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  "Hmph. Yes, I- We- I've done rather well! Your assistance was quite valuable at times." "D'you know, I think I almost heard a thank you in there somewhere!?" "Y-you brazen plebeian! How dare you mock ROYALTY!? Apologise this instant!" One last random encounter in the hunting grounds that it took until now to find, Hacksauruses are the generic version of Hackzilla's species.  They fight quite similarly to him.  I take the time to wear both out entirely with Stainless Steal Sickle. On the last hit on the second one, finally, I get something.  This is actually fantastic. Dragon Dung is a key ingredient in high-end cheeses. Don't tell Munchie that, though.  In a chest is a scale. A Hacksaurus could've dropped this too. I'll need a second one but luckily there's one other sitting around I can grab.  Anyway, we're done here and can zoom back to Argonia no problems.   "I'm going to do a little shopping before I go back to the castle. DIS-MISSED!" As he said, the bazaar is here. Look at these items we weren't able to buy before! That's a heck of a lot of alchemy we can perform!  I've been making tons of Mystifying Mixtures to bolster my funds, and it still isn't enough.  The other two items the accessory person here is selling are important, too. We've seen the Scholar's Specs before, and the Ruby of Protection gives a startling 15 defense. These being here are why I can freely use the seeds of agility and defense. A gold ring with a seed of magic makes a prayer ring, and the prayer ring with a stat seed makes an item for that stat. Ring of life, ring of strength, ruby of protection, agility ring, and scholar's specs. We saw Rings of Agility in Pickham, which is why I could use those. There's a place for Prayer Rings themselves later. There's no easy source of rings strength or life, which is why I don't use those seeds for stat boosting until I'm done with those alchemy projects.  A new weapon shop stocks Razor Wing Boomerangs directly in case you haven't been lucky with wings of bat. The Zombiesbane is a sword upgrade for Eight that boosts damage to undead and can be alchemized further. The War Hammer is the first club upgrade since Simpleton, and it can go with a Mighty Armlet to make the Uber War Hammer, the second strongest club and an ingredient for the best one at that. There's also the Falcon Knife and Chain Whip, but they're weapons for Jessica so we don't care.  ...um  Magical Hats are used in a lot of alchemy for dubious reasons.  Heavy Armor, too. The magic armor and shield have more spell resistance and are quite important, as well.  I get a suit of the armor for Eight and leave the Silver Mail for a project. I've barely scratched the surface and already the war chest is depleted. Holy poo poo.  Of course, getting a gold axe involevs tossing a gold nugget for stupid reasons.  There's a shop that sells Yggdrasil leaves at 1k gold a pop, but not if you already have a leaf in your inventory, similar to the Tree of Styx. It's expensive, but more convenient than said tree.  And Charmles is here on the hill with the universe's most trustworthy-looking man. Since I'm out of cash let's just progress the story a little.   h-holy cow "The biggest you ever saw! I mean, you've seen a real Argon heart for yourselves. You can tell this is no fake." Um. I don't think that's how the initiation works.  "Another...!? One is quite enough!" Yep there's no possible way this could backfire on sharm-lay. "I'm going to take this one back to the castle. You'll stay quiet about this, of course. And once the bazaar moves on, I won't need to worry about that peddler telling ayone. It's a flawless plan! Ha ha ha!" Charmles skips off towards the castle, but...  It seems it's more than just him, us, and the peddler that know.   "What have you done?" NOT SHADY  He sells basic items at triple price, and also Prayer Rings. 9k is a ton for one, and we have an even better source later, but if you need one now, perhaps to make a Life Bracer or another Mighty Armlet, they're here.  I had this going by the way.  Yggdrasil Dew restores the party to full HP. It's fantastically powerful as you can imagine.  Once it's done, I put the old silver mail and one of the dancer's costumes into the pot. It works.  ...The Argon heart, remember? I ain't making that kinda joke, not about Charmles.  The ceremony is on, I guess!  True character (slight audio hiccups in the crowd shots, not much I can do afaik)  Drumroll...  And it even sparkles.  The audience is amazed.   But Clavius knows the truth, remember?  He's not going to show his whole hand at once. "Uh... of course, Father!" "Because, even if, for example, you were assisted by others in battle, I would still recognize your claim to the throne."  It must be disenheartening to have your son completely confirm to you that he's a total piece of poo poo.  At least you get to lay down a sick burn. The saddest sick burn.  Clavius walks off dourly.  Charmles is completely oblivious.  The people, still reeling from the size of the Argon heart and completely unaware, think Clavius is just one-upped. Foolhardiness(ssss)  Clavius is by the window, miffed beyond belief. Let's bother him. "I saw everything from up here. You must tell the truth. Out with it!" Eight explains everything with the hearts Charmles let us keep.  "Why didn't he simply show it to me? I would not have cared about the size. I fear this means Charmles is far to immature to take the throne... Or a wife." The party didn't fix Pavan, we merely helped him find the strength inside. If Charmles wants to be a turd, then there isn't much to do about it. "The magic mirror is in the royal vault on the fourth floor. You are free to take it whenever you wish. I have already instructed the guards to admit you. And I will take this Argon heart." Well... we're done here. Family drama is best left to family.  "Yeah. I was sure he'd refuse to give us the magic mirror if he found out what had really happened." "Well, Charmles is Clavius's problem now. We've got bigger fish to fry."  "But then his eyes went, so he left the castle and went to live deep in the forest to the west of here. He's become a bit of a hermit really." Inside the vault are some... interesting treasures.  The battle fork is a 42-power spear, way too low to be useful. However, with a wing of bat and that devil's tail we just picked up it can be alchemized into the Demon Spear. At 86 power it's the strongest spear available and trumps Angelo's Mercury Rapier as the strongest weapon available at this point without clearing rank B, and it has a chance to instantly kill an enemy. But since Eight is a swordsman I'll save the tail for something else. It's also exceedingly rare besides this one. The only other place is a rare drop from an endgame enemy.  There's also a magical hat and a mini-medal. The important thing is here.  Eight straight-up cannot equip the devil's tail. I wonder why?  Maybe 10 agility is worth it?  OH NO Cursed equipment is bad to equip. Besides locking themselves in they often have ruinous side-effects. The devil's tail itself increases the damage the user takes, for example.  Let's just parade the drat thing around!  "Bereft of its magic power, it's no different from a normal, everyday mirror." If someone has, I don't think we ever find out. It may just be the magic faded away. "No, surely not. Nevertheless, even without its magic, the mirror remains a priceless royal treasure." Yeah I don't think looking at ourselves pricelessly will get through evil auras. "I see, I see. Let me think. The mirror itself does not appear to be damaged... In which case, you should be able to 'recharge' the mirror, so to speak, by exposing it to the right kind of magic. That would restore its former power. The man who taught me was a wizard, an an expert in magical treasures. I'm sure he would know how to re-energise the mirror." We're the protagonists! We'll make everyone drop what they're doing to help us! It'll work out!  Churches can remove cursed equipment... for a price. They're not uncursed, just unequipped. Eight is immune to curses, but he can't equip most cursed equipment. The few bits he can, he won't get the "can't unequip" part but still gets the side-effects. Or so I've read. There's no real point in trying since uncursing the equipment skips that whole shebang and makes it have upside instead.  Speaking of, uncursing is the realm of, you guessed it, alchemy. Saint's Ashes is the go-to item for most pieces. The devil's tail is actually the ashes's opposite, being the re-cursing agent for a few items. Not that there's much point in re-cursing things. Everything is obtained cursed and nothing's worth toggling. Devil's tail/saint's ashes is actually a valid recipe, yes, but it uncurses the devil's tail itself. All that's left is a plain Leather Whip. There are four items that require the devil's tail that aren't re-cursing. The demon spear above is one. The Fallen Angel Rapier is a fair upgrade to Angelo's swords that can be combined with two Mercury Bandanas to make the Mercury Rapier, a powerful sword with +20 agility and a mainstay in Angelo's pocket since he's the healer, even if he's going into bows or unarmed attacks. It's buyable eventually and needs a wing of bat so it's not that essential to alchemize. There's the assassin's dagger but the less we talk about knives, the better. The fourth is an unusual armor for Yangus and it's what I'm going to do.  Anyway, we have a goal for the short term, talk to this wizard about our mirror, so we can remove the darkness so we can go beat up a clown for trashing our house. Orange Fluffy Sheep fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Apr 16, 2016 |
| ← # ? Apr 16, 2016 03:21 |
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