Part 15: Heh Heh, You Said "Bone"

The ground-based enemies only get tougher.

These S. Witches (I assume it means Stone, not Sand, but who knows?) give a ton of experience and are pretty easy. Unfortunately, they often buff their Defense by 150+ and are known to run away. From here on out, most things will either buff their own defense, lower yours, or both. Random monsters, mind you, not bosses. The bosses do that, heal, and one-shot you with spells.

A little detour to the northwest reveals a strange tower. There seems to be no way inside, though. Normally this door can never be opened, but later we may discover a way. At any rate, let's press on.

My first association of this thing, which is apparently called a Cocoon, is to Magic Pots from Final Fantasy. They actually are fairly similar in that they have very little HP, lots of defense, and cast ridiculously tough Thunder spells.

Far to the northwest is the town of Bone, which has a funny name and an even funnier layout.

Esuna is here, and she attacks me immediately. I reload because I don't want to fight her and make her inaccessible forever. Basically, the more Runes you have, the more likely a fight is to not be optional. Having most of the runes makes the other Apprentices very aggressive, although they can still offer to join (after all, joining you is another way to get close to the Runes).

Olvan gets a huge weapon upgrade here. 8 points of attack is about 2-3 Wilme levels, so it's pretty huge on top of Olvan's own leveling. Note that only Olvan can use axes.

A confused young man hands Wilme a garage remote and slips away into the shadows before the poor alien sucker realizes he's been fleeced. Maybe there's something about this cave he mentioned. Oh wait, of course there is.

At this point the game reaches one of its major diversions. Esuna and Lux cannot receive the Remote Control from this kid, and must go back to another town and take a boat to the town of Pandam. We'll be using the RC to go to the town of Dowaine next, instead.

Fourth wall, dude! Fourth wall!

Thanks. I had no idea what an Antidote does at this stage in the game. Maybe you've heard of the Patrof dungeon?

Mountains! The one thing I can't walk over! Well, also ocean.

A dinosaur? This sounds like a boss fight to me.

I have to admit, this guy makes a good point, that's a pretty fucking stupid theory. This being a console RPG, it's also correct.

Dinosaurs don't swim! I learned that in middle school or something.

As usual, the bartenders prove vastly more intelligent than everyone else in the game.

In every town, 90% of the people are jabbering about the Runes. The other 10% have never heard of them.

Loot!

The Tower of Grime, huh? Sounds interesting. Too bad there's no way in... or is there?

Lejes is here and he too attacks me instantly. I kick his ass because he's a dork and a loser and I don't care if I ever team up with him. He runs off swearing revenge.

The "economically advanced towns?" So everything up to this point was a piece of shit village! I knew it!

Another level outside town...

...and then to the cave. But are we quite ready to go on? The game gets much harder on the other side of the mountains, and much more open-ended. I may not be quite prepared, but I know a few ways to get there.