Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-One. Speedrun.

Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-One. Speedrun.

"I'm going to miss fast travel," Dave lamented as they stepped through last portal.

"I'm not going to give up the Portal spell," Bob said, "we do sort of need it to fly the Freedom."

"But you won't be able to portal us very far after we reincarnate," Dave argued.Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

"That was the reason we built next to a Dungeon, so we wouldn't have to," Bob replied.

"It's got to be done, right?" Jessica asked.

Bob nodded. The System now offered Evolution alongside Reincarnation, but even with the cost increase that came with the natural affinities, he'd be able to level back up quickly enough, and the lure of a double or even a triple affinity was too strong to give up.

He hadn't told the group, but he'd been able to sense that opening the portal between dimensions for the Freedom had been the absolute limit of his power. At the peak of tier eight, he'd be able to do it without sacrificing five of his threshold advancements to boost his portal spell.

It wasn't just that he wanted to reincarnate, which he did, he felt that he deserved to reincarnate. He'd been lurching from crisis to crisis for three years, making decisions under duress. Hell, his choice to become a summoner had been made out of necessity to save Monroe, not that he regretted it. Every step of the way, his decisions had been dictated by survival, first Monroe's, then Earth's. Escaping with his friends aboard the Freedom had been more than just avoiding the mechinations of powerful beings, it had meant finally having a chance to reincarnate and live a normal life. The new normal under the indifferent rule of the system wasn't all bad, and Bob was looking forward to trying it.

"Bob, you with us?" Mike asked, drawing him from his reverie.

"Sorry, got lost for a moment," Bob replied, shaking his head.

"Heavy thoughts, yeah?" Jessica said.

"I was just thinking how nice it's going to be to reincarnate, and live a normal life," Bob smiled. "Wake up, eat breakfast, play with Monroe, put in a good days work in the Dungeon, come home, do a little house work, take care of the garden."

"Dinner with friends," Amanda added, "weekly D&D games."

"If we're allowed to stay, we could have ten years of normal," Bob said wistfully.

"All we can do is wait," Dave shook his head. "That, and collect as many first clear rewards as we can," he grinned.

While Monroe had loved it, the rest of the group hadn't been terribly impressed with the grasslands Dungeon. The rewards had been lackluster, the only thing worthwhile was an Animal Affinity Crystal. The second Dungeon they'd made it to had been more interesting. The monsters had been a sort of two headed rhinoceras made out of wood. It had offered them an Ent Affinity Crystal, another conjunction, this one Animal and Plant. Neither Dungeon had a hidden completion bonus, or at least not one they'd been able to discover, which made farming them an unprofitable proposition.

"Fueling up the Freedom isn't a bad idea either," Eli added. "Just in case things don't go our way."

"We've got another six Dungeons in easy distance from us," Bob had studied the location of each of the Dungeons they'd been able to detect from orbit. "After that, we're looking at long days of travel. We should be able to clear them all in fifty days, assuming we don't run into any issues, and assuming we run them once and move on."

"I'm all for it," Harv spoke up. "Stars and stones, the rewards are amazing, to say nothing of the materials I've been able to harvest from the monsters. I'd love to have a huge variety of materials when we finally settle down and reincarnate."

"Where are we, as far as our mana crystals go?" Bob asked.

"We have just over a hundred thousand in the pile," Dave replied. "After we finished the town, we've just been burning them to push past the threshold so we can reincarnate."

"Sadly, hunting first clears doesn't pay out crystals," Mike said.

Bob nodded. It seemed like the average Dungeon contained about two thousand monsters, and they were lucky to break a hundred mana crystals from the monsters. It was enough to keep them going in terms of powering their equipment, but it wasn't refueling the Freedom, or advancing them through their thresholds.

"Worth it," Dave whispered as he sat down next to Amanda, pulling her into his embrace.

Bob had to agree.

Most of the Dungeons hadn't been that interesting, just some variation of a plant or animal theme. They'd collected conjunction affinity crystals for every element combined with both plant and animal, with the bonus ratios shifted in each direction.

Some of them were interesting, or at least more rewarding. Bob looked at his armor.

Living Stone Scale Mail.

This suit of Medium Armor is matrix-bound to user Robert Whitman. This allows the user to store the Armor in the user's matrix, where if needed it will repair itself of any damage at the rate of 1% per second, at the cost of one mana per second. Additionally, the user is better able to resist poison and venom, gaining an 8% reduction in those effects.

Made of Living Stone from a Stone Scale Ent Wyvern. This increases the material hardness from a base of 60 to 124.

The nature of this material reduces all physical damage received by 16%.

The nature of this material allows the user to maintain a full range of motion.

This item has been enhanced with a Wytchwood Infusion. The user may increase or decrease the bouyonacy of this item, at the cost of one mana per second.

This item has been enhanced with a Flamefeather Infusion. The user may cause the armor to produce a set of Flamefeather wings, allowing the user to slow their descent, or for the cost of one mana per second, to glide.

This item has been enhanced with a Lightningroot Infusion. This allows the armor to channel lightning damage through itself rather than the user, reducing lightning damage taken by 16%

This item has been enhanced with a Floodvine Infusion. This allows the armor to produce, and then absorb, a water-like sap which cleanses the users skin of all contaminates, which are then absorbed back into the armor.

It had started off as a set of granite colored armor made of overlapping scales that were very flexible, despite their hardness and texture. Then he'd pumped a few of the Dungeon rewards into it. Now it looked like braided roots and vines covered by paper thin granite scales. When he activated the Flamefeather wings, a set of incoporeal wings appeared, made entirely of dark red flame. They weren't particularly useful at the moment, as he could fly on his own, but they might be useful when he reincarnated.

By far the Floodvine Infusion was his favorite. That Dungeon had been annoying as hell, a series of caverns that followed an underground river, forcing them to swim through tunnels between them, and endure the frequent attempts at flooding the caverns to drown them.

It had all been worth it. The Floodvine Infusion was like a cool, not cold, shower. It covered you in water, and then pulled it back in, leaving you dry and perfectly clean.

He wasn't going to stop taking showers, but in the middle of a Dungeon? It was nice to be clean. In theory, it would also help if he was fighting monsters that tracked by scent, but they'd encountered those before they'd found the Floodvine.

The entire group had taken advantage of the Floodvine infusion, the frequent use of which had served to raise their morale during some of the longer and filthier Dungeons.

The last Dungeon had been populated by living crystaline beetles that used Telepathic attacks. It was the first time they'd encountered any psionic powers in a Dungeon, and he wasn't eager to repeat the experience.

Interestingly, they hadn't found any Dungeons with Arcane Affinities, nor had they found any with Animancy, Necromancy, Shadowmancy, Sanctum, Netherworld, Order, Discord, Divination, Invocation, or Protection. It had really been just the four elements, as well as Plant and Animal.

Bob suspected that it was because those were the magics in abundance when the Dungeons were created, which meant that there should be Dungeons with other magics. He suspected that any Dungeon near the Endless tower would likely offer Summoning, while a Dungeon near the Black Cathedral would have Necromancy.

Still, they'd finished the trip with dozens of Affnity Crystals, and some very nice items with multiple infusions.

As he closed his eyes, he idly wondered if Ordast had made it to their town yet.