Monroe

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Two. First Recruitment.

"You're all probably wondering why I've gathered you here today," Dave's voice boomed out over the crowd.

"We're not all named Josh!" A voice called out from the crowd.

"No," Dave laughed, "but every single one of you has either played Dungeons and Dragons at our table, or you play with someone who has."

He was standing on the bed of one of the military trucks. Talima was running the grill parked next to it, and the heavenly smell of Bar-B-Que was drifting over the entire area. They'd arranged tables and chairs, setting them up so that each group had its own space.

"Now, I know everyone is hungry," Dave said, "and some of you would love a drink," he paused as the crowd roared its approval at that statement.

"But before we get started on dinner, you'll find a dice bag has been cunningly hidden in front of you, by means of being taped under the table," Dave grinned, "as it doesn't look like anyone has found them, to the Rogues amongst us, shame on you! Always check for traps!"

Amanda stepped forward and swatted at Dave's arm. "They aren't trapped; ignore Dave," she called out.

"She's right, of course," Dave smiled at her, then turned back to the crowd. "They aren't traps; they're an invitation. If you'll investigate the dice bags, you'll find that they are actually bags of holding. Take your time, scrutinize them, and I really shouldn't have to tell you this," he made a production of shaking his head and sighing, "don't put the bag of holding inside the bag of holding."

Laughter rippled through the crowd. "They won't blow up," Dave assured them, "but only the person who enchanted them can get the one you put inside back out."

"So, the meat is ready; please thank our lovely Talima for all of her hard work on that," he gestured to Talima, who received a light round of applause. "The kegs are cold and tapped, and Amanda and I will be available to discuss the bags of holding one group at a time."

Dave climbed down off the truck and was immediately accosted by the group from the closest table as they sprinted over. Well, two of them ran, one strode, and three of them lumbered. The rest of the crowd had surged towards them as well, but most paused and then shifted their attention toward dinner. Two full groups arranged themselves in a preemptive line.

The two men who had arrived first spoke in unison. "What the fuck!" "How the fuck!"

Dave raised his hands in surrender. "Woah, Woah, hold up guys, I can only answer one question at a time, no matter how similar they might be," he grinned, "and we should wait for the rest of your group to show up."

"We're always reminding them about rule one, cardio, but do they listen?" The sprinter on the left shook his head.

"We listen, but some of us possess that rare quality known as 'Dignity,'" said a man both Amanda and Dave recognized.

"Jason," Dave reached out to shake his hand, only to be pulled into a powerful hug.

"What about me?" Amanda pouted, only to giggle as Jason pulled her into the hug, making it a three-way affair.

"It is lovely to see you two again," Jason said as he released the hug and stepped back. "I'd wondered what had prompted this extended reunion, but your party favors," he nodded to dice bag in his hand, "make that rather clear."

"Do they?" Amanda asked teasingly, causing Dave to kiss her on the cheek. He knew that she'd go all sorts of lengths to hear Jason talk. Despite having moved to California over a decade prior to attending UCLA, he still spoke with a British accent.

"Bags of holding?" Jason shook his head as the rest of his group arrived, "you've clearly either coated the chairs and tables with LSD, in which case," he delivered a mock glare, "I shall be most put out with you, or against all of our preconceptions, you have somehow stumbled across real sorcery."

One of the sprinters had his arm stuffed into the bag all the way up to his shoulder. "Seems pretty fuckin' real to me, boss," he said to Jason.

"More like magic sent us an email, asking for a spot at the gaming table," Amanda grinned wickedly as she wrapped an arm through Dave's.

Jason raised an eyebrow elegantly, his expression unchanging. Dave had no idea how he did that. The rest of the group arrived and arrayed themselves in a semi-circle with Jason at the center.

"So," Dave began, "as you've no doubt discovered, the bags of holding are real. The place we purchased them from regards them as incredibly common but essential use of magic." He raised his hands again, "Hold your questions until the end, please," he continued, "In short, Magic is real. It doesn't work quite like Dungeons and Dragons, but there are enough similarities to make you wonder. Theorycrafting aside, there is another, alternate universe of magic and monsters."

He took a deep breath. "Almost two years ago, an old acquaintance from the gaming table was working at Fermilab when an accident caused a section of the accelerator to explode, pushing him through the membrane separating our worlds and leaving him stranded on another world."

"He survived and thrived, even," Dave went on, "however, the breach between worlds had begun a chain reaction, the ultimate consequence of which is that in just over a year and a half, Magic will be coming to Earth."

Both sprinters clapped their hands together eagerly, earning a slight frown from Jason.

"I was excited about that as well," Dave admitted with a smile, which he allowed to fade as he continued. "However, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and when the dark matter particles that the people from the other universe call 'Mana' energize, they will cause a veritable sea of monsters to appear."

"Monsters, as we understand them," Amanda chimed in, "are effectively those dark matter particles condensing and forming some sort of body to allow it to interact with our physical reality. They aren't sapient, or even sentient, at least not that we've seen."

"They are, however, driven to seek out and devour the nearest source of Mana, which in case you hadn't yet surmised, would be people," Dave said.

After a moment, Jason spoke. "In just under a year and a half, millions, perhaps billions, of ambulatory magical constructs will suddenly appear, carpeting the Earth in death, destruction, and general misery," he stated calmly. "Apparently, you do not believe that the might of the world's military forces will be sufficient to stand against this horde."

Dave nodded. "The dark matter particles act a bit like a fluid, and once they've condensed with sufficient quantity and density, those pools will being to cause monsters to appear. From what I understand, the number of monsters that appear around a small, rural town will number in the millions per hour," he stressed, "and the event will last for ten full days. At that point, it will take another one hundred before the largest and most powerful of them dissolve back into raw mana."

"We're going off a lot of second-hand knowledge," Amanda admitted, "but from what we've gathered, this isn't something that can be fought. The man who was blown into that other world came back over when he found out what was going to happen and started getting people together to build an Ark of sorts, a refuge on the other world where the people of Earth could wait out the storm of monsters until it was, if not safe, at least survivable, to come back."

"That doesn't sound terribly appealing," Jason said after a few moments of quiet contemplation.

"Appealing or not, it's coming," Dave said, "nothing can stop it, and all we can do is prepare and try to save as many people as we can."

"There are more than a few perks," Amanda smiled, "for example, Talima, the woman tending to the grill? She was in a hospital bed with stage four cancer last week."

The group went still. "A magical cure for cancer," Jason mused, "I assume it isn't some sort of arcane potion, with terribly rare and difficult to acquire ingredients?"

"Like Bob, the man who brought us in on this likes to say, 'One hundred seconds, and one hundred mana crystals,'" Mike replied.

"The spell is called regeneration, and it also regrows missing limbs, organs, and even teeth," Amanda nodded over to Talima. "She'd lost her teeth to directed radiation therapy, and we were all surprised when coughed out her dentures as they regrew."

"These mana crystals would be quite the resource then," Jason queried.

"They are the currency of the world," Dave agreed, "and they just so happen to coalesce from destroying monsters, which dovetails nicely with the fact that after the initial apocalypse, our world will become much like theirs, in that monsters will appear wherever mana has the opportunity to condense."

"It's not something you can stop," Amanda chimed in, "but it's something they've learned to control by building structures deep into the ground that funnel the ambient mana from an area into them, causing the monsters to appear in a single known location, where they can be culled before enough of them build up to become a threat to the area above."

"Amanda," Jason's tone was teasing, "that is an elaborate way to state that we will have to create Dungeons and keep them cleared of monsters."

"When you just come out and say it, though," Amanda grumbled.

"You're searching for recruits," one of the sprinters said, "people to go back to that world and help build out the infrastructure to hold the refugees from Earth."

"Got it in one," Dave agreed. "The apocalypse is coming. We need millions of people working together to save the people we can."

"Some people have families," Jason mused, "surely monster hunting isn't; what would you call it? A 'Family Friendly' activity?"

"Definitely not," Dave shook his head, "in fact, it was pretty traumatizing at first."

"I suppose the state of the world after this apocalypse will be such that people's objections regarding leaving their homes and their careers behind them will be rendered irrelevant?" Jason asked.

"Who needs a doctor when you have regenerate? Or a mechanic when you have a repair spell? The world is going to change on a fundamental level, and society will have to change along with it," Dave stated firmly. "Bob managed to fall into a group of combat wounded marines, and they've embraced the whole thing with remarkable enthusiasm, no doubt inspired by regaining their missing limbs."

"He came to us first, though, because he knew that we would be amongst those best able to see how events would proceed to their final conclusion," Dave smiled down at Amanda. "We're not asking anyone to leave their families behind. You'll be living roughly, but you'll also be getting a head start. Much like the games we all love so much, there are levels, attributes, spells, and skills."

"Power, real power, is held by individuals who are driven enough to work hard to gather it," Amanda said softly, then gestured, summoning Vera, her wolf.

Vera had grown quite a bit. Amanda was level nine, eagerly awaiting Bob's completion of the tenth floor. She had her beautiful, savage pupper fully leveled, and at level twenty-three, she was something to see. She and Dave both planned on having saddles made. Vera stood six feet at her shoulders, her head nearly at seven feet as she sat back on her haunches, her tongue lolling out as she looked around for a monster.

"I'm level nine, and this is my Summoned Monster, Vera, who does the fighting and bleeding for me," Amanda explained as the semi-circle contracted slightly at the sight of the massive predator.

"If she's that big, how big are the fucking monsters," one of the group muttered.

"So far, the only monster larger than her current size is the Oxcipines on the sixth floor of the Dungeon," Amanda replied. "She was a slightly undersized wolf when she was level one, but as I've increased the level of the spell and my mastery of the spell school, she's grown larger."

"An Oxcipine?" Jason wasn't able to restrain his curiosity.

"The unholy love child of an Ox, and a Porcupine, coupled with the temper of a Wolverine," Dave grumbled. "Think of an Ox, with the teeth of a carnivore, a whip-like tail, all covered in nine-inch long quills which it can launch away from its body, likely towards yours, with tremendous force."

An eager look crossed Jason's face. Dave remembered that the man had absolutely loved the details of the Monsters in Dungeons and Dragons. He suspected that fascination was part of the reason why he'd become a Dungeon Master in the first place.

"Do you have to fight monsters to level up?" The question came from a slender man who had moved ponderously, despite his lithe form.

"You level up by absorbing mana crystals, and for the first five levels, before you choose your class, you can use mana crystals from anywhere," Amanda explained, "although, after that, you have to use mana crystals from monsters that you've helped defeat."

"Although that's only recommended if you're not interested in a combat class at all," Dave added, "as your skills and masteries gain experience from fighting monsters, and if you try to fight a level five monster at level five, without having leveled up those skills, you're going to be in real trouble."

"How many people have died in the Dungeon?" The same man asked.

"None?" Dave replied, looking at Amanda.

"We have over a thousand Marines delving the Dungeon in eight-hour shifts, and our group does eight hours a day as well," Amanda offered, "and while the first few days are rough because you don't have any skills, once you have them and you've leveled them up, it becomes laughably easy."

"If you were to be hurt, and I was," Dave explained, "Bob will heal you back up. They call it shepherding, where a high-level person watches over a group of lowbies, teaching them how to delve safely and pulling their asses out of the fire if they fuck up."

"I'd think you were mad," Jason said, "were it not for the evidence in my hands and before my eyes."

"It's all real," Dave promised, "and you'll have a chance to see it for yourself tomorrow morning, as we will be taking a little trip to the other side for the day."

"For now, hold onto your questions, write them down, work together to make a list," Amanda said, "we have twenty groups to get through, and I'd like to eat at some point tonight."