When last thou didst see me and mine companions, we had rescued a fair maiden from terrible evil, procured mighty weaponry, and received a heroic quest, that I might return the evil that dost plague this land whence it came.
...All right, that's enough of that (also, I guarantee that's the one and only time I'll ever refer to Serene as a "fair maiden").
Anyway, back through the Magic Circle of Plot Convenience. The girls discuss Ein's status as an angel for a bit, then warp to Elendia.
The Arcs have been annihilated.
Serene, the lone survivor joined the party.
Ursula, the mysterious woman, reappeared before them.
Now, Riviera is threatened by both the Accursed and the demon who hunts sprites...
The wheels of fate have begun to turn, ever so slowly.
We return to the cavern, and the team splits up from there. As such, I'm permitted to explore Elendia and do various sidequests. The first ones worth doing are actually right in the Magic Guild, so I don't even have to save first.
The first order of business is to tell Claude about that message we found. Ein relates the message without the parts he couldn't understand, and then I have to enter those parts. Fortunately, I have them written down in a previous update: right, down, circle, up, X. Claude translates them, then realizes that they're important to his research somehow, and he gives me the Item Manual in return. This would unlock the item list, if I hadn't already unlocked it.
Now, the annoying thing about the item list is that actually completing it would require me to not only intentionally get horrible items on many occasions, but also use every item with every character. Yes, even though the vast majority of them have identical abilities across multiple characters. Therefore, I think you can agree with my decision to say "screw that!"
Talking to Claude again causes him to give me a Mushroom Book, which lets me identify mushrooms. This oddly specific benefit will be important later, so it's important to get it.
Anyway, off to Soala's room. NaNa is talking to herself about how she needs some bat wings for something, but getting some for her would require me to kill a bat, and I'm not about to do that in this game. Soala, meanwhile, notices my Moon Lily. She mentions an experiment where she mixed one with her staves and got a better staff. Giving her both the Moon Lily and my staff causes her to start changing the staff, only to realize that she needs an oddly-capitalized Golden Egg to finish it. No doubt we'll find one in Nelde.
After saving my game, I head back to the Magic Circle of Being Used Exactly Once, Then Forgotten About Entirely, where I find a bat flying around. I catch it, because bats are awesome, and receive Bat Jr. He does both more damage and more hits than his predecessor, so Mr. Bat the First is getting tossed next time I need to get rid of something.
Anyway, time to report to Chappi about these items I have. He takes my Ogrenium and uses it to upgrade my Hell Scythe into an Ogre Blade, which is much more powerful. I then give him the knife Lina found, and he fixes it up into a Silver Dagger. Fia can use this for an attack that has a power of 80 and delays the enemy's turn, and Lina can use it for an attack with a power of 120 that can't be dodged or blocked and has the Mot-Vit effect.
Anyway, now to see Meute about that Moondrop. Using it allows Meute to speak, and she gives me an Ice Javelin. This replaces Gae Bolg in my inventory.
Now, to the Grove of Repose. I immediately notice that Rebecca's name isn't displayed, which means they're going to expect me to remember it. Doing so nets me a Harpie Talon, which replaces the Silver Rapier (which can be found in random chests in Nelde). I also pick up a weird fruit that Ein recognizes as an Applecot. It's another healing item, which Lina can master. Anyway, it replaces the Flamberg because I can find those in random chests too. I can also talk to Serene here, and she talks about how Elendia is a nice place. I can agree (no effect), disagree (affection drop), or ask about Rosalina (affection gain). Since I'm not going for Serene's ending, a disagree and she chews me out for being a jerk.
The other Elendians don't have anything interesting to say, so I head to the Elder's house. Graham talks about things we already know for a bit, before mentioning that there are more demons in Nelde than usual. He asks that we stop the demons, which we were going to do anyway. He also briefly tries to get Fia to stay out of this, before caving in remarkably easily. With that, it's time to head to Nelde.
The shadow of the Accursed...
Realizing the grave danger, Ein and company leave Elendia and head for the ancient ruins of Nelde.
It is rumored that Nelde, an aged place, is still riddled with magic traps.
Ein, accompanied by Fia, Lina, and Serene, sets foot in Wiese Forest in search of the entrance to the ruins.
Within the ruins, he hopes to find the source of their trouble, the Accursed...
With that, I leave you. Next time, I'll start Chapter 3: The Accursed.
