Part 30

So we decide to follow the advice of a stabby madman and check out this escape route thing.

This rogueish gentleman may be our ticket out of here, but his services come at a price.

Asellus is, of course, lying, she can't get no damn money. So her only choice is to go bum cash off of the one person in the castle who isn't a jerk.

Welp, we're screwed.

Nobody likes Ildon.

That's probably not what he intended you to do with the whole caretaker thing, but hey, I can't win fights without you right now so let's go.

While White Rose doesn't have any money, she does give us some "precious metals," which are of course gold. Looks like we can get out of here after all.

Aww, the cute little Slime is playing gatekeeper.

You know, the pale guy, looks kinda like George Washington, likes stabbing.

Anyway, before we skip town, there's one more thing we need to do.

Gozarus here is a servant of Orlouge. After White Rose explains things he insults Asellus a bit for being human, but we're not here to make friends. We need stuff.

We came by here during Blue's quest to get an item needed for Time Magic, but this time we're looking for something a bit more stabby.

3 LP is a lot, but...

I think the +7 to all stats and 70 attack power sword is worth it. The Asura, like most of this game's rarer swords, doesn't actually have a regular attack. Instead, it has a 4WP special attack that is quite powerful. You can use it for techniques, though, so you can just DoubleSlash or something and get the 70 attack power without paying a bunch of WP.

Back in the cave, we can actually win fights now that the enemies have someone besides Asellus to pound on.

They aren't making this easy.

Eventually, we get to the end of the cave, but...

*insert your favorite Star Wars admiral here*

Ildon and his little ska band come to take us back.

But Asellus isn't having any of that.

I somehow managed to screencap this before the dialouge appeared, so I subbed in an equivalent deus ex machina quote.

Ildon's still bitter about that time when a bunch of mecs took his lunch money.

Gina monolouges about her feelings again, blah blah. Nobody cares, Gina.

Ciato tries to pin the blame on Ildon, but gets slapped around by Orlouge for being a dick.

Meanwhile, our heroines have a layover in Owmi.

White Rose reads a message inscribed with flower petals. Yeah, these guys can talk with petals. They're really into the flower theme.

The bar gives us a bit more info.

This chick, on the other hand, is more interested in the food. That's a pretty unique sprite, almost as if she could be a recruitable character in another quest. Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing.

I dunno about this...mansions have a bad track record in video games.

Can we pet it?

?? !! ;;

He's a bit flighty.

He brings us over to see the water mystic.

That's probably because you keep staring at her and breathing heavily.

Asellus is smelly.

Throw off the chains of mystic oppression, sister!

Mesarthim comes with Rune magic mastered (as well as Mystic Magic, but all mystics have that). She's quite useful.

He also tells us not to go into the basement.

So we head to the basement.

We get lucky and a monster drops a PearlHeart. The immunity to water attacks is quite useful, because of...

...this guy.

Video: Honestly, I don't know how they expect you to win this without the Asura.

We're supposed to take Mesarthim to the left there, but why not explore the rest of this place while we still have her? (the treasure here, as I said in an earlier quest, is a trap)

Hooray for hidden items.

Hey, look what we found another one of. This would have been more useful before the, you know, giant squid thing.

He regenerates when you leave the room, by the way. Luckily the magic of plot progression will prevent a rematch.

Yeah, you can do that with the lake in my hometown too, but it's not something we're proud of.

Bye, see you in a recruitment sub-quest!

(she's talking about Mesarthim and the earlier guy, by the way)

Meanwhile, back in Jerk Town...

Ciato is charged with recovering White Rose and disposing of Asellus.

He sends some shadows after us or something. Whatever.

Next time: we fight some stuff!