The crabs around the Academy turned out to be easier than expected to harvest.

Once they were distracted, it was relatively easy to land a skill on the vulnerable frontal section of their anatomy and kill them. But the carnage was attracting scavengers.

First, it was some sort of giant bird that dove toward the warriors, only to be driven off by a barrage of [Fireball] spells.

Then, the Swineherd Demons returned with a vengeance.

This batch appeared to be some sort of barbarian tribe, wearing leather pants and carrying clubs, but the sheer number of them was making the Academy residents concerned.

They were coming from every direction, and Kalli could see that the apartment building across the road was unlikely to weather this storm.

The pig men were smashing down buildings to make a larger clearing to fight in, and to make sure that there were no crabs hiding inside.

"Teams, get the apartment moved into the Academy walls! Tell them to pack up and grab everything before the pig men close in on their building."

It was not the sort of sturdy structure that would withstand the assault of these monsters, and there was no guarantee that the heroes from the Academy would be able to keep the building secure if they were pressed from multiple sides.

The people in the building were thinking the same thing, and they had already packed everything of value, including their food supplies and cooking tools.

When the sky turned dark and monsters started to appear, it was a sure sign that nothing good would happen to them.

As soon as the teams had secured a path from their door to the Academy gates, they rushed out in a somewhat organized group, dragging makeshift sleds full of supplies behind them, so they could keep what didn’t fit in the bags they had.

It was quick, orderly, and somewhat satisfying to watch, though Kalli knew that they were unlikely to be able to save the building.

However, with the number of monsters in the area, what was the point of trying to save other parts of the city?

They were going to struggle just to keep their own home safe today.

Kalli switched to a regular rifle to give her mana time to refill, and found that the agility training in the gym paid off in a big way. The rifle had a scope, and with her enhanced physical abilities, she could pick out targets in a split second, aiming shots into the eyes and heads of the pig men for extra damage.

With Uncommon Grade ammunition, a single shot to the head was often enough to kill or cripple the pig men, reducing the number that were making it to the defensive formation outside the walls.

While the Swineherd Demons were monsters, they were not dumb enough to continue the assault when they were taking casualties that heavy, and they began to retreat when they realized that a tenth of their number was already dead.

They could get crabs all over the shore, they didn’t need the ones that these strangers killed.

Their departure left the team some time to regroup and recover, while the healers and mages recovered their mana, and everyone returned to the compound to grab something to eat.

The quest wasn’t over, and that meant there would be more monsters coming.

However, there were also more changes coming.

Unlike the first change, which had seen nothing but the living plants from the other world, as few as they were, appear in Kalli’s reality, the entire landscape seemed to be changing this time.

The north side of the city, which had been mostly residential suburbs, began to collapse.

Only to be replaced by trees of a species Kalli had never seen before. They grew up through the rubble of the buildings that their appearance had shattered, and with them came a whole host of new monsters.

Then, in a cruel twist of fate, a massive evil temple appeared at the old dockyards. Or, that’s what it looked like to Kalli.

The building was huge and black, with tall minarets, and a gleaming golden dome over the central portion of the building.

The grounds outside of it were manicured, a carefully maintained hedge garden. Then, the ground around the temple seemed to collapse, and the hedge gardens filled with water, leaving the temple as an island at the centre of a watery labyrinth.

There was no movement visible from it, but it was the only building that they had seen so far which had come from the other world.

For that reason alone, its presence could not be ignored, but Kalli had no intentions of approaching.

It was kilometres away, visible in the distance, but not close enough to pose an imminent threat to their security. Until they saw something moving there, she would treat it as an abandoned position.

Perhaps it was what the monsters they had seen first had been fighting over?

"Situation report?" She called, knowing that the towers had radios to call the reports back to each other.

"All clear around the Academy. No signs of monsters inside the Academy or out. Nothing moving within five hundred metres. The collapse of the old city is still ongoing, and there are trees sprouting up everywhere.

Evidence suggests that the other world is winning the fight for dominance in this area, and we are currently located on the edge of a forest next to the ocean."

That was her impression as well.

They had managed to save the Academy, but nearly nothing else, except a few blocks of buildings around them, which mostly included apartment buildings and a few fully looted shops.

It wasn’t much, but at least the others hadn’t lost their home.

They might be more comfortable inside the Academy walls for now, but only time would tell if they were going to see more random monsters appear, or if the event had finished, and the monsters that they could see were the only ones that were going to suddenly appear in the area.

Then, the System finally gave them its verdict.

{First Trial Complete. Realm Merger Successful.}

{Results} 210 Heroes and 305 civilians have remained to settle the village of Marimgar.

{Completion Status} Below Average

{Prize Calculating} Uncommon Grade Academy Amenities bundle awarded.

{Trial Two will begin in 7 days}