Sidequest Interlude #1:

Once Cid and Mid fix up the fire-powered ship, you get a certain range of freedom of movement, so before we head off to the Crescent shaped island, let's stop for a second and get a new esper!

Istory Falls: Dude, is that. . is that an old guy?
rubah's level: 18
Classes: Ninja+Magic Shell, Red Mage +!Chakra, Berserker+Barehanded, Blue Mage + White (These are not recommended classes, just what I had on at the time. Ideally, you want high amounts of healing (white mage/summoner with white level 4) and some good offense (I don't really recommend berserker, so try a Monk or Mystic Knight).

Obviously, Ramuh is the lightning elemental summon in ff5. He's lurking in the forests of Istory, so to get there, take your ship and sail down. . . down . . . down over the edge of the world (you'll end up at the top of the world map) then head west/left to a little town at the northwest corner of the world. Watch out for the encounters on the ship. You can go in the town to pick up the spell Toad from a little flower patch and the Bard song Romeo's Ballad (stand behind the sheep the little shepherdess girl warns you about and try to "talk" to it) and sleep for a measly 30gil/night. After this, save and head out into the woods. You should run into Ramuh pretty dang quickly. He doesn't have an amazing repertoire, mostly just Thundara and Flash. Just hit him, heal, and don't cast lightning magic on him, and he should realize Ifrit's with your party and decide to join. (To stop him from casting Thundara, you might try using Magic Hammer if you got it from Byblos). Now you're a summon richer!

I recommend getting out of the forest because there is an encounter of 5 mini dragons, and they're a little annoying with 1000 hp apiece. (two lightning scrolls will take them down, but I have other plans for those), so head back to the ship (save and sleep if you want), then head north until you reach the southern side of the map, go east a little ways, then start heading north again. We're headed for the little town of Jachol. If the Western continent (where the Library is) is Europe, Jachol is in Italy. You have to go to the eastern coast to be able to slip between the mountains, so dodge the islands and land where they seem to connect to the mainland (checking the world map to do so).

Once on land, walk past the cave (saving if you'd like), and just head west then south into town, since Jachol supposedly has such awesome amazing weapons and skullskullskullskull. Watch out for Bio Soldiers (steal a War Hammer from them if you have a thief around) since they cast Bio, doing about 200 dmg and inflicting sap status on you. Nasty, nasty.

Anyways, the armorer in Jachol has Green Berets (one of my favorite hats in the game) and ninja suits. Stock up so your thieves and ninjas become UNSTOPPABLE, or just really awesome. You can buy some of the equipment for the next job classes you'll get, if you want, but I'd shy away from the Coral Sword just yet, since you're still fighting the monsters on the open seas and they absorb lightning.

In the pub, you'll find an "Interactive" dance, but more importantly is the chance to improve your piano skills! Hey, you're getting pretty good by now!

Anyways, talking to the townspeople just gets you clues about Istory Falls and the Crescent Isle and what to do in the cave we're about to visit. Grab someone that can cast black magic and someone who can throw Scrolls and let's go to the cave!

Jachol Cave: Where did that damned squirrel come from?!
Required Items: Lightning/flame/frost whatever scrolls. x A lot.
Recommended Level: Any
Recommended Jobs: Any that you want to level in ABP; a fast black magic caster (thief with Black lvl2 for example), someone with Throw; a white magic caster with the ability to cast Raise.

Inside the cave, which is the one you passed by on the way to Jachol, you will find two types of encounters. One is the cute little red squirrels, Nutkins (Nut Eater in my babyhood rom fanslation) and the nasty grey squirrels, Skull Eaters.

Nutkins are pretty straight-forward. You hit them, and they die.

Skull Eaters, on the other hand, you hit them and they are not phased. In fact, they hit you, and you die. For this reason, I will request that your entire party be placed in the back row.

The way you handle skull eaters is this. If someone that is not a person with black magic gets a turn, they either heal or defend. If someone who is a person with black magic gets a turn, they cast fire/thunder/blizzard.

It is imperative not to freak out. I realize the prospect of fighting so many skull eaters is ah, liable to make you soil yourself, but it will [probably] be okay!

Now, as soon as possible, get your ninja to THROW a scroll on them! (Hopefully you got some of these from the scores of Sahagins you had to fight in order to make it to Istory and back!)

If you do not have these scrolls, don't even think of casting any magic, just run. Run run run.

Now, there are other reasons to visit this cave than the sweet sweet APB you can gain, so after saving, enter and walk down to the bottom and hit the skull switch there. The walls will move, so head to the right and go down. There's an empty treasure chest () so just continue down. On the wall to the right, there is a literal metric crapton of skull switches. stand still and one of them will reveal itself to be the correct one (just like the guy in Jachol said, if you talked to him). Hit it and you'll hear a rumbling.

Head back up to where that treasure chest was and go right past it. There is a door (locked) and another treasure chest. I realize this doesn't make any sense, but check in the treasure chest and 'Lo and behold, there is a switch! Flip it and the door opens! yay!

Head through the door and go up, ignoring these empty chests. At the fork, head left and get the Shuriken from the chest. Double back around to get the chest behind it for a tent. Head right through the fork.

At the next fork, go down for a Blitz Whip (unless you were a jerk and let Lone Wolf out of the jail in Walse). That's pretty much it for treasure in this cave, so settle back and wait for the skull eaters to pop out of nowhere if you want to grind som AP, else, continue on! (if you go to the end of the cave, you'll climb the wall and end up on the worldmap, but there's not really anything to do there) But seriously, 2 abp for something as easy as three nutkins is a dang good deal. You'll be hard pressed to do better on World 1.