Flora picked herself up from the ground.
She had just under a third of her hit points left, and her team looked like junkyard sales.
The only positive aspect was her mana. The trait she got from the elemental mage class, Elemental Power Gain, had taken care of it. She had received 27% of all acid damage as mana.
Still, she was in no condition for another fight.
"Can we talk this out?" She asked the approaching alchemist while channeling Elemental Healing Needle Hail. Metal healing affected machines as well as people. Additionally, she could cast it with her Wavering Wave-Ring for its splash effect.
"How did you get into the instance? I secured it against interference." Bluthe rummaged through the rubble and didn't seem to be inclined to attack. He looked like a homeless person with an addiction problem. His white hair stood in every direction, and brown circles surrounded his bloodshot eyes. Flora wouldn't use his rags to clean up burned toast.
"The rune-scheme didn't work as intended. Trashies attacked Tsoville, and they asked me to investigate. I destroyed the runes."
He groaned. "Not again… I worked so hard to make up for the outbreak. I'm the worst. I'm so stupid... Oh, and I'm probably trapped here. The scheme secured my entry and exit as well."
"Holy toaster! I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"Oh, well." he sounded dispirited. "The tests were failures, anyway. Maybe it is my fate to try to fix it until eternity."
"I hope you will make it work. Maybe the instance will vanish once you cleared the corruption," said Flora. "I adore the concept of the bin. Composting every type of garbage right on the spot is practical, you never have to take out the trash again."
"Right!" Bluthe cheered up, but then he shrunk again. "It doesn't matter if it malfunctions. Anyway, rune-schemes exist, which shred trash. More volume remains than with my invention, but you don't have to pay for the potion refills."
"Have you tried contacting the church of Evailyn?"
"No, never heard of them. What kind of Goddess is she?"
"The Goddess Evailyn is the guardian of all household appliances. Maybe including her powers will delete the corruption. Do you have a prototype here? We can show it to her."
He nodded and fetched it.
"Goddess Evailyn! Your humble follower requests your awesome presence!" Flora cast her Champion prayer, Summon the God. It had a cooldown of a whole week, but helping a high-level alchemist with a passion for home appliances was worth it in Flora's opinion.
"Flora, love! Cutting your visit to my temple short, I see. You only have a few hours left. Hurry up."
"I'm on it, dear. I mean, dear Goddess. This is Tim Bluthe. He made an invention with great potential, but difficulties in the details, and I accidentally locked him in this instance. Can you help with both issues?"
Tim's head ping-ponged between the two similar women, but he didn't ask any questions and explained his trash-bin in a level of detail only a real nerd could.
"I have to cut the conversation short. What do you think about I'll help you out, literally, and you visit my temple, and we discuss our further collaboration?"
"Thank you, Goddess Evailyn, and thank you, Mrs. Flowers."
Flora flashed Evailyn two thumbs up.
The scenery wobbled, and Tim and Flora found themself in front of the dungeon entrance.
Messages about dungeon achievements bombarded Flora's HUD. She willed them away, unread.
"Uh, I better sneak out of the village. I don't think the fellows like to see me at the moment."
Flora gave him the location of Evailyn's temple and asked him whether he wanted to keep his involvement secret.
"Yeah, please, at the moment, at least. I will confess when I solve the situation."
They bid farewell, and Tim threw a potion at the wall and walked through it.
"Nice." Flora marveled and checked the quest. Now, it marked 'Clear the Instance' as completed, only 'Clear the Sewage' and 'Catch the Culprit' remained.
"Guess we won't do the last." Flora shrugged and put away the turrets. "Let's be nice to the overworked militia and clear the rest of the sewage system. Map the shortest route on which we cover everything."
"Congratulation, Milady. Your global rating rose to A." Aidan informed her, while they searched for the next opponent.
In high spirits, Flora jogged through the murky tunnels and killed everything funny-smelling.
Aidan told her about their loot, to Flora's glee, mostly crafting materials. Trashisto had dropped S-rated plastic, acid, and metal and an S-rated nozzle.
Meanwhile, they had slalomed through the whole sewage system. In the last tube, only one trashy awaited them. After killing it, the bonus quest received a checkmark.
However, a part of the tunnel wall glowed blue.
"A hidden compartment." Intrigued, Flora searched for the mechanism.
"We are in the tunnel parallel to the one with the instance, Milady. The compartment faces the wall, Bluthe has entered."
"Maybe it's his hideout? Let's look at it. Who knows if he had managed to pack everything. He seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. We can bring his stuff to Evailyn." Flora's eyes lit up when she figured out the trick. "Most ingenious! You have to drop a fluid onto this brick. A rune-scheme analyzes whether it is the right on, if yes, it opens up if no... nothing happens. Okay, the last part is disappointing from a technical perspective but good for us."
Flora circumvented the rune-scheme and telekinetically pushed the subsequent mechanical door opener into action. The wall sank into the ground, and a messy cabin appeared. Alchemistical equipment dominated the middle, a desk, and a chair faced one wall, and a bedroll lay in the corner.
While Flora and Aidan worked hard to put the vials, tumblers, and tubes into a loot container, Aito browsed the books on the desk. Actually, only Aidan toiled. Flora was too distracted by the magical heaters, burners, and distillery apparatus.
"Fascinating! Oh, and what is this?"
Name: Animated advanced magical Mortar
Type: Mortar
Tier: 4
Rating: B
"Beep! Beep! Beep!"
Flora turned to Aito, who handed her an open book.
>>> 2041.03.40
Enough! Enough! Enough! I've worked myself to ground for that silly village! I tried EVERYTHING. Everything, Everything.
<<<
"Aito! It's a diary. You shouldn't read other people's diaries."
Aito waggled it in front of Flora's nose and beeped insistingly.
The script was narrow and messy, and spots stained the pages. Capitalized words stood out of the barely readable rest. Those words changed Flora's mind.
>>>
No more! May they SIZZLE in hell. They never appreciated having a GENIUS like me in their midst. My niece is okay, but the others you can compost! The cast me out AGAIN. Can't I visit my relatives? It has been 40 years since the trashy incident, and I worked so hard to redeem myself. But those fools, those damn fools. They deserve to be fudder for my trash-bins!
MELD, MELD, MELD!
<<<
"Oh, no." Flora froze as Aito scrolled to the next passage she deemed relevant.
>>> 2051.05.51
I'm BACK. I entered the dungeon today. My new potion works great. It increased the power of the trashies by a whole rank. I have problems with letting them free, but I'm working on a new rune-scheme. I will get there and destroy the instance and free my precious children.
MUHAHAhhahahaHAhahaaaa ha ha ha ha !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MELD MELD MELD down everything my trashies! Destroy this village, COMPOST it!
<<<
"I made a terrible mistake - I let him escape. This guy duped me. What have I done? We have to catch him!" Flora rambled while pocketing the container and running out of the room.
"Milady, the trapdoor."
Flora whirled around and spotted Aidan in the corner where the bedroll had been, standing on a hatch.
"Good one of us hadn't lost their mind."
Aito beeped indignantly, while Flora calmed her self down with deep breaths.
"Sorry, dear. Two of three. Three of four, sorry, Haidan. Oh, dear. Concentrate, Flora. Leave the regrets and apologies for later."
"Open it." Flora refreshed the buffs and shielded herself.
Aidan extended a tentacle into the hole. "It's the same garden we landed after the tunnel crashed, Milady. Nobody occupies the lawn."
After they jumped down, Flora noticed on the adjacent property Rivercross' maelstrom abode towering. But unlike the tidy estate from earlier, it looked like a giant had a hissy fit. Uprooted trees and deep gashes in the earth filled with sizzling water filled the space between the two homes.
"Help! Over here."
They ran towards the yell and found Riverstones convulsing on the ground, glowing green and orange.
The shines vanished, and the old mage skin color returned to its normal blue.
"Thank you. Tim Bluthe returned to the town. I confronted him because I found it suspicious he arrived just when the trashies attacked again."
Flora helped him up, but he pushed her hand away.
"Don't bother with me. Chase after Tim." He pointed to the street.
"I'm so sorry, and thank you," Flora shouted while sprinting away.
Aito jumped on Flora's back, and Aidan followed.
"This street leads into the direction of the train station. I downloaded not only the map of the village but also the timetable. A train arrives roughly every 15 minutes with no fixed departure time."
"I don't approve of this. What kind of system has no fixed departure times? Sorry, ignore the comment I got distracted."
A flame shot out of Flora's back. Screaming, she got catapulted forward. Her legs had problems keeping up, and she was afraid they would fall off.
"Another bad decision. Aidan, put controlling a nitro mech-suit on the list." Flora said after she regained control of her limbs. "I'm still a bit impressed by Bluthe's level 250, even more so after I have seen the property destruction left in the wake of the fight between him and Rivercross. Are you sure the zone suppresses him to level 3?"
"Yes, Milady, but level 250 entities have a special ability that lets them surpass the zoning cap once a day. It seemed he used it for the fight."
"I still haven't wrapped my head around how afraid I should be of a high level. I'm not used to be fearful of stronger people because I trust in the social norms, but here?"
They approached a metal building with a train-station sign, but no rails were visible.
Storming into the building, Flora discovered a row of cabins on a ramp.
A smirking Bluthe sat in the first one. The guy even had the gall to give them a little wave.
Flora jumped to the cabin and didn't bother to try the door. She ripped open the access slot and inserted two electronic lockpicks.
"Hack it, dears. Notify me if you need help."
The alchemist lost his cool and rummaged through his pockets. He chugged one found potion after another.
Meanwhile, Flora analyzed the construction.
"Tell me how the train system works."
"When the train approaches, the occupied cabins get shot into a portal and arrive in the main tube. The train pushes them from behind."
"That's insane. How do you get off?" Flora asked as she fetched the turret-traps.
"Via a selective portal. The train runs through it, but only the cabins which are programmed to exit, enter it, and get ported to the back of the destination's train station ramp.
When Flora wanted to ask why they didn't spare the train and just beamed, a count down started.
-10-
"Is the cabin powered by the mana of the passenger?"
-9-
"Yes, Milady."
-8-
-7-
"How long until you will have finished hacking?"
-5-
"10 seconds, Milady."
-4-
-3-
The eyes of the Alchemist widened, and he swiped frantically over a screen.
-2-
"Just to make sure, let's add the single target spell."
-1-
-Go!-
Nothing happened, liked Flora hoped. Grinning, she wiggled her eyebrows at the pale alchemist. His shaking fingers clutched colorful vials.
"Almost ready, Milady."
"Open the cabin."
Flora gathered her magic. When the door opened, she blasted Kinetic Breath on Bluthe. He flew back, crashing into the wall of the cabin, his potions dripping over him.
Flora positioned him in the firing-range of her turrets and jumped over him.
He landed in a heap in the middle of the train station in a puddle of his own potions. A green beam emanated from his hand as he raised it in Flora's direction. It hit Flora's shield, weakening it.
"Octopussies, bind him." Flora cleaned the alchemist for her assistants. His own potions wouldn't hurt him. On the other hand, her octopussies could be affected, not by poisons, but who knew what other nasty concoctions he had packed.
Aito flew from the raised platform down on him. Her tentacles spread, she looked like a spiders web, engulfing its prey.
Aidan sprinted to the Alchemist and wrapped around his legs.
Both octopussies used six tentacles to bind Bluthe. The other two, with the multitool and the knife, stabbed and burned him.
"I yield!" Came his muffled voice between Aito's tenacle (tentacle manacle).
Flora signaled the AIs to stop the attacks.
"If you even consider fleeing, we will resume."
"Yes, yes. I'll be good." Bluthe whizzed.
"You fooled me once, shame on you. I found your diary."
"My writings! Would you believe I worked on a fictional account of a crazy alchemist, and it's not a diary?"
Flora considered it. Bluthe seemed much more coherent in person than the crazy ramblings of the diary. "A bit?"
"Beep!" Aito stabbed him again.
"Hey! I wasn't escaping."
"Beep." It was one of Aito's special noises.
"She said you tried to convince me to let you go, which counts as an escape attempt," Flora said, amused.
After unpacking the hungry chest, Flora carried him inside. The octopussies did an excellent job, restraining him. He couldn't move at all.
She stood next to him and watched him while the chest drove to the waterworks.
Using Astral Vision, she found poison powder pockets in his sleeves, healing and mana pills in his belt, and syringes (unidentifiable) in his boots.
Slowly, Flora's mind caught up with the events.
"Did you plan on visiting Evailyn's Church?"
"Sure. I want to make my invention work, and you gave me the first lead in years."
"Look, I'm not resentful, and I really like your creations. My assessment is clouded. I let the villagers judge you. If they let you go, you're still welcome at the church." Flora realized she wasn't in charge. "At least by me. Some of the clergy are a bit stuck up."