Chapter 317: Butterfly Effect

The loss of the Giant Tribes had a far wider reaching ripple effect than anyone in Marimgar could know. With the loss of not just the Frost Giants and their allies, but also the Mountain Trolls in the north, the other Giants retreated to their home territories, unless they were busy picking off a smaller local tribe to complete their mission.

Most of them had long since completed that task, and now they had the secondary task, the same one that the people of Marimgar had.

To make themselves ready for the Ascension of the world.

Unlike the humans, they didn’t actually have to do much to prepare for that. Their people were powerful by nature, and they didn’t need to struggle to be strong enough to survive the process.

All that they had to do was to stockpile enough to survive the change.

If the world was ascending, there was no telling how long it would take, and if there would be any living things not mutated beyond recognition outside of their enclaves. So, they needed food, resources, feed for the livestock.

Everything had to be prepared.

In Marimgar, Kalli thought that it meant something entirely different.

She assumed that it meant the world was getting more powerful and more dangerous, so she needed to make the people stronger wherever she could. The fact that they would need a stockpile of food was simply a given to the humans, and she had placed so many greenhouses and green spaces around the city that they were already in a surplus.

Even the chickens were eating well, simply so that the excess didn’t go to waste.

Some things, like the tubers, kept very well. Others did not. So, berries were dried, meats were cured, shorter lived vegetables were pickled and a whole industry began to form around making jars and canning foods.

Mostly soups.

With so many perishable foods growing in the city, it was simply the best option that they had, and somehow reusable glass jars had won out over tin cans.

The people of Marimgar were becoming incredibly practical, with single use anything slowly vanishing from their lives.

Tin cans were useless once empty. The jars could be reused to store the next batch, and there was a shop in sector 301 of the lower city that was making high quality pressure cookers out of scrap metal that was purchased from the dungeon runs.

The operator was a level 3 mage, new to his class. But now that he had free access to the storehouse, he was making the best of it, and he had a full business plan for Kalli that would expand his small forge to a full scale industry.

Making one forge and operating it with fire magic was relatively easy. Plus, the metal bars were cheap.

But the Coordinator could improve the city with her skills, and turn his work space into a proper factory. Once he had that, he could hire people, make more pressure cookers and other utensils that weren’t included in the base equipment of their units, and slowly become a proper businessman.

He had never been one before, but his father had been an amateur blacksmith, the sort that liked to make fancy knives so expensive that only dedicated collectors would purchase them.

That didn’t directly translate, but he knew how the equipment was made, and the parts were readily available if you had fire magic. So, he had turned that hobby into one of the most popular new businesses in town.

Overall, the mood in the city was one of hope.

They had proven that they could defend themselves against their neighbours, they were rapidly moving everything they did over to the use of mana as more people awakened the ability to use it, and that cut down the draw on the power grid, which allowed them to do even more.

But most importantly, entertainment was back on the menu.

The portable consoles were a huge hit, selling thousands in the first day. But more than that, the buyers had realized that the holographic display wasn’t the only option. They could stream it to a screen, like a traditional game console.

Some embraced the new viewing method, others went for the flat screen, and by the next afternoon the games were everywhere.

It didn’t matter that it was expensive, especially for the residents of the lower city. One gaming console with the holographic projection for multi player mode could keep an entire family or friend group entertained.

Playing that way took a lot of learning, as you weren’t actually touching anything with your hands, it was just recognizing their position and gestures.

But it worked.

Then, on the afternoon of the third day after the Frost Giant led attack, Kalli got a System Message.

{Milestone met. 50 Percent of the Marimgar Faction has gained compatibility with the System}

{Minimum Passing Grade met. Please continue preparations for the Ascension of this mortal world.

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You’re totally going to get there, just don’t give up!}

Kalli smiled at the words of encouragement from the System, and then realized that they were just for her, and hadn’t been seen by anyone else in the room.

They were all going about their daily business the same as they had seconds earlier. But if they had seen a System message, even one that brought good news, they would have at least stopped to read it, or shown some sort of reaction.

Quick mental math said that they now had close to thee hundred and eighty thousand people who had level 0 or higher stats. Which, to Kalli, meant that they needed more gyms.

The Heroes had an amazing training area, and the higher levels needed it, because their stats were so high. But everyone else needed to get to the point where they could no longer use a normal gym to improve their abilities.

And they needed to do it before the trial was over.

With 50 percent being a passing grade, Kalli would assume that was a D minus sort of score, barely squeaking by. And that meant the goal was to get to at least eighty percent of the population, so they could claim that they did well on this trial.

They were already so much further than Kalli had expected, they had to be on the right path.

Just a little added assistance to get them all to level one, where they would finally get assigned a class.