"Fuck," Bob muttered.

He'd been finishing off his path, working through his threshold bonuses. He'd applied the threshold bonuses for Anima Blast to his Summon Mana-Infused Creature, netting a thirty-five percent strength healing effect, which when combined with his Eldritch Sheild would make allow him to keep Jake out indefinitely, even against higher level monsters where the UtahRaptor normally accumulated damage quickly enough that he'd needed to resummon him every second or third fight.

At the moment, his Eldritch Shield spell was level forty two, which represented six thresholds. His Anima Blast was level thirty seven, which represented five. That bumped the cost of his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell to twelve mana.

The problem was that after allocating his skill points on the remaining skills he wanted, the mana reserved from his skills jumped to thirty. That left him one point shy of keeping Jake up.

Looking through his skills, he realized things were even worse than he'd thought. If he wanted the bonus from the Medium Armor skill, he'd need to pay mana for it's upkeep. Even worse, he discovered that the reason his enchanted armor wasn't working was that he needed to pay the upkeep of one mana for each enchantment. That was another six mana.

Matrix Manipulation was another skill that required energy to keep going, and one that he'd been using unconsciously for years. He'd long ago set himself to Fade, constantly reducing the degree to which monsters would notice his mana.

After paying the upkeep for his armor, his mana regeneration was at forty-eight, which meant the enchantments had been worth half again what he'd paid in upkeep, leaving his modified regeneration at ten.

Which wasn't enough to keep his spell up.

Unless he took the cost reduction threshold bonuses for his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell.

Increase spell level by one.

Decrease resource requirements by one percent, plus an additional percent for each skill that applies all of it's threshold bonuses to this skill.

Increase either Damage or Armor by one percent, plus an additional percent for each skill that applies all of it's threshold bonuses to this skill.

Apply a Summon effect to another skill.

"So, my spell is level sixty-four, which gives me nine threshold bonuses, or a nine percent reduction, but thanks to Anima Blast and Eldritch Shield, I'd have twenty-seven. That would put the spell at nine mana, right?" Bob muttered

'No,' Trebor replied.

"I don't think I'm actually capable of fucking up simple percentages," Bob replied.

'Your math is incorrect because one of the underlying values is incorrect,' Trebor said. 'Although you have also forgotten about the ten percent cost reduction granted to you by your Fragmented Achievement.'

Bob frowned. "Shouldn't you have told me this earlier?"

'I am unable to respond to anything but direct questions during this process,' Trebor replied.

"Why?" Bob asked, worried.

'The stasis effect. You aren't actually cycling mana in stasis, so at the moment the System is the one paying the costs to maintain my process, which is in conflict with the new structure under which you function. Restricting me to answering direct questions reduces the cost of my process,' Trebor stated.

Bob took a deep breath. "Alright then, where is the incorrect value in my calculation?"

'You have failed to take into consideration that with each threshold reached, the mana cost for each spell increases by one. With nine thresholds, and the addition of the five mana from Anima Blast thresholds, and six mana from Eldritch Shield thresholds, your total would be twenty mana for the spell, before taking into account the thirty-seven percent reduction, which would lower it to thirteen,' Trebor explained.

"That was not in the notes," Bob argued.

'Under normal circumstances you would have discovered this when you applied a skill point to advance a skill past the first threshold. You, however, unlocked all of thresholds for the spells you are currently determining, which bypassed this process,' Trebor said.

"File this as a Anomoly Report," Bob sighed. "How can you possibly create a viable path with all these costs?"

'Easily,' Trebor began, 'a simple path for a tier five spell casting adventurer would include a their damage skill at level twenty-five, for seven points. Armor School and Armor Skill to level twenty-five, which would be another six points, and two skills, such as Anima Blast or Repair to level fifteen, which would be four points each for a total of eight. Four points for other skills, such as Matrix Manipulation, Barrage, Area of Effect, and Effect Over Time. That is thirteen points of mana reserved, with Mana Manipulation adding another. The reservation for Armor can be pulled from Stamina. Assuming three enchantments for Intelligence, Wisdom, and Spellcasting Value, the user is at seventeen. Their regeneration is twenty-one. That leaves them with four mana per second regenerated, with their spell costing six. If they cast at full power, they will be able to do so sixty-two times before they empty their mana pool. At this point they would need to wait thirty seconds for it to regenerate, or cast the spells at level fifteen, rather than level twenty-five.'

Trebor paused. 'That is all before a path is taken into account, or your level thresholds. The problem you're having is the number of Affinity Crystals you've used alongside your Pedagogue and Academic Achievements. I doubt that the Illusion or Charm Schools and Spells will ever be useful, and while Stasis is handy, Harv will have Repair covered. You won't be leveling the spell so Conjuration is wasted as well. That's effectively eight points of regeneration reserved for skills you aren't going to use.'

Bob frowned. "Can I submit an Anomaly Report? The Enduring Sphere is useful, but I should be able to decide if and when I accept the schools and skills, right?"

Anomaly Report Accepted. Users with unlocked thresholds will now be notified of increased energy cost per Threshold.

Anomaly Report Accepted. User and Mirror Protocol case accepted. Users may activate Enduring traits either during reincarnation, or at each user level threshold.

"That was quick," Bob mused. "I filed the first one earlier, why did they both pop up now?"

'The total number of individuals still in stasis is now less than five percent,' Trebor replied. 'The System has more resources available to allocate to minor processes such as Anomaly Reports.'

"So, I can get rid of Charm, Illusion, Conjuration and Repair, which is eight points of mana back. That brings me down to thirty-one, thirty if I take my Medium Armor out of stamina, thanks for reminding me that I can do that," Bob began. "That leaves me at eighteen points of mana regeneration per second, which if I take the reduction in cost for my threshold bonus means that I'll be five points over."

'For the moment, yes,' Trebor replied. 'Please keep in mind that you have two more threshold bonuses from both Anima Blast and Eldritch Shield, which will push the spell to nineteen mana. By that time, I expect you will have allocated enough attribute points to make up the difference, based on your current allocation pattern.'

Bob nodded. "Next up, allocating my actual skill points. I have thirty of them, and a few skills I feel like I really do need. Spatial Enlargement and Spatial Reinforcement are niche skills, but have been to be incredibly important. I don't cast them often, but I use the spells I've cast ritually all the time. I didn't hear anyone else volunteering to become a Dimensionalist, so until someone does, that's still going to be my job. Thanks to the bonus from the Affinity Crystal, each of those spells is five levels up on the cap, so at level forty two, that's six points each for a total of twelve."

He closed his eyes as he thought. "Summon Mana-Infused Object might just be the biggest cheat spelling the multiverse," he continued. "It hasn't changed, has it?"

'No, it has not, although it is much less useful if you don't allocate skill points to advance the spell past at least the first few thresholds,' Trebor replied.

Bob nodded. "Only five points there as it doesn't have any bonuses." He sighed. "Two points to unlock both thresholds for Shadowmancy, Dimension, Abjuration, Animancy, and Summoning, which is ten points total, bringing me to twenty-seven. Flight it is a must. Not quite the cheat that summon mana-infused object is, but still incredibly useful."

Unspoken was the fact that without flight, operating outside the ship was incredibly dangerous and cumbersome.

"What else do you think would be useful?" Bob asked.

'While you aren't a craftsman, you are a ritual caster,' Trebor replied. 'The ability to drain mana crystals without shattering them could be useful to you.'

System Help, Skill, Drain Crystal.

This skill allows the user to utilize the condensed essence of an Energy Crystal without destorying the final outer layer. This reduces the value of the crystal by ten percent, but allows the user to refill the crystal with the corresponding skill, Crystallize Energy. A crystal may be drained and refilled a number of times equal to the level of the manifestation from which it coalesced. This skill does not apply to absorbing energy crystals to advance the user's level.

When utilizing this technique to build enchantments that either create or modify effects or objects, the user must take into account the energy loss caused by leaving the final crystalline layer intact. Using this skill to cast a simple ritual spell will require one hundred and ten crystals.

"Well, that begs the question, how does Crystallize Energy work?"

System Help, Skill, Crystallize Energy.

This skill allows the user to refill an energy crystal that has been drained with the skill, Drain Crystal. Skills refilled in this fashion are attuned to the user, and may be absorbed to advance the user's level. The amount of energy required to refill an energy crystal is ten thousand multiplied by the level of the crystal².

Bob frowned. He was doing a lot of that during this whole process. If he was doing his math correctly, he regenerated about one point six million mana per day, if he wasn't doing anything with it. He was using level fifty mana crystals to cast the rituals that jumped the ship. If he drained a crystal, it would require twenty-five million mana to refill, which was about fifteen days of him feeding mana into the crystal. Of course, he had twelve people, some of whom might have more mana regeneration than he did. If everyone chipped in, they might be able to average refilling a single crystal a day. That was pittance in comparison to how quickly you could gather crystals by killing monsters.

"Just how much lower are the coalescence rates?" Bob asked.

'Much lower,' Trebor replied, 'although there are a host of factors involved, based on the information I've been able to access, I expect a reduction of ninety-percent.'

"What?!" Bob shouted. "Ninety percent? That's insane!"

'I suspect that the quests generated for natural Dungeons will make up some of that shortfall,' Trebor explained.

Bob shook his head. The Freedom might end up sitting in space while they delved.

"Still, even with that incredibly massive reduction, we can still pull a crystal an hour, which is much better return on our time," Bob grumbled.

'These skills were put into place to aid those who are unwilling or unable to kill monsters. Their progression will be much slower, but they'll be able to progress. They'll create weapons, armor, housing, utilities, and food, taking the crystals they've been paid with and attuning them so that they can absorb them,' Trebor explained.

Bob shook his head. The System was forthright and adamant regarding energy circulation.

"Well, with flight and those two, I have all my skill points allocated," Bob said. "Now, before we go any further, what are level thresholds?" Bob asked.

Congratulations, you have advanced to the second of seven thresholds for your species. You may choose from one of the following bonuses.

Increase a single attribute by a value equal to your tier.

Increase your spellcasting value by one percent. (User unlocked due to manfestation dispersion utilizing spellcasting)

Decrease the resources required for any skill utilizing your spellcasting value by one percent.

Increase your Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell by one. (User unlocked due to manifestation dispersion utilizing Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell)

Increase any spellcasting value by the users tier in percent for any single spell. (User unlocked due to fully leveling all known spells)

Decrease the resources required by the users tier in percent for any single spell. (User unlocked due to fully leveling all known spells)

"Well, the System is definitely paying more attention," Bob said uneasily.

The System as an unknowable, uncaring overlord was one thing. He could accept that the rules of universe were being standardized and enforced by the alien AI, even if he didn't agree with all of them.

The System as a responsive administrator who answered queries directly was unnerving and would take a bit of getting used to.

"Trebor," Bob began slowly, an idea forming in his mind. "Would it be possible to have you answer anything the System deems a query, instead of the System?"

'Yes,' Trebor replied, 'While the System will no longer offer the Mirror Protocol process, it hasn't changed it. My purpose is to explain the System, and while the System previously didn't answer queries directly, I can intercept them for you.'

"Ok, good," Bob breathed deeply. "Do that until I tell you otherwise."

He blinked and reoriented his thoughts.

"So, whatever I've done to level up is taken into consideration for my level thresholds?" Bob asked.

'Yes,' Trebor replied. 'Your remaining level thresholds also include an option for increasing the level or the size of your portals.'

"Shit, that's an extra thirty-five percent off Portals," Bob muttered. "Combine that with the six percent I get for the spell itself, and then another ten percent for Fragmented, and I'm at fifty-one percent. That's forty nine crystals instead of a hundred. What do you think?"

'That would be useful, given the amount of time it might take to find a suitable planet,' Trebor observed. 'Also, keep in mind that you aren't working toward a perfect build. A substantial portion of the multiverse will be rushing to reincarnate as they find themselves cast into roles for which they aren't well suited. You still intend to rush to tier eight and then reincarnate, correct?'

"That's the plan," Bob agreed. "Either find a planet and hit tier eight on it, or hit teir eight while we're looking for a planet, and hold there until we find one. Once we've found the right planet, and a good spot for it, which means a low level Dungeon, we build out our settlement and reincarnate, then rush up the initial levels."

'Then the reduction in cost for portals is likely the most effective use for your Threshold bonuses. Unless you feel that your Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell could use another five levels. Which it doesn't as you'll have reached tier eight before you push through that next threshold.'

Bob nodded, then allocated his threshold bonuses. He looked over his status and sighed. He was still all over the place.

Name Bob Level 37 Tier 7 Size 9 Armor Hardness 0 Weapon hardness 37 Str 28 Achievements : Extradimensional Traveler Armor Style 1.01 Weapon type 1.01 Cord 28 Pinacle Durable Dodge 0 Spell casting 1.01 End 88 Pedagogue Extradimensional Ferryman Level Thresholds Level 7 Threshold Bonus Attribute Bonus for choosing Path Int 211 Academic Fragmented Level 14 Threshold bonus: 7% reduction in cost for Portal Spell Wis 273 Stamina (Maximum): 58 Stamina Reserved : 0 Savior Reconstituted Level 21 Threshold bonus: 7% reduction in cost for Portal Spell Stamina Regen (maximum) 5 Stamina Regen Reserved: 2 Paragon Level 28 Threshold bonus: 7% reduction in cost for Portal Spell Health 3319 Mana (Maximum) : 242 Mana Reserved: 0 The Old Ways Level 35 Threshold bonus: 7% reduction in cost for Portal Spell Armor 221 Mana Regen (Maximum) 48.4 Mana Regen: Reserved 31 Extradimensional Explorer Level 42 Threshold bonus: Locked Damage 327 Spell Casting 356 Venerated Level 47 Threshold bonus: Locked