Part 24: Ocean of Origins

It's now time for Mana and Ayuta to go into the second dungeon



But first... some new equipment!





I have no idea what this Real:Copy thing is supposed to mean! Actually we'll come across a weapon with an even stranger name later on in the dungeon!







Of course, not buying this one since we already have a better kimono for Mana.

The equipment you find in a dungeon is always better that what Piu-Piu is selling, but in order for it to be present in a chest you must fight higher level enemies--the content of chests is "better" the bigger the difference of levels between you and monsters. If you are fighting monsters in the same level range as your characters, then you'll not get any equipment in chests and just consumables. Typically equipment is only found in locked chests, but that's not an issue at this stage since keys are easily purchased from Piu-Piu.





And finally, two garnet rings.

Now we can go and introduce ourselves to the other contestants. First up, Zhamo and Eluca, since they are standing right here next to us!









Zhamo will be the next king of our country.
Eluca is the head warrior. Don't underestimate her because she's female. She's the best warrior of our country.
(Eluca looks like she's much stronger than Zhamo... Which is why I'll need to keep a close eye on him.)
(I can't underestimate this one. He's trying to find information on us just like I'm trying to find some on him.)
(He doesn't look much like a warrior... But if he's been summoned here, he must be highly skilled.)

Ok. Over in the central area are of course Musiea and Escher.







Ah, good old Musiea can always be counted on to be inappropriate in a conversation.

She looks like a princess.
Princess Mana is the third daughter of our country's royal family.
...I am a stablehand that works for them.
I knew it! You are a real princess! You'd have to be, with those beautiful clothes. May I see them?
Yes... That's fine.
Man, talk about killing the tension.
How do you two know each other?
Us? Eh, we haven't been able to get away from each other since we were both kids.
Oh, that's a terrible way of putting it. If that's true, why did you spend all that time looking for me?
Hey, lay off me, will you?
(It looks like they are lovers, of a sort. I hope we don't have to fight them...)
(Mana... If only given the chance, I know we could have worked together to escape this place... But there's no way Agent would ever allow that.)
(This guy looks tricky. I get the impression that he's hiding his true power. Can't let my guard down around him.)

And finally, over next to the door, are Vahti and Olgar. This is probably going to be as pleasant as always...









Tell her what?
Stop playing dumb. I refuse to accept that you forgot our last battle.
Battle? When?
The last Ark Arena, you twit!!
The last Ark Arena?
Please, we don't know what you're talking about!
It doesn't matter how many times you ask... I can't tell you what I don't know.
Ayuta... do you mean... you have amnesia?
...That's right. Princess Mana, please forgive me for not telling you sooner.
How long have you had it?
The last thing I remember is waking up in front of your mansion...
...So everything before then is...
Amnesia! Don't give me that load!
What are you hiding?
Huh?
What is it that you want to hide so badly that you'd pretend to have amnesia?
I'm not hiding anything!
If you insist on keeping your mouth shut, I'm happy to help pry it open.
Please stop! It's against the rules to fight amongst ourselves now!
Against the rules, eh? Olgar, let's leave it be for now. Just for now...
Yes, you're right. Just for now...
Princess Mana, please believe me, I truly don't remember anything...
It's okay, I believe you. I know you better than those two do. You are not a liar.
(The answer must be simple... It has to be. And yet...)
(Ayuta is the key. I'm sure of it. But if my hunch is right...)

Ookay then. Well, it's time to go forward anyway.









Next up, Ocean of Origins!









I don't know what I was doing there, or why I was on the ground.
The mansion's stable manager took pity on me, and gave me a job and a place to live.
So that's how you became a stablehand... I'm so sorry... If you'd only told me sooner, I might have been able to help you...
Thank you, Princess. That's very kind of you.

In any case, after a bit of walking around, we reach...



...the first puzzle. In this kind of puzzle we need to collect gems to be able to destroy blocks that are preventing us from being able to reach the exit. Actually these are very easy.



And then the second puzzle...



Finally the mid-point boss.



Using a well placed spell counter, I quite literally one-shot him!





Before proceeding to the second half, let's quickly exit the dungeon to up the enemy levels and all that.

But we get another one of those scenes...















Let's get out of here...





Or this might happen...?





Say "WHAT" again!

Do you remember anything?
How do you know about my memory?
It appears that you do not. Then there is no problem.



And he disappears again.



Well, if you don't know...



Getting back to the second half of the dungeon...



Here is another puzzle...



...giving us the first of two required items.



And then in a chest here...



...we find a very nice weapon upgrade for Mana. But what is up with that name "Single-Letter Bow". What does that even mean?

Luckily the game application is multilingual, so let's take a moment and have a look what this weapon is called in other languages.



In French it's basically called "bow that doesn't miss". That doesn't relate to the English name at all. Let's try Spanish.



Well. That says "accurate bow", which is more or less along the same lines as French.

Looks like we're going to have to check the original Japanese version to find out what happened with this translation:



Hm. So the Japanese name for this weapon is "一文字の弓". We can forget about the 弓 character because it obviously means "bow"--it is one of the very few characters that actually look like the thing they stand for. As for the meaning of 一文字, technically speaking, 一 means "one" and 文字 is "letter" so this COULD be understood to mean "one letter". However, the typical meaning of this phrase today is actually, believe it or not, "straight line". This is because the character "一" is a straight line, so it's meant to signify "like the 一 character", i.e. straight. Sooo, it seems that the French and Spanish translators more or less got this, but the English translator missed by a wide margin here (pun very much intended!).

There is in fact an added small complication here. In Final Fantasy games, or elsewhere, you may have come across a weapon (sword), named "Kiku-ichimonji". Well, guess what, "ichimonji" is certainly one way to pronounce "一文字" and is in fact a reference to high quality swords built by the Fukuoka school in 13th century Japan. They inscribed their swords with just one character ("一"), hence the name. So it could be that the Japanese name of this bow was intended as a word play with this double meaning, indicating that it is a high quality weapon by equivalence to these swords.

In any case, I feel that the reference is way too obscure/untranslatable so that even if that WAS what the English translator had intended, it still misses the mark, and it should have simply been translated along the lines "straight-shooting bow" or something like that. But I think it's really just a translation mistake due to over-confidence.

Aaanyway. Soon after this, we come to something much more interesting...



...and that is the last puzzle.



It gives us the second item.



So we can now go and unlock the door to the boss.





Nothing of great interest happens during this battle.





And we're soon done. Pay no attention to the fact that this is the first time that the "corpse" of a defeated boss has stayed visible on the ground after the battle. I'm sure that's not important at all.





















Let's go back.





































Hm. That conversation was a little bit weird.