Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Two. So it begins...

Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Two. So it begins...

Bob let out a cough as he equipped his Living Stone Scalemail. The armor hadn't been too heavy or restrictive when he'd been tier seven, even with the minimum of fourteen strength. Sadly, even the attributes he hadn't allocated points towards had been drastically reduced.

Name Bob Level 0 Tier 8 Size 9 Armor Hardness 124 Weapon hardness 30 Str 8 Achievements : Extradimensional Traveler Armor Style 1.01 Weapon type 1.01 Cord 8 Pinacle Durable Dodge 8 Spell casting 1.01 End (Affinity Crystal Applied) 8 Pedagogue Extradimensional Ferryman Level Thresholds Int (Affinity Crystal Applied) 8 Academic Fragmented Level 8 Threshold Bonus Locked Level 56 Threshold bonus: Locked Wis (Enduring Affinity Applied) 8 Stamina (Maximum): 8 Stamina Reserved : 0 Savior Reconstituted Level 16 Threshold bonus: Locked Level 64 Threshold Bonus: Locked Stamina Regen (maximum) 1.6 Stamina Regen Reserved: 0 Progenitor Paragon Level 24 Threshold bonus: Locked Locked Health 72 Mana (Maximum) : 8 Mana Reserved: 0 The Old Ways Level 32 Threshold bonus: Locked Locked Armor 129 Mana Regen (Maximum) 1.6 Mana Regen: Reserved 0 Extradimensional Explorer Level 40 Threshold bonus: Locked Locked Damage 38 Spell Casting 38 Venerated Level 48 Threshold bonus: Locked Locked

The less said about his meager spell casting attributes, the better. He could cast his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell, and keep it up, but that was it. Luckily, Jake was going to be doing the work.

Summon: UtahRaptor(Jake) Tier: 8 Size: 9 Level: 1 Weapon Hardness: 15 Hide hardness: 10 Strength: 14 Mana: 6 Armor: 24 Coordination: 14 Stamina: 14 Claw Damage: 127 Endurance: 10 Health: 82 Bite Damage: 123 Intelligence: 6 Movement: 25 Wisdom: 6 Dodge 15 Summoning Mastery 1 Caster Value / 2 18

It was painful to see how far his mighty UtahRaptor had fallen. Worse was the knowledge that he'd need to kill six hundred and forty monsters to see him reach level two.

He accessed his System menu, and confirmed that it was still set to enter Dungeons at his own tier, one level over.

That particular setting had been an interesting discovery. If you were part of a group, and someone entered the Dungeon at a tier/level combination beyond what you'd set for yourself in your System menu, you wouldn't be able to enter the Dungeon.

He double checked his potion belt, put his hand on Monroe's shoulder and touched the entrance to the Dungeon.

You have entered The Hidden Dungeon.

Capacity 99%Updated from novelbIn.(c)om

Estimated time until overflow 2 solar cycles.

User Tier Eight, Wayfarer, Level zero, User Familiar, Tier Seven, Divine Feline Overlord, Level zero.

Dungeon set to Tier Eight, Level one.

New Quest!

The Hidden Dungeon was once a sanctuary for those who sought to advance discreetly. It was abandoned, and over run by monsters who have left it in ruins. Now warring tribes of monsters battle for control.

Defeat ten monsters to receive a reward!

Defeat one patrol from each faction to receive a reward!

Locate the outpost of each faction to receive a reward!

Defeat the leader of each faction to receive a reward!

He frowned at the Dungeon's total capacity. The overflow timer had dropped to two days, but the capacity was still reporting ninety-nine percent. One of the discussions amongst the group was how quickly the Dungeon would run out of juice. They'd managed to delve the Dungeon on the Eire seedworld down to near zero capacity, but they'd taken a few days off to allow it to recuperate.

They weren't sure they'd have that luxury here.

The figures failed to add up. There were too many people in the United Kingdom, and too few Dungeons, although from her discussions with other leaders, she'd discovered that as an island nation, the quirk that generated more Dungeons along the coastline was benefiting her.

While the crowd might be celebrating her this afternoon, there was a strong movement decrying her decisions.

Huron had warned her, but he hadn't been able to provide a solution either.

While there were still Dungeons to be found and explored in some of the more remote and less populated regions of the world, the general consensus was that for a tier spread of five percent at tier nine, ten percent at tier eight, fifteen percent at tier seven, and twenty percent at tier six, with the other fifty percent at tier five, the planet could only support half a billion people actively delving.

It didn't bode well, and the President of the United States had been quite frank when explaining it to her countrymen.

Nearly eight billion people called Earth home, but under the new reality of the System, they were overpopulated by half, or more.

Thayland was currently closed to them. She had a pair of dimensionalists amongst the Special Air Service who had benefited from Mr. Whitman's largess through Jason, however even with the Affinity Crystals, pushing through not only Earth's dimensional membrane, but into Thayland's remained impossible, at least until they neared the peak of tier seven.

Even if it weren't unavailable, Greenwold lacked the ability to hold thirty-five million of her citizens.

She had sent an embassy to Africa, where the Karcerian Empire had bought a small percentage of the continent. The country of Zambia had sold itself for enough mana crystals to put every one of citizens up to level five, with the explicitly stated guarantee that its people would receive full, unadulterated citizenship under the Karcerian Empire. The Karcerians had erected seven massive citadels, built with magic, the offered a safe haven for those people who were least prepared for the arrival of the System.

She had her suspicions regarding that particular move, mainly regarding the Church of the Light on the planet Parceus. Huron had confided in her that Kellan was only able to deal with their representative with a tremendous amount of forethought, planning, and a solid dose of hubris on the part of the representative himself. The Karcerian Empire did not, presumably, have the ability to do the same. Given that interest the Church of the Light had shown, it wasn't unreasonable that the Karcerians would take the opportunity to flee persecution once again, this time to another dimension.

Elizabeth was pulled from her thoughts as she felt Porose slowing, the massive Corgi's muscles bunching beneath her.

The crowds were largest here, and she moved to the throng of people cheering and reaching out to her. Her security still didn't like it when she mingled amongst her people, regardless of her level, but ultimately, the people needed to not only see, but sometimes touch the monarchy, to reassure themselves that, yes, there was someone who would lead them against the darkness.

It had turned out that leaders of the three tribes could, in fact, pierce through his armor.

Bob clenched his jaw as he extracted the last splinter of granite from the axe that had shattered when it struck his ribs.

He wasn't squeamish. He'd grown accustomed to the mutilated and half eaten corpses that his buddy brought back to him over the years, but there was something different about digging around in his own insides that just felt a little bit wrong.

While he knew a healing potion would handle the damage, he wanted to try something else first.

Slowly, carefully, he began to create the pattern for a regeneration spell. He'd become quite proficient when casting spells without the aid of the System, but he'd forgotten something rather important. He couldn't actually maintain his Mana Sight while casting another spell, at least without the System. So, he was casting the spell blind.

He wasn't sure he would have been able to do it before, but his racial evolution, when combined with his reincarnation, had been nothing short of revolutionary in regards to his ability to sense and manipulate mana. He was casting the spell by feel, and he could sense that it was coming together.

He spent nearly five minutes building the pattern for the spell before releasing it. Warmth surged through his chest as the wound began to heal, flesh knitting back together.

He remained seated, mentally allocating his mana regeneration toward repairing his armor. It would only take a few seconds, but he wanted it to be in perfect condition before he moved on to the next outpost. Pulling a bottle of water from his inventory he took a long drink, then checked the time on his armband. He'd been in the Dungeon for almost eight hours, which wasn't as bad as he'd feared it might be. The fights had shortened after Jake had hit level two, and then again when he'd reached level three. Based on what they'd done so far, the UtahRaptor should make it to level four after the next outpost, which would accelerate the last one quite a bit.

His wound finished healing, and his armor was repaired, so he stored his water bottle in his inventory, equipped his armor, and stood up. There was no slacking off when you were putting in the work.