Kalli examined the box in front of her, and then decided to open it.

She was too exhausted to reload her rifle, so the others would have to keep up the fighting for a few seconds.

{Uncommon Grade Mystery Box Opened}

{Amulet of Mana Regeneration} Recovers 1 mana every 3 seconds

{First Aid Kit} Common Grade x3

She smiled in exhausted satisfaction. The boxes really did know just what you needed. It might be a bit late for the first aid kits, but they were still needed immediately.

Kalli slid the amulet over her head, tucking the silver chain under her armour.

Immediately, mana flowed into her body, and Kalli began to feel better. Then, she tossed the first aid kits down to the teams on the ground, so they could mend the wounded.

Eventually, everyone had made it back inside the gates, and everyone with ranged skills had moved to the walls to attack from above, finishing off the Swineherd Demon pack to earn themselves a brief reprieve.

"Who is still outside the walls? Do we have a head count?" Kalli called.

"All teams are back in. We’re short six members, and we’ve got eight more who are going to be out long term." Niall called back to her.

He looked like he had been run through a blender. His armour was shredded, blood soaked every centimetre of him, but the student council were all present and accounted for.

Not in much better shape than their leader, Kalli noted.

"What happened? Come to me and get your rewards, it might be something that you need immediately."

Niall straightened his back and came over. Kalli patted him on the shoulder, completing the quest, and a glowing blue box appeared in front of him.

{Rare Grade Mystery Box} awarded

{Nightmare Mode Quest Completion} 10 System Points awarded.

Niall smiled faintly as he saw the message. But what Kalli saw on her end was much more extreme.

{6 / 20 Heroes dead during mission. Rewards reduced by 30 Percent.}

{Nightmare Mode Quest Completed} 210 System Points Awarded.

{100 Points deducted for issuance}

Kalli sighed as she realized that a failure could actually cost her points. She still had to pay per member for the quest, but if it was a disaster, the penalty for a poor completion could leave her with less than the issuance cost.

As it was, six lost members was a disaster by her estimation, and it left her with a net 110 Points per member, instead of 200.

However, this would be a big day for her, as fifteen hundred and some points would be more than enough for her to purchase an upgrade to one of her categories. The obvious choice was the weapon and armour tab. The others were basically good enough as they were, at least for a few days.

They weren’t in dire need of transport, the food supplies were sufficient at Common Grade, and the domestic supplies were the same.

Niall opened the box, and a pair of daggers dropped into his hands.

{Daggers of Bloodletting} Rare Grade. Deal 30 damage per strike, hits cause 1 bleed damage per second for 30 seconds on hit, to a maximum of 5 stacks.

Excellent weapons for a Rogue, and better than anything else that they had encountered.

The daggers did as much as a common grade longsword, or the Lasrifle that Kalli had purchased, and in the hands of a Rogue, they would strike with incredible speed.

The four ladies of the Student Council took his place, shaking Kalli’s hand to get their rewards.

{6 / 20 Heroes dead during mission. Rewards reduced by 30 Percent.}

{Nightmare Mode Quest Completed} 210 System Points Awarded.

{100 Points deducted for issuance}

The Rare Grade Mystery boxes were quickly opened, and Kalli got to see the benefit of Rare grade gear in real time.

{Light Composite Battle Armour} Rare Grade. 60 points of armour. Adds 10 Strength. Increased durability.

All four of the warriors got the same thing, and while Kalli could see that they were a bit disappointed that it wasn’t a weapon, that was nearly as good as the common grade heavy composite armour, and it also added strength and durability.

They moved out of the way, and Kalli helped the rest of the survivors from the rescue team complete the quest.

There was an assortment of equipment, mostly weapons that suited the class, and rings that granted increased strength or mana. Those seemed to be the most common drops from the box, but there were a few exceptions.

One set of the heavier composite armour dropped, with the same 10 strength, but 105 points of armour instead of 70.

So, rare was a 50 percent gain of armour over common. That was good to know.

Kalli looked at the options she had and decided to start with the obvious.

{Uncommon Grade Upgrade Box: Weapon} unlocks weapon options up to Uncommon Grade magical weapons.

Cost: 1000 System Points

{Points Deducted} Uncommon Grade items cost 2x the base price.

Where the option had been, there was a new option

[Rare Grade Upgrade Box: Weapon] unlocks weapon options up to Rare Grade magical weapons.

Cost: 5000 System Points

{Level Requirement Not Met}

Kalli scrolled through the options, and noted with relief that all the armour options were still in the weapons tab, and all available at Uncommon Grade. Now, she just needed to find out what else she had to do to stabilize the camp.

Morale was absolute trash after the death of six of their own, and she knew that it was not a good death for any of those who didn’t return to the Academy grounds.

But there were also eight who had severe injuries or crippled limbs that would take time to recover from, even with magic. She didn’t know if whole limbs would regrow with magic, but it was magic. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The rest of the members pushed forward, collecting their quest rewards for killing the Swineherd and Rat Demons. That granted Kalli a lot more points, as the Swineherds were a Hard Quest. But even the rewards weren’t enough to brighten the mood.

That left Kalli to deal with a bunch of traumatized middle school kids.

They were all thirteen or fourteen years old, not really "Children" anymore, but far from being adults. However, James had handled himself well during the fight, and he was the same age they were.

He was even out recovering arrows from the battlefield.