The sun was starting to set when Bob finally stood up and stretched.

Monroe had disappeared into his inventory a bit ago, and the ball of emotions in the corner of his mind was content-warm-sleep.

The setting sun spread shades of orange, pink, red, and violet across the stream, and cast rainbows along the waterfalls.

It was beautiful and peaceful, and serene.

And it was also getting a little cool.

While the leaves hadn't started turning yet, fall was approaching, and the nights were definitely brisk.

Considering Bob was another thousand or so feet up from Holmstead, and standing right next to running water...

Monroe had gone into his inventory for a reason.

Bob took one last look around, fixing the image in his mind.

He cast a persistent effect Flight spell, and then portaled three thousand feet to the east and five hundred feet up.

He could see Holmstead below, the river running through a riot of colors as it was kissed by the setting sun.

Bob portaled again, this time arriving twenty feet in front and to the left of Adventurers Guild.

He dropped his persistent effect spell, and walked into the tavern, casting a glance at the occupied tables to see if there any of his friends about.

His step hitched as his thoughts tried to take a darker turn, the insidious thought that they weren't really his friends, that they were using him for something, and while he might not know what, the other shoe was bound to drop eventually.

Bob shook his head and refocused.

While Thidwell was using him, he was clear on his agenda, and what he desired from Bob was not in any way detrimental.

Well, explaining Affinity Crystals to the kids might have been, but Bob had decided to share that information before Thidwell had asked him to do so. Thidwell had just pushed him into doing it in a manner that Bob didn't enjoy.

And Bob owed him.

Harv, Elli, and Bailli though, they'd never asked Bob for anything. They seemed to enjoy talking to him, and he actually liked talking to them.

Bob took a few steps to left and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes and taking several deep, calming breaths.

He opened his eyes, and swept the tavern again, keeping his mind clear.

Bob shook his head and grunted. All that worthless self-doubt, and it looked like he was going to be eating dinner alone anyway.

Bob took a seat and coaxed Monroe out of his inventory with mental images of a bowl of steaming chunks of meat.

Monroe was disappointed that the bowl wasn't already present, but recognized that the tavern was the place where his meals were normally presented to him by his human-servants, so he simply stretched out and lounged as he waited for his attendants to see to his needs.

Bob caught Theo's eye and gave him a nod.

He had to admit, having only one meal available for most of the day, breakfast being the exception, made it much easier for both the wait staff and the diners.

Pulling out Monroe's brush, he took a few minutes to groom the floofer, as their adventures in the woods had left him a trifle disheveled.

Theo arrived with their meals, and Bob stored the brush before pushing his own hair off his forehead.

He paused and considered the state of his own hair.

Or rather its length.

He normally cut his hair every two weeks, but he'd been here for over two months, and it had grown quite a bit.

Bob somehow doubted they had electric trimmers with guards measured in centimeters.

Then again, they used magic for everything, so maybe there were trimmers that you stuffed a mana crystal into.

Shaking his head in an attempt to pull himself out of his thoughts, Bob addressed his meal while Monroe fastidiously attended to his own.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next morning found Bob quickly crossing the plaza that separated the Adventurers guild from the Dungeon.

Upon entering the Mausoleum he was greeted by a grinning Clyde who stood up and moved over to clasp Bob's shoulder.

"It's good to see you," Clyde said with a smile.

"And you," Bob answered cautiously.

"I take it you've reincarnated to the new path?" Bob asked.

"I have," Clyde answered, "and I couldn't be more pleased," he continued, "I went along with your Conjurer's and we shot up in just a few days."

"Glad to hear it," Bob said and he returned the shoulder clasp.

"So what level of the Dungeon will you be delving down to this morning?" Clyde asked as he pulled out his ledger.

"I'll be headed down to the twelfth floor, likely for most of the day," Bob replied.

"Be careful," Clyde admonished as he noted down Bob's delve.

"I will," Bob said, and then headed over to the gateway.

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As he pressed his token to the gateway and then stepped through the event horizon and down to the twelfth floor, Bob felt a smile creep onto his face.

He fed a mana crystal into the light orb, cast a persistent effect mana drain on himself to finish leveling that up, and finally he summoned a UtahRaptor.

Summon: UtahRaptor(Jake) Tier: 5 Size: 5 Level: 25 Weapon Hardness: 26.1 Hide hardness: 17.4 Strength: 100 Mana: 80 Armor: 397 Coordination: 100 Stamina: 174 Claw Damage: 991 Endurance: 52 Health: 2466 Bite Damage: 929 Intelligence: 46 Movement: 186 Wisdom: 46 Dodge 369 Beauty: 52 Summoning Mastery 1.74 Caster Value / 2 140 Arcane Familiar Bonus 0.04 Natural Attack 1.7 Natural Armor 1.7 Dodge 1.7 Toughness 1.07

Bob's smile widened as he looked over Jake's status.

They were going to tear through those cockroaches.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

What had been a significant challenge when he was level eleven, but crippled by his damaged matrix, proved to be laughable at level nine.

Between his equipment, his path, and his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell finally receiving threshold bonuses, despite still working towards his spell breaking through the level twenty-six threshold, Bob was almost willing to treat this like he had the tenth floor of the Dungeon.

The painful memory of nearly being killed begged for caution, and Bob didn't need to relax.

Taking a day off had done wonders for him.

Watching Jake tear apart another six cockroaches, Bob took a moment to bring him back over, dismiss his persistent effect, and the recast it anew, this time focusing on Stamina Drain.

His Mana Drain spell had just reached level nine.

Bob took a moment to marvel at the mana flowing through both of his arms and then through the staff.

After months of being crippled, he still enjoyed the feeling of casting spells without the tearing pain that his matrix had caused.

With a thought, Bob sent his UtahRaptor dashing back out to attract and destroy another group of cockroaches.

Bob's smile remained. He was putting in the work.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Four days later, and Bob was relaxing at the tavern with Monroe on the table in front of him, carefully brushing the big cat.

It had been a busy four days. Twelve hours a day had taken a toll, but the payoff had been immense, in terms of both mana crystals, and increasing his skills.

Bob had finally gotten past the level twenty-six hurdle with his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell.

The moment the skill had passed the threshold, he'd received a System prompt.

Magical School of Summoning Skill: Summon Mana-Infused Creature has exceeded the user's maximum tier level of twenty-five. The Skill Summon Mana-Infused Creature has increased to tier six.

Please select an Affinity to associate with this Skill.

Elemental Air

Elemental Fire

Elemental Earth

Elemental Water

Conjuration

Abjuration

Dimension

Summoning

Plant

Animal

Bob had paused to discuss the matter with Trebor and had decided to select Dimension, as it would provide a benefit against any foe, whereas any elemental Affinity would suffer when the time came for Bob to fight against enemies that favored that element.

He'd then gained enough experience to push his UtahRaptor to level thirty, which had unlocked a new option, Disruptive Strike. Bob hadn't taken the time to ask Trebor about that quite yet, as he'd noticed the skill when he'd checked Jake's status at the end of the four-day marathon.

His Magical School of Summoning had also risen to its current maximum level of nine. So close.

As Bob was level nine, he was currently earning eight experience for each cockroach he killed. This had rocketed his summoning school up and allowed him to cap his Mana Sight, Mana Drain, Stamina Drain, and Health Drain spell, as well as level his Shadowmancy to six, taking the ten percent increase in effect when it had reached the threshold at level five.

Bob reflected that it had been a very productive four days indeed.

He'd killed sixty-nine thousand one hundred and twenty cockroaches, which yielded two thousand one hundred and forty-two crystals.

As he toyed with Monroe's ear tufts and contemplated how tired of killing Cockroaches he was, Theo arrived with his breakfast and Monroe's meat bowl.

"Thanks, Theo," Bob said as he stored Monroe's brush back in his inventory.

Theo gave him a thumbs-up as he hurried back towards the kitchen.

Bob had just started to address his scrambled eggs when Eddi sat down in the chair across from him.

"Good morning Bob!" Eddi said happily, before pausing to take in Bob's new armor and staff.

Eddi let out a low whistle.

"You look impressive," Eddi said with a grin.

Bob swallowed a bite before grunting out a reply, "Eddi, I feel impressive too. Once you hit level nine and start grinding out crystals on level ten, you go to Nikki's and commission a suit of armor with all the magical and professional enchantments."

Bob speared a sausage and added, "Believe me, it is imperative to have it before advancing any further," he finished as he bit the sausage in half.

Eddi nodded eagerly and said, "It looks like we'll be taking level nine and delving down to the tenth floor of the Dungeon in another two days."

Bob pointed an empty fork at Eddi and finished chewing before he said, "Before you go down there, take a couple of hundred crystals to Nikki's and pick up a pavilion and a canteen from Gary."

"I will," Eddi promised as he caught Theo's eye and gave him a wave.

"So, how is your 'Raptor doing?" Eddi asked

"Finally made it past that huge bump to twenty-six," Bob said with a sigh.

He shook his head.

"Three hundred and twenty thousand experience is a huge amount," Bob grumbled, "and being as we are looking at increasing the level of the spell so high, I imagine it's going to get worse."

Bob lowered his voice as he held Eddi's gaze and said, "I did the math, and if I'm right, the jump from thirty-six to thirty-seven is going to require one million two hundred and eighty thousand experience."

"Stones," Eddi muttered softly.

"And it'll be even worse on the next threshold, assuming that things progress as we expect and we have the option to increase our Summon Mana-Infused Creature spells maximum level by fifty-percent when we reach the tenth level of the Summoning School," Bob said.

"That's a lot of monsters to kill, but that's also a level fifty-two Rexxy, right?" Eddi asked as he scribbled some numbers in a notepad he'd pulled out of his pouch.

"It is," Bob confirmed.

"Stars above," Eddi smiled, "she's already just destroying monsters like it's nothing."

Bob nodded as he worked on finishing his breakfast.

"So," Eddi said, "I picked the mana manipulation skill when I reached level seven, do you have any suggestions as to what I should take next?"

Bob finished off the last of his eggs as he considered that question.

"It really depends on what you want to do," Bob started slowly.

"You're pretty well set for adventuring, and standing against a wave," he went on, "so you have to decide if you'd like a little more versatility, in which case you could take healing or shielding magic, or if you'd like to have something to do in your time outside the dungeon."

Eddi nodded as he dug into his eggs.

"You could also take ritual magic, and Summon Mana-Infused Object," Bob said, "leverage the fact that you're going to be Master Summoner and build walls, homes, etc."

Bob pushed his plate towards Monroe, setting his silverware to the side.

"You could also grab Earth, Water, Plant, and ritual magic, make use of your spell casting value and farm food ritually," Bob said as he watched Monroe crunch through the piece of bacon he'd left him.

"There are a lot of options available to you," Bob finished as he moved Monroe in front of him, and started petting.

Eddi continued to eat, his gaze distant, clearly considering what Bob had said.