Free Dungeon Battle Summary
1F: The first level of this free dungeon restricts Zetta to only four invitations (of any kind, whether it's just characters or facilities) at a time. Zetta gets around the restriction by air-dropping all of his houses in so that he can pull people in and out at will. There's one thief on the map worth a lot of points, who is easily defeated by Meredith and Nabiki. Upon the thief's death, Hell's Field Takes Life, and also reveals a bunch of units wielding weapons such as hammers, katanas and magnets, weapons which the team has never seen before. They try to take out as many as they can before proceeding.
2F: There's only one room on the second level. The invite limit has been raised to seven, but characters in facilities are ineligible to join, leaving Steve, Morrigan, Io, and the three soldiers as the only eligible characters. There's a weird, but very valuable magic box on the ground. A samurai and a rapier-wielding soldier are their only opponents, but a combined assault renders the enemy helpless as Io sneaks away with the box.
3F: No vehicles allowed, but that won't be a problem because Zetta doesn't have access to them yet. The problem here is segmented terrain, and a level 10 Prinny spawned right next to Zetta. The team works quickly to take out the Prinny before it gets a chance to harm the book. Malfus casts a global Heal, and Dover practices his sniping skills on a poor, defenseless flower. This opens the path to an open field with another lone Prinny, who gets a house dropped on him. There are also a group of slimes and shadows guarding a wrench, but the team decides to skip it and move on.
4F: Another characters-only level, with the team's opponents being two fighters, a wood golem, and a box. After taking out the wood golem, the group sets its sights on a dangerous-looking Red Idol, which gives them enough points to move on to the next area without hassle.
5F: A rather simple map. All they have to do here is target a mimic and they win.
6F: A thief is guarding a mystic hammer. While Io snags the hammer for the team, Meredith, Kashiwa and Nabiki take out the thief. However, a handful of well-armed monsters appears from the south. They've been hit with One Last Wish, so Steve's team escapes with a few lucky shots before going on to the next floor.
7F: This looks to be an industrial complex of some sort. While the Prinny appears to be the key, the group instead focuses on the self-healing apple kids on the west end.
8F: An ice field. Not too many tough enemies here.
9F: This is a single room with thieves, warriors, mages and healers. Facilities not allowed, leaving about 60% of the cast hanging yet again. A lone healer named Puccitello appears to be the leader (she's worth the most points). Steve and the "free squad" target her and move on to the next floor before the enemies find out she's dead.
10F: This is the bottom floor of the dungeon. At every tenth floor, a designated "boss" enemy will appear, usually at around the same level as the other enemies (but with jacked-up stats, just like the Item Generals/Kings/Gods in the Disgaea games). The first batch of enemies consists of Prinnies and pumpkinheads. Zetta sends the "free squad" out to deal with them before readying his battle team for the next map, which has a lot of enemies on it. A few of the monsters attack the hospital, but the group is able to hold them off before they can cause any permanent damage. A boss Apple Head appears from the east, but Zetta says enough's enough, and they head back to the castle with a tank-load of loot.
Results: The group's first entry into a free dungeon is an resounding success, and the new recruits (fake Malfus, fake Dover and fake Saga) have gained enough levels to be competitive with the rest of the team. Kashiwa, Nabiki and Graz are ready to move up in rank (Kashiwa jumps up from Healer to Priest, Nabiki is now a Pawn Shop Clerk instead of a simple Junk Trader, and Graz moves up from Cat Kid to Deathsaber). Kashiwa and Graz have to regain their levels all over again, but Nabiki gains most of hers back as Steve puts their hard-earned HL to work by upgrading everyone's equipment.
Among the team's most prized possessions are two magic boxes, strange melee weapons that grant a ridiculously high SP and INT boost to whoever's holding them. This now means that Astral and Goldie, the recipients, have way more battle potential than Steve at the moment (call him "Thunder God Astral" at your peril). Appleseeds and Red Idol monsters are also available for creation. Both units can use healing magic, but the Appleseed monsters can are a bit more versatile, as they can use magic books to go with their high starting INT. Idols are a bit less useful at this point, as their best weapons are fans, magnets and pies, weapons that can't be bought normally in stores, and have to be discovered in dungeons. Saga gets a shiny new flamethrower to replace her old musket. At higher levels, this weapon can also use ice attacks (?).
Steve looks in the Sacred Tome, and finds that he can also wish to be able to create Prinnies. Once this is done, he can create them at any time, just like any other unit. However, the cost to make this wish is 1000 mana, meaning that Prinnies will likely only appear as enemies until near the end.
