You'll find yourself in Town Centre West, on the Rue Vermillion. Your long-term goal is to move counterclockwise to Town Centre South, then East. Right now, that means getting across the river to the Undercity West. Unfortunately, you can't do that, since the Cloudstone over that river doesn't work. You'll have to take a long detour through the Abandoned Mines B1, the entrance to which should be right in view. It's locked with the Crimson Key, but that will soon be rectified. Head northeast to a street with a Workshop, repair your equipment, and save your game. A guard of Crimson Blades will keep you from taking the exit from this area, so return to the Rue Vermillion and take the other exit. You'll have to deal with Father Duane.

Duane has an escort of two Crimson Blades, one with a Rapier and one with a big two-handed Axe. They will both rush you, whack you once or twice, and retreat while Duane hits you with magic such as Poison Mist. You have two options. The first is to retreat yourself to the bend in the street and stand half behind the corner. Thus, the Blades can be lured farther, and you can hit them while outside Duane's range, then go for Duane once they're toast. The second option is to run between the Blades and rush Duane from the start, take advantage of his weak armour by beating him with your toughest Edged weapon and a Heavy Shot/Gain Life chain, and turn around to face his cohorts once he's gone. The first tactic may make it easier to keep your RISK low, but the second will quickly eliminate the need to contend with magic. It's up to you.

When you win, you'll get an Iron Rapier, the Unlock spell, and the Crimson Key. Immediately go back to the Workshop you saw before and combine the Iron Rapier with the Bronze Rapier that you already have. The result? A stronger, better Hagane Rapier. This will happen whenever you combine Bronze equipment with Iron equipment, so take note. Once that's done, go to the door on the Rue Vermillion that was locked before and open it with the Crimson Key. Go through a couple of very straightforward rooms (and a pair of Zombie Knights), and descend into the Abandoned Mines B1.

You'll need two Sigils to get through this part of the mine, and it won't be easy. Aside from the occasional Hellhound, the enemies are going to be ones you haven't seen before. Stirges, the first enemies you'll see, are pumped-up Bats whose Bloodsuck attack will drain enormous amounts of HP if your RISK is high. They attack in groups and are weak to Piercing, so make use of that new Hagane Rapier and get to The Crossing, where there's a Save Point.

Now, go west, but be careful. The room you'll find yourself in contains two objects that look like treasure chests. One really is a treasure chest, but the other is a nasty enemy called the Mimic. They look exactly alike when the Mimic is sitting motionless, but if you open up a battle sphere and it's in range, you'll be able to target it. That's how you tell them apart. The problem is that they're difficult to hit, even with the Piercing weapons that they're weakest against, since they're so well defended by their shells. They can also cause Numbness. There's no real strategy to beating them: just attack whatever body parts you can reach with that Rapier, then immediately switch to your best Edged weapon for the Goblins. These enemies are fortunately quite weak. Once they're dead, use that Unlock spell on the chest and get the Eureka spell (as well as a new shield).

Now take the other exit from The Crossing into The Suicide King, kill some enemies, and go through to The Battle's Beginning. Now you have to fight a real Wyvern, not a half-dead one like in the introduction. Like the Dragon you killed in the Sanctum, the Wyvern has a breath attack, so use the same technique you used there to get underneath its head so it won't be able to use it. Now equip a Blunt weapon and beat it anywhere you can except for the tail. It has less HP than the Dragon, so the fight won't be as hard. You'll get an Enchanter spell to protect yourself against fire, as well as one of the two Sigils you need.

Once that's over, head on to What Lies Ahead? for another new situation. This time, you'll be facing Goblins backed by a Goblin Leader. The grunts themselves aren't any different from before, but now they'll rush you much like Duane's guards did while their leader tries to Paralyze you with magic. This will be catastrophic for you, so go for the Leader first, hit him with a Blunt weapon until he bites it, and then switch to an Edged weapon for the grunts. If he does succeed in Paralyzing you, quickly use an Yggdrasil's Tears item (which you can fortunately win from enemies in the mine).

Now you need to get to The Earthquake's Mark. One way to do it is to go through The Fruits of Friendship, hitch a ride on a Cloudstone there, and push a crate towards the wall to get to the door. Another is to head back to The Crossing, take the last remaining exit there, and go through some Goblins for a couple of rooms. Either way, once you're in The Earthquake's Mark, take the door that isn't latched or locked with the Hyacinth Sigil to get to a treasure room. Take out the Goblins and their Leader. Now, get on the ledge behind the chest and walk around until you trigger a Trap Clear panel, which will eliminate the Poison Trap in front of the chest. The chest contains the Fern Sigil, so get it and take the Sigil-locked exit out of The Earthquake's Mark.

Get through two rooms and one Goblin / Leader tag-team in fifteen seconds, and you'll be in The Dark Tunnel, where there's a Save Point. Go east for a treasure room, where you can find the valuable Frost Fusion spell, but get rid of the Mimic and Goblin / Leader team first. The Leader should be the highest priority and the Goblin the lowest. Now, save your game in The Dark Circle and take the south exit for a fight with the Fire Elemental. This is a magic-using Phantom enemy, but you've got one big ace up your sleeve: Frost Fusion. Cast it on your Blunt weapon and equip the Salamander Ring to defend against fire. Now it shouldn't be that long a fight, and you'll only have to go through three more rooms before you get to a door that's locked with the Fern Sigil. Behind that, unfortunately, is another big fight, this time with the Ogre.

I won't lie to you - this is a hard fight. Ogres usually have 370 HP, but this one has been doing steroids and has 540 as a result. He's also resistant to Chain Abilities, so if you use them, you may find that they're doing no damage while still increasing your RISK. Stick to single attacks, maybe linked to one and only one Heavy Shot, and cast Prostasia on yourself. The Ogre will weaken you with Degenerate, and there's really not much you can do about that other than cast Prostasia again. Use your best Piercing weapon (the Hagane Rapier, most likely) against whatever body part you stand to do the most damage to. He's quite fast, but he'll mostly be fighting hand-to-hand, so don't bother chasing him around. A high Beast affinity on your weapon is preferable, so if you have any Gems that increase it, put them on your Rapier. When you finally win (and that might take a few tries), the exit will be right in front of you.

You'll emerge on the other side of the river, but the Cloudstone on that river will be working now, so you'll be able to return to the Workshop without having to endure the mine again. The problem is that the place is swarming with Crimson Blades now. They pack all sorts of weapons and armour and are guaranteed to make your life difficult. Usually, they'll appear in an area in a group of three, and each member of the group will be weak to one type of weapon. So, you'll need to have good Blunt, Edged and Piercing weapons for each one, and needless to say, it's tedious to switch them around all the time, especially since the only way to figure out who's weak to what is trial and error. Still, you can win some decent armour and weapons, so there is a reward to fighting them. In fact, I would recommend fighting them for Bronze and Iron equipment, which should be combined into Hagane equipment at the Workshop across the river. Once you've done some of that, your goal is to get to the Undercity West, and through it, to the Snowfly Forest.

On the south side of the river, you'll see an odd-looking gate at the Glacialdra Kirk Ruins. It's sealed with the Rood Inverse, meaning that you won't be able to open it until second play. Head south instead, over some rubble, and circle the corner to see the exit. Unfortunately, a slight detour will be required to actually get to it, so backtrack until you see an aperture in the wall above. In fact, a Crimson Blade will jump down from there at you. Get rid of him and get up to that balcony by jumping from some elevated terrain nearby. Pass through the Dinas Walk without falling into the holes and emerge onto Villeport Way, right above the exit that leads to Undercity West.

Lea Monde's underground slums are full of Undead - the same Skeletons and Zombie Knights you've seen before, and a couple of new corpses, namely the Zombie Mage and Ghast. The former is a low-level spellcaster similar to the Ghost (except without the teleportation ability), and the latter is a foot soldier much like the Knights. All of these guys are quite slow, and you'll be able to easily outrun any of them. For the Mages, use an Edged weapon or the Heal spell. Also, on your way through here you should see a Ghast with a Short Sword (cast the Analyze spell on him and look at his equipment to make sure he's the right one). Fight him over and over until you get that sword, since it's most likely quite a bit stronger than the one-handed Edged weapons you have so far.

When you first come here, there will only be one way to go, really, and that's the way that leads to Underdark Fishmarket and the Giant Crab. There's another path available to you, but it leads to a door locked with the Silver Key, which you won't have for a while. So, go for the crab. If you still have the Salamander Ring equipped, take it off; if you have any Gems that increase your fire affinity, put them on a Blunt weapon and hit the crab's shell with it. (The other alternative is to hit it in the mouth with a Piercing weapon, but you're more likely to miss.) That's really all the strategy there is.

Once that's done, go through the exit that the now-dead crab was guarding. It looks like there are multiple ways to go, but in reality, all but one are locked with something or other. Eventually, you'll find yourself at Where The Hunter Climbed and the exit to the Snowfly Forest.