After Harl's resignation from the raid team, master made Party 1 continue climbing the next day.
[Floor 13]
[Mission Type – Subjugation]
[Objective – Annihilate the enemies!]
The sun was at its peak, shining brightly toward our surroundings.
This time we were transported to a large paved street, fenced by three to five-storied buildings on either flank.
I recognized the scenery to be part of Tsuchi's middle layer districts.
"Stay where you are and drop your weapons!"
A voice suddenly called out upon our arrival.
My comrades and I immediately observed the battlefield.
Blockade was raised on either end of the street. East and west.
A dozen soldiers on each side.
Four crossbowmen, five spearmen, and three swordsmen composed each blockade.
There was a sword-wielding captain on the western end. The one shouting at us.
[Human Soldier Lv.12 x25]
My comrades remained silent and held a firm grip on their weapons.
From the cold eyes on their faces, they did not intend to obey the captain's demands.
Neither did I.
"We'll focus on breaking through the western side first, where their captain is present. Then we'll handle the eastern blockade."
I told my comrades.
When I saw their nods, I raised my hands to the west.
[Maha Bhumi]
Streams of mana flowed into the ground beneath us as I chanted the spell.
[Quake]
The paved street rippled like a disturbed pond and formed a wave of stone blocks, rolling toward the soldiers.
[Arise]
The wave burst into an explosion of rock fragments. Wrecking the western blockade and killing five soldiers. All of the crossbowmen and the captain.
I should had killed more, given I was casting a Second Circle spell, but the enemies quickly dispersed themselves once they saw my attack.
Having intelligent enemies had its drawback after all.
Upon the initial charge of mine, my comrades rushed toward the scattered soldiers.
Darius and Jonah each sent an exploding projectile toward their ranks and claimed four more enemies.
Thanks to the dust cloud and chaos erupting, the remaining ones did not see my other two comrades coming.
With great swiftness, Shanny and Devisha struck down the rest of the frantic soldiers.
I suddenly heard crossbows cranking on the other side of the street.
The eastern blockade began their charge toward us.
Ping!
Ping!
Ping!
The crossbowmen launched their arrows.
Anticipating this, Jonah and Darius rushed back and intercepted the projectiles.
[Maha Bhumi]
Upon their assist, I casted another spell.
[Quake]
Another ripple was sent to the eastern side.
[Arise]
The wave exploded into leaping sharp fragments, claiming six soldiers at once.
['Serafina (★★★★)'s Basic Earth Magic has levelled up to level 7!]
Excellent.
For the past while I had been improving my earth elemental magic.
Considering how useful the element was in fending off large number of enemies on the tenth floor, I decided to include earth spells to my offensive moves.
Water would be ideal as well. But there were a number of combination spells between fire and earth magic that I could see their uses in the immediate future.
And if I collaborated the two elements correctly, I would be able to use sub-elemental magic as well.
One step at a time.
This trial came first.
Seeing my second charge, my comrades turned their attention to the eastern blockade.
The remaining six soldiers attempted to give a better resistance than their fellows on the other side.
However, despite outnumbering my comrades, six to four, the soldiers were not as coordinated as I would expect from trained city guards.
They each charged alone instead together, side by side.
The remaining crossbowmen did not attempt to cover their comrades from the rear. Instead they joined the fight in the frontline.
The swordsmen and the spearmen could not support each other really well. At times, they were actually obstructing each other's movements.
I doubted their performance would improve even if I had never attacked with my spells earlier.
They simply had no sense of teamwork.
Lucky for us, then.
Being faced with such reckless opponents, my comrades had no difficulties obliterating the remaining enemies.
They killed the soldiers as easily as they would the fourth floor monsters.
Puddles of pitch black blood drenched the corpse-littered shattered paved street of Tsuchi.
[Stage Clear!]
['Jonah (★★)', 'Shanny (★★)', 'Darius (★★★)', 'Devisha (★★★)' levelled up!]
[MVP – 'Serafina (★★★★)']
[Reward – 45,000G, Iron Ore (C) x8, Leather (C) x5l]
The familiar bluish-white light rapidly engulfed my comrades and I. We were soon returned to the mirrored chamber.
All of us immediately turned to the mirror on our furthest left.
[Climb the tower and save the world!]
[Main Dungeon]
[Floor conquered - 13 -]
Thirteen floors cleared.
We were halfway point to our third Quintal Trial.
"Good job, everyone. Be ready to frequent the thirteenth floor starting the day after tomorrow."
I said to my comrades as we left the rift and poured into the first floor square.
"The number of enemies have increased. Party 2 and the others would want to know this."
Jonah commented as we continued to climb the grand staircase leading to the second floor of the lobby.
"We should also adapt our training so we're accustomed to fighting against many people at once."
Darius said.
Devisha nodded to the former knight.
"I agree. There are differences between how human and monster fight after all."
"We should ask Party 2's help for that. In any case, we should go speak with them. I think they're in their training ground, still sparring with the second floor trainees to find their fifth member."
Shanny suggested.
"Don't forget our daily strategy meeting in the magic hall tonight."
I told my comrades before they went up another set of grand staircase leading to the third floor of the lobby.
Once they nodded back to me, I continued on toward the rows of workshops on the second floor.
Fletchers crafting arrows, blacksmiths forging swords and other iron work, armorers making leather pad, chainmail and metal plating, leatherer creating boots, gloves, quivers, pouches, satchels, and other products.
The quality of their crafts were more than acceptable even by the Zeref standards.
Gerrits had done well recruiting and training more capable crafters for the workshops.
The first floor trainees were always provided with proper equipment for the trials. While the raid team were given the best the crafters had to offer.
We would not need to worry of being under-armed in the trials.
The chief crafter would make sure we had more than we needed. And I wanted to aid him on that front.
I walked into the workshops' large depository where the crafters temporarily stored their finished products before delivering them to the main and the basic storages.
As the scale of production increased, they might eventually need a manager to organize this place as well, since they would need to keep track of equipment orders from all the lobby floors.
I looked around and found Yuxia in a corner of the depository, hovering his hands over a pile of arrows.
[Akarshanam]
The 4-star elementalist chanted.
Threads of shining crimson mana flowed from his fingertips into the pile of slim wooden shafts beneath him.
The man was imbuing his Second Circle fire spell into the arrows to turn them into exploding projectiles.
The arrowhead was wrought with a concentration of fire elemental stone. While the wooden shaft was coated with fire elemental stone grains and carved with a rune pattern for fire spell.
Only through those preparations that we could create the exploding arrows.
Jonah's throwing spears were significantly larger in size and made of iron for most of its part, which generally able to handle mana without breaking down, so no runes and elemental stones needed. Which was why I could immediately enchant the weapon during the first Quintal Trial.
Yuxia's skills in elemental magic, especially the fire element, had improved really well. Enough for him to start enchanting weapons.
Normally, elemental mages had difficulties manipulating other objects except through telekinesis spell.
But Yuxia's proficiency with various elements provided him with enough talent to cast basic elemental enchantment magic.
I had been making him help me with enchanting all the exploding projectiles and the wind arrows for the raid team.
He had actually obtained Basic Enchantment skill for performing this work.
When Yuxia finally mastered his elemental spells adequately, I would start giving him enchantment lesson until he could learn dimensional magic.
And speaking of enchantment lesson, once Vallerynne advanced in her training, I would also have her help me with casting fortification enchantment on all the weapons and armors.
"Urgh, you're torturing me, Serafina!"
The eastern man complained upon seeing me entering the depository.
I raised my eyebrow innocently.
"Am I? In what way?"
"Physical exercises before dawn. Magic lesson in the morning. Frequenting the tower's trials at noon. Performing my research hours and formula simulations in the afternoon. Battle formation training with Party 2 till evening. Continued with our strategy meeting till way past midnight."
Yuxia said. He then pointed to the pile of enchanted arrows and throwing spears.
"And then this! I don't have any free time anymore! I barely got time to sleep! Or eat! I'm supposed to have my lunch right now!"
"Oh quit whining. You only need a couple of minutes to eat your meal."
"Not everyone is a workaholic like you, Serafina! Spending barely any time to even eat. Some of us like to chew our food first so we won't choke to death!"
"We're not here to play, Yuxia. You, of all people, should understand what we're doing in the forged land. You accepted the contract, remember?"
The lobby's second 4-star snorted at my words.
He put away the enchanted arrows and placed another normal pile under him.
"At the very least, you should allow me use the enchantment pedestal in the magic hall."
Instilling one's spell into an object and sealing the runes to make the enchantment last permanently was a complicated and difficult method.
Enchantment pedestal could make such elaborate process way simpler and easier.
"We have better uses for the enchantment pedestal."
I told the elementalist.
Ever since I returned from the Exploration Dungeon, I had been using the enchantment pedestal to create golem cores.
I had made six so far.
Master kept supplying me with one or two elemental stones every two or three days.
What little could be spared from what the gatherers obtained from the Weekday Dungeon. Since the precious stones were also used for hero promotion and weapon-making.
Every time enough materials had piled up in the magic hall's depository, I resumed producing more cores.
We needed as much golem as we could make for the fifteenth floor.
"Make sure to enchant every weapon properly. The raid team will be using them after all."
I told Yuxia.
He nodded frustratingly.
"I know, I know. Don't worry about it. Once I'm done with today's batch, we'll have enough explosives to level even Lantern City."
"And don't forget to memorize the formulas for earth and water elemental magic. We'll be learning them starting tomorrow morning."
"Yeah, sure."
"I'm serious, Yuxia. You need to at least master your prime elements and have practical sub-elemental spells ready before we climb the fifteenth floor."
The elementalist sighed at my words.
"I won't get any sleep for the next several weeks, will I?"
I simply nodded at him and left the workshops' depository.
Sacrifices had to be made after all.
I meant it that the raid team carried a large burden.
Working nonstop, losing comfort.
If we were not willing to make these small sacrifices, we would end up being forced to make big ones we certainly did not want later on.
The tenth floor was enough of such experience that I did not intend to undergo again. Ever.