Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen. Thidwell isn't evil. Honest.

Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen. Thidwell isn't evil. Honest.

Bob considered the addendum to his pamphlet.

How to delve without suffering from negative effects brought on by the disparity of mana density.

It is possible to create a barrier of your own mana that will prevent the ambient mana from pressing down on you.

Doing so requires you to have the following skills: Matrix Manipulation, Effect over Time, Persistent Effect, Shadowmancy, Mana Shaping, Mana Sight, Mana Drain, and some sort of shield, be it from the Protection school or the Abjuration School.

You will need to project your matrix outside of your body, using it to feed into a combined shield/Mana Drain effect. Achieving this requires the use of Mana Sight and Mana Shaping. With Mana Sight as a persistent effect, you must cast Mana Drain, Mana Shaping, and your shield spell. Bring the Shield spell and the Mana Drain spell together by Mana Shaping the flows until they are compatible.

Once you have accomplished this, you must then use Matrix Manipulation to push your mana out of your body, while at the same time using Mana Shaping to move the ambient mana away from you.

This is not an easy process, and it took me quite a while to succeed. Do not give up.

You will know when it works, as the effect will reserve quite a bit of your mana into a persistent effect. My experience is that it reserved sixty mana.

Once you have this in place, you may delve as deeply as you'd like for as long as you'd like, without the physical effects impacting you. The psychological effects of constantly fighting for your life are another matter entirely, and it would behoove everyone to ensure that they have friends who will tell them when they need to slow down or take a break.

It looked good enough, he thought.

His eyes shifted to Monroe, who was enjoying an early morning nap on the bench in the sun room, basking in the rays of the rising sun.

"Are you a well-baked loaf, buddy?" Bob murmured as he scooted forward in his seat, reaching out to dig his fingers into Monroe's ruff.

The big Maine-Coon's fur was very warm, and Monroe quickly started to purr, the rumble filling the room.

"You are a well-baked loaf," Bob said quietly, "an economy size loaf even."

"Come on, buddy," Bob said as he first stood up, then leaned over and carefully slid Monroe into his inventory.

Taking a moment, Bob watched the sunrise strike murmuring falls, casting myriad rainbows across stones.

With a soft smile, he dropped a portal under his feet and fell through.

"Listen up!" Bob's voice boomed through the tavern as he addressed his freshers.

"I have curator work to attend to for a bit, so I've asked Harv and Elli," Bob motioned to his friends, who were standing slightly behind him, "to attend to another portion of your training."

"These two," Bob's voice cut through the muttering of his freshers, "quite literally taught me EVERYTHING I know about delving and are the only reason I'm standing here, alive, in front of you!"

"Pay them attention, and pay them respect, or I'll know the reason why," Bob said fiercely.

"Now," Bob said, his voice shifting to a friendlier tone, "these lessons are going to take place outside of the Dungeon, and since none of you are ready to delve without someone to shepherd you, you'll not be gathering crystals, so I'll be paying for your lodging and meals."Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

With that, Bob headed out of the tavern and up the stairs towards Thidwells office, where Alli waved him through.

As Bob stepped in, Thidwell stood up, a smile creasing the hard planes of his features, emerald eyes glinting.

Bob looked at him for a moment in silence, then started casting the spells necessary to create his matrix-fueled mana-draining shield.

Thidwell's eyes flashed silver as he brought up his own mana sight and observed.

After two minutes' worth of effort on Bob's part, the effect snapped into place.

Thidwell let out a low chuckle, and his smile twisted into something cold and cruel, on a face well suited for cold and cruel expressions.

Bob stepped forward and handed him the sheet of paper that he planned to add to his pamphlet.

Thidwell read over it carefully, and then laughed again, this time a sinister sound that was foreboding, and carried the promise of violence.

Not for the first time, Bob considered that Thidwell would make an excellent villain. With his slicked-back mohawk, the rest of his head shaved, his sheer size, and the raw malice the man exuded...

"Well done," Thidwell rumbled as he handed the sheet back to Bob.

"So you're prepared?" Thidwell asked.

"Ready to go," Bob confirmed, "I'll keep the Dungeon under control while you reincarnate towards greater power."

He couldn't help himself. If someone were to ever see or hear this scene without context, Bob would clearly be the trusted lieutenant of the Evil Overlord.

If only Thidwell were a cat person, Bob mused, having him stroking a massive Monroe would really be the icing on the cake.

"This," Nora panted, "wasn't what I was expecting."

Behind her, Charn grumbled his agreement.

Harv and Elli had guided them out of the city, up the muddy road, and into the hills, and then the mountains.

The freshers were filthy and tired.

The ground had altered between patches of snow, saved from the oncoming spring by virtue of being in shadows, mud where it had melted, and leaf-covered mud, which was even more treacherous.

The two men had taken turns showing them dry places that would make for good campsites, carefully pointing out what to look for to find them, as well as a variety of roots that were edible.

Game trails, the tracks of the animals that used them, and how to find the streams that traced the landscape, were all lessons heard by the freshers.

And mostly forgotten already, Nora admitted to herself.

It was mid-afternoon when Harv and Elli finally stopped in a clearing that was blessedly dry, the grass exposed to the sun having begun to regain its blue-green vitality.

"That was a lovely stroll," Harv said loudly as he addressed the group, "and we've found a nice little clearing, so let's go ahead and eat lunch, then Elli and I will take turns quizzing you on what you've learned today."

Elli and Harv smiled as the group let out a collective groan, and slumped down onto the grass.

Rogard leaned back into his chair with a grimace.

He'd attempted to perform his due diligence, but there was nothing on Holmstead.

Seeking to assuage his wife's concerns, Rogard had sought out the Church's records, as well as those kept by the Adventurers Guild.

Finally, he'd turned to the King's tax records.

There he'd discovered that Holmstead exported lumber, grain, meat, hides, and ore.

Further investigation revealed the name of the Merchant Company that imported the goods, as well as the quarterly schedule for opening a portal to Holmstead, and then back to Harbordeep.

It was this information that graced his desk.

There would be a portal to Holmstead opening in another three weeks.

He was absolutely certain that he would need to go check on his daughter.

His inability to discover any information about Holmstead had Natalie worried sick. She hadn't been happy when Nora had stormed out of the house, and her concern for their daughter had only grown. If only to soothe his wife, he'd need to go to Holmstead.

Fortunately, neither wave nor tide was due, and the walls were in perfect repair, so his absence from the city shouldn't be noticed.

He pushed himself back from the desk and stood up.

Hopefully, the knowledge that he had a plan in place to check in on Nora would improve his wife's mood.

Ellen slumped at the table, exhausted and frustrated.

Unlike the kids around her, she was quite knowledgeable in regard to woodland survival.

Having to pretend otherwise was irritating.

Harv and Elli had grilled the kids after lunch, quizzing them on the things they'd shown them earlier.

She'd had to feign ignorance, as it was quickly apparent that the freshers had only managed to retain bits and pieces.

So Ellen was stuck playing the fool, while a prime target of her investigation disappeared.

From what she'd overheard, Bob was curating the Dungeon for the next month while Thidwell reincarnated.

She could only assume that the man was reincarnating to take advantage of the Affinity Crystals, although she suspected that he likely knew of a more powerful curator path that required them.

Regardless, she was stuck going through wilderness survival training while Bob curated the Dungeon, and Thidwell raced to regain his former level.

Thidwell was clearly a paragon and would advance much more quickly than the other Paths of Apotheosis.

While a month seemed awfully ambitious, it wasn't completely outside of the realm of possibility, she mentally conceded.

The delay was just another irritation.