Levelling Up

With the clock running on Kaerella's armour augmentations, today started very differently from usual. The 24 hours during which her armour was boosted from +13 (+14 on the headgear) to +15, with the extra bonus that that brings, were due to run out just after lunch - so, after afternoon and evening sessions yesterday, a full-length morning session was called for to complete the set.

This meant that there was no pet-levelling this morning; straight after breakfast Kaerella logged in, and checked the Condition of the Tomb of Theos. To my relief it was back on maximum easy, with the two bars at their 100% length, so RedRydeR logged in too, and joined Kae...and back into the Tomb they went.

As one might expect, things were pretty quiet at 8:30 in the morning, UK time, which for America's East Coast is 3:30am, so with the equal party set up, Kaerella, on level 73, and RedRydeR, on level 61, set to work. before very long a level 84 titan called SixtyOn3 stopped on his way to deeper parts to ask "solo me guys?", so he got added to the party, and stayed in it for about ninety minutes, reaching level 85, well out of range of us. A knight called Svan gave us both Concentration as he passed - I'm sure we saw him yesterday too, though this time, since Red could no longer benefit from the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff as she's beyond its level range, we were on Cariae-4 rather than Cariae-5.

The first hour saw Kaerella go up by 44.41%, with RedRydeR gaining 109.90% and reaching level 62. Towards the end of the second hour the level 71 specialist sorcerer danjorge arrived, also moved over from Cariae-5. By then Red had reached level 63, while Kae was approaching the top of level 73, so I had taken the opportunity, when Kae was on 99%, to change the party type to Combat, meaning that I was able to invite danjorge to join us, which he did.

While both Kae and Red were using platinum blessed irises for triple experience, changing to the Combat type, where you are rewarded, experience-wise, for the amount of damage you do, as well as getting and giving a small bonus, meant that Kae seemed to get a bit more than Red...for the second hour, Kaerella added 39.63%, and RedRydeR added 88.52%. As well as Red reaching level 63, Kae had reached level 74 before the hour ended.

The reason for changing the party type was that, now that Red's pbi was over and Kae could start fresh pots, we could switch to RedRydeR just standing at the side, and Kaerella doing all the fighting, and using not just a pbi but individual experience boosters too. I was slightly slowed down by the occasional need to heal danjorge, which I generally only did between zombies... he died once, but generally he did okay, though he got through masses of health pots, minerals, and so on. During the third hour, while Red only got small amounts of experience, for 6.17%, Kaerella, using 67 skill points boosters, went up by 184.54%, getting her most of the way through level 75.

There was just time for a fourth hour, if I didn't mind a slightly late and hastily-prepared lunch. When he reached level 72 danjorge left, so I had the place almost to myself again, apart from a level 66 knight called KnightKobus, who generally fought just round the corner out of sight. That meant I could work at full speed - but unfortunately about a third of the way through both computers got disconnected, which meant that, while I was able to log back in, I couldn't form the Combat party again as now my two characters were more than ten levels apart. Kaerella hurried back to the Tomb to continue, but Red stayed in Randol, just giving her a solo party, which meant that instead of around 58 million experience per kill, it was standardised at 54,012,636.

So, in the fourth hour RedRyder just added 3.21% - her drake had gained 1359 pet points during the first two hours, before being put away. Kaerella added 178.15%, which wasn't bad, considering the break; she got through 79 experience boosters, so was definitely speedier when not having someone else around who needed healing. Across the four hours, her drake added 3444 pet points, so is getting fairly close to levelling up too.

RedRydeR was able to learn the seventh and last level of Mind Training, since that came available at level 63; it increases her magical resistance/evasion by another 5, for 275 skill points. After that, she logged out, and was quickly replaced as solo party provider by RedRackham, who went along to the gnoll lancers for some pet-levelling. Kaerella herself was able to spend 250 skill points on the sixth level of the buff Charm, increasing its boost to magical attack and doubling its duration. The third level of Party Heal 2 came available at level 76; for 380 skill points it increases the health boost for each party member from 350 to 400, using 200 mana.

During the two "equal party" hours, Kae, fighting alongside RedRydeR, had just used a crit potion along with the pbi, and had occasionally lost health; for her two combat "power hours" she had used berserker, power, and platinum adrenalin pots as well, and the extra 95 to defence from the power potion seemed to make all the difference, Kae was very nearly invulnerable...which was lucky when she was standing helpless during the disconnection. So, an expensive pair of hours, but productive. As usual the loot was rather minor; enough gold to more than cover the entrance fees, a couple of large defence potions, one large attack potion, five moonstone boxes, one heaven stone, a pan flute, and a pair of titan gloves which were sold afterwards to Geres for 320,194 gold.

The afternoon session was a bit short, particularly as some items needed to be traded around, interrupting RedRackham's pet-levelling...but SirKit's inventory got cleaned out a bit, with sirDarth taking his old armour sets, and MistressDomina taking the sellable loot. So, by the time things were sorted out SirKit probably had no more than an hour in Maargadum Jail.

Floor three's beast flyers were ready and waiting for SirKit's arrival, anyway, though towards the end another royal knight, GodOfVengeance, barged in. It was a pity to leave him with them all to himself, but the early evening food break was approaching. Back in the village, Kit got the reward for killing those beast crawlers yesterday, which added 4.36% and 4 skill points to his total for the afternoon - in all, he went up by 15.19%, 99 skill points, and 878 pet points.

But all these recent excitements mean that I have been spending very little time with the orcs in Prokion Temple, so for the evening session I moved across to Katar-5, where Kaerella is a level 33 archer still gathering skill points there. I was lucky, and the back room was free when I got to it, someone else having just vacated it. After a while a specialist sorcerer called DeadlyWolverine barged in and started fighting the orc axemen and orc sergeants too, but there were nearly enough for both of us, and he didn't stay too long. I had to take a break to do some mundane work, but the room was still free when I returned. A rogue called denstyle95 made a brief visit...and the sorcerer turned up again, but left when he saw I was still there.

The solo party was a strange one, with a lot of talk between two or three relatively high-level people about good and bad guilds, and how some would pk and ks and lure, even in the Commander room at the far end of the Tomb. I couldn't follow it all, not being familiar with guild names and abbreviations on Katar, but the politics all seemed very complex. Eventually I became party leader, and had to get rid of people who'd logged out long before, but not left the party, and re-register - when I finally left, the party was up to full active strength again.

Kaerella added 33.27% experience before the Elizabeth's Enhancement buff ended, plus a useful 568 skill points, and 272 guild points for the local branch of the Discipline guild. After that she used her tool aids to do some mining and "herbalism"...the quality stones would be generally for her own pale blue horse, but most of the green herb leaves will probably get transferred across to my merchant character at some point, along with the suitable loot.

RedRackham had been pet-levelling on Cariae-5; lately the older computer, if left alone, has tended to freeze up after a while, so the game there needs restarting occasionally. He got ks'd, for the second time today, and was standing there doing nothing for a while before I noticed, and restarted the game; another knight, xGauvainxx, was also ks'd there, and I think there may even have been an attempt to lure a nearby gnoll soldier onto him, which might have attacked his pony, but luckily didn't. After some completely trouble-free weeks pet-levelling on Cariae, it looks as if we may now get problems. Ah well, RedRackham's horse has reached level 36 now, and thus has started on its final level, so it may be almost time for us to move on.

We are promised "the World Cup event" after tonight's maintenance downtime, so presumably those soccer ball-dropping "inoffensive" monsters will turn up tomorrow, as well as the option to buy soccer costumes in the colours of just about every soccer team. All clever marketing - except that many people will only have melded a pirate costume onto their armour a couple of weeks ago, from the Wendy bear event, so won't be in the market for a new cover until the old one runs out, after 30 days. Still, it all should brighten the place up!