Quesada's Swan

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Now back at the village of Mandala, I decide to go into the armor shop to get the new stuff!

The Magical Armor's the priciest item in the shop, at 11,500!

I go up north to the mountain shrine there.

A bald man tells us that this shrine is ages old, and "dates from the Mana Fortress War..." Info about the era is stored in "orbs" of sorts.

I'm thinking he means "videos".

There's a lot of people meditating around here.

Climbing more stairs, we make it to the tall temple...

What a beautiful view from below!

Inside the temple, I see a lot of crystal orbs in the center dais.

It sort of looks like one of the ruins that Thanatos would make his home at.

We check the center orb, or the center video...

The speaker mentions spotting a flying Mana Beast attacking the fortress, and the video ends there.

Now to the southwest orb...

...but it's not working!

The west orb mentions a lover who misses his girlfriend.

---

The northwest orb is a news report mentioning a kingdom, Lorima, attacking the Empire...

Is this game set in a post-apocalyptic world?

So the Empire tried to take down the capital of Lorima as well...

Northeast orb now: it's a recording of a game show of sorts, probably "Jeopardy!"...

The east orb shows a political debate discussing whether to use Mana or not.

The last and southeast orb shows us...

Well that's that...

East of the chamber, there's a door forward.

The party has their weapons drawn, there must be enemies here...

Up the stairs we climb...to the balcony of the temple...

The bald man tells us how to see or rather, how not to see Sage Joch.

But what does he mean by "[our] will to overcome ourselves?" I'm guessing that we need to take a test of sorts...

Back down to the village, a bearded man tells us about where the Mana Tree grows, and says it watches over us...

I wonder if we'll get to see the Pure Land?

---

I go south, out of the village, where I meet new monsters and a new piece of music, it's a very beautiful piece to listen to...

The new monsters are a Bomb Bee and a Trap Flower!

The Bomb Bee's very strong against earth magic...or magic in general...

I take a pic of the scenery before moving forward.

So that's why the monster's called a Bomb Bee, it shoots stingers like missiles!

I encounter my first Doom Trap! The character that opened the chest that had the trap, Hero, has his HP down to 1!

In the next area, I wonder who that cute enemy is above us?

It's an Eggatrice!

Climbing the nature-covered stairways up, the view of the trees below make for a nice screenshot...

But there are more enemies to take care of...

At the same time we jump over to the next ledge with Hero's whip, I also hit the Bomb Bee on the other side!

More gaps to leap over...more Bomb Bees to take care of...

It's an endless ocean of trees below...

More Bomb Bees I accidentally hit!

I also get my first Royal Jam in a chest!

These flowers here are infamous for their sleeping spells!

---

More stairs to climb...

...and we make it to the peak, before the mouth of a small cavern!

I wonder if Sage Joch lives here?

The music changes into a wondrous sounding piece... then the drums play, reminding me that we're in a dungeon!

Who's that bird ahead?

It turns out that the bird is Jehk, Joch's student.

Jehk explains where the Sage went to: the Palace of Darkness. Oh no...

I'm guessing that's also where the next Mana Seed is. I wonder if we'll meet the next Elemental there as well...

So this is Joch's Cavern!

As we exit, the panoramic scenery outside's changed!

And one of the Eggatrices turn Pidge into stone!

But I cure her, take care of the Eggatrices, and take a little photo before calling up Flammie to head back to the village.

After getting some more herbs and resting, we make our way down to the Palace of Darkness.