Danika laughed at the image of Nao1 cutely, but forcibly displaying something like the yellow stone to Silent Sky, with his vivid blue hair. "What's everyone else up to anyway?" She questioned. "It was pretty nice of Saaki to come act as a taxi for us."

Shinichi shrugged. "My dad wasn't home, which was a little odd, but his note said that he'd be back by midnight. I just threw my luggage into my room, plugged in my phone, and came here," he explained. "Naoki's probably sleeping, and Toshi is probably cleaning something. No idea what Hideki is doing, but he said he doesn't want to see our faces for a week."

"What?" Danika asked with alarm. "Did something happen?"

Shinichi shook his head and smiled wryly at her. "No, and we'll all see each other tomorrow anyway. Interview and photos in the afternoon, ugh. It'll be like a military debrief about our tour, but with more ridiculous questions."

Danika hugged him. He didn't usually complain to her about his work. It made her feel a bit happy, even though he sounded a little tired.

She pointed at her screen, and then suggested, "We could just stop here for the night if you want. If that cat marked me, I probably shouldn't leave my stone space until we're ready to deal with it. I think maybe it was in charge of those bandits?"

He laughed and shook his head. At her questioning look he asked with amusement, "What is it with you and cats? I don't really associate cats and dragons with each other. Are there stories I've missed?"

Danika shrugged. "What about cranes making gold? Isn't that even weirder?"

"Not really, I've heard that one before. And cranes are in so many stories and legends that it's probably harder to find something that they haven't been involved in?" Shinichi replied thoughtfully.

"I guess I mostly only know the stories about how they become wives or daughters with incredible weaving skills, but if anyone sees them working, they fly away," Danika explained.

He poked her cheek gently and asked with amusement, "So you thought that maybe Aishin had played around with a crane wife?"

She shrugged and then nodded.

MatchlessMinion asked suddenly, "Hey are you guys actually still here?"

Danika blinked and looked at her screen. The chinchillamin was back and had been there for long enough to collect his yellow spidersilk cloak from Shrubbery's tree.

"No," Shinichi replied at the same time as Danika said, "Yes".

"Tsk tsk," MatchlessMinion chided. "You're out of sync."

"Maybe we should just quit for the night," Danika suggested again. "If that cat actually marked me, I'll be found as soon as I leave my garden."

"They probably had some way of tracking the general location of the stone anyway," MatchlessMinion pointed out. "I'd rather make another try for Aishin, er ShinZing's stone since I may not get to play at all tomorrow."

"If I'm going home to sleep, I shouldn't stay more than another hour or two," Shinichi announced.

Danika glanced at him, but she only said, "I think the crane probably thought that the Philosopher's Stone was the enchanted stone I was after. Do you think it still has it?"

"Possibly," MatchlessMinion replied. "I was targeting diamonds with my 'Uncomfortable Treasure' skill, since I knew the viewports contained diamond. But it probably worked better on the whole stones than the fragments."

"You can make treasure hard to hold onto?" Shinichi asked with interest.

"Yeah," MatchlessMinion agreed. "But it's pretty limited. It only works on one material, only if they're touching it, and only as long as I'm within a meter of it. I think it's meant for stealing jewelry."

"Alright," Danika decided. "Let's try again."

--

They didn't return immediately though, they restocked first. MatchlessMinion was a little critical of them both when he found out that neither of them had anything in the way of coin or restorative items left.

"ShinZing could have collected more supplies from the beginner area, and you just," he waved his little arms and said with disgust, "I think you have the best storage items in the guild, and the least useful stuff."

"Hey," Danika protested. "I have useful things, I'm just out of consumables right now."

"Like usual," Shinichi whispered teasingly.

She wanted to argue, but she did seem to run out of potions and coin pretty often.

The traveling merchant was just the same as always when MatchlessMinion stopped to buy a few more potions after clearing out several alchemist and enchanter shops and stalls.

The little chinchillamin instructed them seriously, as though they were both beginners, "Save coin by buying from players shops as often as possible. The traveling merchant is convenient, but most players use him as a reference for setting their own prices and sell things a little cheaper."

"The bigger guilds usually contract for potions in bulk and let members restock at the guild halls for just under the merchant's price," Shinichi pointed out.

"They probably actually make money off of that," MatchlessMinion said thoughtfully. He looked at ZipZing and shook his head. "I'll look into it next time I'm on."

"We'd need another NPC," Danika objected. "We can't buy everything at once, and the titled positions are going to take awhile."

"We don't actually need those yet though," MatchlessMinion pointed out shrewdly.

--

Danika made ZipZing invisible, and drank a health potion just before teleporting to the mark she'd put on the crane this time. She appeared beside it and frowned. It seemed to be on the edge of the same mirror-like lake, although the flock had reduced in number and the other birds huddled together a fair distance farther along the shore.

She zipped over to hang her stone harness in a hummock of reeds again, and jumped when a voice said, "I knew you would return for it."

The crane died an instant later, as its head was separated from its body. One of the scruffy looking bandits from earlier had risen out of the water beside it and decapitated it with a speed and silence that indicated a disturbingly high level of skill.

Danika didn't even speak to Shinichi who sat beside her, she just re-fastened the clasps of her harness and tossed a quick series of wind slashes at the crane's body. She trusted in her evasion skill and darted down to grab the bird's gizzard out of the mess. She checked that her health had risen above ¾ and an instant later she teleported to her mark again.

She shouted "dragonheart" as soon as Shrubbery's tree appeared in front of her, and reappeared in her garden, with her claws full of the still dripping gizzard.

MatchlessMinion said dryly, "I take it that things did not go according to the plan."