Riven woke a second time that morning, though he hadn't remembered falling asleep at all. He'd meant only to sit down against the base of the new tower for a moment while the repair crews worked, and the next thing he knew Elarys was crouched beside him, one hand steady on his shoulder."You've been out for twenty minutes," she said. "I let you have them.""Twenty minutes I didn't budget for." He pushed himself upright, joints stiff in a way that had nothing to do with injury and everything to do with a night that had ended in combat instead of sleep. Around him, the field told its own story — scorched grass in wide black patches, the wall's damaged section already climbing back toward full height under a dozen busy hands, and the fountain at the center of the yard still pulsing its slow, steady gold.[Wall Integrity: 88% → 94%]"Faster than I expected," Riven said, watching stone knit itself seamless under the crew's work."Development Level thirty buys you a faster repair crew," Ela

Riven waited until the following morning before he touched the Hero Summoning Stone again. Not out of hesitation — he'd made that mistake once already with the gauntlet and wasn't interested in repeating the pattern — but because a decision this size deserved a full day's rest behind it instead of the tail end of a Dungeon clear. Day Nine started the way every day since the Grace Period had started: a status check first, everything else after.[Lord Hall (Level 3)][Development Level: 34][Population: 161][Gold: 3,730][Collapsed Forge: Repair Complete][New Building: Giant Forge (Sub-Space)]The Blacksmith unit had wasted no time. What had been rubble and cracked stone in the Ashen Vault's second chamber now stood finished, according to the notification, though Riven hadn't walked back through the archway yet to see it with his own eyes. A second production building, sitting inside claimed land, costing him nothing but a day of a single unit's labor. He made a note to inspect it pro