Bob grimaced as he exited the Gateway.

The rank and rancid smells of the swamp permeated the air, clinging to him like an oily film, filling his nose with the scent of stagnant, brackish water, and decaying vegetable matter, with just a hint of rotten meat.

It was warm, almost hot, and very, very humid.

Mere seconds had passed, and Bob was already sweating.

The light was dim, and the swamp seemed to consist of tiny pieces of soil where mangroves clung to life, only to be choked by vines. Sunken logs jutted out of the water, promising that the footing under the murky water would be treacherous at best, and most likely dangerous. Those same logs also served as camouflage, making it easy to not notice the slitted eyes of an alligator as it rested with its head barely above water.

He took a sip from his canteen.

Monroe slid into his inventory.

Bob carefully inspected the surrounding swamp while still within the safety of the Gateway area.

He could see seven alligators, and one log that he wasn't quite sure about.

He hadn't yet spotted any mosquitoes.

Bob summoned his UtahRaptor, placed his hand on Jake's back, and checked his status.

Summon: UtahRaptor(Jake) Tier: 5 Size: 5 Level: 23 Weapon Hardness: 24 Hide hardness: 16 Strength: 86 Mana: 64 Armor: 191 Coordination: 86 Stamina: 137 Claw Damage: 381 Endurance: 44 Health: 1659 Bite Damage: 355 Intelligence: 40 Movement: 148 Wisdom: 40 Dodge 174 Beauty: 44 Summoning Mastery 1.6 Caster Value / 2 67

Bob shook his head. Between the spell being twelve levels higher than the level of the Dungeon, and his Summoning mastery, Jake was just stupidly overpowered.

Bob stepped outside of the safe area provided by the Gateway, and instantly a pair of alligators started towards him, their snouts barely above the water, giving little indication to what Bob was sure was a significant mass below.

With a mental command, his UtahRaptor lept across the swamp and landed just behind an alligator's head, one hind leg pinning it to the muck beneath, the other ripping a huge furrow in the alligators back. Or so Bob assumed. He couldn't actually see what was happening under the water, but there was thrashing and foaming water, and what looked like blood tinging the murk.

The alligator managed to twist around and curl its head up towards Jake, where it then opened its mouth, revealing rows of jagged teeth, and then it breathed what appeared to be superheated steam directly onto the UtahRaptors belly.

Jake let out a horrific screech, and his head darted down, easily encompassing the alligator's jaws, and snapping them shut with his own terrible bite.

Bob shook his head. He'd never been to the everglades, but he was pretty sure that alligators didn't have a scalding breath weapon.

Jake hadn't quite finished off the first alligator when the second arrived.

It attempted to clamp on to the UtahRaptors leg, but its teeth were unable to find purchase, leaving Jake unharmed as it delivered a final kick to the first alligator, and turning his murderous gaze onto the second.

The UtahRaptor once again dove down to clamp the alligator's jaws shut, then set about ripping it apart.

The alligator didn't give up easily, and Bob had a feeling that if Jake hadn't been as big and unnaturally strong as he was, that the UtahRaptor might have ended up rolling around in the water with the alligator, which wouldn't have been a good situation.

Bob had the UtahRaptor drag the alligators back, where he discovered another difference between the alligators he knew from earth and those here in Thidwell's twisted Dungeon.

Namely that they had six legs, rather than four, and that the tails, while still nearly half the length of the beast, flattened more rapidly, and resulted in a scythe-like tail that was edged in sharp bone.

He shook his head, then stopped, and cocked his head to the side.

"Definitely buzzing," Bob muttered as he looked around carefully.

Then he saw them. A swarm of six mosquitoes, each just over a foot long were headed directly towards him.

Bob mentally urged his UtahRaptor to intercept and watched in fascination as Jake rushed in to do battle with the hated insects.

It appeared that the mosquitoes, much like the killer wasps from the ninth level of the Dungeon, were using the vicious skill, as they were able to pierce Jake's hide without any trouble or apparent resistance.

Jake in turn had no trouble killing them with one snap of his jaws or swipe of his claws.

Bob grimaced in disgust as he saw a mosquitoe's belly fill with blood, visible from twenty feet away as it swelled, then popped like an overripe tomato as the UtahRaptor claimed its vengeance with a brutal bite.

As Jake dragged the bodies back, Bob considered that he'd definitely be resummoning him after every battle with the mosquitoes, as he had taken a not-insignificant amount of damage.

He wiped his brow and took a drink from his canteen.

This was going to suck.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob's mind raced as he let out a scream of pain as the scalding water tagged his left hip despite his best efforts to spin away.

Jake had rushed back to defend Bob when the roaming alligator had attacked, but he hadn't managed to get his jaws around its snout in time to stop it from spraying Bob.

Bob struggled to stay on his feet as his UtahRaptor rapidly dealt with the alligator, despite having four mosquitoes quickly ripping Jake's life away.

By the time Jake was able to kill the last mosquito, the UtahRaptor was well under half health. Bob cut the flow of mana to the spell, and summoned a fresh one back out, before pulling a healing potion out of his inventory.

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He pulled the cork with his teeth and downed the potion, wincing as he felt his seared flesh repair itself.

This level of the Dungeon definitely sucked.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob was tired, hot, sweaty, and filthy as he staggered into the tavern.

He spotted Harv, Elli, and Kelli sitting at a table, and he walked over and slumped into the available chair.

He pulled Monroe out of his inventory and placed him on the table, and then leaned back with a groan,

"Rough day?" Kelli asked as he reached out to scratch Monroe's ears.

Bob glanced at him and asked, "Have you been on the eleventh level of the Dungeon?"

All three of them shook their heads.

"It is fucking awful," Bob growled, "and I'm starting to think Thidwell might be a sadist."

Harv grinned and looked Bob over, noting the stains, and said, "From the looks and smell of you, I'm guessing we are in for a treat when we make it down there."

Bob shook his head and grunted out, "It's another swamp, like the third level of the Dungeon, but so much worse."

"What sort of monsters are there?" Elli asked.

Bob gave him a grim smile, finding it odd to be on the other side of that question for once, and said, "Scalding steam breathing alligators, and swarms of giant blood-sucking, vicious damage-dealing mosquitoes."

Kelli made a face and Harv groaned out, "I hate mosquitoes."

"Which is why I think Thidwell might secretly be evil," Bob muttered.

Elli laughed and Kelli leaned in and said quietly and conspiratorily, "I think he just gets bored."

"When he's building these levels in the Dungeon," Kelli said, "he's basically all alone for like, ten hours a day," he explained.

"I think he just gets bored down there and some of the levels he builds are just to amuse himself," Kelli finished.

"That could make sense," Bob said slowly.

Thidwell did spend an awful lot of time alone.

"Maybe I should get Thidwell a cat," Bob muttered as he reached out to rub Monroe's ruff.

"Most people who take the familiar skill," Harv said, "usually choose a combat-oriented creature," he nodded towards Monroe who was sprawled out in the middle of the table, a fluffy puddle of contentment, "which isn't to say that Monroe isn't a mighty hunter, just that he's not exactly standing on his own in a fight," Harv finished.

"How does the Familiar skill normally work?" Bob asked.

"Normally," Harv said, "you have Ritual Magic and some other school of magic, often animal, and you ritually summon an animal, which will be at a level determined by the level of your spell school and casting score. Once you have the familiar it levels up when you do."

Bob looked at his feline overlord, then shrugged.

"Monroe is a bit different, but I love him just the way he is," Bob said.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob was lying in bed, mentally reviewing the day.

Kelli, Thidwell, Harv, and Elli had all described the first ten levels of the Dungeon as a sort of training area.

If that was true, then the eleventh level of the Dungeon was probably a decent example of what he could expect at lower levels.

This wasn't reassuring.

If he actually had the Endless Swarm path, it would be fine. Jake could deal with two enemies at once, and his pack of ten level five UtahRaptors would be able to hold off any roaming gators or deal with the mosquito swarms.

He didn't though, and so today had been a stressful day of jumping from one task to another. If the rest of the Dungeon followed suit, mixing enemy types, ambushing enemies, roaming enemies etc, he was going to have a rough time.

Ten hours of non-stop fighting had resulted in two thousand one hundred and ninety-six alligators slain, and seven thousand two hundred and twenty-four mosquitos swatted. He'd gained a total of one-hundred and twenty-six crystals, and he'd just barely increased the level of his Summon UtahRaptor spell to twenty-four.

Apparently, the System liked to round down. He'd be able to push his summon spell to level twenty-five now.

It was a miserly haul for a lot of work, stress, and anxiety.

He was definitely going to increase his level to eleven in the morning, and try out the twelfth level of the Dungeon, and hope for better results.

Bob reached down and scratched behind Monroe's ears.

"Trebor," Bob said quietly, "If Thidwell is using affinity crystals after reincarnating, assuming he has access to all the crystals I do, what is the most restrictive path that he could meet the requirements for, that he could take?"

"The Path of the Patient Warden," Trebor replied.

'System Help, Path of the Patient Warden,' Bob mentally projected.

System Help, The Path of the Patient Warden. The Path of the Patient Warden is obtained by having the following skills: Divine School of Elemental Earth, Divine School of Elemental Air, Divine School of Elemental Water, Divine School of Elemental Fire, Divine School of Plant, Divine School of Animal, Ritual Magic. The user must have an Affinity with the following skills: Divine School of Animal, Divine School of Plant. The Path of the Patient Warden grants the user a one percent bonus to the Divine Schools of Plant and Animal for each level of the user. At each level, the user may select one skill from either the Divine School of Plant or Animal, in addition to selecting one skill from any of the required Schools, and any one skill, unrestricted. The first four levels of the Path of the Patient Warden also grant the user the Control Element skill of their choice, the next three levels grant the user an additional skill in the Divine School of Plant. Upon reaching the first tier threshold, the user is granted the Divine School of Shadowmancy. The next four levels grant the user a confluence skill, one from each of the Divine Elemental Schools, with the Divine School of Plant, the next three levels grant the user an additional skill in the Divine School of Animal. Upon reaching the second tier threshold, the user is granted the skill Mana sight. The next four levels grant the user a confluence skill, one each from each of the Divine Elemental Schools, with the Divine School of Animal, the next three levels grant the user an additional skill in the Divine School of Shadowmancy. Upon reaching the third tier threshold, the user is granted The Divine School of Invocation. The remaining levels until the final tier threshold grant the user a confluence skill from any of the Divine Elemental Schools, and either the Divine School of Plant or the Divine School of Animal. The final tier threshold allows the user to pass freely through any of the levels of a Dungeon the user has created, without any mana-created flora or fauna attacking the user.

"Fuck," Bob whispered.

'It is another tier seven path,' Trebor said calmly, 'a variant used by a species that strives to live in harmony with nature.'

"That's right up there with the Arcane Depths path," Bob muttered as he calculated the skills.

Patient Warden definitely received more skills. But the Arcane Depths path packed more punch for each skill, with a five level boost to every spell he took in the school he chose to boost. Combined with his current boost to summoning, and the presumed bump to fifty-percent from the Summoning School reaching his next tier threshold, and at level twenty-five, Jake could be level sixty.

Endless Swarm was still more effective for wiping out monsters, but Bob could live with having three, level thirty UtahRaptors working for him. Hell, with his matrix fixed, he could hang four or five persistent effects and have a pack of level fifteen UtahRaptors guarding him.

"That'll work," Bob said softly, "although he'll have to give up an affinity effect on one of the elemental skills and take the school with it."

Bob switched to running his fingers through Monroe's ruff, causing the purr motor to rev up.

"Trebor," he said slowly, "are there any paths that require a conjuration affinity?"

'Many,' Trebor responded, 'I could list them all, but that would take a very, very long time. Perhaps you could be more specific?'

"Let's say tier five," Bob said.

'Well,' Trebor said, 'the first one that you might consider is the natural extension of the Elemental Savant, which is called The Path of Elemental Conjuration.'

"Really?" Bob snorted.

'Help, Path of Elemental Conjuration,' he projected.

System Help, Path of Elemental Conjuration. The Path of Elemental Conjuration is obtained by having the following skills: Magical School of Conjuration, and the following skills all pertaining to the same element, Blast, Backlash, Aura, and Weapon Enhancement. The user must have an Affinity with the Magical School of Conjuration.

The Path of Elemental Conjuration grants the user a two percent increase to the Magical School of Conjuration. Upon reaching the first tier threshold, and every threshold thereafter, the total mana cost of any of the required spells is reduced by five percent per threshold. Upon reaching the first threshold and the following three tier thresholds, the user may select their Blast, Backlash, Aura or Weapon Enhancement skills, raising the maximum level for that skill by five. Upon reaching the final tier threshold the user is granted the ability to take on the physical embodiment of their Element, which allows them to move through natural instances of that element freely.

"Bailli is gonna kill me," Bob muttered.