Chapter 230: The Next Wave

With the giant insects retreating, the city was now faced with a horde of primitive, low-level monsters, and nobody was really sure what to do about that.

Sure, they could send down the flight suits, and roast hundreds of goblins and hobgoblins at a time, sweeping the area with flames as they raced by overhead. But how exactly could you call that a defence of the city of Marimgar?

It was just bullying in composite armour.

Still, that was two waves, recognized by the System, and they were going to get quest completions for them. Probably not Epic Grade ones, but quest completions nonetheless.

The success of the flight suits encouraged the Assault Speeders to also go out over the wall, chasing down groups of monsters with the Pulse Cannon, and saving the rockets for a more dangerous situation.

If the insects returned, they would be ready.

But if they did not, they weren’t going to burn through ammunition that cost System Points to replace when they could just as easily remove the threat without it.

The speeders scouted the distance and brought back news that was both incredibly positive, and incredibly concerning at the same time. Once the insectoid monsters had reached the fifty kilometre mark from the city of Marimgar, they simply vanished.

Every attacker that crossed that line disappeared as if they had never existed, but when they sent a speeder past the line, nothing happened.

Kalli considered reprimanding them for extreme carelessness, but decided that it was better to know for certain than to hesitate later. Now that they knew their range wasn’t limited to only fifty kilometres, while the monsters could not cross that line during a trial wave, they knew exactly what they needed to protect in order to get maximum points.

There was only one more issue facing the city.

They hadn’t seen an edible wave of monsters in quite some time, and they were starting to run low on meat products.

They had stockpiled as much as humanly possible during the attacks by the armoured boars and the crabs, including the armoured boars in the Third Trial. But according to the kitchens, they had less than a month worth of meat left.

Their plant supply was going strong, at greater than surface usage. But they didn’t have anything resembling a proper ranch in Marimgar.

The closest that they could claim was Kalli’s chicken coop, and that was not a meat producing facility, only eggs. Eventually, she would be able to harvest chickens, but right now, she was working on expanding the facility to supply all of the city’s egg needs.

A runner rushed in and skidded to a stop in front of Kalli, panting for breath.

"Coordinator, some of the teams would like to leave the walls and go hunting for monsters.

According to them, the density of this wave is so low that they feel confident that they can go to them and clear the monster waves without resorting to the heavy weapons and causing further damage to the landscape."

"Tell them to go ahead. Just be safe, don’t let themselves get surrounded, and stay within range of the artillery for now. If they pick off the monsters that have gotten closest, we can support them when things go wrong.

They haven’t done much like this before, and they should practice."

The runner smiled. "I will relay your message verbatim."

Not all of the heroes would leave the wall, just in case there were more monsters hiding somewhere that they hadn’t seen yet.

The level of trust in the System not to pull a vicious prank on them, like having a million more enhanced versions of the visible monsters hidden somewhere, or an underground army that they hadn’t detected, was very low.

The first group out the door was naturally Esmeralda’s followed by Sanchez and his team.

Both of them were in armoured personnel carriers, though Esmeralda was riding on the back of a five-metre tall insectoid warrior that she had resurrected. The Necromancer had no issue with what others would consider creepy, and the Insectoid warriors were the most powerful options she had for each size category that she could resurrect.

By the time that they were a full kilometre outside the walls, she even had a pair of the ten-metre tall "Shredder" style bugs that had been felled by Pulse Cannon fire without losing limbs.

The only surviving member of her old undead team was the Crocolisk, which was currently jogging behind the personnel carrier like a lost puppy.

The group was an odd one, and to anyone who didn’t know, it would look like the carrier was under attack. However, Esmeralda had thought of that in advance, and had painted a bright blue stripe down the back of her new insects, so that even from a distance, you could tell that they were not part of the invading army.

Safety yellow looked too much like the toxic ichor they used, red could be mistaken for regular blood, and she devoutly refused to paint her undead pink. So, blue was the option for the insects, which were naturally varied shades of brown, with mottled patterns that made excellent camouflage, if they were somewhere with actual ground cover, not a war ravaged open countryside of volcanic ash.

However, the current battle was one of nostalgia for the heroes.

They had grown so much, gained so many skills, new gear, and higher levels with commensurate physical and magical strength. Now, seeing the same enemies from the early trials again, they were brought back to the terror of the first days of the end of the world, but without any of the terror.

Perhaps, this was what a regular difficulty challenge looked like?

If they were still as they were at the start of the trials, this would be a real challenge to them. Even if they had the extra levels, but no gear, they would struggle against these enemies.

The system store and the dungeons had changed that completely.