The following morning Tristan could see most of the other people gathering by division before fragmenting into smaller groups. Tristan briefly wondered if the Forest Caldera’s citizens were split up over the three Caldera’s bordering the plains or all concentrated here. After the small groups were made, they would then cross a bridge over the trench. The bridge would be pulled up behind them. He wondered if this was really how the warrior caste ran the Caldera’s defense. It seemed to waste a lot of effort.
The rest of what Tristan started calling the ‘Golden Heart’ division started gathering just off to the side of the gate. Not long after everyone arrived, Lesly showed up. She handed a bucket filled with beads to someone and asked them to pass it around. Everyone removed a bead and passed the bucket on. When Tristan got it he saw beads numbered between one and fifteen inside.
No, was his first thought. They can’t be dividing people up by lottery, it would create wildly unbalanced groups. There was a legitimate risk of placing two enemies together or filling up a team with a single kern type. Shrugging he picked a number one and passed the bucket on, Tristan was not here to save the Caldera after all. He was here for some hard fights.
Lesly watched the bucket, retrieving it when it finished its rounds. She held it up, “Alright, there were five of each bead, each of you will find those with the same beads. They will be your team mates until you lose enough people, or we exterminate the crabs.”
Tristan was very confused, they really were splitting people like this. He felt that he was missing something. The strategy here seemed to inefficient to be worth considering. Many of the ghost crabs would be small due to them hatching from smaller creatures, making them difficult to find in the expansive corn fields for small teams. Prudence would dictate they set the plains on fire or march through in mass and flush them out. Fortunately Lesly seemed to want to explain herself.
“You may all be wondering why we don’t just clear out the whole plain with fire or march through with an army. The simple reason is food. The crop currently in the plains is around half of the food we will need to survive the next winter. A further twenty percent is in the silos and warehouses scattered around the two fallen Caldera’s. The complicated reason is politics.” Lesly made sure every one understood, “In short, we need to preserve the fields and clear out the more dangerous ghost crabs, so we can get some workers in here to harvest them. After that time we can light everything on fire.”
Tristan was surprised for some reason. He had let his opinions of Elder Forest cloud his opinion. His uncle had treated him like garbage and Tristan had thought of him as a fool in return. He had assumed that they could not be bothered with the problem and were using it to cull their less valuable citizens. Granted, both cases could be accurate.
Lesly started speaking, “My little brother, Bruce, will be my second. He will also be leading team one. Team one gather here.”
A young man was pointed out by Lesly, he looked like the male version of her with bleached hair and an athletic frame. After pointing him out ,Lesly moved on to set up the second and third team. Tristan however just got the name of the problem child who had beaten him on his first trip home, Bruce Golden Heart. He did not know if it changed anything, over the years in the mine, Tristan had been less trusting of new people. Bruce was simply a stranger with a bad attitude, making him something to avoid, not something to hate.
Shrugging, he walked over to Bruce. The young man was most likely a tier two or bottom tier three. If Tristan was a betting man, the Golden Hearts had seen the quality of Lesly and focused most of their resources on her. Bruce was likely given both fewer and lower quality artifacts.
If Bruce tried to pull anything this time, Tristan was sure that he could find a way to make him disappear out in the plains. From what Shadow Fist said, the Golden Hearts were a merchant family with a warrior tier. That gave Bruce an advantage in strength, and Tristan an advantage in experience and weaponry.
“It looks like I’m with you,” Tristan said.
Bruce raised an eyebrow, “Do I know you?”
Tristan waved his hand in a so so gesture, “I know you, but I was part of an unimpressive group at the time, so you probably don’t know me.” Tristan extended his hand, he briefly looked for a false name, “My name is Sage. I like to think my parents named me after a wise leader, but I suspect they named me after the weed. I have a low tier one kern, and have come to make a name for myself.”
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Tristan felt a pang of regret. His name was probably now Sage legally. According to the records, Tristan no longer existed. If any record of his achievements became known, it would truly be a new identity. He had picked the name because he thought it would be funny to have Bruce calling him Sage all the time, however it would not be terrible if it stuck.
Bruce looked a little dazed at the flood of information, “Nice to have you, to, My name is Bruce Golden Heart.” His face turned a little red when he realized that his sister had just introduced him, “I have a high tier two light kern.”
Tristan couldn’t help but take a jab at him, “Oh, so your’e a glow stick?”
“Well what are you good at!” Bruce shot back, a little offended.
“Uh hello,” a person walked up, interrupting them.
Tristan frowned at the familiar voice. It was Harp’s father. He was in his mid thirties now, and looked the same as he did four years ago. Unlike Bruce, the sound of this man’s voice brought up some rage.
Bruce had been a spoiled child, but it looked like he had matured, he was much less caustic than in their last meeting. Harps father, Clive, had been a friend, and he had stabbed Tristan in the back. Actually he had handed his daughter the knife and told her to go stab Tristan. Harp had Tristan’s apathy, Clive had Tristan’s enmity.
“Oh another glow stick,” Tristan plastered a smile on his face, “Did you bring some glow stick friends with you?”
Clive flinched back, “Sir, I don’t know what I did to offend you but I am sure we can-“
Tristan punched him in the face. It was the weirdest punch that he had ever felt. Different kerns gave different effects to the blood, light made it better at healing, be more efficient with nutrients, and glow. Metal imparted weight, durability, and flexibility, which were perfect combat attributes.
It was also the first time he had punched someone at the same tier as him. Kale was the closest at a mid tier three, but his usual opponents were Siren and Luke. Luke was edging in on tier five, he could wipe out this whole division by himself.
Clive put up almost no resistance, and a strike meant to stall a tier four plowed into a tier one. Fortunately, Clive did not get knocked out, but he was dazed. Tristan frowned, he had promised himself he would do that someday, but it was surprisingly unsatisfying.
Lesly’s head snapped around and she yelled, “What the hell are you doing!”
Tristan gave her a thumbs up, “Just sayin hi.”
Lesly seemed taken aback, “How is that saying hi?”
“Well that’s how I got sent to the mine after all, but they all seemed to like me,” Tristan said.
Lesly seemed to realize that she was dealing with a malcontent and a public nuisance. There was not a lot she could do. If Bruce had gotten his position out of nepotism, then she would move the miner. However, Bruce was being groomed to be the head of the gambling side of the family. Someone like this would be the perfect grindstone to sharpen her brother’s skills on. An irritant that could work as a wet stone and removed when his use was over.
“Don’t do that again, remember treat your team like family,” Lesly said.
“Should I punch him again,” Tristan asked, “I would totally punch my dad again.”
“Bruce deal with him, I have ten more teams to set up.” Lesly turned and stomped off.
Clive groaned. Tristan reached down and grabbed him by the front of his shirt and dragged him to his feet. After dusting off the man’s shoulders he turned back to Bruce.
“Are you sure your tier one?” Bruce asked, he was wary, as that movement was way to fast for a tier one worker.
“Well you asked,” Tristan shrugged, “Your good at glowing, I am good at punching.”
Bruce slowly nodded. the last two people arrived, and Tristan did not recognize either of them. One was a skinny man with black hair and eyes. He introduced himself as Ray, and comically Ray had a tier two dark kern.
The last person was a woman. She looked rather ordinary, though Tristan’s standard were probably skewed. His models for comparison were Grace, who looked like a werewolf and Sun Set who was very pretty. The passive healing and nutrient efficiency of Sun Set’s light kern did wonders for her beauty, however she was a whole generation above Tristan.
The new girl’s name was Eve. She was the grand daughter of Elder River and skilled with a spear. She was here to raise her eligibility for marriage. As she had a tier two water kern, she needed some accomplishments under her belt to get the attention of the warrior caste men. Normally Tristan would have disregarded the entire story as an attention grab, except, the last part was a lie. He frowned, why would someone from the head family need to lie about marriage, they could marry anyone the wanted. Tristan pushed the thought aside, it did not matter.
She also looked very familiar, so Tristan asked, “I feel like I have seen you somewhere before.”
Eve snorted while inspecting Clive’s bruised face, “Well you haven’t met me, you’re to violent for that” Her eyes narrowed, “Have you visited the alchemist?”
Some loose threads came together. The alchemist had a maid or apprentice who looked almost identical Eve. Maybe a twin sister. Tristan could only shake his head. Hadrid had somehow managed to recruit Elder Rivers granddaughter.