At the waterworks, the mayor was still waiting, surrounded by resting militia and the ten turrets.

"I finished the quest, and I've captured the culprit, Mayor." Flora dumped Bluthe to his feet. "I'm not sure about the intentions of the alchemist. Here is his diary."

Quest completed: Save Tsoville from Monsters

Rewards: Alchemistic Equipment, Reputation gain with the Ib Intercity Alliance and Tsoville, Recommendation in the IIAMP (Ib Intercity Alliance Mayor Portal)

Difficulty: B

Completion: S

"Thank you so much, Hero! You have the gratitude of the whole village, and I will write you a great review in the Ib Intercity Alliance portal. Unfortunately, it is the only thing we can offer you."

"No, problem. Thank you for the recommendation. It will go a long way toward my future goals. Besides, I looted quite a few nice things in the instance and the possessions of the alchemist. May I keep his equipment?"

"Of course. I'm sorry, I can't offer you more."

The militia people woke up from their conversation and joined in thanking Flora. The villagers said their goodbyes and Flora was ready to port back.

"Milady, you might want to conquer the normal mode of the dungeon when you are at it. The village is two hours away from the capital, so you would waste time if you want to go back."

"Good point, I like to bolster the clan ranking." Flora started another run, this time on normal mode.

Unfortunately, the heroic mode had disappeared. On the one hand, nobody could dethrone her, but on the other hand, she couldn't score in the 2-player and 3-player leaderboards. For the clan, it had only disadvantages because they couldn't fill up the leaderboards.

During the second dungeon run, she discussed the Hero’s Entrance with her AIs.

On a technical level, Flora's need for a melee class was obvious and landed on the to-do list. However, the most glaring mistake had been that she went in the instance without enough information. Flora couldn't get over it and cursed her naivety.

Aitoshuri sent her a link to the forum, titled "Always combine the main quest with bonus quests." Aidan read it to her while Flora fried trashies.

The creator of the thread explained there was no need to complete the bonus portions before the main quests. He claimed you could save time by combining them, and all quests were structured this way.

"In this case, wrong. If we had finished the sewage clearing before the instance, we would had known about Bluthe's plan."

"Both the dungeon and the sewage were bonus quests, Milady. Aito had marked a reply, I'll read it to you."

>>>Well, it might be the case for most quests, but I noticed when you have several bonus quests, you better do them in the order they are listed.

The first time I skipped one and plunged in a world of trouble. Since then, I got two more, respected the succession, and had no problems. 

As those quests are rare, it might be a coincidence. Love to hear your opinion on the topic.<<<

"Good find, Aito. We will respect the order of the bonus quests in the future as well. Aidan, leave a comment, agreeing with this contributor." Now that Flora knew of a method to avoid repeating the mistake, she felt better. Her mood rose again when more crafting materials wandered in her inventory. The quality had sunken compared to her former loot, which was only natural, because the rating of the opponents had fallen, too.

In the end, Flora topped the leaderboard in the 1-Player category on normal mode as well.

 

Back in the Metaworld she wrote a short message to Robby, informing him about the location of the dungeon.

Shortly afterward, her phone app rang.

"Congratulation on your Hero's Entrance. I'm so proud of you." Robby sounded like he meant it. Flora felt his love oozing through the connection.

"Thank you, darling." Flora smiled so hard her face hurt. All the toils and troubles were worth hearing just those words. "I'm proud of you, too. The more I know of this world, the more I appreciate what you have created. Were your customers satisfied with the dungeon yesterday?"

"Most of them, we couldn't supply all their orders, like scoring on the 2-player leaderboard. Only Mia, Hub, and I can solo HI3s while carrying any other person. We were lucky the dungeon suited three of our other employees and paired skilled customers with them. So we still have four open spots on the P2 leaderboard and even more on the P1.

Mia promised to teach the others of the squad 4-1, so its only a matter of time until we can fill the spots, which might work out well because the price may rise because of the wait."

"I can solo heroic instances too! My Hero’s Entrance included one, but it vanished after I finished, so I didn't mention it. I'll buy one spot from you and maybe take Eddie with me."

"Are you sure it was a heroic dungeon?" Robby seemed dubious.

"Yes, there was a skull on the entrance, and I completed it in normal mode, too. Therefore I know the difference and quite the distinction it was. But the trashcan at the end was only level 3, so it wasn't the worse case."

"Wow, Ma. I don't know what to say. I mean, you were pretty impressive in the duel with Ressa, and she can solo some H3I. Therefore you can do it too... oh well, I'm sorry I continue to underestimate you. You are the best mother in the world and, of course, all-around awesome."

"Hmm. What are you leading to, my favorite son? I'm getting suspicious with all the praise you're heaping on me."

"Guilty as charged." He laughed, but then grew serious. "I want you to give Ressa another chance. We haven't spoken about it yet, but I can guess your opinion isn't favorable."

"You should think about how and why you came to this conclusion. I did not indicate my feelings towards Ressa in any way. Maybe you are projecting your own insecurities and doubts on me." Flora said pointedly.

"Your tone of voice says you are miffed."

"Of course, I'm not amused about you wildly interpreting my feelings."

"Alright. No interpretation at all, I'm only listening. What do you think about her?"

"She's horrible and unworthy."

"My wild interpretations, ey?" He sighed.

"Robert Fluss, you are a grown man, and I will support your decisions. I trust you to do the right thing. Therefore I'll give Ressa an endless amount of chances as long as you want me too."

"Hmm, okay? I think? Oh man, adulting is hard." He sighed again. "The clan broke through the 10 000 rankings. Would you like to join the celebration tonight? We do a big banquet with the whole clan and delicious food. And I seat you on the same table as Ressa, and you can get to know each other."

"Great idea, and congratulations." Flora smiled at him, and he smiled back. "What do you think about building a second training facility on the clan compound. I spoke with Mia about it. Did she mention it?"

"Uhm, we have other priorities in the clan right now."

"Sure, sure. I want to access the HI3s of Mia and Frogger. Let's trade it against the training hall." Robby seemed to be uncomfortable, but Flora bulldozed on."You know how much I like bartering, and I know you don't want to haggle with me. Why don't you delegate it to Lana? You tell her she should treat me like any other customer. We women will come up with a professional, nepotism-free, solution."

"Great idea." His shoulders relaxed. "Love you, Ma! 'Till tonight."

"Love you, Robby."

Flora asked herself whether the clan had a bard. In a world where bards did exist, it would be a shame not to have one to gag and hang from a tree. No banquet felt complete without it.

Starting her letter to Lana on this topic and then deleting the passage, she composed a business offer with details of her plans for the training hall.

 

Flora was ready to visit Evailyn's temple and took the portal to Talpica. She landed in a busy market place.

Screaming vendors and colorful stalls, bargaining costumers, and running kids painted a picture of bustling town life. The smell of wood and food permeated the air—a welcomed change after the acrid atmosphere of the village. Beyond the square stood the same type of buildings as in the village—mostly domes and tree or metal constructions in between.

"Show me the way to the temple, Aidan."

Before starting to explore, Flora wanted to finish the quest. She had to jog half an hour through crowded streets until she reached a metal and wooden building with a sign "Church of Evailyn - Central Headquarters."

The building was depressingly small. Even her cathedral was bigger. But Flora knew dimensions were funky in the virtual world, so she reserved judgment.

After entering through the main door, she saw a novice sweeping the floor of the foyer.

He wore the same yellow robe as Deriga. When he saw her, his jaw and broom hit the floor.

"No worries, dear. I only resemble Evailyn; I'm not her."

Flora walked deeper into the building. A narrow corridor let to a hall.

A statue of Evailyn stood on the other end. The motherly attributes of women like the bosom and bottom dominated the display.

"I'm not that curvy! I mean, we are not that curvy! Curse the artist, I don't know whether I should feel slighted or complimented!"

A portly blue-skinned man whirled around.

"Don't you dare to comment on the appearance of our Lady!" He paused when he got a better look at Flora. "Oh, I've heard of you—the woman who pretends to be a champion of Evailyn. Disrespecting the Goddess is what I expect from your likes." He sneered, even though he wore the multitool scepter on his belt.

"Accepting my gifts and still ridiculing me, dear? You might want to work on your manners," snapped Flora, "Where is Deriga?"

"Under house arrest. She refused to admit your schemes duped her."

Flora glowered at him, but he didn't seem to be easily daunted.

"Goddess Evailyn! Please, can you enlighten these fools?"

Quest: Take a nap (Evailyn)

Description: I can only talk to my followers while they are asleep in the temple and a few other conditions.

Rewards: Explanations

Penalties: No Nutella toast for a week. Don't panic, I'm kidding.

Difficulty: D

The quest elated and angered Flora at the same time. She welcomed the nap, but it deeply offended her Evailyn would play such cruel jokes. No Nutella toast was a reason to convert to a different faith!

"This discussion isn't over. I'm going to speak to our Goddess, and I don't wish to be disturbed."

"Preposterous! If you aren't here to bring more holy items, get you gone. I'm calling the temple guard." He stormed out.

Flora thought about fetching the Training-Tunnel, but she wasn't sure if entering the workshop would influence the conditions. Therefore she reclined in the corner of the room in her sleeping bag surrounded by the turrets and octopussies. She added Aidan's console because she hadn't included a voice box for the robots yet.

"Don't let them disturb me, but don't kill anyone, dears."

After configuring her helmet for silence, she went to sleep.