Death and Life

08-01-1012

This concept of jobs and levels themselves were still somewhat foreign to me. This was probably the cause for the many "dirt snacks" (that's local slang for getting knocked out) I tasted. After finishing off the current monster, my companions would often chime in with things like “Mmm, how’s that dirt taste?” to which I would reply “Needs salt.” This was a common theme, as death almost always seemed to result in landing face down. Luckily, there was always a helpful citizen around to "raise" me--another concept I still don't quite understand, even now. Perhaps we are only made unconscious and the mages here simply cure that ailment, like any other.

Back home death was the end. If you were shot in the chest and had no doctors to heal you, you died shortly after that. Even their curing magic still amazes me. I can be dripping blood and full of cuts and bruises and other battle scars--but a few simple chants from a healer and it's as if nothing ever happened (except for the stains on my clothes, maybe). Back home we had no second chances, no magically ability to bring you back to life. Even worse, one single shot would kill you. I've been shot multiple times with goblin crossbows, and I've only "died" from these shots if I was already severely injured or had no healer with me. Not only that, but it seemed that the stronger I got, the less it hurt when I was shot by the goblins I fought back in Gustaberg. Nowadays I don't even get scratched--that is, if they can even hit me. At my current level, I can either dodge their crossbow bolts (not likely), or their hands quiver with such fear when they see me, that their accuracy becomes incredibly poor.

I'm still not really sure what happens between those last breaths of consciousness as I hit the ground, and magically arising to my feet. I can never remember anything during that time. It feels like I am drawing my final breath, then I suddenly realize that I am rising up from the ground onto my feet--almost instantaneously. One time my group was not able to find someone to raise me in time and my spirit could no longer hold on. Luckily, I did not vanish completely but was sent back to something called a "Home Point."

The first time that I died outside of town I somehow wound up back in my Mog House. The last thing I knew was that I was trying to slay a massive sheep up on a hill. Then suddenly I was in my room looking straight at my Moogle. Before I realized he wasn't the sheep I started to take a swing at him. He winced expecting pain, but I luckily pulled back before I could hurt the little guy. My Moogle noticed how pale I suddenly went and how shocked I must have been. Dying and returning to one’s home point can be quite a jolt the first few times. Luckily, he seems infinitely stronger than me in case I had not been able to pull back my punch. I quickly apologized and explained what I was doing on the hill before being sent home. He understood and explained to be about home points and how I could set mine at the giant crystals around town--it would certainly save him a few more possible whacks on the head. I can only imagine what I would do if ever I accidentally hit my little Moogle buddy. I felt so bad that I bought him some stuff he asked for the next day--not much, just a Beetle Ring and a Power Bow. To my surprise, he came back with a gift of a bigger closet so he could hold more of my neat junk... and more armor and whatnot too. A quick hug and a thank you and then I went off to attempt those sheep again…