Part 96: 12/11/09 - 12/13/09: Harabah The Drought (Part Three)
We're super close to our exams, again, now. Just a couple of days before we're there.
Changing Seasons (Reincarnation) / Sun
Open your textbooks for today's lesson on... incorrect use of the plural form. These can trip up a lot of people. "-s," "-es," and "-ies" are the most common forms. Got it? However, there are some irregular plural forms too. You seem confused, Junpei. Do you know which of the following is correct?
(...Huh? Me? Ugh... I wasn't listening at all...) (Did you hear what she said, Makoto? Do you know the answer?)
Pretty obvious what the right answer is. Dangit Junpei.
(Cacti.) Oh, so you were listening. You've got a funny way of showing it, though. F-Funny way... Yeah, I guess so. (...Thanks, Makoto.)With nothing else to do today, we'll just head on over to our current best friend...
Sadly, his rank 9 event on its own doesn't quite give enough for this to be the final event just yet. Guess I know what we're doing tomorrow then!
Iwatodai Dorm
I know it will be difficult to study for them, but... If you run away now, you'll just be giving up on life. Oh, and please let me know when you'll be going to Tartarus.
Yeah, let me know too. I need to get some exercise... ...so I'll explore with you. I'm not leaving the ring without a win.
Knowing what's going to happen... It's almost too much to bear...
And then, everything finally made sense. Ikutsuki-san made us fight the 12 Shadows in hopes that The Appriser would return... And by doing so, he managed to fuse Ryoji-kun, who was inside you, with the 12 Shadows. And that's when Ryoji-kun appeared to us as The Appriser, in a completed form.Thanks for the (minor) plot recap there, Fuuka.
Well, we sure haven't cracked open a textbook outside of class for months, so...
Nope.
Me neither. It's a little late to start studying, but let's try to do our best.
How can we act normally, knowing what we know...?
Have you? Not at all. That's why we're buddies, man! Let's fail together!I really think you're misunderstanding here...
So, that's exactly what Junpei's doing by not studying for the exams. But, you should do okay on the exams, right? Of course. Good, keep up the good work. What about you? Oh, I'm good to go. I've been studying every day.
Newscaster: The town's department stores have calculated their estimated profits for the holiday season... Though they were hoping for revenues of 110% to 120%... The lack of shoppers due to Apathy Syndrome may mean those expectations will be missed...
Oh yeah, it's December which means normal people are preparing for Christmas. We're a little too busy to worry about that, though.
The Voice Someone Calls
Which includes today. We've got Harabah to finish before the end of the month, so we'll give that a start here with this party composition...
Time Castle 
So, Fuuka's completely right here. Unlike every other block with two segments, Harabah doesn't have an interstitial barrier and kicks off its second half immediately after the Phantom King.
And, keeping with tradition, Fuuka finally finds the next boss on floor 197. Thanks, helpful.
There's not too many new Shadows right now, so we'll just blst through 'em as quickly as we can.
Mass Destruction / Wiping All Out
As you'd expect, Ruinous Idols turn up here normally now since they're level 63. They're in different compositions to before but that's all.
As for new stuff, we have... a table. It doesn't look angry to me! Weak to Slash but can cast Tetrakarn is something, I guess, and Tentarafoo is to try and get around that Wind weakness but they have absurdly low HP and we can one-shot them with basically everything we have at this point.
Desirous Maya is the most boring thing here, really. Weak to Fire and has no other elemental resistances? No real offensive skills? Spirit Drain is potentially annoying but its a fixed 20SP so its kinda no big deal and also it requires them to not get got immediately.
Fate Seeker is probably the most annoying thing to deal with, purely because of those 4 nulls and that one repel. Its still not dangerous, mind, and being weak to Expel means we can instantly win with Samsara if we really wanted to.
Curse Dice resisting all Phys and having Infuriate is almost clever. Almost. If they were immune to Phys that'd be a bit of a real issue to deal with. Another Wind weakness, though, so it doesn't really matter either way.
Pistil Mother is the last and Diarahan is such a non-issue that I don't even know why its there. That she repels both Ice and Wind is a minor annoyance if she turns up with something that is weak to either/both but that's all that really does.
...Oh thank God, I was thinking that the Red Shadow here wasn't gonna turn up this time. Nice of it to wait until floor 200 to appear at all.
It's two Daring Gigas that are so little a threat, anything that has a Strike resistance in some way can no sell them. Their a bit tanky because, y'know, level 70 but that just means they survive a (Ma)Garudyne and drop to the AOA instead.
Since they're level 70, they give pretty good EXP especially with an 8 of Wands boosting it. Elizabeth wants 3 Rainbow Hairs, so its pretty nice that we got 2 at once right off the bat.
Time Castle
A few things to get through before we're done with the ascent here, though. Don't remember if we've seen regular item Beads hanging out here yet, but they're available as the requisite healing item which is super nice.
Floor 196 is the requisite Equipment floor for this stretch and though it only spawned one item this time, it was a new one for Aigis whenever she gets back.
...More important than either of those, though, is the battle spoils we can snag here. Siegfried learned Arms Master which is the physical equivalent to Spell Master. Getting rid of Raging Tiger for that, for sure.
His last skill is 2hSword Master which so doesn't matter.
Fuuka hit level 62 which gives her Escape Route. I've got like 8 Traesto Gems that I was never gonna use. This is a nice get if you really need it, but I'll probably forget about it though.
Finally, Jatayu learned Magarudyne at level 60 which was his last skill so we get his Heart Item now and this is a good one!
It's an accessory, like most of them are, but we're gonna be giving this one to Junpei for almost everything we do at this point.
It removes his pesky Wind weakness! Nice that this one was always around and pretty easy to get, but Fire, Elec and Expel are the three so far that are pretty obnoxious to get.
Three Shadows on the 201st floor this time, of course. Well, lets go give Liz these hairs...
Blues of the Soul
But first, we cleared level 61 pretty handily so we'll take a brief moment to make a Lilith (Cross Fusion of Lilim, Vetala, Incubus and Succubus). She learns Megidola at level 62 and she immediately wanted to skill change it; the Megido spells suck so I let it happen and hey early Megidolaon! That's neat but not really great.
Although it does mean her skillset is pretty okay all things considered. Three fun ailments, 3 MT skills, Elec Break as a weird utility and Makarakarn is going to be Important later.
I bet you're wondering what I plan to use it for... ...Well, that's a secret. Please accept your reward.
Omega Drive's aren't too bad. They increase your Crit rate, which is always nice to have. Problem is they're competing with Amps/immunities (or better!) for the Accessory slot so its never gonna win.
She is much stronger than she appears... I'm impressed you can control her. Well done. You've fulfilled my request. Please accept your reward.
Sacrificial Idol is a potentially good accessory as well! If you have it equipped and you get murked, then its an instant revival with full HP.
It also sells for over 210k which could be pretty nice on its own, too.
Next fusion request is just a Loki at level 63, huh? Since he's level 58 by default, this will auto-solve itself when we get Fool 10, but it'd be quicker to just do it normally since rank 9 puts him at level 62 and about halfway to 63 for good measure.
But we'll worry about that later. For now, how about an easy, easy boss fight? Just gonna give Makoto and Mitsuru these Narcissus Flowers in lieu of their normal accessories for this. Just in case.
Lovers Royal Dancer x3 (Portable)in a rarity the portable video is longer because i take it way less seriously so i do something different and technically more fun
Master of Tartarus / Danger Zone
Nah, its really not. That's still a recurring thing as of late, unfortunately.
So, the Royal Dancers are mostly ailment users which is almost cute. Tentarafoo is a mite annoying, but it only prevents active skills for 2 turns so whatever.
Sexy Dance is infinitely more annoying, because its Charm of course. They have single-target equivalents as well, just in case. They don't have any ailment Boost and they also don't have Ailment Boost so its not too big a deal. Luck IS their highest stat, but its 44.
Primal Force is their most dangerous skill, damage-wise, since its single target Pierce. It has a base power of 600, 95% accuracy and a 5% crit rate.
Unfortunately for them, Siegfried exists and Vorpal Blade is more than enough to destroy all 3 with Power Charge. Since there's 3 of 'em, everyone else focuses on using MT skills where possible and wouldn't you know it? Doing more than 300 damage before Vorpal Blade goes off is absurdly easy.
What doesn't help them is that the Royal Dancers only have 1500 HP, no elemental resistances/weaknesses (aside from Expel/Curse as per usual), and they only have 34 Endurance and 30 Agility. They're even only level 61, which is really weird.
Oh and they're susceptible to a few ailments, of course. Ironically enough, this just so happens to include Charm! Just in case you were thinking of taking this fight even remotely seriously, for some reason, you can do it to them before they can do it to you.
End
Fixed item by the stairs this time is a Precious Egg which is still very nice. Cool Breeze (and better) only affects Makoto, so they'll never be completely useless.
We'll see what's further on up later. Ideally Aigis'll be back by then.
Changing Seasons (Reincarnation) / Sun
645: The Taika Reform. 710: The Heijo-Kyo was established. 794: The Heian-Kyo was established... I'm going to skip forward a few hundred years. 1185: Battle of Dan-no-ura. 1192: The Kamakura shogunate is established. Ooh, we're getting close to the age of the samurai!It's definitely unusual, but I think in this just sitting through the lecture is quicker than taking a cheeky nap. Might be the first time that's potentially the case, even.
But today IS the last school day before exams, so we managed to hopefully finish Mamoru's link just in time. That he has his generic message here is a bit worrying, though.
Joy
Oh, are you moving soon?
You figured it out! Yeah, I'm leaving right after this.
The factory is way out west, so I'm going to move into a dorm there. My mother started crying, and she kinda blamed herself... But I want to support them.
It won't be easy to leave this ramen, though. ...Best in town. Hey, I gotta go. ...Well, this is goodbye.> You decided to see Mamoru off.
It's my father's key. I've been keeping it for good luck. Sometimes I get pretty pissed... that he's not around anymore. My life wouldn't have had to be so complicated, y'know? I could've enjoyed the Kendo Team more... Could have been a normal kid.
I want you to keep this. I don't want to risk coming to rely on it again. As long as you have the key, I'll be able to stand on my own feet. So, next time we meet, I can still be proud of myself.
...... Thanks, Makoto.> Mamoru appreciated your friendship.
> You gained a lifelong friend.
The Path Is Open
Joy
We unlocked Helel before, but he's Very Important here. We do need him to complete one of Elizabeth's request chains, after all. He's level 88 though, so we won't be seeing him any time soon.
But, yeah, that sure is how Mamoru's link ends. It spent so long going in tiny, tiny circles, doing nothing and then it just kinda stops. It's not really an ending, even.
So long Mamoru, you will not be missed.
Iwatodai Dorm
Newscaster: The party chairman had no choice but to retract his statement. At this rate, there will likely be a debate over which party is in the wrong...
There's definitely not much else to do today, since folks are understandably stuck dealing with exams and also I guess still mentally processing Ryoji.
So, we'll just skip straight to Sunday then.
Tanaka's selling an Omega Drive today, which is almost nice. It's for just under 90,000 though so I'd pass on it if I were you. I'm not gonna be using it, because we have other, better things to use still.
Today, we've got the girls, Ken and Koromaru all hanging out on the second floor.
Would you like to join us?
No no no no, Senpai! Women only! Hey, what about me and Korormaru...?
It's okay, boys and dogs don't count. Hmph. I'm not a little kid, you know...
*pant* *pant* Sorry, you heard her. The decision has been made.
I can't say it was merely a coincidence... I've never laughed with you all like this before... I just stopped by, that's all.
We're glad you came... Right, Fuuka? Of course. Please come more often. Well... M-Maybe I will... ...Well, if you ask me, girl talk doesn't make any sense at all.
In fact, I'll be nervous if I don't.
Wow, Fuuka-san... You really are a dedicated student. I know what you mean... as much as I hate to admit it. That's fine. It's probably for the best. In fact, getting back into your routine might help you think more clearly.
Are you trying to spoil our fun? Can't we just relax for a while? Right. It won't make much difference at this point. W-Wait a minute... Are you saying it's hopeless? That's not very nice, Senpai.
> For some reason, he looks like he's smiling.
When The Moon's Reaching Out Stars (Reincarnation) / Way of Life -Deep Inside My Mind-
Today IS a Sunday, so normally we'd be spending it with Akinari. Unfortuantely, we're not doing that again albeit for a different reason than before. We need to use the Oracle to give a boost to Yukari so we can finish her link pretty soon. There's just not really enough time at this point if we don't do this.
Sorry Akinari.
Iwatodai Dorm
Ha! This is the first time an exam's taken my mind off of something else. Usually it's the other way around!Yeah, unfortunately, the next week is mostly lost because of exams. It'll be fine, though, I'm sure.
Oh, see, here I thought Featherman R was ending but right. I guess its around the 50 episode mark, then. That's cool; we should be able to catch it one of these days!
But, yeah, like we keep getting reminded of over and over again, we've got exams starting tomorrow. That's fine. What we do afterwards is a bit more important and we normally celebrate with Tartarus stuff, but we can hold off on that for now.