Part 5: Treachery! Can No One Else Fight a Rabite?

That's nice. You know, you remind me of my friend Willy. Well, before he died.



When I have a kid I intend to stuff their head full of geography so that they can spout it off at new people they meet.



He could be our only hope.



Wendel offers our first armor upgrade in the game. This puts our defense finally nearly equal to our attack.


The water springs from the root of the Tree of Mana. Mana is supporting our way of life.

My knowledge of geography indicates that this understanding is somehow flawed.



One wonders who's making these reports, since it's so isolated.



Hey, it's our old friend Man!



The Temple in Wendel is actually very impressive. It probably dominates the city.


.. Oh, yes! It sure is the symbol of Mana.

Well, that's a relief. I'd hate for this all to be a misunderstanding.

Step forward. You'll see what you must see.



That lady... she's the one that encouraged us.

I must tell you now, Roll. You and I are the members of the Mana Family.



Wait, go back to that last part.

Vandole abused the power of Mana long time ago. So I sealed the Waterfalls with that Pendant, so that nobody can come close to the Mana Tree.



It's nice to have the enemy spotlighted so directly.

Guard the Mana Tree with the Gemma Knights!



Mom...

Before anything else can happen the screen shakes and there's a loud crash.



I'll take you to a safe place.

Thanks.



It takes Cibba and Rock a second to realize that a person they barely know has just went off with the linchpin of their fight against the Glaive Empire.



I'm inclined to believe the universe just hates people who look like Willy.



Behold, the mighty forces of Glaive. Seriously, a rabite and an imp?



For some reason this just amuses me to no end. Man spins around to reveal..



I was not sure if she was the right girl or not until I saw what happened inside there. I was waiting for this chance to get her! And now.. Glaives have her in our hands!



Rock makes a single last ditch effort to grab Roll...



It does not go well.



.. Roll ..

As we fade to black, I'd like to take a moment to applaud the writers at this point for writing such a great villain in Julius. He's sneaky, ruthless, and effective. He swats our hero away like an insect, and gives him appropriate consideration for the threat he appears to present. We haven't seen Dark Lord for a while, but Julius stands in as a very credible threat.



To a man who can survive falling down a waterfall, being smashed into a stone wall is nothing!

Julius took her to the west in his airship.

I'm going...!

Then take this with you.



Heal allows us to recover from most status effects through using MP. Rather than being a nice way to get out of carrying so many potions, it's actually more of a sign that the number of enemies with status attacks is about to skyrocket.



Not even the NPCs are safe in this game.



Our next destination is obviously going to be the Dwarf Cave to the west, since a small child pointed the way. The bugbears occasionally drop gold, which is worth a good bit of coin.



South along the beach we can find Sebastian's homicidal cousins, who like to throw their claws at us. They're not really threats.



They do, however, sometimes drop Nectar crystals which can boost our attack.



At this point the axe starts getting a workout. This isn't so bad right now since it's only a point or two weaker than the chain.



A little bit of exploring finds this rather.. unique.. cave. It spits us out after this.



What the hell just happened?



The exit is plainly visible a few screens away. We're about to go through a lot of trouble to cross a small stream.



Hopefully since this cave doesn't have eyes it won't be picky about who can go inside.



Success!


He's looking for some Silver.

Your confusion regarding their and there offends me sir!



Believe me, I know.



I think you can all see where this is going.


The Gaia Pass leads to the western land.

Maybe I should take the Gaia pass to the western land to follow the airship that went west! West.



I accept that this qualifies you as an expert on both Old Mines and Watts.


You can get it at the store to the south!

There's a nice plot gateway here that you can miss if you don't talk to this guy. You'd expect him to just give us the oil or something.



There are worse places to have a store than on the beach. 500GP is a bit steep for some oil, but at least it's a reasonable amount. You'd be hard pressed to not have it at this point.



The location of the mine itself is never really specified, but part of the secret lies in the fact that this little clear space is actually an exit.



Rock has to indulge in a considerable amount of deforestation to proceed. Time #2 when we've had to pull out an obsolete weapon to proceed.



Just to the north is a hidden inn we can use if we need a recharge. There's a couple of them scattered around in the wilderness, although I can't imagine who goes to them.



At last, the Old Mine.

Next time: Spiders, a trolley ride, and proof that dwarves are cheap bastards.