The Traveling Merchant stood as though waiting for Hisui to find him. This character was far more familiar to Jade than the Jade Emperor had been before his system merge.
The man's somewhat plump and travel-worn face was all too familiar now that Jade was sensitized to the decades that Lin Hao had lived through. Jade's mother, Tayana, or Kit within the game, talked about the man as though he had always been thoughtful, gentle and caring. He had obviously been rather egotistical as well.
Jade felt that he should have known his creator better. Instead he found that even his orbital system only had a small store of personal memories of the man in its own storage. Driven, focused, often laughing at something, but never at someone, that was his impression of Lin Hao. He had more data about people he had played Living Jade Empire with in this 'lifetime' than the ones who had created the game.
"What can I help you find today?" the merchant asked Hisui cheerfully.
Jade asked wryly, "Can you tell me if Living Jade Empire has succeeded in changing the world the way Lin Hao and Devon Yu once hoped?"
The merchant shook his head, but then replied, "This world has never stopped changing according to the path they once laid out. This could be regarded as success."
Jade nodded and then asked the more immediate question, "Do you have any high energy gems in stock?"
The merchant's expression was regretful as he replied, "Such valuable stones have always been rare, but I think that most of the ones in existence have already been thrown at the Moon expeditions.
"Any available quests that might yield more?" Jade asked hopefully.
The merchant shook his head. "Not that I know of, but perhaps you could ask a fire elemental to help you craft new ones?"
"I need something faster than that," Jade grumbled.
"To a certain extent, money can be substituted for time," the Traveling Merchant pointed out rather slyly.
Hisui's grimace was as exaggerated as an emoji as Jade calculated the dwarf's remaining coin. The amount wasn't small by ordinary standards, but it probably wasn't going to be enough for this.
--
Harmony dismissed the warning notification as she logged into the game. It hadn't actually changed much, but it would grow more strident over time.
Apella wasn't online yet, but Jade was, of course. She patted his little airship where it lay, and then measured the Sun's height above the golden horizon.
Yesterday they had raced far enough across the moon to nearly catch up with the retreating night that fled before the edge of dawn. She used Skyheart's elven vision to scan the edge of the sky for branches, but the great tree wasn't yet visible from this side.
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Some of the nearest Augusmin tried to attract her attention, which naturally made her curious enough to respond.
--
The fastest way to craft new gems was to consolidate fragments of existing gems with the repair skills Hisui had used before. However, unlike the markets in the real world, some kinds of gem dust were actually more expensive than whole stones, because it took extra steps to break them down that far.
Jade frantically sorted through online listings that agreed with the Traveling Merchant's analysis of current gemstone availability. His dwarf wasn't the only character who could create whole stones from fragments. He paused on a listing for coral, in bulk.
It took him more time to consider the question of whether or not coral might work than he really wanted to spend. It wasn't that organic gems couldn't contain the kind of energy structure needed, it was just that the gem needed to be created from tiny crystalline layers.
Regretfully, he decided that the time and energy that it would take to reconstruct tiny bones into tiny gems would not be any less than having a fire elemental help craft new gems from sand, as the merchant had suggested.
Summoning an elemental was an entirely different problem. Hisui's hands pulled out the Jade Emperor's token so that Jade could stare at it. The Emperor was essentially the most powerful elemental of the game. The Gods were the core of the primary elements, Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth, which would make their ruler the most elemental element…
--
The Jade Emperor's smile was delighted, but his eyes were eternally calculating, as he offered a bargain that would stretch beyond the game's boundaries.
Jade, on all levels, stood frozen as each of his systems calculated the benefits and costs of a seemingly ridiculous exchange. The game would give him the only thing he couldn't buy within it, time. He would be saving the time it would take to craft the gems to power his little ship. He could choose to fly it the rest of the way around the moon, or simply have it transported in an instant.
The price was both insignificant, and incalculably high. It was an old bargain. An old myth. To let an elemental walk out of its element to meet its love. To stand on its own two feet in the land of men.
A cat twined a twisted path around Hisui's ankles, and gazed up at him with eyes that sparkled more deeply than the highest quality gems. Jade frantically looked back up, to meet the Emperor's utterly amused and calculating gaze once more.
--
The Augusmin here were slightly different than the ones that had traveled past the party's original landing spot, or even the fiercer ones who had traveled this place when Skyheart and Apella had landed the little ship again.
They were all carrying the usual leafy branches, but some were much smaller, plumper, and seemed more cheerful than any Augusmin Harmony had seen before. It took her a moment to realize that the smaller rabbit-like people were probably the children. A few of the tallest were carrying even tinier youngsters among the branches on their shoulders.
Sky attracted their interest strongly, and the little ones seemed almost reluctant to keep hopping past, so she gave the little airship another pat, and then abandoned it. These Augusmin swirled closer, crowding both the elf and each other far more than any others ever had, as everyone moved across the shining ground.
"Hello," she greeted a particularly plump individual who got so excited that its next step launched it twice as high into the shallow sky as any of its fellows.
Harmony laughed.
"Are you one of them!?" another questioned excitedly. "One of the creatures that rained fire down from the sky?"
"No, I don't think so," she replied quickly. "Our ship never caught fire."
"What's a ship?" came a quick curious question, that was followed by a dozen more. "Can you fly?" "Are you an adventurer?" Do you have a pet?" "Do you have a house?" "Have you really climbed the tree?"
Harmony answered the last question first, "I have climbed many trees, but I have never climbed the Moon's tree."