Grand Saint Alloy

A month passed where Tristan did not do much more than find new metal and train with Luke. Siren had started giving them pointers, the man had insane insight into predictive combat. Tristan was excited as, before the martial arts of a warrior would be useless. The overwhelming amount of essence in their body allowed them to take risks and achieve movements that were impractical for people like Tristan. With the potential to someday reach tier three it was no longer an impossibility.

Siren finished absorbing the dark essence from the sword in that time. It was a process different to what Tristan expected. Just like his knives absorbed metal essence from himself, Siren’s weapon absorbed dark essence from the environment. All he had to do was reverse the the flow. It permanently damaged the tool, but at least Siren was now tier four.

It was on one day in spring that a messenger from the Forest Caldera arrived. Conni had him wait so he could gather everyone. It took around thirty minutes, as everyone in the mine was several miles away.

Once they were gathered in the dirt yard in front of the mine entrance, the messenger pulled a clip board out of a bag, “Citizens of the Forest Caldera!” The man yelled, causing everyone to jump, “The five elders have declared an emergency gathering of military forces to the Lake, River, and Stone Calderas.”

Tristan was surprised. Five elders, there were six elders originally. What in the world was going on, the Forest Caldera was just an hour and a half run down the road, that meant Tristan would have heard if something had happened to it. That meant that there was something wrong with the Grass or Plain Calderas. The fact that the messenger came here meant that whatever was going on did not mandate the tier three warriors being removed from the walls. The Elders were looking for tier one and two bodies to throw at their problem.

The Crier continued, “It is mandatory for all people with a tier two or three kern at this location to gather at the Lake Caldera. Tier one volunteers will be accepted. Tier Zero will be rejected.”

Luke chuckled and whispered, “watch this,” Tristan watched him curiously, “SIR! What about tier four kerns, do they have to go?”

The crier narrowed his eyes, “No need to yell. And there are no tier fours, so no.”

Tristan frowned. That had to be a lie, maybe it was some kind of government secret. When he was still thirteen, he would have said that tier four was an impossible goal. Now he had met Luke and Siren who were both tier four, Rail was a hero, putting him somewhere at or above tier six, and Hadrid was a tier five. He was even a short paddle away from the Lake Caldera.

If Tristan was a betting man, he would say that each Elder hid away a tier four in the case of civil unrest. It would be an easy task to accomplish to. All they would need was to purchase a bunch of tier three artifacts to boost someone to the threshold of tier four and just before the previous tier four died have him create an artifact. That would allow the new peak tier three to become a tier four. It was not even unethical, which Tristan found to be surprising for some reason.

“You will be informed of what is going on when you arrive. Anyone found not to be complying with this order will be exiled from the Caldera and be thrown into the outer wilderness. All people with tier two and three kerns will report to the Forest Caldera by evening tomorrow when the next group will leave for the River Caldera.” The crier rolled up the paper he was reading off of, “If you want to volunteer meet me by the edge of base camp tonight, I will be taking a blood sample to determine your tier, we don’t want any tier zero getting any ideas and sneaking in.”

Tristan scratched his head, it was odd, but he could actually join this expedition. However, everyone he would be willing to support in the caldera was already at the base camp. Chase and Sun Set also had tier one kern, putting them below the power threshold. Luke and Siren were actually above the power threshold so they did not have to go. Olfred and most of his group actually had tier two kerns, meaning that the camp would actually get more pleasant in the near future.

Conni stepped up beside the crier, “I will be hosting our guest in my home for the rest of the day, all eligible people are to report before dinner so their names can be recorded, everyone else business as usual.”

Tristan did not waste any time and headed for Siren. It took him a moment to shove his way through the crowd. Some people looked at Tristan in shock. His shoves evidently had more force than a tier zero should be able to generate.

When he arrived he asked Siren, “Do you know what is going on?”

Siren eyed him quizzically, “Your not thinking of joining up are you?”

He was most likely worried about how to follow through on his debt if his two charges were in two different locations. Tristan put his fears to rest, “No, there were no incentives offered, only threats. I won’t help out the Elders if I don’t have anything to gain from it.”

Siren seemed to think about it for a moment, then shrugged, “Alright then, remember the note your father left you,” Tristan nodded, “The crabs got into a city, two of them actually.”

Tristan raised his eyebrows, two cities, that was a little excessive. He remembered what Kale had told him about the life cycle of ghost crabs then did some quick math. The plains were responsible for most of the cattle and there were around two cows for every human in the caldera, then an average of ten chickens or rabbits per person, and one or two pets per person. Then the people themselves. The number started getting terrifying. One hundred thousand cows, half a million chickens or rabbits, twenty thousand pets and twenty thousand humans. If that was all that got converted into ghost crabs, there should be around six hundred and forty thousand of them.

Most would be below tier zero, and easy to kill, but the cows should be able to produce at least tier two ones if not tier three. The three calderas were going to be turned into a meat grinder. Tristan was glad he was a tier one, he would not be stuck in that.

Something about that thought felt wrong. Was he glad to be tier one. Yes. Would he be glad to stay a tier one. No. What would let him jump from tier one into tier two. A life and death fight. The body held back around thirty percent of its capabilities at all times, except in those dangerous circumstances. That was why danger was a necessity to emptying a kern and eventually cracking it.

Tristan had previously only had humans to work with, but they were smart. This made them extremely dangerous, however the bottom of the barrel mythical beast was substantially less problematic. He would even have other people to pull his unconscious body off the battlefield. Tristan actually could not come across a better set of circumstances.

“Actually, Siren,” Tristan said, scratching the back of his head, “This sounds like an opportunity that I can’t pass up.”

Siren sighed, “I thought you might say that. However, you will have to reveal that you rose a tier in order to join.”

Tristan waved away the concern, “That’s not an issue, we are literally sitting on top of a mine filled with artifacts. It is not odd that as one of the two people in the caldera who can use metal artifacts that I would receive them.”

Siren sighed, “Just remember, my promise was made to Luke not you. I will not be around to help you.”

“I assumed as much,” Tristan waved as he turned and trotted off to Conni’s house.

Luke would not be joining. At least not officially. If he had his blood tested and it came out as tier four, he would be in deep trouble. Plenty of people would want to use him and the option to hit tier five might even be lost to him. He could see a future where the Elders tried to stop him from getting to strong to control.

Tristan opened the wooden door and stepped inside. Conni was sitting at a table with the crier, currently explaining the ways to identify certain types of stone. The crier looked bored enough to actually cry. Tristan agreed, rocks were boring unless they were valuable.

He perked up when he saw Tristan, “Are you here to volunteer.”

All the people who were mandated to go had already showed up. Conni raised an eyebrow, but he did not say anything. It was Tristans business if he wanted to waste his own time.

Tristan nodded, the crier sighed, throwing an exasperated glance at Conni, “Yes, prick your finger with a needle and press the drop of blood into the paper.”

The paper was white with a line running through it. Tristan assumed that the ticks on the line were for the different tiers. There were four and he assumed them to be zero through three. Maybe Luke would go, this one probably only measured up to tier three.

He pricked his finger and dabbed the blood at the base of the line. It was drawn up two ticks. Conni leaned forward in surprise. He opened his mouth to say something, however the crier did not really want to hear Conni’s voice anymore.

“Accepted,” He yelled, drowning out the foreman’s words.