2.45 Healing

Flora woke up in her bed with only a dull headache. She didn't know how she landed there. The last day was a blur of agony and coldness. Only the sweetness of her AIs had warmed her. When she opened her eyes, she still had problems focusing them. She dreaded standing up. In her experience, height differences were painful.

"What time is it? And what day?" Flora asked Aidan via telepathy. That was so much better than speaking because the words didn't echo in her head.

"10 A.M Tuesday two, Milady."

"Great, I haven't missed the match. In real life, I would have canceled my meeting with Eddie, but with 18 hours left in time dilation, I think I can recover enough to watch it." Flora rolled on her side and carefully propped herself up. Immediately, pain shot through her head, and she sank back. "Any news?"

"Yes, I'll tell you about them in the order of their arrival. That might be relevant because they contradict each other, Milady.

Dave Lupe reported that they took out the organizers of the attacks in South Laug and have a lead about who is causing trouble in East Ib. Both organizations have connections to the ClanOfMichael.

Captain Tomos Ceart requests your help to defend the temple in Caihaven because he received information about a major attack in the afternoon. His list for the spots on the entourage for the champion competition is attached.

Bishop Nomizo sent a message that the shrines and temples are still under attack, but they concentrated the defense on the most prominent ones and repelled the assailants. Her letter also contains her recommendation for the entourage."

"What is the contradiction, sweetie? I'm sorry I'm not up to the task yet. You have to think for two." Flora's headache had increased just by hearing the names of the council members.

"Caihaven is in South Laug. Bishop Nomizo and Dave Lupe are suggesting that they have the situation under control. Captain Ceart thinks they need help."

"I see. Inform Dave Lupe that we might have a traitor in the Church of Evailyn. I would appreciate information about odd behaviors. Additionally, he should contact Captain Ceart and offer his team's help. I'm staying out of this mess." Flora hugged her blanket. "Let's take a break before we tackle the entourage topic."

"There are two more time-sensitive news, Milady. Should we postpone discussing them?"

"We go over them. Please give me one of your awesome massages during it."

While kneading Flora with his tentacles, Aidan continued. "The multitool scepters are selling exceedingly well after a slow start. At the moment, I have to replenish the stocks as fast as we print them. We have sold 840 and have only materials left for 422. Aside from that, we stock the 839 multitool scepters you wanted to reserve for another purpose. May I suggest that we suspend the auction house activities because of the fees and just put the rest in the shop?"

"Reduce the supply to the AH to 1 multitool every 5 minutes. We need them there because of the advertising effect. You may sell 400 more from our reserves via my shop. Stop increasing the reserves. Can we buy more multitools? They were pretty cheap, right?"

"Not anymore, Milady. Currently, multitools go for 20 VirDos. Although the price is 20 times higher than before, it pales compared to our profits. We make around 550 VirDos per scepter. In addition to buying from the AH, we could post an offer to the Riverstones Request Board."

The Riverstones Request Board contained bounties, mainly from the VIPs, for raw materials and items. The benefit of this system was that the buyer could pay in contribution points. Flora saw a different advantage; even if she paid in VirDos, the money would aid Robby's company. Therefore she ordered Aidan to post orders for multitools in VirDos and contribution points.

"So how much money can we reinvest? The partner-shops still don't pay us, right? So our funds are limited."

"You have currently 513,088.33 VirDos, Milady."

"Pardon?" Flora heard a number so huge that she couldn't wrap her hurting head around it.

"You have currently 513,088.33 VirDos, Milady."

"Like, err, more than 50k Euros worth?" Flora had to make sure.

"Yes, Milady. Most of it thanks to the sales of the Multitool-Scepter."

"Wow. I'm not used to this kind of income. You had told me we sold nearly 1k, but 1k in toaster sales is not much because of the tight margins of the home appliance sector. With the ridiculous margin of the scepter… well, that's a lot of bimbes." Flora was so stunned that she couldn't even be happy about it. Immediately, her thoughts went to how it all could go wrong. "We shouldn't be too greedy. The common strategy would be to expand the production and ride the wave for all it's worth. Although we will eat the toast while it's hot, we won't roast ourselves."

Flora tried to grip her blanket telekinetically, but her magic went right through it. Unable to generate more focus, she groaned. "I would love to create a production plan. Shitty boiling brain, I don't trust myself to do it without major errors. We will slowly go over everything, and you will double-check every step we take."

First, they looked at the supplies. They needed multitools and refined moonstone. In the marketplace and AH were enough stones; nonetheless, Flora created an additional request on the RRB (Riverstone Request Board). Then Aidan sent Honey the instructions on how to get the most multitools in the Groom the Doom Moon scenario. He attached it to the request, too.

Next, Flora looked at her printer. Three scepters per minute weren't enough. The machine printed one weapon in 12 seconds and needed 5 seconds to put it away. Only then, it started on the next scepter.

Aidan convinced the printer to print four scepters in a row before it removed all of them in one swoop.

Just like that, they raised the production to four scepters per minute.

Then, they developed algorithms on when to buy what for which prices and when to stop. Last, they planned the refining of the moonstones.

Flora made errors and confused some parameters now and then, but Aidan gently corrected her. Her lack of concentration frustrated her. Nonetheless, the result was okay, so she just had to remind herself to be patient.

The golems carried out the refinement of the stones. The two currently at work were enough, and one of them could even refine some other materials. Flora transferred them to the Crystal so that they could work even when she wasn't at home.

Name: Crystal of Minor Binding

Type: Binding-Crystal

Description: Connects your home mana-grid to mana-bound artifacts. Due to energy loss, you have to provide double the amount of mana for the Regular Mode. Maximum of four tier-1 connections.

Tier: 1

Rating: B

Flora hadn't linked the golems before because working companions gave skill experience.

A quick check of the quest progression showed that Evailyn gained 18 new followers. The strategy of supplying the players with a great weapon was working well.

Just when Flora drifted off to a nap, Aidan reminded her that they had another time-sensitive topic.

"Later…"

After an hour of restless sleep, Flora's headache came back in force. With unsteady steps, she walked to the Jacuzzi.

"Burned toast and stale jam! How did I endure this freezing hell yesterday!" Flora cursed as she stepped into the pool. Instantly, she regretted speaking out loud because her brain complained about the noise.

Flora would prefer to get the cold directly into her brain. Thoughts like splitting open her skull and filling it with ice cubes crossed her mind until finally, a good idea appeared: Her favorite ice elemental Bliz left a cool feeling in her head when they communicated telepathically.

The spell fizzled out.

"Remind me to try again in 25 min, Aidan. The auto-mode should work." Flora submersed her head. After her oxygen ran out, she emerged and set Infinite Breath on auto.

"What was the other time-sensitive topic, dear?" Flora asked from underwater.

"Someone publicized the training boxes concept. The pictures in the articles show your V1 boxes." Aidan sent a link to "How the Professional Clans train their Members".

Flora still couldn't focus her eyes enough to read longer texts, so Aidan summarized the article and the reactions to it. The former described Flora's old boxes but didn't mention the Five-Changing-Finger-Positions Rubber-Training-Gloves. The latter consisted of users who desperately tried to buy one and some who complained about the unfair advantages big clans offered.

"The author is a former employee of Clan Riverstones, Milady."

"What?"

"I asked Camus about him. He resigned two days ago and took half of the boxes in the clan store with him."

Flora shook her head and groaned in pain, sending air bubbles to the surface of the pool.

"There is another article, "Pay2Win – Why training boxes should be banned". It's even more popular than the first one. The author, who has connections to the SwordOfMichael, says that you only can use them if you buy a workshop or a community hub. The next article, "Growing Gap between Casual and Professional Gamers", emphasizes that CentralTank should prohibit the boxes because casual gamers don't sleep in virtual reality. The author is the same who wrote that you’re a Nazi, Milady. The comment section is full of people demanding a ban on the boxes."

"Those SwordOfMichael people are getting on my nerves! On the other hand, they are sending business my way. Let's upgrade the second printer and sell some boxes while they are still working."

The clan had an A-rated printer, so they should make some money, too. Flora sent another message to Honey, the new CFO.

Due to Lana's raised synchronization rate, she wanted to go adventuring. Therefore Honey succeeded her as the CFO of the clan. While Flora had worked well with Lana, she preferred Honey because she gave the impression that she cared about the job.

Aidan negotiated a licensing contract with Honey so that Flora would get 30% of the profits tax-free. Then, he added comments advertising the boxes to the three threads.

After they raised Flora's second printer to A, they loaded up its queue.

While Flora was thankful for all the money people wanted to throw her way, her pain darkened her mood. Doubts plagued her mind. Was this opportunity a trap of the SwordOfMichael? Maybe they even manipulated the sales of the multitool scepter. That would be a pretty expensive trap, though. Could they succeed in barring the boxes?

Fortunately, Flora had a connection to an omniscient AI, the System. Because of the limited amount of system requests, she pondered about the wording. It took her so long that even the cooldown to summon Bliz had run out.

"System-Request: Give me your estimation on how long I can train with the boxes in the way I do now."

Thursday two 4 A.M.

Flora raised her eyebrows.

"That's the start time of the patch, Milady."

"System-Request: How sure are you that this estimation comes true?"

98%

"System-Request: What are the changes that will prohibit or hinder my training with the boxes?"

Patch Note 192: The players are only able to receive XP if they are in the same zone as the XP-generating action with their mind, body, and soul. That includes training XP, companion XP, and killing XP. The XP of multiple bodies in the same zone and XP while using a temporary body still gets assigned to the user.

"Burned Toast and stale jam! I admire the elegance of the solution, but the boxes are pretty much obsolete with it. Notify Robby, Hub, Eddie, and Honey about it." Flora's eyes widened. "My pretty training hut! All for nothing…"

To take her mind off the topic, Flora summoned Bliz. Thankfully, the auto-mode wasn't influenced by her headache and worked fine.

"Tell me about yourself, Bliz."

The little icicle raced around the Jacuzzi while filling Flora's mind with cold sensations. Thoughts, ideas, and images sailed across the connection.

Flora didn't comprehend much, but that wasn't her goal. She just enjoyed the cooling effect of the conversation on her brain.

Drifting between sleep and Bliz's tale about her home in snowy mountains, Flora relaxed in the pool. Now and then, her body shivered, but it was a system generated reaction and didn't come from her nervous system.

Bliz described her favorite bobsled run in adorable detail. She dedicated at least 10 minutes to the texture, quality, temperature, and structure. Then she went over every turn and the best angle and speed to take it.

"Where is that bobsled run?"

Feelings of home and ice and far away entered Flora's mind.

"Milady, your son sent a message."

>>>

Hi Ma,

I hope you are feeling better.

I know about the boxes, the leak, and that CentralTank will ban them because the major clans sent me angry letters about it. Haha, they seemed to have similar methods to your boxes in place−similar enough that the patch *bleep*s up their practice. They rightfully complained that I should have my employees under non-disclosure contracts… oh well, at least they know my name now. There is no bad publicity, right?

Our customers are very happy with the training hut. Furthermore, we have received so many inquiries about our portfolio that Lana has to work in administration again. XD Five new clients signed on in the last two hours!

Can I come over with the PVP team to free up the training hut for our VIPs? And use your boxes and workshop? This time, I have them sign NDA's about anything they see, including your time-dilation.

Love you, and don't overwork yourself! Take a *bleep*ing break!

Kisses, Rob

"Aidan, I don't need the dummies at the moment. Put them in my flat for our guests. How many jacks do we have for the workshop?"

"Five, but I can order five more. The max number of people in one workshop is ten, Milady."

"Aito, I want a new box, or to be more exact, a barrel. The Barrel of perpetual Climbing! Rat Race Climb! Rat Climb? Or something like that. Make it 3x3x3 meters big and put knobs inside it. I want to train climbing on auto-mode with it. As the user climbs up, the barrel should roll so that the user can climb infinitely. You have to use counterweights; I won't crawl on the bottom." Flora rattled down her concept. "I'm proud of you. Your first build task! You got it, girl!"

"Beep!"

"Aidan, fill up my workshop with five of each box, pool, and barrel and load three of each into the simulation grounds. Provide enough rune-schemes that everybody can configure their boxes to their needs."

"Yes, Milady."

>>>

Hi Sweetie,

I'm sorry that the Training Hut will soon be obsolete, but I'm very happy about your new customers. You can use my facilities with your friends as much as you like. I'll appreciate the NDA's though. Unfortunately, they are only nine more spots free. Eddie will visit around 16:00, but then you will be off to the match, so nevermind.

DO NOT LET HUB DESTROY MY TOYS!

Please make a plan for optimal usage and send it to Aidan so that my turrets don't shoot the wrong guys. (I had a church invasion). Give Mia and Froggers time slots, too. I believe those two are worth investing in.

My brain still boils, but afterward, I want to undergo training. Do you have people to teach me hand-to-hand combat, maces, and greatsword? Maybe the usage of a shield as well? I plan to spend the entire time until the patch in my bedroom.

Kisses and Hugs, your Mum

"Should I have demanded kisses as payment? That son of mine better know unprompted that they are obligatory!"

"Beep. Beep. Beep."

"Good idea, Aito."

>>>

P.S.: You could let me pirate your books as a tip. My AI enjoys romance novels, and I value the '1000'-series. Any other books are welcome, too. Just let your guys copy them into the simulation grounds or put them into the library container while you train.

"Aidan, we have to acquire the skills I want and level them as long as it is possible. Can you find people for Elemental Fist and Elemental Shield? Have we received the recommendations from the SBAT?"

"Yes, Milady."

"Find someone to teach me the skills of the three highest recommended classes. I'm knackered, I'll take another nap. Better schedule the teaching sessions on Wednesday One. I don't trust my brain, yet." Flora went to bed.