There was a reason why Zaroth went straight to the room he had been provided with after the fight with the army.
Luna flas had turned most of the soldiers that had co to attack to ash, and as such, the air was pretty hard to breathe for so ti.
Now, thanks to the strong mountain winds, the ash had mostly cleared. That, at least, wouldn't be bothering him anymore.
Sothing else was going to bother him though…
A deep, ceaseless rumbling echoed from the mines—a rhythmic pounding that dug itself into ones bones. Most of the people here were miners, and the sounds of their work echoed constantly through the stone streets. It wasn't intolerable, but it wasn't pleasant either.
For a mont Zaroth imagined having to live in a place such as this. The constant sound of the pickaxes striking against the ore as the miners mined it and even at this high altitude, the air wasn't clean—polluted by the mining operations that fed the city.
It was easy to see why the population was so sparse. Few would choose to remain here if they had the strength or the ans to leave.
As Zaroth walked on the well-constructed streets, he made his way to the first destination: the mines. He wanted to see how they looked up close as he never had seen them.
"Mom! That is the guy that—"
A small child, the only other soul on the street, pointed at him with wide eyes before his mother rushed out and yanked him away, panic in her expression.
If one didn't include the sounds of the mines, it was deadly quiet… not that it was a surprise.
It wasn't hard to imagine as suddenly all of the forces in the city disappeared only for a single man dressed in white robes wearing a demonic white mask to appear and to replace them.
Then once a large force ready to take the city away had appeared, that strange person had sohow managed to call upon a deadly dragon made out of bones and burned the army away.
To the civilians, Zaroth must've looked like a monster. Here, power was scarce. If anyone with talent lived in this city, they had long since left in search of a better life.
So one could say that the power difference between Zaroth and the civilians was so vast that it was too big of a gap for the people to not fear him.
And how did Zaroth take the situation?
He felt great! It wasn't because he got off on making the weak scared of him, but as a side effect of his vast power and mysterious new persona, no one was going to bother him at all!
So Zaroth was left with his thoughts as he took slow and steady steps to the mines.
'I am strong…' he viewed himself as strong… yet he had failed to save Althea. When the ti to prove his strength had co, he had failed…
When the ti to use his strength had co, he had failed.
When the ti to prove his worth to himself had co, he had failed.
Every ti he believed he'd moved forward, even by a single step, life reminded him he was still two steps behind.
"I am still far too weak." he muttered under his gaze as he began to appreciate the structures around him more and more. He concluded that it was better to not be left alone with his thoughts so he was trying to distract himself sohow.
As he gazed at the buildings he realized that all of them were of the highest quality. This must be one of the advantages of living in a place like this.
Even if the constant noise of mining was bothering your ears and the sll of freshly mined ore bothered your nose, the resources they had were a lot so they didn't spare anything when building their structures.
As such all of them looked like they would be very hard to be brought down. And even these mighty structures paled in comparison to the mighty walls.
They were made out of black jagged rock and Zaroth had no idea how it was called but had concluded one thing as he approached them:
They were strong!
It was like they were as strong as titanium, if not even stronger!
How was this possible? Was it strengthened by so kind of magic? It was the only logical answer as the city held great importance.
Or maybe Zaroth's knowledge when it ca to what was the hardest and toughest materials was pretty limited?
After so walking, the unpleasant sll got stronger as he finally reached the entrance to one of the mines.
There were tal carts that were on rails, so were being let down to be filled with the miners' resources below while others were coming back up full with precious ore ready to be processed.
"Hey isn't that—"
However, it seed that Zaroth's presence had a bit too strong of an effect, maybe even stronger than he would have liked to admit, as all the people that were in the mining district froze as they stared at him.
"Isn't he the one that stopped the army from reaching us?" one man asked.
"He? I heard that he didn't even lift a finger, he had just called upon a dragon out of nowhere and the troops were dead the next second," another man on the shorter side answered.
"Is he even a human? I can't see his face from behind the mask."
"He must be so kind of monster! How else would he be able to call upon a dragon?!"
"Idiot! Don't talk like that—it can hear us!"
It seed that just by being there, Zaroth was disturbing their work.
That didn't last however as—
"GET BACK TO WORK!" a two-ter-tall man shouted. He was the boss of the miners in the city.
The miners quickly bowed in apology and got back to work, trying to ignore the scary man.
After ensuring that they had gone back to work, their boss approached Zaroth.
Stopping a ter and a half before reaching him, the man smiled awkwardly and bowed, "I am sorry for the actions of these fools, please let them go this once without punishing them!" he pleaded.
Zaroth took a few seconds to study the features of the man—he was bald with a dragon tattoo on his head, his fra was large like a wardrobe, and his arms were as thick as a normal person's waist. He bore countless scars, most likely from the line of his work.
Looking at him, Zaroth had to admit, 'He is strong!'
Not only their boss but all of the miners looked like they had very muscular physiques, even surpassing those of most soldiers.
For a few seconds Zaroth wondered if he should pick up this line of work while he had free ti. He lacked real power and he thought that if he began to work with them, then maybe his physique would improve as well.
"No need to apologize. I guess my presence can be… intimidating," he said.
As soon as he heard Zaroth's words, the face of the man showed an expression of shock.
'So young!' he thought. The voice behind the mask didn't sound like that of a demon nor of an ancient old man that wished to hide his identity, but the voice sounded like it ca from a teenager not older than 18–19 years of age.
Seeing that this person that had been sent to protect them was in fact quite friendly made the mood of the man improve significantly.
Stretching out his hand he offered it for a handshake. "My na is Thomas, nice to et you!"
But a second later Thomas eyes narrowed in horror as he saw that it was filthy black due to the ore that he was mining not too long ago. Offering his hand would be the sa as dirtying the clean white robes that this man wore.
'I really ssed up!' the man thought up in panic, but before he could move it out of the way, Zaroth grabbed it.
"Nice to et you too."
Thomas smiled in a pleasant surprise. Whoever this person was that was protecting them, he was glad that he didn't seem to arrogant or cruel as the mask suggested.
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