Once Party 2 and 3 left for their designated posts, I turned to Jonah.
"Pull out the beacon spear."
He nodded, knowing what I meant.
On his back, amongst his throwing spears, there was a sixth short spear.
The shepherd usually only carried five at a time. Three normal ones and two explosives.
The sixth one was emanating with brighter glow than the rest of the enchanted weapons carried by my comrades. Blue streaks were coursing through its shaft.
"Plant it there!"
I pointed to the space beside the statue on top of the stairs.
Jonah carried the sixth spear there and thrusted it to the ground, forming a webbed crack around the penetration point.
"What is that?"
Shanny asked.
"It's a beacon. I poured a lot of my mana into it and made the spear pulsing with faint waves of magical energy throughout the land."
I replied.
"What is it for?"
"It acts like a marker, or a guide. It helps me forming a portal that leads to where the beacon was."
While practicing the teleportation method with the golems, I managed to learn how to make portals that could transport people.
I just had to learn it after the fifth floor.
Though I could only create portals to where a beacon was placed. And I also still could not teleport people.
My comrades raised their eyebrows in surprise.
"You mean we can instantly come back here whenever we want?"
Trudy asked excitedly.
"Not whenever. I can only make the portal twice. And it would require great effort from me."
Suddenly the sound of roaring men resounded from beyond the walls.
The soldiers were voicing their war cry.
The goblins must had started advancing.
The battle was about to begin.
"We should not waste any more time. Let's head to the northern gate!"
I urged my comrades.
With great pace, we left the square and exited the inner wall district from its eastern gate.
The western one was jammed with people that it would take longer for us to go through there.
We navigated through the outer wall district with knowing routes. All of us had memorized every big street to small alleyways scattered all over Loro.
The eastern part of the city was void of people. All of them were packed in the western side, trying to escape the city.
Throughout the roads we passed, there were only guards running around between the outer and inner walls.
The guards could not see nor hear us just like the evacuating people.
While making our way northward, we saw Party 2 in the distance rushing through the only staircase leading to the battlements of the eastern outer walls.
Good. There was only one way up and down the walls on this side. I expected the same for the southern side.
It should help against the siege if the monsters were to spread along the walls. They still needed to flow through one singular path or risk plunging to their death from the wall's steep fall.
Perhaps that was the purpose of the city design all along. To anticipate situation like this.
Border cities did have better awareness for threats compared to the inland regions.
We could not help them warding off the monsters. Party 1 got our own role to fulfill in this Quintal Trial.
I had to trust them guarding the city.
We rushed through the buildings of Loro while picturing them as piles of rubbles.
That way we could recall Norn's map better since there was barely any building left standing when she last came to the city.
I had made a point to my comrades to look for any horses that we could use to traverse the long mountain path ahead.
But every stables and hitching rails we encountered were empty.
Every able studs and mares had been taken by the fleeing people and the soldiers.
We had no choice but to travel to the sixth floor valley on foot.
The northern part of Loro began to slant upward since this part of the city was built on the foot of the mountain range.
Instead of treading, we climbed the roads and kept making our way toward the northern gate.
"There!"
Darius pointed the steel gates at the northern side of the outer wall.
Only a couple of guards were keeping watch there. Just enough to operate the rotating lever connected on the wheel rolling the chains pulling on the gates.
Most of the soldiers in the city must had been deployed to fight the monsters outside the walls.
Although my comrades and I were charging toward the northern gate, the soldiers stood still with blank gazes.
They still could not see us. If they had, they would had tried to stop us from running straight at them while heavily armed like we did.
We could not ask them to open the gates for us. Not as if they would even if they could hear us and we asked them judging by their stern faces.
We needed to improvise if we wanted to open the gates.
Keeping my running pace toward the gates, I hovered my hand over the rotating lever.
[Davah Shashanam]
Drrr….
The lever spun like loose clockwork. The chains slid through the wheel as if their entire surface was rubbed in slippery oil.
"Wha-what's happening?! Why are the gates opening?!"
The soldiers panicked as the gates gradually swung open.
Two men tried to pull the lever the other way it was going, but my telekinesis hold on it was stronger. They ended up getting dragged by the force.
I stood by the opened gates and waited there till all my comrades passed through.
Once I counted four people passed me by, I released my dominion on the lever.
"It's free! Close the gates again!"
A soldier shouted as he and another soldier pulled the lever back.
I made sure I had gone over the other side of the walls before the gates closed shut once more.
My comrades and I found ourselves at the edge of a long steep mountain path extending north and then east.
Faraway sounds of swords clanging, goblins screeching, and ogres roaring reached us more clearly now they were no longer muted behind the walls.
The battle had began.
Each second passed was one step closer the monsters were to the walls and, eventually, the statue.
We needed to make every moment count.
I reached for one of the pockets on my dress and pulled out a green shining stone.
I poured a bit of my mana into it, just enough to activate the incantation instilled to the object.
The stone turned brighter.
['Serafina (★★★★)' is casting temporary enchantment.]
Greenish glowing haze began seeping into my comrades and I.
[Elemental Attribute, Penetration]
[Party 1's agility and stamina has increased by 5 for the next 45 minutes.]
The stone's light dimmed and the object crumbled into dust.
It was one of the enchantment stones I had prepared using the leftover elemental stones.
This way I did not need to expend a lot of my mana like I did on the fifth floor.
Currently I had five of them stored in various pockets of my dress. Four now.
There were no more others in the storage back in the lobby.
These four were all we had left.
"Let's move!"
I ordered my comrades.
We started running up the mountain path, toward the peaks of the Surga's mountain range extending endlessly to the east.
As we ran, I dispensed a transparent mist of mana from my palm and deployed a detection field around us.
A hundred steps in and my field detected abnormalities somewhere along our path.
Snouted fanged heads. Armors. Machetes. Crossbows.
[Goblin Lv.9 x27]
A group of armed goblins stood in the middle of the slope.
They did not seem planning to advance toward the city behind us.
But they did not seem to be hesitating to raise their weapons toward our advancing party.
The monsters were there as a roadblock.
I turned to my comrades and gave them my next order.
"Kill them!"