[Cass]
The sixth day after the trial tasted like ash. The stew pot was thinner than river water, the baskets lighter, the line slower. Hunger hung in the air like smoke that refused to clear.
Cass stood with arms crossed, watching the bowls pass hand to hand. He could see the tremors in the children's fingers, the hollows deepening under the cheeks of the guards. His hamlet had survived the Wave, but the Wave had left claws behind - silent ones.
He opened the settlement view.
[Propervy Bastion – Hamlet Overview]
Population: 243 (stable)
Food Days: 4 (critical)
Housing: Cramped (disease risk ↑)
Faith: Strong
Stability: 55% (declining)
Modifiers: Hunger Pressure. Rotfang nests south. Infection risk in wounded.
The numbers didn't lie. They never did. He hated them all the same.
The elder's staff tapped the stone beside him. "You read the signs too much," the old Warble said. "The tribe feels hunger without numbers. The soil already knows."
Cass exhaled slowly. "Knowing doesn't mean solving. We need food. More than baskets. More than fungus and scraps."
Karrek approached, carrying a bundle of spear shafts. He set them down with a grunt. "Scouts report fish in the deep river. But the currents drag. Nets tear. Men vanish."
"How many vanished?" Cass asked.
"Three."
Cass closed his eyes. Another debt. Another weight.
"We'll find a way," he said.
He spent the afternoon pacing the cavern edges, staring at the damp stone. The glowshrooms were too slow. The stores too shallow. The fish too dangerous.
He crouched near a crack where the air smelled faintly different. Warmer. Carrying something he couldn't name.
[System]: Quest Trigger – Hidden Vein
The Underdark whispers of deeper rivers and stranger roots. Dare you follow the breath of the earth?
Reward: Unknown.
Risk: High.
Cass's lips twitched into a thin smile. He hadn't seen this in his first life. A hidden path. Maybe fate was balancing his roll of the dice.
He traced the crack with his fingers. It pulsed faintly warm. A vein of water deeper than the current one, perhaps. Or a root from the surface, gnarled and forgotten. He'd need maps. He'd need Rilka.
[Rilka]
Her chalk scraped across slate, leaving a crooked spiral. She tilted her head, erased it with her palm, and started again. The chalk dust tasted bitter in her teeth.
Cass crouched beside her. "The crack breathes."
She blinked. "Crack?"
"In the stone," he said. "Near the southern wall. Air comes through. Warm air. Maybe water behind it. Maybe roots."
Her pulse quickened. The light inside her skull shifted like it always did when she felt patterns. She closed her eyes, listened, then drew without looking: a curve, a line, a split.
Cass leaned closer. "You see it."
She nodded slowly. "The air wants to go somewhere. Down, not up. If we dig there, we'll find its throat."
He smiled faintly. "Then we dig."
[Cass]
The digging began before dusk. Warbles sang work songs as they struck stone with crude picks. Rilka marked their progress on slate, erasing and redrawing as the air thickened.
Cass carried stone himself. He refused to stand apart. Sweat stung his eyes. His hands blistered. His muscles burned. But the weight steadied his thoughts.
When the crack finally gave way, a rush of warm, damp air spilled into the cavern. The Warbles cheered. Rilka laughed, chalk smeared across her cheek.
Cass peered into the gap. Below, faint glimmers shone - roots glowing with faint bioluminescence, thick and twisted, snaking across black water.
[System]: Hidden Vein Discovered.
Resource Node – Rootwater Cavern unlocked.
Properties: Edible root pods (slow growth, steady yield). Fish species (medium risk). Fungus beds (rot-resistant).
Food Days adjusted: 6 (fragile).
Cass grinned, chest heaving. Food. Not much. Not yet. But enough to turn numbers from red to gray.
[Forum – Global Noise]
[GrainLord42]: "Greenward blight spreading again. Lost half harvest overnight."
[AshenSmith]: "Glass prices insane. Furnaces breaking. Anyone else?"
[TravelerX]: "Blurry mole people clips are still circulating. Lol at Ghost Lord cultists."
[BloodPrinceTV]: "Arena tonight. Betting open. Place your gold."
[Carto]: "Picked up a map fragment near Highlands. Shows a 'Rootwater' cavern?? Any Lord confirm?"
[Skeptik]: "Fake. Stop baiting."
[Nocti]: "Not fake. Underground nodes are real. Someone's already ahead of us."
[Cass]
That night, stew tasted different. Root pods boiled soft, filling the pot with a starchy, nutty flavor. Fish broth mingled with glowshrooms, richer than it had been in weeks.
The children ate until their bellies rounded. The guards laughed again, not too loud, but enough to sound like they remembered how.
Cass sat with his bowl untouched, watching the faces around him. He knew the food was not a victory. It was a reprieve. But reprieves were all he needed to string into five years.
The elder's staff tapped once. "You lead as if you have led before," the old Warble said.
Cass met his eyes. "I've led ruins before. And I will not again."
The elder studied him a long time, then nodded. "Then perhaps you know how not to ruin us."
Cass raised his bowl and finally drank. The warmth settled in his chest like a promise.
[Media – World's Dawn Chronicles, evening segment]
"…Rivermere markets crash after caravan ambushes triple. Greenward farmers demand a patch for crop failures. Ashenfolk smiths strike after glass furnaces explode.
And finally, the rumors won't die - underground 'ghost tribes' and strange resource nodes continue to circulate on the Herald Forum. Analysts say it's likely player hoaxes or procedural anomalies. But some insist hidden paths exist. Our advice: until proven, treat these tales as rumor only.
Now, onto tonight's highlights: BloodPrince's arena duel reached record viewership, and caravan insurance prices have doubled…"
[Cass]
He lay awake in the shrine chamber, staring at the light. Hunger had loosened its grip for now. But the world would not stop pressing. Seasons shifted. Rumors spread. Enemies grew bold.
He had six food days left before the next crisis. Six days before the numbers screamed again.
He whispered into the cavern dark. "I'll buy every hour I can."
The shrine's glow answered with silence.