The Valkurm Dunes of hell!

Finally, there I was: Valkurm Dunes! The first big step to any starting player on Final Fantasy XI. So, following Hyu's directions, I put my flag up and went to take a look around.
It was a beautiful place. The sun was shining brightly, the sky was so blue, the water was very clear, the palms and the white completed it making a perfect beach scenario. Oh, and that goblin, he fitted so well on the scenario. Oh, wait... did I say goblin? Why was it charging at me? What the hell!!! Stop hitting me!

Jessbond was defeated by the Goblin Leecher .

...

Great.

RandomPerson1 invites you to join the party.

Then I tried to use the /join command.

You cannot perform this action while unconscious.

...

Awesome.

RandomPerson1 >> I wanna join, but I am kinda dead at the moment...
>> RandomPerson1: Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe next time then.

...

Incredible.

All of a sudden, that place didn't look so beautiful anymore...
After some minutes, a kind soul appeared and raised me.

Jessbond bows courteously to KindSoul.

After curing myself a bit, I thought I was done with my little tour over Valkurm Dunes and decided to stay quietly looking for another party near the zone to Selbina.
Some minutes later, the weakened status wore off. As I was getting up to heal myself, something distracted me. An elvaan was running towards me (and the zone) with 3 goblins on his tail. I giggled a bit. It feels good to know that you are not the only noob aggroing goblins. I watched him zone and then got back to minding my own business. I was happily curing myself when I noticed that the goblins that were following the elvaan were still there. Worse than that, they were now coming in my direction. I could feel the adrenalin running through my veins and making me think faster to find a way out of that.

"Oh, shit!" - that was as far as my thoughts were able to go.

Jessbond was defeated by the Goblin Butcher .

"What the hell is going on?" - that was my thought after that.



Explanation point: If you are a noob yourself and just started playing a little while ago, you may have not understood what happened there. Before the so called "MPK patch" (aka "Let's nerf BST patch" internally at Square Enix), when people zoned the mobs, they didn't go "Poof". They stayed there at the zone, aggroing and killing the noobs that were resting over there. Then they slowly returned to their usual place. This is all part of the big commercial plan of Square Enix: "Final Fantasy XI - easy mode", so they can get all that noob and impatient people to play the game. The "not losing exp in COP battle field areas patch" is also included in that plan...

By the way, I want all my exp back...

*cough*
Now back to the story...
*cough*


Now when I look back at the events that happened that day, I know for sure that it was the Dunes way to say "Welcome, lil nooblet! You will suffer over here!".
After around 10 minutes, the same kind soul showed up at the zone.

KindSoul bursts out laughing at Jessbond.
KindSoul pats Jessbond consolingly.
KindSoul starts casting Raise on Jessbond.
KindSoul casts Raise on Jessbond.
Jessbond bows courteously to KindSoul.

So, after my second death on Dunes without any exping, I decided to do the smart thing: look for party inside Selbina.
I was sitting there for a while, while I read some mangas.

RandomPerson2 invites you to join the party.

Yay, a party! I typed /join happily and went to meet the party leader that was already on the camp at the Siren Sands beach. Soon the party was full and everyone was at camp.
I am sorry to disappoint you, but my first party at Dunes was a good one: the puller knew what he had to pull, the white mage was healing, the warrior was tanking and I was enfeebling and meleeing. I was so happy with my first party and everything going well, that I thought that all my complaints about partying before were stupid.

Around 30 minutes later, I was already a red mage level 16 and a half, but one party member had to go. It was our tank. The party leader said it was ok because another war was looking, so he invited him. Unfortunately, I soon found out that partying was not only roses and fast exp. The new warrior was terrible! The poor white mage was having a hard time healing him, so I had to help a lot. And still, it was not enough. The white mage kept getting all the hate and soon was dead. Two seconds later, it was my turn to die. Five seconds later, there was no party. The leader just disbanded and ran away.

...
Yeah... Valkurm Dunes is an evil, evil place.
...

>> MithraLover: <Hello! > Do you need a party?
MithraLover >> < Yes, please>... a raise would also help. Our party leader just disbanded and left us all dead.
>> MithraLover: No worries. I have a PL that can raise you. What is your pos?
MithraLover >> (I-9)... and... what is a PL?
>> MIthraLover: a power level. It is a friend of mine that has a high level white mage and will help us healing the party.
MithraLover >> oh, cool!

MithraLoverPLFriend starts casting Raise on Jessbond.
MithraLoverPLFriend casts Raise on Jessbond.

Jessbond: thanks!

MithraLover invites you to join the party.

I accepted the party invite, as the PL raised the other party members. We camped at the same place my previous party were. When the other members got there, I noticed most were wearing the same pearl as MithraLover.

MithraLover: Hey Jess. Wanna join my linkshell? I am helping the new players with stuff. By the way, do you have the items for the subjob quest already?
Jessbond: Uhh.... quest? What quest?
MithraLover: You have to get the rare/ex items and trade to a guy in Selbina to unlock your subjob.
Jessbond: Ah... right... no, I didn't! lol
MithraLover: Ok, then join my linkshell! I'll help you!
Jessbond: Ok!

Then he tradded me his LS pearl. As the one I got before was kinda empty lately, I threw it away and put the new one on.

Jessbond: There!
MithraLover: Cool! Now let's level! :D

We chained monster after monster and thought the exp per mob was not that big, the rate was pretty good. I was soon level 18 and I got one of the crab aprons that had dropped. So I just needed two more items to have my subjob! Some minutes later, people were tired and MithraLover decided to help me get the other items I was missing. So he went to change jobs to a higher level so he could kill the mobs easily.

MithraLover: Hey, cutie. Come with me so I can kill Damselflies for your Damselfly Worm.
Jessbond: Ok.

So we went to the oasis and he started killing the flies, while I casted enfeeblings to level up enfeebling magic. It was not long before I got the item I needed. Now I just needed the Magicked Skull.

MithraLover smiles warmly at Jessbond.
MithraLover hugs Jessbond.

Uhh.... He was hugging me... that's odd. Oh, well... at least he was helping me.

Jessbond bows courteously to MithraLover.

MithraLover : Now to kill ghouls! We are lucky that nighttime just started!
Jessbond: <All right!>

We walked around Valkurm, searching for ghouls. Only the two of us... I was starting to get suspicious of him... Anyway, a few ghosts later, the magicked skull dropped, so MithraLover took me to Selbina to complete the subjob quest.

You can now use your support job abilities.

Jessbond: Yay! Subjob!
MithraLover: <Congratulations!>
Jessbond: <Thank you>

MithraLover hugs Jessbond tightly and kisses her.

Damn... he was really hitting on me. What the hell is wrong with guys?!? I knew I should have picked a tarutaru... at least they don't have that sexual appeal.

Jessbond: err..^^; thanks.

Jessbond hugs MithraLover back.

Jessbond: Now I will go back to Windurst to start leveling a subjob.
MithraLover: Ok... I'll see you later then. I have to go to bed now. Good night and sweet dreams, hun!
Jessbond: Good night! See ya.

And with that, MithraLover logged off. I was left feeling kinda weird knowing that I just had got help with the subjob quest because my char was sexually appealing and I met a horny guy. I decided to ignore that... for now.

Hyugaut >> Yay! I am now level 18 and have subjob!
>> Hyugaut : Oh, wow... that was fast. <Congratulations!>
Hyugaut >> Yeah... the leader of my new LS helped me.
>> Hyugaut: lol... another LS already?
Hyugaut >> Yeah, the one I had before was kinda empty. Pretty much just me online most of the time. I wanna to go to your LS!
>> Hyugaut: hmm... well, I'll ask them later about that.
Hyugaut >> ok... now... hmmm
>> Hyugaut: What?
Hyugaut >> Come warp me back to Windurst!!
>> Hyugaut: ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Hyugaut >> NOW!!!

Some minutes later, there was Hyu with his mighty Warp II powers. I was warped to Windy, where I was gonna start a fresh new job.

What job to choose? What gear to buy? Who the hell was that MithraLover guy? Will I ever have a LS with normal people that won't only allow me in because I am a sexy Mithra? For that and much more, stay tunned to next chapter of my series!