Shelby and Plin spent the next hour organizing the catastrophic mess that had been left behind at the Brushcourser Guild. Plin seemed to have a preferred method for sorting the mounds of items she kept stacked in various places, but Shelby couldn't figure out what that system was. Mostly she just matched items as well as she could, occasionally moving things around until Plin inevitably pointed and fumed about slightly different pelts and feathers.

  As they worked, Shelby asked Plin if she knew someone who could heal Coda's injuries, but the guild mouse didn't seem to think it was necessary, "It'll heal on its own. Big boss has Bonding like you and his critters always patch themselves up. I've seen them worse than that."

  Plin gestured towards Coda, who was hanging upside down from a rafter and watching them clean with wide eyes. Shelby asked, "Coda's cuts won’t get infected?"

  Plin looked exasperated, "Not unless you were fighting spirits of disease out there."

  Shelby shrugged, guess there aren't fantasy microbes to worry about? She hefted a crate full of seed packets onto a sturdy shell and brushed a thick layer of pollen away from her fur with the back of her hands, "Do you have an, um, 'Identity Skill' too, Plin?"

  Plin scoffed, "Of course. That's the first thing you learn! I took Culling. That's the best for hunting quietly."

  "Is it important to hunt quietly?"

  "Yes! The most important!"

  Right, dumb question. Shelby thought back over her hectic night. It would have been much simpler to take on one rat at a time, quietly and simply. She probed a little further, "Why don't all hunters take Culling?"

  "All Identity Skills can be good," Plin said simply, "different Brushcoursers are needed to do different things. Bonding with a lot of different creatures can help you when you need a tool for every situation, and your partners can protect you or even heal you. That's useful for long journeys in strange places. Trappers are preferred for big game and some pest hunting, too. But if you're hunting for simple contracts or for food and materials then Culling is the best."

  Shelby considered that. Could Coda heal himself? She gazed up at the docile bat. He had been a terrifying foe to fight against, maybe Coda would be as good as having a Culling skill. She imagined that since he could fly that he might be helpful for searching big area too. Now that she was looking carefully, a lot of Coda's wounds were starting to look better, too. The hole in his wing was only the size of a grain of rice now.

  Once Plin got started talking about hunting she was difficult to stop. She talked energetically about her Identity as she hopped between shelves, storing various animal products, "Our Basic Skills are good too. They make sure a fight doesn't get out of control. Trapping and Bonding skills are all over the place. Too unfocused. Bow skills are best for Culling too."

  "What is a 'Basic Skill'?" Shelby asked.

  Plin stared at her, "How green are ya’, anyways?"

  "I just learned my Identity Skill, I'm level two."

  Plin dropped a bottle full of tiny bones and it shattered on the floor, "I wouldn't have let you fight those spirits if I knew you were level 2!"

  “I wasn’t level two when I fought them, I was level one.”

  Plin flinched as she crouched and picked up the bones one by one, "Oh, um, well, you didn't die or anything. And it was just rats. Anyways, Basic Skills are what you learn after your Identity Skill. Identity Skills define how you approach your class. They’re the things you are. But you probably noticed that they can't be used very often, right? Maybe once or twice."

  Shelby did notice that. She nodded, "I was worried about what would happen if my Bond failed because of that."

  Plin nodded appreciatively, "Be wise with it, " then she dumped a handful of bones into a ceramic vase with a clatter, "Basic Skills are meant to be used very often, so they're simple and useful. My [Exposing Shot] makes fights worse and worse for my enemies the longer the fight goes on, making sure I can always finish my hunts."

  "What is my Basic Skill?" Shelby asked.

  "Something to command your companion, or something to make your companion more effective. I forget what the choices are. Boss would know..."

  "He's sick, you said?" Shelby asked gently.

  "Ya ya," Plin said dismissively, "getting old. He always bounces back."

  They finished cleaning in silence after that. There were a lot of strange items in Plin's hoard, but Shelby didn't want to take something that was important to her new guildmate, so she asked, "Do you have something that would inspire the quest master? I promised I would bring him something good."

  For some reason this made Plin double over with laughter, clutching her sides and almost falling to the floor. She wheezed, and her dark eyes glistened with tears. After a solid five seconds of uninterrupted laughter, Plin finally managed to reign herself in and placed a steadying hand on Shelby. She took a long centering breath, then said, "This is good, very good, we have to give him something wicked. Something that will make Kira and Moli furious, too."

  Plin wandered off towards a shelf, occasionally suffocating a sharp laugh with a paw over her mouth. Shelby laughed nervously along with her, it was contagious. After Plin dug through a few items, muttering things like "No, no..." and "Ahh, would he?” she came back and pressed a pair of short and broad-bladed silver scissors flat against Shelby's palm, giving her a meaningful look, "Make sure he gets them."

  Shelby nodded with an unsure smile.

  Plin scrunched up her nose, apparently thinking about something, then decided, "I should give you an [Obligation] too, since you helped me tonight."

  "What's that?" Shelby asked, popping the scissors into her inventory.

  "That's what you use to pay for [Confidants]. My [Obligations] should be acceptable to any other guild since there's always hunting to do," Plin snapped her fingers and a text box appeared:

  "Ooh!" Shelby said, "Thanks!"

  "You earned it," Plin waved her off, "now go make sure the master gets those scissors."

  Shelby nodded, she should try to complete the tutorial soon, anyways. She bid Plin farewell and set off back towards the broken pot yard with Coda in tow. She had seen almost all of the village now, so she ducked back through the trading square on her way back, as that was the shortest route. She arrived back at the shack and placed the three [Inspiring Items] on the table with the note. A key, scissors, and a strange disk. They did seem like they might inspire some truly original quests.

  Rare. So that quest was different than normal.

  Ah, must be almost done, Shelby thought. She was only a short distance away from the plaza she started in. It seemed a little strange to seek out the mayor at what had to be close to midnight in the game world, but the characters in the village were usually wherever Shelby needed them to be. Maybe it was a game thing.

  She walked back to the plaza, traipsing down the cut-in grass stairs. Now that she had seen the village, she could recognize that this plaza was one of the more ornately decorated areas. There were beautiful plants spilling out of the planter ringing the stone tile mosaic. One of the small bell shaped flowers gave off a soft white glow. It was a vining plant, and a few of the houses had strings of the plants growing along their roofs. Coda immediately galloped off to investigate the lights as Shelby walked towards a garden enclosed in quarter-height walls.

  As expected, the mayor was in her yard, kneeling beside a planter and tending to something like looked like a giant lily. Shelby approached and the mayor signaled for her to sit, so she did. The woman was a fairly tall mottled white and brown rabbit in a simple brown dress and a gardening apron, and although it was hard for Shelby to tell the ages of most of the Daizi she had met, the mayor seemed very young to her. She spoke in a soft, calm voice, "Did you enjoy exploring our village, visitor?"

  Shelby's gaze drifted towards the slivers of starry sky peeking through the brambles, then she nodded. She did have fun, except maybe the getting bitten by rats part, but even the pure adrenaline of her fight was fun in it’s own way. She had never felt that way about a game before. The mayor smiled warmly, "Good. I think you left a good impression. Well, with all that done, I hope you'll consider helping me with my request?"

  Shelby rubbed her shoulder sheepishly, "Would you remind me of the details, please?" This was something she had skipped over nearly a half-dozen times in her quest to make as many rabbits as possible, and she couldn't remember what exactly her task was supposed to be.

  The mayor titled her head towards the grass stairs, "To... go north and check on a farming settlement that we lost contact with last week."

  Shelby pretended to remember, "Yes, right. The one to the north."

  The mayor stared at her for a moment, "Uh huh… that village. Have you given it any thought?"

  "Of course," Shelby panicked a little. Was this part of the tutorial? Usually, the quests just popped up. Or am I supposed to say yes before it will tell me what to do?

  "I'd be happy to help," Shelby ventured in a wavering tone.

  "Wonderful!" The mayor nodded approvingly to herself as she pulled a dead leaf from one long stem, "I think it may be a bit too dangerous for you to head out, um, as you are, but I would appreciate it if you could investigate this as soon as possible. I hate to admit it, but I’m worried that this could be more than just a case of poor communication."

  What did that mean? With that, the mayor stood and turned towards another planter on the other side of her yard, picking up her gardening tools as she left. Shelby raised a hand towards her. "Ah, one more thing..."

  The mayor turned back. Shelby noticed for the first time that she had deep red eyes.

  "Yes?"

  "Will you remind me of your name again, too?"

  The mayor smiled broadly and laughed, exposing a pair of buck teeth, "My name is Pico-pa-piru."

  So, this was the person who paid for her inn stay. The slender rabbit yawned loudly and then plopped down next to a planter of plump succulents. A series of prompts appeared.

  Pico hummed gently as she pruned back the tangle of plants running out of the planter onto the ground. The night air was cool and the plaza was pretty, so Shelby sat back and watched the stars for a while. Coda scurried around the plaza happily, sniffing at the menagerie of plants with enthusiasm. After a while, Pico gathered up her tools again and walked up to Shelby, asking, "Since you're here, would you like to learn a little about tending to these plants? Many hands make light work, you know." Shelby smiled and nodded, holding out her hand for a familiar looking pair of scissors. Pico pointed out a few flaws and dying nodes on plants and Shelby obliged by snipping out the problematic matter. After she understood the idea well enough to work unattended, she and Pico worked around the plaza in opposite directions.

  Yes. Shelby started to hum along as she continued to tend to the mayor's garden.