"So we aren't limited to regular animals then," Dave noted as they all took their seats again, Bob having dismissed Jake.

"Nope," Bob replied, "I was trying to think of the perfect predator, and I couldn't bear to summon a feline of any sort," he reached up and ran his hands through Monroe's ruff, "so I decided to summon a UtahRaptor, although" he nodded to Jack, "There is a kid named Eddi who saw Jake, and wound up deciding on a T-Rex."

"Summoning Dinosaurs is pretty awesome," Tony admitted, "although I'm thinking Triceratops now, something nice and tanky."

"Nah," Vera chimed in, "you want an Ankylosaur for tanking."

"Personally, I'd aim for something that dishes out a lot of damage," Bob said, "it's cheaper to summon a new one than it is to heal them up between fights, and if you're leveling up your healing spell by doing that, you want them to get beat up more, not less."

"Killing speed should be your primary concern when summoning," Bob advised, "so I'd recommend against herbivores."

"Can I change it up later?" Amanda asked.

"Summon Mana-Infused Creature isn't locked to a specific creature, but I recommend sticking with one for fighting, as you'll know exactly what its capabilities are, which will make commanding it almost instinctual after a while," Bob responded.

"All things considered, just about any predator will do?" Dave asked, "If so, I'm going with a wolf, as I'm eventually going to have a pack of them."

"Me too," Amanda said, nudging Dave with an Elbow, "we both love wolves."

"T-Rex," Jack answered firmly.

"Grizzly bear," Vera grinned broadly.

"Tigers," Tony and Lakisha finished together.

"Alright then," Bob nodded to Dave, "Dave, pull fifty crystals out of the pouch. Everyone else, get your weapons ready."

"Why?" Amanda demanded.

"Dave is going to pull fifty crystals worth of mana through his Matrix," Bob replied, "and I forgot to build a ritual chamber to level out the ambient mana, so there is a very slim possibility that a monster might spawn."

"It shouldn't," he hastened to reassure them, "we're sitting on a giant mana collection array but were going to follow the first rule."

----------------------------------------

Dave was leaning up against his summoned wolf, using it as a backrest as he sat and looked up at the sky. Amanda sat next to him, taking in the sea of stars.

"It's beautiful," she whispered.

"Bob said that the system hadn't integrated a universe in like, ten billion years," Dave idly traced his finger over her palm before raising her hand and kissing the back of it. "If the system is preventing the universe from expanding, it would explain the increased density of the visible star field."

"It's hard to believe," he said, "that we're sitting under the stars on another planet, leaning up against a pair of wolves that we summoned. With magic."

"I know," Amanda sighed, "although we do need to go back home tomorrow and let people know that we're taking an extended leave of absence."

"True," Dave replied, "and I suspect Tony, Lakisha, and Vera will need to do the same thing."

"Bob's burning through a lot of mana crystals opening portals," Dave mused.

"He said he has backers," Amanda reassured him, "and it isn't like we aren't going to be bringing in a ton of crystals on our own."

"So," Dave interlaced his fingers with hers, "have you thought about bringing your parents over?"

Amanda sighed and burrowed her head into his shoulder. "We have to, and it's probably better to do it sooner rather than later. We'll have to have Bob provide more extraordinary evidence, though."

"He seems a lot different over here," Dave said, "more... free, I suppose."

After a few minutes, Amanda broke the silence. "Is this our new normal?"

"It could be," Dave replied thoughtfully, gesturing around to the valley and the glacier.

"From what Bob has said, the system means a complete end to resource scarcity," he mused, "And if we end up being able to gather up those mana crystals quickly, we could end up in a society where people only work an hour or two a week, just gathering crystals, and then maybe another couple of hours producing something."

"Having to kill monsters to get crystals isn't fun," Amanda replied, "probably worth considering the implications that regular violence will have on people."

Dave nodded. Society, at least in the U.S., had become peaceful to the point where most people didn't ever engage in violence against another person in their adult lives. There were outliers, and they tended to trend along with poverty, but regular, bloody violence was something very few people had any experience with.

The psychologists would have a field day, trying to document how killing monsters corresponded with instances of human on human violence.

Of course, they'd be killing monsters themselves, probably.

Bob had described the way society worked on Thayland, where Adventurers delved the Dungeon and fought of the waves and tides, while average people sat at level five, having gotten there with crystals they hadn't had a hand in obtaining. How many people would take that route, he wondered.

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He was one day into killing monsters, and he was looking forward to having a monster of his own do the dirty work for him.

Dave recognized that the whole gaming group was a poor indicator of humanity as a whole. They'd all dreamed of having magic powers, and being heroes, roleplaying those scenarios for more than a decade. Now that they had the opportunity, they had to try.

Normal people would probably shy away from that experience.

"Penny for your thoughts," Amanda whispered in his ear, sending a chill down his spine.

"That's dangerously close to an ear nibble," Dave grumbled, "which is against the public displays treaty of two thousand and fifteen."

"Close," she breathed, and Dave shook himself loose, giving her a reproachful look.

Amanda giggled.

"I was thinking," Dave said, "before you distracted me, about how people are going to handle this new reality and how we were acclimating remarkably well."

"For all his awkwardness and lack of social graces, Bob made a good decision to bring D&D geeks in on it," Amanda replied with a shrug.

"We should probably think about reaching out to Renee, Eric, James, and Izzy," she mused, idly wiping a loose tendril of hair away from her eyes.

"Figure they all probably have groups of their own, so more geeks to pull in," Dave said.

"Emails tomorrow?" Amanda asked.

"Soon as Bob takes us back," Dave confirmed.

He pulled her closer, snuggling together as they leaned back against their wolves, looking back up at the stars again.

----------------------------------------

Bob sighed as he walked through his Portal back to Earth.

He'd gotten the group started, but they'd needed to come back and tie up some loose ends back on Earth. Loose ends like quitting their jobs, telling friends and family they were going on sabbatical, or whatever they planned to tell them.

Amanda and Dave had indicated that they'd like to bring Amanda's parents over. Jack had a line on a contractor who oversaw concrete work.

Dave had also told him that they were going to reach out to some of the members of the gaming group who'd moved away over the years and see if they were still playing.

He knew that all of these things would lead to more and more people coming to Thayland, which was great. The construction guy, Raul, could be a real asset.

Bob turned on his phone and was surprised to see that he had a text message.

Bob, this is Detective Hanson. Something weird is going on with your case. Text a time and place where we can meet to this number. Do not come to the precinct or call there.

Bob frowned. Detective Hanson had seemed to be a standup sort of guy. He hadn't lied to Bob, not even once.

Thirty minutes, the Denny's on 31, just off I-88.

He'd have to portal there, but the Detective was in Illinois, and he was in California, and Bob was the one with the ability to get around.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Bob dropped into his inventory, where he slid Monroe off the Makres and burned through another one hundred crystals, opening a portal behind the Happy Paws clinic.

Twenty-five minutes and two buses later, he walked into the Denny's, where he spotted Detective Hanson sitting in a booth. Walking over, he slid into the opposite bench.

"Good evening Detective Hanson," Bob said cordially.

"Mike," The Detective grunted out, "this is off the books, and it for damned sure ain't part of the job."

"Mike then," Bob nodded, "what's up?"

"Do you have your phone with you?" Mike asked.

"I do," Bob replied simply.

"You need to get rid of it, now," Mike said in a quiet but fierce tone, "I don't know what the fuck is going on, but someone is looking for you, and they're tracking your phone.

"Alright," Bob said slowly, putting his hand in his pocket and willing his phone into his inventory.

"Just leave it here, maybe under the bench," Mike said as he stood up and stretched. "Now get up, and real casual like, throw an arm around me like we're the best of friends, then walk out with me."

Bob layered an effect over time Eldritch Shield over his skin as he stood up, clasped Mike on the shoulder, and followed him as Mike headed toward the door.

"We need to get out of here," Mike whispered before letting out a chuckle. "I told you she wasn't divorced yet," he laughed as he gently chucked Bob on the shoulder.

"Laugh," he hissed, "and run with it."

"I figured she was close enough," Bob said loudly as they walked out the door and headed towards a battered Jeep Commander.

Mike unlocked the doors as they approached, and Bob got into the passenger seat, surprised that it wasn't full of discarded cups and fast food boxes. Mike seemed like the type.

Mike slid into the driver's seat, starting the engine as he closed the door. "Buckle up, I made two tails, not sure if they were on you or me, but at this point, it's pretty much the same thing," Mike barked before dropping the Jeep into drive and gunning it, jolting over the curb, and down the embankment.

Bob quickly buckled up as he grabbed the handle thoughtfully provided on the A-frame. "What the fuck is going on?" Bob asked as they splashed through the water in the ditch, up the far side of the embankment, and barreled over the curb onto thirty-one, slewing to the side as the previously unassuming Jeep roared in fury as Mike stomped the pedal to the floor, pushing Bob back into his seat.

"You tell me," Mike snarled as he accelerated through traffic, adroitly avoiding slower vehicles, which appeared to be all of them.

"Yesterday, I get an email strongly stressing that you needed to be located," Bob yelped as they swerved into the median, blowing through a red light before cutting back over. "You haven't done anything wrong, so I take it to my captain, telling him that I'm not violating someone's rights on anyone's say so."

Bob grinned at that. He'd judged Mike correctly.

"The next day, I've got a tail on me, and a buddy of mine, PSS, tells me he noticed a tap on my line," Mike growled. "So I think to myself, 'Mike, what the fuck is going on?', and it all comes back to you."

"I'm sorry," Bob half-shouted as Mike slewed around a corner, nearly taking out a Volkswagen.

"And you can tell me all about it once we put some more room between us and the people looking for you," Mike said.

"How do we know when we've lost them?" Bob asked, twisting to look behind them but only seeing traffic.

"You never really know for sure," Mike replied, "not on this side of it anyway, but it's always a good bet that you can get a little space and buy a little time before they find you again."

Mike pulled back the cover of the moonroof before hitting a button that slid it back. "Check the air for me, you won't be able to spot drones, but if they've got a chopper, you'll see it."

"Drones?" Bob asked incredulously, "Really?"

"Yes, really," Mike replied dryly, "the department deploys them regularly. They don't have a fantastic range, but they're quiet, hard to spot, and have great optical gear."

Bob stuck his head out of the Moonroof and into the wind stream. He looked around, searching the sky, but he didn't see a helicopter in the morning sky.

He slumped back down into his seat and shook his head.

"Well, at least they aren't using department resources," Mike muttered, making another turn.

"That's important, right?" Bob asked, scrambling to get a grip on the situation.

"Yeah, it's important, it means that whoever is after us has the pull to get information, but not to deploy resources," Mike took another turn, then pulled over underneath an overpass.

Mike put the Jeep in park and hung his head for a moment.

Bob looked at him. Mike looked rough. He'd only met him once before, and he'd looked rough then, but it was a world-weary, ready to fight the next fight rough. Now he just looked worn, tired, and drawn.

After a few moments, Mike lifted his head and looked over at Bob.

"Not for nothing, Bob, but you don't strike me as being someone that anyone would bother to chase. So what the fuck is going on?" Mike asked.