After over an hour of fighting in the cavern, their escape had been almost anti-climatic. They'd climbed up the chimney, avoided the tree full of Owlacoons in the sinkhole, and then rushed back to their campsite. Dave and Amanda had shown up a few hours later, and they'd portaled the group back to Glacier Valley.
They'd gone to the Temple as no one seemed to know where Bob was. Fortunately, a young priestess named Elcia was on duty and had the regeneration skill. Jessica was holding Sheila's hand as the ritual took effect, and her limbs slowly grew back. Jessica helped her stand while Shiela took a few unsteady steps and rolled her hand.
"That was awful," Sheila whispered.
"Your healer definitely saved your life," Elcia smiled, "I would say that two seconds later, and it would have been too late."
"How do people deal with this?" Sheila asked quietly.
"Having Rise from the Ashes helps," Elcia suggested, "It's a Divine blessing from Vi'Radia that will allow you return, intact, once each solar cycle."
"Hold up," Jessica chimed in, "try that again?"
"If you take damage greater than your total essence, Vi'Radia will raise you back up, restoring your mortal form, although with only one essence," Elcia explained.
"Pull the other one; it's got bells on it," Jessica shook her head, "you mean to say that you can basically get a self resurrection once a day?"
Elcia appeared to consider Jessica's statement. "Yes," she said slowly, "that's right. What do you mean 'Bells on it'?"
Jessica waved her hand, "Just an expression," she replied. "More importantly, how do you get that blessing?"
"Vi'Radia's light shines on all of us," a deep, warm voice spoke from behind the Australians.
Jessica and Shiela both turned to find an older man dressed in simply patterned but exquisitely crafted robes.
Jessica blinked and had to stop herself from licking her lips. She wasn't into older men. Honestly, she wasn't. At the same time, she couldn't help but imagine herself being swept up in his arms, running her hands through his silver hair...
"Vi'Radia's love for us is shown in his first blessing, Lighting the Path," the older man smiled, causing Jessica to shiver. "This blessing allows us to see clearly through the darkest of nights," he explained, "and is available to anyone who wishes it. What Elcia referred to," here he nodded to Elcia, favoring her with a warm smile, "was a blessing for those who show true devotion to Vi'Radia."
"What, exactly is true devotion?" Jessica asked. She imagined it might involve a ritual of some sort. The priest, naked under the noonday sun, muscles glistening with oil...
"You would have to dedicate a skill point to Vi'Radia to obtain the blessing," he smiled at her. "My name is Huron, and as the High Priest of Vi'Radia in Greenwold, I offer you the light of Vi'Radia."
Huron reached out and took her hand in his.
A High Priest of Vi'Radia has offered you the Divine Blessing 'Lighting the Path.' Accepting this Divine Blessing will not require a skill point. Would you like to accept this blessing? Mentally Project or Verbally State Yes or No.
"Yes," Jessica breathed.
You have accepted the Divine Blessing of Vi'Radia 'Lighting the Path.'
Suddenly the slight shadows that had been cast in the Temple lightened.
"Should you have any questions about the teachings of Vi'Radia, or the Divine Blessings available through his blessed light, please do not hesitate to ask," Huron unleashed that devastating smile. "I know your people have been bereft of Divine guidance, but have faith that Vi'Radia will light your path."
With that, he walked past them and placed a hand on the Gateway at the back of the Temple and then passed through it.
Once he was gone, Jessica blinked and shook her head, feeling like she was waking up from a dream.
"What the hell was that?" She blurted out. "I couldn't take my eyes off him," she muttered, "and I kept having these thoughts, even though I've never been into older blokes."
"That would be the call," Elcia said excitedly, "it means that you have the necessary qualities to become a priestess of Vi'Raida; it's why you felt drawn to him."
"I'm not really the priestess type," Jessica muttered, trying to shake off the feelings Huron had invoked in her.
Elcia shrugged, "The call is there; you don't have to answer it," she smiled, "although I'm glad I did."
"So, one skill point, and you get back up if you're killed?" Sheila shook her head, "Totally worth it."
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Bob looked at the nineteenth floor again. The downside to only spending ten hours a day was that it took longer to build the Dungeon floors. He would need to spend half of tomorrow casting one more ritual to complete the floor, at which point he'd start on the twentieth.
His conversation with Eddi had served to help him solidify his thoughts. He would drop this Dungeon to the twenty-sixth floor, seed it with a Summoning Affinity Crystal, make sure the Marines knew to hit the floor at twenty-three to farm them, and then wash his hands of Glacier Valley.
He'd be showing the first batch of new Curators the ropes the day after tomorrow, working on the twentieth floor. It would be nice to have some help with excavation.
Bob was actually looking forward to it. There were plenty of people around who had the necessary skills to keep things moving. He'd gotten a look at the projected time schedule and had been shocked to see that they planned to have all forty towers and Dungeons completed in the next month, with the Dungeons filled from top to bottom in three. By then, they'd planned for another two hundred towers and their attendant Dungeons completed, although they hadn't located a place for them yet.
He'd build a quick Dungeon to get the Aussies started, and then he'd build the secret Dungeon for himself and Eddi. All told, it would probably take him a month, maybe a month and a half, and then he'd be able to reincarnate.
Opening a portal beneath his feet, he fell into his Arcane Depths. He was going to build out a few more floors so that he could seed it with Affinity Crystals.
Sitting down, he pulled out the sack of mana crystals and began to cast his five-fold ritual. Casting three of these in a day sucked, but at least this one was intended to benefit him.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
He lost himself in the ritual as he directed the flows of mana, the beautiful silvery light filling his vision as he worked.
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"It's been nearly three weeks," Elizabeth stated cooly.
"Yes, but-"
"Nearly three weeks," she interrupted, "and you haven't been able to locate either of them? While I'm aware that Mr. Whitman has experience disappearing and no close ties to anyone, surely Detective Hanson has had a larger footprint? He has friends, coworkers, even a family although estranged."
"Ma'am, we have looked under every stone we could find," the P.I. was sweating in the cool room, "I won't detail the edges of the laws we've skirted, but I can assure you, we have done everything possible to locate them."
"We did also discover that a number of his acquaintances from college have vanished as well, although they've all given reasonable excuses for being unreachable," he reported. "I will add that this might not be related, despite the timing, as quite a few people associated with the acquaintances, but who were unknown to Mr. Whitman, have also disappeared. We were able to obtain a copy of an email inviting a group of them to play Dungeons and Dragons out in the desert as a sort of retreat," he shrugged, "an activity that was the common thread between themselves and Mr. Whitman."
Elizabeth looked at the man silently. She'd paid his firm a considerable amount of money to locate Mr. Whitman and then Detective Hason in an effort to ensure that the Univesity was able to negotiate a favorable settlement without involving any ambitious attorneys on Mr. Whitman's side.
She was now at the edge of what she considered to be a reasonable outlay.
"I expect that you will continue to keep the channels you've created open and that when he does reappear, I'll be notified immediately," she said.
The P.I. crumpled slightly in relief. "Yes, ma'am, as soon as he pops up, we'll know, and we'll relay it to you," he promised.
"Very well, don't let me detain you," she finished as she sat down at her desk, rearranging the paperwork laid out there.
The P.I. fled the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
Once he'd left, she allowed her demeanor to slip, leaning back in her chair with a sigh. This should have been a simple matter. Locate the newly reappeared Robert Whitman, offer him a million dollars in exchange for indemnifying the University in the matter of his unfortunate accident, and move on.
Private investigators pitting themselves against each other, a Detective disappearing; none of these things should have happened. This was the sort of thing you'd find in bad television, not real life.
To make matters more complicated, Mr. Whitman's mother had come from California and was requesting to speak with her. She'd been fending the woman off for a few days now, in the event that her P.I. might have some success, but with his abject failure, there was no reason to avoid the meeting.
She looked down at her paperwork and shook her head. Repairs were nearly complete, and the accelerator would be operational again in another month. All the personnel involved in the incident had been quietly transferred, except for Amber Crestwell, who remained at large after somehow escaping from custody. She frowned as she skimmed a series of reports from their new superiors. It really did seem that the previous director had fostered a rather myopic atmosphere. While Elizabeth would be the first to champion a diverse and inclusive atmosphere, things had clearly been taken too far.
Elizabeth sighed as she tucked the reports back in their folders and filed them in her desk drawer. She'd monitor the situation and take action if things didn't improve. Hopefully, being removed from that environment would allow them to demonstrate themselves as the superb scientists she knew them to be.
She shook her head and opened the next folder, losing herself in the proposed budget for the next quarter.
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"I'm glad to see you whole again," Dave smiled at Sheila as she and Jessica entered the tent.
"You have no idea how happy I am to have both arms and legs again," Sheila replied as she slumped down on the couch next to Derrick.
"Too right," Derrick added, throwing an arm over her shoulders and pulling her into a hug.
"So, not to put too fine a point on it, but we learned something today, right?" Dave asked.
"Yeah, don't go delving into natural Dungeons," Jessica grumbled.
"True," Dave agreed with a sigh. "We all sort of laughed it off, but I wish Bob had been the one to get all of you started."
"Drill instructor Bob," Amanda agreed with a smile, "I think you broke rules one, two, four, and five."
"Definitely one, four, and five," Dave agreed, "although I think maybe two was more of rule four blunder."
"What the bloody hell are you on about?" Sheila asked crossly.
"When Bob brought us over, he taught us how to delve," Dave replied, his tone serious. "He spent hours with us down in the Dungeon, shouting at us, making us repeat the six rules of delving back to him."
Jessica frowned for a moment. "I think I remember you telling us the six rules for delving, yeah?"
"We did," Amanda assured her, "but we didn't drill them into you the way Bob drilled them into us."
"And for that, we are very sorry," Dave said softly, "if you'd been drilled on the rules, you wouldn't have ever gone down into that cavern. Hell, you might not have gone into the sinkhole at all."
"Maybe we need a remedial course," Derrick suggested.
"I'd take any kind of time in the Dungeon we could get," Danny grumbled, with Jake and Bruce voicing their agreement.
"Well, the good news is that I've heard it passed around that Bob is going to train a huge batch of Curators this week while he builds out the next couple floors, and within another two weeks, he'll be done with Glacier Valley," Amanda smiled, "at which point he'll hopefully be able to help build an Aussie Dungeon."
"I don't know if we'll have the crystals," Jessica admitted, "as it stands, we're going to squeaking by when we go to Harbordeep."
Dave and Amanda both nodded sympathetically. "We're looking at heading to Harbordeep as well," Dave said, "we've been getting edged out in Glacier Valley."
"It's a downer, but we all knew it was coming; Bob gave them a due date when the world was going to end, so they're working towards that," Amanda sighed.
"Honestly though," Dave smiled, trying to lighten the mood, "Bob rocked out in Harbordeep, and by his own admission, he was kinda gimped, just rocking his summons. You'll be rocking your summons and your endless swarms, so you should be fine."
"In fact, if you don't have anything left to do here, we're heading there tomorrow morning with Eddi and a couple of the other Endless," he offered.
"That would be great, yeah?" Jessica looked around at the group for a consensus. Seeing nods all around, she gave Dave a double thumbs up and a smile. "Pick us up in the morning?"
"Sure," Dave agreed, "Eddi's a late riser anyway."
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"So, Trebor, I was wondering about the Arcane Depths," Bob said as he stretched, looking around the newly completed floor.
'Yes?' Trebor replied.
"I get that I need walls and floors, but couldn't I just make those summoned stone?" Bob asked.
'You could,' Trebor agreed.
"On that same train of thought, all I really need are those walls and floors to keep things separated, along with the Dimension and Shadowmancy. Couldn't I skip the elemental stuff entirely?"
'Are you asking if you could create an entirely new ritual using that methodology?' Trebor asked.
"I suppose I am," Bob agreed.
'Then the answer is yes, although you wouldn't be able to breathe, and there wouldn't be any temperature regulation,' Trebor stated.
"I can summon a steady supply of air, and I can arrange to have my armor enchanted to keep my temperature regulated," Bob replied.
Trebor was silent.
"So it's doable?" Bob asked.
'As I said, yes, you could create a ritual to accomplish that task, although, in the interest of speed and understanding that you'll be reincarnating, it might be best to use the System to create the ritual, and then practice casting the ritual without the system after using the System ritual as a reference,' Trebor said.
Bob frowned. "How would that work?"
'When you level and are preparing to accept a new skill, simply project the parameters of the ritual you wish to create while ensuring you have the necessary crystals to employ it. The System will test the parameters, consuming the crystals. If you have the necessary skills and enough mana crystals, the skill will be created.' Trebor explained.
"It would save me a lot of points," Bob mused, "I could drop all the elemental schools, plant and animal. That's twelve points right there."
"What would be the downside besides a lack of environmental controls?" Bob asked.
'That is the downside,' Trebor replied, 'you won't have any control over the temperature, the atmosphere, etc. This would require you to provide solutions to those problems, but as you've said, they aren't at all insurmountable.'
"Why didn't you suggest this in the first place," Bob grumbled.
'At the moment, no such ritual exists. The closest ritual I can find is one that creates an extradimensional multi-layered tower, but it's more of a warehouse, and it doesn't bring in any mana at all, nor does it regulate it. The Arcane Depths is one of only a handful of rituals to pull mana into the space and regulate the density,' Trebor answered.
"Ah, right," Bob said.
Trebor reacted and spoke so much like a person that even after a year and a half, Bob still had trouble remembering that he was an A.I., and despite his request that Trebor make suggestions, he didn't think outside of the box, which made sense, as Trebor sort of was the box.
"I suppose I need to grind out some more monsters so I can level up and create that ritual then," Bob muttered as he began to ritually summon an ostrich. He was getting a little tired of pork and beef.