[Cass]
The first week after the collapse was silence.
The second was hunger.
Rootwater's storerooms echoed emptier with every ration. Dried moss bread dwindled. Chitin broth stretched thin. Even boiled root pods couldn't hide their bitterness.
Cass walked among the Warbles, watching bowls scraped clean, hearing children whimper before sleep. Hunger gnawed louder than fear ever had.
Eshna cornered him near the healer's cavern, arms crossed, face hard.
"Three days," she said. "Then we're out. You told them the mountain is a shield. But what shields them from their own stomachs?"
Cass clenched his fists. "We'll find more."
"Where?" Eshna's voice cracked. "The tunnels are blocked. Hunting parties return with scraps. If the Spore Ward doesn't kill us, hunger will."
He didn't answer. Couldn't.
[System Notice]
Settlement Status - Food Reserves: Critical (3 days).
Morale Penalty Active: -15%. Risk of Starvation Events.
Cass crouched over Rilka's slate. The girl's chalk hand never stopped moving, eyes flicking across her own web of lines.
"Collapsed here, here… but maybe…" Her finger jabbed at a thin crack she'd traced at the cavern's northern edge. "This breathes. See? Chalk dust blew away faster when I marked it."
Cass leaned close. Faint draft, barely there. Airflow. A possible gap.
"Not a tunnel yet," he said.
"Not yet," she whispered. "But stone shifts. Maybe I can find where it goes."
Cass squeezed her shoulder. "Do it. But be careful. If the mountain buried us once, it can bury us again."
[Work Tunnels]
Torv slammed his hammer down, sparks bursting as chitin split. He cursed, tossing the shard aside.
"You can't eat shields," he growled when Cass approached. "You promised a fortress. What's a fortress worth if our ribs stick out like fence posts?"
Cass met his glare. "A fortress is what keeps you alive long enough to find food. Keep working. We'll need those shields when hunger makes people reckless."
Torv spat but went back to work.
[The Hunger Event]
That night, a Warble child collapsed. No strength left. Eshna rushed with water and herbs, but Cass saw the truth in her eyes: this was the first, not the last.
The elder tapped his staff, voice quivering. "The mountain has teeth. It will eat us from inside if not from above."
Cass stood, his own stomach hollow. "Then we sharpen ours."
[System Alert]
New Quest - Hunger Teeth
Objective: Secure a renewable food source before starvation event escalates.
Options:
• Unlock Subterranean Farming (requires fertile soil + seeds).
• Domesticate Rootwater Beasts (high risk, ongoing).
• Trade via hidden routes (blocked, requires excavation).
Failure: Starvation Event escalates. Population loss inevitable.
[Forum - Global Noise]
[IronFist88]: "Told you. Ghost Lord's dead. Starved under rocks."
[TraderKing]: "Food prices doubled. Guild wars incoming over grain stockpiles."
[BloodPrinceTV]: "New stream tomorrow: infection run with no food buffs. We'll prove it's beatable. Ghost Lord who?"
[Cass]
He sat alone by the Spore Ward, lantern dim. The ward pulsed with his own heartbeat, steady, unyielding.
But hunger didn't care for wards. Hunger didn't care for bonds. Hunger cared only for teeth.
He whispered to the dark, "If the world forgot me, then I'll make a world down here. One that feeds itself. One that survives."
The ward pulsed again, faint and silver, as if answering.
Propervy Bastion
Status: Isolated
Food: 3 days (Critical)
Morale: Shaken (-10%)
Directive: Hunger Teeth quest active