attention is not the gray stone itself, but the many traces clearly carved by humans.

"We found that this stone wall is actually two layers." Boo Boo went on to say. "The outermost layer is very brittle, and ordinary tools can easily destroy them. But these gray stones behind are completely different, and all the means we have can't even leave enough marks on it, let alone destroy it .”

"This is indeed an aboriginal relic." The professor Edward from Miska University put down the lantern in his hand and said. "And the ruins belong to the very important kind of sacrificial place ruins."

"For example, here," Professor Edward said, pointing to his students to raise the lantern in their hands, and then pointed to the carving marks on the gray stone exposed after the surface rock layer was destroyed. "The circle of these villains represents a kind of sacrificial activity, and the leaf in the middle of them represents the most common giant tree worship in the coastal areas of the northeastern part of the New World."

"Giant tree worship, what is that?" Senior Liszt asked curiously.

"It's a kind of natural spirit worship, worshiping a certain huge extraordinary plant, and using its power to master some extraordinary power. This is also the first path to the extraordinary mastered by most intelligent creatures." Professor Edward explained "However, in theory, this kind of sacrificial activity of worshiping giant trees should be held on the ground. I don't know why there are traces of sacrificial offerings here."

"In this case, let's clean up this wall first, after all, the pattern exposed now is only part of it." Baron Gonzales decided, "Maybe after all the patterns are cleaned up, we can figure out this place. What happened to the ruins?"

As soon as he said it, the workers led by Bubu swarmed up and started smashing the stone wall with the tools in their hands. Because the gray stone that everyone needs to keep is extremely hard, they only need to smash it hard without worrying about damaging the important rock carvings on the surface of the gray rock.

Half an hour later, all the carved patterns were cleaned out, and even a large space was dug left and right for cleaning. After the cleaning work is completed, what is presented to everyone is a flat stone wall with a size of more than ten square meters and depicting various patterns.

In the middle of the stone wall is a huge relief tree, surrounded by reliefs of various figures and action figures. The other parts, like comic strips, depict stories one by one with much smaller patterns.

"Yes, here should be the first picture." Professor Edward said with a horse lantern on the picture on the lower left of the wall. "The meaning of this picture should be that some kind of disaster happened in the hometown, and some people chose to escape from their hometown and came to this land. Then—yes, here."

As he spoke, he stood up little by little along the wall holding the lantern, and the yellow light illuminated the next picture. "They came to the peninsula where we are now, and found a powerful tree. The shamans gained power through sacrificing the tree, and at the same time, the whole tribe successfully gained a foothold here under the shelter of the tree."

"The next picture is how the tribe has gradually developed and grown after establishing a foothold here. There are a series of stories about how they sacrificed, how they fought against the evil creatures around them, how they hunted, how they fished, how they planted corn, etc. It is very useful for us to study the history of this tribe and this land-"

"Professor, please wait a moment." Baron Gonzalez interrupted the eloquent Professor Edward. "These pictures on the stone wall can't run away. We can study them slowly in the future. Now, can you tell me what is going on with this ruin?"

After being interrupted, Professor Edward seemed a little unhappy, but for the sake of the patron, he could only stop the previous introduction. "The picture shows that the real relic is behind this wall, but the passage requires extraordinary power to open it."

"It's a pity that there is no way to open the passage on these patterns. According to my experience from other tribes, this kind of sacrificial place is often only accessible to tribal shamans, shaman apprentices and tribal chiefs."

"If we can't find the right way to open it, I think our only choice is to find a way to wear away the remaining magic power on this stone wall. Then use violent means to force it open." Finally, Professor Edward concluded.