Mummies and Soldiers

SirGalahad managed to keep pet-levelling through the night, but did hit a problem towards the end - I came back to the computer to discover that he wasn't just battling the usual death mask lancer, but a death mask soldier as well, and, as the soldiers are pet-eaters, it had attacked Gal's horse, which had been killed. Luckily Gal himself is now quite able to withstand a double attack like that even without the Armour Increase buff from his pet, but it did mean that I had to go back to Randol, or restart the game and spawn there, to get the horse "unsealed". At level 24, that cost 92,736 gold, which Gal could easily afford. I don't think anyone had maliciously lured my death mask lancer within range of a soldier, probably it had just wandered a little bit in that direction, and the soldier happened to move a little out of its normal position too

After that, SirGalahad went back to Maargadum Jail to continue his work. An "unsealed" pet only has 30% health, but it wasn't too long before the horse reached level 25, which restored its health to 100%. The levels are starting to get a bit longer - level 25 is 5173 pet points long, which takes Gal about five hours.

After coffee, SirGalahad provided the solo party boost for RedRyder, who went off to Tairen-1's Prokion Temple for some more orc soldier fighting. The first thing I saw as I approached the usual orc soldier room was mageBr slumped dead, which wasn't a very cheerful start - a dead mage always looks very pathetic. The place was quiet to begin with, but eventually other people turned up. The level 26 healer Skilled suggested a party, but I had to break it off almost immediately, it increased the experience per kill dramatically and, as I explained, I needed to get skill points with as little experience as possible.

A couple of rogues soon turned up, LiLy and Kasighari, which made the place a bit crowded, but by the end of the session Red had added 7.49%, while earning 232 skill points. At 18% the sp total was 464, which if I'd died six times to return to zero experience would have fallen to 411, while at 21% the total was 558, which would have fallen after seven deaths to 494 skill points.

For the afternoon, I decided to work on xRAGEx - and, courtesy of a few berserk wolves, a lot of jaguars, and a trip to Velpist Temple to fight the wandering, ancient and berserk zombies, plus later on a few level 16 corpse rangers and even slightly more level 21 skeleton soldiers than I'd have wished, I got Rage from level 7 to level 17 by the time the food break came along, having remembered to enrol her as an apprentice of SirGalahad for the Guardian system when she was level 10. It was the usual strategy of going to the right in the Temple first, then after a couple of levels going straight ahead to the upstairs room where enough ancient and berserk zombies spawn to keep me busy, if I can avoid the few skeleton soldiers in the room. Then it was off to the left, and again upstairs, for the room outside the "torn book of life" final room, for berserk zombies and corpse rangers.

It was about 3:00pm, UK time, when Rage became SirGalahad's apprentice in the Guardian system - and at 6:45 she graduated, having reached level twenty... and there was a relatively leisurely food break in there, of course. At level 17 Rage had made the run out to Prokion Temple, and after a few ghouls close to the central lobby, she made her way to the room with the mummies and one orc soldier, and stayed there until level twenty. Once 339.13% and 157 skill points had been gained, it was time for a trip back to Randol, to get the various quests sorted out - particularly the one that hands over the special rogue "neckless" accessory. Before I'd gone to Prokion Temple I'd bought a level 21 +3 crossbow from Roy's merchant mart for 50,000 gold, and now I was able to find a level 25 one, also +3, for the same amount, which was good value I thought.

I went back to the mummy room after that, having spent all but one of my skill points, and settled in for a nice steady session. As I levelled up the amount of experience per mummy went down, but the amount of skill exp didn't fall as fast, so I started to pile on the skill points. For much of the time I shared the room with a young mage called devinecurse; she went off to eat, leaving her character in a corner, but by no means wall-hugging, and I had to keep a lookout, as mummies did sometimes attack her. Eventually we teamed up, though when she reached level 22 she went back to town for new armour - and I reminded her about the Elizabeth buff.

Her trip took a while, and as I was halfway through level 24, with my log out time approaching, I decided to move along to the middle section of that particular part of the Temple, and tackle more than one orc soldier at a time. Since they are protective, so that attacking one of them can bring in three or four, I got through a number of small health potions. Devinecurse returned while I was there, and we fought them together, though as she likes to live dangerously, health percentage-wise, I had to be ready to attack orcs attacking her, and she had to be ready to run for it. It was a few minutes past my usual log-out time, but I managed to reach level 25. She had a disconnection just after that, so the team-up, and the session, reached a natural conclusion. Rage had gone up another 464.05%, and earned another 589 skill points, which is a good number to have, with skills still to be maximised and the new level 25 skills to get started on.

I did get one invitation to join a level six guild, but somehow having the name "HellsChickens" floating over my head didn't appeal. I guess Rage will join Discipline, if she needs her experience gain semi-frozen, which might happen at level 29. A few extra skill points can't hurt, and the guild does need some more guild points, after all.

The only event that [GM]Valsharyn was doing on Auzura today was a "hide and seek", rather than a Mad Monster Spawn or a Storm the Castle - people were having to search for Val, and, as it was a PvP sub-server, battle other seekers to stay alive for four minutes before earning any reward. Not really my kind of thing, I'm afraid. At least I've got the Tairen version of Rage well on her way to being an event-attender; she will soon need to temporarily borrow the +10 armour and crossbow from RedRyder, my sp-hunter with ambitions to reach a high level with a proper amount of skills, until she reaches level 31 and gets her own set.

SirGalahad kept busy throughout the evening, and with any luck his horse should be halfway through level 27 by the time I need to switch the older computer off. I had been considering selling that horse, but I suppose Rage will want it, now... Anyway, from nowhere to level 25 in two days is a good start for her.