A week passed by and all the supplies for the Fourth Advanced Scouts were finally ready, which marked for their deployment to the twentieth floor, the fourth Quintal Trial.
Thanks to their training with the 4-stars, Party 6 to 10 managed to improve during that short time.
The parties could not defeat the 4-stars in any of their duels.
However, they were now able to withstand the strong individuals for quite a long duration instead of faltering in a few minutes, which they did in the first couple of days.
The scouts, of course, improved in skills due to the intense training.
All the 3-star combatants in each party had reached level 8 in weapon skill while the 2-stars had reached at least level 5.
From these stats alone, they were already stronger than my party comrades when we challenged the fifteenth floor, the third Quintal Trial.
I had also made sure the mages obtained all the necessary skills according to their sorcery aptitudes.
Weirui was able to cast composite enchantments that could last for ten minutes, at most. If he conserved his mana with potions and enchantment stones, he should be able to support his party throughout the Quintal Trial.
The Tchakran had also improved his telekinesis skill enough for him to wield six tasseled-blades at once.
Paired with his improved conjuration magic which enhances his combat style through illusions and mana projections, the hermit would not be defenseless in battle.
Anaiya as a dual-elementalist had improved both her Intermediate Fire and Earth Magic to level 7.
She was capable of casting a Fourth Circle spell in one minute, while a Fifth Circle in three. Though she would immediately fall into mana overflow state after casting either one just once.
Meanwhile, Jafar as a wind elemental mage had improved his intermediate magic to level 8, allowing him to cast a Fourth Circle spell in forty-five seconds while a Fifth Circle in two and a half minutes.
He would fall into the overflow state after casting either one as well.
The Tsahanam mage also managed to develop a second elemental magic.
I had instructed that all elemental mages must be skilled in at least two elemental arts in order to expand their combat strategies and covering their weaknesses.
Though it was incredibly difficult for an elemental mage to learn a second element and they might not be able to master it the way they did with their first one, it was still quite possible. Especially in the forged land.
Elemental mages' affinity with their second element would be determined with their most prominent one.
A fire elemental mage would likely have earth as their second most-compatible element and vice versa. While a wind elemental mage would have water instead and vice versa.
Jafar fell on the second category.
Through great effort, he managed to develop his Basic Water Magic skill all the way to level 8.
The Tsahanam man was able to cast a Third Circle spell in fifteen seconds, while a Fourth Circle in four minutes.
I wished I could improve all of their casting rate.
Unfortunately, their mana vessels were currently not that strong to swiftly cast such powerful spells which required enormous amount of mana conversion and manipulation.
If they were to level up a few more times, then their vessels would get stronger and allowed them to cast much faster.
They normally would not improve this much had we been in Dunia.
It was due to the power of the forged land that these mages were able to progress this far in such a short amount of time.
But even with all the rapid improvement, I was not certain this scouting squad were strong enough to overcome the twentieth floor, even if some of them were 3-star heroes.
Anything could happen in a Quintal Trial.
[Choosing 'Fourth Advanced Scouts' for the mission.]
[Proceed with your choice?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
The final scouting attempt was upon us.
This should be the last scouting as this scout squad was composed of the best raiders in the Reserve Forces.
Unless Master planned to perform another advanced summoning, then there would be no point forming another scouting squad with the 2-star trainees from the second floor of the lobby.
[Choosing 'Party 6' as the vanguard.]
[Party Composition - 'Rizarde (★★★)', 'Anaiya (★★★)', 'Livian (★★)', 'Endro (★★)', 'Murall (★★)']
[Proceed with your choice?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
Upon Master's decision, I approached the chosen vanguard party in the first floor square.
"Master might intend for the lot of you to simply scout the mission. But I do not think so."
I told the new Party 6.
My voice reached the entire Fourth Advanced Scouts, nonetheless.
"We've obtained plenty information on the twentieth floor already and had done much preparation for its mission.
"Most of you are as strong as the members of Party 1 when we challenged the previous Quintal Trial.
"Some of you are even as strong as they currently are."
My words swept the fears in the scouts' eyes and ignited some bravery within them.
Good.
They needed that courage to hear what I was going to say next.
"You are not entering the twentieth floor just so you could die in there.
"I need you all to win.
"Overcome the fourth Quintal Trial and return to the lobby. That is an order."
I declared to the Fourth Advanced Scouts.
Rizarde, the leader of Party 6 and the raid squad, bowed to me with the gracefulness of an honorable knight.
"As you command, Your Excellency."
It was then that Alam flew over to the rift.
[Alright! Let's do this! Open the rift of space and time!]
The large stone gate glowed up with its familiar shining haze, inviting the challengers to overcome the great trial within.
[New Party 6, go enter the rift! Make Master proud in there! Don't let Serafina's words goes to waste, you hear!]
Alam shouted to Rizarde and his party.
As the vanguard group started walking toward the rift, the crowd around the square erupted to send them off.
"Victory to the Raiders!"
"Fortune to the Raiders!"
Rizarde and his comrades steeled their faces under the roars of the cheers.
With great determination to survive, the heroes entered the rift.
[Main Dungeon, the current challenge floor is the 20th Floor.]
[The doors will open after ten seconds. Get ready!]
I intended to observe the mission like I always did.
Alam already channeled me the Intervention Points I needed, so I went to the Tactical Post building.
I then saw Jonah separated himself from the observing crowd in the square and went to me by the Tactical Post's entrance.
He tried not to observe the scouts' deployment as he knew it was not much different from synthesis, which was plain sacrifice.
But since 3-star heroes were involved this time, I supposed that made this deployment a different case.
"You really think they will return?"
The shepherd asked me.
"What do you think?"
I asked him back.
"The 3-star heroes are about as strong as most of us in the Main Forces. Their 2-stars are quite talented too. And you've even supplied them with those magic items. So they should be doing much better than the previous scouts."
Indeed.
The Fourth Advanced Scouts had been supplied with the same item and equipment that the Main Forces would have if we were to attempt the Quintal Trial.
Their weapons and armors were enchanted with special reinforcement and attributes spells, allowing them to fight with increased power and defense.
We had also laced every blades, spear tips, and arrow tips with lethal poisons which could kill a direwolf in seconds.
Each hero was supplied with Advanced Health Potions and Power Potions. With the latter made using an enhanced formula.
The mages also had ample mana potions ready.
And in case their supplies run out, each party could open a dimensional portal using a Portal Stone we had created.
The Portal Stone was a magic crystal instilled with dimensional runes that could create a portal to the War Storage in the lobby.
It was an invention my pupils and I crafted using the precious Mannalite crystals Party 2 brought from the Exploration Dungeon a while ago.
Normally, a mage would be needed to activate the dimensional runes inside the stone.
But anyone could activate the runes and create a portal just by breaking the rock.
It was an unconventional method we discovered by learning the cryptic formulas in the subquest grimoire.
The same applied for the Healing Stones supplied to each party.
By breaking off the enchantment stone instilled with healing runes, injured heroes in the stone's vicinity would be healed instantly.
The Healing Stone would only heal people that had a marking rune on them, which all the deployed raiders possessed. So it would not heal enemies.
That being said, none of the mages in the lobby had successfully obtained healing magic.
We created the Healing Stones by instilling healing enchantments on Mannallite crystals for dozens of hours.
The whole enchantment process took days, and even weeks just to prepare the Mannallite.
Any enchanter could create and wield healing runes.
But instantly casting an effective healing spell in battle was an entirely different matter. Even for me.
Nevertheless, each party of the Fourth Advanced Scouts had been supplied with one Portal Stone and one Healing Stone.
They were to be used in case of an emergency.
I wished we had provided them more.
But our resources were limited and we had to save enough for the Main Forces.
Even so, I just knew that our second Quintal Trial would had gone differently had Party 2 and 3 possessed these enchantment stones back then.
The Fourth Advanced Scouts should have better odds in the twentieth floor given the precious supplies they had.
They should!
"If these scouts don't return, Jonah,"
I replied to the shepherd.
My eyes stared at the rift of space-time with dread.
"then we likely will not either."