As the seven returned to Alice's farm, they first scouted the area to ensure that no monsters had broken in. Once satisfied it was secure, they all walked into Alice's kitchen and sat down at the oversized farm table. Alice then pulled her property deed paper back out, unrolling it onto the kitchen table. As she did, the paper seemed to come to life, showing an overhead view of the entire farm, stretching out to the property limits. The property was about a thousand acres in total, a little over a mile in each direction, with the farmhouse in the top left quadrant.

  Facsimile images of the house and barn and other structures came into view, rising from the paper, as they gasped in wonder. "It says in order to begin management, I need to name this new hamlet," Alice said to the others. "Anyone have some good suggestions?"

  "Lusty Bitch Vilge?" Bridgette joked. Colin groaned in reply, shoving the girl pyfully.

  "Serious suggestions," Alice amended.

  "Slutsville?" Bridgette tried again. "Alicetown?"

  "Okay, Bridgette isn't allowed to offer any more suggestions. Anyone else have ideas?"

  "Well, instead of Defiance, how about Obstinate? Stubborn? Insubordination?"

  "Colin is also banned from suggestions. Next?"

  "Persistence," Becky said. The other six turned and stared at her, surprised. Bridgette opened her mouth, ready to make a smart-ass remark, and then thought for a second, closing her mouth.

  "I actually really love that," Alice said. Colin nodded in agreement and even Bridgette gave her assent. "Okay, welcome to the new vilge of Persistence!" With that, Alice mentally confirmed her choice of vilge name through her interface.

  Alice then saw an additional tab open in her interface, showing her the status of her town, and allowing her to pce her two new buildings. With a grin, she reached out over the map, maniputing a view that only she could see. Alice then pced what was beled as a 'bunkhouse' down next to the barn, and a 'bathhouse' nearby. As she finalized the selections in her interface, she heard Travis knock his chair over as he shot to his feet.

  "Holy shit, guys. Two new buildings just appeared near the barn!" He pointed to where two new buildings stood, matching the farm's decor and looking as if they had always been there. Everyone immediately jumped up and ran to the window, gazing out in wonder. Bridgette turned to Alice, a question on her face. Alice nodded her reply.

  "Yup, that was me. My reward from the troll was the map and then being able to pce two new buildings, plus some basic town management abilities. We should go check it out, it's apparently a bathhouse and a bunkhouse, so hopefully everyone can get their own rooms and - no offense - get out of my guest bedroom, Colin."

  Colin grinned back, "I'd appreciate that very much, thank you, even if I don't sleep and instead go into a trance. It's too noisy in here most nights."

  The seven walked over, examining the buildings. The bathhouse was pretty modest, nothing too fancy, but it appeared to have apparatus for cold showers or tubs that could be heated for bathing, and magically seemed to be hooked into the farm's septic system. The bunkhouse was a treasure, though. It contained eight apartment-style dwellings, each modeled after a modern efficiency. It would give everyone room to spread out and have their own space for living and sleeping, without constantly tripping over each other. Colin immediately called dibs on a room, which led the other four to then cim their own. Travis and Jacob each took a room nearby, while Kyle and Becky cimed a room on the other end of the building to share.

  Finally, they were all ready to call it a night. It had been an exhausting day, or several days, for them all. While Colin prepared to set up arm spells, Alice actually found an arm capability within her map structure and was able to set a farm-wide alert if any hostile creature under "a modest threat level" entered the property. While she wasn't sure exactly what that meant, she got a feeling that Fi was reassuring her it was trustworthy. As a result, everyone could get a good night's sleep without fear of intruders.

  Colin quickly moved his belongings from the guest bedroom over into his new room in the bunkhouse, while the four newcomers all got settled as well. Alice and Bridgette walked upstairs after locking the farmhouse doors.

  "It feels a little empty now, you know?" Alice gnced over at Bridgette. "It's kind of sad. I mean, I like the fact that they have their own rooms and are in a different building, don't get me wrong. But after years of having my parents here, then the st few weeks of you and Colin, it's a little lonely with just us two."

  Bridgette hugged the other girl, "Don't worry, babe. This is just the beginning. I've got a great feeling about this. We can keep exploring, finding new pces to visit and new people, and I have no doubt that the farm is going to continue to grow. We'll keep grinding away on the quest to save the world, one little vilge at a time."

  ---

  The next morning, Alice yawned and rolled over in bed. Her body was sore everywhere. As she stood to get out of bed, she winced, gncing around the bedroom. Bridgette y sprawled across the bed, still asleep or unconscious, stark naked and covered in fluids. In fact, there were pink fluids covering most of the room, including ... the ceiling? What in the world had happened st night? And her bedsheets were now dyed bright pink, like the sleeping bag had been after that weird dream in the cavern.

  Alice ran her hand across her face, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. It came away pink and sticky. She brought it to her lips, carefully tasting it. Yup, that confirmed it. Alice then walked over, gncing at herself in the mirror. She sighed, staring up and down the reflection of her naked body. There were unusual welts and sticky fluids everywhere on her body. She was going to need a pressure washer to get clean, and then she was going to need to clean the bedroom. She just wasn't sure how she was going to clean the bedroom. Maybe she could summon a hurricane to just wash it all away? And Bridgette was definitely going to need a bath, too. Alice sniffed, the rank smell of dried semen everywhere. And maybe some industrial air fresheners for the room.

  If only she could remember exactly what they had gotten up to the night before. Maybe she'd remember after a cup of coffee. Or maybe a gallon of coffee. She could put together a few fuzzy details about Bridgette asking for a favor from Fi, but after that was just ... pink.

  ---

  Some time ter, Alice walked downstairs, having cleaned herself up and thrown on a sports bra and yoga shorts. She heard a frying sound coming from the kitchen, and curiously walked in. Standing in her kitchen, wearing an apron in front of the stove, was Becky. Becky turned, giving her a huge smile. "Good morning, Alice! I hope you slept well. How do you like your coffee? Colin said you're a huge coffee fanatic, but couldn't remember how you take it. I've got Travis and Jacob out taking care of the farm chores, and Kyle collected eggs for breakfast. I'm just about done cooking."

  Alice blinked, stunned. "Uhm, bck, thank you." She shuffled over to the table and sat down, wincing slightly as she did at unexpected pain in her rear end. "You didn't have to do this, you know, right?"

  "Oh, of course I did. I may have been a bitch before, but my momma always told me to be useful, and I'm going to try to live up to it. I may not be able to fight like the rest of you, but I can absolutely cook and clean."

  "Did you say clean? Because I'd love to pay someone else to clean the bedroom," Bridgette asked, as she stumbled into the kitchen. Bridgette was wearing a pair of a gym shorts and a cut-off t-shirt, Fi's message of the day prociming:

  "I Drained The Tentacle Monster"

  Bridgette also plopped down into a chair next to Alice, then yelped. "Fuck, ow." She rubbed at her bottom, wincing. She gnced over at Alice, "So, uhm, I guess I might have been a little too ambitious in what I asked for st night, huh?"

  Alice gnced at Bridgette, confusion on her face. "I honestly don't remember much, I was hoping some coffee would help shake lose the memories. But based on your shirt ... I can guess. But we can discuss that ter. In private," she emphasized.

  Before long, Becky was dishing out ptes of bacon and eggs, setting coffee in front of the two girls. The four boys walked in shortly after, having finished their chores, and also grabbed ptes. Kyle gave Becky a kiss and sat down, struggling to eat with just one arm. Becky came over and sat next to him, helping him with his meal.

  When breakfast was over, the topic of what to do next came up. Alice, Bridgette, and Colin were all pnning on continuing to explore, fighting threats, and growing as strong as they could. Kyle ftly refused to go adventuring, but wanted to help take care of the farm and ensure everyone had a safe pce to return home to. Becky agreed, saying she would help if it was urgent, but that she could be of far more assistance around the farm. Jacob wanted to adventure, having just unlocked Fighter Level 1, and Travis agreed, having also unlocked Rogue Level 1.

  Kyle gnced to Bridgette, sheepish. "I think I forgot to mention with everything else that happened yesterday. When you guys first came to Defiance, Daniel told you we hadn't seen anyone else. That wasn't exactly true, I think he was just trying to py up the 'stick with us or else' factor. Randall, if you remember him, had scouted back down to Harn shortly after everything went to shit. He said he definitely saw a crowd of people there, more than we had in Defiance. It might be worth checking them out at some point."

  Travis added, "And let's not forget Daniel and Karen. They ran during the troll fight, we have no idea where or what happened to them. I think the best case scenario is they're dead in a gutter somewhere, but we probably aren't that lucky."

  Alice nodded, looking around. "That's a great idea. I think we've got a few goals, but they all work well together. First, we need to protect the farm. I think the easiest way to do that is to have Travis and Jacob doing patrols of the surrounding area, ideally accompanied by at least one of the three of us as a backup, but let them do most of the fighting. That'll help them get stronger and clean out any packs of kobolds that still exist plus keep an eye out for Daniel. Anything more dangerous, immediately retreat and call for assistance. Then, we need to explore. We've got a few rger towns nearby that we can visit. I still think our best pn is to get as strong as possible so nobody can fuck with us."

  Bridgette reached out, intertwining her fingers with her lover's. "I agree. Strong enough so nobody can fuck with us. We'll build and defend our little town here, making a new civilization together."

  Colin blinked, "Hey, uh, did you guys level too? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. THIS IS AMAZING! I CAN CAST FIREBALL!" He trailed off, realizing in his excitement he had leaped to his feet and was shouting at the top of his lungs, while everyone else stared at him. The entire table broke into ughter.

  "Never change, Colin. Never change," Alice said. "And yea, I think we all leveled. Just haven't gotten around to it yet."