Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

Slowly Flora awakened. She needed a moment to remember where she was. The little cave with the hot pool was unfamiliar. Only a bit of light reflected from the tunnel to entrance illuminated the wet stone.

"Right, I'm on Riverstones Island," Flora said. "How much time until the class, Aidan?"

"1 hour 12 minutes Cetviwos Time, 3 hours 35 minutes in time dilation."

"Has Jump reached level 50, already?"

"Yes, Milady. I continued to level it. A higher level will help with the lesson."

Flora nodded and complimented him for his diligence. Now, she had time to look at her new classes, but she hesitated.

"I believe I overdid it again," Flora confessed while letting the water run through her fingers. "I knew I wanted to go easy on acquiring new skills and classes, but I just couldn't resist… do you know whether the fallen novices have survived?"

Paladins carrying their unconscious forms out of the church was the last she had seen of them.

"Yes, Milady. Bibus Wendigo died, and Ondrak Cardosi pulled through."

Flora sighed. "Bibus died because I didn't know my skills well enough. I planned only to get new ones when I mastered the use of the ones I already have."

"Milady, the outcome would have been the same if you wouldn't have acquired the skills you didn't use."

"Interesting perspective! Maybe and maybe not. If I had only the Elemental Healer and the Priest classes, I would have remembered about Thaumaturgy. That spell would have made a difference. The standard attack, area of effect, defensive, and movement skills are easier to remember than the signature skills. Alright, it would be totally possible that I'd confuse which is the optimal shield to use in the heat of the moment… or movement skill…"

"Should I display prompts with suggested skills?"

"Thank you for the offer, but I already rely too much on you and Aito. Besides, Aito has shown good judgment when to show me a skill. So we leave it like this." Flora said, but then another thought crossed her mind. "Did I use my scepter? I didn't! While casting the healing rain with one hand, I could have shot those cute little healing beams with the other hand. Please remind me that I have two hands when I forget about it again."

"Yes, Milady."

"Maybe I shouldn't judge myself too harshly. I'm new to fighting and seeing people die in front of my eyes." Flora shook her head. "Those council members got rid of the pope before I regained my composure. We were interrupted the last time we spoke about that, weren't we? There was some mechanism to show how much people applied themselves in a fight?"

"Alright, let's speculate what everybody contributed."

Aidan and Flora came up with a list, using the video footage of the fight for details.

1. - Flowing Flowers – 52% - Chaining the Pope, building the armor/chains, healing and organizing the fallen

2. - Ellaciel Zander – 16% - Blocking the AoEs with the barrier, damage

3. - Tomos Ceart – 9% - Killing the Pope, mitigating the Pope's damage

4. - Afstira Nomizo – 8% - Helping Flora build the armor/chains, healing

5. - Mino Irden – 6% - Damage, helping Flora putting on the armor/chains

6. - Babra Pikame – 3% - healing, buffing, organizing

7. - Tali Rondas – 2% - organizing

8. - Deriga Ticet – 2% - organizing, buffing, healing

9. - Konstantin Kuvetli – 1% - organizing, buffing

10. - Ursula Yl – 1% - buffing, healing

"Hmm…" Flora said. "The more I see of the fight and the stats, the more I think, Irden and Ceart didn't give their all."

"I'm not sure, Milady. I have done a bit of research because I wondered why Aitoshuri was so much better at fighting than me and came up with some illuminating articles. It seemed there is the concept of "weak points", hitting certain areas like the head or neck that generate more damage."

"Of course, even machines have flaws," Flora said.

"The articles told that NPCs don't exploit weak points." Aidan continued. "I can confirm that my fight algorithms suggest I should hit the center of the opponents."

"Interesting! The head is a smaller target than the body, and the neck is even harder to hit. So, I can see the point, if you want to optimize the chance to score, you'll aim for the spot with the most tolerance for errors." Flora pondered. "Alright, thank you. I will keep that in mind when judging their performance."

Flora had suppressed the notifications for the new classes, but now she wanted to look at the Paladin class to analyze Ceart's options. Maybe he didn't have good skills?

Name: - Paladin

Branch: - Divine/ Warrior

Passive: - + 1 Training efficiency modifier for faith

Active: - No Metal Handicap for shiny Armor

STA: - Righteous Strike - Half of the effect damages an enemy, and the other half recovers mana. CD: none

AOE: - Presence - (Channeled) All enemy skills weaken.

DEF: - Retribution - Reduces incoming dmg and reflects a fraction of the reduced amout back to the originator

MOV: - Protect the Weak - Ports to an Ally to intercept an attack

SIG: - Center of Attention - (Channeled) All enemy STS will be partially redirected to the caster, including healing spells.

"Truly a class for masochists and very special people. Look at Center of Attention. Even if I hadn't known that Hub had this class, I would have guessed it from the description."

"I have included Paladin in your tree for training, Milady. Should I delete the class from it?"

"No, I'm pretty special myself if I dare to say so. And anyone who'd seen my boxes knows about my masochistic tendencies." Flora smirked, but went back to the topic. "Presence sounds powerful. Did Ceart use it? Reducing Razo's skill damage would have helped."

"Yes, Milady, albeit sparingly."

"Puh. Maybe he had mana problems? Righteous Strike doesn't recover mana when it doesn't hit, right? Razo dodged a few of his strikes."

"Maybe and yes, Milady."

"However, only 9% contribution, even though he decapitated the pope, is pathetic. Ceart should have ranked higher." Flora examined the list again. "Irden's participation is even worse. Let's look at what Monks can stuff into a toaster."

Name: - Monk

Branch: - Divine

Passive: - + 1 Training efficiency modifier for abilities associated with the God

Active: - Bonus for fighting unarmed or with blunt weapons

STA: - Mendicate - Health Transfer from Target to Caster. CD: 25 sec

AOE: - Mantra - (Channeled) Replenishes pool values. CD: none

DEF: - Firm Belief - Shield against intent damage. CD: 25 sec

MOV: - Kinhin (meditative walk) - (Channeled) Increases difficulty of being targeted by skills. CD: 25 sec

SIG: - Ora Et Labora - (Channeled) Using Abilities generates Physical Regeneration. CD: none

"Cute." Flora chuckled. "Now, I understand his contribution. Not much oomph found here. I like Ora Et Labora, though. However, channeling it constantly while crafting would be annoying."

"Abbot Irden is a Martial Monk. Should I display the class?" Aidan answered. "By the way, the signature skill of this class allows us to use Ora et Labora as a boost. We are currently training it, using the ability Dodging for funneling Ora et Labora."

"Great! Show me, please."

Name: - Martial Monk

Branch: - Divine/ Warrior

Passive: - + 1 Training efficiency modifier for Magical Body Control

Active: - Trains faith when using hand-to-hand combat

STS: - Righteous Fist - Half of the effect damages an enemy, and the other half recovers mana. CD: none

AOE: - Fists of Flurry - (Channeled) Attacks enemy multiple times, every 3 hits a shockwave occurs. CD: none

DEF: - Meditative Fighting - (Channeled) Increased difficulty for being targeted by skills. CD: 25 sec

MOV: - I bow to You and Roll with it - Reduces all incoming damage during and a short time after a roll

SIG: - Internalized Technique - (Boost) Transforms a prayer or technique into a boost. CD: 10 sec

"Wow, Internalized Technique sounds amazing! A pity that it doesn't work for all skills, but maybe we can do something about that. Display the diagram."

After Flora stared at the spell matrix for a while, she yielded. It was above her comprehension, at least for now. "There are such strange lines around the effect. Are they restrictions?"

"There is a lot in the small print, Milady. You can't use it for skills with a higher CD than one minute, no weapon skills like Righteous Strike, and no movement skills. If you would boostify Bless and Condemn, it would cost you 25 mana-regeneration, the cost of the prayer in MR, but the effect would be drawn out to one minute."

"I guess not in a good way like constantly raining the entire effect on my enemies, but tiny amounts now and then?"

"Exactly. The chances are good that the Magical Defense of the opponents would negate it."

"What about using it with Mantra?"

"Mantra has to be chanted. It can't be silent; therefore can't be boostified. The same counts for Battle Cry."

"What a pity. Internalized Technique sounded so useful at first. At least the word boostify is cute."

"It is rather powerful in combination with Ora et Labora, or Focused Radiance for team activities, and Divine Radiance. Radiant Martial Monk is a metaclass and very popular."

"What are metaclasses?"

"The most popular and successful classes in a competitive environment."

"Ha! Good for my son, being all popular and successful!" Flora beamed. She looked up Divine Radiance. It was a boost that spread positive "effects induced on oneself". So other players would profit from Ora et Labora as well. Not bad. Her eyes widened when she reread the description of Focused Radiance.

Target has a chance to receive the effects of single target skills aimed at other targets in its vicinity; Friendly targets benevolent effects, opponents harmful effects.

"I see what you meant with team activities. When a few people heal in Robby's vicinity, he gets all the good effects and even spreads them to his friends."

"The chances for receiving the effects and spreading them are far from perfect, Milady."

"Oh well, details." Flora was satisfied her baby had the means to keep himself safe. After trying to remember where she trailed off-topic and failing, Aidan helped Flora back on track.

"We analyzed the contribution of Abbot Irden, Milady."

"Honestly, I don't see much damage potential, and Nomizo healed, too. It would have been better if one of them had joined me healing the clergy."

"Please consider that I only showed you the standard skills for the Paladin and Monk classes. For NPCs, every tier and increase in RGS has a chance to open a slot for a new skill. We have no way of knowing what prayer, though."

"In summary, we have no concrete evidence of either neglect or diligence." Flora harrumphed. "Let's forget about the council. We should remember the people further down on the list. Deriga and Tali did great. Who are the others?"

"Babra Pikame, level 199 monk, is the former abbess of the monastery on the Converge, currently working parttime as an assistant of Irden due to child care.

Konstantin Kuvetli, level 189 paladin, is the former captain of the guard on the Converge. The Pope demoted him due to impropriate behavior.

Ursula Yl, level 9 paladin, is a protégé of Ceart. Her high potential due to being A-rated and having an RGS of 10 while still being a teenager makes her one of the most promising tier 1 members."

Aidan accompanied his introduction with pictures. Flora recognized Pikame. She was the Fireling monk who had teased Irden about his eating habits. "Investigate what 'impropriate behavior' Kuvetli has done. My definition might vary from the former Pope's. Is there any indication why Pikame didn't raise her kid on the Converge?"

"No, Milady. However, it's common to move to the Cradle for child care. In a level 1-5 world, the chances are much higher for the kid to survive."

Flora's eyebrows rose. She hadn't thought about what levels meant for having children. Of course, she would prefer a safer environment, too.

"Let's go to the temple. I want Deriga's workshop back."