Monroe

Bob blinked. "No, I have not held a sword," he responded.

"And if I'm going down an Arcane path, wouldn't magic be a better choice?"

Kelli leaned back in his chair and held his hand out flat, making a wave motion.

"Not exactly, at least not now," Kelli said. "Let's say you took the Arcane School of Conjuration, and then the spell Fire Blast," he continued, "The damage of which is your Intelligence and Wisdom, halved. Now, if you've allocated your points as a spell caster, you'll have a value of thirty-five, which is to say that before defenses your Fire Blast will do thirty-five points of damage."

Kelli made a dismissing motion with his hands as he said "Now, of course, that doesn't take into account the level of the spell and the level of the school, but we're talking about a freshly pathed level five person." He took a drink from his mug before continuing, "Now on the hand, as it were, let's take a look at the same person, with the same attributes, hitting something with a sword, or a hammer or whatever have you."

"You take Strength and Coordination, halved, which will result in ten, but you then add your tier times your tier to it, which as a tier five means you are once again looking at thirty-five damage," Kelli finished.

"Why would hitting something provide a twenty-five point bonus to hitting things, but not magic?" Bob asked.

Kelli blew out a breath, then answered, "That my friend is a good question, and one with a lot of potential answers. I don't know, although I think that the answer lies in that all creatures can interact with the physical world from birth, whereas mana requires... more."

"But," Kelli continued, "the important thing to take away from this, is that for the Freshley Pathed spell caster, swinging a sword is just as good as casting a spell. Granted, it'll take you longer to advance your spells and spell schools, but you'll be able to keep moving forward, at least until level seven or so, and by then you should have been able to allocate your points into other spells, and you can focus from there."

Bob gave a slow nod. He'd never gotten into martial arts or any of those medieval reenactment groups.

"So, if I took Summon Object, I could summon a sword and fight monsters with that?" Bob asked.

Kelli shook his head rapidly as he answered, "No, no, that doesn't really work out very well, as you have to keep casting the spell while you're swinging the sword, which halves both values."

"Couldn't I Summon a monster to fight for me?" Bob asked.

Kelli hesitated then lengthened his hesitation into a long drawn out silence as he appeared to be giving that question a great deal of thought.

While Kelli was pondering, Bob threw out a quick 'Help Summon Mana Construct: Creature'

System Help, Summon Mana Construct: Creature This Skill belongs to the Magical School of Summoning. It allows the user to mentally project a pattern, and then imbue this pattern with mana to bring it into the physical realm. The effectiveness of a pattern is entirely dependant on the user's knowledge of the creature. The creature created by this skill is limited in action to the skills of the user. The attributes of the creature are determined by the pattern projected, the tier of the pattern, and the level of the spell and school.

'Ouch,' Bob winced, 'That's a big box.'

Kelli seemed to have come to a decision, as he leaned forward and adopted a serious expression. "Fighting with summoned monsters is complicated," he began, "I'm not saying it can't be done, however you have to consider the nature of summoning."

Bob leaned back as Kelli entered lecture mode again. He idly thought that while a trifle prone to tangents, Kelli would make a fine high school teacher.

"A summoned monster can't be any higher than your tier, which means five, which means it also has the base attributes of a tier five creature, but - and this is important - the level of the creature is equal to the level of your summon monster spell," Kelli said, tapping a finger on the table for emphasis.

"That means that you'll be summoning out a monster with much lower attributes and health than you have, and presumably, lower than the monsters you'll be fighting," Kelli continued, "now you can increase the level of your spell, and the summoning school, so with true dedication, you could summon a monster that is effectively higher level than you are," he finished.

Kelli took a deep breath, and went on, "It has been done. There are records of Master Summoners who did so. But you are effectively dedicating all of your time to that skill."

"How do spell schools and skills level? More crystals?" Bob asked.

Kelli gave him a confused look and then closed his eyes, squinting hard as if suddenly afflicted by a headache. "I'm sorry," he said, "I know I should be doing a better job of this, it's just that... everyone knows this. We teach it to children, and you're clearly not a child."

Kelli sighed. "If you weren't on a time limit for summoning Monroe, we would have stuck you in a room with all five years of the training books. We still might, once you've gotten him back."

"You absorb crystals to increase your potential. That is why they have to be from a monster you've interlaced your own mana with," Kelli said, "Your skills, on the other hand, are increased by practice and patience. You could, and people often do, choose to practice their skills rather than seeking out the greater danger inherent with seeking crystals to increase their own level."

"One of the reasons the Labourer path has been growing in popularity is that they have time. A Labourer can wait until they are seventy, then gain the crystals to reach level six, and then seven, and then take another two or three years to focus on their new skills. They have the time, and the money, to get those skills up to level," Kelli said.

"Adventurers tend to be a bit more driven, and most barely manage to keep their skills at level, despite that being one of the primary tenents of being an Adventurer," Kelli sighed, "although those of us with a more... esoteric, non-combat oriented path tend to have the time to focus on leveling our skills."

Bob broke in, "So, let's say, for example, I took Summon Monster, and just kept summoning it over and over again, would I increase the skill?"

Kelli gave him a half-hearted sort of shrug and answered "To your level, yes. Kind of. It would take a concentrated effort on your part, and far more time than you have available to you."

Bob nodded, then asked what was, to his mathematically oriented mind, a terribly pertinent question "Could I, for example, at level five, fight level six monsters and keep leveling my skills past the level of the monsters in question?"

Kelli nodded and said "No, although doing so not only provides crystals but is also significantly faster in regards to increasing the level of your skills. The process of fighting monsters slightly more powerful than you to increase your skills until they are up to level is well established."

Bob leaned back and closed his eyes.

He shuddered as he recalled his time in the cave, being torn apart by rats as he desperately smashed them into the hard stone. He didn't really like the idea of getting up close and personal with monsters.

He had the points, at level five, to take Summon Monster. He had the education to understand the skeletal, circulatory, musculature, and nervous systems of most mammals.

He formed a mental image of a Grizzly bear. He opened his eyes.

"Kelli, what determines the tier of a creature?" he asked.

Kelli gave him a steady look. "You're really thinking about going for Summoning aren't you?" Kelli asked.

Bob replied "Aside from the need to save my best friend from fucking starving to death, I'm not really in a hurry. And I had enough experience with melee combat in the rat cave, thank you."

Kelli nodded. "Tier one consists of insects. No real sentience there. Tier two is fish and reptiles, and while there are a few arguments for sentience here, it is rare."

"Tier three, birds. This is often regarded as the threshold for sentience," Kelli said. "Tier four is animals."

Kelli leaned forward and gestured to himself, "Tier five are humans and the other sapient races - Tier five tends to be the sapience barrier, as there is only one sapient race at tier four that I know of," he said.

"Tier six is when you start to see mana-altered creatures, like a Lava-Bear. They'll have innate skills," Kelli said, as Bob quietly pondered the implications of a 'Lava-Bear'.

Kelli grinned and went on, "Now we get to the part that is mostly legend and supposition. Tier seven are creatures who are so fully infused with mana that they have innate spell schools and abilities, like Unicorns."

Bob took a moment to digest the fact that Unicorns were real.

Kelli didn't appear to notice Bob's distraction as he continued, "Tier eight are transcendent creatures, they are, effectively, pure mana," Kelli gave a sigh that almost sounded like longing as he went on, "Tier eight are Dragons."

Bob had already suspected Dragons were real due to the tapestry in Thidwell's office.

Kelli waved his hands dismissively as he said, "Tier nine are demi-gods. And of course," he finished "Tier ten are the gods themselves."

"Gods?" Bob said, with no small amount of skepticism.

Kelli paused, and closed his eyes for a second, then opened them back up and said "I didn't really see any churches in your memories."

Bob scoffed and replied "Religion isn't something I could afford," he deadpanned.

Kelli gave him a serious look and said "The Gods here are very real, and their power is beyond our imaginations," he made a motion towards the door of the tavern and continued, "there are several Churches in Holmstead, and while you don't need to pay homage to any of them, you should not, and I can't stress them enough, you should not offend them."

Kelli had almost hissed out the last bit.

Bob closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.

They clearly took their religion seriously around here, and Bob hadn't gotten this far in life by being an asshole on purpose. There were Gods here, apparently, and probably fanatical clergy that wouldn't be appreciative of blasphemy. An idea sprang to mind.

"I don't suppose there is a God dedicated to dimensional travel?" Bob asked hopefully. He could get down on his knees and deliver a heartfelt prayer every day for the next decade if someone, God or otherwise, could pop Monroe onto his lap.

Kelli shook his head and said, "Sadly no, the closest would probably be Logos, who is dedicated to Magic and Knowledge."

Bob nodded. Of course. They probably would have tossed him into that temple right away if there was such a thing.

"So, a Tier four creature would have four in every attribute?" Bob asked, remember their conversation about Thidwell.

Kelli gave another hand wave and replied "Most animals have initial attributes heavily weighted towards strength, endurance, and coordination. Also, you'll find that there are some creatures that cross tiers, mainly due to size, we think," he gave a shrug. "This is well into the realm of esoteric knowledge, and a lot of it is just commonly accepted guesses. But humans tend to be at the bottom of the size limit for tier five. Horses and cattle, despite not being sapient, tend towards the top of the size limit."

Bob nodded, and Kelli continued, "So if you're really going to take the Summoner Path, you'll want a big animal. Like a bear," Kelli smiled.

Bob smiled, as the beginnings of an idea started to form.

"But first, I need to get Monroe," Bob said.

Kelli nodded and stood up. "We have a plan. Tomorrow, Thidwell will remove the Protection, you can advance to level five, choose a path, and I'll have a ritual room ready for you to summon Monroe."