That's My Business

In my last post I mentioned that I would try emulating Angellrose's trick to open a personal shop without paying for the Extra Storage Service. It turns out it works pretty well. I created a separate Mabinogi account with the sole purpose of selling my extra junk. This is a departure from the party ad technique I used to accumulate my ore fortune when I investigated the ins and outs of the game's economy.

My dad likes to talk about the best way to run his dream bar/restaurant (which is always just a couple years away), and one thing that's stuck with me is his concept of hiring cute waitresses to draw men through the door. Along these lines, I decided to make as kawaii of an alt as I could to tend the shop:
Shopkeeper Hanakami
Hanakami is Japanese for "flower spirit." Cute, huh? XD

There have been some growing pains as I've moved into this facet of the game, particularly finding something to do as I watch the shop. Since this is a separate account from my original, I can't have a pet watch things. Not that I'd want to go look around, really, since Hanakami must never reach level 30 or I lose the free Extra Storage for beginners. Luckily the last time I logged in to sell, both Mistresraven and Kazukikun stopped by just to hang out. This screenshot highlights one frustrating aspect of personal shops: I must be present to have it open, yet I don't actually have to do anything to make sales. So as I was needlessly anchored, this is how I spent the day:
Window shopping...
After a week of running a personal shop, I can say for sure that it is not the ideal place to sell Holy Water. I've tried selling it loose via party ads, which was both slow and pulled in 10k per stack at best; I've tried selling it though Ashrayne's house, which magically pulls in upwards of 15k per stack; now I've tried selling it in my shop--the personal shop market is inundated in Holy Water. There are always two or more players selling hundreds of them at 13k per stack, then 12k, then 11k...it's capitalism at it's finest, but it's not in my best interest to sell there. If I am lucky, Ash will continue to pull Jesus-like miracles of turning water into gold for me :)

To wrap up the rest of what's new in Mabinogi, I rebirthed down to 10 years old with Mistresraven for that super-cute effect:
"I can catch a fishy as big as you are!" "Nuh uh!"
Having given it a chance, I will probably not rebirth this young in the future. It doesn't feel like Warrensworth is me anymore. I believe it hinders my ability to project myself into the world through my character and immerse myself. More importantly, though, is the fact that I am already level 31 but still 9 weeks away from being able to rebirth again. This really slows down my acquisition of AP since levels are incredibly slow to come by in the 30+ range. To summarize: I don't like it.

I also ponied up the cash to buy a pony from the premium shop. I'd finally had enough of bumming rides off my friends, being a slave to Moon Gate schedules, and running coast-to-coast when all else failed. He's a Halflinger named Flexeau:
My gallant steed Flexeau
I really wanted to call him/her Silvie, Silvia, Silviana, Fluffo, or Flexo. All of those were taken. If you're not a fan of Futurama, Flexo was Bender's "evil" twin brother that I particularly like, being a twin myself. I chose to get creative and approximate the "oh" by spelling it French-esque.

Finally, I would like to debunk the idea that the banks in Mabinogi only hold a maximum of 2 million gold:
I've earmarked most of that towards the purchase of iron ore and ingots to really get started on ranking my blacksmithing skill.

Generation 2

Getting back into the swing of Mabinogi after my brief absence has been remedied by playing it non-stop now that I have no immediate responsibilities. I don't quite remember the wheat fields outside Dunbarton being able to talk, but I'm sure they always must have =)

For as long as I've been in the Artifex guild, I felt a bit out of place not being a Paladin. Any time some exceptionally difficult dungeon got in our way, someone transformed and "fixed" our problem, standing gloriously among the bodies of mobs when the dust settled. I wanted to be dependable like that; capable of turning the tide on unsuspecting aggressors. Basically I wanted to not be a weakling!

To warm up for my final showdown with Generation 2 (to become a Paladin), I joined Ashraera, Rikimau, and Perk on a Fiodh Normal run. Ashaera was looking for a Barri Basic pass, which ironically does not drop in Barri Normal. The White Snakes in Fiodh apparently drop it, but we can't attest to that with the way they refused to hand them over. We did find a Fiodh Intermediate pass for 4, though, and Ashaera, being the fearless guild leader she is, didn't think twice before marching the troops back into battle.

For the most part, the dungeon was an exercise in strategic planning. Of course, if you have to plan anything in Mabinogi, that means you're getting your butt handed to you by a superior dungeon. Most of Fiodh Int's mobs are nothing too special: White Snakes, Blue Werewolves, Wild Jackals, and Giant Field Rats. But there are many rooms that spawn quartets of Burgundy Grizzlies, which alone are not a problem, except for the dungeon's "theme" of insanely long-range multi-aggro tendencies. Often, a room of bears would spawn, and if one person was unlucky enough, they would instantly get attacked by all 4 bears at once! From there it was like a pack of roving death as the bears picked us off one by one.

When we entered Fiodh Int for 4, Perk was with us, but because he had to leave for dinner, Ashaera, Rikimau, and I were an undermanned trio in a dungeon clearly designed for 4 capable warriors. If I am not mistaken, we all died almost every time a bear quartet showed up. And I don't wanna mention how many times we died trying to defeat the duo of "Argus" mini-bosses en route to the comically easier Giant Imp dungeon bosses. To summarize our expedition:
"Medic!"
After that epic display of perseverance, I felt plenty capable of tackling anything G2 had to offer. The final quest was a 5 floor Barri Basic run, which was a cakewalk. As a minor spoiler alert, Esras is evil. She and her super golem Tabhartas awaited me at the end of the dungeon.

I want to take a moment and point out how poorly I think the G2 storyline was written. First of all, because G2 follows G1 (duh), there's no way the story of Esras and Rian could compare in terms of importance to the fate of Erinn. G1 had a giant being of infinite destructive capabilities (Glas) summoned by the fomors to wipe out humanity, period. G2 has Esras plotting to preside over Erinn as its sole queen, but not before she makes Emain Macha incredibly prosperous. Um...that's not a quality we want in a leader...right?
She has a point.
Tabhartas was not difficult considering I got to transform into a Paladin to start the battle. As far as I can tell he doesn't do anything a normal Golem can't, so he just has a ton of HP to whittle away. Of course, I slipped up and died anyway.
Tabhartas the Super Golem
I finished off Esras without much trouble, and that was that! Generation 2 down, Paladin up! To celebrate, Kazukikun and I wandered into Rabbie Normal to flex some holy muscle, and took a moment from our work to make sure we looked good for the cameras:
Toy Hammers are standard issue Paladin weaponry
With G2 behind me, I resume my unofficial G3 quest of becoming a respectable blacksmith. I dove back into Barri Dungeon to mine ore for this purpose. Puttin' those divine credentials to work baby! XD
Ceci n'est pas une pickaxe.
I spoke with former Artifex guildmate Angellrose about her trick to open a personal shop without paying for extra storage. Apparently she runs a mule account that has free extra storage as long as she never levels the account beyond 30. She mails items to sell (and money) to the mule, and has the mule open shop all day on her 2nd computer. It's a great work around that I wish I thought of. So in the coming days I will be contemplating opening my own personal shop...

Amnesia

School obligations (like making sure I graduate) have eaten up all my time these past 2 weeks, so Mabinogi news has been slow. Friday I gave my final presentation, which means I am officially done with school for the rest of my life! That also means I could finally play Mabinogi again.

But I had a slight case of amnesia: I logged into the game standing on Ceo Island right next to Muro the Goblin. Um...what? I couldn't remember what I was doing before I last logged out. Plus, everyone who hadn't seen me in a while started talking my ear off (not that I minded!), so I stood in place for about an hour getting my bearings.

Ah, I remembered I was doing Generation 2 mainstream quests, and I probably just finished talking to Aer, the "not attractive" water spirit, and was on the Ideals leg of the story.

Off I go...but wait, how do I bring up my inventory...and how do I summon my pet? What are my hotkeys!? I seemed to have forgotten those too. It was an awkward 2 hours before I got back into the swing of things. Fortunately ideals do not require combat -- a welcome sight for this rusty warrior.

Browsing the screencaps I'd taken prior to my absence helped me recall what I had been doing, too. Apparently this happened:I may have dreamt this
Bitoto and Eragonose got married in the Filia wedding chapel, which is unfairly more beautiful than the church in Emain Macha according to my pictures. Their celebrity mash-up name is now "Bitonose."

Yesterday Mistresraven gave me a tremendous amount of help in finding ideals, either posing as one herself or summoning Freaky555 to stand in. Kazukikun helped me finish the last ideal in Emain, and that was that. Ideals done in 2 days, and all with free-of-charge volunteers. It pays to know people who know people!

Afterwards, Kazukikun, Mistresraven, fellow guildie Rikimau, and I took off to meet Bitoto and Eragonose for a Coill Dungeon run, which we completed without incident. This screenshot sums it up nicely:
For those interested, my final video project for my Interdisciplinary Arts course is on Youtube, here. It's funny, I swear.