Chapter Four Hundred and Seventeen. A new agreement.

Chapter Four Hundred and Seventeen. A new agreement.

Bob was in the zone. He could feel it.

He'd dropped his swarms of mosquitoes in favor of a pack of UtahRaptors. He wasn't facing off against tier ten monsters, so he didn't need the vicious damage.

He liked to think that he was directing his summons like a conductor guiding an orchestra, except his symphony was one of furious honks, screams of pain, and the wet, squelching sound of torn flesh. On second thought, it might not have been the most favorable of comparisons.

As he moved through the clearing, intent on his next batch of monsters, he was surprised by the sudden reappearance of Trebor. He had already discovered that he couldn't communicate with Trebor when he was controlling a summons inside a Dungeon while Bob was outside, or vice versa.

He knew the experiment was a success, evidenced by the steadily increasing experience bar at the corner of his vision that indicated Trebor's progress. Knowing that clearing out the Dungeon, which held over three thousand monsters, would likely push the skill past the next threshold, Bob had given Trebor permission to allocate the skill point to advance it, as well as to select the threshold bonus.

It made him uncomfortable to make decisions about the AI without discussing it with him, so relinquishing that control had been a relief.

'I selected a Threshold bonus that would extend our ability to communicate,' Trebor stated. 'It functions by further developing a matrix of my own while keeping said matrix in synchronicity with yours.'

"That somehow lets you work through the dimensional membranes of Dungeons?" Bob asked, automatically directing his pack of Eternal Servant UtahRaptors, alongside Jake, to engage another group of unwary monsterous hunters.

'As it turns out, no, no it does not, although I believe that further Threshold bonuses may allow for that,' Trebor replied. 'We appear to have been mistaken in our understanding of how System generated Dungeons function. We had believed that they were dimensional spaces, akin to your Arcane Depths ability, but we were wrong.'

"How do they work then?" Bob asked, ignoring the honks of rage that surrounded him.

'The entrances are gateways to another plane entirely,' Trebor said. 'It's not another dimension, it's something else.' The AI sounded frustrated. 'I don't have access to any information on it.'

Bob nodded.

When he'd initially been linked to the AI, who was programmed as a Mirror Protocol to guide him through adapting to the System, Trebor had almost unlimited access to the System.

He'd been terrible when it came to providing that information, proving over and over again that the System had been created by entirely alien minds, but even as the worst search engine ever, the access was there.

That had all ended with the System update which had determined that the Mirror protocol was unnecessary. Bob had saved Trebor by allocating his skill points to keep the AI active, in return for which the System had converted Trebor into an AI assistant, but had stripped the AI of most of his access to the System.

Bob had submitted an anomaly report and the System had relented, allowing Bob, through Trebor, to restore access to the System by way of leveling the AI up as a skill.

He didn't want to say he was disappointed with the results so far, but aside from Trebor's ability to pilot Bob's summons, he'd only been able to provide basic information on the monsters in the Dungeons.

Still, Bob had high hopes.

"How far along are you?" Bob asked.

'A few dozen monsters short of the halfway point,' Trebor replied. 'Based on the damage taken so far, I believe that this vessel will complete the Dungeon with two to three percent of its health remaining.'

Bob nodded. It had been four hours, and he was nearly done with his second delve. "Sounds like you'll be able to do two runs a day," he murmured.

'Yes,' Trebor agreed. 'Assuming we stay on a sixteen-hour-a-day schedule, that should equate to eighteen delves. I should reach my next threshold, my fifth, on the next delve, my sixth at the end of tomorrow, my seventh at the beginning of the third day after that, and final threshold during my seventeenth delve.'

Bob let out a breath. "Yeah, it's going to be close, but I shouldn't complain." He shook his head. "I'm talking about leveling a skill from level twenty-seven to level sixty-four in just over a week."

As he guided his murder-dino's to the next camp, he took a few moments to consider his leveling speed on the whole.

The Queen of England was quite public about her level, hosting an afternoon tea with the local leaders of whatever city, town, or village that she was delving on that day. She was level fifty-nine and working diligently, keeping her skills capped.

In contrast, Bob had forgone leveling all but the most necessary of his skills, focusing on his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell to the detriment of all others. While that meant that he was now forced to play catch up with other skills, he was able to lean on the undeniable power his level one hundred and twenty-eight spell provided.

He was going to beat the Queen to tier nine, of that he had no doubt. He was level sixty-four, and only needed to finish leveling up a few more of his skills, specifically his portal, armor, armor specialization, melee, natural attack, and dodge skills.

His Summon Mana-Infused Object spell was currently level one hundred and fifty-three, thanks to the sixty-four free levels he'd picked up from his Reclaimer achievement.

"I'm definitely overdressed for the cafe," she murmured.

Dave held the door open, gesturing her inside.

The cafe was exactly as she remembered it.

Which wasn't right. She frowned.

At tier eight, everything should have been too small. She turned back to Dave as he let the door close behind him. How had she not noticed that the door was sized for her as well?

Also, the cafe was empty, except for one table, three-quarters of the way back and off to the right. That table had two trays on it.

She let Dave lead her to the table, handing her into the seat before moving around the table and taking his own.

Looking down at the tray, she found a sandwich, an apple, and a bottle of Snapple. All appropriately sized for tier eight.

She poked the sandwich with a perfectly manicured fingernail.

"Don't worry, they held the onions," Dave assured her with a brilliant smile.

It clicked.

She lifted the sandwich, pulling the top slice of bread off, then set it back down. She then picked up the bottle of Snapple. It was Peach Tea.

She looked down at her dress, then at Dave's t-shirt.

"Our first date," she murmured.

She remembered now. She'd been nervous and had spent hours agonizing over what to wear. Dave was funny and smart and didn't stare at her legs or chest, actually listening to what she had to say. It was just a lunch date, but he'd been clear and confident that it was a date. So, she'd worn the dark red dress that had been part of the set for Teen Vogue but hadn't been included in the actual spread.

He'd dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt, but he'd still walked her to the table and handed her into her seat like a gentleman. She'd been surprised that he already had their food and then delighted that he'd paid attention to what she'd ordered when they'd met up to study earlier that week.

Dave had complimented her on the dress, and then they'd spent an hour over a simple ten-minute lunch as they tried to learn everything they could about each other.

"Our first date," Dave agreed. "I knew by the end of it that I was done," he smiled gently. "You were the one."

Amanda nodded. She'd felt the same. She'd gone back to her dorm and drawn the ire of her roommate by squealing into a pillow for five minutes.

He slid out of his seat and knelt beside her.

"For the past fifteen years, I've fallen more and more deeply in love with you," Dave confessed, producing a small velvet box and opening it up to present a ring to her.

Amanda sat perfectly still.

"We've always had our treaties and agreements," Dave continued, smiling mischievously. "Now I'd like to make another. Amanda Rigosi, will you marry me?"

She stood up at the same time reaching down to pull him up and threw her arms around him. "You're my always," she whispered in his ear as tears began to flow. "Yes, forever, yes!"

They pulled apart, and Dave extracted the ring, sliding it onto her finger.

"Through sickness and health until the end of time, which is almost enough time for me to show you just how much I love you," he began. "Through Waves and Tides, in this universe, and any other we might find ourselves in, I'll stand by your side for the rest of eternity, you and I, together against anything and everything, protecting each other and the people we love."

"Because that's what Adventurers do," Amanda replied.

"Because that's what Adventurers do," Dave agreed. "We'll do it all together.