After a while, Vicente, Shelby, Molly, Benson, and the blacksmiths who had been working on the experimental railway between Millfall and Martell Village for the past few weeks got on the first train.
Vicente purposely filled the two cargo railcars with mostly metal resources, thinking he would test his creation already on the first train ride.
As soon as he got on the train, he told the people there to settle into their seats while he took the driver's position.
His train had three internal areas. One was the driver's space, where one could move the train forward or stop it, communicate with stations along the track, etc. Another was the living area, where there was nothing today, but there would be refreshments and a toilet in the future. Finally, there was a small area with benches to seat up to 20 people.
The purpose of this train was not to carry people, but Vicente felt that, from time to time, the freight trains that would run through the province in the future would have some passengers, men from his group, traveling from one station to another.
The blacksmiths and the two women settled down in this area, which had 20 single seats. Side windows gave them a view out of the vehicle.
Vicente then used his powers to infuse the vehicle with mana, causing its machinery to activate.
After just 10 seconds, the vehicle began moving slowly forward while the workers painting and organizing the station looked on with a gleam.
The people inside the train laughed as they felt their creation start moving, first at 1 km/h, but after a minute reaching 10 km/h.
While making the train move, Vicente realized how energy-efficient the vehicle was. One would need to have at least Low-level Mage cultivation to activate the train. Such an individual would need to use more than 75% of their available mana to activate the vehicle, something quite significant.
However, in the next few minutes, he realized that, after activation, the driver would have to put very little of their mana into the train. When the initial mana was infused into the vehicle's special machinery, it began to act by drawing free mana in the air to the machine responsible for converting mana into motor energy.
Through this, one could spend the rest of the journey driving the train using less than 5% of their energy.
That wasn't bad at all!
Even though it would take almost all of a Low-level Mage's mana, that mana would be enough to travel from Millfall to Martell Village or from Millfall to Saltstar City!
All that would be needed for something like that to happen would be the railroad tracks!
Not only that, an uninjured magician in the early 3rd stage could recover all their mana in less than an hour of meditation. On a journey that would take longer than that, if two magicians of the same level were in charge of the vehicle, both would be at more than 95% of their energy at the end of the journey and would be ready to return as soon as they had unloaded their cargo and recharged the railcars at their destination.
Sensing this during the journey to Martell Village, Vicente was not disappointed with his project.
Meanwhile, the vehicle's passengers enjoyed feeling its speed, which, after 10 minutes of travel, reached a cruising speed of 90 km/h.
The route between Millfall and Martell Village did not have sharp bends, so the vehicle maintained its top speed for almost the entire journey.
Even though it was loaded with a few tons of resources, Vicente's train didn't falter. It was soon in the middle of the Crow Woods, where Shelby couldn't help but look at the view outside the train with a twinkle in her eye.
'What a magnificent view!' she thought to herself as they passed an elevated area of that forest, from where she could see hundreds of square kilometers in the surrounding area.
She could see much of the view from this place, as well as from other areas, such as the farms near Martell Village, and The Rocky Gorge near Millfall.
Seeing that, she couldn't help but consider the potential of this business to carry people.
How many people wouldn't pay a lot of coins to travel comfortably in a vehicle as good and fast as this?
Although this vehicle wasn't designed to be comfortable and beautiful, nothing would stop Vicente and his people from doing something similar in the future.
Thinking about how she would use a vehicle like this to travel around the province, she got up from her seat and went to the area where only Vicente was.
"Shelby..."
"Vice, have you thought about the possibility of creating vehicles like this for passenger transportation?" She got straight to the point.
He smiled as he looked through the windows at the area he was in, understanding that she had enjoyed the view.
"Yes, but not just yet. There's a lot of demand for materials to be transported around the province, but not so much for transporting people.
Many people would like to go from Millfall to Ironcrest, Saltstar City, Dryhaven, etc. But not between Millfall and Martell Village.
So until we have a rail line connecting several of these cities, it wouldn't be profitable to create trains to transport passengers." He explained.
Shelby was a businesswoman and understood Vicente's point perfectly. "But when the time comes, you have to do it. I estimate that a train journey between Millfall and Saltstar City would only take 10 days to complete. At the same time, the dangers to travelers would be less than in carriage journeys since the entire route would be under the control of your group.
In a way, with this business, you would replace the demand for carriage beasts, carriages, coachmen, and mercenaries working as bodyguards. At the same time, you could make these travelers spend their coins on food inside your trains. The possibilities are endless!"
Vicente smiled at his orange-haired ally's animation, watching her approach him with a smile on her beautiful face.
"You're right. It will take a while to happen, but it will be in my plans." He grabbed her waist when he saw her so close.
Shelby bit her lip at being so close to him after months without any contact with this friend of hers.
"How much longer do we have until the village?" She asked as she felt her heart beating faster and her face flushing.
"Half an hour."
"That's long enough." She said as she knelt down in front of Vicente and put her hands on the young man's belt.
Vicente liked this and merely used his powers to lock the door to the area he and Shelby were in.
...
About 25 minutes later...
The door to the driver's area unlocked, and soon afterward, Shelby left Vicente's seat and went to sit next to Molly.
Molly was a woman like Shelby, so unlike the blacksmiths who didn't notice anything, she readily understood the slight smile on her young lady's face.
That was the expression of a satisfied woman!
"Congratulations." She commented quietly to Shelby.
"Hm?"
"You've inaugurated Vicente's train."
Shelby laughed when she heard that, but she couldn't say anything against Molly's words since it was indeed the truth.
