Monroe

Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty-Five. Kicking it Old School.

System Notice: User has attempted to create a Dimensional Portal in a restricted area.

Checking for authorization.

'Robert Whitman,' User identification code 40816G1407N3210ISS3PM1IO unauthorized.

User has not attempted the tier ten evaluation, no sanctions applied.

Bob closed his eyes as he read the message again, counting down slowly from ten.

As he did, he felt Jessica slide her arm under his, her hand gently grasping his own.

"Alright," he said, opening his eyes again after a moment. He showed his System notification to the group. "It looks like there is a way to open portals here, I just don't qualify.

That last bit about a tier ten evaluation is news as well, but not really applicable, at least not at the moment."

"So what do we do?" Amanda asked. "We could speculate on that message for hours, and I'm sure we will, eventually, but we need a plan for these people."

Dave pulled her into a hug.

"The System wouldn't have given me the quest if I couldn't complete it," Bob began slowly.

"So there has to be another way out of this place," Mike agreed.

Bob nodded as he continued, his mind racing. "First and foremost, we need to address the issue of mana crystals. We don't have that many, but we're positively swimming in them compared to everyone on the Hurstall'kalwin."

"Can you open up an Arcane Depths?" Dave asked. "It seems a little weird, knowing that we're on a moving ship, but if you could anchor a ritual to your Retreat, it stands to reason that you could cast one here, right?"

"I can try," Bob said slowly. "But, there is definitely a Dimensional component to it, and the entrance is a portal, so I'm not certain it will work."

"I'd say give it a go," Mike added. "Yeah, we're not crystal-rich, but we can afford to try the quick and easy solution first."

Bob turned his attention to Kharvic, who was standing silently, his expression stiff.

"So," Bob began, "I'm guessing you've already caught the bit that I can't just open a portal to get your people out of here."

"I did," Kharvic replied tensely.

"Right, so, there's obviously a way out, but our immediate problem is access to crystals, both for us as well as for you. I have the ability to cast a ritual that effectively creates a Dungeon, and while I doubt it will work, it's worth trying. If it does work, you probably don't want the entrance in the cafeteria, though."

"No, if it's a place filled with monsters, we probably want it next to an infirmary," Kharvic shook his head. "What happens if it doesn't work?"

"Well," Bob sighed, "I still know the spells to build an old-fashioned Dungeon, and they don't involve portals at all."

System Notice: User has attempted to create a Dimensional Portal in a restricted area.

Checking for authorization.

'Robert Whitman,' User identification code 40816G1407N3210ISS3PM1IO unauthorized.

User has not attempted the tier ten evaluation, no sanctions applied.

"Well, that didn't work," Bob muttered.

"It was worth a try," Mike replied.

"Can we just build a Dunny on a ship?" Jessica asked. "It's not like we can just dig down through the decks, yeah? I reckon they've got bits and wires and such that are important to running the ship."

Kharvic nodded. "Yes, there are important conduits running under the decking."

"I had gotten pretty good at moving mana from one floor to another using conduits," Bob muttered. "I might be able to run them down through access shafts, or whatever you have running from deck to deck. The real problem is going to be dealing with the external mana. There's just so much of it, even though it's not particularly dense."

"The ritual you put on your Retreat," Amanda began. "It takes the mana that's going to pass through the ship and either reroutes it or deflects it, right?"

"Oh, I see where you're going," Dave grinned.

"Why not do the same thing here?" Amanda continued. "Except route the mana to places where we want the monsters to appear. Sure, we won't get the rewards for completing the Dungeon, but kill enough monsters, and the crystals do drop."

Bob winced. "Well, this ship is something like five thousand times the size of the Retreat, and it would probably take me like five years to do the same thing to it that I did over there."

"We don't need to do the whole thing, at least not to start," Dave said thoughtfully.

Amanda's eyes lit up. "Exactly," she breathed. "We just wrap it around the spaces where the crew eat, sleep, and work, and pull that energy to a nearby area that is constantly staffed to keep the monsters clear."

Dave looked at Kharvic. "I don't suppose everyone sleeps in huge cargo bays?"

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"The vast majority do, actually," Kharvic replied. "The Hurstall'kalwin was designed to be flown by a crew of five thousand, with everyone else sleeping in cryo beds that were housed in huge cargo bays at the center of the ship, where they would have the most protection. There are many other cargo bays, even larger, located closer to, or even with direct access to, the hull of the ship to allow for heavy equipment and materials to be transported more easily. Those cargo bays are either being used as housing or as gardens."

"I'd bet you could use one of those arrays to work some sort of plant magic on the gardens as well," Mike interjected. "Increase the growth rate or something."

Bob nodded. "I cast the plant growth spell often enough in my terrarium that I could probably put together something." He closed his eyes for a moment. "I'd need to add a mana crystal charging station to the circuit as a way to regulate the output," he muttered, then shook his head. "Hell, why not add them to each one? It would completely eliminate the turbulence."

He opened his eyes again and directed his gaze toward Kharvic. "Take us to one of these cargo bays." He paused. "Preferably one without any people living in it."

Bob looked around the cargo bay. It was roughly two hundred and fifty feet on each side, with the walls rising fifty feet to the ceiling.

It was filled with rows upon rows of what looked like sturdy, albeit hastily constructed, cots.

They reached from the ceiling to what was presumably the floor, albeit it was difficult to tell, as there were several inches of sludge that hid the floor from view.

When Kharvic had opened the door, they'd nearly gagged from the stench, and he'd hurriedly ushered them inside, closing the door behind them.

"We had to evacuate this room," Kharvic explained, holding a handkerchief to his face.

"I can see why," Dave said, shaking his head.

The entire group had been quick to activate their NASA-provided collars, so while the smell no longer invaded their noses, it left a rather powerful memory.

"Really missing Harv right about now," Mike grumbled. "He would have made quick work of this mess."

"Well, there isn't anyone here, yeah?" Jessica said cheerfully.

"True," Bob agreed as he inspected the wall next to the door. He knocked on it, poked it, and then experimentally prodded it a tiny lance of flame from his fingertip.

"What is this stuff?" He asked.

"An extruded granite foam cast around a carbon fiber weave," Kharvic replied.

"Come again?" Jessica shook her head. "It sounded like you just said 'extruded granite foam' and while I get those are all words I know, they don't quite line up."

Kharvic shrugged. "You grind up granite into a powder and mix it with a binding slash expansion compound. It fills the mold, leaving a solid layer on the exterior, with a complex hexagonal structure filling the inside space. Adding the carbon fiber weave grants slightly more strength but, more importantly, conduits. I don't know that much about the process, as we didn't want to live in huge stone towers, so we never used it to build with."

"That's interesting," Dave murmured. "Could be one more thing to trade with."

"Well, it's stone, and I like stone when it comes to laying down rituals," Bob said. "I don't suppose there is any chance that you have a large supply of copper wire?"

"We do," Kharvic replied. "How thick?"

"Three or four gauge, solid not twisted strands," Bob answered.

"How much do you need?"

"Three thousand?" Bob looked around the room thoughtfully. "Make it five thousand," he said decisively.

"In the meantime," he smiled as he pushed his mana into the pattern of a persistent effect Summon Mana-Infused Object spell, causing five square-tipped shovels to appear, leaning against the wall, "let's get to work."

Kharvic stood outside the door, his expression almost as sour as the stench he couldn't seem to get out of his nose.

He folded down the console next to the door and quickly sent a message. He needed someone to guide these people around the ship, but if they weren't going to be able to start evacuating immediately, he had other responsibilities he needed to see to.

They had seemed genuinely surprised that they hadn't simply been able to open a portal, and he'd seen the System window that Bob had shared.

Still, they'd immediately pivoted to address the problems at hand, and it sounded like they had the rudimentary framework of a plan.

If they could not only stop the incursions from appearing but also increase the growth rate in the gardens, that would be enough. Full bellies and safe slumber would go a long way toward easing the stress.

Not that escaping this place wasn't a priority, but rather that it would be less urgent if they weren't constantly in danger and hungry.

A pair of Lovar entered the hallway, walking toward him quickly. They were auxiliary members of the crew, people who had volunteered to help, but didn't have an applicable skillset. He didn't recognize them, which wasn't unusual.

"Captain," the taller of the two saluted. "Mishkal and Thorumm, reporting as ordered."

Kharvic returned the salute. "Wait by the door, and notify me when our guests leave. If they need to be guided to the dormitories, cafeterias, or infirmaries, do so. For any other locations, please contact me first," he instructed.

"Yes, sir!" They both saluted and took up positions beside the door.

Kharvic nodded and began to walk back toward the bridge.

Mike watched as Bob stapled the copper wire to the ceiling. They'd finished shoveling the muck from the floor, and into a series of plastic totes that Amanda had summoned, then they'd begun the task of dismantling the rows of what had turned out to be industrial shelving.

All that had taken nearly eleven hours, during which Bob had been busily laying out the diagram for his ritual spell.

Mike could recognize parts of it despite having only spent a few months as a spellcaster and an admittedly uninterested one at that. He'd seen Bob create more than one Dungeon the old-fashioned way.

"Do you think it'll work?" He asked the rest of the group, who were seated on the neatly stacked shelving as they waited.

"It should," Dave said.

"Course it will," Jessica shook her head. "It's just pulling mana from all sides rather than top. The process for distributing that mana isn't any different, and he isn't including a mana crystal charging station in this one, so it's just going to spawn monsters however quickly the mana is pulled in." She paused for a moment. "Which might be pretty quick," she admitted. "I reckon these folks are going to need to keep this place full of adventurers twenty-four seven."

Amanda nodded her agreement. "It looks like he's just about done," she observed. "Not that I'm all too eager for another Lovar meal, but I am kind of hungry."

Her statement was greeted with sympathetic nods. They'd tried snacking on protein bars, but the problem was that the NASA collars only encased them, not the items they were holding. Apparently, the stench was so bad that even in the briefest of exposures, it managed to somehow cling to the protein bars, giving them a not-so-subtle hint of refuse.

"Which reminds me," she continued, as she pulled a sack of mana crystals from her inventory, her eyes shifting to purple as she began to cast a ritual spell.

Dave, Amanda, and Mike remained silent as she cast. Mike was all too aware that Bob's gift for maintaining his focus while casting a ritual spell was an anomaly, having not only been lectured on the topic by Annisa but also witnessing a failed ritual or three himself.

He wasn't sure how to feel when Jessica completed the ritual, and what appeared to be a cow appeared in front of them.

It seemed to be fully grown, black and white, and it had udders, confirming that it was a cow, not a steer or a bull. It let out a low moo.

"Ok," Mike said slowly.

"If you deliberately introduce an animal onto the Dungeon floor before it starts spawning monsters, it has a chance to use that animal as a template for whatever monsters will appear on that floor, albeit the System likes to add horns, claws, venomous spines, etc to any of the animals that aren't exciting enough," Jessica explained. "I'm guessing that there have been some sort of tiny insects around when the monsters appear, which is why they've been getting those. I'd rather have beef, or something like it, on the menu, yeah?"

Mike considered that for a moment. They had enough food to take care of themselves for years, but the same couldn't be said for the people on the ship. The kitties especially had looked unhappy about the enforced vegetarian diet.

"Yeah," he nodded.

That was when Bob drifted down from the ceiling, giving the confused bovine an approving look.

"Good call," he nodded. "Now we just need to get all this stuff out in the hallway, and I'll fire this ritual up and see what happens."

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