Tect woke early the next morning, Shota and Moidra were already awake and drinking another tea. "Good morning you two. What root did you find this time?" Moidra hands Tect a cup. "No roots, chamomile, and perfectly normal peaches." She shot a glare at Shota as she said this. "Now that your no longer the chieftain what are your plans for the day?" Tect smiled, he could tell she was mad at him. "Well, I was thinking that there must be a city at the end of this road, so I was planning on checking it out." Moidra nodded, "That's a good idea. I'd love to know what happened to the people who used to live here." Shota perked up at the talk of adventure. "I'll go too boss. You need someone to watch your back." Tect and Moidra laughed, causing Shota to pout. "What you don't think I'll be helpful?" Moidra wipes away a tear, "No, no I don't. Your likely to cause him more trouble than you prevent." Tect's sides are hurting from laughing so much.
Once they finished their tea Tect gave Moidra most of the content from the bag of holding and then he and Shota left. Their walk was pretty uneventful, They spotted a few more farms growing herbs they couldn't identify, they took a sample from each for Moidra to check later. To the North they spotted the lake that the stream fed into, it was massive, but they decided not to check it out.
It was nearly noon before the landscape began to change. The grasses were not nearly as thick, and large stones dotted the landscape. A few brown slimes were digging through the dirt, occasionally a green slime would arrive and bury a green crystal in the ground. Where the crystals were buried the grass was a little brighter and a little thicker. Very quickly the landscape became grey hard packed dirt and black stones. A few animal skulls could be found every so often.
Tect and Shota kept their hands on their weapons, this place had a very foreboding vibe. Neither of them could relax in this land of death, the contrast to the previous paradise was just too much.
"This is creepy as hell, how can two polar opposite lands exist so close together." Shota was sweating even though the air wasn't warm. "The system said that a divinity level spell was used, maybe we are getting close to the location." Shota's eyes went wide, "Divinity means god right? What kind of God would destroy the earth like this? Tect Shook his head, "Not all Gods are good. Some of the good ones do evil things just to test their followers. I'd say this kind of thing is pretty common for a God." Shota just sighed, "Maybe we'd be better off without gods." Tect looked over at him. "Goblins don't have a god anyway."
The pair continued forward, the once beautiful road had begun to show cracks. Gnarled trees that looked like they were burned to coals stood on either side, Shota tried to break off a piece but the tree had become like stone. As night began to set in the pair were able to find a tall black stone with a wide base to set up their camp.
Tect started a fire and began cooking some meat. While it cooked they each ate a raw carrot and some bright pink grapes one of the scouts had found on the first day. "Shota after we eat why don't you get some sleep, I'll wake you closer to dawn since I don't need as much sleep anymore." Shota nodded, "Ok boss, but if you get tired just wake me early. I don't want both of us to be asleep in this creepy place." Tect smiled, "Of course, me either."
Tect's night vision made him the perfect watchman, and Shota was able to sleep at ease. The night was empty except for the occasional sound of the wind whistling past the stone trees. It was nearly dawn before anything happened. It was soft at first but before long it was louder than a caravan of wagons at full sprint. Tect spotted a cloud of dust on the horizon, something was coming right towards them, a lot of somethings. Tect grabbed Shota and jumped straight up to the top of the large black stone. Shortly after a wave of huge rats crashed against the rock, some scrambled to get up. While Shota recovered from his rude awakening Tect was swinging his shortsword like a madman, killing rats as fast as he could. After about 5 minutes of slaughtering the rats Tect's eyes began to glow, this glow was mirrored in Shota's eyes for a moment before Shota went on a killing spree. Shota would jump into the sea of rats killing dozens before jumping back to the top of the rock. This continued for nearly 2 hours before the sun came up and the rats fled to the north east along the road.
Tect's eyes stopped glowing, and slowly so did Shota's. "What the hell happened!" screamed Shota, looking at all the blood covering him. "What do you mean? We were attacked by rats, you killed dozens if not hundreds." Shota shook his head, "I know, I remember everything. Except I wasn't in control of myself. I remember the rats flooding in as you carried me up the rock, then you, killing them. Shortly after that I lost control and started jumping into them like a psychopath. I couldn't control it at all." Tect frowned, "I noticed something similar. It was like the more I killed the more I wanted to kill. But it wasn't as bad as what you described. Maybe it's something all goblins have, and I'm just more resistant because I changed." Shota shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe, if that's true perhaps our ancestors were bloodthirsty monsters?" Tect frown, "I don't think bloodthirsty monsters could build all of this. Maybe there is a different cause?" With no answers to be found the two decided to get moving. The camping gear they had was destroyed by the rats, even so Tect did not feel like sleeping at night unless they could find a place the rats couldn't reach.
It was nearly 4 hours of walking before the duo saw the first remnants of a building. A short black structure with holes that looked like windows and doors. It had the appearance of having burned down. Tect hesitantly entered, the inside looked like partially melted stone just like the outside. No furniture or fixtures survived, in fact the stairs leading to the second floor opened to the sky so at least 1 floor was totally gone. In the second room Tect entered he noticed a small patch on the floor that was different from the rest. On closer inspection Tect saw a small gap between the rest of the floor and this square. Using Shota's dagger he is able to remove the square after quite a bit of effort. Inside the space is ash and a single silver crystal emitting a light glow. Tect places it in his bag and sifts his hand through the ash but finds nothing else.
It is mid day, and Tect is rather tired having not slept so they rest for a few hours so Tect can sleep until slightly after noon. All day they have seen no other rats appear but they knew as soon as the sun set it would be a different story.