I was able to complete it by changing world tier to tier 1.
I had read stuff about making sure the event outside isn't active but that didn't seem to make a difference. Switched to tier 1 and it was good. Or I guess try a different tier if you're currently playing on tier 1.
If you go into the cave and the wall at the back is attackable before you talk with the NPCs, then it's still bugged. The wall should not become attackable until after she gives her speech.
Over the past decade or so, gamers have been psychologically conditioned to accept lootboxes and microtransactions as a standard part of the gaming experience (especially younger people who don't even remember a time before lootboxes).
Similarly, I think the "corporate internet" era has also forcefully conditioned FOMO onto the majority of people. So many people coming over to Lemmy/Kbin have literally said something along the lines of, "I don't like the fragmentation, if I'm not subscribed to every single instance then I feel like I'm missing out."