Part 34

Chapter 30




Last but not least! Mainly because Zangetsu's useless.






As you guessed, Izayoi is the one with brown hair.



For generations, Troia has been governed by a group of eight Epopts who serve the Crystal. However, one within our order has been afflicted by a grave illness. As a result, we must act quickly to choose a new Epopt. Keep that in mind as you go about your training.



You shall cleanse yourselves with cold water and shake off any distractions. This will help you focus your internal energies. Once you're ready, please assemble in the large pond in front of the village inn.



Finally, she shuts up.



So of course the first thing the trainees do is gossip.

This game isn't going to revolutionize feminism.

They say a war's about to break out.
I heard the same thing!




And that's not all... I heard that Leonora will be taking her final exam shortly.

Seriously, you have to love your life when your final exam is to nuke the shit out of stuff to read a stone.

Say, that reminds me... Remember the rumor about how she needed to master black magic first?




I honestly don't know why this detail interests Izayoi and rumors of a coming war don't.



...

I don't know... It sure looks like there's going to be a war soon, doesn't it?



Hurry up and assemble in the pond!
Yes, ma'am!



Farewell, exposition!

(I've been here for a while now... What could be happening within Baron, though?



Izayoi's Ninjustu is water-oriented, considering her element is water and all. And since she's a girl, she gets all the healing Ninjutsu.

Illusions inflicts confuse, which is pretty fun to exploit in her dungeon.



If you walk around, you'll actually run into Palom for what will surely be a pleasant conversation.

Yes, sir.
Hmm. Really?
What do you mean, sir?
Oh, I know you women. You can be scary sometimes... How you plot things while putting up that pretty face of yours.
Well, that's what we're good at, sir.
...Ooh, scary. Heh heh.

...Yikes.



Har.




And of course there's the usual creeps trying to nail an Epopt trainee. Though I like the woman repeating the same exact line she used on Palom.




I still love this guy.



I'm sorry.

Let's get this over with, shall we?



Ma'am? Um...what should we be thinking about while we're doing this?
You must try to sharpen your heart and soul as you concentrate. Do not think about anything else. Make your consciousness one with the water surrounding you.
Er...yes, ma'am.

Yeah, sounds like the Epopt's just spouting off random bullshit to me.





So basically you stand in the same spot for thirty seconds or so.



You can't expect to become an Epopt if you can't even get through this training exercise.




Please, ma'am, you need to let her rest!



Ah, nothing like nearly freezing a person to death to end a training session.



They've gotten to the point where they've built a tower solely for training purposes...

Probably has to do with that war that was mentioned earlier. You know, the one that's scaring the shit out of the Troian residents?



So guess where we're going next?




Yep.

Also, I completely forgot to visit the castle. I'll assume there's absolutely nothing of interest there.






(A magical seal? No matter.)





That's right. Fuck doors, we're scaling the damn thing!

Which makes you wonder what would happen if, say, Leonora were to just cast Float in the first place and bypass all the black magic enemies, and then sneak in through the window.



Izayoi is weak. She can't even kill a moth in one hit.




She can seduce moths, though.



And drown them.




Izayoi can equip Bows and Whips in addition to ninja stuff. This is very useful considering there's a ton of flying enemies here, all of which are weak to projectile weapons like bows.





Of course, it's much easier to just spam Illusions and let the enemies kill themselves.



Decent, but again, the bow is better here.






Believe it or not, this guy can actually be difficult if you're unprepared and underleveled. Especially if you have a bad moon, which I don't here luckily.

The thing is, this is one area where you'll need to grind a bit in order to win this, as at a certain level Izayoi will gain an attack multiplier, significantly upping her damage output. Otherwise, the Zu will win in an attack race.




You can't seduce the bird, either.



If you're at the right level, though, you'll get two-three turns of big damage in between its attacks, making the thing a cakewalk.



(There's an intensely powerful monster presence inside. I can feel it from here. The Troian Epopts must have something in mind...)





(I knew that moon was bad news from the start! Time is of the essence! I must hurry back to Eblan.)





Let's sum up what everybody's learned.

A meteor fell near Damcyan and Fabul, and some mysterious girl nuked the shit out of some monks before talking about an interdimesional elevator!
Troia's talking of upcoming war and built a tower to train their Epopts in black magic!
I think Porom likes me! I remind her of her brother and she seems to notice my presence whenever I follow her around! Oh, and Mysidia's freaking out about something, I was too busy staring at Porom to learn what.
I learned absolutely nothing of value! I was useless!



Izayoi learns a more powerful healing Ninjutsu while backtracking down the tower. Pretty expensive at 21MP, though.





So let's hijack this thing!



Y-yes, but...
What is your destination?
M-Mysidia, ma'am!

This guy is so damn pathetic.

I'm actually headed in that direction. Would you mind if I came along with you?



Aye-aye, sir!



The land of Eblan.




C-Captain!
What is that thing!?



We need to go faster!
B-but...
I'll pay you however much you want!



This guy is the worst captain ever.





FINALLY.



(Are the Lunarians back for us? I wish I could get rid of the butterflies in my stomach. Everything's happening just as it was before...)



The Edge/Rubicante thing will actually be popping up a lot in this game, and is one of the few storylines that is genuinely interesting.







Where is Master Edge!?
He should be asleep in his chambers. What's wrong?
The Tower of Babil, that's what!




Next time, more close-ups of the Tower of Babil! Will they soon outnumber screens of the two moons? Also, we finally get to control Edge!

About fucking time.