It had been a week since Bob had surfaced, and he was feeling the strain. He'd had a nice dinner with Eddi and Wayna, then he'd started putting in the work. Sixteen hours a day, every day. He was accumulating mana crystals at a satisfactory pace, picking up between two hundred and two hundred and twelve crystals per day. That pace put him finished at ten months rather than seventeen. He'd also picked up forty-one Animal Affinity Crystals, which was cause to consider if it would be worth the time and effort to clear and rebuild the fiftieth floor, seeding it with a more advantageous Affinity Crystal.

The Animal School wasn't useless, far from it, but if he had to choose between Animal and Plant, he'd give the edge to plant, and if he had a choice at all, he'd likely choose Summoning. The time and the expense were the issues, and to be frank, it wasn't as if he needed Affinity Crystals. He'd already made certain that every one of his friends that needed them had them.

He dropped his UtahRaptor, waited for a heartbeat, then brought Jake back out, fully healed and ready for more murder.

He'd developed a fairly solid pattern for the fiftieth floor, and he was averaging about one monster killed every five seconds. His effect over time UtahRaptors barely scratched these level fifty monsters, so he'd been forced to rely on a concentration-based Jake to do the killing. He kept a half dozen persistent effect raptors around him in case of emergencies, but they hadn't been necessary, which was good, as they'd be fodder. They did a great job of collecting crystals for him.

Bob had to admit that getting an achievement or even working towards them would help with the drudgery that was grinding for crystals. 'Kill one million monsters!'

At least he'd have a goal besides gathering up sixty-four thousand crystals so he could push to tier seven.

Or another goal. He sighed.

Just ten months. Then he'd take a vacation, disappear. He'd use Return to the Beginning to look like a normal guy, and he'd hide out in some little town and do the low-level adventurer thing, spend an hour in the Dungeon every couple days to earn his keep. Go hiking, play with Monroe.

Monroe would be a bit of a problem. The big floofer might be even better known than he was, as he had been recognized many times by the fact that he had Monroe on his shoulders. Apparently, he was described as 'The guy with the big gray cat on his shoulders.'

Still, if he went to someplace moderately remote and stayed away from town most of the time, he'd be fine. He hoped that he'd be able to blitz up a few levels in the Hidden Dungeon beforehand, or barring that, that he was able to recreate his Arcane Depths at a lower level. What scared him was the idea of not being able to Portal into his inventory.

So, Portal had to be on the shortlist of skills and spells that he needed immediately. He was still working on his build, and he knew he wouldn't be able to finalize it until the update actually happened, but he could theorycraft the shit out of it.

At tier seven, he'd be able to utilize seven Affinity Crystals. Summoning and Dimension were automatically on the list, and it was tempting to use the four elemental schools as well. The problem with using the Elemental Affinity Crystals was that he'd need a spell to increase the level of the school. Trebor had been clear on that, despite the aspect of the mana, system-less casting didn't provide experience for the school.

Bob wasn't entirely sure that he could shake loose four skill points. He wanted to, as it would make everything easier, but even if he used his seven restriction slots to gain additional skill points, he didn't feel like he had enough.

He shook his head. He'd been wrestling with it for weeks, months even, and he still wasn't completely certain of how things would play out. He needed to focus on putting in the work.

"G'day," Jessica greeted her friends before being enveloped in a three-way hug.

"Jessi!" Amanda's voice was muffled by the hug.

"Amanda!" Jessica replied. Dave was characteristically silent.

Jessica pulled away from the hug and smiled at them. She was taking a much-needed break from the station.

"How have you been?" Dave asked, "you look a bit tired."

"Yeah, too much work makes life dull, right?" Jessica stepped forward and leaned against Dave, who had always been a good solid resting post. He'd also never once tried to cop a feel, which had always impressed her.

"You aren't wrong," Amanda agreed with a sigh, leaning against Dave's other side. "We brought in another batch of gamers, and wow," she shook her head.

"Yeah, we ended up at twenty-eight hundred and sixty-two people," Dave added. "Luckily, we were ahead on our construction projects, so we had housing for everyone, but we're way over the capacity we expected to need in the Dungeon, and while we have some Curators building out ten more, it takes time and crystals."

"Some of them are a little upset that they came over to get magic, but they're stuck waiting in line to delve the Dungeon to get the crystals to get the magic," Amanda finished.

"I can see that being a pain," Jessica agreed.

"It is," Dave agreed. "We're paying a couple of priests and priestesses from the Church to handle the Dungeon Schedule, as well as act as emergency healers if needed."

"I can see the path of administration hell ahead of us, and we're desperately swerving to avoid it," Amanda grinned. "Someone is going to have to deal with housing at some point, as right now people are just grabbing a suite where ever they can. Then there is the allocation of space for growing food, responsibility for maintaining the buildings, the walls, services..." she trailed off.

Jessica laughed as they both shuddered in unison.

"Nope," Dave said firmly. "Not doing that, saying no now."

"I'm right there with ya," she agreed, "the station is getting properly large now, picked up a whole clan, and I'm not interested in becoming the mayor, yeah?"

"So you want to see something awesome?" Amanda asked, her eyes sparkling and her lips curved into a secretive smile.

"I do," Jessica nodded happily.

"It's a few portals away," Dave warned as he opened one.

Jessica stepped through happily, finding herself in a small clearing. Then she went through another.

Four portals later, she found herself in a snowy meadow, with a series of hot springs throwing steam into the air.

"Hot tub!" Jessica squealed as she threw up a persistent effect bathing suit with summon mana-infused object under clothing, stripping as she ran.

She paused when she arrived, dipping a toe into the first pool she found and checking the temperature carefully. Finding it to be hot, but not 'ouch' hot, she slowly slipped in.

Dave and Amanda were quick to join her, letting out mutual sighs of appreciation. They all spent a few minutes just relaxing. The water had a mineral scent, but it wasn't heavy on the sulfur.

"This is nice," she murmured as she floated.

"Right?" Amanda drawled slowly. "When we found this, we were like, yep, this our special place."

"It does sort of hint at volcanic activity," Dave mused, "but so does Yellowstone, so why worry?"

"So, what are we doing tonight?" Jessica asked.

"We've got a campaign going," Dave replied, "fifth edition, level seven, you're welcome to jump in. We've got five players, so everything is covered, you can pretty much play whatever you want."

"Brilliant," Jessica carefully summoned a floatie, lounging in it, up to her neck in the water.

"Any chance Bob is going to pop in?" She asked.

"Not likely," Amanda turned her head and caught sight of the floatie. Seconds later, she had her own. "He's been hiding out and delving hard," she explained.

"Why is he hiding?" Jessica grumbled.

"Well, the Old Guard brought almost three million disabled veterans over," Dave chuckled, "and despite having nothing to do with it, he thinks that someone is going to blame him for it."

"Also, his friends Harv and Elli apparently developed a cheap way to cure cancer," Amanda added, "only takes like one mana crystal to make per dose, so they've been making a bunch of the stuff, and they already cured like a hundred people on Earth to confirm that it works like its supposed to."

"I'm not even sure if he knows about that yet," Dave added, "but if he did, it would have probably contributed."

"Yeah, I can see that," Jessica replied with a sigh. "I've got a request to see the bloody PM if you can believe it," she admitted, "day after tomorrow."

"If there's one thing I love about Thayland more than having magic powers, it's that the only government is a big fuck off Dragon, who just wants his ten percent," Dave's voice was fervent, and she could practically hear his smile.

"Too right," she agreed. "I know the governments have something cooking, some story to spin the need to evacuate to Thayland, but I don't know how they're going to pull it off."

"Let them play their games," Amanda advised, "we'll just focus on getting everyone over that we can. Figure that everyone who comes over has friends and family, and they'll bring them over, and it'll just snowball from there."

"Going to take a lot of spatially expanded buildings," Dave agreed with a sigh. "Be nice to have some folks with that dimensionalist path, but we can always just brute force it."

"I heard from one of the Endless kids that the United States paid the King of Greenwold over thirty million mana crystals this past month," Amanda said. "Once you get a dozen Dungeons fully staffed, the crystals stop being an issue."

"Yeah, but then you've gotta have people give up on advancing and just grind out crystals on those levels, which stops being a lot of fun pretty quickly," Jessica shook her head. "We've got lots more people than we have space, so right now we're just letting folks advance if they want to, with the understanding that they'll be fighting for fewer and fewer slots on the deepest floor, but I can see a time coming when we just have folks sticking with the lower levels because they can get a full eight hours of earning in."

"From what I understand, which is pretty much just what I've heard from the Endless," Amanda began, "normally people aren't rushing headlong into the Dungeon to level up. They get to a place where they're comfortable, and delve a few hours a week, maybe even less, to maintain their lifestyle while they pursue other interests."

"I can see that," Dave agreed. "Once we hit the tier cap, I don't think I'll want to reincarnate any time soon, I'd rather just focus on the spells and skills I have and spend the rest of my time with my beautiful angel."

Jessica turned her head to see Dave kissing Amanda gently. She turned away with an internal sigh. She really did want something like that. It was just hard to find a guy who wasn't immediately entranced by her looks, which was one of the reasons she was eyeing Bob. He might be a little damaged, but he didn't go slack-jawed when he saw her.

He was also handsome and clearly loved Monroe, which spoke volumes toward his character.

She shook her head. "I might reincarnate once," she said, "but I'd definitely stop for a while at once I'd capped at tier six. No reason to work myself into the ground."

"So," she decided to steer the conversation in a lighter direction, "I was thinking a teifling warlock, the ocean tentacle patron, book pact, with the pact boon that lets me copy a ritual from any class into the book."

"You have to take the charisma to damage boon, though," Amanda insisted, "and maybe the one that pushes them back?"

"And so the min-maxing begins," Dave sighed, "as was foretold by the prophecy."

Kellan rolled over on his hoard, enjoying the feeling of fresh mana crystals shifting under his scales.

He knew that there wasn't any difference between new mana crystals and old mana crystals, but knowing and knowing were two very different things, and adding fresh mana crystals to his hoard pleased a deep, primal part of his nature.

Thirty million mana crystals was a large number on paper, but it was even more impressive when they'd been poured out onto his horde. He could actually submerge himself completely!

Kellan would have been reluctant to spend them if he wasn't assured of an ever-increasing Tithe as the population of Earth sought shelter on his shores. He was enjoying a final swim in the crystals before he was due to deliver a massive portion of them to Cold Oak, where along with the Curator and the Noble house there, he would erect a massive wall around the village. He expected it would take a solid two days to complete, with his rituals doing the Dragon's share of the work. It was important that the people see him working to protect him alongside of their own leaders, and it was even more important that they all realize just how powerful he was. It was one of those peaceful demonstrations of power that headed off future problems.

He sighed as his keen hearing caught the sound of a bell chiming. It had to be either Ericka or Huron, they were the only two who even knew how to reach him when he was indulging himself. To be fair, they were the only two who knew for certain that he actually had a horde and that he indulged in very Dragon-like behavior with it.

Shifting to his human paragon form, he slid down the small mountain of mana crystals, then walked through the door that would only open for his mana signature. A short hallway awaited him, and with another door. Passing through it, he found Huron waiting for him.

"Your Majesty," Huron bowed.

"Huron," Kellan said pleasantly. "Not to put too fine a point on it, but what's gone wrong now?"

"I hesitate to use the word 'wrong,' your Majesty," Huron looked a little aggrieved. "I'd prefer to say that we have an opportunity."

"What might that be?" Kellan asked.

"The faction from Earth that is referred to as the 'Old Guard,' have brought nearly three million of their fellows from Earth, every one of them wounded in combat and in need of regeneration," Huron stated. "The Endless contributed to this endeavor, but they are woefully short of the crystals needed to heal everyone, and it will be some time before they are able to do so," he continued. "Further, they are currently encamped on top of the glacier, where they have dug out a hundred single floor Dungeons to keep the mana from coalescing under their cots."

"That's actually rather clever," Kellan mused. "Greenwold does lack in wide-open spaces."

"I thought so as well," Huron agreed. "I had thought that perhaps your Majesty might wish to direct a portion of his recently acquired tithe towards accelerating the process of healing these people."

Kellan grimaced as his Draconic nature roared its displeasure at the idea of lessening its horde.

"As I understand it," Kellan began slowly, forcing his thoughts to focus over his nature, "these people have been effectively cast aside by their government, discarded and treated as being useless."

"That is correct, your Majesty," Huron replied, "In fact, my agents have reported that this massive migration was done rapidly, over the course of just a few days, as they fully expected their government to stop them if they were discovered."

"You are entirely correct that this is an opportunity," Kellan mused. "A chance to differentiate ourselves from the leadership they've labored under."

"Indeed, and if your Majesty showed his benevolence when the time came for them to return to Earth, they might compare the experience of living under the Aegis of your wings and being tossed out like garbage by their own," Huron smiled. "Surely, with such a comparison in mind, wouldn't they rather remain? There are quite a few enterprising individuals that are already working to bring all of the luxuries from Earth to Greenwold. Given safe haven for themselves, their friends, and their families, they might choose to call Greenwold home."

Kellan nodded. He had several plans in motion to retain as many people from Earth as he could manage. While he could sympathize with their plight, they were a potential resource that could help sharpen the claws of his Kingdom, providing lift under its wings to allow it to rise above the worries of wave and tide.

This was a perfect opportunity to dive and strike, and he wasn't going to miss his prey, even if it cost him part of his horde in the short run.