Bob smiled as he waved to Austan and headed for the Gateway as he said, "Headed to the twenty-seventh floor, just for a couple of hours to see what I'm in for."

Austan nodded and jotted Bob's delve into his ledger as he replied, "Good luck, and be careful."

Bob pressed his token to the Gateway, mentally projected the number twenty-seven, and then stepped through the event horizon.

He emerged in a primordial forest, with massive trees that looked a bit like giant sequoias reaching for the sky.

A light mist carpeted the forest floor, covering the ferns that grew in the dappled that light that shone down through the canopy above.

It was a little cool, a product of the mist, but the sunlight made up for it.

Monroe slid down off the Makres and leaped atop a fallen tree, surveying the area, his tail slowly swishing and his whiskers twitching.

"What do you think, buddy?" Bob said to Monroe as he looked around, "this seems like a fairly nice place."

Monroe didn't answer but his emotions read as curious-excited-hunt.

Bob layered his five resistance spells as persistent effects and then checked his remaining mana. Eighty-seven. He could bring out an effect over time UtahRaptor for eighty-five seconds. Jake would only be level twenty-four, but Bob could summon another one three seconds later, given his now significant mana regeneration.

If he brought out a pack of five of them, they would last for over a minute, and he would be free to level up another spell in combat.

Specifically, his Eldritch Blast spell.

Bob had done a little math and realized that while having his UtahRaptor out to tank for him was amazing, Bailli, at level nineteen was doing over twice the damage that Jake put out.

And while Bob lacked the bonus to damage from the Elemental Conjuration path, he did have a bonus from Monroe that went a ways towards compensating.

So, Bob started summoning his UtahRaptors and fifteen seconds later, he headed out, the middle of a diamond formation with a Jake right beside him.

They made it twenty feet from the portal before they were ambushed.

It happened quickly, the monsters moving so fast as to almost appear blurred.

The lizards looked like Komodo dragons if Komodo dragons had six legs, a stinger that dripped poison at the end of a whip-like tail, and with armored plates along their backs.

They were just under four feet in height, and ten feet in length, tail notwithstanding, and they moved just under the mist.

They attacked from four sides, dashing in to engage the UtahRaptors.

Bob targetted the one to the left and unleashed an Eldritch Blast.

Blueish-black energy streaked from his hand to crash into the head of the monster, digging a gouge in an armored plate, but failing to do any real damage.

He was more than a little surprised that his Eldritch Blast and Jake's bite were enough to end it.

He checked the other three and found two that each died to a second bite, while the one that had attacked from behind was going toe to toe with Jake, and was only losing by a tiny difference.

The UtahRaptor had was successfully dodging the alligator-like teeth, but the whip-like stinger had already pierced deeply into its side, and Jake was moving more slowly, becoming sluggish.

Bob watched as the Komoscorp took a quick step back, huffed, and three copies of itself appeared.

Bob mentally commanded his raptor pack to attack the real lizard, and they leaped into battle.

He managed to get off two more Eldritch Blast's before the battle was over.

He retreated to the gateway to think things over.

His mana regeneration worked out to around eighty-four mana every three seconds. He could summon a pack of raptors, drop an effect over time eighty-two second long reinforced armor on each one, and still have a full minute before needing to refresh, assuming he only brought out four raptors, which should do the trick based on how the Komoscorp fought.

As Bob started to cast his spells, he considered that Thidwell had been right.

These lizards were a pain in the ass.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Four hours later, Bob stepped through the gateway and walked over to Austan, pulling four mana crystals out of his inventory as he went.

"How was your delve?" Austan asked cheerfully.

"Thidwell was right, those monsters are a hassle," Bob admitted as he handed the priest four mana crystals.

"I've heard that before," Austan acknowledged.

"And I'm planning to be down there for the wave, so I'm sure I'll have my fill of them," Bob grumbled.

Austan gave a nod and then asked, "That's where the Summoning Affinity Crystals are from?"

Bob grimaced and replied, "It is, which means there is going to be a lot of time spent down there. I'm starting to really appreciate how much time Thidwell must have spent on that floor to have gathered the Affinity Crystals that he did."

Austan laughed and said, "Most people are, surprised that is, when they find out just how much work Thidwell puts in."

Austan shook his head and continued, "A lot of people think that he just pops down there, gives it a once over, and goes back to the guild to do paperwork."

"I just want to know how he can delve that deeply for that long without suffering any of the side effects of being exposed to that mana density," Bob grumbled.

Austan shrugged and replied, "I have no idea, and I've never really considered doing something like that myself," he leaned forward and looked Bob squarely in the eyes as he went on, "there are many things of greater import than delving the Dungeon."

Bob shrugged awkwardly and said, "It seems like everything I need to do revolves around it."

He brightened and went on, "I did build myself a house though, with quite the scenic view," he said, "once the wave has passed you should come up and see it."

Austan grinned and said, "After the wave then, I'd love to see it."

Bob smiled in return and headed out towards the tavern as he parted by saying, "I'll see you tomorrow for another quick delve."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob walked into the tavern and nearly ran into Kelli.

"Bob!" Kelli exclaimed happily, "Just the man I was looking for!"

Bob smiled back at Kelli hesitantly and replied, "And what exactly were you hunting me down for?"

"Two things," Kelli said as he gestured towards an empty table, "the first being to catch up, I haven't seen you for a while."

Bob poured Monroe onto the center of the table and then took a seat before saying, "I'm glad to see you as well, but now I'm concerned about the second reason."

Kelli laughed as he slumped down into his chair, running a hand through his tussled hair.

"Not unwarranted," Kelli admitted, "being as the second reason is that Thidwell wants to see you tomorrow morning."

"Any idea what he wants?" Bob asked.

"I do," Kelli said, "or at least I'm pretty sure I do," he went on, "you've finished some of those pamphlets, right?"

Bob relaxed a bit as he replied, "I have, should I bring a few?"

Kelli shook his head and said, "More like a few dozen, Thidwell is hoping that by having the freshers who used the Affinity Crystals and took the Paths the way you suggested will inspire others to join the Guild."

Bob nodded and said, "Harv and Elli said as much, although now that I'm down the floor where you can find the Summoning Affinity Crystals, I'm starting to realized just how much of a chore this is going to be."

Bob shook his head and went on, "I figure that if I push every day of the week, I might be able to gain three of them a week. At least at the moment," Bob frowned.

"Something wrong?" Kelli asked.

"My UtahRaptor is an amazing tank, but his damage is starting to fall behind," Bob said, "or at least behind the output of a Conjuration Blast spell of equivalent level, which I know is comparing apples to oranges, but I need to start leveling up my Eldritch Blast spell, and it's going to take a while."

"You're on the twenty-seventh floor at level twenty-three, I'm sure you're skills are going to rocket up," Kelli said consolingly.

Bob nodded with a sigh and gave a wave to Theo.

"There are just so very many of them," Bob said.

Kelli just grinned at him and replied, "Well, given how many Summoning Affinity Crystals you're going to need, I imagine you'll have your skills all capped before you have all the Crystals you want anyways."

Bob nodded and said, "Yeah, that is true. At least the floor is nice."

"What's it like?" Kelli asked, which caused Bob to launch into a description of the primordial forest.

Theo arrived with their food while Bob was describing the mist that swirled around the ferns and concealed the Komoscorps, and he paused to dip a chunk of crusty bread into his stew.

Monroe wasted no time attacking his bowl of meat chunks, having had a lovely time playing in the forest. He'd only had to jump into Bob's inventory once to avoid a Komoscorp that had locked onto the big cat, as he spent most of his time scrambling up the huge trees, or along fallen tree trunks.

Bob described the Komoscorps in detail, causing Kelli to shiver.

As they worked through their meal, Kelli switch topics.

"Have you spoken to Amber recently?"

Bob blinked as he mentally shifted gears.

"No," he said slowly, "not for quite some time, why?"

Kelli shrugged awkwardly and said, "She's been down on the first floor of the Dungeon for a couple of hours a day, smacking beetles with a stick."

"She hasn't taken a path yet, but she's got quite the pile of crystals," Kelli continued, "she's still having some trouble reconciling her new reality."

Kelli shook his head and smiled at Bob, "In a lot of ways you assimilated very quickly."

"I had serious motivation," Bob said as he reached out to scratch Monroe's ruff.

"True," Kelli agreed as he reached out to provide a touch of devotion to the Divine Feline Overlord.

"I know you suggested she go down the Curator path," Kelli said carefully, "and I was wondering why?"

"She asked what the most powerful path available to her was," Bob said uncomfortably, "and as you well know, without an Affinity Crystal, the Curator path is the absolute most powerful."

Kelli nodded as he rubbed Monroe's cheeks, drawing an increase in purr volume from their benevolent ruler.

"She's spent some time asking around, and I'm pretty sure she plans to try and buy an Affinity Crystal, once they become more common," Kelli said.

Bob shrugged.

He'd already made the assumption that once the knowledge of Affinity Crystals had spread and been accepted, that the various Dungeons with levels known to produce certain Affinity Crystals would farm them and trade them to the other Adventurers Guild.

Inevitably there would be a market for them, and the market would price them according to rarity and desirability.

"There isn't anything wrong with that," Bob said evenly, "I'd go so far as to say it's likely the smartest play for her," he continued, "she can sit at level zero, gathering a stockpile of crystals, and once the crystals start becoming available for sale, she can buy whatever she wants or can afford."

Kelli nodded in agreement and replied, "She more or less said the same thing, but," Kelli paused and considered his words, "she isn't stupid, Bob. She knows that the knowledge of the Affinity Crystals and the Paths to go with them came from you."

Bob grimaced but nodded. It was hardly a secret, and although he hadn't signed the pamphlets, it was inevitable that eventually, anyone who wanted to know who had written would be able to discover it was Bob without a terrible investment of effort.

"So," Kelli said, "she asked me to ask you if there were any paths that focused on plant magic, with an affinity crystal."

Kelli raised a hand to forestall interruption and continued, "She asked me to ask you, instead of asking you herself, because she understands that you, quite justifiably, don't care for her, and she doesn't want to intrude on your existence any more than absolutely necessary, because and I quote, 'I've caused enough harm.'"

Bob sighed and leaned back in his chair, idly stroking one of Monroe's front paws.

He did know of a path that required a Plant Affinity Crystal.

He'd had some long conversations with Trebor during his vacation, and one of the main topics had been just exactly how he was going to save the population of Earth when the System Integration completed, and the mana tide rose up.

In a flash of inspiration, Bob had confirmed that Trebor could monitor and confirm when the System Integration started.

So Bob had more time to prepare for that he'd thought.

He didn't know how much more time he had, but hopefully it would be a bit.

Twenty or thirty years would be about perfect, but Bob wasn't holding out any hope for that kind of luck, as his rarely ran that way.

To that end, Bob now had a doomsday clock setup through Trebor. When triggered, it would start a clock in the upper right-hand side of his vision, informing him that earth was xx:xx:xx:xx into System Integration.

Bob had given a lot of thought about how to save people who were effectively level zero from a mana tide that would spawn level one hundred monsters.

There was no way he could pull enough people to Thayland, and raise their levels to the point where they could hope to save anything more than a fraction of a percent of the population of Earth.

So, Bob had come up with a plan.

Mana density was directly linked to gravity. Therefore, if you were in zero-gravity, monsters wouldn't spawn.

Trebor had confirmed this.

The answer was to put them in orbit.

Or at least as many of them as he could.

He'd initially considered building some kind of giant space station but had quickly decided that doing so was just too complicated.

The problem was that the people of Earth couldn't survive the initial mana tide. Full stop. There likely wouldn't be a million people left.

The solution was to get them away from places where the mana tide would spawn monsters. So, the orbit was the answer.

If he treated people as simply cargo that needed to be protected from the dangers of space, requiring a breathable atmosphere, food, and water, the solution was much more manageable.

Ten-foot by ten-foot by ten-foot crates, with ritual Spatial Enlargement spells cast on them, could at Bob's current casting value, be expanded to twenty-two thousand five hundred cubic feet. And while that sounded like a lot, it only measured out to four and a half flats measuring five hundred square feet each, with ten-foot ceilings. This was clearly not enough.

He'd considered Trebor's advice to simply cast more ritual Spatial Enlargements from inside the crate once it was spatially enlarged which would ultimately save crystals.

Bob had ultimately decided that while he was feeling fairly certain about this plan, he did not want to place all of his human eggs in one basket as it were, and lose the entire human race if something happened to the crate.

But he did need to condense things a bit. So, he decided to include one additional Spatial Enlargement ritual from within the first, which Trebor advised was perfectly safe, although as the caster of the ritual, Bob would be the only person who could open a portal into the Spatially Enlarged space. Choosing to use a one hundred foot by one hundred foot crate simplified the matter further.

Doing so would increase the capacity dramatically, allowing for over one hundred thousand flats per crate, or roughly four hundred thousand people, assuming a family of four per flat.

He would also need to use the Transmutation skill Weight Manipulation to keep them from plummeting out of orbit.

A ritually cast Hermetic Seal on the crate would take care of anything physically harming it, and a ritual Ward spell would handle radiation as a form of energy.

Inside, things started to get a little messy. He'd planned on assuming that a ritual Control Air and a ritual Control Fire would keep the air breathable and the temperature steady, while a ritual Control Water would keep the water running and clean. However, due to the now-massive space, there was no way a single ritual could cover all that space and still retain the one hundred point caster score necessary for full control of the air, water, and temperature. Instead, he would need to cast the six rituals fifteen times, for a total of ninety-three rituals, each of which would require one mana crystal per day in upkeep.

Of course, he would need eighteen of these massive crates in order to house over seven billion people.

Given that each crate was going to require ninety-three rituals to create or nine thousand three hundred mana crystals, Bob was looking at almost one hundred and seventy thousand mana crystals, just to have the space necessary to house humanity in orbit.

It would cost the same amount again to make sure they survived all one hundred days.

Trebor was estimating the mana density based on Bob's knowledge of Earth's gravity, but Bob wasn't taking any chances.

Bob was still uncertain as to how exactly he was going to organize all that space into neat little cubes into which he could stick people.

He strongly suspected the answer was going to be more mana crystals. In fact, he suspected it would be another fifteen rituals, which would increase the total cost of each crate to just shy of one hundred and ninety-five thousand mana crystals, with an equal number required in upkeep for the one hundred days. So call it four hundred mana crystals.

Then, it was just a matter of keeping everyone fed until it was safe to come back down, which according to Trebor, should be roughly one hundred days, plus or minus five.

The simple fact was the entire planet lacked the resources to feed the population preserved food for one hundred days.

Thus, his inquiry into plant magic.

He'd determined that he'd need one person at level twenty or higher with a plant path for crate which would mean he'd need eighteen people. Preferably with one or two additional for back up.

And they'd need a hundred mana crystals a day to pull that trick off as well, which was ten thousand mana crystals per crate.

All told Bob was looking at six hundred thousand mana crystals.

Regardless, and more to the point, Bob had looked at paths involving the Divine School of Plant.

He'd come up with two options.

The first involved him not being able to procure Plant Affinity Crystals.

The Path of the Arboreal Servant The Path of the Arboreal Servant is obtained by having the following skills: Divine School of Plant, Plant Growth, Plant Shaping, Poison Blast, Shapeshift Plant The Path of the Aobreal Servant grants the user a one percent bonus to the user's caster value per level to the Divine School of Plant. The user may also choose one additional skill per level, restricted to the Divine Schools and Skills. At level five, and every five levels thereafter, the user may select one skill from the Divine School of Plant, and increase the maximum level of that skill by five. This effect may only be applied once to any given Skill. Upon reaching level five, the user receives the skill Ritual Magic. Upon reaching level ten, the user receives the skill Effect over Time. Upon reaching level fifteen, the user receives the skill Persistent Effect. Upon reaching level twenty, the user receives the skill Barrage. Upon reaching level twenty-five, the user is considered to have the Plant Affinity and may choose to Apotheosis into a race that requires it.

It was a fairly nice path, and it even generated an Affinity, which was the first time Bob had seen that.

The second option was quite a bit stronger, as was to be expected when an Affinity Crystal was required.

The Path of the Floral Adept The Path of the Floral Adept is obtained by having the following skills: Divine School of Plant, Plant Growth, Plant Shaping, Shapeshift Plant, Root. The user must have had Affinity for the Divine School of Plant The Path of the Floral Adept grants the user a two percent bonus to the user's caster value per level to the Divine School of plant, as well as a one percent bonus per level to all other Divine Schools. The user may choose an additional skill per level. At level five and every level thereafter, the user may select one skill from the Divine School of Plant and increase the maximum level of that skill by five. This effect may only be applied once to any skill. Upon reaching level ten and level twenty, the user may select any one skill from a Divine School other than the school of Plant, and increase the maximum level of that skill by five. This effect may only be applied once to any skill. Upon reaching level five, and every five levels thereafter, the user may select one of the following skills: Ritual Magic, Effect over Time, Barrage, Persistent Effect, Area of Effect, Sculpting, Brilliance, Enlightened, Fountain, Spell Penetration, Vicious Spell, Swarm or Storm. Upon reaching level twenty-five, the user is considered to be always under the effect of Shapeshift: Plant and Root and may use these skills at will.

Either one would do in terms of food production.

"Are you still with me Bob?" Kelli asked.

"Sorry," Bob said, "I got lost in my thoughts for a moment."

"I do have a pair of paths she might use, I'll write them out and hand the sheets over to you tomorrow morning after I see Thidwell," Bob said.

"Thanks," Kelli said quietly.

Bob nodded and picked up Monroe before heading home.