The Furball

The Bewildered and the Sleeping Beauty

Pink flower petals soared through the air, dancing in the stagnant air. Hundreds of petals carried the faint scent of roses—quite the contrast to the unpleasant smell of the barren emptiness, that is Apollyon. The emptiness, although untouched by time and space, was filled with decay and the remains of lost souls, trapped forever in this dreaded realm.

I felt drowsy, and the weight of my eyelids was unbearable. Just a moment wouldn’t hurt, I thought to myself as I fell asleep. The sounds around me disappeared, and I felt calm and happy on the inside. This is purrrfect, I thought to myself, and I could feel all my worries and weariness be swept away.

Wake up, kitten! I shook as I were abruptly woken up. I looked around, confused by the ruckus around me. Riykere, my galkan Red Mage, looked down at me, smiling. Tsk tsk, sleeping on the job he asked me looking all serious. A little annoyed, I poked him for making fun of my misfortunes. I took a few steps back, to make sure I was well outside the mandragoras’ Dream Flower range.

Our party was showing the mandragoras a world of pain, kicking and stabbing them till they couldn’t fight back anymore. As they tumbled over, unconscious, they made a whistling squeal. The people standing next to the mandragora were all muddled by the high pitched noise. Sparroweye, a tall and handsome elvaan, were trying eagerly to attract the mandragoras’ attention, but couldn’t quite concentrate in his bewildered state. I saw him struggle and told him not to worry. I closed my eyes, trying to visualize Sparroweye’s clouded mind. I molded my mana into a sprinkling shower of brilliant lights.

Everyone’s attacks seemed more focused now, so I could get back to tending their wounds. I looked over the remains of each of the monsters, finding a few Ancient Beastcoins. You won’t be needing that anymore, I said to the fallen monsters, closing their eyelids with my hands. I felt kind of bad for them, as I find the mandragoras to be really cute.

As our group defeated the last mandragora, a vortex opened, sending us to the next layer in the vast emptiness. We were now surrounded by birds. Sparroweye walked up to me and patted me on the shoulders, it’s not feeding time yet. I looked at him and shrugged, telling him that I wasn’t really getting my hopes up for any big feasts in here tonight. The stagnant air and the horrid smell felt unpleasant and I was in no mood to eat.

We quickly progressed to the next floor, where Magic Urns and Apollyon Sweepers, a kind of mechanical dolls, were stationed. The magical urns made a humming sound while rotating around. It was hovering about a foot above the floor, charging at us with a sudden sweep. Sparroweye parried the attack, thrusting his sword toward the urn. I could hear a clashing sound as he hit the monster, who continued rotating appearing unaffected by the continuous attacks. Our two Monks, Slugg and Greever, continued to strike it with all their might, kicking and screaming to put the monster out of it’s misery—or so they said at least.

My pouch of ancient beastcoins were growing bigger by each layer we cleared, and as we all cheered as when we finally cleared the last floor and returned victorious to the entrance of Apollyon. I began to count the beastcoins, and asked everyone to roll their dices. My roll wasn’t exactly stellar, but I wasn’t in the bottom three so I were lucky enough to get seven shiney coins I could sell in Whitegate. Having all three earrings I no longer need the coins.

I was also lucky enough to finally get my paws on my first Black Mage upgrade item, after having seen months go by without a single drop:

Surprise! Black Kimiko in Limbus

Hello neko~chan, Ravenclaw said cheerfully, welcoming me to the party. We had all gathered in Al’Taieu, fully prepared to adventure deep within the Temenos tower. I was somewhat surprised that the leaders had asked me to come Black Mage, but it was a change that was more than welcome. I may have been a little nervous too to be honest, as I don’t have a whole lot of experience as a Black Mage in limbus. But if I can keep my cool and be ready to stun and sleep, I should be fine.

Al’Taieu is quite a bizarre place, as it is filled with water, yet you can still walk on the water for some reason. The area is filled with vicious monsters, ready to jump at you from above as well as below. We tried to stay away from the monsters on the way to Temenos, meeting two ufos on the way, but luckily we didn’t have to face them in battle.

The sun was shining brilliantly in the sky, and everyone was in a good mood. I was singing to myself as we tried to find the Aw’euvhi for the particular entrance we were going to. People were cheering me on, as we didn’t have any Bard accompanying us today. I blushed a little, trying to hide my face. Sometimes I just can’t help but whistle to some theme.

Found it! I looked behind me, seeing Dutton pointing west. Everyone turned their attention toward where Dutton was pointing, and surely, there it was: our Aw’euvhi carrying the chip we needed to enter Temenos. The flower-like monster was hovering a few inches over the ground, a few hundred meters away from us. The whole group rushed over to the monster as soon as Greever gave the order to kill it. I cast two rounds of Thunder at it before it dropped dead to the ground.

We entered the tower and walked up the ramp to a glowing platform that would take us further into the tower. Okay, we ready to do this? Greever was getting a little impatient by all the waiting, and wanted us to get started as quickly as possible. I shared his desire to wrap things up early, so I did the attendance call, checking to see if everyone was there. We had fifteen people total, something that wasn’t particularly bad to be honest. I hoped we would get a decent amount of Ancient Beastcoins, as I’m trying to save up to some new shiney elemental staves and a Snow Ring for my Black Mage.

Greever activated the platform, and a faint hum could be heard. Seconds later we were transported onto the third floor of the tower. I walked off the platform, making sure that I still had ten nails and ten toes. You can’t be too sure with these machines!

We ran into the next room where a group of tigers awaited us. They looked awfully hungry, but there was no way around them, so we could just as well just take them down one by one. While our damage dealers started fighting the monsters, I closed my eyes and concentrated. I started whispering a chant, and I could feel small sparks of electricity appear in the palm of my hand. As I concentrated more and more, the sparks grew bigger in size. Finally, I opened my eye and pointed my hand at the monsters. A roaring bolt of lightning struck one of the tigers.

One could smell burnt hair in the room, and the tiger roared in anger, clearly enraged by the attack. One of the other tigers stormed toward me, striking me with all it’s might. I tried to block the attack with my arm, making sure it wouldn’t hit me in the face. The tiger prepared for another assault, but I managed to stun it just before it was about to leap into the air. I quickly cast another spell, this time a spell to put the monstrous cat to sleep.

I walked back to the group, ready to resume casting elemental nukes. Once again I closed my eyes, concentrating my magic powers to form more powerful spells. Thunder worked exceptionally well against these monsters, so I continued to focus on casting bolts of thunder at the tigers. My hand still hurt, but I tried not to pay too much attention to it as I had a job to do.

Once we tried had defeated all the tigers, we advanced to the elevator to the second floor. On my way up I noticed that blood was dripping from my left paw. Could you come here for a minute, I asked my friend Nicia, our White Mage for the day. Nicia turned around and walked toward me. She had long black hair, tied neatly into a pony-tail in the back. She is a seasoned White Mage, and a skilled one at that.

I showed Nicia my paw. The tiger left this wound, I explained to her. Nicia examined my paw carefully, making sure that I hadn’t broken anything. The bone seems fine, she said, but I think I will have to bandage it. I looked at her face, worried. You absolutely sure I need the bandage, I asked her, wanting to skip the bandage as it remains me of an accident I had many years ago.

Doctor’s orders, she grinned while she wrapped my paw in some compression. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine in no time, she assured me. She knew I really didn’t want to, but Nicia has a way of comforting even the most troubled souls. Here, I’ll make ease your pain. Nicia put her hand on my paw and closed her eyes, concentrating. Moments after my paw I could feel a faint warmth. Her hands were glowing as she cast her curative spell, a spell I have cast many times before. There you go, she said, all patched up and ready for battle! She took a step back, giggling, before she turned around, almost like she dancing. She smiled at me, and I bowed to her, thanking her for helping me.

Everyone ready? We’re in a hurry you know, the leaders said. For a moment there I had forgotten all about the time. Clumsy me, I thought to myself, getting hurt and making everyone worried like that.

The rest of the limbus run went a lot smoother, and I made sure I didn’t do anything more stupid for our duration there. We walked out of the tower with three shiney ancient beastcoins.

The Beasts of Temenos

The sun was about to set over the lovely port of Jeuno as I slowly tried to make my way through the crowd. Produce from all over Vana’diel was on display as people came together to celebrate another good harvest. And although it seemed that the rolanberries from the local farmers was the main attraction, there were still fruits and vegetables that even I had never seen. I picked up some various spices and some lemons which I hoped I could make something nice with.

The linkshell was gathering for another limbus run, but I still had plenty of time. I stopped by a local fisherman and asked if he had something fresh and tasty. The man smiled and told me about the different sorts of fish he had on display. Although I am a mithra that just loves delicious fishies, I am still very particular about the quality of my food. Why don’t you try our icefish, ma’am? It was brought in just about three hours ago, the man said, eagerly trying to sell me some of his fish. I paid the fisherman 60 gil for the fish and moved on. I wonder if these peppers go well with this fish, I thought to myself. Having never eaten this particular kind before, I wanted to make sure the flavors were right. I held the fish up to my nose and tried to smell what kind of flavor it would have. In the end I decided to go with some red peppers and lime.

I stopped by Sagheera for a cosmo-cleanse and sat down beside the rest of my linkshell. I munched on the fish I had just prepared, paying no attention to the rest of the linkshell. Oh, here we go again, one of them smirked. Hey! A girl needs her food, I replied annoyed. The others just chuckled, as I purrred while eating.

Okay, today we are doing Central Temenos Tower, third floor, our limbus leader Greever explained. I was a little happy inside as we weren’t fighting mimics today. I hate mimics. They give me the creeps and they have a rotten area of effect attack which is just painful for a healer. I was a little sad that I was asked to go White Mage, again, whereas other people pretty much got to go as whatever they pleased. Oh well, I will get my chance one day, I thought to myself, mentioning it no further.

I asked my kittens party to gather around me so I could teleport us to La Theine. Once we got inside we started looking for the flower, but the damage dealers thought they’d harass the sharks on the way to Temenos. Now, don’t get me wrong, but I prefer to let the monsters be unless we have to kill them. We got our card from the flower and gathered up around the teleportation device inside the tower. I buffed up my party and started taking attendance — a job I really enjoy doing.

When the leaders gave us the order to advance into the limbus area, we were immediately faced with notorious beastmen. One after one they charged at us, but luckily we had people swiftly taking care of them. We took down monster after monster while I gathered up the ancient coins that they had on them. A total of 50 coins did we end up with, netting us four coins each and two to spare.

You dare to face me in battle, infidels, the yagudo named Pee Qoho the Python roared as we attacked him. He was the last standing monster, and man did that bird put up some fight. The yagudo, who seemed to be much respected among it’s peers, fought with everything it had. Our tank took quite a bit of damage from each attack, but handled the attacks very well. Then, suddenly, Shiva appeared out of nowhere. Pee Quho had summoned her almost instantly, and ordered her to assault us head on. Shiva dropped a diamond dust at us, almost killing half the alliance. Pee Quho then made a powerful strike against everyone, knocking out all the damage dealers except for the tank and one of the monks. Two of the damage dealers were raised, and we were able to kill the yagudo before time ran out.

The dying Proto-Omega

A gentle breeze brushed through my hair as I walked down the stairs from the residential area of the Grand Duchy of Jeuno. The port was filled with traveling people from all over the world. People seemed to be in a cheerful mood as the weekend had just graced them with a few days off. I walked across the harbor, looking through a few bazaars, to see if I could find some pamamas or pineapples, which are my favorite fruits by far.

I looked at my watch and suddenly realized that I would get late for the day’s linkshell event if I kept on strolling around, so I quickly moved toward the Windurst docks where my linkshell was waiting. We were planning to fight Proto-Omega and I was excited to get started as I don’t get to fight him as often as I would like to, but I suppose that’s what chip farming is for.

Quite a few people had already made it, and I was relived to see that we had the numbers to actually pull off the event. It’s so frustrating having to cancel an event because of low attendance. I was admitted into the tank party where Sparroweye and Chaosdragon waiting for me. Me and the other White Mage decided on who we wanted to concentrate on curing, as this strategy works better than just cure bombing randomly the same person as some like to call it. I sat down and helped Sparroweye shine his «chainsaw» sword as we waited for everyone to gather and plans to be made.

When the leaders finally gave the order to move out we quickly proceeded to teleport to the Konschat Highlands where we could proceed to Central Apollyon. Ever since I picked Scholar as my subjob for my White Mage, I have been able to do almost instantaneous teleportations at the half of the normal MP cost which have been very useful to me. I really wish my Scholar was able to warp too though. It’s a spell I want to learn to cast even as a Scholar, but so far I have had no luck pulling off the spell.

Finding the flower Aw’euvhi in Al’Taieu was a simple task, and we quickly put it to rest. We entered the Central Apollyon where Proto-Omega was resting, and the tanks charged at it. The tremendous robot went into defensive mode and started to fend itself as best as possible, but there was little it could do against our forces. The damage dealers continuously pounded Omega’s outer shell, increasingly damaging it’s internal structure. The mages on the other hand concentrated on inflicting corrosive damage and landing nukes. Proto-Omega were able to dish out some high damage as well, but in the end it was little it could do. Once we reached 20% there was no return as the damage dealers gave it their all.

In the end we received a Homam Manopolas (hands) and a Homam Cosciales (legs) which made Cassul and Sparroweye very happy. I’m hoping I get my legs piece soon, but quite frankly I’m not too sure if I will ever be granted a body piece of the Homam set.