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Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City LP - Part 2
I've taken a comment Prof left last time into account and doubled the image size from here onward, and I'll eventually go back and replace all the images in part 1 with blown-up versions as well. This should help with readability, to a certain extent - the device I'm using still displays the text weirdly, but at least now you won't have to squint AND try to guess if the game is trying to hide a vertical line from you. It will slightly reduce the quality of the character and enemy sprites, but they're so well-done in the first place that it's not a huge deal.
Last time, we were just about to head into the Labyrinth. It's been talked up so much, cited as a truly dangerous place...but there's no turning back now. We begin in the first stratum: the Waterfall Wood.
Some mood music. This is the BGM for the first stratum. The music in this series is stellar, but I'll only be linking it the first time we reach a new stratum, for every boss fight, for certain enemy fights, and for certain events, in an effort to not make each entry a novel. The official composers even release a rearranged version of the soundtrack alongside the original, and those remixes are always amazing too. Search "etrian odyssey 3 soundtrack" on YouTube if you want to hear more, but you should probably hold off for now if you don't want to be spoiled, because YouTube comments and all.
It's a beautiful place, teeming with flowers and plants. It seems almost too tranquil for any monsters to live here...however, many rookie adventurers have died after being lulled into that false sense of security. Guild Kickbutt won't let our guard down! After all, we have to discover the secrets of the Labyrinth.
The game itself reminds us not to get too swept up in the imagery. The foliage on the trees above moves in the breeze, it's quite nice. Unfortunately, theemulator device I'm playing on has trouble rendering all sorts of things in this game, so it's not as pretty as it is on a DS.
Before we begin, let's bring up the menu and put the scripts given to us by the Guildmaster to good use. After all, we don't want to be stupid.
They're all pretty okay. Nothing too great, since we're starting out, but the increase in attack can come in handy, as can a sudden burst of damage, and Indomitable is great for tense situations. Every Limit skill has a required number of users, shown to the right of the skill name. If we don't assign these Limit skills ourselves, we cannot use them, and we would need to reassign them every time we changed our party, if we were ever changing it.
This is what I'm going with for now. The attack stat will affect Cross Slash, and magic Limit skills will be effected by the technique stat, so a bit of thinking goes into assigning these. Edgardo and Sagaris have the highest strength, so they'll do the most damage.
Next is assigning some Skill Points! Every level 1 character starts out with 3 skill points to distribute along their skill tree. The game even offers an explanation, citing our previous, but brief, experience as explorers.
I'd like to take the chance now to explain how skills work, because they are the most important part of ensuring a party is balanced. The screenshot above displays three skills for Sagaris: Guardian, Shield Mastery, and Spear Mastery. These are the backbone of our skill library, as we will need to continue leveling these skills in order to unlock new ones. Guardian, the first one listed, is a Class Skill, and is unique to Hoplites. These will become more important once a certain feature is unlocked.
Chelly's skills are of the most importance right now, since I want to give her some healing skills to buffer Edgardo's, and in order to get the healing I want, I'll need to get Protect Order. However, Protect Order requires 5 levels in Rally Order...
...which requires 5 levels in Guard Order, making it impossible for her to learn it before level 9.
There are even skills that require levels in 2 other skills to unlock. This is the kind of thing that should be arranged in a flowing chart, but it's a list that goes all over the place, with no real sense of order. The format of skill trees is greatly improved in EO4 and the updates to EO1 and EO2, but for EO3 I have to wrangle with this gross menu, made even grosser by the distorted graphics. And you have to look at screencaps of it. I'm so sorry.
The other priority is giving Hitomi a point in Keen Eye so she can use To Market. For a relatively high cost of 13 TP, she can transport us back to town as long as we're not in a battle. This will prove immensely useful. It is, hands-down, one of the best support skills a Farmer has.
The game tells me what I just told you about skill points, and then adds this at the end. Thanks, guys.
But the explanations aren't over yet! I'm here to draw a map, after all, and this is one of the most divisive parts of the game. I don't really know why, because I love it, but some people just freaking hate drawing maps. To be more specific, the game wants us to draw in the walls; the floors and objects we can take or leave, but I prefer to have it all filled in. We draw the map on the lower screen, with the stylus, and we have several markers and colored floor tiles to choose from. The shape of everyone's map will always be the same, but the markers might be different from person to person.
An accurate map is essential to a successful expedition, especially once they start throwing nasty tricks at us, so Guild Kickbutt will be the most diligent of cartographers.
Now that we've gotten the tutorials out of the way, let's return to making the map. Guild Kickbutt has made a little progress, as you can see on the lower screen, but...what's that, in the corner of the top one? That's the encounter meter, and when it's red like that, an encounter is just around the corner.
We gather our weapons, ready to fight the first monster of the Labyrinth...
...well, it's a little underwhelming, but it is what it is. Take note that Sagaris's "Skill" section is grayed out. This is because her single skill, Line Guard, requires a shield, and we didn't buy her a shield. We could say this was intentional on my part to teach you the importance of properly equipping characters to match the skills you give them, but honestly, I forgot Hoplites don't come with one. I've made this exact mistake in every single Etrian Odyssey game in every single playthrough, it's tragic.
After the battle, we take note of the vicious fruit that attacked us. This monster has been logged into the Monstrous Codex, which means we'll be able to look up its weaknesses now. A message like this will pop up every time we defeat an enemy or obtain an item for the first time.
By the way, this is our status after one battle. See how much TP Chelly has lost? She used one skill, Attack Order, one time. The TP struggle is real, especially in the beginning.
This is also why we can't just beef up our way to Protect Order. As a general rule, though there are some exceptions, the TP cost of skills goes up as they are leveled, to match their increase in power, so it's simply too expensive at the beginning of the game to dump 5 points into a skill immediately.
Refusing to let sentient fruit deter us from continuing our journey, though it does make us contemplate our diets from here on, we come across a hidden passage, marked by beautiful blue flowers. Unfortunately, it seems we can't pass this way...we'll have to find the other end of this secret passage ourselves first. We mark it on the map with a double-sided arrow, to indicate that it's there. The spot that the arrow points to is where the other side of the passage will be.
This is not only a good example of what an activated secret passage will look like on the map, but it's also the first box we discover in the Labyrinth! With bated breath, we open it, eager to see what lies inside.
We are very, very lucky indeed. Nectar is an item that revives a party member, albeit with very low HP. Right now, though, we don't have any revival skills at all, so Nectars are of utmost importance to us.
We return to town, courtesy of Hitomi, and buy Sagaris a shield. It's expensive, but a worthwhile investment. We also swing by the inn, because...
...a second battle put us in this state. Etrian Odyssey III is a fairly balanced game, but it often doesn't seem that way in the very beginning. It's almost absurdly difficult at the start, then sort of eases up as you get past that nasty level 1 hump.
We return to the Labyrinth the next day, after sitting around feeling bad for ourselves, and we encounter a new enemy! This sure is a horrifying sea creature, though it's impressive that it's on land like this.
The Fanged Fish are kind enough to drop two Red Scales for us. Our first monster drop! We might be able to take this back to the shop to earn some money, so we keep it safely in our bag while we continue.
We also run into a frog enemy. This one is a more difficult hurdle than the Deadly Durians and the Fanged Fish, because it has an attack called Jump that hits pretty hard at level 1 with the default armor. Still, Sagaris's new shield defends the party, and we overcome it heroically. As heroically as one can look while one kills a frog.
Incidentally, I'm going to refrain from remarking on every single new enemy; at the end of a Stratum, I'll do a big enemy round-up and include all of their Codex screenshots for those of you who are interested. There are just so many enemies in this game I don't want the LP to get bogged down by trivia about them. Notable enemies, or ones I'm particularly fond of, will be discussed briefly as they appear, but for the most part, you'll have to wait for the Stratum Round-Up.
Getting back to our adventure, we discover a spot where the scent of flowers is particularly strong. Despite our better judgment, we decide to rest awhile, and the entire party gains 10 TP as a result.
There are many opportunities to heal ourselves as we progress in the dungeon. Some of them will be a one-time event, like this one, while others will be reusable. Reusable ones will be marked on the map, but since there's nothing to come back to here, we'll leave it unmarked and thank the flowers for the TP. That's not all we find in this area, though...
After following these footprints, we encounter a small animal caught in a trap, struggling for its life.
Overcome with grief at the thought of it dying, we release it, and it joyfully escapes its bonds. However, out of the brush come two much larger animals...it seems the parents showed up to rescue their child at the same time we did.
We stare the animals down, and they stare back, but then, they leave, apparently satisfied that we weren't trying to hurt their baby. We are happy that we were able to save a life, but also reminded of the danger that lurks even in seemingly innocent places or actions. If those animals had attacked us, it would have been bad.
Incidentally, had they attacked us, they would have been revealed as platypuses.
Events like this often roll a stat, and if you pass, you're rewarded. In this case, it was the luck stat. Fortunately for us, Hitomi is a Farmer, the class with the highest luck in the game, so we are able to avoid confronting the animals.
We find a Medica on the way in another chest, and add it to our already sizable stock. Every little bit helps.
Eventually, we run out of TP, so we have to return to town to sleep. While we're there, we drop off the monster materials that we collected, and the Reimu-alike informs us that there are new items in stock. This is the primary method for unlocking items in the store: gathering materials and selling them. They're then used to make items, which are sold back to us...with a very hefty craftsmanship fee. We get barely a pittance for our monster parts, but the Scale Jerkin we've unlocked is very expensive for our meager coffers.
Grumbling about the Napier Firm's shady business practices, we go to bed, and the next day return to the Labyrinth. This time, we discover two more boxes: one contains an Amrita, which restores TP. This item is best saved for when we need it, since we won't have the method to create them at the shop for a long while. As for the other box...
It's locked! How mysterious. We make a note of this on the map, and we'll return once we have what we need to unlock it.
Still puzzled over the locked box, we stumble upon a peaceful spot. However, this time we choose not to stay. In fact, we are not even given a choice. When this happens, it's best to mark the area on our map: a noteworthy, but unused area is often a location in a side quest. That way, we can simply make a beeline for the area once the relevant quest is given to us.
Getting ever closer to completing the map of the first floor, we discover our very first gathering spot, denoted by that white sparkle effect. This is Hitomi's time to shine.
Normally, if we wanted to gather at these spots, we would have to waste a character's skill points to put them into either Mine, Chop, or Take. There are three kinds of gathering spots, therefore there are three gathering skills. But Hitomi is a Farmer. This means she can learn Harvestry, which is the equivalent of one point in all three gathering skills. The maximum level is 5, and she can stack Harvestry on top of the normal gathering skills, making it possible for Hitomi alone to gather a maximum 15 materials from each kind of spot per day. That's 45 in total.
And if that weren't enough, once she learns a skill called Double Crop, that number will go up even more. Our bag can only hold 60 items, so Hitomi's gathering skills, if given the chance to flourish, will yield more than we could possibly take.
We gave her one point in Harvestry earlier, so we can cut exactly one material from this spot.
A Supple Branch is not particularly exciting, being just an ordinary stick, but it is still excellent news, because...
Items gathered in the Labyrinth are worth a lot more than monster drops. We could sell three Sharp Teeth and end up with 24 en in our pocket, or one Supple Branch and leave with 25. Gathering also requires no battling, and therefore no effort.
Hitomi may not be particularly useful in battle, but she'll be the reason we don't run out of money. A Farmer's true ability is in the support they provide, and they provide it in bushels.
The next time we go into the Labyrinth, this happens. I don't have anything to say.
NOPE.
Though we manage to escape this godawful terrible piece of shit lynx, it manages to attack us before we flee, and Chelly does not survive. We have to bring her back to the inn to revive her. By the way, even with Sagaris's defensive skill, the lynx bit off about 90% of Chelly's maximum HP in one attack.
Great Lynxes are a bad time if you don't have fire element attacks. Which we don't. Elita is learning volt magic, because of reasons.
After Chelly has risen from the grave, we go into the Labyrinth once again, finding another pair of boxes. These contain 100 en and a Medica II, which is a stronger version of a Medica. That, like the Amrita, is best saved for now. It'd be a waste to use a Medica II with our max HP so low.
After looting the boxes, we mark them on our map, and come to a realization.
87
Our map is complete! We've mapped the entire area west of the guard who's blocking our path, so all that's left to do is return to him and show off our cartography skills.
For the first time since we've seen him, he smiles, and his suddenly cold demeanor turns almost alarmingly friendly. He showers praise upon us for finishing the map - probably because now that we've proven ourselves as explorers, we're more likely to stick around to stimulate Armoroad's lagging economy. He tells us we should report to the Senatus at once, so we do just that.
Our first mission is complete, and Flowdia hands us a nice sum of en and 1500 experience points in return. (Experience points are divided between the group, so this comes out to 300 experience per person, which at this stage in the game is very close to an entire level-up.)
We can truly say we are Armoroad explorers, now. We might not be bad enough dudes to fight a Great Lynx, but we can map the fuck out of this Labyrinth.
To be continued in Part 3
Leave your thoughts about the characters in the comments - I want to start establishing personalities for them! "Old guy with cute granddaughters" is cute and all, but are they really his granddaughters or is he just babysitting? Are any of them related at all? Why are they all okay with traveling with some weird old guy??? Let's see if we can't flesh them out some. That's one of the biggest draws of Etrian Odyssey, after all!
Last time, we were just about to head into the Labyrinth. It's been talked up so much, cited as a truly dangerous place...but there's no turning back now. We begin in the first stratum: the Waterfall Wood.
Some mood music. This is the BGM for the first stratum. The music in this series is stellar, but I'll only be linking it the first time we reach a new stratum, for every boss fight, for certain enemy fights, and for certain events, in an effort to not make each entry a novel. The official composers even release a rearranged version of the soundtrack alongside the original, and those remixes are always amazing too. Search "etrian odyssey 3 soundtrack" on YouTube if you want to hear more, but you should probably hold off for now if you don't want to be spoiled, because YouTube comments and all.
It's a beautiful place, teeming with flowers and plants. It seems almost too tranquil for any monsters to live here...however, many rookie adventurers have died after being lulled into that false sense of security. Guild Kickbutt won't let our guard down! After all, we have to discover the secrets of the Labyrinth.
The game itself reminds us not to get too swept up in the imagery. The foliage on the trees above moves in the breeze, it's quite nice. Unfortunately, the
Before we begin, let's bring up the menu and put the scripts given to us by the Guildmaster to good use. After all, we don't want to be stupid.
They're all pretty okay. Nothing too great, since we're starting out, but the increase in attack can come in handy, as can a sudden burst of damage, and Indomitable is great for tense situations. Every Limit skill has a required number of users, shown to the right of the skill name. If we don't assign these Limit skills ourselves, we cannot use them, and we would need to reassign them every time we changed our party, if we were ever changing it.
This is what I'm going with for now. The attack stat will affect Cross Slash, and magic Limit skills will be effected by the technique stat, so a bit of thinking goes into assigning these. Edgardo and Sagaris have the highest strength, so they'll do the most damage.
Next is assigning some Skill Points! Every level 1 character starts out with 3 skill points to distribute along their skill tree. The game even offers an explanation, citing our previous, but brief, experience as explorers.
I'd like to take the chance now to explain how skills work, because they are the most important part of ensuring a party is balanced. The screenshot above displays three skills for Sagaris: Guardian, Shield Mastery, and Spear Mastery. These are the backbone of our skill library, as we will need to continue leveling these skills in order to unlock new ones. Guardian, the first one listed, is a Class Skill, and is unique to Hoplites. These will become more important once a certain feature is unlocked.
Chelly's skills are of the most importance right now, since I want to give her some healing skills to buffer Edgardo's, and in order to get the healing I want, I'll need to get Protect Order. However, Protect Order requires 5 levels in Rally Order...
...which requires 5 levels in Guard Order, making it impossible for her to learn it before level 9.
There are even skills that require levels in 2 other skills to unlock. This is the kind of thing that should be arranged in a flowing chart, but it's a list that goes all over the place, with no real sense of order. The format of skill trees is greatly improved in EO4 and the updates to EO1 and EO2, but for EO3 I have to wrangle with this gross menu, made even grosser by the distorted graphics. And you have to look at screencaps of it. I'm so sorry.
The other priority is giving Hitomi a point in Keen Eye so she can use To Market. For a relatively high cost of 13 TP, she can transport us back to town as long as we're not in a battle. This will prove immensely useful. It is, hands-down, one of the best support skills a Farmer has.
The game tells me what I just told you about skill points, and then adds this at the end. Thanks, guys.
But the explanations aren't over yet! I'm here to draw a map, after all, and this is one of the most divisive parts of the game. I don't really know why, because I love it, but some people just freaking hate drawing maps. To be more specific, the game wants us to draw in the walls; the floors and objects we can take or leave, but I prefer to have it all filled in. We draw the map on the lower screen, with the stylus, and we have several markers and colored floor tiles to choose from. The shape of everyone's map will always be the same, but the markers might be different from person to person.
An accurate map is essential to a successful expedition, especially once they start throwing nasty tricks at us, so Guild Kickbutt will be the most diligent of cartographers.
Now that we've gotten the tutorials out of the way, let's return to making the map. Guild Kickbutt has made a little progress, as you can see on the lower screen, but...what's that, in the corner of the top one? That's the encounter meter, and when it's red like that, an encounter is just around the corner.
We gather our weapons, ready to fight the first monster of the Labyrinth...
...well, it's a little underwhelming, but it is what it is. Take note that Sagaris's "Skill" section is grayed out. This is because her single skill, Line Guard, requires a shield, and we didn't buy her a shield. We could say this was intentional on my part to teach you the importance of properly equipping characters to match the skills you give them, but honestly, I forgot Hoplites don't come with one. I've made this exact mistake in every single Etrian Odyssey game in every single playthrough, it's tragic.
After the battle, we take note of the vicious fruit that attacked us. This monster has been logged into the Monstrous Codex, which means we'll be able to look up its weaknesses now. A message like this will pop up every time we defeat an enemy or obtain an item for the first time.
By the way, this is our status after one battle. See how much TP Chelly has lost? She used one skill, Attack Order, one time. The TP struggle is real, especially in the beginning.
This is also why we can't just beef up our way to Protect Order. As a general rule, though there are some exceptions, the TP cost of skills goes up as they are leveled, to match their increase in power, so it's simply too expensive at the beginning of the game to dump 5 points into a skill immediately.
Refusing to let sentient fruit deter us from continuing our journey, though it does make us contemplate our diets from here on, we come across a hidden passage, marked by beautiful blue flowers. Unfortunately, it seems we can't pass this way...we'll have to find the other end of this secret passage ourselves first. We mark it on the map with a double-sided arrow, to indicate that it's there. The spot that the arrow points to is where the other side of the passage will be.
This is not only a good example of what an activated secret passage will look like on the map, but it's also the first box we discover in the Labyrinth! With bated breath, we open it, eager to see what lies inside.
We are very, very lucky indeed. Nectar is an item that revives a party member, albeit with very low HP. Right now, though, we don't have any revival skills at all, so Nectars are of utmost importance to us.
We return to town, courtesy of Hitomi, and buy Sagaris a shield. It's expensive, but a worthwhile investment. We also swing by the inn, because...
...a second battle put us in this state. Etrian Odyssey III is a fairly balanced game, but it often doesn't seem that way in the very beginning. It's almost absurdly difficult at the start, then sort of eases up as you get past that nasty level 1 hump.
We return to the Labyrinth the next day, after sitting around feeling bad for ourselves, and we encounter a new enemy! This sure is a horrifying sea creature, though it's impressive that it's on land like this.
The Fanged Fish are kind enough to drop two Red Scales for us. Our first monster drop! We might be able to take this back to the shop to earn some money, so we keep it safely in our bag while we continue.
We also run into a frog enemy. This one is a more difficult hurdle than the Deadly Durians and the Fanged Fish, because it has an attack called Jump that hits pretty hard at level 1 with the default armor. Still, Sagaris's new shield defends the party, and we overcome it heroically. As heroically as one can look while one kills a frog.
Incidentally, I'm going to refrain from remarking on every single new enemy; at the end of a Stratum, I'll do a big enemy round-up and include all of their Codex screenshots for those of you who are interested. There are just so many enemies in this game I don't want the LP to get bogged down by trivia about them. Notable enemies, or ones I'm particularly fond of, will be discussed briefly as they appear, but for the most part, you'll have to wait for the Stratum Round-Up.
Getting back to our adventure, we discover a spot where the scent of flowers is particularly strong. Despite our better judgment, we decide to rest awhile, and the entire party gains 10 TP as a result.
There are many opportunities to heal ourselves as we progress in the dungeon. Some of them will be a one-time event, like this one, while others will be reusable. Reusable ones will be marked on the map, but since there's nothing to come back to here, we'll leave it unmarked and thank the flowers for the TP. That's not all we find in this area, though...
After following these footprints, we encounter a small animal caught in a trap, struggling for its life.
Overcome with grief at the thought of it dying, we release it, and it joyfully escapes its bonds. However, out of the brush come two much larger animals...it seems the parents showed up to rescue their child at the same time we did.
We stare the animals down, and they stare back, but then, they leave, apparently satisfied that we weren't trying to hurt their baby. We are happy that we were able to save a life, but also reminded of the danger that lurks even in seemingly innocent places or actions. If those animals had attacked us, it would have been bad.
Incidentally, had they attacked us, they would have been revealed as platypuses.
Events like this often roll a stat, and if you pass, you're rewarded. In this case, it was the luck stat. Fortunately for us, Hitomi is a Farmer, the class with the highest luck in the game, so we are able to avoid confronting the animals.
We find a Medica on the way in another chest, and add it to our already sizable stock. Every little bit helps.
Eventually, we run out of TP, so we have to return to town to sleep. While we're there, we drop off the monster materials that we collected, and the Reimu-alike informs us that there are new items in stock. This is the primary method for unlocking items in the store: gathering materials and selling them. They're then used to make items, which are sold back to us...with a very hefty craftsmanship fee. We get barely a pittance for our monster parts, but the Scale Jerkin we've unlocked is very expensive for our meager coffers.
Grumbling about the Napier Firm's shady business practices, we go to bed, and the next day return to the Labyrinth. This time, we discover two more boxes: one contains an Amrita, which restores TP. This item is best saved for when we need it, since we won't have the method to create them at the shop for a long while. As for the other box...
It's locked! How mysterious. We make a note of this on the map, and we'll return once we have what we need to unlock it.
Still puzzled over the locked box, we stumble upon a peaceful spot. However, this time we choose not to stay. In fact, we are not even given a choice. When this happens, it's best to mark the area on our map: a noteworthy, but unused area is often a location in a side quest. That way, we can simply make a beeline for the area once the relevant quest is given to us.
Getting ever closer to completing the map of the first floor, we discover our very first gathering spot, denoted by that white sparkle effect. This is Hitomi's time to shine.
Normally, if we wanted to gather at these spots, we would have to waste a character's skill points to put them into either Mine, Chop, or Take. There are three kinds of gathering spots, therefore there are three gathering skills. But Hitomi is a Farmer. This means she can learn Harvestry, which is the equivalent of one point in all three gathering skills. The maximum level is 5, and she can stack Harvestry on top of the normal gathering skills, making it possible for Hitomi alone to gather a maximum 15 materials from each kind of spot per day. That's 45 in total.
And if that weren't enough, once she learns a skill called Double Crop, that number will go up even more. Our bag can only hold 60 items, so Hitomi's gathering skills, if given the chance to flourish, will yield more than we could possibly take.
We gave her one point in Harvestry earlier, so we can cut exactly one material from this spot.
A Supple Branch is not particularly exciting, being just an ordinary stick, but it is still excellent news, because...
Items gathered in the Labyrinth are worth a lot more than monster drops. We could sell three Sharp Teeth and end up with 24 en in our pocket, or one Supple Branch and leave with 25. Gathering also requires no battling, and therefore no effort.
Hitomi may not be particularly useful in battle, but she'll be the reason we don't run out of money. A Farmer's true ability is in the support they provide, and they provide it in bushels.
The next time we go into the Labyrinth, this happens. I don't have anything to say.
NOPE.
Though we manage to escape this godawful terrible piece of shit lynx, it manages to attack us before we flee, and Chelly does not survive. We have to bring her back to the inn to revive her. By the way, even with Sagaris's defensive skill, the lynx bit off about 90% of Chelly's maximum HP in one attack.
Great Lynxes are a bad time if you don't have fire element attacks. Which we don't. Elita is learning volt magic, because of reasons.
After Chelly has risen from the grave, we go into the Labyrinth once again, finding another pair of boxes. These contain 100 en and a Medica II, which is a stronger version of a Medica. That, like the Amrita, is best saved for now. It'd be a waste to use a Medica II with our max HP so low.
After looting the boxes, we mark them on our map, and come to a realization.
87Our map is complete! We've mapped the entire area west of the guard who's blocking our path, so all that's left to do is return to him and show off our cartography skills.
For the first time since we've seen him, he smiles, and his suddenly cold demeanor turns almost alarmingly friendly. He showers praise upon us for finishing the map - probably because now that we've proven ourselves as explorers, we're more likely to stick around to stimulate Armoroad's lagging economy. He tells us we should report to the Senatus at once, so we do just that.
Our first mission is complete, and Flowdia hands us a nice sum of en and 1500 experience points in return. (Experience points are divided between the group, so this comes out to 300 experience per person, which at this stage in the game is very close to an entire level-up.)
We can truly say we are Armoroad explorers, now. We might not be bad enough dudes to fight a Great Lynx, but we can map the fuck out of this Labyrinth.
To be continued in Part 3
Leave your thoughts about the characters in the comments - I want to start establishing personalities for them! "Old guy with cute granddaughters" is cute and all, but are they really his granddaughters or is he just babysitting? Are any of them related at all? Why are they all okay with traveling with some weird old guy??? Let's see if we can't flesh them out some. That's one of the biggest draws of Etrian Odyssey, after all!