Danika edged closer and asked curiously, "Does that mean you have access to everything on the market?" She couldn't help adding, "That would be such a cheat!"

The woman turned and caught sight of ZipZing sparkling in the suns.h.i.+ne. She stared with a dazed look, as though Danika had used her dazzling skill. Finally she asked with amazement, "What are you?"

Danika grinned and explained, "I'm a fairy dragon, half pixie, half dragon." She asked with intense curiosity, "You married the traveling merchant?"

The young woman blushed and replied nervously, "Yes, um, just a bit ago, before I left the beginner's vale."

Danika blinked at her and asked protestingly, "How could you possibly gain a high enough friends.h.i.+p level while you were still in the vale?" After that discussion with Ais.h.i.+n she'd read more about NPC/Player relations.h.i.+ps in 'Living Jade Empire', and most people agreed that while it was fairly easy to gain friends.h.i.+p or enmity in a short time, especially if the NPC were part of your quest, it was difficult to gain love or hatred in less than a couple of weeks.

There were a number of warnings posted too. One was that any NPC willing to marry in less than a month (real time) would probably be taking advantage of your character in some way. Another was that the more extreme the relations.h.i.+p was, be it love or hate, the faster the intensity would reduce with time away from the NPC. An NPC that liked you would probably still like you weeks later, but an NPC that loved you might not love you a few days later. Danika was fairly certain that that was what Ais.h.i.+n had run into.

"He was my mentor in the vale," the woman explained, "and I stayed there a really long time. I was trying to earn enough to buy this fantastic book that shows information on every creature in the game!" She stopped and rummaged in her small pack and waved a thick tome at Danika. She flipped it open and said, "Fairy dragon." The book's pages turned themselves until it showed an ill.u.s.tration of a fairy dragon on one page, and a detailed description of the race on the other.

Danika adjusted her position so that she could read the page. It mentioned what she'd heard Justin say before she'd hatched, that fairy dragons were legendary familiars, and there was a short fable included about an ancient Wizard named Alban and his fairy dragon familiar. "That's amazing!" she enthused.

The young woman grinned at her and said, "I think it has every race that's possible, although some entries are empty, but it updates itself. You should see this one..." She told her book, "Flying pig," The book flipped pages for a moment.

Danika felt sympathy for them after reading about them. Most of the information was about which bird pig crosses had been attempted, and there was a single sentence at the end that read: "So far no flying pig has lived to be more than a few hours old as they have all been born with negative luck and die almost immediately of a wide variety of causes." She looked at the woman questioningly.

The woman pointed to a line at the beginning. The book had updated the most recent cross attempted by a farmer since Danika had read it.

Danika was impressed. She hadn't realized that magical books existed, although it was quite logical what with wizards and enchanters and all. She hadn't realized that you could choose the merchant as a mentor either, but it was obvious once you thought about it. She exclaimed, "Wow! That must have been really expensive, no wonder you were there long enough to raise your affection level so high, but still…" She looked at the traveling merchant who grinned and raised an eyebrow at her.

The woman continued her explanation, "Well, after I finally bought it, he insisted that it was time I left the vale because I spent over a month there. And um," she hesitated again, before saying in an embarra.s.sed rush, "I told him, 'thanks, you helped me so much that I could kiss you'." She looked at the merchant, who winked at her merrily, and said shyly, "And he said his kisses were reserved for his wife. And I asked about his wife, and he said he didn't have one yet, so um…"

"So you asked him to marry you?" Danika prompted.

The woman nodded mutely. She was obviously using full VR, her cheeks were still flaming, and her posture practically radiated embarra.s.sment.

"And then?" Danika prompted.

After a long moment the woman said, "And then I asked him how I'd find him again, and he gave me this ring, and then he kissed me."

Danika thought the young woman was going to spontaneously combust, and revised her estimate of her age downward. "I see," she commented after a minute.

It took her a couple of minutes, but the girl finally recovered enough to say, "And then I went through the portal and received my next druid quest." She lifted her eyes to look at ZipZing again finally and said plaintively, "But it says I need to obtain a map of the area, so that I can find the upwelling spring."

For a moment Danika imagined trying to sort through everything that the traveling merchant seemed to be able to sell, and then she asked, "And you can't find it in his inventory?"

The girl started to cry and told her, "According to my menus, his inventory is empty." She sniffled and added quickly, "It's probably because it would really be a cheat like you said, but if I can't buy it either, I don't know how I'm supposed to get one."

The traveling merchant stepped forward and hugged her. He asked gently, "What's wrong Kit?"

Danika asked, "Can you give your wife the map she needs?"

The merchant looked at her and said simply, "Everything I have is already hers."

The girl he'd addressed as Kit sniffed hard and then asked him with determination, "Where would you acquire a map to sell?"

The traveling merchant took an unexpectedly long time before answering, long enough that Danika checked to see if he still appeared to be breathing. Finally he said, "Sometimes people sell me maps, but maps like the one you require are created by the Jade Emperor as they are needed."

Danika stared at him. It sounded like he was explaining that the system created the map when it was purchased, which was probably exactly what happened, but not something an NPC would normally be able to explain.

Kit looked at him helplessly.

Danika suggested, "Um, perhaps it's time to file a bug report?"

"I guess?" Kit agreed uncertainly. "How? Do I need to log out and send an email?"

"No," Danika replied, and then walked Kit through the bug submission process.

Kit said with embarra.s.sment, "Sorry, this is my first RPG game."

Danika shot her a look. "Living Jade Empire" had a fairly simple bug reporting system. Presumably everything was logged, as was shown by the Sandman's ability to replay your adventures for you, and thus there was little need for detailed information to be included in your report. "Have you played many other kinds of games?" she asked doubtfully.

"I've mostly played mobile games like NoePets and LoveLove Kitty Town, which I guess was kind of an RPG?" Kit said uncertainly.

"Yeah," Danika agreed simply. "Well, I guess going from that kind of thing to full VR must be pretty different."

Kit looked anxious and asked nervously, "You can tell what kind of system I'm using?"

Danika shrugged and admitted, "I couldn't tell at first, but I've been playing with different people using different systems for awhile now."

"How does it show?" Kit asked.

Danika replied, "People on the mobile version are pretty inexpressive, and all of the emotes seem to last for a set time. The bigger consoles, like the full motion consoles can show expressions and everything, but their movements still look a bit simplified? I was guessing you're using full VR by how much you blush and the way you adjust your balance, but I guess it could just be a system with better sensors."

"No, it's full VR," Kit admitted uncomfortably.

Danika wondered why she was embarra.s.sed about using VR, and then thought of her own VR-medi pod. She considered it a luxury, and was fortunately not required to use some of its more invasive attachments, but for some people something like it was an absolute necessity. She told Kit a little diffidently, "I'm using a VR-medi pod myself. It was really expensive, but I think it's been worth it so far."

"Oh," Kit said with wide startled eyes. After a minute she told Danika shyly, "I'm also using a medical VR system, but I don't own it."

Danika used her menu lens on Kit while she searched for a good reply. "Um, it's cool that you're being allowed enough time and access to play games like this with it." Kit was a Druid who already had an acc.u.mulated level of 45 despite having only just left the beginner's vale, probably due to staying long enough to buy the book. Her name also wasn't simply Kit, it was actually Kit Tay, and Danika couldn't prevent a smile from showing.