Jen began Slim’s story, “Once upon a time, about 200 to 250 years ago, there was a dungeon in the Fifth Deck that spawned a level 94 mana cat.”

“Level 94!” exclaimed Sam.

“Wait for the rest of the story before asking all your questions.” Jen commanded. “This is the same mana cat that you have affectionately named “Slim.” Slim had been guarding the core of a dungeon on the Fifth Deck for over 50 years, successfully killing or scaring off any adventurers who invaded the dungeon.

“One day a group of over 300 adventurers entered the dungeon to destroy Slim once and for all. While Slim was handling the adventurers without too much effort, one of the adventurers, who had a “dungeon master” skill, snuck off and found the dungeon core. Slim later learned that her name was Vicki Chang. She waited, allowing Slim to kill all the remaining adventurers before she took control of the dungeon core. Once Vicki Chang took control of the core, she was able to place a specially made slave collar on Slim.

“For the next 75 years, give or take a few years, Slim was kept in a covered cage and not allowed to see anything. However, Slim could hear Vicki Chang as she would torture people in her hunt for information on dungeons.

“When Vicki Chang would find a dungeon, she would put together a party of adventurers. She would lead them through the dungeon and capture the dungeon core. She would only release Slim when she encountered a monster that the party could not kill or to kill any of the other adventurers that were still alive after she captured the dungeon core.

About 100 years ago, Vicki Chang heard about this dungeon and put together a party of adventurers to capture its core. Unknown to Vicki Chang, the strange mana in this dungeon interfered with Slim’s slave collar. Without the need to monologue about the revenge he would take, he tore out of his cage and killed Vicki Chang and the other adventurers before she even realized what had happened.

Slim thought he was finally free, but this dungeon’s mana would block his mana system anytime he tried to leave the main cavern. As a mana cat, he does not have any power without access to mana and would collapse 20 feet outside of the main cavern.

The dungeon quit producing monsters and simply had Slim kill any adventurers that entered. However, Slim decided to just let the adventurers find an empty dungeon instead of killing them. Within a few years, adventurers quit entering the dungeon. The beasts tended to stay away from the dungeon because of the strange mana it radiated. After that, there were only rare occasions when new adventurers would enter.

Slim searched for a way to escape from the dungeon for many years without any success. He then tried to seek help from some of the adventurers who would explore the dungeon.

Slim would take his smallest form and try to appear as friendly as possible, but even when he did not sense that the adventurers were evil, they would still immediately try to kill him out of fear of dungeon creatures.

Finally, after around 200 to 250 years of slavery to dungeon cores or to Vicki Chang, Slim nuzzled up next to you, and you did not try to kill him right away. He sensed us using our onboards to talk, and because of my psych ability, he was able to communicate with me in a way that would make it obvious if either of us tried to lie to the other.

As Slim and I left the dungeon, Slim realized that the dungeon’s mana could still reach him, and that any other dungeon’s mana he might get exposed to could possibly pull him in and trap him again. Slim sensed that you would not make it back out of the dungeon if I did not return right away.

Slim requested that we become mana bound to one another. This type of binding creates a greater connection than even soul-binding, but it benefitted me much more than it benefitted Slim. Because my level was so much lower than Slim’s, mana-binding with Slim caused the destruction of most of his experience points, but it also transferred a sliver of his experience points to both me and you since we were both sharing experience points when clearing the dungeon.

Slim and I are now both level 18. I have 16 ability points to use, and Slim and I will level together as long as we are mana bound.

The mana binding also instantly blocked any connection the dungeon mana could make with Slim, and I was finally able to return to the dungeon to get you.

Later, while you were still asleep and recovering, Slim explained that Vicki Chang had tried to convince him to mana-bind with her through threats and torture, but Slim always resisted.

Slim is a sentient creature and the mana-binding allows me to control Slim in many ways. Additionally, the binding makes him need to constantly return to me if he has been away for too long. I have told Slim he is not my slave, and that he is free to go and do whatever he pleases, as long as he does not hurt innocent and good people.

I still have a lot of questions too, but now, you know everything I know.” Jen finished her story and leaned back against the tree trunk.

It took all Sam’s self-control not to interrupt Jen a hundred times during her explanation. Finally, when Jen was done with her story, he took a second and thought about all Slim had been through, and said, “Wow, he has been a slave confined to a solitary existence for the most part of 250 years. The poor guy. I feel guilty about calling him ‘Slim.” I didn’t realize he was sentient when I first gave him the nickname ‘Slim’ for being so pudgy and fat.”

Jen laughed as she was laying down in her bedroll and said, “Don’t worry. He is a mana cat, not a pussycat. He calls you ‘Log.’ The two of you will get along fine. I’m exhausted, and I’m going to distribute a shit-ton of ability points from reaching level 18, use this Ninja technique scroll, and then go to sleep. Don’t forget to go over your messages and work on your inventory list!”

Sam groaned defeatedly, “Yes, Boss.”

Sam took a look at his stats first and was thinking, “Kelly, you know she could have just told me. This is your influence on her. Going through all these system messages and reviewing all the loot…It’s like tax season! At least, let’s do the fun stuff first, I guess. Ohhh…look at that. I’ve made level 19. I received a ton of experience points for killing all those mobs. I also received experience points for rescuing Slim.

“Ok Kelly, that adds up to 18 ability points. Cool, she was right, I hadn’t been paying attention, but my strength, agility, stamina, and stamina regen have all gone up 2 more points from the daily physical training-hell that Jen has been putting me through. I can’t wait to see what she is able to do after using that scroll. We were sure lucky when Jen came into our lives. I so miss you being with us.”

Sam was starting to tear up and lose control of his emotions. He wanted Kelly to be there with him and Jen. He just ached to really talk to her. He didn’t know what he would do if anything happened to Jen. Sam recognized his emotions were spiraling, and he dropped into triple focus. One for staying on watch, one for meditation, and one focus for finishing the review of his stats and loot.

“Sniff…Ok, where were we? Points, I have 18 points to distribute. What the heck does “luck” really do? It looks like it is getting out of balance, and my gut is telling me to do something about that. Jen’s going to kill me, but I’m going to put 7 points in luck. 5 points in stamina regen and 6 points in mana regen.