Monroe

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Six. Riflemen.

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Six. Riflemen.

Bob watched as Huron started pulling curved pieces of metal out of his backpack.

He was having a bit of trouble reconciling what he's just felt with how he cast ritual magic.

'Trebor,' Bob mentally projected, closing his eyes, 'why was that ritual so much different than mine? I use Divine magic while building the Dungeon.'

'The Divine magic you have used has been provided directly through the system because of your advanced integration,' Trebor replied, 'whereas the Divine magic that Huron used was routed through the deity Vi'Radia. What you felt was the presence of that deity as Huron invoked their blessing on the site he had prepared.'

"Bob," Bailli's voice pulled him from his inner dialogue with Trebor.

Bob opened his eyes to find Bailli looking at him excitedly. "Wasn't that amazing?" She grinned happily, "I've seen Erick cast a few rituals, but they weren't invocation," she shook her head, still smiling, "that was something else, right? I could feel Vi'Radia smiling down on us."

"A powerful feeling," Huron agreed as he started arranging the metal pieces into the shape of a circular Gateway, checking to make sure they locked together properly. "I was ten years old when a Priestess of Vi'Radia came to bless my father's new workshop," Huron sighed as his hands paused for a moment and his eyes looked off to the mountains. "Feeling the presence of Vi'Radia was what began my path to becoming a Priest." His eyes dropped back down to his work, and Bob could see a slight grin on his face. "That and she was very pretty," he murmured.

"What was that?" Mike asked as he led a group of sweating marines up to the edge of the new slab of Marble.

"That," Bob replied, "was the High Priest Huron invoking the blessing of Vi'Radia on the place where the new temple is going to be placed." He waved a hand towards Huron, "I don't really know him, but he volunteered the services of his entire Church to help the people of Earth with no hesitation."

Huron turned to greet Mike with a smile, "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance," he said in perfect English as he extended a hand towards him, "As Bob said, I'm Huron, High Priest of Vi'Radia here in Greenwold."

"Sergeant Mike Hanson, United States Marine Corps, retired," Mike replied, pulling the proffered hand down for a shake. "These are Corporal Waters and Lance Corporals Alvarez, Freeman, and O'Neal."

"I'm not sure those titles translated very well," Huron nodded to each man, "regardless, may the Light of Vi'Radia illuminate your paths," Huron intoned, gesturing towards the group.

"Thanks?" Mike replied questioningly.

"You're welcome; if any of you require healing or aid, the Temple and its clergy will provide whatever aid we can," Huron turned back to his Gateway.

"So how about we get down to killing monsters?" Mike asked Bob, smiling along with the rest of his marines.

Bob contorted his face, uncertain as to if a wince or a grimace would be appropriate. He'd heard plenty of gunfire growing up in Watts, but it hadn't ever been this close. His ears were ringing, and the smell of cordite was thick in the air, which wasn't pleasant.

At least not to him; the marines appeared to love it. They were laughing and joking with each other as they waited for more Doarrel's to spawn.

Bob had to admit that they were impressive. Each marine was dropping a Doarrel with a single shot. Steve had taken a few too many steps to the right to check out one of the columns and had pulled from a third pool, but he'd simply raised his rifle and shot the monster in the chest, pivoting to allow the monster's corpse to fall just beyond where he'd stood, its leap completing after its death.

They'd been at it for eight hours, and it didn't seem like they minded at all.

"Alright," Bob yelled, "let's move back to the Gateway."

Eric moved first, moving to each man and grabbing the now mostly empty bags containing full magazines, as well as the now mostly full bags containing empty magazines. Once he'd moved back to the entrance, he dropped off the bags and moved forward again, joining each member of the team as they pulled back from the spawn points.

Bob could clearly see the practiced teamwork as they carefully moved back to the entrance. There was a world of difference, he realized, between Adventurers, even good ones, and marines.

Gesturing for them to follow, Bob moved back up the stairs to the tavern, sitting down at a table and pulling out his canteen as the marines took their seats as well.

"I think that went well," Mike frowned, "although you were right, Bob, we're going to have a supply problem," he nudged the bag full of empty magazines at his foot.

"Hell, that was fun, easy even," Juan added.

"I particularly enjoyed your DI routine Bob," Steve grinned, "you'd have been right at home at boot."

Bob flushed. He'd gone through his normal routine for freshers, laying out the rules, expounding the danger they faced.

It had taken almost an hour before Mike broke down laughing, which seemed to be the permission the rest of the group needed to join in.

"Always Be Killing?" Eric chuckled, "you were channeling Chesty right there."

Mike patted Bob's hand. "I bet you're a hit with the kids," he laughed, "few weeks listening to you while they kill monsters," he shook his head.

"Adventurers are not allowed to die without permission," O'Neal had tears in his eyes, "fucking classic!"

They might have kept going had Jack not arrived at the table with a cooler full of beer.

"Any of you fine gentleman care for a beer?" he directed his smile around the table.

A loud chorus of assent marked a scramble for cans.

"So," Jack said as he pulled back the tab, a light mist escaping the can, "how did they do?"

Bob shook his head slowly. "I don't know," he replied, "They just killed everything, one shot, one kill."

"Oorah!" The marines roared out in unison before draining their cans dry and crushing them on the table.

"We came up a little light on mana crystals, though," Bob said thoughtfully.

'That would be because, at level zero, the maximum range for your matrix to interact with a monster's is five feet,' Trebor answered his unspoken question, 'this will increase as their Coordination and Strength increase, and of course, the Ranged School and a Ranged Weapon Skill would increase it as well.'

Bob shook his head. "Apparently, the maximum distance from your body that your matrix can extend, at level zero, is five feet, which means any monsters killed beyond that range didn't have the potential to coalesce mana crystals."

"That's some bullshit," Steve grumbled as he pulled another beer out of the cooler.

"To be honest," Bob began, "you'll all be better off taking the Path of the Endless Swarm anyway. It's the safest and most effective way of gathering crystals, which is what we need."

He waved a hand to forestall their objections. "I'm going to want you in that Dungeon eight hours a day, every day, for the next year and a half," Bob continued, "now I admit that I don't know anything about the military, but is there enough ammunition available for two thousand marines to fire their rifles once every three seconds for that long? What about two hundred thousand marines?"

Mike shook his head slowly. "Bob, we're rifleman. First and foremost, clerks to cooks, marines are riflemen first, everything else second. Now magic is awesome, and I've known more than a few marines who are going to absolutely geek out over this, but there has to be some kind of mojo that we can use, right?"

Bob sighed. He'd been working on a few ideas with Trebor.

System Help, Path of the Archer The Path of the Archer is obtained by having the following skills; Range School, Ranged Weapon, Dodge, Magical School of Summoning, Summon Weapon. The Path of the Archer increases the ranged attack value by one percent per level of the user. Upon reaching the first threshold and every threshold thereafter, the user may choose one of the following skills; Barraged Shot, Vicious Shot, Pinning Shot, Piercing Shot, Dodge Area of Effect. Upon reaching the first threshold, the user gains the Effect over Time skill. Upon reaching the third threshold, the user gains the Persistent Effect skill. Upon reaching the fifth threshold, when the user summons ammunition for their ranged weapon using persistent effect, it will reappear in the user's ammunition holder after the user's tier in seconds have passed.

In Bob's mind, it wasn't a great path. It could be if he had access to Ranged Affinity Crystals.

There were other paths for dealing ranged damage with weapons that were better, but they didn't have anything to create ammunition.

The bottleneck to his 'Save the World' plan, beyond it not being a real plan, and mostly a few loosely associated ideas, was the need for a ridiculous number of mana crystals. Spending mana crystals to summon ammunition so the marines could kill monsters to get crystals seemed like a poor use of them.

On the other hand, if he gave the marines a path that allowed them to keep using their guns, he wouldn't need to do anything. They didn't need any training, just stick a healer with them in case things went sideways, and turn them loose.

Bob sighed.

"I have something, that while not great, should work," he said as he pulled out his laptop and opened the doc he'd saved with the path written out.

The chamber was dark, lit only by a faint blue-green glow that emanated from a series of crystals attached to the wall that wrapped around in a massive circle. The crystals were placed far enough apart to ensure that they provided just enough light to avoid running into other people and furniture, but not enough to really see by.

A series of tables were wrapped around the room in a half-circle, with another half-ring nestled in the first and another inside of that. In front of them was a podium.

The inner ring was full, as was the middle, with the outer ring only holding a quarter of its capacity.

A dark figure in armor in shades of black and dark grey stood behind the podium.

"I call to order the Endless Council," Eddi proclaimed from the Podium, his voice ringing out across the chamber.

"We've seen an increase in our numbers," Eddi nodded to the back row, "as more and more people have fled to Holmstead, seeking a life free of the tyranny of the Noble Houses in Harbordeep."

"And I congratulate those who have reached the tier cap," he gestured towards the front row, "without your tireless work, the Endless would be a poor shadow of what we are today." He braced his arms on the Podium. "But, our task is hardly begun! Every day more and more souls come, desperate for a chance at a better life," he shook his head, "a chance we've all received, all thanks to the Reef!"

"As some of you know, the Reef came to this world from another," Eddi began, "you've all seen how he stood against the wave, risking his life selflessly for people he didn't know, in a place that was not his home!"

A low cheer rose from the gathered summoners, which Eddi waved down. "He then discovered the secret of the Affinity Crystals, and rather than hoard this knowledge; he gave it away, freely! He instructed me, when I was nothing, on the glories of the Path of the Endless Swarm!"

"And when he needed help to save the people of his world from a terrible monster tide, we stood as one to repay the man who showed us the way," Eddi shouted, "even now, he's built a Dungeon for his people, but they are more numerous than the stars, and he is only one man."

"I say that we've not done enough, not by half, to help!" Eddi gestured, and Rexxy appeared next to him. "Will history look back and dismiss the efforts of the Endless as desultory and half-hearted? Will we be cast in the same light as the Noble houses, unwilling to aid our friends? Or will we take what we've been given and delve hard and deeper, ensuring that the Endless are written as the force that saved an entire world?"

The crowd stood up as one and roared their approval, many of the summoning their own monsters, who joined Rexxy in roaring their approval.

"I propose that we devote eight of ten mana crystals and every Summoning Affinity Crystal we can find towards Bob's efforts!" Eddi bellowed, his voice barely carrying over the din. "Spread the word that Endless stand with the Reef!"

He leaned back and watched as the crowd devolved into a celebration of sorts. Someone had gotten clever and spatially expanded several kegs of ale, allowing a dozen kegs to serve nearly two hundred people.

"A very nice speech," Wayna whispered as she appeared beside him. Eddi had given up trying to figure out what animal she was using to infiltrate the Tower of the Endless, not that he minded having her here, quite the opposite.

"A nice distraction," Eddi corrected quietly with a sigh. "There are twenty-six of us sitting at the level cap now," he whispered to her, "and we can't advance with an upgrade to the path."

"Ask Bob," Wayna suggested, "he'll have something for you, or he'll figure something out."

"Thidwell suggested I go to him bearing gifts," Eddi replied, his tone unsure, "and I will, but I don't think Bob would hold out on us, regardless of what we had to offer him."

"He wouldn't," Wayna assured him. "He had no reason to help us in Harbordeep, but he did. He had a lot of good reasons to keep the secret of the Affinity Crystals and the new paths to himself, even with Thidwell covering for him, but he didn't. He's a good man."

"I'll go see him tomorrow, assuming he's still on Thayland," Eddi muttered, "I bet he could use a few people who can cast the Portal spell too, and we've got a couple of Endless that would leap at a chance to take a break from delving."

Wayna took his hand and raised it to her lips, kissing the back of it. "It'll all work out," she squeezed his hand, "just have faith in Bob."