"Those are some proper walls," Bruce said as they emerged from the Portal and got their first look at Harbordeep.

Jessica nodded. The walls were probably more than twenty meters tall, and they looked to be nearly as thick. She couldn't imagine how much work must have gone into building them. Then again, with magic, maybe it hadn't been quite so difficult.

"So Nora popped Wayna and me back over here so I could meet her parents a few months ago," Eddi said, "and Wayna gave me a quick tour, not that it's really necessary. If you just keep walking down the road that leads through the gates, you'll end up in front of the Adventurers Guild, and the Dungeon is beneath the Church next door."

Eddi started heading towards the gate, with Jerri, Anni, and Sereh following behind, leaving the Aussies to follow along.

"So Dave and Amanda said Bob will likely be done in Glacier Valley in two weeks," Danny said as they followed the natives. "How far do you think we can get in two weeks?"

Jessica considered the answer to that question. The truth was they'd managed to keep their Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell capped, so the next couple of levels would be pretty easy, but at level eleven, they were going to run into the first roadblock. The file that Dave had shared explained that pushing their Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell from level twenty-five to level twenty-six was going to require a stupid amount of experience.

"Getting to level eleven should be quick, maybe a day or two," Jessica hedged, "but once we're there, we have to decide if we want to keep pushing our personal levels at the expense of our summon monster spell. We could probably go past level fifteen if we just grind out the crystals, but at what point do we start to lose the edge that our spells give us?"

"Yeah, I remember seeing that twenty-five to twenty-six was like three hundred thousand experience," Danny grumbled, "I was just hoping to get high enough to portal back home, you know?"

"I do," Jessica agreed, "but on the other hand, when we're level eleven and our monsters are level twenty-five, it'll be a lot easier to delve five levels lower for the increased experience than it will be when we are level sixteen or seventeen, and our monsters are still only level twenty-five."

"You're not taking mana density into account," Derrick disagreed, "Remember, we can do eight-hour delves when we are delving on a floor that's only one level down. If we were to do five floors deeper, which is the cap as I understand it for gaining bonus experience, we'd then only be able to delve for an hour or two a day. The math works out that we'd probably be better served by just holding at level eleven and delving like mad on level twelve. We'll probably only get a quarter of the experience we need to push our spells to level twenty-six, but at the same time, we'll probably earn fifteen hundred or so crystals, which will recoup the costs of being here and leave us with a few crystals as well."

"Maybe more than a few, yeah?" Jessica offered, "The token to get into the Dungeon is five hundred crystals, but we really only need one, right?"

"From what I read, they seem a bit crook, though, yeah?" Bruce asked. "Seems like they're the sort to put the boot in."

"We'll know soon enough," Jessica replied, "worst case, it's five hundred each for the token, and seventy for the two weeks lodging and food, in which case we can still each buy the next token for eleven to fifteen and still come out ahead, if not nearly as much."

As they approached the gate, Jessica was surprised to see that it was guarded by dragon-men. They were seven feet tall and covered in scales, then further covered in armor.

Eddi was showing them his Adventurers Guild badge. "The six need to register with the Guild," Eddi explained as he waved back at the Australians, "they're pretty low level."

"Enjoy your time in Harbordeep," one of the dragon-men said before turning to look at Jessica and her friends.

"I'm Toldaren of house Ulrich," he said calmly as he looked over each one of them, his sharply pointed claws tapping at his clipboard.

"I'll need each of your names, levels, and to verify you have the wealth to stay in the city," Ulrich explained, looking expectantly at Jessica.

"Jessica, level eight," she offered hesitantly, then pulled a fistful of mana crystals out of her satchel.

Ulrich noted her name and presumably her level on his clipboard, then glanced at the pile of mana crystals in her hands. "Do you intend any harm on the city of Harbordeep or her citizens?" Ulrich asked.

"No," Jessica responded.

"Truth," another dragon-man said, this one with black scales.

"Welcome to Harbordeep," Ulrich said with what she thought was a smile, "if you head up the main boulevard, you'll find the Adventurers Guild just before the Church; you can't miss it."

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

"I wanted to be unimpressed, but damn," Jessica breathed as she caught sight of the Church. Seeing it from the plateau above the city was one thing, but seeing it towering above them was another thing entirely.

"The Adventurers Guild looks a bit dumpy in comparison, yeah?" Shiela asked quietly.

She'd been withdrawn ever since the cavern, and Jessica was glad to see her actively engaging.

"We don't need anything posh," Derrick replied, throwing an arm around her shoulders, "long as they've got hot brekky, I'm all in."

Eddi and the Endless had already ducked into the door of the Adventurers Guild, leaving the Australians to follow. Jessica lingered a bit, looking at the boulevard and the shops, noticing the murals on the walls.

"You reckon this was all built with Magic?" Derrick asked.

Jessica nodded. It was a mental switch, getting used to the differences between Thayland and Earth. They were so similar that it was often difficult to remember that things here were just different.

"Well, let's go get registered," she said as she headed through the doors and into the Adventurers Guild.

Half an hour later, the group found themselves sitting in a lushly appointed apartment with five bedrooms, Derrick and Sheila having blushed as they insisted that they only needed the one.

Things hadn't been as bad as they'd feared. They were paying twelve crystals a day for the apartment, and they'd had to pay eight crystals each to register with the guild and another ten each for their badges, but they'd discovered that as a group, they only needed one token between them.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Forget what I said about not needing anything posh," Derrick grinned, "this is fantastic!"

"I may never leave this couch," Danny agreed languidly.

"I'm just happy that we didn't have to wait for a slot to delve," Jessica grinned.

They'd caught the tail end of Eddi's conversation with his agent, and the Endless were going to be waiting for two days before they could delve into the Dungeon.

"I think it's because the crystal requirements to push to tier six are so high," Bruce mused, "I mean, the lower level floors are quickies, right? You only need a hundred crystals from it, and you're done. But floor twenty-six, hell, you need what, sixteen thousand crystals? Gotta figure those floors are just stuffed with blokes slowly grinding it out, right?"

"Makes sense," Jessica agreed, "and it means we shouldn't have a problem booking a delve for eight hours a day while we're here."

"So what should we do now that we're all checked in?" Jake asked, "aside from prying Danny off the couch."

"It's comfortable," Danny said with a little pout.

"Sure, but there's a book store where we can buy a book that will tell us what we're going to be fighting on each floor," Derrick said as he stood up and stretched, then offered a hand to help Sheila up. "I reckon we ought to find that out before going down there, yeah?"

"Couldn't agree more," Jessica said.

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

Bob looked at the fifty men lined up outside the tavern. He'd had to put a cap on the number of Curators he was going to teach at once.

"Alright," Bob began, "I've started construction of the twentieth floor. There should be just enough room for all of us, but not much in the line of elbow room, so please keep that in mind when you go through the Portal. Spread out and leave the arrival point clear."

He poured mana into the pattern for a Portal spell, and the familiar twisting blue-black aperture appeared.

The men quickly marched through, and after a few heartbeats, Bob followed.

He stepped onto the twentieth floor and released his Portal, plunging the dimly lit area into darkness. With a sigh, he pulled out his lightball and stuck it on the head of his staff, then fed it a mana crystal. A warm glow spread across the methodically carved room.

"None of you have a light?" Bob asked, disappointment clear in his voice.

"No sir," was the mumbled reply, and one voice added, "the floors have all been lit."

"And when you're done, this one will be too," Bob replied, "but while you're working, you'll need to provide your own light." He shook his head. "Come to think of it," he continued, "do any of you have a persistent effect running to create air for yourselves?"

The silence was deafening.

Bob sighed. "Ok," he began, "clearly none of you have been taught the rules, so here's what's going to happen; We're going to build this floor out, and then I'm going to use it to provide some much-needed remedial training."

"But first, you'll need to live that long," he shook his head, "normally, that wouldn't be a problem when building a Dungeon because there are no monsters yet, but environmental factors are still a consideration. Is there anyone who doesn't have the persistent effect skill?"

Bob paused as every single man raised their hands.

"Seriously?" He half-whispered.

"Ok, change of plans," Bob said loudly, "we're going to go back top, and we're going to make a checklist of the skills needed to build a Dungeon."

Stuffing mana back into the pattern for his portal spell, he stepped through it and moved to the side to allow the rest of the men out.

Shaking his head in frustration, he followed them into the tavern, where he used Summon Mana-Infused Object to create a blackboard and a piece of chalk.

He quickly wrote on the board and turned to face the group.

Necessary skills for building out the Dungeon.

Schools :

  Elemental Earth

  Elemental Air

  Elemental Water

  Elemental Fire

  Shadowmancy

Spells :

  Elemental Earth -

        Control Earth

        Create Earth

  Elemental Air-

        Create Air

        Control Air

  Elemental Water -

        Control Water

        Create Water

  Elemental Fire -

        Control Fire

        Create Fire

  Shadowmancy -

        Mana Sight

        Mana Shaping

Metamagic Skills :

  Ritual Magic

  Effect Over Time

  Persistent Effect  

"Let's start with the basics," he said loudly, "do all of you have the same skills."

There was some whispering, but he didn't receive the resounding yes he'd expected.

"That's a no," Bob shook his head, "alright, did you all at least choose the path of the Curator?"

This time the men, as one boomed out, "Yes, Sir!"

"Well, at least I know you have the Elemental Schools and the control spells," Bob muttered. "Alright, everyone with all of the schools and the spells listed, please move over to my right."

All of the men shuffled to the right.

"Everyone who is missing Effect over Time move to the left," Bob said.

Nearly half of the men moved to the left.

"Everyone on the right, if you're missing persistent effect, join them," Bob called out.

He shook his head as the group reformed as one mass again.

"Alright, when I described the process of building a Dungeon, I distinctly remember stating that you needed to have Mana Sight up in order to use the Mana Shaping spell correctly. This is accomplished by using persistent effect. Now maybe I fucked this up and just assumed that the person I was speaking to understood how magic works," Bob raised his hands in a surrender motion.

"That's on me. Every one of you needs to have persistent effect. Some of you only need one more level, some of you need two, but regardless, you won't be proceeding without it. Go report back to whomever you report to and let them know," Bob finished, dropping the persistent effect for the chalkboard.

The men filed out quietly as Bob sat down at his table and pulled Monroe out of his inventory for a good petting. He'd managed to work the big cat into a good purr when Mike sat down across from him.

"What happened?" Mike asked.

"They didn't have persistent effect, so they couldn't use Create Air to breathe, which I probably could have helped them with," Bob replied, not taking his eyes off Monroe, who was languidly stretching as Bob applied long, slow body strokes. "But without persistent effect, they can't have Mana Sight up when they're ritually casting Mana Shaping, which is a deal-breaker."

Mike frowned and tapped at his tablet for a moment. "I know you sent me a copy of that file," he muttered, then paused as he located the offending message and read it.

"Curators will need the Divine School of Shadowmancy, as well as the spells Mana Sight, which will need to be active when casting the spell Mana Shaping as a ritual," Mike read out loud, then frowned.

"I can see how someone who didn't know how magic works might not have thought of persistent effect," Mike offered.

"I know it's partly my fault," Bob admitted, delving into the forbidden territory of belly rubs. "The thing is, when I wrote it, I was thinking about writing it for you," he shrugged, "and you know how spells work."

"Sadly, the Captain I sent this to doesn't," Mike replied.

Bob continued to pet Monroe, leaving the dangerous tummy area for the safer ruff. "I thought they'd be ready," Bob said slowly, "but not only didn't they have the skills, but they also didn't have a way to see in the dark," he shook his head. "They were completely unprepared. Isn't anyone teaching them the rules?"

"Not from what I've seen," Mike shrugged, "I recommended it, but command hasn't implemented it yet. To be fair, the Aussies didn't get the full Bob experience either, and they paid the price for it."

"What happened?" Bob asked, "Are they alright?"

"One of the girls lost an arm and a leg, but they made it out of a bad situation alive, and they had her healed up," Mike explained, "from what I understand, they found a natural Dungeon and went exploring."

"Yeah, they're level eight; they have no business exploring a natural Dungeon," Bob sighed, "we don't even have any diviners working Glacier Valley."

"Diviners?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, they sit around and constantly scan the area for anomalous concentrations of mana," Bob replied, "if they find one, they use a ritual to identify the mana density and to view it remotely, to see exactly where it is, and to a degree, what is in it."

"We should probably get some of those," Mike muttered, tapping at his tablet.

"That's how Harv and Eli found me," Bob muttered as he returned his attention to Monroe, "the diviners caught a sudden surge of mana, and the diviners determined that it was a level one, maybe a level two Dungeon, so they were sent out to scout it when they found me."

Mike nodded.

"There's a lot more to this world than we know," he mused, "every time I think I have a handle on things, I find out there's something else going on behind the scenes, and I had no idea."

Bob nodded, pulling a slicker brush from his inventory and going to work on Monroe's coat, much to the Maine-Coone's delight.

"I wouldn't worry too much about this," Mike offered as he stood up. "It's a learning experience for everyone, and no one was injured, so let's just chalk it up to a combination of miscommunication and bureaucracy."

Bob nodded again as Mike left.