The fifth session started with a sober Flora, full bars, and a spotless tunic.

As if possessed by a desert spirit, Flora sprinted to the stall and chugged down two jars of beer, stripped, wrote runes, dressed, and sat down in front of the sleigh to meditate using the minute her crew needed to catch up.

The quest was A-rated, and Flora wanted to be in optimal shape. 

The sled had three stones again, but they were smaller than in the last setting. Right away, Flora mistrusted the quest.

"We have to keep our attention sharp, dears. Even though the third quest had a cartridge with a lower weight and nothing bad had happened, the rating of the quest had sunken as well."

"According to the forum, there is a scheduled event on the way back in session three. You skipped it because of the slide down the pyramid."

"Then double the attention. We do just a bit of listening to your reading. Can you do voices, Aidan?"

Aito did one of those special signals. Although Flora only heard a beeping sound in her mind, she also understood, "Yes, please! That would be awesome, Aidan."

After some constructive critique from the ladies, Aidan gave up and bought the rights for emulating the voices from the cTVw series of the book. 

CentralTank had its own video station, cTVw. They directed movies in the Cetviwos with mostly NPCs as actors. 

"You are saying, this crappy novel has a TV adaption?" 

Protesting about Flora's adjective, Aito beeped while Aidan just calmly confirmed it. 

Shaking her head, Flora concentrated on her breathing and the path ahead. The pyramid was nearly finished and dominated the landscape. The limestone shone blindingly white in the afternoon sun. Flora had to squint when she looked directly at it.  

Meanwhile, Walter, the water guy, fought through Silvia's lair but failed to defeat her. He got captured and put in a cage next to Bernie's. Sappy romance ensued, and they confessed their feelings. Just when they wanted to share their first kiss through the cage bars, an adventurer group killed Silvia and freed them. But they revealed Bernie had made a deal with Silvia. He wanted her to cheat at her fight with Walter at the tournament because he had no confidence to prevail against a water mage. After Walter heard their story, he stormed off.

Flora tried to remember how the actual situation had played out, but her mind drew blanks.  

"I'm sure it's only a misunderstanding, Walter. Trust in your love!" thought Flora, but then shook her head. The evil book of her nefarious AI had caught her!

A snap reverberated on the plateau. 

Flora's gaze darted to the sound. The crew of the sled in front of Flora lost hold of their carriage. It slid down the ramp and veered slightly in Flora's direction. With the current tractory, it would hit her and the people behind her and the sled. 

Without letting go of her rope, Flora glided over to the worker next to her. 

Vectors of the forces appeared in Flora's mind's eye. There was no chance she could stop the piled sled with the momentum it had gathered. But maybe redirect it? Another vector emerged in Flora's mind, perpendicular to the first, but way shorter. It represented Flora pushing the card from the side. The two vectors merged into one. 

'Not enough. I have to use its own momentum against it.'

She squatted down and kept her rope on the ground. 

When the sled drove over it, Flora straightened with a mighty tug. Forced up by the rope, the right skid left the ground, and Flora used the opportunity to ram the flank. The sled toppled over and tumbled off the ramp.

Flora needed a second to let her mind catch up with what she had done.

"Aidan, did I really pull that off?" 

While adjusting her rope, she noticed her co-workers were still in their place, frozen in shock. Everything seemed to be okay, only her sled was askew. 

"Yes, Milady."

Flora shook her head. 

"For the sun, for the moon, for the stars, heave-ho!"

They continued up the ramp. 

The rest of the session was uneventful. 

Quest completed: Building the Pyramid – Session 5

Possible Reward: Continue Scenario

Difficulty: A

Rating: S

 

When the scene switched, Flora found herself in an embroidered tunic on a square on the foot of the pyramid. 

She was standing next to an ornate sled with a golden pyramid on it. Nine other workers dressed like her stood around it. On a platform, a guy in an even more elaborate robe made a speech. His badge identified him as a level 250 High Priest. 

Behind him, a family sat. They wore the blue and golden headdresses, Flora knew from visits to the museum. A glance at their badges confirmed they were the pharaoh and his family.

Quest: Building the Pyramid – Session 6 - Stone Hauler

Description: Pull the Pyramidion up the pyramid.

Possible Rewards: 

• Increase the operational value of some of your attributes.

Possible Penalties: 

• Death
• End of scenario

Difficulty: A

Just by the way the sled sat in the sand, Flora estimated the weight of the mini-Pyramid was way beyond anything she had hauled before. 

Her eyes searched for the beer stall, but she couldn't find it in the sea of people surrounding the square. 

For a moment, she entertained the thought of stripping out of the tunic for runic enhancement. But even if she had the guts to get half-naked with several thousands of people watching, she had no coal to do the writing.

The priest droned on about the glory of the gods and the pharaoh and his lineage. He even praised the spirit of the Egyptian workers. For the holy task of transporting the last stone, the priest had chosen her and the other crew members because they were the strongest workers.

Flora was unreasonably pleased with the compliment. It was the first time someone congratulated her on her strength. She would never have thought to receive it at her age.

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You gained an achievement: Hauler.

• Trait 'Hauler': Decreases the stamina consumption while pulling and carrying loads. 

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Finally, the priest blessed them, and the hauling party started.

Pyramid Workers Blessing by the Egyptian Gods: + 2 OV Stamina + 2 OV Stamina Regeneration. Time-Remaining: 1 Hour.

"How is the math looking, Aidan? Can I persevere?"

"While the buff is active, you can regenerate the stamina with the breathing exercise. When it runs out, you have a deficit of approximately 3 SP/min or 186 stamina per hour. If you change then to the toaster chant, you will lose no stamina."

Flora nodded and ordered Aidan to resume reading Passion of the Elements.

Bernie, the fire guy, tried to explain the situation. Sylvia, the evil wood gal, had misinterpreted something he said to curry favor with him. But Walter, the water guy, wouldn't listen to him. Desperate, Bernie challenged him to a duel and described the misunderstanding while fighting. 

When defeated, he said to Walter: "I'm not afraid of losing. I've already lost my heart to you."

Flora felt like puking but refrained because of the festive occasion. Though, she had enjoyed the description of the duel. It confirmed her assumption of water spells working well against fire skills.

Bernie and Walter reconciled, and the book ended. To Flora's dismay, she learned it was a series. She filed the knowledge under 'means to cheer up Aitoshuri: only use in extreme hardship'.

During the reading, Flora had been distracted by a strange feeling. She could sense the pyramidion behind her. It felt like it emitted vibrations that reverberated in her belly-or more specific, something under her stomach.

Flora listened to her body and analyzed the sensations. Now, she could feel even more vibrations. The locations were familiar from exercising the Mana Cultivation ability. Her mana channels and central mana reservoir resonated with the pyramidion.

Channeling her mana, she felt pressure in her belly, not in the "oh shit, where is the next loo"-way, but more like "oh shit, am I pregnant". Something was growing. She hoped it was her mana reservoir and not a pharaoh baby.

 

At last, they reached the top of the pyramid. Some more speeches commenced the ceremonial finishing of the pyramid with the last stone, the pyramidion. 

Quest completed: Building the Pyramid – Session 6 - Stone Hauler

Rewards:

• + 1 OV Physical Power
• + 1 OV Physical Reg
• + 1 OV Physical Vigor
• + 1 OV Magical Vigor 

Difficulty: A

Rating: A

Congratulation! You reached place 14 on the leader board of the scenario.

We hope you enjoyed playing the scenario 'Building the Pyramid'. Please rate it at the Cetviwos Shop!

 

Flora arrived at the simulation grounds. It was like waking up from a dream or abruptly sobering up from a nice buzz. The raised time dilation had affected her more than she had noticed during the scenario. All at once, the accumulated fatigue hit her. 

The few steps needed to activate the treadmill were harder than pulling the pyramidion, and she had to apply all her will-power. To make matters worse, a headache started to brew behind her eyes.

Exhausted, Flora sank into her bed after entering Deriga's workshop. Only after Aidan reminded her that she wanted to refine the hull of the octopus, Flora remembered about it. Snuggling with the robot, she fell asleep.  

 

When Flora woke up in the morning, she felt great. She marveled at the game world and was thankful CentralTank hadn't implemented sore muscles.

"I'm very sorry, Milady. We ran into problems yesterday with managing your training. The stamina consumption of sprinting and fighting with the training dummy was too high. Your avatar in your workshop fainted. Only after stamina regeneration reached level 100, I could reengage her by hitting her with the dummies. But her stamina is still on the last bar because the body hasn't slept yet."

"Oh, well, sprinting is exhausting. At least, we now have a good training program."

"On the positive side, your body trained for 36 hours as well. The time dilation worked for the avatar too. We reached level 200 on Detect Traps."

"Excellent! Can we activate other scenarios with time dilation?"  

Aitoshuri displayed a post from the forum. CentralTank conducted a research project about different grades of time dilation in single-player scenarios. The price for enrolling was your privacy. No problem for Flora, she already had her privacy signed away. Figuring you couldn't be more naked than naked, she registered for the program. 

On her list of recommended scenarios was one more item from the Clan Riverstones, an educational scenario where you meditated and learned about your mana circulation. 

Flora sat on a mountain and concentrated on her mana while an old man with a long white beard and robe told her about the mana core and channels.

The time dilation could be activated, and Flora needed only 1,5 hours to get + 1 OV mana regeneration more.

Presently, she had an even 30 OV. 40 OV in full mana-reg regalia. Going over the rest of her stat gains, she nodded satisfied. Since she checked last, her strength had risen by 15 levels to 28 OV. It was the big winner of the attributes, no wonder with all the running and hauling.

Magical Perception was still her lowest attribute, but even it had risen by five levels. Flora surmised because of the pyramidion.

Fire and Water resistance advanced quite a bit. Haidan must have toasted her thoroughly in the treadmill-generator. 

   

Exiting her workshop was a chore. Now, she felt like she had spent her last day smashing her head against the ceiling and hauling bricks up a pyramid.

Grumbling, she waddled to her mailbox.

First, she opened the letter from the doge.

He wrote it was not a misunderstanding to downgrade Aito's rating. ("D'Oh") Nevertheless, he restored it to C. Additionally, he claimed Aito was dangerous. Therefore Flora could have the full ownership of the AI, but CentralTank reserved the right to take her out of commission if she would go rogue.

Flora bristled at the statement, but then she realized she didn't know Aitoshuri well. Just because the octopussy was cute didn't mean the AI was lovely as well. 

Shaking her head, she dismissed the unproductive thoughts. 

Of course, her AIs were the most wonderful in all the Cetviwos! But it wouldn't hurt to check. One of the beautiful things about AIs was that they couldn't lie.

"Are you dangerous, Aito?"

For a long time, no answer came, and Flora read through her other mails. 

Lana wrote her a letter apologizing for the incident in which she instigated the conflict between Ressa and Flora. She had attached a video analysis of PVP events in which Ressa participated.

MiaMyMio conveyed the Hero Entrance went well for her and her squadmates. She planned spending the day working on her PVP ranking, and Flora could visit her in the Mini-Masters Lounge on Panem et Ludos for a PvP tutorial. There, her future rivals for the server achievements convened.

Although Aito's silence still concerned Flora, she had to grin about the idea that teenagers could be her rivals.

"Alright, sweety. Spill the beans. Are you dangerous?" 

With a subdued beep, Aito agreed.

For a moment, Flora was baffled, but then her passion ignited.

"You know what? That is totally alright! It's more than alright! Everybody who isn't a doormat is dangerous! Am I dangerous? Of course, I am, and you better believe it!" ranted Flora. "'Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth' is one of the most annoying mistranslations of the bible. It doesn't mean soft losers will be the heirs. It implies to have the power to harm, but choosing to endure rather than using it to cause suffering."

Flora took a deep breath.

"Will you try your best to avoid causing harm and distress?"

"Beep!"

"Great, sweety. That's all we can ever aspire to." Flora paused. "I'll take back the last sentence. We can and should strive for a lot of things. Whatever. Let's do the dailies." 

 

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