I redid the Green Triple Crown and Green Bishop rescue circuit a couple more times to bring my characters all up to L7; then I repeatedly waylaid a group of 6 Castle Guards in Castle Woodhaven in hopes of some equipment upgrades. I got 1 or 2 items but the most important thing from the excursion was gold, to afford further training.

That got old fast though, so I thought I'd try my luck in the yellow-ticket tier of arena battles. With a little scumsaving I managed to complete the circuit, which was good for some modest gold rewards and a 50K xp bonus for rescuing the Yellow Bishop at Castle Pinehurst. Doing that once was enough to get my party all up to L8. 2 more circuits brought them to L9, which I figured should be sufficient to thoroughly scour the dungeons under Middlegate, Sandsobar, possibly Tundara, and the easier part of Corak's Cave.

I figured wrong; the 4x4 no-magic room in Middlegate's dungeons defeated them. So I headed over to Tundara to see what level I might be able to take on the Snowbeast quest. Turns out L9 is barely able to take on the random encounters en route, and with no spells, the snowbeasts (yes, plural) shredded the party pretty handily.

L9 to L10 is a 230K xp stretch for half the party. I can't really see grinding the yellow ticket / yellow bishop rescue circuit five times for 1 level. With xp requirements appearing to double each level, that grind wouldn't take me far at all anyway.