Sam reached up with his tiny hand to activate his sound wave, and said, “You back already?”

Jen looked at Tamako with surprise at Sam’s greeting, and replied, “The two weeks are up, and just like we agreed, I’m calling you from the wood-line near the cabin before heading to the cave. Is everything O.K.?”

Sam was already moving around disarming the traps around the entrance, and replied, “Wait there. Acoredingly, I’m still disarming everything, and I added a few more traps around the cave perimeter that I need to guide you past corectly. Also, I have a few surprises, I want to show you.”

Tamako grinned greedily when she overheard Sam mention surprises. I wonder what weapons that silly man has made for me this time, she thought.

Sam was acting weird, but that was nothing new, and Jen looked reassuringly at Melvin and his family, as she replied to Sam, “I have a surprise for you too. See you when you get down here.”

Tamako stared hard at Melvin, his wife, and the kids before saying, “Stay here. I’m going to show you why you’re not allowed anywhere near the cabin.” She then jogged off in the direction of the cabin.

Melvin’s daughter, Trifecta, was about to ask Jen what Tamako was doing, when a scream of fear escaped her throat, as a giant thousand-tongued toad leaped out of the water near Tamako. Her dad jumped in front of her and her brother, as if to protect them, but Trifecta and the rest of her family became speechless when the toad jumped right back into the water, when it saw Tamako. Trifecta in a disbelieving voice, asked, “Mistress Jen, was that monster afraid of Mistress Tamako?”

Jen laughed, and replied, “It is now. We had to put a smack down on it several times before it decided to leave us alone. However, it wouldn’t hesitate to eat you, or anyone else in your family.”

After Tamako finished jogging back over to them, she added to Jen’s comment, saying “I hope all of you understand that when we tell you to do something, there is a good reason for it.”

Melvin was trying to swallow his heart back down his throat, as he said, “Thank you Mistress Tamako. We will endeavor to follow your instructions to the letter.”

Melvin’s son, Cha Ching, was ten years old, was reading his gambling quest, and said, “That was awesome! I was sure it was going to eat us all!”

System Gambling Quest (Cha Ching)

Touch the cabin with your hand.

Reward: + 1 to your agility stat and a pound of chocolate

Accept/Decline?

Cha Ching’s mom, Dropshot, turned her head and stared hard at him after hearing his comment, and Cha Ching quickly added, “and I promise I’ll follow everyone’s directions exactly!” He then asked both his mom and Mistress Tamako, “but, I just got a gambling quest to touch the cabin for + 1 agility and a pound of chocolate, and …”

Dropshot didn’t hesitate, interrupting her son “Absolutely not!”

Tamako replied, “Your mom, is of course right, but I’m curious what makes you think you wouldn’t get eaten?”

Cha Ching looked to his mom for permission to answer, and with her nod, he said, “Mistress Tamako, the quest only required me to touch the cabin. It didn’t say that you couldn't help me. I was thinking that if you took me to the cabin, I could touch the cabin safely, and get the chocolate and agility point.”

Jen and Tamako smiled at the boy’s way of thinking, and Tamako said, “I would be willing to help you, but it is up to your mom and dad.”

Dropshot replied, “Cha Ching, I’m proud of you for analyzing the gambling quest and coming up with a good solution to beat it, but it is still dangerous.”

Melvin thought his son should take the gambling quest, but didn’t want to contradict his wife in front of others, so he commented, “It is a dangerous world we live in, and you must ask yourself if the reward is worth the risk? Son, I’m proud of you for seeking the guidance of those around you before taking a gambling quest.”

Dropshot appreciated her husband’s tact, and thought, there probably isn’t much risk if Tamako is with him, and I do want to encourage him to tell us about any gambling quests he gets in the future. If I don’t let him take a somewhat safe gambling quest like this, he might hide something later. She then said, “I agree with your father, the reward may be worth the risk under these specific circumstances. You may take the gambling quest if Mistress Tamako agrees.”

Cha Ching was grinning from ear to ear as they returned from the cabin, as he offered to share his chocolate with everyone.

As they were all eating a small piece of chocolate, Dropshot noticed Master Sam coming down from the side of the mountain, but she couldn’t see where the cave they were heading to was located. Dropshot looked longingly over to the cute cabin near the lake, thinking, “Jen did warn us that we would be roughing it in cave for a week or two. If they can kill the giant toad, why aren’t we staying in the cabin?”

Sam shook Dropshot out of her thoughts as he called out, “Melvin, Dropshot, kids, I can’t believe you’re here!” Sam’s AI had already linked with Jen’s and he knew Dropshot and the kids were there to learn how to make simple healing charms, but he didn’t think it would be polite to skip past the small-talk.

Melvin replied, “It has been quite an adventure so far! Thank you for having us. Unfortunately, I will need to return with Mistress Jen and Tamako tomorrow, but Dropshot, Trifecta, and Cha Ching, will be able to stay for a couple of weeks.”

Sam gave them an inviting smile, “That’s great. It gets boring out here all by myself. Follow me back to the cave. It will be a little tight for everyone with my lab all set up, but it’s still comfortable. Also, follow my path up to the cave exactly, or… you’ll probably die.”

Tamako marveled at how her AI connected with Sam’s, and how she could already see in her vision, all the mechanical and magical traps outlined in red. When Jen hollered, “What the hell happened?” Tamako quit looking at all the traps, and over to where Jen was starring daggers at Sam and his tiny hand.

Sam said, “Surprise! I gave myself a hand job!”

Tamako almost burst out laughing and thought to herself, I wonder how long Sam’s been waiting to say that to Jen.

Jen turned beet red as she said, “Sam! There are kids here!”

Sam noticing Dropshot’s disapproving look, and quickly apologized to everyone, while Jen messaged Sam asking, “Why isn’t your AI updating me with everything you’ve done since we left.”

As Sam grinned, he signaled with his tiny hand for everyone to follow him, and as he started walking up the side of the mountain heading for their cave, he messaged Jen and Tamako, “If my AI told you everything, there wouldn’t be any surprises.”

Before Jen could reply, Tamako messaged, “I won the bet. He did something dangerous. You owe me a pedicure.”

Jen huffed, and messaged, “We don’t know that yet. Sam, did you do something dangerous?”

Sam thought he might have a way out, as he remembered the words of a wise man, Deny Everything, and Make Counter Accusations, and replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and don’t get mad at me. You keep secrets too. Your AIs didn’t tell me about your bet!”

Jen easily spotted Sam’s tactic, and asked again, “Did you do anything dangerous or not?”

Sam grunted, and messaged, “Depends on how you define dangerous? Also, what exactly was your bet?”

Tamako replied, “If you did something dangerous, she would owe me a pedicure.”

Sam jumped back into the message conversation before Jen could reply, and turned back to look at her with a sneaky grin, “Then Jen owes you at least a dozen pedicures.”

Jen could tell the two were trying to get her off the subject, and she decided to let it go for the moment, but she felt it was her duty to Kelly, to keep the old man safe, or at least safe-ish. Jen then turned to check on their guests, after sensing they were struggling to hike the short way up the side of the mountain, and said, “Don’t worry, as I promised on the trip here, I will help all of you raise your physical stats and get in much better shape.”

Trifecta and Cha Ching were excited about getting strong, Melvin was relieved that he had to head back to the merchant’s guild the next day, and Dropshot had no interest in Working Out, as Jen had described it, and tried to politely decline for at least the 4th time, “Mistress Jen, you are already doing too much for us. We just couldn’t accept such training, that is sure to take too much time out of your day.”

Jen considered for the thousandth time, why do so many farmers, merchants, and others that aren’t adventurers in the guilds, simply have no interest in improving themselves. Actually, many of the guards and adventurers also quit trying to improve themselves once they get to a certain level, unless they can buy some sort of no-effort scroll or armor to increase their power. So many people were fine with whatever they had, good or bad, and just lacked any kind of passion. Is that why The System created gambling quests? Of course, wasn’t that also true back on Earth. There were many people that were unhappy or bored, but not willing to put in the work to make changes. Of course, if someone was actually happy, and wasn’t constantly complaining about their lot in life, who was she to judge. Jen shrugged off her thoughts, and replied to Dropshot, “It’s not a problem. When I return from taking Melvin back, it will be a joy to help you.”

The air became wetter and colder as they hiked upwards, and Melvin was thinking, “I’m so glad I’m leaving tomorrow. I don’t know if Dropshot and the kids can handle this. What’s the best way to tell them that Dropshot and the kids won’t be able to stay? What have I gotten us into? And where in The Seven Decks is this Cave?!”

Only another 20 yards up the mountain, Dropshot groaned to herself, Finally! As they walked behind a boulder, and approached a small cave entrance covered with a gray-colored leather tarp, and a leather-skinned door. Her face paled at the sight of its dingy appearance.

“Coretesy of yours truly, I have prepared this little home away from home,” Sam announced.

When Jen looked at Tamako with a questioning look for why Sam was acting like such an idiot, Tamako replied, “How should I know.”

As Dropshot entered through the grungy door, with her family following behind her, she came to a sudden stop, and said, “Wow, it’s really big!”

Sam immediately messaged Jen and Tamako with, “That’s what she said! Also, quit looking so shocked. I’ll explain later.”

Melvin also commented, “You can see so well in here, and the temperature is perfect!”

Trifecta walked over to look at one of the stones emitting light, but paused asking, “Can I touch it?”

Ohhhh, how Sam wished Jen would give him such an opening, but he replied to Trifecta and her family, “Everything, except my lab over there, is safe. Feel free to look around.” He then pointed, and said, “Through that door is a bedroom and bathroom, another bedroom and bathroom through that door, through that door is my lab, behind that boulder is an escape tunnel, and we are all standing in the open floor plan, living room and kitchen.”

Cha Ching scrunched up his nose thinking about trying to sleep with such a horrible smell nearby, and asked, “Master Sam, why did you put outhouses in the bedrooms?”

Dropshot said to Cha Ching, “Don’t ask such ungrateful questions.” She then said to Sam, Jen, and Tamako, “This is a lovely place. Much better than I ever expected as we travelled here. Thank you so much for having us.”

Jen could tell that Melvin, his wife, and kids were overwhelmed after they’d been shown how the bathrooms and the kitchen worked. She set Melvin’s family up in the larger bedroom so they could relax, and then messaged Sam, “Enough surprises and joking around, I need some answers.”

Sam said to Jen and Tamako, “Follow me to my lab while Melvin and his family get some rest after their long trip.”

As Tamako was walking towards Sam’s lab, she burst out laughing when she overheard Cha Ching say from the bedroom, “Master Sam is one weird dude, especially with that creepy little hand of his.” Followed by Dropshot shushing and scolding him.

Inside Sam’s lab, Tamako noticed Sam was setting up his privacy rods, so they could speak confidentially. Tamako thought, Did Jen take some kind of calming potion, as she noticed Jen sitting down, and patiently waiting for Sam to finish. Tamako was so distracted by Jen’s state of relaxation, she almost missed the storage ring Sam threw at her.

Sam said, “Focus on the ring, and think of ‘Sam’s Door’. Half the stuff is yours. I was hoping Slim might’ve come back with you two. Don’t take anything out, and don’t let your AI tell Jen what you see. I want her to see it for herself.”

A moment later, Tamako replied, “Ohhh my!” She then handed the ring to Jen.

Jen was no longer looking relaxed after seeing Tamako’s reaction. She inspected the ring as Sam indicated, and thought to herself, O.K., a few dozen potions. Wow, almost three thousand in coin. What’s a mindstone, and what’s a Crane Claw duplicate body? And, Holy Shitttttttt. Jen looked at Tamako, and then to Sam, and asked, “Why can’t we take either of them out?”

Sam wiggled his little hand fingers at Jen, and said, “Well, I only took out one of the dungeon cores, because the other belongs to Slim. I hope that was O.K. with you Tamako?”

“Of course, what’s mine is yours.”

Sam replied, “Great, I’m glad I didn’t act incorectly.”

Tamako just rolled her eyes at his words, and said, “Oh Sam, were all those comments early supposed to be stupid puns? That is so sad. I will not say more, and save your further embarrassment.” Jen shook her head and bowed it in disbelief at his antics for a second, then added, “That is kind of you Tamako. Now Sam, what happened when you took the dungeon core out of the storage ring?”

Sam grinned, “I dropped it out of the ring and into my hand. It started draining my mana and absorbing my hand. Like it was pulling me into it. For some reason I couldn’t drop it or let go of it. It’s no surprise that it found me to be finger-licking good! But I’m already spoken for, so I grabbed my short sword and chopped my hand off at the wrist.”

Jen’s entire face had concern and fear written all over it. Tamako knew how important Sam was to her, and she reached over squeezing Jen’s hand reassuringly, and said, “He’s fine, and it could have happened to any of us.”

Jen’s AI helped remind her to keep her composure, and to temporarily send her fear and anxiety into a multi-focus to meditate on. Jen then said, “I love you old man. Please consider waiting for us to be around to back you up next time. Anyway, what happened next?”

Tamako was certain that Sam looked more guilty at Jen’s words, than if she’d gotten mad at him. Then Sam explained, “Before I could wave the storage device in the direction of the dungeon core, a System Message popped up in my vision. It said that I’d linked with the dungeon core, and gave me the option to place the core for the creation of a linked System dungeon, or private management of the dungeon core.”

Jen commented, “Tell me you just closed the notice and stored the core.”

“I couldn’t. The System wouldn’t let me close the notice. I was forced to pick one of the options, so I picked the private management option. I’m sure there is more to it, but after I selected the private management option, I could interact with its menu system. It’s basically an annoying death-sponge and replicator, that run off of mana.”

Tamako asked, “What is a death-sponge and replicator?”

Sam frowned slightly at his own frustration in coming up with the best way to explain, “Yea, not the best name, that’s just what I cam up with to try and describe it. In the menu system, it gave me the ability to hold it, as well as the option to turn on/off, and direct its matter absorption capabilities. As the core’s manager, when it’s not in the ring, I can constantly sense its never-ending hunger. It’s quite annoying. It can absorb anything, as long as it has mana. It needs mana to absorb inanimate objects, like the rock in the cave walls.”

Jen nodded, “So that’s how you expanded the cave!”

“Exactly, but I had to feed it mana. When a little vicious horned lizard had gotten stuck in one of my traps, the dungeon core greedily absorbed the lizard, its mana, and its essence. Now, if I supply the core with a ton of mana, I have the option of having the core create any of the minerals that it absorbed from the cave wall, or even the horned-lizard. When I say supply it with a lot of mana, I mean a LOT of mana. I had it absorb an ant, and it took two days of my mana for it to re-create an ant. It even gives me the option to re-create my body, either animated or un-animated. It would probably take months of feeding the core enough mana to replicate my entire body. So, I think it only needs to absorb enough to get the DNA. I’m guessing that’s how a copy of Captain Crane Claw’s body ended up in the ring.”

Jen immediately jumped to the same conclusion Sam was considering, “The mindstone and the body must be some kind of fail-safe device in case Captain Crane Claw was killed. We could use the dungeon core to make replica bodies for us, and replicate the mindstone to bring any of us back if we were killed.”

Tamako replied, “Assuming that’s what the mindstone does.”

Sam nodded, “Exactly. I haven’t touched the mindstone or anything else in the ring. Actually, since it’s your core Tamako’s, I was hoping you could drop some blood on the dungeon core, and see if you can take over as its private manager. It’s yours, and I’ve got other things to work on.”

Tamako shook her head and pointed to Jen, as she said, “Hun, your way better at stuff like this than me, why don’t you take over as the private manager.”

Jen huffed, “Fine. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that both of you are passing the ball on this to me. Plus, we’ll need to negotiate with Slim for the mindstone.”

A few minutes later, after Jen dribbled blood all over the dungeon core, she said, “Good news, and bad news.” While storing the dungeon core back into the ring. Obviously, I was able to take over as its private manager, that’s the good news. The bad news, it appears to have reset. The only DNA it now has is mine, and any material from the cave rock it absorbed, is also gone.”

Jen then motioned to Tamako, “Get your sword ready. I’m going to take the dungeon core out again. Sam, while I’m holding the core in my hand, I want you to dribble your blood on it. I want to see if that will cause me to lose management of the core. If it does, it may start absorbing my hand. Tamako, just remove my fingers if possible.” To Jen’s great relief, and those of her fingers, her physical control of the dungeon core didn’t allow the management to be taken over when Sam dropped blood on it.

Sam cheered, “Thank goodness! Not my problem anymore. Now, I can show you both my Big surprise!”