"Don't worry Kitty, I won't leave you." said Phoenix with a smile and patted my head.

As I heard him saying that I sighed in relief. I know it's a bit selfish but I really don't want to be left by him in any form. Tia with others has already done so...

I don't mean we separated, even now all of us were walking together in the dungeon... They simply left our party...

There was a reason for that.

The experience I gained before passing out was the last time it worked. Maybe the bond with dungeon wasn't stabilized then, but the fact remains - I no longer gain it from killing monsters there.

As long as anyone was in a party with me, that applied to them as well... Being dungeon lord wasn't as great as I thought.

That is not to say there are no benefits. A large amount of mana I receive through the bond, allows me to freely experiment with skills and magic .. or simply store it.

We never stored mana directly in our dimension and used mana potions as a medium for a reason. While it's easy to store it inside, retrieving it back is very hard, mana isn't exactly an object. If mana regeneration provides more mana than by retrieving it from inside dimension, storing it like this would be quite useless.

Well, that would be the case if our mana manipulation and perception weren't at maximum level.

Even so, it was quite troublesome, after all the time inside pocket dimension is frozen. Though, it wasn't an impossible task, with a bit of practice, I got the hang of it. Though if not for the heartache of wasted mana, I am not sure I would have bothered with this.

At the moment I already have millions of mana inside my dimension and the number keeps rising. If everything goes as planned, we won't stay there for long, so it was wise to stockpile a bit. Also, as a result of a constant flood of mana, my mind power steadily increased even further...

Your Mind Power has increased. Enhanced Mana Pool has reached level 5. Enhanced Mana Regeneration has reached level 7.

...just like other skills.

After my mind power surpassed two hundred, I learned Enhanced Mana Regeneration, just like Phoenix. But with the influence of mana flood, very quickly I surpassed even him...

Though it's only temporary... like always I plan to offer my knowledge through DNA, so he should catch up in no time.

"Just as I suspected, only Phoenix cares about me." I said while leaning my head on his shoulder.

"Of course. A few points of experience isn't worth making my Kitty sad." he smiled and squeezed me tightly in his embrace.

"Hey, this is unfair! It's only while we hunt monsters there, and you said so yourself that it's alright if we leave." complained Tia when overheard me.

"Yes. But what about my feelings. You didn't hesitate even for a second! And here I thought we were friends..." I teased her.

The number of monsters they fought was now greatly reduced so I ordered a new batch to attack them. It felt strange being able to do so with my thoughts alone.

It was if all monsters in the dungeon suddenly became my pets. They still retained their own mind, but any command from me was a law.

Part of a reason we got there was to confirm I really have control over the dungeon. If wanted I could line them up and let others have easy kills, but it was better if monsters attacked them at their full strength.

For one, the experience they gain might be less otherwise, but mostly I don't want my friends to get sloppy. Just for that reason, I would sometimes order monsters to do something unpredictable so our friends are prepared for everything.

"How come I am the only villain there?" pouted Tia.

"Well, your cousin cares only about benefits..." I started to explain.

"Ha! Says a girl who charges money for everything..." I heard Jack. He overheard us despite being busy with monsters.

I decided to continue while pretending I didn't hear anything... I also sent a few extra monsters at him. It was still within his capabilities, but now he should be silent for a while.

"...slaves will follow their master's choice, and Darson .. it's a very nice day when he doesn't insult someone by simply opening his mouth." I finished my speech.

If not for Jack butting in it would have been perfect.

"Hey. He isn't so bad." joined Derea.

I looked at the person in question with a wry smile. An evil laugh echoed through the place as Darson was killing one monster after another. Four arms armed with guns never stopped firing, and with insane strength, even recoil wasn't affecting his aim.

Even if someone managed to get close to him, which was very unlikely, there was nothing they could do to his new body... A body of formida alone was a deadly weapon, but arm it with firearms and you have a one-man army, unstopable killing machine.

"Never expected you to defend him. Weren't you two hostile to each other?" I looked at Derea.

"I have to admit that I might have been wrong about him." she said in return.

Like all orcs, she had a brown skin and small tusks, and her face wasn't pretty. Even as a female, her face looked just a bit better than most male orcs. Though if we compare to Magra, it was much better. His face on another hand reminded someone with a third degree of burns.

I am so glad I am not an orc.

While she was wearing a heavy armor, there was no helm, and her long black hair tied into a ponytail was reaching waist. For some reason, very few warriors in this world traded good visibility for a better protection.

I realized that even with looks of an orc, most of her charm as a woman was from her long hair. My hair on another hand was short, just like Tia's. Even in the old world, I liked them that way, as they don't get in the way.

Hmm, this isn't good. Now that I think about it, with my choice of clothes I look quite boyish. Phoenix might be in love with me at the moment, but I need to put some effort to keep it that way...

"Phoenix~, do you think it suits me?" I tugged clothes of Phoenix to get his attention.

As he looked at me, my white hair started to grow longer at the speed noticeable to the naked eye and stopped only when reached halfway to the waist. I then brushed them with my hands while striking a pose.

It wasn't hard to do something like this with my current level of body manipulation.

"Oh .. that looks .. nice." he said while looking at me mesmerized.

Yep, definitely likes them. It's decided then, I will keep them this size from now. They might get in the way during combat, but I think I can do something about that with mana manipulation. Who knows, maybe I will even create a new skill.

"Wow. Is it possible for me to change them like yours?" asked Tia who noticed me.

"Of course." I answered with a smile. "Just wait a year or two and they will grow up in no time."

"Uhh." she grunted sad.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" a new burst of laughter attracted my attention to Darson who was still playing a madman with guns.

"By the way, what did you meant when said that you might have been wrong about him?" I looked at Derea again.

"I always considered my duty to protect Miriel and Turion .. even as a slave. I know our Master saved us from Silverhand family and we are now his slaves, but I was still very angry when I learned what he did to Miriel. She claimed it was her choice, but back then I didn't believe it. That's why I taught him a lesson... "

Taught him a lesson? Ah, yes she has mental resistance .. I remembered her status when she was still in the party.

> Name: Derea Einlard Health: 983/983 Level: 34 Mana: 174/235 Race: Orc Stamina: 892/935 Gender: Female Strength: 131 Age: 35 Agility: 115 Class: Berserker Endurance: 118 Subclass: Blacksmith Mind Power: 47 State: Healthy, Enslaved (Darson) Unallocated attribute points 0 > ACTIVE Battle Frenzy (Special) LVL 4 Sprint LVL 6 War Cry (Special) LVL 2 Intimidation LVL 4 PASSIVE Heat Resistance LVL 2 Enhanced Stamina LVL 2 Pain Resistance LVL 6 Enhanced Health LVL 2 Mental Resistance LVL 4 Accuracy LVL 7 Cold Resistance LVL 1 Handgun Mastery LVL 6 Blacksmithing LVL 3 Two-handed Sword Mastery LVL 8 Regeneration LVL 2 Two-handed Hammer Mastery LVL 4 Spear Mastery LVL 3 Martial Arts Mata Coun LVL 5

While her mental resistance is not high to negate the effect of a collar, it seems it was possible to resist to some extent. This explains why Darson treats her worse than the rest. I am now a bit curious how exactly she taught him a lesson...

"...but I was wrong about him. I realized that he really cares about her .. though I doubt he will ever admits it. I guess Turion noticed that long ago." she finished while looking at Miriel's brother.

With a rapid fire, Turion shoot monsters around him with deadly accuracy and by planning his targets well, had room to help others. Even by using guns he managed to look elegant.

"What changed your mind?" I asked her.

"I saw with my own eyes how he risked his life to save her." she said and looked back at Darson who was still laughing like a madman.

"Ah! I remember, back then he lost his hand and .. wait, that's only his summon, it doesn't count as risking life..."

"No. I am not talking about that. When you lost your consciousness, all monsters have gone crazy and there was a chaos all around us. As Darson neglected to treat his wounds at one point his summon died from bleeding. When his real body appeared he noticed a direwolf leaping at Miriel and jumped at the monster to protect her..."

"I thought he doesn't have any martial arts. How he managed to kill it without any wounds?" I looked at Darson again.

"He didn't." smiled Derea. "It was shot dead by Turion. Our Master simply wasn't aware that back then she wasn't in any danger."

"Oh, but I thought you said he saved her..." I said when realized that it wasn't the case.

"I never said he saved her, just that he risked his life to do that." she grinned even wider while looking at Darson.

Just like before he was busy killing monsters and even with enhanced hearing of elf, didn't notice our gossip. If he did, I am sure that Derea would have been stopped long time ago.

*

Officially the dungeon was still a threat, and our visit there was a 'search of the source', which wasn't far from the truth, save for the fact that I knew exactly where it is...

"So this is dungeon core huh? I have to admit it looks a bit different than what I imagined." said Averon while looking ahead.

All this time guild master and a few other adventurers were keeping us a company.

In front of us was a dungeon core. The crystal, two meters in diameter, had a shape of rhombus and was floating in a middle of the hall. A slight glowing was pulsing as if it the core was a beating heart.

This hall was the same place where the old core was destroyed during Dark Ages. But now this place was protected by powerful illusion enchantments making its entrance look like a wall. Though even without mental resistance it would be useless against us.

From memories of Qin, I know that only four dungeon cores were completed. That might change at the end of the year, the group 'Blade' is constantly striving to make more.

After Dark Ages, many people collected fragments of the cores that were destroyed by Champions. The House of Kalh'dor was working for years to obtain them one way or another. They are necessary for creating dungeon cores .. no, not create, restore would be more accurate. Even Harbingers are incapable to make them on their own.

The control over monsters wasn't the only thing I was granted as dungeon lord. For one I could 'see' every corner within the dungeon. I also could influence how many of monsters are spawned and even a few Irregulars could be created at my whim. Most of them were weak though, some no better than strange animals.

"No one escaped?" asked guild master while looking at bodies on the ground.

"I don't think so." I answered while looking at them as well.

Those were remains of Kalh'dor people. While Qin was guiding monsters in their attack, they stayed here to guard dungeon core from any sneak attacks. How ironic that the ones who killed them were monsters - their supposed allies.

"You are not certain? You know this is very important." frowned guild master.

"Those are all I am aware of, but I can't guarantee they are all who were there, you do remember I was unconscious?" I said while looking at a corpse of one man.

Even with most of his body burned I recognized him. He was the same assassin that managed to escape during a night attack.

It's a bit sad I haven't managed to capture any of them alive, with truth serum from my world I could make them talk. But it's hard to control monsters when you are not there in person, I also couldn't risk any of them escaping. This is why the moment I realized I can order monsters, I sent ten hellhounds with a few arachne to deal with them.

They stood no chance.

"I guess we will have to hope for the best. Let's get started." said Averon and one large magic circle after another started forming under his feet.

This time even for him it took some time before effects of the spell could be seen .. or felt. After I sensed tremors under my feet, soon I saw a wave of earth flooding in our direction like a tsunami. As always, the magic of guild master was impressive.

Not even an hour has passed and the hall with core was completely buried. This will prevent for any mage to get there with teleportation, this was also the main reason we came here. After all, the core didn't appear here on its own and we needed some countermeasures it doesn't disappear once they realize what happened.

From memories I obtained, I knew our enemy has at least two people with high-level Space Time Magic, one of them was even Harbinger, just like Qin.

"With this, our task here is done. All that's left is to make some final preparation near the entrance." said Averon and after everyone was ready we started making teleportation circle.

Tomorrow is a big day, and if all goes as planned Kalh'dor family might be dealt with.

Sadly, to keep the secret about the dungeon, also meant that tonight we will have to sleep outside the city .. in a camp.