Ironhelm City, 1st Area of the 2nd Floor.
After several days, Samiel and Yvraine laid down the Necro-Madness Spell Formation in the underground cave and prepared their tap there before they departed to the nearest City.
The nearest City took them several days to arrive, and that was the moment when Samiel's expectations from the City were squashed to nothingness. It was located on the outskirts of the 1st Area, not that far from the place, where they first arrived.
Ironhelm City, even though it was a "city" appeared to be more like a ruined town, as it was built upon the ruins of some random civilization that was unfortunate enough to be entirely transported by the Asiura Tribe to be part of the Trial.
Sometimes when Asura Tribe transported entire continents to the Second Floor, thus expanding the 2nd Floor; for that reason, it was even bigger than some higher Floors. Because of how long the Slaughter Trial was taking place, this Floor was enormous by any standart.
Almost all cities or villages on the 2nd Floor, it didn't really matter in which Area they were in, were built on the ruins of already deceased civilizations. However, not all civilizations were exterminated in the Slaughter Trial. Some luckier and more powerful managed to not only survive but also thrive.
"Who is behind the Ironhelm City?"
Questioned Samiel as they entered the City without any checks, and it was rare to see even guards patrolling here. Probably nobody knew the meaning of the term "security" here, as the entire City was mainly not guarded, aside from the mansion of the City Lord. They probably didn't want to waste the precious manpower on something as "useless" as guarding the City.
"Iron Legion, a mercenary organization that is mainly spread on the lower floors, though even despite this, they have several Lendaries among them, who couldn't make it to higher floors, so here they are little tyrants. They usually take any jobs as long as they are paid well. But their individual strength is relatively pitiful, so they depend on numbers."
Explained Yvraine; now that clarified a lot of things. Because a mercenary organization practically backed up the Ironhelm City, they didn't really care about the city's public security, and only when someone created a mess inside the city would they intervene.
"Additionally, they mainly depend on recruiting weaklings to join them, and 2nd Floor serves as one of the largest recruitment points for the Iron Legion."
Ironhelm City, even though it was in a terrible state, was a bustling city, with countless races walking the streets of the City, merchants selling their goods, and Inns full of people eating and drinking. It was one of the larger cities across the 2nd Floor, and because of that, it attracted countless people here.
"We need to split out and spread the rumors about the Ancient Tomb."
Stated Yvraine as both of them then went in different directions. Aside from spreading the rumor about the appearance of the Ancient Tomb, Samiel needed to get to the marker and sell the things he wanted to sell, and finally, start accumulating riches.
Samiel walked through the busy streets as he could see many races, ranging from Humans, Elves, Dwarves to Werewolves, Blood Kins, Githyanki, Githzerai, and even some Orks could be seen here. One could make an entire compendium of species and races commonly seen across the Cosmos, just on the 2nd Floor.
Samiel went from Inn to Inn, from Tavern to Tavern, and even to a few information brokers in the Ironhelm City to spread the rumors of the Ancient Tomb, of course, all of this under the illusion spell that Yvraine cast on him, in the same way when she changed his appearance to that of an Ork.
After Samiel finished seeding the sows of discord, he went to the merchant district to sell the things he didn't need and wanted to gather some money. Usually, mortals used Gold, Silver a Copper Coins as their currency, while Legendaries used Mana Crystals solely as their currency.
After haggling with the merchant for almost half an hour, he managed to sell all the useless things he got from the Iron-Tier Treasury for 15,000 Gold Coins, which was a very high amount. While in the Tower, the value of the Gold Coins was lower, they still had some uses.
Yvraine told Samiel to save Gold Coins for when he would go to some world or dimension, as there he could buy a lot more things with Gold Coins at a lower price. For example, if some Magic Grimoire or Magic Tome cost around 50,000 Gold Coins for Basic Level, the outside the Tower, the same thing could be bought for 15,000 Gold Coins or even less.
The reason for this was simple.
Most merchants in the Tower preferred to use Mana Crystals as currency, so when someone paid with Gold Coins, the prices were many times higher, as Gold Coins were the primary currency for worlds and dimensions outside the Tower. Not to mention Gold wasn't that rare thing in the Tower as it was outside of it; this its buying power was lower than the rest of the Cosmos.
So thus, the buying power of Gold Coin in the Tower was less than it was outside of the Tower.
After Samiel sold all the things, he met with Yvraine at some random Inn that she chose, in a VIP Room which she bought for them to eat and relax.
"The food is worse than yours..."
She said rather sadly, as it indeed helped my ego, as I was rather prideful about my cooking skills.
"Now, aside from food, did you finish everything?"
He asked as he sat down opposite her and started eating the food. It was the first time when he had tasted the food from the Tower, and even though it was made in some crappy Inn on the 2nd Floor, it was already comparable to the top restaurants on Earth.
"Have you set the timer properly?"
Yvraine asked as Samiel nodded.
To prevent anyone from entering ahead of time and to lure the largest number of people there and kill them, he, together with Yvraine, designed a Timer Seal, where the entrance to the underground cave system would open itself and allow people to enter the trap.
"One month. That should be enough to lure enough people."
He answered while continuing to eat.
The entrance was protected by the Spell Formation powered up by Bronze-Tier Mana Crystals and some spells that Samiel learned from the Basic Principles of Void Necrosis so that nobody would breach the entrance.
"How many people do you think would come there?"
He asked in curiosity.
"If we are lucky, probably more than 20,000 or even more. From what I saw in this City, the population here was significantly higher several centuries ago when the last person from my family climbed the Tower. However, the Ancient Tomb will still ignite countless people's greed across many cities. Unfortunately, the 1st Area is too large; if we waited for an additional two or three months, there would be far more people."
It was clear that the population of participants in past decades got a huge hit, and with the size of a 2nd Floor, it was no wonder they had problems of finding people to kill even when Samiel was sending some of his Undead to scout various directions.
Even 20,000 would probably be the limit they could handle as the Necro-Madness Spell Formation should reduce the number by at least 90% to 95% of them. Samiel even designed the entire Necro-Madness Spell Formation to target the strongest people hardest.
Bronze-Tier powerhouses would die for sure, as neither Samiel nor Yvraine wanted to fight several Bronze-Tiers Professionals. At the same time, even with his Undeads and Yvraine's weird magic and blade skills, it would be futile because the difference in raw power was too huge.
Not for the average Bronze-Tiers, but that was applicable only for those very powerful ones capable of fighting above their levels. Both of them knew that some of those were already on the 2nd Floor.
Thus the Necro-Madness Spell Formation would target the Bronze-Tiers with enormous power, and additionally, because each Wardstone was inscribed with 3rd Level Spell Vampiric Touch. This would mean that each person killed would have his Mana absorbed by the Necro-Madness Spell Formation to boost itself and replenish its power.
With this upgrade, the Necro-Madness Spell Formation could technically function indefinitely. Probably until it was destroyed because it will always be powered up by the Mana from the people who were killed in its vicinity.
He designed it this way, so he didn't need to deal with it every minute or supply the Necro-Madness Formation Spell Formation his own Mana in case the ambient Mana in the air was not enough.
Not to mention that with each passing person who was killed in the Necro-Madness Spell Formation, it would grow stronger and stronger. All of this creates a nice little cycle of constant regeneration and killing.
On top of that, for ritualistic purposes, Samiel inscribed on each Wardstone symbols of the Crawling Chaos, Outer God Nyarlathotep, as a form of honor to one of the strongest Chaos Gods and bringer of Chaos to the mortal place.
So the same time, the entire carnage trap would be something akin to a ritual ceremony honoring the Outer Gods.