Bob sat in his bathtub, massaging his aching arms and legs.

Well, his aching right arm and leg.

'Damaged Matrix,' he mused.

He had pulled up his log, and sure enough there it was.

Some damage was done to your matrix while the Advanced System Integration was in process.

Something had sure as fuck gone wrong. He'd dismissed Jake (as he'd decided that the UtahRaptor needed a name) before Kelli had helped him up the stairs and back to his room. But not before he'd noticed something odd.

Every Skill, or spell in local non-system parlance, seemed cost one mana to cast, and one mana per second to maintain if it wasn't an instantaneous effect. Adding modifiers could increase that, but the base cost was one, full stop.

Summon Monster cost Bob more than that. As he'd stood, leaning against Jake, he'd pulled up his status and watched as his available mana slowly dropped down.

When not moving or acting, his mana regeneration should have been a little over half a point per second. Having one monster summoned shouldn't have caused it to move that much. But it had slowly dropped. He'd need more data, but his single sample size suggested that maintaining the summoned monster had cost him one point eight mana per second.

Bob wasn't sure if that was the result of redirecting his mana, or the result of the overall damage to his matrix. Either way, it was a cause for concern.

He sighed and winced as he tried to work out a cramp in calf. Regardless, he needed to finish leveling to five this afternoon. He'd asked Kelli and Thidwell for an hour, and that was almost up.

'Help, Matrix' Bob thought.

System Help, Matrix A user's Matrix consists of the internal channels they have developed to allow Mana to circulate throughout their beings. The System has a record of all beings Matrix patterns and imprints them on birth/creation. The strength of a Matrix and thus the ability to internally circulate Mana is a function of the beings Tier and level.

Alright, that was about what he suspected.

So his matrix had been damaged when he was integrated into the system. The question was how to fix it?

'Help, Damaged Matrix' he thought.

System Help, Matrix Damage A user's Matrix can be damaged by sufficient physical trauma. Loss of greater than twenty-five percent body mass is a common threshold for damage to occur. Psychological trauma can also cause Matrix Damage, however, thresholds for this type of damage are harder to quantify. Restoration of lost body mass in cases of physical trauma or reconciliation in the cases of psychological trauma is sufficient to restore a user's Matrix to previous functionality. System Warning! In reference to System User Robert Whitman, Matrix Damage was incurred during System Integration due to insufficient data regarding User species. Additional data required to repair damage to Matrix.

"That's new," Bob muttered as he stood up and grabbed a towel.

The System didn't normally provide personalized information when he queried it.

How exactly was he supposed to provide additional data about humans to the system? It had apparently taken a copy of his memories, and it clearly knew every cell of his body.

Bob stopped toweling himself off suddenly as a chill ran through him. What if there was something wrong with him? What if he was missing something important, like his liver for example?

All his bodily functions had seemed normal so far. Fuck.

It had been over a week. If he was missing anything important it would have shown up by now.

And even if it hadn't it wasn't like he'd be able to do anything about it anyways.

He resumed drying off and dressed in clean, non-blood splattered clothes.

"Time to level up," he said to himself as he walked towards the Tavern, in search of Kelli.

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

Bob found Kelli in the tavern, six empty beer mugs in front of him. When Bob had stepped around to face him, Kelli had jerked back, and frantically looked around the tavern.

"It's not here is it?" Kelli whispered as his eyes darted from side to side, and he twisted in his chair to make sure he'd seen the entire room.

"Are you talking about my Summoned Monster?" Bob asked hesitantly. Kelli didn't seem drunk, but there was certainly something wrong.

"Yes," Kelli hissed.

"Relax Kelli," Bob said slowly, "I don't have it summoned."

Kelli took a deep breath and muttered "Thank the stars."

Kelli pointed a shaking finger at Bob and said "That... that thing is terrifying. I swear on the stones below it was thinking about eating me!"

Kelli slammed a hand down on the table, "Summoned Monsters don't do that! But that thing... I could see it in its eyes, Bob. It was trying to figure out a way around Thidwell to get to me," Kelli shuddered and took a long drink from his mug.

Bob placed a hand carefully on Kelli's shoulder. He didn't have much experience comforting people, but he tried "I'm sure it was, after all, you're much smaller than Thidwell, and it probably viewed you as the target most easily brought down," he said.

Kelli looked up at Bob in horror and said "That isn't ... I swear it was going to go for my throat!"

Bob shook his head and replied, "Not to worry there, from what we've been able to piece together, UtahRaptor likely knocked its prey down onto the ground by jumping towards it with a horizontal leap," Bob motioned, smacking a fist into an open palm, and then moving the palm to lay flat. "It would then use its rear claws to disembowel its prey," he made a slashing motion down the front of his body, from collarbone to groin with a hooked finger, "and then it would start to feast on the soft viscera," Bob finished.

He missed Kelli's look of horror as it trended towards terror, as he looked up thoughtfully and said, "We think - well, I should say paleontologists, this wasn't really my field, although I did have an interest when I was young, and I stayed 'in the loop' as it were, but they think that UtahRaptor, like its cousins, ate the viscera, and left the tougher musculature tissue to the scavengers, even leaving its disemboweled and partially eaten prey alive," he completed his thought.

He glanced down to see Kelli scooting his chair away from him.

Bob watched, nonplussed as Kelli stood up suddenly and ran in the direction of the taverns bathrooms.

He shrugged and headed for the stairs. Kelli had several mugs of beer running through him. Bob was sure he'd join them once he'd hit the head.

He reached the basement and found Thidwell sitting in a chair outside the room they'd used earlier, a large tome open in his hands.

As Bob approached, Thidwell closed the book and slipped it into a bag sitting beside the chair.

"You've recovered?" Thidwell asked.

Bob grimaced and responded, "As well as I can. It appears there when I was flung into this world there was a bit of damage done that is causing some trouble with my Mana."

Thidwell nodded gravely, "I've seen that before, someone loses an arm or a leg and it plays merry hell with their Mana," he rumbled.

Thidwell stood up and looked Bob up and down. "It looks like you've got all the parts I'd expect though," he said, "anything missing?"

Bob shook his head and replied, "Nothing that I can tell."

Changing the subject, Bob said, "I saw Kelli in the tavern, he'd had a few and was off to the bathroom, so I suspect he'll join us shortly."

Thidwell snorted. "I sent him for a couple of drinks. That beast of yours nearly scared him witless. I won't lie, it made me a trifle uneasy. What is that thing?" Thidwell asked as he swung open the door to the ritual room.

"It's a dinosaur," Bob replied easily, then paused.

This wasn't Earth.

Based on the System, Thayland hadn't ever had dinosaurs. Assuming the System went back that far anyway. Regardless, the society here seemed more like pre-industrial revolution Earth. Chances were good they didn't have a lot of archaeologists or paleontologists.

"What do you know about the history of the world?" Bob asked carefully.

Thidwell shrugged his massive shoulders and said, "Thousands of years of people huddling in the forest in small bands, getting by with what skills and spells the tribe managed to figure out. Finally, someone figures out monsters come from dungeons, so they start walling of dungeons and building villages on hills," he snorted and went on, "we figure out that mana pools in dungeons and creates waves when it builds up. So we pick a dungeon and start digging down, building lower levels for the mana to pool in without creating a wave. Villages become towns and then cities. The Adventurers guild starts up at some point to keep the local dungeons under control, and to curate the main dungeon in the area that is acting as a drain for all the mana flowing about."

Thidwell leaned against the wall and finished "Locally, Holmstead has been around for just over three hundred years. More accident than plan really. An expedition into the wilds lost both of their dimensionalists but managed to survive out here, and actually thrive. They made contact with the Kingdom about two hundred years ago and were welcomed back. Our two Noble families here are both direct descendants of the leaders of the expedition."

Bob nodded and said "Good stuff, but I'm talking about what animals and plants were around before humans?"

Thidwell looked at him questioningly and asked "By the stars and stones, how would we know that? I suppose you could try to use divination to find out, but who would bother?"

"Well," said Bob, "That is the answer as to what the UtahRaptor is. Hundreds of millions of years ago, my world was very different from how it is now. There were no humans, in fact, there weren't many mammals at all. The world was populated almost entirely by animals like the UtahRaptor."

A shakey voice came from the doorway, and a white-faced Kelli asked "So that thing isn't real?"

"It was real, but it hasn't walked the earth in over a hundred million years," answered Bob.

"Why," Kelli said, "why would you summon one of those things? What's wrong with a bear?" he finished.

Bob gave a helpless shrug and said, "If I'm going to fight monsters, I need a monster of my own."

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

Thirty minutes later, Bob was once again sitting cross-legged in a ritual circle. He held fifty rat crystals in one hand, and the Dimension Affinity Crystal in the other.

He closed his eyes and concentrated.

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

Bob quickly allocated his attribute points to Wisdom, noting that with this, his Wisdom was at seventeen and his Intelligence was at seven, giving him a total of twenty-two, which put his resting regeneration at two point two. Although he suspected the System would round that down to a flat two. Maybe it would give him an extra one point bump every five seconds of rest. Regardless, he now had the ability to keep Jake out if he didn't move.

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

'No,' Bob Mentally Projected.

You have absorbed an Affinity Crystal of Dimension. You have obtained the Magical School of Dimension.

Bob concentrated on the Search option next to Skills.

'Summon (x)' Bob thought.

Please Mentally project the Name of the being you wish to Summon while focusing on your knowledge of this being.

'Monroe,' he thought fiercely, as he pushed everything he knew about Monroe to the front of his mind. His whiskers, his eyes, his ear tufts, his floofy tail. The low rumble of his purr and his piercing meow's when it was feeding time. Taking him to the vet for his checkups, draping him over a shoulder, and receiving cheek nuzzles. He relived as many moments as he could, as his heart raced and ached, while tears streamed down his face.

Skill obtained: Summon Monroe

Bob let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

He could live with a crappy path. But not without Monroe. He couldn't take the chance that he might not reach level seven before Monroe ran out of time. He just couldn't risk it.

"Level two is done, the Affinity crystal delivered the Dimension school, and I took Summon Monroe," he said.

Thidwell grunted acknowledgment and Kelli scribbled in his book.

Bob took out another fifty rat crystals.

Another five points to Wisdom, and this time the Ritual Magic Skilll.

Fifty more crystals, level four, five more points of Wisdom, and the Effect over time Skill.

Then level five, five more points into Wisdom, bringing him up to thirty-five Wisdom total, the Persistent Effect Skill, and a new blue box.

User has reached level five. Please select an attribute bonus prior to your path selection. Mentally Project or Verbally articulate the name of the Attribute you would like your path bonus applied to.

'Intelligence,' Bob thought.

User has selected bonus to Intelligence. Scanning Attributes and Skills for potential Paths.

System Warning! Damaged Matrix detected! Unable to provide Path selections! User accruing damage, mana pooling!

Attempting to reconcile.

Bob collapsed as pain ripped through his body. This was so much worse than when his Summon Monster spell had failed. He tried to focus on the blue boxes, but his mind felt stretched, warped even.

He struggled to read the last box.

User non-responsive. Mirror protocol present. Engaging Mirror protocol.

He could hear Kelli and Thidwell, but they sounded so far away. Then everything went black.