Gupolupo: Everyone's Favorite Mule

In FFXI, a mule is a character created for the sole purpose of increasing the amount of inventory space to which you have access. For an increase of $1/mule/month in the monthly subscription fee, each mule created gives you, essentially, another whole person's inventory to fill with your own crap. Some people level a craft on their mule - Keri's mule, Rhylosha, has a very high cooking skill. Others use their mule as a way to increase the amount of things they can sell through the Auction House system and on overnight bazaars. Most of them, though, are just characters created for the 30+ extra spots of inventory.

Enter Gupolupo. Yup, there he is. He's smart. He's handsome. He's witty. He's wanted by all the ladies. He's the Tarutaru of Leisure. Think Hugh Hefner, but as a midget. And always clad in a bathrobe. Why wear anything else? He's a lover, not a fighter: he's never defeated a monster in his nearly 5 years of existence. Hell, he's only been outside the city walls once or twice. Keri and I use him as a mule to carry our crafting supplies and crystals so we don't have quite so much cluttering our personal inventory. But lately, it's becoming apparent that Gupolupo is running out of space, and growing increasingly tired of the same four walls. He wants to see the world! So I've made it a pet project to try to get Gupolupo's inventory upgraded, as opposed to simply buying yet another mule.

The upgrade that produced the most extra inventory (and killed the most time) was the one I did first - gaining access to a Mog Locker. To do that, Gupolupo would need to be a registered mercenary in Aht Uhrgan. To be a Mercenary, he would need to travel to staging point across the churning seas and beset with hordes of really nasty monsters. To even get to Aht Uhrgan, he would need a boarding pass for the boat to the Near East. To get the pass, he would need to join a highly-secretive group of pirates and smugglers and complete a quest that would take him all over the world in search of the six subjob items. All on a Lv1 character.

Hey, it'll be fun. The following happened over the course of 2-3 weeks, and involved waaaaaaay more death and home-pointing than I care to cover in detail.

I started preparing him by taking him around and getting all the telepoints, making it easier for him to get around later. Once I finally decided to start the quest, I borrowed Keri and took Gupo to the dunes and hunted crabs and flies until they gave up the goods. Then we went to Gusgen and hunted ghosts and skeletons there until they dropped the items he needed. Finally, we went to Buburimu and Keri made quick work of dhalmels and rabbits for the last two items. After a very careful run to Jeuno, Gupo was rewarded with a shiny new boarding pass to the Near East! Before disembarking, I completed the invitation quest in Windurst, anticipating future use of the warp NPC there.

Once in Whitegate, Gupo stopped by the sentinels mercenary office to start the next leg of the adventure. He got orders to deliver a supplies package to a far-off staging point in the wilderness of the empire. The easiest staging point to access involved an NM-prone boat ride and a trek through a zone with true-sight and highly aggressive monsters. x.X; In the end, though, he finally made it there and delivered the supplies, used the warp to get home and joined the mercenary ranks. He immediately opened a Mog Locker lease and did the first of 5 upgrades to it, adding 40 spaces to his inventory.

The next item was his Mog House storage. I'd been researching quick, cheap ways to boost storage space, and found a particular piece of furniture that gave lots of inventory, had a strong elemental power and gave the Moghancement: Gardening effect. I got 10 of them to max out his storage space, and make for a claustrophobic arrangement for his moogle. LOL It took the better part of the evening to move all of my other mule's stuff to Gupo. Next, I'll have to camp the AH for some items to upgrade his Mog Safe and personal inventory, and take a serious look into taking up gardening. ^^