On this day, the only executives with enough free time to remain at Twilight Manor were Riezel, Ais, Finn, and Riveria.
Gareth, Tiona, and Tione were still handling matters on the battlefield against Rakia and had yet to return to Twilight Manor.
Bete, Raul, and Anakitty had already confirmed all the routes within the Dungeon that led to Knossos and were currently taking inventory of supplies.
Loki had also been sent to the battlefield to act as a symbolic figurehead.
As a result, Twilight Manor was sparsely populated. Aside from a small number of people, everyone else had duties they needed to attend to. Even Lefiya had gone together with Alicia, Elfy, and the others to reorganize equipment.
Consequently, only Riezel, Ais, Finn, and Riveria remained at Twilight Manor—or rather, only Riezel and Ais were relatively idle, while Finn and Riveria had been continuously discussing strategies for the Knossos campaign to the point that they had even forgotten to eat breakfast.
Under such circumstances, Riezel and Ais—having completed their respective tasks and work and finally gained some free time—were summoned to the captain's office.
There, the two learned of the final problem that still needed to be resolved: a severe manpower shortage.
"Six Demi Spirits. No matter which one we take down, as long as the other five remain undefeated, it will immediately regenerate."
"In other words, we must divide into six groups and launch simultaneous assaults against all six Demi Spirits, eliminating every single one of them before their regenerative ability takes effect."
"But everyone knows the strength of a Demi Spirit. Even if they are weaker than the Demi Spirit on the Dungeon's 59th Floor, they are still not opponents that can be taken down casually."
"Therefore, if we want to stop the activation of the Gate of Heaven, we must form six extremely powerful groups. At a conservative estimate, each group would require several First-Class Adventurers—possibly even multiple Level 6s or Level 7s."
Finn laid out the urgent issue and explained it to Riezel and Ais, who then exchanged glances, both frowning slightly.
It was unavoidable because the requirement was too harsh.
"At present, we plan to split up the familia's executives and assign them to the six groups, and that includes me, Finn, and Gareth—we would each have to lead separate groups."
Riveria added from the side.
"But even if we divide myself, Finn, and Gareth among the groups, to reliably take down a single Demi Spirit, each group would still need at least two Level 6s or four to five Level 5s as support, along with numerous Level 4 and Level 3 supporters, healers, and mages."
"That is the most conservative estimate."
"If the Demi Spirits forming the Gate of Heaven are as strong as the one on the 59th Floor—or even stronger—then a formation of this level would have no chance of victory. Total annihilation would be the only possible outcome."
Back then, the Demi Spirit on the 59th Floor had nearly wiped out all of Loki Familia's executives, even with Tsubaki of the Hephaestus Familia assisting them.
Although Finn and the others had not yet leveled up, they still had four Level 6s, four Level 5s, three Level 4s, and even a Level 3 mage with Level 5 attack power—it had been an exceptionally powerful lineup.
Even so, they had nearly been annihilated by the Demi Spirit, so if the Demi Spirits forming the Gate of Heaven possessed that same level of strength, the situation would be nothing short of despair.
Finn and the others even worried that these Demi Spirits might suddenly experience a surge in power like the one on the 59th Floor, reaching an utterly incomprehensible level.
At that time, they had only managed to achieve victory after fighting for an entire day and night, relying on Riezel's Uchide no Kozuchi and Dia Fratel for support.
If the Demi Spirits forming the Gate of Heaven could likewise erupt mid-battle and multiply their strength severalfold, then the Knossos campaign would become practically unwinnable.
Of course, after some deliberation, Finn and the others concluded that the six Demi Spirits were unlikely to possess such overwhelming strength.
Otherwise, the enemy would not need to resort to an ancient grand magic like Gate of Heaven—simply releasing the six Demi Spirits onto the surface would already be enough to destroy the entirety of Orario.
At the very least, Finn and the others did not believe Orario could withstand six Demi Spirits of that level.
For this reason, when estimating the combat power of the six Demi Spirits, they used the initial strength displayed by the Demi Spirit on the 59th Floor as the benchmark.
Even to defeat a Demi Spirit of that level, a single group—even one led by a Level 7—would still require multiple other First-Class Adventurers, along with a large number of supporters, healers, mages, and other lower-class adventurers. Yet now that this requirement applied to all six groups, the Loki Familia alone simply could not assemble combat power on such a scale.
Unfortunately, they could not request reinforcements.
"For the sake of Orario's safety, the Guild insists that as few people as possible should know about this campaign."
"That means we cannot gather multiple familias to assault the Man-Made Dungeon together."
"Loki has already made a preliminary assessment. Including the Ganesha Familia, who are already aware of the situation, we can only deploy the forces of a few familias for this operation."
"And among those familias, aside from the Hephaestus Familia—where Tsubaki, who encountered a Demi Spirit alongside us on the 59th Floor, belongs—and the Ganesha Familia, none possess First-Class Adventurers at Level 5 or above."
"And that only accounts for the shortage of high-end combat power."
Finn rubbed his forehead, clearly troubled by the situation.
Knossos not only contained Demi Spirits but also housed a large number of green flesh creatures, as well as vividly colored monsters that served as the hands of the Corrupted Spirit.
In addition, there was no telling what other cards Enyo might still be holding, including the Creature of unknown strength under their command. For this campaign, they would also require a substantial amount of mid- and low-tier combat power to respond to whatever the enemy might deploy.
Furthermore, in order to eliminate the enemy completely and prevent Orario from facing future threats, Finn intended to station forces at every entrance and exit leading to Knossos, cutting off all escape routes so that the enemy would have nowhere to flee after their defeat.
After calculating everything, Finn realized that the gap in both manpower and combat power was simply far too large.
It had to be addressed. Otherwise, the consequences would be severe.
Having understood the current predicament, Riveria remained silent for the moment, while Ais, after hesitating for a while, carefully offered a suggestion.
"...Can't we have the Freya Familia take action?"
If Orario's other major familia could intervene, the shortage in combat power would immediately be resolved.
It had to be known that the Freya Familia was reputed to be capable of forming more than twenty mid-rank familias if it were ever disbanded.
At present, this familia possessed a total of 157 official combat personnel, and when non-combat members and followers were included, its numbers exceeded five thousand.
Needless to say, its First-Class Adventurers were formidable, but it also possessed a large number of Second-Class Adventurers. In particular, its healers ranked among the very best of all familias in Orario. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to sustain the constant life-and-death battles that took place day and night within Folkvangr.
Especially after Ottar and Allen had both leveled up, if this familia could join the campaign, it would undoubtedly serve as an enormous boost to their forces.
In Ais's estimation, if each of the six groups tasked with defeating the six Demi Spirits required a Level 7 at the helm, then Finn, Gareth, and Riveria could each lead one group, respectively. Ottar and Allen could each command another group, with Riezel—whose combat power rivaled that of a Level 7—leading the final group, meaning all six groups would have commanders.
Excluding Level 7 and above combatants, the combined forces of the Loki Familia and the Freya Familia could still assemble six Level 6 combatants.
On the Loki Familia's side, there were Ais, Bete, Tiona, and Tione.
On the Freya Familia's side, there were Hedin and Hogni.
If these six Level 6s were distributed among the six groups, each group would have one Level 6.
Next, adding the four Gulliver Brothers, Raul and Anakitty, Tsubaki of the Hephaestus Familia, and the eleven executives of the Ganesha Familia—a total of eighteen Level 5s—each group would receive three.
By that calculation, each group would consist of one Level 7, one Level 6, and three Level 5s. With sufficient supporters, healers, and mages, such a formation would already have a realistic chance of defeating a Demi Spirit.
Particularly for the groups led by Riezel and Ottar: the former not only possessed immense combat power himself, but could also use Uchide no Kozuchi to amplify allies and Dia Fratel to sustain an entire battle line, while the latter had already reached Level 8, with combat power far beyond that of an ordinary Level 7.
It went without saying that these two groups would undoubtedly be capable of exerting overwhelming force and suppressing a Demi Spirit.
Wouldn't the manpower problem be solved this way?
However, Ais's line of thinking was somewhat naive.
"Getting the Freya Familia to cooperate with us won't be easy," Riezel said calmly from the side. "Its members are essentially individual strength supremacists. They are not inclined to cooperate with others and lack any real sense of teamwork. On top of that, they are hostile toward us, and their goddess, Freya, is a capricious—one could even say willful—goddess. Simply arguing that 'Orario might be destroyed' won't be enough to persuade them."
"Exactly..." Finn nodded in agreement with Riezel. "Besides dealing with the Demi Spirits, we also have to handle Enyo, which may prove even more troublesome."
"Even if it's artificial, we're still dealing with a dungeon," Riveria added. "You both understand how many traps such a place can contain. Faced with the overall threat posed by the Man-Made Dungeon, a familia like the Freya Familia—whose members possess excessively strong individual styles—might not only fail to contribute much, but could even hinder us through independent action."
In summary, involving the Freya Familia was not entirely unwise, but it carried far too many uncertainties.
"If it truly comes to that, I will personally step in and attempt to persuade Goddess Freya," Finn said, shaking his head. "But for now, we need to focus on how to resolve the shortage of combat power with absolute certainty."
At those words, everyone fell silent.
Riezel's eyes flickered slightly, and after a moment, he suddenly spoke.
"If all we need is a group of obedient, immediately deployable combat forces, then I do have a way to solve this problem."
Riezel's words caused Finn and the others to pause in surprise before immediately straightening up.
"Really?"
Riveria asked quickly.
"Yes," Riezel answered directly, without keeping them in suspense. "I can use summoning magic to bring forth usable combat forces."
At this point, what came to his mind was not only his summoning magic, but also the combat mechanical dolls he had created in the past—Yoriichi Type One.
Those mechanical dolls had gradually become obsolete as Riezel's own strength continued to grow. Especially after he had learned summoning magic, whenever he required assistance in battle, he preferred to summon creatures with various special abilities rather than rely on mechanical dolls that could only fight with blades.
As a result, the mechanical doll crafting techniques he had once studied had long since been left unused.
But now, it seemed they could finally be put to use once again.
"Summoning magic?" Finn looked at Riezel. "How many units can you provide?"
"That…" Riezel considered for a moment before replying, "At least several hundred units won't be a problem."
With his current abilities, even while in a Level 6 state and without affecting his own combat performance, he could easily control several hundred mechanical dolls.
Naturally, the same applied to summoning magic.
Strictly speaking, summoning magic within Tier Magic could only summon a single entity per casting when the caster's level matched the tier of the magic.
For example, in YGGDRASIL, 10th-Tier Magic could only be learned by magic-caster players who had reached Level 64–70. Without special skills or abilities that enhance summoning, using a 10th-Tier summoning magic spell would only allow the player to summon a single entity within that level range.
However, if the same magic were used to summon entities below Level 64, the number of summoned units could increase accordingly.
Although Riezel did not possess any specialized summoning-enhancement skills or abilities, he did have the development abilities Mage and Magic Chant, both of which could comprehensively enhance the effects of magic, along with numerous magic items such as Morgan's Ring.
Among the ten rings and two bracelets he kept concealed, one was a rare mystical artifact capable of enhancing the effects of summoning magic. Once that artifact was activated, he could use high-tier summoning magic to call forth dozens of powerful monsters at once.
Combined with his numerous mechanical dolls, the issue of insufficient combat power could be resolved in an instant.
Unaware of these details, Finn asked another question.
"Several hundred… how strong are they?"
Finn's question was met with a shocking answer.
"They are comparable to Level 5 adventurers."
Riezel's words caused the entire office to fall silent.
At this moment, Finn, Riveria, and Ais were all completely dumbfounded—utterly stunned.
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