Five weeks had passed since we first cleared the 24th floor and Master began scouting the fifth Quintal Trial.
Many things happened over the time period.
Right after we cleared the 24th floor, Master immediately scouted the 25th floor.
The fifth Quintal Trial demanded five parties just like on the 20th floor, the previous Quintal Trial.
But instead of dividing the parties into vanguard and rear guard roles, which caused the parties to be deployed separately, the 25th floor deployed the five parties all at once.
It was more similar to our second Quintal Trial, the 10th floor's mission, where all three parties were deployed together.
Naturally, Master took a lot of time studying the new Quintal Trial.
Sigyn did not hesitate to sacrifice heroes for that endeavor.
The day that the 25th floor became accessible, Master deployed a hundred people from the Evaluation Center to scout the major mission.
None of them returned, of course.
We lost about two-thirds of the Evaluation Center's entire population.
That number was actually less than I had expected.
Considering what happened on the 20th floor, I figured Sigyn was ready to empty the Evaluation Center.
They would try to eliminate the mission's unknown variables as much as they could.
Perhaps after sacrificing twenty party worth of heroes, Sigyn realized they could not obtain more information by relying on the failed trainees.
Master gave the lobby a series of orders after scouting the 25th floor for four times.
One of which was ranking the parties in the Reserve Forces. Basically determining which party was the strongest and which one was the weakest.
By the time the order was delivered, there were over 70 parties in the Reserve Forces.
46 parties that were frequenting the 24th floor, 6 parties on the 23rd floor, 9 parties on the 22nd, and 13 on the 21st.
Master did not want us to rank them all.
Their order only specified the parties that were currently climbing the 24th floor.
I supposed Master was only interested in those that were close to ready in challenging the Quintal Trial.
We then ranked the Reserve parties after assessing them through competitions.
The parties were simply made to fight each other in a series of duels.
They would continue having duels until they had fought against all the parties that Master wanted to be ranked.
Each party would obtain victory points from winning a duel against another party.
Consequently, parties with the most victory points would be ranked the highest while the parties that lost the most would be ranked the lowest.
We finished ranking all the Reserve parties a week after we first cleared the 24th floor.
They all had been assigned official party numbers in the Raid Team. Party 6 to Party 51.
Celeste and Kiran's group became the new Party 6.
They managed to beat the bonded Tchakran sisters' group which became Party 7.
Aludra and the former scout's group became Party 8.
While the Guntur Elder's became Party 9. And the Guide's became Party 10.
The Guntur Elder and the dwarf were talented heroes.
But so were the others and there were simply significant advantages of having a mage in the party.
Anyway, it was not long for us to discover why Master made us rank all of these Reserve parties.
Master immediately formed the bottom ten parties into advanced scouting squads.
Three weeks after we first cleared the 24th floor, Master deployed Party 47, 48, 49, 50, and 51 to scout the fifth Quintal Trial.
They were given a one-week notice to prepare themselves.
Every advanced scout had become a level 25 3-star hero when deployed. Their party leaders had level 7 in basic combat skill while the members were ranging between level 5 and 6.
We supplied them with proper equipment including Basic Healing Elixir, Heat Resistance Potion, enhanced Power Potion with increased effects, new enhanced Healing Stones which now could regenerate severed limbs, and even Portal Stones.
I also gave the scouts all of the current information regarding the Quintal Trial which Sigyn relayed to me through our mock battles in the Tactical Post.
Even so, the five scouting parties did not return. They all perished on the 25th floor.
Master did not stop with them, however.
Party 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46 were deployed to the Quintal Trial a week after.
The previous scouting provided us with more information regarding the major mission which allowed us to prepare more properly.
All their party leaders barely achieved level 8 in basic combat skill before deployment. While the members averaged in level 6.
An objectively better squad than the previous one.
But the second group did not return as well.
We had lost 150 heroes to the fifth Quintal Trial at this point.
I already expected we would lose that many heroes just for scouting the mission.
But it still uneased me that the 25th floor was capable of eliminating those heroes, especially the Reserve raiders.
"Is there anything else you can think of that could help us?"
I asked Djhotti inside the Tactical Post.
The fifth Quintal Trial almost certainly would take place in Phirdaus.
Djhotti had extensive knowledge about Phirdaus given dwarves often traverse through the region.
According to Sigyn, we would have to defend a certain position in the 25th floor's mission.
The heroes would be gathered in a single location where they would have to hold their ground as enemies kept attacking them from all over.
I was asking Djhotti where in Phirdaus this scenario might occur.
It would greatly help us and the scouts by knowing that piece of information.
"I've shared with you all that I know, Great Mage."
Djhotti said regrettably.
He continued while pointing on the map of Phirdaus laid on the table before us.
"There aren't any settlement inside Phirdaus that needed to be defended.
"Us, dwarves, actually lived around the foot of the Great Awan Mountain deeper within Phirdaus. And Phirdaus monsters cannot survive there due to the extreme shift in climate.
"But there are all the human villages and towns along Phirdaus's border which you've known. We could be forced to defend those locations instead."
I shook my head upon his words.
"It is a possibility. But Tsatu had many fortresses and military camps guarding those places. So I still think our mission will take place inside Phirdaus itself."
"Then as I pointed out before, the ancient fortresses scattered in Phirdaus will be the most probable locations for the mission."
The Keeper replied.
He went on with a doubting frown.
"Those fortresses were built by Tsatu during the Flame's Campaign.
"More than a thousand years have passed since then and they were now reduced to empty abandoned ruins. So I'm not sure why those fortresses would be important to our mission.
"But if we're to hold our ground somewhere in Phirdaus, one of the ruins would be the most ideal location."
This was the fourth time we had this conversation and it ended the same way.
What Djhotti stated was logical and I agreed with him.
It was just we had not really figured out why the mission would be making us defend those abandoned ruins.
"Let's hope all this information will be enough for the next scouting squad."