There were many comments in the official forum regarding the fifth floor that made me aware it would not be a regular mission.
We needed to face that floor with the best party my lobby could come up with.
I waited until after dinner before I grinded the stages with the new Party 1.
Trudy had been fighting in Party 1 for so long that she had accumulated many bond points with the other units.
Gerson had good skill proficiency, but it was apparent that he could not synchronize well with the party in their first few battles.
I could not let them face the fifth floor with this kind of shoddy performance.
It was only in the next morning that I was finally satisfied by the new Party 1's teamwork.
[Stage Clear!]
['Cecily (★★)', 'Gerson (★)' levelled up]
[MVP – 'Jonah (★)']
[Reward – 1000G]
The fifth floor would have much greater difficulty than the lower floors.
I could not just immediately send my main party without scouting the boss stage first.
Loki made a mention of this in his guides.
Scouting was important for a mission's success.
By sending a throwaway group ahead of the main party, players could gauge the mission's difficulty directly and prepare accordingly before the actual climb.
It was a necessary step given each Pick Me Up account had different missions for their boss stages.
We could not just watch other players' playthrough and expected our boss stage would be the exact same.
I had plenty of basic 1-star heroes in the sub-parties.
Some of them would never join my main party and would only be taking up the lobby's population space.
They would be useful as disposable scouts.
But I first needed to prepare these heroes before I could use them.
A scout would be useless if they immediately die upon entering the mission and could not gather enough information.
So I spent the next couple of days grinding with the sub-parties on the third and the fourth floor.
Trudy was useful in bridging the gap between the untalented 1-stars and the fairly skilled heroes in the sub-parties.
I managed to get a bunch of them to level 5 and improved their stats, some even reached level 6.
Their combat skills remained on level 2 at the most, however.
They simply could not improve no matter how many times I threw them to battle.
Not an impressive bunch, really.
I could not even consider them as backup parties in case Party 1 got wiped out on the fifth floor.
The lobby had dozens of 1-star heroes but I could only get three units that could develop their skills to level 3 and above.
Three out of dozens.
Loki mentioned that I could improve the heroes' standards by improving the training facilities, promoting the basic heroes to higher star-grade, and appointing skilled instructors.
But I needed to climb further in the tower before I could properly do all of those steps.
So I spent the next few days grinding with Party 1.
At this point, I had been streaming multiple recordings of the fifth floor's mission from other accounts.
I understood why many players dropped the game when they reached the fifth floor.
The mission's scale was simply on a whole another level.
What were the developers thinking when they made this game?
Was the first boss stage even possible to be cleared with 1-star heroes in the party?
All the videos I had seen made it as if I needed five advanced heroes to attempt the mission.
The recordings made me so worried for my own boss stage that I spent another two days grinding on the third and the fourth floor with all my parties.
Furthermore, I spent another few days just resting my heroes.
The guides mentioned that it was important to give heroes some rest before a mission, especially boss stages.
Loki even pointed out that providing a long resting period before a major mission would also help the heroes improve their skills as well as preparing themselves in general.
I could see why.
My 4-star Serafina had stopped gaining experience in the middle of reaching level 4. It took her five to seven battles to gain even one experience point that it no longer worth it to make her level up.
But during the resting period, she improved her Intermediate Fire Magic by one level. A big progress given the state of our climb.
The 2-star Cecily had reached level 5 and developed her Basic Archery to level 4 and Basic Dagger Technique to level 2.
Jonah and Shanny had reached level 7, the highest in the lobby.
Combat skill-wise, only Jonah managed to raise his Spear Throwing to level 2.
Gerson had reached level 6. Most of the 1-star heroes in the lobby had levelled up this high as well.
His Basic Sword-Shield Technique was still level 3. But he had also obtained Fire Resistance and Pain Resistance.
Jonah, Shanny, and Cecily had also developed the Pain Resistance skill after grinding for so long.
Most of the skill development happened after I stopped sending them to the stages.
It felt as if my heroes knew I would send them to the fifth floor soon and it would not be a regular mission, so they trained harder than ever in the lobby.
And now I believed the main party had reached the current limit of their progression given the state of the climb.
An all-rounder level 3 4-star mage, a level 5 2-star archer, two level 7 1-star heroes with level 4 combat skill, and a level 6 1-star hero with level 3 combat skill.
The official forum mentioned this kind of lineup should be enough to challenge the fifth floor.
But I was still not certain that my party was ready.
Then we should scout the boss stage to know for sure.
[Using the recording feature.]
[You can record to save a stage challenge. This can be viewed at any time, but you need to purchase this feature first.]
The Record feature allowed me to record missions for later-viewing.
I needed this to study the boss stages.
[Would you like to purchase the 'Record Feature'?]
[This will cost 300 gems.]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[Congratulations, Master!]
[You can now watch the heroes' records any time!]
One-hero-party for the first deployment.
I did not know what was waiting on the fifth floor.
We might just waste five people when one person could do the work.
[Adding 'Larson (★)' to 'Party 7'?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
This particular hero had stopped training and was only idling during the resting period.
I would likely synthesize him when I summoned new talented heroes.
So let's just use him to scout the fifth floor.
[Do you wish to challenge the 5th Floor of the Main Dungeon?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[Which party will you deploy?]
['Party 7' -(selected)-]
[Opening the rift of space and time!]
I wondered what my first boss stage would be.
One account had their party subjugate a hundred goblins in an open plain during a heavy storm.
Another had their party trying to survive for fifteen minutes in a dark forest swarmed with packs of wolves.
A third one had their party trying to escape a large garrison filled with a rampaging ogre.
What would mine be?
[Main Dungeon, the current challenge floor is the 5th Floor.]
[The doors will open after ten seconds. Get ready!]
[Mission is being recorded.]
[The recording will be saved.]
My screen faded into the view of a large plain.
The 1-star scout I deployed immediately emerged at the center.
This was a boss stage, alright.
The map itself was bigger than the lower floors by many folds.
What were my heroes supposed to do in this mission?
[Floor 5]
[Mission Type – Escape]
[Objective – Get out of the designated area!]
An escape mission.
Whenever this mission type appeared on the fifth floor, the players would either end up quitting the game or had their party suffered heavy casualties.
Just my luck.
In escape missions, there was always something that my heroes needed to escape from. A powerful enemy or some hazardous phenomenon in the environment.
Most of the map was still covered by the fog of war.
I could barely see any noticeable features or landmark so far.
There was one huge spot on the northern part of the map that was clear to be observed.
I tapped on that part of the map and my screen immediately shifted to that region.
[Ogre Lv.15 x5679]
…
…
…
What?
Did I see the number right?
Was the game glitching?
Why were there a bunch of ogres filling my screen?
No way!
I had never seen these many enemies in the other accounts' fifth floor missions. Let alone these many ogres.
Was this a bug?
['Larson (★)' has fallen into the state of fear. All stats decreased by 30%!]
My scout seemed to have noticed the monsters.
Alright then.
The mission did not require us to subjugate those ogres.
We only needed to escape them.
But where do we escape to?
The observable map so far only covered a huge plain.
There was not any significant landmark that pointed the route my heroes must go to.
Wait a minute.
There was a tiny highlighted spot at the eastern end of the map, well across the vast unexplored region.
I clicked on that revealed part of the map and shifted my view there.
My screen suddenly displayed a forest clearing, the surrounding was still covered by the fog of war.
The statue of two-winged maidens embracing each other was placed at the center of the clearing.
I had read about this statue in the guides.
It was an important tactical object in Pick Me Up's missions.
If there was a clue on where my heroes needed to go, it was this.
Now would my scout know to go here?
['Larson (★)' has fallen into the state of panic. All stats decreased by 50%!]
The scout dashed toward the south, away from both the enemies and the tactical object.
Did he not see the statue on the eastern end?
Did he even know he should go there?
Perhaps the level of the Hero Reaction Research was still too low.
I should increase it a few level after this. Serafina had gathered enough Research Points for it.
And should I build the facility that allowed me to command the heroes?
The Tactical Post, if I was not mistaken.
I would be able to point my heroes to the direction of the statue using that facility.
It was risky though.
There was still a lot regarding Pick Me Up that I had not fully grasped yet.
My involvement might jeopardize the main party instead.
Loki stressed this fact a lot in his guides about Tactical Post.
I should just trust the heroes.
4-star heroes were supposed to be smart.
That Serafina should be able to figure out what to do.
Yeah, she should.
['Larson (★)' has fallen into the state of despair. All stats decreased by 80%!]
The plain ran endlessly to the south that the army of ogres eventually caught up to the scout.
That weak 1-star hero did not stand a chance.
The giants immediately trampled the guy the moment they reached him.
['Larson (★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
[Party 7 has been annihilated.]
[Mission Failed!]
[You Lose!]
A failed attempt.
My first one, to my surprise.
I believed this would not be the last in my entire playthrough.
The fifth floor mission was definitely harder than the lower floors so far.
And it was likely that I had not yet seen the entire challenge that the first boss stage had in store for us.
[Research]
['Hero Reaction' has become Lv.3]
[The goddesses have blessed the lobby.]
Despite the research improvement, I did not think sending a full scouting party would change anything.
They were just basic 1-star heroes in the end. Their AIs were not as developed as advanced heroes.
I was certain they would just get lost like that Larson and got annihilated immediately.
It would be much better to save them as synthesis fodder instead.
So do I deploy my main party right away or should I wait and prepare some more?
It took me an entire afternoon mulling on the decision.
I repeatedly looked over the brief recording where the 1-star hero scouted the mission for me, studying the enemies and the battlefield, weighing the challenge and my main party's strength.
Eventually I reached to a conclusion.
[Do you wish to challenge the 5th Floor of the Main Dungeon?]
[Yes (selected)/ No]
[Which party will you deploy?]
['Party 1' -(selected)-]
[Opening the rift of space and time!]