Part 9: Chapter the Ninth
Chapter the Ninth, in which a man's world is shattered, Zoid's sexuality is put into question, and our heroes descend reluctantly into the sewers.
There's not much in the way of plot development in the middle of this world, so this will be a more dungeon-crawling update.
Off in the jungle outside of Venus's metropolis, the cast offs of society evidently live in a tiki hut village.
my leg, but I like it here better.
Is that because it's more comfortable out here in your speedo?
I think I'm going to have nightmares about the chest hair myself. 
He probably should be.
his leg is wounded. Yeah, ol' Gimpy Leon is alright.
Somehow I expect we'll end up investigating these...
live inside the city walls all ruled by Venus.
You keep telling yourself that.
Oh.. oh no, don't tell me. Let's go talk to Venus. Maybe she has something to say other than what I'm thinking is coming up...
Yeah, you're no help at all.
That's right everybody, it's time for the sewer level.
Somehow, finding a vial of speed washed down the sewer isn't exactly shocking.
They'd love to have just alligators in the sewers here. I really like the dragon design in this game, it seriously looks like it's going to ruin somebody. It also has another very useful characteristic...
The dragon family of monsters provides small, predictable movement around the monster evolution chart from where we are. The Sprite is probably one of the best monsters at the level 5 tier, but there's more to come here.
This is the Hermit, a miniboss that's several levels stronger than the enemies we're dealing with in this area. We probably won't encounter anything this strong on a regular basis for another two worlds. So, before fighting him we need to get our monster into a good position...
O-Bake isn't a bad monster, as Touch is a very powerful attack. The sleep effect is very annoying when they use it against you.
There we go. Now for the Hermit and the results thereof...
The next upgrade up from Sprite gains an Ice attack, and look at those stats! This one is going to be sticking with us for a while. Sorry Zoid.
Zoid is all man! 
This is a non-optional mini-boss, by the way. You need the key he drops to get further in the dungeon.
I'll say yes to a 17,000 gold item for free. The PSI sword is a nice weapon for any mutant you might have, since they're likely to have decent mana even if you're concentrating on agility.
This dungeon has some very nasty trapped treasure chests, which have monsters of equivalent strength to the Hermit only in groups. You could farm these for high level meat if you wanted, but it's probably risky at this point.
You don't get any treasure from these boxes, by the way, and they still have monsters if you try them again to check. I got a bigger group the second time and this was the result. Sleep spells suck when the enemies have them.
How did MAGI end up in the sewers, arranged in a neat set?
...yeah, they're bastards here.
Venus literally has more MAGI down the shitters in her world than some other worlds have total.
There's a few more nice treasures scattered around. When we get out, presumably smelling unbearable, some of the people in town have new things to say.
Venus.
Immediately after this announcement, the world itself shakes.
It's heavy? What the
?
Somewhere outside of town, surprise! Volcano! I know this can happen nearly that fast, but I'm pretty sure most volcanoes don't come with caves like that. We shall have to investigate.
.. Why don't you go see him?
Flora: We cannot act against Venus in this world. Besides, it's scary outside of the walls.
I was feeling vaguely sympathetic until you started talking about how you're just scared.
of Ancients used to be? I wonder if there are any MAGI left?
How do you know about that already?
Goddess, remember? 
You, however, have no such excuse. How do people suddenly know about this? Off to the volcano, but before then...
We stop to shatter Leon's world with the news of his fiance getting married.
Next time: off to the volcano and to the wedding.