It took almost an entire day for the dust to settle and the molten ground to cool down after the explosion, but there would still be a few more days before they could continue with phase four.
Not to mention everyone that needed to recuperate after suffering internal injuries from the aftermath of the explosion, the measurements and details of the plan needed to be revised with the data they had collected during the third phase.
Since phase four was the final stage of the plan, where the first three phases would be repeated all over the wasteland until not a single drop of rat blood is spilled, no matter how many explosions they set off, it requires proper planning. Unlike the first edition, where they just winged it while making sure not to let any rats live, every repeat will bring further results that will further enhance the plan.
The first time the three phases were performed, a successful result was obtained, but at the cost of a large amount of wasted resources, and while risking the lives of those executing the plan.
The wasted resources and near-death experiences were only two areas of improvement.
The third phase acted like a large-scale experiment to determine what methods and materials would be most effective when exterminating the rats. How do the different explosives act when combined with other materials or down in the tunnels, surrounded on all sides by soil?
The third phase had been too chaotic and dangerous for anyone to acquire concrete results, aside from there being too many explosive materials, not much else could be determined. Was the steam idea effective on a large scale, or did it just create a small rain cloud after the explosion?
As they continued repeating the first three phases, all the tiny details would be worked out, and by the end, a perfect way of dealing with the rats would have been created.
And that's what would happen after a few days of recuperating, recalculating, and restocking supplies.
All the injuries, despite being internal, were moderately light, and with the help of potions or mages with healing capabilities, most patients were no longer patients after a few days. But now, those mages would need to recover their mana and energy before they can participate in a repeat of the first phase which delayed the official start of phase four once again.
A few merchants had also hit bumps when delivering explosives, either because they ran out of supplies or some other kind of logistic error. Although there was enough stuff in the camp for at least a few more rounds, if they want to cover the wasteland and ensure all the rats are gone, they're going to need a lot more.
The guild helped with funding and transportation duties, but they could only do so much since they are originally focused on exploring the wilderness and unexplored areas, despite their reputation of meddling in everything.
It was the same with most supplies really. The entire operation was rushed, and despite many merchants preparing in advance when they got wind of something big going down, they underestimated how much food and various supplies would be needed. Not to mention the incredible amount of explosives going up in smoke for only a tiny area of the wasteland to be cleared of rats.
While the logistics team worked on securing further supplies using guild funds, the rest of the gathered exterminators continued working with what they had stored. With the days needed to rest after a single cycle of phases one to three, there would be plenty of time to secure resources while phase four is still in its initial stages.
In the second iteration of the first three phases, the only two changes made were the amount of volatile materials poured in and the amount of firepower used to light it up, everything else proceeded in the same way, albeit slightly smoother.
But if they reduced the amount of explosives too drastically, they might not be enough, so it was only a slight decrease, and the ensuing explosion was still enough to rock the socks off a few unlucky ones standing too close. Either they hadn't learned from the previous explosion, or the rumors of it being weaker than the first were apparently overestimated.
After the second iteration of the first three phases and the first part of phase four was completed another few days were spent resting and fine-tuning the amount of explosives and trying to make the plane more effective.
The third iteration had a much smaller explosion, but the rats were still completely disintegrated, and eardrums bled, but at least no one fainted. However, they discovered that only one person needed to light the whole thing up, which was an efficient way to reduce the risks to the workers' lives and use resources less wastefully.
The fourth iteration had an even lower degree of excessive explosives, but it was still a bit over the top.
By now, new supplies had started entering the camp, enabling further development of the fourth phase, that with a few days of rest in between each time, was repeated.
After the fifth iteration, the rat corpses were intact enough to be used as fertilizer for the first phase of the next iteration. Although it took a lot of work gathering the splattered blood and flesh, it didn't take as much mana and could be used to gather rats in several places over a longer time since it didn't hold the same intense attraction that pure mana and vitality did.
With the rat fertilizer, more iterations could be performed at the same time, drastically increasing the efficiency of the extermination. Now the only limiting factor was delivering the supplies and explosives to all the places around the wasteland where groups of mages were setting up the first and second phases.
The shifted workload and more efficient extermination had explosions going off almost around the clock in the wasteland. The ground, uneven from the collapsed tunnels and colliding shockwaves trembled constantly.
