As Yuxia was ascending the grand stairs leading to the second floor, a party passed him by on their way down.
"He is still troubled, I see."
Djhotti commented, turning his gaze toward Yuxia that was about to vanish at the top of the staircase.
"I don't know. I think being hot-tempered is just his personality."
Ulrica said with a teasing smile.
Graihan snorted at their exchange.
"You daywalkers pay attention to useless things. Aren't we heading out to a hunt right now?"
Seeing the other 4-stars had come down to the first floor square, I approached them.
"Are you all ready for your first trial?"
I asked them.
The Guntur Near-Kin nodded to me.
"We're ready. The five of us have trained together earlier this morning."
"The mages have shown what they can do. They'll be able to support us in battle."
The dwarf stated in confidence.
The lycanthrope shrugged at their words.
"I still don't like working with mages. But at least they're skilled enough that we won't get in each other's way in battle."
Having heard the 4-stars' words, I turned to the two people trailing them.
"Matrias, Vallerynne, just do your best. The 4-stars will protect you."
I told my pupils.
The two replied me with stiff nods.
This would be the first time they visited a trial. A real combat experience in the forged land.
I had been personally training them even before I went to the fifteenth floor.
They should be able to handle the enemies on the floor they were heading to.
And with the three 4-stars accompanying them, the 3-star mages should have nothing to worry about.
I would dare say this would be the strongest party combination in the lobby as of yet.
"Alam, time to do your job."
The fairy immediately appeared as I sounded her name.
[The volunteer party is here? Alright then. Give me a sec.]
The winged-creature said before she vanished once more.
Soon, a window emerged above me.
[Master, Party 3 (temporary) wishes to challenge the 8th Floor of the Main Dungeon.]
[Party 3 (temporary): 'Ulrica (★★★★)'
[Would you like to deploy the party?]
[Yes / No]
This was how the volunteer party request was presented to Master.
The party arrangement would always be temporary as only Master could authorize a permanent assignment.
If a volunteer party performed well, Master sometime would make the arrangement permanent.
The party number used for the volunteer request would be the vacant party with the smallest assignment number.
Master had assigned the second floor trainees into fixed parties. But Master put them into Party 21 and above. So was the assignment for the gatherer parties.
Party 3 to 20 were still vacant as far as I was aware.
I only had access to this information after I was appointed Vice-Master and the warden pointed it out to me.
There were quite a lot of restricted records that I now had access to since I was appointed Vice-Master.
[Master, Party 3 (temporary) wishes to challenge the 8th Floor of the Main Dungeon.]
[Party 3 (temporary): 'Ulrica (★★★★)'
[Would you like to deploy the party?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
Master approved the volunteer request.
The rift of space-time soon glowed up with the familiar bluish-white light.
[Alright. You guys can go in now.]
The fairy said urging the 4-stars and my pupils.
Ulrica was made party leader.
Well, she had the highest leadership skills given her background as a Guntur Near-Kin.
Dwarfs and lycanthropes were more known as solitary fighters.
In comparison, Ulrica would be the best choice leading the group. Though I doubted their party would be needing any direction given the floor they were heading to.
The eighth floor.
Thirty goblin riders. Enemy force at level 10.
It would be a perfect challenge for the three 4-stars.
The first to the fourth floor would be too easy for them.
The 4-star heroes had only levelled up once through synthesis, but their stats were already on par to a weak level 10 1-star hero or a weak level 11 2-star.
When a trainee reached that level, they were made to challenge the eighth floor. Hence my suggestion to the volunteer party.
Matrias and Vallerynne would also level up rapidly by directly challenging the higher floor.
They would soon be strong enough to be put in a fixed party.
And just when I was thinking of it, the fairy suddenly flew over to me.
[Master just made another order. Would you like to see it in writing or through a log?]
"Just the log for now. Send the written copy to my desk."
I told the warden.
She then waved her hand and made a window appear before me.
[Master 'S1GYN' is ordering Vice-Master 'Serafina (★★★★)' to assign the following heroes to the designated parties.]
[Heroes: 'Djhotti (★★★★)', 'Graihan (★★★★)', 'Ulrica (★★★★)', 'Arian (★★★)', 'Fangli (★★★)', 'Haoban (★★★)', 'Matrias (★★★)', 'Vallerynne (★★★)']
[Designated Parties: Party 3, Party 4, Party 5, Party 6]
[Directive 1: Two heroes per party]
[Directive 2: No two 4-star heroes in the same party]
[Directive 3: No two 'Mage' class heroes in the same party]
[Directive 4: Assignment based on the highest compatibility between heroes]
Of course, I was not the only one giving out recommendations or suggestions.
Master could also send me, their Vice-Master, requests as well. Or in this case, an order.
Ever since I became Sigyn's second-in-command, they would instruct me to perform various tasks regarding the management of the lobby.
This would be the first time they directly asked me to arrange party assignments, however.
[Master wants to assign the advanced heroes, huh?]
The fairy said, observing the window.
"Sigyn probably noticed the volunteer party earlier and did not want us to stick with the arrangement."
I said to her.
I proceeded to scan the conditions Master set for me.
The heroes must be put in pairs in each party. The 4-stars could not be assigned together, the same with the mages. The assigned heroes needed to be compatible with one another.
That would give us three parties each composed of one 4-star hero and one 3-star hero, and one party with two 3-star heroes.
A wise condition set by Sigyn.
This was actually how I also planned to distribute our remaining advanced heroes.
Our force would be spread equally this way.
I already knew Fangli and Haoban would be the ones filling the party with two 3-stars.
They probably had the highest compatibility in comparison to the other combinations.
Paired up together, the Tchakran warriors' party would not have that much of a strength gap with the parties that had a 4-star in their ranks, in comparison to a party of a pair of 3-star heroes that were not as compatible as the Tchakrans.
Graihan already said he did not want to have a mage in his party.
So that meant Arian would be his comrade.
The Kutub hunter had good agility and strength. She should be a good match for the lycanthrope.
That left Ulrica, Djhotti, and my two pupils.
I actually already informed the four heroes to see who they could work well with while they were in the volunteer party together.
Ulrica should be compatible with Matrias since she needn't worry of getting hurt from Matrias's lightning spells. The Near-Kin's status window said she was immune to lightning.
And Djhotti should be able to benefit from Vallerynne's enchantment. The dwarf would be even more formidable if the enchanter could cast fortification and various enhancement spells.
Indeed.
That was how I would arrange their assignments.
I would first observe how the heroes thought of the pairings before I made the suggestion to Master.
And once all the advanced heroes had their own party, we could start finding talented 2-star trainees to complement their ranks.
If I was reading Sigyn's intentions right, if they were as wise as I thought they were, then they would probably resume the climb once all six parties were completely formed.
It would take a while before we would visit the sixteenth floor if that was the case.
But it was for the best.
The second floor combatant trainees still needed to be improved further by the 4-stars before they could join the Raid Team.
However, before their training could begin, the 4-stars needed to level up first.
I wondered how long that would take.
The rift of space-time suddenly shined once more.
The volunteer party soon walked out from there and poured into the square.
Matrias and Vallerynne immediately collapsed on the ground, exhausted.
"That was insane!"
Matrias cried.
"Why would Master put us through all that?!"
Vallerynne joined him.
I frowned at their reactions since the other 4-stars seemed relatively composed.
"Why? What happened? Did Master not send you to the eighth floor? Did Master perhaps made you climb to the sixteenth floor already?"
Vallerynne immediately shook her head upon my questions.
"No. We visited the eighth floor. Just that one floor."
"Then why are you reacting this way? Surely I've trained you enough to hold against thirty goblin riders."
I told my pupils.
Matrias suddenly smiled and chuckled.
He was amused, or rather, irritated with his situation.
"Try facing them five times in a row."
I frowned once more at his words.
"Five times?"
"Master made us clear the eighth floor five times!"
Vallerynne shouted out loud.
I could not help but look to the other 4-star heroes.
"You cleared the eighth floor five times? But it's barely six minutes since you last entered the rift."
Ulrica chuckled at my words.
"Those goblin riders were nothing. They were the kinds that Guntur warriors asked our porters and camp cooks to take care of while we're exploring the Death Islands."
"They're vicious. But those monsters could never compare to even the tamest ones living in Phirdaus."
Djhotti said with a shrug.
Graihan nodded and yawned.
"Like crushing cockroaches. Each hunt barely lasted half a minute. It was disappointing."
The lycanthrope then pointed to my exhausted pupils.
"During our last couple of tries, we let the mages kill all the vermin just so the battle lasted a bit longer."
"YOU ALL COULD"VE HELPED US A LITTLE, YOU KNOW?!"
Vallerynne snapped at the half-beast.
"What are you talking about? I distracted the monsters so you could cast your spells, didn't I?"
Graihan said with a shrug.
"Still, though! How could you just put us on the spot so suddenly like that?!"
Matrias complained.
Ulrica laughed and smacked the middle-aged man forcefully on the back.
"Relax! I've seen your Sky Tears in training, southlander. I knew you could exterminate those pests without us lifting a finger."
Djhotti nodded with her.
"That's right. And we would never let those monsters harm you even if you failed to kill them."
As the group continued blabbering with each other, I observed their status windows.
After five consecutive trips to the eighth floor, Matrias and Vallerynne both levelled up three times, while each of the 4-star heroes levelled up once.
I could not help but curl my lips into a smile.
Perhaps those parties would be formed sooner than I would expected.