Flora finished her spell training. Then she crafted the coins she had promised to the clan members with a Riverstones logo on the back. Haidan distributed them and added another 50 coins, 50 Six-Changing-Finger-Positions Rubber-Training-Gloves, and 20 training boxes to the clan store. At last, she finished three more boxes for the training hut with Death and Blood rune-schemes.

After a short nap, she ventured to Talpica. Aidan guided her to a district with highrises. The buildings rose straight in the sky like tree trunks, and then the construction branched out like the crown of a tree with elemental domes instead of foliage. The fire domes glowed bright, and the water domes reflected the light. The spiky, green wood-structures seemed muted in comparison. Between the branches, rollercoaster tracks connected major domes.

"These are the biggest Christmas trees I've ever seen!" Flora exclaimed, craning her neck to look up the impossible buildings.

"We are in the center of Talpica. The Cradle auction house, the subsidiary of the Central Bank, and significant factions entertain branches here." Aidan explained to Flora while he guided her to the Mercenary Guild, which contained the Testing Center.

Turnstiles barred the entry to the building. Flora imitated the other people and swiped her badge across the loggy to gain entrance.

With a popping sound, a tiny figure appeared next to Flora's face.

Flora shrieked and jumped in shock.

!

"Don't block the turnstile. It's just your guide." A young man with a witch's hat admonished her while the people around him laughed.

Flora blushed and mumbled an apology. She followed the stream of people deeper into the building, but ducked into the first alcove she found. The fluttering creature followed her.

"Hello, Flowing Flowers. I'm Friedhilde, your ferrying fairy!" The small woman chirped. Carried by translucent wings, she circled Flora's head. "I will guide you through the Sweeping Blow quest. Would you like to begin?"

"I don't know, dear. I heard warnings about following fairies. Can you give me some assurance that I will make it back into the real world, or at least into the real virtual world?"

The fairy chuckled, and it sounded like a chime ringing in the wind.

"My contract doesn't allow to ferry you away. Unfortunately, you'll get only the boring standard test."

"Now, I'm at the same time relieved and disappointed." Flora smiled and winked at the little creature.

Laughing, the fairy backflipped in the air.

"Follow me!" Friedhilde chirped before dashing away. Flora darted after her, with Aito and Aidan on her back.

"We'll start with the most tedious part first, taking the survey." The fairy said, stopping inside a wooden chamber with a runic control panel. She channeled mana into one rune, and the door closed behind them.

Flora expected it to work like an elevator and had to fight for her balance as it accelerated horizontally. The cabin catapulted into the outside, accompanied by Flora's shriek and Friedhilde's laughter. Abruptly, the cabin rose, and Flora could see the sinking ground through holes in the walls.

"I'm going to be sick!" Flora gasped and concentrated on her breathing to fight nausea, which caused another giggling fit in the fairy.

The cabin came to a hard stop in front of a water dome, barely bigger than the cabin.

A portal appeared in the water curtain, and Flora entered a small room with a comfy armchair and a screen.

"I survived, so far, so good. Aidan, I hope you are taking notes on how to navigate this rollercoaster." Flora sat down and looked at the screen. A board with five numbered buttons and arrows hovered in front of it.

"Section 1 - Describe how much you like the following objects."

"Flowers. 1 = strong like, 2 = like, 3 = average, 4 = dislike, 5 = strong dislike"

Flora pressed the button with the digit "2" on it.

"Grass."

After the fifth word, "cars," Flora set Mana Cultivation on auto, logged into her workshop, the simulation grounds (three times time dilation), Deriga's workshop, and finally, her bedroom.

"Aidan, I'll call out the numbers, and your octopussy will press the buttons for me. We are speeding this up. And get me treadmill. Let's test whether I can read and run at the same time."

Two hundred questions later, the different message popped up.

"Do you want to answer the bonus questions of Section 1? 1 = Yes, 2 = Continue to Section 2."

Flora had fun rating the terms, so she selected the bonus and answered another batch of questions.

"Section 2 – Choose how much you like the following activities."

"Hiking. …"

Flora liked most of the proposed ventures. She noticed that when she disliked an activity that there were fewer follow-up suggestions. After she rated "Feeding pets" and "Taming animals" with five, no more animal-related topics appeared. On the other hand, pressing the one-button for art let to a plethora of questions about painting, drawing, sculpting, and sketching. She spent at least fifteen minutes clicking through crafting-related topics.

"Oh, dear." Flora smiled wryly as she finished the food activities. "Toasting wasn't mentioned. That is clearly an inferior test."

In the hope of toasting related content, Flora did the bonus section again. Unfortunately, without success.

Section 3 had a list of options to choose from.

"You have fallen into a pit. What would you prefer to do? 1 = Jump out, 2 = Fly out, 3 = Dig yourself out, 4 = Stay in the pit, 5 = other, state your preferred action."

At first, the situations were plausible, and Flora accepted one of the standard answers. But as the topics grew more outlandish, the offered options didn't satisfy Flora anymore.

"You get abandoned on an inhabited island. You are allowed to take one item with you. What will it be? 1 = Weapon, 2 = Crate of food, 3 = Saw, 4 = Barrel of Water, 5 = other, state your preferred action."

"5, an emotional support toaster," Flora said with a straight face. "Scratch that, a helicopter with a full tank−the gas type of tank, although the masochist type of tank might enjoy flying with me."

After completing the bonus, the next section appeared.

"Section 4: Would you rather?"

"That isn't a proper sentence, but a drinking game…" Flora cackled.

"1 = Heal, 2 = Smash, 3 = neither"

"I would like to choose option 4 = both, please," Flora said, but nothing happened. "Alright, 2."

"1 = High burst damage, low regular damage, 2 = continuous damage, 3 = neither."

"2. Slow and steady is the way to the top."

"1 = Invest Mana Regen in yourself (Boosts), 2 = Invest Mana Regen in companions, 3 = neither."

"Another hard question… this time I want both of them and auras on top." The screen showed no change, and Flora selected "2" with a sigh.

Of course, Flora did the bonus part again.

"Section 5: Rank the terms according to their desirability by pressing the buttons in the order from the most enticing to the least enticing."

"1 = Fighting at the frontline as a vanguard

2 = Getting close to the enemy

3 = Staying in the second line

4 = Fighting at max range behind cover

5 = Supporting the supply chain of the battle."

"This is difficult. I kind of like everything and nothing." Flora mumbled. "5, 1, 3, 2, 4. Let them make sense of that…"

"1 = Shouting a challenge and charging

2 = Rushing into the fight

3 = Preparing an attack

4 = Sneak attack

5 = Waiting for the enemy to take action"

"2, 1, 3, 5, 4. I might change my opinion on this question."

"1 = one-handed melee weapons (sword, dagger, whip, …)

2 = two-handed melee weapons (polearm, greatsword, staff, …)

3 = cold ranged weapons (bow, crossbow, throwing knives, …)

4 = guns (revolver, rifle, machine gun, …)

5 = foci (scepter, wand, staff, …)"

"Why do I have the urge to rate greatswords high? I've never even touched one." Flora groaned. "2, 1, 5, 4, 3. No! Make that 5, 1, 2, 4, 3. Or better 2, 5, 1, 4, 3?"

"After the questionnaire, practical tests will commence, Milady. There you can try out different weapons."

"1 = Technique

2 = Trick

3 = Charm

4 = Command

5 = Art"

"5, 4, 1, 3, 2. I have no experience with tricks, though."

"Slide, Blur, and 7-mile Step are tricks, Milady."

"Right! Hmm… let's leave it like this. I don't know by what criteria I should order them−how much I like casting them, or how useful they are. So, we just go by intuition."

More questions to order skills followed spanning all of the branches. Flora doubted she answered consistently. Nonetheless, she felt much surer about her love of the arts and spells afterward. The diagrams for arts were simple, clear, and practical, while spells were bold and elegant. Techniques, as well as commands, were too plain and tricks, as well as charms, too artsy for Flora's taste. Prayer diagrams had something majestic but tended to be convoluted.

"1 = Boosts

2 = Auras

3 = Succinct Casts

4 = Tethered Casts

5 = Channeled"

"What is the difference between 1 and 2?"

"Boosts affect only yourself while Auras affect everyone in the range of the aura."

"And 3 and 4?"

"You have no influence over a succinct casted skill after finishing it. Most Intent skills like Smite or Bless and Condemn fall under this category. Tethered casts like Elemental Bolt or Breath can be changed after releasing the spell."

Flora cast a Frost Bolt at a dummy, then another one. The spell impacted too fast for her to change anything. She jogged to the other side of the room to gain 10 meters distance from the dummy and cast again. As the icicles shot out of her hand, she willed the bolts to fly faster.

"Did it work?"

"If you tried to increase the speed, it did work, Milady."

"Great! What else can I change?"

"You can try making the spell curve or pushing more power into it to strengthen it."

Flora tried the first option but failed. Then she changed to Lightning Bolt because she had a clearer picture of how lighting could arc. She tried a few times but wasn't sure whether she succeeded because the lightning bolt crackled too much. At last, one of the bolts curved a bit−not much, just enough to avoid hitting an (imaginary) toaster between Flora and the target.

Releasing the next spell, Flora fed it mana as soon as it left her hand. The lightning exploded in fireworks.

"Well." Flora looked at the charred floor and the screen, which had caught fire, although it was still displaying the options. "Repair! Again!"

This time, Flora pushed her mana more gently after the spell.

"It worked, Milady. The damage was over your maximum."

"Give me some numbers, dear. What is my normal damage range, and how did it change?"

"The normal range is between 101 to 135 damage for 10 mana. Your last spell hit for 142 damage, and you used 27 additional mana."

"Oh, that's pretty ineffective. However, even the standard damage is much higher than I would have assumed. I could kill myself with three hits!"

"You would need at least five, Milady−ten while wearing your mech-suit. You have over thirty percent magical resistance. Concerning the efficiency of boosting the spell on the fly: With your current Micro-Control, a maximum of 30% of your invested mana points convert into damage. The Morph Damage Up-Mana Up would get you 12.5 more damage for 25 mana."

"So, the morph has an efficiency of 50%." Flora mused.

"Not necessarily, Milady. It increases the damage by 10 for 25 mana, 25 for 50, 50 for 100, but your class bonus of 25% gets applied afterward."

"Write Morphs on the to-do list. Aito, buy books about them for up to 2000 VirDos." Flora looked at the screen. "I enjoy pumping mana into channeled casts. My only aura is Divine Radiance, but I like it… Let's make it Channeled, Aura, Succinct, Tethered, Boost."

"1 = Animals, 2 = Robots, 3 = Elemental, 4 = Golems, 5 = Zombies."

"Which class gets Golem companions, and what can they do?"

"It's the signature skill of the Animator class, Milady. They receive a part of your attribute, affinities, and abilities, and you can assign them two of your spells."

Flora fidgeted. "I'm so excited about them! I didn't know they were called golems. Just that you know, I'll make robot golems! 4, 2, 3, 1, 5."

Finally, Flora reached the decision about whether she wanted to do the bonus questions, and she hesitated. Section 4 hadn't been as enjoyable as the others. She could deal with no instructions, and with detailed instructions, even vague orders were fine, but she hated ambiguous or subjective criteria like "order by enticingness."

On the other hand, Flora wasn't a person who liked to break a streak. She had selected the bonus for all the other sections, so she wasn't going to chicken out just because the questions were a bit harder.

Flora answered question after question. Just when she thought it would never end, the next screen proved her wrong.

"Thank you for participating in the written portion of the Sweeping Blow Aptitude Test.

We're recommending you do at least three of the practical tests. The list is ordered by decreasing importance:

Primary Attribute Weapon Talent Party Role Crafting Talent Companion Administration Single Target versus Area of Effect Casting Talent Driving Test Artistic Talent Direct Effects versus Effects over Time"

Flora considered asking Aidan to clarify some of the items but then decided to let herself get surprised. "We'll take them all!"