Day 7:

I start plugging away around Dragon Valley again.  I am up to 74k adena but almost out of shots. I run out after earning another 10k adena. Taking advantage of free ports, I decide to travel around and see if I can perhaps find another lazy player not picking up their drops.

Then I spot an odd creature that says it’s hungry and wants items to eat.  I cautiously toss some arrows its way and it comes closer to the safety of the road. I throw about 10 down and it keeps saying yum yum yum.

It doesn’t appear to do anything after that so I give it a wack, it doesn’t attack back.

Unfortunately I do little damage to it. I try poison but it resists. Looks like I will not be able to kill it.  I move along.

I head back to Dion where I see a shop selling +4 elven jewelry for nearly 4 MILLION adena.  I feel weak just thinking about that amount. I buy more shots which puts me back at 25k adena, again. I go back to finishing the Fantasy Wine quest, only the mobs are dark blue and they drop nothing at all other than herbs here and there. I turn off my shots.

That quest took at least an hour total.  It gave me no adena, no exp, and a 60 year old bottle of wine.  I cannot use it, drink it, equip it.

I take it to a shop and try to sell it, it goes for 15,450, which I could have earned from around 20 mobs in Dragon Valley. I try not to cry. I am up to 41k adena. I turn around and see Maria with a quest that I pick up.  It tells me to go to Floran village.  There are no ports there?

I head over and start on the quest.

At one point I try to nuke and get this bizzare little message. Should I go take a nap then?

I hit 32.

I take a trip back to Captain Alex after gathering about 27 items total.  One of the options is to say, one does not need a reward for these actions but I am broke so I pick the unnecessarily sarcastic “we’ll try to not spend it all in one place ha ha!” even though it’s just me. I receive 2,700 adena which again, is about 2 mobs in Dragon Valley.  Oh and no exp.  What gives with these quests?

Speaking of I go back to Dion and pick up a quest from Swan which earns me no exp, no sp, but 10,000 adena and some music thing. Apparently this quest is repeatable! Still, it seems grinding mobs would be far faster, and would also earn exp and sp at the same time. I’m up to about 90k now.

I get in on another kama and Th3lma tells me to make sure I have HP and MP pots. MP pots are 4,420 adena and I quite honestly cannot afford that. The other player is Louis3.

This boss is a slightly more exciting version of tank and spank because it appears to randomly ignore the tank, run and hit someone, then stands buffing some kind of thing a few times.  I gain 75% of a level, it drops 2 pairs of Reinforced Leather Gloves, one of which I get, and 34 enchant armor D.  Before I can ask looting rules Th3lma very nicely splits the scrolls between the three of us.  I get 11.  I check another shop in Dion and they are selling the scrolls for 25,000 each, so even if I sell at 20,000 I’ll make 220,000 adena.  Not bad! I mean, not bad considering I still cannot have afforded armor, jewelry, nor weapons without my clans help. Not bad as in better than nothing.

These kamas seem to be an expensive outing though, between shots everyone spams and the various pots.

I head to Breka orcs for the last % and hit 33. During that I run many tests on the Treasure Chests and discover they are totally a waste of time.  They drop nothing 90% of the time and sometimes drop a fraction of adena mobs would drop, and explode and attack more often than anything.

I set up shop with EAD’s and take a break.

Day 6:

Apparently the market is quite fickle and today, unlike yesterday, three shops in Dion are selling D bsps.  Of course I went through every last one yesterday and didn’t make a dime, other than the trip through Dragon Valley so that was problematic. Buying another 1,000 set me back to only 27,846. I recall seeing BuffToy with a kookaburra and decide to go get one. I learned also they come from the pet manager in Gludio.

Of course, the system tells me I cannot teleport to a village that is in siege.  That is inconvenient! Why, I’ve had free ports everywhere until now!  I set off walking.

Pet Manager Lundy says he needs a work hammer! Unfortunately that sells for 393,750 and I really doubt I’ve made that much money in total since level 1.  That is out of the question. I try to go back to Dion and it is in siege also! I try Giran, also in siege. Did I mention I hate walking?  I went to Oren instead. Then I tried to port to Hardin’s, since we went there yesterday, also shows in siege.  I start walking back.

I recall one in my party yesterday saying the adena drops in Dragon Valley have been boosted a lot, so it is a good place to gather money.  I keep on walking.

Halfway back I spot the mobs we were on before and decide to test out their adena manufacturing abilities. They are dark red but still only 2 shot with my shots, and drop around 500-1200 adena. Only… not EVERY time.  I discover the only way to find if something is aggro or not, is to test them!

Assuming I am using 4-6 shots per kill and roughly 236 to 354 adena, I am making a little profit.  But without the shots, I couldn’t hunt here safely at all. And since chests always seem to attack anyway, I decide to try to attack one first. One just explodes! Then another. And yet another. Then one attacks me, I kill it, and get nothing.  I think perhaps they mislabeled these chests with the word treasure.

And just a bit of random trivia, what was this raid bosses original name?  (Rinoket)

Working my way back to Giran I earn 50% of a level and up to 45k adena now. The unnecessary mobs bubbling continues as well. One thing I have noticed though, is that I have not received a single armor, jewelry, or weapon drop since my tunic drop back in the starting village.  That seems broken?  No drops in nearly 25 levels?  I hit level 31. I go to Giran and learn some more skills and take a break.

Day 5:

I decide to go finish my quest for Harlan, of course I am only halfway through. Only a few items in I get a pm from Furrious saying it’s time for my gear and to come to clan hall.  I cheat here because I remember the Heavy Metal hall is in Schuttgart from having it on the C5 PTS.  Anyway!

We go do The Leader and the Follower.

Assuming this person has no idea who I “am” (so to speak. ha ha) and even considering the clan points I will bring them when I graduate, being run through this quest so quickly is still remarkably kind, IMO.  I am impressed!

After I get my armor he calls me to the clan hall.  He says the clan spoiler is coming “like santa” who gives me a +7 Staff of Life and  a full set of elven jewelry with the necklace +3.   That is quite amazingly generous!  (I realize at this stage in the game, players of that level, this is a drop in a bucket to them but the open beta in me still can appreciate what this would mean to a true new player)

I am looking good!  I also find out they have Schuttgart Castle. Having all my gear supplied for me opens up my adena for consumables such as shots as well. I am also asked to let him know when I hit 40.

I am around 190k adena and the mobs are still annoyingly doing the bubble as much as they can. I really don’t see the purpose of that.

I hit 27.  Furrious tells me to always take blessing of protection and I ask if PK is a problem.  He says he doesn’t think so, but fairly warned I take it.

There are no spiritshots (sps) in Dion and decide to try the next town over, Giran.  I do not see any here either. This is also where I am finding new shops, the yellow buy shops where people are buying the things they need. I also locate the more yellow shops called Private Creation where I can craft things, apparently.

Only one shop appears to make the shots I need.  Crafting 2,500 shots sets me back to 86k adena but well, we’ll see how that goes.

Now I find I am overweight!  Nearby is a warehouse keeper and I find a place to put my stuff, solving my little fatness problem.

I go back to Dion and call out for anyone to do a kama, no luck so I move to Gludio where I pick up level 28 Kakauk. We try the level 26 kama. We fail and get nothing for like 2k shots. Oh well. That fight was just tank and spank with an add that showed up now and again. We lost with a sliver of hp left on it.

Later this same day while about to call people to do another kama I run into BlazinScavy and BuffToy who ask me to do a 33 kama, only I am 27 and not within range.  They say they will level me fast and we head out to Giran then Hardin’s Academy. This is, very very nice.

During this I find out Blazin started in C3 but says his characters were deleted.  When I ask how that occured he said he played on another server and then it went away.  I told him the servers were merged, so he logged and he found his characters on Phoenix.

It is decided that we do a raid instead.

It dropped a BEAD and a Brigadine Helmet. No adena, what is up with that?  As if I’m not broke enough. Then Furrious PM’s and asks how I’m doing and I explain about the raids.  I can’t recall if raids ever dropped adena so I ask if they do and he says they do not.  Crazyness. I hit 28.

Then we go do another. In the meantime he says he plays this game because of friends and the lore.  I am amazed anyone would say they are interested in the lore, to be quite honest. He says he’s hoping they are trying to make it better.  I wish this game had a /pat emote. He says he is also from Greece, like my first party encounter.

I hit 29. We do another, it drops  BEAC, plate boots, and 20 Glaive Edges. I do not know what the loot rules are.

While waiting around someone asks if the “pay to skip the 2nd class change quest” quest is real, I say yes.  Several people say they like doing 2nd class change quests.  I am clearly in a party with insane people. We have a male kamael in party, and I note that since the kamael came out, apparently their voice files have not been improved and they still sound like they were recorded in someones basement hallway toilet.

We do another, which drops nothing.  I hit level 30. Not paying attention to my sp I learn skills in the wrong order and run out before I can fully upgrade my main nuke. It’s late, I log out for the day.

I log in, pick up a quest from Guard Harlan who wants 180 items to help him out.  I guess no one does things in little steps here. Then I get a message from Furrious about the clan from yesterday shortly after, who says they will come to invite me.

I have finally tweaked my settings to take better shots too.

The clan is at war, and has the Heavy Metal Hall CH and an impressive level 9.  That’s some luck!  They even say they will help me get some decent gear. Obviously between you me and the floor this is just for clan points and then I’m out on my ass but hey whatever. 😉

I start plugging away on my quest, noting with increasing annoyance the frequence of that bubble, waster of MP and shots (if I could afford them).

I also ran out of MP for one of the first time and sat down for roughly 7 mins to get it all back. Clan chat is lively though. I asked what quests are good at my level for money and they inform me that Furrious knows everything.  He says he doesn’t think there are any good quests in l2 about adena.

I laugh to myself because I know he is in fact correct.

Failing getting any MP herb drops, which seem to be rare, I have to sit every few minutes it seems.

Then ownzzz asked me to do a Kamaloka, which I honestly have never done before. Apparently this one involved hitting on one mob for like 30 minutes while it does nothing special.  My mp is a real problem and my pal informs me there are no mp drinks or pots, only elixirs which I likely cannot afford. I try my poison on it but that dot is always resisted.

I mention that a wizard is not so good for this area. He agrees. Apparently this is pretty boring because he says if not for the stun, you could go afk during this whole thing. XD I like this guy.

I ding 26. The darn thing drops only 15 piece bone breastplate fragments, I mean REALLY? That’s very /gm stems? *  It was 628, 532 exp and 34,362 sp.

Now even the magisters in the temple will not help me out unless I go to a human one. Of course, they don’t actually say that which I imagine could be confusing. I have 103k sp at this point and 176k adena.  This is sufficient to pick up all skills save 2. I take a break.

*  My first ever raid back in C2 involved 3 groups killing a boss out in HV which resulted in a drop of like 273 STEMS.  We use to joke the drops were so terrible we should gm about it, so the joke was, whenever we got terrible drops just /gm 273 stem?

I look back at my existing skills and I have a few summons but I lack the crystals to cast them.

But then! A fearsome being enters town and activity picks up!

This one also attacks the guards only they die, rather than the other way around.

I decide to go to Dion where I find three shops, all selling shots.  The only spiritshots are blessed and they cost 59 adena each. My staff takes 2 at a time.  I will get some and see how that works out.

A guy named CollieBudz asked my level but the answer must not be pleasing because the reply is “damn nvm”.

I start killing dark red to light red mobs with my new magical shots and they die with not much effort.  Their drops are considerably more in the range of 300-500+ adena which will easily cover the shots cost of around 200 per cast. Though I must take into account that these mobs bubble at every opportunity and waste my mp and shots.

Green mobs on the other hand, only drop around 120-180 adena and are not that great of a deal.

Then I see a field glittering with money! I pick it up, straight away!

I trek around Dion town area, eventually hitting 24.  Before I log out for a while someone named ownzzz asked my level (still curious this isn’t visibly displayed for all to see?) and if I want to exp.  No, I am about to take a break.  Then they ask if I want clan, sure, why not.  I cannot look up where they are, their clan from where I stand. They ask me to go to Schuttgart. After I do so, they say they are under a penalty and cannot invite.  Good thing ports are free or I’d be upset.