Part 22: Unnecessary Powers

Since we can't actually do anything with the Rare Ring, we might as well just get rid of it. You can keep it the entire game, but it does nothing.



: Here's the ring.
Karen: Thank you for everything. You've helped me keep my promise. Now, Mary can have a brand new life. You're going to save the Prince, right? Whatever you do, never give up no matter how bad things may seem.
: Thanks for the advice!

I guess that's a reward? Anyway, let's go get something worthwhile even though it took forever to get. Yep, after getting one Heartstone Cornet's mailbox updates for the last time.



: Hi!
?: ...
: Hello!
?: ...
: H-e-l-l-o!
?: ...
: That's weird. Why doesn't it say something? Maybe you should play your horn?



: What was that about?

Doesn't matter, we have KnightSpawn.



...Wow, he's pretty underwhelming to say it took the entire goddamn game, near enough, to get him and he's easy as hell to miss... right? That's what I thought too at first. He's, easily, the lowest levelled member of the party at this point, he has an awful elemental alignment and his stats are pretty mediocre. Or, so you'd think. Turns out that KnightSpawn is, far and away, THE best character in the game bar none. You just have to grind him for a long, long, long time. By the time he's reached his full potential if you even need him you're likely doing something wrong.



Once you've got the letter from Polin you can cross through here whenever. It leads to three different areas but only one is available right away, and that one is where the Firestone is waiting.



There's a few screens of basically filler but this is the only thing worth noting in the entire area. To say it's been taunting you the entire game, near enough, this place too is pretty underwhelming.



The fight is easy enough; the FireHawk's are regular enemies from the upcoming dungeon and are, unsurprisingly, Fire elemental. The actual dragon in question is non-elemental and a complete joke. This is basically just a mini-boss fight, and it's about as hard as a random encounter in the next area. Actually, now that I think about it, it's probably easier.



Gwanji: My name is Gailyasucolinyu. But, people call me Gwanji for short. If you're ever in RedHot, make sure you come visit me!



Y'know, I've never actually found Gwanji here though I haven't spoken to that many people because this entire area is rather disappointing. The store carries the same stuff that Orange Village does to boot!



Though there is this, which is the closest thing to a cross-game reference. The other sign says "DOOD...".



Now we know where to go, I guess, let's go to the generic volcano level!




On the one hand, this makes retroactive sense since Gau was at the pirate ship. On the other hand, they both would have made much more sense the other way around.

: You... You're... Marjoly's...
: That's correct. I am Crowdia, they call me the beautiful soldier of the rose... You may just call me what you like, just don't forget the beautiful part.
: What a freak...
: Who would've thought a little girl like you would attempt to save the Prince by herself. Oh, you... are so valiant!!
: Huh!? Thanks...I guess.
: Ha ha ha ha ha...



After the actually unique and (relatively) interesting design of the previous dungeon you didn't expect them all to be like that, right? The volcano is just as generic in design as it is in concept; only, unlike the other caves, this one is red!



The Tyrannosaurus is something of a curve ball; it's the strongest enemy here, not like that's saying much though if you get into a fight against 3 you might take a bit of damage, but it's not fire elemental. Nope, it's Earth. That's the only interesting thing from the enemies here.



There's two accessories worth a damn in this place, and this is the first. It grants +10 to Agility and so they're going straight to Duke, because he REALLY needs them; his Agility stat is awful. Not as bad as his Intelligence/SP but still pretty damn awful. There's only two Agility boosting accessories and they're both pretty rare; unlike the other stat boosters the +10 is the lowest rather than the highest, and the other one grants +20. We won't be seeing those for a little while, though.



These things are a one-of-a-kind. And they are awesome; they halve ALL physical damage received. I won't actually be using them for a while, though, because at this point most damage received that's actually remotely threatening is of the magical variety.



: Impressive...
: Watch out!

See the thing hiding just behind the text box?



That's the boss of the dungeon. It's not particularly durable, it doesn't really do anything interesting and it's as susceptible to being steamrolled as usual; the few fights that can't be steamrolled are the exception to the rule all the way through to the end of the game.

Oh, and Kururu got Mega Heal All from the fight; that's like the best healing spell other than Heart. It restores 300 HP to everyone in the party. Sharte probably has it by now too, but you don't even need to ever really use it until Chapter 7 and even then only in a few cases since it drains your SP rather fast.



: That was close...
: Murderers! Why...? Why did you have to destroy such a beautiful creature?
: What!?
: By destroying one of the guardians, the seal has been weakened.
: Guardians?
: Yes... The Dragons are the sentinels that keep the volcanoes at bay. They are the guardians of the volcano. She had just laid an egg.
: I had no idea...
: No idea, huh? Ignorance can be a very dangerous thing. You would be wise to not act so rashly.

Huh, that's not something you'd expect from a villain. Or, at least not one as utterly smug as Crowdia.



Unfortunately, the egg is the only thing back here so this entire trip seems like a giant waste of time. No Firestone or anything... hmm...

Next time: the Firestone. Really.