Part 5: Chapter Five: Tax Thieves

Chapter Five: Tax Thieves

After departing from Rockland, we headed East to Mt. Seifu. We had some dirty tax thieves to capture.



: And you, too.

: Here we go! Pahn, you take the lead.

: Why me?

: Just shut up and go. I'm the leader, so I'll go last.

: Pshaw!

I think I have to agree with Pahn. Pshaw, indeed.

: This is exciting, isn't it, Tir?

: Ted! Please don't say such things. Young Master, don't put yourself in danger. I Gremio, will be protecting you.

: Hey, let's go!



Bandits, eh? I'll show you what we do to dirty tax thieves!



Take that! The path up to the bandit's camp lead us inside the cave. We soon discovered that the bandits were using the mountain not only as their hideout, but their booty depository.



(Not pictured: Boots, Antique, Money, Defense rune piece, Leggings, Escape Talisman, and a Thunder rune piece. There are two types of rune piece, and we got one of each type. Elemental rune pieces are attached to a weapon for added damage, and stat-based rune pieces are usable items to increase a stat.)



Excellent! As if I wasn't already trouncing these simple bandits, now their blades wouldn't even harm me. After navigating the maze-like interior of the mountain, we stumbled upon a much larger room.



What in the world? Those bandits must have stolen a lot of tax money to buy the protection of a creature like that. Well, gigantic monster or not, we had bandits to capture!



Oh man, we can't even land any attacks on that beast. It keeps summonining more ants for us to fight!



: At this rate, we'll get wiped out.

: Fools! What are you saying! You must protect me.

: Young Master, let's run. I'll protect you.

: I don't know if we can make it.

: Do something!

I don't want to die! Those dirty tax thieves don't play fair!

: Tir, everybody, stand back. I have an idea.



(First choice)

: Let me handle this. Did I ever let you down?

(Second choice)

: Don't worry, Tir. Let me handle this. But... Thanks for being considerate, Tir.



T-Ted? What are you doing?



....



: Ted! How did you do that?

: Sorry, but I can't explain right now. Tir, I'll tell you when we get home. But don't ask now. Anyway, let's get rid of the bandits and head back to Gregminster.



Kanaan thinks we can't hear him.



Finally! We were almost to the bandit's camp. (This is a save point. RPG law dictates we're about to have a boss fight.)



: Listen up, you bandits. I, Kanaan, Assistant Commander of the Imperial Guard of the Golden Emperor Barbarosa, have come here to teach you a lesson. Turn yourselves in, you tax thieves.

<> You tell him, Kanaan. Damn dirty tax thieves! Also, his full title is pretty long.

: Did you hear that? He says we're the tax thieves. Listen here, you petty clerk. I'm Varkas the Whirlwind Axe. Sydonia, you introduce yourself too.

: Heh, why bother?

: Affable fellow. Anyway, that there is Marksman Sydonia. You Imperial tax robbers better get out of here before you get hurt.

Did he just call US tax thieves?

: I'm the renowned Imperial hero...

: Shut up! Don't you join in their games.

: Listen, bandits. If you don't give yourselves up, you'll be sorry.

: You wanna fight? Fellas, go get 'em!



: W-what are you doing? Hurry up and fight! Fight!

What's one more wave of bandits? It's not like we've just carved a path of destruction on our way up here.



: Heh



Pahn and I unleashed some all over those bandits. They didn't even get a single hit landed on us.



: Phew! Are you alright, Young Master?

Of course I am. We just captured the tax thieves!

: Heh heh heh. That's what you get for defying me.

: You didn't do a thing.

: Damn. How can I be defeated by Imperial dogs.

Better watch your mouth! ()

: Capture the bandits. OK, our work is done! Let's get the hell out of here!

Kanaan made us race to the bottom of the mountain. I didn't win.



: Hurry it up, you all! We're off to a hero's welcome in Rockland. Ha ha!

We headed back to Rockland, dragging Varkas and Sydonia behind us. What we saw when we entered Rockland was not much of a welcome at all.



What is this?! Imperial soldier(s) beating up that kid? No way was I going to let that stand.

(s): Who the hell are you? Beat it! Get away!



(Second choice just makes you walk away. Could you really leave that kid? )

Kanaan didn't seem to notice, or care, that we just beat up some of our own soldiers. Maybe he's okay with that. Either way, we make our way back to Grady's mansion.



: What, you captured them? I'll get Master Grady right away. Please wait a moment.



: You didn't waste any time capturing the tax thieves.

: What do you mean, tax thieves? You're the tax thief!

Oh, you hear that guys? He's not the thief, Grady is. We should let him go.

: We'll place them in this dungeon here. Master Kanaan.

: What?

: Please take this. A small gift from the villagers.

: Well, thank you very much.



Gonna buy a pair of boots when we get home!

: This is dangerous, so I'll hold onto it.



Kanaan is a thief.

: Thanks to my efforts, the bandits have been captured. Let's get back to Gregminster. I want to report my success to Commander Kraze right away.

We left Rockland, and headed back to Gregminster. Kanaan lagged behind the whole way, counting those bits over and over. What a jerk.



: You can all go home and rest. I'm such a nice guy.

: Yeah, so nice it makes me want to cry. He's planning to take all the credit for himself.

: Let it go, Pahn. It wasn't such a big accomplishment anyway. I'm exhausted. I want to go home and rest.

: Young Master, we've been away from home for a long time. I'll fix something special to eat.

: Great. Gremio, your cooking's terrific.

Yeah, if you like stew, and only stew.

: Ted, you come with me.

: What's this about?

: Oh, nothing much. It'll be over soon. Come along now.

: OK then. Tir, go on home. I'll see you later. Besides, I have something to tell you.

: Let's go, Ted.

I wasn't quite ready to go home yet. I had some things I wanted to take care of.



I dragged Cleo down to the runemaster's and had him put the Fire Crystal that Lady Leknaat had given us to good use.



(This is where we'll go to get runes equipped or unequipped. Crystals are the item form of a rune. As you can see on Cleo's status screen, she has 3 level one spell uses, and 1 level two spell. As a character levels, the number of magic points per level will increase. Since Gremio has lower magic points than Cleo, I'm equipping it to her.)

After that, we went over to the armor shop.



In case it wasn't obvious, I'm trying to get in good with Cleo.



This is the appraiser's place. I'm going to get the antiques we found on the mountain appraised. (Basically, an antique is worthless until you have it appraised. It just sits in your inventory as an ?item until then. Different antiques have different values and uses. I'll try to show off as many as I can later.)

Finally, after all of my errands were done, we went home.



I'm going to take a nap while dinner is cooking.