Bob was staring at the crystal in his hands.
Over the past few months, he'd gradually built out the rest of his Arcane Depths, and he would spend an hour or so a day fighting on the deeper floors. He'd seeded this floor, fifty-six, with Dimensional Affinity Crystals, which made what he held in his hand all the more surprising.
It was an Affinity Crystal, but it was half again the size of a normal one.
"Trebor, what is this?" Bob asked as he turned it over in his hands.
'That is an Attribute Affinity Crystal,' Trebor replied. 'Endurance, which should be beneficial.'
Bob frowned and focused his thoughts. "These only appear when you're fighting two full tiers and your tier in levels over, right?"
'That is correct. You are still technically tier five, and you're fighting six levels over tier seven,' Trebor confirmed. 'You're quite fortunate to have found one, as the coalescence rate is staggeringly low.'
"How low is low?" Bob asked as he turned the crystal over in his hands.
'If you spend the rest of your time gathering the mana crystals you need to advance from this floor, you might find another,' Trebor replied.
"That's a low rate," Bob agreed, pausing to drop his UtahRaptor and summon another. The monsters on this floor would kill his summons after only three or four fights, which required him to be much more attentive, which wasn't a bad thing. He knew he'd gotten more than a little complacent.
'Given that your most recent attempt at building a path utilized all of your potential opportunities to use Affinity Crystals, you might wish to either reconsider that path or adjust it,' Trebor continued. 'If you plan to stay on this floor in an effort to gain another Attribute Affinity Crystal, and you succeed, you'll need to severely revise your plans.'
Bob nodded. He remembered that regardless of the type of Affinity Crystal, you could only use one per level, and to get anything good out of them, you had to use them before you took your path.
"I should let the Endless know," Bob mused thoughtfully. "And maybe the D&D guys."
The Endless could punch way above their level, and as Thayland natives, they had a natural tendency towards caution when it came to delving deeper than their levels. The same couldn't be said for the D&D crew, as some of them were still absolutely treating this as a game.
"I'm guessing the bonuses for requiring an Attribute Affinity Crystal are significantly greater than a standard Affinity Crystal?" Bob asked.
'Yes, a four percent bonus to a skill, a two percent bonus to a school, both of which can be split between either four skills, or two schools, or any combination thereof that adds up. It can also provide two additional threshold bonuses, or two additional threshold unlocks, or finally a powerful bonus to a skill or school,' Trebor explained. 'Requiring an Attribute Affinity Crystal is twice as powerful as requiring a School Affinity Crystal, and both of them are more powerful than requiring a natural species affinity.'
Bob nodded. If he could find either an Intelligence or a Wisdom affinity crystal, he'd be quite a bit more powerful than he would be otherwise. He wasn't going to complain about finding the Endurance crystal, as more health and greater resistance to mana density sickness were bonuses he wouldn't turn down. He could rely on the shielding technique to eliminate the mana density issue, but only up to a point. It turned out your spellcasting value had to meet a threshold that varied depending on the mana density. Having put a point into Endurance at every level, Bob was riding the edge delving this deep. He could tell that his shield was weakening the effects of the mana density, but his endurance was struggling to do the rest.
'Might I suggest that you choose a path other than that of a summoner when you reincarnate?' Trebor said, surprising Bob out of his thoughts.
"Huh?" Bob replied eloquently.
'You have dedicated a lot of thought to the idea of disappearing when the update occurs,' Trebor explained. 'Yet, in all of this, you've continued to develop and discard paths that revolve around summoning. Regardless as to how small Monroe is when he reincarnates, you have an established reputation as a summoner, and it is in fact, one of the characteristics people use to define you. If you were to focus instead on another type of magic, possibly even on a divine school, it would be much more difficult for someone to determine your true identity.'
"I'd have to learn how to fight without my summons," Bob muttered.
'The update is going to make delving alone more difficult,' Trebor replied, 'although having an Affinity Crystal, or in your case, seven of them, will ease the pain somewhat. Please remember that monsters are going to have paths as well, so a matchup between an adventurer and a monster, at equal level, will be much closer to even.'
"Why is that, again?" Bob asked.
'It will cause monsters to constantly utilize mana in combat, which will increase the amount of mana cycled,' Trebor replied.
"It all comes back to that," Bob sighed, dismissing Jake yet again and then summoning him back out.
'It is the entire purpose of the System,' Trebor agreed.
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The problem with casting a spell without the system was that you were building a four-dimensional pattern, as the order in which you laid out the threads of mana into the pattern mattered. The process was further complicated by the process of manipulating mana, which Bob likened to trying to hold a liquid in place with your hands. It was also worth noting that each type of mana had a different 'viscosity,' for lack of a better term.
Bob was actually looking forward to reincarnating at tier seven, if only to increase his ability to see and manipulate mana.
He blinked the sweat out of his eyes as he continued to focus on the threads and strands of mana, a few of which really didn't want to stay in place.
He'd been working on this ritual for nearly sixteen hours.
He'd had a particularly good haul the day before, and he'd decided that today was the day. He was going to attempt to recreate the Arcane Depths with Systemless casting, although he wouldn't be using his matrix as an anchor point. He'd chosen instead to anchor it to a fixed point, which was actually easier.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Once he'd gotten going, he hadn't wanted to quit, but there were several instances where he'd had to back off and reinforce his work. The end result was not as pretty as he'd hoped, and he'd had to query Trebor several times, but he was nearly done.
As Bob laid the final thread of mana into place, the entire pattern flashed brightly, a cascade of light that nearly blinded his mana sight. He blinked to clear his vision and found himself staring at a cable thick braid of mana that wrapped around the door to his closet.
He'd done the ritual in his room in the Hidden Dungeon, which was the most secure location he could think of. Very few people knew of its existence, and only he and Eddi actually knew where it physically was. Only Eddi and Wayna knew who the room with the heavily warded door belonged to.
'Congratulations,' Trebor said. 'You've successfully recreated a pinnacle conjunction skill. If you feed the pattern for a portal spell into the open doorway, it will open to the newly created extra-dimensional Dungeon.'
"Proof of concept," Bob managed to mutter as he sprawled out across the floor, pulling a canteen from his inventory and taking a long drink.
'Practice will decrease the amount of time required, as will your increased sensitivity to mana and your improved mana manipulation when you tier up,' Trebor offered.
"I guess it's time to have a talk with my friends," Bob said slowly. He didn't have the energy, or the willpower to stand up. A sudden weight on his chest and an inquisitive paw batting at his face served to announce the arrival of his imperial majesty.
"Hey, buddy," Bob mumbled around the paw.
"Mreow?" Monroe asked, which roughly translated to 'feed me.'
Bob knew this, because Monroe was projecting the feeling of intense hunger toward him.
Bob also knew that he'd left six pounds of diced ham out for him before he'd started casting the ritual.
"You can't be hungry," Bob said flatly, turning his head to remove the paw from his mouth.
"Meereeeooow," Monroe disagreed sadly.
Bob reached into his inventory and pulled out a steaming serving bowl, filled with tender beef tips, swimming in a rich, shimmering brown gravy.
Monroe nearly knocked the bowl out of Bob's hands before he could set it down as he attacked his meal with the intense fervor of a kitty who'd been on the brink of starvation for days.
"Poor kitty," Bob commiserated, struggling into a seated position. "So hungry," he shook his head. Pulling Monroe's slicker brush from his inventory, Bob started to brush the big Maine-coon, which increased the volume of the feasting cat's purrs substantially.
Sirloin tips in gravy was a dish that Talima made every few weeks, which both Bob and Monroe absolutely loved. To be fair, everyone loved it, but Monroe was especially enamored, and no bowl was safe. Bob had stocked up last time it had been served, and he saved it for special occasions. Like leaving a kitty alone in his inventory for sixteen hours.
Monroe could enter and exit his inventory at will, but the big cat could also sense Bob's emotions, and proving that he was the most handsome and brilliant kitty ever, he didn't disturb Bob when he was casting rituals.
"What do you think, buddy?" Bob asked. "Should we go see our friends tonight?"
Monroe's tail swished.
"Yeah, best wait until tomorrow," Bob agreed.
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"Bob!" Dave exclaimed, striding over to catch his hand and give it a firm shake. "You're out a day early, aren't you?"
"I am," Bob agreed, "I had a few good days in a row, so I'm still on track. I wanted to get together with you, Amanda, Bailli, Harv, Elli, and Eddi. I've got something important to share with you."
"Important, eh?" Dave grinned as he pulled out his cellphone. "You know, you could have just sent everyone a text."
Bob grimaced. "I'm still adjusting to that," he admitted. "I have a sort of mental image of Earth and one of Thayland, and I keep forgetting that there is more and more bleed-over between the two."
"Yeah, I hear ya," Dave commiserated, "Every time I go back to Earth, I'm shocked at the changes."
"How so?" Bob asked.
"Well," Dave began, "Venezuala finally imploded. Their new government was the first to adopt Mana Crystals as the official currency. They are cycling people over to Thayland to delve their Dungeon at a frantic pace, and the people cycling back to Earth are burning tens of thousands of mana crystals growing food. Combined with the literal truckloads of butchered monster meat held in stasis, they've turned their entire country around."
"That's... kind of awesome," Bob grinned.
"It did get a little bloody," Dave replied, "there were four groups of 'Freedom Fighters' who tried to take charge, but they were immediately discovered hoarding food and crystals and were summarily executed. Their new president is Cordelia Juarez, she won the election in a landslide, in no small part because she had a bodycam and a drone on her, twenty-four-seven, uploading to the internet and broadcasting over the airwaves. The whole country watched her fighting monsters, and once she had the levels, using all the mana crystals, she'd earned to grow food." He shook his head. "A significant percentage of their population is emulating her, and her approval rating is over eighty percent. She lives in a tent and spends all her time delving, growing food, or vetoing laws."
"Vetoing laws?" Bob asked.
"Yeah," Dave grinned, "they tore up their legal code during the revolution and created a new set of very simple laws. Don't kill or cause another physical harm. Don't take the possessions of others. Unless you are preparing to tier up, you may not possess more than one thousand mana crystals. Delves are taxed at fifty percent for the King of Greenwold, with another twenty percent going to the groups growing food for the country. If you can grow food, you're allowed to use that twenty percent to step and do exactly that, raising your skills."
Bob waited. "That's it?" He asked.
"That's it," Dave confirmed. "Simple, basic, and completely unsustainable long term, but the President made it clear that until the apocalypse passed, the only focus had to be on saving the people of Venezuela."
"I'm going to stick with my original opinion of awesome then," Bob said, shaking his head. "If nothing else, we can hope that the integration of Earth into the System puts an end to, or at least sharply reduces, bureaucracy."
"We can only hope," Amanda's voice came from behind him, and Bob turned to find her smiling up at him.
She gave him a brief hug, then sidled around him and snuggled into Dave's side. "So, you've got another important secret to reveal?" She asked impishly.
"I wouldn't say 'another,'" Bob replied.
"That's ok," her grin widened, "we'll say it for you."
"I do have something fairly important to share with you, but it's something I don't want to be spread around," Bob said.
"Well, we're waiting on replies, why don't we grab breakfast and relax for a bit?" Amanda suggested.
"Sure, you can catch me up on what else has happened while I've been grinding away," Bob agreed.
"About that," Amanda smiled before looking at Dave. "Do you want to tell him?"
"Sure," Dave nodded. "We're going to tier up and reincarnate after our vacation."
"That's great," Bob grinned, "you'll have to put in the work to get back up, but it'll be worth it."
"Most of us have decided to make the push," Dave sighed. "With everything that's coming, the difference between level twenty-five and level twenty-six could be invaluable."
"I think you'll be fine, regardless," Bob replied, "but the truth of the System is that might very much makes right. While the King of Greenwold rules with a very loose grip, and I can't complain about his governance, the fact of the matter is that should he choose to be tyrant, no one from Earth could stop him."
Dave and Amanda exchanged looks. "That's something we've been a little worried about," Amanda admitted. "What if someone who is tier eight comes back to Earth after the integration and sets up shop? No one could stop them from setting up their own little empire."
"I'm sure they will," Bob sighed. "The good news is, personal power only reaches so far. Take Greenwold as an example. The King really only exerts direct control over Harbordeep and the three nearest cities. The rest are under his aegis by default. Thidwell is tier seven, and he only exerts influence over Holmstead." He shook his head. "The truth is that no matter how powerful, one person can only do so much. They will need people beneath them to take responsibility for certain areas, allowing them to take on the role of the roving threat or deterrent, depending on their style of governance. My concern," Bob lowered his voice, "is that the Church of the Light and the Church of the Dark are going to make plays for Earth."
Dave grimaced. "Let me tell you what Yorrick has been up to."