Monroe

Chapter Thirty-two. Playtime.

Bob waved to Harv as he spotted the wizard dragging a bleary-eyed Elli into the tavern for breakfast.

Bob's night had been spent restlessly, as he tried to put together a plan of action.

Harv dropped Elli into a chair, then seated himself, as he cracked a yawn of his own.

"Good morning Harv," Bob said, "I have a few questions if you don't mind?"

Harv let out a "Heh," before waving for Bob to proceed.

Before Bob could start, Bailli arrived at the table and asked if they wanted the full breakfast. Breaking with tradition, Bob said "Is there any lighter fare available? Maybe just scrambled egg whites and a slice of toast?"

Bailli raised an eyebrow and Elli stirred enough to ask "You feeling sick or something?"

Bob shook his head and said, "I'm on a bit of a forced vacation from the Dungeon, as I'm taking the advice these two have given me, so I won't be nearly as active."

Bailli nodded and received confirmation from both Elli and Harv that they were quite comfortable with the full breakfast, regardless of planned activity or lack thereof.

She then turned her full attention on Bob and frowned as she asked, "And where is your handsome friend?"

Bob gave a snort, and carefully pushed his chair out from the table, revealing Monroe draped over his lap. "I'm sure he'll wake up for breakfast," he responded.

Bailli's frown turned into a smile as she turned and headed off to the kitchen.

Bob reached down and scooped up Monroe, drawing a slightly disgruntled "mreow?" and deposited him on the table.

Elli's eyes took on a gleam, and he reached down to pull open the flap of his backpack of holding, then pulled out a short, thin, flexible stick, attached to the end of which was a string, and at the end of that, what appeared to be a bundle of feathers.

He carefully swung the stick over the table and started to slowly sweep the feathers back and forth.

Monroe had opened his eyes when Bob had so rudely moved him from his napping place, and watched the ball of feathers intently.

"Elli, I should probably warn you," Bob began, but it was too late.

Without warning, Monroe turned from a puddle of liquid fluff into an enraged killing machine, pouncing on the ball of feathers, gripping it in his teeth, and rolling over on his back as he rabbit kicked it.

Before anyone could react, Monroe dashed off the table, feathers still in mouth, and then dove underneath it, ripping the stick out of Elli's hands.

Bob shook his head and finished, "Monroe takes playtime very seriously."

Elli looked down to see the stick moving back and forth vigorously as Monroe continued to savage his prey underneath the table.

"I guess so," Elli muttered as he slumped back into his chair.

"I was walking around town yesterday," Bob said towards Harv, "and I heard a lot of talk about the monster wave that is expected."

Harv nodded as he said, "Yeah, we're due. Probably sometime this week."

Elli shot a smile towards Harv and added, "Now that we're level ten, we'll be in the Dungeon though, not on the wall."

"In the Dungeon?" Bob asked.

"Yes," Harv said, "anyone level ten or higher fights on the tenth floor. We act as a bulwark to keep the monsters from flowing out of the Dungeon."

Elli nodded an agreement and said, "It used to be done on level fifteen, but the last Tide cost the Guild more than a few of its higher-level Adventurers."

Harv said quietly, "The two noble houses, Meer and Crenshaw will hold the line at the twentieth level, and Thidwell will stand alone on the thirtieth level."

Bob tilted his head. "What happens in the Dungeon during a wave?"

Harv asked, "You know how normally in the Dungeon the monsters are reformed by mana after a set amount of time?"

Bob nodded his head slowly. He had touched briefly on the topic of how monsters actually showed up in the Dungeons.

"Well," Harv said, "when the wave comes the density of the ambient mana in the Dungeon increases dramatically, causing more monsters to appear, and they do so more quickly."

The conversation paused as Bailli arrived with breakfast, and Monroe leaped onto the table to receive both his breakfast and an ear scratching from Bailli.

As Bob tackled his scrambled egg whites, piling them on the toast, Harv continued his explanation.

"Thidwell is a phenomenal Curator, and normally, even with a small, irregular group of lower levels Adventurers working the upper floors, he's able to keep up with everything on the lowest floors, which keeps the mana levels from rising," Harv said before he took a bite of his sausage.

"How," Bob asked, "exactly does that work?"

Harv gave a half-shrug as he replied, "Honestly, although I know a decent bit of magical theory, I'm far from an expert. But," he continued, "from what I understand, every time you kill a monster the experience you receive and the crystals that form are created from the ambient mana in the Dungeon, and by taking them, you reduce the density of that mana."

"Ok," Bob said, "so killing monsters reduces the mana density."

Harv nodded and said, "But during a wave," he waved a piece of bacon at Bob, "the mana density increases to the point where just keeping the bottom clean and letting the mana drain down doesn't work."

"So you end up with so many monsters forming, that they spill out from the Dungeon, and being monsters, attack everyone around them - which is the town," Harv finished.

"And so everyone gathers up at certain levels to keep the mana density down," Bob said.

Elli pointed a fork at him and nodded as he chewed through a mouthful of eggs.

"The monsters that come to the walls of Holmstead will be from small, shallow Dungeons outside of the mana drain of our Dungeon," said Harv.

Elli swallowed and said, "They won't be very high level, likely two through five, but there will be a lot of them."

Harv gave a smile, "That monster of yours should make short work of them."

"How will I know when the wave is coming?" Bob asked.

"Oh," Elli said, "yeah, you wouldn't know. Thidwell has some sort of magic bell he rings when a wave is coming - it's loud, you can hear it all across the valley."

Harv nodded in agreement, "You'll definitely know," he said.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob caught up with Kelli later that day.

"Kelli," he called as he spotted the man heading out of the tavern.

Kelli turned his head, and upon seeing Bob adjusted his course.

"Congratulations on level ten?" Bob asked.

"Yes," Kelli beamed, "It took the whole day, but I gathered the crystals for level ten and finished off the ritual this morning."

"Good work," Bob replied, a trifle hesitantly. He knew that even with someone shepherding you, leveling up was dangerous and certainly hard work. It just seemed to be so accepted here.

"So, I had two things," Bob said, "first, I'd like to officially join the Guild. I understand the dues are one crystal per level each month."

"You are correct, and I think joining the Guild is a great idea, although," Kelli grinned, "I may be a trifle biased. Anyways, join me in my office and I'll get you in the book," he finished.

With that Kelli headed across the Tavern towards the doors that lead to Thidwells office and the Ritual rooms.

Bob followed along and Kelli led him past the stairs, and into a small room just behind them.

Kelli's office was small, and with really only enough room for Kelli and one other person to fit comfortably on either side of his desk.

Kelli maneuvered around the desk and fell into his seat before pulling out a drawer and removing a large ledger.

Kelli flipped it open and then turned it to face Bob, tapping at an empty line a quarter of the way down the page.

"Please print then sign your name," Kelli said, sliding a pot of ink and a pen across the table.

Bob took a few seconds to figure out which way to hold the pen, then carefully dipped the tip of the pen in the ink, wrote his first name, dipped again, wrote his second and then signed, which took two dips as well.

"Excellent," said a beaming Kelli, who pulled back the ledger, then the pen and pot before asking, "Still level six right?"

"Yes," Bob said.

Kelli marked a precise looking 'Six' next to his signature, then pointed at a small metal box on the corner of the desk, "Drop six crystals in the box please," he said.

Bob dropped six of his crystals into the box, bringing his total reserves to twenty-seven.

"And congratulations to you as well, you're officially a member of the Adventurer's Guild!" Kelli exclaimed, as he opened another drawer and pulled out a small metal disc, and handed it over.

Bob examined the disc closely. It appeared to be made of bronze and had the Adventurer's Guild crest embossed on one side, and the other engraved with 'Holmstead'.

"That's your badge," Kelli gestured to the disc, "just let some mana flow through it like you would your staff whenever you need to stamp any paperwork."

Bob looked at Kelli questioningly. Thus far he'd not seen a great deal of paperwork. Or any really.

"You'll be tasked to go check out a Dungeon or a mana spike, and you'll have to sign off that you did so when you report back," Kelli explained.

"I've heard the capitol has a lot of rules and regulations, and a great deal more paperwork, but Thidwell keeps things running quickly out here," Kelli said proudly.

Bob nodded and asked, "Alright, so I'm a proper Adventurer now. The second item I needed to address was to ask how we deal with more permanent housing?"

Kelli said "Well, we have the overnight rooms, where you've been staying for the past few weeks. What are you looking for? I'm afraid we don't sell those rooms."

Bob shook his head and replied, "No, I'm looking for something a trifle bit larger, with a window to let some sunlight in."

Kelli shook his head in turn and said, "I'm afraid the Guild doesn't offer any accommodations for it's members beyond those."

"Thidwell has said that the Guild in the capitol has custom-designed rooms that are linked to the same doorway, basically your own pocket dimension, linked to the Guild," Kelli shook his head in wonder at the idea. "But that sort of thing requires a Master Dimensionalist, and we don't have anyone in Holmstead that is anywhere near that level of mastery," he finished.

"I was walking around Holmstead and I heard a couple people complaining that there wasn't a Master Smith here - can you tell me what qualifies as a 'Master'," Bob asked.

Kelli blinked and then replied, "A Master is just that - if you master a school of magic or a craft."

Bob looked at him blankly.

"Level twenty-five in the summoning school would make you a Master Summoner," Kelli explained.

"That makes sense," Bob said, "but going back to the housing bit - are you saying if I master the Dimension School I'll be able to build an extra-dimensional space large enough for a house?"

Bob had to admit that idea was a little exciting. He already had a few suspicions about his Inventory, and was a little curious as to if he could just portal into and out of the ten by ten space. It was a little small for full-time living, but if he could enlarge it...

He shook himself out of his thoughts as Kelli answered, "Sure, although if you manage to become a Master Dimensionalist you might want to keep it under your cloak."

Bob looked at him askance.

"The demand for Master Dimensionalists is incredibly high," Kelli said, "As they can open portals from anywhere, back to a town or city."

"Also," Kelli went on, warming to his subject, "they are solely responsible for extradimensional bags, pouches, backpacks, boxes, and crates."

Kelli was now leaning forward and gesturing, "The economic value of dimensionally expanded storage space is incredible - without them, the farmers, lumberjacks, and woodsman in Holmstead wouldn't be here, as they produce far more Holmstead consumes."

He leaned back as he continued, "However, as it isn't a school of magic that lends itself readily to combat, it's very time consuming to level up, and of course, as a non-combat skill it doesn't help you kill monsters, which basically relegates it to the same category as a crafting skill."

Bob shook his head slightly and said, "I think it's pretty damn useful in combat - I use Portal to deploy my UtahRaptors to where ever I need them."

Kelli's head jerked back, and he blinked, before asking incredulously, "Why don't you just summon them where you need them?"

It was Bob's turn to blink.

"They always just appear in front of me...," he trailed off.

"Fuck," Bob growled, "this is another one of those moments when I feel like an idiot."

Kelli sighed and shook his head, "No more so than I do - I constantly forget that you just don't know."

"How far away can I summon them?" Bob mused.

Kelli mistook that for a question and answered readily, "It's not transportation magic, so it should be your casting value in feet."

Bob put his head in his hands and started massaging his temples as he quietly mumbled "Fucking goddamn spells should fucking tell me everything about them when I obtain them," he muttered.

Trebor's voice quietly whispered to him, "Apologies, I'd thought you were doing it that way simply to level the spell and school."

Bob stopped rubbing his temples and sat up a little straighter.

Given that he gained so little experience as to not be expressable thus far when casting Portal out of combat, the fact was that using it the way he'd been doing was in fact, the smart move.

"Ok," Bob said, "Dimension magic aside, can I live outside the Guild then? Should I live outside the Guild? Harv and Elli explained that the Guild keeps its expenses in-house as much as possible because apparently active Adventurers have a nasty habit of ruining the local economy."

Kelli gave him a grin and said, "Sure you can, most Adventurers that live here, grew up here, and tend to have a room at their family's home, I know I do, and I believe that is the case for Harv and Elli as well. It's really just the visitors who aren't, as you say, 'Local', who rent rooms in the Guild."

"How would I go about finding a place to rent?" Bob asked.

Kelli pursed his lips and said, "Honestly? Wait until after the wave," he continued, "because right now, a lot of families have come in from their homes and are temporarily sheltering in town - once the wave is over, and they head back out, there will be a lot more options in terms of places to rent."

"Also," Kelli said, now smiling, "you're going to be standing on the wall during the wave. That is going to earn you a lot of goodwill from the people of Holmstead, and make a statement that this isn't just a way stop for you, that you are willing to stand tall and protect the people of the town."

Kelli's grin grew wider and he finished, "Because that is what real Adventurer's do."