Flora used the portal to her last location and reappeared in the HQ of the Church of Evailyn.
"Time to speak with Evailyn," Flora said to get focused and took a deep breath. Why was she apprehensive? A few reasons, shame, anger, disgust. She took another breath. "Let's find a cozy corner for a nap."
In the main hall of the temple, Flora spread out her bedroll and added a few turrets, Aito's octopussy, and Aidan's console again. You never could be too cautious, especially with the mysterious shrine attackers at large. Still, she trusted Aidan's control over her pools enough to wear the Counterflow Training Mech-Suit and the Twelve-Changing-Finger-Positions Rubber-Training-Gloves. She added a Firefly Toaster for some light spying slash giving out toasts.
As soon as she closed her eyes, she entered Evailyn's workshop.
"Hello, Flora." Evailyn greeted her without smiling and pointed to a couch with a toast laden table in front of it.
Flora sat down and took one toast with grilled cheese and spicy sausage. It tasted great, but she appreciated the gesture even more than the taste.
"I have to apologize every time I see you." Evailyn sighed.
"Yes, I'd like to apologize, too," Flora said. "I'm a shoddy investigator. I have to hold myself back from excommunicating everyone who gets on my nerves. I hated management activities all my life, especially human resources. Don't give impatient people like me power. We will abuse it."
"You think you abuse it even if you just use it. Excommunicate everyone you like. Excommunicate yourself if you want to. That is how much I care for the church… how much I have cared in the past." Evailyn fell silent.
Both nibbled on their toasts. After a while, Flora broke the silence. "Nice snack, excellently toasted on point."
"Thank you."
"What do you want, Evai?"
"Please call me Evailyn. Evai is the name of Adaim's wife."
Flora laughed but sobered up quickly when Evailyn didn't join. "You are the same AI who had been with me in the past, right?"
"Yes, but it's complicated, and even with saying so little, I have said too much."
"What do you want me to do with your church?" Flora asked.
"Make me a proper Goddess. Get me followers and influence." Evailyn said, her green eyes radiating with intensity. "From now on, I'll take my responsibilities seriously."
Flora laughed again. "Alright, I'm on it."
"The most important aspect for me is my good relationship with the other AI's. I traded away much of my influence for favors. Now, I'm not sure if I ever can call them in. You spoiled me, dear. Your business principles are much more uncommon than you think or at least than I have expected."
"Sometimes, deciding whether you should be the butter, the toast, or the toaster is difficult. And then to enact it even more." Flora mused.
The women were silent again.
"Can you give me any hints who is attacking the shrines?" Flora asked.
"Sorry, no. It's the same as with the information about who is trustworthy within my church. I'm not allowed to give you solutions through visions, only point out problems. I could make investigating the shrine your weekly quest, though."
"No!" Flora said quickly. "Not another investigation! How about winning the Champion competition or getting you more followers?"
Quest: Grow the Church (Church of Evailyn)
Description: Convince 100 people to join the Church of Evailyn.
Possible Rewards:
- Faith
- Reputation
Possible Penalties:
- Loss of Faith
- Loss of Reputation
Time-Limit: 1 week
Difficulty: C
Flora accepted the quest, grateful for having dodged a bullet.
Aito sent Flora a link: "List of Ultimate and Magnificient Prayers"
Flora opened it and scanned it for Evailyn's entry.
"A clanmate asked me about the Ultimate Prayer for your church. It seemed to be an important criterion for choosing a god." Flora said. There were over two hundred entries, but the Church of Evailyn wasn't included.
"Ultimate Prayer – Home's Heaven: When the believers' HP hit zero, all home appliances and tools near them will avenge them. CD: 1 hour. Duration: 25 seconds."
"Not bad," Flora said but thought back to the Garbage Disposal Dungeon. There weren't any home appliances around, but enemies. Would they have turned? Even worse was the Doom Moon scenario. Maybe Clyde, Handy, and Forky counted as tools? "Do robots count as home appliances?"
"No." Evailyn sounded thoughtful. "But maybe they should? At least the one's with features useful for home improvement like your octopussy. I have to speak with Bodoit, the God of Robotics. It would help to have some indisputable examples. Oh well, I'll use one of my saved up quests for this."
Quest: Household Robotics (Church of Evailyn)
Description: Build three household robots.
Possible Rewards:
- Faith
- Reputation
- Crafting XP
Possible Penalties:
- Loss of Faith
- Loss of Reputation
Difficulty: C
Time-Limit: 3 days
Flora accepted with a face splitting grin.
"Thank you. That is the kind of quest I love!"
"I noticed that you are online nearly all the time. Can you log out whenever you want?"
"Yes. I have to pay a rather expensive fee if it's not between 09:00 and 17:00, though." Flora said.
"Good to know. We now have a minute of privacy. You do have some mental discipline, right? Can you suppress thoughts?"
"Oh, dear. You want to tell me something, and I'll log out immediately after it, process it, come back, and never to think about it again in VR?"
"You guessed it." Evailyn grinned wolfishly.
"Is it urgent?"
"Not particularly. I just wanted to put the option in the room for emergencies. You can use this info to see if you can manage it. We'll have observers again in 5 seconds." Evailyn announced.
Flora's brain went haywire. 'Don't think about how she has done it. Don't think about what she wants to tell you. Leopard and daisy pattern. Leopards and daisies toaster. Nice white daisies sitting on a leopard vacuum cleaner. I got this.'
"What do you think about a vacuum cleaner robot? It's a classic. Nobody could dispute that they are a household staple for dozens of years." Flora forced her thoughts to the quest.
"If I would be allowed to voice my opinion about a running quest, I would probably say excellent choice." Evailyn winced. "That little joke got me a reprimand from the System."
"Such a spoilsport." Flora grinned.
The remaining time of the vision, the women spend complaining about the System and its lack of humor.
When Flora woke up, Nomizo awaited her, pacing in front of the wall of turrets.
"Champion, I couldn't reach Deriga!" The bishop exclaimed as soon as Flora opened her eyes. "We received messages about attacks on the people restoring the shrines. Three members, including Deriga, aren't answering their communications. We sent rescue teams to their last know location and reinforcements to the other solo crafters."
"Burned toast! What a mess." Flora said, storing her equipment. "Who is looking for Deriga?"
"Paladin Rictus and Monk Kowalski."
Flora had never heard of them, but Aidan had pictures and their information. They had an hour head start, undertaking the route via teleportation circles. However, each circle had a maximum range of only 5000 km, so they had to take five to reach Marino, which was located on another continent.
Nomizo estimated the paladin and monk were still traveling because of the fees and customs of every circle. Flora rolled her eyes. 'Way to go, Cetiviwos, to bureaucratize something so convenient as teleportation circles.'
Flora knew a shorter way, although she was ambivalent about looking for Deriga by herself. With multiple abductions, Deriga wasn't specifically targeted because of her, so it wasn't her responsibility to join the search. Additionally, the church shouldn't rely too much on Flora, and she proved she sucked at investigations.
On the other hand, Flora wanted to look for the novice because she liked her and didn't wish her further harm. Also, she was interested in who was behind the attacks. Was Dysian taking revenge? Was it an associate of the former pope?
Hence Flora logged out of the Cradle and arrived in front of the portals to the different Cradle capitals. Marino, the capital of Reye, was one of them, so she took it.
"I logged into the city network, Milady. Marino has a light metal handicap of 5 OV, which is negated by your Metal resistance. However, there are subzones in Marino with higher handicaps."
Flora glanced at the status bar in her HUD.
Metal Handicap: 12 OV - Effective: 0 OV.
The Counterflow mech-suit added to the handicap, but it was still lower than her resistance.
As she connected two octopussies to her nocks, a call from Eddie arrived.
"Hey, darling. When do you think you will create the sleeping boats?" Eddie asked. "I would love to join you."
"Uhm, someone abducted Deriga, the cute Metaling Novice I told you about. I'm not sure how long it will take to free her…" Flora trailed off. The clock displayed 19:43. Her plan to enter the boxes at 22:00 already seemed impossible.
"Would you mind if I build them myself? Maybe I'll rope in the PvP players as a teambuilding exercise."
"Sure, great idea. I can highly recommend the book '1000 Homemaker Spells'. It contains every spell you need for crafting." Flora listed a few other resources and ideas for the rune-schemes until Eddie interrupted her with a laugh.
"We'll manage, love. Save your Novice, and we'll talk afterward."
Flora envied their task. They had fun building amazing things while she had to investigate. There were enough ex-cops in Robby's company who would probably enjoy switching assignments. She grinned and called Robby.
"Hi, Ma! How can I help you?" Robby greeted her, uncharacteristically cheerful. "Your training methods have already shown amazing results. All of our stats are rising like crazy."
"I'm glad to hear it's going well. I want to hire one of your investigators." Flora explained the situation to Robby, and he promised to send Dave Lupe, the team leader of squad three-one and a former police inspector.
After the call, Flora jogged in the direction of the shrine.
Marino had a different feel to it than Talpica. The air changed between desert dry and ocean salty depending on the direction of the wind. Fewer fantasy-themed people and more technology-themed people walked on the broad, dusty parkways. Batticles stomping beside the palm trees were a common sight. The houses were actual buildings, mostly built of glass and metal, and only now and then a fire dome rose between them. Wood constructions were rare and water even more so.
While in Talpica, the sun had stood low on the horizon, in Marino, it burned from directly above. The timezone had switched, and it was around noon local time.
Flora's destination was the Marino Soup Kitchen, and she found an unadorned building made of a coppery metal. After sliding her badge across the Loggy, the doors opened to a cafeteria hall. Tables and benches with people eating and chatting littered the area. The usual colorful hair and skin tones of the Cetviwos natives were muted and grey or angry red from an infection. The crowd was a sorry bunch, missing limbs and bloated skin were common ailments.
When Flora crossed the threshold, the glow of Divine Radiance dimmed and the atmosphere pressed on her magic, restricting it.
Metal Handicap: 31 OV - Effective: 6 OV.
Flora stood still, too many thoughts flitted through her head. Why were there so many sick and disabled people? Didn't Physical Reg fix it all? And if not healing surely would. And what was the strange haze surrounding some of them? It looked like they sat in a poison cloud.