Monroe

Bob leaned back as he sank into the tub and groaned.

The healer who had worked his voodoo on Bob had made the wound disappear, but it still ached.

Bob strongly suspected his damaged matrix as the culprit.

Monroe was laying on the edge of the sink, watching his human-servant bathe while swishing his tail slowly.

"How are you doing buddy?" Bob asked as he took his washrag and soap, then began to slowly clean the grime of the day off.

Bob paused to reach up and scritch Monroe under the chin.

"Who is the most handsome kitty in the world?" Bob asked.

"That's right, you are," Bob answered himself as he moved onto Monroe's ruff, starting the Maine-Coone's purr motor.

Monroe, as usual, didn't give any indication that he understood the question.

Bob returned to cleaning off the caked and dried blood, as he continued his one sided conversation with Monroe.

"I know we missed breakfast buddy," he said as finally started to gently swipe at his newly healed side.

Monroe's tail swish increased in speed at the mention of the word 'Breakfast'.

Bob's grin turned into a wince as he realized that it wasn't just his matrix, the wound itself was still tender.

He drained the filthy water from the tub as he stood up and turned on the shower. He felt like he still needed a rinse.

Finally done with his ablutions, Bob equipped a pair of trousers and a shirt from his inventory. His armor was not only badly damaged, but also covered in Bob's own dried viscera.

He touched it gingerly and willed it into his inventory.

He turned and picked up Monroe, draping him over one shoulder, then headed out to the tavern in search of a hot meal.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The tavern was absolutely packed, with every table taken, and Bob almost turned around and went back to his room when he heard Harv call his name.

Scanning the tavern, he saw Harv, Elli, and Kelli sitting at a table together. Dodging the many patrons and the overworked wait staff, Bob sat down at the tables lone unoccupied chair and poured the liquid Monroe onto the table.

Elli immediately reached over and started stroking Monroe, raising the volume of his purr motor by a few notches.

"So how was your first wave?" Harv asked jovially.

Bob winced and said, "Painful."

Harv looked at him in surprise and said, "I didn't figure there would be much that could get past that monster of yours."

Bob grimaced and said, "Big rat."

Elli winced in sympathy, and Harv gave him an understanding look.

"How about you, how was it in the Dungeon?" Bob asked.

"Not too bad," said Elli as he started to scratch Monroe's ruff, "pretty much just double the monster creation rate, but there were so many of us that it was pretty easily manageable."

Harv nodded and added, "Between Thidwell down on thirty, and House Meer and Crenshaw on twenty, we didn't have an unreasonable number of monsters to deal with."

Bailli arrived, looking unusually harried.

"What'll it be?" she asked.

Bob half raised a hand and asked, "Is it breakfast or lunch?"

Bailli blew an errant lock of hair out of her eyes and responded, "Still breakfast, we're running it late with the wave and all."

Bob nodded and said, "Full breakfast, two of them, for me, and an extra big bowl for Monroe," he nodded to the big cat.

Bailli gave him a nod, and the faint hint of a smile touched her lips as she glanced at Monroe, who was sprawled out on the table being petted by Elli.

Elli, Kelli, and Harv all confirmed their desire for a full breakfast as well, and Bailli set off for the kitchen, adroitly dodging patrons as she went.

"So, doubling down on breakfast eh?" Harv said with a grin, "thought you were watching your weight?"

Bob scoffed and replied, "I burned a lot of energy during the wave."

Kelli nodded and chimed in, "Every wave I end up eating a huge meal and just falling asleep for the rest of the day."

Bob nodded and added his own efforts to Elli's as they lavished affection on the big cat.

"Kelli," Bob said slowly, as his thoughts about the wave continued to coalesce, "do you know, roughly, how many monsters rushed Holmstead this morning?"

Kelli took a minute to consider his answer before responding, as Harv and Elli both appeared to be interested as well.

"Well, and this is a rough estimate, but I would say around three thousand, thousand monsters, give or take." Kelli said thoughtfully.

"Three million monsters?" he quietly breathed to himself.

Then he did the math. Figure about a mile radius, so thirty-three thousand feet or so in circumference. figure a bit over three-foot per monster, so maybe eleven thousand monsters to completely encircle the city, but they seemed to congregate around the compass points where the Adventurers were, leaving some sections of the wall untouched, so maybe figure nine thousand actual monsters on the wall at any given time. From what he'd seen a monster crested the wall at one of the three and a half foot sections every ten seconds or so, so given that the wave lasted an hour, three million monsters sounded about right.

"Is that fucking normal?" He blurted out.

Kelli shrugged and said, "I can't speak for anywhere but Holmstead, but it's pretty normal here."

Harv and Elli nodded as well and Elli added, "I never really thought about the numbers before, but it's probably right."

Bob looked around the table. 'This is their normal,' he thought.

Bailli arrived with steaming platters of eggs, bacon, and sausage for the humans and two steaming bowls heaped high with tiny cubes of meat for his Imperial Majesty, Monroe, who also received a few seconds of ear scratching from Bailli before she hurried off.

"So how often the waves come?" Bob asked as he started powering through his eggs.

"Twice a year," Kelli replied as he cut up his sausage, "every planting and harvesting equinox."

Harv nodded and pointed an egg-laden fork in Bob's direction, "Keep in mind, Holmstead is in a valley, with an awfully deep Dungeon," he said.

Kelli nodded as he chewed his sausage, then swallowed and said, "From what I've read, most towns don't experience anywhere near this many monsters during a wave, but that is the price we pay to have so much settled land."

"It seems like it would be safer," Bob said as he contemplated a strip of bacon, "to build the town higher up, hell, to build it on top of a mountain."

Harv shrugged and looked to Kelli who appeared all too happy to explain.

"It would be safer," Kelli agreed, "but the problem is you can't really grow a lot of food up there, at least not without a lot of magic to make up for it."

Bob chewed on a sausage as Kelli continued, "Being that high up, the mana density is low, so your Dungeon is going to have trouble generating higher level monsters, which means even if you start with a high-level populace, the next generation is going to be significantly lower level, which will make casting the magic to grow the food that much harder."

"Of course, you can try to do it seasonally, between the waves, having pastures and fields further down the mountain, but then you run into the problem of your Dungeon not being deep enough to keep the ambient mana density low, and you end up with monsters in your fields," Kelli finished.

Harv nodded and added, "That's how people used to live before we figured out that we needed to dig Dungeons in order to settle down and plant fields, raise livestock."

Bob shook his head. Then he remembered a question that was bothering him.

"Why do the monsters go after one person instead of another?"

Kelli, Harv, and Elli all exchanged looks, and Harv said, "That's going to be a long answer, let's finish breakfast first."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Monroe was enjoying a long and leisurely meal. His morning had been a bit unsatisfactory, being woken up by loud noises, having to defend his human-servant from oversize bugs, and being hurt. Then his human servant had started bouncing them around in the air. That had actually been alright once he'd gotten used to it.

Still, it was a little more excitement than Monroe wanted, and having to face it on an empty stomach was just unnecessarily cruel.

But his servant had proven his devotion and provided Monroe with two bowls of delicious meats.

Also, the sharp smelling one had delivered acceptable petting, and the female food-bringer human-servant had also provided brief if adequate worship in the form of ear scritches.

Monroe finished his first bowl and was contemplating the second. The meats were so much better when they were warm and steaming. But he was mostly full, and what he wanted most was a nice warm sunbeam.

His human-servant and the others had all offered him their plates, as was his just due, but he was done eating, he had decided.

He looked up at his human-servant and let out a plaintive "Mreow."

Monroe needed a sunbeam. While this place was, in many ways, an improvement on their previous home, the lack of sunlight was taking its toll.

His servant reached down and started to scratch his neck, reaching all the right places, but Monroe refused to be placated.

"Mereeeooow" he cried sadly.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob was petting Monroe as Bailli picked up their plates, when his buddy let out a very sad meow. Bob focused on the tiny bunch of emotions that had lodged itself in his mind when Monroe had become his familiar.

He could sense a yearning for warmth and light.

Bob smiled and picked up Monroe, laying him over a shoulder.

"His Imperial Majesty would like us to continue our discussion outside, preferably in direct sunlight," Bob said, pausing to put Monroe's spare breakfast bowl in his inventory.

"It is a bit crowded in here," Elli said as he stood, "and Bailli could use the table as well." he finished, nodding to the people crowded on the bench that lined the tavern, presumably waiting for at able.

As they left the tavern, they were greeted with a bright, sunny spring morning. Monroe immediately began to purr.

The benches outside the Guild were occupied as well, so Bob started walking across the plaza.

"So, why do monsters attack one person over another?" he asked.

Harv raised a finger to cut of Kelli and said, "The short answer is that monsters will attack the person with the largest mana pool."

Bob nodded and looked at Kelli who was clearly restraining himself with a herculean effort.

"And the not so short answer?" he asked.

Harv and Elli both sighed as Kelli took a deep breath and then started off, "The real answer," he said with a sideways glance at Harv, "is that monsters are attracted to your mana density, which yes, is a part of your mana pool, but your mana pool is a part of your matrix, and your matrix can have a much greater impact than your mana pool."

Bob slowly stroked the gently baking Monroe as his buddy soaked up the sunlight. Mana flowed through his matrix, he knew that all too well.

"What other factors come into play?" Bob asked.

"Matrix manipulation," Kelli said smugly, and then glared at Harv and Elli, "which both of them know quite well."

Harv and Elli both nodded reluctantly.

"By manipulating your matrix, you can change the density of the mana flowing through it, either increasing it, which is commonly called a 'Beacon', or by reducing it, which is referred to as a 'Fade', although both techniques fall under the same skill," Kelli expounded delightedly.

Bob considered again that Kelli really would make an excellent teacher that the Jr. High or Highschool level.

"A beacon can increase the density of the mana flowing through his matrix to make it appear as if he has ten times the mana pool that he actually does," Kelli explained, "while a fade can reduce his density to appear as if he has a tenth."

"Which means that Elli," he pointed to the swordsman who had edged closer to Bob and was gently rubbing Monroe's ears, "can appear to have ten times his actual mana, attracting the attention of the monsters, while Harv," Kelli nodded towards Harv who was fiddling with a flask of fluid, trying to mix it together, "is able to reduce the appearance of his considerable mana pool, ensuring that the monsters have no interest in him at all while Elli is around as such a tasty morsel."

Elli muttered, "Not sure how I feel about being called a tasty morsel."

Harv just sighed and looked up from this concoction and said, "True, although, for you, it doesn't really matter."

Bob looked at him questioningly, and Harv sighed, then stoppered his flask and tucked into his backpack of holding.

"With summoned monsters," Harv said, "even though they technically have their own mana pools, they attract the attention of the monster as if their mana-pool were identical to yours."

"So as long as the monster is closer to my UtahRaptor than it is to me, it'll go for the summons," Bob said.

Harv nodded as Kelli jumped in, "However," he glared at Harv, "when you start grouping up with people, being able to control your matrix is important to make sure the monster's attention stays where it is supposed to."

"Ah," Bob said a bit uncomfortably, "well, with the damage to my matrix, I have a feeling I won't be able to use that skill anytime soon."

Harv and Elli both nodded sympathetically, and Elli said, "That's one of the reasons we never mentioned it, we knew you weren't going to be able to use it. And that you wouldn't have a free skill point to take it anyway, until after you'd summoned this beautiful boy," Elli finished as he continued to rub Monroe's ears.

Kelli deflated a bit as he seemed to recall that Bob wasn't really at one hundred percent, metaphysically speaking.

"So," Kelli said, trying to break the silence, "do you have a plan for fixing your matrix?"

Bob blew out a long breath as he stroked Monroe.

"Well," he began, "as you well know, summoning my buddy here damn near killed me."

Kelli nodded, while Elli and Harv exchanged glances. They hadn't heard about that.

"Being as it damaged my matrix to an even greater degree, I'm going to need to level, a lot," he grimaced, "and I'll need to level up my summoning and dimension schools as well, which should hopefully make it easier to summon someone from my world into this one."

Harv hesitantly said, "You're going to summon someone from your world, to here?"

Bob nodded and said, "I'm also going to take the advice you two gave me, and arrange for a full set of enchanted gear."

Harv nodded and said, "I'm glad you're going to gear up, but going back to that whole summoning someone from your world thing - I have to ask if that's really a good thing to do?"

Elli chimed in from off to his left, "Summoning someone against their will is generally seen as a... well, I'll be blunt, that's pretty evil."

Bobs faced stretched into a slightly feral smile as he said, "Well, being as the person I plan to summon is the bitch who stole my work, fucked it up, and caused the explosion that blew me into this world, damaging my matrix in the process, I kind of feel like it's just Karma."

Elli and Harv exchanged a long look, then they both shrugged, and Harv said, "Given those circumstances, I think pretty much anyone would give you a pass on that."