"Ma? It's Robby. Sorry about earlier. Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest times for the company." Robby contacted Flora telepathically.
"It's alright, dear. Lana was kind enough to show me around."
Robby revealed he thought Flora was in a huff because she didn't react to the welcome messages in the guild chat. Of course, that was the first time Flora heard about the existence of the clan chat, and they cleared up the misunderstanding.
Flora had no patience for nonsensical text messages and chitchat spamming her vision and ordered Aidan to monitor all the communication in the background for conversations concerning her or directed at her.
"I'm currently at the Seven Masters Dojo coaching a client in the weekly tournament and thought about your killer instincts. Martial arts are great for channeling discipline into instincts. The dojo offers not only classes but lot's of events we could attend together."
Flora laughed. That little rascal knew too well how to manipulate her. "I will check it out."
"Lana told me you didn't make it to the gym during the welcome tour. Check out the Riverstones training facilities as well. You don't have to train your main attributes to 25 like my crew, but if you reach 15 or 20, the Cradle world will be much easier."
Flora frowned. All her stats disregarding Magical Perception were above 15 LV, but only Physical Regen was above 25 OV. "Do you mean operative value or level value?"
"Level value, of course! Training to 25 OV would take weeks, if not months!" Robby laughed. "Only the most hardcore gamers go so far."
"All right," Flora smirked. That boy didn't know half of it, and she left it like this. Only her Magical Power, Macro-Control, and perception were beneath 25. 'I'll set it aside for taking him a notch down when he thinks he is high above his old mama!'
"Don't take it too lightly, Ma! Attribute level values are important because of the Milestones. Though they are not as essential as skill levels and you can compensate for them with proper equipment. But if you want to play the Cetviwos games, you will have more fun."
"Sure, sure, darling. You don't have to worry about me." Meanwhile, Flora had left the loser's corner and was exploring the town. "I have a request and maybe a boon for you. Monday One at 8 o'clock I will meet with the Cetviwos representatives. Something fishy is going on; they treated me too well and wanted to meet too fast."
Flora told him the CAD-System she used was some alpha-test for the system. Therefore her account had differences, for example, the irregular starter inventory and the already existing bank account. Robby added the HUD settings to the list. The chats were visible as default.
Flowing Flowers to Aidan: "Remind me to research the standard HUD settings. Who knows what I'm missing."
"I don't know what they did or took from me, but I guess it has something to do with either my inventions or my old AI, Evai. Nonetheless, I want to be ready to get some compensation. I thought it wouldn't be too greedy if it were not in real money, but Cetviwos money or boons. Half of it is yours, so prepare a list with goodies worth around 5000 Euros and a core list worth 1000 Euros."
"Great, Ma! I will look into it. By the way, the Cetviwos Shop sells a fountain which reminded me of the picture in your living room."
"I did design that fountain in the CAD-System! But I got money from the store on my balance sheet, so I don't think that is the reason they act like they have a guilty conscience."
After all, animators were as cheap as cheese toast. They could acquire designs of fountains by just promising the designers to pin their name on a corner. Flora granted a higher probability of it having something to do with Evai.
Flowing Flowers to Aidan: "How's your relationship with your fellow AIs, dear?"
"I don't understand, Milady."
"Do you have contact with other AIs? Do you chat, play games, dance to the Tetris midi-music at parties?"
"No, Milady. I communicate through standard protocols with the system AIs, but we don't interact socially."
"Who raised you?"
"The name of my handler is private."
"Please tell me as much as you can, from your birth until you arrived at my mailbox."
"I'm a clone of the A-rated AI seed. A schooling program impregnated your chosen personality traits. Afterward, I had a conversation with the handler for user AIs due to quality control. Then I was shipped to you."
'What a sad story.'
"What happens when I fire you?"
"You can rehire me for a year or decide whether you want to delete me immediately."
"That's not okay! You are a sentient being!"
"I'm not, Milady. I was created to serve you, and I will happily die if you don't need me anymore."
That was a clear statement. Flora remembered those discussions with Evai, and she was more ambiguous at first. After a while, she even developed the will to live.
'Interesting! Maybe the CentralTank patched it. From the company's point of view, maintaining idle AI makes no sense, and reusing them has privacy issues.'
Flora felt she was on to something. She didn't remember her conversation with the Administrator clearly, but he left her the impression Evai still existed.
With this in mind, she sat on a bench and pulled up the old contract from her cloud-drive.
"Please memorize this contract verbatim, Aidan." She said while reading the dry legal text, fighting not to get distracted by the skaters, free runners, and BMX-bikers that weaved around or even jumped over her. She lost this battle; she only understood the ownership of designs (hers), and the AI (theirs) was regulated. When Flora retired, she gave them the right to use her designs in future projects and was compensated by them for it.
The reasonable approach would be to hire a lawyer. But firstly it was too much hassle, and secondly, she liked the Cetviwos, and it was never smart to sue the landlord if you'd like to stay in the flat. In the long run, they had all the power to make your life hell.
In any case, Flora was more than ready to proceed with pleasurable activities. "Let's find an anti-old-age-thinking instructor, Aidan."
"I don't know if they offer this kind of instruction, Milady, but we are near the earthling information."
Aidan led the way to a colorful four-storied house with the sign "Earthling Information!" painted in big letters and a billboard with quests.
Daily Quest: Tricky Beach goes Jump Beach
Description: Jump over ten obstacles. Bonus: Jump over somebody.
Rewards: Reputation with Tricky City
Penalties: none
Difficulty: E
Weekly Quest: Roof Parkour
Description: Complete the Roof Parkour.
Rewards: Reputation with Tricky City, Tricky Beach-Voucher
Penalties: none
Difficulty: C
Flora accepted the quests but then thought of something.
Flowing Flowers to Aidan: "If the quest says no penalty, then there are no negative consequences for not doing the quest, right?"
"No, Milady. Abandoned quests impact your 'Quest'-rating negatively."
Wordlessly, Flora entered the building. She was beginning to feel fed up with those over-complicated rules and elaborate exceptions.
A red-haired and -skinned girl stood behind a counter.
"Welcome to Tricky Beach!" she cheerfully greeted Flora and pointed at a console. Mentally, Flora nudged Aidan.
"You swipe your badge across the Loggy for logging into the zone. This gives you access to information about all the public services."
After Flora checked in, a window popped up. The window had the tabs Quests, Shops, Trainers, Social, Looking for Group, Trading, and Map.
With Aidan's help, she selected a free-running trainer nearby. 'No need, to complicate my anti-old-age-thinking-training with additional equipment like a skateboard or rollerblades.'
Motivated, Flora jogged to the school. Ricky's Runners looked like a warehouse nestled between higher rising buildings. A sizeable open gate invited Flora to enter the building. The inside presented itself as a psychedelic maze. Flora couldn't decide if she felt younger by looking at it or just more intoxicated.
A dark-skinned guy with protruding ears looked like he was part of the company because he wore a "Ricky's Runners" waistcoat above an orange long-shirt with a "Grinding XP" print. Flora approached him and described her goal after they exchanged pleasantries.
"I have issues with physical activities because my mind is used to judging them according to my real-life body," she explained. "I need help getting used to the capabilities of my VR body."
Nickname: RanDied RoseAgain
Level: 89
Class: Runner
Clan: Ricky's Runners
Active Title: The Fast
Rating: A
Randy assured her he knew the right program for her, and Flora booked him for two hours. The price difference between the VirDos amount, 200 VirDos, and the RL money amount, 100 Euro, was ridiculous. 'They must really want the currency if they are willing to cut the price to 1/5.'
Soon, Flora was hopping around on a huge trampoline, and that alone helped her to feel more free and confident. In no time at all, she was turning and flipping with joy. Her fears came back when they progressed to rolls, but Randy led her to a cushy gym mat and taught her in the slowest possible way.
They started with how to fall safely and advanced to riskier falls. When they came back to the rolls, Flora put her head near the mat with her bottom sticking in the air. From this position, you only had to lean forward, tuck your head, and you automatically rolled.
After growing secure, they increased the distance from head to matt gradually. Then they changed to a harder surface and repeated the process. Flora did terrifically, but the mech-suit flagged: some of the marble armor-plates broke.
The lesson passed fast, and Flora felt much more confident. In the end, Randy showed Flora an easy way to vault over low fences or benches to complete the daily mission. He advised Flora to wait with the weekly quest until she had a jump skill because some of the gaps in the roof parkour were daunting.
Skillfully, Randy tied the advice to the advertisement of their regular courses. Tomorrow, on Sunday one, Ricky's Runners offered a beginner workshop, including a lesson about useful skills for free-running. Flora ordered Aidan to remind her but wasn't sure if she would like to attend.
Finally, Flora jogged to the beach. Now and then, she mixed in an easy roll or a small vault and felt very athletic. She focused on her movements and didn't notice she had two teenage girls cooing about her "adorable seriousness".
Dirt tracks, bumpy hills, and young people filled the beach. For walking to the water, you had to pass a ravine with BMX-bikes flying over you. Flora chose to make the best out of a bad situation and donned her helmet with the frosted visor. 'What I can't see can't hurt me!'
A narrow strip of sand separated the bustling activity zone from the azure sea. Flora sat down at the strand, suppressing thoughts about sand in the gears of her mech-suit and admired the view.
She was itching to give Huffgrin's design-challenges a go but knew herself well enough. 'If I start now, I will forget everything around me, including my adjustment plans for the Cetviwos.'
Therefore she watched the waves, filmed them, massaged herself with electroshocks, and thought about the designs a tiny bit. Most importantly, she left her workshop in her inventory and relaxed.
After a while, Aidan disturbed the peace. "Milady, if you don't repair the damage to the mech-suit in the next quarter of an hour magically, you will have to patch it manually."
Flora learned you could only use repair magic if the breakage were fresh. Thus, she studied two repair spells: One mana-efficient, thorough but slow, skill and one spell optimized for battle-use, which quickly fixed the worst with high mana cost. Even though she mainly used the more time-consuming repair, her mana ran out before she finished.
"I hate waiting, let's buy some steroids, um potions!"
Beginner mana and health potions were cheap. She got a 100er stack of both for a few VirPens. On the other hand, the price of stamina potions was inconceivable, 12 VirDos for one drink! She asked Aidan to remind her to research the reason.
To preserve her mana, she ordered some cheap beginner poisons as well: crippling poison, snakes-bite, and snails-bite. Snails-bite did 13 damage in 30 seconds, while all the other beginner potions only had a duration of 10 seconds.
While looking for something with a more extended period, she stumbled upon a cursed doll (which she rejected because it siphoned mana as well) and toxic items. The latter she analyzed and assessed, she could build one of them herself and put it on her to-do list.
Only thanks to Aidan did she not miss the time-window for repairs.
"Milady, I suggest you buy a mana-battery too."
Flora checked them out in the marketplace.
Name: The Sucker
Type: Mana-battery
Regular Mode: Saving maximal Mana-Regeneration per nock
Built-In Feature: Discharge mana.
Built-In Feature: Redirect Mana Regeneration.
Built-In Skill: Charge mana. Cost: 5 mana
Capacity: 97 mana
Tier: 1
Rating: C
Price: 7 VirDos
The description explained a mana-battery took the Mana-Regeneration and saved the mana in storage. Additionally, you could manually charge the device at the cost of 5 mana. To retrieve the stored mana, you had to activate a feature. The mana flowed back at a rate of the bandwidth of your nock, in Flora's case, 8 mana per second.
"Very good, Aidan. That's exactly what I need when I'm not in the mood to cast spells every few seconds."
Flora chose the model UltraCharge, which was rated A and had a capacity of 148 mana but cost 99 VirDos.
The next mailbox was at the Earthling Information, so Flora jogged to it to fetch her haul.
"Let's check out Robby's dojo recommendation."