Part 7: Chapter 2-3: Creativity and Potential

Part 2-3: Creativity and Potential



Let’s start at the Nearby Forest!


Music: Twin Birds Singing in the Forest

Just go and try lots of different things, said Teach. Now that we’re out here…

Let’s start by fighting that Puni!


Music: Hydrangea - Part 1-

THOSE Puni, you mean!





Easy peasy! And we got some Puni Liquid out of this…



Puni Liquid… I’ve thought of something! Blue Neutralizer!

Lydie Battle

We keep throwing Uni Bags… but what if we made something stronger out of those Uni Bags? Like… a Craft?

We can definitely try that once we have more experience under our belts. Anyway, let’s go mining!



Ore… we should be able to synthesize Ingots out of this!



Let’s move on to the Spring-green Odahlia! More experiences, more ideas, more recipes!



This rock is really hot… Lydie, I think we can use this to make Bombs!



To the southwest, there should be a farm…



Don’t mind if we do!



Hmm… flour is made from wheat. Ergo… we should be able to make flour by synthesizing this Weiss Wheat!



And there’s the five Fairy Parasols we needed for one of the requests! Let’s return some other day for the others…

The next morning…


A Familiar Face

Yeah, maybe. There might be something fun going on…

The twins leave for the church.


Music: Ghost Girl (Lydie & Suelle Ver.)

Very well. I think I can allow that. But you have to keep your duties as a nun too. Understood?

Of course, I understand. I’ll do my very best!

Oh? Could that be… Hey, Pamela! It’s been a while!

My, if it isn’t Lydie and Sue? Nice to see you again!



You’ve been gone a while. What have you been doing?

I’ve been looking for items for my shop. I want to sell as many as I can!

I see. You’ll be running a shop here again?

Hahaha, opening a shop in a church! You’re a bold one, Pamela!

It’s fine. I’ve got my reasons, and so I’m sure God will forgive me.

That sounds a bit suspicious to me! What do you think, Sister Grace?

Just like she said, there are reasons for this. She has my permission.

That’s right. My shop is approved by the church!

Ahem. I don’t think we should go quite that far.

Really? Well, in any case, welcome to my grand re-opening! Hehehe, go ahead, girls! Take a good look around!

We’ll check it out later. But it’s great to see you again, Pamela!

The twins return home, put away the materials they found and mull on the recipes they thought up.

Heh, we’ve thought up quite a few new recipes. Ilmeria was right, it was worth giving it a try!

Looks like it. This should be more than enough. Let’s go and show her what we’ve come up with!


The Next Assignment

Ilmeria! We’ve come up with all sorts of recipes!

Good, you sound confident! Let me take a look. Hmm… you came up with recipes for Bombs, just by collecting a Kaen Stone… Blue Neutralizer, just by collecting Puni Liquid… and Crafts, just by throwing Uni Bags… and Ingots, just by collecting ore… and Flour, just by collecting Weiss Wheat… Good! This is a pass! I thought it when watching you synthesize, and this confirms your potential.

Really? Go on, you can praise us some more!

Don’t get carried away. This doesn’t change your lack of experience. You’re ready to go to the next step, though. You remember the Dream Paintbrushes, I take it?

Yes, of course.

I think the two of you are ready to come up with the correct recipe and synthesize it.



You’re my students now. You can’t back out of this!

We’re not going to! We’ll bring you the greatest brushes you’ve ever seen!

Good. I’ll be waiting right here. If you need any help, though, come and ask me. So, go get to work. I know you can do it.

The twins go home.



I get the feeling that what the recipe Mireille gave us was missing… was some neutralizer!

That’s it! I’m sure this recipe can create the perfect Dream Paintbrushes!

Me too! We just have to keep our cool!

Just one problem… we’re out of thread. And don’t have any neutralizer.

Well, let’s make more bombs, test out the recipes we came up with, and head back out there!

Right! Blue Neutralizer… we just need water and oil.





And now for a Bomb… a Kaen Stone, some gunpowder, and some fuel.



Good thing that Kaen Stones also count as gunpowder!



Flour is simple! Just three helpings of Weiss Wheat…





Hey, Sue. You notice how the materials we gathered out there don’t have particularly potent components? And that they aren’t particularly high-quality?

Yeah. We couldn’t really hit any effect thresholds, except for making bombs that can burn enemies.

If only we could go back to the painting in the basement… but I guess we just have to do our best with what we have for now.

You said it. Anyway, let’s go back to the field!



Oh right, we still have to defeat some more Beasts for a quest.


Music: Sunflower -Part 1-



And that’s a wrap! The last request was to defeat some Lickshrooms…

Sue Battle





That took them both out in one shot! We should try and exploit monsters’ weaknesses when possible.




The more we fight, the more flashy moves we can come up with! Now let’s move onto the Spring-green Odahlia, where we can find thread…



Now that I think about it, we can synthesize Cloth out of this too! But that can wait until after we’ve made the Paintbrushes.

Right! Let’s do that first thing in the morning!

The next morning…


The Twins Inducted

Ready, Lydie?

Let’s do it, Sue!

Cobalt Grass, wood, thread and neutralizer…



This is our chance to prove ourselves, so we should use the highest quality ingredients we can for this synthesis!

In they go…



We did it!

Great! Now these are Dream Paintbrushes! They’re overflowing with dreams this time!

I bet Ilmeria will praise us again. Sue, let’s go and show this to her!



Let’s! I can’t wait to see the look on her face!

Ah, you’re back! Which means…

Ilmeria! We’ve made the Dream Paintbrushes!

Tad-dah! We’ve got total confidence in these. Check them out!



Really? Yes! All that hard work paid off!

I bet you’ll pass the test with this. How about taking it to the castle right away?

I guess we could try. Having failed once, though, I’m a bit worried about trying again.

No need. I’m telling you it will work out. Should I go with you? If they have a problem with your brushes, they’ll answer to me. Does that work for you?

Yes! With you along we’ve got nothing to fear, Ilmeria! Please, come with us!

Very well. Give me a moment to get ready.

The twins leave for the Castle.

Hey, Lydie. We still have to report on our quests, right?

Yes! Let’s collect our rewards for jobs well done and on time!



Now, to the castle!



We’re going to pass this time! Take a look!

Heh, looks like you’ve had a big boost in confidence. Is this thanks to you?

Maybe. I think you’ll find they’ve made some significant progress.


Music: Waltz Do You Want?
Pay close attention to that gauge, as I’ll elaborate on shortly…

It’s time to announce my evaluation!


Okay, see this flower stamp? This is the highest grade you can get on an exam, and you get it by completely filling the gauge seen in the previous screen. Now I’ll spell this out for you because the game itself doesn’t: you need to get flower stamps for every exam, or almost every exam, in order to gain access to the True Ending sequence in the Final Chapter. You have very little room for error—one, maybe two exams without a flower stamp—and anything more will lock you out of it. Thankfully, the first exam with the Nightmare Paintbrushes doesn’t count for this, as far as I’m aware. Which, thank whatever god Grace and Pamela pray to, because Lucia set the twins up to fail for that one.

For this exam, the Dream Paintbrushes must have at least 50 quality to get the flower stamp. Future exams may not necessarily involve synthesis, but whatever they’ll be, I’ll tell you how to ace them when they come up.

With that, back to your regularly scheduled programming!



Wow. I’m impressed with your progress, and in such a short period of time… Both of you, you’ve passed! Welcome to the Atelier Ranking System!

Yes! We did it, Lydie!

Awesome! V for victory! This is all thanks to you, Ilmeria!

I wouldn’t say that. This is thanks to your hard work. It's a testament to your creativity and persistence. You can be proud of this.

I’m impressed, Ilmeria. You’re already getting involved with teaching. Inviting you here to join us as an alchemist of C rank was definitely the right move.

C Rank? What does that mean? What are we right now?

You two are the lowest, “Unranked”. We have S, A through G, and then the Unranked, for a total of 9 ranks.

Which means C rank is… fourth from top? But didn’t the Ranking System only just start?

Indeed it did. That’s how good Ilmeria is. You’ve found a good mentor, girls.

Hehe! It goes without saying that I’m something special, but this pair shows promise too.



Right, girls?

That’s right!

The greatest atelier in the kingdom? Show me, then, that this is more than just talk.

We will!

You haven’t seen nothing yet! You’d better be looking forward to what we got in store, Mireille!

Later that day…


Stormclouds

Of course. We’re glad to have you here.



I’m ba-



Uwah, that surprised me! Do you think all this is really going to work?

Who knows? It’s all going well so far, though! The system is gathering lots of powerful alchemists. Those twins, too. They are going to grow fast, now that they’ve got Ilmeria on their side. We need to keep up, just like this. At least it’s better than doing nothing.

You said it. Did I mention making that face makes you look really evil, though?