Flora shook her head. She refused to believe it was impossible to connect the Gun-Arrangement with the primary system.
"Mia, let's take your baby into my workshop."
When they entered Flora's flat, Mia's jaw fell to the floor. Her eyes darted between the turrets on the walls, to the Training Coffin, then to the H-Wing cockpit and back.
"This is part of my exercise regimen. I let my AI train me while I sleep and work. Grab a jack from Haidan. He will explain to you how it works." Flora said before logging into the workshop.
While waiting for Mia's arrival, Flora browsed the bulletin boards for information about the Gun-Arrangement XD23DI. She found out it was a common drop from a boss in a 25 person instance.
'How can you drop a massive gun array repeatedly? He calls himself a boss and can't mount his weapons securely! Maybe I should sell the boss my help or at least some helper robots to bolt the arrangement down.'
The comment section was full of complaints about the difficulty of integrating it with batticles. Someone mentioned the big clans hogged the knowledge about the process for themselves. The note confirmed Flora's suspicion: it was possible, just a bit tiresome.
Finally, Mia arrived. Her mouth was still open and opened even more when she inspected the workshop.
"Heaven and Hell! That is the most groovy workshop I have ever seen!" Her voice was steady, and she moved her body in a circle for a complete survey. "Do you have every update?"
"Yes, another perk you get when you discover, CentralTank integrated your ideas without asking."
When Mia gave Flora the batticle, she added a contract.
"It's important to always specify for what reason and how long you give someone something in the Cetviwos. If you say nothing, the ownership gets transferred, and if your business contact doesn't play nice, it's bothersome to get the item back. In this case, the worth of the piece is more than 1000 VirDos. Without a contract, it would appear on your 'questionable transactions'-list, and every time someone reviews it, you have to answer the same questions about how you got it from whom and whether real-life money was involved in it. They do it, even though they can see from the logs that someone repaired or modded it and just gave it back to the original owner."
"Thank you for the advice. The problem crossed my mind earlier today when the bishop inspected the scepter. Fortunately, it was intended for the church. I don't think she would have given it back." Flora scanned the contract and signed it. "By the way, feel free to play with my toys while I tinker. Just don't mess with my unfinished projects."
With her feet dangling out the cockpit, Flora opened the console and looked at the innards of the Knight-Skater. After she loaded the analyzing tools, she mapped the functions of the auxiliary system and the primary and their interactions. Contrary to her assumption that it was a language problem, both systems used the same protocols.
"Hmm."
Flora followed the wires to the mana-transformer. It supported six connections a la 5 mana per minute. Immediately after the transformer, the wires split into different directions. One bundle went to the guns, the others to the batticle.
Next, Flora looked at the control unit of the vehicle. It had the regular inputs like energy and user commands from the console and even sensor data, but only three types of outputs: One for the movement apparatus and one for the main-laser. After some searching, Flora found the destination of the third one. It controlled the headlights.
The controller of the guns got its input only from the two joysticks on the side and didn't connect to the central console. Its output went just to the eight weapons.
Flora wrinkled her nose. She had to build a new controller.
Either she replaced the two controllers with a new one, or she put the new one between the two old controllers. Of course, as a third option, she could open the main controller, do a bit of technical mojo and slap on a new output, and slave the gun unit to it. But the work wasn't done with it. If she didn't integrate the guns thoroughly, the user wouldn't be able to switch.
Flora decided to go with the option with the third controller. Space was precious in the small vehicle, but it conformed to the minimally invasive approach, Flora preferred. She just had to place it between the user input and the other two controllers and redirect the user commandos to the appropriate old controller.
The rest was in the software. In Flora's opinion, shitty software of a myriad "if that is the case -> send to controller_Gun-Arrangement; if not -> send to controller_Batticle". Together with Mia, she designed key combinations to switch the joystick from movement or fight to guns and back. The grunt work of programming the details, she left for Aidan.
"Viola, a new controller, some wires, a bit of software, and Flora is your aunt," Flora said satisfied.
"Thank you, Auntie. It's great." Mia said evenly after she tested the modification. Flora wasn't sure if it was just Mia's introverted streak, which didn't produce much enthusiasm or something different.
"What's missing, dear?"
"Nothing. It does everything I hoped the spell would accomplish. And I don't even have to use a skill which allows me to strengthen other aspects of my knight." Mia paused. "I had hoped the integration would fuse the two systems. I've got 30 mana regeneration to spare. 20 mana pushes the batticle to the soldier rating, and the 10 mana for the guns assigns them a normal rating. If it were a joint system with 30 MR both, the guns and the whole vehicle would have a Sarge rating."
Her Ais displayed the table. It showed how much mana-regen you had to invest in a pet for it to achieve a specific rating.
MR – Rating – Name of the Rating
5 – E – Weak
10 – D – Normal
20 – C – Soldier
30 – B – Sergeant
50 – A – Boss
100 – S – Big Boss
Flora to Aidan: "Aidan, show me how the HP and average laser-beam attack damage of the octopussy would change if I put more MR in it."
MR - Hit Points - Average Attack
5 – 45 – 10
10 – 100 – 11
20 – 220 – 12
30 – 330 – 13
50 – 650 – 14
100 – 1700 – 17
Flora to Aidan: "Holy toaster! I have to put a bigger mana-transformer in the squid! But then I can't have other gadgets – The old dilemma: quantity, or quality."
"Auntie, are you alright? It's wonderful; I like the modification very much."
"Sorry, dear. I just read about the pet mana-regen stuff. We have to fuse the systems. Over 100 HPs more for your batticle are no joke."
Previously, Flora had leeched the energy for the controller from the central system. Now, she bundled all the wires, transferring them to the new chip.
The batticle system, as well as the guns, had separate mana buffers. Flora removed them and bought a bigger and better one. From the new chip, she redirected the energy to the battery and parted the wires after it.
The biggest challenge was fitting the modifications into the limited space of the vehicle.
"It worked!" Mia's response was much more passionate, but Flora was unsatisfied.
"The cooldown of the laser and the guns increased from 4 to 5 seconds. Why? I didn't mess with the actual systems, I promise!"
"That's one of the anti-OP rules of the Cetviwos. One device can fire maximal two times per second. The gun-arrangement had 8 guns with 4 seconds CD, and now the main gun counts too. Therefore the cooldown of everything rose."
"But now you waste 0,5 seconds!" Flora exclaimed.
Mia smiled. "Hehe, you are talking like a ranker. Only we care about milliseconds. I'll think about adding another gun."
Looking at the armed to the teeth batticle, Flora shrugged. "Maybe one pointing backward? Or you can add a healing beam. Grease with Life's Blood can't be sustainable in a fight … or even a repair beam for the batticle if something like this exists."
"I heard about batticles with the healing features for their drivers, but these cost too much for my purse. I already owe you 10 hours of work, and after my hero's entrance, I will be busy." Flora and Mia had agreed on her paying Flora in consulting or work hours.
At this moment, Aito displayed a class tree in Flora's HUD. She needed two classes to connect Mech Operator to the rest, Combat Technician and Tech-Support. A picture of Mia was next to the two classes.
Incidentally, Mia possessed them, and Aitoshuri knew about it because she had already watched her fight with Ressa.
"Great! I'll install the healing beam for the ten standard spells."
Mia agreed, and Flora got back to work.
Twenty minutes later, Mia could heal herself by pressing a button, and Flora had nine spells and two classes more.
The Tech-Support class had additional requirements of having the technician class and 5000 HP of technological devices repaired, but Flora fulfilled them. She was glad becoming an Indian wasn't part of the conditions.
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Class: Combat Technician
Branch: Technology/ Crafting
Passive: + 1 Training efficiency modifier for ability Combat Tool
Active: No cooldown for Repair
STA Deactivate
Description: Deactivates a Built-In Skill or Feature
CD: 25 sec
AOE Short Circuit
Description: All technological enemies in range get damage
CD: 25 sec
DEF I'm just the Technician
Description: Reduces Aggro against NPCs. If you get hit, the perpetrator gets debuffed with "Hurting the Help"
CD: 25 sec
MOV Sure Hands
Description: Increases the dexterity and agility of your hands.
SIG Repair
Description: Repairs technological devices.
CD: 25 sec
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Class: Tech-Support
Branch: Technology
Passive: + 1 Training efficiency modifier for ability Combat Tool
Active: No additional mana cost for range for crafting skills
STA RTFM (Read the feeping manual)
Description: Opens up a manual related to the target's classes or equipment on the target's HUD. Bosses are always immune to this skill. Backlash if the target had already read the manual.
CD: 25 sec
AOE Cluster Maintance
Description: Repairs technological devices in range. Channeled.
CD: 25 sec
DEF Please hold the Line
Description: Get reduced damage from the target.
CD: 25 sec
MOV Next Customer
Description: ports yourself to a technological device.
CD: 25 sec
SIG Turning it Off and On again
Description: Restarts the device, afterward it is fully repaired.
CD: 5 min
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Aitoshuri wasn't finished with her suggestions. This time a page from the forums about the skill Bloody Mana appeared. Warriors used it to regenerate mana, and Mia knew it.
-------------------------------
You gained the skill: Bloody Mana.
Description: Buff. The target gets half the amount mana of his caused or received damage.
CD: 25 sec.
-------------------------------
Next, the two women went to the printer, and Flora integrated the newly created parts into the Knight-Skater. After a final test, Flora and Mia thanked each other and said their good-byes.
"I appreciate the new healing beam, Auntie Flora," Mia added. "The addons from boss drops which have healing are usually crap except for this feature."
"There are more bosses who drop parts of their loadout?" Flora was surprised. One clumsy boss was explainable, but many?
"Sure, they aren't as common as other drops, like armor or weapons, but all technological bosses have some goodies."
"Outrageous! I understand dropping a weapon in the heat of the fight. But how do you lose your armor?" Flora gaped at Mia.
Mia blinked. "Drops like, you know, loot? The glowing stuff on the floor after you kill a mob?"
"Ah! I found some glowing teeth after I killed a Flying Froco-Feet-Fetish-Fish! I thought they were dangerous! And on another occasion, I wondered about since when a headshot could strip someone's armor." Flora was satisfied with having solved the puzzle. "How nice of the enemies to leave something behind for the players."
"Yes, very nice. I have to go. Now." Mia's body was shaking. Abruptly she waved and raced to the door. Then, she turned around, ran back, and pocketed her forgotten batticle. Biting on both lips and with a scarlet head, she nodded at Flora and rushed out of the door.
"Oh, well. The youth these days."
Flora shrugged and opened her class tree. Of course, the Combat Technician class was a successor of Technician. On the other hand, Tech-Support had besides Combat Technician, the three main classes of the technology branch as predecessors: Driver, Mech Operator, and Cyborg.
Her current class tree connected Technician to Tinkerer. Now, she inserted Combat Technician and Tech-Support between them.