Flora sent a message to Lana about hiring the PVP team for tomorrow; a glance at the clock showed her it was already Monday Two−for today. She shook her head.

"Aidan, remind me to take a nap after lunch. The training hut is important, but not as important as my health." It had been a few years since Flora was last so overworked. She could do it maybe for a month, probably shorter. Humans are creatures of habit, and her retirement had made her soft. She yearned for a nice soak in her hot tub before falling into her bed.

After entering the workshop again, she looked at the simulation grounds, disappointed. There was no hot tub, no bed, and no unholy cliff, only the generators and lamps. Although the lamps still glowed, the loss of her usual sleeping place threw Flora off the loop. Of course, she could rest in the workshop as she did before acquiring the grounds but didn't felt like it. Aborting the test was another option, but Flora was too curious about the results.

"Aidan, what was the time dilation in the pyramid-scenario again?"

"Three times of the Metaworld, six times of the real world, Milady."

"Adjust the simulation grounds like that. I want to start early; maybe I can get enough sleep using the time dilation."

Flora imported the boxing Box and enough generators to power it, then entered the simulation. She arrived in a cloud of fire and staggered. Had she been running? Flora fell. Instinctively, she tucked her shoulder and rolled, but hit a wall. A black shadow pounced on her.

Flora screamed.

<Bless and Condemn>!

<Bless and Condemn>!

<Bless and Condemn>!

The golden sparkles of the prayer illuminated her surroundings. She was in a Treadmill Tunnel. Taking deep breaths, Flora prohibited her pounding heart from jumping out of her chest.

"Why? What?" She stuttered, her brain toasted.

"Milady, you had experimented with a mirror-you and the Treadmill Tunnel with the Fear and Projection features. When you cast your consciousness into the simulation, you inhabited her body."

"Oh, right." Flora felt foolish. "How did the test go? Was she−or I− able to sprint the whole time?"

"Yes, Milady and the mirror obtained the Projection affinity."

"Very good." Flora stood up. Slowly, she reclaimed her bearings.

"We can't be sure if I still would be able to get or train Projection if I log into a subspace. We'll test it tonight."

Flora modified the boxing Box, adding a the Spooky Shadow Scheme to the already implemented Unholy Scheme. After entering the box, she logged into the Riverstones Island.

"It works! I wasn't sure about it." Flora looked around the beach. Fine white sand led to the ocean. The moonlight fractured in the waves of the sea, and the beach seemed to glow in the darkness.

Flora shivered.

Mind-Controlled: Fear 1 x: Shivering: - 4 Physical Macro-Control; - 4 Physical Micro-Control. Remaining time: 10 sec.

"This is scary!" Flora exclaimed. Her voice seemed unnaturally loud in the nightly silence. "I don't mean the debuff, but look at the waves, Aidan! They don't behave right."

A picture of a stick figure throwing sand in the air appeared on her HUD. Aitoshuri had used cartoons before to suggest an approach to Flora, so she copied the actions. The sand sailed through the air, falling slower than normal.

"Did Eddie implement a gravity effect?" Flora felt lighter than usual, but she wasn't wearing her mech suit. Eddie had fixed the attire to something more modest and suitable for training, a baby blue tracksuit with the Clan Riverstones logo on the back.

"I have no patience for guessing. I have to get as much sleep as possible." Flora mumbled and looked for a resting place. "Who knows if the time dilation works here… oh! I got it! My personal time is flowing differently than the time of the CommunityHub!"

Next to the beach stood the bistro, a bamboo hut surrounded by beach and deck chairs. Flora chose one of the latter and fell asleep.

 

Flora woke up to the sounds of the waking forest. Birds chirped, and insects buzzed in the greyness before dawn. The blinking light of Flora's unread notifications glowed extra bright.

A quick check of the clock revealed it was just past five o'clock—enough time to enjoy the rising sun.

The bistro sat on the west coast of the small isle. Right next to it, the jungle started, but Flora could see a tall rock above the tree line. Eddie hadn't been sure how to name it yet, and they had fun going through the most horrible alliterations: Pool Pike, Spike Swim, Peak Pools.

Running and jumping through the thick underbrush, Flora reached the boulder and climbed up. On the top of the small mountain was an infinity pool which flowed over to lower basins. Now, that Flora knew of the strange time phaenomenon, the slowly falling water had something magical.

The red and orange sky to the east announced the sun. Satisfied with the vista, she slid into the steaming pool.

"Let's go over the gains. I believe I have checked Sunday Two for the last time. For just one day, the notification button blinks fiercely."

"You forced some achievements away after the fight with the pope. They contribute more to the glowing effect than just stat increases."

Flora started with the stats. The attributes rose between one to six points each. The physical grew more than the magical, understandable for Flora. She ran around a lot and exercised her physical stats in the TA. The only magical training she got was in the boxes and the short fight in the temple. Magical Perception had been the last attribute to reach Tier 3, but rose by three points, uncharacteristically high. Maybe because of the Spooky Shadow Scheme? Now, all attributes but Physical Reg lay in the Level 50-100 range.

Modest growth happened in the Affinity department, aside from the new ones. Mind and Projection shot up during the night.

"Oh, those sweet early levels. I love how fast the numbers jump up, but then it all slows down to crawl. A bit like life."

Flora hammered mentally on her HUD, speeding through the messages about skills and abilities. "I might have gone overboard with my skills… do you know how many other players have?"

"The average for level 1 players is eleven skills, Milady."

Flora looked at her 106 skills and hurriedly closed the window. "Never mind."

"Astral Vision reached 200, Milady. Aito suggests Hurry Up as an additional spell to raise to 200. It would increase the movement speed of all your connected machines, although only to a small degree. Unfortunately, Hurry Up, Fortify Link, and Increase Range have cooldowns. Therefore we have resources free for other spells to level."

"Very good. I'll soon get more classes. Meanwhile, level the crafting spells." Flora learned some new skills from working on the building. She still wasn't sure if she should raise her combat skills past level 50. Knowing herself, she would grow too arrogant if defeating monsters became to easy.

Finally, she reached the achievements.

***************

You gained an Achievement: Resurrection Rally

Description: Resurrect 25 fallen people during one battle.

Rewards: Trait: Resurrector - +25% increased healing on the fallen.

***************

You gained an Achievement: David versus Goliath

Description: Defeat a level 250 boss while in tier 1.

Rewards: Trait: Giant-Slayer – Increased Skill efficiency against higher-tier opponents

***************

"Why did I get David versus Goliath? I didn't kill the Pope. Ceart did and much too soon for my taste. In hindsight, the rapid execution was pretty suspicious."

"For every boss event, there is a contribution table. The rules for it are vast and under heavy critique. The table influences not only how much experience and loot you get, but also if the kill counts towards achievements or quests."

"Please show it to me."

1. Flowing Flowers – 52%
2. Ellaciel Zander – 16%
3. Tomos Ceart – 9%
4. Afstira Nomizo – 8%
5. Mino Irden – 6%
6. Babra Pikame – 3%
7. Tali Rondas – 2%
8. Deriga Ticet – 2%
9. Konstantin Kuvetli – 1%
10. Ursula Yl – 1%

Flora raised her eyebrows. "Most interesting and a lot to unpack. I'll need more information about the rules of contribution. However, we have to go to the Riverstones now. We'll resume later."

With a last look at the rising sun, Flora logged out.

After she left the workshop, she reorganized her inventory to free up space for the building materials. As she rummaged through her knick-knacks, she found a book she didn't know she possessed.

Name: Legacy High-Priest

Type: Legacy

Description: Class High-Priest

Requirements:

• Level 100
• Class Priest

"Aitoshuri looted the Pope, Milady," Aidan answered her unasked question. "Additionally, you received the original Holy Scepter and 50000 credits."

"Great job with empathy, dear." Flora stored the book in her apartment but left the scepter on her person.

Flora sprang down into the production hall. The room was filled with containers. Lorky and Torky had diligently put everything the printer produced in color-coded boxes, which Flora collected. Unfortunately, she had only 15 slots free because she couldn't bear to leave her emergency supplies at home, and Flora counted a lot as essential equipment.

 

Flora ported to the Clan Riverstones compound and jogged to the job site right next to the gym hut where a yawning Mia awaited her.

"Mornin', aunty. Henchgirl Mia is ready to work." She mumbled. "Lana wanted me to tell you that you have the authority to use the building interface, and she will join us shortly."

"Good morning, dear. Please beam to my lair and fetch red and green containers."

As Mia departed, Flora opened the yellow container and connected to the construction robots in it. Her mana regen only allowed her to power four robots. Therefore the first task was to get the mana generators assembled and running.

"Aidan, you are the foreman− foreai? – what ever, but listen to Aito's suggestions."

Flora started the building interface. You could hire contractors to do the work for you, and it would be cheaper, but using the system for hard work was the fastest way.

With just a few clicks, Flora dug the foundations and paved the ground slab. The cement was already dry, so the robots went down and marked the places for the generators. Below the ground floor, she planned two additional layers of generators.

The hole was six meters deep because Flora wanted to have two floors and the additional generators, but Lana only had permitted a five-meter high hut.

Together with robots, Flora stuck the generators together and laid them horizontally on the floor. An octopussy minded the wiring, and Flora did a last check before adding the next layer of cement on top of them. She knew she would curse herself for not building any maintenance shafts, but she wasn't familiar with architecture and had no time for fancy installations.

The team repeated the process for the next layer. Additionally, they added the material for the outer wall.

"Boss-Mom?" a female voice called from above. "Squad One-One ready for duty. At least the foot soldiers."

"Come down; the work is down here," Flora called back. "You are Robby's squad, right?"

The speaker was a curvey, black-haired woman wearing a witches hat. "That's right; the boss is joining us soon. I'm Ponda. We've already met when you had electroshocked Hub."

Flora drew a blank, but the woman looked familiar. Sure, Hub got on her nerves now and then, but she wouldn't electrolute him, would she? And if she did, she was sure he had deserved it!

"This is the rest of the team: Normad. He doesn't like to speak." A lean man with a huge bow on his back waved at her.

"Olivia. She is too posh to speak." Ponda continued while her target, a blonde woman in an elegant robe, rolled her eyes.

"And Hoffi. He is too stupid to speak but does it anyway."

"Hey! Not true!" A stocky guy with a broken nose exclaimed. "I don't speak much."

"Great. Thank you for coming." Flora assigned the woman to connect more generators and the men to mount the beams while scanning their badges.

*************** Squad One-One ***************

Nickname: Ponda Pottom

Level: 207

Class: Weather Witch

Clan: Riverstones

Rating: S

*****

Nickname: Olivandra Cascade

Level: 208

Class: Priest

Clan: Riverstones

Rating: S

*****

Nickname: Normads Home

Level: 208

Class: Ranger of the Hunt

Clan: Riverstones

Rating: S

*****

Nickname: Hoffi Pump

Level: 206

Class: Paladin

Clan: Riverstones

Rating: A

*************** Squad One-One ***************

"What do you think about them, Aito?" Flora sent to her.

The AI highlighted the A rating of Hoffi and his Paladin class, and Olivia's Priest class.

"That doesn't mean that they only have this class, right? They could display just the simple class to hide their more advanced classes …"

"Beep beep." Aito disagreed.

Flora didn't ask further, although she wasn't convinced. Not because she didn't trust Aito's judgment, but she found it inconceivable that someone would only obtain a simple class when there were so many opportunities.

They finished the second layer of generators, and everybody cleared the floor. Flora used Power Jump to bridge the five meters to the surface. Normad jumped as well, while Ponda rode a broom. Olivia levitated and used the beams for vertical movement. Only Hoffi remained in the hole and scratched his head.

"Uhm, guys?" The stocky man looked up for help.

"Are you kidding me? Robby told you weeks ago to get a jump skill!" Ponda sighed. "You may use me as a target for Charge."

"Charge!" he yelled, ran up the wall and collided with Ponda on the top. The witch fell but immediately sprang back up, glaring at the tank.

Flora was not impressed but stayed silent and sealed the layer in cement. The ground floor came next.

Now, Flora could connect the robots to the mana grid.