The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

A burst of panting sounded in the silent black forest, and then a black figure with a lantern on it quickly passed through a tree hole formed by arched tree roots, and stepped on the big rock opposite. It turned over a bush and landed on the soft ground opposite.

"Um!"

There was a muffled hum that was deliberately suppressed, and the black figure that landed half-kneeled on the ground, covering his right foot. Next to his right foot was a stone covered with rotten soil and leaves.

It seems that when the black shadow fell just now, he stepped on this hidden stone, and his ankle should have been injured.

However, even though his foot was injured, the black figure still endured the pain and limped forward until the injury was unbearable. Then he found a relatively open place and put the Li took out a bottle of spare kerosene, sprinkled it around himself, and then ignited it, forming a circle of fire that surrounded him.

Under the light of the fire, the black shadow revealed his appearance. I saw that he was a young man in his twenties, with a strong body and some old clothes. He should look like a person who often does hard work. The dagger and one-handed crossbow he was wearing looked like a novice from his posture.

The only striking thing about him is that there is a scar from the corner of his right eye to his lip, which looks like he was injured by a sharp weapon, which makes him look a bit fierce and rebellious, but at the moment he can't see it on his face These temperaments are gone, leaving only endless fear and despair.

If anyone from Slate Town outside the Black Forest saw this young man at this time, he would definitely recognize him, because he was the most famous gangster in Slate Town and the most restless guy in the town. civil.

The reason why Alban is said to be the most restless is that he is unwilling to work in the combined quarry in the town, and always wants to leave the town to go to big cities like Leon, Lanxi and even Miria. It would be fine if it was just his own thoughts, but he likes to encourage the young people in the town to fantasize with him, making the town a mess.

However, for Albon, his dream did not hinder others at all, and the conservative old guys in the town were all lifeless walking dead.

Although Alban wanted to leave Shiban Town very much, he also knew that living in those big cities required a lot of money. For this reason, he used various means in the past to accumulate a reserve fund of twenty gold francs and thirty bia.

Such a large amount of money may be considered a huge amount of money in the eyes of ordinary people, but it is obviously not enough to live in a big city for a long time.

He inquired that in a big city like Leon, the monthly rent of an ordinary dormitory apartment would cost seventy biriya, and if food consumption was included, it would be about ninety biriya per month. The money can allow him to live in a big city for two and a half years at most.

So all along, he hoped that he could get a lot of money in a short period of time, enough for him to spend in big cities, so that he could leave this remote ghost place.

It wasn't until a sensational event happened in Stone Town two days ago that Albon felt that his chance had come.

A guy nicknamed Honest Bill was lucky enough to pick up a piece of excrement from a gold-eating beast on the edge of the Black Forest.

The gold-eating beast is a unique beast in the Black Forest. This beast likes to eat metals, but it can only digest a few kinds of metals such as iron and copper. The remaining metals will be dissolved in its body and mixed into a kind of Alloy substances are excreted together with feces.

Some of these alloys are of high value and some are of low value to those who study metals, but it is undeniable that the composition of each alloy is unique.

The Royal Academy of Sciences of the French Empire attached great importance to this alloy, so it announced a high price for the purchase.

Rare things are precious, and some other imperial nobles and big businessmen also thought that owning a unique alloy was a very face-saving thing, so they bought it at a high price.

To be honest, the alloy contained in the excrement of the gold-eating beast that Bill picked up is a very rare alloy of gold, silver and precious stones, and its value is much higher than that of ordinary alloys. The merchant spent a huge sum of 70,000 gold flanges to buy this alloy.

Alban was very jealous of Honest Bill's good luck, and hoped that he could also pick up a piece of gold-eater's feces, so he went to the town's library to look up information about gold-eaters.

An unexpected discovery made him decide to venture into the Black Forest regardless of the danger of the Wuyue Black Forest.

This discovery is that the gold-eating beast does not excrete all the excrement at one time, it will excrete almost the same amount of excrement sequentially in other places not far away. So judging from the habits of this gold-eater, there must be other gold-eater dung not far from where Honest Bill picked up the dung of the gold-eater.

Under the lure of huge sums of money, Alban also forgot how dangerous the Black Forest during the Brumaire period was. He even didn't make careful preparations because he was worried that other people would know about it and enter the forest first to look for the excrement of the gold-eating beast. All kinds of necessities, just a few weapons, some water and food, and the glass lantern at his home entered the Black Forest.

Speaking of which, he was lucky at the beginning. He didn't encounter any danger. He also found a piece of gold-eater's excrement, and also found traces of the gold-eater's movement. Following the traces, he found another gold-eater. stool.

If he can bring back these two pieces of gold-eating beast excrement from the Black Forest, let alone settle down in a big city like Leon, even if he buys a villa and lives like an aristocrat, it is not impossible .

It's a pity that when he picked up the second piece of gold-eating beast's feces, Alban found that his luck seemed to have come to an end. First he was bitten by a small bug hidden under the feces, and then he accidentally slipped into the creek while walking. The river floated for a while, and lost his way after landing on the shore. When he was looking for the way back, he even encountered the red-spotted leopard, the most terrifying predator in the lower black forest, and forced him to run in the forest in a panic until now.

Although he is now protected by the ring of fire, Alban does not feel any hope of surviving under the claws of the red-spotted leopard.

Not to mention that the red-spotted leopards waiting outside the circle of fire were waiting for the flames to extinguish and pounce on him to kill him. Even if there was no threat of death from the red-spotted leopards, he who had lost his way in the Black Forest would have absolutely no chance of getting out. Sex, not to mention that it is still the most dangerous Brumaire period.

Not knowing what kind of emotion he was carrying, Albon opened the package at his waist, looked at the two pieces of gold-eating beast feces worth hundreds of thousands of gold flanges inside, the expression on his face was unpredictable, and finally he forced the package together. Go up, untie it from your body, throw the one-handed crossbow aside, and draw out another short knife from your waist.

"Come on! Come on! You beast, don't you want my life? Then come on!" Alban stood up suddenly from the ground, rushed to the side of the fire circle, and glared at the darkness outside the fire circle. Frantically waving the dagger in his hand, he loudly challenged the invisible deadly hunter outside the circle of fire.

However, there was no movement in the darkness in front of him.

Albon seemed not ready to give up, changed his position and continued to provoke. He felt that he could only do this, because instead of waiting to die in despair, it would be better to forget about all dangers and fight to the death. At least he died like a warrior, and he might be able to enter the heroic spirit after death like the legend of the Beirut people temple.

Just as Albon continued this method of courting death, a black figure silently lurked outside the circle of fire, and his purple-black eyeballs fixedly stared at Albon's figure in the circle of fire, as if waiting for an opportunity.

When Albon turned his back to the black shadow, the black shadow sprang out rapidly, flying over the circle of fire like a black wind, rushed behind Albon in the blink of an eye, and opened his mouth wide, Showing its blade-like fangs, it bit its prey's neck.

Perhaps it was the threat of death that instantly heightened Albon's senses. At the moment when the black shadow rushed over, he turned around and just saw a big mouth full of fangs falling towards his neck. At this time, he had already There is no way to avoid it.

It's over, it's Albon's only thought at the moment, time seems to slow down at this moment, and the red-spotted leopard's movement is also very slow, so slow that he thinks he can easily dodge it, but at the same time he finds that his body can't move , and in front of his eyes were some memories of the past, many of which he thought he had forgotten.

In the end, these scenes were fixed on a beautiful figure, and he couldn't help feeling regret in his heart. He regretted his yearning for a big city, regretted that he had entered the Black Forest for money, and regretted all the things he had done to the person who loved him in the past. Wrong thing.

At this moment, he couldn't help but swear to God that if he could survive, he would stay and work in Shiban Town in peace, and he must treat those who loved him well.

Perhaps Albon's prayer had an effect. Just when the red-spotted leopard's fangs touched his neck, an invisible force knocked the red-spotted leopard out of the circle of fire, and its body convulsed After a while, he lay on the ground without any movement.

After experiencing the great change of life and death, all the strength in Alban's body seemed to be drained, and his soft body could no longer support him to continue standing, causing him to sit down on the ground.

Albon didn't understand what happened just now, he just knew that the horror hunter who chased and killed him was dead, and he was safe. The ups and downs made him cry and howl uncontrollably, like a madman of. Even if he is still in the dangerous black forest, even if he doesn't know if he can get out, he still has to cheer for his narrow escape just now.

Not long after Albang vented his emotions, a few dots of flames suddenly appeared in the jungle on his left, followed by a half-person-high bush was pushed away, several people in hunting suits, each carrying a huge package The hunter came out and stepped into the circle of fire.

One of the tallest and strongest men looked at Alban who was crying and howling, and asked the man with glasses next to him, "Doctor, isn't this kid crazy?"

The man wearing glasses knelt down and looked at Albon, and said, "I'm not crazy. I just experienced the ups and downs of life and death. It's inevitable that my emotions will get a little out of control. Just let it out."

"What a poor fellow." The brawny man muttered, then walked quickly to the other side of the fire circle, picked up the red-spotted leopard, walked back to the firelight, looked at the red-spotted leopard's head, The man who was equally strong but more well-proportioned said, "You won. You were indeed hit in the right eye, but this guy's head is so hard that even the special bullets can't penetrate his head."

The man wearing glasses took the prey from the strong man, looked at it and said: "The red-spotted leopard is the strongest hunter in the Black Forest. Nearly half of the hunters who entered the Black Forest died in the mouth of the red-spotted leopard. Now, in ancient times, the head of the red-spotted leopard could be used to make very hard bone armor, and although the special bullets are powerful, they may not be able to penetrate this kind of skull."

At this time, Albon, who was venting loudly, suddenly stopped, as if he had exhausted his venting, and his strength seemed to be exhausted, so he just sat on the ground blankly.

"Boy, can you go?" The strong man walked up to the quiet Alban, kicked his leg, and said, "You should be a resident of the nearby Black Forest village and town? We are just about to leave the Black Forest. You don't mind leading the way, do you?"

However, Albon did not respond to the strong man's request, as if ignoring him.

The strong man frowned, and was about to squat down, lift Albang from the ground, and teach him a lesson so that he would know how to treat his savior, but he was stopped by the man wearing glasses up.

Then I saw the man wearing glasses squatting down, took his hand out of the glove, felt Albon's pulse, and said, "He's dead." Then he checked the exposed parts of the body and saw that When his right hand turned black, he said: "It should be bitten by a poisonous insect. This kind of poisonous insect should not be fatal immediately. It can be saved with herbs, but it is a pity that he has to avoid the pursuit of the red-spotted leopard. He keeps running and speeds up his blood flow." The circulation caused the venom to penetrate deeply into every part of the body. The abnormal behavior just now may also be the effect of the venom."

After finishing speaking, he closed the opened eyes of the corpse, helped him to lie down, recited a prayer, then stood up, and said regretfully: "What a poor guy, even if we met him earlier, I'm afraid we would have saved him." not his life."

"Hey! There is a package here, it should belong to this kid." At this time, the strong man seemed to have discovered something, picked up Albon's package, opened it, and said, "It seems to be two pieces of gold ore inside." .”

The person wearing glasses leaned forward to take a look, and said in surprise, "It's not gold ore, it's the excrement of gold-eating beasts."

"What? Feces!" The strong man threw the package on the ground with a disgusted expression. Although he was wearing gloves, he still wiped his hands on his companion habitually.

On the contrary, the man wearing glasses picked up the package from the ground without any scruples, took out a piece of gold-eating beast feces, put it in front of his eyes and looked at it carefully, and then looked at the bearded man who was holding a knife to dissect the red-spotted leopard, Said: "Since Jason doesn't want this thing, why don't you share it with me!"

"Is this thing very valuable?" the bearded man carefully dissected every organ of the red-spotted leopard, as if he was looking for something, and asked without raising his head.

The bearded man's inquiry also caught the strong man's attention, and he couldn't help but stare at the two pieces of gold-eating beast feces that made him feel extremely disgusted just now.

"It is indeed very valuable." The person wearing the glasses quickly gave an accurate answer, saying: "Gold-eating beasts are very rare beasts in the Black Forest, and they are also one of the few non-aggressive beasts. They are extremely good at Hiding, even the best hunters can't catch it, there was once a duke who was willing to exchange a piece of territory for a live gold-eating beast, but it didn't work either."

The strong man couldn't help but interjected: "Wow! It has such a high value. Could it be that the value of the gold-eating beast is so high, and its excrement is also worth money?"

"The price of the excrement of the gold-eating beast has nothing to do with the gold-eating beast itself. The reason why the excrement of the gold-eating beast is valuable is because the excrement itself is a unique alloy metal." The man wearing glasses rolled his eyes at his companion and continued to explain: "Because the gold-eating beast's whereabouts are unpredictable, its feces are also hard to find. It is almost difficult to find a piece of it on the market in a year. The price of the general gold-eating beast's feces is between two thousand and eight thousand gold shields..."

"So many eight thousand gold shields?" the brawny man asked in surprise.

"But some special gold-eating beast feces can be fried for tens of thousands..."

The strong man opened his mouth, as if he didn't know what to say.

The person wearing glasses continued: "And the feces in our hands is a very rare alloy of gold, silver and precious stones. The most recent piece of the same gold-eating beast feces was sold at the Reed Auction House in Port of Sete thirteen years ago. The price at that time was seventy-nine thousand gold shields. Our piece, both in terms of volume and the proportion of gold, silver and precious stones, far surpassed that one. Therefore, according to the growth rate of the market price, it would take at least a hundred thousand gold shields to buy one piece. Such gold-eating beast feces."

"Wow~ oh~!" The strong man opened his mouth when he heard the number of hundreds of thousands, with a shocked look on his face, and it took a long time before he spit out a particle, and his voice was drawn out Quite a few, as if his wonder could not be expressed otherwise.

The man wearing glasses teased the gold-eating beast excrement in front of the strong man's eyes, and said, "How is it? Do you want a piece back?"

However, the strong man just shook his head and didn't ask for a share of it. He just turned his head to look at the corpse lying on the ground, sighed, and said regretfully, "What a poor guy!"

"Yes! What a poor guy." The man wearing glasses also put away his smile, looked at the corpse, and nodded in agreement.

The strong man's emotions passed quickly, and he suddenly seemed to think of something, and said to the bearded man who had completely dissected the red-spotted leopard: "Leo, have you been kissed by the goddess of luck? After arriving in the Black Forest, your luck is really good. You kicked a stone and helped Nelson discover the purple crown flower. You pushed away a tree root blocking the way and found a rare herb. Now you even killed a prey You just got two pieces of invaluable feces, your luck is really great!"

The strong man's boast did not make his companion look happy, but he frowned and said in thought: "I also really want to know how this luck came about?"