Jen and Sam said goodbye to Dropshot, Trifecta, and Cha Ching as they each entered The Shop’s teleporter returning to Bot Battle City. Sam raised his eyebrow at Jen when they were all finally gone. Jen held up her hands defensively, and said, “O.K., O.K. I owe you one. They were a handful, but at least Melvin’s family will always have a way to make money with the simple healing charms.”

Sam took in a deep breath of air through his nose, while raising an eyebrow, and said, “If they stick with the plan of simply reselling them from one of Melvin’s contacts, they should be fine. However, those kids are young, and they might get greedy or want recognition for their skills, or who knows what, and they will end up in a world of misery.”

Jen frowned at Sam as she replied, “Let it go boomer. People have to take care of themselves and take responsibility for their own actions at some point.”

Sam looked around at the crowd in The Shop as everyone else looked towards the door at a gambler being arrested by the guards. Always a catch 22, do I look at the commotion to avoid potential problems, or is the commotion a distraction, and I should be looking for trouble coming from another direction. At least Jen’s psych skill can usually sense emotional swings from hidden troubles, Sam thought. He then said, “Is Slim nearby yet?”

Jen didn’t need her psych skill to tell that Sam was getting paranoid about something, “You getting one of those gut feelings?”

Sam looked around and thought about their surroundings before answering,, “No, it’s just nerves. Something, I don’t know what, has triggered some old memories.” He paused, took a deep breath, and said, “Nothing like multi-focus and meditation to throw off old thoughts.”

Jen knew from past conversations that she wasn’t going to get Sam to actually address the emotional trauma of losing his friends in combat. I can’t wait to get Kelly back. She’ll know how to handle him, she thought. Jen then answered Sam’s question, “Slim will be waiting for us at the Inn.” Then she touched her finger to the Ear-loop and said, “Tamako is on her way.”

===

Sam and Jen simply nodded at Tamako when she arrived through the teleporter, wanting to get out of The Shop, find a private place, and change their anonymity masks again. They weren’t certain who might be watching and/or tracking incoming adventurers.

Everyone in Crossroads was tense with the threatening signals coming from just across the river in Plinko City. If the Oracle Quest didn’t start soon, Jen thought the pent up energy might result in an all-out conflict between the two small towns.

As they neared the Inn, Slim was already there and waiting on them, and said, “Forget the Inn. Crane Claw is on his way here. He is making a personal appearance to signal to Plinko City to back off. I’ve found out there’s a noble over in Plinko City that rents out houses, or more likely shacks, to adventuring parties that are waiting on the Oracle Quest to start.” Slim paused for effect, and then continued, “Unless you would prefer to just wait for Crane Claw, and then we can kill him first!”

“No!” Jen replied quickly, hoping to cut off any agreements from Tamako or Sam.

Slim smirked, “Worth a try.”

Tamako asked, “Why don’t we head back to the Cave?”

Sam replied, “I need 5 or 6 days in a City to work on some enchantments, where I can get access to different supplies and materials more quickly.”

Jen continued, “And while he does that, you and I need to find out more information about the Oracle Quest. While it’s clear the return teleportation will send you directly to one of The Shops in Domino Hill’s territory. There’s all kinds of disagreements about where and how the teleportation pads send you to the Oracle Deck.”

===

There wasn’t a bridge connecting Crossroads and Plinko City, but there were a significant number of merchant boats going back and forth between the two towns,and they were able to find a boat to take them across fairly easily. However, it was late afternoon before they were finally settled in a rental shack on the edge of town. Surprisingly, it was fairly large with four bedrooms and a living area, but it was in terrible condition. Fortunately, it was actually a good location, because they had about half an acre of land for privacy. There were also many other shacks nearby with adventurers that Jen felt she could eavesdrop on, in hopes of finding out about the Oracle Deck.

After Sam finished setting up a perimeter security system, and silencing rods inside the shack, Slim demanded to Tamako, “give me my loot.”

Jen had already negotiated with Slim, and they’d agreed he would get everything except the mind-stone, the core Jen was experimenting with, and 1,000 of the gold that Tamako had already spent in Bot City using the recall arena for training her Killing Intent.

Slim eyed Lady Domino’s ring and removed the dungeon core by dropping it directly onto the floor. Everyone watched with anticipation, as Slim sniffed the core before looking up at Jen.

Jen replied to Slim’s unasked question, “Its mana feels different than the core I’ve been experimenting with. It also doesn’t feel like the mana from either of the other two dungeons we’ve been in.”

Slim used one of his claws to prick his other paw and drop blood on the core.

Jen received a System Message:

System Message:

Your bonded mana cat has obtained control of a dungeon core. Would you like to:

A. Place the core for the creation of a linked System dungeon.

B. Enable private management of the dungeon core

C. Give control of the core to your bonded mana cat? Warning!!! Your bonded mana cat may use the dungeon core to break the mana-bond it has with you.

Jen selected option “C” giving control of the core to Slim, and then Slim received a System Message.

System Message:

A. Return control of the core to your Mistress.

B. Consume the core and use its power to break the mana-bond with your Mistress.

C. Consume the core and use its power to evolve your nature. Warning!!! Evolution will cause incapacitation for a short amount of time.

System Gambling Quest

D. Consume the core and break the bond with your Mistress. Kill your Mistress within 24 hours. Reward - regain all your lost levels from creating the mana-bond, and receive all of your Mistress’s ability points for your personal use.

Slim Thought about Option D, not about actually accepting it, but just how nice it would be to have all his levels back, and how he would spend that many ability points. Slim thought to himself, how absurd! I’m already as evolved as anything can become, but maybe it’s an evolution of strength. Slim allowed Jen to see the quests through their bond, and asked her, “What do you think about the evolution option?”

Jen read the quests and replied, “I love you too Slim.”

Slim rolled his eyes, and said, “Oh my god! Keep that up, and I will select option D!”

Jen laughed, as she thought about the evolution option, “It doesn’t say in what way or how long you will be incapacitated. Of course, I’ll take care of you, but The System is usually trying to be sneaky when it adds vague terms to its messages.”

As Slim moved to replace the dungeon core into the ring, Jen asked, “How can you move to store the ring again after activating it? Sam and I were forced to select an option before storing the core.”

Slim gave Jen the same look of superiority that cats have been giving people for hundreds of years, then said, “Obviously, I’m better than you or this core, and it knows not to test my patience.” He then swept the core back into his ring.

Jen was surprised that Slim didn’t select option C, and said, “What if it doesn’t give you the same option when you take it out of the ring again?”

Slim started walking towards the door, and said, “I don’t need anything a dungeon core has. I’m already fabulous!” He was also wondering if Sam could break into the storage rings he’d looted from his old mistress Vicki Chang, but he didn’t like the idea of letting others know too much about what treasures he kept hidden.

Tamako called out to Slim before he left, “Are you going to check on how much Lady Domino’s bounty ticket is?”

Slim could open the door, but he liked to give Log work to do, and he figured Log could handle the duties of a doorman, so he just turned his head looking impatiently at Sam, until Sam walked over and opened the door for him, and then he replied to Tamako, “I have her bounty ticket, that is a much better trophy than a bunch of gold.”