Melmond

With the canal open, you can now reach the town of Melmond. Melmond has been partially destroyed, and features neither item shop nor clinic. You should stock up on items, including a handful of SOFT Potions, in ElfLand before setting out. Should you need a clinic, Coneria's is only a short trip away. Once your preparations are complete, head west past the canal.

Melmond

The earth is rotting this far west, and the town of Melmond lies partially in ruin. Without a clinic or item shop, the town makes a poor base of operations. There are several new pieces of equipment sold here, but the real prize is the level 5 spell selection. Wh.MAGES and Bl.MAGES will be able to use these spells starting at level 12, while RedMAGES must wait until level 15.

Speaking to the townspeople will reveal much about the ORB of Earth. You are told that the VAMPIRE of the Earth Cave is responsible for the rotting earth in the area. You'll also learn about Sarda the Sage, who can be found beyond the Titan's Tunnel. One man tells you that the Titan likes to eat RUBIES. Finally, take note of Dr. Unne, a noted scholar who lives in town.

Spell Selection

There are many excellent spells available here for mages of all types. The black magic spell that should catch your eye right away is FIR3, which is excellent in the Earth Cave you are soon to enter. BANE is the first available KO spell for your Bl.MAGE, though RedMAGES must wait until the class change to learn it. KO spells are of questionable utility, though, so you may want to pass. SLO2 is a single-target version of SLOW, but it is more accurate than its predecessor and no monster specifically resists it. It can be a life saver against certain bosses. WARP is another useful spell, but you cannot learn it until the class change. It will let you move back one level in a dungeon, similar to (but not as useful as) the level 6 white magic spell EXIT.

On the white magic side, you once again have two healing spells to choose from. CUR3 is fine, but HEL2 is bugged to have the same effect as HEL3 in combat. Unless exploiting bugs bothers you (and given the number that hurt you, it shouldn't), this makes it the superior spell. HEL2 will heal almost as many HP per character as CUR3 does to its lone target (in combat, at least). HRM3 is useful against the Undead in the Earth Cave, but whatever you do, don't pass up LIFE. This is one of the most important spells in the game (and your RedMAGE should leave a slot open so he can learn it when he becomes a RedWiz.

New Equipment

The new equipment isn't quite as spectacular as the spell selection, but it's not bad. The only new weapons are the Falchon and Long Sword. The Falchon is a good THIEF weapon, but you should have found it and better options when you went searching for treasure with the mystic KEY. The Long Sword does more damage than the Dragon Sword (not to mention the Rune and Were Swords), but at the cost of 5% Hit Rate and a lot of crit rate. It's inferior to the Silver Sword available in ElfLand, but comes in at less than half the price. If you choose to buy one, make sure you are not sacrificing an attack by doing so (a warrior gets an extra attack for each 32 points of Hit Rate listed in the Status screen).

The armor selections are much better, though you should have found most of the available pieces with the mystic KEY. It is a good idea to upgrade lightly armored warriors (anyone except FIGHTERS and RedMAGES) to Silver Bracelets if you can afford them. If you have multiple FIGHTERS, you can upgrade their peripheral armor here as well.

The big prize is the Steel Armor, a 10 Absorb upgrade over the Iron Armor for your FIGHTER. The extra defense will cost you dearly, though—the price tag is an eye-popping 45,000 G. Unless you're rolling in money, consider skipping this piece of armor. You will find better pieces in the next stage of the game, and that money can be put to better immediate use.