Chapter 113: Heroic Soldiers
Chapter 113: Heroic Soldiers
The process was so familiar to Kalli that she didn’t even have to slow down as the heroes continued to return to cash out their quests. Only when someone wanted a snack or a bubble tea did she have to leave her keyboard.
There were many offers to help, but her desk was sacred. Nobody came behind her counter while she was at work.
The work went faster than expected, and it was still light out when Kalli finalized the function and implemented it into the Academy’s App. That brought a new function online and pushed an update to everyone’s device in the background so that she didn’t have to remind them all to do it tomorrow.
They might not realize right away that the {Hall of Heroes} function was available. But word spread quickly.
The new additions to the area had forced her to change her defensive planning as well. She had wanted to put some shotgun turrets on the Academy wall, to clear monsters. But now, they would be using the Academy as a secondary defensive structure, a fallback point when the main line was breached.
So, she would do better to find the points to station turrets along the outer wall.
They could see it from the towers, where they were still keeping watch. But having a defensive capability built into the outer perimeter would give everyone some level of peace of mind.
They were working on the door for the outer wall, as far as Kalli knew.
Heroes had gone to gather trees for the gate, but she didn’t know how far they had made it on actually building a gate.
If it wasn’t well underway by tomorrow at noon, she would set a quest for it.
By the time that Kalli was ready to turn in for the evening, two hundred and fifty heroes had turned in both the {Protect Fort Marimgar} and the {Collect Firewood} Quests. Not quite as good as the five points that many hoped for before, but still solid enough that they were making progress.
And then, the System gave them all an announcement.
{Marimgar Welcomes A New Hero} Kurt has awakened the Rifleman Class after intense physical training and dedication to Fort Marimgar.
Everyone in the Academy area got the same message, informing them that one of the special forces soldiers had just become a proper hero. He must have purchased the [Sharpshooter] skill with twenty points just now, and activated the hero status.
While most of the Academy was celebrating, Kalli had some concerns. The team worked together, so they should all have the same number of points. If the others didn’t awaken as heroes right away, after buying the skill, there must be some other qualification.
That difference might be significant, or it could be something as simple as a max physical stat requirement, or a combined total.
The requirement likely wasn’t just skill points, or they would have all reached it at the same time, and none of the others had advanced yet. Just thinking about it was enough to give her a headache.
All the people who had gotten the level 0 status were going to want to work toward heroism, and that meant they would want real answers.
Kurt came to Kalli’s office with the other members of the special forces team and Esmeralda about an hour after the message went out. They were all still riding high on the excitement of having a new hero, and Kalli decided that this moment needed a gift.
But only after she got her answers.
"Welcome, Hero!" She greeted him with a cheeky smile that made the soldier laugh.
"I knew it, we’re in for more interrogation. But I don’t know what to tell you. We all bought our skills this morning after we finished the kill quest. But I didn’t awaken as a hero until this evening after the gym."
Kalli smiled. "That’s actually just the answer I wanted. There appears to be physical requirement. Are there any of you who are stronger than Kurt is?"
One of the men lifted his hand. "For sure, my strength is higher. He’s got more agility, but my strength is growing faster than any of the others."
"So, it’s not a single stat requirement, but a combined total. That’s good news.
We might not be able to see the actual numbers, even though the system tells us when there is a gain. But now we know that there is a requirement for someone who was not a hero to get the status.
It might have been a total number of skill points, but you should all be very close to the same, and it didn’t trigger the moment that you got your rewards.
So, it’s more likely a combined physique requirement. Everyone just needs to build their body a bit more, and they’ll be good to go. Unless it includes something like magic, which I don’t know how to train you in.
I’m sure it can be done. I just don’t know how."
"We will all hit the gym in the morning, and perhaps we can awaken more. Kurt is excited to see all the gains that the other heroes have been awarded from the gym quest."
Kalli smiled. "That one is really paying off. With everyone at such a high standard, even the heroes who were behind when they arrived are starting to catch up. Dragging the plows around got even the strongest of them an award yesterday and today, so we might still be able to find ways to keep them growing with the mission.
I’m looking forward to seeing the day that you’re all proper superheroes, leaping over Academy walls, punching holes through monsters and such."
As she talked, Kalli went to her stash and grabbed two large bags of chips from her storage realm, part of the drugstore stash from the old city.
"Ooh, my favourite!" Esmeralda cheered as she opened the bag of chips.
They were chili lime, which Kalli didn’t know was actually anyone’s favourite. They were good, but rarely the favourite.
"Alright, I’ve got drinks. If you need more tea, I’ll brew a fresh pot."
Kurt shook his head. "I have something better. I was saving the beverage bases from the ration packs we used the first few days, since nobody was using them. If you’ve got ice, I’ve got plenty of orange drink.
The good stuff."