Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 169

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 169. The Tower – Western Train (3)

The train we’d boarded wasn’t an ordinary passenger train but a military locomotive that wouldn’t stop until it reached its destination.
Of course, it wasn’t as if it never stopped at all.
In this era, trains operated by burning coal to vaporize water, which then powered the steam engine.
Coal was the fuel, certainly, but without water the engine wouldn’t run, so we had to refuel with both coal and water along the way.
What’s more, since we’d hurriedly boarded a supply transport train, even the engineer needed rest—so we’d either switch to a night transport train or sleep at an inn.
Elliott had scheduled us to stop at inns in cities when we passed through them at night, since there was still considerable time before the conference.
Honestly, I was grateful for that.
I wasn’t confident I could sleep well on a train that rattled and jolted so much.
Because Elliott’s position as vice official was by no means a low rank, our seats were in the first-class compartment, two cars back from the engine cabin where the engineer rode.
“First-class compartment or not, these are just wooden chairs with no cushions,” King Kong complained.
Elliott made excuses at his remark.
“Well, it is military, sir. Still, being first-class, the chairs are larger and there’s more legroom than in the other cars.”
Hard wooden two-seater benches were arranged in rows on either side. When I sent the mage’s eye to peek, Elliott’s words were true—the other cars had cramped seating or no seats at all.
The cars without seats appeared to be for cargo storage.
Even so, they were practically empty as if we’d chartered the whole thing, and we placed ammunition crates front and back, arranging ourselves in a protective formation around Elliott.
Elliott seemed to find King Kong’s bulk reassuring and sat beside him; next to King Kong were Bogard and Quan; behind King Kong sat Park Jeon-bin; behind Elliott sat I; and behind Bogard and Quan sat Diana and Lee Su-young.
The seating arrangement was like this:
‘Window / King Kong, Elliott / Aisle / Bogard, Quan / Window’ in the front row.
‘Window / Park Jeon-bin, I / Aisle / Diana, Lee Su-young / Window’ in the back row.
As the train began to move, Lee Su-young, who was sitting by the window, spoke.
“The train is faster than I expected.”
I answered her observation.
“Steam engines are powerful and durable. I’d guess the top speed is around 130 kilometers per hour?”
Of course, all I knew came from information I’d seen on the internet and vague knowledge from university lectures about steam engines.
“It doesn’t seem to be traveling at 130 kilometers per hour.”
“I said top speed. Even then, it’s probably cruising at around 80 to 60 kilometers per hour. It’ll be even slower on curves and bends, and according to the plan, we’re supposed to be on this train for five days before we reach the conference site.”
Bogard stretched and spoke.
“Ah! I hope we arrive without any trouble.”
King Kong cautioned him at his remark.
“There’s no way The Tower sent us here just for nothing to happen. It only makes sense as a Stage if enemies appear, doesn’t it?”
King Kong’s words made it sound like he was treating this place as a game stage, but he wasn’t wrong.
There had to be a reason The Tower sent us here.

* * *

The train moved as quickly as possible, but there were times when it had to slow down.
The reason gun ownership was considered a customary right in the United States was because this era suffered from unstable law and order that would persist for quite a long time.
Since the end of the Old West was considered to be in the mid-1910s, here in the 1860s at the earliest, areas outside the cities were virtually lawless territory.
Whee-whee!
A whistle sounded from the engine cabin ahead, and someone shouted.
“Bandits!”
At the sound of the whistle and the engineer’s cry, I glanced out the window to see a mounted band slowly approaching the train as it decelerated to turn a gentle curve.
To be precise, even with the train slowing, it was still faster than the horses, so the riders who had been leading were now being caught up by the train.
Typically, when bandits attacked a train, they’d wait ahead, ride alongside as it traveled, and then jump onto the roof when the train was at its slowest.
Or they’d seize the moment when the train decelerated to enter a station.
A nineteenth-century locomotive wouldn’t have the precision braking systems of modern times, so smooth deceleration required gradual speed control.
Voices came from the cars behind—Union soldiers cursing and preparing to load their weapons.
“Damn fools! How dare they target a military transport!”
“Kill them all!”
Because nineteenth-century America had such vast land, anywhere outside the cities was complete lawlessness—utterly anarchic territory.
For this reason, transport vehicles were tempting prey, and the military stationed some escort forces on supply trains.
But if the bandits weren’t insane, they’d target cargo transports, not military supply vehicles with stationed soldiers. This was strange.
“Do bandits usually attack military vehicles?” I asked.
Elliott shook his head at my question.
“No, sir. Unless they’re insane, bandits generally don’t target military transports. This is odd.”
So “generally” means if they’re not generally that way, they’ll attack even military transports. Amazing America indeed.
“The enemy’s attacking now—this isn’t the time to ask questions! Move!”
King Kong shoved Elliott’s head beneath the seat, cranked open the window, and drew his Revolver.
The people stationed near the Passage readied their firearms or prepared to use their abilities, pressing themselves against the windows fore and aft.
We had chartered this car ourselves, which made positioning easy.
I nearly reached for my Magic Bullet Pistol, but since I’d never fired a firearm from the 1860s before, I decided to give it a try.
“Wait—how do you load this thing?!”
In my whole life, the only powder firearm I’d ever shot was a K-2 rifle!
Bogard answered my question smoothly, working the lever forward with practiced ease.
“Never handled a lever-action? Push the lever forward!”
Korea isn’t a country where gun ownership is free like in the United States!
I clumsily pushed the lever forward the way Bogard had done, and a sharp “Click!” rang out as it cycled. The Henry Rifle had the magazine integrated directly into the barrel.
The structure worked by inserting rounds into a long tubular magazine beneath the muzzle, with a spring pushing them rearward.
I opened the window, braced my arm on the frame, settled into position, and pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
Black smoke billowed from the muzzle.
I’d seen the cartridge casings and assumed smokeless powder, but was this era still using black powder?
One of the bandits took my shot in the shoulder and lost his balance, tumbling from his horse.
“Damn it, why’s my grouping so terrible?”
I’d aimed for the horse’s head but hit the bandit’s shoulder instead.
Still, I supposed hitting a two-legged vermin was better than wounding some poor animal.
Bogard laughed heartily at my grumbling.
“Ha ha ha! Don’t expect much from a firearm you haven’t even zeroed!”
Well, it’s the 1860s, after all.
A rifle without semi-automatic reloading—I’d been asking too much.
I pushed the lever forward again, the cartridge casing ejected sideways, and the rifle cycled.
Shoot enough times and you’ll hit something—horse or bandit, doesn’t matter.
I still tried to aim for non-lethal spots, but where the shots actually landed was pure chance.
Not just the impact point—even which target got hit seemed random.
An unzeroed rifle, a swaying train, and bandits moving frantically—hitting anything at all felt like a miracle.
Ping!
“Ow!”
We weren’t the only ones firing inside the train; the bandits were shooting back.
Though we kept our heads down while shooting, the guard squadron in the cars behind us unleashed a barrage of Musket and Revolver fire, and the couple dozen bandits were cut down to half their number in seconds.
“Looks like we’re winning without any trouble.”
“That’s exactly why bandits don’t attack military transport vehicles.”
Just as everyone was letting their guard down, Bogard screamed.
“Damn it! What’s that doing here?! Allah’s Magic Staff!”
Startled by his cry, I scrambled to the opposite window to look.
“Jesus!”
One of the bandits was loading an RPG-7—a Soviet portable anti-tank rocket launcher that made no sense for the era.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, the RPG-7 proliferated throughout the Islamic Middle East, and radical religious terrorist groups fired it so often in Allah’s name that it had earned the nickname “Allah’s Magic Staff.”
I set down the poorly-sighted Henry Rifle, drew my Goblin Hand Axe from my Inventory, and threw it with genuine Internal Energy.
The hand axe whistled through the air and struck the bandit’s arm, severing it cleanly.
In a crisis, the familiar tools are always best.
“Ahhh! My arm!”
The bandit’s severed limb flew skyward as a sickly-yellow warhead launched skyward.
The arm supporting the RPG-7 was gone, so fortunately the warhead shot away from the train toward the sky instead. But unluckily for us, true to the weapon’s notoriously poor accuracy, the warhead struck the distant railroad track and detonated.
Boom!
The rails were torn apart by the explosion, and the engineer slammed the brake, bringing the train to a sudden halt.
The train car had no safety systems to speak of—contents and cargo tumbled forward with the inertia, making chaos of the interior.
Still, the train managed to stop just before reaching the broken rails, avoiding derailment.
The moment the train stopped, I shouted urgently.
“Bogard! Keep Elliott safe! The rest of you—out and finish off the remaining bandits!”
With that order, I leapt from the window, stashed the inaccurate old rifle in my Inventory, drew my Magic Bullet Pistol, and opened fire.
The bandits charged the train excitedly once it stopped, and they were swiftly thrown from their horses by my Magic Bullets and the gunfire from Lee Su-young and Diana as they emerged from the train behind me.
Hitting enemies performing evasive maneuvers on a lurching train was hard, but hitting targets charging straight at us on flat ground was child’s play.
After clearing the left side, I checked the right and saw Park Jeon-bin, Quan, and King Kong dispatching enemies rapidly.
“All clear outside.”
Back inside the train, I found Bogard had transformed into a Wolf Man and was cramming Elliott beneath the seat, shielding him with his own body.
Rifle bullets wouldn’t easily penetrate the hide of a transformed body, so it was a sensible protective measure.
Still, the fact that he was willing to make himself a human shield to protect them spoke volumes about his character.
“Oh, that was quick.”
Bogard returned to his original form and helped Elliott up from beneath the chair.
“Wait, a Wolf Man?!”
Elliott was startled not by the sudden explosion, but by the revelation that Bogard was a Wolf Man.
Bogard chuckled as he watched Elliott’s shocked expression.
“You already knew climbers were sorcerers, didn’t you? What’s there to be surprised about?”
“Oh, I’m, I’m sorry. But I won’t… I mean, you won’t bite me, right?”
“Gahahaha! I didn’t become a Wolf Man from being bitten! Just because I bite doesn’t mean you’ll turn into one, so don’t worry!”
Bogard laughed heartily and slapped Elliott on the back.
Elliott laughed awkwardly, feeling somewhat unsettled by him.
“But how do we have Aladdin’s Magic Staff in this day and age? Wasn’t this supposed to be the 1860s?”
At Bogard’s question, I let out a deep sigh.
“That’s a problem too, but what matters right now is something else.”
“Something else?”
“Let’s get out of here first.”
I led Bogard and Elliott out of the train.
“The railroad track is severed. This train can’t be used anymore. We’ll have to walk to the City or use horses—does anyone here know how to ride?”
There were horses the bandits had been using, but knowing how to ride them was an entirely different matter.

(To be continued in the next part)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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