Bob lay in bed, his eyes closed, working to keep his breathing steady.

He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about this whole magic, leveling, monster thing. He'd been just rolling with it, as all empirical evidence suggested that what he was experiencing was indeed real.

In the end, all that really mattered was saving Monroe.

Everything else could be dealt with after Monroe was safe.

He might have to fight Monsters for a while, however, he was certain he could find a way to make a living here. And with Dimension magic, the Portal skill beckoned.

'Help, Portal'

System Help, Portal The Portal skill belongs to the Dimension School of Magic. By forming a mental projection of the target location, the user can imbue mana into the projection to create a Portal to that point. The user must have direct knowledge of the location. The distance between the origin and terminus of the Portal cannot exceed the user's total spell casting value, measured in feet. The user's tier plus the level of the skill is also the mana expenditure required to activate the skill. The Portal will last one second per skill level and will support a radius of the user's tier plus the level of the spell in feet. This skill may be used to enter a dimensional space if the user has direct knowledge of the target space, however, the origin of the Portal must mirror the origin of the terminus.

That last section. He might be able to get back home. Maybe. He didn't need Dimensional Travel, which was for wandering around different Dimensions.

Bob was really only interested in one.

He indulged in a little fantasy. If he went home, with the Portal spell, he would basically be a superhero. Or a supervillain. Realistically, in his case, a Superhermit. He'd never commute again. Just Portal to work. Portal to the vet, Portal to the grocery store. Must not become Baron Harkonnen though.

Hell, he could sell Portals. At the maximum level, that was twenty-five miles times tier five, so one hundred and twenty-five miles. If he took the skills for Intelligence and Wisdom that mirrored the ones for Strength and Endurance, and they had to be out there, he could just sit at an I-5 onramp and sell Portals to people's exits.

Of course, the Government would probably arrest him and engage in some very unpleasant experiments.

No public Portals then.

Of course, assuming that the baseline human on Earth was rocking his same attributes, at level ten he would be three times as strong as the average joe. And he'd be quite coordinated.

Bob had considered going to work in the oil fields. All you needed was to be young, healthy, and have a good work ethic. If you were frugal, you could save enough to retire in ten years.

And Bob didn't know how to be anything but frugal.

Head there, work for ten years, then live the rest of his abnormally long life (base fifteen Endurance at level ten, so figure at (tier²)+(Endurance*tier) he had a good hundred-year lifespan, maybe a little more if allocated some points into Endurance, or obtained of those items Kelli had mentioned. If he just put two levels worth of points into Endurance, there were another twenty-five years.

He might even have a couple of skills that he could use without being worried about being locked in a secret government facility for the rest of his life.

He idly wondered if he could summon diesel fuel. Keep it going until it was burned, and he could make a lot of money as an over the road truck driver. Hell, maybe he could summon uranium, wouldn't that be awesome? Pop-out a fuel rod or twelve, keep the spell going till they were used up, then drop the spell. Poof, no more nuclear waste from that plant!

His mind turned down another path. Monroe was tier four. So, assuming a weighted ratio of attributes towards the physical, he probably had a six in strength, coordination, and endurance, with a two intelligence and wisdom and beauty. Well, maybe not. Probably more like a four in strength, an eight in coordination, a four in endurance, a two in wisdom and intelligence, and a four in beauty. He was, after all, a very handsome boy.

So, (tier²)+(Endurance*Tier) gave Monroe a maximum lifespan of thirty-two, which would make him a very old kitty indeed.

But, if Bob could figure out a way to get Monroe to absorb crystals...

Well, a level five Monroe would have an endurance of nine. That gave him over fifty years.

And that would give him plenty of time to figure out how just how to make sure he never lost Monroe.

That comforting thought allowed Bob to finally drift off to sleep.

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

Bob was devouring a plate of eggs when Kelli walked over and dropped a large leatherbound book on the table.

"That is the definitive work on Summoning," Kelli said proudly. "It's main focus is Arcane, although it does touch briefly on Divine. You'll find all the path information you need in there."

Bob nodded, swallowed, and asked "I was wondering if there was an intelligence and wisdom equivalent to Might and Enduring?"

Kelli's face took on a sour expression. "Brilliance and Enlightened, which allows you to buy Fountain, but it's not nearly as common, let alone as useful as its physical counterpart," Kelli said.

"It takes three skills," he continued, "and for what? The vast majority of spells cost one mana, full stop. You can keep one going all day, while walking, with your base mana regeneration. The only reason to go down the fountain path is if you want to start stacking effects on with area of effect, and at one-quarter value, what good do those do?"

Bob nodded. He wasn't totally convinced, but Kelli seemed fairly adamant about it. It wasn't like he'd have the points to consider it anyways.

"Anyways, take a couple of hours to go over the path options, Thidwell has scheduled in for just after lunch," said Kelli as he strode away.

Bob looked at the book. It was large and heavy, and upon opening it, hand-printed.

Maybe he should invent the printing press.

There was probably some spell to duplicate books in the system somewhere though.

It appeared that the idea of an Index transcended worlds. It was also the very first section of the book.

Eternal Builder Arcane Knight Endless Swarm Flesh Sculptor Skeletal Lord Shepard of the Titan Master of Summoning

'Help Eternal Builder,' he thought.

System Help, Eternal Builder Path The Eternal Builder Path is obtained by having the following skills: Magical School of Summoning, Summon Mana-Infused Object, the working knowledge of a Crafting Skill, and finally, the user must have summoned an object associated with the Crafting Skill. The Eternal Builder Path decreases the mana expenditure of all Summon Mana-Infused Object Skills by one percent per level. The user receives an additional Skill at each level. Upon obtaining level ten, the user is granted an increase of five in the maximum level of a Summon Mana-Infused Object skill, or their Crafting Skill. This is repeated at levels fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five. The increase can be applied multiple times to the same skill. Upon obtaining level twenty-five, the user, once per day, may use Summon Mana-Infused Object Skill without any expenditure of resources.

Bob blinked. Eternal Builder took the Summon Object skill from a cap of level twenty-five to a cap of level forty-five. And if that last ability included resource expenditures when ritual magic was involved...

He flipped to the end of the Eternal Builder chapter, and read:

The most highly regarded and well-known master of The Eternal Builder Path is Rachim Allurd. Upon retiring from his post as the Curator of Tahrain he spent the remainder of his life utilizing his capstone skill, Unending Construction, to build the Monastery of Logos over Tahrain. Regarded as one of the ten most important structures in history, the Monastery sits upon a bluff overlooking Tahrain. It covers over one square mile, and the hundred-foot walls fail completely to hide the thirty-six towers that grasp for the heavens, each over one thousand feet in height. Rachim's choice to use white marble and onyx to create beautiful flowing patterns still renders visitors speechless nearly a millennia later.

While far from the most combat effective Path, The Eternal Builder Path can allow you to leave behind a true legacy. While Rachim is the most famous, there are dozens of cities, towns, and villages where you'll find that the walls, and the most important buildings all bear the mark of The Eternal Builder.

Well, wasn't that interesting.

'Help, Arcane Knight'

System Help, Arcane Knight Path The Arcane Knight Path is obtained by having the following Skills: Magical School of Summoning, Summon Mana-Infused Object, Any Melee Weapon Skill, Magical Skill Effect Over Time, Magical Skill Persistent Effect, and finally, the user must have currently equipped and active Summon Mana-Infused Object in the pattern of Armor, and a Melee Weapon, both of which must have the Persistent Effect Skill active. The Arcane Knight Path reduces the total penalty to the Skills Summon Mana-Infused Object when activated with the Persistent Effect Skill by one percent per level of the user. Upon obtaining level five and every five levels thereafter, the user may select an additional Magical School or skill. Upon obtaining level five and every five levels thereafter, the user is granted five percent of their magical damage to their physical attacks. Upon reaching level twenty-five, the user may select a single Skill from a Magical School, and imbue that skill at one-quarter value into their physical attacks. The user may change the Skill selected no more often than once each day.

Bob exhaled sharply.

Next was... 'Help, Endless Swarm Path'

System Help, The Endless Swarm Path The Endless Swarm Path is obtained by having the following Skills: Magical School of Summoning, Summon Mana-Infused Creature, Magical Skill Barrage, Magical Skill Effect Over Time, Magical Skill Persistent Effect, and finally, the user must have their tier in Summon Mana-Infused Creature, Summoned and active, with the Skill Persistent Effect. The Endless Swarm Path reduces the total mana expenditure and skill penalty for the Skill Persistent Effect by one percent per user level. Upon reaching level five, the user's Summon Mana-Infused Creature Skill in conjunction with the Magical Skill Barrage results in one additional effect repetition, this bonus occurs again every five levels. Upon reaching levels ten, fifteen, and twenty, this bonus repeats. Upon reaching level twenty-five, the user's Summon Mana-Infused Creature Skill, when utilized with the Magical Skills Barrage and Persistent Effect are transformed into the skill Endless Swarm. In addition, the skill penalties of all these skills are reduced by a further one percent per level. When the Endless Swarm Skill is used, any Summon Mana-Infused Creature that is destroyed is automatically reformed in the user's tier in seconds, at no cost, and with no additional action required by the user.

'Help, Barrage' Bob mentally projected.

System Help, Magical Skill Barrage The Magical Skill Barrage is available if the user has obtained any Magical School. The Magical Skill Barrage allows the user to split a Skill from any of the Magical Schools, halving the value of the skill, and creating three instances of the Skill rather than one. Each instance may be targeted separately. This Skill increases the mana expenditure of any Skill it is applied to by one.

"Fuck..." Bob muttered. One Summon Monster spell, Barraged and persistent effected, with Endless Swarm, would be eight Summon Monsters, which...

Bob paused. He was operating on incomplete information.

'Help, Effect Over Time,' he thought firmly.

System Help, Magical Skill Effect Over Time. The Magical Skill Effect Over Time is available if the user has obtained any Magical School. The Magical Skill Effect Over Time allows the user to extend a Skill from any of the Magical Schools, halving the value of the skill, and extending the effect to a total of three seconds. This skill increases the mana expenditure of any Skill it is applied to by one.

'Help, Persistent Effect'

System Help, Magical Skill Persistent Effect. The Magical Skill Persistent Effect is available if the user has obtained the Magical Skill Effect Over Time. The Magical Skill Persistent Effect allows the user to extend any Skill under the effects of the Magical Skill Effect Over Time indefinitely, halving the value of the skill, and reserving the total mana cost of the skill multiplied by ten from the user's mana reserves. A user may have a number of persistent effects equal to their tier.

Bob closed his eyes. Magical Skills cost one mana and pretty much happened instantly. You could extend it to three seconds for another mana, at half value. If you barraged it, that was another mana, raising the cost of the Skill to three, and now it was running at one quarter the value. If you used a persistent effect, it was now running at one-eighth value, and it took thirty points of mana off the top of your mana pool.

So, with Endless Swarm, you had eight Summon Monsters out at one-eighth - wait. Twenty-Five percent reduction in total penalties. So it ended up being fifty-eight percent of the value as opposed to seventy-seven point five. And the mana cost went down to twenty-two point five as well.

Assume level twenty-five, no points allocated, baseline.

Base attributes are all at thirty.

Assume a caster build, ten levels in Intelligence, ten levels in Wisdom, five levels in Endurance, Path selection bonus in ... hell, Wisdom.

Intelligence is at eighty, Wisdom is at one hundred and five, Mana is at ninety-two point five. If the System does the math correctly, four Endless Swarms are going to cost ninety mana. So, naked, at level twenty-five, you'd have thirty-two Summon Monsters going, each monster at fifty-eight percent of the level twenty-five skill, so fourteen point five.

Rounding down, that was four hundred and forty-eight levels of monster, that fucking self replenished every five seconds.

Of course, at level five you were pretty shitty. You could pop out four monsters, but each one would be level one, and it would eat thirty points out of your thirty-five point mana pool.

Ok, that wasn't actually that bad.

A small, and eventually a large army of monsters to keep him safe sounded awfully good.

Bob sighed and opened his eyes.

He wouldn't have the skills.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob took a few minutes to scan the other paths. Flesh Sculptor required either the Divine School Animancy or the Divine School Animal and seemed to be focused pretty heavily on Lovecraftian horrors.

Skeletal Lord required the Divine School of Necromancy and focused on making Skeletal horrors.

Master of Summoning required the Summoning School, and all four of its sub-skills, as well as placing your path bonus into intelligence, and finally ending up with at least a twenty-five in both intelligence and wisdom.

The only one he would qualify for was Shepard of the Titan.

System Help, Shepard of the Titan Path The Shepard of the Titan Path is obtained by having the following Skills: Magical School of Summoning, Summon (x), Magical Skill Ritual Magic, Path bonus allocated to Intelligence, total Intelligence attribute greater than fifty. The Shepard of the Titan Path locks the user out of purchasing any additional Skills from the Magical School of Summoning. The user receives a one percent bonus per level to the value of all Magical School Skills, except for the Magical School of Summoning. Upon obtaining level five, fifteen, and twenty-five, the being summoned by the user skill Summon (x) has its tier increased by one. This value may not exceed tier nine. Upon obtaining level ten, and again at levels fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five, the user may choose any Skill that their Skill Summon (x) possess and may use that skill at the same value as the Skill Summon (x) being. Upon reaching level twenty-five, the user may choose at any time to release their Skill Summon (x) being, leaving the being with all of the bonuses of being Shepherded and destroying the user's Skill Summon (x). The being is then returned to its place of origin, and the user is able to purchase the Skill Summon (x) again. Doing so will result in the Skill Summon (x) having none of it's previously earned experience.

He qualified for it, but he wasn't sure he wanted it. The end goal seemed to be sending Monroe back home, which was the opposite of what he was going for.

He didn't need to take a Summoning Path. He'd spent a lot of time in the Tavern over the past couple of days, and he had overheard enough conversations to know that he could just take Arcanist.

System Help, The Arcanist Path. The Arcanist Path is obtained by having any one of the following Skills: Magical School of Conjuration, Magical School of Dimension, Magical School of Abjuration, Magical School of Charm, Magical School of Transmutation, Magical School of Summoning, Magical School of Illusion, and Magical School of Chronomancy. The user may not have any other Magical Schools. Path bonus attributes must be allocated entirely to Intelligence. Total intelligence must be greater than thirty. The Arcanist Path allows the user to select one skill from a known magical school at each level. The Arcane Path provides a one percent increase in value to all Magical Skills every five levels. The Arcanist Path prevents the user from obtaining any non-arcane Magical School. Upon obtaining level five and every five levels after, the user may select an Arcane Magical School, all the Skills of which will receive a five percent increase in value. The same Magical School may not be selected twice. Upon obtaining level twenty-five, the maximum Skill levels for all Skills in the selected Magical Schools are increased by five.

The requirements were simple. The restriction to only Arcane magic seemed harsh but the extra skill at every level was outstanding. A ten percent increase in skill values and a five-point bump in the skill level cap wasn't incredible or groundbreaking but seemed solid.

Bob stood up and stretched. He'd drop the book off in his room, and go for a run. He needed to clear his head.