Chapter 116: Automated Expenses
Chapter 116: Automated Expenses
Kalli made her way around the wall, and placed three more turrets before she returned to the main gates to see how the door hanging process was going.
The teams had already hung the massive wooden structure, with half a metre of solid hardwood as the face, bolted to equally thick crossbars anchored deep into the concrete. It definitely looked formidable, but to Kalli the most important part was not the door.
It was that the team who returned had refilled the turrets for her.
"Coordinator, we saw that you had a defensive turret set up on either side of the door. That couldn’t have been cheap," Ivan, a blonde-haired Rogue from the bunker group, greeted her.
"Thank you for filling them. They’ve got the firepower of a Lasrifle, but they also have the energy consumption of one. So, if the gate is attacked, they’re going to go through a lot of mana.
I just hope that they’re enough for us to save teams who are in trouble.
Has there been any word from the group who went to the Temple by the ocean?"
"I believe that they’re all inside already. They came back a few minutes ago. We went the other direction, and we’ve got some good news for you.
The tuber plants in the forest, and possibly the trees themselves, have torn up and mulched the ash. There is a layer of gravel on the ground, but they seem to have completely mixed the fallen ash with the existing soil.
So, that area isn’t going to be solid rock, and we’re not going to lose the plant life.
The grasslands look like a lost cause, they’re completely smooth fields of loose rocks and ash right now. But the forest should be fine. Also, the squirrels and rabbits appear to have survived the eruption. We saw signs of both.
How long the rabbits can last, I don’t know.
But the squirrels, who can live on stored nuts and leaves, should be fine in the forest."
Kalli smiled. "Well, at least we’ve got a bit of local wildlife left. If there is wildlife, then something is surviving this nightmare. And if something is surviving, humans can too.
We’re nothing if not resilient."
As they spoke, a lone magma corrupted Swineherd Demon wandered past in the distance, a few hundred metres from the wall. The turret turned to track it, but remained silent, waiting for its activation conditions.
Then, the monster spotted a returning group, who all drew weapons and took a defensive posture.
Kalli hadn’t programmed stun settings or warning shots into the turret, only lethal force. In her mind, that was the proper way for a military response, or a world infested with monsters, and that was how the turret responded.
As soon as it determined that the monster was indeed intending to attack the humans, a single laser beam stretched between the turret and the corrupted monster, causing it to stumble as the middle of its chest was pierced.
But it didn’t drop, so the laser fired a second time, then a third as the monster still charged at the returning team.
The Swineherd Demon collapsed into a heap on the ground, and the turret returned to its default standby setting. It would wait for the next threat to come into range, and didn’t care about the Swineherd anymore after it stopped attacking.
Three shots to down a Swineherd was impressive, and Kalli suspected that the turret had gotten at least one or two critical hits. Either through the damaged area from the first shot, or directly into a vital organ.
"These aren’t like some movie zombie, right? We don’t need to destroy the head?"
"No, they’re very much alive. But they bleed molten stone. It’s just creepy."
"Alright, I will agree with you there. Will the stone harden once it’s out of them? Who knows, they might actually be resource piñatas. Smash them open to get valuable repair materials."
The mage laughed and nodded. "There is something off with your logic, but I actually did pick up what looks like a bit of gold. I can’t say if it is or if it’s just the right colour, since it’s in a lump of blood stone, but you might be on to something."
"Take it to the tinkers, see what they think. Or someone from the archaeology courses. Just don’t let the rock people lick it. We don’t know if it’s actually safe. The blood stone might contain whatever corrupted the monsters."
"Right, rock people are like that," one of the warriors laughed, looking at his friend.
"There is a lot that you can learn about a sample by tasting it. But I get your point, we will refrain from that for now. There is no way to tell what corrupted those monsters, either biological or magical.
However, if it is a biological pathogen, we could all be in danger just from fighting them."
"Then we hope for magical."
The mage gestured to the side of the Academy. "If Coordinator Kalli put up the turrets for us, we should go fill them all with mana. How many more are there?"
"Just three, on opposite sides of the Academy. I wanted to prioritize the gate first with the points that I had. So, two at the gate, one for every other quadrant. It should be enough, after seeing what that laser can do."
"Yeah, that was pretty impressive. It might have already been injured, but the laser did an excellent job of it. That gives us hope that the turrets really can support a group in trouble if they can keep moving while in range of the wall.
Or, they can fight with the monsters in sight of the turrets, and get the extra firepower.
Either way, it is an improvement to the situation of Marimgar. I think that’s actually a condition of the trials, as we’re not likely to see many more resurrected heroes, unless there is another bunker in range that we don’t know about yet.
It told me earlier that we need to improve the amenities to qualify as a town, so I’ll find one more essential trade and set up a shop for them.
I got three from the last trial to set up, and I’ve used two of them already."
"Damn, I was wondering how you could afford that fancy shop. But it’s a Trial Completion reward. That’s not going to be easy to get."
No, it definitely wasn’t.