Bob walked into the tavern feeling significantly better. A hot shower and a bit of playtime with Monroe had helped him work out the physical and mental knots that almost five hours in the Dungeon had caused.

Spotting Harv and Elli eating at a table, he headed their way, shifting Monroe across his shoulders as he pulled out a chair.

"Good evening," Bob said feeling a sudden surge of awkwardness.

He'd never really sought anyone out just to talk to them before.

"Evening Bob," Harv said with a nod.

Elli gave him a thumbs up and kept chewing.

"Any chance I can buy a couple of healing potions from you?" Bob asked Harv, "I realized I had used my last one during the wave, and it made me a little nervous to be down in the Dungeon without any."

Harv had just taken a bite, so Elli stepped in, "It's normal to feel nervous in the Dungeon, especially if you're alone," he said.

Harv swallowed and nodded, "You're starting to get a feel for the mana density in the Dungeon," he said, "and part of that is a sense of danger when you're in a place where the density is higher than your level."

Elli picked up the last piece of bread from his plate, relocated the plate under his bowl, and motioned for Bob to put Monroe on the table.

Bob slid Monroe off his shoulders and poured him onto the tabletop, where he received the idle petting from his human-servant, and Elli was able to rub his ears as well.

"Most of us," Harv gestured around the tavern with half a slice of bread, "developed that sense as we grew up. The fact that you didn't have it at all was more than a little offputting."

Elli grinned suddenly and said, "The way you just stomped into the rat tunnels and just plowed through like nothing could stop you."

Harv nodded, "Exactly," he said, "it was a little unnerving. You should have been cautious, maybe even cowering."

"Level five is a gut check, not just because of the rats and the darkness, but because level four was built as a way stop, the mana density on the next level down is heavier than a normal level drop would be, in fact, it's damn close to level six," Elli said, switching to scratching Monroe's ruff.

"So yeah, being nervous is normal," Harv said, "And I'd be happy to sell you some potions, how many do you need?"

"I'd say five?" Bob answered as he considered the state of his funds.

"Easy enough," Harv said, "although you'll have to wait until tomorrow, I stuffed all my extras into the freshers we are shepherding."

"Speaking of which," Elli said as he pushed his now-empty bowl to the side, freeing up both hands to deliver the attention Monroe so justly deserved, "you've got an admirer in our batch."

Harv grinned and said, "Oh yeah, Eddi can't stop asking us about 'The Reef'."

Bob groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why do people insist on calling me that stupid name," he muttered.

Elli quietly said, "The name might sound stupid, but it's a sign of respect."

"Don't just shrug it off," Harv said, "like it or not, you're a hero to the people who stood on the wall, especially to the laborers who aren't real Adventurers. No one knew who you were, not even the Adventurers on the wall," he explained, "and they needed something to call you."

Elli added in, "It's like a touchstone you see, something that people can tell themselves," he made a quotation with his hands, "they tell their kids, 'The monsters won't get you, the wave will break on The Reef, he'll make sure we're safe'."

Bob shook his head and said, "I just don't see how that is me."

Harv reached over and patted Bob on the shoulder, "It could be," he said warmly, "you've already proven you'll stand tall to save others."

Elli had lowered his hands back down to resume petting Monroe, who wasn't involved in the conversation and had become concerned when the adoration he was receiving had ceased.

"Still," Elli said, "that fresher wants to meet you to talk about your path."

"Did you explain to him that I am, in point of fact, magically crippled and that I have no path?" Bob asked.

Harv and Elli exchanged a look, and Harv said, "No, we didn't," he said, "that is more than a little bit personal, and while we're pretty free with bragging you up with your antics during the wave, we didn't think that your... condition, was anyone else's business."

"Oh," Bob replied non-plussed.

Having someone act circumspectly with his personal information was unusual. Why would they bother?

He shook his head.

"So the kid wants to talk to me about summoning then?" Bob asked.

Elli nodded and said, "We've got him and three others, none of them have taken their first level yet, although they are due tomorrow afternoon."

Harv added, "If you aren't busy tomorrow morning, meet us for breakfast and talk to the kid, it would mean a lot to him."

Bob leaned back and gave in to the urge to close his eyes. He wasn't entirely certain that he had any business giving out advice.

No, strike that, he was absolutely certain that he knew less about this world than the kid that wanted to talk to him.

Then again, if the kid could get Thidwell to pony up a summoning affinity crystal, and take the ten level bonus to the max of his summon monster spell, and the Endless Swarm path...

All it would take is one. Just one person at level twenty-five, with the Path of the Endless Swarm, and a summoning affinity crystal on their summon monster spell. He remembered his math, although he'd learned a few things since then. At level twenty-five, with only level twenty gear, you'd have six persistent effect endless swarm summoned monsters spells out, or a total of forty-eight monsters. With the summoning affinity crystal, and the spell capped at level thirty-five, with the endless swarm, the summoned monsters were level twenty.

Forty-eight level twenty monsters. And if one died, it popped back up in five seconds. Even against thousands of level four or five monsters, they could hold a section of the wall themselves.

Bob opened his eyes. Someone, probably Elli, had moved Monroe to the middle of the table, where Elli was petting him, and trying to cajole Harv into joining the kitty worship.

"I'll talk to him," Bob said, "I don't have anything else going on anyways, I dropped my armor off with Gary to have it repaired and enchanted."

"Oh," Harv said, "your first enchantment!" He grinned, "what did you choose?"

"Mana," Bob replied.

Harv said, "Given your difficulties, that's probably a good idea."

Theo rushed up to the table and grabbed the empty bowls and plates, pausing momentarily to consider the magnificent fluffy centerpiece. "Dinner for you and..." he appeared to be racking his memory.

"Monroe," Bob supplied helpfully, "and yes, dinner for me, meat chunks His Imperial Majesty."

Theo gave him a look clearly indicating that Bob might not be mentally stable and headed for the kitchen.

"His Imperial Majesty?" Harv asked.

Bob just gestured towards Monroe, who admittedly did look exceptionally regal at the moment as he lounged on the table, the center of everyone's attention.

"Yeah," Harv sighed, "I guess I can see it."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next morning found Bob at a table in the tavern eating a half portion of scrambled eggs.

With no Dungeon delving today, he was planning on going for a hike and didn't want to weigh himself down.

Monroe had a busy day ahead, filled with naps, and was preparing for it with a full bowl of meat bits.

He waved to Harv and Elli as they walked into the Adventurer's Guild, beckoning them over.

Elli headed over, while Harv herded three young women and a young man towards the table.

Elli grabbed the nearest table and drug it over to Bob's providing room for the larger than normal group.

As everyone arranged themselves around the tables, Harv handled the introductions.

"Bob, this is Eddi," he nodded to the young man he'd seated to Bob's left, "Jacki," a gesture towards one of the young women to his right, "Julli," another gesture to the woman sitting across from Eddi, "and Jammi," he finished, indicating the woman sitting across from Bob.

Bob nodded to each, noticing in passing that Eddi was practically quivering with enthusiasm, and the three women had strikingly similar features.

Jammi spoke up first, "Oldest," she said, then Julli said, "youngest," followed by Jacki who said, "stuck in the middle."

"Sisters?" Bob asked uncertainly.

"Yes, although sometimes I want to disown them," Jammi said.

"Only child and no relation," Eddi chimed in.

"Pleasure to meet you," Bob said awkwardly, "you're lucky to have Harv and Elli shepherding you, they saved me from doing something stupid several times."

"And who is this gorgeous kitty?" Jacki asked as she eyed Monroe.

"Can I pet him?" Julli chimed in.

"He looks so soft," Jammi added.

Bob shrugged and said, "This is my buddy, Monroe. He'll let you know if he doesn't want to be petted, although it's rare."

As the girls reached across the table and started petting Monroe, Bob considered the fact that Monroe had better people skills than he did.

Not that the bar was that high.

"So, I talked to a friend of mine, Lesli, about how you fought on the watchtower," Eddi said eagerly.

Bob nodded.

"So, tell me about your path!" said Eddi, "I want to be able summon monsters to fight off the waves!"

Harv and Elli flagged down Theo who looked at the table and asked, "Eggs and sausage with toast for everyone?"

He nodded at Monroe, "Except for him, I know, a bowl of meat," he said.

Seeing nods of agreement from the table, he rushed off to the kitchen.

Bob turned to Eddi and said, "First things first, do you know Thidwell?"

Eddi looked at Bob with wide eyes, "Everyone knows who Thidwell is," he said.

"I meant more like have you talked to Thidwell, had conversations with him," Bob said.

Elli snickered and joined the girls in petting Monroe, who was reaching maximum hand to cat capacity and was reveling in the attention.

Harv chimed in, "Bob, most Adventurers don't talk to Thidwell more than once a year or so, Elli and I are kinda different because we don't mind shepherding people."

Bob shrugged and replied, "Still not really a local."

"Anyway," Bob continued, "the first thing you want to do is hunt down Thidwell, and ask him for a summoning affinity crystal."

"What is that?" Eddi asked.

Bob paused.

"Well," he said slowly, "it's a crystal, that if you use when you are leveling up gives you access to a school of magic, or a spell, or enhances a spell you already have."

"Apparently," Bob went on, "Thidwell found them somewhere down on the twenty-ninth floor."

Bob shook his head and said, "But the important thing is, once you take summoning, and then choose your summoned monster spell, you can use the crystal to increase the maximum level of your summoned monster skill by ten."

Eddi looked confused and asked, "How does that work?"

"Well," Bob responded, "keep in mind that I've only been around for less than a month, but from what I've seen, it does exactly that - raises the maximum level of the spell by ten."

He leaned towards Eddi and spoke quietly and seriously, "But here is the kicker - it applies from level one. So if you just keep leveling the spell up, you can have a level fifteen monster at level five, a level twenty at level ten, a level twenty-five at fifteen and so on."

"That seems to be really powerful," Eddi said.

"Oh, it gets worse," said Bob, his tone a trifle savage and gleeful, "If you take the Endless Swarm Path, it becomes stupidly OP."

"Stupidly OP?" Eddi asked, leaning away from Bob a bit.

"Stupidly overpowered," Bob responded waving his hand dismissively, "I've done some napkin math, and at level twenty-five, with level twenty gear, you can stand on that wall and command an army of forty-eight level twenty monsters."

Bob's inner geek had taken over as he went on, not noticing the looks the table was giving him, "I can't speak for how well it works in the lower levels of the Dungeon, but so far down to seven I'm soloing one level above my own with no difficulties, so I can only imagine that if you took your time and maxed out the level of your summoned monster you'd be a goddamn wrecking crew," he said with a smile that was just a touch feral.

Bob pulled out a sheet of paper and a charpin and started scribbling down some numbers.

(sm lvl 35) (.75 EoT after Endless Swarm Reduct) (.75 Barrage after Endless Swarm Reduct) = 19.68

"Pers Effect has no penalty with endless swarm due to stacking 25% reductions - theoretically, it is possible that the reduction is 25% of 25%, which would only be a 6% reduction, and would change the equation to the following;

(sm lvl 35) (.75 EoT after Endless Swarm Reduct) (.75 Barrage after Endless Swarm Reduct) (.81 for Pers effect after Endless Swarm Reduct) = 15.94

Summoning School at level ten = 100% increase in all attributes and damage/defense for summoned monsters, effectively doubling their power. This appears to be based off the monsters level and isn't affected by additional penalties beyond the level reduction of Effect over time.

Caster Value of 400 is impacted by the stacking penalties, however it will still be either 225 or 182, which adds directly to the damage value of the summoned monster.

Extrapolating out, the Summoned monsters provided by Endless swarm would look like this.

Summon: Tier: 5 Size: 5 Level: 19 Weapon Hardness: 30 Hide hardness: 20 Strength: 92 Mana: 84 Armor: 235.62 Coordination: 92 Stamina: 184 Claw Damage: 737.76 Endurance: 48 Health: 1874 Bite Damage: 685.98 Intelligence: 42 Movement: 198 Wisdom: 42 Dodge 222 Beauty: 48 Summoning Mastery 2 Caster Value / 2 182

Finishing, Bob shoved the paper over to Eddi and said, "There you are, you can check the math, but the end result is pretty clear," he shook his head, "believe me, the Endless Swarm Path is just ridiculous, I feel like there has to be a catch, but I can't find it."

He settled back into his chair as Eddi took the paper.

He glanced around the table as Harv, Elli, and the sisters watched him warily.

"What?" Bob asked.

"You, uh," Harv started, "you got a little enthusiastic there."

Elli nodded and added, "That was a little intense."

Bob blew out a breath and closed his eyes.

The System pissed him off. It ignored the idea of mathematical balance. Endless Swarm was stupidly overpowered. So was the Curator Path.

He didn't know what paths the noble and royal houses used, but he'd bet they were also OP.

If there were a dozen people in Holmstead that were level twenty-five with the Endless Swarm Path, the rest of the town could fuck off and not worry about anything but the Dungeon.

Of course, people would have to make it to twenty-five first.

Bob took several slow deep breaths and opened his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, "it's just that the Paths piss me off," he waved a hand in frustration, "I mean, it's obvious that some of them are much more powerful than others..." he trailed off.

"That's just how it is," Harv shrugged, "you pick your path and you stick with it."

Elli nodded and said, "Pick something you enjoy doing, that matters more than how powerful the path is. Who wants to do something you won't like for the rest of your life?"

"What are the requirements for the Endless Swarm Path?" Eddi asked as he looked at the paper Bob had given him.

"Summoning School, Summon Monster spell, Effect over Time, Barrage and Persistent effect," Bob said, "Oh, and you have to have your tier in persistent effect summoned monsters out in order to take the path."

Harv blinked and scrunched his brow for a moment, then said, "How the hell does that work? Effect over time, barrage and persistent effect are twenty mana, which gets you three, but you'll only have thirty-five mana, so you can't put another one up."

Bob gave a shrug and said, "I'm guessing have a mana increase item on? Or just use Effect overtime, barrage, barrage, persistent effect. You'd end up with monsters at one sixteenth the level, but you'd get six of them, and it would reserve thirty mana, right?"

Harv blinked at him. "Can you do that?"

Bob started to summon a UtahRaptor, and instead of pushing more mana into the Effect over Time, he layered another Effect over Time around it.

A UtahRaptor appeared next to him, where it immediately started eyeing the people gathered around the table.

Bob checked his mana. Sure enough, the spell had cost him almost seven mana, which would have been three for a normal person without a damaged matrix.

Six seconds and several nervous looks from both the people at the table and the other diners in the tavern, and Jake disappeared.

"Seems like you can," Bob said, "you just have to layer another effect over time over the first."

"So you have to pick exactly the right skills, and either be smart or have equipment in order to take that Path," Harv said.

Eddi eagerly added, "Or have Bob tell you how to get it."

Elli nodded and said, "Yes, or that."

Eddi then asked in a pleading tone, "Do you think Thidwell would give me one of those affinity crystals?" he asked hopefully.

Bob gave a helpless shrug and said, "He didn't seem like he had a use for them, but I know he needs Adventurers. If you agree to become an Adventurer, he'll probably give you one."

Eddi smiled and said, "Now I just need to figure out what kind of monster I want to summon," he edged a little closer to Bob, "tell me about the monster you use."

Bob scooted back a little, before settling down to regale the table with tales of the dinosaurs.