Chapter 108: Not Weather Resistant
Chapter 108: Not Weather Resistant
The ones truly concerned were the residents of the apartments.
The members who had gotten the {Level 0 Commoner} type tags from the System were fine with the weather, but the others were really feeling the sudden change from late summer to ten-degree late autumn.
Marimgar was not tropical, but it was a coastal city. Ten degrees was as cold as the city had ever been, and they simply weren’t prepared or adapted to the cold.
Kalli made her way to the apartments, and stepped inside, so nobody had to come out and speak to her in the cold.
"Oh, good. The heat is on. I was concerned that we might not have had enough power to run the boilers to heat the building."
The Dockworker smiled. "We optimized it as best as we could. These buildings are actually pretty well insulated, and with so many people inside, we’re generating a fair bit of our own heat. But even with the modern heat exchangers they added to this system, we’re running minimal output for both buildings to keep the draw under thirty kilowatts, as the heroes informed us.
There might be a bit more available from the overflow of what the Academy produces, but with the darkness, the solar is useless, and everything is riding on your generator.
Thank the gods for that thing. If you didn’t have a generator that created its own fuel, we wouldn’t have many warm days left, and we would probably end up blocking off half the building to gather everyone in a smaller space for warmth."
Kalli nodded. "I will do everything that I can to keep the power on. How much more power do you think you would need to keep both buildings fully running if the weather gets below freezing?"
The man called one of the others forward, and frowned at the way the man shook his head.
"No offence to your most wonderful generator, but without firewood to back us up, we’re going to need twenty times as much as we’ve got, and that’s being careful with our use.
But on the other hand, with the heat exchangers, we can get away with burning about a hundred kilos of wood per building per day, on top of the power we’re using. Adding that extra input will let us keep the place at least comfortable until it gets well below freezing.
It helps that we’re actually overcrowded.
These two buildings have a combined five hundred bedrooms, for a thousand people. So, It’s not horribly overcrowded, just more than average, with kids sharing bedrooms.
But the more people you have, the less heat you need to add."
"Alright, I will see if there is anything that I can do to help further. I don’t have another generator right now, but maybe the heroes can help with something? Worst-case scenario, we will just keep sending people out for firewood and letting the hot ash dry it."
She left out the part where that meant moving through an increasing number of what might be zombies, and might be some sort of weird fire elemental.
"How much wood did you manage to get? I know that we’ve got some inside the Academy, but I don’t know how much we’re going to need once our power reserves run low."
"We’ve got about ten tonnes. Enough to last a couple of weeks of bad weather. The heroes really went all out last time, and we sent four hundred people out to grab firewood."
Kalli did the quick mental math and nodded. "Alright, I will make sure that something is arranged to get more when you need it. Just let me know, since we don’t know what the weather will do."
"Got it. We will talk it over with the other building, and make sure that everyone knows. They’re set up nearly the same, so there shouldn’t be any arguments about usage. Just keep feeding us as much electricity as you can, and we will make it work."
Kalli returned to her office, and spent a few minutes topping off the Generator, which seemed to have already gotten some love from the mages.
It certainly hadn’t needed eight hours worth of mana when she got to it.
"Miss Kalli, is there a mission for the monsters out there?" Reggie asked as he came in, hair still damp with sweat from his turn at the plow.
Kalli shook her head. "Not yet, but there will be soon, I’m certain. How is the base building coming along?"
"We’re eighty percent clear of the first day’s ashfall within the compound.
The paths to the apartments have been cleared as well, and we sent a mage to clear the roof of the other buildings. That way, even if we’re not using them right now, nothing is going to collapse.
However, unless we clear the whole area, we’re going to have to dig them out to use them later.
The plan is to clear an area between us and the apartments, and then just maintain. Keeping the ash flats between us and the defensive lines was deemed to be the best method, though they’re going to clear some extra for fields of tubers.
The plants seem to be enthusiastic about their own survival. They’re not even attacking us as we plant the defensive ring."
"That’s a bit creepy, but hey, if the food isn’t fighting us, I won’t complain."
The door slid open, and Alexei, one of Student Council Leader Niall’s tall blonde cousins, entered with a smile.
"Coordinator. Do you have a cement mixer in your store? I could do it with a bucket and a stick, but I’m hoping for something BIG."
"You want to make a lot of concrete?"
He nodded. "We have crab shells that we can burn down for lime, and there are plenty of gravel sized lumps in that volcanic debris. I think that we should make a proper concrete outer wall around the perimeter.
It’s not like we’re short on materials, and making proper Roman Concrete is something that we studied in school.
A vertical wall around the outer wall will stop many of the monsters completely, better than wooden spikes on a slope would. It’s mostly a matter of intelligence and body shape. Many simply couldn’t scale a three or four metre tall wall.
That will make it more difficult for us to get in and out, but we can always make a gate, or a set of steps, so we only have one spot to defend."
"Alright, write up plans, and I will run them past Niall and Sanchez, so we have three points of review to find any major issues you might have missed."
"Got it. We will impress the Council."