Monroe

Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Nine. Explanations and tasty treats.

"I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of keeping your Mana Sight spell at its maximum level," a male voice instructed.

Huron had guided Bob deeper into the Church, and they were nearing a set of double doors.

"While Shadowmancy lacks both effective combat or utility spells, as a ritualist, it is of equal importance to your primary school, be that Animancy, Invocation, or one of the four Elemental schools."

Bob heard another voice, this one indistinct as they arrived at the doors.

"The Divine School of Plant is certainly viable, and I would happily make the argument that it stands as one of the pillars of our society. Without ritualists focused on the Plant School, we would have a great deal of trouble feeding ourselves."

Huron opened the doors, revealing an auditorium. Voren was standing at the lectern, addressing a group of twenty teenagers, a ritual diagram chalked onto the blackboard behind him. His eyes flicked over to the door, but he continued.

"The Gods have granted us the miracle of magic, but the spells and skills granted by the system are only the beginning of what is possible," he continued. "Your first rituals have no doubt been simple affairs, with a single purpose. This is not to say that they aren't important, but as you begin to understand how the rituals work, you'll discover that even the simplest ritual has the potential to be so much more." He smiled at his class. "But, I believe I have a pair of visitors who require my attention for a moment. Please practice sketching your ritual circles."

The students turned to look toward the door as Voren left the lectern and ascended the stairs to meet them, and Bob was able to hear one of them quietly exclaim, "He Who Walks Before!"

With a grimace, he stepped back out of the doorway, where he was joined by first Huron, then Voren, who closed the door behind himself.

"Huron," Voren bowed slightly before turning to Bob, who received a nod, "Bob. What brings you to the Church this morning?"

"I wanted to ensure that both of you were aware of the role the other was taking," Huron said amiably. "I've advised Bob that you'll be stepping in as the High Priest of the Church when I reincarnate, as well as apprising him of the influence he will have in the Church as an object of veneration."

Voren nodded, offering Bob a smile. "I don't think Bob and I share any animosity, and with the Church itself can only welcome a man who has worked so hard to improve the lives of everyone on not just one but two worlds," Voren offered his hand to Bob, who shook it carefully.

"I've never had anything but respect for you," Bob said cautiously. "You dedicated yourself to watching over the Dungeon here, looking out for everyone."

"Excellent," Huron said with a broad grin.

"Will you be staying in Greenwold?" Voren asked. "I know you went away for quite a while after the arrival of the zealots from Parceus."

"I'll probably be back forth," Bob replied.

"Well, you shouldn't have to worry about anymore unpleasantness," Voren said firmly. "Parceus has troubles enough of their own, they won't be looking to borrow more."

"I've heard that a couple of times, but I haven't actually had it explained. What happened?" Bob asked.

Voren and Huron exchanged a look. Huron nodded slowly, and Voren cleared his throat. "Well," Voren began, "as you may be aware, Vi'Radia, Mor'Noctum, and Logos are different from the other gods."

Bob nodded.

"Save for those three, each of the gods may appoint one person as their emissary, the conduit for their power and will. It's voluntary, and not an easy path, requiring adherence to the god's faith, as well as accepting a series of divine blessings, the last of which facilities a direct conversation between the aspirant and the god themselves. Should the aspirant be judged worthy, they take on the mantle of High Priest or Priestess."

"What's the upshot of being a High Priest?" Bob asked. "Not to disparage anyone's faith. I'm sure it's an honor, but I feel like there's more to it."

"As a High Priest or Priestess, you host a spark of the divinity possessed by your god," Huron explained. "This increases the potency of both your divine blessings, and the spells you cast that fall under the authority of your god."

"Korldon Astraides had succeeded in becoming the High Priest of not one, but all seven gods of light. As such, he held an incredible amount of power as the divine sparks within him fed into his magics. While he did not have any breadth of spells, those few he had were deep, containing oceans of power. I only have the words of his underlings, but apparently he came to power two millennia ago, and has since established the seven gods of light as the only Church on Parceus, going so far as to discourage the worship of Vi'Radia," Voren shook his head. "When Parceus noted the increased activity of the mana around Thayland, he came to investigate, confident that at tier eleven, he only needed a few underlings to that he planned to appoint as the new theocratic leaders before returning to Parceus."

"He made a terrible mistake," Huron took over the story. "He was unaware, as were we all, that the King of Greenwold had entered into a pact with former High Priests of the seven gods of light, granting them primacy over their own affairs on Greenwold in perpetuity, under the sole restriction that they never sought authority over his lands or people."

Huron shook his head. "I was present when the High Priest ordered Kellan to turn over everyone from Earth into his custody, claiming them as his property. The King told him no three times, and when he demanded a fourth, the King declared the compact broken. His entire hoard disappeared, millions of mana crystals, as the King paid the price to sever the connection to the seven gods of light, ripping away their divine blessings from any within Greenwold who had them. At the time, I didn't understand the magnitude of it. The King used a ritual to bind the former High Priest's ability to express his mana externally, preventing him from ever casting a spell on another again. That would have been the end of it, had the former High Priest not attempted to attack the King again."

"Idiot," Bob muttered, shaking his head.

"The King killed him, but he did something else as well, something more," Huron continued. "Somehow, he destroyed the divine sparks invested in Astraides, preventing them from returning to the seven gods of light. I don't think anything like that has ever happened before, and the repercussions have no doubt been felt on Parceus. As the High Priest, Astraides bestowed all of the Divine Blessings for the Church, and those will have been stripped, much as they were here. Worse, for them, they will only be able to obtain basic blessings until such a time as the gods regain the divine power they lost."

"If," Voren interjected. "if, they regain the power they lost."

Huron nodded. "True, we don't know if they'll regain it at all. Regardless, the Church on Parceus is rudderless, and even if they do recover, the seven gods of light aren't going to risk sending anyone to Thayland again. They lost two millennia's worth of power."

"That's reassuring, mostly," Bob said. "How did the King do it? All due respect, he's not tier eleven."

"He is a High Priest of Vi'Radia," Huron replied.

"So are you," Bob said.

"Yes, but I'm not several millennia old, and my Divine Blessings were spread across eight gods, as was necessary to lead the Church at that time," Huron explained. "His Majesty has, to my knowledge, only ever revered Vi'Radia."

"Okay, well, it sounds like Parceus isn't a problem for a while, which is nice, and reinforces my immediate decision when I met his Majesty to never offend the Dragon," Bob shook his head. "Seriously, who looks at the thousands of years old Dragon and says, 'I can take him'?"

"Not me," Voren muttered.

"Well, fuck me sideways, what brings you back to my little slice of heaven?"

Bob had been surprised to see the familiar food truck parked outside of the Adventurer's Guild, and remembering the delicious taco's he'd enjoyed the last time he'd seen it, had made his way over and waited in line.

"The tacos," Bob replied honestly.

Renee laughed and wiped her brow with the back of her hand. "That's fair," she grinned. "What will you have?"

"A dozen tacos for me, and twenty-four for the kitty, hold everything but the fish," Bob said.

"I remember," Renee assured him. "It'll take a hot minute, go ahead and grab a seat out back and I'll bring them out."

Bob walked around to the back, where he found the same cheap chairs and tables. Knowing that he'd likely break them, he pulled out tier eight sized furniture and sat down before pouring Monroe out of his inventory and onto the table.

He tapped his armband, the screen rising from his forearm. The armband was secured with a pair of simple straps, so adjusting it to fit is new tier form hadn't been difficult, and the device itself could project a screen large enough for other regular sized people to see, so he was still able to use it himself, which was more than he could say for his kindle. The resolution of his finger tips had made trying to use it for anything but swiping to change pages an exercise in frustration.

Bob didn't know what was happening back on Earth, but one thing he was certain of was that the people who tiered up were not the sort of people who were going to give up their electronics. Tier six and seven sized tablets, phones, keyboards and mice would be available, and if there wasn't anything quite big enough for tier eight, he'd make do.

Renee arrived while he was writing up a list of the things he wanted to purchase back on Earth. She took the appearance of a tier eight sized table in stride, depositing a huge mixing bowl in front of Monroe, filled over the top with steaming fish, then two plates of tacos in front of Bob, before pulling up a chair from another table.

"So you got big," she smiled.

"Tier eight," Bob replied as he crunched into a taco. Sadly, due to his size, they were now two bites instead of four, but they tasted amazing, even more so than the last time he'd had them. As he swallowed the second bite, a System window appeared.

You have been affected by 'Renee's Wednesday Special'

Endurance Attribute increased by 5 for the next 5 hours.

"Damn, not just tasty, but a nice buff as well," he said.

"You did tell me that if I didn't level up and improve my cooking, that someone else would come along and steal my customers," Renee replied.

"Now I'm torn, on the one hand, I'm hungry and those tacos are delicious, on the other hand, if I keep put them in stasis, I have fifty-five hours of endurance enhancement at the ready," Bob looked at the tacos thoughtfully.

"Chow down, you can, and should, pick up some more tomorrow," Renee encouraged him.

Bob bit into another taco. He was hungry.

"So, I was wondering if there was any chance you were popping back over to Earth any time soon?" Renee asked.

"At some point, but not immediately," Bob replied, finishing the taco and receiving the same notification, noting that the duration had been extended to ten hours. "Why?"

"Well," Renee sighed as she leaned back in her chair to look up at him, "getting back to Earth isn't easy. You've got have a tier seven dimensionalist, and those don't exactly grow on trees. There are a few of them around, but after moving everyone who wanted to go back to Earth, they've kind of disappeared. There's a regular transfer every month, but the cost is crazy, they're charging a hundred mana crystals for every square foot that goes through the portal."

Bob winced. "That is a little pricey," he agreed.

"I was hoping to catch a ride home and back without having to drop three thousand mana crystals each way," she grumbled. "I'm making money, but I'm not making that much money."

Bob nodded. Her tacos were priced at one mana crystal for two, which was triple the price they'd been before, but considering the buff, they were worth it.

"Out of curiosity, what level is your cooking skill?" Bob asked.

"It's capped at twenty-five," she replied happily. "I have cooking capped, alchemy capped, and Animancy capped."

"So you're level twenty-five then," Bob said.

"Yep, I took your advice and started going into the Dungeon that evening," Renee grinned. "I played a few MMO's when I was a kid, and I know the two most in demand roles are tanks and healers. I'm not really the tanky type, so I grabbed Animancy and Anima Blast, then went to town. I built a reputation as a solid healer, so I didn't have any trouble grinding my way up."

"I'm guessing that the buff is coming from Alchemy?" Bob asked.

"It's actually a combination of Cooking and Alchemy," Renee explained. "When I grind and mix my seasoning, I stir in an Alchemy potion. The synergy between the two lets me stretch the potion further and increases the duration of the buff."

"That's really cool," Bob said as he finished his third taco. "I have a good friend who is an alchemist, but he's never taken up cooking."

"It's pretty well known that you can do it," Renee admitted, "before the update I guess it was pretty common for Nobles to help someone level up with the skillset, but now it's a lot harder to do it now. I manage as a healer, but I'm super squishy because I don't have the points for armor or dodge or a shield. I just keep an Effect Over Time Anima Blast running on my the entire delve."

"This is the Wednesday Special," Bob looked at his next taco indecisively. "I'm guessing the other days give other buffs?"

"I can do all five attributes, as well as health regeneration," Renee said proudly. "Endurance is definitely the favorite for Adventurers though, so that's why I setup shop here on Wednesdays." She grinned. "I sell out every time."

"Do you still offer catering?" Bob asked.

"Kinda sorta," Renee replied. "I've got a set schedule now, and people expect the truck to be there, but if you supply a stasis box, I'll fill it with whatever you'd like."

Bob grinned as he grabbed the next taco. "Well, I think I'd like to place an order."