Jim's PoV

Jim couldn't believe he spent the last 3 days of his life just walking. The past three days were just as boring as the first 5 hours. Lame. Fortunately they had reached the alcove that Forrest had mention when beginning the journey. Giving it a cursory glance Jim agreed that it was a good spot.

The terrain formed a naturally high wall with an opening that even two men could hold. In the back there were stones that could be used as a stairway out. It made a decent emergency exit, but it would be the equivalent of jumping out from the third floor. Finally there was a small cave in the back away from the entrance. Not bad at all.

During the journey Forrest kept making comments about how odd it was that they had not encountered anything at all. But according to the man the area surrounding the temple was swarming with hostels and proposed keeping Maria and the former hostages safe. which meant splitting up.

Forrest claimed that he could stay hidden and Jim didn't fear anything in this world so long as he was awake, especially in the early game. So they went off in the morning to the temple while everyone else relaxed their weary legs. Before he left he gave each of his party members two elixirs each. The pair said their goodbyes and headed to the temple.

Forrest's PoV

Forrest was on edge. The lands beyond the territory that humans held always had hostile monsters of some kind. Their village knew that better than most because of the caves that sat right next to them. But for some reason not once had they been attacked. It wasn't natural.

With his new gear he almost blended entirely into the landscape but Jim still could easily follow him. Six hours later they reached their destination, and still not one creature was seen.

Upon reaching the temple Jim immediately found a door with glowing square symbols next to it.

Jim exclaimed "Yes! Exactly like the game! Glad we don't have to do those side quests to find out the password, would have taken forever at this rate."

Jim started pushing some of the glowing symbols and then the earth began to shake. Tense Forrest kept a lookout for anything hostile. But nothing happened besides the door opening.

"Yes! Worked like a charm! Lets go!"

Forrest whispered "Are you sure it's safe? What happens if we get locked in there?"

Jim said nonchalantly "Then I'll make a door. It's fine. Probably."

Forrest hissed "Probably?"

Jim shrugged and said "Don't rightly know what is going to happen. Normally an evil wizard named Zed gets the artifact, and afterwards it's just an empty temple."

Forrest nervously followed Jim and kept his eyes scanning.

After they entered a large room a booming voice yelled "Begone evil mortal! For I am a Keeper of Secrets and have seen the past, present and future! Should you complete the artifact it will only cause pain to the world while you end up as a corpse to the valiant protectors of all that is good! We have seen your coming and we..."

The voice suddenly stopped and an elderly ghost appeared in front of them. Forrest started backing away and reached for his bow. The man was transparent! A real ghost. Could his bow even hit ghosts?

The ghost came closer and started scrutinizing Jim from every angle while saying "Hrmmm."

After repeating the phrase a few more times he asked "Don't suppose you got another friend somewhere around? Old fellow about ye high gray hair and beard? Little bit on the chubby side?"

Forrest gulped but kept his mouth shut. Was this the evil wizard Jim was talking about?

Jim said "Nope, sorry. Just me and Forrest. So about this artifact..."

The ghost interrupted asking "Is your name Zed? Maybe your just here a little early and can come back later."

Jim smiled and replied "Sorry friend. The name is Jim, nice to meet you."

The ancient keeper then said "Well damn. We're normally pretty good at this. Got everything right for the last couple centuries. But if you beat the twin rock giants then I guess you get the treasure."

Jim questioned "Rock giants?"

The ghostly apparition said slowly "Yes. Sometimes called mountain giants? Giant rock guys around four times the height of a man? Three times as wide? Ring any bells?"

They both shook their heads. Rock giants? Real rock giants? Forrest shivered. They must have been really lucky.

The ancient keeper then said hopefully "What about the swarm of imps? You at least beat the imps right?"

They both shook their heads no again. The keeper then started angrily muttering under his breath about untrustworthy demon lords.

The figure asked hopefully "How about some clawed rats. Bigger rats that have talons like birds of prey. You killed at least a few of those right?"

Jim and Forrest glanced at each other and then Jim finally spoke up and said "No, sorry. You're the only other thing I've seen since entering the temple."

The ghost muttered angrily "Bloody lazy laggards. They had one job, just one! Useless all of them. It's so hard to get good help these days."

The figured sighed and said dejectedly "Well, your here so that means you won the treasure. Follow me."

Jim and Forrest followed the creature until they reached a room. Inside this next room the center floor was slightly elevated with a large wooden chest in the middle. It was lit up by brasiers on each of the four corners of the raised platform.

Then Jim shouted happily "Treasure Room!"

Forrest watched Jim fiddle with the flat magic rock and then set it down. To his and the keepers astonishment the magic rock started playing music! It was a slow piece filled with a building anticipation. Finally Jim walked over to the box, opened it and then thrust the object that was inside over his head.

The music cut off and the box started speaking in a weird fashion saying "You have found the ancient artifact! Collect two more to unlock its power!"

Forrest could only watch the display in confusion. Looking to the ghost his thoughts seemed to mirror his own.

Jim must have picked up on it when he said "Sorry, just something I always wanted to do since I was a kid."

Forrest asked confused "The magic box can talk?"

Jim shrugged and said "Kind of. I can tell it what to say. It is the magic of text-to-speech! Still sounds a bit robotic but its been getting better."

Forrest shook his head. Every question seemed to only bring more questions. Looking at the glowing golden triangle he wondered if he should even ask.

Jim's PoV

Jim looked down on the artifact in satisfaction. Normally the player never saw the artifact itself, which was probably why he was looking at this obviously plagiarized golden triangle. This world obviously used his gaming database to fill in those gaps. If this was a game Nintendo probably wouldn't be too happy with him right now. Shrugging he put it in his inventory. Jim thanked the Keeper of Secrets and made his way out of the temple.

As they were walking away Jim could hear the keeper mutter under his breath "Kids got it too easy these days. Back in my day adventures actually had to do something. Now they just walk in and get rewarded. I'm getting old"

Jim had his hearing sense turned up so he smiled at the comment. One down two to go.

Davis’ PoV

Davis had just finished eating what his sister prepared and it was delicious. He always loved her cooking. For some reason the older woman kept wanting to help, but his sister was very insistent on making the meals herself. Davis could tell the poor woman just wanted to feel useful. People always looked to do the familiar in uncertain times to kill the nerves.

The location that Forrest had chose to camp was great. He liked how defensible it was, not that anything attacked at all in the past 3 days.

It was then that Davis noted that the wolf pups had gone still with their ears cocked. Then in unison they raised their hackles. The wolf pups had never done that before. Glancing over to Scarlet he saw that she already had both daggers in hand.

In a loud commanding voice he said "Gwen and Maria, Out here now."

They had both been resting in the cave after the mid day meal. Now they both got up quickly and came outside as Davis tried to use all of his senses to figure out what the wolves had caught on to.

After they came out Gwen asked "What's going on?"

Davis said "I don't know but the wolves are picking up on something. Better safe than sorry. I want you to climb up the staircase to the platform above. It should give you a good angle to use your fire magic if it comes to it. Maria you too."

He could see Gwen didn't believe him but she did it anyway. Davis knew he was being overly cautious but he had never seen the wolves concerned about anything. And that is when he started to feel something. At first he thought a landslide was happening because there was a quiet shaking. Back at King's End they happened every now and then. The shaking grew more pronounced and the rumbling grew louder. But it was not a constant rumbling, more like a rhythmic drumming.

The wolves were growling as they stepped into the natural gap that blocked the entrance to the alcove. Still he could not see anything. The glare from the sun blinded him when looking to the outside. And then he saw it. In the distance he could see something that looked akin to black waves. It was almost entrancing till he realized what he was staring at. Demon imps. They were the weakest of the demons but were still formidable because they always attacked in great numbers. But why was the ground shaking like this?

Still his mind worked and he came to the conclusion that just putting bodies in the gap would not stop their flow. The small bodied creatures would find a way through, they needed something else. Finally he turned to Gwen who had just made her way on top of the cave and yelled "Gwen! Fire in the gap now! If they make it inside we will be surrounded!"

After he yelled the wolves backed off as the fireball screamed through the air. Seconds after the fire landed something massive came out of the flames. It was as tall as four men and thrice as wide. A mountain giant! No, not one, but two.

Davis thought there was no hope but then he saw the gap was too small and could only fit one giant at a time. The wolves positioned themselves so they could both attack while stopping it short of allowing its companion to get in. At first he thought there was no hope. How could teeth bite stone?

But to his surprise the bites were powerful. The hearty bites cause the massive giant to bleed sand. But that is when the imps found a path through the fire. The wolves killed some easily but couldn't stop them all while fending off the giants as well. Scarlet stepped forward and started dispatching the ones on the wolves flanks to free them up for fending off the giants.

His mind went to the former prisoners. Glancing into the cave he could see their sleeping forms. There was nothing he could do for them. They would have to depend on their luck to save them this day.

That's when things became very simple for him. He had to protect the base of the staircase to protect Gwen and Maria. Against swarming enemies covering everything in fire was their best bet. His world narrowed down to the opponents in front of him. His sword sang and he felled the demons one by one. Davis's new armor made the blows against him feel weak and feeble.

He could see fire in the distance and heard the sound of the mighty blasts but he had no time to look. Twice he felt a light touch on his back and then felt vigor flood his body. Many more times he felt a warmth that stopped his bleeding. He kept his sword rhythmically moving and killed all that was in front of him.

And that was when the rats swarmed. The rats had razor claws but they were no match for his armor, but they were like the sea, he could not stop them all. He felt an impact and heat behind him but he kept his focus. Should he turn his back now it would only compound the problem. They would have to deal with it.

He kept fighting. Through the endless fight thrice the fire machine paused until there was a breaking of glass and it started anew.

There was a lull in the fighting and he looked up. Glancing up to his sister he found that Scarlet had made her way up there to fight off the rats. He was relieved when he saw them all alive. Looking towards the gap he saw one of the giants had gotten ahold of the wolf Princess. He had her right fore paw in a grip and was slamming her over and over into the ground. Fluffy was viciously fighting to keep it in the gap but then Princess's limb broke. In the hand of the giant was a wolf limb while Princess rocketed into the wall.

They had no chance without the wolves. He knew what he had to do. He rushed over cutting his way to the downed wolf. He took out one of the vials at his belt forcing it down the throat of his comrade at arms. Then Princess was back and like a shot ran to her companions aid.

But to his horror the imps were on top of Fluffy tearing him apart. The wolf held the line. If Fluffy had taken the time to rid himself of the imps on his back both of the giants would have been through the gap. Princess came in like a rocket disintegrating those on Fluffy but he could see that the imps had taken their toll. The wolf was now moving sluggishly. The choice was simple once again.

He took his last vial out and roared "Fluffy!"

The dog glanced at him and he threw the vial at Fluffy and the dog caught it. The wolf lifted his chin up and chewed down on the vial in a crack of sound. Once again the wolf was back in the fight.

Davis was slowing down and tried to make it back to the base of the stairs. There was another lul in the storm of fire as he heard a glass vial shattering. He glanced up to see Gwen roasting most of the stuff around her. Still a few got through but Scarlet was efficiently cutting them down. He then heard a massive crash behind him.

Glancing back he could see the wolves had defeated one of the giants! They were going to win! He fought with all that he had once again and his existence was the enemies before him. He cut and he chopped and he hacked at them. A final lull in casting and a final crack of glass.

That was the last one Davis thought. He was feeling tired. So tired. He wanted to sleep but there was still more coming. He didn't know where the blow came from but it didn't matter. He was done for. He was on the ground and a final boom thundered in the alcove. In the corner of his eye he saw a second rock giant corpse. He smiled. Gwen and Maria would live. The little demons were still hacking at him. He couldn't feel much anymore.

He glanced up to see little Maria running towards him.

Davis beamed towards her and said "You did good girl. Keep your mother safe for me okay?"

Davis then was slowly losing the fight to stay awake. There was a warm white light that enveloped him. The light tried to bring him to wakefulness, but it did not do the trick this time. His pain went away and so did his consciousness.