More Skill Points

SirDarth and SirPerivale made a pretty early start for a Sunday, as they often do - and then after coffee they were able to have some time off, since it seemed like a good idea to take Cyborg and MistressDomina back to Prokion Temple.

I chose Auzura-4 as the sub-server, and was relieved to find my favourite back room clear, except for the Orc Sergeants and Orc Axemen of course. I'd sent MD on ahead, so Cy hurried to join her, and took up his place in a corner. It wasn't a hugely long session, as I wnated to have a slightly early lunch, but they each got 67 more skill points, while MD went up 6.36%, and Cy went up 20.39%.

Peri and Darth logged in again over lunch, but afterwards, it was back to Cyborg, MistressDomina, and Prokion Temple. The "Sunday Teatime" for us Europeans was due to start at 3:00pm UK time, and I wanted to have my room firmly booked well in advance, since we were promised not just 50% extra skill exp, but 100% extra.

I did have a couple of visitors; a rogue called Aubane came in, fought a few Orcs, and I think did even attack the ones I was fighting, but left pretty soon, while a bit late a healer, in a wedding dress, called FuLingYue, did come in, kill no more than a single Orc, give me a Heal, and head out into the corridor again. Ratel came online, and joined the party for a solo, fighting the Goblin Commanders down in the south of Dratan.

The Teatime event began promptly, and both I and Ratel were making good use of it, though after about 75 minutes Ratty said that he thought he was losing his connection, and, sure enough, he vanished seconds later, and didn't return in that session.

Not much short of two hours before the event, and a full two hours with the double skill exp, made for a nice substantial session, though at their current levels neither MistressDomina nor Cyborg gain experience very quickly. Still, they did add 19.49% and 50.14%, and 312 and 311 skill points, respectively, which was pretty good going.

Having Cyborg along, even at level 30, does enhance the experience and skill exp that MistressDomina gets from the Orcs, but I think this is likely to be the last level at which it makes a worthwhile difference, so soon it will be my would-be witch, MistressSabina, who takes over the mage armour she and MD currently share. I think a little experimental team-up with SirDarth. to see if being in a party with a level 22 type while she is level 30 helps or hinders her skill exp per Orc Sergeant, will be called for. She needs as much skill point gain as possible, so SirGalahad will be on standby to prepare to join her when needed.

SirDarth and SirPerivale were back in action for the slightly delayed early evening food break, and then I seemed to spend rather a long time sorting through the low-level knight armour that SirGalahad and SirCumpherence were carrying, getting them in order by level, selling duplicate items, and moving the higher armour over to SirCumpherence, to lighten Gal's load and make more room in his inventory - and then SirPerivale was able to trade across his old "Lioncub" set to Gal, who will need it sooner or later.

After that there was time for Cyborg to do a quest he'd been given, the last Dratan-based one, which entailed killing 35 Death Goddesses out in the Dratan desert south of the city. They are level 35, and both aggressive (at a fairly short range) and protective, so it was probably lucky that Cy has those horse buffs. That little expedition just added 1.61% and 3 skill points; I didn't actually claim the quest reward yet from Dratan's Royal Guard Captain, as I don't want Cyborg to level up too soon while teamed with MistressDomina; as it stands he has got maybe something approaching two hours of Prokion Temple time before he reaches level 31.

The regular Sunday evening Quiz was approaching, but there was just time for Rage to go out... and do some mining. I'd picked up a couple of knives in Randol a few days ago, as sometimes happens somebody had just dropped them, after discovering probably that they had bought the wrong type, and I hate to see items go to waste. As they were the rogue type, I'd transferred them to Rage - and I found today that one was a "boost knife", as it had already had a tool aid used on it. So, buying thirty rogue-type hammers and getting enough tool aids out of storage, I first of all farmed 54 green herb leaves, and then moved across to the mine, and got 810 quality stones.

I took SirDarth to the Quiz, in the hopes that SmokeinTheKush would be there and able to take his drake back (I see its Sympathy is down to two-thirds now), but he wasn't around; Rage also went, to keep in touch with the NefariousShadows guildies, but Archeon wasn't on Auzura-2, the usual subserver. He was urging some new recruits to get into the quiz room with him, but I don't think any of them made it in time.

The questions were generally the usual ones, though I think one about how the "Ichi and Scra-Chi" pet names are spelt was a new variation. I was with Ratel and Stavanic, and we all got through to the end - there was really only one question where things could have gone dreadfully wrong, about the price of renting some obscure weapon, but luckily the side some few brave folks decided to move to was the correct one.

So, we obtained all our booty; I transferred most of mine to MistressDomino, my merchant type, and then SirDarth headed back to his pet-levelling duties, after Rage traded those newly-mined quality stones across to him. Ratel reported that he had managed to sell his fifteen heaven stones at 4.5 million each, which was pretty good - he reminded me that he'd said some weeks back that the HS price was heading for five million, so he wasn't far wrong. Archaeon, on the other hand, told me that he had managed to buy fifteen off someone for 40 million, so he stands to make a profit of 20 million or so.

There wasn't much time left, but I took Rage out to the Forgotten Temple again, and fought the Curd Hadians in Rage's usual spot there. They didn't drop any useful armour, but there were a couple of Hands of Protection, plus Stars and Stripes. I must have spent about half an hour there, and just added 1.24%, 6 skill points, and 218 pet points.

After that it was time to let SirPerivale join SirDarth. Peri's drake reached level 35 just before ten, and Darth's horse reached level 26 only a few minutes later, so, despite the time off they have been enjoying, we are still making good progress on that front.