Chapter 43: 43: Fairy Mice

"Sure," Danika agreed before asking, "but since it's your quest, will I receive any Karma?"

Aishin blinked at her. "Ah, the Karma I owe you. Sorry I haven't arranged anything yet," he replied, "but you should have already received about 5 extra Karma from my quests since the party was formed. I'm sure I've received a bit from your quests."

"Don't go arranging weird transfers on my account," Danika protested, and then added with some embarrassment, "I had just assumed that the amount I received from my quests was increasing as I gained levels, I didn't realize I was leeching off your quests."

He laughed. "No, the amount of Karma per quest seems kind of arbitrary and usually defaults to one point no matter your accumulated level. It's not leeching because we wouldn't earn any more Karma by going solo, and even if it was, I owe you." He glanced at her. "Like you pointed out before, this isn't a single player game," he finished

"If it's multiplying the Karma, why isn't everyone running around in huge parties?" Danika questioned. She didn't recall anything about the party system multiplying Karma from the brief information on the main site.

Aishin laughed. "Most people are, that's what the guild system is for, but there's a 5 Karma daily limit," he informed her.

Danika had skipped over the information on guilds, figuring that it didn't matter until she joined one. She pulled up the menu and looked up the guild and party systems. The information repeated what Aishin told her and added that there was a matching 5 person limit to the party size. There was no limit on guild size, and a potential additional 5 Karma that he hadn't mentioned was available from guild specific quests. The most surprising bit of information was that you had to wait for a month before being able to join another guild if you left one, which was a lot longer than most games demanded.

"What guild are you in then?" she asked curiously.

"I don't think you'd like it," Aishin replied doubtfully, "I'm in 'Blood Hunters', nobody talks much and most of our quests are assassinations and bounties."

"Bounties like these mice?" Danika questioned.

"This one is pretty cutesy compared to most of the guild quests," he explained.

Overhead someone shouted. Danika looked up just as something was tossed into the air above them. A dozen small winged figures dove after the item and struggled with it in the air. It broke apart and the little creatures zipped back in the direction they'd come from.

Beneath a fine rain of crumbs Aishin said, "I think that's our cue," and darted toward the stairs.

After a moment Danika shot upward after the flying creatures. She suspected that both her evasion skill and her flying skill activated as she narrowly dodged something that she hadn't even consciously registered as it flew past. More angry shouts followed the missile.

Aishin snatched her out of the air as he bounded past. "Oops it didn't occur to me that you'd get mistaken for one of them," he muttered.

The angry shopkeeper caught sight of Aishin and shouted, "It's about time! I contacted your guild a week ago!"

Aishin nodded calmly and replied, "I'm sure you were informed that a master wouldn't be able to fulfill your contract immediately at that time, it was your choice to insist on the contract grade you chose."

The shopkeeper pointed at Danika where Aishin had set her on his shoulder and demanded, "Then what is that little Novice fairy creature doing here with you? If you don't succeed in getting rid of them," he pointed accurately at the little group of fairy mice zipping around the shop, "by the end of the day, I'm cancelling that bounty!"

Danika stared at the fairy mice. Somehow she'd half expected them to look like bats, which were often referred to as winged mice. Instead they were more like her, with four limbs in addition to their wings. Unlike her, not just their wings, but their entire bodies were semi-transparent, although they didn't sparkle as much.

The little flock squeaked and flitted around the ceiling wildly. A disturbing image flashed across her mind.

"What's wrong?" Aishin asked.

Danika glanced away from the fairy mice and asked, "What?"

"Your wings are sparkling a weird muddy green?" Aishin told her. One of the fairy mice zipped too close to him and his hand flashed out and caught it as neatly as he'd caught her before. His menu screen shimmered faintly as he pulled a wicker bird cage out of his inventory and stuffed the mouse into it.

Danika replied with embarrassment, "Oh, I just wondered, why would a pixie, y'know, with a mouse?"

"But you take centaurs, minotaurs, mermaids and the like for granted?" Aishin questioned with amusement.

"Ok, fine, people are just like that." She rolled her eyes and threw her light cantrip out above the mice and made the particles scatter like a firework bursting above them. Like the shrew had, the mice squeaked and shied away from the lights even though it didn't hurt them.

The shopkeeper squeaked and scurried almost as quickly as the mice had to cover the pastries that were sitting out on display. Danika ignored his glares and didn't bother to explain that it was merely a light cantrip and wouldn't hurt his pastries.

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"Just tell yourself that it was probably a magically induced crossbreed," Aishin suggested with a wink as he snatched another couple of the mice, who had fled in his direction, neatly out of the air.

Danika zipped upward while emitting her best dazzle and commented dryly, "I thought the sparkles changing color with emotions was cool, but now I think it's a little unfair that I can't turn it off."

"It's really cute though," Aishin replied with a grin, looking at the pink and violet shaded sparks that had replaced the muddy green.

"Well, that's true," she agreed more cheerfully, and her sparkles lightened into their usual range again.

He laughed as she huffed a breath at one of the mice who were zipping about frantically too high for Aishin to reach. The mouse spun dizzily and then dropped out of the air. It seemed that her guess was right and their wings functioned the same as her own.

Aishin caught it and stuffed it into the cage with its fellows, and Danika pulled out one of her cheeses and nibbled on it before continuing.

"You have to eat pretty often," Aishin commented.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Although not as often as I used to, at first I could only cast or use my breath attack about 3 times before depleting my energy."

"You should try to learn my meditation skill," Aishin suggested. "It takes a long time, but can increase both health and energy capacity."

"More catching and less talking," complained the shopkeeper. He huffed angrily when they both laughed.

Most of the fairy mice were caught fairly easily, but the last one was too smart and agile for Danika to hit with her breath attack. It never fled to a spot that Aishin could reach it either. Finally Aishin asked, "Can you try to hit it with your magic missile?"

"I don't have magic missile," Danika replied questioningly.

Aishin blinked at her and then obviously called up his menu lens to examine her. "You don't," he agreed with surprise. "What were you using on that mouse in the forest?"

"You can see my skills?" Danika questioned.

Aishin winked and replied, "You didn't think my analyze target skill was still first level did you?"

"Wow, that must be useful for an assassin," she replied thoughtfully.

"It's the first skill specialization for the path," he agreed.

"I was just throwing my light cantrip combined with my color cantrip at that shrew," Danika informed him. She eyed the mouse and suggested, "I could try hitting it with my spark."

Aishin blinked and told her, "Everyone says you have to touch your target to use most cantrips, and if you could touch it we'd already have caught it."

Danika lifted her hands, cast her spark and watched it drop from the tip of her claws toward the stone tiled floor. She nodded. "The default position is like that," she agreed, "but I can move my light particles around pretty much at will, so if I attach it to that cantrip I can put it anywhere I can see." She looked at the last fairy mouse and added, "Get ready to catch it if it falls."

"Ready," he replied with his gaze locked on the mouse.

Danika sent her combined cantrips zinging toward the last fairy mouse. It emitted a pained squeak as the spark burned it, and its wings stopped beating for a second. That moment was just enough for Aishin to leap up and finally snatch it from the air.

He stuffed it quickly into the wicker cage with the rest, then looked up at her and said with a grin, "Well done! You're going to be insanely powerful someday if you can do that much with just your basic cantrips."

"Is it that unusual?" she questioned.

Aishin nodded, and then turned to the shopkeeper and informed him triumphantly, "We've caught your entire mischief of mice."

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