The former captives were eager to leave and reach safety.
After deciding it was time to go, they split into smaller groups. The younger children remained to watch over the severely injured, while the others started gathering supplies or preparing the steam crawler for the journey.
"It seems we missed the real entrance of the warehouse," Vera said.
"Yup, at least we have better clothes and weapons."
Vera grimaced as she spoke, "The guns are good, but they are so unreliable."
"Yup, but Vera, is it bad that I feel pity for the bandits?"
Upon being reminded of the fate of the bandit corpses, Vera winced as she spoke, "No, no, I have never seen such hatred against someone."
"It seems old man Bojak is free at last."
As Bojak approached them, he lowered his head and spoke apologetically, "I apologise, it took some time for me to assign everyone their labour."
"It's alright, getting out of this place is priority."
Bojak gave them a curt nod before bringing out a worn-out map, which he spread out in front of the duo.
"Although Scholar Rastko would have loved to help you out, his current condition made it quite difficult for him."
"No need for Scholar Rastko to get worked up," Vera immediately spoke, "He is greatly injured, and thus we should not disturb him, and let him rest."
With a sigh, Boja pointed at a particular spot as he spoke, "This map isn't the most accurate, but we are in an abandoned Fort belonging to the Hasea Kingdom. This fort was supposed to guard against any incursion by the now-defunct Thulum Empire."
"The Thulum Empire imploded half a decade ago, and broke into smaller kingdoms, but they are of no concern to us as we are residents of the Hasea Kingdom, and we will seek shelter at the Ashfall Frontier Town of the Hasea Kingdom."
"This area is actually the middle periphery of the Ashfall Forest. As you can see, this forest exists between two countries and sometimes acts as a natural barrier between the two."
"Interesting, since this forest acts as a natural barrier, does that mean creatures in this forest are dangerous?"
"Oh, they are very dangerous," Bojak replied to Adrien, "The creatures in the central area are very dangerous, not to mention the trees are dense, so moving through the forest is tiresome and dangerous."
"By the way, where did you say you came from?"
With a sad look on his face, Adrien spoke, "That is the thing, Grandpa Bojak, all we know is that we woke up in a forest wearing rags, we know our names, and it seems we are familiar with each other; there is so much we do not know."
"Don't push yourself, take your time," Bojak spoke sympathetically.
"It is amazing to see how quickly you all made the Steam Crawler, warm and cosy."
Bojak acknowledged Vera's words with a warm smile.
A young child appeared while carrying a bowl of hot stew, and a single look at the thick, greyish sludge, with its wondrous aroma, killed any appetite for the duo.
The child with a toothless smile presented the bowl towards Vera, who replied with a gentle smile of her own before tussling the child's hair.
"Thank you, but did you eat it yet?"
The child shook his head negatively as Vera spoke in a motherly tone, "This won't do, sweet child. Why don't you eat first?"
As the child's face looked crestfallen, Bojak quickly spoke, "I apologise, if the stew is not to your liking, but these bastards only have fooder beets, root vegetables, meat, a bit of barley, flour and bread, this was all we could make out of it."
Adrien closed the notebook, which he had acquired from the scholar, and was taking notes as he spoke hastily.
"Grandpa Bojak, please don't apologise, children are starving, how can we eat while they starve? Sorry, but neither of us can swallow our food while they starve."
Vera pinched the child's cheek as she spoke, "I can hear your stomach, little brother, you are looking hungry, why don't you eat it, and if you eat well and work hard, you can become as strong as us."
Vera's words seem to placate the child, who smiled and happily left with the steaming stew.
The duo's tactical retreat into charity had only delayed the inevitable; the reprieve was shattered as a fresh, steaming bowl of the grey slurry was slid toward them. A dozen expectant gazes locked onto them, the villagers' eyes shining with a silent, heavy anticipation that made the act of eating feel like a high-stakes performance
━━━━━━━━━━━〔 ITEM IDENTIFIED 〕━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Bandići Čorba (Bandit's Slop)
Type: High-Calorie Rations / Warm Meal
Rarity: Common
Attributes:
Fullness: +45
Warmth: +10 (Grants minor Cold Resistance for 2 hours)
--
Handling:
Weight: 0.8 kg (Per Bowl)
--
Effects:
Satiated: Halts [Hunger] decay for 4 hours.
Heavy Gut: -5% Movement Speed for 30 minutes.
Adrien prayed to the gods, touched the food to his lips and froze.
'I want to hurl.'
Though the look on everyone's face made him grimace inwardly, he quickly began to eat the food.
"See, I told you, you two look very hungry, and eating with such gusto, here have another bowl."
As those words came to his ears, Adrien had the sudden urge to violently commit murder.
'I am eating because my avatar is hungry and there is nothing else to eat, and I am eating as fast so that I can get over this torture, and for another bowl, why don't you choke on it?'
Adrien plastered a pleasant smile as he spoke, "This stew is so hearty, and I apologise, one bowl is enough to fill me up to the brim, and I doubt I can move properly now."
With a frantic nod, Vera added, "True, I can barely move after eating such a heavy and hearty meal; if I eat another morsel, I might explode. Also, you all should eat and enjoy the food."
"Our benefactors are right, quickly finish lunch, otherwise if the rest arrives, we might not be able to escape again."
Adrien froze as his head turned slowly towards Bojak as he spoke, "Grandpa Bojak, what do you mean by 'rest'? Are there more of them?"
"Why, yes, there are more. Snow Wolves are a large group of bandits, and this one is merely one of their hideouts."
"Also, I hope you two will be able to protect us during the journey in case of some attacks either by the bandits or some animals."
As soon as Bojak uttered those words, a quest prompt flashed before their eyes.
━━━━━━━━━━━〔 QUEST ACQUIRED 〕━━━━━━━━━━━
Title: Escort
〔 Description 〕
Escort these poor, unfortunate souls to the Ashfall Frontier Town.
〔 Objective 〕
• Escort these people (187)
• Escort as many as possible.
〔 Warning 〕
• This quest will fail automatically if the number of people is less than 25%
• You cannot leave anyone behind
〔 Duration 〕
• 48 Hours
〔 Rewards 〕
• Easy Passage into Ashfall Frontier town
• XP depending on the number of survivors
• Money
• Changes in favourability with the Baroness, ??, ??, ??
ACCEPT: [ YES NO]
It was clear to Vera that the quest was a shareable one, and they did not hesitate to accept it.
"Grandpa Bojak, there is no need to worry, we are companions moving towards the same goal, so of course we will protect them, isn't that right, Adrien?"
Adrien nodded as he spoke, "Of course, though Grandpa..."
Adrien's eyes trailed off towards the large steam behemoth, as Bojak let out a bark of laughter as he spoke, "You youngsters are all the same, every time you see a machine, your eyes and heart are drawn to it."
"Don't worry, by the time we reach the town, you two will learn how to operate it."
After their appetite-annihilating lunch, the duo made their way to the Steam Crawler, which was almost ready to depart.
━━━━━━━━━━━〔 Item IDENTIFIED 〕━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: The Iron Horse
Type: Heavy Steam-Powered Land Crawler
Rarity: Uncommon (Custom Modified)
Level Requirement: 2 (Requires [Steam Engineering] or [Heavy Vehicle Piloting] Skill)
--
Attributes:
* Armour Rating: Medium (Reinforced Steel Plating)
* Cruising Speed: 10 km/h
* Max Speed: 28 km/h (At Risk of [Boiler Overheat])
* Tractive Effort: Extreme (Capable of towing 8 heavy carriages through deep snow)
* Visibility: Mid-Low (Narrow Front Cockpit)
--
Handling:
* Weight: 42.5 Metric Tons
* Steering: Heavy
* Braking Distance: Very Long (Rotary Valve Steam Brakes)
--
Power & Fuel:
* Engine Type: Twin-Cylinder Reciprocating Steam Engine
* Fuel Type: Coal / High-Grade Diesel / Bio-matter
* Boiler Capacity: 2,500 Litres
* Consumption: High (Requires constant stoking in cold weather)
--
Features:
* Guard Carriage: Rear-mounted battle platform with 4 protected firing ports.
* Speaking Tubes: Provide coordination between the driver and the stoker.
Adrien watched with awe at the Steam Crawler in front of him, an engine attached with seven wagons, one for coal, and the last one was the very small guard wagon, while the freed people modified the rest to become proper and cosy passenger wagons.
Although the rectangular engine looked somewhat dilapidated, the passenger wagons looked like a patchwork of many things. After all, even a couple of hours ago, its main purpose was to carry slaves, other illicit and illegal goods.
Adrien did the most sensible thing as he quickly whipped out his notebook and began to sketch the 'Iron Horse'.