James sat on the bedroll and considered his options. The first thing he wanted to do was buy the option that allowed Rocko to give him advice. That would then help with the spending of his other points. Part of him realized that this was a great option, but part of him was hesitant. The truth of the matter was that James was in over his head. He was trained for combat, but not in some fairy tale world with undead and Champions wandering around. It was also clear that Rocko had more to offer than giving him data when asked. James couldn't ask for information if he didn't know what information he needed to ask for.

Shaking his head, James pulled up the list of Advantages and searched for the ones that affected his guide. There were eight options. Three related to fighting, two related to scouting, two related to giving advice and one related to interaction with other people. All of which was good. The two that related to giving advice were his focus—giving advice when asked for 20 Advantage points. Advising without any restrictions was 30 Advantage points. James selected the last one. He knew it was a bit of a risk but also knew that Rocko had made a concerted effort to assist James in the past. Although he didn't break the rules, he may have bent them slightly.

With the points spent, Rocko glowed with an eerie blue light for a moment, "Finally!"

"So?" James asked, "I am sure you will start spewing advise all over."

Rocko grinned, "I was going to but realized that you would probably not appreciate it. So, I figured we would start with baby steps."

"How so?'

"How about we look at your Free Advantage points?"

"Okay"

"I would recommend that you don't send any more until you figure out what type of martial arts you are planning. Picking up Disarm - Unarmed would be great, but you only have 40 points left, and some of the outstanding Advantages cost upwards of 100 points."

James nodded, "I figured I would hold off. I was also looking at some of the upgrades for you. Having you scout would be a huge boon, don't you think?"

"Yes and no. It would be a boon and put me at risk of being discovered. I am not a great scout to start with. If I could fly, that may be different, but I don't think I would be a great scout with my wing the way it is. One of the scouting options is reporting what happens within 10 feet of you. For example, I would have been able to wake you when that panther arrived, but only when it got within 10 feet of you. As for fighting, I am pretty good in a scrap, but my wing does limit some of my skills."

James squinted at Rocko a moment, "Are you speaking faster? You don't seem to have as much hesitation in your speech as you used to."

"Yes. I have been practicing speaking faster."

James laughed. Even though Rocko spoke faster, he spoke slowly as a normal person. But it was progressing. James grinned at Rocko, "That is awesome, thanks."

"Being able to scout 10 feet around you is 20 points, and I can think of several other things which may be more valuable than that. But the final choice is yours."

"You mentioned Martial Arts style. You brought it up yesterday as well." James asked

"Yes. It is necessary to have a style before your Melee - Unarmed reaches level 20."

"Why is that?"

"You will then be required to select a Martial Arts Style, and it will give you options based on the style you have been using up to that point."

"So the better my Style, the better my options will be when I reach level 20 in Melee - Unarmed."

"Yes. Also, the Advantages I select will influence the Style."

"Good to know. I think that Disarm is still something that I want to learn.

"I don't disagree. I recommend that you wait until we have discussed all the options before making that final decision."

"What about my Attributes and Skills. Any suggestions?"

"Yes, I would recommend not spending points to increase any of them unless you have a dire need. Such as when you wanted to purchase the Class. Spending them just to get to level 10 or level 20 is a waste since you will get there eventually."

"But buying Strength up to level 20 allowed me to get Knock Back, which made a difference in the fight with the last skeleton."

"That is true. But who is to say you would not have gained the point in Strength when fighting the other skeletons?"

James was still not convinced, "There is no guarantee that would have happened."

"That is true. Worst case, you can always buy up the Attribute or Skill before a big fight."

James conceded the points, "Agreed."

"Your Skills are below average for your level. This is due to the amount of time you have been in this world. It is not a reflection of your dedication to the Challenge. You should have a few more skills. They should be higher.

"How do people get a lot of Skills without having to increase their Intelligence through the roof?"

Rocko thought about the answer before commenting, "Only Champions have the restriction on Skills. You don't need to buy all the skills that you find. Being selective is part of the Challenge."

"Why?"

"Champions are enticed to travel different paths to make the Challenge more entertaining. Any path may be the right path to winning. Sometimes having specific Skills in the last days of the Challenge can make the difference between winning and losing."

"So, now what?" James asked.

"You said you wanted to find a town or city. Find some other Champions to work with and survive the next nine months."

"The goal is to get over Rank 500 so that Ignatious doesn't get killed. The rest is gravy."

"Getting an Amulet might help Ignatious but would target you. Every Champion would know where you were and would be hunting for you."

"So, not something you want to do right away.

"You won't even learn of the location of any Amulets until the halfway point."

"Then what?"

"Then the location of the nearest Amulet will become available to you," Rocko paused for a moment. "You will know the direction and range. It should appear like a compass in your vision. The same thing happens when a Champion finds an Amulet. You will know the direction and range of that Champion. That information could be useful to you."

"Do you get any information on the Champion who has the Amulet? Like their level or Class?" James asked.

"No. Trying to hunt down other Champions may be a huge mistake when you find that they are in a group of powerful Champions and were just baiting you into a trap," Rocko explained.

"There is that cheery side of you again."

"This Challenge is going to be worse than previous Challenges, James. It is going to be a bloodbath. There are whole cities which have closed their doors to Champions."

"Almost like we are criminals.:

"Yes. You have to understand that when two or more Champions start fighting, they can level a city block. Towns can go up in flames. Hundreds of people can be killed or left homeless. Kingdoms are thrown into chaos, armies destroyed."

"That seems extreme.

"The average person you will encounter will be about level 10. Leaders in the community will be around level 15. Really good leaders, the elite and such will be level 20. You are level 10 in 3 days. What would take a lifetime for anyone else? If you survive the last month, you will likely be above level 30. Will would be able to fight an entire army on your own, and unless you die of boredom, you would most likely succeed. That is what the gods of released upon the world for their amusement." Rocko said with contempt.

James was shocked. This was probably the most that Rocko has ever said at one time. He was also shocked at the revelation of the power wielded by the Champions. He now understands why this world's regular people didn't want anything to do with the Champions. It would be like people driving around New York in tanks shooting at each other with no regard for civilian lives or property damage. The destruction was would catastrophic.

"I didn't realize, sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for, James. You are as much a victim of this as the rest of us. I would like you to remember that when you are interacting with people. They will be very afraid of us.

"I will."

"You should pick up the Disarm Advantage if you still want it. Then we should head south."

"Why south?

"As good a direction as any. Also, there are bigger hills to the north."

"Also, if we find a river, we should follow it. Towns tend to be built along rivers."

"That is true."

James took a few minutes to select the Disarm Advantage. James wasn't sure if the goddess Gia A Thandros had protected him during the night, but better safe than sorry. James walked over to the altar and said a small prayer of thanks. Before turning away, James noticed some gouges on the floor behind the altar.

"Hey Rocko, if we find treasure in the temple, who does it belong to?" James asked.

"It would belong to her temple keepers. Since they are no more, they would go to an active temple nearby. Why?"

"Where I come from, it was common for priests to hide valuables beneath the altar."

"That doesn't seem very sensible. It is no longer a secret once everyone knows where to look."

"It was a long time before people figured it out, but I wonder if the priests here did the same thing."

Rocko shook his head, "Even if you found something here, it would not belong to you. It just seems like you are borrowing trouble."

James paused at looked at Rocko, "Good advice. If we do find another temple to this goddess, we can just tell them where this temple is. I am sure they would want to recover whatever is here."

"Doubtful. Not without looking. You can tell whoever is in charge of the goddess's faith that there is a temple here, not that there is anything of value. And if you look, then you would be obligated to return it."

"Schrodinger's cat."

"I don't think there is a cat in there."

"No, it is a theory. Suppose you put a cat in a box with some poisoned food. You don't know if the cat is alive or dead until you open the box. Therefore, the cat is both dead and alive at the same time until you open the box and determine which it is."

"Easy, the cat is dead. Even if the food is poisoned, the cat will not let food go uneaten."

"You are missing the point.

"No, the point is that if you open that altar and find treasure, you have a whole level of trouble that you don't need. If you leave now without opening the altar, there is no trouble and no worries."

"Aren't you the least bit curious?" James asked.

"No," Rocko stated flatly. "And you shouldn't be either. I thought you were a professional soldier? Are there not situations where curiosity would get you killed."

James stared at the altar for a few more minutes before walking over.

"What are you doing, James?" Rocko asked.

'I have to look."

"No, you don't. The best scenario is that there is no treasure. Any other scenario is trouble you don't need."

"I can always just leave whatever is hereafter finding out what it is," James said as he tried pushing against the stone altar.

Rocko moved to get in front of James, "Why are you so curious?"

James paused and looked down at Rocko, "I don't know. It is like, I need to look. Is it a cat thing?"

Rocko shrugged. James ignored Rocko and pushed harder on the altar. Slowly the altar began to shift. Seeing some progress, James pushed even harder. Slowly, inch by inch, the altar began to slide backwards. A small cavity under the alter was revealed after a few minutes of pushing. When it was large enough to stick a paw into, Rocko warned James about traps before he could stick his hand inside. Taking a bit more time, James pushed the altar back further to reveal the entirety of the cavity. It was about a foot cubed with a small wooden box at the bottom. The box was about 4 inches wide, 10 inches long and about 2 inches deep. There was also a symbol of the box that James didn't recognize.

"Holy shit," Rocko whispered as he looked into the cavity, "That's an Amulet."