['Murall (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Endro (★★)' is on the brink of death. His life is in danger!]
['Livian (★★)' has fallen into the state of panic. All stats decreased by 50%!]
['Rizarde (★★★)' has activated the Healing Stone!]
['Weirui (★★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. His stamina will be reduced for a period of time.]
['Ammery (★★)' is on the brink of death. Her life is in danger!]
['Ruana (★★★)' has activated the Portal Stone!]
[A dimensional portal has been created!]
['Zekhiel (★★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. His...]
['Raiven (★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. His...]
['Gretna (★★★)' has activated the Portal Stone!]
[A dimensional portal has been created!]
50 minutes passed.
The previous scouting squads never lasted this long.
We managed to gain new grounds on the fourth Quintal Trial.
Although through sacrifices, that was.
One raider finally died. He was from the vanguard party.
Even so, the casualty rate was still much lower than during the previous scouting.
I supposed the scouts' training with the 4-stars quite paid off.
[Field formation is complete!]
[Master, the rearguard can now be deployed.]
[Extend a helping hand to the heroes in distress!]
[Choose the rearguard.]
[Designated Parties - Party 6 (on the field), Party 7 (on the field), Party 8 (on the field), Party 9, Party 10 (on the field)]
We were finally able to deploy the fourth rearguard, the fifth raid party to the Quintal Trial.
To think of all the sacrifices we had made just to reach this point.
[You have selected 'Party 9'.]
[Party Composition - 'Himnel (★★★)', 'Castro (★★★)', 'Tsaruyan (★★)', 'Annalie (★★)', 'Felliz (★★)']
[Would you like to deploy them?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
Party 9 might be the only group left in Sigyn's disposal.
But hopefully they were just what the scouts needed to finish the Quintal Trial.
Himnel and Castro's group specialized in mobility. They were swift and agile.
Their party should be able to penetrate through the enemy lines and quickly reach their objective.
['Ammery (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! Her fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Kalland (★★)' is on the brink of death. His life is in danger!]
And the wait began.
All five parties had been deployed.
We had finally fulfilled the forces requirement to challenge the twentieth floor.
The scouts also had access to all the supplies they needed.
One last thing to do was hoping all of these would be enough to overcome the fourth Quintal Trial.
[Whew! That was a lot of work!]
Alam suddenly appeared before me in the Tactical Post.
"Are you done helping Master with the trial?"
[Pretty much. All the parties have been deployed. So it's up to the scouts now.]
The fairy said.
She then looked to me with a curious smile.
[Do you think they'll clear the boss stage?]
I shrugged at her.
"You tell me. All I do is monitoring the system logs."
Notification windows kept appearing before me as I said those words.
['Hallu (★★)' is on the brink of death. His life is in danger!]
['Ruana (★★★)' has activated the Healing Stone!]
['Kalland (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Gretna (★★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. Her stamina will be reduced for a period of time.]
['Marinne (★★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. Her stamina will be reduced for a period of time.]
['Jafar (★★★)' has activated the Portal Stone!]
[Summoning 'Advanced Health Potion (A)' x50!]
[Summoning 'Mana Potion (B)' x20!]
[Summoning 'Power Potion (B+)' x16!]
[Summoning…]
About 54 minutes had passed in the mission by now.
The Fourth Advanced Scouts were still fighting hard inside.
Master was also focused on aiding their deployed heroes.
Even so, I would not know how this trial would conclude.
Would the scouts perish or prevail?
I certainly hoped for the latter.
[Well, if the scouts managed to win the boss stage, then you wouldn't have to worry for your trashy seal.]
Alam said directly to me.
"Thanks for the sympathy."
The fairy immediately turned flustered upon my cold response.
[I-I didn't mean it like that! I meant you would then have time to upgrade your seal until you would visit a boss stage again!]
The warden stated.
Now that was an interesting thing she said.
The dread I felt for the current scouting attempt was torturing me. So I best used this chance to distract myself for a moment.
"I noticed that seals had levels like our skills. Is that what you meant by improving my seal?"
[Yeah! If your seal levelled up, then its effect would improve. It could even evolve into a higher rank!]
My seal definitely needed improvement.
It was an F-rank seal and barely had any effect on me.
Alam previously said I could also replace my seal with a more powerful one.
A 4-star hero could only have one seal, but they were not stuck with it.
But I would need another seal stone to replace mine, and another Advent Stone to obtain that new seal stone, which I did not have, and likely would not have for quite a long while.
So improving my existing seal was the best option for now.
"How much higher can a seal evolve in rank?"
I asked Alam.
[It depends. Some seals could only evolve a rank higher. Others could reach three times higher or even more.]
The Being said I still had the chance to unleash the seal's true potential.
I was not sure I would be able to achieve that.
But I would be very satisfied if I could evolve my seal to B-rank like Djhotti's and Graihan's. Or even just a rank lower.
If only I had the time to—
Thump!
A mysterious wave suddenly passed through me.
I did not know what it was exactly or where it came from.
But I felt it resonating with something within me.
['Wings of Malaikat (F-)' is activated!]
My seal!
That was what the wave resonated with.
Somehow my seal responded to it, whatever it was.
Two notification windows immediately emerged before me.
[Interference by foreign power detected!]
[Server error!]
Interference? On what?
Foreign power? Whose?
Server…error?
What could they possibly mean?
I quickly turned to the warden.
"Alam, did you feel that just now? What's happ--"
The fairy hovered by me in complete silence.
Her face was struck with great terror.
Never had I seen her so terrified like that.
"Alam, is something the matter?"
The fairy jumped at my words.
[Ah, yes! Wh-what is it?]
She replied with a distraught face.
"You looked really troubled. What happened earlier? What was that wave just now?"
Alam avoided my gaze.
[You sensed that?! I-I mean…no! N-nothing! Nothing happened! Anyway, I gotta go!]
She rapidly blurted before vanishing.
What could had troubled her so?
[Loading…]
[Restoring…]
More notifications.
Somehow I had this feeling that I was not supposed to be seeing these messages.
But since I had the Intervention Points channeled into me, and for some reason my seal as well, I could perceive them.
Something seemed to be happening. Not just with the trial, but with the forged land itself.
And I doubted it was anything good.
[Restoration Complete!]
[Reconnecting to the server. We apologize for the inconvenience.]
Server. There was the term again.
I supposed it referred to the power behind the forged land.
But who could this 'we' possibly be?
Before I could wonder further on the matter, notification windows surged before me.
[All members of Party 6 have fallen into the state of panic. All stats reduced by 50%!]
[All members of Party 7 have fallen into the state of fear. All stats reduced by 30%!]
[All members of Party 8 have fallen into the state of panic. All stats reduced by 50%!]
[All members of Party 9 have fallen into the state of fear. All stats reduced by 30%!]
[All members of Party 10 have fallen into the state of panic. All stats reduced by 50%!]