After leaving the club, Shade returned to the House of the Blind and inquired from Ms. Michelle about the location of the local black market. Then he took the travel map of Fort Midhill and walked around the city while heading toward the black market.
direction forward.
It is conceivable that before actually rescuing Priest Augustus, Shade still needs to go on many adventures in this city. Therefore, he wants to become familiar with this place as soon as possible, and at least know which roads are convenient for him to escape.
Different from Torbesk and Coldwater Port, which Schade is more familiar with, as an inland city in the Old World near the mountains, Fort Midhill's urban style is more modern and industrial. There is no long history and politics like the royal capital.
Unlike cold water ports, which are constrained by maritime trade, urban development is biased toward docks.
After the advent of the steam industry, Fort Midhill was able to develop industrialization wholeheartedly. Relying on its important transportation position and the rich mineral resources at the northern foot of the Sikal Mountain, this mountain city has become larger and larger in recent years, and its economy
It's getting better and better, but correspondingly, even though it's close to a mountainous area, the air pollution level is only slightly better than Tobesk.
Most of the tall yellow-walled buildings facing the street are no more than a hundred years old, and the further you move toward the north away from the mountains, the more you can see that the municipal infrastructure is becoming more and more new. This is highlighted by the unified steam meter and steam meter at the street entrance.
The gas meter and the metal pipes climbing on the wall are mostly not rusty.
After all, Fort Midhill City 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 spits into the sky, making the noisy city look gray, but this is also the norm in this era. As one of the most important transportation hubs in the central and eastern parts of the Old World, this city can hear various noises in addition to being heard on the streets.
Languages are being exchanged, and there are many ring warlocks resident in the local area as well as ring warlocks passing by, and a huge underground black market has been born.
Similar to the situation in Coldwater Port, among the large and small black markets, there are always some that have a good reputation because of their good reputation. The one Ms. Michelle introduced to Shade is one of them.
The black market in Shade's impression is usually a tavern or hotel to cover up the strange phenomenon of strangers coming in and out. The one that Ms. Michelle introduced to Shade is inside the Fort Midhill Railway Station.
.
Shade followed the map and turned at the corner of Hankwood Street. At this time, he could already hear the train whistle coming from inside the station. The Fort Midhill Steam Station had an extremely large capacity, and the trains coming and going were heading towards it.
It passes through the Rommel Mountains in the south and enters the United Kingdom of Kasenlik on the southern plains of the Old Continent, and travels north through the interior of the Kingdom of Delarian in the north of the Old Continent.
When the stranger appeared at the station door with his head lowered and holding a newspaper, no one paid attention to him, who was ordinary.
“It’s actually bigger than Tobesk train station”
Shade sighed softly, and then entered the station together with the passengers carrying suitcases or backpacks.
Fort Midhill Railway Station is located in the southeast of the city and is responsible for both freight and passenger transportation. The interior of the station is extremely noisy and crowded, the buzzing sound is particularly annoying, and there is a strong and choking smell of coal burning in the air.
Amidst the noise in his ears, Shade first found the ticket office and bought a second-class ticket for steam train No. B823 based on the information provided by Ms. Michelle.
After waiting for twenty minutes, Shade got on the bus at the station entrance while holding a newspaper to read the news about the Big City Players Championship.
His ticket was for carriage No. 2, but when the train started moving, Shade walked towards the front of the train. The first three carriages of the entire train were freight, and the following carriages were passenger. There was a line between freight and passenger.
Metal gates and a wooden door prevent passengers from wandering around.
Shade held the ticket, the newspaper and the map, crossed 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 here?"
asked the voice from behind the door.
This train is a short-distance train that takes one hour to and from Fort Midhill and a rural town. Only trusted ring wizards and organizations in the city can obtain information, so the introducer must be named:
"The nun at the Home for the Blind, she also asked me to tell you, don't forget to deliver the goods you ordered last time to her."
"Won't forget it."
The voice behind the door answered, then held out a mask.
After Xia De put it on, another key was handed out from behind the door. Xia De used the key to open the fence door, pushed the fence door to one side with some harsh metal friction sounds, and returned the key to the gatekeeper.
Entered the black market at the station.
The first three carriages are all the black market area of the station. The No. 1 carriage closest to the front of the train is the location for large-scale transactions and requires permission to enter. The No. 2 and No. 3 carriages are arranged like a tavern, with a bartender in each carriage.
The security guard is responsible for maintaining order and updating the transaction contents on the small blackboards hung on both sides of the carriage.
Of course, if you don’t want to make the transaction details public, you can spend a lot of money and let the bartender keep the transaction information alone, waiting for a suitable transaction partner to appear.
Shade walked around the carriage and saw no one selling coin-like relics, and he was not interested in other information. So, he first found the bartender in carriage No. 3 and explained his long-term reward for purchasing coin-like relics, and then he
Ask him if there have been any other unusual events in the local area in the little half a month since autumn.
The bald bartender charged Shade 3 shillings for the information, and then said:
"Does the anomaly of the Righteous God Church count? They seem to be planning some big action in the autumn or winter, and they have been preparing for it since last year. If you are a foreign magician, don't provoke the church locally recently, otherwise you will definitely be in trouble
.”
"I also heard that the church in the local area is abnormal. What exactly do they want to do?"
But the bartender just shook his head:
"In addition to the anomalies in the church, since the end of this summer, there has been a sudden increase in strange local disappearances. We don't know the cause, and we can't investigate it at all. It's like an urban legend in a tabloid."
"Has this kind of thing happened locally before?"
The bartender glanced at Shade:
"Yes, but the frequency is very low and it doesn't attract much attention. This kind of thing mostly happens to ordinary people. I have never heard of it happening to ring magicians."
It seems that Priest Augustus is in bad luck this time.
"Also, do you have any commissions for selling special coins? There's nothing on the blackboard over there."
"Indeed there is."
The bartender nodded, and a smile appeared on Shade's face behind the mask. Sure enough, in a city like this that he had never been to, the possibility of finding special coins was higher:
"Where are the traders?"
He suddenly remembered that when he bought coins at the Seven Broomsticks Tavern in Coldwater Port, he met Darkness for the first time. The two even played a game of Rhodes. Therefore, Shade suddenly became nervous at this time:
"Wait a minute, isn't the trader here?"
"Yes, I am the trader."
The bartender pointed lazily at himself:
"In addition to being a broker, we will also purchase some less dangerous relics for sale. I only have this here. If you want to buy it, you can trade it now."
As the train shook, he pulled out a stack of papers from under the counter and rummaged for a long time before pulling out one and handing it to Shade.
After Xia De thanked him, 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 one-shilling coin. One side has a pattern of purple flowers, which is regarded as the reverse side; the other side has alphabetical characters written in characters that appear to be from the Quaternary Age: "
"One" is regarded as positive.
Characteristics: No matter what the circumstances, if this coin is thrown away, it will always remain vertical when it lands. If there is no concept of "below" in the space, the thrown coin will flip infinitely; the holding of the coin
Or, when tossing other coins, it will greatly increase the probability that the coin will remain vertical when it lands.]
"What characteristic is this?"
Behind the mask, Shade thought suspiciously, and then noticed two strangers sitting down across the table, chatting quietly together.
[Containment method: stand the coin upright on a plane with an angle of no more than 12 degrees to the ground. A slight vibration will not cause the coin to tip over.
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, if the coin is facing up, the coin needs to be traded within 24 hours.
If the transaction is passed on, the trader who obtains the coin will definitely fall from a height and die within 8 hours of touching the coin; if the transaction is not completed, the holder of the coin will be forced to vomit out one-third of his internal organs 24 hours later.
.
If the coin lands tail-side up, you need to swallow at least 10 pounds of dried amaranth flower petals (approximately 4.53kg) within 4 hours, and then the coin must be passed to other people through transactions. If any of the conditions are not fulfilled, then
The coin holder will disappear into a field of purple flowers within 24 hours.】
"This is probably the relic with the weakest characteristics that I have encountered."
Shade looked through the documents in his hand, then looked at the final price:
"Fifteen pounds three shillings?"
Although it was a bit higher than he expected, it was just below the highest price he could bear mentally:
"should be no problem."
He stood up and returned to the counter, telling the bartender that he wanted to buy the coin. The bartender had to go to the front carriage to pick up the coin. So he asked Shade to find a place to rest first.
It happened that someone was talking about "Big City Player 1853" in Tobesk City, so Shade joined in. After that, he even got the coin and before the train returned to Fort Midhill City, he talked with
The stranger passed the time by playing a couple of Rhodes cards.
Although everyone didn't know each other, it was still very interesting to play cards, and Shade could also learn more about the city from the conversation.
By the time Shade walked through the dense forest of the Sikal Mountain and returned to No. 6 Saint Teresa Square through the ruined tower, it was already dark outside. Dorothy and Luvia were still there, the former writing in the study, and the latter
Adjust your own stargazing equipment on the third floor.