Tristan looked at the Stone Caldera. They had just arrived after a day and a half of walking. The recruiter had called it marching, but it was the most pathetic marching that Tristan had ever seen. The recruiter was a tier two manager who could generously be described as an armchair leader. Though the average tier of two allowed them to make significantly better time than the group otherwise should have.
There were several people in the march that Tristan actually recognized. Harps father, Clive and the Gold Heart boy were there. Fortunately none of them recognized Tristan. His emotions concerning them ranged from indifferent to violent anger.
The Stone Caldera was made of grey stone which gave the city a dirty appearance during the day. This was not true, the city was very clean, the architecture was designed very block like with little personality. That was only during the day as when night fell the city transformed.
Moss grew on the stone making it look rather drab, however, this moss was luminescent. During the first two or three hours after sun set, the Stone Caldera would glow a blue green color. There was enough of the moss to substitute for daylight and extend some work days by one or two hours.
Tristan was currently not in a position to enjoy the city however. He was currently in the Stone Caldera’s version of the sifting grounds. It was almost identical to the Forest Caldera’s. A flat dirt patch with benches at the edges which allowed the area to be used for many different events. The big difference was the lack of trees around the perimeter.
Currently there was around fifty men here. Tristan felt odd referring to himself as a man as he was almost seventeen, but he supposed that if you defined a man as independent, then he was one. The man before them was supposed to be explaining what was going on, but he seemed to be waiting for more people to arrive. He simply slouched against the chair he had brought like the entire world was against him.
It got cramped at sixty-five and uncomfortable at seventy-five, which was when he began, “I am from the warrior caste and my name is Vin, I was a squad captain in the Plain Caldera. I am one of my Caldera’s few survivors, and I intend to take my home back.”
The people grumbled and Tristan realized that most of them had no idea what was going on. He was surprised that no one here knew, they were not far from the front line. The fact that Vin was from the Plains Caldera did explain his depressed behavior.
“Around two months ago, the boarder guards let a creature known as a ghost crab into the caldera. It was quiet and sneaky, it first set up a nest in the Grass Caldera and they spread it to the Plain Caldera, where a much larger nest was created. The plains have been cordoned off to contain the crabs.”
Tristan noticed that Vin avoided the word parasitic or mythical beast. Both were relevant pieces of information, and many people could potentially die. Tristan suspected that Vin did not really care about that.
“You will be sent to a fort on the edge of the plain, as for payment, that will be decided by how many crabs you hunt based on tier. Any questions?”
No one asked anything, so Tristan raised his hand. When Vin nodded he asked, “How many ghost crab’s are in a nest, and what are their tiers?”
Vin shrugged, “We don’t know, at least a hundred thousand, the average tier is zero however. That’s why we only wanted tier one and up.”
The explanation was accurate and sounded logical if you were uneducated. Ghost Crabs hatched at the same tier a their host. If you averaged all the tier three ones that would hatch from the cattle with the tier zero ones that hatched from rats, chickens and pets, the average would hover around tier zero. However with just the cattle, there should be around a twenty to fifty thousand tier three crabs. That was twice the population of the Grass and Plains caldera combined.
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Tristan decided to keep that information to himself, he was not sure how far these people would go to keep a secrete. They were most likely trying to avoid the deserters that would invariably show up when they found out that they could become hosts to tier three mythical beasts. Still that would mean the bulk of the caldera’s forces would resent the leadership from this day forward.
Vin made a ‘come here’ gesture and a woman with blond hair so bright that it was almost white stepped forward, “You will follow Lesly Golden Heart to the fort, and there you will be split into different groups.”
Lesly gave Vin a pitying look, before shaking her head. At first Tristan believed that Lesly was the Golden Heart bully’s mom, but she looked far to young. She was four or five years older than Tristan, which meant that she was most likely an older sister. Also from the command position she was a tier three, probably with a light kern.
“Alright,” Lesly said, rubbing her hands together, “ Who’s ready to kill some crabs. We leave right now and will reach the fort this evening.”
Tristan frowned, this show from Lesly and Vin was odd. Neither possessed the skills to lead a group. Vin lied or at least omitted vital facts, and Lesly seemed to be very inexperienced. Tristan had never been part of an extermination, and as far as he was aware of, no one in the Caldera was. The boarder wall had successfully kept everything out in the past.
Lesly started leaving and the seventy-five people in the field followed her out. No one talked on the way to the fort. Most people were probably trying to figure out what was going on. As the Stone Caldera was on the highest slope of the Caldera, the recruits were able to see the plains from a distance. The Plains were massive by Tristan’s standards.
Logically he knew it was massive, taking up almost two thirds of the entire caldera. However he had no concept of what kind of scale that was. He could see a lake on one side, it looked quite small from this distance, but he knew that Hadrid had his lab on its shore. The Lake Caldera was a was barely visible on the near shore, only its black wall allowed Tristan to see it due to the contrast against the background.
The fort came into view an hour later. Tristan could see people digging what looked like a trench where the plains met the stony ground. Normally the division would be gradual, but signs of a fire line could be seen. The fort was a simple structure made of wood, with the standard buildings you would expect. Sleeping quarters, latrine, armory, hospital, and the last building Tristan assumed was some kind of office. All the buildings were as basic as they could get, however that was to be expected. This fort had been constructed in less than a month.
When they got closer. Tristan noticed the worn out expressions on the people’s faces. He knew digging was hard work, but exhaustion should not be the result. Stress had most likely set in. The idea that you could hatch a little monster was probably horrifying and would keep most people up at night.
Lesly stopped just off to the right of the gate, “Alright, everyone, welcome to your home away from home. You will be living here for the foreseeable future, so get used to it.” She inspected everyone’s reactions for a moment, “We will split you into teams of five, these people will be your family, protect them like your own siblings. We rotate guard schedules, the Golden Heart division, which is you guys, will be standing watch two days from now. The different divisions will be ranked based on the number of Ghost Crabs that are killed. This will affect different things, like who gets in line first at meal times.”
Tristan looked over at the plain. This did not really sound like that big of an issue. If they really wanted to get rid of the crabs, they would simply light the whole plain on fire. With nothing to eat, the ghost crabs would have to leave, burn, or starve. Well, he would find out tomorrow when he was assigned to a team.
“The model of the extermination will follow the same format as the boarder wall. Teams of five will enter an kill as many beasts as possible, while those placed at the boarder will keep them inside the plain. That is what the trench is for, it has a sticky substance poured in to stop them from crossing and keep them contained. You will get to experience the life of the warrior caste for next while,” Lesly grinned, “Isn’t it awesome. Get some good sleep, cause tomorrow we fight monsters.”