“What do you mean go back in there!” Sam exclaimed.

Jen looked at Slim, and then back to Sam, and replied, “Slim says that the dungeon threw everything it had at us to keep him from escaping, and the dungeon is going to need time to recover more mana before it can create more mobs. If we go in now, he’s confident that the two of us can take on the few ghouls or other mobs that might be remaining and recover a ton of loot.”

Sam’s system messages made it clear that his fire enchantment grenade had killed a metric shit-ton of ghouls, and his inner greed demon really wanted to get the loot, but he said, “The loot won’t do us any good if we’re dead. Now that he has escaped the dungeon, how do we know Slim over there isn’t simply trying to get us killed off?”

“We can discuss how I know later, but you were out for almost three hours, and Slim says if we don’t get the loot soon, the dungeon will absorb the loot in the next hour or two.”

“How does he know?” asked Sam.

“Please assume that everything Slim says is true, and decide if you want to go after the loot. I am still kind of freaked out right now from almost losing you, so if we don’t go back in there, it’s not that big a deal to me.”

Jen had split one of her focuses off on meditating to work through her emotions in order to stay functional after almost losing Sam.

He looked up at the trees in the area and asked, “I’ll follow your lead, Boss, but how much time did you say…?”

They spent about half an hour loading up on more logs before they entered the dungeon.

When they approached the first dead ghoul, Sam said, “Why don’t you collect the loot, while I keep watch?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Jen gave him the evil eye as she collected the loot, “You lazy ass, you just want me stuck doing the inventory.”

Sam knew he was guilty as charged but just kept his mouth shut and gave her a wide-eyed innocent puppy look.

Jen grumbled, “Your silence is an admission of guilt! You are going to owe me for this.” Jen knew her threat was hollow; she already kept and handled all their money and valuables. In reality, Jen was happy that Sam was joking around after almost dying, and she actually liked collecting and seeing the loot messages from the System.

Slim had been right: with them taking turns, providing cover for each other as they moved, they were easily able to log, firebolt, or shoot the few remaining ghouls that attacked them.

Jen was pressing her psych ability to its limits when they entered the large cavern at the bottom of the dungeon. In the middle of the room was a scroll lying on the floor. Jen slowly walked over and picked it up and placed it in her ring, and said, “I was worried it was some sort of trap, but it’s a Ninja Skill technique scroll. It’s not just a knife, sword, or bow technique scroll, but a complete Ninja skill technique scroll! The starting price for scrolls like this is at least 75 gold in the System Shop!”

“Wow, that’s cool, but there still may be a trap in here. Stay alert.” Replied Sam.

“Do you sense any hidden rooms or anything?” asked Jen.

Sam looked around but primarily continued to keep watch, and said, “Are you looking for hidden treasure rooms in addition to the scroll you just picked up?”

“No, Slim said that one of his slavers had a dungeon master ability where she could find the dungeon’s core and take control of it. Slim said he spent years searching for it while he was stuck here but finally gave up. Slim thought since I was not linked to the dungeon, maybe I could find it.”

Jen could sense that the strange mana originated from the cavern, but it just swirled around in the cavern, and she couldn’t locate its origination point, or anything she thought might be a dungeon core.

Jen stared again at the swirling pattern of the dungeon’s mana once again, and said, “Take a look at the pattern in which the dungeon is swirling its mana. It’s like a chain of spools connected together, with each spool releasing mana in a different direction. I wonder if we swirl the mana in our pool in a certain way it might have an impact on our mana pool size or regen ability.”

Sam shrugged, “We can give it a try, but let’s get out of here first.”

Jen said, “You’re right; we’ve pushed our luck enough. Let’s go.”