"We'll stay back unless things go wrong," Harv said.

"Just head down the stairs. It'll open up into a long, wide hallway. You can expect to see one or two beetles coming towards you right away, so we'll see how you deal with them," Elli finished.

Bob slowly walked down the stairs, his staff held tightly in his hands.

This was it. He was about to fight monsters. He didn't have A Child's Protection anymore. He could die in here.

He swallowed hard and clenched his jaw. He could do this. He would do this. For Monroe.

Bob strode down the step and stepped through an archway at the bottom.

As it said on the tin, a hallway stretched out in front of him, ten feet wide, fifteen-foot tall, and who the fuck knew how long. There were some sort of lamps attached to the walls every twenty feet or so, and Bob resisted the urge to smack his palm to his forehead. Of course, it was fucking dark in here. It was a Dungeon. Underground. "And I'm a moron," he muttered.

'You still aren't making the best choices,' Trebor's voice said quietly. 'But at least this lapse in judgment didn't have any adverse consequences.'

Bob crept forward, staff held in front of him.

He heard the sound of something clicking on the stone and squinted down the hallway. His eyes widened as he saw the Beetles headed towards him.

They were the size of a large dog, with a glistening black carapace, six legs, and a set of pincers that were a good three inches long.

And they were coming towards him fast.

'Summon Mana-Infused Creature UtahRaptor', he thought, feeling the energy of the mana flow through his left side, into the staff, and then out.

Several things happened in quick succession.

Jake appeared in the hallway and leaped towards the Beetles.

Elli and Harv's voices intermingled as they shouted "Stars and Stones!", and "What is that?!"

Bob winced as he felt like the staff was trying to pull mana from his right hand as well as his left.

'Should've tried summoning with the staff upstairs,' he thought as he stepped back.

Jake landed on one of the Beetles and discovered that the carapace was no match for his sickle claw. His right foot ripped into the Beetles back, and tore backward, from the rear to the head, a viscous orange fluid spewing from the terrible rent as the beetle collapsed under the weight of the UtahRaptor.

Summoned Monster Jake has dealt 121 points of slashing damage to [Beetle]. Damage reduced 20 points by [Beetle]'s armor.

The other Beetle, seemingly unconcerned with the fate of its fellow, hurried down the hallway towards Bob.

Bob backed up, sending a quick mental command to Jake, who took two steps away from the Beetle he'd ripped open, and then leaped towards the one rapidly approaching Bob.

The UtahRaptor landed squarely on the Beetle, and raked again, opening up this Beetle in much the same manner as the last.

Summoned Monster Jake has dealt 121 points of slashing damage to [Beetle]. Damage reduced 20 points by [Beetle]'s armor.

That spelled the end of that threat as well, and Jake began ripping up dripping chunks of Beetle guts, choking them down and making a trilling, chirping sound that conveyed a savage sense of satisfaction.

"Okay," said Bob, "that's enough Jake." He sent a mental command to the UtahRaptor.

Jake darted back to stand in front of Bob.

"Well," said Harv as he slowly walked up, "that went rather well, not that we expected anything else."

"It seemed rather easy," Bob confessed.

"Keep in mind that even though your summons is level one, it receives a bonus equal to half your spellcasting power," Harv said, "which means that it is getting a two and a half level bump, without the staff, which is worth either six or eight levels, depending on if you use it one-handed or two-handed."

"So I'm five and a half levels to Jake's attack then," Bob mused.

"Yes," said Harv happily, "that is one of the strengths of summoning, while you aren't able to do anything else moment to moment, your summoned creatures can be nearly as powerful as you would be, had you chosen to wear armor and slash things with a sword."

Elli approached, casting a wary eye at Jake and joined in, "Keep in mind that these were level one Beetles. Figure that they probably only had twenty health. A level six Beetle would have half again the armor and five times the health."

"As frightening as that... thing is, you'll need to raise your skill before it can take on monsters that are higher level," Elli finished, stopping a few feet away and keeping Harv between Jake and himself.

Bob fought against the urge to close his eyes as he thought.

'I need to see Jake's Status'

Summon: UtahRaptor(Jake) Tier: 5 Size: 5 Level: 0 Weapon Hardness: 15 Hide hardness: 10 Strength: 8 Mana: 2 Armor: 15 Coordination: 8 Stamina: 8 Claw Damage: 121 Endurance: 5 Health: 25 Bite Damage: 118 Intelligence: 2 Movement: 15 Wisdom: 2 Dodge 8 Beauty: 5 Summoning Mastery 1 Caster Value / 2 67

Bob mentally dismissed his summoned monster.

He walked over to the wall and leaned his new staff against it.

He summoned Jake and checked his status again.

Summon: UtahRaptor(Jake) Tier: 5 Size: 5 Level: 0 Weapon Hardness: 15 Hide hardness: 10 Strength: 8 Mana: 2 Armor: 15 Coordination: 8 Stamina: 8 Claw Damage: 69 Endurance: 5 Health: 25 Bite Damage: 67 Intelligence: 2 Movement: 15 Wisdom: 2 Dodge 8 Beauty: 5 Summoning Mastery 1 Caster Value / 2 18

So clearly the forty point bonus he as receiving from the staff was huge, along with the benefit of using the staff as a conduit. As was being level five and having thirty-five Intelligence and Wisdom.

'Trebor,' Bob thought, 'can I see the math for Jake's Claw Damage?'

(((Tier*Size)+((Strength+Coordination)+(Casting Value)/2)*Natural Attack Style Modifier)

'What is the Natural Attack Style Modifier?'

Natural Attack Style Bonus Fist 1.02 Bite 1.03 Claw/Kick 1.06 Horn 1.08 Scythe/Tail 1.1

Ok, so the math added up. The staff, beyond the hardness and crafting and enchantment bonuses, was a massive increase.

'Show me my progression towards increasing the level of my Summon Mana-Infused Creature Skill'

Summon Mana-Infused Creature is currently level 0. 2 experience gained towards level 1. 1,000 Experience needed.

"So, it doesn't look like my spell is going to level up very quickly," Bob said softly.

With another thought, he pulled up the summoning school.

Magical School of Summoning is currently level 0. 2 experience gained towards level 1. 10,000 Experience needed.

"Shit."

'Trebor, can you show my experience towards leveling the spell and the school in separate bars, maybe on the right-hand side of my vision?' he mentally projected.

A pair of empty gauges appeared the one furthest to the right half again as long as the one next to it, both empty.

'Thanks.'

"So," Bob said as he dismissed Jake and took up his staff, "what is the plan?"

Elli and Harv exchanged a look, and Harv said, "According to Thidwell, you've only got the summon monster spell, right?"

Bob nodded.

"That makes things a little difficult, but we figure we'll have you kill a couple of dozen groups of Beetles, just to let you get a feel for it, then well move down to the Newts," Elli said.

"We'll jump in if you get hurt too badly," Harv said with a grin.

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

Two hours and fifty-four beetles later...

"Fucking die!" Bob shouted as he smacked the Beetle attempting to gnaw his leg off.

It turned out that between the hardness of the staff, his base strength, and his tier*size modifier, that he was able to swing for the fences fairly well. Napkin math put him at about a hundred and ten a swing, divided by two for splitting his concentration between Jake and attacking, so call it fifty-five. Or something around that number.

Regardless, it meant that if he landed a solid swing, he could crush them in one swat.

Bob could certainly understand the lure of melee combat. Even with base attributes, at level one he wouldn't have had any trouble killing these things.

Having sorted the immediate danger, he focused his attention back on Jake, who had just finished clawing open the fourth and last beetle. Even when Bob was splitting his concentration, Jake was able to kill them with one terrible kick.

Elli and Harv had taken a position fifty or so feet behind him, and Harv was peeking around the corner, monitoring the fight.

The initial hallway had continued for a hundred feet then split left and right. The Dungeon was effectively a square, with four huge rooms in the center, and eight smaller rooms on each side. There weren't any doors, just doorways. The Beetles that occupied this level of the Dungeon came in groups of two, three, or four, and just trundled about until they found Bob and attacked.

Bob hadn't had any trouble with two Beetles, and three had just required a bit more movement backward. But four Beetles had proven difficult. It turned out that while Jake was a fearsome hunter, he was not, in point of fact, much of a tank. Three Beetles biting him in turn as another headed for Bob had proven to be enough to bring him down.

And then Bob had experienced his first bout of summoning sickness. Bob grimaced. Apparently, there was subtext in the summoning school of magic, that if you had maintained concentration on a creature for more than three seconds, you had to wait one second to cast the spell again after it ended.

So, Bob had developed the tactic of backing away from the Beetle herd, one of which would inevitably pursue him, while Jake killed two and was killed by the third.

At this point, Bob would run away, summon Jake back out, and send him after the pursuing Beetles. Jake would kill the nearest one, and then another. The strategy worked, and it kept Bob safe, right up to the point where he ran back too far and a pair of fresh Beetles joined in the fray.

Then he ended up clubbing them.

This was the second time that had happened, and he hadn't been hurt this time, but it was still frustrating.

And his experience bar wasn't moving either.

He'd done a bit of math and discovered that he was picking up about one experience for every five Beetles.

Bob turned and walked back towards Elli and Harv.

"This isn't doing much for me besides teaching me the value of having my Summon Monster spell at a higher level," he said in frustration.

Harv was leaning against the wall, and he started digging in a pouch as he said, "True enough. You need to keep in mind that normally you'd be level two and you'd have practiced your spell up to level two before you started tackling the Dungeon."

Harv pulled out a battered notebook.

"Now," he said as he flipped it open and started paging through it, "You won't be gaining any crystals on the fifth level, but your spells and skills will gain experience."

Harv frowned, and flipped backward in the notebook a few pages, and then his face lightened as he smiled. "Here it is. The rats on level five have a bit over a hundred health, one quarter that in armor, and do almost enough damage to kill a level one Adventurer in one bite," he said.

"Can Jake take one on and kill it before it kills him?" Elli asked.

Bob thought about that, dismissing Jake as he fought the urge to close his eyes. Fucking rats. It had to be fucking rats. He kept his eyes open, but he did draw a few deep breaths.

He was fairly certain Jake could take one, but the Utahraptor would be pretty badly hurt.

It might come down to hitting it with his stick.

Bob looked at Harv and asked, "Is there any reason why you don't wear armor?"

Harv grimaced and replied, "In normal circumstances, I have a set of armor pretty similar to Elli's. I traded in the armor I've worn since level five towards a new suit for level ten, and the armorer isn't done with my new set, won't be for another week."

Elli elbowed him and smiled, "Despite Harv having the Repair spell, it's a bit of an ongoing joke that he can't keep his armor in good enough shape to wear, which is a real laugh when you consider that I don't think anything has landed so much as a claw on him in years."

Harv stuffed his notebook back in his pouch, and after making it a point to give Elli the evil eye for a few seconds, turned to Bob and said, "If you've any coin or crystals left, you could likely pick up a set of armor, and in fact, I'd probably recommend it. A lot of casters rely on spells for protection, but you don't seem to have any."

"How much do you think it'll run me?" Bob asked, thinking about the ninety-six crystals he had in his inventory.

Harv scratched his jaw thoughtfully. "Plain leather armor, with no enchantments or crafting bonuses, would run you maybe twenty crystals," he said.

"Maybe a bit more, if you're looking for durability," said Elli.

Bob nodded. He'd spend the crystals to get some armor. Now was as good a time as any to ask...

"What is the exchange rate for crystals to coin?"

Harv shook his head, and Elli replied "Its pretty fluid, but the general rule is that crystals from one to five are worth about one round each, six to ten are about 2 rounds, ten to fifteen are five rounds, and beyond that..." Elli shrugged. "There aren't a lot of people in Holmstead that can use level fifteen crystals."

"Alright," said Bob as he shouldered his staff, "let's go back up and check in with Austan, then find some armor."