Over the next week, Jonathan achieved his goal slowly but surely, bringing each of the guards up to level fifty. Eva reached level sixty, due to her higher starting level, as well as her innate drive. For every monster that her subordinates killed, she killed two.
At this point, all of the guards were strong enough to deal with one of the Ash Prowlers on their own, and Jonathan barely had to supervise anymore. He could simply draw the beasts in and let the guards fight them off. In response to this, the city councilors had demanded to be granted the same opportunities, but upon seeing half of them literally piss their pants upon having to fight for the first time, Jonathan had decided to stop. They had clearly gotten their essence in some other way. One day, he would make sure that the entire city was capable of defending themselves. For now however, his focus was on the guards.
He had neglected entering Tartarus in some time, as the entire purpose of him leveling up the guards was that they would be able to defend the city in his absence. Now that he had gotten them all up to an appreciable level however, he was ready to take a more hands off approach.
As he walked back into the city with the current group of guards in tow, he noticed that they were subtly exuding their auras to show off to the townspeople, who were gazing at their protectors in awe. They had likely never seen anyone of that strength, save for Jonathan or Edgar, at least in people who were their allies. Now that the city had a contingent of decently leveled fighters, it was more defensible than before.
Jonathan left them off at the barracks and headed back towards the cave to meet up with Edgar. It was time for them to keep leveling up. Edgar had been up to… something when Jonathan had been off training the guards. He had no idea what it was though. Perhaps the man was simply training. As he neared the cave however, he began to hear heavy breathing coming from the interior, and a feminine voice saying something in a hushed tone. He froze, and then slowly started to back down the mountain. He knew exactly what was going on there. Jonathan waited until the noises had stopped, and then started back up the rockface, wanting to catch a glimpse of the women who had captured his friend’s heart.
A moment later, Edgar walked out of the cave, along with Eva. Both of them were quite disheveled, and their faces were red. Jonathan cocked one eyebrow as he approached, and Edgar froze.
“Hello,” Jonathan said simply, raising one eyebrow under his helmet.
“... Hello. This is uh…” Edgar tried to say.
“I know who that is,” Jonathan said. “I’m glad to see that you have managed to find at least something good in this place.”
“You’re not angry?” Eva asked softly, crossing her fingers.
“Angry? Why would I be angry? Edgar needs a way to blow off some steam. I am already too far gone, but he is still human.”
Eva nodded at this, unsure of what to say, and then walked down the mountain, away from the two men. All the while, Edgar stared in the direction of her lower back. Jonathan chuckled. He had become acquainted with women of all sorts during his old life. At least Edgar had found a good one. He clapped Edgar on the back, shaking the man, and then headed into the cave. It was time to continue exploring Tartarus.
A few minutes later, they were standing in the middle of the landscape of lava and rock that made up the realm of Tartarus. It stretched out in front of them as they walked away from the golem corpse. They had appeared where they had left, near the body of the Volcanic Golem that they had fought.
Nothing had picked at it of course, seeing as the corpse was made entirely out of rock. There were very few scavengers who had a taste for obsidian. However, this land was not entirely made up of golems. There were other beasts besides, as well as ore deposits.
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The two men headed out, heading towards the nearest hill, about ten miles away. There was a small watchtower on it, which seemed to be derelict. It was intriguing enough that Jonathan had found himself drawn to it almost upon seeing it.
They reached it with little incident, and they clambered up the hill, heading in the gate to the watchtower, which was hanging off its hinges. Inside was a small barracks area, with crumbling wooden racks and tables. A staircase led up to the top of the watchtower, and Edgar headed up it. Jonathan stayed at the bottom, and spotted a small letter written on some sort of animal skin lying on one of the desks. He moved over, frowning, and picked it up. It looked almost like a journal entry.
Day 57 of the Autumnal Watch
Granath has left us. Our lord and savior, the man who had united the tribes of the world against the scourge of the monsters is gone. It has been ten days since he left, but we are now sure that he will never return. The augurs had predicted nothing but ruin for us, a return to our primal state. What will become of the great Uthraki civilization? Will we be reduced to our primal state once more? Curse you, Granath.
The message was filled with angst, but it seemed to be justified. It almost looked like the Uthraki had once been a far greater power in this world, because of the aid of Granath. They were the only sapient species in this world as far as Jonathan knew, which meant that Granath had likely been forced to contact them to gain resources, back when the worm was weaker. Apparently he had simply left when he had gotten enough out of this world, leaving his allies to die.
The guards in this watchtower were long gone, and all that remained of them were their belongings, and few of them at that. Either they had died here, or had long since left, as this place had been untouched for years, or perhaps even decades. In fact, with the dry air combined with the intense heat of this world, something could be preserved for millenia, and still survive.
The only question that Jonathan had was where they had gotten the wood from. It was an odd reddish tinge, but it was still undoubtedly wood. If he could get some of his hands on it, it would be very useful. He looked up as Edgar tramped down the stairs, seeing the man holding what looked like a telescope in his hands.
“Anything useful up there?” Jonathan called over.
“There was a small observation platform. The only thing left intact however was this. It looks like it is made out of metal.”
Edgar passed the telescope over to Jonathan, who took it. It was made out of some sort of brass, with crystalline lenses inside. It was in good shape for something that had been here for god knew how many years. Jonathan put it up to his eye, looking out the open door. The world outside suddenly came into sharp focus, and he saw it at a far greater scale than he had before. Rather than simply enhancing his vision, it somehow blended his entire line of sight into something that was then amplified, allowing him to see the entire vista as if it was only a few miles away.
Villages dotted the land, with small pillars of smoke rising up from them. Patrols of Uthraki, both in the air and on the ground passed between the villages, bringing goods to one another. Monsters clashed with the patrols all too often, and in the distance a few true leviathans wandered, creatures the size of mountains. They were likely the end bosses of this realm, for people who had reached the very top.
Granath had probably fought them, gaining the last bits of essence needed for him to reach the peak of Tier 2. Perhaps one day Jonathan and Edgar would be fighting against those same monsters. Edgar had begun to close the gap slightly between himself and Jonathan, but he was never going to fully catch up. Still, he was stronger than most at his level. Jonathan walked back into the watchtower, and handed the telescope to Edgar.
“This is an interesting piece of technology,” Jonathan said. “It works in ways that I can barely comprehend.”
“I believe that it works based on Light elemental energy. It is able to funnel information direction into your eyes.”
“Oh.”
Edgar took the telescope and tucked it into his armor’s belt loop, before heading back up the stairs. This time, Jonathan followed him. The top of the watchtower was simply a circular expanse of stone with a small wall around it, separating it from the elements. A long extinct fire pit sat in the center of the area. It was clearly for sending signals, as there would be no need for a fire in this place for anything other than cooking.
Jonathan strode up to the edge, and beckoned for Edgar to hand him the telescope. The man obliged, and Jonathan peered out into the realm of Tartarus. With the aid of the telescope, he was able to see to the furthest reaches of the realm, spotting only a monolithic obsidian wall when the world ended, likely separating it from the Void.