As the sun came up, Kalli saw the pig men getting more aggressive, and then she saw a fireball explode in the distance. Not a natural gas explosion, a magical fireball.

Quickly, she made the decision to issue a Quest. They needed more people.

{Emergency Quest Issued. 15-minute timer.} Rescue the besieged heroes before their position is overrun. Eliminating all Swineherd Demons before the timer expires will also successfully complete the mission. Maximum 20 members. Nightmare Difficulty.

{System Points Deducted}

Kalli winced as the quest was deemed to be Nightmare Difficulty, and a hundred points were removed from her balance, but the quest confirmed that there were multiple students alive at that location.

And the students were already moving.

"Kalli, can you front me some armour? I’ll pay for it when I get back, I’m only a couple of points short!" One of the warriors called.

With a sigh, Kalli nodded. "I will record that. Remember, it’s coming out of my pocket, so I’m not going to let it slide."

The warrior nodded, and she saw that he was carrying a shield and long sword, so a tank type, who would need heavy armour.

Another ten points gone.

"Kalli, I need the light suit!"

"Me too!"

"Quick, we’ve gotta grab and go."

Kalli handed out five sets of {Light Composite Battle Armour} in rapid succession, and then the students were off and running, with Sanchez in the lead. He had the quest target up in front of him, and a map in his hand as he ran, planning the approach down the widest roads.

That should cut down on ambushes, but it was still going to be tough to get there in fifteen minutes.

The students calculated the number who had gone, and realized that while they had twenty volunteers, they had only sent Yara as a healer. They also had precisely one mage.

The others had been too slow, and couldn’t keep up with the Sergeant’s running pace.

So, the group was almost all warriors and Rogues who had strength and agility bonuses. Hopefully, that would be enough to get the job done.

"The other quests are still active, if you want to go out and look for other students or kill rat demons. Oh, look. There is one for Swineherd Demons as well."

{Quest Activated} Hard Difficulty.

{Kill Quest} Maximum 5 members. Eliminate 2 Swineherd Demons. Hard Difficulty.

What the quest didn’t mention was that almost all those demons would have armoured boars with them that would also attack the heroes.

The students would take it. It was a hard mode mission, which meant more points for them.

With the seven-day timer before the level one heroes were stripped of their status coming up fast, everyone was eager to see just how many points they could amass. If they could get another skill or two, and an armour suit, they would be overjoyed.

Just getting through the early days was an accomplishment, and it looked like even other groups of students weren’t going to do as well at it as they had.

"Alright, let’s group up and follow them. They can get the mission for the rescue, but we can get the rat demons and some more of the whatever they called the other thing," Bert suggested.

"With a name like Swineherd Demons, we might need you out front for sure," Amber joked.

But Kalli saw that she was preparing to head out as well.

After a few minutes, Gerry came outside with a cart. It was loaded with sandwiches, the same pork sandwiches as last night, stacked high, so everyone could grab breakfast to go.

"There is more in the cafeteria for those not heading out. I didn’t want anyone leaving hungry."

He actually got experience for everyone that he fed, and he didn’t want to miss out on feeding even more people at breakfast. But that was beside the point. Everyone needed to eat to keep their energy up.

"You’re a good man, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. See you at lunch," Bert informed him in a serious voice as he grabbed two sandwiches and prepared to lead his team out the gate.

Three more teams followed after them, leaving only a handful of students in the Academy courtyard.

There should be more here somewhere, but they were either sleeping or they had gone to the dungeon early. Kalli also didn’t see Beth or Jane, the tinkers who did the gear repairs, so they might be eating or already at work.

With everyone out for the morning, Kalli headed for the cafeteria and grabbed breakfast, pancakes and ham slices. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Then realized there were no condiments.

"The Academy apparently didn’t stock any syrup except what was in the cafeteria, and the army took it when they left." Gerry explained.

"Well, I will see if I can fix that."

Kalli searched the food supplies, and found that there was no pancake syrup. But there was honey.

Lots of honey.

{5kg container of churned honey} 1 Point

She purchased it and scooped a spoonful onto her food, then gestured to the tub. "You can have that for the kitchen. Use it for what you need. Even if you have to water it down to make syrup for the dining hall, I don’t think anyone would complain."

"Thank you. I was going to make a simple sugar syrup, but honey will be so much better, and we can do honey glazed pork tonight.

We might not have much variety in the diet, but I’m doing what I can until we find a source of fresh vegetables other than the garden, which won’t be ready for another month."

"We will work something out. If worse comes to worst, we will pressure the teams to donate points to purchase vegetables to broaden their diet.

But somehow, I suspect that it might be a challenge to get some of the teams to do it. If you fed them nothing but chicken tenders and fries, half these guys would be happy."

Gerry winked at her. "This is a high-class academy. Breaded cordon bleu filets with golden crisped potato wedges."