Time to fight the boss!

Well, fortunately and surprisingly, the rest of the ruins were only littered with spider webs, but no more spiders were in sight, at least until the last room John found: Thanks to the additional eyes he got through his new spider companion (who he decided to name Gary), he could easily scout ahead by giving Gary simple commands.

The last room of the 'dungeon' was illuminated with large braziers of blue fire, giving the place an even more eerie feel than the rest of these caverns. In it was a throne made out of the same stone the rest of the ruins were made out of and on that throne sat a woman wearing a skintight top with a cut-out hole for her cleavage and similarly tight pants. Now John could see that it was indeed the girl that brought him his pizza just... 15 minutes ago?

Her hair was medium length, just reaching her chin, and it was brown and smooth. Her face was a bit hard to make out, but it looked like she had unblemished, white skin and violet eyes that looked directly into the eyes of the spider. The smug smile on her face told him that she knew that he was checking her out. The most significant thing about her though were the mechanical spider legs on her back, calmly tapping the ground around the throne she sat on.

He still didn't quite get why she was here or why she targeted him, but at least he could say now that he knew who he was up against...

As far as John could see through Gary's eyes, there were no other spiders in this room as well, but thanks to the blue fire of the braziers most of the room was dark and hidden from his vision.

With no real alternative, John went on ahead and entered the room Aranea was in, waiting for him to face her. As soon as he got into the room, a grey blob shot in his direction from somewhere out of the shadows. Barely dodging the projectile, John could see that the shot wasn't even meant for him, as the ball expanded to a thick spider web just behind him, covering the whole door. So that was his way out blocked, great. Looking back from the now covered door, he could see that the girl in the throne now rose from her seat and looked him over, "Well, the hero has finally found his way into my lair, ready to be devoured. Did you know this would be your fate when you saw me back there? You should feel honored; your body will be used to make my army of spiders stronger. It is small for now, but not for long as it will grow and grow so I can take **** on those that did me wrong."

What? Something was wrong here... How would his body help to strengthen the spider army? He was not about to ask that though... "I don't see what I have to do with that... I mean, I met you for the first time today, and I've been nice to you, so why do that?"

Her prideful look from up above told more than most words could, "Simple because all you men are the same, you act nice and chivalrous towards us until you find a weak spot to exploit with which you all can get the same thing: Sex. And don't think I'm stupid, I know you tried to find stuff out about me, I felt it. If I hadn't trapped you first, you would have done something to me so you could satisfy your carnal desires, don't you? But I grow bored of this conversation; I should not talk to the food of my children. Now then, are you ready to face your imminent doom?" while saying that, two spiders emerged from somewhere in the dark... to say these things were bigger than the scout spiders would be an understatement; where the scouts were as big as medium-sized dogs, these things' bodies were the size of cattle. Moving slower than the scouts but with the same quiet and robotic movements, these things were pretty scary. Thankfully they were waiting for some kind of command by the spider lady, so John had enough time to cast observe on these spiders.

All in all those things could be really bad for him; he would need some good plan how to deal with these things... Also, Level 6? If these things were Level 6, and the dungeon was classified as Level 10 does that mean that Aranea was Level 10? That was just speculation though.

Seeing as how John wasn't likely to answer her taunt, Aranea just waved her hand and receded to her throne. So she wasn't even going to attack him? Either she was really confident in her spiders, or stupid... But he didn't have more time to ponder that question, as the two spiders started to move with rugged movements. One of the spiders ran, or rather walked, towards him, already trying to hit him with the sharp end of its legs. The movements were slow enough, though, so he could dodge, only to be barely missed by another grey blob like before; looking at the other spider, John could see that it had its butt pointed at him. So these things would attack in tandem, one trying to hit him with its legs the other trying to hit him with the webs to slow him down or immobilize him completely. That was probably a smart tactic, were it not for the fact that John also had a spider at his disposal.

While Aranea talked, Gary seemingly took initiative and rather smartly snuck up on one of the spiders, trying to attack it. Now that they were trying to attack John, the spider 'pounced' onto the shooting spider, trying to pierce the metal plates with his small claws. That didn't really work, however, but it did distract the spider long enough, so that John could formulate some kind of plan and run towards that spider, swinging his spear in his hands in the meantime, trying to impale the butt of the spider, with much success.

Critical hit! 2x Damage!
Charge applied! 2x Damage!
36 DMG + 12 DMG when pulling out
Shoot Web Disabled

Nice, that was a really good hit, it would still take him more of those hits to destroy one of these things, but it was a start. So, before he could deal some serious damage, he would need to make them less dangerous for him, then he could deal more damage. It was also good to see that the Melee thing kicked in about him learning new skills, that was always good to evolve during a fight. After pulling out the spear again and doing another 12 DMG doing that, John quickly got out of the way of the spider that was by now behind him, but not fast enough before getting a gash along his arm, that was quickly closing thanks to Gamer's Body.

-20 HP

Shit, that was a lot of damage for one hit... John had to get out of this, fast and had to think about a strategy to deal with these things... Giving Gary the command to distract the spiders some more, John quickly hid behind one of the various pillars of the room. Taking a breather, he cleared his mind and went into analyzing this situation. Right now, his damage looked like it was pretty decent to the point where he could deal with these things when one-on-one. But they were two, and either both of them would go melee now, or they would switch positions and the already hurt spider would attack him upfront. His biggest problem right now was that Dodge was too unreliable as a defensive skill, he would need another thing that could defend him good enough. Looking quickly through the mechanical spider's eyes, he could see that the two spiders were chasing it, and it looked like they had some web on their heads, probably Gary's way to make himself (or herself?) known to the two. Now that he knew that he had actual time, he opened up his sheet and looked it over to find the solution for this problem:

Okay, so he didn't have enough Mana for another Bond and the regeneration would take him too much time, even with the regeneration buff he would get by eating a slice of Pizza (speaking of that, he took one of the slices and ate it, just so he could get the buff for a couple of minutes). However, looking over the rest of his inventory, he had one idea how he could increase his defensive abilities in his situation: Craft

Pulling out all the materials that he had (two pieces of Scrap Metal, one piece of Electronic Scrap, and two Valkyrie's Tears). Now, thinking about his options, he should either go for armor or a shield. Armor would be simple protection he wouldn't need much thought about, while a shield could open up a lot of possibilities in his fighting, but relied on him blocking with the thing. While thinking about crafting something, he got a pop-up telling him what he would require making those two things.

Scrap Shield
Shield (Off-Hand)
+2 Def
1-5 DMG if used for attack
Chance to block an incoming attack, negating [Strength/2 + AGI/2] DMG
Chance to Block: Base 30% +15% Ambidextrous Bonus
Requires: 1 x Scrap Metal

Enhancement Option:
Scrap Electronic: When successfully blocking an enemy, apply Stun for 2 Seconds
Valkyrie's Tear: +3 AGI

Scrap Armor
Armor (Chest)
+6 Def
Heavy Armor: Reduces speed by 25%
-6 AGI
Requires: 2 x Scrap Metal

Enhancement option:
Scrap Electronic: When hit, apply 3 DMG (Element: Lightning)
Valkyrie's Tear: Medium Armor

Info: Only one enhancement can be applied at this level of Craft

So both at the same time were out of the question, it had to be one or the other. Looking over the Pros and Cons of both items, John would go with the shield, it just was too good if he could negate a percentage of the damage, and it worked with his perk! But John wasn't just about to craft this thing, no, he had a bigger idea behind it. He would try to see if his Craft could crit! Since Gamer's Luck said that any skill could crit, this could be really powerful. Concentrating on a feeling 'getting the edge over the opponent', he quickly cast Craft onto the pile of stuff in front of him

Critical Craft Successful! Choose two options:
-Craft only costs half the resources, if below 1, 50% chance to recover material
-Quality of the crafted item increases by Craft Skill Level
-Double the amount of enhancements can be applied

Craft will cost double MP to cast a critical success.

Point of Edge automatically used to fill mana pool! 30% filled

John went with the quality and the enhancements since he didn't really care about the scrap metal. After a short flash of light, in front of him, leaning against the pillar, was a shield; it wasn't really pretty, but that didn't matter to John since it was the first thing he ever made!

Observing the shield also made John pretty happy:

While checking over the shield, John got a not so good message though:

Bonded automaton destroyed. Structural integrity too low, Bond undone.

Damn, and he just got that little guy... Oh well, it was just a machine that he didn't really know what to do with anyway. But its sacrifice was not in vain, as he was now more prepared than ever to get in there and beat some spider butt!