"Bob's level twenty," Jessica reported as she looked at her tablet.

"Shit, it's going to take us a while to catch up," Dave sighed.

"It took us just under three months to cap tier seven," Amanda reminded them. "We're doing just fine."

"I need a break, though," Jessica complained.

"No breaks!" Amanda said sternly. "Only leveling!"

"At least we've been able to cycle through Glacier Valley, poor Bob has been stuck in one Dungeon," Dave added.

"Do you think he'd be willing to take a quick vacation?" Jessica asked.

"He might," Amanda shrugged. "He's been at it for a while, and we do have Bailli to bully him into it."

"I don't bully him," Bailli denied. "I just explain to him that he needs to take care of himself. It's not my fault he listens to me more than he does you."

"Let's go with that," Dave suggested. "We'll have you send the email. Let him know we capped, and want to celebrate and relax together."

"Take a few days, rest, relax, relieve some stress," Jessica said with a grin.

"I somehow doubt that Bob is going to help you relieve any stress," Amanda replied.

"He's been cooped up in that Dungeon for over a month," Jessica retorted. "He reincarnated too, remember?"

"You're counting on those eighteen year old hormones, eh?" Dave asked as he wrapped his arms around Amanda and nuzzled the back of her neck.

"One of the downsides of being this young," Jessica sighed. "You two have each other, and Bailli has Erick, but there's no one for Jessica."

"Poor Jessi, no love for you," Amanda commiserated.

"I feel like I should warn Bob," Bailli muttered as she tapped on her screen.

"I think Bob's aware of Jessi's devilish designs on his virtue," Dave said.

"Sent," Bailli proclaimed, setting her tablet down.

"Should we wait for a reply?" Amanda asked.

"Let's take a couple of days, enjoy being at the cap," Dave replied. "We can do a little shopping, get ourselves setup for the next stretch."

"That sounds nice," Amanda murmured, leaning back into him.

"I kind of wish we could go back to Earth," Jessica sighed. "I'd love to visit Hawaii again."

"I'm guessing we'll go back once Bob's on the upper end of tier eight," Amanda said. "He'll be able to defend himself from pretty much anyone on Earth, and he should have the power to get us across dimensions."

"So a couple more months," Dave grinned.

"Isn't the level cap for his Summon Mana-Infused Creature going to be, like, a hundred and fifty?" Bailli asked.

"Something like that," Amanda agreed.

"Yeah, might take a bit longer than that for him to level that up," Baillie replied.

"Who is the most handsome kitty in the whole world?" Bob asked.

Monroe yawned sleepily then stretched, enjoying the garden-rake sized slicker brush.

"Kitty so tired, huh?" Bob commiserated, "such a hard day, all those nasty Gwarli."

They'd finished their sixth delve of the day, and Bob had put up his Summoners Redoubt, which now felt more like plywood than canvas, and boasted a floor, upgrades courtesy of having pushed his Summon Mana-Infused Object spell through three thresholds, putting the spell at level thirty-two. Monroe was sprawled out in the large common area.

In addition to clearing the Dungeon six times, they'd finished the day with a game of tag, which Monroe had won rather handily thanks to his 'How did you get there?' skill, which currently exceeded Bob's portal skill in range. The result was a tired but happy Monroe, and rather than go back to the complex that housed the Hidden Dungeon, he'd decided to stay inside and enjoy the sun and the breeze.

Bob was willing to admit that he was going a little bit stir crazy. "Just another few levels, buddy, and we'll get a change of scenery."

He'd reached the first threshold for the Summoning School, and had selected the option to increase the maximum level of all summoning spells by thirty-two percent. That placed the maximum level for his summoning spell at sixty-eight, although it was currently only fifty-six. He'd spent a few skill points on advancing his Portal spell as well as his Mana Sight and Mana Manipulation. He was still casting any healing spells he needed without the benefit of the System, and those two spells helped immensely.

Bob wasn't the most frequent target of his system-less healing, though. That honor went to Monroe. There were occasions where the mighty hunter didn't get out of the way quickly enough, despite his natural Affinity for Dodge and Natural Armor. The simple fact was that the Gwarli they were fighting were level twenty-seven tier eight monsters, while Monroe was sitting at level twenty and tier seven.

Luckily, Monroe didn't get involved in every fight, or even many fights, as the big floofer was able to keep his skills capped with far less experience than Bob needed.

"Do you want to go fishing, buddy?" Bob asked as he released the Summon Mana-Infused Object spell that had provided the slicker brush.

Monroe's ears perked up slightly at the word 'fishing.'

The stream that ran through the final outpost had quite a few large fish in it, and Monroe found them quite tasty, although he had a hard time catching them on his own.

Bob summoned out a fishing pole, complete with line and lure. "Let's go catch a kitty some dinner," he said as he moved to the entrance of his Summoners Redoubt. "We'll just stay in tonight."

Spell casting implements came in many shapes and sizes. Their purpose was to extend the user's matrix, effectively allowing the user to build up more power before releasing the spell.

Bob had always been interested in how exactly they worked. As a summoner, he relied less on the amount and density of the mana he could push through his matrix, and more in the amount and density of the mana he could hold and keep stable in the pattern. A blast spell didn't need to worry about keeping a pattern stable, which was one of the reasons so many spellcasters used staves. Apparently, you couldn't go beyond doubling the length of your matrix, so a staff as tall as the caster was normal.

He currently had his old spellcasting implement, the level ten staff he'd purchased years ago, which was barely more than half his height. He was working on understanding how it worked.

'It's a function of the crafting process,' Trebor explained. 'A material that conducts mana, often copper, is refined both materially and magically, then wrapped in an insulator. The process allows a user to extend their matrix through the implement, while at the same time preventing external mana from interfering.'

Bob frowned. "Shouldn't the insulator also prevent the user's matrix from accessing the conductive material?" He asked.

'If you look at the staff closely, you'll see that the hand grips have less wood protecting the copper beneath,' Trebor continued. 'If you were to utilize a microscope, you'd further note that the wood there is slightly porous. That's how the matrix is able to align and flow into and through the staff.'

"That still doesn't feel like the right answer," Bob mumbled.

'That would be because it's the answer for mass produced implements,' Trebor said. 'A true spellcasting focus is one that is perfectly aligned with your matrix, however those are very difficult to make for anyone other than yourself, which is one of the reasons that when people craft their own equipment, it tends to work much better for them than it would for anyone else.'

"I'm guessing that is the difference between an implement and a focus?" Bob asked.

'It is,' Trebor agreed. 'Nearly everyone you've ever met have used implements. Professionals aren't likely to have the same power as those who fight monsters exclusively, but they make up the difference with equipment that focuses their power perfectly.'

"Another guess is that this applies to spellcasters and warriors alike?" Bob asked.

'Yes,' Trebor replied.

"Back to my original question then, is there any reason I can't use my Timeless Object skill to summon myself a better spellcasting implement, or better yet, a spellcasting focus?"

'Beyond lacking the knowledge of how to do so? No.' Trebor said.

"So how exactly do I create a focus, or barring that, an implement?" Bob asked.

It turned out that the answer was very slowly.

'Steady,' Trebor said quietly.

"I'm trying to be steady," Bob said through gritted teeth.

He was casting his Summon Mana-Infused Object spell, but instead of allowing the pattern to flash into existence, he was carefully tracing each line and curve as they appeared, straining his Mana Sight and Mana Manipulation spells. Each atom of mana had to be attuned to his matrix, which was like making sure that each atom was painted with the same abstract swirl of colors while also moving at the exact same frequency.

He'd already failed this exercise fourteen times, and he was determined to make this attempt successful.

"Almost there," he muttered, ignoring the sweat dripping from his brow and into his eyes. "Almost there..."

The last of the pattern filled, it collapsed into itself, forming a complicated knot of mana that drew a constant flow from his matrix to sustain itself. A staff, sized appropriately at nine feet tall, appeared in his hand.

Bob inspected it carefully.

Mana-Infused Object, Spellcasting Focus.

Oak Stave (Hardness 40), with Refined Copper Core (Hardness 80)

This Mana-Infused Object was created by attuning the spell to the user's matrix, resulting in a spellcasting focus.

10% bonus to spellcasting values while channelling mana through this focus.

"Well, that wasn't easy," Bob sighed.

'I suspect having completed the process once, doing so again will come much more easily,' Trebor suggested.

"I hope so, it's going to cost five mana crystals a try to create my Timeless Object," Bob dropped the spell, allowing the staff to disappear.

Bob's six daily delves netted him a tidy seven hundred and twenty mana crystals from quests, while he picked up another thirty to forty from the monsters themselves. His current advancement required two thousand five hundred and sixty mana crystals each level, which meant that he needed about three and a half days to fund his next level.

That particular bit of math meant that the eight attempts it required to create his Timeless Object weren't that awfully important.

Timeless Object, Spellcasting Focus

Oak Stave (Hardness 40), with Refined Copper Core (Hardness 80)

This Timeless Object was created by attuning the spell to the user's matrix, resulting in a spellcasting focus.

10% bonus to spellcasting values while channelling mana through this focus.

Sure, it looked exactly like the one he'd summoned earlier, but this one didn't require him to concentrate on it.

"Well, buddy, I've pretty much tapped out my path," Bob told a sleepy Monroe. "All abilities have been used."

Monroe wasn't interested in his shenanigans.

"Is my handsome kitty too tired for the first delve this morning?" Bob asked as he equipped his armor.

Monroe curled his tail up over his eyes.

"Alright, buddy, you'll have to go into my inventory, though," Bob tapped Monroe, and sent him to his bed.

The first few runs of the morning Monroe often skipped, as it cut into the necessary eighteen hours of sleep that a kitty needed to survive.

He opened his interface, marking his quests complete, choosing the option to exit the Dungeon.

He tapped his armband, the screen appearing, and waited the second or so for it to reconnect to the network they'd installed. He checked his email, and was surprised to discover a message from Bailli.

Bailli rarely sent emails or messages. She was the quiet type, unless you got her going on ritual magic.

Opening the message, he was surprised to see that the group had reached level forty-nine, and were looking at reincarnating back down already. It highlighted just how much longer it took to level when you had racial affinities.

"Well, it'll take another one hundred and seventy-six delves to bring my Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell up to level fifty-six," he mused. "That's about a month. If I took four levels along the way, I could hit my next threshold."

He tapped out a response, stating that he'd be willing to venture out in thirty days.

Once he had the notification that the message had been sent, he squared his shoulders and tapped the entrance to the Dungeon.

"Time to go to work," Bob said quietly as he entered the Dungeon.

"He needs thirty days," Bailli reported to the group.

"That means thirty days of vacation for us," Jessica grinned.

"That means thirty days of delving without advancement," Amanda retorted. "We're not going to laze around doing nothing for thirty days."

"Gotta get them crystals," Dave agreed. "If we keep at it, we should be able to finish the over-level delving quest."

"I do want another Attribute Affinity Crystal," Jessica sighed.

"We all do, especially having seen the math play out," Amanda agreed.

"I just don't want to have to kill a hundred thousand mobs to get one," Dave sighed. "Assuming we get exactly what we need, that's one million two hundred thousand."

The group had been eager to reincarnate until Erick had pointed out that they would lose their crystal based affinities.

They'd figured out the math when they'd been on the Eire seedworld. Mana crystals dropped at around one in a thousand, affinity crystals at around one in ten thousand, and attribute affinity crystals at around one in a hundred thousand. They'd killed millions upon millions of monsters, which had netted them a healthy supply of regular affinity crystals, but not nearly enough attribute affinity crystals.

"I mean, we're set to live for like, a thousand years, yeah?" Jessica said. "If we're going to evolve from tier eight to tier nine, to tier ten, the right play is to make sure we have the crystals we want."

"Bob's not going to abandon us," Bailli said. "If it takes six months for us to catch up to him at the cap for tier eight, he'll wait. He won't stop delving, but he'll wait for us."

"I'm never getting a vacation," Jessica said sadly.