Part 17: It's About Time I Stopped Fucking Around, 7th Saga

This is Belaine. Or maybe Telaine. I don't care and neither should you, because I'm not advancing the story at all this update. Instead, I'm going to every easily-accessible city on the map to flag them for use of the Wind Rune. The reasons for this will soon become clear.

In one of the towns, random weaponsmiths offer you their creations sight-unseen for a fixed price. In general it's not worth the bother.

Tracking down Lux, Wilme decides to give the fat dwarf the boot and try out the robot. Lux's Laser spells are pretty impressive, but he lacks a certain something.

About half an hour of teleporting all over the world, I find Valsu again, but as always he's no help whatsoever.

Three more hours of searching and...

Bingo. Esuna joins up. A shocking move, you say? Perhaps. But bear in mind that at this point in the game magic damage is vastly better against your average enemy, and Wilme is strong enough to handle Apprentices and bosses. Esuna also has better healing and vastly more MP.

Her gear is also pretty great, although a few improvements still exist.

So let's hit Grime Tower again! A little grinding at 20 seems a bit slow, so I go elsewhere.

This doesn't seem like impressive damage, but bear in mind this is Ice1, which costs all of 3 MP. And Esuna can dish this out every round, and not just every other. She's also unaffected by anything but resistance to ice, which can be circumvented by using a slightly stronger Ice spell.

Wilme gains a level, and I decide to head north to see what kinds of insane monsters await me on the road to the town of Polasu, far to the northwest.

Evil Black Knights. Check.

Naked old golden men who flex their muscles, catch fire, and bum-rush to attack. Check.

This guy is AWESOME, but it's hard to tell in a still shot. He passes his staff back and forth idly and then spins it and bashes downwards. He's the easiest thing up here.

Which helps Esuna gain a level (she's about 5k ahead of Wilme right now). The naked golden guys fuck my shit hard.

At Polasu I can buy Esuna a very powerful dagger (for Esuna, anyway) and Shield Destroyers, which lower enemy defense when used. Very important, especially for duels.

After that, it's back to Grime Tower to grind...

...and grind...

Remember how Red Demons are weak to ice? And how Ice1 costs only 3 MP? Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. Oh, and then I grind some more...

...and grind...

...and grind...

...and grind...

Experience starts to slow down, so I warp back to Polasu, where I can now actually kill the naked gold men.

Which, of course, means more grinding!

A lot of grinding.

But sooner or later...

...every grind has to stop. Now let's raid the towns of the world for whatever loot remains!

Whew. That was something else. I might actually be able to win the game now. Although if you think this is the be-all and end-all of grinds (possibly because I said it was last update), oh how wrong you are.

Grinding out 10 levels has just given me a fighting chance.