In the game, there was an ancient dungeon-to-dungeon autorail line between Ouidah Dungeon on the east coast and Uwaga Dungeon on the west coast; a single fast-travel railcar that took you all the way to the other side of the continent.
However, the campaign was designed in such a way that you had to traverse over to the east coast the slow way first – by walking, riding, driving, or sailing. Then, when you killed mini-boss Ostero Nynaling at Ouidah Dungeon and got his black skull key, you could finally unlock the Strangers autorail system and gain access to fast travel between the coasts.
Backtracking through the dark wastelands in the middle of the continent got old fast, so changing scenery with an underground rail line was the single biggest overworld skip in casual play.
There had been some ideas about how to use the autorail without the railcar from west side in speedrunning forums, but none of those ideas had been practical. The biggest obstacle was simply the distance: a player on west coast would have to somehow trigger the railcar that was on east coast. Practically impossible.
But now, in this flashback timeline world, Ostero Nynaling was on this side of the continent. We had a chance to make a skip that was impossible in the game: start the autorail system from the wrong end and bypass the whole transcontinental overworld travel sequence.
Since Ostero had the key on this side, surely the railcar was on this side of the system as well, waiting us in the dark depths of the Uwaga Dungeon.
Rerouting, rerouting... done.
It was a good idea to visit Seitheargnagh after all. Praise the light of Lucranah for this bountiful harvest!
But I was happy we left the crazy cult city behind.
“So we'll return to Crumbling Shores before anyone starts looking for Ostero and try to find Dancer next. Is that okay?”
“I don't have any other contracts to take care of.” (Crys)
“Great. Now, about the other guy I talked about... waiting for Test Subject to show up after releasing information about Strangers item might take several weeks. With this Skeleton Key, we get a big enough timesave that we can practically skip contacting Test Subject altogether. He would have been helpful at certain points, but this key compensates for his absence many times over.”
“If the key works as you say.” (Crys)
“Yes, if it works, we'll make it to Reignland long before Test Subject. And even if we get bad chokes, we'll still meet him there before he turns weird – no, that's not it, I'm still thinking his change as inevitable. We can prevent Test Subject from traveling to Reignland completely here... But it doesn't really matter timing-wise either way, if he travels there or not...”
It's a minimum achievement run and Test Subject is a non-essential character for the party at this point. I can let him travel the long way solo, or just pin him in place here somehow.
“I assume you two don't particularly want to travel over southern territories and go through the City of Sighs again either, right? If the key doesn't work for some reason, we can simply return to Crumbling Shores and contact him then. It's not a non-recoverable time loss.”
“I see.” (Crys)
“So, we'll just find Dancer, and then we can head to the Uwaga Dungeon at No-Lands. For that journey, we need to acquire climbing ropes, camping gear, rations –”
“Write a list for Kimono.” (Crys)
“...You don't have any objections to my plan? You're alright with going to Uwaga?”
“It is fine. Before leaving, I will start a rumor about a Strangers item. This person called Test Subject will be waiting for us, if we still have to return to the city.” (Crys)
“Oh, that's a good idea.”
Two thumbs up. Make him wait for us instead of us wasting time waiting him.
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We left Seitheargnagh through southern gate and took a longer southern road on the way back Crumbling Shores.
Using the same road on the way back might have lead to an encounter with Suleiman's troops in the middle of crime scene investigation.
During frequent stops on the way, I started sketching the promised world map on a large vellum scroll Crys obtained at Seitheargnagh for this specific purpose. I decided to use one-adjacent-country-at-the-time method, sketching the overworld shapes from my memory area by area, level by level, territory by territory.
All major roads followed continental coastlines, and since Ur Continent was shaped roughly like a bloated version of Africa or South America, normal merchant caravans from western side to eastern side made an U-shaped detour through southern territories because the middle of the continent was scorched wasteland bristled with deviant tribes and war-gangs.
Driving over those destroyed lands full of wild encounters would have been quite dangerous even in armored mining vehicle, and even with my knowledge of safest routes. And because of the large rift called Drakenveld Crevice, which was like an open wound in the middle of the continent, we would've been forced to take a path that used one of the two wedge bridges over the rift. Bad chokes, both of them.
As expected, Crys wasn't too keen on traveling through City of Sighs or his old home territory Crater City, not to mention moving closer to the Coreland areas where the trench war between Caliph and Suleiman was going strong. Our long U-turn route through south would have looked more like W-turn; we would have had to trace the edges of those areas, and that would have meant using troublesome mountain paths of smugglers and bandits.
Yes, the Autorail Skeleton Key was truly the luckiest ultra-rare drop to get at this point.
By the way, Crys had somehow come the the conclusion that I used to be an educational improv drama performer and pieced together quite a creative origin story.
“In the future, in your previous life, you were a performer on a grand arena; an actor in a series of theatrical gladiator battles and tragic stage plays based on real events of this day. You were the youngest of a long line of such actors, raised from an early age to take part in these mock battles of history. You spent a fair amount of time and effort in training for your role, or rather, you played several different, meticulously written roles. You watched detailed historical records from a device of Strangers origin, then incorporated these details into your act. This explains why you know what you know, why you talk of people as characters on a play, why the illusion of being able to redo past events until they become perfect looms like a pious belief over your head. Further, the glitches you speak of – when a performer ended up stepping outside set pieces, breaking the boundaries of a scene, or stepped to a scene early, the audience of the future treated this as part of the entertainment; the improvisation added on oft-repeated visits to history was part of the spectacle. But then, by accident, a Strangers device transferred you in person to this historical place in time, and now you are forced to act out your role in real history. But being knowledgeable of the course of the play, you wish to change the parts that you deem painful, to change the tragic ending of the play you've been forced to act through our life.” (Crys)
“Wow, that's something... Well, I did roleplay and I did have a live audience, but... Crys, what your theory about me is still missing are the unexpected leaps in advanced tech–”
Kimono interrupted our in-depth conversation by knocking on the roof.
“Brother, three highwaymen, on horses.” (Kimono)
“Problem?” (Crys)
“No.” (Kimono)
“I leave it to you.” (Crys)
Crys drew his revolver and rested it on his lap.
“Ready your weapon, but do not shoot if I don't shoot first.” (Crys)
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Yes.”
Soon the coach slowed down and came to a halt. I heard voices of three men; a random encounter on the road.
“Let your horse rest and put your hands up, bitch!”
“You inside the carriage! Step out with your hands above your head and hand over your money and jewels! Nothing will happen if you obey our orders!”
“Look, she's frozen out of fear! Can't even raise her hands!”
“Ha! I'll know how to warm her up!”
“Wait, something's wrong–“
“Argh, my eye!”
“Where did she go?! Wha–!”
A series of muffled noises followed: screams of pain, panicked grunts, a body splashing into a puddle on the road, horse running away without a rider – snikt, swoosh, ching and bang.
Then it became quiet.
Crys nodded and holstered his revolver. I did the same.
Kimono opened the coach door, pushing two long carbines and four revolvers on the floor between us without saying a word. Then she closed the door, climbed back up to her rider's seat and our journey continued.
“Must be convenient when they deliver new merchandise in for free.”
“Unfortunately the quality leaves a lot to be desired. People don't clean their weapons.” (Crys)
“Returning to the topic, what you're missing from your theory–”
“Enough. You have proved yourself useful, so we can drop the topic of your past life for now, but I expect you to write an account with all scorpioid details to me in the near future.” (Crys)
“Oh, thanks.”
“It will take two days to put my business to rest here before we leave the city. I will find the person who is a living weapon.” (Crys)
“Right, I'll draw you a better sketch of Dancer.”
From his tone of voice, I suddenly had a feeling that settling business meant something else than saying farewells to regular customers. That reminded about something.
“By the way, do you know a guy who uses the name Shade of Chasm?”
“Shade of Chasm is a known mercenary living in the Low City. What about him?” (Crys)
“I was just curious if you know him already.”
Shade of Chasm was the mid-boss of Crumbling Shores level, but since he was a mercenary, with enough money we could hire him now instead of having him become our enemy later – at least for a while.
“We met him once at the gathering, brother! That unpleasant street rat!” (Kimono)
Kimono was surely always listening our talks with her sharp ears, even if it seemed like she didn't care.
“Yes, Shade is an impoverished person moved only by the promise of money.” (Crys)
Crys had already made an accurate estimate about his character.
“Shade is someone that becomes our enemy in the future when he gets hired by the crime lords.”
“That won't be a problem.” (Crys)
“Because you trust that I have good counters against him?”
“You seem to know that he becomes a threat in the future. I know he is not a threat today, but I can see how he might grow into a threat. I can simply kill a rat before he turns into a lion. A faster way with lower cost, is it not?” (Crys)
“You're speaking my language now, Crys-sensei!”
That's right, instead of spending money to hire him, just kill him now when he's just a young merc and skip the whole sequence.
My plans were still bound by game mechanisms and common decency.
“Crys, do you happen to know a guy called Kurdt Krurick?”
“I know Krurick is a family of High Nobles in the northern territories of Mu. Their ancestors gave name for the common currency, but the family line hasn't done anything worth mentioning since. That is the extent of my knowledge, I do not know any individual members of the family.” (Crys)
“Well, there's a guy named Kurdt in the Krurick family who might be very useful to us because of his special knowledge, but I do not know much about him either. We should find out what kind of guy he is at some point, or meet him when we reach northern territories Mu, if he is there.”
“Sure. Any other names I should know?” (Crys)
“Oh boy, there are so many things I need to – oh, Thiefmaster. You know him by reputation, right? His real name is Renaud Kizaha.”
Crys went seriously quiet now. I just dropped another free infobomb worth a fortune.
The real name of the Thiefmaster, this world's manifestation of the gentleman thief Arséne Lupin or the Scarlet Pimpernel. Renaud Kizaha was High Noble from the east coast who moonlighted as a highwayman and cat burglar, stealing valuables from his peers for kicks.
“That is very useful information.” (Crys)
“Isn't it? When Caliph Tze is dead, we can pay a visit to Renaud's home in Sylvania. He's a complete weirdo addicted to danger and constantly pushes himself to the extremes, so getting him on our side is not going to work, if you're thinking that. He would drag us on the edge with him, then betray us immediately just for the thrill of it.”
“...” (Crys)
Uh, maybe I should be more careful with my infodumping after all. Crys is scheming something now. Reckless infobombing might get him sidetracked.
Be more cautious about side mission info, concentrate on the main mission info.
“Give me the letters.” (Crys)
“– oh, you mean from the messenger I killed? You're going to decode them now?”
“Yes.” (Crys)
Crys really moves on his own pace.
Before we reached the southern gate of Crumbling Shores, he had already decoded the letters.
“First letter is a change of orders to a training platoon, to shift their path from Black Forest station to Noh Dungeon station.” (Crys)
Must be the platoon I encountered. I killed the messenger, so they didn't get their order to change course. They didn't end up in Noh Dungeon, where the Belt of Measurement Cards would have been found in the future.
“The second letter is an additional order about low food stocks, an order for the same platoon to raze villages and farms in the Noh Dungeon area.” (Crys)
So they are now in wrong location and they don't know that they should raze villages. What a shame.
Unfortunately there was nothing immediately useful in the letters, but I wondered what repercussions this flap of butterfly wing would have for the future.
In the meanwhile, I made a sketch of Dancer's face and explained a surefire way to identify him:
“If you look at Dancer's teeth and fingernails, they should be uniformly light gray.”
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There was someone I didn't want to meet, walking in the middle of the street with a female priest troupe, dressed in white-gold robes.
Lucranah.
Crap. Crap. Don't look. Don't look, nothing to see here!
I concentrated on looking at the ground, hoping that not looking at Lucranah would prevent triggering him.
“Kingboy, you are shaking. Explain.” (Crys)
Hearing Crystal Pencil's voice, I raised my head a bit. Lucranah and his troupe were not there anymore. He wasn't after us, just taking a casual stroll.
“We need to get the hell out of here. Lucranah is in the area.”
“I see.” (Crys)
Crys called his sister with a small hand movement and told her to get the coach ready.
“We're leaving immediately.” (Crys)
“Thank you, Crys.”
“Your expression is enough to convince me.” (Crys)
It's really great that Crys can make split-second decisions like this.
Then I suddenly heard his voice from behind me and every hair in my body stood up.
“Kneel before Lucranah!”
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I woke up in cold sweat.
I was in a bed, in a small first floor bedroom, at Crumbling Shores, in a private house Crys and Kimono used as their home base.
What a terrible nightmare.
I opened the curtains and looked out of the street level window. It was morning, but it was still quite dark outside because there was a heavy rain shrouding the city.
I didn't feel like going back to sleep, so I washed my face and then decided to take a full bath in the washroom.
Weird dream sequences were an integral part of the anime series, but fans had very polarized opinions about them. The haters thought dream sequences made the series unnecessarily confusing, particularly because there was still debates if some scenes were dreams or not. It wasn't clearly explained in the series.
Those who liked the dream stuff thought that the surreal sequences kept viewers on their toes and not knowing what was real and what was a dream (or drug-induces hallucination) kept the mystery of the series alive.
In any case, the rule of thumb among fans was that if the surreal sequences were referenced in some other scenes as being real, then they were real – with some edge case exceptions, like the weird stuff that went on in Winter Forest.
Dreams were real life cutscenes, as they said. I'd like to skip the appalling ones.
After spending a while in a comfortable wooden bathtub, I returned to my room.
I was pulling up my cargo pants when Kimono suddenly slammed the bedroom door open and surprised me. I let out a feeble whimper of protest and spun around.
“Ba-baka! I'm not wearing my brown pantsu!”
“Shut up. Brother has returned.” (Kimono)
Kimono rolled her eyes and walked away.
How embarrassing, she saw my underwear. I can't become a bride anymore.
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Crys was wearing a brown Inverness cape. The characters in the anime rarely changed their clothes and the in-universe reason for that was either that they owned only one set of clothes (which wasn't surprising in this crapsack world) or that they wore their specially tailored work clothes and were always ready for battle like Kimono.
The reason for the high quality clothing Crys and Kimono wore was that Crys still wanted to hang onto his noble upbringing and obviously they had to keep up appearances as trusted weapon merchants.
Of course, real-world practical reasons for easily identifiable clothing were that it would take too much time for animators and character designers to draw new clothes for every character in every episode, and it would also frustrate casual viewers; they would lose track of which character was which.
“Sweet coat! Top it off with an deerstalker hat and you're styling!”
“I found it on the way. Something special about it?” (Crys)
“Oh, I was just surprised seeing you wear something so... Baker street.”
“It was necessary.” (Crys)
Personally, I had a proper reason to wear mostly the same set of clothes all the time: modern-day clothes were superior in comfortability when compared to this world's clothing.
Anyway, the second surprise of the morning came immediately.
“I brought him with me.” (Crys)
“Huh?”
“Saif, step in.” (Crys)
“You found Dancer already?!”
A short twenty-something guy in dark blue rain cloak stepped in. I recognized his face immediately.
“It is Dancer!”
“...My name is Saif... Do I know you?” (Dancer)
“You don't know me, but I definitely know you! Come, let's have some coffee. I'll give you a too-long-didn't-read version of what's going on.”
“Kimono, tea.” (Crys)
“Yes, brother.” (Kimono)
When we gathered in the living room, Dancer looked at Crys with a meek expression, wordlessly asking his permission to sit. What did you do to Dancer, Crys? Did you bully him on the way here?
Crys sat down on the sofa, clearly curious about what I would say next.
“Crys, how did you find him so fast?”
“I put a word on the street before we left to Seitheargnagh.” (Crys)
“...Yes, of course. How about Test Subject?”
“No word yet.” (Crys)
“Excuse me, but why were you people looking for me...?” (Dancer)
Uncle Speedrun has to explain everything from the start again.