"Nice run!" Mia said, grinning. "Under three minutes! 2:58, to be exact. That record will stand for a while. We absolutely crushed it."

"Oh, dear. Let me sit down for a moment." Flora was knackered. The cave floor didn't look inviting. A part of her wanted to lay down and not get up for a week, but her pride caused her to remain standing. "I don't believe you. Nothing of importance can be done in three minutes. That's the time I need to tie my shoes. When Robby rings the bell, I need five minutes to look in the mirror, take my cloak, find my keys, and go down to meet him."

Mia chuckled. "I'll check the second boss, maybe we are lucky, and the loot is still there." She said and jogged into the tunnel, picking up her Roadblock on the way.

A portal had opened up in the endboss chamber, and Flora figured that it would take her outside and that she didn't have to make her way back.

Suddenly, Flora realized that she was alone in the room with a corpse. The Summoner didn't look dead, more as if he was sleeping. Morbid curiosity drew her closer. When she was one meter away, the corpse vanished, and only a pile of loot was left behind.

Flora was relieved. She picked up S-rated fabric and some credits. Additionally, a window popped up.

Item Drop

Name: Staff of Economical Elemental Summoning

Type: Weapon/ Elemental Focus

Effect: - 2 OV Mana-Regeneration upkeep for summoned elementals.

Effect: + 1 OV Physical Vigor for summoned elementals.

Level: 1

Rating: S

Need | Greed | Abstain

Flora wanted to analyze the staff, so she checked with Mia whether the girl minded her taking it. After Mia agreed, Flora pressed "Need". In return, Mia received the main loot of the mole boss, a shovel.

"System-Request: Change in the loot display from 'Greed' to 'Nice to Have'." The word "Greed" still didn't sit well with Flora.

"Do you want to see your achievements now, Milady?" Aidan had held them back because Mia had advised it in the planning session.

You gained an Achievement: DPS Queen I: Average 500 DPS over one minute in a fight.

Reward:+ 1 OV Magical Power.

You gained an Achievement: DPS Queen II: Average 1000 DPS over one minute in a fight.

Reward:+ 2 OV Magical Power.

You gained an Achievement: Speed-Runner I: Conquer the first position on a contested dungeon leaderboard.

Reward:+ 1 OV Physical Macro-Control.

Flora opened her attributes tab. With the achievements, she had maxed out the OV Bonus for Magical Power. Except for Magical Perception, the magical attributes reached 4 or 5 points. Her physical attributes lagged behind, especially Physical Power with only one point OV Bonus.

"Is it enough for the Champion competition? Maybe I should max out Magical Micro-Control for the divine skills and Magical Defense and Physical Vigor to be a bit more resistant. What attribute is responsible for strengthening Righteous Strike?"

"Physical Power, Milady."

"Okay, I need more of it. Righteous Strike proved to be a skill useful for training and dungeoneering."

"Milady, I have a non-urgent question. Would be now a good time to ask it?"

"Sure, dear. Ask away."

"Should I bring it to your attention when you make an error?"

"Of course!" Flora was appalled. "With high priority! Did I mess something up?"

"I'm unsure. You thanked Poppy McLaughter for teaching you Astral Vision. However, you didn't get the skill from her but from the Analyst inheritance. The girl had taught you Frost Breath."

"Guess I confused it, no biggie. Thanks for informing me."

Mia caught up, and together they left the instance.

The Mini-Masters were still at their old spot, separated from the instance exit by several groups of people. Little waved and flashed them his upturned thumbs, and Poppy smiled. Kitty made a rude gesture, and SAF scowled, but that was his resting face. Mia saluted them casually but didn't seem to be inclined to join them.

"Have you time for a request, dear?" Flora remembered that she still hadn't harvested the ice tree that the Dean granted her. "I need more elemental trees for the equipment of my entourage. There are some S-rated trees above us. I have already felled my weekly limit. Could you get more for me?"

"Sure. You know that they are only level 1, and the Champion Competition will be level 5, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Equipment has levels since the patch. It depends primarily on the level of the used materials. So if you use low-level materials, they will be worse at level 5 than some higher-level materials with a worse rating. If you have a high enough crafting ability, you should be able to raise the product some levels, but the crafters are still experimenting, so I don't know the numbers yet."

"Why can't this game more simple?" Flora sighed. "Still, I want the stuff, so please get me a Metal, a Fire, and a Wind imbued tree and two more S-rated. I will take the Ice imbued tree, so don't bother looking for it."

The women parted in the forest. Flora jogged to the ice section, where the last light of the day colored the icy leaves red.

"It may not be simple, but it is pretty."

When Flora returned to her lair, the sun was still high up in the sky.

"Timezones are strange. I once took a train from Berlin to Mannheim and witnessed a two hour long dusk. The train was as fast as the setting sun. However, porting from evening to the afternoon is a bit jarring."

"Maybe you should rest, Milady."

"Maybe I should." Flora thought about all the exciting things she wanted to do, like finishing her Kinetic Mage suit. It would have been handy in the instance. She had just taken a nap before the speed run… and the planning for the it … and the creation of the Tolly. Okay, it was a while back. It felt like a day ago but had been less than two hours. She still couldn't believe that they had only needed three minutes to kill everything.

"Please take care of your health, Milady."

"Alright, I'll hang out in the sun while you fix the roof garden."

A while later, Flora reclined on a deck chair on top of her lair. Only wearing her toaster print bikini and with a fruity cocktail in her hand, she browsed the marketplace. An army of robots, elementals, and Tollies moved soil and stones.

Flora called a few old friends and received gossip about the local church's bake-out, the affair between Ellen and Marc, the weather, and Kerstin's hip replacement. Nobody was interested in listening to her adventures in VR. She felt removed from the real world and was thankful that at least Eddie had followed her.

To distract herself from feeling lonely, Flora looked at flower seeds in the marketplace. It helped.

"Oh, look at those violas! Aren't they cute? Can I buy magical plants? How is our monetary situation?"

"The violas are very cute. You can buy magical plants, but only some dedicated botanists have managed to raise tier 1 herbs in the Metaworld. We are still giving out vouchers for refunds, but you have around 600,000 VirDos available."

"Please, repeat that number. I heard six hundred thousand VirDos." Flora laughed nervously.

"You understood the number correctly, Milady."

Flora took a big swig from her fruit drink and wished it was something stronger. "Like 60 000 Euros worth of real-life money?"

"Yes, Milady. We are still selling Multitool Scepters and Boxes. I didn't count the income of the last two days in case we'll have to change our refund policy."

"So we have even more bimbes?"

"The word bimbes is not in my dictionary, but if you mean monetary assets, then yes, we have even more."

"Holy Toaster. I'm rich! I was rich before, but now I'm even richer! Everybody warned me about people who want to con me, but I believe I have conned them! The VR is a bonanza! What should we do with all the cash? Can I donate money?"

Aidan sent Flora a list with charity organizations, and she selected ten to support: Four VR education funds for poor people, one for training paramedics, one program for helping traumatized people, three who sponsored VR access in refugee camps, and a program in which underprivileged kids from different countries meet in a VR holiday camp. She had to choose so many organizations because the 1000 VirDos per day rule applied to them as well. Additionally, she changed the payment of her pod to VirDos. Her pod-hostel was eager to get the currency and was even cheaper with it.

"Let's hire the Riverstones to check out the charities. We don't want to be a sucker for uncreative frauds. We have to find a way to funnel more money to Robby. What are our options without giving him pocket money? Can I even transfer more dosh to him?"

"We are paying taxes. The best way is to earn more and pay more taxes. Our courier contract is with the clan Riverstones, so it doesn't count against your 1000 VirDos limit for your son. You could pay him pocket money."

>>>

Hello Sweetie,

Here is some money. I have to get rid of it because of important reasons. Don't give it back. You are doing me a huge favor!

Hugs and kisses, your Ma

"Do you think that will spare his pride?"

"I don't know, Milady." Aidan sounded doubtful.

"Oh, I know just the guy who has no pride! And if I'm wrong, I'd love to trample on it!"

>>>

Hello Hub,

I'll send you a bit of money in the next few days. Please do something nice for our clan with it.

Cheers, Auntie Flo

"What kind of overhead costs do we have?"

"Besides from the 14k you just distributed, we pay 1k a day to the Riverstones and 5k a day to squad 3-1 for the next six days. Deriga, Aito, Haidan, and I receive 2000 VirDos per week. The rest of our regular payments are in VirDias."

"Okay, raise the AIssistant salary to 1000 VirDos a day. Now we are at 18k per day. Two more to spend for an even amount. Oh, I have an idea!"

>>>

Hi Eddie,

I want to invest 1k per day in your pirate movie. I hope that's alright with you. Say stop, and I will.

Love, Flo

*beep* (Thank you) Aito sounded excited about the raise or maybe because of the pirate project.

"One more to go!" Flora was fired up.

"I don't understand why you want to give away your earnings, Milady. Would you explain it to me? My human knowledge compendium suggests that this behavior is uncommon."

"I don't know. I just feel like it. I wouldn't do it with real money. While I know that I could exchange them intellectually, VirDos don't feel real or even earned. So I'll send them to people who value them more than me." Flora paused. She hadn't realized it before, but she didn't feel like she deserved 60k Euros for messing around two weeks. At the moment, she had a nice portfolio with the popular Rainbow Intensity-Meter for the low price entertainment market and the high-prized Multitool Scepter for a wealthy niche of Intent. The boom for the boxes due to the patch couldn't be replicated. She might never earn as much as this week. "Cancel Hub's pocket money and the AIssistant salary raise as soon as my wealth falls under 200k VirDos, the charities under 150k and Eddie's and Robby's money under 100k."

Aitoshuri beeped sadly, then with determination. Flora interpreted it as, "Oh no, all my new book money might stop. I will make sure that never happens!"

"Okay, we have 1000 VirDos more to distribute. I believe investment might be the best option. Who is the current CFO of the Riverstones?"

"HoneyStream Land, Milady."

>>>

Hello HoneyStream,

I have around 5k VirDos I'd like to invest for roughly a week. Has anyone of the Riverstones some business opportunities? Someone who would pay clan taxes when they are successful?

I love toaster or appliance-related ventures or fun ideas over guaranteed dividends.

Thanks, best wishes, Flora

Flora had replaced the 1k VirDos in the letter with 5k before sending it out because she felt too cheap. So she still had 1k more to distribute for an even amount.

>>>

Hello Mia,

Do you have any side-hustle in which I can invest? I have 1k VirDos a day free.

Thanks, best wishes, Auntie Flora

"Alright, I think I overdid it. With 25k, we'll be bankrupt in three weeks! Time to invest 100k in ourselves that we can continue to spread the money!"

"Aren't you supposed to be resting, Milady?"

"Right, right. Bring me another cocktail, dear. Put a bit of poison in it, I need some spice."

Flora soaked in the sunbeams while rotating her mana. With closed eyes, she concentrated on nothing but her breath and the strange feeling of mana moving in her. When she finished an entire circle, she found Aidan's Octopussy waiting with another cocktail. Before, the drink consisted of a mango carrot blend with a dash of lime syrup for a color gradient. The new one still was orange and yellow, but the yellow was tinged green at the very bottom.

After taking a careful sip, Flora let the flavors melt on her tongue. "I love it! The bitterness of the poison gives it a kick. The drink works well as a cocktail."

Her HP bar was still full because one swig couldn't overpower her regeneration, but a few more took care of the issue.

Minus Wood Tier 3: Snake-Spit: 4 x – 10 HP/min.

"We should sell it. Everybody has a bigger health pool after the patch. That means more leeway for training. The cocktail may be a bit too heavy, but if we make a soda version?"

Flora got up. Then she opened the ten bags of flowers and threw them into the air.

(Right Hand):

(Left Hand):

The seeds swirled before falling into the ready soil.

(Right Hand):

Flora had given up on sunbathing and went to Tricky Beach to run around for a bit. Even though she had been physically active the last few days, her mental resistance to somersaulting had grown again. Life-long habits and limitations were hard to retrench. She needed a while to feel comfortable doing backflips again, but she got there.

Afterward, Flora went to the Magetech Institute for her weekly quest, repairing their old mech-suits. To her dismay, only a few broken suits had accumulated since her last visit. So she was finished before she even fell into a rhythm.

Aidan reminded her that she had questions for Doc Brownski or the Technomancer, so she went to the office part of the bunker.