Part 33: In Which Will Pounds the Snake

“Unless they’re in chains.”

“Yeah, not helping my desire to set this place on fire.”



“Me either. What the hell are you doing here? Aren’t you the company president?”

“Yes. I tried replacing the labor trade with pepper imports. This led me all the way to Dao.”

“Kind of funny that it’s the same place either way. Well, not funny ‘haha’ but…”

“There’s a pyramid near here. I wonder if a Mystic Statue is there?”

“I’d say almost certainly, but there’s a LOT of pyramids around here.”




Gem has had a bit of makeover, but that’s about what you’d expect. 41 gems is pretty much all we can have on arrival in Dao, but it’s not a big deal since we’re still 9 away from the goal. It’s absolutely impossible to get the final prize without entering the final dungeon.



“Yeah, yea.. wait, actually, those are pretty nice. Wow. Too bad I don’t have money. Or a house.”



The main draw here in Dao, other than plot progression, is “the game with the snakes” or Snake Panic. It’s pretty much whack-a-mole with snakes, so… whack-a-snake?



You have a limited time to hit as many snakes as possible. The trick to the game is to attack from the side. Positioning yourself in front of a pot can allow you to hit the snake in the pot above you as well as the one to the side.




Hitting enough snakes gets you this wonderful prize. 47 is too few, but 69 is a magic number. He even sends the Red Jewels straight to Jeweler Gem for you.




“Men in cages, on display. Maybe a new world wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all..”



“Many explorers have come for the treasure, but no one’s found it yet.”

“Yeah, exploring ancient ruins is a lot harder than it looks. I kind of feel bad for them, though.”



In one of the nearby buildings there are a few women hard at work. They don’t have much to say, as you can see.



“This will take almost 40 years to weave. This woman has worked on it continuously since she was a child. Remember, little man. Some are born to misfortune.”

“I…I’m starting to hate this town, and everyone in it.”



“The Pyramid is made of huge stones. Strange that it doesn’t sink into the desert…”

“Maybe it already has and it used to be a lot taller?”

“There’s a strange legend around here…”



“These are the words… the Pyramid is a big tomb. The living can’t go in? Hmm…”

“Well, we’ll see about that. At this point I’ve pretty much accepted the fact that anytime someone mentions a weird landmark I’m going there.”



“I can’t make up my mind if I should do business with you. You can’t put a price on people…”

“What the… I’m not…I mean, I agree with you.”



“Kid, you don’t even know. You’re talking to the champ.”



“The president of Holek started the labor trade freedom movement.”

That’s my cousin, alright.”



“Okay, adding that to the list of things to never tell Kara.”



Just north of these guys, right here, is another Red Jewel. With that we’re complete, but good luck figuring out that spot without some kind of guide. At least Snake Panic makes some kind of sense.




“Well, that’s a nice picture. Wait, you didn’t draw this, did you?”



“I don’t even know how. Well, time to leave town!”




Doing so, we’ve got a new travel destination. The Pyramid is… oddly located, no matter how you look at it, and I’m kind of disappointed that it doesn’t get its own map icon.



And with that, we’re at the penultimate (kind of) dungeon.

Next time: A pretty cool dungeon, and a new shape.