The next morning, everyone woke to the same message.

{Warning Heroes, the next Trial begins in 30 minutes.}

Kalli sighed as she went to the wall to see what was coming for them. The sky wasn’t changing, she couldn’t hear any monsters moving immediately outside the walls, so it had to be something.

For the first few minutes, Kalli didn’t see anything, then the timer hit zero, and Kalli sighed in resignation.

"Do you see that dust cloud coming our way?" She asked Sanchez, who was staring at the horizon with a cigarette hanging between his lips.

"Yeah, I see it. The towers say that it’s some sort of green skinned monster that isn’t goblins. He says they look like fish with legs."

{Trial Two Begins Now}

{Objective:} Survive 30 days

"Does this mean they’ll leave after thirty days?" Someone asked hopefully.

"No, it means we’ve got thirty days to get rid of them, or our survival chances drop to zero," Kalli whispered to Sanchez.

"I wouldn’t tell them that. They’ll figure it out in a couple of days."

They weren’t going to have to wait that long.

From out of the trees, a second force began to appear. The Swineherd Demons were back with their armoured boars, and they were bringing the animals to graze on the tubers at the edge of the forest.

{Kill Quest Issued} Maximum 10 members. Eliminate 4 Swineherd Demons. Hard Difficulty.

{Rescue Quest Issued} Maximum 10 members. Eliminate the armoured boars before the tuber supply is devastated. Minimum 4 kills per group. Hard Difficulty.

{Kill Quest Issued} Maximum 10 members. Stop the Flatfoot Hunters from reaching the Stoneshell Crab breeding grounds. Minimum 30 kills per group to claim reward. Easy Difficulty.

The heroes were gathered in the courtyard as Kalli updated her map.

"We have thirty minutes before the Flatfoot Hunters arrive. I suggest that the teams spread out between the crabs and where that dust cloud is coming from. Block them, keep them from reaching the crabs, and especially from reaching the beach.

The quest is to stop them, but every group that wants the reward needs a lot of kills, so we can deal with the Swineherd Demons later.

When the hunters get close, see if you can stop them entirely, but if not, you can lead them toward the Academy, so we can use it as terrain to funnel their movements.

It’s an easy mode quest, so they’re likely individually weak, but there are a lot of them."

"I think that I should take my team out to help with the hunters. We’ve all got rifles and plenty of ammunition. If they’re that weak, we should be fine, and the team needs the experience, in case it triggers an advancement.

Even if the System calls them level 1 Mercenaries instead of level 0, it might increase their stats, or give them a skill."

Kalli nodded. "I will take the wall with the Tinkers and Gerry."

Then she raised her voice to the group. "Everyone, remember to take a healer and a bard with your group, the missions today are large group assignments. The bard buffs are going to be important in this battle."

The teams rearranged, and Kalli called the Tinkers over.

"We will hold the wall with Gerry. Just the four of us inside the compound this time, everyone else will be headed out to collect kills and mission completions. The Special Forces team has a Level 0 designation, and they’re hoping they can push to level 1 and try to trigger an advancement."

"Alright. It’s not like we wanted to head outside anyhow. But do you have a cheap ranged weapon?"

Kalli laughed. "For the day, just grab one of the rifles from the towers if something gets close enough to be shooting at it. There is a spare that they leave against the wall. You can open the window and shoot out of the narrow opening, which will make you harder to hit.

If it’s bad, gather by me, and I will keep you supplied with ammunition."

"Will do. Do you think that they can actually clear out those things without the Pig Men charging at them?"

Kalli shrugged. "I don’t even know if they’re on the same team. For all I know, they might attack the Hunters. They’re very different species, and they’re in the same territory, even if they’re going after different targets."

The Tinker sighed. "If only there was more information about this world. But that reminds me, what did the apartment buy? Are they even going to be able to defend themselves if they’re attacked?"

"Yeah, they should be somewhat fine. They might not be considered heroes, but they bought some rifles and ammunition. If the little things try to invade, they can shoot them.

That might not work as well against the Swineherd Demons, but when we first saw them I managed to take some down, and I don’t have combat skills either, or the hero bonus from gear."

"You don’t get the bonus?"

"I’m the Coordinator, they’re the Heroes. It’s a small difference, but I’m not considered to be a Hero by the System in the most literal sense, since my job is not to go out and do hero things."

Jane laughed. "You’re probably the one best suited to the actual title of Hero, other than the Sergeant. Sanchez definitely has that heroic vibe going, and he looks out for the others like they’re his squad.

It looks like he’s gone out with the other soldiers today, no healers, no bard.

That could be rough."

Kalli shrugged. "They’ve got med kits, plus their own military gear. They’re used to fighting without magic, and the whole Academy will be relatively close together for the first part of the battle.

If things go wrong, they’ll have other heroes nearby to call a healer."

"Oh, you’re right. They’re not all alone, they’re making a defensive line so that they can block the advance without being too close to the Swineherd Demons. It looks like the Flatfoot Hunters are going to completely avoid the forest and come down along the edge of the hill to get to the beach.

They should run right into the line, and the presence of our people between them and the crabs is likely to enrage them."

Kalli nodded. "Just a few more minutes, and they’ll be in rifle range."