The next morning, Atlas stepped out of his temporary tent. He had been sleeping there ever since the residential huts near the fortress were cleared away to make room for construction. The sun was already climbing, casting bright light across the island, and he immediately noticed something unusual. Dozens of island residents had gathered together, all facing in the same direction.
He turned to look past them, toward where the Stage 2 Fortress, Crystalline Bastion, was supposed to stand.
And Atlas… froze. His breath caught for a moment.
The structure was massive, far larger than he had imagined. Towering walls of polished stone reinforced with veins of iron rose high into the sky, gleaming under the morning sun. Intricate lines of mana coursed along the stone, glowing faintly as if the fortress itself pulsed with life.
Compared to the previous outpost he had owned before, this looked entirely new. Almost futuristic in design.
