Chapter 187: Scorched Valley
Coop was absolutely drenched in sweat. He shook his arms with his wrists loose in an effort to drip dry, but the movement barely had any effect. He gave up the futile effort with a sigh. The sweltering heat generated by Huracan’s abilities lingered in the valley even after the High Priest’s demise. The baked ground emanated heat like an oven was embedded below. It seemed as though it would take some time before the temperature returned to normal, but normal wasn’t particularly appetizing in Coop’s current state, considering the tropical heat that persisted in the region. Coop fanned himself as he beheld the aftermath of the battle and planned his next move.
The air in the valley was heavy. Fragments of ash drifted straight down from the sky without even a faint breeze to carry them through the valley. Long strips of black, melted stone were scattered throughout the rocky hills on each side. The hard-packed sand ground was scarred with sooty burn marks and the entire surface was broken with narrow cracks that were illuminated with deeper flames that continued to burn underneath.
He had to give credit to the Aeromancer class; it had access to some truly impressive magical firepower as the aftermath was almost entirely caused by the splash damage of the High Priest’s abilities rather than Coop’s Strength. When Coop imagined anyone else that could have as much of an impact on such a wide area, the only person who came to mind was Charlie.
Not too far away from his position in the scorched battlefield, the stepped pyramid still stood, marred with dark smudges on its stone surface. A few thousand years of weather had prepared it for a brief explosion of combat, leaving it hardly worse for wear despite the combatants’ firepower. All in all, the fight between Coop and the High Priest was hardly a blip in the ancient pyramid’s lifetime. Coop shook his head as he moved toward the foot of the building, stepping around foot-sized craters where the battle had begun.
Coop’s steps crunched on the incinerated sand as he strolled toward the pyramid. Without the blazing fires dotting the landscape, the darkness of night almost fully claimed the area. The ground had an almost imperceptible orange glow that prevented total darkness from taking over thanks to whatever was going on beneath the surface, and the facade of the old stone structure reflected the limited light from the stars, but the pyramid was, at best, still a solid shadow amidst the gloom. The doorway at the top had an almost inviting glow except that the warm color promised more uncomfortable heat.
Piles of dusty stone rubble were all that remained of the black spires at each corner of the structure, encircling perfectly formed holes that extended deep underground. They had been unnatural mana formations inextricably linked to the levels that Huracan had consumed in order to boost his power level, and now they were reduced to non salvageable wreckage. Coop felt as though they were essential components of whatever ritual the High Priest had been using to store mana until it was utilized for levels. They appeared to have been connected directly to each other, intertwined with the foundation underneath the pyramid as if they were strange growths leaching from the main structure.
It seemed pretty clear that the High Priestess of the Butterfly Cave was employing her mushroom monster for the same job, and Coop remembered the reports from Ghost Reef that the Envoy had held an artifact around his neck before he enjoyed his boost in levels. Coop probably wasn’t the man for the job when it came to deciphering the exact mechanisms that were being developed by the Cult of Chakyum, but from his unsophisticated perspective, it just seemed like they were storing experience for later use.
His main question was simple. Why? If they were going to go through the trouble of gathering experience, shouldn’t they just consume it? That’s what he would do. Coop’s main issue with the Cult was with how they were gathering the experience, but it still seemed strange to him that none of them seemed like they were in any particular hurry to tap into the power that they accumulated.
The only thing he could think of was the warning that Shane’s party had levied on Coop when it came to triggering more settlement events. Maybe they were avoiding specific level thresholds, but if that had been the case, the Mushroom King would have broken through, and Huracan hadn’t hesitated particularly long before accessing his entire store of power.
“That’s probably not it.” Coop muttered to himself, frowning as he half-heartedly struggled to come up with a reasonable explanation.