Part 6: A Like-Minded Soul
...izzit morning already?
Long since, so wake up already! The teacher's waiting! Rrgh.
I'm up I'm up- I'm sorry, do I know you? We're in the same class. Uh... Look, no time for introductions! Just wake your friend! Uh, okay. Rrgh. You too, Lena... Come on, out of bed...
Mmmh, Ellie...? G... g'night... Zzzzz... 
Oh, by the way, my name's- Sorry, I can't wait any longer. See you! Thanks for waking me!
AND MY NAME'S EL- oh nevermind. C'mon Lena.
Whoah! Did we oversleep? Let's hurry!
Hey, is that Ant and his cronies? Hah, they got rejected by everyone else. ...and they're our classmates. ...
Fffffffffffffu- Lena, our professor's right over there.
-dge.
I'm Lena, and this is Ellie. ...remember?
Eh? What? Oh. Professor... 
Well, that's everyone, is it? Good. I have this sheet with a buncha names on it, but hell if I know what it's for. Anyway. Test time! Yer all goin' on a retrieval trip for me today!
And? What is it you want? I'm experimenting with a new type of cosmetic, but I'm out of some stuff. So, you need us to find you some ingredients? So we're just running errands for you? Aren't you gonna teach us something? I'm teaching you how to get stuff for me. This is worth 15% of your final grade so you'd better listen.
Go to school they said. Learn magic they said... ...fine. Where should we start looking?
Where should you? Don't look at me, I forg... oh! That's right! The cave! ...
... Is- is he referring to THAT cave? There's a cave nearby with a storage room in it. NOW I remember. W-why would there be a storage room in a cave? Especially THAT cave. Hell if I know! Can't even remember when I found it! But I did, and it was JUST the right size! I don't suppose you know where in that cave... Yeah, well... no. Don't tell me. You forgot? I guess it's also pointless to ask if he put in the creepy masks... Sorry, sorry. It's been a while. Or has it? Dude, what is with this guy?
Sorry, busy busy! Too busy to go anywhere. 'sides, it's YOUR test! Make of it what you will. I'm never going to learn how to cause earthquakes. Once you find all of the ingredients, I'll show you how to make rouge. Sweeeeeet! C'mon, Ellie! Let's go for it! Seriously. What? Good rouge is pretty expensi- SERIOUSLY. This is a group assignment, by the way! Groups of three. Join up, you lot! Hop hop! Hm. There's Ant and his two buddies, and you and the new girl. I think the groups are pretty obvious. I dunno, you think the green haired boy will switch spots with me? 
Sure, why not? By the way, I'm E- I'm Lena, and this is Ellie. Please to meet you! ... I'm Senia. It's a pleasure!
Errr... Ingredients, Professor Dadis? Right, right. A Brass Stone, Pale Water, and Saffron. That's what I need. Are you sure, Professor? The cave entrance is in the back of my storehouse. Go on, shoo! Hop to it! My soaps aren't gonna watch themselves!
Leave it to us!
Oh, they're always like that. They're just big blowhards. Don't let it get to you. They're super annoying though. We should smack 'em upside the head!
I think we're gonna be friends, Senia.And with little fanfare, we get a third party member! In Magic School, Senia joins you right after you arrive at Iyen. Oh, while none of the characters have mentioned this, Senia is a beastmen, a animal/human race you see in all the Lunar games.
And she's level one. While getting a level one beast girl a few chapters in the game may conjure up some... unpleasant memories, don't worry. For one, there will be no heavy handed drama about Fantasy Racism (c), and for another her stats at level one are comparable to Lena and Ellie's. She starts with Bolt, one of the first spells we get that hits all enemies, but it's only 4 MP, so she can actually use it.
Now you might be tempted to immediately go into Dadis's spooky mask cave, but this is the wrong thing to do.
Right! I will teach you a very useful magic spell. You'll be able to cast this even if you're tone-deaf!
Oh, neat! What didja teach us?! Fireballs? Explosions?! I taught you some techniques confuse and bewilder wild monsters. ...AKA, useless status spells. Pretty much.Since there's some actual gameplay coming up, now we can finally get new spells. Yes, on chapter four, we can actually learn spells in a game about learning spells. As I mentioned, you do not automatically gain spells by leveling. Instead, you have to talk to the teachers, and they'll teach them to you. What spells they teach you are determined by a) who they are, b) what level you're at and c) where you are in the game. So you can't grind early on and get spells early, although I don't know why you'd want to. Magic School works much the same way, although I don't think that game cares about levels.
Now I do get why this is in the game; you'd wonder why the hell Ellie and Lena are bothering with this stupid school if they're learning more slaughtering wildlife. (In Lunar 1 you're kind of forced to ask the same question.) On the other hand, if you're beginning to guess that this is really tedious, you're right! In practice all this does is force you to run around at the start of every new chapter talking to all the faculty hoping you get something new.
Oh! And Dadis. Will never teach us a damn thing.
Not all the faculty will teach you spells, but many do. Including teachers that rejected you. Go figure. Flame is just a straight upgrade to Flay, with a four MP cost increase, and she's been needing it.
Lena also gets a much-needed upgrade to her initial spell.
What are you doing in this game Teddie? Get out of here.
I did too! We didn't see you in class today. Pft, like I'm actually going to go to his class. I'll just tell him I go. And that I'm getting straight A's. Sadly, I can't really fault your method there.
Speaking of which, couldn't we just tell Dadis we got his stuff? Then he would want to see the stuff that we don't have. He won't even remember that he sent us! Okay, let me put it this way. Do you want Ant to beat us? ...I feel like I should be telling you to let it go, but...
We can do this Ellie. We can do this. I really don't want to though. Come on girl! I don't want to do this either, but we gotta do it! We're gonna beat Ant and his cronies so hard that we'll own his descendants! ... Okay. Okay, I'm ready! ...what is with you two? Why are you guys so afraid of a cave anyway-
Oh.
And weird and creepy, but that goes without saying. No kidding! We'd better find the stuff Dadis wants quickly. We're liable to catch our deaths in here! You can say that again.
Okay, the masks are weird, I'll give ya that, but you guys are way too wound up about-
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
Guys, I got this under control. Oh, ha, yes, how silly of me. You got them all in one shot! Impressive. I'd say! I think I found my new best friend. ...So yeah, this dungeon is pretty much just Senia decimating everything we see with Bolt. Once she runs out of MP you can have Ellie take over for a bit while Senia defends her MP back. Or, ya know, hold down fast forward for a few seconds and go back to destroying all the poor fools that dare cross our path.
In other words, the game remains piss easy.
And there are enemies other than masks here, by the way. Not that it matters; everything dies to our great lightning goddess overlord, and nothing does status effects or anything. But just so you know.
I did attempt to use Lena and Senia's status spells, just for funzies. Tempt is 8 MP and stops all enemies, Charm is 2 MP and confuses an enemy, and Senia's Dazzle is 5 MP and decreases all enemies' accuracy... I think. The game doesn't have hint text for spells, and Lunar-net doesn't know what this spell does either. So. In any case, those spells missed 99% of the time, and when they did hit, I couldn't tell what they did.
Then again, enemies don't do a lot of damage, and Senia can just kill everything in a turn, so who cares?
This wasn't here when we came here earlier. Well, whatever was in there, Ant must have gotten to it first. He's beating us! I... was more concerned about what put this here, but okay.
Wow, this door's gigantic! Also a face. That's kind of weird. Come on, everyone! Let's give it a good shove, all together! Phew... No good. Any ideas, Senia? If you ask me... Huh? Did anyone else just feel a breeze? I thought it was just me! Let's check around.
That sounded like our teacher, didn't it? He must have made it. ... ... ...WHY?! To test us, I imagine. That just raises more questions! Why are you so worked up about this? WHY AM I THE ONLY- Shush, the door is speaking!
Oh crap it's a test! Hope you've been paying attention!
I- I guess this would be hard if you were playing this in a language you didn't understand.
You may pass.
I am not not, Ms. Extraneous Comma. (Well at least this translation has some similarities with Working Designs.)
You what? This about it! Dadis probably expects us to forget just as much as he does. Wow, no kidding! I'd... forgotten! My life is so stupid.Right past the now departed face door is the stairs leading down.
Hey, there's an unopened treasure chest there! Maybe things are looking up! Uh... if you say so...
Oh hey look it's our favorite failure.
Might as well try to move a mountain. Come on, let's go. Let's get you up. Might as well give 'em a sporting chance.
Ant? Hey, wait up!
It is! It's one of the ingredients! Idiots. They must have dropped it. Just think of it as a thank-you present. Ah bless those morons.
Just a little down and to the left there's the second ingredient. So we're almost done! Yeah, quests remain pretty damn short.
Another door. Another question, I suppose? I wouldn't be surprised. You've come quite far, but if you want to go any further... You'll answer my question!
You know, this would be so much harder if this wasn't multiple choice. Ssh! Don't let him know that! It's a door! It can't know anything! Well, it can speak, so maybe it can- ARGH! It's makeup. Can we move on?
One more left! Off you go!
At least we don't have to worry about failing, right? Let's keep moving.
Oh yeah and there's non-plot related treasure here.
Moving right along to the next floor, suddenly everything shakes!
It felt like one! Senia, maybe you should go easy on that magic of yours while we're down here! Hey, don't look at me like that! I didn't do it! Besides, what do you want me to do with all the enemies down here? Not destroy them all with a single spell? No! Just... more carefully. ... Or, ya know, I can defeat them instead...
Oh hey, one of those fancy alchemy-only items! I'll probably forget about it until my inventory is all filled up, and I'm forced to use it just to make space. Yeah, inventory space is quite limited, but it doesn't really matter all that much.
We meet again, door! ... Hey, just let me have my fun, okay? Could one of the ingredients be inside? I'd take that bet. Let's go and look. All right, let's get this over with then-
Wait what? Oh. Guess we don't have to answer a question here. Cool. I- wait, why- why would you not have the final part of the test- Ellie. Forget it. It's Dadis. ...right.
And we're done. That was easy.
Well, this is the last one. Let's head back to Professor Dadis's.
But of course it can't be that easy, can it?
M-monsters! Is it because we took their treasure? WHY WOULD DADIS PUT- Dadis. Right. Answered my own question. What should we do!?
Senia, did you forget a word there- JUST SHUT UP AND FIGHT!Well I guess we're not getting out of this chapter without a boss fight! What terrible foe will we face?!
Regular monsters.
It ends predictably.
Oh no, not more disposable cannon fodder!
Argh, more of them! Lemme at 'em! Come on, I can kill like 50 of these without breaking a sweat! Not quite what I'm worried about. This place is starting to fall apart! It's us or them! They won't let us leave!
Hi.
Bye.
Argh! This is ridiculous!!
Don't look at me! All of the sudden there were these explosions, and I... You could have killed us! For crying out loud, be careful! At least there are no monsters... You could have killed us! You said that already! IT BEARS REPEATING. But I didn't do anything! I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, if I were you! Don't even say it!Suddenly, the cave shakes again!
It's still shaking! The roof's caving in! It's Senia's fault, wasn't it? What are we going to do!? What!? Those monsters would have eaten you alive if it weren't for me!
You know, I really shouldn't make fun of the fan translation for typos. I of all people shouldn't complain that others aren't proof-reading carefully enough.
Y- you're right. We'll talk about this later! We need to run! Right!
There wasn't the budget for an explosion, so we just see the girls walk out of the ruined shack.
Is that all you've got to say!? How are you going to explain this to the professor!? W-well... Wait, why do I have to-
Ah, Professor.
What what what? ...... ... and you are? Lena, Ellie, and Senia.
...oh. Huh? I was wondering what all the racket was. All that shaking has upset the delicate balance of my work! All of my experiments have been completely destroyed. My precious makeup... It's all... All... AAAAAAARGH!
What? No! Oh, is that so? Well then Senia, come over here. Er, er... But...
Huh, I didn't realize that Dadis was psychic. Wow. Lena, you are a piece of work.
Aren't I a scamp? Massive bitch is more like it. ...man I miss fun Ellie.
And with that epic display of selling out your friend, we close out chapter 4. Yep, another short one!
Senia actually shows up a lot earlier in Magic School, pretty much right at the beginning. And she still blows up Dadis's stuff, or at least, Lena blames her for it.
Next time something... well it's something. That's all I can say about it.