By the end of the day, news had spread that the new clinics had a device that would produce basic medicine for mana, so the nurses in the city could treat almost all of the basic illnesses and injuries that people had without relying on healing magic.
That got the visitors flowing to the new facilities, and it started to build experience for the nurses who had reached level 0 status.
Most of the city was asleep early again, and ready at midnight when nothing happened.
So, they began a fresh day off well rested and ready to explore the new city.
The heroes who had just come from the Arks outside the walls were shocked to see how much Marimgar had advanced during the third trial, as well as how fast people were setting up shops.
It hadn’t even been two days, but there were stalls for nearly anything you could think of being set up around the city.
The only part that really got to people were the number of street food style stalls that were just variations of potato recipes. Tubers were something that everyone could collect, and they were planted all over the city. Plus, they didn’t go bad if you left them sitting for a few days.
So, they were perfect for restaurant use, when everyone was worried about food waste.
Then, they just had to add their signature twist to the preparation, and they were good to go. Other ingredients were still in somewhat short supply, even though Kalli had been making what came into the shop available to those with crafting skills.
Most of what the shops needed was either cloth, leather, or food. Cloth and leather could be obtained easily enough, as they were making cloth and there was now a tannery for the raw hides that they collected.
But the greenhouses had just been planted, so making meal options was not easy.
Most of the variations either came from spices that were in the older greenhouses, gravies made with monster meat and flour, or from ration packs, which were rarely eaten now that there were better options.
They might no longer be a necessity or a favourite, but they came with a wide variety of mostly bland and salty flavours that could be combined with more abundant ingredients to make a very good sauce.
While everyone else explored the city, Kalli tended to her chickens.
The moment that she opened the gate, the birds backed away, waiting patiently on the other side of the feed bowls for her to top them off and collect the eggs.
The sight shocked the heroes who saw her.
Those black chickens were pure evil, and they had already bitten holes in the chicken wire attacking people who had strayed too close to their enclosure.
But they waited obediently for Kalli to feed them.
A small sack of grain, one of popcorn kernels, and a diced tuber made up the daily meal for the chickens. Kalli wasn’t sure if it was a matter of the mixed textures, or the flavours, but this mix was what made the chickens happiest, and they were averaging two eggs per chicken every day.
Most of those went to the food supply, while a quarter of them went to growing her flock.
The original six chickens were now twenty with only one rooster, and Kalli was starting to enjoy being a part-time chicken farmer. Even if it was just because everyone was too afraid of them to bother her while she was feeding them.
Gerry had even managed to do wonderful things with the extra eggs, making a wider variety of baked goods.
The kitchen had a signature sourdough recipe now, as they made bread all day every day, just to make enough for the city. Or, at least enough for the portion of the city that ate in the Academy.
They were going to have to ensure that there were bakeries in the other sections of the city as well.
The city wasn’t short on flour, it came from the Rat King Dungeon multiple times a day, with the level 1 heroes running it instead of doing nothing. They couldn’t safely be on the front lines at level 1, so they had to do something, and the kids had the job of running supplies covered.
Then, when they had done it enough to reach level 2, they could go back to the front lines.
Or, they could now try the Goblin Dungeon early, and add more supplies.
As expected, the Goblin Dungeon didn’t give much, but it was based in Marimgar as it had been during the attack, and there were a few of their actual supplies available for pickup.
So, while the boss was in the back training area, everyone started clearing the main Academy building, so they could hit the kitchen supply rooms and check for anything that the System had determined they could take.
It was a bit odd seeing the city as it had been, now that it was so much larger and more developed, though.
Kalli could already tell that there were going to be issues later with their dungeons.
As much as she wanted a more powerful high-level dungeon to push their heroes forward, the dungeons were level 1, 3, and 10. There was too big of a gap in there. They needed one around level 6 to bridge the gap, so that heroes who awakened later could get up to the level of the trials.
If one of the next trials was a longer-term trial, like a 30 or 90 day survival event, the new heroes would have plenty of time to train.
Kalli had just finished feeding her chickens when a message came through from the Fleet Admiral.
{Coordinator Kalli, we would like to meet you for a discussion on the future plans of the merged force. I believe that it would be better to do face to face than over a message. Would you prefer to come here, or should we come to you?}
Kalli considered the options for a moment. She had just finished setting up the Arks with points kiosks, but they were still crowded flying citadels. Presumably, he would want to do something about that.
Either by expanding the city with a secondary defence ring and more buildings, or by moving the Arks to an outpost nearby that would have overlapping defensive fire with the city of Marimgar itself.
Both would work, she thought.
The question was whether it would still count them as one force if the Arks moved to the next clearing over.
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