Part 7: Part 1-3

We have one last visit to make in Artolia. Roland isn't in Arngrim's house, so let's just go into his room (does Roland even have a room?).



My father gave it to me years ago. You're welcome to use it.



Sweet! The Dragon Slayer is a powerful sword that can be used by Lenneth, Swordsmen and some Heavy Warriors (including Arngrim himself). It also allows all three attacks, and as its name implies, is very effective against dragons. We'll be saving it for a rainy day.

Let's look at our two new party members as well.



Class: Swordsman/Head Guard
Age: 37
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Homeland: Gerabellum

A nobleman holding a high office in Gerabellum. With his powers of leadership, Belenus has earned the loyalty of knights and commoners alike. He stands for fairness and justice in a corrupted and decadent kingdom.

Belenus is a Swordsman, and he starts off with comparable stats to Lenneth. Belenus is an alright character to use - he has a knockdown as well as a fairly slow launcher, and his damage is respectable enough. He doesn't stand out in any major way except his PWS (which we'll get to), so while he's good enough now, we'll probably want to replace him eventually.



Class: Archer/Soldier
Age: 18
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Homeland: Crell Monferaigne

A gentle young man from Crell Monferaigne pressed into military service by his fanatical and self-righteous country. It's tragic that such a peaceful soul should be sent to his death on the field of battle.

Llewelyn is our first proper Archer, so he wields bows. His health is low compared to our Swordsmen though it's higher than Jelanda, and his stats aren't too great. As a combatant, Llewelyn is... not great. While his attacks do more hits than Belenus or Arngrim, he generates little meter to the gauge, and you'll have to work around him to make him shine. His saving grace is his unblockable attack, which we can't even get in this chapter. Having a second Archer is still useful, but without proper training he'll start to wear thin soon enough.



The Divine Item tab in the menu is essentially our shop. Instead of using money (or OTH which is implied to be the currency of Midgard, suggested by CotP), we use MP, or Materalize Points. We start with 2000, and we can get more by Converting, or 'selling' items into more MP. Alternatively, we can Transmute items into other items - not all items can be Transmuted. For example, we can turn Fire Lance spellbooks into Fire Storm ones.

Llewelyn and Belenus come equipped with armour but no weapons, so on our shopping list are two Bolt-Crossbows. Belenus gets Lenneth's Grimrist sword, and she gets one of the Bolt-Crossbows. Lenneth is the only character to have two different sets of attacks depending on what type of weapon she has equipped. For the most part, she's far better with bows, scoring more hits, which means more damage.



We open up three dungeons using Spiritual Concentration, though one of them is a bit... special. For today, we're venturing into the Solde Catacombs.



The Catacombs are fairly short, and feature Lesser Vampires from the first dungeon, as well as Dragon Servants, who were part of the boss fight there. Our first job is to head right and drop down the hole.



We pick up the Attack Pow skill. Unlike spellbooks, which are taught to one mage at a time, using a skill book opens up the skill to be learned by anybody for CP. Attack Pow is a very handy passive skill that directly raises stats - each rank increases STR by a whopping 30. Anyone can learn it except Mages.



Oh no... we're completely outmatched!

Dragon Servants are the main enemy of the dungeon. Their tendency to block is annoying, but Lenneth can usually crush their guards easily and Jelanda's spells pierce them.



Llewelyn is visibly poorer at raising meter, but his increased number of hits does make him more valuable in generating both crystals and gems. Lenneth's increased number of hits with a bow is also good for this.

We have a few new PWS to look at. Llewelyn and Belenus have PWS, and Lenneth gets a variant of Niebelung Valesti when she has a bow equipped. We'll also (using the magic of saved games) look at the Great Magic options for Fire Storm and Fire Lance.



Belenus, Llewelyn, Lenneth (Bow), Fire Storm, Fire Lance PWS

(I'm assuming 1280x720 works fine. I can make it smaller if people prefer it.)



To get further mileage out of Lenneth's bow, the bow version of Niebelung Valesti is for all intents and purposes superior to the sword version. It does more hits, more damage, and adds more to the gauge.



Belenus' PWS is his shining point - Extreme Void is one of the stronger PWS is the game and his respectable strength will keep it that way. It's best to pile it on last as its few hits and poor gauge generation make it poor otherwise. It has a CT of 3.



LENS FLAAAAAARE

Layer Storm is a weird PWS, as the amount of hits it deals is entirely dependent on the enemy's size and its position relative to Llewelyn - on a large enemy it can score up to 20 hits and be very impressive, but most of the time it'll average around 7 hits and be quite weak. It does have the upside of only having a CT of 2.



While visually impressive, Fire Storm's Great Magic isn't that amazing in terms of damage - in fact, it's actually weaker than the normal PWS of casting Fire Storm thrice on a single target. Hitting all enemy targets is always good and the +50 to the gauge is nice, but with Fire Storm's main advantage being its launching capabilities and low CT of 2, the 5 CT of Ifrit Caress isn't really what you're looking for.



On the flipside, Calamity Blast is much stronger, being just as powerful as Belenus' Extreme Void, and hitting all enemy targets, making it a decent finisher if you really need it. CT of 5, just like Ifrit Caress.



Back to the dungeon. We can pick up a Short Bow after heading left from the Attack Pow skill - it's a good bow with two attacks, but with a 5% chance of breaking. We can then head left, and enter a doorway to find our objective for this dungeon.



There are pentagrams with statues in them. Our goal is to destroy the statue with a sword strike, then find a slab somewhere in the same screen and push it (using X) onto the pentagram. We also get 1000 event experience for each slab we push onto a pentagram.



The first slab is just to the right, with Dragon Servants directly to its left and on top of it. To get in a strike we have to jump while on the ladder and slash in mid-air.



They were mighty foes.

Dragon Servants can drop Chainmails and Broad Swords. The former is a decent armour upgrade while the latter are a possible weapon upgrade for our sword users, but with a 6% chance of breaking.



Because wands like the Element Scepter don't break unless you use a Great Magic with them, we can easily make use of their massive Magic Power on just attacking without using their GM. In large clusters like four Dragon Servants, casting Fire Storm from the menu will burn them to death in just two rounds. What makes Fire Storm great for groups is that not only does it only have a CT of 2, but it will often keep an enemy in the air just long enough for you to quickly have your other characters attack and combo after it. Jelanda is easily our MVP for this dungeon.



We also pick up Avoid along the way, a skill book that raises Agility by 3 each time a character gets a rank in it.



There isn't that much more to the dungeon. Just running around, pushing slab after slab...





Eventually, there's a room with just a pentagram and statue, with no slab. If you've pushed all the other slabs into place, when you destroy the statue, the door just to the right will open, and we'll get 5000 event exp.



There's a Memory Camp in the next room, a few Dragon Servants, and an Element Scepter to be picked up, before we go face the boss of the dungeon. I switch my party to Arngrim, Llewelyn, and Jelanda.



OST: Turn Over a New Leaf

Ha ha ha!! How amusing! It seems our behavior displeases you... Perhaps you should leave your job as goddess and become a grave tender!

Silence, worm!!



OST: Confidence in the Domination

These beasts have great endurance. While we fight with them, we are sitting ducks for those sorcerers. We must go after the sorcerers...

Our boss fight is against a Ramapithicus and two Drow Shamans. As Lenneth implies, the Shamans are the real threat - they will throw out powerful spells, and being in the back row, Swordsmen and Heavy Warriors can't hit them til we get rid of the Ramapithicus. This is why I brought Llewelyn - archery and magic are the only ways to hit enemies in the back row.



Fortunately, the Shamans aren't that durable - a few rounds of concentrated fire will bring them down, and Element Scepter Fire Storms will just speed up the process.



In turn, they definitely hit hard. Llew is naturally tolerant against Fire, but he still takes over 900 damage from Fire Lance and dies. Since Arngrim can only attack the Rampithicus, I have him toss a Union Plume to revive him.





Jelanda: MVP.



We take down one Shaman, but the other kills Llew again.



Once both Shamans are down, the battle is a piece of cake. The Rampithicus can be taken down whichever way you want.





That said, I think Llewelyn's earned the right to finish this one off.



Hah! Did you think you could defeat me?

We get a nice chunk of experience for our troubles. We also knocked a copy of Sap Power out from one of the Shamans, which is a spell that reduces enemy's attack power a long period of time.

Artifacts time!







Secrets of Damascus is just a book. The Crown of Felmar is a headgear for anyone that reduces Dark damage by 50%. The Emerald Necklace is the real winner of the three - whoever has it equipped gains an additional 100 CP when they level up. It converts to 5000 MP, but of course we're not doing that. And as always, we're keeping everything. We also get 10,000 event exp for completing the dungeon.



Before we leave, there are two treasures to nab in this last room. Magic Pow is the equivalent of Attack Pow for Sorcerers - 30 INT for each level in it. The other item is a copy of the Frigid Damsel spell, our first Ice element attack spell.



Alright, let's get out of here.



Before we go on, let's talk about sending Einherjar to Asgard. Each chapter, Freya will put in a request as to what kind of Einherjar Odin wants. She can ask for a certain Hero value, Traits, Skills, Class or any combination of the above. Einherjar that fit her requirements will make her and Odin happy, and result in greater rewards. In the event it's not possible to fulfill all the requirements (and indeed sometimes it's impossible), having a higher Hero value will help make up for the deficit, and we can always send up more than one Einherjar (though we never need to if we play our cards right).

As alluded to earlier, Arngrim cannot be transferred. This means levelling up his Traits is effectively useless. Aside from increasing traits to gain Hero value, Einherjar also gain 2 Hero value every time they level up.

Our Chapter 1 request is easy enough: Hero Value of 40 or more. Any of our three eligible Einherjar can easily meet this requirement.

And here are all their traits, without any points spent into levelling any of them:







...Llewelyn, how are you more of a Hero than Arngrim?

Anyway, who do we send?