The following facts happened yesterday. I thought that they deserved their own story and that I should write it now instead of following the timeline like I was doing. Well, you can judge later if this story was worth it or not. Now, just go ahead and read.
Lately, I have been in a quest to get my second job to level 75. Well, you would think that after three years of playing I should have more than one job leveled. Fact is that I love being Black Mage. And the worst kind of it, the suicidal Black Mage. That being said, if you think that I had to deal with Zilart Missions, Chains of Promathia Missions, Windurst Missions (which are still not complete, making me a rank 8 noob), some sky farming, gods, Limbus, Dynamis, BCNMs, KSNMs, Assaults; and that I still did have kind of a life, meaning that I worked, studied and once in a while went out, pretty much all the little time I had left was dedicated to party with my Black Mage so that it would not delevel.
After more than a year, I felt the need to take a break from time consuming stuff in game, so I could level other jobs. I was not sure of what job I was going to level yet, but I did want to do it. Most of the people that I knew for a long time already had multiple jobs level 75. I needed to get there too. So, first thing I did was kinda leave my HNMLS, Arsenal. I say kinda because I still have a pearl, I still help them if they ask me for help and I love people there, but for most of the time now I am doing my stuff.
I still don't have much time because I have Limbus on Tuesdays and Saturdays with Gildiggers, and Dynamis on Wednesdays and Saturdays with Fellowship, but I am managing. Now I am getting my White Mage to level 75 as my second job with my static team: Gotrice, Hyugaut, Shalalalalalalalamar (or better said, my clone Shadowlight), Basara, Thark and sometimes Veck (aka ugly male elvaan char of Acadea). Also, I am slowly getting Summoner to 37 to use it as a subjob.
Well, yesterday I left work eager to get home and go level my Summoner. I had just got to level 19 the day before and was happy that I could finally try to leave Valkurm Dunes. I had talked to my friend Kendoras, who is a level 20 Black Mage at the moment, so we could head to Qufin and level together. So, when I got home, I logged on Final Fantasy XI and headed to Qufin. I also logged on Rice, because it is really a pain to level without a PL in that level. It was also the only reason a person in Qufin would invite a level 19 to party in Qufin. That or the lack of other options.
When finally me and Rice were in Qufin, Kendoras sent me a message on MSN saying that he was trying for 20 minutes to log on, but Play Online was not letting him in.
So I was on my own.
I set up my search comment and started to solo a worm while I waited for a invite. My comment said the following:
"<Experience Points> <Can I have it? >
4.1k tnl
I have PL"
That last line usually do the trick. Five minutes later and one worm down, I got a tell.
>> Level19Warrior: Hello!
Level19Warrior>> <Hello!>
>> Level19Warrior: Do you want to start a party with me? No one will really invite level 19 here.
Level19Warrior>> Sure.
Level19Warrior invites you to join his party.
Level19Warrior: How comfortable are you with setting up a party?
Oh, damn... why does everyone like to make me party leader?... All my way through Valkurm Dunes, I had ended as party leader somehow.
No no... I was not falling for that.
Jessbond: I actually don't like being party leader.
Level19Warrior: Oh... ok.
I kept on soloing. This time it was a mighty Snipper. After eight minutes, the warrior appeared and started to help me kill the crab. Meanwhile he got a Red Mage level 19 and another Summoner. A level 20 one. This was where it all started. I didn't know that at the time. But that level 20 Summoner was about to change my day...
We started killing worms and crabs. I was having a hard time playing Summoner and White Mage at the same time, but everything was going smoothly. It was actually better exp than any of the parties I joined in Dunes. Just one thing was really bugging me: the fact that the other Summoner always seemed to have MP and I always seemed to be resting. After a while, I noticed why. She was mostly using Carby to fight, just changing to other summon to use a Blood Pact. And the secret for that to work: Carbuncle Mitts.
I was not really in the mood to go after gear for Summoner. I just wanted to get to level 37 as soon as possible to use it as a subjob as that was it. But from that moment on, I knew I had to get my hands on one of those sometime soon. But not at that moment... I just wanted to get as many levels as possible yesterday. So we kept going and twenty minutes later, the other Summoner got to level 21 and thought it would be better for her to leave party and let us trio than stay and steal our exp. I was ok with that. Her superior MP handling skills was annoying me anyway.
After a while, the warrior invited a Ranger, though we were doing ok trioing it. And with that four people party, I was level 20 in less than a hour. Much faster than I was hoping. I was starting to feel happy that I was gonna do some nice leveling yesterday when the warrior also got to level 20.
NotLevel19AnymoreWarrior: Nice party! I am taking a break now. See you guys.
AlsoLevel20RedMage: I am gonna take a break too. Thanks for the party.
And with that, the party disbanded, leaving me and the ranger wanting more. So we flagged up again and waited...
It was not a long wait actually. Two minutes or so after that, I saw the red dot of doom over Rice's head. A quick look in the other screen showed me a black screen with the following dialogue:
"POL error XYZWKIAP: This account was logged from another terminal".
Oh my god... there went my PL. Rice was logging in.
Seconds later, he popped on my screen, while I was running in circles around the place he had disconnected with Diabolos following me.
Gotrice waves to Jessbond.
Jessbond slaps Gotrice.
Gotrice: www
Gotrice: You can keep going.
And he rested, logging off again.
Jessbond: no, you can stay!
Gotrice: too late w
Jessbond: Noooo, stay!
But he logged off anyway. The thing was that, when I saw that he was logging in, I already had changed plans. After all, it would be a pain to level without a PL and having also to look for another party. My new objective for the night was to get Carbuncle Mitts. Damn that other Summoner, I would be better than she was!
So I put my flag down and headed to Jeuno to change my job back to Black Mage and gear up. Then I warped to Windurst, where I outpost warped to Yuhtunga Jungle. From there, I headed to Temple of Uggalepih, without getting lost this time (what is a miracle by the way... I hate those jungles). Once inside the Temple, I went on my usual way through there, headed out to Yhoator Jungle on the top floor and back to the Temple. By taking a look at the map, I noticed I was in the wrong place. Thinking about it now, that must have been a sign... a sign for me to not go on. But I did anyway. I got back all the way, and went through the secret door and to the other entrance from the top floor.
Upon entrance, I found three people near the zone. I knew two of them.
Tonious: @.@
Tonious: What are you doing here, Jess?
Jessbond: walking around.
Aahmy: Hi, Jess.
Jessbond: Anyway, be right back.
Or so I thought. I just wanted to get that done and I had totally forgot that that was the hard side of Temple of Uggalepih. Well, actually I reminded of being there killing monsters like Tonious and Aahmy were doing, and that they actually could give me a hard time, but I didn't pay attention to those thoughts and headed down the stairs.
As I turned in the second corner, I found myself facing a Temple Bee, which promptly aggroed me. I panicked a bit and tried pressing my Sleep II macro, just to find that I had my Summoner macro set on still. While I scrolled down to my Black Mage macro set, I noticed that the bee was missing a lot and calmed down a bit, finally putting it to sleep.
Well, at this point, you might be thinking that I finally remembered how stuff was down there, zoned and came back with Sneak and Invisible on, right? Well, I have to confess that my consciousness told me exactly to do that. But I also have to say that it was completely ignored. I casted Sneak and Invisible and went further on. Yeah, I did left the bee sleeping and went deeper in the Temple.
Now stop laughing and let me keep telling my story.
As I was going deeper, I got past another bee, some tonberries and a doll. That other bee made my brain scream "Go back now! The bee you just slept will come after you and link with this one!!!". Once again, I pretended to not have listened to anything and kept going.
...
Seriously... stop laughing!
...
Everything was nice and dandy when I got to the first set of rooms where the ??? for the pop item for Carbuncle Mitts NM can pop. I took off Invisible so I could open the door to the first room. As I did it, I saw a Tonberry inside the room. I felt a rush of adrenalin through my veins, just to notice that it was facing the other side. Oh, I got lucky. I tabbed around the room from outside, but the ??? was nowhere to be found. So I headed to the next door. Once again, there was a Tonberry inside. Once again, I panicked. Once again, it was facing the wall. Oh my god! How lucky can I be?!? I checked the new room from outside, but no ??? again.
Well, that was it for this corridor. Now I would have to check the other one on the other side of the big square room in front of me. As I approached the door to that room, I heard a mischievous laugh.
Hihihihihihi.
Oh noes. I had somehow aggroed a Tonberry. But which one? Where? I was not able to see it.
Bonze Marberry starts casting Burn on Jessbond.
Ah, nice... I just aggroed a NM.
Suddenly, some flashes of memory came to me. Memories of when I did 7-2 and that bastard wiped my party a few times.
Ooooh, I just aggroed THAT NM.
I heard some more mischievous laughs. The NM had just linked all the Tonberries close to him, including the one in the little room I had just checked. And, to make it even more fun, I noticed two bees coming in my direction: the bee I slept and the other one I found on my way here and completely ignored.
Oh, damn! Oh, damn! I was kinda screwed. So I did what I always do when I see a bunch of mobs coming in my direction: I started casting Sleepga II.
Jessbond starts casting Sleepga II on Tonberry Stabber.
Hover Tank starts casting Rasp on Jessbond.
Jessbond's casting is interrupted.
Great... all I was able to do was aggro another mob by casting magic.
Yellow HP.
Red HP.
Jessbond was defeated by the Tonberry's Elemental.
Meh...
Ok, ok... I was asking for that... I know. Shut up, rational side of my brain!
Tonious>> Erm.... I am dead.
>>Tonious: lol... do you need a raise 1?
Tonious>> <Yes, please>
>>Tonious: pos?
Tonious>> (I-9)
>>Tonious: omw
After a minute...
Tonious starts casting Raise on Jessbond.
I got up and, as I was obviously afraid of the bees now, started casting Sneak on myself.
Jessbond starts casting Sneak.
Hover Pot starts casting Burst on Jessbond.
Tonious: You aggroed a pot... >.< style="font-weight: bold;">Tonious: It is casting Burst!!! Run away!
That woke me up. It was true that Burst was a long casting nuke and I could outrun it! So I should start running!
Five steps later...
Hover Pot casts Burst.
Jessbond takes 416 points of damage.
Jessbond was defeated by the Hover Pot.
Tonious>>lol
>>Tonious: ^^; you should have run...
Tonious>> I know...
Tonious starts casting Raise on Jessbond.
Tonious: get up, come to where I am and cast Invisible.
Toniour: you don't need Sneak.
Tonious starts casting Invisible.
So, I got up and ran to where I thought Tonious was. He was invisible and I was kinda shocked from what I had just done, so I just ran a little bit on the general direction I thought he was.
Jessbond starts casting Sneak.
Yeah, I casted Sneak... I knew there were some freaking scary bees on my way out. I was afraid of them now.
Jessbond takes 43 points of damage.
Jessbond was defeated by the Iron Maiden.
What the.......
Not again!!! >.<;;;;;
Rational side of my mind: Heh... you should listen to myself more often. Or did you just forget that dolls aggro magic?!?
Dominant careless side of my mind: Yeah... I totally forgot about that. Now shush...
Rational side of my mind: n00b!
>>Tonious: What did I say?!?
>>Tonious: Now I can't raise you.
Indeed. Now the doll was just by my side almost stepping on me. I was really pissed and I knew that if I kept on trying to get up, I would just keep doing dumb stuff.
Tonious >> Never mind.
>>Tonious: You gonna HP?
Tonious >> Yeah.
Then he left, going back to the zone. I was really really angry at myself and felt like home pointing. But the rational part of my brain kept on saying that I would regret that later, so I thought I should chill a bit before doing anything. So I went for a walk. And by walk I mean going to the restroom, drinking something and look at my cute plants at home.
Ok... now you are allowed to laugh. Go ahead.
After a while, I started laughing uncontrollably at my noobness. But I was not going to HP. My exp had already suffered enough. So I sat back at my computer.
Shadowlight >> I am dead :/ for the third time. I felt like HPing. lol
>>Shadowlight: How much left on timer?
Shadowlight >> 30 minutes
>>Shadowlight: Hmm... I was gonna finish getting my stagging point... but... it will already be close. Be right there!
Hehehe... gotta love Shal.
>> Shalamar: On my way.
Shalamar>> Thanks. I am not sure if you will be able to raise me though. There is a doll stepping on me.
>> Shalamar: I can do it. I will go SMN/WHM.
Shalamar>> ok.
Then I waited for a while.
>> Shalamar: In Temple. How much left on timer?
Shalamar>> 15 minutes.
>> Shalamar: It will be close.
>> Shalamar: In which side are you?
Shalamar>> Once you enter? I'm past the hidden door.
>> Shalamar: oops... I was going to the other side. On my way now!
Heh... how would I die on the other side? I am not THAT noob...
A few minutes later...
>> Shalamar: pos?
Shalamar >> (I-9)
One minute later, I saw the salvation Carbuncle coming.
Oh, the irony... getting through all this pain because of my Summoner just to be saved by another Summoner.
Now that he got there, the doll was wandering far from me, so he was able to raise me without any problems.
Shalamar starts casting Raise on Jessbond.
>>Shalamar: GET UP NOOB
So I did. What arguments did I have against he calling me noob at that time anyway?
Jessbond starts casting Sneak.
Jessbond starts casting Invisible.
NO, I did NOT aggro anything this time! >.>;
Shalamar invites you to join her party.
I joined his party and he went to check the rooms. I was gonna say that I had already checked those, but I preferred not. When he saw there was nothing there, he headed to the NM room.
Jessbond: The NM is up >.<
Bonze Marberry starts casting Burn on Shalamar.
Shalamar: The NM is up
Hmmm... Didn't I just say that? Meh, he never pays attention anyway.
So he put Carby on the NM and came running in my direction.
Shalamar: FOLLOW ME!
I did follow him to the zone quietly. I was letting him scream because I knew I deserved it, so I was kinda ok with that. So we zoned out to get rid of aggro, then zoned back in. I was running in circles like I always do while waiting for weakness to pass.
Shalamar: SIT DOWN NOOB!!
... ok, now that was getting on my nerves a bit....
Jessbond: Demanding, huh?
We waited for my weakness to go away, then headed back to the NM room. We both had Sneak and Invisible on. When we got there, Shal took off Invisible and started fighting the NM. I got inside the room where there was the NM, plus 4 more Tonberries and the Hover Pot that had killed me. I went to the door at the other side of the room, but two of the Tonberrys were looking at the door, so I could not take Sneak off and open the door. Then I noticed that Shal had yellow HP.
Jessbond: Shal >.<
Shalamar: I am ok.
I saw his HP go red. That didn't look like HP of a person that is ok, but suddenly I saw that Shal had zoned. So I suddenly found myself trapped in a room full of mobs that would be ready to kill me as soon as my Invisible wore. I started panicking again and praying that the Tonberries would look away at least for a moment, but it seemed to be taking too long. Maybe they wouldn't look away at all.
The effect of Sneak is about to wear off.
Damn, there went Sneak. Soon enough it would be Invisible and I would be screwed. I would never be able to be raised in that place.
Then, all of a sudden, both Tonberries faced away from the door. Praying for Altana for a bit more of luck and hoping that I had enough time to cross the door and that no mob was behind it, I took off my Invisible, opened the door and crossed it.
Like a miracle, everything went fine and there was only a doll by the door. So I would be ok as far as I didn't cast any magic (yeah, I had learned my lesson). Then I just had to check the last four rooms for the ???. When I looked down the corridor, I found out that it would also be a problem because there was Tonberries all around.
I waited for the doll to go further in the corridor, casted Invisible and went to the other side of the corridor, close to the zone to Den of Rancor. I noticed that the room closer to that side had no Tonberry in front of it, so I took off Invisible and opened the door. The Tonberry inside the room promptly aggroed me. I pressed tab accross the room to see if the ??? was there.
Jessbond: ??? <Found it!>
I had to zone one time, but then I came back and headed to the ??? and finally got it.
Obtained: Offering to Uggalepih.
The Tonberry aggroed me again, but I outran it and casted Escape.
Jessbond: got it! Thank you for the help! Do you need D2?
Shalamar: Come back inside here!
Still demanding, I could see. So I got back to where he was.
Jessbond: What are you doing?
Shalamar: Killing the NM.
Jessbond: Hmm...
So I stayed there, watching him kill the NM, giving a nice Burst II to finish it up. It dropped 2 cursed keys.
Shalamar: Get one key.
So I casted lots on one... not sure why though.
Jessbond: What do I want this for?
Shalamar: For Windurst 7-2.
Jessbond: Err... but I already did that!
Shalamar: -_-
Jessbond: ^^; I am in 8-2.
Jessbond: lol... do you need D2?
Shalamar: Sure.
Jessbond starts casting Warp II on Shalamar.
Jessbond starts casting Warp on Jessbond.
Jessbond: Well, I am going to bed now. Thank you for the help... Sorry for the mess. ^^;;;;
Shalamar: No problems. You got the offering after all.
Jessbond: ^^
Jessbond: By the way, if you ever yell NOOB at me again, I will kill you.
Shalamar: heheeheheheehehehehehe
Shalamar: NOOB
Jessbond: oh, it is like that... You will see it. You shall fear me.
Shalamar: NEVER!!!
And then I logged out.
All that trouble for a chunk of terrible-smelling rotten meat. This game is so rewarding...
Well, that was it for my bonus story. :)
By the way, I lost 5k exp fooling around in that place.
Any comments besides "NOOB" are welcome!
No, really... if you call me noob, you will be dead soon just like Shal will. And I mean it!!!
