The paper in Theo’s hands disappeared with a bright flash of power, the symbols only he could see on it exploding outward in all directions. There were plenty of them, though that was only on the paper slip. As they all expanded outward, their density decreased to almost ridiculous proportions. Dozens, if not a hundred metres of space was soon between each of them as they continued spreading, likely expanding all the way to the Town limits. The space between them kept growing.

  Soon Theo could barely see them, their faint glow barely perceptible in the bright sunlight of the early afternoon day. Some of them were entirely gone from his sight while others reflected just the faintest of shimmers like a silvery speck of dust in the air.

  When they reached their set distance just as Theo had expected, a resounding chime filled the air, not like the heavy bell that told of the ranking and demise of Brook Town, but a lighter, softer sound more resembling that of the sigils locking into place when he waved them. The sudden sound caused Wen and Willam to look around as they hadn’t been able to see the lightshow up until that point. The hum increased in strength and volume, though never grew uncomfortable even as Theo felt the sound vibrate along with him. Then, his system activated again.

  Town Configuration System Activated (System-specific)

  Note: Town is usually configured after Town-central building has been built and occupied by a managing member of the Town. Arcana’s Town Deed can also be pre-configured with the System. Unspecified configuration can be changed after building a Town-central building.

  Town specialisation: Please choose specialisation

  Town governance: Please choose management style

  Town law enforcement: Please choose enforcement style

  Town justice system: Please choose justice system

  Town currency (local): Please choose local currency system

  Town social structure: Please choose social structure

  Town religion: Please choose main religion

  Theo gawked at the list. He had no clue what any of this was!

  “Errr…” was the sound he decided to make to get his friends’ attention. “Who here knows how to configure a town?”

  “What’s happening?” Wen asked.

  “I got this list of stuff to choose and I don’t know what I should do,” he explained. He then repeated the system messages to them.

  “We decided we should manage the town together, right? I can handle agriculture, I guess. Wen is great at trade and managing guests, so she can do all the trade and tourism stuff, right?” Willam started. Wen nodded along with a finger firmly placed on her chin. “Are there options for governance?”

  Theo thought about asking the system this, but the ‘town governance’ menu opened and expanded by itself.

  Town governance options:

  Mayoral, Elder assembly, Elected council, Founding council, Religious order (Main religion required)...

  The list went on and on and included monarchical rule, baronial rule and even one where kids seemed to decide. Theo skimmed the rest because he thought he found the most fitting one; a founding council rule. His companions agreed, and the System once more seemed to understand his wish to choose that option, as if it was reading his mind or something.

  Founding council governance: Input required.

  Theo (You)

  Founding Member #2.

  Add more?

  Theo added a third listing by simply wishing for it and filled in Wen and Willam’s names. His own had been helpfully added in already, likely because he was the one who used the deed, but he chuckled at the helpful explanation just in case he’d forgotten who he was.

  Once he had finished the list, the message imploded into itself and the full list of options revealed itself again. Together the group checked the options associated with each and every listing and settled on the most important choices for now. Since they could change this later after constructing a ‘Town-central’ building, whatever that was, there weren’t many options that were too important right now. The fact that they could decide the management style first was the rare part, otherwise it would probably have been Theo that had to govern the town until then.

  As for what a ‘Town-central’ building was, no one knew, but there was no town hall per se in Brook Town. The mayor’s villa was perhaps the closest to it, where the mayor would handle any particular business while still living there himself.

  Town Configuration System Activated (System-specific)

  Note: Town is usually configured after Town-central building has been built and occupied by a managing member of the Town. Arcana’s Town Deed can also be pre-configured with the System. Unspecified configuration can be changed after building a Town-central building.

  Town specialisation: None

  Town governance: Founding council (3)

  Town law enforcement: Volunteer watch

  Town justice system: Council judgment

  Town currency (local): Trade + Merit+ Global currency

  Town social structure: None

  Town religion: None

  Some categories had multiple selections available simultaneously, and they chose exactly that on the local currency category. If everything worked out as they hoped, they would generally use Aera’s regular coins as currency, with the addition of trade amongst themselves and others, as well as a merit-based credit system where those that had proved themselves capable of doing a generally good job could be lent resources to expand.

  Theo was surprised to find that there were no taxation options, but without anything worth a damn, it could wait. Most of the categories also had ‘None’ as an option, which alleviated some nerves, at least. They had no clue what to specialise the town in, nor what kind of bonuses or detriments that would even give, specifically speaking, so they chose to delay that. Among the alternatives was agriculture, hospitality, entertainment, crafting, mining, fishing and, oddly enough, ice skating.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The options did sort themselves by a ‘Recommended’ grouping right at the top, and no mining or stonework-related specialisation was there. They might have to settle for trading for that unless they got enough people to set up a quarry somewhere appropriate.

  For law enforcement, ‘Volunteer watch’ was the most basic there was in lieu of a ‘None’ option, though that was just as well. None of the three had any combat or policing skills and they wanted the town to operate more on trust than anything else, so it was a good fit for now. As for their justice system, without a ‘None’ option, their own judgment would have to be enough. This was better than the option called ‘Public vote’, which, with the wrong crowd, could prove very strict or very lenient, often unrelated to the crime committed.

  The founding council decided against the town being a religious hub or gathering place. There were exceptionally few religions recognised as big enough worth a damn in this world, the largest of them all being tied to Arcana in some way. Theo surmised that religions might be much more pointed if the world actually had a history of its god and a history of her actual dealings with the world itself. Theo’s boon was only one example, though it was the most recent one by far as Arcana’s touch had been long gone from the world.

  Some religions existed that didn’t point to Arcana herself, these ones often worshipping the elements instead. They were more spiritual religions than god-worshipping. Having seen the goddess for himself and having even experienced the power she could release upon him with just a breath, Theo was certain she was the real deal. Why she had seemingly abandoned this world, though, he couldn’t tell. She said she found it boring, but why wouldn’t she just interact with it more? Create some chaos? If she found chaos fun, that is.

  Lastly, the council didn’t want to create any divide between its villagers, even counting themselves amongst them. While the council would decide the future and development of the town as well as serve as the judicial system, none of them saw any reason for having any different castes or social classes amongst them. This usually developed in larger towns and cities eventually anyway, so there was certainly no reason to start with them.

  Note: Towns without specialisations will only be known by their regular name. Prefixes or suffixes will be added later when a specialisation is chosen.

  Town Configuration confirmed.

  Town Name: Insert Town Name Here

  Theo read the next messages aloud. They were soon done. They had soon founded a brand new town.

  “Any ideas?” Theo asked, grinning before adding, “I’ve only got Theoville.”

  Wen chuckled happily. “I’d rather call it Wentown.”

  “That sounds like a town with a temporal complication,” Theo laughed, though Wen didn’t seem to get it. Neither did Willam. Theo shrugged.

  “What about Arcana’s Rest?” Willam suggested, the man wise beyond his years and-

  Wen burst into a mocking laugh in his direction, pointing at him while she did just in case it was still ambiguous who she was laughing at. “‘Arcana’s Rest’, she mimicked with a silly expression plastered on her face. Her golden hair fell to cover up her face, but it was spread too thin in its efforts to help the farmer cover its owner’s rudeness. “Why don’t we just call it Goddess’ Embrace or somethin’ stupid like Unicorn Town?”

  “I don’t think eunuchs have horns,” Willam said while he wrapped his own arms around himself defensively as he looked down.

  “What?” Theo asked.

  “What?” Wen copied an instant later.

  “What?” Willam asked. A worried expression formed on his face. At least the friendly mockery was over with.

  “You thought I wanted to call the town… Eunuch Horn Town?” Wen asked disbelievingly.

  Theo burst into laughter. He’d never considered those words sounding the same before. With Willam’s blushingly embarrassed face as well as Wen’s odd glance up at the tall man, he just couldn’t help but laugh at the situation.

  The next few minutes went by as what could one day be called ‘The War of the Words’ was fought. When Theo shot a suggestion into the enemy force, Wen always countered with an alternative. Willam’s defenses were stalwart and impenetrable, though his offerings to the slaughter were glass cannons, quickly taken down before they could do much damage. Neither Theo nor Wen were amateurs, after all. Always take the hard-hitting minions down first.

  Theo rode forth on a horse called Sanctuary with a band of similar-sounding cavalry at his back. Willam didn’t attempt to shoot them down, but there was no need to waste the ammunition of his archers. Wen was there, a wall of spearmen at the ready. Together with her troops she poked the cavalry, horses and all, full of bloody holes. Neither Sanctuary, Haven or Traveller’s Safety survived the butcher.

  She countered once again, this time with an ace she’d kept up her sleeve. There was no way this wouldn’t win her the war. A massive catapult of mechanical genius was loaded with an explosive payload. The catapult released the large bombs to rain down upon the battlefield, focused on her two opposing forces.

  “Log Town!”

  Duds. All of them. One hit a poor, unlucky infantryman in the face, yet somehow the bomb seemed squishy, almost like a stuffed toy for children. The catapult then broke down as the opposing forces laughed at her. She swore revenge!

  With the others occupied, Willam took his shot, for he was a clever warlord, indeed. As Theo’s forces were laughing and playing with plushies and Wen’s troops had retreated a bit too far to avoid the bombs that had utterly failed, Willam’s gates opened, releasing war wargs. These wargs were bred for war and ate military men and women for breakfast. They were trained to never attack unarmed humans.

  “What about Aera’s Caress?”

  A genetic flaw revealed itself in the breed, a weakness certainly brought forward by inbreeding an entire species from just a single pair of originators. The war wargs’ front legs buckled when they got too excited, sending almost all of them sliding across the ground into the battlefield. Those that didn’t fall ran away in their sudden confusion. The rest were easy pickings what with their forelegs not working at all for the moment.

  “We’re going to end up with just ‘Townie’ aren’t we?” Theo asked.

  A massacre.

  “Myst Village? With a ‘y’ so people can wonder why?” Wen suggested with a tongue protruding from between her white teeth.

  Her forces scattered from a sudden onslaught.

  “Farmtopia!”

  Willam was clearly no longer in the running.

  “Still Lake!” Theo’s cannons loosed.

  “Nice Lake!” Wen riposted.

  F-farm Lake?”

  The single remaining bannerman of the farmer kingdom’s forces was suddenly a pincushion of knives, throwing stars and arrows after an ambush of two rival factions’ ninjas. Willam’s annihilation was complete.

  “Sigil Lake!” Theo offered. His towers of war were slowly pulled down towards Wen’s gates, ready to release warbands up onto her walls. Below, a horde of warriors hid a battering ram in their midst, waiting for their towers to sow chaos on the walls above. He braced for Wen’s counter.

  “Th…” she started, the fight slowly leaving her. The towers loomed. The gates had been reached. “That’s actually fine with me,” she capitulated. In an instant Theo’s forces were on her curtain wall and the battering ram had breached the gate in a single, powerful blow with the strength of a hundred soldiers behind it. Scores of warriors dashed out of the top of the towers with resounding warcries shaking the very air atop the walls.

  “So, that’s it?” Willam asked, sitting down on the ground with crossed legs as he sighed. “That was intense!”

  Theo smiled victoriously. “So, we all agree?”

  “Sure,” Wen said with a gentle rolling of her eyes.

  Theo then inserted the name into the system prompt. The menu closed itself.

  “Wait,” Willam said suddenly. “Did we just name the town or the lake?”