Reincarnated As The Heroes Guide

Chapter 68: Expanded Range

Kalli nodded to the new arrival who stepped in front of her. "Quests to complete? Just tap my arm if that’s not close enough."

Her intent was enough, and the whole group had their quests completed, with a single Common Grade box appearing in their hands.

"Do we have more groups on the way? I’m most of the way through my routine now, just another ten minutes and I’ll be at full gains." Kalli asked.

"There are more students coming. We all got a notification today, and I was down by the docks."

Kalli frowned as she jogged. "That’s got to be what? Five kilometres from here?"

"About that? I will tell you, getting up that hill without attracting the attention of anything was a chore. Most of these others came from the Boroughs between here and the edge of town.

There isn’t much left near the docks. That sea monster and the Ogres have really done a number on the area.

Anyone who could flee, already did.

The army took a bunch of students with them when they fled. But I didn’t trust the look in that Commander’s eyes. So, I stayed hidden until today, when I saw the quest to return to the Academy.

If the quests reach the docks, they’re reaching fully two thirds of the city by now."

Sanchez smiled. "That’s a good sign. If the quests are reaching most of the city, and the soldiers took a load of students with them, we might be able to gather most of the ones who are still in the city.

Do you know how many they took?"

"Oh man, a lot. Like, they loaded two military landers with students. They had to have taken a thousand of them at least."

"They brought a thousand students with them? They must have combed the city the first day. No wonder we haven’t seen many of the students, even though we brought the student portal app back online." Sanchez complained.

A few of the students took out their phones and powered them on.

"What do you know, there’s even a signal."

"We tactically acquired a tower for the Academy, and linked it to the Academy’s server, so the app would go online. You can’t call much of anyone. But you can access the Academy app."

"Oh, the chat is even active, and they’ve got markers for where the larger groups of monsters were last spotted. I should add to that, for the things I saw on the way over.

There are some of those armoured boars on the Stonefire Vale side of the hill, southeast of here. I didn’t know that they were edible, I never tried to kill one."

"The others are going to be glad to see that. They’re a crowd favourite, and we’re eating them at basically every meal. You’ve likely all noticed that we’re going through many more calories than we were before awakening. But the monster meat, and the magical ingredients give more energy, so we can eat normal amounts again."

"Oh, that makes sense. I’ve been rationing, but I’ve been starving. I don’t suppose that the kitchen is operating? Or does everyone do their own food? How are things operating here?"

Kalli listened as the Sergeant explained the basics to the new arrivals, and more students started to arrive after dinner.

Then the notice came in.

{90 continuous minutes of extreme exertion completed.} Maximum gains awarded. 1 Strength, 1 Stamina, 1 Agility.

This seemed like the best exercise so far.

Kalli set the weight on her shoulders so she could shut down the treadmill, and then stepped off, trying to ignore the fact that she was dripping sweat into her socks.

"If you need me, I will be available in the dining hall after a shower."

The new arrivals suddenly looked excited.

"Does the Academy have hot water? Hot running water? The water pressure everywhere else is out, and it never occurred to me that you might still have it here. Our whole group has been operating off building storage tanks, filtered water stored in bathtubs before the pressure went out, and whatever bottled water we could find. It was beyond stressful."

"Yeah, the showers are on a shorter timer, but we’ve got hot water. The Gym has 3-minute timers on the water, but the dorms have super low flow shower heads, so they get five minutes."

"Three minutes is enough. There is soap and shampoo in the changing room, right?"

"The original supplies from the Academy, in fact. The good stuff."

The newly arrived students rushed for the showers as Kalli caught her breath.

"Don’t bother to rerack that, I think that I will try your workout for the day. It should be a good balance, and if it’s not heavy enough, I will just increase the treadmill speed," Sanchez offered.

"Sounds good to me. I managed to get a point each of Strength Stamina and Agility today with the treadmill on steep incline. Go for that and a steady jog. It should do the trick."

Kalli finally made it to the showers, just in time for the first batch to be leaving as their water timers ran out. It was actually on the honour system, and you could just hit the button to give yourself another three minutes. But those who lived here for years should know that.

"Crap, we have no clean clothes."

Kalli laughed. "I will grab you all a fresh set of gym clothes, and you can go back to your own dorms to grab a uniform until you can get some armour. The other students here might have something that you can get from them for a discount if you didn’t get anything from the loot box.

It likes to give armour first."

"Do people just wear armour around all day?"

"I do for certain. And most of the others do as well, because you never know when there is going to be an emergency. These days, it’s best to always be ready, and the worst situation to be in is unprepared when you’ve got seconds to react."

"Oh, that’s a good point. I thought that everyone had just returned from a mission."

"They likely had. Most of the others go out until nearly dinner time, clearing monsters, looking for food and supplies. The basic things to keep the Academy running. If you need anything, and it’s out of stock, just ask me and I will try to find a way to get it for you."