As expected, master made Party 1 frequented the fourteenth floor until all of us levelled up once more.
It took a total of 12 trips, but we finally did it.
The 2-stars, Jonah and Shanny, reached level 15.
As for the 3-stars, Darius got up to level 12, while Devisha a level below him at 11.
I also reached level 11.
Unlike the lower floors, this time we still gained experience points after reaching these levels. We did not exactly plateau yet.
However, it would take 25 to 30 more trips to make us level up once again. And there was no guarantee we would not stop receiving experience points in the middle of the way like before.
So I doubted master would make us go through all those efforts.
I, myself, thought we had improved as far as we could, considering the trials accessible to us currently.
The soldiers on the twelfth to the fourteenth floor could not provide enough challenge to my comrades that would push them to improve their skills further.
Since master had not called us for three days in a row, we had now officially entered the resting period before the climb continuation.
The next time master called us to the rift, we would be climbing to the fifteenth floor. The third Quintal Trial.
Because of that, my comrades and I had been performing our final preparations, which included honing our skills that we had obtained and developed all this time.
I had acquired some new ones since I had been practicing with my pupils.
Their magic skills had reached a point where I could involve them with my own training now.
The three really gained much confidence after they solved the grimoire formula. To the point that they enthusiastically study more formulas concerning their sorcery specialties despite I never gave them the order.
It led to them showing me certain spells I had not seen before. Such as sub-elemental magic.
Also, just like Yuxia and Vallerynne, when I was processing the mysterious crystal using the grimoire formula, my sorcery skills improved.
The grimoire formula truly was a high level sorcery that simply practicing it exerted almost every magic skill I had in me.
The experience gave me the opportunity to broaden my skill sets.
That was what I was focusing with my pupils during my training with them.
I now possessed new tricks up my sleeve which would be very useful in the third Quintal Trial.
It was without a doubt that we had benefited from the subquest rewards.
But we did gain more from the rewards aside from my magic skills improvement.
While Party 1 were frequenting the fourteenth floor, my pupils and I alongside the crafters worked endlessly to process the mysterious crystal from the tenth floor and forged it into something we could use.
It was quite an elaborate and intricate crafting.
Vallerynne, Yuxia, and I had to be present during both the smelting and forging processes. Casting the grimoire formula so the material would be malleable to be tempered with.
Then the three of us would spend an entire night standing around the enchantment pedestal to instill spells into the equipment we were making using the processed crystal.
Matrias had also examined another set of grimoire formulas that I suspected would help us work on the precious material.
Since we had figured out the first formula, it was turning slightly easier to study the others. Just slightly.
The sub-elemental mage managed to discover more supportive spells that enabled us to use the crystal more optimally.
I had never done magic equipment-making in this level before, but it was worth it.
There were many plans I had prepared to make use of the crystal.
Crafting weapons and armors were the priorities. Weapons over armors.
But Gerrits said he needed better supporting materials to create those powerful items from my plans. He intended to get them from the Exploration Dungeon.
The mage craftsman also wanted more time to do research and recipe-planning of his own. Saying the projects might be his masterpieces so he wanted to do it carefully.
From his explanation, it was very unlikely we would be able to create any weapon or armor of the crystal before our climb to the fifteenth floor.
So I shifted to my secondary plans.
My pupils, Gerrits and his best crafters, and I worked hard to create the equipment that would definitely help us in the upcoming Quintal Trial.
I promised to my comrades and to myself that the subquest rewards would be useful. And I believed I had fulfilled the promise.
"These rings can grant us powers?"
Jonah said as he eyed the four crystal rings on the enchantment pedestal.
I nodded to him and handed one to each of my four party comrades.
"These rings are enchanted with high level spells. They would allow you to draw on their powers and enable useful abilities."
"We can use magic if we wear the ring?"
Shanny asked with a gasp.
"In a way."
I replied her.
I pointed the woman's ring and went on.
"This ring is enchanted with a mental rune. It could sense your rage, Shanny. The accessory would feed off your anger and activate the strength, agility, and stamina enhancement spells instilled on it."
Matrias did an amazing job pointing out this mental spell from the grimoire. A rune that could sense someone's mental state and feed off its emotion to activate another spell.
It was a way for non-mage to use magic.
Artifacts often had this sort of spell. But those sorts of runes would usually be too specific that they could not be used for other objects.
"I would get even stronger if I become angry while wearing this?"
Shanny said while putting the ring on.
"I designed the ring specifically for you, considering your skills set. The ring would prove most effectively when you activated Berserk."
Shanny's Berserk skill was fueled by anger. A skill that increased her stats while sacrificing her reasoning skill.
She also had a Savage skill which increased her strength according to her rage level.
Added with the ring's enhancement spells, then Shanny's power would increase more than half every time she activated the Berserk skill. Perhaps almost two-fold.
And the best thing about the ring, I would never have to recharge the enchantment.
The subquest reward crystal used as the main material for the ring had its own mana-generation attribute.
The material would power its runes forever.
No wonder the tenth floor became much harder once we tried the subquest.
It made me curious just how useful all of the subquest rewards could turn out to be.