The Gift of Loot Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Bear Market Behavior

Read chapter 31 of The Gift of Loot by Jack_Golightly on NovelPedia.

Thomas and Jo crept up on their next target, which was a bear eating a bunch of blackberries from a thorny bush. It hadn't been hard to find. There were over twenty bears in this dungeon, and this next one was across the stream, around a bunch of bushes. This dungeon wasn't very creative. If it had been a real bear, it probably would have scented them a long time ago, but this one just continued to munch along, not paying them any attention. Generally, the monsters would not move from their territory unless they were directly attacked. That wasn't a strict rule, as he remembered from the Veggie Dungeon and the Chipmunk Forest Fire Dungeon, but so far it seemed to be the case here, probably as a way to balance out how tough the monsters were. Thomas glanced at Jo. She watched the bear calmly, sword still in hand. She'd seemed super comfortable with it, so Thomas had let her have it. He held the mace, though after seeing what those spikes had done, he was very careful with it. He kept the pen knife in his other hand. They didn't speak. They'd already pre-planned this part, and so just waited until the bear shuffled around, presenting its wide hind end at them. Thomas stepped out of the bushes, counting on his Notice-Me-Not cloak to keep him... uh, unnoticed. Then he threw the mace end over end, like he was a lumberjack in an axe-throwing contest. It caught the bear's big butt vertically, not spikes first as he'd hoped, but it still drove some spikes inward. The bear roared and whipped around so fast that it should have been impossible for a creature that size. Oh shit, Thomas thought as its beady, evil little eyes focused on him. It roared again, saliva stringing out from its mouth, then charged. Then it stumbled sideways a few steps, as if it were drunk. Or poisoned by sinister mace spikes. The guy in the pawn shop had said that the mace inflicted spiritual damage. Obviously that had killed the robber. But until now, Thomas wasn't sure if dungeon creatures had spirits. Apparently they had something close enough, because the bear stumbled as if it were suddenly dizzy. Its gaze was still on Thomas, though, and it was clear it wanted him for lunch. Suddenly, Jo seemed to appear out from behind a tree. When had she gotten over there? Oh yeah, he'd completely forgotten about her again. Damn, that Gift was good. She greeted the bear sword first. Jo might have some kind of skill-inspired control over her sword, but she was no trained swordswoman. It was a very basic stab: in, then out, with a gout of blood. The bear roared again and swung towards her, but then fell on its side. Not because of her stab, but because it seemed to have just developed a very bad case of vertigo. But it was thoroughly distracted. Thomas rushed in, his Notice-Me-Not cloak flapping in a way that should have been extremely noticeable, and, clicking the button, stabbed his pen knife into its back. He had to stab a lot deeper than he thought. There was a lot of fur. The bear roared and clawed at the air as if thinking it was still on its feet and wanting to charge. Then it went silent, and the little jewels on the pen knife turned a deep chocolate brown. All right. One bear ghost locked and loaded. Thomas concentrated on the pen knife for a second, and his triumph fled. Durability: 30/100 "Ah crap," he said. "What's wrong?" Jo asked immediately, circling with the sword up in what he supposed was some kind of guard position. "The durability on my pen knife just went down by ten points. Now I'm at thirty out of one hundred." He caught her quizzical look and said, "Oh yeah, that's a thing you can see for System items once you hit level 2. It's great. You also get the titles of things." She nodded, taking that information in. "So... we can kill three more bears?" "I'd rather not kill any more bears with this pen knife," he said. "It's too valuable, and I don't want to just use it up until it breaks, but I don't understand why it's getting damaged." He frowned.