Act 19 The InvitationIt was close to mid July when I got a text from Zen. It was the last week of the school term. He asked me if I wanted to do Leviathan Unreal with him, as there was a 14 days free login champaign going on at that time.
I think it was about a month ago when he invited me to come back for a PoTD run. We went with Melon and Yull and we did floor 51 to 200 all in one go. All three of them had not cleared PoTD prior, but they were extremely skilled at that point. It was me who was a bit nervous because I hadn't played the game for a while. However, the run was very smooth. I told them that maybe next time I will resub and we can do HoH. Honestly, I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure if I even want to come back to the game in 6.0.
In any case, it was good that he told me about the 14 days free login, or else I would have totally missed it.
I told Zen that I needed to finish class that week then I will login again. The truth is I still login one day earlier. At first when I login, I continued the MSQ quest, checked out the ending of the of the weapon (primal) story. When Zen finally logged in, we headed to a PF training party on Levi Unreal. He had already cleared the fight earlier that week, but I was new to it.
I should admit this upfront, I am very bad at dodging the dives. It was some times later when I share my screen with my FC in discord, Zen noticed that I used a monitor with 4:3 ratio. He suggested it was why I couldn't see the water splish at the corner. I mean, I did spin my camera around to see it, but it just getting a bit to hectic when I have to dodge ground aoe, heal/esuna people and turn my camera all at the same time.
I suppose, this will be my excuse of playing poorly.
The very first PF party I joined, we had problem with tank not stunning or silencing the caster add. We got charmed and lost control of our characters every run.
The next day we tried again. The mechanics was handled properly, but somehow we failed the dps check. When the four yellow orbs were up, they were meant to be killed before the phase transition. Somehow, there were always orbs left over. Sometimes the tanks tried to tank lb during phase transition happened, but most of the time, we wiped.
It was not until the third party that I got my clear.
The Levi Unreal is much easier than the Ex version at min ilv. There are enough fairy skill at lv80 that I can heal the tail tank without casting anything to him directly. Therefore, it gives a lot of room for the debuff to drop off. Not to mention, Zen was my coheal and honestly there was nothing much I need to do. He did most of the healing. He did the elemental generator. He always dodge the dive correctly. He also did tons of dps. In that regard, I am not sure if I had much to contribution to the fight outside sticking my fairy to the tail tank.
Zen and I first met probably back around patch 3.4. It was in the late in the Midas raid. In order to gain more experience on the raiding and to get more practice on playing my job, I was often subbing for other statics when my own static was not raiding. One of the static I subbed for was Zen's FC static. One day, Zen sent me a /tell when I was in Idylshire. Given the amount of subbing I did back then, I had not the slightest clue on who he was at that time. I thought it would be rather rude to say that to him, so I pretended to remember him. Somehow people think I have good memory, but it is very far from the truth. I often take note on things and have to rely on my old note to tell me who this person is and what happened.
It had been so long ago, so my memory is not exact. When I first joined my FC, there were three members: Aelia, Asny and Rex. They have been raiding together for a while. It was sometime in 3.3 when their static disbanded, Rex unsubbed the game. Aelia moved on to a new static. Then when the BRD spot opened, she invited Asny to her static. When the caster spot opened, she invited me. Then, the melee spot opened, she asked Rex. Rex came for a trial. I think we did A6s together. After the fight, we had a discussion about him on TS. The feedback was positive in general. But then Aelia said to us, along the line of "just as an FYI". I can't remember the exact word she used but she mentioned Rex tended to get "emotional" when the raid night turn sour. Immediately, the opinion of everybody shifted.
In fact, Rex had the reputation of constantly making sarcastic comments towards his team when the run went poorly. From time to time he ranted on the FC chat, and I got to read a small chunk of it. I suppose, my opinion about him can't be trusted because I have never raided with him and I was never on the side that has to deal with his temper. Rex was probably a bit pedantic, but it was very sterotypical German.
Aelia was assigned to deliver the verdict. Rex was clearly upset. He left his comment on a PF, then left the FC. That PF didn't stay up for very long, but somehow I managed to see it. No one dared to talk about it. I didn't dare to ask about it. Aelia might have tried to be fair, but I just didn't feel comfortable with the event unfolded.
And emotional? It was an irony to find out who turned out to be the most emotional one out of all of us.
If memory served me, it was the next day when Zen sent me that /tell. I had no memory of him, but given all that happened, I decided to be nice and just play along as if I remembered him. He asked about my FC. It was difficult to talk about your FC and when something just happened. Instead, I told him about Aelia and Asny. They may have a detrimental personality trait or two, but they are good people overall and have many other good qualities.
Soon after, Zen joined our little FC.
I sincerely hope he didn't get to regret it. I have no memory what exactly I said to him on that day, but I wasn't intend to lie or anything. Zen was not the the only person who I ran into when I sub for some static and ended up in joining my FC. I am not sure why this happens. I am quite sure I didn't talk much about my FC during raid. I wasn't supposed to talk much about it, because there are some red lines I really avoid to touch in case so and so gets triggered.
It was a bit like walking in a tightrope.
Sometimes I wished that I had written more what happened around me in game. So in case people ask, I can just link them my blog and say, "Don't ask me. This is what happened last time. Have a read and decide for yourself."
Some years later, the EU servers split into Light DC and Chaos DC. I happened to resub the game at that time. I ran into Zen. He told me that he and his friends were moving to Pheonix. I knew some of these people because many of them were in that static I subbed for.
Zen asked if I wanted to come along.
At that time, I had unsubbed since 4.0. I went back to the game with no sense where I belong. Before I unsub, I was busy every single subbing for statics, helping my friend to clear or farm primals, and selling runs. After such a long break from the game, I have no gear, no idea how any of the level 70 rotation works. I haven't even started the four lords story line, have not unlock any of the lv70 24 men, and definitely not the Sigmascape. Instead of helping others, I was the one need help to queue into those normal trial to continue the story. I wasn't even sure why I resub at that time. I didn't know about the DC split prior and only know about it from people in game.
I took on Zen's invitation and transferred to Pheonix, knowing no one else on this server except my own FC. I unsub again after that month. By the time when we all met again, it was the launch of the expansion 5.0.
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Table of content of this series is
here
