Level 49

On the pet-levelling front, SirDarth got our current horse most of the way through level 30 by lunchtime, with a little help from a Berserker, when Stavanic appeared, and transferred his drake across to SirPerivale, for a few more levels.  This one, dyed a dark grey, is starting his training session at level 19, so it won't be all that long before he gets higher-level than Peri.  I'll have to watch how many stones I use to keep him from starving, at the start Peri's stock was 420 quality stones, 167 imperfect stones, and 188 flawed stones, which should be enough for a while.

Kaerella managed to find a pair of level 55 gloves in Auzura-1 Randol, for 200,000 gold - it cost a further 81,000 for Collector Ryl to change them from mage-type Prua's Gloves into Mending Gloves, but it meant I did have three parts of the 55/57 healer armour set at that stage.

Optimusprime invited Kaerella out to the Sphinx Fighters on the Auzura-4 sub-server just after coffee time, along with the cleric Ewli, and we had a good session there, making an efficient team, killing the Elite Sphinx Speer Man plenty of times.  I actually got two level 53 weapons as drops, the rogue's "Ponyshankers" daggers and the knight's "Ponaitrun's Dual Sword".  And just before the party ended I reached level 49, which was great - the whole session saw me add 38.53%, plus a skill point and 623 pet points.

Level 49 just meant another four stat points to use to increase my Dexterity (levels alternate three and four points each, from level 32 on); if I had a level 53 weapon I could use it now, but, as it's +15, I'm relying on my level 45 one for four more levels, until I can use my expensive level 57 +15 Coriver Bow.  There is a new passive skill to learn at level 50, Enchant Arrow, which, for 573 skill points for the five levels available, will increase my physical attack by 165, so that sounds useful.  I'll be able to wear my new gloves then; my current level 45 Arvina Gloves +4 give 61 + 16 defence, the level 55 Mending Gloves give 76 before they are enhanced, and adding +6 gets them an extra 31.  The shirt and skirt are ready to use a level later, and add 31 and 42 respectively, at +6.

The afternoon started with Kaerella returning to the Sphinx Fighters; a team-up with fellow archer MJaa101 didn't work as she was more than 15 levels below me, so her experience gain was severely "capped", but the titan Kurnog was within my range, so we teamed up for the main part of the afternoon, and he gained a level.  

The Friday "Happy Hour", with 50% extra skill exp, began just after four, so I decided to take a slightly early, shorter food break, and give my titan MrChuckNorris a session in Prokion Temple after that.  The room Chuck ended up in was almost identical to my favourite upstairs back room, but with one or two level 25 orcs in there as well as the usual level 27 and 29 ones, and I settled in for a nice long session.  As a titan hits hard rather than often, the pet point gain was just 2027, but 708 skill points got added, helped by the "Blessed Reward" that gives 50% extra for a time, and, while it lasted, the 50% extra from the "Happy Hour".  If I'd been asked I'd have said that that would have meant 11000 skill exp instead of the Orc Axeman's usual 5500 (if you are his level), but the 50%s didn't add, they multiplied, and 5500 x 1.5 x 1.5 equals 12375 skill exp per kill.

Chuck hasn't really started his sp-farming proper yet, all the points I'd gained went to get his herb-gathering skill finished, the energy absorption skills learnt... and the first few levels of weaponsmithing.   And there's still alchemy to do after that, not to mention the various kinds of stone, herb and energy processing

I was lucky enough to find the Kae's level 57 headgear later, for 600,000 gold, plus 87,000 to convert it to the healer type, but I knew the boots would be rare.  I checked up on the Wet Paint Last Chaos Wiki, and most varieties of level 57 boot aren't dropped by any known monsters, though one or two types may drop in the Forgotten Temple, from some extremely nasty aggressive, protective magic-using types that would have someone my level dead in seconds.  However, the production manual for level 57 boots, it mentioned, is sometimes dropped by the level 53 Akane Giants...

So, I went out to them; I've fought them a few times before and got nothing interesting, but it seemed worth trying.  This time I was actually able to kill the Elite Akane Giant - but, after a few minutes, it was one of the regular variety that dropped what I'd come for.

I headed across to the Sphinx Fighters in triumph, Ratel was suitably envious when I mentioned I'd got the manual, which is itself rare and valuable (he reached level 31 today, and is now officially a Temple Knight).  But after a while, I couldn't put it off any longer - it was time to do the necessary crafting.

As Kaerella has her special skills maximised, manufacturing the raw materials was no problem, once I'd opened the manual and found what was needed - 15 Imperfect Wind Crystals (made from 2 gamma energy), 15 Flawed Wind Crystals (made from 2 epsilon energy), 20 Cotton Fabric (made from 2 green herb leaf), 15 Good Quality Tincture (made from 4 green herb leaf), and 15 Fair Quality Tincture (made from 4 herb trunk).  I had to transfer some green herb leaves across from MistressDomino, and some of both sorts of energy from my storage knight CALM, and I then withdrew four tool aids from the warehouse, bought two energy collectors and two herb-harvesting knives from Geres, and went and got some more herb trunks and gamma and epsilon energies.

So, that was the easy part done, the next step was to buy the herb trunk scrolls, green herb leaf scrolls, epsilon wave manuals, and gamma wave manuals needed, though as using them to convert the appropriate number of raw materials into the items needed for boot manufacture does have a failure rate, I did end up buying a few more - 19 in all each of the herb trunk and gamma wave types, 16 of the epsilon wave manuals, and 40 of the green herb leaf scrolls, before I had all 80 ingredients, but luckily they are only 50 or 100 gold each.

However, past experience over on the Cariae server has taught me that there is a risk, too, in the actual final crafting of this sort of item, so I moved into the Guild Hall to try to avoid any lag problem, and, with a certain amount of trepidation, pressed the "proceed" button.  A failure would mean that, while I retained the manual, I'd have to go through the whole rigmarole of collecting the herbs and energy waves, and converting them into the ingredients, again, with of course again a chance of failure at the end - but much to my relief I was lucky, and completed my level 55/57 "Mending" armour set safely.

I went back to the Sphinx Fighters for a final half hour, which was relaxing after the tension of that rare bit of crafting.  Including the morning session, Kae's experience gain for the day reached 65.07%, plus a couple of skill points and 1554 pet points.

SirPerivale got Stavinac's drake up to level 22 before the end of the evening, and I was able to put SirDarth up for a little while too, so that my horse was able to reach level 31 - and Darth had a chat with Failure2020, whose horse was also approaching 31 now, and probably won't be going any further.

Anyway, it's great to have that next set of armour sorted out, so that, before too long, Kae won't be wearing a rather under-powered old mixture, but a full brand-new set, with a new bow to go with it.