Part 7: Butterflies

...?




You're right! We should find us something to eat! A meal sounds good after all the exercise we've had. Or rather the exercise I had THANK YOU LENA.


I knew it! They were expecting us, so they made us all this food!
Man, Senia, you should have blown Dadis's place up a long time ago. Hey, you think if you blow up more places we'd get even more food?
Hmmm.
Uh, guys, we haven't established that this is for us yet.
Always gotta bring me down, huh?
But if we eat it all, I just know someone's going to be mad.
But if we don't, it'll spoil! And it looks soooo good...

The only logical thing is to eat it, really.
I love logic!



Busted!






DON'T BE PROUD OF THAT.
The name's Stella. I cook for everyone here in the dorm. You might say I'm a substitute mom!
We were hoping to live here, but...
Professor Dadis told me the whole story. Your names are Ellie, Lena, and Senia, right?
He- he remembered our names?!
You do tend to remember anyone that blows up your house. Still, you've been through quite the ordeal.


So anyway, can we have some of this food?
Sorry, but this meal is for Ant and his friends.
AAAAAANT!
What a waste! How much can they put away, anyway?
I don't know if they're trouble-makers at other times, but they're actually the best-behaved kids here.




We ARE talking about Ant, Rick, and Kule, yes? They're useless! Do you know how easy it was to kick their butts?! How are THEY the best behaved?
If you ask me, the worst thing anyone can do is to not clean their plate! And they always eat everything.
Maybe they're just pigs?
And that's a weird way to determine if someone is the "best behaved." By that logic, Lena would also be the best behaved kid in school.
Are you implying that I'm not?!
But I'm frankly disappointed with them today! They've let their food sit there to spoil. What a waste!
Truly!!
So, I don't see any problem with you girls helping yourselves!
Great!





It practically melts in my mouth!
It's like... Its covering my mouth in a symphony of flavor!
Lena, I can tell you appreciate good food! It's called "meuniere de cerasin." It's been dipped into a wine broth!

So I tried to look up "meuniere de cerasin" and got... jack shit. Google thought I was talking about "meniere's disease" and... I don't think Stella would appreciate anyone calling her food that. But "meuniere" is an actual culinary term. Although if you read that article, you'd know that meuniere is of method of preparing fish, and it doesn't involve dipping anything in wine broth. Although I suppose the sauce could include wine.

As for what "cerasin" means... well, according to Wikipedia cerasin is "is a wax derived from ozokerite by a purifying process." So, uh, probably a mistranslation, or Stella is very, VERY creative in her-

Shut up and let me enjoy this!
This is first time I've ever had food THIS good![sic]
Who- who did you just shout at? And did you forget a word-
Please, everyone, I'm having a religious experience stop ruining it.
Oh, there's no need for such praise! Do you want a second helping?
Are you mad? Let me at it!
Speaking of pigs...
Id fugen kuf u ef i wnt so bsh
Kinda need to stop eating if you want anyone to understand your death threat there.

no.





What's wrong, Senia?
The soup... It's too spicy! My mouth is on fire!
I think I caught a glimpse of the culprit!
You- you saw someone tamper with my food and didn't say anything?!
Well it didn't seem important at the time.
You bi-
Please, Senia, not in front of the cook.
Oh, Lena! What's got you all flustered?
I'm gonna catch whoever pulled this prank on Senia!
Don't get into a fight, now! I don't want to see any of my students getting into fights here!
Yeah, yeah.
Hmm, Layla is known for pulling pranks on freshmen.
Yeah well I'm gonna prank her spine.
But watch it! And remember, no fighting!
Alright already!


Right! First things first! We find whoever did this and demand an apology!

All right, next stop in our non-stop high octane ride: get an apology from a big haired bully! What does our kindly cafeteria lady have to say about this?



Stella got shit to do, damn it.


Why has it come to this?
I notice that we're sitting here philosophizing and not ripping the head off a food tampering upperclassmen.
Didn't you just tell Ms. Stella that you weren't gonna get into a fight?
Oh I don't expect it to be a fight.
Lena, I haven't seen any sort of janitor here. Either we gotta clean that up, or she will. I don't think you want either.
...


-those explosions!
Also, I think we don't need to draw any more attention to ourselves.
...I hate it when you're right.




_{ggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr}
Come on Lena. Remember. No fighting.
But her face is just so punchable!
You're the ones who destroyed Professor Dadis' laboratory, am I right?
And you're the one who pulled that prank!
You put something into Senia's soup, didn't you?
I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about.
And do you think it's okay to come into a lady's room with nothing but wild accusations? I can't stand arrogant people like you!
Huh!? Lookin' to start!?
Come on, Senia. Calm down.
Excuse me? You of all people are telling me to calm down!?
Remember if you spill blood we'll probably have to-
I don't care if I gotta clean it up with a toothbrush and my own spit! I'm gonna rip that smug smile from her face!
This is... a rather exaggerated response from ruining one plate of food.
Honestly for them this is pretty subdued.
Uh... duly noted. Let me extend the olive branch, then.
This better be good.
Listen well. I'm called Layla, and I can teach you a think or two! Have you heard this dorm's secret yet?


A- a secret?! No, this is the first I've heard of this! What is it?!
Well, listen up!
This building was constructed by a professor of magic architecture.
Seriously?


...


...


Supposedly, the butterfly can lead you to a wealth of treasure...


...
Are you kidding me?!
Too bad that Ant and his friends have a head start.
Well we can't have-
Yeah we can. Are we really looking for a magic butterfly?
Yes. Have you not been listening?
...


Do I look like I need more wealth?
I figured a few country bumpkins like you could use it more than I.
What is your problem!? Ellie, Lena, let's just go! I've got to get away from Layla before I blow a gasket!!
A mysterious butterfly, and a path full of treasures... Color me interested!
If you want to find butterflies, you should hurry along to Professor Richter's room. It's in the eastern attic.

And now, for the two best NPCs in the game.




know...

Anyway, back to butterfly chasing.

I can't believe we're doing this.
Oh whine all you want. You won't be whining once we find buttloads of treasure.
Come on. Do you really think we're gonna find a magic butt-


Oh. Well, uh... huh.


After it!




Where did it


go.


This must be the rumored maze...

So... yeah. Surprise! It's a dungeon!



And a teleporter dungeon at that!

DAMN IT.
Don't worry, I can figure this out!



Actually, it's dead easy. The teleporters only go between two locations, and it's more or less a straight line between teleporters. There's only one branch in the road for treasure. So this "maze" can't be rightly called such.

Thank goodness for that.
Yeah...



As for the enemies in here-

LEMME AT 'EM



They can't be one-shot anymore.

DAMN IT.
Still mad about Layla, huh?
"Oh look at me, I'm so rich!" "Do I look like I need the treasure?" Well I don't know that goofy hair says that you need some sort of help.
...
WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT AT THE TIME?!
It's- it's okay Senia. We all have our off days.

Fortunately, Senia's Bolt will bring most enemies pretty close to death, so guess what! Attacking is actually kind of useful, as it can often bring down enemies without using any more MP. If you wanna be sure you'll have Ellie's Flame or Flay.

...and that's about the end of anything interesting about this dungeon.



Guess there's treasure. Mostly herbs. That heal you and stuff.



Oh, no, I lied. There is one more interesting thing.

Please, it's just Ant failing. That's not interesting. It's not even funny anymore.
We all know that's a lie.
You're right. Ant failing never gets old.




Ha ha ha ha!
No.


Oh Ant you are hilarious.
Have you just not been paying attention or what?
But seriously. You're one to talk!
Besides, I thought you never wanted any help from me ever again!
Yeah... You're right! Crap! I'm gonna remember this, though!







Good times.



Anywho, sadly we're back into dungeon crawling. I only note this enemy because it's not a honeybee look at it.



Speaking of "look at it," apparently some Unknowns snuck into this game. Sadly, we don't have a bard, but fire and lightning magic will do.



There's some halfway decent treasure here. Star Lights restore MP, more than the Star Herb, and can't be bought, although you can craft them. Star Lights are actually normally your MP restoring items in Lunar games.



You couldn't begin to guess what this does.



And this casts a wind spell. I really don't know why the game with an all-mage cast and regenerating MP has attack magic items.



Looking back at the footage, this dungeon is just a little over 20 minutes long, and that includes dialogue and the boss at the end. But it feels longer, you know? There's a lot of samey corridors that I'm not going to bother to show you. Just trust that it's there, and it's boring.

Hm, but I didn't mention a boss at the end, didn't it?









And now we're fighting a giant butterfly. Because why the hell not.



This might surprise you, but this butterfly isn't a challenging fight. It only ever attacks, and that's damage we can keep up with easily.



Really, your only problem here is offense. Ellie does around 40-60 to it, but Senia's Bolt isn't made for boss killing. Still, your only problems would be if Ellie ran out of MP, or if she died. The former might happen if you didn't think to let her MP regen before the fight, maybe you though the giant butterfly was friendly, but I don't see the latter happening unless you're just randomly pressing buttons.



Somehow Senia got the killing blow. Go figure.


Hey old man, who might you be?
Oho! You may call me Richter!



I think this speaks for itself.

Hmm... This old man is the fabled architect?
I must insist that you NOT call me an old man!



Your guess is as good as fine. This place is a paradise for butterflies, I suppose.
Think the big one was guarding the smaller butterflies?
That sounds reasonable! As reasonable as anything is going to sound today.
I imagine it's the reason the old man got beat so bad.
I was wandering the maze looking for butterflies and it just came out of nowhere. I really like butterflies, and I was puzzling over whether or not the giant one was truly unique. So I paced over it, and well...
Oh! You went for too long without eating, and collapsed!
Right! That's what happened. I didn't get my ass kicked by a butterfly.
Well, let's head back.
I forgot how to get back, though!
Seriously? It's just a straight line! You couldn't get lost in here if you tri-


It does my heart good to hear that!
You built all of this!?





This has got to be the flimsiest fucking excuse for a dungeon I've ever seen in a JRPG.

The butterflies like it, and you got lost in here too! A smashing success if I do say so!
Yeah, but you passed out in here too...
This has been the dumbest day of my entire life, and there's been some competition for that title.




What's wrong?
The path. I think.
How could you take the wrong path!? You built this place yourself, right!?
Oh come on... Calm down, Senia.
_{Hey Senia they'll never find his body in here.}
Don't corrupt her Ellie!
...wow, I can't believe I was the one saying that.


Thank you for coming to help me.
You're welcome.
In return, let me give you this.



Uh... thanks?

Come back and visit any time! Take care!





Well, that was... a thing in a video game. It was certainly a portion of a video game.

Richter does exist in the remake, but he seems to show up much, much later on in the game. While there are still butterflies, the chapter is pretty different, and there's a fair bit more peril and, you know, stakes.

Next time, stakes! Sort of. A little bit. Not really.