A stray comment by an otherwise unimportant NPC much later indicates that this entire region, centered around Gaia's Navel and including Potos Village, the Water Temple, and several other locations we'll be visiting in due time, is called the Gaia Lowlands.

As near the falls, "The Boy Heads for the Wilds" plays here.

Bud Flowers (Lullabuds) and Myconids (Mushbooms) join the Rabbies here. Be careful, since the flowers can cause Poisoned, and the mushrooms have a dust cloud attack that inflicts Asleep. Neither should cause much trouble if you take proper advantage of the sword's range and keep out of reach between attacks.

A sign just outside the village begs for attention.

That sounds peculiar. Let's investigate. The screen to the right has a large cannon mounted on an elevated patch of land. A stubby character who looks like a caveman with goggles stands nearby.

Each cannoneer has a different peculiar laugh, and most also have other strange quirks of speech.

"By cannon"? Does he seriously mean...

Apparently he does. The Boy gets in and is launched out of the cannon to land near the Water Temple not far to the west.

As far as I'm concerned, the strangest thing about cannon travel is that no one seems to find it strange.

Of course, you could also decline (or just not come here in the first place).

It's not far, and there are more signs along the way.

All right, but there don't seem to be any around.

Nikita, who carries a large bag and seems to be as much feline as human, runs an overpriced store (charging twice what other merchants do for the same items) and an inn that usually ends up being largely pointless. Just past Nikita's lies the passage to the Water Temple, which also serves as The Boy's landing spot if arriving by cannon. Four generic soldiers and a blond man who seems to be their leader stand here.

"Dyluck" works well enough, but this may be a reference to Paul Dirac, a theoretical physicist who, among other things, predicted the existence of antimatter. This may have some relevance. If nothing else, it's a real name that's rendered as ディラック and dominates search results.

After speaking to either of the soldiers who introduces Dirac, speaking to one of them again or to Dirac prompts them to leave.

Between his unique appearance and the fact that the game apparently wants you to know his name (since it's not until after you've seen it that they leave), it's a safe bet that he'll be important to some degree. Too bad he's on what sounds uncomfortably like a suicide mission.

They exit to the left, with an odd noise offscreen. Following them reveals a teleporter to a dead end in a misty forest. So we'll head north instead.

Appropriately, water flows from, and pools around, the temple. Gemma waits by the entrance, as he said he would.

Gemma continues inside, where The Boy unsurprisingly finds more water, as well as more serene music (track 31 祈りと囁き / "Prayer and Whispers"). Past a series of retractable stairways, The Boy beats Gemma to an aqua-haired, red-eyed woman wearing a golden tiara and a blue flowing dress, and standing by a small stepped pyramid with a large seed sitting on its top. He looks around in confusion, then walks up to the woman.

Oddly, the stairs can only be operated from the outside, which seems like a very bad idea as far as security goes. Even more oddly, not to mention inconsiderately, Gemma seems to have somehow retracted them behind him, despite the lack of any visible controls on the inner side.

Gemma now approaches.

The Boy is astonished.

Also note that what he said isn't particularly rude... as long as he's talking to someone of no special importance, and around his age or younger. He seemed to think he was, but it appears he's wrong on both counts. At least she doesn't seem to mind. Maybe she thinks of it as a compliment. Also of interest is that, while she may look more like a teenager than a centuries-old probably-not-human being, she talks very much like a wise old woman.

A break in the conversation here allows for an optional side chat with Luka.

Talking to Gemma continues the scene.

A break in the conversation here allows for an optional side chat with Gemma.

Talking to Luka continues the scene.

Gemma exits, leaving The Boy alone with Luka.

Hoo boy. Here comes a sizable dialog tree, the only one in the game as far as I can recall—most choices elsewhere are very basic, while this one has multiple choices, and parts can repeat until she's satisfied. Fortunately, it's not really as complicated as it appears at first glance.

Choosing "The fortress" goes here.

He nods, and Luka continues. Choosing "The Holy Sword" above jumps straight to this point. Both choices continue below.

We'll start with "Why Me?"

And here we'll pick "Leave it to me!"

And here we'll stop being so cooperative and pick "That's too much!"

Now it all comes back together. Choosing "The Holy Sword's power?" earlier, or "No, thanks!" after "Why Me?", jumps to here.

After this, regardless of how it got here, the text jumps back to where The Boy asks Luka what he should do. Choosing "That's too much!" just loops again until finally selecting "...right!", at which point Luka finally continues (and so does the story).

She steps out of the way to let The Boy approach. When he does, the seed rises into the air spinning, pings a few times, and gives off a light bluish glow that briefly colors the entire area before it settles back into place:    

Mana Energy is now 1.

The Spear doesn't have power to regain, and it's not even all that special on its own. The Holy Sword is what gives it strength.

Luka will continue to provide free healing, save the game, and repeat her suggestion of what to do next when you speak to her.

Which is what makes Nikita's inn mostly useless.

That 1 Mana Energy won't make much difference at this point, but at least it looks nice on the status screen. The most readily apparent effect of Mana Energy is determining maximum spell level, once spells become available. However, it also has a more subtle function. Mana Energy squared adds to effective attack power and spell power, as long as the hit isn't a dud (when attacking, duds occur roughly (100 - hit rate)% of the time and reduce effective attack power to (hit rate)%, with no Mana Energy bonus or random variation).

Anyway, for now, you basically get +1 damage on normal hits. It's not much, and you'll have to open the weapon ring or do something else that makes the game refresh it before you'll get the bonus at all, but at this point that's something like 5% of your damage. Anyone not specifically looking for the effect will likely switch to the Bronze Lance before fighting anything and assume its higher attack power as compared to the Rusted Holy Sword is entirely responsible for the damage increase.

There game also has a related variable for enemy Mana Energy that would give them the same bonuses, but nothing ever sets it, so it's effectively unused. It still works as expected if modified, though. Perhaps there was an idea involving fighting over control of the seeds that was ultimately scrapped, or maybe they just needed a placeholder value to reuse the same damage algorithms.