Upon arriving in the town of Cymore, the party is tired out after dealing with the skeletons. They believe that a rest at the inn will do them some good, after socializing with the locals for a bit. A few of them are amazed that Jay and friends were able to climb the tower, considering it's been infested with monsters for a while.
Cymore has one thing that Jay's hometown doesn't - a shop that sells weapons and armor. The girl standing outside the shop has a bit of advice for our hero: every character can wield two types of weapons. For example, Jay can use swords and katanas. Swords are almost always stronger, but katanas are lightweight and allow him to attack more quickly. The most powerful items always cost more, so it's up to him to choose according to his preferred fighting style.
In the southeast corner of town, another girl is tending to her garden. When asked for his opinion, Jay compliments her, and she gives him three very valuable pocket shelter items, which can fully restore everyone's HP and MP while out on the field, or be sold for a tidy sum.
There isn't much going on inside the pub at the moment, and they won't serve Jay or his friends anything since they're underage. The NPCs drinking at the bar would normally be perfect fountains of knowledge for our young hero-to-be, but because Jay can't sit in any of the chairs, he can't talk to them.
His exploration of Cymore finished, Jay pays the innkeeper a small sum to rent the only room in town in order to get caught up on events with Atolla.
Antignarot led his monster army in an attack on Leona two months before Atolla and Jay met. Like any good soldier, Atolla came out to fight the wizard in the mountains to slow him down. Antignarot decides to deal with the sneaky hero right then and there, and orders his right-hand man to attack. The lackey hits Atolla with a Death spell, but Atolla No Sells it and laughs.
Atolla tells Jay and Carol that he did his best to prepare for Antignarot's arrival, but they were overwhelmed by the wizard's ability to animate inanimate creatures. Jay wonders why Antignarot hasn't made a move yet. Carol thinks the three of them are the only ones who know what Antignarot is scheming, but Atolla says they might be able to get help from the Seventh Circle, if they are able to find some of their members. Jay agrees to help out, since it is his game, after all.
With the next step of their plan in place, Jay takes everyone to the general store to stock up on supplies. Short swords, katanas, light knives, oak staves, simple bows, mallets, hatchets, and lances are available at the weapon shop, but he decides that he's fine with the weapons he has already. He decides instead to get everyone fitted for cloth armor and hats (even Atolla).
The party heads north to a plain-looking guardhouse. There's another town just beyond the house, but the guards inside won't let anyone pass, with the excuse that they're looking out for "criminals in Pecot".
Without any leads, Jay's party returns to Cymore. They decide to pay a second visit to the bar, and find that someone new has walked in, who seems to know something about Antignarot. But the instant the man finds out about Atolla, he gets distracted by Atolla and starts bouncing around the bar like a ping-pong ball. The man introduces himself as Max, but is only interested in talking directly to Atolla, so Atolla has to introduce Jay and Carol to him. They tell Max that they're after Antignarot to stop him from attacking any more towns. Max gets incensed by this news, and forces his way into the party.
Max is a classic "idiot savant". While he acts stupid, he is a talented healer. He knows the same Cure 1 spell that Carol does, and he also knows how to cast Cure 1x, which heals everybody at once.
After outfitting Max with some new gear, the party returns to the guardhouse, where the guards are still less than happy to see them, but now for a different reason. Max demands to be let through to the next town, which irritates the guards and gives Jay an idea - he tricks the guards into letting them pass by threatening to leave Max with them if they don't comply.
The party presses on ahead to the port town of Kyro, where they take the next step in their plan. Atolla suggests launching a sneak attack on Antignarot by sailing a boat into Pecot Castle's sewer system, allowing them to approach the wizard with little interference with Pecot's guards.
Of course, they know they won't be able to get a boat pass for free. One citizen is kind enough to let them know that they might be able to raise some money for the boat pass by completing a "puzzle room" in town. Another citizen tells them that a mysterious traveler is currently resting at the inn. She doesn't know who she is, but Jay feels that he might be able to get some information out of him. Yet another NPC (who doesn't appear to be from Kyro) claims to have visited a house belonging to three bears. The shop in town sells the very same items as the one in Cymore, and is rather unremarkable save for one shopper who finds something a bit odd about the people in charge.
They pay a visit to the inn, where they meet a traveler bearing the letters "JRG" on his cape. He introduces himself as Jarogo Tecogo, and he says he is unable to leave Kyro because his ship is broken. Jay is unable to help him out right away because he, too, has endeavors for the sea. Just outside of the inn, a poor fisherman is having no luck with his metal fishing pole. Jay asks if he can give it to Jarogo to help with his boat, and he gladly accepts. A disembodied text box acknowledges Jay's new acquisition, and the now-ex-fisherman curses his fate for not having known about it sooner. Jay gives Jarogo the metal pole, and receives a badge with Jarogo's cape insignia on it. It holds little practical use for the moment, but Jay holds onto it to be used as part of a possible deal later. Jarogo thanks him for the replacement mast and heads on his way, hoping that they will meet again.
Since Jay spent most of his money gathering supplies for the group, he is unable to afford the 300 GP fee to get on the boat. He decides to try his hand at the puzzle room just south of the dock for an opportunity to earn 200 gold pieces on just 10 by flipping some switches around to reach a treasure chest.
After successfully solving the puzzle, Jay makes up for the remainder of the money by selling off one of his very valuable pocket shelters, which takes him considerably less time and effort than level grinding.
The boat allows Jay to travel along shallow waters without running into any enemies. There are other nearby islands he can visit, but they don't really have anything to them, and the plot demands that he revisit Pecot, anyway.
After sailing into the castle's sewer, they try to make their way upstairs, but the path is blocked by a wind dragon. They are supposed to be friendly toward humans, but this one turns against them when Jay tells them that they're looking for Antignarot.
The Wind Dragon's command of Aero 1 and Aero 2 magic forces Jay and friends to go on the defensive for most of the fight, with Max doing most of the healing while the others use their best skills. After Jay's party wins and manages to convince the dragon (who calls himself Puff) that they're not working for Antignarot, Puff offers to join forces with them.
However, their party is now too big to travel into the castle safely, so Puff proposes that they use a Switch Crystal to swap party members outside of battle.
They continue on upstairs to the lightly guarded sewer. Sneaking past the guards is impossible, since one is stationed near the back entrance, so Jay has no choice but to try to outrun them.
Jay tries as hard as he can to outrun and outmaneuver the guards, but has to try to cross long stepladders that can only be traversed vertically, and floorboards that can only be traversed horizontally. Through a combination of clever navigation skills and dumb luck, Jay finds himself running all over the basement area to pick up as many treasures as he can (including some leather armor, a bronze shield, an elixir, and some speed shoes), but not without a few confrontations with the guards, who send them back to the start without a chance to go back and use the save crystal.
Once Jay has figured out the layout of the basement, he runs across the middle stepladder at the first turn and hits an inconveniently-placed switch, which causes a few of the unlucky pursuing soldiers to fall into the drink. Carol wonders if they should try to rescue them, but Puff thinks they'd be even more dangerous than before, so Jay leaves them to their watery fate and continues upstairs into the throne room.
The party confronts Antignarot as he tries to convince the king that Jay was really the one behind all of his evil schemes. Antignarot then flexes his "main villain" muscle by engaging the crew in a laughably short boss fight.
Just as he prepares to finish them off, Cindel interrupts and tells the king what really happened. She learned about Antignarot's attack on Leona and world domination ambitions from Puff, who is incapable of lying. When Antignarot tries to interrupt her speech, she blasts him with a Holy spell and forces him to run off in a huff, vowing to return.
The king finally realizes that Jay and his friends aren't the real enemy, so they decide to help him free Queen Esmida from captivity. However, they don't have the slightest idea where Antignarot may have hidden her, or how they plan to get there...
