Music: Clearbrook, by the Pristine Waters 
Today's trip is into the small, quiet town of Clearbrook.
It can't be an Octopath town without a woman literally fighting off marriage proposals.
She does has a nice axe and literally headbutts enemies though, so she's cool in my book.
Guess what I fail five times in a row?
Two thousand leaves later...
A solid axe with an accuracy boost.
This is a three-star difficulty foe who can heal herself, but otherwise cannot stop large cats.
OK.
That Golden Axe is end-game level strong. There's a 3% chance to steal it at Therion, and if you're willing to savescum you could have a great weapon to last you the entire game.
The Argent Axe is also overpowered for this stage of the game but it's only a Chapter 2-tier axe at best.
Remember, smoking kills.
'Specially the prawns. They're like nothin' you ever tasted, I warrant. Even the plounder love them--I dropped a bowl in the river the other day, and it turned into a right feedin' frenzy!
Uh, ok.
As you may expect, a lot of NPCs here sell Concoct ingredients.
Then fill it with one o' my delectable dishes. You won't be disappointed.
Just a person great at his job. Can't ask for more than that.
We'll get these once we need them.
But if we ever want to have a cook scorch some enemies, we know where to go.
He promised to bring gifts a'plenty--I can't wait to see him!
Another Side Story for the backburner.
Alfyn always gives me fish that he catches from the river...but he saves the biggest ones for himself, of course. If it weren't for Zeph, we'd be coughing our lungs out every day...and don't think he lets us forget that for a second. And then there's Meryl. Would it kill her to acknowledge me from time to time? Just the other day I gave her some flowers, but she just mumbled thank you and kept staring off in the distance. I swear, it's like her mind is somewhere else...
There's ol' Grumpy Gertas, grumping it up.
We've heard a lot about Meryl now, but she'll show up another day since she has her own Side Story chain for this region.
Even his attitude is toxic.
Zeph's embracing his new role as sole apothecary.
He says this when you buy from him for some reason.
Good luck with that.
He can throw ice and poison attacks our way, though, so he's still a decent challenge.
We can chat up Nina, but we've already got the loot from this place.
Her information is unchanged from when Alfyn Inquired her.
All sorts of interesting things float here from other towns in the Riverlands.
I skip Scruitinizing her because, uh, look at that chance of landing it.
And also because she could kick my ass.
Like blotted vipers, for example. Nasty critters. You'd do well to keep a wide berth.
Sometimes NPCs will actually give you hints on how to handle certain foes. This will be especially true for a certain Chapter 2 section.
Finally, he has a pretty nice Iron Vest to buy.
We could do all the Side Stories here, but I think it's time to move on and grab our last character. Next time, we'll explore the Riverlands and Clifflands, and then recruit the most jerkish character.
