Part 25

I'm going to forego the use of italics this update due to large amount of comments.


> Tammy got the Flute of Sazanami.

Along the way back, we get some handy items such as the Flute of Sazanami and the Taiko Drums of Confusion. While these have their own effects, they can also be used as musical instruments when contacting demons to entertain them, if the conversation path leads you to that option. They're one-off items that you can only get here, as far as I understand.

Anyway, we backtrack to the town, running from battles with monsters higher-levelled and stronger than we are. Looks like it's time for a power-levelling session soon.


Back at the Jakyo, we have a few new options.
We can fuse two swords together, fuse a sword with a demon, or fuse two swords and a demon for a triple fusion. I guess it is possible to pick up more Renki-no-Ken after all. Oops.
Oh well, at least the Chefei we ended up with was a real pushover. vv

Anyway, it's just as well, really, because sword fusion is a little complicated. You can't just fuse whatever you want; rather, there are specific demons and races that you need to fuse to make swords, and each sword has different combinations.

With that said, if you know what you're doing, it's actually possible to make one of best swords in the game right now. There are stronger swords, some even twice as strong, but the sword in question, Musou Masamune, has a few advantages over them:
- It hits 3-5 enemies at once, while the strongest swords hit 0-1.
- It adds sleep status.
- It gives a bigger stat boost than most weapons.
- It's not insanely complicated to make.
Through sword fusion we can also make some of the best equipment for female characters you can get, but that would require a fair bit of poopsocking.

Why am I bothering with all this? Because the difficulty of the game is about to spike, and we're already getting raped by regular encounters, even with the obscene display of power levelling in the World of Sloth.

What we need to make a Musou Masamune right now is the following:
- Reichou Hou-ou
- Any Youjuu-class demon
- Reichou Phoenix
- Amatsukami Ame-no-torifune
- Kunitsukami Hitokotonushi

We can fuse all of these using common demons in the worlds we've been to so far. But this will require some backtracking, so let's take care of Otsuki first before trying to break the game.

Uh, now where the fuck was his lab again?


Damnit.

After getting lost in the horrible, twisty guts of the maze for a short while, finally we reach our goal.


Otsuki: My Plasma Power's finally surpassed its limit!
There's no way I can lose now!
There is absolutely no scientific proof that you'll escape the World of Greed alive!


Remodelled Professor Otsuki x1 appeared!


No special strategy this time, this is an old-school showdown. All we need to do here is just buff down his attack to something a bit more managable while boosting our defenses so that we don't have to waste too many turns healing back all our HP. With his physical attack nerfed, Otsuki can't do a thing to us, and we wear him out pretty fast with an all-out assault. He goes down, we get enough experience to gain two levels.
Moral of the story: the -kaja and -nda spells are hands down the best spells in any SMT game.


Otsuki: ...Why...?
Why did my Plasma Power lose?
I remodelled my entire body...
...Wh-why...


> Otsuki is defeated at last...


> Tammy received the Ring of Kindness.

We're finally done in the World of Greed! Time to jump in a Geyser (remember those?) and get the hell out of here before I go insane.



Back to the Room of the Seal to finally break the seal and go home!


> Room of the Seal

> The Ring of Kindness shone brightly...


> The seal broke slightly...
and was released completely.


Will you leave through the opened seal?




Reiko: ...We broke the seal, but Ideo's power hasn't weakened at all...
And isn't there something weird about how the school looks, too?


Every room we enter is the same. There's not a soul around the school.

Except...

Nurse Kayama: Everyone suddenly disappeared... Everyone's gone!
I see you two are alright.
If you get hurt, I'll fix you up. I'm serious, be careful. Don't do anything dangerous.

Okay, so the school is completely abandoned except for the foxy nurse...

After a bit more exploration, we discover that the previously blocked stairs on the top floor of the school are now opened, allowing us to access a new area!


Not a good sign. Take a look at the mini-map, and you can tell already that this is going to be a labyrinthine nightmare.

Looks now's time to get to work on making that Musou Masamune, right?