The people were going back and forth inside the town. Although a lot of things happened in the last few months, they were still able to recover.
However, everything changed when the birds suddenly leaped into the air. Animals started rampaging or doing weird things as if they were scared of something.
The horses became uncontrollable, resulting in them crashing into buildings or stopping entirely.
“What’s going on?”
“Is it coming again?!”
All of a sudden, the entire city was shaking.
“NO!”
It shook violently as people started falling to their knees, having a hard time stabilizing their bodies.
“What is going on?!”
The people were screaming and running if they were able to do it.
*Crack!*
One guy raised his head and turned it to the left, finding the building beside him suddenly crumbling. “Aaaahh—!” He screamed, but soon that voice died out as the building buried him.
Other buildings were suffering the same thing. However, most of them didn’t collapse.
As the tallest building in the town, the Blacksmith Guild headquarters experienced the shake much more violently than others. In fact, the people outside could see the building swaying left and right.
“Kyaa! What’s going on? The earth is angry?” Sera ducked while covering her head with both hands.
Nathan immediately pulled her into his embrace while covering her head. Thompson released his Ena, trying to protect the people around, while Flora summoned her Earth Spirit.
The Earth Spirit looked around, feeling the shaking in the ground. It looked surprised and soon panicked. From its expression, the Earth Spirit was also clueless about what was going on.
Only Nathan was able to figure out what was happening.
‘Earthquake? This is an earthquake? Ah, fuck. I have read a lot of stories about a continent falling from the sky or a meteor destroying the world, but not a lot of stories using natural disasters as a trope.
‘No, wait. There was a novel that explained an earth movement. What was the name of the novel again… ‘Let’s Find Oil in Martial World’ or something?
‘If I’m not wrong, he has explained about several movements, but I don’t think any of his explanations can fit in this situation, especially since they’re talking about an earthquake at regular intervals.’ Nathan fell silent as if he thought about something.
The shake only lasted for two minutes before it vanished entirely. However, the books, shelves, or other items had fallen to the ground, causing a big mess.
Everyone was breathing heavily, looking at each other.
Flora’s hands were shaking, but she hid them so that Nathan and the others didn’t feel scared. She asked, “Are you alright?”
Nathan nodded while checking on Sera, who had a much bigger reaction. As a devout believer, she really thought the god was angry, thinking this was the end of the world.
She was shaking, so Nathan had to comfort her. Stay updated through freewebnovel
Meanwhile, Flora checked her clueless Earth Spirit before turning to Thompson. “Was that the shaking you talked about earlier?”
“Yeah.” Thompson nodded with a grim expression. “This is a mess. We have to calm down the city again.”
“Is this happening all the time?”
“Since a few months ago. It has been happening more often recently. At first, the second shock came four months after the first one. The third one came three months after the second… And the one earlier was the fifth.” Thompson nodded. “We have dispatched the team to investigate it, but we haven’t found out the cause yet.”
Flora looked disappointed. This made her a bit scared to actually enter the mine.
To their surprise, Nathan’s voice echoed in the room.
“Earthquake.”
They both turned their heads to Nathan in confusion. “What did you say?”
“Earthquake. The terminology to describe this incident. I read this in the book (novel) in the Ancient Library (Internet).” Nathan sighed. “The world’s crust is moving.”
“Do you know what’s going on?” Thompson gasped.
Nathan raised both hands, pointing at each other. “The crust… or more easily to understand… There are several big ‘grounds’ all around the world. If they are moving apart from each other…”
Nathan moved both hands away from each other. “This is called Divergent. It causes volcanic eruptions and shallow earthquakes.
“On the other hand, if they’re moving toward each other, the pressure between these giant lumps of ground will be so high that they increase the temperature and turn it into magma.
“However, there’s a certain point where they’re unable to withstand each other anymore. And…” Nathan suddenly moved his right hand upward while the left hand was downward. “The one moving upward creates a mountain range. That breaking point causes a large earthquake. The third movement is where these two plates are sliding laterally past each other.
“Last but not least… a movement because of magma, which can cause earthquakes as well. Isn’t there a record about something like this happening when a volcano is about to erupt? I think this one might be the cause of this earthquake. A volcano might be about to erupt…”
Everyone dropped their jaws to the ground. They never heard of anything about this. Nathan was so lucky that he could read it in the Ancient Library.
Thompson looked down while muttering, “I have heard about this before. Now that I think about it, the Ancient Library is made by a Dwarf King… Don’t tell me, the record is there? I see. If it’s a Dwarf King, he might know something about this. Earthquake, huh?”
Thompson fell into deep thought, his expression becoming more and more serious.
“What’s wrong? Is the theory he read in the Ancient Library wrong?” Flora asked, worried. If Nathan was wrong, she was ready to apologize. At the same time, she never thought Nathan had this kind of knowledge.
Thompson shook his head. “The problem is… There are no volcanoes around here. The nearest one is located.”
Thompson looked around and grabbed a map. He opened it and pointed at a location.
“This one. It’s located more than 350 km (217 miles) from here.”
All of them looked shocked. With such distances, they didn’t think it was possible to affect them.
Nathan let out a long sigh. ‘I wonder if there’s more information from that novel… I should have read more sci-fi novels based on real science.’