Monroe

It was a worried looking Bailli who intercepted Bob on the morning after his tenth day of delving the sixteenth floor of the Dungeon.

Bob had been waking up early, just as the kitchens opened, and packing a cold lunch and dinner in his satchel, and then into his inventory.

The first morning had taught him that if he wanted his sandwich to still be there when dinner rolled around, he ought not to leave it just sitting in his inventory. He'd discovered that Monroe had pulled out the meat and cheese, leaving Bob only two thick slices of bread, lightly smeared with a sort of horseradish like spread they used, which was quite good, but not something you'd want to eat without the benefit of meat or cheese.

Bob had been delving for fourteen hours a day, and he was eagerly looking forward to ending his time on the sixteenth floor of the Dungeon, and maybe taking a day off on the fourteenth.

Or perhaps visiting his rock next to the waterfall.

His UtahRaptor had been taking less damage, increasing the rate at which he was killing Bear-Badgers.

Bob's current kill count for his murder spree on the sixteenth floor of the Dungeon stood at an impressive one hundred and twenty-three thousand eight hundred and forty-six Bear-Badgers.

Despite the incredible progress he'd made in regards to increasing his skills and having obtained three thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine mana crystals, he had come to loathe that floor of the Dungeon.

He was so worn down that he didn't notice Bailli until she reached out and shook his shoulder.

"Hi Bailli," Bob said as his eyes dropped tiredly to the tabletop where Monroe was eagerly awaiting what had become his only hot meal of the day, an arrangement that did not please him.

"Are you alright?" Bailli asked, "No one has seen you for days, and Kevin told me you've taking meals with you in the morning?"

"I'm just a little tired," Bob said as he leaned back into his chair, "I had to make a big push on the sixteenth floor of the Dungeon, which meant a lot of long days."

"How long?" Bailli asked as she sat down next to him and rubbed a hand through Monroe's ruff.

"Ten days," Bob said as he blew out a long breath, "fourteen or so hours a day," he shook his head slowly, "and while that floor isn't too bad, I'm quite pleased to be putting it behind me."

"Fourteen hours a day?" Bailli said as she shook her head, "That's too long Bob, even for someone as dedicated as you are, you had to have started to become fatigued."

Bob grunted and replied, "It was rough," he acknowledged, "but I'm past it now, and I'll take a day or two to relax and level up myself and Monroe, as well as have Gary and Nikki finish his armor."

"You need to take a week off and let your body readjust to a normal mana density," Bailli said, "While you can delve like mad for a week or so, you have to take twice as much to let your body recover, and you haven't been doing that."

Bob raised his eyes and looked over at Bailli.

She looked concerned, worried even.

'Trebor,' Bob mentally projected, 'is there any truth to Bailli's concerns?'

'Yes,' Trebor replied, 'the humans living on Thayland have a degree of sensitivity to mana density. If they expose themselves to mana of significant density for too long, they begin to exhibit both psychological, and then physiological symptoms, such as paranoia, anxiety, depression, difficulty forming short term memories, elevated blood pressure, decreased melatonin levels, rapid heart rate, and strokes.'

'Thus far your sub-species of human has exhibited these same traits, which isn't unexpected as you are ninety-nine point seven percent genetically identical,' Trebor finished.

"What do they call it when you get tired or sick from being too deep for too long?" Bob asked Bailli.

"They call it being an idiot," Bailli said as she stroked Monroe.

"Beyond the dangers of losing focus while delving, you can get really sick, or even die," Bailli continued.

"I didn't know that," Bob replied quietly.

"You should have," Bailli said, "we've both joked about Harv and Elli taking us to task for delving too deeply for too long, but you aren't getting the message."

She shook her head and waved at Theo before she went on, "I know you don't know a lot of the things that everyone learned growing up, but you have to start listening to the people who do," Bailli reached out and squeezed his shoulder gently.

"I know you have a plan that is time sensitive, but you can't accomplish anything if you're too sick to get out of bed, or worse," she said.

"You just spend one hundred and forty hours on a floor of the Dungeon how much lower than your level?" Bailli asked.

"Five levels," Bob answered.

Bailli shook her head.

"You need to spend seven hundred hours above ground to recover," Bailli stated firmly.

"That's close to a month," Bob protested, although he wasn't able to put any force behind the words. He was just so, so tired.

Bailli nodded and kept hold of his shoulder as she went on, "Being as I'm pretty sure you spent the better part of a week five floors deeper than your level just a day before you went on this latest delve, a month is the absolute minimum."

"You're a very smart man," Bailli said, "so answer this question for me: Have you been making good decisions recently?"

Bob took a moment to think about his answer.

He was pretty sure the answer was no.

Thidwell had taken him to task for thinking he had to do everything himself.

He knew he'd been underutilizing Trebor.

Hell, he'd been putting off leveling Monroe, although it would be a significant boost to his spells.

Thidwell had indicated that it was unlikely the Nobles would be hunting him down, but he couldn't help but feel like they were already on their way to kill him.

Was he suffering paranoia already?

Bob shook his head slowly.

"No," he said, "I don't think I have been."

Bailli smiled at him for the first time that morning, and it was like the sun had risen.

"So, go ahead and level up, which will help, and order Monroe's armor, and then just relax," she said as she gave his shoulder another gentle squeeze, then dropped her arm to allow Theo to slide their plates onto the table, along with an extra-large bowl of steaming meat bits for Monroe, who immediately moved in to address his breakfast.

"Thidwell won't be happy," Bob mumbled as he took a bite of scrambled eggs.

"I know that Harv and Elli idolize him, but Thidwell is not a healthy person," Bailli said, "My mom said he was grieving for his father when he came to Holmstead, and he never really took the time to work through that."

She spooned some eggs onto her toast and folded it in half as she continued, "It's sort of quietly understood that Thidwell isn't ok, and to work with him or help him as best you can."

She took a bite of her scrambled eggs on toast.

Bob considered the idea of Thidwell being mentally unwell.

The man did seem a little bit manic.

What Bob had taken as decisiveness could very well be impulsiveness instead.

Thidwell couldn't sit still.

He tended to jump from one topic to the next.

He'd sent Bob of all people to recruit a bunch of kids to start a lifelong career using an untried path.

Bob was still certain that from a purely mathematical standpoint, he was absolutely right in recommending the uses of the Affinity Crystals he'd advised.

But wouldn't Harv and Elli have been better choices to present them?

"I think I can see that," Bob said as he picked up a piece of bacon.

"Meer and Crenshaw both try to keep an eye on him," Bailli said quietly, "But he's so deep in the Dungeon that they can't do much."

She shook her head and said, "He's driven the Dungeon so deep that Holmstead actually has land within the range of the Dungeon's influence that isn't occupied."

Bailli finished her eggs and pushed her plate over to Monroe, who sniffed the remaining sausage link carefully, before generously accepting her humble offering.

"I'll see you for lunch," Bailli said before heading out the door.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob retired to his room and started going over his current finances.

He currently had three thousand, nine hundred and fifty-nine level sixteen crystals, of which thirty-two hundred were reserved for Monroe's armor, four hundred for his level from fifteen to sixteen, and three hundred and twenty for Monroe's level from fifteen to sixteen. He also had three hundred and twenty-two level fifteen crystals, four hundred and forty-eight level thirteen crystals, nineteen hundred and forty-two level twelve crystals, and one thousand thirty-four level ten crystals.

He could level Monroe to level ten and still have three hundred and ninety-four of those crystals remaining.

Leveling both himself and Monroe to level twelve would leave him with one thousand four hundred and twenty-two level twelve crystals.

The issue that he was short seventy-two crystals to push the two of them to level thirteen, and he had nothing for level fourteen, and he was short one hundred and ninety-eight crystals for level fifteen.

His best bet would be to gather another seven hundred and ninety crystals from level fifteen.

He could, of course, skip the armor, mana, movement, and dodge bonuses on Monroe's armor, at least until after his extended vacation was over.

He could use the level sixteen crystals to make up the deficit on the levels where he was short.

That did leave him with close to seventeen hundred crystals, most level twelve, almost four hundred level ten, that he didn't have a use for.

Although that wasn't exactly true either.

He'd priced out a house at one point, and the cost of building a simple home had been several hundred crystals.

He could build a house up at the waterfall above the gorge.

Hell, he'd have all the Elemental schools at that point, as well as the control spells.

Maybe he could use them to help build his house.

He could certainly spend a little time designing it.

He didn't need a lot of space, but he was certain that he wanted a sunroom of some sort that overlooked the waterfall and the gorge.

Could he use Control Earth in conjunction with Ritual Magic to just create a house?

"Trebor," Bob said, "if I were to ritually cast Control Earth, would I be able to make a stone house?"

'That would depend on several factors,' Trebor replied, 'namely your casting value, the level of your Elemental Earth school, and the level of your Control Earth spell.'

'If you are planning to spend a month idly, you won't be increasing the level of your skills very quickly,' Trebor warned.

"How quickly do skills level when they are used out of combat?" Bob asked.

'One experience for every one hundred seconds you spend using the Skill,' Trebor replied.

"That's like twenty-eight hours of constant casting to level a skill up to level one," Bob said thoughtfully.

"Almost six days of casting non-stop for twenty-four hours a day to level it to five," he muttered, "and then it doubles, so say twelve days to level ten on the spell, and then twenty-four days to level fifteen, forty-eight to level twenty, and ninety-six to level twenty-five, so a grand total of one hundred and eighty-six days, but of course you can't cast twenty-four hours a day, so call triple that, call if five hundred and fifty-eight days of casting a spell for eight hours a day."

Bob paused.

"Do you gain experience that way with a persistent effect?" he asked.

'Yes, although the experience is divided by four, so the pace will be significantly reduced, although the ability to have the skill going twenty-four hours a day does mitigate that somewhat,' Trebor said.

"That has potential," Bob said as he thought about it.

He shook his head.

First things first, he needed to absorb a huge number of mana crystals to increase his level to sixteen. Then he'd need to guide Monroe through the same process.

He'd sat down and planned the skills he was going to take as he leveled up to sixteen, writing a list.

Level Twelve - Elemental Earth regained, Bonus Divine - Control Water/ Bonus Arcane - Ward

Level Thirteen - Plant regained - Bonus Divine - Control Fire/ Bonus Arcane - Eldritch Wall of Force

Level Fourteen - Animal regained - Bonus Divine - Control Earth / Bonus Arance - Hermetic Seal

Level Fifteen - Conjuration regained - Bonus Divine - Plant Growth / Bonus Arcane - Force Seal

Level Sixteen - Eldritch Blast regained - Bonus Divine - Polymorph / Bonus Arcane - Enhance Weapon

Bob was a little nervous about giving Monroe spells.

He wasn't sure if Monroe would cast them on his own, or if Bob would sort have to guide him to it...

But his buddy needed to level up in order to stay safe, so he was just going to have to hope that Monroe wasn't harboring any secret pyromania.

He had written down his Monroe skill plan as well.

Level Five - Animancy / Bonus from Bob - Flight

Level Six - Anima Blast / Bonus from Bob - Eldritch Shield

Level Seven - Elemental Air / Bonus from Bob - Reinforce Armor

Level Eight - Elemental Earth / Bonus from Bob - Teleport

Level Nine - Elemental Water / Bonus from Bob - Ward

Level Ten - Elemental Fire / Bonus from Bob - Portal

Level Eleven - Control Air / Bonus from Bob - Summon Object

Level Twelve - Control Fire / Bonus from Bob - Eldritch Blast

Level Thirteen - Control Earth / Bonus from Bob - Plant

Level Fourteen - Control Water / Bonus from Bob - Ritual Magic

Level Fifteen - Effect Over Time / Bonus from Bob - Plant Growth

Level Sixteen - Shadowmancy / Bonus from Bob - Persistent Effect

"No time like the present," Bob said to Monroe as he picked him up and slid him into place.

"Let's go become the best us that we can be," Bob said to Monroe as he headed out of his room.