Bob sat nervously in Thidwell's office, having been collected by Kelli a few minutes earlier.

The big man was writing in what appeared to be a ledger, the charpin looking quite tiny in his huge hand.

Kelli was seated next to Bob and was reading a book. From what Bob could read from where he sat, it appeared to be a discussion on the merits of the intelligence attribute as opposed to the wisdom attribute.

Bob once again considered that a printing press might not go amiss - or maybe just a typewriter, as they likely already had some sort of duplication magic.

Finally, Thidwell set his charpin to the side, closed the ledger which he then placed into a drawer, and looked down at Bob.

"So, you're ready to have the Childs Protection removed, and take up blade or spell as an Adventurer?" Thidwell rumbled.

"I'm still a little, let's say concerned, about the whole fighting to the death against monsters, but I'm definitely ready to level up to five and Summon Monroe," replied Bob a trifle hesitantly.

Thidwell exchanged a glance with Kelli, who had closed his book.

"While I am aware of the time constraints you are working under, something to consider, and something I expected Kelli to have mentioned, is that the success of your plan hinges on a great many factors that we either have no control over or are unaware of," said Thidwell.

Thidwell stood up and stretched before beginning to pace behind his desk.

"If you came to me and told me you needed to Summon Monroe because he had gotten stuck in a cave, I'd be able to tell you exactly what spells you'd need and what level they would need to be because all of those are known quantities," he said.

Pausing behind his desk, he pointed at Bob and continued, "But, you aren't summoning him from up the mountain or even across the continent - you're pulling him across dimensions."

Thidwell cracked his knuckles and smiled grimly as he said "And I'm willing to help you. Stars, I've done stupider things for less reason."

He walked around the desk and sat down on it, still looming over Bob, his presence an almost palpable weight.

"We'll get you to five and get you pathed in a few minutes. Once that is done, I've arranged for Elli and Harv to shepherd you through the sixth and seventh levels. I've spent the past few days shepherding them to ten, and they are more than capable," Thidwell said.

"You said Monroe only has twenty days, and we are on day seven," the large man pondered, "I won't ask you to run up against the edge, but let's see if we can push you to seven in five days. It will be hard, and incredibly painful," Thidwell warned, "but if you can get to seven, and level your Summoning School to one, you'll have the best chance we can give you," Thidwell finished.

Bob frowned. He hadn't thought that it would matter what his skill was, not if he used ritual magic.

He closed his eyes and focused on taking slow breaths.

All of this was coming at him way too fast. He needed time to understand this world and the System that apparently governed it.

'Help, Magical School of Summoning Level'

System Help, Magical School of Summoning Level. The Magical School of Summoning consists of ten levels. The Magical School of Summoning's level may be increased by utilizing any of the Skills contained within the school. Each level provides a ten percent increase in the magical power of all Skills from the Magical School of Summoning.

'Help, Summon (x)'

System Help, Summon (x) Summon (x) is a Skill belonging to the Magical School of Summoning. This Skill allows the user to Summon a sapient or sentient being, by Name, to the user. This Skill must be obtained once for each being the user wishes to Summon. The being may resist the Summon by pitting their Body Resistance against the magical power of the user. The distance at which a being may be Summoned is the user's magical power value, divided by ten, and expressed in miles.

Deep breath. Assume that Earth and Thayland occupy the same space. Because if they don't everything is fucked. Unless, of course, this was a situation where alternate dimensions touched each other at every point. Regardless, going of the safe rather than sorry motto, the Rat Dungeon was probably a couple of miles from Holmstead. His apartment was less than a mile from the Lab, so likely a mile and a half from the accident.

Of course, Bob couldn't be sure if Thayland East was Earth East, so it was safest to summon Monroe at the Rat Dungeon. Allocating his points to wisdom and intelligence, along with his path bonus should see him with a thirty-five in terms of magical power, which gave him three and a half miles of distance. More or less. Maybe a lot less considering Thayland miles and feet weren't exactly earth miles and feet. But then again, ritual magic.

Best to start at the Rat Dungeon.

How much magical power was it going to take to punch through to Earth?

Bob opened his eyes to find Thidwell and Kelli exchanging a concerned glance.

"Do you have any ideas as to how much magical power it will take to cross dimensions to Earth?" Bob asked.

Thidwell shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Assuming it is adjacent, two hundred at the very least."

"Two hundred?" Bob gasped, "Even with allocating my attributes to intelligence and wisdom, at level seven I'll be at forty!"

Thidwell nodded, not appearing bothered at all. "Yes, I do know how attributes work," he grunted, "You'll likely have to use a staff, but Harv already mentioned giving you his old one now that he is level ten."

A smile graced the massive man's face. "Those two might have taken a while to get there, but they were smart enough to have full sets of equipment ready for them when they did."

Bob ground his teeth. 'So much I don't know', he thought.

"What does a staff do, in terms of increasing magical power?" Bob asked.

"Well, you receive a direct increase based on the hardness of the material used, and then you receive another bonus due to the length against your height, which for a staff is pretty significant," Thidwell rumbled, "Harv's old staff had a bronze core, so there is thirty to your magical power, which puts you up to seventy, and then the length should come close to doubling it if you use it with two hands, so call it at one forty?"

Thidwell looked up to the ceiling and picked at one of his fingernails. "Yeah," he concluded, "that sounds about right. Using ritual magic will double it at the very least, so you should be ok."

Bob nodded, holding onto a few of his questions. Like why Harv was giving him a magical staff. He hardly knew that man, and Harv certainly didn't owe him anything.

"Still, best to get this moving. We're all on a clock for something, although yours is more desperate than most. Let's go get this done," said Thidwell as he led the way out the door and down the stairs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob shivered as he stood in the middle of a large stone room in the basement of the Adventurers Guild. He hadn't realized that there was a basement.

A pattern in metal was embedded in the floor, a circle encasing a triangle, with eight symbols embedded on the outside ring of the circle.

And of course, Bob stood in the middle of the creepy human sacrifice circle. There wasn't any evidence of sacrifice, but the entire thing was just a little bit creepy.

Kelli was sitting in a corner, reading his book, while Thidwell was shoulder deep in a pouch that shouldn't have taken more than his hand to explore. Bob continued to have his suspicions about bags of holding, and couldn't help but wonder if the Dimension School of Magic might hold those secrets. Being the guy who made bags of holding didn't sound like a bad job.

Thidwell found what he was looking for, and strode confidently over to Bob, tossing him a small pouch as he approached, with Bob fumbled, and managed to catch if only barely.

Thidwell poked Bob in the forehead.

System user Thidwell Orstang is attempting to remove the Child's Protection Protocol. To consent either Mentally project or Verbally articulate, "I accept" or to resist, Mentally project or Verbally articulate "No"

'Yes,' Bob thought.

System Protocol "Child's Protection" has been removed.

"Well, that was anti-climactic," said Bob.

Thidwell grunted and stepped out of the pattern as he said "The bag I tossed you has a pair of crystals in it, pull them out."

Bob opened the pouch and found two eight-sided crystals, each one about an inch long, one glowing with a rainbow of colors that swirled and pooled inside it, and the other nearly black, but speckled with pinpricks of light that seemed to move ever so slightly. They were both stunningly beautiful.

He looked up at Thidwell questioningly.

"Those," Thidwell nodded to the two crystals, "are Affinity Crystals. You can use them to gain a special affinity to a magical power or skill. They can coalesce in a tier six or higher monster that has a propensity for a skill, and has been in existence long enough to use it frequently."

Thidwell gave a heavy sigh and said, "The twenty-seventh level of the Dungeon has these stones cursed bugs that summon swarms of smaller bugs," he pointed to the crystal with the swirling rainbow, "and the thirtieth level has enormous lizards that teleport."

"And of course, you have to be either under level five or able to take on tier six monsters that are over level 25 in order to use them," he finished.

"Go ahead and sit down, pull out fifty of your crystals from the Rat Dungeon, and hold them in one hand, then hold the Summoning Affinity crystal in the other," Thidwell instructed.

Bob sat down cross-legged and pulled his sack of crystals out of his inventory. As he counted out fifty of the tiny crystals, he asked Thidwell, "So what exactly will happen when I use this Affinity crystal?"

Thidwell gave Bob a genuine smile and responded, "I don't know. When I used them, I gained the access to Summoning School and the Dimension spell portal. I think it's because I already had the dimension school, but I can't be sure. You'd need to head somewhere a lot less provincial to find solid information on these. I've mentioned them in my reports to the Guild branch in the capitol but no one seems to care."

"We don't really get a chance to see anyone go from level one to level five here," he explained. "Kids get to five with their parents mostly."

Bob stored away the bag of crystals and the Dimension Affinity crystal. He was being used as a lab rat.

At least it wasn't human sacrifice. Probably.

Still, everyone at the Adventurers Guild had been unreasonably kind and patient with him. Being a guinea pig for an experiment that was most likely going to give him a free skill wasn't a hardship.

Bob hesitated, and a life filled with experience drove him to ask "How much do these Affinity crystals cost?"

Thidwell blew out a breath in exasperation and replied "I can't exactly sell them now can I? You can only use them once, and even if I had a hundred kids under level five, they don't want Dimension magic do they? Or Summoning? No, they want to throw fireballs, call lightning or cleave monsters in twain with a sword." He chuckled. "I can't blame them much, I was the same way. Even the gentler ones go with healing magic."

Thidwell lowered his voice and said, "Look, I have a sack full of the things in my desk. They're curiosities at best, I've tried having them used for enchanting, and even on the schools and spells the monsters they came from used, they fail."

Bob nodded slowly. He couldn't contest the big man's claim that they weren't valuable without appearing ungrateful.

He'd just have to find a way to pay Thidwell back.

Of course, as closely as Bob could figure it, he was already into him for three crystals for lodging, three crystals for food, and a hundred crystals for stuffing Thaylan into his head. He'd need to price things out at the store to figure out how much he owed for the clothing and toiletries.

"Alright, so close your eyes, and concentrate on the crystals in your hand," said Thidwell. "Your Book of Life should open, and ask if you want to increase your level."

Bob closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. He then thought about the crystals in his hand. He waited. He thought about the crystals.

You have absorbed the potential of fifty mana crystals. You have absorbed the Affinity Crystal of Summoning. Please allocate attribute and skill points now.

'Status'

Name Bob Level 1 Tier 5 Size 5 Str 6 (+) Cord 6 (+) End 6 (+) Int 6 (+) Wis 6 (+) Beauty 6 (+) Health 31 Mana 6 Armor 15.81 Mana Regen 1.2 Damage 21.42 Spell Casting 0

Bob mentally poked the + and - minus buttons on Wisdom, raising it to eleven and then lowering it back to six. With a shrug, he raised Wisdom to eleven.

You have chosen to increase your Wisdom attribute to eleven. Would you like to confirm this change? Either Mentally project or Verbally articulate, "Yes" or Mentally project or Verbally articulate "No"

'Yes,' Bob thought.

His status updated to reflect that his wisdom was now eleven, and he now had eight mana. Apparently, the System rounded down.

Bob concentrated on the Search option next to Skills.

You have absorbed an Affinity Crystal of Summoning. Would you like to obtain the Magical School of Summoning by allocating a Skill Point? Either Mentally project or Verbally articulate, "Yes" or Mentally project or Verbally articulate "No"

'Yes'

You have absorbed an Affinity Crystal of Summoning at the same time as you obtained the Magical School of Summoning. Please select from one of the following bonuses:

Maximum Level of the Magical School of Summoning Increased by Five. Maximum Level of any one Skill from the Magical School of Summoning Increased by Ten. Mana Expenditure for all Skills from the Magical School of Summoning reduced by Ten Percent. Mana Expenditure for anyone Skill from the Magical School of Summoning reduced by Twenty-Five Percent.

Bob's eyes widened. He looked over to Thidwell and Kelli, who were watching intently.

"So, by absorbing the Affinity crystal at the same time that I picked the Summoning School, I've been given an option of our different bonuses. Plus five to the maximum level for Summoning, plus ten to the maximum level of one Summoning skill, ten percent reduction in mana costs for all Summoning skills, or twenty-five percent reduction in mana cost for one Summoning skill," he reported.

Thidwell smiled, and Kelli pulled out a notebook and started scribbling.

Thinking long-term, he was considering relying on Summoned monsters to keep him out of harm's way. He didn't plan to summon Monroe more than once, and he wasn't sure how often he'd use Summon object if he took it. So really, it was either ten to the max level of Summon monster or twenty-five percent mana reduction to the cost of Summon monster.

Considering that having Summoned monsters out with persistent effect placed them at one quarter his level, and without the ability to take the Endless Swarm Pat-

"Motherfucker," he muttered.

'FUCK,' Bob mentally raged. He was an idiot. A fucking moron. If he used the crystal to take the Summoning School, and the other crystal to take the Dimension School, he would have had enough fucking points to take the Path!

'Ok, done is done. Can I salvage this?' he thought. He could still take the Dimension School for free. That left him four points, and he needed to take Summon Monster, Effect Over Time, Barrage, and Persistent Effect.

Of course, that didn't account for Ritual Magic or Summon Monroe, neither of which were negotiable.

But if he was going to be shepherded to level seven, he'd have two more skill points.

Thidwell was giving him what could be construed as a concerned look, while Kelli was obliviously scratching away, muttering to himself.

"Thidwell, do you honestly and truly believe I need to be level seven to summon Monroe?" he asked.

Thidwell grimaced and replied, "Honestly, the few Adventurers that I have heard of that open Portals to other, adjacent Dimensions all started doing so after they were level ten. I don't know if seven will be enough, but I'm willing to provide the resources to let you try."

"You also need to consider that your Summoning School is going to be level one. If you push your level to seven, I'd expect your Summoning School to be either level five or level six. That will take that one forty number we talked about earlier, and push it over two hundred, before the ritual," he finished.

Bob considered that.

'Never enough fucking information to make an educated choice,' he thought.

'Focus,' he thought, and he closed his eyes.

He'd already fucked up, but he still had a choice to make, an immediate one, regarding the bonus to take.

The reality was that mana reduction wasn't as important as having a higher level summoned monster. Baseline, with the skill at level twenty-five, he could persistent effect a monster at level twelve. With the higher skill level, he could have it at seventeen. And while he could have an extra level twelve out with the mana cost reduction, having four of them out at level seventeen each was better than five at level twelve. Sixty-eight levels of monster versus sixty levels of monster to be precise.

The math became even more advantageous if he managed to pull off Endless Swarm. Regardless, it was the best option.

Bob mentally focused on the option 'Maximum Level of any one Skill from the Magical School of Summoning Increased by Ten.'

You have selected the following bonus: Maximum Level of any one Skill from the Magical School of Summoning Increased by Ten. Attempting to integrate Affinity for the Magical School of Summoning into the user's Matrix. Warning! Matrix damaged! Warning! System Error! User does not have any applicable skills! Recursion detected. Adding Skill detection scan to Bonus selection protocol to prevent the issue from reoccurring. Generating options. You have selected the following bonus: Maximum Level of any one Skill from the Magical School of Summoning Increased by Ten, without having an applicable skill. You may choose a different bonus, or provide a second Summoning Affinity Crystal.

Bob blinked again. He had apparently broken the System. Again.

"Thidwell, do you happen to have another one of those Summoning Affinity Crystals?" Bob asked.