Tsutomu’s team of four wasted no time to head to the Wasteland of the thirty-ninth layer, getting there before noon. Tsutomu had told Diniel that he would like her to fight with a little less force, and had also confirmed a few things with Barbara beforehand.
Barbara hadn’t been able to use her skills much in battle since then, so for now, Tsutomu instructed her to unleash Combat Cry as soon as she had enough mental energy to spare. Then, after reminding her to not hesitate to tell him if there was anything else she wanted to do, the team began exploring the thirty-ninth layer. If one were to ask why they had chosen this layer specifically, it was because Tsutomu had found a location perfect for training scenarios.
Somewhere in this layer existed a location called the ‘Team Graveyard,’ in which Skeletons respawned almost infinitely. The area was home to the monster called Demi-Lich, which reconstructed the great quantity of human bones in the area into its Skeleton minions; occasionally, those who teleported through the Black Gate to this layer would pop up here as well.
As long as one did not defeat the Demi-Lich itself, its Skeleton minions would keep reviving upon being destroyed, and would not fade into light particles nor drop any Magic Stones. To get out of the area meant one had to walk a considerable distance, too, so this area was quite infamous for being an annoyance to Explorers.
Still, there were catches to this mechanism — the maximum number of Skeletons that could be active at any moment was ten, and Holy-elemental attacks would destroy the Skeletons without leaving any bones for them to reconstruct. As such, a party would have an easy time breaking through, or even avoid battle altogether, if they had a White Mage, Gray Mage, or Paladin in their ranks.
Then again, the Skeletons minions could eventually be replaced by higher-ranked monsters depending on the passage of time and the number of Skeletons that got eliminated. There were secret Boss-like situations that could happen on rare occasions, too, such as the spawning of a Demi-Lich stronger than the Wastelands’ Layer Boss, or a large group of Skeletons or other reanimated bone-type monsters.
Back in Live Dungeon, the Team Graveyard was well-known as an early leveling spot; as such, Tsutomu intended to have the party practice through actual combat here, and then have Eunice practice her skills. As soon as they arrived, Tsutomu immediately focused his energy to set up an <, <
Eunice had not demonstrated her mastery of team fighting concepts at all — she had accidentally hit monsters with support and healing skills, let support skills on her allies run out, did not heal enough to stay in the comfortable range, and had failed to manage the enemies’ aggro on her on the basic level. It was particularly bad towards the end, when there were signs that her shot had taken a half-vapour like form, and by then, she had also given up on trying to count the skills’ durations by the seconds. And as a party, Eunice and Diniel’s respective frustrations had combined to create an uncomfortable atmosphere — it was, in a sense, a perfect score… at creating the worst situation possible.
Eunice’s yellow tail was hanging down, in a contrast to how it usually stood up so energetically, as if she was aware of what she had done wrong this time. Barbara looked dispirited as she laid on the ground, and Diniel looked as sleepy as ever, but also subtly unsatisfied.
“All right, I think we ought to call it a day for now! Good work, everyone!” Tsutomu declared in a cheerful voice, sounding somewhat forced to sound excited.