Part 28: Bonus Feature B2: Hope Floats

Bonus Feature B2: Hope Floats



Climbing up the tower it didn't take long for Hope to find a place that some people felt was paradise, but something was wrong with it. The people there did nothing but eat and sleep, and there were far too many of them.



Hope found various odds and ends in the tower, but that world had moved on and so did Hope. In truth the tower was kind of dull on the inside and there was not much to hold her interest.



On the fifth floor Hope found a man who looked familiar, like someone she had seen in Base Town… but that was impossible, since he had not passed her on the stairs. Like the man she had met before he told her to look for someone, but this time was making even less sense.



Leaving the tower Hope came to a quiet seaside town that smelled of fish and coconuts. This was an improvement over Base Town.



The people there spoke of mysteries of the sea, and so Hope left shortly after to search them out.



Her search took her to many small islands, but none of them showed the slightest signs of moving… either under their own power, or because of the wind.




The local seafood was a bit more fierce than she expected, but that only gave Hope more of an appetite. It was also delicious.



Finally, after much searching, Hope found the island she was searching for. You can see it, right there, in the middle!



Hope took her new island yacht to a new town, and on the voyage realized what had been bothering her since she came to this world: her ghosts were silent, their whispers and mutters no longer providing a background to break the silence. Hope was worried.



Still, the town had many interesting things, among them a new silver helmet that Hope thought looked much better on her than the bronze she had been wearing. Unfortunately, everything was so expensive...



And so Hope left the town in search of funds, only to have the local wildlife attempt to eat her. This was in direct opposition to the natural order of things, as was the fact that for some reason they were wearing pants.



There were also giant staring eyes that would watch her from the darkness. Trying to out stare them left Hope feeling sleepy, and sometimes they would continue to watch her as she slept. Naturally, when she caught them, Hope stabbed them.




Eventually Hope was able to afford some new armor and a shiny new saber to replace the one she had broken so long ago in Base Town.



Hope wandered the waterways of the new world seeking out new wonders, as her skin took on a healthy bronze glow and the sunlight bleached streaks in her hair. And still, the spirits were silent.



Eventually the natural order of things restored itself, except for the part about the werewolves wearing pants. Hope wasn't sure about eating anything that wore clothing, but considering that they had tried to eat her as well it only seemed fair.



Before long Hope had grown too tough and fast for the creatures above the waves, and so she sought out new adventures under the sea.



Under the water she found many things she did not expect, including a town. Hope had not seen an old man yet, but was sure she would stumble across one eventually.



The people there spoke in riddles, of things that Hope would later learn that they should most certainly not have known about.



They also had the final silver piece of armor that Hope was seeking for her collection, which made her very happy. She did enjoy a nice matched set when she could find it.



With the magic of the air seed allowing her to breath water, Hope found more and more unexpected things. There were even stairs under water, which made little sense since just about everything could swim. Perhaps this land had once been above the ocean?



There were also caverns, but Hope was much more comfortable with the idea of underwater caves than she was with underwater stairs.




At the end of the path she found an underwater castle, patrolled by of all things octopus guards.



They were a bit rubbery.



They were also not very good at their jobs, as they had carelessly left the master key to the entire building in an unguarded chest on the first floor.



Of course Hope used it to help herself to the entirety of the their treasury. Finding the expensive armor she had already spent money on was a bit of a kick in the teeth.




Before long Hope found her way to the lines that the villager had mentioned, and followed his advice. The results were quite unexpected.



Indeed, if Hope had expected anything it certainly had not been a long blue dragon that attempted to fry her with hopelessly inaccurate blasts of lightning. Considering its behavior, Hope had little incentive not to give it a thorough introduction to her favorite saber.



It tasted a little bit like chicken and a great deal like fish. Oh yes, our Hope was a hungry girl.



Leaving the undersea palace she went in search of the old man, and finally found him in on a little island in a hut that was much, much larger on the inside than on the outside. It says something about Hope that she did not find this or his speech strange.



She did, however, find it annoying and when she explained this to him at sword point he gave her something to get her out of his world and up the tower as fast as possible.



As soon as she touched the blue door, Hope's ghosts began to whisper again and once again all was right with the world. She had missed them.



And with that, Hope stepped in the door and began again to climb the tower.

Mechanics Chat

Moving on to the second world we're in a much better place to gather up money for new equipment and more stat potions. In fact, this is the last place I had to do any grinding. Most fights in here will provide enough gold for one to two potions, and HP400s only require about two fights each. It's a bit dangerous, however, as even the best armor you can acquire is still going to result in some damage getting through. Your best bet is to fight the Big Eyes and Magicians… they will put you to sleep, but eventually you can take them out. Neither of them actually has any ability to harm you, so they're basically free money.

The other risk is pirates, which can steal your hard earned cash… and not in a small way. I've seen more than 2000 gold vanish from a single pilferage, and that's just unacceptable. The best way is sot step inside the Tower and fight ghouls and worms. They're worth 120 gold each, and they can't scratch you through Silver Armor. After you've boosted your stats a bit Sei Ryu is a chump, so this is one of the faster worlds to get through. In fact, I'm pretty sure Sei Ryu didn't even damage Hope. Agility really starts to pay when it comes to dodging enemies, but I don't think the difference is big enough to be unfair at this point.

Leaving the second world Hope is strong enough to one-shot most of the enemies she's been dealing with, but that won't be the case on the way up the tower. In fact, the next section is among the most dangerous parts of a single character run.