The silence in the hangar was broken only by the coughing of a hundred lungs expelling bio-fluid.
Kaelen stood on top of a crate of ammunition, looking down at his "prize." The 100 Awakened he had freed from the pods were a mess. Their muscles were atrophied, their mana cores dangerously unstable, and their eyes were filled with the vacant terror of long-term trauma.
The smell was atrocious—a mix of stale nutrient fluid, ozone, and fear.
"They can't walk," Seraphina whispered, kneeling beside an old man who was trembling violently. "Kaelen, they need weeks of rehabilitation. We can't drag them across the Obsidian Canyon. The Ash-Stalkers will pick them off in an hour."
"We don't have weeks," Kaelen said, checking his [System Clock]. "We have twenty minutes."
He pointed to the ruined generator. The brass turbine Seraphina had melted was glowing a dull, angry red. The cooling systems had failed.
"That core is going to melt down," Kaelen announced calmly. "When it does, this entire airship is going to turn into a crater."
A ripple of panic went through the refugees. Some tried to stand, only to collapse.
"Quiet!" Kaelen's voice boomed, amplified by a touch of [Abyssal Aura].
The room froze.
"I didn't pull you out of those tubes to let you die," Kaelen stated coldly. "But I didn't pull you out to carry you, either."
He kicked open the crate he was standing on. Inside were piles of scavenged weapons—rusted swords, laser rifles with half-charged batteries, and jagged scrap-metal spears.
"You are Awakened," Kaelen addressed the crowd. "Your bodies are weak, but your cores are intact. You have mana. Use it to reinforce your legs. Use it to suppress your pain."
He grabbed a handful of nutrient bars—Mordecai's personal stash—and threw them into the crowd.
"Eat. Arm yourselves. Anyone who isn't standing in five minutes gets left behind for the explosion."
"You're heartless!" a woman cried out, clutching a child to her chest. "Look at us!"
"I am looking at you," Kaelen replied, his violet eyes unblinking. "I see assets. Prove me right."
He jumped down and turned to Vex.
"Vex, raid the King's quarters. I want maps, tech, and anything shiny. Seraphina, stop nursing them. You're the vanguard. Blast open the main hangar doors."
"If I open the doors, the wind will freeze them!" Seraphina argued.
"If you don't," Kaelen pointed at the glowing generator, "the fire will vaporize them. Choose."
Seraphina grit her teeth, her eyes flashing with golden anger. She turned and marched toward the massive blast doors.
Vex moved like a ferret on caffeine.
She sprinted through the Scavenger King's private chambers, shoving items into her [Bag of Holding] (a loot drop from the Dungeon Floor 2).
Golden Candlesticks? Mine. Data Slate? Mine. Weird glowing skull? Definitely mine.
She reached the heavy iron safe behind the throne. She didn't have the combination, but she had a [Hydraulic Claw] Kaelen had looted from Mordecai's corpse.
Crunch.
She peeled the safe door open like a tin can.
Inside sat a single, heavy object wrapped in oilcloth.
Vex unwrapped it. It was a metallic egg, pulsing with a soft, blue rhythm. It felt cold to the touch.
[System Analysis.]
[Item: Portable Mana-Well (Prototype).]
[Rank: B.]
[Status: Dormant.]
"Jackpot," Vex grinned. "Boss is gonna love this."
Suddenly, the floor lurched.
GROAN.
The metal skeleton of the airship screamed. The generator in the hangar below let out a high-pitched whine that shattered the glass in the King's windows.
"Time's up," Vex hissed. She shoved the egg into her bag and sprinted for the exit.
In the hangar, chaos had turned into ordered desperation.
Kaelen's ultimatum had worked. Fear was a powerful motivator. Of the 100 refugees, 92 were standing. They leaned on each other, using rusted rifles as crutches, forcing mana into their atrophied limbs just to stay upright.
The other 8... they hadn't moved. They had died in the pods or were too broken to wake up.
Kaelen didn't look at the 8. He looked at the 92.
"Move!" Kaelen ordered.
Seraphina stood at the blast doors. She channeled her [Solar Tyrant] heat.
"Thermite Blast."
She slapped the locking mechanism. The steel melted instantly. With a groan of hydraulic failure, the massive doors began to slide open.
The wind of the Obsidian Canyon roared in, carrying ash and freezing cold.
The refugees huddled together, terrified of the wasteland night.
"Walk!" Kaelen drew his sword, standing at the rear. "I will cover the back. Seraphina, lead them to the carriage. Vex, provide overwatch!"
The column of ragged survivors stumbled out into the dark canyon.
They made it fifty meters before the fortress died.
KRACK-BOOM.
The generator went critical. It wasn't a fire explosion; it was a mana implosion. A sphere of blue light swallowed the airship. Metal twisted and compressed, screeching as the entire fortress crumpled inward like crushed foil.
Then, the shockwave hit.
Kaelen turned, stabbing his sword into the ground to anchor himself.
"Brace!"
The wind blast knocked half the refugees flat. Ash blinded them. Debris rained down—shards of hot metal and bone.
When the dust settled, the fortress was gone. Only a smoking crater remained in the canyon wall.
"We made it," a man wept, falling to his knees.
"Get up," Kaelen walked over and hauled the man to his feet by his collar. "We are in the open. The noise just rang the dinner bell for every predator in Sector 4."
He looked at his ragtag army. 92 people. No food. No water. Armed with scrap.
"Vex," Kaelen called out as the assassin emerged from the shadows. "Report."
"I got the loot," Vex patted her bag. "And I found something else. A convoy manifest."
She handed Kaelen a data slate.
"Mordecai wasn't just scavenging. He was trading. A supply caravan from the Iron City is due to pass through the intersection of Sector 4 and 5 in two days."
"Iron City?" Kaelen's eyes lit up. That was a major trade hub. If they could intercept that caravan...
"New objective," Kaelen announced to the shivering crowd. "We aren't dying here. We're going hunting."
He climbed onto the roof of his carriage.
"Anyone who falls behind dies. Anyone who fights gets a share of the loot. Welcome to the Vance Mercenary Company."
[Ding!]
[Faction Created: The Vance Mercenary Company.]
[Current Strength: 95 (Rank F).]
[Morale: Low.]
[Resources: Critical.]
As the carriage began to roll, dragging the slow-moving column of refugees behind it like a tail, Kaelen looked at the horizon.
A shadow detached itself from the cliffs above. Then another.
Huge, winged silhouettes against the moonlight.
[Enemy Detected: Gargoyles (Rank E).]
[Count: 15.]
"Seraphina," Kaelen said calmly. "Light them up."
Seraphina, exhausted and angry, raised her staff.
"With pleasure."
One Hour Later.
The fight was messy.
The refugees were useless in combat, screaming and scattering. Kaelen had to spend more stamina defending them than killing the Gargoyles.
He sliced the wing off a stone beast, watching it crash into the ash.
"This isn't sustainable," Kaelen muttered, wiping monster dust from his face. "I can't babysit a hundred people."
He looked at the refugees huddled around the carriage. Among them, he noticed something.
A young woman, barely twenty, was holding a rusted pipe. She stood over three younger children, her eyes wild. A Gargoyle had tried to snatch one of the kids. The woman hadn't run. She had jammed the pipe into the monster's eye.
She was bleeding, shaking, but she was standing.
[System Analysis.]
[Target: Elara (No relation to the Academy Elara).]
[Potential: High.]
[Trait: Berserker Blood (Latent).]
Kaelen walked over to her. The other refugees parted, terrified of him.
"What is your name?" Kaelen asked.
"Lyra," she spat, not lowering the pipe. "If you try to take the kids, I'll kill you."
Kaelen smiled. It was the first genuine smile he had shown in days.
"Lyra," Kaelen said. "You just got a promotion."
He reached into his inventory and pulled out a [Skill Book: Basic Spear Mastery] he had bought from the System Shop ages ago and never used.
He tossed it to her.
"Learn that. Then teach the others who have a spine. You are now Squad Leader Alpha."
Lyra stared at the book, then at him.
"Why?"
"Because," Kaelen turned to walk away. "I need wolves. Not sheep."
[Ding!]
[Lieutenant Recruited: Lyra.]
[Organization Level Up.]
Kaelen climbed back into the carriage. They had survived the night. But the desert was vast, and the 7th Door was still hundreds of miles away.
He closed his eyes.
"Wake me in four hours. Or if something Rank B or higher shows up."