Whether you’re a hardcore gamer or a casual gamer, chances are you’ve either played or come across one of the more popular games back then: MapleStory.
However, so much has changed since then, with the Big Bang, new classes with dragons floating over their heads, and new maps with even weirder monsters. The real essence of MapleStory is so much different now.
For the sake of nostalgia, here are some awesome memories from the old MapleStory we all knew and loved.
- The best hangout spot in the whole game
Who could forget this spot, where people just came here to chill and relax? Back then, levelling was so tough that reaching level 30 almost seemed impossible unless you had no life. Instead, we hung around and just talked or flirted while passing time. Despite being a MMORPG which emphasis on levelling, we took the social aspect more seriously, and made plenty of friends.
- Kerning PQ, autoclicking the way to victory
Levelling was so mundane back then that doing party quests was the easier and more fun way to level up. Everyone would queue up in Kerning City around the sewer area and just wait for their turn to enter the quest. I believe the instance system was relatively new at that point in time, thus disallowing parties to enter at the same time.
Let’s not forget the endless challenge of trying to jump to the 3rd sewer drain
Most players would end up downloading a software called ‘Autoclicker’, which did exactly what it’s named after, so as to increase their chances of getting in.
Probably the earliest form of boss fight you can encounter as a player was the King Slime in the Party Quest, where you had to kill it.
The damage it dealt was ridiculous and back then there wasn’t such a thing as tanks and aggro. This means that you had to jump out of reach and constantly deal damage to it at the same time.
- Grinding in the Slime caves
Speaking of these little green cute’ses, everybody at the point knew that to maximise levelling, you had to train at the slime caves, where spawn rate for these green little dudes were the highest. These caves were located around the town of Ellinia, where the mages reside. Training here and also listening to the soothing music was surprisingly de-stressing, especially after a whole day in school where you had to explain why you didn’t do your homework since you were too buy mapling!
- The best BGMs
Probably the most memorable parts of the old games were the Background Music. They had almost the perfect combination of soothing and uplifting tones and were also addictive. They change as you travel so that it was hard to get bored of them. Have a trip back to nostalgia-land by listening to these:
- Exploring Sleepywood
Sleepywood (and subsequently Ant Tunnel) was a memorable location (amongst all the other memorable locations) simply because if you reached here, chances are you already invested a lot of time into the game.
People who reached here probably already had their 2nd job advancement and were ready to tackle the next stage of their levelling process.
We used to challenge each other just to see how deep we can travel through Ant Tunnel before our entire party got wiped. Although seemingly a waste of potions, it was fun just to see who had the wit and skill to survive all the way till the end.
Sleepywood, especially in the Sauna Room, is usually where the infamous ‘Drop Game’ is played. A ‘Drop Game’ is like gambling, where each player (usually 2) would take turns to drop their items, and the other has a chance to snatch it up.
- Testing your patience during Jump Quests
These quests were probably the by-product during the creation of hell. They were the true tests of patience, where you needed to accurately jump on each platform all the way to the top. One misstep or loss of tempo resulted in a fall that either required you to restart the whole process or death where you had to restart everything all over again.
Personally, I never got around to completing these quests. I’ve never regretted it.
- Experiencing the crowd at Perion ‘Marketplace’
Channel 1 of Perion will definitely bring back fond memories of the events that take place here. Forget the night markets of Taiwan or even any shopping mall during the holiday season. THIS was where the action was.
Players from all over Victoria Island would come and sell, trade or buy stuff there, using ‘@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@’ to help bring their chat bubbles slightly higher. There really wasn’t a need to go to the Free Market, since the action is all there.
- ‘Selling Fame at 7k!’
Any MapleStory player would have at least seen someone either buying or selling ‘Fame’ in their journeys. In fact, ‘Fame’ was probably Maplestory’s first ‘service-orientated business’. A player can either give or take away another player’s ‘Fame’ once a day. People who wanted Fame (usually for some equipments or just for lulz) would end up buying them, while selling them was an easy 7,000 mesos a day.
Henesys, the town of the archer, was notorious of having all sorts of pros running around buying Fame, and all sorts of noobs running around selling Fame.
Bullying was also done using Fame as well. When there was a certain someone you wanted to bully, you would call all your friends just to go to that person to ‘De-Fame’ him. This became such a huge sensation, especially for people who went through painstaking efforts to increase their Fame.
- KS-ing
The hostile act of KS-ing, or kill-stealing, arguably started in MapleStory. This involved the act of killing the other player’s mob before they can deliver the finishing blow. By doing so, you deliberately lower the experience they can get from the monster. Once again, there was a thing where you could call all your friends and simply go out to mass KS a person’s mobs, slowing his entire levelling process. You may get sharp ‘CC!’ requests (which is a request to change the channel which you were playing in) or him just attempting to run away. However, MapleStory had a ‘Find’ function where nobody could escape from anyone’s target.
- Taking a plane to Orbis
Probably the highest point of the Maplestory timeline was the opening of Orbis, where you had to pay for ticket to get there. After almost 2-3 years exploring the old Victoria Island, the opening of a new island was definitely appealing for all.
One particular instance then was the occasional appearance of the Crimson Balrog, which was the most powerful monster back then. It was probably the thing that would piss anyone off the most, after paying the money to get to the new island and ended up in a gravestone back in where you came from.
- Exploring
Overall, the general feeling of playing MapleStory wasn’t grinding for levels. Sure, there were people who set out to do that to reach the maximum level of 200. But realistically, 200 was a level so difficult to achieve that people don’t really bother.
Instead, we ended up partying and just exploring Victoria Island together. We could spend all day simply travelling from Lith Harbour to Henesys, Perion, etc. Or maybe visit new spots like Florina Beach or going deep into Ellinia forest. There was plenty to do and see, and we had fun every second along the way. Present players wouldn’t understand the feeling, since this isn’t an economical use of time (even WoW tries to promote map exploration somewhat by granting experience if you uncover new locations).
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Other than MapleStory, MMOs in general has placed much more emphasis on the levelling, rather than the social aspect. However, emphasising too much on the social aspect of a game stagnates it (think Habbo Hotel, Second Life) MapleStory back then had a good balance of both to cater to all players alike. No matter the reason why you played the game, there is always a way to fulfil it, be it to be the highest level or just to hang out with friends.
So, what do YOU miss most when you were playing MapleStory? Comment below!
Gaming - I've lived my life doing that 
Remember back then I killed monster with normal hit saving my potions hahahaha these potions are bloody expensive !
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Omg yes! Blue pots were crazy expensive
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or jump pass a monster after hitting them; for those monster who move very fast like ribbon pigs and fire boar =D
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I remember when my warrior took 19 HITS to kill a Dark Stump! Used Power Strike hit only with 4DMG!!
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I first played MS when it was first launched and played it for a few years. Decided to put a stop because of my failing grades. Hehe. Miss those times! Got to know friends that became RL friends and still keeping in touch till now… How time flies…. I didnt even know the change in it!!
Also how you will jio your friends for MS together.. Train together.. Helping each other with the “spare” character to level up.. the “leech” How each patch seems to lag even more and always have to disconnect everything…
Oh, when I was playing MS, I was still using the big fat desktop! F5
Thanks a lot for this post. It really brings back a lot of memories….
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This almost brought a tear to my eye. Been playing on and off since beta, and those were some good times. Thanks for the feels.
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Ah man, I remember pretty much every single one of these things. I remember the days when Maple Story was still the new game on the block that everyone was trying. It’s so weird that I’ve been around long enough to see it evolve so much, as every couple years I’d rejoin and try it out again just to see what was different.
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Version 2 please! We need Ludibrium and Orbis! That is more exciting than Victoria Island.
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I remember when Ludi had first opened up. It was soooo huge. Everyone was excited (and who wouldn’t be? It was new!) and ready to explore. I like to consider myself the first one (or one of the first) to jump on that colorful little train and go to explore. I wasn’t a very high level either. I just remember arriving and listening to the toy music just bouncing out of my speakers. I have to say after a slightly stressful day at school, I liked listening to it. If I wasn’t in Henesys socializing, I was in Ludi. My friends and I used to do runs and see how far we could get going down the tower before all of us died. I kind of wish it was like that again. You could make friends back then, or at least it was easier. Party quest places were always full of people but now… Everyone’s just grinding to get to 250 and not many want to just sit and chill out for a couple of minutes. :< I do miss the old Maple.
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Oh man the feels, i feel like crying. I miss those days
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Do you all remember this video? :’) It shows MapleSEA in the past…
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Oh man the nostalgia,back then the boarding place to get to Orbis was crowded,now just a few clicks and portals you could go anywhere.
The feels….
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Waiting for our MP to recover with other mages in Elinia. OMG we use to up 1 level of the Energy Bolt and just put everything else into mp recovery and subsequently max mp, pots were expensive as hell. “Pure” characters were considered the strongest (not including if you are Thief / Mage in the Maple Island, trying to kill the red snail just to get it’s shell for the quest, here the 45hp of the snail 1 damage just annoys you). Getting into Kerning PQ during peak hours were like a real blessing for God, and not to mention hating the number “35” pop up in the chat with the NPC in the 1st stage of the PQ. During the ride to Orbis then, the low levels would just wait until the flight starts and hide in the cabin as soon as it happens, and every once in a while there will be the “pros” trying to challenge Crimson Balrog only to have many of them ended up legless above their graves. White gloves and sauna robes were godly items back then. Hyper Body and Lucky Seven + Critical Hit + Haste were the big bad-asses. The theory of ” the lower the fame the better chance you get for scrolling your equipment” were flying here and there. Every 1 level after Level30 was like taking forever and ever.
Now everything just changed. Leveling to 120 isn’t really much of a problem. Power elixir is like the only pot people use in the game. Equipment without the word “epic” is like scrap. Dying in the game makes you nothing but a complete idiotic 100 and 10% noob.
God how I miss the old maple TT
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Seriously, it brings me back my childhood memories. And I still remember those days there were so many brothers & sisters in maplestory, we celebrated new year, valentine and christmas tgt. We exchange the valentine choco and also decorate the christmas treess, all there things are memorable..In my memory, MrYaNdAo, Ossaris and jessbunny are always our legend and top 3 in the ranking. I miss to stalk the pro-est mapler and help to up his fame becoz most of the people wld like to defame him(I dont knw why hahaha)..Last bn least, I miss my maple grandpa Nikkatsu from guild NiWoZheSi which once in the top 50 guild ranking~Thank for writing these:'(:'(
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those were the days… i feel so old now… haha mustn’t forget the tracking list we have when someone’s in a PQ.
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Maple Kombat by dray86 was the best
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Do not need to spend a lot of money on potentials and other stuffss
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I forget what it was called, but there was another way of buying items from other players then opening up a stand and selling things for OUTRAGEOUS prices (and I do mean outrageous because no matter how long I’ve been playing I’ve never had over 100,000,000,000 or more mesos – the most I have currently is maybe 42,000,000 lol). But there was another place we could go to sell items, from weapons to even items needed for quests, and it was decent prices. I wish they would bring that back. Everything else….I miss certain other things, and some others I wish would come back – but I’m okay with the changes they made now.
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Trading you mean?
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Those days where we had to wait for an eternity to fully restore MP before we depleted it in a mere 2 minutes because 1 Blue Potion costs 100 mesos.
What “good” time investment ==
Not to forget standing on top of taxis trying to kill undead monsters in SG map by healing.
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I miss the old Maple.Especially ShangHai-WaiTan. We get to climb up the hot air balloon and jump off of it.It was the highest point that you can reach and the scenery was JUST AMAZING.It was the farming site for lvl45 back then. And out of a sudden a GIANT CENTIPEDE COMES OUT OF NO WHERE and attack you.
Still remember that announcer that time.*You have played MapleStory for 17 hour(s),We suggest you to take a break.*
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i remembered when maple FIRST came out. I still had my bulky PC, and in primary school. Everyday after school my siblings will just snatch the computer to play MAPLESTORY!! 😍😍 good old times.
Everyone is sharing to kill an orange jumpy fat mushroom with jumpkill @ Maple Island. And we will see who picked up the cap and that’s the one who had the most damage which also means is the pro-est. Then you’ll see level 20 still on Maple Island killing snails bec no one knows there’s something call Victoria Island and job advancement at level 20. My brother and I spent about 20min figuring out how to go into the portal. 😂😂 it’s totally hilarious! And the best maple time. My Fiire Mage became a magician at level 11 ☺️ and I’m still glad I had the best time of my life.
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Monster Carnival is the BEST place I’ve ever had. Fun challenge, having great xchange for the level, and greatest is attacking thousands of monsters continuestly!! Siok, cz I’m ice-lighting!! muahahahaha
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I remember getting an invitation to play the beta of the game was beautiful having to level up killing monsters and mandatory use “explorel Internet” to enter the page “Wizet” at that time was beautiful socialization and teamwork you had to do to kill the boss of the game now everyone is anti social and they want to do is just so disgusting to see the new generation do that thanks to the pots
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Feel want to meet back all my friends in NAKAWARU guild in bootes.
Especially, Jess , Eric, and blee.
If anyone from NAKAWARU team and know them in Facebook please do let me know.
My email address is ivanphan1112@gmail.com
Will very appreciate if someone know them and help me contact back to them.
Thank you very much 🙂
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Going to Tauromacis to suicide after just leveling up. Then Ludi PQ.
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I remember it taking forever for me to reach level 20 and I thought I was amazing when I finally reached it… only to find out I had been doing my stats wrong which made me a lot weaker than I should have been -_-. In the new maple, it took me ten minutes to reach level 20….. I just, couldn’t believe what had taken me forever before was so simple now. It kinda takes the fun out of it.
I also remember one day when me and a friend spent the entire day trying to beat one of the jumping tests T.T. The.Entire.DAY… and then a kid came by and had the gall to say “Patience is a virtue”….. It was one of our quotes every time we played a jumping test there after.
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I also purposely died by attacking a crimson Balrog, just so I could get the best screenshot ever ^~^
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Who else remembers Maple Island as a Mage doing 1 damaged to literally everything until you hit level 8. And you seriously can’t forget the dice stat rolling.. I spent hours on end trying to get the perfect 4/4 stat. Drop games at sleepywood sauna was THE best. I stayed up countless nights playing and “gambling”. The nostalgia..
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no Carnival Party Quest?????????? CPQ WAS THE BEST
J>PQ@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Experienced 11/11 !!! nostalgic feelings~ but i play maple until today and everything changed~ TT
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Ellinia dungeon training on mushrooms was definitely the way to go!! Its literally quiet and very few people would find it! 🙂
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100% Yes
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Back then when I played MS, we still had to use our e-mail account to login instead of a login ID.
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Haha, I remember playing MapleStory pre-BB back in 2006-2008 and then in 2011. Back then my computer was a toaster, so eventually playing MapleStory would lead to an occasional computer crash and dumping. It would take years before I would get to play again in 2011, which then my new computer crashed again and therefore had MapleStory download outlawed. But those times I did play, especially back in ’06-late ’08, it was alot of fun even though leveling was really hard. I remember going to lubidrium and dying because i was only level 35. Now as I play again in 2015, only still level 66, I was greeted with culture shock as so many of the key elements to my favorite mmorpg have vanished. its sooo easy to level now, and golems are level 16, its a real disappointment that they’ve really edited their monster system 😦
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Awww man…The BGM really brings back lots of good old memories where I stil remember it takes me the best 2 weeks to reach 30lvl…The firsttime when I play maple there isn’t any FM and perion was the main market place…Only adventurer class but not other & seeing a lvl60 character at that time was so impressive because there wasn’t even any PQ and no other map than victoria island!!!
After 1~2 years maple brought in new map and stuff thus easier lvling and it goes this way; train at henesys training ground till lvl20 > kerning pq till lvl30 > sleepywood ant tunnel till lvl40 > ludi pq till lvl50 > sleepywood golem templer (Where you have 3 platforms of high spawning golems) and etc…
I started my journey on maple when I was having ma form 3 year end holiday (2004, if I remember correctly) & I quitted 2012…8 long years man…That nostalgia is so damn real!
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oh good ol’days ~! my first char was a lightning mage back on 2006, job advancement capped at level 120 ~ I remember my first kill of a Tauromacis using lighting spear made me excited whole day ~! then my first travel to Orbis and encountered Crimson Balrogs, and also killed them using lightning spear made me excited whole week!!! ROTF~ I stopped playing after my 2nd char Dark Knight reached lvl 200.
everything were so simple back then, no sophisticated classes or skills. We rather hang around chit chatting instead of leveling, explore the dungeons and ran like no tomorrow chased by zombie mushrooms or evil eyes(yellow color lizards), do jump quests(my favorite!!),PQ, Zakum…..
I like the theme music of Kulan Field and Tower of Goddess!!!!! the rests also not bad, so soothing and healing.
Everything has changed now, ppl keep spamming the public chat with vulgarities. KS everywhere, even the musics of a new map sucks.
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LoL … my noob char is in the 1st pic.. the noob with a wooden shield “MagicDragon” that’s mine.. i remember its 1 of my 4-5 sub accts which i play till its a Fire mage… my main char was a warrior then crusader & i think i stopped when i hit lvl 160+.. its like a decade ago when i quit.. what a memorable period.. some of my maple frens become RL frens & now a few r married.. & hv kids! Yes.. the social aspects of the game is much better than the leveling, grinding etc.. but its oso thru those grinding periods of training we get to know these loyal frens & build up relationships which last… to me its still the best game ever.. thanks Maple ^^
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Who else remembers Tiger? The original highest leveled player before he got banned or whatever happened to him?? Haha
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I started playing Maplestory at age 11 and stopped at either 15 or 16.
I really miss Ludibrium Party Quests! (LPQ) It had the same hype as Kerning PQ. =)
I remember how hard leveling was and would pull all nighters just to grind and level. People used to think I hacked from 100-120 but when the Hime monsters came out, I’d pull so many all-nighters or just sleep for 3 hours and then wake up to find a free channel. That was the grinding area for the level at the time 🙂 I miss it all!!
People used to criticize me all the time (those who didn’t play MS & those who cared less about the social aspect) for playing Maplestory. What they don’t understand is the importance of friendship that came out of it. I’m still friends with 10+ people I’ve met on MS and have still to meet in real life. I loved the old Maplestory and with the new ways, I don’t think it’ll ever be the same for me. UGHHH the good old times !!! ❤
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not forgetting their introduction of gachapon… be it hardcore gamer or not, i’m pretty sure 90% of us at least went to buy the points at 7-11 just to try our luck in getting special items to aid us along the way in growth.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slRB8AxXM7s Smuggling days D:!!! no longer T_T?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkZUH965UII >< those spamming days where ice can hit bottom and top plantform T_T!!! whai remove that whai T_T
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIH0rQc5_Fc and now everything is so RUSH theres no time to enjoy being together with friends :< its no fun
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30 man zakum and pick the 4 helm is the best memory
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True 90s kids remember looking out for MrYaNdAo.
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Good old times
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i remember me and some friends decided to do a Lyric video with MS when it was released XD
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Reblogged this on shyhhaur and commented:
hahaha the old times 🙂
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I want to cry. someone hug me
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I hate the new MS. So easy for anyone to do anything.
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Oh man I really miss maplestory, started playing in my secondary school days. I still remember there is a hidden street where there is a lot of ribbon pigs and couple of iron hogs. I will stay there to grind for pig heads (quite a rare drop) and occasionally getting myself killed becuause of those iron pigs. F5
I was also very noob that I have to check the forum page on how to add the stats.
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People forget that the OLD MS, while having some game issues like the harsh levelling curve, was a heavily sociable and community building game that had highly memorable spots and locales.
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Ahh old MS! When the game was fun.. and now.. can’t even log into this game without falling asleep with how boring it is.. Only a matter of time for MS2 to be released and ends up with its own big bang update..
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I take your mesos. Muahahaha
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I remember henesys traning ground 1 , Aquarius channel 1 , there will always be a warrior with third job advancement and a Mage by his side healing him . Then he would keep using his dragon roar ( or something like that ) killing almost every single monster in the map. Then those low level will try to join his party to gain some xp , haha such times
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