Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

2.77 Nock Jam-Session

Flora knocked on Doc Brownski's door.

"No! No!" The Doc exclaimed, followed by the sound of something crashing down. "Okay, now you can come in."

Smiling, Flora entered the office. "Hi, Doc!"

"I know you! Do I?" The silver-haired Metaling asked while he wiped his hands on his lab coat, careful not to hit the Aloha shirt beneath it.

"You do. You implanted my nocks in a six-star configuration. They are working splendidly."

"Ha! All the deaths were worth it! Molana bless you, Earthlings! Your reincarnation ability makes you the perfect test subjects!"

"Have you thought about using golems for your trials? You would have unlimited test subjects."

"Golems? For what would they need nocks? Most robots are smarter than them. That would be a dunce directing a genius. Oh. Like my boss! He is an imbecile, and our arrangement works out fine. You might be on to something."

"I want to equip my golems with nocks. So we can try it out together and see how it goes." Flora patted Tolly's head. She felt some reluctance in the toaster golem but not much, like a single pepper in his potato sack mind.

"If I had the funds, I would try for sure!" Doc Brownski looked at her pitifully.

"How much?"

An hour (and 1000 VirDos) later, they had no solution but a better understanding of the problem. Nocks sat in the nape of humans. From there, they could access the central nervous system and the mana because most people had a strong connection from their magical core beneath their naval to their hands. Golems had no nervous system, and their magical pathways differed from humans.

Doc Brownski had called a fellow scientist, Anhar Qadir, over who specialized in mana saving nocks. The waterling had a strong background in nock placement theories and now measured a Tolly. His lanky frame bending over the small golem, he wrote down the numbers for his equitations.

While Doc Brownski was inserting so many nocks into his Tolly that the poor golem resembled a pin cushion, Flora sat with closed eyes in front of a Golly and an Octopussy. She explored the difference and similarities between a nock connection and a mana connection.

The skill Establish Connection did everything a nock did and should need the same requirements. So after establishing a connection with the Octopussy, Flora tried to locate the origin of the link in herself. She changed between nocks and the spell for contrast.

Because Qadir missed his dinner appointment, the stood-up colleague joined them instead. Doctor Mercedes Versario, a tiny but energetic Woodling, challenged the entire concept of golems with nocks because of the metal handicap. Predictably, the scientists became engrossed in the discussion, and nothing did get done because they weren't sensible like engineers and waited until something exploded before they started theorizing. At least, they weren't theoretical scientists or nothing would ever get done.

Meanwhile, Flora was pretty sure that her magical link originated from the area around her collarbone.

"Would a nock in my collarbone area work?" Flora asked.

"Yes, but ... " Brownski said.

"No, except ..." Versario said.

"It depends on ..." Qadir said.

Flora listened to their elaborate arguments for five minutes. Although they voiced dissenting opinions, she understood that they deviated within acceptable margins for an engineer.

"So, probably?" Flora asked.

"It depends on ..." Brownski said.

"Yes, but ... " Versario said.