Oh no, what a shame that would be.

That's almost everything we can do now before we go and deal with this new problem. We'll get something out of this letter in a day or two, so we're just killing time until then.



No new rooms to buy, no new spell/food stuff either. That just leaves the equipment store.

That just leaves one last little thing...




Okay, NOW we can go back into the cave.



Amazingly enough, our chest already has something in it. There's no new enemies down here at the moment (only room placed is a Flower Garden) so we'll just see what it contains.



Nunchaku are, much like in real life, a bad weapon that are not worth using ever. They sometimes Stun things and maybe attack every enemy when they feel like it, but they're weaker than our Axe which does the second half as well so whatever.

Bronze Boots are boot upgrades. Very ho-hum, nothing too fancy so we'll grab two/three pairs later. Sapphire Ring is the ice/water equivalent to the Ruby Ring we have plenty of. Get some of them later too.

Silver Ring is new though. It's the first ring that gives a whole two defence points! Does nothing else though, so we'll ignore it forever.



But the one we're going to actually run with for the time being is this. The Scale Mail is a damned good armour upgrade.



"Armour" being the operative word, however, as Kate cannot use this one. Shame too, since its our first piece of equipment that grants double-digit defense.



Come the next day, we get a reply from King Leon. How nice!

So, basically, this floor is a shameless rehash of the previous one but with water monsters now instead of fire. Sorta feels like they should be switched, since this one is laughably easy considering we got plenty of time to get Fire spells and the like.



Just to really highlight how much filler this floor basically is, the obvious new enemies are just blue reskins.



Complete with requisite Fire weakness, of course, so we can demolish them.



Even the new food is mostly obvious. At least this one technically doesn't completely invalidate the Fireslime already.

...It only mostly does.



And, of course, Cold Spooks are the altars as well. Because obviously they are.



Weak to Fire as well, but Light still absolutely ruins their day moreso. Both oneshot, but Holy Light is still cheaper so its preferable by far.



As you would expect, they do drop the Ice equivalents to their Fire-types drops. So, a robe and a hat for the spook, and a ring we can get from the chest for the slime.



At least the Cold Robe is slightly hardier as well as being more elementally useful.

So, in theory, this is just the Fireslime but better. Same constitution but with a strength point for good measure. The trick between the two, though, lies in that the Waterslime gives MP whereas the Fireslime gives HP.

Still, that Strength point on top makes it hard to justify using the Fireslime at this point. The HP vs MP aspect is less important than it seems in this particular case, since there's plenty of ways of getting either now. This one is slightly more geared towards helping Kate, of course, but that doesn't really matter.



Anyway, next day!

As thematic as it is, even the spells seem backward in terms of progression. Ice Shards costs exactly as much as Burn, but is equally effective in general and...



Almost completely worthless on our deepest floor. Because it's a water floor and its a water spell. Also it costs 4MP to Burn's 3 for no reason at all, but that adds up with how low our MP currently is.



At least its useful against the cats, but that's about it right now.



Our first destination here is the bottom-left corner, which is wonderfully simple to get to after the past few. Of course it has the Ice equivalent to our current Tiara.



It's pretty much exactly what you would expect, to be honest. Same defence, but different elemental resistance. Gonna dupe this to get one for Gloop later, of course.



Water Sources have nothing to fight but the Otter Warriors. They're a little hardier than their HP implies, but a Fire attack oneshots them anyway so it doesn't matter to much.

They're also weaker than a lot of things we've fought lately which both makes sense but is kinda weird.



Fortunately for us, they're the only thing around that can drop Shell Rings. Unfortunately, they have a ton of drops possible. A weapon, armour, helmet, boots, that ring and this item. It's a food ingredient, but we need a lot to put it to use so we'll hold off going to talk to the Magic Store guy for the moment.



Also, as you would expect by now, Gloop can snatch Ice Shards from the Cold Spook.



And they drop the one hat we need for Owen too.



The Cold Hat is completely identical to our Hot Hat save for the element. It's the best thing Owen can use here with regards to Ice resistance from a hat/helmet, so it'll have to do.



Might as well talk to this guy again while we remember. No, it's not going to lead to another new quest this time.

Somehow I can't help but feel like we just got hustled.



We also need two of them to make one in the first place. It's like a Spook Tart but way better... with the catch of being much harder to make. Because Otter Warriors do not like dropping them.



Anyway, immediately after re-entering we'll pick up something from that chest. The Bronze Boots are actually a much bigger upgrade than you might have expected; arguably worth snagging more than the Scale Armor at first.



Thankfully, we were even able to get a Shell Ring relatively quickly which is good. Because now the Otters are going to drop their swords far, far, far more often than anything else.



Shell Rings are even the best ring to use at the moment for their resistance, since they give 20 vs the Sapphire Ring's 10.



Although, um, can't really equip it right now. Probably just to be more player friendly when we go and hand it over.



And now it begins. So many Otter Swords. They're not even good for this floor!



A decent damage upgrade in theory, but being water elemental kinda kills their usefulness. Go figure.

Hey, a neat new weapon.



It's a little weaker than what we have right now, but it's more suited to the floor. Sadly, its normal attack isn't fire elemental but the extra effect is and procs more often than you'd think.



It does sell for a relatively decent chunk, to say we got it for free and all. Gonna sell it to buy two back, so we've got it duped for both Gloop and Owen to use.

Seal is not worth the price at all. It's for Owen, and 3k is way too much for something we could do with Gloop effectively since we first met.

...Still going to buy it though.



Otter Warriors only have one really "threatening" attack, and that's damning with faint praise.



Because, yeah, it hits everyone... but that 6 is the biggest amount of damage it's ever dealt. So, uh, yeah. Not really a threat.



Much like with the previous floor, once we get enough Water Sources placed the floor changes colour after a screen transition. Since it's a water based one this time it goes blue.



Still not done with the actual floor itself, since need more Rank, but we're getting there. For now, let's just steal a shield from the Otters.



It's better than the random crap we've had for ages and grants elemental resistance we want too. How nice!



Farms on this floor have a new enemy to contend with as well. Missile Carrots are, well, giant sentient carrots that fire arrows at us.



Being carrots, they're quite susceptible to being set on fire. Gonna do that quite a lot then.



Naturally, they do drop Carrots quite often. Quite unnecessary, though, since after we get the first one the child at the Square sells them.

Technically, the Carrot Juice isn't as good as the Baked Clams. In practice, it's easier to make and does just as good a job. I'd focus more on getting Kate to drink this a lot, with the occasional clam whenever we have the ingredients on hand. But that requires the otters to be co-operative.



Speaking of the otters, one of them dropped his helmet.



It's a helmet in every way. It's okay, I guess, but sticking with the Cold Hat for now.



And one of the carrot-men dropped his bow for Kate.



It's a very nice bow, being the best weapon she can get this floor and it unleashes a chain attack too. Much better than poisoning a thing and dealing a whole 1 point of extra damage now and then.



Throw down enough rooms, and the boss finally turns up. Just took another day or two after grabbing the bow.

Otter Wizard

So, the Otter Wizard. It is an Otter that is also a wizard.



It also has a silly hat that looks like a froggy.

So, the Otter Wizard is, by far, the easiest boss we've fought to date. He's not weak to Fire, but that's fine.



He does resist Ice/Water, though. Makes sense, since he is an otter and all.



He can bonk you over the head with his little staff. And it, uh... it can stun and deal minimal damage.



Hey, look, it's his only good attack.



It's not actually all that threatening at this point. With enough elemental resistance, its damage can be mitigated greatly.



While it can chill, this is a boss fight so we just throw spell after spell after spell. Which is completely unaffected by being chilled.



Owen even actually ends up being our hardest hitter here, since Holy Light is cheaper than Burn but just as effective. It's only 1MP less, true, but it adds up.



This also means we get to relegate Gloop to healing duties while Owen just blasts the wizard until it dies.



It doesn't take very long at all.

End

Plus the requisite item bag increase for good measure.



No dialogue about our new floor this time. Mustn't be anything special.



Ah well, we'll just get started the same as always. Throw down our chest by the entrance...



And put an altar a little bit further up. Altars are a bit different on this floor. You'll see!

Also got this to do for good measure. +10MP is a very nice upgrade, alright.



Yeah, so, decided to finally give Owen some decent Wisdom to be useful in boss fights. It worked out quite well, I think. He does need more Speed and Strength now, though. Speed espcially is hard to get right now, since the only recipe we have for it is the Crowbat Leg from floor 1 still.



Kate just gets to keep on being Kate. She needs more Speed as well, but for the moment we'll just keep boosting that Wisdom and Con as she laughs at everything.

Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 19:21 on May 12, 2015

KillerEggplant fucked around with this message at 08:31 on May 13, 2015

Alavaria fucked around with this message at 20:43 on May 13, 2015