It wasn't that the wolf packs and the occasional wandering bears were that terribly difficult to deal with, Bob thought, but rather that the bears added a random element that prevented him from really getting into a groove.

Which was probably why Thidwell had designed this level of the Dungeon that way.

Bob had decided that after a week and a half of being out of the Dungeon, that he could afford to do three hours today.

He was two hours into his delve, and while he was doing well, his mind kept wandering.

The System.

While his degree wasn't in history, he'd enjoyed reading historical novels and period pieces enough to have a better than average grasp.

The System kept humanity, and presumably other species as well, at a low level of technology and education, constantly on the brink of extinction.

The question that his mind kept dancing around, was if monsters really were just an aspect of mana, or if the System had simply decided that the best way to keep people using mana was to have them fighting monsters.

Bob wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

In the end, it didn't really matter. It wasn't like he could stop the System, or change the way it worked.

As he summoned another Jake to continue his slaughter, he sighed, and muttered to himself, "In the grim darkness of the near future, there are only monsters."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob leaned against the Gateway as he tallied his gains. One thousand four hundred and eighteen wolves and forty-seven bears had netted him fifty-four crystals, level three in his portal skill, and he could see there wasn't much further to go in order to see Jake level up to twelve.

Overall it had been a productive day.

Assuming an outlay of four crystals a day, one to Austan, one for lodging, one to feed himself, and one to provide Monroe with the delicious meat bowls to which he had become accustomed left him with a tidy profit of fifty crystals.

He pressed his token to the Gateway and mentally projected the ground floor, then stepped through.

Austan was hunched over in his chair, writing in a ledger.

"Austan," Bob said as he walked up to the man and held out a crystal, "how are you doing this morning?"

Austan straightened up and tucked his charpin behind his ear as he closed his ledger and replied, "I'm doing well enough, and thank you for the donation," he smiled as he tucked the proferred crystal into his satchel, "I appreciate it."

Bob nodded and juggled his staff as he pulled Monroe out of his hood.

"I haven't introduced you yet," Bob said as he cradled a limp Monroe in one arm, "this," Bob lifted his arm slightly, "is Monroe, the friend I was so desperately pushing to rescue."

Austan nodded and reached out to lightly rub Monroe behind the ears.

Monroe leaned into the rub a little and started to purr.

"So now that you've found your friend," Austan nodded towards Monroe as he continued the ear rub, "you're going to be taking it easy, right?"

Bob nodded and said, "I was feeling a little restless today, so I did three hours, I might do three tomorrow and then settle down to two a day for a while."

Austan smiled and said, "Take it slow and steady," he looked up from petting Monroe and continued, "I heard about what you did during the wave."

Bob shrugged with one shoulder, not wanting to disturb Monroe. "I'm told that's what Adventurers do," he said uncomfortably.

"Still, you did very well, especially considering less than a month ago you hadn't reached level one yet," Austan said.

"I suppose," Bob replied as he tried to change the subject, "although I have to say things would be easier if I had a full set of gear, which is what I'm working towards now."

Austan let out a chuckle and said, "The never-ending struggle to keep your gear relevant as you level up. I hear it all the time. You're going to gather the crystals on level seven?"

Bob nodded as he answered, "I am, even though the bears are a bit of a hassle, I feel like I have a good feel for it, and I'd rather go into the next level fully geared."

"You'll also want a light orb," Austan warned in a serious tone, "I know you've been using a torch, but level eight has pockets of combustible gas."

"Oh, Elli and Harv warned me," Bob agreed, "I've taken that into my expense calculations."

Austan gave him a sympathetic smile, "A full set of gear will run you over a thousand crystals," he said, "but at least your skills will be at level."

Bob nodded shifted his staff to the crook of his arm before shaking Austan's hand and excusing himself to the Tavern for lunch.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob had just deposited Monroe onto the table, and was pulling out his own chair when a tall, thin young man hurried up to the table and asked, "Lunch or breakfast?"

"I'll have lunch," Bob replied as he gestured to Monroe who was lounging on the table as if it were a throne, "and Monroe will have a bowl full of diced meat chunks."

"Lunch for you, and a bowl of meat for the cat, got it," he said, wiping his shaggy brown hair off his forehead and hurrying to the kitchen.

Bob leaned back in his chair and looked around the tavern as he reached out absentmindedly to start petting Monroe.

The tavern was emptier than it had been over the past couple of days. 'Maybe the Adventurers who came in for the wave left again,' Bob mused idly.

He wasn't sure how that worked. He remembered Harv saying that some Adventurers came in for the wave, but he hadn't asked where they'd come in from.

Were they outside of Holmstead wandering the countryside? Or were they semi-retired, just enjoying a day to day life of ease?

Bob had given it a little bit of thought. If he were to consider delving into the Dungeon as a job, and he went to work for two hours a day, five days a week, he'd end up with somewhere north of a hundred and fifty crystals a week.

Assuming weekly expenses of thirty crystals a week, give or take, Bob could work one week on, and three weeks off, all while still saving an extra week's worth of crystals each month.

Sure, he wouldn't be rocketing up the levels, but he'd be leveling up his skills and schools, and he could try his hand at... something, in his spare time.

Hell, he liked hiking. There were some truly majestic vistas on the way to the Rat Dungeon, and Bob could imagine he'd only brushed the surface of what the area around Holmstead had to offer.

And with his Portal spell, he would be able to reach places that might not otherwise be accessible without real climbing gear.

Which brought his thoughts back around full circle.

Everyone here was quite happily stuck in a pre-industrial society. The System just made everything so damn easy. There wasn't anything driving innovation.

Why invent the car when you could just Teleport or Portal?

Bob's Portal spell now had a range of one hundred and eighty-nine feet. At his current spell casting power and level, both of which would surely increase, he would end up at three hundred and seventy-eight feet. A little bit more math, extrapolating out to level twenty-five, and only taking into account his current staff and with no other equipment, had resulted in a Portal that could reach thirty-one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five feet. He'd double-checked his math. Six miles in a second. Three hundred and sixty miles a minute. Twenty-one thousand six hundred miles an hour. Mach twenty-nine. Of course, at thirty mana per cast and with his mana regen at twenty-one, he couldn't actually cast the spell every second for even a minute, but still.

He was torn from his thoughts as the new waiter rushed to the table, depositing a bowl of stew and two large slices of bread in front of Bob, and a steaming bowl of meat chunks in front of Monroe, who immediately sat up and began to tentatively sniff at his meal.

"Thank you," Bob said, "I'm Bob and this is Monroe," he waved a hand at his cat, who was starting to daintily eat his meal.

"Pleasure, I'm Theo, if you need anything else, just wave me down," the now-named Theo said, as he rushed over to another table.

Bob watched as he scurried off, and then checking to see that his Imperial Majesty, Monroe, was finding his meal to be sufficient, dove into his stew.

He'd go for a walk after lunch, he decided. He could use the exercise, and Monroe would enjoy the sunshine.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next morning found Bob nodding to Austan as he headed back into the Dungeon with Monroe in tow.

He'd decided to push it a little today, and go until he had seventy crystals. Once he had those, he would head over to see Gary at Nikki's and pick up his first piece of enchanted gear.

He checked the experience meters he'd had set up as an overlay and considered that if learned many more schools and spells that he'd need to make an adjustment. Maybe layer the spells as smaller bars inside the school bars?

He shook his head and brought up a portal in front of him. Time to kill some wolves.

There was only a sliver left before his Summon UtahRaptor spell would level up again.

Another portal and Bob found himself at the rockface that marked his normal hunting ground. He stepped a few feet to his left, and as the howls rang out, he started summoning effect over time Jake's.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Twenty minutes later, Bob wrapped a two pack, one bear fight and portaled back to the gate.

Once there he pressed his token to the gateway and headed to the surface.

Bob shot a genuine smile towards Austan as he said, "Fair warning, my spell just leveled, so I'm summoning my UtahRaptor."

Austan nodded and took a few steps back.

Bob summoned Jake and grinned as he checked his sheet.

Summon: UtahRaptor(Jake) Tier: 5 Size: 5 Level: 12 Weapon Hardness: 18 Hide hardness: 12 Strength: 38.4 Mana: 20.16 Armor: 76.3776 Coordination: 38.4 Stamina: 46.08 Claw Damage: 279.0768 Endurance: 20.4 Health: 323.76 Bite Damage: 267.4704 Intelligence: 16.8 Movement: 54.48 Wisdom: 16.8 Dodge 60.48 Beauty: 20.4 Summoning Mastery 1.2 Caster Value / 2 126

His UtahRaptor was a force to be reckoned with.

Austan was watching warily as Bob stroked Jake, admiring the slight increases in his size and musculature.

His feathers were slowly shifting from a dull red into a graduated sunset of yellow, orange, and red.

Bob cut the mana flow to the spell, and Jake disappeared.

Austan let out a sigh of relief and walked back to his chair.

"I know you saved lives with that thing," he said as settled back down, "but it's still unsettling, the way it looks at me."

Bob could only shrug. Sure, it was his understanding of how UtahRaptors behaved that caused Jake to act the way he did, but it wasn't really his fault that Jake wanted to eat people. That was just what UtahRaptors did.

"I'm going back in for a couple more hours," Bob said, "I'll pop back up once I have the crystals I need."

Austan nodded and started juggling a ball of light, while Bob walked over and pressed his token to the Gateway again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As Bob collected his last crystal, he let out a sigh.

Today had not been a good day, in terms of farming crystals. It had taken him another four and a half hours, with a total of two thousand three hundred and eighty-four wolves and sixty-one bears killed to gather seventy crystals.

On the plus side, his portal spell had leveled again, proving his strategy of portaling a Jake once each combat to wherever it was needed.

Also, Jake was probably an hour away from leveling again.

Still, Bob was feeling wrung out.

Delving without Elli and Harv as backup was stressful. He was kicking himself for not having asked Harv to sell him some healing potions. He'd try and find them tonight and rectify that.

Still, he had enough crystals to purchase a piece of enchanted equipment. And he knew exactly what he wanted.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob walked into Nikki's and looked around. Had it really been less than three weeks ago that he'd walked in here, fresh from killing level one beetles?

He shook his head and walked towards the counter.

The tall form of Gary materialized as if by magic (and hell, for all Bob knew it could have been), and he reached out to grasp Bob's shoulder.

"Bob! Welcome back," Gary said enthusiastically, "How is your armor treating you? I heard you stood tall and steadfast as the stones in front of the wave!"

Bob shrugged his shoulder out of Gary's grip and used that arm to pull Monroe out of his napping place.

"It saved my life during the wave," Bob said then presented a still sleeping Monroe to Gary.

"This is my friend Monroe," Bob said as he gave up and curled the big Maine-coon up to his chest.

"Keeping him in your hood eh," Gary asked.

"At the moment, I was kind of hoping to have your repair my armor and maybe add a pouch to the back for him?" Bob asked hesitantly.

He'd found that while Monroe nestled nicely in the hood of his cloak, it did put a bit of strain on the shoulder straps, he'd noticed that they were stretching a bit, and also, whenever he flipped his hood up, he ended up covered in Monroe fluff.

"Sure, I can likely work something out," Gary said agreeably.

Bob mentally opened his inventory pulled his armor into it, before pulling it out into his hands for Gary.

Gary ran his hands along the armor with a look of concentration on his face, until he reached the side where Bob had been bitten by the H.E.S.R.

"What the hell happened here?" Gary asked as he poked at the leather, "I can tell the cleaners used magic to try and fix it, but it's thin as paper and a chunk of the plate is just gone!"

"Rat got me," Bob said.

Gary looked at the armor then looked back up at Bob. "That big bastard you stood up to on the watchtower eh?"

Bob nodded, wondering how the hell everyone knew about that.

His expression must have been easy to read, as Gary smiled and said, "Elli and Harv were in a couple of days of ago and they were bragging you up a bit, seemed pretty proud that the Fresher they'd shepherded had stood tall like you did."

"Anyways, I can fix this for you and add a Monroe pouch," he chuckled at that, "although it'll take me until the day after tomorrow to get to it."

"I'd also like to buy an enchanted... something..." Bob said hesitantly. Did they use rings? Necklaces? "Something that will increase my mana," he finished.

Gary shrugged and said, "Easy enough, I can have Nikki work the enchantment into the armor, she's not terribly busy at the moment, so it still ought to be done by the day after tomorrow."

"That'll work," Bob said, "so what's the damage?"

"The damage?" Gary asked questioningly.

"Ah yeah, sorry," Bob said, "how much is the damage to my wallet, how many crystals," he finished lamely.

"Heh, the damage," Gary chuckled and ran a hand over his bald head, "I like that, I think I'll use it."

He looked down at the armor and frowned, then said, "Figure a hundred and ten crystals for the enchantment, and another five to repair and modify the armor, so a hundred and fifteen total."

Bob reached into his satchel and pulled a hundred and fifteen crystals from his inventory, before handing them over to Gary.

Gary accepted them with a nod, and said, "I'll start puzzling out the pouch for your friend, say hello to Elli and Harv for me if you see them."

Bob nodded and headed out of the store. The tavern beckoned, promising a hot meal, and then a hot bath.