Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 138: Section 111: Going on a Long Trip (Part Two)_2

Chapter 138: Section 111: Going on a Long Trip (Part Two)_2

"You were referred by Mr. Hise, so I trust you," Malin nodded. "The inn is full, so you’ll have to rest in tents. The security of the carriages at night is in your hands."

Malin’s responsibility tonight was the safety of the girls—this small village had records of attacks by spirits, and the inn was not too safe. Malin had to first take care of his companions, especially Logan and Miriam. Lately, he had often seen lovers either being torn apart by death or dying together, and it had begun to frighten him.

There was no way he could return to Carterburg with the mercenaries and the girls the next day and tell their families—sorry, I wasn’t able to protect them last night, but considering they died together, it’s a kind of happiness, right?

As if, those parents would skin Malin alive.

"No problem, Mr. Malin. Leave it to our Bloody Rain Squad," the commander of the mercenary team, a middle-aged Mediterranean man with long hair, nodded vigorously.

Malin responded with a blank expression but a smile, "Then I’ll be off."

......

As Malin left, the dwarf sighed, "I’ve never seen such an agreeable Noble."

"He’s not a Noble, he’s the distinguished ’Lord’ Priest," a half-human in leather armor rolled her eyes at the brute in her own squad.

"He’s a ’Lord’ Priest of the Harvest Church," another half-human added.

"They are clearly apprentices," the human female mage sighed, "Don’t give that young master false titles."

"But anyway, he is a very formidable Transcendent," the barbarian of the group said, flexing his wrists, "He helped heal my wrist yesterday, and it feels great. Ever since I injured it last year, it’s always been painful, but after he treated it, I was cured."

"At such times, we need to ask our dear Healer Miss," the gnome commented while cleaning his firearm and turned his head to look at the healer in the squad.

Then the young girl gave him a cold look, "I only know how to use the fourth sequence spell formation, not as good as Mr. Malin."

"Being able to recognize your own shortcomings, you’ve made progress," the gnome laughed so hard his mouth almost reached his ears.

The next second, he was sent flying out of the tent with an air punch from the healer, causing an eruption of laughter from the squad members.

The middle-aged man shook his head with a smile, "Jerry, you and Old Iron Fist take the first half of the night. I’ll take the second half with Sheriff."

"No problem," the dwarf and the half-human in leather armor stood up and walked towards the entrance of the tent. There, they brushed past the gnome holding his waist as he returned. The old dwarf even patted the gnome’s head, "Don’t make our little darling angry next time, or the next air punch might land on your head."

......

Back at the inn, Malin started to reinforce the defenses—firstly, he chose to strengthen the outer walls of the first floor of the inn. Though it was just a simple transform mud into stone spell, which turned the walls that were stuck together with bricks and mud into full stone structures, the innkeeper was somewhat taken aback, and Malin refused the offer to refund his room fee.

After all, as an inn, keeping the rooms clean was part of earning the room fee.

Then came the second floor. Just as he did with the outer walls, Malin also reinforced the inner walls, breaking through several rooms to create small doors suitable for children’s movement. He would restore them when they left tomorrow, but for now, this would make it more convenient when the time came.

As for the windows, Logan and Malin secured a few of them with sandbags, and the others they simply rigged with explosive traps—if anything tried to enter the room by breaking the window, a directional mine crafted by Malin from the workshop would spray shrapnel and lead shots towards the direction of the window.

Unless it was a Wraith, anything would face a ’wall’ of lethal shrapnel and lead shots that could move.

"I’ll take the second half of the night," Logan said.

Malin shook his head, "I’ll take the second half of the night."

......

Logan, of course, couldn’t argue with Malin, so in the middle of the night, he had to wake Malin up. Seeing Malin full of vigor, he was full of doubt, "You’ve only slept for about four hours, are you okay?"

Of course Malin had no problems; his bloodline awakening meant he needed less than four hours of sleep to recover from fatigue.

As Old Ferrero pointed out, as Malin chooses an official sequence, his physique would improve. Along with that, he would gradually become immune to diseases and could go without rest for several days without feeling fatigue—of course, this presupposes choosing a sequence that greatly increases physical attributes. If he became a Mage, then Malin would need at least eight hours of sleep each day—this was the simplest and only way to recover spiritual energy other than drinking potions.

"It’s okay, go to sleep," Malin said, taking the revolver Logan handed him and patting him on the shoulder. "Off you go."

So Logan lay down on the bed, and Malin checked the girls’ rooms.

Maya was a light sleeper, and as soon as Malin approached, her ears pointed in his direction, then she raised her head, "Brother."

"I’m just checking in, not used to sleeping in a different room?" Malin noticed that Lillim was sound asleep, it seemed this little lamb really wasn’t picky about where she slept.

"Mmm... Brother, I kinda understand how hard it was for dad to be away from home," Maya said, pursing her lips.

Malin nodded, glad that his sister could sympathize with their father, "Go to sleep, I’m going to check the other rooms."

After saying so, Malin pushed the door open, and on both sides of the corridor, an Earth Elemental blocked the passageway. Hearing the sound of the door opening, they immediately focused on Malin, and after identifying him, they turned their heads back.

Gently pushing open the door to Faye and Miriam’s room, Malin made sure the two in the bed were alright before closing the door, then he passed through the small door into Jessica’s office.

"Malin," the wolf girl smiled happily upon seeing him, "All’s good on our end."

"Good to hear, what about Clovis?"

"She’s in the room over there."

So Malin went to have a look and found the Bunny Girl had wrapped herself into a ball with a blanket.

This really wasn’t a ladylike way to sleep at all.

Returning to the office, just as Malin was about to leave, Jessica came over and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

This puzzled Malin a bit, wait a second, wasn’t a forehead kiss something elders did for the younger ones?

But although he was puzzled, Malin still smiled and returned Jessica a kiss.

"I’m going downstairs to check, keep an eye on the upper floor, and if there’s any trouble, blow the whistle to wake everyone up."

"Leave it to me, Malin, you be careful too."

After saying goodbye to Jessica, Malin holding the revolver walked out of the office. The elemental creatures in the corridor made way for their master and Malin squeezed through the small space.

The first floor was still lit, with several mercenaries from the merchant caravan drinking. The caravan belonged to the Eastern Kingdom’s merchant guild, and their destination was Carterburg, where they intended to sell beautiful tapestries and then buy salt in Carterburg to take back inland.

The caravan consisted of about fifty wagons and was protected by several mercenary squads.

Due to the large number of people, they didn’t stay in the inn, but set up a camp at the edge of the village. These mercenaries must have sneaked out to drink.

The appearance of Malin made the mercenaries tense up, but as soon as they recognized him, they immediately took off their hats to salute—he had treated two of their injured comrades earlier in the journey, fixing their fractures.

"Master Malin, you’re on night watch, aren’t you?" the leading mercenary noticed the gun in Malin’s hand and asked with a smile.

"Yes, I came down to take a look, I’m worried about the innkeeper’s daughter keeping watch over the first floor by herself, it’s not very safe," Malin looked around to make sure there was no danger and then holstered his gun.

"You don’t need to worry about that, whenever our caravan passes by, we help Mr. Innkeeper," the mercenary finished and smiled to the slim girl, "Little Lina, right?"

"That’s true, but I’d be more at ease if you guys drank less," the innkeeper’s daughter pouted.

All Malin could do was smile—asking mercenaries not to drink was like asking for their lives.

Then Malin thought it over, there was indeed a difference; killing them would be a swift end, but denying them drink might be more unbearable than death.

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