Part 31: In Which Will Shakes the Earth

We’re picking up again in Ankor Wat just inside the cleverly named Passage - Inside, to differentiate it from the Passage - Outside.



In addition to the gorgon above, to our right there’s a bunch of Frenzies circling around small blocks. Dark Friar is a wonderful way to deal with them.



To our left there’s a Gorgon that just sits in place here spinning. It’s invincible while spinning, so we’ll have to find another way to deal. There might be a gimmicky way to get past this area using Dark Friar, but I’m not in that much of a hurry.




Past the Frenzies from earlier we’ve got a few enemies that are best dealt with using Dark Friar. Clearing the place gets us a Defense upgrade and access to a Dark Space.



“The Earthquaker is a Dark Power that causes earthquakes. The enemy won’t be able to move for a long time. Push the Attack Button when jumping down.”

“And you just gave it to me now? How convenient.”

“I was waiting for you to help yourself, but you weren’t so I had to step in.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how that proverb goes, but who am I to argue?”



Using Earthquake we can freeze the Gorgon in place, then kill it leisure. It looks kind of like this:



Not the best, but I’m working with limited tools and it’s probably preferable to a 3 second video. Past that we’ve got a couple of Wall Walkers to clear in order to earn a STR upgrade. This gets us to a portion of the area we’ve already mostly cleared getting to the Dark Space, earning an HP increase..




And a Red Jewel. Other than that we’re done with the Inner Passage and on our way to the next open area. This area really is huge.



It’s pretty unremarkable, other than finding another skeleton.


“Killed in pursuit of a pair of cool shades. I can get behind that.”



The rest of the area has a few Zombies running around in areas where we have to jump down to get them. They’re a minor annoyance, but we’ll have to clear them to get a stat increase here.




We can’t get to the glasses right now, so it’s into the Main Hall to fight our way past a few of the enemies and look for an alternate entrance into the way to the Main Hall.



It’s a winding path with a few areas we can’t quite get to from this level.



Finding our way out and killing the last few enemies gets us this Defense Upgrade. The sparkle on the right is the Black Crystal Glasses.

“Bitchin’.”



After that, we can go upstairs. Well, we could go upstairs previously but this is what we would have seen. Not exactly helpful, but you could stumble your way through. This is a bit of a gimmick for the dungeon, but it’s kind of hard to miss and the item for it wasn’t in a chest so the statement about chests having either herbs or jewels here remains true.



With the Black Crystal Glasses it’s a normal area, just with weird crystals floating around. The Frenzies are still hanging around, just offscreen at the moment.




Between the holes in the ground and the Psycho Slide opening it’s pretty clear that we’re going to have to switch back to Will at some point. You can play a game of “guess the pit,” but the right answer is the extra large pit you see here. It drops right on to the ledge with the Dark Space we saw earlier.



“It stands quietly in the jungle and hides its form when people come near…on this top floor you will understand why you made the journey.”

“If you know that much, you could tell me right now and just save me the trip.”

“And where would the fun be in that? Besides, you’d never believe it.”

“Never… you’re G… I’ve seen…”

“I work in mysterious ways. Just trust me on this.”

“I can’t believe I’m not used to this by now.”



Sliding through the slot we’ve got a single enemy gating us from an HP increase. Instant gratification!



And more, when we pick up a Red Jewel shortly afterward. We’re down to one more Red Jewel in the dungeon, so we’re approaching the end.



The entire area is multi-layered, with enemies that we can’t reach at the moment staying tauntingly out of sight.




The fourth floor has a few enemies for us to clear out for another HP increase as well as the final Red Jewel of the dungeon.



Along with that, we’ve got a pit that drops us to where we can get to the Gorgon and Frenzie we just saw. Clearing them out gets us a Defense increase and access to another entrance onto the fourth floor.



The statues return with a message that we’re on the right path. You might pause here in anticipation of a crushing boss fight…



But you’d be wrong. There is no boss fight in this dungeon. We’re actually at the end of the road.



“What?! Who are you…?”

“I am dreaming. Time has passed since the dream began, and my body became what you see. I’m going to show you a strange image. Close your eyes.”




“That is the new world…”

“That world is all grey…this world has blue water, green mountains, brown earth all over.”

“You will usher in that world.”



“Eh, it’s not so bad once you get used to it. Tall trees replaced by buildings, rivers replaced by roads…I mean, there’s still trees and rivers, but they’re on the outskirts. No matter what kind of world people have, if they think they’re happy, they’ll be happy. Go to the village and restore those turned to stone to their original condition.”



“Then I found the Gorgon flower held tightly within my hand. The flame was gone, and I was left with only questions.”




As a note, my inventory is full so one of the Red Jewels gets kicked back to Gem to make space. It’s a nice feature to handle the possibility that you might not have space when this item gets plopped into your inventory. For the curious, I went ahead and dumped my remaining Red Jewels to show the message.

Next update: Lose Ends and the Desert Village