Part 20

Kerberos:
Y-you got me...
I lost. I will admit my defeat gracefully and follow you from now on...


Majuu Kerberos
Str: 18, Int:9, Mag: 9, Stm: 10, Spd: 14, Lck: 10
-Recarm (revival spell)
-Bind Voice
-Fire Breath
-Power Breath
-Bite

You may consider the game balance slightly broken now.

While we're at the school, let's visit the headmaster.

Headmaster:
I had a dream that I was transformed into a disgusting monster. Reflecting on it, I want to change my ways...
The sign that formerly said HUNGER has now changed to REMORSE.

Now, back to the serious business of rescuing the school!

(By the way, thanks to Recarm it only cost 300 makka to get back to full strength at the healing spring. )


> Room of the Seal
The Ring of Diligence shone brightly...


The seal broke slightly...
and the seal on the northeastern door was lifted.


> The World of Sloth


> There's a statue of the Demon Emperor.


Demon Emperor's voice:
Oh, I see you've saved that pathetic, hideous man who was consumed by his greed...
Next up are those who are being punished for the sin of sloth.
Beasts... have always been lazy.
And at the end of the day, man is a beast too...
He is quick to neglect and procrastinate.
It is all too pathetic for man, who calls himself the lord of all creation, is it not?
Even though they were surrounded by danger, they simply stayed within the school, doing nothing. Their lives mean nothing to me, those worms.
But because I am a merciful ruler, and have given them a chance to redeem themselves...

We start exploring the dungeon.


Demon Worlder:
I hear there's something hidden in the mines where they're forcing them to dig that has something to do with the seal.

I think I have an idea what's going on here.


We score a Yousei Jack Frost and a Youki Bogle along the way.

Wikipedia posted:

A bogle, bogill is the Scots term for a legendary creature with a fierce temper. They are reputed to live for the simple purpose of torturing young children that disobey their mothers, or of punishing those that are lazy, incontinent (lacking self-restraint), or guilty of crimes.

I'll spare you the rest of the details because they're going right into the fusion chambers.


Further on, we finally get to Rag's. Rag's is a jeweller's in every SMT game where you can trade rare gems for items or Seirei-class demons. Seirei are incredibly useful; their main use is in fusion where they can potentially raise a demon up one or two ranks. To explain, each demon race is tiered. For example, in the Yousei race, Jack Lantern is one race above Jack Frost, and logically is of a higher level and more powerful. If you're trying to fuse a specific demon of a certain race, this can potentially make it much easier. For example, theoretically we could keep fusing Vesta with Seirei to go up the ranks of the Jiboshin race and eventually get to Kali. If our levels were high enough.

Meanwhile, the items he offers suck.

Just around the corner from Rag's is a Jakyo. We're carting around some weak demons, and Caim is underperforming, so...


Datenshi: Buer
Buer not only looks awesome, but packs Makarakarn and Tetrarakarn. These REFLECT magic and physical attacks respectively.


I also made a Seirei Sylph just cuz. Maybe I'll fuse it later. vv


Majuu Cu Sidhe on the right is the cutest little dickens ever.


Guard:
The people working here are those being punished by the Demon Emperor for the sin of Sloth.
However, the merciful Emperor has decreed that the one who digs up a certain item will be set free.

We head down the stairs behind the guard.


Guard:
Work! Work!
These are the Demon Emperor's orders!
Any worms slacking off will get my whip!

Shortly after, we run into these guys.

Youki Azumi and Kijo Hag appeared!

The palette swap is a dying art.

Right afterwards...


Boy student:
Damn it! Who the hell does that Demon Emperor think he is, making us do this?!


Disciplinary board member:
As soon as I came to, I found myself here.
Where did Otsuki go?

We find a couple of students working the mine shafts. In fact, this level is full of the students from Karukozaka - if you go back, the place will be empty. That's why we did the Kerberos subquest before coming here.
The other reason we did the subquest is that this place has a horrible gimmick. Every full cycle of the moon, the students will dig one block ahead in the tunnels. There is one student who digs his way to the ring we need to finish this world, and we have to wander around - random battles all the way - until he does.

Time to find/fuse a demon with an encounter-preventing spell.