Chapter 93: Burning Through Points
Chapter 93: Burning Through Points
"You’ll also need to tell me what you need for weapons, as I assume that you didn’t have any spare gear stored in your inventory to come here with you. The teams here should likely do that, but mostly they leave it in the dorms, and bring snacks and soup with them."
The new arrivals looked at Kalli like she was crazy, but Niall nodded in eager agreement.
"Keeping the tuber soup with you is essential, and storage keeps it hot. It recovers stamina and hunger way faster than anything else that we’ve tried. It might not be a healing potion, but it’s the next best thing.
There is nothing worse than being hungry and exhausted while surrounded by monsters.
If you want to keep alive here, you’ll adapt.
There really is no other option. We have been considering moving the civilians inside the Academy as well, but at this point we’re afraid that it might cause more damage. The only buildings that survived either had a hero in them or standing near them when the trial started.
If we move everyone out, the Academy might be the only piece of civilization left after this trial.
Of course, they’re always ready to seek shelter inside the walls, but they’re also beginning to set up their own farms, so they’re not reliant on us for supplies, we just need to keep the monsters at bay.
We failed most of the city during the first trial, but we won’t make that same mistake again."
The heroes from the Naval group nodded in agreement. Many of them had been students before the first trial, and had simply been inducted into the Navy when they were assigned a spot by the government.
So, they knew this area well, and knew what had been lost.
But it was the heroes from Gomand who took the message closest to their hearts, as they had recently lost so many people, and they were even more unwilling than anyone else to have it happen again.
"Once we have gear, can we join teams to go out right away? I need to be doing something, and not sitting around thinking of how everything went wrong," a newly arrived mage asked.
"Of course. You can likely even merge with a team from the Academy. Five new arrivals, five from the Academy, and they can show you the ropes while you all complete the quests.
There are more than enough Swineherd Demons out there to hunt, and the Armoured Boars are good eating, so you can get four points for those, plus one for bringing me five kilos of tubers.
They’ll explain it all, but that five points is enough to pay for the basic armour, and then you will just owe me for the weapons."
That sounded pretty good to the others, but Kalli could see the soldiers doing the mental math. They needed today and one more day to have twenty points to get their first skill, and then they would know if it was possible to reach Awakened Hero status from commoner.
Even if they weren’t heroes in the eyes of the System, just gaining the advantages of one of the Awakened would be huge for them.
A real class, with skills and better physical stats, would be everything that they could ask for. If they didn’t get all the benefits of being a "hero" then they would accept it and find a way around it.
They ended up going out with Esmeralda, who was their usual tenth team member, though that left them with nothing more than bandages for healing.
However, with the undead taking all the damage from the enemy, they didn’t actually need much.
The zombies and skeletons recovered on their own, and with the special forces team on her side, Esmeralda didn’t have much fear of anything making it to her. Besides, she usually rode atop her six legged zombie Crocolisk.
Kalli started handing out battle armour to all the newly arrived heroes, many of whom were still wearing a toga made of the sheet from the resurrection pod. Any sort of clothing would be good at that point, though the ones who had left uniforms here at the Academy had mostly gone to change first.
"Are we really going to dress like this?" One of the girls asked.
"I have zero objections to the toga," Bert suggested.
The girl rolled her eyes at him and reluctantly took the armour from Kalli. Once she had it on, she stretched to see if it limited her range of motion, and found that it was actually comfortable to wear.
"What class or preferred weapon? Once you have it, you can join a team to head out and get some points. The words short term are the important part of these short-term interest free loans."
"I’m an assassin class. So, daggers, or a silenced pistol. I get bonuses to both."
"Pick your poison. I can get you daggers for two points, a pistol, suppressor, and ammunition for three."
"Is it a good pistol?"
Kalli shrugged. "I like it. But I use a Lasrifle in combat because it does more damage."
The assassin looked confused until Kalli took out her rifle.
"It’s an actual laser rifle? That’s crazy. Do you have these in pistol form? That would be super cool."
Kalli nodded. "Yes, but you’ll have to wait because they’re more expensive. Pick the good weapons in a couple of days when you have points. Today you get the basics."
The assassin sighed. "Fine. Daggers it is. That’s how most fights usually go anyhow, and my team already has a rifleman on it. That’s his actual class."
"How much is that rifle?" The man standing beside her asked.
"Ten points for Common Grade, twenty for Uncommon, which does 25 percent more damage."
The man sighed. "What do you have for rifles in the three point category?"
"The usual option are those ones that the special forces team uses. That way, everyone can swap ammunition if they run low. The System isn’t all that particular, but once you get a case of ammunition, it’s just regular ammunition."
"Got it. I will take one, and the light suit. I am Cliff, the rifleman for Amber’s team."
"Welcome back to Marimgar, Cliff."