Chapter 49: Monster Distribution Maps
Sanchez helped Kalli to her feet, and the trio headed for the dining hall, though only Kalli hadn’t eaten yet.
The others were more interested in the gossip about who needed to work the hardest on the next runs so they could advance, who was struggling with their class, or other issues, and who among the new arrivals had hidden powers that nobody else expected.
There were a few like that. Many called them "Rare Classes", but mostly they were just ones with very powerful starting skills.
Like the druid that could transform into a bear.
And it wasn’t just a regular bear, its eyes glowed red, and it had way more attack power than anyone expected. He had shown his power in the tunnels today, and the group was extremely impressed.
The bear form was tough, durable enough that the rat demons struggled to even get their claws through its hide, and far stronger than any human warrior.
Much to their dismay.
The bear also fully healed, and his claws didn’t dull with use like regular weapons did.
In short, he held advantages in every area, except that he was being directly hit by every attack, and that was painful. That didn’t stop him from being everyone’s favourite tank, though.
The other standouts were Amber, the Saint Class healer, and Sergeant Sanchez, with his new energy rifle, and the backup submachine gun that always seemed to have just enough ammunition.
Amber’s personality still didn’t mesh well with most. But it suited her class name, and her skills were the real deal, so the others were willing to overlook some of the insufferable arrogance.
As a person, she was still not the most popular.
But as a healer, she was in demand. It was enough that she actually had people at her table, listening to her strategy for the next day’s dungeon that was designed to minimize the amount of damage that they were taking.
She had taken it upon herself to make detailed notes, and the moment that she saw Kalli, she sent one of the warriors over with a stack of papers.
"Amber made these dungeon notes for you to compile into your guide.
She says that the warriors aren’t going to be able to give a good enough overview, since they’re right up front and can’t see much, but I made a few pages from a Mage’s point of view as well."
Kalli nodded. "Every class’ insights are valuable so that we can include everyone’s best strategies and tips into the guide.
For those of you who are doing it all the time, it might not mean as much. But if we get more people here, and I hope that we can, it will be huge, and it might even save lives."
Then she had a thought. "Are the Student Council members from class 4A? I remember that their class was breached, and they fought it off during the first day. They might have more members of their class that are skilled fighters?"
The mage shook his head. "No, they’re in a special class. 4S is the Student Council classroom, no matter what year you’re actually in.
But that means there are students out there somewhere that managed to fight off the first wave, before there were any reward boxes. That is impressive. I will have someone look into it so that we can try to find where they went."
"Perfect. The more students we can find, the better. I just wish that the find shelter quest had been more specific, we might have managed to keep hundreds of students here from day one, instead of two dozen."
Sanchez patted Kalli on the shoulder. "Don’t worry too much about it. If we had more people here, the Commander would have tried harder to remain, and who knows what sort of idiocy he would have come up with.
My team has been doing pretty well here with you, and I suspect that they are actually improving their skills every day.
We did our evening exercises today, and nobody was sweating as hard.
I think that while they aren’t officially heroes, whatever changed is also allowing them to get more powerful."
"Oh, that would be wonderful. The hero designation might come with advantages, but if everyone else can train their way to survival level skills, we might still have a fighting chance."
Another student came over with a hastily copied page from a notebook.
"If you’re making a guide for us, here is my contribution. We’ve been trying to find a more effective way of clearing the dungeon already. But we’ve noticed that the power level doesn’t scale with the team, it’s always the same.
Our mage and rogue both have Uncommon Grade weapons, and the mage got an accessory for spell damage, so we’re really rolling through it now."
Kalli nodded. "It’s listed for me as a level one event. So, it has been power balanced at level one, and some of our members are reaching level three now, likely pushing toward level four. I have noticed that it was much easier to reach level two than level three, though.
So maybe they’re not close to level four yet. But still.
The more powerful you get, the more we’re going to have to venture out from the Academy. And that means, we need to clear the area around the Academy completely so that you’re not delayed on your way."
"You think that we’re in an easier spot than most of the city?"
"I don’t know about most, but there were some rather nasty looking creatures during the early outbreak, when I was looking out over the city from the walls.
Even now, if we search from the towers in the day, we can spot a number of nasty things down the hill. So, there are likely harder spots near us as well. We just got relatively lucky with a spot that was overrun with rat demons."
Or perhaps the System was deliberately giving them a chance.
