He was sneaky, but Ben was fast. He interposed himself between the biker and his mother, took two shots to the arm, and then stepped forward and kicked the man so hard he slammed into a wall and didn’t get back up.

  Only one other man reacted quickly enough to engage, but before he could get to his feet Ben backhanded him, sending him crashing down again.

  “I warned you. All of you. One more trick and I will change my methods,” he shouted at them.

  Allison patted him on the shoulder and quickly confirmed that the wound to his arm wasn't too bad and then left the room.

  Ben refused to check whether the chief and the very first man he had punched were alive or dead. He did not want to kill other humans, but he would also not beat himself up over what had happened in defense of his family, friends, and fellow citizens.

  Thirty minutes later, Michael joined him, silently watching the bikers. An hour later, Jamal informed them that the villagers had largely vacated the settlement. Apparently, there were two old couples who acknowledged that the situation was grim but chose to stay anyway. This had been their home all their lives and they didn't want to move. Ben found that frustrating, but at the same time, he had also not wanted to leave his home, so he could relate on some level.

  They had to stay for two more hours, that the three friends spent in companionable silence, until a fishing boat with a crew of two returned from their daily trip.

  The men were happy to join them, as their partners explained the situation, and they brought a haul of fish, which the inn’s kitchen would make good use of that day.

  Finally, Ben could wrap things up, “you deserve a proper punishment for what you have done. But we are living in a different world now… Goodbye.”

  “Wait! You can't leave us!” Rake, who had come out of the altercation largely unscathed, shouted.

  “You wanted this place, now you can have it.” Ben said as he left with his two friends.

  With a last look at the ocean, and the eagle that was still overlooking its hunting grounds, he stepped through the portal and closed it with a thought.

  He saw that he had a blue notification waiting for him, but he didn't open it right away.

  Adam and others had welcomed the newcomers and settled them in the inn for now. 42 newcomers was a lot for their small settlement, should all of them decide to stay here, the total number of citizens would rise to over 200—a steep rise from the fifteen or so people who had lived here just six weeks earlier.

  They would also have to convert Credits to SCs to build apartments for all of them.

  Given that the danger of their surroundings had grown, he couldn't imagine that too many people would willingly go on the track to Simonston, especially if they didn't know anybody there.

  Ben was still furious, but the hours of watching the bikers had helped him calm down somewhat.

  He still stood on the plaza, lost in thought, when he saw his mother exit the inn.

  “How are things in there?”

  Allison shrugged, “mostly ok. Ashley, the doctor, and Keith, are looking after the three women who were held in the bed & breakfast. The other villagers are mostly just glad that they got out of there. Apparently, the bikers had been there on a group trip when Arrival Day hit them. They then took over the village, when it was clear that they couldn't leave and no police were likely to arrive, either. I am sure most of them will fit right in. Howard has already mobilized his integration squads.”

  “Good. It's been a lot of newcomers in a relatively short period of time. I think we need a Retelling ceremony soon. Maybe I welcome them tomorrow, explain the set-up, and then we do the ceremony two days after? Unfortunately, we can't give them too much more time, as we have to leave for the city soon after.”

  “That should be fine. I would expect everyone to stay. Why wouldn't they…”

  “Can you do me a favor and, in the future, place Protectors at the portal when we leave—to stop idiots trying to enter and keep our citizens from getting lost?

  “Sure thing.”

  “Good. I will now seek out Sarah…”

  “OK, but keep in mind that she is young and desperately wants to help.”

  “I am aware, but I think she also needs to understand that there are rules for a reason.”

  “I wish I could send you to the past to talk to your 16-year-old self!” Allison laughed.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Ben just rolled his eyes and headed in the direction of Sarah's family's apartment.

  ***

  After knocking, he was greeted at the door by Howard, who seemed to have more wrinkles around the eyes than the last time Ben had seen him.

  He waved Ben into their tiny living room, where Deepika had her arms around Sarah, while the two were seated on their couch.

  Sarah was no longer crying, but she didn't look up as Ben entered, staring into nothingness.

  “Hello,” Ben said, slightly awkward.

  “Welcome, Ben, thank you for rescuing our daughter. We are so sorry for what happened,” Deepika said.

  “Yes, thank you. If there is to be a punishment, we will of course accept it as a family,” Howard weighed in.

  Sarah's face crunched up, and she hid her face between her knees.

  “Maybe it was a bad time for me to come over, while everything is still so fresh…” Ben hesitated, “this is not about punishment. It is more about checking in and trying to address the underlying problem.”

  He could hear Howard sigh in relief.

  “Sarah, you don't have to look at me right now but know that I am glad that you are ok, I am glad that you want to become a Protector, but I am also asking you to accept that you are not a Protector, yet. Can you do that for me?”

  A soft sob could be heard from Sarah, who hadn't moved from her position with her head between her knees, but she nodded her head.

  “Very good. Again, I am glad you are alright and sorry that you had to see the violence.”

  “Thank you, Ben, for your understanding. We will work this through as a family.” Deepika said as she shook his hand and walked him to the door.

  “No worries, things happens. We should have had guards at the portal to prevent something like that from happening.”

  ***

  Half an hour later, Ben indulged in luxury, he took a bath in his apartment, trying to relax. He reflected on his actions that day and came surprisingly to the result that he was fine with everything. He still wasn't sure whether the people he had hit hardest had survived, and he also knew that he might have condemned the bikers by not taking them out of a danger zone, but even with a bit more time to think about it, he wasn't sure he would do anything differently.

  Taking them into the settlement in the absence of a prison seemed not feasible, and bringing them over, just to exile them, wouldn't serve a purpose either.

  It was fine.

  He moved on by opening the blue notification he had ignored earlier.

  Congratulations, for successfully completing five missions you are awarded a dungeon core.

  It is a purposefully created core that addresses a challenge that new Protectorates typically face.

  Accelerate your efforts to grow.

  Good luck!

  While he was still reading, the familiar fist-sized blue core with golden lines crystalized in the air and dropped into his bath water, which now glowed faintly.

  He pulled the core out of the water and looked at it, but his [Identify] perk did not give him meaningful information.

  Quickly jumping out of the bath, he got dressed and ran down to the plaza and placed this core in the plinth waiting for that purpose.

  As always, he felt the Energy pulsing through the Protectorate Pilar, which grew by a couple of hand widths. A new plinth rose on the opposite side of the plaza, while a portal rose in front of him.

  Briefly, doubts overcame him, after all, adding yet another dungeon to their rotation would increase the stress of the Protectors even further, but so far the systems had not lead him astray.

  As he laid his hand on the new portal, the normal message appeared, but it had interesting things to convey.

  You are about to enter a dungeon.

  Theme: Livestock Farming

  Tier: Non Applicable

  Min / Max party size: 1 / 10

  Instances: 5 – allocate farmer with relevant perk, such as [Animal Husbandry] to each instance; every farmer can only be allocated to one instance; farmer can allocate up to 9 farm hands that need to have or acquire a relevant perk within one month; as the instance is created a farming species can be selected, that species can be bred and grown at an accelerated rate, speed and success depending on perks and dedication of farmer; animals will not have cores

  Levels: Non Applicable

  Average days to break: Non Applicable – mistreatment of animals will lead to closure of instance and rejection of farmer and farm hands going forward

  “Yes!” he shouted as he raised a fist in the air.

  Hearing murmurs behind him, he grinned at the people that had been attracted by the commotion he had created.

  “Sorry, folks. Only good things happening here. Have a great day!”

  He ran to search for Adam.

  ***

  It was three days later. The whole Protectorate had assembled on the plaza. While they were far from completely filling the square, the more than 200 people were a sizable group.

  Ben had talked with the newcomers the day after their arrival, unsurprisingly, they had all agreed to stay. He had had the chance to talk with some of them since then, and he had the feeling that they would fit in well. Living in a small village in Alaska had prepared them to some extent to hardship and hard work. While he obviously couldn't assess their inner world, two of the three abused women had resumed some sort of outward normalcy, one hadn't left her room in the inn, yet. Ben was committed to providing any resources they had to support all of them.

  He had briefly thought about adjusting their new laws to cover these kinds of crimes, but he figured that their values were covering it and if it came to it, which he hoped with all his heart wouldn't be the case, they would apply the murder sentences as a template.

  The meditation sessions in the mornings, mostly led by the abbot, had been a boon for Ben's mind. He had managed to shed some of the stress that had piled on, especially during the Retskul invasion.

  A nice, small gesture had been when the first proper output of the smithy had been a Buddha statue, that Marcus had created for the monks. It now had a place of pride between the two apartment buildings that the monks lived in.

  The new Retskul dungeon, while he would never enjoy it, was financially a big benefit to the settlement. While the level of difficulty was slightly reduced, they would still get ten or more cores out of each run. It was exhausting and more or less precluded them from any other runs on the day, but it was still significantly more than they got out of any other dungeon on a regular basis. It was also necessary, as they constantly had to build new apartment buildings. With the arrival of the villagers, they now had twenty, which meant that they had to convert a lot of credits into SCs.

  “Friends, it has been a while since our first Retelling. Since then, we have doubled our population to now more than 210 citizens—or we will by the end of this ceremony. Let the Retelling begin.”