episode_0157

Clunk clunk!

Clunk clunk!

The minecart speeds along the rails.

Thanks to the unexpectedly spacious minecart, the five of us – me, Baekryeon, Seollin, Leviya, and Dain – were able to ride comfortably without feeling cramped.

Yes, so far there were no problems.

The minecart was propelled forward by someone at the back rocking a lever left and right, making it easy for anyone to operate.

The problem was…

The minecart shook tremendously, more than expected.

It shook so violently, it felt like it would derail at any moment. Baekryeon and Seollin didn’t seem to mind, but Leviya was visibly trembling with each shake of the minecart.

“Hey, Dain. Don’t tell me this thing is going to derail?”

“Hahaha! Derail? You’re a funny one. I took everything into consideration when designing it, so don’t worry.”

Dain laughed, confidently dismissing my question.

I wasn’t sure if it was really okay, but what could I do? The expert said it was fine.

Pointless nitpicking would only make me sound like an amateur, so I decided to hold back and instead wrapped my arm around the waist of the person I was worried about.

“?!”

“Bear with it for a bit, Leviya, even if it’s uncomfortable. The minecart is shaking a lot, and if you get thrown out, you might get seriously hurt, unlike Baekryeon or Seollin.”

“Ye, ye-es! I understand…, ugh!… ”

“…It’s shaking, you don’t have to answer.”

Leviya bit her tongue because of the jolting minecart after foolishly answering.

Leviya’s eyes welled up with tears as she tightly closed her mouth, showing just how much it hurt.

‘Still… It’s slower than I thought.’

Of course, it was much faster than an average person’s pace.

But by my standards, it was too slow. I, who had reached agility 999, could easily run faster than this minecart, so I couldn’t help but think it was slow.

Honestly, when I first saw it, I thought it would feel like a ride, but I don’t feel any particular excitement.

‘Well… usually, when people ride roller coasters, they enjoy the thrill that comes from the danger. I can run faster than this and I know I won’t die even if I get thrown out, so it’s boring.’

Come to think of it, there was a story like this.

A picture was taken of someone riding a roller coaster with a nonchalant expression, and it turned out that person was a fighter pilot.

I feel exactly like that.

I stared blankly at the passing scenery with a bored expression before turning my gaze to Dain.

“Dain, if we keep going like this, about when will we arrive?”

“If we keep going for about 3 days, we’ll arrive.”

“3 days?… That’s too long, isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about? 3 days is quite short.”

Dain, who doesn’t know how fast I can run, looked at me as if he was dumbfounded. I sighed softly and turned my gaze back to the surroundings. A large tunnel continued ahead, and we were moving straight forward without a single fork.

Then, suddenly, an idea came to mind, and I turned my gaze back to Dain.

“Just asking to be sure, is this passage a one-way street?”

“If you want to be precise, the path heading this way is one-way. Think of it like a tree branch. There’s a thick branch that’s the main support, and thin branches extending from it. We’re on one of those thin branches right now. We’re heading from the thin branch towards the thick branch that serves as the main support.”

“In other words, if we keep going along this railroad, we can head to the satellite city you mentioned, right?”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

Dain’s words trailed off.

Then, noticing what I was thinking, Dain exclaimed in surprise.

“Ah, no way!”

“What do you think I’m going to do?”

“Isn’t it obvious! You’re thinking of getting off the minecart and going alone, aren’t you?”

“You know me well.”

You’re sharp, aren’t you? Or is it just obvious with this flow?

“Do you know how fast this minecart is? The minecart is faster than running, so don’t do anything reckless.”

“Hmm…”

No matter how I think about it, I feel like I can run faster…

“By the way, are we going to keep running for 3 days straight? If so, how do we eat?”

“Hmm? Well, usually we eat simple meals on the minecart.”

“Simple meals?”

At Seollin’s question, the dwarf rummaged through his bag and took out something wrapped in paper.

The object wrapped in rough paper looked like bread.

Clunk clunk!

Clunk clunk!

“…Are we eating while riding in a place that shakes like this? Then what about sleep? Where do we sleep?”

“We each sleep in a corner.”

“Are you able to sleep in a place that shakes like this? That’s quite impressive…”

“Hahaha! Once you get used to it, it’s nothing!”

Seollin looked at Dain as if she was fed up, and Baekryeon looked at him with great surprise.

And so did I.

I don’t know whether to call it amazing or foolish…

If you’re a dwarf with good crafting skills, shouldn’t you try to make the minecart itself shake less instead of getting used to the shaking minecart? But… what can you do? Originally, things are like this. The humanities come up with ridiculous ideas and the sciences somehow make them a reality.

I decided to keep my mouth shut.

“Can this minecart stop in the middle?”

“Of course. It has a brake function.”

“…If it has a brake function, then you can just stop when you eat or sleep.”

“Then we might collide with other minecarts. So, we usually don’t stop.”

…True. Since there’s only one railroad here. Usually, trains have multiple tracks and move on a schedule, but this minecart is different…

Anyway, as we continued to run through this place that feels like an unfinished tunnel, I suddenly heard a sound in my ear.

…Rumble…

“Hmm?…”

A very… very faint noise.

The noise was so faint that it was hard to tell exactly what it was.

“Hey, Dain. Just now, what…”

Screeeeeech!!!

“Kya, kyaaaah!!”

Just as I was about to ask about the identity of the sound, the grating sound of metal scraping assaulted my ears.

At the same time, my body was pulled forward. The minecart suddenly stopped abruptly, and I was barely able to control my body from being thrown out of the minecart due to inertia.

If I hadn’t wrapped my arm around Leviya’s waist and held her tight, I was certain that Leviya would have been thrown out of the minecart and seriously injured.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing, stopping the minecart so suddenly?”

“Ta, take out your weapons immediately!”

“?”

I looked at Dain, who had suddenly stopped the minecart, and saw that he had a serious expression on his face as he took out a large hammer from his bag.

His nervousness was so obvious that it was ridiculous to get angry, so I frowned.

At that moment, that faint noise brushed past my ear once again.

Louder and clearer.

I thought that Dain’s sudden reaction and the sound brushing past my ear were related, so I asked Dain.

“Can you explain the situation? What is this sound? Is that sound related to my reaction?”

“Sound?”

“I heard something like a sound of digging into the ground.”

“I, is that so?… I didn’t hear it myself, though…”

Baekryeon and Leviya tilted their heads, seemingly not hearing such a sound, but Seollin, whose overall physical abilities and senses had developed to an extreme degree as she ascended from an Imoogi to a Dragon, seemed to have heard the same sound as I did.

“Sandworm! The sandworm sensed us!!”

“Sandworm?”

…Come to think of it, there is that kind of monster.

You can see sandworms in the game within the Gold Road area. This troublesome monster appears suddenly every time and almost always attacks first.

Sandworms that spring up from the ground and attack were truly annoying monsters.

Therefore, encountering a sandworm in this underground area is, in a way, inevitable.

“So, that sound just now is the sound of a sandworm digging through the ground and rushing towards us?”

“You heard the sound?”

“Didn’t you stop the minecart because you heard the sound too?”

“We dwarves are sensitive to the movements of the earth. I saw the ground shaking.”

You saw the ground shaking?…

That’s even more surprising…

Of course, whether I was surprised or not, the sound of the sandworm that had brushed past my ear was now gradually growing louder, and even Baekryeon and Leviya could clearly hear it.

“Just asking for reference, what happens when a sandworm pops out?”

“What do you think happens! We all die!”

“Then there’s no reason to take out our weapons, is there?”

“Still, it’s better than doing nothing!”

As if he really thought we were going to die, Dain gripped his hammer tightly.

Rumble rumble rumble…

“Will this tunnel collapse if it receives an impact?”

“It won’t collapse no matter what kind of impact it receives… but if the sandworm starts to rampage, it will definitely collapse…”

“Hmm… so it means we just need to make sure it doesn’t rampage?”

I drew my holy sword.

A brilliant golden aura, reminiscent of the rising dawn, was swirling around the holy sword.

“ ”

Rumble rumble rumble!!!

“Great Sea Divide.”

Clang!

Point concentration.

Concentrating power to the limit at one point and piercing through the wall of the tunnel.

Rumble rumble rumble!!!…

A loud roar echoed for a moment.

After that, it was just quiet.

Even the sound of the sandworm digging through the ground stopped, and only silence filled the entire tunnel.

And from the penetrated hole, green liquid-like substances slowly gathered and then trickled down.

“…Huh?”

“Looks like it died instantly. Let’s start again.”