A Sunday Mixture

SirDarth and SirPerivale had an early start to their pet-levelling, for a Sunday morning, and Airwalker was already there; he must have stayed for a couple of hours, and even managed to fight and kill the Grand Red Dragon, when I wasn't around to see. Apparently it was right in front of me, so it's a pity I missed seeing the battle. As the Cerebrii it spawns towards the end are aggressive as well as protective, it's lucky they focussed on him rather than Darth or Peri. Someone else doing a bit of pet-levelling, tagaPaslang, asked his level - Airwalker is just level 39. He didn't get a rare drop from the GRD, which, as apparently he didn't have an item drop booster to use, isn't entirely surprising. I think he would have more chance if he was closer to the GRD's own level, 50, too.

There was time after coffee for MistressDomina to go back to her old ways and, after exchanging that red dragon for her level 32 drake with MistressFelicia, she headed for Prokion Temple on Auzura-4, and that favourite back room. Things were a bit busier there than usual, I was only just in time; within a couple of minutes a rogue arrived, but saw me in action and went off to find a different space. Later a rogue and a healer who didn't speak English turned up, and ks'd for a few minutes, before moving on again.

Experience gain is slower now, at level 34, so the 7.19% figure took a lot more than a single hour; 874 pet points were added, and 140 skill points, which took MD up over the 24k mark for unused skill points. As there aren't any new skills to learn now until level 38, it looks as if my wizard ought to top the 25,000 figure for unused sp eventually.

After lunch, Rage went back to the Forgotten Temple and, mainly concentrating on the two Curd Hadians and a nearby Twin Hadian, managed to add 1.60% and 9 skill points, along with 395 pet points - that was after helping another DreamingRequiem member to add the entrance to the Tomb of Theos to their memory scroll. Hopefully, as a level 31 rogue, they didn't actually venture inside, things would be a bit dangerous, and at that level they still need to farm skill points anyway. The Hadians did at least drop Stars and Stripes, though no boots.

The "Sunday Teatime" two hours today was just 50% extra experience, so something to be avoided by anyone farming skilll exp. I did take MrChuckNorris out to the Sphinx Fighters and Sphinx Speer Men for about one hour, which gained him 10.22%, 6 skill points, and 384 pet points, but things were slightly slow. When I arrived I noticed someone really cutting through a whole mob of the Sphinx types, including the Elite Sphinx Speer Man, with the ground just about covered in the dropped gold. It was hard to see who it was, but eventually I saw that it was Rage's guildie xXArcheonXx, who I'd previously teamed with a number of times when he was his knight xXAcheronXx. He told me that he'd lost quite a few skill points from dying today, but at least he'd levelled up. That certainly sounds like him, he charges straight in without any fear...

After the food break I didn't really settle down seriously to anything; Lady Auzura went out to the foxes and wolves, and reached level 7; she was just approaching Lorraine when SirDarth opened a new Pandora's Box and unleashed another level 50 Beast, so Chuck had to go charging down to get rid of that, getting a suitable cash reward. LordElpus then took over for a short stint, until Chuck was again needed, and after that LadyAuzura logged back in, though she spent most of her time sitting down in town. A combination of starting playing so early, and the broken-up evening, makes it had to really get to grips with the game on Sunday's final session.

The Quiz was due at 8:30, UK time, so Rage and Kaerella, the usual team, headed for Auzura-2's Quiz room. By that time SirDarth had got Smokey's horse up into level 31, so he'd had a busy day, anyway, enlivened by Airwalker's sessions to level up his Ichi. It helps that Air doesn't bother to pick up gold, so my horse gets to pick up the nearby gold occasionally, which should help pay for some of those memorising scrolls I use to get there.

The Quiz ran smoothly, for a change, with the trickier questions not appearing, so, on Auzura-2 at least, just about all of us got to the end safely, with our ten tool aids (after ten questions), ten moonstones (after fifteen), and five (after eighteen) plus ten (after twenty) heaven stones all safely received. I must say that the Quiz room didn't seem as full as usual... and that's not just because Ratel didn't put in an appearance. It has been some days since he was online with us, I hope his internet connection is okay, and that all is well for him over in South Africa. The only other Norcaine member there was Steve's healer GuildHealer, though there were plenty of DreamingRequiem members in attendance, including Aszune.

Well that didn't leave all that much playing time, so SirDarth was soon back at work in Merac. LadyAuzura did a little more wolf-killing, and now has over 3000 gold, thanks to finding some cash that a mage wasn't bothering to pick up; she is halfway through level seven now. And then it was time for SirPerivale to join SirDarth down in Merac, briefly delayed while Darth opened a new Pandora's Box - but it only released a level 30 bandit-style Beast, which he was easily able to deal with, so Chuck didn't have to be called in.

By the end of the evening it looks as if Smokey's horse, being trained by Darth, will be at least a quarter of the way into level 31, while the drake Peri is working on quickly reached level 29 in the final session of the day. I think the idea will be to look at the other drakes that Kaerella, Rage, Chuck, MistressDomina, and MistressSabina have, and see if any of them could do with a slightly higher level one. And once that is sorted out, well, I guess a new horse will be started. I ought to open a few of the pet-type lucky draw boxes, in the hopes of getting a blue pan flute, as well as some platinum pet experience potions, to speed up that final level. It will need to be Chuck who does the opening, as he is the one who gets through the 30-point potions of pet healing (which the boxes sometimes give a hundred of) rather rapidly - they can't be traded between accounts.