Chapter Thirty. Purina? Never again!

Chapter Thirty. Purina? Never again!

"Fuck!" Bob's eyes flew open as he half sat up in bed, a sudden and tremendous pressure on his bladder having yanked him out of his slumber.

He looked down to find his cat sitting primly on Bob's abdomen, happily kneading his stomach. "Monroe," he grumbled as he attempted to nudge the twenty-four-pound cat off.Updated from novelbIn.(c)om

Bob reached down and scratched Monroe's ruff, which caused the big cat's purr motor to rumble to life.

"How are you doing this morning buddy?" Bob asked softly as he listened to the quiet, soothing rumble of his friends purrs.

Monroe's eyes closed to slits as kneaded Bob's stomach while enjoying the petting that was his rightful due.

Bob scratched behind Monroe's ears as he frowned slightly. "Not real sure what I'm going to feed you buddy, I can't exactly step out for a bag of purina," he muttered.

"Do they have a pet store here?" Bob wondered aloud.

He knew he could feed Monroe mice, and that was all he'd really need, but Bob didn't exactly have mice readily available.

Bob picked up Monroe and set him on the floor as he swung his legs off the bed. He'd get dressed, find something for Monroe to eat, then ambush Harv and Elli at breakfast.

Bob was profoundly grateful that he could equip his armor directly from his inventory, as Monroe had been awfully 'helpful' when Bob was trying to lace up his boots. He couldn't imagine the fun Monroe would have with the straps.

Scooping up the maine-coon and sliding him into the hood of his cloak, Bob stalked out of his room, intent on finding something for his cat to eat.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob let out a huff as he slumped into a chair in the tavern. Kevin, it turned out, while a nice enough guy, did not appreciate having Bob bring a cat into his kitchen.

Monroe demonstrated the uncanny ability all cats have of changing their state of matter from a solid to a liquid, as he poured himself off Bob's shoulder and into his lap. As he curled up, Bob received a faint impression in his mind of 'hungry-warm-content'.

Bob heard a faint gasp of indrawn breath as Bailli appeared and looked down at Monroe with wide eyes.

"And who is this beauty?" Bailli asked, focusing intently on Monroe.

Bob let out an internal sigh and picked up Monroe, depositing the liquid cat on the table. Everyone at the vet's office had similar reactions whenever he brought Monroe in for his checkups.

"This is my buddy Monroe," Bob said as he gave his cat a long, slow pet.

"He's gorgeous!" Bailli exclaimed as she reached down, then hesitated, and asked "May I?"

"Go right ahead," Bob responded as Monroe accepted the additional affection, demonstrating his benevolence towards this new human-servant by allowing her to deliver the attention that was only right and proper.

Bob smiled as Bailli cooed at Monroe, and Monroe responded by splaying on his back offering up his tummy for a rub.

"Bailli," he said with as much friendliness as he could muster, "do you think there is any chance I could pay you to bring out some meat chunks for him? I've just gotten him back, and I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to figure out the feeding situation."

"Oh sure," she said distractedly as Monroe caught her finger with his paws, claws sheathed, and proceeded to rub his cheek on her hand.

"What Elli means to say," Harv quickly interjected, "is that your summon monster spell is unnaturally powerful."

Bob nodded quickly, and said, "I had thought it was something along those lines, but am I really killing monsters that much more quickly than you and Elli did at that level?"

Both Elli and Harv grimaced as they exchanged a dark look, before Elli responded, "Back when we were on level seven, there were four of us."

Harv nodded reluctantly and said, "We killed monsters a bit quicker than you do, right around fourteen hundred an hour or so."

"We'd end up with between forty, or forty-five crystals total for an hour, which worked out to about seven crystals a day each, after expenses," Hav continued.

Elli made a grumbling sound as he said, "You're like your own damn party with that summons. What level is that monster up to now?"

"Eleven," Bob responded as he finished the last of his bacon.

Elli shook his head, and Harv smiled grimly before saying, "There you have it. You're basically running that level as a solo melee path, with infinite health, at an effective level of probably fifteen."

"I'd recommend," Elli started, "that you focus on gathering enough crystals for equipment with both professional and magical enhancements."

He pushed his plate away and leaned back in his seat, watching Monroe work his way through his bowl, and continued, "you're gathering level seven crystals, so figure a fourteen-point bonus to your attributes, seven from magical, seven from professional."

Harv nodded as he worked to finish his own breakfast and picked up the conversation, "six attributes, three resistances, three resources, plus your movement and defense, and then a casting implement, so figure fifteen items in all, a hundred mana crystals for each side, so call it three thousand level seven mana crystals for the enhancements, and probably another three hundred for the gear itself."

Bob blinked as he put down his silverware, and pushed his mostly empty plate over next to Monroe. If he did two hours a day, five days a week, it would take him a bit under five months to gather the crystals necessary for a full set of equipment.

Elli watched in fascination as Monroe finished his bowl, and turned to Bob's plate, eating a few chunks of scrambled egg that had been missed, one tiny piece of bacon, before sitting up primly and looking at Elli's plate with careful consideration.

"You'll have to set your silverware down to your left, and then move the plate over to him before Monroe will eat off it," Bob advised.

"You wouldn't believe how long it took us to come to that agreement," he added.

Elli did as instructed and watched as Monroe cleaned up the bits that he'd leftover.

Harv rolled his eyes and followed suit, leaving Monroe with a selection of plates to choose from, and the table looking as if Monroe was the only one who'd been served.

"It's a pretty big boost overall," Harv said, "you'll pick up fourteen points of casting power from the attribute increases, some more from the new casting implement. Hell, between the attributes and the mana enhancements, you'll pick up twenty-eight points of mana."

Bob nodded slowly. It did make sense.

"Do you do that at every level?" Bob asked.

Harv nodded grimly and answered, "We used to wing it a bit, half geared, and only half of that enchanted, but then we lost Calli and Mel on level eight..." he trailed off.

Elli spoke up, "We go slow, and fully geared and enchanted now," he said roughly.

The table fell silent as Bailli arrived to take away the dishes, pausing to scratch behind Monroe's ears as he split the silence with a low, comforting purr.