Chapter 147: A Day Off?
The down day between the second and the third trials started off on a calm note, with everyone simply relaxing and going about their daily routine.
None of the quests had renewed this morning, and Kalli got the old familiar message when she tried.
{Quests May Not Be Issued Between Trials}
So, they didn’t have anything to do but to check on the crops and the new buildings.
And that brought them to a dilemma.
They had a shopping centre, but no shops, and no currency. The closest that they had was the System Points, and those could only properly be spent with Kalli in the hall of heroes.
If they were going to establish some sort of shopping system, they were going to have to come up with something. They couldn’t barter for everything, and if there were no controls, the temptation to hoard resources would begin to set in.
Especially now that resources were less scarce.
In theory, they could use Marimgar Dollars again. But the whole banking system had been obliterated, so it didn’t really make sense for them to go with it.
Plus, nobody had a balance that would mean anything here.
Even if you had a billion dollars before, it meant nothing now, and nobody would accept them for anything.
Still, it felt like they needed some sort of shops to embrace this new level of civilization that they were given. If they didn’t, and they simply let the shop sit empty, wouldn’t that hurt them on their evaluation?
There were already plans to open the restaurant once the trial started, as the staff would get mission credits for working there.
But that had brought a whole other round of concerns.
They needed new ingredients for the heroes. The old ones were too low in something that the heroes needed, and they no longer found them filling. So, they needed to fill the expanded greenhouse with new sorts of crops.
That became the task of the day for hundreds of their residents, and they all came to see Kalli first thing in the morning.
"Let’s see what I’ve got. Ah, I’ve got packs of uncommon grade seeds. Those should do the job, and we’ve got enough of a variety to fill the greenhouse with essentials.
Here, the first batch is on me.
Get them planted, watered and ready to go. Then come inform me if there were any issues.
We’ve got magical versions of onions, carrots, cabbage, spinach, asparagus, raspberries and ... wait. There is a note on those.
It seems that the stems of the Uncommon Grade raspberry plants are exceptionally flexible and durable. They are listed as a hazardous plant, suitable for making weapons. But they may attack.
That will make them challenging to harvest, so keep track of where you plant them."
The planting team frowned. If the raspberry bushes were as aggressive as tuber plants, but covered in sharp barbs, how would they even pick the berries when the time came?
They would have to limit the number that they planted until they were sure.
With plenty of space available in the new greenhouse, they weren’t worried about finding a safe spot for hostile berries. But they were concerned about how long the new plants would take to grow.
How could you have a baseline to go by when the only edible plant you were familiar with from this new world were the tubers, which regrew in a matter of days?
If everything grew that fast, they were going to have to carefully consider how much food they were planting, or they would have a huge amount of waste.
Before the sun had set, Kalli was already incredibly bored.
[ I’ve gotten too used to being busy all day long, and the random events of a Trial. Seeing everyone relaxing today, and having nobody purchasing anything or turning in quests, makes it hard to keep my eyes open.
Perhaps I should take a short nap so that I’m fresh at midnight when the trial starts? ]
That sounded good to Kalli, so she returned to the luxury of her room, but linked the screens in the hall of heroes to the ones in her living room, so she could see what people were looking for when she was not around.
As it turned out, the answer was nothing.
At least, not that night. Everyone was concerned about what was going to come at midnight, so nobody wanted to spend anything that might prove to be a waste of points once the next Trial started.
After a restless nap, where she kept waking up every half hour in a panic that she missed the third trial announcement, Kalli finally rose and showered just before midnight, ready to face the day.
{Welcome Heroes!
Congratulations on passing the first two trials.
For the third trial, the difficulty will increase just a teensy little bit.
I do hope that you’re ready!
| (•□•) | (❍ᴥ❍ʋ)
The third trial is a simple one. You will compete with the residents of the merged world to claim territory!
Isn’t that exciting?
They have been given a 12-hour head start because they did so well on the first two trials.
Good Luck, and I hope to see you all for the next Trial!}
...
[What the actual fuck?]
That was definitely not the same System Message writer that they had before, was it? Did they let their new assistant write the message this time?
Kalli’s hands trembled in rage, but there was nothing that she could do to stop the System from doing as it pleased.
Outside, everyone else was in the same state of shock.
How did you even respond to a message that ridiculous? Were they supposed to thank the System for throwing them into a death trial with a twelve-hour disadvantage?
They didn’t have long to wonder what it was all about. The sound of war cries rang out in the night. Pained alien screams and shouting in the distance, mixed with the signature crackling noise of high-powered lasers ionizing the atmosphere, told them that they were already under attack, and the force was not a small one.
{Bonus Quest issued} Survive the assault. Nightmare Difficulty.
{Survive the assault by the residents of the region. Elimination of 80 percent of the enemy force or clearance of a 50-kilometre radius around the base will result in a victory.}
{Bonus Quests cannot be declined}
{Would you like to increase the difficulty?} Free upgrade with Excellent or higher rated completion of the second trial.
"What the hell? NO! Absolutely not."
{Thank you for your input.
By popular vote: 1,245,000 to 1,423 the difficulty for the Fort Marimgar defenders has been increased to Epic Grade}