Chapter 241: More Fish

They didn’t come back with only one or two fish.

After weeks of nobody going out and fishing the shallows of the ocean, the population of the aquatic animals had increased, including the ones considered monsters that had been spawned elsewhere during the third trial.

What they brought back, in addition to the grass carp, were dozens of tuna, and some sort of swordfish related monsters.

All of them looked and smelled amazingly tasty to the heroes, so they were all brought back to the kitchens. No matter what, they needed more fresh protein, and the heroes simply were not willing to go without meat.

Being trapped inside the city was a worst-case scenario for them right now, as they were running out of meat from the waves of boars.

Not really, they had gathered enough to last another month or two, but the scarcity mindset was setting in the longer that they looked at the abundance of vegetables and berries. They had harvested so many plants without seeing a single living animal that they were becoming worried about their diet.

Kalli wasn’t too concerned.

She knew perfectly well that they could make tasty vegetarian dishes out of the abundance of lentils they had harvested.

But the barrier was mental, not nutritional.

It didn’t shock Kalli at all to see that more heroes were headed for the coast, fishing away their worries, and coming back walking behind personnel carriers that were not only loaded with fish, but had more strapped to the top.

They had more than enough frozen food space that they could just keep fishing until they ran out of the tasty ones in the area, then wait for them to start coming back.

But by that time, they would have fresh crops of carp harvested from the greenhouse water ponds.

They were looking forward to having their own source of meat within the city, but the heroes were growing increasingly concerned about the prospect of that meat being from the chickens.

Those things were getting more menacing by the day, and Kalli just kept increasing the size of the chicken coop to get more of them.

They were beginning to be concerned that she was secretly raising a combat chicken army, loyal only to her, in case the heroes began to rebel. The fact that she could just walk through the chicken coop without anything attacking her seemed like proof positive that she was training them.

Kalli didn’t even try to convince them that there was nothing nefarious going on.

The next few days passed in a tense hustle, with everyone trying to get as much as humanly possible done before the final assessment came along.

They had until the fourteenth day at noon, according to the System, and they were going to make the very best of every single minute of it.

Not that there was much that they could do.

As it turned out, there weren’t all that many options for what to do when you only had a few days, and you were exhausted from constant battle. The heroes helped with the gardens, they kept up their gym routines in the increasingly popular new facilities with the gravity rooms and all the fancy equipment, and they tried to resist the urge to drink heavily.

The next few days flew by in a blur of terrified hopefulness, with everyone waiting for the final verdict from the System.

From what they could tell, they had completely crushed the Third Trial, so they should have the very best of rewards. Last time, it was an upgrade to their buildings, bringing them to this super modern level of technology.

But there really should be something extra that they could get for doing so well that would rival that level of reward.

Finally, noon of the fourteenth day came, and everyone gathered with friends to wait for the announcement.

{The Third Trial has concluded. Rankings are now established.}

{Current Ranking} 1st

{Rewards Granted}

{Marimgar has gained a reward} 10 Heavy Assault Speeders

{Marimgar has gained a reward} City Shield

{Marimgar has gained a reward} 10 Uncommon Grade Building Construction Orbs

{Marimgar has gained a reward} 1 Standard Output Material Converter

{Marimgar has gained a reward} 10 Epic Grade Workshop Construction Bundles

Those last two items on the list were the ones that Kalli was excited about. She wasn’t sure if the material converter was similar to the {Monster Processing Factory} item that she had gotten earlier, but it sounded like it did similar things.

That was a huge win for Marimgar.

But the ten epic grade workshop bundles would be the real winners. The Uncommon grade ones that they had gotten in the first trial were already enough for the Tinkers to run a shop that repaired power armour.

So, what could an Epic Grade one do?

Kalli also realized that they were all in her own inventory, waiting for her to use and place them, they wouldn’t be placed by the system, or available to anyone else. But that wasn’t a big deal, she was in charge of city planning anyhow.

The first thing to distribute was obviously the Heavy Assault Speeders.

She placed them right outside the Hall of Heroes, floating three metres above the ground. Not far for a higher agility warrior or Rogue, who could jump off the second floor balconies of the building to get into one, but high enough that nobody hit their heads on a suddenly appearing vehicle.

They were quite impressive, she had to admit. Much like the smaller assault speeders, but with a full chassis, the Pulse Cannon mounted under the nose, where it had a full 360-degree rotation, and a pair of Plasma Cannons on the top, all controlled by the gunner who now sat lower with a full suite of targeting screens.

The teams were going to love them.

Then, a new message came to Kalli herself.

{Quest Completion Reward Granted}

{XP Gained}

{Level 10 Award now available}

{Store Inventory Expanded}