Whispering Poems

Chapter 594 The erected coin

After leaving the club, Xia De returned to the House of the Blind and found out the location of the local black market from Ms. Michelle.Then, holding the travel map of Fort Midhill, he walked in the direction of the black market while wandering around the city.

It is conceivable that Shad still needs to take many adventures in this city before he can actually rescue Priest Augustus.Therefore, he wants to get acquainted with this place as soon as possible, at least to know which ways are convenient for him to escape.

Different from Tobesk and Coldwater Port, which Shard is more familiar with, as an inland city on the Old Continent near the mountains, Fort Midhill's urban style is more modern and industrialized.It does not have the long history and political role of the capital, and it is not like the cold water port that is restricted by ocean trade, so the urban development is biased towards the dock.

After the advent of the steam industry, Fort Midhill was able to develop industrialization wholeheartedly. Relying on its important transportation position and the abundant mineral resources at the northern foot of the West Carl Mountain, this mountain city has become larger and larger in recent years. It is also getting better and better, but correspondingly, it is obviously close to the mountains, but the air pollution level is only slightly better than Tobesk.

Most of the towering yellow-walled buildings facing the street have a history of less than a hundred years, and the more you move to the north away from the mountains, the more you can observe that the municipal infrastructure is getting newer.This point is highlighted by the fact that there are uniform steam and gas meters at the street intersection, and most of the metal pipes climbing on the walls are not rusted.

After all, Fort Midhill does not have the conditions to expand the city towards the Rommel Mountains in the south. Therefore, although the steam factory and the traditional city center are in the south city, the living conditions in the north city are actually better.

Black smoke spewed into the sky, making the noisy city look gray, but this is also the norm in this era.This city is one of the most important transportation hub cities in the central and eastern part of the old continent. In addition to being able to hear various languages ​​​​communicating on the street, there are also many ring magicians who are resident in the local area and passing by. From this, a huge underground black market.

Similar to the situation in Coldwater Port, there are always some large and small black markets that have a good reputation because of their good reputation. The one that Ms. Michelle introduced to Shad is one of them.

The black market in Xia De's impression is usually a tavern or a hotel, in order to cover up the strange phenomenon that strangers often come in and out.The one Ms. Michelle introduced to Shad was inside the Fort Midhill train station.

Shad followed the map and turned at the intersection of Hankwood Street. At this time, he could already hear the train whistle coming from inside the station.The capacity of the Fort Midhill Steam Railway Station is extremely large. The trains coming and going go south through the Rommel Mountains and enter the United Kingdom of Carson Rik on the Southern Great Plains of the Old World, and go north through the northern part of the Old World. The interior of the Kingdom of Ryan.

When a foreigner appeared at the gate of the station with his head bowed and a newspaper in hand, no one cared about him who was so ordinary.

“Bigger than Tobesk Railway Station”

Xia De sighed softly, and then entered the station together with the passengers carrying suitcases or carrying backpacks.

Fort Midhill Railway Station is located in the southeast of the city and handles both freight and passenger traffic.The inside of the station is extremely noisy and crowded, the humming sound is particularly disturbing, and there is a strong choking smell of burning coal in the air.

Amidst the noise in his ear, Xia De first found the ticket office, and bought a ticket for the second-class carriage of the steam train No. B823 according to the information provided by Ms. Michelle.

After waiting for 10 minutes, Xia De, who was reading the news of the big city player champion with a newspaper, got on the train at the station.

His ticket was for carriage No. 2, but when the train began to move, Shad walked towards the front of the train.The first three carriages of the entire train are for freight, and the latter are for passenger transportation.There is a metal fence gate and a wooden gate between freight and passenger to prevent passengers from wandering.

Holding the ticket and the newspaper and map between them, Xia De crossed over the gap in the iron fence and knocked on the wooden door.Three short and one long, then three long and one short.

Then the wooden door was opened a crack:

"Who introduced you?"

asked the voice behind the door.

This train is a short-distance train, a one-hour round-trip between Fort Midhill and the country town.Only trustworthy ring magicians and organizations in the city can obtain information, so the introducer must be named:
"The nun of the House of the Blind, she also asked me to tell you, don't forget to send the goods you ordered last time to her."

"Won't forget."

The voice behind the door answered, and held out a mask.

After Xia De put it on, he handed out another key from behind the door.Xia De opened the fence door with the key, pushed the fence door to one side amidst the harsh metal friction sound, returned the key to the gatekeeper, and officially entered the black market of the station.

The first three carriages are all the black market area of ​​the station, and the No. [-] carriage closest to the front of the train is a place for large-value transactions, and permission is required to enter.Cars No. [-] and No. [-] are arranged like a tavern. Each car has a bartender who is responsible for maintaining order and updating the transaction content on the small blackboards hanging on both sides of the car.

Of course, if you don’t want to disclose the transaction details, you can spend a lot of money and ask the bartender to keep the transaction information alone, waiting for a suitable transaction partner to appear.

Xia De walked around the carriage, but he didn't see anyone selling coin relics, and he wasn't interested in other information.So, I first found the bartender in the third carriage, and explained my long-term reward for buying coin relics, and then asked him if there were any other abnormal events in the local area in the half a month since the beginning of autumn.

The bald bartender charged Shad 3 shillings for information, and then said:
"Does the anomaly of the Orthodox Church count? They seem to want to plan some big action in autumn or winter, and they have been preparing for it since last year. If you are a foreign ring warlock, don't provoke the church locally recently, or you will be in bad luck." .”

"I've also heard about the abnormality of the church in the local area. What exactly are they trying to do?"

But the bartender just shakes his head:
"Besides the abnormality of the church, since the end of this summer, there has been a sudden increase in the number of strange disappearance cases in the local area. I don't know the reason, and I can't investigate it at all, just like an urban legend on a tabloid."

"Has there been such a thing in the local area before?"

The bartender glanced at Xia De:
"Yes, but the frequency is very low, and it doesn't attract much attention. This kind of thing mostly happens to ordinary people. I haven't heard of it happening to ring warlocks."

It seemed that Priest Augustus was out of luck this time.

"Also, do you have any entrustment to sell special coins here? Not on the blackboard over there."

"Indeed."

The bartender nodded, and a smile appeared on Xia De's face behind the mask. Sure enough, the possibility of finding special coins in this kind of city he has never been to is higher:
"Where is the trader?"

He suddenly thought that when he bought coins at the Seven Broomsticks Tavern in Coldwater Harbor, it was the first time he met Darkness, and the two even played a game of Rhodes.Therefore, Xia De suddenly became nervous at this moment:
"Wait, isn't the trader right here?"

"Yes, the trader is me."

The bartender pointed lazily at himself:
"In addition to being brokers, we will also buy some less dangerous relics for sale. I only have this here. If you want to buy it, you can trade it now."

While the train was shaking, he took out a stack of papers from under the counter, rummaged through them for a long time before he took out one and handed it to Xia De.

After thanking Xia De, he took this piece of paper and sat down at a round table by the window, carefully reading the introduction of the new relic:
[Poet-level relic - an upright coin, which looks like a copper coin slightly larger than a shilling coin.One of the sides has a pattern of jasmine flowers, which is regarded as the reverse side; the other side is written with the letter "one" in characters suspected of the Quaternary, which is regarded as the front side.

Characteristics: No matter under any circumstances, if you throw this coin, it will always remain vertical when it lands. If there is no concept of "below" in the space, the thrown coin will be flipped infinitely; the holding of the coin Or, when tossing other coins, it greatly increases the probability that the coin will stay upright when it hits the ground. 】

"What kind of feature is this?"

Xia De behind the mask thought suspiciously, and then noticed that two strangers sat down across the table, chatting quietly together.

[Storage method, the coin is erected on a plane with an angle of no more than 12 degrees from the ground, and a slight vibration will not cause the coin to fall.

Negative characteristics, if one side of the coin is pressed on a plane with an angle of no more than 12 degrees from the ground, or the above problems are caused by strong vibrations, then——in the case of the positive side, the coin needs to be passed through the transaction within 24 hours The trader who gets the coin must fall to death from a height within 8 hours of touching the coin; if the transaction is not completed, the coin holder will forcefully spit out one-third of the coin after 24 hours. internal organs.

If the coin is tails up, at least 4 pounds of dried jasmine petals (approximately 10 kg) must be devoured within 4.53 hours, and the coin must then be passed on to others by way of transaction.If any one of the conditions is not fulfilled, the coin holder will disappear into a field of purple flowers within 24 hours. 】

"This is probably the weakest relic I have ever encountered."

Xia De flipped through the documents in his hand, and then looked at the final price:

"Fifteen pounds and three shillings?"

Although it was a little higher than he expected, it was just below the highest price he could bear:
"should be no problem."

Standing up and returning to the counter, he told the bartender that he wanted to buy the coin.The bartender is going to pick up the goods from the front car.So let Xia De find a place to rest first.

It happened that someone was talking about the "Great City Player 1853" in Tobesk, so Shad also moved over.Afterwards, even after he got the coin, he played two hands of Lords with the stranger to pass the time before the train returned to Fort Midhill.

Although everyone does not know each other, it is still very interesting to play cards, and Xia De can also learn more about the city from the conversation.

By the time Shad passed through the dense forest of Mount Xikale and returned to No. [-] Saint Teresa Square through the abandoned tower, it was already dark outside.Both Dorothy and Luvia were still there, the former was writing in the study, and the latter was adjusting his stargazing equipment on the third floor.

(End of this chapter)