Kaerella Levels Up

I kept both computers busy pet-levelling overnight without any problems - though the older machine was getting a bit slow by coffee time, so needed to be restarted. For a change SirGalahad on Tairen wasn't involved, instead RedRackham on Auzura and ColonelScarlet on Katar were the lucky pair. Red hadn't been to the bandit spot that the Colonel has been using recently, so last thing last night I took him out there, and added that location to his memory scroll.

RedRackham's drake reached level 37 during the night, so started to get hungry at twice the speed, which means that it's the last time that particular drake can be levelled overnight; its hunger bar was down to 2 points when I checked, though reaching zero isn't a sudden death-like disaster.

By my calculations, the "free raffle for every level-up" event continued until noon today, UK time (4:00am PDT), so rather than send a team to Prokion temple, my Cariae cleric Kaerella went out to the sphinx fighters and sphinx speer men in Dratan, and quickly got the last 5% she needed to reach level 57. That doesn't change the amount of experience she gets per kill, which, with the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff is 385,814 per fighter and 424,394 per speer man (while in a solo party), but it means the skill exp per kill rises from 1,320 for a speer man to 1,430, and for a fighter from 1,430 to 1,540.

Since I'd worried that it might be difficult to find a solo party in the morning, I'd logged in my Cariae pet-leveller for the first time in ages - a level 35 red-named knight called XxGALAHADxX. He went down to the gnoll lancers on Cariae-5; for some reason the drake he is working on is already level 42, I'm not entirely sure what my plan is there, but he provided Kae with a solo party, and made some useful progress through that level, while getting through quite a few quality stones.

Kaerella logged out a little earlier than planned, as, after quite a gap since her last visit, when Kae was still with the ravenous larvae, our favourite raid (or road) boss, Kamira, dropped by, so Kae was swiftly replaced by my mage Keerella, who had to ride all the way out from Dratan City to get there. Kamira was waiting patiently when Kee arrived, and, with the only other player who'd been around, the wizard TheHolyMagE, watching, Keerella quickly killed Kamira and her hangers-on. And I could see a glint of yellow behind some of the regular drops like moonstones, lucky scrolls, tool aids, and so on! After Kee's drake had picked up various drops, the yellow-text item was revealed to be the most desirable of accessories, a Tears of Knight. For once the Hero's Necklace Kami dropped was quite nice too, with 22 to long range and 33 to close range evasion, 4 each to strength and intelligence, and 2 to constitution. The "ToK" itself gives 12 to strength, 16 to close range physical attack, and 168 to close range physical hit rate.

TheHolyMagE was suitably envious; I thought initially she was asking to be allowed to pick up some of the other drops, but she asked for a small share of the profits, which didn't seem unreasonable. Kee wasn't carrying much gold, but I was able to drop five million, almost all Kee had, just as she suggested that very amount. There wasn't really time for Kaerella to log back in, but she had added 11.55%, 17 skill points, and 523 pet points for her drake SirFrancis.

Over lunch, Galahad continued his Cariae work, while SirGalahad on Tairen had a couple of hours to move his drake past the halfway stage in level 32. And then it was time for our Tairen rogue duo of xRAGEx on level 38, and RedRyder on level 30, to take their turn in Prokion Temple on Tairen-5, in my favourite back room.

It turned out to be lucky that I'd switched things around and gone to the sphinx types in the morning, as I did get a disconnection soon after three, which I think was a local problem here - as both rogues were wearing the +10 armour, there was no danger of getting killed. A knight called zane, who generally fought outside in the corridor, had moved in to fight the orc sergeants and axemen at that time, I hope he didn't have too many orcs suddenly gang up on him. He was back in the corridor when Rage and RedRyder returned, and I was able to continue for the rest of the session until my early evening food break without any more problems. At her level Red doesn't get too much experience, even teamed, combat party style, with someone eight levels lower, but, with the guild 50% freeze and the Elizabuff cancelling each other out, the sergeants do still give 9,000-10,000 experience each, even if the axemen don't give much more than 1,000.

In all Rage went up by 8.44%, earning 161 guild points for Discipline, while RedRyder gained 5.26% and 25 guild points... and they each added 150 skill points.

SirGalahad was back on duty over the early evening food break, and continued for a while after that, as on Auzura-4 the European pair of Mad Monster Spawns were due to start at 5:30, UK time. My level 27 rogue RedRider arrived at [GM]Valsharyn's special location for the low-level MMS, not far from Hunter Dranore in Juno, a few minutes early, but the GM was already there, plus quite a few people. Following feedback about the confusion and waiting-around that having the same person in charge of the low and high events brings, [GM]Valsharyn was in charge of the low-level event, and [GM]Noboru had been brought in to do the high-level one, which started about ten minutes later I think.

I got recruited into a party, and as the leader was level 53 all the rest of us were "capped", but experience is a minor point at such events. As I did say at one point, I do prefer the regular low-level event down by Lake Juno, as the spawn is big, and well spread out, so that people can choose appropriate targets for their level. Val's spot is a bit cramped, by comparison - and the first wave of monsters lasted mere seconds.

The second wave was the only one that RedRider got killed on - those wane spiders from the Temple of Forgetfulness are a bit powerful for people below level thirty. On wave three I managed to get a dragon angry, and it followed me for rather a long way before finally giving up. With monsters in the fifties and sixties, it was just as well that we had people approaching that kind of level too.

The final boss wave was a pair of scorpionmantises, and I had plenty of opportunities to use Snare before we managed to kill them. All in all, I think we earned the generous amounts of loot that Val spawned for us.

The high-level MMS must have been shorter than sometimes, as when I teleported over, the final fluton was already surrounded, with its health starting to decline. It was certainly well attended, as from the hands of loot spawned I only picked up four of the top-class items, two each of the item drop and skill point boosters.

When asked if that was all, [GM]Noboru said that [GM]Valsharyn was coming to join us - but all Val spawned was a group of twenty deer, saying that as he'd accidentally spawned some at the low-level event, he ought to spawn some here too. It puzzled me, they may have been red-named for Red but they died very easily and only gave 1 experience and 1 skill exp each, from the two I dealt with. And that was the end...

Now that Kaerella was, on Cariae, level 57, she would be able not just to wear the 60/62 armour set, but use the level 61 weapon as well. I still had no luck looking for any good 60/62 armour - but I did find a level 61 +15 sword in Roy's merchant mart, being sold by Hagh for 250 million. That did seem a bit high, but I suppose it is a matter of supply and demand, and I went through more than 100 pages without finding any other +15 weapon of that level, and very few with a lower plus. So, I paid the money, and for 660,000 gold Collector Ryl converted it into a cleric's wand. Once I'd transferred it to Kae, her stat for magic attack went up from 743 to 800, which seems an increase well worth having.

As I was on Cariae-5, I wasted rather a long time on browsing Roy's stocks - and also attending a gamesage event in Merac being run by peaceIrene, a level 154 rogue, and a titan colleague, during which 20 questions were asked, which tended to be either so easy that everyone instantly typed in "100" or "31" or whatever, or so hard that people with the right page of the wiki open had an insurmountable advantage. Still, it was quite entertaining, and full marks to ChadVader for asking some questions himself in the gaps between, and handing out prizes too.

After that there was time for Rage and RedRyder to return to Prokion Temple in their combat party for perhaps 90 minutes, to earn another 7.62% (and 144 guild points) and 4.73% (and 22 guild points) respectively, along with 120 more skill points each. I did try my favourite back room first, but a rogue called Eunice was in there. There obviously wasn't room for us both, so I headed across to the far side of the Temple, stopping just before the mirror-image back room in a pair of connected rooms with orc sergeants and axemen, and things worked okay. It's strange that the left-hand half does seem less busy usually than the right - maybe it's the room full of sergeants people need to pass through to get there that puts off the lower level people.

SirGalahad got back into action afterwards in Maargadum Jail, and his drake reached level 33 just after ten. He ought to switch to levelling up a new horse soon, but ideally it would be a pale blue horse, and the special blue pan flutes don't seem available at present due to some glitch or bug. Perhaps they'll be back after maintenance tomorrow night. ColonelScarlet also logged in, and went to the bandits of Merac. At present his pink drake is around seven hours ahead of Gal's, around three-quarters of the way through that level.