Stuck on Level -17. Story mode. (spoilers)

[yeeyoh]

Hi, I'm playing the game in story mode and liking it very much but was having a hard time in the next few levels -19, -18. So I decided to use my teleport scroll and I ended up in what is considered sorta a secret level -17. I talk to the genie, save to King, Genie disapears, and I talk to the king.... But there doesn't seem to be any way out of the level up or down. There are Hexagrams in circles in the corners of the room and the walls appear as you walk around. I believe I have made all of them (walls) appear and still no sign of stairs or a way out.,
Any Help ?
Also I never rescued the Blacksmith from the lava,did I miss something, or do I find a way to save him later ?

[SuperTim]

Some floors don't have exits. That's normal in this game. There is also a very good reason that level -17 doesn't have any exit stairs but I will not spoil it.

I am very surprised you managed to get to level -17 and you don't have any items that moves you between floors. There is for example one item that lets you travel between levels, located in plain sight in the first 10 levels (at least in 90% of the games I've played). (And there are other scrolls that do that too, but you probably used them.)

You can also use a Soul Stone in these cases, or you can restart the game. It is okay to restart, this is not a game where you must finish the game on your first try, especially if you play the game by intentionally not taking some important items.

You also keep your earned Soul Stones when you restart, and these are very useful when you know what they can do. So you might not want to spend them right now and reset instead.

[yeeyoh]

Hi, thanks for the reply. How would I use a Soul Stone to get out of this level ?
I've actually put the game on hold. It is not my first attempt but only my fourth or 5th. I did see the item to teleport through floors earlier in the game I just never picked it up and only had that scroll to go up one level.

[SuperTim]

You can use a Soul Stone in this case by clicking on the Soul Stone on either the left or the top of the screen. It costs 1 Stone and your progress will be reset to the place where you killed your last boss. The levels after the boss will be reset, too. So if your last boss was at -20, you go back to -20 and everything beyond -20 will be reset.

Although I have never tried it at -17, so I'm not sure what happens there.

Using a Soul Stone is 'cheaper' than to restart the whole game, but you might want to save the Soul Stones for later games. These Stones are the only things carried over, so you might want to keep them.

(There is another way to use Soul Stones at some Vendors, so don't spend everything!)

PS. The teleport staff is very useful, the further you go into the game, the more you need to travel. Sometimes you might need to travel 10+ levels at once so don't skip that item.

[yeeyoh]

Cool thanks very much. I think I will try that. I might even be happy it resets the levels as the game was getting very difficult aftter the last boss.