Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana Part #35

Part 35: Frozen Lithograph

Update 35: Frozen Lithograph

It's time for us to head on over to the Mana Chiefs and talk about finally making a Ruby Prism. Before we get started, let's have a look at our new Dragon Gem (Obviously I reloaded after using it, since I only have the one).

I love you, Rurona.

Music: Spirit's Hometown

I need to create a Ruby Prism. Tell me what must be done.

So...you have acquired the knowledge. Truly you are the Lineage of Iris...

Unfortunately, it is not possible for you to create a Ruby Prism.

What!? Haven't I earned your trust? What else do I need!?

Why must you humans view the world in such simple terms? There is no longer enough Mana to create your Ruby Prism.

The gem is formed of pure Mana. As such, a great deal of Mana is necessary to make one.

Over the course of time, Mana have stagnated and weakened. There is little that can be done, now.

So what am I supposed to do?

You must use the Primal Gem to rekindle Merkleus' Fireplace.

So that's all we need to do?

I've actually heard of Merkleus' Fireplace before...but I'm not sure where.

Delsus...that's the machine we found in the icy cave. You know, the one you led us to to fight a dragon for no reason.

(I'd call him a jerk again, but this update actually makes me inclined to forgive him for all of it for reasons you will soon see).

Iris built that machine to atone for the mistakes humanity made in handling Mana.

But Iris isn't the one who screwed up.

She felt responsible for the actions of her people.

My hope is that by using the machine, the world's Mana will be revived.

Don't worry, we'll find it.

Well, that throws another step between us and actually having a Ruby Prism. Oh well, this isn't too huge a detour, I guess.

I decided to run by Duran just on the off chance that I needed to talk to Delsus' father or sister or something before going to the cave (I didn't), and while I was there...

You mean Pattet the peddler?

Yeah, that's him. I guess he's still doing well...See, we used to be best friends.

I guess it's a small fairy world, after all.

A long time ago, I surprised him with a forbidden item as a gift...Because of that, the Chamber of Fairy Commerce banished me from our world.

It's so sad, meow...

If you've heard one villain story, you've heard 'em all...

You guys have been regular customers, so I'll sell you something good.

Uh huh. While they're a far cry from Blaire or Veola, I do still like that even the fairy vendors have a little backstory. One of these days I'll need to actually buy some of Pattotte's high end accessories, but I'm still too poor (mostly from blowing all my money on random assorted ingredients.

Music: Frozen Lithograph

Does it work?

No...I don't think it produced any Mana.

What could be missing?

Meow! Over there! Something opened...

We can now access a new room of the cave. It's kinda big and has a couple of slippery slopes that are one-way, but still not too terrible to navigate. As you can see, there are a few Growloons to take out through extraction or explosion.

What's this doing all the way back here?

There's writing...Can you read it?

What's this, meow?

It's some kind of lithograph...but it's frozen and I can't read it.

There are a few interesting things in this cave, but at the moment we're powerless to accomplish much with them. However, there is one very important thing in the upper right corner...

You guys might want to see this.

It's Pamela! ...er...dead Pamela.

To be fair, she did mention that she was looking for her body.

We should go tell her, meow...

Awesome, I've missed Pamela. It'll be good to have her in an update again. There's a little more to see in here before we leave, though.

This Mana Item is called a Refractor. It makes invisible enemies visible, and costs a pittance of stone and light elements. Neat, but not really all that useful when I already have Paint.

Sadly, Klein can't quite jump high enough to hit the destroyable blocks with Uru's fire, even with Deimia's help. I could probably get them from a higher platform but that kind of back and forthing through the room seemed like too much trouble for what's probably just a Mana Stone or something. Maybe I'll come back for it when I have better field abilities.

(having said that, watch it turn out to be Lita's ultimate weapon or something).

The air seems to be coming from here.

Wow, this froze the whole cave?

Hmm, I guess that's also relevant information? Anyway, let's head back to Arcose.

We found your body, Pamela.

Really!?...you're not playing a trick on me, are you?

What the heck? Of course not.

We can show it to you, if you want.

Oh, yes please! That would be great!

Okay, follow us.

Aaaaand back to Alexia Cave. On our way back to the frigid area, we can stop and do an Important Thing that seems really obvious but is also really easy to miss/forget.

That is a huge rock, meow!

It must be really icy down there...If we pushed it, this rock would land in the opening.

It won't be easy to move this thing.

Maybe not for us, but it's no problem for Klein.

Klein makes a couple of grunts and other sounds of exertion, which I think is funny because all he's really doing is throwing Uru at a rock and hoping Uru hits it hard enough to move it.

Aha! Just like I said!

It's getting warmer in here already, meow!

We don't see it right now, but this melted the ice on the smaller lithographs, so we can at least see the writing on them clearly.

That's your body, isn't it?

Yes...I was here. I can remember now. A long time ago, they threw me in this cave as a sacrifice to the dragon.

A sacrifice? Are you serious!?

I remember escaping from the dragon, but I guess I froze to death afterward. The next thing I knew, I was floating in the air.

That's...very strange.

So now that you've found it, what are you going to do about your body?

I can melt the ice, if you want it.

Nah, you can just leave it. I enjoy being a ghost.

What? You've been looking for it this whole time!

It's strange...Now that I know where it is...it isn't so important to me.

That doesn't make any sense.

I guess I just wanted to know about my past...y'know? But now I remember all about it, so I can move on with...heh, life.

So now you can rest in peace or whatever, right?

Best answer to death ever.

That's what ghosts do...They disappear. Everyone knows that.

I've still got a lot of living to do. Tee hee! I haven't scared enough people, or found enough cute guys...but not for lack of trying.

… … … … … … ...That's great. Can we go now?

We still can't read the letters on that lithograph, though.

Litho-what...? Oh, that! Yeah, I remember it.

...You're joking.

Yeah, I read it while I was freezing to death. I don't know what it means, but I can read it.

Would you mind reading it to us?

Not a bit.

All right, our job now is to run around the room and stop at all of the small gravestone-like rocks, then go to the huge one in the center.

Oh, I guess I should mention that there's not much in the way of new enemies here (although Ice Puni and the blue lizards both appear in the room where we fought Elder Vilum, just in smaller groups). They still can be rather dangerous, though; they hit hard and fast and Klein had a lot of trouble keeping up, which is to say he got killed in the first two attacks and every fight after that he was the first one targeted with his one hit point and he basically didn't do anything in this entire segment. _{_grumble}

There's also Frozen Rain all over the place here, so I can finally farm that reliably.

This says “I, who wish...to grant your...desire...”

This says “Thou who swear this binding oath...”

This says “Dance for all of eternity.”

This says “Thou...who tries to obtain...this source of power...”

This says “Mana energy...”

And once we've read all the smaller ones...

Music: What Was Left Behind

Maybe we're supposed to say the messages from the lithographs.

It's worth a shot, right?

Mana energy...The origin of all things...Thou who tries to obtain this source of power...I who wish to grant your desire...dance for all of eternity...Those who swear this binding oath...

Uh...well, I'm glad we didn't have to give any input as the players, because that doesn't seem like a coherent thought to me. Fortunately, it works.

Oh, it's the garden we went through to reach the Mana Chiefs. I guess this is meant to show that everything is getting livelier and healthier. Maybe?

Cool, one more step down.

You're just taking off?

Yeah...I'm sure Yach and Dia are worried about me.

And that's a main story event! See you around, Pamela. Now it's time for a little synthesis.

Atelier Totopop & Mofuma: Glope

Music: Animal Village

No super luck? That's too bad.

I can't think of any good songs today. It must be your small luck.

But meow...none of your songs are really “good”, meow.

Hmmmm!? You don't think so, po? Humans have strange tastes.

I'm surprised the mystical beasts are musical, actually.

What's that supposed to mean, po? We sing more than humans! We put our best songs on Organite so we can listen whenever we want, po.

How does that work?

Organite is an item that plays music over and over again, po. I can give you the recipe if you want, po.

Am I the only one who mentally extends “po” to “kupo”?

He actually gives us two recipes here. I have everything I need for the Organite except the Rainbow Disk (we can substitute Broken Handles for Gold Handles if needed; both can be found in Iris' Resting Place), but I can't make the disk itself. “Gear sans gears”? Whatever, I guess we'll have to come back to these.

… …

What's wrong?

Something has been remembered. It started to the coming back when we first were meeted. Now, I remember the everything.

It took you that long?

Are you enjoying of the sweets?

Oh yeah!

Meow!

If the pretty ladies like sweets, it's all I need to be hearing! Several of the hundred years ago, visiting humans taught me the making of sweets. They were made by the humans, but mystical beasts enjoyed too, yes? I have recalled these recipes from hundreds of the years.

...Do you think they'll still taste good?

Sweets are sweets! This is gonna be great!

I will write down the recipe for ingredient findings.

WE have a few things to make with Mofuma now, but sadly most of them require stuff I don't have. Twisted Candy sounds like something Norn should be able to find with Turn 2 Candy, but I have yet to stumble across one...

...while other things require a Caramel Cube, which sounds more like something Blaire might make, or even Mofuma himself (but sadly no such recipe is available form him). There is one new thing I can make right now, though!

Ooh, good thing I finally got kinda on the ball with Atelier Blaire, otherwise I wouldn't have the cookies needed for this.

You are to be trying this, yes? It is zee Yogurt Pocket.

It looks like melted Leheruun Cream!

This is the exactly that. But, much sweeter is it than Leheruun Cream.

In that case, Lita's going to love it. You know what that means...

I got these scenes before going on adventures with Pamela in Alexia Cave. When I returned afterward...

...hmmm!?

Wh-what?

You have something interesting, there. Is that a Glope?

Huh? Oh, this? It's called a Globe.

Cool, po! It's good to see a Glope again. I can remember this...the spinning surface is so entrancing! I have an idea, po! You deserve a present for making me so happy. I'll make an awesome gift. Bring me a Glope, an Astral Glope, and an Under Glope!

...Awesome gift?

Yup, po! Just a little something I like to call the Felios Glope! It's awesome because it becomes the strongest Glope.

Becomes the...what are you talking about?

Woo hoo, po! The Felios Globe is finished!

Well, that is pretty exciting.

But of course, po. You get not just one, but three times the explosives! But you can't get it through castle security if it's a bomb, so we call it a “globe”.

The Felios Globe can be used as an attack item, but notice that it can also be extracted for Time Elements. This is one of the only means we have of getting more of those than the handful we got from Avenberry before, and I think the only repeatable source at all until postgame.

Granted, there's not much need to make a whole bunch of these since we still only have one Mana Item that requires Time Elements (and no Mana that can actually handle them anyway), and even then I'm not sure it would be worth the effort to make more of these considering how many steps go into making one. Still, I'm glad we got our hands on this most splendid of globes. I'll have to throw it at Mull or something.