Update Time!

Not a huge one. I did a small quest to retrieve another of the Bard's instruments, I think I might have all of them at this point but I'll double check. The instruments are needed to recruit another race, or so I've heard. In the course of getting this instrument, I finally allowed my Light Infantry, Nomad, and Earth Mage to get killed off for real so I can replace them with two of the new classes I unlocked and a Monk so I can try to get the last of the Martial Art skills. My Ninja is pretty awesome as she's decent with magic, great at martial arts and Greatswords, as well as being one of the fastest party members with good health. The Onmyoji (screw their English name) is a Dark Magic specialist, and though I should have had him sub Earth magic, I gave him fire instead which is about the only bad choice I made here. He's pretty snazzy because before this class existed, there really wasn't a dark specialist class in the game, only a few select characters had decent affinity with it. He's also good with spears and bows, which is great because most mage classes are awful fighters, my Earth Mage certainly was. I also learned that I unlocked the fourth tier Fire spell.

With that, I ventured into the last part of the Maze of Memory, the Blue Water zone which unfortunately had a high quantity of slimes as well which made giving my Monk Earth magic not so much of a bad idea. This zone has a merchant who sells some rare items as gimmick in it. Unfortunately each item is worth my money cap, so you can only really get one of the three items per visit. I opted for an item that raises the drop rate of items from monsters. The real treasure of this area is a special ore you can take back to either of your blacksmiths to either forge a real strong 1H Sword or a pretty snazzy piece of armor. Since I know the Final Emperor/Empress each come with their own unique weapon, I opted for the armor, especially since I feel I'm lagging in that department. I've been doing these small quests for the sake of getting my blacksmiths caught up on new gear. My orchard has also expanded and in wracking in more cash flow, it even has two golden fruits on it at this point. Not sure if I'm going to try for the full unlock since it requires me to fight like another 1000 battles

With the new crew, I'm split on what to do next. Part of me feels like I should wander around the Maze of Memory some more and simply grind my magic and techs before I take the plunge into fighting another member of the Seven Heroes. I just keep thinking this is going to be the last free emperor before I get locked into the final one. Techs learned in the final era can't transfer and I won't be able to unlock anymore fusion magic until NG+ since I need a generational skip to unlock them once commissioned. On the other hand, I honestly feel like this is going to be one of those games I may actually come back to, so I probably shouldn't worry about leaving things for NG+.