Chapter Sixty-five. Snow day.

Chapter Sixty-five. Snow day.

Bob stood up from the floor of the ritual room.

He'd regained his tenth level and with it Divine School of Elemental Air.

For his bonus Divine Spell, Bob had selected Elemental Fire: Fire Aura, and for his bonus Arcane Spell, he'd selected Abjuration: Eldritch Shield.This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

Finally, for his Threshold Bonus, he'd decided to apply the five level bonus to all spells in a school to Dimension.

He had a feeling that increasing the Arcane schools that the Path required him to have an Affinity for would be the smart play.

He'd considered stuffing Monroe full of Mana Crystals and increasing his level, but Bob was holding out for level sixteen.

Once Bob was able to pile up a few thousand crystals from the sixteenth floor of the Dungeon, he'd be able to have Gary and Nikki enchant a suit of armor for Monroe, which he'd be using for quite a while as Monroe would be stuck at sixteen until Bob tiered up to six.

Bob rolled his shoulders, feeling his armor fully engage.

'Status,' Bob thought firmly.

Name Bob Level 10 Tier 5 Size 5 Armor Hardness 60 Weapon hardness 50 Str 35 Armor Style 1.04 Weapon type 2 Cord 35 Dodge 63 Spell casting 2 End 35 Int 80 Wis 65 Beauty 15 Health 395 Mana 92.5 Armor 126.6 Mana Regen 14.5 Spell casting w/Familiar 296.4 Damage 270 Spell Casting 285 Arcane Familiar Bonus 1.04

He smiled as he looked over his status.

"Time for another bug hunt," Bob muttered as he strode out of the room.

~ ~ ~ ~

Bob was all but certain that Thidwell was evil.

The thirteenth floor of the Dungeon consisted of irregularly shaped tunnels that spread out from Gateway, in what Bob assumed was an intentional attempt at irony, in a spider web pattern.

The tunnels themselves were draped with webs, and huge spiders skittered about them, chittering hungrily.

Considering it was completely dark in the tunnels that might have been bad enough.

But no, Thidwell was evil.

Or maybe he was just an equal opportunity employer because there were also trapdoor spiders and spiders that roamed outside of the webs to hunt for prey.

Regardless, there was a veritable cornucopia of spiders, all of whom wanted nothing more than to devour Bob, or assuming he was closer, Jake.

Monroe wasn't happy with the situation either, as he viewed spiders as his natural prey, and seeing spiders the size of a Mini Cooper hadn't instilled Monroe with joy.

Bob had cast three persistent effects, a Fire Aura on Jake, a Flight spell on himself, and an Eldritch Shield on Monroe, just in case.

He had fed a mana crystal into his Light Orb, and was a mere twenty feet down one of the tunnels, watching his UtahRaptor tear apart spiders.

Although they were quite terrifying, Jake was wrecking them.

For Bob's part, he was collecting the cable thick strands of spider silk.

It had turned out that his UtahRaptor's new ability, disruptive strike, was excellent for snipping the strands without having them stick to him.

Bob didn't care if they stuck to him, as he could just take a coiled up strand and store it in his inventory.

Collecting the silk gave Bob something to do, and kept him from having to spend too much time staring at the spiders.

Long-legged hunters, with equally long and thin cephalothorax and abdomens, web weavers with bulbous, even huge abdomen and highly arched legs, and finally the trap door spiders, which were more evenly proportioned.

Bob shuddered as he continued winding up a strand of silk.

He hadn't been bothered by the occasional spider in his apartment, but this was...

Unpleasant.

He paused to watch what looked like a tarantula if there was a tarantula that was eight-foot-long and five-foot-tall, leap out of a burrow and attempt to drive its glistening fangs into Jake.

Bob was pretty sure that tarantulae weren't supposed to have four fangs.

His decision to persistent effect a Fire Aura on the UtahRaptor had been a solid one.

There were at least three types of spiders that shot webbing at Jake in an attempt to ensnare him.

Said webbing was rather flammable and apparently the System registered the attack as not being environmental...

"Trebor," Bob said, "am I right in my assumption that the silk is being burned off him because it's an attack, rather than an environmental effect?"

'You are,' Trebor replied pleasantly.

Bob considered that idea for a moment as he kept wrapping a coil of silk.

"Will a fire aura ignite a pocket of methane gas like the ones on level eight, and presumably level fifteen?" Bob asked.

'Yes,' Trebor said, 'those effects are actual attacks, and aren't considered environmental features,' he continued, 'although should you encounter such a thing outside of the Dungeon, there is a chance that they may be considered environmental.'

Bob grimaced, "I think I'll just not chance that," he muttered.

He heard chittering to his left and looked over to find a huntsman spider barrelling towards him, only to be intercepted a split second later by his UtahRaptor who bowled the spider over and started to rake its abdomen with his terrible scythe-like claws.

"I hate this level," Bob said quietly.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob walked into the tavern the following morning and spotted Bailli sitting alone at a table.

Monroe's tail swished as he eyed the snow-covered ground.

The Gateway opened up into a gorge, where snow covered the ground and dusted the evergreens that lined the floor and clung to the steep walls.

At the far end was a frozen waterfall, a trickle of water still streaming down the center into a series of steaming pools.

Bob slid Monroe from the Makres, and the big Maine-coon sprung from his arms into the snow.

The snow was two feet deep, so it was deep enough to completely engulf Monroe.

Monroe started bounding through the snow, his poofy tail the only sign of him as he dashed about.

Bob started making his way towards what he was assuming were hot springs, a grin spreading across his face as he watched Monroe leaping through the snow.

"Alright Thidwell," he muttered as he stomped through the snow, "you might not be completely evil."

Bob reached the steaming pools of water and confirmed that they were indeed hot springs, although they more accurately might be called hot tubs, given the seats that were carved into them.

Bob stored his cloak, armor, and clothes before stepping down into the water, his skin pebbled from the cool breeze that danced down the gorge.

He let out a contented sigh as he sat down on the stone shelf under the water, feeling the heat seep into him.

Bob leaned back and was about to close his eyes when his face was suddenly covered by a spray of snow as Monroe bounded out of a snowbank and skidded to a halt just beside Bob's head.

Bob sputtered and dipped his head underwater to get rid of the snow which was rapidly turning to slush.

Monroe stared at the steaming water for a moment before dismissing it.

Having located his human-servant, the big cat bounded back into the snow.

Bob smiled and leaned back again, letting the warmth soak through to his bones.

"Maybe only a little evil," he muttered as he closed his eyes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob spent two hours intermittently napping and admiring the flora and fauna.

There were a number of different evergreens that varied in color subtly, some of them with bright red or in one case violet berries.

He'd seen half a dozen different birds, including one with brilliant sapphire feathers, as well as a few deer, rabbits, and what may have been a mink or a marten.

It was definitely gorgeous, and Monroe had spent almost an hour playing in the snow before he settled down near the pool, tuckered out from his playtime.

Bob stepped out of the water and gasped as the breeze started to cool him off.

"I'll bring a towel next time," he muttered as he equipped his clothing then armor from his inventory.

Bob picked up Monroe and slid him into place on the Makres with a series of clicks.

Equipping his cloak, Bob portaled back to the Gateway and braced himself as he delved down to the fifteenth floor.

~ ~ ~ ~

Bob grimaced as he stepped out of the gateway. Stagnant, brackish water formed small pools and rivulets trickled between them as spruce and tamarack trees stood tall amongst sedge, horsetail, and birch.

The temperature was tepid, although the humidity was high and a light mist of rain was falling.

He could smell the rich scent of decomposing biomass, and a few hints of the methane gas Thidwell had promised.

With a sigh, Bob placed his persistent effect spells, a Flight spell for himself, and an Eldritch Shield for both himself and Monroe. He would have liked to have used his Fire Aura if only to level up the Elemental Fire School, but he wasn't sure how much damage an exploding methane cloud would do.

He pushed his mana into the pattern for his Summon Mana-Infused Creature spell, and his UtahRaptor appeared, ready for combat.

Bob took half a dozen steps into the marsh before he stopped, Jake at his side, and Monroe on his shoulders.

Bob cocked his head, trying to listen for... something.

The soft patter of tiny droplets falling on the leaves and ground was all he heard.

Bob mentally commanded Jake to make a series of ever-expanding circles around him until he was attacked, and then to defend himself.

Jake was fifteen feet away and passing by a pool when a massive form lunged up out of the pool. Bob's jaw dropped.

The snake had to be three feet in diameter if it was an inch.

The UtahRaptor dodged away from the strike adroitly, but the snake seemed equally quick as it immediately tried to wrap around Jake, who was clearly having none of that, as with a quick swivel and a stomp, he had the snakes head pinned to the ground with a clawed foot just behind its head.

The snake writhed and struggled, but Jake put a quick end to it with a single vicious bite just behind the head.

Jake dragged the body over to Bob and then went hunting again.

Bob eyed the snake.

It was a good thirty feet long.

Bob considered the fact that while there were snakes that long back on earth, none of them were this grotesquely thick.

Bob jerked his head up as he heard Jakes warbling battle cry, and found the UtahRaptor rampaging through a group of four mantis-like insects, each a bit over four feet in height, but barely five in length, and clearly possessed of none of the imposing bulk that the water serpent showed.

Jake made quick work of them before bringing them back.

"At least it isn't dark," Bob muttered as another massive snake lunged towards his UtahRaptor.