Chapter 106 - Entrance to the Fourth Floor

”There’s no other way but forwards. Standing still will only make matters worse.” ~Yoshelle Ya Yobore

It had been ten days since the raid began. Some time within those days, it had started raining nonstop. Everyone had become accustomed to the flashes of lightning that tore through the skies, and the exploding thunders that followed. And in those days, Grace had been able to participate in all the six sub-raid encounters that occurred. She had gained two levels, investing one to Mana-Edge Sentinel to bring it up to Level 18 for a skill point, and another to Mana Weaver, now at Level 7.

She had allotted all her attribute points to Agility, but couldn’t find the time to look into what Mana-Edge Sentinel skill she would take with her available point. They weren’t expecting an incursion today, so she was hoping to get some reading done while they rested.

Beside her, Chippy was taking a rest. The phoenix had grown a bit after all the fighting. She had given him free reign on how he would support the sub-raid, with the absolute condition that he prioritized his safety. So far, he had been giving a wonderful performance.

The gaps in the fights allowed the sub-raid group to recover somewhat. Though they weren’t frequent, the intensity between incursions had been more and more difficult to deal with each time they had occurred.

It was as Damascus had predicted. And since not everyone had the gift of recovery that Mana Energy could provide, the sub-raid group had more and more people each time who couldn’t recover fast enough for the next fight.

Not to mention the minimal support they were receiving in terms of provisions, maintenance, repairs, and all the other little things that they needed in order to remain in fighting shape. Shallies’ provisions were long gone, and with Apple busy managing the surrounding nature, there was no one available to cook meals with Food Buffs.

The Gaiamaxims Guild had people who could deliver all these provisions and repairs, but across both the people who accompanied the main raid and the ones who had to take care of their actual headquarters far away, even they were being stretched thin to support the sub-raid.

There was also the news of death in the main raid, which had dampened everyone’s morale. Fortunately enough, no one in the sub-raid had suffered the same fate. Grace preferred to keep it that way.

Morale was low, people were barely recovering on time, and reinforcements were scarce. But no one was feeling hopeless.

There was always hope.

“I suppose, if we haven’t returned to our fighting form in ten days, we don’t deserve to call ourselves adventurers. The rain sure is a big nuisance, I have to say.”

Grace turned to see her father speaking to Damascus. Her mother was there as well, including Amabelle, Eamon, Rio, and Guildmaster Robert. They were wearing armor, and carrying their weapons. She waved at both Ren and Tayin to let them know of the situation.

“Not in tiptop shape, but we can handle a pack or two of monsters,” Elesia said. “And don’t worry about the rewards, or anything like that. We just want to help protect our home.”

Chippy greeted his mother’s parents, and they gave him some appreciative coddles in return. No one could resist the warm feathers of a joyful phoenix.

“I’ll still take rewards, if you’re giving them,” Amabelle said, shyly scratching her chin. “This raid has been bad for business lately. I need something to make up for lost bits. Oh, and I won’t be fighting, but I’ll help heal any injuries.”

“What are you talking about?” Tibeth asked, showing up from a nearby tent. “If you’re not fighting, then come in here and cook! We got a lot of mouths to feed!”

“We got provisions!” Marisa called out from behind the owner of the Swallowing Whale. She and her husband, Ben, were carrying a bunch of ingredients. “We don’t have anything that contains Food Buffs, but we can definitely fill you up with energy!”

“If you need any repairs, we can help out too, free of charge!” Danilo added as he waved from another tent.

Yor’ylin showed up and smacked him on the head. “If they’re too difficult to repair, we’re charging!”

“We appreciate the help,” Damascus said, bowing to everyone who came to help. “And yes, we’ll arrange for what we can when the raid is over. We’re not expecting an incursion today, so we can use the time by letting you be familiar with our formations.”

“We observed from afar,” Robert started, nodding. “But, yes. A closer look would be helpful.”

At that, Grace smiled, tapped on her knees, and stood. Ren made a yawn, but he followed anyway. Tayin stretched out her sleepiness before dragging her feet as she joined them. They were the only ones recovered enough to help out.

The man observed the raid, and the raid group that was trying to conquer it. He needed to get out of Thrush’ven Alir, but Chaos wasn’t one to make things that easy. Even after successfully opening a number of rifts, all of them only led to one place where he didn’t wish to be. He couldn’t open one anywhere near him, and he couldn’t maintain its opening for a long time to get there anyway.

Holding Divine Authority was exhausting. With his reawakening after countless years, the recognition of his existence as one capable of manipulating such power remained, but his body had other things to say about using it.

Food and water were of no issue. Even before his stasis, sustenance had been of little concern. Mana was all he needed.

Stellar mana.

But as he began to gather this pristine source of power, he noticed the lack of such a thing.

The man tilted his head, confused. While it was true that Stellar mana had already diminished even during his younger years, for it to be completely gone, he concluded that he had been in stasis for a long, long while.

Now there was just mana.

He knew that Stellar mana could still be nurtured. Of course, there had to be a way for the fundamental force of everything to still exist. Otherwise, Chaos wouldn’t be able to wake him up.

With a smirk, the man gathered every bit of mana he could muster, and began nurturing it.

The man focused. It wasn’t easy tapping into a Divine Authority that had long since taken a rest. And while he remembered how to perform the process, his habits demanded that he also focus his eyes on something. So he stared at the guild making their way to the fourth floor of the Thrush’ven Alir Raid.

A chill ran up his spine. It almost disrupted his concentration.

He could’ve sworn he saw one of them glaring straight at him.

Shallies waited behind as the raid group entered the portal to the fourth floor of the raid. While some raids had access points, like stairs, gates, or the like to their upper floors, Thrush’ven Alir usually utilized portals. Taking advantage of her small height, being at the back made it easy for her to avoid any attention as she observed the mana in the environment.

“Whoever it is, they’re gathering a lot mana,” she whispered so that only the seraphim could hear under their veil. While she didn’t use any skills to pinpoint the location of the unexpected guest, her acute awareness of the levels of mana helped her arrive at that conclusion.

“That means they’ve run out of Stellar mana, right?” Valor’el whispered back. “We won’t be getting any interferences for a while, then.”

“I doubt it’ll stay like that for very long,” Shallies said. “We should assume that the enemy is capable. Make sure you don’t put your guards down.”

The seraphim nodded as they continued through the portal. And while Shallies already knew what they would be facing on this floor, she calmly waited for the Gaiamaxims Guild to realize what they were in for.

The entrance to the floors had always looked the same. For the previous three floors, Velruzen’s Spawns had been waiting for them on ambush, but no spider hung from the cloudy ceiling this time. The floor was still made up of solid clouds, but now darker when compared to the previous ones.

Already, people were setting up their camp. Every time they had moved to a higher floor, the guild would pack up the temporary camps before moving up. As always, Shallies would prepare meals to add to the ones made by some of the Chefs stationed outside of the raid, while the seraphim helped out with the tents and the heavy lifting.

Maxims had issued for the scouting party to proceed with their usual task, but as they approached the hallway, they were greeted by the floor’s surprise.

“What the!?” exclaimed the Guildmaster, recalling the scouting party. “How in the world…?”

People, curious as they were, gathered around to find out what was causing the delay. Right away, gasps filled the air.

On the other end of the hallway was another storm dragon. An Ancient Storm Dragon Horror. Rather than white, its hardened scales emitted black lightning. Even while slumbering, the dragon was taller than the storm giants in the previous floor. It had two pairs of wings, muscular arms and legs, two tails, and an elongated neck that carried its six-eyed skull. Mists of blackness emerged wherever the lightning struck, and the booming thunder echoed like the screams of the dead.

The Gaiamaxims Guild was greeted by the floor’s slumbering Raid Boss.

Understandably, everyone was stunned. The amount of recorded raids that had raid bosses by the entrance were miniscule, but that wasn’t even the worst of it. The records that had this exact situation were almost never closed by a single guild.

Almost, being the important keyword.

The main challenge of this raid would be reaching the Raid Pillars while the Raid Boss chased the guild. They couldn’t simply jaunt through its territory to get to the pillars on the other side, not without waking it up. And losing its attention would be next to impossible.

Meanwhile, the boss wouldn’t be limited to its territory. It would wreck the entire floor, if that meant obliterating the guild. Not to mention it would be empowered by the exact same pillars that resided behind it.

“This has never happened before. Are there any guilds nearby?” Maxims asked Coraline. They had settled the commotion and organized a meeting at the same time. People trusted their leaders and went back to work. As always, the ones who were called into the meeting were the seraphim, Yoshelle, and Shallies. And since the guild was on standby this time, his wife was also able to join.

“There are only three private guilds in El’doron Kingdom,” said the Vice Guildmaster. “The leadership here focused on nurturing the young talents, while allowing most of their graduates to work abroad. Unfortunately, those three aren’t anywhere near us.”

“How long will they take?”

“About a week, at the earliest.”

“We can’t wait that long. We have no idea how many floors there are to deal with. Our sub-raid might not hold out if we add another week to our schedule. Not to mention Laika.”

“We might have a solution,” Valor’el began.

Everyone looked to him. The attention didn’t make him flinch, but he started by clearing his throat.

“We can stop the Raid Boss from chasing the guild by distracting it with a few people.”

Based on Maxims, Coraline, and Yoshelle’s reactions, it looked like whatever Valor’el was suggesting was utterly impossible. It did sound hysterical, Shallies had to admit, but it was the only way they could deal with the situation, short of waiting for another guild to help them out.

She didn’t like the idea of waiting. There was the sub-raid issue as the Guildmaster already said, but there was also the fact that whoever was manipulating the raid from behind the scenes was also gathering a lot of mana for something big.

“I’m sure you’re familiar with the tactic,” she said, urging for the conversation to continue.

“We are,” Maxims began, “but everyone also knows how risky that is.”

“It doesn’t look like we have a choice,” Phey’lan said.

“But we’re talking days here,” Coraline interjected. “Sure we have ways to lock monsters in a stalemate, but no vanguard can last for days engaging with one, and a Raid Boss at that.”

“That’s true,” Valor’el admitted. “Which is why I’m asking for the guild to return before the day ends and switch engaging with me, so I can recover. And yes, since this is my idea, I’m volunteering myself as the main vanguard for this tactic. I can keep the monster at bay for an entire day with an hour of rest in between days. Phey’lan and Shallies will be with me for support, and Arun’dul will act as liaison between both groups so that you’ll know when you can intervene for the switch. If my estimates are correct, I can maintain this formation for five days without any problems.”

This time, only Yoshelle was caught utterly flabbergasted. Maxims and Coraline were considering the proposal intently. The two understood the power behind being a Favored class holder, and the War Castle was yet to even reveal his second class. Not to mention that he was an Acting Deity and the Godkiller’s mentee.

“What about your mission?” Maxims asked.

“The moment someone manipulated the raid, our mission changed,” Valor’el replied without hesitation. “Or, ‘adapted’ would be the better term. I won’t have a face to show to my mentor if I leave a comrade trapped in space behind. The faster we can get through this raid, the faster we can save Laika.”

This time, the Guildmaster sighed. “Alright. I’m not sure how I can repay all of you for all the help you’re giving us, but you’re right. We can’t just stay idly by when one of our own needs saving. I just have one condition.”

He raised a finger. “If things go out of hand, you will let us know right away.”

Valor’el smiled and nodded. “Understood.”