Chapter 2: An Entrance Exam?

Within a week, the girls leave their village and find other new students waiting at the northern port for Ien. Talk to the other students there if you'd like; most are apprehensive and anxious about starting school at Ien. Leave via the bridge to the Northwest. You'll be interrupted rudely by three boys, who push Ellie and Lena aside without even giving their names. Continue north after them.

You'll see the town and campus from the outside. Walk across the map and enter the town; you can explore the island or town if you'd like, but there isn't much you can find at this point (there are herbs in the forests, but they can be retrieved a little later).

You'll find the three boys beside the large building in the center. Talk with the blue-haired one. Lena at first is surprised that the town is empty; the blue-haired kid said they looked around, but found no one either. Lena suggests they gather the students nonetheless--then remembers to ask for their names. The blue-haired kid is Ant, and the other two are Rick and Kule. Lena introduces herself and Ellie, and asks if Ant could go to bring the rest of the students here. Ant replies: "why don't you go do it, shorty?" (chibi, a dwarf, etc.). Lena growls at him, but decides it's not worth it.

Exit town, go south across the bridge, and then immediately down to the dock / beach area. Descend the stairs and the students will greet you; they say the island already left the mainland and is floating now. Lena has everyone follow her back to town.

Lena's leadership skills take over here. She tells everyone that, now that the island is moving and no one seems to be around, their first thing to do should be to search the town for other people. Leave the plaza and you'll see students looking around town. You don't have to talk to everyone (most just say they've found nothing), but you do need to go to the red-roofed building in the north-center of town and talk with the girl searching the first floor.

Return to the plaza in the center of town and the students will be back; no one found anything. Lena says she's getting hungry, and Ant says that they'd better gather some food--there may be some in the forests near town, and so his boys go off. Lena and Ellie do the same. Leave town now.

Outside, go to the forest north of town (there's one to the south, but with much harder monsters). Walk around the forest and fight random monsters--hopefully they will be easy (this is a good time for the Menus overview). Be sure to a) use as little magic as possible, as you need to conserve your strength for later and you can't yet regain MP, and b) get both of the chests in this small area with herbs (Calm Herb and Cure Herb) in them. Keep fighting until you get an extra message telling you you've obtained meat in your inventory. When this happens and you have meat in your inventory, then exit the forest and Lena should say that they should return to town.

Enter town again and go to the plaza in the center. Talk to the girl closest to Ant. She apologizes for the smaller pile of food, Lena comforts her, and Ant insults them all. Ant and company leave once again. The girl continues and says that they've also found a large building with several rooms that looks like the dormitories. Leave the plaza.

You don't need to go to the dormitory yet (if you do, the girls there just ask if you could gather more food from the forest). Instead, return to the forest just outside of town, fight more monsters, and gather another piece of meat. Once you do that, return to town and go to the building in the north-center of town (you've been there before). You can speak with the girls on the first and second floor if you'd like; they ask you to rest until they're done preparing dinner. Go up to the second floor (you can speak with the girls here if you want), then go back downstairs and exit the building. Immediately re-enter and the girls will approach you, saying someone stole the food--they think it might have been the boys. The other girl looks out the window and sees them outside. Exit the building again and you'll immediately fight two boys.

This should be an easy battle. One of Ellie's Flay spells, or four regular attacks, should knock down each of them. They return to the plaza, where some of the boys say that Ant and his friends went to a cave to the south of there. Exit town.

When you exit town, Lena will point you in the right direction towards a beach to the southeast of town. Go to the cave she indicates (it's a beach then a cave you enter). The first part of the cave is simple: head north and you'll encounter all three of the kids. Lena demands the return of their things, but Ant's flippant attitude prompts another fight between them. You'll now fight each of them individually (so you should conserve some MP--just make sure you have at least 14MP for Ellie and Lena after this). First you automatically fight Rick (green hair). Second, after beating him. talk to Ant again and Kule (white hair) will fight you. Finally, after beating him, talk to Ant again and you'll fight him. Once you beat them, they run away. Before Lena and Ellie can catch up, a girl from town runs in and tells them that monsters have broken into the town.

Go south and exit the cave, then exit the beach area and return to town. Walk back to the dorms in the north-center of town--you'll encounter enemies along the way. Talk with the women on the bottom floor (they'll say the boys and monsters have messed up the town). Exit the dorms and Kule and Rick will run up, saying they can't find where Ant went. Return once again to the cave southeast of town (where you just were) and go back up to where Ant and his friends were located. You'll find a letter from Ant, saying that he went to the neighboring forest to fight the monster alone.

Exit the cave and the beach. Go west a short distance and enter the forest. From the entrance, go west and pick up the Calm Herb in the chest. Go all the way east from here, then south to pick up another Calm Herb. Finally, take the path directly south from the entrance all the way down, then go west to find the 'monster'. Approach the flower, and Ant will run up and try to attack. He gets back up, and the three of you fight the Trent monster. Feel free to go all-out with Ellie's Flame and Ant's Ice magic.

After the battle, Ant notices that the monsters seem to be coming from the flower's mouth. So he charges in and... appears in a meeting room with the head professors of the academy. Apparently they've been watching and evaluating the students all this time. Back in town, the girls wonder what to do when an earthquake suddenly hits. Head outside to see what the deal is. The ground keeps quaking and the two walk back inside.

The next thing Ellie knows, she's in the main office of the Magic Academy, speaking with the Counselor, Emma. She tells her to rest and head up to the 2nd Floor conference room for an explanation from the Student President. Go up to the second floor and you'll reunite with Lena. Go to the conference room (the eastern room on the second floor) and the Student President, Brown, introduces himself. He explains that the previous ordeal was just a test--they were really on the miniature model of Ien that's on the table beside him. It was supposed to last a week, but they figured out the secret much earlier. Brown still welcomes them all to the Magic Academy of Ien, but another shouting match between Ant and Lena breaks out. With that, the curtain closes on this chapter.