Jonah considered his options, maybe he was going about this wrong.

  What would help stop this insanity of repeated questions that got the same result every time.

  Telling them the truth was impossible. Regression, forty-nine years of future knowledge, dying on Level 34 and waking up in his apartment the day before the System arrived. They'd think he was insane. Worse, they'd question every decision he made, filter everything through the lens of "this man claims to remember a future that hasn't happened."

  Lies were equally dangerous. Any specific explanation could be challenged, investigated, disproven. Claiming he'd received System guidance or found hidden documentation would create expectations he couldn't consistently meet.

  Silence had worked so far. Letting them wonder and make up their own stories. But the assumptions were becoming problems. The other leaders needed something to accept, even if that something wasn't the full truth. At this point, anything was better than nothing and Jonah needed unity now more than ever before.

  The Tower Dungeon would spark a gold rush and he needed the leaders on his side when it was time.

  "I have a skill." Jonah sighed and sat back down to make a show of it. "Knowledge: System Mechanics. Expert rank, acquired during the tutorial. It provides information about how the System works, where resources are located, what threats exist in different regions."

  It was mostly truth. Jonah did get it in the tutorial and it did help him in certain conditions. The skill existed in his profile. It just didn't work the way he was implying.

  Derek's eyes narrowed. "Expert rank in the tutorial. That's—"

  "Unprecedented. Yes. The System noted it with an achievement. I don't know why I developed the skill so quickly. Some kind of natural affinity, maybe. What matters is that it works. The information it provides has been accurate every time." Jonah pulled up his interface, displayed the Tutorial Prodigy notification for them to see.

  That was the hook.

  Chen Wei studied the notification with obvious interest. "That's... actually reasonable. Skills at higher ranks provide enhanced capabilities. An Expert-rank knowledge skill granting detailed location information fits within System parameters."

  "It's still just his word," Derek said. But it was clear he had no legs to stand on now.

  "My word has been right. Consistently. I understand you don't like following someone you can't verify. I understand the frustration of taking directions without explanations too. But we don't have time for a bureaucratic process that takes forever to make decisions. We don't have luxury for debate. The settlement stone is north-northwest. Four days march. That's where we're going."

  The three leaders exchanged glances.

  Jonah could see the calculations happening behind their eyes. The risk of following him versus the risk of striking out independently. The memory of his impossible victory against the Warboss. The Legendary Class notification that had marked him as something unprecedented. Everything in under a few seconds at most as they tried to figure out where they could find benefits for themselves and their portions of the masses.

  None of them wanted to submit either.

  But none of them wanted to be the one who led their people to death by ignoring someone who'd been right about everything.

  "What about the tower? After we claim the settlement stone. What then?" Chen Wei asked.

  "Then we climb. The tower is humanity's path upward. We escape the first floor once we find the 12 prism stones within the dungeon tower and reach pre-requisite levels. Usually level 20. The tower accelerates our growth once we start delving the main dungeon. Better experience, better loot, better skill development. But we need the settlement first. A safe zone where we can recover and train between tower runs."

  Garrett shifted his weight. "My people won't like moving. They've been through hell. They want rest."

  "They'll rest at the settlement. Proper buildings instead of tents. System-generated resources instead of scavenged scraps. Protection that doesn't require constant vigilance. I know they're tired. I know everyone wants to stop running. The settlement gives us that. This place doesn't. We barely survived goblins, do you think we can survive anything bigger? Stronger?"

  The argument wasn't won, but it was slowly ending.

  Derek made one last attempt. "And if you're wrong? If we march four days and find nothing?"

  "Then I take full responsibility. Lead passes to whoever you three agree on. I step back and follow instead of command." Jonah met Derek's eyes. "But I'm not wrong."

  The silence stretched for a few moments.

  Martinez's hand rested on his spear. Justin's lightning had stopped crackling, his attention focused on the confrontation with predatory interest. Behind the three faction leaders, their lieutenants and supporters watched, waiting to see how this would resolve.

  "Fine," Derek said finally. "North-northwest. Four days. But if this goes wrong—"

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "It won't."

  Derek turned and stalked away, his people following. Garrett lingered a moment longer, then shook his head and departed toward his own faction.

  Chen Wei remained, studying Jonah with those burning curious eyes. "You're hiding something. The skill explanation is plausible, but it's not the whole truth. I can see it."

  "Does that matter?"

  "Not yet. Maybe not ever, if you keep being right. I'm choosing to trust you, Jonah. Not because I believe your explanation. Because I believe your results. You've saved us a few times already and I won't deny you that. Don't make me regret it."

  He walked away.

  Jonah watched him go, then turned back to his map.

  That was close. They'll accept the skill explanation for now, but Chen Wei is smart. He'll keep watching and analyzing all my moves. Eventually he'll realize the knowledge skill doesn't explain everything. Have to deal with that when it comes. For now, focus on the march.

  The political confrontation was over, but the strategic questions remained.

  Jonah studied the route north-northwest, his tactical assessment feeding him information about the terrain, the threats, the complications that could arise. The decision about how to move their force still needed to be made.

  He remembered where the threats they faced were in his original life, but he didn't know everything about the path. There were also options he could consider.

  Option one: a small expedition force.

  Send a small team ahead to claim the settlement stone while the main group waited here. Advantages were obvious: faster movement, lower risk of mass casualties. The stone could be activated before the deadline even if complications arose.

  But the disadvantages were severe. The route wasn't safe. Hidden dungeons scattered along the path, their entrances concealed until someone stumbled across them. Beast dens that would attack any group passing through their territory. Corrupted zones where the System's transformation had created environmental hazards.

  His core team could handle most of those threats, but "most" wasn't "all." And the people he'd leave behind didn't know the dangers. Didn't know which areas to avoid, which patterns indicated monster spawns, which seemingly safe paths led to ambush points, what threats were hiding in plain sight.

  Derek would push west the moment Jonah was out of sight.

  Garrett would convince his people to fortify in place.

  Chen Wei might hold position, but without Jonah's presence to balance the other factions, the fragile unity they'd built would shatter.

  By the time the expedition returned, there might not be a unified group to lead to the settlement.

  Option two: main force moves toward the tower while the expedition claims the stone.

  The tower was three days from the settlement stone. The settlement stone was four days from their current position. If the main group moved toward the tower while Jonah's team went for the stone, they could potentially rendezvous at the tower afterward.

  But the main group didn't know the safe paths to the tower either. They had no clue which approaches triggered dungeon spawns, didn't know the beast territories, or any of the hundred small details that could turn a march into a massacre.

  Can't afford more deaths. We've already lost a third of our people. Every fighter who dies now is a fighter who won't be there for the floors above. Level 1 is nothing compared to what comes later.

  Option three: full force moves together.

  It was a lot slower, more vulnerable to mass engagement, but controllable. Jonah could guide them around the worst dangers and respond to threats before they materialized. He could also keep the factions together through proximity and shared crisis.

  They would need every hand available to make it out.

  The timeline worked. Four days to the stone, three days from the stone to the tower. Seven days total. Five days of buffer before the deadline.

  Complications would eat into that buffer. The obvious complications happening that he expected: fights they couldn't avoid, terrain that slowed movement, wounded who needed rest, more political maneuvering from the other three leaders, etc.

  But the buffer existed for exactly those complications.

  We move together. Keep them all in sight and keep them all alive.

  The decision was made.

  "Martinez."

  The former Marine appeared at his shoulder. "Sir?"

  "March order stands as planned: full force movement. I want scouts twenty meters ahead, flankers at fifty meter intervals, rear guard rotating every two hours, non-combatants and wagons in the center, and fighting strength distributed evenly along the column."

  "Understood. Timeline?"

  "Two hours. Everyone moves together. No exceptions."

  Martinez nodded and departed to relay the orders.

  Jonah folded the map and turned to survey the camp one final time.

  Eight hundred people preparing to march into corrupted territory toward a goal they didn't understand, following a leader they couldn't verify, trusting in knowledge that shouldn't exist, based on a lie he just told them.

  The wagons were loaded, and the wounded were secured.

  The fighters were checking weapons and organizing into the formations Martinez had drilled into them.

  Sarah appeared beside him, her Ghost Blade evolution lending her movement an unsettling silence. "The other leaders accepted?"

  "For now. Derek will cause problems eventually. Garrett will grumble but follow. Chen Wei..." Jonah paused. "Chen Wei is the one to watch. He's smart enough to be dangerous and patient enough to wait for the right moment."

  "Want me to keep eyes on him?"

  "On all three, but especially Derek. His ambition makes him predictable, but predictable people can still cause damage if you're not watching."

  She vanished from beside him like a quiet breeze.

  The two hours passed quickly.

  The camp dissolved into organized motion as people fell into their assigned positions. The war and the systems skills had left its mark on them and their structure. No one wanted to be out of formation lest they end up meeting a fate far worse than standing in perfect lines.

  Wagons creaked into a train three wide.

  Fighters that were currently in their patrol duty took their places along the column's length.

  Jonah took position at the column's head, his core team arranged around him in a loose formation. Liam on his left, the young swordsman's new class lending his movements a fluidity that hadn't been there before. Alexa on his right, spear ready, eyes scanning the corrupted landscape ahead. Martinez and David anchored positions behind him. Sarah had already vanished, her Ghost Blade abilities letting her range ahead without being seen.

  Rebecca walked beside the medical wagon, her attention split between the unconscious mages and the path ahead. Justin prowled somewhere along the column's flank, lightning occasionally visible through gaps in the corrupted buildings.

  Behind them, eight hundred people began to move.

  The march north-northwest had begun.

  Jonah felt the weight of every life pressing against his shoulders. Every decision he'd made, every guidance he'd provided, had led to this moment. The settlement stone waited four days away. The tower loomed on the eastern horizon, its golden light a constant reminder of the challenges ahead.

  Humanity's first real foothold.

  The foundation of everything he was trying to build.

  Don't die. Don't let them die. Get to the stone. Claim the settlement. Start climbing without people turning into glory hounds and the situation into a gold rush. Everything else can wait.

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