LogFAQs > #973397078

I grind up to a nice, round level 20 -- character 20, that is. I have no idea what the hell the job level contributes at this point, but it definitely increases far quicker.

This turns out to be exactly where I need to be in order to beat Gutsco, with full-party Cura casts providing just enough healing that Flame isn't a 2HKO on everybody anymore. The other three party members manage to win the fight just before I run out of MP for that spell level.

As my reward, I'm given four more jobs from the Fire Crystal -- Ranger, Knight, Thief, and Scholar. The only one that seems like an obvious upgrade is turning Muuchi from a Warrior into a Knight, but other than that, I'm gonna keep the rest of my party as-is (Monk, Black Mage, White Mage) for now until circumstances require otherwise. I'm not a man who likes to mess with success.

When I return to Dwarftown to give their previous horns back, a dying man follows me in to say that Tokkul is being burned to the ground, and also drops the hint that Hein (as I recall, the guy who made the flying tree castle) can "change his weakness on a whim" and I'd need a Scholar to "see through his tricks", so I guess I know what the circumstances shall imminently require.

The dwarves reward me with a Magic Key (and a hint to go to Gysahl for more) and one of them literally moonwalks me into the treasure vault. Lali-hee-hee. The treasure vault contains everything I need to set up a new Scholar, so now I need to decide who gets to become a nerd for the foreseeable future. It's a tough call, since everybody's bringing something to the table in their current setup, but I decide that J. Bowie can go from Black Mage to Scholar for a while. One issue I notice right away is that despite receiving three different elements of book, they can't be used as items to cast spells like my White Mage staves can -- this could be a problem.

It's a tough call to make, but it actually seems slightly more beneficial to sacrifice Doug's physical DPS from Monk if I'm going to be fighting somebody that can change weaknesses. Black Magic is just too versatile and powerful to give up for that kind of fight.

A quick boat ride to Tokkul and SON OF A BITCH IT'S A TRAP. The party is paralyzed and jumped by a bunch of soldiers from Castle Hein, and imprisoned along with King Argus. I beat up a demon next door and then quickly escape thanks to a soldier giving me a second Mini spell. The dungeon itself is pretty short and I'm soon fighting Hein, who's a giant, flashily dressed skeleton that I also know as Amon thanks to FF14.

The Scholar actually shows itself to be pretty powerful during this fight, since Alchemy doubles the power of curative / offensive items used, so Doug was doing around 1500 damage per item use -- more than J. Bowie did with his tier 3 spells. Still, I'm all too happy to switch immediately back out of Scholar after the fight is over.

The Elder Tree drops everybody off at its fairy orgy, and they give me the Fang of Wind to go with my Fang of Water. The tree then decides to close the woods to outsiders for a millennium while it heals, and kicks me out. If I try to walk back in I just get dizzily thrown out.

My next stop seems to be either Tokkul or Castle Argus, but before that, time to save and try to get some sleep. Play time is at 5:15.