In hell mode nothing was simple. The regular mobs were elites, and dropped occasional items, mostly crafting materials. Fighting multiple elites required lots of attention to successfully dodge, even with increased stats. The first chieftain had elites nearby, and it took Corwin’s best effort to lure them away without attracting the boss. There was one he couldn’t lure separately so he started out fighting to kill and elite while dodging it and boss attacks. He got hit once while killing the elite, losing 50% of his health to the rather nasty Chieftain boss. Once the elite was dead things got easier and he settled into a routine of saving parry to help with the AoE skill while dodging everything else and getting attacks in. Pretty soon Chieftain Scrimshaw was berserk. At this point, everything changed. The boss suddenly had new attack patterns and never before seen moves. Not having played this before Corwin was hit, and lost 50% of health, recovered a tick before being hit again. He immediately health potioned and refocused his efforts. He adjusted to the new patterns easily after his initial surprise and burst down his foe, until 10% when the AoE triggered. He managed to take only 1 hit before getting the enemy low. When the enemy hit 5% it started to charge a new powerful attack but before that could happen Corwin combed: Sudden Charge, Thunder Slash, Side-Cleave, Double Slash, Pierce, Slash. The boss fell lifelessly to the ground.

Corwin looted the boss and happily took the generous rewards. A recipe for a iron level 5 ring (+10 all attributes) was the key item, and of course a 3rd mana crystal. He put away the other items (common materials) from the boss and moved on fighting a few more elites before finding a bronze chest. He opened the chest hoping for good luck and was pleasantly surprised to find a level five iron amulet recipe (+10 all attributes). The chest had a secret compartment and in it was a level five iron cloth armor (+10 Int +10 Con +10 Agi, 20 Def, 40MDef). John saved this armor and decided he’d use the mail system to send it to Edward.

Continuing on he fought elites in groups and managed to avoid getting hit, getting progressively better at dodging. He could feel his skills improving as he challenged himself to the limit, playing right on the edge of his capabilities to push forward as fast as possible. John was pleasantly surprised as learning generally comes slowly once you have 15 years of experience at something. He supposed he was adjusting to his younger more fit body as well as learning new things but the rate of progress excited him.

After dispatching the final set of enemies, he found himself facing a chieftain with 4 unlurable elites surrounding him. This would have been quite a problem before but with his new-found confidence in dodging he dove in and attacked the elites quickly. He wasn’t flawless but only got hit twice at a slow enough pace that he didn’t need to use a potion. Once there were only two elites left nothing could hit him. Everything was going well until the boss reached berserk mode. Once again there was a total shift in attack sequences, and this time Corwin forced his way back avoiding getting hit. He watched the boss move and got an understanding of the pattern before charging back into combat with a well-timed wind charge. He bursted his skills out for damage in between dodging attacks until the enemy reached 6% health. At this point he saved up all his skills off cooldown and whittled its health to 5% with only normal attacks. Sure enough, at 5% health, it started charging a special skill. Before that skill could arrive a burst of all Corwin’s skills killed off the chieftain.

He looted the chieftain getting a fourth magic crystal and a recipe, this one for a level 5 iron-tier cloth helm. He also found a iron-tier chest and excitedly opened it, hoping for the flash of light that indicated a lucky burst. Unfortunately, the chest had only an iron tier recipe, but fortunately that recipe was for a level 5 off-hand shortsword.

With nothing new of note to equip he proceeded on to fight groups of elites in the narrow corridor. He felt challenged by the environment but rose admirably to the occasion even when a group of elites came from behind and he was fighting on all sides. He didn’t get hit once, and dispatched the elites quickly, picking up some crafting materials. The ‘last fight’ of hell mode was rather scary. It featured a chieftain, a lord, and two elites. Fortunately, the elites and chieftain were able to be lured away from the lord so they could be fought separately. That fight was uneventful, and the chieftain was looted for a magic crystal(5) and the level 5 iron recipe for a staff.

Finally, he faced the lord. The lord gave off a new aura of intimidation. It seemed it had presence now. This intimidation slowed opponents and made them feel slightly sluggish, causing it to be harder to dodge. Corwin still avoided getting hit but it took significant effort as he was forced to use his vanishing steps technique repeatedly and he could feel his stamina reserves draining. It became a race between Corwin’s stamina and the Lord’s health. Slowly the race turned in Corwin’s favor, and he stopped needing to use vanishing steps by the time the lord hit 60% health. Unfortunately, that didn’t last when the Lord went berserk. Corwin used Vanishing steps to narrowly avoid an attack. He kept dodging and hitting the lord when he could. His stamina hit critical just as the lord hit 5% health and started charging a power move. Fortunately, all it took was a burst combo of all his attack skills to finish it off.

Corwin paused to catch his breath. He was too tired to even answer the name request that accompanied his first clear. Finally, after about a minute he had the energy to type in Righteous Destiny and receive the announcements.

Congratulations to Party Righteous Destiny for the first clear of a hell difficulty dungeon in Eternity’s Wake. Party member Corwin Swordborn receives 8,000,000 XP, 80 Gold, and 1 Tier 1 Gemstone.

Congratulations to Corwin Swordborn on the first solo clear of a hell difficulty dungeon in Eternity’s Wake. He receives 16,000,000XP, 160 gold and 1 Tier 1 Gemstone.

Congratulations to Party Righteous Destiny on first clear of a hell difficulty dungeon in Altaea. Party Member Corwin Swordborn receives 4,000,000XP, 40 Gold and 1 Tier 1 Gemstone.

Congratulations to Corwin Swordborn on the first solo clear of a hell difficulty dungeon in Altaea. He receives 8,000,000XP, 80 gold and 1 Tier 1 Gemstone.

Congratulations to Party Righteous Destiny on the first clear of hell difficulty of the dungeon Grimsbane. Party member Corwin Swordborn receives 2,000,000 XP, 20 gold and 1 extra dungeon pass.

Congratulations to Corwin Swordborn on the first solo clear of the dungeon Grimsbane on hell mode. He receives 4,000,000 XP, 40 gold and 1 extra dungeon pass.

Please log off in the next 30 minutes as a patch is ready to be applied and the server will terminate for one hour of real time to apply it.

The massive gold and XP were a welcome addition as Corwin reached 57% of level 7. He was still very tired, so he looted his enemy receiving a rather exciting level five iron main-hand sword recipe and two magic crystals (7 total). Finally, he looted the end of dungeon treasure chest receiving the second of his ten targeted growth items.

Ring of Elements (Divine Growth Item – Currently Trash Level 0)

No ability

Requires 1 magic crystal to evolve

Requires 5 Trash Rings to level.

Corwin had a bit of a dilemma. Luck was really important as it affected drops, should he save his crystals to evolve the ring of hidden attributes to silver tier or did he want to spend them on evolving the ring of elements to common and bronze? Ultimately he decided all growth tier equipment would be good and he wanted to be able to wear it as soon as possible. He invested a crystal in evolving the ring of elements to common and was floored by its ability. The ring had ignore levels 0.2/level. Ignore levels would reduce level suppression making it easier to fight upcurve for faster XP, this ability was extremely powerful. The ring also gave +1 Str/level at common tier. With the ability being this powerful it was a no-brainer to see what else it gave off and he spent 2 mana crystals to evolve it to bronze. At that tier the ring had +1 all base attributes/level and in addition to the ignore levels ability it had an ignore equip levels 0.2/level ability. This ability meant for every 5 levels of the ring he could have 1 level higher equipment than his level. Again, this was extremely powerful and Corwin was quite excited. Ignore levels was normally a good ability but with growth equipment he could take advantage of it to the fullest capacity.

Corwin kept the ring in his inventory as it didn’t do anything until he could sacrifice rings to it. He paused to collect himself and stumbled back to town exhausted. As luck would have it, on the way back he was ambushed by the Raven’s guild who finally made their move.

It was ten on one. Fortunately, they were only level two and with four levels of level suppression their damage was miniscule even if they hit. Meanwhile, their clerics were useless as every attack of Corwin’s was a one-shot. Pretty soon there were ten bodies at his feet and he picked up ten dropped pieces of gear. He was glad he was cloaked as he didn’t want Raven knowing who had slain them since they might come back with more numbers, interfering with his ability to get other things done. After getting back to the village Corwin bought up all the level 0 rings in the shop, (100 for 1 gold) so that he wouldn’t run out of stuff to upgrade his rings. He used 35 of them to upgrade his Ring of Elements to level 7 and 10 more to upgrade his ring of hidden attributes to level 7. After that he logged off as he was too tired to craft, knowing he would only fail if he attempted to do so. John needed to rest and recover before doing anything else, fortunately this downtime mostly coincided with the patch so John wouldn’t lose any time in game.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level 6: 29% of level 7

Str: 61 (base:5)

Agi: 91 (base:30)

Con: 61 (base:5)

Int: 31 (base:5)

Cha: 31 (base:5)

Lck: 19 (base:5)

Cnc: 19 (base:5)

Sta: 19 (base: 5)

Def:141

MDef: 71

HP: 966/966

MP: 786/786

Gear:

MW: Bronze Tier Level 5, Level 5 Longsword, +5 Str, +5 Agi, +5 Con

Damage: 30-40 Durability 22/25 Requirements: 20 Str

OW: Bronze Tier, Level 5 Shortsword, +5 Str, +5Agi, +5 Con

Damage 25-30 Durability 24/25 Requirements: 20 Str

MA: Bronze Level 5 Plate, +5 Str, +5 Agi, +5 Con

20Def,10MDef, Durability 25/25 Requirements:20 Str

LA: Bronze Level 5 Plate Cuisse +5Str, +5Agi, +5Con

20Def,10MDef, Durability 25/25 Requirements:20 Str

B: Bronze Level 5 Plate Gloves +5 Str, +5Agi, +5 Con

20Def,10MDef, Durability 25/25 Requirements: 20Str

G: Bronze Level 5 Plate Boots, +5Str, +5Agi, +5Con

20Def,10Mdef, Durability 25/25 Requirements: 20Str

RR: Iron Level 7 Ring of Hidden Attributes (+14 All base attributes, +14 All Hidden Attributes)

LR: Bronze Level 5 Amulet (+5 All base attributes)

AM: Bronze Level 7 Ring of Elements (+7 All base attributes)

Skills:

Thunder Slash, Rare Level 0

Wind Charge, Rare Level 0

Double Slash, Uncommon Level 0

Slash, Common, Level 0

Pierce, Common, Level 0

Parry, Common, Level 0