Part 46: One Hour of Footage for This

Update 37: One Hour of Footage for This

...So, uh, ahehe, I have something to explain. I kind of...forgot to start recording when I was doing some grinding before this update, meaning that I lost both the previous ad campaign and the fact that I finished The item trade III. I don't think anyone will really miss either of them, but better to be up front about it than just hide it.

For the record, the ad campaign went well, and attracted a Troubadour who had a Volt Prelude level 10 Grimoire. I traded a level 10 monster Grimoire for it, and (eventually) put it on Rheine.

Here's Abigail and Cass's ending dialogue for The item trade III.



We got a Pattisa (+114 ATK) (trash) and some EXP for it.




Hah... Hah... I knew getting back into the swing of things after months would be tough, but...
A couple of hours walking around the Geomagnetic Pole is nothing compared to normal exploration.
A couple of hours? We were there for a full day! Twenty-four hours!
Ranger? Where are you going?
Lunch.



The Duchy's really missing out by just letting us keep all the profits from these.



From one of the guests from this ad campaign, I trade this duplicate level 10 Ecstasy for a level 10 TP Up.


Man, this Princess Tea Party's got a lot of picky eaters in it. I don't think any of the food from the 3rd Stratum will please them...
Sovereigns will only settle for the finest foods. Not that...fish head...
That giant Blue Gel in a bowl doesn't seem very appetizing, either, I will admit.

I'm not just making that up for the sake of jokes, by the way, the Princess Tea Party literally will not eat any foods from the 3rd Stratum.




And the other ones.



And the only 4th Stratum food we can make at the moment. It makes it so that Grimoire Chances have a 40% chance to be forced to Grimoire Chance Passives. Completely worthless for me.



...This is seriously the best we could muster? This? Four back rows and a Ranger?
Blame Jackie. It was her turn to decide on the party, and she was insistent on giving everyone their "fair share of time."
That was my idea. I'm finally caught up on my grocery shopping, so I figured it was time to fight again.
Well, that explains a lot, I guess...
Are you quite sure you'll be fine alongside Ranger, Realga? I could take your place, if you want--I had to do that back in the 2nd Stratum alongside Tyler.
Eh, I'll be fine. How hard can swinging a staff around and not dying be?

Well, this is certainly...a party. I had a whopping 21 votes of my own from the last voting session, and certain parties who shall remain unnamed insisted I stack my party with supports, so I compromised and just put Realga on the front.


Who said "First, Do No Harm" applied to monsters? Probably not the guy who came up with that oath from one of Colette's books.

Meet Combat Realga. She's been reskilled quite heavily, and now has both Staff Mastery and Vital Hit maxed out. Her actual healing skillset's taken a pretty huge hit as a result, though--I opted to invest a lot in Revive because I predict this party's going to suffer a lot of deaths before we reach the end of the stratum.


Alright, itinerary stuff, hm... "Explore," and "Talk to Jackie about next part of plan." Pretty full day.

Ranger's mostly the same as last time. I'm building for Shock Sabre/Thunder Wave on him, since that's the element that the stratum boss is weak to.


You'd think a Survivalist would be called on more for explorations like this. Oh well.

Nadia's building towards Hazy Arrow now, which involved investing in some Speed Up skills. I maxed out Multi-Shot since she needs a better damage source for now than just spamming one of the ailment skills.


I wonder if I could create ice matches so that I could mash them together like I do regular ones... Oh well, this unstable ice core'll do for now.

Stardust is also pretty much the same. She has all of the all-target Formulas maxed out now. I could go for the Palms, but I'd rather get as much damage as possible before that, so I opted for some points in Formula Mastery.



I ran out of actives I really want on Rheine for now, so I maxed out Order Mastery and am putting points in Morale Boost for now. Ranger would greatly appreciate the extra Force if this party's entire thing wasn't "killing things before everyone dies to a stiff breeze."

...So, uh, what should we do for now? We're not actually on active duty until tomorrow.
I've got a certain FOE that needs to die in mind...





Yeah, we're ready for you this time!
If I could tame this monster as a pet, I'd have a mobile oven...


Lava Beast
HP: 12047, STR: 51, TEC: 48, VIT: 41, AGI: 28, LUC: 40
Skills:

• Lava Boulder: Uses the head. Deals 4-6 instances of 90% ranged TEC-based Fire damage to random targets. Can hit the same target multiple times. Has an 80% speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.
  
• Waterproof Fire: Used in response to receiving Ice damage. Uses the head. Heals the Lava Beast for ~9637 HP, and increases its elemental damage by 100% for 4 turns. Has a 120% speed modifier.

Drops:

• Normal: Cinder Stone. 100% chance. Sells for 1840 en. 1 needed to make Flame Greaves (+20 DEF, +10% Fire resistance, can be equipped by Beasts).
  "Red stone too hot to handle with bare hands. Its heat even makes it hard to craft with."
  
• Conditional: Sizzling Lava (Kill with Fire damage). 100% chance. Sells for 3770 en. 1 needed to make Amianthus Mail (Fafnir ultimate armor; +100 DEF, +3 all stats).
  "Rock formed when a Lava Beast burns to death. Won't burn, regardless of temperature."

Damage resistances:
50% 50% 50% 0% 200% 100%
Disable resistances:
50% 50% 25% 25% 50% 50% 25%
10% 10% 10%
25% 50% 50%

A foul beast from deep within the earth, fire courses throughout its body.

So this is going to be interesting. In theory, Ranger and Stardust are capable of killing the Lava Beast really quickly, but Waterproof Fire poses a massive obstacle to that, since it'll undo all my work and turn Lava Boulder into a one-hit kill if I do. Normally, I'd just bring along a Hexer, but oops, we don't have one with this party. All I can do is have Nadia try to paralyze the thing (which is agonizing with 25% resistance and no Creeping Curse) and then hope the paralysis procs on Waterproof Fire.

In addition to that, I also have to make sure that Ranger gets the killing blow on the Lava Beast--specifically, with Akashic Nova, which will qualify me for the conditional. I could use Flame Sabre if the thing isn't killed, but I'm playing with Waterproof Fire at that point, and it deals around 300 damage per use.



I'm probably not going to be using Medical Rod that often outside this fight, but Realga has nothing to do given that the Lava Beast has 50% Bash resistance.



Ranger'll do Ranger things.



My entire strategy for getting the conditional hinges on Nadia paralyzing the Lava Beast.



Yep.



I don't normally prioritize defense buffs over attack buffs, but Realga and Ranger need this in order to be less susceptible to an unlucky Lava Boulder one-shotting them.


How am I supposed to paralyze a giant, molten lump?!


Ha! I'm alive! Everything hurts, but I'm alive! I can survive on the front!
Congratulations, I guess.



Strangely, Medical Rod's debuff portion doesn't play the normal debuff animation.


The only way to fight fire...



ＩＳ ＴＯ ＦＲＥＥＺＥ ＡＮＤ ＳＨＡＴＴＥＲ ＩＴ！



The only thing Stardust will do until the end of the fight is spam Cocytus Formula.



Infinitely repeating "bah"s.


Never got that whole "physician, heal thyself" thing--I can heal myself just fine.


What're you trying to pull?
I thought a searing rock would hurt more.



Yowza.



YOWZA.



I'm really banking on things going perfectly.



Let's put Rheine's new favorite Grimoire to use.


...I don't know how that worked, but I'll take it!

And we're good. Got really lucky on the timing there.


Press the attack!



I'd normally opt for Blade Recoil on the second action, but the physical hit would be reduced to pitiful amounts.



This is gonna cut it close, so I have Rheine use Link Order to help.



ＹＯＵ ＴＨＯＵＧＨＴ ＴＨＡＴ ＷＡＳ ＧＯＯＤ？


ＢＥＨＯＬＤ！


Where'd my new oven go?

Well, that paralysis could not have gone off at a better time. I would've normally waited until, like, the end of the stratum to do this, but I wanted to take the new fragile-but-powerful party for a spin.





Amianthus Mail (Fafnir ultimate armor; +100 DEF, +3 all stats) is unlocked by selling 1 Sizzling Lava. I am 100% buying this for Ranger once it's not ludicrously out of our price range.



...Are you serious? You're using my valuable time off for this?
I know it sounds dumb, but trust me, it'll work! Hat guy said so!
You're really trusting a guild that advertises themselves as "professional idiots."



All we have to do is just kill Flame Demon before she can do anything!
...Why?



Maybe it'll let us take her tiny wings and fly.



There really is no strategy to getting Flame Demon's conditional drop unless you're doing some really weird early cheese stuff. Just unload everything you have on her on the first turn. Jackie's really important here, since Supreme Bolt will stop Madness Roar.



Another boss conditional out of the way.





Crimson Eater (+209 ATK, +40 TP, +5 VIT) is unlocked by selling 1 Glinting Claw. I...really have no idea who this thing is intended for. Sovereigns would want a staff for the TEC bonus, and Dark Hunters would want more attack than TP or VIT.

And that's that for this very short update. Next time: actual exploration.