RGR009 - Procrastination Fun

Prone as I am in these games to wander in the wrong direction, we decided to temporarily ignore our current quest (rescuing the kidnapped girl from Baharata, and most likely her boyfriend as well) and do a little exploring. So, based on information we got from someone in town, we headed north into the mountains looking for the Shrine of Dhama, which we've been hearing about for a little while now. The shrine is the only place in the entire world where a person can officially change his or her profession. After trekking for a while through several battles on mountainous terrain (not that terrain affects battles in any way), we came upon what looked from the outside to be a castle. As we went inside, however, we were welcomed to the Shrine of Dhama!

The profession-changing system seems a bit complex; when a person changes professions, they start over at level 1, but with a portion of their original stats retained. So if a soldier becomes a wizard, that wizard is stronger than a "natural" wizard. Likewise, if a wizard becomes a soldier, that soldier retains some MP, as well as all of his or her spells learned up to that point. So it's possible to create hybrid characters with high strength and magical abilities.

But all of that means nothing at the moment, since the guy in the shrine who handles these things won't let us change professions. He says we haven't achieved full soldier/wizard/pilgrim status yet, and a hero can't stop being a hero. Phooey. I guess that means we've got nothing more to do in the shrine for now.

Road trip!

That doesn't look like a shrine...

But I guess it is!

Wow, you're uptight.

Good for you, guys!

You, not so much.

For example?

Keen!

That sounds familiar.

Oh. Yay. A tower.

With its cheap inn and quick access to saving, along with more powerful enemies outside, the shrine will make an excellent level-grinding spot. But for now, we're not done wandering, and so we continued north until we finally reached the edge of a lake. And right next to the water stood yet another tower, called the Tower of Garuna.

Inside the tower, we found people standing, amidst all the dangerous monsters, meditating and waxing philosophical. One of them told us about the Book of Satori, a special book that allows its holder to access a special profession at the shrine called the Sage. Sages are super-magicians who can master the spells of both wizards and pilgrims simultaneously, as well as wield weapons much more powerful than those of the lesser magic users. It sounds interesting, but I find the prospect of starting someone over at level 1 a little scary, so I don't know if I'll be doing it just yet.

As we climbed the tower, we encountered silly obstacles like tightropes and pits, and as the enemies became more powerful, we were eventually overpowered and forced to retreat to the shrine (I'm also a big fan of the Outside spell, which gets you out of dungeons, caves and towers instantly).

A bold color choice!

They're cute, but we're going to die.

Thanks for the tip, Yoda!

We're just here to kill stuff.

Don't the monsters interrupt you?

Life is like a tightrope walk.

Ooh, too many stairs.

This is not a boss. Really.

I think it's safe to say we're a little out of our league up here for now, so I think we'll stifle our wanderlust for the moment and concentrate on finding that girl.