PART II: AFTER THE SEALING OF THE BLACK MAGE

Chapter 20: Innocent Earthseer

On Narin, a young sheep Anima girl named Lara was walking through the plains when she was stopped by three thugs named Tough-Looking Hyuk, Cheeky Myung, and Licky-lips Yeol, who demanded that she hand over her valuables. (A/N: These names made me viscerally uncomfortable, especially the last one.) She willingly handed over her few coins and a rice ball, making the thugs feel uncomfortable about taking such a pittance from a young girl. However, they noticed a golden bell that she was carrying and told her to give it up. Lara told them that she couldn’t hand it over, as she was on a journey to make the bell ring.

She explained that her village was said to have a purpose that needed to be fulfilled. Some time ago, she had been led by land spirits, whom she called the Mountain Kids, to a building in their village, where she had encountered the bell, along with an inscription that said: “One bright day, this bell will ring… to wash away the Sinners’ wrongs.”

When the elders had discovered that the bell shined for Lara, they had told her that long ago, they had once held trials to find the one with whom the bell would resonate, though they had given up after no one had been able to activate it. However, as the bell shined for Lara, they believed that she was the one who had been prophesized to make the bell ring again and fulfill the village’s purpose. 

Meanwhile in Narin Village, a wolf Anima named Gri was stopped by the Magistrate’s guards, who reminded him of his outstanding fees. Suddenly, a Mountain Kid appeared near Gri, who used its presence to warn the guards to back off unless they wanted it to attack, though he knew that the land spirit was harmless. After the guards ran off, Gri noticed that the land spirit was following him, and he was reminded of the last time that he had seen the land spirits with his brother, Gru, when he was younger. (A/N: I really wish that they picked a different name for his brother, I can’t help but picture Gru from Despicable Me whenever they mention him.)

Gri then made his way to the outskirts of town, where he found the three thugs confronting Lara. Seizing the opportunity, he decided to con her into giving up her money by saving her from the thugs. However, the thugs realized what Gri was trying to do, and as they argued over who would get the money, the land spirit appeared before Lara, creating a strange glow that she recognized as being similar to the bell’s warmth. The glow then flooded her with a new understanding of the spirits. As the thugs advanced on Gri, Lara used her new command over the spirits in order to stop the fight.

After the thugs retreated, Lara thanked Gri, who told her that it was just one Anima looking out for another. Lara decided that they were now friends and introduced herself to him. Gri reluctantly reciprocated, wondering to himself when the last time he had ever given his name out was, as most of Narin Village only knew him as ‘street wolf’. Lara asked Gri if he could show her around town, to which Gri agreed, hoping to lower her guard so that he could swindle her.

In town, Lara and Gri encountered a girl named Rami, whose kite had gotten stuck in a tree. To Gri’s annoyance, Lara decided to help Rami and went to collect shoes from Sprout Silkworms in order to throw at the kite. When her plan didn’t work, Gri told her that they would need a ladder. Lara then asked Rami why she was flying a kite, to which Rami explained that she used to fly kites with her mother, who couldn’t remember those moments anymore. Lara reassured Rami that people sometimes forgot the important things in the chaos of life and resolved to find a ladder.

They encountered a man named Silvergrass, who told them that his ladder was in his home, but that he couldn’t go inside because he had lost a brooch which he had gotten for his wife for their wedding anniversary, adding that he couldn’t remember what it looked like either. Though Gri told her that trusting people blindly was foolish, Lara went in search of the brooch and found the carrot-shaped jewelry in the hands of Flower Field Bunnies.

Once again, Gri recalled Gru telling him that it wasn’t bad to put his trust in other people. Lara presented the brooch to Silvergrass, who gave her the ladder in exchange. To Gri’s amazement, Lara bravely climbed the ladder up to the roof, even though she had never climbed one before, as she was confident that Gri would catch her. When Lara slipped, Gri moved to catch her, but wind spirits suddenly appeared and stopped her fall. Lara then gave the kite to Rami, who promised never to get her kite stuck again. In order to help her keep the promise, Gri taught her how to fly a kite properly.

Gri then noticed Lara’s bell and asked her about it. Lara explained that it was her village’s treasure, and that it meant a lot to her, even though the bell didn’t ring. Seeing an opportunity to steal it, Gri offered to take the bell to a man who was good at fixing antiques. Since the man lived in a shady part of town, he offered to take the bell and bring it back to her. To his surprise, Lara readily trusted him and handed the bell over. Gri brought the bell to the sketchy merchant and asked how much the bell was worth.

The merchant used a magic detector, which shattered immediately, indicating that the bell possessed tremendous magical power. He urged Gri to return the bell to its owner, explaining that its pristine condition meant that it was important to them. Recalling Lara’s words about how much the bell meant to her, Gri felt guilty and decided to return it, though he fully expected her to have realized by then that she had been swindled.

He returned to find her talking to the Magistrate’s guards, just as he expected, but as he came closer, he was surprised to find that Lara was arguing with the guards, telling them that Gri wasn’t a street wolf like they claimed. After the guards left, Gri asked why she had handed the bell to him. When Lara explained that she trusted him as a friend, Gri came clean and told her that he had been trying to swindle her, and that he wasn’t a good person.

However, Lara told him that if he didn’t believe her, then he ought to believe the spirits, explaining that they rarely approached anyone, let alone followed them, unless they were a good person. She added that though she called them ‘kids’, they knew more than her, especially about people’s energy. She explained that the spirits were drawn to positive energy, which was like sunlight to them.

Though Gri tried arguing that the spirits had made a mistake, Lara cited how he had run to catch her when she had been falling off the ladder, how he had offered to teach Rami how to fly her kite, and how he had come back to return the bell. (A/N: Lara is the greatest idea that Nexon has come up with in years. I’m so tired of all the generic, edgy classes in the game and Lara is like a breath of fresh air in contrast. I absolutely love her innocence and positivity, and her relationship with Gri is adorably cute.)

As Gri wondered himself why he had returned, Lara asked him why he didn’t hide his Anima features, explaining that her grandmother had taught her how to hide them, as they could sometimes scare people. Gri told her that he knew how to hide them, but he added that he didn’t care if people saw, as they already called him ‘street wolf’. Lara then wondered how else they could look into the bell, as the merchant didn’t know anything. Gri told her that the town had an antique shop, though there was a mountain of knickknacks to look through.

They arrived at Granny Dume’s antique shop, where Granny Dume confused Gri for his brother, Gru. She asked him if he was still trying to take back the antique that the Magistrate had stolen, to which Gri reminded her that he wasn’t Gru. While looking around the shop, Lara accidentally broke a bowl. To make up for it, Granny Dume asked them to find a toy that she had bought for her son.

They found the toy amidst the Flower Wing monsters, but Gri noted that the toy was quite old. They returned to the shop, only to find her adult son, Naru, behind the counter. Naru explained that he had asked for the toy when he had been a kid, but his mother had lost it shortly before his birthday. To apologize for the confusion, Naru allowed them to pick anything from the shop, free of charge.

While searching the shop, Lara and Gri encountered sun spirits, who presented a book to Lara. They opened the book, entitled “The History of Mysticants”, which had several pages torn out. From what they could make out, mysticants had been left in the world as a result of an unknown influence. They came in all shapes and sizes, making it difficult for ordinary people to recognize them, and according to the authors of the book, mysticants existed independently of the authors’ wills.

The bell mysticant, however, had been created by the authors to embody their will and purpose, though the rest of the book was too torn to learn more about it. They also found a note signed from the Merchant Prince of the Back Alleys, who had written that he had borrowed the missing pages. (A/N: It’s heavily suggested that the author of the book is either one of the elders or researchers of Odium.)

As they left the shop, Gri found it odd that Granny Dume couldn’t remember him, even though she had been able to remember a much more distant memory of her son’s toy. (A/N: Several other people whom we’d helped in earlier quests also seem to be suffering from unusual gaps in their memory, such as Rami’s mother not remembering that she used to fly kites with her daughter, as well as Silvergrass being unable to recall what his wife’s brooch looked like.)

While walking through town, they encountered the Magistrate, who demanded that Gri pay his dues. As Lara argued with the Magistrate, several river spirits drenched the Magistrate, as well as the contract which he had made with Gri.

Furious, the Magistrate ordered his guards to arrest them. As Gri and Lara ran from the guards, a woman named Hannah helped them by hiding them in her studio. Hannah lied to the Magistrate that she hadn’t seen the two, to which the Magistrate reminded her of their agreement, and that, as her art patron, he expected a new painting soon. After he left, Gri and Lara came out and thanked her.

As Lara marveled at her paintings, Hannah invited them to come visit whenever they wanted. After they left, the guards found them once again and the pair spent the next several days running and hiding. During their misadventures, the Magistrate visited Hannah and threatened her to finish her paintings on time. She reminded them of her deal to only use one person per month for her plans, to which the Magistrate grudgingly agreed and left. (A/N: More on this later.)

Soon after, Lara and Gri ran into the three thugs whom they had met at the outskirts of town, who pledged their loyalty to them, recognizing Lara and Gri as the only two people to have crossed the Magistrate and gotten away with it. They explained that they had been inspired to rebel against the Magistrate and wanted Lara and Gri to lead them. Gri immediately protested, claiming that he was a lone wolf, and that he planned to leave the village once his debts were paid.

Lara then remembered that they also owed a debt to Hannah and decided to visit her studio in order to thank her. There, Hannah told them a bit about the Magistrate’s visit earlier, and how he had threatened to tear all her paintings to shreds, since he wasn’t satisfied by her latest work. Upon learning that Hannah had run out of paint, Lara offered to help collect the ingredients that she used to make it.

As Lara headed out, Gri told her that he would go on his own to collect some of the ingredients, as he worked faster alone. While Gri collected white petals, Lara collected pink and yellow petals from the Flower Field Bunnies and Flower Drift Bunnies. Soon after, Lara returned to the studio, but found that Gri had not yet returned.

As Lara watched Hannah paint, Hannah explained that she had been friends with Gri’s father, who used to be a calligrapher with excellent brushwork. After he died, the Magistrate had called ‘back taxes’ on his estate and had taken everything that Gri and Gru had. Gru had been determined to recover a particular keepsake that the Magistrate had stolen, and so he had worked for Hannah in order to earn enough money to buy it back.

When Lara asked if the brothers had been able to recover the keepsake, Hannah told her that soon after, Gri had had the worst day of his life when Gru had suddenly disappeared with all the money that they had, leaving Gri alone in debt. After hearing Hannah’s story, Lara felt a surge of emotion and decided to go after Gri, who had just finished collecting all the white petals.

Lara ran into him on his way back to town and told him that the reason why she believed in people was because her grandmother had once told her that as long as she held her faith, people would pull through in the way that she trusted them to. She promised Gri that the next time he was in trouble, she would help him through it.

Just then, they were approached by the three thugs, who presented a business proposal in order to make money. To Gri’s surprise, Lara seemed interested in the proposal, and when he asked why she needed the money, she explained that it was a secret. After learning that the thugs were attempting to swindle others, she told them to find a legitimate way to earn money. As they respected Lara for defying the Magistrate, the thugs readily agreed.

After the thugs left, Gri called Lara out for her naivety, explaining that morality wasn’t black and white, as he and the other thugs swindled people in order to survive, rather than because they didn’t know better. Lara acknowledged that she had been born in a happy home, but added that she was willing to learn about Gri’s hardships if he explained. Uncomfortable from Lara’s forwardness, Gri brushed it off, claiming that she didn’t need to hear his sob story and walked off. As Lara began to chase after him, she noticed a commotion on the street and rushed over, thinking that Gri was involved.

At the town square, Lara found the Magistrate and his guards threatening Arisol and her daughter, Rami, the girl whose kite had been stuck on the roof. The Magistrate gave Arisol one final warning to pay her taxes. After he left, Lara approached Arisol and asked if she was in trouble. Arisol explained that the Magistrate levied exorbitant taxes on the townspeople, and that if they were unpaid, he would take their homes and kick them out to the back alleys. When Lara asked how she could help, Arisol asked her to defeat the Sprout Silkworms and Flower Wings, as they were stealing from the townspeople. After helping Arisol, Lara continued to search for Gri.

Some time after Lara left to search for him, Gri arrived at the town square and encountered Arisol and Rami. Arisol thanked Gri for helping Rami with her kite and added that even Lara had helped them a while back. She also apologized on behalf of the town for rejecting Gri, telling him that it wasn’t his fault for what had happened to him.

She explained that the town was afraid of the Magistrate, and so no one had reached out to care for him when he had been left alone. Gri was suddenly reminded of Lara’s words about trusting others and the promise that she had made to him about helping him when he was in trouble. However, he shook off the memory and wondered why he was suddenly remembering it.

After heading to the back alleys, he ran into the thugs, who told him that they wanted to give up swindling others and to get back their original livelihoods before the Magistrate had kicked them to the streets. Gri told them that if they wanted their old lives back, they needed to take it for themselves, as they couldn’t expect someone else to stand up for them. As he made his way back to the town street, he ran into the Magistrate, who began to insult Gri and his brother.

Just then, Lara arrived and told Gri that she had learned a new trick from the Mountain Kids. Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake as Lara commanded the land spirits to shake the ground, causing the guards to retreat in fear. However, the earthquake abruptly stopped when the Mountain Kids fell asleep, making Lara sheepishly realize that she still needed to practice maintaining her connection to the spirits.

However, she revealed that she had snuck the thugs and many of the townspeople through Hannah’s studio, all of whom suddenly appeared and began standing up to the Magistrate. Furious, the Magistrate ordered Gri to call off the mob in exchange for telling him where to find his father’s keepsake. However, Gri refused, telling him that he wouldn’t allow the Magistrate to pull any more strings. The Magistrate then threatened Lara, claiming that she had no right to meddle as an outsider. Lara then pointed out that the land was all connected, meaning that she couldn’t ignore injustice, no matter where it happened. (A/N: This reminded me of the MLK quote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”)

Suddenly, a river spirit appeared from the Magistrate’s clothes and Lara revealed that she had created the earthquake as a distraction so that the spirit could steal the Magistrate’s storage key. After the Magistrate was chased out of town, Lara and Gri went to the Magistrate’s storage room, though Gri told her that the keepsake wouldn’t be there, as the Magistrate had made it sound as though it was hidden somewhere else when they had chased him out of town. However, he noted with disgust how many treasures the Magistrate had stolen in his never-ending greed.

Lara told him that her grandmother used to say that such greed happened when wishes turned into obsession. When Gri asked how one could know when that line had been crossed, Lara explained that it happened when one started wishing that things would go better for them over others. Gri then asked Lara what she would wish for, to which she told him that she would wish for him to be free.

When Gri pointed out that they had already made it happen by chasing the Magistrate out of town, Lara decided that her wish would then be to make the hopes and dreams of the people who wanted the bell to ring to come true. She then realized that they ought to tell Hannah about what had happened, but Gri told her to go on ahead, as he wanted to help Lara learn more about the bell, since she had been too busy helping him. Once Lara left, Gri continued searching the storage room. One scroll in particular kept catching his eye, though he dismissed it as part of the Magistrate’s collection.

At the Dalbourde Studio, Lara thanked Hannah for allowing the townspeople to secretly pass through her studio in order to drive the Magistrate away. Hannah told Lara that thanks to her, she would be able to paint at her own pace and asked if Lara could help her with it by collecting a special type of water from Sunlight-Seeking Spheres in the back alleys.

After bringing her the water, Hannah asked if Lara had learned more about the bell. Lara told Hannah that the bell was a special type of mysticant, which intrigued her. Just then, Lara remembered the note in the book that she had found and decided to investigate the back alleys. There, she met the sketchy merchant, who told her that he had thrown the missing pages away. Undeterred, Lara hunted down the pages from the Gluey Leaf Flies over the next several days.

(A/N: The next scene with Gri and Hannah mentions that Lara has been out for a few days and this is the only place where I could see her spending time, since everything else is just dialogue, which is why I mention that it took several days.)

After finding all the pages, Lara glued them together and realized that there was an extra page from another book, which she held onto.

(A/N: For the longest time, I had no idea why that extra page was mentioned when it doesn’t play a role in her class story. Way after initially writing this section, someone on the lore server played through Burning Cernium on Lara and we find out that this page actually came from a book written in the Cernium Royal Library about the war between the Adversaries and the Ancient Gods.)

With the book restored, Lara learned that any sickness caused by a mysticant could only be cured by another mysticant, for which the bell had been created in order to react to other mysticants and purify their evils. Lara asked the merchant if he knew more about mysticants, since he had taken the book, but he replied that it was a secret. Lara then went after Gri, and as she left, the merchant breathed a sigh of relief that Lara was no longer around to keep prodding about his client.

(A/N: It’s not too clear in the GMS translation, but the KMS and MSEA translations make it clear that mysticants are cursed objects, and that the bell mysticant is unique because it was specifically created to destroy them. Lara’s level 200 quest reveals that a group of people known as the Sinners had locked themselves in the realm of the sages as punishment for the crime of having forsaken their humanity, and that only the ringing of the bell can absolve them of their sins.

Please note: the following text contains major spoilers for the Odium storyline. If you don’t want spoilers, skip to the end of the author note.

The Odium storyline reveals that the bell was created by the elders of Grandis, who had created cybernetic Adversaries through experimentation in order to fight the Ancient Gods eons ago. As a result of their brutal and unethical experimentation, these Adversaries had their humanity, their emotions, their free will, and their sense of self taken away, leaving them as empty shells obsessed only with fulfilling their assigned purpose.

The elders called this phenomenon ‘contamination’, which slowly began spreading to them and the researchers of Odium. In order to undo this contamination, the elders created the bell mysticant and locked themselves in the realm of the sages, after which they became known as the Sinners for committing atrocities against their Adversaries.

Although the concept of mysticants and the Sinners were both introduced in Lara’s storyline, the concept of mysticants themselves seems to have been completely forgotten by the writers, as they only ever talk about the bell undoing the contamination in future storylines. They never explain where any other mysticants came from and outside of Lara’s class story, we never hear the word ‘mysticant’ again.)

Back in the studio, Gri asked Hannah if she had seen Lara. Hannah mentioned that Lara had been out for a few days, likely trying to find a way to ring the bell. She also confided to Gri that Lara seemed to be obsessed with the bell, and that she seemed to be trying to hide it from Gri. He dismissed her concerns, claiming that Lara was an open book, to which Hannah told him that he should come to the studio that night, as Lara had something special planned.

Some time after Gri left, Lara arrived and told Hannah that the bell reacted to evil mysticants. When Lara asked if Gri was okay, Hannah told her that Gri was planning to leave town soon and suggested that she leave him alone, as he had been through a lot. Hannah then told her that she had an idea on how to ring the bell and asked Lara to come later that evening. When Lara arrived later on, Hannah showed her a paintbrush, with which the bell was subtly resonating. Hannah told her that the bell’s resonance meant that the brush was an evil mysticant, and so they needed to destroy it.

She asked Lara to set fire to the brush while holding onto the bell, explaining that it would destroy the mysticant. Just then, Gri arrived and was shocked to find Lara burning the paintbrush, which was actually his father’s keepsake. Devastated and furious at Lara’s apparent betrayal, he stormed off, upset at himself for believing in Lara’s speeches about trust.

After Gri left, Lara felt utterly alone and realized that even the spirits had abandoned her. Hannah explained that because Lara’s heart had been broken and she had lost her innocence, the land spirits would not be drawn to her, as they only appeared before the pure of heart. She then revealed that the brush was completely unharmed, as mysticants couldn’t be destroyed in such a manner, and that the brush had the power to gouge out happy memories and paint them on a canvas.

(A/N: Please note: the following text contains major spoilers for the Odium storyline. If you don’t want spoilers, skip to the end of the author note.

While mysticants haven’t really been touched upon in future Grandis content, the fact that the bell can cleanse the energies of other mysticants makes me believe that evil mysticants have the same magical contamination that affected the elders and their Adversaries. The contamination erased their humanity, including their memories and emotions, and the idea of extracting happy memories and painting them on a canvas sounds similar to this idea, which might mean that evil mysticants were created by someone who was afflicted with contamination.)

Due to her arrangement with the Magistrate, she would take a memory from one person every month in order to paint it for the Magistrate, which was why so many people in town were missing crucial memories. Back in the village, Gri was brooding when the spirits began to flock around him and drew him towards the antique shop. There, Granny Dume gave him a stuffed wolf doll that he had asked Gru to buy long ago, explaining that Lara had saved up enough money to buy it for him.

Inside the wolf’s mouth, Gri found a letter from Gru, which explained that the reason why Gru had been trying so hard to find the keepsake was because he had realized that the brush was an evil mysticant that needed to be destroyed. Realizing that Lara hadn’t betrayed him, he rushed to the Magistrate’s storage room, where he opened the scroll that had caught his eye earlier. Inside, he found a painting of himself and Gru playing with the land spirits. Gri realized that the fact that he remembered that moment was because it had come from Gru’s memory, meaning that his brother hadn’t abandoned him, but rather, he had been kidnapped by the Magistrate and Hannah.

Gri rushed back to the studio, where Hannah was demanding that Lara give her the bell. Just then, Gri arrived with the spirits and reaffirmed his trust in Lara, who realized that the spirits hadn’t left her heart, but that her heart had left them. Having made her heart whole once again through her renewed faith, Lara regained her affinity with the spirits and used her powers to fight Hannah. However, the evil energies of the mysticant strengthened Hannah, who easily defeated both Lara and Gri.

As Hannah moved to kill them both, Lara offered herself and all her happy memories in exchange for Gri’s life. Realizing that Lara had countless happy memories, as well as the fact that she was an outsider whom no one would ask around for, Hannah eagerly agreed. As Gri tried to stop Lara from sacrificing herself on his behalf, the bell resonated with both their strong desires to put the other forward, causing it to ring with an ethereal note. Its warm glow destroyed the brush mysticant and erased both Hannah and all of her paintings.

The next morning, Lara and Gri walked through town as Gri explained that his brother had gone to pay the Magistrate when he had been kidnapped for Hannah’s paintings. However, he told her that he was ready to let his brother go and asked where Lara would go next. (A/N: I really hope that Gru is actually alive. All the others people in the village whose memories were taken are still alive, but the fact that he was kidnapped might mean that all his happy memories were taken one by one until he either died or was left an empty shell.)

Lara explained that though she wasn’t sure, she was confident that traveling would help her uncover the mystery of the bell. She asked Gri if he would come with her, but he replied that he wasn’t sure what his purpose was with his newfound freedom and asked for some time to figure it out before he reunited with her.

After saying their goodbyes, Lara continued on her way when she encountered the shady merchant, who hailed her the Hero of Narin. He told her that the Shadowdealers knew nearly everything that happened in Grandis, and so they would likely be able to help her with the bell. He gave her a letter of introduction and directed her to Savage Terminal in order to meet with Gen.

As she headed out of town, the merchant’s client, Kaling, appeared and told him that his actions had disrupted her plans. (A/N: I’m guessing that Kaling learned that the brush was a mysticant and wanted to collect it before it was destroyed. She probably blames him because he gave Lara information about mysticants, which led to the paintbrush’s destruction.) However, she told him that she was willing to change the deal and asked if the bell was a mysticant. The merchant told her that he couldn’t divulge his clients’ information, though Kaling bribed him into revealing everything he knew about Lara and the bell.

Lara soon arrived in Savage Terminal and met with Coney, who introduced her to Cadena. Upon showing her the letter of introduction, Cadena grew furious and used her chain to tear it up, telling Coney that the letter was a contract with Mr. Hazard. Suddenly Gen arrived and diffused the situation.

After Cadena stormed off, Gen apologized for her behavior and explained that there had been a recent power struggle between the Shadowdealers, and though Gen had tried to clean up afterwards, the letter had seemed to slip by them. He took her back to his hideout, where he explained that Cadena was angry because Mr. Hazard had attempted a terrorist attack on the city. As the Shadowdealers dealt in equal transactions, he offered to tell her anything that she wanted to know as reparation for Cadena’s behavior.

Lara asked about the state of Grandis and learned that the Anima had vanished. She also learned about the Transcendents of Grandis, as well as the Overseers, who were said to have created the three worlds. Additionally, Gen told her about the Interdimensional Portal that led to Maple World, where Lara hoped to learn more about the bell. When Lara asked if he knew about the bell, Gen told her that their trade didn’t cover restricted information, as it was beyond the scope of their equal transaction. When he offered to sell the information at an exorbitant price, Lara told him that she didn’t have that kind of money and thanked him for his help.

She then went to Pantheon, where Tear and Kyle met her at the outskirts at Fenelle’s instructions. (A/N: I call her Tear here because she isn’t in her Angelic Buster form.) They escorted her to the Great Temple, where Fenelle looked into Lara’s heart in order to determine whether she was worthy of using the Interdimensional Portal. Fenelle sensed that Lara had a strong will and fully trusted others, which she considered to be both admirable and rare.

Having passed Fenelle’s test, Lara arrived in Maple World, where she was greeted by Grendel the Really Old, who had sensed the energy of her mysticant and invited her to Ellinia, as he was studying similar powers there. After she presented the bell, Grendel thought to himself that the bell had been crafted in antiquity by an ancient deity or something comparable. He then offered to introduce her to Athena Pierce in Henesys, who could help her on her journey. Athena suggested helping others during her travels in order to gain more experience with Maple World. (A/N: Athena gives the standard talk about the four theme dungeons.)

Some time after she began her journey, a sun spirit brought her a letter from Gri, who told her his theory that the bell had rung because of their willingness to sacrifice themselves, rooted in the thought that each was more important than the other. This understanding helped her grow closer to the spirits, thus increasing her powers.