Part 5

“Oh… oh no. Mustn’t judge…”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of that.”



“You’re a goat. Does that mean that you actually require your tin cans to have a name brand label?”



“I’m breathless with anticipation.”

“You’re also a jerk. One day, as I returned from shopping I found a note. It read “Lisa, I won’t be able to see you for a while. If you have any problems, please see the village Chief. Take care of your friends:”




“So he just left you a note with pet care instructions. Father of the year material.”

“My father is a great man! So… please, will you find him?”

“I think I’m going to have to, if I want to get to the bottom of this. Fine, I’ll find him and his entire zoo of animals.”



“All of a sudden I’m not sure exactly what kind of guy I just promised to find…”



To continue from this point, we need to go into the manor house and look at the painting with the paintbrush equipped. You might want to re-equip your herb afterwards just in case.



Leo’s Painting is its own small dungeon, with new enemies that are a bit more difficult to hit than the ones in the Underground Castle but not substantially stronger.



Clearing out the first one gets us a new tulip, which is in an isolated spot.



We also get our first mimic type enemies, which look like objects you might see scattered around the dungeon and don’t usually do anything until you get close to them. You just have to kind of swing at anything that looks out of the ordinary.



Continuing on we run into our next enemy, the Spearman who is… uh… exactly what that implies. They’re not big on creative names for enemies in this game. These guys actually throw spears at you, as you can see, and they can occasionally catch you off guard. On the plus side, they provide 5 exp each.



The next room actually has two of them to pin you down and make it even more difficult to get out unscathed. It’s a pretty big step up from the Underground Castle.



“Oh no… I think I’d better warn him about that old widower.”

“It’s gratifying to see you taking such care of the morals of poor, innocent young goats.”



The painting is actually divided into several sub areas, but there’s no indication of when you’re in a new one. That means new Monster Lairs, including the one that this Birdy (yes, that is its real name) came out of near the top of the screen.



For our reward, we get… yet another ivy. There’s also a Medical Herb nearby in a chest, which is mostly useless since we can’t carry more than one.



Just to the right we have this cunningly designed trap. The red and gold strips are conveyor belts, and the blocks with blue circles are Eyeblocks. They’ll pretend to be normal blocks until you get closer, and then hop into you. The main giveaway is the fact that there’s a monster’s lair right there behind this innocuous line of blocks.




Our final enemy of the chapter is the Metalpus, which we can’t actually do anything about. You just have to avoid them, and they won’t stop you from getting through to your goal. They actually do have a monster’s lair, but they are happy to wander far away from it.



In the process of killing the last nest of Spearmen we get another level, with all of the attendant benefits. It’ll take a couple levels before the real differences start to show up, but each level counts.



Next area! The enemy I just killed is a Spearman (as you can see from the experience total), with the Metalpi acting as blockers and making it harder for you to get around. And yes, they can and will hurt you if you run into them. Clearing this area leads to…




“Oh, that tears it. I’m going to have to intervene at this point.”

“Don’t goats eat tulips, by the by? Do you think they know that they’re intelligent?”

“The bigger question is why it’s just the tulips.”



We also release a kid, but who cares about that. Bunch of little jerk ripoff artists.



Almost there! We’ve got Metalpi, Spearmen, and Green Statues blocking the way to their own lair. It can get complicated in here.



“Teenagers. Can’t live with them.”



We also get our second exit point from finishing that set of lairs, which means that we can now warp directly from the Celestial Palace into Leo’s Painting. This’ll probably be helpful later on, and it also means we can go back for a quick HP recharge and to check up with our newly released townspeople.



“Even though I can’t communicate with my husband, I enjoy his company.”

“…”

“Oh my Master, bring down your lightning and burn the bushes and this entire village!”

“Meh, maybe later. I don’t think there’s a Life Jewel or anything hidden away in there.”



“Yes. Just for your sake, you might want to stay on this side of the river.”

“Come, I shall show you around. Please follow me.”



“Houses have roofs and walls. This is a pen.”

“That does explain a few things. There’s something hidden away in the corner, too.”



“Well, that’s helpful. Maybe when the Master smites this town I’ll ask him to spare all the goats except that one and have a goat town.”



“Not if I have anything to say about it.”



So the tulip we rescued? Asleep. If tulips dream of sheep, those dreams are probably nightmares.



Talking to the dream Tulip kicks you out of the dream world, but he’s not why we’re here. Instead…



“Cannot be defeated unless you have a special sword. You must find the special sword that can destroy metal.”

“Any idea where that special sword is?”

“Sounds like your problem there, buddy, not mine.”

“Of course.”

Next update: Finally, End First Town