Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert - Chapter 193

Sand Mage Of The Burnt Desert Chapter 193

Episode 193

The villagers called this place Steel Fortress Steel Fortress.

It was their own fortress carved out of a red mountain made of sandstone.

They have lived their entire lives in a closed environment called a steel fortress. Therefore, the wariness towards outsiders was extremely strong.

The elders hesitated for a long time, as if they could hardly come to a conclusion.

The occasional shouting sounded like they were fighting among themselves.

After much debate, the person who appeared to be the representative stepped forward, seemingly reaching a conclusion.

“good night. It’s late and I’m credited with saving the children, so I’ll let all the outsiders in. You must promise that you will never cause any trouble while inside the altar and that you will only stay within the designated area. If you promise, I will let you in. How can you accept our terms?”

“great.”

Zeon answered right away without any hesitation.

Night fell while the elders were meeting.

Now it was a hassle to find a place to stay somewhere else. Even though it was frustrating, it was a hundred times better to take a break in the village.

More than anything, the village itself attracted Zeon’s curiosity.

This type of colony or village did not exist at all. However, I have never seen a village run in such a closed manner.

I was curious about what made them so closed-minded.

The elder gave an order to the awakened person.

“Put down the basket.”

“yes!”

A large basket connected to a pulley came down from the village entrance.

It is structured so that you cannot even go up to the entrance unless a basket is lowered from above.

Jacob and Lucy said as they climbed into the basket first.

“Get in.”

The basket was large enough for all of Zeon’s party to ride on it.

Geek!

When everyone finished, the basket went up.

The entrance to the village was seventy meters above the ground.

The strong wind blowing made me realize that I was in a high place.

widely!

Finally, the pulley stopped and we reached the entrance to the village.

It wasn’t visible from below, but inside the entrance, about a dozen awakened people were holding weapons and preparing to attack at any time.

Like Jacob, the awakened people were also wearing armor made of demonic beast skin. The villagers behind them were also wearing similar clothes.

Just by looking at their clothes, I could tell the standard of living in this fortress.

‘Is it at the medieval or early modern level?’

Neo Seoul, which has achieved a very advanced civilization, is at the level of a fraud. In fact, this is normal.

Most of the colonies and villages that Zeon visited remained at this level of civilization.

At that time, the elder I had talked to earlier approached me.

He was an impressive old man with hair that hung down to his shoulders and a beard that extended to his chest.

His eyes were quite fierce and his lips were thin, making him look very stubborn.

“My name is Gewen. The first elder of the Iron Fortress. In our fortress, everything is decided through consultation with the elders. Since you came to our village, you must also follow our decisions. If you don’t listen to us, you will be expelled immediately. Do you understand?”

“yes!”

“Then I’ll give you a room, trusting that you won’t cause trouble.”

Gewen nodded to the awakened person standing on one side. Then he approached Zeon and his group.

“Follow me.”

“No, you go away. “I will guide you.”

At that time, another elder stepped in front of the awakened person.

“Elder Lee?”

“But aren’t they the ones who saved Jacob and Lucy? “You have to show that level of courtesy.”

“All right.”

The awakened person agreed and obediently stepped back.

Elder Lee introduced himself to Zeon.

“My name is Holtran. This elder of this fortress. “I’ll take you to your room.”

“thank you.”

Holtran immediately led Zeon and his group inside.

Elder Gerwen looked at Holtran with a fearful look.

‘It seems there is conflict between the two elders.’

Zeon noticed that an uncomfortable atmosphere was flowing between them, but he pretended not to notice.

A colony without conflict does not exist.

If you look at Neo Seoul right now, it looks like Mayor Jin Geum-ho and four district leaders are keeping it in check.

Thanks to this, Neo Seoul’s power was in balance.

Xeon thought the same would be true for the steel fortress.

I felt people’s hot gaze.

Eyes filled with both caution and curiosity were persistently scanning Zeon and the others.

“You came from outside?”

“It’s been twenty years, right? “An outsider came in.”

“Look at those clothes. “It’s not the skin of a demonic beast.”

“Where did it come from?”

“Mr. Gewen managed to accept an outsider.”

“I guess there was nothing we could do because he suffered a disaster when he stubbornly sent people out to collect sunflowers.”

Although they said they were talking quietly, it was heard very clearly in the ears of the awakened Zeon and his group.

‘It seems that Elder Holtran wanted to accept us, but Elder Gerwen was against it.’

Zeon immediately figured out how the steel fortress worked.

Understanding these human relationships was the most basic of all.

The steel fortress was a huge underground cavity.

People dug into the sandstone mountain themselves and created a huge cavity. It was a great feat that achieved all of this with only human will and power, without any proper equipment.

There were hundreds of houses in the underground cavity.

‘If you think four people live in one house, does that mean at least 2,000 people are living here?’

Compared to Neo Seoul, this number is not even a speck of dust.

That’s because so many people live crowded together in one building in a slum.

However, the fact that 2,000 people still survived in the desert was truly amazing.

‘But how do we solve the drinking water problem? A water source would be essential for the survival of 2,000 people.’

Holtran’s voice, heard at that time, broke Zeon out of his thoughts.

“It’s this house.”

The house Holtran brought us to was on the outskirts of town.

It was located in a place where it was difficult to contact the villagers, and there were surveillance posts everywhere, making it difficult to avoid attention.

Zeon looked around and answered.

“It’s nice that it’s small.”

“It’s a house that someone else originally lived in.”

“What about the landlord?”

“It’s called Matthew. “I went out to collect sunflowers with Jacob Lucy.”

“He must be dead.”

“He was a good friend. “I just hope to be born in a good place in the next world.”

“Isn’t this a nice enough place?”

“The steel fortress… is an isolated island. You must be tired, so get some rest. “The food is brought to us through the children.”

With those words, Holtran left the house.

Zeon looked at Holtran’s back as he walked away for a moment and then entered the house.

The inside of the house was clean.

There were two rooms, so four people had no problem sleeping.

Elroy sat down on the chair and muttered.

“I didn’t know you could dig into a mountain and build a village. “Some demonic beasts can’t even get close.”

“The entrance is about 70 meters high, so I don’t think there’s any way to get in unless you’re a flying bell driver.”

Levin agreed with Ellroy.

Brielle said, looking around with a curious expression.

“But how do these people get drinking water? No matter how I look at it, there doesn’t seem to be any room for water to come out.”

“I know. that’s interesting.”

“Are they pulling it up from underground?”

“By what means?”

“That’s it…”

Elroy chuckled as he watched Brielle and Levin having a pointless and serious discussion.

“Maybe it’s because they’re still kids, but they’re so lively. What do you think?”

“What do you mean?”

“This town. Doesn’t it seem like there’s some sort of division of forces? “I think the elders have different opinions.”

Eloy was also unusually perceptive.

You can guess the situation in the village just by looking at the atmosphere.

Zeon nodded and said.

“It seems that Elder Gewen I and Elder Holtran have different opinions.”

“Wherever you go, that damn faction fight is a problem.”

“It is a characteristic of the human race to divide ranks even when two people gather together.”

“Pathetic! “What are we doing in a situation where we don’t know if we will survive even if we work together?”

“That’s right.”

Zeon agreed with Eloi’s opinion.

It was human nature to join forces when faced with a crisis, but to fight for power when it was just a matter of survival.

Zeon said with a smile.

“Anyway, we are leaving tomorrow. “Don’t think too much and just get some rest.”

“okay.”

Elroy nodded.

You should rest when you can.

No matter how excellent an awakener she is, she cannot demonstrate her skills properly when fatigue accumulates.

Elroy went into the room to get some sleep.

Brielle and Levin, who had been discussing for a while, also went into the room to rest, leaving Xeon alone in the living room.

Zeon’s eyes lit up as he looked around the living room for a moment.

This is because I found grass on top of the living room cabinet. There were dried flower petals on the grass.

Jacob and Lucy said they left the fort to collect sunflowers.

“So is that a sunflower?”

Zeon picked up a plant that seemed to be a sunflower.

Zeon, who was looking at the sunflower for a moment, frowned slightly.

“This is Masucho.”

In case he was wrong, Zeon chewed a sunflower petal.

A tingling taste on the tongue and a mind that becomes hazy in an instant.

Zeon quickly spit out the petals.

Still, my tongue became numb and my consciousness faded.

Zeon used mana to drive out the flower petal components that had infiltrated his body. Only then did my mind become clear again.

“I’m sure it’s Masucho.”

Zeon’s expression turned serious.

As the name suggests, witch weed was a plant that grew from the corpse of a witch.

The magic plant that grows by absorbing the poison and blood of the magic beast instantly amplifies the human’s abilities. However, like a drug, it causes hallucinations and paralyzes reason. Above all, it is so addictive that once you get hooked on it, you will never be able to get out of it.

The harmful effects are so great that anyone who knows even a little bit about Masucho should never take it.

However, here, Masucho seems to be used under the name sunflower.

“You can’t believe they’re using young children to collect witch weed. “This isn’t the right place either.”

There was no way that these people who sent even young children on dangerous missions were proper people.

“Tsk!”

It was time for Zeon to click his tongue.

smart!

Someone knocked on the door from outside.

When Zeon opened the door, he saw a familiar face.

It was Jacob.

In Jacob’s hand, there was a tray full of food.

“Elder Holtran told me to bring you some food.”

“Do you want to come inside?”

“yes!”

Jacob came into the house carrying a tray.

Jacob’s expression was gloomy as he looked around the house.

This is because it reminded me of Matthew, the original owner of this house.

Matthew was the first victim of sandworms.

Without even knowing how to react, I was eaten by a sandworm in the blink of an eye.

The only consolation was that he would have died without even feeling any pain. Of course, that doesn’t make the guilt go away.

Originally, guilt was a punishment that those who survived had to bear.

Jacob struggled to suppress his emotions and put the food down on the table.

“It’s tonight. “I wish I could give you something better, but this is the only food we have these days.”

The food he brought was a dish made from the meat of an unknown magical beast.

The smell was so disgusting that it made me frown.

“It seems things are not going well these days.”

“….”

“You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to. “It’s just my guess.”

“It’s not very… good. Still, there is no problem holding on.”

“okay?”

“yes! And thank you for saving me. “I wanted to say that.”

“I’m glad you’re safe.”

“thank you. And…be careful.”

Zeon looked at Jacob’s face for a moment and nodded.

“okay!”