Day 2 and spoilers to Day 1's Hint.

I've managed to solve Day 2's hints, and am looking forward to Day 3's hints.

Here are some screenshots of my conversation with the mystery person, the answers will be out tomorrow :)

For those who have yet to solve Day 1's hints, or just couldn't figure them out, here are the answers.

Items: 3 Cakes, 2 Buckets and 5 Bananas

Person to speak to: Lachtopher, who wanders around the Lumbridge General Store.

A screenshot of what exactly to bring, as well as the location of the mystery person.

Little Surprises

Ah yes, the little surprises we sometimes get while going on about your usual training, a sudden woodcutting level up while cutting down our own willow trees to make space for a new one, that unexpected herblore level up while cleaning our fresh harvests, and of course, clue scroll drops.

Something like that happened a while ago, a little surprise while I was slaying aberrant spectres as part of a slayer task. I received a challenge scroll from the Aberrant Spectre Champion. This was really unexpected, but a pleasant surprise though.

Ironically, just a week or 2 ago, I told Boom, who was out challenge scroll hunting, that I have no intention of spending the crazy amount of time he did on challenge scroll hunting, and am in fact, not interested at all.

Since the Champion had already issued a challenge, of course I was game enough to take the fight to him, and for the first time since I became a member, I entered the basement of the Champions Guild, into the arena and kicked the Aberrant Sceptre Champions's Ass. Hard.

I was awarded some experience and calling beads which allowed me to summon my own banner carrier, which really looks pretty damn cool now that I own it. :D

Another surprise was meeting Merch Gywar in pixel! It was the second time we've encountered each other online actually, but I was busy farming the first time so by the time I saw her name in the chatbox, I had teleported far, far away. That happened this time as well actually, but I was not going to miss this opportunity, so I headed over to the bank and got the runes to teleport right back where she was last at. Luckily, Merch showed up a little while later, and I stalked her for a little before I went back to slayer. That was an epic experience.

On a side note, the newly launched Cryptic Clue Fest has been wonderful so far, I've solved day 1's hint, and shall be working on day 2's hint tomorrow. I've blurred out the face and names just in case there is anyone out there who has yet to complete the hint and would not want spoilers.

I've looked through day 2's hints and I already have some guesses, I shall wait till tomorrow to see if my guesses are correct! :)

Some other levels I've gained since the last post:

Lunar Diplomacy.

Under Tim's advice, I decided to get a spirit tree planted in Etceteria. So I decided to start Lunar Diplomacy in order to get access to Suroths. Surprisingly, both Lunar Diplomacy and the subsequent quest, Dream Mentor interested me so much that I completed both at one go, with Tim and Kat cheering me on as I fought off the boss in all its 4 forms. Those quests were rather entertaining, and I especially enjoyed the boss fights.

I also recently made an observation. I wonder if this is a pure coincidence but I chanced upon this player who had released an onslaught of insults on myself during a clan wars game a few days ago. Of course, I avoided him and left him to do his own stuff while I killed my own waterfiends, sticking to my own spot. Soon after, another player came by, a friendly girl, I must say, who came over and said 'Hi', then continued to converse with me. After a while of crushing waterfiends, I ran out of food, so I asked the lady if she had any cooked sharks to trade with my raws. (She could use her bunyip's 'Swallow whole' technique to consume those raw sharks) Unfortunately, she didn't happen to have enough food for herself. Suddenly though, rudeman came over and asked me if I wanted to trade with him and so I accepted the offer, and traded my raw sharks with his cooked sharks. He even threw in a few rocktails as a gift.

I was shocked. Did the man not recognize me? Or was it just a random display of kindness? We even resumed to have a civil, even enjoyable conversation during my stay there. It didn't add up, one day, he was such an angry and aggressive player in clan wars, yet on another incident, he became a generous and helpful guy. After some thought, I reckon that my only conclusion is possibly because of the nature of the activity we are engaging in. In Clan wars, it was a battle of strength, of domination and of pride. Maybe that's why testosterones are rising and tension is high. And for killing waterfiends, it was an individual thing, as long as players stick to their own spot. Relatively peaceful and non-aggressive.

Maybe be that's it. Maybe he just forgot about me. Maybe I was just thinking too much. But people at waterfiends, you need to learn how to hop when it is too crowded! :(

Starstruck

I'm sure everyone has their Runescape 'idol', or someone they really look up to, may it be Gertjaars, Chessy018 or some Pking legend. Well, mine would be Excl, a RS machinima videomakler who recently won the Jagex machinima contest. Of course, my admiration for him started way back, when a fellow clanmate of mine, Deamonloard9 introduced the clan to a few of his videos, about a year or 2 ago. I have to say, I’m pretty amazed by his creativity and undoubtedly, his video making skills.

This sudden confession of fanhood aside, while lurking in his clan chat about a month ago, I was greeted with a surprise. Excl is holding a house party to celebrate 40k Youtube subscribers for one of his friend, Dark Arm3, also known as Sladeakakevin on his Youtube account. Of course, I had to stop my mining training and dash over to his house in Rimmington. By dash, I really ran all the way, using my charges from my explorer ring whenever I was out of run energy. Luckily enough, I was among the first few to reach his house, and decided to take a tour whilst waiting for the crowd to gather. Within 2 minutes, when I went back to the room Excl was in, it was just jam packed with players of all levels and outfits ( Yeah, some of them had fashion sense resembling that of Lady Gaga's -Runescape-wise.)

The house party soon moved to the altar, where Excl 'married' Dark Arm3, with rings and all, while the rest of us aww-ed.

After which, there was just a lot of people running around, me getting bored, and me leaving the party with a really good memory of meeting up with one second favourite Runescaper of all time, Excl. He seems really nice too!

Don't worry Tim, you are still first :)

So, if you are reading this, who is the Runescaper you really want to meet?

By the way, this is one of my favourite moments, I got to sit on Excl's throne!

Jubilation.

I finally got the cape I had been working towards for the past year, the Strength cape. As usual, I invited members from Blessings, as well as my own friends who were online to join me in the screenshot. Albeit the screenshot going wrong and missing the 99 message, we had a lot of fun enjoying ourselves at clan wars, fighting as a clan, as a group, as friends.

Coincidentally, my character looks rather grumpy in this screenshot. I guess my pixel self was as disappointed as myself for not getting the screenshot.

Still, I had a hell of a time, and thinking back, a realization hit me. It really wasn't about the achievement, the cape, or the maxed stat, it really was about friends who I could share any of these with. The most fun I had throughout the whole day was not the moment I got the level up, it wasn't the moment I got my cape either - I asked them to get ready for clan wars and went to get the cape myself, it wasn't even performing my emote for the first time, it was that extremely close match we fought with a larger clan, and Blessings holding our own ground, dealing almost equal damage albeit we had almost half their numbers.

Thank you all! :)

So, to those who could make it, thanks a lot, you really made my day. To those who couldn't, meh, there will be a next time, and its still gonna be awesome! :D

Target Locked.

I'm now closing in on maxing my first combat skill, Strength. And yes, though my methods still entail certain degrees of grinding, my tiny breaks in between did their job in not boring me off the game. The study and examination period that lasted for a few weeks also did wonders with keeping me occupied while my pixel self whacks away at the monsters, gaining those strength experience as I myself gained knowledge whilst reading through my notes. (Yeah, I actually learn from going through my notes, have to admit that I'm not the most attentive student out there :] )

If nothing else fails, I should be done with training by the end of this week, and probably be having the level up and party sometime next week.

This is how little experience there is left till 99 Strength while I'm working on this post! :)

Kat and I made use of the new name-change system too, though neither of us are pleased with the names we came up :|

Wanted to write this part way before the examination period, procrastination pushed the actual typing of this post till now, though.

Before moving over to the desert bandits, I was still training strength in the Stronghold, on level 50 giant spiders. Relative to the players training on desert bandits, those training on the giant spiders are lower in level, and in most cases, donning inferior armor compared to my bandos set.

Something that irked me after a while would happen everyday *without fail*. I would get asked how I made enough money to afford the set. Initially, the attention was rather pleasing and ego-boosting, to be honest, I've never been seen as a rich player before, at least not standing next to Tim, with this Reddy, or Dg, with her full bandos *AND* dragonfire shield.

So, when greeted by this question initially, I would gladly share my money-making method, fishing and farming, with a bit of slayer and hunting thrown in between. This routine goes on, from days to weeks. Albeit tired of repeating the same responses, I was still willing to offer my advice to those who asked me.

What really irks me was how some people decided to just strut by, and comment on how my BGS sucks compared to the SS, how I'm dumb 'cause I'm not selling my Bandos set even though its value (was) dropping, and that I'm a noob 'cause I still train at the spiders. The worst yet, those to question the effectiveness of how I make *my* money. Yup, those were not satisfied with the answer I gave, and started throwing out other common money-making ways, expecting me to do a comparison between those ways and *my* way. After a few instances of that happening, these thoughts entered my mind.

Are higher levels really obligated to help the 'little-ones' out? If so, why aren't we getting more appreciation? Really, if you want help and advice, put yourself in a position where you actually deserve some :\

Achievements today: 290k Strength Experience, 'bout 300k left to go.

Enjoying the game.

While training strength today, I had a talk with a fellow player, Boombaye, who suggested I try soul wars out. Tempted, I went to look up some guides on the minigame, and decided to give it a go.

Initially, though I was reluctant to leave the training spot I've been camping at, I was getting extremely bored of looking at my avatar slashing away at the little critters. The minigame, however, had the effect of breaking the monotony of the training and after a good round, I dived back into strength training with a somewhat less bored self. Though closing in on 95 strength, I must admit that the monotony of the power training is getting to me, and I really admire a few of my friends who could bear just training the skill day in, day out until 99. Ah yes, I'm referring to you, Stacey (She's a complete training machine. Madness). That was what gave me the idea of this post actually, to explore avenues which reduce the pain of power-training.

After some thought, I came up with a list of things I do/did while I was getting my cooking cape, and during my mad dash for both the fishing and strength capes.

1. Minigames

Ah, my favourite. A game of two of Stealing Creation, Castle wars, or an hour at Clan Wars usually gives me a break enjoyable for me to get back to intensive training.

2. Do something IRL - Homework, Manga, Anime, something else that can share your attention.

Surprisingly, training that requires little attention gives me a lot of time to do my work. During my break last year, although I was intensively fishing monkfish, I saw the opportunity to study at the same time since there was little attention required. All I had to do was to move spots and get gear good enough to withstand a few hits from river trolls and the like(aggressive random events were still in play back then :-\).

During that period of time, the amount of time I spent studying was literally the amount of hours I was on Runescape. I even used the clan chat to quiz another friend of mine who was taking the same examinations as I do to check my studying progress.

Anime does a great job for me as well, although sometimes I miss the subtitles when I eat, or reply someone and have to rewatch some parts. :-\

I also take the time training to read the games news and updates, as well as look around the net for other stuff.

3. Train another skill

This was a dangerous choice for me. Getting a little tired of the constant fishing after the examinaions had ended, I decided to take a break and train my strength. ... and that became the current skillcape I'm going full steam ahead for.

But hey, that just proved how effective this is. The new skill relieved my bordoom so much that I switched to training it instead! :)

4. Observing other players

This is my favourite. Entering a clan chat, I often rest in Chessy018's clan chat if I'm not in Blesschat. I like just lurking around, watching how players interact. Maybe it's just a personality thing, but I actually enjoy doing this. Maybe chime in once in a while, but mostly its just silently reading their conversation.

Happen to catch Excl on while writing this post too, around the time when the results of the Machinima competition was posted. A sudden server reset kicked the other players and myself out of the chat though, and by the time I managed to get back in, Excl had left for work. *Sigh*. the first time I've had the chance to see Excl too.

5. Just do something else

For this, I sometimes have random impluses to merch items from the G.E, or do a quest, distractions, and stuff like that. Usually will take me a while too before I get back to training. That's pretty good for bordoom relief too.

While writing this post again, Boombaye messaged me excitedly telling me that Mod Nyrr was in World 1, and *poof*, I was there. The dude stayed to answer some questions and danced around while I got back to training after taking a few satisfactory screenshots of the Moderator.

I really question the fashion sense though, but that's just me.

Today's Achievement: Tons of Strength experience, kept myself un-bored.