The Nue terrorizing the Yraall Region has been defeated, and Ryu, Rei, and Teepo are the heroes of McNeil village... or so Teepo seems to assume, anyway. If you give in and do as Teepo asks you'll learn that, yes, the boys are now beloved by the townsfolk, and they will be friendlier to the group in general. Good stuff.
Once you regain control of the game you'll see a weird, cloaked guy slowly following the party around. This fellow is Loki, and he has a proposal for the boys. Speaking to him and agreeing to meet him at the Farm will trigger the next big event in the game - something we'll look into in the next section of the guide.
With the onset of spring, however, there are two new activities to undertake in the Yraall Region, and they will follow you throughout Breath of Fire III. Both can be ignored, if you like, but they will make your team much more powerful with a proper time investment. We'll have a quick look at both before moving on with the plot.
The Master System
If you head west of McNeil on the world map you'll find a small forest with a conspicuous tree stump. Approach the stump and you'll find a small area that serves as a home to Mygas, a traveler who is out of money. In exchange for all of your cash, he offers to become a Master to one or more members of your party. (Mygas will accept any amount of cash, so feel free to return to McNeil and empty your pockets before agreeing to his terms.)
Agreeing to apprentice one of your characters to a Master will have two effects on that character:
- They will learn new Skills from the Master upon gaining levels
- They will change their overall stat progression, based on the Master they chose
Each Master comes equipped with a set of Skills that characters will learn after apprenticing under the Master for a certain number of levels. Mygas, for example, will teach the following Skills:
- 1 level - Frost
- 4 levels - Meditation
- 6 levels - Magic Ball
- 8 levels - Typhoon
These Skills can then be transfered to other characters via Skill Ink. Note that you need to physically visit the Master with the character in your active party in order to learn new Skills.
Of greater importance when it comes to Masters are the stat differences. Mygas grants +2 to a character's Int, +1 to AP, -1 to Power, and -1 to Def upon level up. This means that a character with a character with a more physical leaning, like Ryu, will become a bit more magically-inclined each time he levels up under Mygas, whereas a character that already leans towards magic would go even further in that direction.
It is very important to note that these stat changes are permanent. You can speak to Mygas again to unapprentice your characters from his tutelage, which will return the character to their normal stat progression, but any stat boosts that they've received up to that point will remain. It's wise to decide on a course of action for each character in your party when choosing Masters, lest you badly hobble someone by enrolling them under a poor series of Masters. When in doubt, go with Masters that accentuate the character's existing role in the party.
(That said, Breath of Fire III isn't so cruel that you'll ruin your experience by choosing Masters poorly. Your party may just struggle a bit with the latter sections of the game. Choose wisely, by contrast, and you can absolutely breeze past some bosses.)
On your first playthrough Mygas is probably best relegated to Teepo, who already leans towards magic. Even if you don't keep him on Teepo for the long haul you should at least learn the Frost spell and give it to Ryu, as it comes in handy for defeating enemies in an upcoming area.
Fishing
The other major activity that unlocks with the coming of spring is fishing. If you buy a Wooden Rod from McNeil's item shop, along with a few lures, you can take advantage of the fishing spot a short walk southeast of Mygas' home in the woods. You'll know the spot thanks to the fish jumping on the map.
In order to fish you'll need to equip the Wooden Rod and a lure. The lure will determine the kind of fish you pull in, while the rod determines how difficult it will be to catch said fish. Once that's done you can cast your line out and see what happens. The steps you need to take to fish are as follows:
- Cast your line - The longer you wait, the larger the gauge at the bottom of the screen becomes, and the further your lure will fly when you press the button again
- Start reeling the line back in - Wiggling it back and forth with the controls as you do will draw more interest from nearby fish
- Snag a fish on the line - You'll she fish as silhouettes under the water, and once they're hovering underneath the lure they'll get caught
- Pull the fish in - The tension of the line is represented via a gauge at the bottom of the screen, and you need to keep the fish on the green bar to avoid letting it escape - Reel in while moving the green bar back and forth on the gauge to successfully capture the fish
- Land the fish - Once you get the fish to Ryu you'll catch it, and add it to your inventory
As you catch fish you will improve Ryu's rank as a fisherman. Improve it enough and you will unlock a Master much later in the game.
In addition to serving as items that you can use in combat, fish can be traded to various Manillo merchants that swim in specific fishing spots throughout the world. Cast a Coin out into the water and you can pull in the Manillo, who stand out from the other fish and are very easy to catch. Once snagged the Manillo will surface and open up their shop. You can get some powerful items quite early by bartering with Manillo, assuming you want to spend a lot of time fishing. If nothing else you should use Manillo to collect more Skill Ink.
And that's that. Ready to move on with the plot?