Bob walked up the stairs towards Thidwell's office, his mind going over possible ideas for pathing with the Affinity Crystals.

Clearly, the Path of the Endless Swarm was a no-brainer for using the Summoning Affinity Crystals.

And Bob couldn't help but think that if you were going to be a Dimensionalist, taking the cost reduction on the portal spell would be a solid win. The thirty mana cost per second when the spell was level twenty-five was very prohibitive. With a cost reduction though, a few dedicated retrieval specialists could hop from farmstead to farmstead and make sure everyone was behind Holmstead's walls when a wave rose.

As for Conjuration, the savant path seemed tailor-made for an affinity crystal.

The desk in front of Thidwell's office door was empty, so Bob went around it and knocked on the door.

"Come in," Thidwell's rough voice called out.

Bob opened the door, walked inside Thidwell's office, then closed it before turning to face the giant man.

Thidwell was sitting at his desk, his enormous hand holding a charpine as he leafed through some paperwork. He gestured with the charpine for Bob to take a seat.

Bob sat and then reached up to pet Monroe, who was lounging across Bob's shoulders, held in place by the Makres.

Thidwell signed at the bottom of a page, shuffled them into a folder, slid the folder into a desk drawer, and then raised his head to look at Bob.

"I've got seven fresher's following your outline for using a Summoning Affinity Crystal in conjunction with the Path of the Endless Swarm," Thidwell said, "and by all reports they are doing well."

Bob nodded and said, "Based on the bonus I received when I reached level five in the Summoning School, I expect they'll have a real impact."

Thidwell grunted and pulled a blank sheet of paper from his desk drawer, and he asked "Do you have any ideas or suggestions for the Conjuration or Dimension Affinity Crystals?"

Bob took a deep breath. This was it. Time to lay it out.

"Thidwell, I owe you a debt that I can't ever repay," Bob started, "you could have just left me to flounder, or even just killed me, but instead you spent time and resources to not only give me a way to live but also to show me a way to save Monroe."

Thidwell just looked at him steadily.

"So, with that in mind, I'm going to share some things with you," Bob continued, "first and foremost, is the fact that as idyllic as it seems, your world is one bad week away from ending."

Thidwell cocked his head questioningly.

"The number of people on this planet is dangerously close to what we call an extinction threshold," Bob said, "you just don't have the numbers to recover from a serious catastrophe. In fact, I'm guessing that you've witnessed a few instances where everyone was holding on by their fingertips, one bad wave or tide from being wiped out, am I right?"

Thidwell nodded slowly and said, "Three times that I can recall, once when I was eight, again when the tide claimed my father, and a decade ago when the last tide rose."

"It's the tides that do it, you know," Thidwell rumbled, "there are just too many monsters, and they are too powerful."

"It isn't the tides," Bob said quietly but forcefully, "it's the people."

Thidwell started to speak but Bob raised a hand and said, "Just let me finish, please."

"If everyone used an affinity crystal before they took their path," Bob said with a touch of bitterness and frustration, "you wouldn't have to worry about people not being powerful enough for the wave, the Dungeon, or the tide."

"And here it is, the cold hard truth," Bob stated levely, "the knowledge of how to do this, it isn't new. The Fucking Royals and Nobles, they fucking know Thidwell, they know how this works. It's the secret to their path's being so good."

Bob shook his head and went on, "Either they are greedy, amoral bastards or they just can't see the big picture."

"You think that the Path of the Endless Swarm is impressive?" Bob asked.

"Imagine a Fire Savant with an Affinity Crystal on Fire Blast," he said, "On the wall at level six, splitting his cast three ways with Fire Blast with Barrage, against a monster wave, he's dropping nine monsters every second," Bob waved his hand in a circle, "forty savants, put them in groups of five at your eight points on the wall, and watch each group clear forty-five monsters a second, or two thousand seven hundred monsters a minute."

"All eight groups combined, that is twenty-one thousand six hundred monsters that never reach the walls, every minute," Bob finished.

"Give me forty freshers, forty Conjuration Affinity Crystals, and four months, and you'll never have to worry about a wave again," Bob said with a sigh.

Thidwell had started taking notes during Bob's speech, and paused to motion to him to go on.

"If you had just five people willing to be arcanists or something else that went with the Dimension School," Bob said, "you could have them level their Portal spell up and, you could sweep and clear every farmstead around Holmstead within a minute of the alarm bell for a wave ringing. No one would be caught unaware or left behind."

"There is no reason for people to die in the Dungeon or during a monster wave," Bob said evenly, "all that needs to happen is for people who are high enough level to find them, to pass the crystals and instructions to level zero people."

He sighed and reached up to rub Monroe's chin.

"And it only gets easier the more people know," Bob said.

"Do you think I'm going to have a problem, even as weak as I am without a path, and as fucked as I am with my matrix damage?" Bob asked rhetorically, "No, no my level thirty-fucking-eight UtahRaptor is going to chew through those tier six, level twenty-six monsters when I'm level twenty-three."

Bob shook his head, "When Eddi hits level twenty-three, he's going to be a goddamn juggernaut," he said, "even with the bad math, he's going to have, and I swear I checked this twice, thirty-two summoned monsters, each at level twenty-one, and each one respawning five seconds after it dies. On top of his level thirty-eight T-Rex."

"Life doesn't have to be this dangerous or this hard Thidwell," Bob said, "but the people in charge have kept it that way, either because they can't see the big picture of how things could improve, or because they are too concerned about maintaining their own power."

Thidwell jotted down a few more notes and then looked up to find Bob slumped in the chair, rubbing Monroe's ears.

"I can see how your endless swarm pathers are going to be safer and more successful in the Dungeon, but how about the Savants?" Thidwell asked.

Bob shrugged and replied, "Nine hundred and seven points of damage at level six with the spell at level twenty, the conjuration school at level five, and with level five equipment."

"One barrage will take out three wolves, and another single target will do the fourth," Bob shook his head, "two seconds per wolf pack. Bears will be one hit as well."

"I can't speak for the deeper levels, but from what I've seen so far, they'll just obliterate everything," Bob said.

"Also," Bob added, "I was toying with the idea of having the savants take area of effect and spell sculpting. As I understand it," he continued, "they lose five percent for every five feet out they go. So get five of them in a group, have them stand in a circle, power up the area of effects to say thirty feet with the spell sculpted to not hit the others in the group, and just bring monsters into the overlapping area of effect spells."

"Have them take brilliance and enlightened for fountain, and at level eleven, that group of five savants is laying down five hundred points of damage, each, to anything and everything that comes within thirty feet of them."

Thidwell was writing again, and Bob slid Monroe off his shoulders and into his lap.

Thidwell finished and said, "I can do the math, although I'd have to write it out, but I'm going to assume that your numbers are solid."

He shook his head.

"If this is true," he rumbled and waved a hand towards Bob, "and I'm not saying I don't think it is, then there has to be something missing, some reason why everyone wouldn't be doing this already."

Bob shrugged and said, "Well, for one thing, everyone learns early to not swing above their level. Why fight monsters three levels higher than you are, when you only need to fight them at one level higher to farm crystals?"

"By the time you're level twenty-three and could conceivably find Affinity Crystals, you've developed habits that prevent you from ever doing so," Bob finished.

"You'd mentioned there was one other Curator you'd corresponded with that had discovered Affinity Crystals?" Bob asked.

"Yes," Thidwell grunted.

"What types did he or does he have?" Bob asked.

"Let me check," Thidwell said before reaching rooting around in a drawer.

"Who is he?" Bob said, "I'm guessing he's not a noble and doesn't have any nobles in his town that know about the Affinity Crystals or they would have shut him up."

"Calder was an apprentice under my father," Thidwell said, "But when my father died, neither one of us were of a level to take over his duties, so we both left Harbordeep. I came to Holmstead, and he joined up with some friends to found a new town, Everwood."

"Here it is," Thidwell rumbled and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

"Looks like he found Abjuration, Plant and Animal Affinity Crystals," Thidwell muttered in his deep voice as he read the letter before chuckling.

"Apparently the levels that produce the Plant and Animal Affinity Crystals are especially trying," he said.

"And you're right, apparently his friends include a married a couple who each brought two siblings and a cousin each, hoping to found their own noble house," Thidwell finished the letter and folded it back up.

"How do you get in touch with him?" Bob asked, "Is Everwood somewhere nearby?"

Thidwell shook his head and said, "No, it's on the other side of Harbordeep, and about as far away as we are, if slightly less north."

"We send our tithes to the Adventurers Guild in Harbordeep, and the box the receipts come back in also carry any correspondence," Thidwell said.

"Do you trust him?" Bob asked bluntly, "Do you think if you explained how things could change that he would keep it inside Everwood until it had propagated enough that everyone in the town knew?"

Thidwell hesitated before rasping out, "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Kelli indicated that I stood a real chance of being kidnapped, tortured and killed for just being able to find out about the Royal's paths," Bob stated, "this is a step beyond that, this is spreading knowledge, that while not their paths directly, is certainly the key to it."

"They can kill a small group of people, and get away with it I'm sure," Bob said, "but could they wipe out an entire town, two entire towns even, of people who knew?"

Thidwell considered the question carefully before answering.

"I can see where you're coming from," He rumbled out slowly, "but I think Calder and his friends would just be ecstatic to give Everwood a better chance at surviving."

Bob nodded as he rubbed Monroe.

"You aren't able to find anymore Summoning or Dimension crystals are you?" Bob asked.

"No," Thidwell said regretfully, "I found those on the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth floors."

"Alright," Bob said, "so those we'll keep in Holmstead until we can start stockpiling more of them. You can still find Conjuration crystals though?"

Thidwell stood up and stretched his huge frame, joints cracking, and nodded.

"Maybe send a message to Calder, explaining what you've found, as well as my suggestions for using the Affinity Crystals with the Savant paths, and offer to trade Conjuration crystals for whatever he's currently pulling in," Bob suggested.

Thidwell let out a huge sigh and relaxed his stance, then began to pace behind his desk.

"You're our proof that Affinity Crystals make a difference," Thidwell said in his gravely voice as he paced.

He paused and turned to point a finger at Bob, "You'll need to keep leading the way on this. How are you allocating your attributes?" Thidwell asked.

Bob blinked and paused his ruff scratching before replying, "Split evenly between Intelligence and Wisdom."

Thidwell shook his head and resumed his pacing, "Kelli's influence no doubt. While he's a fine researcher, and that Akashic path of his has real potential, he's never spent enough time in the Dungeon, you'd be better served by following Harv," Thidwell said.

"Did you know," he rumbled, "that if you exceed the Dungeons level by twice in Endurance, you don't suffer from the anxiety and fear that the mana density induces?"

Bob shook his head.

"Harv and Elli do," Thidwell grunted, "so what you need to do is look at an attribute distribution of one each level in endurance, and two each level in intelligence and wisdom, at least once you get your endurance up to par."

"In fact," He continued to pace, "just dump the next two levels worth into endurance, you'll need it when you're looking at level twenty-seven when you're level twenty-four."

Bob grimaced. He was never going to get anywhere with his mana situation.

Thidwell stopped pacing and stood behind his desk, leaning on the back of his chair, his rugged face set in a scowl.

"If we're going to do this, and it seems like we are, what with your cheering squad already having started," Thidwell said, "we have to move quickly."

"I know you're working to gather crystals for your gear, and normally I'd encourage that, but now I'm going to tell you to stop, level seven is an awful place to do that anyway, the wolves coalescence rate into crystals is abysmal, somewhere around three percent," Thidwell said.

"Get enchantments for your wisdom, intelligence, endurance, and mana, then take level seven," Thidwell ordered gruffly, "allocate all your attributes to endurance, that should see you at fourteen after the enchantment, which is close to where you should be."

Thidwell reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out an intricately etched bronze sword, which he laid on the desk with the hilt facing Bob.

"That sword is also a one-handed casting implement," Thidwell said, "I had it made for Elli when he reaches fifteen, but Stars and Stones he and Harv just won't move forward."

"It'll serve you better than Harv's old staff," Thidwell said as he pulled out his chair and sat down again.

"I've got twenty-five freshers with their crystals ready, and no shepherds," Thidwell said disgustedly, "and after what happened with Bailli's team, I'm reluctant to trust any shepherds but Elli and Harv to do the job right."

He paused in his grumbling and pointed a huge finger at Bob and said, "Thank you for that, by the way. Bailli deserved to have her arm regrown quickly, but I'd already given out all the crystals, and I've been delving hard to make the tithe for the month. You went out of your way to slow yourself down to help her."

He lowered his hand and pulled out a piece of paper and started writing on it.

"Tomorrow morning," Thidwell said, "I'm having the remaining twenty-five freshers gather up in the tavern, and I want you to lay it out for them."

"Lay what out?" Bob asked.

He was reminded that while normally short in his speech, Thidwell was almost terrifyingly decisive.

"Do the same thing with the Savant and Conjuration Affinity Crystal that you did with the Summoning Crystal and Endless Swarm," Thidwell grumbled, "Layout a plan for the skills, their attributes, their levels, and what they can expect."

He finished writing and shoved the paper across the desk to Bob.

"Sell them on it the way you sold it to the freshers who heard you before," He said with a quiet force in his rough voice, "make them believe it the way you made me believe it."

"Go see Gary and Nikki about getting the enchantments done on your gear," Thidwell said as he stood, "And make sure to get a light from Austan, you'll need it on level eight."

Thidwell came around his desk and gestured for Bob to stand up.

Bob slid Monroe back onto the Makres and stood up, pausing as Thidwell laid a hand on his shoulder.

Bob idly noted that Thidwell's hand was nearly a foot wide.

"I want you at level ten by end of next week," Thidwell instructed, "And level fifteen two weeks after that."

Bob swallowed, his throat constricting.

"You hit twenty-four, then twenty-five, and gather me up a hundred summoning and dimension affinity crystals, and you can not only consider us square, but I'll be in your debt," Thidwell said as he gently squeezed Bob's shoulder.

"Now get to it," the big man ordered, and guided Bob out the door.

Bob stood outside of Thidwell's office and gave in to the temptation to close his eyes as he took several deep, calming breaths.

"Fuck," he muttered.