Reincarnated As The Heroes Guide

The Hall quickly filled with bug corpses as first the residents, and then some of the heroes, began to drag bodies in from the line.

The number of attackers had dwindled to nearly zero, and it was mostly a matter of cleanup now, with teams scouting for good corpses or any surviving bugs to drag back. With some of the larger ones having carried small attackers inside them, the fear was that something might have slipped past the defences of the buildings and gotten inside.

Kalli didn’t think so. They had swept the buildings, and didn’t see any signs of anything having gotten past them.

The teams who had gone to the main floor for the initial invasion were too large, and they had effectively repelled everything that came at them. But not without casualties.

They were up to nearly thirty residents lost during this wave, all from the battles inside the city.

A tragedy for the residents, but far better than it could have been, all things considered.

The insects hadn’t appeared indoors, or in the underground bunker. So, they were manageable when they did, and next time the residents would be even more heavily armed and ready for the attack.

Kalli saw that all the residents who got rifles carried them slung over their shoulders now.

It wasn’t a standard accessory, they had made it from cloth, rope and whatever else seemed to fit. Some were definitely made with a spare belt. But there was no need for Kalli to buy any, they could make nice ones with the tuber plant material, either braided rope webbing or simply layered cloth.

At ten in the morning, the heroes finally declared the field secure, and the influx of bug corpses increased to a steady double file line, where possible.

Everyone knew that some of them would not fit into the building for processing, but some of them had brought limbs or other likely looking portions from them.

Large armour plates that looked like they could repair a shuttle’s hull, five metre long chitinous limbs that could be made into weapons. Anything that the heroes thought might be useful made its way to the processor, and then to the linked warehouse.

The insects actually processed into many different products that Kalli hadn’t expected. Some of them made poisons, very little of the flesh was saved, most of the chitin was processed into bulk armour plating.

But some of the shelves in the warehouse had medicines on them.

The System had processed something in the bugs into antiviral and antibacterial medicines, and the quantity was becoming quite impressive as the heroes brought in more of the bugs that spat toxins.

Those seemed to be the ones that made the medicine, but the system also processed burn cream from some that spat corrosive stuff.

Normally, Kalli would have been highly suspicious of any medicine turned out in the middle of a battle without testing or research, but the System wouldn’t lead them astray. If it said that a product did something, then it would do it.

”How is the points collection coming, Coordinator? Do we have new features coming to the city?” Sanchez asked as he casually dragged an insect five times his own size into the room.

”I was thinking of a new wall. Larger, with additional defences and more turrets. Then the existing wall can be a secondary line. It should help cut down on the situation that we had today where the insects were simply large enough to get directly over our walls.”

The Sergeant nodded. ”I suspect that there might be some sentiment about it. Right now, the way that the wall is designed, the city looks open. So, when we’re not under attack, everyone feels free. But if we put a massive outer perimeter wall up, it’s going to both look and feel like a secure compound.”

Kalli nodded. ”I get that part. There are arks full of people already feeling trapped in the underground because we don’t have space, and it’s not safe for them to go anywhere else. So, if we put up a huge fortress wall, they’ll start feeling like prisoners.

The only thought is that I can make the inside a green space, with plant growth on the inside to hide the wall from residents to some degree.

It’s also more growing space for vines like grapes.”

”Oh, that would be wonderful. If we could get a proper winery in the city, the residents would love it. That’s one thing that we don’t have in abundance in the greenhouses. There are grapes, but on a level for casual eating, not for turning into juice for wine.

If they covered the whole inner wall, we would get so many grapes that we would be drowning in wine.

I suspect that nobody would complain.”

”You’re almost certainly right. Once noon hits and we find out if it’s going to steal all the unclaimed corpses, I will put up the walls. They’ll be a bit more brutal than anything else, electrified razor wire and such. But if it helps keep the enemy out, it’s worth it.”

”Then we will hurry to get as many of them processed as we can. Every corpse is more resources, I’m assuming.”

Kalli chuckled, knowing that none of the heroes could see the warehouse inventory, only that they were getting rewarded for bringing in the corpses. They needed the points, both for supplies, skills, and in case of death.

Trying to get everything you needed while still having a hundred point buffer was the goal that most of the heroes were aiming for at this point.

It seemed a bit wasteful to Kalli, keeping limited points that could be spent on skills to make themselves stronger. But she wasn’t really in any position to speak. Not when she had a massive reserve of points that could be spent to improve the city.

She was going to spend a lot of them again, but from her calculations, she was going to have to make a highly impressive wall just to bring herself back beneath the points cap.