"I'm glad you're okay, Shamus," I said trying to move on. They were standing there looking at me and my cat with confusion.

"Thanks. Who are you and how do you know our names?" said Shamus.

"I'm Theodore and this is Mr. Snuggles," I said motioning to the mountain lion beside me. "The reason I know your names is shrouded in the mystery of magic." I had no idea how to explain what happened and hoped my cop-out answer would suffice.

"Why are you here, Theodore?" he asked still looking a bit confused.

"I am here to help with the town, train to get stronger, and eventually kill the dragon that attacked this place," I answered.

He seemed to accept my answer and move on. This whole exchange went very quickly and I'm was sure he was just trying to make sure we weren't a threat as fast as possible so he could start looking for the other townsfolk.

We went looking for other townsfolk. I healed anyone a could and we did the burial service the same as the first time. It wasn't any easier the second time around, but we got through it and went to the next step for the town.

I explained my dimensional space to Shamus and offered to clear out the houses the same as before. He agreed and even still gave me the option to loot the old hermit's house where I found the water ball spellbook last time. Unfortunately, the spellbook wasn't randomized loot and at this point, I already knew the spell so it wasn't as exciting this time. I was able to pick up heavier objects this time which allowed me to clean up some of the larger debris chunks this time around.

I found Shamus when I finished my task and asked him what I was dying to know.

"Shamus, do you know if there are any dungeons nearby?"

"I don't know about dungeons, but there are a few caves to the Southeast that would probably offer some benefit to an adventurer like yourself. It would also allow me to focus on rebuilding the town. I'll even give you a reward for each cave you clear out."

New Quest!

Clear out caves to the Southeast of Roseglen.

Quest will end after clearing at least one cave and returning to Shamus.

Reward: 2,000 XP for each cleared cave, reward from Shamus for each cleared cave.

"That sounds great. Thanks, Shamus, I'll see what I can do," I said. I was excited at the possibility to increase my loot collection.

He gave me the slight head nod that men give to each other to communicate acceptance and I returned the gesture as is required by natural law. I turned to Mr. Snuggles to see what he wanted to do.

"I'm going to go clear out some caves. It could be dangerous, but I could use your help. Do you want to come with me?" I asked him.

He tapped his foot once and we moved out. I thought it would be worth it to find out if there was indeed a massive loot pile where I impacted. I didn't get my hopes up but if there was even a chance to get that fancy bow back I wanted to try. It was to the East of our current location according to Mae so it wasn't too far out of the way.

We traveled for a couple of hours and then Mae said we were close. I explained what I thought it would look like to Mr. Snuggles and sent him off into the woods to search. We looked for about an hour, but there were so many trees around and the terrain was uneven.

"We should find Mr. Snuggles and just go search for the quest caves. I don't want to waste any more time looking for something that might not exist anymore," I told Mae. She could tell I was really disappointed even though I was trying to act like I wasn't.

"Maybe Shamus will give you the bow again," Mae said trying to cheer me up.

"Maybe," I answered, "I feel like he would've offered when I said I was going to hunt down the dragon and he didn't."

We looked around to see if we could see the big cat and saw nothing. We started heading in the last direction we saw him looking and heard a loud roar from a little ways North of us.

"Sounds like he is in trouble," I said running in the direction of the roar. It was a few minutes before I saw him.

"I guess it was a victory roar and a signal," I said to Mae as we looked at his prize.

Mr. Snuggles stood next to a large pile of rocks, ore, junk equipment, and every other random item I had in my dimensional space when Tekosh dropped me like a bad habit. It was glorious.

"Well done, Mr. Snuggles, you're the best," I said joyously as I started picking everything up. As soon as I found the pieces of meat again I threw a couple to the big guy as a thank you.

I re-equipped the +2 Brawn ring and check the bow and arrows were still functional. Everything was right in the world and I was grinning like an idiot. I thought about how I never wanted to do that again. I guess we were lucky it was so well hidden. If not, maybe the local goblins and orcs would have taken all my stuff. I put it out of my mind for now and focused on the positive and the task at hand. We needed to find those caves.

We moved as far south as possible before the sun started to set and we had to make camp for the night. I wanted to be as far from Tekosh's encampment as possible until I was well equipped and ready. We found a stone outcropping of rock that would protect us on two sides. I felt safe sleeping with the large mountain lion protecting the camp. I trusted my special ability at this point when it said animals wouldn't attack me.

As I lay on my bedroll ready to fall asleep I started to think up ways to deal with Tekosh that would ensure he would never be able to hurt anyone again. I knew fireball did nothing so he probably was either immune or highly resistant to fire which, being a dragon, made sense. I thought about possible weak spots, what weapons he had at his disposal and the fact that he probably had his dozen orcs and goblins back after the reset.

I fell asleep strategizing.

"Wake up, Teddy, we're burning daylight," Mae said shaking my arm. "Even the lazy cat wants to move out."

I got up and put away my bedding, I threw another piece of meat to Mr. Snuggles and finished making sure the fire was taken care of. The meat looked exactly the same as before so I didn't think it went bad here, but that didn't make me want to eat it. I wasn't sure how much he needed to eat, but my cat used to beg for food right after he ate sometimes so who knows. I would just try to give him a chunk at appropriate times. I only used it for healing after all and I had magic for that now.

We started heading south towards the area Shamus told us we should start looking. After traveling another couple of hours the terrain was getting rockier and it appeared that we were at the edge of what we would be able to travel easily. I could see how there could be cave entrances along the Southern edge as everything was rocky crags and cliffs.

As a person who lived 24 years without a map system that could pop up at a thought, I didn't think to pull up my map until after about half an hour of searching. I opened the map and used it to look for clues as to where a cave might be located. Mae had explained early on that I could zoom in and out, mentally move the center of the map, and even create waypoints which I hadn't really played around with yet.

When I opened it and focused on the area we were looking I saw some faint ghosting that showed where four cave entrances were. I realized it was the semi-transparent overlay that had populated when I examined Tekosh's table map.

"Thanks for the help, idiot," I said out into the void.

"Who were you talking to, teddy?" Mae asked as she fluttered next to me.

"Tekosh gave us the cave locations when he gave me access to his throne room and table map. He was so sure of his superiority that he didn't even leave a guard inside.," I said as I closed my map and oriented towards the closest cave entrance. "I have a feeling that his cockiness will be his downfall. In fact, I think it is his biggest weakness and I will work out how to exploit it."

After looking at the map it was fairly easy to find the first cave entrance. As we approached it we were assaulted by a strong ammonia smell.

"That is ripe!" I said blocking my nostrils as best as I could. I felt bad for Mr. Snuggles since he couldn't plug his nose.

"Why don't you stay out here and guard the entrance?" I said seeing that he was struggling with the odor overload.

He tapped his paw once and took a few steps back to get some fresh air.

As I thought about the rewards for clearing out these caves I found a store of strength that helped me to push through the stench.

"Tekosh is going to pay for what he did," I whispered to myself as one final push.

I headed into the cave entrance being as stealthy as possible since I didn't know what was ahead of me. I wrapped one of the scraps of fabric I had in my inventory around my mouth and nose. It didn't help much, but I figured it was better than nothing.