Meryod Woods
When you enter Reza, walk into the middle of town and Kyle shows you around. Unfortunately, before he can say nary a word, Nall becomes a statistic on the pickpocket crime list. The stolen item, you guessed it, those precious White Dragon Wings. *thud* Head up to the tavern on the north end of town and speak with Laike, who just happens to be here. He doesn't have much to offer in the way of info, but hey, friends should keep in touch ^^. After Laike, talk with the barkeep (who just happens to be the Mayor of Reza and the head of the Thieve's Guild). He seems to know Kyle fairly well (O_O), but he can't help Kyle unless he is a Guild member. Kyle grudingly accepts the task to become a member, which means a hell of a long walk to Meryod to find the Guild contact there and receive his mission. So, without further adue, buy some new equipment at the armor and weapon shops, heal up if need be, and start walking.
Along the way, you can choose to visit the town of Iluk (which doesn't do much good, except for getting Nash a new armor bracelet *hint hint*) and you will see the Damon's Spire as well as an Althena's Bathing Shrine. Stop at the Shrine. By this point, you had better pray you have at least 3 bars of soap, but preferably at least 4. Bathe twice, but ONLY twice. This will give you the chance to see all the 'guy' bathing scenes. You will want to pray to the gods you have at least 2 bars left over (If you only had 3, you can can 1 more from a red chest a bit later) so you can get your peep on for both of the 'girl' bathing scenes. But that won't come for a while yet. Once you bathe, heal up if you need it and save your game before heading north to the Meryod Woods.
Upon entering the Meryod woods, be extremely careful. The woods is not very big, in fact, it is rather small, but the enemies here are resistant to magic attacks, so expect to do some moderate bulking up before leaving here. You can freely exit and heal at the bathing spring, so take the time to reach level 23. It will do you a world of good, trust me. While you are building up, take the time to get the 2 chests with 1000 S each. There is also a Red Chest behind the lone tree in the northwest clearing, but as always, you'll get it later. Once you feel that you are strong enough, head through the woods to the exit, which is virtually straight north of the entrance.
Keep heading north after you pass through the woods, and you'll come to Meryod, home of the inbred hicks. After hearing Nash's only good insult in the whole game, you can take the time to explore, but nothing will happen here until you try to cross the bridge. So good ahead and try to cross the bridge despite the person's warning as you enter town. As you approach the middle of the bridge, it collapses, leaving you floating down the river. Once you come around again, you'll see that everyone is split up and in different parts of town. You must find Kyle last to proceed, so here is where everyone is: Nash is in front of the Armor Shop, Jessica is in front of the house the is in the middle of Meryod, Mia is being sexually harassed on he walkway just northwest of where Jessica was, and then we come to Kyle. Not a surprise, he's in the bar.
As you enter the bar to get Kyle, you see he is heavily intoxicated as he introduces you to the Thieve's Guild person (that he just happened to drink under the table, hehe ^^) and you receive the Old Notebook, which will help you enter the Damon's Spire; which also happens to be your next destination. So, stop and do any shopping you need to do. Make dead sure that Kyle has a Healing Nut in his inventory, he has another one-on-one fight coming up...
As you leave Meryod and enter the Meryod Woods, make sure Kyle is at full health before entering the southern clearing to the exit. As your party enters the clearing, you discover the Statue of Mel is in the woods right by you! Kyle suspects something is wrong, and knocks Jessica out of the way as "Mel" turns the rest of the party to stone. Jessica, being shocked as she is, tries to break the spell, but to no avail and gets very depressed. That's about the time that "Mel" starts convincing Jessica to join her friends and her dear old dad. Just as he has her convinced, Kyle breaks out of the stone with a primal scream and then talks some trash. Get ready for a fight...
-------------------------------BOSS FIGHT: PLASTER MEL-------------------------------
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Plaster
Mel
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Hit Points
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50 x AL
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Attack
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3 x AL
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Defense
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1 x AL
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Agility
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1 x AL
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Wisdom
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0 x AL
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Mag End
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0 x AL
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# of Attacks
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1
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Range
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25
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Exp Points
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0
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Plaster Mel only uses physical attacks, so you'll have to make quick work of him since he is fairly strong just for Kyle (though if you took the time to level up, you should have no problems)
Just have Kyle use Power Up the first round, and then Sword Slash thereafter, using that Healing Nut should he come close to death. You should have just enough MP if you leveled up to work out evenly by the time you finish.
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After you finish beating Mel, you find out that it was actually Royce, who is very disgruntled that Kyle has foiled her plot and exchages a few faux words with Kyle before warping away. Jessica and Kyle have an Oprah moment (*shudders*), before Nall breaks it up and everyone continues merrily on towards the Damon's Spire. I would highly suggest stopping at the Althena's Spring to use the statue to heal first though.