"It looks like everyone understands."
"This gathering is aimed at adventurers between Lv.1 and Lv.3. It's a trial—to give you enough pressure and see whether, under that pressure, your potential can be squeezed out."
"If your will holds, you can achieve the 'surpass' you've dreamed of during this test."
A dry swallow rippled through the lower ranks. If "surpass" was real, then no matter how hard the trial, they would endure it.
"As for whether this trial works—we already know it does," Finn said. "We, and Alise's side as well, have gone through it. The results exceeded expectations by a wide margin."
"The reason for running this pilot is to confirm whether, after we lower the settings, lower-level adventurers can still hold out long enough to reap results."
The words stung—and yet they were a shot in the arm. Willpower wasn't what they lacked; they'd never lacked that. What they needed was one chance—one guarantee they could cross the awkward gap they were stuck behind.
And the captain had just given them a clear answer—one verified by many. This pilot mattered.
"But this is only a pilot," Finn cautioned. "We can't have too many Familia members 'vanish' for too long. If outsiders notice, it'll cause Tsuna a lot of trouble."
Heads around the room nodded. The Loki Familia was always under a lens; if too many members disappeared, eyes would turn. Whatever this trial was, it came by way of a newcomer. No matter what, they wouldn't draw attention to him.
"Captain, how many in the first batch?"
"Given our headcount, the initial cohort is twenty," Finn said. "We just returned from an expedition; this period is for decompression. We can't pull too many people at once."
"So: twenty for the start. One week. Each day: half a day in the trial, half a day for rest."
"After the week, we'll update everyone's status here in the dining hall and share the data internally."
The numbers and schedule were clear—as were the reasons. Those eager to join also grasped a key point: this opportunity existed because of the Familia's newcomer. That meant handling information with care. A pilot meant a formal rollout later; no one wanted leaks to ruin their shot when the real program began.
"Tonight we'll draft the specific plan," Finn concluded. "And select the members for this first wave."
The room stirred; the "Loki Familia Low-Rank Uplift Plan" began with a roar. Twenty wasn't much—around a tenth of their core—and the post-expedition lull meant it wasn't strange if some faces went unseen for a week or two. Not every Loki adventurer was constantly watched, either. The timing gave the pilot extra cover.
"Tsk. The dark Factions did it clean," Hermes muttered elsewhere, poring over Dungeon reports. The disturbance on the 18th floor was now clear: monsters surged not only up from the 17th, but down from the 19th as well.
"Raising such a ruckus in the Dungeon… a mutated Goliath, an early Amphisbaena—their first return in three years."
"And this time, they targeted Astraea's children again."
Hermes wasn't surprised the dark Factions hated Astraea, or that they'd go after her kids. What puzzled him was how quickly Loki learned about it.
"We still can't confirm how Loki knew?" he asked.
"Can't," Asfi said, shaking her head. She'd combed the whole of Rivira, and the findings were stark:
"There's no active network relaying intel upward from Rivira. Even if one existed, at that time it was effectively paralyzed."
"Information transfer takes time. Based on Loki Familia's transit through Rivira, Loki-sama's stop at the Guild, and the invitation to Astraea-sama, we can infer that Loki knew specifics within an hour of the incident."
"Our tests show even the fastest written relay from below to the surface takes at least four hours," Asfi continued. "Given the Dungeon's unrest then, half a day would be more realistic."
"So we infer Loki has another channel," she finished. "At present, the only plausible vector is their new recruit."
"A summoner… is it?" Hermes murmured. From the "Extraordinary" man's offhand remark—that Loki's superstar rookie was being set beside the Sword Princess level—the method and path of Loki's intelligence suddenly weren't hard to guess.
(End of Chapter)
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