Monroe-Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Three. Revelations.

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Bob looked around the table. Bailli, Harv, Elli, and Eddi represented his closest friends from Thayland. Dave, Amanda, Jessica, and Mike represented his closest friends from Earth. He'd been on the fence about including Jessica, but she was a friend, and she occupied a position of, if not authority, influence with the Australian ex-pats who had made Thayland their home.

He wove his magic, casting a control air spell to prevent sound from leaving their table, a transmutation spell, turning the wooden floor to stone, a control earth spell to prevent vibration from transmitting through the new stone, and a spatial reinforcement spell, to prevent extradimensional shenanigans.

Bailli raised her eyebrows at the display of magic while the rest exchanged glances.

He stroked Monroe, who was occupying a significant chunk of the table and took a deep breath. It was time.

"As a few of you know," he nodded to Harv and Elli, "a change is coming. I've given everyone a few hints, but it's time for me to lay my cards on the table. I refer to the System as a System because it is exactly that. An artificial intelligence that self replicates and propagates, exerting control over the energies we call dark matter." He raised his hand as Jessica opened her mouth. "Just let me get through this," he said. "We are currently on System Version two point five four eight two one. When Earth is integrated, the System is going to update, presumably to version three point zero. That means things are going to change drastically. From what I understand, everyone is going to suffer from a significant reduction in power. Fortunately, this will apply to monsters as well, although they are getting a slight bump. Further, the entire skill and spell system is being updated and reworked, as well as paths, which will invalidate some of the knowledge we've already come to rely on. The System is updating because the population of Earth has delivered a vast wealth of knowledge, which the System will use to ensure that more mana is circulated, which is the ultimate purpose of the System; to circulate mana in order to prevent the heat death of the universe."

Bob paused to take a sip of water. The group watched him intently.

"The System is going to effectively force people to specialize," he began. "You'll still receive a skill point every level, however every time you want to advance a skill or school past a threshold, it will require a skill point to unlock. That means that at tier five if you wanted to cap a spell, you'd need one point to unlock the school, then another to unlock the spell. Another to unlock the school's first, and likely only, threshold when the school reaches level five. And a skill point at levels five, ten, fifteen, and twenty to unlock the spell. That's eight points to cap a single spell. With twenty-five points at the teir five cap, you're looking at having three spells capped, with some wiggle room if they're from the same school. The reasoning behind the change is to force people to specialize. Apparently, the feats humanity accomplished on Earth when we cooperated in numbers impressed the System," he said dryly. "So," he continued, "it's going to be very important that you plan your skills and paths together to make certain you can still delve safely."

He looked around the table nervously.

Bailli smiled warmly and raised a hand. Bob nodded.

"Thank you for sharing this with us," she began. "I know past events have left you with little trust, and I appreciate your trust in me. I believe it has been clear to all of us that you have some sort of insight into mana, or the System, as you call it. For myself, I do not need to know any details about that. I would like to know more about the changes."

"What's an artificial intelligence?" Eddi asked excitedly, no longer able to contain himself now that Bob had made it clear he was willing to take questions.

"You've been using our computers, right?" Bob asked. 𝘧𝑟𝓮𝓮𝓌𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝓵.𝒸ℴ𝑚

"Yeah," Eddi nodded.

"The System is basically a computer program so vast and powerful that it can control all of the mana in not only this universe but others as well. It's so big and so complicated that it has become alive in the sense that it thinks for itself. The update is the System reprogramming itself so that it can run more efficiently," Bob explained.

Eddi sat back and frowned. Bob could almost hear the gears turning in his mind.

"What about Affinity Crystals?" Dave asked worriedly. "Will we need points to unlock the additional levels we can get from the crystals?"

"Yes," Bob replied.

"Ouch," Amanda winced, "that's gonna hurt."

Bob nodded. "I've been working on paths ever since I found out, and one of the reasons I'm pushing so hard to reach tier seven is that I just won't have the skill points necessary to do what I need to do at tier six," he explained.

"We've all gotten used to being able to heal, teleport, do damage, defend ourselves, and a dozen other tricks," Mike grumbled. "This is going to be a major pain in the ass."

Harv and Elli both grimaced. "Stars and stones, we're going to have to back off of our utility," Harv grumbled.

"That's the other thing I had to share," Bob stroked a purring Monroe, who was oblivious to the serious conversation going on around him. "It is possible to cast spells without the System."

"Come again?" Jessica asked.

"If you know the pattern for a spell, you can cast it without using the spell from the System," Bob explained. "Turn on your mana sight," he instructed. He slowly layered the threads of mana that wove together to create a control air spell. It took him less than a minute, which was an eternity compared to using a System skill, but soon he had a ball of swirling air in the palm of his hand.

"That looked awfully damned complicated," Mike muttered.

"It is," Bob replied. "I've been practicing for over a year now, and I can still only cast a few spells. It's useless for combat, but it is going to be essential for utility."

Glances were exchanged before Dave spoke up. "The big question is will you teach us how to do that?"

"I will," Bob agreed, "Although I won't have time until after I push through to tier seven."

"You mentioned that you'd been building paths," Amanda began, "I would love to know how that works."

Bob nodded and pulled a handful of pamphlets out of his satchel before passing them out around the table. "I'm hoping it goes without saying, but please, please don't spread any of this information around, at least not until I hit tier seven and reincarnate, at which point I can go into hiding."

"I want to say you're being paranoid for no reason," Mike shook his head, "but honestly, whatever hook you've got into the system, there are a lot of powerful people and agencies who would go to extreme lengths to have access to it."

"To your detriment," Dave added.

Amanda had opened her pamphlet, and her eyes widened. She looked up, and a manic grin spread across her face. "It's every munchkin's dream come true," she nudged Dave in the ribs. "Check it out!"

"So we'll be able to build our own paths," Dave mumbled, scanning the pamphlet.

"I'm guessing that most people aren't going to know exactly what restrictions and requirements you can apply," Mike said, looking up.

"I'm not entirely sure," Bob admitted. "These are the ones I've figured out, but for all I know, the System is going to provide a help file."

He took a deep breath. "There is one more thing," he began. "I know that Eddi has always wondered why I didn't take the Path of the Endless Swarm. It's because I had this available."

The Path of the Arcane Depths. The Path of the Arcane Depths is obtained by having the following skills, each School also requiring an Affinity: Magical School of Abjuration, Magical School of Conjuration, Magical School of Dimension, Magical School of Summoning, Ritual Magic, Divine School of Elemental Fire, Divine School of Elemental Earth, Divine School of Elemental Air, Divine School of Elemental Water, Divine School of Plant, and the Divine School of Animal. The Path of the Arcane Depths grants the user a one percent bonus to the required schools, for each level of the user. At each level, the user may select two additional skills, one from a Magical School from the required list, and one from a Divine School from the required list. At each tier threshold, the user may select one school from the required list, which will receive a bonus to the maximum level of each spell within that school equal to the user's tier. Upon reaching the user's final tier threshold, the user may activate the Ritual "Arcane Depths", which will create a dimensional Dungeon to which the user may open a portal from any place at the cost of their tier in mana. The location where the user enacts the ritual will determine the maximum mana density for this Dungeon. "Arcane Depths" is a Dungeon that exists in an extradimensional space, and is under the complete control of the User that creates it in terms of environment, flora, and fauna. The Dungeons Depth is equal to the user's tier + their tier again. Because the Dungeon exists in extradimensional space, it does not suffer from mana density irregularities.

"That's where you've been, isn't it?" Jessica asked. "I know you haven't been in Harbordeep or Holmstead, and nowhere else has a Dungeon deep enough for you to level in."

"It is," Bob admitted. "As you can see, the path is sort of insane in terms of its requirements. The only reason I qualified for it was because of my messed up matrix and inability to path up normally. The important takeaway from this is that after a lot of practice, I've managed to cast the Arcane Depths ritual without using the System. Which means you can as well."

"Stars and stones," Bailli murmured, shaking her head and then tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "That is what you'd call a 'Game Changer.'"

"Strewth, that's bloody brilliant," Jessica said, "between that and your inventory, you're the perfect swagman."

"Can you seed the floors with Affinity Crystals?" Eddi asked eagerly.

"Yes," Bob replied. "Which reminds me, another aspect of the System after the patch is that if you have a school and a spell capped, when you reincarnate, you can choose to have that school, or skill, as a Natural Affinity. This persists through tier ups, so if you were tier five, and you had Summoning and Summon Mana-Infused Creature capped, you could reincarnate at tier six with a Natural Affinity." He raised a hand to forestall Eddi. "Yes, Natural Affinities stack with Affinity Crystals. Moreover, you can repeat the process when you tier up again, doubling up on the Natural Affinity."

"Jesus fucking Christ," Mike swore. "At tier seven, which we know is doable, you'd have a triple Affinity. That's a level..."

"One Hundred and Thirty-Five," Bob filled in helpfully.

"That's so broken," Amanda muttered, pulling out her laptop.

"Consider that you'd need twenty-one skill points to pull that off," Bob cautioned. "Twenty-one out of forty-nine. If you go that route, whatever you've dedicated yourself to is going to be the entirety of your role in delving. This is not to say that you shouldn't do that," he shook his head, "because you absolutely should. Especially knowing how to use restrictions and requirements to increase your available skills or unlock thresholds."

"We were thinking about tiering up," Dave said, nudging Amanda, who absentmindedly leaned over to peck his cheek, her eyes not leaving her laptop as she tapped away at the keyboard. "But honestly, it might be worth it to wait and take advantage of the free Natural Affinity."

"It might," Bob conceded. "One thing to consider is that a Natural Affinity doubles the number of crystals required to both level and tier up. And it's multiplicative."

Dave winced, as did Mike a moment a later. "That's a lot of delving with two Natural Affinities," Mike said.

"Yeah, but you'll have the power to do it and do it easily," Jessica added, beaming. "I think those two have the right of it," she nodded to Dave and Amanda, "I was going to tier up in a couple of weeks, but I think I'll hold off." She paused for a moment. "Our crystals aren't going to up and disappear or anything when the update lands, right?"

"No, they won't," Bob replied.

Mike was frowning, and Bob caught his eyes. "We're pushing people pretty hard to get to level twenty-five," Mike began, "and we've dropped the Redoubt down to the thirty-seventh floor. On a side note, if you could take a look at it for us, we'd really appreciate it. It's working, mostly, but there are few points on the deeper floors where things are getting a little weird." He shook his head. "Anyway," he continued, "by the time Earth is integrated, the projections are that we'll have over ten thousand of us eyeballing tier seven."

Jaws dropped around the table, Bob's included.

Mike smiled gently. "There are nearly three million of us," he explained. "Three million people, given a chance at being whole again. At living real lives. Each branch has their own way of saying it, but I prefer ours. Semper Fidelis. Everyone is delving, and even level one crystals can be used for rituals. We've currently regenerated or reincarnated just over twenty percent of the Old Guard, or a touch over six hundred thousand of us. No one is slowing down until every single one of us has been healed. The thing is, I would hate to see any of the Old Guard fall behind the power curve because we just kept going and missed out on the tier five and tier six Natural Affinities."

Bob nodded slowly. One of the downsides to his self-enforced isolation was that he wasn't up to speed on everything that was going on. He was usually informed about the broad strokes, but he'd had no idea that the Old Guard were rushing forward as quickly as they were.

"The Endless can't stop," Eddi said, shaking his head. "At least not for another week or so."

Seeing Bob's blank look, Eddi continued. "The Tide is due. We need every level we can get. A lot of towns have grown significantly in recent months, and we're going to have a rough time defending them. Every level will help."

"The King sent the message out yesterday," Harv added. "It'll last a full day. We've got another week to prepare."