Monroe

Bob smiled at Annisa as he harried his group of exhausted freshers up the staircase.

The kids were drenched in sweat, their muscles trembling so badly that they'd lost all fine motor control.

"Twenty-percent of those crystals for the King," Bob said, "Then five percent for the Church, four for Annisa, and finally four for me."

Six shaking hands went into pouches and started counting out crystals.

"They look a little... worn," Annisa said quietly.

Bob nodded and replied, "They've heard stories all their lives about Adventurers, fanciful tales of heroism and bravery," he shrugged and continued, "I'm teaching them what it really means to be an Adventurer."

Annisa cocked her head; her question was unspoken but clear.

"They all want to be big damn heroes," Bob said loudly, causing one of the girls to twitch and spill a handful of crystals on the floor, "But they didn't know what that means!"

"They've never seen the blood or the sweat, they've never felt the pain of muscles pushed beyond all reasonable limits, never been overwhelmed by the terrible knowledge that the monster in front of you is going to KILL YOU!" Bob half-shouted, his eyes firmly on his freshers.

"No, they've only seen the rewards; none of them understands what it means to be an Adventurer," Bob continued, "But I'm going to teach them."

"What is the one thing that you have to do in order to an Adventurer?" Bob barked at the six freshers.

"PUT IN THE WORK!" All six of them chanted in unison.

"That's right," Bob said, a note of satisfaction in his voice.

"Now, once you've paid up, take what you have left, and remember rules five and six," Bob said.

One by one, the kids deposited mana crystals in Annisa's and then Bob's hands and hurried out of the Under Cathedral.

"Rules five and six?" Annisa asked after the last one had left.

Bob grinned and replied, "The fifth rule of delving the Dungeon is equipment," he said before letting out a sigh.

"No armor, and not a weapon amongst them," he shook his head, "how the hell did they think they were going to kill monsters?"

Annisa nodded.

"Rule Six," Bob's smile returned, "is that Adventurers will never, can never, have enough mana crystals."

Annisa laughed, "I think that's true of everyone," she said.

"Probably," Bob conceded, "but I get the feeling that these kids could all use a few of the basic truths of life explained to them."

Annisa smiled and suggested, "Tell me a bit about Holmstead; I was curious after we spoke, and I checked the records, but the Church there is apparently very quiet."

"It's beautiful," Bob said, "nestled in a valley with a river running down from the mountains and straight through the town, most of the land in the valley is cleared and farmed, while a solid wall protects the town."

"You mentioned a priest named Austan?" Annisa pressed.

Bob nodded, "Austan handles the day shift at the entrance to the Dungeon, and he makes and sells these at cost," Bob produced his Sunlight Orb from his satchel and handed it to Annisa.

"At cost?" she asked as she inspected the orb before handing it back.

Bob smiled as he replied, "As I said, Austan is a good man and serves as quite the advertisement for the Church," his smile widened, "a shining example even."

"It's a great place to live," Bob finished, "and I look forward to going back home after I finish here."

"Not planning on joining Karri's Krew on their expedition?" Annis asked warmly.

"No," Bob said, "I'm going home, and I'll give our Curator a chance to take a well-deserved vacation."

"That's kind of you," Annisa said approvingly.

"He's a kind man himself," Bob replied.

He was spared further conversation as Karri, Lahft, Larrs, and Lubrick walked into the Under Cathedral.

Bob nodded to the group and handed Annisa a handful of crystals.

"Five for the Kings tax, two as a tithe to the Church, and four for your service," Bob said quietly before walking over to join the team as they strode over to Annisa, Lahft's eyes zeroing in on Monroe while Larrs and Lubrick fought to cover yawns.

"Good morning," Bob greeted them as he fell in alongside Lahft, allowing the man to provide a bit of worship for their feline overlord in the form of ear scritches.

"More like good night," Larrs grumbled as they walked up to Annisa, who had already pulled out her ledger.

"I have you down for the twenty-sixth floor, your usual spot, from midnight till three am," Annisa said as she made a mark in the ledger.

Karri nodded, and Annisa smiled at the group before saying, "Delve safely," and gesturing towards the stairs that led below.

Bob followed the group as they walked down the stairs.

"So," Bob said as they walked through the Dungeon, "as I'm sure you know, I can shield you from damage, and I can also increase your fire resistance if you'd like?"

"I would like," Larrs quipped as he shifted his shield onto his arm.

Bob mentally projected the pattern for a persistent effect Resist Fire spell and pushed mana into it, wrapping the spell around Larrs, who grinned at him and said, "Thanks."

"If you have enough mana, I know I wouldn't mind, and I suspect that if Lahft can pull himself away from Monroe, he'll feel the same way," Karri suggested.

Lahft looked unrepentant as he nodded and continued to rub Monroe's ruff.

Bob reserved more mana as he pushed the persistent effects onto them.

"Lubrick?" Bob looked over at his fellow spellcaster, "how about you?"

"If I need fire resistance, something has gone terribly, terribly wrong," Lubrick said with a smile, "and while I wouldn't mind it being a bit cooler in here, you might as well save your mana for something more important."

Bob nodded and considered what other spells he might cast to aid them.

He wasn't going to be summoning any UtahRaptors.

"I'll place an aura on your weapons to do a little bit more damage," Bob said.

"I'll be happy if you can shield me to keep the lava off," Larrs said with a shudder, "healing is great, but not taking the damage is even better," he finished with a grin directed at Lubrick.

"Can do," Bob replied as they turned off the main corridor and walked down a familiar spiral that opened into the lavabear chamber.

Bob reached into his satchel and started pulling the pieces of his pavilion out of his inventory.

Karri and the brothers looked on with interest as they readied their weapons and double-checked the fit of their armor.

Moments later, Bob had his pavilion erected, and he fed a mana crystal into it, letting out a happy sigh as the blessedly cool air chilled the sweat that had already begun accumulating on his brow.

Monroe agreed with that sentiment with a chuff.

Bob gestured for the rest of the group to join him.

Karri let out a low sigh of pleasure as the cool air wafted over her, and Lubrick's smile was brilliant as he leaned on his staff.

Lahft and Larrs shrugged fatalistically and looked at the center of the chamber.

Bob reserved another sixty mana as he cast a persistent effect Eldritch Weapon Enhancement spell on their weapons, causing the spear, glaive, and mace to glow with a faint blue-black light.

He then pushed the remaining sixty-seven points of his mana into an effect over time Eldritch Shield around Larrs and gestured towards the chamber.

"There ya go," Bob said.

Bob used his Matrix Manipulation skill, mentally projecting an image of himself and imagining the mana that flowed through him dimming.

Lubrick blinked and looked over at him as Karri and Lahft lagged a few steps behind Larrs as he walked to the center of the chamber.

"Did you just fade?" Lubrick asked in surprise.

"I did," Bob replied.

Lubrick shook his head and said, "You're lucky that Larrs is one hell of a Guardian because your fade sort of sucks."

Bob shrugged, "I'm normally delving alone, so I've never really used it," he admitted.

"How much does that shield absorb?" Lubrick asked curiously as Larrs took five steps to his right, which resulted in the lavabear charging out at him.

"Bit over a thousand," Bob answered, watching as Larrs expertly parried the obsidian claws of the lavabear before taking cover behind his shield as it spewed raging hot lava at him.

"Effect over time?" Lubrick asked.

"Yep," Bob replied as Karri and Lahft attacked the lavabears flanks, slashing and stabbing while a grinning Larrs smacked the lavabear on the snout.

"Damn," Lubrick said, "you really do have the spell, and school leveled all the way up."

Bob cast an Eldritch Blast at the lavabear, noting that it failed to do any damage.

Karri darted in and struck, her glaive first piercing, then ripping the lavabear's side.

At the same time, Lahft struck from the other side, his spear leaving a blue after image in the air as he struck.

The lavabear died.

Bob blinked.

Larrs dashed forward into the center pool's aggro range, then pulled back as another lavabear reared up and charged forward.

Larrs parried another pool of lava, Bob's Eldritch Shield eating most of the damage, while Karri and Lahft darted in, killing it.

"I know you weren't killing this quickly when I last saw you," Bob said to Lubrick.

"Yeah," Lubrick replied with a sigh, "Karri and Lahft were running without enchantments and using basic weapons, so that slowed the damage way down."

"But," he brightened, "they have all of their gear fully enchanted and enhanced now, so it's back to quick killing for us."

Bob nodded slowly as he watched the group shift and move.

They were killing faster than he had been able to.

Bob stopped tossing his ineffectual Eldritch Blasts to recast another effect over time Eldritch Shield on Larrs.

"That really does help," Lubrick said, gesturing with his staff towards Larrs, "normally I have to keep healing him, and I know that lava has to be agonizing."

"Glad I'm doing something," Bob said, "because honestly, your team makes this look easy."

Bob resumed his volley of Eldritch Blasts.

Lubrick grinned as he replied, "We've been together ever since we were teenagers, and yes," he rolled his eyes, "we all fought over Karri at one time or another."

Bob shrugged.

"Come on," Lubrick said with a laugh, "I've been friends with her for a decade, and I've seen her doing that whole swishy, lean over your shoulder thing she does."

"She's lovely," Bob said diplomatically, "But I'm not looking to add any complications to my life."

Lubrick's grin turned wicked as he leaned over and whispered, "You have no idea what you're missing out on," he continued in a normal tone, "to each his own, though."

Bob kept slinging his Eldritch Blasts while watching the two melee warriors and their tank decimate the lavabears as quickly as they spawned.

Bob gave Karri's Krew a wave as they headed up three hours later from a successful delve.

It had turned out that they'd also been taking some environmental damage which Bob's Resist Fire spell had mitigated.

The group had killed nearly forty-five hundred lavabears and gathered one hundred and thirty-nine crystals.

Bob had passed on the crystals, stating that he was happy to be able to level up a skill that was lagging behind quite badly.

They'd asked him to join them again in three days when their place came up in the rotation.

He'd been surprised at how effective Karri and Lahft had been in terms of dealing damage.

He had known, in his mind, that melee used the same math as spellcasting, with melee actually having an edge as it incorporated a size bonus that spellcasting didn't, but actually seeing it put things into perspective.

Both of them had been nearly one-shotting the lavabears.

Bob really needed the melee skill. His UtahRaptor was missing out on a lot of damage.

Bob started summoning out his raptor packs and settled down in the rhythm of watching his UtahRaptors kill lavabears for him.

He stifled a yawn as he sat down in his chair, pulling Monroe down into his lap.

It had already been a long night, and it was going to get longer.

Bob gave into a yawn as he passed through the gateway and up the stairs to the Under Cathedral.

He could feel the weight of the time spent in the Dungeon on his shoulders.

"And today is going to be a long one too," Bob said to Monroe, who was sprawled across his shoulders.

"Good morning Bob," Annisa said brightly, "I see you've finished your delve safely."

"I did," Bob replied, "safe and successful."

Bob pulled out his haul of mana crystals and started counting them out.

"Eighty-four total, so that's seventeen for the king, four for the church, and four for you, leaving me with fifty-nine to show for my efforts," Bob said as he handed over the crystals.

"Thank you," Annisa said, "but if you don't mind my saying, you should grab a bit of sleep; I have you in the ledger at eight am to shepherd again."

"I'm going to grab an hour of sleep, a shower, and a hot meal, in that order," Bob said ruefully.

"I'll see you in a few hours," Bob said as he turned and headed out of the Under Cathedral.

Bob was exhausted, but he couldn't help but grin as he hurried out of the Church.

Two Elemental Fire Affinity Crystals were sitting in his inventory.