Data Dragon Danika

Danika wanted to give her the final say, but Shrubbery"s mother just said cheerfully, "Buy the most expensive ones!"

The NPC representative wasn"t quite one of the most expensive, but was voted most essential. The representative could be directed to accept a number of daily quest submissions, up to one per guild member, even when the guild members were offline. Danika could also give the NPC limitations on what kind of quests it would accept, but she thought that the default setting that simply said within the capabilities of at least two guild members wasn"t too bad.

Since the guild was only given one system generated mission like the giant snails each day, that would give the members many more contribution options. Although it also added to their commitments, since their guild"s reputation would drop if they failed to complete accepted missions.

An added benefit was that it wasn"t just the members who received up to five Karma per day through guild quests, the guild itself received the same amount on whatever upgrade was currently selected. Once the shared quota had been reached, guild quests could still give standard quest Karma rewards to the partic.i.p.ating party, and the guild still received an equivalent amount. In this fashion, guilds could make progress on upgrades even without any direct contributions.

The most expensive upgrade currently available to them was a Hall License, which would allow them to obtain a property that belonged to Endless Song, rather than to an individual. They couldn"t use it right away though, because only Eyes on the Sky, with her unlimited funds could afford to buy property yet. She informed them a little sadly, once they determined this, that coin contribution to guild projects had been listed on the system notification as being equivalent to the Karma contributions.

Shrubbery shrugged and told her mother, "It"s only a week, and if that"s the next thing you want to do we can shop for places until then."

Eyes on the Sky didn"t argue, she merely asked, "Should we buy a small kingdom? Would that count as a property?"

Danika said firmly, "Even if it did, I don"t want to. Think of how much work maintaining that would take?"

Eyes on the Sky and her daughter both giggled, while MatchlessMinion glanced at his sister and said firmly, "No kingdoms, not even a town."

"Hey, I"m not even in your guild," SaltySiamese objected without any confusion about what his glance meant.

Once they acquired a place, their NPC would automatically take up residence in the "guild hall", but until then the poor NPC would apparently be homeless. Their chosen representative, Song Solvin, was a human, although more expensive races like fairy, unicorn, and even an ocelot had been suggested. They had finally decided that a character who spoke the common tongue would be more likely to be able to collect more jobs. The fairy would have qualified, but they currently had three men and three women voting and the vote on the fairy came out as a tie.

Her name had been suggested by Ryullusion, and she was a pretty girl currently dressed in a plain brown version of a human"s starter outfit. They could give her other things to equip later, but she was a bit like the traveling merchant in that her level was listed as ???. Her responses were currently very bland and limited, but Danika suspected that in the future she would learn from the guild members who hung around the guild hall.

Saaki joined the guild when he arrived an hour later, and then the small red haired genie complained when Aishin suggested, "Let"s take a break for an hour now that the guild has been created, before we take on the giant snails?"

"I just got here," Saaki protested.

Everyone else was ready for a break though, and after they discussed it a bit, the proposed hour was extended to three hours, to allow everyone to eat and finish their ch.o.r.es before returning. Since Danika and Shinichi had shared a somewhat late breakfast, she wasn"t really hungry yet, but she was sure that she would be in another hour or two.

Danika logged out and disconnected so quickly that Shinichi was still talking to Saaki when she lowered herself over the edge of the VR-medi pod. He met her eyes and told Saaki, "Bye, I"m going out with MY girlfriend now."

Danika raised her eyebrows at him and asked, "We"re going out again?"

"You don"t want to?" Shinichi questioned. "That"s ok, but I want to at least walk around the block and stretch out a little."

She looked at how he was leaning against the wall beside the bathroom door. He didn"t seem to be used to sitting upright without any back support the way she usually had in front of her work screens. She asked a little guiltily, "Should we get one of those contoured floor chairs while we"re out, for you to use when you"re here? If it was the lighter sort you could put a hook on the wall to hang it up out of the way when you"re not here?"

He finished putting his phone away and grinned as he sat up and crawled over to her. He kissed her without answering. When he withdrew he asked, "Will I be meeting the relatives soon?"

Danika was so startled by his question that she just stared at him with her lips parted in surprise. He reached out and slid his fingers along her cheek and into her hair.

Shinichi explained with amus.e.m.e.nt, "I"m just teasing, since you seem so willing to make changes to make me comfortable here long term, and that would be the typical next step."

She blushed. And then she blurted, "I can"t introduce you to them, but my grandparents really want a picture of us."

She wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h the words back as soon as they left her mouth, but his eyes lit up and he said enthusiastically, "Me too! Let"s go get a picture taken!" Before she could form a reply he asked, "Can"t?"

"What?" Danika asked blankly.

"You said you can"t introduce me?" Shinichi questioned. Then he admitted, "My dad already really wants me to bring you to dinner with him sometime, but you can wait as long as you want."

"I wouldn"t mind going to dinner with him, if you think he won"t be too shocked," she replied quickly, and then explained, "They live on the other side of the world."

It was his turn to gaze at her blankly. "Oh, of course," he replied after a moment. "Why would he be shocked?" Danika pointed to her own legs and raised her eyebrows. Shinichi didn"t quite roll his eyes as he said, "Idiot."

"Hey," she objected. He leaned in and kissed her again. It was really distracting but she scolded him seriously, "Don"t think that kissing me makes up for calling me an idiot."

He grinned again and told her, "Of course not, I kissed you because you"re too cute. But don"t expect me to apologize for calling you an idiot when I think you"re acting like one, and I expect you to do the same."

"I really don"t like it, can"t you choose some other word?" she persisted. "And why do you think I"m acting like an idiot?"

He blinked at her. "You"ve already met him, do you really think he"ll be that shocked? Plus I"ve already mentioned it, so I doubt he"ll even be surprised. And um, I guess I can try? What do you want me to say instead?"

"I don"t know, um, dolt? Or dummy?" she replied uncertainly.

He gazed at her with a distressed expression and asked, "Aren"t those worse!?"

Danika giggled suddenly, and his expression shifted to perplexed. "I can"t believe that this is what we"re arguing about, but I do mean it, I hate being called an idiot the most," she explained.

He took a deep breath and then agreed, "Okay, but I"m not going to use those either. I was just scolding you, not trying to insult you."

"Okay," she agreed. When she shyly lifted a hand to his shoulder, he seemed to understand what she wanted and leaned in to kiss her again. But then he asked hopefully, "Can we really take some pictures together next?"

Danika laughed again and nodded.