James lay in the puzzle room of the 23rd floor not bothering to get up. Though he wasn’t sure if he could stand up if he tried so instead he lay next to the wall with its question looming over him. It had been painful enough for James to crawl over to this point from the other room that he never wanted to experience that feeling again. With the reset of the loop looming over him he went through what he knew and his options.

“At some point after killing the drake I reset the loop. Probably a few times to be honest and then got to this point. Except instead of a memory from beyond this time I felt like I was sent back in the loop again. That combined with the general disorientation from the mind beasts caused my death to go unnoticed by me. And whenever I died and reset I just kept on going back.”

“Now I need to stop it from happening again. I can see this happening one of two ways. Either I can jump back into the mind beast’s jaws again knowing what I do now and try and fight it off or I can send one of the novices through and have them slaughter the mind beasts for me. I think I have to send the novices. It will be the only consistent way to clear this floor anymore. I could try and do it, but I have been trapped multiple times. I can’t really risk it. Not when it would waste so much time. I know I’ve got better things to do and other monsters that are worth fighting.”

With that settled James put his hand on the wall and spoke the words he needed to rewind time.

James awoke with a jolt. His heartbeat raced as he looked around at the same scene for the third time.

“Are you ok?” asked Naomi concern written all over her face.

“It's nothing. I’m not a fan of blacking out in dungeons is all. Ian has left for the exit?”

“Yeah, he and Derek left a minute before you woke up. We’ve been waiting for you.”

“Then we better catch up with them.”

Naomi and Wes followed James to the exit portal where they found Ian and Derek fighting against the skeleton knight boss. It had already lost one arm leaving it defenseless as they finished it off.

“Good job. You killed the boss,” said James sarcastically. “You’ve gone and done something rather stupid, and we will be in the dungeon for a while. Whether by divine intervention or some other happening we are stuck in the dungeon until it is cleared. As you can see behind you there is a single portal now. It leads to thee other floors. That means you will get your wish. Beat your brother’s record and go all the way to the end of the dungeon. To do that you will have to follow my instructions and follow my lead on training. We can do this together. I am confident in getting us past the 25th floor but the rest will depend on how well you learn. But I know that you can do it.”

James answered the questions he knew would come to the best of his ability and then they all entered the portal together. On the 18th floor James, the novices, and Kira fought together. James gave pointers and they steadily improved while traversing the floor.

They cleared the floor boss without issue and moved on to the 19th floor. Once there they first spent some time repairing Wes’s shield before searching for enemies to fight. Fighting out in the open provided a very different experience than the enclosed walls of the maze. Once they wrapped up the fight and killed off the last of the spider monsters wandering around they practiced magic.

James went over the use of mana arrows with Naomi. The steps and process was very familiar to him at this point. She also caught on quite quickly and before too long she was able to practice on her own. Next, he spoke with Ian.

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James repeated some of the points he had spoken with Ian about in previous loops and he pitched in some of his own. Ian was eager to get started once a plan was set in his mind. He left in a rush toward the swamp lake leaving behind his fire staff. James chuckled seeing Ian in such a hurry. He grabbed the staff to store for later and went to check in on the others.

A few hours later they stepped onto the 20th floor.

As they stepped up onto the floor Ian hurried forward. Ian brought up a wall of ice that surrounded the demon. The walls started melting immediately but that didn’t matter to him. As the demon started breaking down the walls their group surrounded the temporarily trapped demon.

As soon as the demon got an arm out of the ice walls Ian froze the wall back up trapping the demon and Derek slashed with his sword chopping the demon’s arm off. This enraged the demon and it switched to offensive magic to destroy the ice. As Ian reformed the ice and attacked the demon from the front Naomi and James hit it with arrows.

With a burst of heat the demon destroyed all of the ice around it and continued to radiate heat negating the cold in the process. Kira proceeded to tackle the demon and grab hold of its only remaining arm. She shook it violently causing the demon to loose it’s focus and ability to aim its fire attacks properly. Wes protected Naomi and James as they fired arrows. They prepared mana arrows this time and aimed at the demon. When it focused its attention on Derek for removing it’s arm they fired.

The two mana arrows went off simultaneously against the demon’s skin. It shuttered and stumbled as the energy wracked its body. Derek took advantage of its current weaknesses and removed the demon’s head from its body.

Its body dissolved and they entered the safe zone to rest. Inside the safe zone, the boss's chest formed, and James opened it up and grabbed the ring of fire resistance. He passed it on to Ian.

“I don’t need it. Give it to Wes,” said Ian.

Wes took the ring in surprise. “Thanks.” He slid the ring onto a finger with a smile.

James let them rest once more while going over what they would need to do for the next two floors. He emphasized Ian’s importance of using his magic to negate as much of the weather’s effects as he could. As the time in the safe zone ran out they all gathered their things and set out to the next floor.

The trek through the two icy floors progressed how James expected based on his previous experiences. Ian’s fire and ice magic helped them immensely and they were able to tread more easily through the mountain path.

By the end of both floors, Ian’s mana had drained completely. He had used up a lot of fire mana toward the end to defeat the frost giants and the boss in the end. His power in conjunction with mana arrows and Kira’s bite destroyed the creatures’ defenses.

“Naomi. You will step through the portal first,” said James. They stood in front of the newly formed portal.

He had decided to send her through first for two reasons. First was that she and Derek were the only two novices that escaped the mind beasts. Secondly, she was the fastest of the two to escape and could use a mana arrow now to clear out the mana beasts faster. If she had any issues with escaping the mind trap she could clear out the monsters faster than Derek with his sword. He tried to picture Derek swinging his sword in the air at the ceiling. He doubted it would work very well.

“We need to wait here. Once you have gone through you must hurry to kill the monsters around you. Again, when you enter escape their grasp and then kill them so we can get through easily. I can not go first so you must.”

“What are the monsters?” asked Naomi.

“They are plant-like and will try and ensnare you,” said James not wanting to give away too much information lest it cause her to not escape as she had in the past.

“Ok. I will see you on the other side.” Naomi turned to the portal and took her steps quickly into the portal. The portal shimmered and she disappeared.

“We’ve got about eight minutes or so until we will be forced to step through. Do what you wish but stay close. After clearing this part of the floor, the rest will be a simple puzzle. From there we will have to collect a few things and do some climbing. It won’t be difficult so in between I will go over some training for you all. I want us all to be prepared as possible for the drake. It will the hardest monster we have faced so far but I am confident we can kill it. With the skills, you have learned it will be done.”