I assume you did reset your gear back to 0 (or does it start at 1?). If so you may have to rerun 1-10 more than once. My first time I had to rerun 1-10 3-4 times due to back luck with the chests and wether or not it did upgrade the stuff. I'm not sure what the gear has to be to be able to proceed further, but if you can't then it means the gear doesn't meet the requirements.