Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Under Nessa's leadership and management, Dukiel, Anerias, and Violina started carrying out her orders. They 'inspected' the talismans already around the city. They 'complained' that the talismans appeared to already be losing part of their effect. They gossiped about how they couldn't wait for the newer, shinier, and better versions to come out soon.

Rumors spread like wildfire.

People tried to keep it an open secret. But there was no point when everyone already knew that more and better talismans were on the way. It spread even faster than Nessa had anticipated.

She had underestimated how horrible the underworld poisoning had been and how addictive the feeling of relief had been for the poisoned when they were close to the talismans. It was only natural since she hadn't seen anything for herself. She had been asleep until just now, after all.

Nessa quickly adapted and had someone prepare to make an announcement.

As soon as people started pestering the students who were aiding the citizens, Violina stepped forward and announced that they were working on improving the talismans themselves and the production rate. But for now, they could only be patient.

However, Violina also hinted at the fact that research and progress were slow due to lacking materials and funds. So, maybe those more fortunate and eager to speed up the process could contribute.

Not for free, of course. They would be the first to receive their own personal talismans as soon as they were done.

Instantly, money started changing hands.

That part of the plan was an overwhelming success, even if the money flowed back out as quickly as it came in. Materials were more important than just sitting on a pile of cash.

Zach and Alzara made the most of the materials that were shipped to her lab, and they mass-produced talismans. Tiny, white trinkets that came in different shapes and hues.

When Alzara heard about the plan to make money, she happily did what she could to ease the marketing burden. She altered the appearance of the different talismans to clearly sort them into several different levels of quality.

She could have made them with different potency and quality as well. But there wasn't a need for that. The imagined effect of the 'better' talismans was enough. It also wouldn't be fair to the people who couldn't afford the better talismans.

In the end, Zach and the others were responsible for everything the city was going through. Well, the Underworld was at fault. But Zach dropped the potion that pushed all that underworld energy into the city, and the club members shared the responsibility for that since they were in the same club, and they had encouraged Zach to do it.

Morally speaking, they should have done it all for free. It wasn't like they couldn't do it for free. It would just take time, and they wouldn't be able to provide as much relief to the citizens as they were doing.

Currently, the students were helping the poisoned citizens eat, keep their fevers down, rest, and stop them from vomiting all over the place. And when they vomited but were too tired to clean up after themselves, the students helped. The students also helped clean the city.

Needless to say, almost none of the students would have been doing all that if they weren't getting paid in both grades and money.

Without money, they would have done the bare minimum for the citizens and focused on getting rid of the underworld energy in the city and then in the citizens' bodies.

With money, it was a luxury treatment for the sick citizens. The only thing that could have made it better was a massage and the infirmary joining the efforts. But the infirmary, while not overly busy since most of the older students were away, wasn't going to pack up and join the camp outside the city.

If anyone wanted treatment, they would have to come to the infirmary. Even then, there was a limit to what outsiders could get. The infirmary was for the students of the Academy. And currently, the first-years were making the most of that privilege.

It was inevitable, but the first-years' curriculum had been impacted by the second-years' activities. The underworld energy contaminating the forest had driven monsters away from their territories and out of the forest.

The second-years had been in charge of dealing with the monsters in the immediate vicinity of the city since most of those monsters were affected by the underworld energy in some way. But further away, the monsters had yet to be touched by the underworld energy. They were wise enough to leave before the underworld energy could spread to them.

Unfortunately, that created a lot of chaos in the forests and on the roads further away.

The strongest monsters were the ones closest to the Academy. They had been affected by the underworld energy. Those were dealt with by the second years.

The stronger monsters were still in the forests, just beyond the reach of the underworld energy.

And the weaker monsters fled the forests for a chance of survival and started living along the roads. The first-years took care of them.

It wasn't as dangerous as fighting the Underworld, but there were still many powerful monsters. And the first-years didn't have an S-rank to pull the brunt of the load.

The infirmary was a little busier with this year's first-years than last year.

There was no way it would help the second-years cater to all the hundreds and thousands of sick people from Basilia.

They were on their own. Fortunately, the citizens were too physically weak, due to the poisoning to cause trouble. And with the promise of talismans and the insinuated threat of their absence if they misbehaved, there was complete order among the patients.

The talismans were a powerful tool to keep the sickly citizens in check, even before they were handed out. Nessa was looking forward to what would happen once Zach had made enough to start selling and trading them.

The citizens would be like diligent worker ants. She could see it in front of her.

The Underworld Exterminators, on the other hand…