Monroe

Chapter One Hundred and Seven. Best laid plans.

Bob stood in a sea of UtahRaptors.

Using Barrage and pumping mana into the spell, he had twenty-five of them out, five for each of the pools of mana that spawned the beetles.

He hadn't been able to manage the combination of his Eldritch Shield, and his Mana Drain spells after fifteen minutes of trying, and so he'd moved on to gathering crystals, mana, and hopefully affinity, and leveling up his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell.

Knowing that both Bailli and Eddi had pushed through the level fifty threshold had proven to be a strong motivator.

Thus far, his swarm tactics were working damn well. On average, only one beetle out of five lived long enough to teleport; the other four were dead in the first second.

If only they respawned more than once every ten seconds.

Still, thirty monsters a minute wasn't bad. He estimated that when he finished up after three and a half hours of killing, he'd be a bit over six thousand monsters killed. He'd already gathered two Dimension Affinity Crystals and a hundred and seventy-two mana crystals.

Sadly at only three levels over, he wasn't bringing in the big experience numbers he needed to push his spell up quickly.

He needed to move down to the thirteith floor, but the mana density was a concern.

Bob sighed, dropped his spell, and resummoned his packs a second later.

The half-powered raptors tended to take significant damage during each cycle, so he needed to resummon them.

He needed to start thinking about wrapping it up for the night; he had to shepherd his freshers again in the morning.

Thankfully, his first group was nearly ready to take level three.

"What do you think?" Nora asked her friends, "I know that I like it here, but this decision is one that would affect all of us."

"I think it isn't fair that there aren't any Melee or Parry Affinity Crystals," Orson groused.

"I second that and add Invocation to the list," Charn said.

"Apparently, there are Plant and Animal Affinity Crystals, although I'm not sure what paths they are used for," Wayna added.

"Even if we were to set to the Affinity Crystals aside," Orson replied, "this place could be great for us. Everything is so much less expensive."

Nora nodded, "Just like Bob said, and" she went on, "we don't have to pay ludicrous fees to enter the Dungeon or schedule our delves days or weeks in advance."

"My mother always told me that Harbordeep's Dungeon was unique and that the Dungeons outside the city were all death traps," Wayna said, "but it turns out that Holmstead's is built the exact same way."

"It sounds like we all appreciate the benefits Holmstead has to offer," Charn observed quietly, "but we should consider the downsides as well."

"Waves and tides are more dangerous out here," Wayna offered, "and if we are accepting Affinity Crystals, we have to repay them fifty times over, so we'll need to be here for at least one wave, maybe two."

"While I don't disagree with the timeline," Orson countered, "The last wave saw zero casualties, thanks to the people using Affinity Crystals and the paths in the pamphlet," he tapped a finger on a well-worn pamphlet that sat in the middle of the table.

"It will imbalance our group," Charn grimaced and raised a hand to forestall interruptions, "it's true. Nora as an Elemental Conjurer, and Wayna as whatever Plant or Animal related path she can find that fits in with the Affinity Crystal she manages, are going to do exponentially more damage than Orson and I."

"We've already taken the Melee skill," he continued, "so the only path we could take advantage of would be the path of the Bountiful Step."

"The only path in the pamphlet," Nora said, "we know there are other paths out there that require an Affinity Crystal; we just have to find ones that will fit."

"We should just ask Bob," Wayna said, "Eddi said he was the one who figured out what the Affinity Crystals were good for, and he wrote the pamphlet."

"We told him what we were going to do in terms of skills back in Harbordeep, and he didn't offer any suggestions," Orson argued, "which strikes me as odd, as he clearly knew that Nora would be a perfect fit for Elemental Conjurer."

"I think he's trying to keep the knowledge of Affinity Crystals and how to use them out of Harbordeep," Nora said slowly, "He's clearly going to spread it around; he printed pamphlets after all, but I think he's trying to get the information to as many people as possible before the Noble Houses and the Royal family find out."

"What do you think they'll do when they find out?" Charn asked.

Nora grimaced.

"I know some of the lengths that the Noble Houses will go to in order to protect their secrets and preserve their power," she admitted, "and I think if it was just Bob and the people here..."

She took a sip of her water before continuing, "It would be bad. They'd Geas the entire town, kill anyone who wouldn't accept it."

"Which is an excellent reason for Bob not to have been interested in spreading that information around Harbordeep," Wayna said brightly, "and would also explain why Thidwell requires a term of service to keep anyone from leaving and sharing the information prematurely."

"So we'll ask Bob about paths for the three of you," Nora finished as she stood up from the table, sweeping the pamphlet into her satchel, "in the meantime, let's get some sleep."

Amber was sitting in the corner of the Tavern, sketching her plans for her house.

Her greenhouse, really. While the locals' lack of technological advancement was a constant source of frustration for her, the truth was that a home built with stone and wood was just as good as one built with concrete and drywall. Better, even, in some ways.

She'd started planning her home in this strange new world a few weeks after arriving and realizing that she wouldn't be going back to Earth.

Initially, she'd simply sketched a rectangular building, most of which was going to be a traditional greenhouse, with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room attached.

Over time, as she became a bit better acquainted with what the people here could do, she'd scrapped that idea completely.

She was designing a geodesic dome, where she planed to cultivate fruit and nut trees, berry bushes and vines, as well as a few cleared spaces where she'd be growing beans, potatoes, carrots, and a host of leafy greens. It wouldn't be difficult to have a hive of honey bees inside to handle pollination, as well as providing honey.

A stone latticework with glass insets was something that Joseph Alder, the weaponsmith, could easily create. He'd been enthusiastic about the idea after she'd explained it to him. He worshiped the God of the Forge or something, and he'd maxed out the schools of Earth and Fire, which allowed him to shape metal, and to a lesser extent, stone, like taffy.

There was a dimensionalist in town, but their skills were subpar. They could, at most, double the area of an enclosed space, and they were limited to a starting volume of no more than one thousand cubic feet.

Her plans required someone who could expand the space inside a forty-foot diameter dome.

If she could find a Master Dimensionalist to do the work, she'd end up with a dome that was one hundred and sixty-feet across and eighty feet tall.

She'd also need Control Air and Water spells to keep the biome balanced and Control Earth to allow her to control the amount of sunlight that entered the greenhouse.

Amber was certain that she wouldn't even need an Affinity Crystal to grow enough food to feed the entire town a healthy, plant-based diet.

With a Plant Affinity Crystal giving her Plant Growth spell an additional ten levels, and the Path of the Floral Adept giving it another five, and her Threshold bonuses providing a fifty-percent boost to that, and the two percent bonus per level to her ability to cast Plant magic...

So much food.

If she could go back home and had a steady stream of mana crystals, she could feed millions.

Amber shook her head. Blinking away moisture from her eyes. She couldn't go home.

She reviewed her figures again.

It would cost her close to five thousand mana crystals to have her dome built, assuming she could find the Master Dimensionalist and that he didn't charge any more than the standard one hundred percent markup for his skills.

She'd been 'delving' the first floor of the Dungeon for months now. One hour a day, every day.

It amazed her how quickly she'd become desensitized to killing monsters.

It helped that they dissipated after you killed them, proving that they weren't real.

She was certain that if they behaved like real animals, the entire planet would be populated by sociopaths and sadists.

Still, she'd been saving her crystals, and she averaged between twenty and thirty a day.

Her current nest egg was just over three thousand. She needed half again that much to be comfortable with starting to build her home.

Of course, she also needed to account for whatever a Plant Affinity crystal would cost her.

Kelli had acted as an intermediary for her request to purchase one, as she was quite frankly terrified of Thidwell. Beyond his impossible size, the man carried an air of impending violence, as if he were one wrong phrase away from killing everyone in the room.

And apparently, he had no use for people who weren't willing to become Adventurers and commit to defending his town.

She'd joined the Adventurers Guild and explained to Kelli that she'd take Animancy alongside her path.

Amber had thought that would be enough, but apparently, if you weren't using an Affinity Crystal to butcher monsters by the millions, Thidwell didn't think you deserved one.

She shook her head and closed her eyes. She had three places in mind to build her dome. The first was a small lot in the city itself. The Noble Houses of Holmstead had declared certain areas of the city to be reserved for growing food. Her construction and vocation would fit neatly within those restrictions, so she could lease that land, providing she produced a certain tonnage of food each year.

The lease was a little pricey, though, which had led her to investigate the land outside the city walls.

She'd found two sites, one at the very edge of the western end of the valley, a hill overlooking a stream, and another the place where a barn for livestock had been before the farm in question had abandoned animal husbandry entirely, in favor of growing crops.

The hill was picturesque but quite a ways from the city. While she planned to have the ability to teleport in some fashion, that was quite a ways down the road.

The family, a sub-branch of House Meer, who'd offered to sell her the plot of land where the old barn had stood were very nice people, and the barn was right on the road leading into Holmstead, and only a quarter of a mile away.

She was leaning rather heavily towards that option, as the price was very reasonable, a mere one hundred crystals a year, with no requirements to produce anything.

She looked up from her sketch pad and froze momentarily as she caught sight of a tall figure in shades of green stalking across the tavern towards a table where four young people sat. There was no mistaking the massive Maine-Coone that draped across his shoulders.

Bob was back.

Bob strode across the tavern to his first group of freshers, eager to get started.

He was going to try something a little different this morning. They'd been doing well on the third floor for the past few days, although they shared in the universal loathing of the fetid water and treacherous footing of the swamp. Bob didn't want to normalize fighting one level over for crystals, though.

He was going to bring them down to the fifth floor and see how well they faired against the endless swarm of rats.

It should help them learn to fight as a team, and it would serve to advance their skills rapidly.

"Good morning," Bob said loudly as he approached the table, causing Charn and Wayna, who were not morning people, to jerk upright in their seats.

"I'm glad to see that everyone is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning," Bob said happily, his tone of voice drawing wary looks from the kids, "because I have a special treat for you today!"

Bob smiled gleefully as he saw the worried looks the kids shot each other.

He had to admit that he rather enjoyed shepherding; it let him express a facet of himself that he'd never realized he possessed.

"Before we go down," Nora said, "we were wondering if you knew any Plant Affinity paths for Wayna or any paths that use melee for Orson and Charn."

"I'm a Curator; what makes you think I'd know anything about that?" Bob asked cautiously, his smile fading.

"Eddi told us you were the one that figured out how to use Affinity Crystals and that you figured out the paths outlined in this pamphlet," Nora pulled the pamphlet halfway out of her satchel before stuffing it back in, "so we'd thought that you might have, or could find, paths for us, as I'm going to take the Path of the Elemental Conjurer."

Bob grimaced and shook his head as he reminded himself that Eddi was just a kid and a pretty good kid at that. He did love dinosaurs, after all.

"I'll see what I can find, although I have to warn you, Thidwell hasn't found any Melee or Parry Affinity Crystals, so Charn and Orson, you might be a bit limited," he warned them.

"But," Bob sighed, "I'm sure someone will find them eventually, and at that point, you can always reincarnate."

"But that's a conversation for another time," Bob said, his smile reappearing, "because today, we are delving a little bit deeper!"

"Deeper?" Wayna asked cautiously.

"Indeed," Bob replied, and he beckoned for them to follow him, "now come along, we wouldn't want to get a late start on our delve this morning, would we?"