This is as far west as we can go before a a strait of water gets in the way. The village has a peculiar mix of multiple architectural styles.

There are more pressing concerns, though.

We can't overlook this, and besides, we can't go any further west for now anyway. Into the well! Immediately upon entering, we stumble into the middle of a battle. Ray, the cleric previously seen in Corsair, clashes with a large insectlike monster, finishing it off with a colorful shiny spell.

Another of the monsters rushes in from the nearby passage, and we have to fight this one ourselves. Yup, that's a giant bug, all right. It's fairly strong and tough, and can attack twice in a row to make things worse. Once that's dealt with, we can talk to Ray.

Continuing to blow him off at this point doesn't lower his Mood any further, just gets us stuck in a But Thou Must loop until we finally accept.

As we follow Ray deeper into the dry well, another one of the monsters attacks. Ray intercepts it, saving us from another battle but blocking the way out.

There's enough water deeper in to form an underground lake, where we need to ride on large turtles to cross from island to island. A few more bug monsters loiter in the area, and there are a few treasure chests, too. There's also a man...

...and, near the back, a boy.

Then there's a big splash nearby and a boss attacks, looking even more like something H. R. Giger might have come up with than the earlier bugs.

The giant bug has a ton of health, hits fairly hard, and has some multitarget attacks as well. On top of that, one of its abilities can compel a party member to attack another, which also cancels the controlled character's action for the round if they haven't already acted.

Making things worse is the lack of useful options at this point in the game. Only Ryu has any healing spells, Sten and Nina have only basic offensive spells while Ryu has none at all, and Lin Pu may have learened some advanced spells but can't use any of them, so for the most part, it's down to slogging through the battle with relatively weak attacks and depending on items for survival. The monster doesn't have any weaknesses, either.

After the battle, the whole cavern is shaking ominously. Ray awaits us in the next chamber.

Everyone retreats as surging water floods into the cavern. Ray stops to face it, holding a hand up.

A wall of light appears in front of him, barely holding the water back.

A total of six villagers are scattered through the rest of the dry well. We can rescue a few just by talking to them, but most have what can only be described as facehuggers attached to them, and attack us! Targeting the parasites kills them without harming the villagers, though, and they can't take much damage. A few more of the basic bug monsters also remain, but they're insignificant compared to that boss.

Once we've rescued all the villagers (or don't care enough to save any more), we report back to Ray.

Answering No lets us keep looking. Answering Yes advances the story.

Ray removes the barrier and runs for it as the water surges forward. Whether we do the same or not doesn't really matter. The scene resumes with Ray and the party safely back in town regardless. His Mood here carries over from its previous value.

Ray paces back and forth as though distressed about something, and then a light bulb flashes over his head.

Unfortunately, this means trekking all the way back to the ruins. That's not going to be quick, but it's not like we can do anything else here for now anyway, even though there's another lead on where the thief went.

Meanwhile, the townpeople aren't quite sure what to make of things.

At least no one turned into a demon this time. That we know of. And the kid is fine, too, if a bit overexcited.

We arrive back at the ruins to find that they aren't just ruins any more. Not only has Niro's crumbling house been fixed up, it now has a smaller secondary structure attached to the side. Bosch paces back and forth by the entrance to the side building, blocking it off for now.

The main house is similarly much improved on the inside, as well, and now includes a large counter in one corner that Niro stands behind.

Neither Ryu nor Niro seem quite comfortable with that characterization.

Then Lin Pu's usual curiosity kicks in.

The three of them head through a doorway in the back that wasn't there before the renovations.

Ray's Mood has no effect on any of this, so although it's interesting that we can get on his nerves, it doesn't end up making any difference.

Niro has nothing to say about this, though he will provide a useful service after this event is done.

Also, simply entering the house heals the party. The currently active members other than Ryu temporarily leave to go hang out in a common room in the back while here. At the moment, that means Lin Pu, Nina, and Sten are there.

ねこにごはん (neko ni gohan) appears to be a corruption of the idiom 猫に小判 (neko ni koban), the koban being an elongated gold coin used in Japan during the Edo period (the coin on Meowth's forehead in Pokémon is meant to be one, as are the coins that maneki-neko commonly hold). Similar to English "pearls before swine", it signifies giving something valuable to someone who can neither understand nor appreciate it properly. In short, Sten seems to be suggesting that magic would be wasted on him, while throwing in a bit of clowning around by getting the idiom wrong.

Reserve characters can be found upstairs in one of nine rooms spread across three largely identical floors. That's enough for everyone to have their own room, with some left over! At the moment, only Rand is there, in the rightmost room on the middle floor.

Bosch can't rejoin the party just yet, so he's still outside for now.

After talking with the others (or just leaving the room and coming back is enough), Ray lets us choose who gets the spell.

Who to pick? Bosch and Rand are both out, despite their enthusiasm, since they learn both spells on their own already. Lin Pu isn't a good choice, either, since she has so little AP. Ryu learns the healing spell but not the revival spell, so he's a valid option for the second one, particularly since he's fairly durable and always in the party. Otherwise, it's basically down to either Nina or Sten. Nina has more AP and could use the variety, so she's my usual pick.

The healing spell is arguably more useful than the revival spell, so although it's not very nice from a role playing perspective, leaving some of the villagers to die may prove more beneficial from a gameplay standpoint. It would have been nice for Ray to offer a choice of spells, or better yet, teach both of them.

Ray does a shiny thing that coalesces into a little angel that alights on the chosen character.

He leaves, and with that settled, we can finally switch party members. The three chosen wait in the common room and can be spoken to there...

It's interesting that both of them have similar takes on the situation.

Sten often refers to Ryu (and sometimes other male characters) as ダンナ (danna), which is a fairly respectful term, usually for the master of a household, a merchant's patron, or a woman's husband, though it can also be used in a way more comparable to "sugar daddy" or "john". I wanted something that kept some degree of respect while also sounding conversational, distinctive, and kind of quirky, as befits Sten, and the (usually British) "guv", short for "governor", seems to fit well enough. Other possibilities might include "sarge" or "cap'n". "Master" wouldn't be wrong per se, but sounds too formal and generic.

...while the remaining character waits in their room upstairs. Rand, as already noted, uses the rightmost room on the middle floor. Lin Pu uses the middle room on the top floor, Nina the rightmost room on the top floor, and Sten the middle room on the middle floor.

I'm having difficulty imagining just how the English version managed to foul this up in this particular way, but where it should have had a hexidecimal 0x0704, the code to display the name for character #4 (Nina), it somehow wound up with 0x3034 instead, which decodes to a 0 and a 4 as shown.

It's not clear exactly what he's asking, and no matter which we pick, his response is the same and nothing more comes of it.

Bosch doesn't show up in any of his standard locations until he rejoins the party. For now, he's still outside.

Our last lead was back in Capitan, so it seems it's time to hike all the way back there!

Sten is required for now thanks to the awkward crossing. Rand is available again, and he's bound to be behind on experience, so I'd suggest bringing him along. He's a good healer, too, even if he's slow and has limited equipment selection. That leaves a choice of Lin Pu or Nina for the fourth party member.

Also note that we can now change party members at any Dragon God statue, giving them a functional advantage over the Evaist churches.