The Shadows on this floor are a bit different than the ones you've faced thus far. Proceed with caution.
Our heroine asks Yukari to heal all of their wounds before proceeding any further, and soon afterwards...
Those shadows do not look that good. Do you know what is it that afflicts them?
That one's pretty easy, they are scared shitless of us.
I beg your pardon?
We have grown too strong for them to feel they have a chance against us, yet they know we are in this level. Once they see us they'll start running around while squealing like the little bitches they are.
I understand. Thank you very much.
This will make our training much faster.
*sigh* Keep up the good work.
Our heroine and her friends return to the entrance to recover and save, and then they move back into the dungeon to continue exploring the floors they just opened. As soon as they arrive back to the level they just left...
It seems you'll be able to gain more EXP on this floor!
I could really grow to like this place.
The enemies on those new levels are for the most part the same shadows they have faced before, and our heroine makes sure of sweeping clean every corner of every level before ascending to the next. Later they start coming across new shadows, the first of which are...
Those are called Obsessed Cupids.
They are new, yet scared of us all the same.
Well, it wasn't MY idea to outlevel everything in Thebel far before reaching even the halfway point through it.
Mere details. Do you know where Iori-San is, though?
He must have gotten stuck in the scenery. If one of your friends is too far away from you when a battle starts you'll have to fight without him.
Should you not tell me such things before they happen?
Mere details.
But those new shadows they can slaughter without the least interest, and then move on with a shrug. Shortly afterwards they continue ascending, and upon arriving on the next level Mitsuru decides to drop by and offer more intelligence on what are they facing on Thebel.
What is it that worries you, Kirijo-San?
...There it is again! I detect a powerful foe above you. It's still relatively far away, but be careful as you work your way upward.
I understand. Thank you for telling us.
It is later during her stay in this floor where our heroine meets the remaining newcomers, who at least deserve a bit of respect for trying very hard. It is a very small bit of it, though.
It had to be a bug, had it not?
That's a Grave Beetle.
He did not run from us.
They are strong and tough compared to the other shadows who inhabit Thebel, yet they are weak against wind.
Which in turn makes them crawling XP pinyatas, nyah.
Badum tish!
I am so disappointed.
By the time they are almost ready to move on to the eighth floor Vanessa reaches her tenth level. This is a pretty important moment in her life as a summoner of demons and fairies.
This is just too slow.
The XP shadows give us is reduced the more we fight them, or maybe the more powerful, comparatively, we are.
I am never going to finish training my current personae for fusion like this.
Just go ahead and fuse them.
But the less trained they are the less skills the new persona will inherit.
So they will inherit two skills instead of three, big deal.
There will also be a smaller pool of skills for those to be picked from.
Most of which you never use, nor remember you have.
Plus, it would be wrong in and out of itself to do so otherwise.
Alright, alright. *sigh*
One moment... Do all members of the party get a set amount of experience upon defeating the enemy, or is the amount divided between all party members?
I believe it is divided, why?
... Oh.
He was useless, anyway.
And your good girl image just went down the drain.
And thus our heroine returned to the first terminal...
... and time passes without passing as Vanessa and Yukari kill shadow after shadow, after shadow, after shadow. Hours become days and days become weeks, which in turn become months. And through all of this a mixture of Eye of the Tiger and the panicked squealing of powerless shadows blares in the background.
Stories of true love and deep friendship are cut short by claw and naginata. Villages are burned down, the survivors pursued and slain by catgirl and bondage angel alike.
Ancient families are ruined, struck by one tragedy after another. Baby shadows are left to die, pinned to the wall by arrows.
Civilizations which had endured eons are brought down to ruin, their monuments turned ashes and their populations XP.
And even in the most far away corners of Thebel stories about a pair of schoolgirls who rode out of hell and led the barbarian hordes of incarnate nightmares in a orgy of brutality and pillage are whispered, and shadow mothers tell their unruly shadow children to eat all their hummies if they don't want "those two girls" to come for them.
And then, one day...
My, my. What do we have here?
I am pleased to meet you, daughter of Lilith.
Alas, just pleased? I must be losing the touch.
Please, help me get one thing straight.
What is it?
Personae are a part of your soul, a shard of your true self, a manifestation of who you really are and what you truly desire... Right?
I guess so.
Thus the message here is that you spent some quality time alone with Yukari and as a result awakened to your inner sexual predator demoness, am I right?
I... I beg your pardon?
And thus our heroine did allow Junpei to rejoin the party and then lead the party back into the dungeon, and soon afterward they found themselves ascending up to the tenth floor of Tartarus for the first time.
Once again, you'll be facing a new type of enemy, so stay alert.
I will do as you say, Kirijo-San.
So very submisive.
Before long our heroine has located and activated the local terminal, and advances against the three powerful shadows who stand between them and the next staircase.
Those are dancing hands, and they are indeed strong. They can use several types of elemental magic, too.
And you do not remember their weakness, am I right?
Aren't you the fast learner.
Then there is not much we can do other than being very careful and keep focused on our defense while we either look for a weakness or slowly chip away at them.
You two are so simple minded.
Please forgive me, but no other plan occurs to me.
Plans are for the weak and the infirm, and for the boring little bookworms no one cares about. We have something much more valuable than knowledge, honey.
Enlighten us.
We have beauty, and charm.
So it is done. *giggle*
Impressive.
Indeed, it is so.
Let us end this now. The time of the lovely is far too precious to be spent on commoners and small fry.
Then let us tell Yukari-Chan to focus on healing and Iori-San to focus on spamming cleave on whomever we cast Rakunda upon when not keeping them charmed and fighting each other.
Just hurry up. *shrug*
And thus the battle is won without any difficulty and the party proceeds into the eleventh floor of Tartarus.
Didn't you said something about Megaten games not requiring grinding??
I can understand the satisfaction from seeing your pets/characters become more powerful over time and easily approach otherwise unsurmountable challenges. Heck, I personally ground my way through a number of such games. In the end, however, while I like the goal of the journey, the journey itself (grinding) has lost its luster to me. I mean there must be a better way of raising your pokemons than doing the same stuff over and over. Learning is creative process so it makes no sense that repeating the same pattern till kingdom come should give you any xp. The question is, how to do it without breaking the game into segments, all the while facilitating training. But that's something for another thread.
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