Mad Monster Spawn

I was too busy in the morning to do anything more complicated than set SirDarth to pet-levelling, but he did some good work, despite the occasional sneaky Berserker-killer, and  got the horse to level 25 by the end of the afternoon.

So, it wasn't until after lunch that MistressSabina was able to head for Prokion Temple, and my favourite room there.  At level 30, with both a platinum super skill pill and a red-and-white skill pill, for 215% extra skill experience, the Orc Sergeants were giving 15592 skill exp, and, two levels lower, the Orc Axemen were giving 12127.  My first "power hour" gave me 523 skill points; I went back to Randol after that, and spent them on skills, especially the new level of Flame Storm, before going back for a second hour - which gave another 521 skill points.  The total skill point gain, due to overtime, was 1058 - but, maxxing out all the available general and passive skills, and then starting on the special skills, like mining, got them down to just 4 spare.

That was just as well, as the Mad Monster Spawn was announced rather earlier than usual - at 5:00pm UK time in fact, so MistressSabina was only just in time to join in.  With monsters going all the way up to level 140, it was not, I suppose, surprising that I did die three or four times, but, while that did take me down from the 5.28% into level thirty to the round 0.00%, I still had those 4 skill points.  Since Sabina's experience was frozen, she didn't get any direct benefit from the monster-kills she assisted with, but I had made a note of the guild points she was earning (516 and 530 from the time in Prokion Temple), and her work against the big guys added another 115.

There was a mass disconnection towards the end, to nobody's great surprise, while I was attempting to buy some more mana potions from Merchant Geres after another death, which might have been just as well; we had been given twenty minutes to clean out the final "boss wave", and really weren't making much headway against the Flutons!  The early timing probably meant that there weren't many high-level players there, just a lot of low-level hangers-on, making themselves useful with debuffs and snares but not actually hurting the monsters much.  The "rollback" from the disconnection wasn't too bad, anyway, at least I did still have some loot in my inventory from the Hands that GM Stratos had spawned between the earlier waves.  Including the final spawning of rewards, I did manage to get 11 item drop boosters, 8 skill exp boosters, a few large defence and attack potions, and a good supply of tool aids, as well as the small health and mana recovery pots.

After that, GM Stratos held one of his races, where everyone gallops off towards a location he announces.  As I am hopeless at map reading, I just rather naughtily clicked on to another rider, and followed automatically - she was good, though not quite good enough to be in the first three.  We ended up on the "edge of the world" at coordinates 1526, 1305, high on the hillside that edges the map, with a view back towards Randol itself.  The winners were Croas, Actus, and Warrior28.  There was a general request that GM Stratos should give us some drops for getting there - but what he dropped on us was a group of Barren Eise boss monsters, so I was rather glad that I had dismounted!  I retreated quickly enough not to be killed that time, so was able to see the funny side of the GM's little prank.

Rage headed out to the Sphinx types after that, where Ratel and Legacy were already in action, and joined the team - SsnowboardS also joined, but just for the solo party benefit as he was doing some skill point farming in Prokion Temple.  I brought MrChuckNorris along too, and he was kindly allowed to join the party, just standing at the side and applying the occasional buff.  The team worked pretty well, though there was some lag about, so that text tended to be a bit slow appearing.  Ratel unfortunately wasn't able to stay all that long, but Legacy and I continued until gone nine, and then I went on alone for a few minutes - just long enough to get Chuck up to 75% experience gain, which seemed like a suitable point to end on.  Chuck got 75.24% in all, along with 2 skill points; Rage, who is still ten levels higher, got the same number of skill points, but just 20.44% experience, and 1232 pet points.

One can never be quite sure how long special events are going to remain open in Last Chaos, so, as the Wendy Bear set-up has been going for two weeks now, it is entirely possible that the NPC with whom one plays "rock paper scissors" will vanish overnight, leaving the nine pieces of the bear picture redundant.  Or maybe the deal will continue for another week, or longer, who can tell?  It seemed a good idea to get my various characters to use their sets tonight, anyway, so Rage and Kaerella and MistressSabina are now the proud owners of schoolgirl costumes, which will vanish in thirty days.  Whether or not any of these get "melded" to actual armour, I don't know, though my other prizes from the game-player did include, twice, two bonus books of melding (when I won a few rounds), as well as some greater health and mana potions and some weapon covers, which, like the costumes, can be melded on to one's actual item for thirty days.  Sensibly, one is able to choose, for one's class, which type of cover to take, either a crossbow or blades for a rogue, staff or wand for a mage, and so on..  

As for my remaining odd Bear pieces, well I'm leaving MistressDomino selling them, and hoping that she gets a few good customers before the server maintenance begins.  If not, and if the Bear event does close, well, there's always next year!  So with MistressDomino in merchant mode in Randol, and Darth battling his Berserker out in Merac, another day in the world of Iris draws to a close...