When Elena entered the range of the rocket launcher, Flora lowered her arm.
"Elena, it's me, Auntie Flow," she yelled, but the girl didn't stop. "Oh, for toaster's sake. We don't have to fight."
"Why are you here, Auntie?" The young woman had stopped at a distance of exactly fifteen meters, the range for spells.
"YOU are asking ME why I'm here? That's rich, dear! Your little stunt almost exploded the moon!"
"Come on. We just wanted to destroy the engine. The doom moon can't be allowed to exist. It is an appliance to suppress the people's will."
"The engines contain the core. I can guarantee you if you sent a missile into it, the Doom Moon goes boom." Auntie felt like hitting her. Maybe peacefully solving this situation had been a mistake. "Ask Jake about it. Jake, as in Jake, your husband and not your late husband because you killed him and all the other innocent workers."
"We waited for the birthday party so that everybody vacated the job side."
"Holy toaster, Elana. I wasn't joking about the explosion. We didn't hold the party on another planet."
"I don't believe you." She stated, but her voice sounded uncertain.
"Please tell me at least how the imperium is suppressing you. When I visited you, the settlement seemed lovely. Aren't you living well?"
"If you adhere to the rules, you are allowed to have a normal life. But if you overstep the boundaries, they'll punish you hard."
"What are the boundaries? If it is killing a whole moon, I condone hard punishments."
"What about freedom of speech? The right to assemble?"
"Alright, these are important. Will you get jailed when you protest?"
"Yes! They are very stingy, as soon as you even carry a blaster, you get jailed."
Flora wanted to go on, but she realized it was futile to discuss the issue with someone who couldn't see that carrying weapons to a demonstration was a problem.
"And how do the Icemasters play into this mess?"
"I recognize they are problematic. But sometimes you have to put your emotions aside and look at the cold hard facts."
In Flora's experience, people who explained things with "facts" had pulled them out of their butts more often than not, or from the internet, the collective bottom of humanity.
"Nevermind, I suggest you message your friends to fetch you. I don't think people would believe you came for a family visit. I stay here and guard the shaft."
Flora glanced at the sky. The fighting had diminished, and the Imperials were winning.
"I can't. The crash destroyed my communication equipment."
"Well then, what a lovely day for you to stopover," Flora said with a sigh.
A transporter approached and landed right next to the women. Lady Mnoder exited with long strides, and Jake trailed behind her. His face screamed, "I'm sulking" until he spotted Elena.
"Honey!" He ran over, hugged her and twirled. "I'm so glad to see you. Where's Hope?"
He looked around. Flora resisted a groan.
"What do you see, blockhead?" Elana took the word out of Flora's brain. "We are standing on the surface of a superweapon. The air is barely breathable, and the gravity neglectable. Do you think this is a suitable environment for our daughter? She's with my parents."
"Ah, my daughter-in-law. What a nice surprise."
Flora felt for Elena. If it was hard to stomach to have a prospective daughter all of sudden, it must be even harder when a mother-in-law appeared out of nowhere, especially if it was someone like Lady Mnoder.
'Why is Mnoder more friendly to Elena than I'm to Ressa? I'm a nice mother-in-law! At least, I would be nice if the daughter-in-law was okay. Oh, dear Toaster, Who Heats Hell, please let them have a duel. I don't want to be the only awful monster-in-law...'
Elena pushed Jake behind her. "He is mine. You didn't want him when he was born; you don't get him now."
"Elena?" Jake stammered.
"Maria told me she had saved you from this woman. I had to promise her I won't tell you."
"Lies. She abducted Jake. I have searched the whole galaxy for my beloved son."
First, Jake stared wide-eyed at the arguing women, who outdid each other in proclaiming their love for him, but then a proud smile sneaked on his face. The dolt enjoyed they were fighting over him!
Flora shook her head. With allies like herself and him, who needed enemies? 'Dear Toaster, Who Heats Hell, I take back my former plea. I'm better than spreading my misery.'
She elbowed Jake. "Break them up."
The couple was standing close to each other, Flora next to them and Mnoder on the opposing side. Flora's sympathy had shifted back to Mnoder, and she moved her body accordingly. As a mother, she didn't condone kidnapping. Now, the group stood in a triangle.
"Uh, ladies." Jake waved his hands to get their attention. "I want to give my biological mother a chance. I want to get to know her better. Please, Elena, give her a chance too."
"But she is an Energymaster. They change their feelings faster than lightning strikes."
"Better than not having feelings at all. The Icemasters haven't treated us well. Instead of emotions, they have lingering resentment. Now, I understand why they despised me. I guess everybody but me knew who my mother was. But is it really rational to bully a child because you dislike its mother?"
"Studies show the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Therefore being cautious about you is fact-based behavior."
Jake turned his head away from Elena, looking hurt.
"I mean, you convinced me you are a good man despite your genetics." She added.
"The problem consists of people not understanding statistics. There might be genetic predispositions, but you have to assess every individual by itself." Flora chimed in. "Who can claim having read the scriptures of fate?"
"If such a text exists, I'll burn it to cinders with my plasma sword. I'm human, I carve out my own path." Mnoder activated her sword.
Staring at her, Elena did the same.
"Gentlewomen, please curb your temper. I killed my prospective daughter in law twice, and our relationship suffered because of it. I can't recommend violence between in-laws."
Mnoder sheathed her weapon. "I only wanted to emphasize my sentiment. Let's go inside and drink some tea. By the way, I'm willing to ignore why my dear daughter-in-law appeared suddenly at such an inopportune time."
"Uh, right. Why are you here, Elena?"
The imbecile had to look in the mouth of the gift horse.
"To save you. I overheard the plan of the rebels and wanted to make sure nothing happens to you."
Flowing Flowers to Aidan: "Can NPC's lie? They are kind of AI's, right?"
"The exception of the "Not-Lying"-Rule are scripted parts. The NPC's are allowed to say these even if they didn't reflect the circumstance, Milady."
"Hmm. Good to know. The fact we could never locate Jake when he wasn't in Mnoders care substantiates her claim."
While pointing at the shredded shuttle, Flora said out loud: "My hunch was correct. The rebels had planned to send a missile to the engine room."
Mnoder nodded. "You may have saved us all. I will build a meditation chamber for training Jake. You may use it as well."
***************
Completed Quest: Report to Lady Mnoder
Reward: Access to Meditation Chamber.
Difficulty: D
Completion: A
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Congratulation! You reached first place on the leader board of the scenario.
We hope you enjoyed playing the scenario "Groom the Doom Moon". Please rate it at the Cetviwos Shop.
The scenario is no longer available to you. Instead, you unlocked the scenario 'Groom yourself on the Doom Moon.'
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You gained an achievement: Topping the Boards
Description: You placed first on a leaderboard with over one million runs.
Reward: Trait "Competence": NPCs are more willing to give you challenging and unique quests.
***************
Flora found herself on the unholy cliff. She took a deep breath.
"Congratulation, Milady. Topping the Boards is one of the most coveted achievements."
"I'm a bit overwhelmed. Do I want more exacting quests? I'm pretty challenged as it is. And I don't know whether I'm happy with the conclusion of the scenario. At least everybody lives, and they have a truce. I like the reward, though. If I sleep in the meditation chamber on time-dilation, I can save a lot of time. We shouldn't overdo it, but now and then, when we're in a pinch."
Flora entered Deriga's workshop.
"I believe I'm in a strange mood because all of the victories of the last days were ambivalent. We won the duel with Ressa, but her reaction was beyond petty, and my opinion of her has plummeted. And now me giving away the mother-son relationship... oh dear."
"The result vindicated your actions, Milady."
"I guess I'm just nervous about the Hero's Entrance. Let's do the last bit of preparatory crafting and look at the to-do list."
After she emptied the container full of the multitool parts into the 3D-printer, Flora regained her positivity. Circumventing the no-loot rule in the Simulation Grounds worked for scenarios where she had access to her inventory. She could fill it up inside the scenario and empty it after she left the Grounds.
Flora stuffed her inventory with everything she deemed remotely useful for the Hero's Entrance and enough raw materials to build a spaceship.
The scenario had shown her she needed one more turret type in her collection: This is a Trap - Repair Cloud. She colored it yellow. Her other healing towers could only heal and not repair. This one could fix machines.
Flora tried to integrate both functions into one robot. She got it to work, but the switch between healing and repairing took too long and was too mana-regen expensive. Blaming the scenario for exhausting all her engineering creativity, she put it on the to-do list for another day.
The List didn't contain anything urgent. Flora wondered whether she should have done more scenarios, but couldn't muster the concentration to start a new one.
"We should take an elemental with us. At least until we know, we can use technology." Flora mused. "I don't like the idea of being jumped right after the portal and being all alone."
Flora's inner eye showed her the octopussy lying helplessly on the floor and her kneeling, weighted down by a dysfunctional mech-suit, while hordes of dragons spewed fire on her. She shuddered.
"It should have a strong single target attack and Re-Generate. I'm not picky about the element. Maybe not water or lightning, because I have good foci for those elements and need more support if we have enemies who are immune to them."
"I'll list your choices, Milady:
Elkoak - Wood - Thorn Cannon, Shield;
Coppa - Metal - Needle Cannon, Riding the Blade;
Shinyst - Metal - Needle Cannon, Shield;
Embrun - Fire - Fireball, Fire Rain;
Bliz - Ice - Icicle Cannon, Shield;"
"Hm, no earth or wind. Do you think it's a coincidence that they are missing and, at the same time, my lowest leveled elements?"
"No, Milady. I analyzed the data of the summonings. Earth, ice, and wind elementals had a lower percentage of having non-standard spells and revealing their names."
"Great job. I'm leaning toward the ice elemental at the moment. I like the cold secondary effect, but to be honest, I forgot most of the effects of the other elements. Please list their positive and negative aspects again."
"Water - removes a debuff - damage & mana loss over time (acid burn)
Fire - cauterizes wounds & physical reg buff - damage & stamina loss over time (burn)
Earth - stability & physical def buff - stamina loss & mana loss over time (gravity)
Air - Physical Macro-Control & Magical Defense buff - Magical Defense reduction
Wood - increase health over time - damage over time (poison)
Metal - armor penetration buff & physical def buff - Physical Defense reduction
Lightning - reduces CDs - Macro-Control reduction (jolt)
Ice - increases buff length - physical controls reduction (cold)"
"Let's weaken my weakness tonight. Raise wind, earth, and especially ice affinity. Try for more ice-elementals. Maybe we even get one who can heal."
Her completionist instincts kicked in when she thought about the new way of casting elemental spells.
Flora acquired the healer classes for all the elements and then tried to convinced System, that the healing versions of the spells were practically the same as the normal versions, and she could adapt them to all the mage professions she knew.
***************
Quest: Proof your claim of skill mastery. (Unique)
Description: The player Flowing Flowers claimed she could use any magic spell with a healing effect. She has to prove it by casting 100 spells System calls out within 10 minutes.
Possible Reward: Merged Skills, Unique Class
Possible Penalty: Title "Braggart" must be worn for a week
Restrictions: Cooldowns and mana-cost are disabled.
Time-Limit: 10 min
Difficulty: A
Obligatory quest.
***************
As soon as Flora had read the last word, System began.
"Elemental Healing Razor Leafs"
The name seemed familiar.
"Is it a spell from the wood element? Aidan, help. Please translate the spell name into the magic type and standard name for the effect."
"Wood Rain, Milady."
Flora cast the spell immediately, but sweat gathered on her forehead. She had already exceeded the 6 seconds she had for each skill.
The next dozen spells went smoothly, but then System threw another curveball: "Magical Healing I'm Free."
Aidan remained silent, while Flora's mind behaved like an empty toaster on the highest setting: It produced heat without cooking anything up.
"Beep." Aito displayed a link to a kinetic discussion and a stick figure exhaling cold air.
After having dodged this bullet, Flora activated one spell after another. None of them stood out, but the pure mass and calculating every modification exhausted her.
After the last skill, she sat down and had to meditate until the diagrams vanished from her mind's eye.
At least the System granted her an excellent class for the effort:
***************
Name: Magical Healer
Branch: Magic
Passive: Counts as every Magical Healing class, for which the user had cast four of the standard spells, and they don't have to bug the valiant System for additional Magical Healing classes.
Active: The great System hasn't decided yet, but actives from the corresponding classes apply.
STA: Elemental Healing Bolt
AOE: Elemental Healing Rain
DEF: Magical Halo
MOV: Elemental Healing Ride
SIG: Re-Generate
***************
The best aspect of it was she could connect Light and Shadow Mage to her class tree because Magical Healer linked to all magical classes. Flora liked the new spell as well.
***************
You gained a skill: Magical Halo
Description: Surrounds your head with a halo, which diminishes incoming damage. More effective against damage of the same or its controlled element.
CD: 1 min.
Duration: 10 seconds.
***************
Hours before her regular sleeping time, she went to bed, snuggling with a chunk of plastic for refining. Her fatigued mind shut down as soon as she closed her eyes.