Chapter 293: More People

For all their planning about what to do during the trial, they had all forgotten about one small, not so insignificant fact.

Every other surviving human on the planet had been transferred to Marimgar, and there were currently thousands of confused and terrified people standing in the streets, trying to get some sort of answers about their homes from the members who were not in the meeting.

Only, nobody actually knew anything.

They knew that everyone had been brought here, the System said as much.

But they didn’t know what the Coordinator planned to do about it. Whether she was going to move the ones without Systems to the hive city, settle everyone above ground, let them choose, or even what jobs they were supposed to be doing.

After five minutes of the team leaders not coming out to deal with the issue, Reggie gathered a hundred or so new arrivals in the streets near the Hall of Heroes and marched himself inside with someone who claimed to have been the Lord of Deriran.

The man was filthy, ragged, and smelled like zombies. But that did make his claim a bit more believable.

Deriran had been overrun with zombies since the first time that they got a clear view of it, and the refugees from Hamin had said the same thing. Reggie hadn’t managed to find out how many survivors his team had, the man was too upset about losing the city.

But they were still alive.

"Who is in charge here?" The man demanded the moment that they entered the room.

Vinnie rose from his chair, instinctively answering the challenge. Then, a smile slid onto his face, and he made a grand gesture towards Kalli.

"Coordinator Kallista De Marimgar is our leader. Seven hundred and eighty thousand souls between heroes and civilians, before the newest wave of arrivals, and the blessing of the System to distribute supplies in exchange for quest rewards.

Who might you be? So I can introduce you properly."

The man paused, unsure what to say to that sort of introduction.

Sure, Marimgar was an impressive looking place, with those fancy buildings. But three quarters of a million people living in the city after four trials?

That definitely changed things.

"I am Grand Trade Lord Russell Deriran. Fifty-fourth Lord of Deriran, and a level nine warrior."

Kalli vaulted over the desk and extended a hand to the ragged man.

"We will get you cleaned up in a minute, the city has a water treatment facility and plenty of stored water for bathing. But first, how many did you bring, and what is their status?" She asked in her most polite tone.

"We brought eight hundred, give or take. Warriors, Riflemen, a few mages and a good selection of Shamans for cleansing zombie rot and curing wounds."

Kalli shook his hand and smiled. "Good work. Eight hundred is an excellent number. Do you have any civilians left?"

Russell shook his head. "None. Those who made it to the third trial all gained classes, and then during the fourth trial all progress was stopped, so we’ve got a bunch of low-level fighters, but no civilians."

"Alright. We’ve got dungeons here that will help them get their level up, that’s not an issue. Reggie, can you go find some other group leaders and bring them in here? Tell them that they need to come get their housing assignments, or I’m going to put them in tents between the tuber fields and the walls."

Reggie laughed as he jogged back out of the room.

That threat would work pretty well, until everyone realized that it wasn’t a bad spot to be, and that the vast majority of the apartments built onto the walls were empty, so they could just move.

As long as it didn’t interfere with the wall guards’ work.

It didn’t take long before Reggie was back with a half dozen more people, all representatives of their groups. They were followed by a small group of soldiers in battered armour, and one old cowboy, smoking a cigar.

"Interesting bunch you’ve found. Welcome to Marimgar, everyone.

The system has deemed it appropriate to relocate all humans to the Marimgar region for the fifth trial, and assigned us the mission of preparing for the Ascension of the world, while awakening as many humans as possible.

If you could tell me simply how many System users and how many civilians you had with you when you were transported, I would appreciate it.

For the sake of finding lodgings for everyone."

"Sixteen system users"

"Twenty four"

"Three hundred, with eighty civilians"

"Forty one"

"Just the six of us"

"I’m John."

Kalli chuckled. "Good to meet you John. I take it that you were travelling alone?"

The old cowboy nodded. "Lost near all my cattle there in the third trial, but I reckon I did alright. System sent them here with me, if that matters to anyone."

Kalli nodded. "It will matter to everyone soon. I don’t know if you brought us dairy cows, but livestock is in short order here, and fresh milk from the System is expensive."

John shrugged, "Don’t matter. I don’t have any cash anyhow."

"It’s all bought with points for completing missions and dungeons. But it sells most things in bulk, and a point is a half day’s work. But it only lets you do the quest once a day."

John nodded slowly. "I got a bunch of them over the trials, but I spent them all on skills. I don’t suppose you do credit?"

Kalli nodded. "I do credit. But room and board are included with your stay, and we’ve got meal cards to make sure that nobody’s missing dinner."

John snorted. "Or missing in general."

Kalli appreciated that the old man caught on quickly. Indeed, if someone’s card or biometrics hadn’t been scanned for a few days, it was a sign to go looking for them and make sure that nothing bad had happened.

They could be injured, dead, or worse. Sick. They had plenty of clinics in town, but a spreading disease was still a threat.