There's many things I love about leveling BST. I love that I make my own hours, that the EXP I earn is directly related to my effort (as opposed to some amalgam of the efforts of 6 party members), that I can have peace and quiet as I level, etcetera, etcetera. Well, one of my most favorite things about leveling BST is how it has taken me to so many distant and diverse locales that you don't normally go to as well as places that most fear to tread.

One of the latter places is Uleguerand Range, a nasty place filled with evil critters all hell-bent on your destruction. Including this Uleguerand Tiger who was ever so helpful in earning my EXP there.

After my EXP, I went out with Schultmc, Jan and Trix to do more of their Bastok missions with them. On the way there, we got Schultmc his Mea tele-crystal and even met up with Serpopard Ishtar, who said, "Oh, Hai guise!"

For the Dragon fight I came as MNK and we destroyed it. It was very strange to actually wear my Osode with Destroyers in the fight. I'm still not used to this new gear-cap system.

When we were done I zipped back up to the north to continue leveling BST. Before long I was finally able to don my entire BST AF set.

I really enjoyed the mobs I got to fight in U.Range, even the Snoll's who had a tendency to asplode.

IMMA CHARGIN MY LASERS!

I am really digging this Field Manual thing, however my prey isn't. It's a great supplement for a job that's already great at soloing as it means we can get ~1k more EXP every hour than we normally would.

We went back at the Basty missions for Schultmc, Trix, Jan, et al. While waiting for Jan and Schultmc to get their cutscenes done for a Delkfutt's Tower, the rest of us goofed off killing some NMs and heading up higher in the tower than any of us ever really had (well, I guess technically we had to for the battles with the Arch Duke, but none of us could remember that far back :-)

After, we got Schultmc the rest of his keys and I escorted him on his first airship journey to Kazham. Unfortunately, the level sync shenanigans have practically killed off leveling in Kazham (people simply just stay in Qufim until they are high enough to hit Garliage), so the place was a ghost town. Too bad, really, I have very fond memories of leveling there.

Next up Trix and I enlisted Xill to help us make progress in our WoTG missions. The one we were on involved entering a special arena and killing Laa Yaku the Austere. We had tried this once before and failed, but this time it was cake. As Trix and I went around doing more WoTG missions and quests, we stopped once again to battle my old pal Dyinyinga, who seemed to like to remove our clothes a lot. Our journeys took us to the monastery of La Vaule, which was a terribly evil place and, in the future, would become Davoi.

By now my BST was high enough to level in the ToAU areas so I headed to Al Zahbi to get myself set up for my ToAU camps. Before I could start leveling there seriously, I got pulled into a Divine Might run that had a lot of promise. We took our time preparing for the battle and had a nice combination of players and jobs. Unfortunately, we had a major screw-up early in the battle (literally a "Leeeeroy Jenkins" moment), and lost the fight.

After the DM defeat, I was back in the Mire leveling BST again. Got some amazing experience and called it a day.

One more thing before I sign off.... If you recall I had one of my mules, Sekzbalm, camped out in Rabao to do some importing/exporting. I used to buy Water Jugs, various types of ammo, certain weapons and gear that you could get cheaply from NPCs there and have other mules sell them around Vana'diel for profit. It was quite lucrative for a long while, but has unfortunately been ruined by the current in-game economy. As such, I have now realized that having Sekzbalm in Rabao is a comeplete waste and have taken her back to her home in Bastok. Here she is saying her final goodbyes to the outland town she's called home for these last few years.