Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

Flora chose a Balancing Box with Psychokinesis and Ice while Robby took the one with Faith and Metal next to her. They logged into Flora's workshop.

"Woah! Ma!" Robby exclaimed as he inspected the workstations. "That's the most elaborate workspace I've ever seen! That must have cost millions!"

"Courtesy of CentralTank," Flora answered while checking on the lamps. They were no longer glowing. Aidan informed her the first malfunctioned at 12 years and 23 days, and the rest followed in the next two years. "The real treasure is the simulation grounds."

Flora showed him first how he could import himself and his items into the grounds then guided him to the training dummies.

"You can work out here while your consciousness is in a second body in the simulation. Aidan will answer all your questions while I reconfigure the grounds."

When Flora finished reloading the unholy cliff, Robby was already pummeling the dummy. She joined him and transferred her consciousness into the simulation.

Two Boxing Boxes with Projection and Mind rune-schemes awaited them there.

"Amazing, Ma! No wonder you are so strong."

"I can influence the time dilation in the grounds as well. However, we might have communication problems in Riverstones Island when we are faster than the others."

"Haha, we do it another time and prank Hub!"

"Okay." Flora grinned.

"Finally, your sausages are getting burned!" Lana greeted them when they arrived at the bistro area.

"I won't burn nothing!" Eddie hollered from behind the BBQ-grill.

Robby and Flora piled their plates with food and joined the others. The clan members had moved the picnic tables together to form one big table and sat around it, eating and chatting.

"The training works great, Auntie." Zapple, the blue-haired priest, said. "I had to deactivate my leveling notifications because they kept popping up like crazy. I just wish there were more Boxing Boxes. They looked fun."

"I'll add a few more. Nobody used the training dummies even though you can train Dodging with them."

"I would never use them and log into Riverstones Island when I know Hub is online. He will draw a mustache on my face if I'm not safe in a box." Olivia said, and everybody agreed immediately.

"I'm not that evil." Hub looked hurt. "I would only draw flowers and stars on your face."

"It would be better for you to use the treadmills." Honey said. "Movement speed is one of our weaknesses. Mobility in general."

"Yeah, Hoffi still can't jump," Ponda said. "And don't complain about tattling, oaf! It's for the greater good of the team. Just go to Fortend and get it done."

"I won't spend an afternoon going to classes. I quit school for good." Hoffi crossed his arms.

"Why can nobody teach you?" Flora wondered.

"Nobody has the skill high enough or something." Hoffi scoffed.

"You need the skill on level 50 if you have the teaching ability, level 100, if not," Robby answered. "Jump doesn't scale well with level, so nobody trains it."

"I'll raise Power-Jump and teach you," Flora said. She could imagine that Jump was annoying to level manually. You had to wait 25 seconds for its cooldown and then hop in the air like someone toasted your feet. Not very dignifying, but a solvable problem even without a box.

"How long until you would be ready, Ma?"

Aidan assured Flora that they could get it to the required level in two and a half hours, and Flora relayed the information. "I have to stay here during the duration, though. Can you finish the hut without me?"

"Sure. Your class will be big. Everybody should get it." Robby said. When he saw Flora's stunned expression, he added, "Most of us use Step skills.

"We could teach Hoffi that, but he would be more dangerous to us than to our opponents with Agility below Level 25." Too Bias said, smirking.

Flora was flummoxed. How could anyone have such a low Physical Macro-Control stat?

"Being a Paladin is complicated! You need physical and magical attributes and Hoffi is tanking, too. We have no free points for Agility!" Hub defended Hoffi.

"I have 25 levels in Agi." Hoffi grinned, unperturbed. "Just got the message."

Everybody of Squad One-One cheered. Flora smiled. She wondered what had happened because of his lack of stats to provoke that level of delight.

"Great, we are progressing. We can even lessen our second weak point with the help of the CommunityHub." Robby pointed to the ocean. "Underwater Combat."

The players groaned.

"Auntie, please tell us, you have a solution for automated swimming, too!" Zapple urged her.

"Sure, I could build a tank. Maybe with a jet, to get a real work out. I'll need more space, though. Lana mentioned a limit on the number of buildings we are allowed to have."

They decided to build pools beneath the old gym hut. Flora suggested using acid water because only training abilities without affinities was boring. Nonetheless, Robby insisted on combat training in the ocean because the ability alone wasn't enough.

"Auntie, I've worked on a driving simulator. I would appreciate your help with it. Leveling Driving would help the team, too." Mia said. Flora spotted her only now. The mousy girl was good at getting lost in a crowd.

"Of course, dear. Send me your blueprint and questions, or would you prefer to meet for a crafting session?" Flora smiled at her. She didn't like the latter because communicating and being social messed up her flow, but she would give the girl a chance. Additionally, it tied in towards the larger topic of women in STEM fields.

Flora grew up with the propaganda that women were better communicators than men. Her experience showed her otherwise. Maybe women were better in verbalizing, but men sometimes did what she had called the "pack thing". They surrounded the problem like a pack of hunters and poked it from all sides. Every man knew their place and time to attack, but she had a hard time joining in the rhythm without verbal cues.

They spoke during those phases, but nothing anyone could understand on a logical level, including themselves and their peers. However, on a hunter level, these cryptic sentences did make sense; they showed intent, comprehension of the hunt, and built a common culture.

She learned it was the best to be silent and let them do their pack thing and, at an opportune time, swoop in and pluck the fruits from the tree they treated as a wild animal, make marmalade out of them, spread it on toasts and present it to them. Usually, they appreciated the snack after the strenuous hunt.

So, supporting other women in engineering was a must. Although Flora couldn't teach them the pack thing, there was plenty of room for more female approaches to engineering, and Flora utilized several in her long career.

"I'd love to send you questions. Thank you. I like to figure it out by myself, but ran into a roadblock." Mia said in her usual style. She stated it as a fact and showed no emotions like hope or distress.

Flora nodded, still smiling. She really liked the independent streak in the girl and would honor it by not giving excessive advice.

"I'd like to have one of those in the new hut. The training from a Driving Box would have helped in the Mad Max PvP arena." Honey said, looking at Robby, who nodded.

Three people arrived at the beach. Flora recognized Tigressa, Robby's fiancee, but hadn't met the other two.

*************** Squad Two-One PVP-Players ***************

Nickname: Tigressa Flameante

Level: 209

Class: Fire Shot

Clan: Riverstones

Rating: A

*****

Nickname: Jelonso Emba

Level: 204

Class: Fire Shield

Clan: Riverstones

Rating: A

*****

Nickname: BBQ Grillmaster

Level: 202

Class: Fire Healer

Clan: Riverstones

Rating: A

*************** Squad Two-One PVP-Players ***************

"Team Fire finally arrived," Lana said mockingly, visibly swallowing insults.

However, she wasn't the only one commenting. Flora overheard several critical remarks between the greetings but wasn't fast enough to identify the speakers.

"We are close to finishing the hut. No need to bother showing up now, guys."

"Some people always appear when there is food, and never when there is work."

Tigressa hurried to Robby and hugged him.

"The boxes are marvelous darling and so many with Faith! Your mother takes such good care of you. I haven't found a free box with fire, though." She looked at him pitifully. "Emba, Grill and me will manage. We'll just take turns."

"Hello Ressa." Flora said. "There are four boxes with fire. Nonetheless, I'll remove the training dummies and put six additional Boxing Boxes and more Balancing Boxes on the Mezzanine level. I'll put Fire rune-schemes in some of them."

"But weapon abilities are essential. I'm using a dummy currently." A dark-haired man with intense blue eyes said. His badge identified him as Jelonso Emba, a Fire Shield.

"Really?" Hub beamed and sprang up. "I'll be back in a minute … I just have to do something in the hut."

"No, you don't!" Robby and Olivia said simultaneously.

Hub sat down with a dejected sigh.

"I'll attach the robot arms to a thin training dummy and vary the size a bit." Flora suggested. "What other affinities do you like to include? Maybe something VIPs would be interested as well."

"Light." Zapple and Hub answered.

"Magical Body Control, definitely We could do with more Ice and Wind boxes. Blood and Death might be interesting, too." Robby said.

"More Metal," Mia added quietly. Flora nearly missed it because a discussion broke out, whether they needed more Wood and Light boxes. Some of the players had noticed increases in the resistances even though they had chosen another affinity to train. So Flora explained to them that it came from the toxic aura of the generators.

During the rest of the meal, Flora doped out the affinities of the new boxes. She removed the Stehaufmaenchen from the plan and put a long Boxing Box for ranged fighting and Mia's Driving Sims there instead.

Because of the leveling of Power-Jump, Flora didn't want to log out. She needed the Simulation Ground to double her training, and she had nowhere else to escape from hopping in the box. Eddie's research had produced a few other subspaces she wanted to look into, like the Meditation Chamber, a subspace for mages, or a Shrine for classes of the divine branch. She had put it on her to-do list.

The loss of Deriga's workshop hurt. Flora couldn't recover the shop because it was bound to the Novice. The SG allowed her to save items, but not people. Flora wasn't unhappy about that. She might be tempted to load a Robby clone otherwise and would have felt bad objectifying him.

Hence, Flora was stuck at Riverstones Island for the next few hours. She deligated the task of modifying the boxes to Aito and told her only to leave the new rune-schemes for Body Control, Blood, and Death affinity to her and print the rest after the generators.

At the table, the conversation had shifted to empty mana bars of everybody, and the falling stamina bars of the dodgers and runners.

"After I bound Bloody Mana, Pray, and Battle Cry to those nifty gloves, I fared pretty well," Hub said.

"But using three of the six available skills just for regen?" Ponda asked. "Though, I use Access Leyline, too."

"Why not? They are important skills, so it's good to level them anyway. I did the same. Let me channel a mantra to get you going again." Robby said. Then he started glowing and chanting in a low voice. Flora didn't have mana problems with Refresh, Pray, and Elemental Power Gain in the simulation. The body in the workshop used Bloody Mana, too. However, more mana and stamina were always nice to have, so she ordered Aidan to research Battle Cry and Access Leyline.

"Battle Cry the signature skill of the class Warrior, Milady. It shares a cooldown with Re-Generate and works similarly. The secondary effect comes from Magical Body Control, a slight increase in physical stats.

Flora's interest sank.

"You warrior types have it good. I've chosen a treadmill, so I can't use Access Leyline. That leaves only Pray for me." Zapple complained.

"Access Leyline is the base spell for the magic branch, Milady. It reduces the mana cost of all spells in the magic branch while standing with both feet on the ground."

"You should get Relight. Rekindle serves me well." BBQ Grillmaster, the red-haired Fire Healer, said.

"Yeah, I should. But then I have to heal even more. I want to develop my damage skills." Zapple threw his hands in the air. "Besides, the questline is bothersome."

"I can teach you Relight, and I want to get Access Leyline. We could trade spells." Flora said.

Robby interrupted his chanting. "When did you finish the quest for Light Healer, Ma? It usually takes a few hours; days if you haven't unlocked all the bleaming circles."

"I got it through a challenge from System." Flora shrugged.

"Nay, that's not fair, Auntie. I don't want to rip you off. You can get Access Layline as your very first spell as soon as you visit the Talpica Uni. Are you interested in the spells of the Radiant Practitioner class? The quests for it are ugly, too." Zapple said. Delighted, Flora agreed.

(JNH: Post a picture of the new hut layout and the list of boxes and Team Fire)