Chapter 134: Fleet Unsettled
Naturally, everyone in the fleet assumed that it was something that had been achieved by the team they had sent to meet with the representatives of Marimgar.
Which meant that Marimgar had someone or something with them that had activated the quests, and now their exploration had paid off, granting tens of thousands of people the potential to get quest rewards.
Only, they didn’t have an entire fleet of fishing vessels to let everyone go out and do the quest, even if that was safe.
There were monsters in the ocean.
Strong ones.
You couldn’t just send out a bunch of civilians to go deep water fishing, as they would just get attacked by the monsters, and there was a very real chance that the boats would be damaged.
They were retained from the original battleships, and the quantity was very limited.
The Fleet Admiral, a level 5 Water Mage, was sitting in the training hall, next to the panel where the statue was, keeping order as the ship went insane with the possibility of advancement.
Then, he got a most curious message from the System.
{Desired item is not available for remote purchase}
"What? Remote? Where is the main location? Can I actually buy more boats? Hello?"
There was no response from the system, only a faint sense of exasperation, as if he was missing something that should have been incredibly obvious.
Then, the smart device on his forearm, the one that he had gotten from the completion of the First Trial, lit up.
{Administrator Account has activated fleet accounts. Permissions have been granted to senior officers of the Kalkan Fleet.
Welcome, Fleet Admiral.
Please select a language for interaction.}
Kalli sat back in her chair and nodded in satisfaction. Now, all the Command Officers had their biometrics updated, using the data that the Arks had recorded, and she had given them the essential access to operate the ship, as well as forcing a download of the user manual to the devices of those in charge.
They really had gained a lot of good stuff from the first mission, and now Kalli was fully prepared to exploit their hidden statue for her own personal gain.
She had just gotten comfortable, completing quests and handing out snacks for the workers who had been on the morning shift, when the sound of approaching helicopters informed her that they had more visitors.
"Someone go check on them, will you? There is more room by the three helicopters that are already landed, but the ground is soft," she requested.
One of the men who had been working the makeshift sawmill nodded.
"No worries. I will make sure that they land on the gravel, not on the soft dirt. Though, it looks like another small helicopter. It might be fine? They’re not sending some huge cargo vehicle here with their people."
Kalli waited as the helicopter landed, and then laughed at the startled voices as a group of armed soldiers were apparently running across the open ground to her office.
Kalli went to the front door, and motioned for the heroes who were on high alert to stand down.
"Gentlemen, how can I help you?"
"We were just informed that you have a steady supply of gear and food. How could it be that you didn’t bring that up in the initial conversation?" The Fleet Admiral demanded.
"I informed your representative, he’s testing it now.
However, you should be aware that most of the gear they’re going to get is primitive. How do you like your new ship functions, by the way? I took the liberty of adding all your biometric data to the Ark’s command system, so you can operate it properly.
Come in and sit down, I will explain everything that your men didn’t get to tell you yet.
They should be just about done with the dungeon run."
The Fleet Admiral nodded. "They’re just collecting the rewards and searching for any more supplies that might be in the dungeon."
Ah, so they had sent a message back to the fleet, and informed them about the rewards soon enough that their boss was already here before Kalli could shove all the explaining onto someone else.
"First off, welcome to Marimgar. My name is Kalli, and I am the Coordinator here. Much like you have a Strategist, who gets group survival related benefits, I am in charge of keeping the heroes here advancing and growing.
Now, you can see that our heroes are trading in their quests at the statue, and they’re getting random reward boxes for them.
That’s the basics of the Quest portion of the System, and our people usually do two or three a day. Some of them are simple enough that the level zero civilians can do them, like the quest for skilled labour.
That one will keep your turn in location on the Ark busy.
But we don’t even have two thousand people here. It’s a much smaller group, so I’ve set up this shop, where they can turn it in, gather for group building, or just relax."
Kalli paused as one of the men stopped beside her, clearly in need of something.
"Miss, we’ve broken a chain on one of the chainsaws. Do you have a spare?"
He was clearly avoiding mentioning purchasing it, which she appreciated in front of the strangers.
"One moment, yep. Here’s a chain and maintenance kit. It comes with a tooth sharpener, and I’m sure that most of the saws need it by now."
The man nodded and turned to leave. "Like you wouldn’t believe. I’ll leave you to it, I apologize for the interruption, gentlemen."
The Fleet Admiral gave Kalli a look of appreciation, one bureaucrat to another. She clearly had things well arranged here, as everyone knew who to go to in order to get what they needed, what needed to be done to recover from a disaster, and how to keep themselves growing as heroes.
Their numbers might be pitifully small compared to what his nation had managed to save, but they were certainly living well enough.
And not because they had been well off to begin with, unlike some of the bases they had come across with politicians and oligarchs lording it over the other survivors. The Kalkan fleet had left those bases to their own devices, opting not to interfere with their operations, but also not to assist them in any way or maintain contact.