Tristan checked a few of the locations he was familiar with to Vulcan’s distress. The whole situation might have hit a bit harder if he had been able to see what had occurred. Looking out at the ashes of a civilization was different than digging it up one handful at a time. It was one of the few times that he was grateful for the snow, he did not have to look at what had happened.
The Forest Caldera was little more than a sheet of glass. Tristan had been shocked to find that it had been superheated to the point of liquidating the ground. The final result felt like standing atop a frozen lake. With the foot thick white coating it looked no different than anything else.
Having gotten confirmation of his friend’s survival, Tristan finally acquiesced to Vulcan, “We can leave now. The Elders claimed they found some people, but I have no idea what direction they are in. Vulcan, were there any groups of people that you knew of before you died?”
Vulcan hummed in thought before speaking, “Yes, though it is not uncommon for civilizations to last less time than I have lived.”
Tristan frowned, “Why, the Caldera would have lasted quite a bit longer if Viral had not shown up.”
“Exactly, A civilization is only as secure as the threat it can resist with its strongest members,” Vulcan explained, “If your neighbor has a guy five tiers higher than your best guy, then you had best hope you don’t get something that he wants. Anyway, I know a few places to the east and one to the south.”
Viral had probably killed everything in the east, so if he wanted to find people he would need to head south. Tristan had explored the west, and he knew what mythical beasts to expect in that direction. Mentally he added to the list of creatures that he should expect, manticores, nightmares, and blood locusts. At one point he would have assumed he could handle all of them, but the bone sloth had disabused him of that notion. Using Vulcan would let Tristan even the playing field, but the soul tool was nearly always on the last fumes of essence.
“Why do you recover so slowly?” Tristan asked as he started towards the south.
“Oh, I only have two tiers in my kern,” Vulcan said.
Tristan frowned, attempting to understand, “But you’re tier fifteen, right?”
“Yup, seven tiers in my anima, seven in my domain, and two in my kern. And before you try to use math to poke holes in that statement, you normal people made tier zero a thing even before Uncle was born,” Vulcan said defensively. Tristan had been about to point out the bad math. He continued, “A kern is the only one of the three parts that has a connection to the primordial realm, meaning, I recover at tier one speeds.”
Tristan tried to wrap his brain around zero being a tier in and of itself. He had always equated it to a powerless human, but even tier zeros could use tier one artifacts. That meant that they had essence to activate an artifact with.
Vulcan pulled Tristan out of his thoughts, “Honestly, you should be right on the edge of kickstarting your anima.”
He paused, “What, how?”
“Anima is the power of your body, and you just shoved a mountain of compatible essence into it,” Vulcan said, “Most people who aren’t born with it active have to work for years to start using it.”
Tristan was even more glad he had not decided to abandon the kharkodine ore. He knew little about how animas truly functioned, but every example of one he came across made it appear powerful. Conni had his active and he had no issue fighting an entire tier up without a force. At least Tristan assumed he lacked one. The ability to use essence to directly augment his capabilities would be useful in the extreme.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The edge of the Caldera came into view and Tristan started downhill. He looked for footprints in the snow or evidence of any kind that someone had gone in the same direction. It was a fool's errand to look for Luke and his group, but other people could have survived. Maybe a warrior that was out in the wilderness or a hunter. Unlikely, but Tristan would take any person now.
Looking east, Tristan could see the path Viral took. A mile wide swath of trees was missing. It was straight as an arrow and extended into the distance with no end in sight. A further two or three miles on either side of the line showed signs of fire damage. Every pine tree had its needles stripped away and many of the smaller branches were burned back to the trunk.
Tristan was glad he would not have to be following that path. The south was a relatively normal landscape just like the west. Tristan sped up when he entered the forest assuming that trees meant there would be fewer crevices to worry about. It was right in a way, the crevices were still there, but the trees caught enough of the snow and prevented enough snow drifts to keep them visible.
“How far away is this place, and are there any customs I need to know about?” Tristan asked.
“I don’t know how far away it is. We stopped there to pick up a few volunteers, but flying a ship makes distances seem much shorter than they actually are. However the city has nearly a million residents so you can’t miss it,” Vulcan paused to pull some of his memories out of storage, “Uh, I think they wanted to be a wealth based society. Don’t think that they will be as impressed with your tier as the Caldera was.”
Tristan was still reeling a bit at the words ‘a million people.’ He was not aware that many people could live in a single area. How did they get food? The crops needed for that population would stretch for hundreds of miles in every direction. What about water or waste management? Tristan could see a place of that size poisoning their water table without a powerful septic system.
It took another two days for Tristan to find his answer. He had stopped running, but that still put the Caldera nearly two hundred miles away. At first, he did not notice that he had entered the city limits, there were no buildings or people so it was excusable. Then his metal sense started picking up regular sources of metal below ground.
That was also normal, metal was mined from the ground after all. No, he first saw the city when he came to a canyon cut into the earth. It was very deep with a river flowing at its base. The walls of the canyon had hundreds of structures cut into its walls. Snow outlined arches and empty windows, pillars, and large venues were easily visible from across the gap.
Looking back Tristan realized the city had been beneath his feet for the last few miles. It was a giant human ant hill. There was one massive issue, no humans. It was a good way to support a large city, there was a river for water, and the surface could be used for crops. While a million was still mind boggling, if the homes were the standard four hundred square feet it would not take up much space if they were also stacked ten deep.
What was harder than a million people living in one location was one million people vanishing without a trace. Nothing was blood-stained or broken, at least where Tristan could see. Maybe a plague went through the population, cramped living conditions could worsen the peril of a plague.
“Should I go in?” Tristan asked unsure if he wanted to mess with a potential plague.
“Sure, if no ones coming home take their stuff,” Vulcan answered, “Also you’re practically screaming about plagues in your brain. You have consumption and healing, that basically makes you immune to anything that someone would use on a bunch of tier zeros.”
“How can you be sure?” Tristan asked.
“It's a simple effort to impact formula,” Vulcan sent a mental shrug, “Anyone powerful enough to make a plague to kill the higher tiers probably could use simpler, more controllable methods to achieve the same results. Like blowing the whole place up. Someone too weak to do that would be unable to handle the forces needed to kill heroes and legends. You especially are resistant to any poisons and viruses that don’t specifically target a few weaknesses that you have.”
That put Tristan’s mind at ease, but just to be sure he asked, “What is a weakness that would be problematic?”
“Your lungs, the organ itself is quite resilient, but if it were filled with something other than oxygen you would die. Fumigation would be a great way to get rid of you,” Vulcan said smugly.
Fumigation would also be a great way to kill off a subterranean populace. Wishing that he hadn’t asked, Tristan dropped over the edge of the canyon. He fell twenty feet before catching himself on a balcony. The absorption alloy took most of the force that his shoulder should have taken, making the sudden stop surprisingly comfortable. Pulling himself up, Tristan prepared to face whatever killed the city.