Part 10: The Spider Forest (Part 1)

Welcome back after an extended period of downtime for which I’m truly sorry. I should be back to at least a weekly update schedule perhaps a bit more now that I no longer have to wait for votes.

Let’s recap. We learned from Kikinak that the Calabas is in the hands of Yamu in the Spider Forest who really is Mammon the Divine Spirit of Greed. Today we’ll see if his words were the truth by entering the Spider Forest.

Here are the minions that accompany us on our way




First off is Rigfrayd. He is the combination of Riggu and Terfrayd. As such he has high physical attack power and defense. His grows are skewered towards physical attack. He brings with him to the table Fang: Earth Attack and the Foot: All enemies.



Next up is Masalco. He is a mix between Maskhira and Hiralco. Therefore he has a strong magic grow and decent speed. He also has all air spells currently available namely Malti, Maltis and Ad Slahm.



Lastly there is Arhamae. He is currently a middle of the line merge with access to both all water spells (Vahli, Vahlis, Medina) and a Water Attack.

Well then let’s get going to the forest.











Here you see the first minion spawn of the forest. You can find both Rugdogle (a middle of the line Earth minion) and Radgore the water version of Rugdogle here. They are basically the non unique versions of Arpatron. They have Vahlis/Ulvis and a Water/Earth Attack attached to Horn/Tail.

We head down the right path first.





We advance down the path to the left.









Meet Yami one of the Forest people inhabiting the Spider Forest.

: Me hungry, hungry! Me want Kickleberry! Gimme, gimme!

We hand over the Kickleberry we found in the beginning of the Dragonfly Forest.





Let’s ask about the Calabas herb first

: Ca-la-bas? Dunno! What that? Yummy yummy?

That wasn’t particulary helpful. Let’s see what she knows about Yamu.

: Yamu? Yamu! Big Brother! Me Yami!

: Gimme, gimme, yummy-yummy-yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy... Eh... Hehe...

Yep clearly a relative of the divine Spirit of Greed. Anyway we have nothing left to ask her so we say goodbye.





After picking up another game hint we head back to the last split in the road and advance north this time around.



We find ourselves in another deadend with a locked chest and a spawnpoint for the Rugdogle/Radgore pair.

We’ll go back to the first fork in the forest at the first Radgore/Rugdogle spawn point and go to the left to advance further into the forest.



We arrive at yet another fork in the road as well as at a spawnpoint for some other minions in the forest. Here you tend to find the Radmole/Radoimel pair, minions that are focused on physical attacks and posess the annoying Flesh to Stone move on different body parts. If they hit with Flesh to Stone you have three rounds left before your minions turn to stone (obviously). If you are unlucky and they use it in the beginning while you dont have an effective minion against them it can be a real hassle. Luckily the condition heals after a fight and doesn’t progress if you switch out the afflicted minion. Naturally every boss is immune against it.

Anyways we head to the left.





Who would have guessed? There is another fork in the road. This time there is no real choice though as the top path is closed off by a barrier one screen ahead so we move down to the left.





We’ll find a familiar face two screen ahead. Let’s see if we can kick his ass again.



: Hey, kid... Got some firefly cocoons? Hand’em over now and there won’t be any trouble.

: What? You wanna fight? Fine with me! Come on!



And we’re back at fighting a poacher again. This fight is optional as opposed to the fight in the Dragonfly Forest.It’s still not that hard though. I think it’s even a different poacher than the one we fought in the Dragonfly Forest as he doesn’t remember us.



He still uses the same family of minions (e.g. the goat minions) and they are still pretty strong. It is also favored by me not bringing a counter minion to the forest yet again. Other than that the fight doesn’t have any spectactular things happening so we can skip right to the inevitable end.



The poacher groveling in the dirt before our minions.



Thus we acquire the key for the chest we found before. The Walnut is an added bonus.





Anyway before advancing we’ll head back to the treasure chest and open it.



The seals are attack items for Levant (air elemental) and the Choker boots his Magic Attack and Magic Defense.

Back at the place where we fought the poacher we continue our track through the forest by advancing to the east.



Ikari powder heals petrification.



Another fork another time we head further east.



We picke up the Divine Tablet, another key item, in this deadend. Here is also a spawn for the Doglchu/Patakuga (Water/Fire respectively) minons who have a slight bias towards physical attacking while otherwise being balanced. Unfortunately for the unlucky they both bring the Critical skill with them. This skill may ruin your accuracy but for this tradeoff it reduces the HP to 1 in case it hits. I think I don’t have to mention how annoying it can be if it hits you.
It’s an amazing skill for catching minions though if you are lucky enough for it to hit constantly. For normal battles however you tend to kill most things with two effective attacks anyway and I doubt it works on bosses or better said I doubt you want to rely on luck against them.

With the divine tablet in the bag we head all the way back to the second fork on the left path to finish that areal before finishing the forest by completing the areal we’re in now.





As you can see the White Horn isn’t really worth it compared to the store bought Little Bird since speed tends to overshadow the other stats when it comes to Levant. Anyway we move further to the north-west.





In the transition is another spawn point for the Radmole/Radoimel pair. We also pick up the Skeleton Key lying in our path.







Meet the second member of the Forest People: Kakayamu.





Here is the reason I went down the ultimately last path first to get the Divine tablet. So I could finish her request as well. Granted the only thing you get out of it is some world building and dialogue options as is the case with all but one of the Forest People who will advance the plot.





We can ask her about the Calabas herb as well as about Yamu. Hopefully she has more information to give than the little brat. Let’s start asking about the Calabas.

: Calabas? What is that?

Sigh no luck here. Maybe she can shed some light about Yamu.

: Yamu? He is my child.

: What do you want with my boy? He is out hunting with his father. Have you seen him? I don’t know where he is.

Well once again we get no important informations. Let’s say goodbye.

: This is no place for humans... Elrihm won’t like it! Away with you!

So after this we head back to the other part of the forest where we found the divine tablet but instead of taking the straight path (which lead to the divine tablet) we’ll head south this time.



Another crossroad. Here is also the spawn of the last 2 minions you can catch in this forest at least for this part. Tergrip and Doghambu are physical+defense minions. Both come with an elemental attack and Dohhambu comes with Sel Selahm which prevents status effects 3 times.

We’ll head down south first of all.



With this we’ll be able to head over to the very beginning of the forest. Not particulary helpful at this moment but it’s an option.

We go back up a screen and head to the east.





Here is another spawnpoint for the Tergrip/Doghambu pair.





The Minion Fang is another item we need for one of the forest people. Let’s go and deliver it so we can get some more backstory.

Therefore we head back a screen and go to the west.







We can scold him for his greed which just results in him running away because you smack him on the head.

So we give in to his greed and hand over the Minion Fang.



: Hmm? Sniff, sniff... What’s this? Sniff, sniff... Oh never mind.



Let’s ask about the Calabas first in hope of getting some answers.

: Calabas? That’s Totoyamus’s special herb!

: Calabas secret. It’s me and Totoyamu’s secret! Secrets are important!

: You are flute-man. Man never keep secret. So Calabas even more secret!

Seems we’ll have to ask Totoyamu to get our hands on the Calabas to save the village. Anyhow let’s ask him about his friend Kikinak.

: I let Kikinak have Calabas. So no Calabas, no Calabas!

: Totoyamu my dad. Totoyamu guard Calabas.

: Totoyamu greedy. But Totoyamu got weakness for shiny-shiny. You talk to him.

With that we leave him and head down east of the crossroads to a western path leading to Totoyamu.



Totoyamu voiceacting



: This place n-not for man. Away away—away with you!

: What’s that there? Oh my, a nice ring you have there...

: How’bout g-giving it to me? If you do, I will stay and listen.



We don’t have a choice if we want to advance the plot so we hand over the ring we got from Mahbu.

: Oh how beautiful! Yes? What do you want?



Let’s start out with asking about the Calabas once again.



: You don’t say! The Onibubu come to your village? How terrible! The Locusts of Apocalypse!

: Well, here’s some Calabas for the ring.

: But it won’t be enough... I know a place where there is a lot.

: What? I’ll not tell you for free! Bring me more treasure. Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh...

: Only then shall I tell you where the Calabas lies. Heh, heh, heh, heh...

: talk it over with y-your elders.

Totoyamu
Can’t I just punch him till he tells me where he got the Calabas?





: Oh yes, that’s right! I am the watchman of the D-D-Divine Tree.

: I guard against tricks from you humans. I was so ordered by Elrihm.

: Aah! How much longer must I live like this!

: I have been doing this without end for hundreds of years, and it’s only trees, trees, trees as far as the eye can see...

: I so long for treasure... Blast that Elrihm... Oh how arrogant he is!





: Oh, I am getting it. You have heard of Calabas from Kikinak, right?

: Ahhh! I have told him a thousand times... I am really going to have to do something about that Yamu.

: It’s Kikinaks fault that the forest has come to this! That p-p-pervert! Because of him we were dragged into this fine mess!











: I expected as much... So they will tell you in exchange for treasure...

: Nevertheless... I do not expect Jibara to consent to such terms...

: I will speak with the chieftain himself.

: There is no time to waste... We need a decision now. We should go straight to the Hall of Judgement.





: And he really will tell you if you present him with a treasure?

: If Garai is correct when she says that that demon is the keeper of the forest, then I have a plan.

I don’t like the sound of that.



: I suspect that the demon of which we speak is the guardian of the Divine Tree, an incarnation of the Forest God.

: The Calabas must lie at the base of the Divine Tree, the source of all life.

: Simply retrieving Calabas will be but a temporary solution for troubles like the recent attack.

: It would be wise to find the Divine Tree and then imprison it together with the God of the Forest

say what? You want to imprison the aspect of a god no doubt seriously pissing him off? That doesn’t sound wise at all...



: But, Jibara... I wonder about imprisoning the Divine Tree...

Wise Man.

: Would we be forgiven for such sacrilege?

: Would that not bring about a second coming of the Tragedy of Gehena Pale?



: What is done cannot be undone...

: It is only a matter of time until the Land of Parel is swallowed up by the forest...

: Therefore we should put an end to our bloody traditions!

: All that we do is for the future of the people of Syrus... No, all the people of Parel!

: Lord Chieftain, now is the time for a decision!



: My ancestors, the Shamans of Gehena Pale, imprisoned the forest and divided it into four.

Look what it has brought onto them. Complete ruin and destruction. Why won’t you learn?

: It follows that the imprisonment of a god is indeed possible

It follows that the idea is rapidly approaching the top spot on dumbest plans ever.

: The knowledge of Man opposes the powers of God, and thus, the powers of nature.

: This is not sacrilege. In fact, it is the basic law of nature: only the strong survive.

God > creation. Just sayin’

: We have long waited for this day, to truly serve Syrus.

: We must find the Divine Tree, and evoke the powers of the Talisman of Imprisonment.



: We have to thwart the menace of the demons if we are to live with the forest.

: Such sacrilege... This too may be the nature of the beasts of knowledge... We must take action.

: Son of the Lion of Parel... Our fate is already in your hands...



So Grotta hands us another treasure for Totoyamu: His Parel Wrestling Championship belt



We also get the Talisman of Imprisonment.


Next Time

We proceed with the stupidest plan in history but not before checking on our favourite villagers again.