Welcome to Gaia! ::

Newly upgraded, Dreadpirate feels confident in exploring the new battle areas. The random encounters in Tulgey Woods hadn't given him much trouble. He thinks measuring himself against the new enemies here will be a good indication of how things will fare in the new dungeons, which he'd like to take on soon. (He must remember to send a private message to his allies and see if they've already done so, or are willing to try the new ones with him.)

Maybe he's subconsciously expecting more trees, but when his first enemy appears, Dreadpirate is surprised. And... a bit underwhelmed. Candy?

And then he checks the creature's stats and realises he needs to take this seriously, no matter how unthreatening candy seems.

He summons his Otokoyo minipet to aid in attacking. For good measure, he picks one of his new Ability Cards to try: Improved Attack.

Power thrums through his body - he feels like he's buzzing with it. The new ability is amazing: he slices at the candy with his giant scimitar and it feels like barely any effort is required to land significant wounds.

He grins wildly.

He negates the attack completely. He smirks before dashing in to retaliate, his many-tailed foxy companion hot on his heels. They deal a three-hit combo to the candy.

Dreadpirate notices he has a heal spell ready to use. Even though he's not feeling in any particular danger, he has an action left, so he uses it. Nothing wrong with increasing the odds in your favour.

Dreadpirate wonders if the battle rewards have changed much between zones. He checks for treasure where the boss fell, and his stats as well. There's no cards or items to find, but he has levelled up.

He grins. The ability card he'd earned through upgrading had proven very useful. He can't wait to try it in a dungeon.