2.23 Stake Out – Part 3

Helpless and angry, Flora watched the three pimps reach the exit. Her party members, the paladin, the monk, Dave, and two Asian Riverstones from whom she hadn't caught the names yet, still healed Sulfur.

'At least we are all alive.'

A shadow dropped from the ceiling. Eight appendages spread out. For one second, Flora thought a spider was attacking, but then she recognized Aitoshuri.

The octopussy landed on Sulfur, and her tentacles entangled the pimp.

"Break!" Flora whispered and pushed her magic against Sulfur's mind-control. Although she was used to the superior performance of her AI, she refused to be dead weight! The mind-control broke under the pressure of Flora's assault.

When Aito had secured her position around his neck, torso, and legs, she jerked, and the pimp stumbled, then fell.

Just as Sulfur's hulking friend bent down to pick him up, the spell whisked the pimp away.

To his crew's credit, they stopped and turned around.

"Go! We'll meet up later." Sulfur said, and they left the building before Flora came up with a plan to make them stay.

"Well," Flora said with Sulfur laying bundled up at her feet and her party still healing him glassy-eyed. "Well, well, well. Any suggestion on how we go on?"

"You are asking me?" Sulfur asked.

"You are my only conversation partner at the moment, besides my AIs, of course," Flora grinned wrily. "You might have a vested interest in the situation."

"Well." Sulfur echoed her and grinned as well. "How about you tell your pet monster to set me free, and we speak like civilized folks."

The tentacles clasped him tighter, and he had to struggle for breath.

"Wrong choice of words. Aito is neither my pet nor a monster." Flora said and then added only to Aito. "I'm sure he meant the octopussy, dear. Not everyone shares my superior taste in companions."

"Sorry." He wheezed, and Aito slackened the hold.

"Next suggestion. Please include something that returns the abducted church members and tells me who is behind this mess." Flora activated her lie detector, the Globe of Honesty.

"You realize that I can log out anytime I want?"

Aidan informed Flora that the emergency logout to leave the game was always available. He couldn't log out to the Metaworld while "captured," which had similar mechanics as "in combat". However, he could complain to Craidla, who only tolerated imprisonment by players for up to an hour and no torture at all.

"Sure, but what would it solve? I hired the other guys, and I can employ them as long as I like to get on your nerves. Your business is providing companionship to lonely people, right? I will hire some guys who like to watch these activities, give them enough popcorn and cheese toast to last a lifetime, and send them after your employees. What would your customers say about putting on a show? Some might even like it."

"You are a monster." Sulfur said as if it was a compliment. To Flora's chagrin, the Globe glowed green. "Alright, I'll set the clergy free."

"What about information about your employers?"

"Sorry, business secret." Sulfur smirked. "I have my standards."

Flora checked Aito's picture for the name of his contact within SwordOfMichael.

"I have standards as well—credit where credit's due. I will mention your reluctance to spill his name when I round up Bonifatius Crossed. Though, I'm not sure he will believe me."

"Monster!" The pimp exclaimed cheerfully. "You already know everything, what could I tell you?"

"I know nothing, dear." The Globe flashed red at Flora's statement, and Sulfur giggled. "Nobody knows anything until they have heard a story from three sides. Just tell me a bit about how you got the job."

"Well, the friend you have mentioned came to me with a big assignment. He wished to destroy all shrines of the Goddess Evailyn in Reye, then monitor them and take out any clergy who come to take a look. It didn't matter to him what we did with the clergy as long as they wouldn't reappear until Monday next week." Sulfur said. "I have treated them very well."

"Great. Thank you very much." Flora nodded to Dave, who stopped pretending to be enchanted.

The inspector asked a few more questions and hammered out the details of the deal. Sulfur would stop the shrine operations, free the clergy within an hour and reimburse them as well as Flora's team with 100k credits each. In turn, Flora wouldn't mention his name when confronting her enemies, and she wouldn't forward the evidence of Sulfur's wrongdoings to the Cradle guards.

Flora was fine with that and set Sulfur free.

"A pleasure to do business with you, Mrs. Monster." Sulfur said and bowed.

"If you are still so cheerful, we haven't hit you hard enough." Flora huffed. "You can call me Auntie Monster, or Auntie Flo."

The pimp chuckled, bowed again, and left with a skip in his step.

"For the record, nobody in my team likes to watch priests doing things to teenagers." Dave smiled wrily.

"Sulfur was only the contact in Reye. There are a few more continents. Are you up to investigating them even when it might include watching clergy do unspeakable things?"

"Sure. Can I use the help of your AI? Mine isn't able to extrapolate connections like that."

"Yes, of course. Aito is excellent… and not a monster at all."

*Farting beep*

"We'll start with the other continents as soon as Sulfur comes through with the agreement. If he breaks it, we'll hunt him down and have another conversation. My team tagged him as well as his crew. We'll know about his movements for the next 4 hours."

"Good work." Flora shook his hand, and he introduced her to the Asians. They were twins, Emily Huhu and Ramon Huhu. His other team members watched the exits of the warehouse.

Flora settled the payment with the Riverstones (2k VirDos or 300 Euro per hour for the whole team) and gifted multitool-scepters to Kowalski and Rictus.

After Flora finished the administrative tasks, she jogged to the soup kitchen. She replaced the broken cleaning cabinets with the new ones and repaired the shrine.

When Flora cleaned the location, the door to the shrine opened, and Deriga entered.

"Auntie Flow?" The novice asked, stopping in her tracks, but then she ran into Flora's arms. "I have been abducted. It was so horrible! They imprisoned us in a dank cellar, and I was so glad that I had some of your Nutella toasts left."

While Flora patted her back, the sobbing Deriga told what had happened to her and the two other priests. Sulfur had put them into holding cells, fed them only sparse meals and water, but otherwise, they were left unharmed. They spent the time praying and crafting. The last was possible because Deriga had shared her workshop with her colleagues.

That didn't sound too bad to Flora. On the opposite, she wished she had some alone time to craft. Of course, she didn't voice her thoughts. She was well aware that to retreat for a crafting session out of one's free will was a totally different slice of toast than being forced to stay put.

A few minutes ago, the captors gave them 100k credits before they knocked them out and released them in an alleyway in Texopor. Deriga was puzzled by the development, so Flora told her about the proceedings.

"What are you going to do now?" Flora asked when Deriga calmed down.

"I thought I'd finish my work here, but you already repaired the shrine," Deriga answered, looking around.

Flora rolled her eyes. The novice was too diligent for her own good. "Don't go outside without a team. The people who are behind the abductions are still at large. Take some time away from your duty." Flora suggested. That last advice people used to give her when she had buried herself in work to forget her woes. Of course, she never took it. Not to feel like a total hypocrite, Flora added: "Making some art and crafts can help to process the ordeal."

Deriga smiled at her. "I'll do that, Auntie."

"Can you do me a favor, dear? I lost your workshop because I had to restructure the simulation grounds. Would you add it again?" Flora felt like a villain to take advantage of the novice so soon after her release, but Deriga was happy to help.

A few minutes later, Flora regained access to the workshop. This time they had placed it in the corner of the unholy cliff, so Flora could cordon off the area when she needed another testing ground.

Flora gifted Deriga a Turret-Trap and a healing turret as thank you present. "You can install them in your workshop and train your physical Vigor and Regeneration while crafting."

"Thank you, Auntie. I progressed immensely in the last few days." Deriga raised her chest and pointed at her batch. "After the fight with the pope, my rating improved to B, and my RGS increased to three in captivity. I'm now a full-fledged priestess. Additionally, I received an ultra-rare prayer in the night after you visited my cell."

"Amazing! I'm so happy for you!" Flora managed to suppress grilling Deriga about the skill for an entire second, then she caved. "Tell me everything about the prayer! I'm sorry! Only tell me if and what you are comfortable with. Oh, dear, I'm excited. What does it do? Of course, I'll reimburse you for the information."

"I'll take Nutelly toast as payment." Deriga blushed and giggled. "I'm only joking. I believe our Goddess gave it to me because of you. It's called Conviction and raises the Faith OV. The great thing is that you don't need to cast it, it activates by itself if you are in the right mood. I want to teach the prayer to you."

"Excellent! Thank you so much. Don't sell yourself short. Your conviction in your place in the church and responsibility towards the Goddess was your own decision. I had nothing to do with it."

Deriga slotted a nock from Aidan and transferred the skill diagram to Flora. Flora had never seen a skill that increased an affinity or that activated itself before and inspected the chart with care.

You gained a new skill: Conviction

Description: Increases your Faith OV. Has no fixed cooldown and duration when mood activated.

Cooldown: 1 min

Duration: 10 sec

After Flora learned the skill, they touched up the shrine together. The matron of the soup kitchen thanked them for their work and invited them to a midnight snack.

"Auntie… may I ask you for a favor?" Deriga said, stirring her soup.

"Sure, dear. I owe you at least two."

Deriga blushed, her gaze locked onto the soup bowl as if it contained the secret to eternal happiness or toast.

"You don't owe me anything. So please be free to say no." Deriga said. When Flora just grinned at her, Deriga went off. "Your entourage is important. You shouldn't trade it away!"

"What entourage?"

"The escort from the church for your champion quest."

"First thing I hear about it…" Flora said, bemused. "Well−what are the responsibilities of the entourage?"

"Oh." Deriga fell silent. "Their job is to support and advise you. There have been incidents on which the Champion lead them into battle for the competition."

"Most interesting!" Flora said and sent Aito to research the Champion selection. "If I were a big church, I would lobby for this kind of competition, because it would give me an advantage over the smaller churches like ours… Would you do me the honor of being part of my entourage? How many people do I need?"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I won't disappoint you!" Deriga exclaimed. "You need three more people."

"Alright, I want maximal diversity. Different classes, different genders, different races, different ages. Should I include different ratings as well? Do you have recommendations? Does the Church of Evailyn have S rated members? Can I only choose church members?"

"You should get at least B rated persons with an RGS of at least 3, better above." Deriga looked at her dish again. "If I were A-rated, I would advise you only to get A-rated people. The Church of Evailyn has no S rated members to my knowledge though some have the potential to grow to S like Ursula Yl. However, she is another young female Metaling like me. You have to choose followers of Evailyn but not necessarily clergy."

"Please suggest a team to me before noon tomorrow. I will send the same request to the council members and maybe do some missionary work in my clan. On Wednesday One, we will test how the recruits harmonize as a team." Flora decided and delegated notifying the council to Aidan. "Aito and Aidan, please compile lists as well."

The rest of the meal, Deriga told Flora about the selection for the Red High faction she witnessed. It included dragon-riding.

"Oh, my," Flora smirked. She looked forward to the competition.