Chapter 50: The Dungeon Has Food
Kalli watched as more pork sandwiches were brought out, even though the dinner service was about to end.
"Are we not short on wheat?" She asked.
"Not anymore. Bags of flour are among the more common drops in the rat king dungeon. Nearly every trip brings one back. Yeast is less common, but Gerry says that he doesn’t need much because he’s making sourdough.
Salt also comes out sometimes, so we’ve got the basics for making sandwiches.
The boars are getting hard to find, though.
You should have a lot of them stored now, right?"
Kalli nodded. The teams had been turning them in for storage, and she had quite a few entries in her notepad about them. She also had entire shelves dedicated to nothing but hanging sides of pork.
Kalli slept early before heading to the wall for her overnight watch. The Sergeant was just finishing his watch, and Kalli noticed that he had stowed his new laser rifle in favour of his army issued rifle.
"Didn’t want the rat demons to see you shooting in the dark?" She asked.
"Exactly. Plus, I have a magazine that can give me a free reload. It’s got a one-hour cooldown, but it’s a good start to any battle."
Kalli nodded. "Good point. Anything new out there?"
"Yeah, not close, but I’m seeing new monsters in the distance. They look like some sort of pig men, and they’re trying to herd the boars away, while the rat demons keep attacking them.
The rats don’t attack the boars that I can see, so I think both sides want to keep them as food."
"Alright, I will keep an eye open for them. If there is anything else, I will let you know in the morning. Where is our extra, anyhow?"
"Running a minute late. I can see him struggling into his coat as he stumbles across the lawn," the student who was on duty with Sanchez joked.
Sure enough, the mage who was joining Kalli on night watch was panting and sweating with exertion by the time that he made it up the stairs.
"I have good news and bad news. Good news, that’s the furthest I’ve ever been able to run. The training is really paying off."
"And the bad news?"
"I didn’t bring any water and I think I’m going to pass out."
Kalli laughed, and handed him a water bottle she had refilled from the Academy’s drinking water supply, the water dispensers with built-in filters that were connected to the Academy’s wells.
"You are a lifesaver. But on that note, can I get one of those light composite armour sets? With the two quest points from today, I’ve got five again."
Kalli laughed and nodded in agreement. "What colour would you like? White, black, blue or red?"
"Black. It looks like everyone does black to hide better in the dungeon."
Kalli handed over the armour, and the mage did a little spin as he held it up. Then promptly sat down, still dizzy from the exertion.
"Ooh, the armour can just be changed into, no need to put in all the work to try to get into a skintight outfit. That’s a definite bonus. Now, we match."
The mage put his robes back over his armour suit, and while he was wearing dark grey robes in a different style than what Kalli got from the System, the overall effect was similar.
The student from the early shift returned to their dorm, while Sanchez settled into the cot in the tower.
Kalli settled into a chair looking out the tall window in the tower, which she assumed had originally been designed for archers.
It was less than shoulder width wide, and nearly as tall as she was. There were a half dozen of them around the tower, currently filled with tinted glass. But that was a recent renovation, she could tell. The design of the tower said that they were intended to be open, as this room as designed as an outdoor space, with bare stone everything.
"You know, it’s oddly reassuring to be wearing this armour with the robes. I feel very magical in the robes, but nothing says security quite like composite battle plate."
"I hear that. I love these robes, but I’d much rather just wear the bodysuit most of the time, if it wasn’t quite so form fitting."
The mage chuckled and shrugged. "I think that in time everyone will get used to it. Tomorrow most of the group should be back up to five points, and with all the supplies that we’re pulling out of the dungeon, at least a few people are going to be considering armour instead of another skill.
Then, they should have just enough time to prep five more points for either a good weapon or another skill right before the timer runs out.
Two points a day, one for rat demons, one for the dungeon. That’s enough for everyone to get close to three options before the timer runs out."
Kalli nodded. "There might be different options in the future. Those pig men are starting to appear in more areas around the Academy, and I don’t know where they’re pushing in from.
But if we’re going to hunt for more Academy survivors, we’re going to need to do something about them."
"You know, we have drones in the lab. They’re the sort that are operated remotely with a controller and a computer, so you can view your surroundings through a VR headset or monitor.
That would give us the ability to scout, if the drone doesn’t get destroyed by whatever is out there."
"Not a bad idea. We might have to get someone to scout with one tomorrow. Then we can add it to the map. I’ve been keeping a threat map updated every day, based on the reports of the watch.
Those pig men are definitely going on the threat assessment, whether we get a quest for them or not."
As Kalli spoke, she watched the pig men moving all over the horizon. Using the scope of the spare rifle, she managed to find no fewer than fifty of them, mostly moving in pairs.
