Another two weeks passed.
Sigyn poured all their attention into the Raid Team throughout the timespan.
All five parties in the Main Forces and most in the Reserve Forces had climbed to the nineteenth floor at this point.
Most of the 2-star raiders had now reached level 19 and plateaued. The 3-stars had also plateaued at 18, while the 4-stars at 17.
Around 125 raiders had reached the limit of their growth at this point in the climb.
The number was five times the amount of heroes needed to challenge the twentieth floor.
However, Master had a reason to prepare this many raiders at once.
['First Advanced Scouts'.]
[Party Configuration – Party 21, Party 22, Party 23, Party 24, Party 25]
[Total Heroes – 25]
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['Second Advanced Scouts'.]
[Party Configuration – Party 16, Party 17, Party 18, Party 19, Party 20]
[Total Heroes – 25]
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['Third Advanced Scouts'.]
[Party Configuration – Party 11, Party 12, Party 13, Party 14, Party 15]
[Total Heroes – 25]
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['Fourth Advanced Scouts'.]
[Party Configuration – Party 6, Party 7, Party 8, Party 9, Party 10]
[Total Heroes – 25]
Sigyn had formed four raid squads called 'Advanced Scouts'.
I immediately knew the reason for their formation.
Despite Sigyn's failed attempt on scouting the twentieth floor, an act which nearly emptied the Evaluation Center, they still wanted to observe the full mission of the fourth Quintal Trial.
Instead of using failed trainees as sacrifices for the hellish stage, Sigyn now switched to fully-trained raiders from the Reserve Forces.
I now understood why Sigyn grouped all of their 4-star heroes, their most valuable pawns, in the Main Forces together.
The reason Sigyn did not distribute our manpower equally between the Main and the Reserve Forces was because of the fundamental role of the two groups.
The formation of the Advanced Scouts squads was what made it clear to me.
The Reserve Forces were not a precious back-up unit kept in case the Main Forces were wiped out.
At least, not solely.
They were mainly disposable pawns that Master could sacrifice in order to gain tactical advantage in the Quintal Trials.
The Reserve Forces would be sent into a Quintal Trial ahead of the Main Forces and provide Master all sorts of information that would improve the Main Forces' chances of completing the mission.
They were basically similar to the scouts of the Evaluation Center that got sacrificed in the regular floors.
Only this time, the scouts were highly-developed advanced heroes compared to the failed trainees.
Advanced scouts, essentially.
I never expected the failed trainees from the Evaluation Center to be able to properly scout a Quintal Trial.
If we wanted to obtain useable information on such difficult mission, parties with trained heroes would be needed.
Sigyn understood this fact.
And I had made sure all the raiders were aware of Master's intention.
"Next party!"
Jonah shouted after he and Devisha defeated five raiders all by themselves.
A new group of five entered the dueling ground with stiff expressions.
Despite heavily armed and outnumbering my party comrades, the challengers were nervous upon the match.
"Get rid of your fear. There's no use being afraid in battle."
Devisha calmly said to them from under her veil.
Jonah nodded to her words.
"You will face worse enemies than us in the Quintal Trial. So don't get discouraged by this simple training duel."
Crash!
A heavily-bruised raider was hurled halfway toward us from the other side of the vast dueling chamber.
Over there, Shanny was in her Berserk state and beating up another group of raiders. Darius aided her by launching arrows toward their opponents as if they were real enemies.
We were currently giving special training to the Reserve Forces.
Considering Master would be sending them to the Quintal Trial soon, I ordered the experienced Main Forces parties to train together with the Reserve Forces to prepare them.
It would only do all of us good by improving the capabilities of the Reserve raiders.
If they became stronger, they might survive longer in the Quintal Trial and obtain more information.
Who knows, they actually might be able to survive the mission entirely just the way that Tsahanam man did on the nineteenth floor.
Anything was possible in the forged land.
It was the reason the raiders in the Reserve Forces did not shut down with fear of heading into a Quintal Trial.
They had learned of what happened to the nineteenth floor's scout and intended to repeat the feat.
Despite most of my logic pointed out it was impossible, I truly wished it would actually happen. Both for the scouts' and our sake.
Currently, Party 1 was helping Party 21 to 25 with their training.
They were the First Advanced Scouts, which meant they would be the next scouting group sent to the fourth Quintal Trial.
Our plan was to improve the strength of the individual parties instead of the entire squad's joint teamwork.
The scouting effort so far had failed because the single vanguard parties Master sent were immediately eliminated upon entry into the mission.
We had understood the significance of the first party that would be sent to the Quintal Trial.
The mission simply would not succeed if the first vanguard party faltered.
Hence we needed each party in the raid squad to be capable on their own.
We initially tried having the entire Party 1 facing up against each of the Reserve party.
But we simply proved too powerful for them that the Reserve raiders could barely do anything.
The duel match ended so quick it could not be called training anymore.
That was why we divided our strengths.
Each Reserve party would face two of my comrades in a duel.
We were hoping this arrangement would provide proper high-intensity training that would push the limit of the raiders.
So far the Reserve raiders were still overwhelmed by my comrades.
Despite being on the same general level 19 as Party 1's 2-stars, level 5 in weapon skill was the highest the raiders could achieve in these Reserve parties.
And it was only the party leaders that attained such degree. The remaining members were still stuck on level 4. While those in Party 1 had already reached level 8 in weapon skill.
All of the 2-star Reserve raiders had not underwent the extreme situations Party 1 experienced in clearing the previous Quintal Trials.
Given they only fought in the regular floors of the tower, there were not many scenarios where these raiders were pushed to the brink and forced to uncover their hidden potential.
And training in the lobby could only do so much.
Despite the intense exercises the 4-star heroes had been giving them, most of the Reserve raiders simply did not have as much potential as Jonah and Shanny.
I would even argue that the reason they even managed to develop this much was because of the harsh training and the otherworldly laws of the forged land.
They would actually turned out much worse had we not pushed them. Probably barely reaching level 3 in weapon skill.
Even so, with this new training arrangement, their duels now lasted way longer than when they were facing all of Party 1.
We were starting to make real progress in our final preparation for the scouting on the fourth Quintal Trial.
Swoosh!
Clang!
Jonah and Devisha engaged their new set of opponents.
The two of them fought fiercely against the Reserve raiders.
I had told my comrades to not hold anything back.
The scouts needed to be faced with an overwhelming challenge that might seem impossible to overcome.
Because the Quintal Trial would present them with one even greater.