Monroe

Chapter Three Hundred and Two. So long, and thanks for all the boar chunks!

"You get lost in there?" Mike asked as Bob suddenly found himself returned to reality.

"What?" Bob asked.

"You've been gone for like ten minutes longer than Dave, and he was in there for ten minutes longer than I was," Mike replied.

"Yeah, I had a lot of choices to make," Bob said.

The rest of the group were seated at the table, each with either a laptop or a tablet in front of them.

"So," Amanda grinned, "what did you get?"

"Well, I went all in on Dimension," Bob began. "With threshold bonuses, I managed to get the cost of Jumping the Freedom down to forty-nine crystals, which is important, as it looks like the drop rate on crystals is going through the floor. I kept my summons as my primary method of combat, and even buffed it a bit by applying the threshold bonuses from Eldritch Shield and Anima Blast, although the cost of the spell with those attached is crazy, twenty mana per second without any cost reductions taken into consideration."

Dave shook his head. "Awesome, and a bit confusing, but the answer we were looking for was what Achievements did you get?"

"A bunch, actually," Bob replied.

"We all have a few, but we're keen to see how many you've stacked up, yeah?" Jessica said.

"Well, I got a bunch of 'Extradimensional' ones from getting blown up and tossed into Thayland, Summoning Monroe from Earth, going back to Earth," Bob shrugged.

"Yeah, we got Extradimensional Explorer and Extradimensional Ferryman," Dave nodded.

"I picked up Extradimensional Traveler as well, that was the one for getting blown up," Bob explained.

"Nice, I guess," Mike said.

"Not an experience I'd care to repeat," Bob agreed.

"You've got access to the spreadsheet, go fill it in," Amanda urged.

Bob pulled his tablet out of his satchel, and pulled up the sheet.

It looked like almost everyone had gotten the Dimesional Achievements, as well as the Savior Achievement, although when he checked the rewards, he realized they weren't quite as good, as they lacked the damage reduction and the Enduring Attribute Affinity. That discovery caused him to look through the rest of the list, where he discovered that even their Dimensional bonuses were smaller. There were a few Achievements listed that he didn't have, such as the Historical Ressurectionist, which Eddi had earned by ritually summoning his familiar into being.

He dutifully filled out the sheet, then informed the group that he'd finished.

"Damn," Jack muttered. "I wouldn't want to go through that, but those are some nice rewards."

A moment passed, then Eddi groaned. "Anni is going to be insufferable," he grumbled.

"Stars and stones, we can get divine blessings of Bob," Wayna started laughing.

"Not that you don't deserve all of it, but I'm a little bit jealous of those Enduring rewards," Elli sighed.

"Pedagogue and Academic seem designed to work together," Harv mused. "Although with the way the System reserves mana for each School and Skill."

"Don't get me started," Amanda growled.

"You?" Bailli shook her head. "I was able to burn forty mana every second on my area of effect spells. Now I'm at twenty, which basically halves my range."

"The System expects us to work together from now on," Harv said. "Most adventurers do that already, you've just been spoiled by Affinity Crystals with complimentary paths, as well as Bob's efficient, but easy Dungeons."

"It's a shift, that's for sure," Mike agreed.

"It is nice having the System to all the math and stuff for you," Eddi argued. "I was never great at math, and figuring stuff out could be a pain. Now it does it for you."

Bob pulled up his interface and pulled up his portal spell.

Portal Skill for user 'Robert Whitman', User identification code 40816G1407N3210ISS3PM1IO.

User spellcasting value = 356

Spell casting multipliers:

Magical School of Dimension level = 14%

Portal Spell level = 42%

Spell casting multipliers = 56%

Spellcasting value for the Portal spell is 555.

This Skill will open a dimensional aperture within fifty-five feet of the user. The aperture may be as large as forty-two feet in diameter. The terminus of the spell must be within five thousand five hundred and fifty-three feet of the origin of the spell. This spell is under the influence of an Affinity Crystal, raising it's maximum level by seven.

Extradimensional Traveler Achievement has increased the distance the aperture may be placed from the user to fifty-eight feet, and the maximum distance between origin and terminus to five thousand eight hundred and eighty six feet.

Fragmented Achievement reduces this spells resource cost by ten percent.

Extradimensional Ferryman Achievement reduces this spells resource cost by seven percent.

Five User Thresholds have been allocated to reduce this spells resource cost by thirty-five percent.

Seven Spell Thresholds have been allocated to reduce this spells resource cost by seven percent.

Total cost reduction for this spell is fifty-nine percent.

"Well shit," Bob muttered. He'd fucked up his math somewhere. "Strike that, fifty-nine percent cost reduction for Portal," he said sheepishly.

He checked his interface more closely. He could see everything now, every modifier laid out clearly and concisely.

"I'd rather it didn't reserve so much mana, but it is a much better user experience," Dave said.

"So, what did Monroe end up with?" Elli asked. "Where is the big guy?"

"Napping in my inventory," Bob replied dryly. "As for his rewards..."

Extradimensional Familiar.

Nothing can prevent you from returning to your favorite servant. You have traveled to another dimension, unaware of the conditions, in order to ease the pain of your servant. This has increased the value of this Achievement.

You may return to your servant from any location, regardless of distance or dimension. You are granted the skill 'Home.'

Paragon.

You are the first user to advance your species to the next tier. You selected an Advantage for your species that increases the Strength Attribute. This has slightly increased the value of this Achievement.

Reward: Enduring Attribute - Strength. This increases the users strength by one point for per level.

Venerated.

Multiple users have venerated you. You have made no effort to encourage this practice, despite being aware of it. This has increased the value of this Achievement.

Reward: Users who venerate you may allocate a skill point to gain access to your Enduring Attribute - Strength. Users will receive the the bonus up to their first level threshold. Users may allocate an additional skill point for each threshold, up to the maximum thresholds available to you.

Note: This Achievement required the Paragon Achievement to become available.

Pinnacle.

You are the first user to advance your species beyond the next tier. You selected an Advantage for your species that increases the your Coordination. This has increased the value of this Achievement.

Reward: Enduring Attribute - Coordination. This increases the user's Coordination by one point per level. Users who venerate you and have allocated a skill point to obtain your Enduring Attribute - Strength, may allocate a skill point to gain access to your Enduring Attribute - Coordination. Users may allocate an additional skill point for each threshold, up to the maximum thresholds available to you.

Note: This Acheivement has been modified by the Venerated Achievement.

Savior.

Upon discovering that billions of potentially efficient circulators of energy would be rendered inert, you aided your favorite servant in leading them to shelter within the System. You were present at every point of the developing operation to rescue these valuable resources, and your presence influenced other users to aid you. You have indirectly saved the lives of eight billion sapient beings. These actions have increased the value of this Achievement.

Reward: Your coat will never tangle again.

Reward: Your coat will resist any substance that attempts to adhere to it.

Reward: Your teeth and claws are perfect. Inceases damage dealt by them by your tier in percent.

"I was thinking about a Bob blessing, but I think I'll go with Monroe," Mike laughed.

"Thirty six points of Strength for six skill points," Mike shook his head. "I'm not completely sold on that."

"How does Enduring Attributes work?" Eddi asked.

"You get your level as a bonus," Bob replied. "Honestly, especially given the mana reservation of skills, I'd like to have the other three Attribute Crystals before I reincarnate. I'm going to stick with Dimension, Summoning, Abjuration, Shadowmancy, and Animancy. If I can find a either of the last two, I'd count it as a perfect build."

"What path did you build for him?" Bailli asked. "The System suggested the Conjurer's Familiar, and it was exactly what Icy needed."

"The System offered him the Interdimensional Savior, which required a Dimensional Affinity Crystal, as well as the Dimension School, the Portal Spell, the Melee School, Natural Weapons, the Defense School, Natural Armor, and Dodge. Using the Affinity Crystal got us the school for free," he explained. "He can help me cast my portal spells for a boost in power, as well as portal himself around, and everything else focused on melee combat. He used his threshold bonuses from his portal spell to boost his dodge, making him harder to hit. Other than that, he went full on kitty assassin."

"You're ok with him mixing it up melee?" Amanda asked in surprise.

"Not so much ok with it, as accepting that he can't actually die, and that as we keep tiering up, eventually something is going to happen and I'm not going to be able to defend him. His being able to fight on his own is important. I'm still dropping most of my mana pool on an effect over time Eldritch Shield for him," Bob finished.

"Gotta keep your kitty safe," Elli agreed solemnly.

"Yeah, I don't want him to get hurt," Bob nodded.

No one was interested in sticking around Thayland.

The IDSS Freedom was off the ground within an hour of the update finishing, and had Jumped to the dimension where they'd discovered a planet in the goldilocks zone of G-Type star five minutes after that.

They'd set course for the planet, relying on their thrusters to get them there. They could have sailed, but it would have been against the flow of the mana, which would have required tacking every few hours, and ultimately, the cost of running the Freedom's shields was going to become problematic. They had enough crystals in reserve to go for a while, but the sad truth was that they would have to either find a planet, or portal back to Thayland, or Earth, in order to set the ship down and delve without having to pay the ruinious cost of running the ship.

Bob's hope was that they'd get lucky their first try.

For the moment, they were preparing to enter Bob's Arcane Depths. He'd lost the ability to open a portal to it without the use of ritual magic, but with the vast decrease in the portal spell's cost, it wasn't a serious issue.

"So, we can do this one of two ways," Bob said, looking around the table. "We all have the System Quest, 'My First Kill.'"

System Quest: My First Kill.

Congratulations user! You have reached the age of maturity for your species, and it is time to begin your eternal journey.

The System creates manifestation from the energies that pool on your planet. It is your neverending task to disperse these manifestations. In you local parlance, monsters appear in the world around you, and it's your job to kill them.

Killing your first monster is the first step on your path to circulating energy. Normally energy crystals coalesce infrequently from manifestations, but as a reward for completing this simple task set for you by the System, your first kill of a monster higher level than you are is guaranteed to coalesce an energy crystal!

Completing this Quest will result in the System generating additional Quests with new and exciting rewards!

Bob read the quest again before continuing. "Now, if I'm reading this correctly, it doesn't matter where we kill the monster, we complete the quest. From what the patch notes indicated, until we find a habitable planet, we're pretty well screwed on quests, as we won't have a Dungeon to delve. I know we've all experienced massive changes to our attributes and our skills and spells, but I'd like to suggest that we, as a group, and with caution, go for the big rewards."

"What big rewards?" Eddi asked eagerly.

"Well, the quest says that it's guaranteed to coalesce an Energy Crystal," Bob explained. "Now if it said the reward was a crystal from the quest, I'd shrug, but it says it's going to coalesce from the monster itself. So, what if the System didn't specify the crystal type? Does that mean that if we kill a monster two tiers up, we are guaranteed an Attribute Crystal?"

"That can't be right," Dave muttered his eyes moving back and forth as he pulled the quest as well.

"Bob, are you finally embracing your inner munchkin?" Jack asked.

"One of us, one of us," Amanda chanted, grinning.

"I'm just thinking if we make sure to stay close and finish the quest one by one, with plenty of support ready to step in, it's worthy trying," Bob said.

"That could save us months of grinding," Jessica said happily. "I don't know about you guys, but I'd really love to have every Affinity Crystal I need for a perfect build before I reincarnate. I mean, we've got the time, yeah?"

"Sort of," Bob agreed. "Once we find a planet, if we still need a bit more time before we reincarnate, we can find a higher level Dungeon and grind it out in there, living on the ship."

"Or, hear me out," Mike began, "we could create buildings, with windows. I don't do well without sunlight," he grumbled.

"Or that," Bob shrugged.

"As long as we're careful," Harv said slowly. "We don't know how exactly are spells are going to compare to the monsters. That was part of the patch right? Harder monsters?"

"We follow the rules," Bob replied. "Stay at the entrance where we won't pull aggro, and bring a monster in alone. There are enough of us that we can pile on shields and heals if it get's dicey."

Bob looked around the table, and seeing no objections, began casting the ritual to open the portal to his Arcane depths.