China Trip #2: Mid-Week 24Travelers: Fhore - working towards Super-Maxing Martial Arts. Ernesto - Working towards Visa level 2. Fyve - The kid's just cute! Oh, and working on her Logic skill. And Franklin - He's got Wunn's Collection Helper to get well acquainted with the countryside, and to provide gems, metals, and bugs for Ernesto Visa 2 quests.
Length of Stay: 8 Days, thanks to Fhore's Visa 1 and Prepared Traveler LTR.
Flight Leaves: Right Now!
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This trip starts off a little more sedately than the previous since we have Franklin and Fyve in tow. Plenty of time for some privacy later. Ernesto checks in with the Adventure Board and heads off in search of the local tagged on his map. Franklin gets a short lesson on the Collection Helper from Ernesto and then takes off in another direction. Fyve and I head to the Academy. I call up my next Tournament challenger while Fyve makes friends with a young Pei gentleman, Guang. He has a sweet face.
Running around town leaves Ernesto wishing for some down time, so during one of his trips through the Market, he stops for a dip. Mmmm, too bad there's no privacy or I would be really tempted to join him.
Ernesto has a very different method of making friends than me. First, he joins the Warehouse guys back home for what they call a career "borrowing" things. Then, here in China, when the local contacts for his adventures take too long coming out of their homes to greet him, he gives them something to ponder.
[I did not tell him to do this.]
I check my MA list and realize I need 150 hours of meditation! 150! So after I call my next Tournament challenger, I get into this meditation thing. What a rush!
Fyve and I make the Academy our home away from home. With the new 2-room tent, we have some serious girl time camping out. Breakfast consists of dry food under the sun with a fabulous view.
I make a few more friends while handing out losses in the MA Tournament. A few contenders come back for more the next day but some cut their losses and go home. Their faces make me laugh.
And then comes the day I earn the title of Martial Arts Tournament Grand Master! YAY me!
Franklin enjoys running around collecting bugs and gems and metals. He manages to find 6 Red Assassin bugs! I'm sure he could have gotten the fourth one Wunn needs for work if he [OK, me] hadn't gotten side tracked by treasure chests! (Ernesto needs 3 for an adventure.) Deep in Ernesto's Abandoned Barn, Franklin makes time to call a friend from home and fills her in on the trip.
Ernesto and I find some tent cuddle time!
Fyve takes some time away from the telescope at the Academy (she's working on naming 20 celestial bodies), and reads a good book. I'm surprised how fast she picks up the language here!
Towards the end of the trip, with Franklin around to help disarm the traps and empty the chests, Ernesto finds gold. Deep in the maze that is the basement tomb of
our Temple of Heaven, Ernesto joins the ranks of accomplished explorers!
Then he turns back into super macho muscle dude playing with a new toy. Don't tell him I said that.
Too bad he doesn't take a picture of the boulder, it probably would have maxed his photography skill! One track mind with a new toy in hand.
As busy as we both have been on this trip, it as been such a joy having my little girl at the Academy with me. She is so happy and fun, and deserves the biggest hug I can give her! We find out that her little friend, Guang, died yesterday from starvation, so she needed the hug. [Bummer, all that time spent making a Best Friend!]
Before our flight takes off for home, we meet up at the Academy for a couple hours of relaxation. Ernesto has one more garbage can to kick, so he'll meet us at the airport.
Then back home we go, back to work and school, and a house filling with Immortal Elders.
Week 24 Part 2 to follow. [After I play through it.]
