1. Welcome back to Romance Versus Relics. If it seems these are popping up a bit quickly, it's because I am merely reposting from my site because this is better. I'm going to start out by showing one of Ellie's Egyptian finds that I forgot to show in the first chapter. I really don't know how I forgot about him…lol. It's an Egyptian magic gnome...lol. If you kick him and then stand him back up, he has three different poses. His original one is standing up and another one is lying on his stomach. But, I don't advise kicking him. I think it breaks them, because this guy is supposed to move around the lot, but all he does it sit where I put him . . . lol. After arriving home, Nellie went to work as usual. Not being able to travel for at least two days after returning home, she usually just waited until the weekend to go on another adventure. By Friday, she was REALLY ready to go on vacation again because she felt entering tombs and dodging fire traps was not any more dangerous than her job. There was an explosion and she exited her place of work looking like this. So, Nellie went home, showered, went to bed, and immediately called the travel agency upon waking on Saturday. Upon returning to China, she immediately went back to the last place she'd been and completed her adventure. When she reported in, he was thrilled that Ellie had found the writings of Chan somebody and immediately told her she needed to meet up with some girl to spar and report back with what she had learned. She decided to visit the general store to stock up on some more supplies, just in case. Nellie was strangely attracted to the general store merchant, Zhan Su, and they chat awhile and quickly become friends. Zhan was one of the sweetest people she had ever met. She spent so much time with Zhan that it grew too late to begin her journey, so she went back to the home base camp and got a good night's rest. When she woke, she hurried downstairs to enjoy a quick breakfast. Over cereal and toast with jam, Nellie met and conversed with a nice gentle from France, who was visiting China to enjoy his own adventure. When Nellie had left the table to clean her dishes, the Frenchman was joined by a man from Egypt. Nellie would have to wait to meet him because she anxious to move ahead in her quest. At first Nellie was confused and couldn't figure out how to find this girl that she needed to spar with, so she went to the Phoenix Martial Arts Academy, hoping to meet up with her there. When there was no sign of the girl, Nellie decided to try her hand at busting a few boards . . . foam ones, of course! Nellie finally realized she was supposed to meet the girl at home. After a polite introduction, and a bow, the two women began their sparring match. Nellie soon learned that sparring was actually fun and she was enjoying her match with the other woman. During the first round, Nellie gained Enough skill to get a new a belt, so she paused to show it off. When the match resumed, Nellie was proudly sporting her new belt. Her confidence was building and she decided she really liked the Martial Arts activity and made a vow to become as skilled as possible in the sport. Although the other woman won the match, Nellie left with an increased sense of pride that she had actually done very well for a beginner. She left the woman's house and went to report in to the man who had sent her here. He rewarded Nellie with some ancient coins and some points to add to her Visa, and then told her she must go to the Scholar's Garden to meditate for two hours. Though Nellie tried her best to meditate at the garden, she could not. Having only reached level three in the Martial skill, Nellie was unable to mediate that day. Ellie was forced to go back home again without completing the adventure. The next morning, she decided to call Zhan and ask him to visit. He accepted and arrived at 9:00am the next morning. Ellie took a hit at work that day because she stayed home to receive him. After a warm greeting and bit of small talk, he went straight to the practice dummy, which made Nellie extra glad she had purchased it. She wanted to do everything possible to make sure her new friend felt right at home. Nellie went to work the next morning, but made waffles and had breakfast with Zhan before leaving. Zhan was really good at fending for himself while in Nellie's home. He spent most of his day on the practice dummy, but also did a bit of reading. When Nellie came home from work, she felt that Zhan probably needed some socialization, so she offered to spar with him, which was one of the things he seemed to enjoy best. He kicked her butt, but it was fun, increased their relationship, and helped her become more skilled. That evening, she made spaghetti with veggie sauce, but she burnt it. Not wanting Zhan to know, she settled on Sushi because it's impossible to burn what isn't cooked. By this time, both were exhausted and their relationship was good enough that Zhan didn't mind sleeping in the bed with her. Nellie, however, did not sleep very long. There was a mighty rumbling in her stomach that would not be ignored. Nellie had eaten some Sushi with Zhan at dinner so that her guest would not have to eat alone and did not agree with her vegetarian palate. She was definitely regretting her decision now! Nellie practiced her Martial Arts with the dummy later that morning and earned herself a new belt, which she proudly showed off, even though she was alone in the room. Later that afternoon, it was time for Zhan to return home to China. He told Nellie he had had a wonderful time and hoped to see her soon. It saddened Nellie's heart to see him go, but their relationship had increased to best friend during his stay! Nellie was thrilled. Not only was Zhan her FIRST friend since moving to town, but he was now her first best friend too! Life became a bit boring and lonely for Nellie after Zhang's departure, so she followed suit and flew back to China as quickly as she could, going straight to the garden to meditate. Sadly, she discovered she still didn't have quite enough Martial Arts skills to do so; therefore she worked out with the practice dummy there. After a couple of hours, she was finally able to meditate. The next day, she immediately reported back and was sent on yet another quest. She had to explore the monks' tomb at the Resolute Fist Retreat and bring back... something. (I really should write this stuff down...lol) Anyway, she entered, explored around a bit and then she was very tired. Luckily, she found a comfy bed in which to sleep that night. As a matter of fact, there were similar beds behind all the doors you see in the picture. The door she ended up continuing her quest through is off the pic to the right. (Walls left cut away on purpose to show the layout.) Again, I failed to get many pics, but I did get this one of her after being caught in a fire trap. She extinguished herself in a pool around the corner. She finally finished this quest and reported back to Jiang Lu. While she was there, she decided to take some of her frustrations out by sparring with him. She actually WON this time! Now, while she was at home, Nellie was offered an opportunity to catch and bring some assassin bugs back to the science center for testing. The map was marked with where they were, but when she got there, she saw NOTHING. So, she visited this abandoned barn and found a box with some relics in it. (Finally I did a Google search on how to find those stupid bugs and then I learned that the hack I had that takes away the censor is incompatible with WA, so I got an updated version and I was able to collect my bugs!) Nellie met Sima Zhi, who wanted her to find three hunks of mercury and bring them to her. Nellie did so, but then the woman wanted three assassin bugs as well! So, Nellie gave her the bugs she had collected for the woman in Sunset Valley, figuring she could just collect more before going home. Nellie went back to the adventure board at the base camp to seek out another mission. This time, Nellie had to collect parts for Jee Young Tsang to make a telescope so that she could see Dragon's Maw through it from home. After collecting several random metals for her scope, and it was put together, Nellie learned it was broken and she had to take it to Jiang Lu to have it repaired. Then Nellie had to return it to her. Once Nellie brought it back, the woman told Nellie it works great, but the lights in town were too bright at night for her to see well. So she sent Nellie to convince three locals to keep their lights off at night so she could see better. Nellie did not have much trouble accomplishing that quest. After finishing that adventure, Nellie went back to the home base to check for more. The next morning, she had a quick breakfast with several other explorers. It was actually a RARE moment when Nellie spent any time at all there, so it was sort of a treat for her. Nellie's next adventure was the ONE for which she had been waiting; the search for Pangu's Axe. (I read something about thing possibly being bugged, but I'm going for it anyway! What I read about was people having trouble when leaving vacation early, or trying to let more than one family member have one, so maybe it will be ok with only one holder and staying until the game makes me leave.) After breakfast, Nellie hurried over to meet Maya Wang for instructions on how to find the magical axe. First, Nellie had to convince three locals to agree to allow them to have the axe if was found for some reason, that wasn't as easy as convincing the locals to leave off their lights, but Nellie accomplished it. Then, Nellie had to go to Jiang Lu to answer his questions, but he wouldn't even ask any until she built up their relationship a bit more. Finally he agreed that Nellie wouldn't abuse the axe, so he told her she must enter The Temple of Heaven to find it, but it would be dangerous. Unfortunately, Nellie's time had run too short to enter the temple on this trip, so she just tried to collect more assassin bugs for the opportunity back home. She would have succeeded, too, if one of the bugs hadn't bitten her and then she was spooked by another one. In the end, she had to leave China with two more bugs left to collect. Back home, Nellie tended her growing garden, bought some sprinklers, and upgraded them to automatically water to take some of the watering burden off of her. She worked several days, all the while thinking about her next trip to China. Her best friends were there and she had adventures to seek. She did, however, manage to get promoted to Carnivorous Plant Tender and now she had Wednesdays off as well as the weekends. Nellie rushed to meet the carpool on Tuesday, all the while thinking about the trip she had planned for tomorrow. Finally the big day arrived and Nellie excitedly rushed toward the taxi that would take her to a plane bound for China. Next stop... The Temple of Heaven!