New Monster Table

An hour and only a small mental breakdown later, we’re having lunch downstairs. I feel a weird sense of peace and fulfillment, having gone back through a lot of the music I used to listen to. It’s like I’m finally letting go of some elements of my past, and properly healing in order to enjoy life the way I want to, instead of shoving it aside every time it comes up.

I still have a long way to go, but this is a really good start, and it’s something I’m really proud of. Ivy made some quick sandwiches for us, and the topic of discussion is our next grinding session. “We now out-level tier 5. It’ll be a new page on the monster table, and the question is whether or not there’ll be new monsters and dungeons for us to try.” I say, taking a bite.

“I hope so. Variety is the spice of life after all. Granted, we did only just try the spiders dungeon, but still. More options would always be nice.” Mia replies through a mouthful of food. “We need to be careful though. I think because it’s a new page instead of just a new tier, we should stick with what we know first.” Ivy cautions.

“In that case, I reckon we should stick with what we know first, and if there are new monsters, we try them out once we have Skylar training with us. Definitely wouldn’t hurt to wait for her.” I suggest. “Sounds good to me.” Mia says, finishing her last bite and taking her plate to the kitchen. I’m not far behind, although Ivy immediately directs me to sit down again.

Once the dishes are done and we’re all set to go for battle, I open the monster table to see what’s changed, if anything.

I’m somewhat pleasantly surprised by the new enemy types. Even more variety would be cool, but I suppose it must still be fairly early game yet. Either that or Gaia is a bit of a lazy designer. “We have all the old options plus four new enemy types: elves, dwarves, wolves and ogres.” “Sweet! I vote for ogres!” Mia exclaims.

“Remember, we agreed to wait for Skylar. She said she’ll be free tomorrow because it’s the weekend, so we should be able to test out the new enemies then. Until then, any preferences?” I ask, looking between the two of them. “Nah.” “I do not mind.” Come the responses. In the end, we decide to go with slimes first. A relatively safe option to test the waters.

As we figure out for the slimes dungeon, there isn’t a huge difference between tier 5 and tier 6, at least for the basic enemies. The critical difference comes with the level of the boss. At level 26, Ivy and I now out level all of the previous bosses that we’ve faced. This means that when it comes time for the Slime King boss, we’re prepared for a much more difficult fight.

We get to the boss fight, having kited the last singular slime enemy around for a while in order to regenerate all of our resources and make sure Ivy can top up our health to full. Once we’re properly prepared, we dispatch the last slime and prepare for the boss.

The boss unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), also doesn’t have many new mechanics. Apart from the Slime King now being level 50, which comes as a bit of a shock to us from a pure numbers standpoint, it also now summons adds occasionally. The adds seem to be on a fixed timer, so I make sure Mia and Ivy know to take them out as quickly as possible, to leave more time to focus on the boss.

The summoned slimes aside, the new Slime King seems to be pretty much just a stat stick. It’s attacks do more damage now, but thanks to our increased health, we can absorb an attack or two fairly easily. More than that would get us into the danger zone, but Ivy is too quick with her healing to let that happen. It also takes us a lot longer to whittle down it’s health, but the XP reward is nice.

2000xp

That puts me just over halfway through to the next level. Gathering the loot and exiting the dungeon, we walk back to Mia’s house to rest. Something interesting that I noted through the dungeon is that on the observe sheet for the slimes, the prefix of “lesser” was dropped from it’s name. We’re definitely getting a lot stronger.

The disappointing part about that observe sheet though is that the loot table hadn’t changed at all, save for a new legendary drop, an ingot of a metal called Brideum. Researching the metal on our break, along with Trotium, reveals that they’re both low to medium grade magical metals, with Brideum being slightly higher quality.

Apparently Trotium is made by infusing ice magic into regular metals, giving it a propensity to work well with ice magic enchantments. Brideum is the same thing but with standard mana infusion. This prompts me into a rabbit hole of researching magical metals, yielding the discovery that most magical metals are made using the process of magical infusion, and that the highest quality metals which can be made this way, are extremely rare, some not having been seen for centuries.

My curiosity satiated for the moment and our resources regenerated, we go out once more to grind, this time choosing the skeletons dungeon. As with the slime dungeon before it, we find that the regular enemies are levelled up to our level, having dropped the “lesser” prefix before their names, but still fairly unchanged apart from that.

The boss is once again level 50, and also seems to have no new tricks up it’s sleeve. Maybe most of the design work that Gaia put in, went into the four new enemy types, instead of trying to improve what’s already there? The fight is drawn out more than before too, courtesy of the much higher stats that the level 50 boss has compared to the level 25 version. It doesn’t take us too much trouble, and I walk out of the fight with a level up and more of the same loot.

2000xp

Allocating my stat points to wisdom, I take out some loot for Ivy to munch on, as we head inside. With my effective mana regen now at just over 15, I’m quite happy with my progress so far. Ivy levels up soon after we get inside, and I allocate her points to agility, as agreed upon before. It provides a noticeable bonus to her speed, being a 50% increase.

Dinner comes in the form of Mia teaching Ivy how to cook chicken. By the end of the lesson, Ivy has whipped up a chicken pasta bake for us to try. As always, the food is delicious. I don’t know how she picks up on cooking so well, but it’s really nice. I hope somewhere down the line that I can pick up a perk for Ivy to be able to eat the food she makes as well, it would be a really cool quality of life thing.

After the emotionally straining day that I’ve had, the inviting warmth of Mia’s bed and the loving snuggles of my girlfriends, really can’t come quick enough. We shower, have sex, shower again, then happily take our rest for the night. I’m the middle spoon again, which seems to be becoming a regular arrangement. I ask if either of them want to switch, and they decline. If they’re happy, I’m happy. I drift off calmly, feeling more loved and appreciated than ever.

The next day while we’re having breakfast and waiting for Skylar to arrive, the topic of discussion is which of the new enemy types to try first. “All I’m saying is that the ogres dungeon conjures up dangerous images from it’s name. I think we need to be careful with that one.” I reiterate. “Awww look who’s chicken!” Mia teases playfully, and Ivy frowns slightly at that.

“Being careful is different from being ‘a chicken’.” “She’s just teasing Ivy, it’s okay. She’s just a reckless person who doesn’t think before she acts.” I reply, grinning at Mia. “Out of the two of us, which one messes up more in battle because she makes reckless decisions in the moment?” The aeromancer retorts. “I can’t deny that the answer is me, however I see your point and raise you that I at least strategise before a battle, even if I don’t always during. You do not. Also, I want to hit things with my axe.”

“You are an idiot.” I shrug, grinning again. “Takes one to know one.” As I take another bite of my pancake, my phone buzzes and I check to see if it’s Skylar. “I’m 5 minutes away”, the message reads. “She’s nearly here. 5 minutes, she said.” I report. “Raiding as a foursome, here we come!” Mia exclaims, and I snicker at her choice of words. “Shut it.”