Just like adventurers Guild Master said the next day no one was exploring the dungeon. Everyone checks the surroundings of the oasis for any more surprises. Thankfully they find nothing. However, the animals in the oasis were reacting to the mood of the dungeon mistress. Birds were hiding in nests or sitting on branches and doing nothing. Frogs hide under leaves. Cat when someone bumps into him hiss and runs away.

  Because nothing changed the next morning Lucius decided that he and his team would go first and try contact with the Dungeon Mistress. This time, the commander Serator, and both grand priests join them. The run wasn't the shortest but relatively easy. It was room one, then two, three, shrine, number ten and twelve.

  "So we wait?" Asked Paoli when they arrived at the final floor.

  "We wait. We can't even get near the jungle." Guild Master confirms.

  They don’t need to wait too long. However, it wasn't a Dungeon Mistress. From between trees rise enormous snakes and start looking at them menacingly.

  "Fucking great we just met the champion of this floor and it’s fucking huge snake who can eat even our Grand Priest of The Sun without blinking," Erirser swore.

  "Yes. That is most likely true." Jathur hesitantly agrees.

  "Maybe you can try to talk to him?" Pinera suggested. "For me looks quite intelligent."

  "I will try." Minotaur decided and stepped a few pieces forward. "Greetings mighty champion of Dungeon Mistress of On Taram Oasis. I’m Juntar, Grand Priest of The Sun. We are here because we are worried about the well-being of your mistress. We can’t ask her personally, because we can't step into this jungle. Because of that, I'm asking if you could tell her we are worried about her and waiting." The snake looked at the minotaur not moving even the slightest, only his forked tongue was appearing and disappearing. Then a second giant snake appears. Slightly smaller and darker but still enormous. Both looked at each other. After a few minutes, the smaller one disappeared between trees.

  "That is cheating," Nurmela whispered. You can’t have two giant snakes as guardians."

  "What if they aren’t," Nonisa whispered back.

  "Fuck." Nurmela swore." "I don’t won't know what can be more dangerous than those snakes."

  "Agree," Said Iason.

  It took almost an hour for the smaller snake to be back. Thankfully, on his back was Dungeon Mistress. The giant snake carefully crossed the water and lowered its body so that its passenger could slide down to the ground.

  "Thank you." Naomi stroked the snake. "You can go back. We will talk and I will be right back in the moment." Snake goes back hesitantly to the jungle and vanishes. However, all the adventures were sure that he was there. Observing and waiting for any excuse for an attack.

  "So what is going on this time?" Dungeon Mistress asked. She wasn't looking good. Unkempt hair, and she put on her trousers and shirt without care.

  "Dungeon Mistress, this is the second day after the fight, and we see you don’t feel well," Jathur said.

  "And how can I feel after killing all these people?" Naomi answered.

  "With due respect, but we warned you that it will end in bloodshed and we should do that," Commander said.

  "And standing and watching how some of you die. Great." Naomi sight.

  "Dungeon Mistress. Thank you for caring about us." Guild Master step forward. "However, I have a question for you."

  "Yes?"

  "What was the plan?"

  "To stop them." Naomi shrugs.

  "And you did that."

  "But I failed. They are dead!" Naomi shouts.

  "Luci, move back. I don’t have all day for that." Paoli said to his husband. "Dungeon Mistress, with all respect to your spoiled ass. Are you going to give up? If so, I plan to pack my things, catch the first caravan with my husband, and find a better place."

  "Give up?" Naomi starts looking at her stunned.

  "Yes, give up. I don't know how your world looks, but it sounds like paradise where everyone is nice to each other. Well, you can be just a sheltered princess. It doesn't matter. Here we all kill each other every day. We try not to. I like to fight, but I only kill when I have to. But I can’t, we all can’t give up just because we don’t like killing. Do you know why?"

  "No." Naomi barely noticed the conversation, because of the turmoil of her emotions and thoughts.

  "Because the fucking cultist will win. They want to take away everything from us, enslave us, or just kill us I don’t know. Doesn't matter. None of us will be allowed to have free will. Your future master for example will say that he wants you to be a dancer and you will be dancing and never craft anything."

  "Never build anything?" Naomi's voice starts changing. There was a hint of building anger.

  "Yes. I bet the raid was their doing. I am not a scholar, but I have seen and heard how the bandits behaved in your labyrinth, I bet their minds were poisoned."

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  "This is confidential information, but we have evidence of that" Commander interrupted.

  "See. I won that bet. And now I bet that on the same day when news about you giving up because of those stupid bandits, zombies start dancing. The necromancers will be so happy when you surrender."

  "Oh really?" Naomi was now pissed. She was so mad that even the clouds changed from grey to dark and stormy.

  "Dungeon Mistress, please calm down," Pinera said.

  "I’m very calm right now." Naomi smiled dangerously. "I assure you, if I wouldn't, I would do something stupid to kick the cultists' asses. I forgot I gave up everything in my previous life and I promised myself I wouldn't give up this time. So I thank you all for caring for me and helping me remember."

  "Are you feeling better now?" Grand Priestess asked.

  "I don’t know," Naomi answered. "Right now I'm mostly angry. But depressed too. But it’s none of your fault. It's my fault. I forgot that I'm living now in your world and I should at least respect your way of doing things and don’t force my and my world ideas on you. Please tell me, if you see that I will be doing something like that in the future."

  "Of course, Dungeon Mistress." Jathur bowed. "I must apologize too. We underestimated the situation and because of that, we failed to teach you about our world."

  "I don’t think it will change much, it was just three days," Naomi said. "However I gladly accept your offer to learn more about this world, my new home."

  "Splendid. You are welcome anytime. We will try to answer any of your questions."

  "I will have a lot of them," Naomi answered. "For now I need some time to get ready for work. Maybe an hour or two for a nap and a hot bath to get your emotions under control."

  "Understood. Rest well. And we are to your disposition, of course." Grand Priest of The Sun said.

  "Thank you all again," Naomi said when they entered the magic ring.

  Above ground when adventurers appeared they saw almost all the people gathered and waiting for them.

  "Everything is all right." Adventurers Guild Master said. "You can explore the dungeon once again."

  The crowd momentarily starts cheering and preparing to explore.

  For Naomi, it took a few hours more before she was calm enough to concentrate on the task that awaited her.

  "Ok, first thing. How do I stay with mana?" She opened her path and stared at the panel disbelieving. "Fucking shit!" She swore. According to her estimates, with the adventurers continuously exploring the first floor for half a day, she will have the mana needed to create the next floor after eleven days. Two weeks actually, because daily needs also use mana. Now she also knows how many people she needs to kill. Just twenty. She didn’t know how much more she would need for the third floor, but she suspected she had enough mana.

  "Time to work. No more giving up. The first thing is some cheating Death. Sorry, but I promised you." She said looking at the ceiling. She takes from a shelf full of sketches, one has a drawing of a pendant.

  She followed her usual route for creating things. First, she prepared a form for the pendant. Then she poured molten gold inside it. When everything was cooling she prepared a leather strap for it. Thanks to magic, what takes hours passes almost immediately so she doesn't need to wait for anything. She breaks the form carefully, cleans the pendant, and then starts feeling grooves of engraving with different metals. On the other side with magic silver, she filled runes. Naomi was disappointed because she lacked all the magical and mythical metals. There was no mithril, orichalcum, or adamantium. However, smelters, alchemists, or engravers can create magical counterparts of mundane metals. The process was hard and complicated and quantities of metals were usually small. Because of that magical metals were used to engrave runes, or paths for mana to course through artifacts. When she finishes she carefully checks if everything works just as planned. Then she wrote a small note, attached it to a strap, and placed a pendant in the chest in the twelve room.

  Soon after, the third team for this day arrived at the final room of the first floor. Adventurers swiftly managed to cross rolling cylinders. The simplest method they used was to hold it by someone then another person could move across. The second method was to use rope. Usually, scouts run across the cylinder, turn the crank, and block it with rope. Surprisingly some adventurers use this opportunity to swim through and climb on platforms. The water was clear and fresh, not necessarily drinkable but for fast refresh just enough.

  "Miu, grab silver and we are going back." Daien, an elven warrior said.

  "On it." The human sorceress confirms and with the help of her dagger slowly raises the lid of the small chest. It was tested that not even one chest on this floor was rigged, but rules are there for a reason. And one of them was never opening the chest with your hand. "Oh my." She said after seeing the golden amulet. Miu carefully took it.

  "Oh shit! Golden amulet!" Shouts halfling Sihar, they scout.

  "Magical golden amulet." Miu corrected, carefully inspecting the runes. "I can't say what this amulet does, but runes look familiar."

  "And the other side?" Daien asked.

  "Just a profile of a girl with red hair and a white and blue dress. She holds some strange creature. Dog maybe?"

  "And the note?"

  "Let me read it. 'When you get stuck with no way out. When you won your battles but can't go anymore. Yell "Kansas" and I'll take you home."

  "Poetry, ble," Sihar said.

  "Grand Forge Master should see this first." Daien decided.

  "Obviously."

  A new finding gathered a crowd, in the adventurers' guild tent. Grand Forge Master for dozens of minutes watched an amulet from every side, murmuring to himself.

  "Grand Forge Master, can you tell us anything?" Lucius asked.

  "Right. So, good news it’s safe. These runes are from the dungeon return ring and adding to that note means that it is for a fast return from the dungeon if you are stuck. That note sounds like you can use it only when you are safe. It should be tested first."

  "How much is it worth, Grand Forge Master." The leader of adventurers who found it asked.

  "At best one gold."

  "Sir, it’s almost like two gold coins by weight."

  "True. However, the pendant is useful only here. For others, they need to smelt it. That will be a pain in the ass to do and purify gold. You should find someone who needs every scrap of gold for that."

  "And nobles?"

  "Depending on how frequently they will be found. But for them soon these pendants will be worthless."

  "Do you keep it, or sell it?" Guild Master asked.

  "One gold?" Daien asked.

  "Five silver."

  "What?! The Grand Forge Master said it's worth one gold."

  "For desperate smelter. I'm not."

  "We keep it."

  "Good. I have a task for you and your men. Check out how the amulet works. A full report will be worth one gold."

  "I like that." Elf smiled. "What do we need to do?"

  "Like the Grand Forge Master said. Try to use it after disarming the trap, and before."

  "Easy money." Sihar smiled.

  They went immediately to the dungeon and did that. The dwarven priest's suspicions turn out to be true. You can’t use it until you don’t clear the room when you step in.