Wandering
-Maybe I have to go back to that excavation. I’ll try that next.
-GAH. Nothing in the excavation. Tried doing one excavation just in case, and it got me nothing.
-Found a random cave in the overworld with a sleeping miner, but nothing doing here.
-Going to try heading down to Emerald Weapon’s crater. The sun doesn’t really touch that.
-No luck there either.
-Next will try heading back to Bugenhagen in case he has words of wisdom beyond “it’s where there’s no sunshine.”
-When I get back to Bugenhagen, he tells me I was on the right track with the submarine. That it’s underwater. Ok. Well, it’s a lead. Though probably not in the Emerald Weapon’s home crater.
---
The Gelnika
-Searched briefly in the submarine for something interesting, and found the Gelnika, a downed Shinra plane.
-ngl, this place is spooky
-New weapon for Cloud: “Heaven’s Cloud.”
-There’s a Mako Reactor in here?
-HOLY CRAP THE FIRST RANDOM ENCOUTNER HERE WITH “Unknown 3” ONE SHOT CLOUD
Unknown 3.
-It keeps using “Creepy Touch,” which is a one-hit death. Yuffie and Nanaki survive because they have Safety Bits I think. Cloud doesn’t.
[Later edit: still not sure what was up with that. Cloud had a Safety Bit, so maybe he was just eating regular damage.]
-This thing has a metric ton of HP.
-Next random encounter just obliterated me.
It looks like a flower with a snake for a tongue. Uses “Tentacle” for over 2k damage per hit. I’m gonna guess that this isn’t the place I need to be. Counting my blessings to have gotten the Heaven’s Cloud and I’m getting the FUCK outta here.
---
Underwater
-Must’ve forgotten to save at some point last time, because I again found the leader sub and got its Huge Materia. (I’m fairly certain I saved last time, but oh well.)
-Maybe that’s it. Working theory: maybe I take the Huge Materia I found down here with me to the Forgotten City and it opens up the way below? Like, I can put it on the pillar on the right side of the city, and it might open up the way to the lower part of the Forgotten City.
-That’d be the answer if this were a Zelda game.
---
Forgotten Capital
-SWEET MOTHER OF GOD I WAS ABLE TO LAND JUST OUTSIDE THE FORGOTTEN CAPITAL
-All this time I’ve been landing the Highwind outside the excavation and taking the super long way through Corel Valley. This is so much better, and no random encounters.
-Still can’t understand the words of the Ancient, and still can’t do anything to that pillar on the right side of the City. Maybe Bugenhagen has something new to say now.
-He doesn’t. Still says go underwater.
-Ok. Think, Coldrun. We have to find White Materia. [Later edit: should’ve said “the key.”] It’s underwater somewhere.
-…think…
-…I got nothing. I’ll try swimming down there some more in my sub.
---
Underwater
-Let’s look some more. I have to go under the assumption that Gelnika isn’t the place. Those were boss-difficulty monsters I found just randomly wandering there, so it must be an endgame dungeon. I’ll also assume that I don’t need to kill Emerald Weapon right now for the same reason. Just too tough.
-Can’t get into the underwater reactor.
-Scoured the ocean floor for any hint of a key. Nothing.
-Ok.
-Ok. My frustration is reaching peak levels at this point. I’d be lying if I said I weren’t considering looking up the answer, because this is getting ridiculous, but I’ll keep trying for now.
-NOTHING AGAILFHDAJKLSHFDKLSVFHDJKLSNVJIDSLNVDUIOSL GOD FUCKING DAMMIT
-………..
-AHJKLHJKL I FOUND A THING
-I JUST FOUND A THING
-I’M CAPSLOCKING BECAUSE I FOUND A THING. It’s a passage some new part of the underwater area I had missed in my exploration. I literally got up and started dancing and my cat is looking at me weird and I feel SO SATISFIED that my pointless wandering had a point.
(Though I should chill. The last “breakthrough” I thought I had was the Gelnika.)
-It let me to a waterfall cave, which held… nothing.
To a room called “???.” Cloud said “Sephiroth…” on entering, and there’s a shell here with white light emitting, but nothing happens.
-I’m just… I’m so drained.
-You know what? I can do this. I found a secret tunnel that I didn’t see from the earlier angles I was searching. It led to a waterfall that had nothing for me yet, but it was something new. I clearly hadn’t explored all that I could under the water, and the game is clearly telling me that the answer is found in my submarine. I can do this.
*just five minutes later*
-I found something. It’s a white coral looking thing in an alcove I hadn’t found before.
-I’m… just floating in the water. Staring at it. Afraid to go near, lest it be another dead end or another Weapon or something.
-Breathe.
-Ok. It’s something “several thousand years old.”
-SUCCESS HAHAHAHAHAHA YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
---
Next time: I figure out what to do with the darn thing. Back to Bugenhagen.
