Monroe

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-seven. Going Native.

Bob didn't like Lt. Colonel Smith. The man had a right to be angry about being reincarnated without having the process explained to him, but that didn't excuse him for being a dick. Bob hadn't started the process of saving the Earth to deal with the same bullshit that had plagued him before.

"And he's a kitty hater, buddy," Bob murmured as he scratched under Monroe's chin, "can't trust someone like that."

Monroe purred loudly in agreement with that statement. Bob was going to attribute the purr to agreement anyway, regardless of the actual intent.

He'd known from the start that he was the wrong person for the job. He not only lacked a useful skillset, but he was also aware that he wasn't good with people, and the task of saving Earth was mostly about people. He'd been grateful when Mike had started getting things moving with his Marines, but he wasn't thrilled with the idea of bringing the actual Marine Corps. The people he'd restored to full health were indebted to him, doubly so because he was allowing them to prepare a place to shelter their loved ones. Active duty military personnel were likely to be a different story entirely.

Dave had told him that he expected to pull a solid one hundred D&D players over on the weekend, but that was a drop in the bucket.

Bob sighed as he slowly ran a hand through Monroe's fur.

He had to wonder, did it really matter? Military or civilian the government was going to get involved, and soon. He'd wanted to have had a working model in place to demonstrate how things could be done, but realistically, his only applicable skill set was building Dungeons. The buildings that they'd raise over them were something other people could handle.

If he stood back and let things progress, he had no doubt that the military would be overseeing the project with a bit of civilian oversight of their own. Bob could simply focus on driving the Dungeons deeper and deeper each day. When some likely candidates for becoming curators were found and carried up to their tier cap, he'd teach them how.

Bob shook his head. He needed to level up as well. There was no point in sitting at level thirty-two. He needed to reach level thirty-six and then devote enough time to understanding how magic worked.

He picked Monroe up off the table and slid him onto the Makres before dropping through a portal into his Arcane Depths. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒𝔀𝓮𝘣𝘯𝘰𝘷𝑒𝓵.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Jack smiled at Eddi. "Believe me, you're going to love this," he promised the young man, who had been a little hesitant about the project at hand.

The U.S. Dollar was, in less than two years, going to be worthless. He'd slaved away for longer than that, making only a few dollars an hour, enduring the shame of homelessness, eating shitty food, and not getting nearly enough sleep.

Jack had made it. He'd earned his payday. And of course, because 'Fuck Jack,' he'd never get to really enjoy it. Fuck that. Thayland was a nice enough place, especially once they got a bit of infrastructure up and running. It was a little funny that all the apocalypse books he'd read featured technology becoming useless when the real thing appeared to not give a single solitary fuck.

He had a plan. A few of them, in fact, but they all hinged one single component; steady, reliable electricity. He was reasonably confident that there would be people who took the Path of the Endless Swarm and learned how to summon gasoline or diesel. He was equally sure that he could avoid a few steps. The answer was a steam-powered generator. Most commercial power generation was steam-powered, be it by burning oil, coal, or nuclear. Water was superheated to steam, the pressure turned the turbine, which created the electricity, and the water finished its trip by condensing back down to water before making another trip through the loop.

Having a large quantity of water flashing to steam wasn't an issue with magic, nor was condensing it back down. This was an area where magic and technology synergized perfectly. He'd need to feed the whole thing mana crystals, likely by the shovel full, but if he was successful, he'd have them.

All his plans hinged on electricity. First, in an effort to ensure cooperation from the natives, he was going to build a Movie Theatre. He'd priced out the gear, and buying secondhand it would run him about two hundred thousand. He'd be making use of a cheap generator, which would run him another twenty but would provide power for the theatre with plenty of juice leftover.

Eddi was a crucial part of the plan, as he'd be investing a significant number of mana crystals into the construction. The kid had been awfully easy to negotiate with, and Jack knew he could have screwed him over, but he'd offered to repay the loan, with a flat twenty-percent increase, out of the profits once the Theatre was up and running. Eddi knew a man who could construct the building, and he'd been more than willing to allow Jack to build it a short distance from the Endless Tower.

Which was the real key to his plan. He needed to convert his soon to be useless U.S. dollars into the new universal currency, and with Bob's push to rapidly build Dungeons and skyscrapers atop them, no one from Earth was going to have any mana crystals to sell him. Even if they did, they knew what he knew, even if they hadn't worked it out for themselves yet, so he wouldn't be able to trade them evenly.

No, the key to transferring his wealth from dollars to crystals was to purchase things on Earth that the citizens of Thayland would love and bring them over. But perishables and single-use luxuries weren't where the real crystals were to be made. The Movie Theatre would be a good start, as he'd screen a single movie each week. Given that the population of Holmstead was a bit over four thousand, he didn't think he'd have a problem filling a fifty-seat theatre each night.

Cellular communications were the larger project. Putting up a cell tower was easy enough, and it would serve everyone in Holmstead. The equipment wasn't even that expensive. If he stayed with a single provider for the phones, avoiding the larger manufacturers, he could purchase them in bulk. Communications between towns would require a satellite network, and as deep as his pockets currently were, they weren't satellite deep. He'd seen a few blurbs about Elon Musk and balloons, but it sounded like it was still in development.

No, he'd be best served by providing entertainment and communications. By the time the System landed on Earth, he should be fully invested in crystals. He'd also have first-hand knowledge of how to adapt Earth's technology to Magic. Jack could leverage that into getting a seat at the table when it came time to rebuild the damaged or destroyed infrastructure back on Earth.

But first, he had to have Eddi take him back to Earth for a not-so-little shopping trip.

Leonard kept pace with the young men ahead of him. His legs moved evenly, his breathing was smooth, and for the first time in decades, nothing hurt. It was difficult to adjust to the change. He'd woken up at two am, expecting to need to piss, but his bladder was unexpectedly silent. He'd reached for a bottle of ibuprofen that wasn't there because he wasn't home but also wasn't needed.

He regretted the tone he'd taken with the kid. The man was obviously not good with people and was doing what he could with what he had. The fact that he was fucking it up wasn't relevant. He was a civilian, an egghead. He'd shown his intelligence by recognizing that he wasn't the right person for the job. They'd gotten into it a bit, verbally, but Leonard was willing to chalk that up to both of them being under a great deal of stress.

He hadn't completely balked at the idea of bringing in the Corps, which was another good sign. It was pretty clear that Sergeant Hanson had given an excellent showcase of what the USMC was capable of bringing to the table. The retired Marines seemed to be in excellent spirits. Having their lost limbs and health restored to them had cast a rosy glow over the whole affair, made all the better because they were fighting magically constructed animals, not men.

He hadn't seen the monsters for himself yet, but the men were eager to describe them, laughing about how they just dissolved into nothingness. Some of them lamented needing to be decisively engaged, but they didn't complain too loudly. He'd inadvertently increased their drive when they discovered that he had been nearing ninety years old earlier that day. The prospect of mothers, fathers and even the occasional grandparent regaining their youth was looked upon with great delight.

Leonard hadn't had the heart to tell them that their grandparents, at least, wouldn't necessarily be eager to extend their time on this world. He'd damn sure make certain that no one else was shanghaied as he'd been.

As the group completed their last lap, falling into a fast walk to cooldown, he contemplated the situation. Magic was real. Evidence for that was easily demonstrated. The bit about magic coming to Earth wasn't. Apparently, Bob was the only one who knew about it, and with no one else to confirm, everyone was taking him at his word.

Bob wasn't the right man for the job, and Leonard had his doubts about the man's overall mental health. He let his cat eat on the table, for fuck's sake. That wasn't normal, or healthy, or hygienic. That being said, he wasn't looking for attention. He gave off the air of a man who very much wanted to be left alone. As Sergeant Hanson had described, he'd thrust himself deeply into debt in order to get the project started, and if he was collecting the profits of the men who were killing the monsters, he was immediately investing them back in. Somehow.

He needed more information.

Nora was reeling. Kelli had stuffed English into her head, leaving her with a splitting headache. They'd portaled back, and Carrie had brazenly brought her along on what the men were calling a supply run.

"Are you sure I should be here?" she whispered to Carrie, "I don't have portal yet."

"Sure," Carrie replied happily, "none of these guys have portal either." She lowered her voice, "besides, Jackson," here she nodded to an older man, black hair given almost completely over to gray, "offered to take me to a store while they are loading up the trucks."

"What kind of a store?" Nora asked curiously. If there was one thing she missed about Harbordeep, it was Kathaleen's. Holmstead didn't have a book store at all, only a few hundred volumes in the Adventurers Guild Library, and none of those were the sort of books you'd read for pleasure.

"He called it a 'mall' and said it was actually a bunch of little shops under one roof," Carrie smiled, "I traded him some mana crystals for earth currency, so we should be able to pick up a few outfits."

"Maybe a few books?" Nora asked cautiously.

"I don't see why not," Carrie leaned forward and poked Jackson's shoulder. "Hey," she said in English, "how much are books?"

Jackson looked back and shook his head with a smile that reminded Nora strongly of her father. "For the cost of one outfit, you can purchase four, maybe five novels," he said with a smile.

"I called my daughter," Jackson continued, "and thanks to a suitable bribe, she'll be more than happy to show you around the mall for an hour or so while we load up these trucks."

He chuckled, "She'll have you out of that armor and blending in."

Nora looked down at her armor. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't flattering either. She'd had Gary retool it with a full set of enhancements and enchantments, and it served its purpose, but it couldn't really be considered stylish.

Carrie gave her a commiserating look. Her armor was a deep crimson color, which went nicely with her auburn hair but had little else to recommend it.

"Just make sure you kids stay out of Victoria's secret," Jackson wagged a finger at them, "Elaine's mother lets her shop there, against my wishes, and she might try to drag you in there," he shook his head, "do an old father a favor, and keep her moving along."

"Sure thing," Carrie agreed happily.

"And don't let her tempt you into the food court," Jackson continued, "we're all stopping at Thai place that Evans says is to die for, right?" He nudged the man driving the truck.

"And be resurrected for another taste," Evans agreed, not taking his eyes off the road. "The good Lord knew what he was doing when he put together the spice pallet over there."

Now that was something she'd really missed. The Tavern in Holmstead served quality meals with healthy portions. But they didn't have a lot of variety. Kevin stuck to boar and bear for the meat dishes. The other places where people who didn't delve the Dungeon were only slightly different, adding beef and occasionally chicken to the menu. Harbordeep had a dozen excellent restaurants, and Nora really missed fresh seafood.

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