Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

70. Building the Pyramid - Part 3

The fifth session started with a sober Flora, full bars, and a spotless tunic.

As if possessed by a desert spirit, Flora sprinted to the stall and chugged down two jars of beer, stripped, wrote runes, dressed, and sat down in front of the sleigh to meditate using the minute her crew needed to catch up.

The quest was A-rated, and Flora wanted to be in optimal shape.

The sled had three stones again, but they were smaller than in the last setting. Right away, Flora mistrusted the quest.

"We have to keep our attention sharp, dears. Even though the third quest had a cartridge with a lower weight and nothing bad had happened, the rating of the quest had sunken as well."

"According to the forum, there is a scheduled event on the way back in session three. You skipped it because of the slide down the pyramid."

"Then double the attention. We do just a bit of listening to your reading. Can you do voices, Aidan?"

Aito did one of those special signals. Although Flora only heard a beeping sound in her mind, she also understood, "Yes, please! That would be awesome, Aidan."

After some constructive critique from the ladies, Aidan gave up and bought the rights for emulating the voices from the cTVw series of the book.

CentralTank had its own video station, cTVw. They directed movies in the Cetviwos with mostly NPCs as actors.

"You are saying, this crappy novel has a TV adaption?"

Protesting about Flora's adjective, Aito beeped while Aidan just calmly confirmed it.

Shaking her head, Flora concentrated on her breathing and the path ahead. The pyramid was nearly finished and dominated the landscape. The limestone shone blindingly white in the afternoon sun. Flora had to squint when she looked directly at it.

Meanwhile, Walter, the water guy, fought through Silvia's lair but failed to defeat her. He got captured and put in a cage next to Bernie's. Sappy romance ensued, and they confessed their feelings. Just when they wanted to share their first kiss through the cage bars, an adventurer group killed Silvia and freed them. But they revealed Bernie had made a deal with Silvia. He wanted her to cheat at her fight with Walter at the tournament because he had no confidence to prevail against a water mage. After Walter heard their story, he stormed off.

Flora tried to remember how the actual situation had played out, but her mind drew blanks.

"I'm sure it's only a misunderstanding, Walter. Trust in your love!" thought Flora, but then shook her head. The evil book of her nefarious AI had caught her!

A snap reverberated on the plateau.

Flora's gaze darted to the sound. The crew of the sled in front of Flora lost hold of their carriage. It slid down the ramp and veered slightly in Flora's direction. With the current tractory, it would hit her and the people behind her and the sled.

Without letting go of her rope, Flora glided over to the worker next to her.

Vectors of the forces appeared in Flora's mind's eye. There was no chance she could stop the piled sled with the momentum it had gathered. But maybe redirect it? Another vector emerged in Flora's mind, perpendicular to the first, but way shorter. It represented Flora pushing the card from the side. The two vectors merged into one.

'Not enough. I have to use its own momentum against it.'

She squatted down and kept her rope on the ground.

When the sled drove over it, Flora straightened with a mighty tug. Forced up by the rope, the right skid left the ground, and Flora used the opportunity to ram the flank. The sled toppled over and tumbled off the ramp.