4/?
A hazy morning dawns in Shang Simla.
Augusta goes down to the dining room and joins Enrico, another explorer, who is eating the autumn salad Augusta made yesterday. They chat over breakfast.
Augusta then checks the notice board to see if any new adventures are posted there. She finds one: the relic merchant needs two pieces of lapis lazuli.
She accepts the adventure, but no lapis lazuli is visible on the map.
Still, there is another possible way to acquire it - and that is, ironically, to buy it from the relic merchant.
So she goes to the market in the Forbidden City to see what the relic merchant is selling today.
He has three pieces of lapis lazuli on offer! Augusta buys two and immediately gives them back to him, and gets double the simoleons as her prize, plus some visa points and ancient coins. If all adventures were this easy... they would be kind of boring, to be honest!
She also sells a valuable half-moon cut jade she had found in the tomb the day before, and now she has the money for some travel necessities. She visits the general store next door.
A cheap tent, a shower-in-a-can and a bicycle will do for now, but I'm planning another round of shopping for her before she returns.
The relic merchant had immediately given her a new task: to find two pieces of mercury. This time she is not going to attempt to buy it from him. The map shows me there is mercury all over the place. She will collect it herself, but there is another thing she will do first.
A visit to the Academy! Every explorer needs to learn Martial Arts.
She is finding it very difficult so far, and is in awe with the local elder lady who is doing it with ease.
The elder lady's husband is watching her train from behind a bush. I can't decide whether that's sweet or creepy!
Augusta stopped training when she became smelly and tired, not having learned Sim Fu yet. Before returning to the Base Camp to sleep, she collected a piece of mercury on the way. Now she just needs to collect one more tomorrow.
Next: 5
