The Anchor was silent, but it wasn't the empty, terrifying silence of the Void. It was the silence of a library after hours—heavy, waiting, and safe.
Jax sat on the edge of the obsidian platform, his knees pulled to his chest. He hadn't moved in an hour. He just stared at the golden barrier shimmering overhead, watching the faint ripples where the dark mist outside tried to push in and failed.
He held the empty wrapper of the ration bar Kaelen had given him like it was a holy relic.
Kaelen stood by the white marble interface, watching the numbers settle.
[ TERRITORY STATUS: STABLE ]
[ POPULATION: 1 ]
[ MANA DENSITY: LOW ]
The mana in the air was thin. The turrets had drained a significant amount of the Anchor's reserves to clear the swarm. If another wave hit tonight, the barrier might hold, but the guns wouldn't fire.
"We need to conserve," Kaelen muttered.
He turned to Elara. She was still sleeping on the pile of vests, her breathing steady but shallow. The golden cracks in her skin were dim. She needed mana to heal, but the Anchor needed mana to keep them alive. It was a cruel balance.
Renna walked over, wiping black ichor from her rifle. She looked at Jax, then at Kaelen.
"He's still shaking," she said quietly.
"He's in shock," Kaelen said. "He's lived in the tunnels his whole life. He's never seen a place where the monsters aren't allowed to go."
"He's a scavenger, Kaelen," Renna warned. "Survival is the only law he knows. If things get hard here, he might steal our supplies and run."
"He won't run," Kaelen said.
"How do you know?"
"Because out there, he's meat," Kaelen said, looking at the boy. "Here, he has a name."
Kaelen walked over to Jax. The scavenger flinched as Kaelen's shadow fell over him, his eyes darting to the black glass sword at Kaelen's hip.
"Jax," Kaelen said.
Jax scrambled to his feet, bowing his head. "Lord? I didn't touch anything. I stayed on the stone. I followed the rules."
"Stop," Kaelen said gently. "You aren't a prisoner."
He pointed to the far end of the cavern, where the tunnel entrance lay choked with rubble and the corpses of the Hollowed they had killed.
"You said you were a scavenger," Kaelen said. "How good are you?"
Jax blinked. "Good. I survived Sector 7 for three years. I can find copper in a stone wall. I can strip a mech in ten minutes."
"Good," Kaelen said. "Because we don't need copper. We need walls."
Kaelen gestured to the open causeway—the narrow stone bridge connecting their platform to the main tunnel. It was a choke point, but it was wide open.
"The turrets are strong, but they burn Mana," Kaelen explained. "I can't afford to shoot every rat that wanders in. We need physical barriers. Barricades. Funnels."
He looked at Jax.
"Go to the wreckage. Strip the armor plating off the dead Hollowed. Pull the rebar from the collapsed ceiling. Build me a wall across the causeway. Leave a gap wide enough for one person to walk through."
Jax stared at him. "You... you want me to build?"
"I want you to work," Kaelen said. "In the Anchor, we don't have free food. We have wages."
Kaelen reached into his inventory. He didn't have gold. He didn't have credits. But he had something better.
He pulled out a small, glowing blue crystal—a Mana Shard he had looted from the Library guardian.
"One shard for the wall," Kaelen said. "Pure mana. You can trade it, or you can absorb it to heal your rot."
Jax's eyes went wide. In the tunnels, a shard that size was worth a month of water. People killed for dust; Kaelen was offering a diamond.
"I'll build it," Jax breathed. "I'll build it high. Nothing gets in."
"Get to it," Kaelen said.
Jax didn't walk; he ran. He pulled his serrated knife and sprinted toward the tunnel entrance, attacking the wreckage with a manic energy.
Renna watched him go, eyebrows raised.
"You're paying him?" she asked.
"Loyalty isn't free, Renna," Kaelen said, turning back to the interface. "And neither is survival. We're not a squad anymore. We're a settlement."
He looked at the interface again.
[ CONSTRUCTION QUEUE: BARRICADE (TIER 0) ]
[ BUILDER ASSIGNED: JAX ]
[ TIME TO COMPLETION: 4 HOURS ]
It was working. The System recognized the labor.
But then, a new notification blinked in the corner of his vision. It wasn't gold. It was a dull, rusted orange.
[ WARNING: RESOURCE SCARCITY ]
[ FOOD STOCKS: CRITICAL ]
[ WATER: SUFFICIENT ]
[ MANA: DRAINING ]
Kaelen sighed. The wall would stop the monsters. But it wouldn't stop the hunger.
He looked at the dark, oily water surrounding the platform.
"Renna," Kaelen said. "How do you feel about fishing in the Void?"
Renna looked at the black water, where something large and pale rippled just beneath the surface.
"I'd rather shoot myself," she said dryly.
"Keep an eye on Jax," Kaelen said, stepping toward the edge. "I'm going to see if this water is poisonous... or just cursed."