Chapter 272: Diversified Resource Harvesting

The mage with the escort group nodded. "That will be good. We gave them the rundown as well. But you’re going to have a lot of them today. The Arks sent up as many workers as they thought we could handle, and we’ve got a half dozen per building right now.

It will still take days to get everything fully cleaned out, but joining in the efforts to rescue and repair the city seems to give them a higher chance of pleasing the system.

So, the next shifts will likely be the same."

Kalli nodded. "Then I will send a message informing them that I will collect names and verify status after their shifts, and then we will have apartments read for those who want to move at the end of the week.

Some of them will have lives started in the lower city, with family and such.

We don’t exactly have a lot of school capacity up here, so those with kids likely won’t want to move until they’re level 1. Perhaps not even then, though anyone with an assigned class is free to move about the city, so it wouldn’t change their work duties, no matter where they lived."

The man who had come for the fish chuckled. "After seeing the chaos up here today, I can see why you limit movement. This area is beautiful, but it’s not made for so many people, and even the damned weather can kill you."

Kalli winked at him. "The water wasn’t that deep, no danger of drowning if you just sat up."

The man shook his head. "That’s not the issue. You likely didn’t notice, since you’re powerful, but getting hit by loose debris from winds over a hundred kilometres an hour is bloody painful.

More than one person had to be rushed to the medics after taking a rock or folding chair to the head."

Kalli resisted the urge to laugh as the man was clearly serious. But her mind immediately went to the wrestling shows from her old home world. The folding chair to the head was a classic, but usually, it was not the wind doing the swinging.

Though, come to think of it, the next thunderstorm might have hail. The buildings here were tough enough to handle it, but she would probably have to use the new city barrier to protect the people if the hail was as dangerous as everything else they had faced in the trials.

Adjusting to the new world was not going to suddenly get easy, it seemed.

"Well, as long as we didn’t lose anyone. That’s our goal right now. Don’t lose any of our population, even if they’re bound and determined to do it to themselves."

The group laughed quietly. "You mean the level one dungeon, right? Turns out, as long as you have a weapon that doesn’t require hero status, you can actually do it pretty well. The healer might hate you, but you can do it.

The machetes don’t require anything, and they’re enough to fight off Rat Demons when you’ve got an area damage mage nearby.

An area damage anything, really. They don’t have the attack power to take even the newbies down in one hit, so it’s all up to teamwork. But it’s also giving them proper rewards, and they insist that they’re getting stronger from doing it.

So, I suspect that they’re going to keep at it, no matter how you try to tell them to stop.

Besides, we still need the resources out of the place, and if we can do it with just three heroes and seven loot carriers, that’s even better.

Most of us are planning to do at least two or three of the dungeons every day after work.

The Swineherd Demon for sure, since it’s giving out bacon. But also the Goblins or the Ogres. If we have the power, the Ogres are the obvious choice, as they’ll actually help us grow.

But for the newer guys who struggle with the Swineherd Demons and the boars, it’s usually the Goblins and the Rat Demons. It helps with the confidence, and it gives them loot that they can pass out to the aspiring sorts.

I know that most of them don’t want to say it, but asking you for gear when it’s not an emergency is embarrassing for them.

Sure, everyone else got it as a reward for reaching level one, but they all had to use it to save their own lives.

Many of the newbies would rather mooch gear from the veterans or grind for it in the dungeons."

Kalli nodded. "I can understand that. Nobody wants to feel like they are living on handouts."

The hive city residents in the room all nodded.

They were all planning to find a way to improve their growth rate, even if it meant catching a carry through dungeons with more powerful heroes.

They could pay, probably.

Mostly, they would be turning over their share of loot from the dungeon runs, and trying not to make things harder for the heroes helping them. But that was the best that they could do until they were a bit more powerful.

Marimgar culture allowed no slacking.

Then, a group came out of the Rat King Dungeon, which was visible through the windows of the Hall of Heroes, and Kalli did a quick head count.

Ten out of ten. Nobody dead, nobody limping particularly badly or missing arms.

That should be counted as a win for them.

Vinnie waved at her when he noticed the Coordinator watching him and his group, but continued working to keep the teams organized. Everyone could only go once a day, and the new people needed the protection.

So, he needed to balance the teams that would go with them.

Kalli wasn’t sure if it was altruism, or building a reputation, as his group was the latest to arrive in Marimgar, but it looked like they were doing well, and the supplies were beginning to really stack up in the wagon, ready to be sent to the warehouse and sorted for distribution.

They could, of course, keep it. But not many of them needed a thirty kilo bag of flour, or sugar.

Perhaps some of the restaurant owners.

But they could get it from the warehouse anyhow, so there wasn’t much motivation to hoard the bulk food from the dungeon, which was just a basic ingredient, not a magical food source, for the most part.

It was the gear drops that everyone was truly enthusiastic about.

Those and the cases of candy bars.