Part 10: Claus Victory

Well, that sure is convenient. Let's take a look at some of these, shall we?



Apparently, basic reading ability is needed to fully enjoy the summoning artes.



This isn't relevant to the Spirits, in the same sense as the others, but it's still relatively interesting.



: I've searched countless ruins, but in the end, I returned with almost no information regarding the Pact Rings. However, that doesn't mean that all is lost. There's still the Moria Mine, which is under the Kingdom of Alvanista's control. It's a gamble, but the Dwarven Ruins discovered there may yet hold unused Pact Rings. What do you say? Shall we look into it?

Before we actually read the books, though, let's have a quick talk with Mirald. Because why not?



: Take care of Klaus for me, okay?
: Hey, come on, is that how you talk about your elders?
: Oh my, I don't believe I mentioned anything about your age.

Also she gives us another Channelling but who cares its not important since it's never getting used.

7

Oh and Klaus starts with a second title, just because. In the GBA version this gets translated as "Lucky Guy" instead which makes more sense given the description.



: However, for the time being, the only observable instance of this hierarchy is between the Four Great Spirits and their leader Maxwell.
: Although unconfirmed, it is thought that Luna, Shadow and Aska are also a part of this hierarchy, in the ranks of the elite Spirits. Additionally, it is thought that there exists a class of Spirits entirely seperate from the first with its own social hierarchy.
: The Spirits that rule over the elements of Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind are known as the Four Great Spirits.
: The Four Great Elements are the axis about which this world pivots. Additionally, although many remain unknown, Spirits with the power of Molecules, the Moon, Darkness, and Light have been confirmed.
: Only the most powerful Spirits are able to pysically manifest themselves in our world. Gnome for Earth, Undine for Water, Efreet for Fire, Sylph for Wind. And also, their leader, the Spirit of Molecules, Maxwell.



Well, that was interesting. Let's go and make Klaus worthwhile and find Sylph shall we?

Skit: Reliable...?



: Yeah, but don't worry, I've built my theory upon a foundation of reliable research.
: So even though you can't use Summoning yet, you still have all those tattoos?
: Like I said, it's built upon reliable research!

Skit: Much Ado About Headwear



: Just like you always wear that bandana, right?
: I have a hat too...
: I got this bandana from my dad.
: Just as I received this hat from my mother.
: Actually, this hat is...


This is Cless speaking, for reference. I just love Klaus' glare in this.

: Hehe, we certainly do.
: Please, you two, don't live in your own little world.



...Yet again we're putting off going where the game wants us to. We can find Nancy at the inn in Hamel so let's see what this is about.

: Oh, Cless. I want to thank you for before.
: What are you doing in a place like this!?
Soldier: This girl was set on meeting that guy no matter what. I was planning on making my way to Venezia anyway, but this girl begged me to take her along.
: Yeah, I understand.
: I just want to hear it from him myself.

There's nothing else in Hamel since the only other thing of note in this tiny place is a recipe we got before.

Skit: The Key in the Valley



: Got it. But where is it exactly?
: It's the valley to the east of Euclid.
: There's a man living there with his daughter that I need to meet.
: Does he hold the key to unlocking magic?
: Well, something like that.



Somehow, Nancy made it to Venezia before we could. This actually does make sense though, since the scene in Hamel can be done before meeting Klarth but this one can't be done until he joins the party.

: So what happened?
: Did things go well with Elwin after you met him?
: That's...
: (It looks like there's still something else.)
: Can we help you in any way?
: Is this really something we should get involved in?
: I went as far as the front of his company, but... My legs wouldn't stop trembling... I couldn't go inside.
: SO we need to set up a time for you to meet with Elwin.
: Please leave it to us.

We can get almost everything else done now so let's do so to get it out of the way as quickly as possible.



: She came here because she wants to meet with you, no matter what. Please, won't you meet her just once?
: ...All right. Then please tell her to meet me in front of the fountain in the central plaza.
: Okay, we'll let her know.

I can guarantee you're missing nothing if we just skip ahead to partway through the fountain scene.



: Yes...
: Now, let's get out of their way.
: Good idea.

The trigger for the next part is to leave the town. You'd think that this means you have to advance the plot a bit more, but nope. Let's go upstairs in the place where Elwin works and, uh, lives for the first half.



Doug: A country girl like that will never do!!
: Why would you get to decide who I'm going to marry!?
Doug: You don't have to know why, all you have to do is listen to what I say!!
: I am not your slave, dad!



: I never knew you didn't give a damn about anyone but yourself!
Doug: How dare you talk like that to me!!

Since we're in the area, there's a new accessory for free on the balcony.



It's not particularly great. It gives a 10% chance to nullify any non-elemental attacks, but if we have another one they do stack for a 20% chance. The problem there, is that it involves giving up both accessory slots which alone makes it not worth it.

Oh well, let's just get this part of the side-quest finally over with.



: But, father will never allow us to...
: Well, there's always the option of eloping.
: Klaus, please don't say such rash things!
: No, actually, I was thinking the same thing.
: But, that's so...
: If I leave things like this, neither Nancy or I will truly be happy. Things may be difficult, but from now on whatever happens, we'll face it together.



: What makes you say that?
: They have that special bond that some men and women spend their whole lives looking for. You'll understand some day.

The side-quest is nearly done but there's nothing else we can do at this point for it. We do, however, get something else at this point.

Skit: Elwin and Nancy



: Who was it again that suggested that to Elwin and Nancy?
: It'll be fine.
: Those two just needed someone to help get the ball rolling.
: But eloping is so...
: They'll be fine in the end. When a man and a woman have that kind of connection, they'll work things out.
: You really think so?
: That's how it is, so yeah. You two will understand some day too.

Since we're in the area, let's take a quick check in on the Mayor at Venezia to trigger something later. This has a great payoff so it's totally worth it.



The scene is unimportant beyond this one thing that adds a bit to unimportant NPCs.

...Okay, now there really is nothing else we can do so let's go head on to the Lone Valley at last.



: It's been said that Spirits reside in all things in this world. Well, much of this is theoretical, but at least in the case of the Four Great Spirits, we know that they truly exist.
: So our goal here is to obtain the power of the Sylph, correct?
: If everything ends up being that simple, I won't complain.
: Actually, in order to form the pact, we need something known as a Rune Ring. It's absolutely essential to the pact. Personally, I'm in the habit of calling it a Pact Ring.
: We must first obtain that.
: Essential? But Klaus, weren't you the one who created Summoning?
: Actually, it was something that I first discovered in an ancient document. That was the beginning of my research,
: which I have now carried out to its perfection.
: And you did all of this by yourself?
: Klaus, you're amazing!
: In any case, our first stop is that house over there.

Actually our first stop is just behind that house over there!



This is pretty much an upgrade over the Mantle and Leather Mantle we had already; it grants 2 defence but it also boosts evasion so it'd be pretty good for Mint if nothing else.



: And you are?
: I'm Klaus. I seek a pact with the Spirits of Wind.
: I'd wait for a while if I were you. You still remember that last earthquake, right? Since then, all the Spirits in the area have begun acting strangely. I can't get anywhere near them by myself, so I still don't know what exactly happened to them.
: I understand the situation, but we're in a bit of a hurry. Speaking of which, I was hoping that you'd be willing to part with that Rune Ring of yours.
: Of course, I'm perfectly willing to give you fair compensation for it.
: I don't know where you learned about this ring, but if you'll hear my request I'd be willing give you the ring in exchange.
: What kind of request?
: To tell you the truth, my daughter went missing several days ago. I'm worried that she might have gone into the valley to check on the state of the Spirits.
: The girl went alone?
: Doesn't she know how dangerous it is!?
: Having such a reckless daughter... it's my curse.
: All right. We'll search for her.



: I see. We'll keep her eyes open for her.
: As far as the Spirits of Wind goes, you can most likely find them in the innermost part of the valley across the suspension bridge. Please find my daughter.



The Pact Rings are mainly used for plot purposes regarding the Spirits, but they're still usable as accessories by Klaus (and just Klaus). Usually, but not always, their effect as an accessory is similar to the Spirit they're used for. In this case, the Opal Ring reduces Wind elemental damage.



With the ring, we have the one final item we need to be able to beat the dungeon. We could have entered it before, with the Pickaxe (as seen above) but the issue there is that even with that there's an obstacle ahead that we can't pass until we have the ring.



This obstacle is a group of Sylphs. This counts as a boss fight.



This fight basically serves to demonstrate that from this point monsters can be kind of irritating and love to throw around spells of their own. In this case, the Sylphs (both types) have Storm, the lowest level Wind spell that doesn't seem to bad at first glance. It hits everyone on-screen based on who was targetted with a few rocks that are knocked by the wind for single digit damage. And then the wind itself turns out to have constantly be dealing damage the entire time itself which amounts to easily 200+. That one attack makes the Sylph constitute a boss fight apparently.

Of course, if they never get to use it it's completely irrelevant.



: I see. So this is all being caused by that toxic gas!
: Toxic gas? You mean the Sylph have a gas problem?

: Klaus, could you explain what you mean?
: It's known as miasma, the toxic air from the Demonic Realms.
: There was probably a distortion in the boundary that separates this world from the Demonic Realms and allowed that poison to seep out. So long as humans don't suffer prolonged exposure miasma isn't a big deal, but for Spirits it's a different story.
: Then, the rest of them may be affected just like those last Spirits?
: We just need to find a way to seal up the areas where the distortion is occurring, right? The sooner we take care of this, the better.
: That's true.

Aside from the miasma, there's one other minor gimmick to this dungeon that ends up being completely irrelevant.



Not only is this wrong (they deal a small amount of damage if you stand directly in the eye of them) but it doesn't make a lick of difference since most of the dungeon is inside a giant cave. We could walk down this corridor to get to there but...



There's a group of unfightable Sylph just to the north that exist to stop you from getting some items and blow to the right, bypassing the tornados.



Inside the cave part of the dungeon, there's a hole that we need the rope for. Despite not removing it afterwards, this doesn't mean we need more than one copy of the rope. Because, uh...



Regardless, at the end of the passage we can take out these three Sylph which allows to get further into the cave. This is the only other fight against the Sylph, but it's not considered a boss (or mini-boss) unlike the previous one.



Also at level 14, Mint gets Heal which is functionally twice as good as First Aid (60% HP restoration compared to 30%) so there's no reason to keep First Aid enabled at this point.



With the second and last Sylph fight done, we can access a new part of the cave which has the miasma in it. This actually does get converted into gameplay mechanics by damaging the party as you run around in it, and similar to what Klaus said it can't actually kill the party; it just leaves them at 1 HP.



It's easy to just block with a rock though, which immediately stops the flow of miasma and causes all that has already been exhumed to... disappate. Instantly. Sure, why not?

At least now we have a reason to move on ahead through the dungeon. We could have done this earlier but we'd have to backtrack to this point immediately afterwards so there's no point.



: If we meet one of them, we have to run away! There's no way we can hope to defeat them!!



Meet the Hellmaster! He's more of a boss fight than even the Sylphs before (...kinda).



He's around in this area until we clear out the miasma as a rare encounter. The game expects you to not be able to fight him, since he's only damagable by one attack; Cless' Thunder Claw arte. And the Claw Lightning arcane arte if you have that already (I don't). This means that he's more tedious than difficult. I still tracked it down and murdered it though (triple-sped because it took nearly 10 minutes of spamming the same attack over and over again).

Despite what the game tells you in the bestiary, he nullifies non-elemental physical attacks. I'm not sure why that is. Oh well, back to the dungeon.



The only difference on this floor is that there's two holes emitting miasma so just block 'em both. The one new item here is a Talisman which is an accessory that raises defence by 5%. Give it to Mint if anyone, I guess.

Fun fact: In the GBA version this isn't a Talisman. Oh no, it's a different accessory that reduces TP costs of artes by 1/3rd. This is one of two reasons that the GBA version doesn't know what difficulty is. The other? We'll see that much later.



There's also a Rune Bottle we can get now with no miasma left in the area. We'll be checking out their second ability soon enough and it'll help when we do that.



There's just a few items we can get now that might help I guess (a new shield for Cless, some armour for Klaus and another Charm Bottle). Aside from those, there's no other reason to stick around here so let's go meet Sylph and get this over with.



: The ones who saved us by eliminating the miasma, yes?
: As was decreed upon this ring in ancient times, I would like to form a pact with those who command the winds.
: My... The markings on your body, your soothing heartbeat, and the power emanating from the ring. You have prepared yourself completely for the task of Summoning. We shall grant you our power. However, before that, we have one request to make.
: Spirits have request of a human?
: Yes, actually... Even if you form a pact with us, unless something is done soon it will have been meaningless.
: I'm not sure I understand you. Why do you say that?



: If nothing is done, both the Spirits and magic will vanish from this world.
: What!? Why is this happening!?
: Please go at once to the Forest of the Spirits and stand before the World Tree Yggdrasil. If you take this, you should be able to meet with the Spirit of the World Tree. If you hear what she has to say, it may still be possible to prevent this calamity before it occurs.
: I understand, we'll go and see for ourselves. But first, I have one question I want to ask you. Do you know anything about a young girl entering this valley alone and losing her way?
: In the last several months, you three have been the only visitors to this valley. We have seen no other humans here aside from you.
: I see...
: Now then, let us form our pact. Upon the Opal Ring...



Klaus has the same mini-speech for every single spirit. The only thing that changes is what it is the spirit of.



The Elemental Orb is a key item we need to talk to the Spirit of the World Tree. Klaus' title demonstrates that his titles are for gaining spirits rather than levels.



: After the Spirits had returned to normal, we even tried asking them, but...
: I see. Just where in the world did she go? That Arche...
: Please don't lose hope. From now on, with every city we visit, we'll ask around for any news of your daughter.
: Thank you.



: If I remember correctly, that forest lies to the south of Belladam Village.
: Yeah, that's right.

Hey doesn't that sound kinda familiar...? Eh, it's probably nothing.

Skit: Yggdrasil



: With this Elemental Orb, we can talk to the Spirit of the World Tree, right?
: We should be able to get all of our answers in the Forest of the Spirits.
: Yeah, that's true.



You only get this if you head to Hamel from this side of the town. If you enter any other town, nothing happens. Similarly, if you enter Hamel from the same side of Venezia nothing happens either.



At level 15, Cless gets Tiger Fang. As you might recall, that makes this the second half of the Demonic Fang arcane arte.

Skit: Forest of the Spirits



: The Forest of the Spirits, right?
: Didn't we hear it was south of Belladam Village?