PICK ME UP, ANOTHER LOBBY!

As I stepped out of the equipment workshop to start making my way back to the magic hall, the fairy appeared on the first floor square and shouted with a voice that resounded throughout the entire lobby.

[Jyrgil, Ashta, Rhyss, Kori, and Tamo! Come to the square!]

Now this was another progress master made.

Ever since we first cleared the eighth floor, master finally assigned more members to complement Party 3.

To measure up with Party 1 and 2, master added to Jyrgil's team the remaining two 2-stars as well as two capable 1-stars.

Ashta was a 2-star archer who worked as a mercenary before coming here.

Had Darius not been summoned to the forged land, or perhaps even none of the 3-stars as well, we would had considered Ashta as our fifth member in Party 1 based on her weapon of choice.

She had quite the temper, which was why she was able to stood up against Jyrgil's bullying while she was still training on the lobby's first floor.

When Ashta first found out she would be teaming up with Jyrgil, I heard her muttering something along the line of,

"That asshole will get himself killed in battle for being recklessly arrogant like that. I just know it. When that finally happens, master will make me in charge of this group. I just have to be patient till then."

I would not have to worry about her getting pushed around. And at least she was willing to cooperate with the 3-star until he planned to do something stupid.

Meanwhile, Rhyss was also another 2-star. The last of the 2-star heroes that were summoned after the addition of the lobby's second floor.

He was not a mercenary like Maddock and Ashta. But he worked as a patrol guard in his town and claimed he had his way with the spear, though not as good as Maddock.

Having two 2-stars would balance their lack of a second 3-star hero in their ranks, or a 4-star for that matter.

As for the rest, Kori and Tamo were 1-stars.

Kori wielded a spear. She was the best spear-wielder among the 1-star trainees on the first floor at the moment.

While Tamo's skill with the sword only fell a little bit short from Harl, the chief gatherer, who was already second to Luan.

But since Harl was already busy managing the Weekday Dungeons, which was a valuable role in the operation of the lobby, Tamo was decided to fill up the final spot in Party 3.

Or so was how I interpreted master's intention.

It had almost been a week since their party was formed and master made them clear the first to the fourth floor together.

Two days ago, they were made to clear the fourth floor several times. And they were not deployed at all yesterday.

If they were called now, I suspected master would send them to the eighth floor this time.

"You folks better not get in my way unless you want to get a beating!"

Jyrgil said as Party 3 was entering the rift.

His comrades did not bother to respond him with anything but a roll of their eyes or just an antagonizing side glance, which Jyrgil ignored as well fortunately.

I could tell the rest of Party 3 all hated Jyrgil.

How could they not from how he was treating them?

But it seemed like they held some respect to Ashta.

Every time they returned from the trial and Jyrgil immediately wandered off to do whatever he wanted, I would see Ashta pulled her comrades aside and evaluated the trial with them.

I expected it would be hard to cooperate with Jyrgil, but fortunately Ashta was able to keep Party 3 from breaking apart.

While letting out a pitying sigh for Party 3, I ascended to the second floor.

It was there that I saw something that brightened my mood after the spectacle Party 3 showed earlier.

My comrades and those of Party 2 were spread around in the training ground.

They were all training together according to their weapon of choice.

Zecht, Shanny, Trudy, and Luan were practicing in the dueling cage, discussing forms of swordsmanship.

Norn, Jonah, and Maddock were huddling around a wooden practice doll, analyzing the most effective way to strike the enemy with their elongated weapon.

While Darius and Tarran in the firing range.

They were training to use both the bow and daggers during combat.

The middle-aged archer apparently was trying to impart his Switching skill to the boy.

I observed all of them training together.

Practicing movements and advising each other on their rights and wrongs.

Most of the time it was the 3-star mercenaries who gave the advising.

After all, they were the ones with the most experience in handling weapons out of the rest there.

The members of Party 3, except Jyrgil, of course, would also participate in this joint exercises whenever they could.

They knew training with experienced members of the other parties would only increases their chances of survival.

Had more mages summoned to the forged land, we would be doing the same in the magic hall.

Practicing fusion spells together. Not to mention helping each other with research and potion-making.

I definitely would not mind to have others to guide and be guided by.

I sighed once more and turned my gaze toward the training ground on the first floor.

'It would be ideal if the first floor trainees also have someone to guide them.'

I thought to myself.

But currently those in Party 1 and 2 were busy with climbing the towers.

We could not afford wasting time instructing others while sacrificing our own training.

It would be different had master summoned more 3-star heroes.

But if master intended to do that, they would had done so before we continued climbing to the sixth floor.

Even after the 3-star Lisham died, master did not perform any more summoning on the second floor summoning chamber.

Master did, however, summoned a couple more 1-stars from the first floor chamber after we caught the people that were stealing from the Weekday Dungeons and lost them in synthesis. And a couple more since.

By my estimate, our number in the lobby had grown to over 90 now. With only the selected heroes were allowed the privileged of the second floor.

If our number grew even more, it would not be appropriate for us to just sit around and wait for someone talented to appear from the first floor training ground.

We needed to start setting up a plan that could nurture the potential of the newly summoned people.

There was not a change to the fact that the summoned 1-stars being inexperienced common folks who never wielded a weapon in their life before.

Indeed. We would occasionally get someone like Jonah who had some sort of experience in battle, or the occasional skilled 2-stars that arrived alongside the 1-stars.

But these people were not summoned often.

The goal was to have a structured scheme that could develop the newly-summoned 1-star trainees to quickly become as strong as Jonah and Shanny who were just as inexperienced when they first arrived.

There was no telling how hard the Quintal Trial could become.

There was always a chance for everyone in Party 1 to be wiped out.

We needed to prepare as many as equal, if not stronger, replacements as we could.

However, although this matter was important, I could still delay its solvation for the time being.

Right now I needed to focus on climbing up to the ninth floor.