Data Dragon Danika

Danika spent the morning chasing rabbits in the sun. She would zip up to one, puff a breath in its face, and then zoom away before the hunter"s arrow arrived. It seemed a little unfair to the rabbits. She had to remind herself that she ate meat in the real world, and that these were just digital imitations of creatures.

The sun warmed her so realistically that it gave her pause, until she remembered that one of the annoying warning labels in the VR-medi pod mentioned exposure to UV light. After every third breath attack, she would stop for a minute and nibble a chunk of bread or cheese from her ring storage, to keep her energy high enough to do the next breath attack.

Danika wasn"t sure how she was supposed to answer when the hunter asked her suddenly, "What have you learned about rabbits today ZipZing?"

She answered hesitantly, "They"re quite fast and can jump a lot higher than I expected?"

The centaur chuckled and asked, "Do you think you could correctly identify a rabbit again if you saw one somewhere else?"

"Of course," Danika replied quickly.

"What if it was a different color?" the hunter persisted.

"I could still identify it as a rabbit," she a.s.sured him, thinking of the green and pink goat.

"What if its fur was longer, or it had shorter ears?" the centaur questioned.

Danika replied with a frown, "I could probably still figure out that it was a rabbit."

The hunter asked, "So what makes it a rabbit instead of say, a fox?" Danika didn"t reply right away this time and he chuckled again and said, "Even if it isn"t easy to put into words, you know what makes a rabbit a rabbit don"t you?"

Danika rubbed her chin and replied slowly, "I think so, and I can think of a few differences between foxes and rabbits, like the shape of their tails, and their diets."

A chime rang softly in the distance, and Danika quickly called up her menu screen and looked at her character sheet. She had gained both a skill and another point of Karma since she had looked at it earlier that morning. The skill was called "Identify Animal".

Danika returned her gaze to the tall centaur who said, "I"ve taught you everything I can. I wish you luck in all your future adventures ZipZing."

Danika nodded after a moment and said, "Thank you."

"And thank you for your help catching rabbits," the hunter replied cheerfully.

Danika watched for a moment as he galloped off. He hadn"t given her the skill she"d been planning to learn from him, she"d been hoping to learn stealth. She decided that she"d better ask at the beginning next time, and went in search of the farmer, who was the other combat specialist in the village.

A farmer wasn"t someone Danika would have guessed specialized in combat, but when she reviewed the skills that the farmer would teach a novice, it seemed plausible since they were all strangely roguelike skills. She had told Danika that she could teach her knots, evasion, goading, or her special move, efficient swing, which she typically used with her scythe.

Danika chose to learn evasion, which she regretted a little after learning what her task was. The farmer had her feed the chickens by giving them one grain at a time, and making sure to give one to each before giving another grain.

Danika had finished off the bread while hunting rabbits, so when the farmer gave her a small sack of mixed grains, she was able to store it in her inventory. She finally worked out a routine where she flew up out of reach between delivering each seed. Her tail suffered whenever she was a little slow in evading the chickens who didn"t get the grain of food that pa.s.s.

After she finished, Danika changed the order she"d had planned and visited the priest next. He restored her health and energy, and then kindly taught her how to call upon the Jade Emperor to use the skill herself. He also warned her that the skill would cost double the Karma when used on herself.

Danika thought that it really didn"t seem as mystical when you"d already met the G.o.d you were calling on. She also wasn"t certain that it was really the Jade Emperor"s power, when using the skill cost Karma points. But then again, maybe the Karma system was just a measure of your standing with the emperor, since it was also used in both character creation and resurrection.

The priest kept her there for a while as he extolled the Jade Emperor generously, along with honorable mentions for the G.o.d of Sleep, the G.o.d of War, and the Twin G.o.ds of Remembrance. Danika was afraid to ask if there were also other G.o.ds, and where dragons ranked in the briefly mentioned celestial servants.

Danika made her escape and logged out in time to accept delivery of her groceries. Then she made herself lunch before continuing, and scooted over to sit beside her few houseplants in the sliver of midday sunbeam while she ate.

When Danika returned to "Living Jade Empire", she continued her quest to collect skills. She needed to defeat the slime at the bottom of the vale before she could collect two of them, but she hoped to learn a skill that would deal damage before she tackled that.

From the farmer"s youngest child, she learned the cantrip to make light. From the farmer"s eldest, she learned his specialty skill, a spell that induced quick plant growth.

Danika had intended to learn fire starting from the baker, but a careless question had lead to being taught basic plant identification. That didn"t seem to be completely useless as far as taking on the slime, after a bit of thought, as the baker had shown her how to identify several poisonous weeds to watch for when sorting herbs for flavorings.

The wizard refused to teach her his spell until she"d mastered the cantrip she"d learned. When she asked for specifics, she learned that this meant getting 3 points of skill in a cantrip. She had more bread from her time with the baker, so she started making a light whenever she could and nibbling bread every few minutes.

Danika learned stealth from the innkeeper"s daughter, since she"d missed her chance to learn it from the hunter. She regretted giving up the chance to learn to swim, but the ability to move quietly and unnoticed seemed like it would be useful in more environments. She had even managed to keep practicing her light skill during part of her training, by randomly casting it as far from herself as she could.