Board 8 > Got Dragon Quest 11 S today (Playthrough topic)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Played through a bit.
Update tomorrow as I edit notepad.


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Apparently I still suck with defining tomorrow.

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bump

Thanks.
I've actually been going outside almost daily this past week to help some friends out. So my bad there, unexpected life hits.

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I should at least give some update on the pause.

Real life started opening up again and I've been pretty much riding that stream completely. Gone out a few times, seen what friends have done, and kind of snapped in a few ways, in a good way. Am desperately trying to fix my place up as after 3 years i should have been done instead of letting much of the situation stagnate like it has. Also am picking up cooking, a skill I've let deteriorate pretty badly. Haven't checked B8 in the past week much more than a cursory glance, let alone posted much if at all in the past week. In the now one gacha game i play I didn't get my dailies done yesterday. Haven't seen much anime either, though that's an easy cool down for a day.

I'll definitely get back to this sooner than later, or rather figure out the time for it. Am flipping a lot of my bad habits, or trying to at least, to use it more effectively. Week or two more, if i do it right, should suffice to regaining RPG time, even if it's something like a scheduled couple hours every couple days. So yeah, sorry for the pause like it is but it's one of those "need to reorganize life and priorities" moments.

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Another week.


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And another.

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Still in one piece.

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And again.
But finally got to manage time enough to know I can actually play actual games again.

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and that unfortunately did not happen at all in the past week.
should in this one though.

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Should update tonight or tomorrow.
Just don't know purge rate is all and computer's scanning hardware.

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purge rate's something like a week and a half right now btw

but I wouldn't count on it consistently staying above a week

gotcha. thanks.


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And again.

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boop

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De boop.
Charging my switch now. Battery idled out. And grabbing old notepad files, changed SSD.

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boop de boop

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This playthrough topic is fucking fire

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indeed.
but i'm afraid all good things must come to an end and the riveting series of bumps must stop in favor of actually playing video games, which i haven't really done since late May. sure i'll play mobile shit (Sinoalice, Arknights) but i'm not sure how much i actually count that personally. a handful of hours in other games sums up the last few months. and while i did make some update i never posted since it wasn't something i could be consistent with.

fortunately, though not at the point i'd like to be, more than enough time for video games again.
so to recap (for myself if nothing else, because this is right in the spot of "the fuck was i doing?"):

- am currently collecting the dragon balls
- monster musume was right and that got me access to the mermaid kingdom
- not water level had me meet the queen who gave me one of them.
- i got to a new area afterwards and got to a city so i could teleport and resume exploration.

alright, updated Switch, resuming playthrough:

looking through quest list... lots of ???
i do need to teleport back to the mermaids to sing the song the old man taught me but i'll get to that later.
there's a quest in Phnom Noah, i'm not sure what this is yet. Light It Up, i gotta beat some enemies to get Rainproof Rayon. ...oh, those enemies are just outside actually. doing that, then. they're a rare enemy and shiny so i don't mind that at all, they're pretty tough too. i beat some Brollygaggers, get the item, give it to him, and quest complete. alright, let's get outta here. zooming to the Scandinavian country i can't tell which it is? sure!

get on boat to the place next door...
Disembark at the Viking Hideout?

hell yes.
i go around busting barrels, talking to people, and find a locked door. well alright. chief of vikings is also happy. and... these guys are going to have a stolen orb, aren't they? well, at the back of their hideout there's an open area, woo!
and a door that won't open with a squiggly line icon. so plot opens this, got it. at the end of the path is a cliff and water below, which my map clearly shows connected to the area behind the squiggly door. well that ain't obvious.

the shiny objects here are pretty good too, Bright Rock and Mythril Ore, i'm okay with this. there's also a well here with shiny object, pot, and... bed?
the fuck, why is there a bed. who's sleeping in wells in a snowy mountain region. are you trying to fucking kill yourself?

so yeah i take a nap and recover before leaving the well.
i miss this irrationality.

i'm re-familiarizing myself with the map, getting used to location names. well, i've done all i can here so i'm gonna go back to Phnom. hmm, i need a nickname for this place but later. exploration first. i zoom, turn around, get on my horsey, and go up the path to see where else to go. let's go south first. i enter the Southern Champ Sauvage - Promontory Cave. ...sure, no clue that that is. i talk to my party and find out Rab literally beats women with sticks, uh, thanks for that info guy. anyway, there's a red book here that i'm too stupid to read still so i guess i'll be back here later. i'm also re-checking my equipment and some of these charms got a lot better. Shield-bearer is legit - it's a +10 Defense with some other minor boosts. Supplicant is 1MP regen/turn. pretty interesting, i equip both and leave on not-Epona up the path this time. i cross a bridge, pick up a ton of shiny things, beat some enemies up, the usual. as i go there's a sign in a fork in the road telling me that the left side has L'Academic de Notre-- it's not-France, okay? and it's an academy for... mini medals? well, i'm convinced. this is what i should've gone to school for. and cutscene.

i see, so it's not just a weird not-French school but also a mini-medal academy for women! oh... joy? yes, they are perfecting the art of picking up mini-medals. and this applies to women of all types, whether they're human, bats, zombies, all women are mini medal queens. i go around talking to people, continue being confused, but talk away.

...also wait, the guy at the gate is... a guy. we just gonna ignore this?

i'd say to throw him into the nearby well but apparently people sleep in these damn things too. and sure enough a slime tells me a king sleeps in a well-cabin. i talk to him twice because i'm not convinced the game glitched on me with Talk Tripe but no, that's true apparently.

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as i wander through this gigantic school which isn't as big as it looks i go around talking to people and unlocking quests.

A Memorable Mystery.
i'm asked by someone to look into a diary's mystery. okay.

Making Things Right
i'm to make a +1 queen's whip. ...uh.

The Agony and the Ecstasy
i'm to read the student newsletter stuck on a noticeboard. clear quest chain, let's do it.

as i talk to my party they all have stuff to say, pretty positive on the school, Erik not understanding he's got "bad boy" appeal, Jade adorably talking about how she was learning the perfect roundhouse kick when she was their age and busted through a brick wall, all but reaffirming that she's best girl. as for new equipment, i get myself a uniform. this isn't that impressive stat-wise but i'm interested by one stated special effect: slight increase to monster drops. hmm. honestly i've had Serena wearing the EXP boost armor because she's almost never in my party outside of boss fights but this bit interests me. i also see that i can buy some materials now in this shop, that's cool. i can also buy perfectionist pearls, 100G each.

...you know, with that price i'm pretty sure there's a ton of easy money tricks to be had here. it's not necessary right now but i've a feeling i'm gonna break the economy sooner than later. there's also some girls in the hall with a clearly budding yuri relationship that's one sided because the other damn near says she's DTF but knows she'll make her girl jealous. just a tad awkward. anyway, apparently the noticeboard quest is gonna have me going to Eerie Eyrie, which is another area i assume, and a monster will have it. gotcha. and... a teacher is talking about a bird taking shiny shit. yeah, alright, guess i know where i'm going after this. i read books, get recipes, honestly this area is huge. there's also a ghost girl in a prep room at night, guess i'll talk to her later too. library makes it clear enough that i'm gonna go chase down a bird who stole a shiny silver orb, aka, one of the dragonballs. finally, near the headmaster's hut is basically the cutscene viewer, fully cementing this place as an important place to come back to.

also, i talk to the headmaster at some point and he says this place is for only young girls.
yet he's a dude.
and the town greater is a dude.
i mean okay i'm now an honorary member too but does this mean that front gate guy was also a special medal guy? he didn't seem like it. so i'm confused on this not-harem and that not-creep's existence.

anyway, it turns night, i see no prep room or ghost girl, and as i leave i see shiny thing in flowers. cool, that's one quest. apparently queen of Heliador used to go here and was friends with one of them? aww. that's a nice nod of continuity, though it worries me that Jade's mom was secretly a mini medal fiend. it's a really good equip too, base is slightly better than Fishnet Stocking +3 and it gives 3MP regen. hell of an item to have her in fights even more, which i ain't complaining on. as i save, i find the ghost girl. woo! she wouldn't say boo to a goose! she's also part of the Mini Medal Illuminati and won't let me leave here alive... or that's just a joke.

yeah.
haha, just a prank bro.
(she's going to murder me, send help.)


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anyway she has a final wish but won't tell me. i'm just assuming later quest. since i saved i do the next important thing: bust out my fun sized forge. the Queen's Whip doesn't come out quite as i want it to but that's fine, it just needs to be a +1 anyway. with this i'm done for now and teleport to the mermaid kingdom to finish that quest too. it's a trident, worse than the spear i'm using now, and with that i decide to give Jade the schoolgirl outfit. still as a bunny girl, of course, but with the MP regen accessory it's a no brainer to put her in the team. i can spam better with just 1 regen, 3 seems pretty wild and it's gonna be useful for a good while, especially as this thing's base is good enough as is. actually... i do have a decent number of skills in the forge and it's a 2 star. hm. and perfectionist pearls aren't a big deal anymore. yeah, let's rework some equipment.

...oh.
so you can do stuff to those charm things huh.
armor doubled. 3 MP restored each turn. i see. so it tripled the restoration? i've greatly underestimated these things' value based off their initial stats if their reworked versions are so much better. so that's the first thing i rework to +3. Trickster gets a notable improvement to evasion, 4%? nice. Assassin... doesn't change much. but maybe that's because Crits are already super powerful as is. now Warlock +3, that's pretty amazing.

takes a bit of effort but +3s are go. i don't get everything - my greatsword is still hard to do so i settled on a +1, Jade's spear is hard but i got a +2 - but a lot comes out really well.
belle's bow did get to +3 though. 6 regen a turn. yeah, that's dumb. here i'm happy to get my 3 to spam AOE attacks, she comes along with that shit? c'mon. anyway, i give Erik Trickster since he already had good evade, bumps him to 10%. i give Warlock to... hm. i do use Rab a lot, though Veronica having even more chance to kill things is nice as there's very few things that improve that thus far. so yeah, she gets it. while also deciding what to do with Assassin i ultimately give it to me because i've got the highest crit rate right now though i assume Erik will eventually want that too. i give the +20 defense accessory to Rab because this way he won't be as frail, which is a pretty important thing for an off-healer. Serena's tanky, i'm tanky, he's frail, so fixing that at the expense of two Devil's Tail (Agility boost).

alright i'm off.
i make my way around and am confused how Metal Slime Knights aren't riding actual Metal Slimes. like it's in the name, yet they're super frail. i get to the Eerie Eyrie soon enough and make my way inside. beat up a couple monsters, talk to party, and Veronica is under the impression i'm not familiar with these jumping robots.

lady, i went to your village.
they were much stronger over there. it's been months but i still haven't forgotten how utterly useless your village is at raising guards. while you were doing god knows what we had Jade over here perfecting a stone-breaking roundhouse kick being taught to her by a man who no longer clubs women trying to bang him. she also likes birbs, furthering her position as #1 girl. anyway after getting on a hopper, some stuff, i steadily make my way through to get on a spiderbone monster. also i get a "HEY THERE'S AN ORB NEARBY" glow which yeah, that's clear enough from what the NPCs said. for what it's worth, i've been collecting chests and shiny objects along the way but haven't found anything really interesting yet.

as i say that i find some treasure chests with recipe books. woo. i also note the trees with wrapped up vines, so this makes itself clear enough: climb up, do all the annoying stuff, put down some vines, go down places. got it. there's also the quest for the leaflet somewhere around here and i eventually find it behind a sign, kind of by accident really. but hey, that's fine. was clear that the birb boss wouldn't have it since he's guarding the orb so it was just a case of explore, explore, nothing? try again until eventually i got it. i'm glad i can see enemies and that they honestly run away from me asap when they spot me, so that's nice. also spiderbone mount can just dash right through any of 'em and not give a fuck so i kind of... commit a small scale genocide in my search. but it's okay, they respawn.

it's also dawning on me that i explored so much of the other places already that honestly when i'm told to go to a new area it's gonna be me just 'porting over to do it. but hey, that's fine. it means i technically will get through that aspect faster. for now i'm at what looks like the last section before the boss, got a chest with potions, and look at what i can make...

oh, Jade's spear.
a heavy wand that does group lightning, nice.
claws that... beguile birds? charm?
"Talons so entirely like the real thing that avians are utterly entranced by them."

wait, you mean to tell me an 80 year old Scottish manlet is gonna seduce some birds by flashing them his nails? this is honestly tempting but i think i'm more likely to just kill them first and feel this is a more merciful experience to monsters. anyway, he stays on the sidelines as i go face the bird monster.

...well that was quick.
moving on, then. i get the orb in treasure chest, zoom back to the academy, finish that mission and am propositioned and sexually assaulted by a monster girl. unfortunately she's actually a monster so i promptly leave, although she does give me her uniform. i'm uh, confused how her uniform can fit on women like Veronica and Jade/Serena. like what kind of clothing is this? it fits monsters, it fits a loli, it fits adult sized women? but alright, i've done all there is here. so uh...

...where did i need to go again?
i check with mermaid queen she tells me somewhere west. not very helpful. wait. oh right the town i ignored! i zoom over to that.

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Updating again soon.

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later today

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i get in town, party scatters because of some ruins. well okay, that's clearly the next goal. everyone's talking about a mural so i'm assuming that i'm gonna kool-aid man through a wall that happens to have a mural and a dungeon behind it.
though wait, didn't that sorta happen already with the orphanage earlier? well whatever, maybe Dogi is the inspiration for questing in this game.

i'm still not sure what this region is supposed to be, Phnom Nonh. books also mention a Nhou Wat. arabic countries i suck at? vietnam? well, i loot the place anyway so it's not as big a deal. even from a man who's crying and drinking himself to death because his wife died, i jack some pearls from this man. call it a down payment.

i finally reach the top of the steps for a cutscene of Sylv comforting a girl and am told that i've gotta check the ruins to find her parents. alright. i now go down a bunch of steps, see that this place has both a red door AND a gated chest, and find a chest with the remaining recipes this market can do. weird place for a shopkeep to put 'em at but hey, whatever. it's pretty clear i'm gonna do some timey wimey shit sooner than later but down the ruins i go. cutscene.

mural's a picture of a woman and Serena stares at her boobs so hard the key around her neck starts to glow. this is the magic key, which i assume is gonna be used to open some of these treasure chests locked behind things finally. there's a crack in the wall that i notice too and some rumbling. fortunately none of it matters because some NPCs who think luck is a limited resource come in to tell us to fuck off. so we do, apparently nobody in my party noticed her glowing tits. i go down to the mural again and...

...a horrifying, otherworldly moaning emanates from within?
uhhh...
i think there was just one lady with this group and like 4 dudes.

i see no new NPCs in my quest to find this girl's parents so i go up, talk to Sylv who says the girl is now missing too, so i steadily get to the town square as per Veronica's party talk. a guy marks me as an easy tourist and apparently his wife owns the inn and we're staying the night. time to get robbed, i guess. i go in the inn, raid it, and talk to NPCs, one girl offering a puff puff. i may be looking for a girl and her parents but that's never a reason to deny a good puff puff.

and as a result my charm goes up by 5. i'm pretty sure that's not how it works but what do i know?
the wife doesn't know anything but she's cute, good job NPC dude.
next morning the guy who rudely entered - Bazza - appears to have gone missing. talking to my party, seems Serena notices something is wrong with the town. i'll tell you what happened, glowly mural boob saw the degeneracy occurring in front of her and yeeted them on the spot.

...not entirely off. i run to the mural, everyone sees the girl along the way, and Rab says he's seen her before but doesn't know where. cool, so this is her young version. i get there, and cutscene. apparently the mural is changing and... she did indeed yeet them, just to inside the thing. well okay then. she finally glows to knock our party inside and now we're on The Other Side, Disney song not included. new zombie enemies, neat. i get to the mural inside the mural, cutscene. somehow everyone is surprised this thing talks and is alive. what, the teleportation didn't give it away? long story short, she really wants more adds on the outside mural and we're to join the currently charmed group of people. Sylv meanwhile wants to find the girl and values that more than, y'know, finding a way out.

the monsters in here are notably different than outside. much stronger, and even a liquid metal slime. demon that can cause instant death, an obvious mimic that i have to beat anyway for the treasure, pretty neat. anyway, i get through this maze for a giant to a cutscene with a swirly maneating plant. fortunately with Jade's warning, i remembered that this hand of mine is glowing white, its loud roar tells me to fuck off, so i do. going down the path, cutscene again, a broken slab warning that the mural is evil: greedy people get charmed by riches, good people get brought over by a lost little girl. we all find a corner with a crack of the mural and jump out. woo!

...Serena wants to tell everyone in the village about it, aiming for the village square because there's plenty of people there.
lady uh, this is a tourist trap for the rest of them.
we're random strangers.
why the fuck would they believe us?

well apparently that doesn't matter because the girl's over here luring an old man to get cured. yep, she's evil. and yep, she's the lady. so despite the fact that this little girl just did multiple evil cackles, had red glowing eyes, and teleported outta there after dark aura surrounded her, nobody in the town cared. hey husband of the inn lady, she did this right in front of you, how the fuck are you still playing dumb? and parents with kids playing around, did y'all just not see and hear a random little girl literally teleport after laughing like a villain? do you guys just not see or hear anything? and this girl's done this to multiple people too, how do none of you realize it's the same little girl and that she has no parents!

this place is hopeless, you know what we should do to solve it? a fucking sledgehammer, that's what. takes me less time to swing that baby than you to 'port my ass. at least Rab asked the one important question of who gave her this power but damn. anyway, once again run to the mural, go inside, in the dungeon. sparing the details because it's basic: run around, get treasures, stomp monsters, make sure my main party to be pepped will be when the fight breaks out. i get to a statue, save, and fight.

"it's over, you're cornered!"
...Veronica says while we're inside our enemy's world.
Dora-in-Grey? holy shit Palutena had a hell of a makeover.

and fight ends with MC still charmed because Jade's multi-thrust makes boss fights a joke.
Mordegon gets name dropped as she dies and drops the magic key. cool.

...you stupid NPC are you serious. how did you not realize the mural is evil. did you just like, never wonder why people keep getting added to the fucking thing? just how bad did everyone in this town fail their perception check?! nobody notices a random little girl, nobody notices a mural that's constantly changing, nobody notices an evil, laughing, dark aura'd chick who 'ports out despite being in front of them, nobody noticed anything.

anyway, few cutscenes later i'm on my way with this key. but first... yep, talk to NPCs, Bazza mention the key works for somewhere in this city. okay, i try it out: this opens red doors but it doesn't work on the gated doors. Rab mentions that there's plenty of places with this, mentions the Norse city that i remember... yeah, it was sealed by this. guess that opens that pathway along with some bonus exploration, neat. save.

oh, and this village is already shifting from "place with lucky mural" to "place with evil mural."
capitalism, ho!

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Updating tonight

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tonight, morning after, same difference when you don't sleep.

alright so i can open red doors.
problem: how the hell do i know where all of them are? Rab mentions two, ruins near Zwaard and not-Nord area i gotta go to but i know there's plenty more i've seen. also doesn't help that the next objective listed in map is going to not-Nord land, i figured it would be but damn. guess i'll hit up the first place he mentions, those ruins.

...uh.
that's it?

i got to the ruins, opened the door, got 3 chests and a purple orb was indie. also got a choker. and... that was it. i expected more than that. like was i supposed to struggle or something, have the purple orb be a missing orb lost to time that nobody knows where it is? like all you need to do is talk to your party and you'll be told everything.

well, let's see how awkward this makes future cutscenes as i'm pretty sure this one should come after snow place or a trigger for it somehow. i also can't get past the purple magic circle in the other ruin part so that's for later, i guess.

this is one of those times when i'm glad i kept bumping this topic as i can just look through what i've said to find a red door.
...the map is annoying on this too. if i'm in the area specifically the red door appears but if i'm in a nearby area it's just a red dash, no way to tell exactly. but i collect a few.

hometown
downtown slums
not puerto rico - falcon knife. hits twice? i'm interested. with dual wield, does that mean i hit 4x or does the effect not stack? let's find out.
island near it - slime crown. this is also apparently not-australia.
ruins - got it already. recipes, purple orb, enchanted something, choker shiny.
not hawaii - zombie mail, seed of life, mini medal.
not-Vietnam i think - first place i did it.

fortunatley i'm still a believer of exploration and feel i'm missing something. so i start going down the line of places and find the following:

hotto - noticed the field red line. went out, saw door, horsey to it. banishing blade. inferior to my current sword, shame. honestly the hunting here took longer than i'd like so i'm just gonna end with that.
galloping city - guess i didn't note it, bad me. but it's right on the map, done. a couple items, mini medals, recipes.
not italy - more recipes and items. mini medals, woo. this one has me confused though as uh... there's a pumpkin in here along with a lighted candle. somebody wanna explain this to me? how is it that a room that, in a room explicitly opened by a magic key, there's a candle and pumpkins to run over? seriously, what wizard is taking care of this place?
octogonia - another field place. takes a while to get there and it's connected to the inn by the ruins so i just go there and horsey does the job. oh damn, 3 mini medals.
island near THE STRAND - falcon blade. tried the knife already, it stacks. neat. however it only stacks for that one hand so it's 3 attacks, not 4. whatever, Sylv, you've got a new weapon.
slime island is, unfortunately, the other gated door type. making a note here because i'm sure that'll be annoying then too.
island to the north has nothing.
island south of THE STRAND - other gated door too. silver door i guess i should call it?
island only viable teleporting water thing, centralis or something like that, had a door. sainted soma. not sure what that is, sounds like a healing item of sorts but doesn't read like one. ah well, i assume it matters like the slime crown does.

i uh, can't help but notice that i can't find my hometown or the slums.
looking at the map... i can go everywhere but the center of the continent. hotto area has my teleporting door, i think.
okay. hm.
i look at the water map... then the normal map. every single harbor point has been hit - except one. it's also the coast by the center continent. alright let's see what happens. i land on the emerald coast and... yep! okay, that's the other door, cool. the one in my hometown is fancy and can be gotten by falling off a cliff easily. it's a Wristorative, aha! puns. heals 10HP. kinda shit by default but maybe at +3 it'll be amazing, it's by far the fanciest red door yet. i'll see in a few, i got a downtown slum to hit up.

i'm also kind of weirded out that there's no guards posted anywhere anymore.
like, anywhere.
not at checkpoints. not at the entrance to the fucking city. nowhere to be seen. i guess the in-game logic is they're looking for me on another island and wouldn't expect me to be able to teleport everywhere for free? but they know i've got a boat and can be approached by the coast so uh... yeah, incompetence? incompetence! oh hey there's a guard inside so i talk to him.

have we met? n-no. never.
man we share the same hair color? what a coincidence. we also probably share the same clothing, way to hold a sword, and it's not like my blue haired buddy over here exists. what a coincidence on all fronts, aha-ha-ha.

(holy shit they're really incompetent.)

i decide to test this theory by going to the castle and Erik stops me just before going up those steps. fair enough, i'll just meet his buddy in the square directly around. even he says i shouldn't be here and i agree, however i can spend literally endless days doing nothing and the staff is too incompetent to realize a thing. i finally make it to the downtown area and... get... 5000 gold.

...that's it?
i spent all that backtracking for 5000 gold?!
maaaaan.
like i'm glad to have 3 spots on my Zoom list that should've been there but this is some bullshit. there were 5 perfectionist pearls along the way too but seriously this is a bummer. i talk to a priest, save, and just get to work on recipes and +3s. damn, that HP healing one is a 3 star item? guess it will be something worthwhile after all. i manage to get it to a +2 where it heals 20 HP and that's nice, a doubling, but i dunno how much better that is in one more. still, the best equipment i work is for Erik: Robber Gloves +3 so he can steal. Bloodletter +3 makes that knife go from a 6% instant kill to 12%, hell yeah. i was with a 2% for a while so this will be a nice jump. dunno if it has any impact with the Falcon Knife's double hit but whatever, that's still on him too. i give him the crit boosting item instead of evade (paper? charm?) because 3 hits is a lot of opportunity to do it. i'll take the evasion, i guess. Sylv gets the Falcon Blade +3, which is the same power is Platinum Sword at base. guess they're finally getting caught up to. i teleport to mini medal school because i've got a lot to drop off.

...oh yeah there was a red door here.
bit of a weird move to hide a mini medal in this place too but whatever, i'll take it along with the other items. and... a third uniform. they really want me to run the harem party i see. not a bad idea game, not bad at all. Veronica, you're a schoolgirl now. technically wouldn't the best farm team here for drops be Erik + 3 girls? man, i didn't sign up for this cuckolding. fuck you, Gogeta-ripoff. i get another Falcon Blade and am close to an Agility Gilet! uh... hm. 2 Falcon Blades. sounds nice. i'm a bit tired of the forge though and wanna get back to the game, so i just slap it on Sylv and move on. he's honestly my least used party member right now. Zoom to Sniffleland, save at the statue, and get to the red door.

this city can use a shovel.
a shovel could dig them all out of ice in 2 hours, tops. this is a reminder that Shovel Princess is a great light novel that's so utterly incomprehensibly stupid it's wonderful.


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another week, another update tonight.

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...wait its been a week?
damn, genshin really is sucking all my time.

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that's enough genshin for now.
helps that i'm just down to just dailies. back to DQ.

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lengthy update tomorrow, played quite a bit of it. just not really edited and election day is election day.

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Day, week. Election was long. And Slime vol 9 came out, 362 page "light" novel complete.

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change of plans due to aiming for better consistency: daily/every other day updates for the next couple weeks, intending to force me to play through more of it and stay ahead of what i'm typing up. should work better than large update -> week for large update. and it makes more sense sectioned off like this anyway.

so first up, the nordic land of the sniffles.

it's frozen, i went in the door, and am told to go find a non frozen person. wandering around i find a blond and yeah okay this is Sweden. cute glasses girl, young queen, watch out Jade or i'm leaving you for this blond. there's 11 treasures supposedly but they're encased in ice too so if i wanna loot i gotta defrost everything. Veronica's plan is simple enough, beat the shit out of the witch who cast a spell to put everyone in ice. sure, let's go with that.

now uh, why exactly do we believe everything she said again? like i can accept the excuse of "thought with my dick, forgot that's always a mistake" but what does the rest of the party have to say for themselves? getting this straight, we are:

• in a frozen city
• only one person exists who isn't frozen
• she blames a third party who came here months ago. meaning thing this lady has been alive for months, locked inside a frozen city. and her story is just that she was put to sleep.
• she sent us to do a random ass quest.

like nobody's spotting the obvious warning signs here? we're just gonna randomly believe her crap? well whatever, i'm off to explore the world. and by explore i mean "oh wait a sec i've been to everything in this area before." royal library, check. after we get this orb to the twins' hometown, probably. maybe there'll be mention of the purple orb or something but that's clearly how this is lined up. and this of course reminds me once again that i am still confused as to how they were so utterly worthless in combat when this is the place they grew up in. but moving on, to the frozen hell area.

0 treasures. yeah, i've been here.
i rush to the save and move on in. cutscene, walk forward, cutscene. Hendrick's in a fight! quick, save him Mediolas-- wait wrong series. kinda looks similar (closer to his brother though), with a similar name, and a similar role. not sure who ripped off who/is an homage in this case; Seven Deadly Sins is obviously Toriyama inspired but man. does remind me that i should finish that series now that it's over, am somewhere around Vol 33 i think. where was i? oh yeah, solo boss fight.

bash him upside the head 4 times and win. cutscene.

Hendrick tells me that i'm not getting away this time! the game then reminds us that hey, we're in a blizzard. kind of a dumb th-- dayum. chick is wearing a hell of an outfit on now. skin color change, hair change, ditched the glasses, but looks like her still. she freezes both of us in place, grabs Hendrick's necklace and says now she'll be matching. because we need even more proof that the other knight guy is evil, i guess. at the very least, that knight has good taste in women, goddamn. sure she's probably crazy, definitely evil, but she is hot. fortunately for me, i'm not going to die to her here because Veronica saves the day. aaaaand i collapse because i'm now dying of hyperthermia, whoops nevermind.

fortunately there's a nearby cabin and we go to it. well, they carry my half dead body to it is more precise. Rab also enjoyed talking shit to Hendrick, 'ppreciate that. anyway, once i'm awake cutscene. hot witch lady is from the Age of the Gods, so she's an extra in FGO's Babylonia arc, got it.

time to go to the Royal Library finally. as i talk to the party: 1) Veronica's a loli tsundere and Serena's willing to rat her out, 2) Jade is putting 2 and 2 together, proving she's the smartest of the bunch, and 3) Sylv totally gets me. the man called her hot but said that her beauty's only skin deep. i'm assuming he's an ass man. the puzzle appears to have reset in Royal Library but it doesn't matter because enemies don't want to fight me. couple minutes later it's complete, i'm in the room, cutscene.

oh no the monster we beat keeps the witch's powers sealed! who could've guessed this.
also the book the queen was reading was a forbidden book.
oh hey Veronica figured it out and wants to go back to talk to the queen. score one for the loli in a catgirl outfit, imma 'port right on over. actually pretty much everyone in the party got it except for Serena i think. truly, she's a blond bombshell in all senses of the word.

i get back in town, talk to her again, cutscene. Veronica's suspicious and i'm getting suspicious of this chick's accent. aha, a fireball that burned the witch is on this girl's face, that's proof! and my reward for this is a magical girl sequence, okay hold up.

now i'm not complaining.
but i feel like i'm about to beat the shit out of a too old magical girl and the game is gonna just whitewash this as me saving a city from an evil witch. no, i'm beating her because Veronica should be the magical girl, not this queen wannabe. also her trigger to transform is throwing her glasses? that's all wrong! almost as wrong as this girl's accent flying across at least 3 different regions.

anyway battle time.
takes a little bit of effort. and by effort i mean Jade stabbed her full of holes a lot and it worked. she turned me into a snowman and stuck that Frozen song in my head, truly evil. but she goes down easily enough and we get a cutscene. she needs to be sealed away into the book again as opposed to, y'know, just... beating her. i could just kill her in this weakened state you know, we don't need to seal he-- nevermind, she's getting sucked in like it's Ghostbusters. now defeated the city's ice melts. or disappears more like, if it melted i think we'd be talking to the mermaid queen right about now. meanwhile out the book pops... the queen?

okay so witch-queen was a faker, real queen was trapped in the book. but she knows i want the orb so she tells me to go to her. can do! but first, town exploration. many treasures to get, even if Erik is being Mr. Cool and saying he don't talk to royalty. sure, Erik. sure.

(that's more queen for me so i'm alright with this.)

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you can't kill the witch because you'd be no better than her if you did, obviously

killing witches is totally fine if they exist! but alright, continuing.

before going to see the queen, first thing first: explore the town and get that frozen chest i saw. there's only a couple items and the place isn't too big so it doesn't take too long, though i do get a good laugh out of the one in the weapon's shop. right in the back door/staff entrance, right next to the salesman, there's a chest with 3000 gold. yoinked that shit for myself and then talked to him like nothing was wrong.

platinum sword recipe get, far as i can tell that's the most important thing here. i move towards the castle and a cutscene hits featuring a voice crying for help. sadly neither me nor the twins know what that was about so we move inside.

naturally the first thing to do in a castle is loot. to the basement! place has a locked door, that silver icon for the other key entrance. i break all the pots around it and check the chest out to get a bunch more seeds, hell yeah. queen's bedchamber next, noble knife. fairly useless item but... purple tick tock? oh hey, another Pastword. forgot about those. voice calls me a fool and to not her take me for a fool, she's not who she says she is. so uh... i noticed that basement mentioned a prison.

am i going back to jail?
the guards also notice something's off.
lemme guess, the witch is pretending to be the queen again.
...well that was quick, didn't even involve a boss fight either, just all solved in a cutscene. yes, she was the witch and somehow the true queen popped right out of the book this time after answering the test correctly. the witch is drained so she can't put up a fight anymore but the queen defends her because she's clearly got Stockholm Syndrome and now it's time for some exposition:

witch was released by a man with the same pendant as Hendrik. gee, who could it be? she also apparently wanted to bang him but nope he just fucked off. truly a villain right there, like c'mon. you released a witch who's maybe a little crazy, a little evil, but into you and is surprisingly loyal. she's a woman of her word and doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. pretty great wife candidate right there but Mr. Eyes Half Closed is having none of it. Rab might understand who the villain is now, as if it wasn't obvious with that revelation. but hey, alls wells that ends well; i get the orb, the witch is staying with the queen as an advisor of some kind, and lost in all this is what the witch of accents really is. french? german? dutch? who knows!

i get a brief cutscene telling me that i've collected all of 'em and to go find that village. well that'll be easy. i figure i'll leave normally for now because Erik ain't in the team and it's the right call, cutscene happens as we leave. Erik being aloof, so is this gonna be a place he's got connections to, then? well, whatever it'll be clear soon enough. i also stand corrected, Rab doesn't know who that pendant is matching to and i assume neither does Jade. these people make my head hurt. as we leave Rab's porn collection falls and he's embarrassed by it but there's no shame in that, old man. stand tall, stand proud. after the cutscene i talk to the party and there's a mix of talking shit about Rab and Veronica telling me where to go. well, first thing first: mini medal dropoff.

45 get. Agility Gilet, woo. uh... hm. Rab, i guess. boosts him to a much better level than before. teleport to Arboria, just walk straight up and talk to the guy. cutscene.
there's previous Luminaries, right.
twin blonds are reincarnations, okay.
big baddy is my evil, okay.

wait previous hero was Erdwin? checking... ah, it's Erdwick in the Tick Tock stuff. wonder if they're related. who knows!
for now i'm just gonna keep going forward because i've taken way too fucking long collecting these dragon balls and want to get to the next part of the story. in this area i've got myself some new enemies like that flying dragon. spiffy.

he died quickly. yeah uh, Jade having 6MP regen right now makes a lot of these fights dumb because Multi-thrust on 1 enemy is 4 hits for 12MP. so just two turns, capped again. it's dumb but hey, that's how RPGs work.

i go inside the first forest and proceed to beat a bunch of enemies up. these aren't running away from me so i guess i'm close enough to the proper level, which is neat. they do give a ton of EXP though so that's nice, couple more level ups are always good as i proceed to run around getting items and just filling up the monsterdex. we finally get by the top at which point Rab being an old man catches up to him and we gotta camp out for the night. cutscene.

i believe this is the first time i've seen Serena's nails painted. usually fingers are the same peach color but here she's gotta strum that harp so she got extra color. we get some tree mythology stuff happening as people go to bed. wake up, walk around the base and find another treasure chest, then go up and the dragonballs fall into their slots as they produce... rainbow road?

surprise Mario Kart crossover? or just magically teleport me to the top, that works too. i find a well that lets me go back down so that's nice. anyway, to the end of this path, cutscene. the Master Sword is behind some vines and an electric barrier, oooh. guess this means he's canonically a single handed sword user eh? well alright.

alas i get shot in the back by Jasper, who was the knight guy i forgot the name of. the evil dude with half closed eyes. apparently he's super strong now and cue battle.
...cue unwinnable battle? as it's pretty clear i can't do shit to him. everything is ineffective because of his aura. sure would be nice if i had a SWORD OF LIGHT to deal with this but y'know, no good there. eventually he uses his power, we get knocked to 1 HP, and the fight ends for more cutscenes.

a lot more cutscenes with a lot of things happening. alright, let's see here...

Hendrick shows up with King Gero, goes "SEE I TOLD YOU HE'S EVIL NOW" to the king without realizing he's totally the last one to know. he then gets shot in the back because obviously he would be and King Gero then steps forward and has a weird body shifting moment as Mordegon pops out of a shadow from his body. Rab realizes he was a dumbass all this time in the process. excellent progress, just a liiiitle late there bud!
i then get stabbed in the chest but magically and it's so he could rip out my Luminary Command Seals and makes it his own, as the mark appears on his left hand now. basically, i got hit with Rule Breaker. he then grabs the sword, corrupts it with LORD OF SHADOWS powers or something, and stabs the now evil sword into Yggdrasill's heart (?) to corrupt/break it. now the source of all life is dead and as Veronica goes "wait no if this dies then--" the tree falls out of the sky, makes a gigantic shockwave, and cue new chapter title.

in other words game over heroes lost, gg guys.

or the game shifts to a new chapter title! was something about Hope. Searching For Hope? something like that.
queen mermaid says that okay looks like evil's won and we're in for some darkness but there's a light still inside and now this is a Kingdom Hearts game.

cue new cutscene, Sylv is alive on a beach. his burly sailor buddy somehow found him at just this moment and gets him on the ship, where he briefly has a cry before getting the depression slapped out of him. that's a damn good crewmate Sylv's got there. now motivated once more because he realizes that he's totally the weak link in this canon, we're off to Gondolia, where upon landing turns out everyone is depressed.

sounds like a lot of backhands are gonna be needed.


---

so everyone in town is depressed because far as they can tell the world is ending. which i mean, the tree of life just fell so yeah. i'm told about a guy who got in town and got robbed along the end of the map, guess that's where i'm going. find him, cutscene, he got jacked by the Beastie Boys. Beasty Boys? whatever, by the non-copyright band. i guess we're a Jojo series now and the new MC is called Sylvanjo.

i find 'em.
beat 'em up.
take 15 silver coins.
and grab the stolen bag in a cutscene.

they explain that they're just forced between starving and crime because no sea travel is possible. i don't quite think that's how things work but either way, Sylv smacked sense into 'em and turns a pike into a long loaf of italian bread so huzzah. i deliver the bag to its owner, he tells me to meet him in Hotto later, and we're good to go. as i leave cutscene where they join me for now and we've gotta go do some stuff in the area right outside as the goal is to bring hope back to people, one at a time. good mission, i like it.

oh yeah, for personal notes: gated silver door in this city. important little thing there!
i leave the city and am on my way to Gallopolis i think. the G names threw me off but i remember being told to come out into the swampy area and there i go, mostly skipping fights and i eventually run into a priest. he's depressed but wants some talking cow's milk, however the cow is depressed too. so i cheer up the cow, it gives me a pail of milk - how the fuck it milked itself, i do not know - and i give it to the priest who chugs it and then joins my team. so now my party is 3 lost boys, a priest, and a flamboyant circus act.

no comment.
as i make my way to Gallopolis a cutscene hits where a guy and a couple guards talk to me about how the circus is still active and trying to cheer people up, but alas, they're all depressed too. i guess i'm doing that show. i make my way over, talk to the person in charge, who tells me to find 2 people. alright.

person 1, juggler, i just said red ball and he joined.
person 2, drummer dude who's off on the side all depressed so he can't join. he says after we cheer up his girl he will so i look around, find nobody, then decide the game's fucking with me again and... yep, talk to the super flashy horse that used to be Sylv's and that'd be it. they bond over his horse, cheer her up, and he joins. that's 2/2, woo. i also talk to the horse and she gives me horse shit.

i talk again, i get another chunk of it.
i uh, am gonna stop talking to this horse.

to the circus!
talk to ringmaster, cutscene, everyone oohs and ahhs as the show is a success. ringmaster talks to me afterwards about how i (Sylv) remind him of the woman who inspired him to spread cheer to the world. she got married to a famous knight, never saw her again again, and Sylv reacts to it. would that be his mom? my mom? either way, we don't dwell on it though as 3 of the circus peeps wanna join too, prompting the game to tell me to go to a camp to re-arrange my party because apparently i've got too many groupies.

tree circus dudes, a priest, 3 lost boys, and the great sylvando. this group is officially no girls allowed. burly ship guy says Hotto Steppe next, so we're off. eventually i run into a man who's by a monster, clearly he needs help! to... grow it?

...wait the horse shit had a purpose? fuck me, here i thought this was just a gag. here ya go plant buddy, enjoy. as a result of my generous gift, botanist joins the crew. swear to god this ship is gonna be fucking busy. i keep going towards Hotto, as i cross the bridge new guy tells me to beat up some monsters and get food. sure, can do. he then joins me and we're by the campfire so i'm gonna take a look at the party i've got.

martial artist good, priest added in, juggler is a mage so he's in, botonist good because he's apparently potions, a guy who puts enemies to sleep good. alright, that'll do. sleep guy is the most ? but it's basically a choose your support between ailments, buffs, and debuffs. keep going towards Hotto, at a bridge there's a Gigantes.

fight, win. in hindsight, attack buffer probably was the best option considering i hit 3 times for free. too late now though, off to Hotto, the haiku village. there's a weird verification to enter the village but i do anyway. cutscene, old man in Hotto and his mom are here and they got a present.

...a pseudo-float with one wheel. i see. and then the lost boys got someth-- oh holy fuck he's a motherfucking peacock now.
he gets on the float and cue a scene of some 12 dudes shouting HERE WE COME as they kick like rockettes to a man in a peacock outfit on an almost rainbow float with elephants or something.

this is a very joyful group alright. >_>;
...oh, game prompts me to save. well alright. and cue a new title...

Jade Journeys Forth.

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one thanksgiving and black friday later.

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back to the semi-daily schedule tomorrow.


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should update tonight in the AM hours.

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and by tonight i apparently meant in a week.

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in town, go to church. talk to a few monsters, they tell me where to go. apparently the church is protected which is weird considering this is literally a place where monsters came out and there's a guy guarding the basement but uh, alright.

some previous fighters are here doing slave labor for monsters. well okay. eventually i get to where i need to go after talking to a bunch of NPCs and cutscene.

enemy is Booga. he's into Jade more than me, apparently. he also has a face full of teeth and wants her in a new outfit? hell yeah, let's do this. the game even gives me a choice so of course i say yes. and with his magic powers of changing a girl's outfit - this is a very obscure power if i've ever seen one - he turns her into... a blue outfit bunny girl?

...uh, Booga.
she already was in a bunny girl outfit.
not that this version isn't nice but i mean... it's a pretty small change.

well, he apparently has a girl who makes a vortex and is gonna suck up the NPCs, so boss fight now? no, guess not, since Jade saves an NPC and gets sucked into it herself. checked the menu, apparently this outfit is a curse somehow. ...can i keep it?

move forward, cutscene.
...Goku? as an incredibly weak and frail man? he's wearing a Master Roshi gi but has SSJ Goku hair.
well he tells me to let him get his ass beat and help people downstairs. sounds good to me. there's a priest and breakable pots here? hm. so there's items to be had. also the woman is Boodica. Boudica i know from Fate, one of the few cases of a queen who actually was royalty of some kind. no gender bending element here! but i digress. a couple pots have a couple items, talk to people, they're all miserable, cutscene at the end.

oh hey there's the rest of the cast. Vince with his weird deep voice accent and a bunch of other people. Sinderella and her... uh... normal voice? kinda confused here. anyway she doesn't like me because i'm friends with THE DARKSPAWN and he revived the LORD OF SHADOWS. i mean, technically true on the second part but whatever. anyway she hates me and nobody believes in hope anymore. damn.

however!
Boodica hears us talking and has me set up to fight in the Girly Burly. i've no idea what this is but they're all scared. i'm not because i'm pretty sure i'm overleveled and unless this lance got outdated real quick, still good to go. random NPC talks to me to give me some items, alright. continue moving, explore what's left here - like the book with love letters - and move on.

round 1, multithrust.
round 2, multithrust.
round 3, multithrust.

no items used.
cutscene.

...Boodica is uh, something. Jade, you're a British gal. this is your 1st century queen. a 4 armed cyclops with pink nails, oh boy. anyway, Jade gets whacked but gets back up, does a speech about hope, kicks Boodica, gets knocked down and just before getting stomped Vince comes in along with the other NPCs. Sinderella even heals me.

she also has the most normal accent and it's throwing me off. there's like, no voice acting element to this. it's just a girl talking, i'm confused. to battle though!

spam multithrust, NPC party members join in just fine. i accidentally die once too but the bunny suit revives me. was this that weird misty thing that happened in an earlier cutscene? well, whatever. one multithrust later, dead. cutscene.

we kill the cyclops as i'm left wondering... in this guy's journal he talked about 10 years after their first date holding hands. i do wonder, which of the hands do you hold with a 4 armed gal? well, doesn't matter because she's dead now and we go through the space-dimension crack. back in the real world you've got Booga also hoping that burly monster isn't beating up his bunnykins, as he put it. okay, so lore right now for me goes Booga really did not want to date this girl but she somehow must've been the only one putting out. so he made up an excuse to push her into another realm and then finally Jade showed up and he's going "YES, FINALLY, SOME GOOD FUCKING FOO-- WOMEN."

now the issue with this plan is this girl is apparently a stalker and can summon black holes/a vortex into another dimension. so uh, i don't think you can cheat like that, chief. handle your woman, damn.

anyway something's actually happening in the cutscene: we're about to fight Booga but the bunny outfit is turning to black. oh, so this is what that weird moment was in a previous scene, the curse is kicking in. as she's fading Booga... threatens to hold hands with her, in the most rapey way possible.

this game should be rated M. holding hands is too far.
game prompts me to save as she's passing out, sure.

...Erik's New Acquaintance.
WAIT GO BACK.

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tomorrow, that's enough LNs.

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clearly, i lied.
i think i'm at about 20 LNs read now, which is roughly a quarter of what i did last year.


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and that's through another couple series.
but i''ll actually update late tonight/tomorrow and focus on the game now. actually want to play video games again after too much reading.

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And another.

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after work.


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okay. so uh, i guess that's the most "to be continued" arc yet. at least Sylv and his lost boys is an adventure to meet up again one day, this is uhhh.... okay, moving on.

Erik.
wake up Erik, there's a city that's been burned.
and here there's a good guy slime. or i guess it's a goo guy slime with these puns. his name is Healijah, lmao. alright, what's Ezekiel gonna be then? let's just go all in. anyway in this cutscene as i'm talking to a heal slime he heals a wounded Erik and then heals... the door to unlock it.

<_<; i'm concerned.
i've read Redo Healer. both web novel (through Vol 6) and manga (up to date). i'm gonna fully enjoy its airing next season and hope Funimation dubs this one too.~ but point is... if he's healing the lock and it unlocks, then this heal might be time-based heal and works on inanimate objects.

i'm not sure healing is really defined in the DQ series, so maybe that's the method done as opposed to the other standard of rapid acceleration of body processes to restore itself or ??? particles that can impact a body/soul. but if it's the time reversal standard then i really hope this slime doesn't get a massive upgrade... actually wait, maybe that's exactly what we need. we just need to heal the world to fix the issue with Mordegan! let's go slime buddy, i've got this problem solved. we'll make a Dragon Quest Monsters spinoff between just us two.

uh... right, game.
so yeah slime buddy also somehow found my items and gave them to me, so i leave the jail cell.
6 treasures.

there's a monster, beat it. there's a locked door. hey slime buddy, open up. ...doesn't do anything. already my adventure plans are dwindling. in the other exit there's a small area with monsters talking, they say the key's in the middle. alright, dunno what th-- oh.

treasure chests. a bunch of 'em with one in the middle and Erik points out the others must be traps. well okay. i get the key first then check the chest to the right with peep... blue. ...uh. i check another one, blue. okay, Erik. i feel we need to go over these instincts of yours because 2 of these are weapons for you. is the reason your dagger sucks entirely because you've been trusting these instincts so much you've just missed loot in dungeons? anyway the other two are monsters but i am not letting this counter say 2, let's go. the second one crits me but i live and both drop a seed of skill, which honestly is significantly more valuable than the weapons. for now, move on back to the start, use key, keep going. in the fork of the road i spot the monsters who were talking about treasure chests and to thank them i murder them.

look, we could've been friends if they wanted to be but they attacked so they got 3 daggers in the back.

move on, speed through the middle of the terrain, cutscene. 2 strong monsters? cool, mini-boss ti-- okay nevermind, heal slime distraction so i could stab 'em in the back works too. keep going, door that's locked on this side exists, continuing and cutscene. slime knows of Erik's sister? did i know he had a sister? and the slime drops an obvious hint that the two were friends when he was younger.

did someone turn into a slime? did he just have a slime pet and forget about it? guess i'll find out soon.

(will continue later tonight, just watching a gura karaoke stream and losing focus on what i'm writing.)

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happy new year tomorrow. >_>;


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sorry, got gifted that weird not-minecraft viking game and ended up taking way more time than i thought. back to this.


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Currently been spending all week trying to not die.

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Succeeded at not dying

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