"Let's hope all this information will be enough for the next scouting squad."
I told the Keeper as I made my way to the War Hall.
The War Hall was the giant auditorium attached to the Tactical Post.
It was in that place that I shared to the Raid Team Sigyn's findings about an upcoming mission which they discovered through scouting attempts. And it was there that we discussed strategy for an upcoming mission, including the Quintal Trials.
The moment I entered the bowl-shaped hall, all the heroes already waiting within immediately stood up.
Members of the Main Forces were seated in their special sections. While two representatives from each of the Reserve parties were scattered in the rest of the hall.
The Reserve Forces now had so many parties that the War Hall could not accommodate all of them.
But there were five Reserve parties that had all of their members present in this strategy meeting.
Party 6 to Party 10. The top five parties in the Reserve Forces.
But it was not for their prowess that they were made to attend with complete formation.
[Forming 'Third Advanced Scouts'.]
[Party Configuration – Party 6, Party 7, Party 8, Party 9, Party 10]
[Total Heroes – 25]
[Raid Leader – 'Celeste (★★★)']
Master planned to scout the fifth Quintal Trial with the best parties in the Reserve Forces.
I initially thought Master would use the current five bottom-ranked Reserve parties for the next scouting attempt.
But it seemed they had changed their mind.
Master probably did not want to exhaust more precious resources in the scouting while still wanting to obtain as much information from the 25th floor.
We had scouted the Quintal Trial twice with Reserve parties.
And each attempt had certainly used up quite a lot of resources. Either for weapons, potions, enchantment stones and other things.
By immediately deploying the top five parties, Master would reduce the scouting attempts they had to do while still having good odds of making significant progress in the Quintal Trial.
Hopefully Master obtained significant information by making this decision.
Otherwise we would only sacrifice precious heroes that could be really helpful to the Main Forces and the lobby as a whole.
"Let's start the session."
I announced to the War Hall.
All the heroes were seated again upon my words.
I continued while conjuring a map of the Phirdaus region with my mana at the center of the War Hall.
By using conjuration magic, I was able to create visual objects that could aid the heroes understand Master's message as well as helping our strategy discussion.
"These are the newest findings Master discovered from the previous scouting attempt…"
I proceeded to relay all the information the previous scouts had gathered so far.
Once we finished discussing the strategy to deal with the mission, we concluded the War Hall session.
We proceeded to spend the next week training the Third Advanced Scouts.
There were many formations and combat maneuvers Sigyn introduced in our mock battles recently that the scouts needed to rehearse beforehand.
The simulation exercise also helped the Main Forces prepare for our eventual deployment to the 25th floor.
And due to the intense training we provided, Celeste and the other combatant advanced heroes had reached level 10 in basic combat skill. Their other members were ranging between level 8 and 9.
The mages had also learned new spells that should be useful in the Quintal Trial.
We could not get them to improve even more due to the short time we were given.
But hopefully those progress would be enough.
[Third Advanced Scouts, come to the first floor square!]
Alam called Party 6 to 10 at the end of the fifth week since we first cleared the 24th floor.
A huge crowd had gathered in the square to send off the scouts.
As what I had done to the previous advanced scouting squads, I exchanged a few words with the squad commander.
"We will do our best, Your Excellency."
Celeste told me with an expression as hard as steel.
I nodded to her and turned my gaze to all the scouts.
"May you outlive your foes, everyone."
Upon my words, Alam immediately hovered by the large stone gate depicting two winged-maidens embracing each other.
[Alright! Open the rift of space and time!]
As the rift was being opened, the crowd around the square erupted in cheers.
"Victory to the Raiders!"
"Fortune to the Raiders!"
Celeste then looked back to her army, nodded to each of the party leader with trusting eyes, and stepped into the rift.
I immediately teleported myself into the Tactical Post as the rest of the scouts followed Celeste inside.
Like with the 20th floor, I planned to monitor the scouting attempt through the system logs.
I no longer needed Intervention Points to access that information.
It was thanks to my seal's awakening that I was able to do that.
But even so, my access was still limited to injury notifications, death notifications, high-level sorcery casting notifications, and item usage and deployment notifications.
I still could not view the logs which showed the mission window as well as anything pertaining to the goings of the Quintal Trial itself.
[Main Dungeon, the current challenge floor is the 25th Floor.]
[The doors will open after ten seconds. Get ready!]
[Mission is being recorded.]
[The recording will be saved.]
Master apparently kept recordings of even failed trial attempts.
They had been recording everything ever since we first climbed the 5th floor.
I only discovered this after my seal's awakening.
But Alam said I could not access those records. Even with my seal's awakening and Intervention Points.
We simply did not have enough power and authority to interfere with the higher dimension to that extent.
I did not mind it that much.
Sigyn had been sending clear and detailed information through our mock battles.
We managed to anticipate most of the trials thanks to their findings.
And Sigyn intended to do the same for us with the 25th floor, our fifth Quintal Trial.
['Lillie (★★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. Her stamina will be reduced for a period of time.]
['Mannel (★★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. His stamina will be reduced for a period of time.]
45 minutes had passed. About 15 minutes in the mission.
We just received our first injury notifications.
It was a good sign.
The second advanced scouts had theirs within the first ten minutes of the mission. While the first one had theirs within eight.
I then continued observing the system logs as I patiently waited inside the Tactical Post.
['Geroth (★★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Turc (★★★)' is on the brink of death. His life is in danger!]
['Ruford (★★★)' has fallen into the state of fear. All stats decreased by 30%!]
Half an hour had passed in the mission.
Our first casualty.
The previous advanced scouts were already halved or reduced to less than ten members by the 30-minute mark. All the scouting squads from the Evaluation Center had even long perished at that point.
So I kept on observing the mission proceeding while noting the significant events that occurred.
"The Quintal Trial is still going, I see."
Jonah said as he entered the Tactical Post past the 50-minute mark.
I nodded to him.
"There are only thirteen scouts remaining. But they are still holding on."
The shepherd sighed as he turned to the window and looked down on the space-time rift.
"Did Master really have to deploy those heroes?"
['Namira (★★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! Her fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
He continued with a confused frown.
"I mean, can't Master just rely on the Main Forces instead of sacrificing all these good talented people?"
['Janis (★★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
It probably would not help if I told Jonah that Master did not consider the heroes as people in the first place.
We were literally toys in Sigyn's eyes.
They could do whatever they wanted with us.
Fortunately, Sigyn knew how to take care of their toys. And the Main Forces were currently Sigyn's favorite ones.
They would try their best to not break us while playing this game which was the mission to save our world.
Even if that meant sacrificing other toys to do it.
I could not really blame Sigyn for sending the advanced heroes to the 25th floor.
Even after doing the same for the 20th, the Main Forces still suffered major loss in that Quintal Trial.
What happened on the 20th floor was a special occurrence caused by the interference of a Moebius entity.
But Sigyn did not know that.
I already asked Alam and she said all Master witnessed back then was the server error notification.
As far as Sigyn was aware of, what happened on the fourth Quintal Trial was just an accident. A malfunction in the game's system. Or so Alam described.
They did not know it was intentionally induced by the entity that created their game.
So Sigyn would still expect the same thing might occur on the future Quintal Trials, including the 25th floor.
We simply had to accept that Sigyn had become very cautious of the Quintal Trials and would do anything to ensure the Main Forces' victory with minimum loss.
"Our duty is to follow Master's orders, Jonah."
I told the shepherd.
['Ansel (★★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
Ignoring the notification, I continued.
"I know that it's saddening to see our fellow comrades being deployed to scout the Quintal Trial, which was basically the same as being sent to the gallows."
['Oliberr (★★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Johaime (★★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
I still went on despite the notifications.
"However, even if it might seem unfair for those hardworking heroes to be treated as sacrifices, they had to obey Master's orders when they were summoned for the trial. Just like we did every time Master called for us."
Jonah immediately shook his head.
"It was different with us, Fina. We had you to rely on in the mission."
I smiled after hearing his underhanded compliment.
"The Third Advanced Scouts also have many reliable heroes to count on."
Upon my words, Jonah suddenly went closer to me with a pitying gaze.
"It's a shame, isn't it? I know you've grown quite close with the mages this time."
I did not bother to deny him.
It was the truth, after all.
"They have been really helpful with my work in the Magic Hall. I will certainly miss having them around."
"Would their absence disturb your work progress?"
Jonah asked.
I shook my head after mulling about it for a moment.
"Probably not. Meifa's talent in healing and enchantment was exceptional. But I already possessed the same skill. We also have the 3-star Cedran to cover for her role in the alchemy lab.
"Aludra was a big help in our preparation for the airship construction, as well as in enchanting the Raid Team's equipment. But we already obtained another 3-star airship engineer and there are plenty other enchanters in the lobby right now.
"Kiran and Celeste had the aptitude to help manage the Raid Team. But I'm sure we'll find other people just as competent."
I then continued while breathing a bitter sigh.
"That being said, it would still be a great shame to lose them."
Jonah nodded after hearing my last sentence.
"The Guntur warrior, Sigmund, the dwarf, Dharma, and the Tchakran, Gaoling, were also very capable heroes. About everyone in the Third Advanced Scouts, actually. It would be difficult to replace those people."
I nodded.
"It might take a while before we could find such talented people again. But the lobby's population keeps rapidly growing each day and Master have been summoning advanced heroes more often recently. I'm certain we would eventually find--"
A realization cut my words short.
Jonah frowned at my sudden silence.
"Fina, what's wrong?"
With a frown of my own, I replied him.
"There are no more notifications."
"Notification? You mean the system logs you've been observing?"
I nodded.
"Then does that mean the scouting is over?"
Jonah asked with saddened eyes.
I nodded again.
"The scouting attempt is definitely over. But not for the reason you might expect."
SHINGGG!!!
The rift of space-time suddenly glowed with radiating light.
From within the brilliance, emerged eight people.
By the Eternal Serpent…
Eight heroes had returned from the 25th floor.
[Stage Clear!]
['Celeste (★★★)', 'Kiran (★★★)' levelled up!]
['Meifa (★★★)', 'Gaoling (★★★)' levelled up!]
['Aludra (★★★)', 'Ahsan (★★★)' levelled up!]
['Sigmund (★★★)' levelled up!]
['Dharma (★★★)' levelled up!]
[MVP – 'Celeste (★★★)']
[Reward – 200,000G]