The smith chuckled and took down a huge hammer decorated with gold inlays off the wall above his work benches. "I'll only teach you one skill," he warned, "but I can teach you how to learn to breathe."

Danika frowned and replied, "I don't need to learn a new skill, I need to learn how to practice the one I have."

The dwarf looked down at her with a serious expression. "Learning to assimilate the skills of others will not be a wasted effort," he said. "Every novice should try to learn everything they can, ZipZing."

Danika was already planning to learn everything she could. She was hoping that if her breath was a combat skill, and she could learn two other combat skills, that she could learn Treebane's special skill. Her mentor's little taunt had sounded like a subquest, and the traveling merchant's warning that she wouldn't have guidance outside the vale, if she insisted on being able to learn anything, made her feel that she should take care to learn every skill possible while here.

"Does my breath skill count as a combat skill, and are you one of the three combat specialists in the village?" Danika asked carefully.

Ironstone laughed and swung his hammer above the anvil with a great swishing noise, and then told her cheerfully, "It is a combat skill, and I have got a bit of combat skill myself, but no, my specialty lies in crafting."

Danika hoped she wasn't making a mistake by not insisting on learning a combat skill from the smith, but said bravely, "Alright, please teach me how to learn to use my breath skill."

"Watch closely then," Ironstone instructed, "this hammer grants a breath skill, and I'll show you how to use it." He reached down and tapped her lightly on the head. A faint chime rang in the distance.

Danika stared up at the dwarf with determined concentration. He took a deep breath, and then turned and breathed a stream of fire into his forge. Danika frowned and took a deep breath and huffed it out. Nothing happened.

The smith glanced at her and chuckled. "With such a low skill level, it may take at a hundred repetitions for you to absorb a level, or thousands to learn a skill. But so long as you don't give up, you can do it ZipZing." He drew another deep breath and Danika watched with determination.

It didn't take a hundred repetitions, it took 97. Ironstone showed the inhuman patience of an NPC as he demonstrated his enchanted hammer's gift of fiery breath over and over. But then, the little fairy dragon that still concentrated, and huffed its breath in imitation with nearly the same determination at the 97th repetition as it had at the first, also showed the nearly inhuman patience of a dedicated gamer.

Every "real" dragon had a breath weapon, and the promise that she would attain the ability eventually if she didn't give up made Danika determined to succeed. Even a hunter whose next meal depended on keeping an alert watch could hardly have done better.

Danika squealed with delight when a small cloud puffed out at last. She didn't really notice the sound of a distant chime in her excitement. It was like something had finally clicked on, and her breath skill could suddenly be activated with the same sort of intent as her wings.

Ironstone eyed the resulting cloud and said, "You'll practically have to blow it up your enemy's nose."

"Blow it up their nose?" Danika questioned. "Won't it become a flame if I keep practicing?" She eyed the tiny cloud which was dissolving very slowly. She took a deep breath and huffed another layer of cloud into the first.

The smith laughed and swung the giant hammer gently in Danika's direction. A faint breeze shifted the cloud into her face… and the world faded a little. Golden sparkles danced at the edges of her vision.

"What," Danika asked, and the word was delayed, "do you mean?" her sentence finished slowly. She looked up at the dwarf, who didn't answer right away. He simply turned and hung the great hammer back up in its place on the wall.

The sparkles at the edge of her vision were fading before finally Ironstone said, "It's not a breath of fire, and also, you're not immune to your own attack."

"Oh," Danika replied at normal speed. Her breath had slowed her, and it seemed to be an effect type attack rather than a damage one. After a moment she said, "Thank you for spending so long teaching me."

"You're welcome ZipZing, and now, I'm going to close up shop for the night," Ironstone said with a chuckle. He pushed her gently out of the smithy and shut the big stone doors behind her.

Danika looked up at the sky, to find that stars already glittered between the branches of the great tree. She assumed the pose and called up her menu to see how much time had passed, it was a bit after midnight. She switched over to her character sheet and gazed at it with surprise:

--

ZipZing, a Fairy Dragon and a Novice.

Karma: 7

Reincarnations: 0

Accumulated Level: 3

--

Skills:

Flight, natural: 1

Breath, exhaust: 1

Dazzling: 0

Assimilation: 1

--

There hadn't been any noticable system notifications of her increase in level, and Danika was a little puzzled. Thinking back over the afternoon spent in the smithy, she remembered the distant chime and decided that the next time she heard it she'd look at her stats right away.

Danika looked around the quiet village square, with its tranquil fountain and smiled a little. She was spending a lot more time in the beginner's vale than she'd expected, but it was actually pretty absorbing even though it was all very typical for a fantasy RPG: introduction to movement, a basic attack skill, her first inventory slots.

This game obviously had solo starter areas though, because "Living Jade Empire" was already far too popular for her not to have run into other beginners during this time.

Thinking of other people starting characters, she switched over to the forum and wrote her first post: "1000 Karma Character: Dragon's child advertisement is a little misleading, you can't play a full blooded dragon. I thought that was pretty ridiculous at first, but I'm liking my half pixie character, and the backstory on dwarves was cheesy, but actually sort of reasonable."

Danika submitted her post, and then logged out of "Living Jade Empire". She stared at the warning labels in front of her nose, and her brow wrinkled. She found that she actually hoped that she'd have more work in the morning. She really needed to get something cute to cover those.