Danika looked around the room again and then message Shinichi: "Call me when you have a break."

It wasn't obvious to her what it was that he liked about this place, not that it was bad. It was clean and reasonably comfortable for a hotel room. She sat on the mattress with a pile of snacks and drinks beside her, and logged into 'Living Jade Empire' from her tablet.

Several messenger animals waited with varying degrees of patience. She took the one from the flying fish first, as it leapt in and out of existence, making graceful arches through the air. She expected it to be from Sea Song Tione, but it was from Quicksilver, and read: "My daughter asked if she could join Endless Song too. I told her that it's a guild for adults, and that she'd be bored, but she's still very insistent. I know it might be a bother, but would you mind allowing her to join?"

Danika considered the message. After a moment she replied: "Of course she can join. I suppose we do have a larger percentage of older players. I'm pretty sure that MatchlessMinion is currently our youngest (I think he's still in his second year of high school), but we don't have any age restrictions."

The other three messengers were cats. She took the message from MatchlessMinion's plush grey cat, and SaltySiamese's messenger gave an impatient growling meow.

Danika told it, "Just a minute."

His message said, "My sister says she needs help, but I'm going to be busy until late tonight."

She silently apologized to the siamese cat, and took its message next. Salty Siamese's message read: "We already have to use up one of your promises already! We've been besieged at the tower we chose to expand into a village!"

Danika blinked in surprise, but didn't reply right away. She took the message from the last cat, with a patchwork grey and white pattern that she thought might be tortoise shell, but wasn't certain, since it had a white star in the middle of its back. It wasn't one of the standard coats available in the shop for real money.

Justin the Grey's message was more formal, but contained the same request for aid from Endless Song. It also included clear instructions for how to get to the new village. Danika probably didn't need them, since she could see that both he and SaltySiamese were online when she checked, but it showed his usual forthought.

She checked to see where the closest portal that she'd visited was, but it looked like the closest was in Tianxia, which she thought was about an hour away. She messaged both of them, and asked, "Is there a portal in your new village?"

SaltySiamese replied first: "Not yet! Do you know how much those things cost? We are getting one of the new temporary portable ones! But we don't have it yet."

Danika bit her lip and took a drink from her can of soda. ZipZing didn't have anyone from Justin's guild marked with the assassin's skill currently, so she couldn't conveniently teleport herself over.

Shinichi hadn't called her yet, so the members of Underneath probably hadn't gotten a break yet either, but after a minute she pulled her phone out and sent two more messages. One to Shinichi and one to Akito. Saaki could use his genie's racial skill to teleport to anyone on his friend list, so he could carry Endless Song's members right to SaltySiamese.

Salty Siamese replied again: "Bring more arrows! I'll pay you back later."

Danika went to the guild's second NPC, Keeper Kin, before heading out to go shopping. She actually didn't know if any of their newer members used a bow, so that their NPC would buy a stock of arrows or not.

She flew down to the store room and stared around in surprise. Someone, probably Logical Heart, had obviously added a spacial enchantment to the room. It was four times as wide as the tree that held it.

Keeper Kin greeted her cheerfully, and his broad chibified avatar's face showed a welcoming expression as ZipZing zipped up to him.

"Do you have any arrows in stock?" she asked hopefully.

Keeper Kin shook his head in negation, but offered, "I have a wide variety of darts and throwing daggers?"

She sighed and tapped the emote that shook ZipZing's head. "I need to supply an archer," she explained.

"How much do you have to spend on it?" the sturdy NPC questioned.

Danika winced, but gave him the total of her current resources. She added, "But I will probably need more healing supplies too."

She was shocked and a little chagrined when Keeper Kin immediately pulled out a selection of potions and candy, and told her cheerfully, "The majority of the guild leaders have voted that ZipZing may withdraw as many healing supplies as needed without providing compensation to the guild."

It meant that Shrubbery and ShinZing had arranged for her to pick up healing supplies without paying.

Keeper Kin went on helpfully, "With the funds that you have available, I suggest buying arrows in an elven village, where the fletcher Tru Flight resides. You will be able to buy much more than if you go to a seller in one of the racial capitals."

Danika grimaced, but decided that she might as well spend the time traveling that she would have had to spend on shopping around. So far, neither of their guild NPCs had ever given bad advice. She requested clear directions, and took the offered healing supplies with her.

--

Saaki, ShinZing, and the rest of Underneath, logged in for just long enough for the genie to deliver her to SaltySiamese. The five of them logged off from within her stone space and promised to return later.

SaltySiamese exclaimed "Woah! Wait, only you are staying!? Seriously?"

Danika's immediate response was to flick an assassin's mark at the elven archer, so that she could travel back and forth as needed as long as SaltySiamese was defending their village. Then she looked around and corrected that thought to 'her village'. The place looked like a cat themed fairy tale village in a theme park. Even the tall slender glass tower, that rose between the village and the shore, had cat ears at the top.

She tapped her inventory and had ZipZing hold out the arrow she'd brought. "Here, the restock you asked for."

SaltySiamese's avatar in the mobile version had a cutely rounded face that made her expression of disgust rather ineffectively cute. "One arrow!?" Her tone however, rose to a piercing level that usually preceded a full blown rant.

"It never leaves the string," Danika told her quickly.

"How many times can it be fired?" someone else asked before SaltySiamese got going.

"It's supposed to have a true infinity enchantment, but it doesn't have any damage enchantments, it's just a high quality plain arrow," Danika explained the rest of what the elven fletcher had told her as quickly as possible.

SaltySiamese clutched the arrow and asked apprehensively, "How much do I owe you?"

Danika told her the amount of coin, without adding her promise to the fletcher to act as a courier for him 13 times in the future.

SaltySiamese eyed the arrow doubtfully and muttered, "I don't trust it. But I'll put it to the test."

She sprang lightly to the top of the tall glass wall that surrounded the village and fired off a dozen quick shots that spat multiple copies of the arrow each time.

Danika stared at the distorted sight the wall portrayed and then zipped upward. An army of what seriously appeared to be dwarven mecha were attacking. She suddenly doubted that the arrow she'd brought was going to be much help.