Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

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The gray-white city wall about 3 meters high stands in front of it, extending to both sides until the end of Lumian's line of sight.

Many box-style carriages, four-seater carriages, open-top carriages, tandem carriages, and carts lined up, waiting to pass through the city gate.

Tax collectors in blue uniforms and policemen in white shirts and black vests were checking cars one by one, asking passers-by to show their identification documents or open their suitcases from time to time.

Lumian, who was carrying a brown suitcase, looked there, looking around from time to time, trying to find a way to escape the checkpoint.

Not long after, a man who noticed his behavior approached.

"What's the matter, friend, I feel you are troubled?"

The man was slightly shorter than Lumian, but twice his width, with puffy cheeks that squeezed the blue eyes into small size.

As soon as he approached, the smell mixed with sweat and poor-quality perfume penetrated Lumian's nose, which made him frown.

Lumian pointed to the door and asked blankly, "What are you doing?

"Looking for wanted criminals? But why only those who came into Trier, not those who left the city?"

The man with messy yellow hair and a bloated blue jacket looked at Lumian: "My friend, are you from a small city, a country, or a small town?"

Seeing Lumian nodded, he sighed and said, "This is a tax! Entry tax!

"Tariffs for entering the Trier market?" Lumian asked rhetorically.

The man nodded: "Yes, this circle of city walls surrounds the whole of Trier, with 54 gates opened, and there are tax collectors and policemen at each gate, and they will also arrest wanted criminals by the way."

"Will all goods be taxed?" Lumian asked curiously.

The man touched the blue jacket made of canvas and said: "Almost, only grains and flour are not subject to city tax." There used to be, but wasn't there a war a few years ago, and the price of bread in Trier went crazy Yes, many citizens took to the streets to protest and riot, and finally the government canceled the market entry tax for all food.

"Hey, why don't drunkards dare to do this? Now the tax rate on spirits, wine, and champagne is the highest. Many people will go to the suburbs to find taverns to drink tax-free wine on weekends. They call this 'Chengguan wine'.

"I see..." Lumian nodded thoughtfully.

The man glanced around and said in a low voice, "If there is something on you that you don't want to pay taxes on, I can take you into the city and just pay me a little reward."

"You want to bribe them?" Lumian pointed at the tax collector and police at the city gate with his chin.

The man suddenly sneered, "Their appetites are even more exaggerated than elephants.

"I'm taking you into the city on a path without checkpoints."

"Isn't the whole of Trier surrounded by city walls?" Lumian didn't hide his doubts.

The man smiled: "You will know later."

He immediately said in a joking tone: "Honorable sir, do you need my service?"

Lumian thought for a moment and said, "How much?"

"3 Felkin." The man smiled enthusiastically, "If you want, we can start now, and you will pay when you get to the city."

"Okay." Lumian pressed the dark wide-brimmed hat on his head, carried the brown suitcase, and followed the fat man to a place away from the city gate.

A quarter of an hour later, the two came to a hill where the vegetation and soil were overturned, exposing gray-white stones.

There is scaffolding, rotting sleepers, and many obvious potholes, and it seems to be a long-abandoned mine. The fat man led Lumian through piles of messy stones to the entrance of a certain mine.

"Is this the path?" Lumian asked cautiously.

The fat man in the blue jacket laughed, "You really don't know much about Trier.

"Haven't you heard a sentence? The Trier underground is bigger than the Trier above the ground!"

"No." Lumian shook his head.

The man simply explained, "The former Trier was much smaller than it is now, and it was surrounded by quarries used to build the city. Later, there were more and more people here, and the city had to develop outside to use these quarries." The ground is covered in, and the underground is full of hollows and mine tunnels dug out.” In addition to the Trier that sank to the ground in the Quaternary Epoch, the sewers built by the government, the subways dug, and the gas pipelines buried, this is no more than the above ground. huge? "

Lumian showed a look of sudden realization: "Are you taking me to the underground Trier to enter the city?"

"Yes." The man turned around, bent down to enter the mine, and asked casually, "What's your name?"

"Char." Lumian stroked his golden hair at the temples, "What about you?"

"You can call me Lamayeur."

A man almost as wide as Lumian fumbled a few times among the stone piles at the corner of the mine, and pulled out an iron-black lantern.

This lamp is obviously made of metal, with rust on the surface. It is cylindrical as a whole. The upper part is slightly narrower than the lower part by a finger's width, and the bottom part is a black rubber base.

There is a trumpet-shaped metal thing inlaid at the junction of the narrow column and the wide column. It has been wiped clean and polished very smooth, but there are still rusts in several places.

Ramaye took out the matchbox and fiddled with it for a while, and immediately an orange-yellow with a little blue flame appeared at the metal horn, illuminating the depths of the mine.

"What is this?" Lumian asked with an expression of not understanding.

Ramaye walked towards the ground with the iron-black lamp in his hand, and said in a babbling voice: "Carbon carbide lamp." The people from the Cave Association made it, and many workers in the mines are using it. I don't know. Why does it shine? Anyway, just put some stones and water in, put them on the bottom and the top respectively, and when you need to use it, press here, and then draw the flame to ignite the horn. "Carbide and water react to form acetylene, which burns and emits light? Lumian recalled the chemistry knowledge he was reviewing a few months ago.

He was silent for a while, until he followed La Maye into the ground and walked forward along a remnant mine road before continuing to ask: "Cave Association?"

"The Trier Cave Association was created by a group of people who like to explore caves and study caves. Now it seems that even the mine is involved." La Maye looked sideways at Lumian who was walking beside him, and smiled. Asked, "Why don't you take the steam train directly into Trier? The checkpoints at the train station have never been very strict, just spot checks." Lumian recalled: "I mainly want to experience the last bit of romance left over from the classical age. "

"Stage coach?" Ramaye smiled. "It's much more expensive than a steam train. I hear your accent sounds like it's from Lim and Leston. From the southernmost point to Trier, it costs about 120 Filkins." Right? It will take four and a half days! If you change to a steam train, the third-class seat is less than 50 Filkin, and you can get there in no more than 20 hours. Haha, the last bit of romance in the classical era is just a lie Kind of... uh, you spent a lot of money, right?"

Lumian replied honestly: "It's quite a lot. I only have 267 Filkin left."

Ramaye glanced sideways at him again, retracted his gaze and said, "What a waste..."

He held the calcium carbide lamp made of metal, illuminated by the orange-yellow and blue flame of the horn, passed through a place shaped like an arch, and turned into another road.

Lumian looked up and saw the stones sleeping in the darkness on the high place, occasionally dotted with moss, and seeped water dripping.

The road under his feet was full of potholes, and stone pillars stood on both sides, supporting the roof of the cave.

There are stones and other things piled between the pillars, like parallel wall panels, sandwiching a "street" that can accommodate six or seven people walking side by side.

Due to the light of the calcium carbide lamp, a nameplate made of steel appeared on a stone pillar, and it was written in Intis script: "You Street".

"There are street names here?" Lumian asked suspiciously.

Lamaye, who was carrying the calcium carbide lamp, laughed and said, "Didn't I tell you? This is called Underground Trier."

Well, it was actually made during the municipal renovation decades ago. The people above wearing fake collars thought the underground was too messy, like a maze. To hide here, you have to take care of it. Moreover, many houses collapsed and subsided due to the hollow quarry underground, and needed reinforcement. Therefore, the city hall spent almost ten years repairing the pillars, building the foundation, and opening up the original independent building. Quarries, underground monuments, catacombs, and sewers.

"In order not to let the workers get lost, they specially made correspondence with the ground during the renovation. The roads, squares and alleys were all restored here, and then the nameplates corresponding to the streets were hung and the names were marked, and they will be repaired later. , Just report the place name directly.”

"That is to say." Lumian pointed to the top of his head with his right hand without a suitcase, "Is the real right street above?"

"Yes." Ramaye continued on, "This is the underground Trier, well, there is an anti-smuggling wall in front, and those quarry police often come to patrol, but don't worry, I will take you through a small tunnel to bypass it Hehe, those people who wear fake collars and tell lies all the time think they can manage Trier underground as well as the ground, but they only know about half of the entrances and exits and the remodeled roads...

While speaking, he led Lumian to the end of a dead end, then found a narrow gap, and slipped in, followed by Lumian.

Two or three minutes later, they drilled out of the small tunnel. In front of them was also a "wall" composed of stone pillars and the "street" sandwiched by them.

At this moment, a burly figure was standing beside the stone pillar with a calcium carbide lamp, and said to La Maye, "Is this our guest?"

Ramaye turned around and smiled at Lumian: "Outsider, I've changed my mind. The reward is 265 Felkins. How about it? Am I being kind? I also left you money to buy bread and live here today." Hotel money?"

"What if I don't give it to you?" Lumian looked terrified and stubborn.

Ramaye smiled with fat on his face: "What do you think will happen?

"Didn't your mother tell you not to trust others too easily when you go out?"

He and the burly man approached Lumian step by step from two directions.

Lumian laughed and bent down to put the suitcase aside.

He walked over to meet Ramaye and his companions.

In the flickering firelight, more than ten seconds passed quickly, and the calcium carbide lamp was in Lumian's hands.

He squatted beside the bruised and shivering Ramaye, took out all the banknotes from his wallet, and carefully counted them for a while under the orange-red and blue light.

He then patted Lamayer on the right cheek with the stack of banknotes, and said with a smile, "Now there are only 319 Felkins left."

After speaking, Lumian put away the banknotes and walked towards a road that seemed to lead to the ground.

There is a nameplate on the stone pillar there, with two rows of Intis text on it: "The honest man's market area, chamber pot street."

Among them, "Yuhu Street" was scratched with stones, and the name "Chaotic Street" was added next to it.

ps: It is updated normally today, under adjustment, there will be an update tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, please ask for a monthly ticket~