Peeking ahead at Seedle's Lost City, the team fears that they may be somewhat overmatched, with the lowest enemy level being about 24, and the average party level only at around 17 (Steve, being the leader, is the strongest at level 23), so Steve does the whole "I wish for a random dungeon thingy", and the crew gets right to work with training for the upcoming boss battle.
During their journey, Kashiwa gets a little too needle-happy, and starts innoculating Steve randomly, even though he is at full health.
"Hey! Cut that out!" he yelps. "Why do you have to use that on me so much?"
"Well, I'm sorry," she says. "When you get a new toy, it's only natural that you'll want to play with it a lot, isn't it?"
Steve shows off his arm to Kashiwa, who pretends not to see. "Yeah, but all of these syringe marks don't really make me look badass."
"Aw...is our dear leader afraid of a tiny little needle?" Kashiwa says mockingly, trying to hide the gigantic syringe from view.
The crew runs into some powerful enemies on floor 7 (with a minimum level of 30, way higher than the 23 they expected when entering this area). They don't give away a whole lot in the way of reward points, so Steve is more than ready to hit the Gency Tonic escape route if necessary. After finding out that the terrain in the later levels doesn't favor them advancing very far, Steve uses the Gency Tonic to return to the castle.
"So much for taking it easy," says Steve.
At the end of the journey, Steve learns Fire Slash, and Ryan picks up Bloody Rain, a technique that allows him to spread his fire over an even bigger area (if such a thing were possible).
On average, the party's average level rose by 1.5. Not exactly what they were looking for, but they feel confident enough to proceed.
Stage 5-6: Seedle's Lost City
The enemies here don't notice the party's presence, as they're too busy admiring the wildlife. There are four Energy Balls (eye demons) all holding balloons. Perhaps the ultimate of joke weapons in the Netherworld, the user only gets one attack, after which he/she/it floats off-screen, unable to be summoned again for the duration of the battle. In the hands of an enemy, however, this can be dangerous, as any enemy that is knocked "out of bounds" causes the levels of the other enemies in the area to increase based on that person's level. Grumpy old man Astral spoils whatever party the demons may be planning by killing them all at once with a Giga Fire spell. The two shadow demons on the north side are wielding slightly less-jokey magnets (honestly, I don't care how they work), but are disposed of by Io, Nabiki and Graz. In a bold move by our dear leader, Steve surprise-attacks a small group of soldiers up ahead, revealing the enemy's base camp.The main enemies in this group are a pair of Watchers (more eye demons) piloting floating vehicles called CX-1 Hellphas. Out in front along with them is a vampire who is capable of using powerful Fire, Mega Fire and Giga Fire magic. The most potentially dangerous foe, however, is a Steel Titan holed up inside the nearby academy. Units that emerge from an academy gain a level at the beginning of every turn.
"Crap! They're charging at us?" asks Ryan.
"This is Seedle's netherworld, after all," says Meredith. "You saw what those other monsters were capable of doing earlier."
The Hellphas use special technology that allows them to instantly heal damage with every attack, a feature that they are all too happy to use on Steve's team with the Cyclone attack. Steve and friends decide to concentrate all of their attacks on destroying the Hellphas first. The vampire is aggravated that his magic has little effect, but is even less surprised when he is vaporized by a spell from Morrigan's book.
The titan lumbers forward with beam sword in hand, come to avenge the death of his vampiric master, while having gained three levels with little effort at all. Io laughs, reminds him that HP don't replenish with level and, to make things even more insulting, snatches the beam sword from his hand, rendering him effectively powerless.
"Ooh...a beam sword!" says Nabiki. "They used these a lot in those sci-fi movies. I especially like the one with the guy, and the other guy, and the princess and the hairy dude! Yeah...those were cool."
"It is pretty cool-looking," says Steve. "But...who do we have on our team that can effectively use it?"
No one comes forward and raises their hands.
"Oh, well...I'll just hold onto it until someone comes along that can."
Zetta isn't quite as happy about his recent victory as he is with his past conquests, as he is still focused on Zetta's sudden appearance. Badass freakin' overlords shouldn't need to worry about such things, after all.
Trenia, meanwhile, is still tending to her corn garden. What exactly is she planning? Is she planning anything?
