The days between trials positively flew by as Kalli consolidated notes, and found that the world around them had very little left of the world that it had been.

The first two blocks of underground tunnels were still intact, but everything after that was replaced with solid stone. The basements of the ruined buildings were gone, and the alien plants were quickly replacing the native flora.

Or perhaps they were the invaders?

The majority of this world certainly seemed to be leaning in favour of the monsters and their world.

The only sign that they were making any progress was in the stockpile of crab meat and tubers that Kalli had collected in her [Storage Realm]. Neither of them seemed to be losing any population due to their efforts, either.

For the tubers, that was deliberate, as they were leaving a root for the plants to regrow from, and they had already visibly done that.

Even in five days, the tuber plants had grown nearly back to full size again.

They were so prolific that the apartment dwellers had even replanted some closer to the building. It was too close to get the mission rewards, but if they were attacked again, these should still be close enough to harvest, and not so close as to draw monsters directly to them.

There was only one morning left until the next trial started, according to Kalli’s timer, and the students had made incredible progress.

The Gym Mission had been giving them all points for a week, and while Kalli was still stuck at level three, she had managed to add seven points to all three of her stats in that time. Combined with her earlier efforts, she was certain that her stats were at least twice what a baseline human could hope to accomplish, and she was beginning to feel a bit like an actual superhuman.

Now, even the max speed and incline setting on the treadmill was barely enough to keep her from completing her ninety minutes of training with weights added, she had the incline lowered just a bit to keep the exertion under control.

But the weight that she carried to do the run was far more than her own body weight.

The warriors had it even worse. Only so many weights fit on the bars, and some of them had reached that point, and they were looking for higher exertion exercises to keep increasing their strength and stamina at the peak rates.

Nobody would have guessed a few weeks ago that the state of the art gym facilities in the Academy wouldn’t be enough to actually train the students.

But there was one other thing that they were shocked by.

The lack of durability of their old clothes.

Sure, many had outgrown their uniforms, that was no shock with the muscle mass that they were putting on. But their increased speed tore the stitching on regular shoes, cotton shirts tore like rice paper, and most had given up entirely on wearing anything that wasn’t from a dungeon drop or from Kalli’s store.

And that brought them to today’s final preparation.

"If you don’t already have some form of composite armour or better gear, I suggest you buy it now.

If you do not have an Uncommon grade weapon, I suggest that you buy it now.

If you are short on any of your daily supplies, I suggest that you buy them now.

This is your last chance to freely spend points, so get the skills you can afford, the gear you need, and prepare for tomorrow," she announced in the middle of the yard as everyone prepared to leave for the morning.

"Got it, Boss!" the group called back.

A line formed in front of Kalli, and she quickly discovered that most of what people wanted was either the {Light Composite Bodysuit} or a spare weapon at Uncommon Grade. The mages were reluctantly buying the armour, with the hopes that they would get more points soon to buy the higher grade spells.

But the warriors were more worried that their primary weapons would break in the middle of a battle.

It was a shame that Kalli didn’t have anything that would help recover health or mana. She wasn’t that kind of store. But the tuber soup that had become a staple side dish helped everyone recover at a rapid pace, so it was working as their substitute.

It felt odd for them at first. Stopping after a hard push in the dungeon for a bowl of soup. But not long after, they had pilfered the Academy storage for thermos bottles, and started taking it along with them on every run.

Now, Gerry just kept a pot on all the time, as the concoction was much better when hot.

When it was cold, it was a bit like a melted milkshake, but a bit too vegetable and not enough ice cream to drink it like one.

There were new herbs added to it as well, both for flavour and for effect. However, the effect was mostly just an increase in natural regeneration. Give the group a few minutes to catch their breath, and they would be good to go again.

"Does anyone still need anything? I know that the Tinkers have been working overtime trying to catch up on all the damaged gear. But if you’ve got heavy damages that came in recently, consider making sure you have a spare item."

Reggie laughed. "Don’t worry too much, we’ve been easy on the gear the last few days. All that’s left is a lot of small repairs to get everything good to go for tomorrow."

The heroes were taking things in stride, and after nearly a week of harvesting, they had a good routine going on. But Kalli noticed that they were not slacking, as they all wanted their gear to be in perfect condition when the timer ran out, and they had to actually fight again.

Everyone got back early, giving themselves a whole afternoon to prepare, in case things started to change early.

It was always better to be safe than sorry.