Quesada's Swan

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This time, I take no chances, as we start taking care of the nearby Sabredogs in the area and go southwest...

We reach a dead end, where a dancing flower and a stray Magirock are.

Before healing myself, I check the map of Eklemata...there's five floors here: two outside, two inside caves, with one basement floor.

I finally use a Fire Ring to take care of those spinning elemental gems!

One small trick I learned when using the Fire Ring, is that I can control the direction of where the flames go.

We go back to the dead end, where the flower tells us about this place.

So if we finish this dungeon, we resurrect humankind on earth...

We pass by the spinning elemental gems and meet up with a Yeti on the top of the cliff. Nearby is a dancing flower...

At the top of a cliff, we meet up with another elemental gem...who pushes Ark down the base of the cliff!

Even the staff that Ark's equipped with doesn't seem to faze the crystalline creature!

I realize that Ark has a new weapon: the fang of King Neo! I equip the weapon.

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It works on the gem monster!

The landscape around Eklemata looks nice...

We make our way southeast, to meet with a resting Yeti. This big one has a lot of defense...

Down the mountain we go, where I make the mistake of having Ark approach an angry Yeti!

We talk to the nearby flower, who talks to us about the nature of Yetis.

With that advice, I have Ark go up the eastern cliff, taking care of another crystalline creature along the way.

To slowly recover the damage Ark took, I equip the Crystal Spear. It doesn't work.

In the next area, we see a Yeti take a hot spring bath...

Yomi appears again, and explains to Ark what a hot spring is and its uses...I forgot Ark didn't know about hot springs...

He points out Yomi's knowledge of hot springs as "strange," and asks how Yomi knew about hot springs. He's not telling. Instead, Yomi points out that he outranks Ark in the smarts department. Wow, Yomi...

We climb downhill, and find the opening to a cave nearby.

But, I double back north to find a dock, and a cliff face with a climable vine across the water.

Eklemata is a screenshot-worthy nature spot!

We go back downhill and enter the cave...

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The tileset of the cave looks amazingly luminous...

The enemies, not so much, as a small creature with a pitchfork called a Rakshaki taunts Ark!

One poke of their trident confuses Ark!

The directional controls are now randomly mixed up!

I have no item to cure the confusion, so I proceed ahead.

After taking care of the Rakshaki, I cautiously proceed north and east of the cavern...

We throw a few boulders out of the way and climb up to higher ground, meeting more gems!

After clearing this floor full of enemies, we use the waterfall to slide back down, and start to enter the depths of this mountain cave.

I was almost about to close the game by accident while taking this screenshot!

Once we exit the cave, the fresh air seems to clear the confusion!

We turn back into the cave and climb the steps, which lead down...

The parallax view of the mountain range looks so nice...

However, a large boulder blocks the descent forward...

I double check the map to see if we're going the right way...

With nowhere to go, we go back up to the cave where the confusion-causing tricksters lie in wait...

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The gems on the higher parts of the cave, though hard to hit when we first encountered them, drop lots of money!

I have Ark take the second waterfall slide down! We find the next passage out!

We go back up and use the leftmost slide to do the same with that wall...

On the way, a Quaker shakes the cave! I almost forgot those enemies were still around...

As a reward for wall-crashing, we win new equipment for Ark!

The Ice Suit is a good protector against fire attacks...I wonder if there are fire monsters in this area?

We ascend to the next floor of the crystalline cavern, sort of unprepared...

Ahead are two spinning gems and a pair of Slimes!

Outside again...

So the Snowgrass here keeps healing leaves for use in a hot spring. Maybe this can help the Yeti there...

We can only get one Snowgrass Leaf at a time. I'm guessing that this is a nod to Soul Blazer, where only one herb can be carried at a time...

I have Ark try to throw a boulder at a Rakshaki on the way back, no good.

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I'm at the hot spring, but nothing's happening...maybe this herb's here to heal Ark's wounds...

After walking next to the Yeti, something happens!

The Yeti glows red in warmth...

We're now friends, yes!!! The Yeti leaves the hot spring and heads north!

He offers to throw Ark to the other side! We accept!

Checking the map, we're now at the northern peaks of Eklemata....

East of the snowfield, we see a Sabredog running about, and a chest up on a plateau...

Climbing higher, we meet more enemies...

After another set of vines to climb, we're near the mouth of another cave. I have Ark circle around this area, to see if there's a way to reach the chest below.

There's a pair of vines on a mountain face east of the crossing...

I stop the session here using a save state since it's getting late.

Aside: I just noticed that in order to resurrect humanity, Ark has to climb to the highest point of the earth. I wonder if humans slumbering at the tallest mountain in the world symbolizes the untapped ambitions (heights) of humanity and the climb as the effort to meet, or continue achieving, these ambitions?