Chapter 69 - Mountains of Magic Stones
The next phase of the dungeon cleanup operation would clear up everything from floors 34 to 44, at which point the colosseums start. In the meantime, floors 19 to 28 were once again open to adventurers level 3 and above from 9am-6pm. The team of Asfi and Filvis was stationed on level 28 to make sure no surprise monsters show up above. The opening of these floors brought a lot of excitement because of the increased number of monsters. The increase in 'buzz' was driven by the ~100 lucky adventurers who were able to collect free money a couple days ago in the form of tens of thousands of magic stones from fallen monsters. Cashing in the magic stones greatly increased the flow of money in Orario, thereby boosting the local economy with the full multiplier effects in local restaurants and shops etc. Furthermore, the availability of the added natural resources was also critical for the rebuilding.
After a 1 day break, Bell/Ais and Wiene, Lefiya, Riveria, Bete and Ottar were ready to pick up where they stopped on their seek and destroy mission. At the same time, Finn, Gareth, Tione, Tiona, Asfi, Filvis and Mikoto along with most of the higher level members of the Freya familia also made their way down for a ground assault.
Of course, the flight team moved a lot faster. They flew down to the 18th floor and the trip was uneventful. When they reached the 18th floor, they again checked in with Asterius but not much had happened. As they used a vertical hole entrance to get to the 19th floor, they got to see the new reinforced metal armor plates for the vertical holes from the Hephaestus familia. Since the vertical holes have been sealed, their trip took longer to get to the 33rd floor. They did see that their previous trip was successful, as the number of monsters were about 2-3 times more than before, instead of 10 time higher. Over the next several days, regular adventurers should bring the population back to normal.
When the flight team reached the 34th floor, they continued with the similar tactic. First, Riveria fired off Wynn Fimbulvetr and Lefiya used Fusillade Fallarica to clear all the flying insects in the central cavern. They then went to the the largest room where Riveria again used Wynn Fimbulvetr to clear it. Lefiya then again used Fusillade Fallarica in the 2nd largest room. After that, Bete and Ottar sealed the vertical hole sites while Bell, Ais and Wiene kept monsters from interfering with their work. During that time, Riveria and Lefiya rested and drank a couple potions. After that, they proceeded to 2 other large rooms where Riveria and Lefiya destroyed the monsters with Wynn Fimbulvetr and Fusillade Fallarica. Bete an Ottar then were dropped off to get some fighting done while Riveria and Lefiya took a short break and drank 2 more potions. They were then ready to move on, and this operation was repeated for the 35th and 36th floors. They again cleared the 4 largest rooms and the vertical holes were sealed on each floor.
After 6 hours of work, it was time for dinner. The flight team went back to the 30 floor to meet up with the ground assault team. They would spend the night on that floor. The next day, with tougher monsters, they would start again on the 34th floor with a combined air and ground assault.
On the 2nd day, the combined assault was launched on the 34th, 35th and 36th floors. They started with clearing all the flying insects in the central cavern with Riveria's Wynn Fimbulvetr and Lefiya's Fusillade Fallarica. With the prior work by the flight team, those 3 floors were done after 4 hours and they had a quick lunch before going to the 37th floor. The ground assault waited for the 2 largest room to be cleared with Wynn Fimbulvetr and Fusillade Fallarica. While Bete and Ottar sealed the vertical holes, Ais and Bell attacked other flying monsters. After Leifya and Riveria had some rest, Wiene flew them to 2 other large monster gathering rooms for another round of Wynn Fimbulvetr and Fusillade Fallarica. Within 2 hours, the floor returned to a reasonable number of monsters. At that point, a huge group of adventurers were ready to collect the magic stones of the fallen monsters. While the team continued to chase down flying monsters, thousands of magic stones were harvested. That would be it for the day, and they retreated to the 33rd floor to spend the night.
On the 3rd day, the combined assault was launched on the 37th, 38th, 39th and 40th floors. Another round of Riveria's Wynn Fimbulvetr and Lefiya's Fusillade Fallarica was needed to clear the insects off the central cavern. Then the same tactics were used to clear those floors while sealing the vertical holes. By the end of the day, the huge group of adventurers again collected the magic stones as team continued to destroy flying monsters. After another day of hard work, and they retreated to the 36th floor to spend the night.
On the 4th day, the combined assault returned the 41st, 42nd, 43rd and 44th floors back to 'normalcy'. With seemingly an unlimited supply of flying insects in the dungeon, the team again had to start the day with Wynn Fimbulvetr and Fusillade Fallarica to clear out the central cavern. The same group of adventurers again collected many thousands of magic stones by the end of the day.
The team then headed back to the surface with floors 34 to 44 back to 'normal'. To improve their air travel, it was time to remove the seals to the vertical holes in the secured floors. Thus, on their way back up to the surface, the seals were removed from the 38th floor all the way to the 19th floor.
After their mission, floors 29 to 38 were once again open to adventurers level 3 and above.
After an one-day break, the tactics were changed for the colosseum floors due to stronger monsters and the colosseums. An entire day was devoted for each floor using only air assault by Ais, Bell, Wiene, Riveria and Lefiya. Each day, after cleaning out the insects in the central cavern, the air assault team would pepper a new floor with 4 rounds of Riveria's Wynn Fimbulvetr and Lefiya's Fusillade Fallarica. The next day, the ground team would come to the floor to finish the job. Thus, 7 days were needed to clean out floors 45-50.
At that point, the labyrinth levels were next. The question was how many dragons were spawned?