The traveling merchant showed up shortly after the fox had gone about her business. Danika held out the pouch containing the 10,000 acorns and asked hopefully, "Will I be able to keep the container used to collect them all?"

The merchant grinned at her and replied, "Of course. Just give me a moment to catalog them." He pulled several baskets out of his pack, and his hands blurred as he tilted the pouch and poured a stream of acorns out, sorting them by some mysterious criteria into each of the baskets. A few short minutes later, he returned the empty embroidered pouch to Danika.

"Thank you," she replied with relief.

The merchant laughed. "No, thank you for your hard work, and here is your reward," he said cheerfully as he held out a small copper ring.

Danika dropped toward him, and took the ring from his fingers. They were warm to the touch, which seemed odd somehow. There was no reason for the game not to make NPCs just as warm as human avatars, but it felt odd for an NPC to seem so lifelike.

Danika thrust her clawed hand through the ring, but nothing happened. It didn't shrink to fit on her wrist the way her storage ring had. She looked at the merchant questioningly.

The traveling merchant returned her gaze with interest, but no apparent comprehension of her difficulty. After a moment she asked, "How do I use it?"

"Hold it up and look through it when you're ready to learn the cantrip," the merchant advised. "It will only work once, and then the ring will be consumed by the skill transfer."

"I see," Danika said with a quick nod.

She lifted the ring with both hands and stared through the empty circle. A tiny spark glimmered in the center of it, and then suddenly shot toward her face. Danika blinked instinctively, and then worried that maybe she'd missed it, but as the ring crumbled between her claws the familiar chime of a skill level rang in the distance.

The merchant winked at her when she lowered her hands and glanced toward him again. "Congratulations ZipZing," he said cheerfully. "Shall we get going?"

"What?" Danika questioned. "Where are we going? I haven't harvested all of my radishes yet."

"How long do you think it would take you to gather the rest?" the merchant inquired.

"Um, I was going to let some of the rest go to seed, which I think will happen in a couple more days," she answered uncertainly.

The merchant rummaged in his pack and then handed her a scroll. "Use this to summon me when you're ready to go," he instructed, "and I'll escort you back to the safety of the nearest village."

"Thank you," Danika replied as she took the scroll. A moment later a notification popped up, informing her that it was time to sleep. "I'll see you in a few days then, it's time for me to sleep now," Danika told the merchant.

"Rest well," he replied cheerfully as she logged out.

--

The next morning Danika ate strawberries with her toast, which was slathered in soft cheese. She acknowledged her own habit of choosing foods similar to those that she'd seen recently in her games with amusement. Then she brushed her teeth and did her exercises. The extra minutes she'd added before had become her normal routine.

The day was cloudy, but since she was staring at her screens most of the time, she didn't mind the weather. There was only one more day to go before the whole job was due, but when Danika checked the overall project status that afternoon, it was reassuringly near completion.

An email from a friend that she had met in a game some years ago distracted her for awhile. SaltySiamese wrote: "Hey, are you playing 'Living Jade Empire' yet? I've been playing it with a few RL friends. One of whom wasted 500 Karma, if you can believe it, on making his starting character a horse! That guy said it was a joke and that he'd reincarnate as a human mage after a few days, but it's been almost two months, and he still keeps saying, 'just let me finish my latest quest.' Anyway, the point is, that if you are, and you're playing your usual magician type of character, we could really really use your help! My name there is my usual nick, SaltySiamese."

Danika closed the email and focused on her job after a careless response forced her to retrace several steps, but when she had a moment, she started "Living Jade Empire" on her phone, and sent SaltySiamese a friend request. She wasn't a wizard, but at least 8 of her 22 skills were from the magical path.

Danika had already finished her shift, tucked herself back into the VR-medi pod, and begun practicing her new spark cantrip before SaltySiamese accepted her request.

A siamese cat bounded out of the forest and dropped a message without waiting for her to take it. The message flashed up onto her menu screens as though she'd accepted it. The cat gave her a look of disdain before flicking its tail and departing. Danika laughed merrily, and read the short message: "Where the heck are you? My friend list says you are 'in a forest'. And also, that you're a level 39 Fairy Dragon who's still a plain Novice?"

Danika quickly wrote a reply: "I'm west of a small town named Oliva, I'm not sure how far west, but it's still east of the human capital. I don't intend to choose a Path, but I know the cantrips for light, color, and spark. My spells are Invisibility, Featherweight, and Plant Growth. My breath skill induces exhaustion." She didn't bother to add her Restore prayer because her Karma balance was still 15 points less than her level and she really didn't want to risk it again.

She cast her spark several more times before SaltySiamese's cat messenger returned with: "Oh, I'll have to ask the others if they think your skills will be useful, I'll let you know tomorrow, OK?"

"Sure," Danika returned with her little grey default bird messenger.

Danika practiced her spark in the air above her radish patch. It was fun, especially after she discovered that she could use her color cantrip on it at the same time. She cast a few light cantrips and discovered that the same was true for light. For a while the little meadow looked like miniature fireworks were going off in the air.

Her spark had gained its third level, before Danika realized that it was dangerous. The three second duration sparks lasted long enough to reach the ground, and at first she didn't notice the way they fizzled out against the green plants below them. But eventually, one dryer patch of grasses caught fire and a real flame flickered into life.