Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 533 - 364: Preparing for Action (Part 2)

Chapter 533: Chapter 364: Preparing for Action (Part 2)

Having made thorough preparations, Malin and his group first traveled through the teleportation gate to the border area between Sydney and Farole, near the edge of the mountains. The Sydney side had complete defense installations and a castle, so it was chosen by the Church of Justice as a forward base—there was nothing on the Farole side, currently an uninhabited zone, amidst a landscape infested with zombies.

"We’re not going to walk all the way there, are we?" Malin asked Dante, who was leading the way, while adjusting his helmet—a specialty produced by Carterburg, originating from the most commonly found tide crabs on the Western beaches of Carterburg.

These tide crabs could move like humans—straight ahead. Their shells were very hard, with huge and powerful pincers capable of killing an adult human.

However, their frontal shells were quite soft, and although their eight short legs moved swiftly, they couldn’t climb onto small platforms. Therefore... they were embarrassingly troublesome prey.

Since it was outside the Raging Sea region, humans usually didn’t have the right to hunt these tide crabs at will. But Carterburg conducted significant business with the Sea Clan each year, and Thanan was a major taxpayer. Also, there was an intense impulse to bring crabs to the dining table. Thus, Carterburg was allowed to hunt 500 tide crabs from the Western beaches each year and obtain 2,000 crab eggs, with the right to deal freely with any tide crabs that invaded inland.

The helmet on Malin’s head was made from crab eggshells. These white crab eggs, before hatching, were very hard and had always been the source of Carterburg’s hard-shell helmets. Malin used them as a layer inside the helmet, with the interior protected by shock-absorbent padding, a layer of impact-resistant plastic on the outside, and could even have camouflage fabric added.

Although it didn’t seem to offer much protection, the knowledgeable folks of the Church of Justice quickly chose to use this new type of helmet instead of exposing their heads unprotected to the world. A single egg could usually make two helmets, so there was no issue of scarcity.

Dante shook his head, "Of course not. We have support from Sydney’s military. A squadron of Gryphon Knights will take us into the airspace over our target area. After dropping us off, they will move away to a safe area for rest and maintenance. We will have observers who, upon seeing our signal flares, will come to pick us up."

Wow, Gryphons, what rare creatures. Malin had never ridden a Gryphon before, and the Church didn’t have them either. One reason was that the high Sequence lords generally all had access to teleportation gates, and making a grand entrance through a gate was far better than arriving dusty and fatigued on a Gryphon.

The second reason was that he’d heard they were troublesome to keep, and Malin detested trouble.

Therefore, when the Gryphons arrived, Malin paid special attention to see if they refused to let him ride.

After several checks by his companions, they confirmed the issue was with Malin himself—his Frost Giant bloodline made the Gryphons despise him.

Left with no choice, Malin had to wait in the castle until Dante and the others reached their position and activated the teleportation coordinates, then Malin could follow.

He waited for four hours, and it wasn’t until afternoon that Malin finally went through the teleportation gate into the Dark Zone.

Before leaving, Malin set a new coordinate in the castle; on his return, he could come back directly through the teleportation gate.

Although the Dark Zone constantly disrupted teleportation, Malin’s gate, assembled with World Tree Saplings, was not affected by the interference.

Thus, Malin’s transportation was undisturbed, and the moment he stepped through the gate, his vision was dominated by barrenness—no trees, just a land turning to desert.

"Your teleportation wasn’t disrupted," Dante exclaimed in disbelief.

"He used the World Tree Sapling as the anchor for his coordinates, so it’s impossible for it to be wrong," a member of the Mage Tower commented.

"Do you know what is usually found in these structures?" Malin gestured towards the distant massive building.

"No idea, we’ve never seen this type of intact structure before. When the Gryphons came, we examined the top from the air; there were no entrances or exits. There are some zombies around the structure, and we’ve already had a few Knights attract them away," Dante said, clarifying why the distant Gryphon Knights were flying so low.

"No problem?"

"No problem. Zombies have never been good at jumping. We’ve confirmed the location of the door, which is in the eastern part of the building, and there’s also a small fissure in the south," said the Tower Master of the Mage Tower.

"So how do we proceed?" Malin asked.

"The fissure is too small, so we decided to enter through the main entrance," Lord Dante said.

As the Gryphon squad took the zombies away, everyone started to move. Malin followed the group and saw the fissure as they passed the south; it was indeed small, just about big enough for a half-human and him to squeeze through, but considering safety, it was indeed better to enter through the main gate.

"This door is nice, quite big." The half-human scout Six-Finger was the first to walk through the entrance and he patted the huge metal door in front of him: "It’s really incredible how rich the ancients were. Such a thick metal door would be enough to build a huge castle in my homeland."

"Shut your mouth, Six-Finger, and a little louder please, do you want to attract the attention of the owner here for a chat?" The dwarf named Gold Ingots, who was behind him holding a gun pointed at the ceiling, also let out an exclamation: "The ceiling is so high."

"There are lighting devices. I’ve never seen a pre-catastrophe building with functioning lighting devices. This truly is a great discovery." The third one to come in was a member of the Mage Tower. The young man looked at the area illuminated by the light not far away, wanting to go over and check it out, but Malin caught him by the arm.

"What’s wrong?" The Tower Master of the Mage Tower who followed inside asked.

"There’s something three steps ahead of him," Malin said while turning on the flashlight in front of his gun, and under the illumination, a zombie appeared in the lit area.

Dante, who had followed in, immediately aimed his gun at the zombie.

"Don’t shoot, it’s dead," Malin walked over and pushed the body away with his hand.

"What’s going on here?" Six-Finger came over and glanced at the body: "That’s not right, it seems to have been dead for a long time."

"It looks like it died from dehydration, but I’m not clear on how it could dehydrate."

"Gold Ingots, stop," Malin said as he pulled out a flare and threw it into the hall.

Then they saw some more bodies.

Without exception, they were all zombies that had died of dehydration.

"What’s inside the building?" the Tower Master of the Mage Tower frowned.

"I think I heard something flapping its wings," said Grey Wind, the elf who had come in, pointing his gun down the corridor.

So Malin pulled another flare and threw it down the hallway.

Then everybody saw a mosquito that was obviously disproportioned.

"A mosquito with a three-metre wingspan?" Malin cursed just before he fired his gun—what the hell is this.