エストポリス伝記ＩＩ
Chronicles of Estpolis II

Depending on when you visit, the fourth party member may be Heidecker, Lexis, Arty, or no one at all. Under normal circumstances, Tia cannot come here. Although it is possible to attempt the cave with less than a full party, I wouldn't recommend it.

Gruberick has the usual port town music. Ship transport leads south to Aleyn and southeast to Narcissus. Here, though, all anyone seems to talk about is the Ancient Cave, and justifiably so, since the island lacks any other noteworthy features. There aren't even any random encounters outside!

That "shapes your destiny" wording caused all sorts of speculation that using those Potions in a certain way would affect treasure quantity and quality, monster difficulty, and who knows what else. Really, all this means is that you don't have any other way to heal when you first enter.

Truth. I've heard of people who get this far and then never go back to the rest of the game.

Hmm, yes. Things you'll never see anywhere else seem a much better reason to go there than things you can't take out of the cave.

There's also a woman in a room under the pub with a more specific interest.

Since everything here revolves around the cave, let's go there.

The entrance has an almost businesslike setup, with attendants and a counter, but at least they don't charge for entry.

(entrance guard)

(sign next to entrance warp)

(sign next to exit warp)

(exit guard)

(trying to leave after depositing your stuff)

The Ancient Cave may generate blue chests. These contain special equipment that tends to be unusually strong, and in many cases, is not available anywhere else. Additionally, these items, and these items only, will come out of the cave with you when you escape it, and will also go into the cave with you when you enter it again. For obvious reasons, collecting them will give you an advantage on future trips into the cave, not to mention elsewhere in the game.

Gades's Sword can also be obtained outside the cave by beating Gades in the "unwinnable" battle in the tower west of Gordovan.

* All blue chest weapons other than Gades's Sword both add 10% to critical hit rate and double the damage of critical hits.

Unfortunately for Lexis and Arty, the surprisingly limited selection of blue chest body armor doesn't include anything they can wear.

The Mirror of Darkness no longer counts as a blue chest item once uncursed (which means it can no longer be taken in and out of the cave). However, entering or leaving the cave will automatically unequip the cursed version, just like anything else, so that gives you a way to remove it without uncursing it.

Many stones can also be obtained outside of the cave: Water Cryptolith (chest in the Alunze Castle basement), Thunder Cryptolith (7.5% drop from the Thunderbeast enemy), Earth Cryptolith (10% drop from the Tartona enemy), Wind Cryptolith (7.5% drop from the Blizzn Lizard enemy), Dark Cryptolith (1% drop from the Shadow enemy or 2.5% drop from the Nosferatu enemy), Catfish's Cryptolith (12.5% drop from the Giant Catfish boss), Camus's Cryptolith (3% drop from the Camus boss), Giant Spider's Cryptolith (3% drop from the Giant Spider boss). Other stones are available as random loot from monsters that only appear inside the cave itself: Orochi's Cryptolith (1% drop from Orochi), Argentwyrm's Eye (1% drop from Silver Dragon), Orwyrm's Eye (1% drop from Gold Dragon). Nothing can drop the Water Cryptolith, or the Mermaid's Cryptolith (not even a Merman or its palette swap), or the Sablewyrm's Eye (not even a Black Dragon).

While the blue chest items may be the most exciting treasures in the Ancient Cave, its red chests may also give out items and even spells not found anywhere else in the game. Whether they're the remnants of ideas that didn't make it into the main content, or just a nice little bonus... who can say?

Though only the cursed versions of applicable items will appear in chests directly, uncursing them is the only way to get the uncursed equivalents.

While both spells are found as IP effects on certain rings, neither can be learned outside of the cave.

The Iris treasures, though found in red chests, leave the cave with the party, just like blue chest items. An NPC in town will put them on display. The tenth treasure is a chunk of the cave's boss, won by beating it (the item won't appear in your inventory, even though it exists, but the NPC will still put it on display when you talk to her). These treasures have no known purpose whatsoever beyond bragging rights.