Flora's head rang from all the explanations, and she was more confused than enlightened. Those teenagers had too much energy and knew way too many gaming terms!

But you couldn't expect too many enlightenments in one day. In the morning, she had completed the last of Robby's recommended scenarios. Meditating on a mountain top, she gained awareness of her inner mana network.

It seemed she had maxed out her quota of comprehension.

Packing the Counterflow mech-suit in her inventory, she pondered what she should wear over her Mana-Regeneration outfit. She still had the Icemasters body armor, so she slipped it on.

The mini-masters told her she had to take out all the equipment she wanted to use in the PvP antechamber. There she could still access her inventory, but Flora felt better if she assembled everything now. She wanted to make sure they had nothing forgotten.

The two foci were in their holsters, and she filled the quick access slots with mana potions, health potions, minor potions of fire resistance, underwater breathing, ice traps, and explosion traps.

Flora decided against the Potion-Guzzler for the first try but kept her filled mana-battery linked.

4 MR for the four turret-traps (+8 Generators per tt).

5 MR for the trap toaster (+4 Generators).

31 MR for the octopussy.

Aitoshuri beeped satisfied, while Aidan, who controlled the toaster, promised to do his best.

The interface for the arena selection reminded her of the Seven-Masters Dojo Ring-Time but was much more complicated. She could even select against which classes she wished to fight. Of course, she chose some of Ressa's classes: Marksmen, Fireshot, Hunter, Gun-Fu, and Beastmaster. The other configurations like Level Range: 1-5 and Random Environment, she left untouched.

As soon as she pressed the 'Match'-Button, a notification popped up: an opponent was ready.

Flora ported in the antechamber. On her HUD ticked a 30-sec count down. The room had three stone walls and one open wall with a transparent shield. She could look through it in the colosseum shaped arena.

On the opposite side of the round stadium, she saw another shimmering shield. The audience benches were empty except for a group of familiar teenies.

Flora checked her equipment one last time.

"Are you ready, sweeties?"

"Yes, Milady."

"Beep!"

Flora readied herself to jump out of the room. When the timer reached its end, her sight got blurry for a second.

Suddenly, she stood in the middle of the arena, staring at the sand.

Her mind had focused on jumping to such an extent it had to readjust when it couldn't execute the plunge.

"Congratulations, you won the first round." A female voice read the message.

Flora found herself back in the antechamber without having seen her opponent.

"Oh well, good job, everyone."

The timer ticked again down from 30 seconds, which made Flora sigh.

"Aidan, we have to ask what other people do during waiting. I don't want to waste any moment."

This time, Flora was ready for the port. Her adversary wore shabby full body armor and held a sword.

Flora cast Acid Bolt, but 20 laserbeams hit the poor guy before the spell left her hand.

"Congratulations, you won the second round and the match," said the same voice.

"Thank you, dear. Who are you?"

"My name is Aithena. I'm the AI responsible for the Arena."

"Nice to meet you."

"Do you want to enter the B-League? Your fighting prowess exceeds the C/unranked-League."

"Yes." Flora snorted. "I don't know about me, but my robots exceed the B-League."

Aithena ported Flora back to the teenager filled booth in the Mini-Masters Lounge.

"Good fight, Auntie," Mia said perfunctorily.

Waving her comment away, Flora asked how to use the 30 seconds waiting time. Her mini-teachers informed her she could buff while in the antechamber.

In the next round, Flora found herself in the same chamber, but the arena was different. It reminded her of a colosseum, but bigger. Antique columns, some of them toppled, broke up the line of sight.

Flora used the wait to memorize the layout. Ten seconds before the timer ran out, Flora cast Energy Shield.

When she got ported into the arena, she looked around, but no enemy was in sight.

Cautiously, Flora inched closer to the center. The turrets followed her on their small wheels. They couldn't pass patches with debris, much less fallen columns. Therefore Flora had to move around them.

For a moment, Flora considered emulating SWAT-teams from the movies and press her back on the corner, before taking a glance and rounding it. But she didn't know whether the movies were right. She definitely would feel silly. Nothing in her life had her prepared for a battlefield.

Aito extended a tentacle around a corner. Only now, Flora remembered she had given Aito sensors in the tips for this situation. The smart AI had even thought of coloring herself in the palette of the colosseum.

Following her octopus, Flora walked on. The turrets trailed her, and Aidan took the rear.

She would have preferred the guns in front of her, but she had stinted on the programming. They could just follow her and shoot at anything hostile. The issue wandered on the to-do list.

Flora strolled around, refreshing her shield now and then, while Aidan shot some traps randomly.

"Boring."

"Beep."

"Attention players! The arena will reduce size in 10 seconds." Aithena announced.

The area on the rim turned orange, but Flora was a bit away from it.

Finally, a shot hit Flora's shield. While Aito shot back, Flora tried to cast a spell in the direction of the assault, but it fizzled out.

"They're out of range, Milady."

"Color my range purple and the range of the turrets blue on my HUD," Flora instructed while running after the shooting Aito.

Circles appeared on her display.

"Burned toast and stale jam! Why is my range so short?"

The purple circle's radius was ten meters smaller than the blues'.

"Laser has a range of 30 meters, magic bolts of 15 meters, Milady."

Flora hopped on the toppled column the marksperson had used as cover.

Another shot hit her shield, destroying it. Octopussy and Flora pursued.

"Milady, the turrets are stuck."

"Ignore it, but put a trap on the positions the shots originated."

!

Flora jumped in the air to survey the surroundings. She found the fleeing opponent.

Aito!

!

A tide carried Flora ten meters forward. After hopping over another column, she spotted the enemy. He was male and wore green armor and a rifle.

Unfortunately, he was far out of her spell range and still fleeing, but Flora and Aito's speed exceeded his.

Flora jumped over a yellow glowing patch of earth on instinct. As she landed, her brain supplied the information: Traps glowed like this.

When Aito reached firing distance, Flora refreshed her shield. She was ready to rain toasters on the boor.

Meanwhile, Aito landed three consecutive head-shots.

The round was over before she gained on him. The pent up aggression turned into frustration.

"I need a gun! And better software!"

Flora spent the next 30 seconds browsing the marketplace and bookmarked promising software suites.

"We'll take a running start. Aidan, trap the hiding spots and ignore the turrets."

As soon as she arrived, Flora jumped on the next fallen column and used it as a springboard.

!

She found the opponent on his way to a cover.

"Aito, take the right. I'll flank him from the left."

Aito!

A column blocked the turrets again, but the females approached the location fast.

Thanks to her superior range, Aito attacked first.

The guy turned to her and shot his rifle. Then, he executed a skill, which made him fly backward.

The skill pushed him right into Flora's range.

!

The water sphere smashing into his back incited him to yelp. He glanced around his shoulder, which gave Aito enough time to catch up.

Pelted by Aito and Flora from two directions, he dove to the third and vanished.

Remembering Mia's advice about stealth, Flora cast Acid Rain on the spot. His drenched figure reappeared, and Aito rapid-fired him to death.

"Congratulations, you won the second round and the match," said Aithena. "Do you want to enter the A-League? Your fighting prowess exceeds the B-League."

"Sure, Aithena."

Back in the Mini-Masters Lounge, the teenies ridiculed her robots. Flora had no excuses. She could only shrug and buy a new software.

The marketplace offered a B-rated suite, which included all the movement functions Flora hoped for and a few more: Following (Friends and Enemies), Patrolling, Guarding a spot, automatic obstacle evasion, and moving to places.

The behavior functions were interesting as well. You could customize when they used their skills depending on the health of the opponents or time into the fight.

For the moment, Flora left the factory setting untouched. She delegated the configuration and adjustments on the field to Aidan.

Flora spent the next fights shredding her opponents.

The teenagers lost interest and busied themselves with their own matches.

Even Flora found the process tedious. She spent more time in the antechamber than in the Arena. The opponents died too fast for her to learn anything.

She substituted the turrets for the Ivy-League mech-suit and transferred all the extra mana-reg from the octopus to it. Aito beeped sadly, but Flora insisted.

Straightaway, the fights got more exciting. Though they were still shorter than the waiting time, Flora could test spell combinations and experience how the players reacted to them.

It took seven fights until the first player, a female beastmaster with a cougar pet, walked into one of Aidan's traps. The explosion-trap flung the poor girl in the air, and Aito shredded her before she hit the ground. Her cougar pounced on Flora and knocked her down.

Flora was excited about it. From the day Robby had told her grappling was unsuited for many opponents, she wanted to try it out. In the Jiu-Jitsu lessons, she fantasized about wrestlings with tigers and dragons.

The attack from the pet gave her the chance to test her skills on her first non-human subject.

Wrapping her legs around the cougar, she started to squeeze. Aito had never stopped firing. Even Aidan shot an ice-trap at them.

It cut the adventure short, but Flora had fun.

A few hours into her PvP session, Flora got a message from System.

"Congratulations on your first week in the Cetviwos.

You received your rating: B.

From now on, every week, in which you don't level, will reduce your trained attributes, affinities, abilities, and skills."

Flora's face fell.

"What? Only B! I have to admit, I expected more. Of course, I'm a newbie, but I exerted myself. Am I conceited?" Flora rambled.

"No, Milady. It is just your global rating. This rating relates you to all players, even the level 250. Your level rating, comparing you to other level-one players, is higher." Aidan showed her the tiny globe in the corner of the display. Flora changed it to a level-specific rating.

"S! Yes! Much better. But the clan membership requires an A rating. Which of those two has to be A?"

"Either is fine. On the low levels, the level rating is easier to accomplish. If you reach a high level, it sinks because the system compares you to the other avid players. Then, your global rating will be better. The good news is the global rating is highly unlikely to sink. Because you reached a B-rating even without any dungeons conquered, lands explored, realms built, or group activities, it is practically guaranteed you will attain an A rating in no time."

Flora was mollified. Now, she was interested in the rating of her companions. She hadn't noticed the little world or level icon before and judged some things Mia had said as a bit arrogant, with her only having an A rating.

Nickname: Mia MyMio

Level: 1

Class: Tank Expert

Clan: Riverstones

Rating: A (global)

Looking at it with her new knowledge, Flora was more impressed. An A-rating even though she was only level one was nothing to scoff at.

All the teens displayed only their global ranking, and it was A in every case.

When Flora asked about it, they said they don't like people they don't know to pester them about assistance or being friends.

Flora knew what they meant. She received a few sudden friend requests as well when people noticed she was a champion.