Celestalia's Challenge - A Maple Journal

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PART L. Stirge and Scourge

Spoiler: PART L. Stirge and Scourge

Remember how I said there was another map past Ant Tunnel IV? This is that map. The reason we're interested is fairly simple:


Dark Cave has Stirge. Quite a lot of them, in fact. But unlike the Kerning Subway, this map is more horizontal than vertical. That's fantastic news, it means the Stirge card set will not be nearly as annoying and potion-intensive to clean up. And we only need four of them! We'll hang around here while we (hopefully) get those to drop. There are still Zombie Mushrooms here too, so we have a small chance of landing the Hunter's Bow too while that's happening.

Let's get started!

Our first equip is the Steel Corporal. If that's any indication, I'm not actually sure whether Stirge is really worth it. We do need it to advance further into the Dungeon, however (and the Subway too).


So two things about Arrow Bomb in this map: First, stunned Stirges will simply gravitate vertically downward, which is very funny...they even keep flapping their wings the whole time . Second, it's actually quite good crowd control - which is really nice even though card drop rates might be impacted? It didn't seem like it though, since we picked up these two back-to-back. The first one actually did drop from AB!

Nice of Celestalia to let the Blue Robin Hat get some action.

The fourth card took a bit longer but eventually we nabbed it. The drop table is...strange, to say the least.


I have zero clue why possibly Stirge drops the Ryden. I'm not coming here to grind for the Ryden, I will tell you that.

The final card was, again, not too far behind.


Celestalia once again was able to advance.

The next map had more Stirge along with these calderas which spit 'dangerous steam' as the map name would have us believe.

Hot!

The Stirges hurt significantly worse though.

This was about as far as Celestalia could get:


The Evil Eyes are blocking our way, and so they must be cleared. We'll work on them while we grind for the Hunter's Bow. Who knows, there might be a nice equip waiting for us through them. (Editor's Note: Jr. Boogie also blocks the way. We'll be dealing with them at Land of Wild Boar eventually, but we're not all that concerned with advancing past this point anyway, so there is no rush.)

This is a unique map. It has several safe spots and also a few decent sniping locations, although Zombie Mushrooms can come from just about anywhere in this map. What also stands out is the top-right area...


That little alcove is mostly Evil Eye. So getting their card set won't actually take terribly long. The problem, as you might expect, is actually establishing ourselves in the pit. Can it be done?


Well, kind of.

But what's this?


It's the Bennis Chainpants! An absolutely brilliant find! We receive +2 DEX and another 4 Weapon Defense.

Celestalia goes around the map a few times after that without much fanfare. Eventually, though, something happens...

Why does she keep changing hats...?

With that, our Arrow Bomb is elevated to level 6 and gains 6% more damage and another 3% stun chance. That will come massively in handy in this map especially, where we're really putting it to good use to clean up the Evil Eyes.

Celestalia decided to scroll back to Sleepywood and then come back topside to offload her equips and items. Upon returning to Henesys, we find the I/L we met at Ant Tunnel I!


In typical Celestalia fashion she introduces her to the challenge and the two have a long discussion about strategy. It's clear we have quite a bit to think about before the next session, but there is all of tomorrow first. What sorts of curveballs might we encounter? Who knows, and that's why this challenge is incredibly fun!

The two become buddies and soon Celestalia finds herself back home at the Weapon Store. We trade in the Red Shivermail Skirt (which was with us for all of three parts ) and our other pair of Weighted Earrings.

Well, that will be all for now. In the next installment, Celestalia returns to Deep Ant Tunnel I in search of the Hunter's Bow! Stay tuned!

 

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PART LI. Digging Deep

Spoiler: PART LI. Digging Deep

Welcome back. Celestalia didn't get to start as early as yesterday, but she wasted little time in getting back to the action at Deep Ant Tunnel I. For security reasons, however, she did put a few scrolls into the storage first. We only had one open space, although we will get another back when we use the 10 Lemons we got from Stirge.

Our first equip of the night is the Eagle Crow!


Horny Mushroom has two 30s archer drops and picked the wrong one >.<

While we were doing some 'controlled demolition', we managed to mine some cardboard.

I think Celestalia's found her new calling!

For today's action, Celestalia decided to ignore the bottom two platforms of the map. The lower one she was already skipping (too crowded). The one above it has a Jr. Boogie. It's really not worth it speed-wise.

We then get our next equip, a Pirate overall.

A few moments later, Eiji comes over the Smega to announce another PB run. It's been a while since she tuned in last, so Celestalia decided to get more of that awesome battle music. But actually it was being hosted by someone else...so the music was a slightly different vibe.

Anyway. We get another equip from Evil Eye, the Gold Sneak Pants.


That was followed a few minutes later by Evil Eye card #2. And we get what I believe is a new top hit, and a very fitting one given who and where we're fighting, 666.

Thankfully we don't stay on that for long, and we increase our top hit to 675.

Our next equip is the Blue Engrit, from Evil Eye.


This one was particularly good as it had a blue glow to it. (MP +33, 58 WDef - Max stats!!)

Meanwhile, Celestalia was slowly re-integrating the second-lowest platform into the battle plan. But then she sensed an opportunity at the very bottom. She jumped down and decimated their ranks with generous heaps of Arrow Bomb!


Even though we got nothing of significance from them, Celestalia was satisfied enough to grab a quick snack break. Meanwhile meanwhile, Eiji and friends were just starting the Pink Bean phase. Someone there also decided to take a snack break and, of course, died. Celestalia was very proud of this individual! But then a bunch of people, including Eiji, crashed Eiji was however still able to command the battle. So the plan remained in place. But Pink Bean's final gambit was working! Now the party was playing beat-the-clock again...

A bit later, we get a second pair of Bennis Chainpants. It had 20 WDef, but only +1 DEX. So we'll sell it. Then, we get a Pole Arm ATT 10%. We really need more Pole Arm scrolls in the world, so that was nice.

As it turned out, the crew still managed to defeat Pink Bean with over 10 minutes to go. So I guess it wasn't as big a problem as I thought. They also got a MW30...it passed!! Nice work Honson!

Anyway. We get back to work and Celestalia nails another top hit of 677. We then get a Zombie Mushroom equip. Celestalia felt it immediately, before she saw what it even was. A flash of hope was lit within her...

...It's a Green Hwarang Shirt.

There's always next time!

Here's another Warrior equip, the Nakamaki (Level 35 Spear). It was min Weapon Attack.


Let's see what else we can get bad sta-


Oh. OH. WELL OKAY THEN.

So the Hunter's Bow () has this setup:


Which is 3 attack better than our Composite Bow. And the 2 DEX is also quite nice! Our damage goes from 113 ~ 199 to 126 ~ 221! I think we'll take it. Oh, another thing: We get an additional 6% knockback chance in melee. That's a lot more significant than it might sound, trust me.

Well, since we only have two Evil Eye cards at this point, it's probably not worth our time right now to grind another two cards. It's just not consistent enough. So perhaps we'll head elsewhere. In the next installment, Celestalia revisits a previously stout foe to test her might!

 

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PART LII. Look Out Ligator!

Spoiler: PART LII. Look Out Ligator!

With the surprise appearance of the Hunter's Bow, Celestalia was able to escape the clutches of the Ant Tunnel. For now, at least. There are slightly bigger fish to fry...or should I say bigger reptiles?


With Arrow Blow, we should be able to fly through these guys in comparison to how we were doing the first time around. Cards may still be an issue as our kill rate is going to be a bit slow still. But that's not a big concern. Celestalia can take her time here as there are so many sniping locations.

The reason we're at the Swamp is that for some reason I suspect Ligator drops something we need. It might be the Bennis Chainmail, or maybe the Battle Bow...something. I don't know. But we will definitely find out.

For the moment they leave us in the dark with the Steel Arbion, a Level 35 Thief glove.


The Steel theme continues with a Tower Shield, which is all the way up at Level 40!

Arrow Bomb is also really good on this map.

The first card (second overall) is right on cue.


As was card #3. As was card #4! And so in very quick fashion we proceed to the drop table.

Drum roll please...


Interesting...not exactly what I was expecting, but I'm fine with this. The glove outlined in red is the Green Marker, which is Level 30 and presumably the one we would get after landing the Dark Savata. Now the base DEX increase for the Green Marker is actually +1 compared to the Savata's +2, because the Green Marker isn't the highest-tier glove of its class. That would be the Black Marker...but I'm fine with a downgrade if it means we can eventually unlock a better glove later on. Besides, we've been getting a lot of DEX from other equips lately.

When Celestalia put away the Monster Book, a Magician had taken up residence in the map. So, we changed channels.

The cards stopped coming for a while, but we finally landed the last one all the way up at 55%.


Now, if you'll recall the corollary to the 'path of travel' rule, since Jr. Necki spawn is impeded by the stronger Ligator, they're not required to access this:

Very fortunate that Slime is here, otherwise we wouldn't even know about this map.

Which means we can basically clean up the Jr. Necki card set without much trouble. But first, we pick up a Blue Kendo Robe. These robes seem to be quite popular. Yes, I too would prefer to carry around something soft and pliable than a giant Steel Tower Shield. Takes one to know one in these swamps, I guess.

So yeah, the Jr. Neckis actually didn't want to give us any cards. Maybe they thought we were here illegally?

It was a whopping 10% into the map that we finally got one.

Again, second overall.

Card #3 was right after that though. But then the fourth card...simply did not appear. At all. It took until 79% for it to drop, which incidentally was about a minute or two after I wrote that sentence. Go figure. I don't know why, it's like ranting on Discord actually gets stuff to drop. I guess ranting here has the same effect.

As for the drop table, here's another cool thing we can pick up!


Now this is interesting because we're still wearing the Brown Woodsman Boots (Level 15), which we've had on since Part IV. Amazing, but funny how these things tend to work out. Well, the reason is actually that nothing drops the Level 20 Huntertop...that also drops cards. Don't tell Celestalia, but in a few days she's going to get a dispatch telling her all about that. Check back on Wednesday.

It was another 15-20 minutes or so before we finally finished out the set.


At which point Celestalia did the sensible thing, as it was quite late, to call it quits for the weekend and go back home. So, after going around and selling her things (putting us above 4.3 million), she did just that.

Incidentally, the Jr. Necki set has unlocked for us a new set of Hidden Streets, the Monkey Swamp. However, it appears likely that we'll need the Croco set to actually get access! So it might be a while. Not to worry; there are a few other places where Lupin is hiding, should we see it fit to get their set at some point. Personally I'd like to put Lupin off as much as possible. It's bad enough when they ping you with banana peels under the best of circumstances, but when your weapon is still 20-some levels below you it won't be fun. So let's forget that for now.

This has been one of the more productive sessions for Celestalia! Three new equips, including the big one, and a ton of information learned. We have the gloves unlocked through Level 30, and the shoes unlocked through Level 35. Or at least we will once that dispatch I mentioned comes through. It feels like though that we're running out of mobs on Victoria Island a bit. Besides Evil Eye, the only other mobs at Level 30 or below that we don't have the drop table for are Rocky Mask and Fierry...the latter of which is too difficult to hunt. We'll have to look into getting the other two sets once we get the available equips taken care of. After that though...it might be time to look across the winds...

In any case, here's hoping next weekend is as electric as this one has been. Have a fantastic week friends, see you on Friday!

 

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SPECIAL VII. The Polar Proposition

Spoiler: SPECIAL VII. The Polar Proposition

Dear Celestalia,

The other day I met up with my brother in Singapore. I'm supposing it's a good thing I caught him before he wrote the letter instead of I. He very nearly wrote 'Celly' on the first line. I took the pen from him just as soon as he was starting to put that down.

Anyway. Aescavon and I were talking about equipment, and he pulled out his copy of the Equipment Guide we have and turned to a section I honestly overlooked. It's quite strange, if I'm honest.

The section concerns monsters found in an icy, remote region near the northern pole centered around the village of Coke Town. Apparently it got that name thanks to the large greenhouses in the region which grow the cocoa plant, which they turn into special drinks and supplements which are fantastic for increasing one's attack and defense abilities. We all use them, in fact. I'm sure the monsters there all carry some too.

Regarding your situation, Aescavon pointed out a strange quirk to me. It seems that the Level 20 Deer Huntertop is dropped from Coke Mushroom, a native of that region. He claims that this is the only instance of the Huntertop in the world. If true, I suppose you couldn't have known about it otherwise.

I would recommend you have a look into this before continuing your campaign in Victoria. To get there, talk to the polar bear standing outside the entrance to the Market in Henesys. He might ask you a few questions about soda or such, but they're quite simple. I'm sure you'll have a decent handle of it.

We will be seeing you in due time.

Sincerely,
Aescalloss Auburn



"I'm seriously going to break that crossbow of his in half."

 

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PART LIII. Celestalia Goes Skiing

Spoiler: PART LIII. Celestalia Goes Skiing

Okay, so Celestalia isn't actually going skiing. But think about it. The natural footwear for a skier is the skis. So, the natural footwear for a Hunter is something with 'Hunter' in the name. And that's why Celestalia is on a quest to the north!

Earlier this week, our heroine received a tip saying that Coke Town was the only place to get her next Shoes. Let's not waste any time!

Before she heads out, a quick overview of the plan.

1. Deer Huntertop (Coke Mushroom).
2. Excavation Site II for the Dark Savata (Ghost Stump) and Rocky Mask card set. We will be getting both now. If the Rocky Mask set finishes first, go back to Site I until Dark Savata drops.
3. Red Jack Boots (Jr. Necki).
4. Red Hunter Boots/Red Silky Boots/Ryden (Fire Boar).
5. Return to Deep Ant Tunnel I and get the Evil Eye card set.
6. Evaluate remaining options based on level and any new opportunities we receive.

This might be a long post, so hang on tight.

Celestalia walks outside the Market and quickly spots the point of reference.

Hefty fellow, that.

He offers us a glass of Coke Town's signature drink and introduces us to the region officially. Of course, there's a catch, as Aescalloss explained earlier. We have to answer a few important questions about the finer points of culture in Coke Town. But Celestalia has had a lot of snacks in her time and so was easily able to get past the test. And he gave us the answer to the first question in any case.

Quickly she was whisked away to the northern tundra.


Celestalia is extremely fortunate that we got the Bennis Chainpants when we did, otherwise she wouldn't survive the frigid temperatures. Probably. Well El Nath is even worse - but by the time we get there Celestalia honestly might even be close to 3rd Job. Who even knows at this point. HP won't be a problem, that's my point here.

Entering the skiing areas, Celestalia finds that she can actually walk on top of the ski cables...


Oh, I guess I should mention something. Since these monsters don't drop cards, they aren't required to pass between maps. Not that it would matter anyway since walking the ski cable is actually the shortest path to the next map, which is accessed from the highest cable car:


And it looks like there is our target. Time to light 'em up.


They're not terribly powerful, as evidenced by our newest top hit of 693.

So what appears to be happening here is the two platforms on the left have just Coke Mushroom; the platform to the right is Coketump. There is a rope leading up to the ski cables which allows us to ignore that platform entirely, so we have a fairly decent route here. Only issue is the Coke bottles on the bottom which are annoying to shoot and navigate around, but that's not too big of a deal.

One of them soon gives us a Mini Coke, which provides us a whopping eight points of Weapon Attack for 20 minutes. How wonderful! We'll save that for a later date.

We then hit an Arrow Blow for 723. That is the single-largest top hit increase...I think ever. Not sure.

After some passes around the two platforms, Celestalia decides to incorporate the Coketump platform as the spawn of Mushrooms was fairly lacking. She'll go through that platform once every three passes or so. Seems to work okay. Right after that, we increase our top hit again to 742!

Celestalia arrived at roughly the half-hour mark and hadn't picked up any equips yet. Although she did get one of those shiny rock thingies.


So she went to the veranda next to the ski lift to sit down and grab a quick snack. She also took this opportunity to switch hats, for no particular reason.

Back off the bench, we get a fourth top hit (745). Are we going to break 750 here? If we don't now, we can easily do it in half an hour or so when we hit Level 42.

Well we didn't really get the chance. First equip off the line is exactly what we came here for!


The Deer Huntertop gets us another 2 Weapon Defense.

Okay! Now it's time to head to the friends at the Excavation Site:


This map is a bit harder to navigate than the first one, so cards might be slow. Wooden Mask really dominates this map, sadly. Rules however are rules.

Surprisingly effective, even against supposedly 'hard' surfaces.

Celestalia somehow managed to find a near-perfect route through the map. It goes something like this:


Only problem is...we are really lacking snipe locations. We're going to be hemorrhaging potions or Bentos...possibly both. Compounding matters even further, the top left of the map is what I would like to call an 'anti-snipe platform' - it's an area from which it's nearly impossible for us to shoot onto the higher platform - meaning we have to get stuck in and take loads of damage for no reason. It's also an issue, although not as jarring, at the top right.

Perhaps this will help matters though:


Once again Arrow Bomb gets a 6% damage and 3% stun chance boost. With Lady Blue on, our damage is now 129 ~ 226. But Celestalia was getting quite fed up with not being able to get lanes, so she abandoned this part of the plan and went back a map to farm for the Dark Savata. I'm going to hedge my bets that Rocky Mask isn't the mob we need for the Battle Bow. At least...I'm hoping not.

Arrow Bomb actually works exceptionally well in ES1 for softening up mobs so we can then pick them off one-by-one with regular arrow. It speeds things up dramatically and in some cases saves us our lane. Definitely worth the MP investment! One other very nice perk, it allows us to take on the top-left platform! That should greatly increase our throughput of mobs. All together, we should have no problem landing this thing by the end of the night.

Well as is Excavation Site tradition, we start with a pair of Black Split Pants (that's like 5 or 6 of those guys now...). Our next equip was a new one though: the Level 13 Green Plain Robe.


A few minutes later, we get a very interesting scroll: Gloves for DEX 60%. Celestalia is definitely throwing that on the Dark Savata. Problem is we're out of Use slots again. >.< We drop a Bullet, some of our Cape scrolls (HP and MP ones), and put our 4 DEF 10%s on the Bennis Chainpants. One of them actually worked!


The Huntress Pants will almost certainly be a downgrade now, but the prestige...will it be worth it in the end? That's up to Celestalia. And frankly, that was the last interesting thing that happened for a while. Celestalia worked her way all the way up to 36% and got just one additional equip. So she flip-flopped again and went back to Excavation Site II.

We'll pick the session back up in the next installment. Will the brick wall hold, or can Celestalia finally achieve a breakthrough? Stay tuned!

 

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PART LIV. Card Hunters to the Rescue!

Spoiler: PART LIV. Card Hunters to the Rescue!

Just as she was about to leave the map, however, this was going on:


4th Jobs! It turns out the gentleman in this photograph sharing the rope with Celestalia (he was a Bowmaster even ) was looking for monster cards! Celestalia's specialty! At least one of them. Naturally, Celestalia offered her services and explained her conundrum. Now that we can party with people, we should have no problem landing this friggin' glove once and for all.

Celestalia stuck to the rules we've laid out: No picking up items and a big 125k to the party if they get the glove. She also tried her best to help out in areas where the Dark Knight AoE attack couldn't reach, such as the top platform, where she had basically free reign with Arrow Bomb.

Well, I'll tell you what, they pulled it off!


As promised, Celestalia dropped 125k on the floor (it would have been less if the amount was just traded) and left the party, as the cards had also been gathered with the help of the Huntress. Much gratitude was exchanged as they left in search of their next card set, which purportedly was Rocky Mask. But for the moment Celestalia was going the other way, as she again decided to flip-flop (why can't she make up her mind?) and go to Jr. Necki in search of the Red Jack Boots. Too bad, the Huntertop has just got here and it might have to leave just as quickly. Well, it won't be the only one, if everything goes well.

So about the Dark Savata itself: The stats are DEX +3, 11 WDef (+5!) and +2 Accuracy.

Two equips AND two scrolls passing in one night. Well, I won't assume anything for granted.

After selling our equips and Etc things, Celestalia beelines for the next equip.

Only 285 HP? Hahahahahahah-

Celestalia has to rest often because these guys still hit like trucks. But we're getting tons and tons of Oranges, which will be great for the next section. However...there weren't many equips to be had. That's typically how Jr. Necki operates anyway, but especially with how today's luck has been, it makes sense. It wasn't until 06:30 server time (which was over an hour and a half after we got the Dark Savata) that we finally got one in the Coconut Knife. No picture because Celestalia picked it up too quickly.

We kept going until Celestalia hit 70%, at which point she was pretty tired and decided to end the session. So it was back to Henesys for the night, and possibly we might go in an entirely different direction tomorrow. I'm still nervous that Rocky Mask might be hiding something. We must play this carefully, otherwise we risk losing our entire potion inventory (Fire Boar alone might do that anyway). Well, we've got nearly a whole day to think about it. In the meantime, I want to bring up one more possibility that will be coming along very soon, and that is involving travel to Ossyria!

Right now, it's almost guaranteed that the handlers of the ship to Orbis won't let us board. The reason is that our empire doesn't have enough prestige. Basically, we need to have conquered enough enemies, obtained a high-enough level, and have enough equipment obtained to prove we have what it takes to go abroad. Specifically, to unlock the first region outside of Victoria Island, we need:

*25 regular card sets - Currently, we are one short. Easiest way to get this would probably be Evil Eye of which we have two cards already.
*Level 40 - Done
*At least one equip of Level 30 or higher - We have two ways to get this, either Red Hunter Boots from Fire Boar or Green Marker from Ligator. I believe Red Hunter Boots are going to benefit us more in the long run especially if we get either the Ryden or the Red Silky Boots to drop also.

So...we are three cards and two (or even one, if we so chose!) equips away at this point.

As for what region specifically we are going to unlock, I'll give you a hint - it's not Orbis itself.

In the next installment, Celestalia returns to Jr. Necki in search of even more fame and glory. Stay tuned!

 

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PART LV. Queen Huntress and the Jack Boots

Spoiler: PART LV. Queen Huntress and the Jack Boots

Alternative title: 'Undroppable Equip vs. Immovable Huntress'

Hello! I'm sort of surprised that Jr. Necki is still solid XP all the way up at Level 42. It's got to be the low HP. Tonight's plan is to get 43 and whatever equips show up then that's good. Let's go ahead and get started.

The first event of the night is Celestalia hitting 500 total Christmas points.


Since this is the last session of the Christmas Event, Celestalia will go ahead and redeem her points at the end of the session. I'm thinking we'll probably spend most of them on AP resets. Never know when those could come in handy.

After twenty minutes or so of fighting, Celestalia took a quick break to listen to something on her pocket receiver and ended up falling asleep on the Relaxer. But she got up within a short time to continue.

12% in, we get our first equip: the Steel Sharp Helm.


Followed shortly thereafter by another Kendo Robe...these things really are ultra-popular!


Then a Hermit came into the map! Not sure what he was looking for, but he changed channels after a few lines of dialogue.

A bit later, we get another repeat...I think.


Towards the very tail-end of the level, we amass a total of 100 Oranges (equivalent to 50 Blue Potions!).


Our Arrow Bomb is now very close to matching our regular arrow damage (94% - it will be 100% next level). Soon we'll have the firepower we need to take on more challenging maps. I think we'll stay at Necki for the remainder of the night, but Celestalia seems to have an idea. We can skip both Boots entirely by getting Green Marker from Ligator - which has the added effect of netting us more Blue Potions and Elixirs. That way, even if we don't get Green Marker, we have more than enough supplies for if Fire Boar comes knocking. We can use our Oranges from here to fund the action at Ligator, and we'll simply pop in and get another stack if we run out!

Jr. Necki was actually being somewhat generous:


Actually that ended up being the final equip we get to drop, because Celestalia was really tired for some reason. Maybe it was yesterday evening being really strenuous. Landing two equips will do that to you. So Celestalia got to 13.37% and decided to return home.

But never fear! I'm happy to announce that we will have a special Sunday post tomorrow night! That will give Celestalia the ability to practice the complex strategy outlined above. We'll start at Ligator tomorrow and see how far 116 Oranges takes us. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky again. There are plenty of other places to get shoes, you know.

So this was a somewhat short post, but Jr. Neckis really aren't that interesting. I can't imagine Ligator being all that more exciting either. Oh well, that will be decided in the next installment. Stay tuned!

 

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PART LVI. The Power of Vitamin C

Spoiler: PART LVI. The Power of Vitamin C

Occasionally you may notice that mid-weekend, I put the title of the next part in the Journal Entries section of the opening post before I write the post. This title is almost always going to change when the post is written, so sorry about the confusion.



So it looks like Celestalia slept for quite a while today. Hopefully she won't doze off in the middle of action like she did yesterday! Well, we're taking on Ligator today so I don't think she'll have to worry about monotony.

There are two ways this can go. Of course, if we get Green Marker from Ligator, this section ends immediately - we can go to Evil Eye and finish their card set and then we can sail to Ossyria! Actually, we could do this even if we get Red Jack first - we just ignore Fire Boar for the moment and focus on pinging Ligator with regular arrow - but it could be a bit slow. Until we get a good way to farm mana pots, we have to conserve as much as possible. That said...once we get powerful enough, Ligator might end up being that place. Elixirs are strangely very common, and they get more powerful as we do! Right now, each Elixir would be worth ~700 HP and ~380 MP.

Heading over to the swamps, we find an I/L and a Chief Bandit. We say hi and change channels.

Having already been here several times, and with the Orange blanket, Celestalia was extraordinarily efficient in slicing her way through the reptilian defenders. And do be reminded, many of them are even carrying shields.


Well Celestalia had a whale of a time running around and bombing the Ligators (by the way - they're staying around long enough, and with the extra stun chance, most of what we hit is getting stunned, giving us near-free reign on the platform in most cases). By the time we doubled our XP % for the level, and then ran out of Oranges, Celestalia had picked up 8 Elixirs and exceeded two stacks of Blue Potions. I don't think we picked up enough MP to make up for the Oranges...well not yet. If we get enough MP, then it will have been worth it!

We did however get another one of those expensive daggers.


But it was back to Jr. Neckis.

Speaking of daggers...third one of these in as many nights spent at this map.


Soon after we get a second Coconut Knife! Three daggers in a row...go figure.

We also pick up a few scrolls, one of them being a Cape DEX 100%. Which means...yes, Celestalia was actually killing the Slimes on the ground floor too. Actually, that helped dramatically to speed up the experience rate. We also get more Neckis per square pixel, which means Arrow Bomb is more effective, and we don't have to walk as much to get to the next roll for RJB.

Then this drops...

Swing and a miss.

At that point we were already above 50% and had amassed nearly three stacks of skins.

A long time later we get a new equip!


The Brown Ramel Skirt is a Level 20 Warrior bottom. It's actually quite similar in design to the Shivermail Skirt. Great job classes think alike!

We then get another Purple Split, which is five equips in one session at Jr. Necki. That's a world record, probably!

Up at 73%, Celestalia reaches 600 Christmas points.


If my math is correct, that's worth a whopping 10 AP Resets. We'll find out a bit later when we go to redeem them at Happyville.

A few minutes later, we reach 50 Oranges, which is enough to have another small go at Ligator. Our Etc. inventory being pretty full, Celestalia decides to go and offload everything now.

Total value of the items in this photo: 23,867 mesos. It would be a lot more if we could sell the Mithril to the FM though.

We were also at 106 Topaz Ore, so while we were in Ellinia to sell the Purple Split we also sold the fairies 56 pieces, per that agreement. At the end of that, we were very close to 4.9 million. The two things we got from Ligator alone were a quarter of a million, which is, uh...really good.

With that done, it was back to Ligator for a second and final time. The 50 Oranges didn't last very long, but it was definitely worth the investment anyway. Why? Well, we didn't get Green Marker. But we did get...

A THIRD GEPHART!


Drops from Ligator alone are accounting for somewhere around 1/8 of our bankroll. That's absolutely nuts.

So that was enough to put us over 5 million. And even better, our inventory is looking extremely good. We have 213 Blue Potions, 25 Elixirs (actually, that should be 225 - the candy canes we got from Santa are essentially Elixirs), and we're still holding on to 70 Bentos. Technically, we could always get more of those. Not sure if it would really be worth it though.

Well, after a long weekend, Celestalia has done an incredible amount of work. We've picked up two entire levels and I think we have enough resources to try for the breakout. I'm thinking Jr. Necki really won't cooperate. Good thing we can go over their head then!

The plan moving forward, then, will be:

1. Finish Evil Eye card set
2. Get Green Marker from Ligator
3. Go to Ossyria

Have a great week - we'll meet up with Celestalia again on Friday in the Ant Tunnel!

Spoiler: Bonus: The Pet Walking Course

Surprisingly difficult!

 

​

PART LVII. The Great Ant Tunnel Equip Run

Spoiler: PART LVII. The Great Ant Tunnel Equip Run

Evening friends. Yeah, I have nothing interesting to address right now. Except...Celestalia somehow forgot that we were supposed to be at Evil Eye and made it all the way to Jr. Necki before she realized? Good thing we have this journal, otherwise...well, how does spending an eternity hunting for Jack Boots sound? Not that great, probably.

Eventually she did get on the right path and soon found her way to Deep Ant Tunnel I, taking tons of damage along the way as usual, but also good thing there are resting spots.

Did you miss me? No? Yeah, I don't blame you.

The first thing Celestalia noticed was that she wasn't getting Bonus XP anymore. That's actually good, because we'll get on average more equips per level. The levels will come eventually, our focus has been and will always be hunting for equips unless I somehow manage to get into the triple digits which I have never accomplished ever.

Anyway, early on we get an unconfirmed top hit of 774 on Zombie Mushroom. That's what I saw but couldn't verify the number before it disappeared. I can't see us hitting for that much yet...but maybe it's possible? Dunno.

Celestalia takes the interesting but understandable decision to leave the top-left three platforms undisturbed, because Evil Eye can't spawn there. That allows her a bit more breathing room in the rest of the map and reduces potion use (which up to that point had been severe).

Our first equip of the session is a Forked Spear from Evil Eye.


Celestalia has now picked up at least one copy of every Spear up to Level 35. Will we get a Zeco from Ligator? Honestly...probably.

And here's a scroll to go with it!


I think we'll let Kalotora have this one.

While we're at it, how about another Bennis Chainpants?


Very bad stats on that one though.

Right after that we land another Eagle Crow. Another 80k for the coffers! Tell me again why the Vereina family decided to go into agriculture instead of this very lucrative industry...

A few minutes later something kind of weird happens. A powerful magical disturbance passed through the map, which took up Celestalia and deposited her near the top of the area. It also knocked her out for a minute or two. We've seen things like this before, but that was quite interesting. Well it didn't seem to affect her that much.

One pass later, we get a hit of 747 on Evil Eye. This is the official highest because that 774 from earlier might not have happened

But then the very next Arrow Blow gives us 767, so maybe it did happen?

Our last equip of the level was one of those Pirate wristbands...followed by two Rare Gachapons!! We also passed 400 White Potions at some point.

Alright nevermind. Final equip of the level:

"Give that back!"

...But it wasn't yours, it was your friend's Iron Burgernet Helm.

Okay wait we have...two more?


All of those were I think within 2% of each other.



Okay, there we go.

So Arrow Bomb gets another three points, putting it at 100% damage and 45% stun chance...but that's where we're going to leave it for now. The next level, the MP cost doubles to 28 points - we can't really afford that right now. Instead, I think we'll invest in another move that should be of great utility - Power Knockback. It's very cheap in MP and should allow us to keep our lanes much more efficiently. Once it has enough points in it, that is.

Alrighty, let's go out and get another top hit.

And yes, we get one immediately! 784 on Evil Eye.

Then we get yet another equip, a Pink Jester. Here's something nice, half of our equips so far have been at Level 28 or above. Amazing money coming out of this map right now.

Then we hit an 808 on Zombie Mushroom. Celestalia feels pretty powerful right about now!

Time for EVEN MORE MONEY!


What were we here for again...?

We then get a Brown Sneak, so the score is tied again at 5-5...the teams being high-level equips vs. low-level equips. But Celestalia is the real winner

Oh hey! What's that?!


A second Hunter's Bow? We'll take it! I wonder what Weapon Attack it has...


WOW. Yeah. That is one off from max WAtt. I think we're switching to this one. Just look at the damage difference! We were at 136 ~ 239...with this guy we're at 155...to TWO SEVENTY TWO. It's basically like we just got the Battle Bow.

You know something...I bet the folks at Ellinia Station might be willing to let us pass even if we're still a card set short. With this extraordinary weapon, they've really got no other choice. Of course, we still need a Level 30 equip - that's where Ligator comes in. In the next installment, we're headed back to the swamp (for real this time) to clear the final hurdle! Stay tuned.

Cheers! Glad to know you're enjoying the journal I have a feeling things are about to pick up big time after what just happened in this post. Don't go far!

 

​

PART LVIII. On Your Marker

Spoiler: PART LVIII. On Your Marker

Celestalia had to trek all the way back to Perion on foot because we ran out of Nearest Town scrolls. Thankfully, we should be able to do something about that soon. For now though, we're walking.

Along the way, we meet a Magician who was quite early on in her journey and working hard. Celestalia presents her with the Pink Jester!


After that, we go around to sell our equips and end up a bit south of 5.4 million. With that out of the way, time to go to Ligator and light it up! And Celestalia does so. It's clear that we're doing excessively more damage than previously. 5 Weapon Attack makes such a huge difference, it's unreal.

Our first top hit (there will be more) is 811.

Top hit #2:


And #3:

I finally figured out what the Bowmanese word for 'plonk' is. It's Ka-BLAM - capitals mandatory.

Are we seriously going to break 900 tonight?

Well, we won't be doing it here!


I believe it's time we paid Ossyria a visit.

First things first - Cherry the Usher had to stop us and ask us a few questions.

"Hmm. You know, I could get in a lot of trouble for this."

"Y-you mean you're letting me on?"

"You can board, on one condition...don't come back until we give the all clear."

"Got it."

And so Celestalia was off to Orbis.


As the handlers requested, we ducked inside the cabin once the ship took off...can't chance the Crimson Balrogs when Celestalia hasn't even recorded a death yet. But we made a new friend in the process! It's a fellow who has just restarted his Maple journey after a fifteen-year break! We had a lovely chat with him on the ride over and we buddied.

Strangely enough, he didn't melt in the cabin.

Eventually we arrived at the Orbis station. Celestalia calmly made her way off the platform and headed for the potion shop, hoping that on another continent they'd be a bit more lenient.

Edel's pal Kriel almost stopped us going over to her as she had a bit more knowledge about our situation than the grocer herself. The two discussed amongst themselves for a minute before presenting us with an offer.

It's one that Celestalia was deeply hoping for.

Celestalia will be allowed to buy Nearest Town scrolls here in exchange for stat-boosting potions. What that means is this: For every 10 potions we turn in, we will be able to buy 1 scroll. The potions used for one scroll must be of the same stat, but do not have to be the exact same potion. Additionally, Edel said that once we reached 3rd Job, she'd allow us to buy these scrolls without restriction.

With that set, we are able to trade in a whopping 440 items, and clear up four spaces of our inventory, in exchange for 44 Nearest Town scrolls. That should dramatically help our campaign!

Now, the question that is surely on the minds of...at least a few people...where are we actually headed? For that information, Celestalia talks with Agatha, the main usher.


Agatha tells us that the only region we have unlocked right now is...Ariant! Ariant was unlocked first because it is the lowest-leveled area of the bunch, having mostly monsters in the 20s and 30s. So, we'll head over there and get started on conquering once again for the empire! Hopefully, we can find some more equips that weren't available to us on Victoria Island. The Battle Bow leaps to mind...

After a short ride with...a genie...yeah...we arrive at the desert village.


Ariant is a vibrant town with plenty of interesting characters, although we won't really get much hospitality out of the locals...not because of Celestalia, that's just how they are. There is a way to earn one's welcome, but Celestalia doesn't have the slightest idea what that is.

That said, if Celestalia conquers the monsters in the region, she's also likely to earn some favor. So let's start.

We technically have three ways to go, but for the purposes of the challenge, going north of Ariant won't be possible until we've cleared the circle to the south. We will start with the weakest mob pair:


Desert Rabbits are easier than most things we've been fighting recently. The light-colored Female variant is Level 20, while the dark-colored Male is Level 21. Either way, easy pickings. Cards though are somewhat tricky to get from them sometimes. It'll be even more tricky here, as Celestalia can't go east until she has both card sets. We'd much rather get the Male set in the next map, where they're much more plentiful. But that's the challenge for you.

But, guess who dropped a card first?


We didn't even get the whole way across the map yet. A great sign!

The first Desert Rabbit F card dropped a few minutes later. We also picked up a quick equip in the Brown Loosecap from Rabbit M.

We get the second Rabbit F card, and then find a strange metallic rock:


It appears to be a sample of a mineral produced locally here. Celestalia will have to shop around and see if there is someone that will buy it.

Then we get Rabbit F card #3, followed by this!


It's a lateral move, but this hat gives us 3 more Weapon Defense in exchange for 1 HP.

After that, we get Rabbit M card #2, and a few minutes later, Rabbit F card #4. Things are really moving fast! I hope this keeps up.

We've already acquired the only thing we could get from Rabbit F, so they're done. Just need to get the last card.

Oh, there it is.


Kudos for being an extremely easy card set. We'll see how long the Male side holds out.

Well, we get the third card only a few minutes after finishing the Female set. The fourth card, too, was close behind. Interesting tidbit, Rabbit M actually drops the Red Shivermail set. But yeah, nothing we need from them either.

The last card was slightly trickier, but we still got it with plenty of time to spare.


Celestalia decided to call it there for the night. Now, thankfully, given how remote a region Ariant is, they have no problems buying our drops, as long as they were obtained in the Nihal Desert. Of course, we can't sell mineral ores due to our contract with the gentlemen in Perion, but we can sell Lidium ore - which is not used elsewhere in the world. Equips can be sold here in likewise manner, but it would be best to hold on to anything we have, as the people of Ariant are rather poor and can't afford to pay us large amounts of money.

Most importantly, Celestalia needs a room somewhere. Unfortunately, it appears that the residential zones are full up (the mischievous women with daggers guarding the neighborhood are also quite menacing). Celestalia then decides to try the other side of town...


Well, it's not exactly what she had in mind, but at least she's relatively safe within the Palace grounds - and there's fresh water all around too. She took a sip of it before getting to work setting up some type of bedding for herself. One of the equips we got was a White Split Skirt, which Celestalia stuffed with some Stiff Feathers to make something of a pillow.


For a base, Celestalia laid out some Leather on the grass and pinned them with her Gold Surfboard. There were a few gaps here and there, but it did the job okay.

With that, she could at least rest to some extent. Couldn't be much worse than the hay bales in the Weapon Store, anyway.

Come tomorrow evening, we'll be ready to move on to the next mob. Which one will it be? Find out in the next riveting installment of Celestalia's Challenge!

 

​

PART LIX. A Different Kind of Agriculture

Spoiler: PART LIX. A Different Kind of Agriculture

The Vereina family may have widespread crop investments, but Celestalia knows for a fact that there's one plant they've never bothered to look into. That plant would be the Cactus.

Anyone in Ariant knows how useful cacti can be. They're a valuable source of nutritious liquid, income, and most importantly, decent equips. And since they are next in order in the Monster Book, Celestalia decided to go look for them.

She didn't have to go too far, just outside the western gate...

They have clothes...?

And my oh my, is that a sniping location I see?


Well this will be fun. Oh, and one more thing...


This light-blue colored liquid, which I mentioned earlier, is Desert Mist, which is basically two Blue Potions in one. In other words, it's absolutely beautiful. We might come back here to grind these a few times. Ah, Celestalia, run away from it all you like, the farmer within you always finds a way.

First card of the evening belongs to the Cactus wearing the orange apron.


And here's our first equip, the Purple Doroness Robe from Jr. Cactus.


We then get the second Cactus card and the first Jr. Cactus card within about a minute of each other. That was followed by a second Purple Doroness Robe, and then a third Cactus card. I should mention that Cactus only spawns on the top platform. Jr. Cactus occupies both the platform and the ground floor...


Okay, I'll accept your apology for not being efficient enough!

The Brown Jack Boots give us +1 DEX and +6 Weapon Defense. And we don't have to deal with Jr. Necki! That's probably the best part.

After a quick break, we pick up the fourth Cactus card. Unfortunately, we don't get anything from them either. Darn, I was hoping that was going to be the Battle Bow.

Our next card is the second Jr. Cactus card. And while they were at it, another gift!


The Lightning Earrings (Level 30) give us another 4 points of Magic Defense.

We then land the third Jr. Cactus card, so they're catching up finally. I wonder if we've already exhausted their drop table, or...

Well first, let's finish off the other set.


And with the fourth Jr. Cactus card, we find out that...yes, we actually have exhausted the drop table. They do drop the Balanche though. The only other mob that does is Trixter, and I don't think any aspiring Crossbowman is ever going to be going multiple floors down into the Eos Tower to hunt the Balanche which is Level 22. Aescavon accidentally warped to the Omega Sector once...it took him a good 30 minutes and who knows how many White Potions to get back to Ludi. Not my finest Maple moment.

Cactus thought it was going to be trolly and drop two cards back-to-back...but on the same platform we got the last Jr. Cactus card anyway.


So it was on to the third and final Cactus, which is two maps away:


The platform Celestalia is on spawns no enemies. Almost every map in Ariant South has at least one of these, which is really making Celestalia's life a lot easier.

The first card from these shorty bois didn't take long.


Our next drop of note is...another Rare Gach ticket which brings us to six on the session. We have yet to get a Common...


After another pass or two, we get the second Royal Cactus card, which wedged itself in one of the portals. I mean, I can't just move cards around the screen. Meh.

We then get a Red Cross Shield from Cactus along with Royal Cactus card #3.


Celestalia takes a quick power nap on her Relaxer before continuing the hyperfast conquest.

The next equip is the Nimble Wristguard, our first from Royal Cactus.


The second was a Level 30 Bowman pants!!...except it was the Male version. DANG IT!

Okay, so as consolation they give us the fourth card right after. But...they had nothing for us. They do however give us a second Wristguard.

The fifth card was, again, a bit elusive. But eventually we got it!


And...wait, what's this?


Hmm, that's interesting...we only have 29 card sets, I thought? Let me see here...13 in the red tier...then three stumps...three mushrooms...two boars...Stirge, Jr. Necki, and Wooden Mask...and Ligator...is 25?! So we had enough card sets to go to Orbis the whole time?! How did I miscalculate that!!!

Which means that lightbulb has to be...


So Rino (who I've recently found out is actually male, sorry about that >.<) wants a Garnet so he can give some power to our currently-empty Monster Book Ring. That might be a good idea to do as soon as possible. In the next installment, we'll make our way back to Lith Harbor and nab some great bonuses! Stay tuned.

Spoiler: In the Conquest Mood

Wow! That's awesome, thank you so much!! I wish you the best of luck.

And thank you for the company! I'll be seeing you soon

 

​

PART LX. Garnet

Spoiler: PART LX. Garnet

Celestalia hurried back with the Genie to Orbis and scurried over to the Ellinia platform. Rini, the attendant usher at the platform, tells us that we are clear to board, and we do so.

During the ride inside the cabin, Celestalia has a quick look at her potion situation. It's probably the best it has ever been. I'll list the actual numbers once we've got the ring upgrade.

Celestalia beelines for Perion and heads to the Weapon Store to offload some equipment. Now good friends with Celestalia, the gentlemen there inform her about the services of Mr. Thunder, who can refine jewels for a small fee.


He seemed quite happy to have our business, and we get the Garnet for only 500 mesos.

We cab to Lith Harbor and meet up with the famous researcher.


Rino carefully inserts the Garnet into the ring and it begins to shine a little. The knowledge we've gained results in a minor stat boost!


The next step is to achieve 60 card sets, which seems like a daunting task considering it took us 5 and a half months to get to this point. But who knows?

With the HP and MP boosts applied, we can talk about the potion count. Here's where we're standing:

Health Potions
431 White Potions [300]
264 Orange Potions [150]
Mana Potions
73 Desert Mist [200]
213 Blue Potions [100]
Health and Mana
31 Elixir [739/400]
200 Christmas Candy [739/400]
55 Maple Special Bento [500/500]

We have enough firepower here to take on just about anything. Maybe it's time we cleaned out the inventory a little? If we run out of mana potions, Cactus is open to us permanently.

First things first though, we return to the Henesys Weapon Store and sell three equips of varying longevity - the Blue Robin Hat (Part XXXII), the Gold Earrings (Part XLIX), and the Deer Huntertop (Part LIII). We're going to hang on to the Dark Savata for now, in case we might need the extra DEX and Accuracy somewhere. Probably we won't though.

Celestalia actually decided to end things there as she was pretty tired from a long journey and hard work getting five card sets in two nights. But before going to bed, she decided what to work on next. The answer:


With a bit more Weapon Defense, a better bow, and solid HP and MP stats, we should be able to take on the hordes at The Burnt Land I. Good thing Rino caught us when he did! Now we have a chance to get our second Level 30 equip, and possibly our first 35. If we get the Ryden, so much the better! Definitely prefer getting these things early rather than later. I won't wait around for it though...we have several easier options out there, one of which we might be unlocking shortly!

Honestly, I'm a bit anxious. We still have some chances in Ariant to find the Battle Bow, but it's not looking too good. There are only three mobs left in Ariant South, and we're likely to be stonewalled if we try pushing north. Worst case scenario is that it's something very out of the way, like Green Trixter. Honestly, I could see that being the case.

...Maybe it's best not to dwell on it. Have a great week! Catch you back here on Friday for the next round.

 

​

PART LXI. Unboarable

Spoiler: PART LXI. Unboarable

It's been a very long week for Celestalia as even Aescavon didn't visit her at all, and he's at home! I have no clue what he's up to, which is odd since he's my character. Celestalia is still waiting for an apology for the letter incident, which I don't think is coming any time soon. You know though, Celestalia is only 10 levels behind the Crossbowman.

We're certainly going to narrow that margin even further tonight.

So the plan hasn't changed: Celestalia is headed for Fire Boars. The fight will be long and arduous for sure, but it could potentially be very rewarding too. There are many things that have developed from our first go-around with the flamey bois. We've gone up 7 levels since then, picked up a solid mobbing skill in Arrow Bomb, maxed out our Mastery, and upgraded our bow twice for eight points of Weapon Attack. We also have a slew of new equipment; everything we have has been upgraded at least once:

Except for the hair. That will come in time, of course.

One thing we won't have in this iteration, however...is a sniping location. Yes, sadly, we're going to have to fight clean this time. Although we do have something else we can use to our advantage...


Okay, okay, I'll tell you about it when we get there.

So Celestalia heads for the Cab, passing a wild Kimmy on the way, and heads for Perion. The map we need is only three down into the dungeon corridor.


This map is great, and it's very popular due to the long bottom corridor of only Fire Boars of very high density. Also, there are three different spots to rope up if you need a break, and Celestalia will definitely put them to good use.

Our first equip is the Red Matty, which is a great sign because all of the equips we're looking for are Level 35 or under.


As you can probably guess from this, Celestalia tried for the middle first. Clearly the most efficient area, but also the most potion-intensive. And try as she might, Celestalia could not hold a lane in this area.

So, we're headed to the right side of the map.


Even here holding a lane is somewhat difficult. Fighting enemies with 1000 HP, as it turns out, isn't a walk in the park.

Our next drop is another wand (naturally), and then we get a great find, the Silver Guardian!


A Level 35 Claw, it should be worth insane money. Not sure how it compares to the Gephart...

Ah, here's another very expensive weapon.

Fire Boars and wands, name a more iconic duo.

It was a very long wait for our next equip, almost 40 minutes in fact. It was a Brown Martial Arts Pants. By this point Celestalia was not really having much fun at all. So she decided to go back to Ariant and continue the campaign.

Before doing so she tidied up one outstanding survey that hadn't been completed, and looked deeper into the Burnt Land. She got to the fourth map and encountered the dreaded Lupin.


He fell, but not before pelting Celestalia with a banana peel! One of these days your kind will fall to the empire...

After offloading the small group of equips we got, we reach 6.1 million! Not bad. Celestalia then went to the platform and was able to board immediately. She traveled with a Shadower, who remained outside to farm Balrog. Not sure if it ever showed up.

On the next leg, someone got Level 200! There was a brief discussion about where to do it at. Celestalia recommended Pig Beach but I think the Slime Tree ended up winning. Good choice!

The next map Celestalia is going to work on is to the left again, the White Rock Desert. It contains these curious fellows who are quite resistant to knockback.


But they only have about 500 HP or so.

There are also a few reptiles with earmuffs on? Doesn't seem like the proper gear for the desert, but okay. They were only up on a higher platform and so aren't necessary to progress...yet. We'll be seeing them again shortly.

Here is the first Bellamoa card.


Then as Celestalia hit 90%, someone came into the map with a Battle Bow! The absolute nerve! Gotta do that to poor Celestalia who can't get one yet...

Anyway, we get card #2 shortly after that. This is such a calm place in comparison to Fire Boars...Celestalia doesn't even have to use MP if she doesn't want to...and she doesn't

Then we get the third card.

The fourth card, on the other hand, was heavily delayed. That really annoyed Celestalia, who always likes to see new drop tables.

It took so long to drop that we actually got a level in the interim!


After applying her points, Celestalia fields a message from...a cheerleader?


It was an invitation to go back in time, but it can only be done from the Helios Tower in Ludibrium. We can't get there yet. Oh well, we get 7200 XP in the meantime, which is about a percent and a half. Not too bad.

So about the points. Well, I said earlier that we were going to start investing in Power Knockback. It's not really needed right about now, though...if I'm really honest. So instead...


Bow Booster! We already had 5 points in it to unlock Soul Arrow originally. Now, we can practically run it alongside Soul Arrow as, at Level 8, it lasts 80 seconds. We'll want to increase this as soon as possible, however, because doing so makes us use less HP and MP per cast (it's 22 each here). Also, it's almost as useful as Power Knockback could be in keeping your lane, because, well, the best defense is a good offense, or something like that?

Well, believe it or not, the fourth card fell just after we got going again. So what does the drop table hold? Absolutely nothing. Actually, less than nothing, because the Bellamoa drops the Composite Bow. Why.

Thankfully, they didn't keep us here for too much longer.


Composite Bow...gimme a break. *harumph*

...

In the next installment, it's Plead time! Stay tuned!

 

​

PART LXII. As it Pleadses You

Spoiler: PART LXII. As it Pleadses You

The Ear Plug Plead...what is your purpose in this world? In what climate do you belong? Can anyone say?

So, what to say about these guys...well, they don't resist knockback, so that's good. They do slightly more damage and are noticeably faster. HP is a bit higher, but not that much. Also, on this map:


Platforms 1 and 3 are both snipeable.

They also drop Warrior Potions.

All and all, extremely forgettable, probably doesn't have anything useful for us equip-wise...I feel bad honestly.

Card #1 dropped fairly quickly as usual.


The second card was somewhat slow, not that much though.

Here's an equip we've seen more than enough times over the campaign:


Something exciting did happen though - we got a new top hit (905)!

On the next pass, we get the card #3.

We then get a Negotiator (Level 20 Gun). Guns have been fairly rare in this campaign for some reason.

Our next drop is card #4. The drop table was...actually more interesting than I thought!


That glove outlined in red in the second row is the Bronze Scaler, which has no stat bonuses, but it is Level 35 and is available immediately if we want to hunt for it!

I'm sure we'll find a better model of this somewhere else, but in the meantime...let's find the other Plead.


It wasn't too far, just one map over. And strangely, they're all on this top platform.


And I guess that's it? There's no map after this, this is the last one...after this we loop back to Desert Rabbit.

This could get a bit ugly if we have to kill EPPs at the bottom. And that's precisely what we need to do. We're only getting about ten or so Scarf Pleads per pass...these cards might take a significant amount of time, likely into tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get lucky...

After a bit of fighting, Celestalia opened up with Bow Booster as she was annoyed at continuously losing her lane. It improved things quite a bit...still no cards though. She also decided to start spamming Warrior Potions to speed things up a little.

Still...this is ridiculous. I mean seriously.

Finally after over half an hour of constant chaos we get the first card.


But it's only one card...

There's four more out there...

I didn't want things to be this way...

Celestalia continues grinding, after a medium break, for about 15 minutes. She was getting very tired, her neck was sore, her fingers were sore.

Then, reflecting off of the desert sunbeams, a radiant piece of equipment dawned.


Okay, I'll take it.

The Green Huntress Pants is our first mainline Level 30 equip. It is a downgrade in every possible way to the Bennis Chainpants, which is to be expected because Bennis has a 10% on it. But, the prestige, think about the prestige!

I wonder if it's enough to get us into Orbis. You know, we've technically cleared every map. Scarf Plead isn't actually necessary to traverse this area. So...are we done-ish with Ariant South?

I mean, I suppose we are. Well, Celestalia is, at least, because she's already ditched the joint.

"I'm coming for you, round things in Orbis..."

Arriving back at the station, we check really quick with Agatha to confirm that we can enter Orbis. She says there shouldn't be a problem as long as we keep the Huntress Pants on our person. That was alright with Celestalia, who took the opportunity to look over the grand city before heading down to the potion shop.

Finally...we've found our way.

In the Potion shop, we talk to Edel who decides to buy everything we got from Ariant, even our Lidium and Silver! Apparently Lidium is widely used in Orbis, in fact it's the reason Orbis is the way it is. Edel said she would refund the Perion brothers the silver, but she had a contact in El Nath who needed to make some silver-tip bolts, for Werewolf and things, you know how that goes.

Celestalia was even able to get a room at one of the inns! Amazing what a single Bottom upgrade can get you these days. Well, it was low-quality as far as Orbis goes, but decent comfort for our heroine. And that was good enough.

Before signing off, I should mention that we do have a row of inventory slots to spend now. I'm actually going to hold off on putting it into anything for the moment. Don't think we need it just yet. It's there, though, in case something requires the attention.

Alright, that will do it for today. Tomorrow, we go to Jr. Sentinel! Will they be the holders of the Battle Bow? Probably not, I mean they do drop the Ryden. But anything can happen. Stay tuned!

 

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PART LXIII. A Pair of Very Brief Expeditions

Spoiler: PART LXIII. A Pair of Very Brief Expeditions

Hi friends! We had quite a time yesterday and narrowly avoided a huge grind as Celestalia snagged the Green Huntress Pants, which put us just over the top in terms of prestige to unlock the next area.

Welcome to Orbis Tower.


This particular map is a personal favorite of mine as my beginner Sirbeg used it to grind multiple times over the course of his campaigns. It's really good money and Jr. Sentinel doesn't hit for a terribly large amount. They're hitting in the teens in Celestalia's case, which is a massive improvement over recent enemies.

And you can't argue with this - how about a card on the very first platform? In fact one of the guys in the screenie above dropped it!


Moreover, take a look here!


Bronze Arrows! As long as we have these in the earliest arrow slot in our inventory, we get a permanent +1 Weapon Attack.

Right after that, we get card #2.

Jr. Sentinel is another mob that drops Blue Potion. I should mention that between Bellamoa, Pleads, and here, we've already recovered our stock from what we used at Fire Boar. Granted a lot of the potion use there was Bentos.

Arrow Bomb is also really, really good here as the population is dense, and it can hit between platforms. But that's not all it can do...ohohohohoh!


Here's the drop table:


No Battle Bow. Much sad. Anyway.

And oh look at that, we're done already.


On to the next guy.


Here on the 17th Floor are the larger Sentinels which can actually fire back.


They do around 100 damage either physical or magical, and they also shrug off regular arrows. I don't think we can feasibly pass these guys yet. Besides, they're quite high level.

Celestalia experimented with a few fighting styles, but really couldn't get anything to stick. We just hemorrhage potions too much.

We did get these though:


The Green Knucklevest is Level 35, and the Fireman's Axe is 30.

So, our foray into Orbis Tower is over for the moment. I think max Arrow Bomb is going to be the ultimate solution here. Until then, we must leave the Cloud City.

Well...so we're in an awkward situation for sure. Sentinel is too powerful, Scarf Plead is just terrible to grind on, and...what other options do we have? Celestalia thought hard as she rode on the ship back to Ellinia.

So for Victoria Island, we have...Rocky Mask...and Evil Eye. I guess at this point we might as well cover all our bases and get both card sets. And since they're in the Orange column too, let's go ahead and do Fierry. That'll do it for the Orange tier.

Since we're on a sort-of "stone" theme, I guess we'll start with...


You'll also notice that we have on the Bennis Chainpants, the Dark Savata, and the Lady Blue here. Just trying to get all the stats we can to make this operation as speedy as possible. Our max damage with this set up by the way is 288.

Celestalia really tore her way through the map. Still, Rocky Mask was very resistant.

Eventually, though, they did in fact give up a card.


Alright, now we just need four more of 'em.

A few minutes later, we get a massive top hit of 933! We're inching ever closer to the four digits...

Celestalia was pretty bored already, but decided to keep going for a while more before heading out and selling some equips.

For the first time in the campaign, Celestalia was thoroughly frustrated. She had no more will to fight. Everything was resisting her. Rocky Mask wasn't reliable enough, and honestly, it was a dead end anyway. Evil Eye too was slow. Scarf Plead, insanely slow. Sentinel impossible. And Lime-tier Victoria Island mobs? They wouldn't have the answer. At least, she thought so.

If only she could use the Library...some resource, somewhere, to give her the answer she needed.

So what was the path forward? Maybe it would be best if she just...grinded a few levels on her own? What would that accomplish? She didn't need more potions either.

For some reason though...for some reason, a voice inside of Celestalia's head was shouting the word 'Jr.' at her. It was what led her to push for Orbis in the first place - Jr. Sentinel seemed like it was the answer. But it wasn't! What other option did she have?

Celestalia sat at the bottom of Kerning City for a while, talking with a few people running KPQ and just trying to wile away the minutes. Then, it hit her. There is a Jr. mob within a close distance. She had to go for it.

Me too, Celestalia, me too.

In the next installment, we'll see where Celestalia has chosen.

Spoiler: Discord Shenanigans

Spoiler: Ahh!

 

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PART LXIV. The Hunt for the Battle Bow

Spoiler: PART LXIV. The Hunt for the Battle Bow

Celestalia's grand search leads her into the depths of the Kerning Subway.


Jr. Wraith is Level 35, but a lot of mobs around this level are known for dropping fairly low equips. They do have some knockback resistance, but overall aren't too difficult. We can also Arrow Bomb here to great effect.


Otherwise this is your typical subway map. Tons of mobs on the upper platforms, but on the straightaways we can use regular arrow with decent ability. Bow Booster makes things a lot more manageable though.

Card #1 was obtained after a decent struggle.


Card #2 was only a few minutes later. Then Card #3 dropped very soon thereafter. Even Card #4 wasn't that far behind. Arrow Bomb truly shines in this environment, such that Celestalia is now starting to doubt the rumored 'multi-target drop rate decrease' effect.

She will certainly be needing it more after THIS!


There we go folks, it was as easy as that. The Battle Bow is here, and that's not all - we also have the Mithril Scaler (Level 35) which does give stats unlike its Bronze counterpart, and the Red Pierre Shoes (Level 40). Tons of opportunities to upgrade, but you know exactly what we're here for.

After another period of heavy fighting, the fifth card dropped.


A little prestige bonus, and their larger brothers are now available to fight. But that's not why we're here anymore.

Celestalia continues pushing hard until, at 85%, she was too tired to continue. So she decided to leave for now and come back next weekend with a plan and a purpose.

We are down to six Bentos though. That's slightly worrying. I hope we don't get sapped of all our potions here...that could be quite bad.

So before we wrap up, let's check in with the Gachapon stocks. Last week, Celestalia's rares netted some decent finds! We got a Wand MAtt 30% (~4m) and a Face Avoid 60% (~3m), among some other goodies. This week we have 7 Commons and 2 Rares, and once again Aescavon gets the nod, much to Celestalia's dismay.

What did he find?

Common

• Topwear for LUK 100%
  
• Shoes for Speed 70%
  
• Blue Goldrunners (Level 60 Magician Shoe) <- This is the exact shoe Aescalloss is currently wearing o.o
  
• Blood Fitted Mail (Level 35 F Warrior Overall)
  
• Kumbi Throwing Stars
  
• Fat Sausage (1)
  
• Red Infinium Circlet (Level 70 Magician Hat)

Rare

• Crossbow for ATT 70%
  
• Shoes for Speed 60%

Oo-kay, not great. Honestly that helped his brother more than it helped him. The Infinium Circlet wasn't even the best one though, and terrible stats anyways. Only +1 INT, think about it!

Another short post, but a productive one! We were very close to hitting a brick wall, but thankfully a...what to call it...thingamajig-ex-machina stepped in to save the campaign. Once we upgrade all the way to the Ryden, serious stuff is going to go down. I guarantee it! For now, though, Celestalia is stuck with the Hunter's Bow for another week. Hopefully she'll have her energy back by the time we get going again this Friday.

The arduous saga of Celestalia's Challenge continues then! Have a wonderful and exciting week!