Monroe-Chapter Three Hundred and Ninety-Three. Dungeon Bound.

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Bob watched as Jessica knelt, her blue eyes taking on a silver sheen as she began to weave the pattern of the ritual.

It was beautiful.

She directed the flows of mana like a conductor guiding their orchestra, painting the sky with sure motions. It was art.

The difference between his ritual and hers was plain. He could cast the ritual, but it was a plain, simple working with no grace to it.

She had a gift, a natural aptitude for working with Mana that was beyond him.

He smiled. There was a time when he would have felt somewhat bitter about having to work twice as hard to achieve less success, but he'd grown past that.

Bob knew that she'd felt somewhat adrift. She shared the group's goal of exploring and progressing, but while everyone else seemed to have a passion that drove them, she'd been tagging along.

That wasn't to say that she wasn't a valued member of the group, but rather that her motivations lacked a personal drive.

He thought she might have finally found it.

"I'm just saying that they are basically ready now," Eddi argued.

"They're really not," Mike shook his head. "This city has over two hundred thousand people. It needs a solid ten percent of them to be able to delve the Dungeon to keep it from overflowing. Figure we can get away with the four hundred and sixty we've shepherded doing the same, then that group doing so."

"That's another three or four weeks," Eddi grumbled.

"Believe me, I know," Mike agreed. "I don't think any of us expected to spend this much time in a Dungeon."

"I know we've got the quest, but when we left, I thought we'd be able to go back home every now and then," Eddi sighed.

Mike nodded and gave the younger man's shoulder a comforting squeeze.

He'd hoped to be able to check in as well. He trusted the Old Guard to avoid getting into any real trouble, and he was confident that his friends would be alright. They'd all slowed down, hitting the peak of tier six and calling it good, with only a few of them stretching for tier seven.

On Thayland, it was all they needed to keep themselves safe, and with the added lifespan, they were taking some time off.

He didn't begrudge them their choice, but he'd decided to keep up the grind.

"I wonder what Holmstead is going to look like when we get back," Eddi mused.

"Bigger," Mike replied. "I saw some a few things on Kelli's desk," he continued. "It looked like they were planning to build out the entire valley."

"The tower could end up inside of the town," Eddi grinned.

Mike rolled his eyes.

Eddi had been proselyting. When he'd left to follow Bob to the stars, the Endless had made certain that he had enough Summoning Affinity Crystals to recruit tens of thousands of new guild members. Just in case he met new people during his travels.

The young man had been frustrated by having met everyone inside of a Dungeon, as he couldn't build a tower here, or at least he couldn't build one that would last.

He'd also been stymied by the lack of mana crystals.

Eddi had gained a few converts. The Urlinad were, by and large, religious, but not all of them were deeply invested, some paying lip service to their faith. It was the less devout that Eddi had preyed upon, waxing poetic about the joys of summoning and how much easier it could make their lives.

Mike couldn't disagree that SummonMana-Infused Object was the most useful utility spell he'd been able to find.

One of Eddi's arguments was that once the summoner was powerful enough, they could summon creatures to labor for them. He painted a picture of a single Urlinad directing a group of summoned creatures to plant their crop, tend the fields, and then harvest it. All while the summoner lounged in a chair, sipping on a cool drink while they worked their magic in the shade.

He'd gained enough traction that once they finished clearing all the Dungeons and getting everything under control that Kulaod would have its own branch of the Endless.

Mike was pulled from his thoughts as Jack sat down across the table with a sigh. "Thanks for the furniture, Eddi," Jack said.

"Summoning is the best," Eddi replied with a grin.

"I won't deny that it provides comfortable seating," Jack agreed.

"Done with your group?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, I dropped them off to watch Jessica and Bob make with the crops," Jack rolled his neck. "They've been at it for a couple of hours now, and the priests brought out pews."

"That's just going to feed into that divinity shit," Mike grumbled.

"Hey, maybe if they think I'm a god and one in charge of building, they'll let me put in some upgrades on their cities when they get out and start rebuilding," Jack smiled.

"I wouldn't go too crazy," Mike warned. "Until the System arrived, they were doing alright for themselves, which says something considering the weather."

"The weather is a little insane," Jack shook his head. "I went over the video we took coming into the solar system, and I don't think there was a single moment where there wasn't at least a tropical storm going on. Globally, it looked like they enjoyed a hurricane every week."

"Hot, wet, and sunny," Mike agreed.

"I've talked to them, and they don't really have a winter here," Jack went on. "They have a slightly cooler and slightly wetter season, but they don't have frost, snow, or hail. So I was thinking that greenhouses would be perfect for them. Even if they didn't go all in on commercial-size greenhouses, which they really should, just using them for their backyard gardens would make a world of difference."

"I hate to say it, but we could use Amber for that," Eddi said.

"She wasn't that bad," Jack shook his head. "Yes, she did a terrible thing. But she showed genuine remorse, apologized, and she put in a lot of work to keep the people who flooded out of Harbordeep and into Holmstead fed."

"She did earn a lot of goodwill with that," Eddi reluctantly agreed.

"Sadly, she's back there, and we're stuck here," Jack sighed.

"Yeah, none of us want to find out just what System sanctions are," Mike agreed. "It's not like we got hit with some meaningless quest either. These people really do need our help."

"I just wish helping them didn't take quite so long," Jack said.

Bob moved to help Jessica up as she finished casting the last ritual.

"Whew," she huffed as she took his hand and pulled herself to her feet. "I wasn't sure I could finish that last one," she shook her head. "You're an absolute machine with those rituals, yeah? I never saw a flicker of deviation in the patterns."

She stumbled as she stood, and Bob moved to support her, finding himself with his arms around her, as her arms wrapped around him.

Jessica looked up at him, her lips curving into a wicked smile. "You know you can have a hug anytime you'd like," she murmured.

Bob shook his head as he stepped back out of the hug. "Not really a big hugger," he said.

"You'll get there," Jessica said, reaching down and grabbing his hand. "Little steps," she smiled encouragingly.

"Little steps," Bob agreed, squeezing her hand. He kept ahold of it for another moment as they stood watching the Urlinad harvest the field of grain that Jessica had just grown.

He released her hand when he heard Tyolad huff behind them, turning to greet the High Priest.

"Tyolad," he nodded.

"My Lord, My Lady," Tyolad replied, bowing to them. "Thank you for spending your time growing our crops," he said, rather more loudly than Bob thought was necessary. Of course, the Urlinad was playing to an audience.

"No worries," Jessica replied brightly. "People have to eat, right? Happy to help."

Tyolad bowed again before turning away.

Bob did his best not to roll his eyes. He'd thanked them several times, and at this point, it was clear he was only doing so to reinforce the image of their gods' avatars helping them.

"Let's go find the team," Bob suggested. "It'll be a couple of hours before they're going to take their paths, and I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

Jessica shook her head sadly. "I thought you were learning from Dave," she complained. "That's not how you ask a lady out to dinner."

"I'm not asking you out to dinner," Bob replied. "I'm offering to suffer alongside you, or did you forget that Wayna is on dinner tonight?"

Jessica shuddered. "I did," she admitted.

"I think it's all the time she spends her carnivorous forms," Bob opined. "Obviously, I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian, but I swear she's actually frightened of vegetables."

"I like a good steak as much as the next Sheila," Jessica mumbled, "but I like mine medium rare. Not barely seared."

"Me too," Bob agreed. "I swear she just sears the leftovers from a kill after she finishes eating hers raw."

"You know," Jessica bumped her shoulder against his, "you could always cook for me." f𝗿𝚎eweb𝗻o𝐯𝐞l.𝚌om

"I sacrificed my kitchen, remember?" Bob shook his head.

"Damn, you did, didn't you?" Jessica sighed.

"I did," Bob agreed. "I'm just grateful that we have our Eire environmental shelters. Nothing against the Urlinad, but their kitchens are just different enough to feel weird cooking in."

Once they'd realized just how long they'd be in the Dungeon, they had deployed their cubes, setting up in a temple square after clearing it with Tyolad.

They hadn't had to use them for a while, but they proved their worth, providing a space to get away from the Urlinad, and loaded with furniture that was designed for people without tails.

"At least we know Monroe will be happy," Bob mused as they continued down the boulevard, side by side.

The System provided a local clock that was as accurate as you wanted it to be.

Bob didn't see the point in going out past seconds, not for general timekeeping, but he could have gone to nano-seconds if he'd wanted.

It also provided alarm functionality, a feature that Bob was rather fond of as he had a tendency to lose track of time when he was slaughtering monsters, although that was less of an issue now that Dungeons didn't have respawns.

He had explained this feature to all of the clergy, but for some reason, Tyolad had insisted this ceremony be performed at the 'darkest night.'

Bob felt that doing so at midnight would have been a better, more exact choice.

His irritation had nothing to do with Monroe's insistence that they needed some playtime after dinner, which restricted Bob to a forty-minute nap before he'd been woken up to attend the event.

He wanted to go back to sleep, but instead, he was standing with the rest of the team, patiently waiting as the minutes passed by, with midnight fading into their rearview.

Finally, at eighteen minutes after midnight, Tyolad raised his arms.

"As darkness reaches its fullest, and night begins to give way to light, we embrace the new cycle, heralded by the Avatars," he gestured toward the humans. "As one, we accept our paths!"

Bob blinked as all four hundred and sixty Urlinad inhaled as one.

Then chaos erupted.

Some of the Urlinad fell prostrate, others to their knees. Some raised their arms to the sky, some cried, and some shouted in exaltation.

"What the fuck?" Mike muttered.

"We have some awesome paths, but I don't remember any of us being quite that emotional," Amanda agreed.

Tyolad rushed over to the group. "We have been blessed!" He announced loudly, several cheers ringing out in approval.

A System screen appeared in front of Tyolad.

Path of the Dungeon Bound Acolyte.

This user was placed in stasis to prevent their untimely demise after their universe was blessed by the arrival of the System. The unthinking actions of a careless user resulted in an unexpected influx of energy, preventing their timely release from stasis. The user remained in stasis until diligent agents of the System arrived to regulate the energy and secure their release. The agents have shown their devotion to the System by going above and beyond the basic requirements of their assigned task, and have provided otherwise unattainable resources to ensure this user will be able to assist the rest of their species. The user has chosen to revere one of these agents. The user has chosen schools and skills for the purpose of aiding their community.

This Path has been enhanced, due to the achievements of the Agents.

The Path of the Dungeon Bound Acolyte provides the following benefits.

Each Threshold reached in a Divine School of Magic, or a Spell or Skill within it, increases the value of the effect by 1%. This bonus is calculated by using the number of thresholds reached for the specific spell or skill, and the school to which it belongs.

Each Threshold reached in a Divine School of Magic, or a Spell or Skill within it, decreases the resources required to utilize the spell or skill by 1%. This bonus is calculated by using the number of thresholds reached for the specific spell or skill, and the school to which it belongs.

Each Threshold reached in a Divine School of Magic, or a Spell or Skill within it, decreases the damage done to the user by manifestations in a Dungeon by 1%. This bonus is calculated by using the total number of thresholds reached for each specific spell or skill, as well as the individual schools.

Each Threshold reached in a Divine School of Magic, or a Spell or Skill within it, decreases the amount of food and water required by the user by 1%. This bonus is calculated by using the total number of thresholds reached for each specific spell or skill, as well as the individual schools.

Each Threshold reached in a Divine School of Magic, or a Spell or Skill within it, increases the amount of experience gained by 1%. This bonus is calculated by using the total number of thresholds reached for each specific spell or skill, as well as the individual schools.

Each Threshold reached in a Divine School of Magic, or a Spell or Skill within it, increases the number of energy crystals produced by completing Dungeon quests by 1%. This bonus is calculated by using the total number of thresholds reached for each specific spell or skill, as well as the individual schools.

Special skill 'Dungeon Born' granted. This skill allows the user to expend a number of energy crystals equal to their level to enter a state of Stasis.

Additional Bonuses, granted by the achievements of the System's agents.

Special Skill 'Rain Dance' granted. This skill allows the user to spend one hour and one energy to create one cubic millimeter of water. Users may act cooperatively, and for each one thousand users who do so, the effect is doubled. This skill only functions when inside a Dungeon.

Special Skill 'Endless Harvest' granted. This skill allows the user to spend one hour and one energy to advance the growth of one square centimeter of food crops to advance to maturity, ready for harvest. Users may act cooperatively, and for each one thousand users who do so, the effect is doubled. This skill only functions when inside a Dungeon.

Special Skill 'Ashes to Ashes' granted. This skill allows the user to spend one hour and one energy to disintegrate the plant matter above one square centimeter, recycling that matter to nourish the soil. Users may act cooperatively, and for each one thousand users who do so, the effect is doubled. This skill only functions when inside a Dungeon.

The Path of the Dungeon Bound Acolyte is restricted. This path is not available for evolution.

"Strewth," Jessica breathed.

Bob could only nod in agreement.