Part 9: Claus Encounter
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This is perhaps a tad more helpful than the average World Map. If you check a town on it, it shows you the shops and what they sell given that you've already viewed them. This is kinda nice if you're looking for a specific item and know it's buyable somewhere. It's not much, sure, but it could help.
Skit: Klarth the Eccentric
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Before heading out for real, let's take a quick detour to the Belladam weapon store!
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Wait, no not there. Go through the passage hidden in the wall to the right first!
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This one is basically a freebie so long as you know its here. You will eventually too, since an NPC in a later town tells you about it which is nice. The problem with getting it now, though, is we can't use it; it requires a base arte we don't get until level 15.
...If we were to buy anything from this store, it'd be a new weapon for Mint and nothing else. We'll be getting a far better weapon for Cless than anything we can buy here within a few minutes anyway.
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At level 12, Mint gets her second title. It's probably the most interesting thing that could happen on the journey to Euclid.
Skit: Dreams of Futility
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While we do have to pass through the mountains area to the north again, there's nothing particularly interesting there. There aren't even items or anything so there's no point to taking the longer path this time other than for extra EXP or gald.
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At least Euclid's in the same place as ever, and we do need to come here to meet Klarth.
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So, instead let's go to this place we couldn't reach before since the bridge was out.
Skit: Optimism
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Hamel's a pretty small place and we won't be sticking around for long since we're here for two things (well, three but whatever) before moving on.
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This guy's just chilling near the middle of the
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We also need 1 Pickaxe and 1 Rope for a later; you'd be forgiven for thinking that's not enough but you'd be wrong. They'll stay in our inventory for the rest of the game or until we sell them; whichever comes first (the end of the game).
Skit: Klarth the Assistant
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We're here making a minor detour just to pick up a few things before meeting Klarth. We'll be able to get one of them for free much later but it's better to get it now since it saves waiting. Also we can use it to beat a boss way earlier than we should if we get it now.
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At the Armor Store, we can buy this from a random NPC for 3,000 gald. This costs almost all of our funds at the moment but it's more than worth it. Once we master both Thunder Claw and Autumn Sandstorm, this one arte is pretty much going to be a permanent staple of Cless' reportoire until we get a better version.
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The Corseca is the first spear we can get for Cless but it's easily the best weapon for quite a while. It's around this point the three weapon types for Cless diverge accordingly; the swords are most balanced and thus are easy to use, axes prioritise slash and are more powerful than swords but are kinda slow and aren't really worth using if you don't love slashing things a lot and spears, naturally, focus almost exclusively on thrust and are usually the best thing to use since thrust related artes have a tendency to be multi-hit.
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Who cares though; the Corcesca outclasses everything in Slash other than maybe the Crescent Axe but that's got an inate thunder element and there's not much point to using that when we have Thunder Claw.
Since I bought Cless' third arcane arte first I didn't quite have enough to buy it outright but I had some stuff I could sell anyway and I don't need to cart everything around for no reason where I can avoid it.
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And, finally, in the grocery store we can get another new recipe. Sushi's a 15% HP restoration but it also cures Paralysis and Stone so there's that.
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Now we have nothing left to procrastinate with, let's finally go to Euclid again. There's a few items we can find but they're all mainly just lying around in the open. There's only two that are a bit tricky to get.
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This is probably one of the best hidden chests in the entire game since unlike most of the "hidden" ones you can't see even a pixel of it. Of course, even if you know it's there then it's not going to help you... since it sometimes doesn't spawn. This time it did the first try, so that's nice.
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The only other item that's not particularly easy to find is one stood out in the open but can't be accessed without using this long-winded hidden passage. At least here we're given anime sweatdrops to indicate roughly where Cless is. The item we get for this is just a Charm Bottle so it's nothing great.
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You probably noticed this woman when we first entered Euclid but she doesn't say anything. She has a unique sprite though, so maybe we just need to come back later. Okay, fine, let's go s-
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Okay, so fine this is a pretty long-winded sidequest that we'll finish quicker than you think but it involves a lot of walking back and forth. It's really not that fun but the reward for it is more than worth it.
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Since we need to do a fair bit of this before advancing the plot too much, it'd be a good idea to get as much of this done as possible. We'll be able to tell which is Elwin immediately; he too has a unique sprite... and wants to know mystery woman's name. Only, Cless doesn't know it!
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Okay, he does now because I skipped ahead to after running back and forth a fair bit since it's really uninteresting and the whole "name? iunno!" thing adds nothing.
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Fortunately, running back to Nancy again is the last part of the sidequest for now so we can just get this out of the way now.
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Okay, with that done we can get on with things at last. Wait, no, there's one thing left first that I almost forgot about.
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NOW we're done with all the optional stuff! All that remains is to go nag this Klarth guy.
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Note that getting 10k at this stage is a joke. The elixirs sell for 5000 gald a pop and you'll easily have at least one by now, if not both. Even if it was 10,000 per person then 20,000 is still nothing. In other versions to compensate Klarth's payment is 100,000 gald instead... and, of course, some people will probably grind that much first. It doesn't matter though; Mint's line doesn't change.
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???: Klarth! Is this how you treat people when I'm not around!?
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I like Mirald. She's an incidental NPC, but at least she has a pretty clear role. It's just a shame she only really gets to show it the once.
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A quick fade to the black here while Cless and Mint explain, well, everything. Again. Also we're sat at the table now rather than stood in the door way. Hurray!
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It's basically a catalogue of every item you've acquired in the game. Nothing fancy, but much like with the Monster Encyclopedia there's a title for Klarth for finishing it.
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Sorry, Klaus. For most names, I don't have to change anything since the name is identical in all versions. For Klaus and Klaus alone his name is different (well okay Cless kinda too but that's not the same) depending on the version you're playing. The GBA version named him Claus but that makes three main characters with a "C" for their first initial and that's pretty annoying, to me at least, and I just find "Klarth" too weird in comparison so a happy medium was born. Don't like it, feel free to bitch enough at me and I can change it back to Klarth at any time via the status screen.
Anyway, Klaus is awesome and since the first Spirit is Sylph, I'm sure you can guess what the others are going to be eventually if you know anything related to the Tales series.
Skit: Klarth the Summoner
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Klarth F. Lester official render.