A Life of Crime, or Just Bad Influences?

I blame the Mithra. (Arketa, this means you, yes.) I know, I know...that's a common solution, but really, this time I could blame a certain Elvaan woman too. (Yes, Fiery...or Alison) But actually, this all follows from the first thing I learned when studying the arts of the treasure hunters, was how to shift blame...and we shift it well too! You see, I've been living a life of theft and avoiding blame recently, and damn, it's been a great ride! Treasure hunting and the arts of a ninja go beautifully together, but having a great core static is making it even better! I've leveled from 30 to 34 thus far with a group from GraveyardShift LS in following formation: Lanoire (NIN/WAR), Alcindor (SAM/WAR), Valynne (WHM/BLM), Sumiko (THF/NIN), Zaria (DRG/BLU), and myself finally (THF/NIN).

I may go solo'ing a bit need to catch up a bit so Sumi's SATA's aren't quite as high above mine >.> Next level will grant me new daggers, however, so I will definately enjoy that boost! There is something powerful about getting new daggers to accompany those shiny Drone Earrings that I've been hoarding for this point in time. Drone + Dodge will make me very glad that I don't have to deal with pierced ears and can just change clips during battles. It's been a busy but fun weekend, and I will be sure to Mug you later....errrr, I meant meet you later! *waves and flees*

And for those who mailed wondering about Fiery... This is the one whose fault it is that I tapped into my criminal nature...Least I can do is offer you a picture, right? *He reaches into his wallet and pulls one out from a distant past*

Softly spoken

As I've learned at the higher levels, the powers of a summoner are not those to be lightly ignored. For example, I've joined with a 75 SMN in duoing the Shadow Lord for my Rank 5 way back when I was but a 51 RDM...so you know that's been a good while...and also that she did most of the work! Ya know I love ya Tess! ^_~ However, the secrets that make them truly shine are the pacts with the beings that allows them to actually summon anything. Carbuncle told me about this, and was very eager to help, joining when I brought the ruby to the house of the hero in the annoying city of Windurst. However, the rest of the Avatars aren't exactly as friendly, to say the least. It requires a knock-down, drag-out fight with them to prove your power and show them that you are worthy of their service. So as they demand, we must oblige and do it their way, ne?

Vitehite, Anubahnu, Eckardt, and myself have quested to engage these elemental masters recently to acquire the abilities to summon them in battle. And voila, by our powers combined...(No, you don't get Captain Planet, folks!) the Prime Avatars fell, one by one. Eckardt has pictures here where you can see all the fun of who was killing what there. Gotta love friends with good cameras in the middle of battle, ya know? Great albums to look at when we retire from all this running around saving the world deal, ne? As long as I don't have to explain it all to any kids anytime soon, I'll be alright! As it stands now, we are planning to gather together our band of warriors for the battle with the Dark Elemental Puppy, Fenrir. Battle on, warriors of light!

It's all about skills!

Recently, I've taken a fancy to going out at the edge of the Wajaom Woodlands and just dueling some birds. The soft feathered buzzards...errr...Colibri...have a nice supply of MP as well that lets me abuse my Dagger skills for Energy Drain, and I appreciate them for it. Getting the hang of timing with this Utsusemi: Ni thing on them before I go off to attempt to torment Garuda Prime. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? I can almost feel a new skill within my grasp for my daggers and swords, and there are rumors of a master skill that I can seek out once complete with those. Hmmmm, sounds like I'll be playing around with the birds and spiders for a bit more, they're interesting creatures at a bit under me, and they're good game as their feathers sell to the Al Zhabi vendors for decent money, over a grand just for plucking the little birds in the course of my own training, not too shabby for a side benefit!

Well, that got boring pretty quickly, and after a short while, I decided to sharpen and polish my blade, and headed out to level one of my old favorites, the samurai. One thing you have to realize is that I haven't even gone to the Samurai's guild to investigate ever since the class was upgraded to allow new abilities...This led to an interesting discovery upon realizing that occassionally when I missed, my instincts kicked in to redirect the slice again towards its target. Upon asking one of my masters, he said that this was an essential skill for the samurai that I had been enlightened to realize, known as "Zanshin." He gave me the following explanation as from Venerable Anzan Hoshin roshi. (Old teacher if you're wondering, one who has created teachers below him.)

"Zanshin means “the remaining mind” and also “the mind with no remainder.” This is the mind of complete action. It is the moment in kyudo (Zen archery) after releasing the arrow. This is “ Om makurasai sowaka” in oryoki practice and drinking the rinse water. In shodo, it is finishing the brush stroke and the hand and brush moving smoothly off the paper. In taking a step, it is the weight rolling smoothly and the next step arising. In breathing in completely, it is this breath. In breathing out completely, it is this breath. In life, it is this life. Zanshin means complete follow through, leaving no trace. It means each thing, completely, as it is.

In the martial arts, Zanshin means having no break in our activity, because there is no time to take back a stride or block and fix it. It also means going beyond technique, because we cannot force the situation to conform to the technique. The angle of the strike and the force of the strike must be adjusted immediately to the energy of the partner. In practice we must go beyond strategies of defense and hesitation. We must open up to the energy of mind itself as it expresses itself as seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling and thinking. Penetrating into this energy, we must go beyond all barriers." Intriguing, but a wonderful philosophy. With a variety of slower but steady XP coming in from mostly VT chains on the clippers due to having a mage who was 23 when I was 21, and 24 when I hit 22, it was somewhat of a slow grind. Melees higher than mages should be the general rule for most balanced party setups, but then, a WAR/RDM would not be near the top of my list for a healer, either, even with pie!!! >.< Ouch, that's why I love Qufim Island, learning experience. I did see Rosiel again, a member of Nekotess' LS, Hestia, so we had a chat while mad chaining, he was tired of the area already, but ready to be tired of the next area instead, haha! I like being forgotten, it suits the attitude of a samurai just fine. I'm no one special, just let me fulfill my purpose, and the fame and recognition will fade.

I pondered the effectiveness of using a polearm on the crabs, mostly because I knew my tachi skill had reached its limits, and was saddened to find that though crabs are weaker to piercing, the spear (that I had at least) wasn't up to damage, though Double Thrust ate Enpi alive when it came to weaponskill damage to the tune of 110 versus 80-ish.

The next party I had brought me into the position of hate-holder, and as the lowest level in the Eastern Altepa party we had, I got eaten alive as a Paladin by two SAM who were WS king and queen respectively. Hutman joined me and brought out his Galka Summoner, which aided lots as we fought beetles and Dhalmels...and the darn Berserk dhalmels decided to do HUGE healing breezes a couple of times, making it very close to bye-bye Paladin-boy! Can't wait 'til I get Auto-Refresh and Flash, that will help a lot. If they really decided to go off, it took Sentinel, Cure 3, and Provoke to get the darn thing back on me...But all things considered, with Garuda's blink and Third Eye, they could avoid quite a bit of hate just splitting it between themselves, so it ended up working out pretty well, just, just...I was wishing I had a SATA at that point for my hate-holding lack of ego! Yeah, I will be glad when Sunday comes and I get to be a Red Mage again...

I needed a break...

...and there's nothing like getting those lower-level jobs out and going for a romp in the Valkurm Dunes of my own galaxy to get that out of my system. I partied with an old friend, Hutman, getting him to drag out his neglected Bardic skills and we ventured into the dunes with 2 new players in the family LS, HeavenEarthWarriors, and picked up two other learning players. Having 4 out of 6 learning and not having a death in Valkurm would've been amazing enough, but it didn't happen that way...what, you thought I was a healing god? Sorry, I can't do that much about healing as RNG/WAR. ^^; Also, without having the aid of a white mage was an interesting experience, so when pulling, I leaned towards just making high chains with Toughs as we went. We had a setup of a 12WAR, 12BRD/WHM, 11RDM, 11RDM/WAR, 11BLM, and I filled out the roster as 12RNG/WAR. I should start taking a journal for names in my groups, as I really have a horrible memory, unless a person makes a heck of an impression.

As one who's considered a "veteran," I thought it might be amusing to remember some things in the future, so I took out my little journal and made notes:

1) I've also learned it's good to bring food for the entire party when venturing out to the "School of Hard Knocks" outside of Selbina. It's true: Kids are broke, and don't get allowance.
2) I've learned that Evasion is my friend. Rangers geared with +Evasion can tank! Hahaha! OK, not really >.> Ouch....Voke now prs.
3) I've learned that steady XP without death is far superior to great XP with high chances of death...oh, wait...i already knew that!!!

Anyway, it was a blast, and I advanced my ranger skills to level 16, evening them up with that of monk and summoner now. Brings my potential level capacity to a grand total of ... *drum roll* 534. Getting there, I want the mystical 777, then I can be content never bothering with numbers again.

((For those wondering, that's the addition of all the levels on all your jobs total ^^))

I think I'll bug Eckardt, Fullen, Gravv, and Kala (Read: con them) to help me get a Caederva Mire map soon, walking around that place without one is just annoying! For now, though, it was a welcome change to finish up having paid my dues at the Valkurm School of Hard Knocks...And I'll be damned if I'm going through puppet training there. ^^;

And the monsters continued to fall.

Has been a rather fun week thus far, even with the good (but horrible) run we gave the Under Observation BCNM. I will say I think we would've won if perhaps 2 things hadn't happened: 1) I hadn't attempted to cure our most damaging BLM and he died first, leaving me with Divine Seal + Stonega II instead, didn't make best use of my time on that one. >.> And the other BLM that was with us came in a level 1 Aketon and not too much INT gear outside of rings and a seer's piece (not crown)...which hampered the major damage in the party. Besides actively facing the eyes (which can petrify that way), it was also sketchy as to why she was using an ether while having over half her mp as well when it's imperative to quickly -ga down the stupid eyes before they beat us down into oblivion, especially without Stoneskin, but meh, we brought it what looked like under 10% HP; sadly, it smacked me before my final Thunder spell could get off, and I noted the horrible brimstone-esque taste of the BCNM floor.

I have achieved with my thief that which is called "Fuidama," and boy is it ever fun! Even if I do abbreviate it SATA, nothing beats getting to run up behind someone and *WHAM!* - Suddenly doing around 250 damage that the mob thinks your buddy did. Haha, because that's what good melee friends are for, to make you that much better! ^^; Domo arigato gozaimasu Master Kenshinshiro for being my first SATA target and letting the PLD realize he wasn't Mr. Super Hate-holder when a SATA was going off opposite him, haha! /cheer ^^ And yes, I would note we were going to set it up on the PLD, but he was all meh about SATA powers and didn't want to setup really, just voked off the bat and such, so we did an alternate setup SATA where Ken would armor up on BLU, and I would SATA him, the PLD took a while to get hate back, sometimes not even before the mob died. I was easily amused, and as it neared time to go to work tonight, I didn't get to wait long enough to see if he'd comment ((He didn't in the 15 minutes notice I gave, and since 3 of us were leaving, we were disbanding, and soon as that was up, I had to run quickly to work ><)), after his comments about being (mostly) "all capped" and not having problems with hate.

Moral of the story: Everyone can contribute something individually, but working together, that's where true greatness lies. Now...about that vengeance on those Hecteyes....

A return to the airy landscape.

Hmmm, so it seems I haven't done much recently in the way of keeping you informed. Well, that is about to change with this post, as much has transpired since the time I was summoned across the galaxy to assist a 'young' Elvaan woman who had invoked me across the realms. I can only hope that her heart is sorting out the feelings that she was going through and realized that she deserved better than to be led on deceitfully. At least be honest about your intentions, as I will stand by: If you can't be upfront about what you're doing, then you probably have no business doing it. If you're content enough with yourself and secure in your deeds, then as long as you harm none, do what you will. Well, that last part wasn't actually very original, but it fit perfectly to my point.

As many of you know, I was at the point where I needed the scroll for Utsusemi: Ni to take my soloing skills to the supreme level that is envied by nearly every other job around Vana'diel.
Issue #1 with this: Ni sells for around 600k at the Auction House. Ouch, that's a big HELL no.
Issue #2 with this: Ni has a piss-poor drop rate in the BCNMs

After very little deliberation, since multiple people needed either Utsusemi: Ni or gil in general, Master Kenshinshiro came as Samurai, and Vaulaut came as Dragoon (with George, of course.) I joined as Red Mage, and we setup inside Waughroon Shrine in preparation for the Royal Jelly Notorious Monster Battles. As the lone mage, I had a fun time, snacking on a delicious Melon Pie before battle and maxing MP. Upon entering, we buffed pre-battle, and I used a Yagudo drink for refresh, as the blamed area we were in restricted our abilities so that Refresh was just out of my reach! Using the Seal of the Elements, I bound the first of the jellies on my left, and the others dashed right, unleashing an onslaught into the jellies as they began an advance into the circle, where I decided best to make my stand. It was mostly exchanging Dia II on the jellies nearest the others, and as soon as Bind or Gravity was available to alternate them on the jellies on the other side, clockwise, and throwing Cures as needed before reinforcing Stoneskin and converting near the final charge to the last two.

Lord Kenshin was impeccable as always, his blade seeking out the souls of the enemies as his TP shot through the roof, erupting into explosive assaults that detonated the very essences of the piles of preserves that littered the ground. Dragon Knight Vaulaut and George were quite the tag team as well; his skillful spearwork combined with the various degrees of wyvern's breath to unleash incomparable destruction unto the quite...[i]jiggly[/i] targets, bursting through their gooey shells and deflating them onto the cavern floor. We did the run 6 times, setting the current record time for the quest at just over 4 minutes, causing me to ponder what the overall best time had ever been. (SE should store that on the official site somewhere xD)

I ended up with some great drops, getting very lucky and picking up Utsusemi: Ni, Erase, and a Gold Beastcoin for the efforts, making it quite worthwhile and very fun as well! I think I'll aim for a PCC and Empress Hairpin next for good measure, or either Leaping Boots, since Lizzy and VE obviously harbor ill will towards me with the 0% drop rate despite the multitude of times defeating them.

I managed to help Titi with the Beadeaux part of her LB3, but I was very tired, and I bowed out before making the journey to Oztroja or Davoi, those long trips would've done me in for sure, and either at the top of Oztroja or the depths of Davoi, the beasts aren't particularly cheerful. While we were down in Beadeaux, I helped her kill Ruby Quadav, who obliged us by dropping a Red Mage Testimony for her upcoming duel with the old man in the Garden. That will be a fun one, I'm sure, haha!!! Until next time...