“I know level 6 zones are bad, but we can survive them at least,” I said with a forced grin.

“Survive, not win. We may be backed up by an insane number of stats compared to before. But the problem comes down to footing. The level 4 zones you can stand on. The level 5 zones, well only the shatteredlands is bad. At least the desert and the sandstorm terrains, aren’t run away horrible.”

Doctor Katz took a breath before continuing. “But level 6 zones, they are hell. First you have the lavalands. Just boiling hot lava, with small patches of hot stone. Then you have the shatteredlands version of a level 6 zone, the moltenlands. Lava exploding everywhere.”

“Finally, we have the ashlands, where the air is as hot as the ground and you can’t see anything, with the ash swirling in the air. When we had to deal with the sandstorms, those were bad. But at least some clever work with Michelle’s summons kept everyone coordinated and able to fight. But something like level 6 zones is impossible to fight in,” the good doctor finished his long rant.

“Done?” I asked.

“Just about. We can’t win against a level 7 monster in those circumstances. You might be able to hold out and dodge all over the place, but we are hitting our limit Michael of what we can kill. The stats make less and less of a difference.”

I nodded at this, everything Doctor Katz was saying was true. The top of the Crystal Vortex was a good place for conversations you wanted to have that you didn’t want other people joining in on. The soldiers knew to keep their mouths shut during discussions like this, unless they had something really important to say.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like them or care for their opinion, but they weren’t part of my team. They were only to run the airship, prepare the food, and keep things organized. I knew they would gossip in their rooms, but I didn’t care. It was too cramped to make a fuss.

I had made it clear though, that what was said on the airship, stayed on the airship. They could let their fellows know, you were on break, but besides them no sharing anything. I had made this clear to my team as well. Our headaches were our headaches. Getting other people involved was not allowed. Anything above level 5 was classified as well.

The information was recorded down. One of the soldiers did that. Acted as the official notetaker for all these monsters, but that information was for our records. Anything below level 6 we shared with Clarissa. I had meetings with her as well to keep her informed of our progress. But she had agreed that it was best to keep level 6 zones and monsters out of the public eye.

The difficulty was so immense, that there was a chance of crushing people’s hopes and dreams of escaping the Systemic Lands. After more than 10 years in this place, I wanted to tell them you are going to have to wait ten times that length before we can even think about poking a level 7 zone.

“We can kill level 6 monsters, easily enough,” I countered.

“Easily you say. You mean dragging them out of their zone to kill them. We still haven’t touched on the fact that level 7 is probably a step up. The Divine Empress was a beast in close combat Michael. Joyo can’t handle that kind of pressure. Michelle’s summons will be like useless lumps of butter. Me, I can support, but that only goes so far. Captain Francis has the same issue as I do.”

“Footing,” I replied.

“Yes. I know we can all dodge quite well. But you have 100,000 in your Body stat Michael for a reason. But you struggle against level 6 monsters and we haven’t been able to tame one yet.” That was another failure I didn’t want to think about.

“You know that quantity doesn’t help in level 6 zones, when we send in level 5 monsters. Even the level 6 bosses we have tried to dogpile to capture, have been too difficult, even with Michelle swarming them.”

That had been a big hope with Michelle. That we would be able to advance up through the zones with her monsters. Going from one level to the next. It had worked from level 4 to level 5. But level 6 monsters did not like being tamed and preferred to thrash themselves to death, rather then be captured.

We had been trying and evaluating several monster options for us to capture, but there weren’t that many choices. There were far more level 4 zones than level 5 zones. And even less level 6 zones. There were more and more void zones. The Systemic Lands was disappearing the further one went out.

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That tied into the void zones, being super turbulent, versus regular turbulent. There were edges all over the place. So many edges and less zones to make progress in. “We could always do a tower?” I suggested.

“No,” Doctor Katz said without any discussion allowed. “After that tower in a level 3 zone, no. You go up them yourself. I think I can speak for the rest of the team on this. Absolutely not. That was brutal.”

I gave him a weak smile. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“Michael, I respect you tremendously. You are the Emperor of Purgatory and team leader. But the towers are not going to happen. The monster spawners were a nightmare. And we all had to move as a group. We almost died multiple times from exhaustion. No. Towers are meant for individuals to climb up and on the outside.”

“I tried that, the attacks from the flying golems, was too hard to deal with,” I replied.

“That is a you problem. Not a us problem. Realistically Michael, we should call it quits, wait another ten years, get more stats and try again then,” Doctor Katz said.

“Another ten years. Really?” I asked him.

“There is nothing else to do. We are reaching the limit Michael of what is feasible as a team. We can crush any level 6 monster in our path, but a level 6 zone just isn’t possible.”

“What if you and the others had 100,000 in your Body stat?” I asked.

“It would help, but you know we need Aura as well to resist the environmental effects. The heat is absolutely murder. You might not want to hear it, but I think we should call it quits. There is nothing left we have a solid chance at,” Doctor Katz argued. Someone climbed up the ladder. It was Michelle.

“Party of two, or is there room for one more in this discussion?” she asked. She had gained a lot more confidence after facing down level 6 monsters. Being out in these high-level zones, you either managed or you broke. Thankfully Michelle had been the rare person who thrived.

“Feel free to chime in. Was talking with Doctor Katz here about poking a level 6 zone,” I explained.

“I was saying that it is better to wait a few years. There is no rush, and it is better to have stats for something like this,” he replied.

“Our last attempt was two years ago. So, a fairly long time. We have gotten stronger, and wiser,” I replied.

“The issue comes down to you not having any support. My summons struggle in the environment. Even with my upgraded skills. And we still haven’t managed to capture a level 6 monster. What really scares me is another jump in power from level 6 to level 7. We struggle with level 6 monsters. A level 7 monster, might be too much,” Michelle replied. Doctor Katz nodded at this.

I was being ganged up on. “Alright, so I make the attempt myself, and the rest of you hang back in support. That could work. At least my clothes should remain intact,” I said.

“You are good Michael, but you struggle against the higher-level monsters on your own. You are a mage, to steal your party terminology. And while Body is your highest stat, you aren’t comfortable in close range,” Michelle said.

She was the best at team combat, since she had to manage her summons. I wouldn’t discount her insight into how I fight. “Then you think we should wait some more?” I asked her.

“Yes. There were no more towers cleared after the second one, and you check occasionally, right?” she asked, and I nodded at this.

“Then there is no rush. We need to get some capable level 6 monsters first. After that we can look into tackling level 6 zones. Unfortunately, our options are limited,” she replied.

The level 6 monsters liked to swarm. Level 5 monsters were larger and tended to deal out curse damage, but level 6 monsters always swarmed no matter what. That was another reason why level 6 zones were impossible to tackle. As long as one monster was fighting, the rest would pursue us. The amounts never stopped either. The monsters just kept coming.

We were forced back the last time we tried, and it had been a hard retreat. Michelle had to sacrifice her summons to ensure our escape and I had run out of energy and had been forced into melee. I winced at the memory. They were right, I just didn’t want to admit we had come to a halt in terms of clearing zones.

It was frustrating in a way that I had never experienced. Before I had a clear path forward. Explore more zones, get more stats, improve my skills, both the system and combat ones. There was clear progression and the ability to advance. Now we were hemmed in on all sides and I didn’t like it.

There were some more zone edges to poke. There were more stats to get. But beyond that, we were incredibly limited in what we could accomplish. Michelle was right that we needed level 6 monsters, but it wasn’t simple capturing them. We had tried in the past and each time it had ended in failure. Just keeping the rod on a monster and holding said rod was impossible.

The fact we were able to capture level 5 monsters occasionally, was impressive in my mind. But we needed more if we were going to poke a level 6 zone. “Alright, what monsters do you need if we are going into a level 6 zone?” I asked Michelle.

She got a thoughtful look at that. “A lot of that depends on the monster and zone we will be fighting in. I can suggest a general team, but something more focused would be best if we want to smash through a level 6 zone. Something that can take a lot of damage as well. A sponge,” she said while getting a thoughtful look.

“I can tell what you are thinking of,” I told her with a long sigh. “It didn’t work before, and I doubt it will work now,” I told her.”

“If we are going to attempt a level 6 zone, then we need it, Michael. You know we do,” she replied.

“What monster are you talking about?” Doctor Katz asked. He then looked at my frown and her grin. He quickly realized what the issue was. “No. Not that one.”

“Yes, that one. It is the perfect level 6 monster, and the core of a team that can handle level 6 zone combat,” she replied.