Ch.207Return Plan

After waking from sleep, I shared with everyone the story I had heard from Anastasia and began planning our return to Moon Lake.

In terms of simple distance, heading directly to the 7th Western City would be slightly closer, but since we need to return to the Great Sage’s brick house to meet Anastasia anyway, we should prioritize going through Moon Lake if possible.

Fortunately, we have the counterfeit barrier tower we took from the outlaws, and an artifact that can supply magical power to the barrier tower in place of ley lines, so we’re relatively free from survival time constraints.

However, we can’t just recklessly walk the entire 280km distance.

Walking back to Moon Lake would essentially mean abandoning the covered wagon and Ancestor, returning with nothing but our bodies.

Besides, even though our food situation isn’t dire, we don’t have enough to feed six people until we reach Moon Lake, so walking back should really be considered our last resort.

What we need, then, is a power source to pull the wagon in place of Ancestor.

There are three main solutions to consider:

The first is to hopefully find wild horses, donkeys, or similar animals to pull the wagon.

This might sound like a flimsy plan at first, but elves, being forest people, supposedly have a racial trait that allows them to easily tame herbivorous wild animals.

In other words, if we can just find suitable beasts, Phyllis can somehow manage the rest.

However, this plan fundamentally depends on “luckily finding beasts capable of pulling a wagon,” so while we should keep it as a possibility, it can’t be our primary solution.

The second method is to temporarily repair Ancestor so it can at least run.

Realistically assessing Ancestor’s current condition, it’s like a robot with a smashed main computer but intact engine and drivetrain.

If we could create what Mina described as a “magic circuit that can control the horse’s movement,” we could return to Moon Lake with the covered wagon pulled by an 8-horsepower powerhouse, even if it becomes a zombie horse that can only move forward.

The problems with this plan are the high likelihood of revealing Ancestor’s unnatural existence, and no guarantee that we can successfully create the magic circuit needed to control it.

Of course, with sufficient time and resources, the chances of success would increase, but unfortunately, we’re in no position to secure either adequately.

…And I’m not particularly keen on placing the burden of everyone’s lives on Mina’s shoulders alone.

That brings me to the third solution I’m proposing: the modern knowledge cheat—a steam engine.

As someone who loved Westerns, I naturally had great interest in the steam locomotives used during that era, and I had even self-studied the structure of steam engines while collecting related materials in college.

The structure and operating principles are still clear in my mind, so with Mina’s craftsmanship and the crafting tablet, creating a small steam vehicle capable of pulling our covered wagon shouldn’t be impossible.

An important point is that our party can supply the “water” and “fuel” essential for operating a steam engine almost infinitely.

“That sounds fun! Let’s do it right away!”

And naturally, Mina showed interest in the third method.

“Converting steam power from boiling water into physical force—what a fresh concept.”

“But it’s just water vapor, isn’t it? Can it really generate enough power to pull a wagon without relying on magic?”

“Of course. In my homeland, we had transportation systems where large steam engines pulled massive vehicles carrying dozens of people, connected in series. Though we won’t be able to make something that powerful this time, and we’ll need to consider many factors for traveling on bumpy roads.”

“We can just make a small-scale version and test it! More importantly, the blueprint! Draw me a blueprint! Actually, I’ll draw it myself, just explain the structure of the steam engine!”

“Ah, well, there are two main types of steam engines: piston reciprocating engines and turbine rotary engines…”

As I began lecturing about steam engine structures with papers spread on a makeshift table, Mina listened with an unusually serious expression, asking questions throughout and showing unprecedented focus. Jessica and Phyllis, seemingly inspired by Mina’s attitude, joined the steam engine lecture, while Seti wore an expression suggesting it was too difficult to understand but sat quietly to one side so as not to disturb the others.

“…That’s about it.”

“Hmm, the engine structure is simpler than I expected. The key points are ensuring the steam containment section is properly sealed and securing sufficient durability to withstand corrosion and wear.”

“Can you make it? We don’t have that many ingots left in the wagon, and it seems the dark elves couldn’t find any decent ore veins either.”

“Heh heh~ Just watch. I’ll show you exactly what a dwarf can do when given unlimited magical power and a crafting tablet.”

Mina’s face, full of confidence as she made her bold claim, was enough to completely dispel our worries.

That night, Mina proposed dividing the team into two groups to work separately.

Her suggestion was to leave the immobile Ancestor and covered wagon where they were, and set up a base camp closer to the foothills to mine ore and construct the steam engine.

“Is there really a need to split into two groups? If we could temporarily put Ancestor or the wagon into the Stone House, wouldn’t it be better to move the campsite closer to the foothills?”

“I’ve thought about that too, but there seems to be a limit to the inanimate objects that can be put into the Stone House. I haven’t figured out if it’s a volume restriction or if only certain types are allowed… but anyway, the wagon and Ancestor were too much.”

“Then we absolutely need to succeed in building the steam vehicle. I was thinking that in the worst case, we could at least put Ancestor in the Stone House and walk back to Moon Lake, but now that I know that’s impossible…”

“Right? And since we can’t just remove all the luggage and abandon Ancestor and the wagon, the basic plan is to set up camp here and do the mining and steam engine construction over there.”

Mina’s plan was as follows:

The mining camp’s permanent residents would be Mina and me, while the campsite’s permanent residents would be Seti and Phyllis.

Jessica would stay at the mining camp for the first two days, then move to the campsite on the afternoon of the second day.

This arrangement was necessary because both the mining camp and the campsite required large amounts of magical power supplied through artifacts.

The reason the campsite needed magical power was obviously the Stone House.

Although Iris was maintaining a docile attitude due to incomplete brainwashing, we couldn’t risk letting her out of the Stone House when that state could break at any moment.

With the Stone House’s inherent magical power plus the fully charged amount in the mana supply, we could maintain her confinement for about three days.

In other words, we could remove the artifact from the mana supply for about two days without major issues.

During those two days, the mining camp would maximize efficiency by fully utilizing the seismic cracker.

Normally, the seismic cracker consumes large amounts of magical power not only for asymmetric mass isolation but also for activating its destruction function, so in dwarf mines, they prepare dedicated magical power tanks for miners to carry…

But if Jessica held the artifact and activated the fragment of the Whole to continuously transfer magical power to the seismic cracker, we could repeat mining operations much faster than using magical power tanks.

“After mining ore with extreme efficiency for two days, we’ll return the artifact to the mana supply before the Stone House’s duration ends.”

“That’s definitely an efficient method. If we set up repulsion field magestones at both locations, we can ensure safety too.”

“However, with that method, Jessica will be exposed to danger when moving between the two points. I don’t doubt Jessica’s skills, but traveling alone is still…”

“Then I’ll go pick her up on the second day. With barrier magic, Phyllis will be safe alone, and I can easily escape if I encounter monsters by myself.”

“I’d feel reassured if Seti comes. So when do we start?”

“I’m planning to head to the foothills early tomorrow morning to look for ore veins. With the magiascope, it shouldn’t take even half a day to set up camp if resources aren’t too scarce.”

“In that case, I’ll stay at the campsite alone tomorrow. Seti, check the location of the mining camp and come back so you’ll know where to go when picking up Jessica.”

“Got it.”

Our course of action for tomorrow is decided.

Now it’s time to do our best to prepare for our return to Moon Lake.