Windsday, 4/10/1032

Qufim Island. Level 31. Defeats = 2

I spent a little longer than I expected relaxing in the big city of Jeuno. Unlike other, more hardcore Beastmasters, I guess I still enjoy the comforts of civilization from time to time. Nevertheless, today the call of adventure proved too strong, and I once again set out into the wild.

While I wanted a change of scenery from the all too familiar tundra of Qufim, I decided to try and charm the mighty Kraken one last time. It seems I just don't know how to quit while I'm ahead. "Curiosity killed the Mithra", and all that...

So once again, I ran out to the cliffs, and once again, Goblin Bounty Hunters were blocking my path. Annoyed and impatient, I tried to think of a faster way to get rid of the pesky goblins. I saw a few Tough Acrophies (leeches) bouncing around, and thought: "Hmmm, maybe if I charm one of those..." Big Mistake. I charmed one and sent it at the goblin, and the fight went well, for all of, like, 20 seconds. You see, I forgot how fast charm can fade if using it on enemies with an aura stronger than Even Match. The leech uncharmed, and both goblin and leech came straight at me, hungry for blood! I tried to recharm, but of course it failed. I then used my new ability Tame on the leech to buy some time, and managed to recharm it just as my life went into the red. Sadly, I was not out of the woods yet. I ran way out of agro range, then used Divine Seal + Cure 2 to replenish much of my life (but I was still in the yellow). Night was starting to fall, which meant undead would soon appear. And I knew the leech would not stay charmed much longer. So I decided to make a run for the zone to Lower Delkfutt Tower. Apparently, leeches bounce pretty fast though, because I only made it halfway there before the angry, uncharmed leech and his linked gang of leech friends caught up to me and battered me senseless. Defeat! I immediately reraise and cure as fast as I can before undead could appear, and then tended to my wounds (mostly my pride) at the relative safety of the Tower.

Extremely irritated and cursing the leeches, I made my way back, determined to recover my lost experience. This time I dealt with the goblin in the traditional way, using the much safer but weaker pugils and crabs in the area. This particular goblin was very strong for a Tough, and netted me 200 experience when it finally fell. It was still nighttime, so I had to dodge the banshees in the area. I carefully made my way down to the Kraken, used Charm and... it failed! Shocked, I was soon staring straight at a very angry sea monster as it slammed me against the cliff walls with its tentacles. I tried to Tame it, but that also failed. As my life went into the red, I desperately tried to Charm again... but it also failed. A single smack for 115 damage and I was defeated again. Argh! Worse, this time banshees were swarming the area, so I had to wait for daybreak before I could safely reraise.

But I didn't give up! I reraised as soon as I could, dusted myself off, waited out the raise weakness, and tried again. Defeated yet another stupid goblin, and ran back down to the Kraken. Used Charm, and it failed again!! However, this time I didn't panic. I immediately tried Tame. It also failed. (I really need to learn how to use Tame...) I wait until the Kraken hit me, then timed a nice Divine Seal + Cure 2 in between its attacks to keep myself alive until my Charm recast wore down. As soon as it was ready, I muttered a desperate prayer to Altana, used Charm, and it worked! I used Familiar, and once again destroyed Qufim with the Kraken for the next few hours (Earth half hour).

I once again took the opportunity to level my lagging Scythe skill while fighting with the Kraken. I think it went up 3 levels during the Familiar period. I also gained about 1500 experience during the adventure, without the benefit of the Empress Band. This time, we focused more on the weaker giants and pugils rather than the fairly nasty leeches in the area. That said, we also cleared the area of any Dancing Weapons we could find. It turns out the Kraken really does well against those creatures; trey tend to die before they can even think to cast Cure 3.

This time around, I attracted a bit of attention from my fellow adventurers. I guess you don't see a Mithra with a pet sea monster everyday! I received quite a few curious "xxx inspects you." messages, including one from a lower level Beastmaster. Maybe I just inspired the new generation to someday take a crazy risk like me!

In any event, once my fun with the Kraken was over, headed to the Chocobo stables in Lower Jeuno to start my real adventure for the week. It was time to head back to Korroloka Tunnel to start the grind to level 33.