Chapter 9: 9: Skill Strategy

While Danika worked, she ran a second device and whenever there was a monotonously repetitive section that didn't require any real attention, she browsed and edited her notes on "Living Jade Empire". She created a chart of desirable skills, and added to them by browsing newer posts about the various skills people had obtained.

She was careful not to shirk whenever her attention was needed, and pleased to see when she finally finished her shift, that her efficiency rating remained at her usual steady 98%. Before she logged out of the system, she tapped a short note to the next person about which points of progress the account needed finished before submission, and a few other key bits of information that she knew would speed things up.

She was pretty tired by the time she finished, but decided to play for a little bit, since she'd found another post by UnicornLove that had encouraged her to install the mobile version of the game on her phone, and she wanted to try it out.

UnicornLove had said that even if you preferred to actually play on a more powerful system, the mobile version had a few very useful tools. The first layer of the interface acted like the companion applications of many games, it would let you check your messages and see if your friends were online without actually loading the game. You could also see what time it was in the game, and if you had any timed quests running it would show a counter.

Danika was surprised to find that the mobile version of the game actually listed a couple of ongoing quests: one to learn a skill from her mentor, and one to defeat the slime at the bottom of the vale. She wondered where to find that information when logged in from the VR-medi pod. Out of curiosity, she went ahead and logged into the game from her phone.

Her character was a tiny chibified version of itself, and she laughed aloud when she saw the traveling merchant as her character flew in an erratic path back to the town square. He also had a much simpler character representation, he was a little pudgy and his pack was about four times the size of the one he carried in the VR version.

He spoke in a text bubble: "Good morning ZipZing, your mentor said that she hasn't seen you for over a week. Do you need help finding her residence again?"

A list of replies popped up, after she tapped on his speech bubble: "Yes, please.", "No, thank you.", and "...enter your own reply."

Danika tapped enter your own reply, and her phone asked if she wanted to send it in text or voice, with the usual warning that voice required more data. She chose voice, since she was at home and had her phone hooked up to her local network.

"I'll go see her soon, but actually, if possible, I'd like to find out what skills are available to learn from everyone in the vale," Danika replied.

After a short pause, the traveling merchant bobbed his head cutely and replied: "You'll have to ask each person what they could teach you, so you'll want to visit: the wizard, the priest, the innkeeper and her daughter, the baker, the tailor, the farmer and her children, the hunter, and your mentor the woodcutter."

Danika chose a preset reply from the list: "Thanks, I will do that." A new quest appeared in her menus, titled "The Search for Knowledge", with a convenient list of villagers so that she didn't have to remember the merchant's long reply. The blacksmith was already checked off, since she'd learned a skill from Ironstone already.

It took her awhile, and flying around actually took more coordination on her phone than it did in the VR-medi pod. She had expected to have to enter her own dialog each time, but the game apparently understood her quest. A reasonably worded question about what skills each NPC might be able to teach her appeared in the list of preset replies at appropriate places in the conversations.

When she logged out, Danika quickly compiled the collected list of possibilities, and chose which of the specialists skills that she wanted to gain instead of basic skills, because she could only get five of those at most, and it seemed probable that basic skills would be easier to come by outside the beginner's vale than specialties.

Danika glanced out the window and saw that even the street light had stopped faintly reflecting off the building next door. She gave a huge yawn, and tiredly began the task of getting ready for bed.

--

The next morning Danika looked over the jobs available before breakfast, and decided to give herself the day off. She made a hot breakfast at the stove top instead of her usual cold foods, then updated her grocery list and submitted it for delivery.

The morning sun was bright and cheerful, but "Living Jade Empire" was still too new and interesting for the sun to tempt her into going out. After she completed her exercises and brushed her teeth, she heaved herself back over the edge of the VR-medi pod and logged in.

Her mentor greeted her with, "It's good for your health to soak up some sunshine once in awhile." Danika grimaced at this evidence of the game's nagging, and then blinked when Treebane continued, "Today would be a good day to help the hunter catch rabbits in the meadow."

Since the hunter was one of the first people Danika had decided to learn a basic skill from, that suggestion had merit. His special skill was a bow skill. Danika didn't think it likely that she'd ever find a fairy dragon bow, although before dismissing the idea, she'd considered that there were probably bow wielding pixies in the world. Still, her claws, while surprisingly dexterous, didn't really seem suited to the task.

Danika agreed, "I can do that, I just need a minute to look through my menus first."

"Sure, take your time," Treebane agreed cheerfully enough, although she added a bit dourly, "there's always tomorrow if you run out of daylight."

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Danika assumed the pose, and then flicked through her menu screens looking for anything she'd missed that might contain her quest list in this interface. Her character sheet had changed a little, it now read:

--

ZipZing, a Fairy Dragon and a Novice.

Karma: 8

Reincarnations: 0

Accumulated Level: 3

--

Skills:

Flight, natural: 1

Breath, exhaust: 1

Dazzling: 0

Assimilation: 1

--

Finally she poked the small icon that looked like a decorative symbol near the top corner of all the screens. Her quest list popped up. She squinted at the icon for a moment, and decided that it did look a bit like a scroll. There were several more icons across the top of her quest list in this mode, but only one was currently available.

One of the inactive icons was obviously a link to her non existent friends list. The active icon was round with little darts at the corners of the invisible box around it. Danika clicked it curiously.

Her menu screen was replaced by a large transparent lens. Treebane walked in front of the lens carrying a log to her wagon. Through the lens, Danika could see a label hovering over her head that said, "Mentor Tiana Treebane."

Danika turned so that the lens kept Treebane within its field and tapped the label. A miniature character description popped up, with the information:

Accumulated Level: 60

This elderly woodcutter used to be a famous mercenary with deadly axe skills, and a falcon almost as deadly as she was. After her falcon passed away, she retired to a quiet village to raise its great grandchild.

Danika felt like she'd been spying somehow, and quickly dismissed the screens. She asked Treebane where she'd find the hunter this morning, and then zipped off in that direction.

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