Note: This chapter has not gone to my editors and events may change before final release. The below is also unedited and in a raw non-polished form.

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Everyone was quick to wake up the next day. They were all excited that the Crossroads was an official town and wanted to do their part. Upon exiting his tent, Toaby found Curtis waiting for him.

“Morning, Toaby.” Curtis said joyfully.

“Morning, Curtis.”

“I have a gift for you.” Curtis pulled out a pair of hand axes and offered them to Toaby. “Your weapons seemed to becoming more and more damaged. I thought you could use a replacement. I’m not sure I got the design quite right, but they should do well in both close range and when tossed.”

Confused by the sudden gift, Toaby took the weapons.

You have received Iron Handaxe x2.

Iron Handaxe

Slot: Either hand

Damage: 3-6 Slashing

Cost: 2 Stamina per attack

Rarity: Common

Condition: Good (+5%)

Durability: 26/26

Description: A simple handaxe crafted of iron by blacksmith Curtis.

“I know it's not the greatest, but I should be able to craft you ones with more damage as I increase my smithy skill.” Curtis added.

Toaby shook his head. “These are great! There a vast improvement over my starter weapons.” Toaby pulled the basic francisca from his inventory. The wooden handles were cracking in a few spots and the blade was dull. “What should I do with these?”

“I’ll smelt down what I can from them.”

Handing over his old weapons, Toaby looked around the village. Everyone was running around completing tasks in a hurry. “Man. Everyone seems so busy.”

“Isn’t it great? Tom added a bunch of quests to the job board and people are jumping at the chance to complete them. Tom let it slip that we could add a rebirth point in the village if we earned a thousand TP so everyone's been donating what they’ve earned. We’re up to two hundred and seventy-eight already.”

“Wow, that’s great! What quests have been completed so far?”

Curtis scratched his chin. “Ummm… I believe a couple of people have the one for helping dig the trench and someone completed one for gathering fruit for breakfast.”

“Wait. Multiple people can have the same job?”

“So far, only the digging one was open for as many people as they wanted. If you grab the job, you earn one TP for every hour you dig.”

“Cool. I’ll have to grab it before starting my dig shift today.”

Curtis shook his head. “Tom wants you to complete the rabbit quest with Sam.”

“But don’t we need a rabbit warren built?”

“They’re going to try to build one today.”

Toaby raised an eyebrow. “There isn’t a lot of space for that inside the trench, but better question, does he know how to build a rabbit warren?”

Curtis shrugged. “The farmers think they can put one together for pretty cheap. They’re going to use a bunch of the branches we have from cutting all those trees down to build a fence. They said that’s pretty much all they need. Tom’s not sure it will count toward our hamlet progression, but it will solve part of our food shortage issue.”

“Ok. I’ll go find Sam and head out. Thanks again for the new weapons.” He nodded his appreciation before walking through the settlement in search for his hunter friend. He made two pit spots on the way. He first stopped at the town hall to grab the rabbit job and then for a quick breakfast. He snatched an extra piece of fruit before finding Sam.

Sam was helping with the trench. He was currently placing a sharpened spike in a hole he had dug. It was the second layer of defense on the trench. If anyone failed to cross it, they would get impaled and be sent to Helheim.

Toaby tossed the fruit to Sam. “Heads up.” The agile hunter snatched the food out of the air. “Nice catch.”

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“Thanks.” Sam took a bite out of the juicy odalon.

“Tom wants us to catch a bunch of rabbits for a warren their building.”

Reaching out for a hand up, Toaby helped Sam out of the trench. “Awesome. This is something I’ll be great at!” Toaby cocked his head. “I’m a hunter, remember? I have tracking and trap skills. Be right back!”

Sam ran off, leaving Toaby to admire the work they had done. The trench was looking impressive and the only walkway into the settlement was getting a gate built on it. It would become a great kill zone against anyone dumb enough to attack. Sam returned moments later, a smile splitting his face.

“You ready?” Toaby asked.

“Let’s do this thing.”

The pair left the settlement and, unfortunately, had a pretty uneventful couple of hours. Sam used his tracking skills to find the best spots with the highest rabbit population to lay snares. Then Sam would spend fifteen minutes setting up a basic snare. He tied a small lasso made out of spider silk to an anchor, usually the base of a tree, and then elevated the hoop on a stick. The idea was that a rabbit would run by it and get caught in the snare.

Toaby’s only job was defending Sam while he set up the traps. It ended up being a boring job. They rarely got attacked and when they did, it was only from a single rabbit which proved not to be a challenge.

What a difference from day one. Apparently a little practice fighting with my axe and some new skills is all I needed to fight these little buggers. A squirrel ran up a tree near him. Or maybe the squirrels are the only dangerous things and rabbits are just pathetic. He contemplated tossing an axe at a squirrel out of revenge, but thought better of it.

When they had placed a dozen snares, they decided to call it quits. It was going to take another day or two before they would get enough rabbits to fill the warren. That was good because it would likely take the settlement that long to build it, anyway. As an added bonus of today’s trip, they were bringing home five rabbit corpses.

Mounting up, they started their journey back. “Ya know. I wouldn’t mind some veggies with all this meat.”

Sam’s jaw dropped. “How dare you? Meat is all a man needs.”

The two chuckled. “Hopefully after we fight off the Void, we can expand the settlement to include some farms.”

“Let’s worry about fighting off the Void first. I think they’ll shock you.”

“Whys that?” Toaby asked.

“Max is a psycho! And they’re going to be a tough fight.”

“I fought Brad, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, but Max is an animal. You’ll see.” Same cupped his hands over his eyes. “Speak of the devil.” He pointed to a group of men shouting at the settlement’s entrance.

“We should hurry.” Toaby kicked his heels against his spider’s sides. As they got near, they were able to make out the conversation.

“Listen, Tom! You know the drill. Hand over your resources.” The unnamed man gestured at the trench. “What is all this, anyway? You’re not stupid enough to think you can fight against us are you?”

“Get out of here! You’re no longer welcome. This is the Crossroads and were not bending over for you anymore!” Tom shouted back.

The man drew a pair of short swords from his inventory. Tom pulled a spear with a proper iron tip out of his own. The villagers followed suit by equipping their own weapons.

“I see you’ve made some fresh weapons for us. That will make Max real happy when I hand them over to him.” The man added before reading himself for combat.

“STOP!” Toaby leapt from his spider. He and Sam were now flanking the three men. “I’m the arbiter and I say these raids stop now!”

“The arbiter?” The man questioned.

One of the other raiders near him spoke up. “The lawman.”

Toaby used his investigate skill on each of them, starting with the one who was doing all the talking.

Name: Alex

Status: Hostile

Name: Brendan

Status: Hostile

Name: Jesse

Status: Hostile

“It’s arbiter to you. I’ll give you one chance to walk away. This town is under my protection.” I really hope they just leave. Toaby gripped his axes.

Alex chuckled. “I don’t think we will.”

“I challenge you to a trial by combat! If I win…” Toaby started speaking, but Alex laughed.

His eyes came back into focus. “A message came up and was filling in with details about your little trial thing. I think I’ll just kill you all.”

“So you’re saying you don’t want to accept an official trail by combat and you intend on killing us and stealing our stuff?”

Brendan grinned. “He’s a smart one, isn’t he? I’m going to cut his head open to look at that brain of his!”

I really hope this works. “If that’s the case, I judge that you intend to break the law and give you the appropriate marks. Ten for intended murder and five for the intent to steal.” Deep red outlines surrounded each of the men, and a floating number fifteen hovered above their heads. Yes!

The three men tensed up with anger. Alex was the first to speak. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

Toaby looked offended. “I told you. I’m the arbiter.”

“Hey, Alex. Maybe we should just go.” Jesse pleaded.

“That’s not a choice anymore. But if you throw your weapons down and send yourself to Helheim, I’m willing to remove half your marks.” Toaby responded.

Jesse looked at Alex for guidance. His hands were trembling. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You said if I joined the Void that they would just roll over and I didn’t have to fight. You lied to me! I don’t want to do this.”

“Listen here, punk. You’ll do what I say or you can join them on the other end of my blades. Now. Are we going to fight or not?” Alex bent low, preparing to leap forward. He did not get the chance. Jesse sunk his own sword through Alex’s back.

Toaby’s eyes went wide. Sam took advantage of the opportunity and released a web shot at the trio. Snapping out of his shock, Toaby charged forward and made quick work of Brendan with Sam’s range support.

“You son of a bitch… I’ll make sure you pay for this.” Were Alex’s last words before Jesse finished him off.

After Alex’s body hit the ground, Jesse quickly tossed his weapon to the ground. “I don’t want any trouble. I’m new here, and that psycho Max grabbed me and forced me to join him.”

Toaby kicked the man’s weapon away from him. He gestured for Hiro to step forward. “Hiro, watch him. Sam,” he pointed to the downed raiders, “grab their stuff before they disappear.”

Tom and Curtis came rushing over. Tom was the first to speak. “What do we do about him?”

“Curtis, do you think you can make a pair of manacles?” Toaby asked.

“I can try. The key might be a little tricky, but I’ll work something out.” Curtis replied.

“Good. Go work on that now. Time is really limited now. As soon as they respawn, we can expect the full force of the Void to come back at us. We can use the town hall as a temporary jail cell.”

“I won’t resist.” Jesse added. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Just please don’t hurt me.”

“That’s good to hear because I have a lot of questions. Hiro, take him to the town hall and wait for Curtis.”

“What about the rest of the settlement?” Tom asked.

“They should prepare for a fight.”