Bob was hiding, and he had no problem admitting it.

The weekend had been an absolute shitshow. Eric had wound upbringing almost three million people to Thayland, and the number of people who had needed immediate regeneration had been overwhelming.

If it weren't for a couple of hundred Old Guard spamming Anima Blast, they would have lost people. Once Eric started emptying the hospitals Sunday night, they couldn't cast regenerate fast enough to keep up with the flow of people coming in that needed it.

It had been touch and go throughout the night, and the whole operation hadn't really ended until just after noon on Monday. By that point, Bob was on close to forty hours without sleep, a condition exacerbated by having cast regeneration rituals for sixteen hours shifts, with only a minor break to deliver an obscene number of Mana Crystals to the King's steward.

He'd fled that encounter before the King could involve himself, although he was sure that he'd be speaking to the Dragon sooner rather than later.

Later would be fine with him, but he'd settle for not now at the moment.

He shifted position or tried to. Monroe had been feeling a little lonely and was draped across his legs as they napped, his purr a soothing rumble, like a not-so-distant thunderstorm.

Some of the veterans from Earth had decided to bring their families with them, others their friends. Not all of them, but enough that the numbers had swelled. If there was any silver lining to be found, it was that most of the extra people hadn't needed any healing. At least not immediate healing. Cancer had apparently been a criteria for bringing your loved ones to a place that had magical healing.

Bob knew that there would be a shit storm, and he was determined to let it pass before poking his head out of his safe, cozy inventory. He had his Arcane Depths to Delve, and he needed a truckload of mana crystals anyway.

Giving up his struggle to escape the weight of his feline overlord without awakening the dread beast, Bob instead chose to practice his mana control. He slowly released energy from his matrix, switching through the four elements. After three cycles, he added Plant then Animal to the list. Invocation was still eluding him, but he was certain he'd get there eventually.

System-less casting was going to make or break him when he tiered up. Losing his current, ill-gotten path had been an inevitability, but his recreation of his Arcane Depths would ensure his freedom. "Trebor," Bob said quietly, not wanting to awaken Monroe, "when building a path if I were to restrict the ability to a certain school, would the system prevent me from using that flavor of mana?"

'No,' Trebor replied, 'you would simply be restricted from taking that skill.'

Bob nodded. "As I understand it, a more stringent restriction allows for a more powerful bonus. What sort of bonus could I take for restricting the use of all Psionic schools?"

'Restricting access to four schools of magic would be a substantial bonus, especially if applied to a single school or spell,' Trebor replied. 'It could be used to gain an additional bonus at each threshold for the school, or two additional bonuses at each threshold for a single spell. Now, as we are speaking of restricting an entire sphere of magic, the bonuses would be even more significant. As Psionics is the least of the spheres, it would provide an additional bonus at each threshold for a single spell, on top of the bonuses for restricting four schools.'

"So if when I reached level seven of the Summoning School, I could choose the twenty-five percent increase to my Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell, as well as the ten percent increase to all spells in the school?" Bob asked.

'Yes, and you could do again when you reached level fourteen, although the values will be adjusted by the system update,' Trebor replied.

"Still," Bob murmured, "that's quite good. Do you know what the threshold bonuses for individual spells are going to look like?"

'There will be a flat percentage increase as an option, for those looking to simply increase the power of the skill,' Trebor explained, 'as well as increases for skills where the value is less important, such as summoning, where the maximum level of the summoned monster is paramount, or an increase in the maximum size of a summoned object. The choices will be myriad as they will rely on the other skills present. If, for example, you had the Ritual skill and the Plant Growth spell, you could choose to reduce the amount of time it took for the plants to grow to maturity.'

"So I can write off Psionics as they aren't that interesting to me, as well as Invoke Sanctum and Invoke Netherworld, and honestly Order and Discord don't interest me either," Bob mused.

'Keep in mind that you can only have a number of restrictions equal to your tier,' Trebor reminded him.

"So at tier seven, it's one point for the school, then one for each threshold, so three points total. Then one point for the skill and then another six for the additional threshold bonuses to cap it." He paused. "Is there a sort of capstone bonus that I need to spend a point to get?" He asked.

'No,' Trebor replied, 'the system is differentiating between School and Skill thresholds to encourage further specialization.'

"Ok, so I know that I won't be able to afford all the skills I need, let alone all the ones I want, with just my base forty-nine skill points," Bob said. "How do bonus skill points work?"

'They are equivalent to skill threshold bonuses,' Trebor replied, 'and could be used as such. If you were to eliminate a school of magic, you could select a skill, and it wouldn't require any skills to unlock the thresholds for that spell, instead simply prompting you to select the bonus.'

"So restricting the Psionic Sphere would grant me five spells unlocked to their cap?" Bob asked, wanting to make sure he had a firm grasp on the exchange.

'Yes,' Trebor stated.

Bob frowned. "That seems off," he muttered. "Banning the whole sphere gets me two threshold bonuses to the school and three to each threshold on a spell."

'Again, specialization,' Trebor explained. 'By taking the bonus boosting thresholds for the school and skill, you are further specializing. Simply taking the threshold unlocks for three skills is a more generalist approach.'

Bob nodded slowly. "So, apply the Psionics restriction to the Summoning School and the Summon Mana-Infused Creature threshold bonuses. Restricting the entire sphere only counts as one restriction, right?"

'Correct,' Trebor replied.

"So restrict Sanctum, Netherworld, Order, Necromancy, and Discord, use those to unlock Mana Shaping, Mana Sight, Spatial Expansion, Spatial Reinforcement, and Portal," Bob ticked off the skills one by one. "If I use Affinity Crystals to pick up the Schools for Abjuration and Dimension, that will save me another two skill points."

He sighed and shook his head. "Animancy has to be there, healing is too important and time-sensitive to relegate to system-less casting. I can probably keep it down to three points, one for the school, one for Anima Blast, and one for regeneration."

'Don't forget the casting skills themselves,' Trebor said.

"Effect Over Time, Persistent Effect, Barrage, and Ritual Magic," Bob agreed. Another four skill points gone. "Armor, armor spec, parry, melee," Bob grumbled. He wouldn't have the points to cap each of them, so it would probably be a general armor and armor spec up to the second threshold, while the rest languished.

"There just aren't going to be enough points," Bob grumbled.

'That is rather the point,' Trebor replied. 'As I've said, and as will be indicated in the update, specialization is going to be the key. Your world has illustrated the power of highly specialized individuals. Realistically, every two tiers will result in an individual having one skill at which they excel. A tier one being will be able to do one thing. A tier three being will be able to do two. Tier five species such as humans will be able to have three different skills mastered. You're looking at building a tier seven path, so you should expect to excel at four skills. You've chosen to customize your path, applying heavy restrictions, which means you'll have seven skills at which you will excel.'

"I've been meaning to ask, I think I understand the bonuses you can gain from restrictions, but to be clear, requirements work the same way, right?"

'Yes,' Trebor replied.

"So what bonuses would I get if the path required me to take the Summoning School, Summon Mana-Infused Creature, Summon Mana-Infused Object, Dimension, Portal, Effect Over Time, and Barrage?" Bob asked.

'Three minor bonuses,' Trebor replied. 'You've taken two schools from the same sphere, so no bonus there, and you've taken a skill from each school, so no bonuses there. You've taken two spell casting skills, so two minor bonuses for modification skills, and finally a minor bonus for requiring all skill points be spent.'

"And what if the path required me to have Summoning, Abjuration, Conjuration, and Dimension, all with Affinity Crystals, then Summon Mana-Infused Creature, Summon Mana-Infused Object, and Portal?" Bob asked.

'Each Affinity Crystal requirement is a major bonus, each school without a skill beneath it is a moderate bonus, each modification skill is a minor bonus, as is requiring all skill points be spent, so four major bonuses, two moderate bonuses, and three minor bonuses,' Trebor replied.

"Can the bonus from an Affinity Crystal be used to unlock thresholds?" Bob asked.

'Yes, they can be used to fully unlock a school, or they can be used to fully unlock a skill,' Trebor replied.

"Skill point-wise, it's more efficient to fully unlock a skill," Bob noted.

'Yes, although you won't receive any additional bonuses to the skill or its thresholds,' Trebor advised.

"Yeah, gonna keep my fourteen bonus levels on my UtahRaptor, thank you very much," Bob muttered. "So, minor bonuses?"

'One percent bonus per level to a skill, or an equivalent reduction in cost,' Trebor explained. 'Moderate bonuses can grant a bonus skill at each threshold, or a bonus skill point every other threshold.'

"And the major bonuses?" Bob asked.

'Capstone bonuses,' Trebor stated. 'Arcane Depths, Endless Swarm, Elemental Form, etc.' Trebor paused for a split second. 'Arcanists Familiar.'

"How did the Endless Swarm work anyway?" Bob asked. "By my count, it had four minor bonuses."

'It effectively cheated,' Trebor replied drily. 'It linked all the requirements together, requiring that all the skills be used at the same time to complete a task that wasn't possible using the skills as written by the System, or without outside aid. It carried the unwritten requirement to have the necessary mana to cast the persistent effect twice, which isn't possible for a human, even with all their attributes directed towards mana, without enchanted equipment. Or it required the insight to utilize the Barrage effect in an advanced manner. That final requirement elevated each minor bonus to a moderate and provided a capstone.'

Bob's train of thought was interrupted as Monroe wriggled forward and deposited a paw the size of a saucer on his face.

'hungry/thirsty/warm' emotions echoed through the tiny corner of his mind where the familiar bond lived.

It took a minute of wrestling, but he managed to escape the confines of the covers and then headed toward the kitchen.

He'd found that it was easy to lose himself in the cyclic process of trying to plan out his path. The whole thing appealed to the part of him that loved math, that rejoiced whenever he solved an equation.

Bob took solace in the knowledge that indulging in this particular habit wasn't entirely selfish. He planned to write a guide for building paths and have it sent via email to everyone he could. It would include the pertinent information from his pamphlets, which after the update was really just going to be how to use Affinity Crystals. That and the instructions for building a Gated Dungeon, as well as the technique for shielding against mana sickness.

He pulled out a bowl of diced fish for Monroe, and a breakfast burrito for himself, rejoicing in the simple pleasure of having a hot meal at his fingertips. Chronomancy and the stasis ritual were on his list of system-less magic to perfect, but it fell well short of the top or even the middle of the list.

Today was going to be a forty-first floor day, where he'd be gathering Conjuration Affinity Crystals. He was cycling through them. Monday was Summoning Affinity Crystals, Tuesday Conjuration, Wednesday Dimension, Thursday Abjuration, and Friday Animal. He'd take two days off from grinding, then the next week it would be the four elements and Plant.

Plant and Animal, residing on the forty-ninth and fiftieth floors, respectively, were coming in a bit slower. While Jake was a big boy, once Bob was delving ten floors deeper than his level, monsters started to become rather challenging.

He finished his burrito and headed for the shower. He was going to grind for twelve hours, then meet Bailli and Erick for dinner at Murmuring Falls. It was an arrangement he'd made a couple of weeks ago, but he felt fairly confident that the people who were likely to blame him for the Old Guards' recruitment drive weren't waiting for him at a home that most people didn't know he had.

Bob wanted to bounce some ideas off the two of them as far as potential paths went. He trusted Bailli and, by extension, Erick, and he wanted to make sure she was in the know as far as the update went. He'd already had her reincarnate twice, costing her years of her life, and despite knowing that friendships weren't based on any sort of perceived balance of favors owed and favors given, he couldn't help but feel that he owed her.

He needed to have the same conversation with Eddi, but Eddi was busy leveling back up as a curator. Eddi had burned his Affinity Crystals for schools to meet the requirements of the path and had used an Animal Affinity Crystal to ensure that his beloved Rexxy would be as mighty as ever, even if the Rexettes were tragically absent.

Bob frowned as he ducked under the hot water. He hadn't spoken to Eddi in almost two weeks, and he couldn't help but wonder what he was up to. It wasn't that Eddi couldn't be left unsupervised, it was just that he had a tendency to get carried away.

He'd check in with him tomorrow morning, Bob decided. He needed to make sure the generator was fed anyway, and he didn't remember ever telling anyone to feed it, so it was a two birds, one stone sort of thing.

Toweling off, he pulled on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt before padding back into the kitchen and then the bedroom in search of Monroe. His feline overlord was curled up back on the bed, tail covering his eyes. Briefly weighing the idea of waking Monroe up to join him in the Arcane Depths, Bob decided to let sleeping kitties lay.