Well, I went back to Despise and farmed dexterity orbs. Worth it? Probably not - I also restocked and re-restocked reagents around the world, using Gate to zip around quickly, crafted lots of those powerful Tremor spells, some others too, and re-farmed Mandrake by waiting in the Fens of the Dead for months and months so I could craft more Tremors and more Gates.
The farming process can be sped up with a little bit of RNG manipulation; during the dual new moons phase, spam the 'S' key so that you attempt a search on every input polling cycle. During the rest of the month, make sure you pass at least 15 times - that will all but ensure that your first search during the next dual new moons will get you something.
All of that is less tedious than fighting through Despise normally, though the XP reward wasn't bad either - I let Shamino do all the Tremor casting, and he gained a good ~500 XP for it.
Before continuing the adventure, I went to Jhelom to buy stuff at the armory - I had about $4600 which bought me a crossbow for Shamino, and some magic chain for Dupre.
That left me poor again - so I went right back to the bottom of British's dungeon to farm gold. After filling up, I decided, why not explore the rest of the dungeon, but in reverse?
Level 7
Another confusing, infinitely repeating dungeon! It's easier visualized like this:
But there's nothing interesting here.
Level 6
A passage leads south to a series of three rooms.
Ettins, trolls, cyclopes, and a zorn guard some treasure. The map says there's a room to the left, but I can't find a way there, so I magically Yup out.
Level 5
Oh boy, three ways up, one way down, and three rooms between here and the way down! I want to see the other side of level 6, so I go through the rooms.
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| Shit. Gremlins! |
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| Well, this is a bit macabre. |
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| Lava lizards bathe in hot magma and leave burning puddles where they spit. |
Level 6b
Coming from the other side, I can visit the left room.
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| Oh. This was unexpected! |
A glitched room script puts us in the wrong corner of it! Thankfully, it's possible to leave. But I guess there's no way to visit the center room here.
I cast Yup to return to level 5 and...
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| Oh, what have we here? |
Level 5b
A different part of level 5 entirely!
The orb, it turns out, kills you outright, but raises all of your stats by +5. Or in my case, just strength and intelligence, since I'm already maxed out on dexterity. Well, I have resurrects, so death is temporary, but the stat boost is permanent.
There are two orbs on this floor and I let Ahab have both of them, before taking the southern ladder to level 4.
Dead end! I try the next one - also a dead end.
The third one goes somewhere...
...and right back down to level 5a.
The southern ladder going up is a dead end. The east ladder goes forward.
Level 4
I have seen this dungeon floor pattern before.
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| The split |
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| The merge |
Level 3
Another orb of near-death experience. Ahab gets this one too - now my stats are fully maxed out.
We go to the north junction room.
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| Just a dragon and some treasure I can't carry. |
North goes to an HP-refreshing fountain. South goes to the way up.
Level 2
Just a straightforward walk to the ladder going up - no special rooms or gimmicks here.
Level 1
Another orb, and right next to the dungeon exit! With enough resurrect spells, I could max out everyone's stats pretty fast. And I have a few, so I use them to get started - it's enough to max out Iolo and get Julia to stats 37/50/41.
A secret passage leads left through a three-tile poison field, but I find nothing at the end of it.
I leave and cast Gate to go back to Britannia for healing - no more of this balloon hot air. Shamino alone, who I had been using to cast Tremor at the start of most fights, gained a level, bringing him to level 6 with the rest of my party.
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