Part 33: Unnecessary Precaution

Update 33: Unnecessary Precaution



It's time to head to Arcose and check out this mining operation! But first...





I'm totally hooked by its smell! Delicious! I'd go back for seconds.








Music: Small Workshop


Geezer: What a wonderful day! I can't believe it's been fifteen years.

Guy: I thought they'd never start up the old mining machine again.

Geezer: What made them decide to start mining again?

Guy: Well the curse must have ended after all this time.

Geezer: Looks like Arcose the mining town is back in business!

Person: The festival is about to start!

Guy: Woo, it's about time!

Geezer: I need a good view of the machine!



Curse?

What'd they mean?

Let's check out the festival. It'll be fun!





Guy: Ready...START!


The chain starts to move. It's very exciting.


Boy: Wow, look at it go!

Geezer: I'm glad I could see this again before I pass on...





Music: And Fate Was Changed


Something lets out a...not particularly intimidating but really annoying screech...


Guy: Oh no...

Geezer: It's the curse of the flaming salamander!

What's going on?

Guy: I thought it was gone! The salamander will turn everything it sees into stone! It's quiet until we turn on the machine...then it goes freaking nuts! I guess we just have to turn off the machine for good again...What a shame.

Did they just say salamander?

It turns people to stone...This won't be easy.


So they started the machine up knowing that there was a curse because “eh, the curse is probably over now, right?” These miners are idiots.

When we try to leave...





We were just finishing up! And we have some big news!


Fade out/in


Hmm...petrifying vision, huh?

I was afraid I'd turn into a statue, meow!

Ha ha! Don't worry, I have the medicine to clear that right up. Just pop one of these Movagains. I synthesized them myself!

Movagain? Never heard of it.

It's a medicine made from alchemy. Seriously, it cures stiffness right away.

...How'd you come up with that?

Well, at first I was trying to create a nice massage cream, but it came out too strong...It removes stiffness from your body in no time flat.

...Hmph.

So are you going to give us some or what?

Oh, I don't have enough ingredients to make more right now.





Hmm, I guess this is sort of like item shop synthing. I wonder what sort of strange ingredients she needs?


I guess helping you would also benefit us, huh?

Well, let's see...First you need to find some nice Soot.

Soot...as in the black residue inside a stove?

Yeah, that. It's a crucial ingredient.

Come on, guys! Let's go!


Oh, so we have to collect specific unique items. Well, that's okay, I don't mind the occasional scavenger hunt type scenario in games. We have a large stove at home, but the one Rurona wants is somewhere else...







Music: Cute Witch


Excuse me! Coming through!

Who are you? What are you doing here!?

Oh yeah, this is nice...good consistency...It's perfect. On to the next ingredient! Let's see...A Bald Man's Hair.

That's kind of an oxymoron...Are you sure you wrote it down correctly?

Yes, of course I did.

I guess we have to look for it.

What in the world are you babbling about?

We're making medicine for the salamander that cures shoulder stiffness...I think, meow.

...Can anybody else explain?

It's better if you forget any of this ever happened. See you later!





Come on, Zeldalia, you're an alchemist. You should know about this sort of incident.





By the way, you know how I use those teleporters to the fairy blacksmith's house to get around? Well, recently they've become a bit inconsistent, so every now and then I can't use them for no apparent reason. It's kinda dumb, but travel is easy enough in general in this game that I'm not too bothered.





As such, I decided to go through Iris' Resting Place and stop by the Mana Furnace. Fortunately, I sold a couple Dark Mana earlier so this wasn't a total waste.

I keep putting off properly smithing, don't I? Perhaps I should have a genuine Weapon Upgrading update.





Music: The Laughable Pair


There's only one person it could be...

Yeah, I think he's our only shot.

Hey, guys! How's it going?

Um...We kind of, sort of, need one of your hairs.





Are you making fun of me!?

No, of course not! See, we just need a bald man's hair.

...Oh? And why is that?


fade out/in (again)


Ahh, I understand now. Sadly, I don't have any hair for you.

Oh! There's an idea! Why don't we use this instead?

Hey, what are you -


Rurona tackles Hagel and we hear a “yoink” sort of a noise.


You took it...from his beard?

Meow! Beards are stupid...

That should work out alright...Let's work on the next ingredient! The next ingredient is the feather from a red chicken. It must be red, understand?...What's wrong, guys?

… …

...That woman scares me, sometimes.





Our next destination is Duran, but I took a brief detour to the Flawless Marvel. Curiously, Rurona doesn't have anything to say if we venture here with her. You see, I forgot something very, very, immensely important...





The Heal Bulb.

See, I've been using Heal Jars since...well, the beginning of the game. Wide Item makes them viable full-party heals, but that still eats through Klein's MP and they're running out of potency. Heal Bulbs are more powerful and have a naturally large area of effect so Klein can almost always hit the whole party with one without needing a skill. They cost 2 Light and 2 Life elements, so they're still easy enough to synth.

Needless to say, these would have been useful back when I could have first gotten them. Oh well.





One more ingredient and we're home free! All that's left is a bat's wing. But I've never seen a bat around here before...

Whoa, whoa! After all this time, you're telling us you can't make the medicine!?

Don't worry. I'm sure we can just use something similar.

What in the world is similar to a bat's wing?

Hmm...I know! Let's go to the Tower of Airfen! I should be able to call it from there.


Oh, well that doesn't sound sketchy at all. Come to think of it, Rurona has made this stuff before, so shouldn't she know where to find these things? Hmm.





You'll see, you'll see...

I'm bored already!

Shhh! Be quiet. I'm calling it. This transport machine connects to a number of different places. I'll just make a little adjustment here, and...

All you did was kick it!

...That should do it! Is everybody ready?

Ready for what?





Something's coming! Look out, guys!





Music: Ferocious Drive


And now we get to fight Baal. Despite being a warm-up miniboss, he's still legitimately dangerous.





One of his specials is Thunder Boom Blade, one of those awkward delayed attacks. It can nail multiple characters for 100+ damage.





That's theoretically damage output that Klein can keep up with, but...







...sometimes he uses the delay to his advantage and essentially uses Thunder Boom Blade to sacrifice one turn to double attack you the next. Howling is also a brutal attack (decent damage AND MP damage). Klein did not survive the combo.

Baal also likes to counter about half of our attacks, so damage can really start to stack up. One of his counters even drains HP.





I brought out Norn to see if she could give my remaining characters some extra durability, and it seems to have worked out fairly well.





He's not to hard to damage, at least, although Marietta's attacks seemed to work best, which is kind of a shame since she was on healing duty most of the time.





By the way, some of the joke types of items like the bad Rosie Ann Buns can be surprisingly effective (this did about 160 damage, not bad for an easy to synth item). Sadly, the fatal Rosie Ann Bun can only be used on self. I thought about forcefeeding him some Farewell, Love, but the description said that it's a “Curse atk” which I assumed at the time meant it wouldn't do actual damage but in retrospect I was probably wrong.





How was that similar to a bat?

We're never messing with the transport machine again. Promise me.

I'll go make the medicine. Just give me a few seconds...Here you go! The Movagain! Now turning to stone won't be a problem at all. That was a lot of fun, you guys! See you around!



Can we all agree she's a total whackjob? I'm serious.

At least now turning to stone won't pose a threat, right?

Let's go find us a fire salamander!





It's interesting to see how alchemists can come up with new items. All we've really done with Klein so far is replicate ones he found lying around. These are super easy to synth, too, so I maxed out on them.





I also triggered this unrelated scene with Rurona on my way to the teleporter in Veola's shop.


Normal...you know.

Guess what! I know the final materials we need for the Dragon Gem!

Really?

We need a Dragon Horn...but I'm not sure where we could find one.


Man, that's like...four or five things I need dragon horns for, and I still haven't even found ONE. I hope I can find a good spot to dig some up soon.


We can't really help you, there. We'd have to defeat a dragon, right?

I guess so...If you happen to do that, can you bring me the Dragon Horn? It's the last thing I need. There should be dragons around here, somewhere...


That seems like a pretty significant favor to ask of someone, but I suppose I'll keep it in the back of my head for now.





Music: Inferno

Music: Ferocious Drive (again)


Now that we have a cure for petrification, we have to head on to the Valiant Path.


???: Guugh! Guugh!

Ahhhh!

Did you hear that?





Oh hey, that tower of stones that was impeding my path before is gone. We can go just a bit further...





Don't underestimate it! It could turn you to stone.

Lita would make a pretty statue.

Don't even joke about that! I won't let it anywhere near me.





The Salamander and its Basilisk buddies are rather fond of nailing the party with poison attacks. There are eight total Basilisks, so we want to off them quickly before they get to rack up too much damage.









I don't recall if I mentioned this, but Marietta has two skills that are standard attacks with extra reach (sideways for one, longways for the other). Sadly, one of the Basilisks was able to use it's “Petrify” skill, which increased all enemies' defenses, but I still offed them all before they got to do anything else significant.





Then Klein died, because Klein apparently can't survive two rounds of combat anymore.







But once again, the fight was manageable enough without him. The Basilisk's attacks aren't that bad when it attacks non-Klein, non-Norn characters, and it doesn't have much in the way of defense, either.

Having said that, I went through this entire fight without getting petrified once. I'm pretty sure I never got petrified in either of my previous playthroughs, too. The Basilisks have an ability called Stone Breath, but they have to charge it and I killed them before any could use it, so maybe that's the thing that inflicts Stone? But Basilisk itself never did that, either. I kind of feel like we just went on a completely pointless fetch quest, but it was with Rurona so I guess that's okay.





It looks more like a rock than an egg.

We should inform the townspeople that the monster's gone.

Maybe they'll have another festival.

Hey, we got the Reptile Egg, so does that mean...?

Yes. I can create a Ruby Prism. I need to visit the Mana Chiefs.

But before that, we should return to the mining site and tell everyone we defeated the monster!


Sounds like a plan. Maybe they'll have a nice reward for us.





By the way, there's yet more of this area that we can't explore. How could we possibly get there, though?





Oh...We were talking about the fire salamander incident.

Was there something else...? We already defeated the salamander.

What? Already?

Well that's certainly good news. Thank you so much!

You're amazing, Mr. Klein! You're my hero...Please accept these.





Oh hey, those things are pretty ra-


We should get going. We're in a hurry, right?

Huh? You're the one who wanted to stop by...Why are you rushing me?

I forgot!

Tch...how selfish.


Whoa, look at Klein, throwing sass around like it's nothing all of the sudden. I don't know if that's good or bad, really.

That's it for our main update, but while we're in Arcose, I think it's time for...





Atelier Blaire: She's Prone to Violence

Music: Fun Shopping in Arcose


Even with all the quality experimentation I've done, Blaire continues to give me new scenes and sidequests at a glacial pace. I got a little content this time, though!


What is it?

I want to bake some of the bread I used to make back home...But I don't have all the ingredients. If I write them down for you, would you mind getting them?

Sure...Sounds easy enough.

Really? Thank you so much.





Actually most of these ingredients are things we can only get from Blaire in the first place, she just needs some sort of candy. I'm well stocked on that thanks to Norn, so...





Yum...Cream Bun ala Fran...It's been a long time!

You haven't eaten one in a while, huh?

No...it reminds me too much of the old days. My nanny used to give me one every day at snack time. We'd have a different tea every day...from all around the world.

Talk about high society...

Why are you working in a bakery?

I told you, for me this isn't work! I'm training here to become a famous baker! Sometimes it's hard being in such a small place...but then I eat a Bun ala Fran and I feel 32.7% better.

That's a decent percentage...


Hmm...but didn't we just bring her the ingredients to make the first one she's had in ages? I'm starting to suspect that Blaire is very good at lying to herself.


Later...





Music: Popcorn Strategy


Still haven't learned your lesson? Okay...let's go.

...Not this again.

Good, you haven't lost your edge.

Stop! In the name of...Klein!

Ah, Klein! Maybe you can help us settle this...Villa had a sale on bread this morning and didn't even tell me.

I had a sale on bread...I sold a lot. What's wrong with that?





I felt like this line deserved a screenshot.


You could always eat it, right? You could use a little meat on your bones. Besides, my bargain bread was day-old. Your bread must suck if you lost sales. Learn to bake decent bread before you accuse me of hurting sales. Later.


Villa leaves, and Blaire turns her back to the entrance.


Uh...Blaire?

Grrrrrrr!!! She doesn't realize the can of hurt she's openeD!

...What was that?

Huh?





Meow, good memory!

Wait, you knew we were here. You even talked to us. Remember?

Maybe you should switch to decaf.

*cough * Anyway...It's not like I want to fight with her. But she's always treated me like that, ever since I moved here 5 years ago.

Five years!? You must be really good friends.

Yeah, meow. Five years is a long time.

Friends? Are you kidding!? We're like oil and water! Peanut butter and chocolate! Buffalo wings and juice!


But...peanut butter and chocolate is delicious?


She's always badmouthing my products. Sometimes she buys all the flour form the store! We're totally different! We have different tastes in food, fashion, and definitely men! And don't tell her I said this...but she's prone to violence.

What does that have to do with anything?

Nevermind! I'm done talking about this.





I wonder if all of our synthing shopkeeper friends end up committing or indirectly aiding murder. I wonder what it would be like to play as an alchemist spy/assassin? I guess it wouldn't really work out, since spies are more about poison and alchemists CAN poison but, at heart, are really just about making five thousand different varieties of bomb.