And I'm tellin' ya, range trumps power.
Uh-huh, sure. Good luck with that when the range makes it impossible to aim! Ever considered that you're just a poor markswoman, 'cause you spend all y' time practicin' with those metal lumps? And have you ever considered you only use a gun to compensate for bad physical training?! My muscles are perfectly fine, sister. Then I'm sure you'll have no problem jumping around everywhere like THI--
OOF! Ohhhhhhh my gods Emmett I'm so sorry are you okay?! Yep. That's some power you got there, I will admit.
Let's delve further into the realm of ants.
B12F C5 Take Point
Crinoid Leaf. 25.5% chance. Sells for 200 en.
Stonard (Increases one party member's defense by 30% for 6 turns): Made from 1 Crinoid Leaf. Costs 400 en.- Stab Shell. 59.5% chance. Sells for 220 en.
Sea Charm (+30 TP, immunity to leg binds): Made from 1 Stab Shell. Costs 2500 en.
Lapis Strawberry. 15% chance. Sells for 850 en.
Amrita (Restores 50 TP to one party member): Made from 1 Lapis Strawberry. Costs 800 en.- Ambush Chance: 10%
Behold: we can finally get the materials needed to make Amritas! For the record, this specific Take point has the best chance of getting Lapis Strawberries; the other two points have a 7% chance (the other point on this floor), and a 10% chance (the Take point on B14F).
This opens up a lot more tactical options that wouldn't have been viable beforehand. Being locked behind a rare material still kinda sucks, but TP economy is a lot less stressful with buyable Amritas.
Looking around, you find a small hole. You listen carefully and determine that the sound is coming from within. If you are curious, you can peer into the hole, though you could also leave the area now.
No monsters around. No chittering sounds in the hole. Should be fine. When you illuminate the dark hole with your torch, you find water pooled at the bottom. This must be the sound that you heard... You are free to quench your thirst here or leave the pool be. Knew it. Oh thank the gods, I'm thirsty. Since you happen to be thirsty, you draw water from the bottom and lift it to your mouths. Lo and behold, your tired bodies instantly recover their stamina!
It seems this is a natural well and the water within is rich in minerals. You could, if you wished, make a note of its location in order to make use of it again in the future. Alright friends I'm fully energized let's get going come on! Is water supposed to do that? Not unless it has something surreptitious in it...
...Kinda regrettin' drinkin' that now...
[...So where are we supposed to go? We've already gone everywhere we can.] [Oh, Ladette, didn't you mention something about pit--] [If you think I'm going to willingly jump down those, you've got another thing coming.] [So, uh, what do we do, then?] [...] Ngaaaaaaaaaagh! There, there, sometimes the Labyrinth isn't as-- Don't talk down to me, bard boy. ...B-boy? I'm 35...
War Mace (+72 ATK, +30 HP, +20 TP) is made from 2 Bone Shard (Guardian Ant normal). Costs 3750 en.
Stud Vest (+34 DEF, +1 STR) is made from 1 Red Hide (Redclaw rare). Costs 2560 en. Stud Vest is a pretty good piece of gear for a lot of attackers at this point. It also has a name that's oddly funny to me.
Falling down this hole is the proper way forward.
Everyone make it down okay? Gimme...a sec... Fallin' kinda hurts...when you've got armor on... Goin' by the way you two're holdin' hands, I'd say you made it fine. ...OH GOD AFON I'M SORRY IT'S JUST HOLDING HANDS CAN DISTRIBUTE THE FORCE OF IMPACT AND-- [Elly, you're fine, please stop freaking out. ...Cute as it may be.] Mbuhbuhbuhbuhbuh... ...I think ol' Emmett's head is stuck in the ground...
Ah gods, ewwwwww... ...It's pulsatin'. Disgustin'.
[Hit it! Stab it!] 
[Crush it!] [Not the biggest fan of ants?] [Not the giant ones we're running into here! Do you know how hard these jerks are to pierce?!]
By the way, when you hit an egg, ant FOEs will aggro on you. We can't actually be reached here because, well, the egg's blocking the way.
...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! DISGUSTIN' ANT JUICE ALL OVER ME! AAAAAAAGH! Mayhaps you should stand back from the egg next time...
When an ant egg is destroyed, any ant FOEs spawned from it (oh, right, they spawn ant FOEs) will retreat for the walls of the room, and then disappear. I'm not a huge fan of this section. It's not the worst but it's kinda obnoxious with proper FOE positioning to avoid encounters.
Gods, these ants're inconsiderate. Moreso than normal monsters? How so? D'ya know how many bullets it takes to kill this many ants?
WheeeeEEEEEEEE! Takes a helluva person to enjoy running a spear through a buncha ants. ...I wouldn't have it any other way. Pardon? NOTHING OH GODS NOTHING.
Ow... [Oh crap, Elly, princess, are you alrigbuxeh--] AFON. [Wait, what did you just--] [SHE SAID NOTHING YOU SAW NOTHING GO EAT SOME PASTA FOR A BIT.]B12F E3 Take Point
- Crinoid Leaf. 65.1% chance. Sells for 200 en.
- Stonard (Increases one party member's defense by 30% for 6 turns): Made from 1 Crinoid Leaf. Costs 400 en.
- Stab Shell. 27.9% chance. Sells for 220 en.
- Sea Charm (+30 TP, immunity to leg binds): Made from 1 Stab Shell. Costs 2500 en.
- Lapis Strawberry. 7% chance. Sells for 850 en.
- Amrita (Restores 50 TP to one party member): Made from 1 Lapis Strawberry. Costs 800 en.
- Ambush Chance: 3%
Oh look, an ant egg where we actually have to think....And the random encounter I got into right as I entered the room resulted in a bunch more ants spawning. That's a problem.
Fuck it, I brute-forced it. For the record, hitting the egg counts as moving one tile, which means the ant FOEs can attack you right after you hit the egg. Yeah, that's usually what I end up doing.
'Ey, who's up for a bit of ant catharsis? Me. Wait but-- Majority rules.
Servitor Ant
| HP: 1586 | STR: 33 | TEC: 26 | VIT: 28 | AGI: 22 | LUC: 25 |
Damage Vulnerabilities:
 100% |  75% |  100% |
 50% |  150% |  100% |
Disable Vulnerabilities:
 50% |  50% |  50% |  50% |  50% |  50% |  50% |
 10% |  10% |  50% | ||||
 50% |  50% |  50% |
- Defense Unit: Increases one row of enemies' physical defense by 50% for 4 turns. Very fast.
- Defense Unit: Increases one row of enemies' physical defense by 50% for 4 turns. Has a 150% speed modifier.
- On the first turn, if Defense Unit has not and will not already be used on this turn, the Servitor Ant will always open with Defense Unit.
- Defense Unit has a cooldown of 4 turns.
- Defense Unit will never be cast when any enemies have its buff.
- If the Defense Unit cooldown is not initialized, initialize it to 4.
- If the initial Defense Unit flag is set, decrement the Defense Unit cooldown by 1.
- If the initial Defense Unit flag is not set, Defense Unit was not already used on this turn, and no enemies have the Defense Unit buff, use Defense Unit, and set the initial Defense Unit flag.
- If the Defense Unit cooldown is less than or equal to 0, Defense Unit was not already used on this turn, and no enemies have the Defense Unit buff, use Defense Unit, and set the Defense Unit cooldown to 4.
- If none of the above happened, Attack.
- Defense Unit: Increases one row of party members' physical defense for 4 turns. Fast.
- Defense Unit: Increases one row of party members' physical defense for 4 turns. Has a 120% speed modifier.
Drops:
- Normal: Red Carapace. 60% chance. Sells for 488 en.
Morion (+24 DEF, +10 HP): Made from 1 Red Carapace. Costs 2880 en.- Conditional: Fossil Nest (Kill with petrification). 80% chance. Sells for 1346 en.
- Divine Gift (Doubles EXP gained from the current battle): Made from 1 Fossil Nest. Costs 2100 en.
Like I mentioned last update, the ant FOEs are basically just the normal ant enemies, but with more HP and beefier stats. There really isn't much to fights against them. These are mostly a nuisance. Get their materials and move on.
Hey. Elly. Fancy yourself pretty quick? I-- Yes, I'd consider myself agile. Why do you-- Pfft. You're just a baby. Watch this.
[Watch where you're shooting!] That doesn't count.
Boom-bada-boom. Action Boost. It's dumb.
Stupid...ants...
[Taste of your own...] Ack... [Medicine...] A-Afon, please, lemme patch you up real quick...
Aw, fuck off, I don't even get the drop?!
By the way, the real part of B12F is full of shortcuts, so you don't have to fall down that pit every time you want to ma ke actual progress.
It's in your best interest to get to eggs as soon as possible, so there are as few ants guarding it as possible.By the way, I think ant eggs follow standard FOE respawn rules, but don't quote me on that.
Eyyyy, I didn't get ant juice all ovah me this time. Good for you.
I should see Thierry about this twitch...
The sources of the dread feeling begin to show themselves, one after the next. It turns out to be an army of ants! They click their fangs menacingly, signaling their intent to attack! Perhaps they learned of your ambush of the group of ants not long ago, when you stole their harvest... Regardless, you find yourselves surrounded, and have no choice now but to fight! Oh, you bastards want a fight, do ya?
I am gonna scream. If Sigrid were here, I'm sure both of you screaming would make a lovely harmony... That's one hell of a "tryin' to look on the bright side."
However, you see no reinforcements coming to replace these... This next encounter should put an end to it. You brace yourselves and engage the ants once more! Wait, what? That was the first battle. I smell either dummied out content or poor EO1 script editing. I don't actually remember EO1's quests, though, so I could be wrong.
And this one isn't even as bad as the last one.
And there isn't even narration for once the battles are over. That event is weird.
Hey look an FOE icon with a purple aura I wonder what that is
The faraway sound of a horde of insects reaches your ears... Straining your eyes to see where the noise is coming from, you see a gigantic ant! Man, that's one ugly customah... ... Ladette, please, now's really not the time to start shooting-- You realize with alarm that you have trespassed into the ants' forest nest... If you are to proceed, battle with the devilish ants will be inevitable! Now's as good a time as ever to get back to town immediately.
To close out the update, the Byeahs got me some things. Sea Charm (+30 TP, immunity to leg binds) is made from 1 Stab Shell (3rd Stratum Take 2). Amrita (Restores 50 TP to one party member) is made from 1 Lapis Strawberry (3rd Stratum Take 3). Costs 800 en. And that's it for now. Next time: Queen Ant. Where are my glasses?Next Update
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