Chapter Fifteen. Hurdles.

Chapter Fifteen. Hurdles.

Bob sat in his bathtub, massaging his aching arms and legs.

Well, his aching right arm and leg.

'Damaged Matrix,' he mused.

He had pulled up his log, and sure enough there it was.

Some damage was done to your matrix while the Advanced System Integration was in process.

Something had sure as fuck gone wrong. He'd dismissed Jake (as he'd decided that the UtahRaptor needed a name) before Kelli had helped him up the stairs and back to his room. But not before he'd noticed something odd.

Every Skill, or spell in local non-system parlance, seemed cost one mana to cast, and one mana per second to maintain if it wasn't an instantaneous effect. Adding modifiers could increase that, but the base cost was one, full stop.

Summon Monster cost Bob more than that. As he'd stood, leaning against Jake, he'd pulled up his status and watched as his available mana slowly dropped down.

When not moving or acting, his mana regeneration should have been a little over half a point per second. Having one monster summoned shouldn't have caused it to move that much. But it had slowly dropped. He'd need more data, but his single sample size suggested that maintaining the summoned monster had cost him one point eight mana per second.This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

Bob wasn't sure if that was the result of redirecting his mana, or the result of the overall damage to his matrix. Either way, it was a cause for concern.

He sighed and winced as he tried to work out a cramp in calf. Regardless, he needed to finish leveling to five this afternoon. He'd asked Kelli and Thidwell for an hour, and that was almost up.

'Help, Matrix' Bob thought.

System Help, Matrix A user's Matrix consists of the internal channels they have developed to allow Mana to circulate throughout their beings. The System has a record of all beings Matrix patterns and imprints them on birth/creation. The strength of a Matrix and thus the ability to internally circulate Mana is a function of the beings Tier and level.

Alright, that was about what he suspected.

So his matrix had been damaged when he was integrated into the system. The question was how to fix it?

'Help, Damaged Matrix' he thought.

System Help, Matrix Damage A user's Matrix can be damaged by sufficient physical trauma. Loss of greater than twenty-five percent body mass is a common threshold for damage to occur. Psychological trauma can also cause Matrix Damage, however, thresholds for this type of damage are harder to quantify. Restoration of lost body mass in cases of physical trauma or reconciliation in the cases of psychological trauma is sufficient to restore a user's Matrix to previous functionality. System Warning! In reference to System User Robert Whitman, Matrix Damage was incurred during System Integration due to insufficient data regarding User species. Additional data required to repair damage to Matrix.

"That's new," Bob muttered as he stood up and grabbed a towel.

The System didn't normally provide personalized information when he queried it.

How exactly was he supposed to provide additional data about humans to the system? It had apparently taken a copy of his memories, and it clearly knew every cell of his body.

Bob stopped toweling himself off suddenly as a chill ran through him. What if there was something wrong with him? What if he was missing something important, like his liver for example?

All his bodily functions had seemed normal so far. Fuck.

It had been over a week. If he was missing anything important it would have shown up by now.

And even if it hadn't it wasn't like he'd be able to do anything about it anyways.

He resumed drying off and dressed in clean, non-blood splattered clothes.

"Time to level up," he said to himself as he walked towards the Tavern, in search of Kelli.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob found Kelli in the tavern, six empty beer mugs in front of him. When Bob had stepped around to face him, Kelli had jerked back, and frantically looked around the tavern.

"It's not here is it?" Kelli whispered as his eyes darted from side to side, and he twisted in his chair to make sure he'd seen the entire room.

"Are you talking about my Summoned Monster?" Bob asked hesitantly. Kelli didn't seem drunk, but there was certainly something wrong.

"Yes," Kelli hissed.

Bob gave a helpless shrug and said, "If I'm going to fight monsters, I need a monster of my own."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thirty minutes later, Bob was once again sitting cross-legged in a ritual circle. He held fifty rat crystals in one hand, and the Dimension Affinity Crystal in the other.

He closed his eyes and concentrated.

You have absorbed the potential of fifty mana crystals. You have absorbed the Affinity Crystal of Dimension. Please allocate attribute and skill points now.

Bob quickly allocated his attribute points to Wisdom, noting that with this, his Wisdom was at seventeen and his Intelligence was at seven, giving him a total of twenty-two, which put his resting regeneration at two point two. Although he suspected the System would round that down to a flat two. Maybe it would give him an extra one point bump every five seconds of rest. Regardless, he now had the ability to keep Jake out if he didn't move.

You have absorbed an Affinity Crystal of Dimension. Would you like to obtain the Magical School of Dimension by allocating a Skill Point? Either Mentally project or Verbally articulate, "Yes" or Mentally project or Verbally articulate "No"

'No,' Bob Mentally Projected.

You have absorbed an Affinity Crystal of Dimension. You have obtained the Magical School of Dimension.

Bob concentrated on the Search option next to Skills.

'Summon (x)' Bob thought.

Please Mentally project the Name of the being you wish to Summon while focusing on your knowledge of this being.

'Monroe,' he thought fiercely, as he pushed everything he knew about Monroe to the front of his mind. His whiskers, his eyes, his ear tufts, his floofy tail. The low rumble of his purr and his piercing meow's when it was feeding time. Taking him to the vet for his checkups, draping him over a shoulder, and receiving cheek nuzzles. He relived as many moments as he could, as his heart raced and ached, while tears streamed down his face.

Skill obtained: Summon Monroe

Bob let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

He could live with a crappy path. But not without Monroe. He couldn't take the chance that he might not reach level seven before Monroe ran out of time. He just couldn't risk it.

"Level two is done, the Affinity crystal delivered the Dimension school, and I took Summon Monroe," he said.

Thidwell grunted acknowledgment and Kelli scribbled in his book.

Bob took out another fifty rat crystals.

Another five points to Wisdom, and this time the Ritual Magic Skilll.

Fifty more crystals, level four, five more points of Wisdom, and the Effect over time Skill.

Then level five, five more points into Wisdom, bringing him up to thirty-five Wisdom total, the Persistent Effect Skill, and a new blue box.

User has reached level five. Please select an attribute bonus prior to your path selection. Mentally Project or Verbally articulate the name of the Attribute you would like your path bonus applied to.

'Intelligence,' Bob thought.

User has selected bonus to Intelligence. Scanning Attributes and Skills for potential Paths.

System Warning! Damaged Matrix detected! Unable to provide Path selections! User accruing damage, mana pooling!

Attempting to reconcile.

Bob collapsed as pain ripped through his body. This was so much worse than when his Summon Monster spell had failed. He tried to focus on the blue boxes, but his mind felt stretched, warped even.

He struggled to read the last box.

User non-responsive. Mirror protocol present. Engaging Mirror protocol.

He could hear Kelli and Thidwell, but they sounded so far away. Then everything went black.