Today's adventuring came to a slightly premature end, but it started in the normal way, with RedRackham going out to the gnoll lancers before breakfast, on Cariae-4. My plan was to take one of my characters out to the Tomb of Theos after coffee - but which one depended on the Condition of the Tomb, on Cariae, or, if necessary, on Auzura.
If Auzura had got the nod, it would have been MistressDomina who had Tomb time today, but as it was, when RedRydeR got to the entrance to the Tomb of Theos on Cariae-4 the Condition of the Tomb was shown as just about 90% or so Easy, which seemed pretty good to me. With RedRackham continuing his drake-levelling and providing a solo party, RedRydeR went in, and added the necessary 24-hour platinum refining stones to get her armour to +15 a piece...and as she was short of one +2 prs, used a +3 one to get her jacket to +16. She also used a +1 prs on her +15 level 69 crossbow, for good luck, and to add a bit of extra physical attack.
With this set-up, the screaming zombies were, even while on level 100 33 levels ahead of Red, not a problem. The fighting started at 10:15, UK time, and the first hour saw Red adding four levels, or 423.93%, using no less than 105 experience boosters, plus a crit potion, a berserker potion, and one of the level-specific 61-90 platinum blessed irises. So, that was level 71 reached.
The titan Sc0t was around, but it looks as if he doesn't like rogues - he ks'd me twice. The first time, we'd both attacked the same screaming zombie, but I'd let him have it, ignoring it when it ran at me with him in pursuit. He wasn't using any potions, buffs or boosters, so I can't see that there was any problem for him - and I didn't particularly want to kill a zombie that he had also attacked, as it would have meant less experience to be multiplied by twelve.
So that would have been no problem... but why did he take a couple of swipes at the different zombie that I was fighting instead, afterwards? And why a little later did he deliberately come across to where I was fighting, and hit that zombie a few times, so that I lost almost a quarter of the boosted experience from that one, a loss of over twelve million experience?
Anyway, he moved off after that, thankfully. During the second hour I was keeping an eye on the forum shoutbox, which was back to normal after last night's massive spamming, and saw Supraklr, the friendly level 77 titan, asking if there was anyone around of about his level on Cariae. My first attempt to reply didn't work, as the shoutbox decided that I needed to relog, but luckily he asked again, and I was able to tell him that I was in the Cariae-4 Tomb at level 74. The response was that he was on his way.
He talked about moving down deeper into the Tomb, which at RedRydeR's then-current level seemed a bit ambitious. Maybe after my lunch break, I said. Staying with the screaming zombies, and helped along by the combat party bonus, my second hour of the morning added 336.01%, moving Red on to level 74. I'd used a platinum adrenalin as well as the other potions this time, and got through 113 experience boosters, which shows that a rogue is rather better at attacking monsters than a cleric is, Kaerella's figures when she did this were much lower.
I stayed in the combat party over a swift lunch break, with Supraklr promising to watch out for any wandering zombies in the corridor where I was, and got a free 0.69% from that. Then after I'd started with killing a few more screaming zombies, Supraklr insisted that he hated to see me "wasting" experience boosters like that, and led me to a room of ancient grey mummies.
This was a room very like the room with the anubis spear men, one just needed to turn left rather than right after the first long, wide corridor of screaming zombies. I knew that these level 103 mummies were bosses, and gave good skill exp to people around their own level - I also knew they had a "bleeding" skill, so that one steadily lost health, but Supra assured me that it has a long recharge time, so they only were able to use it once. He also told me that, with my pbi and xpbs, I ought to get at least 190 million experience per kill, compared to around 58 million from a screaming zombie.
It wasn't like fighting a zombie, and I took a lot of damage, and used quite a few health potions early on, with my health sometimes dipping dangerously low. Supraklr commented that the use of Flame Arrow was making them hit harder, as it has a debuffing side to it - it only decreases a target's mana supply rather than health, but I stopped using it, and things were indeed easier. I got into a more rogue-style way of fighting, rather than just going head-to-head - all types of mummy in Last Chaos move rather slowly, so if my health went down, I'd retreat, then turn and fire my crossbow.
Things got easier after that; RedRydeR does have an accessory with 10% suction of life, and generally, if I was willing to run and fight, that kept me healthy. By the end of the first hour after lunch, Red had gone up to level 77, adding 279.80% while using just 34 experience boosters.
Reaching level 77 meant that RedRackham could log out from his pet-levelling, and be replaced by Kaerella, since, at level 87, she was just ten levels above RedRydeR, and could join the combat party. So, Kae headed for the Tomb's entrance, and ran down to join. I'd made Supraklr the party leader, so he added Kae to the party as soon as he realised she was standing in the room, having just given him the Encourage buff.
Sadly Supa wasn't able to stay much longer - it seems that he is an early riser, and it was finally time for his breakfast! As the room only held ancient grey mummies, and they are passive, as well as being non-protective of each other and the type of creature that doesn't attack pets, Kaerella was able to stand in the middle of the room, providing the combat party bonus, renewing Red's Encourage buff when needed, and healing her too, preferably only between fights so that there was no chance of a mummy leaving its original target and heading for Kae instead.
Reaching level 77 also meant that RedRydeR could put on the pair of level 77 boots MEDSx had given me, which, at +13, may not have given as much physical defence as the level 72 (temporarily) +15 ones, but they had useful evasion, so were probably an improvement.
The second afternoon hour again added three levels, taking Red to 80, with 259.51% earned from 36 experience boosters. The next hour got Red to 82, with 225.97% added from 38 xpbs, and then, after a food break with Red and Kae safely settled in a corner of the room, the first evening hour got RedRydeR into level 84 with 186.98% from 37 xpbs.
The room had had other people in it most of the time, but there were generally plenty of ancient grey mummies to go round; some people were after experience, like me, and some higher-level players were after skill points, since if you are their level, the mummies give 4400 skill exp each. I assume the night shadow Margadus came in the latter category; he tended to round up five or six mummies at a time, and took a while to kill them, which meant a slight shortage of mummies for the rest of us sometimes.
The second hour of the evening got Red into level 86, so we were making excellent progress. Each level needs more experience than the previous one, so this time Red just got 181.04%, even though she managed to use 41 of the experience boosters.
During the third evening hour level 87 was reached, which was the target - now RedRydeR, who had put on her new gloves at level 85 and her +13 b5e jacket and leggings when she reached 86, was able to put on her new hood too. The only item with a temporary boost from a platinum refining stone that she was still using was her crossbow.
The hour was just ending, and I'd decided to change the party to an equal one, with both Red and Kae just using a platinum blessed iris, for a final Tomb hour, before a slightly early finish which would allow Red plenty of time to get her new skills and check out new quests etc, when, while Red was fighting an ancient grey mummy, and had taken some damage, I got the "disconnected" pop-up. As Kaerella was just standing there, it took a minute longer, but eventually she got that pop-up too, and I closed the game.
Usually this just means that one has to reload the game, but I found that my internet connection had gone entirely - maybe the hot weather had finally done for my modem? So, I was left wondering, had Red managed to vanish from the room before the ancient grey mummy could kill her? If not, she stood to lose 2% of a level, but, much more importantly, she also stood to lose 2% of her stash of unused skill points, and that would mean a loss of over 400 sp...
My broadband provider's helpline could only provide twenty minutes or so of "Neon Rainbow", plus occasional reminders that one could find modem set-up details online, so I guess I will need to see what's going on in the morning. As ever on such occasions, it feels very strange to be without internet access!
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