Part 11: Part 11

You better believe it!



Step one: drop another chunk of ore at the trader's. The helm is the cheapest piece of mithril gear, and a pretty big update for Sue who still uses the bronze version.



Time to burn some MP. I'm here to blast through this place as quickly as possible, not to explore unknown paths, and I don't care how much magic I waste in the process. Charge!


It's no use! My powers aren't enough to hold back the monsters!

However, attempt to cast Peace at a deeper location, where the monsters are stronger, and all you succeed in doing is give Pyra a headache.



It does allow Milo to level up that spell he's never used, though!



Hum ho hum.



You've already seen these things once, but I didn't go into detail. So allow me: Kamils are dicks. No, really. Remember birds attacking "as a massive force" before? These guys do it too. Except they deal 15 points per participating Kamil.

...to the entire party.

Oh, and they can also summon friends.



Pyra puts them on ice, and not a moment too soon.



The headhunter is back and immune to death magic, damn his ass.


You see one-half of your MEDALLION glittering in the fountain waters.

But here's our target for this trip, and anything that has happened before this is pretty much irrelevant.

Now, we have a warp point. Bye, labyrinth!



The Mithril Shield is for Pyra. It's no MADU , but it's twice as strong as the woodshield.

Its kind of amusing to turn the squishy wizard into a tank.



The trader's "rare item" dialogue. He pays 2625 GP for the woodshield, saying he'll sell it to the merchant next door.



Now then.



POOF! And we're back. Best treasure ever.



...and just a step away, I run into this guy. They're basically a weaker salamander; they cast Fire 3, but don't live very long.



Are you ready to see more than just a single screen of the third floor?





Just next to the stairs, there's a hole. It would take us back to the floor below. Tip: don't fall in strange holes if you can avoid it.



Deathserpents attack in force.

Milo and Pyra blow them up.



Bird-thing number... 3? I think. Maybe 4. Anyway. We're starting to notice the increased HP values of higher-level enemies; these don't go down as easily as the critters before them, but they don't have any particularly worrying abilities either. Just beak to the face, repeat. Don't get me wrong, it hurts, but at least it's not a salamander's breath.



Mandrakes will haunt us for a little while longer... before being replaced by something worse, I'd wager.



...oh, I hate being right all the time. Reapers bad? Grim Specters worse in every possible way. Desoul, scythe to the face. Fortunately, their HP is still low enough that they can be killed in fairly short order.



Here's a hallway full of puddles.



Nothing arises from any of them.



Oh, I promised to show this off.



...I wish I hadn't needed to.

Reminder: Sue's armour protects him from fire.



Milo and Pyra are not so lucky.



There's a fork in the road, but the right path is barred. This floor sucks.



It has torches, though. That's a plus, right?

...don't answer that.



It also has new enemy sprites.

They're not as dangerous as they look; pure physical attackers, a little stronger than the birds, but they're no salamanders.



Wingblades are flying enemies and Blast works well on them. They're actually pretty low-level critters at this point; no special abilities, not particularly interesting.

Moving on.



...not this way, though. That's a wall at the other end.

But here's a thing.



See these paths? You have a choice: take the long path around, or eat the MP damage.

Honestly, all the encounters along that road would require more MP in healing spells than the moss would drain, and while the money and XP would be nice, I'm trying to get as far as possible. also part of that path looks kind of suggestive

MP-draining moss it is...



...god damn it all.



There's no cutscene this time. We turn a corner, and this thing is just sitting there, blocking the path.



I think we all know what's going to happen next.



Shellbeast is a one-trick turtle. Each turn, he "breathes crimson flames", which hit the entire party for ~60 points (thanks, Sun Armour!) meaning Milo and Pyra spend a lot of time healing. Pyra Boosts Sue in the first round, lands Slow on the second...



...and the Shellbeast goes down after a fight that's more tedious than difficult.



...NO.



Bloodroosters are dangerous. Paralysis sucks, and just like the cock-a-doodle-derps on earlier floors, they can "glare with bloodshot eyes" and attempt to paralyse the entire party.

Oh, and, if the entire party gets paralysed? It's game over.

Magic should be used on any larger groups, either Sleep or enough nukes to take them down before they get to act. One or two shouldn't be a huge problem, but a party of four has a pretty good chance of disabling all your characters (especially considering they go before Sue gets to act).




Our first treasure chest on this level, and it sucks ass. That's less than enemies drop right now.



Oh fuck. Why "fuck"?



Because this hits the entire party.

Not quite as bad as salamanders, still, but the battle oxen are tough. The fact that they appear with a reaper in a separate group is also a huge pain, and they're sort of immune to sleep spells. Fry them. Quickly.




Hey, another chest! And a hole. Great, I know what's coming.



...wait, what?



Oops.



Suddenly, fourth floor!



Suddenly, fourth floor enemies!

Gryphons can "flap their wings", which is Blast 3 operating under an alias.



The really interesting thing here, though, is that the Necromancers can call for help... summoning zombies.

They can also cast Heal 2.

Given our less than experienced party, this could easily turn messy.



Even with his new hat, gryphons can shred Sue with relative ease.



Zombies are even worse.



...oh shit.



Not good.



-goddammit-



NOT GOOD.



The reward is, however, quite remarkable.

Necromancers are a prime target for safe XP farming once you can kill the zombies without taking a lot of damage in the process. Just leave one alive, kill whatever it summons, and repeat...

...if you're a weakling who can't handle dungeoneering the way real men do it.

...

Well. Real men, and boys named Sue.

Sue and Milo both level up and Milo learns how to explode things harder by increasing Burst to level 3.




This is pretty much shit, though.



I'm not sure if this is cursed or not, but I already have a cursed weapon on Pyra, which can not be removed unless you break the curse, and it's a 15 WF stick either way, the Firestaff has the same power and an actual use, so meh.

It sells for 750 bucks, which is also pretty shitty at this point. I still keep it because I can't bear to leave a unique item here when I could have it displayed in a shop in town.



Compared to the summon-happy necromancers, this guy goes down in one round. Pretty strong, but not a threat.



Wasn't that a Marvel Comics character...?

Warbirds are much the same as gryphons with wing-flapping/Blast3 and stronger than the previous bird-thing, but all in all pretty boring.



Pyra does something, Milo does something else. Blammo.



These are the kind of numbers we're looking at these days.

Back down on the third floor, and...



...sigh. Back to this again.



Next up is a Herb-water. Selling this.



Bolt 2 is nice, but...



...you're going to have to wait for a better shot of it.




Another chest in a barred path! One of these days, cell door. One of these days...



EFF.



He fails at stealing my soul. Instead, I'm stealing his entrance.

Note the difference in HP between this the two last shots, though.

Fuck soulthieves forever.



...I'm running like hell from these. Troglodytes are worse than salamanders in every way, and I have a feeling you're going to see just why once we start exploring a little further in.

I'm not looking forward to it, let me tell you.



Money.



Stairs.





Good stuff! And yes, that's the cell door we just saw. Makes you wonder why they even bothered...



I'm out of MP and loaded with cash.



Angel wing, go!



...and some more money changes hands this way and that...



There are no new scenes for reaching the fourth floor.

...We're just going to have to press on until something happens.


Firesword (60 WF), Sun Armor (52 AF, resist fire), MADU (20 AF and 15 WF), Mithril Helm (32 WF) - Total WF 198 / AF 143

The Mithril Helm is some serious headgear. He's free to pick up an upgrade for the Firesword any time he feels like it, though; he's been using it for a long time.


Flail (WF 12, TWO HITS) or Great Axe (45 WF), Mithril Armor (68 AF), MADU (AF 20 and WF 15), Magic Hood (AF 18) - Total WF 109 / AF 161

Milo's equipment remains unchanged this update. His damage with the flail is really starting to lag behind now that enemies have higher stats; he'll need an upgrade soon, and preferably to something stronger than that axe he's carrying around, too.


Hexwhip (60 WF, CURSED, GROUP), LightRobe (AF 44), Mithril Shield (AF 40), Royal Tiara (AF16) - Total WF 122 / AF 177

The Royal Tiara is lagging behind as well; I should look into replacing it soon, though I rather like using it because I'm not supposed to _{(side note: FUCK YOU, TRISTAN)}. The 24k gold I spent was for the Light Robe, and she's never taking it off again. Nor is she ever going to find anything to replace the mithril shield; Pyra's set for half, or arguably 3/4 of her best gear, and she's way ahead of both Sue and Milo when it comes to defence.

Next up, we'll be playing with ropes, and this time it isn't going to be Pyra getting tied up.