Fenrir

"What is an orb?" I ask Dawn without taking my attention away from the thing.

Dawn freezes in place before saying, "An orb is something that contains World Energy of a certain element. Someone can use it to gain an enormous boost in their cultivation as long as they have the right orb for their element!"

"A boost in cultivation..." I mutter as I make the orb float out of the thief's pocket.

"Wait, what's that?" I hear one of the other intruders say from above.

When I glance at the intruders, I realize that they are all staring at the floating orb.

Shit! I was so focused on the item that I forgot about the other intruders!

Did they already press the last button?

I quickly have the orb float to one of the monster exits within the room and close the exit after it enters.

Luckily the exit hadn't closed yet, as they had only just pressed the button before one of them noticed the orb.

The intruders stare agape at where the hole was without a word for several minutes.

One of the intruders eventually seems to realize something and snaps out of it.

"Wasn't that the special orb that the Collector sold earlier at the Guild? The one that they couldn't identify the element of?" The intruder says in confusion.

The exits of the room slam open before the others can answer, distracting them from the orb for a moment.

Collector?

Is that where the intruder got the orb?

The leader turns back to where the orb left the room and says, "I think that was the special orb, but wasn't it stolen?"

"Yeah, I heard that as well. It was stolen soon after the buyer handed it to his assistant," the third intruder says before asking, "So, does that mean that Carl was a thief?"

"It looks like it," the leader says with a frown.

I slowly move the orb through my dungeon and down towards my core.

So that intruder stole the orb then?

"I hope he didn't steal anything from us," the second intruder says with a worried look on their face.

The leader turns to them before saying, "I doubt it. He never got close enough to steal anything. Carl was always too distant from us to even get the chance."

"That's true," the second intruder says with a relieved look on his face.

"The question we should be asking," the party leader says, "is why the dungeon would want that orb."

Oh shit.

This could be a problem.

The third intruder suddenly says, "Who cares why! We should just leave already!"

Or not?

Did he lose his patience or something?

"Right," the leader says before turning to the bridge towards the exit leading back to the surface.

He then sheaths his sword and begins walking as he says, "Let's head back to the surface."

"I wonder why that thief went into the dungeon with the orb?" I hear Dawn mutter in confusion, attracting my attention towards her.

"Good point. You would think that he would store it somewhere safe before coming here," I say as the orb arrives in my core room.

Now, let's see what happens when I touch my core with the orb.

I slowly move the orb towards my core as Dawn watches with anticipation.

The moment the orb touches my core, I feel a large surge of void World Energy enter my core through it.

Holy shit, that is a lot more than I was expecting!

I open my status to see the percentage shoot up one percent every few seconds.

"Dawn! This is a lot of progress!" I shout at Dawn in excitement at seeing the numbers on my status go up so quickly.

Dawn giggles in anticipation before she says, "Yep. Orbs are pretty amazing."

The flow of void World Energy from the orb remains constant for about two entire minutes before slowing down to a trickle as the percentage on my status stops climbing.

Name: Fenrir

Race: Dungeon Core

Element: Void

EXP Level: 5

EXP: 28/60

Cultivation Level: 3

Cultivation to next Level: 96%

Mana: 50/50

Secondary Tabs: Dungeon Status, Skills List, Talents List, Achievements List

The massive progress given to my cultivation by the orb leaves me completely speechless.

A few minutes pass by like this until Dawn asks me, "How much more cultivation do you need to reach CL 4?"

Her question breaks me out of my daze as I look at my status again and excitedly tell her, "I only need 4% more to reach CL 4!"

Dawn's flame bursts outwards and changes to a bright red as she shouts, "Really?! You should be able to start the fifth floor soon then!"

"Yep!" I exclaim as the orb crumbles to dust after expelling all of its void World Energy.

That orb just saved me entire months' worth of time that I would have spent cultivating!

I look at the pit where the intruder had died in order to find his body.

Thank you, thief, for stealing the orb and bringing it to me.

Leon

"What have you been up to since we left the dungeon?" I ask Kat as we walk towards my manor.

Kat looks surprised as she answers, "Not much. I did talk with my father to give him an update, but aside from that, I have just been taking it easy waiting for the party to do a quest or something."

I wince before saying, "Sorry about that. I have been a little busy."

She turns to me and says, "I know. It's not your fault. You have had a lot to deal with ever since we came back from the dungeon."

I don't say anything and continue walking as she follows me in silence.

Now that I think about it, why is she following me anyways?

We soon arrive at my manor and begin heading towards my office.

"When do you think we will be going back into the dungeon?" Kat suddenly asks, breaking the silence.

I tilt my head upwards for a second before looking forwards again and saying, "Probably tomorrow morning."

Kat suddenly stops moving and says, "That soon?"

I stop and turn around before saying, "Yep. As long as the others can make it that is."

Kat looks down without a word and falls silent.

What's up with her today?

She looks up again after several seconds and says, "That works with me. I have to go check on something, so I will see you tomorrow."

She gives a brief nod of her head before turning to leave.

That was strange.

I shrug before turning back around and continuing towards my office.

If something was wrong, then she would either tell me, or not.

It's not my place to snoop.

I reach my office a few minutes later and enter before closing the door behind me.

Time to do some more paperwork.

Hooray...

Before I can sit down, a knock can be heard from my office door.