Part 80: Returning the Spear of Heroes
Almost didn't finish this update in time. Got distracted-----
Welcome back!
The only thing of note on the way back is that all of the Klepps are gone after you destroy the tower.
Dight's looking better. Pretty much everyone tells us to go to the beach, where all the elders are gathered.
: Now, Gadwin... it's time to thrust that spear into the Dragon's Nest!
: No... I'm afraid that is not for me to do.
: Listen! People of the Flying Dragon! The dark clouds are banished! By the arrival of a hero, as in the legend!
: This hero's name is... Justin! An adventurer who has come from afar! Let us all praise his name!: What! This kid did all that? That boy is now a hero?: Elder... I told you at the beginning. There's no reason to scorn him because of his young age!
: Well... to the hero, Justin! To the Dragon's Nest with the spear! Only you have what it takes to do it!That being "having the spear taking up an inventory slot".
... Or rather, it used to, until I dumped it in the Stashing Place. No, I will never get tired of that.
Anyway, after taking another break to talk to everyone with Justin solo....
: Knock it off, Gadwin. You're making me blush. You know I didn't do it alone.: But Justin... I didn't do anything. Really. It was you who did everything this time. Seriously, I spent the whole time dead.: I want you to accept this, Justin. It is a fitting gift for a brave hero, for the retriever of the spear.
: Hmmm...!
: In that case, I will ask Feena to accept this armband!
: Huh!?
: If Feena hadn't chosen that mirror, I probably would have been killed.: I mean, I just entered the mirror. It was Feena who showed me the way.
: Justin....: Ahem... it is as Justin says it was.
: So, the armband is Feena's now.
: Well, OK... Thank you....: It looks great on you, Feena!
: Thanks, Justin.And then Feena and Sue rejoin the party. And a lot of the dialogue changes.
We should probably get Gadwin before we leave, though. Especially since the gate that leads outside is locked until he rejoins.
: My plans? Well, of course I'm going to look for Angelou. Some big ruins lie to the South. You told me about them earlier.
: Justin, I'm sure you've kept Liete waiting by dawdling around in all these affairs.
: Ha ha ha! Around here, then call those ruins the Twin Towers. I'll show you the way there.: South of Dight, over the Lama Mountains is Gumbo Village. From there, it's a boat ride to the ruins.
: What? A boat trip!? Sounds kinda hairy.: No, it's not that far. And anyway, Gumbo is a warm and friendly village. Once you've arranged your boat trip, perhaps you'll have time to enjoy some local festivities.: What? You said "festivities"? Let's go! Let's go! Right away!: Ha ha! Sue's ready to party!: Well then, let's be off, Gadwin.Before we take off, though, we've got some business to attend to.
In the immediate sense, Justin doesn't benefit much from Earth magic. Sure, curing poison seems neat and all, but a) Sue's already got that covered, b) antidotes are cheap and most poisonous things drop them and c) unless you're in a boss fight, poison probably won't even have a chance to tick.
Justin's strength is also ridiculously high for this point in the game, so the stat bonuses from the magic aren't doing too much.
That said, Diggin' is basically Justin's lifeblood. Especially since I've swapped his Bamboo Armor back to the Dirty Apron for reasons I honestly forget at this point.
But the rest of Justin's skill levels show pretty much the same thing. Forest and Earth are not Justin's forte.
Feena, on the other hand, will be learning an explosion spell that isn't BOOM!. It's WOW!.
Although we do see that her level 2 plot-locked spell is, in fact, Forest elemental.
Justin and Sue swap out for the Fire Rods, while Feena equips that Gust Knife we found way back on the End of the World.
The girls also upgrade their
Lama Mountains? Guess this is gonna be a pretty zen dungeon.
So, the Lama Mountains are mostly an open plain with some monsters wandering around everywhere.
Shit, forgot to kill off Gadwin. Good thing running away is easy.
Do do-do do, do do do, do-do do, do do do... do do, do, do do do.
With that done, let's get back to the task at hand.
The Blue Kites can fly into someone, hitting anyone in a wide line between them and their target. This has a very good chance of cancelling anything that's charging.
The red things (Gripples, if you were wondering), can do... something else.
Justin still hits like a truck on steroids.
Seriously, Feena, that's embarrassing. Justin's doing more damage in one hit than you can muster out of a combo.
Glide Attack. Low damage, but good IP knockback and a wider AoE than it appears.
Feena. Feena. Even the eight-year-old is making you look like a wimp.
For the rest of the dungeon, Feena'll be on Diggin' duty. Less for the earth magic, more for the strength boost.
And it's here that I realize that I've won the battle before killing Gadwin.
Whooooops!
Resets due to my own idiocy: 2
All right, so attempt two. Feena isn't even going to bother with the knife this time, just cast Diggin' with no en-
Motherfucker!
Okay, take 3.
... is where the recording began to glitch out. So, just a quick recap of what's there.
Blue Devils are like the Red Devils we fought in the Valley of the Flying Dragon, except with minor upgrades.
Gripples get Dizzy Tentacle, which causes confusion in a wide area.
The glitchy recording has another attempt where a confused Justin splattered all the enemies before Gadwin died.
I also found out that the "Each Own" AI is, apparently, capable of recognizing when weapons or elements are about to level up, and to shoot for that extra XP. Understandable when it involves Justin opening a fight with Howlslash. Slightly more worrying when Feena starts spamming Alheal on an unhurt party.
I made sure, however, to take the party off autopilot to show one thing.
Zap! made a cameo appearance in the "autobattle vs. Serpent" video, but I felt it deserves a proper introduction. And an apology on my part. See, when the scrolls first showed up in Luc, I made a big deal about how they deal ~180 damage. Well, turns out that was just for the scroll, not the spell itself.
No. The scrolls only do 180 because they're a shitty, cheap consumable.
We'll cover the rest of this trip next time.