Monroe-Chapter Three Hundred and Nineteen. First Contact.

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"Let's see what those blessings are," Bob said as he focused on each in turn.

Blessing of Vorstach.

Grants the user the Divine Blessing of Vorstach, which mitigates eight percent of the damage dealt to the user by those who revere Baldarkurax. 𝔣𝖗𝔢𝔢𝔴𝖊𝖇𝖓𝔬𝔳𝖊𝔩.𝔠𝔬𝖒

Warning! Possessing a Blessing of Vorstach will negatively impact any interactions with those blessed by Baldarkurax.

"That bit at the end sounds a lot like the warnings the Black Cathedral gave out," Jack muttered. "Something along the lines of opposing principles."

Bane of Baldarkurax.

Marks the user as an enemy of Baldarkurax, which causes the user to deal an additional eight percent damage when battling those who revere Baldarkurax.

Warning! Possesing the Bane of Baldarkurax will result in hostile action from those blessed by Baldarkurax.

"Both of those sound like getting into the middle of something that I don't want to be in the middle of," Dave sighed.

"Stewth, they can fuck right off with that lunacy," Jessica agreed.

Lava Infusion.

The user may select an object limited to the user's mass, and apply the property 'Lava Infused' to the object.

"I wonder if I can double down my staff," Bailli murmured, looking at her Magma Infused Focusing Staff. Her eyes widened. "This is interesting," she said as she shared a System notification.

You are attempting to activate Quest Reward 'Lava Infusion,' targeting Quest Reward 'Magma Infused Focusing Staff.'

Synergy detected.

This action will alter Quest Reward 'Magma Infused Focusing Staff,' changing it to 'Volcano Infused Focusing Staff.'

Volcano Infused Focusing Staff.

This weapon is matrix bound to user Bailli. This allows the user to store the Staff in the user's matrix, where if needed it will repair itself of any damage at the rate of 1% per second, at the cost of one mana per second. Additionally, the user is immune to the heat generated by the materials used to construct the Staff.

Made of Obsidian from a Tier Eight Magma Elemental, and super-heated Granite from a Tier Eight Lava Elemental. This increases the material hardness from a base of 80 to 144.

The nature of this material adds an additional 12% of damage dealt as vicious.

The nature of this material allows the user to convert all damage dealt to fire damage.

Would you like to use Quest Reward 'Lava Infusion,' to convert Quest Reward 'Magma Infused Focusing Staff' to Quest Reward 'Volcano Infused Focusing Staff'

Yes / No

"I know I'm repeating myself," Jack said, "but that's hot."

"Puns don't get better with age or repitetion," Amanda replied. "Also, you're sort of getting into dad joke territory."

Jack gasped and clutched his chest. "How could you say something like that?"

"That's a pretty fair upgrade," Jessica interrupted the two before they could get going.

"I agree," Bailli said, and her staff flashed white for a moment. As color flooded back into it, they could see that it changed. Previously, it was obsidian with streaks of glowing magma running along it. Now it was mostly the dark grey of granite from the bottom up, intermingling with obisian from the top down, with narrow flows of magma glowing brightly at the top, spreading into wider flows of lava toward the bottom, where the glow dimmed gradually.

"The System has one hell of an Art Deparment," Dave muttered as his own staff underwent the same transformation.

Bob couldn't help but agree. He'd never been particularly interested in art, but the design of the upgraded staff could only be described as 'Epic.'

Elli upgraded his Sabre, which shifted its appearance to give the guard the appearance of a mountain, with blade fading from granite at the spine to obsidian toward the edge, which remained a fine line of magma, but now with bright streaks of magma quickly fading to dimmer lava as they reached the spine.

"I'll grab the Affinity Crystal," Jessica said with a sigh, "add it to my collection. If the System wanted to offer some healing loot, I'd be super keen," she finished, looking up at the sky accusingly.

"I'll do the same," Erick nodded.

"Well, I'm going to infuse something, I'm just not sure what," Amanda mumbled.

"I'll likely do the same," Bob agreed. "I'm wondering what happens if or when this Dungeon overflows."

"I had a similar thought," Mike said. "The update said the monsters inside the Dungeon would pop out. Now a bunch of magma or lava elementals running around isn't awesome, and will probably be detrimental to the local flora and fauna, but what if the Mad Eire or these Irth guys pop out?"

"Exactly," Bob nodded. "Are we in danger of having this Dungeon overflow, and the Irth that come out drilling down and creating a volcano? I know it's a couple hundred miles away, but I'm not comfortable with having an active volcano here."

"What's the timer on it?" Eddi asked.

Dungeon 801972G610N497ISS6PM63D.

Capacity 34%

Estimated time until overflow 173 solar cycles.

User tier seven, semi-evolved. User grouped with eleven other sapient beings, tier six.

Dungeon completed at Tier Eight, Level Thirty-Eight.

Would you like to exit the Dungeon?

Yes/No.

"Well, it's not like we don't have time," Eddi shrugged.

"We should check all the Dungeons closest to us and see if any of them are dangerous, or dangerous like this one," Wayna said. "While I don't want magma elementals knocking on our doors, I don't think the Mad Eire cares about us. I bet he'd get on with destroying the foundations of whatever city that was."

"I could do without an infestation of winter minks, but they're far enough away that I can't be stuffed," Jessica added.

"I think we can safely say that this is one of the Dungeons we should probably delve down a bit, just to keep the lid on," Jack said.

"Let's go a couple of more times, setup the cubes for the night, and spend tomorrow pushing that timer out," Elli said.

"Practice makes perfect," Bob noted as they expanded their Eire Enviromental Shelters.

The shelters looked like perfectly hewn granite. The team set them up in two rows of five with a cube between each of the lines at the ends. That gave them an forty-eight foot by sixteen foot courtyard in the middle, which is where they had the doors leading in and out. It was a perfect gathering area where they could relax and share a meal, or just wind down.

They'd run the Dungeon two more times, putting into practice the lessons they'd learned in the first. They'd decreased the time needed to clear the Dungeon drastically, from over four hours, to three. As expected, their subsequent clears hadn't offered any rewards beyond the mana crystals, not that seventy-two hundred mana crystals per clear was bad.

"True," Amanda agreed as she summoned out a wooden swing, sized for two, maneuvering it carefully next to the fire pit Bob had summoned.

"Thank you dear," Dave said as he settled onto the swing.

"Summon Mana-Infused Item is the best utility spell," Amanda said as she curled up next to Dave.

"No disagreements here," Dave replied.

Bob looked over his fire pit carefully, then nodded.

It was one foot deep and four feet across, with a three foot wall around the edge. It boasted a spit, upon which Bob had skewered a massive boar flank. The final, and recent addition, was a thick metal cage that rose from the walls straight up ten feet, before coming together as a dome. This had become necessary after a certain feline of mass consumption had decided that dinner was done enough for him, and had absconded with the spit, and several racks of ribs.

"So, we're pretty well set for the crystals we need to finish the village-that-shall-not-be-named," Jack began. "We've been talking about it, and I think we should test the waters with smaller groups, so that we aren't in for a surprise when we reincarnate. We'll have one team reincarnate, and start leveling back up, then once your ready, and that team is near the level cap, the next group can reincarnate, that way we aren't ever all sitting there at low level when disaster strikes."

Bob nodded. "Sounds like a solid plan."

"Speaking of, when are you planning to let Monroe participate in the Dungeons?" Amanda asked.

Bob grimaced. "I know he wants to, but I hate to see him get hurt."

"I'm worried about Bob losing his shit in the middle of the fight," Jack said flatly. "I saw what happened when that asshole hurt Monroe, and Bob was not there, please call again," he shook his head.

Having heard his name, their feline overlord hopped down into the courtyard, sidling up to his human servant and looking from Bob to the roasting pork with a pleading expression.

"There is a special hell for anyone who hurts a kitty cat," Bob said as he reached down to dig into Monroe's ruff, "that's my line, and anyone who crosses it deserves what they have coming to them."

"Sure, sure," Jack agreed, "but I'd like to not have you narrow your focus to that degree."

"This is actually a pretty good one to try him out in," Dave argued. "It's open, which lets him use his portal spell and his speed to get in and out of range. That's the kitty fighting style, right? Pounce in, then jump away before they can hit back."

"That's the kitty way, sure," Bob shook his head, "but the big kitty way is to latch onto the back of their neck and crush their throat while holding on and raking with their rear claws. I'm not sure which way he's going to fight."

He summoned out a massive slicker brush and started working it through Monroe's thick coat. "Poor kitty," he commiserated, "so hungry and no one will give him anything to eat." Bob shook his head, and then pulled out an entire tuna on a wooden plank, dropping it in front of Monroe, who sniffed the fish for a brief moment, before rolling onto his belly and taking a bite. Bob continued to brush the massive Maine-coon while Monroe worked on devouring his fish.

"Well, at least he's less likely to try and steal our dinner," Dave muttered.

Bob woke up to the sound of something pounding on the side of the shelter. Blearily he checked his armband, and discovered it was two thirty in the morning.

Tapping his armband, he sent one of the drones up from the courtyard, watching the video feed as it swept over the roof to overlook the side of the shelter.

He didn't know what to expect, but eight Eire banging on the side of his shelter hadn't been on the list.

He sent an alert to the rest of the group through their armbands, asking them to get up and ready for a fight.

It took all of two minutes for everyone to assemble in the courtyard, where Bob shared the video feed.

"That looks like the Mad Eire alright," Jack agreed.

"I think they look more Nordrax," Mike said, squinting at the video feed. "More excited, less insane."

"Well, we ought to go meet them," Amanda said, "if only to keep them from break the shelter."

"Let's go nice and easy," Bob suggested. "They probably have no idea who we are, so lets try to avoid startling them too badly. I'm sure they expect to find Eire in this shelter, not us."

Climbing the convenient ladder up to the roof, the group approached the edge where the Eire were banging carefully.

Bob poked his head over the edge first.

"Good morning," he offered.

The Eire who was banging on the shelter looked up, and his eyes widened. He motioned with his hand, and the rest of his group formed up behind him. "What are you, and what are you doing with one of my peoples shelters?" He asked.

"I'm a human," Bob replied carefully, "and my name is Bob. My friends, who are also humans, and I received these shelters as a quest reward from clearing a Dungeon far to the north."

"Where did you come from? This world isn't due to be seeded for another ten revolutions," the Eire demanded.

"We were traveling between universes, looking for a habitable world when we found this planet," Bob explained. "We've been here for several weeks."

"How is it that you speak our language?" The Eire asked suspiciously,

Bob shrugged and displayed a System screen, or part of it. It wasn't possible to edit a System notification, but you could truncate it.

Savior.

Upon discovering that billions of potentially efficient circulators of energy would be rendered inert, you devoted yourself entirely to leading them to shelter within the System. You were engaged at every point of the developing operation to rescue these valuable resources, recruiting other users to aid you. Your efforts have acted as an argument for the expenditure of the System's resources to preserve the lives of sapient beings during the process of integrating their universes under the System. You have directly saved the lives of eight billion sapient beings. These actions have vastly increased the value of this Achievement.

Reward: The many languages spoken by the beings you saved did not deter you. Upon request, the System will translate any spoken language you hear, and translate your words to those you choose to hear you.

The Eire's eyes widened briefly. He inclined his head slightly. "A noble achievement," he said, his voice less strident, "and an adequate explanation of how you're able to speak our language."

"My name is Ordast, and I've been sent to the surface to ascertain the status of the Dungeons that appeared here," he stated.

"We thought you might have been underground," Bob said. "We've cleared three Dungeons, and two of them have referenced the Eire, while this one," he jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward the Dungeon, "has Irth inside."

Bob wasn't prepared for palpable wave of malice that the ensuing growl contained. "Irth filth? On this world?" Orstang bared his teeth in a snarl.

Bob held up his hands slowly. "They were in the Dungeon, trying to make a volcano," he shook his head slowly. "I have no idea if that means that there are actually Irth around or not. We're still figuring out the new Dungeons."

"Apologies," Ordast offered after a moment. "The Irth are sworn to Baldarkurax, the enemy of Vorstach, whom we serve. Our enmity runs deep."

"Got that from context," Jack muttered from behind Bob.

"Do you intend harm to the Eire, or to seal this world in eternal ice?" Ordast asked, his tone formal.

"No?" Bob replied. "We're not looking to hurt anyone, we just want a place where we can live quiet, peaceful lives. Or as peaceful as you could expect, given the need to wade through oceans of blood in the Dungeons."

Ordast nodded, and gestured, his team loosening their formation. "My team accepts your peaceful intentions," he said. "Please, tell us what to expect in this Dungeon."