Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

Flora loaded her divine generator. Yesterday she only managed to make it generate one mana per minute, and today she wanted to find out why.

Aidan and Aitoshuri had read all the rune books and could tell her the reason. It was the maximum a scheme could produce in one cubic meter. 

Yesterday Flora had chosen to carve the scheme in a stone column, 30 cm high, with a radius of 8 cm. One cubic meter was quite a bit of distance to bridge.

First, she put four of the columns on the ground, on the edges of a 1x1m square, and connected them to a mana battery located in the middle. 

Four mana per minute!

She added a level a meter above them with another four columns.

Eight mana per minute! More than enough for a healing turret, maybe even a weak shield generator on top. 

Flora decided only to build the turret for version one. She mounted it above the generator and modified it to generate two beams.

Name: Double-barreled Autonomous Healing Turret

Description: Heals Friends in its range when they are below 30 Percent Health.

Type: Turret

Regular mode: 0 mana regeneration

Built-In Feature: Healing Cloud, when it isn't healing for more than 30 sec. 

Effect: Double Healing when the target is below 15% health.

Base Healing: 2 x 4

Rating: S

"Ha! Just imagine it, dears. We will stand before a dragon within a forest and turrets, some shooting it down, some healing each other!" Flora exclaimed. "There are no toasters in this picture, which is bad. Let's say there is room for improvement, but the core of the idea sounds solid, right?"

"Every device has to be bound to player, either through a nook or a magical binding, Milady. The only exception is devices in lairs. That means you can have a maximum of 12 turrets with the Brownski-jacks. Though, you have to relinquish your AI's and other gizmos. Additionally, each binding cost at least one mana regeneration per minute. The 0 mr/min is deceptive. If you socket the turret, the description will change."

Flora deflated and thought about it. "What if I make one huge device? I can easily stuff a 5x5x5m expanding generator grid in a 3x3x3m container and sprinkle some turrets in between. Connecting three of these monster-gizmos together, and voila: the dragon is toast!"

"You might want to look into battle-platforms, Milady. Words don't do them justice. I recommend watching a video."

Aidan called up a video with the name "Five of the most influential battle platforms in the history of Cetviwos".

It started with a simple rectangular stage with four turrets and a blue shield. Thick wheels moved it over a battleground. Three mages and three water elementals stood on it and rained spells on a horde of ugly small humanoids. Flora estimated it was 3 meters long, and the tallest turret reached 2 meters above the ground and maybe 2 meters broad, but wheels protruded from it. So it still fitted into the inventory.

"The Battle-Platform, invented by Mo TheGizz. It gave the name to the whole category." The narrator explained and then blended in the description.

Name: Battle-Platform 

Type: battle-platform

Description: Mobile stage with turrets.

Regular Mode: 18 mr/min

Built-In Feature: 4 x Laser-Beam; CD: 2 sec;

Built-In Feature: Scattering Fire; CD: 25 sec;

Base Damage: 4 x 8

Tier: 2

Rating: S

The next clip showed the same three mages, but this time eight turrets surrounded them. The platform had legs instead of wheels, and a shimmering blue shield covered it. The narrator commented that it was the first time Mo the Gizz included generators to reduce the mana-load of the user. To Flora's disappointment, he didn't mention the amount. 

Name: Battle-Platform 2SG10MG

Type: battle-platform

Description: Mobile stage with turrets and a shield. 

Regular Mode: 22 mr/min

Built-In Feature: 8 x Laser-Beam; CD: 2 sec;

Built-In Feature: Scattering Fire; CD: 25 sec;

Built-In Feature: Recharge Shield; CD: 25 sec;

Base Damage: 8 x 12

Tier: 3

Rating: S

This platform still fitted into the inventory, but the next one was double the size. The new feature was a cockpit in the center. The turrets were mounted on the underside. Longer legs carried the stage at least two meters above the ground.

On the top Mages and Snipers where arranged like in school picture: the first row sat with their legs dangling, the next row sat behind them, then a row of standing people and in the center was a grinning man on the steering wheel.

Flora regretted that she had no unhindered view. She thought that it might be possible to origami the platform into a 3x3x3m shape. 

Name: Battle Pyramid

Type: battle-platform

Description: Mobile stage with turrets and shields. 

Regular Mode: 24 mr/min

Built-In Feature: 8 x Laser-Beam; CD: 2 sec;

Built-In Feature: Sprint; CD: 25 sec;

Built-In Feature: Recharge Shield; CD: 25 sec;

Built-In Skill: Recharge Shield; cost: 25 mana; CD: 25 sec;

Base Damage: 8 x 12

Tier: 3

Rating: S

The next platform was oval and lower to the ground. Metal spikes on a circulating chain engirded it. Between the turrets, flamethrowers were bolted down.

"Yes! That's the way to go!" Flora exclaimed. 

Name: The Grinding Hell

Type: battle-platform

Description: Mobile stage with turrets, flamethrowers, a chainsaw, and shields. 

Regular Mode: 24 mr/min

Built-In Feature: 8 x Laser-Beam; CD: 2 sec;

Built-In Feature: 8 x Flamethrower; CD: 10 sec;

Built-In Feature: Chainsaw;

Built-In Skill: Recharge Shield; cost: 25 mana; CD: 25 sec;

Built-In Skill: Grinding Hell; cost: 50 mana; CD: 1 min;

Base Damage: 8 x 12

Tier: 3

Rating: S

The final battle platform was flying but brought nothing new to the table of armament. 

"Hmm, I feel I don't know enough about combat to built a good one." Flora mused.

Aitoshuri beeped agreeing.

"I've seen it time and time again: Engineers building things they don't use. It never ends well. I think everybody should be forced to use their own creations for at least seven days a week every day. Many user-unfriendly products, especially software, would vanish."

Flora closed the video.

"We postpone the platform. I just make some small turrets. But only one turret is too little for an inventory slot; let's connect two of them with a cable." Flora grinned. "I don't mean turrets. They are, of course, traps - traps that can shoot! With Deploy Traps, I should get them out of my inventory even in battle, right?"

"I'm not sure, Milady."

"We'll try it out!"

Flora connected two turrets and implemented some pressure plates at the pedestal. If you hit them, spikes shot out of the casing.

"How are we doing on the printer front, Aidan?"

"We've got a surplus of S rated designs worth 116 points of the required 100 points, exactly the right amount of A-rated blueprints 50 of 50, 23/50 B and 5/50 C."

"Forget it. My patience wore out. We buy a B-rated Printer and go from there. I use the old printer for testing if I can miniaturize it. A portable printer would be awesome!"

Flora bought the B-rated printer, upgraded it to A, and finally to S. Relieved, she sighed. At last, she owned an S-rated 3D printer!

"Let's start printing! Aitoshuri, you will get a nicer octopussy first!" Flora cheered, but then her HUD filled up with rows after rows of data.

Flora's mouth was ready to pose a question, but her mind got caught up in the numbers. Sensory data at different lights? Force distribution? Water leakage?

"Is this from your testing the octopussy, sweety?"

Aitoshuri confirmed Flora's guess.

"Okay, I'll fix that first before we are going to print the pussy again. But I'm burning to print something now, so we go with some turrets." Flora looked around. "And we still need generators for the church!"

Flora built a 1x1x1 block and sat the mana-generator in the middle of it. Then, she constructed connections on four sides of the casing to stack them. At last, she created a cushion you could clip on top to sit on it. 

"We put those under the windows in the church and in the production hall. Dual function! Generator and Bench at once! Maybe we can even use them as a fence for the roof garden."

After queuing up an order of 25 blocks, Flora left Deriga's workshop. As she was in the process of exiting her own workshop, she glanced at the simulation grounds. Her mirror was standing on the cliff, looking forlorn. 

'I wonder what she will do while I'm away.' The thought flitted through Flora's mind but soon was replaced by the excitement of playing with her new device.

Carefully she inspected the printer. It stood right beside the old one in the production hall. The only difference was that it was made out of shinier materials. But the design of the exterior was identical.

<XYZ-ray>! Wire-spaghetti! 

Next! <XYZ-ray>! Wire-spaghetti with sauce! Next! 

Flora checked all the usual spots where control units would be located, but found nothing but cables and wiring and sometimes a strange fluid, which she couldn't identify with just the scan. She felt more like a gynecologist or a cave explorer than an engineer!

Even the four lasers that built the products had nothing but wires in them! Not even some links or joints or at least tubes!

Flora shook her head. That was fantasy engineering! If she thought about it too hard, she would only get a headache or a nervous breakdown.

The two times two turret-traps got printed, and Flora pocketed them.

Name: This is a Trap

Type: Hybrid trap and turret

Description: Spike trap with an autonomous turret on top connected to spike-trap with an autonomous turret on top.

Regular mode: 0 mana regeneration

Built-In Feature: Healing Cloud, when it isn't healing for more than 30 sec. 

Built-In Feature: 4 x Healing Beam; CD: 2 sec;

Base Healing Turrets: 4x4

Built-In Feature: Spike-Trap

Base Damage Trap: 3

Effect: Double Healing when the target is below 15% health.

Tier: 1

Rating: S 

After the traps, the generators came out of the printer. Flora and Aitoshuri carried three of them to the wall with the windows. Without any problems, you could connect them in a row. Now, Flora plugged in the first block to the house-mana-circuit. 

"Is it working?"

"Yes, Milady. We now produce three mana per minute by ourselves."

"What if we produce more mana than we consume?"

"It will flow back to the mana-grid, and we get one VirDia for 1000 mana per minute."

Flora ordered Aitoshuri to stay with the printer and connect the 50 generators on each wall and then do the same for the one free wall beneath the windows in the church. 

Back at her workshop and simulation grounds, Flora first checked on Deriga. She had forgotten about her being in the SG when she logged off, but nothing had happened to her to Flora's relief.

After connecting to the new turrets, excuse me, traps, the library container, the potion guzzler, and the training coffin, Flora logged into Deriga's workshop.

Flora was tempted to buy her a Simulation Ground as well. But she feared a visit from the administrator and wasn't too sure if another workshop would even work in Deriga's simulation grounds. She had the feeling that Derigas Workshop was special because Deriga was a Native.

Next, Flora immersed herself in the data of the octopussy. Most were easy fixes: a bit more isolation here and a change of the angle there. Additionally, she bought a tier-1 sensor suite from the market place. Not only did she replace the sensors in the head, but also put one of the sensors at the tip of a tentacle along with a tiny flashlight. That was not only useful for checking out all the nooks and crannies when repairing, but also handy when they eventually would go adventuring. Flora didn't want to stick her head around a corner with guys with guns on the other end. 

"What do you think now, Aito?"

The AI highlighted a data set on the list. It contained stress tests of the materials of the skeleton, and it wasn't looking good. 

Flora didn't have extensive data about the materials of the Doom Moon in her head, but she had the user manuals. Of course, she let Aitoshuri make the cross-referencing and selection of the substance she deemed the best.

Aito sent back her selection and added a forum post, "Advantages of the refinement of Metal", and the section in the smithing book about the technique.

Skimming over it, Flora thought that the procedure was within her capabilities. If she understood it right, it was basically physically bullying the metal until it gave up and raised its rating.

Name: Doomed Hull

Type: Metal

Description: Alloy from the hull of the Doom Moon. Designed to stand against meteor impact, cosmic radiation, Energymaster, and Icemaster abilities.

Tier: 1

Rating: A

Flora bought an anvil and a forge and started hammering away at a 10x10x10cm chunk.

After five minutes, she grew bored. 

"Aidan, read me from the book '1000 common Runes and Glyphs'" 

"Yes, Milady. Should I blend in the runes in your HUD?"

"Alright, but only barely visible, around 15% opacity."

Flora let Aidan's voice wash over her and fell in an easy rhythm of hammering, reheating, and more beating the impurities out of the alloy.

Sweat ran down her body, and her stamina bar sank at a visible pace only to get filled up again by Recharge, sometimes more than what was lost, but most times less.

After half an hour, Flora took a break to inspect the metal block. It lost not only its cubic shape but also seemed to be smaller than before though its rating remained the same.

"Suggestions?"