Bob waved to Austan and tossed him a crystal as he left the Dungeon.

If you didn't mind the killer wasps, the ninth level of the Dungeon really was rather nice.

It had taken Bob eight hours, and over eleven thousand wasps, but he'd managed to gather the one hundred crystals he needed.

It turned out that the wasps were even worse than the wolves in terms of crystals per hour.

Bob walked into the tavern, and not seeing anyone he knew, took a seat at an open table.

He slid Monroe onto the table and started to stroke the floofer.

Monroe seemed to like the ninth level of the Dungeon and had wandered around a bit while Bob took care of the wasp infestation.

Which meant he was ravenous, as evidenced by the gentle nibbles he was delivering to Bob's hand, which he had captured between his two front paws.

Theo arrived without Bob having even noticed him, and slid a plate containing what appeared to be a ham steak in front of Bob, and a bowl of ham chunks in front of Monroe.

"Thanks," Bob said towards the man's retreating back.

He dug into his dinner and mulled over his plans.

'Trebor,' Bob mentally projected, 'assuming I have someone on hand to stuff me full of healing magic, is there a practical difference in terms of my chances of survival at say, seventy, eighty, or ninety percent matrix damage?'

'Assuming a healer powerful enough to keep you alive, no,' Trebor said, 'however, if you chose to use Elli, for example, then yes.'

Bob sighed as he chewed. He had to remind himself that when dealing with Trebor, he needed to be specific.

'If I had Austan healing me?' Bob projected.

'Austan would be able to keep you alive for several seconds, which should be more than enough for you to summon someone from your world,' Trebor said, 'although I'm not sure what the consequences of repairing a matrix as badly damaged as yours will be at this point.'

'Consequences?' Bob projected as he tried to enjoy his steak.

His conversation with Trebor didn't phase Monroe, who was nearly done with his delicious ham.

'Yes,' Trebor said, 'Consequences. No one has done what you're doing, so aside from a relative certainty that you'll survive with enough healing, I'm not sure what else is likely to happen.'

"Great," Bob muttered as he finished his steak.

Bob stood up and slid Monroe into place before heading down to the Ritual Room.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob stood up and stretched before reaching his hand up to scratch under Monroe's chin.

Now that he was looking for it, he could feel the moment in the leveling process where his matrix twisted and broke just a touch further.

Still, he'd taken the Elemental School of Fire, and the five level increase to the maximum level of the school.

He slid Monroe into his arms as he walked back up towards the tavern, enjoying the heft of a handsome kitty while he scritched under Monroe's chin, ensuring that the purr motor kept rumbling.

Bob headed towards his room, his thoughts running in circles.

He was going to summon Amber, as she was the person he knew best, and therefore the most likely to be successful.

Once his matrix was fixed, he could, theoretically portal back and forth between Thayland and Earth, although that would start the one-year timer on System integration.

As he dumped his armor into his inventory and lay down in bed, he let his mind run free as he used both hands to scratch Monroe's ruff.

He could portal some people over from Earth to Thayland, and push them through the Dungeon.

He snorted in amusement, which caused Monroe to open his eyes slightly.

As the petting didn't falter, Monroe closed them again and went back to enjoying the worship which he so justly deserved.

Bob figured he could probably put up a post on a Dungeons and Dragons forum and have more volunteers than he could handle.

They probably wouldn't really believe him until he walked them through the portal, he reflected.

But he'd have some people leveled up and ready for when the System Integration hit earth.

'Hell,' he mused, if he could open up a portal at one of those huge gaming conventions, he could get a ton of people ready and prepared.

He went over the timeline in his head again.

Level up to nineteen, possibly pushing with farmed crystals for the last couple levels. Use all the affinity crystals he had. He could do that in two weeks or less.

Then summon Amber. Earth was fucked anyway, so he could send her back later.

Suffer unimaginable pain, if it was anything like Summoning Monroe had been. He tried not to think about the fact that Trebor had indicated it was going to be worse.

Then, with a repaired and fully functional matrix, take a path.

Bob started rubbing Monroe's ears.

The endless swarm path was amazing, Bob thought, but it was really just there to help handle monsters. And with his affinity crystal on summoning his UtahRaptor, he just didn't need it, as nice as it would be.

That said, Bob wasn't completely convinced that he wanted to take the Curator path, despite its many advantages.

"Trebor," Bob said quietly, "assuming I absorb all the affinity crystals I have and take all those schools, what is the most powerful path available to me?"

'That is a very subjective question,' Trebor replied, 'what do you use to define "powerful"?'

"Let me try again," Bob said thoughtfully as he slowly stroked Monroe, enjoying the feeling of the big cat's purrs.

"What path is available to me with the most or strictest requirements?" Bob tried.

'The Path of the Arcane Depths,' Trebor replied.

System Help, The Path of the Arcane Depths. The Path of the Arcane Depths is obtained by having the following skills, each School also requiring an Affinity: Magical School of Abjuration, Magical School of Conjuration, Magical School of Dimension, Magical School of Summoning, Ritual Magic, Divine School of Elemental Fire, Divine School of Elemental Earth, Divine School of Elemental Air, Divine School of Elemental Water, Divine School of Plant, and the Divine School of Animal. The Path of the Arcane Depths grants the user a one percent bonus to the required schools, for each level of the user. At each level, the user may select two additional skills, one from a Magical School from the required list, and one from a Divine School from the required list. At each tier threshold, the user may select one school from the required list, which will receive a bonus to the maximum level of each spell within that school equal to the user's tier. Upon reaching the user's final tier threshold, the user may activate the Ritual "Arcane Depths", which will create a dimensional Dungeon to which the user may open a portal from any place at the cost of their tier² in mana. The location where the user enacts the ritual will determine the maximum mana density for this Dungeon. "Arcane Depths" is a Dungeon that exists in an extradimensional space, and is under the complete control of the User that creates it in terms of environment, flora, and fauna. The Dungeons Depth is equal to the user's tier² + their tier again. Because the Dungeon exists in extradimensional space, it does not suffer from mana density irregularities.

Bob read through the glowing blue System window.

"The fuck?" Bob muttered as he read through it again.

"Trebor, there is no way someone could have all those skills," Bob said.

'That is a tier seven path created by a species that is naturally gifted with arcane magic,' Trebor replied.

"Could you provide a little more information on that species?" Bob asked.

'They are physically weak, but are born with an inherent knowledge of each of the Arcane schools of magic,' Trebor said, 'so all they need to do is take the Divine Schools required, and Ritual Magic.'

'This is their equivalent to the Curator Path,' Trebor finished.

"That's a hell of a fucking upgrade," Bob breathed.

Plus five to the maximum level of every spell school? A total of three skills per level? And your own personal Dungeon?

Bob's mind raced.

That path was amazing. If he could hit twenty-five after summoning Amber and fixing his Matrix, he could establish his Dungeon somewhere at the bottom of Holmstead's which would ensure enough Mana density. Then he could just pop into his own Dungeon whenever he wanted.

And he would have the bottom three levels, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, and thirty to gather up affinity crystals.

Bob continued to pet Monroe as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Harv, Elli," Bob nodded as he sat down across the table from his two... friends?

Bob wasn't quite sure. He found himself seeking them out, even when he didn't need to ask them any questions.

This morning, he did have a question.

"Level ten," Bob said as he glanced at Harv, "what sort of monsters should I expect?"

"You're done on nine already?" Elli grunted in a surprised tone.

"I am," Bob nodded, "Thidwell wants me to push ahead hard, which will help clear my debt to him."

Harv nodded half-heartedly and said, "It's a desert, mostly, and if you're standing on the sand, you have to worry about venomous scorpions coming up out of the sand at you. If you stand on the one of the boulders scattered about, you have to worry about massive flying snakes."

"I'm sorry," Bob said as he slid Monroe onto the table between Elli and himself, "Did you say flying snakes?"

"Yes," Harv said seriously, "and they are a stone's cursed pain, so people tend to stay on the sand."

Bob nodded to Theo who came up to deliver Elli and Harv's breakfast.

"I've been meaning to ask," Bob said as he watched the pair dig into their scrambled eggs, "what level of the Dungeon is a good one to gather crystals on? Because the seventh, eigtht, and now the ninth level of the Dungeon have sort of sucked."

"Ten doesn't seem too bad," Elli said, "it's kind of like level six, except with bigger, armor-plated, venomous scorpions instead of boars."

Harv nodded in agreement and paused between bites to answer, "It's a good level for it, which is a credit to Thidwell, as folks should be upgrading their gear at level ten," he said before spearing a sausage.

Bob nodded, and conversation paused as both his plate, and Monroe's bowl arrived.

"So you taking the new batch of freshers down today?" Bob asked.

Elli nodded and Harv said, "We sent them off to Gary's to get armored up first, but yes, we'll be taking them down in about half an hour."

Bob nodded, then paused for a second, and pulled out Harv's old staff, which he had painstakingly etched his initials onto the night before.

"I've got a new focus, so maybe pass this on to one of the freshers yeah?" Bob said awkwardly.

Elli and Harv exchanged a look before Harv said, "You should give that Eddi, he'd love to have it."

Bob rubbed the back of his head ruefully.

"Yeah, I can see that," Bob said, "I'll try to pass it over to him this evening."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

'Harv was spot on with his description' Bob thought as he stood next to the Gateway on the tenth level of the Dungeon.

It was a desert alright. The temperature was probably a touch over ninety, and a magical facsimile of the Sun shown overhead, pouring down baking heat.

Bob summoned out a barraged UtahRaptor and stepped out further onto the sand.

Immediately the sand a few feet to his left rippled as something underneath started moving towards him.

Bob took a step to the right as Jake interposed himself between the oncoming monster and Bob.

A scorpion, its carapace a swirling hue of yellow and tan, exploded out of the sand beneath the UtahRaptor, its wickedly barbed tail lashing out and its pincers grasping.

Jake was able to avoid the pincers, but the tail caught him in the flank, piercing the tough hide and causing him to let out a terrible screech of pain and anger.

It was at that moment that the other two UtahRaptors attacked, one from the right and one from the left, rushing in pinning the scorpion with one foot while ripping terrible rents in its chitin plates with the other.

The wounded Jake reached down and seized the tail with his jaws, thrashing his head from side to side as he attempted to tear it off.

The scorpion desperately tried to burrow back down into the sand but was unable to free itself from team Jake, who ended its life a second later.

Bob nodded his head. Five seconds wasn't bad.

He dropped his concentration on the UtahRaptor pack and summoned a fully powered Jake instead.

Another ripple of sand rushed towards him from the right and Jake stepped forward quickly, alert and ready.

As the scorpion rose from the sand, the UtahRaptor ignored the tail and dodged the pincers as it dipped its head down in its quick, birdlike way and ripped a huge chunk out of the scorpions back.

Bob watched, a smile growing on his face as he saw the barbed stinger skitter off the toughed hide and feathers.

Another bite and the scorpion lay still, as another sand ripple approached.

"So overpowered," Bob muttered as he held onto his sword.

He needed a scabbard, so he could lean on it like he had his staff, he mused.

Jake had pulled three monsters now and was making short work of all of them.

Bob looked up at the blazing sun, then down at the hot sand.

"I wonder if Gary could knock together a beach umbrella?" he muttered, as Monroe slid into his inventory, having reached his maximum comfort level of heat, and not having any shade available.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The answer to his question was yes. It turned out that Bob wasn't the first person to be interested in a bit of shade on the tenth level, and Gary had a variety of choices to aid in that endeavor.

"I can't recommend the pavilion enough," Gary enthused as he showed Bob a ten-foot by ten-foot awning that stood eight-foot tall.

"Not only," Gary said happily, "does it keep you out of the sun, but you can also charge it with a mana crystal and it will actively cool the air underneath of it!"

"If you're using the crystals you find on level ten, each one will lower the temperature under the pavilion by five degrees, for five hours," Gary said with a smile, "you'll be sitting cool in the shade, which is important," he said seriously, although his smile remained, "as fatigue in the Dungeon is what leads to mistakes."

Bob nodded along. He'd already committed himself to buy one, but he'd discovered that once Gary started a sales pitch, it was best to just let him finish it.

"I'll take one," Bob said, "I'm guessing it's going to cost me a few crystals?"

Gary nodded and reached behind the display to grab a rolled-up pavilion.

"One hundred and twenty crystals," Gary said, "and I daresay you'll find them well spent."

"I'm sure I will," Bob said as he pulled the crystals out of his inventory and handed them over.

The tenth level of the Dungeon had been kind to Bob. The monsters came quickly and were two shots for his overpowered summons.

His twelve-hour stretch in the Dungeon yesterday had yielded fantastic results.

It had also left Bob dehydrated and dangerously close to a heat stroke, which was why he was getting such a late start today.

Twelve-thousand three hundred and forty-one scorpions had fallen to the teeth and claws of his mighty UtahRaptor.

Despite the heat and glaring sun, yesterday had gone very smoothly.

He'd earned four hundred and ninety-three mana crystals.

Parting with a hundred and fifty didn't cause Bob any trepidation.

Nor did the knowledge that for a mere dozen crystals he could enjoy temperatures in the mid-seventies, without the sun beating down on him.

No, Bob could honestly say that the tenth level of the Dungeon was great.

Which was damned nice, as his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell had leveled twice, to level twenty-one, and he'd be happy to stay on the tenth level of the Dungeon so he could level it up to twenty-three.

Bob gave Gary a friendly smile and promised to come back soon for more enchantments, then strolled out towards the Dungeon.

He needed a word with Austan.

~ ~ ~ ~

"Austan," Bob said as he stepped into what he would always call the mausoleum.

"Late start today Bob?" Austan asked with a smile, "or are you going to take it easy?"

"Just a late start," Bob confirmed, "but I wanted to talk to you about something before I started my Delve today."

"What's on your mind?" Austan asked as he rocked back in his chair.

"Well," Bob started, "as you know, my matrix is badly damaged, and we'd talked about my pushing to twenty-five and tiering up in order to fix it."

Austan nodded and said, "I remember."

Bob took a deep breath and said, "Well, it turns out that every time I increase my level, the process damages my matrix even further," he gave Austan a grim smile, "and it looks like level nineteen is the point where I'll be so badly damaged that I won't be able to continue."

Austan rocked forward and stared at Bob in horror, "I'm so sorry," Austan said softly.

Bob waved a hand and said, "Well, that takes us back to my original plan, which was to summon someone from my world so that Mana or the God's or whatever can use an intact matrix as a basis to correct mine," he went on, "I've come into some additional information that has changed this contingency a bit, and I'm certain I'll be able to return the person I summon back to their home in fairly short order."

Austan shook his head slowly, "How sure are you that you can send them home?" he asked.

Bob shrugged and replied, "I'd give myself a solid ninety-five percent chance, which is a lot better odds than she gave me when she caused that explosion."

Austan sighed and said, "You aren't here for spiritual guidance on the matter, so where do I fit in?"

"Well," Bob said with a slight smile, "when I summoned Monroe it tore me up pretty badly, and a lot of potions and healing spells were required to keep me alive."

"This time," Bob continued, "I am going to need more than a couple of potions and a few healing spells from a novice to keep me together."

"And of course," Austan said with a slight curve of his lips, "you thought of your favorite healer."

Bob nodded and said, "Exactly."

"Do you think I could borrow you from the Church for an hour so? I'll throw a hundred crystals in as a donation," Bob said.

Austan shrugged and answered, "When did you plan to do this? Ideally, if it could be done after my watch here, that would be best,"

"Oh, I'm still in the planning stages," Bob replied, relief evident on his face, "probably another week, maybe two."

Austan leaned back in his chair and said, "Well, you have that much time to come up with an alternate plan then," he smiled at Bob, "although I'll be here if you can't"

"Thank you Austan," Bob said a little awkwardly, then pulled out ten crystals and handed them over.

"My donation for the day," he explained, "I'm going to be in there for a while," he called over his shoulder as he headed towards the Gateway.