Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

The fairy led Flora to another dome. Without Flora's input, she changed the time dilation. Flora assumed that she had figured out that Flora was slow, and if she wanted to clock off anywhere near her regular hours, she should better provide the overzealous engineer with extra time.

The oblong room had a white line crossing the small side near the entry. A training dummy stood on the line and others at 5 meters, 15 meters, 30 meters, and 50 meters away.

Flora rubbed her hands. "I'm ready."

Nothing happened. Nothing changed. Hence Flora shrugged her shoulders and punched the dummy. Then she did some Wing Chun chain punches, some elbow action, kicks, and more chain punches.

"One minute can be quite long when you have no goal." Flora mused.

Finally, a pedestal with a kin-route appeared accompanied by another message.

Flora touched the little statue of a fighter in a boxing pose. Inside the routine, the body performed a one-two jab combo on a sand-sack and then some kicks. If Flora had to guess, she would bet on experiencing a kick-boxer.

Flora reenacted some of the movements she just learned and remembered, but skipped the rest.

A blue bipedal, shaggy monster appeared in front of Flora.

"Woa!" She jumped back. "They really love the pastel colors. Minty slimes, a fluffy pink smasher and now a baby blue colored bigfoot."

The monster didn't appreciate Flora's analysis and swung at her. Flora ducked under it and chain-punched his side. Its other arm rocked towards her, and she trapped it and hit its muzzle.

After a fourth hit, the bigfoot screamed and stumbled back while protecting its head with its arms.

Because Flora was slow at following the monster, it used the distance and kicked at her. It telegraphed all its moves, and Flora had no problems catching the leg and elbowing the kneecap.

Still clutching its leg, Flora kicked out as well. Her foot smashed under his chin, and its head snapped back with a crunch.

The monster vanished as suddenly as it had arrived.

A weapon rack with one scepter appeared next to Flora, who shrieked again.

"Burned Toast! I will get a heart attack from these magical vanishing and appearing tricks!" She exclaimed. "And please give me two scepters."

A second scepter materialized on the rack. They consisted of a silvery rod and an ornate head. When Flora picked them up, she noticed they weighed quite a bit.

Flora hit the dummy with the damaging and healing beams and even the scepter itself, watched the kin-route, and skipped to the fight.

This time, a monster and a knight showed up in a fifteen-meter distance.

At first, Flora thought something had gone wrong, that the knight was her new opponent, and the Bigfoot had come back for revenge, but then they started fighting with each other. Only when the bars of the knight appeared above his head and on her HUD, she realized that the knight was on her side. So she alternated between healing the knight and pelting the monster.

A full-sized staff with a flaming red crystal on top leaned against the rack for the next trial. Flora shot fireballs from it, and when the monster reached her, she smacked it over his head.

"Not bad!" She grinned. "A magic club might be better, but I had to make do."

Next came the plasma sword. "After you get over the awesomeness of wielding a light-saber, it’s a pretty shitty weapon," Flora stated while swinging the sword listlessly. "No parrying possible, no satisfying thud when you hit… I don't like it anymore."

The bazooka raised her spirits. Explosions just had that effect on her.

Thoroughly fed up with throwing, Flora skipped the throwing knives section as soon as she saw them.

Next, two shields materialized on the rack.

"Uhm, do people really fight with two shields, or are you following my wish for a weapon for each hand?"

"Fair enough." Flora shrugged and picked them up. The tower shields had not only spikes but also sharp edges. When she smashed them together, they functioned as a giant vertical snapping mouth.

Flora had more fun than she had deemed possible. She enjoyed ramming the dummy and later the monster and snapping at their appendages.

"Is this the first new weapon?" Flora asked. Intrigued, she picked up the gloves. They were metal, and blinking LEDs and circuitry gave them a cyberpunky look.

"No, Milady. Your Multi-Tool Scepter counts as a combat-tool as well. You received the ability through it."

Name: Training Combat-Tool

Type: Combat-Tool

Regular Mode: 2 OV Mana-Regeneration

Built-In Skill: Shoot repair beam; Cost: 1 mana; CD: 2sec;

Built-In Skill: Shoot EMP beam; Cost: 1 mana; CD: 2sec;

Base Damage/Healing: 2

Tier: 1

Rating: C

This time the monster was a metal robot, in Flora's opinion, a definite upgrade. The only detriment of the combat-tool was that it damaged non-electronic enemies for half the value and only healed machines.

With two wands in her hands, Flora shot mini magic missiles at the monster. She was disappointed that it died before it had reached her. She wanted to pull off the Harry Potter trick, sticking the wand in its nose.

After the arcane foci, Flora had to suffer through an assortment of ranged weapons. Bows, crossbow, rifle, and handgun, nothing felt right to her, and she skipped many phases.

Next, a majestic greatsword, as tall as Flora, popped up. She picked it up and gave it a trial swing before she assaulted the dummy.

"I love it! I want one!" Flora chirped after she split the monster in half.

The following options weren't to Flora's liking.

Daggers: "Too tiny. I don't feel comfortable that close to my enemies. Please ignore that I don't have the problem with hand-to-hand combat."

Rapier: "I want a weapon and not a toothpick."

Sword: "It feels unwieldy and awkward. Please ignore that I don't have the problem with the greatsword."

Spear: "Bigger toothpick equals better toothpick. However, I want to slay dragons and not work on their dental hygiene."

Whip: "Can you please vanish the whip? Or give me some daggers to cut myself free?"

Ax: "I'm a Lumberjack, and I'm okay, I sleep all night, and I work all day! I cut down trees; I wear high heels, a toaster, and a bra. I wish I've been an engineer exploiting nature's law."

Quarterstaff: "It doesn't throw fireballs? Why not? That is a failed design."

Halberd: "Too cumbersome to make lumber."

Mace: "Ok, not bad. However, a failed opportunity like the staff. I should be able to combine a scepter and a mace. Flora likes smashing" *thud*

"Sounds amazing." Flora chirped, but she had to laugh when the monstrosity appeared. It was the thigh bone of a big animal. One end was whittled down for gripping, the other remained thick and was adorned by feathers. It easily reached her chest. "Let's go tribal!"

Because of its size, Flora picked it up with two hands. She whacked the dummy over its head and rated the thudding sound with an A. The club was surprisingly light, so Flora changed to a one-handed grip.

Hitting the training dummy felt alright, but Flora had problems directing the beams from the massive weapon. She had swung her multi-tool and the wands for the cantrips but had only pointed the staff in the right direction. Both methods worked with the club but felt awkward one-handed.

Watching the kin-route showed her another option. The shaman wielded the club like a rifle for the cantrips, with one hand on the grip and one hand on the shaft. For melee, the host wielded two shorter clubs at the same time and hit his opponent like a drum, then one-handed with a round shield in the off-hand and at last, two-handed.

Flora had fun emulating the techniques on the dummy and later on the bigfoot.

"I want to get the Animator Class. What weapon would you recommend for it?"

"Sounds intriguing. I'd like to try out those, please."

Vicious spikes and scythes on chains appeared on the rack−only pumpkins were missing for the perfect Halloween decoration.

Flora picked up one of the mini-scythes.

Name: Kinetic Training Kusari Gama

Type: Chain weapon

Regular Mode: 1 OV Mana-Regeneration

Built-In Feature: Attuned to telekinetic control;

Tier: 1

Rating: C

Carefully, Flora swung the chain and aimed for the sickle to hit the dummy. The scythe lodged inside its torso.

"I got this!" Flora said, swinging with more enthusiasm.

Thirty seconds later, the whip-incident had repeated itself: Flora found herself bound by her own weapon, with the addition of the scythe sticking in her thigh. ´

"This time, I can at least use telekinesis to free me," Flora grumbled as she disentangled herself.

The kin-route impressed Flora. Her host artfully weaved the weapon through the air, changing directions and momentum on a whim via telekinesis. Unlike Flora, he only used the end with the counter-weight for swinging around and held the sickle in his hand.

Flora used the next free trial to imitate the host. Although she enjoyed the telekinetic tricks, it took a lot of concentration.

The fight against the bigfoot went okay. Flora received an own-goal when she smacked herself on the shin with the weight, but managed to kill the monster.

"Maybe I'll get one for training, but I can't imagine using it in a fight while casting spells and commanding companions." With a bit of regret, Flora put the weapon back on the rack.

"I like to finish on a high note. Anything extraordinaire you can offer?"

"Yes! I want to be a dragon!"

"Alright." Flora wasn't informed about dragon lore and disoriented when she changed.

'No appendages at all?' It felt like her arms and legs were bound together while her spine grew flexible beyond human capacity and elongated.

She raised her head full of sharp teeth and bit the dummy. 'Tastes like cardboard...' Then she whipped her tail around and struck it. The motion felt as great as it did foreign. Flora repeated it.

'Left, right, left, right! Smack, smack. I love the thuds!'

Instinctively, she felt as if she could spit something besides the usual phlegm.

Flora sucked something behind her jaw out but then choked. Coughing, she sprayed a green substance over the melee-dummy. She sniffed on the sizzling liquid. 'Acid?'

In the next attempt, she produced a proper acid ball and let it fly. The range was just 5 meters, but Flora was still proud that she hit the dummy in the distance.

After the enlightening kin-route, Flora faced the bigfoot. At first, she was hesitant to bite a living being, and only spat on it and whacked it. However, she wanted to sample the whole experience, so she snapped at the bigfoot. To her astonishment, it tasted like cookies−crunchy and sweet.

Her victory-roar sounded more like a bird's cry, but Flora was satisfied.

 

 

"The record bonus is probably + 1 OV for the weapon ability. What are my chances, dear test? Any top 0.1 rankings?"

"What do you think, team? The key point for my hesitation is the question of why I rank so low, even with my stats. I don't know what I could do better. Shouldn't my stats carry me to the top?"

"The test isn't concerned with stats, Milady. The forum commenters are sure they adapt the results. The opinions differ what about what the test emphasizes instead. Some think targeting weak points or high scoring zones like the head influences the assessment; others think the test even rates your posture. I noticed you were below the maximum fire rate."

*beep*

"I can do it more elegantly… and faster! Test, we'll repeat the intent focus." Flora grinned, straightened, and tipped the appearing scepter to her head, before pointing it at the dummy. "Enguard!"