A Fresh Start

There was one of Microsoft's important updates overnight, but luckily it didn't download on the older computer very quickly at all, so that there was no restart to install it in the early hours, and RedRackham continued pet-levelling through until breakfast. The newer computer restarted, but as Last Chaos wasn't running on it, that didn't cause any problems.

I closed LC on the older computer, and the remainder of the update downloaded, so I switched off the machine while I went off shopping, allowing it to install its new stuff, then switched things back on when I got back - RedRackham kept busy on the new computer while that was happening. Once both machines were active, I was able to move some items around, so that on Cariae Barbarienne now has the level 107 boots, and MistressDomina has some more loot...as indeed does MistressDomino over on the Auzura server, including what Rage was able to pick up from last night's Dratan run.

As usual it all took a while, though in many ways moving stuff around and shopping is just as much "playing the game" as is killing monsters or doing quests. But what took most time was resetting my wizard Keerella's skills. I had been thinking of waiting until level 100 for that, but noticed that level 98 is when the sixth and final level of Chaos Nova becomes available. That is a skill, with its main five levels at 70, which I had avoided, since it increases one's enemies' attack, but with good evasion, I am assured, that is a minor detail. It attacks up to ten monsters that are within ten metres of you, and has a power of, at level six, 600%, hitting twice...it doesn't require a specific target.

While MistressDomna did have a skills reset card in storage, I discovered that it cannot be traded, so another card which was still in the item mall records section had to be "gifted" across. Double-clicking it removed all Keerella's skills (curiously, there was no "are you sure?" window, or confirmation, it just did it), and reset her skill points. Up till then Kee had had 974 unused sp, now suddenly she had all 11,113 to play with. So, she maxxed out all her passive skills again, got the early-level mage skills she needed including the level 30 one, chose again to become a wizard rather than a witch, allocated her stat points (17 each to constitution and dexterity, and 230 to intelligence, which, one click at a time, took a while), and grabbed the general skills she needed, ignoring, except for a few first levels needed before other skills could be got, energy bolt, energy field, energy cutter, mana recovery, transformation, arch enemy, flame field, and fear.. all skills I'd not have room for on my skill bar anyway. The skills I did get were sloth, curse, flame storm, chakra shield, haste, scud, nova break, terra spear, freeze arrow, spell focus (though I didn't have the 151 sp left for its fifth level)...and the six levels of chaos nova, which between them accounted for 2450 sp, 22% of the number Kee had had for redistribution.

After all that, there was only time for Kee to farm some green herbs and mine some quality stones, before she logged out for lunch. RedRackham, meanwhile, continued with his pet-levelling down in Merac....and he continued over lunch and through the afternoon too, so that the horse reached level 29.

Keerella headed for the Tomb of Theos after lunch and, finding that it was set to about 80% easy, went in. To experiment, she started off by running into the first main room and aggravating as many screaming zombies as possible, then using chaos nova and flame storm on them, but it soon became clear, after the horse buffs she'd added before going in ran out, that her evasion, and 10% suction of life, wouldn't be good enough every time to keep her healthy, and she had to run off down the corridor, using health candy canes, with the zombies in pursuit, with her health getting as low as 200 points, which was a bit hair-raising.

Probably working like that would be possible using an hour-long health stealer, that is something I will have to try; generally the ring's 5% suction of mana kept her supplies of that up, anyway. Kee's drake, Greedo, took a lot of damage that way too. So, Kee settled down to the more conventional one-at-a-time attack, using mainly terra spear, and that worked, as ever, without any problems.

Even with a heavy-hitting skill like that, though, the screamies took a while to kill. By the end of the afternoon Keerella had just added 1.05%, plus 21 skill points...and a useful 2519 pet points. So, great for pet-levelling, not so good for sp. Since, with the screaming zombies two levels above Kee, they gave 990 skill exp each, Kee must have killed around 212 of them.

A knight called Gozzy was there too for a while, but at level 73 he had to be careful - and wasn't careful enough, as he did die once, he reported, presumably round the corner and out of my sight. There was a mage wearing the 55-57 set a little later who managed to lure and kite a couple of the screamies successfully, with a long recovery period, no doubt for her health and her nerves, between them. Towards the end an assassin-rogue came in, and recalled a low-level rogue to be power-levelled, but they didn't stay with me long.

When RedRackham's bare-handed attack speed was increased, the latest setback for pet-levellers, I'd taken off his hit rate enhancing accessories. Recently, I'd been adding them back again - wouldn't you know that I'd invested a million in a 93 hit rate Necklace of Earth only just before the change? Replacing the 93-er hadn't stopped him from sparring with his gnoll lancer indefinitely; replacing the Eye of Gust 56-er had been okay, too, getting Red's physical hit rate to 380. However, replacing the Ring of Power, with its 75 hit rate, taking the stat to 455, was a step too far, and the gnoll lancer's health bar gradually declined. "Hit rate" doesn't change the attack speed, it just makes an attack more likely to hit, and less likely to miss, and so a higher hit rate would mean that the gnoll lancer was hit for 18 damage more often per hour.

On Cariae, Kaerella saw a +15 level 85 healer wand on offer, selling via Roy from Emblem for 250 million, so, after getting some gold from MistressDomina, bought that, and put the +14 one she'd recently bought into the merchant mart to sell. Having a fully-plussed weapon will make like simpler for Kae - once she gets the necessary fifteen levels, that is.

RedRydeR traded the level 50 gloves she is no longer wearing over to SirKit, who got Collector Ryl to convert them into the knight equivalent. Equipping the Aventics Gauntlets instead of the level 45 Warnin ones increases Kit's physical defence from 1440 to 1559, since we're moving from +8 ones to a +13 pair.

The main evening session was a team-up on Cariae-5 of Kaerella and RedRydeR, out with the sphinx types, including that more hidden-away elite sphinx speer man. It didn't take awfully long for Kamira to tend up - and it didn't take much time at all for Keerella to kill her. The drops were just the usual useful oddments... but it was fun to use chaos nova to get rid of the death goddesses that Kammy spawns - all gone in one go.

The session was otherwise routine, but productive. I didn't have any visitors, for a change, so by the end Kaerella had gone up by 6.31%, plus 25 skill points - and RedRydeR had just managed to reach level 56, adding 44.53% plus 51 skill points.

RedRydeR reaching level 56 meant that she could equip her new level 61 jacket and pants; it also meant that, back in Randol, she could trade her old level 51 ones across to SirKit. Kit then changed them into their knight equivalents, courtesy of Collector Ryl, who charged almost a quarter of a million each, and now looks rather impressive, with his physical defence raised from 1559 to 1801. That is very nearly as much as RedRydeR has now, despite the difference in level, which shows how sturdy knight armour is.

So, RedRackham logged in for a little more late-evening pet-levelling. I thought from checking the web page earlier that the first Merac Run, on Auzura-5, wasn't starting until ten, UK time - but when I checked, the page now said nine (1:00pm PDT), so I don't know if I was confusing the days or what. I missed the early part of the Run, but Rage caught up with them just before the final turning towards the Misty Canyon teleporter. I thought I might as well join in for the last few minutes - but I ended up fighting for about an hour, including going one-on-one with stuff 45 levels above me, which can be a bit fraught.

There was actually some loot spawned for us towards the end, in a rather dangerous position, so I had to watch my health rather carefully, and my drake's, as we tried to pick up the usual large attack and defence potions, skill point boosters, and item drop boosters. Not surprisingly, our ranks started to thin out after that, and by half past ten we were really only a party's worth, including some daring low-level players. I stayed another five minutes, but we really didn't have the firepower left for the really big types.

Still, it was an enjoyable outing; Rage's drake may have lost a bit of health, but added 614 pet points...and Rage herself went up by 0.45%. By the end of the evening, RedRackham's horse was only an hour or so away from level 30.