In many of the outdoor zones, I'd explore. There would end up being some kind of overall theme. F3 was no different. This place did not have lairs for me to burn down. While this place had some quicksand in it the old levitation trick would end up saving me again from even knowing which tiles had it on it.

This place ended up having four statues. Sometimes in the past, an object in a zone might ask for a small amount of money or gems. These things were looking for almost 2 million gold in total between them. There was also one statue that would reset and make the other forget me.

The strange part is once I paid these statues their money. Nothing happened. At least not in F3. Later on, when I went into F4 that was the land of the sand. There was the Well Of Remembrance that only wanted a single gold coin. In exchange, I ended up gaining quite a few items. One of them ended up being an upgrade. Was it worth 2 million? That was hard to say.

A few of the items looted were at least obsidian items. These are the higher tier of an item you can get. One of them would end up being a ranged weapon I'd end up using for the rest of the game on my robber.

As far as the rest of F3 it was filled with trolls and gargoyles. Every time I end up seeing a troll in this game, I just can’t help but laugh a bit. This is not how I'd imagine a troll looking like. The ears they have are just far too funny to even look at!

I also came across a dungeon called Maze From Hell. Something tells me that place is going to be a bit of a pain. I’ve even seen quite a few hints about it in other dungeons and places as I've explored. I kind of was wondering when I'd end up finding its location.

As far as running it today. That was not even an option. I ended up missing quite a huge section of above-ground that I might have been better off exploring before going into the F and E zones of the game.

This is also the part of the game where I find myself having to keep returning due to full bags just far too often. Sometimes I'd just go do a castle run to get rid of the three types of orbs I had. I also had another token I was supposed to be turning into some lady that I had not even found yet. Here tokens would end up taking over half a dozen bag slots for far too long.

While in town I also ended up hitting up the usual. The trainer to get any new levels for my characters. Most importantly the magic guild. My cleric finally was able to get the spell raised dead. I’d later get it on my paladin as well. This single spell for 5k gold would end up saving me quite a lot in the long run as areas got more challenging to the point, that I'd need to be reviving characters quite often if they got hit by spells that would one-shot just about anything they touched.

I ended up exploring a bit around F4 and some other areas. I however come across some nasty buried treasures that had some of the toughest fights I've encountered yet. It became clear I was not ready for them. I also did not want to fully explore any of these zones and then forget about the unclaimed treasures later on.

Instead, I headed over to explore the last town in the game called Blistering Heights. While in this town there were a bunch of statues. Any time I clicked on one of them I'd get a massive boost for the day for my elemental resistance like fire, lighting, and acid. I’d end up using the town portal spell I had to come back to this town often for these buffs.

The town was filled with some nasty creatures like fire lizards and small dragons. The lizards were not the worst of it. The dragons were a bit of a challenge.

The place more than let me know I should not have been here. I came across a couple of chests to loot. Expect my robber lacked a high enough skill to even open them up. This would end up being a trend I'd have to deal with for a while till I got him another ten or so levels.

I even attempted to go outside of the town. I was greeted by walls I could not climb over. Along with lava that burned me just for stepping on it. Even with my increased fire resistance from the town. I did not make it far before having to turn around and head back inside. Now it’s starting to make sense why there are so many exits to this town to the lava lake outside. I would not be able to explore this area like I have others in the past.

Blistering Heights was at least an important town to be able to get into. The blacksmith here sold the best gear of any of the towns. While it was nothing insane. I could at least over time replace quite a few pieces of gear that were lacking. I could also get some of the best spells in the game here. Along with it being the last place to train once I was considered too high of a level by the other towns.

I ended up returning to the swamp and seeing if I could push my luck anywhere else exploring. I ended up heading over to F1. This required a bit of a swim and hence why I've been letting the druid tag along in my gear. He would end up soon costing me 2k gold per day to have. For that reason, I never cared to level him up much. He was more or less a bag and walk-on water mule when I needed it. Sometimes I'd just leave him in a town. It’s not that I needed to save the gold I'm just a bit cheap is all.

Final Thoughts

These newer areas at least had been a bit more challenging. It would turn out that the real challenge I was looking for would end up being in some of their dungeons. I think I'll end up being a little sad once I've run them all. At this point, however, that is one of my goals now. For now, however in need to loot more keys.

It also would not be long after exploring F1 that I'd need to return to the town to sell. It’s a shame there is no way to get more bag space other than hiring hirelings. At some point, I'll consider just getting a second once since there is room in the group to do so. I’ll just not level it and it will sit there dead the entire time. Unless I take some pity on it and cast the raise dead spell. This at least now I can do and I'm quite thankful for having the spell. It will end up being quite a time saver and gold saver as well in the future.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic III.