The students all dispersed, while Kalli sat alone at a table and listened to them making plans for what they were hoping to get from the loot box, and what they could trade amongst themselves.

It mostly gave them things that they needed, but that didn’t mean it was their highest priority item.

Especially now that they realized there were better options for sale.

Only when Kalli was getting up to leave did someone notice that there was something other than a uniform under her robes.

"Wait... that tight black sleeve. You have one of the composite armour suits too, don’t you?" Reggie asked.

"A light version, it’s cheaper, and I didn’t want to burn all my points," Kalli agreed, then lifted her sleeve to show the light armour plating over the suit.

"Oh, that is nice. How much is it? Ten is expensive, but if the light armour is a better value, I think that lots of our other students will want it. Can the mages use it? They can’t cast spells properly in heavy metal armour."

Kalli shrugged and brought up the listing.

"Five points, everyone can use it, except classes that can only use natural armour? There is such a restriction? Must be a specialty thing."

Now, the mages and rangers were interested.

"Well, if it’s just the same battle suit with lighter armour plating, it’s perfect. It will also keep filth off. You have no idea how gross some of the streets are getting these days," one of the mages announced.

A few of the students chuckled at his aversion, but he wasn’t wrong.

With the fires, the rat demons, and the destruction, everything was either covered in ash or debris. It was almost to the point that you had to be careful what you touched so you didn’t accidentally contaminate yourself with some sort of alien disease.

But worse, the fires in the city were filling the air with ash and soot, and Kalli knew that soon they were going to have to start wearing masks of some sort for safety.

The air quality was already terrible, and the continuing fires were not making it any better.

While she waited, Kalli began searching her options for masks.

The buildings had filtration systems, so that wasn’t a big issue, other than cleaning the filters regularly. But if they were going to be out in the city, with air quality that was quickly becoming something like walking through an ashy fog bank, they weren’t going to last long.

The System did have quite a few options for her, though.

From cases of paper masks for construction work, gas masks, cloth masks, even decorative ones that would serve the purpose while looking more like a carnival costume.

Then, she found that there were actually options in the armour section of the store.

Solid composite masks that went with the battle armour suits, and had a solid faceplate with a retractable visor. There was nothing special about it, the system just called it an acrylic safety shield, but with a hood, it should keep dust out of the eyes when you didn’t have goggles on.

Those were available by the case, for some strange reason. Who needed an entire case of polarized goggles?

Other than her, apparently.

They were only one point a case, so Kalli grabbed one and tossed it into her Storage Realm, then purchased an armoured mask, which cost an entire System Point, plus a whole case of cotton bandanas, which came in multiple colours and would work well enough to keep ash out.

She would purchase gas masks later, or better filtration masks. They were expensive, so if people weren’t eager to wear them, she wouldn’t spend her Points in advance.

Kalli was just getting comfortable at the desk in her room when a sudden System Notification stopped everything that she had been planning to do. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

{Notice} The first Hero has reached level 3. Any heroes that have not reached level 2 within 7 days will be stripped of their position.

The notification flashed in front of Kalli’s eyes, as well as in the view of everyone else.

This was not good.

Not for Kalli personally, she had already reached level 2. But there were many members of the Academy that had been doing the bare minimum, or who hadn’t even been found and brought back yet.

And who knew if those heroes would reach level 2 in time?

"[System, is there a way to find out who reached level 3 first?]" Kalli directed the thought to the interface notice in front of her.

{Hero Carlos Sanchez has reached level 3 upon completion of the Rat King Dungeon. Hero Yara Rossi has reached level 3 upon completion of the Rat King Dungeon.}

So, it was two at the same time, advancing from the reward of the dungeon.

Kalli set aside her work, then reconsidered and put the notepad and pen into the inner pocket of her robes. She was likely going to need that soon. But first, she had to find out what the reward for the dungeon was, other than experience to help them level up.

The group was standing at the entrance to the dungeon, surrounded by students, when Kalli arrived.

"Quick, open a path so we can get our reward!" Yara called, with a gesture for the crowd, to let Kalli through.

"Congratulations heroes, on the first clear of the Rat King Dungeon," Kalli joked, then noticed that the System gave her experience for the one-liner.

Whoever made this system had an odd sense of humour.

Yara laughed, and Kalli shook her hand, wondering what the reward was.

{First Clear Bonus Awarded} 5000xp granted. 1 bonus System Point Awarded.

The other members of the team cheered, and rushed out to shake Kalli’s hand so they could also get their rewards.

"Now, if only we could do this more often. The dungeon has a 24-hour timer on it, we can’t enter again until tomorrow. We all saw that notice after we completed the dungeon, and now everyone wants to increase their levels.

But more importantly, we got loot!

The boss dropped an uncommon grade shield. It’s like the Common Grade one in basic stats, but it grants bonus strength and a bit more armour."

"Was there more? Or just one item between everyone?"

Yara shook her head. "There were five items in total, and a bunch of stuff that we managed to take. You see, part of the dungeon is the basement of the warehouse over that way. It used to be a food supply company.

While everything in it in the real world has either been looted or corrupted, there are still some cases of supplies in the basement which became part of the dungeon.

I don’t know if we can grab them every time that we go, but I got a case of yeast, and a big bag of flour. The system sorts out what can be taken as supplies and what is just part of the dungeon, it’s actually pretty cool."

That was going to be a huge relief on their supply situation. If they could pull a bit of extra food out of the dungeon every run, they soon wouldn’t have to worry about keeping the people fed.

At least, as long as there were armoured boars in the area.