Chương 76: Chapter Seventy Five (End of Book 1)

Bob activated 'Sudden Step' as quickly as he could while forced to watch as his imminent death charged ever-closer. Him starting to feel more than a little stupid over not trying to level up 'Short-Ranged Teleportation' earlier; the static twenty-feet his trait allowed him to 'jump' obviously not being enough for every given situation. Though, luckily, it might just be enough for this one.

The goliath crustacean was just getting within striking distance when Bob's final 'step' sent him through an empty window; his boxy form landing inside the hollow ruin of what was likely once a courthouse or town-hall. One of the crab's massive pinchers did its best to follow shortly after, attempting to shove an SUV sized appendage through a space that Bob – sans 'Spatial Path' Traits – would have had difficulty fitting himself through. Alert!

- 6 Health The impact was staggering; the force imparted by the monster launching him against the far wall and causing the indestructible building to hum at a frequency that could shatter glass. Bob realizing as the vibrations ran through his body that any biological creature would likely already be dead. Pulped by an attack that had been more-or-less entirely blocked. It didn't stop there either, him swiftly teleporting further down the hall as the Kaiju-sized Crab began to hammer blows into the building's side.

Bob actually starting to feel the structure move; the massive arthropod shifting its very foundation from the ground below. He sent out a brief prayer of thanks when he encountered a stairwell, stopping his continued spamming of 'Sudden Step' as he instead began to scale it manually. Deciding as he did so to check his current Health and Mana Totals. The numbers provided not overly improving his mood.

Health: 143/258 Mana: 196/320 He grimaced as he realized exactly how much damage he'd taken while under the creature's focused aura. The Mana total he, unfortunately, had more or less been expecting; none of his abilities belonging to either the 'Dimensional' or 'Spatial' Paths being terribly cheap. That didn't mean he was happy about the number though. Him chewing through almost half his magical energy in their opening engagement not exactly setting himself up for success later on.

Though, to be fair, it was likely only Bob doing so that allowed there to be a 'later on' in the first place. He was nearing the fourth floor when the concussive blows finally ceased. Him initially feeling some slight hope that, 'marked' or not, the obviously less-than-intelligent creature had forgotten about him or otherwise grown distracted. Only for a booming voice to quickly prove him very, very wrong.

'TIDAL. SURGE.' Bob only had the barest of moments to feel concerned over the crab's expanded vocabulary, before those concerns were unfortunately validated. Him able to sense as a swimming pool sized mass of Mana surged out of the colossal creature and into the surrounding waters; waters which were then quickly sent hurtling towards his location.

The building screamed as an immense amount of liquid going who-knows-how-fast was sent roaring through its many windows; Bob staggering as the indestructible edifice was once again lifted from the lakebed. Only being protected from the full force of the initial blast due to his location in an enclosed stairwell. Unfortunately, it didn't end after the 'initial blast'; Bob taking a half-dozen more steps before the rush of water overtook him.

Only spared being immediately crushed against the wall by the architect's love of rounded corners. That didn't save him for long though, his wooden body spun up a dozen or more stories in the blink of an eye before crashing into the stairwell's ceiling. Alert! - 45 Health! He felt himself almost accordion-in on impact, the greater percentage of his boards being pressed close to splintering; each bowed to the breaking point by the pressure of the water crushing him against the ceiling.

Feeling as though he was about to collapse in on himself, Bob blindly teleported down and to the side; a rush of relief hitting him when he was almost instantly grabbed hold of by another current. This one hurling him through one final doorway before he was cast out into open water, the strength of the monster's ability launching him another forty or so feet above the building's roof before it petered out.

At which point, Bob took over; mentally spamming 'Sudden Step' as he attempted to both gain altitude and get out of the Boss Crab's line-of-sight. Hoping that if he could get himself a bit deeper into the city, the creature's size would prohibit it from continuing its pursuit. Only to find that escape in open water wasn't going to be an option.

'COLLECTING. CURRENT.' The waters surrounding him suddenly began to surge backwards towards the crab; an issue which was complicated by Bob's mind simultaneously being assaulted by a simple but massively overpowered display of mind control. The same one which had originally captured him on his arrival here what seemed like a lifetime ago; only now much more concentrated with him being its sole target. Unfortunately for the crab however, Bob was not the same creature he used to be.

A Willpower score nearing three-hundred and fifty tore through the mental illusion like tissue paper, and a mind guarded by a swiftly-leveling meditation Skill stopped him from pointlessly wasting his mana trying to teleport away. The water surrounding him for at least fifty feet on all sides being affected by the Skill, and at best him only managing to keep himself in place by doing so. Instead, he turned himself around to face his enemy, and again began to modify a spell.

This time, a touch more drastically than before.

'Shattered Space', as it was, simply couldn't damage the creature. Even if he were able to target some of the more vulnerable portions of its anatomy, a blast at the previous level still wouldn't be enough. It simply needed to be more. More than the initial spell could create. As he began to craft a far-hardier sub-dimension than the spell would normally call for, Bob remembered a debate he'd had with himself not long ago while adding additional 'halls' to the Queen Mussel's home within him.

A debate had by unknown thousands of D&D players over the course of the game's history; one which organically comes up almost immediately after the party finds either their first or second 'bag of holding'. That being: what happens when you put a sub-dimension inside another sub-dimension? Being torn through the water towards the gaping maw of his gargantuan foe wasn't the best environment for modifying spells, but Bob made do.

Him leaning heavily on the system as he 'halfway' activated the Skill before holding it in place and beginning to mess with its innards; changing mana formations as he went before finally casting another instance of the spell within the butchered remains of the first. And then, less than forty feet away from a scintillating mass of colossal crab mouthparts, he activated both of them. Before immediately beginning to teleport as quickly as he could in the other direction.

For a moment, Bob was afraid his modifications had simply failed. The crab's ability still pulling at him after both his first and his second use of 'Sudden Step' and there being neither an explosion nor an alert from the system about his Skill use. He was eventually proven wrong however, when immediately after his third 'jump', the world seemed to experience a bit of a 'hiccup'. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

A deep'Thump' echoed out from behind him before the waters grasping at his form suddenly ceased their efforts. Bob managing to clear almost forty feet in the fraction of a second his movement was unresisted. Forty feet which likely saved his life. Ding! Dimensional Path Skill Acquired: Sub-Dimensional Cascade Failure (C)'SCREEEEEE!!!'

The shrill cry suddenly filling his brain was echoed in the waters around him, Bob unsure which sound was coming from the crab, and which was coming from screaming void that had suddenly entered the world. A screaming void that was now pulling at him with strength far exceeding what the crab had managed earlier. Bob beginning to lose space during each infinitesimal pause between castings.

He pushed himself to activate the ability faster, but there was little more he could do; feeling like he was button-mashing on an old-school videogame as it was. Eventually however, he caught a break; one of the crab's massive limbs coming between him and the collapsing dimensional void and allowing him to quickly put additional space between them. A stroke of good luck which might well make up for all the bad that came before it, as shortly thereafter the Dimensional Cascade hit critical mass.

What followed didn't truly seem like an explosion, but rather as if the world itself expanded. Bob almost feeling held in place as he and the surrounding mass of water were simply moved well over three-hundred feet away; the disgorged contents of two sub-dimensions filling up their prior locations. Unfortunately, this form of transport wasn't exactly gentle on the body. Alert! -73 Health!

Bob felt his wooden form be crushed and ground to pieces as he was shoved through three-hundred feet of water that suddenly had the consistency of cured concrete. Him fearing for the stability of his own sub-dimension as his body was torn to pieces; what landed on the lakebed below better resembling a pile of scrap than a treasure chest.

Still, he took a moment to be thankful that he'd been high enough to miss crashing into a building during his flight through the city; that seeming certain to have easily cleared out what few remaining hit points he had left. Those pleasant feelings weren't allowed to linger long however, as it was soon revealed that Bob wasn't the only one to survive his most recent experiments with Dimensional magic.

'ENEMY!'

'DESTROY!' The massive form of the Boss Crab appeared from overtop the largest building in the distance; apparently having simply decided to scale the structure in its rush to reach his location. For a moment Bob felt a bit of pride and satisfaction as he looked at the obvious injuries covering the creature's body, but those emotions quickly dwindled to nothing. Because it simply wasn't enough.

The blown-away portion of its mouth and the mass of scarring across its shell being the equivalent of a busted lip and a black eye. The most powerful attack he had ever put out not even being capable of slowing the creature down, much less killing it. Especially considering he didn't have enough mana to cast another one.

As it screamed out another threat before beginning to descend, Bob found himself feeling oddly calm; the parts of him still holding firm to 'Battlefield Meditation' almost graciously accepting of his defeat. Him having truly given everything he had during the fight and his bid to escape, and not able to feel upset about coming up short against such a monstrously powerful foe.

The bits of him not clinging on to the Mediation Skill however were scrambling in a mad, anxious panic behind the scenes as they chaotically tried to come up with any potential Hail-Mary solution to get him out of this situation. His subconscious scanning every available Skill and inch of his surroundings as it desperately clung on to some hope for survival. And, as the first of the crab's massive legs touched back down upon the sand, it found one.

Long obfuscated by both the all-encompassing heat of the Golden Node and the corrosive weight of the Boss Crab's aura, there was once a third sensation he had been occupying himself with during his travels here. The potent Dimensional Path mana that had been radiating from a point further into the city. A point further into the city that he now realized he was quite close to. His attention was only truly piqued however, when he also realized that it was dimensional mana whose purpose he could actually identify.

While Bob's focus had primarily been on sub-dimensional magics, a close second – at least as far as usage went – had to be teleportation. Both his frequently activated Trait and the memorable experience of trying to warp himself through an indestructible and enchanted doorway having left their mark on him. And as it became obvious that the nearby mana signal closely resembled both of those abilities, Bob found life fill him again. Life, and the reemergence of bowel-trembling terror.

'Shit! SHIT! Move you stupid body! MOVE!' The acceptance of his death removed from him; Bob began desperately dragging himself towards the source of the mana, what seemed to be a rune-covered platform near the main road only a hundred or so feet away. Almost immediately, he realized he wasn't going to make it without teleporting at least some of the distance; his body simply too destroyed by the recent battle to get there before the crab did. Unfortunately, he only had the mana left for another three jumps.

Which wasn't enough to get him there in the first place and would also leave him empty if whatever it was required magical energy to function. Still, getting there took priority. If it required mana, he'd be dead; but no more dead than if it caught him before he could escape. He did his best to get as much out of it as possible; making himself appear a few feet off the ground during each jump so that he could fling himself forward with his tongue, his feet being largely demolished at this point.

It worked well enough that he was only forced to pull himself an additional ten or so feet afterwards to reach the platform. Only to find that he had absolutely no idea what to do next.

'CRUSH!'

'MAIM!' Bob winced at the screams echoing through his head, but felt happy they weren't invocations of any of the creature's other abilities; hoping that perhaps it was as low on mana as he was. Him currently dribbling what little he had left into the stone beneath his crumpled form; trying to identify how to operate the immense magical item. Only, once he finally did so, for the answer to leave him utterly despondent.

As his mana flowed through it, he found that the device was actually ridiculously simple; it basically being a permanently 'connected' point in space. A one-way teleportation hub attached to a twin someplace immensely distant from his own location; all that was required to activate it being to fill up its reservoir with Dimensional Path attuned mana. A massive amount of mana. Enough that he wouldn't have been able to fill a tenth of entire thing even at max capacity.

'MUTILATE!' Looking over, Bob realized that the monster was only ten or so seconds away at best; scaling the stubbier buildings giving it relatively little trouble. As he did so, he wondered about the possibility of rupturing his own sub-dimension before it ate him; the system-constructed space likely to go out with a bit more of a 'boom' than his own creations. Especially given everything that was in it. The thought lingered only a moment on his mind before he had a revelation.

His crippled form straightening itself out as he realized he still had one remaining source of mana. Quickly, Bob 'reached' inside of himself. Ethereal hands grasping onto the mana safely stored in some invisible location within his sub-dimension. Mana which he had never before tried to pull 'out'. And which quickly made it known that it had very little interest in doing so.

The energy seemed to suffer from the same issues that Buddy did, it feeling almost wrong as it was yanked out of his dimension and into this one; most of it simply disintegrating to nothing as soon as it transferred planes. But some tiny, insignificant amount stayed. Bob gently taking hold of it as the titanic crustacean charged ever closer; delicately feeding it into the arcane circle sketched out beneath him.

'KILL!' Bob held his nonexistent breath as the mana seemed to 'catch', the tiny amount he fed in at the start beginning to pull more and more from his sub-dimension directly into the artifact; the previous energy loss seeming entirely negated by the direct transferal. The process quickly sped up, the vast majority of his stored mana being sucked out of him in only a few moments and pouring into the Hub's reservoir, filling it to just around one-eighth capacity.

An amount which an ecstatic Bob realized would actually be enough, at least with him being the only intended passenger. By the time he activated the device, the monstrous crab was taking up the greater portion of the horizon; its form towering over him as it raised a massive claw in preparation of erasing him from existence. When it finally slammed that claw down however, it was only after a bright light had pierced through the abyssal darkness of an abandoned underwater city.

One which was now once again home only to monstrous crabs, blood drinking mussels, and the occasional voracious octopus.

'ENEMY!' * The first thing that hit him was the light. Bob realizing as the sun licked across his shattered form just how much he had missed its warmth while locked unknown miles beneath the earth. The second thing that hit however, was the calamitous noise. Followed by the realization that he was currently surrounded by a massive number of living creatures, all of which 'Treasure Sense' was currently listing as minor threats.

Including the two currently squatting down not three feet in front of him, both of which were staring at him with wide, disbelieving eyes. He and the pair of men simply sat there for a moment, both parties seeming uncertain of what exactly to do; at least until a nearby voice called out over the hissing and squealing of what Bob quickly realized were hundreds of low-ranked monsters. The rest of the nearby humans having their backs towards him as they faced off against a mass of insectoid opponents.

"KAL! HUGH! What the fuck are you two waiting for! We're about to get overrun out here!" All three of them turned to see a large man marching towards them. One whose eyes grew wide as they came across Bob's ruined form, and whose hand quickly raised the ichor-soaked club it was wielding when they did so; mouth already opening to call out a warning or an order to attack. Bob didn't let him. In an instant, both of the nearby men were bound up within a nearly twenty-foot long 'tongue' of organic-looking cordage.

A strength score which had previously felt insignificant in the face of impossible foes leaving them helpless within its grasp. Bob's form shaking while the large man's expression turned from shocked to horrified as the mimic reequipped a long-abandoned Skill. One he'd long since lost hope of ever being able to use.

'EYe NooO WeeSh ToOo fIght. REEquESt pEEcful NeEegOciAtions.' Unfortunately, Bob's request to parley seemed to engender the opposite reaction he was hoping for. Both the men in his grip and the one wielding a club going still as soon as he spoke; their faces quickly draining of all color as a look of sheer horror overtook them.

"Oh, holy lady of the roads…" The larger man said as he slowly lowered his weapon, shaking hands barely able to hold it up.

"It's a fucking abomination."