Monroe

Bob stalked towards his room.

He really hadn't wanted to talk to Amber, but getting the message across that her return would cause billions of death was important.

He could always offer to take her back to earth when he was ready to go and start recruiting Adventurers.

He dropped his token into the slot, and walked in, depositing Monroe on the bed, and storing his armor and clothing in his inventory as he turned on the shower.

Bob grabbed his bar of soap and stepped into the shower, his thoughts turning towards the future.

Bob had a plan.

The first step really consisted of farming boars on the sixth level of the Dungeon until his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell had reached level twenty-three. At the same time, he needed to also obtain the two thousand crystals necessary to print his Affinity Theses.

A further consideration was knowing that while the Adventurers Guild had a system in place for moving objects between the Guild in Harbordeep, and the other branches, Bob wasn't sure exactly how he was going to convince the Guild Leaders of each individual branch to nail a Theses to the doors of everyone in town.

Also, would that be enough? Everyone in Holmstead knew and trusted Thidwell, so when he had told the masses that Bob was telling them the truth, no one had questioned it.

Bob held no surety that other towns would be the same.

No, he might very well have to stay and give demonstrations.

Regardless, Bob was fairly certain that he was going to need a stash of mana crystals.

That was where step two came in.

Once Bob had started the printing press, and assuming his UtahRaptor was leveled up, he would jump straight to level ten and start murdering scorpions.

He would need to stay there for a while, leveling up his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell, and also getting his Portal and Dimension School back up to snuff.

And of course, gathering crystals. Having a five thousand crystal buffer sounded safe.

Once Jake was back on top, he'd start grinding out the rest of the levels of the Dungeon until he was somewhere between twenty and twenty-three.

He was really just looking for a good farming level at twenty or higher in order to have a full set of enchanted gear crafted, which would run him three thousand level twenty crystals.

Step three, and things were starting to become a bit nebulous, was to farm the ever-living hell out of Summoning and Dimension Affinity Crystals before he headed to Harbordeep to retrieve Thidwell's four Elemental Affinity Crystals.

Bob wasn't sure how long all of this was going to take.

But based on Trebor's estimate, he had twelve weeks, maybe a few more, before the ruling class of Harbordeep started looking into things. And if he nailed up his Theses too early, that number could be quite a bit less.

As his thoughts spun, Bob realized he'd been standing under the hot water for so long that he'd begun to prune a bit.

He would get a good night's sleep, and then tomorrow he would start putting in the work.

Turning off the shower, he toweled off and then settled into bed, where Monroe promptly claimed his legs as the perfect place for a kitty nap.

Bob smiled and started unbuckling the kitty side of the Makres while he scratched Monroe's ears.

Once he'd pulled off the armor, Bob pulled his newest purchase from his inventory. A brush from the shop the J's had directed him to.

As Bob started working the brush through Monroe's long, luxurious coat, the big Maine-coon's purr motor switched into high gear and the sounds of a contented kitty filled the room.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Three days later, Bob was sitting at a table eating a bowl of stew while Monroe sat on the table devouring a bowl of boar chunks.

It had been a long three days.

Bob had spent twelve hours a day in Baconville.

Forty-three thousand four hundred and forty-six boars had given their monstrous lives to push his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell to level twenty-three.

Bob had taken the Dodge and Toughness skills when Jake had reached levels fifteen and twenty.

The thirteen hundred and forty-six crystals they'd provided were enough to allow Bob to start the process of printing his Theses, although he was still working on the Dimension path.

He'd also once again filled Kevin's larder with boar, ensuring a steady supply of bacon for weeks to come.

It had been a productive three days.

And tomorrow Bob was going to take level six, and head straight to the tenth level of the Dungeon, where he planned to knock out a quick three hundred crystals, then take level nine, and delve right back in.

Bob was so focused on his planning, that he didn't notice Bailli sit down next to him until she gently clasped his shoulder.

"Bob," she said as she used her other hand to deliver unto Monroe the affection that was his due as the most handsome kitty in the world, "are you alright?"

Bob blinked as he looked over at her.

"Yeah," Bob said slowly, "I was just thinking about my plan."

Bailli devoted both hands to the task of worshipping Monroe, much to his delight, as she said, "I said your name a few times, but you didn't answer. How long have you been delving the past couple of days?"

"Twelve hours," Bob grunted as he started working his way through what was left of his now cold stew.

Bailli smiled and shook her head.

"Harv and Elli will be so disappointed in you," she said gravely.

"Yeah," Bob said between bites, "I seem to be reeling from catastrophe to disaster."

He shook his head as he slid his now empty bowl out of the way and finished, "I'm up against a deadline, though, quite literally."

Bailli gave him a brilliant smile and nodded to Theo as he paused on his way by the table to offer her dinner.

"How are you doing anyway?" Bob asked, "with the new path and all," he winced, "again."

Bailli laughed and scooted Monroe over towards Bob in preparation for her meal arriving.

"Well, I'm level six, for the third time," she said, "but the difference..."

Bailli shook her head in wonder.

"I'm doing over a thousand points of damage," she said gleefully.

"I'd thought I was doing well as a Savant, dealing three hundred and seventy, and then when you came up with the affinity crystals, I couldn't believe the increase, and now this..." Bailli trailed off.

"Even if I pause here to build up a satchel full of mana crystals," she said seriously, "when the next wave comes, I can easily take out twelve monsters a second, every second for the entirety of the wave."

"It was well worth reincarnating again," she said happily, then turned her attention to the stew that was delivered by Theo.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob sat under his air-conditioned Pavillion, lounging in his chair.

His UtahRaptor at level twenty-three was simply magnificent.

Summon: UtahRaptor(Jake) Tier: 5 Size: 5 Level: 23 Weapon Hardness: 23.1 Hide hardness: 15.4 Strength: 83 Mana: 58 Armor: 273 Coordination: 83 Stamina: 127 Claw Damage: 541 Endurance: 43 Health: 1639 Bite Damage: 506 Intelligence: 38 Movement: 138 Wisdom: 38 Dodge 244 Beauty: 43 Summoning Mastery 1.54 Caster Value / 2 67 Arcane Familiar Bonus 0.04 Natural Attack 1.5 Natural Armor 1.5 Dodge 1.5 Toughness 1.05

Now at just over eight-feet at the shoulders, and sixteen feet long, Jake was resplendent with his plumage that started with light yellows, then oranges, the reds, making him appear to be lined in flickering flames.

Leveling up to six that morning had been simple. He'd taken the Spatial Distortion spell from Dimension School, and then the Mana Sight spell from Shadowmancy.

He'd also regained the portal spell, which had improved by leaps and bounds.

Jake was also killing the scorpions in two hits while taking no damage himself. Bob had parked himself a bit away from the Gateway and was delivering Jake to the scorpions by portaling him on top of them, thus gaining a bit of experience for his portal and Dimension school, and keeping his kill rate high.

Bob leaned back in his chair and took a sip from his canteen.

He doubted it would take more than a day.

~ ~ ~ ~

Bob had been right. Twelve hours later, he'd slaughtered ten thousand and sixty-four scorpions, which had generated three hundred and forty-five mana crystals, enough to see Bob to level nine and pay for his air-conditioning. Also to throw a couple of dozen to Austan.

His UtahRaptor had reached twenty-five.

Bob had chosen the last option, Fleetness, from the tier threshold upgrades.

His summoning school, which he expected to be working on for quite a while, had actually reached level six.

He'd been rather surprised until he did the math.

Killing monsters that were equal to your level generated one experience point, assuming you were alone while killing it.

Killing monsters that were one level higher than you, and providing crystals, generated two experience.

It turned out that killing monsters four levels higher than you were, generated sixteen experience.

Trebor had explained that monsters only offered experience within the range of your tier, so five levels below, and five levels above.

Bob's take away from that revelation was that if he could handle monsters five levels higher, he would.

Not only had he capped out his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell and his Summoning School, but he'd also capped his Portal spell, and leveled his Dimension School to level four.

Levels seven, eight, and nine had regained him barrage, and the Magical School of Abjuration, and the Divine School of Elemental Fire.

At level seven he had selected the Flight spell from the Dimension School, and the Drain Mana spell from Shadowmancy.

For level eight, he'd selected the Spatial Reduction spell from the Dimension School, and then Drain Essence spell from Shadowmancy.

And finally, at level nine he was able to take Eldritch Cube from the Abjuration School, as well as Drain Stamina from the Shadowmancy School.

Bob now had a plethora of options in regards to raising his skills. He'd found that he could persistent effect his flight spell, although doing so reduced his movement to two feet per second. He could also persistent effect an Eldritch Cube on himself, although a strong breeze might knock it down. It turned out that the Eldritch Cube field had a value of the caster score, divided by six. Persistent effecting the spell changed that to a value divided by twenty-four. Which provided six points of kinetic energy protection.

Still, it was a way to level up the skill and the school, which were both important.

Once he had some enchanted gear crafted, he'd be able to maintain three persistent effect spells, which opened the way for having Dimension, Abjuration, and Shadowmancy all passively leveling as he fought monsters with a single concentration based UtahRaptor.

Or so he thought.

Trebor had indicated that while the Summoning School would receive the majority of the experience, the other schools would share a smaller amount.

Given that utilizing Portal to level his Dimension School had proven to deliver twenty-five percent of the total experience, while Summoning received seventy-five percent, Bob was thinking that each of the three schools not involved in directly damaging the enemy would likely receive slightly over eight percent of the total experience.

Time would tell.

He'd wanted to start grinding up but was considering that maybe, just maybe, a set of level ten gear wouldn't be a bad idea.

Bob reached down with his right hand to relieve his left of ruff scratching duties.

If he had level ten equipment, he'd have mana to hold the three persistent effects. He'd also have more health, more armor...

If he could take on the Cockroach swarms on level twelve, at level nine, he'd be receiving eight experience.

And the crystals weren't too bad in terms of coalescence on that level.

Most importantly, it would allow him to skip the mosquito-infested swamp on the eleventh level of the Dungeon.

He could absolutely do without that experience again.