Chapter 279: Cool Chickens

As it turned out, Kalli was worried about the wrong things.

When she got back to the Hall of Heroes, the smoke from the forest fire was so thick that you couldn’t see the second building away from you, and the breeze was nonexistent. Now, for the solar storm issue, that was a blessing in a way, as the smoke haze blocked most of the light.

But it made it awfully hard to breathe outside.

The buildings had filtered air movement inside them, so it would be tolerable at the very least, but outside was a nightmare.

The chickens, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem.

As soon as Kalli came near the coop, they came running, looking for treats, and clearing a space by the door so that she could come inside. Naturally, she did. Kalli wanted to check on the eggs, and recover them before they were soft-boiled.

But inside the shelter of the chicken coop, the temperature was completely comfortable, the air was clean, and the chickens were relaxing placidly as they watched the outside world disappear behind the haze.

There had to be magic at work here.

The building had vent fans, and lights. But it was just a chicken coop.

Clearly, the chickens had far more powers than they let on, and they looked quite proud of themselves. The power was out, the rest of the city was choking on smoke, but the chickens had kept the home that Kalli made for them at exactly the condition that they preferred it.

After the floods, they even had all fresh bedding, and a clean floor.

Well, a relatively clean floor.

Kalli brought out a bag full of feed, mixed with a few crushed nutrient bars, and poured it into the feeding troughs of the chicken coop, then patted a particularly friendly one on the head.

Chickens were underrated.

She had heard the full description of what happened when the others tried to slaughter them, and that was amusing enough on its own. But these chickens were three times the size of the others, and as they could clearly use more magic than just iron feathers, they would definitely be a formidable force if threatened.

Or perhaps each of them had different powers?

They weren’t all the same colour, and they came from a dungeon. So, there was a chance that they might actually have different elemental affinities. There was nothing that said they all had to have the same powers, and the humans of Marimgar had only just discovered that they had any at all.

Perhaps they came with maturity?

Though, now that they were getting so large, it almost felt like she was an ostrich farmer. They were still shaped more like chickens, but they were definitely getting to ostrich sized.

Maybe she could train one as a mount?

Riding around town on a giant chicken would definitely make people remember you.

Now that she was sure that her birds would be fine, no matter what else happened in the city, Kalli returned to the Hall of Heroes, through the blinding haze of smoke, so she could check on the electromagnetic radiation and lingering static electricity levels.

If those were fine, she would start the process to reset all the city’s power supplies.

But report after report said the same thing.

The solar storm hadn’t gotten any less intense, they just couldn’t see it from here. They were being protected from the worst of the sunlight by the aftereffects of the storm, but the temperatures around the city were rising, and the electrical charge on everything in the city was still too high to bring most of the power back online.

However, she could work with some of it.

All the lines were underground, so she didn’t have to worry about arcing, which was a benefit. She just had to find a way to get the breakers back online without them immediately tripping again, or blowing out sensitive electronics.

Perhaps the answer wasn’t technology, but magic?

The last trial had given them a {City Shield} that she had placed but never used. It was time to check the status on that reward.

{City Shield} covers the walled portion of the city of Marimgar. Requires 1 mana for every 10 damage sustained, or it will become inactive until fully recharged.

{Current charge}: 0/10,000

Kalli sighed, and realized that she couldn’t even send out a mass message with the power out.

But she decided to give it what she had anyhow, and hope that the others figured it out on their own. If they started putting mana into the shield without her prompting them, then it should stay online without any trouble.

At least, she assumed that smoke wouldn’t cause any actual damage to the barrier, and that it would stop the smoke as a hazard.

{Current Charge} 200/10,000

Kalli sighed as she topped up the barrier with her entire mana pool, then remembered that at the start, when she first got the laser rifle, she barely had 30. So, she was making progress, but compared to what the city shield could sustain, it was nothing.

The barrier went up, staring at the Hall of Heroes, and the smoky haze was forced away from the city, revealing a shimmering golden light that crackled with radiation.

{Current Charge} 150

{Current Charge} 100

Crap.

Then, the mages and others in the city realized what was happening, and began to put their own mana pools into the barrier, quickly bringing it to a more sustainable level.

{Current Charge} 5100/10,000

Now, they had a few minutes to relax, but it seemed that the solar radiation was enough that they were going to take damage to the barrier constantly for the next few days.

On the other hand, all the static electricity seemed to be gone from the electrical grid, and every sensor was showing her perfect readiness, allowing Kalli to bring the whole city back online, as if nothing had ever happened.

Then, she sent a message out.

{If anyone has mana to spare, please keep the barrier filled and active. It is protecting against both the smoke and the radiation.}

People would find it soon.