Part 10: Matataki Village and Wise Owl Forest Part 2

I spent a little bit of time grinding up my weapons for this next part, when I caught I break.



See that "X2" there? That means any attachment put in that slot will have its benefits doubled. Little bonuses like that pop up from time to time.



Which comes in handy, since this is another Xiao-only floor.



Advancing to the next floor, we find this little guy. Haley Holey (No idea why that's its name) is some kind of killer tomato. He uses his leaf/wings to fly at you, and then you just kill him for being terrible at everything.



Yep, Mimics (and later, King Mimics) are back, and they still suck.




I'm really getting a bad draw for Atla so far. But least we can finish up Pao's house and get a Fruit of Eden.

And while we're at it, we can bring back Cacao and his house.



Cacao's the resident minstrel. Yeah, I don't know either. He's one of the few locals who doesn't appear to be a hunter.



Ugh. OK, Witch Illza. You'd think "Witch. Magic. Weakling." You'd be wrong. She floats around and hurls poison apples at you with the might of a major league pitcher.



See? Fuck this bitch. I stand in with Xiao so not to lose any gold, then use an Escape Powder to get out of here. Returning to the surface revives Toan (with full health, even), and after that, we can head back in to collect the rest of the Atla.



WHY? WHY DID I NOT LEARN THE FIRST TIME? Fortunately I saved myself from death and tagged in Xiao to deal with these bitches.



Floor 7 is another Limited Zone where Abs are drained. Way to be original, game. You know there ARE other level conditions.

Other than that, nothing special going on for this floor.






With our new Atla, we bring back Mr. Moustache and Annie with their respective homes, as well as Bunbuku's sister, Kululu.

Mr. Moustache is the local shop owner, and we have the items needed to finish up his store and get him to sell us his goods.




On top of which, he tries to sell us a Wise Owl Sword. It's kind of expensive, but you can never have too many swords. Maybe I'll buy it later. But for now, it's back to the forest!



Deciding to mix things up a little, I get a new Limited Zone condition. This one's a lot more annoying because of how fast your thirst meter will actually drain. Even Toan's extended meter isn't much help, and it's only made worse if there's no water pools on the floor.

It's not even worth an image to tell you about the Atla I got here. I picked up the Ancient Baron, and FIVE River Atla. I think the game's trying to send me a message about what to do next, but there's a couple things to do first.



Some new chests have popped up by Treant. Now I don't know if this is a glitch or deliberate, but if you pick these up BEFORE reconnecting the river, they appear again with the exact same items after the river is connected.



The Baron is the leader around these parts. He's so old and feeble he can barely stand under the crushing weight of his lion pelt. Or maybe it's a bear raping the back of his head. I really don't know.




Completing Cacao's house gets you a song about Fudoh, the legendary Hunter, and a story about his supposed death at the hands of a monster called "Killer Snake." Cacao then gives you an Odd-Tone Flute, which apparently sounds like a mouse, so be careful you don't attract snakes.



And NOW we connect the river. For some reason, two Laughapockle come out to open the gate to fill the river. Umm, thanks, I guess? I imagine they did this because you could theoretically reconnect the river without any characters placed back into the world and SOMEONE would have to do it, but...

Well, let's not over-analyze things. Let's just go say hi to Treant who should be alive and well.



Out of all the talking trees I've seen, this is, by far, the ugliest.