’Earth Dragon Express’ is a ans of transportation frequently used by wizards outside the school.
Similar to the tro for commoners, but without tracks, it shuttles through the earth’s veins, transford by alchemy using the corpse of a dead earth dragon. It has many advantages such as convenience, high capacity, low fare, wide reach, and fast speed.
In comparison, airplanes require the construction of massive airports, boarding and deboarding are inconvenient, and they are too conspicuous; while the relatively discreet Big Clock system is expensive and has limited capacity.
So the young wizards of the Atonent Hunting Team adapted to this sowhat unfamiliar mode of transportation under the guidance of their elder, Trident Sword.
Zheng Qing quickly discovered other advantages of this transportation thod.
For instance, its compartnts are very spacious, allowing passengers to stretch out and nap comfortably on the long benches. This is very friendly to the busy employees of Trident Sword; Zheng Qing had been sleeping on the Earth Dragon Express for most of the past week.
For example, the reimbursent is convenient. The team needs only to clip the ticket stub to the mission report, and they will quickly receive reimbursent from Trident Sword — in comparison, using the Big Clock system involves a lengthy and cumberso reimbursent process, requiring them to fill out annoying details such as ti to the precise second, number of transfers, and the presence of ’freeloaders’ when submitting related items.
Also, the als provided on the Earth Dragon Express are very plentiful.
From snacks like beef jerky, chocolate, candies, spicy strips, seaweed, and sunflower seeds, to fast food like pumpkin porridge, buns, soy milk, sandwiches, and eggplant boxes, and even to exquisite dishes like honey puffs, pan-fried steak, roast chicken, puff pastry onion soup, moussaka, and pine nut shepherd’s pie; it has it all.
If one is willing to spend a few extra silver di, they can even order à la carte service, with the chef preparing als specifically for them.
Zheng Qing’s head only stayed at the compartnt door for a few seconds before a short fairy in a neat tailcoat abruptly appeared in front of him, greeting him in a sharp voice: "Honored guest, is there anything you need?"
"Anything to eat?"
Zheng Qing rubbed his face, hurriedly interrupting, "We’ve been running over half of the earth since morning, and haven’t had a warm al yet! We’re starving!"
The fairy pulled out a pocket watch from its chest pocket, opened it, looked down at the ti, his pointed nose almost poking into the glass face. After a mont, he looked up, full of embarrassnt: "But sir..."
"I know it’s past al ti, but the Earth Dragon Express allows ordering, right?"
The warlock flicked a silver di with his thumb, and the short fairy caught the coin still tumbling in mid-air with lightning speed.
"Of course, sir, of course, the Earth Dragon Express never disappoints its guests!" The fairy attendant nimbly pocketed the coin, his tone suddenly becoming much warr: "Only, the chef’s freshly prepared als will be slower, but we do have so spare frog juice, french fries, and crab burgers; would that be alright?"
"Do you have other drinks?"
Zheng Qing felt a headache just hearing the words ’frog juice’: "Green Bee or Butter Beer will do... Orange juice would be even better!"
"There’s also plain water." The attendant politely vetoed the other options.
"Then..." Zheng Qing glanced back at his companions in the compartnt and nodded slightly: "Then let’s get five crab burgers, five boxes of fries, and five cups of plain water."
When he turned back again, the attendant had already presented a large tray in front of him, thoughtfully calculating the cost for the young cost student.
"Totaling one gold bean, four silver di, and five copper coins."
The short fairy’s head was mostly hidden behind the tray as he quickly reported the precise numbers: "French fries and crab burgers are one silver di each, plain water is one copper per cup."
Zheng Qing called the fat wizard over to take the tray.
"Can the Earth Dragon run any faster? We’re on official business and in a hurry!" The fat wizard gruffly inquired as he took the tray.
"No, sir." The fairy’s ears uncomfortably twisted back as he stiffly replied with the usual politeness of a service person: "At this ti, the Earth Dragon Express is shuttling through the Balasel Sea Dragon’s veins; any faster and we might crash into the Sea Demon King’s territory... You wouldn’t want to be soone else’s dinner, would you?"
The last sentence lay sowhere between a joke and sarcasm, all depending on how the listener took it.
Zheng Qing swiftly pushed the fat wizard back into the compartnt, while placing a counted gold bean, four silver di, and five copper coins into the fairy attendant’s arms.
"Thank you." He nodded slightly.
"You’re welco to continue enjoying the Earth Dragon Express’s premium service!" The short fairy accepted Zheng Qing’s gold, bowed pleasantly, and with a puff of blue smoke, disappeared before everyone’s eyes.
"Poor service!"
The fat wizard angrily shouted from behind Zheng Qing: "I want to write a 500-word complaint! I’ll write a report criticizing the Earth Dragon Express’s terrible service attitude! They should never hire these snobs as attendants!"
"Don’t bother with a fairy."
Zheng Qing comforted, turning to Xiao Xiao: "Doctor, can you calculate if we can find that one-eyed old crow when we return to school this ti?"
The one-eyed crow he ntioned was captured along with a two-headed ogre during last year’s trial by Atonent because it used to be the elder of the ogre tribe and fell under the tamorphosis Curse. So after the trial, Old Verne took it away.
This ti, Atonent decided to combine the two incidents and see if they could learn anything new from the one-eyed crow.
"I don’t know."
Xiao Xiao, engrossed in calculations on parchnt with a feather pen, replied without looking up: "After all, almost half a year has passed. That crow has likely had its curse lifted with the school’s help and been thrown back into Black Prison; or perhaps it’s ended up in so Shaman Transformation Technique research lab... There’s a very small chance it’s still a crow."
"Then why are we rushing back to school?" The Atonent Hunting Team’s leader mumbled through a mouthful of burger.
Xiao Xiao finally looked up, glanced at Zheng Qing, grabbed a burger from the tray, and took a bite.
"When investigations hit a dead end and there’s no clear direction, retracing the clues is always wise." He swallowed with difficulty, picked up a cup of water, and shook his head slightly: "Wasting money... for a cup of plain water, we could write a spell; no need to waste those five copper coins."
"I don’t want to open my law book for five copper coins." Dylan leisurely ate his dinner, the knife and fork in his hand clinking against the plate: "That would be an even bigger waste."
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