The next few days were a flurry of training and missions, with the teams ranging out further every day to try to find more students that might have been missed.

They had everyone’s addresses, so if there were people in the building, there was a chance that the student would be there protecting them. Whether that was willingly or not was another matter, but they didn’t find any signs of students being kept captive.

There were hints that some had died in the chaos of the days after the incident started, but nothing to indicate that there were any who were still in hiding.

From what they could tell, the rest of the Academy had been rounded up by various army units and taken out to sea.

With reports from the students who were near the docks all confirming that at least a thousand people in student uniforms were taken away, the math seemed to favour the notion that a few hundred was all they were likely to find, unless there were a large number of additional elementary and middle school kids still alive.

"You know," Reggie began, "If the System had picked Honey Crown Vocational, the city might have had a lot more heroes left in it. It’s not like they would have had anywhere else to go."

Yara rolled her eyes at the warrior, "And how many of them could actually be called heroes? The place is a juvenile detention centre posing as an orphanage and boarding school. Most of the kids locked up there were thieves, addicts and murderers before they were teenagers."

"But they would have had weapons and much less fear of using them."

Kalli laughed at their bickering. If you gave these powers to a bunch of kids from the slums, the odds of them coming into the city to rescue anyone they didn’t already know were somewhere between zero and "What did you expect?"

And she couldn’t blame them.

It wasn’t like the students of Marimgar Academy had put effort in to save much of anyone but themselves, and that was only because they wanted more of their own students to return.

It simply wasn’t worth the risk to start inviting a whole bunch of strangers into your bunker during a disaster.

"Why don’t we gather a few more groups of survivors near the Academy? The closer they are, the better the chances of survival, I would assume.

Unless whatever comes next is coming for us in particular."

"Dammit, why did you have to say that? I was already thinking it. The next event is supposed to wipe out the powers of all the heroes that haven’t reached level two, right? So, it’s definitely coming after us.

How much time do we even have left?

Are there still people who need gear? Have we stockpiled bandages and medicine?"

"Everyone except the very newest arrivals have at least basic gear with one Uncommon piece. I think that we’re pretty well supplied. All that’s left is to see if anyone wants to relocate in the last few hours before the timer expires."

Reggie and Yara both frowned. "How much time is on the timer? We can’t see it, so we were expecting some sort of gradual change or invasion."

"Four hours and eight minutes."

"You should have said something earlier. There are still teams outside," Yara reminded her.

"They need the last run. Those last few points might be enough to get them a new skill, or a piece of gear that will round out their set. They all left early, so they should be headed back by now.

Let’s just get everyone fed, make sure they hit the gym for their last gains if they haven’t already done it this morning, and then get them showered and prepared for whatever happens after the timer runs out."

Kalli didn’t get to take her own advice, but she had already hit the gym that morning before breakfast.

The teams were all coming back for the afternoon, as they hadn’t found anything to bring back. There weren’t even any more groups of survivors in the area that they could reach in an hour of walking through the city.

They had at least given a cursory check to the buildings, in case there were civilians inside who could use protection.

But there was nothing.

It was like the whole city had vanished. There was no blood or gore to indicate that the buildings had been cleared out by the monsters, and now they were alone as an island of life with the apartment building next door. And Esmeralda. You couldn’t forget about the Necromancer.

While she was extremely competent, Kalli wasn’t sure that the necromancer was going to be able to survive whatever came next without help.

With two hours left on the timer, the familiar black robed form appeared at the end of the street, headed toward the Academy. Most likely, Esmeralda had quests to turn in before the time ran out. But this time Kalli noticed that she had brought her undead army with her.

Dozens of waist-high skeletons and ten zombie pig men with rotting flesh.

She brought them right up to the gates with her, where Kalli was waiting with her best polite smile.

"Esmeralda, I take it that you’ve got quests? Or did you see that the timer is almost up before the next event?"

The Necromancer nodded. "It gave me a warning that I was too far from the Coordinator. So here I am, with my army and all my supplies loaded into backpacks."

That was the point when Kalli noticed the tabby cat sitting on the girl’s shoulder.

She really had brought everything.

"Alright, come on in. If it works for you, you can have the undead rest off to the side there. Nobody uses it, so they won’t be in the way, but they’ll be between the wall and your dorm."

"You think of everything."

"I’m in the same dorm that you are."

That made Esmeralda smile a little, and she sent the army through the gates to wait by the wall. It seemed like the best spot, if something attacked from the outside, and they could rush to the dorms if the invasion appeared inside the walls again.

"Well, if you got the notice just now, there might be others coming this way. I will wait for them so that they can check in and get settled. There is food on in the cafeteria, and they’ve got boar jerky snacks that your cat might like."

"Thanks. I will come back shortly."