Monroe

Chapter One Hundred and Ten. Invasive Species.

Bob settled into the tub slowly, basking in the hot water.

Shapeshifting into a cat was weird, but Monroe fucking loved it when he did.

They'd chased each other around the house for twenty minutes before Monroe had decided he'd had enough.

Then they'd both curled up on the bench to catch the last rays of the sun. That had been oddly satisfying.

Now he was back to normal and enjoying a hot bath.

Bob considered his plan for the next day.

He'd do the six hours with the freshers; then, he would take the afternoon off and allow his matrix to regain some equilibrium.

During that time, he'd keep working on combining his Mana Shaping and his Eldritch Shield combination. Once he succeeded in that, he'd be able to for as long as he'd like.

He'd also check with Thidwell and find out what he was going to be facing on the thirty-fourth floor, as well as what curating the Dungeon actually meant, beyond digging new levels and routing the mana to form pools.

Bailli's kitten had been adorable; he mused as he closed his eyes.

As he dozed off, Bob considered that if he were the Curator of a Dungeon, he'd make everyone in his town take the familiar skill, and the Guild would be where all the cats and kittens who'd yet to select their human servants would live, with Adventurers required to provide daily pettings and love, so that no cat was left behind.

Ellen was staring down at the report she'd written.

She'd clearly outlined the state of the town, including the surprise of finding an Orstang Curating a Gated Dungeon.

Then she'd attempted to explain Bob.

That had been rough, and she wasn't that happy with the result. It came off sounding like he was building up a cult of freshers, but it wasn't the sort of cult she dealt with. There was no worship of, or sacrifice to, any dark gods.

Just unending exhortations to become Adventurers who could stand between the monsters and the commoners.

Which in and of itself was laudable. In conjunction with the offer of Affinity Crystals in exchange for standing against the wave, and gathering more Affinity Crystals, so that more people could stand against wave and tide, it was a truly humanitarian effort.

The problem was that she wasn't one hundred percent certain what the Watchers were going to do when they found about the pamphlets and her suspicions about Bob's plan to spread the knowledge throughout Greenwold.

Ellen sighed. She'd rewritten it twice, and this was the first version, the other two having shown Bob in a more negative light than he deserved.

She folded the parchment and tucked a pamphlet inside.

She'd have to wait until after she'd taken a path to pick up the Invocation School and the Gateway Skill.

Maybe she'd have more information by then, and she'd take another cast at writing it again.

She stood up and headed to the bathtub for a nice long soak before bed.

Bob woke up in a pool of sweat.

He was buried under a mountain of fluff, and his sheets were soaked through.

Bob slid the sleeping behemoth into his inventory and sat up.

Apparently, Monroe had been feeling extra affectionate or nostalgic, as he hadn't slept on Bob once he'd leveled up and gotten bigger.

Bob dismissed the persistent effect he used to provide his bedding and headed for the shower.

He quickly scrubbed down and contemplated the logistics of breakfast.

He had eggs and sausage in his cold box.

If he went to the tavern, he might see his friends.

But he'd certainly see his freshers.

And he saw enough of them every day already.

Breakfast at home it was.

Finishing his morning ablutions, he headed to the kitchen and put together scrambled eggs and sausage for himself and a special treat of frozen fish he'd been saving for Monroe.

He cooked his breakfast, utilizing the tried and true method of persistent effect summoned cookware to reduce cleanup.

Upon finishing, he took the defrosted fish and lightly seared it before pulling the feline of mass consumption out of his inventory, where he was peacefully slumbering.

Bob left Monroe to his meal as he went to the sunroom.

It was still dark outside, but the first hints of light were edging the mountains to the east.

Kicking his feet up on the bench, he locked down some more mana with a persistent effect summoned blanket.

It was a touch cool in the sunroom when the sun wasn't up.

The heating and cooling enchantments that kept his home liveable were centered in the kitchen, and they kept most of the house at a stable temperature, but he had noticed that the sunroom, with its glass walls and ceiling, tended to vary a bit.

Bob tore himself from his musings as Monroe wandered into the room and hopped up on the bench, turning around twice before kneading the padded cloth and then settling in for catnap.

Yawning, Bob considered that he wouldn't mind a nap himself.

The past two days had been long ones, especially in terms of exposing himself to higher mana density.

He'd catch a nap that afternoon, he decided.

Bob walked into the tavern in good spirits.

The sun was shining, and the temperature was above freezing, the snow was melting, it was going to be a grea-

Bob paused, squinted his eyes shut, then opened them back up.

He had not, in fact, been mistaken.

A baby T-Rex was sitting in the middle of a table in the tavern, with a proud Eddi pointing the various features of the little Rex, while an enthusiastic Lesli looked on with intense interest.

Bob mentally reviewed his conversations with Eddi. He felt fairly certain that he had, at some point, told him not to ritually summon a T-Rex.

Bob thought long and hard for nearly a minute.

Then he sighed. He hadn't told Eddi not to ritually summon a T-Rex. In retrospect, he ought to have seen this coming.

Bob realized that a substantial percentage of the tavern had turned to look at him as he stood frozen just inside the room.

Bob shook his head and walked over to Eddi's table.

"Good morning Eddi," Bob said as he sat down heavily in an empty chair.

"Good morning!" Eddi replied excitedly, "I want you to meet Reximus, my new familiar!"

"He's adorable," Bob said carefully, not wanting to ruin Eddi's day, "but I wanted to talk to you about him for a second."

"What do you want to know?" Eddi asked happily.

"It isn't so much that I have any questions," Bob said slowly, "more that I wanted to give you some advice that I'd like you to consider very, very carefully," he stressed.

"While I'm happy for you, and I'm sure that Reximus will be an amazing familiar," Bob continued, "under no circumstances should you ever ritually summon another T-Rex, especially a female," Bob cautioned.

"This world has never seen an apex predator like the T-Rex," Bob warned, "and while I confess that I'm still a little fuzzy on how naturally born animals handle biannual mana waves that bring out hordes of monsters, I can assure you that if Reximus ever found himself a girlfriend, and they had little baby T-Rexes, Thayland would be in a world of trouble," Bob finished.

Eddi nodded along and then replied, "No girl t-rexes, got it," he promised.

Bob eyed him carefully, but Eddi appeared to have understood the message and taken it seriously.

He turned to Lesli and said, "Good morning to you as well."

"It's a great morning," Lesli said, having lost none of her own enthusiasm during Bob's warning, "I've been giving it a lot of thought, and I really think my land-based form should be a T-Rex."

"And watching Reximus here grow up will be a great opportunity to study them and really understand what they are like," she enthused.

Bob closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.

He wasn't quite sure of the social implications here. He'd never been good at this stuff.

Was it wrong to tell a teenage girl that she shouldn't have sex in her T-Rex form or give birth in her T-Rex form?

How did that even work?

'You don't need to worry,' Trebor said calmly, 'In order for the young miss to carry a T-Rex to term, she would need to gestate the eggs for the duration before laying them, which is several days.'

Bob put his head down on the table, which caused Monroe to seize the opportunity to flow off the Makres and investigate Reximus, who seemed to be slightly intimidated by the big Maine-Coone.

"Are you ok?" Lesli asked.

"Fine," Bob mumbled, "just do me a favor, and never stay in your T-Rex form for more than eight hours."

Bob followed his freshers into the tavern after their delve, marking an end to his day, when he caught sight of Kelli waving him over to a table.

Bob altered his course and sat down next to his friend.

"Afternoon Kelli," Bob said.

"And a good afternoon to you as well," Kelli grinned, "once you've eaten and fed his Royal Highness, Thidwell would like a word."

"Perfect," Bob grunted as he slid Monroe off his shoulders and onto the table.

"I need to talk to him anyway," Bob said with a sigh as he shot a grateful nod to Theo, who had caught his eye from across the room.

"So, how have you been doing?" Bob asked as he reached down to rub Monroe's ruff.

"Level fifteen," Kelli said proudly, "I picked up my second akashic slot so that I can trade in two skills now."

"Nice," Bob replied, "that means you can pretty much fill in for any role in a group, right?"

"Yep," Kelli said happily, "I've been trying to do an hour or two a day in the Dungeon."

"You've really made progress," Bob said, knowing that Kelli had been a little sensitive about how he'd needed to be shepherded all the way to level ten.

"I've been wondering," Bob went on, lowering his voice a bit, "with the whole Akashic thing, at some point do you think you'll be able to figure out paths?"

Kelli nodded and replied, "At level twenty-five, I gain the ability to use ritual magic to determine a path based on a set of required skills, at least I think I do."

Kelli sighed and shrugged, "I seem to be the only person who has interpreted the description of the path that way, but to me, it's the only thing that makes sense."

'Is he right?' Bob queried Trebor.

'Yes, he is,' Trebor replied, 'the author who wrote the description deliberately obfuscated the ability.'

"I believe in you," Bob said awkwardly as he patted Kelli's arm.

He knew he wasn't good at being supportive.

Kelli smiled as Monroe added his support by batting at Kelli's hand, pulling it down to rub his cheeks again.

Once again proving that Monroe had better people skills than Bob.

"So you're taking over for Thidwell while he reincarnates?" Kelli asked.

Bob nodded, "I am, which is going to quite soon, which is what I need to talk to him about."

"He doesn't show it like most people," Kelli said as he carefully rubbed Monroe's ears, "But he's excited and a little nervous about it."

"He's nervous?" Bob scoffed quietly, "I'm supposed to keep the thirty-fourth floor clear, and I'm not even sure what that means."

"Also," Bob added, "I'm level twenty-five."

Kelli winced and shook his head, "I thought you had taken twenty-six?" he asked.

"Not yet," Bob said ruefully, "sixteen thousand mana crystals is a huge number."

Theo arrived with their food, taking special care to place Monroe's bowl in front of him in a manner that ensured it both wasn't in his way and was easy to access.

The trio turned their attention to their meals.

Bob walked into Thidwell's office, closing the door behind him.

The huge man was sitting behind his desk, glaring at a large book in front of him as he made notations on an empty line.

"Bob," Thidwell grunted as he finished his line and slammed the book closed, "how close are you to being ready to take over on the thirty-fourth floor?"

"I have a few questions of my own before I'm ready to answer that," Bob replied carefully, receiving a grunt and hand wave from Thidwell indicating he should continue.

"First, what are the monsters like on the thirty-fourth floor, and second, what exactly does it mean to curate a Dungeon?"

Thidwell looked at him askance for a moment, then let loose a gravelly chuckle.

"You wouldn't have any way of knowing, would you?" Thidwell rumbled, "Curating the Dungeon, well, Curating my Dungeon, means you check the mana flows and pools to ensure everything is moving as it should."

Thidwell stood up and stretched, rolling his massive shoulders and cracking his neck.

"You'll likely have to clear a few pools each day and correct any flows that get too heavy - I haven't completely finished the floor, so there are still some kinks to work out, and of course, mana flows change from day to day," he continued thoughtfully as he paced back and forth behind his desk.

"The monsters are a cross between a spider and a bear, with a tendency to spray poison," Thidwell went on, "shouldn't be anything your summoned monsters can't handle."

The giant paused, then pulled a scroll from his desk; sweeping the book to the side, he unrolled it to reveal a map.

"There are twenty centralized drops," Thidwell grunted, pointing to a series of purple lines that joined together in twenty places, "each one serves between four and eight pools, so you'll want to make sure you know how many are at each specific drop," he pointed to a number of red dots surrounding the purple points.

"Now the mana returns are marked in green," Thidwell explained as he traced the green lines that led away from the red pools to the outer edge of the map, which was entirely green.

Following Thidwell's finger, Bob saw a large green arrow pointing up at the far edge of the map.

"This is the primary return. Well," Thidwell said consideringly, "the only return at the moment, I haven't installed the secondary."

The huge man shook his head and continued, "Regardless, this is the primary return; you want to make sure that it's pulling mana up at a steady rate."

"And what if it isn't?" Bob asked cautiously.

"Then you head up to the thirtieth floor and check to see what's wrong," Thidwell laughed roughly.

"Now I doubt you'll need any of this," Thidwell said as he pulled a large suitcase out from under his desk, "But I've made copies of all the maps from the first floor to the thirty-fourth."

"Take a couple of days to familiarize yourself with the thirty-fourth floor," Thidwell advised, "and when you're ready, come back and see me so that I can get started on my reincarnation."

Bob nodded slowly as he accepted the heavy case and slid it into his inventory.

He turned and headed out the door.

There really wasn't anything else to say, and Bob knew it was time to do his homework.