When Kaldalis returned with this latest batch of quests completed, there was another already waiting for him - and everyone else. He didn’t let any time go to waste, sweeping through town for only as long as it took to trade his completed quests in for new ones. And then it was back into the jungle.

After the second run of quests, the sun was getting low in the sky. Despite the late hour, there was another round of quests waiting for him when he returned. While it appeared that many of his fellow adventurers were crying off to get dinner, he put his head down and kept working, trading quests and going back out again. He didn’t get back from that run until after dark.

Despite the late hour, there were more quests.

Captain Kensah and the rest of the council had apparently taken his demand for a challenge extremely seriously. It was impressive, but also a bit exhausting.

Kaldalis stopped just long enough to get a warm meal in his belly before heading out again. He had, after all, demanded this challenge. Couldn’t stop now. He would be damned before he refused the opportunity to rise to it.

It was roughly half past eleven when he finally turned in a round of quests without a subsequent set waiting. He was surprised that the council had taken mercy on his evening and given him time to rest, but as he went around handing materials over to quest givers, they were visibly as tired as he was. It was less surprising when he considered that their people were in need of a similar break.

Even though Kaldalis didn’t actually reach his tent and lay down in his cot until nearly midnight, the night seemed interminable. He managed to get some rest, but he kept finding himself half-awake, blearily staring up at his minimap to see if new quests were available.

Despite the next batch of quests appearing bright and early with the dawn, Kaldalis forced himself to stay in bed until he’d gotten his system-mandated eight hours of rest. As soon as he was confident he’d had enough, he wasted no time getting back to business.

His first priority was to set a good example. As he picked up the quests, he saw that a group was building around him, following his lead. He was a bit perturbed that they wouldn’t act on their own initiative, wasting over an hour from sunrise to now, but once he had them all in tow, he resolved to use his implied leadership to keep them pushing through everything for the entire day.

The quests were very reminiscent of what they’d done for Cotanaku in the week leading up to its final upgrade. A majority of them were for building materials, and when Kaldalis finally leveled up to twelve, his mining and harvesting skills were topped off faster than his spear.

Every trip back to Panbu, he saw new defenses erected.

After the first trip back, he saw that the two archery towers from before were finished, and the stone building that was the barracks was mostly built.

On his second trip back, the barracks was finished, and the walls had been much-reinforced.

He wasn’t sure who had ordered it, but a killbox like Cotanaku’s was being erected as well. Returning for the third time that day, it was about noon, and the killbox was finished, complete with an archery tower overlooking the outer gate.

With the outer defenses for the town completed, other buildings began to spring up. Kaldalis wanted to identify what they were working on, but with the group of people following his lead, he couldn’t take the time. As the afternoon wore on, he only identified their progress. Stone foundations. Wooden walls. Roofs. A space outside near the crafting station held piles of lumber that were rapidly transforming into furniture items at the skilled hands of a dozen woodworkers.

In the evening, he was met at the gate by the brown-scaled Talsar woman, who informed him that the first of the censers made from the Xorn cores was ready. On the same trip, he turned in his final quests, and found that there were no more waiting.

He wanted to tour the camp to see what had been done, but the sudden lack of an obvious objective reminded him that he hadn’t eaten in nearly a full day. He took a brief break to stuff his face until he felt unable to force down another bite.

With his physical needs met - and after a quick double-check to make sure no new quests had popped up - he did a quick circuit of the camp.

It looked like Cotanaku had right before the upgrade.

There were two more guard towers along the walls, the council building had been upgraded into a multi-story town hall, and when he got to the beachside gate, he saw that a small floating dock had been built, where the longboats that had littered the beach were now securely tied up.

Everything seemed to be in order. Without access to the camp menu that Garyung had described to him, he had to just guess that it was all set to go. Obviously they hadn’t built a fountain or a clock tower or any of the other optional bullshit Onirioago had used to stall the upgrade, but he suspected that Cerh was sitting on an active “Start Event” button.

To that end, he headed to the crafting center.

The area had been expanded by their work, but it was still overflowing with adventurers working on their skills or milling about waiting for their turn on the stations.

“Attention, adventurers,” Kaldalis said, raising his hands to draw attention. “Can I have a word, please?”

To his surprise, the crowd quieted as they recognized him.

Kaldalis tried to force down the sense of panic as he got everyone’s attention. He told himself that there were way less people here than there were on the beach for his first big speech, but that only reminded him of that terrifying moment.

Having already begun, he couldn’t stop now.

“Great work out there, everyone,” Kaldalis began, focusing on what he needed to say. “The council gave me three days for what we just finished in two, and what took us over a week back in Cotanaku. I wanted to show them we meant business, and you all followed through for me. I can’t possibly thank you all enough for proving me right.”

He led the group in a smattering of appreciative applause. There was an obvious uncertainty in the crowd, which he felt he needed to address.

“Hopefully,” he said once the noise died down, “I can get the council on board with triggering the final battle tomorrow, and we can be done with this by sundown.”

“So what’s the plan for the fight?” a voice came from the crowd.

Rather than answer immediately, Kaldalis cast his eyes over the group until he identified the voice. Droto, the green-scaled Talsar, was looking up from his workstation where he had paused in the middle of stringing a bow.

“I’ll be the first to admit that the plan is a little bare-bones,” Kaldalis said, returning his attention to the group as a whole. “We need to take this enemy head-on.” He gestured towards Balrim and Myrin. “Thanks to our intelligence efforts, we know that the Xorn nest is too far away for us to end-run around them and take the fight to their home like we did with the Syncoresi. We have the town’s defenses to back us up, though, and more than that, we have preparation on our side this time. Last time, the fight was a surprise, but we won’t get fooled again.

“A plan I do have is getting all the NPCs clear of this fight,” Kaldalis continued. “I don’t need to tell you all what happens to the crafters, builders, and even the council themselves if this gets away from us. Even if things only get a little iffy, there are adventurers among us who could meet with a permanent end.” Balrim and Myrin were near at hand, and he saw them nodding soberly. “The last thing I want is more names on the wall.”

Silent nods became a murmur of assent.

“Are we planning to fail, then?” someone asked. Kaldalis looked for the source of the voice, and found someone he didn’t recognize. A Human in healer’s robes sitting at a charmcrafting station. “It sounds like you’ve given a lot of thought to what happens when everything breaks down. Sounds like a pessimistic worldview to me, especially if it’s going to be making things actually harder for us.”

“It’s not about pessimism,” Kaldalis snapped, fixing the man with a glare. “It’s about sending a message. We care about the lives lost, and want to minimize them. If you want to tell me that it’s worth giving their lives to make things a little easier, I’ll tell you you’re wrong.”

“No more deaths,” someone shouted in agreement. Kaldalis looked for them and saw that it was Courbois. Her stern look made it clear that this wasn’t a request. “I don’t care what any of the rest of you think, Kaldalis has the right of it here. No more losses like Jazos. Not even one.”

He nodded his thanks for her support, especially when a group of people added their voices to hers with quiet murmurs of similar sentiments.

Invoking the name of Jazos had clearly affected the group. That had been one of the first names carved into the memorial wall in Cotanaku, and the one Courbois had spoken when she turned the memorial to memories honoring the fallen.

She had them all remembering the cost of lacking the caution Kaldalis was advising.

“Courbois,” Kaldalis said, interrupting the chatter, “I want you in charge of getting word out to the NPCs. Gather who you can to help and make sure they’re ready to move out.”

The only response he got was a nod, but the determination in her eyes made it clear that she was taking the job personally.

“The rest of you,” Kaldalis said, looking out over the rest of the crowd. “Less than half of the people in camp are here. By morning, I want everyone to know what’s going on. And I want everyone to remember: Infernal Horde doesn’t run shit out here. We run shit. Right?”

A brief cheer of assent went up.

“While you’re all doing that,” Kaldalis said, mostly to himself, as the crowd’s chatter started to overtake the room again. “I’m going to meet with the council and hope that it’ll be just as easy to convince them to go along with this.”