a tribute to the stars

[Duffbutts]

Hi Mom,

 

(1-70 - Tutorial + Mom's quest)

I know it's been awhile since I've written, I hope this letter finds you well.  I figured you'd be interested in hearing about all my adventures since the day you woke me up and gave me my first weapon.  I want you to know, I never forgot your advice when we fought the Poring King together and you gave me my first bible - 'Here son, drink this and become stronger!'  You have no idea how many different concoctions I've quaffed since.  There's a storehouse just to the north of our house in Prontera, surprisingly roomy inside that sells all sorts of things to eat and drink.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, you probably want to know it from the beginning, so that's where I'll start.

 

After we defeated the poring king, I went and talked to folks in the EDEN group.  They had many quests available and I was a bit overwhelmed, that was until Instructor Ur noticed my bible in hand.  He asked where I got it, and when I explained to him that my mom gave it to me, and showed me how to hit people with it, a smirk appeared on his face.  'There's someone I'd like you to meet.  Go to Glast Heim, it's a ruins of what remains from a glorious castle long ago.  Many powerful undead creatures hang out there, so it's a bit dangerous, but my agent will guide you.'  I inquired as to how I will know when I meet the agent, he only replied 'you'll know.'

 

(70-87 - Instructor Ur quest + Paradise Boards)

Glast Heim was a surprisingly short distance from Geffen, and using the powers of the well endowed warper, I was at the front of the castle in no time.  It didn't take long for a boy around my age to approach me.  With a hoarse voice and a gesture towards the abbey - 'I don't need to explain anything to you, kill 20 wraiths.'  This proved to be no problem for my signature move, flying side kick, of course channeling the holy winds around my book as I kicked the book into their undead skulls. Without too much trouble I had met my quota, went back to Johan, who then grunted '10 evil druids.'  I'm not going to lie mom, this irritated me quite a bit, as I had already killed easily more than 10 evil druids getting to the 20 wraiths he wanted, but I could tell this guy has a pretty rough life, I mean he can barely talk.  So I took the high road and went back in to kill the druids.  I noticed they dropped copies of the book you gave me, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a few backups, maybe I can take these to the blacksmith later.  After that, the boy said nothing, he was neither impressed nor offended, he just didn't care.  I figured it was time to go back to Instructor Ur.

 

(87-105 - Paradise boards 86-90 and 90-99)

Ur was happy to see me, he mentioned that I could go to the back and talk w/ Toren, who could give me some adventurers gear.  Finally! Some real increase to my power!  The stuff you gave me in the Poring village was ok, but it was definitely used hand me downs, this was a fresh set made especially for me.  I returned to Ur, he told me it's time to find something I'm passionate about, and pursue that dream.  The EDEN group isn't always going to be around to hold my hand, what are your goals pendu?  I wanted to understand the universe, the celestial bodies in space that are so vast, so enormous we have a hard time comprehending them.  And with that I realized something about the winds I've been wrapping myself in.  Before I can even start to understand the celestial bodies, I first need to have a foundation in the elements.  And of those, the most basic elements, fire and Ice.  My journey led me to opposing elements, I hunted Siroma in Ice Cave, and the starving desert wolves directly outside in the blazing heat.  The Ice Cave is a complete anomaly, is it magical?  How can it be so cold inside when surrounded by heat?  In exploring the levels I found a powerful sleeping beast that seems to be the source of the winter’s chill.  I documented my findings and moved into the Magma dungeon, an extremely precarious location for a young star gladiator like me.  One fire pillar under your feet and you’re toast! I saw other adventurers around me breathe their final breath in that fiery hellscape.  And if the fiery elementals didn’t get you, the fiery dogs might!  Right outside the Ice Cave there isn’t a lot of food to go around, and the dogs around there are vicious and hunt in packs.

After experiencing those polar opposites, a path opened to me. Of course! The closest celestial body is the key! The moon!  After spending several nights in Comodo tracking its phases and focused on the tide in relation to the positioning of the moon, I started understanding ways to infuse this power into my book.  After a kick underneath the new moon, I become barely detectable, a silent killer stalking its prey.  And suddenly out of the darkness I can deliver the full power of the moon!  It requires a bit of set up, but with this new power surely I can hunt stronger monsters.

At this time, I was told of an old estranged man in EDEN who frequently sends parties of adventurers to their demise.  He’s a war torn soul who believes the only proper training is to experience it yourself.  Though the fatality rates are high, the rewards are higher!  After all, through desperation, comes insight.  But first I have 8 bibles to try to enhance.  I’m going to need a good weapon if I’m going to survive gramps.

 

(Getting a bible - horrible luck, and Rockridge)

The blacksmith was an… odd experience.  I walked in with my books I carefully liberated from the druids, and with a rare ore called ‘Oridecon’ asked the blacksmith if he could enhance them.  He didn’t even look at me, but a face formed in the blazing fire behind him 

It boomed ‘‘Sure I can help you, toss your book and ores!’. 

‘Like… in the fire?’

‘Yes! Quickly!’

I threw in the first one. The book caught fire immediately and burned away.

‘That book was flammable!’ the fire exclaimed. The ores were also used! That will be 20,000 zeny please! The blacksmith looked up and held out his hand for the coin.  After paying him I was pretty sure I was getting scammed, so I picked up the rest of my ores and turned to leave. As I was walking out, another adventurer tossed in a wand. ‘Ah yes, here you go!’ boasted the fire, and a gleaming wand encased in oridecon popped back into the adventurer’s hand.  She looked uninterested, immediately threw it back in.  It popped back out, this time even more oridecon ore melted into.  At this point her eyes lit up, ‘Finally! +9 she exclaimed.’

I figured my luck was about to change so I threw in all my books hoping for the same fate.  Unfortunately, books are still flammable.  Maybe I should have chosen a metal weapon?  In a last ditch effort just to get a slight advantage I refined your book mom. And luckily, it didn’t burn up! +6! It’s not what I was hoping for… but the blacksmiths in this city are weird.  Maybe that’s why some adventurer’s choose this as their profession.  I don’t think the flame spirit is very in touch with reality… it seems like there should be a better method.  I paid the blacksmith, sighed, and left.

I took a stroll along the Alberta coast still studying the tides, when a man asked me to help out at Rock Ridge.  I was in a western for a moment, they gave me a badge for helping them with their task, and a nice cloak that offered a bit more protection.  I think I tricked a buffalo into killing… another buffalo… then I killed a bunch of buffalo men to show him that we’re not afraid to exercise force.  Because we uh… we wanted the gems they were mining?  I think I might have been the bad guy in this one to be honest mom.  But I needed that badge.

 

(Intro to Gramps 105-115)

I had heard of an old man in the EDEN group that could help me, there was an old man behind the counter.  The message boards were a safe steady experience, with my newfound moon knowledge, I felt that was a little below me.  Surely I could do what an old man requested of me.
“I need 400 Shinobi and 400 Bloody Murderer.  Also, where’s your party?”  I informed him that I was a solo adventurer, but I believe in myself to accomplish his task. He chuckled and said “I like your enthusiasm, too bad you’re going to die.”  “Good luck kid.”  Suddenly two bloody murderers were upon me, and one of them attacked in a fury of blows.  Without my new cloak I would have been toast, I immediately recalled and wondered if I was going to be able to succeed here.  This is where your words guided me.  I just needed some soup, something to make me powerful enough.  In the office I touched on earlier, they sold all sorts of elixirs for ‘endeavor token’ a currency I hadn’t encountered.  But it turns out there’s a forgetful girl in the EDEN group that will just give you tokens if you bring her 50 random items that she decides each day.

 

I purchased a scroll that you can wrap around your head like a bandana, and a protective aura sweeps across you.  Since I only have one life to lose, this made more sense than the attack potions available.  I had a decent amount of zeny from my escapades, and picked up some energy/rejuvenation potions as well.  I was going to need all the help I could get.

Back in the fight, shinobi blows tickled and bloody murderers were more like bloody annoyances.  I was extremely powerful mom, this was even stronger than that soup you first served me… this was incredible.  I also found that moving swiftly around the map with flywings was strong defensively, I would teleport to an area, stealth, and as the enemies gathered around… FULL MOON ONE SHOT, flying away before they can even land a counter blow.  About 200 kills in it happened, from all the movement, all the death, I experienced what can only be referred to as a miracle, the first time I saw it.  And I will never forget.  I could see the entire circulatory system of the shinobi, and land blows directly on the pressure points of the Bloody Murderers.  When I looked up, I could see the Moon and the Sun above me, all the stars of the night sky.  I felt their presence, always with me regardless of the fact that I was inside and it was day.  In an instant, 200 more enemies had fallen.  I had gained so much power studying their movements, and because of my almost omnipotent focus on their bodies, learning was accelerated.

 

Gramps was legitimately surprised to see me again, and even more so when he saw how much I had grown. ‘You know kid, most adventurers do this two or three times to get to where you are, are you insane?’  He smiled ‘Anyway, I’ve got another map for you.  These creatures are even harder, so you may want to take a breather.’

 

(115 - 141 2nd gramps and a few sporadic mission boards)

Having experienced a miracle I was ready to go in, my forehead scroll was about to run out, but I needed to see what lay in front of me.  Gramp’s second map was pretty relaxing, I had already gained experience killing wraith, so a stronger wraith was not threatening.  The flying dragons cast some lightning bolts, but they were slow and easy to counter.  The threat was Ferus.  After fighting for a while, I noticed they will occasionally wield their tails like a spear, and strike with the intensity of a Lord Knight on a Peco.  If I hadn’t had my scroll block a significant portion of the blow, I would be toast.  These were monsters to fear, but gramps didn’t seem all that concerned if I killed them or not.

 

I went to restock scrolls, and the EDEN group had given me some delicious rations to use at my disposal.  I wanted to experience that miracle again, and realized I experienced it the first time after landing over 1000 blows on my enemies.  My theory was it’s based quick successive strikes, and my strategy to experience it again was simple.  Stack a group of monsters as close together as I can, ideally almost on top of each other.  Use heat to strike them at max attack speed.  While heat strikes each monster, flying side kick into the pile to strike as fast as physically possible.

 

In employing this method, I found I could consistently see the stars in a couple of minutes, usually dependent on how many monsters I could stack.  I went back to the second map, saw the stars, chomped my rations, tied a scroll around my head and quaffed my potions. Sixty minutes later mom, I was too powerful for this place again.  

 

Gramps was in awe that I showed up again. “Kid listen, I’m rooting for you too at this point.  But this next map, you can’t just waltz in there.  You can eat as much cheese as you want but you’re still gonna be six feet under if you go in there immediately.”  I had seen glimpses of wandermen at Glast Heim, and I was not excited to be fighting the version that only appeared in nightmares.  Gramps was right, this was pretty scary.

 

(141-175 paradise boards + item hunting - take advantage of the bubble gum effect everytime you level)

At EDEN they were having problems with the Bifrost Tower and surrounding area, every hour they needed me to go in and clear out some monsters there.  They’d give me a few paradise coins for my services, and this is where I pieced together the other two elemental opposites, Wind and Earth.  

 

(Alignment swap - Lunar line to Solar line ~145 level)

With all 4 elements another veil lifted over my eyes.  Aligning my body to the moon was powerful, but ultimately requires too much finesse.  With the amount of elemental understanding I had, I didn’t need to hide from my enemies any longer, I just needed to burn brighter than them.  I always had the elemental advantage.  The full moon is bright, but there is something obviously brighter, the very thing that the full moon draws its power from!  The sun!  Bursting with power like the flares from the sun, I can fight my opponents directly and hit flare after flare in quick succession.

 

(Farming montage)

I needed gear, and what better place to get gear than on an airship.  There were some people I had never met, some dragons I had already had the experience of killing.  A gremlin jumped in the main engine (nice survival skills!) and apparently a moose was the captain.  It’s really unsurprising that the airship went up in flames.  Also, why did I kill the captain of the airship to save the airship? And after I killed him, we just bailed anyway?  I might have been the bad guy again… but I needed those clothes mom, it was all to pursue my dream.

 

Next up was a shield with decent defense, and an odd looking black haired man asked me to relive the story of Sakray and his hots for the princess.  Or maybe the princesses hots for him?  All I know for certain is they’re both long dead.  I went in and did what I do best, hit everything in my path with a book.  There was a different moose man in that one, fairly certain no relation to the previous moose man, but he was notably more evil.  I was definitely the good guy here.  Once I killed 100 of them, the black haired man gave me a shield, and I was good with that.

 

I still felt I needed a bit more protection, I went back to Glast Heim to hunt Raydric, I needed their card and ideally I’d get a Khalitzburg too.  I hunted for hours, time blurred, and I finally gave up.  No Raydric and certainly no Khalitzburg.  Afterwards I went back to magma dungeon, and stepped outside.  Out there… annoying half naked birds and a few goats + mud.  I killed them in fury and frustration screaming ‘Why can’t you be raydrics, there are so many of you and so few of them!’  A harpy card dropped immediately.  This will have to do.

 

I had heard of a peculiar fly that hangs out underneath the mage tower in Geffen.  This fly has the ability to life leech based on the amount of damage they deal, and obtaining that power seemed important to me.  I hunted them vigilantly to gain two of their cards.

 

Finally, I needed something to wear on my head, and what better than a book!  I use books to kill everything and record my celestial notes, I might as well be all about books.  And how would you get books?  You go find magically enchanted ones and kill them of course!  Clocktower was the destination, and books were the goal.  Fun enchanted book fact! You’d think in killing a book you’d have a book since that magical book would leave a normal book corpse.  This is not true, you can usually only salvage a pristine page from that book, since you beat it up, and if you’re lucky someone was reading it and it has a bookmark in it!  Then you need to search the dead books pockets and if you’re really really lucky, it has a smaller book that it carries around because it’s an avid reader.  Surprisingly, most books do not like to read.  Once you’ve stolen 6 normal books from enchanted books, you go talk to a traitor book and she will sell you a book child to place on your head (she likes reading most of all and children not so much).  Clocktower was a weird place, I was happy to never step foot in there again.

 

The rest of my gear was supplied from EDEN in exchange for paradise tokens.

 

(155-175 gramps map 3)

Gramps had his maps, but they were starting to feel familiar, and this one was legitimately a big circle.  I used my miracle one thousand strikes per second strategy, and dispatched nightmare wandermen and… you guessed it… like literally one thousand magical books until I became too powerful for the map.  This gramps was surprisingly straight forward, wandermen are fast and hard to hit, but they don’t have special attacks like ferus or bloody murderer before them… and the books, I mean, who's afraid of a bunch of books and some clocks?

 

(175-180 illusion of underwater, 1st map; sky fortress (started at 160+), clear w/o killing boss)

I was having trouble scrounging enough items for the item lady in eden, and I knew I’d need more of these tokens.  The blacksmith fire had a solution - if he threw me back 10 items, he’d also give me five endeavor tokens for being a regular customer.  Still sounds like a scam, probably is a scam, but those five endeavor tokens seemed pretty good.  I need a steady supply of soup if I want to achieve my dreams.

 

The problem is, the fire didn’t want any old weapon, he’s looking for quality.  He needs the best items around.  And the best items come from a place called sky fortress, and the deep depths below Biblian.  Wind elemental magic was extremely powerful here, and the fish were notably not hard to dispatch.  I considered hunting Rafflesia for their card, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth my time.

Sky Fortress, after mucking around with some rich people and fighting a lady with a weird hat, I was able to enter.  Being a master of the 4 basic elements at this point, I started out using Fire element as that has always served me well against undead, but noticed something about the +6 Crimson Bible.  Namely, I noticed it was a bible.  Could it be?  A fifth element?  Is there something in this scripture that is uniquely powerful against the shadows of undeath?  For the first time, I stopped killing with the book in my hand, and started reading it.  It described a man made element, the power of prayer! My elemental control has previously been focused on channeling from a physical thing, the earthen soil, the waves crashing against rocks, an ember bursting with oxygen flares.  It was so clear!  I could channel against my own mortality.  Where do I go after death? And a new wind surrounded me.  Fire was powerful against undead, but mortality is not something undeath is familiar with, I cut through the rest of the fortress like paper.

 

But every element has its opposite, right? If holy winds are powerful against all the shadowy creatures of the night, I would need to train against the opposite of that.  I needed to fight powerful angels, and to do that I needed a card held by Anubis.  I dispatched around 900 and they forfeited their card.

 

(180+ odin4)

I went to Odin temple, and traveled back in time to before it was in ruins, as these were the most powerful angelic creatures I could find.  None of my elements were effective, and Skogul had a power called ‘Grand Cross’ which was incredibly threatening.  To fight here, I needed all my potions and protective scroll and I could still only fight 3 to 4 angels at a time.  I discovered a 6th by focusing on my own selfishness, my own material desires.  These pure beings were unfamiliar with greed, and similarly to channeling scripture for undeath, it proved to be incredibly effective.

 

I spent years amongst the angels, eventually replacing everything I wore with articles of clothing from their clergy.  Reginleif and Ingrid both caused some close encounters, they weren’t excited about us slaughtering the angels of the temple, and would come down periodically to enforce justice.  I was fast on the fly wing and managed to avoid them.  Is it wrong to kill angelic beings?  Probably, but I needed to get stronger, and they were the strongest opposition I could find.

 

(Ending)

Eventually I learned everything fighting them could teach me, and I was at a loss.  These are the most powerful creatures I can fight.  Is this the end?  I still haven’t experienced the stars, and what is a Star Emperor without mastery over all celestial bodies, and all elements?  I went to Geffen mage tower, sorcerers and warlocks usually have a strong understanding of elemental control, maybe they have some ideas.  Unfortunately they were focused on the 4 basic elements… the simpletons.  The clergy only knew of one, and the knights guild… didn’t really know what an element was.  Poisons were popular with the thieves guild… but not really an element.  Though poisoning something does have a potent effect, soaking my book in poison doesn’t suit me.  How would I hold it?  It is a physical property and not a concept that I can channel.  I went back to the dungeon with the hunter fly, and explored deeper.  Down in it’s depths, I encountered some weak monsters and toyed with different elements.  Finally I decided to use no element at all, and this is where I had an epiphany!  I couldn’t hit whisper or marionette without channeling an element… being void of an element… is an element!  A 7th element!  And elements always come in pairs, they always have their opposite...

 

I’ve learned everything I can here, but there is an 8th element I must pursue.  Unfortunately, I have to leave this mortal body behind.  I know my spirit is powerful enough to traverse the stars and I must experience it.  This is my destiny as a Star Emperor!  Visiting Comodo one last time, by the water.  In a world where you only have one life to live, and you have to make it on your own, I’m glad I get to go out on my own terms.  A lot of my comrades were not so lucky.  Be proud of your son mom, I’m achieving my goals, and pursuing my dreams.  See you soon…

 

 

-penduKILLSTHESTARS

 

(Final Gears/Stats - happy to help w/ any other questions about gameplay etc, just ping me in the discord or forums, I check both somewhat regularly)

[Meowkai]

i laughed, i cried, i contemplated life

 

there is much to think about.

[saus]

What a read. A legend!

[Maxan]

I think NovaRO needs to recruit you to write some quests. Well done lad!