Chapter 45 Wind Cave
Chapter 45: Wind Point
The guild that led us was also an all-female guild just like the original Sakura Club, Women's League and Goddess League. Feminist ideas are more popular these days, so there are many such purely female sex guilds. The name of the other party's guild is the Saints' Guild. It is said that it was named like this because of the influence of Joan of Arc. Their president's name is Jeanne d'Arc, and it is said that this is her real name outside of the game.
It was much more convenient to have a local guide the way than to find it on my own. It was a smooth journey to the nearest city and then to Paris. Paris outside the game is a world-famous metropolis, and Paris in the game is no less impressive than Paris in reality. Except that the cities in our guild are generally exaggerated, this Paris is one of the only cities that can be considered magnificent.
Paris is said to be grand, firstly because it is big enough, and secondly because the buildings in it are relatively beautiful. But Paris is also a rather special city because it has no city walls at all. Paris is an undefended city, with no city walls on the outside and no defense facilities inside. The entire city is just a commercial distribution center, and it does not have the fortress-like style of most cities in the game.
We learned from Joan of Arc that although Paris was originally a system city, it was actually occupied by players long ago, so the player guild has always been running the city. The guilds that occupied this city were relatively powerful, so they said that no one in France dared to attack their city, so Paris did not need a city wall at all. Since this guild likes to make money, it simply positioned the city's development direction as a commercial city, and can get promotion points rewarded by the system. After the city is upgraded to a commercial city, the system tax rate will be reduced, and the surrounding NPCs will spontaneously Build roads, so the city develops much faster than ordinary cities.
Joan of Arc did not leave immediately after taking us to Paris. She arranged for her men to be dismissed and then took us to the Arc de Triomphe herself. To be honest, I didn’t feel anything at all when I saw this famous historical building. I would have been excited to see it two years ago. I thought this thing was majestic, but now I don’t feel anything about it. Essinger is a standard European-style building complex, and each one is larger than the other. Compared with them, the Arc de Triomphe is like a tree in the forest, which does not arouse our interest at all. However, although the Arc de Triomphe did not make us feel anything, the Triumph Underground Palace definitely made us stupid.
"Is this the entrance?" I asked Joan of Arc, pointing to the thing that looked like an elevator.
Joan of Arc nodded with certainty: "You just go up, and then shake the handle inside to send yourself to the underground palace below. But you'd better pay attention, the wind is stronger down below. Be careful when you go out. .”
"It's windy? Where does the wind come from underground?"
"I don't know about this. Anyway, the wind in the underground palace is so strong that you can't imagine it."
"Is it such an exaggeration?" Ying asked in disbelief: "Can it be bigger than a typhoon at sea?"
Joan of Arc replied solemnly: "The wind at the entrance is not very strong. But the wind will get stronger the further you go. If you can't secure yourselves...!"
"Ah...!" As Joan of Arc was saying this, she saw a person suddenly fly out of the big hole in the square in front of the Arc de Triomphe. This person flew directly into the sky and did not start to fall until we were almost out of sight.
Jeanne pointed at the man. "That's what happens if you can't hold yourself in place."
Hongyue asked: "Isn't that hole leading to the underground palace? Why can't we go down from there?"
"Come here." Joan of Arc took us near the big hole. At first we came from the other side of the square. The Arc de Triomphe is in the center of the square, and the side we came from was just in the opposite direction to the hole. Now I walked over and realized something was wrong. I could already hear the whistle of an airplane engine's high-speed airflow just a few dozen meters away. The large hole in front seems to be spraying a large amount of airflow outward at high speed. You can clearly see various gadgets flying out of this hole from time to time. What is certain is that the airflow speed at the entrance of this hole is very amazing, otherwise the unlucky guy just now would not have flown into the sky. Joan of Arc pointed at the hole and explained: "This place is connected to the passage. It can be said to be the main exit of the passage. But as you can see, it is impossible to get in with this airflow intensity. The conveyor elevator over there is the system city The equipment has been completed since it existed. You can use that thing to go down into the passage smoothly. The place where the conveyor elevator stops is not the passage yet, it is a small room dug out on the side of the passage. The passage is only when you go out, but you don't have to worry too much. There are fixtures made by players in the passage, and with these things we can gradually go deeper into the passage."
"There are so many people trying to get into such a dangerous place?" Jin Coin asked.
Joan of Arc smiled and said: "The reason is very simple. The combat power of the monsters in the passage is the same from the beginning to the end, but the deeper the monster, the higher the experience value. As you can imagine, a monster with an experience value equal to level 800 is only the same." Is it better than the combat power of level 400 monsters? It can be said that the depth of the passage is a prime location for leveling, and the deeper, the better. At the same time, there will be a treasure at a certain distance in the passage. This also means that the deeper the treasure, the better. Currently, the highest The record is that the owner's guild of this city obtained the land. They advanced a little more than five kilometers after going down the manual transport ladder, and finally got a knight's spear. The properties of the land were extremely good, and it was close to an artifact. "
Hongyue nodded: "It's easier to understand if you say it this way. Do you want to die for money?"
"I..." I was about to speak when suddenly a small space teleportation area appeared in front of me. A blue light flashed and a scroll fell into my hand.
"New mission scroll?" Hongyue asked in surprise.
"It looks like it is." I opened the scroll and took a look. "Okay, this is the last scroll."
"What does it say?"
"Our desired goal is at the end of the passage. As long as we reach the room at the end of the passage, we can get what we need."
"Are you going to the end of the passage?" Joan of Arc also heard what I said, and she looked at me in surprise and asked.
"Yes! What's wrong?" I looked at Jeanne.
"Can you take me with you?" Jeanne's voice was obviously excited. Seeing that we didn't answer immediately, she immediately added: "I won't compete with you, as long as you take me over there. After you leave, I will stay over there to practice. You are on the ground." I will never compete with you for treasures or monsters. Besides, I can also help you explain some things you don’t understand here."
"That's not what we meant." I explained: "Our goal is just the final product. It's no problem to bring you with us. But we don't know if we can reach the goal. If we can't reach it halfway, don't blame us. .”
"Of course. How can I blame you! As long as you can take me deeper than the area I have explored so far, I will be happy. It is a golden paradise for leveling over there!"
"Okay then. Do you need to prepare anything?" I asked Joan of Arc.
"Wait for me. I'm going to buy some medicine and food. This time I go in and plan to practice until the medicine is exhausted before I come out. Maybe I can reach level 30. Haha, I feel very happy just thinking about it."
"Then hurry up, we are waiting for you here."
"Wait for me for five minutes." Joan of Arc ran directly to a shop on the edge of the square. I rushed back in less than five minutes. I didn't expect the pharmacy to be so close. All the players in our guild have Fenglong's super space pocket, so they usually carry a large amount of supplies with them, and there is no such thing as looking for medicine or buying food temporarily.
We didn't see the medicine that Joan of Arc bought, but there was something strange on her body. The shape of this thing is like a turtle shell buckled on the body. I don’t know, I thought she was carrying a big iron pot on her body! Fortunately, this thing is silver-white, otherwise we would have thought she was taking the blame.
"What the hell is this?" I asked her in surprise.
"A backpack!" Joan of Arc answered simply.
"Backpack? How come there is a bag in this shape?" I went up and knocked on it. There was a sound. "Holy shit, you're iron?"
"Of course." Joan of Arc said with a proud look on her face: "The store just now was opened by our guild. This thing is an exclusive invention of our guild. Do you want to have one too?"
"Is this tortoise shell an exclusive invention?" The gold coin came up and he tried to lift it. "Good guy, it's not light! How can I have the flexibility to carry this thing on my back?"
"You are just amateurs now." Joan of Arc said proudly: "Let me tell you what is so good about this unique invention. First of all, every player will have items to carry with them, but the system has canceled the storage space, so unless You are a space mage. Or you have special items, otherwise everything on your body must be carried on your back like in reality. Oh, by the way, why didn't you bring anything?" Joan of Arc didn't realize until now that we actually Standing here with empty hands. "Where are your weapons?"
We didn't answer, but suddenly a blue light flashed around us. A black hole appears in front of everyone. I reached in and pulled out a set of armor, while Zhenhong and the others pulled out their weapons: "This is our backpack."
"Wow, how did you do it? You don't look like space mages! You can't equip special items in batches!" Although Joan of Arc looks like a bold French girl with blond hair and eyes, her personality is actually quite different. Like a child, and very enthusiastic and clinging. Considering it's impolite to ask a woman her age, we never asked her how old she was, but she looked like she was in her mid-twenties. However, judging from this personality expression, she may only be ten years old. The bodies of Caucasian people seem to be born with precocious maturation.
Hongyue and the others sent their weapons to Fenglong Space, and I also threw back the armor I took out. Then with a wave of my hand, the phoenix flew out and landed on my shoulder. Jeanne's beautiful big eyes glanced from side to side and discovered that each of us was carrying one of these creatures. I explained to her: "This is the guardian beast of our guild, and its name is Fenglong. Although its attack power is so small that it can be completely ignored, it is born with a dedicated space. Not only can it put belongings into her dedicated space, but also You can even stuff your magic pet into it.”
“How big is this space?”
"I haven't calculated it. The specific capacity will vary depending on the strength of Fenglong, but it should be at least the size of a standard container. Mine is just a queen. Her dedicated space is about the same size as a medium-sized dock."
"It's amazing." Jeanne stretched out her hand to touch my phoenix dragon. As a result, my phoenix and dragon disappeared in a flash.
"I'm sorry, the little one is quite shy."
"I'm so envious. Such a cute and powerful little guy." Joan of Arc almost had stars in her eyes.
"We've finished explaining. What is your pot for?"
"This is not a pot, but a backpack." Joan of Arc explained: "Of course you don't care if you have this rare guardian beast, but most players still have to carry items by themselves. This triumphant underground palace is a treasure for leveling, but it is very difficult to get in. It’s easy, so everyone wants to go in once and try not to come out. It’s best to practice in there for a while. If you want to level up for a long time, you need to bring enough medicine and various tools, and the things that are exploded during leveling should also be It takes up space, and these things have to be carried on the body. If you go outside, it won't matter. But the wind below is more powerful than a typhoon, and carrying a big baggage is equivalent to a kite and cannot stand at all. So our guild invented it This backpack. First of all, it is streamlined. Although it looks like a turtle shell, it has low wind resistance and does not catch the wind on the back. In addition, this thing is made of pressurized heavy iron and is very heavy. It can crush us On the ground to avoid being blown away.”
"What you say does make sense, but you should also find someone to design the appearance a little! This one looks like a turtle shell!"
"It doesn't matter whether it looks good or not, as long as it's useful." Joan of Arc is pragmatic enough.
I smiled and asked: "Do you want us to help you load it first? It's quite heavy for you to carry such a thing. We have the Phoenix Dragon Space and it doesn't count as a load."
"I'd better carry it on my own, otherwise it won't be heavy enough and it will be easily blown away. You have never been down there. You really don't understand how scary that kind of wind is."
"Okay then." I looked at the gold coins and the red moon and said, "Would you two change your equipment first?"
"What?" the two asked together.
"Joan of Arc has repeatedly emphasized that it's very windy down there. Although I don't believe how destructive the airflow can be, you two are wearing skirts and want to imitate Marilyn Monroe and let your skirts fly, right?"
Hongyue's face suddenly turned red to her neck, and the gold coin showed no reaction. However, both of them quickly took out their order suits and put them on over their original equipment. In the game "Zero", you can wear double-layer equipment. In some games, when the player takes a two-handed weapon, he cannot equip the weapon with the other hand, but it is possible here, but this is not a bug. If you wear two layers of equipment or even three layers of equipment, only the innermost layer is added in terms of attributes. Not only does the outer layer not count as defense and does not count attributes, but it also accounts for extra weight. It doesn’t matter how many layers of systems you choose to wear if your head is wet. . The same goes for weapons. Equip weapons with both hands. The attack power is still calculated, even if you hold three weapons in one hand, the system will not care about you. Anyway, if you hold a weapon that exceeds the load, your movements will become super slow. The targets that can be hit are probably immobile things or creatures such as turtles and snails. After Hongyue and the others put on a layer of order armor, they could hold down the skirts underneath, and the weight of the order suit was just enough to hold them down, preventing them from blowing away after a while. Eagle and I are wearing heavy armor, so the weight should be enough. The two things on Zhenhong's arms weigh ten tons together. If she could still fly, we would have been blown away by now.
After getting ready we all climbed into one of the lifts. There are quite a few of these under the Arc de Triomphe. Each one is as big as a small minibus. The interior of the transport ladder is similar to the elevator, except that there is a crank on the wall. You have to shake it yourself to get it down. When there is no one in the elevator, you can also use the crank handle on the ground or in the passage below to raise or lower the elevator, but the premise is that there must be no one in the elevator, otherwise shaking the elevator together will only follow the instructions of the people in the elevator. Control operation.
There are only two men here, Ying and I. We were supposed to show off, but Zhenhong was nearby, so we had to take a back seat. The supposedly heavy turntable was spun by Zhen Hong like a top, and the transport ladder fell down like a free fall. We don't know how deep it is down here, but the transport ladder has a dial that shows if it's almost bottom. Seeing that thing entering the last point, Zhen Hong stopped touching the wheel. As a result, the thing still sent us to the bottom by inertia.
After coming out of the transport ladder, there is not a passage but a small room as big as the transport ladder. There is a gate on the wall opposite the room that can slide left and right. There is a wheel on the side wall that can be used to control the opening of the gate. Joan of Arc told us that this is an air lock, and that behind the door is not a passage but an isolation room. We must go through and close this door and then open another door before we can officially enter the passage. The two air locks are installed to prevent ground wind in the passage from entering the transport stairwell. Otherwise, with that kind of airflow strength, the transport ladder will definitely be shot out of the stairwell like a cannonball.
After opening the airlock, we discovered that the gate was actually one meter thick. And it's all metal. After entering the next room, there is a crank handle there, and we use it to close the airlock again. In order to prevent someone from being irresponsible, the airlock was designed so that if one side was not closed tightly, the other side could not be opened, so everyone had to do it step by step.
After closing this air lock, we are ready to open the air lock on the opposite side. After this air lock is the real underground palace passage. Joan of Arc told us to open the team channel first. After we go out for a while, we won’t be able to hear our direct conversations, so we must use team communication. Although private chat, team chat, and guild communication systems are now weakened, normal communication is still possible within a range of one hundred meters.
After confirming that everyone had opened it, Joan took out a bunch of things and said, "Here. I've prepared tools for you, everyone, take them."
"What are these things?" I asked, looking at the pile of messy things.
"This is a safety device." Joan of Arc said: "Let me show you." First she took out something like a leather belt, but this thing was very wide and not as narrow as an ordinary belt. This thing was almost Half a foot wide, it encompasses the entire abdomen. "Come on, put it on quickly."
We each took one and put it on just like her. This thing is really hard and seems to be quite heavy. After putting it on, we found that there was a strong cable as thick as a thumb on each side waist of this thing. There is also a hook with a convenient lock on the rope head. In addition to this thing, there are an iron ring on the front and back of the belt, which seem to be used to hang things, and there are also a bunch of other tools 'inserted' in the front of the belt.
After the eagle finished wearing it, he said: "Now I feel less like a knight and more like an electrician."
"Haha, it's almost done." Hongyue said with a smile: "Aren't these things too heavy?"
Joan of Arc explained: "Don't worry, these things are all useful. First of all, this belt is used to fix our bodies. This is very important, otherwise it will be dangerous in the wind. The two ropes with hooks on both sides of the belt are hooks. After you go out for a while, you will find that there are many steel pillars 'inserted' into the ground in the passage. There are iron rings on these steel pillars. When you move, walk along the steel pillars. Use the two hooks on the left and right alternately. Hook the loops on the poles so that if you are blown up, at least one hook can catch you. In addition, there are loops on the front and back of your belt, which are used for stringing ropes."
Joan of Arc said and took out a rope. "We will use this rope to string us up later. If someone flies up, others can pull him back. Come on, let's string the rope up first. This rope is very long. It is enough for you to fight monsters. It moves back and forth from time to time, but be careful not to let the monster cut the rope."
"Okay, got it." I nodded and took out two ice ax-like things from my belt. "What is this ice pick-like thing for?"
"That's the ice axe. In the tunnel, there are only steel pillars in the first 4,800 meters that have been explored. When you get to the back, you have to climb by yourself. This thing can help you fix your body."
"I don't need this." As I said this, I heard a noise, and all the blade claws and various rivets on both sides of my hands popped out. "My armor comes with a full set of equipment, so I don't need anything."
“Be prepared.”
"Oh well!"
After seeing that everything was ready, Joan asked us to stand next to the wall where we came in. After a while, the passage was opened so that we could feel the air flow before going out, so as not to be blown away by the sudden wind. .
With Joan of Arc, a familiar guide, we will be much safer. Everyone obediently went to stand by the wall. Jeanne herself walked to the air lock. There was a semicircular steel ring there. After Joan fixed herself in the steel ring, she once again asked us to hold on to the fixed handle on the wall next to her. Then she pushed up a handle hard.
As soon as the handle was pushed up, a harsh metal friction sound was heard, and then the air lock in front opened with a bang at a very fast speed. The air in the room seemed to be sucked out suddenly, and we all felt a sway in our bodies, but it was not very severe. The terrifying airflow outside the gate is almost as real as reality. We can all directly see the terrifying airflow outside carrying various things flying through the gate. When the rapid air flow passed through the gate, part of it flowed in, making a huge roar like a train passing by.
Joan of Arc said in the team channel: "This airlock is activated by wind power. It only lasts for one minute after opening, and then it will automatically close. Everyone, please come out quickly. And put down your helmet visor, otherwise the airflow outside will I'll pull out all my hair." As she spoke, Jeanne put down her own mask. Her profession is Paladin, and a helmet is considered standard equipment.
"OK."
Joan of Arc got off the steel ring and carefully guided us in front. There is a row of steel brackets 'plugged' into the ground outside this room, which should be the things that Joan of Arc mentioned to fix the body. Joan of Arc turned back to us and said: "Grab these handrails and hang your hooks on them."
I followed Joan of Arc, and as soon as I walked out of the room, I immediately felt a feeling of being about to fly. I'm sure if I spread my wings now, I can fly without fanning at all. The strong wind was so terrifying that even the immortal flames on my body were blown completely backwards.
The steel columns 'inserted' into the ground are connected with horizontal steel bars between them, which feels a bit like horizontal bars. After we hang the hook set, we can move forward. When we reach a vertical steel column, we must manually remove the hook and hang it on the next section of steel bars. With the help of something like this, even if we are blown away, we will only be stuck at the nearest fixed position and will not be completely blown away. It is really a smart design.
Although the equipment here is very complete, our journey is still very difficult. Although the wind here is not as scary as Joan of Arc said, walking against the wind is really strenuous. It feels like every step requires several times the strength of normal, which is more strenuous than climbing a mountain.