Part 4: Too cheap to eat rice.

Alright, since Eastern Economic won the first, I'll begin by exploring this building on the top right corner of the town.


This fella is Wotta, the manager of Monsaibya's pool. That's right, this desert town next to a tower that contains enough monsters to destroy the planet has a pool house.
Mamoru! I've got a favor that only you can help me with! A thief! A thief stole the Water Medal! I went after him, but he ran into the tower. Without it, we cannot use the pool. Please! Could you get the Water Medal back?
: I'll get it back for you. || What are you talking about?
Oh sorry, sorry. Look at this.
By disagreeing with him, he shows you just how messed up the pool is.


Well, in Monsbaiya, it's summer year 'round, and the pool is filled with girls look gorgeous in their swimsuits and bikinis. It's a fun, fun, fun pool!
...However... as you can see, the water is dirty. To keep the water clean, the Water Medal is needed, but the Water Medal was stolen. The Medal is made from the metal with magical powers, which is what keeps the water clean. Since this pool was made with the Water Medal in mind, it is not made with tools to replace the water, or any other method to change the water...
Without the Water Medal, there's no way we can continue operating the pool. I'm certain it was Picket that took it. He lives on level 25 in the tower. He's a demon that loves to steal. He comes to the city from time to time to cause mischief. Mamoru, Will you go for me?
Alright, I'm sick of this guys , we're out of here. I'm sure he can fix the pool himself.


I'll give you an eternal passport for life with unlimited access to the Wookie Wookie Pool! Think of the swimsuits!
: Leave it to me! || No way.
Free passes? The ability to look at pretty women in swimsuits? SOLD! We will find this Water Medal for the sake of the suimsuits!
My friend! Eternal friend! God, may you bless this person with happiness for the rest of his life!


: Not too bad. || Not good at all.
That's good! Tell me if you have something juicy.
Meet Fon. He hangs outside this place, the Carpenter's shop. Right now he's completely unimportant. Anyway, let's go inside and talk to the carpenter.


You're looking much more like your father than the last time I saw you some time ago. He was a great warrior and tamer. What is it today?
: Do you want some work? || I have nothing to say.
What!? You want me to do work for you!?!? Oh, sorry. So, what do you want me to build?
Yeah, one of the things early on you'll have to get used to is all the adults, especially the other treasure hunters, treating Mamoru like a little kid. It's kinda annoying actually. Don't worry, as you get higher up in the tower, most of them gradually gain respect for you. Anyway, we are given two options for buildings at the moment.
Expand ($6000): That house is quite run-down. Weedy has grown-up too. (Gives us more room in the house and a larger safe so we can store more items.)
Hut ($4000): I should expand the Monster Hut before it becomes full. (Ours currently holds 4 monsters. This upgrade lets us hold 9.)
We don't have the money for any of this stuff yet, but I'll probably get the Hut upgrade once we have money. The Hut is the only building I'll buy/upgrade without consulting you goons first.
Anyway, I'm sure you have noticed that guy standing there in the pink suit. That character model is clearly unique, so this guy has to be important, right?


(cut off text) this city.
Nope. Meet Ghosh. Resident rich asshole of the city. I hate him and quite frankly, this game could probably be a lot better off without him. That said, I suppose every game needs a character for you to hate, and this guy fulfills that duty quite well. He's also a treasure hunter like Mamoru, and we can see him in the Tower quite often. Remember how I said most of the treasure hunters gain respect for you eventually? This guy is the lone exception, the bastard.


Anyway, I'm glad to get away from that jerk. Here is our nest destination. No town is complete without a bar. Inside the bar are a bunch of other treasure hunters, and we can order beer milk and juice to drink. All the treasure hunters make fun of you and give you "helpful advice." Here are some examples at the current moment.

#1 :What is it, kid? You're going to the tower!? Haw-haw-haw, the best joke I've heard all day. Well, here's a piece of information. Medicinal herbs are cheaper at the weapons store than at the hospital. He-he-he. (Not true) (At least the game is nice enough to tell you he's lying. Both the hospital and the weapons store at Western Economic.)
#2 Yo! You've started going to the tower? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Y'all listen to that? He's calling himself a hunter! You could get yourself killed taking the tower too lightly. Well... we'll educate you on what we've experienced. Consider yourself lucky! But we're not going to repeat everything we say, so listen carefully. (I seem to recall them actually giving semi-decent advice once you reach floor 10 or so, but by that point you know the game pretty well.)
#3 Howdy! What, you're a monster tamer!? Can't you come up with a better joke? If you're serious, you'd be better off talking to those guys at the Monster Shop for information on the monsters. Give it a try. (This guy actually gives some advice. Monster Shop is also at Western Economic.)
So aside from those three jerks, there's also this lady.


I've been waiting at this store for ages for this person to return. This [Hunter] has not returned since leaving for the tower. Boy did he look smart in his blue cape. They called him the blue warrior. You'd thing he'd walk right through that door any minute now....
...and tell me he's home.
Like the Water Medal, this is actually another sidequest, finding out what happened to the Blue Warrior.


And this is our last stop for our Eastern Economic exploration. The local restaurant.


Meet our first bachelorette, Patty.
: I'd like something to eat. || No.
: Really? You want something to eat? Then please sit there. What would you like?
We are actually given a list of fifteen items to order from. Right now, I just go with the cheapest: Rice. ($20)
: One order of rice, coming up. Just a moment.


: Yes, it's rice. Munch Munch.
After your first time ordering a dish, Mamoru will give a little detail on the item. Rice gets...this.


Oh gosh, Ghosh is here too. He always gets in your way when you try to flirt with the lovely ladies in this game.
: Patty, I've changed my mind. I'll have what I always have.
: Okay, the special, right?
: And Patty, add some of your love to that.
: R...Right...
: Well, well, well. If it isn't Mamoru. I never expected you to be eating you! You never know... Patty, keep a close eye on him so that he doesn't escape without paying.
: I never bilk you fool. || Shut up you weirdo.
Crap! My plan has been totally ruined!
: Are you calling me a weirdo!?
Anyway, with that over it's time to pay our bill.


We're out of here! Mic, bilk it!
: Hey! Wait!


We leave the restaurant, and Patty chases us out. But after a short while, she comes back and walks back inside.
: Huff, huff..... I'll be back. I can't take it any more. Huff, Huff.....
...but...I kinda feel bad so I go back in to pay my bill.


: To pay for the last meal. || No particular reason.
: As long as you pay, you're a customer to us. Please, have a seat, right over there.
Uhh...oops. I meant to do one dish a day, but since I'm already here, I get the next thing on the menu, Soy Beans ($40).
: One order Natto soy beans, coming up. Just a moment. She runs off again and returns with a small dish. Here you are.
: The fermented soy bean dish, Natto, reflects the heart of Monsbaiya. I hear they do not east this on the western side of the land. But as far as I'm concerned, although my parents come from the west, they both eat Natto, and thus I was brought up eating Natto.
I have to admit, some of the things Mamoru says for the stuff you eat gets a little interesting, and makes you wonder what kind of world Monsbaiya is in. They make a few references to the world outside the city walls, but not many.
Oh, and Ghosh comes in and mentions that even Natto soy beans are too cheap for his pet.  Anyone playing the GBC version, his pet is a duck, right? 
Anyway, our meal is complete, and it's time to bilk it claim I'm too poor.
: I'm paying. || I don't have that much. || I'm running away.
: ...you haven't got the money? Come with me!


Behind the picture is her father, the chef. He actually doesn't do anything and doesn't have a fancy picture, so I'm not going to bother.
Anyway, the punishment for not paying is cleaning dishes. And it actually is a punishment.


You get one line of text followed by a pause (waiting for X or O input) for each one of those dishes. Finally it's over and I can leave without problem--


I will have my revenge.


Alright, this went on long enough. Time to enter the tower and get this day over with! I'm bringing Mic along as well, because since Wendy doesn't know any magic spells, she's likely to die very easily because she will be in melee range the entire time.

Floor 1:


First thing I do is pull out Wendy. Here are all the commands she has. You'll notice that like the Monster Book says, Cyclones can cure Anorexia. Enemy Cyclones can cause it, meaning that monster/you won't be able to eat items for a while. Familiar Cyclones will cure it for you.


A small oddity with floor 1. It has a set of I believe five different floor-plans it can take. The rest are randomly generated, but floor 1 seems to follow a set list. Also, it has water tiles, which do absolutely nothing except you can't pass them. However, flying monsters (such as Wendy) can. Useful...kinda.


I'm lucky though. My Iron sword didn't rust. Just my shield. Sometimes it only affects one of your items.


Sweeeeet. Remember how I told you there was a rare item that could revive your familiars? This is it.
Beyond that, both Mamoru and Wendy made lv. 3.

Floor 2:


Ah yes...Floor 2. My least favorite floor in the entire Tower for two reasons, one of which you'll see very soon. You see...Floor 2 is always exactly the same after your first trip into the tower.


Floor 2 has a giant room in the middle which you pretty much have to go to. In that room, you meet Ghosh.
: Do you wish to stay close to me?
: No thank you. || I feel lonlier.
: Hummmm. How rude! Your speech and behavior are not very courteous. I cannot allow it any more. We shall battle right now, right here!
: I don't have time for that. || I accept your challenge.


Yes, we get to fight Ghosh. He attacks pretty hard, but if he kills us or drops us to very low HP, he automatically leaves and makes fun of us. If you are below level 3 and don't have a good shield, he can actually be a challenge because your Familiars are on the edge of the room when this happens, so they can't help fight or use Mixture Magic. He manages to drop me down to almost a 1/3 of my health.


: Ummmm... I guess I let my guard down a little. So 1 wins and 0 losses for you. I'll be back.
Oh yes. I will be keeping track of this. He tosses you a Medicinal Herb and puts it at your feet, then uses a Wind Crystal to warp off. Sometimes (win or lose) he'll drop a Wind Crystal too. Fighting him is always worth it, even just for beating him up.

Floor 3:


Sometimes random level generation doesn't end up too well. In this case, I got this weird map. Two rooms and a hallway. The game generates so much loot and monsters per floor, so at first the rooms were full of both.
Alright, now for the second reason I hate floor 2. You see, Cyclones don't appear until floor 3 and Flames rarely appear on the first-trip-floor 2. This actually gives a decent and gradual increase in difficulty. With the Duel Room replacing floor 2 from now on, we go straight to both Flames and Cyclones, both very tough enemies at very low levels.


Because of bad level generation and the fact I just stated, sometimes you get unlucky and start in a room populated by Flames, Trolls and Cyclones.


Case in point. Wendy being a Wind-Genus monster against Fire-Genus monsters did not help. And yes, fallen Familiars give their killers EXP as well. Sometimes enemy monsters will level up. This can be very dangerous. 6 EXP wasn't enough for this Flame to level up.


But was it worth it? Probably. This makes our third egg, and the fourth slot in our Monster Hut. We'll definitely need to expand it.

Floor 4:


Another blue sand. I still don't have a rust-proof shield that's worth tempering, so I'll just hold on to this one too. (The other one is in the safe at home.)


This is a nice item. The Trap Loupe. You can hit invisible traps with your sword and gain 8 EXP straight to Mamoru. Normally EXP is shared, but trap EXP isn't. Oh well, I haven't decided to revive Wendy until I'm a bit stronger and can defend her.


Once I'm level 8, I sit in a corner and grind until Wendy is level 5. Then we get booted to the next floor due to earthquakes.

Floor 5:


This is one of four traps I might consider using in the future. Crack traps take a 5x5 square centered on the trap and lowers most of the squares down. If you're lucky and you can end up with a height advantage on the adjacent squares, it could help with grinding, or even against one annoying enemy. Not practical, but plausible.


Nooo! Already? I will admit this is partially my fault. I put Wendy on Follow Me, which doesn't like to attack adjacent enemies. Wendy was already hurt and the Baloon just gunned for her the entire time.


No restore scroll this time So I send Wendy back to town to get some rest.


And now Mic is out. I picked up a Scarlet wand recently, which is the fire-elemental wand. Now I know how the elemental wands work a little bit better. If you are using the same element wand as Mixture Magic, you get a wonderful boost to damage. If the two elements don't match, things get a little complicated. At the very least, Flames took more damage with a Scarlet wand than a Stream wand.


Oh, and I find a new ball. This is a Water ball. Although the description claims to affect the user, it hits a target in a straight line. The target is enveloped in a watery protective barrier and their defense increases. Sadly, you can never use this on yourself and it tends to not last very long.


Since Mic is a pretty high level now, shove him in a corner of the map and let him fight monsters on his own. Doing so gets you EXP slightly faster than using Mixture Magic by keeping the familiar at your side, but takes up more MP. But I have an egg and somewhere on a previous floor I found a wind crystal (and forgot to screenshot it so I don't remember when). The moment I lose Mic I'm heading out.

Floor 6:


When you move on to the next floor, all lost familiars will appear next to you, so it's okay to separate yourselves like this. The only side-effect is possibly losing your monster to a battle you can't see and assist with.
This is the only picture I have for floor 6. Clearly not much happened. Same routine as last floor. Kill monsters, steal loot, divide and conquer for more EXP.

Floor 7:


On this floor I find a Limit fruit. Limit Fruits give the eater the Angry status, giving them a much higher critical hit rate. It also makes Mamoru's face really scary.


There are also Frog traps in the dungeon. They turn you very weak and you can't use items or any of the options in the menu for that matter. But...this is very good because Frogs technically count as a new monster.
But more important is what is directly next to the Lazyfrog description. There are three pages, one for each Genus. There is also a secret fourth page that appears when you see a Frog in the tower.


A currently empty and mysterious entry. This entry is listed as having all three Genuses.  Please remember the rule on the opening post regarding certain spoilers. This entry is under protection of that rule. So don't even put it in spoilers. 


Crap.


Another new monster. This is the U-Boat. In the Tower, they always hide under the ground. They can pop-out and attack on the same turn, so you will never get first-strike on them.


Surprisingly, I get a critical hit and this thing goes down in one attack. Normally they are quite scary since their attack power just goes up another notch compared to the rest of the monsters so far.


A warp trap. One of the few traps I would consider using, but only when alone. They warp you to a random part of the floor you are on. Your familiar doesn't follow you, so I wouldn't use it with Mic around. Fortunately, he should be able to handle himself quite well.


Or not...I forgot, this floor is covered with Water-elemental monsters, of which U-boats are included.


Time to head on out. I could probably go up a few more floors, but remember, I've got an egg.


Heh, this always makes me laugh. Cursed items are worth tons more than their uncursed counterparts. I suppose this makes them rarer and more valuable to some old guy's rare wand collection. Stream wands are a dime a dozen in the Tower. Now you understand why this city has so many treasure hunters.


A Flame egg. Not bad. I would have prefered something better, but hey, Flames are nice. The only problem is they already begin with a Fire-spell (Sled) that is weaker than Mic's Brid. But, we can transfer that spell over via fusion.
Total, I got $517 from coins in the tower, and $2709(!) from various loot. This puts me at $5666.

END OF DAY! KILL COUNT FOR THE DAY!
: 12 Pulunpas, 5 Noises, 13 Troll, 16 Flames, 13 Cyclones, 10 Balloons, 10 Manoeva, 5 Manoeva Clones, 4 Blumes. 88 KILLS TOTAL.
Ghosh Record: 1 win, 0 Losses.
Found 7 Traps.

: 1 Flame, 1 Cyclone, 3 Baloons, 3 Manoeva, 1 Manoeva Clone, 2 Blumes. 11 KILLS TOTAL.
Flame Sword Assists: 3 Flames, 2 Cyclones, 10 Baloons, 6 Manoevas, 1 Manoeva Clone, 1 U-Boat. 23 KILL-ASSISTS TOTAL.
Defeated by Blume.

: 5 Pulunpas, 2 Noises, 2 Flames, 2 Cyclones. 11 KILLS TOTAL.
Defeated by Flame.
Defeated by Baloon.

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

We wake up next morning the same way. Nico comes in, drop-kicks us, Weedy rolls us over and we go into the hut to drop off our eggs.


And I gotta say...that Flame picture looks pretty badass. I love having Flames, mostly because they look so damn cool.

Alright, here's the plan so far. I have enough money to get a Hut upgrade. I'll definitely get it because it will more than double the size of our Hut. I'm also going to go back to the Restaurant and get the next item on the list. I'll do one item a day until all the items have been chosen. Then we'll be very closer to capturing Patty's heart.
I didn't mention this before, but we can easily change Wendy's and Puddin's Genus if we wanted to. Flame I'm not going to change, because Sled only levels up if the monster is in a Fire-Genus when the monster levels up. I'd recommend we don't raise our Flame to be a tough battling monster because Mic already fulfills that duty better and Sled's Mixture Magic is the same exact Flame Sword. If I get that second collar sometime soon, we could fuse Puddin into Wendy and get Wendy's secret spell (LoGrave, a damaging Wind spell) and maybe fuse Flame into Wendy as well giving it LoGrave and Sled (although only one of the spells can upgrade at a time, this will give us two unique but weaker Mixture Magics. LoGrave's Mixture Magic hits in a straight line and possibly twice, where as Sled's always hits one enemy once and is very economic to MP). It's up to you guys though. That second collar is a little ways off and we might find more eggs once we get there.

So for you goons to vote on:
Where to explore next! (Western area completely untouched. Eastern Residential only for the east side.)
What to name our new Flame!
What to do with Flame! (or any of the monsters really)