The first four days had been pretty boring. The trio had set out heading slightly north-west, headed in the general direction of the Rocky Mountains. They didn't have a specific pce they were trying to reach, but were angling more toward Wyoming than Colorado and figured they'd make up a more specific decision as they went. At level 7, they felt superhuman most of the time - the miles just rolled away as they trotted through the day. Nebraska came and went, nothing of note except small farming vilges they generally avoided while waving to anyone they saw from a distance.

  Most people seemed surprised to see them out running around, which made Alice think that adventurers were a lot rarer than they had originally thought. They set up camp each night, splitting the watch in their usual fashion with Colin taking the first four hours before entering his elven trance while Bridgette took mid-watch and Alice finished the watch and cooked breakfast. They hadn't had a single encounter with monsters either, having seen small groups of goblins and kobolds from a distance, but it seemed like the monsters could tell how much stronger the trio was and knowing to keep their distance and hide.

  As the miles passed, they traded stories and jokes, but mostly just ran, occupied by their own thoughts, and enjoyed the exercise. It had been too long since they had truly been out, and they all were eager to prove themselves in combat and gain more strength. As the trio worked their way across Nebraska, they saw countless small vilges, clusters of between five and twenty people living together, clustered for protection and trying to survive in the harsh new world. They avoided all of these, as they doubted that there was any good information about serious threats in the area that these locals would know and also suspected the locals' first reaction would be to panic at the arrival of three strong adventurers. They also saw countless destroyed homes, evidence that in many cases the monsters had won, hunting down and killing the weaker humans.

  Finally, they saw a rger town in the distance. They slowed to a walking pace about a mile and a half away from the town, gncing around. It looked in many ways simir to Alice's farm, but rger. This was clearly not a town before the system's arrival - but instead had been a farm that people had kept adding more buildings to and grown a rger popution over time with a mix of building styles as people who were clearly not experts did their best. Several people worked in the fields nearby and others walked purposefully around the streets, on their way to complete various tasks.

  "I wonder what this is what the farm will look like, if we give it another year or two," Alice wondered. "We're already almost thirty people, and only keep growing."

  "Probably," Bridgette said, "Unless you truly don't want it to grow. But I think it's a good thing, the rger we get. More people is going to bring more industry to the area. We can get an actual tavern, something separate from Becky's cookhouse, more people can get homes, we can have them continue expanding the farm. Folks will set up with new skills, like bcksmithing and leatherworking. Everyone's lives will continue to improve, and we can be at the center of it, helping them along. We'll have our town's guard to protect against smaller monster threats and then our reputation can help defend against any people who decide to cause problems like that Warren guy. We'll be strong, possibly the strongest in the midwest, and only continue to grow from there."

  Alice smiled at Bridgette, "And that's one of the many reasons why I love you. Always so positive and thinking of a bright future." Colin pretended to vomit as he walked along the two girls.

  "Jokes aside, I agree with her though. I think we're building something really special. I have a good feeling about the future of the town. I'm not saying we're leading the race for saving the world or anything, but we're doing well so far on building a town and establishing our base of control."

  As they got closer to the town, they saw people out taking care of animals, working in their gardens, or otherwise doing chores around their small plot farms. They could also spot several rger buildings as they drew close, including one that had a hand-painted wooden sign out front. The sign had foaming beer mug and letters spelling out "Dan's Tavern." Colin looked at the sign and shrugged. "Not the most inventive name for a tavern, I suppose."

  The three walked into town, politely greeting everyone they saw. Bridgette had put away her greataxe into her storage ring, only having a dagger on her hip and a small one-handed axe over her shoulder. Colin and Alice had both put their staves away. The trio got many odd gnces. Bridgette's chainmail bikini and Alice's sheer white dress drew the majority of the stares, but it was also obvious that Colin's ears were unusual, so they were unlikely to have seen an elf before.

  They stepped into the tavern, conversation quieting as several people turned to gnce at the trio. Bridgette boldly walked up to the bar, leaning her hip into it and giving the gorgeous blonde barmaid an eyeful of cleavage. "Hello there," she greeted with a husky voice. "We're just passing through and would like some food and lodging if possible. What do you use for currency around here?"

  The barmaid blushed, wiping her hands on her apron. She gnced over the trio, frowning slightly as Alice stepped up possessively next to Bridgette, pcing her hand around the bikini-cd girl's waist. "Yea, we can probably get you sorted out. We do some barter with groups passing through. Precious metals do okay, but also any kind of salvaged weapons or gear tend to fetch a good price to get smelted town and reworked into farming equipment. We have a few spell casters who pay good money for gemstones, too. We can exchange into our local scrip, or else a few towns have started using silver shavings for currency, and we can give you that."

  Alice consulted her storage ring briefly, running some numbers in her head. "How about twenty kobold daggers, ten kobold slings, and twenty sets of small leather clothing? You should be able to restitch them into whatever clothing you guys need. Would that be a reasonable amount?"

  The barmaid blinked, surprised. "I, ah. Yea, that's a lot! Wow, you guys must be some serious adventurers! I'm Jenni, by the way. With an I. I can get my husband to take a look and make sure it's decent quality, but if so we can definitely get you meals and lodging, plus a good amount of leftover currency. He's just out back, if you want to duck out there and let him know what I said," she said as she nodded toward a side door of the tavern.

  Colin sat down at the bar, sighing with relief. "I'm going to get a drink, you guys good to sort out the money stuff?"

  Alice nodded, looking at Bridgette. "Yea, we can take care of that quickly. Don't drink all the beer before we're back!"

  A few minutes ter, the girls returned, having exchanged a small portion of their kobold loot for silver scrap currency and a few smaller silver wedges. As they sat back down, Jenni pced steaming beef sandwiches in front of the trio. Bridgette dug in with enthusiasm. "You guys have a cattle operation here? That's awesome! I've been dying for a steak for so long." Bridgette made happy moaning noises as she kept chewing, Colin and Jenni gncing uncomfortably at the redhead as she ate.

  Alice sighed, "Down, girl. Behave." Bridgette grinned and woofed at Alice, then stuck out her tongue and went back to eating quietly.

  Jenni leaned against the bar, looking at the three travelers curiously. "So where are you guys from? You sound like you're far from home."

  "Yup," Alice said between bites. "We're from a small town over the border into Iowa. We had a hell of a time over the st year, lots of drama with monsters, but we've managed okay. The three of us decided the best way to grow stronger was to kill the monsters, so we've been working on that. The surrounding area got thinned out pretty well, so we needed to hunt farther from home. We're hoping for information you or anyone else might have about serious monster threats that we can help take care of."

  Jenni's eyes had grown wider as Alice spoke. "Wow. You guys are looking for monsters? Almost nobody actually wants to fight them."

  Bridgette nodded enthusiastically. "Sure are! I want to be the very best like no one ever was!"

  Colin gave Bridgette a funny look, saying "I didn't know you were a Pokémon fan."

  "What's Pokémon?"

  "Wait, what? ... where did you hear that quote?"

  "Internet meme. Some yellow squirrel thing, I think?" Colin plonked his head onto the bar in frustration.