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Update 5: Kicking Boots

Sorry this update is rather short, I messed up my hands (and legs) something fierce recently, so I'm taking it easy.

Finally, we begin our search for Veemon. Supposedly he's in Wind Prairie, which is just to the east of Divermon Lake.







Wind Prairie is largely empty, and primarily serves as a hub between several very important locations, such as Seiryu City to the north. However, there is a lone Tamer here.



"This is great! I feel lucky and happy!"
"All I need is to Digimon Battle now!"
"So fight with me!"



Akiba only has a single Tapirmon, but it has around 330 HP and the stats to match. While it doesn't pose a threat, it still takes a while to knock down. And from this match, we get 45 EXP and 180 BIT!

"You're so strong."
"I'm no match for you. La la la la la"

Running around in Wind Prairie, we encounter:




Yanmamon (from the Japanese word for "large dragonfly", yanma) is another Thunder-element Digimon. It, along with Kiwimon, can be found here, and is rather weak as well.
pre:
HP: ~170
Techniques: N/A
Physical attack: Thunder-element
EXP: 16
BIT: 30
Drops: N/A

Continuing to the east, we find what we've been looking for.



"Then what should we play? Hmmmmm..."
"Woah, Veemon! I want the Tree Boots."

Cutting to the chase, I like that.

"Tree Boots? Oh, the boots for kicking trees..."
"Yeah, sure, but only if you play with me!"
"Sure thing! What're we going to play?!"



"I'll go hide in the Kicking Forest, and you have to find me."
"If you can find me, I'll give you the Tree Boots!"
"You lose if you leave the forest without finding me!"
"And if you leave the Kicking Forest, I'm gonna go home to eat!"
"OK! I'm gonna find you!"
"Heh heh heh. It won't be that easy!"
"Count to 10 and come to the forest!"




"....... ......... Was that too fast?"



"Oh, well! OK, let's go find him!"







"I have to be careful not to go outside of Kicking Forest!"

Hello, one of the most bothersome parts of the early game. Kicking Forest is large and winding, and you can often find yourself going round in circles. In order to find Veemon, you have to run around all the trees seen around us and mash X repeatedly. And when Veemon said that he would leave if we left the Kicking Forest, he meant it - if we leave, we have to go all the way back to the Lamb Chop to start the quest over.

Also did I mention that you leave automatically if you get too close to the exit? Because that happens. Which runs contrary to literally every other area exit so far, where you have to press X to confirm.

Ugh.

We run into a fair amount of enemies during our search, including Gizamon, Vegiemon, and:




Woodmon is a bit tougher than most enemies we've seen, and takes somewhat longer to take down, owing to its high Defense and HP.
pre:
HP: ~240
Techniques: N/A
Physical attack: no element
EXP: 25
BIT: 50
Drops: N/A




"Heh heh heh, sorry, I'm Agumon."
"Veemon's hiding somewhere else."

To add insult to injury, there are up to 3 Agumon hiding in the forest as well.




Luckily, we only run into one before finding Veemon.

"OK, I'll give you the Tree Boots like I promised!"




"Here, take the Tree Boots!"
"Cool! Thanks, Veemon."
"Yeah! I got the Tree Boots!"
"Good for you! OK, I'm going home to eat."
"Let's play again sometime. Later!"

At last, we have the Kicking Boots, which means that we can finally stop faffing about with fetch quests! Well, for the time being, anyway. In any event, we can now show off just what these Kicking Boots can do!

Central Park is a safe place to try them out.



You kick trees by walking up to them and pressing X. The colour of the radar on the bottom right shows your proximity to a Digimon: purple means that you're far away, blue means that you're fairly close, and pink means that a Digimon is just a tree or two away.




Cardmon C1 is one of the weakest Cardmon in the game, being found in Asuka Server's Central and East Sectors. This is Land Cardmon's Rookie form, and the C in its title stands for Common. It drops 1b Boosters (Tamers drop A Boosters, Cardmon drop B Boosters).

Cardmon have a nasty attack that can curse your Digimon, meaning that its Strength, Defense, and/or Speed are lowered. Some Cardmon can lower all three stats, while others (such as this one) can only lower one or two. Also, they tend to try to flee often, so it's best to take them out quickly.
pre:
HP: ~285
Number of stats lowered: 1
EXP: 35
BIT: 70
Drops: Booster 1b

An important thing to note is that not just Cardmon can be found in trees - other Digimon show up as well!

While we're in Central Park, it would be a good idea to check out Leomon's Gym. Each of our Digimon has built up a nice sum of Training Points, which we can use there.






For now, we have access to training for our 5 core stats: Strength (Punch), Defense (Defense), Spirit (Yoga), Wisdom (Study), and Speed (Jump Rope). Each of them can be trained in increments of 1, 5, or 10 TP.

Training goes a little something like this.

Of course, not all training goes off without a hitch. Sometimes mistakes are made.



If your Digimon fails any of the first three rounds of training, it can't get the bonus seen at the end of the video. This makes savescumming a trainer's best friend... n-not that I would ever do that, of course.

The amount of stat points you gain varies with the amount of TP put in. 1 TP gives you gains of 1-2 points per success with a +2 bonus; 5 TP gives you +7-8 points with a +10 bonus; 10 TP gives you +14-16 points with a +20 bonus. For the most part, one isn't any better than the other; it's just a matter of how many points you want to get at once.

I train Guilmon in Defense, Kumamon in Spirit, and Patamon in Strength and Wisdom to prepare for their next available Digivolutions (which won't be seen for a long while, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared).




Before we finish our business in the Central Sector, we fish up a Cardmon proper without getting our ass kicked. Much.




Cardmon C2 is the first Water Cardmon we'll have the chance to see. This thing is way stronger than anything else we've a chance to encounter so early, doing a whopping 200-300 damage per hit, and cursing to boot. We can still take it down, but it may not be worth it just yet.
pre:
HP: ~410
Number of stats lowered: 1 
EXP: 60
BIT: 120
Drops: Booster 2b

Now we can get the hell out of Central Sector for good! (Maybe.) In the next update, it's time to head for Seiryu City!