Just another day.

For some reason, after hitting level 56 and learning Raise II, I just didn't feel like leveling up. Of course, the problem then becomes what to do instead. I could craft, but I only had 20,000 gil left on me. I really didn't feel like taking Carbuncle (and Shiva) out for a spin in the La'Theine Plateau, whacking Even Match Orcs and rabbits for 100xp then sitting down for a minute or so. I couldn't quite justify spending time leveling up my Red Mage, either (Let's just say the Flame Sword isn't terribly bloodthirsty at the moment).

So I went exploring (thank you Teleports!). Well, not really. The new areas are still closed to me (grrrr...) so I headed down to the Quicksand Caves to try and find the coffer. Two tries and an encounter with a coffer-raiding Thief and a soloing Red Mage later, I manage to find the Treasure Coffer, conveniently placed on an innocuous ledge. That trip at least took me to the Cloister of Tremors so I now know where to go to fight Titan.

After that, staring at my Workers set suddenly gave me an urge to go mine again. The question was where. It's a problem that's been gnawing at me for quite a while now. Basically, my two options are either Gusgen or Ifrit's Cauldron. Gusgen's pretty much 98% safe, sans the occasional NM that spawns along the mining route. It is also rather abundant in a certain ore that's given Tuuf a decent reputation for holding more than the average person's luck (although I swear it's the Workers set). On the other hand, a single Adaman Ore from Ifrit's Cauldron easily makes up for over a day's work in Gusgen. Ifrit's Cauldron on the other hand, is a death pit, and I don't like the idea of losing 2,000xp just because I didn't see the Volcanic Gas come up from behind when I ran away to recast Sneak and Invisible.

So Gusgen it was. I flew down to Bastok, picked up five stacks of pickaxes, and went to mine for a couple of hours.



Ten Darksteel Ores, one Gold (9k now!), 3 ingots worth of both Iron and Silver ores and Zinc Ore up the WAZOO later, I'm looking at over 75,000gil profit. Not bad for 2-3 hours work. Anyway, a rather uneventful day today. Hopefully the weekend'll prove to be better.^^