Day 5:
Today was a sweat day, with a fair bit of help from Amanda Swift performing powerful heals, speeding the whole process up. The boredom was becoming a little easier to deal with now that I could at least chat with my society mates. I am not saying I went as far as actually enjoying sweating, but the ability to chat certainly relieved some of the tedium. I mentioned last time that society chat could be hard to follow when there are so many members online at any one time, but soon discovered the easiest thing to do was to read others chat and throw in the occasional comment.
I was happy to see the vast majority of conversations revolved around questions on how to do things, or what weapon was best with what amp etc. This sort of chat is invaluable to a new player, and by just watching others talk whilst I was sweating I picked up lots of hints and tips about what armors I should be buying, how much should you try sell sweat for and many others. All of this of course I realised is something my 4 day absent Mentor should be teaching me. It was becoming obvious by now, even with my noob head on that I needed to get shot of this mentor and get a new one. I was starting to hope that when I next went mentor hunting, Alice would be in PA.
Around this time, a conversation took place between me and a member of the society about my mentor. The person in question immediately saw what had happened and told me I should boot the mentor straight away.
Finally! The time had come! With the mentor gone, I could start to have some fun and hunt occasionally; something I had been refraining from up to this point just to make sure I could kick them. The instructions on
how to get rid of them were quickly provided, but then my noob world came crashing down around me. There was no boot sign next to my mentor's name. It couldn't be!
Other than the first hunt with the mentor, where must have killed no more than about 15 creatures, plus my feeble attempts at economy hunting I spoke about in the last article, I hadn't hunted a thing! I had done nothing but sweat, honestly!
I looked at my pro standings and saw everything was still at zero. It was then that my society mate explained that if any skill was above 20 levels, I couldn't kick him. I could have sworn this was higher in my day (I always thought it was prostanding if I am honest). I was furious with myself. In hindsight, I guess that this was divine retribution, paying me back for using Pinky's knowledge to make sure I kept my skills low until someone told me to kick my useless mentor - technically cheating... Fate it seems, is not without irony as even with over two years of knowledge, I still got conned by a disciple farmer. I am so ashamed.
Day 6:
Once again, sweat was on the menu. I thought I would still be depressed about the Mentor, however, today I discovered a new way of sweating even quicker and more efficiently than being out in the field next to a healer...
Now, I am going to go on about this a little, because firstly, nothing else interesting happened today
and secondly, because any one who knows me, knows I don't do sweating. I hate it with a passion and as a result, I don't know much about it, other than what I had learnt in the last few days. I am quiet proud of myself, having discovered a new technique all for myself (I didn't even get it from society chat!!). I am sure others who have been sweating far longer and harder than me have already found this method out before me, so I apologise for claiming credit for this...
The technique is to find a newbie hunter on the outskirts of Swamp Camp (there are plenty!) and to sweat the mobs he is hunting. The reason you go for the newbie hunter is that it takes him a while to kill any mob he is shooting because of low skills and a low powered weapon, there by giving you time to sweat it before he kills it. The beauty of this method is that the creature will rarely attack you, preferring instead, the guy shooting it in the ass! Essentially this gives you an attack free sweat session. You don't need to hang around waiting for someone to focus you (as no attacks, means no interruptions) and you don't even need someone to heal you. I did however discover this really annoys some hunters, so eventually learned to ask permission after a couple shouted at me
. Most will welcome the company; one even invited me into a team. After each creature is dead, the hunter moves on to the next closest one, meaning a regular fresh supply of mobs.
I gathered more sweat today than any other day and here by declare myself Queen of the noobs!
Okay, okay, maybe I got carried away, but just for a moment there, I think I actually enjoyed myself sweating - something I never thought possible
Day 7:
Today was the day that would be the turning point of my newbie experience. Today was deposit day! Technically tomorrow was deposit day, but I figured before I logged off today I might as well use the Ukash Voucher I had waiting for this very occasion (it was that or write to you about sweating again
)...
So, after sweating all day once again (I say all day - if I am honest it was never more than 2 hours!
) and then opened up the deposit section in game and entered the code off my voucher. I decided on Ukash out of habit, as I deposit with Pinky using the same method. I entered all the details and saw the message telling me my balance was now 183.16 PED. Nothing out of the ordinary there from a £10 deposit less fees, however, it was only when I decided I would TT the Jester D-1 my vanishing mentor gave me that I discovered something new in my inventory...
A brand new IW36 (L) Pistol and 200 ammo... It took me a second to realise, but then it hit me! This was the Ukash special offer... all first time users of Ukask get a limited edition pistol and 200 ammo. I forgot all about this, but it was a great bonus for my new avatar. The pistol sold instantly on auction for a price of 30 PED. I assume there was an order in place - wish I had looked, but a newbie probably wouldn't have known about orders, so not the end of the world! Adding on the 2 PEDs worth of Ammo and I now had a balance of 215.15 PED plus all the sweat and junk I had accumulated of the last week. The experiment is going well! I am already in profit
. So, can I keep it that way? In the next article, you can read what profession I take up, and how I spend all those PEDs!