The first man to reach the central square carried an axe.
Not a battle axe.
A woodcutter’s axe.
The handle was cracked, the blade rusted, and the man holding it looked as though he had not eaten properly in weeks.
He stopped several paces from Arin.
Behind him came others.
Farmers.
Laborers.
Old soldiers.
Women carrying children.
Teenagers gripping tools that had probably become weapons sometime during the last few days.
Hundreds entered the square.
Then thousands.
Fear moved through them like a living thing.
Arin could see it in their eyes.
The monsters beyond the walls had not attacked once.
They had been attacking for days.
These people were already waiting to die.
That was the first thing Arin needed to change.
A gray-haired man pushed through the crowd.
Unlike the others, he wore remnants of armor.
A broken sword hung from his waist.
"You’re the one who summoned those structures?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Does it matter?"
The man frowned.
"It matters if you’re some damned mage expecting us to worship you."
"I’m not."
"A noble?"
"Unfortunately."
That earned several confused looks.
Arin continued.
"You have one day of water."
The square quieted.
"Three days of food. Your eastern wall will fail before nightfall, and approximately four hundred monsters are currently gathering beyond it."
Someone shouted.
"We know!"
Arin turned toward the voice.
"Good. Then I don’t have to explain why standing here arguing wastes time."
Murmurs spread through the crowd.
The armored man studied him.
"What do you want?"
"Workers."
"For what?"
"Everything."
Arin raised his hand.
A projection of the settlement appeared above the square.
He had discovered the function while walking down the hill.
The System provided information.
It did not provide solutions.
That suited him.
"Your central reservoir is empty because the northern aqueduct collapsed."
The map highlighted a broken line.
"Your southern wells are contaminated."
Another section glowed.
"Half your remaining grain is stored beside the western wall."
A third marker appeared.
"If that wall falls, you lose your food."
The armored man’s expression changed.
"You’ve been here ten minutes."
"And I’ve spent nine of them looking."
Arin enlarged the map.
"Anyone with construction experience, stand on my left."
Nobody moved.
Arin waited.
Then the woodcutter stepped left.
"I’m not a builder."
"Can you repair a roof?"
"Yes."
"Then you’re a builder today."
Several people followed.
"Farmers, right."
More movement.
"Healers behind me."
A handful emerged.
"Anyone who has fought monsters stays in the center."
Nearly three hundred people remained.
Too few.
But enough for now.
The armored man crossed his arms.
"And everyone else?"
Arin looked at the thousands still waiting.
"They carry."
"Carry what?"
"Stone. Water. Timber. Injured people. Food. Whatever needs moving."
A richly dressed man pushed forward.
Even with dirt covering his clothing, the difference between him and the commoners was obvious.
"I am Magistrate Corven."
Arin looked at him.
"Good."
The magistrate seemed surprised.
"You recognize my authority?"
"No. I’m glad someone knows where the records are."
Several people laughed.
Corven’s face reddened.
"I govern this settlement."
"Then you have done a poor job."
The laughter stopped.
Corven stared at him.
"How dare—"
Arin pointed toward the ruined streets.
"Ten thousand people. One day of water. Three days of food. Monsters at the walls."
His voice never rose.
"If you want me to compliment you, survive thirty days first."
The magistrate reached for Arin’s coat.
The armored man intercepted his wrist.
"Enough."
Corven looked furious.
The older soldier ignored him and turned toward Arin.
"I’m Garrick."
"Military commander?"
"Was."
"What happened?"
"Our captain died."
"Congratulations."
Garrick blinked.
"On what?"
"You’re captain now."
A few soldiers exchanged looks.
Garrick almost smiled.
"You always appoint strangers this quickly?"
"No."
Arin looked toward the eastern wall.
"I appoint people when nobody else has time to argue."
A horn sounded.
Once.
Twice.
Then three times.
The crowd erupted.
"Eastern wall!"
"They’re attacking!"
"Again!"
People began running.
Arin raised his voice.
"Stop."
Some obeyed.
Most did not.
"STOP!"
This time the command cut across the square.
Heads turned.
"The wall is not falling yet."
A woman screamed, "How do you know?"
Arin pointed toward the projection.
A durability indicator had appeared.
«EASTERN WALL:
17%.»
"Because I can see it."
Garrick drew his broken sword.
"We need every fighter."
"No."
The soldier looked at him sharply.
"No?"
"How many defenders died during the last attack?"
"Twenty-seven."
"Previous?"
"Thirty-four."
"And before that?"
Garrick understood.
"We’re being worn down."
"Exactly."
Arin looked at the map.
The monsters were attacking the same location repeatedly.
That meant one of two things.
Either they were mindless and attracted to weakness...
...or something was directing them.
He would worry about that later.
"Take one hundred fighters."
"We need three hundred."
"You need two hundred people repairing the inner barricades."
"They aren’t builders."
"They don’t need to be."
Arin pointed toward the construction materials the System had provided.
"Stack stone. Reinforce doors. Create narrow passages."
Garrick stared at him.
"You want to let them through."
"I expect them to get through."
That silenced everyone nearby.
Corven laughed bitterly.
"Your great plan is to surrender the wall?"
"My plan is to stop pretending a seventeen-percent wall is a fortress."
Arin turned toward the builders.
"Who knows the eastern district?"
A woman raised her hand.
"I grew up there."
"Alleys?"
"Yes."
"Show me the narrowest routes."
The map expanded.
She pointed.
Arin marked three streets.
"Barricade these."
Then another.
"Leave this one open."
Garrick stared.
"A funnel."
Arin nodded.
"We don’t fight four hundred monsters at the wall."
He narrowed the route until only a thin passage remained.
"We make four hundred monsters fight twenty at a time."
Garrick smiled.
This time openly.
"I think I like you."
"Save that for day thirty."
The next hour became chaos.
But it was organized chaos.
Arin moved constantly.
He sent half the builders north to repair the aqueduct.
Others reinforced the eastern district.
Farmers began examining the System-generated agricultural structures.
The healers converted an abandoned temple into a treatment center.
Every time someone came asking permission for something obvious, Arin gave them authority to make the next decision themselves.
That surprised people.
"Don’t ask me where every stone goes," he told the builders. "You know buildings better than I do."
To the farmers:
"I gave you water and soil. You tell me what grows fastest."
To the healers:
"Take any building you need."
When Magistrate Corven protested that several structures belonged to wealthy merchants, Arin looked at him.
"Are the merchants alive?"
"Some."
"Then they can complain after the wounded stop dying."
By midday, something changed.
People stopped waiting for Arin.
Orders moved without him.
Builders began recruiting assistants.
Farmers organized work groups.
Garrick appointed squad leaders.
The settlement was beginning to function.
A notification appeared.
«POPULATION MORALE:
21% → 29%.»
Arin dismissed it.
Not enough.
The eastern horn sounded again.
This time, nobody panicked.
Garrick appeared at the square.
"They broke through."
Arin looked toward the eastern district.
Smoke rose above the rooftops.
"How many?"
"First wave, maybe sixty."
"Good."
Garrick stared.
"Good?"
"They entered where we wanted."
Arin walked toward the fighting.
Garrick followed.
"You aren’t staying behind?"
"No."
"Can you fight?"
"Enough."
That was not entirely true.
Arin’s physical abilities inside the trial were roughly his own.
No futuristic armor.
No rifle.
No Phantom-01.
No Warden.
Just his body.
And the settlement.
That was the point.
The first monster appeared when they reached the eastern district.
A creature resembling a hairless wolf slammed into the barricade.
Spears struck from behind it.
The monster died before crossing.
Another followed.
Then three.
The defenders held.
Garrick shouted orders.
Arin climbed onto a damaged cart.
From there, he could see the funnel.
Exactly as planned.
The monsters were entering through one narrow street.
Their numbers meant nothing if they could not use them.
Then something larger appeared.
A hulking creature covered in bone armor.
It smashed through the first barricade.
Soldiers scattered.
"Captain!"
Garrick moved.
Arin caught his arm.
"Wait."
"That thing will break the line."
"Yes."
"Then—"
"Watch."
The creature charged through the broken barricade.
Ten soldiers retreated.
It followed.
Straight toward the second line.
The ground collapsed beneath it.
A pit.
The builders had dug it less than an hour earlier.
The monster fell.
Stone blocks crashed down after it.
The street erupted in cheers.
Arin looked toward Garrick.
"Now."
The captain understood.
"Push!"
Soldiers surged forward.
Spears descended into the pit.
The creature screamed once.
Then stopped.
The defenders roared.
Something changed in that moment.
They weren’t surviving anymore.
They believed they could win.
«MORALE:
29% → 41%.»
The battle lasted another hour.
When it ended, sixty-three monsters lay dead.
Human casualties:
Four.
Garrick stared at the number.
"Four."
Arin wiped monster blood from his sleeve.
"Still four too many."
"Yesterday we lost twenty-seven."
"Yesterday you fought their battle."
Arin looked toward the ruined wall.
"Tomorrow they’ll learn to fight ours."
Far away, Lucan stood on a mountain of corpses.
His sword dripped black blood.
Behind him, soldiers cheered.
He had selected personal combat power.
The Trial had rewarded him generously.
His body moved faster than any ordinary warrior.
His blade cut through monsters like cloth.
During the first attack alone, Lucan personally killed more than a hundred.
His people had begun calling him the Silver King.
A notification floated before him.
«PERSONAL COMBAT PERFORMANCE:
EXCEPTIONAL.
MILITARY MORALE:
73%.
CIVILIAN MORALE:
18%.
WATER:
16 HOURS.
FOOD:
2.4 DAYS.»
Lucan ignored the final lines.
"How many monsters remain?"
His commander bowed.
"Approximately three hundred."
Lucan smiled.
"Then we finish them before sunset."
Behind him, a woman carrying an empty bucket collapsed.
Nobody noticed.
Arin returned to the central square at sunset.
He was exhausted.
His clothes were dirty.
His hands were blistered.
And there were still twenty-nine days remaining.
A group of children sat near the newly activated water station.
One little boy stared at the stream pouring from the pipe as though witnessing magic.
His mother filled a cup and handed it to him.
The child drank.
Then laughed.
Arin stopped.
Something about that simple sound affected him more than the victory at the eastern wall.
The gray-haired Garrick appeared beside him.
"Water system is stable."
"For how long?"
"If the repairs hold? Indefinitely."
"Food?"
"Farmers say the new structures accelerate growth. First harvest in four days."
"We have three days."
"Corven found emergency grain beneath the magistrate hall."
Arin looked at him.
"He knew?"
"No."
"Useful man."
Garrick laughed.
Arin looked across the square.
People were eating.
Repairing equipment.
Talking.
For the first time since arriving, he heard laughter.
A System window appeared.
«DAY ONE COMPLETE.
POPULATION:
9,996.
WATER:
STABLE.
FOOD:
4.2 DAYS.
DEFENSE:
POOR.
MORALE:
46%.
CIVILIZATION STABILITY:
31%.»
Then another.
«CLAIMANT COMPARISON AVAILABLE.»
Arin opened it.
«ARIN:
POPULATION: 9,996
CIVILIAN MORALE: 46%
RESOURCE STABILITY: 38%
MILITARY STRENGTH: 17%
LUCAN:
POPULATION: 9,873
CIVILIAN MORALE: 16%
RESOURCE STABILITY: 9%
MILITARY STRENGTH: 81%.»
Arin stared.
Lucan had lost 127 people.
On the first day.
Garrick could not see the screen.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Arin closed it.
His expression hardened.
The Trial wanted to compare them.
Fine.
He had no intention of merely surviving.
Tomorrow he would organize industry.
After that, sanitation.
Then proper defenses.
By day thirty, he wanted this settlement stronger than it had been before the disaster.
Not because the System demanded it.
Because if he was going to call himself Founder, surviving was the lowest acceptable standard.
Arin turned toward Garrick.
"Wake the builders."
The captain stared.
"They’ve worked all day."
"So have I."
"What are we building now?"
Arin looked toward the shattered eastern wall.
"A workshop."
Garrick blinked.
"Not the wall?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because repairing one wall gives us one wall."
Arin looked toward the piles of broken weapons, abandoned carts, damaged tools, and monster corpses.
"A workshop gives us the ability to build a hundred."
Before Garrick could answer, every warning bell in the settlement rang simultaneously.
Not east.
Not west.
Every direction.
The System flashed crimson.
«EMERGENCY EVENT DETECTED.
MONSTER MOVEMENT HAS CHANGED.
ESTIMATED HOSTILE POPULATION:
4,700.»
Arin’s eyes narrowed.
That was more than ten times the previous number.
Then another message appeared.
«CAUSE IDENTIFIED.
LARGE-SCALE MIGRATION.
CREATURES ARE FLEEING FROM A HIGHER PREDATOR.»
Garrick looked toward the horizon.
The ground was shaking.
Thousands of monsters emerged from the distant forest.
But they weren’t charging the settlement.
They were running past it.
Running from something.
A roar rolled across the plains.
Windows shattered.
People fell to their knees.
Even Arin felt the pressure in his chest.
Beyond the fleeing horde, two enormous golden eyes opened between the mountains.
Garrick’s face went white.
"What in the gods..."
Arin watched the silhouette rise.
Higher.
Higher.
Until its horns disappeared into the clouds.
A new notification appeared.
«SPECIAL TRIAL EVENT.
CALAMITY-CLASS CREATURE DETECTED.
DESIGNATION:
THE KING BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN.
ESTIMATED ARRIVAL:
7 DAYS.»
The people around Arin began panicking.
He did not.
He looked at the monster.
Then at the settlement.
Seven days.
Ten thousand people.
A workshop that did not exist yet.
Weak defenses.
Almost no army.
Arin rolled his shoulders.
"Garrick."
The captain swallowed.
"Yes?"
"Change of plans."
Arin turned toward the central square.
"Wake everyone."
"What are you going to tell them?"
Arin’s eyes remained on the giant silhouette beyond the mountains.
"That we have seven days to build something capable of killing a king."