Chapter FIfty-two. Fun in the sun.

Chapter FIfty-two. Fun in the sun.

Bob was sitting down in a canvas folding chair, watching Jake tear the ever-living hell out of pair of Scorpions.

He picked up the canteen in his lap and took a sip.

Even though it was seventy-something under the awning, it was still incredibly dry, and Bob was determined to stay hydrated. To that end, he'd purchased a canteen from Gary that looked suspiciously like Elli's.

Turns out you just had to feed a mana crystal into it, and it was good to create ten gallons of water. It was well worth the hundred and fifty mana crystals.

The tenth level of the Dungeon was proving to be a bonanza.

Monroe was in another cloth chair next to Bob, sprawled out and napping.

So far, Bob and Monroe had only had to abandon their shelter twice, when a rogue scorpion arrived.

Bob sighed as he stood up and started packing away the chairs, scooping Monroe up onto the Makres as he went.

He'd been down here for ten hours.

Thidwell had been right, with his Endurance over twenty, the anxiety had disappeared.

Still, he wanted to make it to the Tavern before dinner was over. After hours you could still get a sandwich, or maybe a cup of soup, depending, but it wasn't a full meal.

And even if Bob could have gone on short rations, he knew that his feline overlord would be terribly displeased with him if they missed dinner.

Bob finished packing up the tent, dismissed his UtahRaptor, and portaled back to the Gateway.

He'd murdered ten thousand two hundred and eighty-five scorpions. Well, Jake had murdered them, on Bob's behalf. One scorpion every three and a half seconds.

Bob shook his head as he pressed his token to the gate.

Another four hundred and one crystals, and his summon UtahRaptor had reached level twenty-two.

As Bob walked towards the tavern, he considered how easy this was for him.

With his broken matrix.

And no path.

Affinity Crystals were truly the difference between struggling to survive this world and mastering it.

He knew that when the Endless Swarm kids hit level ten, they'd have an even easier time of it than he did.

He'd done the math, and at level ten with a maxed out nuke, his 'Super Savants' were going to be one-shotting three scorpions at once with a barrage.

Bob walked into the tavern and spotted Eddi sitting with the three J's and Bailli.

Bob wandered over and seeing as the table lacked plates, deposited Monroe in front of the J's and Bailli, who eagerly reached to lavish affection upon him.

Bob took a seat next to Eddi and pulled Harv's old staff out of his inventory.

"Harv gave this to me," Bob said awkwardly as he presented the staff to Eddi, "and showed me the initials of everyone else who'd used it," Bob pointed out the rough carving on the shaft.

"It served me well, and I figured you might like to have it now that you're level five," Bob finished uncomfortably as he handed the staff over to a wide-eyed Eddi, who clutched it tightly in one hand before lunging forward and hugging Bob.

Bob fought back the urge to panic. Eddi was just a kid, and he wasn't attacking him. He was... hugging him. This is what people did.

A few awkward seconds went by before Eddi let go, and Bob let out an involuntary twitch.

"So," Bob said, determined to ignore what had just happened, "I've spent the past two days on the tenth level of the Dungeon, and you are going to love it there," Bob promised Eddi.

Eddi gave him a grin and cradled his new staff to his chest.

"So," Bob turned his attention to Bailli in hopes of finding a less uncomfortable conversation, "Bailli, how are things going?"

"Fantastic," Bailli gushed with a wide smile, "I haven't taken my path yet, but I'm just destroying the rats on the fifth level of the Dungeon."

Bob nodded and asked, "What level is your lightning blast spell at?"

"Thirteen," said Bailli with a chuckle that four parts good humor, and one part maniacal laughter.

"Damn," Bob said, "that is impressive," he paused to do a bit of math before continuing, "it's what, five hundred and forty-five or so?"

"It's amazing how you do that," Bailli huffed, "but yes, I'm at five-hundred and forty-six points of damage with a lightning blast."

Bob shook his head and said, "You know you could one-shot the Scorpions on the tenth level of the Dungeon, right now?"

Bailli blinked and her mouth opened into an "O".

"Really?" she asked.

"Yep," Bob confirmed and nodded to Theo as he approached the table with plates for everyone else.

The J's sighed in an eerie harmony, and Jammi said, "That's why we are holding at level five and farming up crystals on level six."

Bob cocked his head and looked at the three sisters, who were all petting Monroe, and eloquently said, "Huh?"

Jacki said, "We know you'll come up with some crystals and plans for the rest of us," she said.

Bob swallowed and quickly said, "I'm not sure what you three do in combat, but unless it has something to do with Summoning, Dimension, Abjuration, or Conjuration, I'm afraid I don't have any crystals that will help you."

"We're sure you will soon enough," Julli said confidently.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob lay in bed with Monroe curled up on his legs.

The conversation had veered off, although Bob had discovered that the J's had some sort of religious path, and they were spear-wielding, healing, valkyries. Kind of.

He resolved to ask Thidwell just exactly how he determined what was on each level. Assuming he had that degree of control.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

A monster with healing magic, Bob though, would be a cast-iron bitch to beat down, without the advantage of affinity crystals anyway.

It all came back to affinity crystals.

Bob was pretty sure that Eddi would be able to take on the twenty-sixth level of the Dungeon when he had leveled himself up to twenty.

All you needed was one person, who wasn't a power-hungry, secret hoarding douche.

And for all the other power-hungry, secret hoarding douches to leave that one person alone, he added darkly.

He was pretty sure that Trebor was right on the money, and in another couple of months the Royals and the Nobles would show up to try and shut the knowledge down.

In preparation for that event, Bob had started putting together a short, condensed document explaining how to obtain Affinity Crystals and the best ways to use them.

He figured he could do it all in one page.

Then he just had to build a printing press.

It didn't have to be fancy, no need for any sort of typesetting. It had to print one page, over and over again.

Or he could throw a hundred or so crystals at Harv and ask him to ritually transmute it for him.

Either way, he was going to work to have this knowledge spread far and wide.

Thidwell let out a rumbling sigh and drummed his fingers on the top of his desk.

"So," he rumbled, "you're looking for someone to shepherd you a bit once you've fixed your matrix?"

Bob nodded silently.

Thidwell stood up and began to pace back and forth behind his desk.

Bob waited quietly, recognizing the man's patterns.

"Meer or Crenshaw, probably Crenshaw," Thidwell finally said as he came to a halt behind his desk.

"The Nobles?" Bob asked warily.

Thidwell made a slashing motion with his hand and said, "They aren't like the Nobles in Harbordeep," he said with a disgusted tone, "I've fought beside them often enough to know that they don't know anything about Affinity Crystals, they're just like the rest of us."

Thidwell sat down in his chair and pointed a huge finger at Bob and asked, "Do you know how Crenshaw and Meer came to be Noble houses here in Holmstead?"

Bob shook his head.

"Well," Thidwell said roughly, "they were two of the families that were part of the original expedition that founded this town."

Thidwell gestured in a circle and said, "Those two families, over the past ten generations, have paid for seven-tenths of the wall that encircles Holmstead," the huge man then pointed down, "and they've paid for more than half of the Dungeon expansions I've made as well."

Bob waited, and when it appeared Thidwell was stopping for more than just breath, he asked, "What do you mean by 'paid for the Dungeon expansions?'"

Thidwell let out a booming laugh and said, "Do you know how many rituals it takes to create a single level in the Dungeon?" he shook his head, "I just finished the thirty-fourth level, and it took just under six hundred rituals to create it."

"Sixty thousand fucking mana crystals?" Bob gasped as the math resolved itself instantly in his mind.

Thidwell directed a grim smile at Bob, "You're damn quick with the number, and yes. Sixty-thousand."

"Crenshaw and Meer have about twenty members each who are actively delving the Dungeon," Thidwell said, "the two houses have a friendly competition running as far as who donates more crystals to the Dungeon each month, but they average around five thousand each, or about two-hundred and fifty per member, per month."

"Which," Thidwell rumbled, "is about two hours a day, every day."

He pointed his finger at Bob again and said, "Those assholes in Harbordeep are the ones keeping secrets and endangering people's lives with their stubborn insistence on clinging onto their power, not Meer and Crenshaw."

"In fact," Thidwell said darkly, "I'd lay a thousand crystals on the ones in Harbordeep being the only ones who know, at least here."

"Ok," Bob said slowly, "I can accept that the nobles here aren't bad people, and if you could see if a couple of them could shepherd me on the twentieth level of the Dungeon after I've finished the plan, I'd appreciate it."

"But this does sort of segue into another question," Bob continued, "as a curator, just how much control do you have over the Dungeon?"

Thidwell let out a sigh that rang with frustration and said, "Total control over how each level is shaped, the size, the environment, all of that."

"I can pick the plants," Thidwell rumbled with a frown, "and I can pick the animals, and I can even choose where the mana will pool and the monsters will form."

He shook his head and went on, "But I don't have very much control at all over what abilities the mana-spawned animals will have."

"By choosing the animals, I can almost guarantee that the mana-spawned animals will be those types," He grumbled, "but if there is a skill needed to select what abilities the animals will have, I haven't found it yet, nor did my father."

Thidwell grinned slyly as he finished and asked, "Been giving a bit more thought to the Curator path, eh?"

"Well, yes," Bob said, not entirely untruthfully. After all, Arcane Depths was a derivative of the Curator path wasn't it?

"But also I was talking to a few people, and they asked me about other Affinity Crystals, ones we haven't found yet," he said.

Thidwell nodded and said, "They might well be waiting for you, when I worked on the thirtieth, thirty-first, and thirty-second levels of the Dungeon, I wasn't in range to obtain Affinity Crystals," he shrugged his massive shoulders, "who knows what I might have missed."

Bob nodded slowly as he mulled something over in his mind that had been eating at him.

"You think I should become a Curator," Bob said slowly as he felt around the edges of the idea.

Thidwell nodded.

Bob blinked as he made a series of mental leaps.

"You want me to curate the Dungeon while you reincarnate so you can use Affinity Crystals, and level back up to the point where you can take back over," Bob gasped.

Thidwell directed a wide smile towards Bob, although it didn't seem to offer any assurances that he was wrong.

"Indeed," Thidwell rumbled, "once you discovered the benefits of using Affinity Crystals before selecting your path, I couldn't help but think about how much better I would be if I had used them."

"Yet, I don't have anyone I could trust to keep clearing the lowest level of the Dungeon, day after day, week after week, as I worked to regain my levels," Thidwell said, his smile now bearing an uncanny resemblance to Monroe preparing to deliver the killing blow to a mouse once he was done playing with it.

"While the Dungeon doesn't need much upkeep," Thidwell said, "it does require some, mostly routing and balancing the mana flows, which effectively requires a Curator, or someone with the same skills, who would then, of course, have taken the Curator path, because it would be stupid not to if you were going to take those skills."

"But you," Thidwell said, "you are in a position to take the Curator Path and I don't think I'm wrong when I say that you'd be happy to do so if it squared the two of us?"

Bob nodded slowly.

"What Crystals would you use?" Bob asked slowly.

"The four elemental crystals," Thidwell rumbled, "and yes, I'd need you to go to Harbordeep and get them for me."

"What about the other two?" Bob asked, "You're tier six, you'd be able to use six crystals before you took your path."

Thidwell shrugged and said, "I'll likely use a Conjuration Crystal and an Abjuration Crystal, as those are the ones Calder and I are currently finding.

"Let me give all this a little thought," Bob said as he stood, "I'll go push through the eleventh level of the Dungeon today, and we'll revisit this conversation in a day or two."

Thidwell nodded and gestured for Bob to leave.

Bob opened the door, then turned.

"What can I expect on the eleventh level of the Dungeon?" Bob asked.

"Do you remember the third floor?" Thidwell asked.

Bob winced and reached up to touch his cheek.

"I recall a particularly nasty swamp," Bob muttered, "and some vicious frogs."

"Oh," Bob said, "and branches under the water that I swear moved on their own."

Thidwell leveled a smile at Bob that practically oozed maliciousness and said, "I'm glad you noticed, it's always the little details that bring everything together," he chuckled wickedly, "if you liked the third level of the Dungeon you're going to adore the eleventh."

"It's another swamp," Thidwell said with barely hidden glee, "but this one has alligators and mosquitoes."

"Mosquitoes?" Bob asked.

"Yes," Thidwell said with satisfaction.

Bob slowly backed out of the door and closed it.

He nodded to Alli and headed down the stairs.

He once again revised his opinion of Thidwell. He'd never appeared friendly, or benevolent, but now Bob was being forced to question if the man wasn't just a tad bit evil.

If, as Thidwell said, you could select the creatures on each level, if not their abilities, that would mean Thidwell had chosen to introduce Mosquitoes into the Dungeon.

"That is just wrong," Bob muttered as headed into the tavern for breakfast.