Everything was set for this new journey except for the equipment. It wasn't really that much of a problem though. I only needed equipment that either boost INT or VIT or reduced damage from certain type of monsters, but even then those kinds were hot items in the market especially that there has been a boom in the population of Priests. Nevertheless it would be acquired as time passed by. The skill build prioritized support skills, ignoring most of the exorcism skills or only going through them as prerequisites to other skills. And so it has started.
I breezed through the acolyte job change quest and as early as lvl 16 I hitched a ride to Glast Heim. This time I didn't arrive at the church that was at the lower part of the city. Instead I found myself outside of what looked like an old and abandoned castle that was situated on the northern part of the area. There were lots of people, meaning that this must be a good leveling spot.
outside the castle of the Glast Heim Ruins
But the real reason people are here instead of the church down south is the new patch. This patch reshuffled some of the monsters in most of Rune-Midgard, and the graveyard / abbey was part of it. It turns out that there were now more Hunter Flies in that area and that the boss monster has Dark Lord emerged there. Good thing is that this newly discovered area has a lot of strong and slow-moving undead monsters too. So in we go.
The main halls of the castle's first floor weren't the leveling area mentioned. Just like before, I followed a group of people that were going to the place, and just like before there were dangers along the way. Sometimes these monsters called Rideword, that looked like the monster book of monsters from Harry Potter, appear out of nowhere and take a nice chunk of your HP or kill you in one bite if you're a lowbie. There were other dangerous monsters lurking around the castle, like the Joker which well, looks like a Joker card only the Joker itself sticks out from the card, the undead knight Khalitzburg, and other ghastlies XD With luck and perseverance I was able to enter my destination. I wished warp points can be created inside dungeons but its only applicable to fields or towns XD
Anyway the area that was below the castle was a dungeon. Sprites of bones lying inside opened cells were everywhere and there were even torture devices on some parts of the map. The place was huge. Good thing it was big enough to house the hundreds of people playing in this area. In fact this particular map was so populated most of the time that the lag was severe. Well I guess the mindset back then was "level up now, explore later" XD
There weren't any Evil Druids or Wraiths (big floating cloaked skeletons with a huge mouth filled with sharp teeth as a torso) here, only your typical undead prisoners. Skeleton Prisoners and Zombie Prisoners to be specific. There was the occasional ghost called Whisper, whose card (cards by the way are items that give bonus stats / abilities and are put on equipment that have slots) was sought by many. When this monster appears everyone locks on it right away then mobs on it as soon as it dies, hoping for the card to drop and for them to be the one to get it. There were also demi-human monsters here such as Injustice, a naked guy that attacks like an assassin lol.
So until I got to Job Lvl 50 this was where I trained. Sometimes I partied with my friends outside Glast Heim and helped them level up at the same time. It was an arduous and difficult road. As their was a lot of people inside the Underprison, it was difficult to avoid not getting kill-stealed or kill-stealing for that matter. Though at critical moments that same kill-stealing will save you from death XD
Another difficulty while training in there is maintaining SP. Even for INT build Acolytes, they had to sit a lot to quickly regenerate SP. As the monsters there were not intended for low lvl characters, they don't die from a single spell cast by lowbies. Good thing Priests have this skill called Magnificat that increases the SP regeneration rate of everyone in the party. So what people do is party up with these priests and ask to cast this skill. These parties are called magni parties XD Most of the time they help in kind but it has become a business opportunity as time passed. Priests would only invite people into their party if they pay a certain amount of zenny, mostly reasonable and affordable. To hell with those who overprice, they should be merchants and not priests lol.
The grinding was tough that a lot of times I was tempted to not reach Job Lvl 50 and just go change into a Priest. But luckily I prevailed XD So after a lot of hours (and random memorable moments forgotten because I lost a good amount of my screenshots DX) I reached Job Lvl 50. I was around lvl 67 by then. Wow only 3 lvls left then I'd be able to wear those Elven Ears, I thought. The Elven Ears, or EE was also a fad back then, as it was like a status symbol of being a high-leveled character.
Anyway I made my way back to Prontera to take the Priest job change quest. And boy was I happy to make it to Job Lvl 50, since that enabled me to skip a part of the quest (which involved looking for NPCs similar to the Acolyte quest). The next phase was a mission to defeat some undead monsters to be able to move on. Nothing special. During the third phase, I was sent to a map wherein there were this monsters that urged the player to quit the quest to become a Priest through items or character modifications (character class change and what not).
the little Deviruchi tempting me with the coveted Mistress Card! LOL (this was the Jyonenshi on the Fenrir server, which you'll learn about later on)
Of course you'd be an idiot if you'll believe any of that XD The final demon will get angry and summon a bunch of strong undead monsters that you could kill but if I remember there was a time limit, and you could easily just run away to the exit to finish the quest. Which is just what I did. After that I talked to the head honcho of the church to finally change into a Priest. He even gave me a Bible as a bonus! XD I didn't use it as books aren't really useful for Full Support builds, mainly because it has less card slots than the ordinary Rod, which has the maximum of 4, and cards were very crucial back then.
Priest Jyonenshi :D
Finally the light at the end of the dark tunnel! But it was only a respite for what was to come. The real challenge begins!
