Chapter 94: The Right Quests To Do
Chapter 94: The Right Quests To Do
The teams spread out through the region, finishing the quests that they could. Only a few were doing the crab killing quest, as nobody wanted to go to the beach and pick a fight.
They weren’t coming up the hill, they were keeping close to the nests, and if you wanted to pick one off, you either had to be very selective, or you would have to fight dozens of them.
They weren’t short on crab, so the quest became one of convenience.
It was much safer to go harvest tubers for their fifth point of the day.
Five points and some gear, for many of the heroes who had been at the Academy for a while. They had done the dungeon, or were going to do it later. They would arrange teams to bring those whose skills had degraded with resurrection tomorrow.
For now, they had their preferred teams.
Plus, it was a level one dungeon, and with so many of them at level three and four, having been given multiple bonus stats from the System, they were having it easy.
As far as they could tell, that was all that the levels were for. It was just a way of measuring how hard they worked to fulfill the quests, and their experience was rewarded with bonus physical abilities.
There might be more to it, but they hadn’t seen any sign of that so far.
Besides, the bonus stats were enough. One or two points of strength and agility with the new level was a great bonus. Especially now that they were capping out the machines in the gym.
If they couldn’t keep getting gains daily from the quest, they would have to rely on getting levels. That was not an easy process, but it was viable.
By the time that Kalli was ready to go for lunch, there were a lot of traumatized heroes returning to the Academy, along with their laughing team members, who had fought the Swineherd Demons and Armoured Boars many times before.
The sailors had seen very little direct combat, they got their experience for level two by getting civilians to safety and as group rewards for killing monsters with the ship’s weapons.
The ones from the bunkers had been fighting Goblins, but they were thirty kilos of filth and anger, where the Swineherds were two hundred kilos of muscle and savagery. The two battles had very little in common, especially when the boars were involved, and you didn’t have a skilled rifleman or ranger.
"Well, how was the first day? Anyone get something good? I’ve heard that the System sometimes rewards you when killing monsters," Kalli asked as Cliff and Amber’s team returned to the Academy.
They shook their heads. "We were lucky to have a rifleman and a ranger, plus an ice mage in the group, who could create barrier walls. That made all the difference. But some of the other teams are not having a good day."
Kalli nodded. "I suspected as much. While I don’t expect any of them to end up in the pod again, the first few days of adapting to life in this new world are going to be a rough one for everyone.
But we need to take care of the Swineherd Demons that are too close to the Academy and our food supply, there is a whole open prairie full of them on the other side of those trees.
If they start to group up too close to us, we risk being overrun.
That’s why we’re keeping up with the quest, and killing off as many as possible, even though we’re not actually desperate for meat at the moment. We’ve got enough stored to last us for a few months.
Of course, stockpiling until we’ve got enough to last a year or more is likely the best choice, but it’s more important that we manage to eliminate the threats to our existence first."
"Got it. Priorities. Now, we were told that there is a quest in the gym? Where do we sign up?"
Kalli laughed. "You don’t. You just need to do the exercise and you’ll get the gains. It gives out bonus growth if you work hard enough for a solid hour, but maximum if you go for ninety minutes.
So, basically everyone does ninety minutes.
That’s how they got so strong, and how humans can keep up with the monsters in close combat. Without something like that, we would have been in a much worse position.
Everything that we can do to get ahead of the curve, we are doing.
Luckily for you, that will also help you catch up and get back to where you were before the death penalty. The growth of the monster threat is undeniable, and my calculations are not pretty."
"You think that there will be stronger monsters?"
Kalli nodded. "Yes. My guess is that the threat increases with every trial, and the strength of the heroes is supposed to as well. If we had more civilians, there is a chance that we could raise new heroes, but with so few, we’re not going to be able to do that.
So, the progression needs to be steady.
Part of that is going to be gear, the rest will be experience and skills. The more quests you do after you’ve got basic gear, the more skills you can get, though the higher tiers get super expensive.
The skills are more powerful, though."
Amber smiled and nodded. "I agree with that. I have a poison skill as an Assassin, but we were close enough to see Niall, the Student Council President, and his team fighting. There is no comparison, he’s dropping Swineherd Demons with one flurry of attacks.
They grab them two at a time, and he just takes one out in the first five seconds, then his skills are on cooldown for a bit, so the second takes longer."
Kalli nodded. "Some classes are best at burst damage, others at defence, or area attacks. Forming the right group is all about having the right mix to complement each other’s skills.
There should be training clothes freshly washed at the Gym. We’ve hired staff from the apartments for that, and they get paid in System Points, so they can buy supplies on top of what they harvest.
It’s a bit odd, but the system works."