Celestalia's Challenge - A Maple Journal

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PART CCIX. To Start a Lineage

Spoiler: PART CCIX. To Start a Lineage

I figure the best way to approach Planey is just to spam MLG maneuvers and speedrun, like how Celestalia used to do at the Blue Mushroom Forest. As long as she hits something, she's one step closer to finishing the set and proceeding down the tower.


Well, the run-and-gun strategy seemed to work pretty decently, as card #2 dropped within the first half hour.

...Barely.

And more surprisingly good news...you'll never guess what Planey dropped: A Jangoon Shoes! Unbelievable, right? The pair is a bit below average, but might still be an upgrade for the Spearman...honestly, it's been a while since I've been on any other character. Celestalia is sitting on 39 Gach tickets right now. That might give you a good idea of how long it's been.

One more equip dropped which, sadly, filled out the inventory. Celestalia does have an inventory row to buy, but has been woefully indecisive on where to put it. For now, she decided to retreat and just go to Victoria to sell.

She's pretty glad she did, because when she arrived at Ellinia, she came across a Level 41 Hunter...who had the Red Viper.

The two chatted for a while, before Celestalia did the unthinkable. But actually, she had been waiting for a long time to do something like this...


The MWAV2K has found a new home. And since it served Celestalia so well for so long, the Rangemaiden had no doubt it would do so again. She was clear to tell him to pass it down to another in kind.

Right after that, he had something interesting to show Celestalia. It was an incredible sight.


It's the...Golden Hinkel, which is one of the next line of Bows. It's doubtful that it would be a serious upgrade to the Bow of Magical Destruction...if at all...but still, it was great to get a glimpse of it. Naturally, Celestalia refused to take it. Now that she knows what she's looking for though, it ought to be a bit easier to find.

Following another productive selling session, which brought her above 75 million mesos, Celestalia sat down on a high bluff in Ellinia to take a lengthy nap. After that, she decided she would check in with Commander Skeleton to see if they wanted to drop a quick card before she ran out of steam. They didn't. And that was the end of the evening.

The merry-go-round of locations spins on in the next installment. Stay tuned.

 

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PART CCX. The Siege of Sereni

Spoiler: PART CCX. The Siege of Sereni

To try and prevent a second unproductive weekend, Celestalia has made a risky gamble. Okay, not too risky. But, Magatia is running a bit low on card sets that can be done.

Thankfully this is still one of them. And this area is much better than the other one, as you can see in the minimap.


A completely flat map! That's what I'm talking about. There seem to be more Dwarves here too, but maybe that's just because they can move around more.

Well, it didn't take long for her to start butchering her way through the map. So the first card (which is card #2) was pretty quick in coming.


Card #3 was only a few minutes following. The fourth card took a bit longer, but that's fine as Celestalia was all good getting a few more potions to stock up for the next event. DSD is another mob that drops the Korean Fan, because again she hasn't seen nearly enough of them in this campaign.

It was only about 6-7 minutes until the set was cleared.


Step 2 was to check around all of the channels using the newfangled regulation to see if D. Roy (global population: 2) could be brought up the list a bit.


On Channel 2, Celestalia found this strange artifact.


It's a 'Magic Stone of Trust', which is a strange way to spell 'D. Roy Card', but it's probably a quest item. Celestalia handed it over to her good friend Jerry after going through all eight channels, fighting eight D. Roys, and receiving zero pieces of cardboard.

Step 3 was to finish off the Site card set.

Homun #3: "This is fine."

While no cards dropped in the short interval she spent there, she did find...something slightly less useful:


Well nice to get it out of the way, but of course, the Rangemaiden can't exactly don it. Who knew that one stinkin' Justice Cape would be so hard to find.

The other thing to drop was another notable one.


And that finishes Kaloichi's next set. Dang, Celestalia seems to have done more for the Auburn family than anyone actually in the family.

So after a bit more fighting, and putting the Oaker Scorpio in the storage, it was time again for Celestalia to tune in to Nonna's journey. She's reached the point of...well, being stuck. In fact, she's stuck in the same place everyone else has been. Choosing between dying to a blue robed archwizard, or dying to a big green pig fish. Decisions, decisions. Well, she did plenty of both two nights ago. But, Celestalia has the feeling the gun girl has a few more tricks up her sleeve. Hopefully one of them works.

For now, enjoy the week! Next time on Celestalia's Challenge, more antics in Magatia, and Reindeer probably gets another turn. Until then!

[Editor's Note: On second thought, let's put a raincheck on those antics...]

 

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SPECIAL XIX. The Ascent to the Celestial

Spoiler: SPECIAL XIX. The Ascent to the Celestial

Ever since he found out about the white-robed woman sharing his storage, Erenell had been mighty suspicious of Hikaria Aetherin. Ironic, that, as the other person on his payroll is a literal dimension-traveling dark metal rocker. But Celestalia always assured him that gentleman had no malicious intent.

It had been a month now since he last heard from the Rangemaiden. Her last known location was Magatia, which doesn't have the greatest postal service in any case. But that alone doesn't explain this wide a gap.

He had to go see for himself what his sister was up to.

Three long trips later, two by air, and one over land, the Gunslinger found himself among the confines of the moonlit streets. At the inn, his worst fears were confirmed very quickly: Celestalia had left around the 10th or so, and had not returned.

"Was she with anyone?" he asked the clerk at the front desk.

"All I remember is that she was carrying a letter."

"What. KIND. Of letter."

"...Sorry sir, one moment." The clerk scratched his brain in coming up with the details.

"I need something, anything. Please," Erenell pleaded.

"Alright, alright. So...it had I think yellow frills and plain white otherwise."

"..." Erenell looked down at the hardwood floor, again, his worse fears validated.

"She took her."

"What?"

"Nevermind, thank you."

Erenell trudged out of the front door, then jolted back inside.

"...Can I see her room?"

"Sure, follow me."


~~~


The inside of the room had no discernible signs of anyone having left in haste, nor was it particularly disorganized. Which was interesting, because virtually the entire contents of Celestalia's inventory were there. Most of it sat in chests at the corner of the room, undoubtedly requisitioned by her herself, but her outfit was front and center on a tall wooden coat rack...except for her Beige Lineros, which was folded and sitting on the mattress. Erenell slowly walked up and grasped the side of the Beige Patriot which hung on the top of the rack, roughly level with his head.

Suddenly, he spied a folded piece of paper that innocently rested on top of a dresser next to the rack.

"I, uh, I'll leave you to your business," said the clerk, closing the door behind him. After Erenell listened to the clerk's footsteps growing silent as he retreated back down the hall, he unfolded it and read the contents of the page:


"To whomever may be concerned.

If you are looking for me, I am deeply regretful to say that you will not find me.

A dear friend of mine has given me an opportunity I dare not pass up; an opportunity which, while I cannot fully explain what it entails, I feel is exactly what I have been looking for ever since I left my home in Henesys.

If it is successful, the abilities I obtain from it may change my entire outlook on this world. The imperial boundaries will be rendered meaningless. I will have the foresight, the knowledge, to seek out and annihilate the enemies of the Celestial wherever they stand. Even more than this; what I do now will set me on the path to eternal glory - wonder heretofore unknown. That is, if what she says is indeed true.

Do understand that I may be some time. To gain the favor of Divine Providence in this such manner does not come lightly. It could be months - years even - depending on how I choose to commit myself to the cause of light. Again, so she says. Nevertheless, know that I will return.

It has been my pride from day one to extend the Celestial Empire across the globe. I intend fully to finish this campaign. When I come back, the world will know my name. Inside and out.

Sincerely,
Celestalia Vereina"


Erenell put the page back down on the dresser and stared blankly at the folds crisscrossing the parchment.

"She's...gone?"

"Or is she..."

Erenell's knees grew weak, compelling him to sit on the mattress aside the Lineros.

"Celestalia...I tried so hard to understand you. Somehow, I never got there. Maybe it will never happen, but wherever you are...hear this."

The Gunslinger balled his fists.

"Don't you dare give up!"


~~~


- This is the End of Book 1 -

Spoiler: A Message

First, I would like to thank every single person again who has read, commented, or been a friend to Celestalia along the course of the journey.

Let me stress again that I am not intending this to be the conclusion of the campaign. What I have realized though is that the situation, as it stands, hasn't offered a great deal of challenge, just been horrifically boring. I want to keep things around here even slightly interesting, after all, and one specific limitation of the challenge is getting in the way of that. As always though, it may be a great way to deepen Celestalia's overall story, and that's what this game was always meant to be about.

I do not know when Book 2 will commence, but who knows when her 'training' so to speak will conclude. When it does, she'll be back to finish what she started. In style this time.

Please do not lock this thread. This saga isn't done just yet.

 

- Book 2 -​

Greetings! This post is an introduction to the second chapter of the campaign and will not in itself contain any gameplay.

The Story So Far

Spoiler: The Story So Far

After her flight from the Vereina estate, doomed to forever be cast out of her household, Celestalia quickly picked up the pieces and rebuilt herself into a promising young archer. Progress was slow, but steady, in the early stages as she slowly made her way farther and farther around Victoria Island. She had to stop along the way to achieve the rank of Huntress, but eventually she was able to connect her holdings, picking up a great deal of equipment along the way. In the winding Dungeon at the center of the island, she received more much-needed boosts to her knowledge and firepower, which she used to conclude a titanic battle against the Blue Mushroom, the first major obstacle of the campaign.

Eventually, she received enough prestige to leave the island, and made her way to Ariant, quickly mopping up (most of) the southern portion of the Nihal Desert. Celestalia bounced around Orbis and Vic numerous times, steadily working her way up the equipment ladder. In the meantime, her brother Erenell also fled the estate and became a Gunslinger and Kyrin's primary business analyst onboard the Nautilus, allowing her to upgrade her amenities by a great deal. She soon found herself as a founding member of a small guild which quickly decreased in activity, but did give her big boosts in the short time she was able to commune with the other members. Following additional gains north of Ariant, Celestalia was able to enter Ludibrium. She didn't say long, though, for new intelligence pointed her towards another major bow upgrade. Fire Sentinel very nearly stalled the campaign again, but she was ultimately victorious, and soon claimed what she was looking for. After more conquests in both Orbis and Ludibrium, she was able to enter Aqua Road for the first time. Florina Beach and Shanghai then opened to her, and several more mobs fell by the wayside.

Shanghai accelerated Celestalia's equipment growth; her current arm, the Bow of Magical Destruction, was obtained there. But it didn't help her obtain the extremely-frustrating Lumati. She decided to embark on a huge sub-campaign, the Sixexian Conquests, to find someone willing to drop this overall. While she did obtain another bow upgrade along the course of this fight, she also suffered her first death, to more or less a freak accident.

Soon after she did in fact get the Lumati, and now it was time to tackle the next step - the Asianic Bow would unlock the BMD and vault her to insane heights. After some more poking around, Ellin Forest was found to be the answer, and she spent a tireless week farming for it. Before she could find it, it was time to make the advancement to Rangemaiden. She went 1-1 against Athena, which was good enough to gain the 3rd Job. After what seemed like an eternity, she gained the last Bow, and eventually maxed out the equips she had available - landing a few surprises along the way. She also began work on Korean Folk Town, Mu Lung, and Magatia, while continuing intermittently in Ludibrium. Her last victory was against Dark Sand Dwarf, the last mob in Nihal outside of Magatia - thusly, her last known whereabouts were at the inn within the city.

Throughout the campaign, Celestalia made a whole bevy of friends, allies, and dear confidants which she still keeps dear to her heart.

Erenell found a note in her room suggesting that she was off with the aetherial Cleric, Hikaria, on some sort of training, with no timetable on when to return. It would appear though that the end of that session is in sight, and her return is, if not imminent, then likely within a short time. What abilities have she obtained...?

Rules

Spoiler: Rules

Here are the updated rules. I will put the single major change in Underline, and what it affects will be struck through.

1. A map can only be passed through if all major mobs on the map have been cleared (got the set for them). For example, the Axe Stumps at the top left corner of the Forest South of Ellinia don't count, because they're only on one platform (and out of the way, see Clarification). Basically, it has to be a primary mob in that map. Once a map has been 'conquered' we can pass through it as normal, and by conquering all maps between two cities, we can travel between them by the taxi as well.

Clarification to Rule 1. Mobs that inhabit the most direct path of travel from portal to portal are considered major mobs regardless of spawn count, UNLESS their spawn would be restricted by a stronger mob not in the most direct path of travel. The card furthest into the Monster Book will be considered the strongest mob.

Addendum to Rule 1. If Celestalia is in a guild and is partied with guild members, she is allowed to go past the normal boundaries of play as long as she remains with the group. For example, Celestalia can go to Ludibrium with guild members even if she has not yet unlocked the region. Celestalia cannot acquire monster cards at any time she is outside the boundary.

Addendum to Rule 1. For the purposes of conquering a mob, Celestalia may exceed the normal boundaries of play in order to reach a map, as deemed by the Efficient Farming Guide, as being the best possible map for cards for that mob. Celestalia cannot acquire monster cards for any other mob within that map if she has not yet encountered it, unless that mob is also present within the map she's coming from. She cannot attack mobs on other maps outside the boundary.

Addendum to Rule 1. If Celestalia is making a job advancement, she may travel anywhere in the world provided it is necessary to do so to complete the job advancement. She still cannot attack mobs if outside the boundary.

Hidden Streets are initially unknown, but can be discovered once Celestalia learns of them through the Monster Book, or by learning of them through the actions of other adventurers.

2. Unless specifically stated within the rules, all items, Bowman equips, and ammunition must be obtained by drop. This is the main reason why I'm doing this challenge with a female - my Crossbowman (Aescavon) hunts for his equips and so I know where almost all of them are. With some exceptions, this is basically starting from scratch. The MapleLegends Library is off-limits for the extent of this challenge; Celestalia must consult the Monster Book and see if any mobs she has unlocked drop what she's looking for. Equips can only be worn if Celestalia has obtained, at some point, at least one example of every earlier tier. Example: Green Winter Hat -> Blue Feather Hat -> Blue Robin Hat -> Red Hunter -> Green Hawkeye -> Blue Pole-Feather Hat, etc.

3. Gach tickets will be turned over to the Auburn family. In exchange, Celestalia has access to the Blue Potion Chair, free Air Bubbles for Aqua Road, and can use the Auburn family's storage and NX account. (She can't take anything out of their storage, but she can put her own items into the storage.) She is also able to purchase one row of inventory slots every five levels (ending in 5 and 0).

4. Trading, the Free Market, Leeching, Looting, and any other advantageous services are off-limits for this campaign. I also will not accept any donations whatsoever. Celestalia is allowed to work with event drops and other similar bonuses if she wants to.

5. Partying with other adventurers in the field is allowed, however during the time Celestalia is partied, and a party member is in the map and actively fighting, items cannot be picked up. The sole exception to this is equips Celestalia needs to advance; if she did not participate in killing the mob that dropped the equip, Celestalia can retrieve it from her teammate at a cost of 5,000 mesos x the Level of the equip. Said equip cannot be worn until the map has been conquered.

Addendum to Rule 5. If Celestalia belongs to a guild and is partied with guild members, she can pick up items as usual, but she should make a substantial effort not to acquire items that her teammates have farmed. The teammate equip rule remains in place.

6. Celestalia must purchase Return to Nearest Town scrolls from Orbis. She is not able to purchase specific town scrolls.

7. Regions available via the World Tour Guide must be accessed from Ludibrium.

There may be other restrictions in the future.

Journal Entries (211-present)

Spoiler: Journal Entries (211-present)

CCXI. The Power That Doomed Eos
CCXII. Eight Legs of Plastic
CCXIII. To the Ground!
CCXIV. The Siege of the Hidden Tower
CCXV. Shady Monday Shenanigans
CCXVI. The Topside Finished
CCXVII. Return to the Icy Underground
CCXVIII. Tip of the Horn
CCXIX. Cards in the Mountains
CCXX. For Proof of Grinding All Day
CCXXI. The Final Effort for Shanghai
CCXXII. After the Forgotten Glove
CCXXIII. Mummy Madness Marches On
CCXXIV. Reawakening the Tiger (and the Bear)
CCXXV. The Battle of Forgattia
CCXXVI. Seresuteiria no Chousen
CCXXVII. Kowai! (Scary!)
CCXXVIII. Gates of the Bamboo Palace
CCXXIX. Sapphire
CCXXX. The Tauro Terror
CCXXXI. Put Your Soul Into It! (Or Don't)
CCXXXII. C.V. The Extra-Celestial
CCXXXIII. Close Encounters of the Third Job
CCXXXIV. Rangerpendence Day
CCXXXV. A New Bowpe
CCXXXVI. The Siege of Jiyeog Moon
CCXXXVII. The Great Deep Ludi Equip Run
CCXXXVIII. The Eyes Have It!
CCXXXIX. Deer oh Deer
CCXL. Final Assault on Antler Bastion
CCXLI. Forest Beyond the Cavern
CCXLII. Where Are the Goblins Anyway?
CCXLIII. The Swamp of Hope
CCXLIV. Jars, Yars, and Hars
CCXLV. Herbcoming
CCXLVI. The Beige and the Blue
CCXLVII. Celestalia the Buffy Slayer
CCXLVIII. Deer's Dance in the Den
CCXLIX. The Alternative Minimum Drop Rate
CCL. Emptying the Freezer

Journal Entries (251-present)

Spoiler: Journal Entries (251-present)

CCLI. Spare Not a Bauble!
CCLII. The Seven-Squared Gacha Run
CCLIII. The Next Coming of Lady Blue
CCLIV. Beat the Clock! Deep Ludi Edition
CCLV. Through the Marble and the Ice
CCLVI. Let's Conquest! El Nath Edition
CCLVII. One Shot Short
SPECIAL XX. One Break Too Many
CCLVIII. Topaz
CCLIX. Start Spreadin' the Arrows
CCLX. Queen of the Hill
CCLXI. Top of the Scrap Heap?
CCLXII. Welcome to Prendergast
CCLXIII. The Smore the Merrier
CCLXIV. Hoodoo You Do(n't)
CCLXV. An Offer They Can't Refuse
CCLXVI. Top o' the Ohayou!
CCLXVII. Ordem e Progresso
CCLXVIII. The Shoes Athena Fancies
CCLXIX. TBD (Coming soon!)

Click here to return to Book 1.

Stay tuned for the first entry in this chapter below!

~~~

 

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PART CCXI. The Power That Doomed Eos

Spoiler: PART CCXI. The Power That Doomed Eos

Well, she sure looks ahead of the game. It looks like Hikaria managed to move her directly to Ludibrium. Either that, or she slipped away from Magatia without anyone noticing. Either way, for those rejoining the Rangemaiden, welcome back to the campaign! And for the rest, a brief synopsis of what this is: Basically an Ironman with Onyx Apple applied.

As has been mentioned previously, one of Celestalia's restrictions has been altered. She now has the ability to move to the most efficient map for a mob that otherwise would be in her path. While she can't attack on any other map, and generally can't collect other cards, this puts her in a great position to get rid of a number of troublesome roadblocks.

She starts her quest here, at Eos 25th, Planey's map of choice.


As expected, the first card of the evening (card #3 for Planey) was very quick to arrive. Good stuff!


Card #4 was a few minutes behind. Interesting that they drop the Red Willow, Celestalia's current glove. She could have come here for it, instead of...what was it, Officer Skeleton? But that map was worth it for many other reasons.

The rule change is also definitely going to be worth it.


Okay! So what's next? Well, I'm going to have Celestalia go back to the map of origin first, before trekking down the tower further. So after going through those hoops (good news though, two maps between the 58th and there are tall floors with no enemies), she arrives at the...44th?! Wait...


No, no, no, not that. Bloctopus is weird, sure, but that's not the important bit. I mean the other thing.


That has to be him, the robed man she saw in her vision. But he looks like a normal scroll seller...hang on, what's this?!


Huh. Well that helps...uh, not at all. But it's a secret for a reason. Obviously affording one is no problem for Celestalia. The problem would be the inventory slot that gets sunk, essentially permanently. At least until she figures out what it's used for.

So nevermind that, let's kill some Bloctopus.


Celestalia doesn't even need to go to the optimal map (three floors below), because there are only two platforms of Bloctopus and they form most of the mobs in the map anyway.

Bloctopus took just a tiny bit more prodding than Planey to get the cardboard going, but she didn't have to wait too long.


Shortly after that, the first equip drop on this side of the entr'acte! The Crescent Polearm (Level 40).


Bloctopus are a bit annoying in the way they drop stuff. In the photo with the card, right behind Celestalia, appears to be some kind of info chip. And even though the chip is pretty common, for some reason, Celestalia is only allowed to have one of them at a time. Plus, both Trixter and Bloctopus drop Omok pieces.

She got very irritated by not being able to pick up the info chips, and decided to grab a snack to calm down.

Eventually she resumed and picked up the second card. Now, one of the things Hikaria apparently told her about during the training was that her name comes from the Japanese hikari for light. Celestalia knows that Sirbeg (my perma beginner) has a bit of experience in Japanese and so, on a whim, had downloaded a lesson series on it. If you don't know, Celestalia carries around a pocket device that she sometimes uses to listen in to Twitch streams, music, or stuff like that.

Anyway, she remembered about the lesson series just tonight, and decided to have it on while farming for more cards. But just as she finished the first lesson of the evening, a worldwide magical disturbance cut the evening short.

She would be out of consciousness for a decent while.

In the next installment, presumably, the rest of this card set! Stay tuned.

Thank you! I'd say you're not late at all though, you beat the first post back after all

 

​

PART CCXII. Eight Legs of Plastic

Spoiler: PART CCXII. Eight Legs of Plastic

After the extremely rude cutting short of the last part (what a warm welcome back by the system, yes?), Celestalia finally managed to wake up and went back to it without a moment's delay.

She felt a bit strange, though, almost like her pack was a bit lighter than earlier. After some inspection, it turns out that the magical disturbance cleared out the Etc. and Equip drops she had obtained the previous day.

Notice the distinct lack of blue controllers (dropped by Planey).

Actually, this helps dramatically! Because now Celestalia doesn't have to worry about her inventory filling up for some time. At worst, she might have lost like 100k. That's not terrible at this point though!

Ah, but what about the Monster Book? Well, amazingly, that was UNAFFECTED.


Best. Case. Scenario.

Evidently though there are still some ripples occurring in the magical continuum, as at one point the Rangemaiden had the wind knocked out of her. She was up in less than two minutes, no big deal. Nevertheless, she must be cautious.

Celestalia very quickly scooped up the fourth card, and then remembered something else as she was scouring the drop table. Aescavon spent a bit of time here farming for the Silver Crow.

Not the exact floor, but, ya know, 'here'. Also, super old picture, lookitdat!

He then went to Zombie Lupin, and failed again, but did get a decent Rower.

And this is ironic, so after writing that blurb, Celestalia got the exact Top Aescavon is wearing in the above photo...a Dark Legolier...which was immediately followed by the last card.


Okie dokie, moving on. So Celestalia reaches the next outside area...and!


What the heck? What is a gumball machine doing all the way in this remote spot?! And is it sentient? She can buy stuff like any other store. Not just that though, there are all kinds of neat stuff in here! Summer Event items, for instance. And even more powerful than that, there are exquisite foods and Dews that restore incredible amounts of HP and MP respectively.

Celestalia can almost certainly get away with buying stuff from here, but just to be safe, she'll wait until all of Ludus Lake has been conquered. Yeah, that sort of pushes back the availability of these items a few years. No big deal though, she's used to it!

On the 23rd Floor, she encounters some pink Bloctopus wearing crowns. But there weren't very many of them. Here's the great news, the best floor for these is just the next one down! So why not go for it. There's literally no downside here.


These guys tend to shoot small energy blots, and they hurt slightly more.

The great thing about this map, and probably why it was voted better than Floor 23, is because the mobs tend to congregate at this bottom platform. Which means it's easy to navigate.

But cards are still a bit tricky to come by. This one took a good 10-15 minutes.

Uh...you might want to look above you.

RKOs from the top rope, or any other similar pro wrestling move you can think of aside, Celestalia got the rest of the set at a fairly regular interval. Nothing much I can really say about this set, it was simply well-executed in terms of moving around the map and on potion usage.


And that will do it for this session. That doesn't mean that's it for this week though. Since I'm not adhering to a regular upload schedule right now, I can't exactly say when the next part will be. And because of that, Celestalia has the go-ahead to set up camp right next to the gumball machine on Floor 40.


Eh, you have the Relaxer, you'll be fine.

Oh by the way. Celestalia is also authorized to sell Etc. drops here. Yeah.

Next time on the Challenge, it's back on the outside of the Tower for one final enemy...and the big bosses of Eos will soon come to bear. Until then!

Will do! Thanks

 

​

PART CCXIII. To the Ground!

Spoiler: PART CCXIII. To the Ground!

Well, that's the plan, at least. Celestalia really wanted to get out this week, but due to sleeping on plastic, which takes some time to get used to...eh, you get the idea.

Alright! Here is the aforementioned final 'outside' enemy:


Tweeter is not very common on this 21st floor, but the target location is another fifteen floors down. Good thing there's one of those elevator-type things in the middle of that.

So Celestalia arrives and-


Where the CRAP HAVE YOU BEEN?!?! Dang you Dark Willow...you broke my heart.

As much as the Rangemaiden finally gets some closure on this long-standing affair, the fact of the matter is that this glove only has DEX +2. Her Red Willow is +3. So, after all this time...it doesn't even matter.

To make matters worse, Celestalia's fight was interrupted by two magicianesses spamming Genesis and Ice Strike. The I/L picked up a card right in front of her! Celestalia stood for a good ten seconds in silence trying to figure out why fate did not want to deliver her a good day.

Although, she didn't have to wait that long.


The second card was obtained at similar speed.

By the time the third card popped up (or rather, didn't, because it was behind a wall), Celestalia's Etc. inventory was completely filled up. Mainly due to three Stimulators, plus those ring fragments that are probably an event item. She did not care, and continued on, immediately nabbing the fourth card as well. Their top drop is 50 (of which she has two - the other being a Blue Moon Gloves).

So that got cleaned up very nicely. But man, what a disaster of a card gallery. Look away if you need to:


Celestalia wasn't sure if it was really worth going back to the Gumball Machine to unload what was about ~4 slots of Etc. So instead of doing that, she bought an extra row of Etc. (last row available until 80), rested up, and then went back to Floor 10, where these guys awaited.


Block Golem looks formidable, but they're not that bad. Just look at the damage she takes. That's less than most things she'd be fighting elsewhere.

Now here's an interesting quirk of the rules: The Guide lists Hidden Tower (Rombot's map) as being the best for both Block Golems, but...Celestalia still can't get to it, because she doesn't know of the map itself! So, she'll have to stay here. The spawn isn't that terrible regardless.

Case in point!


She can really see the light at the end of what is basically, literally, a tunnel!

Again, Celestalia knocks down a second card at a clockwork pace.

Then, she stumbles upon a small weapons cache!

The Rower came from Block Golem I believe.

That must mean she is very close to the 'central command' of this tower...or to a war zone. Perhaps both! She'll see what's going on at the base of the tower soon enough.

She would add a Scimitar onto that pile. But now the problem was that she was down to three equip slots left. She might have to retreat all the way back to Ludi after all! And not because she lost...quite the opposite! The equip drops have consistently been Eos' best defense, apart from Helly and Planey making life impossible for a while.

The good news is that by the time she was up to 4 cards, she was still holding on to those three slots.

I was going to show the drop table here, but again, 50 is the best they drop (and the Rower, I think, is the most valuable thing they drop, and Celestalia already squared that away).

The inventory was STILL at 3 spaces when Celestalia finished up here!


One enemy remaining! And this time, she doesn't even need to go beyond the boundaries. In the next installment, the central command comes under siege. Prepare for battle!

 

​

PART CCXIV. The Siege of the Hidden Tower

Spoiler: PART CCXIV. The Siege of the Hidden Tower

Unlike the rest of the tower, Celestalia was a bit nervous in front of this somewhat-impressive doorway. Whatever was back here was going to provide a considerable front. Luckily, she's had ample time to get the rust off. So in she went.


The King Block Golem wasn't alone...what's this? A Bloctopus controlling a golem?


It died in three Strafes. Interesting that Rombot is actually a regular monster according to the Book. It's not a true boss or anything, doesn't really do enough damage to qualify as one. Still, Celestalia might be coming back in the future to farm.

As for King Block Golem, the siege was on.


It hit me at around the 3 hour mark of the session that this map would have been utterly impossible without Arrow Rain. Truly the MVS of this region. It's like MVP...but for skills. Right. Moving on.

Celestalia decided shortly after that to call it for the evening, just because she had already put a lot of work in and wanted to set up camp just outside the tower entrance. So she did that, and then came back the next morning to continue.

She picks up the second King Block Golem card about fifteen minutes in, and the third before another ten minutes had passed. Good start...can she keep it up though?!

Well, yes, she did, as she had the fourth card in under half an hour total time.

So now it's drop table time! I mean there's still nothing above 50, but hey.


Would you believe Aescavon had KBG listed for his Dark Willow target? When he had Mossy Snail...and Drake...needless to say, he never got it. He skipped right from Brace to Garner (which he crafted).

The drama escalated soon after that, when Celestalia, who had already received a Dark Avarice, also picked up a Red Moonlight. One more open slot remained. One card remained. Who would get the last strike?

Dark Block Golem seemed to have the last laugh with the Brown Barbee (the cylinder at the bottom left).

But that was...the last equip they dropped.


Celestalia was through the tower!! She very quickly dropped down, but something odd was happening outside. The sky became increasingly green and lowing as she went down. Indeed, something was amiss down there.

Obviously, she had to turn back. All the way back. To Victoria Island. But before she did, she had a good look at the environment that awaited her.


A new region and new struggles await. But maybe it's time to clean up some other things first...either way, how will she fare? Catch you on the other side!

 

​

PART CCXV. Shady Monday Shenanigans

Spoiler: PART CCXV. Shady Monday Shenanigans

Celestalia was bored and so decided to check in on someone that had so far escaped her knowledge: Shade. And this time, she was slightly more successful, picking up two cards.


It's still a huge problem that they have a 3 hour respawn timer, and they weren't even present on all the channels. But at least progress was happening.

For the same reason she wanted to go up to Commander Skeleton and try the very last map, the Cliff, which has almost exclusively cavalry. This was bound not to end well.


This map is...unique. Because it just ends. Celestalia didn't know where she would go if she fell. But she wasn't keen to find out. So, she noped right out of that and went back to Remains IV.

Between the two maps, she ultimately picked up two Neocora (Level 60 1H Sword), and this!


That's a Blue Linnex. The Male version. Given its acute lack of DEX, she wasn't sure Aescavon was really worthy of it. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if she just shuffled it off

She did also find some decent sniping spots, which is strange that she didn't find them in previous outings here. But now she has that for when she returns.

Overall though, no cards were to be had. So she left at what she felt was a decent stopping point:


With that, Strafe gets a slight upgrade. And now it was time to return to Kerning and check on the remaining Shades that the Rangemaiden missed the first time. None of those dropped any cards whatsoever. But the good news was that she now had the timers on the first 4 or 5 she nabbed. All she had to do was wait...maybe 45 minutes? She had some time.

As she sat waiting for the next Shade to appear, Celestalia had something on her mind. It's been bugging her for a long time, and she wasn't sure whether she had it in her to really answer it.

Similar to the start of the campaign, Celestalia felt a bit...alone. The reason? Well, it's become clear that Celestalia's guild at the moment is completely inactive. Actually, her entire alliance is inactive. She will always be deeply appreciative of Ditto for giving her a chance to make a ton of friends. But it wasn't going to last without the Auld Alliance with GangGang and crew. I don't know why it fell apart, but it really was the death knell of general activity for the guild by the looks.

Celestalia feels extremely bad about leaving dimsumbois, although her doing so wouldn't hurt anything. Even though she was a co-founder, she is only a second-tier member.

It was going to be a harrowing decision, either way. To spend, most likely, the rest of her campaign destitute of companionship...or move on from old times.

She had made that decision once before. Originally. When she left the Vereina estate. She knew it would likely be for good.

This was going to be the same.


After posting a parting speech to the guild board, Celestalia was without a bottom icon.

On Channel 2, at least, the 3 hour mark had passed and no Shade was seen. So she left.

Despite gaining a level, Celestalia felt herself being drained of energy. There seemed to be no reasonable choice in this matter. But, perhaps a round of sleep, or maybe a couple, would prove it different...

 

​

PART CCXVI. The Topside Finished

Spoiler: PART CCXVI. The Topside Finished

This was the loot from the first two Commander Skeletons Celestalia fought today. With that, there was just one more piece of cardboard left to obtain, and the Celestial Empire could claim the entirety of Victoria's overworld.

As for the drop table, look at how darn cool these things look!


WING. BOOTS. What a sleek, futuristic design! Although, if given the choice between them and a card, it's a no-brainer.


Okay, don't be fooled: That last card took a lot longer than this post would imply. Mainly because Celestalia sat down to eat dinner in the middle of that.

But hey! The entire map is green!

So pretty

Now MEANWHILE...


This was the second time Celestalia came down here today, and SIXTEEN CHANNELS had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Even complaining on Discord was no help!


So obviously Celestalia didn't want to go very far. And so she grabbed a spot in Kerning to ride out the storm of not spawning that was going on at Subway 1-4. With that, I'll fill you in on another thing that happened to her earlier this week.

Hikaria's native realm, as might be expected from her last name, is a place called 'The Aether'. It may or may not be familiar if you can pinpoint which universe it belongs to. That's besides the point. The point is, the leader of this dimension apparently arrived in the Maple World about two weeks ago. She has no name that is well known, but she tends to call herself Lady Freedom. In Maple, she's known as Eleftheria.


She definitely has a penchant for trying to take control of things, which is why she specifically wanted to pick a bone with Celestalia for the whole 'training with Hikaria' stunt. Celestalia felt she was coming as soon as she arrived outside the Nautilus. The two had a pretty intense standoff in the hallway outside the bedroom, but ultimately nothing happened. Eleftheria really didn't mean any harm.

Her intended purpose has something to do with studying outside realms and gathering knowledge. She has intentionally limited herself to Victoria Island so that she doesn't interfere with the central workings of the world. Not saying Vic isn't important, of course.

She's especially curious about how death works in this world. Celestalia described it a bit like "feeling like you're in multiple places at once", which in her case is pretty accurate. She'd be on the cloud talking to Hikaria, and also floating at the point of her incapacitation - and definitely not having anything to do with me respawning her and walking her all the way to Orbis just to set up the screenshot.

The two will probably not have much to do with each other. As a Viclock, Eleftheria can't trade with people outside Victoria (the guild), nor can she, naturally, leave the island. With Celestalia having only about six mobs left to take care of here, she won't be around all that much moving forward.

Anyway, that's all for now. In the next installment, Celestalia tackles a (slightly) easier opponent in the catacombs. Stay tuned!

 

​

PART CCXVII. Return to the Icy Underground

Spoiler: PART CCXVII. Return to the Icy Underground

It's odd, I've never had complaining on Discord be a delayed action. It usually works right from the get-go. Alas, I don't care. Shade is done. There is another potential effect of this that I haven't yet touched on, which is...well, something that when the campaign began wasn't even being taken into consideration.

Between the start of the campaign (October 2020) and today, Masteria mobs acquired their own card sets. With the Kerning City region completely subdued, it potentially opens the door for Celestalia to gain access to Masteria. Above anything else this just means more card sets, although there are some interesting drop tables to be had. Probably.

That is a discussion for much later, as it turns out there are a lot of other regions Celestalia has in mind to deal with first.

Anyway. It was earlier today that she nabbed the last three cards for Shade, and to do the same for Wild Kargo, came down to this map, which is just one past Drake's Meal Table:


That's all this is, three flat platforms with a bunch of Cold Eye and a few fast-spawning Kargo in between. Fun, although Celestalia definitely will get hit a lot in here. Good thing there are quite a few safe outcroppings scattered about.

Well, off to it then.


During the test phase of the map earlier, Celestalia picked up a Red Goldwind Shoes (Level 60 Magician). She also realized that Wild Kargo is less beefy than their level and combat prowess would indicate. The tradeoff there is that Cold Eye likes to spawn in the middle of her lane and block the shot. That equals bad times when the purple beasts come knocking. She briefly switched Strafe for Arrow Blow, thinking that she could save some MP. But it ended up not being worth the trouble.

So the Rangemaiden fought...and fought some more. Arrow Bomb brought a lot of pain to the valiant foe, and Elixir use was very acceptable. But it was an hour and ten minutes from the start of the main combat before Celestalia was on the board again.


After this she took a small break or two unwind. Despite being hit a lot, she was in a pretty good mood.

Following that she picked up what appears to have been a Kargo drop:


Blood Gigantic, Level 60 Claw. Didn't look like a particularly good one though.

It was right after that, in total about 2 hours in (~2:30 total time here) that the fourth card was dropped!

And...not that she really wants to be here for that long, but it's something!


...Well I've never heard of the color Sephia. Oh wait, did you mean Sepia? Ohhh gotcha. Sorry.

In any case, the stats wouldn't matter too much, because Celestalia just upgrades to Gold Eyes right away.

Alternatively, she can just pick up the final card TEN MINUTES LATER!!!


I am absolutely stunned. That back half of the set was not supposed to happen like that. And despite being recommended otherwise on Discord, yes this was without changing channels. Brilliant work by the Rangemaiden on this one.

Since there was a lot of time left, she took a peek at her next opponent.


Ice Drake, expectedly, does this:


Which is not very difficult to dodge.

The first card was not bad at all, only about ten minutes, if that.


The second card took another ten minutes, and SEVEN for the third. What is going on here?!

All of that and Celestalia was still on the positive side of 1100 Elixirs.

The speed of cards somehow kept increasing, the fourth card appeared in FIVE MINUTES.

Well to balance it out just a smidge. The drop table didn't have anything for Celestalia, except the Brown Choro is a DEX-based overall. But she's past the stage of going back equip tiers for that kind of bonus. (Speaking of, does anyone want that +3 Dark Savata?)

As is tradition, the last card broke the trend which was quickly and violently set.

...but not by an outrageous amount.


Which leaves Celestalia with one final Drake.


Dark Drake is basically a souped-up version of the previous one. Its projectiles are faster and do a tad more damage (mid-400s). As for the map itself, Celestalia gets her choice of either one it spawns in, Cold Cradle or Drake's Nest. Both maps have their advantages and disadvantages, but the ultimate decision will be for next time.

Celestalia left after scoping out both, and came across a fellow adventurer who fell victim to those dastardly Jr. Necki.

Odd choice of Etc. drop for the memorial, but ya gotta use what's on hand. o7

With the claw being a giant 255k, Celestalia got to 79 million mesos. Oh, and take a guess how many Elixirs she ended up with. Here's a hint: It ends in two zeroes.

Next time on Celestalia's Challenge, Dark Drake gets a true taste of Celestial power. And where might she be headed next? The answer to all of that, and more, to come! Stay tuned.

 

​

PART CCXVIII. Tip of the Horn

Spoiler: PART CCXVIII. Tip of the Horn

Celestalia figured that, to be fair, she should try the normally-designated map first. Both are similar in terms of effectiveness, or so she thought, but Cold Cradle has the more Rangemaiden-friendly map layout anyway.


It was business as usual in this last leg of the Dungeon outside of the Cursed Sanctuary. While I hesitate to call it a fair fight with how OP Arrow Bomb is, they also really enjoy knocking Celestalia off platforms. So that's even.

Here is the first card, maybe 15 minutes in or so.


Things are going a bit slower just due to how tanky Dark Drake is. And then Celestalia found a safe platform and ate dinner, or whatever the equivalent is in a typical adventurer's back pocket.

During the meal, Celestalia was reading some earlier parts of the journal, which has quickly caught up to staring at the ceiling as one of her favorite activities, and something interesting popped up. In the previous outing, she found that Wild Kargo drops the Sep(h)ia Garner. But she already had one! Mummydog drops the Oaker (also misspelled XD) Garner, which again, does not matter because she immediately upgrades to the Gold Eyes. Now, supposing she went to Mummydog after she's done here...she'd be in a pretty nice place for the next few stages of the campaign.

Back to the battle, Celestalia nabs a Red Seraphis.


Dark Drake was feeling especially generous and dropped a second Magician equip, a Level 70 Brown Lorin!


Once upon a time Aescalloss did a very brief stint in Leafre (!) at Beetle, which I think is the weakest mob there, to hunt the Dark Lorin. Take a wild guess what he ended up doing to get it.

I think they just need to keep letting Celestalia farm for everything

Dark Drake certainly agreed with that proposition!


Green Pirate Boots (Level 80!) for Thief. They're LUK +3, which is max, and 50 WDef, which is one off from max! Kaloichi will have no problem giving these a home.

Now up to this point Celestalia hadn't gotten any additional cardboard. But that changed quickly when Ice Drake surrendered a White Anakarune, and immediately after that she found Dark Drake #2.

It was another maybe 20 minutes to the next card, but nothing eventful happened in that time. Same thing for card #4 (time interval notwithstanding).

So, this ought to be an impressive drop table...right?


...I'll take it.

After a great deal more circuits around the map, Celestalia lands a great drop money-wise:


The Skylar, and then finally managed to finish things up here.


So that's it! Two mobs remain in Vic, Tauromacis and Taurospear. Neither of which I am looking forward to.

Celestalia seemingly forgot about the whole Mummydog thing and rushed onto the next boat for Orbis. No problem, there's always another day to grind for gloves. She's got much bigger things in mind...

In the next installment, some cleaning up of the Monster Book! Stay tuned.

 

​

PART CCXIX. Cards in the Mountains

Spoiler: PART CCXIX. Cards in the Mountains

It was not a very long journey, nor did it seem arduous, now that Celestalia was at last out of the dark and cold caverns of the deep dungeon.

But more importantly, huge progress in her quest to conquer the world was ready to be made.

She resumes that dream on this map:


Now, it is important to note that Black Goat also exists here, and in fact this is also the best map for it. Either way though, Celestalia by default couldn't encounter it yet. So she cannot pick up their cards if they drop them. To do that she must get the Goat set, walk back to Northern Park, then walk back here. Alright, ready go.

The first thing Celestalia gets is a White Anakamoon...because that makes sense! But at least it paid for quite a few trips over here. Then she gets a Mountain Crossbow, followed by a card.


The second card was mere minutes behind, but she wasn't able to get much after that aside from more equips for quite a while. But the next three were pretty close together.


In that time Celestalia found one Black Goat card, which is both good and bad...good because that's the only one she didn't get to pick up...bad because who knows how long she's going to be at this map in total. Black Goat does not have the best card rate, I'm sure that's obvious.

But before trying Black Goat, Celestalia went back to Ludibrium and rested for the evening. Side note here, Nearest Town scrolls do work outside the imperial boundaries.

Eventually it was finally the next afternoon, and time to head out to finish the mountain area.



It was a decent start, again about 15 minutes in.


And keeping in parallel with the previous entry, Celestalia set up camp here, and thankfully this time it wasn't in the abyss!

A looooooong break later, Celestalia resumes and lands the second card in roughly ten minutes. Or, how would Celestalia's language course put it, "カードを受けることがある" which means that the getting of cards exists

Did I mention I can't wait for Zipangu?

Anyway, Celestalia nabbed a second Mountain Crossbow with her third Black Goat card. It was still short of the hour mark (on this side of the break) when she got the fourth.

Drop table has...well, Bow ATT 60%, that's cool. But also another Adventurer Cape. Celestalia is starting to suspect that the Justice Cape is completely unobtainable.

The final time was...I guess an hour!


For four cards that are deemed pretty tricky? I'd say not terrible. Now the problem is Celestalia has to go all the way back to Victoria Island! Why? You guessed it...


These equip drops are just stuuuupid. And this isn't even all of them; after she was done with Goat, she BANKED all of her previous drops in the storage! Absolute insanity. So she'd have to skip a boat going the other way just to sort all of that out. Although, it didn't matter because she ran into a friend in the Ellinia Weapon Store, and they had a nice conversation together.

Actually, it was someone she was talking to over Smegaphone about the finer points of tortilla snacks.

Celestalia always used to like spicy food, but would probably get hopelessly lost rummaging through a spice cabinet.

As usual with new confidants, she introduced Sir to the challenge. He was impressed by the Rangemaiden's harrowing escape from the estate! But who knows whether she will meet him again...

In the next installment, it's back to Shanghai for some bovine ballistics. Stay tuned!

 

​

PART CCXX. For Proof of Grinding All Day

Spoiler: PART CCXX. For Proof of Grinding All Day

It was now time to sweep across the prairies of West Shanghai and finish off the two remaining standard mobs, Cow and Plow Ox.


This was actually in the first map (don't worry, she can access it), but worth mentioning due to the Giant Centipede. She has four cards from them now. It's a boss so I'd prefer not to get the last card until Celestalia has Tier 10. She can always come back and take care of it later.

Before she did very much in her chosen spot (Prairie II), a farmhand under contract for the owner of these lands, Mr. Yang, summoned Celestalia back to the Split Road. It seemed that Yang wanted to question the Rangemaiden about her business.

He also figured that she'd be able to help him maintain order in the region.


Celestalia figured that she might as well, if he indeed insisted.

The first task was to collect 100 Sheep skins and 100 Goat horns.


That was done in a decent amount of time, and in exchange Celestalia receives a letter to take to Officer Chu, back in town.


Chu wanted Celestalia to prove her qualifications by bringing back 100 Black Goat horns...and 100 Cow rings. So it was back to Western Prairie II.

While gathering up those items, Celestalia gets the first Cow card.


She then went to Mountainous II to get most of the Black Horns, and that also didn't take a terribly long time.

When she returned to Chu, he then asked Celestalia to obtain a Centipede marble. She killed all eight in the Prairie and had three cards drop, but no marbles. She did not pick up any of them.

The good news is that when she went again to Mountainous II, Officer Lim allowed her to enter this map!


She decided to set up camp for a while and figured she should just conquer these guys while she could. Unfortunately, she let her eyes close for a little too long and didn't get to rejoin the combat this evening.

So I guess she's staying in Shanghai for the long haul. When the action resumes, the mysterious Black Sheep takes center stage. Until then!

 

​

PART CCXXI. The Final Effort for Shanghai

Spoiler: PART CCXXI. The Final Effort for Shanghai

It's not often that Celestalia gets to get right back into the action, but thankfully with her field camp at (well, near, I suppose, the game doesn't let you login on the map) the Land of Black Sheep, she wasted no time.

Neither did Black Sheep waste any time. While their attacks hit for nearly 90 damage (significantly more than anything else Shanghai has to offer other than the big bug),


...the card rate looked promising.


Within half an hour she had four cards. And what's curious about Black Sheep in particular is that...well, they have what I'd consider a normal drop table. Blue Potion instead of Mana Elixir. ALL of their equips are 30~40. And they drop leather, which actually makes sense.

The total time was in the ballpark of 35 minutes.


Which meant it was back to Cow. And luckily, despite the map being horribly optimized, the Rangemaiden got on the board quickly there too.


The third card was also pretty fast. It helps to have a good route around the map, and preferably lots of mana potions (Admittedly she wasn't using too many of those even so)

Right after that, Plow Ox dropped their first card, which again can't be picked up yet.

No worries because the last two Cow cards were close at hand.


The power of Lightning Fingers Vereina

It's a bit early to boast though because there was one more mob to take down. Plow Ox isn't a great deal more powerful, they do have an attack, but what was worrisome were two things. First their card rate didn't seem great, and two this map isn't as good for having an optimal route:


There are also still regular Cows here, making things possibly worse than Prairie II. Celestalia anticipated that she'd revert back to that pretty quickly.

The one saving grace here is that the top platform is full Plow Ox, and while this first card didn't drop there, it surely won't be cardless for too much longer.


Cards are certainly slower here, but not by too much. That's offset by the really good drops coming from these guys, particularly scrolls. Celestalia got a Cape INT 10% while working on the Cow set, then here picked up a Wand MAtt 10%! This latter scroll is in the high six figures. She will definitely try the Cape one when she finds a Justice Cape...still empty radar on that one...

By the time she had three cards, the total session was still under an hour and a half. And the fourth card was just minutes behind.

But she couldn't just get away without getting mud thrown in her face, can she.


TWO ADVENTURER CAPES?!! WHAT is the meaning of this!!!

Is it THAT DIFFICULT for ONE SINGLE THING to drop a Justice Cape???

...You know what, nevermind. It is time to say farewell to this region.


Despite that supreme trolling by the drop table, 14 cards in 1:30 is an insane sequence. And there is a slight chance that a new region will just have been unlocked. A region I've personally been waiting for for a long time.

Of course, Celestalia needs to wait for official approval from Spinel to actually get there. Probably she will have to wait for next weekend. In the meantime, there is one other small area I reckon some progress can be had.

That progress will be covered in the next installment. Stay tuned!

 

​

PART CCXXII. After the Forgotten Glove

Spoiler: PART CCXXII. After the Forgotten Glove

I'll be honest, when I wrote the blurb at the end of the last entry I was thinking of Korean Folk Town. But as Celestalia was laying over in Victoria for the evening, a certain brown-tinted hand covering was calling her name:


Heck yeah! It's about time she gets an equip upgrade. It's been half a year since the last one. Of course she actually needs to, well, have it show up on screen.

The map she is hunting on is Remains Tomb III, which again is the recommendation from the Efficient Farming Guide. This is a great map because of the castle in the pic above, they bunch up and she can hit both platforms with both Bomb and Rain from basically anywhere on the castle.

Equip drops themselves are going to be a little trickier. This was the first one, a Brown Jangoon Pants.


An improvement was quickly made though, with the Brown Moon Gloves.


It also became crystal clear that Celestalia was going to make a tidy profit here in terms of Elixirs. So this was by no means a wasted effort.

Around the time she got to 80% on the level, she stopped to get lunch having gained around 10 of those. At this moment she discovered she had picked up a second Brown Moon Gloves at some point

A LONG time later, like an hour almost, the next equip fell...another Glove...Level 60 also...


...The Bronze Clench.

Never heard of it, but obviously its express purpose is to troll the Rangemaiden.

Okay, what is behind Glove door #3??


UGGGGGGHHHH.

Yeah, and she would get a second one of these too, not long after that. So that's FIVE BROWN GLOVES that aren't the Garner.

The next one wasn't even a glove, it was a Brown Piettra.

After a whopping 3.25 hours of swinging, and missing, Celestalia had seen enough. At least for the afternoon. She wasn't going anywhere quite yet.


More points to Strafe which again lifts it by another 6% per arrow. A few more of those and it should be strong enough to contend with the other major blockers. Celestalia is also seriously considering investing in Puppet, which, while it would temporarily hamper her offensive capabilities, the fact that she won't be risking her life in assaults against, say, the Tauros, is pretty neat.

She is at least going to wait until Strafe would get more expensive in MP. For the moment, it remains 26 per shot.

After emptying her inventories, relaxing for a bit, and eating dinner, she was soon back to the action. And the first drop, obtained within the first five minutes, was:


Brown Leather Ocean Hat (Level 50). And that was followed by a Brown Piette Pants. So in disgust Celestalia went off to the FM for a quick 3 hour-or-so nap.

She woke up and spent some time shooting the breeze in the FM - literally:

I forgot that crossbow Strafe has five arrows...

Came back, and got a third Bronze Pow along with a White Calas.

The good news is that Celestalia surpassed 1100 Elixirs once again. So most of the Kargo/Drake fighting has been, to an extent at least, completely negated.

As the number in the Page Up window increased, even more equips came through. Many of them were from Skeledog, so kind of irrelevant, but Celestalia also picked up a Blue Calaf from Mummydog. So out of 14 total equip drops, she's retrieved nine of them already. One multiple times.

That number didn't go up very quickly, but she did pick up another Pirate hat and then a second Bronze Clench.

Eventually #10 arrived...the Red Jangoon Armor.

So Celestalia went to 20% (you can see the kind of speed she's working with here) and lost interest in continuing for the evening. It was not without lack of trying - it's been a while since Celestalia spent five whole hours in a day grinding for one equip. And she plans to go out again tomorrow, and probably spend a similar amount of time!

Note the Bronze Clench also drops from Skeledog, but in the thick of combat it's sometimes hard to say which mob dropped it.

All this for the most inconsequential equip in the lineup. If you don't like that, you don't like Celestalia MapleStory.

See you in the next installment for Part 2 of this titanic battle!

 

​

PART CCXXIII. Mummy Madness Marches On

Spoiler: PART CCXXIII. Mummy Madness Marches On

Madness indeed. This is going to be EXACTLY like Blue Mushroom, isn't it.

So what's left...Brown Moon Pants and the Mithril Brist. Then the trolling is complete.

Mummydog really wanted to get that project finished.


And they dropped a second one not too long after that. That was it for the first hour of play.

Their next glove is...THE THIRD BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON Mithril Brist! Which was very quickly followed by a Red Jangoon Armor (2) and a White Calas (2)

Then, after Skeleton Soldier dropped a Red Anakarune, a third Jangoon Armor, followed by...YOU GUESSED IT...


So two hours into the session, the Rangemaiden's inventory is already halfway full, and the Garner is the only drop that remains. Well, there's still plenty of time...right??

Just a few minutes later, Bronze Clench #3 arrives. So that's...what, eleven gloves and no Garner.

A whole forty minutes later lies the fourth Mithril Brist. OF THE DAY. Again in disgust, Celestalia noped off to the FM for another break. She was just as unlucky on the other side, her first drop being a Bronze Pow...also #4.

Finally, after Celestalia had come all the way up to nearly 54%, a Bowman equip finally dropped...do you suppose it was the one she's been looking for?

...



...At least she has over 12 stacks of Elixirs?

Alright, obviously, this wasn't the time to come get the Garner. For lack of getting a new banner, Zipangu will unfortunately have to wait. Next stop: Korean Folk Town. But since it's been a while since the last time I did it, time for a check in on the Gachapon exploits. In the last outing, Aescalloss (unbeknownst to Celestalia) cashed in one of her tickets for a Chaos Scroll! Will he have the same success this time?

Common

• Stump Eraser
  
• 1HBW Accuracy 60%
  
• Cape DEX 60%
  
• Earrings DEF 30%
  
• Face Avoid 10%
  
• Overall STR 10%
  
• Dark Patriot (Level 70 Bowman Hat)
  
• Earring DEX 60%
• 1HBW ATT 60%
• 1HBW ATT 60% (Yes, two in a row...seriously )
• The Blessing (Level 60 2H Mace)
• Mapleade (2)
• Sap of Ancient Tree (10)
• Megassenger
• Speed Potion (7)
• Cape INT 10%
• Earring DEX 10%
• Fat Sausage (3)
• Shield DEF 30%
• Topwear DEF 10%

Rare

• Shoes Jump 60%
  
• 2HBW ATT 70%
• Face Avoid 60%
• 1H Sword MAtt 60%
• Gloves MAtt 30% (!)
• Gloves DEX 70%

FANTASTIC pull with the Glove MA 30. Everything else is mediocre but some of it can be of decent utility. Best of luck to whoever eventually purchases this scroll.

For the rest, see you next weekend when the card hunting resumes!