At level 5 I tried to sail the sea! It was a dangerous place. The monsters did a lot of damage. I could usually take out a sahag with two BB, a critical hit would kill one, but it took all three and the WM to take out a shark. With her new weapon the WM was keeping up with the amount of damage my BB did but she was missing more often then they. OddEyes were one hit wonders. Kyzokus were the real threat. It took all three BB to kill one and they did decent damage. Luckily they missed a lot.

At level 6 I traveled to Elfland. On the way there I noticed that my BB damage had doubled upon gaining a level! I bought my WM Cure2 and then eyeballed everything else I wanted to buy. Up until here I had been spending all my money stocking up on Heal Potions that I hadn't even used yet. Normally I never even buy them but this playthrough is a special case. Here in Elfland is where the BB usually starts to shine! While fighting for gold to buy my usual RM and WM spells, as well as Silver Swords for my Fi and RM I gain a few levels and the BB becomes a damage dealer equal to the Fi until he gets his Silver Sword. I still had much money to earn for spells so I went off to do so as I contemplated whether or not I would give the BB Copper Bracelets or not. Single Ogre fights were relatively easy and Asps didn't offer much but the occasional poison. The Ogre with three Creep combo was deadly, but Ogre with one Creep wasn't bad and the two Creep version wasn't too hard. Two Ogres miss often enough that it can be done. Arachnids took a lot to kill but didn't do much damage. I didn't dare go to the Provokia Tip. That would have been suicide. After I earned my first 1,000 I learned that even at level six it's too late to equip a BB with armor. It dropped the stats. Then it happened, the Ogre with GrOgre fight. Not possible to win. There's no way to damage the GrOgre enough to take it down before one of you die. 2 hits means 2 damage on that monster. By the time I reached level 7 my WM also had Harm2 and for some reason Heal, mostly because I figured I would need the levels before heading to the dreaded Marsh Cave.

At the start of level 7 I was still fighting so I could buy Pure and be at a level where I could use it. It was now possible to kill an Ogre in one turn, but not likely. That means I could do 100 damage per turn. Did you already know Ogres have exactly 100HP? I already knew that. I made the 4000 shortly before reaching level 8 but kept on fighting to fully stock up on heal potions. After hitting level 8 I still needed twenty to go. The whole time I had been near Elfland only one fight with Werewolves went down and critical hits ending him fast.

At level 8 I could now use my Pure spell exactly once! I feared the Ogre with three Creep combo no more. I hadn't ran into another Ogre with GrOgre to try with level 7 so I was anxiously hoping to run into one while earning enough to buy those last heal potions. It never happened. At this point I took a break to go eat scambled eggs and doughnuts for breakfast. Then I came back. Now, it's off to the Marsh Cave! I really think I'm too low-leveled and I'm going to die. I certainly wouldn't be going this early with my normal party, but then again that's probably because I would still be fighting for gold for another level or two. Now that I think about it the first time I played the game I had a party of Fi, Th, Bm, Wm and I beat this cave somehwere between the levels of 8-10, barely. So, who knows? On the way Ogres starting dying in one turn much more frequently as my BB got more comfortable with making multiple hits per turn. Werewolves and Arachnids were getting squished before they had much of a chance to poison me. Once inside the cave I went up to loot. My first fight was against Shadows and the BB were doing 30-40 damage each. Sweet! Fighting Scum, the green globs, is always retarded. I usually just run. There's no need to because they can't do more than 1 damage, but they just take so long to kill. Then, I ran into some Scorpions, once of my primary worries in here. They were doing 20-60 damage but I could kill one each turn and there were only two. One of them did manage to get a poison set in though There goes that one spell. Crawls were another thing to worry about, but it turns out they didn't do much damage and it only took two BB to kill, so it was pretty easy to do before they could get a stun in. R. Bones were doing 20-30 damage and took a small effort to kill. Gargoyles were a nightmare! They did some damage and often took more than a turn to kill. I had to run from a group of three. With the top floor cleared out, it was obviously time to leave and get to level 9. That's exactly what I did.

At level 9 I felt much more confident about the Marsh Cave. This time I had two Pure spells A critical hit could kill an Ogre in one hit. I fought Bones all the way to the bottom floor. Yeah, those same Bones from the Temple of Fiends. Once down there I headed straight towards the Crown treasure chest. On the way a pack of three Werewolves attacked me and one of them managed to poison a BB. One Pure spell down. Then it happened again! Oh man. I sorta lucked out with the Wizards gaurding the Crown. Only three of them attacked me. They sometimes did some serious damage. One of my BB took a 74HP hit! It took a full turn to take down each wizard but in the end



Oh yeah!

Then I collected the rest of the treasure behind the unlocked doors. A Scum managed to poison me, but I cured it with one of the ten Pure potions I never told you I bought. Mucks were doing huge amounts of damage. Near the 50s. Next thing I knew I was getting jumped by six werewolves and everybody was getting poisoned! I barely survived. Then I left. On the way out I was attacked by three Gargoyles again, but I was out of Cure spells so I ran away. For me this is like doing a low level challenge with me being two levels below average as well as breaking my rule of not running unless it's the one-hit kill guys in the Ice Cave. I went back to the inn at Elfland before heading up to take on Astos. The first thing you want to do when you fight Astos is Mute him or there's a pretty good chance he'll rub you to death. He can also cast Fast and a lot of Elemental2 spells. After being muted, he's not hard at all.


Then I leveled until I reached level 10.