Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

2.6. Training Academy

Flora felt like she was covered in mud. Not the fun kind of mud which you can use to build sandcastles, but the dirt of corruption.

Ceart was the only one with a transparent and faultless documentary. His expenses mirrored his commitment to his troops.

A shady clerk kept Zander's records. He had funneled money to his relatives, selling their wares at inflated prices to the church. Flora excommunicated him with enthusiasm. For once, Zander's face showed emotion. She was as disgusted as Flora, and that caused Flora only to reprimand her and reduce her funds.

Irden's records were a mess. His food expenses were enough to build the Mount Everest out of toast. Flora had eaten in the cafeteria of the church, and the meal was excellent, so his investment wasn't squandered, just out of proportion. She decided that the cafeteria was not a department that needed the direct oversight of one of the council members and assigned it to one of the nuns under Irden with a halved allowance.

Nomizo was lucky again. She had the lowest budget, just enough for her travel expenses, but kept only spotty records. Another slap on the wrist for her and a promotion to balance it out. Flora assigned her the administration of the headquarters, Dysian's former job.

Money from royalties generated the primary income for Evailyn because the church held several patents of common household appliances. Sales of home-oriented products came second. A whole department, formerly managed by the Pope, crafted them. The Research and Development Division was subordinated to them and located a tiny room in the wing. Flora promoted the priestess, Celia Werkstatter, who led R&D to department head solely for the reason she had motor oil smudges on her face. Nonetheless, she reminded Werkstatter and Nomizo to get capable assistants for spotless records.

"I want you all to brainstorm how we can get more followers for Evailyn," Flora ordered the Council on her departure.

The original plan was to take a nap and talk to Evailyn, but Flora redecided. She couldn't face the Goddess with pent-up disgust and all the turbulent emotions of the morning. She needed to let it sink in and process what she had learned.

Tomorrow, she wanted to build a training facility for Clan Riverstones. The Mini-Masters had told her that Talpica had a gym for raising attribute levels. They would know, you got the title "Mini-Master" when you had great attributes at level 1. Although they told her the Training Academy was worse than the gyms of the top clans, it was the only public place for her to get an impression of how ordinary people acquired their attribute levels.

Apart from the Training Academy, you could hire personal trainers or attend boot camps. Lana, the CFO of the Riverstones, facilitated a contact with one of their partner clans, PullUpBootStraps, which specialized in workshops and training camps.

Flora ran to the Training Academy in Tricky Beach fashion. The streets of Talpica were parkways with sturdy trees. She climbed up and then ran along the branches and jumped to the next. She wasn't the only one avoiding the busy streets, but the traffic on the trees was still manageable.

"Was that an elf?" Flora nearly fell off her branch staring at the pointy ears of a guy whom she overtook.

"Yes, Milady."

"Wow. I heard about them, but seeing one is different. He should eat more toast. He was way too skinny. That can't be healthy."

When she nearly reached her destination, a flying motorcycle with a blue lamp surpassed her.

"Ma'am, please slow down, you are exceeding the speed limit of tree-walking." A female Waterling admonished her. Flora checked her badge, and her class was Police Officer. After paying 100 credits, she allowed Flora to continue. The auntie was too baffled to complain.