Part 5: "Will we have to die soon?"
So last time, we underwent a lengthy dungeon that rewarded our infinite patience with lots of juicy stat gains. Also, we freed some people and got some silver to smelt into good stuff. Let's revisit Salamand since it's on the way back and all.
As an aside, I forgot to mention that Dude's Cure spell moved up to L2 last update, so yeah.
With Mr. Paul and Josef's daughter, there were four men. There's only two here now, so I'm going to assume the other two have died on the way back.
DEATH COUNTER: 3
Revised Salamand Population: 14
Honestly, the new NPC dialogue is boring as hell and relatively error-and-humor-free, so let's skip to Josef.
.... I am sorry!Now that Josef has his daughter back, he's a bit more receptive to our passwords. Let's ask him again about the Airship.
Nobody knows more than Cid about the Airship.Of course, we already knew that. Let's try the Warship now.
Warship is being made under the command of DarkLord. It soon will be completed.DarkLord, huh? Let's talk about Silver.
The Cave of Semite Falls used to be a mine. Silver is still being mined at the bottom.That one's not that informative.
Nelly's also grateful to not be enslaved. None of our passwords work with her, though.
Finally, the good chunk of money I picked up from Semite Falls is enough for a Life spell, which I give to Dude.
One uneventful trip back to Altea...
Nothing actually triggers until we give the Silver to Tobuel.
And with that, we've got two new people out of nowhere to sell us Silver in the weapon/armor shops.
Revised Altea Population: 13
That said, despite us risking our lives to give stronger weapons to the Rebellions, the shitheads still have the audacity to gouge us for this stuff.
I end up blowing most of my money on a spear for Luna, since the sword's out of my price range and Nathan Fillion has magic to fall back on.
Next, I go back up north for a few grinding battles, just to see if my new stats can handle the enemies up there.
Yep!
Though WereRats are the weakest things here. Wizard Ogres can cast stuff like Sleep and L5 Ice. Keep in mind this is multi-target Ice5, so everyone's getting hit for a decent chunk of damage.
Remember the Black Turtle we fought in the dungeon? They're common here, and Fire's still the best way to take care of them. Ogres are somewhat resistant to physical attacks, though as much as the turtles.
I luck out and pick up a Silver Shield from one of the encounters, saving me cash on buying one.
On my first run, I forgot to talk to everyone at Altea and just advanced the plot instead. I went back to a previous save to do it, and I'm glad I did.
Our next destination will be the oddly-named Bafsuk to take care of that pesky warship.
Meanwhile, Gordon's still moping like a fucking idiot. Let's see how we can make him cry by mentioning the Warship.
You are going to destroy the Warship?! Oh, cannot I do anything? If I had just a half of your courage ......Gordon, you are the worst fucking character in this entire god damn series.
And now, my current favorite NPC of this game.
Reminder, this is the kid who thought you could eat silver. Still, a rather appropriate statement considering.
There's three more people now, bumping the population to 15 (this includes MingWu, who'll be leaving us soon).
Meanwhile, this kid proudly declares he's going to fight for both sides in this war.
Not really, but hey.
Oh yeah, a reminder that everyone's fucked if this Warship takes off.
DarkLord was called back to Palakia from being in charge of building the [Warship].Warship, you say?
Our associate in Bafsuk found a secret path to the Warship.
Well, alright, then.
To Bafsuk!
Along the way, I have Dude dual-wield shields so that maybe his god damn agility will fucking go up. Hilariously, he'll do more damage with a stronger shield. That said, dual-wielding shields destroys his damage output because his accuracy is complete shit with shields equipped.
Bafsuk is to the east of Poft or whatever it's called.
On the way there, you can see the Warship. It's pretty damn big.
And to the south is Bafsuk.
However, we need a pass to access it.
Population: 11 (not including soldiers or Borgen).
Yeah, the regular townspeople are pretty miserable. How about the soldiers?
Oh, they're also miserable because Borgen is an incompetent nitwit. DarkLord is the one who has his shit together, apparently.
The man himself. He's just screaming random shit in the middle of the streets.
Anyway, this is our contact. If you talk to him about the Warship...
You came to blow Warship? I am the Rebellion. There is a path to the Warship here.And if you mention Ivy...
Oh, Rebellions! I could not move while DarkLord was here. Borgen is just a fool.Man, these people really hate Borgen.
Before we proceed, let's do some shopping.
Some more spells, and I have just barely enough to pick up Hel2. As I mentioned, this one heals out-of-battle effects like the stronger Poison. The more it's leveled, the more status effects it will heal. Right now, it will only heal poison. Of course, Dude gets this spell because white magic.
Unfortunately, the equipment's not that stellar. That's fine, because I can't afford it anyway.
Now we've got a mini-dungeon, which is as long as a normal dungeon in another game due to all sorts of dead-ends and high encounter rates.
Once again, same enemies as the Semite Falls, though in slightly tougher formations. At this point, though, they are pathetic and aren't much of a threat. They probably could've made things a little tougher here. It's to the point where Luna can one-shot Soldiers half the time.
Hey, free sword upgrade for Nathan Fillion!
You can dual-wield in this game, though this actually lowers my damage for some reason.
It's still a slight boost to Nathan, so I stick with it.
I might give my future party members bows so they can stand back and pretend to help while my actual good characters do things. Honestly, MingWu's the only useful one of the bunch, and that's because he comes with a ton of White Magic during the time when you're still struggling to get anything done.
L3 fists! This really helps with Dude's damage output.
101 damage against a fucking soldier. That's double Luna's output against them, even! Weapon levels for fists are much more important than other weapons, apparently.
After two or so screens, we meet this lovely chap.
Then Borgen shows up like a twit and leeches off the DarkLord's presence with a weak quip.
Turns out we're too late, though, and the Warship goes off to blow shit up.
Welp.
Anyway, the whole reason to do this dungeon is to get this Pass.
And the game even gives us a free teleport out. I guess it's a nice gesture after going all this way to say, "This entire dungeon was useless and a waste of your time!"
Alright, end-of-update stat summaries!
STR +2, AGI +1, VIT +1, WILL +1, MAG +1, HP +29, MP +8, Shield +1
Nathan Fillion is all about balanced stats, since he's rather well-rounded. I'm gonna probably stop using shields on him now that his Agility's starting to take off a bit and stick to dual-wielding, or using bare hands when his magic is needed.
AGI +3, VIT +3, WILL +1, HP +25
Luna's agility is starting to take off, and already her evasion's getting pretty nice. Her Strength gain is still too low for my liking, but considering all she does is attack, it'll fix itself in time.
STR +1, VIT +2, INT -1, WILL +1, HP +70, Fist +1
On one hand, Dude's damage output is great, between his high accuracy and strength, and having a good level on fists. Unfortunately, he has jack shit for evasion and agility, which is worrisome since he's my White Mage and all. For now, his high HP is sufficient, but soon enemy attacks will get nastier and having my White Mage so vulnerable will be bad news. Probably going to have to spend more time dual-wielding shields, while practicing his magic, since he has a lot of spells to level.
STR +2, INT -2
MingWu's about to leave anyway, but MingWu's constant attacks on air is slowly making him dumber. Just so you know.
Next time, who the hell knows.