Getting out of the Dungeon was fairly easy. Bob only encountered two groups of three beetles, which presented no challenge.

Austan was leaning back in his chair with a book in his hand, which he promptly snapped closed as he sat forward when they strode through the Gate.

"I take it your Beetle hunt went well?" Austan asked.

"He handled them well enough," Harv replied, "but we're off to procure him some armor before we delve much deeper."

Austan nodded and said, "If you don't have any protective magic, armor is an absolute must - and even if you do have magic, it doesn't hurt to be wearing it anyways."

"You'll be going back down in the next hour or so?" Austan asked.

"That's the plan, just came up to get Bob some armor, then right back in," replied Elli.

"I'll keep your delve open then," Austan stated.

"Thanks," said Harv as he nudged Bob to move forward, "we're off to Nikki's, we'll see you soon."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nikki's turned out to be a shop just across from the Mill where he'd picked up his paper. It lacked a sign, but it did have the Adventurers Guild crest carved next to the door.

As Bob followed Harv and Elli into the building, he heard a voice bellow out "Elli! What brings you to my humble shop today? Did that charlatan you drag around finally admit his repair spell doesn't compare to the work of a true craftsman?"

Bob coughed and blinked his eyes against the pungent smell of the shop, and found Elli and Harv approaching a huge wooden counter.

Glancing around, Bob saw that the entire building was devoted to leatherworking. There were wooden racks displaying suits of armor, purses, satchels, backpacks, and the rear right corner had been transformed by some sort of magic to resemble a mountain meadow, in which a variety of leather tents were set up on display.

He'd once had a bussing mishap and ended up with two hours to kill before he could catch a bus that would take him back to the line he needed to get home, and coincidentally he'd been stranded in front of a Camping World store. Being as it was August, he'd sought shelter in the air conditioning, and had spent an hour and a half wandering about the store. Nikki's reminded him a little of that. Although Camping World would have been jealous of that fake meadow.

"Harv is still patching me up, although I've not tested the new armor too much," Elli said as he shook hands with the man behind the counter, "we've brought you a new customer, a fresher in need of simple leather armor."

Bob and the man behind the counter turned their attention to one another. The proprietor was a bit taller than Bob, an inch or so over six feet. His eyebrows were black, which was the only hair on his head, as he was clean-shaven, and his scalp gleamed in the artificial light. Brown eyes held mirth, confirmed by the laugh lines at the corners. He was thin, to the point of being lanky, and gave off the impression of being quick, an impression that was confirmed as he strode around the counter and grasped Bob's hand, giving it a quick shake, before pulling a measuring tape out of his pocket.

"Elli has done you well by bringing you to me, I'm Gary, the proprietor of this fine shop, and I can set you to rights."

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Bob."

Gary was apparently able to confirm his measurements from a foot or so away, as he quickly used his measuring tape at that distance before tucking it away.

"Now Elli said you were looking for basic protection, and judging by Harv's old staff, I'd say you're looking to keep it light and flexible, right?" Gary asked.

Bob nodded, "Yes, nothing too heavy."

With a quick beckoning motion, Gary led them to a rack in the front of the store which held a full suit of leather armor.

"Two leather layers, bonded of course, with a third layer of impact plates floating over the vital areas. Lightweight, flexible, and unenchanted. I've a couple of sets in your size," Gary said as he reached behind the armor and pulled another two sets out of what must have been a rack of holding.

"I've it in brown," he gestured to the set on the rack, "molted green," he held up a suit that was done in various shades of dark green, "and the classic fresher black," he said with a sigh, holding up the final suit, which was done in a rich, dark black.

"Fresher black?" Bob asked, unable to reign in his curiosity.

"Yep," Gary replied, "it never fails. A fresh path comes in, getting ready to hit the Dungeon, and like a moth to the flame they want to be dressed in all black."

Bob shook his head. "I'll try the green if you don't mind," he said.

Gary nodded and placed the black suit of armor back into the rack before asking, "Have you ever worn armor before?"

"No, not so much," said Bob as he looked at the combination shirt and jacket he was being handed.

Simple Adventurer's Leather Armor

- Leather harness and covering, Hardness Fifteen

- Cured Hide impact plates, Hardness Twenty

- Crafted by Nikki Elmund

"Easy enough," said Gary with a wink, as he showed bob how to stuff his head, shoulders,and arms through what was was really a pullover. If a pullover was made of hard shiny leather that didn't bend nearly as much as Bob had thought it would, and had several sections that were thicker and heavier, and didn't have any give at all. Oh, and it snugged up with a set of four straps on each side, three on the bicep, and two on the forearm.

Tugging, sweating, and with the occasional utterance of "Fuck," Bob managed to get the top on. The pants were much easier, although he had to loosen the bottom set of straps on the chest, as the pants came up a bit under the top, and buckled in four places to the chest to keep them in place. These were also awfully stiff, with thick plates on the thighs, calves and shins.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Bob put his boots back on. He stretched, and twisted, then jogged in place for a moment.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as he'd thought it might be. He still had a full range of motion, although full extension had some resistance to it, which was hopefully just a function of the armor being new and needing to be broken in.

Gary rolled out a full-length mirror, and Bob gave himself a once over.

The armor was a mixture of dark greens, which Bob assumed would make blending into the great outdoors easier. With all the straps tightened, it was quite form-fitting, and Bob winced as he realized he'd lost a bit of weight. He'd always been a bit thin, and if he didn't keep to a schedule, it was too easy to skip meals. Still, he judged that monsters would likely have a much more difficult time gnawing into him.

He flinched as he was broken out of his reverie by a weight settling on his shoulders.

"Ah, that is just the thing to finish the look off, eh?" said Gary happily.

A dark green leather cloak had been cleverly attached to the shoulders of his new armor. Bob reached up and flipped the hood forward. It was lined with some sort of fabric, that while not exactly soft, was more comfortable on the skin than leather. It also made him look like the stereotypical Ranger or Woodsman. He tested the outer leather of the cloak between his thumb and finger.

"Waterproof?" Bob asked Gary.

"Well spotted," said Gary, "just the thing for keeping you dry when you get caught out in one of Holmstead's frequent showers."

Bob nodded, he could see the usefulness of having a rain coat of sorts. He'd not been rained on during his trip to Holmstead with Harv and Elli, but being as walking seemed to be the most common way of getting from point A to point B, it would come in handy.

"How much do I owe you?" Bob asked.

"Crystals or coin?" Gary replied.

With a thought, Bob pulled out his pouch of crystals from his inventory. He removed one from the pouch and handed it over to Gary.

Gary held it between his fingers, and looked at it closely, before nodding. "Those will do nicely," he gave Elli and Harv a considering look before continuing, "Normally I'd price the armor and cloak at twenty-five crystals," he said, "But Elli and even Harv I suppose are old friends and good customers. Call it twenty crystals, and when the time comes to have it recrafted with bonuses or enchantments, you come see Gary eh?"

"Sounds fair to me," said Bob as he counted out nineteen more crystals from his pouch. "Any chance you might sell me a satchel as well?" he asked.

After the talk with Thidwell, Bob had decided that the fewer people knew about his access to the System, the better. He was pretty sure that dimensionalists probably had the ability to pull shit out of thin air, but he was clearly a newbie, and shouldn't have anything like that. It wouldn't raise any questions if he had a backpack or satchel of holding though.

Gary nodded and walked Bob over to a rack that held half a dozen satchels. There was a dark green one that matched his cloak, which was good enough for Bob, who picked it up and looked it over. Same waterproof leather as the cloak, albeit probably two layers, as it held its shape.

Gary showed him how the strap looped over his shoulder, and how the buckles on the side attached it to his hip to keep it from swinging around.

"Definitely looking like a proper Adventurer now," Gary said approvingly, "Toss me another crystal for the satchel and we'll call it even."

Bob pulled out another crystal for Gary, then put the pouch into the satchel, while mentally placing it into his inventory.

Impulsively, Bob reached out and shook Gary's hand. "Thanks for the help," he said.

Gary replied, "You're welcome, take care of the armor, and yourself."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Twenty minutes later, Bob found himself back in the Dungeon, this time on the second level. They'd waved to Austan as they'd passed, and he'd wished them luck.

This level of the Dungeon didn't have the same worked walls as the first, but rather hardened earth and stone, and the light wasn't coming from bright regularly spaced spheres, but rather from amorphous globes that clung to the ceiling at irregular intervals, and cast out a slightly shifting light with a dull green tinge.

Bob looked at Harv and Elli, then looked down the tunnel, looked back at them, and then asked "So, what can I expect in here?"

Elli and Harv exchanged a look, and Harv said "Well, there are newts, they tend to lurk in the shadows and try to attack you from behind," he continued, "but before you get started, can I ask you a couple of questions?"

Bob shrugged, and said, "I can't promise I'll have answers, but go ahead."

Harv shifted a bit, and looked uncomfortable as he said "Look, it isn't really polite to ask someone what skills and spells they know or talk about how they use them, but I figure with you being..." he looked at Elli who shrugged and said, "Extra Fresh?"

"I've just been saying I'm not local," Bob suggested.

"Yes, that," Harv said, "anyways, the only spell you have is summon monster right?"

Bob nodded. They didn't need to know about Summon Monroe.

"What skills do you have?" Elli asked bluntly.

"Effect over time and persistent effect," Bob responded.

Harv winced, "Not a lot to work with there," he said, "but you've gone down a caster path, so why not summon two monsters at once. They'll be a lot less powerful, but you should have the mana regen to keep them out, even moving around, and at this level, they can still likely handle newts one on one."

Bob blinked. Had he known that was possible? He made the effort to keep his eyes open as he mentally reviewed his conversations with Thidwell and Kelli. He didn't recall that having been mentioned.

He summoned Jake. He then started to summon Jake again. As he felt the mana start to flow, he grimaced and clutched his right shoulder as he dropped both spells. Apparently, two spells at once meant using his right and left hands to channel the mana out. He winced as he shook his arm.

"Being blown into another reality resulted in some unseen damage to my mana channels," he said, "and I can't really cast with my right hand."

Harv winced, and Elli shook his head. "Damn," said Harv, "that staff is a bit wasted on you then. At some point, we should get your a rod and a shield instead."

"You can persistent effect a summoned monster though, right?" asked Elli.

Bob considered. That was a good question. He pulled his staff out of his inventory. He started to channel the mana for his spell, then stopped. How did he add the effects?

Bob looked at Harv, and with a sigh asked, "How do I add those effects to my spell?"

Harv leaned in a bit and gestured, "imagine your spell as a piece of a puzzle, and then imagine the effects as other puzzle pieces," he said, "then link them together and channel the mana into it."

Bob gave in and closed his eyes. It was easier to imagine things with his eyes closed. He took a few deep breaths. He imagined his skill like a puzzle piece, as instructed, a square with some curved protrusions. He then imagined these two skills, effect over time, and persistent effect as puzzle pieces that clipped into the skill. He then tried to channel mana into the image, but again nothing happened.

"They have different ideas in terms of what constitutes a puzzle piece," Trebor said quietly. "If I might suggest, try treating the Skill like a piece of code. You're just adding additional instructions for running it."

Bob considered the idea. It made sense to him. He took it from the ground level, mentally projecting the pattern for the summon monster skill, preceding it with the pattern for an effect over time, which seemed to act like a battery of mana that would keep the spell going, then built a mana channel that would constantly flow mana to that battery, creating the persistent effect.

He opened his eyes. "I think I have it," he said.

He channeled mana into the modified pattern.

The pattern started to fill up, and Bob watched as the mana bar at the bottom of his vision plummetted, and then emptied completely.

Pain. It wasn't the same as trying to channel mana through his damage matrix, instead, it felt like his muscles were trying to tear themselves off his skeleton. He collapsed as his muscles started twisting uncontrollably. Bob was pretty sure he'd be screaming if his throat and lungs hadn't locked up. He watched his health bar drop for a second then stabilize. A system window appeared.

System warning! You have attempted to use a Skill combination with a cost when increased by your damaged matrix, that is greater than your total mana pool! The System has disabled this Skill combination until your mana pool has increased, or your matrix damage has been repaired.

"Fuck," he coughed, a bit of blood falling to the dirt floor.

A pink-tinted light surrounded him for a brief moment, then disappeared. He felt his muscles loosen and the pain disappeared. His health bar instantly became full.

"Stones," said Harv as he moved to offer Bob a hand up, "I've never seen anything like that before, what happened?"

Bob accepted the help, then leaned against the wall. "Apparently the damage I suffered increases the cost of the spell, in this case to more mana than I have."

Elli shook his head and winced, "Mana isn't supposed to allow you to do that, normally you just can't activate the spell with the skills attached to it," he said.

Bob staggered from the wall and picked up the staff he'd dropped when he'd seized up. "Well, we know that isn't going to work," he said, "Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way."