Part 31: Workin' In the Magic Mines

Update 31: Workin' In the Magic Mines

(Early update as I'll be too busy this Saturday to post this, will resume normal update schedule next week.)



Bush! You're back! It's been two whole weeks!

In this break, the grand council of voices that control Bush's actions known purely as "The Thread" has pitched their support for specific bachelorettes.

Their immutable first decision has determined that Selphy, Anette, Rosetta, Cinnamon, Melody, and Iris should be Bush's focus. The other bachelorettes won't be cut from updates entirely, but if I need to use the rest of the day for something else, I'll put them aside.

I also won't throw everything away to acquire favorite gifts. This is particularly important for Uzuki (Golden Hairpin, 75 crafts skill) and Mist (Emery Flower, 120 day growth cycle).

This works the other way as well, specifically for Cinnamon and needing to obtain Magic Crystals for her, and needing pumpkins for Anette's Pumpkin Tarts. Rosetta and Selphy aren't much of an issue as soon as we get that oven.



Also, our inventory is a mess, but I'll figure that out on my own time.



Music: Summer

Back to farming!




ANETTE: Morning! Let's make this a great day!


Morning, Anette!


-----------------------------------------------------
~"Thank you for the fish." - Eunice~

Thank you very much for the fish.
I am extremely satisfied, thanks to you.

-----------------------------------------------------


uh, okay

Strong response for a fish, but we'll take the thanks anyways.


-----------------------------------------------------
~"Hey!" - Anette~

So I wasted no time in writing you my first letter. I'll try my best to learn to write faster.

-----------------------------------------------------


I thought we were helping you learn to write neater? I guess she means writing faster while being neat.

Either way, letters!




ANETTE: It's kind of embarassing to admit, but I hate eggplants. What's with that creepy color?


They are kinda weird. I've never had a particular desire to eat one, but I have before.



We've also got some of the girls down on the beach early this morning.




LARA: Whenever I go somewhere, it always rains.


I mean, it's gonna rain almost anywhere at some point. Unless this is a reference to something that I'm overlooking.

Maybe she's just sad she didn't win the vote.




MELODY: I fixed my bed hair so I could wear this swimsuit.


It's still very much there, so I can only imagine this to mean that she somehow woke up without it this morning but put it back to it's usual messy self.

Gotta keep up that bedhead image, I respect that.




MELODY: You can forget all the bad stuff when you take a bath. It's true!


I don't know what it is about baths, but they really seem to have this effect. Just kind of a mini-reset on the day sometimes.




SELPHY: Looking at the huge ocean makes me see how small my worries are.


BUSH: What are you worried about, Selphy?


SELPHY: N-nothing! I'm not worried about anything!


Yep, absolutely nothing, I'm sure. Nothing at all.



collect wool, eggs, milk



cave fruit



catch fish



Oh, and we pick up the Rune Stone we asked Candy to make.



It just kinda flies out onto the floor after reading the note.



Runeys exist, and I still have to manage them, right.




EUNICE: If you can do everything you can while it's cool in the morning, the rest of the day will be easy.


Real good advice if you live in a hot climate. It's just not worth working in the midday if you can avoid it. Bush is immune to the effects of temperature of course, so this doesn't matter for him.



Whole lot of nothing in the early day today, it seems. I stop by Rosetta's and *gasp* buy seeds for once.

I'm just nabbing a bag of Toyherb seeds, I'll be wanting them for some upcoming things, and to get back on track gifting some of the other villagers.



I end up having to make a quick stop by the house to make a few Rice Balls for Selphy. I'd run out, but luckily we still have a good amount of rice on hand.

When we get to the weekend, we can finally stop making these.



Music: Lava Ruins


We're down in the Lava Ruins today by 11 AM, although the gem farming spot produces some weak results. 1 copper, 1 sharp fang, and



THE FABLED CURRY POWDER

it does exist


Well, it's a gift for Marco, I guess. The copper will just go to Ganesha.



That's not all we're down here for, however. As Cinnamon's now one of the winning bachelorettes, I now have to settle in for the Magic Crystal grind off these Ignis.

Alldale in hand for silencing, it's time to go at it.



I forgot to drink some Relax Tea, letting Bush get sealed himself. This makes this a lot harder as normally Bush can one-shot these monsters with the axe special attack, but it takes three awkward normal swings otherwise.



About 2 hours are spent here with nothing but Magic Powder drops. At least Kanno will be happy.



We'd have to re-enter the entire dungeon to respawn the spawn gate, so we just leave for now. This seal makes it really annoying to farm anyways- I'll be sure to drink the tea next time.



Music: Town Buildings


Since it's past midday, Erik's store is open and I drop by to snag a bag of Pumpkin Seeds. We'll want to go ahead and get these in the ground fast to have Pumpkin Tarts ready for Anette when we get the oven soon.

Erik does sell pumpkins fully grown, but they're 1500g a piece, and that's far too much at the moment.





I just plant them back here in this already tilled region that reminds me of how I still need to clear the rest of this field up. We're long past the field herbs being useful, and the lumber we can source from the various dungeon fields.

For reference, here's the next things we can add to our house:

Expanded Lab: 180 lumber, 15,000G.
Barn Expansion 1: 300 lumber, 18,000G.
Second Floor: 900 lumber, 75,000G.

My aim is the second floor expansion as it's necessary for Bush's eventual marriage, although it's possible we'll just get the barn before then. The money's not an issue, we've bought almost everything else we'll need, it's just 1200 lumber is a lot. We'll want to get on that.

I mostly don't need the expanded lab, but it's there if I ever decide to have Bush jump deep into pharmaceuticals.



Speaking of the pharmacy, I am going to do something with it for once.



Formula A Lv:1 was synthesized.


Normally I don't bother with these, but since I'm trying to rush these pumpkins in before the end of the month, here we go. This'll take one day off a plant's current growing phase, once per phase.

I make a good couple of bottles of this, and it ends up a little more than doubling our pharmacy skill to about 15.



I start looking for something to maybe cook with the curry powder, and take note of Curry Udon being rather cheap to make. This in turn brings my attention to Udon itself, which is just kinda bread but if you made it in the pot. Huh.



That's all a matter for later. Right now, I'll throw on this fertilizer. You know if you've already applied it as ground underneath the plant/seeds will turn greenish.




CINNAMON: It's fun when the three of us talk about magic... I think.


On the way into town, we meet Cinnamon slowly walking along on her way to fish from the nearby stream. It's the first time since she's been here that I've actually caught her walking here rather than her just being here already.



Music: Business District Buildings


One bath later and we're ready to talk to Nolan at the correct timing.




NOLAN: Ah... That was a great bath. Bush... You left so early. It's a sign that you are still young.


NOLAN: By the way... there's nothing like a good drink after a bath. Bush, would you like one, too?



You recieved Hot Chocolate.


Neat. I'll use it later when I try to clear the fields. St. Poli knows I'll need all the RP I can get.




NOLAN: Having a toasty Hot Chocolate after a bath is not too bad either.


BUSH: Thank you.


NOLAN: No need to thank me, but would you do me a favor and listen to what I have to say?


Not going to say no to the guy related to royalty, I suppose.




NOLAN: Bush, do you know Luke?


BUSH: Yeah, I do. He's the peddler that paints, right?


If it's not obvious, they mean Lute. An old translation leftover, it seems.



NOLAN: He showed me one of his paintings the other day, and boy it was beautiful. I ended up buying it.


BUSH: Haha. I guess that makes you a new fan of Luke, Nolan.


NOLAN: That's true. Speaking of paintings, there's an interesting story about them in my country.


BUSH: What kind of story is it?


NOLAN: It went something like...




NOLAN: You fell in love with Luke's paintings and instantly decided to buy one.


NOLAN: Which painting did you buy? A landscape, an abstract painting, a woodblock print, or a portrait?


NOLAN: Bush, which would you choose?


I guess all the stories in his countries are CYOAs, nevermind that it concerns Lute.



This is a choice though, so it's time for alternate reality shenanigansery.


-----------------------------------------------
"A LANDSCAPE, SHOW ME THE HAPPY LITTLE CLOUDS"



BUSH: Most likely a landscape painting.


NOLAN: O-ho!


NOLAN: Bush it's good to work hard, but be sure to take breaks from time to time.


NOLAN: Thank you for spending time with me. It was a very interesting chat.


--------------------------------------------------------
"I PREFER ABSTRACT WORKS, SUCH AS THE WORKS OF IRIS BLANCHE ON THE FLYI-"

Disappointingly, this is the same as the above, but the "O-ho" is part of the same dialogue box as the following line.


--------------------------------------------------------
"WOOD BLOCK, CRAFTED IN MULTIPLE FROM WOOD LOG"


BUSH: Most likely a woodblock print.


NOLAN: Hm...


NOLAN: This is a rather unexpected choice, Bush.


NOLAN: Thank you for spending time with me. It was a very interesting chat.


--------------------------------------------------------
"I WANT A PORTRAIT OF LUTE"


BUSH: Most likely a portrait.


NOLAN: Hm...


NOLAN: I wonder what kind of person you'd like.


NOLAN: Thank you for spending time with me. It was a very interesting chat.


No problem, man! Bush likes everyone, a requirement for him to more optimally seek CONTENT.

Still, you ask a lot of very specific questions, sir.



Music: Kross' Theme



KROSS: This heat is terrible... I feel like I am going insane.


Meanwhile, Kross is just not having a good day. I hope the little stone mask Bush brought him helps.




Fun little trick for you: returning a monster to the barn fully heals it. Pony was still pretty roughed up from our spicy water cave expedition earlier, so I went ahead and got her healed back up.

Now, we head back there! We've got crystals to get!





However, on returning we get a short scene of Kross pushing a boulder out of his fields for some reason.




KROSS: To live here in peace in this wonderful village...


KROSS: Heh... There is nothing more I would want.


He has no comment on the situation.

This happened because we just got him to FP 4 today, although the meaning of what we saw might not be apparent for some time, I imagine.



Music: Lava Ruins


Second time at the gem farm spot, we get a diamond!

I'm still looking for an emerald though.



Hours of Ignis grinding later, we have magic crystals!

Well, one of them.



That's all we end up finding today, and I think I'll try my hand at making that higher level water staff with this first. Maybe it'll help to grind Ignis faster?



Also, new thing I learned, Selphy's store is open as late as 8:20. She really just does stay up all night reading, I guess.




SELPHY: Oh, wow! The books I sold wholesale to Lute are selling really well!


SELPHY: I'm really surprised, too. Now I'm getting even more excited. I better hurry up and write a new novel!


Selphy's trying to capitalize on her rising fame- maybe soon she'll have money she actually spends on food rather than more books.

It also means Lute's been making money recently, which is good to see.



Far up on Whale Island, I collect the second-to-last batch of turnips and put down those Toyherb seeds. Mist didn't make the vote, so this should be the last batch of turnips I have to bother with.



Iris has nothing new to say, but her art is still masterful.



Bush is slowly learning to appreciate her neo-postmodern abstract surrealist style. Soon, the entire world will understand it!



In order to make that higher level water staff, I need a Fish Fossil. I take to finding this by blasting some Flying Fish on the path to the Tail Tree.



Pony eventually nets us one and we're off back home! Another score for the true MVP of this LP.



And just before we go home completely, we stock up on rice, flour, and some garlic.



As an aside, I have over 200 Tree runeys now. I guess they'll be good to make lots of lumber days with. That's a mechanic you've probably forgotten exists by now, and I don't blame you if you did.



Finally, just barely in our forging range is the Bubble Staff. It's nearly double our Magic skill at 60 out of 100, with a massive RP cost of 59 out of 500, and a very expensive list of materials. A Water Crystal, a Magic Crystal, a Silver, an Aquamarine, a Thin Stick, and Fish Fossil all go into the forge...



Bubble Staff Lv:1 was synthesized.

And so it's made! I rather like the crafting quick-time event because it makes it incredibly easy to craft things outside our skill level. In the handheld games, you just have to get lucky with an incredibly low % chance.



Following this, I make a good amount of Udon aside from various other foods. This should be some decent adventuring food for the coming days.

I'll test out the staff later when we dive back into the Lava Ruins, which we'll have to do because we just spent our only Magic Crystal on this staff.



G'night!



Music: Summer


G'morning!

Hopefully today has more going on than yesterday!



Our fridge is getting terribly full, in part thanks to the assortment of peculiarly colored herbs and our ever expanding-weed and flop collection. Eh, it'll all clean up a bit when we get the oven and I can start making some of these long overdue gifts.

Oh, and I bought some Curry Powder from Rita's. Apparently it really is sold there, and I just completely failed to ever notice this fact. I never said I was the most perceptive.

I guess it's the same way I usually forget Dumpling Powder is a thing in these games sometimes. You'd figure Bush could just make them on his own, but no.



More Formula A! I'm really rushing these pumpkins.



fertilize with concerningly green liquid




ANETTE: I don't know why but I get harassed by monsters all the time.


ANETTE: No other mailman seems to have this problem but me...


The thread reasons that monsters just really like you.

Anette's really full of mysteries though: strange monster attraction, can't see Kross, has some strange unexplained thing on her body she keeps hidden- it's a lot more than I ever expected.




ANETTE: Bush! I need a favor from you!


Ah! A request! These are so rare in this game!




ANETTE: I can't grow taller so I need you to pull me to make me! Now pull!


BUSH: Y-you're kidding, right...?


ann, i don't think spinal decompression will help


No new mail today, very unfortunate. Maybe the talk will be better.



Down on the beach doing Runey Management, I meet Melody on the beach for the second time in a row.




MELODY: A long time ago, I went in a bath in a metal cauldron. It felt like I was being cooked so I didn't like it.


are you sure you weren't actually being cooked





MELODY: You're coming inside my bathhouse today, right?


Bush never misses it!

I believe this is one of her more generic beach lines, possibly from the same set of dialogue she has for just being out here in general. I can't remember how many times we've seen it, but she will come out here in the very early morning some days at any time of the year.




Tabatha's outside our barn, but she's not got anything new to say today.

I do know we have some interesting conversations coming soon, but it does seem like it's dried up a bit at the moment.



Well, back to spicy water world, I guess. Time to work for those crystals.

Our gem haul for this visit is an Amethyst and a Ruby!

Still no Emerald.

At this point I'm just going to Earth Staff the giant chicken out of this universe again.



Well I been workin' in the Mag mines

goin' down down



Workin' in the Mag mines-

-woo, almost got sealed now



Two o'clock in the evenin'

Pony and I show 'em our wrath



When my work day is over

I gotta pay a ten for a bath


...Hey, I don't have many ways to spice up "and then I used the axe special attack to one-shot the fiftieth ignis".

The results are rather exciting though, we level up, get a skill up or two, and net a whole 3 Magic Crystals. This is a lot more than I expected, and not the result of me messing with the timeline at all!

Oh, and a giant pile of magic powder. Safe to say Kanno should be happy for quite a while.



Ye gasp! The Grass Runey count is getting a bit low in the South District!

I'll just go fix that at some other point off-screen. The conversation wells may be strangely dry of late, but I'm not so starved for content I'm going to subject you to Runey Management.



Praise be for the restorative powers of hot springs!




NOLAN: The weather is very pleasant. A nice bath aftter working under the sun the whole day must feel very rewarding.


It does!

...Unfortunately we spent most of our day in a mildly volcanic mountain.



On my way to Cinnamon, Mist was down on the beach. Nothing new today, the comment about gifting too much/should save more money is still showing up.




CINNAMON: ...Thank you. I need more "Magic Crystal."


The voice line differs slightly, it says "I always need more magic crystals." Just a bit of trivia there.

This gift would normally elicit a visible change in emotion, but it doesn't seem to happen while she's in swimwear. Perhaps banana yellow dogtooth one-piece swimsuits demand a stony countenance. That's just a guess though, that recipe book isn't much insight into Noradian swimsuit fashion with it's all of two designs.




CINNAMON: Bush, are you interested in celestial observation?


----------------
1. Yes.
2. Not really.
----------------

I mean given we've seen every constellation available so far... yes?



CINNAMON: Oh...


BUSH: (What's that supposed to mean...?)


The difference here over the other "oh" questions we've gotten from her is that Bush finally had some sort of response.

Or, maybe he did before and I just can't remember.




CINNAMON: Are you using magic?


BUSH: Yes I am, but I don't seem to be improving.


CINNAMON: Don't rush it. Do it little by little.


That's about all you can do with it. Despite Magic being our higher combat skill it's only about 32 out of 100, roughly half the required skill for that Bubble Staff we made. It's also only that high because I pretty regularly remember to spam magic before going to sleep or taking a bath.

Oh, also I can't find where I tested it in my recordings, but the bubble staff is not looking too great. It fires a giant ball of water that lifesteals, but being a higher tier staff, the damage isn't all that impressive really, doing as much damage as one swing from our Alldale for far more RP. There is the potential you could eventually work it into a near 1 to 1 ratio of HP spent to HP stolen for easy magic training, but Bush presently doesn't have the Int/MAG for that.




MARCO: Curry! Awesome!


I just handed him some raw curry powder, but that is his liked gift. Presumably he'll cook it into something, but hey, I'm not gonna judge if he eats it as is.

Due to a test later, I believe his favorite gift is Curry Rice, and not just any Curry Dish as I've seen listed in some places. Curry Rice is unfortunately a very high material cost recipe.




BUSH: Candy, you're always with Marco.


CANDY: Yup. Marco is really nice so he's a great friend!


MARCO: F-friend...


BUSH: (Hahaha. Marco has a hard road ahead of him.)


Marco may be able to stand down any monster, but can he defeat the dreaded friend-zone?

...Eh, probably in a couple years when Bush can probably teach him the secret of awkward conversation and strangely persistent gifts. He's already got a head start on the cooking skills, at least.



Hours pass and Bush finds himself up on Whale Island, trying to collect more Proof of Warriors for Kross. We have no luck here, which is fair given our luck today on other drops.



Oh, and also I plant those Toyherb seeds. I know I said I did it yesterday, but it turns out I forgot.

Eh, one day later doesn't really matter on these.



Bush accidentally drops Iris's glass of tomato juice on the floor, but thanks to the supreme craftsmanship of the glass, it lands upright, spills nothing, and doesn't break.




IRIS: Don't you just feel like drinking tomato juice impulsively sometimes?


IRIS: You don't? I guess it's just me...


I would say Iris is an avid fan of V8 and drinking vegetables, but tomatoes are fruit and there aren't any other vegetables in this juice.

She just really likes tomato juice for no particularly unusual or extraordinary reason, I'm sure.




IRIS: I feel at peace when I look at flowers. Speaking of which, I see that you grow them from time to time, Bush.


Not as often as I would in other games, the profit margin's just not as good. I do usually go for a flower focus in later games though.



Back home, I finish gathering the rest of the tomatoes Grant couldn't get to.



It's also only 9:00 PM somehow, so I set about cleaning up the field some. First to go is these boulders. Some of them have been around since the beginning of the game!



4 of them is almost all of Bush's RP bar. No joke.



Some more minor hammering, chopping, and weeding later we've got this front section finally all cleared. I do have to spend a bit of food in the process of doing this, but it's what I intended it for anyways.



By 11:37, we get it clear, officially having all the land in our first two rows of 9x9s tilled!



But that's all for this time. A little shorter than usual, and maybe not a lot of new stuff going on, but believe me, we've got some exciting stuff coming in soon. Even a bit of, dare I say... romance!


_{i've also just been really busy this week}