Illbean's HP Challenge Journal

So I don't really know how people go about these things, so i'ma just wing it all the way and see what happens.

I'm keeping this journal for a few reasons.

• Something that I can look back at to see where my first ever high-lv journey has taken me in Maplestory
• Provide some possibly good insight to the the Staff team on how a "new" player interacts with the system without the use of a guide.
• Provide entertainment to other possible readers.

So just to set things straight. I'm doing the HP challenges for the very first time. I've never read a guide about them, I've only seen them mentioned and spoken about in whispers, often followed by Krythan telling people to wash their characters. When I brought up the idea of writing this, I was smacked in the face with positive input, encouraging me to do so.
Shout out to (discord names) Krythan, rikoyuusaki, (clam), Nights and Soblet.
However! Since i'm a filthy casual I'll remain dirty (unwashed) and just do the challenges instead because I dislike the entire notion of washing.

So again to clarify:

• This is my first ever highlv character in any version of Maplestory. I'm 105 Priest.
• I've not read nor will I read any guides on how to do the HP challenges.
• I have so far spoken to people in discord and in game for some hints when I've been stuck. More info on this later on in the journal.

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Chapter 1 - Starting the HP Challenges.

I hit lv 100 after some grinding on Gallos mid "Summer" event that started in fall.
I was thinking that maybe I should go and do it right away, but I decided against it because at the time I was busy grinding with a partner and I would feel bad leaving them alone.
A little time passed and we've all been struggling with some DDoS attacks and i've not been wanting to play. Eventually I did get back into it and thought about the challenges again but put them on hold. Why? Because I would have to actually leave Gallos / Himes to go to Lith Harbor, and that would take me 2 VIP rocks (1 away and 1 back to Gallos) and I'm a cheapskate.

I then managed to hit 105 and since my partner had DCed I decided that it's time to start my adventure. I wanna get this big MP increase after all. I've noticed how much it helps to have Hyper Body with the summer dish on, and so now I want to have more MP all the time.

I now made my way to Lith Harbor and talked to Rosa. I'm deadset on reading all of the text that our lovely staff has provided us, especially since I don't wanna use a guide.

I get some instructions, screenshot them for fear of not being able to read them again (spoiler, I can). I talk to Vikin and to Grendel. Apparently I need to deal 50mil of dmg with Shining Ray, i'll do that passively as I work on the rest (I hope that it's enough).
After having had Vikin take me to KC and then into the sewers I was met with my first enticing puzzle. Find the coins / loot on the ground.

I searched and I searched. Oh boy did I search...
I ran through all 3 of those first sewer maps because those were specified in the quest. I went on every single platform and killed tons of mobs, tried pressing up at any place it seemed logical. To be fair, I did find a new area, got some challenge point or something idk. Hidden Street: Snek (not the actual name).

After having gone through all these maps meticulously on every single channel, I felt defeated. Especially since it was still so early and i've made 0 progress. I went to Discord asking for a minor hint. Tayls told me to "look around with your cursor". And so I did, I started drawing small circles along the ground and on the second map I did find something. Excited I clicked, got my thing and returned. Now it was a little talk quest, go back to Lith Harbor and then to Perion, time to talk to Dances with Balrogs.

Why does he have to be so vague????

100% accurate retelling of my conversation with DwB:
DwB: You do not impress me little bean. A puny spellcaster cannot be a true warrior. Piss off.
Illbean: Pwease mister dancer sir. Vikin told me to check on his treasure.
DwB: Bruh. He told me to not let any1 pass but him. Show me that you've "The Soul of a Warrior" and I might consider letting you pass.

Puzzled again, I started to think. What in the world can "The soul of a warrior" even mean!?
Then my genius activated, thanks to all the Int i've invested with my AP. Soul of a warrior, that must mean some type of buff. MAPLE WARRIOR!!
I ran to FM, got MW buff from some guy who wanted a fame for it. I obliged.
I exitedly returned to DwB and he told me to piss off once more.
WHAT THE FUCK!? I have the LITERAL soul of a maple warrior!!!
WhateverIdontCare.png
Must be some other Warrior buff i think, but the I remember that Pages / White Knights don't party buff. Screw it, I log my 51 Spearman and HB myself. Didn't work. I tried the following...:

• Maple Warrior
• Iron Will + Hyper Body
• Equipping a random lv10 sword
• Warrior Potion from the shop

Then a lv30 Swordsman arrives through the portal, he jobadvances, becomes a spearman. Surely this guy must carry the wisdom of what it means to have the Soul of a Warrior, so I ask him.
To my surprise, he actually responds!
"It's in the heart, and in the mind"
So now i'm thinking, ofc it is...
But wait, my genious has not yet forsaken me. Warriors go BONK, surely I must defeat a great foe.
"Do you mean the heart and brain of a Balrog?"
"Yes, you must eat them" He said.

I knew I was the greatest mastermind in the world. So I hurried away to the Sactuary where the Balrog awaits, updating the people on the discord about my thoughts and plans. Nightz is in despair because he knows i'm on the wrong path, but I'm overtaken by hubris and so I rightfully ingore the staff member who clearly knows a lot more about this than I do.
I reach the Balrogs resting place, but there's competition. I hurry to check all the channels as fast as I can, but there's 0 Balrogs to be found and I don't know the timer. I sit down to wait and a 3rd guy shows up asking if I know the timer. I tell him no and explain my situation. He understands that I don't want him to tell me the correct answer, so he just tells me i'm not supposed to be here and smiles when i tell him about my backup plan to get Drake Blood / Drake Meat (surely that must be what makes a a "True Warrior Soul").

Nightz has reached his limit about now and adivices me to ask around in Perion what it could mean to have a true warrior soul.

Reluctantly I decide to take his advice because I noticed that I had a long way to travel to reach any drakes because I took a very wrong turn (town portal back to Sleepy Wood and no other scrolls available to other towns).

That brought me to Blackbull who then told me about how to go about to aqquire an amulet that would prove to DwB that I do indeed have the SoUl oF a TrUe WaRrIoR.

I'm now in the process of grinding Red Drakes. Please don't grief me.

 

Continuing: Chapter 1 - Starting the HP Challenges.
I've now found the Fierce Fang and brought it to Sophia.
I was given a very specific instruction of which order this fang should be infused with elixirs. Afraid of misremembering, I screenshotted every single instruction to make sure I cannot go wrong.
At first it seemed like it would be a lot of grinding, telling me I needed the "quickness of a wild hog" and then "agility of a nimble monkey". I thought this could be an easy grind. The hog might even be the one i've spotted in the Free Market already.
Nope, she continues...
Keen eye of a sharp eagle. Where the fuck would i find eagles???
Strength of a hunter. Ummm.... What? What's going on, just a normal warrior potion? Dexterity Potion? Am I missing something?
WISDOM OF THE ANCTIENT GODS!?!?! WHAT THE FUCK SOPHIA.
I'm scared of the stronger Leafre mobs, and you want me to somehow distill the wisdom of the ancient gods down into a potion!?!?
I was feeling defeated once more. I accepted my defeat and clicked next...
"I've got all the potions here for you to purchase, just speak to me when you're ready to begin".


I just took some time to take all of this in, started updating the journal, sent my dad a text for unrelated reasons. Now i'm DCed again and so it's a good time to keep writing.

After getting back, i purchased 1 of every stat potion from the potion shop, i figured that 5 different potions would equate to the 5 different things that she was talking about.
It was correct. I then got a rather interesting UI where I now had to remember the order and figure out which would equate to what.


Since I had screenshotted the instructions before, this was a rather easy step, the rest of the quest was just talking and then finally getting entrance to the treasure room.
It's a lot of talking, some mystery being built up. I like it!
Now i'm being sent away to Henesys to talk to Jay and I gotta say that i'm surprised with all of these additional maps, cuz now Jay teleports me to a library out of nowhere, this is pretty sick.
It seems to have turned into some kind of treasure hunt now where I need to gather ingredients, but at the very least I'm being reconnected with some old NPCs all over the place, I like it

I'm told to gather some type of mushroom that's supposed to grow at the highest tops of Ellinia forrest, so i'm guessing it's somewhere in "The Tree that Grew".
Yup! There it is, the entrance to the dungeon!! I'm feeling relieved that my intuition is leading me in the correct path.
Bringing back the mushroom caps to Wing the Fairy reveals that the recipe is actually fake, so I've no wasted a screenshot on my computer, that's time i'm never getting back, thanks Wing...
However, he did mention that it served a purpose, and that's having every1 interested in crafting the potion having to turn to him, which makes it so that he knows everyone who has crafted the potion. So now starts the quest of actually finding the culprit.

Time to start grinding for some materials!

I like the touch of 1 Lemon, like apparently that's going to be a big deal when throwing in literally 200 turtle shells and 100 tails & claws, not to even mention the 200 whatever the frog.
Like what? 1 Lemon? Does that little squirt really do so much? Hey, i'm not the alchemist, so what do I know.

Having to return to the Maladys, I now got to re-experience some of the pain when I farmed them for cards. 0/10 cannot recommend. However, doing so gave me the chance to also farm some Zombie Lupins for the quest i found that I didn't know existed, so that's nice.
While killing some of these, I stumbled upon a rare oddity that i've never experienced before. 1 mob dropped 2 equips. A Nine Dragons (74 WA) and an Arc Staff (62MA). Nine Dragons would've been useful if I hadn't accidentally leveled my Spearman from 50->51 in a BPQ. But hey, it is what it is and the show must go on!
Moving on the the Curse Tails is nice, because I remember them also being in the trees here in Ellinia, and so I got another chance to take in the amazing soundtrack that is "Missing You". Gosh it's so relaxing.
Apparently, it's also good for business, becuase during the first 10minutes of farming there i've been contacted by 2 individuals wanting to buy Summer flags from me. And since I've a master bargainer, I managed to move the price from the initial offer of 5mil down to 4mil.

Second guy I'm still in a heated bargain with and we'll see where the final price lands.
He was a little tougher, I managed to coerce him with a nice offer since he was planning on getting a weaker version for a lesser price, but with my charm and wit I got him as my customer instead. How is all of this related to the HP Challenge? Either way...

Gathered up all the materials, apparently this fairy couldn't tell me who the culprit was, nor could he even help me craft this amazing potion. So much for speaking so highly of himself all the time.
Oh, there's ANOTHER person who knows the recipe as well... Why didn't he say so from the start? Where is this Arel person even located? Why is water blue? Who knows...
Lets go back to Sophia.

She gave me another crafting minigame where I had to screenshot the instructions beforehand. I don't know if I would have to refarm all the materials if I had missclicked, but I'm not ready to find that out.
With potion in hand, I'm now supposed to try and sneak past DwB... This does feel like it can go wrong and i'm really nervous about it. Like, the quest does tell me to do so, but idk the duration, is it like 10sec? 1min? Who knows, not me, that's for sure.
Please don't send me back to the Maladys.... So of course I plan my path, I stand on the hidden portal so that I don't have to worry (I hope that works, because Sophia mentioned that he shouldn't notice me before).

It's basically a dead end now. Time to start brainstorming.

1. First idea, check back with Wing to see if there's any more leads.
2. Secondly, since i've learned from Nightz, it might be a good idea to talk with NPCs in the town, so I'll start with the Ellinia NPCs. I feel like I remember Arel from somewhere, but I cannot place her. I do remember when doing another quest with a fairy that fairies see humans as below them, quite racist faeries but ok. So surely Arel should be a fairy.
   
3. A quick search on the MapleLegends Library gave no pictures, but it did give a location "Dungeon: The Tunnel That Lost Light II". That will be the third option since I feel it would be a little against the spirit of the challenge otherwise.

Talking to Wing was a great idea, he did have a follow up quest leading me to... *drumroll* SLEEPYWOOD! Apparently she aint a fairy. I should talk to Vikin to find out more, and that sounds like a good idea.

Jr. Balrogs are now back on the menu it seems, at least at first glance, not as a proof of my WaRrIoR SoUl, but for something else. So now it's destination deep into sleepywood once more. I do recall encountering portals that I've been unable to enter before, maybe this is what I needed to to be able to explore these sealed chambers.

Neither of them worked, so now I'm hunting for a Jr. Balrog.
I've now killed 3 Jr. Balrogs, 2 dropped NOTHING and the 3rd dropped nothing of note. This cannot be it then. I'll check with the guys in Sleepywood, and if they've nothing to say i'll check that Tunnel that lost light place. I passed it before but saw 0 NPCs so I decided to just pass through.

Checking Sleepywood gave nothing at first glance, so I decided to run through the entire deep end of Dungoen finding nothing, then I take another look at the questlog and it says to talk to the NPCs in Sleepywood... I mean, I went around and checked for any lightbulbs, but there were none. Good thing i'm a priest (Dimension Door, fuck yea!) so that I can easily come back into the depths.

THE MYSTERIOUS STATUE!? REALLY!!
I kept bouncing back and forth with my Dimension Door because I didn't want it to run out (it's only lv4 :kek and I talked to every NPC except for the Mysterious Statue, I even went into the Reg AND VIP sauna, but there was nothing.
Sabitrama was like: "Bruh, I'm busy with... stuff... yea. Talk to other people" and so I did, I talked to every1 in town, except for that stupid statue... Well, at least I've still got more Magic Rocks and I can always get more. Time to see where this Arel person really is then, show me we you've got Sabitrama.

AHA! IT IS DEEP IN THE DUNGEON!! I'm so glad I managed to keep my Door up despite all the text going by. I really wanted to read it all but i'm a slow reader lol, but I did manage. Now... Ant Tunnel was mentioned though, so maybe it would be best to start with a VIP Taxi? Nah, i'm already deep AF in the dungeon, so I'll go from the other way. Lets see what happens. Sure, i've been wrong before, but surely this time.

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I've literally walked the entire path from "Drakes Nest" all the way to Ant Tunnel 1, making sure to check all the spots I could find if there was someting special there that I should enter or click. As soon as I arrived into Ant Tunnel 1, I get a quest above my head. FML.

*Resounding applause*
This chase sequence, while I didn't get to see the NPC running in front of me, was still cool and epic feeling. I really liked it. I'm glad I had the mount since it felt like it helped me move around quicker. Sure TP is amazing for a long of things (such as wiping after a long restroombreak) but here with this type of navigation I feel like mount was better tbh.
What does annoy the shit out of me though, which has nothing to do with the questline, is that NOW I have to kill the Jr. Balrog. I've been there 2 times already, and killed 3 of them, cmon man... At least now I found out why the library said that she was found in The Tunnel that lost light 2, because technically that's where u find her. I'm just happy I decided to follow the quest and such and not simply stare myself blind on the website because "THE WEBSITE SAYS SHE'S HERE!!". I'll take that as a victory because I didn't actually get proper use of that information.


That's an OOF...
I thought I was gonna kill a Jr. Balrog (again...) but nope, now it's a big grind infront of me instead.


I've spent some hours killing all the drakes now. However, it's now 3am and I wanna sleep. I'll post this update and continue grinding this tomorrow. So far it wasn't a pleasant grind what so ever. As i've pointed out in the discord, this was really deflating, because the quest was epic up until this point where it just slaps a generic "grind these shitty mobs for a very long time". I'm still gonna push through, it just sucks that it's there when the rest is so good.

 

Continuation of the grind.

I had gotten word from a guy called David and he said that I should be happy that they've buffed the droprate of these items, because when he did it, unluckily 4 days before the buff, he had spent 8h being "super efficient with flashjump and channel hopping". I was not looking forward to doing this since I had no clue how much different it would be for me as a priest with nothing but Shining Ray to my name.
Apparently it was a breeze. I think I spent 1h20min at most and I got all 10. Is this the result of the buff or am I just lucky? I don't know and I don't really care. But it felt like it was well balanced tbh. It wasn't that tedious and it felt like I was searching for something rare and impactful for the quest without it being dragged out for a huge amount of time.

Returning to the spirit boi I was now granted access to the Jr. Balrog. Now, finally 3rd times the charm!! However, I was still a little skeptical, because during my time farming in the same channel, I had seen the same DK running past me TWICE, in and out of the Sactuary where the Balrog spawns. What if the Balrog was killed on all channels? Would I have to wait 3h just to fight him. Urgh... I hope for good luck on this one. If not, i'll do some more card hunting. I believe i'm very close to T4. I've got my book at lv6 and 192 cards. It must be spread thin or something idk lol.

I enter the sactuary and I look for the message of the boss spawn, and I see a totally different message?? Ok? What's this?
I jump down and there's the Balrog, lucky me! I then notice the 10min timer and thus realise that the devs have been really smart about this part and made sure that people wouldn't have to compete with other HP challengers or Boss Farmers. Thank Grendel the Really Old.
That's a swift kill because holy damage. Talk to spirit, TP to Perion, hand in the treasure, talk to Vikin, have the game decline my ability to become a pirate despite having way more than 200 PPQ runs under this characters belt, never lucky I guess. This is also the point where I use the !challenges command to see what has happened to my quest and only now do I actually notice the "Next" button and see all of the minor optional challenges. I'm pleasantly surprised and have found new goals of things that I wanna do in the game. I believe I must do some of them to actually turn complete my T1 challenge, because Rosa is standing next to me refusing me my reward. At the very least Vikin had the presence of mind to reward me handsomely with 5mil for my troubles.

I'll consider this part of the journal now completed. I don't feel the need to update on side quests such as "complete 3 jump quests" or "pass 10 of any 100% scrolls", especially not the "use 20 Owls of Minerva". Some of these are gonna complete themselves in time, but for now my adventure is finished until the next chapter comes along.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read, and a massive thank you to all the devs for making these challenges possible and adding all of this content. I am very pleased with my desicion to go against Krythan and stay dirty, at least for my first time.

 

"Looking for Group, Salute Emote"????
Or am i gravely misundertanding you? xD

 

I've played too much World of Warcraft Classic it seems...

 

Chapter 2 - Tier 2 and the push to 120

I've now reached lv115 and while I've managed to do some new content with my new guild, including Papalatus and Bigfoot. I've always been under the impression that the next challenge would be at 120, not 110 or 115 (whichever it is, I assume 110). With so much content at my feet and the burning desire to accquire my Genesis spell I've completely forgot about checking the HP Challenges if they were were available to me yet, after all, I was under the impression it was 120 for next tier. But after having been fooled, tricked and possibly even blackmailed (i've not been blackmailed, but it adds intrigue to the story) I went back to kill Papalatus with my 2 guildies only to find out that I still do not get XP from 2nd body... I was told way before that once I hit 115 I would, but no. Pap 2nd body is 125 so no XP for me.

Feeling a little lost I decided that since I had manage to make my way to Ellinia, why not just pay a visit to Lith Harbor, I mean, if there's a new tier, there is. If not? Well, that's just 1k meso and 2min of my time.
Lo and behold! Rosa has a new quest for me again!
I've already been spoiled a little on what's to come from my conversations on discord, i know that now there's an even bigger killquest awaiting me and I was always under the impression that I would need 120 and thus have access to Genesis. That wasn't the case apparently.
So I chitchat some with this nice lady who's for some reason collecting stories like a bard from any fantasy universe, and she now tells me to travel to Aqua Road of all places and to once again talk to Grendel the god damned really Old. I'm thinking in my head, what can he have for me now? I've already dealt 50mil dmg with my only real damage ability, what more can there be for me to do?
Turn stuff into snails...
That's what I gotta do.
There's only 1 problem though, I've not a single point in Doom and i'm 115. I need to reach 116 to get my 1 point of Doom which I'll get either way by the time I hit 120, so might as well get it now and stock up on a bunch of rocks cuz boi will I need them.
500 mobs with a 50% successrate is quite a lot of rocks. Of course I'll visit a dense place, either where the Evil Eyes are or Henesys Hunting Grounds. I might even go to golems, they're big, easy to hit and they're in great numbers with other mobs nearby.

I decided that before I continue I must check up on what new optional challenges I've aqquired.

• Spend 10mil on NPC items
• Increase Pet Loyalty but a metric ton
• Defeat Capt. Latanica 10x. (Idk really know who that is, but I think I know. The Ghost Ship right? Never fought him.)
• Pass 10 of any 60% scrolls (easy )

So some of these are OK, very easy even. The 10mil NPC item was good to see now because I've remembered seeing something about Bishops wanting to buy a scroll from Vega the scroll selling in Ludi tower, that just happens to cost 10mil, so that's what I instantly bought. Do I actually need it? I've no clue... Idk what it is but I'll find out in due time (I hope).

ALRIGHT! Travel to Aquaroad with my new method that I've been taught recently.

1. Do Bartos quest in Nautilus
2. Get tickets
3. Buy more tickets because Guild wants to GPQ, Bigfoot and Pap all the freaking time and I've a difficult time saying no.
4. TP to Omega Sector (poggers!)
   
5. Use Eos scrolls that I've accquired through my questing and get to Ludi.
6. Sprint to Aqua Road

Alright Muse, what you got for me?
Your... Albatross flew away... from the aquarium???
Alright, I feel like it's better to not ask questions and just do as instructed. Search the nearby islands around the aquarium.
Ok, right. Islands.
??????
I open the world map and I look at the two whales. Bruh, those aren't islands, they're whales! It cannot be them. Start swimming around in the town because there must be something here right? This is what's nearby the aquarium after all. I move my mouse around and search with nothing being found. I think maybe it's inside after all, those platforms where the zoo animals are running. Aah, of course! I'm so smart. Literally 5Head.
Nothing... Aight, what do I do now? Well, lets just check the whales then, it shouldn't be them because they're not islands, they're animals.
Check the east one with the palms, nothing. Mouse gives nothing and the dude has no quest for me either. Talk to him to make sure. Nope, nothing.
TP back, check other side. Mouse movement galore gives nothing. See that she has a quest just like usual.
Meh, i've done her quests back in the day on GMS, they're not any fun... But, now that i'm here, might as well just pick them you know, 10k XP is 10k XP after all.
See 2 quests I don't recognize. First one is mentioning an albatross.
Omg... This is it isn't it...
Yup, it is. Tasked with gathering some pearls or whatever, can be found in the sunken chests and ofc I have to do the swimming because she won't leave her huskies alone. Maybe I wanna be alone with your doggies? I do have Follow the Lead so I think I can handle a few more pets than just 3, maybe that's coming in a few patch or so, idk yet. Gotta ask Kimmy.
I start to think about the chests that are in the water. Surely, because this is a high lv quest, the chests must be the ones in the deep parts. The dangerous part, the parts that you're meant to visit when u're a higher level.
I go down, take quite a few hits, but nothing that my now big manapool cannot stomache with the help of Invincible. Break like 15-20 chests and nothing.
Wow, they've really put a low drop rate on these huh?
You know, lets just TRY to break the normal chests, I doubt it's them but who knows, there might be something.
I break 3 chests and then something drops, it's not a pearl, but some kind of paper thingy. My loyal pets loot it for me and I get a quest update. Ooh, it's the advice quest for pet closeness! Ooh yea, I need these, might as well continue breaking some boxes then so I can do that quest. After all, I am actually here now. As I keep breaking these chests I eventually see a new update in the quest tracker. I've found a pearl! Really? These chests are the correct chests after all? Well, thank you random quest for making me stay and hit these bois.
Gather them all up and head back to [Husky Island Inc™] to hand in the quest. That stupid ass bird just flies away... "Hopefully back to Muse". Ok, I see, this is how the quest is gonna be then. I keep chasing this god damned feathery beast all across Ludus Lake, into El'Nath, brawl a little with Zakum maybe and then finally he understands to go back to his... aquarium??????
Return to Muse, rizz her up some. "I got Lil Albert right here "
Ok? So no Zak Brawl then I guess? What will now happen then?

"A Feast for Lil Albert". That's the next quest name ("A feast for Albatross" is the actual name)...
So he just flew away, caused me to waste a bunch of time to basically buy his freedom, then he shows me that he could just fly back anytime he wanted and wasn't trapped by any stretch of the imagination, and now you want me to prepare him a FEAST!?
Oh god... I need to bring Lil Albert with me and feed him. I have a feeling that he's gonna "run" away again. I think I'll put this on hold for now and just get 116 so I can Doom while I doompost about my adventure with Lil Albert.

I'll see you all in the next installment, Chapter 2 continued.


This is the Albatross that you're supposed to feed, I named him Lil Albert in the story.


Here's how I picture Lil Albert in my story.

 

Continuing Chapter 2 - Tier 2 and the push to 120

So by now i've finally made it to lv 120, i'm finally here!
Now I can finally taste the fruits of how a REAL mapler plays the game and take on all kinds of new stuff, no longer shall I remain shackled to my Shining Ray to deal decent damage, no, I shall ascend to become a bishop and rain down holy rays from the sky!

After getting some input from my guildmaster that maybe I should visit El'Nath to start my 4th job journey I did. I then proceeded to do everything the NPCs told me to do, wash their laundry, clean their dishes, vanquish the evil foes that try to break through their door. Small and easy tasks.
When I eventually found the 4tj job instructed in Leafre, whom I've literally never seen because I've not been spending time in Leafre even though it's a cool zone, I got the option of either bruteforcing my way to get the medals or solve it with wisdom and intelligence. Obviously I like to pretend to be smart so I went to the Chief and the conversation went a little something like this:

Chief: "Oi, pipsqueek! If you want these two medals right here, go and buy this super expensive scroll that can only be found in an incredibly inconveninently placed location!"
Me: "Oh, you mean this scroll that I've purchased because some person on the internet in a youtube video said that it was going to be useful?"
Chief: "Yes, that's the good stuff" *Takes my scroll and rolls up a joint*
Chief: "Here you go, two medals, give them to that chick you've been seeing lately, she'll promote you or something.

And so I went back, became a Bishop, noticed that I only had 3 available skills, learnt Angel Ray cuz I had that already, took her quest and got MW (nice).
I contacted the guys doing the free Genesis and got a scheduled time, meanwhile I did as many Bishop skill quests as I could. The time came and Verdict the Amazing came to aid and basically just gave me Genesis (sure I had to do some stuff beforehand, but man that service is so nice...). She basically made me swear an oath to protect the meek and helpless and also only eat pizza maximum once per week (Nah, but she did ask me pass the favor on to new Bishops in the future when I asked if I could tip her, bless her kind heart).

Now with Genesis in hand, i feel that i could finally actually progress the HP Challenges, because I knew there was a massive grind quest ahead of me and I didn't even wanna try to do it without Genesis at my disposal.
Alright! Time to gather up a feast for Lil Albert! Apparently, he actually didn't run away. He stayed by my side the entire time, ate all the fishies I cought for him. Eventually I learned that there were 4 different kinds of fish (instead of 3) to be caught, which sped up the process a little bit. It was a nice change of pace, it was easy yet mildly entertaining. Returning with Lil Albert I came to understand that he was sad to leave my side.
He's such an adorable little birb and it was a little sad to see him sad, but oh well. I've got max mana to get so he can be sad.
I take the next quest and now it's time to go out and explore, because apparently, Lil Albert is bored out of his mind. Who could've thought, he's locked up in a zoo/aquarium. So now I'm once again on guard duty for Lil Albert while we're out and about exploring the depths of the sea and what it can offer us. This did take some time because you needed to click some things to point them out to Albert, I was a little unsure how it all was supposed to work, but once I got the entrance to Korean Folk Town I realised that OK. This is what they mean by exploring the tailend of the Aqua Road. TP back to town, go to the other side, show Lil Albert the orbis tower. He's in awe at the marvelous wonder before him, but he cannot speak because he's underwater. Also, he's a bird.
Now I'm thinking that I'm done with the quest. Nope, there's no completion popup. Hmm... Then there must be something more to show him somewhere. I've not showed him the deep sea yet, maybe there's something to show him?
I equip my scuba gear and show Lil Albert around, we check up on Carta, beat up some sharks, pick our teeth with fishbones, we even pay Pianus a visit but there's nothing happening. I cannot find anything to click and so I'm like:
"Well the quest did say the outskirts of Aqua Road, this isn't really the outskirts per say..." And so I TP back to town and begin to scour every inch of the other maps. Then I finally find something with my mouse! I click it faster than I've ever clicked before!
Nothing happens... Is it a bug? Try dismissing Albie and click again "You should show this to Lil Albert".
Wut...?? But I just had him out with me and nothing happened. Ok, summon him again from my pokeball, click the thingy. Nothing happens, still no text or anything.
I call up mah boi Nightz on discord.
Me: "Yo, Nightz, is this quest bugged or something? It says I gotta explore with Albie but when he's wit me nothing happens"
Nightz: *Laughs and hangs up*
Me: *Calls him up again*
Me: "Nightz! Is it bugged or not!?"
Nightz: "Yea boi, we got u real good, that's a fake one :SneckSmug:"


Then both Mirror and Clam chimes in with their own :SneckSmug:.

I decide to keep searching diligently, scouring the maps for anything, but nope. There's nothing to be found.
Alright, it's gotta be somewhere in the deep, it just has to be! I dive once more and now I make sure to check EVERYTHING.
I reach the sharkies and Pianus cave. My mouse is out for blood. Next to the cave entrance my cursor lights up. NEXT TO THE CAVE!! Not the actual cave, nooooo.... NEXT TO THE CAVE.
Now Albie is pleased. Now he has seen enough for one lifetime. Port backt to Muse, give her back her cutsie tutsie Lil Albert. He's basically throwing a tempertantrum at this point because he doesn't wanna be here with the boring peepz, he wanna be with me, the cool uncle.
Muse, unable to face the reality of Lil Albert, starts to rationalize that there must be some kind of curse affecting Lil Albert and that I should check on Carta the Witch. Aight, whatever you say Muse, whatever you say...
I go and talk to Carta, she's as skeptical as I am, but hey, at least she gets some company now I guess. She sends me out on that god forsaken grind quest for 4997 mobs that will require me to kill 999 mobs that have a 50% chance to Magic Cancel after the first of my 2hit combo Genesis, I then need to kill 499 Sharks and 499 Not-Warm Sharks. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I notice that the sharks dispel my buffs and touch damage is about 75% of my max HP. Happy times.
I decide that I'll sort out the Bone Fish and the Staff Houses (it's a reference to the Summer Event Quiz. Laugh.) which takes me the remainder of the day.

New day, time to blow shit up with Genesis once more.
Wait, what's that? A wild smega in the chat! "L> Grinding partner for T2 HP Challenges 999 quest". I don't even think for a second before whispering him "inv".
We group up, he has 0 progress, I decide that we should start with what we have in common at least so I then can decide if I wanna help him or not with the part I've already spent way too long on doing. I mean, if he's a friendly dude then I don't mind.
Turns out he's a great guy. I tell him a little about this journey of mine and that I'm writing this journal and that he's now going to be featured in it!

Hello Backstab!!

After we've finished the mobs that we both needed, he comes with the brilliant idea to take a selfie together, and so we do.




Now it's a new day once more, I've handed in the quest and now she's telling me a story about Pianus. If she wants me to kill Pianus, then I absolutely need to get that done ASAP, this would be my 4th quest that I've now gathred that wants me to kill this guy.
I understand he's a bad guy, but how bad is he really? "He ate his friend and so he was banished to the maple world".
Oh, so he's just a dickhead and a cannibal. Ok, I've commited worse crimes for less, so why not? (I've not, but lets pretend that I'm a bad boy.)
It's not a "kill Pianus quest", it's much more difficult that that. It's a "weaken mobs to a certain degree before u capture their souls, but do not get hit too often because then you'll upset Lil Albert and you'll be kicked out and will have to try again".
Not getting hit in Maplestory is quite a difficult task. There are plenty of mobs who had abilities / attacks that just hit you no matter where you are after they've initiated the animation.
Of course it is doable, it's difficult, but it is doable! How do I know that? Because I just did it. I was super close to "dying" by having Lil Albert get to riled up, but with some expert manouvering (getting lucky misses when struck by Gobys) I managed to complete the quest.
I guess fishing for the lost souls of the deepsea creatures meant to be harvested by Pianus is just not my thing.
Alright, lets find out if Lil Albert is really cursed or not, alright, the instructions read as follows:
"Now place the bird in the cauldron. Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous. Just a quick dip in a cauldron full of lost souls."
Yes, that's exactly what Carta says, word for word, not even joking.
And so what kind of heinous curse is afffecting Lil Albert? I just can't wait to find out what... "Lil Albert is depressed".
There's no curse, there's no magic. He's just depressed. I feel you Albie, I do...

Going back to Muse to explain to her that her feathered friend is indeed suffering from mental illness rather than some magical curse didn't sit quite well with her. I fear that she's getting depressed now. At the very least she's agreeing to let him go, she might not be the brightest, but at least she's kind enough to not let others suffer for her own wellbeing. And so my masterplan is coming together. Gaslight Muse and groom Lil Albert to take him under my wings (pun intended) so that I may have the coolest little fella with me wherever I go.

 

Chapter 3 - Tier 3, the Apprentice and the Librarian.

So now I've gotten the 2 new quests, since I was already lv121 when I completed T2, T3 was immediately available to me. I decided that it wasn't time for it just quite yet. I needed to spend some time with Lil Albert after all and watch him grow as I took on some other important tasks, such as working on my Bishop skills and acquiring my Silvermane (idc if people consider it a waste since i've teleport, I climb ropes faster and I now have a status symbol).

On my way to talk to Grendel, the Reeeeeeally Old, I met an interesting fellow named Fondmorning. He was but a lv30 cleric who had yet to brave the world of MapleLegends. What peaked my interest about him though was the fact that he was wearing some luk gear for his level. I a Luk Mage myself ofcourse had my interest piqued. I stood before someone new to the game who had yet to surrender to the ideal way of playing a Mage (pure int). I could make him my apprentice I thought. I stood nearby and listened in to his converstation with his buddy, by standing nearby I was then inspected and used as a goalpost for what he could become with certain pieces of my gear. Of course, I sprung up and joined their conversation, donning the hood of a mysterious back alley mage dealing in mysterious and dark. Throughout our short yet rich converstation, I managed to convince him to continue down the path of darkness, promising him rewards for staying loyal to the Luk stat. I had given him 2 minor items that would soon be of use to him and let him know that stage 1 of our pact was now complete. He was to seek my out once he reached level 33 and had a minimum of 35 luk so that he would be able to equip my Esther Shield with 6 slots and 4 TMA. I told him that it would serve as stage 2 of our 3 step pact only to them give him a glimpse of the 3rd and final reward of the pact. My 114 TMA Kage staff. I promised him these items if he would seek me out at lv 33 and then lv88 with the correct amount of Luk. I made sure to tell him that I would decline all buddy requests from him and that it was now his duty to remember me and seek me out. Of course, I'm not an evil Luk Mage, no... I did tell him that Pure Int is the superior way to go. But... What is power without style?

I left him and his friend to go their merry ways for I had even grander goals to work towards. I needed to find Grendel.
Apparently, Grendel has been in contact with Dr. Kim from Omega and they've got some special training program set up for me, I'm guessing it's a jumping quest of some sort considering the quest description. However! I may not undertake Dr. Kim's trials unless i've already proven myself by slaying underleveled mobs that I'll either 1 shot or 2-3 shot with Genesis. Surely this will prove to anyone that I'm a great magician worthy of jumping around on platforms. I take a look at my available quests to see where the other mainstory quest is located, and it's apparently in the Library in Helios Tower. I do remember someone mentioning a long time ago that they were impressed about the use of background assets such as the door in this library, and ever since I've been trying to enter this door (top right in the library) but to no avail. I could always hear the familiar "entering a portal sound" but I was taken nowhere! You cannot keep my out forever Kimmy!!

I travel to Wiz and he has apparently managed to drop a bomb in the library, because the books are scattered all over the place since Jay visited and they both got a little too... excited...
So now it's apparently MY job to clean this up by sorting all the books and placing them in the correct locations. Out of all the books my favorite was the "The history of history on history". The title was something along those lines, I don't remember it all to clearly because, well, the name was strange and complicated but funny, so it wins.

After placing the final book I get a textbox letting me know that the final book wasn't the final book, but there's now a final final book that has the word "storage" on it, and thus I need to go to the storage room. TO THE SECRET DOOR I GO! I've never rushed to a location so fast in Maplestory since I was gonna get my Genesis. Sure, that was really recent, but still, points stands.
I've taken some nice screenshots from inside the storage room, Wiz never told me not to bring a camera inside after all.


There at the podium I apparently find a purple tome of some sort, written in a language which I cannot understand. Logically, this would mean that I would have to steal this tome from the storage room that I'm already not supposed to be in, so that I can then tell Wiz that I stole his book so that he can read it to me. You see, I must uncover all the secrets of the Maple World, such as where does magic originate from, why is there a Mushmom but not a Mushdad. Did Graves really go to jail for cartoon tiddies? These are all questions with very difficult to obtain answers and I must learn them all.

Apparently Wiz is not to fond of reading me bedtime stories and instead instructed me to talk to Dommy Mommy Karen at the top of the tower. Idk why we gotta include her, but alright, as long as she can read me the stories then I'm all for it.
Nope. She couldn't read me any stories and was more interested in researching it herself. Imagine denying me, Illbean, the pleasure of a good bedtime story just because of her incompetence and inability to comprehend a completely foreign language and just shove me aside so that she can research the texts. Never have I felt so disgraced. Please GMs, introduce a way to attack non-hostile NPCs for moments like this. Meanwhile I'll just go and chat with some of the people in Ludibrium until Karen can put MY (stolen) book down.

Jr. Necki vs Apple that, Jr. Necki vs Apple this, Jr. Necki vs Apple EVERYWHERE!!
There's so many quests and they all want me to gather a ton of stuff, 100 that, 100 this, 100 different 100.
This is something that I will have to do later since now it's 2:30 AM and I need to sleep. But first lemme provide a list of all of the ETCs I'll need to farm (no, I will not owl them because I'm convinced without even checking that these are extremely overpriced on the FM).

• Toy Trojan Sword
• Plane Controller
• Sticky Spiderweb
• Stiff Feather
• Toy Duckling
• Plastic Crown
• Mechanical Heart
• Motor
• Small Egg
• Teddy's Yellow Ribbon
• Cog
• Rombot's Memory Card (3, not 100)

This is gonna take some time, but it absolutely feels manageable, it's a shame that I don't have my funky purple tome with me though, stupid Karen...

 

Continuing Chapter 3 - Tier 3, the Apprentice and the Librarian.

I've now farmed out every single item on that list except for the Stiff Feathers because I really don't want to.
Plastic Crown? Yup. Do they only drop from 1 mob that exists on 2 floors on the entire west tower and it's a shit map? Yes.
Sticky Spiderweb? The thing that only drop from the less prevalent spiders and the most efficient spot seems to only cover 3 spawns at a time? YES!!!
I did them all except for the feathers. I will not do the feathers. I'm buying the feathers. But first, since i'm now so close to Omega Sector, why don't I just pay Dr. Kim a visit now that i've also spent quite a lot of time farming Dual Pirate's Propellers for another random quest (I farmed 500 of them with Genesis, wasn't actually that bad). Turns out I got unlucky and got 30% Dex for Gloves...

Apparently, it's not a jump quest as I had initially believed, but now before I enter this arena, Kim is telling me that that I am going to be fighting mobs, ranging from weak to strong. Lets give this a shot and see how it goes.
Hmm, it felt weird because I didn't have any time to prepare, literally 5 seconds after entering the mobs spawned on me and started attacking. I had no clue what was gonna happen and Dr. Kim just stood there in the middle laughing his ass off. Wave 1-2 was super easy, spam Genesis and win. Round 3 was a little weird, cuz now they all just took max 200 damage from my skills, so I swapped to Shining Ray instead to conserve my mana, they seemed to have the same HP as the previous mobs though. 4th round, they take 100 damage. I stick to the same strat beause it's the same thing just twice the amount of casts needed and now I'm thinking, will next round be the same but 50 damage? Round 5 spawns and I'm dealing 1 dmg each... ONE DAMAGE!! AND THEY HAVE THE SAME HP.
Dr. Kim is literally rolling on the floor laughing at my meager attempts to do this and when he finally catches his breath he stops the challenge and calls me weak. Now it's just back to Grendel the Born During the Stone Age and I can turn in that quest and then finish up the ETC Collector galore to continue with the mainstory.


Now surely she must have finished analysing the book and structured all the neat little bedtime stories for me. If she hasn't, i'm going to be very upset with her.
"I just finished analyzing this book. I havn't fully translated it yet, but..."
Bro! C'mon! You've had so much time while I was farming all of these ETCs, I even went out of my way to farm even more stuff! 500 propellers and even some cards just to give you some time and this is the end result? My dissapointment is immesurable and my day is ruined. Thanks Karen...

Alright then, at least show me what you've got then, Karen.
Ooh no... the town is in peril and you need me to save it...
C'mon Karen, you can do this yourself, you've been around for longer than i have, hell, you're even rivaling Grendel at this point!
Fine, I'll play along with your little game, I'll save Ludibrium from utter ruin because killing Daddylatus didn't cut it I suppose.

So I then got this camera, I was too afraid to look at what pictures were already there, but she did want me to take new pictures of botht he Eos and Helios Towers, but I had to be able to photograph them from a good angle. The quest text did mention that I could shoot them from the hall or something, and I didn't instantly recognize that name, so i just went for the the highest point in the Ludi square, but that wasn't it. I then check right infront of both towers, that didn't work either. I then took another look at the actual quest text and then I realized that it was inside/down of Ludi itself. I had to go to the far ends of the first level. The photos need some time to develop because the technology she uses is as ancient as herself. I return the camera and the masterfully taken pictures to her and she gawks in horror at my amazing art.

She finally realizes that she has no more options but to tell me these bedtime stories, so now it's time for us all to learn about Meneos and who this fella-with-a-funny-name is.

It sseems as though Meneos is not a guy, but rather a 3rd tower in addition to Eos and Helios that was supposed absord the negative effects of the pact the King made with the Godess. Things didn't quite work out as hoped and that basically led to time cracks appearing and now we've got Daddylatus in the deep down under.

Karen then tells me that we're basically doomed as is and that using the time machine is a big nono, even if it would mean saving the entirety of Ludibrium, so what do we do instead of saving Ludibrium? That's right, we travel to Omega Sector to find out more about the ancient language that this book was written in and possibly look at blueprints stored there, because nothing says saving the city as much as talking to architects.
Also, I just noticed while chatting with Karen, this machine shouldn't be running properly.


So I travelled all the way to the Omega Sector only to talk to some guy down with the cold, and he's not a I/L Mage. Apparently the thing that seemed important to Karen wasn't anything more than a bookmarker to him, what an absolute genious he must be...
However, after further inspection, this "bookmarker" seemed to be rather interesting and could be of value, and so where will we find the rest of it? Who knows, maybe the aliens got it! So what do we do now then? Genocide of course!
I'm about to slaughter every single purple alien I can come across, both because they're connected to the secrets of desctructin surrounding Ludibrium, but also because I can use Genesis, which is still after 2 levels of spamming it, a lot of fun.

Aah, yes. Once again coldblooded genocide saves the day in MapleLegenfs.
I'm now back to Karen becuase she wants to be involved in this mystery of the now TWO blue bookmarks. Using her two braincells she managed to place the two "bookmarks" side by side and figure out that they do indeed come from the very same blueprint, and with her conspiracy theory way of thinking, she's deduced that they might even be part of the blueprint for Meneos tower. How interesting! Not interesting enough for Karen though, becuase her research herein the tower is more important than both saving Ludibrium and uncovering the secrets of Meneos tower. So now off to Korean Town I go to see if I can locate any more pieces of this blueprint.

Now that I'm in Korean Folktown, I cannot seem to find any quests assosciated with this HP challenge, and thus I must assume from previous challenges that I must search with my mouse. Oh, never mind. I did get a quest from the swallow telling me to pillage the rice sacks. I'm no stranger to invading other peoples privacy, so lets go!
Now with another piece of the blueprint in my hand, I reluctantly return to the swallow who then tells me that he had seen more of these "leaves" blow into the mountain. Oh god... I feel like i'm gonna need to search the entire mountain my my mouse...
Nope, it's not like that, as soon as I entered, i got a lightbulb above my head.
It's a quest regarding the cute moonbunnies, playing with my quest item. Only one way to solve this little issue, that's right, genocide!!
Yes! Massacering innocent rabbits has given me my piece of the blueprint. I feel like an evil bully, but an evil bully with the piece of the blueprint. But am I really an evil bully with a piece of the blueprint if there's no people around to acknowledge my deeds? That's why I need to seek out the people of the mountian and let them know of my (totally heroic) deeds.
There we go, my first victim to be forced to listen to my tales of "heroic" deeds. The treecutter was very impressed by my actions, or absolutely terrified, I don't know, I can't read people very well. Either way, he brought out an axe and I guess he really wanted to show me how well it swings because he came lunging at me with it. What a strange way to give gifts, but it's just a part of their tradition I assume. Either way I'm now one axe richer and have 1 less person to talk to. I did however spot some blue stripes in those strange looking trees, I feel like it could be a good idea to chop em down now that i've an axe that even a magician can wield (that's not a paintbrush).
Happy with my new axe I cut down some funny trees and wouldn't you know it, there was another piece of my blueprint! I picked it up and found the need to find yet another person to regail with my tales of murder and theft. Good thing that there's another person somewhere in the mountain. Oh look there he is. The literal god of montains, he seems like someone who would like to learn about my misadventures.
Of course, since he's a divine being, he's speaking in riddles. Unfortunately for him, I don't have time for such trivial matters. So I decide to axe him a simple question, does he want to live or not? He breaks down in tears and starts quoting Pocahontas telling me that I need to "paint with all the colors of the wind". I don't need his mumbo-jumbo so I tell him I only paint with red. Then our conversation reached a very abrupt end, and I was now 2 blueprint pieces richer.

Now that I've accquired all my pieces I feel pleased with my wonderful work and find it to be a good time to return to Karen in my bloodsoaked overalls.

Karen seemed unfaced by my now red instead of blue outfit. Which is good, I prefer less questions. She does seem to believe that i'm part of the ghost busters though since now she's sending me into deep Ludi for some hunting and a fancy artifact that's charged up whenever I... you guessed it. Genocide a bunch of monsters. Time to put this baby to use, but that will have to be tomorrow since now it's late o' clock and this post is already quite a read.

I'll finish up this storyline tomorrow and you'll all have to wait much longer for the next parts because I'm only 122 and the next tier, as far as i've understood it, comes at 130.
See you soon!

 

Continuing Chapter 3 - Tier 3, the Apprentice and the Librarian.

I've now ventured deep into Ludi on the hunt for these apparently valuable pieces of paper. Almost thought they were Magic: The Gathering cards.
As soon as I started killing, I saw a quest popup for 300 mobs to kill to charge up the damned thing, I was like: Bro... 300 kills for 1 attempt?
From my previous experience grinding here for various quests I came to the conclusion that going to the Dual Pirates would be the best bet to charge it up. There's a nice platform where I can stand that allows me to hit 3 platforms, varying from 6-18 mobs spread across all 3. So back to them I went, grinded up 300 and then decided that this might be a good place to start looking for the MTG cards.

*ZAP*

"The radar picked a very faint signal. I'm in the right map, but still far away"
Oh man... 300 mobs for that? I need to somehow pinpoint this crap and I've nothing to base it off. Wow, FML... 300 mobs gone to waste.
I look up to my questlog again to see 275/300. OOOHH!! 1 use consumes 25!! That's so much better. I start walking around and I zap a little here and there, eventually finding the first piece.
I continue throughout the maps, making sure to check every single one because I don't know which maps contain the MTG cards and which do not.
After some grinding made a lot easier with Genesis, I did collect them all, I even managed to do some other minor quest which was absolutely worthless in hindsight, but at least I did it.
Karen is of course impressed by my treasurehunting skills and so she rewarded me with another quest to go and find Wiz the Librarian. Man am I glad I don't have to pay to use that elevator because I'm going back and forth through it all the time.

Wiz, my man! I'm back!
I explain the entire story to him so far, he's excited about the blueprint of the 3rd Ludi Tower.
"I've got just the book we need, it's one that you put back before, you remember where you put it right?"
Bro, cmon... You know where it is, just tell me instead. It was found on the far left of the same floor.
As a librarian typically does, Wiz had a lot to say and a lot from the book to quote. To me, most of it was nonsense and actually had nothing to do with what we were doing. But hey, I've been wrong many times before, just check the earlier entries of this journal. So now I'm tasked with finding a big tree, in a place up high that's the closest to the moon. I'm either thinking somewhere close to where the God of Mountains is (was) located, or where the Goblin Kings are, I know how to find both places and so I've just gotta try it out.
While out and about searching every map just to be sure, I did come across Moon Ridge which does have a big dead tree, I cannot seem to interact with it atm, but I'll do some experimentation and see where it leads me.
OH! I had to press up, and now i'm on some funky asteroid!

Time to have a chat with this totally normal looking fella.
Well, he was kinda rude. A true hermit, but without Flash Jump.
He said he would help me speak with his sister who's on a different asteroid, but in order for me to get there, I would have to get him some CORRUPTED tachions. Not the normal ones, nope. That would be to easy since I've 10 of them on me. Time to head back into Deep Ludi and see which mobs drop these then.
Every mob I killed was able to drop them, and so I wonder, are the Dual Pirate able to drop? Yes, yes they are.
The return of the pirate massacre it is! Shame i'm already 5/5 on their cards.

Either way, I return to Mr. Astrum and hand over the Corrupted Tachions and I'm then promptly teleported to his sister, Astralis. The map is basically the same just different trees.
After having a pleasant introduction with the female twin (yes, they're twins, I'm inclined to b elieve Astalis) I'm notified that the entire thing happening with Ludibrium is, and I quote:

"Oh? That? Don't worry! That's nothing to worry about!"
"I have a story to tell you, then... Don't worry, I'll be quick!"

BRUH!

Ok, so basically. These "out of this world" blueprints were made by Astralis because she took pity on the humans meager attempts at trying to prevent the deterioration of the towers to prevent the total and complete collapse of their society. She left them with the humans to figure out what to do with them, they kinda didn't finish the job cuz it was too advanced for their time.
So now, it looks like there's going to be a second attempt at building the 3rd tower, the Meneos tower. Just gotta take everything to Kimmy (the dude in Omega Sector, not our lord and saviour).

Kimmy didn't seem to be happy to see me, since he immediately told me to go out and find some of their agents that are spying on the Grays. I don't understand why they're spying on them when they can just make a Bishop and kill them all like I do. Either way, I found their agent and was then tasked to infiltrade their base. My first guess was that now I would finally get to enter that funky spaceship i've found, but nope, that's not the case. Yet...
I'm now inside the spaceship and i'm tasked with a jumpquest, I've not yet had breakfast and i've been online for 3h, lets see how this goes.

The initial jumping didn't go that well at first, i blame hunger, not skills.
I then find these pods again that I found in the very first room that was needed to strike to continue moving forward. However, now when I hit the first one, it only stays lit for a very short amount of time. I've also reached a point where I seem unable to continue because it looks like a platform but I cannot jump onto it, I fall through.
I feel so lost, there's nothing that's really working here. As I said, hitting one of these seem to do nothing, there's no sound indicating somethings activated, striking it only activates the capsule for a few seconds which isn't enough time to get to the others in time. The only thing I can imagine is that I need to activate them in a specific order, but once again, neither stays lit so I feel like neither of these 3 are correct, and the 4th in the map is inaccessible...

Oh my god... It was never a platform to jump onto, but a "ladder" to climb.


Well, we all learn eventually...

After making my way to the door which I opened without any issues, kindly disregard what i've recently said, I got to fight King Rombot. A red Rombot with a King Blocktopus on top.
After defeating it the Gray was very upset with me, telling me I had broken their toy. According to this guy, they've been stealing the blocks from Ludibrium to make the Rombot toy because the Mesorangers kept breaking their stuff (which included weapons of mass desctruction).
Dr. Kim with his masterful insight tells me that we simply need to repair the tower for now and can disregard the grays. Now to gather 100 blue and yellow blocks from the block golems.
After having gathred them I returned to Tigun in Ludi, eager to finish up this entire story line, but it seems as though there's till more work for me to do, I am required to assist in the reparations themselves. Im assumming this is just a "click this spot" kinda deal, but we'll see.
Nope, it was a "grab 1 item at a time and then drop it" kinda deal.
Repairing the tower, talk to Tigun and report back to Karen who now steals my MTG collection (the completed blueprint) and simply tells me to fuck off to the asteroids to talk to the twins.
Another elevator ride!! WOOOOOO!!
This time, Mr. Grumpyface actually had quite a lot to say, but I disliked him too much to care about it all, when I then got to talk to his sister who wanted her MTG collection back, I was getting fed up with this travelling, because it's from Omega, to Ludi, to Karen, to Korea, to Grumpy, back to Korea, to Ludi, to Omega, to Mrs. Cheerful.
This time however I apparently unlocked something, I've no clue if it will EVER come in handy, but hey! At least i've gotten it. I can now teleport between then, thus teleporting from Korean Folktown to Omega Sector. Again, will I ever actually use this? I highly doubt it, but at least I can use it, I'll only need to talk to Karen first to get some Essential Crystals or w/e scam she's tryna sell me.

This concludes Chapter 3 and therefore my available HP Challenges.
I look forward to lv130 where I can go and do T4!

Until then, have fun and remember to roll a Luk mage!

 

Alright, so I've now hit 131 and I'm very excited to see where T4 HP Challenges will take me.
To Rosa we go!!

Hmm, clicking her quests does nothing, it just ends the dialogue with her.

My guildies have informed me that there's no T4 challenge yet but that I can get the stats on my Rosa's Charm.
My dissapointment is immesurable and my day is ruined.
Looking forward to when the next tier releases so that I can partake in this wonderfully crafted content!!
I believe in you staff <3