Part 5: First relic of the Blue Warrior.

So umm...yeah. I'm not sure why you wanted to give our new Flame the name Squirtle, but I did the best I could. Squirtle required 8 letters, and we can only use six. If "Sqirtl" looks too weird for you guys, I'll just rename it to "Squirt" later. Monsters can be named more than once and at pretty much any time we want.
Anyway, Western Economic took the vote so now lets explore the wonderful businesses on the west side of the city.


First off, is the Hospital, as shown by the plus-shaped window on the door.


This is the Doctor, Hush. Honestly, I'd be a little creeped out of my doctor's name was Hush.
In your case, germs and illnesses would want to run away from you, so you probably have little concern for a clinic. Look here. Don't you think this still remains a great looking clinic?
: What's so great about it? || Well... y-yes I guess...
Honestly, this place looks pretty good for a video game hospital. Heck, it even has more beds than we do party members.
He, he, he. Don't worry, you can tell me how you feel. But there was a time when I could not save a patient because I didn't have the equipment. I should have been able to help...
By the way, Wreath tells me you're going to the tower. Did you come today to buy medicine?
: Yes. || I don't need any medicine.
You can buy Medicinal Herbs from this guy for $15 a pop. Pretty cheap if you ask me, considering how useful they can be. Problem is, you can only take five items to the Tower with you, so most of the time I don't even bother.
Come back again when you need some. I'm not that great a doctor, but a kind doctor that cares for the well being of the people in this city. He, he, he.


This place is probably the most useless building in the entire game!


This is a monster marketplace. Like the Bar, it's also a gathering place for Treasure Hunters, these guys talk about the Tower but don't really give any useful advice.
#1 Any monster can live in the monster tower, as long as it's a monster. You see, I even saw fish-like monsters swimming through the air or quietly hiding along the ground. I'm not kidding ya. (I think this guy is talking about U-Boats.)
#2 Shucks! Once again someone had reserved the monster before me. I can't purchase any monsters here. What kind of monster merchant is he, anyway?
#3 Even if you are separated from your familiar, as long as it's still alive, it will follow you to the next level. Besides, you could always call them by using your Monster Bells. (The bells he is referring to are a rare item that automatically summon all "Lost" familiars back to you; "lost" including telling them to sit in a corner and grind for me.)


Since this is a store after all, here is the shopkeeper. He like almost every other shop keeper in the game treats Koh like a little kid at first. This changes when we get higher up in the tower. I believe they stop making fun of you at the 10th floor.
: I'm a customer. || Okay, okay, I'll go home.
Huh? You're here as a customer? I doubt you're here to buy anything... and you've run out of the familiars your father left you, right?
: I've come to sell. || I've come to buy. || Just looking around.
I'm skipping the sell option, because if you sell in one shop, you sell in them all. The prices are the same and nothing changes.
I must apologize, we haven't had enough top monster hunters around, so our stock of monsters is extremely low. As soon as we do get a monster, they sell immediately. At this rate, It'll be likely be like this for years to come.
Your father, Guy, was super. He would frequently come to sell top quality monsters.
Small detail on selling monsters. They are more valuable in their eggs than hatched. When hatched, the price drops significantly, but never increases again. So you can sell a Lv. 50 Olympus Mon with maxed stats, and it won't be any more expensive than the same monster at Lv. 1 freshly hatched. That said, I think selling eggs is a waste. You can always use more fusion bait monsters.


And here is the Weapons Shop , well known by it's nice sword logo.


You're only here to bug me anyway.
: No I'm not! || You're absolutely right.
As I recall... You've had your fifteenth birthday, to officially become an adult, right? I was fifteen when I started looking after this store. We can't all be kids forever.
: I'm a hunter! || I'm a kid forever.
The ruins of the tower.
This is a weird line. It just doesn't fit at all, and it transfers immediately from this to the shopping menu. I'm really curious what this line was supposed to be.
: I've come to buy. || I've come to sell. || Just looking around.
Due to the ancient ruins, we've seen an increase in hunters, so as a result we're always out of items. So there's not much to sell. What are you looking for?


This guy is right, they don't have much to sell. This never changes over the course of the game. Fortunately, that Copper sword, although sucky, is enough to help you defeat Trolls on the first floor, making it halfway decent. And remember what the guys at the Bar told us, the Hospital sells Medicinal herbs for cheaper.


Now this place, this is probably the only place in the West side of town worth visiting on a regular basis.


This is our second bachelorette, Fur. As the booklet explains, she runs the General Store. In order to woo her, we just have to constantly visit her, so instead of selling our goods to Wreath after a tower-visit, I'll sell them to Fur instead.
: I don't think we have anything here that you can afford.


She isn't kidding, her stuff is expensive and all of it does nothing. 90% of the stuff in the General Store is stuff you can buy for your house. It'll automatically appear there and you can interact with it.
You'll notice some of it is grayed out. We need to upgrade our house before we can buy certain useless stuff to put in our house. Now, I am being somewhat cruel, not everything in the General Store is useless.


The Aura Bike is worth it. It lets you run around town faster and honestly it's just kinda cool. The Booster under it makes it even faster.
As for the rest of the non-furniture stuff, you can buy clothes (which Mamoru is already wearing exact copies of, so buying clothes does nothing) and gifts for girlfriends (which do nothing). You can also buy a rubber ducky which Weedy freaks out over, and the last option is to scrap everything you bought for the house, in case you want to start over.
But since I promised I'd upgrade the Monster Hut, we don't buy anything here.
: Oh, that's too bad. Anything else?
: I've come to buy. || I've come to sell. || I'm just looking.
: Then go home. This wasted discussion is costing me. $1 every minute.
She's joking, she doesn't charge you for conversation, but she gets upset with you if you come and don't buy/sell anything.
: I hear you've started going to the tower! What's the tower like?
: It's going okay. || Not going too well.
: That's good. You've got that wild look, so I bet the monsters don't realize your human.
: You kidding, with my face? || I do look wild, don't I?
: Of course.


This is our last stop on the Western Economic tour, although this technically isn't a business since it's free. (Then again, so was the Pool.)


I'm Mademoiselle Shiela, known as the mother of Monsbaiya. Would you like to know your fortune.
: Yes || I won't believe what you say
Hmm. I can see that your personality has great depth. What would you like me to look into today.
: On my love life || On how to fight || On how to enjoy life
We are given three options here. I've gone through them enough times. Love Life gives you hints about a certain girl you can date, Fight gives you advice for the tower and Enjoy Life tells you stuff you can do around town. However, all three require you go through a quiz first. To demonstrate, I'll do Love Life first.
Haw! You're still young, naturally this is what you want to know. All right. Relax and answer my questions.
1) Would you like to play outside If the weather is good? Yes
2) Can you laugh and listen to selfish remarks by a person you like? No
3) Would you say a tomboy type of woman would be your type? No (have you seen Nico beat me up each morning?)
4) Do you think money is everything? No (No, that's raising monsters that's everything)
5) When being kind to someone, do you think it should be done without being obvious about it? Yes
6) Do you think flowers are beautiful because they do not last forever? Yes
7) Do you feel uneasy unless you are doing something? Yes (what am I doing here? Why aren't I in the Tower?)
8) Are you unable to leave someone alone when they are depressed? Yes
9) Do you think not to fight those that are weak? No (Ghosh is weak and totally worth fighting.)
10) Do you find childishness in an adult woman attractive? No
11) To you, is being a good cook a prerequisite for a lover? No (I don't need to eat anything, this is a video game!)
Haw! I can see the perfect woman for you! That woman is a bit on the vicious side, but is very kind hearted... you could say she's a healthy and pretty woman. Well? Do you know anyone that fits this description? To have her notice you, you must support her dream. You might think of her as a hard-to-handle tomboy, in fact she thinks so herself... but deep inside there is no doubt she is very much a lady. Sometimes you can see the forest for the trees. Pay special attention to that.
Is there anything else you would like to know?
: Yes there is || I'm leaving
Come back again whenever you have something on your mind. I, Mademoiselle Shiela, mother of Monsbaiya, shall solve your problems.
Knowing that the girl who beats me up every morning is my destined lover kinda bothers me. We're out of here. Screw Nico, I'm going to go flirt with Patty.


Oh right, she's still angry because I forgot to pay last time...Cleaning dishes does not free you of your debt. Really, you're better off running away. At least you can get a laugh out of it.
: To pay for the last meal. || No particular reason.
: It'll be $30.
: I'll pay it. || I haven't got enough.
: As long as you pay, you're a customer to us. Please have a seat, right over there. What would you like?
The next item on the list is Tofu. ($40)
: One order of Hiyayakko tofu, coming up. Just a moment. Here you are.
: I love this dish, and feel sorry for those who don't understand this great taste. Yes, this tofu has taste to it. And the green onion used is diced cleanly, leaving it fresh and crispy, and bringing out the taste of the tofu.
Then Ghosh comes in, says he won't feed Tofu to his pet, makes fun of us, yadda yadda. This time I actually pay.


Because the monster hut is full, I'm going to upgrade it. This will drop us down to $1596.
Yes, I have $4000 here. Give me a little time to build. I should have it built before you return from your adventures.
Meaning once we return from the tower we'll have a larger hut. If we go now, it'll still be the same size.


Once again, I'm bringing Wendy and Mic inside the tower. And I'm experimenting with animations now. I'm using a some free software that wasn't mentioned in the Technical Support thread, but I can't adjust the quality of the animation, so the files will be pretty big. This picture alone is close to a megabyte but a little bit under. Let me know how you guys like it? (Depending on how you guys feel about this, I may make more in the future, focusing on Mixture Magic and attack animations. Someone already requested a Baloon's attack.)



Floor 1:


First thing's first, send out Wendy.


Woot! Red Sand functions exactly like Blue Sand, except it improves your current weapon. However, the only rust-proof weapon is the Gold Sword, which I haven't found yet, so I'll be hoarding these.


And now the most useless kind of sand: White Sand. They give your balls an extra charge, letting you use them another time. I don't have a ball so it just sits. When I find one, I'll use it right away.

Floor 2:


I left the first Floor at level 4, so that made this pretty easy. He goes down in two hits.

Floor 3:


I found a Light seed sitting on the ground, which gives your Familiar the Fire-Genus. Because Wendy doesn't have any spells, I'm not concerned about losing efficiency with her. This way she won't get killed by a stray Sled.


...and promptly murders a ton of Flames. I'm a little scared of her now, she's hitting harder than me.


With my Iron sword, I have 12 ATK. Wendy has 15 ATK. At least my defense is higher than her's, so I should still try to tank, but enemies tend to favor Familiars over Mamoru for some reason.

Floor 4:


Ooh, a Money Wand. These tend to sell pretty well, and when you kill an enemy they sometimes turn into copper coins. Not worth it because the power boost from elemental wands is better, but since it only drops my ATK by two points compared to the Iron Sword, I switch over. I also tell Wendy to sit on a corner and grind for me while I loot the rest of the place.


Meet the Wind Crystal's water-elemental sister, the Water Crystal. They do a full heal on all familiars you currently have out. Naturally, I'll be doing this when Wendy runs out of MP...I think Half MP Consumption only affects Mixture Magic and Spells, because she's losing MP nearly as fast as Mic normally does.

Floor 5:


Now this is a nice item. You can use it and monsters will ignore the tile you used it on. They'll just move around, but you can't attack while being on that tile. However, you can throw it at an enemy and you will convert it to your side. The monster will walk beside you and attack enemies for you. Pretty much it's like an unofficial familiar. However, this monster will also very likely die, but it'll do some damage to an enemy as well.


Huh, now I'm carrying one of each kind of sand. Just thought I would share the odd coincidence.


Oh boy, this room was a nightmare. First off, I was fighting a Manoeva, which was kinda hurting Wendy pretty badly because of her new Fire-Genus. Then to make things worse, Wendy hits a Frog trap, turning her into a Frog. I defeat the Manoeva, and then Wendy hits a Paralysis trap, but doesn't activate it. I thank my luck...and then Wendy hits a confusion trap.
Monsters go nuts when confused. They walk random directions, and may attack for no reason. This picture is a confused Wendy hitting me for 10 damage; told you she was getting powerful.


But right after Wendy hits me, she drops to the floor because she conveniently runs out of MP. Cue Water Crystal, which also gets rid of that pesky confusion. This is why confusion and brainwash can be so devastating, because your monsters will murder you later on.

Floor 6:


Right away, Wendy hits yet another trap and gets warped away. I'm scared now because these series of floors with the green floor are covered with Water-Genus monsters. I'm going to want to switch her back to Wind pretty soon because at her level, she can easily take the early Fire-Genus monsters.


Dammit. She actually took down a Blume right before this one, but dropped to 2 HP. The next one simply one-shotted her.


So I pull out Mic and switch to the Scarlet wand. I forgot how powerful Flame Sword is with this thing.

Floor 7:


This time I got hit with a Warp Trap, and ran into a Blume. Fortunately, I ran into a Blinder ball as well. These things do exactly what they sound like: blind enemies. They'll just walk in a straight line until they hit you or a wall, so this makes them very easy to take out since they don't know where you are to strike back.


This is a sweet item. Shomuro seeds boost the eater's defense. Mamoru could eat it, but the bonus would just go away. Such items are meant for monsters to eat.


Also, Blumes suddenly feel like brainwashing Mic. It doesn't work because of his trait.

Floor 8:


Sweeeeet. Now I can keep going without fear. And I don't have an egg or really any loot worth caring about, so I can keep going up without fear of accidently getting one-shotted by the godly monsters up there.


Or...not. I'm just getting really lucky these runs because I do not remember eggs being anywhere this common. But after I got this egg, I sat down and thought this out. Mic is really powerful with Flame Sword on a scarlet wand. The monsters over the next few floors are wind-elemental and then fire-elemental. The Blue Collar is on the 12th floor, and with this Blinder Ball I would be safe if I ran into some of the tougher enemies.
We're going for it. From this point on, I stop grinding (because of MP reasons) and hit the elevator after looting each floor.

Floor 9:


Ohshitohshitoshi-It missed!
Meet the Clown, well known and well hated for their LoDown spell. This spell lowers the level of the target by one. If you are really close to leveling up, this will screw you over. Fortunately, once you gain 1 EXP you'll go back to your previous level...but you still have to start over again. I'm really lucky, I got LoDown cast on me like four times and none of them hit. Still, better me than Mic.


It's also Wind-elemental, and because both of us are at a pretty high level, it goes down in one hit. Killing Clowns never felt so good.

Floor 10:


This is the Dreamin. They are actually pretty weak. Where some of the other monsters are doing 5-8 damage through my shield, this thing almost always does 1. However, they can use Hypnosis (the Dreamin special ability) on you which puts you to sleep, and remember that being attacked does not wake you up. If you fall asleep with other enemies near by, say goodnight to all of your loot. Fortunately, Hypnosis doesn't hit very often. And they are Wind-elemental, so they also fall in one hit to Flame Sword.


What's this? Another Troll? Don't thank your luck, these Trolls have a bow instead of a hammer. Because of this bow they can shoot from a distance and they hit pretty hard. However, these guys also drop a shit-ton of EXP, each Troll is probably worth three Clowns in EXP and they aren't that much harder if you know how to step just right so they don't shoot at you.


Ah, Volcanos. Right now, I kinda fear them because they have a ton of HP and hit pretty darn hard. I didn't keep too close of track but I think these guys hit for about 10 damage with with my shield. I only have 57 total, and they take more than one Flame Sword to take down. But they also drop even more EXP than the Bow-Trolls.

Floor 11:


Griffons...I hate them so much. They are deadly, powerful on their own, and they get even more powerful when they use Rise, which creates that powerful flame pillar which will deal a ton of damage to you. By this point I'm sitting in a corner regenerating after each battle so I don't die when I start the next battle.


Diamond shields are known for simply being awesome. They have the highest base defense of all shields and THEY DO NOT RUST! I take off my steel shield and put this baby on.


Why am I not surprised? With this curse and -1, it's actually as powerful as my Steel shield so I wouldn't be taking this shield off anyway. But that's okay, I have a blue sand I've been holding on to for just such an occasion.


Alright...I admit, I have never tried to enhance a cursed piece of equipment before and I suddenly regret it. De-Curse scrolls are uncommon in the tower, so I'll probably find one later on.

Floor 12:


I'll be honest here, I love floor 12. It just looks so cool! The previous floors seemed kind primal being made of grass or raw rock, but this floor actually takes some architecture and looks pretty damn nice.


Krakens...these guys can be pretty annoying because when you attack them, you'll take damage back because of their electric field or something like that. That effect is actually their Trait, so we can pass it on to future monsters! They are also Water-elemental, so Flame Sword loses some of it's power against them. However, I'm not sure if its because of the Mixture Magic or because of the Wand, but I didn't take any damage from them because of their Trait.


Copper coins still appear, but now we start finding Silver coins, and these things just give you more money right away. I got $103 from this pile alone.


Ah yes...the Blue Collar. Now the game really begins. I would like to say this really quick though. There is no mention of the Blue Collar from any of the towns-people. The instruction manual mentions it, but only mentions that it exists. Where the Blue Collar comes from remains a complete mystery.
So I like to think that it belonged to the Blue Warrior that one lady at the Bar was talking about. We don't really hear much about the Blue Warrior either, which kinda makes me sad, but such is the problem with these poorly translated old-school games; they don't have much of a plot or explain things very well.
Once I found the collar, I left right away via Wind Crystal. I COULD go higher, but like I've been saying, new tough enemies and I'm carrying an egg. The Collar is good enough.

END OF DAY! KILL COUNT FOR THE DAY!
: 3 Pulunpas, 1 Noises, 12 Trolls (Hammer), 7 Flames, 5 Cyclones, 4 Baloons, 8 Manoeva, 8 Manoeva Clones, 1 Blumes, 1 U-Boat. 51 KILLS TOTAL.
Ghosh Record: 2 win, 0 Losses.

: 0 KILLS TOTAL.
Flame Sword Assists: 3 Cyclones, 14 Baloons, 12 Manoevas, 1 Manoeva Clone, 7 U-Boats, 9 Clowns, 8 Dreamin, 5 Trolls (Bow), 2 Volcanos, 3 Griffons, 1 Kraken. 83 KILL-ASSISTS TOTAL.

: 16 Pulunpas, 8 Noises, 12 Trolls (Hammer), 16 Flames, 9 Cyclones, 1 Baloon, 4 Manoevas, 3 Manoeva Clones, 1 Blume. 70 KILLS TOTAL.
Changed to Fire-Genus.
Defeated by Blume.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


HA! That's all I have, is a bunch of junk.
Anyway, morning behaves as normal. Wreath tucks us in at night, Nico drop-kicks us in the morning, Weedy rolls us over, Wreath gives us a Pita Fruit and we go flirt with Fur while selling her our junk.


HOLY SHIT, that diamond shield is valuable! Most of that is because of the curse which skyrockets the price, but I'm still keeping it. Say good-bye Steel shield, I need something that won't get worse over time. (I still remember finding that shield when it had a +2.)
Oh, new item I forgot to show off: The Vital Sword. It's a nice 5-ATK sword that has a special effect of preventing Manoevas from cloning when hit by your sword. It's stronger than the Iron sword so I'll be using it from now on, but I actually like killing the clones. Cheap EXP.
Total, I sell most of the junk (keeping pretty much only the sands and shoving them in the safe, and a set of equipment plus the scarlet wand to bring into the Tower) for $2574. I came back from the Tower $5288. The safe is starting to get full with back-up equipment, sands and Pita fruits, so I'm heavily considering upgrading the house to get more safe-space.


: I'm a genius! || I'm invincible!
: You're loony. It looks like rather than doing better, you're bragging better.
Fur is also really rude to you early on, but that's a trait shared with all the shopkeepers so it is par for the course I guess.


Out of the Black Egg came a Baloon. ...I honestly don't like them much. They aren't too strong, their special ability lets you skip a floor but murders their MP, but their hidden spell is Breath, which is yet another ranged fire attack spell. Breath also produces Flame Sword (like all the other natural Fire spells except one) but when cast on its own it's pretty damn powerful.
We need a name for it. Honestly, I want to just leave it as Baloo because of nostalgia for Jungle Book, but that's just the vote that I'm casting. You goons can still name it whatever you want. (Also notice our nice slightly larger monster Hut...it's going to need to get expanded again pretty soon already if I keep finding eggs at this rate.)

And last but not least, I'm going to show the stats of each monster, so hopefully we can decide what to do with Fusion.


Brid (Ranged fire attack, 10 MP)
Mixes to Flame Sword (Single hit, Fire-elemental)
Traits: Unbrainwashable.


Hidden Spell: DeHeal. (Ranged healing spell, 10 MP)
Mixes to Blizzard Sword (Single hit, Water-elemental.)
Ability: Collar Jack (if the target is a familiar, remove its collar. This is useless for us.)


Hidden Spell: LoGrave (Ranged wind attack, 12 MP)
Mixes to Thunder Wave. (Two hits if target is next to Koh, ranged single hit otherwise, Wind-elemental)
Ability: Cure Anorexia
Traits: Half MP Consumption.


Sled (Ranged fire attack, 8 MP)
Mixes to Flame Sword (Single hit, Fire-elemental)

(name pending)
Hidden Spell: Breath (Ranged fire attack, 12 MP)
Mixes to Flame Sword (Single hit, Fire-elemental)
Ability: Fly (Go to next level, and lose a shit ton of MP.)

Remember, we need to name our Baloon and think of where to explore next time.