Cato Emberson's Perspective:
Besides housing and the occasional meal, I didn't need to spend very much in Conterra.
And not spending left me with a lot of money to manage.
I didn't need armor, I didn't need a new sword, and I didn't need new clothes.
'Guess I'll just hold onto it.'
I had been in Conterra for three days. I wasn't entirely sure how to go about the rest of my mission and was currently regaining my strength.
The journey from the colony to Conterra was hard enough, and I needed time to rest.
I had cultivated for almost two whole days, and when I looked at my energy lake and Soulflame, they had grown to staggering proportions.
In my visions of my Soulflame and energy lake, I continued to sit higher in the Soulflame as it grew. Sitting up there meant that I was looking down on my energy pool from around the height of what I could only guess would have been around a six-story building.
The silhouettes around my energy pool were still there, although almost out of view, standing silently.
There was now one column with three silhouettes instead of two like the rest.
Staring at the additional silhouette from the top of my Soulflame, I felt as if the ash-gray face turned to meet my gaze when one word passed through my head in a whisper.
'Reaper.'
I snapped out of the illusion and was back in the room I was renting.
I grabbed the crystal sitting next to me and projected to the Goddess. I hadn't communicated with her in a while and wanted advice.
I projected my thoughts through the crystal, 'I assume you know about where I currently am?'
She responded almost immediately, 'I acknowledge that you are in the city of Conterra. However, I had no idea this place existed.'
'Well, I have more or less an idea of where we are. Should I attempt to decimate this city and then move on? Or should I use this more as a base of operations and destroy the surrounding Tribes first?'
The Goddess thought for a moment before replying.
'I think it would be best for you to use Conterra as a place to lay low while you destroy the surrounding areas.'
'Alright, that's all I needed. Thank you, Goddess.'
'Of course. Also, Child, I wanted to congratulate you on your progress. I know you have not received many injuries, but you might notice a substantial increase in your Soulflame's potency.'
With that, her voice faded out of my head, and I let go of the crystal.
Noticing how I had rarely used fire recently in an attempt to conceal my identity, I conjured a small flame in my palm.
The flame was a charming orange and emitted a heat over my hand and up my forearm.
I slowly channeled Soulflame energy into the flame in my palm. The bright orange leisurely started to change into a pale white.
Once the white had chased out the orange, the flame grew cold. A new sensation I hadn't felt from the Soulflame before. Although I noticed the Soulfame didn't give off heat like a real flame, I never expected it to become cold.
I dispersed the Soulflame in my palm and grabbed my sword. I lightly cut the middle of my palm with the blade and started channeling Soulflame into my arm.
My wound healed, but I started to feel a cold numbing sensation before seeing the pale flame.
I watched as the flame grew inside my cut and slowly rebuilt the veins and skin that I sliced.
The pain was evident. More than when I sliced my hand, but less than what it would have been a week ago, had I done the same experiment.
As my wound closed fully and the Soulflame ran itself back into my body, I turned my attention to my mission.
I had purchased a continent map with most of the major cities and studied it whenever I could.
The Nature Tribe had kept itself relatively closed off with little access to other Tribes.
The Beast Tribe held open borders with the Mountain Tribe and the Demon Tribe, which meant that there would be more possible witnesses over there.
If I traveled to the Nature Tribe, I would be able to use the cover of the trees and seclusion of the Tribe to eliminate them and move on to the next Tribe quickly.
It would be much less likely for someone to stumble across the destruction of the Nature Tribe than it would be for them to find remnants of the Beast Tribe.
I decided I would continue to train and gather more information before leaving for the Nature Tribe.
I would need a carriage for this to work. The traveling would go much smoother, and I imagine it would be easier to get into the Nature Tribe if I posed as a wandering merchant.
For the next two days, I cultivated through the night and bartered during the days. I attempted to pick up as many pricey items as I could afford.
I started by buying the carriage and spending the rest of the money on random goods. I needed to stock up, but I wasn't attempting to make a real profit, so it didn't matter what I bought.
After the second day of bartering, I had around twelve silver Conterra coins left and more than enough inventory to pretend to be a merchant.
I left Conterra on the morning of the third day. It was easier going than entering, but then again, that wasn't very difficult either.
I went west towards the Nature Tribe as I exited the towering black walls.
Taking another look back over my shoulder at the border of Conterra, I thought back to what the Goddess had told me about that material.
'The Mountain Goddess made it to deter her, huh.'
I turned away from the walls as I flicked my reins to speed up the horses.
'I should see if I can destroy them some time.'
~~~
I traveled mindlessly for hours. Only stopping for the night to let the horses rest and drink water.
I cultivated and trained in hallucinations on the carriage bench throughout my journey.
Cultivation and training were the only way I could take my mind off the spherical void inside me.
Emotions filled the black hole, essentially holding my feelings in the depths. If I shattered the void or I looked into it, I was overwhelmed by countless emotions from grief, to guilt, to rage, all the way to happiness and satisfaction.
I ignored the urge to process them, along with countless hallucinations I could remember that must have meant something.
I never felt in the suitable space to try and crack into the void inside me. Meaning the emotions were left unprocessed, unfelt, and unrecognized in the abyss.
I didn't recognize this as a healthy practice. Hell, I knew it was very unhealthy.
I thought my ability to brutally kill—possibly innocent—people quickly to be downright atrocious.
The disassociation that occurred when I was killing people was almost subconscious at this point.
My brain—or I—didn't want to process the emotions I felt when killing those people, which meant that the feelings generated were tossed into the void, left in limbo, and supposed to be processed later.
However, the emotions sat, almost collecting dust, as I did not process them.
I wanted to avenge my tribemates—that much was burnt into me.
I couldn't stop myself from being human, however.
Occasionally, I wished that I could have the emotional attachment of a deity but inevitably dismissed the idea because of memories of my family and friends.
Snapping out of my train of thought, I noticed a carriage coming towards me. I had seen one or two more carriages heading towards Conterra. I only talked to one of them, and he had mentioned he was leaving the Nature Tribe to return to Conterra to sell what he had bought in the forest villages.
I was confident in my merchant plan and continued forward.
The carriage that was approaching me was moving quickly and breezed by me, heading the other direction. I had assumed that the Nature Tribe would be around a two-day journey based on the map, and I was nearing the end of day two.
The forest was dense, but I began to see the occasional flash of light through openings in the trees.
I soon arrived at the entrance to the Nature Tribe. There was a large wooden gate made of roots that almost made me gag.
They were the same roots that I had seen pierced through my two childhood friends.
There were around six guards stationed in front of the closed gate, all wearing metal armor.
I came to a stop in front of the gate as three of the guards approached my carriage.
Two of them went around the sides inspecting the carriage before checking through the flap in the back.
The third guard stopped next to the driver's bench and looked up at me.
He spoke in a professional tone, "Why are you attempting to enter the Nature Tribe, Sir?"
"I'm a traveling merchant coming from Conterra. I wish to sell my wares here."
The guard looked at his friend on the same side of the carriage he was on as he raised an eyebrow.
"There's a lot of Conterra merchants coming through recently, no?"
The second guard, who I couldn't see, replied.
"And? They're selling shit; there's only cargo on here. Stop making such a fuss every time."
The first guard's complexion drooped as he turned back to face me.
"Good luck with your sales, Sir," he grumbled.
"Thank you very much," I replied before advancing through the now open gate.
Conterra had been stunning, but the Nature Tribe was on a different scale.
They had built the houses onto the sturdiest branches of the enormous trees with wooden rope bridges connecting each tree branch.
The bridges crisscrossed through the canopy of trees that covered the entire city.
The sun broke through the leaves, scattering beams of light that danced across the floor as the leaves rustled in the wind.
I was captivated by the utter beauty of this forest and what the people had built here.
As I stared up at the huts and full-on buildings scattered throughout the trees, the scene suddenly changed.
Only flashing briefly, the houses were suddenly on fire, the trees burning to the ground, corpses littered the trees and the jungle floor, while blood stained everything in sight.
My vision flashed back to normal, showing the glistening society filled with happy citizens before returning, for only a second, to the battle-torn wasteland as a phrase sang through my head in an almost teasing tone accompanied by a sickening laugh.
'Oh, Reeaaperrr.'