World of Final Fantasy/Chapter 9: The Low Seas

Pirate Ship (Deck)
Faris states that although her ship is unable to go to the Low Seas, she still may be able to help. She requests one of her crewmates summon their guest, who introduces herself as Questis. Faris fills her in, and she reveals that originally she had a gift for the Thane, but upon discovering this new information she feels you would put it to better use. Currently, she is blocking you from leaving, but don't worry about that. There is a Gate on board the ship, so you can exit and return through there, should you wish, but since there's no fighting coming up, and the next area starts you off next to a gate also, you may as well talk to her to progress the story some more. She leads you towards her special ship, tells you she set the helm to autopilot, so sit back and enjoy the banter between Tama and the twins. Before you know it, you hear a waterfall coming up, and discover that "the Low Seas are not south, they are literally straight down". When you finally wake up, the ship is destroyed, but don't worry, you survived the trip, and the fall! Now would be a good time to return to Nine Wood Hills, and quickly complete the newly available fights and quests.

Completion Cleanup
By now you should be strong enough to take on the Nether Nebula Secret Area and collect the other two starters, however stay close to the entrance because you will likely have to make a couple trips to the save crystal for healing before you are strong enough to stay for more than a couple fights. This won't last long, because each fight can award anywhere from 6000-12000 XP, plus or minus a couple hundred. Catching the other two starters, however, will probably take long. Try to build your stacks around having at least one attack of each element of the starters you didn't pick, just in case you encounter one. If you plan to catch them, strap in and get comfortable, because you might be here for a couple hours. At least the XP is nice.

Unfortunately, you probably aren't strong enough to attempt to snag a Holy Dragon, or face the Behemoth in the Wellspring Woods Murkrift, unless you spend an hour or two grinding for XP here in the Secret Area. The Mega Sharqual Murkrift back in Saronia Docks might be possible, however, but you won't have the capacity to deal enough damage to imprism it yet. If that's your goal, the Coliseum fight will be more doable. You'll likely have to unstack there, because you need to deal more than 200 but less than 400 damage in one hit, or else you will kill it and have to try again.

Also available to you now are some new Intervention Quests, the rewards of which are Mementos unlocking new transfigurations for the Deathskull. If you want to get one of each, you'll need two extra Deathskulls, as well as a third for unlocking the transfigurations. If you don't care about having one of each, you can instead level a Deathskull up to around level 20 to unlock them.

Coliseum
Two new challenges are now available.

The Girl's Tearoom
Three new Intervention Quests are now available.

The Low Seas
Before you head into the next bit of story, you will want to prepare a team with thunder and water attacks, since the upcoming Mirage won't be encountered again for a long time.

Once you're ready, walk towards the Sea Snakes near the bottom of the area to be thrown into a fight. Afterwards, the Minimantoise will crawl away and jump into the sea, only to later re-emerge riding a giant Adamantoise. Initially, he tries to scare you, but after the Minimantoise says something in turtlish, he quickly reveals a very grandfather-like nature, thanking you for saving his Minimantoise. He asks what you are doing down in the Low Seas, and after being informed of the Story So Far, he offers you his services as an interim ship, despite neither of you knowing where exactly Babil is. Talk with him again to ride him through the seas, but take care to avoid all the swimming Mega Sharquals in the field, as they are very likely way too powerful for you to fight right now, even if you did a bunch of grinding in the Secret Area. After you get about halfway, a girl will come leaping out of the water, and introduce herself as Rikku. She opts to join you on top of Adamantoise, and reveals herself as someone who finally knows where Babil actually is. So, with that cutscene over, it is time to set course for... the exact same direction we were heading, even though Rikku appears to point towards the right during the cutscene.