Chapter 270: Leaving Much Cleanup

{Bonus Quest Issued} Difficulty: Hard. Return the city to its former quality of life within 72 hours after a catastrophic storm. Note: Such storms happen an average of once per decade outside of the trials.

Kalli smiled as she saw the System pop up a quest for the cleanup, and that it rated it as a hard mode quest, not Nightmare or Epic.

She took that as a good sign that they were on the right track, and suggested to the Ark Commanders that they institute something to improve morale in the Hive City. She would send down as much as she could from the fresh fish and the rescued plants, so there wouldn’t be shortages.

But actual shortages and perceived shortages were rarely the same thing.

As long as they could convince everyone that this was actually a windfall with a lot of work to clean up, the System would count it as a win for them.

And it wouldn’t be wrong.

The teams checking the fields, were loading an enormous number of fish into carts to drag back to the city, so they were going to have no shortage of protein this week.

The biggest issue they had was balancing it for the hive city residents.

The excess energy would make them sick if they just ate a whole fish fillet, but eating a tiny bit was not enough to convince the mind that it should be full.

And they didn’t want to have an obesity epidemic on their hands.

So, they were still rushing to come up with as many new recipes as they could, and apparently to get as many low-level teams through the Rat Demon Dungeon as possible.

You could do it once a day, and there was a lineup, despite it letting a team enter once a minute.

Everyone who had gained a class recently had formed teams to go through it for the loot and the food crates, and apparently some who might not have yet gained a class.

Kalli was quite certain that some of those people entering the dungeon with makeshift weapons and no armour were not, in fact, level 1.

That was probably something that she should warn them about.

Then, she noticed that there were newly familiar faces in that crowd.

Uncle Vinny and his crew were gathering the newbies, the ones that Kalli was sure were not supposed to be there, and assigning them to smaller groups.

It looked like they were putting a healer, a tank and a mage with them, and then bringing seven more people. Now, it was possible that they had all just managed to activate their classes, thanks to yesterday’s trials and the work they had put in.

But she doubted it.

The next person through the door was Rip, the Combat Medic class healer from the special forces team, and Kalli immediately nominated him as her gopher.

"Hey, do you mind running over to the Rat Demon Dungeon entrance and telling Vinnie not to get a bunch of idiots killed going with him without gear? I don’t even think they’re level 1. After you get what you came for, of course," she requested in a tone that was not at all a request.

"What? Uh, yeah, I can do that. I just needed a bunch more bone. Doesn’t really matter what it’s from, but long and straight would be good."

Kalli shrugged and put a dozen pieces on the table for him to choose from.

The healer took them all, and nodded in satisfaction.

"They’re for a crafting project. One of the Rangers got a skill called [Primitive Weapons] that allows him to make weapons out of monster bones and magical tree branches. So, we’re going to test it out.

After I make sure that they’re not over there subtracting from the population.

We’ve been on a pretty good roll lately, and we don’t need a bunch of idiots messing up the streak. Given a bit more time, and I think that we can actually start increasing the population naturally."

Kalli chuckled. "Who’s the lucky lady?"

"Not me, dammit. But a bunch of the Ark residents were already pregnant when this all started. We’re keeping an eye on them, in case the automated medical bays and midwives aren’t enough.

The healers formed their own group chat in the app, so we can take turns being on call for emergencies."

That was . . . actually brilliant.

"Alright, off you go. Give me all the good news once you’ve had time to test the skill. If he can use it repeatedly, bring him here, and I’ll give him a whole pile of bones to make weapons for our newbies.

Or whoever wants them."

Rip laughed, as he knew just how "primitive" the weapons would look, though they were actually quite powerful, on par with Uncommon Grade weapons. Still, given the choice between a steel sword, a high-quality mace, or a rock crudely laced to a bone handle, it was clear where the winners were.

Even if they all did the same amount of damage.

But the thing about the primitive weapons was that the System didn’t say anything about "When wielded by a hero" only that they dealt a certain amount of damage. ℴ

So, they were hoping that they might be able to give them to the level 0 residents for defence.

Bone daggers were sharp, and if they did the job, nobody would complain.

They would even be useful in the kitchens, as magical weapons cut through even the toughest cuts of meat with ease. Just one more little thing that would help them stock the city properly, and keep up with the changing diet that Marimgar provided.

If you needed a magic weapon to cut the food before cooking, it was an expensive proposition to stock every kitchen in the city.

But if you could make new knives out of leftover bones? That was financial efficiency at its finest.

With that, Rip rushed out to go talk to the group around the level 1 dungeon, and Kalli was left to her own devices.

Time to start making plans for the next flood.