Struggle in the Steam Age

After leaving Jumu Town, the journey for the first two days was relatively easy. Because this section of the journey is built on the grassland, the climate is much better than the real desert. At the same time, because of the existence of those pastures distributed in this area, there are still a lot of roads trampled by those animals in this area to facilitate everyone's progress.

Every night, Lawrence and the others try their best to find pastures for night living. And in the last pasture on the edge of the grassland, they got the whereabouts of the old lame from the owner of the pasture. According to the owner of the ranch, the old lame came here a few days ago and stayed for one night, and then walked to the northwest with five camels full of things the next morning. Gobi. And before leaving, he bought a batch of beef jerky from him.

"Five camels?" After having dinner with the rancher, Lawrence returned to the tent where the team was stationed and shared his new information with everyone. After hearing this information, a church priest who believed in the Mother of the Earth who was pretending to be his housekeeper whispered. "In other words, the other party has added some supplies on the way."

All the members of the team showed a thoughtful look on their faces, because this sudden increase in supplies seemed too suspicious, and these newly added supplies probably contained some important information. According to their analysis, if there is no accident, those supplies should be part of food and water.

"That is to say, what this old cripple wants to hide is the number of his own party." A druid who believes in the father of nature said, "The water purification powder carried by the other party means that they have found a source of drinking water, so The main thing that can be added here is some dried meat or cheese as food. If calculated in terms of calories, a camel can carry food for 500 people a day. It seems that the two additional camels are likely to carry dangerous Food for 1,000 people for a day."

After Druid finished speaking, several others also reported their findings. However, compared to the information that Lawrence just asked, what they found was only a supplement to some existing information. For example, several members of the Earth Mother Church who accompanied the team found that as everyone continued to move northwestward, divine power pollution gradually began to appear in the soil.

After listening to everyone's information sharing, Lawrence gestured for everyone to keep quiet with both hands, then cleared his throat and said. "Now let's summarize the conclusions we have drawn from various information. Based on the series of information we obtained and analyzed, we can draw the following conclusions."

"First of all, a team related to divine power pollution entered the Gobi Desert before us. This team is likely to be one of the enemies we will face in the future. According to the current data, this team has about 30 to 100 people. Between 50 people. Among them, about ten people can skillfully use gunpowder weapons and explosives."

"Secondly, there are one or two people of considerable status in this team as the core. According to the expensive elf mead, it can be judged that this person has a high probability of being a nobleman or a person of noble origin. Under such circumstances, It is likely that the opponent will have a spellcaster or enough spellcasting tools in the team. We need to be vigilant."

"Finally, according to the situation we have asked in the past few days. Neither the three small towns on the grassland nor the people in Heraklion City have seen any expedition team that meets the target we want to track, but considering In the mountains more than 30 kilometers southwest of Heraklion City is Karakala, one of the most famous hot springs in the empire. The identity of the other party is likely to be disguised as a rich man or nobleman who came to vacation."

"If this is the case, it is basically impossible for us to lock the identity of the other party." The paladin of the Fortune Church said, "Because there are too many nobles and rich people who come here for vacation, they are used to Bring a lot of followers and all kinds of things for your own use. In this way, it is too easy to hide an expedition.”

"That's true." Lawrence nodded and said, "Actually, I also planned to pretend to be someone who went to a hot spring vacation at the beginning. But after thinking about it, it doesn't fit my personality, and it is very likely that I will be seen by others. It’s not right, so we simply turned into the current scientific expedition team.”

"And the other party is probably not a repeat offender." The paladin analyzed it seriously. "If you are a repeat offender, you should think of a way to pretend to be passing through densely populated areas, instead of sending only a few people to collect supplies after leaving the starting point like now, while the main team avoids operations in densely populated areas. In fact, this approach is more open to suspicion than our aboveboard progress."

After continuing to discuss Lawrence for a short period of time, they quickly went to rest. After all, tomorrow everyone will leave the grassland and set foot on the Gobi Desert, and the road after entering the Gobi Desert will be the most difficult part of their operation. They will move far away from human habitation and advance in places that are not suitable for human survival.

Early the next morning, they left the manor and continued heading northwest. Different from the vast grasslands on both sides of the road, as they kept moving forward, the scenery on both sides of the road began to change. First, the creek that appeared on both sides of the road slowly disappeared into the grass, and then the plants became thinner and thinner. By the time they set up camp at night, the surrounding environment had completely turned into a desolate Gobi Desert with only scattered grass.

On the second day, the journey was completely carried out in a khaki world, the earth was khaki, and the hills in the distance were khaki. Even because of the constant wind blowing, the whole sky was a faint yellow. Fortunately, the totem pole lent to them by the great shaman before was powerful enough to reduce their energy consumption due to the hot climate around them.

In the next few days, the whole team moved towards the goal step by step in this harsh situation. When they came to the predetermined area just after passing a low hill according to the original plan, they found that a very conspicuous crater appeared in the distance. It looks twenty or thirty kilometers in diameter.

"Back back, all back." At this moment, the priest of the Mother Earth Church who was standing in the line and kept vigilant shouted nervously. Hearing this shout, Lawrence and the others immediately stopped and retreated immediately. When everyone retreated back to the hills, the priest explained the reason.

"Just now I felt that there are existences on this land that do not belong to the earth." The priest of the Mother Goddess of the Earth said with a serious face. "Because a hostile team may appear around, I am worried that these things may be some props or even traps set by the other party for supervision."

The priests of different gods have some differences in specialties, and these differences are due to the different priesthoods held by the gods they enshrine. For example, the priests of the Mother Earth Church have an extremely keen perception of changes in the earth, and can feel small changes in a certain land without alarming anyone.

A few minutes later, Lawrence took several core members of the team and lay down on the sand dune. Then they used a telescope to check the small plain between the hilly area and the crater. Sure enough, after careful inspection, Lawrence and the others found that there were indeed some unusual things on the ground in the places pointed out by the priests of the Mother Earth Church.

"Let me go investigate." Nora volunteered at this time. After all, she is the most compact here, and she is not a creature of flesh and blood, so she can avoid most of the normally set magic traps. At the same time, because her extraordinary level and physical strength are the highest among these people, it is easier to come back alive if she encounters a magic trap.