It was dark by the time they were ready to leave, so Kyle and his group spent the night in the tunnels. The accommodations were spartan; besides some stone furniture, there wasn’t a lot of comfort to be had. It was clear Aubrey’s group didn’t want to be outside foraging for wood and fiber any longer than they had to. Kyle supposed he could understand that; after all, Aubrey’s position was given away by a stray stump Mia noticed. Every time they went out to collect food or water, they risked discovery.

In the morning, Aubrey’s group packed as much of their stuff as would fit in their inventories and they abandoned the mine. All told, there were fifteen people in the cavern, all of whom were now coming to join the city. Including Kyle’s group (but without Dvorak) a gaggle of nineteen people now trekked towards Crystopia through the woods. Once they got to Crystopia, its population would nearly triple. Most of the people in Aubrey’s group filled any remaining room in their inventories with stone; the stone pickaxe Kyle's group brought broke after a few dozen swings, so he was grateful Aubrey's group had a metal pick they had scavenged from some goblin chest in the mines.

It was strange seeing the group, about half dwarves, regarding the forest around them with nervousness. They walked closer to each other than Kyle found comfortable, and their spears tended to face outward even when held casually. It was clear they weren’t used to being outside, and they acted as though there might be a murderer around any given bend in the path.

The fauna was obviously unfamiliar to them as well. Several people dropped into combat stances with their spears out the first time they ran into a Sansi. Kyle had to explain it was a placid deer-like source of food and leather, and nothing to be afraid of.

Kyle spent most of the journey enthralled by his new minimap. He was surprised the help files didn’t mention it in their brief description of cartography. He could reach up and grab the map to move or resize it, and he could zoom in and out by pressing buttons at the bottom. When he zoomed out far enough, he could see black smoke indicating the edge of what was considered “explored”, and he saw that as he moved, the dark mist was pushed back, revealing terrain underneath.

Interestingly, the “explored” area was further than he, personally, could see. A couple of times, he darted off the trail through the woods to check on a neat lake or a set of trees with a slightly different canopy color, just to see if it represented anything interesting. Eventually, he let Mason talk some sense into him; they were on their way back to Crystopia with what basically amounted to a group of refugees, and even if Kyle found anything, it wouldn’t make sense to get sucked into a side quest. Still, Kyle resolved to go hunting with Lumen these next few days to fill in his map and make note of anything interesting in the forest.

They arrived back at Crystopia later that evening without incident. It was still there, and not even on fire, which was a plus. The others were understandably surprised to see nearly a score of beleaguered people arriving instead of the small band they sent out. Jacob immediately grumbled that he still hadn’t gotten the bloomery working and now needed to build more houses, mostly by himself. When he found out that two of the incoming people also picked architecture as their skill, he reversed position immediately and started becoming very protective of his town plan and the creative control Kyle supposed it represented.

Dvorak came back the evening of the following day. When asked about his death, he would alternate between saying it was the most painful thing that had ever happened to him and that it “Wasn’t as bad as he expected.” Kyle wasn’t sure which was true. Maybe he was playing up the horror for his audience. Maybe he was projecting bravado for the other players. Either way, Dvorak was… different. Crankier. More pessimistic. His jokes started taking on a more cynical, bitter tone instead of just being goofy.

Braden admitted later to Kyle over dinner that he had killed the bound man in the library, as Kyle had planned to.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“I just… took an axe to his neck,” Braden said. “Chopped it. I didn’t put enough force into it, so it didn’t kill him. Just took a chunk out of his HP. I had to do it again to actually kill him.” Braden shuddered a little. “It felt really… cold. Ruthless. Wrong.” Kyle simply stared into his meat stew. “It was the right thing, right, Kyle? I mean… he’s not really dead, and it keeps other people safe from him for another full day. So… It wasn’t wrong?”

Kyle had no words to say. He mumbled some half hearted comfort, picked up his bowl, and went to his cabin to finish it off. As he sipped his stew in candlelight, he reflected on the sorts of things he was requiring of his new friends. The rift between the gamejackers and the rest of the group made Kyle feel out of place. He found he really didn’t have the answers he pretended he did.

With the new builders, the town grew rapidly. Within a couple of days, The city sported new stone walls (two feet thick, fifteen feet high, just as Mia requested) a nice gate with a wooden portcullis, and a drawbridge that didn’t actually bridge over anything. (Jacob crafted and installed it before realizing it was basically pointless without a moat.)

The other builders mostly stuck to Jacob’s town plan. Mostly.

“Hey, why is there a building here?” Jacob demanded of Skyfire as Kyle approached him with another load of stone. “What’s… what’s this?” Jacob asked, motioning towards the building. ”What’s this supposed to be?”

“Uh, a warehouse?” Skyfire said nervously. “We needed one, right? I mean, we didn’t have anywhere to store community resources.”

“We’ve got places to store our stuff!” Jacob said. “Things go into the buildings they’re used in. Ore by the bloomery. Hides in the tannery. Herbs in the apothecary. If we have a warehouse, it’ll just become a dumping grounds. Junk on shelves everywhere. Nobody would bother to sort anything. A complete disaster.”

“But… but it won’t matter eventually. When the warehouse hits tier four, it gets those auto-sorting chests that-”

“We’re nowhere near tier four! And when we do, the warehouse goes over there. I need you to take it down.”

Skyfire shook his head in disbelief.

“Kyle, man. Tell him to take this building down.”

“What,” said Kyle sourly. “I’m the leader now?”

“What, are you saying you weren’t? Because you could have fooled me.”

“It’s not like we had a vote or anything, Jacob.”

“Well I vote for you. And I don’t hear anybody voting against you. So there. You’re the leader.” Jacob folded his arms as though that solved everything.

Skyfire raised his hands slightly in frustration, but didn’t say anything.

Kyle shook his head at the feuding architects. “Don’t tick off the halfling, kid. I’m sorry. He’s got seniority. But thanks for your initiative. Maybe… maybe be creative outside the city walls? I dunno.” Kyle dropped his stone on the ground. “There. I did the leader thing.” He turned and left wearily.

The chain of authority was messed up, though. There were so many people in charge of different aspects of the town that Kyle didn’t even know who was leading what anymore. Lumen and Mia jockeyed for position anytime anybody was outside the city gates. Aubrey acted in charge of her group of tight-knit refugees, which led to personality conflicts when Lumen or Mia joined them on trips to the mine to collect stone. Aubrey wasn’t giving orders to anybody outside her group, though. Not even to mousey little Avina, who Kyle thought would take orders from a Kreyfa if it was pushy enough. Hell, maybe, Jacob was calling the shots, since he was requesting resources and directing the building efforts.

But there was a leadership vacuum, for certain. Dvorak, for instance, was acting out regularly. He was sleeping in until almost noon, and when he was awake, he’d make fun of the new townsfolk and pick arguments with them seemingly just to argue. Nobody was keeping him in check. Mason would often step in to break things up. If Kyle was nearby, he’d shoot him a dirty glare. As if Kyle was supposed to fix everything.

Kyle felt uncomfortable with Lumen and Mia now that he realized just how different they were from everybody else. They’d often go on lengthy hunting expeditions. One day, they came back dragging one of those huge armored moose things.

“It’s a chokka beast,” Lumen said triumphantly, as the town looked on in astonishment. “And it’s got a weak spot on its belly.”

“How do you get to its belly?” Mason asked, obviously impressed.

“Leverage,” Mia said smirking. She offered no further information.

But as scattered and fractured as their town now seemed, it was still making clear progress. Finally, five days after the trip to the mines, Kyle’s heart leapt when he saw Aubrey and four of her refugees leaving the blacksmith with iron-tipped spears; the first metal items their group had produced.

Metal.

It was working. This whole crazy town idea was finally paying dividends.