Monroe

Chapter One Hundred and One. Here there be monsters.

Bob grimaced as a bolt of lightning lanced into his thigh, his leg locking up as it ground itself out, leaving charred flesh and tortured nerves in its wake.

His UtahRaptor pack darted after his assailants, snapping and letting out chirps of hunger, anger, and pain.

He heard the buzzing of wings from his left and spun to his right, his effect over time Eldritch Shield absorbing the majority of the energy directed at him.

"Fucking Lightning Bugs," Bob muttered as his leg started to respond again, his effect over time Anima Blast healing the blackened flesh and soothing the fried nerves.

Oh, how he missed Acid Shamblers.

The twenty-ninth floor was a swamp, filled with tall, fibrous reeds that looked not entirely unlike catstails. Nestled in the swamp, hidden by the reeds, were swarms of eight-inch long insects, which resembled bumblebees, with an extra segment, an extra set of wings, brilliant blue stripes over white, and a propensity to shoot lighting out of their asses.

They packed a pretty hefty wallop, and they were numerous and adroit enough to force Bob to fight one swarm at a time, and even then, his raptors had a hard time keeping them all corralled.

As his pack worked on finishing the bugs, Bob winced and started bringing out a new pack. He'd pick up one Elemental Air Affinity Crystal; then he was out of here. He was swinging above his weight class anyway and technically burning experience by doing this when he was only level twenty-three.

Bob woke up with a smile for the first time in three days. It had taken three delves, a total of just over eleven hours, and seventy-nine thousand and eighteen Lightning Bugs to pull an Elemental Air Affinity Crystal. Based on the experience and mana crystal coalescence ratio, it took five lightning bugs to equal the equivalent of one monster.

After taxes, Bob was up another three hundred and thirty-three crystals, which had his satchel sitting on a total of thirty-one hundred and forty.

He had the crystals he needed to reach level twenty-five and ritually cast his Portal spell the dozen times it would take to get back to Holmstead.

Sitting up carefully to avoid disturbing Monroe, who had curled up alongside his legs at some point in the night, Bob carefully stretched.

He needed to find Jakob this morning, but first, he needed to level. Pulling his chalk out of inventory, Bob started drawing the ritual circle that had been embedded in the ritual chamber in Holmstead. He knew that for the purposes of leveling, you didn't really need to harmonize the mana flows around yourself, but he was used to leveling with one.

Bob sat down in the middle of his circle and concentrated on the eight hundred mana crystals he held in his hand.

You have absorbed the potential of eight hundred mana crystals. Please allocate attribute and skill points now.

"It's going to be a great day," Bob whispered quietly.

"Good morning Jakob!" Bob said brightly as he entered the foyer from the servant's tavern.

"And a fine morning to you as well," Jakob replied, "this is your last day with us, isn't it?"

"It is," Bob confirmed, "and I have just one delve that I need to complete."

"The twenty-ninth floor again?" Jakob asked.

"No," Bob smiled in relief, "I'm done there, thankfully," he rolled his shoulders, which earned him a tail to the face from a still sleepy Monroe.

"I need to take advantage of the offer to lease a token for fifty crystals an hour," Bob stated, sliding fifty crystals onto the desk.

Jakob looked at Bob questioningly, who returned the look with a mysterious smile.

"Alright," Jakob said slowly, "The terms are fifty crystals for each hour of delving, on any level you'd like," he said formally, "as your agent, I can supply you with the token, and you can return it with a slip from the Church indicating the length of your delve."

"I'll pay the fifty crystals, even though I really only need to use it for it a few minutes," Bob replied, "if I'm back here in under an hour, do I need a slip from the Church?"

Jakob blinked and shook his head.

"Technically, no," he answered, "but I have to ask, what do you need to use a token for?"

"I need to visit another floor of the Dungeon," Bob said, "it has to do with mana and Dungeon design - it's a curator thing," he finished.

Jakob shook his head, reached under his desk, and pulled out a contract.

He filled it out, noting that the lease was for one hour and pointing deliberately to the penalty clause, which was one hundred crystals per hour for the use of the token past the agreed-upon lease.

They both signed the agreement before Jakob placed it in a drawer.

Jakob took out a ledger, noted Bob's name and the date and time on an empty line, and then closed the book, placing the fifty crystals on the top of it.

He closed his eyes, and the book glowed white for a brief moment, the crystals disappearing and a token taking their place.

"And here you are," Jakob said, sliding the token across his desk, "One access token for the Dungeon in Harbordeep, good for the next hour."

"Thanks," Bob replied as he accepted the token, "I'll see you in a bit," he advised Jakob as he turned and strode out of the Guild.

"Voren, Annisa," Bob nodded to them as he hurried into the Under Cathedral.

"Bob," Annisa replied while Voren nodded in acknowledgment of his greeting.

"I don't have you on the books this morning," Annisa said as she looked through the ledger, "did someone make a mistake somewhere?"

"No, no mistakes," Bob assured her, "I leased a token for an hour so that I could have a look at a lower floor, from the safety of the Gateway," he hastened to add.

"You're not going to be delving?" Annisa asked.

"Not a single monster shall be harmed," Bob replied solemnly.

"Then may Vi'Radia illuminate your path," Annisa shut the ledger and favored him with a smile.

Bob delivered a half bow and headed down the staircase towards the Gateway.

Upon reaching it, Bob pressed the token to the cool metal and mentally projected his need for the sixtieth floor before stepping through the event horizon.

Fourteen teenagers and seven adults occupied better than half the seats at the outdoor cafe.

"Are you sure this is what you want, dear?" Wayna's mother asked her imploringly, "you've heard how uncivilized and dangerous those towns are."

"Yes, I'm sure," Wayna replied, "Bob has taught us so much, and I want to finish my training with my friends under his guidance."

The same conversation was taking place between several children and their parents.

Bob had advised them to meet him here at eleven, but every one had gathered over an hour early.

The teenagers were excited, the parents were anxious, and the proprietor was doing a steady business in breakfast for the lot of them.

Rogard entered the servant's tavern, determination written large on his face. The agent in the foyer had confirmed that the man he sought took all of his meals here.

It had been over a week since his daughter had stormed out of their family estate. With only the clothes on her back and a handful of mana crystals, he'd expected her to come back in a day, possibly two.

As he took a seat at an empty table, he considered that he'd been foolish. Nora was headstrong and stubborn, qualities that made her an excellent addition to their house, but also seemed to have ensured that she wouldn't return home quickly.

"I'll have water; I'm hoping to meet someone," Rogard said to the young serving girl who had approached his table cautiously. She nodded and scurried away, returning moments later with a clean mug of cool water.

Rogard sighed as he steepled his fingers in front of his lips.

The Geas his family labored under was extremely restrictive. He had anticipated resistance from his daughter, but her grandfather had made things so much worse.

Rogard knew that his daughter wouldn't be happy when she discovered that the secret to their success and power was a hidden path that utilized a rare resource.

He still felt certain he could have eased her through it, but then his father had gone off on one of his rants about the commoner's inability to use such power wisely and how it was for their own good that Noble Houses, such as themselves, protected them from themselves.

After waiting for a few days for tempers to calm, he'd made a few careful inquiries as to the location of his wayward child.

She hadn't fled to a friend's house, which meant that she had taken lodgings somewhere in the city. He'd continued, discreetly, and found that she had taken lodgings at a respectable inn and had been seen in the company of several other teenagers and a middle-aged man.

Rogard had discovered that the children were commoners from the lower city, the son of an armorer, the daughter of a grocer, and the son of a laborer. They, along with Nora, had somehow convinced an Adventurer to shepherd them.

The Adventurer had remained a mystery. He couldn't be a citizen of Harbordeep; their house was too well known for that. Any common Adventurer would have denied Nora's request and then sent word through the Guild of his daughter's intentions.

That meant the man in question was from one of the outlying towns, one far enough away from Harbordeep that it didn't keep to the customs of the city.

He took a sip of water and waited.

The Adventurer apparently had a familiar, a pet cat that he carried on his shoulders. Everyone he'd spoken to had mentioned it, which meant that he'd be easy to spot when he came into the tavern.

Bob grimaced as he stepped out onto the sixtieth floor of the Dungeon.

The mana density was palpable, a weight pressing down on him.

Looking around, Bob could see that this floor of the Dungeon consisted of obsidian tunnels, illuminated by twisting and wandering flows of lava that cast a demonic light through the dark glass.

Bob shook his head to try and clear his thoughts before stepping to the side of the Gateway and carefully inscribing a ritual circle on the floor with his trusty chalk.

He could hear the low rush of the lava flow, and beyond that... something else.

Breathing.

Slow, steady breaths, entering and exiting what had to be colossal lungs.

Bob focused on his ritual circle. Monsters wouldn't approach within twenty feet of the gate, and he was two feet away.

Finishing, he sat down in the center of the circle, a hundred mana crystals in hand, and closed his eyes, firmly telling himself that those weren't fiery eyes the size of manhole covers but just a trick of the lava's glow reflecting from the rough obsidian walls.

Slow, deep, repetitive breaths.

It took a few seconds before Bob realized he was, in fact, breathing in the same rhythm as...

He forcefully cleared his thoughts and mentally projected the pattern for the ritual he'd received when he'd reached level twenty-five.

You have successfully created The Arcane Depths! Would you like to enter The Arcane Depths now?

Bob mentally projected 'No'.

He staggered to his feet and lurched forward, slapping his token to the Gateway, and mentally projecting the ground floor.

He deliberately didn't look behind him, and he absolutely didn't see four shadows of himself stretching forward as if two pairs of massive, flaming eyes were edged up against the gateway, looking at him.

Bob sat in the corner of the room at the bottom of the stairs, eyes closed, breathing slowly. Monroe sat across his lap, his purr rumbling as Bob unconsciously stroked him, taking comfort in the big cat's presence.

He'd been doing so for the past twenty minutes.

He could feel The Arcane Depths.

It was like a hangnail, sort of. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was there. You couldn't help but feel it.

Bob had felt something similar when he'd first regained his senses on Thayland, and it had taken him some time to realize it was his Inventory.

Apparently, The Arcane Depths was attached to him in much the same fashion. And Bob wasn't going to go down the rabbit hole of quantum entanglement right now.

Opening his eyes, Bob stood up, lifting Monroe from his lap and onto his shoulders. He needed to return the token, grab a sack lunch for himself and Monroe, and meet up with the kids and their parents.

Bob dropped the token off on Zoey's desk, as Jakob wasn't at his, and she'd retrieved the lease agreement. Both of them had signed it, confirming Bob had returned the token within the allotted time, and she'd given Monroe a good ear rub before allowing Bob to head into the tavern.

Bob caught Sally's eye as he strode in, and he angled towards her.

"Sally, could I trouble you for lunch for Monroe and myself?" Bob asked, "we won't be here for it, and you know how much Monroe loves lunch."

Monroe's tail swished at the mention of the word 'Lunch,' indicating that he was indeed both aware and very fond of it.

"Sure," Sally said, "But there's a man over there," she jerked her head towards the far side of the tavern, "looking for you."

Bob looked over his shoulder and saw a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing clothing that screamed "wealth!" and was entirely out of place in the servant's tavern.

"I'll talk to him," Bob said, laying a hand on Sally's shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture.

Bob turned and headed towards the Noble, who stood up and gave Bob a searching look.

"Are you the man who has been shepherding my daughter?" he asked as Bob reached the table.

"I'm shepherding a bunch of kids," Bob replied cautiously, "but given your manner of dress," he went on, "I can only assume you mean Nora?"

"Yes," the man responded sharply, "Nora."

"Yes?" Bob said, "I've been shepherding her, along with some others."

"I need to see her," the noble stated firmly.

"Alright," Bob responded, "I'm meeting with the kids and their parents in a few minutes; if you'd care to join us, she'll be there, although I can't guarantee her response, that is between the two of you."

"Also, my name is Bob," he said, "might have yours? I'm sort of just mentally referring to you as 'Nora's Father' in my mind."

"Rogard Wallenstair," he replied, "lead on."

"I'll be just a moment," Bob said as he caught Sally approaching out of the corner of his eye, "I need to grab my lunch."