Lightsday, 8/29/1032

Qufim Island. Level 33. Defeats = 0

Last month I spent some time camping some low level items for my Paladin. I managed to get a Clipeus after almost a week of camping (6 Earth hours)! The damned Notorious Monster just would not spawn, and the few times it did, it kept getting taken by some random newbie running by. Oh well, I got the shield eventually. I also got a Van Pendant after much less time. I only had to check 5 fallen eggs before the bird spawned, so I'm happy about that. I tried for a Auriga Xiphos too, but have not yet seen the Chariotbuster Byakzak. I'll try again soon.

Anyway, I got fed up with these long camps and decided to start leveling up again. Afterall, I am very close to the mighty ability, Leave! It was probably best to go back to someplace familiar, so I went back to good old Qufim. Yep, you guessed it. I'm fighting leeches again!! This time i used the Quifim leeches, Acrophies, against each other. As usual, the Acrophies were typically Decent Challenge - Tough. And as usual, I used the lower level ones to fight the higher level ones, helping out with my melee. Actually, the leech pets hold hate pretty well. Don't get me wrong, I still take damage. But during my time here I wasn't worried about dropping dead if I dared to fight alongside my pet.

Every once in a while, I would send pets against the Goblin Bounty Hunters, hoping they would blow themselves up. When they blew up, I would get some decent chains, but that was pretty rare. Bombs make fighting with your pet against goblins much more dangerous, but every once in a while I tried to get a few swings in to level up my weapon. My Axe skills are a little bit behind. I just hit 100 skill by the end of this level and got the new weaponskill Avalanche Axe (the Axe cap at level 34 is 105, i think).

Nighttime is Qufim was even more annoying than usual. Wights and Banshees would spawn, but the problem was they were now only Eaay Prey (wights) or Decent Challenge (banshees). But they were still high enough level to agro and cause problems. They weren't really worth killing, but still had to watch out for stuff like low-life agro. /sigh. Luckily, leeches destroy wights with ease, so if a wight got in my way I could just make short work of it. Banshees really aren't worth the trouble. They are only Decent Challenge, but they are almost as hard to kill as a Tough. If you must fight one, I suggest Banish to help deal with its damage reduction.

I only came close to defeat one time during my stay. I was fighting with an Even Match leech against a Tough one, and the fight was taking longer than usual. Both leeches were using their life recover weapon skills like Regeneration and Drainkiss. When both pets were near dead, the leech we were fighting scores a critical and turns to beat on me. I thought my pet was dead, so I use Raging Axe to try to finish the Tough leech off. It didn't die! I hit Divine Seal and try to time a Cure 2 between hits, since my life is dropping fast. Then I notice my pet wasn't dead, it had just uncharmed! So now I had two leeches on me, each with a sliver of health. Argh! I finally get the Cure 2 off and buy some time, and my next swing skills the Tough leech. Just as I turn to my former pet, another leech links! I quickly hit charm on the new leech and send it against my old pet. We kill off my onld pet just in time, as my life ahd dropped down to 12 hit points. Night was about to fall and my new pet was Tough (so it would uncharm soon). So I logged off right there and came back during the relative safety of the new day. It was a close call, to be sure.

Aside from that one incident, the experience here was fairly safe and uneventful, if a little slow. I grinded my way through it and ultimately hit level 34 with a buffer. This area is probably too slow for level 34, so it's time to move on. I think my next stop is either Bibiki Bay or Gusgen Mines.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the best part!! After fighting all of those leeches, I finally got a Carbuncle's Ruby!!! After my adventure in Qufim, I talked to the Regional Teleporter and went back to Windurst. I knew just the person to consult about the ruby. As I expected, I found Ajido-Marujido in the House of the Hero. He was a rude as ever, but turned out to be helpful too. He told me how to hear the voice of Carbuncle in the Ruby. It told me to: "Seek and gather...the seven colors...that cover the sky...and embrace the earth..." Clearly, it's talking about the colors of a rainbow, but I'm not sure how to collect them. Maybe if I carry this ruby around, and can complete an epic quest!