Monroe

Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Nine. Someone to blame.

"Do you know how irritating it is not to be able to get ahold of you?" Mike asked before Bob could even sit down.

"I've been busy," Bob replied defensively, pouring Monroe onto the empty chair next to him before sitting down. "I'm delving long days, and today is the time I take off."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you," Mike said, raising his hands, "it's just that there are important people looking for you, and they're leaning on pretty much everyone to find you."

"Why?" Bob asked.

"Because we're friends, and I can normally find you?" Mike replied.

"No, why are people looking for me this time?" Bob smiled at the server who had arrived with his big breakfast and Monroe's double helping of ham chunks.

"Because a friend of yours went a little bit nuts and killed almost a dozen people," Mike shook his head. "I have the video. He rips their souls out of their bodies."

"Who?" Bob asked.

"Harvest Eidolon," Mike replied.

"Can I see the video?" Bob moved around to stand next to Mike, who pulled out his ever-present tablet and started the video, handing the tablet to Bob. "I've seen enough," Mike explained.

Bob watched the video with a frown. He handed the tablet back and moved back to his seat, where he started eating.

"That was Harv, it looked to me like people were trying to steal something from him, probably that cure for cancer he made," Bob said between bites.

"Well, he scared the people in that lobby enough that they followed his orders, and this video is everywhere. It's been taken down dozens of times, but it just keeps popping back up," Mike stabbed his fork into a sausage link. "For some reason, the powers that be want to talk to you about it," he finished.

"I'm guessing the Secretary of Defense?" Bob muttered as he pulled a ketchup bottle out of his inventory and applied a liberal dash to his scrambled eggs.

"Got it in one," Mike agreed.

"Well, I'll be here for another twenty minutes or so if you want to reach out to him and have him meet me," Bob replied.

Mike nodded and pulled out his phone, then tapped out a message.

"So, where are you off to today?" Mike asked.

"Lake Tahoe," Bob grinned. "Dave and Amanda have done some camping there, and they offered to portal me over."

"Never been," Mike replied wistfully, "there's a lot of places I always kind of wanted to go see, but the wife wasn't interested in anything outside of a city, and after the divorce, I didn't have the money."

"You could come with us," Bob suggested. "We are only going for a day."

"Going where?" SecDef asked as he sat down between Bob and Mike, across from Monroe.

"Lake Tahoe," Bob replied.

"It's nice, although the water is a bit cool this time of year," SecDef replied with a grunt. "So your friend Harv caused a bit of a ruckus back on Earth," he began.

"Saw the video," Bob nodded, "people shouldn't pull guns on an adventurer."

"Or try to steal from them," Mike muttered around a mouthful of toast.

"They really shouldn't try to steal the cure for cancer that he made and is giving away for free," Bob agreed.

"You're not the only one who has made that point," SecDef grumbled. "Quite a few people have come forward with their stories of being cured of cancer by Harv and Elli, which shed light on the incident that I'm quite sure Johnson and Johnson would rather they hadn't." He shook his head, "The problem is that the video has gone truly viral; I don't think there's a person in the United States with a smartphone that hasn't seen it. We'd like you to talk to Harv to see if you can get him to talk to the government. I'm not sure how the hell they plan to spin this as anything but a disaster, maybe pass it off as a stunt to drum up awareness before they release a real cure for cancer or something."

"Mr. Secretary," Bob began, "I'm sure you have Harv's number, and I'm equally sure you've attempted to contact him. As his friend, if he doesn't want to talk to you, I'll respect his choice."

SecDef nodded reluctantly. "I agree, but I was told to ask."

Bob shook his head. "The United States government has made it clear that they don't have much use for me beyond the general knowledge of the System. Which is fine, but at the same time, it would be nice if everyone would remember that I'm not particularly beholden to the U.S. If there is a real problem, and my help can directly save lives, it's not likely that I'll say no, but please relay to the powers that be that I'm not at their beck and call."

Bob was surprised when the SecDef sighed. "I warned them that they needed to keep you close and involved, but they didn't listen," he grumbled. "They've got only themselves to blame. But while I've got you here, someone asked why exactly we can't build Dungeons ahead of the integration that way they're ready for when we come back?" He asked.

"You could, but you wouldn't be able to see the ambient mana, as there currently is any, so the rituals used to pull mana down into the Dungeon wouldn't be as effective." Bob frowned for a moment. "Or effective at all. But there's no reason you couldn't physically construct the Dungeons ahead of time. Although some people might wonder what you were doing."

"How exactly does the mana drain effect work?" SecDef asked, his expression curious.

"The ritual is designed to pull ambient mana from the environment," Bob began, "when you lay out the ritual, you have to alter it to account for both the quantity of ambient mana as well as its movement. Even then, once you've completed the ritual, you'll often have to go back over the mana flows and correct for issues you didn't or even couldn't see initially. I imagine, and please understand that this is hypothetical, that even if you cast the ritual and kept it active by feeding mana crystals into it, because there won't be any mana to extant to siphon to make the ritual self-sustaining, that the ritual might fail when mana finally appears as the flows try to pull mana from where there is none, and overflows in areas where there is much more than expected."

"How do you know all of this?" SecDef asked. "I get that you've been here for a couple of years, but we've had people looking through books in Harbordeep, and we haven't found any of this information."

"I learned a lot about building Dungeons from Thidwell," Bob replied. "If you're not aware, Thidwell Orstang learned from his father, who revolutionized Dungeon design, creating both the Gated model as well as the shield that prevents the mana density sickness. I honestly don't know how much of what he taught me were things that only his father had known before passing them on to him," Bob finished with a shrug.

SecDef shook his head. "It's almost like this entire society wanted to remain ignorant," he grumbled.

"You're not entirely wrong," Bob agreed with a wry smile, "however it would be more apt to say that the Nobles wanted everyone else to remain ignorant, knowledge being power and all that."

"From my interaction and what others have reported, I'm surprised the King allows that," SecDef mused.

"From what I understand, he sleeps for a decade at a time, waking up a year or so before a Tide, and staying awake through it, and a year or so afterward," Bob frowned, "maybe it's a Dragon thing?"

"That... makes sense in a twisted fairy tale fantasy kind of way," SecDef sighed.

Bob smiled crookedly. "I may have a head start on everyone, but with Earth's ability to disseminate knowledge, it won't be long before everyone knows as much as I do. The Aussies have already built classrooms and are teaching their kids about the various skills and paths."

SecDef pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Let's not talk about the rather large civilian population of Australians who have migrated over, nor about the ass-chewing I received from POTUS for not knowing that was going to happen."

"That one wasn't my fault," Bob offered.

"No, and I know you haven't heard this from me, and I suspect you don't hear it often enough, but thank you," SecDef seemed sincere. "Your actions endeared Earth to the King of Greenwold, and you shouldered the responsibility of notifying Earth about the impending catastrophe. Your actions will have saved billions of lives," he shook his head. "Like everyone else, I have a family, and I've seen a wave. I know what would have happened to us if you hadn't stepped up. So, from me, as a son and as a father, thank you," he finished. Standing up, he offered a rare smile. "Enjoy Lake Tahoe."

"You're welcome, and I will," Bob replied with a smile of his own.

Mike waited until the SecDef had left before speaking up. "I think you're growing on him."

"The public, in general, have very short memories, Madam President, at least for current events. There are plenty of people claiming it's a hoax, and our friends in silicon valley are doing an excellent job of spreading disinformation and discrediting those who persist in pushing the narrative that it was real."

Elania Hartford rubbed her temples. The issue was that once people from Thayland had started coming over, there wasn't any way to stop them. Teleportation magic was going to be a giant pain in the ass. "Thank you, please continue to do your best to bury this," she said before ending the call.

It was ironic that two days after the incident at Johnson and Johnson, she was able to lock down the cooperation of the four remaining countries with telescopes that were capable of blowing their cover story. No one had been able to come up with a better cover story than a mass coronal ejection, although Japan had insisted they had a better idea and to give them a week to get it on paper.

She opened her desk drawer and took out a handbag. She weighted it consideringly in her hand as she pursed her lips thoughtfully before unzipping it and pulling out a small wooden box. Opening the box, she looked at the five crystals in their cutouts. Small labels, clearly the work someone with a label gun, identified them. Fire, Air, Earth, Water, and Plant. They were beautiful, each with its subtle colors swirling within. She snapped the box shut and dropped it back into the bag, where it landed atop the two hundred and fifty mana crystals that represented her first steps on the path to power.

Elania had been reluctant to use the crystals. She fingered a folder on her desk for a moment. It was a report detailing the effects of increasing the six attributes, and it represented the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Using the crystals to push to level five would result in her life span extending another twenty-five years due to the base increase in Endurance. According to the document in front of her, she would look between five and ten years younger. Although she hated to admit it, that would still place her firmly past menopause. She hadn't looked that much different ten years ago, having already gone grey at that point. Erasing a few wrinkles was unlikely to be noticed by the public, and those who did would attribute it to either a skilled makeup artist or a change in diet. The tabloids might suggest that she had a facelift but that furor would fade when no records were forthcoming.

Increasing her intelligence wouldn't actually increase her I.Q. But it would improve her recall. Service members had reported eidetic and even photographic memories. Her Wisdom would improve how quickly she could form her thoughts and link ideas together. That attribute was vaguer, but it was reported to pair perfectly with increasing the Intelligence attribute, and both fed into the primary attributes for spellcasting, which was where she intended to go.

She snorted and shook her head. Six months ago, she'd been worried about a slight bump in her cholesterol and the midterm elections. Now she was planning to become a sorceress. Punching a button on her phone, she said, "Send him in."

A soldier entered the room and stood stiffly at attention. "I'll need you to open a portal to Glacier Valley," she told him as she stood and slung her handbag over her shoulder.

Lake Tahoe was beautiful, with water that started off clear and turned turquoise, almost like the Bahamas but with a more rapid shift to darker shades of blue. The beaches were mostly rocky, with trees growing right up to the waterline, but Dave and Amanda had opened the portal a half-hour hike away from a beach that was more sand than rocks.

With the pine forest, the rugged rocky outcroppings, and the snow-capped mountains in the distance, the backdrop couldn't have been more different than last weekend's getaway.

"Gorgeous, isn't it," Dave sighed from the chair next to him.

"It is," Bob agreed. "It reminds me of Murmuring Falls, in a way," he mused. He hadn't been home very often, stopping in to top off the ongoing ritual effects with mana crystals.

"That's your house by Holmstead, right?" Amanda asked.

"It is," Bob agreed, "I built it next to a series of small waterfalls. Sunsets are beautiful there, but with everything that's been going on, I haven't been able to spend any time there."

"We talked about getting a cabin up here, but we always ran into the same problem," Dave said, "we wouldn't use it enough to justify the expense. So we rented like every other tourist," he finished with a grin.

"I never really took the time to do things like this," Bob stretched in his chair, getting more comfortable. "I should have," he admitted. "I try not to think about it, but I could have just as easily been killed in that explosion. Hell, I should have been killed in that explosion. Knowing that I would have died without seeing the beauty Earth has to offer is both sobering and sad."

"Well, I'm glad you're not wasting your second chance," Amanda replied. "Although speaking of beauty," her voice took on a teasing note, "I should probably warn you that I told Jessica we were going to be here, and as she came up here with us a couple of times while we were in school, she's likely to portal over."

"No need to warn him off," Jessica's voice came from behind their chairs, and Bob twisted to see the Australian walking down towards the beach with a brilliant smile. "G'day!"