James walked into the tavern and put his backpack down next to the bar. He noticed that several people were having a meal at a table or drinking a pint at the bar. The bartender or tavern keeper asked James, "What can I get you?"

"How much for a room, a meal and a beer?"

"Thirty-two coppers. Half as much if you sleep here in the common room?" the bartender explained.

James opened his backpack and looked through it, "Do you require any rabbit stew?"

The bartender laughed, "What do you think is for dinner? I can give you two copper each for the pots you have."

James shook his head, "I will keep them. Tomorrow, I am heading on the road and will need something other than rations."

"Where are you headed," a new voice behind James asked.

James turned to see a man in chainmail standing behind him. James had not heard the man's approach, "Depends on who's asking?" James answered.

"This is the Magistrate, Gordon Ser Heggan," the bartender introduced.

James turned back to the Magistrate. "James of Casper Falls. I am heading to Southport."

"I know Casper Falls," the Magistrate said. "Did you fight in the Greenfields battle?"

James frowned, "I did. Under Lord Banton's banner. My brother had more Skill than I with a bow, so he was added to Lord Acra's banner as an archer."

Gordon Se Heggan frowned, "I am sorry for your loss." James was aware that Lord Acra's army was wiped out. It was part of his cover story. "I fought under Lord Grant's banner," the Magistrate offered.

"Careful, James. Lord Grant was on the opposite side," Rocko explained.

James stared at the Magistrate, pretending to think about what he said. The Magistrate just held up his sword hand in supplication, "I am just saying, so there are no surprises. The battle was fought by greedy older men betting with the lives of young men. I had no more say in whose side I was on than you did."

James nodded. It was the same in this world as it is in his. The people making the war were not the people fighting it. How many people died in wars so that some 'leader' could have what he wanted. The Magistrate moved over to the bar beside James, "Two beers. One for me and one for my friend here."

With the beer in hand, the Magistrate turned to James, "A toast. To the brothers, we lost in war."

James took a swig and held up the stein once more, "And to the bastards responsible for the war. May their dicks rot and fall off." The Magistrate chuckled and joined in the toast. James noticed a couple of other people around the bar joined in that toast.

"Anything I should worry about between here and Southport," James inquired.

"Like?" the Magistrate asked.

"I hear that Champions destroyed a town not far west of here. I want to make sure I don't run into those murdering assholes." James stated, noting that several people were paying attention to the conversation and nodding their heads in agreement.

Someone piped up, "I heard they killed one in the city not a fortnight ago." Some muttering of agreement came from the room.

"Now, now. Let's not get our knickers in a twist," the Magistrate said, holding up a hand and addressing the tavern. "It was not one Champion, but two." This brought a cheer to the tavern as several people slapped their tables or banged their mugs. "I saw them with my own eyes as the Duke had their heads removed and mounted near his keep."

It was not hard for James to see that there was no love for the Champions. It was a bit of a surprise that the people were flaunting the gods this way, but not wanting to stand out, James joined in on the cheer.

"Do you know what happened?" James asked.

The Magistrate shrugged, "Who knows with those people. I think they came into the city separately and decided to fight one another. The battle was fierce. I heard one was some sort of mage, throwing fire all over the place."

One of the patrons added, "I hear that old man Grady had his tavern burn down."

This caused a bit of uproar among the crowd who favoured their drink.

"I heard the same thing," the Magistrate agreed, "But knows. I only saw the aftermath. Even then, it wasn't pretty. Most of Junket square was destroyed, and over fifteen people were hurt. Three soldiers were killed trying to take them down."

"Can't they just leave us alone? I remember the last time the gods had their Challenge. I was in Rockport when it was destroyed. More than half the people in the city were killed on the first day. How is this what the gods want?" one patron asked.

"Who knows what the gods want or don't want. They don't share it with us. But what I can share with you is that if you keep talking like that, the priests will be knocking on your door and questioning your faith," the Magistrate warned.

The warning did not fall on deaf ears as people nodded and went back to their drinks. The fact that the priests had that much power, even during a Challenge, did not bode well for James.

The Magistrate returned to James in a more conversational voice, "There is a caravan that goes to Southport every week. If you wait a couple of days, I can put a good word in with the caravan master and get you a spot as a guard. It saves you from buying food and worrying about guarding your back."

"Thank you," James said, offering his hand, "I would like that." James had no intention of being here in the morning, but it would raise too much suspicion if he didn't accept the offer. The Magistrate clasped James' arm, "Come see me tomorrow, and I will introduce you." James nodded, and the Magistrate wandered off to talk to some of the other patrons.

"Lucky you," the bartender said, placing a bowl of rabbit stew on the bar in front of James. "The Magistrate doesn't usually make friends of strangers if you know what I mean."

James nodded, "Must be lucky, I guess."

After his meal, James went to his room with a fresh mug of ale. The ale wasn't that bad, but it was lukewarm, not cold like he was used to. His room was not very big, but it had a bed, a small stool, and a table with a washbasin and pitcher.

"You can talk freely here," Rocko said, "This is a safe room."

"A safe room, safe room?" James asked.

"Are there any other kinds?" Rocko countered. James just shrugged, dropping his backpack on the floor and sitting on the end of the bed.

"Before going to sleep, I recommend you go through your messages from today and check your experience from the quests you handed on to ensure you got that new Skill I was hoping for."

James noticed he had a flashing notification, meaning he got his level 5 but went through all the messages anyway. James had two notifications for Skills he had declined earlier; Running and Amour - Light. The notifications for the two quests were new to James, so he checked them out next.

You have completed a quest!

Name: Mrs. Ander's Rabbit Hunt.

XP Reward: 10%

You have completed a quest!

Name: Scraggler Tails.

XP Reward: 5%

When James finished reviewing the notifications for the quests, he saw the notification that Rocko wanted him to get.

You have the opportunity to learn a new Skill!

Do you wish to learn Negotiation?

YES NO

James wasted no time in selecting YES. The last notification was for an increase in Attributes since arriving at the village.

You have gained:

Charm +1

Pleased, James said, "Select Class."

"Shadow Knight is red, PSI Mage is Purple, and PSI Warrior is Purple," James shared with Rocko.

"The reason they are purple is that anything to do with PSI is a scarce power. However, they are not necessarily more powerful, but they will give you some decent bonuses. Shadow Knight offers access to abilities that you can't get any other way." Rocko explained. "Also, at level 20, I am confident you will get access to Shadow Lord. And that is when the fun begins." Rocko said this last part with a grin. James wasn't sure why, but the grin made him shiver.

Name: Shadow Knight Rarity: Rare Description: A Shadow Knight is a warrior who fights from the shadows. His strength comes from being hidden; his enemy is light. Prerequisites: Have one or more Shadow based Advantages. Have a Weapon Mastery Skill. Bonuses:

Weapon Mastery Skill may exceed Intelligence Limit by 50%

Information Gathering may exceed Intelligence Limit by 50%

Stealth may exceed Intelligence Limit by 50%

Bonus Advantages: Shadow Step Advancements:

Agility +1

Intelligence +1

+2 Free Attribute Points

+1 Skill Point

"All this for Shadow Step?" James asked.

"Yes," Rocko answered, "Allowing you to step from one shadow to another. Think of it like teleport. With Shadow Meld and PSI Bolt, you can attack from the shadows, and your enemies won't know where you are. If they do find you, you can now teleport to a new shadow and start your attacks anew from there."

"That is putting a big emphasis on PSI Bolt."

Rocko thought about it for a moment, "Not really. There are other Powers that you can learn that will allow you to attack from the shadows and not give your position away. Also, if you can learn Shadow Form, you can use your weapon in the shadows and still maintain stealth."

James thought about this for a bit. It was almost like a ninja. They were fighting from the shadows, working as spies or assassins. James had killed more than one person from stealth. I believed that they were terrible people and that he was savings his country, if not the world, a safer place by killing them. Rocko said that they were just removed from the Challenge when a Champion died. James didn't quite believe that, but he had no reason not to doubt Rocko. It was more that it went against his training. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

To take Shadow Knight, James had to spend two points on Intelligence and a point on Agility. James had a lot of gains regarding his Attributes while he was hunting rabbits and scragglers, but enough to get him his primary Attribute to 15. The points would not be a loss, so James did that right away and then selected Shadow Knight as his Class.

"Rocko, why do you think a PSI shadow assassin is better than a Were Tiger? And how is this supposed to get us to the end game." James asked as he got ready for bed.

"The Were Tiger was a good choice, but not a great choice. It had some good short-term gains but would only have gotten you to level 20 because you started having some serious problems getting more levels." Rocko settled down on the stool as he chatted with James. "The goal here is not for you to become an assassin, but if you need to, that works. The goal is to become a spy. Meld into society and observe the Champions as they fight each other. We will pit Champion against Champion. We will lead Kingdoms to where Champions are hiding. If we set up an army around an Amulet, that could be valuable. All that matters is who is standing."

"How we get there is important as well," James argued. "I have had many people say that the ends justify the means. I don't always agree with that."

"Always? So there are instances where it does justify the means?" Rocko asked teasingly.

"Yes. I think that one factor is how many lives it saves. Another is how much of your soul you lose in the process."

Rocko nodded, "I can appreciate that. Our goal is only to target the Champions: a group of people who can not be killed but can be removed from the Challenge. This goal is to save as many people as we can."

"I can agree with that," James stated. "Goodnight."

When Rocko faded from the room, James looked at his Status Screen for level 5 and smiled. It was a pretty damn good start. He didn't have the high endurance he had earlier because of the ghouls, but still, he wasn't complaining.

Name: James Gleason Race: Glrick Class: Shadow Knight Specialization: Level: 5 XP to next level: 37.00% Armour Rating: 6 Age: 42 Health: 190 Unarmed Damage: 12 Stamina: 65 Sword: 31-37 Mana: 180 PSI: 280 PSI Regen/Min 4.67/min ATTRIBUTES Unspent Attribute Pts: 9 Strength 12 Agility 15 Dexterity 12 Endurance 8 Willpower 13 Intelligence 15 Charm 8 Luck 7 SKILLS Unspent Skill Pts: 4 Analyze 6 Astral Navigation 5 Crit Strike – Sword 1 Evasion (M) 5 Info Gathering 1 Inspect 4 Meditation 5 Melee – Glrick 2 Negotiation 1 PSI – Targeted 6 Res – Mental 1 Stealth 8 Unspent Advantage Pts 0

James couldn't help but fall asleep with a smile on his face.