Part 7: The Dragonfly Forest

Before heading into the Dragonfly Forest let’s meet our new comrades in arms:





Terbeco here is the first single aligned Earth minion we merged. Its strength are its high magic score (now with a spell to make actual use of it) while its weaknesses are its frail body due to being a magic focused creature.





Mukma is an intermediate merge for whom Zeikier has big plans. As of now he is a middle of the line merge that trades phys. Power of Ohma for Magic from Mukhambu (or vice versa) for which he lacks spells to make real use of it. I guess the main reason for this merge will be to give a physical based creature a healing spell in Medina.





Deep Blue is our physical powerhouse for now who had quite a few problems against minions hitting his weakness throughout the run. Guess diagonally aligned merges really suffer from it (since I was always cautious of it and never did it before).





Lastly we have Bumblebee our punch happy single air aligned minion. He may have the spells necessary for Magic but he lacks the score so that they can be put aside for now at least.

Furthermore I had to spin a few minions due to the way storage works in this game: You have space for 24 minions but whenever you let Mahbu perform Nagi Magic she won’t let you exit its screen till she has at least 12 empty spaces again e.g. the number of empty Cocoon Levant carries around. Therefore some minions had to be sacrificed for the greater good.





And this is what their silk payed for. The Sword of Speed is amazing since you really want speed on Levant to get minions out and the Plate Mail Vest gives decent defense without influencing our speed too much.

While leveling some minions for their merges I also got injured without having filled Cocoons with me which prompts Mahbu to comment on it when asking her to perform Nagi Magic.



: Feel better now? Be more careful out there!

Talking to Mahbu at this point in the game leads to following dialogue



: But, I kind of know how he feels…

: A blacksmith’s son must be a blacksmith. A Nagi woman must marry a Cocoon Master. Growing up is so unfair.

Anyway we’ve wasted enough time already so let’s head into the Dragonfly Forest.













The Dragonfly Forest features the one and only time a minion appears in 2 different forests (outside the Endless Corridor). Both Terfrayd and Mardreg appear again throughout the beginning parts of the Dragonfly Forest.









We walk the right path first. As you can see at the top right of the screen this is one of the places where you can find Teralco/Hiralco.







We pick up another Tutorial Tablet which gets stashed into the Valuable section of our Items in case you want to review it again later or come back to the game after some time, having lost some knowledge but don’t want to start over.





Here is another place to catch Terfrayd/Mardreg.





We go down the left path first on this fork.







We arrive at another place to catch Terfrayd/Mardreg and pick up the first Magic Tablet, which goes more indepth on the magic aspect of the game. Nothing we don’t already know though.



Heading back and taking the right path this time leads us to the door seen above. However at the current time we are lacking the key to open it.





Neither the left (first picture) nor the right path (second picture) have anything of value to us. On the right dead end however is a chance to catch Teralco/Hiralco. Sometimes they transition into the screen with the door all on their own.



So we head back to the first fork and go down the left path instead in order to advance further into the forest.





This here is also the last place in the forest to catch Terfrayd/Mardreg.





After picking up the key we advance down the path to out right.





We head straight on which leads to...



a dead end.



Heading back and going down the path to the left instead leads us to another fork in the road.



We decide to walk down the path to the right and into the light which leads us...



... to another fork and the one of the places where you can catch the turtle minions Ohma and Riggu. Beware however if your minions are underleveled as they always appear in pairs and can pack quite a punch while having a decent defense. Thankfully they have no elemental attacks.



Once more we head down the right path leading us to another place to capture Ohma/Riggu



as well as a treasure chest.



The seals in the treasure chest are Attack Items Levant can use that make use of his magic stat. However this is not adviced unless you are in a bind since Levant gains nothing by killing minions or other enemies. The Silver Crown increases our Magic Attack and Magic Defense stats at the cost of Defense.





In the ensuing fight againt the Ohmas, I had Deep Blue show off the Foot: All enemies attack. He stomps the ground and creates a quake or something that hurts the enemies while throwing up dust.



Anyway, heading back to the fork and going straight ahead results in us arriving at another place to catch Ohma/Riggu.



Going on ahead we arrive at what looks like another fork but really is just a giant circleway. We head down the circle counterclockwise.





At the end of the road we can see another person. Let’s see what he has to say.

Poacher Voiceacting



: Get your firefly cocoons somewhere else! This is my turf!

: You think you’re better than me, huh? Well... you leave me no choice.



Now we have to fight off the Poacher.



He starts off by summoning his minion, the appropiately named Goat. The goat minions in this game are some of the strongest minions and while this one is underleveled it still packs quite a punch especially seeing how we have no water minion with us at the current time.



We summon Deep Blue and it gets a Fire Attack fueled punch right in the face for its troubles.



Outside of using its elemental attack it also likes to attack normally by spinning around and then punching us.



After suffering for a bit at the hands of his minion we finally finish it off through Terbeco casting Ulvi.



This leaves us with the poacher himself who is also able to pack quite a punch with his spinning Backhand (since they didn’t animate his Axe for his attacks)



But give it some time and he falls at the Hand of Agnispam. It could have gone smoother if I’d use a Shab Liquor on some of my minions but pride and all that...



He drops his weapon and a Great Walnut for our trouble.



The weapon goes straight on the pile of shopping items as it shoots our speed straight to hell.



After the Poacher ran off, swearing revenge, we are able to loot the key to open the door we were unable to open earlier from his belonging.





We also pick up another Magic Tutorial Tablet.

On my way back I ran into a Riggu for the first time during this particular run.





Spells: -
Special Attacks: Foot: All Enemies

As you can see Riggu are virtually the same as Ohma. They are incredibly strong and tough while lacking any semblance of speed or magic power. Their use as possible merges should be restricted to other minions with a strong foundation in defense or physical attack. Main Concern should be to give them a Earth Elemental Attack to make use of their Sky High Attack growth and their single elemental nature. Under no circumstances should they be merged with magical or speedy creatures as it ruins the aspect of both Riggu and the creature it was merged with.




Arriving back at the last not fully explored fork we head straight ahead this time to explore the rest of the forest before opening the door at the beginning.



We have found yet another place (and this is the last) in which we can capture the Ohma/Riggu pair. The path to the left only leads to another treasure chest for which we lack a Skeleton Key at the moment.



Heading straight ahead we arrive at this giant roundabout way. This is the only place to catch Terbeker/Maskhira.





Spells: Ad Slahm (single target sleep spell air elemental)
Special Attacks: Fang: Sleep

Speaking of Maskhira: They are really annoying enemies to face. They aren’t particular strong since they suffer from the same fate as Terbeker e.g. not having an air aligned damage spell to make use of their high magic score. However in its place they have a sleep spell which has a high success rate (due to their high magic I believe) and this coupled with them always attacking in pairs can possibly shut you down completely by having them sleep you right before your turn.
If you want to use them in a merge then merging them with Hiralco, which creates the air version of Terbeco, is the best choice. They hardly lose any of their growths and gain access to all Air Elemental spells that made an appearance till now. Merging them with physical powerhouses however is a complete waste.



When I caught them I also gained another Capture Level with Levant which came with a new rank. Here is the new Capture Song coming with it.

Capture Melody - Adept



After catching the Maskhiras we head into the cave.



We find the Skeleton Key we need to open the last treasure chest in this forest. This will be done when heading back to the beginning when its time to open the door.



Before heading down the stairs to our left we head around the monumental's right side to find a switch which we push. This creates a sound of water being drained.







Spells: Agni
Special Attacks: Claw: ----[+Accuracy]

And while transitioning run into the Freys. They are the exact opposite of the Terbeker/Maskhira pair when it comes to magical minions. Where the Birds were fast and simply annoying due to not having spells, the crab thing or whatever the Freys are, are incredible tough instead while having a great magic score and spells to make use of it. Not only that, they also come in pairs. Two of them would have easily destroyed Deep Blue if I hadn’t intervened. For merging purposes they are best paired with Patash from the Beetle Forest or even Agnispam to give them access to the all hitting fire elemental spell without affecting their growths too much. Just don’t merge them with physical creatures.



We head down the leftmost path first.



which leads to another spawning place for the Frey/Ojiae pair.



Following the path till the end reveals the teleporter for this forest. However we still don’t have the charm for it so it’s useless to us for now.

While returning I ran into the Water Elemental Version of Frey which is called Ojiae.





Spells: Vahlis (all target weak water elemental spell)
Special Attacks: Fang: ---- [+Accuracy]

The same things apply that were already said for the Frey minion. This one was easier to deal with tohugh as I had earth elemental attacks. Merging wise its best paired with Mukhambu from the minions we have right now. All other kind of ruin at least one aspect of Ojiae without giving anything important in my opinion (Different Alignments, Ohma’s are physical based creatures while Arpachu is a more speed inclined one).



We go for the right path next since the middle path is currently closed. We find the last spot to catch Frey/Ojiae as well as a stone mural which we can press in order to open the middle path.



Down the middle path is a dead end and a lake. However there is a stone tablet to be found on the far right side.







Kikinak voiceacting 1







: What are you doing? That’s mine! Wh-, I-, you have some nerve!

: But you can’t use that. Isn’t that just too bad...

: Come on, come on! Just give it back now! Whew! Well then, I’ll be off!



And with that ends our first meeting with the Birdman. He takes the tablet away from us and flies away. There are a few ways to keep the tablet but in the end it amounts to nothing e.g. there is nothing written on it or any benefit to owning it as far as I know. Supposedly its the Secret to killing the Birdman but as said there is no benefit from it.

Anyway now it’s time to head back and open the door that was closed to us before.
On the way back I also grab the other treasure chest that I couldn’t open earlier.



The Chestnut Oil increases the attack of a minion permanently while the Bletilla Oil increases the Magic Attack score. The Tendai Uyaku raises a minion from the dead and heals it fully if I remember correctly (never really used it).





Before going forward I went and increased the level of our three minions to eight.

Agnispam

Level: 8 (+3)
Hp: 116 (+46)
Mana: 46 (+9)
Attack: 27 (+3)
Defense: 20 (+2)
Mag. Attk.: 30 (+2)
Mag. Def.: 29 (+3)
Speed: 26 (+3)

Deep Blue

Level: 8 (+3)
Hp: 146 (+58)
Mana: 35 (+7)
Attack: 33 (+4)
Defense: 29 (+3)
Mag. Attk.: 21 (+2)
Mag. Def.: 24 (+2)
Speed: 23 (+2)

Terbeco

Level: 8 (+3)
Hp: 109 (+43)
Mana: 49 (+10)
Attack: 21 (+3)
Defense: 20 (+2)
Mag. Attk.: 30 (+2)
Mag. Def.: 29 (+2)
Speed: 28 (+2)



We are greeted by a vastly different looking part of the forest.







We pick up the Sleep Spores and stash them with our other valuables.





And we meet Kikinak again.

Kikinak voiceacting 2



: What? You’re no fun. Don’t you know who I am? I can’t believe it...

Neither can I, after Poto and Garai told Levant explicitly about him.

: I’m the strongest, most handsome guy in the forest! I go by many names, such as Birdman...

Given that his competition for most handsome guy of the forest is the Poacher I would hardly call that an achievement as for the strongest well...

: After all, I am the legendary man of the Dragonfly Forest. It’s hard being so famous...

: Call me Kikinak. Of course that’s only if you can defeat me.

: Well, that’s all for introductions. Here we go!!



So we are in our endfight in the Dragonfly Forest against Kikinak. To be honest he is pathetically weak. In my first fight he died to me casting Agni twice with Agnispam and he got off a single attack. I mean being weak against fire is nice and all but that weak? I had more problems with the Poacher for crying out loud.





But since this ending is sad here are at least the other attacks of Kikinak







His first move is a jumping uppercut after which he backflips away as seen in the first picture. Next up he has an air elemental attack utilizing his beak. And lastly he jumps up and kicks your face in.

Anyway its time for a bit more dialogue after the sound trashing we gave him.



: So you’re from Syrus, huh? Hmm... Well, now I’ve met two.

: If there’s anything I can do for you, just ask me. From now on we’re friends!



Let’s ask about the thing we came here for first



: My friend Yamu from the Spider Forest gave it to me.

: The only thing you’ll find here in the Dragonfly Forest is sleep spores.

: If you want some Calabas, why not go talk to Yamu?

: Yamu and his family are very fond of rare and unusual things.

: So if you give them something valuable, just maybe... hehheh...

: But I warn you: They’re very greedy and won’t share with you so easy.

: Oh yes. You can have this too.

: Without it, you can’t go inside...



Seems we have to search another forest in order to help the village. Let’s ask Kikinak about the other person from Syrus he seems to know.



: My young friend was bragging so much...

: You don’t know who it is? His name is Kelmar. He is strong you know!!

Please someone explain to me how the Poacher and Kelmar are able to enter the forest while I had to get the key from Koris. By the way if Kelmar is friends with Kikinak why did I have to go through all this!? Given Kikinaks personality this should mean Kelmar actually wrestled him down or something. Now that’s something I wished I’d seen.

: He’s my best friend! What? You’re friends with him too? Oh, so it’s you... The Cocoon Master he was talking about...

: Well now, it’s a small world indeed. Kelmar has told me a lot about you.

: He said, “No one is stronger than me, but strength does not make a powerful man...”

: Strength alone is no match for what he has...

: Speaking of which... The Power of man is so complicated... I just don’t get it.

Anyway time to say goodbye to Kikinak.



: Don’t worry, you can have it. We’ll be able to meet anytime you use it.



The Ocarina allows us to summon Kikinak while in the Dragonfly Forest and fight him again which is good training for now.

: I’ll tell you about myself next time we meet. Well, see you later.

And with that he flies away and we finish the Dragonfly Forest.






Next time

We explore the village yet again as we prepare to tackle the Spider Forest.


Readers Participation

From this update on, till we leave for the Spider Forest, you’ll be able to vote on potential merges. If you aren’t sure if a merge works out just ask and I’ll look into that particular merge and share the results of it.