Fishy Wishy Time!

Yikes! I would like to apologize to anyone who read this post in its unfinished state; once again, my upcoming exams have gotten the best of me. Without further ado...












As my new source of income, Fishing requires a great deal of time and patience, but thanks to my efforts, I managed to just hit the Journeyman rank. To gain future skill-ups faster, I have decided to try my hand at earning a Pelican Ring.







To earn a Pelican Ring, one must enter a monthly contest (the actual submission period is only two weeks) and place within the top twenty entries. This month's request was a non-legendary (read: plausible) fish, and more specifically, it happened to be Gavial Fish of the shortest length.














If you have never entered a Fish Ranking contest before, here is some information coming from a first-timer. Basically, you must submit your fish before time runs out, and you can pick-up your prize (if you happened to win one) in the two weeks after the submission period. It takes approximately thirty minutes for the Hume lady to assess entries after the cutoff, so do not stand there idly.







Voila, my new Fishing ring! Naturally, I thought I came in first, but it turns out I barely managed to win a ring -- tying with several others at 19th place. Oh well. Hopefully, my Pelican Ring will allow me to earn skill-ups -- and gil -- at a much faster rate. I am thinking of starting a relic weapon, and to fund one, I will need a good source of income to purchase Dynamis currency.



Notes:
a) All crafts in FFXI adhere to a ranking system. From the lowest to highest, they are:

Lvl. 001-010 Amateur
Lvl. 008-020 Recruit
Lvl. 018-030 Initiate
Lvl. 028-040 Novice
Lvl. 038-050 Apprentice
Lvl. 048-060 Journeyman
Lvl. 058-070 Craftsman
Lvl. 068-080 Artisan
Lvl. 078-090 Adept
Lvl. 088-100 Veteran

Generally, you need to take a test every ten to twelve levels to advance to a higher rank.
b) Dynamis currency is used for upgrading relic weapons and AFv2 and cannot be sold to NPCs. Often, many Dynamis LSs sell their currency to pay for the hefty 1M gil entry fee, so as a result, currency tends to be quite expensive.