The Town of Academia, Mintche (学問の町 ミンツ Gakumon no Machi Mintsu?) is a location in Tales of Eternia. It is located on Inferia's southwestern continent, along with Rasheans and Regulus Dojo. The city's most prominent feature is the prestigious Mintche University, though it also holds a variety of shops, a library, a cafe, and a port. The "Craymel Ball" minigame is available here, and Katrine is first encountered here.
History[]
Mintche University was founded by Andrew Leonoa and specializes in Craymel research. One of the game's protagonists, Keele Zeibel, is a research assistant in the Light Craymelology department. Other departments include Fire Craymelology, Wind Craymelology, and Water Craymelology. The entrance exams are notoriously difficult, and only the elite are granted admittance. Mt. Minche lies southwest of the city and is home to the Mt. Mintche Observatory, where the group first meets Keele, and Nostos Cave can be found to the southeast. The Rasheans River is located to the west.
The group arrives in the city looking for Keele and manages to gain entrance to the university. However, upon entering the Light Craymelology laboratory, Meredy's Elara reacts with the experiment, causing an explosion. Dean Carlyle orders the group to leave, but a student named Zank, who knows Keele, pulls them aside and informs them that Keele has been expelled from the university for spreading his theory of World Chain Destruction based on dark matter, which is later discovered to be thought of as a sign of Seyfert's second coming. Zank says that Keele is at the Mt. Mintche Observatory but that he may refuse to see them. Undaunted, the group goes to find him.
Mt. Mintche[]
Mt. Mintche (ミンツの岩山 Mintsu no Iwayama?) is located near Mintche and is frequently visited by students of Mintche University, as it leads to the Mt. Mintche Observatory, where the Orbus Barrier can be observed. At the foot of the mountain, a stone path winds up to the summit, framed by a few trees. Mt. Minche is inhabited by monsters that live in the caves of the mountain and come out as strangers approach. Students from Mintche only traverse it using the "Holy Light" to ward off monsters. Halfway up is a campsite where travelers can rest.
The group ventures to Mt. Mintche seeking to reach the Observatory, where Keele is said to be, in hopes that he will be able to translate Meredy's unknown language. In order to prevent monsters from lurking out of the caves, boulders can be dropped from above, blocking entrances to the caves below. Upon reaching the Observatory at the summit, the group finds Keele, who tries to translate Meredy's words. Although he can understand some, he requires the help of a dictionary, but from he can gather, Meredy is from the world of Celestia, which shocks Reid Hershel and Farah Oersted, who brought Meredy from Rasheans.
Meredy, who notes that the translation is taking too long, observes a poster depicting the whole of Eternia and gestures to the others that Celestia and Inferia will make "boom". This is the first time Meredy is able to clearly indicate the happenings of the Grand Fall to the group. Keele then draws the group's attention to the dark matter in the Orbus Barrier, which is swelling and indicating disastrous consequences. He proposes that they visit Morle, where is former professor lives.