The shrine resembles the one on the kingdom's southern end where nothing of note happened. 1-21 "Door of Journey" plays in such shrines. Inside are a boy...

...an old man...

...and a woman with short straw-blonde hair and wearing a light blue dress.

It looks like Maxim and Tia have to go find that key...

It's a cave, so "Cave" plays. There's a boy just inside the entrance.

The dialog goes a bit differently if Maxim and Tia haven't already been to the shrine, but the overall idea is the same.

In case it's not obvious, Maxim is being... somewhat less than tactful.

She sort of pushes him off to the side and has a little one-on-one with Abel.

Abel leaves the cave.

I used to think the original made it sound like she just said something he'd understand easily to save herself trouble, but that doesn't seem right anymore. I think she's actually trying to hint that she wants to have children. His children. And it's frustrating her that he never catches on to all the hints she keeps dropping. Sure, this isn't the most direct hint, but it was pretty obvious where she was heading with her earlier flirtatious suggestion that he become a shopkeeper, and it's likely that she's been dropping hints since quite some time before the beginning of the game.

This cave makes the puzzles a bit more interesting. The first room has some simple bridging and switches. One room has three buttons that need to be pressed for the door to open, but only two pots; the trick is to get a monster to step on the third one (alternately, there's a third pot hiding behind one of the pillars). Another has a secret passage in the wall between two doors, leading to a chest with Light Armor. Yet another room has a passage hidden behind a clump of vines, good for a Bravery Source and Miraculous.

One room has a staircase that only appears when a pot is placed on a specific floor tile. This staircase leads to a two-part puzzle. First, pushing a block onto a switch through grass that grows back (Bombs handle these) makes a ladder appear; next, hitting a switch to drop away part of the floor while standing on that part allows for actually reaching the ladder to collect the Jet Helm.

The only other real puzzle is crossing a narrow stream. There are two pillars on each side, and pushing one into the stream creates a platform there. Two is enough to cross the stream at its narrowest point, but there's also a secret passage on the eastern edge of the water that can be reached by pushing the two other pillars in from the north bank, good for a Witch Ring. The rest of the cave is fairly straightforward.

Deep within the cave, Maxim and Tia find a big ugly goblin guarding a chest.

So it's another boss fight. The goblin attacks twice in a round and can summon lesser goblins. However, Tia's a lot better at healing than Maxim is, which helps a lot with staying alive, and frees him up to attack more often. The goblin bites the dust, and Maxim opens the chest.

With that over, the party heads back to the shrine.

Abel is here, along with everyone who had been here before.

As in the cave, the dialog is a bit different if you didn't come here earlier.

Yes, she's the same Hilda who appears in the opening sequence.

Hilda goes to walk through the door, then realizes that it's still locked.

Hilda steps back, and Maxim opens the door.

And this time, she really does leave. The party also goes into the shrine, through a teleporter to the other side, and continues on to the next town.

Maxim takes this key with him, too. Maybe they can have it back once they've proven more competent.

"Town" plays in the town, which resembles Elcid, though with a more open layout. Hilda stands near the entrance.

A man, with somewhat messy golden-blond hair and wearing light armor and green pants, walks up from inside the town and stops beside Hilda.

Yes, the same Guy that appears in the opening.

That's actually a formal "yes", doubled for emphasis, but especially considering the context, she has to be saying it with some sarcasm.

Hilda heads into a nearby house.

Guy leaves for the back of the town, where he came from earlier.

Maxim and Tia look around town, and eventually go out to the plaza where Guy is.

Tia moves off to the side, out of the way.

Guy launches into the air, and Maxim braces to counter, but they're interrupted...

A man rushes into the plaza from the front end of town.

There are several flashes of light and strange noises. Everyone looks around, trying to figure out where they're coming from.

With some more flashes and sounds, and swirling red sparkles, monsters appear in the plaza. Soon after, a more imposing humanoid figure appears in a fancier swirl of red sparkles, directly in front of Guy. Tia runs over to Maxim, and the man who ran in with the news hides behind Guy. The intruder speaks.

The lesser monsters step forward menacingly.

The minions attack. They're pretty weak.

Guy cannot learn spells and has lowish AGI, INT, and MGR, but gets elevated HP and STR to make up for it. His GUT is above average, too, though not as high as Maxim's. He can wield heavy swords, spears, and axes, and can wear some heavy armors that Maxim can't.

Anyway, the minions are soon slaughtered.

The attacker teleports away. Guy turns to Maxim, ready to restart the match.

But he's interrupted again as a boy runs up.

With that, the party heads off to the southeastern tower.