Indeed, not only Ian was in the instance, but Tilaymanse and Veronica were there too.
Moreover, the trio had formed a Totemist + Hunter + Magician team that was tackling the "Advanced Level 3" difficulty of "Hawk-held Mountain Copy".
As one of the earliest instances to be developed and tested, it was also currently the only one that had launched a "Challenge Mode".
This wasn't due to any technical difficulties.
Instead, it had to gain player recognition to be worthy of the name "Challenge Mode".
In other words, Alpha, who was responsible for the instance's monster AI, had been trained by players to the level of difficulty expected at Advanced Level 20—not only in terms of stats but also in the monsters' reactions to various situations.
Only in this way could it be backward compatible and meet the needs of different levels of difficulty.
Whether the difficulty could continue to be raised depended on Alpha's limits, as well as the limits of the brothers.
...
