Chapter 297: 33: Careful Investigation

They went down for awhile after leaving the City of Gears, and then up again before reaching the entrance to Logical Heart's home.

At first it seemed like the entrance to a temple, as they passed through the gate and then followed a long flight of stone stairs upward. But when they reached the top, Danika decided that it was laid out more like a University campus. There were multiple buildings of varying sizes and styles.

The gnome helpfully pointed and identified them, and each structure had a different purpose. "Library, storehouse, lab, refinery…" the list went on.

"How did you afford it all?" Danika asked with envy.

Logical Heart paused and looked around. "A bit at a time, I guess. The land was a gift from a unicorn herd that asked our guild to silence a pixie pod that was annoying them. We built a moat of silence around their meadow instead of trying to destroy the pixies. No one really wanted it for anything though, so they gave it to me when I asked for it, instead of my share of coin and items after we made it to the top floor of the southern vault."

He sighed and shook his head before leading them to his workshop. Danika didn't know what to say. She was sure that he must have had many interesting adventures with the guild that had so carelessly let him go.

At the doors to his workshop, he paused and apologized, "I'm sorry, everything's a bit small inside. It's all convenient to my size."

"Oh, I'll change then," Kit said, and Logical Heart stepped sideways with a startled lurch, as the druid shifted into a small red squirrel. Her ring had adjusted to her shift and still hugged the same digit of her small front paw.

"Ah, right, that's convenient," he said after a moment, and then he glanced at Shrubbery.

The tall dryad offered, "I can wait out here."

Logical Heart hesitated, but then assured her, "There's enough space for you to come in and watch if you want, just not much to move around in."

"Why didn't you just put a space enchantment on your workshop?" Danika asked.

"It's an unnecessary layer of complexity when trying to work on new enchantments," he explained patiently.

--

An hour later, Kit shifted uncomfortably again, where she held her beringed paw on the work table in front of the gnome.

Danika reminded Logical Heart, "Kit is using a full motion console, this is probably just as hard on her as sitting in this awkward position in real life?"

Logical Heart apologized, "I'm sorry, it's difficult to examine an enchantment's details without affecting it. It's much easier to craft a new enchantment."

"So the mice said," Danika agreed dryly.

"What?" he asked blankly.

Shrubbery giggled and shifted her own position again. "That little white mouse enchanter was actually pretty good wasn't he?" she asked with a grin.

"The repeatable messenger quest's enchanter," Danika explained for Logical Heart and Kit Tay.

"Oh, that one. Yeah, he's genius level," Logical Heart agreed.

--

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A little while later Logical Heart set down his tools and suggested, "Let's go outside so you can stretch and move around."

"How much longer will it take?" Kit asked as she followed him out. "I need to sleep soon."

Danika felt a little awkward as she walked out the doors on her feet instead of flying, and Shrubbery looked a bit stiff as she squeezed carefully out of the doors, and stood again.

"Well, actually, I don't think there's anything else I can do," the gnome admitted. "The ring says that it was forged by the Jade Emperor, like all system generated wedding rings are. But it isn't currently a wedding ring, even if it was your wedding ring before, and it has only the standard red thread enchantment of a normal couple's ring as far as I can tell. The ring it's matched to doesn't seem to have a registered owner, since it's still listed as property of the Jade Emperor, but that might just be because it doesn't belong to a player. I'll have to check the stats of a couple's ring worn by an NPC to compare it to."

Kit held up her paws, and even as a squirrel her expression looked tired as she interrupted the flow of words, and asked, "So there isn't a shortcut, and I need to figure out how to fly high enough, right?"

Logical Heart nodded and said apologetically, "I'm sorry it took so long and I couldn't provide you with any useful information."

Danika squinted at the sky. She wondered if that were really true. She didn't say anything as she quietly pulled up her menus and entered a name that sounded like a label into the Whereabouts skill. The compass appeared, but the needle just spun erratically.

After a minute she dismissed it and entered a different name. The compass spun again, but settled on a direction eventually, although it quivered indecisively once in awhile as it tried to guide her to the traveling merchant.

Danika dismissed the compass again and tried another name. She looked up to find everyone watching her with interest. The compass pointed northward without even the slightest flicker, toward The Black Turtle.

"What are you looking up?" Shrubbery asked for everyone.

"Ah," Danika hesitated. Her suspicion seemed silly. She didn't want to cause Kit any more distress and the druid was already gazing at her hopefully. "I was just wondering… how my tracking skill displays with different God level NPCs. I'm a little surprised that they aren't just exempt?"

"Maybe it's one of those 'be careful what you wish for' situations?" Kit suggested. "Where finding them is its own punishment?"

"When you're done trying to track the King of Cats again, can you get me down?" MatchlessMinion's voice called faintly from somewhere toward the stairs that had carried them up the mountain side.

Danika quickly dismissed the compass again, but she didn't move immediately, instead she entered The King of Cats as the target. The compass needle spun erratically, flickered to a halt for a moment, and began to spin again.

Logical Heart approached the stairs and called back, "I told you not to wander off the stairs!"

Kit gazed upward for a moment, and then said softly, "It's alright Zip. You don't have to worry that it's showing me the wrong path. Just help me get up there?"

"I'll try," Danika promised quickly.

"Could I weave the essence of a full blooded dragon into my belt, do you think?" Kit suggested. "I know it's possible to buy a scale, like Quin did."

"Maybe…" Danika agreed. "Your skill is much higher than mine."

Shrubbery and Logical Heart peered deeply into the greenery that crowded on either side of the stone stairs. Kit nodded to her, and then shifted back into her human form and walked towards them.

Danika didn't follow her, instead, she began shuffling things in her inventory until she found it. There was only the slightest hesitation as she zipped after Kit and held out the paper envelope that held a single golden scale.

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