"Every day, or every day in the game?" Ais.h.i.+n asked quickly.

"I don't know?" Danika replied with surprise. "It takes this huge list of rare ingredients too."

"Aren't you underestimating me too much?" he asked. "I know we met after I'd died three times in a row and I've been pretty much out of resources, but I can collect whatever you need to cast it. We just need to find out if it's every day or 4 times a day, because I could manage every day, even if it was just minute from my phone, but not every game day."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," he replied with a grin, "if it's only once a day, I'd love to be your familiar. Seriously, wouldn't anyone for double health and energy? And you could use any of my skills? Are you sure it works on players?"

"Well, it brought up a dialogue to accept or decline when it was cast on me," Danika pointed out.

"Ack, I have to go," Ais.h.i.+n said and logged out.

Danika blinked and stared at the spot he'd been. She couldn't quite believe that he'd just agreed to become her familiar. She blushed again. After a moment she a.s.sumed the pose and swiped over to the forums to see if anyone had posted about whether it was per real day or a game day that you had to interact with your familiar.

There was a surprising amount of information about familiars, and Danika got distracted by the differences between witches and wizards when she read that it was only a second tier spell for witches, but a third tier for wizards. She'd somehow a.s.sumed that the t.i.tles were gender versions of the same path. But actually witches were more like apothecaries, dealing with plants and potions, and wizards were primarily spell casters. Both paths had quite a bit of overlap, along with illusionists and enchanters.

Danika messaged Ais.h.i.+n: "The information on the forums makes it sound like they lose a bit of health every game day, but people say that as long as you log in and feed your familiar and yourself once a week it's not a problem." Then she zipped out of Shrubbery's garden and headed back to the market area.

Danika crossed the market and headed straight for the portals. She flew up to each portal in turn, tapped it, and then declined to pay the fee and be transported. The portals seemed to be arranged somewhat like the game's map, with the elemental cities at the cardinal points. The elven city was northeast of the center and the dwarven city was to the southwest.

After a bit, a player stopped and asked her curiously, "What are you doing? All of the portals cost the same amount now, and none of them are going to be free to use."

Danika replied, "I'm looking to see if there's one for a place called Windbur."

The player replied with disgust, "Newbie. Just use your menu lens," and walked off.

Danika felt a little insulted. She'd been playing for almost a month now, and felt like she was pretty comfortable with the game's mechanics, but when she pulled up her lens to view the portal in front of her she had to admit that they'd been right. Her tactic had been silly, because through the lens each portal was clearly labeled.

The center portal didn't list a specific city, it was labeled "The Portal of Return". Danika tapped the label and a description popped up: "Return to any portal you've previously teleported through."

Danika spun slowly and scanned the rest of the portals that she hadn't touched yet. None of them were labeled "Windbur".

Danika flew back to the market, which was less crowded during the game's night, but definitely not deserted. Most of the vendors she could see now appeared to be players though. After a minute she chose a quiet looking table that appeared to be selling candy.

The vendor was a human girl named "GrandmGirl", and her Guild was called "Purple Hats". Danika wasn't sure without looking it up, but she thought that the guild name was a reference to having fun because you were old.

GrandmGirl's avatar looked like she was about 16, but when she spoke her voice was more mature. "Wow! A fairy dragon. I'm still saving up to reincarnate as a fairy. Did you play the beta?" GrandmGirl asked.

Danika smiled and replied, "No, I earned the Karma for my character through submitting old game accounts."

Danika bought several fruit flavored candies before asking, "Have you heard of a city named Windbur?"

GrandmGirl shook her head and replied cheerfully, "No, but after awhile I decided that combat didn't suit me, so I haven't done much adventuring. The game really does seem to live up to its promises of customized quests though. As soon as I admitted that killing creatures wasn't fun at all, it started offering me crafting path quests. After I decided that I was having much more fun crafting than fighting, I was able to meet a Sage and change my path."

"That's awesome," Danika enthused.

Before she could ask anything else, SaltySiamese's messenger cat appeared and dropped its message with a disdainful look. The message declared: "You are a horrible friend!"

Danika checked, and SaltySiamese still wasn't logged in to the game. After a moment she replied with: "What's wrong?" As her bird flitted off, she guessed that it was probably something to do with Shrubbery.

GrandmGirl commented, "That is one thing I don't like about this game."

Danika looked up at her with a puzzled expression and asked, "What?"

"The messenger animals are so obtrusive, there's no such thing as private messaging," she complained, "and all of the magical communication devices use voice, so anyone can listen in."

"No one can read your messages though?" Danika pointed out.

"But everyone knows that you're communicating," GrandmGirl fussed.

SaltySiamese's cat returned with a much longer message, and as Danika opened it she told GrandmGirl, "I guess so, but I think they're cute." The cat flicked an ear at her as it stalked off.

The message read: "You were the first one to get a messenger quest and you didn't even invite me and the brat to go with you! (Thanks for inviting Shrubbery though! She's been going through some stuff and having that exclusive golden mouse makes her really happy!) Also Shrubbery said that you were turned into a cat and neither of you even sent me a screenshot!!"

Danika laughed, and GrandmGirl asked with interest, "They sent you something amusing?"

Danika grinned at the young-old woman's inquisitiveness and replied cheerfully, "My friend is scolding me for not sending her a screenshot of when I was turned into a cat, but I can't afford the Karma to unlock it."

"I know! Can you believe that they charge 50 Karma to unlock the ability to save screenshots?" GrandmGirl exclaimed questioningly.

Danika smiled and replied, "At least it doesn't cost real money."

GrandmGirl huffed and replied, "It would be ok if you could purchase Karma for money, but they don't even provide that!"

Danika raised an eyebrow and pointed out, "At least they just added a free point everyday?"

"That's true," GrandmGirl replied more cheerfully. "It's probably just a matter of time until they add Karma purchasing too."

Danika just smiled and waved a farewell as she flitted off. She kind of hoped that Karma didn't become a commercial currency, and she didn't want to argue about it with the woman.