Kalli nodded. "Well, you did better than we did. We didn’t understand the point of the mission, and we only saved a few hundred civilians. But we’ve got two hundred and some heroes here at Marimgar Academy, and System Quests for food, plus a Dungeon."

"I know all those words."

Kalli chuckled at the sarcastic hero. "It’s a completed quest that we can enter through a portal to kill monsters and collect loot. It’s only level one, so even if you have to borrow spare gear and pants, you can likely still do it with a team."

The dark-haired man looked down at himself and shrugged, then equipped a pair of leather pants, a chain vest and a short sword.

"I had spare gear in my pack."

Kalli sighed in relief. "So, you only lose what you were wearing at the time of death. That’s good news. At least you’re not starting with nothing."

"But I’m level three again. I worked so hard to hit level four."

Kalli shrugged. "Level three is pretty good. None of our heroes have hit level five yet that I know of. Some of them are getting close, though. They might have it after today’s missions."

Another man appeared in the pod, then another, and another.

The healer had tears in her eyes as she helped them all out of the pod.

"What is the situation?" She asked desperately.

The latest man that they had lifted from the pod shook his head.

"It’s not good. Half the heroes fled, the civilians are scattering, and Temple is fighting a last stand at the safe room. The monsters have breached it, and it was just me and him left when I was suddenly here.

What happened?"

"You died. This is a resurrection pod for heroes near enough to Marimgar Academy. Your location was just within the hundred-kilometre radius.

But that means if the others aren’t fleeing in this direction, they’re likely to end up out of range."

A second later, a massive blonde man appeared sitting upright in the pod, which was new. Though, he was large enough that he wouldn’t fit laying down.

"Welcome hero..."

"Kalli, cut it out, it’s creepy enough that you pulled that prank on me. Temple, we’ve got you, buddy," the healer insisted as she wrapped the big blonde man in a hug.

Kalli gave them a moment to adjust to the change in circumstances before speaking again.

"Alright, let’s get everyone dressed, and I will introduce you to the heroes of Marimgar Academy. Most of whom are out hunting Swineherd Demons right now."

"You hunt swineherds? A group of those and their boars killed hundreds of our people during the first trial. How do you even hunt them?"

"I like to shoot them, but I’m not a combat class, I’m a Coordinator. Think of me like a checkpoint for quest completions and loot. There is a lot to explain to you all, but first, pants.

You might not have anything to be ashamed of, but it’s considered polite."

The big man laughed, and equipped most of a set of armour.

"Well, that’s rough. I lost everything I was using, and I’m level two again. Plus, I feel weak, does that fade?"

Kalli shook her head. "You lost it to the resurrection. You’ll need to build it back up, but we have a quest for that. You’ll likely see it in the morning.

Now, are the six of you going to be all? Or should we wait for the other ten?"

Temple shook his head. "They’re already gone. I saw from the perimeter cameras that their vehicle made it to the western edge of the city. So, they’re likely alive and still running."

"And out of range of the resurrection. Alright, let’s go. I’m going to move that pod somewhere that we actually monitor. I didn’t realize that there was even another town with survivors in range, but if there’s a chance we’re going to keep getting people showing up confused and naked, they shouldn’t be unattended."

"And where would you even put it? It looks like we’re in the medical bay."

"The Academy med bay is on the second level, in the middle of the building. Only if you went to school here would you be able to find your way back out easily. I’m going to move it to the dorm building, in a spare room on the main floor, so that if people are missed when they first arrive, they’ll come out to a room that usually has people.

The only place busier than the dorm commons is the cafeteria, and I suspect that the young lady would prefer not to have arrived there."

"Lillian. My name is Lillian, Cleric class hero, apparently. These are John, Keith Dirk and Sinn, all Rogue class heroes. There were a bunch of warriors, but they were the group that bailed on us when I died."

"Alright, let’s go." Kalli put the resurrection pod in storage, and moved quickly through the building, in case there were more heroes dying out there that she could save.

There was a ten-minute timer, so even if it took a few minutes to get it set up again, it should be fine.

But she hadn’t realized that there was even another major city in range that might have survivors.

The big blonde man known as Temple nodded. "There are a few military bases and bunkers in range as well. If they’re still standing, then there is a chance that you might get more incoming heroes from other locations.

How did you manage to save so many here? Lillian mentioned something about there being two hundred of you? But nearly no civilians?"

"It’s a long story, but we actually had a whole Academy full of them. However, everyone ran off after that fifteen minute warning invasion, and the army rounded them up and led them away.

They took over a thousand, and we are what was left in the city.

We managed to keep nearly all of our heroes, but we may have forgotten to save anyone else, except a group in that apartment across the street."

The big man shrugged. "We decided to defend a civilian emergency shelter when everyone else evacuated outside the city. You see, the city of Gomand is often subject to typhoons and tsunamis. So, they have many bunkers that are designed to shelter thousands.

But they’re designed to protect you from the weather, not an invading army of monsters. We did our best, but the most capable and the bravest of us fell first."