Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

13. Riverstones and Crafting

Lana showed Flora the bamboo huts. The biggest ones, like the clan-hall and the clubhouse, would be more appropriately named 'Bamboo Palaces'. The clubhouse stretched across the river, and its floor covered the water only partly. Near the bar, you had to stand directly on the stones in the river. Of course, Lana forewent the holes in the floor. She nodded and waved to the patrons while crossing the room.

The patrons came in all ages, colors, and attires. A guy in a red robe with arcane symbols shared a plate of fries with a punky pilot. Behind the bar, a pretty boy in a blue 'Clan Riverstone - Staff' T-shirt served cocktails to a knight in shiny armor and cyberpunk girl in an exoskeleton. Flora took it in quietly, but her heart swelled in pride. This thriving community was her son's achievement!

The next stop was a warehouse. You could exchange clan contribution for items. Superficially, Flora browsed the wares: potions, armor, vehicles. As Flora noticed that even the clothes had stats, she couldn't contain her laughter. This world obsessed about stats!

Lana wanted to skip the armory because only the staff was allowed to access it, but Flora convinced her to sneak a peek. Jetpacks, turrets, robots and even three of Flora's toaster spaceships filled the building. Of course, Flora jogged to the spacecraft and inspected them. It definitely was her old design! 'How awesome would it be to race through space in a ship I have designed by my self?'

Flowing Flowers to Aidan: "Remind me, to bully Robby into letting me have a spin in a toaster, dear!"

The next hood they stopped, contained the 3D printer.

"This get's better and better, Lana!" said Flora while hugging a pillar of the pavilion-like construct. "Just leave me here and come back tomorrow or next week."

She laughed. "Okay, I relay to Rob that he should pick you up when he's back."

Flora connected her workshop module with the printer and her nock. Her surrounding changed slowly to her old workshop.

"I'm home again!" She smiled. Flora built her workshop like a gothic cathedral with pointed arches and stained glass windows depicting household appliances like mixers, toaster, and electric beaters. On the workbench in the middle was still her last project before her license for the CAD-system had expired, a diamond toaster. After she petted it, she opened the marketplace.

"Alright, dear. I've got an idea." Flora smirked. "I'm much stronger and more agile than in the real world. I'm not used to it yet, and we can exploit this by an old age suit!"

"I don't understand, Milady."

Flora smirked and selected the exoskeletons. She sorted them by price ascending and user rating ascending. After she scanned a few, she discovered one she found promising. The reviews trashed the design!

"This piece of garbage is more a hindrance than a help!"

"A medieval armor suit supports it's wearer more!"

"No skills are preloaded. I uploaded 'sprint' and 'power-punch'. The latter broke the mech suit. The former broke my legs!"

"If you asked your self where the 5 OV reg goes, this monster steals from you: It's into heat! After half an hour, it starts burning your body!"

"Excellent!" Flora exclaimed and bought it for 1 VirDo. "We will modify an exoskeleton, that is heavy and unwieldy to train up my stats."

Her previous work as an industrial designer didn't give her insights into exoskeletons, so she was more comfortable altering an existing one. At least until she got a better understanding of the technology. She assembled the armor according to the blueprint but changed it. Every large solid plate, she broke up and layered it for better mobility, and smoothed ridges and edges. She wanted to have the full range of motion, but it shouldn't be easy to move. Additionally, she added a second, frosted visor to the motorcycle helmet because she wanted to train her perception with restricted sight. At last, she installed tasers on the torso and legs.