[Cass]
The dust hadn't settled, but the fear had.
The Warbles gathered in Rootwater's central hollow, eyes reflecting the Spore Ward's glow. Children whimpered in their parents' arms. The elder's staff trembled as he leaned on it, his voice thin.
"The mountain has closed us. We are sealed. Propervy Bastion is a grave."
A ripple of despair swept the crowd. Whispers of starvation, of collapse, of doom.
Cass stepped forward. He still felt the quake in his bones, the bond throbbing like a second heart. But his voice cut through the hollow steady, sharp.
"No. This isn't a grave. It's a fortress."
The words didn't spark cheers. Only silence. The Warbles stared at him as though he'd declared the sky was green.
Cass pointed to the Spore Ward, still pulsing faint silver. "The world thinks we're gone. That means no hunters, no guilds, no plagues marching down our tunnels. They'll stop looking. That's protection. That's time. The one thing no one else has."
He paced, boots echoing on stone. "Yes, we've lost trade. Yes, we're cut off. But that doesn't mean death. It means focus. Every bite of food, every root, every wall, every hand matters now. No waste. No despair. From this day, we build as if the mountain is our shield, not our prison."
The elder raised his staff weakly. "And if the shield cracks?"
Cass looked at him, then at the faces staring back - children, guards, crafters, healers. He felt the chain of the bond tug at his ribs.
"Then we hold until it doesn't," he said. "And when the time comes, we cut our own path out."
[System Prompt]
Settlement Directive Chosen: Fortress Mode
Effects: +20% Morale (Resilience), +15% Efficiency in crafting/foraging.
Penalty: −50% Exploration potential (no surface access).
[Work Tunnels]
Cass walked the caverns, setting tasks.
Torv hammered eel-chitin into thicker shields, his anger at being denied battle now turned into relentless forging.
Rilka mapped collapsed passages, her chalk scratching over stone until her slate held a spiderweb of dead ends and buried routes.
Eshna rationed supplies with ruthless precision, her face hard, her hands never still.
Cass praised each quietly, one by one. Words cost nothing but built more than walls.
That night, he sat with Brik, the scarred scout, beside a collapsed tunnel mouth. The air still stank of ash. Brik touched the rubble with one claw.
"You should have let us die with the mountain," Brik said softly.
Cass didn't flinch. "And waste the only chance you'll ever get? No. We're already forgotten up there. That's our power. Let the world choke on infection and ash. We'll be the ones still breathing when the doors open again."
Brik gave a rasping laugh. "Ghosts in a tomb."
Cass stared into the dark. "No. Builders in a fortress."
[Forum – Global Noise]
[Skeptik]: "Volcano wiped 'em. Ghost Lord = done."
[Nocti]: "Then why infection reports slowing in one sector? Something's down there."
[IronFist88]: "Cope harder. RIP Ghostie."
[GuildBroker]: "Resin prices keep climbing. Who's buying if they're dead?"
[StreamerLink]: "BloodPrince says Ghost Lord was a dev plant and got deleted. Clip here →"
[Cass]
Back in Rootwater, Cass stared at the Spore Ward. Its light was steady. His chest pulsed with it.
Cut off. Forgotten. Presumed dead.
And for the first time since he woke in this shard, he felt free.
[System - Settlement Update]
Settlement: Propervy Bastion (Isolated)
Population: 212
Food: 10 days
Morale: Steady (Resilient)
Defenses: Spore Ward bound to Cass
Threats: Infection creeping slower, but hunger rising
The Isolation Arc now cements itself. Cass embraces invisibility, turning loss into opportunity. Above, guilds dismiss the Ghost Lord as myth or dead. Below, Rootwater begins its transformation into something no one will expect when the mountain finally opens again.