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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The rest of the day at the settlement went smoothly. Toaby enjoyed his lunch, was able to meet up with each of the settlement’s members and learn more about them. Most of them had a basic combat class, but there were a few farmers, gatherers and craftsman sprinkled throughout.

Even though they had their set classes, each of them had unique skills that aided in their repertoires. Like Sam being a hunter who could also skin things or Tom who apparently had a settlement management ability, but because of the raids, he wasn’t able to level it up. Almost everyone had a skill to help contribute in some way which made Toaby think how he could contribute when not enforcing the law.

Toaby also learned that most of the people in the village were around level three with some outliers. Curtis for example was level four and the two farmers were still level one. He learned that even though you lost experience when you died, you couldn’t go below zero. So if you died with no experience, you wouldn’t lose a level. You would also gain experience when performing tasks related to your class. That’s how Curtis had become level four, from hours and hours of smithing.

After dinner, everyone retired to their respective tents. Tom offered to share his with Toaby so they could continue their discussions about the raids. That's also when he learned the settlement used all of their available hides to build the tents and that there was no bedding or cushioning of any kind inside them. The only piece of furniture inside, aside from the wooden pillar holding the tent up in its center, were a few rocks for whoever was inside to rest their head on. It was a bit bleak.

Tom and Toaby stayed up for a few hours discussing a variety of topics. They conversed more regarding the background of the settlement’s inhabitants, the settlement’s key issues, things they needed, what Tom was hoping Toaby could help with, and a few other topics, but their major discussion was about the raiders. Toaby learned that while there were several groups who roamed the local area, there was one in particular that gave them problems. They called themselves the Void.

A crazy man named Max led the Void, and crazy was literal. From what they gathered, Max was in an asylum for the criminally insane. When those institutes got full, they too contracted with Techavant to upload its inhabitants, but in secret. This was one thing Toaby had uncovered during this review of the file. One of the things that lead to his wife’s death and his current predicament.

Toaby also learned something shocking from Tom. Something they had pieced together from their shared experiences and their brief time spent with one of the Gods. The system apparently aided in correcting certain mental deficiencies. It also aided in mood correction and memory adjustment. Apparently it was all needed for its inhabitants in order for them not to go insane. When people get murdered and are sent to a literal hell for several hours over and over, they tended to lose their minds. Now imagine that happening for the rest of your life. A life that never ended because you were immortal. The system prevented that by softening those memories and keeping everyone inside, to a degree, mentally stable.

Max is constantly fighting against that. Not only does he try to find fresh ways to torment his victims, he does everything he can to keep himself insane. Tom explained that Max is covered in self-inflicted scars. Tom once saw Max bash his own skull in. He brought himself down to only a single hit point and then let himself heal. He was the one raider that none of the people would mess with for fear of retaliation. During one raid, someone sneezed, so Max cut off and ate the man’s nose.

Hearing the sickening stories of Max and his ‘void’ made Toaby physically ill. He had to call the conversation there and let out a pair of silent curses. One to Heimdall for pushing this class on him and making him deal with people like Max. He directed the other at Techavant for the whole situation. Toaby was a decent person. He wasn’t a great guy. He didn’t volunteer for charity and barely donated any money, but he wasn’t a criminal. He didn’t break the law, and he tried doing right by people. Now he had to spend the rest of his life with people like Max. Not only that, he had to bring people like Max to justice.

The thoughts of it became too much, so Toaby went to bed. He woke up early to the noise of activity outside. He sat up and stretched, but his muscles ached something fierce. He had a new icon in his vision that was labeled ‘Bad Sleep Debuff’. He focused on it.

Bad Sleep Debuff

You have had a bad night's rest. You will suffer a 10% reduction to your regeneration rate for the next 4 hours.

He closed the message, got up and exited the tent. People were indeed up and about. Most of them doing some form of busy work. Looking around, he saw Nate approaching him with the inside of an odalon fruit in one hand.

“Breakfast?” Nate handed over the fruit.

“Thanks.” Toaby took a large bite of the offered food. It was a bit sweet for first thing in the morning, but beggars can’t be choosers.

“So. Are you going to join me at the mines today? I need the protection while I mine.” He gestured toward a nearly empty table of rocks. “Gods know we could use the ore. Most of us don’t have weapons other than the simple spears we managed to hobble together. If were going to fight against the raiding parties, were going to need better weapons.”

Tom must have been listening to the conversation because he came waving his arms and shaking his head. “Woah, woah. Who said anything about fighting against them?”

“What do you expect us to do, Tom?” Nate was getting aggravated again.

“I’m not saying we won’t fight, I’m just saying lets not jump to violence as the first option. Now that the arbiter is here, we can…”

“We can what!? Talk to them peacefully? Work something out? You know as well as I do this is going to come down to a fight. Maybe not right away, but eventually we’ll have to defend our home. I rather do that with some actual weapons.”

Tom went to respond, but Toaby raised a hand. “He has a point, Tom.” Nate’s eyes went from small angry slits to wide with surprise. “I’m not thrilled about fighting some psychopath, but the Gods gave me a trial by combat ability for a reason. They knew the only way I can enforce law is with… well, force.”

“I’m not going to put all these people’s lives on the line. Every time we fight, we lose. Every time we lose, somebody doesn’t come back. There’s barely any of us as it is.” Tom protested.

“It’s an uphill battle for sure, but one we have to fight. Nate’s right. We need better equipment if were going to stand a chance. Not only equipment, but we need metal for better housing and furniture. No offense, but my back is killing me after sleeping on the hard floor last night.”

Tom attempted to reply several times. His mouth opening for a moment and then shutting, over and over. Eventually he let out a long sigh. “I wanted to stop all this violence, but I suppose your right. It’s just the world we live in now. And,” he cracked his back, “I really want a better bed too.” The three shared a laugh, although Toaby got the impression Tom forced it out.

“I’ll grab my equipment, just give me a minute.” Nate ran off toward his tent.

“Toaby.” Toaby turned to face Tom. “Thanks for helping defuse the situation, but I was serious when I said I’m sick of all this violence. We started this community so we could all have better lives. If we just kill the raiders, we’re no better than them. We’re no better than the criminals we once were.”

Toaby shook his head. “You’re wrong. Theres a difference in fighting to protect the people you care about and killing for fun. Wouldn’t you have fought to protect your family back on Earth?” Tom slowly nodded. “It’s different.” Toaby had to believe to that. He knew he was going to end up killing a lot of people in order to accomplish his goals. He knew he was never going home, that was impossible, but Lilly had to know the truth and to get to her, he had to kill.

“Well… If I really can’t stop you, why don’t you take Sam with you? Trust me, you’ll need the added support.”

“Ok. Why don’t you tag along also?” Suggested Toaby.

Tom shook his head. “I have work to get done here.” Toaby raised an eyebrow. “If we’re really going to end up fighting them, we need to build up some defenses. We have plenty of felled trees and a lot of free time. Maybe we can put together some form of wall up or something.”

“Sounds like a good idea. I’m going to grab Sam and hopefully level up a bit.” He went to depart stopped to add, “I’m glad you’re on board with this.”

“I can’t say I like the idea or that I’m fully on board, but if it leads to more peaceful times, I’ll give it a try. Just promise me we won’t have to fight forever.”

“I’m not sure I can make that promise, but I promise not to just resort to violence.” Toaby waved his arms defensively. “Don’t get the wrong idea, I really don’t want to go around killing people either, but we need to do what's necessary.”

Tom nodded. “I get it. Good luck with your mining trip.”

Toaby nodded and went to find Sam. It didn’t take long given the small size of their settlement. He briefly explained the situation and Sam was more than happy to help. Toaby got the distinct feeling that Sam would do anything to get out and explore. He got that same vibe from most of the people present. They gave off a vibe of being cooped up. Maybe the ore will lighten to mood.

“Ready?” Nate came strolling up. He pointed to Sam. “Is Sam coming to?”

“Yeah. I didn’t want the new guy to have all the fun. Plus, I just live to fight massive spiders with a half-broken spear.” Sam stated enthusiastically.

“Wait, do you mean puppy spiders?” Questioned Toaby.

“Yeah, do you know them?” Commented Sam.

Toaby’s face fell. “Not personally, but I’ve heard terrible things.”

“They’re not tooooo bad. Just don’t get caught in their webs and avoid their fangs.” Sam smiled.

“Oh, that paralysis. It wouldn’t be so bad if they just killed you, but they have to plant their eggs inside you. Makes the whole thing so much worse.” Nate added.

“Great. They can impregnate me.” Sam and Nate shared a hearty laugh at Toaby’s expense. “Do you have everything you need?” Nate nodded, but Toaby looked confused. “I don’t see any mining equipment.”

“We have inventories, remember?” Nate noted.

Toaby sighed, looked at his pair of franciscas and willed them into his inventory. They vanished, and so did the weight at his sides. “Are there any limitations to this?”

Sam nodded. “Theres a delay when removing items from your inventory based on their weight. So if you want to get your weapons back out, it will take a few seconds. The intro pamphlet said it was a way to limit weapon switching during combat. It’s honestly not that bad, just make sure to take them out when we reach the mine.”

“How far is it from here?”

“Not far.” Nate pointed to a close by mountain. “It's right at the base of that mountain. There's mainly iron there, but we haven’t been able to go far inside because of the monsters. It's not that the monsters are tough, but why risk our lives if the raiding parties are just going to steal everything from us, right?’

“Hopefully we can change that.” Toaby replied.

“Hopefully. Anyway, follow me.” Nate headed off.

The trio moved in the direction Nate designated, and he was right. It wasn’t a long trip. It only took them roughly an hour to reach the mountainside. Nestled at its base was a large oval opening.

“Is this the place?” Questioned Toaby.

Nate nodded. “Yeah. Theres a ton of iron right inside the opening, but there are generally a ton of spiders as well. So we’ll go in together and I’m going to rely on you two to keep the spiders off my back while I mine.”

“What about the entrance? Does anything come from outside?”

Nate shook his head. “Not that we know of. There’s only non-hostile wildlife in the forest around here. The occasional wolf or bear, but they keep their distance from here because of the spiders.”

That would explain why the wildlife got sparse the closer we got. “Ok.” Toaby held out his hands and summoned his axes. Over the course of a few seconds they appeared, one in each hand. “Let’s do this!”