"Let me go!"
A shout from below suddenly distracted me.
I gazed down to the first floor square and saw the fairy dragging a fat man and a skinny woman with her.
They were heading to the synthesis chamber.
"Please, I won't do it again! I will stop bothering the others! I will just train and work hard!"
"I won't steal food from the second floor anymore! I promise!"
[Too late! Should've thought of that before committing your crimes!]
The fairy said as she tossed the two into the synthesis chamber.
She turned back to the first floor square.
[Hey, tall girl! Get in there, quick!]
I looked to see who the fairy was speaking to.
Quinda soon came to my vision, cladded in her trainee outfit.
The former servant entered the synthesis chamber as the fairy told. The building's grand doors soon shut after her.
[Whew! I can't believe how busy I am! I thought I could relax more since you've now become Vice-Master.]
The fairy said as she hovered to me on the second floor square.
"Master is ordering synthesis again?"
[Yup! Master seems eager to sacrifice all the heroes that are being detained for their crimes.]
The synthesis chamber soon glowed.
The fairy quickly tapped my shoulder.
[Ooh! I've been meaning to tell you this! Quick, observe the synthesis chamber!]
I did as she said and maintained my gaze on the shining building.
Notification windows soon appeared before me.
[Beginning synthesis.]
['Felrod (★)' has become light and disappeared.]
['Reva (★)' has become light and disappeared.]
The light of the synthesis chamber then diminished.
[Synthesis complete!]
['Quinda (★)' levelled up!]
"I've never seen these notifications when I saw synthesis before."
I said to the fairy as the former servant stepped out from the synthesis chamber. Air of newfound strength was emanating from the tall girl.
[Now that you're Vice-Master, you are able to see the system logs that only master can see! Not all the logs, of course. But still more than what the average heroes could.]
The fairy said.
I nodded to her.
"Being a Vice-Master does have its perks, I suppose."
I then turned my gaze back to the hero that had just been developed.
[Master, there is a hero awaiting promotion!]
[Hero available for promotion - 'Quinda (★)']
Seemed like Quinda was doing well in her training.
She even caught master's attention and received synthesis just so her level could be high enough for promotion.
Perhaps it was the right choice for her to become a combatant.
The environment on the first floor must had become more suitable for developing new amateur heroes.
Trudy had done an excellent job.
I was worried that the thugs that would occasionally appear would hinder the first floor trainees' progress.
I actually had been planning a way to tackle the problem.
"Have master approved my suggestion to build a proper facility for misbehaving heroes?"
I asked the fairy.
She shook her head.
"Master declined my recommendation?"
[Not exactly.]
The fairy replied.
She waved her hand and summoned another window in front of me.
[Vice-Master 'Serafina (★★★★)' proposes to build a new facility, 'Detention Center'.]
[Accept?]
[Yes / No]
It was the report I wrote for master yesterday.
All my suggestions that had been relayed to master would be transformed into these system logs, as the fairy called them.
Their current state of approval was also shown.
Whenever I wanted to check on master's decision on one of my reports, I could always ask the fairy to bring the logs up.
[As you can see, master has not given a decision yet. But they have read your report. So master has noticed your suggestion.]
"Given the rate of new heroes being summoned, we need to build the Detention Center as soon as we could. We know the existence of synthesis alone isn't enough to prevent the thugs from emerging. The detention facility would discourage everyone further from committing crimes."
Shingg!
The building across the synthesis chamber on the first floor square suddenly glowed up.
It was the regular summoning chamber.
Master likely wanted to replace the two people that got synthesized earlier.
Just when I was worrying of the lobby's rapid increase in population.
Given it was a regular summoning, I hoped master would not be getting more trash for the forged land.
It was already hard work to develop the inexperienced heroes that indeed wanted to give their best.
No need to make the burden heavier.
We needed people that would make it lighter instead.
As I observed the shining building, more notification windows appeared before me.
[Master, initiating Regular Summoning!]
[You have chosen 2-consecutive Regular Summoning. It will consume a total of 20,000 Gold.]
[Would you like to proceed with the summoning?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
So I was right. There was a price for master to summon their heroes to the forged land.
I was wondering how all the gold we acquired in the trials would be spent.
The only time I actually saw master made use of them was when they sent us to the Exploration Dungeon.
I supposed if we wanted to increase our manpower, we needed to repeatedly clear the trials. Especially the Quintal Trials since they bore the richest rewards.
No wonder master summoned a lot more people every time we cleared those grand missions.
[Master, starting 2-consecutive Regular Summoning!]
[I'm excited to see what heroes will appear!]
[DRRRRRR…]
[Boom!]
[Uncommon!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Halim (★★)'!]
[Uncommon!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Ashni (★★)'!]
[Ding!!!]
[There is a strong connection between the two summoned individuals.]
[A bond called the 'Silvergray Mercenary Corps' has been formed!]
The light of the summoning chamber soon diminished.
Walked out from the building were a couple of dark-skinned elderly people, each of them dressed like Tsahanam folks.
Their hair was as silver as snow and skin as wrinkled as dried leather.
The man was tall and skinny. But he was unhindered by the weight of the long black double-sword hanging on his back.
The woman next to him was just as tall, but had fuller physique. A short bow, a quiver of arrows, and a pair of curved daggers were strapped around her.
Given the notification mentioning about a 'bond' and their shared appearances, I supposed the two heroes knew each other the way Giacomo and Linnie did.
Quite an interesting pair of heroes.
But there was something else that caught my attention.
"S-1-G-Y-N... Sigyn? Is that Master's name?"
I asked the fairy as two administrator staffs welcomed the newly-summoned heroes at the first floor square.
The winged-creature nodded.
[Uh-huh! I've never told you that, have I?]
Sigyn.
It was not a name I was familiar of.
I had expected an enigmatic being such as Master would have a unique name.
But I hoped at least it would have some significance to Dunia's legend or culture.
I wondered the significance of the number '1' as a letter substitute.
Why would Master's name be written that way in the system logs?
This topic actually made me notice something else significant.
"Come to think of it, I still don't know your name, warden."
I told the fairy.
She immediately put on a sulking face.
[I can't believe it took you all this time just to ask that simple question!]
"To be fair, you weren't exactly approachable when we first met."
The fairy jerked her head back, shocked.
[Urk! You do have a point there.]
She said.
The tiny creature cleared her throat and went on.
[Anyway, my name is Alam! You better remember that from now on!]
Alam. Now that was a name that I could figure out the meaning to.
I then slightly bowed my head to the fairy's introduction.
"Very well! Nice to be properly acquainted with you, Lady Alam. May we continue to work together in harmon-"
Shingg!!!
A great light burst from my flank.
I turned and saw the building by the second floor square shined bright like the sun.
It was a summoning chamber. The advanced summoning chamber.
[Ooh! An advanced summoning now! Master must be feeling lucky drawing those 2-stars earlier!]
Alam said with an excited smile.
I nodded with great anticipation as well.
"We've just cleared another Quintal Trial. It's time for Master to summon more advanced heroes to the lobby."
Time to confirm my theory.
I suspected that Yuxia's arrival to the forged land was caused by the subquest reward we obtained on the tenth floor.
The mysterious feather which resounded those inexplicable whispers.
How that feather had been potentially increasing the chances for higher-ranked heroes to appear in the forged land.
I examined the building's system log in order to determine whether that theory of mine was a fact or just a feeble assumption.
[Master, initiating Advanced Summoning!]
[You have chosen 5-consecutive Advanced Summoning. It will consume a total of 2,500 Gems.]
[Would you like to proceed with the summoning?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
The advanced summoning used a different resource called gems.
I doubted Master acquired them through the trials or the Weekday Dungeons.
But they definitely worth more than gold since they were used to summon higher-ranked heroes.
[Master, starting 5-consecutive Advanced Summoning!]
[I'm excited to see what heroes will appear!]
[DRRRRRR…]
[Clack! Thud! Boom!]
[Rare!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Fangli (★★★)'!]
[Rare!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Haoban (★★★)'!]
[Ding!!!]
[There is a strong connection between the two summoned individuals.]
[A bond called the 'Brothers of the Shining Boar' has been formed!]
Considering their names and the term 'Shining Boar,' I expected we would be gaining more Tchakran heroes into our midst.
But the summoning was not done yet.
From the notification windows hovering beyond me, there were three more advanced heroes bound to arrive to the forged land.
Shingggg!!!!!!
The light of the advanced summoning chamber suddenly glowed even brighter. Never had I seen such light in the forged land before.
Another barrage of vibrant notifications bombarded me.
[Wait, this feeling?]
[!★!Super!★!Rare!★!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Ulrica (★★★★)'!]
[!★!Super!★!Rare!★!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Djhotti (★★★★)'!]
[!★!Super!★!Rare!★!]
[Master 'S1GYN' has obtained hero 'Graihan (★★★★)'!]
I supposed these confirmed it.
That theory of mine was not just a fact.
It was an absolute undeniable truth after all.