From Skaven to God of War

Chapter 379: The Rat Empire's Great Stride Forward
Railway tracks run through cities, and steam locomotives spewing black smoke move forward in tunnels with harsh sounds.

A new source of power can bring about many changes.

The ratmen are rapidly exploring the potential of these magical steam engines.

All of this was urged by the war.

War and desire are indeed pushing the rat people forward rapidly.

More ores, more steel, control of larger areas, making themselves appear more luxurious, all of these are pushing the rat people forward.

Huge machines of war, fortresses on the battlefield, weapons, steel pillars in the city, huge warships advancing on the ocean.

Better decorations, more exquisite robes, more sacrifices during sacrifice, and even the walking sticks in their hands should be inlaid with a few more faint blue eyes.

Demand, war, desire, all these are intertwined, and the rat people ushered in their own golden age.

Magic guides the lightning, and complex pathways tame this dangerous and unruly force.

Artificial light finally lit up in the ratman's underground city and began to spread rapidly to the entire ratman empire.

In the border of the Skaven Empire, there is an unknown underground city near a lush forest.

Today, the humming sound was heard again.

This is the deepest part of the underground city, a place similar to a platform, where many ratmen are waiting eagerly.

Steam trains do indeed greatly connect the rat people's cities, such as here.

The cities that once existed in the Ratman Empire, places where large numbers of ratmen gathered, could actually be considered independent kingdoms.

Every ratman city has its own breeding room and planting room. It may not have a complete industrial area, but there are still some scattered artisan workshops.

The gathering of these things makes each rat city naturally have a certain degree of independence. Even if they do not contact other rat cities or the Rat Parliament for a long time, they can still operate independently.

It is simply impossible to completely connect these rat cities by relying on those rat caravans.

Before, it was the faith that truly connected the Ratman Empire.

Now, the situation has changed a little. Those bulky machines that are running with harsh sounds and constantly spewing out pungent black smoke have given all the ratmen a surprise.

That is a terrifying amount of transportation.

The shaking bell made a dull sound, and a harsh and sharp friction sound came from deep in the tunnel, echoing in the ears of all the ratmen present.

Although it is called a platform, it is actually just an underground tunnel that has been hastily widened.

At this time, the rat people standing on this simple platform raised their heads and looked forward to it.

The terrifying monster began to slow down.

The pungent black smoke first diffused out from the passage.

The exhaust gases released by the incomplete combustion of large magic steam furnaces are extremely toxic, especially when they accumulate in the closed underground tunnels.

But the rats wandering and waiting here don’t care about this.

He could hardly wait to move towards the dark and deep track in front of him.

The moment the huge steam train stopped, the ratmen also began their actions. Regardless of the scorching heat, they climbed straight up the black steel monster in front of them.

While climbing, he also started shouting loudly.

"Me! Me! Let me come! Let me come!"

The scene suddenly became chaotic.

But what greeted them was the mercilessly swung sticks. On the long and narrow carriage carrying all kinds of goods, tall ratmen wearing various equipment began to swing the short iron sticks in their hands mercilessly.

They wore full-coverage leather helmets on their heads. The helmets looked strange, with the only conspicuous thing being a protruding cylinder and two glass windows at the eye positions.

Ratmen were constantly being beaten and falling, howling in pain, but these guys wielding sticks showed no mercy at all.

However, accidents were inevitable in the chaos. A ratman quietly bypassed the fully armed train guards and snatched something in the carriage. It was a small bell with dazzling gold color, which should be a small pendant for the ratman priests to hang on their waists.

An indescribable ecstasy appeared on the face of the rat man. He nimbly bypassed the iron bars swung at him by the train guards and was about to escape into the chaotic rat man and disappear.

At this time, the ratman guard standing at the front of the train slowly took off the short-barreled rifle on his back. It was a cannon fodder type I magic rifle. The unstable energy storage pattern made the noise it made when firing was particularly violent.

It was a loud, piercing sound.

The thief was pierced by a beam of magic energy coming from behind when he was about to escape. He fell heavily to the ground and the scene suddenly became quiet.

Under the gaze of the rat people, the rat guard came to the fallen rat thief, picked up the small golden bell that had rolled on the ground, and slowly wiped it on the body of the fallen rat thief.

At this time, the front of the steam train slowly opened with the burst of boiling steam, and a big-clawed priest with various complicated pendants hanging on his body appeared on the scene.

He did not linger on the dead ratman, but instead cast his gaze on the ratmen that were gathering around the train.

At this moment, all the ratmen gathered together, raised their heads, and there was a bit of desire on their faces.

To be fair, these guys are really not that good. They are short, thin, and some of them even smell bad, but there is nothing they can do about it. They are indeed cheap enough.

He gestured casually.

Circled some rat guys.

"Okay, it's your turn. Get to work! Get to work!"

Those ratmen who were chosen showed indescribable ecstasy at this moment, while those who were not chosen had obvious disappointment on their faces.

Train guards jumped off the dark steel train one by one, holding short-barreled magic guns in their hands, and stopped any inappropriate thoughts. Soon after, the selected ratmen began today's work.

They began to busily unload items from the metal train.

Soon, a batch of timber from a nearby forest will be loaded back onto the train.

The arrival of these steam trains almost destroyed this border city, as well as the breeding houses, planting rooms, and scattered rat workshops in this inconspicuous rat city.

How can these backward workshops in this city match the output of the super-large industrial areas in the main rat cities?

Weapons, war machines and steel from the Desolate Mountains, young ratmen, cave mushrooms and various exotic goods from the Slag City, and various metal ingots from the Furnace City.

After the steam train appeared, these things flooded into the entire Ratman Empire in a dumping manner.

Those inconspicuous rat cities, those rat cities in remote areas, and their various industries were completely destroyed in such a flood.

During this period, many rat cities were destroyed, and those that were not destroyed were mostly transformed into resource cities.

For example, this rat city on the edge of a lush forest, its current role is to provide logs to those increasingly large and prosperous cities, and this is its only function.

The trains coming and going every day bring all kinds of things, and then regularly take away large amounts of logs from the city.

Such a process almost destroyed the city's future, but of course, these steam trains that arrived with a hum did bring other benefits.

Some miniatures of the prosperity of those huge cities were brought to this city.

The rat priests who dominated the city also wore various gorgeous robes during this period and moved their residences to the top floor of the rat city.

Bright magic lamps were lit in this dim underground.

Large amounts of blood mushrooms flowed into their pockets.

After all, it is too easy to get blood mushrooms. All you have to do is organize the slave rats, cut down the dead trees on the ground one by one, and then drag them into the rat city, then everything will be fine.

They just need to wait for the steam trains to arrive and take away the wood, and then a batch of blood mushrooms will come into their hands.

Of course, there were some people who wanted to resist. They couldn't go on like this any longer. However, resistance was useless.

After all, as long as this steam train exists, all kinds of extremely cheap goods will arrive in an endless stream.

And if those rebels looked more carefully and resisted the laid railways and underground railways, something even more terrifying would happen.

There is no need for those rat lords who uphold commercial freedom to take action. The rat parliament itself and those loyal rat priests will strike you hard without hesitation.

After all, they built this railway to prevent things like rebellion, and if you resist, do you want to rebel?
A ratman city with a large workshop built near a large mineral vein was hit hard without hesitation amid such suspicion. In just one day, an invading ratman army hanged all the ratman priests and the ratman lord in the city.

And the ratman lord who was hanged didn't even cause any serious dispute.

After all, the ratman congressman who protected him was a guy who stood on the side of Waste City and advocated free trade.

Railway tracks run through each rat city.

Those messy cities were connected together with the Ratman Empire as a whole, which also led to the decline of the originally independent Ratman cities. Over a period of time, the overall strength of the Ratman declined.

However, it has provided for the creation of another super city and a super-large city that is on the way to becoming a super city.

After the Underground Rat City, Slag City was officially promoted to a new super city in the Rat Empire. The Furnace City, which was originally declining, reaped the biggest benefits from the Rat Fleet's terrifying demand for steel and the Rat Train's penetration of the entire territory.

In the process of one Ratman city after another declining and becoming a resource city, the biggest beneficiary is the Furnace City. Massive amounts of various minerals are transported to the Furnace City by Ratman trains. After a simple smelting, they are turned into metal ingots that flow to all parts of the Ratman Empire again.

The huge demand generated by this made those truly large rat-man industrial zones operate at high speed for the first time, and they felt the strain.

These ratman industrial zones almost all chose the same solution, expanding and expanding again. Steam engines and magic technology were introduced into the operation of the industrial zones, and excess production capacity was dumped into the ratman cities.

After defeating their counterparts in one city after another, several truly terrifying super-industrial areas were born, which were completely different from the previous ones that relied entirely on piling up slave rats to build high towers.

I don't know if this exchange is a good thing.

But the Ratman Empire was actually ignited in this transformation.

The overly bloated architecture has been optimized.

Several super cities serve as the center, heart, and greedy stomach of the empire, while the resource cities are the greedy giant mouths.

There is a fixed template for the rise and fall of cities.

The ratmen discovered a resource and a watchtower was built. Soon after, a small town was established and the prototype of a city appeared. Then the ratman train ran through this inconspicuous city.

A frenzy of prosperity began. Countless ratmen came here to explore the resources and exchange them for the endless blood mushrooms and various cheap commodities. The city prospered rapidly until the resources were exhausted and the dark train no longer came here.

Without blood mushrooms and various cheap commodities, the city quickly declined and began to breed goblins, or, depending on its geographical location, became an inconspicuous transit station, and the cycle continued.

Everything is concentrated, and more things can burst out in those super cities.

Magic lamps, steam mining equipment, scrolls of gods derived from totem patterns, a concert praising gods, the rat people's first high-power telescope for stargazing, and the rat people's star mapping map.

Of course, there’s more to it than that.

In the dim light.

Goblin Tannery, Corpse Soap Factory, Heretic Leather Shop, Lizardman High-end Boots Matching.

These strange things were also born in such prosperity, leading the fashion trend among the rat priests.

The rat people have indeed begun to make great strides forward in all aspects.

(End of this chapter)