'Help Ritual Magic', Bob thought

System Help, Ritual Magic Ritual Magic is a skill that allows the user to enhance a skill beyond its normal parameters, at the cost of time and crystalized mana. Increased skill increases effects. This skill has no prerequisite skills.

Bob read the screen as he chewed methodically on a thick slice of bread. He dismissed the screen.

'Help Ritual Summoning' he thought.

System Help, Ritual Summoning Ritual Summoning is the conjunction of Ritual Magic, and a skill from the Magical School Summoning. Objects and Creatures that are summoned by Ritual Summoning are permanent. People and Beings that are summoned by Ritual Summoning are given the opportunity to resist the summoning as they will not be mana constructs, but sentient or sapient entities. Ritual Summoning requires Ritual Magic, Magical School Summoning, and one of the following skills: Summon Mana Construct - Object, Summon Mana Construct - Creature, Summon Mana Construct - Person, or Summon (x).

Bob closed the screen and considered the half-full bowl of stew he was eating. It was quite good, hot, filling and it was an awfully big bowl. Add the two slices of bread to the equation, and it represented one of the better meals he'd ever enjoyed.

It seemed like he had a plan to bring Monroe to him rather than the other way around.

'Summoning, Ritual Magic, Summon Monroe,' he thought.

'Help Dimension Magic'

System Help, Dimension Magic The Magical School of Dimension allows the user to interact with and exert control over space, subspace, and alternate universes. The skills belonging only to the Magical School of Dimension are Teleport, Teleport Other, Teleport Object, Portal, Spatial Enlargement, Spatial Reduction, Spatial Reinforcement, Flight, and Spatial Distortion. System Warning: Interacting with realities outside the boundaries of the System, or under the influence of a differing version of the System may have unintended and possibly catastrophic consequences. It is highly advised that the user confirm that any reality they choose to interact with is also integrated with System Version 2.58321.

"Well, that's not at all fucking ominous," Bob muttered.

'Still,' he thought, 'I can hypothesize with a degree of surety that as I was integrated into the system, Earth either has no system or is running an incompatible version - I'm inclined to think that it has no version, however as I've not seen any version but 2.58321, it should be included in the hypothesis.'

Bob drummed his fingers on the tabletop. Proving the hypothesis was fraught with risk and presented significant challenges in that he had a single spare skill point to allocate, as he expected to need Summoning, Dimension, Ritual Magic, and Summon Monroe.

'Help Summon Mana Construct - Object', he mentally projected.

System Help, Summon Mana Construct - Object. Summon Mana Construct - Object belongs to the Magical School of Summoning. By mentally projecting the physical pattern of an object, the user can infuse mana into the pattern to temporarily summon the object. The users' understanding of the object's physical reality will determine the maximum complexity of the object. The Material Hardness of the object is determined by the tier of the user and the level of the skill. Summon Mana Construct - Object is an innate or granted skill belonging to the following paths: Echo of the Fallen, Penitent of Alm, Traveler of the Void, and Dimensional Transcendent.

'How temporary is temporary?' Bob mused. He was choosing to ignore the path information. Echo of the Fallen? Traveler of the Void? Nope.

He sighed. Being able to get information straight from the system was great, except he too often had no frame of reference for what he received. How long was temporary? What was Material Hardness, precisely? As he understood it, hardness was determined by three categories, scratch, indentation, and rebound, but was that all there was? What about compressive, shear, and tensile strength? So many questions.

Bob regarded the now-empty bowl. He needed to clear his head, and he definitely needed to move.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Have you seen Bob?" Kelli asked Bailli as she approached the kitchen.

"Not for a bit, he had lunch, then went outside," she replied, deftly knocking the swinging door open with a hip and turning to back into the kitchen with two trays balanced on her hands.

"Thanks!" Kelli called into the closing doors and headed for the door leading out of the Guild.

He walked outside and paused to take in the beautiful spring day. The sky was clear, the air was warm, and a gentle breeze tousled his hair. He loved springtime, and he loved Holmstead. He'd been born here, the son of an Alchemist and a Druid, both retired from adventuring. He'd grown up playing in these streets, and like all the children of Holmstead, dreamed of being an Adventurer, of joining the guild and scouring the land, making sure friends and neighbors were safe from a Dungeon pouring out waves of mana-born monsters.

But as childhood had waned his dreams of adventure had shifted and focused on his hunger for knowledge. When his parents had given him the crystals he needed to reach level five and choose a path, he'd taken months researching. He'd discovered the requirements to unlock the Akashic Keeper Path, and had committed to it. He'd known it would be hard, but he hadn't expected it to be this hard.

If it weren't for Thidwell shepherding him, he never would have gotten this far. Still, he was close, so very close to level ten. If his research was correct, he would finally gain the ability to tap into the Akashic Field and gain a lesser ability to access the knowledge, and the skills of those who had come before him. He would finally be able to fight, if not as well as someone dedicated, then at least effectively enough to help with the next mana tide.

His musings were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Bob, sweating and out of breath. "Kelli," Bob panted, running in place. "Got another couple laps, can I ask you some questions when I'm done?"

Kelli nodded, and watched, bemused as Bob took off a steady run.

He turned around and walked back into the Guild. He wanted a couple of beers before Bob came in.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob flopped down into the chair across from Kelli, trying with limited success to towel his neck and head off with a towel he'd taken from his room.

'I wonder,' he thought absently, 'if my understanding of the nature of fluffy, absorbent towel would be sufficient to use Summon Mana Infused Object?'

He looked around the room, noting that Kelli had once again chosen a table that was well out of the way, and that Bailli was headed their way with a pair of mugs.

"So, I have a few questions," Bob started.

Kelli nodded, raising spread hands in what Bob construed as an invitation to ask away.

"Can you give me an overview of Summoning?" Bob asked.

Kelli blew out a breath. "My father is a Druid, so I know quite a bit about the Plant and Animal Schools of Magic, which have summoning, but I have a feeling you're talking about Arcane Summoning, not Divine?"

Bob tilted his head to the side and replied, "Divine?"

Bailli dropped off a mug of beer in front of Kelli and a mug of water in front of Bob gave them both a nod and headed over to another table.

"Time for another lecture," said Kelli as he leaned forward "hold your questions till the end. There are a number of schools of magic, which can be gathered into three spheres - Divine, Arcane, and Psionic. Divine Magic is considered to be the domain of the Gods, and many of the paths that delve deeply into the Divine Schools are often associated with specific Gods. Arcane Magic is considered to be our path towards self-determination, demonstrating our power as equal to that of the Gods. And finally Psionic Magic is a guide towards transcending the physical by the perfection and power of the mind."

"So Summoning and Dimension are..." Bob asked.

"Both are Arcane Magic," replied Kelli as he continued "which means you'll likely follow an Arcane path, which isn't a bad thing."

"Can you give me a little bit more of an expanded idea of the difference between Arcane and Divine?" Bob asked.

Kelli nodded, and paused for a moment, considering.

"Look," Kelli said "I realize that we," he gestured around the room, "haven't been handling this very well." Kelli sighed.

"I'm probably going to end up rambling a bit, but let me cover a few things we probably should have already," said Kelli, before draining his mug and leaning back, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"This," Kelli waved his hand again, "Is the Adventurers Guild. Our task is to protect the world from Monsters." He raised a finger to forestall Bob as he opened his mouth to ask a question.

"All over the world, in every city, town, and village, you'll find the Guild. As the Mana under our feet ebbs and flows, and the pools form, Dungeons arise, and as Mana gathers, Mana-created creatures are formed, monsters if you will, that have only one drive - to seek out and consume the closest, highest concentration of natural mana." He pointed a finger at Bob and went on, "That is people, in case you hadn't come to that conclusion. Now while a Dungeon will initially contain the monsters, as more and more mana pools, the number of monsters increases, until a point is reached where the monsters rush out in a wave, killing anyone caught in their way."

"The purpose of the Guild, our task," Kelli continued, "is to clear any Dungeons that appear around our settlements. To keep everyone safe. We keep our skills sharp, and we stand ready to face down a wave of monsters, or the inevitable tide so that our people don't have to," Kelli finished proudly.

Bob raised a hand, and Kelli nodded.

"Tide?" Bob asked.

"Uh, yes," Kelli floundered a bit as he searched for the words, before answering, "A tide is what happens when the Mana..." Kelli paused. "Have you ever heard of a huge wave of water, a hundred feet tall, that crashes to shore, destroying everything in its wake?" Kelli asked.

"A tsunami? Sure," said Bob, "they're normally caused by seismic events."

Kelli mouthed the word 'tsunami' as if committing it to memory.

"Well," Kelli said, "a tide is a massive wave of mana that flows through the natural channels and overflows them, flooding them and causing the near-instantaneous creation of Dungeons and waves of monsters from them. Existing Dungeons immediately release waves of monsters." Kelli took a deep breath and went on, "Tides are the bane of life. Entire cities have been wiped out because of an ill-timed tide. You never know when one is coming, which is why the Guild stands ever vigilant."

"I know that all of this is sudden, and has been thrust upon you," said Kelli kindly, "and I've seen that you've little trust in you. The Adventurers Guild," again he waved his hand, "is here to protect people. Thidwell, Harv, Elli, and I want to help you because that is what we do."

Kelli leaned back and gave Bob an embarrassed smile as he finished, "We're the Heroes Bob."

Bob gave Kelli a slow nod.

'Ok,' Bob thought. 'So the Adventurers Guild is kind of like their National Guard, on top of whatever else they get up to.'

"Alright, I can operate on the premise that you aren't trying to get one over on me," said Bob. "So how about Summoning? How long does it last? What exactly does 'Hardness' mean, in context to Summoning?"

"Well, like pretty much all Magic, summoning is instantaneous. It lasts one second unless you keep casting it, or you use skills to make it last longer, like Effect over Time, or Persistent Effect, or of course Ritual Magic, but due to time constraints Ritual Magic is often considered to be its own school, even if it is really just a skill," Kelli replied.

"Now hardness," Kelli leaned forward, "That is an interesting topic. As a novice Summoner at tier 5, you're effectively summoning bronze. If you've fully mastered the spell, you'll be summoning steel. If you've fully mastered the Summoning School, garnet or topaz would be within reach. Now, if you intended to summon something and have it last beyond maintaining concentration, you'd use effect over time, which allows you to infuse additional mana into the spell, which would allow it to last three seconds but would effectively halve the strength of the object." Kelli was gesturing, clearly warming to the topic. "Now if you needed it to last indefinitely, you'd use effect over time and then persistent effect, which would halve the value again, effectively quartering it, but allowing the object to remain until you dismissed it, although the persistent effect does place a lock on the mana used to create the effect, which does place an effective limit on what other actions you can take," Kelli finished.

"Of course," Kelli said, "anything you really need to be around for good, you can summon using the Ritual Magic skill. It'll take crystals, and time, but it doesn't suffer from the quartering effect, although you can't dismiss it either."

Bob nodded, and responded, "Ok, so here is my current hypothesis - I'll need the following skills: Ritual Magic, Dimension, Summoning, and Summon - Monroe. That leaves me with one remaining skill. I didn't really see anything I could allocate to that would make me useful in a fight."

"Hell," Bob said, "I'm not even sure I want to be in a fight. I'm a research fellow, not a Wizard or a Swordsman."

Kelli leaned forward, reaching across the table to capture Bob's hands, which had been waving around as he finished talking. "Bob," Kelli said slowly, feeling him tremble, "you don't have to be in a fight. With the things you know, you could easily be a teacher or a researcher here as well." Kelli continued, speaking slowly and quietly, "I think you should consider Adventuring though. I've seen what you're life was like, and in my humble, uneducated opinion, what you really need, besides Monroe," Kelli paused to give Bob a reassuring smile, "is power of your own."

Bob carefully pulled back his hands. He didn't like people touching him, but Kelli had been kind, and probably meant well. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing.

Did he want power?

It was a big question. After he'd made the decision to leave the lab, his only plan had been to make enough money to get by while he found a place where he could use his intelligence and drive to earn a good living and be left the fuck alone. At that point, he was willing to give up the idea of meaningful work. He'd been happier making minimum wage on a shipping dock than he'd been in the lab. Being given a reasonable task, and the means to complete it, then being left the fuck alone to do so had been... satisfying.

On Earth, money was power. In this place, it seemed that power was power. Killing - no, that wasn't really right, because from what he understood, monsters were basically just energy stuffed into a mold, then turned loose with only one instinct, which was to kill people, although oddly not each other, which was a question he'd need to ask Kelli at some point. 'Focus,' he thought to himself.

It was so much easier to focus with Monroe around. Whenever Bob had fallen into his thoughts, Monroe would take the opportunity to climb onto his chest, or in his lap, or across his shoulders, and start purring his appreciation of his human servant's forethought in providing him with a warm napping place. The rhythmic sound and vibration had helped him calm his thoughts, and pull him out of his darker spirals.

Bob breathed in, then slowly out. Focus. Monsters weren't animals. They were monsters. Killing them was a necessity, based on the existence of the Guild and what Kelli told him, although, with only a single, not unbiased source of information, he couldn't be truly certain of anything he was being told. That being said, he couldn't see any advantage to Thidwell or Kelli lying to him. So, operating with the information he had, Monsters were bad and needed killing. Killing monsters meant he would gain power. And presumably money. He'd never been giving any sort of conversion ratio on crystals to coins.

So, did he want power?

Yes. He wanted the power to be left alone, to earn a living for himself and Monroe.

The power to deal with anyone who tried to control him...

'Focus!' Bob thought.

Breathe in, breathe out.

He opened his eyes to find Kelli watching him.

"How exactly would I fight with the four skills I need to get Monroe?" Bob asked.

Kelli smiled at him, and ran a hand through his hair, before leaning forward.

"Any chance you've held a sword?" Kelli asked.