Flora hopped to Jump Beach, the Seven Masters Dojo, and last but not least to the Garage.
Two wind elementals followed her. They had no problem keeping up with her freerunning. During martial arts, Aito was adamant about no magic in the library, and that included elementals. Flora settled the dispute by commanding them to stay under the container and not rile up the pets of the other students.
The daily quest at the Garage consisted of assembling a dragonfly drone. Flora was inspired. After she finished the quest, she purchased the wings and robot arm and replaced the body with a toaster. She even integrated a little bowl for the jam in the front and adjusted the programming that it would fly to friendly targets with the lowest satiety bar.
Satisfied, she patted the sleek construction. Her last few toasters failed to reach her standard. The golden "If you have nothing to brag about, you can still show off this Toaster" was more concept art than practical and the "Welcome to the Metaworld"-Toaster more cathartic than beautiful and the "Household Standard" just dull. A part of her had feared that she had lost her touch. But the "Dragonfly Toaster" looked great, oscillating and shiny, and it expanded the scope to flying toasters.
She empathized with the Wright brothers and Neil Armstrong! 'That's one small flutter for a toaster, but one giant leap for household appliances!'
The library of the Garage was barely bigger than Aito's favorite container but packed with books. The most prominent shelf was dedicated to mechanics, another broad shelf to electronics, and two smaller ones to smithing and magetech. Nestled in the corner, a single board with the label 'Misc' hung near the ceiling.
First, Flora browsed the smithing section and found the manual for the hammer at once. After fetching the original pageturner, she gave the book to Aitoshuri to read.
During the martial arts training, she had already gotten an error message that Aito had exceeded her connections, but the AI insisted that she could read regardless. There was an option to let the AI activate and deactivate the connections by themself. After enabling it for Aito, the error message went away. Flora assumed that Aito used the feature to switch back and forth between the mana-battery and reading.
Flora walked around the room and swept over the spines with her gaze.
"Highlight the books you think I should read soon or you want to read, sweeties! Aidan in blue, Aito in yellow."
Instantly every book in the library glowed yellow. Blinded, Flora closed her eyes.
"Maximal five books for Aito!" She amended before carefully opening them again.
Now, only three books shone yellow, two books glowed green but went to blue shortly afterward, and two new books had a yellow shine.
Blue:
"The Art of Refinement - Vol. 4 Refinement of Metals."
"Generate Mana. A basic Guide."
Yellow:
"Basic Machines and their Components. BluePrint Compendium."
"Useful Rune Schemes for Tinkerers."
"Spellbook of the Novice Technician."
"Spellbook of the Novice Smith."
"Energy Storage - Mana, Stamina, Electricity."
Apart from the slim booklets, the Blueprint Compendium was over 600 pages thick.
While Aito scanned it, Flora read the Art of Refinement. The book explained that there was a spell for refinement, and it worked for everything. Volume 1 of the series was about it. Fortunately, the library had it in stock.
Soon, she was captivated. Flora's material science was a bit rusty, but she remembered enough to realize that the principle behind this spell was more fantastical than science allowed. The skill could not only refine but also distill and filter. You could use it on lemonade and refine it either into a uber-lemonade, into lemon juice, or water.
You had to know what you are going for and vary it slightly.
Flora had never seen a single spell before with that many variations which operated differently.
----------------------------
You gained a skill: Refine
Description: Removes impurities and strengthens potency.
CD: None
----------------------------
The book also contained a useful variant of Measure. It gave back the percentage of the potency of a substance.
After finishing the booklet, Flora exchanged it with volume four.
This volume described the necessary modifications for spells to work with metals. You not only had to pay over double the amount of mana but also needed metal affinity to make it work depending on the tier and rating of the target. Flora crosschecked her affinity. It was at level 41, which enabled her to work with tier-2 C rated metals.
The book listed a few helpful rune-schemes and smithing techniques as well.
----------------------------
You gained a skill: Purifying Bash + 14 levels
Description: Removes impurities from metals by hammering and raises their rating.
CD: None
----------------------------
"Why did I get so many levels in this skill?"
"It's a derived skill, Milady. You don't have to level it, but the stats associated with it. The champion skills are derived spells, as well. Their potency is dependent on your faith. Purifying Bash depends on smithing and Refine.
Derived skills are a fascinating subject. It is even possible to change regular spells to them when one understands the underlying principles behind them."
Flora shrugged but was intrigued. "Display them separate from the other skills in the skills tab."
"Milady, Aitoshuri tries to convince me to add one of her books to my list. But I don't think the BluePrint Compendium requires your immediate reading with your current workload."
"Thank you for notifying me. Don't let the addict bully you." Flora thought for a moment about how to handle it. "Aito, you did an excellent job in the last few days, you may choose two books for your pleasure and one more book useful to me."
The two thickest tomes in the library lit up: "Mechanical Mysteries: The most wondrous devices of the Cetviwos." and "History of Technology and Magic."
After adding them to the pageturner pile, Flora looked around but found no other marked books. She put away the already copied books and wanted to settle down to read 'Generate Mana', but was disturbed by Aito's beeping. A yellow arrow pointed to the "Misc" case board.
When Flora squinted her eyes, she realized that a slim volume sandwiched between more massive tomes glowed.
The shelf was out of reach for her, and the library had no ladder. Carefully, Flora fetched the book with telekinesis.
"Scholar Volume IV" was the title on the front. The spine was too thin to be labeled. Therefore Flora wondered what had Aito drawn to the booklet.
The introduction contained a summary of the class scholar. It was class for the bookish people and concentrated on information attainment and retainment.
Next, came the diagrams and descriptions of a spell.
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You gained a hidden skill: Recall knowledge.
Description: Replays a scene in which you've read or heard about a subject, object, or matter.
CD: none.
--------------------
Beware! If you share a hidden thing, you will lose it and one additional one!
-----------------------
Flora learned the spell and hoped it would work for short term memory issues as well. That kind of recollection failed her increasingly more in the last few years.
Overall, she wasn't impressed by it. Because of her AIs, she already had the means to compensate.
"Milady, you have a visitor from the church of Evailyn waiting for you at home. Additionally, MioMyMia asks if she could work longer because she is eager to see "how the situation plays out," and she thinks that the visitor might be a hidden master."
"Mia may stay. We go back as soon as Aito finished copying the books." Flora hit the Pageturner again with Overcharge Build-In Feature.
Ten minutes later, Flora arrived at her lair.
As she strode into the church, a woman, slightly younger than her, which wasn't saying much, turned around. She had long grey hair and bark-like skin. Similar to Deriga, she wore yellow robes, but her's were a lot more ornate.
She stood in front of a desperate looking Deriga who clutched the holy multitool with both hands not daring to look up.
"Blasphemy!" she screeched when she saw Flora.
Name: Afstira Nomizo
Level: 250
Class: Bishop
Rating: B
RCS: 3
"Hello, to you as well," Flora answered nonplussed. "What is the situation?"
"The Church of Evailyn sent me to investigate the appearance of a new Holy Item. And what did I find? An unapproved place of workship created by a novice!" Afstira mustered Flora. "Deriga told me you are a Champion of Evailyn? Why do I read Wind Mage."
While Flora changed her badge, MiaMyMio arrived and pretended to check on the generators in listening range.
"You faked your looks, and you can also fake your badge." The bishop wasn't impressed by Flora showing her the champion class, and Evailyn's decision to emulate Flora's looks turned out to be an issue.
Flora took a deep breath. "Interesting problem. How do you explain away the appearance of the Holy Scepter? Do you believe our Goddess was conned by me too?"
"I haven't inspected it yet. This obstinate novice wouldn't give it to me until you have arrived."
This impressed Flora to no small degree. 'That little novice has a spine of steel!'
"Deriga, can we be sure she is of our church? We don't want to give away the Holy Item to an imposter."
Deriga's body language had grown more relaxed during the exchange. Her knuckles were still white from gripping the scepter, but now she stood straight.
"Yes, Auntie Flow. I know her. If there are no advanced hiding techniques involved, she is a prominent church official."
The bishop was visibly flustered. "YOU accuse ME of being an imposter?"
"No, I just noticed that people often accuse other people of their own faults, so I wanted to make sure. If you are a pious believer of Evailyn, you can surely appreciate the care Deriga and I take in protecting the Holy Item."
Afstira snorted.
Meanwhile, Aidan informed Flora that the bishop wanted to confiscate the weapon, but Deriga insisted on waiting for Flora's arrival. Flora ordered Haidan to relay that it was alright to pass on the scepter and nodded to Deriga.
"Finally." The bishop grabbed it unceremoniously, but the longer she inspected it, the more revered her expression got. At last, she admitted: "It seems legitimate. But it doesn't explain your appearance."
"Alright, I'll explain it. But I'm not sure if I get it perfectly right, because I don't understand it fully.
There are three visits from the earthlings to the Cetviwos. I was part of the first visit."
"That was 1500 years ago!"
"The time of the dimensions doesn't run in sync."
Afstira snorted again but nodded. "I have read records, that some of the earthlings, who visited during the beta-age five-hundred years ago, appeared again. Therefore your claim isn't outlandish."
Flora rolled her eyes. "My connection to this dimension was only my workshop. I had no access to other parts of the Cetviwos. After a while, an entity joined me. Her name was Evai."
"Preposterous! Evai is the mother of all Gods. She lost her memory in the year 0. Since then, she does nothing but bear new gods."
Flora needed a moment to process this. "Let me check the timeline."
Earth Time-Flora's recollection-Official Event-Cetviwos Time
2042-Flora acquired the CAD-Start Brainwave VR Alphatest-?
2043-Evai joined Flora-?-?
2045-?-AI integrated in Alpha test-500
2047-End of CAD and retirement-End of Alpha Test-550
2048--Beta Test-1500
14.03.2050--Cetviwos Launch-2050
The crucial difference was the year 2045. Flora was pretty sure that Evai had already joined her for multiple years in 2045. They figured out Eddie's birthday present for his 60th anniversary at the end of 2043 together.
'But didn't Evai went missing for a while? Was it in 2045?'
Now, Flora remembered vaguely that a newsletter came in which they announced the AI, and she had been puzzled about it because she worked together with one for years.
'Right! And shortly before the newsletter, Evai vanished. I was disgusted by their business practice to take away my AI only to announce them a few weeks later as a novelty. At least they gave her back. Or did they? Hmm, I have noticed no difference to the Evai before.'
Flowing Flowers to Aitoshuri: "Get me a book on the creation myths of the Cetvivos, dear."
"My recollection doesn't accord with the official data. I have met her years before the official start of the Alpha. It might even be possible that she introduced herself as Evailyn, and I shortened it to Evai as a nickname."
The last sentence calmed the bishop down.
"Our canon includes that Evailyn had contact with a female Earthling in the Alpha ages. We even have some legends about her. It is told that she was a woman of wisdom and elegance." Afstira Nomizo threw a derogatory glance at Flora's shabby Counterflow mech suit.
"What can I say?" Flora grinned and spread her arms. "Our Goddess is always right!"
A muffled snort came from the nearby generators, and Deriga bit on her lips.
"Show her the toaster, Auntie!" The novice chimed in.
"Which one?" Flora asked. "Oh, I'll show you my newest creation!"
Flora fetched the Firefly-Toaster, and it immediately zeroed in on Deriga and offered her a toast with jam. The novice blushed and took it.
Flora wrinkled her forehead. "Dear, how did you get your food in the Metaworld?"
"Uhm, I didn't." She mumbled. "Everything here is so expensive. I used all my savings for the teleport in the Metaworld, so I couldn't even go back. But you gave me some VirDos yesterday. I bought some fruits from it."
"Stupid child! Aidan, order nutritious food. Deriga's frontal lobe is still developing. She needs it desperately. Let's resume the discussion over a nice meal."