Bob walked out of the event horizon of the Gateway and headed over to Austan, who was trying to bounce a beam of sunlight that speared out from his finger off of a mirror he'd set up against the far wall.

"Austan," Bob said as he pulled out a dozen mana crystals from his satchel.

"Evening, Bob," Austan said, "I trust your delve went well?"

"Bear-Badgers," Bob said, "surprisingly sneaky for something that is nearly ten feet long and weighs three thousand pounds."

"It appears you've emerged unscathed, so I assume that monster of yours made short work of them," Austan as he accepted the crystals from Bob.

"It wasn't too bad, a little dark," he grinned, "but your light orb came in handy once again."

Austan returned the smile and gave a short bow as he said, "Always good to be appreciated."

"I'm off to feed the beast," Bob jerked a thumb up towards Monroe, who was draped bonelessly over his shoulders, "so I'll likely see you tomorrow evening."

Austan nodded and went back to his attempts to bounce his sunbeam, allowing Bob to stride out of the mausoleum and across the plaza.

The sixteenth floor of the Dungeon hadn't been that bad. He could take on a pair of monsters every five or six seconds, although he did have to pause after five to resummon his UtahRaptor as it was usually down to about fifty-percent health at that point.

Still, he'd averaged about twelve Bear-Badgers per minute, for twelve hours. All told, it had been eight thousand four hundred and twelve of them. He'd only gained two hundred and sixty crystals. Still, his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell had reached level thirty-five, which had given Jake a new dimensional ability, and then thirty-six, which had given Bob a sense of despondency as his Summon Mana-Infused Creature experience bar was now going to require one million two hundred and eighty thousand experience to fill.

The rest of his schools had all reached level five and were in the slow process of inching up, although Abjuration had reached level six.

He was going to take level eleven in the morning. He ought to have taken it yesterday, as the experience gained showed no difference fighting monsters six levels above his own instead of fighting monsters five levels above.

But first, he was going to grab a late dinner for himself and Monroe, who was clearly weakened by lack of sustenance, judging by the tired-hungry-sleepy emotions the big cat was emitting.

Spying Harv and Elli, Bob strode over to their table and unceremoniously poured Monroe onto the center of it before taking a seat.

"Evening," Bob said as he waved to Theo.

"Is it evening?" Harv grumbled, "I'm having a hard time keeping track," he finished as he covered his mouth to conceal a deep yawn.

Elli reached out and rubbed Monroe's cheeks with both hands, causing the Maine-coon to start rumbling softly.

"What has you so worn out?" Bob asked.

"Thidwell," Harv muttered, "he has us running two groups of freshers a day now, one in the morning and one at night."

Elli grunted and said, "The morning groups starts two hours before breakfast is even served, so we run for four hours, break for breakfast, then run them for four more."

"Then we quit an hour before lunch starts," Harv grumbled, "and an hour after lunch, we start shepherding the second group, breaking for dinner and then going out for another two hours after."

"Those are some long days," Bob said slowly.

"They are," Elli agreed, "especially with two groups of Conjuration kids."

"Conjuration kids?" Bob asked with a grin.

Elli eyed him sourly and said, "Yes, those kids you gave that stones cursed lecture to," he shook his head.

"They are a bit of a trial," Harv agreed, "we're trying to teach them about the Dungeon, but they're so focused on blowing things up that it's a bit like," he nodded to Monroe, "no offense, but it's like herding cats."

"I'm sure you'll get through to them," Bob said reassuringly, "you managed to teach me."

"Yes, well, it's cutting into my beauty rest," Elli grumbled.

Harv chuckled and elbowed his friend as he said, "If you didn't insist on spending two hours a night swinging that oversized knife around, you wouldn't be so grumpy in the morning."

Elli sighed as he switched to stroking Monroe's long silky fur and replied, "Some of us use real skill, not mana-gifted skills to fight."

"You spend two hours a night practicing with your sword?" Bob asked, feeling fairly confident that he'd understood the gist of the exchange.

"Two hours a night, every night," Elli replied evenly, as Harv nodded in confirmation.

"That's dedication," Bob said approvingly.

"Family stories say that when we came to Thayland, we were counted as the premier swordsmen of the world," Elli stated with pride, "and while the sword has fallen out of favor, we kept our traditions alive."

"How long ago did you come to Thayland?" Bob asked curiously.

"Well," Elli shrugged, "the stories aren't clear on that, but I can trace my family back over two thousand years, with each generation perfecting the techniques of the generation before and adding their own."

"So you're a master swordsman then," Bob said.

Elli shook his head ruefully, "Hardly," he sighed, "as far as the mana-gifted sword skill, yes, I reached level ten quite recently, but I'm barely counted as a novice amongst my family."

"What does it take to be a master by your family's standards?" Bob asked.

"Being able to flawlessly execute every technique we've documented," Elli said, "and I've only mastered twenty-four out of a hundred and eight, so I'm not quite an adept yet."

Bob shook his head and asked, "I don't mean to disrespect your family; that sort of legacy is amazing, but what makes learning all those techniques better than just ranking up the swords skill to ten?"

"Oh no," Harv mumbled as he laid his head on this arms.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"True swordsmanship," Elli said proudly, "is an art. A swordsman with no swordsmanship, no technique, will do the same amount of damage as I do, but they will do so badly."

"When I turned five, I started training," Elli said, "and for five years, I learned how to stand and how to step. It wasn't until I was ten, and my Aunt had judged my skill sufficient that I was given a wooden practice sword."

Elli kept petting Monroe though his eyes were distant.

"To see a true master of swordsmanship is to see poetry in motion, perfect artistry in the angle of the body, shoulder, arm, wrist, hand, and blade in every strike," he said wistfully, "every step a dance, flowing from one to the next, perfectly balanced."

Elli shook his head and smiled at Bob with glistening eyes and said, "One day, when the ruckus you've caused with your Affinity Crystals has calmed down, and we aren't in danger of a Tide, I'll take you to my Aunt and let you watch her practice."

Harv let out a long sigh and lifted his head, "I hate to agree with him, but he isn't wrong. I've seen her, and it is beautiful," he said grudgingly.

"And to be fair," Harv nodded towards Elli, "Elli is exceptional."

Harv cleared his throat and said, "One of our friends used a spear, and although she had her mana-gifted skill just as high as Elli's, she lacked any sort of technique."

Elli nodded sadly and continued, "She wanted to learn, but the sword and the spear are very different weapons, and there aren't many Adventurers here in Holmstead who know any spear fighting techniques."

Harv added, "Thidwell does, but he doesn't have much time to train anyone, although if you reach level ten in the spear skill, he'll take a few days to get you started."

Bob nodded, and aware that Elli and Harv had lost close friends, tried to change the subject.

"What about you, Harv, any secret family dynasty's you've been hiding?" Bob asked.

Elli's face lit up, and he grinned as he said, "Harv's grandfather is a Master Necromancer!"

Harv groaned and hid his face in his arms again as he muttered to Elli, "I hate you."

"Necromancy?" Bob asked, "raising armies of the undead to do your bidding, Necromancy?"

"Exactly," Elli said gleefully.

Harv snorted and said in a muffled voice, "Stars and stones, would you stop saying that."

He raised his head and glared at Elli for a second before looking at Bob and saying, "While technically, yes, Grandpa can reanimate the dead bodies of monsters, his primary use for necromancy was dealing direct damage to the essence of a monster, and yes," he switched his gaze back over to Elli who was opening his mouth, "to curse monsters, reducing their attributes or causing them to take more damage from a particular attack type."

"But my favorite is the bit where he reanimates the dead to fight for him," Elli protested with a grin.

Harv shook his head and said, "So, yes, I do have a bit of family legacy, as Grandpa is one in a long line of Necromancers, and I'm sure at some point I'll take the school if only to keep up the family tradition."

Bob nodded slowly and carefully said, "So, Necromancy isn't evil then."

Harv shrugged and said, "Like anything else, it's all in how you use it, although yes," he cut Elli off, "you normally have to receive the blessing of somewhat darker God to have access to it, but we," he glared at Elli, "follow Logos, the God of Knowledge and Magic."

Elli was forced to relinquish Monroe's attention as Theo arrived with dinner.

Monroe was eating before Theo's hand had left the bowl.

"We skipped lunch," Bob said apologetically.

Theo paused to scratch Monroe's ears and mutter a sympathetic, "Poor kitty," before he headed back to the kitchen.

Bob cut his steak into bite-size pieces and asked Harv, "So Logos allows for all the Divine Schools of Magic then?"

Harv nodded and swallowed before responding, "And you can take a divine blessing of Logos to read any language."

Bob blinked, then speared a bite of steak. If that really did work for all written languages, that was awfully damn impressive.

Finishing his bite, he asked, "Is there a corresponding blessing out there that allows you to understand any spoken language."

Elli answered this time as he finished a forkful of mashed potatoes, "Eros offers that divine blessing," he said, "Goddess of love, it's called "The Universal Language."

Harv added, "Not much use for it around here, everyone speaks Thaylan, but I'm sure there are places where it would be useful."

Bob nodded slowly as he ate. He knew there was something like two-thousand languages actively spoken on earth.

Elli and Harv ate quickly, then said their goodbyes as they headed off to the Dungeon to link up with their freshers for another two-hour delve.

Bob ate his meal, then picked up Monroe and headed to his room, more than ready for a good night's sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob woke up the next morning and hurriedly showered and shaved before heading down to the ritual room to level up to eleven.

The process was smooth and painless, which was still a novelty compared to what it had been like with his damaged matrix.

He'd regained the Divine School of Elemental Air and had chosen Control Air for his bonus Divine spell and Reinforce Armor for his bonus Arcane Spell.

System Help, Divine School of Elemental Air, Control Air Skill. This skill allows the user to control a sphere of air not exceeding the user's tier in feet as the diameter. The user has complete control of the movement of the element and can exert the user's caster value divided by twenty to express strength in terms of lifting or moving objects or resisting objects or creatures moving through it. The cost of this Skill is one mana per second.

System Help, Magical School of Abjuration, Reinforce Armor Skill. This skill allows the user to imbue a target with Eldritch force, reinforcing the armor value by the caster value of the user divided by four. The cost of this skill is one mana per second.

Bob wasn't quite sure what he was going to do with the Control Air spell yet, but he was certain that the Reinforce Armor spell would be great.

Granted, with his three hundred casting value and the Abjuration school at level six, with effective over time and persistent effect reducing the value by four, and then the spell itself reducing the total by sixteen, he was only giving Jake an extra thirty armor.

But as the spell and school leveled up, it would get better, and with his UtahRaptor taking damage from the Bear-Badgers on the sixteenth floor of the Dungeon, every little bit would help.

Bob took a moment to contemplate his new status. He'd also gained back his old attribute allocation, so his endurance was significantly higher now.

Name Bob Level 11 Tier 5 Size 5 Armor Hardness 60 Weapon hardness 50 Str 36 Armor Style 1.04 Weapon type 2 Cord 36 Dodge 67 Spell casting 2 End 46 Dimension: Summoning: Abjuration: Shadowmancy: Elemental Fire: Elemental Air: Int 81 Flight Monster Eldritch Cube Drain Mana Fire Aura Control Air Wis 66 Portal Object Eldritch Shield Drain Stamina Beauty 16 Disruption Monroe Reinforce Armor Drain Health Health 551 Mana 93.5 Reinforcement Amber Mana Sight Armor 134 Mana Regen 14.7 Spell casting w/Familiar 300.56 Damage 282 Spell Casting 289 Arcane Familiar Bonus 1.04

Bob reached up to scratch Monroe's chin as they headed upstairs for a quick breakfast.

He hoped to increase his killing speed slightly with his UtahRaptor having leveled up. Still, conservatively, he was going to need at least twelve days to obtain the crystals needed to pay for Monroe's armor and to have enough to allow both of them to level up to sixteen as well.

The good news was that if estimates were close, he'd end up with his UtahRaptor pushing into level forty-three.

All that remained was putting in the work.