Monroe

Chapter Three Hundred and Eleven. Swag.

It was a testament to the groups cohesion that everyone stopped reading their notifications immediately and rushed for the portal.

Or possibly their survival instincts, but regardless, they were back through the portal in less than two seconds, with Eddi grumbling about not being able to pick up the Mad Eire's staff.

As they emerged back into the cavern, they faced another portal, one which hadn't been there previously.

"I'm guessing that is the portal out," Dave said.

Bob approached the portal slowly, and reached out to touch it.

Dungeon 801972G610N497ISS6PM18D.

Capacity 27%

Estimated time until overflow 182 solar cycles.

User tier seven, semi-evolved. User grouped with eleven other sapient beings, tier six.

Dungeon completed at Tier Eight, Level Thirty-Eight.

Would you like to exit the Dungeon?

Yes/No.

"That's the exit alright," Bob confirmed. "It's giving me a choice to exit the Dungeon or to stay. It looks like we shaved a percentage off the capacity, and added three days until the Dungeon overflows."

"We only need to clear it every three days then, which is nice. You said there were eighty-four Dungeons, right?" Bailli asked.

"I did," Bob replied.

"Well, this one took us about three hours, so we should be able to clear four a day," she said.

"Well, we do have thirty-one hours a day, so really, assuming eight of hours sleep and six hours of recreation, we still have nineteen hours we could spend delving each day," Jack suggested.

"We can't keep them all cleared," Bob replied. "Assuming we accept this Dungeon as precedent, we would need to clear twenty-eight Dungeons every day to keep them from overflowing."

"Even if we split into two groups, which I don't know if we can, there just aren't enough hours in the day," Amanda agreed.

"We will have to test it, but I believe the System scales the scenario. It identified my tier and level, as well as everyone else's before setting the Dungeon to tier eight, level thirty-eight," Bob shook his head. "It's entirely possible that if a team entered without me that it might set the Dungeon to tier seven, level thirty-seven. Also, there were twelve of us and we fought groups of twelve."

"So we should plan to make sure we hit the Dungeons nearest to us, and we'll observe what an actual overflow looks like from a nice safe distance," Amanda said.

"How about we talk about this sweet loot?" Jack grinned.

"If we're going to have to clear that thing regularly, the Magma Infused Armor is a no brainer," Mike replied.

"For you and me, sure," Jack agreed. "But Elli is some sort of master swordsman. He never gets hit, and when he would, Harv is backing him up with those stone spikes. He should get a weapon, as should Dave and Bailli."

"How about we talk about that Magma Affinity Crystal?" Jessica asked. "That thing is a straight up cheat, yeah?"

"The good news is that we don't have to choose right away," Bob said.

"Do we have to choose at all?" Eddi asked. "What happens if we go back in with our rewards still available?"

The conversation paused as the rest of the group considered Eddi's question. 𝑓𝓇𝘦𝘦𝔀𝓮𝒷𝘯𝓸𝓋𝓮𝘭.𝓬𝓸𝘮

"That's an awfully good question," Dave mumbled thoughtfully.

"One of us should try," Amanda suggested. "I'm not sure how a Magma-Infused Weapon is going to work when I summon Auruffra, but I'm willing to chance losing that loot."

"I'm pretty sure I don't want to deal eight percent vicious damage when I'm healing everyone," Jessica shook her head. "Armor wouldn't be the worst idea though, assuming that when we go back in it'll be the same."

"Well, fuck," Bob said.

"I'll need a little more romance from you first," Jessica replied with a grin as she swayed over and slid her arm through his.

"We don't know do we?" Bob asked. "The Dungeon could be something else entirely, something with a similar theme, or even the same scenario."

"We need to test it," Dave said firmly. "We're building a home here, we need to know how Dungeons work."

"Well, regardless of what we're facing, I definitely need better armor," Jack said.

A flash of orange-red light covered his form, and as Bob blinked the afterimage away, he saw that Jack's brown leather armor had been replaced by platemail.

"Damn, that looks hot," Eddi said.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"What?" Eddi said. "Those plates look like they're made of obsidian, and by the stars above and stones below, that looks like magma connecting them."

The group spoke English, as that was the native tongue of the majority of the group. Eddi had learned English the hardway, or it would be hard for someone without perfect recall. The end result that there were occasions where Eddi would choose words that a native speaker wouldn't have.

"We thought you meant that Jack looked sexy," Jessica explained brightly.

Eddi shook his head. "Nope, I meant hot as in that looks heavy and, ya know, on fire."

"I'm sure I look fantastic," Jack drawled, "but take a look at this."

Jack projected a System window.

Magma-Infused Heavy Fullplate.

This suit of Heavy Armor is matrix-bound to user Jack Scalligo. This allows the user to store the Armor in the user's matrix, where if needed it will repair itself of any damage at the rate of 1% per second, at the cost of one mana per second. Additionally, the user is immune to the heat generated by the materials used to construct the Armor.

Made of Obsidian from a Tier Eight Magma Elemental. This increases the material hardness from a base of 60 to 124.

The nature of this material reduces all fire damage received by 16%.

The nature of this material allows the user to with stand ambient temperatures 16% higher than normal.

"Nothing against Gary, the man does great work, but my old armor was running at a material hardness of eighty-six," Jack shook his head. "When it comes to weapons and armor, with the school and skill multiplying the base, the difference is significant."

"Before we go too crazy, can we think about the Magma Affinity Crystal?" Erick asked. "As the only Elemental Priest here, I'd like to point out that I've never heard of Affinity Crystal like that."

"It's interesting," Bob acknowledged, "and I'm already thinking about the different combinations that a greater slash lesser Affinity Crystal could produce, but ultimately, is anyone interested in switching to an Elemental Priest build?"

"I might be," Jessica replied, drawing everyone's attention.

"I know Vi'Radia wasn't part of that whole Church of the Light fiasco, yeah? But I'm not sure I want to go all in, and a big part of being a priestess is that you can stack up some divine blessings," she explained.

"She's not wrong," Erick agreed. "As a Priest of Slyph, I was always a bit of an outsider inside the Church, but even so, at least I could pray for guidance."

"Vi'Radia doesn't answer prayers?" Bob asked.

"No," Erick said. "Vi'Radia, Logos, and from what I understand, Mor'Noctum, are somehow different from the other Gods. They provide access to Divine magic and Divine Blessings, but they don't acknowledge their worshipers," he shook his head. "It's hard to explain to anyone who isn't a priest, but when I pray I get a sort of feedback from Slyph, not direct answers or even words, but a feeling of the right and wrong of things."

"Yeah, I've never been super keen on the whole praying bit, but I don't think Vi'Radia really cares about what I do," Jessica said. "Which is a good thing, because the rest of the Church of the Light can fuck right off."

"Do you feel some sort of calling to Ignis?" Erick asked curiously.

"Ignis?" Jessica replied.

"The God of Fire," Erick sighed, shaking his head. "Stars and stones, did none of you even consider the pantheon beyond Vi'Radia and the Seven Gods of Light?"

"Sure we did," Mike patted Erick's shoulder. "We like Logos, and Gaia and Orin got some attention as well."

"I could be wrong," Bob began, "but with the twenty-sixth through the thirtieth floors of the Dungeon in Harbordeep dropping the four Elemental Affinity Crystals, there is no way that the noble houses weren't using them. Which means that the noble houses were likely devoted to one of the four Elemental Gods. Given the lengths they went to in order to keep the Affinity Crystals and their associated paths a secret, I can't help but think that they suppressed the worship of the Elemental Gods outside of their families."

"That would actually explain some of the odd conversations I had with members of House Estraba," Erick mused, then shook his head again. "But we've gotten off topic. If you're interested in becoming a priestess of Ignis and Terra, I can answer some of your questions. Just be aware that for most Gods, the requirement of faith is not optional."

"Well, I don't need any of the other rewards, so I'll take the Affinity Crystal and hang on to it," Jessica replied, and with another flash of light, she held an Affinity Crystal that swirled with the colors of Magma.

Another flash of light came from Elli, who was inspecting his new sword. It was identical in form to his old sword, which had been shaped like a saber, but this new weapon had a blade that appeared to be made of obsidian, with the blade a fine white line of superheated stone, radiating back into the blade as oranges then reds as it spread until it appeared to cool to black halfway between the edge and the spine.

Elli stepped back from the group and began to move through a series of strikes and parries against a phantom foe. The edge of the blade left an after image as it flashed from strike to defense.

Magma-Infused Heavy Sabre.

This weapon is matrix bound to user Elli. This allows the user to store the Sabre in the user's matrix, where if needed it will repair itself of any damage at the rate of 1% per second, at the cost of one mana per second. Additionally, the user is immune to the heat generated by the materials used to construct the Sabre.

Made of Obsidian from a Tier Eight Magma Elemental. This increases the material hardness from a base of 60 to 124.

The nature of this material adds an additional 8% of damage dealt as vicious.

The nature of this material allows the user to convert all damage dealt to fire damage.

"This is really nice," Elli said.

"That damage conversion," Dave shook his head. "I've got to try."

Magma-Infused Focusing Staff.

This weapon is matrix bound to user Dave. This allows the user to store the Staff in the user's matrix, where if needed it will repair itself of any damage at the rate of 1% per second, at the cost of one mana per second. Additionally, the user is immune to the heat generated by the materials used to construct the Staff.

Made of Obsidian from a Tier Eight Magma Elemental. This increases the material hardness from a base of 60 to 124.

The nature of this material adds an additional 8% of damage dealt as vicious.

The nature of this material allows the user to convert all damage dealt to fire damage.

"Oh that's just busted," Dave muttered.

He was running his hands up and down the staff in a manner that was a little disturbing.

The staff was equal to Dave's height, and clearly made from obsidian, with some sort of pattern running from top to bottom, which glowed like magma.

"While it wouldn't be of any use against Magma Elementals, it's nice to have another option beyond pure force," Dave said.

Bob nodded.

"While I think lightning is obviously the best," Bailli began, "I can see how having an option to switch to fire could be useful if we ever run into any monsters that are resistant to lightning damage."

"I'm guessing that no one is picking up a crafting tool?" Bob asked.

After a moment of silence, he shook his head. "I didn't think so, but I figured I should ask. I'm going to see what the Magma Elemental Heart is."

Bob mentally made his selection, and found himself holding an orb of obsidian laced with veins of magma.

Magma Elemental Heart.

The Heart of a Magma Elemental. This item can be used to call forth a Magma Elemental. The Magma Elemental will negotiate with the user to consume the Magma Elemental Heart. The most common exchange is for the Magma Elemental to perform a service for the user, either negotiated on a task completion or a time spent basis.

Magical School of Summoning detected.

User may instead choose to consume the Magma Elemental Heart and obtain the Magma Elemental template for their Summon Mana-Infused Creature skill. This process bypasses the normal requirements, which are the Divine Magical Schools of Fire and Earth, as well as the skills Summon Elemental from those two schools.

"Well, isn't that interesting," Bob said as he showed the screen to his friends.

"Oh, I definitely want that," Amanda breathed, while at the same time Eddi started bouncing on his feet.

"That second option is outstanding," Mike said approvingly.

Bob nodded as he focused on the consuming the Heart, hoping the System didn't literally mean consuming. Magma wasn't something he wanted in his mouth, throat, or stomach, as he suspected it would give new meaning to the term 'Heart burn.'

Fortunately, the Magma Elemental Heart slowly dispersed into fire and earth aspected mana, which was absorbed into his matrix.

You now have access to the Magma Elemental template for you Summon Mana-Infused Creature skill.

Bob pushed his mana into the pattern to bring out Jake, and found that the template didn't wrap around the spell, but rather changed the base of the spell, adding Fire and Earth aspected mana to the mana he'd always referred to as Eldritch.

Jake appeared, only instead of his brown coating of feathers, he was covered in obsidian replicas, with each brightening from black to red, orange, yellow, and finally the barest hint of white at the tip. Longer feathers, like the ones on his crest or tail showed the effect to an even greater degree.

Looking around, the UtahRaptor turned Magma Elemental honked loudly, before noticing, and then inspecting his new appearance.

His honk had showcased his teeth, which were treated to a similar effect, and it was hard not to notice his claws, as Bob quickly dismissed him and began stamping out the smoldering grass where Jake had stood a moment earlier.

"Ok, so Magma Jake is a fire hazard," Bob muttered.

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