Flying High in the Sky

...So to speak, anyway.

Amazingly, I got quite a good bit of stuff done today...

I started off the day by finishing Windurst Mission 7-2 to achieve Rank 8. I'd done 7-1 and the hard part of 7-2 yesterday with some friends of mine - Sarick, Orbs, Chicora and a few others - but I'd had to log before I could trade the Cursed Key to the door. As such, I went and got that done, then reported to Leepe-Hoppe at the Rhinostery. He gave me sixty thousand gil and awarded me Rank 8.

From there, I dashed to Ru'Lude Gardens and then to the Crag of Holla, in order to do the weekly LS ENM30 run. Aralays, the one who runs it, got disconnected just before I arrived and never came back, so myself, Caligamy and Finalknight ascended to the top of Promyvion with only the three of us - Arkin had gone up previously and awaited us at the top.

When we arrived in the Spire, none of us were too sure as to whether to go through with the ENM or not. After all, we had only four people - BLM/WHM (me), BLU/NIN (Caligamy), BLU/DNC (Finalknight), and BST/NIN (Arkin). We eventually decided to go through with it, though. We succeeded, too - with no deaths and only half of our animae used up, to boot. We even got an Audacious Vision from it, redeemable to Venessa in Jeuno for a Divine Earring, worth 15,000 gil. Arkin got that, I just nabbed a Somber Cluster out of the treasure pool. Hunnybunny volunteered to synthesize the cluster into Water Animae for me, which she did, increasing their worth about fivefold - apparently she HQ'd one of the synths, because she sent me 40 animae from three synths. That's worth about 80k if I can sell them individually.

While I was putting those on the Auction House, I decided to go on and purchase a Black Cloak - I was only 2,000 experience points short of being able to use it at that point, anyway, which is nothing when you're regularly doing Campaign. I managed to get it for around 17,000 gil, which isn't bad at all. I decided to venture out to Al Zahbi at this point - a Besieged was starting and I figured I could use the skillups and the Imperial Standing for participating. I ended up capping Enfeebling and getting ten or so levels of Dark in, plus around 1086 XP and ISP, which isn't bad at all. From there, I proceeded to Aydeewa Subterrane to fight some Qiqirn to get level 68, and donned my new Black Cloak. I'm loving that Refresh effect, heh.

After I finished burning off my Empress Band charge, I got a /tell from Shadowdog offering to help me finish the last Zilart mission between me and Sky. I had the time - after all, tomorrow's a holiday, so there's no school - so I decided to go along. Shadowdog and Hunnybunny helped me fight Ancient Vessel - well, wait. More like Shadowdog and Hunnybunny fought Ancient Vessel with me present, I was more or less useless for the fight. Stupid Pot ate every nuke I could throw at it without taking damage, includig my new Stone IV, which I'm also loving. It's only 10 MP more than Thunder III, for about 80 more damage, which is really nice. Anyway, we finished there and proceeded to the Hall of the Gods, where we went up to the newest area I can access.

=== Area: Ru'Aun Gardens ===

Shadowdog gave me a little bit of a tour. Apparently almost everything there that doesn't have wings (Flamingos) aggros magic casting, which makes life a little bit difficult. However, only the Groundskeepers aggro anything else, and not all of them do - a Groundskeeper just walking around only aggros magic, while one sitting in an alcove will aggro by sight as well. And if you do get aggro, there's almost always a zone nearby, either to the Shrine of Ru'Avitau or to Ve'Lugannon Palace. Also, blue portals (activated by Pincerstones) take you between the main islands, while yellow ones take you to the islands where the Shijin "gods" are spawned. Those'll be fun to fight, heh.

Either way, that's what I accomplished today, with no small amount of help from friends and linkshell-mates. I hope to accomplish even more in the future - we'll see, heh.

Since I last posted...

Well, for some reason, this journal of mine seems to keep slipping through the cracks in my schedule. Wish I had some idea of how, but I really don't... so this post will be mostly detailing what I've accomplished since December, when I last posted.

Eight months doesn't seem so long when you're having fun, though...

Anyway, here goes.

--Took an unintentional two-month hiatus from Vana'diel over the summer - put new hardwood floors in my house, which meant unplugging the 360 and not having anywhere to plug it back in until we were done. We still don't have everything back where it should be, though...

--Black Mage level 67, with all the available spells therein. I'm making good progress now through Campaign and soloing Qiqirn Enterprisers. One more level and I get my Black Cloak and Cobra Unit Crackows. Speaking of which...

--Steelknight Emblem. I lost two ranks on my hiatus, because I was enough of an idiot to turn in the first one when I knew I wouldn't be able to make up for it. That set me back a good bit, to the third Star rank. I've managed to make up for it, though, since I'm now on the third Emblem. Two more ranks (minimum eight days) and I'll have the required Wings to get my Cobra Unit Crackows. I'd get the Trews, too, but they only last four levels (until 72, when Errant Slops/Jet Seraweels/Mahatma Slops all beat them) plus I only have enough Allied Notes for one at current.

--Blizzaga III. The most expensive scroll in the Black Mage arsenal, though I cannot yet use it. Either way, it's mine now, at the cost of one hundred forty thousand gil. Thanks to Kimiko's and Zoioshi's generous gifts, I was able to achieve that. Can't wait 'til I can use it.

--Aquilo's Staff. Fortunately, these are cheap now, but even so I didn't have the money. I was going to save this one until after I'd bought Blizzaga III, but Shadowdog thought otherwise. I was a little intimidated when I saw *that* appear in my delivery box, to be quite honest. When you're a poor mage like I am, you almost feel bad accepting a gift like this - a thousand thank yous, SD.

That's all I can think of, at any rate. I'm sure I've done more than that, just nothing that's both tangible and major...

Hopefully I remember to post more soon, yeah?