The Crimson Trial

After a very pleasant xp party down by the Altepa Outpost (which, by the way, is my favourite xp spot for 39-40), My Red Mage finally got out of Level 40 and took the first step into being something greater.

Yep. I dinged Level 41, and, after taking a break stop to set up my lemonade stall, took out a little scroll I had brought along with me for the ride. Yep. I can now cast Refresh. :D

Of course, my party members took this rather lightly, saying things like "hehe, your fun days of RDM are over," or "oh no, we have a Refresh whore now" but secretly, I think they're just envious. ^^

Or not, as the case may be. Then again, as I put it, “Refresh is bittersweet.” :P

It took me a little while to get used to keeping a Refresh cycle, with four people to Refresh (might as well get used to it, rightaru?) but I noticed that our party's efficiency took a huge spike up with Refresh thrown into the works. Kitsume (on PLD-mode) could hold hate a lot better with the extra MP to work with, and as a result, Zangetsu (BLM) could afford to be a lot more liberal with his nukes, thanks to an increased ability to hold hate by Kitsume, and more mana to expend because of Refresh.

My only regret with Refresh is that I ended up missing a few Magic Bursts because the melee decided to start their skillchain just as I started casting a Refresh on somebody. That spell takes...quite a while to cast. >_<

Of course, we were xp'ing off Goblins, so I don't know how I will cope with Dispel duties thrown in the mix, but judging from how things have been so far, looks like I'll be quite busy. ^^ When we disbanded, I had dinged again, putting me at a very nice Level 42. ^^

Anyway, with my new level, it was time to start thinking about getting AF out of the way. And so, I headed down to San d'Oria to meet with the Elvaan Red Mage, Sharzalion to start the quest, The Crimson Trial. My task was to retrieve some Orcish Dry Food from Davoi. For what reasons, I declined to ask. ^^



I had actually helped a friend of mine, Faeyth, with this quest before, so I actually knew what was involved for the first half. The good thing was that because this was a quest, I could switch over to my Black Mage and complete the quest as a BLM75, as opposed to a RDM42.

The first part of the quest involves defeating an NM Black Mage Orc, by the name of Purpleflash Brukdok. He is roughly BLM45, which, as predicted, was no match for my BLM75. :D

Well, that's not quite true. Purpleflash has a lot of HP, at least, enough so that I had to make a decent effort at conserving my MP. Fortunately, he is a Black Mage, so I could always leech his MP via Aspir every now and then. Furthermore, he was about thirty levels below me, so suffice to say, he (and the Orc that linked) had quite some trouble trying to land a hit on me. ^^

Even then, by the time the last Thunder IV fell, I was rather out of my own MP, so that gives you an idea of how much HP he has.



Anyway, he drops a Davoi Storage Key, which I needed to complete the second part of the quest- finding a Storage Hole.

This, is the more painful part of the quest. Basically, somewhere in Davoi, is a Storage Hole that the key unlocks. The bad news is that there are quite a lot of spawn points, and they are really spread out all over Davoi, as opposed to clustered like say, a Treasure Coffer. In addition to that, possible Storage Holes are also up in the Davoi "Island", where the mobs aggro to even a Level 75.

I ended up Warping out of Davoi three times because of aggro while hunting all over Davoi for the Storage Hole. To make matters worse, I couldn't find a map of where all the Storage Hole positions, and in addition, Sharzalion's description suggested that the position even changes after a certain time period. Allakhazam had the locations of a few spawn points, but I couldn't find a real map with all the positions marked.

The good news is that you can see what a possible spawn point is because of some pattern on the ground if you adjust your camera to a top-down view, so if you need to do this quest at some point, and am in Davoi for some reason, marking the points down as you walk past would be a good idea.



I should probably explore Davoi sometime myself, to at least get a map out there for other people to refer to.

Anyway, after a frustrating hour or so, I eventually stumbled across it on my way to the Monastic Cavern, so luckily, I didn't have to go up to the island. After trading my key and grabbing the dried food, I Warped, airshipped down to Sandy, and after hearing Sharzalion's little ghost story (the details, I shall spare), he thanked me for bringing him the food, and gave me a little sword as a reward.



Ta-dah! A Fencing Degen! (One of the few half-decent AF1s, too :P)

Too bad this is something that will take up another shot in Storage- the stats don't quite appeal to me, especially after I had picked up a new sword for myself, a Buzzard Tuck. Sold my Republic Sword for it, too. The Republic Sword sold for 100k, the Buzzard Tuck was bought for 40k...sounds like a good deal to me. ^^

It doesn't have the +Accuracy of the Republic Sword, but it does have higher base damage, with the same delay as the Republic Sword, and the Tuck also has two attributes that interest me: Sword Enhancement spell damage +2, and Sword Enhancement spell duration +5. Can you say, "Enspell"? ^^

Over the Hills and Far Away

Today, I decided to work on completing my maps collection. Given the status of my last xp party, I decided that at some point, I needed to complete the quest for the map to the Uleguerand Range, which unfortunately, takes quite a bit of effort, and more than just a smile.

There have been a few penned guides to completing this quest, so I'll give you my personal take on this.

The procedure is simple. Start the quest by first completing the pre-requisite quest, "To Cure a Cough". Then, head down to the second floor of a house located at G-7 of South San d'Oria, where you will find a diary. Read the diary up to page 4. Once you've done that, troop on down to the Rusty Anchor Pub in Port San d'Oria, and talk to Antreneau to activate the quest.

First stop on the quest is to Oldton Movalpolos, where you need to get a Moblin Hotrok off a Moblin Ashman. There is only one Ashman in Oldton Movalpolos, and he can be found around K-10, near the rusty levers et al. He doesn't always drop the Hotrok, and if he doesn't, his repop time is roughly fifteen minutes, so you can try again then. >_< Personally, it took me three tries before he dropped it for me, so it's not that uncommon of a drop.



With a Hotrok in hand, it's onto the fun part- traversing the Uleguerand Range, all the way up to the top. ^^ Head down to the Uleguerand Range, and take a very good look at the slope that looms right in front of you. Here's a screenshot to better illustrate things:



What you are looking at is the southern slope that will lead you to the ??? that you need to get to in order to complete the quest. The ledge that is circled in blue is the ledge you need to get onto, the blue line, a recommended path. Remember this sight well, for once you are at the top, it's quite difficult to recognise. Should you fail and miss the ledge, you have the pleasure of tramping all the way up the entire Uleguerand Range once again to try again. Yes, it's a whole lot of fun. ^^

Going up to the top of the Uleguerand Range is always a matter of much {excitement}, as you have to dodge past bombs (magic aggro), and various species of Brontotaurs, which look like the Stegotaurs in the Aqueducts. The -taurs are sight aggro, and also have true sight, so skillful dodging will be required. Once that's done, you may have to dodge past Jourmungand, which is one of the new CoP HNM dragons. Yes, it also has True Sight and WILL maul you if you get aggro'ed. ^^

Once you reach the top of the Uleguerand Range, you will find a vast open space with one huge rock on the edge. There are (very) steep slopes on both the left and right of the rock, and while you can get to the ??? from either side, the slope you were looking at when you first zoned into the Uleguerand Range was the South slope, that is, the slope to the left of the large rock.

Now, carefully position yourself on the edge of the southern slope, without falling. You will need Invisible to avoid grabbing aggro from the bombs while ou're up on the top, and you'll need Sneak for inside the caves on the bottom. Take a very good look down, and try to see the ledge from where you are standing. Use the three holes on the side of the slope to help guide you, and once you feel you're ready, take the plunge and start skiing down the slope onto the ledge (hopefully).

You can run against the slope to slow yourself down a little, and hopefully buy yourself some time. I almost messed up the first time, and ended up heading towards the wrong ledge, but after getitng caught on a little piece of snow that was jutting out, I managed to reorientate myself and determining I was headed the wrong direction, I managed to adjust things and just make it over onto the correct ledge. Phew! ^^

Once inside, it's a fair walk to the ???, but once you're there, trade the Hotrok,and watch a cutscene that will then reward you with a map of the Uleguerand Range! Congratulations! ^^

In other news, after completing the quest and warping back to Jeuno, I was soon asked to go on a Black Mage party in- guess where? >_< At least the map proved itself to be very useful, as I was able to lead members gone astray to the top of the Range to camp. I even got my first merit point completed up there, which I soon put into Level 1 Lightning Potency. ^^

That wasn't the only xp party I got for the day- later on, I managed to get an xp party going with my RDM, and eventually hit that magical number 40. I now get to use the one macro I've been itching to use for quite some time now, and I can actually claim that macro back from Phacia, who has been using it to good use over the past few months. What macro, you say?

~*CONVERTARU!*~^^

Good gawd, Convert is sooooo good...^^ Only one more level to Refresh, too! ^^

Dynamis-Xarcabard

It was time. After clearing Dynamis-Beaucedine, the door was now open for the final challenge to the Shadow Lord story arc: Dynamis-Xarcabard.

Thanks to Explorer's small size, and the fact that not everybody had cleared Dynamis-Beaucedine (or even gained access to Beaucedine), our numbers were severely limited for this run. In fact, only twenty-four of us managed to make it on this trip to Dynamis-Xarcabard.

Dynamis-Xarcabard is also the place where the one piece of Black Mage AF2 I really want also drops- the Sorcerer's Petasos. The stats on the AF2 hat completely blow the AF1 hat out of the water for the most part, offering both +10 to Elemental Magic skill, and +5 to Enfeebling Magic. Sure, it doesn't actually contribute to damage like the AF1 hat, as the AF2 hat has no +INT, but with such a massive boost to Elemental Magic, you will rarely ever get resisted, especially when coupled with the AF1 gloves, which add +15 to Elemental Magic.

Unfortunately, my recent absence (lasting approximately six weeks) has put my far behind the other Black Mages in terms of points. While when I left, I could've gotten an AF2 coat from Dynamis-Beaucedine, I was now whopping last place in terms of points when it came to this Dynamis. In fact, I'm a whole 100 points behind Lutein, so it'll be a very long time before I see any good AF2, I think. ; ;

Anyway, after all the organising, we were ready and set to go!

Upon zoning into Dynamis-Xarcabard, the first thing I noticed was the different music. As if knowledge of the {Mega Boss} being the Dynamis Lord wasn't enough, they changed the music to being the very psyching battle music to the Shadow Lord battle of 5-2, as opposed to your regular chanty-ish Dynamis music. That certainly got the adrenalin pumping. ^^

Furthermore, unlike all the other Dynamis zones where there are definite paths, Dynamis-Xarcabard has a whole lot of open areas and hills. Which meant that if a swarm of mobs were coming your way, you could see them all come up past the hilltops and down onto the linkshell. And unlike the other Dynamis zones, these mobs were NOT a pushover! >_< We were fighting the real deal now- no silly Yagudo, Quadav, Orcs, or Goblins. No, Dynamis-Xarcabard was the home to Demons and Floating Eyes!



I don't think the Eyes could be slept either, so instead of our usual tactic of sleepga-ing everything and having Frisk pick out which to kill, we actually had multiple tanks (3) to keep the other mobs occupied while Frisk led the linkshell to try and take out the mobs in a somewhat systematic order. Of course, this would lead to problems involving various 2-hour abilites. >_<

One thing I noted was that everybody had brought along a Reraise Gorget, and in Kitsume's case, multiple Reraise Gorgets and Hairpins. Suffice to say, there was a lot of suicide pulling going on here...and even then, things do get awry once in a while...



Dynamis-Xarcabard is also different in the sense that there are a whole lot more trigger mobs that need to be killed before the Mega Boss (the Dynamis Lord) is released. In this case, there were fifteen NM Demon mobs, corresponding to the fifteen job classes. all clustered in groups of three that we had to take on. They all had names of royalty, like "Prince Seere" and "Duke Berith", and each one took a while to kill. Since they couldn't be slept, that meant we had to treat their 2-hr abilities very carefully. Of course, some were easier to handle than others. ^^

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see past this stage of Dynamis-Xarcabard, as it was very late at night, and at some point, I fell asleep. >_< Some time later, I woke up to the sound of regular Xarcabard playing, and after scrolling up, found that Elmas has bought the hourglass out of my bazaar, effectively booting me from Dynamis. That was embarrassing, although I did tell Elmas beforehand I was starting to feel sleepy. :P

In the end, I don't think any Black Mage AF dropped, although we did get AF2 pieces for Ninja, Bard, Warrior, Thief, and Paladin. Since our only Bard already had his AF2 piece from Xarcabard, that ended up being thrown away (a move I still vehemontly oppose), while the others went to their respective people who wanted them. All in all, I quite enjoyed Dynamis-Xarcabard. I've spoken to Railston a while ago, and maybe I'll pop down to another LS'es Dynamis-Xarcabard run just to help out, and maybe have a chance at defeating the Dynamis Lord to at least have one storyline completed.

Time will tell. ^^

A Pilgrim's Wand

Having been largely absent from the game for the past six weeks, I had quite a bit to adjust to. Certain things were easier than others, but I was gone for the week that followed that update that changed the Rangers, and was gone for the update that introduced all the new NMs.

Of course, I had been following what was going on via the online forums, but they only offer so much insight. To be honest, I wasn't really interested in the new HNMs like that HNM Scorpion in Altepa, although I was interested in certain changes made- in particular changing Argus', the Valkurm Emperor's, and Leaping Lizzy's drops to RA/EX versions of their old drops, and then shifting the non-RA/EX versions to BCNM drops. They weren't the only NMs affected- I hear the Peacock Charm and Archer Rings now have RA/EX versions as well, which predictably has had its effects on the Sniper Ring economy, but that's another story altogether.

What did catch my eye, on the other hand, was a new NM that dropped a new club called the Pilgrim's Wand, a wand that just adds +2 to one's MP regeneration rate while resting. Basically, 1/5th a Dark Staff, but what makes this new wand so appealing is that it can be equipped from the low, low level of Level Ten.

That is to say, my Red Mage and Summoner now have something to help boost their MP recovery rate while waiting to equip my beloved Dark (Pluto's) Staff. ^^

The NM in question is a low-level (around level 15) NM Bird in West Sarutabaruta. The NM's named "Nunyenunc", and supposedly, the Pilgrim's Wand is a guaranteed drop. It's spawn area is just north of the West Sarutabaruta Outpost, at H-5 and H-6. Quick scouring of the forums also led me to believe that the general consensus is that Nunyenunc is on a lottery pop, with a repop window of roughly three hours. Despite this (people seem rather aware of my inner hatred for anything that involves camping), I decided to try for it.

Airshipping down to Windurst on my Red Mage, I stopped by the Mog House to switch over to RDM/RNG, for Widescan. Widescan was invaluable here, allowing me to quickly isolate the trigger Carrion Crows and the Nunyenunc itself.

When I got to the Outpost, I looked at my Widescan, and alas, the Nunyenunc wasn't up. Fortunately, it didn't look like I was going to have any competition for it, other than one WAR30/THF15 that was running around the area for some reason. And so, I set out and about on the monotonous task of slaughtering the Carrion Crows in the area. After about half an hour (probably less, but it felt like a long time!), I was about to call it a night and come back another time, that, and Fishura wanted me to go up to the Uleguerand Range to xp with him, Kyubi, and Izaak (read: more Buffalo goodness ^^). Dejected at seeing Carrion Crow after Carrion Crow pop, I walked back to the Outpost to grab a Teleport all the way back to Port Windurst (yes, I'm lazy. I know.)

Fortuantely, I decided to check my Widescan one last time before talking to the teleporting taru. As all situations like this go, guess what popped and now appeared on my Widescan? ^^

I immediately started tracking it, and rushed over to where it was, afraid to lose it to any (probably non-existent, but oh well) competition. One Dia later, it's name was in red, and now I just had to set about killing it...



...which fortunately, wasn't exactly a difficult task, given the fact that I was about twenty-five levels above it, but nobody cares about those kind of things in the end. ^^ A few /pokes with my trusty Platoon Dagger later, and Nunyenunc fell, and just like the guaranteed drop the forums said it had, there it was:



/cheer ^^

Real Vana'diel

I'm actually typing this in Tokyo- my friend and I decided to pop down to Japan for a holiday, and to see the World Expo that's going on in Nagoya, so that's how I ended up down here. Anyway...^^

From an observer's point of view, the FF support that the Japanese community gets appears to be a whole lot better than the English-speaking community. Not only are there novels, and mange galore about FF, there are several guide books, all written by company employees who actually play the game, as opposed to fumbling guesses that make up the English guides on sale. I saw an entire book devoted just to the maps of Vana'diel, including all the NM spawns, and mission locations. I saw a book completely dedicated to crafting, including charts that showed a recommended skillup 'path', although the book was sealed so I couldn't see what that was about.

There was a book on xp locations, and party formations. It's amazing to see the difference. That, and all the pretty comics is also a nice touch. ^^ I ended up buying a generic FF magazine, that also happened to include information about this place called "Real Vana'diel". So, after discovering the place is in Akihabara, Tokyo, I decided to pop down and have a look (dragging my friend along with me).

It was a little hard to find, as most Japanese backalleys are, but after a little bit of searching, we climbed the stairs to enter the place, to be greeted with a counter, a male attendant, and a servicegirl, dressed in a (very nice) set of Hume starting gear. Unfortunately, because the place was Square Enix property, I couldn't take any pictures of the place, but suffice to say, I was quite impressed. ^^

Real Vana'diel is basically an internet cafe, where the sole purpose of this setup is to play Final Fantasy. You can't even surf the internet here- just play FF. The place was rather empty when I went in, with only five people or so; pity, as they had some very nice computers there, which were really a pleasure to play on. (That, and little lag is quite nice, too ^^) The charge to play was rather exorbitant, at ￥300 to play for just thirty minutes, but that comes along with free drinks, and free browsing of their various FF-related magazines and manga. I enjoyed myself. ^^

They also sold a few pieces of FF-related goodies! My friend ended up buying an ashtray with a Goblin's face on it, saying something like "Danger! Explosives!", and we were tempted to buy a T-shirt that said "100% TP WS OK", but at ￥3,000 we couldn't quite bring ourselves to spend that much on just a T-shirt, and a white one at that, too.

All the computers came equipped with a mouse, keyboard, and a gamepad with resembled an x-box controller with three D-pads, and ten other buttons, and not being able to do that much in half an hour, I decided to fool around with the pad for a bit. It was a little counter-intuitive at first, but I suppose with time, I could've gotten the hang of it. Still prefer my good 'ol keyboard tho. ^^

I managed to say "Hi" to a few people in that brief half an hour I was logged on. It's too bad I didn't get anything to remember the place, not even a picture, or a souvenir, although I do have a membership card to the place, with Shiva on the front. Too bad, they were out of Fenrir and Leviathan designs. Ah well...

AF blunders ; ;

Tonight, I decided to pop back on my Dynamis linkshell to help them out with whatever run they were doing. After all, it had been a while since I last went on anything with them (I stopped going when my finals were about to start), and it was something else to do for a change.

Only problem was that I was used to going during American time, but now that I'm back in Asia, our times are rather...strange. We'd start at midnight, and then go on until 4 in the morning, which isn't exactly a schedule I really like, so it doesn't look like I'll be going much more in the future. >_<

Anyway, I was surprised to find that Starfox had more or less quit the Explorer LS. I kind of knew about it, when I posted on the Explorer BBS, and Elmas (the leader) said 通訳いないから大変です, or "there's no translator, so it's hard." I thought Starfox was still active in the LS... ; ;

I ended up asking Starfox what happened, and it turns out that in the middle of a massive pull, and will all the chaos and confusion that was going around, Starfox forgot to pass on one piece of AF that dropped, either because he just plain forgot while trying to deal with everything else, or just didn't see it drop.

In either case, the LS rules dictate that he gets charged fifty points (or five runs worth) for the AF, which he didn't exactly like. And so, he went on a bit of a spending spree to clear out his points, and called it quits from there, at least, so I gather.

Personally, that's one gripe I have with Explorer's system of distributing AF pieces. When unwanted AF drops, it's probably unwanted because the piece is not worth the five runs it costs. Furthermore, when nobody wants the AF, it is collected, and then thrown away. I know Starfox, Kitsume and I all feel that we throw away way too much AF, and this is something I'd like to fix if I ever get around to organising my own Dynamis LS. (Hah, yeah right :P) Anyway, keep what happened to Starfox in mind.

The other occurance was that I tried to get Akanea into Explorer, although that didn't quite go as well as I had hoped. Elmas said that tonight's run was a little hectic, so the next run forth would be fine. Woulfgang wants to get Krellion into the LS, which I can support, but it's going to be rather odd should I ever break away from the LS, which I'm contemplating.

Anyway, Elmas starts listing the various AF, and asking who wants them. When the time comes for the sorcerer's gloves, the BLM AF2, not a single Black Mage wants them, despite the fact that there're nine of us there. What can I say? They're not exactly great- just a little extra damage to a Magic Burst, and +10 Dark Magic (which is all I'd be after, I guess).

Guess what dropped within the first ten minutes of Dynamis?



Unfortunately, because none of us said we wanted it, it was thrown away, which again, is something I really don't like. I kind of like Obsidian's style of auctioning the AF pieces away, since it actually reflects real demand for a particular AF, although I'd imagine the bookkeeping would be...quite a headache. >_<

Anyway, sometime later in the run, a second pair of sorcerer's gloves dropped!

This, I couldn't take any more. Throwing away two pieces of BLM AF2 right in front of me was a little much, and I asked if I could lot on it. Elmas gave the green light, but unfortunately, Shie (the AF collector to chuck) had already cast a lot on it, and I forgot to tell Shie to pass on the AF. As it turned out, everyone else had already passed on the AF, and when I cast my lot, it was lower than Shie's, so I didn't get the gloves in the end. ; ;

We were also in the middle of a rather big pull, an d in the middle of all this, and my trying to get the sorcerer's gloves dealt with before the system autolots, a THF AF2 (an Assassin's Bonnet) dropped. I was too busy trying to deal with everything to notice it, and after we had finished dealing with the pull that had the nuking party run around the place trying to catch up with the four statues that came along, I had forgotten about the Bonnet. (Sound familiar?)

Needless to say, everyone passed, and a few minutes later, when we were about to engage a trigger NM...



Uh-oh.>_<

This wasn't something I can accounted for. >_< Of course, the subtle irony is that this is almost exactly what happened to Starfox, and now it's happening to me. I assume that I'm going to be charged for this, which means that not only did I lose 50 points, I even got the wrong AF, and not the one I wanted, which even dropped twice. Sigh...

Maybe it's time to level up THF? >_<

The Uleguerand Range

I'm really starting to wonder if I should keep thinking about leveling up another job. To be perfectly honest, xp doesn't particularly interest me anymore, and with a job at 75, xp'ing for that magical "Level Up!" sign in yellow print above your head has lost quite a lot of its luster. Instead, barring the extreme rarity that is a real fun party, xp'ing has become a drag now.

For now, I've set my Summoner gear aside, since, as cool as the job may look, and as nice having Carbuncle's Mitts and Fenrir may be, the Summoner class doesn't particularly appeal to me much. The only reason why I really ought to level it up is to help out the rest of the TrueRune guys when it comes to CoP missions, and that's about it. I'm not sure if the extra job is worth it though, seeing as how half the time, I end up going as White Mage, anyway. >_<

Maybe I should just focus on one job, Black Mage, make a decent attempt at getting the various sets of gear, and then shift my attention over to one of the last few goals I have in this game- Goldsmithing.

Anyway, Kyubigokou invited me over to a BLM party this afternoon. Except that, instead of the usual haunt in King Ranperre's Tomb, we went up the the Uleguerand Range instead (and I'm sure I spelt that wrong ; ;). It was my first time up there, and the place is as deadly, as it is pretty. In the end, the party was a good experience, and definitely something I'd recommend for future manaburn parties. ^^

For reference, the particular camp we were at is in an alleyway just to the side of Jormungand, at (G-8). From there, we kill pretty much everything, from the Ice Bombs (by far the weakest mobs here), to Ice Elementals, to King Buffalo. They are all on a ridiculous respawn timer, something like five minutes, and so, there's plenty of mobs to last a good Chain #8 or #9. That, and the drops are nice! Buffalo meat, buffalo horns, and even buffalo hide (80k/ea.!) can drop here, along with the requisite Kindred Seals, so I was happy. That, and because we're in the middle of nowhere, nobody comes here. :D



Granted, the walk here may be long and tedious, but I felt it was worth it in the end. Besides, it's nice to get out once in a while and see new places, and for the experience, this was quite the {excitement}. We (well, some of us, anyway) had a little run-in with Jormungand, which led to rather amusing situations of {death}- Kyubi had the idea of Elemental Seal'ing a Sleep II onto Jormungand, then logging out to reset hate, except that he got pulled in before he logged out.

That meant that he'd log back in directly under Jormungand. >_<

Suffice it to say, he got aggro upon logging in, and he died probably the fastest I've seen a Taru die. Ah well. :P

{I'm back!} ^^

Sometime this morning, I got a package delivered to my doorstep. Guess what it held inside? ^^

That's rightaru! My computer! I can play again! /cheer

I have to admit though, coming back at first was really nice, yet somewhat worrying at the same time. I can't believe I actually missed the /shouts in Jeuno, but they all seemed so familiar, it was one of those mushy nostalgic moments. Yeah, yeah, I know. >_< The ugly side of the game showed up soon enough though.

I tried taking out my Summoner for a spin, and hoo boy, did the parties disappoint. I'm starting to really hate Qufim again. I think 23-24 is one of those "problem" levels, where there aren't very many feasible places to xp. Sure, there're the occasional Gigas in Lower Delkfutt's Tower, or Pugils out in the open, but they're starting to con VT-IT, so they don't exactly bring in the xp, that, and the place is literally swarming with people. All of a sudden, leveling up another job doesn't look so appealing anymore.

I did have one of those moments though- after my second party finished, where the WAR couldn't really skillchain and the BLM didn't know how to Magic Burst, I took them, and a Rank 7 party member (Rizalde) out to the Sauromugue Champaign and taught them how to set up a skillchain, and how to Magic Burst. I'm not sure why, but I guess someone will have to teach them eventually, that, and for their sake, I hope they learn by the time they hit the jungles, because I can be pretty ruthless with people not knowing the basics there. ^^

Anyway, we ended up teaching the Black Mage (Jaygee) how to Magic Burst, and he was at thankful for the lesson. The Warrior (Kobain) on the other hand, was rather n00bish, showing a complete lack of interest in what Rizalde and I were trying to teach. He said, for example, he knew how to skillchain, although he managed to land the skillchain a grand total of one time during the course of two hours in the tower. Of course, that was with him closing the skillchain- he has no problems opening it, no! ^^ He kept insisting on getting help for his chocobo, and buying a good sword, despite the multiple times Rizalde and I told him he actually wanted an Axe instead of a Sword. Finally, I ended up walking him all the way to the Tahrongi Canyon, to get his Mea crystal so he could farm there in the future. All I get in the end was something along the lines of "I want a Warp", and then a silent disband. That's thanks for you. >_<

I'm really not sure what to do in-game now, and it hit me square in the face again this afternoon. Perhaps it's time to move onto other pursuits, and put FF on the backburner, mostly because I'm still interested in pursuing that Goldsmithing blog of mine, even though from the looks of things, nobody reads it! >_< Ah well, only a matter of time before I start referring people there. ^^