On leaving the Ragnrinar Canyon Path, you’ll find yourself standing at the edge of a huge, beautiful rolling field that leads gently uphile away from you. A river runs across the middle of it towards the area to your right, where there is a lake, and several stone bridges run over that river. A few other lakes sit here and there, and the plains is home to a much wider variety of life than you’ve been seeing so far. Not only are there Bunnit and Flamii, there are Armun- creatures like the Armus, but bearing clubbed tails and horned, frilled heads like a strange mishmash of armodillos and several kinds of dinosaur. Ponio roam in large packs, apparently a form of semi-carnivorous horse to look at their dentifrage, and strange puffin-like birds lurk around the nearby lake, toting simple weapons.
Don’t wander too far at night, though- not only do the Volff, huge and shaggy wolf creatures, roam at night, but the more sedate Flamii are replaced with larger and thoroughly aggressive members of their race.
And keep your eyes peeled- somewhere wandering around the field is an immense humanoid goatish thing, rated as level 80 and far, far outside the realm of things you can even pretend to handle (other than by running for your life).
As Shulk and Reyn look out over the field, Reyn points out a bunch of smoke rising over near the river. He hopes for a campfire and food, but Shulk points out that that is a positively terrible place for a barbecue. Reyn shrugs at that, and the two decide to check it out.
Before heading over to the source of the smoke, you’ll want to do a little exploring. There’s an Ether Deposit (wind type) off to the West near the cliff edges for one thing- and there are new Collectables here. You’re going to start encountering monsters with a new form of aggro as well- represented by a hexagonal ‘nuclear’ sign (wonder what that’s about....), these monsters will pay attention when you start using Ether, particlarly to the use of Ether-type Arts.
There is also a new Monado ability.
On collecting an appropriate blue glow, you will get a brief Monado Flash- of either Shulk or Reyn commenting about how they have enough of something now. From here on out, when you grab a Collectable that is needed for a quest, but don’t have that quest yet, you will receive a Monado Flash that will let you know not only what you just collected, but how many you need, and the name of the person, if they have one, who wants you to get the thing for them. This will doubtless come in handy, as it means less wandering out and back and out again to get more of a collectible you thought you had enough of until someone requested that you give them a few of it- whatever it is.
These few things accomplished and a good look gotten at the various monsters in the area, it’s time to check out that smoke- you can fight a few monsters, but I’d recommend against it. You want to hold off on that until you have all the relevant quests, especially since you don’t need to return to the traveling merchants to turn in the quests they gave you. By waiting, you’ll reap more benefit, more strength, and more glorious glorious items and equipment.
Also, affinity.
