The fourth day began with the column moving north along the riverbank.

  The terrain proved treacherous, rocky slopes dropping sharply toward the deadly water. Progress slowed as the wagons navigated paths ill-suited for wheeled vehicles. Fighters helped push when the ground grew too rough, their enhanced strength making possible what would have been impossible for baseline humans.

  Shortly after midday, the crossing appeared.

  Jonah stopped the column at a point where the river narrowed dramatically, channeled between massive boulders that jutted from the water like teeth. The current remained powerful, but the rocks created a precarious path, a series of stepping stones for the careful.

  The three faction leaders gathered around him, studying the obstacle with varying expressions.

  "You want the whole army boulder hopping?" Chen Wei asked, a deep frown creasing his face.

  Jonah shook his head. "Send fifty to sixty fighters with another ten to fifteen who know construction. We have a few architects in our ranks. Send one to the far side and the other two here. We'll build a bridge connecting the two parts, but it needs to be high enough to avoid the spray."

  "That's going to take all day, even if we work hard," Derek said, frustration evident in his voice. "It would be quicker just to cross with the whole army, marching them through one group at a time."

  "No. That will cost us dozens of lives."

  "So what? They'll die to a monster anyway if they're stupid enough to fall off a rock."

  Jonah's frown deepened, hardening into a glare.

  Derek stopped himself. "Okay, okay, I get it. Everyone is equally valuable and all that." He turned and walked away, muttering under his breath.

  Garrett and Chen Wei watched him go, their expressions reflecting a shared frustration with Derek's attitude, which was quickly eroding any alliances he had managed to form. It was another indication that the man was planning something.

  Garrett rubbed the back of his neck, his large frame shifting uncomfortably. "I trust you. You haven't steered us wrong yet. I had my reservations, and still do, but for now... I'll have my people do what you ask."

  "Same here." Chen Wei agreed with less hesitation. "The bridge makes tactical sense. Slower, but safer. And we're ahead of schedule anyway. Using a day or two to protect lives is a smart idea."

  They dispersed to organize their factions, leaving Jonah to coordinate the crossing operation.

  He carefully selected the construction team. Martinez would lead the fighters; his military background made him ideal for maintaining discipline in a potentially dangerous situation. Liam and Alexa would serve as the main combat assets, their combined talents providing protection should anything threaten the workers.

  The architects were an unexpected blessing: three survivors with actual construction experience, people who'd designed buildings before the System transformed the world. Jonah had noted their skills during the journey but hadn't had an opportunity to utilize them until now.

  "The bridge doesn't need to last forever," Jonah explained to Patricia, the lead architect, a grey-haired woman who'd worked in commercial development before the apocalypse and was now a berserker with a massive ax strapped to her back. "Just long enough for eight hundred people and their wagons to cross safely. One trip, then it can collapse into the river for all I care."

  Patricia studied the arrangement of boulders with a professional eye. "The gaps are uneven. The widest point looks like... maybe twelve feet? The narrowest around six. We'll need different span solutions for each section."

  "Can you do it?"

  She paused, considering the river and the situation. "With the materials available? Yes. It won't be pretty, but it'll hold. We are stronger than normal humans now. That changes the engineering calculations. Beams that would need multiple workers or machines to place can be handled by individuals. Joints that would require complex fastening can be held by raw strength while others secure them."

  "How long?"

  "A full day, working straight through. Maybe less if nothing goes wrong."

  That was within Jonah's plan.

  "Nothing ever goes wrong," Jonah said, his tone making it clear he didn't believe it for a moment. "Plan for complications. Build sturdy and capable. I'd rather spend extra hours on safety than fish bodies out of that current."

  The construction team crossed first, using the boulder path Jonah deemed too dangerous for the entire column. Even with enhanced abilities, the crossing was treacherous. One worker slipped, catching himself on a rocky outcropping. He hung there for a terrifying moment before his companions pulled him to safety.

  They reached the far bank without casualties, and work began immediately.

  Jonah watched from the near bank, his attention split between the construction progress and the surrounding terrain. The column was vulnerable here, stretched along the riverbank with limited defensive options. If enemies attacked now, the geography favored ambush, complicating any response.

  His established patrols reported regularly: nothing significant. Animal activity in the forest. Unusually large birds circling overhead. The ever-present sense of being watched that came with traveling through corrupted territory.

  No organized threats yet.

  The calm before the storm. The settlement stone is close now.

  He could feel the tension in his shoulder blades. Freeing it would not be easy, even with their expected numeric advantage.

  The bridge took shape section by section.

  Patricia's team worked with impressive efficiency. Their System-enhanced bodies handled materials that would have required machinery in the old world. Timber beams harvested from the corrupted forest were trimmed and shaped, their structural properties tested before being committed to the span. Rope and wire salvaged from the march's supplies provided fastening that held against the river's spray.

  On the near bank, the team worked hard to set solid foundations, ensuring they were sturdy enough to support the rest of the bridge if necessary.

  The first section connected the near bank to the first major boulder. Testing showed it held weight without concerning flex. The second section proved trickier, the gap wider and the target boulder more uneven. Patricia redesigned the approach three times before finding a satisfactory solution.

  Hours passed as Jonah watched both sides work.

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  The sun tracked across the corrupted sky, its light shifting through shades no normal sun should produce. Fighters rotated through rest and patrol duties.

  Jonah could see their nerves fraying slowly. The waiting was, in some ways, harder than active combat. They could fight enemies, slay them when they marched upon their defenses, but they could not actively change the construction's pace.

  Any interference only resulted in delays.

  The third section went faster.

  The fourth caused problems when a support beam cracked under stress, requiring replacement before the span could be trusted. Jonah insisted they reinforce it even more than the rest.

  The fifth section completed the bridge's arc to the far bank, a continuous path of timber and rope that spanned the deadly water.

  Testing came next.

  Single fighters crossed first, their weight minimal, their movements careful. Courage had yet to be established.

  First, small groups crossed, then groups of five, then ten, then twenty-five. The bridge flexed but held; the supports creaked but didn't crack; the fastenings strained but didn't slip.

  Patricia visibly relaxed, relief evident in her expression. "It'll hold. Barely, in places, but it'll hold."

  "Wagons?"

  "One at a time, slowly. Have people walk alongside to balance the load."

  Jonah nodded and began organizing the crossing.

  The process proved agonizingly slow.

  Eight hundred people, plus wagons, plus supplies, all funneled across a bridge that threatened to collapse under the weight at any moment. Fighters went first, establishing a defensive perimeter on the far bank. Non-combatants followed in ordered groups, their fear of the deadly water below tempered by the knowledge that others had crossed safely.

  The wagons presented the greatest challenge. Each required careful positioning, with multiple handlers walking alongside to prevent dangerous tilting. The wounded, in their makeshift transports, had to be transferred to stretchers for the crossing, their weight distributed among bearers rather than concentrated on wheels.

  Miranda crossed on a stretcher, still unconscious. Her mana-burned body showed no sign of waking, though she was improving. The other mages from the improvised circle were equally unresponsive, their forms carefully transported by fighters who understood the value of their sacrifice.

  Jonah crossed last, after everyone else had reached the far bank safely.

  The bridge swayed beneath his feet. The river's roar filled his ears, and spray dampened his clothes. Each step felt precarious despite the structure's proven stability. The water below churned with currents that promised death to anyone unlucky enough to fall.

  He reached the far bank without incident.

  "No losses," Martinez reported, his voice laced with satisfaction that bordered on disbelief. "Eight hundred people across that death trap, and we didn't lose a single one."

  Jonah stared at the construction they'd made possible. The bridge stretched across the deadly water, a testament to what enhanced humans could achieve when properly organized. It wasn't pretty—lumber and rope assembled with more determination than elegance—but it had served its purpose.

  "Leave it standing."

  Martinez raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said—"

  "I know what I said about the fortifications. We can use this as a final stand and trap, if necessary. Destroying it serves no purpose beyond spite." Jonah turned away from the river. "Move the column out. We've got ground to cover before we make camp."

  The march resumed, the settlement stone closer with every step.

  Jonah stopped the column at midday instead of near sunset.

  The landmark he'd been searching for appeared exactly where memory promised—unlike the river crossing. Five giant boulders were arranged in a pattern that resembled nothing so much as the skeleton of some impossible creature. The formation would have been a hundred meters tall if whatever force had created it had intended to build something whole rather than scattered remains.

  The three faction leaders gathered around him within minutes, their expressions carrying questions they'd learned to ask directly.

  "Why are we stopping?" Derek demanded. "We could make more ground before dark."

  Jonah watched him, wondering when the fool would make a move on the settlement stone.

  "We need to stop and prepare for battle. The settlement stone is in an Orc encampment." Jonah met each of their eyes in turn.

  Silence greeted the statement.

  "Orcs?" Garrett's voice held more confusion than fear.

  "Goblins, but evolved. Nearly seven feet tall, three feet wide, faster and stronger than anything we've faced. And much smarter too. They aren't fully sapient, but close enough that they're going to be a problem unless we're smart about this."

  "How many?" Chen Wei asked.

  "About a hundred strong. They've built wooden fortifications around the stone, using its energy to keep monster dens from assaulting their position with full force."

  Derek's skepticism was clear. "A hundred orcs against eight hundred humans? Those are good odds."

  "Those are terrible odds if we're stupid. Each of those orcs is worth ten goblins in combat capability. Their fortifications give them a defensive advantage, and they've been living there long enough to know the terrain intimately." Jonah shook his head. "A direct assault would cost us two hundred dead, minimum. Probably more."

  The number landed with appropriate weight.

  "So what's the plan?" Garrett asked.

  "We scout first. Understand their defensive layout, identify weak points, find approaches they haven't prepared for. Then we develop tactics that minimize our casualties while maximizing their confusion. This location gives us a staging area they won't expect. We're close enough to reach them quickly but far enough that they won't detect our presence immediately."

  "Can't they just activate the settlement stone themselves?" Chen Wei's question cut to a concern Jonah had already considered.

  "We better hope not, or we might be screwed." Jonah allowed himself a grim smile. "Seriously though, it needs to be a sapient race to activate the settlement stone. Truly sapient, with the capacity for abstract reasoning and long-term planning. Orcs are intelligent, but they don't quite reach that threshold. Luckily, we don't have any races on this floor that do."

  Chen Wei's expression shifted. "All this information is suspicious. I know what your answer is going to be, and frankly, I don't think you're telling the whole truth."

  Jonah met his gaze without flinching.

  "Not that it matters, honestly," Chen Wei continued. "It's just strange how accurate you are. And I don't doubt you're right about this orc settlement either."

  "Is that acceptance or accusation?"

  "Observation." The young faction leader shrugged. "You've been right about everything. The wave sizes, the goblin tactics, the fortification designs, the cache locations, the river crossing. Everything. You haven't been wrong once. No skill explains that level of accuracy. No natural talent accounts for knowledge that specific."

  "And yet here we are."

  Chen Wei smiled. "And yet here we are. Following someone whose explanations don't satisfy any questions and whose knowledge shouldn't exist, whose confidence borders on prescience, because the alternative is leadership that gets people killed."

  Jonah knew that was a shot at Derek.

  Derek recognized it, too. He frowned and stepped forward, his impatience evident. "Are we doing this now? Interrogating the man and taking shots at the other leaders?"

  "I'm not interrogating. I'm acknowledging him for what he's said and done, good and inaccurate." Chen Wei turned to face Jonah directly. "Whatever your secret is, I've decided it doesn't matter. Results matter. You've delivered results the entire time. That's enough for me."

  Garrett nodded slowly. "Same. I don't understand half of what you know or how you know it, but I understand that we're alive because of it."

  Derek's contribution was a grunt that might have been agreement.

  Jonah felt something ease in his chest. Acceptance and less resistance while he tried to keep as many people alive. Getting them on his side was the first step in saving humanity. He needed a base when they entered the greater human numbers on higher floors, and that would not be an easy task to accomplish.

  The faction leaders would follow his guidance not because they believed his explanations, but because they'd learned to trust his outcomes.

  It was enough.

  "Get your people settled. We camp here tonight while we scout and figure out a plan. The assault happens at dawn on the second day." Jonah turned toward the boulder formation. "I want scouts observing the orc settlement within the hour. Rotations every four hours. Complete information about their defenses, sentries, patrol patterns, and response times. Everything we can learn before we commit to attack."

  The leaders dispersed to organize their factions.

  Jonah stood alone among the massive boulders, their stone surfaces warm despite the cooling air. The settlement stone waited less than half a day's march away, surrounded by enemies that would fight to the death to protect their home.

  A hundred orcs. Eight hundred humans.

  If only they could be reasoned with, not that he expected a sentient race to ever give up a settlement stone when it was the only one available. It was just wishful thinking.

  The math favored humanity, but only if he planned this correctly, only if he found the approaches that minimized casualties. Losing another two or three hundred men and women would be detrimental to establishing a proper standing army for the next floor.

  Sarah appeared behind him.

  "Watch Derek the entire time, and be ready to swipe the settlement stone if he makes a play for it. I'm hoping he does something stupid and public enough that I can execute him. Bastard has been careful to keep his name out of the mud so far."

  "Yes, Sir," Sarah vanished behind him.

  He began mentally rehearsing scenarios, each one informed by forty-nine years of experience he hadn't yet lived.