Part 21

Welcome to the most frustrating and tedious part of the game. I ended up spending over two hours on this floor.


Student:
Why's a member of the sumo club like me gotta dig?!


Janitor:
I haven't cleaned the floors yet! If I don't get it done I'll get a bollocking from the headmaster again!

Along the way, we recruit...

Kijo Hag
-Bufu, Bufula
-Mudo
-Dekunda
-Media
A classic case of awesome spells, but not quite enough MP to make the most of them. Mudo is an instant death spell, Dekunda is a helpful buff-cancelling move.

Anyway, let's continue checking out the people being forced to dig some more.


Yawata:
...Help me...
My body's weak...
I can't dig at all...! *pant* *pant*


Student:
I'm going home. I'm definitely going home!
As a proud member of the Going-Home Club, I'm gonna dig my way out of here!
_{Going-home club is a tongue-in-cheek name for students who aren't members of any clubs and just go home after school.}


Student:
I can't take it any more!
Club training is better than this!


Demon Worlder:
The rocks here are very hard. It'd take at least one lunar cycle to dig one step forward.

Nearby, we find a very deep tunnel compared to the rest...

Student:
...

> He's silently digging.

And for comparison...

Headmaster:
...S-save me...
I-I can't move any more... Can't dig any more...
Help me...

> Will you help him?

Helping him means we dig one block forwards. He'll keep repeating his request, and eventually, the tunnel will end with an item appraiser of all things. Pretty useless.
Tammy has not forgotten what he put us through earlier, and leaves him to get whipped by the kinky guards. That'll teach him to make us fight in his intestines.
On that note, you may have seen that our party's alignment is Chaos. This has nothing to do with the decisions we've made; Party Alignment (PA) is decided by the alignment of the demons you have summoned. It only affects how demons react to you, and also prevents you from summoning demons of the opposite alignment.
Also, Law is for pussies.


Student:
Tammy...!
Help me!
We were suddenly dragged here and forced to work in these tunnels.
I'm too tired to go on...

We're given the choice of helping him. This kid doesn't deserve the punishment like the headmaster does, so we agree and dig to the end of the tunnel, where we're suddenly confront with...

> Two stone statues of Ryuichi and Akiko are standing here.



Elsewhere...


Student:
Why do we have to do this...?


Student:
I just keep digging and digging but it never ends!


Student:
They told us if we dig up a certain item, they'll set us free. If we don't dig, the guards whip us!

Now for a quick detour before we get to wandering around the tunnels waiting for everyone to dig. Near the entrance to this world is this man:

Old Man Dark:
Hey, girl! Is it boring having only friendly demons appear? Yeah, it is, right? Right?
I'll make it so only Dark demons appear in the World of Sloth. No, you don't need to thank me.

What does this mean?
Dark demons can't be recruited by conversation - they're out to rend and tear flesh, not make friends. They're also generally strong, and are good for gaining EXP. They're also our main source of magnetite. Since we're not going to be recruiting down in the tunnels any more, we're capitalising on the gimmick and making sure we get the most of the random encounters - and with Kerberos in tow, they're a breeze and we'll be able to make back all the magnetite he uses up.

Just to make autobattling a bit easier, I'm also going to fuse a Jaki Ogre to protect Reiko.

Jaki Ogre.
No spell description necessary, just look at that 273 HP and 15 Str. Also note Ogre is Dark, meaning that it's not normally recruitable.

Anyway, back to the tunnels. Tammy and Reiko pace back and forth down the corridors, quickly slaughtering all the demons that turn up to cause trouble with the help of Ogre and Kerberos. The ridiculously fast level growth is nice, but having to do this for months is very tedious and frustrating.

Thank God for ZSNES fast forward.

Twenty minutes later, and the students have dug one block. Tammy and Reiko have gained three or four levels, and tripled their makka and magnetite.

Another twenty minutes later, and students have dug a couple more blocks in. Tammy is starting to be held back by her current guardian in growth. Magnetite is about 5 times the original amount, and we nearly have 100,000 makka. (That's a lot, we could barely afford healing items and equipment changes before.)
I'm starting to feel sleepy, and set fast foward speed to 20x.

Ten minutes later: I've never powerlevelled this badly in my life. How could anyone do this on a real SNES without using magic to avoid random encounters?

On hour later, total: I think Atlus are trying to make some kind of a statement here.



Reiko:
Though I was dead, didn't you?

I see Reiko's Guardian Points meter is full, and to break the monotony, I kill her off. She gets the Guardian Dakini, who gives her some great spells in Maha Agion, Maha Bufula, Mudon and Necroma. Mudo-on is a multiple-attacking death spell, and Necroma summons a dead ally direct into battle.

Wikipedia posted:

A dakini is a Tantric Buddhist concept particularly prevalent in Tibet. The Dakini is a female being, generally of volatile temperament, who acts as a muse for spiritual practice.
It should be noted that while a Dakini is often depicted as beautiful and naked, they are not seen as sexual symbols, but as symbols of natural humans. There are instances where a Dakini has come to test a practitioner's control over his or her sexual desires, but the Dakini itself is not a being of passion. A more common symbolism is that the nakedness represents the freedom from all obscuration and defilements.
The Chinese and Tibetan terms for dakini literally mean "she who travels in the sky"; this is sometimes rendered poetically as "sky dancer" or "sky walker". Invariably, their bodies are depicted curved in sinuous dance poses.

Student:
...It's no good... You don't exercise in the Going-Home Club, so I haven't got the stamina...

You're not the only one.


Janitor:
I'm gonna get out of here!
I'm gonna make Akira a champion!
Where did that guy go?

A nice little "yes, we are shamelessly reusing Okamoto from SMT2's sprite" aside from Atlus here.

After another ten minutes of wandering, we wander into a tunnel and find that it's finally come to its end.


Charlie:
Hey, Tammy!
Oh, is Akanezawa with you too?

Yumi:
I don't know what this Demon Emperor stuff is about, but that bastard Hazama has done something terrible. We've got to save everyone fast!

Oh God... is it finally... finally over?
I don't think I'm going to play this game for a few years once this thread is over.


Student:
I can't take it any more!
Even f***ing Otsuki's incomprehensible lessons are better than this!

The game actual makes a bleeping sound for this.

Anyway, the students have made a lot of progress, but we're STILL not done yet. Current time elapsed: 1 hour twenty minutes, and still counting.

This is insane.

Seriously, Atlus, why would you do this? I hope you bastards fixed this in the PSX version.


I kill off Tammy to get a new Guardian, but the act of violence is really directed at the programmers.
Atlus responds by giving me the Guardian Byakko, who has the spell to ward off random battles.

Even if there were a point using it now, Tammy doesn't learn spells.

Wikipedia posted:

The White Tiger is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes called the White Tiger of the West, and it represents the west and the autumn season.

While I'm taking the break, I fuse Ogre and Apsaras to make Jaki Rakshasa, who is another big, strong slugger type.

Wikipedia posted:

A rakshasa is a demon or unrighteous spirit in Hinduism. They were man-eaters or cannibals. The Aryans were always at war with the Rakshasas. However even Rakshasas such as Ravan described himself as a minister of the Aryans.

I also fuse a Chirei Dwarf (Dwarves are demons! :eng101 and fuse it again with Heqet to make a Ryuuou Nozuchi.

Fuse it with a Seirei to upgrade it to Ryuuou Naga, one rank higher...

And finally fuse it with another Seirei to upgrade to a Ryuuou Mizuchi. Much like Rakshasa, Mizuchi is a HEY I KILL YOU style physical tank.

Ryuuou Mizuchi
Str: 19, Int: 6, Mag: 10, Stm: 10, Spd, 10, Lck:5, Total: Awesome

Apparently Mizuchi is a snake spirit revered as a water god in Japan before the advent of Buddhism, whereafter it was seen as a malicious spirit.


Janitor:
I wanna get out of here and go back to the Casino at the World of Gluttony...

We head back downstairs, and they still aren't done yet. It's been an hour and forty minutes now. FUCK.


See that? That's a Nue. I've probably killed about 500 of them now.

Ten minutes later, and some more of the tunnels have reached their end.


> There's something in the back of the tunnel...


Balam:
Who dares disturb my slumber?! I won't forgive you!


Datenshi Balam appeared!

Wikipedia posted:

In demonology, Balam (also Balaam, Balan) is a great and powerful king (to some authors a duke) of Hell who commands over forty legions of demons. He gives perfect answers on things past, present, and to come, and can also make men invisible and witty.

Balam is depicted as being three-headed. One head is the head of a bull, the second of a man, and the third of a ram. He has flaming eyes and the tail of a serpent. He carries a hawk on his fist and rides a strong bear. At other times he is represented as a naked man riding a bear.

You can guess how the battle turned out.
Balam dropped after a pathetic few turns, totally unable to make a dent in our defences. First boss battle I beat using autobattle.

...Bet you thought we were going to get the ring we need for the next world now, right?

You should realise how sadistic this place is by now.

After about two hours and 10 minutes of wandering around the floor, the tunnels are finally complete. We pick up some treasure, amongst which is an item called "Unwashed Loincloth".

Finally, we drop by the silent, diligent student and see how he's getting on.


Student:
...It's too hard...
I can't dig... any... more...

> Something came out of the rocks.


> Tammy received the Ring of Kindness.


Voice of the Demon Emperor:
It's no fun having you just take the ring after I went through the trouble of giving everyone a chance...
I'm cancelling my offer that I'll send them back to the human world! Too bad...
Everyone, go back to your school.


World of Sloth B3F

Fffffffuck you, Atlus.


Demon Worlder:
It must have been some amazing treasure to have digged like that for it.

Fffffffuck you, Demon Worlder.


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


The seal breaks slightly...
And the seal on the eastern door is lifted.

We make a brief detour to the Sumo Club at school.

Student:
Come to think of it, didn't you take some rollerblades from here?
They belong to the seniors, so you better not lose them.
I think I sold them.
At least no one found out we're out of dry loincloths.
Oh! Th-that's the Unwashed Loincloth!
Where was it?
As thanks for finding it, I'll give you the Bear War Fan.

T-White posted:

Bah I had a minor typo...sorry

I meant 'unless the moon changes everY move' sorry about that

BTW, how often does it change phases?

Not anywhere near often enough.