Bob walked into Nikki's with the gaming group, along with Kelli following him. Gary looked up from the counter and smiled. "Good morning!" He greeted them enthusiastically, "have you brought me a new batch of freshers?"

"Pretty much," Bob replied, "although they don't speak a word of Thayland, so I'm offering to pay Kelli to stuff the language into your head."

"Well, I know Kelli wouldn't hurt me," Gary said, "so wh-." Kelli cut him off with a raised hand, "Actually, this will kind of hurt," Kelli said sheepishly, "it'll give you a bit of a headache, but it fades after a few minutes."

"Well, no permanent harm then, I suppose," Gary nodded at the group behind Bob, "I take it I'll then be making sales to these fine folks?"

"Indeed," Bob replied with a nod.

"Well then, let's proceed in the name of commerce," Gary joked.

His smile was replaced with a wince as Kelli completed his ritual. "Stars and stones, that's unpleasant," he grumbled before switching to English. "Welcome to Nikki's," he greeted the group, with his hand held to his temple, "I'm Gary, and here you'll find all the supplies an Adventurer could need to keep themselves safe and comfortable."

Gary grimaced and gave up, leaning on the counter with both hands massaging his temples. "I'll be with you in just a few minutes; feel free to look around," he managed.

Bob motioned for the group to follow him and led them over to the rack containing simple suits of leather armor.

"This is what I started in," Bob said, "and it served me quite well until I could both afford and make use of enchanted armor."

"I meant to ask why you're not wearing Wizard's Robes," Amanda said as she fingered the sleeve of a suit of crimson armor.

"There aren't any armor restrictions," Bob replied, "you can wear anything, but they don't have a lot of metal armor around here, and I don't know if I'd want that much weight, it would make it harder to dodge." Bob gestured towards his chest, "This has impact plates sandwiched between the layers of leather, which keeps the armor flexible, and provides some pretty significant protection."

"I do like your outfit," Jack said, "stylish and practical."

"Well," Gary said as he approached the group, looking mostly recovered, "you'll no doubt be coming to me for enchanted armor once you're ready," he told Jack, "but in the meantime, Bob is absolutely right, simple leather armor is the best thing to start with." Gary gestured towards the rack, "I have other sets in the back, but these represent the color choices I have available."

"Can I mix and match?" Vera asked, "I'd like the dark blue chest, but with black sleeves and leggings, and blue boots, with a dark blue cloak, and a black satchel."

"I'd like the same, but crimson rather than dark blue," Amanda added, then nodded towards Dave, "and he'll take the same."

Dave shrugged his assent.

"I can certainly do that," Gary smiled, "how about the rest of you?"

Tony indicated his preference for Green, Jack for Blue, and Lakisha for the classic fresher Black.

Gary rubbed his hands together gleefully and pulled out his measuring tape. "Let's get you measured up and into some armor," he said as he started with Amanda.

Bob leaned back against the counter and waited, letting his thoughts run loose.

He'd need to see if Gary, Nikki, and Jakob would be willing to apprentice someone, or more likely many someones, to learn their craft. He didn't know how much stock they had on hand, but it wasn't likely to meet the demands that would be placed on it.

There wasn't likely to be a shortage of material components, as the people delving the Dungeon could provide more than would be needed, but processing them could become an issue as well.

Bob grimaced. He needed to finish building out his Arcane Depths so that he could delve for Affinity Crystals, especially the ones that weren't available from the Dungeon in Holmstead.

Bailli had gone off in search of a cook, and Austan had offered to provide reincarnation for the grandparents and parents of the gaming group if they wished.

He could see the growing pile of mana crystals this was going to cost him. Luckily, he still had thousands leftover from what the Endless had given him, but even those wouldn't last forever. He needed to have people delving for crystals as soon as possible.

Huron had been clear that the King considered the entire continent to be a part of his Kingdom and thus would require ten percent of the crystals gathered from the Dungeons as a tax.

As much as it irritated him to have to turn over crystals like that, it was a small price to pay for a peaceful relationship with Greenwold.

His initial plan had been to have people delving at around level ten, but after seeing what the Endless could do, he was reconsidering. It might be better to focus more effort on driving the Dungeon down twenty-eight levels, and having his delvers push to twenty-five, then farm mana and affinity crystals on the twenty-eighth floor.

As more and more people came in, the lower floors would still see heavy use. At the same time, the massive quantities of mana crystals that were gathered would allow newly minted curators, who would be placed in groups with a few Endless Swarm people, to rapidly increase their levels, to drive new Dungeons down rapidly.

He thought it would work that way. Maybe.

Gary interrupted his musings.

"So, I've got the lot of them sorted out," he gestured to the group behind him, which Bob noted were all dressed in armor, with a satchel and cloak. "Ready for the damage?" Gary grinned.

"I'm guessing a hundred and thirty-two mana crystals?" Bob asked.

"Exactly right," Gary agreed, taking the mana crystals that Bob had pulled from his inventory.

"So," Bob began, "this is the first of many, and when I say many, I mean hundreds of thousands of people who are going to need armor, and soon."

Gary's eyes widened, "Where are all these people coming from?" he asked.

"That's a long story, best told over a meal," Bob replied, "but the long and short of it is, I was wondering if you could ramp up production of the basic armor. I can probably arrange for some of the people to come apprentice under you or whatever system you have in place for training people."

Gary rubbed his hand over his smooth scalp thoughtfully.

"That might be possible," he muttered, "how soon is this going to happen?"

Bob shrugged his shoulders. "Hopefully, very quickly," he said, "I'm expecting an exponential increase."

"There are some people in the camp outside the town that have come in, looking for work," Gary mused, "I didn't have any work for them, what with my only selling a set of basic armor a few times a week. But if you're looking at increasing that number, quickly, I could bring them on board."

Bob did his best not to wince as he pulled out twenty-two hundred mana crystals and placed them on the counter. "I'll prepay for the next one hundred sets," he stated with as much confidence as he could muster.

"Alright," Gary nodded, "I'll get a few them in here and have them start working; I can likely have everything done inside of a week, week, and a half."

"Good enough," Bob said, then turned and motioned towards the group to follow him, "We're off to see Joseph next."

The walk to Joseph's was filled with whispers and muttering as the group started tweaking the adjustments to their armor. Bob ignored it, not having anything to add that Gary wouldn't have told them already.

Entering the shop, Bob was greeted by the familiar blast of heat, immediately followed by Joseph bellowing out a greeting.

Bob repeated his explanation, and Joseph agreed to allow Kelli to work his magic. Oddly, Joseph handled having the language implanted in his mind with barely a flinch.

"So, you'll be needing staves then?" he rumbled in English as he walked around his counter and started piling up staves, separating them by the type of wood.

"I've been building up a stockpile of level ten staves," Joseph winked at Bob, "knowing what was coming and all. Sadly, even at only twenty-five percent over cost, I'm not selling many. It seems that the group out there has become quite the little community, dedicated to reincarnating people as soon as an Affinity Crystal becomes available."

"Your young man, Eddi," he continued as he started passing out staves for the group to try, "he's made sure that anyone who wants a Summoning Affinity Crystal can have one, and he's singing the praises of the Path of the Endless Swarm to any who will listen, which is quite a few, especially after he gave a demonstration or two."

"Despite that, I'm still holding onto better than a hundred level ten staves," Joseph said sorrowfully before stepping back, having handed each person a staff.

"Step apart and give them a swing," Joseph instructed the group, "get a feel for the balance and for the wood itself. The right staff will feel perfectly balanced in your hands, easy to grip, and pleasant to the touch."

"The wand chooses the wizard?" Jack joked as he swung a staff down in an overhead strike.

"Bah," Joseph snorted, "you wouldn't want a wand, not as a real spell caster. You'll get a lot more power out of a staff. No, wands are for people who occasionally dabble in magic, using it for utility spells and the like."

Amanda and Dave ended up with matching Hickory staves, while Vera and Jack choose Walnut, Tony ended up with Maple, while Lakisha found an Oak staff that felt perfect.

"Two hundred and fifty each," Joseph said as Bob approached the counter to settle the bill.

Bob pulled out another fifteen hundred mana crystals stoically. "You have better than a hundred staves ready?" he asked quietly.

Joseph nodded. "The wife and I have been busy," he replied, "and I expect business will pick up once the people who've reincarnated get down past the sixth level and start making room for the others."

"I'm looking at having a lot of people in need of staves," Bob said, "and by a lot, I mean tens, even hundreds of thousands."

Joseph squinted up at Bob, and he rubbed his nose for a moment. "I'll not ask where they're coming from; I'll only caution you that the powers that be aren't likely to be fond of refugees," Joseph began, "that said, I can tell you that it'll take a long time to make that many staves with just the two of us."

"I might be able to send you some freshly pathed level five people to help," Bob offered.

Joseph shook his head, "Better that they reach level ten and have their skills up to par," he replied, then sighed. "I'll get started," he said, "you send me a few people with plant growth, control plant, and ritual magic at level ten, and I can speed things up a little. Find me some people with control earth, control fire, and metalworking, and I can maybe give you an estimate as to how long it'll take."

Bob nodded and clasped shoulders with Joseph before ushering his gaming group out of the shop and through a portal that led back to Glacier Valley.

Detective Hanson read the email again. It was full of flowery and dense legalese, all of which boiled down to asking him if he was really, really, sure that Robert Whitman was, in fact, alive.

He leaned back in his chair and contemplated another cup of coffee. It was before noon, on a Monday. He decided instead to pop another antiacid. First, his weekend had been interrupted, and now this.

Maybe Bob would consent to a DNA test. Or better yet, two or three of them, as the first one or two would no doubt be viewed with suspicion.

"Fuck it," he muttered and heaved himself out of his chair, leaning over his computer and forwarding the email. He slung on his jacket and headed out. He had four active homicide cases, all of which were more important to him than dealing with the fallout of a case that was materially no longer a homicide. His captain could deal with it.