Monroe

Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Nine. C-c-changes.

"Took you long enough," Mike grumbled, rising the from the table.

Bob looked around, pleased to see that they had put the clubhouse back in order.

"I saw you converted the Dungeon over," Eddi said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "What was that like?"

"Pretty simple," Bob replied. "It asked me to choose a name, and then it told me the Dungeon was at ninety-nine percent capacity, so I pretty much had to clear it."

Mike winced, while Eddi nodded.

On the Eire seedworld, they'd restricted themselves to a single Dungeon, while the Eire arose from the depths of the planet to handle the others. The problem lay in that the Eire were slow, and several Dungeons hadn't been cleared before they'd overflowed. The monsters that spilled out of the Dungeon had been tier eight, and over level fifty. It wasn't a wave or tide, but several thousand monsters flooded out to occupy the area around the Dungeon. It had happened again the next day, and the next, and when the Eire finally made it to that Dungeon, there were upwards of fifteen thousand monsters in the surrounding area. It had taken them the better part of three days to clear the monsters out so they could delve the Dungeon and stop the overflow.

Amanda had suggested that if an entire planet were to be left undelved, such as the planets offered to them by the Eire, that the monsters from the various Dungeons would end up fighting each other. Given that monsters typically ignored flora and fauna, the impact on the ecosystem would be unpredictable.

"So, what is this one like?" Mike asked.

"Sweep and clear against three warring tribes of Goblins," Bob replied. "Over three thousand monsters, but enough objectives that it's worth six hundred crystals per run."

"At least it's straightforward," Mike said.

"Yeah, the hidden conditions are neat and all, but it sucks not being able to complete them," Eddi agreed.

There had been a few instances over the ten months they'd spent on the seedworld when Bob hadn't been with the group in the Dungeon, which prevented them from following the Mad Eire through his portal.

"It looks like you've got everything working," Bob said as he poked his head into the kitchen.

"My repair spell isn't as good as Harv's, but it gets the job done," Eddi replied.

"How many crystals?" Bob asked.

"Six thousand," Mike replied, unruffled at what would be, to people who weren't rigorous adventurers, a ruinously large number.

"We're going to have to restock," Eddi advised. "Everything spoiled when the containers were damaged."

Bob nodded. While the Dungeon would suffice for their needs, it would have been better if the monsters had been of the edible variety. The Gwarli might have qualified, but Bob wasn't interested in eating humanoids.

"We've got that slot in Harbordeep to grind out a few thousand crystals," Bob said, before checking his phone. "Which we should definitely get back to Harbordeep to check on," he added.

It turned out that buying food in bulk wasn't difficult, if you had the crystals, and the patience. There were a group of druids who had set up shop in the outer ring of the city who would, for triple the cost of the rituals, grow you whatever fruits and vegetables you'd like. They had an arrangement with a group of dimensionalists who provided spatially expanded crates, which you could purchase along with the produce, for an additional fee.

Another enterprising group of young adventurers had set themselves up as the premier suppliers of monster meat. They offered a variety of choices, from Skorcow, Goders, Woloar, and Karkeer, to more exotic options, all expertly butchered and preserved in the same crates offered by the druids.

"I feel like I missed a huge business opportunity," Jack grumbled as he handed over a thousand crystals.

"How much are you making off your cities again?" Dave asked.

It had turned out that Raul had taken up the duties of collecting and delivering the King's taxes. After a few months, the King had offered a writ of nobility to Raul, who had agreed. That was what Raul had wanted to discuss with him.

"A hundredth of a percent," Jack sighed.

"Which is?" Dave asked.

"Ten thousand mana crystals a month," Jack admitted.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Jessica asked. "I couldn't hear you over the sound of free crystals raining down from the bloody sky."

"It won't keep up that pace forever," Jack shook his head. "Almost everyone has slowed down, and the trend is getting worse. The good news is that everyone is stopping when they cap, but the bad news is that you don't need that many crystals to live rather comfortably, and with magic, you don't have that same need to replace things."

"No new models to chase after either," Mike grunted. "Cars, iPhones, fashion, whatever."

Bob nodded. While he had never been a materialistic person, he wasn't unaware of the never ending hamster wheel of chasing the next new thing.

"I wonder if anyone has started working on manufacturing new phones," Jack said.

"Probably not here," Dave said. "Greenwold's population has spent thousands of years hovering on the edge of disaster. From what I've heard, most of them are capping at either tier five, or for the more ambitious tier six, and then settling in."

"There is definitely some interest in fashion," Jessica smiled. "It's not avant garde, but real people never wore that, anyway. I've seen a lot of zippers, and if they aren't quite as perfect as the ones we had on Earth, they're serviceable. Also," her grin broadened as she stuck her hand in pants pocket, leaning forward as the pocket engulfed more and more of her arm. "Dimensional pockets!"

Amanda laughed. "Every girl's dream."

"I distinctly remember casting a dimensional ritual to provide you with an inventory," Bob said slowly.

"Yeah, but pockets!" Jessica beamed. "You're a guy, so you didn't have to deal with either no pockets, impossibly small pockets, or worse, fake pockets."

"Oh, I hated that so much," Amanda agreed. "Your slacks would appear to have pockets, but that would just be the stitching, because having the fabric for the actual pocket would 'ruin the lines' of the slacks."

"I suppose a dimensional space does solve that particular dilemma," Bob agreed.

Bob closed his eyes and summoned Monroe into his arms. He knew that counting down and breathing exercises weren't going to do it, not for this.

His friends' laughter filled his ears as he dug a hand into Monroe's ruff, letting the big cat's soothing purr was over him.

"Look, it has buttons! And they labelled the recordings!"

Bob buried his face in Monroe's fur.

The Church had undergone major renovations since he'd last visited. Gone were the stained glass windows and statues depicting the seven gods of light, replaced by sun bursts and abstract representations of the four elements, along with a hunter, a farmer, and an adventurer.

The group had stopped to take in the new aesthetic, which was very well done. Then they'd come upon the statue.

Where there ought to have been a generic adventurer, there was instead one of the statues the Endless had insisted on putting in their towers.

Bob, with Jake by his side and Monroe across his shoulders, was looking across the room with a stern but caring smile, while Jake looked ravenously hungry, and Monroe lounged with insolent indifference known only to felines. That in and of itself would have been bad enough, but there was a pedestal in front of the statue, where that stones cursed memory of his first wave was playing on repeat.

"Oh, they've got a copy of your announcement after the kidnapping!" Dave said.

"I see you've found your statue," Huron's warm voice came from across the large antechamber.

"I was super keen to see it," Jessica said, "they did a fantastic job, yeah?"

"Sereh is talented," Eddi agreed carefully.

Bob lifted his head and peered over the shield of his emotional support cat, and glared at his friends.

"I knew I should have stamped down on that shit," he mumbled.

"So, what god does Bob here represent?" Harv asked.

"Technically, that spot was to be reserved for Maelstrom, the god of battle," Huron replied. "He's never been an overly popular deity, although some feel his call, and those who do are predominantly adventurers. The pedestal explains the benefits of worshipping Maelstrom, as well as the benefits of venerating He Who Walks Before, or his divine companion, Monroe."

"It certainly does," Eli said happily as he tapped another button on the pedestal. "Lays out those divine blessings in detail."

"From what I understand, the recordings detailing Bob's exploits are accurate, but I would appreciate it if you could check them," Huron directed his smile toward Bob. "This is an unusual situation, and the Church is technically responsible for the content."

Bob shifted Monroe in his arms and walked up to the pedestal, where Eli moved over.

The buttons were actually crystals, each with a brief description beneath it. The whole thing read like an excerpt of the high and low points of his life. There was the recording of his first wave, then a recording of his speech to what would become the first batch of Endless kids, then another of his first time shepherding freshers. The next was a combination of different delves where he exhorted the rules of delving, featuring not only Nora and her group, but several other groups as well. There were over a dozen crystals, each with a different memory, including the marathon regeneration ritual casting when Eric Waters had brought two and a half million disabled veterans over to Thayland in a single weekend, as well as the five fold ritual he'd cast to create the Australian's Dungeon, which had marked the first time his ritual magic had been visible to the naked eye.

With a grimace, he tapped the first crystal.

Bob was sitting in the ritual chamber at the clubhouse. He'd long since absorbed the mana crystals he needed.

It was time. He nodded to Jessica, who began to cast the reincarnation ritual.

Bob navigated his System menu and chose the option to advance to tier eight.

You have advanced to tier eight!

You are currently being targeted by a reincarnation ritual. Would you like to reincarnate as a tier eight being?

Speak or mentally project yes or no.

'Yes,' Bob mentally projected.

Your current species is Human, Paragon/Pinnacle of your subspecies, Earth.

You have no natural affinities.

You have qualified for the following natural affinities based on your progress and mastery:

Arcane School of Summoning

Arcane School of Dimension

Arcane School of Abjuration

Divine School of Shadowmancy

Divine School of Animancy.

You may choose to add any one of these Affinities to your newly selected species.

As the progenitor of your race, you may utilize any or all of the above affinities with your evolution, if you so choose.

You may speak the name of the species you wish to become, or you may choose to continue evolving your own race. If you do not know what species you wish to become, you may say 'list' and those species you meet the qualifications of will appear.

Bob found himself in the mental space he'd created years earlier, with Trebor sitting across from him, the System window hovering between them.

"So, that evolution option is new," Bob said.

"Not entirely unexpected," Trebor replied. "The changes allowing for advancement by evolution, rather than requiring reincarnation, hinted that there might be further options."

"Let's lay it out then, what are the pros and cons of each," Bob leaned back in his chair.

"Really, it comes down to the natural affinities," Trebor began. "You already have access to the ones you need: Dimension, Summoning, and Shadowmancy. You can have up to five as a tier eight species, so the question is, do you want more? If so, do you want something other than Animancy or Abjuration? Finally, would two additional, different, affinities outweigh the benefits you've chosen for your species?"

Bob nodded thoughtfully. "What do the species with Dimension, Summoning, and Shadowmancy look like?"

Trebor cocked his head to the side for a moment. "It would appear the System is filtering out non-humanoid species, as well as those who would have trouble living in an Earth-like atmosphere."

"That's probably for the best," Bob agreed.

"What affinities are we looking for?" Trebor asked.

"Intelligence, Wisdom, or Endurance," Bob replied. "If I'm going to go over the three schools I need, it'll be for attributes, and even then it has to be the correct combination. With three natural Affinities, I'm looking at six hundred and forty crystals each level for the first eight levels. If I pick up the other two affinities, that changes to two thousand five hundred and sixty."

"Well, there are four races that meet the criteria," Trebor said.

Jur'nail - Humanoid, between six and eight feet tall, scales, carnivore, three fingers and one thumb on their hands, four toes on their feet. No hair, three ridge crests atop their skulls. May have a vestigial tail. Natural Affinities: Arcane Schools of Dimension and Summoning, Divine School of Shadowmancy. Attribute Affinities: Wisdom and Endurance.

Hisythcn - Humanoid, between seven and ten feet tall, insect wings, omnivorous, small antenna, skin and hair within human norms. Natural Affinities: Arcane Schools of Dimension and Summoning, Divine School of Shadowmancy. Attribute Affinities: Intelligence and Wisdom.

Ceoulan - Humanoid, between eight and twelve feet tall, very heavily muscled, rough skin and hair, strictly a herbivore, skin and hair within human norms for coloration. Natural Affinities: Arcane Schools of Dimension and Summoning, Divine School of Shadowmancy. Attribute Affinities: Intelligence and Endurance.

Kaskadian - Humanoid, between six and ten feet tall,scales, amphibious, both gills and lungs are present, omnivorous, webbed feet and, to a lesser degree, hands. Hairless. Arcane Schools of Dimension and Summoning, Divine School of Shadowmancy. Attribute Affinities: Intelligence and Wisdom.

"That's it?" Bob asked.

"The combination of Dimension, Summoning, and Shadowmancy is a rare one," Trebor explained. "Most species are either all in on a set of Divine Affinities that are endorsed by the deity they revere, or they've set the Divine aside and chosen the path of the Arcane. While combinations of the two aren't unheard of, they are unusual, and those three in particular, with the additional requirements for a humanoid form..." He trailed off.

"Alright, I have Affinity Crystals for Summoning, Dimension, Abjuration, Transmutation, Conjuration, Plant, Animal, all four elements, Endurance and Wisdom," Bob said thoughtfully. "I doubt I'll use them all," he continued, "but I'm sure I'll use the Wisdom, Endurance, Summoning, and Dimension ones."

"Let me see the races," Bob said, and was immediately treated to a set of four holographic images.

The first looked like an oversized and angry draconian.

The second was willowy, with short, delicate antenna rising from just above their hairline. They had beautiful iridescent wings that folded neatly back.

The third looked like the typical depiction of a giant. It was tall, broad, and thick, with coarse hair and skin that looked like sandpaper.

The fourth was possibly the most human looking. The scales were so fine that it almost looked like skin unless the light caught it just write, and the gills were on it's torso. The webbing on the hands was barely noticeable, and the feet would be covered by boots.

Bob carefully inspected all four again, before turning back to Trebor. "Let's talk about the evolution process."

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