['Broam (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Gallen (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Riolle (★★)' is on the brink of death. His life is in danger!]
['Allise (★★)' has fallen into the state of panic. All stats decreased by 50%!]
['Dhavine (★★)' has fallen into the state of fear. All stats decreased by 30%!]
Right at an hour mark. Twenty minutes passed in the trial.
Something terrible had suddenly happened to Party 21.
They would not last long if things went on as they were.
When would the rearguard parties be deployed?!
[Field formation is complete!]
[Master, the rearguard can now be deployed.]
[Extend a helping hand to the heroes in distress!]
More notification windows. They were addressed to Master.
What did it mean by field formation?
[Choose the rearguard.]
[Designated Parties - Party 21 (on the field), Party 22, Party 23, Party 24, Party 25]
[You have selected 'Party 22'.]
[Party Composition - 'Ammira (★★)', 'Jaen (★★)', 'Phrid (★★)', 'Shula (★★)', 'Krista (★★)']
[Would you like to deploy them?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
Alam immediately appeared at the square upon Master's decision.
[Party 22, you guys are up! Hurry and enter the rift! The others inside are counting on you!]
Only one party was called.
There were four rearguard parties on standby, but only a single party was deployed as reinforcement.
Did the mission require more time before the rest could enter the trial?
Or did Party 21 simply fail to accomplish the condition which enabled the full reinforcement to be summoned?
So many questions…
Whatever the case was, Party 21 only had Party 22 as support for now.
The vanguard group had to make do with just one reinforcement party.
Would it be enough?
['Riolle (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Dhavine (★★)' has fallen into the state of panic. All stats decreased by 50%!]
72 minutes had passed in the lobby. 24 in the mission.
Party 21 only had two members left.
Hopefully, the recently-deployed Party 22 could compensate for the losses.
But that term…
Field formation.
['Allise (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! Her fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Dhavine (★★)' has fallen into the state of despair. All stats decreased by 80%!]
Things did not improve for Party 21 despite the reinforcement from the rearguard.
They were left with just one member now.
I initially expected Party 22 would take over the role of vanguard as Party 21 recuperates.
But they definitely did not, considering the dire notifications I had been seeing.
['Dhavine (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
[Party 21 has been annihilated.]
The vanguard was wiped out at the 83-minute mark in the lobby or around 27 minutes in the trial. Definitely the longest scouting so far.
The question now, could Party 22 take over the vanguard duty and carry on with the mission?
[The vanguard has been eliminated.]
[Mission Failed!]
[Massacre!]
['Ammira (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! Her fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Jaen (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Phrid (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Shula (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! Her fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Krista (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! Her fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
[Party 22 has been annihilated.]
[You Lose!]
A barrage of notifications emerged before me upon the vanguard party's demise.
[Grhh! Failure! Useless bastards!]
Frustrated Alam immediately appeared before me.
"The mission is over?"
I asked her.
She nodded with a sigh.
[Yeah. We lost everyone that got sent inside. Urgh! Those precious equipment and potions!]
The mission was over the moment Party 21, the vanguard party, was eliminated.
All members of Party 22, a rearguard group, also died simultaneously with the announcement.
I believed their sudden deaths were the forced kind whenever the mission's objective failed to be achieved.
That meant the vanguard party was the key to this Quintal Trial.
Whatever they were doing had to be the main purpose of the mission.
This conclusion, however, made me wonder about the roles of the rearguard parties.
It did not seem the rearguard was sent to directly help the vanguard.
Else, members of Party 21 would not keep on dying after Party 22 was deployed.
Were the two parties perhaps separated in the trial?
Were they isolated in some way from one another?
Were the groups tasked with different goals?
[Reforming 'First Advanced Scouts'.]
[Party Configuration – Party 23, Party 24, Party 25, Party 26, Party 27]
[Total Heroes – 25]
[Raid Leader – 'Kazull (★★)']
Master was rearranging the scouting squad.
Apparently Sigyn was not satisfied with the attempt just now.
[Ah! I have to go. You should still have more than enough Intervention Points to observe the logs.]
The fairy said before disappearing.
I then watched Master deploy Party 23 into the rift of space-time, into the fourth Quintal Trial.
We had not been intensely training Party 26 and 27 like the other parties in the scouting squad.
But their skills and levels should be on par with the parties in the First Advanced Scouts.
Though I doubted those two parties would be needed.
[Party 23 has been annihilated.]
[The vanguard has been eliminated.]
[Mission Failed!]
[Massacre!]
[Party 24 has been annihilated.]
[You Lose!]
The second scouting with Party 23 as vanguard went similarly to the first attempt.
The vanguard was forced to hold on for an hour, or 20 minutes in the trial, until one rearguard party could be deployed.
The deployment of the rearguard party did not seem to improve the vanguard's situation so far.
Something also happened at the one-hour mark which inflicted major damage to the vanguard forces.
The moment the vanguard was eliminated, the mission was terminated and the remaining members in the rearguard party were immediately killed.
We did not get to send the third, the fourth, and the fifth rearguard parties.
Znngg...
Upon the second failed attempt, the rainbow sky of the forged land shifted into its pale gray form.
Master had left.
It seemed we were done scouting for the day.
Sigyn probably had guessed they would only repeat the outcome if they continued as they were.
I wondered if Master managed to obtain some useful degree of information regarding the twentieth floor's mission.
My observation on the scouting attempts so far left me with many questions.
But I knew one thing for sure.
The fourth Quintal Trial was like nothing we had ever seen before in the forged land.