"This is the scouting result done by Sigyn on the eighteenth floor."
I told all the raiders seated throughout the bowl-shaped auditorium around me.
After the Tactical Post was upgraded, Sigyn added a new attachment building to it.
A War Hall.
It was a place where the raiders could assemble and plan strategies.
Party 1 had finished frequenting the seventeenth floor.
In the process, I levelled up to level 14. Both Darius and Devisha reached level 15, while Jonah and Shanny on the brink toward level 18.
It would be time for us to continue to the next floor.
Currently, all members of Party 1 to 18 had gathered in the War Hall to discuss the upcoming mission.
This had become our new routine ever since we successfully climbed the sixteenth floor.
Before dawn to early morning, all the raiders would perform physical exercise and individual training.
In the morning, the raiders would split up into groups according to their combat specialization and train together.
That was when the 4-stars would be instructing our heroes using their expertise. The second floor trainees and the instructor candidates would join the third floor raiders in this training session.
At noon, since party assignments had been arranged, all raiders would return to their party and practice formation exercises. Or challenging the Main Dungeon if Master wanted to deploy their party.
In the afternoon to dinnertime, the raiders would have advanced formation training where parties would duel against one another.
We would make one party against another party. Or two against two. One against two. Two against three. One against three. Five against five. Or even one against five.
The goal would be to simulate scenarios that might occur in the Quintal Trials.
We were aiming to prepare the heroes that had no firsthand experience with those overwhelming stages.
After dinner, the raiders would continue training individually or with their own party, or we would all gather in the War Hall to discuss our plan in climbing the current floors.
It was a substitute for our nightly strategy meetings prior our fifteenth floor's climb.
Every two or three days, we would now reconvene in the War Hall and I would relay Sigyn's message I obtained through our mock battles in the Tactical Post.
Not only that, when Party 1 cleared the sixteenth and the seventeenth floor for the first time, we would gather all the raiders in the War Hall and relay to them what we just experienced in those missions.
Everything that was presented in the War Hall would affect the raiders' preparation.
How we should train considering our current enemies, formations we should practice given the objective of the mission, the sort of equipment and supplies we needed to prepare for the trial.
All were information necessary for survival. And all the raiders in the forged land wanted them.
Sigyn and I had finished exchanging information regarding the eighteenth floor through our mock battles.
I now had a pretty good idea on what would happen in that floor and how Sigyn wanted us to clear it.
"Sometime in the beginning of the mission, your party will be ambushed from three different directions at the same time. South, southwest, and southeast."
I told the raiders in the War Hall, my hand was gesturing to the large tactical map spread on the floor at the center of the bowl-shaped hall.
The map was something I had the administrators drew up for this strategy meeting.
I had also told the raiders that whenever I used a direction term, they should realize I was talking about the opposite as well.
East included west. North included south. Northeast included southwest. And so on.
So if I said an enemy was coming from the south, they might actually be coming from the north in the actual mission.
After all, Sigyn could not clearly tell me where exactly the enemies were coming from. Only the pattern of their movement.
"Enemy reinforcements would be swiftly arriving from the southeast and the southwest. Master's suggestion for this scenario was to push south before the reinforcements arrived."
It was difficult at first determining which strategy Sigyn was presenting in the mock battles.
Whether they were showing me the enemies' or ours'.
But after playing so many sessions of the battle simulation matches, it had become an understanding that Sigyn would only use the enemies' strategies while they were playing as the Monsters' faction, and present their own strategy when they were playing as the Heroes' faction.
Fortunately, thanks to the Tactical Post's upgrades, the mock battle simulations had now offered a wider variety of troops that we could control.
Monsters' faction now had ogres, harpies, and even human pawns.
So we could have more accurate simulations considering we had been facing humans for the past seven floors of the tower.
"Most of the enemy groups would be consisted of polearm-wielders, archers, and rogues. The three groups that would ambush your party, as well as their reinforcements.
"The polearm-wielders in each group would form three-layered barricade in the front line, providing good cover for their archers. During the onslaught, the rogues would then slip into your ranks where it is the weakest.
"Strategize accordingly so that your party could break through this type of formation."
Each party began to murmur between its members.
Despite all the insight and instruction signals that Sigyn could provide in the mission, there were limits to the Tactical Post.
They were just signs in the end.
Ultimately the raiders were the ones that would have to handle the enemies.
"Once you forced your way through the cordon, Master suggested your party to lure the remaining enemies, including the enemy reinforcements, to a narrow area where you can finish them off.
"It is possible that Master already has a location in mind for this stratagem. So look for Master's signal at this point in the trial.
"If Master did not prepare any killing zone or you could not perceive their sign, then use your own discretion to dispose the remaining enemies.
"One thing for certain, however, is that you are highly advised to eliminate all the enemies that you encountered in the beginning of the mission. You would only complicate matters and increase the trial's risk if you escape and leave them be."
The heroes were not obligated to follow Master's order in the mission.
They should decide what was best to be done for the situation at hand.
But they also would be fools to ignore Sigyn's advices.
Fortunately, we currently did not have any fool in the Raid Team.
Zecht's party would always follow Sigyn's strategy whenever they tried the missions.
Party 3 to 5 would shift the plan according to their party's strength.
For example, Graihan's party on the seventeenth floor did not bother to seal the labyrinth paths to block the enemy reinforcements.
Instead, the lycanthrope and his comrades would use those marked paths to quickly get to the enemies, sneak around those groups, and ambush them.
I also heard similar changes to Ulrica's and Djhotti's party when they tried the floor.
Even so, all three parties would still take good heed to the warnings provided by Master and not endanger the trials further than it had to be.
Party 6 and the rest of the Reserve Forces also tried their best to follow Sigyn's strategy with the party composition that they had.
For the parties that did not have any mages, they would make their archers use exploding arrow to seal the marked paths on the seventeenth floor.
And those parties would also plan accordingly in tackling large number of enemies that could be easily taken care of by an elemental mage.
"In the next phase of the mission, you would be tasked to maneuver against numerous patrol groups.
"Your priority would not be to engage them this time. So you must do your best to take care of any encounter swiftly and silently.
"Also, there is a high probability that the field you would traverse on would be laid with traps."
The Tactical Post had been upgraded enough that we now could order trap installation to our army in the mock battles.
Sigyn immediately made use of this function in our recent mock battles and implemented them whenever they were presenting the enemy strategies.
"Master would probably warn you of any dangerous contraptions. But still be wary of your surroundings while you are in the mission."
I then stepped away from the large map and took my seat beside it.
"Before I continue elaborating the tactics for this phase of the trial, I would like you to learn more of the enemies you would be facing in this mission."
I said as I turned to a woman with a snake tattoo on her neck.
The woman immediately rose upon my gaze.
Her name was Ruana, a member of Party 11.
She was one of the two 3-star archers summoned alongside the knight Rizarde and the other advanced heroes.
When her party finally tried the sixteenth floor and the seventeenth floor, the woman came to my office and claimed she knew the pirates we had been facing so far.
Apparently our enemies this time were a notorious mercenary corps operating in the Varunian Sea, south of Dunia.
They called themselves the Storm Soarer.
A bunch of awful rumors hovered around their name.
Piracy would be the most prominent of all.
Ruana used to work as a guard for a large trading ship and had once encountered one of the Storm Soarer's ships.
So she was aware and fairly knowledgeable about their existence.
"As you all must have noticed already, the Storm Soarer mercenaries used unconventional techniques in combat. These mercenaries were cunning but also daring. They would not hesitate to lose a hand if they could slash your throat in exchange."
Ruana told the other raiders.
Trudy and the instructor candidates attending this meeting were diligently writing every word she said.
The Chief Instructor had always been making the time to attend all of our sessions.
But now I had also arranged for the instructor candidates to sit in our strategy meeting as well.
These strategy meetings would help them teach the trainees later on, once we had climbed higher in the tower and it was up to the instructors to guide the trainees that wished to challenge these floors.
The 3-star archer continued as the group scribbled away.
"Their weapons are usually laced with paralyzing poisons, some of their archers would even use lethal solution. Each of their combatant would always have a spare dagger and short sword concealed on their person, so keep your guard up even after you disarmed them. Their war hounds are quite smart and could be dangerous if you don't dispose them quickly. You also need to be wary of…"
I listened to Ruana relaying her knowledge of the Storm Soarer.
Despite her elaborate explanation, I could not help but wondered more about our enemies.
Other than banditry, the Storm Soarer apparently often lent themselves to obscure and dangerous underworld organizations, acting as their hired-swords and performing their dirty works.
A certain cult was suspected to be their major client.
I let out a sigh once that thought crossed my mind.
The Circle of Kali.
What other nightmare had they prepared for us on the twentieth floor?