Lightsday, 10/25/1034

Yhoator Jungle. Level 44, 45. Defeats = 0

I had a short but sweet adventure this time. I returned to Yhoator Jungle and continued to fight the goblins there using Worker Crawlers as pets. My primary prey were the Goblin Poachers, which ranged from Tough to Very Tough. I would also occasionally fight a Goblin Reaper or Goblin Digger, but both were usually Decent Challenge (sometimes Even Match) so I tried to avoid them. The Crawler pets were Decent Challenge - Tough. There were many Crawlers available in the area so most of the time I did not have to bother to convert them to Even Match. The battles were pretty straightforward. I would send a pet, let it fight the Poacher for a while, then engage myself. The two of us could take down all goblins except the high Very Tough ones without a pet swap. Against the Very Tough+ ones, I would swap between two Crawlers instead. It usually only took a single swap to take out even the strongest goblin. All in all, it was a very safe and decently fast camp.

The biggest danger was of course the possibility of an untimely mischarm. There are lots of Crawlers around and they all link. I was always nervous when I had to throw out a Charm on a Crawler when it was hanging out with 2 or 3 of its buddies.

My very first battle was almost a disaster. It was the closest I came to defeat during my time there. I emerged from a cave to find a Very Tough+ Goblin Poacher standing there. I knew I would need a pet swap, but there were three perfectly good crawlers inside the cave, and one near the cave opening next to the goblin. I charmed the one near the goblin, sent it after the goblin, then used Heel to pull the battle a little closer to the other Crawlers. Soon, the goblin had taken my pet down to about 15% health, so I hit Leave and went to Charm another one. Mischarm! And it linked with another nearby Crawler!! Not panicking, I immediately Tame the one I had tried to Charm and backed off so it would not link again. Unfortunately, I backed up too far and the Crawler attacking me linked with my former pet! Remember, I also had an angry Goblin beating on me during this time too. I thought I was going to be defeated for sure. Luckily, I had already cast Blink and Regen before this battle started, so I had a little more time. Unluckily, that also meant my MP was already low. I didn't have enough for more than a single Cure II. I ran back for a few seconds trying to buy time for my Charm recast timer. This worked well, because the Poacher (job = Ranger) would sometimes stop to shoot at me with its crossbow. The crossbow bolts were much less accurate and less damaging than its normal attacks. The instant Charm goes back up, I charmed the stronger Crawler and sent it against the Goblin, then backed out of their melee range. Then I waited on my Fight timer, and as soon as I could, sent the pet from the Goblin to engage my former pet. Now my pet Crawler was fighting both mobs. Whew, that was close. I was down to about 70 health when I finally got both of them off me. But I wasn't out of the woods yet. The goblin and crawler would soon make short work of my pet. I backed out of agro range and cast my Cure II. (Like a moron I forgot to Divine Seal it.) I was down to 14 MP, which wasn't enough for a fresh Regen or Blink. I knelt down to rest (and wondered if I should just log off and try to cut my losses). Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to even get a single tick on MP before the former pet came up to me and hit me once, then went back to fight my pet Crawler. I guess I wasn't out of agro range afterall. I backed up some more and tried to heal again. But then my pet died and both enemies were coming after me again. I stood up - still at only 14 MP - and Charmed the surviving Crawler, and sent it after the Goblin. That Crawler had very little health remaining and would only last a few seconds. The Goblin was almost dead too, but then again, so was I. I ran back into the cave and passed the last crawler in there, but it was Tough! I decided it wasn't worth risking a mischarm so I ran out of the other side of the cave into the huge clearing near the Telepoint. At this point, the goblin was chasing me, and I heard the whooshing sounds of its crossbow bolts wizzing by my head! My Mithra reflexes served me well that day as I dodged bolt after bolt until I found another Crawler. It was only Decent Challenge, but I Charmed it and sent if after the Goblin. I stayed away from the battle as best I could and tried to recover. At long last, my newest pet finally took down the Goblin. It was a tough battle and in retrospect I could have done things differently to make things easier. Nevertheless, I was glad that I somehow managed to survive.

The rest of the day was fairly routine after that initial hair-raising encounter. Soon after that first fight I reached level 45. I considered moving on to a new camp, but ultimately decided to stick it out there for another level. As long as I was careful of mischarms and links, the area was very safe. The Goblins kept to themselves for the most part, which made fighting them very easy. And sometimes they would blow themselves up, allowing for faster chains. I made chain #4 twice that day, and regularly was doing chains #2 or #3. Between the chains and my Empress Band, I cruised through level 46 and soon found myself at level 46! I decided it was time to camp for the day. At 46, some of the goblins and most of the crawlers started to spawn as Decent Challenge, so it might be time to move on now.