James woke up and rose from his death back on the 17th floor. Naomi was close and looked over him concernedly.

“Are you ok? You hit your head and you still seem to be out of focus.”

“I’ll be fine. I am not actually hurt,” said James. He got up off the ground. “I suppose we should go catch up to Derek and Ian.”

“They ran off ahead in that direction,” she pointed toward the same spot as usual. “I tried to get them to wait but they did not care.”

“It is fine. They always do this. Follow me and we can get to the floor exit. We will meet them there.”

“There are a few things I need to do this time around and some things I need to start testing out,” James thought to himself. “Repeating the same training will be best but I need to go over some more specifics about spear training for Wes. It seems like the dungeon has enjoyed pushing him in that direction and it has helped him overall. If he can get comfortable with it earlier then some of the drake fights may be easier and the rewards for him will change. As for Naomi, if the dungeon gave her the ability to use mana arrows then I should be able to teach her the skill albeit much slower. I wish my own rewards carried over but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

James tried cycling his mana in his body just to be sure.

“Feels about the same. Using it now feels like a downgrade instead of a trump card I had available to me before. This loop I will also have to chat with Ian. He still has some anger within him, and we will need his powers in full if I want to get through each loop easier. With ice magic available to him then the demon boss and drake would both become a bit easier and perhaps we could take it out entirely before needing to retreat. If we can accomplish that then getting to the 26th floor won’t be entirely luck and his personalized loot will change as well.”

James ran up to the top of the hill and overlooked the boss fight between Ian and Derek. They had already removed the skeleton’s arm and were in the process of finishing it off. He let them take care of it as he walked down to meet them.

“Nice job,” said James.

He started walking down the hill with Naomi and Wes right behind him. Ian turned to face James and his posture turned defensive. James knew how this had gone, would go, and spoke.

“Good job Ian. You have killed the boss. I have had to deal with difficult adventurers in the past but never has it caused everyone in my team to be stuck in a dungeon. Look at the portals. Do you see what isn’t there? We can only travel further into the dungeon. You will have to beat your brother’s record after all. First time in the dungeon as a novice and we will have to clear the entire dungeon.”

Ian spun around and confirmed the change in the dungeon floor.

“How are we supposed to reach that level?” asked Ian.

“I have run the first 25 levels hundreds of times,” James answered with an air of confidence. “I can get us to the drake with some effort on your end and some luck. We will have to be careful, but it can be done. It starts with the items we have collected so far. For Derek and Naomi, I have the strength and agility items. It will help boost their abilities and survivability. We need to collect a few things for Wes and then we can get an item for both you and him by the 20th floor. Along with those things I need to up your training and abilities. There are several things I want to go over but I would rather wait until we have more space on the 19th floor. Also, we will need Kira at least until we reach the 25th floor. Now let me explain the plan for the next few floors.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The steps they would take would largely be the same except for the training schedule. Instead of waiting for the 23rd or 24th floor to start he would be going through training exercises with them starting on the 19th floor. It held a good-sized open space and would not be a problem while they trained. The other larger change would be keeping Kira out the entire time even on the 25th floor. He was initially weary of doing so but they needed the firepower and with the extra training time they could adapt to having the panthera fight alongside them.

In previous loops, he had tried letting the panthera join them, but it caused their cohesion to drop. Kira did not have enough time to adapt to the new environment. James had focused his energy and time on clearing the floor and seeing the first half of the dungeon done. Now that he knew it could be done and the rewards that would be wrought he felt more comfortable bringing Kira back into the equation. To James, it also felt like a burden had been lifted now that the 25th floor had been cleared by them. He was not weak, and neither were the novices. They could face it again and survive.

The time to the 19th floor went by quickly. James took a more passive approach and let the novices start to get used to fighting as a group of five. He of course did not let them fail and took precautions to avoid running into groups that were too large for the five of them to handle.

On the 19th floor, many things had to be taken care of. First up was creating a better shield for Wes. Next, they prepared the traps and attacked the four half-human spider monsters in the tunnels. Once that was done they retreated back into the swamp areas to fight. James located groups of two spider human monsters and the five of them fought together now with the added spear and improved shield.

Before jumping into new battles James gave them tips and started to spar with them one on one. By this point, after a few loops, James was starting to understand each of their common movements and ticks while fighting. Using this knowledge, he did better than he should have against them. He was able to point out each of their flaws by drawing them all out of the novices.

When he guided another patrolling spider pair toward them once more their change in ability was clear. He knew that they would need the next few hours to refine their fighting even more, but they had made good progress so far. As he went through the sparring the others started to grow bored. It was a natural response after all. They did not fully understand the stakes and the effort that James had put in to get them to where they were now.

“Can we go now?” asked Ian.

James was in the middle of showing Wes better ways of using his shield and new spear more effectively. He paused what they were doing and sent Wes to work on the spear footwork on his own.

“I know this isn’t the most interesting thing right now but I am trying to show each of you ways to improve so that we can eventually beat the drake and go many further floors beyond that. And don’t forget that your actions have brought us to this situation in the first place.”

“I didn’t ask the dungeon to trap us here. That was completely out of my control. Now it is your job to get us out of here as our guide,” said Ian.

“What do you think I have been doing? I am strong enough to clear some of the floors alone, but that point will end pretty quickly. Especially against monster types, I haven’t experienced fighting against them for at least a year or more. By taking the time to train you now I don’t have to waste time doing it later and I can let the floor’s monsters reinforce that training. Whether you do it now or later you still need to practice your aim, possible abilities, and coordination with Kira. Did you even try recreating the flame wall and flame shield spells?”

“Of course, I tried them. They were hard and I could not control them. The flame wall burst up for a few seconds but I could not maintain it. I tried the shield and Derek through a rock at it and it shattered immediately.”

“Is that it? Are you just going to walk away now? I don’t expect you to master them immediately, but they are skills you should learn. Creating the flame barriers whether by shield or wall can protect against the drake’s and the demon’s fire capabilities. If you improve your use of the flame wall you can the flame wall as a pillar and send it toward enemies as an attack. You may be limited to your current methods of attack but that doesn’t always have to be the case.”

“But I am tired of that and want to do other things.”

“Then you can run some drills with Kira or,” James paused “We could try and activate your ice affinity.”