Chapter 117 - Transports
Russia is the largest country in the world, with over 17 million miles of land spanning from eastern Europe to northern Asia.
With its harsh landscape and unforgiving climate, it's no wonder that after 2 years of the apocalypse, from 71 doomsday pillars that arrived on the motherland only half had been visited by the survivors.
This half was the one on the southern parth of Russia, the one near the big cities. Meanwhile, the one further on the north was only visited by the best and strongest people. The majority of people who came to these pillars were those with A and B talents. They were referred to as spirit enhancers.
As a result, those with C talent were actually left out and only could depend on hunting mutated animals or abyss creatures, a situation currently faced by Viktor.
At this moment, it was said that the most effective way to level up was to kill the creatures on the doomsday pillars. That was why Viktor and the others ended up walking further north in order to find a the right pillar to hunt.
However, it appeared that locating a doomsday pillar that was suitable for them to level up was not an easy job. So far, they had traveled for 3 days and visited 3 different pillars on their journey.
Unfortunately, all of the alien constructs were already being cleared up to level 30ish, indicating that many people had already taken use of the pillars to level up just like what they wanted to do. It was as a result of this that they were forced to leave and searched for other pillars.
"We really can't fight those level 30, can we?" Viktor asked the brown-haired beauty.
"Definitely not possible," Jessie said. She then added, "Although they are not as strong as an orc champion, they still come in hundreds. It's not something that can be done with a group of seven people."
Considering the number of the group, Jessie said that the only level that was safe for them at the moment was still the one that was less than level 20. However, if they were willing to band together with other groups, it was possible to challenge the higher-level floors.
Since there were only seven of them, it was clear that they would not be able to do so. Because of it, they kept continuing their journey and had been wandering through the tundra looking for pillars.
Viktor currently had to deal with the cost of wasting 2 years of the apocalypse partying in the bunker.
There was just one thing working in Viktor's favor, which was that throughout the last 3 days, he had been able to fight multiple mutated animals that he had encountered along the way. As a result, he had received a few added stats.
"We need to go further up north!" Said Viktor not willing to find another occupied pillar.
Unfortunately, Jessie said the problem was that there wasn't any safe settlement where they could stay through the night. Going any further north meant that they would have to take a long walk through the night with the risk of being found by an abyss creature.
"Alright, we should get a fast vehicle then!" Viktor exclaimed as he suggested.
The brown haired girl could only chuckle and said, "Do you see any snow cars around? I don't."
It was at this moment Viktor said, "How about the train?"
The girl was about to say that none of the trains had been working since the apocalypse. However, as she said the words, a split second later, an idea came to her mind. She suddenly stared at Viktor as she realized something.
"With our combined skill, it is possible!" She said with excitement in her tone.
There was actually one, the northern railway that ran 1000 miles from the heart of Russia to the northern city of Vorkuta. The railways, on the other hand, had not been in operation at any point since the apocalypse.
Without wasting any more time, Jessie quickly brought the group to walk along the closest railway in the small town of Mikun. After traveling for a considerable distance, the group finally arrived at the referred location where they were able to see one abandoned train in it.
"This is perfect," said the girl as she saw the train.
Now that they had found a train which they could use, Jessie went to check on it right away. She also told the group to clear up the settlement while she needed to work on the train.
On the other hand, Viktor and the all-new earth realms group were charged with fighting the creatures in that area. The group is able to clear up the town from the undead as they had successfully managed to kill them all within less than an hour.
Afterward, they returned to the point where the group was gathered. There, Jessie was busy on her work with the train and it appeared that she had already made some modifications to the railway vehicle.
Viktor could see that the girl had modified the engine and had also written strange symbols on it. He could recall that the symbol looked similar to the one she had used on the reactor the prior time. After that, with a simple spell, she was able to turn on the engine and took control of the train. Following that, Jessie just created alternate electricity for the train using her strange skill.
Even in this world of magic, Viktor was well aware that it was not an easy feat. The brown haired girl was indeed very talented.
As the engine had been resolved, the next step to be done was to detach the cars and push them together in order to jumpstart the train and free it from snow that had encircled it.
"We did it!!"
As soon as the railway vehicle began to operate properly, it was left for Viktor to first [Metal Bend] the train in order to close all the open windows, leaving just a few small holes. After that, Viktor would use [Metal Tampered] to make the train body more secure, and lastly, he would use his metal spell to fix the rail whenever they saw a broken one.
With the help of the Djinn sensor, the group was also able to travel at night and come to a halt whenever an abyss horde would pass near.
After 6 hours of midnight travel, the group was fortunate enough to pass through 8 stations before they finally arrived at a sequence of train wreckage that blocked the way.
They managed to run almost 200 miles despite the difficulties, and they arrived into one of the most desolate places in Russia.
Jessie was super excited with the fact that they had just invented a new way of transport in the middle of the apocalypse. Viktor, on the other hand, came up with a brilliant idea for how to make money out of it very immediately. He thought that they would be able to make a profit from the situation.
In order to do so, he needed to ask Jessie first about the symbols she used to create electricity. Nevertheless, the God of Luck was not on the side of Viktor at the moment as the girl seemed reluctant to respond to his question.
Viktor then asked her another question, as if he had not given up and was not satisfied if he didn't get an answer, "Did you learn it from the pillar?"
The girl only smiled in response and said, "You tell me about how you are able to sense the abyss creature, and I will tell you about my secret."
"Maybe later then." Said Viktor, and the two gave an understanding nod toward each other. As it was the case, in the end, this would simply be a secret barter between the two. If one of them was not willing to tell the secret, then the other wouldn't do the same.
If teh girl likes to share her method, Viktor actually had a plan to make this train idea into a profitable venture, however, at the moment, it needed to be on hold for a while.
Finally, Viktor checked on the bracelets on his wrist and looked toward the location of the nearest doomsday pillars, which were just across the forest in front of them.
As he looked at the bracelets, his attention was drawn to a strange dot on it. It seemed that he became aware of something, and then asked,
"If these green dots are the pillars, what about these black dots in place between us and the pillar?"
Jessie explained that it was called the Abyss Pitt. It was the location where the abyss creature resided. Although it was better to stay away from it, Jessie believed that passing close to it at day time was fine, but not at night.
With that information, the group entered the forest with caution. However, after just a few minutes, what they found there took them all by surprise.
Hundreds of abyss creature corpses lay on the ground.
"What is going on here?"