《The Summoning》 Chapter 1 Springsemester was over, and the summer semester hadn''t started yet. Robert had already moved in. He''d gotten up early and driven to Waterloo from his parent''s home in Burlington. As a result, he''d already finished setting up his room before most of the other people in his residence. The University of Waterloo campus was an odd place in May. Most campuses would be empty in the summer ¡ª offering a small subsection of their core curriculum for students who wanted to get ahead or repeat something, but Waterloo was different. The reason for this was the school''s co-op program. Students in the departments of Mathematics, Engineering, Kinesiology, Environmental Studies, Science and even some of the Arts majors who were enrolled in co-op would have a schedule of one semester in college, one semester as a paid intern at a job in their field, and then another semester of college. Classes and work-study programs would alternate every semester until co-op students got their degree. It was the perfect Canadian May. Sunshine with just a hint of chill in the air. Right now, he and his friends: Neil, Ahmed, Sarah, Leslie, and Akiko were playing touch football. Girls vs. boys. Nobody was really taking the game seriously. Kendrick Lamar and Beyonce were blasting from the stereo Sarah''s window, and someone, probably Leslie had left a cooler of ice and Gatorade for people to drink. Niel, of course, had suggested that the game be shirts vs. skins, but then Neil was something of a perv and, of course, the girls had quickly voted that idea down. A nerf football came flying through the air and nearly hit him in the face. "Pay attention Rob," yelled Ahmed Robert bent down and picked up the foam football and jogged back to Ahmed. "Sorry dude," he said. "What''s up with you today?" Ahmed asked. "It''s like you''re completely out of it." "Just thinking about the upcoming semester. Not really in the mood for football." Robert replied. Sarah came up to them, and said: "Sounds like you''re just making excuses about having your ass handed to you by a bunch of girls." "Hey that isn''t fair, Leslie is a kinesiology major. That''s almost like being a ringer," Ahmed said. "You guys need the exercise. And the sunlight," Leslie said as everyone gathered up "I thought we were just throwing the ball around," he said, "I wasn''t aware there was any winning or losing involved." "There is always winning and losing involved, but right now I''ll just be happy if all of you get your daily dose of vitamin D. Did you spend your entire coop term indoors?" Leslie replied. Akiko drifted over, she didn''t say much, she never did. There were only a handful of times when he''d heard her say over 50 words at a time during the entire 2 years he''d known her. One of those rare occasions had been when he''d bumped into her during a long bus ride to Toronto and they had actually managed to have a long conversation. She''d been part their group ever since the first semester when she''d been Sarah''s roommate. "I still say this would have been more fun if it had been shirts vs. skins, and mixed teams, or with the guys as the shirts," Neil said. "You talk big Neil. But my sources tell me you still wear your underwear in the shower." Sarah said. Seeing as he''d told that bit of gossip to Sarah, Robert put the football down in the grass. "I''m kind of sick of this. I''d rather sit on the patio and listen to music. Who wants to go to the Bombshelter for a beer or two? I''ll pay for the first pitcher of Rickard''s Red." There was a chorus of "Why not," and "Sure," and "It''s cuz you''re getting whooped by girls, right?" And with that quick agreement, they agreed to meet up in ten minutes between the buildings. Robert went up to his dorm room, took off the sweaty t-shirt he''d been wearing. Applied a little deodorant to his pits. Squirted some Aqua di Gio to spruce up his sweat. Then put on a reasonably clean button-up shirt that somehow managed to pass the sniff test. His mom must have done his laundry last night and hadn''t mentioned it. Walking down the hallway from The Loft ¡ª the name of his floor ¡ª he went down the stairs past the cafeteria, and then out the doors infant of the covered walkway. Robert and most of his friends lived in an Anglican based student housing. Which sounded worse than it actually was. He wasn''t religious, but he fit right in. Sure there was the occasional prayer before more formal meals, and there was a small chapel just down the hallway from where he slept, but otherwise, it was a typical school dorm. His parents had talked him into living here. Said that the environment would foster community. Which it had. Robert suspected they hoped he would somehow find religion. Which it hadn''t. He had more friends around the dorm than from his own program. And a suspicious number of his friends had parents who were in the Episcopal clergy. Mostly, though, he stayed here year after year because it was only a three-minute walk to his classes because the food in the cafeteria was good and because they had installed gigabit ethernet last year. Waiting for everyone else to show up, he chatted with a few of the people moving between the buildings. People he hadn''t seen since the last time he was on campus. Amy said, "Hey," but couldn''t talk. He and Roberta did their little thing where he said, "Robert" and she said "Robert" with a pause then "a" and then they hugged. Reverend Bob, the director of students for the dorm, asked him if he was settled in yet, and he was. Fiorello stopped by to obsess for a bit about the Buffalo Sabers. A few minutes later Neil and Ahmed drifted in together. "Hey Robert, we''re thinking about getting a regular D&D game going. You interested?" "Maybe. Last school semester was kind of hell. I don''t know. It depends on the course load." Robert said. The three of them waited around for the girls and Leslie, Sarah, and Akiko to show up. Neil and Ahmed were talking about D&D, while Robert spoke to people he hadn''t seen in a while. Robert blushed when he saw Claudia coming his way carrying some suitcases, and he stammered a hello. She looked at him oddly and said hello back. They''d never really gotten to know each other, but over the summer he''d accidentally discovered the website where she''d been working as a camgirl. He hadn''t told anyone. Wasn''t even sure if he should tell her about what he''d seen. And frankly, he was both confused and turned on by the whole thing. "What''s up with that," Neil said to Robert who was watching Claudia walk away. "What?" He said. "That. That blush, that stammer. What''s her name. Kath, no¡­ Claudia, right? Does someone have a bit of a crush? Are you thinking about hooking up with a Mexican hottie?" "She''s Columbian, Neil. No. I don''t know. I barely know her." "You can''t win if you don''t play. Robert, be like Neil. Be a player." Neil said. "First of all, Neil, you sound like an ass talking about yourself in the third person. Secondly, if they ranked everything in the world by order of game, you would be standing in line behind three-week dead roadkill." "Robert, you wound me. Besides, depending on the season, the position of the sun and the kind of asphalt used, roadkill can get pretty hot. Don''t forget, Julie gave me a blow job at the Christmas party." Ahmed, said, "Julie''s given everyone on our floor a blow job at one time or another. She doesn''t count." It was then that Sarah, Leslie, and Akiko showed up. "What are you guy''s talking about," asked Sarah. "Robert and his crush on Claudia," said Neil. "I''m pretty sure she has a boyfriend." I said, "are we all ready?" The Bombshelter was located in the student center, and that building was located about a five-minute walk from the dorm. There was a fenced in patio out back where Robert and his five friends found seating at a picnic table under a Labatt Blue patio umbrella. "They have all these Labatt Blue umbrellas, but besides Earl, I don''t think I''ve ever seen anybody drink a Labatt''s blue. That''s old man beer." Robert said. "Wanna hear some gossip about Earl," Sarah said.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. "What?" "Cassie is friends with one of the guy''s he lived last semester. Supposedly he buys raw liver and uses it to beat off into." Sarah said in hushed tones. "Supposedly he wraps the meat around his meat and pounds it like it is a vagina." "No!" "That can''t be true." "Right out of the fridge, all cold and stuff. That''s gross." "I''m sure he heats it up with a microwave first." "Poor Earl." "Yeah, and fucking livers isn''t gross." Robert actually liked earl and decided to change the topic before it got out of hand. "Looking forward to the semester to start?" Robert said. "Yeah, I suppose," Neil said. "It is nice since I don''t even have to leave the building to go to class." Neil was studying to be an Anglican minister, so he was taking a lot of social work classes. Most of his professors had their offices and classrooms on the bottom floor of the building he slept in. Sometimes he didn''t even bother to get out of his pajamas to go to class. "Pretty much, me too." Said, Leslie. "But I''ve got a lot of anatomy classes this semester, and those are always fun." "Systems Eng is a lot of work this semester," Sarah said. "Sarah, aren''t you training to be just a glorified administrator?" claimed Ahmed when Robert and everyone else turned and stared at him. "What? I''m in architectural engineering. Clearly, that''s the most useful and the hardest program here." Sarah threw a napkin at Ahmed. "Your program used to be part of environmental studies, and half of your classes are about drawing pretty trees. You might as well be bob ross, man. I have to learn a bit out of every branch of engineering to understand how they work together." "What about you, Akiko?" Neil said. The thing about Neil was that he''d had this crush on Akiko for like forever. Which would have been fine, if that crush hadn''t stemmed from having a helluva case of yellow fever. Neil had literally every Japanese AV porn video ever put on the internet, sitting on a hard drive in his computer. Add that to his Hentai, Manga, and tentacle smut collection and well¡­ If he hadn''t been such a good guy, and Akiko so oblivious, Neil would have been kind of creepy. Robert had sworn to himself that if Neil bothered Akiko too much this semester, he''d take him out behind the dorm and beat the living shit out of him. Or at least have Leslie do it. "Hard." Was all she said. "I can imagine. You''re a Pure Math major, aren''t you?" Robert said. "Is hard" she said again and then blushed and drank a sip of her beer. The only person who could really get Akiko to talk was Sarah. They had been friends and roommates since the first semester and had shared an apartment in Toronto last semester during their work semester. Sarah was 75% of the reason that Akiko hung out with them. Though from that bus ride home with her last year, Robert knew that the other 25% stemmed from a desire to break out of her shell. The DJ put on a song by DJKhaled, and Robert got up and said, "Hey, I like this song. Anyone want to dance? Leslie? Sarah?" Leslie stood and looked over at Sarah, who looked guilty but then gestured with her head at Neil and Akiko and said, "maybe later." "Neil, don''t be an ass," Robert said as he grabbed Leslie by the arm and dragged her to the dance floor. Together Robert and Leslie bounced around to the music, and the two of them stayed up for the next few songs. "Did you seriously try to Dab to Drake?" Asked Leslie as they walked back to their table. "Yeah. Did it work?" Leslie laughed, "No, but it was funny so I can''t complain." "My moves gotta please the ladies," Robert said. Then he said, "Wait a sec," and reached over and using some sleights of hand pulled a quarter from behind Leslie''s ear." "Seriously, Rob. How many times are you going to pull that lame trick?" Leslie laughed again. "If you are serious about Claudia I can maybe see about hooking you up. Or at least find out if she has a boyfriend." "Naw, I''m good. Neil and Ahmed were just reading something that wasn''t there." They made their way back to the table and looking at Neil and Ahmed, Robert said, "Ladies, did we miss much?" And then he held Leslie''s chair for her, before sitting down himself. "We were trying to interest Sarah and Akiko in the D&D game. We said you would be playing." Ahmed said. "And let me guess, Ahmed, they weren''t interested? Because they are normal? Plus I never said I would be playing." "Hey, I never said I wouldn''t play," Sarah said, "I saw those D&D episodes of Community. It looked fun. Plus I would make an excellent Hector the Well Endowed." Robert took a sip of his beer, and let the rest of the group prattle on about D&D and school. Neil had just said something about Annie''s boobs, and the rest of the group was making fun of him. The day eventually turned into evening. A couple more people from their dorm had wandered in and joined the group, and the beer had flowed well. Robert had gotten a whole lot drunker than he''d planned, and at around 9:00 pm when Sarah and Akiko got up to leave, he volunteered to walk with them. "Awe, come on Rob, stay. Live a little. Class doesn''t start for another three days." "Fuck that Fio, I''ve been here since two. You just drifted in. I need to walk these ladies home, plus I''m sure I got some stuff I gotta read off of Royalroad after I sobered up a bit." "Royal what?" "Never mind. Just a site I go to sometimes." Robert said. "I think I''ll head out too. Without Sarah and Akiko, this table is turning into a bit of a sausage fest." Leslie added. Neil had his head between his arms down on the table. There was a puddle of drool and spilled beer around his mouth. Robert said, "I think we''ll drag Neil back too. He got cut off a half hour ago, and I can''t believe they haven''t kicked him out of here yet." "Hold up, if you''re all going, then I''m leaving too. The least I can do is help with Neil," said Ahmed. He and Ahmed grabbed Neil by the arm each and led him out of the Bar. In the main room of the student center, they were playing a movie on a projection screen. It was Army of Darkness, and Ash was just saying Klaatu Barada Nikto all wrong. Neil woke up and said, "Fucking god-damn lucky asshole Ash. I''d like to be taken to a world full of medieval babes to defeat the undead. That would be fucking awesome." "Sure, Neil. Can you walk on your own Neil." Ahmed said. "I think I''m gonna hurl." Said Neil. "Wait until we get outside." Robert and Ahmed started dragging him quickly towards the door. They just made it out the doors before Neil began to vomit into the landscaping. A couple of people who were passing by said, "Ew gross." "You gotta learn how to pace yourself, buddy," Robert said. "Fuck you, you were up there half the time dancing with the girls. You drank squat¡­.. Blargh" Neil vomited again. "Hey watch where you''re aiming that thing," Ahmed said as he dodged puke blowback. "Fuck you too. You''re Muslim, you''re not even supposed to be drinking at all." Ahmed said "I''m pretty sure the Prophet said, ''Here''s to responsibility. Twice a week.'' Or some other mumbo jumbo about moderation." "Actually, that was Stephanie Myers from Twilight." Said Sarah. "Well, I''m not a very good Muslim then," Ahmed said with great sadness. "Quit making fun of Ahmed''s religion, Sarah," Robert said. Leslie was howling with laughter at all of us by now. "Come on. Hurry up." Neil tried to walk again but then fell into some bushes and it took the other five of them to pull him out. Then they began walking back to the Dorm. "Let''s just leave him in the Moose room," Robert said to Ahmed as they dragged him into the building. If he sobers up enough to get to his own room, that''s his problem. The Moose Room was the second biggest common room outside of the cafeteria. The room got its name from the giant moose head above the gas fireplace. There were a TV, pool table and plenty of comfy chairs and couches. Nobody was using the room when they got there¡­ Robert and Ahmed just plopped Neil on a sofa and turned off the lights. Neil began to snore. The girls had already gone off to their side of the building, "Wanna watch some TV?" Ahmed said. "Thanks, but I think I''m gonna head up to my room. I''ve got some stuff to do on the internet." Robert said. "Okay, night." "Night." Hours later, there was a twisting in space. A jolt. A cosmic shell game rearrangement¡­ And Robert woke up in darkness. He rolled over an looked at where his digital alarm should be, but it was off. He rolled over in his bed and pushed the curtains aside to look out into the courtyard at the dorm green, but all he could see was the blackness of night. There were no stars in the sky. No streetlights on. He couldn''t see the distant buildings of the college which even in his still buzzing state he was pretty sure had emergency generators and battery power. The only thing outside his window was darkness. Robert rolled out of his bed and fumbled in the darkness for the tactical flashlight he kept in his desk. Turning it on, he looked around at his room and then made his way to the bathroom. After peeing, he realized that there was no pressure in the toilets, and the water didn''t turn on. Curious, Robert grabbed his keys and left his room and walked out into the hallway. He walked down the stairs. Passing the Moose Room, he saw that Neil was still asleep on the couch where they''d left him. Robert kept walking. Dressed in his bathrobe and holding his flashlight, he walked out the front door of the residence. Outside standing under the Canadian flag and looking off into the distance, he could see no glow from the city. There were no cars driving down the street. From where he was standing, it looked like Westmount road was cut off. Shining his flashlight all around, he happened to look up at the night sky trying to see the moon. Instead of over his head, the beams of the flashlight revealed stalactites covering the ceiling of the cave. "Fuck," Robert said. He thought about it. Thought about it a little bit more. After a few minutes, Robert came to two conclusions. Either someone had laced his beer with something, in which case Fuck-you Neil and this whole thing would eventually wear off. Or, he was out of his depth. Taking a deep breath, Robert walked over to the girls'' dorm and went up to Leslie''s room. Tapping lightly on Leslie''s door. "Les. Les. Can I come in? It''s urgent." Robert heard groaning and shuffling behind the door. Then he heard Leslie say something unladylike as she must have tripped over something on the floor. "Who is it?" Leslie said. "It''s Robert, can I come in. It''s an emergency." "Rob. Robert, I like you. You know I like you. We''ve been friends since first year. But I not like this." "Leslie, I''m not here for a booty call. Can you just let me in? Or better yet, come out here. I gotta show you something." "Okay. Just give me a minute. The power isn''t working." There was more cursing in the room, but eventually, Leslie opened the door holding a flashlight. It was one of those big mag lights you could use as a club. Robert led Leslie outside. They didn''t talk as they walked. Robert because he didn''t know what to say, Leslie because she didn''t want to wake up the girls on her floor. Once they were between the two buildings Robert turned to Leslie and said, "Can you tell me something. Can you tell me if I''m crazy, but," and Robert shone the beam of his flashlight up onto the ceiling, "but are those stalactites? Then he shined the light of this flashlight against down Westmount road, "Leslie, does the road suddenly end in a wall? Leslie, are you seeing what I''m seeing?" Together they walked out on the dorm green. In their bare feet, Robert in his bathrobe, Leslie in an extra-large t-shirt, they moved through the mown grass. Just past the forest and creek that ran parallel to the dorm, a jagged wall rose. "Leslie, I don''t think we''re in Kansas anymore." "Ontario. Leslie,I don''t think we''re in Ontario anymore." Chapter 2 Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Plus you know, Zombie apocalypse,¡± Huang said. Rule 1: The wishes of The Core and of its voice Knaxis are absolute. Rule 2: If The Core is in danger all dungeon dwellers must protect it Rule 3: Your relationship with the other denizens of the Dungeon is your own affair and are of no concern of The Core unless members of that species are trying to break Rule 1 or Rule 2. Rule 4: Your cave is within a species-specific dimension in space. You may modify your area how your species sees fit. Rule 5: Adventurers trying to leave the Dungeon are not to be harassed unless they attack first. Rule 6: You are not to leave the Dungeon. Doing so will cause your permanent death. Rule 7: Species stones must always be made available to all members of that species. Rule 8: Neutral spaces shall remain neutral. Safe spaces shall remain safe. Chapter 3 The instant Knaxis was gone all the overwhelming, and crushing fear disappeared. Robert went from fighting against an outside pressure pushing down on his body, to moving the way his arms and legs regularly moved. With the compulsion was gone and he came close to hurting himself in the resulting awkward jerky motion. Looking around, about a fifth of the people he was planning to live with were getting up. The rest still lay on the ground, and many were crying to themselves or rocking back and forth. Putting his red gemstones in his pocket, he went to look at Samantha ¡ª the girl he had fallen on top of when he was trying to get up. She was still lying on the grass and was staring at some distant spot unblinkingly.Shit was smeared down her leg from when she had been forced to stand and get the gemstone by the Knaxis thing. ¡°Samantha? Samantha? Are you okay?¡± Robert said, but Samantha didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°I think she is catatonic,¡± Leslie said. ¡°My last coop job working at a clinic as an assistant physical therapist.Some of the patients who came through had different mentally ill. Mostly PTSD, but we also had a few catatonic patients come in. With catatonia, well¡­ some snap out of it quickly. Others¡­ it can go on for years. With treatment, they often get better, but without treatment, just stay like that. Staring off into nothing or having occasional outbursts.¡± ¡°What do you think we should do?¡± Rob asked. Samantha thought about it for a couple of seconds, ¡°Get her cleaned up. Put her somewhere safe. Somewhere where Samantha can¡¯t hurt herself. We may have to use spare some mattresses, and pad the walls of a room if it turns out she has the malignant form; otherwise, she will hurt herself.¡± Leslie looked around. It became apparent that there were other people in precisely the same state as Samantha. Fortunately, not many. By now, almost everyone was standing. But four people other than Samantha was clearly staring off into nothing. ¡°It isn¡¯t just a problem with Sam. Other people are sick too.¡± From over by the door to the cafeteria, Huang called out ¡°Robert. Leslie. Can either of you bring your key? I want to check out the chapel to see if this ¡®Species Stone¡¯ is about.¡± Leslie shouted back, ¡°Can¡¯t you see we are taking care of Sam over here.¡± Robert put his hand on Leslie¡¯s shoulder, ¡°No, Huang is right,¡± then he called out, ¡°give me a second, and I will be right over.¡± ¡°You have to stop letting him get his way, Robert. People like him take a foot if you give them an inch,¡± said Leslie quietly as Robert started walking toward the door. People were avoiding looking at the two people lying on the ground. There was no blood. It is strange what you notice. Something would have to be done. Maybe bury them over by the trees. Huang and his friends Brent and Oscar, were standing by the door. ¡°Unreal, don¡¯t you think?¡± Oscar said. ¡°Alien tentacle monsters and not in a sexy way.¡± ¡°Two people are dead, and a lot of people are scared, Brent.¡± Said Robert, then he said. ¡°No, forget I said that. I¡¯m on edge, and this is totally nobody¡¯s fault except whatever brought us here and that Knaxis thing. I think I have a clue about what is going on though.¡± ¡°What?¡± Brent said. Robert hadn¡¯t liked Brent since the day about two years ago when he¡¯d caught the guy peering into a window of one of the TV rooms in the morning. Sometimes people would use the couches in the TV rooms to have sex when they didn¡¯t want to kick their roommates out of a shared room. Robert hadn¡¯t reported him to the admin, but there had been a tension between them ever since. ¡°Just wait. I want to see what this Species Stone does.¡± Robert replied. The four of them walked through the cafeteria, and then up a short flight of stairs. There was balcony around three of the walls of the cafeteria, forming an atrium overlooking the seating below. On top of the kitchens were some offices, and just outside of the offices was the dorm chapel. Stained glass windows flanked a solid wood door. The chapel was huge. While very few people actually went to church service, space had been constructed more with happy, hopeful yearnings Robert pulled out his keys and unlocked the door. The minute the door opened a feeling of peace, comfort, and serenity filled his being. In the center of the room was a pulsating Stone. A blue screen appeared in front of Robert¡¯s eyes.
You are now entering a Human Species-Specific Safe Zone. Only members of the human species are permitted within the area of the aura. Default species respawn location. Individual Processing and Quantification. Bonuses to Life, Purify, and Ritual Magic.Anchor.
¡°What the hell,¡± Oscar said. Brent said, ¡°Did you see that Huang? What do you think is going on.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Huang flicked his finger at it. ¡°But it goes away if you touch it.¡± Actually, Robert had an idea but withheld saying anything. There were too many coincidences involved, and he could be wrong. For a moment, Huang said nothing, and then he said, ¡°The monster said we are supposed to touch the gemstone to the stone. Robert, you might as well go first.¡± ¡°Why me?¡± Said, Robert. ¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to be our Senior Resident Advisor,¡± said Huang smiling. ¡°You lead, we follow.¡± ¡°Somehow, I don¡¯t think the Director of Residence had any of this in mind when they wrote my job description,¡± Robert said with some sarcasm. ¡°Oh well, umm no guts, no glory? Are you sure none of you want to go first, right?¡± Huang and his three friends shook their heads. Without speaking, Robert stepped forward, took the gemstone out of his pocket, and held it to the Species Stone. A blue box formed in front of his eyes.The box was exactly like the blue wall of text which appeared as soon as they¡¯d entered the chapel. ¡°Well¡­,¡± Huang said. ¡°Have any of you ever played D&D?¡± Robert said. ¡°Yeah, back in high school. Plus Ahmed keeps trying to get me to join his group,¡± said Huang. ¡°I see something that looks a lot like a D&D character sheet. All the stats -- I assume they are my stats -- are written a blue screen like the one when we saw when we came into this room. For some reason, the thing that brought us here isn¡¯t more advanced than an ugly HTML table. No CSS even.¡± Robert stopped speaking for a few minutes while he looked closely at everything. ¡°I see my name and stats. It isn¡¯t strength, dexterity, and constitution but rather attributes like Fortitude, Endurance, and Deft. Everything is quantified with a number, though I¡¯m not sure what the number means. I mean¡­ well, it isn¡¯t 3D6 like D&D.¡± ¡°Maybe a standard deviation?¡± Huang said. ¡°If it is, I¡¯m fucked,¡± Robert replied. Thinking about it for a couple of seconds, Robert said, ¡°If it helps, the sheet says I have a strength of 22. Take that with a grain of salt. Maybe we find out everyone¡¯s strength attribute then have an arm-wrestling contest to figure out what the numbers mean.¡± Oscar looked confused, ¡°Isn¡¯t D&D all about spells and elves. Fireball and Summon Octogenarian and stuff like that. Do you have any spells?¡± Focusing on the bottom part of the characters sheet, Robert said, ¡°I don¡¯t know about Summon Octogenarian or Fireball, but there is a section of the screen I¡¯m looking at, has a heading labels Magic, and as sub-categories there are¡­ I see Fire, and I see the word Summon. They are listed separately.¡± Before anybody could ask a question or more likely make a demand, he said, ¡°It says I got 1000 experience from the gemstone. When I focus on a stat, it tells me how much it costs to improve it.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m looking at magic now. All the different types of magic seem to cost 100 experience. Let me try something.¡± Since he was sick of being in the dark, Robert spent the required 100 xp on light magic. The instant he did, Robert understood light differently. Not differently in terms of wavelength and photons, but separately in the sense that if he just thought a certain way¡­ A little ball of bright white light ¡ª about the amount of light a candle gave off ¡ª appeared in Robert¡¯s hand. ¡°Holy Shit,¡± Brent said. ¡°Magic!¡± hissed Huang, ¡°This place is giving us access to magic.¡± Explaining what he¡¯d done, Robert said, ¡°I just spent 100 of my experience on the magic category Light. I think this is all it does. No, scratch that. I just thought of something.¡± A thought caused the color of the light to change from white to red.Then changing again, Robert cycled through a pattern of green, blue, black, and then back once more to white. During the entire time, the light had the same intensity. Then Robert concentrated again, and the light dimmed until it was only the faintest blip in the darkness, before flaring back into the brightness of a candle flame. ¡°Seems kind of useless. I mean it¡¯s cool and all, because, hey magic. But that light is kind of puny. You said you spent 100 experience to get it? Out of 1000¡± Huang said. Robert looked back at his character sheet. He only had 900 experience left, and he had one point in the magic category light. ¡°Yes and no. The next point in the light seems to be fairly low cost. Only 5xp. I think the initial cost is a barrier to entry. Let me try getting the next level.¡± Leaving the small white light floating in the air, he added another point into light magic. His understanding of the concept ¡®light¡¯ grew again, and with that increased understanding, the ball of glowing white floating in front of him expanded. It now had the luminescent of a weak incandescent flashlight. ¡°That¡¯s better. Let me try again. It is still 5xp for the next point.¡± He added another point. The brightness of the light changed to that of a regular incandescent flashlight. He also understood that he could move the light around with his mind if Robert concentrated, so he did, and the small ball of heatless energy float around the room to his will. Biting the bullet, Robert added another point of light and the brightness of the sphere was as bright as a 60-watt incandescent bulb. He realized that he could now keep the tiny blaze as it was or he could incorporate heat into gleam. ¡°Well, that¡¯s better. At least we can see. How many points is that.¡± Said Huang. ¡°Five points,¡± Robert said. ¡°The next point says it costs 10 experience. And since I don¡¯t want to spend all my experience in light. Let¡¯s look at what else there is.¡± Robert switched to his skills list. It was strange seeing all of his life listed out like this. He was extremely embarrassed by the 11 he had in Football compared with the 41 he¡¯d scored understanding plots of Television Police procedurals. Obviously, he¡¯d spent far too long watching Law and Order on TV. And the Wire. And NCIS. And Castle. And¡­ Ugh¡­ He vowed that he would never mention this skill to anyone. Then when he focused on the category heading an entirely new page opened up. Under that category was a ton of role-playing game skills. An inner sense told him that the list he was looking at was were all common skills that fit well with his species. When thought about what skills might not be suitable to his species an entirely new the appeared with thousands and thousands of abilities and talents on a vast bullet point list. Quickly he switched back to the list of fundamental skills. ¡°I¡¯m looking at a skills tab. Lots and lots of medieval fantasy skills. More than I¡¯ve ever seen in one place.Supposedly these are the common ones for our species. The list I see seem to only be a subsection of possible knowledge because when I look at the entire list, there are thousands and thousands of things listed.¡± Robert looked a little longer. ¡°Although I have a skill called Computer Science on my characters sheet, I don¡¯t see it listed anywhere on the Dungeon list. Not even on the list of thousands of skills. And computer science seems to be greyed out. Same goes for a bunch of my other skills like Earth: Mythology and Language: English.¡± ¡°Huang, you¡¯re in Computer Engineering, right? I would be interested in finding out how that translates. To the skill list. I don¡¯t see electrical engineering anywhere, yet cell phones still work. Same goes for pistol or rifle skills. There are sword and knife skills, though.¡± Looking over the skill list, Robert wished that he could reorganize it by function.Just thinking it and the blue screen changed. The index was now better organized. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but at least things were together. He saw one skill that he wanted to experiment with, ¡°Let me try something.¡± The weapon skills had all different prices. From 190 experience for Weapon: Sword to 80 experience for Dodge. Going for one of the cheaper ones, Robert spent 55 experience on Weapon: Unarmed. A feeling rushed through Robert¡¯s body, and suddenly he knew what to do in a fistfight. Making his best Keanu Reeves impression, Robert said, ¡°I know Kung Fu. Well not really, but I can punch straight some of the time.¡± Examining his character sheet instead of the single point in Unarmed, he had 10 points. ¡°It cost me 55 experience points, but now I have a ten in Weapon: Unarmed. I don¡¯t know why it didn¡¯t start at one. Maybe the fact that I spent three months taking Karate, or that I used to get into fistfights with my cousin, helped¡± Rob looked over the character sheet a bit more. ¡°I can pretty much adjust everything. I can make myself stronger and faster and maybe even smarter. Increasing my strength 1 point costs like 170 experience points though.¡± Robert fiddled with the character sheet a little more. ¡°There is an entire another page that lets me adjust my body. Wow, I can give myself fur, or claws. I can spend experience to make myself older or younger. I can make my eyes see in the dark or even make my penis bigger or smaller. If I want to, I could spend 1000 experience point and make myself a woman?¡± ¡°You want to make yourself a woman, Robert? You queer or something?¡± Brent said. ¡°Screw you,¡± Robert replied. Huang said, ¡°That¡¯s enough. Move aside, I want to try.¡± Robert said, ¡°No. I don¡¯t know if the experience from the gem goes away if I take my hand off this rock. I¡¯m not letting go until I spend my entire amount. Plus we should probably write down a list of skills and magic so that everyone else can make an informed choice.¡± Huang thought about that. ¡°Actually, that makes sense. Might as well plan our builds rather than just assign points helter-skelter. You occasionally do luck into good ideas.¡± Robert said. ¡°I think Reverend Bob keeps a notebook and some pens in the drawer where he keeps the collection plate. I don¡¯t have the key so you might as well break the drawer open.¡± Brent went over to the case and opened it, ¡°Nobody bothered to lock it.¡± Then he pulled out a cash box, opened it. There must have been $200 in the box. Brent laughed, ¡°Reverend Bob isn¡¯t big on security.¡± Lastly, Brent pulled out a notebook and said, ¡°so who¡¯ll take notes?¡± ¡°You¡¯re holding the notebook, you write,¡± Huang said. Brent said, ¡°Damn,¡± and then sat down in one of the pews, and said, ¡°go on, start with the list.¡± ¡°Okay under attributes, there is:
Strength Will Chutzpah
Fortitude Logic Charm
Endurance Wit Empathy
Agility Retention Deception
Deft Recall Manipulation
Speed Creativity Compatibility
Muscle Memory Clarity Spontaneity
Senses Perception Politic
¡°Under Magic they have:
Analyze Enchanting Mind
Anima Fire Nature
Anti-Magic Force Purify
Arcane Foresight Ritual
Body Frost Scry
Charm Gravity Sense
Congruity Life Sound
Dark Light Space
Death Lightning Summoning
Earth Luck Time
Empathy Magnetism Water
¡°And the basic skills it lists for humans are:
Acting Astrology Move quietly
Bargain Astronomy Pick Pocketing
Begging Augury Shadowing
Comedy bookkeeping Spot Hidden
Diplomacy Card counting Spot Trap
Etiquette Cartography Stalking
Gambling Chess Armor: Chain
Haggle Cryptography Armor: Leather
Hygiene Dentistry Armor: Plate
Hypnotism Embezzling Armor: Shield
Intimidate Evaluate Block
Leadership Geology Brawling
Painting Healing Dodge
Poker Lip Reading Military: Strategy
Public Speaking Magic Theory Military: Tactics
Seduce Mathematics Stun
Alchemy Mechanics Taunt
Armor Smithing Mediation weapon: ballista
basket weaving Music Theory Weapon: Bow
Blacksmithing Navigation Weapon: Catapult
Boat Building Numismatics Weapon: crossbow
bookbinding Oenology Weapon: Dagger
Bowyer pharmacology Weapon: Mace
Brewing Poison Weapon: Spear
Build Trap Rune History Weapon: Sword
Carpentry Rune Lore Weapon: Unarmed
Chandlery Runes Wrestling
Cooking Scribe Art: Dungeon
drawing Speculation Art: local
Enchanting Surgery Art: Quatrill
Fishing Surveying Art: Temmoria
Fletcher Treat Sickness Art: Urbanth
Gem Cutting acrobatics Fauna: Local
glass blowing Contortionist Fauna: World
Gold Smithing Courtesan Flora: Local
Haberdasher Croupier Flora: World
Jeweler Dance Geography: Local
Leatherworking Dice Geography: World
Mason Diving History: Dungeon
Metalworking Gymnastics Knowledge: Quatrill
Metallurgy hunting Knowledge: Adventurer
paper making Instrument: Drums Knowledge: Dungeon
pottery Instrument: Flute Knowledge: local
Preserving Instrument: Harp Knowledge: Merchant
sculpture Instrument: Horn Knowledge: Mythology
Tailor Instrument: Lute Knowledge: Nobility
Tanning Juggle Knowledge: Temmoria
Weapon Smithing Lovemaking Knowledge: Urbanth
Animal Husbandry Meditation Law: Local
Animal Training Palm Object Literature: Dungeon
Beekeeping Riding: Horse Literature: local
Butchering Sailing Literature: Quatrill
Farming Skiing Literature: Temmoria
Herbalism Swim Literature: Urbanth
Herding Tracking Politics: Dungeon
Horticulture Tumbling Politics: Local
Mining Camouflage Speak: Quatrill
Orientation Disarm Speak: Temmorian
Prospecting Disarm Trap Speak: Urbanth
Ride: Horse Disguise Survivalist: Dungeon
Skinning Distract Theology: Dungeon
Veterinarian Hide Theology: Local
Architecture Lock Picking Theology: World
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.When he had read the last subject off of the list, Robert said, ¡°You might as well go out and show everyone what we¡¯ve figured out. Maybe gather up the Resident Advisors and find people who have played D&D or are into World of Warcraft or Elder Scroll or games like that. Explain things to them. Have them copy out the list maybe. I¡¯m going to be a bit longer here making my build.¡± It took Robert about half an hour to list out the entire contents. Not only was Brent a tool, but he also wasn¡¯t a good secretary either. While he was doing this, Robert was thinking through what exactly he wanted to take for skills. In MMORPGs, he¡¯d always played a mage. Now was his chance to live the dream. He would try for the same kind of build. On the other hand, there were so many things that needed to be done to get things working again. Huang was about to leave, then a thought occurred to Robert, ¡°I¡¯m going to waste a few experience points and pick up either Knowledge: Dungeon or Geography: Local. And maybe some Magic Theory. The more we know, the better we can make decisions for the group.¡± ¡°Better you than me, wasting those points. Though are you sure you don¡¯t want to talk someone clueless into wasting their points? I¡¯m sure someone in Anthropology would go ape shit over the chance.¡± Huang said. ¡°It might as well be me. The more knowledge I have the better I can plan. I doubt anyone out there has more of a clue what¡¯s going on, and I¡¯m sure some people have considerably less. A lot of this reminds me of those dungeon-based light novels online.¡± ¡°It¡¯s your life. Me, I don¡¯t want some mind-controlling squid face to ever do that to me again. Not if I can help it. Better I kill it before it kills me.¡± Huang said. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯d probably do that too if I were in your place. Now, fuck off, and let me figure some stuff out.¡± ¡°Death magic sounds cool. Maybe I¡¯ll be a Death Knight or Necromancer.¡± Brent said. ¡°Whatever floats your boat Brent,¡± Huang said. Huang and his two friends left the chapel, and Robert began contemplating his build. He had already spent 125 experience bringing Light Magic to five. The light from the spell he¡¯d cast was still hanging in the air above him, lighting up the room. He barely noticed it. Light magic was good enough for now. He could see where he was going and maybe even do double duty as a heat lamp. But going forward he needed to know a lot more about Magic and what they might run into in the Dungeon. It was painful, but he spent 195 experience in both Knowledge: Dungeon which gave him a ten in that skill. Suddenly he knew a lot of general knowledge about dungeons. That they were filled with monsters, traps, and treasure. That dungeon was controlled by a core. That this dungeon was called the Night¡¯s Falsehood Dungeon. That Night¡¯s Falsehood might be over 10,000 years old. That while some intelligent species within the dungeon spoke their own languages, that the most commonly spoken language, the language of trade and diplomacy was Quatrill. He knew that the weakest monster in this labyrinth before humans stumbled onto the scene were goblins. And lastly, the Core gave new species about two weeks to acclimatize themselves before opening the space up to adventures and monsters. Robert debated picking up Quatrill but decided against it for now. Goblins, the knowledge he¡¯d just learned, didn¡¯t speak in more than grunts and their own simplified pidgin.Besides until humans could show that they were stronger, by either suppressing, conquering, or passing the goblins by, actually speaking them was pointless. Woo-hoo 10 points of Knowledge: Dungeon. Instead of picking up Knowledge: Local, Robert then spent another 195 points Magic Theory. A prompt appeared asking him if he wanted to accept the cost, and when he selected yes, his score in this area went up to 10, and he knew a little more about casting spells and vaguely what each category of spell casting did. Unfortunately, now he only had 430 points left. He needed to be smart about this. His instinct told him to get a weapon skill. Something easily accessible. But he really wanted to be a spell caster. It was a hard decision. But in the end, the fact that their most likely next adversary would either be goblins or low-level adventures made a choice for him. Robert put 190 experience in Lightning and 190 points in Enchanting. It cost 35 points to bring his light magic up to 8. Leaving him with only 15 points. Now for the test. Robert took his hand off of the Species Stone. His character sheet disappeared from his head. Without touching the stone, Robert couldn¡¯t figure out a way to bring the information back up again. Touching the stone again brought back the blue screen with his Character Sheet. And he saw that his 15 experience was still there. The next test he made was focusing on the ¡®Remove¡¯ category.A prompt appeared and asked him, ¡®How much?¡¯ Robert entered 15. Two small gems appeared in his hand, and he almost dropped them. A blue gemstone and a green one. On his character sheet, it now listed that he now had 0 experience points. Touching the green gem to the Species stone, his experience points went up to 10. Then he used the blue gem, and his experience went up to 15. Finally, it came to the last experiment he could think of for now. Reaching into his pocket, Robert pulled out one of the two red gems that he had stolen from psycho squid boy. Robert noticed that the red gemstone was significantly larger than either the blue or the green stones. Then he pressed the red gem to the ¡¯Species Stone.¡¯ On his character sheet, he saw his that his experience points had just jumped up to 1015. He almost let out a small cheer. Instead, he quickly took out the other gemstone he¡¯d stolen and brought it into contact with the Species Stone. The number 2015 was now listed under experience points. From his knowledge of magical theory, he knew that he could use Runes and Enchanting to do incredible things. People with both skills and at least one magic ability could imbue their magic ability into objects. Since he had Light and Lightning, if he picked up Runes, he would be able to make stones that glowed like lightbulbs as long as someone put mana into them. Or he could make rocks that shocked people when they touched them. Enchanting imbued the power into an object, runes directed that power. More importantly, he was pretty sure that even with just lightning as weak as it was, he could deliver a steady stream of electricity to anything, which would make charging cellphones and iPads a thing now. With Enchanting and Runes, he could conceivably create objects that would allow anyone to do this. Furthermore, the more points he put into Lightning magic, the more volts and amps he could supply. Instead, he needed stuff he could use in an emergency. So instead he spent 1100 experience points to bring his Lightning Magic and Enchanting up to 20.He thought about bringing his Unarmed combat skill up to 20 but decided against it for now. One thing he noticed was that from 10 points to 11 points or from 11 points to 12 points was precisely the same for increasing both magic and skills. The small differences he¡¯d seen when he¡¯d looked at weapon skills must have been because he already knew some unarmed combat but didn¡¯t have a clue what to do with a sword. To check this hypothesis, Robert looked at what it would cost to pick up cooking.Fifteen experience points would bring his cooking skill to ten. Which made sense since, he was pretty damned good at boiling hot dogs, microwaving burritos, and was a master of the ancient and noble arts of ramen noodles and grilled cheese. Next, Robert spent 380 experience points and picked up 10 points in Runes and the magic Analyze. Analyze was a no brainer. Analyze was the magic of examining things. It was like a scientific tool that anybody who had the magic carried around with them all the time. With the skill, he could look at things and glean information like cellular structures, temperatures, light conditions, types of magic used, that kind of thing. The higher the skill level, the more potent the talent. More importantly, he could also peer at someone or something and puzzle out their statistics. Or look at a magic item and puzzle out what it did. At level 10, the skill was slow and provided minimal information. But Robert knew that any information was useful information and that Identify was a core skill. Which left Robert with 535 experience points to spend. It cost 260 experience to bring Runes up to 15. Then another 190 points picking up ten points of Water Magic. The reason for this was that the plumbing was off in the dorms, and Robert liked being clean. He could have picked up ten points in Purify instead. Purify removed impurities, so if he took off his shirt and cast purify on it, he would end up with a clean shirt. If he cast the magic on his sweaty pits, it would be like he washed there. The big reason he didn¡¯t take Purify was that as a side benefit Purification magic would destroy the undead. While as a side benefit, Water magic could be drunk. There were no skeletons or zombies around, but he was thirsty. Seventy-five points more points in Light, bringing that up to ten and he had 70 experience points left for a rainy day. He wasn¡¯t a powerhouse. He couldn¡¯t yet wade into combat and decimate his enemies. But he could help make life just a tiny bit better for the people he¡¯d been marooned in this dungeon with. An enormous feeling of loss filled Robert as he left the Chapel. As he¡¯d been working on his character, he¡¯d almost forgotten the sense of profound peace and health that had filled him in the designated safe zone. He hadn¡¯t felt hungry, or thirsty, and he felt cleaner from merely having spent time in the room. The smell of urine was gone, and his bathrobe felt like it had just come out of the laundry machine. In the future, he could see the chapel being a popular place to hang out. Far more than in the past when it was being used for its intended purpose. Almost every head turned towards Robert as he stepped out of the dorm. He couldn¡¯t see Huang anywhere, even with the light shining over his head brightening up the courtyard. He mentally directed it to sit on top of the flagpole. Then he walked towards his friends Leslie, Susan, Akiko, and Ahmed. People were staring at him. Well, they were staring at the light more than anything, and people were either whispering and exclaim in shock.He also saw that the bodies of the two hockey players had disappeared. ¡°How are things going?¡± Robert asked. Leslie and Ahmed both started to speak at the same time. Leslie said, ¡°I¡¯m stuck between asking you how you managed that light and telling you that I¡¯m not sure what to do with these poor catatonic people. They need to be looked after, and I don¡¯t know who can do it. A few of us have been talking to them and trying to coax them out of their stupor,¡± Leslie said. While Ahmed said, ¡°Holy shit, is that magic? You have the light spell? What about magic missiles, or Bigby¡¯s Ever Fondling Digits? How many hit points do you get? Robert, you simply just gotta show me how to do magic. I¡¯ll even let you borrow some of my Virgins after I die. I think I¡¯m about to cream myself here.¡± Susan, who was standing next to Ahmed, punched Ahmed in the arm. Robert said, ¡°Just a second Ahmed.¡± Then he turned to Leslie, ¡°I have an idea about that. We should move them to the chapel. It is amazing in there. There is this aura of calm and serenity that must be magical. And it is a safe zone. I¡¯ve learned that safe zones are sacrosanct in this dungeon.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve learned?¡± Leslie said. ¡°How have you learned?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t Huang, Brent, and Oscar say anything, when they came back?And what happened to the two corpses¡± Robert asked. ¡°Huang showed up, grabbed a few people, and then they all went back into the building.The corpses turned into glowing colors and then disappeared an hour ago.It was as if someone had beamed them up,¡± Sarah said, looking ferocious in her Kendo gear. ¡°And none of Huang¡¯s group said anything? Nothing at all?¡± Robert said. ¡°No. Should they have?¡± ¡°I asked them to let everyone know what is going on.¡± By now a group of well¡­ everyone had gathered around Robert. Darnell asked, ¡°What is going on?¡± And a chorus of people said ¡°Yeah,¡± ¡°Come on, Rob, share.¡± Looking at the group, Robert raised his hand for silence. It didn¡¯t work like in the movies, and people kept on asking him to tell them what was going on. Finally, Robert said, ¡°If you let me speak, I will try to tell you. Raise your hand if you play role-playing games? Things like World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons,Shadow Run, Skyrim. That kind of thing.¡± As to be expected from a school that specialized in engineering, science, and mathematics, a lot of people raised their hand. Well over half the people standing around. But almost everyone looked confused as to why he was bringing up video games. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to say this, so I¡¯ll just say it. Imagine you¡¯re playing World of Warcraft. You get a group together to run an instance. Say the Scarlett Monastery, Ice Crown Citadel, or the Deadmines. You enter the instance and make your way through the dungeon fighting whatever monsters get in the way. Go gather loot and beat bosses until you have conquered the dungeon. Do you get what I''m saying so far.¡± People were nodding all around Robert, so he took a deep breath. ¡°Well, I hate to say this, but it looks like we have become the monsters.¡± ¡°WHAT!¡± Cries of outrage rose around them. ¡°When they find the entrance to this cave, they will start coming down here looking for treasure and experience. They will have Warriors, Magic-Users, Priests, Rogues, all the standard raiding party. Our function is to try to kill them before they kill us. If we kill them, we get experience points, learn skills, practice magic. If they kill us, they get treasures and improve in their chosen classes. The only differences are that they can leave the dungeon, and we re-spawn in the Chapel after we have been killed, while they die forever.¡± Robert let that sink in before he said. ¡°But not only that. This is a big dungeon. Supposedly it is over a hundred floors, though I don¡¯t know the exact number. I was only able to pick up really general info.¡± ¡°Right now, we are among the weakest creatures in the dungeon. But we have some advantages. When we die, we reappear in the chapel. This probably starts after we use the red gemstone that thing forced us to take. But that red gem also gives us access to magic, lets us learn skills, and make ourselves more powerful. \ ¡°I should mention that we can do anything we can think of to defend ourselves. When you enter a dungeon, there are traps, false trails, hidden rooms that kind of thing. We have to build those kinds of things to defend ourselves. \ Looking around and Robert saw that most of the people around him weren¡¯t convinced. The leap between imagining being in a fantasy adventure and actually being in a fantasy adventure was a vast and terrifying jump. These people had seen just people they''d known die. They could also see the promise implied by Robert¡¯s magic light.And lastly, they remembered an ugly naked squid faced monster. And most importantly, they were stuck inside a cave who knows where when by all reason they should have been on a University campus in Southern Ontario. ¡°Look. I don¡¯t want to die. Even if I die and come back again, I don¡¯t want to die again.¡± Robert said. ¡°From what I know, in about two weeks, the entrance to our cave will open up. It will still be hidden on the first floor of The Night¡¯s Falsehood dungeon. But it will not take that long to find. When that happens, things will start coming into this cave. Most of those things will be trying to kill us. Some of them will be trying to eat us." ¡°Those red gems give us at least a fighting chance. That stone links us to the system. Until you are linked, you can die. Once you touch the gemstone to the big rock that is in the chapel, you will get a character sheet, and you become functionally immoral. In front of your face, a character sheet like in D&D and World of Warcraft appears that only you can see.¡± People were listening, focused, and Robert continued. ¡°Like all character sheets, this is a summary of who you are. It lists your strengths and weaknesses in vague categories like strength and intelligence that you can improve. The sheet also quantifies everything you already know. For example, it told me that I have a 22 in strength and a 35 in Driving.¡± ¡°Ummm¡­ I still don¡¯t know the exact method the system uses to quantify things, so don¡¯t ask me. Nor do I understand why it is the same price to raise easy skills with experience as it is to raise hard ones. ¡± ¡°When. I was fiddling with my character sheet I took light magic mostly because I figured the batteries to my flashlight would run out.¡± Robert pointed to the glowing ball of light that was floating above the flag pole. ¡°That is the result of 10 points in Light Magic. One point looks like this.¡± Robert caused a second small pinpoint of light to appear beside him. ¡°As far as I can tell, everyone¡¯s gemstone gives out 1000 experience points. And you can spend those points on pretty much anything on a vast list. That light cost 190 of those points.¡± ¡°Now let me show you something else if everyone would stand well back behind me.¡± Muttering in anger, shock, curiosity or even excitement but mostly still in shock, the group backed up behind Robert. When they were about 15 feet away from the flag pole, Robert said. ¡°I¡¯ve never done this before, so I¡¯m gonna try to be careful. It may be slow.¡± He let a small blast of electricity shoot through his hand. About 1 point of magic worth. Nothing visible happened. Then he upped the strength a little more. Then a little more. Then a little more until at around seven points worth, and only for a second, a visible arc of electricity connect himself to the flag pole. ¡°Yes folks, I can shoot lightning,¡± Robert said, ¡°And I intend to try and blast every monster or adventurer who comes to try and kill me with as much lightning as I can.¡± ¡°Keep in mind that there are other skills and magics too.¡± ¡°Akiko, I want you to seriously consider getting Space Magic. At its lower levels, it lets you know where you are, and it eventually leads to teleportation. I¡¯m hoping that if you can get it high enough you can move our cave somewhere safer, and if you get it really really high, maybe even bring us home.¡± ¡°There is nature magic if you want to grow trees and talk to ducks. But more importantly, nature magic will let us raise crops quickly so we can actually eat when the stuff in the kitchen runs out. There are skills like enchanting, which if I can get high enough and get my lighting high enough might let us turn the power in the dorm back on.¡± ¡°If you want, you can go in there and learn how to use a sword, wear armor and taunt your enemies. You can learn herbology and alchemy. Someone with Enchanting and enough Water Magic could make the water pipes, and more importantly, the showers turn on again.¡± Robert looked around at the faces that we¡¯re gathered around him. He saw a glimmer of hope and more importantly, excitement on some people. Mostly on the faces of the people he knew were gamers. A lot of the downcast look and hopelessness was gone. ¡°I know this isn¡¯t ideal.Guys, if it came right down to it, I¡¯d rather be back in Canada taking classes, complaining about the cafeteria food, and studying for midterms. But we are stuck here, and we might as well set it up so that nobody can take advantage of us.¡± ¡°At the very least, let''s move this conversation into the chapel. It is safe in there. Adventurers can¡¯t come in, and other monsters won¡¯t kill us in there. We still have time, but I think you guys need to be confronted by the reality of what is going on, and looking at a big glowing red stone might help with that. There is a purification aura there, which will clean us off, and a healthy aura of that hopefully will help those poor catatonic people feel better.¡±\ Robert was about to start walking, when Wendy, a second-year actuary major and one of Leslie¡¯s friends, said, ¡°How do you know all this.¡± Robert said, ¡°Part of what I spent my experience points on was taking a skill called Dungeon Lore, and a skill called Magic Theory. Those skills taught me the basics. If it helps, when I opened my character sheet, I discovered I had an 11 in football. Some of you have played football with me on the green, and you¡¯ve hung around me when we watched an NFL or CFL game on TV. Last year for our fantasy football league, I used a random number generator to make my picks. Whatever system this world uses to quantify things, I now know about as much about this dungeon, and the magic of this world, as I do about football. Let that sink in.¡± Robert looked around at the group. ¡°Look we¡¯re all scared and confused. Trust me, I get it. I am too. But I think if we work together as a community, make some smart choices in the next few days, we can make this work. We just need to get skills and magic that compliments each other and that work off of our strengths.¡± ¡°We also need to accept that while some of us will want to go out there and fight. But I also know that a lot of people will want to stay back and be safe. I get that. We just need to work together, and do the sort of things that each and every one of us is good at.¡± People nodded.Robert hadn¡¯t precisely given an inspiring speech.That wasn''t his fault as he had had never learned how to do the rousing thing.He was more of a convey information kind of person. Hopefully, people could come to grip with their situation now that they had a bit more information. Just then, Leslie spoke. ¡°What about Neil and Fiorello? What about Fatima and the other Leslie? They never got a gemstone. How can they be entered into this system if they don¡¯t have a stone? Or will they just die the first time these monsters or adventurers come rampaging through our homes?¡± ¡°Son of a Bitch. I forgot about Neil and Fio. I am truly a son of a bitch.¡± Robert said. Robert spoke up again and said, ¡°Look, I honestly don¡¯t know. Maybe there is a way for him to get experience. Maybe we can contact that the squid monster who gave us the stones in the first place and have him send a gemstone for them as well. We will think of something.¡± Chapter 4 Even those people who were skeptical about the information that Robert was sharing. Even those who were lost in the haze of their fears. They all moved with him as a group to the dorm chapel. What spurred the exodus from the lawn by the flag was Robert using the word "safety." People weren''t feeling safe, and it showed. Robert went forward like some sort of strange personification of an anglerfish; the people he''d know for years and people he''d barely known at all, we''re all following behind the light spell bobbing over his head, as the strange procession wove through the building, into the cafeteria, and up the stairs into the chapel. These were good people, Robert realized. Some of the girls had gathered around Samantha and were helping her move, prodding inside towards safety forward. The same thing was happening with their other catatonic classmates. It sort of helped that a lot of the women in this dorm were studying social work, that fact alone gave a large base of people with an instinct to help out the mentally traumatized. When people crossed over the threshold and into the chapel Robert kept hearing an audible sound that, while just a gasp, seemed to carry with it a feeling of relaxation, of letting go of a burden of fear and stress that people and even a bit of clarity and joy as the aura of the chapel hit them. The people who were worst off were led to seats in the pews. Everyone else got crammed down the isles and around the sides. There were still dozens of people standing out in the hall. People kept away from the glowing red stone like it was radioactive, though. Despite the clearly benevolent feelings coming from it, a four-foot radius around it was empty. Robert looked around. He saw some of the people he knew a bit better than others and tried to catch them by the eye. With those he could, with the people who weren''t too stressed out, Robert held each of their gazes for a second, acknowledging them, before nodding and moving on. There was a common theme among the terrified people in the room. Most of the people only had eyes for large glowing rock. And the people who were left over? About half of these were looking straight at Robert as if he were about to lead a class or present some mystical knowledge from on high. The rest of them, well they were studiously trying to look everywhere except at Robert or the large rock. Robert and Leslie managed to push through the crowd and into the empty space around the stone. Ahmed, Susan, and Akiko stayed in the hallway. Neil, of course, was probably still drooling in some dehydrated alcohol sleep. Leslie walked with him, though she was obviously every bit as reluctant to go near the damned thing as everybody else was. Robert wasn''t sure if she just trusted him, or she saw some deep reservoir of leadership and courage emerge. Either way, he was glad for it. Turning to the group, Robert felt the mood of the crowd and said. "I am going to put my hand on this thing. Don''t worry, I''ve done this before. Before anybody else touches it, I want to read out the list of skills and Magic so that everyone knows exactly what the stone offers. Nobody has to make any decisions right now. I don''t expect anyone too. Mostly I just want to give you guys a bit of a better understanding of what this thing does." He reached out and touched the stone. Everyone in the room was staring at him now. "See. I''m fine," he said. With a hand on the Stone, Robert turned to the group, "Reverend Bob kept a notebook in that cabinet. Huang and his group took one. But I''m hoping that maybe there is another? Would you guys mind looking around over there to see if there is something you can write with." There wasn''t another notebook. There were some surplus hymn books, some clerical robes and a box of pens. "We could write in the margin''s of one of the hymn books." A girl he barely recognized said. "Naw give me a second," called out Claudia who was standing out in the hallway. A loud crack sounded from outside the room. A minute or two later Camilla pushed her way back to the front of the crowd carrying her crowbar and a stack of paper. "Hope nobody minds, but I broke into one of the offices," Claudia said. "Thanks, Claudia. Can you pass some of those pages around? The more people writing this stuff down, the better we''ll manage, I think." After a bit of finagling, about fifteen people were armed with pen and typing paper. A handful of other people had their smartphones out and recording. "Ready? Okay. Right now if I concentrate, I can see my Character Sheet. If you don''t know what a character sheet, find someone who has played a Role-Playing Game later. For now, just accept that it is a basic summary of who you are, your strengths, weaknesses, talents, and skills. If you don''t know what role-playing, or if you think role-playing has something to do with Theater, stop by and talk to Ahmed afterward. If you think role-playing is all about sex games, please stop by and talk to me afterward." Looking over his Character Sheet, Robert saw that nothing had changed. "Okay, I''m going to list off the list of attributes, basic skills, and Magic, now. Just write this down. We can go over it later." It looks a little bit more than forty-five minutes to go through the entire list with everyone. Periodically Robert was stopped and asked questions. More often than not, Robert had to answer, "I don''t know." "Here''s what I want everyone to do. The first thing I want you to think about what you would want to do if you had kept studying at the University of Waterloo. I mean, what is it that you wanted to do with your life. Then I want you to think about picking up skills related to that. Only with possibly mystical powers. Or if you''re going to do something different, I want you to think about how you want to help the group as a whole. " Robert continued, "Once you connect to the system, there are a lot of skills that give you options that you''ve never had before. I seriously doubt anybody here ever thought about becoming a wizard or a druid before today. And I, for one, would completely understand someone wanting to switch from being an accountant to being a wizard." "On that note, I want you to think about what you would want to do if you were playing a Fantasy Role-playing game. Or if you aren''t into D&D, think about who you would want to be in Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings. Wizards, warriors, healers, rogues, all of that is within the realm of possibility now." "What if I want to be a death eater,?" Anita called out. "I think Huang and his friends already have that covered. Before they left, Brent mentioned that he was seriously considering becoming a Necromancer. Who knows, if Neil were around I''m sure he would be just begging to choose Charm, Seduction, and Lovemaking. Umm¡­on that note, don''t be a Neil." "Lastly, I want you to think about back up skills. Skills that help our little group as a whole. Think of it this way. We''ve become a small town in the middle of nowhere. We need to be self-sufficient. The kitchen staff isn''t here, so we''ll need someone to cook and other people to grow crops. Do any of you want to be and farmers, cooks, butchers, tailors, armor smiths, weaponsmiths, blacksmiths and that kind of thing. Well¡­ maybe not butchers yet since we don''t have any animals. We can assist with those functions with Magic, but just think about what it is you want to do. There are a lot of us. We will ultimately need to share the workload. " Alan, who was a first-year who''d been upfront holding a hockey stick when Knaxis had killed his friends. He looked scared and out of place. "What if we don''t want to connect to this system? I just wanna go home. If we can''t die anymore, when will Ryan and Liam come back? You all saw how they started to glow and then disappeared. When will my friends come back?" There was a chorus of agreement. Robert wasn''t sure, even with everything that had happened, that people hadn''t realized the finality of their situation. Robert said, "I''m not sure we can go home. I''m not even sure we ever will get home. I haven''t seen any indication that whatever kidnapped and brought us here has any plans on sending us back. I mean this could all be some bizarre dream I''m having. But I''m getting closer and closer to the opinion that this isn''t" Another girl ¡ª Tiziana was her name, Robert thought ¡ª said, "I think I get what you are trying to say Rob, but Alan has a point, what happens if we just don''t touch the stone. What if we don''t get this character sheet thing that you are talking about. I''m pretty sure that like a lot of other people here, I enjoyed Game of Thrones, but that doesn''t make me a total fantasy geeks. I just want to go home. " Robert looked at the girl. No, he remembered now, her name was Sophia. That''s right, it was Tiziana. Sophia was her twin sister. "Honestly, Tiziana. I don''t know. From the minimal knowledge I got, we die if we leave the dungeon. But that could be a lie. But does it really matter? I mean, we don''t even know where the way out of this cave is." "It''s Sophia. Tiziana is my sister." Sophia said, pointing towards another girl who was sitting in the front among the catatonic people. "That''s the thing. We just don''t know enough. I put some points into dungeon knowledge, but the information I got was incredibly basic and who even knows if what I learned is even the truth." Robert said. He continued. "Maybe we die if we leave these caves. Maybe we don''t. The stuff I picked up says we die. But maybe people who haven''t touched the stone and become part of this system can live outside of this place just fine. I just don''t know. I don''t even know what is out there. The knowledge tells me that ''Adventurers'' will eventually be coming through this place. They''re becoming for fun and experience and treasure. Are these adventurers humans, are they elves, or are they tree headed, hippopotamus people? I don''t know." People began to talk to each other, so Robert had to raise his voice. "Look, I do know that there is a skill called Knowledge: Local and another called Knowledge: World and another called Knowledge: Adventurers guild. You heard me say these things when I was reading the list, there are also a bunch of language and history skills. Maybe someone, or a couple of people who are planning to stick around with me, would be willing to take those skills to let the rest of us know what is going on outside this cave." "Look, I don''t expect anyone to make any decisions right now. Maybe get together with your R.A. and talk things over. Maybe come talk to me. Think about who you are and who you want to be. Decide if you want to stick around or try leaving. Go beyond, support, and fighting. Or beyond the crafting and adventuring paradigm. This is a strange new world that we''ve been forced into. Hopefully, it doesn''t have to suck ass." Seeing as people were still unsure of themselves, Robert said, "Look. Why don''t we all go down into the cafeteria? I''ll set the light up high so that everyone can see. Get with your floors. Talk to your R.A.s, look over the list. And if you have any questions, come over to me and chat. I don''t have all the answers. I might not have any answers. At some point, we have to stop bumping around in the dark and start walking, taking a direction forward." With a whole lot of effort, Robert was able to split the ball of light in two. Before he barely noticed the amount of mana he was using going down. Now with two balls of light, the mana at his disposal was shrinking. Slowly but visibly shrinking. Leaving one of the lights in the chapel, so that the catatonic people could see and so that it wouldn''t shock or scare them, Robert led the rest of the group to the cafeteria. He did notice that a small group of people was staying inside the chapel. He recognized Daren among them and realized that these were the super hardcore gaming kids. The people who played Magic the gathering during lunch breaks and who obsessed about cosplay. He even suspected that Daren was a furry, but he didn''t hold that against him. Down in the cafeteria Robert, Sarah, Ahmed, and Leslie grabbed a table. Other groups, pushed tables together to make a bigger one, or just sat together in small groups. There were some loners here and there who chose to sit by themselves. Robert resolved to go and chat with them at some point. "So, you guys know what you want to do." "Not sure I like to begin called a guy," Sarah said, "since I''m clearly a woman. But I will let your terrible diction go since these are strange times." Robert rolled his eyes but rephrased anyway. "Do you people know what you want to do? Become dungeon creatures like me or try to leave? I don''t mind getting stuck here all alone if everyone decides to bail." "There is too much we don''t know," Ahmed said. "Just thinking about gaming, I have to say, adventurers, in general, are assholes or worse murder hobos. Thought that could be complete bunk since this is the real thing ¡ª not a book or a game or one of your wacky web fictions ¡ª this is reality and gaming is well¡­ just gaming." "We just don''t have enough information," Robert said. "I can''t believe I''m saying this, but tell me everything you know about Role-Playing Games." Said Susan. Robert and Ahmed turned to Susan with shocked looks on their faces. "What the hell?" "I know. I know. And I''m not turning into one of you nerds all of a sudden. But systems engineer here. I''ve been trained to figure out how things work together, and I think that is exactly what we need to start doing right now." "Look, Susan¡­" Robert began. Just then someone called out "Leslie, Robert would one of you mind opening up the kitchen. We need to have some breakfast." There was a small group of people standing around the door to the kitchen. Leslie got up, and Robert put a hand on her arm. "Hold on. I was afraid of this. Let''s go together." The two Senior Residential Advisors got up and walked over to the group that was standing by the entrance to the kitchens. "Umm¡­ Dudes, I can''t let you in there." Robert said. "What the hell, Rob. Nobody''s here to open up for breakfast, and I''m hungry." Sophia said, "Don''t be a dick. Open the door. I promise I won''t tell you."The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. "Fuck you, Sophia. The food on the other side of that door is all we''ve got. There are no delivery trucks from the restaurant supply company coming to fill the fridge back up. No grocery stores we can go to to get snacks." "But we''re hungry, now," April said with her boyfriend, standing beside her was nodding. John didn''t live in the dorm, he had an apartment in Village II. The main campus dorm that housed thousands of students. The only reason that Robert knew him was that John spent so much time over here. "Well, you''re all going to have to wait until lunch. And even then we''re going to have to figure out a way to only hand out food that will rot if it gets warm. Fuck, we don''t even have electricity or gas, so there''s no way to cook." "What the hell are you talking about Rob. I want food now." Leslie spoke. "What''s the harm, Robert. Let them have some breakfast." Robert turned to the rest of the room. The discussion they''d been having was being listened to by the rest of the people in the room now. So Robert addressed the crowd. "Look, I know that all of this is coming as a bit of a shock to some of you. I was trying to be nice before. It is time for some hard truths. Call me a dick all you want, but it won''t change things." Robert pointed to the kitchen and held up a hand. He raised one finger. "One: I don''t know how much food is in there. But I would be surprised if we have enough to get through the week if we don''t ration it. Once the food runs out, we starve." He raised up a second finger. "Two: Outside of our cave are things that actively want to kill us. And if they don''t want to kill us, it is only because they want to eat us first." A third finger went up, "Nobody is coming to rescue us. We won''t wake up tomorrow and find out that this was all just a bad dream. Ryan and Liam are dead. I expect that in a few weeks more of us will be dead." "So call me a spaz. Talk behind my back and call me an asshole. But the way I see it, unless we plan ahead, and figure out a way to protect ourselves, we are right and completely fucked. We need to be figuring out how to get more food, not just pigging out on the stuff we have right now." Robert glared at everyone as if challenging them to say something. Then he turned to Leslie and in a voice loud enough to be heard by everyone, "Leslie, let''s go back to our table." They sat down again, and Robert said, "Look, I''m just going to say it. Ahmed, I think you should focus on taking Magic that supplements your architectural engineering major. Stuff like Earth Magic, Enchanting, Runes, and maybe Ritual Magic. We need to build up some defenses. Walls, traps, that kind of stuff. With enough earth magic, you''ll be able to move dirt around, harden walls, dig pits. And with enchanting and runes you should be able to create pitfall traps and that kind of thing." Robert turned to Leslie. "Leslie, I know you said you want to read up on D&D and I''m sure Ahmed will lend you his players handbook and D.M.''s guide. But don''t do that just yet. I thought that you might want to go with your Kinesiology training and focus on healing. Be one of our group''s healers. Consider taking Life, Body, Purification, and maybe even Death Magic. "Akiko¡­" The door to the cafeteria opened, and beams of light from flashlights cast shadows on the walls before switching off. Robert turned and saw Huang, Oscar, Brent, and four other people. "What up bitches," Huang said. Robert said, "Huang, I thought you were going to give the list to the group and help out." "Shit that reminds me," Huang pulled out the list of talents that Brent had written down and handed it to a girl sitting at the table nearest to the front door. "Look that over." Then Huang turned to Robert and shrugged before said, "Better late than never." Robert frowned, and said, "So you guys are going to make your choices?" Huang nodded, "Yup." "Mind saying what? I''m trying to emphasize synergy and community building. " Huang thought about it for a couple of seconds, "I don''t mind. Tank, D.P.S., D.P.S., D.P.S., Healer, off-Tank, Off-Healer. Who said the classics didn''t have a purpose. The way I figure it, we''re in a dungeon, right. I figure why not go out and fight Dungeon monsters. Especially if we respawn." Robert nodded. He''d been planning something similar for himself, though he still thought getting their home defended and producing came first. He just wanted to get everything organized and make sure his home was safe before he gathered a group to start exploring. "Want to let me have a clue what magic you guys are taking?" "I''m gonna be a Necromancer," Brent said. "Shut up Brent. Yup, I mind." Huang said, "It''s none of your business. If that''s everything?" The group started to walk forward to the chapel. Then Huang stopped, "Oh, when will the kitchen be open for breakfast?" "Any of you planning to get enough fire magic to cook? Or enough nature magic to help us grow some fruit and veggies?" Robert replied, "If the answer is yes and you want to help out, then soon. If not, then probably for a small lunch in a couple hours." Huang shrugged. "My dad owns a restaurant, and I don''t mind cooking. I was planning on getting fire magic. So sure I don''t mind helping out a little. As long as nobody starts to expect it from me. Let me into the kitchen, and I''ll whip us up a big batch of eggs. Might as well use them up or they will go bad." "Thanks, but I was kind of hoping to try to figure out a way to turn our eggs into chickens. I wanted to see if Nature, Life or Summoning and Congruity Magic would be able to get us some real live birds. But some breakfast would be nice too." Robert said. Huang shrugged, and then he and his group continued walking towards the chapel. Just before they went upstairs, Huang turned back to Robert and his table again. "Had to kick Neil out of the Moose room, while we had our meeting of minds." Huang gestured to his friends. "I think he stumbled back to his own bedroom. He doesn''t have a clue what''s going on. I tried to tell him, but he almost bit my head off." With that, the seven people went up the stairs and into the chapel. "So what was I talking about?" Robert said. "You were telling Ahmed and Leslie what to do," said Susan. "Making suggestions," Rob said. Ahmed interrupted. "I don''t know Rob. I get what you are trying to do. But I halfway agree with Huang. I don''t want to be stuck here building traps and fortifications. I want to be out there exploring and adventuring. What kind of a Muslim would I be if I didn''t want to kill goblins?" "As far as I know, Islam doesn''t involve slaying any goblins," Susan said. "Ifrit and Christians then. You say Potato I say Potato. The point is, I usually play the Tank in our group when we game online. I was kind of hoping to continue that now," replied Ahmed. Robert said, "And you somehow think I don''t want to go out there and explore? If it were up to me, I would already be looking for the way out of this cave and looking to kill some monsters. But we got to look at the bigger picture. This is our home." Robert gestured to the rest of the cafeteria. Many of the people in the room were listening to their discussing even when they were pretending not to. The room was strangely silent, and his words carried. "Before we go out there and explore, we need to make sure that the people right here who don''t want to go out there and explore can defend themselves. We need to make sure we have a home base that we can come back to. A place where we can re-equip and resupply. A place where we can respawn and rest." "And really, there is nothing that says you can''t do both. In a lot of stories, earth affinities can make you stronger. Maybe don''t go with Enchanting and Runes, and instead pick up body magic and foresight. Body magic lets you toughen up your body and make it stronger. While foresight lets you see a bit into the future." Ahmed looked confused. "Why would I want to see into the future?" "To see where attacks are coming from and to get out of the way before they hit," Robert said. "Though I don''t really know if you can use it like that. I''m just hoping." Leslie spoke, "If a healer is kind of like a doctor I could go for that. You said Life, Body, Purification, and Death Magic?" "Life Magic lets you keep people alive. Body magic affects the body, for Ahmed, it would help him become stronger and faster. For you, you could try to affect tissues, circulate blood, regrow cells, that kind of thing. Purification cleans stuff, whether that is dirty clothes, polluted water, or sicknesses and disease. If you have a lot of it, I think it counteracts death magic like the undead." Leslie thought about it and nodded. Then she said, "You said maybe death magic. Why would I want to take Death Magic?" "Death magic kills things. It also steals life. And finally, it helps brings things that shouldn''t be alive back to life, like Zombies and Skeletons. It is just a guess, but with both death magic and life magic, you might be able to steal life from an enemy and use it to heal a friend. And it might also let you be able to resurrect someone who has died. At the very least, having death magic would let you defend against and heal death magic spells." "That sounds really unpleasant," Leslie said. "Resurrect someone who has died," yelled Allen. "Could we bring back Ryan and Liam?" Robert turned and faced Allen. "I don''t know. Maybe if you added Summoning into the mix and your Magic was high enough. Or you might just be messing with things that shouldn''t be messed with." "Shouldn''t be messed with?" Allan said. "For all, I know there are demons, monsters, and shit. Summoning scares me. It''s all about dragging a being from another place to here. This dungeon used summoning to bring us here. Basically, with summoning, you are casting your mind out into the universe and hoping to bring something back. "If you combine it with Congruity well¡­ congruity is like calling to like. I was hoping to try and convince someone to use that Magic to summon some chickens and if we have any hamburger maybe a cow or two. But if someone''s skill was high enough, they might be able to use Congruity on something Ryan and Liam owned to use while summoning your friends back. I don''t know. All this shit''s deep. " Allan got up, propped his hockey stick up against the table and said, "Okay then." And turned and walked up the stairs to the chapel. "What''s gotten into him?" Ahmed asked. "According to gossip, Liam was his boyfriend. Neither of them was out of the closet, though." Sarah replied. "Ah," Ahmed said. A girl who was sitting two tables over asked "My favorite class in World of Warcraft was the Druid. Can I become a Druid?'' Robert thought about it for a bit. "If you are talking about shape-changing into lions and bears and seals, well¡­ you might be able to do that eventually with Body magic. If you want to grow plants. That is pure nature magic. If you want to interact with animals, I think that is Charm magic or Empathy. So I would choose those. I would also consider picking up farming for the rest of us." "I already know how to farm. I grew up on a Tobacco farm near Elgin. We had chickens and an apple orchard. " Robert nodded at this. "You said something about Space Magic." A hushed voice from Akiko said. "Yeah, Akiko. You''re probably the smartest person out of all of us. We need your help if we are ever going to figure out how to get home. Maybe consider Time and Space magic? From the way I understand it, those skills are mostly pure math." "But what do they do?" Akiko said. "Umm¡­ Time magic, I think, can do things like speed up or slow down how time itself affects people. Space magic is all about understanding dimensions and moving through space. Teleportation, that kind of thing. "I''m hoping that if you get strong enough, you might be able to create a portal back to Ontario. But even if you can''t, just being able to move us long distances quickly would be incredibly helpful." Akiko nodded. "As for you, Sarah. I don''t know. You have mad martial arts skills. I was kind of hoping you would be willing to start teaching some of us kendo and ju-jitsu. I can''t imagine that using experience is the only way to learn skills. But as for ideas about what Magic you should take. I don''t know." Sarah was looking at the list of skills, and she said, "What does Ritual magic do?" "If one person has ritual magic, they can form groups with other people with magic, to share skills and mana and cast more powerful spells." "Hmmm¡­" she said. "And force magic and anti-magic?" "Force magic lets you create an invisible means of blocking things and moving things around. Think force shields and telekinesis. Anti-Magic creates an aura that blocks out all Magic. The more Anti-Magic you have, the larger the aura you can generate." "What about Arcane magic?" "That is pure Magic. It lets you interact with Magic itself. Let''s you take apart other people''s spells, lets you see Magic, and lets you let outbursts of pure Magic as a weapon." "Anima?" "Like robotics or Computer Programming, I think. Basically, you can give basic commands to something, and that something will try to follow the commands. In terms of the dungeon, it is about creating golems. As far as I know, it isn''t A.I. or machine learning, though I would imagine that if you got your Magic high enough you could manage it." "And Analyze." "It also lets you see Magic, but it also lets you pick up more information from things. If you look at an arm, you can see the cells, the way the blood moves, if there is corruption. If you look at a brick, you can see what kind of clay it was made out of, what impurities are in the dirt. That kind of thing." Leslie said, "So it would be useful for me, right? Would it be better than death magic?" "A lot better," Rob said. "I should have pointed it out to you. I forgot. I''m sorry." Leslie waved Rob''s apology away and said, "No worries." "What about luck and Empathy," continued Sarah "Luck is about affecting how lucky someone is. Or unlucky someone else is. Empathy is about understanding and projecting feelings. Not only people but animals and even some plants." Claudia had sat down two tables over, but she came over and sat at their table and said, "I''m totally not into all of this nerd shit. But I''m a can geek out over anthropology like the best of them. There are a bunch of languages and histories and knowledge on the list. What gives?" Robert looked over at Claudia and immediately felt uncomfortable. "Oh, hey, Claudia. What''s up?" "Rob, I said I wanted to know about communicating. What languages would be most effective." "Umm¡­. The only language I know for sure is Quatrill." Robert said. With exaggerated patience, Claudia said, "So who uses Quatrill?" "Well, there are a lot of monsters out there, but there are other groups just like us. Well, not just like us. But groups with societies and cultures. Quatrill is a kind of the common language they use for trade. Sort of like English in the real world. A lot of countries speak their own language, but because the U.S. dollar is so important economically, in most places a lot of people also speak English for business." Claudia thought about this for a second. "So what you''re saying that somewhere in this place is a superpower, that uses Quatrill as their main language?" "I didn''t say that," Robert replied. "But you kind of implied it. What about the other languages?" "I don''t have a clue. Well¡­ now that I think about it the little bit I took in Magic theory tells me that Urbanth has something to do with an extinct civilization of mages. Though why that is considered a common skill is a question that I can''t answer." "So if I wanted to try talking to the people and things that are attacking us, I would take Quatrill?" "Ummm. Well¡­ this is complete guesswork, I could be completely wrong. But Claudia, if I had to guess¡­ Well, since Quatrill has to do with dungeon communication, and Urbanth has something to do with Magic, a good bet might be that Temmorian has to do with the adventurers coming into the dungeon." Claudia thought about it a bit longer. "How could I find out for sure." Robert said, "well¡­ Claudia, I was kinda hoping someone would take either the skill "Geography: Local" or the skill "Knowledge: Local" which if I had to guess, would be the geography or an understanding of what is going on in the general area outside of the dungeon. If we knew either of those things, not only could we have a better idea of what will attack us, but we might be able to help those of us who want to leave the caves." Claudia nodded and then got up and walked towards the chapel. Robert watched her walk. Watched the way her butt moved under the nighty she was wearing. He''d seen her nude on the internet over the summer, even chatted with her a couple of times online, but somehow she was even more fascinating in person. And underneath it all, he questioned his own motives. Did he actually like her, or did she just make him horny? And just how creepy would this whole thing be from her perspective¡­ "Robert and Claudia, sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G¡­" Ahmed said. "Shut up, Ahmed." "Little Robby pooh has a crush on Claudia." Sarah mocked. "Shut up Sarah. I thought we discussed this last night at the Bombshelter. Besides, it is complicated." Leslie just smiled and patted him condescendingly on the back. "Poor Robert." Robert looked around. Everyone in the cafeteria had been listening in. Now the entire dorm knew something was up. He was so embarrassed. Fucking, Ahmed and Sarah. Maybe he should have put some points into seduction? Then Darnell spoke up "So Robert if you can stop drooling over the Claudster, would you mind giving me some advice too. Let''s say I wanted to make a ring. Call it The One Ring. Let''s say, I wanted this ring to rule them all. What skills would I take?" After that, there was a bit of a barrage of people asking advice about skills and Magic. Robert was glad to help. After a while he said, "Look at it this way. In a lot of computer games, people group up in something called a party. They have a Tank or someone who can get people to focus on them. This person is usually willing to get right into the thick of things, and they do this because a lot of people who focus on Magic are pretty weak and don''t have a lot of physical skills. The technical term is a glass cannon. A lot of firepowers, but they break quickly if someone smashes them. Then there is someone who is a healer, their job is to make sure that everyone stays healthy." "It might make sense to group people up like this. Even if you aren''t planning on doing anything other than help cook or you are a chemical engineering or chemistry major out to perform diabolical chemistry experiments with alchemy." Robert glanced over at a small group of five students who were chatting and gesturing wildly at another table. They''d asked about alchemy earlier. He went on, "Even if fighting is not your focus, I would like it if everyone could fight. Even if you completely suck at it. Just in case. Have an emergency group with at least one person who can maybe do a bit of healing, that you can fall in with. I want Sarah to give Kendo and Ju-Jitsu lessons, and if we can pick up some fighting skills that way. It might help." "I don''t mind teaching. I help out with the teaching in my dojo anyway. Hopefully, I''ll be able to whip some of you into shape." Sarah said. Just then, the door at to the cafeteria opened, and Neil and Fio walked in. "The power seems to be out. Hey, why are all of you in your pajamas? Cool karate outfit Sarah." Niel said. Chapter 5 With regrets, Robert waved Neil and Fiorello over to their table. "Hey, Neil," Robert said. "Hey Rob, what''s happening man," Neil replied. "Um¡­ well look. Something happened." "Yeah, I know. The power''s out, and the plumbing doesn''t work. I dropped a major load just now, and there was no water pressure." Neil stopped talking, and then he said, "Maybe it''s the hangover but is anyone else seeing the light floating on top of Robert''s head?" When they all nodded, "What is it? Some sort of Rave gear? Are we all going to drop X to ride out the power failure? If so, where can I get me some?" Neil said. Robert then spent another fifteen minutes explaining to Neil and Fio what was going on. "This is gonna sound like a stupid question, but where can I get one of those magic gemstones?" Fiorello said. "I don''t know." Robert said, "You might be able to ask one of the people who are planning to leave for theirs. If that Knaxis creature ever comes back, and hopefully he never does, you might be able to score one from him." Robert said, "Other than that, I think you''ve screwed, Neil." "And you couldn''t wake me up for this," Neil said. "I tried. You were kind of a douche about it," said Robert. "Besides, it sort of came on all of a sudden, and we kind of forgot about you when the action was happening. Why don''t you go out there and ask around? There are a bunch of people who don''t seem to want to use theirs. Try Sophia. Though her sister is sick so she might want to stay around just for that. Maybe someone wants to give away their gemstone. If you can''t find someone, there is something I want to try." Neil and Fiorello got up and began walking around from table to table, asking begging, pleading. It didn''t look like they were having a lot of luck. In Robert''s mind, he realized that it was just too early, people wanted security, and that meant hanging on to that gemstone. Even if they weren''t planning on using it. The gems were a lifeline, even if it was one they weren''t planning on using. While they watched Neil go from person to person, Ahmed stood up and said, "I think I know what I want to do, with my gemstone. Mind if I skedaddle?" "Me too," said Leslie. The two of them got up, and Susan got up too, "I think I''ll follow Neil and Leslie. I want to watch. See if there are any changes from what you said happened. Plus I have some ideas. At the very least, I want to see my stats before I make any decisions." Robert said, "I think I''ll stick around down here. People still have questions. Good luck." Akiko followed Susan. She gave Robert a shy smile just before she left. When his friends gone, everyone else in the room suddenly felt like they could ask Robert for help. For the next couple of hours, he answered questions, made suggestions, and tried to shuffle people into directions that would both help out everyone in the dorm community, but also would be suitable for the overall defensive or offensive capabilities of their group. Not everybody went into the chapel to use their experience stone, but a large enough group of people did. A lot of the other people in the cafeteria just wanted to listen in to what other people were asking, looking for hints about what they could do themselves. Slowly as the day wrapped in timeless dark wore on, Robert could see through the windows out onto the dorm green, bursts of light made from sudden flames and arcs of lightning. First, there was only one or two. Then as more people came out of the chapel having spent their gemstone, the darkness outside was lit with multiple balls of light. Soon the Canadian flag was billowed violently as competing bursts of wind whipped it back and forth. A group of people was having a water fight without any squirt guns, water balloons, or hoses. And an impromptu game of ice hockey was happening over by the main road, except as he watched he saw that a couple of the players were teleporting short distances around the rink instead of skating. As the fun and anarchy outside spread the last of the people who had been hanging out inside the cafeteria went outside either to join them or watch. The tension that had built up since the morning was lessened. At least a little bit. The last people who Robert spoke with in the cafeteria were poor Fatima and the other Leslie. Both of whom had slept through Knaxis the squid guy''s horrific visit and thus hadn''t gotten a mana gem. And all he could tell them was to find Neil and Fiorello and see what progress they''d had in getting their own corundum rock. Huang came in and said, "Wanna let me into the kitchen. As soon as they finish playing, they will want food. I promised there would be eggs." Robert got up and walked over to where Huang and then unlocked the door to the kitchen. "I''ll set the salad bar out into the seating area. Give people a choice between eggs and salad. Call it brunch. The veggies will wilt if we don''t use them up." While Huang cooked Robert ferried romaine lettuce, chopped onions and peppers, chickpeas, pickled beets, bacon bits, and croutons out into the cafeteria and laid them out on a table. The fridge was off, and it was warming up fast, so Robert tried to minimize opening and closing. He would have to track down whoever had set up the ice rink and have them freeze over the fridge. Or maybe he could set up some sort of enchanting solution. On that note, when he finished setting up the salad, he grabbed a couple of small plates. The kind that the kitchen staff usually put jello on. Then he found the marker that they used to write down the daily special. Sitting at a table outside, he examined the plate. It had a smooth flat white surface that was about 15 centimeters across. Perfect for drawing runes on. What he wanted was something that would store a large amount of a kind of magic and then release it slowly. Like a Magic capacitor. The knowledge he''d gained in Rune Lore skill presented him with three or four different ways to finish the project he had in mind... It was impressive how adding some points into a skill managed to fill his mind with the knowledge of the subject. At the same time, it worried him that maybe the people in his dorm might grow too used to the easy access to learning that the Species Stone provided. Would they stop experimenting and learning on their own? Before Robert could try writing on the first plate, someone said, "I need an egg." He looked up, and Robert saw that Allan staring at him with an intense look on his face. "Did you take summoning?" "Yup. I tried using it to bring back Ryan and Liam, but apparently, I''m not strong enough yet, or I don''t know how to do it. So I thought I would practice by trying to summon some chickens, pigs, goats, and cows. If I can manage on an egg, I can move on to bacon, feta cheese, and hamburger." Robert waved him toward the kitchen. "Huang is in there cooking. Let him know what you want." "Oh, before I go, I should mention that Susan said that she saw a rabbit and a couple of squirrels scamper into the bushes before hell broke loose out on the green. Who knows what else is out there. Raccoons, and bird''s I''d imagine. Maybe the crickets will start up again." Allan said. "Squirrelly stew. Yum!" Said, Robert. Taking the marker, Robert began drawing the runes to create a kind of mana battery and slow release system. He needed to create an input pathway that could accept a lot of Mana quickly, and an exit pathway that would let that Mana back out slowly at a controlled pace. He also added runes for light magic. When he was done marking up the ceramic plate with runic symbols, Robert then used enchanting to infuse the runes with raw magic power. When he''d written out the spell on the plate, he had written in some generic areas that could hold typed magic. As the enchanting energies ran through his body and onto the plate, runes he''d inscribed with the dry erase marker seemed to burn in prismatic colors on the plate as magic flowed through Robert''s body. Eventually, the magic died out, and the dry erase marker lines now looked like they had been burnt into the plate. Now that the plate was enchanted, the next step was to attune the generic areas for typed magic to be attuned to light magic. He did this by casting a light spell directly into the generic domains. This was the easiest way to do this. There seemed to be more specific runes that directly used typed magic, but Robert wasn''t familiar with them. He just knew they existed. Now the enchantment was done. But he had to fill the enchanted plate with Mana, so Robert t began to push light Mana into the dish. Mana flowed into the runes like a sponge. Stopping for a second, he used analyze magic on the plate. It was about 25% full. Next, Robert tried to push raw Mana into the plate, and the mana reserves filled up even faster. He then switched to lightning magic, without actually casting any kind of electricity. Doing so filled the plate up much slower. The same thing happened with raw water magic and analysis magic. The whole plate glowed like 60-watt incandescent bulbs, though they tended to flicker. Awesome. As long as someone could cast spells, they could fill a rune-like this with Mana and turn on the light. It had taken him about 5 minutes to draw and enchant the plate. If he could find a better enchanting surface than the few remaining dishes that they had in the kitchen, conceivably the dorm''s lighting issue would be solved. Pushing the first plate aside, Robert did precisely the same thing with lightning magic. This time he needed two exit channels with only one input channel. It would be direct current, not alternating, but he couldn''t do anything about that. When he was done, and the plate was enchanted, he filled it up with Mana and touched the end and felt a small tingle in his hand. He would need a volt meter to figure out what kind of charge the plate was giving out and then would need to experiment a bit before he could hook up something to recharge phones and laptop batteries. The plate that generated light had been considerably more straightforward, but Robert relished the challenge of finding just the right sequence of runes. They might not have the internet, but there were still useful for flashlights, ebooks and Candi Crush Saga.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He would have to find an electrical engineer and in the crowd out there and ask a few questions. Or even better, hopefully, they had taken lightning too. Putting the plates down, the next thing that Robert tried was drawing the lighting runes directly on the wall. These runes didn''t give off a lot of light, but when he was done, the room was at least lit without him having to float a ball of brightness above his head. He was about to set up a few more runes around the room when Huang came in with a big bowl of eggs and put them down on the table beside the salad that Robert had laid out. "You should call those people in for lunch," Huang said. Robert nodded and went out to the green. Once he was outside, he saw that most people had gone back to their rooms and gotten dressed. He saw Leslie hanging out with the rest of the gang over by the door to the girl''s side of the building, and walked over. Claudia was with them, and she was chatting with Susan and Akiko. "Hey," he said. "Hey," Ahmed said. "Look who''s here, Rob. It''s Claudia. We''ve been getting to know her better." "Ummm... Hey, Claudia," Robert said. "Hey, Robert." Claudia. Then she gestured to the groups of people cavorting and shooting off magic. "Did you expect this? It''s like what I imagined Hogwarts to be." "Yes. No. Not like this. Hey, has anybody seen Neil?" Rob said. "A couple of the girls who were planning on trying to just went back to the girl''s side. Neil said he was going up there to try to seduce one of their gems away from them." Ahmed said. "God, help us all." Muttered Leslie. "Les, there is some lunch in the cafeteria. Not a lot, but some. Do you mind helping me let people know." Rob said. Together Leslie and Robert moved from group to group and let them know that there was some food in the kitchen. While he was doing this, Robert stopped and chatted with a lot of pople and asked them how they were doing and a little bit about the choices they''d made to their characters sheet. He was surprised that just over half of the people he''d spoken with had already used their mana stone, and about half of the rest were planning on doing it, but they just hadn''t made up their minds on how to spend their points. The last quarter of the people were full of indecision and still had a lot of questions. A lot of them continue to think that they''ll just wake up and this would all go away. For the most part, Robert was cool with that kind of indecision. Better to approach things cautiously. There was a couple of girls, Jenny and Sheila, who somehow blamed him and Leslie for this since they were Senior Residential Advisors. They were in charge, so somehow all of this must be their fault. Well, there was one thing Robert''s father kept telling him, and that was, "You can''t fix crazy." Which was ironic since Robert''s dad was a well know psychiatrist, but then maybe he would know. So he decided to leave those girls for Leslie to handle. Walking back into the cafeteria, he saw that everybody had little bowls of food in front of them. Huang said, "Yo Robert, you can''t just leave the salad out like its self serve. We''re rationing remember. I grabbed a couple of people, and they''re handling the portion sizes. Nobody is getting too much, but hopefully, nobody is getting too little." Robert nodded and said, "Thanks, Huang. I need to put some people in charge of the kitchen. We have to inventory everything and assign some regular cooks. That is unless your group wants to do that?" "Fuck you, Robert. I said I would do it once, but we''re not your scullery team. Besides, you''re supposed to be the leader, so lead. Designate someone if you have to." Huang said. Rob nodded, "I don''t know. Sometimes I think that you would make a better leader than I would, in this. You''ve shown yourself to be decisive." "They like you, Robert. And you know practically everyone. They don''t like me. And I don''t give a shit about them." Huang said. Robert nodded again, "I''ll probably need your help, though. I know we don''t get along, but you''ve made a lot of good suggestions." Huang nodded, then said, "well, you''re a sanctimonious prick, but if I can help out I will. Now get out of here and go hang out with your friends." Robert turned and walked over to get a small bowl of salad and a tiny side of eggs from Brent. Then he made his way to where his friends were sitting. But before he could sit down, one of that group of chemical engineers he''d seen laughing came up to him. It was Gary, who was a senior. "Hey man, Huang said you were the person who did the lights. Super cool runes. Anyway me and the guys are starting a kind of crafters guild. We want to set up a group of buildings in the empty area near the parking lot for things like alchemy and weapon smithing. And since you have enchanting, we wanted you to join us." "Of course. Though I would hold off on building for now. I think we should explore the cave first before we set up any new buildings. We want to know where invaders will come in, and if there is somewhere, they will leave through. We can''t have the crafting stuff right in-between." Robert said. "Damn. We hadn''t thought of that." Gary said. "No prob. I was going to put a search team together after lunch." Gary nodded. "I''ll tell the guys. Mind letting anybody else who picked up crafting skills know about our group?" "Will do." Robert continued walking towards the table. When the girl who''d asked about being a Druid came up to him¡­ Jennifer¡­ that''s what her name was. It took him a second. Jennifer had a Raccoon sitting on her shoulder. "Robert. Look who I found. He was all alone. His name is Englebert. Isn''t he the cutest." Jennifer gushed. The raccoon hissed menacingly at Robert and then snuggled up to Jennifer. "Englebert that isn''t nice." Jennifer looked over at Robert and said, "He''s a bit shy and a little scared right now." "I take it you took charm?" Robert said. "And empathy and nature and body. If you have some more seeds or plant material. I can probably set up a little farm. I already have some lettuce, beets, onions, green peppers, carrots, banana peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, peas, beans, black beans, celery and chick peas from the salad. Can you make me some lights? And the light doesn''t have to be white. An intense blue and red light would be a lot better for Chlorophyl a and b." Jennifer spoke a mile a minute. "You''ll have to provide the Mana yourself, but I can easily manage that. And I think one of Leslie''s friends has a herb garden you can probably take some cuttings from." "I wonder if I can grow some flowers too." "Don''t forget about fruit Jennifer. There are oranges, pineapple, bananas, apples, kiwis, strawberries, and blueberries, that kind of thing in the kitchen. " Jennifer nodded and wandered away, having a very one-sided conversation with her raccoon. So Robert continued walking towards the table where his friends were sitting when someone grabbed him from behind and enveloped him in an enormous hug. Robert turned around and saw something standing behind him. It was wearing people clothes, but it had bright pink and white fur and fox-like ears. Its teeth were fanged, and there were claws on its hands. There was also a bright pink tail. "Oh, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you. I don''t know how you did this, but it is everything I ever wanted." A voice Robert sort of recognized said. "Darren?" "This is the happiest day of my life. I always knew that I didn''t fit in. There was always an animal inside of me wanting to get out. But I could never express myself. Now, look at me." Darren gestured at himself. No, herself. Robert saw that Darren was clearly a woman now. A very furry animal woman. "You changed your gender? Wait¡­ how did you do that? When I looked, it cost 1000 xp. You couldn''t have managed that and the fur with only one gemstone." Darren shrugged. "It only cost 200 xp for me. I guess the system knew that I was always meant to be a woman. And an animal." Robert sighed and shook his head, "I guess I''m happy for you, Darren. Though I didn''t have anything to do with what is happening right now." "Jenny and Sheila seem to think all of this is your fault," Darren said. "Jenny and Sheila are crazy. Like completely loonie toons." Said, Robert. "Look, I''m going to go and sit with my friends. Don''t be a stranger." "I won''t. Oh, and my name is now Darlene." "Okay Darlene, don''t be a stranger." She hugged him again, and Robert felt an entirely new type of uncomfortable. But that uncomfortable wasn''t worthy of him, so he ignored it. He had never liked Daren and probably never would, but he could at least be happy for her. "Say, Rob," Darnell came over to him, "I was wondering how you got those runes going. I took enchanting and runes, and I haven''t been able to manage anything half so well." Since he didn''t want to mention the extra gems he''d swiped from the Knaxis thing ¡ª especially now that Neil and the others didn''t have one, Robert said, "Luck mostly. Not the Magic Luck, just the old fashioned kind. Maybe the Species Stone gives us different knowledge depending on what we already know." "I guess that makes sense. Mind if I study your runes? I did something with my Darkness magic, and while it lets out a cloud of shadows, it isn''t nearly as dark as your own. Maybe I''ll learn something about studying what you did. Maybe if you draw and explain what you did, I might get a few freebie points." He nodded at Darnell, "Sure thing. Actually, here." Robert handed Darnell the plates that were putting out light and electricity. "Hope this help." I need to eat, and then after that, I was planning to get dressed and explore the rest of the cave we''re in." "Mind if I come?" "No problem. What else, besides darkness, did you take? If you don''t mind my asking?" "Well, a rogue is my favorite character class. And I was about to take build trap when I had this thought, ''my mechanical engineering is sky high, and so is my hunting, I could probably do better than some smart fantasy rock." So I took detect trap instead. You alway need to detect traps. And when I looked, I guess that rock agreed with me and suddenly I had a Make Trap skill at 56. Crazy kind of synergy. Should be fun to use with Enchanting." Robert nodded. "I was just talking to Gary. I should have asked how Alchemy and Chemistry meshed." Darnell nodded and said, "I''d be curious about that too. Maybe I''ll go and ask them." "They were talking about starting up a crafter area. You might want in on that too." Robert said. "Thanks, Robert." Finally, able to sit down, Rob made his way to the table. Ahmed saw him coming and said, "Look! Robert, we saved you a chair." The chair was, of course, right next to Claudia. Robert sat down and said, "Hey." "So what''s next?" Leslie said. "I wanted to explore the cave. Plus Jennifer wants to set up a garden, so we need to figure out where." Robert said around mouthfuls of salad. There was a lot still to do. Plus he still needed to get dressed. He''d spent the entire morning in his bathrobe and was beginning to feel a bit like Arthur Dent. "Mind if I come," Claudia said. "I was with Jennifer when we went down to the forest." We didn''t go very far in before she found Englebert. But while we were there, I heard running water." Robert looked over at her and said, "Hmmm¡­ there was always a small creek running though the forest. Nothing big enough to make a running water sound. Anyway, Darnell''s coming too. Might as well make it a group. Though hopefully, the trip will be boring and uneventful." Turning to the rest of the table, Robert said, "Darren is Darlene now, by the way. And she is covered in pink fur, and she has fangs and claws." "So that''s who that was," Ahmed said. "We were curious. I may have called her a flying purple people eater before I knew it was Darren ¡ª sorry, Darlene. Sarah smacked me, though. I will admit that she isn''t purple." "Ahmed, you tried to pass that stupid kids song off as one of the hymns of your religion. I hope she is as happy with her change in a few months as she is now." Sarah said. "It''ll be hard to be the only person covered in pink fur. She didn''t have many friends even before. Now when we need to pull together, she''ll just stand out." "Should we move her over to the girl''s side of the dorm?" Leslie said. "I''d leave it up to her. Maybe figure out if there is a spare room, and hint at it, but be clear that it is her choice to move or not. We should also see if anybody starts harassing her. Ahmed, no more purple people eaters, bullshit. I know. I know. She was ultra annoying before all this happened, and I can''t imagine that''s changed. But she is one of us, so pass the word along to leave her alone. Frankly, this is one more layer of trouble that I''d rather not have, all things considered." Robert said. Then Robert paused, "Oh, I should also mention, Gary and his friends are talking about setting up a crafting center up just past the parking lot. They invited me to join them." "Yeah, they Gary talked to me too. They were wondering if I took earth magic, and when I said yes, they wanted my help designing and constructing their buildings." Ahmed said. "Actually, I think I will come too. I want to see what kind of rock the cave is made out of and the lay of the land." There wasn''t much food, so Robert finished quickly. Then he stood up and said, "Give me a couple minutes to get out of this stupid bathrobe, and I will meet you back here." "But Robert, when your robe shifts, we can all see your dangly bits. I thought you were giving us girls a show." Sarah said. Robert hurried out of the cafeteria quickly, narrowly avoiding a couple people that wanted to talk to him about something. Back up in his room, he threw on a fresh shirt and pants. Then he checked his fridge and discovered that the beer and bottled water in it were now lukewarm. He also needed to pee, but with the plumbing not working, it would probably be best if he found a place to do it outside. Soon people would want showers. The water problem would probably have to be one of the first things that got fixed; otherwise, the dorm would begin to smell. He just wasn''t sure how to go about fixing it. Maybe they could develop some sort of magic pump to pressurize the water pipes. It also occurred to him that if they got a decent crafting area going, they might be able to melt down some of the cars in the parking lot for steel, aluminum, lead and maybe even some platinum and titanium. Copper wire too comes to think of it. With those thoughts on his mind, Robert stepped back out into the courtyard, to find a bunch of people waiting to go exploring. There were more people than he thought would come. Nearly twenty. It was time to see how much space they had been summoned into and how much room they had to grow. Chapter 6 The group, with Robert in the lead, they walked towards the nearest wall of the cave. As they closed the distance, it became apparent that the wall was unnaturally sheer and jagged cliffs of white stone. Joan, who was studying geology, walked up to the rock wall and said "It''s limestone. Most caves are." "Any sign of any ore?" Robert asked. Joan looked at Robert, "You serious?" "Yes," Robert said. "We''ll need to build stuff. So if you see any metal, iron, copper, that kind of thing, say something. Anything that we can use to build. Even if we melt down the cars in the parking lot, we''ll probably need more." Joan nodded. "I''ll keep an eye out. Though I haven''t had much practice doing fieldwork." "No worries," Robert said. "Do your best. Besides a handful of people who took Rocks for Jocks you know more about this subject than anyone here. This is just a quick look over the area. So don''t stress it. I''m not sure that anybody wants to spend their time, right now, mining out the walls anyway." "Cool. Cool cool cool." Joan said. "How durable is limestone anyway? Should we worry about cave-in''s and that kind of thing?" "It''s a soft stone. The lime in limestone is an important part of cement and concrete. Of course there is sand and usually, steel rebar involved as well. Still given the size of this cave, well¡­ I''ll be I''m not sure how the roof is staying up. It doesn''t look like there is a dome or any arches from here. There must be some other minerals or Magic keeping the ceiling from falling in. On the other hand, Mammoth cave in Kentucky is huge so that the ceiling could be completely natural. I think Ahmed would probably do a better job at it. He knows a lot more about structure and support." The group decided to move in a clockwise rotation around the cave wall. Walking past the offices then though the parking lot. The back half of someone''s old Chevy Blazer managed to appear a third of the way through one of the cave walls. Walking around it, nobody in the group could tell where the Chevy Blazer ended, and the wall started. Ahmed said, "It looks like someone stuffed a banana into jello. Except the jello is the rock, and the banana is a car." Continuing onward they crossed the parking lot and made their way down the hill and over to Westmount Road. Pine trees were growing down the medium, but the street itself was chopped off. As they crossed the parking lot, Andrea, a short skinny girl who was majoring in Economics, caught up to Robert. "I had meant to ask you, and I haven''t spent my gemstone yet, what do you think I should say I should take?" "That''s up to you. It is about what you want to do with your time here." "So you don''t think I should take lovemaking?" Robert turned to her and saw the half-joking smile on her face. "If you want to take that skill, I''m not going to stop you. Hell, if you let me know, I''ll buy you dinner and a movie." "Sounds exciting. I might even let you take me out. Do you think we''ll find anything out here? All I see is rocks, rocks, and more rocks." "Well, we have to know what kind of rocks, and we need to get a lay of the land. For example, what would you think if we assigned this area for crafting." They were standing on the pavement of Westmount road. "In my mind, this spot isn''t too close to the main building and so if the crafters make a lot of noise, it won''t wake anyone up. And if they need more space, they can dig into the walls." Robert said. Andrea looked around, "I guess that makes sense. The way I see it, economics is all about moving of goods and services around. This is a good spot. If you can make an easy way to go up that hill and onto the driveways, you could use the University Campus Lane to move the stuff they make anywhere in dorm." "Have you given any thought to setting up an economy?" She continued, "Or are you just going to try for a kind of socialist utopia where everyone pitches in? The population is small enough that that kind of thing might work." Andrea said though she sounded like she had her doubts. "I''m already having enough trouble finding someone to take over duties in the kitchen, Andrea. Pure socialism won''t work here for long. We''ll need some economy. And I have some ideas about that. But right now it is still too early. We need to know more about this Dungeon." Robert said. "It''s cute the way you have everything planned out. Let me know when you want to talk trade and barter. I agree though it is too early." Robert blinked a few times. She was coming on to him really strong. He usually didn''t mind aggressive girls, though they were few and far between. Somehow, right now, he felt like he was cheating, even if he wasn''t actually with anyone. Stop being ridiculous, Robert thought to himself, so he put his hand on Andreas'' shoulder accidentally touching her back as he did so. "Hey, any ideas you have are welcome." They continued to walk along the wall heading towards University Campus Lane and the forest. Despite the odd shape of the cave, the walls stayed relatively uniform, though, in a couple of places, Robert saw indented areas that might lead to deeper caves up high. Someone would have to climb the wall to see what was in them. Looking up at the indented area, Robert called out to the group that was following behind, and said, "Did anyone take earth magic? Or maybe air magic?" Ahmed and five other people stepped out of the group. Five of them had earth magic, while the fifth, Dave, had air. "Dave I don''t suppose you can use your air magic to fly?" "No, not yet. Is that what air magic is about? I just took it because I like cool breezes, and the air seemed dead in here." "I think so," Robert said. "Oh well, never mind. Would one, or all of you earth magic people, dig some handholds, so we can climb up and see what is in that indenture up there." Ahmed stepped up, and soon there was a rough ladder climbing up. When he was done, since nobody wanted to go up and look at what was in the hole, Robert went climbing. The space in the indenture was about four feet high and went about six meters back before dropping off again. Robert crawled forward over layers of dirt. He hadn''t been walking with his light during this entire trip. Someone else had taken light Magic, and the group had been walking using their illumination. Now Robert recast the floating ball of brightness. Spread out in front of him was a vast underground lake. He was overlooking an inlet, but his light tapered off into the darkness before the remote edges of the lake ever appeared. The hole entrance between their cave and the lake gently sloped down on the lakeside until it eventually formed a limestone beach. Deciding not to taste the water because he didn''t have access to the purify spell, Robert turned around and went back into the main cave. Idly he wondered what the fishing would be like, and then he realized that an underground lake probably had blind fish and so the traditional way to catch them wouldn''t work. When they got to the forest the sound of running water was clear, and when they pushed through the undergrowth, a waterfall out of the underground lake and a far stronger torrent of water than the stream which been there before ¡ª it was almost a river now, and would be soon as it washed away the detritus on its banks ¡ª winding its way through the trees along the path the stream used to follow. Markus, who was in civil engineering, said "We should probably clear the underbrush from the river, and maybe consider building up a levy. Just in case. I''m not sure that the banks will hold. We might be able to convert that waterfall into a small amount of hydro electric power. This is a great find if the water is potable. When we''re done, I''m going to come back here and run some tests." Robert nodded. Andrea came over to him, hugged him like she was staking out territory, and said," you look concerned." "I''m just worried if the lake and the river are ways to access the cave. Who knows where that underground lake goes, and what lives inside of it," he said. Instead of pushing through the underbrush, most of the group decided to walk along the bike path that paralleled University Campus Lane. Robert decided that he couldn''t leave any part of the wall uninvestigated, so he shimmied across a downed tree which crossed the river and pushed his way through the undergrowth. Nobody came with him, not even Andrea, who had been clingy for most of the walk. Nobody took care of this forest, and as a result, along with the trees and bushes, was litter. Empty fast food wrapping, used condoms, student newspapers, that kind of thing. It made following the path the wall took unpleasantly. Added to that was the constant barrage of thorns, and branches pummeling his face and body made pushing through the underbrush more like breaking a trail than surveying a cave. In one place the curve of the cave wall jutted into the river and Robert had to find handholds he found in the white sedimentary stone to dangle long enough to get to the other side. There wasn''t any reason not to wade into the water except that he didn''t know what was in the water. And because the new current was fast and he was worried about being swept away. He followed the second arc through the forest until it rounded back toward the dorm room. From the other side of the river, Robert heard voices shouting for him to come and see what they had found. From where he was standing the river tumbled down another small waterfall, and then disappeared into the darkness of a hole in the wall. He sent his light traveling down the corridor and saw a narrow twisting turning passage-way that the water was escaping through. "Just a moment," Robert called out. He needed to backtrack about 15 meters before he found another tree that crossed the river to shimmy across. The reason why the rest of the group was calling out to him was that University campus lane opened up into another long tunnel. "The tunnel is pointed to where the health services building used to be. I wonder if it is still there." Ahmed said.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. "We''ll check eventually. It would be good to know if it is still there. After all, we might suddenly need a supply of free condoms and prescriptions for the pill." Sarah said. "Don''t joke." Andrea said, "That might become a problem." Joan said, "This looks like a dried-up underground river. I wonder if our cave used to be an underground lake. Before we got here." "The walls are pretty uniform," Robert replied. "Only in places. I noticed that in a couple of spots that the natural cave walls were still there." Taking the lead, Robert advanced to the first branch. The passage was narrow in places and wide in others. When they got to the first branch, Robert said, "We may have to come back to explore this at another time. If this branches too much, it''ll become a maze. And we might get lost. We need something to mark our way in so we can find our way out." Joan looked over at Robert, "I wonder if there is a magic way to do this." Robert thought about it, "Not that I know of. But I don''t know much. Maybe if someone combined Scry Magic with Space magic and the cartography skill." "Or we could find out if someone has a drone with a video camera. I think the Dean of Residence bought one for taking pictures of events and advertising the college. It might be in the office supply." Ahmed said. "For that matter, Huang wanted to go adventuring; maybe this can be his chance. We sort of need to know where this tunnel goes. For that matter, we need to know where the lake goes, and the same goes for the river," Robert said. They walked back to the entrance to the cave and continued their circumnavigation of the space they had been summoned into until eventually, they''d made it back to the place they''d started from. "Well, that was informative," Robert said. "Okay, thanks, everyone. Joan and Ahmed, do you mind sticking around. And if anyone sees Huang or Jennifer tell them I wouldn''t mind talking to them." The group broke up, most people heading back to the main dorm. "What''s up to Rob," Ahmed said. Taking a deep breath, Robert said, "Both of you have earth magic? Right? How much earth can you move with it? And can you sense what is underground?" Joan said, "I can," while Ahmed said, "I can''t." "Do you mind my asking what you each took from the Species Stone?" Robert asked. Joan went first "Earth, Scry, Magnetism, and Analyze Magic. Just like you suggested a couple of hours ago." "So much has happened today, I''d forgotten about that," Robert said. "And you, Ahmed." "Earth Magic, Body Magic, Taunt, and Dodge. I told you I was going more the tank route than the architect route." "That''s fine. Well eventually need both your skills. What I want the two of you to do is find the water and sewage lines if we don''t figure out a solution for the plumbing pretty soon. I don''t want people pooping wherever that''s unhealthy. Plus I suspect that most people have been using the toilets even though they don''t flush. Which is gross and can''t last." Ahmed looked at him and said, "If we find the pipes, then what?" "Map out where it goes. If it heads towards the University campus, or towards University Campus Lane, as I suspect, then we can figure out a way to use the river to fill the pipes and flush out the sewage. If the pipes head towards downtown, then we''ll have to rig up something else. Maybe a water tower and enchanted water runes and a septic tank. Or an aqueduct. Or something." "Neither of us have light, mind setting us up with one of those runes?" Joan said. "I don''t have anything to put it on. I used a plate last time, but I can''t keep using plates, or we will run out and not have anything to eat on." Joan walked over to the cave wall and as Robert watched six-by-six inch tile of limestone peeled off and fell into her hands. Then another one the same size peeled off. She walked back to Robert and said: "Will these do?" "They''ll do perfectly. Can you make a bunch more after you track down the pipes? It is getting late, but I am gonna spend a good chunk of tomorrow making this kind of light for everyone." Joan nodded. "Yeah, it''s pretty easy." "Cool. Remember, if you see Huang or Jennifer, send them my way." And with that, Robert walked off towards the cafeteria. He had gotten about half of the way there when Neil caught up with him. "Shit, Rob, I can''t get anybody to give me their points. Am I like fucked, or what?" "I''ve been thinking about it," Robert said, "And I can think of a couple of possible solutions. Come on, let''s go find a place to sit where we won''t be bothered." Instead of heading towards the cafeteria, Robert brought Neil to the Library. The door was locked, but Robert used his key to unlock it, then leaving the door opened the two of them found a chair and sat down. "I''ll have to think about leaving that door unlocked. People might want to work in here, or come for something to read." "Come on Rob, tell me you can fix this," Neil said with exasperation. "I''ve been thinking about your situation, and it occurs to me that you have a couple of choices. The first is to continue doing what you are doing right now. Some people want to leave and try their luck escaping this Dungeon. More power to them. But the closer it comes to the day they want to go, the more likely they might be to give up their stone." "I had the same¡­" Rober raised his hand, "I''m not done. The second idea was to gather the remainder points. After I bought my skills, I had like 15 experience left over. There was a way to withdraw those points into smaller gemstones. When I was playing with the Species Stone, I got a blue stone and a Green stone. It occurs to me that I could withdraw those 15 points, give them to you, and you could use them like a bigger 1000 point stone. You wouldn''t get the same Magic, but you would be part of the system. And then you could probably convince other people to give up their remaining points so that you could get some nifty skills." "That sounds like¡­ "Neil began. "There is one more idea that I had." Robert continued with reluctance. "It isn''t one I like, but it is one that I think we need to try out and which you seriously need to consider." "What?" Pausing before letting it all out in a rush, "In most Role Playing Games, how do adventurers get experience to level up?" "By killing monsters," Neil said. "By touching the gemstone to the rock, I became part of the Dungeon. Hence I am a monster. You aren''t, because you haven''t used the stone." "I think I see where you are going with this Rob, and I don''t like it," Neil said. "We need to test out the respawning mechanism before other monsters, and actual adventurers get here. And it might be good to have someone on our team who can go out and interact with whatever is outside of the Dungeon." "Yeah but¡­" "The one thing that worries me is that supposedly I respawn as a monster but if you become an adventurer you might not. But if you had the experience, you might be able to lead the people who want to get out of these caves ¡ª something to think about. "Neil, if it helps make up your mind or do to do the deed, I should probably tell you that when that Squid monster was handing out gemstones, I stole two more when it wasn''t watching. I used both on myself. My excuse is that I completely forgot about you, but I think that maybe I subconsciously remembered you, but I just wanted to have more abilities and power, so I didn''t care. It was a dick move at your expense, Neil." Robert turned, got up, and left. "Think about it, Neil, and get back to me." "Fuck you, Rob." "If it bothers you so much, Neil, why don''t you kill me? Did I mention that I slept with your ex-girlfriend Mandy Li while you were still dating her? Did you even get past second base with her? And what did Akiko say about you to me¡­ oh yeah that you are a limp dick poser and she would rather to out with a real man like me." Robert said. The next thing Robert knew was that he was on the ground and Neil, who had tackled him, was whaling on him with his fists. Though it was painful, Robert didn''t fight back. "Neil, you fight like a girl, use something heavier, I can barely even feel anything. Did I mention that Akiko let me feel her up when we met up in Toronto? She said she wanted to be with a real man, not some creep like you. Nice boobs. Soft, but sharp in the right places. And her womanhood, soft warm wet, everything you feebly wack off to in your silly tentacle movies, but will never get¡­" Somehow Neil had gotten hold of something sharp and heavy. Robert saw it coming down, and the¡­ Blackness. Then Robert found himself in the chapel. He was dressed entirely, but when he patted himself down, he discovered that he had lost his wallet. The catatonic people were still there, sitting in their pews staring off into space. Quickly looking over his characters sheet, he saw that the only change was that his sanity had changed from 310 to 290/310. Robert then decided he couldn''t put it off anymore, so he made his way down into the cafeteria. About six people were restraining Neil, who was covered in blood. Andrea was the first person to see him, "you''re alive!" She said. Leslie and Ahmed were crying. "Yeah. Let Neil go. I''m fine. Sorry, Neil." "Take it back. Take it back, or I''ll kill you again." "Calm down. I was lying. And the only person I have to apologize to is Akiko since nothing at all ever happened between us. What happened after you kill me." "Swear that you were lying asshole." "I swear I was lying," Robert said. "Everything I said was a lie. I just wanted to make you angry." "Fuck you, Rob." "So what happened after I died. I came back but from your end. What happened?" "You just lay there. A blue screen popped up in my head saying that I had killed a dungeon monster solo and had earned 200 experience points. Then it asked me if I wanted to choose a class. The screen is still there. I can still see it right now. I ran and found Leslie, told her what had happened. She and Huang went to the Library, while the others kept me here. They got back about ten minutes ago." "We watched as your body disappeared. It was like seeing thousands of tiny blue fireflies, and then you were gone. The only thing that you left behind was your wallet." Said, Leslie. "Then, we came back here. We were debating what to do with Neil." "Hmmm. My wallet must be part of the loot system. Though what an adventurer would want with my drivers'' license, 12 dollars, my Loblaws discount card, and some Canadian tire money is beyond me. So I was gone for about 20 minutes?" Neil nodded. "This isn''t over Robert. But yeah, about 20 minutes." "Why don''t you look at what classes you can take." "Fuck you, Rob," Neil said, but then seemed to stare off into nothingness. The group waited. Then waited some more. Huang and Leslie came over to him. "What did you say to make Neil kill you?" Leslie said. While Huang said, "Ahmed said you were looking for me." "Yeah, Huang. There is a system of tunnels near where University Campus Lane heads towards the main campus. You said you wanted to be adventurers. It would be helpful if you and your team mapped out those caves. See where they go." Then he turned to Leslie, "Sorry Les, but that is between Neil and I. Mostly I lied my ass off and provoked him. We needed to see how the respawn system worked, and he needed direction since he couldn''t get a gemstone." "You bastard, you laid out three ideas. I could have gone with one of the other ones." Neil yelled distractedly, briefly looking away from a point in a distant nowhere. Suddenly there was an orange glow around Neil. "So¡­" said Robert. "What happened," Leslie said. "You are now looking at the newest paladin for Chert God of Justice," said Niel. "Killing that son of a bitch got me enough experience to get to level 2." "So it works differently from the dungeon system?" Robert asked. "As far as I can tell, ass hat. I have access to predefined spells. I also have a good sense of who the gods of this world are and what their area of influence is. Didn''t gain any new skills though. I seem to have to learn those on my own. And no, before you ask. I don''t seem to be linked to this Dungeon in any meaningful way." Robert nodded. "Neil, I''m going up to my room. Deal with your bullshit on your own. If anyone wants to talk to me, I''ll be up there. Dying is painful and kind of sucks balls." As he was walking through the hallway, Darnell caught up to him. Opening a binder he held in his hands, he said. "Hey Robert, I''m building a dictionary of Runes." Robert looked through the book. On every page, there was one rune drawn. Underneath it were notes about what the person who wrote it thought it did. He could see multiple handwriting styles. "I had Gary, and some of his buddies get started, but we wanted you to sit down and write out any runes, you know. Could you follow the same format? One rune per page. Simona is trying to get the electricity going again, and when she does, we can photocopy this. It''ll be an invaluable learning tool." "Sure. Good idea." Said, Robert. "Do you mind if I do it later. I was planning on taking a nap. I''m still not on my best form after betraying my friend and dying." "Sure. Take your time. I should point out that, I went up three points in Rune Lore just from studying what we have already." Robert climbed the stairs, went into his room. Opening his beer fridge, he took out a bottle of Molson Canadian and opened the top. It had been a long day. He wasn''t stressed out or anything, but he did want some time on his own. Laying back on his bed, he thought about what had happened and what he needed to do tomorrow. It would take a lot of work to regain Neils trust. It might be best to give him some space for a while. Maybe hook him up with Huang and have him help map the tunnel out of the cave. There was a knock on the door. Robert got up and opened the door and said, "Look, give me a half-hour, and I''ll be up to help out with whatever¡­" \ Then he saw who was standing there. It was Andrea the economics major he¡¯d talked to as they walked the perimeter of the cave. "Are you going to invite me in?" Robert opened the door. "Sorry about the mess, can I offer you a beer? They are warm, but we''re probably going to run out pretty soon, might as well enjoy them while we can." "I understand what you did for your friend." She said. "What of it? And I don''t think he is my friend anymore." "It was brave. Sometimes being a leader isn''t about how much people like you, or how much you know, but about making tough choices and following through on them. I just wanted to tell you I took some points in the lovemaking skill." Chapter 7 Robert lay on his bed in the semi-darkness of a small flickering light he''d conjured engaging in some post-coital spooning with Andrea.Bare flesh pressing in places, his arm tucked under her head, and her hair fanned out on the pillow.A lingering smell of sweat and semen filled the air. Something inside of him was relaxed and at peace with the universe, while another part was telling him to hurry up and get out of there as quickly as possible.For the time, he ignored the second voice and lay there wrapped in and around girl.To say that it had been a stressful day would be a bit like saying Royalroad had a web fiction or two. He could have stayed like that for the rest of the day, but eventually, the moment had to break.Someone pounded on Robert''s door. "Go away," Robert said. "Robert, you''ve slept enough." It was Ahmed''s voice. Disengaging from Andrea was harder than he thought.Not the physical action of disengagement, but fighting against the psychological need to just stay in bed next to her small tight body.But he couldn''t rest, so said "give me a second," and put on a pair of pants, a shirt, some socks and left his room. "So what''s the emergency," Robert asked. "No emergencies.We just need you to get off your ass and be responsible again." Ahmed said. "Can''t Leslie or Huang handle things. I was busy getting busy." "Sorry to interrupt your booty call.And you''re right Leslie or Huang, or anybody probably could manage things, but people have started asking for you. They''re hungry and want food, and since you put your foot down at lunch, Leslie thought you might have ideas about dinner.Plus Joan and I took samples of the river water,she has something she wants to show you." "Did the two of you find the sewage and water pipes?" Robert said. "Not yet.Joan figured it would be a good idea to check the water supply before we thought about pumping it into the pipes." "Probably a good idea." Almost as soon as they''d walked into the cafeteria, Robert was swarmed by people wanting to eat. "Look, we need a couple people who don''t mind cooking regularly.At least one person with fire Magic.Someone who understands that we need to ration.Are there any volunteers?" When nobody raised their hands, "That''s what I thought.It looks like I''m using my light magic to cook hotdogs under a heat lamp for dinner tonight." Robert unlocked the kitchen door.Rooting around in the thawing freezer, he found a box of lukewarm hotdogs and some buns.He dragged the box out and filled a couple of steel roasting pans with the uncooked dogs.Then he conjured a bright red light that had a steady heat. While he was doing this,April and her boyfriend John came up to them and April said, "Robert, wait." "What?" Robert said. "We can do it.At least for now.Since this is an emergency. John''s studying Human Nutrition and my folks ran a restaurant.The two of us were thinking of starting a food company after we graduate.We haven''t taken any magic yet.We were thinking about what we wanted to do.But we''d like to help.At least for now." "That''s great April.It was John, right?Thanks.Anything you need from me?" "Just hold everyone off while we go up to the rock to get some magic and skills. We''ve been talking things over and listening in to people who took the Magic Theory skill.Fire, Cold, Purify, Light, and Water, right?" "Check.Maybe add some Nature too, for herbs and veggies.And thanks again.This is one major problem of my back." Robert said. "Just keep it with the hot dogs for tonight. We''ll start tomorrow." John said. When he felt the hot dogs were warm enough, he took them out into the cafeteria and laid them out on the table with buns and condiments. "What no sides veggies?" Someone asked. "Ketchup is a vegetable," Robert said. "No more than two each, until everyone has had their fill." Grabbing a couple dogs and sitting down over where his friends usually sat.Joan came over to him carrying two Nalgene water bottles and put one of them down on the table while placing the other on the floor beside her.The Water inside the container on the table was clear and filled almost to the brim. "Ahmed said you wanted to talk to me about the river water?He said you discovered something.Something that wasn''t the sewage pipes?" "Robert, you said you have analyzed magic?" Joan asked. "Yeah," he said. "Then take a look at this." Joan took the empty plate that he had used for his hotdogs and spilled some water onto the plate.Bread crumbs floated in the water, but overall it seemed clear. "Use Analyze magic on the water," Joan said. Humoring her, Robert cast analyze on the Water.As the magic finished, his viewpoint changed, and it seemed he was looking at the water through a low powered microscope.At first, Robert couldn''t see what Joan wanted him to see.The water was surprisingly clear of particulate.He couldn''t see any algae or dirt. Then a blob moved into Robert''s field of view.Then another. "Holy shit, those are big amoebas," he said. "That''s what I thought at first.Then I found this.Turn off the Analyze magic," Joan said, putting the second Nalgene bottle in front of Robert. "Aren''t you going to pour it out onto the plate?" He said. "I don''t have to, just look at the water inside the bottle." Looking closer at the Water in the bottle, at first, he didn''t see anything and then there was movement in the Water.Then he saw it.A huge Amoeba.At least 4 centimeters in diameter, and it seemed to move and reach out with a pseudopodium as it floated in the Water. "Holy shit!" Robert said. "Watch," said Joan. Joan cut off the tip of her hot dog then cautiously unscrewed the top of the water bottle.Seeming to sense the motion the Amoeba''s pseudopod reached up out of the water.Dropping the hot dog into the Water and quickly resealing the jar. The thing flailed around the tip of the sausage.The Water splashed and before their eyes the tiny bit of meat dissolved into the Amoeba. "Holy Shit!" Robert said. "Ahmed said he thinks this is what is called a slime.Though strictly speaking, it doesn''t actually seem slimy.You see why I don''t want to pump river water into the building.We need to figure out how to kill these things." Robert said, "They live in the river?" "Yeah.They seem to like Water." "Come with me," Robert said.He got up and walked over to where Darnell was sitting with his friends. "Hey Darnell, you said you had a fishing rod in the back of your car?" "Yeah, what of it?" "Wanna go fishing?" "What?Right now, Rob?" Darnell said. "Yup." Darnell shrugged. "Sure, sounds fun. I''ll be right back." Joan said, "Fishing?" "Sure." Robert said, "With hot dogs." He pointed at the water bottle. They sat back in their chairs, and eventually, Sarah, Neil, and Leslie got out of the line for food and came over and sat at the table.Neil glared at him but didn''t say anything.Since they were eating in silence, Robert said, "Who wants to go fishing?'' "Fishing?" Leslie said. "Joan, show them the slime," Robert said. Joan pulled out the Nalgene water bottle and had them look at the gigantic Amoeba like creature that she was keeping inside of it. "And you got that from the river?" Neil said, temporarily putting aside his anger. "Yeah.I wanted to test the water.I was expecting maybe some bacteria or some viruses we would need to filter out before we used it.Instead, I found these." Said Joan. "There are more of them," Leslie said. Joan showed them the other Nalgene bottle. "There are dozens of tiny ones in there.The biggest is around half a millimeter.Most are smaller.I got lucky catching the big one.I think it was trying to feed on the smaller ones." "And you want to go fishing for them?Why?" Exclaimed Leslie. Robert shrugged. "Experience?Slimes are usually beginner monsters.Thought we might have some fun." Leslie shook her head and said, "Boys!" "Mind if I get in on this.Sounds exciting." Sarah said.She had taken off her kendo gear and was dressed in a floral summer dress. "My dad used to take me bass fishing when I was a little girl." "Sure, why not.Ahmed?Neil?You guys want to come too. I''ll get some beer." They nodded. "So we''re going drinking?" Leslie said. "Naw, hopefully, we''re just blowing off some steam and having fun," Robert said. "Then I might as well come too. I''ll bring some wine coolers." Leslie said. "Neil, Ahmed, Susan.Mind waiting here for Darnell.Tell him I''m getting some booze. I''ll be right back."Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Robert ran back up to his room.Andrea was gone, he hadn''t seen her in the cafeteria.She must have gone to whatever magical land women go to when guys aren''t around.The smell of her was on the pillow.A faint hint of lilacs and oranges.Putting the pillow back down, Robert grabbed a backpack and shoved a dozen beers into it. He''d gone and bought a two-four of Molson Canadian just the other day, and he was gonna run out soon. There had to be another way to get some booze.Maybe once they got established, they could make some.Worst case situation he''d read on the internet that you could make booze by emptying ketchup packets into a garbage bag, adding yeast, and then letting it ferment in a toilet for a few weeks.It sounded revolting and hoped it didn''t come to that.Hopefully, one of the engineers or chemistry majors had a better technique. When he got back to the cafeteria, Leslie and Susan weren''t back, so Robert stood on a table and called out, "Did anyone take Frost Magic?" Two people raised their hands.One of them was one of the guys he''d seen playing hockey on the green. "Mind using your magic to cool down the freezer in the kitchen so that our food lasts longer." He led the guy to the fridge. Before they chilled it down, he put a couple more hotdogs into a ziplock. Most of the dirty dishes were on the dish cart.He would deal with that later.There were no more remaining hot dogs or buns, so he brought dishes he used to hold them back into the kitchen. There was a chill coming off the freezer when he locked the room back up.He would have to come up with some sort of enchanting to keep the food longer.One more thing to add to the list.Or maybe he could shuffle that project off to someone else. By the time he got out of the kitchen, Leslie and Susan were back and were standing around chatting with Darnell who was holding a nylon net and a rectangular protective case, and a tackle box. "I brought my casting rods and not my fly fishing gear.I haven''t seen any insects so I doubt my flies and nymphs would work." Darnell said. "We''re using hot dogs," Robert said. "What kind of fish?" "No fish, we''re going after slime." Darnell blinked a couple of times. "Not with my good gear your not." "Awe Darnell, come on, man. It''ll be fun.I brought beer." "Look, Robert, I''ll give you some line and a hook. You can find a long stick to do it the old fashioned way.Call it Tenkara fishing if you want to be a hipster about it.But we''re not using my good gear on anything that is called a slime." "Just come Darnell, you''ll see. You''ll enjoy yourself." Robert paused, then said, "I think.No, I hope." "Oh, I''m coming.This is bound to be interesting." Darnell said, heading towards the door to the cafeteria. "I''m just not bringing my good gear.Give me a minute while I put it in my room." Eventually, they set out towards the far end of the cave.Instead of climbing up into the overhang area that Robert had climbed through earlier, Ahmed used earth magic to carve a stairway into the cave wall.Then he opened up part of the roof of the hole, so everyone could walk through without ducking. While Ahmed was playing with rocks, Darnell went over and cut down a long maple sapling from the forest.Using his Bowie knife, he stripped off the excess branches until an eight-foot long thin pole was left.Then he tied some braided fishing line to the end realed out about 30 feet, then attached a hook, a weight and a bobber to the line. "I''m not gonna bother using a leader," Darnell said to himself. "We''re fishing for Slime.I mean, really?" The group finally climbed up into the overhang and passage through to the lake, then down to limestone sand beach. Now that he looked closely Robert saw that there were slimes which had washed up onto the shore, and lay like squished and bloated Portuguese man-o-wars stranded on a Florida beach. "So when you said we are fishing for slimes, what you really meant is that we are fishing for jellyfish?" Darnell said, "what kind of fun is that?" "Did you see the one Joan had in the cafeteria.The way it went after the hot dog.These things aren''t jellyfish." "I was promised beers and wine coolers," Sarah said.She had set up a lawn chair and had her iPhone playing Taylor swift.Leslie sat in a lawn chair beside her, and she dug into her backpack and pulled out a couple of wine coolers.Handing one to Susan, she said, "Enjoy." Robert handed his backpack over to Neil, and his beer was distributed as well. After putting about a centimeter worth of raw Hotdog onto the hook, Darnell cast the line out.It landed with a small splash about 20 feet from the shore. The red bobber floating in the calm water. A minute later, the bobber started to twitch and then submerged.The Stick Darnell was holding snapped forward, and the line jerked forward. "Caught something!" Darnell said. "It''s fighting." "Bring it in!Bring it in!" Leslie yelled. The fishing line was taut, but with no reel, Darnell had to pull the braided cord in by hand.It was harder than he thought.Whatever was on the other end of the line didn''t want to come towards the shore, and was fighting. Then as if suddenly changing its mind or at least changing the instinct to fight against the line, the bobber reappeared on top of the water, and they began traveling quickly towards shore.When it was about three feet out, a blob of translucent single cellular monstrosity appeared.It was three feet across and had Darnell''s hook and Hotdog wrapped around a vacuole. Instead of a nucleus, it had a small gemstone. The Amoeba raised a pseudopod out of the Water, and a fine mist of liquid sprayed the group. "It burns," yelled Ahmed, who was closest to the Water had received the brunt of the spray. "Leslie, heal him," Robert yelled. "How?" She said frantically. "I don''t know.Fill him with life magic.Try putting body magic into him.Try something." Darnell kept fighting with the Slime on the end of his fishing rod.Ahmed was rolling on the ground with streaks of blood across his face.Susan was pulling him back from the shore towards Leslie. Robert let out a blast of lightning at the Slime.When it connected the Slime convulsed in the Water and retracted the pseudopod, it was waving in the air.Robert hit it again.And again.The Slime stopped twitching. He turned to the group.Darnell was lying on the ground also twitching like he''d been electrocuted.Ahmed was further up the beach, but the lines of blood and acid-drenched skin was healing up quickly.Now Neil was rushing over to Darnell, his hands were glowing with white light, and as Robert watched, Darnell stabilized. Robert sat down on the beach.This entire trip had almost ended in disaster.Some leader he was. He turned to Neil and said, "How is he?" "Good.Healing.No thanks to you.The electric current ran up the wet fishing line and zapped him.Almost stopped his heart." Neil said. "This was a disaster," Robert said. "How about Ahmed?How is he doing." "I''m okay, Robert.I used body magic almost as soon as I was hit and managed to fix the worst of the acid damage.Leslie helped out too." "That was too close.Too damned close.I thought this would be fun.Combat is always fun in books and movies." Ahmed said, "It hurt like a bitch, but I don''t think we were prepared for this.We should have had Susan cast a force shield as soon as the Slime came in close.You should have not used electricity considering how Darnell was tied to thing.Or he should have been wearing rubber boots and gloves.But mostly electricity should have been a no-no in this situation.Too many minerals in the Water." Ahmed pushed himself up from the ground.With Susan''s help supporting his weight, he walked over to the Water''s edge and examined the Slime.Digging into the electrically cooked creature, he pulled out the stone from the center of the Slime''s nucleus. "This looks like one of those experience stones to me," Ahmed said. "If it is, we should give it to Darnell.He got the worst of this." Leslie said, and the group nodded. "Hey, a blue screen just appeared and told me I got 12 experience points for my part in killing a young water slime," said Neil. "Young water slime.I wonder what an old water slime is like." Sarah said. "Sarah, Prophet tells us to never say something like that out loud, you''ll jinx us," Ahmed said. "I''m pretty sure that Muhamed never said anything like that," Sarah replied. "It''s in one of the lesser-known Hadiths.The book of stupid and unlucky things to do and say." Ahmed said. "Sarah, what did I tell you.Stop making fun of Ahmed''s religion.Besides, he makes sense. I''m feeling a whole lot less secure here. Let''s get back into our cave." Robert said. "Robert, I''m just saying that I probably know more about Islam than Ahmed does." Susan countered. Darnell had snapped out of it by then, but they helped him and Ahmed back to the cafeteria all the same.They took it slowly, and Robert frequently looked behind them to see if a slime had emerged from the water and was making its way across the lawn in their wake. They made it back inside and sat down at one of the tables. April came up to him almost as soon as they sat down and said, "We''re pretty much out of Water.People wanted to get some from the river, but I told them it wasn''t safe.People are getting thirsty." Robert looked over at the rest of the table, they were exhausted.Leslie was carrying Darnell''s branch and fishing line. "There is the water cooler in the main offices?" Robert said. "They were supposed to get a delivery today, so there were only 2 full bottles and about a third that was in the dispenser. That''s all gone now.Claudia used her crowbar on the two coke machines, and on that note, someone else smashed the glass and stole all the candy from the candy machines." April said. "Nothing we can do about the candy. I''m not about to institute a dorm by dorm room search for nougat, and a couple of Coffee Crisps.Have a bunch of people bring the empty water bottles and the dispenser over here.I have a couple points in Water magic, so I can probably refill the bottles with fresh water.And this is a nice central location for everyone." April nodded, "I should have thought of that.I took a couple points in Water too. I''ll go get John and some of his buddies to help." Darnell took off to the Species Stone to see if he could get any experience out of the gemstone he''d received, Robert would have gone too, but Fiorello, Fatima, and the other Leslie all came up to him and said, "Robert we want to kill you." "What!" Robert said. "What did I do now?" "We''ve talked it over, and we want to kill you for experience.Like you did for Neil.Nobody else wants to let us kill them." "No fucking way," Robert said. "Absolutely not.That was a one-time thing.I was testing a couple hypotheses.Dying hurts, and I''ve decided I want to do it as little as possible." Neil said, "They could go fishing for Slime.I got 12 experience points from that.If they kill enough Slime, they could get a class." Robert thought about it. "It was really dangerous.I was thinking about giving you guys some of my spare experience.I have like 12 left.That might be enough to hook you into the system." Neil said, "We can probably figure out a way to make it safe.We just didn''t know what to expect." At precisely the same time Leslie said, "You can withdraw experience points?How.Why didn''t you say something." "Leslie, didn''t you see the word Remove on your character sheet?Click that, and it asks you how much you want to take out.I took out 15 and got two small gemstones.One worth 10 and the other worth 5.Hell, after the conversation I had with Andrea, I was thinking about using experience gems to set up an economy.A gem worth one experience point is worth one dollar.Or something.But I needed a way for people to generate experience first.And I also needed everyone to settle in." Robert said. "If you had that all planned out, then why did you make me kill you," Neil demanded angrily. "We need people who can leave the dungeon.Some of those people never want to come back. And I wanted at least one person I trusted to be part of that group.Besides, and in the future, we might want to establish trade and diplomatic relations." "You could have asked.You can''t know how I felt when I thought I''d killed you.And then you came back as if it was nothing and all that guilt and shame I felt suddenly became meaningless.Like you had thrown it back into my face.Robert you really are a mother fucker." "Thanks, Neil.Glad you care.Has anybody seen Akiko recently?She hasn''t been around." "I think she was in the Library when I killed you and overheard what you said.She got to me really quick, and she seemed angry.I haven''t seen her since." Neil said. Robert sighed.One more friendship he''d damaged.He would have to find a way to make it up to her. Ahmed and Darnell came out of the chapel, and Darnell announced, "I got 24 experience from that slime." "Robert, I was thinking¡­. What if we create a modified fish trap," Ahmed said. "What do you mean?" "We use earth magic to make a section of the lake that Slime can get into easily but have a hard time getting out of.Then we put some bait.In crayfish traps, they use chicken guts.We could try something similar.Then we leave the trap overnight.The next day, we take a few people who have destructive magic.Fire, electricity, that kind of thing, and we blast all the slimes in the trap.Then we force the Water out, gather the gemstones and fill and bait it again for the next day." Ahmed said. "Who would get the experience?" Robert asked. "The people who were around and helped out," Ahmed replied. Robert thought about it for a bit. "No.It sounds like a good plan, but we need to stretch out those experience point gems a bit.The people who helped out get 70 percent of the experience gems they take.The other 30 percent goes to a community tax to help level up the people who cook for us, who are working on reestablishing the plumbing and electrical systems, to level up our healers and farmers, that kind of thing." Ahmed nodded, "I can live with that." Robert said, "We definitely need someone with book-keeping skills." "So what''s up with Andrea?" Ahmed asked. "I thought you were into Claudia." "Andrea just sort of showed up and claimed me.Not sure how serious it is yet.I haven''t seen her in a couple of hours, and I don''t feel like going to look for her.If she wants me, I''ll be around." "Ahmed, would you mind it if we went and you used your earth magic to make a bunch of those tiles, and then carried them back here.I was thinking about spending tomorrow enchanting lights for everyone." Robert said. "Sure thing.I was going to go out and start working on a slime trap, but that can wait.Are there any milk crates in the kitchen we can use?" Ahmed said. Chapter 8 In the complete darkness of what he assumed was the next morning, Robert got up from some weird dreams, brushed his teeth, filled a cup with summoned water, and had a quick drink. He then stumbled downstairs and outside far enough away to squat down against a stone wall and relieved himself. Since he didn¡¯t think to bring toilet paper, he summoned a steady stream of water and created an improvised bidet. When he was done, he covered his business with loose rocks. Something would have to be done about the plumbing very soon. He saw that he was one of the first people up in the cafeteria, so he conjured some light and set them shining down from the inoperable dorm ceiling fans. Pulling out the felt tip pen that he¡¯d brought with him, he began to write out the sequence of rune for the light enchantment on the limestone tiles that he¡¯d left out the day before. Enchanting each tile took him about 10 minutes, and he had a stack of seven done by the time John and April arrived to do breakfast. ¡°You¡¯re up early,¡± April said. ¡°Couldn¡¯t sleep,¡± Robert said. ¡°Mind letting us into the kitchen?¡± April¡¯s boyfriend John said. ¡°You guy needs a key to the kitchen. You can¡¯t rely on Leslie and me.¡± Robert said as he let them into the kitchen. ¡°I¡¯ll see if the regular head cook keeps a spare in his office.¡± Robert nodded then turned back to enchanting lights. As he walked back to where he¡¯d been sitting, bright lights filled the kitchen. Robert continued enchanting while the couple put out some cereal and a couple of pitchers of milk on the table outside of the cafeteria. A slow progression of people came through the room. They gathered cereal, looked to see if maybe there was more, ate quickly, and then either stayed or went off in their own direction. The pile of light enchanted tiles grew and grew. Darnell came over for a bit and reminded him again to try to write out all the rune he knew. Suddenly, interrupting the calm, a very panicked and out of breath, Neil came running into the room. ¡°Ahmed has been eaten!¡± He yelled. ¡°What the hell!¡± ¡°Is it coming for us?¡± ¡°What ate him?¡± The handful of people in the cafeteria were panicking. ¡°Everyone else shut up. Neil, what happened,¡± Robert yelled. ¡°We were out by the lake, talking about how much of an asshat you are. Ahmed was in the middle of building his modified fish trap. I was in the cave part, having a cigarette. Then he said, ¡®hey check it out something is in the water.¡¯ I started to come over, and even from where I was standing, I could see that the water was moving oddly. I swear said, ¡®Get back here, Ahmed, I don¡¯t like this.¡¯ But he didn¡¯t listen. I tell you he didn¡¯t listen. The dumb ass just stood there, pointing and staring at the water.¡± ¡°Then, it came out. A mother fucking slimy amoeba reached out and grabbed Ahmed. The thing, just the arm bit, must have been at least eight meters long. It wrapped around Ahmed before he could even say anything before dragging him into the water. Then I saw the damned thing¡¯s whole body came to the surface with Ahmed thrashing around inside of it. I was sending holy smites at the thing, but they did nothing. Ahmed was there, and then he wasn¡¯t. I¡¯ve never seen anything like it. At least 20 meters long, opaque but closer to transparent, a huge glowing center. It was like Moby Amoeba. It surfaced, took Ahmed, and then it was gone.¡± ¡°Was anybody else hurt?¡± Robert said. ¡°Christ no, it was just Ahmed and me. I managed to outrun the amoeba, thank Go¡­ I mean, Chert. Thank Chert. It wasn¡¯t really trying for me. It just wanted Ahmed. Maybe Muslims taste better. Rob, we gotta do something. Call me Ishmael, but we gotta start making harpoons or something. We need to avenge Ahmed. Who knows when that amoeba will get us.¡± Neil yelled. He was on the verge of tears. Robert got up from where he was sitting. ¡°You¡¯re gonna do something?¡± Neil said. ¡°Not right away. Well, I¡¯m going up to the Chapel to see if Ahmed made it back. Hopefully, he respawns okay.¡± Leaving the stack of tiles, he had been working with on the table, Robert walked up the stairs and into the Chapel. The six catatonic people were still sitting there staring blankly ahead. Sophia was asleep. She must have stayed in the room all night hoping her sister got better. Robert sat down in a pew, and Neil sat in a bench across the aisle. ¡°You know we¡¯re still not good, and you¡¯re still a son of a bitch for what you did Rob,¡± Neil said. Rober shushed him, pointing at the sleeping Sophia. Neil rolled his eyes but let it go for now. It took about ten minutes of waiting but eventually a swirling mass of tiny lights formed beside the Species Stone which ultimately coalesced into a very threadbare Ahmed. His clothes were ripped and in some cases, dissolved. Neil got up and hugged Ahmed. ¡°You lucky, lucky bastard. You¡¯re back. You Chert damned lucky bastard.¡± ¡°Ahmed. You look like shit.¡± Robert said. ¡°Feel like shit too.¡± ¡°Neil told us what happened. I wouldn¡¯t mind hearing your version.¡± Robert said. ¡°Nothing to tell. I was building my fish trap for the slimes when WHAM! Out of nowhere, I get pulled into the water. Then I¡¯m surrounded by acid because it burned everything, and I¡¯m breathing it in, and I¡¯m like trying to get it off me. Then I was back here.¡± ¡°You were eaten, Ahmed. By a 60 foot slime. It just came out of the water and grabbed you.¡± Neil said. Just then, Sophia spoke up. ¡°Will you guy¡¯s shut up! I¡¯m looking after my sister here.¡± Robert looked over at her, she had major bed head, from sleeping on a pew. There was dark under her eyes, and her sleep couldn¡¯t have been all that good even with the aura from the room. ¡°I don¡¯t think they care about the noise, Sophia. Besides, the stimulus might help. Anyway, I have an idea.¡± Robert turned to Ahmed and said, ¡°Do me a favor and touch the stone to check your sanity, Ahmed. When I died, it went down.¡± Ahmed touched the stone and paused for a second before speaking, ¡°It says 91 out of 230.¡± ¡°Being eaten is seems to be more traumatic than your brains bashed in by a friend. I only lost 20 points from Neil. But I think my willpower is also higher than yours so¡­¡± ¡°Says you. I¡¯m a lot more strong-willed than you.¡± Ahmed said. ¡°Okay, I guess. Whatever. I¡¯m just saying the willpower STAT might have something to do with things.¡± Ahmed thought about it. ¡°Any idea how to heal sanity.¡± ¡°Yeah smart ass, how do you ¡®Heal Sanity¡¯¡± Sophia said, making air quotes. ¡°You pretend you know everything, but you know squat. If you knew everything, you would fix my sister.¡± Robert sighed and ignored Sophia. Speaking to Ahmed, ¡°Staying in here might help. There seems to be some kind of aura of peace. It¡¯s the reason we put the sick people in here. I really wanted you out there with Joan trying to look into the plumbing problem. But maybe you should just stick in here and see if your sanity goes up. If it does, maybe time it with a stopwatch. Inside the room and outside the room.¡± ¡°What, like sit here in the dark and stuff?¡± Ahmed said. ¡°The stone glows. Besides you can spend your time experiencing the boundless joy of getting to know Sophia better.¡± Sophia snorted with a certain amount of contempt. ¡°Can¡¯t you at least make one of those light things on the wall like you did in the cafeteria?¡± ¡°Sure, why not. If the light goes out just fill it back up with Mana.¡± Robert said. Then he took out his black sharpie and drew the runes for the light enchantment on two of the walls before filling them with light Mana. When he was done, the room was infused with the warm flavor of light. ¡°There. Now I¡¯m going to go back downstairs and continue making portable lights on tiles for everyone.¡± Robert said. Neil decided to stay with Ahmed while Robert went back to the cafeteria. A while later, Leslie, Sarah, and Akiko came in for breakfast together. Akiko glared at him but didn¡¯t say anything. They sat at a different table than the one he was working at. Sighing, he realized that he had to get this over quickly before things got worse. He got up and went over to sit with the girls. ¡°Look Akiko I said some stuff yesterday to Neil that was a complete bunch of lies. I wanted him to get mad at me. Get him furious with me. And I wasn¡¯t thinking about our friendship. For that, I apologize.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure that none of us know what you are talking about but even if we did none of us want to talk to you today. Go away Rob,¡± Leslie said. ¡°At least take a few of these.¡± Rob put down a small stack of the tiles he had been working on all morning. ¡°Just fill them with Mana, and they will give you light. Better than wasting cell phone power.¡± And then seeing as they still didn¡¯t want to talk to him, Robert thought it would be best if he left well enough alone. As he was leaving, he heard Sarah say quietly, ¡°Jerk-face,¡± but he didn¡¯t turn around. Instead of getting back to work, he decided to look around, so he left the building. Up in the parking lot, a group of people was gathered around chatting. Robert recognized Gary and Darnell, so he went over to talk. ¡°Hey,¡± ¡°Hey, Rob what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Having a shitty day so far, so I thought I would see what was up around the place,¡± Robert said. Gary nodded and said, ¡°We¡¯re talking about the crafting buildings. We wanted to put them right here. But Darnell mentioned that you wanted them down the hill and over towards Westmount Road. Any reason why?¡± ¡°Mostly, the noise. If you set up your workshops near the dorms, it might disturb people. Also, I figure you can use the walls for raw materials or even dig into them to get more space.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­ those aren¡¯t bad reasons.¡± ¡°Oh, and stay away from the lake. Ahmed got eaten by an amoeba this morning. He¡¯s fine now. He¡¯s in the Chapel resting. He was really traumatized.¡± Gary looked confused, ¡°Amoeba? Dinky little thing you see under a microscope in high school biology?¡± ¡°Naw. According to Neil, it was at least 20 meters long.¡± Robert said. ¡°Jumping Jesus on a Pogo Stick!¡± Gary said. ¡°That¡¯s not exactly what I said, but I understand the sentiment,¡± Robert said. ¡°I was wondering, does anybody have a portable voltmeter I can borrow. I want to try enchanting with electricity later this afternoon.¡± Gary said, ¡°I think Dan has one. I¡¯ll ask him if I see him.¡± ¡°Dan¡­ The guy with the really curly hair, right? Thanks. I¡¯ll check with him too.¡± Robert left the group and continued on down to the cave that led to the beach. Sending some light out over the water, the lake looked calm. Tranquil even. But he now knew that was an illusion. Who knew that the movies Piranha and Piranha 3D would ever become real-life cautionary tales? The fish trap that Ahmed was building jutted out into the water. He¡¯d set up two-thirds of a raised circle and interior basin. In in the area that was closest to the deepest part of the water, there was a gap, where Robert assumed that a flap or something could be installed to keep the slimes in. There were a few slimes that were washed up on the shore. They all seemed fresh, and as he watched, one of them began to shine with the characteristic gathering of fireflies he¡¯d seen when Ahmed respawned. Things clicked inside Robert¡¯s head. Amoeba or slimes were dungeon creatures. Somewhere in this lake, they must have a species stone too. On his way to the other side of the cave, he bumped into Joan who was lying on the ground feeling around in the grass on the other side of University Campus lane. ¡°What¡¯s up,¡± Robert said. Joan looked over at Rob then said, ¡°I don¡¯t know if I should be speaking to you. Leslie is pissed.¡± Robert sighed. ¡°She¡¯ll get over it eventually. Hopefully. We¡¯ve known each other too long for her to hold a grudge.¡± ¡°You should do something nice for Akiko. Get her some flowers or something.¡± Robert gestured to the cave, ¡°The nearest florist is kind of a long way away. But you¡¯re right. I¡¯ll think of something. So now that that is out of the way, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Well, see those twigs on the lawn over there.¡± Joan pointed to a line of twigs that were sticking out of the dirt and ran to the Residence. ¡°Those twigs are where the sewer main is. The sticks over there are for the water main.¡± ¡°The sewer main runs down to the road and into the sewage system, and there seem to be two sewage lines. The main one and a storm sewage line. Both of which run under the road.¡± Joan looked over at Rob and said, ¡°I¡¯m thinking it would be fairly easy just to run the sewage lines into the river and have it wash downstream. Ahmed and I just need to dig down far enough that everything runs downhill into the river. Where is Ahmed by the way?¡± ¡°Oh, Ahmed was eaten by an Amoeba. Anyway, your plan sounds good. What about the main water supply?¡± ¡°Robert, don¡¯t you think you should have lead with ¡®Ahmed has been eaten by an Amoeba!¡¯ Are we in danger? Should we be trying to protect ourselves?¡± ¡°Relax Joan, Ahmed respawned in the Chapel a couple of hours ago. He is a bit frazzled but no worse for the wear. Last I saw him he was chilling with Sophia and Neil. We will eventually have to do something about the Amoeba menace. They seem to live in the water, so as long as we don¡¯t engage in many aqua sports, we should be fine. But then you know more about those slimy monsters than anybody. Don¡¯t you have a big one in a jar?¡± ¡°Yeah. He¡¯s on my desk. I forgot about Herbie with all this digging in the ground.¡± ¡°There you go. When you get a chance, find some biology people and do a study on slimes. Or do one yourself. We need to know more about them anyway. I can¡¯t believe you named an amoeba Herbie though.¡± ¡°Hmmm, more work. At least this whole kidnapped to another world thing is keeping me busy. As I was saying, I don¡¯t know what we¡¯ll do for the main water. I¡¯ll need to think about it.¡± Robert left her and thought about exploring the pathway that seemed to lead out of the cave, but eventually decided against. There still was a lot to do, besides he probably shouldn¡¯t go alone. Instead, he headed back to the dorm. Up by the flagpole they had set up a hockey rink, and six people were skating on the ice that someone had conjured. He stood and watched for a while. One of them skated over and said, ¡°Wanna join, Rob?¡± ¡°No, thanks. Shouldn¡¯t you be, you know, working on something to make us safer?¡± ¡°Dude, you¡¯re not my mom.¡± The hockey player said before skating away.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Robert sighed, not much he could do; in reality, he didn¡¯t really have that much authority here. He could push and prod and maybe get a few of his friends to do things, but really beyond being the Resident Advisor who was he? Just a guy. Nobody important unless you got locked out of your room, or needed some advice about your courses, or were having girlfriend problems and wanted to talk. Instead of going back to the cafeteria, he went to the maintenance shed. He¡¯d seen some small panes of glass and had come up with a way to use them. Then he went back to the cafeteria. The room was packed. People were scattered around the room, doing things as varied as chatting, playing cards, playing board games, and playing on their laptop. One girl who didn¡¯t seem to have clued in was sitting by herself doing her homework. Or maybe she just really wanted to learn multivariable calculus. Someone with light magic had summoned a light and hung it from the ceiling of the room. Robert idly wondered who. The girls weren¡¯t in the room. Nor were Neil and Ahmed. He hadn¡¯t seen Huang and his peeps in a long time. People turned to look at him when they saw Robert come into the room; then they looked away. One guy called out and said, ¡°Hey Rob, we need more of these light things.¡± And a bunch of other people said ¡°Yeah¡± agreeing with him. ¡°Get to work ya bum,¡± someone called out. Rob sat down at the table where he had been working on the tiles. The blank tiles were still there, but all the ones he¡¯d made runes on were gone. It was too much to hope anybody would thank him for his work, though he supposed it really didn¡¯t matter. Instead, he took one of the blank tiles and drew out and then powered up the light runes he¡¯d been making all morning. ¡°Mind if I grab that one.¡± Someone said, looking over his shoulder. ¡°Sorry, this one is mine,¡± Rob said. ¡°I¡¯m going to experiment with it. I¡¯ll make you another one later.¡± ¡°Please, can I have that one. I¡¯ve been waiting here all afternoon for some light for my room. My flashlight died a couple of hours ago, and I need light. Please, can I have that one.¡± ¡°I said later,¡± Robert said. ¡°I¡¯m busy.¡± ¡°Fine jerk.¡± ¡°Just a second. I don¡¯t know you, but why don¡¯t you help out. A bit. Find someone with earth magic, make a stack of these tiles. I will copy the runes you need to draw on the tiles, and you can grab a sharpie or felt tip pen and copy them out. Then we can find some to enchant them.¡± ¡°I¡¯m too busy for that. We¡¯re doing beer pool in the Moose room. Just make me a light. I can come back and get it when you are ready.¡± Fuck that. Robert didn¡¯t even know the guy who was bothering him. Sure he¡¯d seen him around, and they¡¯d talked maybe once before. And now he was the jerk. People were taking advantage of him. Fuck them all. Taking one of the panes of glass, he thought for a moment, carefully composing a set of runes in his head. Amplification runes, light runes, projections runes coming together in a grand design that somehow seemed almost natural. Then he carefully drew out what he¡¯d imagined onto the glass and infused it with Mana. The cursive script he¡¯d drawn in sharpie glowed and then etched themselves into the glass. Propping the glass he¡¯d drawn on in front of the light tile he¡¯d made, the pane of glass took the light shining into it and amplified it scattering it around the room at least 20 times brighter. It was a really cool effect, but not the one he wanted. The light was too diffused too unfocused. Just to be sure he used his light magic to send a beam of directed light through the glass and watched it spread out around the room. The light was far brighter than before, but it went everywhere. What he really wanted was to have the focused, traveling in precisely the same direction, just far brighter. A task that couldn¡¯t be done with real-life physics. So he tried again on the second pane. This time he was adding runes for focus into the script he was writing. In a way, run, crafting was like writing a paragraph. You had to describe the effect you wanted in as exact a way possible, using runes instead of words. ¡°Hey Rob, I brought that volt meter you asked Gary about, did you have a chance to write out all the runes you know in the book? It would be incredibly helpful.¡± Darnell said. ¡°Sorry Dude,¡± Robert said, ¡°I just have so many other things to do. I forgot about it. I¡¯ll work on it tonight before I go to bed. Promise.¡± ¡°Sure. What if I just leave you with some blank paper and you fill it out when you have a chance. A couple of the guys want to pick up rune crafting, and I need the book I gave you. I want them to read it and see if they don¡¯t have to spend points.¡± Darnell said. ¡°It¡¯s on my desk. Here are my keys. Lock up my room when you are done.¡± Robert handed, Darnell his master keys. ¡°Thanks. And remember. When you get a chance, write out what you know.¡± When Darnell was gone, Robert once again got back to work on the glass. He focused his magic and began enchanting the script that he¡¯d written. The runes in the glass lit up with magic light and before fading into permanence in the material. This time when he shone the light tile through the second pane of glass, the photons that were not directed at the glass were dim, but those that traveled through the medium passed through like the noonday sun through a window. Just to be sure, he used his own magic for a second time, sending directed light through the pane. It was like he was shooting a 100-lumen flashlight through the glass, but once on the other side, the light was traveling in the same direction just with the intensity of 10,000 lumens. Satisfied he stopped sending out light magic and quenched the light tile he¡¯d been using. It was good that Darnell had brought the voltmeter because the next step of what he wanted to do this afternoon needed that. Drawing out the runes he¡¯d made yesterday for electricity but leaving out the mana storage runes, for now, he enchanted one of the tiles to emit electricity. Then he measured the voltage and current that was coming off the tile. The tile itself had almost no resistance, but as he thought about it several runes to create the equivalent of resistors, diodes, switches and the like occurred in his head. The problem, of course, was that he was in school for computer programming and not electrical engineering. This sort of stuff was beyond him. It occurred to him that to get good at this kind of magic; he would need to study completely new areas. Or he could get someone else to do it. While these runes were in his head, he scribbled down on the back of a tile, the shapes for magic circuits. This wasn¡¯t enchanting. Just notes on the only surface he had handy. He would transcribe them later onto paper for Darnell, and maybe someone else could come up with some great magic enchantments using them. What he wanted was a constant source of electricity. And a way to stream that consistently to a point. He remembered it was 120 volts; he could measure 120 volts with the voltmeter. He could store Mana. And some runes let him control the amount of Mana coming out of the mana storage at different rates. He just needed to find the right sequence of runes to do it at 120 volts. So he worked and wasted a small stack of tiles. It took him 2 hours, but eventually, he got what he wanted. One of his attempts failed. He accidentally must have made a tile that emitted over 200 volts, and it burst into flames the moment he powered it up. Eventually, however, he managed to attain a constant rate of 120 volts coming to two points. Still, he was suspicious. He didn¡¯t know anything about electricity, and so he looked around the room and saw Gary, Darnell and a couple of the people he¡¯d pegged as crafters sitting at another table discussing something. ¡°Darnell, Gary. Mind coming over here for a second.¡± Robert called out. Gary turned around and called out ¡°What?¡± ¡°I could use some help with some electricity stuff. Any of you know anything about circuits. And could you bring the rune book and some paper too? I wanted to write some useful ones out.¡± Darnell, Gary, and two other guy¡¯s Robert didn¡¯t know over. ¡°Guy¡¯s I¡¯ve made this power supply. It puts out 120 volts at a constant rate when you fill it with Mana. Do you think it would work to power computers and stuff? Could we use runes like this as power sources in our rooms.¡± ¡°So cool, but no, it won¡¯t work. What you got here is DC voltage. Wall outlets run off AC. You need to alternate the current. Still totally cool, and we can definitely use these ideas and sketches for something else that will work better.¡± One of Gary¡¯s friends said. ¡°Good. I also wrote out a bunch of Runes that I should copy out. Stuff like switches, resistors, diodes, capacitors that kind of thing.¡± Robert said. ¡°Can you figure out the runes for inductors, transistors, and comparators? We would need those to make a decent inverter.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. Can you describe what they do? I¡¯m Robert by the way.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Dan Li. You¡¯ve been using my voltmeter,¡± Dan Li said. Working together for over the next hour they managed to get a power supply working that generated a steady 120 Square Wave Volts AC at 60 HZ. Darnell sat with them copying out the runes and groups of runes they came up with into his book. ¡°It¡¯s a square wave. It¡¯s a start, but we¡¯ll need to make a sine wave before we start handing these out. I wonder if someone took magnetism magic. I mean we can always enchant some iron like a magnet and then coil some wire and generate AC the old fashioned way. I mean I heard there was a river we could use to turn the magnets.¡± Dan said. ¡°I think I might as well copy out finished rune designs also so people can copy them from the book. This power supply will go nicely. There are a couple of people with Lightning magic and Enchanting.¡± Darnell said. ¡°Here, copy these out too,¡± Robert said and pushed over both panes of glass. ¡°Cool. What do they do?¡± ¡°Hold them up so I can shine a light through them,¡± Robert said. And when Darnell held the two panes up, and Robert used his light magic, Darnell said, ¡°Totally cool. One¡¯s like a flood and the other like a spot.¡± ¡°I would like to think of them more like light amplifiers,¡± Robert said. ¡°Imagine shining a laser beam through one of these,¡± Gary said. ¡°That would be awesome. Guys I have a laser pointer in my room. We gotta try that.¡± Dan said. Then he got up and ran out of the cafeteria shining a light rune that was enchanted into a hand mirror in front of him. ¡°I don¡¯t remember enchanting a hand mirror,¡± Robert said. ¡°Sally made it. She¡¯s too light magic and enchanting too. Dark magic and Sound magic as well if you want to be specific about it.¡± Gary said. ¡°If I¡¯m being honest, it was her idea to start a crafter group. I just thought it was a good idea and helped organize it.¡± Darnell was busy copying out runes onto paper. And Robert started drawing up a second power supply since Dan had already declared dibs on the one they¡¯d just made. Eventually, Dan came back holding a tiny pointer in his hand. ¡°My girlfriend off-campus has a cat.¡± He explained. ¡°Sure dude, off-campus girlfriend none of us have ever seen. Admit it you just like lasers.¡± Gary said. ¡°I really do have a girlfriend,¡± Dan said. ¡°Sure, you do.¡± Said Gary. ¡°Can we get past this unless your girlfriend stayed over last night. We are nowhere near her anymore.¡± Robert said. ¡°Lets focus on the laser.¡± Robert propped the magnifying glass pane up against a book, and then propped a limestone tile a few inches behind it. ¡°Okay shoot the tile through the glass and let¡¯s see what happens.¡± Dan aimed at the laser. And as he was doing this, Robert saw a small label. It read. 7 Watt, 520 nm. Wasn¡¯t that too powerful to use for on cats? Maybe Dan didn¡¯t have a girlfriend with a cat. Perhaps he really did just like lasers. Honestly, did it really matter? The beam shot out of the laser. At the speed of light, it hit the tile, burnt through it in a fraction of a section, continued across the cafeteria out the window and through the skull of a girl, Naomi, crossing between the buildings using her Galaxy smartphone to see. She didn¡¯t have time to scream before she fell to the ground. Of course, the guys in the cafeteria didn¡¯t notice her and as she fell the continuous beam of light cut through her head in the direction of her fall, almost cutting off a third of her head. The beam continued onward and cut a small hole in the next building, traveling ever onward until it started burning a hole in one of the limestone cave walls. ¡°That is so awesome,¡± Dan yelled as he looked at the hole in the tile. ¡°But where is the red dot,¡± Gary said. ¡°Green dot. It is a green laser.¡± Dan said, still shining the light through the glass. ¡°I wonder if I can cut shapes.¡± And with the light, he cut a heart in the tile. Naomi¡¯s boyfriend Chuck had decided to run for help after her friend¡¯s head was almost cut in half by unknown causes. Unfortunately, he decided to run forward towards the cafeteria. His running took him straight through the path of the laser beam which Dan was now waving around in a heart shape, and the light cut through his neck and cut his head off. This Gary saw, and he yelled in a panic, ¡°Dan, cut off the laser light.¡± ¡°Why? This is fun.¡± ¡°You just decapitated some guy out the window,¡± Gary yelled. ¡°Shit,¡± Dan said. Robert, Dan, Gary, and Darnell ran out of the cafeteria. A crowd followed them. The two bodies lay on the ground, a pool of blood and brain fluid leaked around the bodies. ¡°Does anybody know if they used their gemstone?¡± Robert yelled. Nobody seemed to know. ¡°It was an accident,¡± Dan said. ¡°I didn¡¯t think it would be that powerful. What do we do now?¡± ¡°Now we wait and hope that these two. Does anyone know their names, I don¡¯t¡­ now we hope that they used their gemstone and that they respawn. Hopefully, they respawn. After that, you have to be especially nice to them Dan, to make up for cutting their heads off.¡± ¡°It was an accident. I swear.¡± Dan said again. He seemed to be in shock. ¡°I¡¯ve never killed anything before. Not even a goldfish.¡± A few more minutes passed and then a few more. Eventually, the two bodies dissolved into tiny lights, and then they were no more. Robert bent down and picked up Chuck¡¯s wallet. It had $15 in it and his drivers¡¯ license. Naomi¡¯s smartphone lay on the ground too. The screen was cracked from the fall. ¡°Let¡¯s see if they reappear in the chapel,¡± Robert said. They walked back into the cafeteria and as they were walking Ahmed and Neil came out of the Chapel and said, ¡°Hey guy¡¯s something just killed Chuck and Naomi. They just respawned and are totally confused.¡± ¡°Dan blasted them with a laser,¡± Gary said. ¡°It was an accident. I swear it was an accident.¡± Dan said. Robert looked over at Dan and said, ¡°Go over and see if the two of them are all right. You got lucky. We need to come up with a system for testing dangerous things. At the very least, we need to find out who is vulnerable to dying and keep them away from risky stuff.¡± Gary nodded. ¡°We need a crafting area away from everything else. With testing areas everything. This could have been so much worse.¡± Robert nodded. Then he called out. ¡°Hey Ahmed, can I borrow you. I need your Earth magic.¡± Gary looked over at Robert and said, ¡°To build a crafting area? We aren¡¯t ready for actual construction yet. We are still in the planning phase.¡± ¡°Naw,¡± said Robert, ¡°I am working on my own project that I need Ahmed¡¯s help with.¡± Ahmed came over, and they walked back to the table where they had been working. ¡°I need your help with something. A pet project. And I need you to do two things.¡± Ahmed said, ¡°What.¡± Before Robert could answer, April stepped out of the kitchen and called out, ¡°We will be setting out dinner in 5 minutes. Would some of you mind clearing off the tables we¡¯ve been using to serve?¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t you just let us into the kitchen. Like we used to.¡± ¡°Because we are Rationing the limited amount of food we have left. And we haven¡¯t set up the service area yet to handle the small amount of food we are giving out. If you have a problem with this, take it up with one of the R.A.s Robert is right over there. I¡¯m sure he cares a whole lot more than I do.¡± April said, and then she went back into the kitchen. ¡°I don¡¯t,¡± Robert announced when eyes in the cafeteria turned to him. ¡°What was I saying, Ahmed? Oh yeah. One project is probably going to be simple. The other might be harder.¡± Darnell had finished copying out the runes into his book. ¡°Do you mind if I take these?¡± he said. ¡°I think Dan wanted to play with the power supply and try to make a cleaner sine wave, and despite nearly killing two people, I can¡¯t imagine he won¡¯t want to play with his laser some more.¡± ¡°Not today,¡± Robert said, ¡°I made these two things for a reason. But he can have them tomorrow.¡± Darnell nodded and then said, ¡°I¡¯m going back to the rest of the crafters. They will want to see these runes. Who knows maybe we can get a photocopy working with that power thing you and Dan made, and distribute this book of runes we¡¯re putting together.¡± Then he went back to the group that Gary had already rejoined. Robert showed the power supply prototype that he and Dan had made to Ahmed. ¡°The first thing I need you to do is drill three holes right here, here and here, so that I can plug an outlet into this tile.¡± ¡°Then, I will need a plug,¡± Ahmed said. "By the way. How''s the Sanity healing?" "Good. Almost halfway healed. Sitting in the chapel really does help." They eventually managed to scrounge up a plug from the kitchen. Using the toaster to guide them, Ahmed drilled three holes in the tile into which the plug from the toaster fit snugly. Not only that, after a bit of tweaking of the enchantment and the runes, the toaster when it was plugged into the tile worked. ¡°Perfect,¡± Robert said. ¡°Now for the hard task. I need you to use earth magic to change the surface of one of the building walls.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I need you to make the brick library wall that is facing the lawn smooth, flat, and as white as possible. Can you do it?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve never used that much magic.¡± ¡°Look at it as an experiment. Dude I really need this. Can you help me?¡± Robert said. ¡°Might as well see if I can,¡± Ahmed said. They walked out of the cafeteria together and crossed the lawn to the library. Walking to the other side of the building, there was a grey sand brick wall. Ahmed raised his hand. The sand surface of the wall began to ripple and flow like water outward from a point as he watched the concrete between the bricks filled in from the bricks around it. Soon it was one smooth surface. ¡°I need to harden the bricks,¡± Ahmed said. ¡°Just a second.¡± Focusing his magic, the material of the brick seemed to change. Sand fused together on the wall until it had a texture almost like a milky glass. Soon the entire side of the wall was one smooth, paper-thin, matte glassy surface. Ahmed however, almost fainted from the exhaustion. Robert helped him stay standing up. ¡°Thanks, dude, I owe you,¡± Robert said. ¡°What¡¯s all this for anyway? Some magic defense mechanism? If so, I don¡¯t get it.¡± Ahmed said. ¡°You¡¯ll see. I need one more bit of help if you are up for it. Would you mind helping me carry a table out here.¡± ¡°I¡¯m damned tired from the magic, and now you want me to move furniture? What the hell, Robert. If Susan were around, I would be tempted to make up a saying from the Prophet to piss her off, but since it is just you and me, well¡­ Fuck you, Robert.¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay. I can get someone else to help me.¡± They went back into the Cafeteria and Ahmed went to get some food. Robert used his keys to open one of the classrooms, and he and Markus carried a table out onto the lawn near the library where he and Ahmed had just been working. Then he went up to his bedroom and the moose room and gathered some stuff and after making a few trips, lay everything on the table. After making a few tests, where everything worked as he expected, he went back into the cafeteria. Inside the cafeteria, most of the people who had suffered interuniversal kidnapping by dungeon forces most mysterious were eating. Robert went to the front of the room and yelled out, ¡°Hey, guys. Mind if I say something? I have a bit of an announcement.¡± The room quieted after he shouted the same thing twice more. Speaking loudly, Robert said, ¡°I know all of this has been hard on everyone. I like to pretend that I know what is going on, but I will admit that I am stumbling as blindly as all the rest of us. I have made mistakes. For this, I want to apologize.¡± ¡°But that isn¡¯t all I wanted to say. I¡¯ve been working all afternoon to give all of us a treat. Something we can do together. I know that this is a small gesture, but I hope that all of you will join me.¡± ¡°I have set up the projection TV from the Moose Room on the green outside the library. Ahmed was generous enough to smooth the surface of the library wall until it is perfect for a screen. And I have enough power off an enchantment I made to run my computer and the projector. In an hour and a half, I would like to announce the first official Far Away From Home movie night. Tonight we will be playing Mean Girls, and The Waterboy which I know are Akiko¡¯s two favorites. And Neil, yes, if we run late we can play Strange Brew, though you¡¯ve seen it what. Twenty times?¡± ¡°So grab a blanket and join us me. We¡¯ll sit on the lawn to watch a couple of cinematic masterpieces. Hopefully, April and John can make some popcorn for all of us. It would be nice to do something as a group. I would bring beer, but I¡¯m almost out. But if you have some and want to share¡­¡± ¡°Anyway. Thanks, everyone for your patience and understanding. I know these last couple of days have been hard. Hopefully, this will be fun, and we can do it as a group.¡± He didn¡¯t expect anything. There were so many cliques that had formed even back in Ontario. But when he stopped talking a couple of people started to clap. And after a couple of seconds, everyone was clapping or sighing in relief or just laughing. It was the happiest Robert had seen the group in days. A little while later, Robert found himself sitting on the lawn, watching a still attractive Lindsay Lohan projected onto a fifty-foot wall. The pane of light was in front of the LCD Projection making the light of the movie incredibly bright and vibrant against the library wall. The power supply he and Dan had made kept the projector, laptop, and external computer speakers going. People were passing around popcorn as they lay or sat on blankets in the grass. Almost everyone had come. Though Robert still hadn¡¯t seen Huang and his group in a while. Movie night was a definite success. They would have to do it again. Luckily he had an entire ten terabyte hard drive full of bootlegged videos. Otherwise, Neil would inevitably make everyone watch Anime, Japanese porn, and Strange Brew. ¡°Thanks for the movies, Robert.¡± Robert looked over and saw Akiko. ¡°Akiko. I am so sorry. I shouldn¡¯t have used you to make Neil angry with me. Can you ever forgive me?¡¯ Akiko just gestured with her hands like it wasn¡¯t necessary. ¡°We should do this again.¡± ¡°I was just thinking that.¡± Robert said, then he smiled and said, ¡°That would be so Fetch.¡± ¡°Good. Now stop trying to make Fetch happen.¡± Akiko said and then wandered off to where Susan, Leslie, Neil, and Ahmed were sitting. Mean Girls ended, and as promised Robert started up The Waterboy. Just as Rob Schneider yelled out, ¡°You can do it.¡± Robert heard a commotion coming from the dorm. He turned his head and saw Brent running towards them. ¡°They are coming! They are coming! I just respawned, and they are coming!¡± Chapter 9 Robert got up and ran to Brent. "What do you mean ''they''re coming''?" "We were exploring the tunnel here Huang wanted to see where they went. He said we might be able to find treasure and experience. Everything was going well, we found a chunk of the Duckpond, some of Ring road, and most of the Environmental Sciences and Modern Languages buildings in another cave. Couldn''t find anyone else in there though. Just huge buildings standing silent in the dark. "We kept going. I think Huang really wanted to find one of the libraries. Ideally, the Davis Center. But there were a ton of branches and caves, and we couldn''t go down all of them. Some of the passages are really small and tight, you would have to crawl through them, and that isn''t even counting small holes that seemed to go on and on, but were so small you couldn''t even fit a chihuahua. In places, the paths were blocked by water. We didn''t go down those ways when something in the water attacked Julie. In other places, there were deep pits we''d have had to cross so we took different routes. We mostly kept to the bigger caves." "I don''t know how long we walked. It must have been hours. Oscar has some light magic so we could see and some space magic, so he knew where we were. He was drawing a map. We were about to head back when Huang said he saw a light. We had Oscar dim his so we could all see it. Huang said we should see what the light was, so we moved forward quietly in the dark. Brent had stopped pacing back and forward. His arms were no longer] animated and gesturing. He''d looked frantic and scared when he''d first run onto the lawn, but now he quieted down and stopped like he didn''t want to talk. "Well, what is it. Go on what did you see." Robert demanded "Around¡­ Around the corner, there was this shimmering wall of green light. Have you seen Stargate SG-1? Do you remember that Stargate thing they walkthrough? You know what it looks like when it''s was active? A wall of vertical water. "Well there in front of us is something that looks just like that wall of light except it is green and not blue. I saw Oscar pick up a rock and before we could do anything, Oscar had thrown the stone into the light. That was just Oscar being Oscar. "Then, this screen appears."
''Limited access for 294 hours, 42 minutes, 16 seconds. Would you like to cancel? Yes / No''
"Someone must have selected Yes." Brent stopped for a moment and looked around furtively. "Someone must have selected Yes. Anybody could have done it. It certainly wasn''t me. Whoever did it must have done it by accident. Maybe they''d played too many online games and just clicked Yes by instinct. That must have been it. But I don''t know who did it. Anyway, the green wall just went away." "Except now we can see into a bunch of new caves. And this time it isn''t only rocks. There are twinkling lights in the ceiling, and plants are everywhere. Huang is like, we''ve got to be careful here, who knows what''s out there. And I say what if the green wall comes back? What if the wall comes back and we end up stuck on the wrong side of it." Brent was pacing back and forth now, and everyone who had been there for the movie was listening intently. Robert takes a look around and sees a lot of scared people. Even some of the people who had been taking this whole thing as some kind of cosmic joke were listening intently. "In the end, we all go through. Go through. Like that is that easy. Like I said, it is entirely different out there. Like we were changing zones. Juan is the first to kill something. This thing, like half squirrel half toad, hops up a bush. A single fireball. Juan blasted it. Then I raised it. Filled it with death energy. I can feel it moving around as long as I control it. I should have taken animate magic because it only moves around as long as I am directing. But it is like my first minion. Julie has analyze and tells me it is called a Zombie Squelch. Whatever it is, it is weak as shit. But it hops behind me and goes where I send it. "We kill a few more. They are easy, you know. We''re in this big cave, and paths are going every direction, and it is full of these hopping climbing things. I can only reanimate and control three. After that, I have to really concentrate to animate more. But we must have killed a dozen. And because we are slaughtering these things we aren''t really paying attention to where we are going anymore." "That''s when they hit Oscar, and he is down. This group of things. I don''t know what they are, and they are all different. They look human but aren''t human. They are wearing clothes and armor. I gotta admit that I didn''t really get a good look at them. One of them does something, and all of my minions are dead. Huang tries his freeze trick, and nothing happens. And I guess that''s when Juan and Julie panic and turn and run back into the cave we came from." "Huang is like ''Stop you, idiots. Hold your ground.'' I don''t know why. I turn to look, and they are advancing towards us. I turn to run too. Did I mention that they got Oscar first and he is the one with the space magic and the one who was making the map." Brent stopped talking, and the lawn in front of the library started buzzing with conversation as people started talking to the people they were sitting with. Robert heard snatches of what was being said. "So what does he mean ''they are coming''?" "Something was keeping them out, and it''s down?" "Damn, Huang." "Quiet! Everyone Quiet." Robert shouted. "I can''t hear what Brent is saying over your noise." Then Robert said, "I think we all have the same questions. What do you mean by ''they are coming? How many of them are there? Do you have any idea how strong they are?" "I ran. I ran, and I ran. I got lost. The last thing I remember was something coming out of the wall. I must have tripped a trap or something. Then I was back here. Haven''t Huang, Kelly, Oscar, Juan, Anna or Julia shown up yet? Maybe they got away. We left the green gate thing open, where else would they go. It is only a matter of time." "So you were panicking, you don''t know if something is coming or not?" Leslie said. "Don''t be stupid, Leslie," yelled Fiorello. "Of course, they are coming. What else would they do." "Mansplain much Fio?" Leslie yelled back. "Why is it that whenever someone disagrees with a woman, they are mansplaining," Fio yelled back. Claudia stood up and said, "Shut up you two. Can they be bargained with? Are you sure they want to attack us or are they just attacking because you guys attacked first? This could be our chance to find a way out of this cave. To find out what it''s like out there." Robert nodded. There was a lot they still needed to know. "I really want to know what happened to Huang and the rest of them. If they are dead, they should have respawned already. Who knows maybe they are just in their rooms or the cafeteria. Even if they didn''t die, we need a plan to defend ourselves. Who here have long-range magic attacks? Stand to make a group over there. If you have earth magic, stand in a group over there. If you are a close-range fighter stand over there." People just stood there in shock. Then Fiorello said, "Robert, who died and made you boss?" "Nobody. But we can''t just stand around with our thumbs up our ass. If they are coming, we need a plan of action. That means we organize and prepare to defend ourselves. I would think that you would think defense and attack would be the right thing to do. Remember that squid thing that sucked James and Li''s brains sucked out of their head. So yeah nobody made me leader, but I haven''t heard a lot of good ideas recently." Leslie said, "For Pete''s sake, let Robert take the lead for now. If he fucks up, the worst he can do is kill us all. And if that happens, we can decide on someone else taking the lead." "Me too. Rob''s an ass, but if he fucks up, it''s on him. I don''t want that kind of responsibility, and my bet is a lot of you, don''t either." Neil said. "He''s steered us right so far. Made hard decisions, good and bad. Nobody else is even trying." Andrea said. "He''s been working hard making lights and trying to get everything going when most of us have just been fucking around. I''m for Robert." Gary said. Leslie spoke again, "Like I said, let''s hear what he has to say. If it makes sense, I say we do it." It was Leslie''s input that swung the crowd. While we were known to be friends, pretty much everyone was aware we''d had a falling-out recently. Leslie was kind of the mother figure of the dorm. The person people would listen to if they had a bad day, or go to for milk and cookies. One fuck up and this group''s resolve would splinter into different little clicks and factions. They needed to stay together if they were to survive this. He honestly believed that. And right now that was the worst thing that could happen. He needed to hold them together. "Okay, thanks for the votes of confidence. I think that everyone who did not use their gemstone needs to get into the chapel. Supposedly it is a safe spot. I don''t know how much we can trust that, but it is better than nothing, especially if you can''t respawn. Anybody who doesn''t want to fight should go there too." Robert said. "Neil, I don''t know if you can respawn or what happens when you die, but I''m putting you in charge of defending the chapel. You are the last line of defense if whatever is coming decides it wants to engage in mass slaughter. Remember, at least by the wacky rules that govern this place, you are one of them. Try to talk them out of anything hasty." Neil was about to say something, "but¡­" "I know you want to help Neil. But this is important. We can''t lose you." Neil nodded. "Joan and Ahmed, do you think you can gather anybody else with Earth magic and try to build some barriers and trenches. Layout a wedge shape centered on the road. Something for those of us who will be shooting magic at whatever comes out of those to hide behind. Dig enough of a trench so that anybody who comes at us has to slow down. Then try to build up the sides of the road so that anybody coming out to the caves needs to keep move forward and not off the path. "Dan take your laser pointer and the amplification lens and get set up the roof on top of the library as a kind of watchtower. If you can''t get in break down the door. I think I saw Claudia with a crowbar yesterday. You''re on overwatch. If there is anyone else with access to a laser pointer, go with Dan. Dan try to make as many magnification runes on glass panes as you can. I think I saw some more spare glass in the maintenance shed. Dan spoke up, "I can draw out the runes, but I can''t enchant them. I don''t have light magic." "Bring them to me then when you are done, with the runes. That''s the part that takes the longest anyway." Claudia spoke up, "So we are just going to fight? We aren''t going to try diplomacy?" "What do you suggest?" Robert said. "If someone or something comes here I would like to meet with them. I can''t believe that anybody is as horrible as you are making them out to be. Huang probably attacked them first. If they would just understand that we have been kidnapped maybe they will guide us away from here." Claudia said. "I want to go with Claudia too," Darlene said. "Maybe in a new world, the people in it can accept me for who I am and not some set of social and gender constructs." As he stood there, he stroked his own fur and twitched his bright pink tail. "And I want to meet these people. Maybe they can help my sister. Maybe they can lead us to someone else who can help. And if Claudia thinks that they know a way out, I want to leave this place." Sophia said. "No, Sophia," Robert said. "Claudia and Darlene can go. If they get killed, they will respawn. You haven''t used your gemstone. If you die, you die." "Robert, I don''t care about your ridiculous patriarchal tribalisms. We don''t even know if the rest of the people with Brent died. Maybe if every first contact were made by women, the world wouldn''t be in such a terrible way." Sophia said. "Whatever, Sophia. Whatever. If you want to go, go. For all I know you might be right." Robert said. T Then he turned to Sarah and said, "can I ask a huge favor? Would you mind going with them? You specced yourself as someone who fights up close and personal. Swords and body magic. Right? These idiots need someone to defend them if things go wrong. You might even save some lives." Sarah thought about it then said. "Sure." Then Robert said, "Okay, how many people took life magic, healing, or body magic." Nearly 25 people, mostly women, raised their hands. Robert shouldn''t have been surprised. One of the focus of the residence was social work, a lot of the girls who lived here were studying it, and Robert had been very vocal about what might make a healer when he was talking to Leslie. "Leslie, would you mind leading a healing group? Set up a hospital in a couple of classrooms. It is the summer semester, so there should be a lot of spare beds and mattresses. Hopefully, we won''t need it. Best to prepare." Leslie nodded. "Makes sense. It is something we should do anyway. Do you want to volunteer to get cut, so we can practice healing on you? I, for one, would enjoy slicing you up. Neil, you want to help?" "No, damn it, Leslie," Robert said. "But Robert¡­" Neil said. "I said no." "Darnell, you mentioned you took trap making? Would you mind setting up some traps in the cave entrance." "I already started this morning. I was going to mention it to you, but we''ve all been busy. I was also going to get some of the Crafter''s guild together help make a bunch more. I suppose we can speed up our timeline." "Crafter''s guild?" Claudia asked. Leslie also looked confused. "That''s what we''ve been calling ourselves," Darnell said. "We were also thinking about starting an adventurer''s guild. Dan thought it would be funny if while we were being attacked by an adventurer''s guild, we had our own. We all had a good laugh at the idea of assigning tasks like ''kill 10 slimes'' or ''defeat a party of adventurers.'' As dungeon monsters, it seemed so meta. Besides a lot of us don''t like thinking of ourselves as monsters. Adventurers seemed more benign."Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. "Exactly the reason why we should establish a peaceful dialogue," said Claudia. Robert nodded. "I''m not shooting it down. Who knows, maybe the real Adventurers Build could establish a real Adventurer''s Guild branch in our caves." "Not as long as killing us gives experience," said Fio. "I''ve played MMORPG. You kill everything that gets in your way." "Hopefully whatever these things are will consider us to be more than just computer code. We are flesh and blood, we have hope, dreams, and feelings. It would be morally unethical to kill us. After all, we are not AI, UI, and algorithms." Claudia said. A lot of people nodded their heads. Mostly the people nodding were the ones who had never played computer games before. Maybe they were right, though. Hopefully, they were right. But Robert had his doubts. Not to belittle their peaceful, happy feelings, the simple existence of dungeons seemed to imply a more kill or be killed attitude. Which wasn''t to say that he wouldn''t let Claudia, Sophia, and Darlene try a peaceful approach first. Out of nowhere, Mark said, "Screw this. This is total bull shit. If you want me, I''ll be in my room." He walked off, and a dozen or so other people nodded and left. A couple people even said "Sorry" as they departed, but Robert wasn''t sure if that out of any genuine regret or just a few people being Canadian. Continuing on, "I don''t know how long it will take for the Adventurers to get here. But we might as well get started. Someone should also try to track down Huang or Oscar. Oscar at the very least should have respawned by now. You''re sure he was killed, Brent?" "I''m not sure of anything, but I saw him go down when they killed my minions." Robert shrugged and said, "I''m gonna go put up light runes around the mouth of the cave so we can see who comes through. If you need me for anything, I''ll be there. Otherwise, everyone, let''s get productive. If you don''t have anything specific to do, help Leslie move mattresses for a hospital. And just remember, as far as we know, we always respawn, but dying really hurts and this preparation may save our lives." After that, they went off in their separate directions. Robert would have brought all of the movie stuff indoors, but a girl he didn''t know came over to him and said, "Do you mind leaving it here. We''ll put it away when the movie is over, and I swear we''ll help out, but there are a few of us that want to watch it to the end. We just need to pretend that everything is okay and normal still." So twenty-five or so people stayed laying on blankets watching the end of The Waterboy. Robert went to the cave opening and began drawing out the runes for light magic on the sides of the cave walls. There was work going on around him. Joan and Ahmed had found four other people who had Earth Magic, one of whom, Rebecca was a civil engineer who was a senior in her last semester of school and who had, even better put some points into ritual magic. The group was channeling and combining their Earth magic through Rebecca and under her direction, and the beginnings of a limestone wall were rising on either side of the road. Robert thought it was incredible how quickly they were working. The walls rose as a whole, growing upward several inches per minute. Eight hours later, and the entrance to their cave looked considerably different. Solid three-meter tall rock walls were on either side of the road. The tops of these bulwarks were wide enough to walk on top of with another meter high wall facing inwards towards the street compete with merlons to stand behind. The walls continued for thirty meters were merged into a gatehouse, with no gate, mainly it was a massive walled platform on top of a series of arches that spanned the road. This was far better than the embankments and trenches he''d asked for. There was even talk of adding towers in the future. Robert had drawn light runes on all of the Merlons, and as a result, the road was bathed in light. Sally had come through and enchanted sound runes in the final section the path before it opened up into their main cave, and then Darnell had drawn Dark Magic runes on those same walls. The final result was a section about 10 meters long where there was no light and no sound, only deep impenetrable blackness. Speaking of Darnell. When he''d started laying traps all up and down the path to their cave, Claudia had overridden him, saying that, "We have no proof that any of these things Brent claims are coming mean us harm. But undoubtedly they will if we hurt any of them with these traps you have planned." As a result, besides some motion-sensing alarms, there was nothing that any hapless adventurers could trip on as they wound their way towards them. Darnell did, however, manage to take down the closed-circuit security camera that the administration had installed outside their office area. Darnell had hidden the video camera about 100 meters into the pathway. It had been a total bitch finding enough ethernet cable to install it, but once they had, it was totally worth. A field hospital was set up in the classrooms across from the library. Robert hoped that they wouldn''t need to use it. Or instead, use it for its intended purpose. A lot of the people who''d been helping fortify the way into their cave were crashed out on the beds in the hospital taking a quick nap. Hospital / Barracks same thing really, right? Now it was just a matter of waiting. Who knew how long it would take these adventurers or wandering monsters to get here. According to Brent, the Modern Languages, Environmental Science buildings, and duck pond were on the path to get here. Robert hoped that whoever was coming didn''t trash those buildings too severely. Leslie, Susan, and Claudia had set up a table on the overlook and were playing cards. "What are you playing?" "Go Fish," Leslie said. "Mind if I join. Four people make for good Euchre." Leslie looked at the other two girls. "Mind if Robert joins us." Susan shrugged, and Claudia said, "Whatever." Robert pulled up a chair, "Where''s Akiko?" "She wasn''t sure what she could contribute to what was coming up, so she went off to take a nap." "Oh." "So you and Andrea," said Leslie. "I guess. I don''t know how serious it is." "Pretty serious. At least according to her. She came over earlier to mark her territory." "Ugh," Robert said as he sorted the cards less than 8 out of the deck. "Mind if I deal?" "Go ahead," said Susan. "She was kind of snarky to me," said Claudia. "We''ve barely spoken before, but she came at me with some major trash talk." "Sorry about that," Robert said. "Don''t be sorry. You gotta keep your bitch in line," said Claudia. Robert turned and stared at her. "Your face," Claudia said and began laughing. Susan and Leslie joined her. Reluctantly Robert laughed, then he began dealing. "What do you think will come through here. Nobody''s been able to find anybody who went with Huang. If they were dead, they would have respawned, right?" Leslie said. "I don''t know. I don''t know what''s coming and I don''t know what happened to Huang. If he was leading the people they ran into, they should be back already. For all we know, both groups went their separate way, and nobody will be back for a while. I hope not though. It''d be damned irresponsible of Huang." Robert said. They played cards for a little while. Around forty-five minutes into their game and this round, Susan was going it alone when the sound of a distant Tuba rang out. Then rang out again. "That''s the Alarm," Robert said, and got up and ran down the stairs. At the base of the stairs, a table had been set up with television which was connected DVR and to the video camera down the entrance pathway. Darlene was blowing frantically on her tuba, her pink fur standing upright like a cat while her tail jerked nervously. "I saw them. They are walking quickly. They''ll be here any second." Darlene continued to blow on her tuba, and people began rushing around. Sophia came running out of the library, and was waiting down below for the other¡¯s to join her.She was panting and out of breath. Robert yelled. "Everyone, they are coming to get into your position. Neil and everyone who hasn''t used their stone, go to the chapel for safety. Dan and the laser pointer team, up to the top of the library. Claudia, you and the girls are up. Let''s see if we can''t establish friendly relations with whoever comes down that path." "You''re not joining us?" Claudia asked. "No. I''m going up top on the platform. If they kill your group, I want to be the first to start blasting them with lightning. If things go well with you, I''ll come down." Claudia, Darlene, Sophia and Susan made their way onto the road. Only Susan had a weapon with her, her katana, and it was still in its sheath. They stood a polite distance from the entrance to the cave, waiting. A minute passed. Then another minute. Then yet another minute. A white sphere came out of the darkness. It hovered in the brightness of the light magic, before floating upwards. It then moved to where the three women were standing and waiting. The sphere circled them, once, twice, three times, before drifting upwards and moving towards where Robert was standing on the platform overlooking the road. Robert''s instinct was to blast the sphere with lightning, and electricity arced across his fingers like a Jacobs ladder. But Claudia called out, "Leave it be. It''s just scouting the place." "That''s what I''m afraid of," Robert called back. The sphere floated over both walls. It examined every one of the people standing on top of the wall or the platform looking down. Then the sphere turned around and went back into the darkness. A minute passed. Then another minute. Then six figures stepped out of the darkness. All six were humanoid. The first one was massive, at least seven feet tall and dressed in black metal armor. From where Robert stood, he could see human-like hands hold a sword and shield at the ready, but the beings face and head wasn''t human. Instead, if Robert had to take a guess, he would have said that the head was the perfect likeness of a Havanese dog. Three of the beings who stepped out of the darkness looked human, at least from where Robert was standing. They were dressed in various kinds of leather or cloth. Stereotypical mage and rogue gear Robert supposed. The next figure looked like a giant twig. Or instead on closer inspection, it looked like the kind of insect that camouflaged itself as a stick to protect itself from birds. It was, however, four and a half feet tall, and far more nimble than what Robert imagined stick insects would be. The last adventurer to enter their cave was an 8-foot long cockatoo. Pure white with a pink crest. Claudia stepped forward and said something to the group. She spoke with a voice that was loud enough that Robert could hear her, even though he didn''t understand what she said. The things at the entrance to the cave didn''t say anything. When they didn''t make any indication of understanding what Claudia was saying, Claudia tried something else in a different language. The cockatoo cocked its head and said something. The Havanese headed human spoke without looking back. To Robert''s untrained ears, the language sounded similar, and it must have been since Claudia spoke again. She for a longer duration this time, gesturing to Robert and the dorm behind them. Then Claudia turned around and said, "Robert, come on down. I think we can make peace." Impressed by Claudia''s initiative, Robert moved away from the merlon that he was leaning behind and began to walk towards the stairs down to the road. He''d taken three steps when hell broke loose. He saw the cockatoo take flight and start swooping around the cave. The Havanese in armor pushed his shield in front of him and yelled something. A globe of translucent light surrounded the group. One of the humans in the back raised her hand, and three balls of fire shot out. Two of the fireballs killed Claudia and Brent instantly. Susan somehow managed to dodge. And she drew her sword and charged the dome of light. She managed to make it about three feet when she was struck by an arrow shot by one of the other humans. The arrow ripped through her shoulder, and she spun around from the impact as she was flung backward. By now the cockatoo was making flybys strafing lighting down on everyone still standing on the walls. Robert, who was already in motion, turned and shot a bolt of lighting at the damned bird, but missed. Streaks of lightning shot from the cockatoo streaked at him in return, and when these electric currents hit the platform, the rocks exploded. Robert went flying backward. Landing on the asphalt of the road was painful. He landed on his right leg and then his back and how he managed not to break his spine was a mystery he had no time to think of right now. He could see the bone in the lower part of his right leg sticking out of a tear in his pants. Just looking at made him scream in pain. He screamed again. Overhead he saw Dan and the two other people with laser pointers waving their arms and pieces of glass frantically. Luckily one of them managed to bisect the cockatoo. Bits and pieces of bird, a rain of white feathers began to rain down on the ground. Robert rolled over. What he saw down the road was disgusting. One of the adventurers was skinning Darlene. Her fur was mostly off, but the woman doing it was still cutting through the fat and muscle like Robert would have skinned a deer. Carefully peeling the epidermis from the underlying meat. The Havanese man had cut open Claudia''s shirt and was digging around in her chest where her heart should be, iron gloved hand covered in blood. Finally, he pulled something out. Even from where Robert was laying, he could see it was a gemstone. A short distance away, two of the other human adventurers was doing the same thing to Susan and Sophia. They¡¯d cut off their tops, and had their hand up to his wrist in their chests chest. The one working on Sophia was sloppy though, unlike the Havanese knight, this leather-clad adventurer was pulling out bits of viscera and discarding them as he searched for the gemstone. Then Robert realized that Sophia didn¡¯t have a gemstone.She hadn¡¯t become part of this damned dungeon. Balls of fire, bursts of ice, lighting, these were still raining down on the invading adventurers. But their force shield still held. Behind it, they seemed to be invulnerable. Robert pushed along the asphalt until he managed to belly flop to the corner of the limestone wall corner of the. The pain was immeasurable. And he almost went into shock. Laser beams began raining down on to the road. The library didn''t have the best field of fire over the walls and behind the tower. It didn''t matter. One of the laser beams managed to cut off the head of the stick insect. It didn''t go down though. Seeing this, the Havanese knight raised its shield and tried to reflect invisible beams of light. But the shield was made out of black metal, and the light cut right through it, cutting off the knight''s arm, and continued down bisecting the knight''s colossal body. The shield of force surrounding the adventurers fell. Robert wanted to cheer, but instead, he began shooting his most powerful lightning bolts at the team that was attacking their home. It was too late though, the insect had found where Dan and the other laser pointer warriors were shooting from, and a massive fireball shot through the sky. The roof of the library and most of the building exploded. Glass shrapnel exploded outward and rained down on the lawn and the road. A wave of heat past overhead. Robert shot lightning bolt after lightning bolt at the woman in leather. And she twitched and shook as the electricity coursed through her body, the leather of her armor turned black and began smoking while the bits of metal on it glowed red. The only thing holding her up was the white glow that formed around her body. The glow was coming from one of the humans. A healer. Out of the of his eye, he saw the insect thing summoning another massive ball of fire. Quickly, Robert summoned his brightest light and cast it right in the middle of the force shield. For just a second it was like a dozen flashbulbs went off at the same time, and that moment happened to be the very moment the stick insect shot a fireball at Robert. Instead of hitting him, the fireball hit the support for the gatehouse. Tons of rock came tumbling down and backward, burying Robert under a massive pile of shattered limestone. The debris crushed his body, they broke his bones, smashed his arms, legs, stomach, skull. And in a flash of pain more debilitating than he had ever experience before in his life, and he died. He woke up in the chapel. It was filled with people. "Robert. You respawned." Said Neil. "Is the attack over?" Robert said. "No, it''s still going on. They are burning down the residences. The bastards are trying to drive anybody hiding in their rooms out. You are one of the few people to respawn. They didn''t get Dan here, and his buddies from the roof are napping on the pew over there, a couple of people respawned after the makeshift hospital exploded and the room they were in caved in, but that is about it." "Did they try to come here?" Robert asked. "Yeah they launched a couple of fireballs at the chapel, but the place glowed red, and their magic didn''t do anything. I can''t even cast healing spells near it, though it lets me in." Neil said. "Okay, I''m going out." "No. Robert, you should wait. It is dangerous out there. I mean really dangerous. You know. When I killed you, I didn''t want you to die, and I was so relieved when you didn''t. But out there¡­ Whenever they kill someone, they stop and dig a gemstone out of their body. I think that is making people not come back. I think those stones stop people from respawning." Neil said. "He''s right," Dan said. "Susan and Claudia haven''t come back. Neither has that furry person." ¡°Sophia is dead for good, I think.We owe it to them to try to kill those fuckers. You got two, Dan. That means there are only four more to go." Robert said. "Good luck then. I''m not going out there." Dan said. "Neil. I guess you stay guarding these people." "No, Robert, I think I''m coming with you. If Sarah and Claudia can die for real, then it doesn''t make sense for me to worry about respawning. I''m coming with. I''m a Paladin of Chert. I''m supposed to protect the weak. It goes against everything I''ve metamorphosed into believing in to hide in a chapel away from danger." "Okay, then. Do you know where they are? I''ve got a plan. Do you have your keys?" "I''m pretty sure they''re on the green, upfront. They already burned down the women''s side. And yeah I have my keys." "Then come on. Let''s get those fuckers." Robert charged out of the chapel with Neil racing after him. Instead of heading towards the front of the building where the invaders were supposedly bombarding the men''s residence, Robert ran out back to the parking lot and directly towards his car. "Here''s the plan. We both get into our cars, we drive around the corner, and once we see them on the green, we hit ramming speed. I''ll go first. You come about 30 seconds behind and run over anyone I miss. Simple and easy. Let''s get going. You''re a paladin, think of this as jousting." Robert said. Robert got into his Prius, and Neil headed over to his F-350. Starting the ignition, he rolled down the window, then backed out of his space. Driving out of the parking lot he built up speed, but not too much. Once he was on University Campus Lane though, he gunned it. Up in the distance, he saw the group of genocidal bastards clustered on the green. The stick thing was lobbing fireball after fireball into the dorm. Most of the library had caved in, and the fire was bringing throughout it. There were bodies of his friends lying all over the lawn.People he had known for years.People he barely knew.All of them had their chests cut open.Some of them were burnt.Some of them were naked or in their pajamas.Some of them looked like they¡¯d gone out fighting.All were dead.The smell of burnt flesh was everywhere. Robert stepped down on the accelerator until the petal was touching the floor. Then he stuck his arm out the window and began to blast lightning ahead of his path. They didn''t know what hit them, and Robert managed to plow into the group going well over 150 km/h. Unfortunately, he didn''t have enough room to break after he bounced over their now flattened bodies, and instead continued forward breaking down a small tree and hit the side of the building. His Prius'' airbags deployed, but the front of his car was entirely crushed in, and Robert''s body was pulverized, and he died yet again. Chapter 10 It took Robert six hours to realized he had respawned. He¡¯d reawakened earlier, but it took six hours of lying, screaming and naked and eventually tied up so he couldn¡¯t hurt himself in the chapel. He had shit himself. Not only shit himself, but apparently, he had rolled around in. His throat was worn raw and ragged from yelling obscenities. And he didn¡¯t feel like he was done. Just a little more, something in the back of his mind seemed to want to say. Just rant and curse just a little bit more. Let go. It feels so much better. Vaguely he remembered yelling about the secret Illuminati in the government who had kept the secrets of antigravity from the masses. Trudeau was a member of the Illuminati. Donald Trump was obviously a Templar, their enemies. Thinking about it, Robert said. ¡°What the hell?¡± Neil got out of one of the pews and came over to him. ¡°Robert, who am I.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯re Neil. But something inside me wants to accuse you of being part of a secret society,¡± Robert said. ¡°So you¡¯re saying I¡¯m not a goddamn Illuminati?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. I never really cared enough to ask you about your politics. Whatever floats your boat. Why am I tied up in the cathedral, and why am I covered in poo?¡± ¡°We had to. When you respawned, you went crazy. You were screaming and yelling. You took off your clothes and ran around alternately, trying to stab people and trying to cause them to float away. Then you started to masturbate. In front of everyone. Leslie decided to tie you up for your own safety, and because none of us wanted to see you wack off,¡± Neil said. ¡°Leslie made it?¡± ¡°Yeah, she took a bunch of people and hid in the cave near the lake.¡± ¡°Would you mind untying me?¡± Robert asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Are you planning on beating off in front of everyone again?¡± Neil asked suspiciously. ¡°Wasn¡¯t planning on it, but if someone gives me enough beer, makes it a dare, and finds me a pretty fluffer, I might consider it,¡± Robert said. ¡°Good enough for me,¡± Neil said shrugging. Neil untied the extension cords. The knots weren¡¯t really well done, and if he had been more aware, Robert probably could have undone the mess by himself. Robert looked over momentarily at the six people who still stood there, staring off into space. They¡¯d been like that since Knaxis had come. Sophia was dead, though. While Sophia¡¯s main priority had been her sister, she had also fed and changed the other catatonic people. It also bothered Robert that the room wasn¡¯t healing their sanity, either. But that was a worry for another day. ¡°We¡¯d have gone into your room to get you a change of clothes, but you¡¯re room are burnt down. I¡¯ll be honest Robert, the last fires went out a couple hours ago, but we are pretty screwed. There isn¡¯t a whole lot left. The whole dorm is a total disaster, and barely anybody respawned.¡± Robert got up. Ignoring his own nakedness, he asked, ¡°Did we kill the invaders? What did you do with their bodies?¡± ¡°Yeah, you got them with your car. One of them still had a bit of life in him but died after I rolled over him a few times with my pickup. Their bodies disappeared, but we managed to strip all their armor and gear off of them before they turned into lights and energy. It¡¯s all on a table in the cafeteria. Leslie and Andrea are keeping an eye on it. Everyone here agrees; you should have first dibs on the cloths. Nobody wants to see your weiner. Well, none of the girls will admit it, though personally, I think they all enjoy the view.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Robert got up. It was tough to stand, and a wave of vertigo passed through his brain, and he almost fell back down. Holding onto one of the pews for support, he pushed himself back onto his feet and then walked over to the Species stone.
Status Update: Title awarded ¡ª Human (Earth) Instance Boss Monster #1 New: 2246 xp points awarded New: 14 Boss points awarded New: Special Power added New: Special Boss menu added to Status
¡°What the hell. I just got a blue screen saying that I¡¯m a Boss Monster now.¡± Robert said, and then he waved the blue screen away. Next, he checked his status screen. His Sanity score was a dismal 5/310 points. Under titles, he had Human Instance Boss Monster #1. There was also a new tab with for Boss Menu. Mentally he selected that tab.
INSTANCE
Item Description Boss Points Banked
Resurrect Resurrect 1 person with lost Soul Stone Varies 0
Block Resurrect Block 1 person from resurrecting Varies 0
Refresh Instance Restore Instance to previous save 7 0
Complete Regenerate from Save Restore Instance and complete respawn 10 0
Refresh barrier Restores instance barrier if it has been taken down 1 0
New Barrier Blocks entrance to Instance for 10 days 10 0
Set Barrier Privileges Allows Boss only Barrier openings, default off 1 0
Summon Returns 1 person to Species stone 1 0
Save Saves Instance 1 0
Reassign Reassign all past XP 3 0
Banish Removes one Non-Boss from Species Stone 10 0
Expel Expel all invaders from instance 15 0
Make Boss Make 1 person instance boss Varies 0
Move Instance Moves Instance down 1 level 25*Level 0
Create Cave Attaches new cave to instance Varies 0
STORE
Item Description Boss Points Buy for
Ore Stone Creates Natural Mineral Deposit Varies 0 Varies
Mystical Ore Stone Creates Mystical Mineral Deposit Varies 0 Varies
Sun Stone Provides Sunlight 1 0 0.25
Night Stone Provides Night 1 0 0.25
Sky Stone Provides Sun and Night rotation 2 0 0.5
Weather Stone Creates Specific Weather 1 0 0.25
Climate Stone Creates Specific Climate 1 0 0.25
Humidity Stone Creates Specific Humidity 1 0 0.25
Biome Stone Creates Seasonally varied conditions 5 0 1.25
Safe Zone Stone Creates a small Safe Zone 5 0 2.5
Natural Herb Seeds 10 Seeds Varies 0 Varies
Mystical Herb Seeds 10 Seeds Varies 0 Varies
Natural Animal 1 Animal Varies 0 Varies
Mystical Animal 1 Animal Varies 0 Varies
Natural Slave` 1 Natural Slave creature Varies 0 Varies
Mystial Slave 1 Mystical Slave creature Varies 0 Varies
Skilled Slave 1 Skilled Slave Creature Varies 0 Varies
Books Common Fiction / Non Fiction / Poetry 1 0 0.25
Books Common Lore / Magic 2 0 0.5
Books Uncommon Fiction / Non Fiction / Poetry 3 0 0.75
Books Uncommon Lore / Magic 5 0 1.25
Books Rare Fiction / Non Fiction / Poetry varies 0 varies
Books Rare Common Lore / Magic varies 0 varies
Raw Materials Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Mithril, etc.¡­ varies 0 varies
Alchemical Solution Input affect varies 0 varies
Species Stone Provides for multiple Species Stones 100 0 100
XP 500 XP 1 0 1
Reconstitute Living Creates a non dungeon living thing from a sample varies 0 varies
Resurrection Glass Resurrects one dead being without Species Stone 5 0 1.25
Emergency Rations Essential Nutrients for 200 of Species 1 0 -
Food Various varies 0 varies
Fresh Water 200 Liters 1 0 -
Salt Water 200 Liters 1 0 -
Spices Various varies 0 varies
Weapon Various varies 0 varies
Enchanted Weapon Various varies 0 varies
Armour Various varies 0 varies
Enchanted Armour Various varies 0 varies
Trade Good Various varies 0 varies
The list went on and on. Robert only noticed the first few items of both categories. Without even bothering to pause and consider, Robert put one point to reset the barrier to their caves and also spent another point to set the barrier privileges so that only Boss¡¯s could dispel the wall of light. After spending each point, a new blue screen popped up in front of him:
One Boss Point Banked in Refresh Barrier. Cost to refresh Barrier one Boss Point. Would you like to Refresh the Instance Barrier? Yes / No
Then he put a single point into Refresh Instance and took a handoff the Species Stone. When he put his hand back, the score was still there. Robert concentrated removing the point out, and the number in the bank went back to zero, while his own count of Boss Points went back up to 12. For a moment he considered putting the rest of the necessary point into refreshing the instance and respawning everyone, but then realized that could wait. Instead, he turned around and walked out of the chapel with Neil who had been waiting impatiently while he consulted his stats. ¡°Come on Instant Boss Monster Man. Those of us left are waiting for your bossy britches in the cafeteria.¡± ¡°Dude, don¡¯t say bossy britches, you sound like a chick,¡± Robert said as he walked down the steps and into the main dining area. Even in the cafeteria, there were traces of battle. All the windows were blown out, tables and chairs lay broken and burnt on the ground, the far wall was covered in soot, and the walls towards the kitchen and dorm were a shell of brick and rubble. The ceiling was black where the faux wood had gone up in flames. There were conspicuous blood stains and splatter on the floor and walls Robert counted and saw that 28 faces were looking at him. Predominantly they were people who hadn¡¯t used their gemstone and had hidden in the chapel. ¡°Hey,¡± he said. ¡°Robert,¡± Leslie said. While Andrea came over and kissed him. Most of the faces in the crowd were terrified. They looked ready to bolt for the security of the chapel at any time. It must have been hard, Robert thought, hiding, unable to do anything while all the death and chaos was going on around them. ¡°I have some good news, and I have some good news,¡± Robert announced to the crowd.\ ¡°You can get us home? You found clothes to put on?¡± people in the crowd asked.\ ¡°Seriously, after all this my being naked is what worries you? Anyway not as good as going home.¡± Robert said. ¡°No, what I did was close the instance that Huang¡¯s group opened. Nobody new can attack us for a while. I¡¯m not saying that there isn¡¯t someone or something already in our caves that Huang let in. Just that if they weren¡¯t in it as of five minutes ago, they aren¡¯t getting in anytime soon.¡± The crowd didn¡¯t look relieved to hear that. Some people whispered, ¡°Already in and looked troubled.¡± Looking over at a pile of weapons, gear and armor on one of the few remaining tables, Robert said, ¡°Is that the stuff you found on those assholes?¡± ¡°Yeah. Neil made us gather it up.¡± ¡°We need to find the gemstones they were cutting out of our friends,¡± Robert said. ¡°Why? So you can use them to power level yourself. We all know you scammed 3 gemstones at the start.¡± Asked Brent, who was carrying a backpack. ¡°Brent, you survived,¡± Robert said. ¡°He stayed with us when we hid near the lake,¡± Andrea said.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Robert nodded. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure that we use the gems that they cut out of our friends to respawn them.¡± Leslie nodded and said, ¡°There were a couple of bags full of them on the table. We took them off the things that attacked us.¡± Neil went over and looked at the table. ¡°They aren¡¯t here anymore. Does anyone know where the gemstones are?¡± Everyone looked around, and nobody seemed to know anything. Finally, Brent said, ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯ve got to pee. And started heading for the exit to the cafeteria. ¡°Brent was hanging around the table with all the stuff a lot,¡± Andrea said. ¡°Brent, stay where you are,¡± Robert said. ¡°Fuck you, Robert. And fuck you everyone else. I could have died out there. Did you see how dangerous it was? I¡¯m not taking part in your let¡¯s blame Brent fest. I¡¯m leaving.¡± ¡°Brent don¡¯t you take one more step, and put down that backpack.¡± ¡°Fuck you. Fuck all of you. Why don¡¯t you mind your own business? I¡¯m leaving.¡± Neil stepped in front of the door that Brent was trying to leave from. ¡°Forgive me if I misjudged you.¡± With that, Neil swung his fist and decked Brent. Brent tried to get up, and Neil kicked him in the face. ¡°Stay down asshat.¡± Robert came over and bent down to remove Brent¡¯s backpack. He opened it up and saw six bags full of gemstones. Some coins in various metals and a dagger that was shining a brilliant white light. ¡°I¡¯m just surprised he didn¡¯t hide these earlier,¡± Robert said. ¡°People have been pretty edgy about the stuff on the table,¡± Leslie said. ¡°A lot of people were watching that gear like it could explode at any moment. It¡¯s kind of surprising he managed to steal the stuff in the first place.¡± ¡°What should I do with this guy?¡± Neil asked. ¡°Pat him down to see if he has any more gemstones. If he doesn¡¯t let him go. If he does, I¡¯ll kill him and cut his stone out myself, so he doesn¡¯t respawn.¡± Robert said. ¡°Now wait a second. The experience crystals I got on me I got fair and square.¡± Brent said, trying to get up. Neil kicked him in the gut twice more, and once in the face for good measure. Leslie went through his pockets and pulled out six more red gemstones like the ones the Knaxis the squid monster gave them. ¡°Those are mine,¡± Brent yelled, and Neil kicked him again. ¡°Are you really going to kill him?¡± Leslie said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel right, killing one of our own.¡± Robert thought about it for a second. ¡°Strip him. He¡¯s a bit bigger than me, and I could use his clothes. If we can revive Huang, Brent can be his problem.¡± Robert said. They left Brent tied up with extension cord and crying in his tighty-whities. A bunch of people stayed in the cafeteria, and Robert asked them if they wouldn¡¯t mind keeping an eye on the adventurer¡¯s gear to stop further looting. Robert, Leslie, Neil, Andrea, and Dan plus a couple of others followed Robert up to the chapel hoping that he could bring their friends back. ¡°There might be a way to fix the buildings,¡± Robert said as he climbed the stairs. ¡°How?¡± Demanded Leslie. ¡°When I checked my status after I respawned, I was told that I had become a floor boss. I also had something called Boss Points that I could spend on a bunch of stuff. I spent two closings off our cave. But there was an option to respawn the buildings to a previous save for a bunch of points.¡± ¡°Then, why didn¡¯t you?¡± Leslie demanded. ¡°Two reasons. There is also an option to respawn someone if we¡¯ve lost their soul stone.¡± Robert shook Brent¡¯s backpack. ¡°I¡¯m hoping that these are all our friends and that it doesn¡¯t cost anything to bring them back. The second reason is that I thought it would freak people out if buildings started growing again and nobody knew why. Plus I wanted to check out the situation first.¡± Leslie nodded. ¡°Anyway, we¡¯re here. It said I was Boss number 1. Presumably, there are other Bosses. Why don¡¯t all of you touch the stone to see if you get a message.¡± They all touched it, and nobody got a blue screen until Dan stepped up. ¡°It says I have¡­ let me read it.
Status Update: Title awarded ¡ª Human (Earth) Instance Boss Monster #3 New: 1249 xp points awarded\ New: 7 Boss points awarded New: Special Power added New: Special Boss menu added to Status
¡°Number 3¡­ Hmmm, implying there is a number 2. Dan, you and I kill the most of those bastards. Neil said he mopped up, but nothing happened when he touched the stone. I wonder who number 2 is. Probably Huang.¡± Robert said. Robert pulled out a gemstone. It was a small green stone. He touched it to the glowing rock in the center of the chapel. ¡°It says this gem is worth 53 xp. I am choosing not to use it.¡± Then Robert put the gemstone down. He pulled another stone out of the bag. The gemstone was a dark bitter red stone. He pressed it to the species stone.
Use Experience Value: 531 Yes / No Use to Respawn Human (Earth) Yes / No
Robert selected ¡°Yes¡± under the Respawn menu, and colored lights appeared in front of him which eventually morphed into Jamie, a first-year he barely knew. Most of her clothes were burnt away. ¡°Welcome back,¡± Robert said. ¡°I died? Are they still attacking? The last thing I remember was that my room was on fire. I jumped out of the window, and they were waiting for me.¡± Jamie said. She didn¡¯t seem to notice that she was standing in front of everyone, almost naked. ¡°Jamie, would you mind touching the Stone again. I want to try something.¡± Jamie shrugged and touched the stone again. ¡°A blue screen appeared and is asking me if I want to respawn my gear. It costs 21 xp. And that I only have 5 of 21 experience needed. What is it talking about.¡± ¡°Look at your clothes,¡± Leslie said. ¡°Oh.¡± She tried to cover herself and blushed. ¡°I¡¯ll be in my room.¡± And Jamie tried to run out the door. ¡°Pretty sure your room got burned down. Here, use this.¡± Robert handed her the 53 xp gem they had tried just a second ago. Jamie touched the gem to the stone, and a moment later, she was wearing a pair of black jeans and a sweater. She left after feeling the stone again at Roberts urging, and nothing memorable happened. They slowly made their way through the pile of crystals. They made a pile of experience gems, sorted out the high-value experience from the low-value experience, respawned any soul gems, and had them check to see if they were the second boss. Most human gems were worth between 450 to 800 experience points. There were a handful of generic stones in that range. Robert sorted these into a third pile. Twice, a stone allowed Robert the option of summoning non-human sentient from these high-value stones in exchange for Boss Points. Robert sorted these stones into the fourth pile. When Susan respawn, Robert thought for sure she would be a Boss, but she said she wasn¡¯t. When they found Huang¡¯s crystal, Robert had him check the stone thinking, how could he not be a Boss? And was surprised and disappointed all over again when they found Huang wasn¡¯t. ¡°That fuck, Brent. You know he opened the gate.¡± Huang said. ¡°You deal with him. While I¡¯ll support you if you decide to cut his soul stone out to keep him from respawning, it probably wouldn¡¯t be a good idea. We should come up with a set of laws or rules for extreme cases. Though if death isn¡¯t permanent, I¡¯m not sure how we should treat murder.¡± It was only when Claudia respawned, and Robert went through the mechanical steps of offering her an experienced crystal to refresh her clothing ¡ª she had a massive and bloody rip over her heart, her bra had been cut off, and her boobs were hanging out ¡ª that the small group hanging out in the Chapel found who the last Boss was.
Status Update: Title awarded ¡ª Human (Earth) Instance Boss Monster #2 New: 852 xp points awarded New: 5 Boss points awarded New: Bonus Given to Diplomacy Skill New: Bonus Given to Quatrill Language Spoken New: Bonus Given to Quatrill Language Written New: Special Boss menu added to Status
"I died," Claudia said. "Yup," Robert said. "I fucked up," Claudia said. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have tried to talk.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t fuck up. Not really. At least I don''t think so, and whatever this system is, it doesn''t think so either. We needed to try diplomacy first. We will need to try diplomacy again. We might have to figure out a way that you don''t die so often. Maybe invest in a safe zone. But dying might be something you have to just get used too." "How can you be so banal about dying." "I''ve died a bunch of times. Twice today. Neil killed me yesterday. It is painful, but you get used to it. For all I know, there might be a place to change the pain setting. Don''t tell anyone I said this, but if the assholes who invaded us are any indication, we''ll probably all have to get used to it eventually. You more than anyone. You''re a Boss now." "What does that mean? I don''t know what any of this means," asked Claudia "Look at your stats. I suspect they''ve changed. Claudia touched the species stone and opened up her stats, "My diplomacy skill went up to 30 points, so did my Quatrill language skills." "Do me a favor and look at your boss menu and tell me what you see written there." Robert could see Claudia¡¯s pupils as they flitted back and forth, reading the invisible text in front of her. ¡°What does all of this mean?¡± ¡°Put a point into ¡®Safe Zone,¡¯¡± Robert said. ¡°Why? Oh, what the hell, I¡¯ll be one of your guinea pigs Robert. What the damned hell. Okay, I did. It says I have one point banked. What does that mean?¡± Robert held his hand up to forestall questions. He touched the Species Stone and brought up his own Boss Menu. There was one point listed under ''Banked'' for ¡®Safe Zone.¡¯ Robert tried to withdraw the point, and he couldn¡¯t take it out. It looked like the person who put the point in was the only one who could take it back out. ¡°Just checking some stuff out.¡± He told Claudia. ¡°Wanna stick around as we finish off summoning the rest of our friends and classmates? Or do you want to go out to talk with the rest of the people out there?¡± ¡°Any advantage of sticking around?¡± Claudia asked. ¡°Probably not. Though we haven¡¯t brought back Darlene yet and you seem to get along with her. She was skinned alive by the way. Hopefully, she was dead when they started. I should get someone to hide the fur we captured.¡± ¡°Not thinking of tanning it and making a coat,¡± Neil asked. ¡°Neil, that¡¯s in incredibly bad taste.¡± Robert turned to him, angrily. Neil shrugged, ¡°It¡¯s not like we have that much stuff left. We have to use the resources we have.¡± ¡°That gives me an idea,¡± Robert said. ¡°Would someone be willing to go and get the Darlene fur? I think I know a way to get rid of it.¡± Leslie grimaced and walked out of the chapel while Robert began to sort through the gemstones again. He was in the process of bringing someone back when Leslie returned carrying the fur. Her face looked revolted, and Robert could understand why. The adventurers had peeled all the fur off. That included the tail, the legs, and arms, but the most gruesome part was Darlene¡¯s still entire furry face. Her eyes were missing, but the rest of it was still there. Most of the blood on the back had congealed, and for this one thing, Robert was glad. The fur stunk of death, though. Taking it in his hands, Robert pressed Darlene¡¯s skin to the Species stone. He opened up the Boss Menu and clicked sell.
Human: Variant ¡ª Fur Value 1.37 boss points. Sell (Yes / No)
Robert clicked, Yes, and the fur disappeared. ¡°We shall never speak of this again.¡± He said. ¡°If he asks, we destroyed it.¡± ¡°What did you do?¡± Neil asked, shocked. ¡°Destroyed it,¡± Robert repeated firmly. ¡°But what did you do?¡± Neil asked again. ¡°I destroyed it.¡± Robert said again, ¡°And that¡¯s all I will say.¡± Finally, the last person was brought back. There were faces that Robert knew were missing. Fiorello was gone. So was Sophia. Neither of them had become part of the dungeon. He would have to ask around, maybe others were killed who couldn¡¯t be brought back. Just to be sure, Robert opened the Boss Menu and selected ¡°Resurrect.¡± Two names were listed. He knew both of them vaguely. Brent had probably managed to hide their gemstones before they¡¯d searched him, so Robert spent two Boss Points bringing them back. The group waited for the last two to appear in front of them and then as a group, they walked down to the cafeteria. Leslie took charge of looking after the leftover Experience Gems, which was fine by Robert. Down in the cafeteria, the mood was subdued. Most of the people who¡¯d died were sitting down, some on the floor, some on the grass. Lars that asshole was out playing hockey again. That bothered Robert, but he let it drop. Instead, Robert addressed the group. ¡°Is this everyone?¡± ¡°Pretty much. Lars is out playing hockey with himself, and I think Amy went off with the other Leslie somewhere to pee, but that¡¯s about it.¡± April said, clutching at her boyfriend, John. ¡°Amy and Leslie should be nearby, though. Everyone is too scared to go much further than the Cafeteria.¡± Robert nodded, ¡°I¡¯ve got something to say. But we can wait for people to come back. Someone might as well go and get Lars.¡± Amy and the other Leslie showed up. Susan got Lars. Soon everyone was standing in the ruins of the Cafeteria. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not going to lie to you. That completely sucked ass. We were slaughtered. Dying hurts like fuck. I should know I¡¯ve died three times already. And I expect I will die again.¡± Their group started talking among themselves when Robert said this. So he held up a hand for quiet. ¡°I¡¯ve closed the gate to our home, but that doesn¡¯t mean that they won¡¯t come through again. This instance opens in two weeks, less a bit. And when it opens, anybody who wants to go into our cave can and will. If we aren¡¯t ready for them, we will die again. ¡°I know up until now, all of this has seemed unreal. And we¡¯ve all had a lot of fun testing out our powers, playing games, socializing. We can still do that. I¡¯m not saying we shouldn¡¯t. But we have to balance that with thinking about our safety. We can¡¯t be caught unaware again. Let me repeat that, we can¡¯t be caught unaware again, because like it or not ass holes just as bad as the ones who came through earlier will come here again.¡± ¡°What can we do. Our home is destroyed. We don¡¯t have any food. We barely have the clothes on our backs. Robert stops trying to be a boss and just admit that we are dead men and women walking.¡± Lars said. Then he said, ¡°Fuck this, I¡¯m going back to playing hockey. Don¡¯t bother to respawn me if I die again.¡± Before Lars could leave, Robert said, ¡°I can bring back our home and our stuff.¡± Lars stopped and turned around. ¡°While we have so much magic among us that we shouldn¡¯t really need our residence. The truth is I¡¯m pretty sure can restore it just like it once was. I can bring back everyone''s'' clothes and furniture. I think. We can start over. We can do everything better this time. We can build walls and traps and chokepoints. We can plant crops to keep us fed, and we can restore the electricity so we can all get back on our computers. We can make weapons and armor to protect us. And we can catch and kill slimes so that we can use the experience to grow stronger. Robert spent a few seconds catching the eyes of the people in the crowd. ¡°We can make it so that the next group of violently deranged assholes who come through here don¡¯t find a bunch of disorganized sitting ducks but find an unbreachable fortress of deranged human ex-students who want to kill the fuck out of them instead.¡± ¡°I know this sucks. Trust me, I do. I would rather be back in Ontario studying for my Combinatorics class and writing that machine learning algorithm I¡¯d planned to use as for my honors project. But I can¡¯t. None of us can go back. Our only choice is to stand tall and strong and make sure we aren¡¯t victims again.¡± ¡°I¡¯m gonna go rebuild our home. Think about it. Take today off and rest. Tomorrow, let¡¯s start rebuilding this place.¡± Robert said, and before anyone could cheer, or jeer, or ask questions, he walked back upstairs to the chapel. Without pausing, Robert touched the Species Stone. He brought up his Boss Menu and spent 7 points on Refresh Instance. The world went black, and when it reappeared it as if nothing had been destroyed. Looking out of the door of the chapel, all of the burnt areas were remade, all of the toppled walls were restored. And he was filled with relief since he didn¡¯t really know if that would work or not. He could spend his experience tomorrow. Right now, he was tired. Not bother to even look at the six waiting catatonic figures still sitting motionless in their pew, Robert left the chapel. Once in the Cafeteria, he saw Andrea and said, ¡°Andrea, come with me.¡± She followed behind him, ¡°What¡¯s up Robert.¡± But Robert didn¡¯t say anything; instead, he walked up to his bedroom. Unlocking his door with the key which had been restored around his neck with the complete restoration of the instance, he walked into his room. Andrea followed. ¡°Should I be worried,¡± Andrea said. Robert still didn¡¯t say anything. Instead, he kissed her. On her mouth, on her face. Then he ripped open her blouse and pulled down her bra. ¡°Robert!¡± She said. Still saying nothing, he slapped her face. Not a firm slap, nothing forceful, more a playful tap. And she sucked on the tips of his fingers and said ¡°daddy.¡± But he wanted to let her know he didn¡¯t want to hear her voice. Then he turned her around, and pushed her to the ground, to her knees. Then he forced the rest of her onto his bed. Reaching around, he undid the top of her pants and pushed her jeans and panties down. He gave her a much stronger slap on the ass before undoing his pants. There was some lube in his top drawer which he applied, then slapping her ass once more, he slid inside of her. Thrusting violently. Once. Twice. ¡°Robert. Stop. No. Robert.¡± Andrea said. Robert pulled out. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind rough. I like it actually. But not in the ass. Not today. I¡¯m scared, and I want to be hugged.¡± Andrea said. Robert thought about it. He really wanted to destroy her. He was filled with rage at their hopelessness, and anger at being trapped. But he could see her point of view. So he pulled away and walked over to the bed and sat on top. Motioning to her, he pushed aside the blankets and sheets and said, ¡°Join me?¡±