Minor Update:

SSG - Mainly spent my time leveling up my side team while doing side missions. I returned to the far north where I reforged the Godslaying Saw and started a mining venture where I got to make mines in the area, but it seems to come at the cost of destroying all of the natural magical landmarks in the area. I didn't quite finish this one, but I'll come back to it. Instead I'm doing two smaller quests in the region where the cult kept trying to summon an Infernal. One quest involves gathering offerings for a Beast Spiritual, though I'm having issues finding the second material. The other quest involves the party saving a young lady from a flock of carrion birds. We meet her at this old castle that is rumored to be home to a witch, but the girl has been super nice to the team. The only creepy part was spending the night had Urpina wake up to find the castle in ruins and in the midst of a graveyard. This one NPC I think I can recruit is also in the area looking for this witch and is harassing a fisherman who keeps telling Urpina the girl is in fact the witch and not to listen to her. So of course I'm ignoring that and helping her now break some jars. I'm hoping this will net me this particular player character, because I've read she's pretty good. I did manage to recruit the mayor from a small town near Urpina's kingdom and he's another Club user and dressed like a fruity Renaissance nobleman, with the page boy haircut and everything.

I also feel like I'm running out of gear to earn tech skills from. I'm making tier XIII stuff at this point and I'm pretty sure I maxed out the Blacksmith ranking. I'm now at the annoying part where I need to keep an eye out for all the rare materials needed to level up the stuff.

I feel my only real complaint so far with skill acquisition in this game is that once again, magic is more of a chore than it needs to be. It's pretty potent, but I am annoyed with the casting times for a lot of spells. Especially the group targeting spells.