Reward and Temptation

Treebane was up and about already when Danika reached her clearing. Danika displayed the coin and the membrane from the slime to prove that she'd defeated it.

Tiana Treebane asked a little querulously, "Why did you save its skin? What are you planning to do with it?"

Danika blinked and thought for a moment before replying, "Umm, it seems like a pretty strong and flexible material, maybe it would make a good sack?"

Treebane shook her head and replied dourly, "Not unless you preserve it somehow, otherwise it will keep decaying every time you expose it to the air."

Danika hastily stuffed the translucent skin back into her inventory, and then looked at her mentor expectantly. "Please teach me your special wind slash?" she asked politely.

Treebane sniffed and said, "Yes yes, your reward for a slime well defeated. Here, eat this if you're low on energy." She handed Danika a piece of candy.

Danika tasted it cautiously, and then ate it happily. It tasted of strawberry cream, or perhaps it only smelled of strawberry cream. She wasn't certain, but she enjoyed it.

Treebane gestured toward the tree she'd been cutting, and said warningly, "It uses a lot more energy than cutting into something properly, but it can reach a bit farther, do as much or more damage, and take your enemy by surprise."

She lifted her axe and said, "So you'll take your claws," her eyes flicked to her axe head and back to Danika, and she continued, "and this skill will let you flick the air with them, as though you were pushing against water instead, as fast as a falcon's dive." The elderly woodcutter flicked the axe forward with seemingly impossible speed and an invisible blade of air hit the tree and knocked a slash into the wood as though the axe itself had hit.

The faint chime of a skill learned pinged in the distance with that single demonstration. "Wow!" Danika exclaimed. It took her a few tries to get the skill to activate, and the small mark her first wind slash left on the tree didn't look likely to slay any slimes soon, but she was happy. It was her first direct damage skill.

Treebane said unusually cheerfully, "Well done, you're a quick learner little ZipZing. I've taught you everything I can now. When you're finished with everything you want to do within the vale, the traveling merchant can activate the portal that will take you out into the Jade Empire to truly start your life as a dragon's child. Luck in your adventures ZipZing."

Danika hovered there for a moment, but it was clear that she'd been dismissed. She nodded and said, "Thank you."

She flew back into the village, intending to visit the innkeeper next, but she noticed the wizard was standing in the village square when she reached it. He looked up and beckoned to her. She approached a little cautiously, and he grinned at her and said, "My familiar told me that you've already fully mastered the light cantrip. Well done! It's very rare to see such a promising novice, are you certain that you wouldn't like to become a wizard yourself?"

Danika rolled her eyes at the wizard and said, a little accusingly, "I knew that cat was yours…" She added a little uncomfortably, "But it's wrong, I still haven't gained my third point in light."

The wizard's eyes crinkled merrily as he gazed at her with that oddly ancient knowing look. "Oh, three grades in its casting is merely a convenient measure of the minimum amount of magical practice needed to use a more complex spell. True mastery of the movement, of the light and its individual particles, is the basis of all illusion," he said as he held out his hand and conjured a tiny dragon upon his palm. Not a fairy dragon with butterfly wings and pixie sparkles like Danika, but a true dragon that flew in a graceful curve around his fingers before vanishing.

Danika gulped. "Can't I learn to do that without choosing to become a wizard?" she asked uncertainly.

"Mmm," the wizard hummed noncommittally. "The traveling merchant did mention that you want to be able to learn everything. That's quite an impressive goal, but you'll have to live longer than a full blooded dragon, or maybe even longer than the gods, to complete it?"

Danika blushed and corrected the wizard, "I don't expect to be able to learn everything, but I'd like to be able to learn anything."

She couldn't see it herself, but the sparkles coming off her wings turned rosy with her blush. The wizard gazed at her for a moment and murmured, "dazzling," before replying simply, "Yes, it's possible for you to learn to cast illusions without taking the path of magic."

Danika smiled with relief, but then he added sternly, "But, you'll have to find someone to teach you the spell, after you've learned all three of the cantrips it requires. Because you won't be able to unlock it naturally, and I can still only offer you one spell."

Danika was tempted, truly tempted, to take the path of magic and easily learn to call the image of a dragon like that. But she really did want to have the ability to learn anything she chose, whether it belonged to someone else's idea of what a wizard, or ranger, or cleric, or anything ought to be able to do, or not.

After a long moment, she shook her head, and said firmly, "Please teach me the spell you used to make the apple lighter." She added, "But tell me which cantrips, because I intend to seek them out and learn that spell someday!"

The elderly elven wizard grinned at her again. He described the cantrips to her carefully, and then added simply, "I hope you learn everything you need to, and much that you want to in your adventures ZipZing." He whispered something else that she didn't quite hear, and the wizard vanished, at the same moment as the faint chime of a skill acquisition rang.

Danika blinked and stared at the empty space where he'd stood for a moment. She hadn't asked him how to level her dazzling skill. She sighed, and then pulled up her character sheet and looked at it. Her new spell was called "Featherweight," and there was another change in her character sheet: colours had been added. All of the cantrips and spells were blue.

She tapped on her dazzling skill, which was white like flight, and a description of the skill popped up: "A natural sparkle that may change colours to indicate emotion. The intensity normally varies somewhat with surrounding light conditions, but with practice can be purposefully intensified. There is a chance for intensified dazzle to distract or even daze the viewer at high levels."

Danika craned her head around to see the sparkles coming off her wings and tried to sparkle more brightly. There was no obvious change. She thought about how she'd reflected more brightly in the dim light of the cat's eyes.

As if her thought had summoned it, a "mew" was spoken into the empty village square. When Danika turned toward the sound, she saw the wizard's cat sitting in the sun near the fountain.

Danika asked, "I don't suppose you can show me how to dazzle?"

The cat blinked its eyes in the bright sunlight, its fur gleamed, and it looked so smooth and glossy despite its dark shade. Hints of auburn stripes showed in the sunlight, and then Danika blinked. The light faded a little as though a faint cloud cover had settled back into place between the tree branches high above.

The cat yawned and stretched. It flicked an ear at the fountain before walking off.

Danika stared after it for a moment and then laughed and called out, "Thank you!" The cat flicked its tail and then vanished around the next corner.

She darted over to the fountain and splashed off the faint layer of dust that she'd collected in her adventures. Then she stared at her reflection in the fountain's pool, and tried to intensify her sparkle. The faint chime of a skill increase rang in the distance, and the sparkle of her wings seemed to spread across her scales just a little.

Danika called up the menu to check her skills again, and noticed that the quest list icon was glowing. When she tapped it, she received a notification window hovering above the list window. It read, "The Search for Knowledge: 5 Karma Bonus! You've leveled up a skill with the help of a hidden resident of the vale."

Danika grinned and flicked it closed, then flew off to collect her last skill.