Part 7: Manliness Challenge The Hunt for Blue October

Post-LP note: There was a lot of discussion in the thread about this, so I decided to devote my first Manliness Challenge to it. A pity I didn't do more of these, they are fun every once in a while.


As I mentioned a while ago, this update is a Manliness Challenge meaning that I'll enter this tower completely naked, with the exception of a copper sword because the trolls on the first floor are really deadly at level one. You practically need to find a weapon right off the bat if you want to survive.
In addition, I'll be testing the myth that items in your safe back home have a higher chance of spawning in the tower. I first heard this rumor a long time ago and frankly, I think it is pure bullshit. So what I'm going to do is run through the Tower twice for this update. First time, I'm going to sell the contents of my safe and replace it with Medicinal Herbs, as shown above. I won't save, so next time I can run through the tower again with a normal safe and we shall see how many Medicinal Herbs I find that time and compare them.

Herb Run: Floor 1


And right off the way we find an item I've been waiting for a very long time already. Gold Swords are the only sword in the game that do not rust, so I've been trying to get my hands on one. Sadly, since this half of the update is non-canon and won't be saved, I won't get to keep this.


Trolls are really nasty on the first floor, because of a lack of a shield. On average while I'm an elevation level higher than them, they hit me for ¼ of my HP at first level. That is why I need a copper sword. With a copper sword, I have enough power to defeat them before they kill me.


When you are alone, you also are not leeching EXP to familiars, so you gain twice as much. Mamoru also seems to gain double EXP the first time you kill certain monsters in that Tower run. This makes it 4x what I would normally get with Mic sending me to Level 2 right away.


...and enough to send me to level 3 when I kill the Troll that was right behind the Troll I just killed.

Herb Run: Floor 2


He's still a wuss, even without me having a shield yet. Oh, and I take the Medicinal Herb.

Herb Run: Floor 3


YES! Pillar Balls cast a powerful version of Rise (the Griffon spell) when used. This is incredibly powerful and can one-shot many monsters. I'll be using this periodically when I get close to dying, but for length reasons I didn't screenshot when I used it.


I got really excited here for a moment. This Paralyze Wand is amazing, has a rather decent chance of paralyzing someone, pretty much allowing me to continue beating them to death without taking any counter attacks. Unfortunately in order to use it, I have to sacrifice all of my ATK, so I'm doing the same damage I would normally do with a bare hand. The RNG (Random Number God) can be so very very cruel.


But remember when I said it had a decent chance? That more than makes up for the curse and loss of attack power.


There are three Troll-only items in the game. The Troll Hammer, Bow and Sword. Each does the same amount of damage, but they can be found with curses or bonus attack power. To change weapons for your Troll, just "Give" them to the troll, and they'll equip it themselves. The only one worth using is the Bow, though. (You can get yourself a bow by throwing a Sword at an enemy Bow-Troll. For some reason they favor the Sword over the Bow.) They also sell for quite a bit too.

Herb Run: Floor 4


Another useful ball. Ice Rocks are pretty much giant boulders that enemies will stop and attack mercilessly. They also have a ton of DEF and HP so they will constantly attack them. Good if you need to run away or to use as bait while grinding in a corner.

Herb Run: Floor 5


Okay, now the RNG is just fucking with me now. I dont' really like the elemental shields, but I put this one on because I need something else. The Scorch shield is fire-elemental, which sucks around water enemies on the next couple floors.

Herb Run: Floor 6


OH FUCK YOU RNG! Life wands are amazing. They give you a little bit of life back with every single hit you do. EVERY hit. The amount returned is slightly based of damage done, but it seems slightly random as well. Most of the time it's just 1-2 HP back but hey, that's enough to keep you going. I'd much rather have a Life wand than a Paralyze Wand.


The RNG really hates me this time.

Herb Run: Floor 7


The hell? I swear, eggs are NOT supposed to be this common! I remember going through the tower countless times and never finding an egg, why am I finding at least one every run so far?


In the Tower, eggs have two uses. They can be hatched for a quick powerful familiar that will leave you if you leave the Tower, or they can be thrown at an enemy for massive damage.
How massive? This egg dealt 108 damage. That's way more than my Pillar ball was getting on Cyclones with an element advantage. However, the monster from the egg vanishes immediately after, so I don't think it's worth it.


However, I just wanted to show that off. I actually save-stated and tossed an Oleem at the enemy U-Boat. My U-Boat (Wine Red) egg is still intact.


So I decide to hatch it, since I won't get this monster anyway. I'm a little disappointed, since usually when you hatch monsters in the tower, they start with their hidden spell, and U-Boats have crappy hidden spell (DeRock) which if you read my previous update has an awesome Mixture. I think there's a level requirement to get that spell if you hatch them in the tower. 11 apparently isn't enough for DeRock.


U-Boats also have a nice ability called Scout. This works exactly like the Star Glasses item, which reveal the entire map and all treasure items along with the elevator. It's like a Treasure and Exit loupe combined with revealing the map. It takes like 10-20 MP though, so I don't use it often. (I used it once, and forgot to mark how much MP was lost.)
Oh, and the monsters name? It was originally "u-boat" (uncapitalized because it was hatched in the tower, just like the race name in red) but I decided to name it "Blue October" instead. This turned out to be a good idea because Blue October kicked a lot of ass and kept me alive.

Herb Run: Floor 8


Huh, I find two white sands right next to each other. At this time, because of my crappy cursed Scorch Shield, I ran out of charges for the Pillar ball, so I refueled it. White sands are best used right away.


Sadly, Blue October ran out of MP because of the one time I used Scout, so I had to put it away. Hopefully I'll find a Pita fruit. Speaking of which, so far in the tower I haven't found a Medicinal Herb beyond the one Ghosh gave me as tribute but instead got a whole bunch of useless herbs.


FUCK YOU RANDOM NUMBER GOD!

Herb Run: Floor 9


I also found a Light seed, and decided to use it on Blue October to turn it fire-elemental since I was starting to get in trouble with all the Clowns running around. You can also feed your useless herbs to your familiars for a minor MP boost (that seed also gave a little bit) but it's not very much. I put the newly named "Red October" back in my bag after this, so I can pull him out in case of a real emergancy.


Huh, cool. This actually doesn't do me any good since this update is non-canon and won't be saved. Still, Wind Crystals are frustratingly rare sometimes.


The RNG still isn't done fucking with me, and makes my already crappy Scorch shield even worse.


I think the RNG heard me.

Herb Run: Floor 10


Just a hunch.


This one's my fault. I got brave and thought I could take down the Volcano before it got me, but I missed and died.


And when I woke up...everything was gone. My crappy weapon, my crappy shield, my rather-awesome monster that would have left me anyway.
I found myself sad, because even though he was only out for a floor and a half, I quite liked Blue/Red October...and now I won't get to see it again. And I especially won't get to see the awesome Mixture magic that DeRock makes.

END OF DAY! KILL COUNT FOR THE DAY!
: 17 Pulunpas, 4 Noises, 34 Trolls (Hammer), 18 Flames, 14 Cyclones, 15 Baloons, 10 Manoeva, 5 Manoeva Clones, 14 Blumes, 12 U-Boats, 7 Clowns and 7 Dreamins. 157 KILLS TOTAL.

Ghosh Record: 3 win, 0 Losses.
Traps found: 10 (got a nice Trap Loupe on floor 1 and 3, got early level ups).
Manliness Level: 10.
Defeated by a Volcano.

: 1 Baloon, 6 Manoevas, 3 Manoeva Clones, 10 Blumes, 4 U-Boats, 2 Clowns. 26 KILLS TOTAL.
Hatched in the Tower, returned to the Tower. Rest in peace, Blue/Red October.

MEDICINAL HERBS FOUND: 1 (from Ghosh...)
OTHER RANDOM HERBS FOUND: 8 (most of which were fed to Blue/Red October)

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


Alright, now I"m going to do my real run into the tower. As you can see, I have a lot of wands, swords, shields and sand stored away in the safe this time, no herbs. Theoretically, this should give me more equipment and sand to run into in the Tower, and I should get less Herbs. Time to find out. Once again, I enter with a Copper sword.

True Run: Floor 1


Uh...wow. This round is already off to a good start. An uncursed decent non-elemental shield on the first floor.


...and an even better uncursed rust-proof non-elemental shield on the first floor.


...and an even BETTER weapon to use to go with that shield that will make me take 1 damage from most enemies for quite a while. With this Life Wand, I'll be restoring just as much health as I'm taking thanks to the Diamond shield. I hope I get a Wind Crystal, because I'm really hoping I can keep this and sell my cursed Diamond shield that already ate a blue sand.

True Run: Floor 2


I swear to...wow. The RNG is really merciful this time around. Badass equipment and I just realized I had this seed sitting in my inventory for a while. This gives you an instant level up. I don't have a familiar to give it to, so I just eat it myself.


Still a wuss.

True Run: Floor 3


Repel balls, I'm not sure what they do. They either enchant the target and make them reflect magic for a while, or seal away all the magic on the target. I'm not sure and frankly, I don't care because they'll be dead soon anyway. Most status effect spells simply are not worth the casting, and sealing magic definitely takes the top of that list.


Damn, wanted a Wind Crystal. This is the last of the three Crystals, the Fire Crystal. It summons SALAMANDER which flies around and attacks random enemies for massive damage. I do not believe you get any EXP from monsters defeated by the Fire Crystal, but it's great in a pinch.

Post-LP note:...


I always laugh when an enemy triggers one, and thank goodness it wasn't me.

True Run: Floor 4


I don't have much for this floor. I found a Vital sword, but I'm sticking to my Life Wand right now.

True Run: Floor 5


Once again, another one-picture floor because not much happened. I forgot there were Copper shields. They still suck, but that's just because there are so many awesome shields.

True Run: Floor 6


You know, Fire and Water Crystals are supposed to be the rarest of the crystals, so why is it that I'm carrying both? I don't even have a familiar!


Well, despite me suddenly praising the RNG, that kinda sucked. I barely got to loot that floor.

True Run: Floor 7


Okay, suddenly this sword is worth using. My Life Wand has ATK of 1, this sword has ATK of 7! The life returned by the wand isn't enough anymore since monsters are starting to deal more than three damage per hit even with my awesome diamond shield.
Also that Crystal sitting there was a much needed Wind Crystal.

True Run: Floor 8


First off, in my hand is another Wind Crystal. Because Oleems force enemies out of the Tower, I wanted to see if Wind Crystals could do the same. (They don't.)
Second, that is a Live Shield, the only rust-proof shield worth using because it has a decent (about ¼) chance of returning ¼ of the damage you just took back to the monster that dealt it. I don't think you get EXP if this kills the monster, but damn is it helpful sometimes.


Fortunately, I found several pairs of Truth Glasses, and it ended up being cursed. Good thing I didn't put it on in the first place.


Damn, the RNG is kind this time. Here is all the equipment I found this time so far. I'm starting to think there is something to this safe thing after all, maybe you just need one or two things in there..

True Run: Floor 9


Screw it, eggs are this common. I ran out of Truth Glasses, so I couldn't get this identified right away. A pity, because I'm still missing Blue/Red October.

True Run: Floor 10


This time, mostly because of my shield and actually taking care, I survive the Volcanos and move forward.

True Run: Floor 11


...only to enter the new floor stuck with a griffon doing 15+ damage to me with every hit, and Rise doing 20. Ouch. Time to go.

END OF DAY! KILL COUNT FOR THE DAY!
: 14 Pulunpas, 4 Noises, 20 Trolls (Hammer), 19 Flames, 16 Cyclones, 15 Baloons, 18 Manoeva, 7 Manoeva Clones, 23 Blumes, 23 U-Boats, 11 Clowns, 6 Dreamins, 9 Trolls (Bow), 5 Volcanoes. 190 KILLS TOTAL.

Ghosh Record: 3 win, 0 Losses.
Manliness Level: 11.

MEDICINAL HERBS FOUND: 1 (from Ghosh again...)
OTHER RANDOM HERBS FOUND: 1

CONCLUSION: I need to test this out more. There seems to be some kind of relation but I cannot prove it with merely this. Maybe I'll rigorously test this in the future, but if any of you Goons want to tackle this Myth as scientifically as possible, all the power in the world to you. For now, I'm satisfied that I came back with some badass equipment. First though, is to sell most of the stuff.


Oh God, this suddenly got creepy.

: The highlight of my day is to watch you come in, think thoroughly whether or not a $10 purchase is worthwhile, and decide not to buy it. Go ahead, show me again today.
: I've come to buy. || I've come to sell. || !!!! I'm going home!
The hell is wrong with her? Is she being flirty, joking or just plain cruel? I can't tell.
: Aaaaah! You always take me too seriously. I'm joking. Just joking. Look around, see what we have!
: I've come to buy. || I've come to sell. || I told you, I'm going home!
Alright...so...yeah... Anyway I sell my loot, including some of the stuff in the safe to be replaced by new awesome stuff. I now have $18652. Holy shit we are rich.


Oh, and this is the contents of our safe now. Everything in it is being kept, everything not in the safe (except for eggs and monsters) is being sold.

: Since you've been going to the tower, do you think you've changed?
: I'm still the same old me. || I'm rich.
And let me tell you, I was very close to picking the second option. Wow...
: That's right. You havn't changed, but every time I see you, you seem a little different. It's strange.



Well, that's it for this Update. I'm going to take voting again for which half of the Residential part of the city we should explore next. This time just a simple East or West will do. I'll also revisit some of the Businesses to see if things have changed significantly. I think I'm going to go ahead and upgrade our house since we have plenty of money and more will just be coming in after this.

But Krysmphoenix! What about the Black Egg we found in the tower!?

Oh right. That old thing....
Well, lets just say this. For every time we curse the RNG for giving us bad luck, we must always
remember that...
































...sometimes the RNG returns to us the dear treasure we lost.

Any objections of keeping this new U-Boat named Blue October? Once again, tell me what you think on Fusion. I have a few ideas but I've seriously been considering every single option mentioned so far. Next update will be a normal run with familiars, and I think it's time to start building up monsters to take us straight to the top.