The experimentation eventually became even stranger.
New formations appeared almost every incursion.
Some worked beautifully.
Others lasted less than a minute before their creators quietly pretended they had never existed.
Several techniques developed inside the temporal zones were tested against corrupted monsters for the first time.
A few exceeded expectations.
Others discovered that simulated resistance and actual Black Mass authority were not quite the same thing.
Those failures were recorded too.
Nobody tried to hide them anymore.
That pleased Lucien more than the successes.
Embarrassment cost less than repeating a bad idea during the real war.
The Thousand Races were slowly treating each incursion like a lesson.
Then someone resurrected the field-trip joke.
Lucien regretted allowing that phrase to survive.
At some point, people began referring to upcoming battles as opportunities to "visit the field."
