With a beard on his face and wearing a halter top that is common among craftsmen, the burly man holds a hammer in his left hand and a spear in his right hand with the tip in front of him. On the forging table, a pair of forging looks made.

There was a hint of contemplation in his resolute face, as if he was thinking about how to do the best job at hand.

This is the first statue Donald saw when he walked out of Corta train station, standing among the flower beds in the middle of the main road at the station exit.

"It is said that this is the incarnation of the God of Craftsmen. Placing such a statue here is to let everyone who comes to Corta know the religious beliefs here?"

Anthony is also looking at the sculpture, and the public bookshelf on the train has an introduction to the city of Corta.

"It should be, just like the sun emblem on the street lamp when we first arrived in Delchimo, but the appearance of this city is really beyond my imagination."

Craftsmanship and forging, the initial impression in Donald's mind of such a combination of terms is naturally a refined and elegant city, such as a wide street paved with square and square bluestone slabs, and small sculptures of birds and beasts at the corners. The cornices, the Gothic tower structure and the large bell tower with carvings on the outside.

However, reality is always very different from imagination.

Due to the heavy snow and gloomy sky, Donald saw a barely modern industrial city. There were large chimneys everywhere and large factories below them. Black smoke and firelight became the main tone here. There was a strange smell like sulfur and other industrial raw materials, and the faces of passers-by seemed to be covered with a layer of gray masks.

Negative emotions such as exhaustion and dullness appear on almost everyone's faces. This state makes everyone look very indifferent, and this indifference creates a special atmosphere around them, like It's like an ordinary person walking into a damp and rotten wooden house. Even if you can see everything here at a glance, you will still start to worry about whether there may be monsters hiding somewhere in the corner.

"I don't like it here. Whether it's Delchimo or Bellue, it's much better than here."

As a woman, Stephanie is undoubtedly sentimental, and such a scene is naturally impossible to arouse any goodwill to her. She turned around and found her mechanical mask from the cart she just bought, barely isolating some dirty air.

"But this is the richest of the several cities in Westling County, and it is said that the richest people born here are the sum of the other cities around."

Anthony holds the magazine in one hand and a pear under his nose in the other, relying on this method to keep his olfactory system invaluable as a top chef from being polluted by the air here.

"Several, I will first send Mr. Priest to the church here, and then I will ask the priest of the Craft and Blacksmithing Sect to introduce me to a craftsman. We will meet at the Mermaid Fountain in Corta City at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. "

Jacqueline walked a few steps from the station and came out to Donald's side.

"Mermaid fountain?"

It is already evening, and it will be night in a while. Donald and his party have to find a place to stay, so he has no objection to finding a craftsman tomorrow, but he does not know where the mermaid fountain is.

"I'm sorry, it's your first time in Corta, right? The Mermaid Fountain is located in the Central Park of Corta City. It is a famous building in the local area and can be easily found."

Noticing the embarrassed look on Donald's face, Jacqueline quickly added.

After making an appointment, the two groups of people naturally went their separate ways.

Walking into Corta, Donald thought that the environment in the city could make them change. After all, Anthony said that the wealth level of this city should be higher than that of other surrounding cities, but the reality once again made Donald disappointed.

This is a thoroughly industrial city!

Every place in the city is like those standard products produced on the assembly line. If there are only one or two pieces, it may make people feel the beauty of neatness, but if there are such things everywhere, the cold lines and The impersonal structure is really hard to see.

The crowd was even more dejected than what I saw at the train station before. Most of them were expressionless with their shoulders slumped, and their exhaustion was covered up.

The so-called wealthy only refers to the upper class represented by those factory owners.

"No wonder there are more rich people than other cities combined. It turns out that all the wealth of the common people is concentrated on those people."

Donald's eyes wandered on the people passing by, and few had a happy expression on their faces, which was not the way someone living in a wealthy city should behave.

Of course, this city is not completely useless. At least Donald and others can feel the heat from the heater when they walk into a restaurant with a decent facade. The lights in the store are still bright, and there is a faint aroma of food from The kitchen fluttered out.

"The menu on your side is so strange. The price of vegetable food is almost the same as that of meat."

Stephanie pointed to a few dishes on the menu and looked at the waiter next to her with some doubts.

"Because vegetables are scarce ingredients here, the price may be a little higher, but we are absolutely confident in the taste."

The waiter held a pen and paper in his hand, and explained with some helplessness on his face.

In the end, Donald and his party asked for a vegetable soup in addition to the main food, which also attracted the attention of many guests nearby.

This is the privilege of the rich.

"When the space ring is completed, we will leave the city. This environment is not as good as the wilderness."

Looking at the snow scene outside the store, the snowflakes that were supposed to be pure and beautiful now look a bit unspeakably dirty. Maybe it's because of the black smoke that has passed through the chimneys. Side's air quality is concerned, and if it weren't for the space ring he would even plan to leave early tomorrow morning.

jingle bell~

The hanging bell at the door swayed and made a crisp sound, and Donald's eyes that had stayed outside the window subconsciously turned around.

Entering the door were a few people who were obviously dressed differently from the surrounding citizens, or were similar to them.

"Outlander."

These people, like them, are not natives.

"Outlander? What do you mean?"

Stephanie asked strangely when she heard Donald's words.

"It's nothing, let's eat, we'll find a hotel later."

Those people were only two tables away from him, and Donald didn't want these people to misunderstand that he was watching them.

There was no accident until Donald and his party left. The other party obviously noticed Donald and the others, but the idea should be similar to that of Donald. This is not a closed city, and it is normal to have foreigners.

"Donald, you should have noticed the people in the restaurant just now, right?"

After walking a distance from the restaurant, Anthony took the initiative to mention this, which surprised Donald, who was looking at the big factory in the distance.

"something wrong?"

"I can't say there is a problem, you know, my talent can be used to strengthen all aspects of the body, remember the alien beast we killed on the edge of the village, I ate its meat, and I have a lot of hearing. Progress, I overheard their conversation just now, and the content of it made me a little concerned."

One of Anthony's innate abilities is meat-eating, and he has now developed it to the extent that he can improve or evolve his body by eating various special meats.

For example, at the beginning of ability discovery, if Anthony ate rabbit meat, he could strengthen his leg muscles. If he could make special food, the enhancement effect would be enhanced, but this enhancement would increase with his physical fitness. It gradually weakens as it increases, like no matter how much rabbit meat he eats now, the muscles in his legs will not be strengthened in the slightest.

"Um?"

Raising his eyebrows, Donald asked Finger after shifting the finger in his arms to a more comfortable position.

Several people were turning a street corner at this time, and there was a drunken man on the roadside who was full of alcohol on the ground, swaying with the wine in his hand, and several of them took a step to the other side in unison. He stepped directly over him, but Donald held his head aside, bypassed him, and continued to walk forward, looking for a nearby hotel.

"They call themselves demon hunters, and they seem to have some special mission to remove demons here."

"Are you sure it's a witcher?"

Donald used to have certain fantasies about this profession. To know that he had read some miscellaneous books in his previous life or played a game where he would play cards with people without saying a word, his understanding of the witcher is probably Traveling all over the place, punishing evil and promoting good.

For this reason, he once considered whether to become a witcher, but he had never heard of a stranger with such a name, and thought it did not exist.

After all, there are religions in the faith area of ​​the Ryan Empire, and the non-belief area is managed by the Discord Bureau, so there is really no need for witchers to exist.

I didn't expect to meet a few today.

"I should have heard it right. The content of their conversations is probably that there have been a lot of disappearances in Corta City recently, and there are many people in this city whose mental state is not right."

Anthony's memory isn't as good as Donald's, and he's barely memorizing the content.

"Disappearance? Although I don't know the reason, it seems that we have to be vigilant tonight. It's really troublesome. The city doesn't feel very good. Now this kind of thing is happening. I think the missing person may not be What monster, but was eaten by this city"

Maybe because of the gloomy environment around him, Donald's mood was inexplicably low, and there were inevitably a few complaints in his mouth. He glanced around from the corner of his eyes, and inadvertently saw a shop window on the side of the road, but his footsteps were sudden. It stopped, not because of the mechanical dolls in the window that were placed in wooden boxes for exhibition, but because of the street scene behind them reflected in the window,

"Anthony, I remember when we passed that intersection, there was a drunk guy down there, right?"

When I looked back, all I saw was a street covered with snowflakes under the dim lights.

"Maybe he crawled somewhere else, drunk. I've seen quite a few people in Demingham before, even if they were running around naked."

Stephanie turned her head to the side, leaned back and glanced at the drunken man's position, there was no one there.

"Maybe let's go faster, try to rest as early as possible, and have to find that mermaid statue early tomorrow."

Although he thought it was suspicious, but when he went back to check the scene, Donald was unwilling. He was not idle enough to care about the life and death of a homeless man.

After they turned to leave, next to the place where the drunk man had stayed, several long and narrow tracks were being re-obscured by snowflakes.

Using the roadside signs and the introduction booklet about Corta in Anthony's hand, the group turned a few streets and saw a hotel specially introduced in the booklet.

The inside of the store is brightly lit, and outside the store is gradually expanding snow. Even the mechanical lights on the street can't drive out those surging darkness.

"It is said that travelers who have rested here will have a comfortable sleep experience. Some people think that this may be related to the sculpture outside the hotel."

Anthony acted as a tour guide, pointing to the disc-shaped sculpture in front of him.

It was a gear with a metal, bone or wooden axle and four spokes.

Insignia of the Cult of Crafting and Blacksmithing.

Approaching against the wind and snow, several other people entered the hotel with their front and back feet. Donald walked at the end. He seemed to hear the sound of something shattering in his ears. The next second, he frowned and looked back at the gear sculpture. , opened the umbrella that had been retracted again, stepped into the wind and snow, walked to the gear sculpture, looked from top to bottom, and paused in the middle.

On the wooden axis of the sculpture, a crack appears

"The voice just now, came from here?"

Donald did hear the cracking sound. It is normal for other things to freeze and crack in such a low temperature environment. This represents the emblem of the **** of craftsmanship and forging!

what does this portend

"Brother Donald~lightnovelpub.net~Sister Stephanie let me come to the front desk to register!"

Julia stood at the door with the raccoon's hat in her hands and shouted to Donald.

"Okay, here I come."

Withdrew the hand that was going to reach out to touch the crack, Donald turned and entered the hotel.

When I got to the front desk, I looked at the two waiters, and my heart sank again.

"You two, haven't you slept well?"

Donald asked, looking at each other's dark circles and half-open tired eyes.

Isn't this place claiming to have a comfortable sleep experience as long as you check in, but these two waiters seem to have not slept well no matter what?

Is it too late to change hotels now?

This was Donald's first thought.