Monroe

Bob pressed his token to the gateway as he ended his tour of the water serpent's marsh on the fifteenth floor of the Dungeon.

He wasn't going to be coming back.

Jake had killed two thousand nine hundred and six water serpents, and eleven thousand six hundred and twenty-four swamp mantises.

Bob had picked up three hundred and twenty-two crystals, and he'd finally reached level ten in the Magical School of Summoning.

The System prompt had been satisfying.

Magical School of Summoning Tier threshold reached. Summoning Affinity Crystal detected, redefining parameters. You have reached your tier in the Magical School of Summoning. Please select from one of the following: All Magical School of Summoning Skills maximum level increased by ten percent. All Magical School of Summoning Skills costs reduced by ten percent. Magical School of Summoning Skill "Summon UtahRaptor" maximum level increased by fifty percent (Summoning Affinity Crystal). Magical School of Summoning Skill "Summon UtahRaptor" costs reduced by twenty-five percent (Summoning Affinity Crystal).

He'd chosen the fifty percent bonus to the maximum level, which placed the potential of his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell at level forty-three.

The spell was currently at thirty-three, although it was nearing thirty-four.

Jake was to monsters what a well-thrown bowling ball was to a game of Jenga.

Summon: UtahRaptor(Jake) Tier: 5 Size: 5 Level: 33 Weapon Hardness: 30.6 Hide hardness: 20.4 Strength: 150 Mana: 144 Armor: 748 Coordination: 150 Stamina: 306 Claw Damage: 1637 Endurance: 77 Health: 5758 Bite Damage: 1525 Intelligence: 71 Movement: 640 Wisdom: 71 Dodge 746 Fleetness 2 Beauty: 77 Summoning Mastery 2.04 Caster Value / 2 140 Arcane Familiar Bonus 0.04 Natural Attack 2 Dimensional Affinity Natural Armor 2 Disruptive Strike Dodge 2 Toughness 1.1

He'd also managed to cap his Eldritch Shield spell at level ten, and his Flight spell at level fifteen.

Overall, the requirements for increasing the level of his UtahRaptor were actually helping him keep his other spells and schools up to par, in a terrible sort of ever-increasing burden way.

Bob shook his head and refocused as he walked through the mausoleum, pausing only to carefully drop a dozen crystals into a napping Austan's lap.

He quickly crossed the plaza and after a quick check of the tavern revealed none of his friends, headed to his room to take a quick shower.

Bob deposited Monroe on the bed, and stored his armor and clothing in his inventory as he turned on the hot water.

He'd been mentally revising his Theses, and he felt like he was getting close enough to put pen to paper and write it out so that Harv could transmute the printing plates.

Bob still wasn't certain how he was going to get the pamphlets to the other sixty-seven towns yet.

He could hire a dimensionalist in Harbordeep to portal him to each town, then come back on his own to post them.

The problem was that he couldn't figure out a way to get to each of the towns and post the pamphlets without someone easily discovering that he was the one who had done it.

He was counting on the knowledge spreading so far, so quickly, that the Nobles wouldn't be able to rein it back in.

He had no illusions that this wouldn't blowback on him when the nobles discovered who had initiated and implemented the plan.

Ideally, that would take some time, but if he hired a dimensionalist to bounce him around to each town, and then sometime later, his Theses appeared in all of these towns, they'd be coming straight for him, straight away.

If he could manage to visit each of them on his own, then coordinate a one night strike where he ran through town and nailed his Theses to the doors in each town...

The truth was with sixty-seven towns it was likely to take him a couple of hours per town, so it was going to take a week, possibly longer.

The key was to be mobile and self-sufficient before he started to carry out his plan.

Once he was level twenty-five, Bob would have a Dungeon that he could disappear into whenever he wanted, which meant he didn't have to stay in any given town, and could in fact disappear into the wilderness.

Assuming he was able to create an oasis level as Thidwell had, Bob would be able to effectively live in his Dungeon if needed.

Bob shook his head and stepped into the shower. He needed to talk to Thidwell.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob was immediately sent into Thidwell's office the following morning by Ali.

Thidwell was seated at his desk, eating breakfast.

"Morning," Thidwell grunted between bites, "what do you need?"

Bob took a deep breath and then began.

"I need a way to travel to each of the other towns, without having any record of my traveling there so that I can post up my Theses," Bob paused, "explaining how to find and use Affinity Crystals, as well as the paths I've found for the ones we know where to find."

"I'm feeling pretty confident that the nobles won't be able to suppress that knowledge if I spread it quickly enough, but I'm equally sure that this will come back to me once they discover who did it," he shook his head and continued, "and I'm prepared to deal with that fallout, but I'd like a head start in terms of avoiding their inevitable revenge."

Thidwell finished chewing and pointed his over-sized fork at Bob as he said, "There is a map in the Tavern at the Adventurers Guild in Harbordeep that shows the location of each of the towns in the kingdom. It'll take a week, maybe two, but you can portal around up in the sky and find them."

He speared a sausage and chewed it thoughtfully before swallowing and continuing, "With the possible exception of Harbordeep, there isn't a Guild Leader around whose got any affection for the Nobles in the capital, so what I'd suggest is that once you've located the towns, we send a message through the guild, telling them to expect you, and to have a couple of level zero freshers ready to take a path."

Bob winced and said, "That'll take a couple of hundred Affinity Crystals that we currently don't have."

Thidwell snorted and replied, "You think they're going to believe you without seeing it for themselves?"

"No," Thidwell said, "you can't just drop off those pamphlets and call it a delve, you'll need to show each Guild Leader how it all works."

"I'm working on leveling up, I have the crystals," Bob said, "although I'm currently leveling up skills to keep them relevant and useful, but," he went on, "I'm still weeks away from finding Affinity Crystals, which brings me to my next question," Bob almost winced as he asked the question, "how frequently do monsters coalesce Affinity Crystals?"

Thidwell grunted as he drained his mug and wiped his plate with a piece of toast.

"Right around one in two thousand to one in five thousand, I'd say," Thidwell said, "Until you discovered what you could do with them before pathing, I didn't keep track."

Bob grimaced. He'd been hoping for a better rate than that.

"So, assuming I show them all four arcane paths in each town, I'm going to need two hundred and sixty-eight crystals, which will," Bob paused for breath, "require, at worst, me to kill one million three hundred and forty thousand monsters."

He shook his head.

"My personal best so far, on the twelfth floor of the Dungeon, killing cockroaches, was almost thirty-five thousand in a twelve-hour long delve."

"Even if I could maintain that rate of killing, it would take me almost forty days to obtain the Affinity Crystals we need," Bob said as he blew out a long breath.

Thidwell shook his head and stood up from his desk and stretched.

He walked over and stood in front of Bob, placing a massive hand on his shoulder, which received an inquisitive sniff from Monroe.

"First, you can't expect this to be easy," Thidwell snorted, "you're talking about changing the world here Bob."

"Second, I'm not sure you'll suffer any consequences for doing so," he shook his head, "while I doubt the Nobles will be happy, and would doubtless try something unpleasant if you were right in front of them, they have enough to do that searching you out would be a waste of resources."

"Finally," Thidwell squeezed Bob's shoulder before dropping his hand, "what do you think I've been doing and will continue to do while you're working on all this?"

Thidwell let out a booming chuckle and said, "I've already got thirty Conjuration Affinity Crystals stored away, and I'll have another twenty-five Abjuration Affinity Crystals in a day or so when Calder sends them over."

The huge man grinned and leaned back against his desk as he continued, "You won't be doing everything on your own, although I doubt anyone else but me will be able to assist you in gaining the Affinity Crystals."

Thidwell then stalked around his desk and started pacing behind it.

"If you're done with the fifteenth floor," Thidwell said as he cracked his knuckles, "you'll want to spend a little time on the sixteenth. The Badger-Bears there are tough, but I doubt they'll give you any real trouble, and they should provide a similar experience to the scorpions on the tenth floor."

He stopped pacing and pointed a finger at Bob and said, "You're not going to like the seventeenth level, although your ability to fly will make it a lot less hazardous."

"What's the current cap for your monster?" Thidwell asked as he slumped into his chair.

"Forty-three," Bob replied.

Thidwell shook his head and said, "That's ridiculous," he muttered, "and what level is the spell currently?"

"Thirty-three," Bob answered.

"I'd say use the sixteenth floor of the Dungeon to max out the spell, then maybe skip straight to the twenty-third level of the Dungeon, which is the next level that I'd say fits the pattern you've found most effective," Thidwell continued to pace.

"Use that floor to push your spell to it's maximum again, have a new set of equipment crafted, and then once you've taken level twenty-three, start pushing the twenty-ninth and thirtieth floors for the Affinity Crystals," he finished before sitting back down in his chair.

Bob nodded.

"Take this downstairs and get to it," Thidwell grunted as he jerked his head towards his empty plate and then pulled out a stack of paperwork from a drawer.

Bob grabbed the platter and headed downstairs, his mind racing.

He walked towards the kitchen and intercepted Theo who was carrying a tray with empty plates on it.

Theo grabbed the platter and deftly backed into the kitchen with a quick nod.

Bob was about to grab a table when a voice called his name.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Amber was picking at her eggs.

She'd declined the sausage, but she'd had to lean into vegetarianism. The people here just didn't grow what she needed to maintain a vegan diet, at least not in the quantities she'd need.

So, acknowledging that it wasn't a failing of hers, but rather the country and culture in which she found herself, she'd allowed herself to eat eggs and cheese, which were serving to fulfill the gaps in her dietary requirements.

She'd spent the past two days clubbing giant beetles to death.

When she'd gone down the stairs of the Mausoleum for the first time, the kind-looking man, Austan, had asked her if she was sure she wanted to go down alone and if she had any healing potions.

He'd cautioned her not to go past the first beetle, unknowingly echoing Bob's advice.

She'd crept down the stairs and down the hallway, where she'd been attacked by a beetle the size of a large dog.

She shuddered at the memory.

She hadn't been willing to hit it with the club Kelli had given her, and she'd stumbled backward a few feet before she'd tripped on the uneven flagstones, and the beetle had torn a massive rent in her armor, tearing into her stomach.

She'd reacted instinctively, clubbing the beetle to death in seconds, before curling up in a ball and crying in pain as she struggled to uncork and drink the healing potion.

It had worked just like Bob had said it would, and her wound had closed, the flesh knitting back together in front of her eyes.

The memory of the pain lingered and was given voice by the damage to the armor Bob had given her.

Still, when another beetle had started trundling towards her, she'd managed to rise to her feet, and this time, she attacked it with only a slight hesitation.

She'd forced herself to spend an eight hour day smashing beetles, although she'd quickly realized that Bob had been right again and that they really were just magic stamped into the shape of a beetle.

They disintegrated just a few seconds after she 'killed' them.

After two eight hour days, she'd killed thousands of beetles, and picked up seventy-one mana crystals.

And while she was absolutely not comfortable clubbing things to death, she'd taken solace in the knowledge that they were just energy constructs, and she wasn't killing anything. She was earning a living.

One hell of a living in fact. Based on the two crystals a day for room and board, she'd earned a month's worth of living expenses in just two days.

She also had enough crystals to start increasing her level, but she wasn't sure that she wanted to do that.

When she'd talked to Kelli and borrowed the club, he'd confirmed what Bob had said about Curator being a very powerful path.

He'd also confirmed that it was one of the harder paths to get started on, and recommended that she pause on the fifth floor of the Dungeon at level four, and club rats to death until she had enough crystals for a full enchanted set of armor and a weapon.

She sighed and took another bite of her eggs.

She missed ketchup.

She'd found the ingredients she'd needed or the ingredients that seemed fairly close. The tomatoes were purple, not red, and she'd need to use honey instead of sugar, but the onion, cloves, salt, and pepper were available. She'd need to dry and powder the onion, something they didn't do here, but should be fairly simple.

She shook her head.

Ketchup was a long term project.

She took a sip of the beer that they served with every meal here, and caught sight of a swirl of green out of the corner of her eye.

It was Bob, dropping off a platter to Theo.

She called out "Bob," while waving her hand.

She saw him stiffen and then turn to look at her.

He stalked over to the table as he reached up to pet his cat, who was draped over his shoulders.

"Amber," he nodded stiffly to her.

"Good morning," she said and gestured to the chair across from her, "do you mind sitting down and answering a few more questions?"

Bob reluctantly sat down, sliding his cat off his shoulders and into his lap.

"What do you need?" Bob asked.

"I wanted to ask you a few more questions about paths," Amber said quickly, "I know you said Curator was the most powerful, but I just don't know if that really fits me."

Bob looked at her askance and said, "I have no idea what would fit you, I don't know you."

Amber grimaced and replied, "Bob, we worked in the same office for a year, you've overheard enough conversations from my side at least, to know a little about me."

Bob shook his head and said, "I don't listen to other people's conversations, rule two, be respectful."

Amber mentally filed away the 'rule two' bit, and continued, "Well, I'm a vegan, and I wanted to teach physics, I like to swim, and I play the piano."

"Oh," she said, "I also enjoy cooking."

Bob looked at her blankly.

He turned his attention to his cat and dedicated both hands to petting it.

Amber waited patiently.

She was pretty sure that Bob was an undiagnosed and untreated autistic, although clearly on the more functional end of the spectrum.

That was one of the things her therapist had suggested.

After a minute or so, Bob looked back up at her and asked, "Have you heard of Harv and Elli?"

"I think Kelli might have mentioned them," she said uncertainly, "they're friends of yours right?"

Amber blinked as she witnessed Bob smile.

She couldn't recall ever seeing him do so in the year they'd shared office space at the Lab.

"They are," Bob said with that quick flash of a smile, "but they're also shepherds."

It was her turn to look at Bob blankly.

"Shepherds," Bob explained, "are Adventurers that take newbies down through the Dungeon," he paused for a moment and appeared to be lost in thought before suddenly resuming, "they teach the newbies how Dungeons work, the different dangers you have to be aware off, and how to delve safely."

"Harv and Elli are the two people that Thidwell relies on to shepherd the newbies here because they're excellent teachers," Bob said.

"If you want to teach, that would be something you could do, although you'd want to make sure you have a healing spell and some sort of crowd control," He finished.

"What path would work for that?" Amber asked.

Bob grimaced and said, "Curator is still your best bet."

He pulled a sheet of paper and wrote a few lines quickly before handing it over to her.

Level One - Elemental Fire

Level Two - Elemental Air

Level Three - Elemental Water

Level Four - Elemental Earth

Level Five - Ritual Magic

Take the Curator Path.

Level Six - Lightning Blast - Free from Curator Path, Control Earth

Level Seven - Divine School of Animancy - Free from Curator Path, Control Water

Level Eight - Anima Blast (Healing Spell) - Free from Curator Path, Control Air

Level Nine - Divine School of Protection - Free from Curator Path, Control Fire

Level Ten - Circle of Protection - Free from Curator Path, Divine School of Plant

"Once you're level ten, you'll be able to throw lightning bolts to deal damage, shape the ground to keep monsters at bay, heal yourself or others, and put up a shield if something unexpected happens," Bob said.

"Grind rats on the fifth floor of the Dungeon for crystals when you're level four, you'll need a couple of thousand crystals to get a fully enchanted suit of armor and an enchanted staff," Bob said as he grimaced, "it makes a huge difference, and I wish I'd had the time to do so."

He shook his head and continued, "Do the same thing when you're level nine, except you'll be killing scorpions in a desert on the tenth floor of the Dungeon."

"If you are quick enough," he said, "you can get to level ten and then go with Harv and Elli for a few weeks and learn how they do it."

He lowered his gaze back down to his lap and continued petting.

Amber looked over the sheet of paper again.

She contemplated a life of going down into a dark hole, teaching young people how to fight, and not die to, the monsters below.

"I just want to go home," she sniffled, "I miss ketchup."

Bob raised his head and a ghost of a smile crossed his face as he said, "I miss ketchup as well, but what I really miss is my kindle," he said sadly.

Bob picked up his kitty and slid it back onto his shoulders as he asked, "Was there anything else?"

Amber shook her head and replied, "No, that was it really."

Bob nodded and stood, then headed out of the tavern.

Amber let out a sigh.

This would all be easier if the one person from Earth wasn't Bob.