Part 11: The accursed light of the sun

Before we explore the second part of the dungeon, let's take a look at that Mist Egg we got.



It's another support egg like the Holy Egg, but sort of crap. The only new spell it starts with is Refresh, which cures the Magic Block and Move Block status effects, which we have not yet encountered. I put it on Ryudo, but it won't be seeing as much use as the other two.



Our other find in this dungeon is a small child whom we will be recklessly endangering. Roan has kind of crappy stats, to be honest. His only good ones are MAG and MEN, which are magic attack and defense respectively, so I use him as a support mage.



Most of the second area is blocked off by this lake, with several packs of 4 frogs and some switches on our side of it.



One of switches we can just step on, the other needs this block pushed onto it. They reward us with a new helmet and a lever that drains the water from the lake.





Crossing the newly-formed land bridges leads to another accursed Poff Nut (which I will make sure to burn in protest) as well as this cliff:



Since the troglodytes are a no-escape midboss battle, it's nice of the developers to give players fair warning that there's more. The switch raises the bridge leading to the penultimate area of the cave.



We are provided with a convenient save point, as well as a boulder to push into a nearby hole in order to create a path back to the first area. Past the save point lies the entrance to the Durham Cave Depths.





This is where the hack stops messing around.



Durham Minotaur
Difficulty:

HP: 5000 (from 2500)
Attack: ~300
Special: -2 on hit
Abilities: Tornado Horn (~400 damage, Confuse and Cancel)
Concept Art: Here.

VIDEO: What will happen to you when you fight it

If you didn't take note of it at the start of the update, 400 damage is around 90% of Roan's HP. He also has low defense, so if he's slightly underleveled, he gets straight up one-shot by an unblocked Tornado Horn. Adding insult to injury, there's a good chance that anyone who survives Tornado Horn will come out Confused and ready to stab their friends. Neglecting to buy and equip Sleep Charms can also spell the party's doom if the Troglodytes decide to throw out too many Sleep Spawns. It's a very tough fight.

One option you have is to put Roan on Sleep duty, keeping the troglodytes out of the fight long enough for you to focus one enemy down. The hard hack increased the MP cost of Snooze, but you might win the battle of attrition.

I have a much more elegant solution:





Runner is a beautiful spell. It can be cast up to 5 times to increase the party's MOV in battle. The increased movespeed helps with timing attacks, but more importantly it drastically raises dodge chance for normal attacks.



It's on every mana egg we have, so within two of everyone's turns, I can max it out and dodge 99% of the normal attacks they throw out. Characters can't dodge when they're between COM and ACT, and Tornado Horn can still ruin someone's day, but so much of the monsters' damage is normal attacks that Runner pretty much solves the fight.



What do we do? At this rate...





Hah. Serves you right to be toying with the "Wings of Valmar"!

Raise your hand if you didn't see this coming. You there, in the back - get out. You're a disgrace.

What was that? Who... or what... ARE you!?

Oops! I said that out loud, didn't I? Never mind me.

We were in trouble there. What would have come of us if you had not...

Forget about it. Now go get your medal!

Oh! That's right!



It's there! All because of you. Thank you very much!

Hang on a second... did she or did she not just refer to herself as the "Wings of Valmar"?



Roan is paying so little attention to what's going on that he can't even proofread his own dialogue. Geez.

... Lollipop Lane, kid... Lollipop Lane...


Back on the gameplay side of things, we got a very important drop from that fight - the Adventure Book, a skill book. In addition to spending our SC and MC on moves and magic, we now have the option of putting them into Skills, which are passive stat boosts and bonuses found in skill books. Only one character can equip a skill unless we have duplicates of it in multiple books. In addition, characters can only have two skills at a time, though this number will increase to six by the end of the game as they level up.

The Adventure Book contains:

Life Up (+50/100/200/400/800 HP)
Strength (+10/20/30/40/50 STR, which translates into ATK)
Toughness (+10/20/30/40/50 VIT, which translates into DEF)
Dash (+10/20/30/40/50 SPD, which translates into MOV)
Skilled Item Use (Speeds up item use)

...as well as a sixth skill which can be learned only after leveling the book to 15. All of these cost SC to learn and are quite useful, but Life Up is definitely the star of the show:



This is what I've been saving SC for since the start of the game. Even adjusting for his low defense, Roan now has more health on him than Ryudo and Millenia combined. I have created a monster.

That's all for skill books. Annoyingly enough, the game actually makes you backtrack through the Durham Cave to get out of it, even though there aren't any new monsters in it or anything. This makes me angry enough to give Poff Nuts to Carro.





god dammit i forgot to save after i got the poff nut in Carbo i dont even have enough to show off his stupid light aaaaaaaaaaa



MUSIC: A chilling wind

Ha! Believed me, didn't ya? See you, Ryudo. Give my regards to Elena... [yawn] I'm a bit tired.

! What do you mean by that?! H- hey?









Mr. Ryudo, what just happened...? Miss Millenia is not really the Wings of Valmar, right!? Please tell me!

According to her, yeah.

No... But Valmar is the Devil...

But Miss Millenia is so pretty and kind...

Hey, Elena. Wake up! Elena!

Oh. Good morning, Ryudo. Mm... Huh? Where am I?

You all right?

How did I get to this place?

Fade out.



If it were, you'd fail to notice, remember? She calls herself Millenia, but she also said that she is the "Wings of Valmar."

This cannot be...

Miss Elena, I saw her too.

Ditto.

So, the Wings of Valmar are... inside of me...

Well, well. Sonny, you're back!





And I see you have yourself a few women. Heh, I envy you, feller. Though, the other filly you was with got my blood a stirrin'.

Really, DEAR? I'd like to see this... maybe after my next knife act...

It cannot be... last night...!

That woman is evil incarnate! She brings nothing but sorrow and misfortune!

That so? Then I reckon she ain't too much different from any other woman.

I can tell you about ONE woman who's going to be bringing you sorrow, HONEY.



I am uncertain... I do not think Miss Millenia is evil or anything...

Anyway, we can leave through the rear gate now. Unless you have some more missing jewelry, Roan...

If you are going across the Baked Plains, would you mind if I came along? Just me by myself is kind of... lonely...

... Yeah, well... Elena, you probably don't want him around...

Oh no, not at all. I do not mind, but we need to move quickly. I must reach Granas Cathedral before long.


And with that, we've solved Agear Town's problems and none of our own. Next will be a bonus update focused on pleasant dinner conversation, but after that, our journey to Granas Cathedral can continue.

Official Art: Ryudo, Elena and Millenia; Monster Concept Art 1 (Crag Snakes, Frost Frogs, Troglodytes, Durham Minotaur)