Ascetic Turned Assailant

By the time the new server, Iris (named after the damsel in distress from the manwah) was announced to be launched as a second server to accommodate more players, I was getting tired of leveling up the hybrid acolyte. It was too late to try to reverse the mistakes of allocating points to every stat, making it mediocre for support and solo leveling.

So I did some research on the other job classes and like everyone else, I had my sights on the thief job class. After all, who wouldn't want to try a character that attacks swiftly while dodging most hits from the enemy, with an ability to steal money and items to boot? But the real reason people go for this class is its 2nd job, the assassin. This was one of the most populated job class during the early days as it really was cool with its very quick attacks and high critical hit rate.

And as the servers opened I created a new character on the new server, naming it Yoichi (from the Yoichi Bow weapon of Final Fantasy fame and other RPGs lol) with typical purple long bad-ass hair XD I swept through the tutorial but I made sure the answers to the questions by the end of the tutorial would lead me into the NPC suggesting that I'd be a thief (following the suggestions nets you a few useful items and a trip directly to the town for the job change quest). By the time I was finished from the tutorial I was a level or two away from being eligible to take the thief job change quest.

The town for thieves was apparently Morroc, southwest of the main city Prontera and had a middle-eastern feel, it was in a desert after all XD. The actual thieves' guild was to the northwest of the town, inside a pyramid. The inside of the pyramid was like a labyrinth, and to get to the thieves' guild you'd need to find you way to the center. But there were some monsters that were too strong for novices that wanted to take the quest, so what we did was we'd run in groups trying to avoid them (hoping one of us would be the bait LOL) or use this item called a fly wing that would teleport us to a random location of the map. I made more than one attempt to get there lol.

The Desert Town Morroc

Eventually I made it and moments later I found myself outside the pyramid doing the quest. I looked for an NPC that would take me to a map wherein I'd collect the quest items I needed. It was tedious and boring but worth it. After about an hour or two I finished the quest and was now starting the life of a thief XD The double attack skill was its best ability as it enables to do double damage to a target for up to 50% of the time. But that wouldn't be enough to even make a dent to the monsters of Glast Heim, so I looked for another place to level up.

That's when I heard from my friends about this place called Byalan Island. Apparently it was a great place for melee characters. It was located east of Prontera and required to ride a ferry. When I got to the island (that looked like a skull on the mini-map) indeed there was a lot of people, be it waiting for others, regenerating, asking for party members or selling healing items. I entered the cave on the center of the island, and as expected, the monsters were marine creatures, well most of them are XD

Marina

Thara Frog

Penomena

Marc

Just some of the "marine" life you'd see inside Byalan Island XD

The cave was sort of half-submerged in sea water that's why there are even squids and err... mermaids. The lower levels are even crazier as it turns out that the cave leads into a sort of Atlantis (with underwater bubble effects to boot!) that amazingly, enables the characters to breathe and move with ease XD But the monsters there are tough so I stayed on the upper levels. And true to everyone's word, leveling there was fast and easy.

Eventually the EXP and Job EXP acquired became too low to make it productive leveling down there, so I looked for other places to level up. I remember going to places like the Payon Cave, Orc Dungeon, Goblin Forest and even the sandy eastern desert of Morroc, where the island that was home to the assassins' guild was located.

Before the Comodo patch arrived there were no 2nd job quests so I had it easy when I changed jobs into an assassin. As soon as I left the assassin guild building I was eager to try out the skills. Sonic Blow was first on the list, and it was amazing, hitting the enemy with several slashes at lightning speed. Their cloaking skill was very useful too as it enables the assassin to move while remaining unseen, though back then you had to stick to within 2 tiles of the edge of the terrain (walls/cliffs etc.) or else the skill will deactivate.

Male Assassin Artwork

Assassin Yoichi, my first second job character XD

Anyways, I decided to go deeper into the Payon Cave to gain some levels and hunt the elusive Sakkat (as far as I can remember it was there that I found one). The Sakkat is a headgear that looks like a straw hat worn by rice farmers and it adds 1 AGI when equipped. Back then this headgear was the craze, I tell you, so when I got one I was so excited XD.

So there I was, inside the deepest parts of the Payon Cave, wondering why there is a town underground (I even made a fanfic regarding the place and the boss monster there - a half-girl/half-cat named Moonlight weilding a giant bell attached to a stick). The monsters there were typical darkness fare - skeletons, chinese (or korean) zombies called Munak and Bongun (the Munak Hat headgear was a fad too back then) will-o-wisps called Horong, even ghostly maidens called Sohee.

A fighting game-ish screenshot thingy I made with my Priest Jyonenshi and the boss monster Moonlight in Ragnarok Battle Offline style XD

I think I got to lvl 70 while hunting in there when the withdrawal syndrome kicked in. Maybe it was because I had no good equipment to move to tougher places to level up faster. I don't really remember how in the world I wanted to become a support character again, but I think it was because we (me and my friends of course) lack support characters, most were melee characters. So I guess that was the sign to throw in the towel and go back to asceticism XD