As soon as James crossed the bridge, he put his helm on and tightened the straps. Barbara and Connie were kind enough to wait, but Doris only stopped when she realized her sisters had stopped. Feeling ready, James started walking again, his shield was hanging from a strap on this weapon belt and he walked with his bow in hand and an arrow nocked. Suddenly a window appeared before James.

Connie has invited you to join her Party.

YES NO?

James selected YES.

"When they attack you, I suggest killing Doris first. She is the biggest threat to you," Rocko commented.

"How does being a party work. Never had the pleasure," James asked Connie.

"Anyone can start a party, and all experience is shared. There is a bonus to the experience depending on the number of people in the party." Connie explained.

"How far is the river from here?" he asked.

"No far," Doris said dismissively.

"About twenty minutes," Connie provided chipper and with a bounce in her step. Barbara laughed as she walked on the other side of Connie and nocked an arrow as well.

The walk was uneventful by the time they reached the shallow river. Rocko had finally stopped trying to convince James that he was doomed and just followed along. Turning left, Doris led the way south. Her axe clutched in both hands. James took a moment to tighten the straps on this armour and followed a minute later. Connie and Barbara were chatting about something to do with the effectiveness of goblin slings. With nothing more to do, James followed along.

After following the river, Barbara pointed to a cave on the other side, "That is the start of the goblin caves. There are a dozen caves along this stretch of river."

Connie pointed to several rocks in the river that looked like stepping stones, "We will cross here and clear out the first cave."

"Come on," Doris gripped, "We are already starting later than usual." James picked up the emphasis she used on the word 'we.'

"Don't worry, sis. With James along, I am sure we will be able to clear the caves faster than we usually do." Connie said as she stepped from stone to stone. Barbara scanned the tree line across the river to ensure that nothing jumped out her sister and then got ready to cross herself. Doris had crossed ahead of us and seemed to be getting into more and more of a foul mood.

James whispered to her before she could start crossing, "Is everything okay with Doris? She seems to dislike me for some reason."

Barbara looked up at her sister and then back at James. "She doesn't like people: especially men. She is a bit judgmental. Being a priestess and all that." The last part was said with a shrug, before she started stepping across the stones. James crossed the river when Barbara had made it across safely. The stepping stones were smooth and flat, so there was no difficulty in crossing them. The issue was that it made you vulnerable while doing so. Rocko stood on the other side of the river and just looked at the stepping stones. They were too far apart for him to be able to jump across safely. Suddenly, he faded from view and reappeared beside James a moment later.

Once across, Doris pointed at the cave, "Time to be a man, you lead."

James was going to say something but decided against it. But the way she was acting, he had no desire to be in her presence more than he had to. Connie was pleasant and talkative, easy to listen to and usually witty. Barbara was a bit more stoic and kept her sentences short but didn't have an issue with James being around. In the end, James just decided to do the quest and locate the entrance to the dungeon. Later he would be able to return and enter the dungeon on his own.

One thing that James was an expert at was small unit tactics. Although this gear was different, the mission was the same; clear the cave of the bad people. He had entered a few cave complexes in his career as a navy seal, and at that time, they were always stressful situations. Traps, poor lighting, ambushes, and other dangers lay around every corner. As a Were Tiger, he would have been able to bound through the cave and slaughter the goblins with ease. But this required some strategy and thought.

"Okay, I have some experience in these situations, but you have all been through these caves before. So, although I will take the lead, I need someone to fill me in on what to expect." James asked.

Connie was the one who spoke up, "The first few caves are not that deep. They usually have a trap near the entrance and then a bunch of goblins. The first few caves will have about four goblins in each." Pointing further south, "The other caves are larger and deeper. They have more traps and will have progressively more goblins. We can normally clear the first eight caves. They have eight goblins in those caves. We don't know how many goblins are in the last few caves. Probably about a dozen if the rate of progression remains the same."

"Makes sense," James agreed and took the time to put the bow away on his backpack and fasten the shield to his arm. "Let's go."

Taking the lead, James marched up the hill towards the first cave. Taking his time, he activated Augment Attribute and increased his Strength by 5. He was confident that the extra damage would help. James wasn't sure what kinds of traps he should expect, but he decided to study the approach and the path he would walk on. Not being in a rush had saved his life before. A couple of times, he heard Doris give an exaggerated sigh. He found himself starting to agree with Rocko; about Doris, at least.

At the mouth of the cave, James found a trap. It was an obvious tripwire tied to a clay pot filled with loose stones. An improvised noisemaker. Removing the anchor of the tripwire, James continued on but still maintained a level of diligence. He had seen traps made to look obvious to conceal deadlier traps a few feet away. This time, it was not the case, but he found four goblins waiting for him once he was inside the cave.

CAVE 1

Moving into the cave with his sword and shield at the ready, James had to blink a few times at the sudden darkness. Even with Darkvision, the adjustment took a few seconds. At that time, James felt the impact of two sling stones hitting him. One hit his sword arm, and the other hit his shield. Neither had any effect other than sounding loud. Two goblins stepped forward and brandished a long spear. Long is relative, of course. The goblins were about the size of a ten-year-old. They had greenish skin and wore no armour. They hardly wore clothes. Their spears were twice as long as they were, made of wood and had stone spearheads. It was their faces that bothered James. He had difficulty figuring out if they were pig-like because of their upturned nose or dog-like because of their pointed ears and fang-like teeth. Either way, their weapons were not much for scale mail armour.

Using the shield to deflect the right goblin's spear thrust, James stepped forward and thrust his sword towards the goblin. Expecting an easy hit, James was somewhat surprised when the goblin dodged. The second goblin didn't waste any time and thrust its spear at James' legs. However, it missed the legs but still tripped James up enough that he almost fell.

James stumbled to a stop and raised his shield as both slingers fired their stones at him. Both stones bounced off his shield with a loud clang. James remembered the attack pattern of the skeletons he fought in the dungeon and decided to give that a try. However, he did not have the Advantage Shield Bash, which didn't prevent him from trying it. The shield smashed into the first goblin, striking it in the head. The goblin staggered from the blow and didn't see the follow-up attack. The swing of the sword, right to the left, cut deep into its unprotected neck. With it almost dead, James stepped toward the other goblin.

The swing back was from left to right, and the goblin dodged. With its spear up, it tried to keep James back. Two more sling stones bounced off his armour, but this time, one hit his head, and his eyes crossed for a second. He was glad that he fastened the straps so tightly. He would have been screwed against this goblin with a spear if the helm had covered his eyes. Stepping forward again, he used the lunge portion of the pattern. The goblin easily dodged to the side. It seemed to only want to keep James at bay and allow the slingers to do the real damage.

James tried a faint with a shield bash. James leaped forward when the goblin ducked and thrust the spear into the goblin's shoulder. The goblin screamed and rolled to the side. The goblin tried to scurry away, leaving the spear behind, but James stepped on its leg, pinning it. With several thrusts with his sword, James finished off the goblin.

The slingers hit James twice more, but he barely felt it. With the slingers, not a threat, James turned to the first goblin he felled and stabbed it once more, just to make sure, then turned to the two slingers and raised his shield. The clang of both stones hitting his shield told him all he needed to know as he moved deeper into the cave. Both slingers dropped their slings and pulled out stone axes and wooden shields. Although they were both ready to fight, neither seemed to be eager to step forward.

Moving up to the rightmost goblin, James realized that he had to maintain the offensive. If he let them get around him, they could attack at his rear or his legs, putting him in more danger than when they were flinging stones at him. The rightmost goblin met him halfway and attacked with its axe. Remembering to deflect the axe with his shield, James counterattacked with a sword swing. The blade bit through the top part of the goblin's shield and cut into its face.

Taking a step back, James took a hit on the back of his Cuisses. The axe didn't bite very deep, but it did go through the leather, just below the hem of the scale armour. Not wanting to give the first goblin a chance to recover, James pushed toward the second goblin and used a series of thrusts to push him back against a wall. The small wooden shield was not much help, but the goblin was better with it than James was with his. James got close to the goblin and brought his knee up into the goblin's side, slamming it into the wall. James stabbed it twice more to make sure it didn't get back up when it fell.

The other goblin had moved up behind James and chopped its axe down on James' leg by this time. The leg buckled under the hit, but James rolled with the fall and came up with his shield ready. The goblin continued its attack, charging toward James with a scream. Instead of swinging his sword, he kicked out with his foot and caught the goblin in his stomach. The goblin was stopped in the middle of its charge and dropped its shield. James caught the goblin in the neck with a thrust, causing its screams to come out as gurgling sounds. With all four goblins down, he finished off the two wounded ones. James looked around and noticed the three women at the cave entrance.

Rocko stood watching them, "I hate to say I told you so," Rocko said quietly.

"So," James spoke, "I figured you would have already attacked me."

"Why would we attack you?" Connie asked.

"We just wanted to see if you were worth keeping around. If you could not handle the first cave by yourself, then you would not have been much help to us later." Doris stated flatly.

James glowered, "A little warning would have been nice. I was expecting you guys to have helped."

"Always expect the unexpected," Doris replied.

James laughed. He was a huge Monty Python fan.

Cleaning his blade off on one of the goblins, he walked out of the cave, "If that is the case, you can search the cave for loot."

Once he was outside, James used Heal Self II and checked his notifications.

You have the opportunity to learn a new Skill.

Do you wish to learn the Skill Shield?

YES NO You have the opportunity to learn a new Skill.

Do you wish to learn the Skill Melee - Sword?

YES NO

James whispered to Rocko when he was alone, "I got two new Skills, Shield and Melee - Sword."

Rocko nodded, "Good, feel free to take both. The Melee - Sword Skill will not help that much with the Glrick Sword but will help you with other blades."

James selected both the Melee - Sword and the Shield Skills. He now had the maximum number of Skills, but he hoped to level very soon. Checking the rest of the notifications, James noticed some increases in his Attributes and Skills

Strength +1

Perception +1

Medium Armor +1

The boost to the physical stats was nice since he still had the penalty from the bout with the poison.

CAVE 2

In the next cave, the women decided to show James how they normally clear a cave so that he could then think of ways to integrate his style with theirs. They started with Barbara moving up and disarming the trap. It was the same trap that James saw in the first cave. Then Connie moved up front and cast a spell. The spell was like a flashbulb. A very bright light flashed at the front of the cave. Barbara and Doris had both averted their eyes and, when they saw the flash, then turned and charged into the cave.

Barbara targeted one of the slingers at the back of the cave. They were blinded and trying to move towards cover. Two arrows took out the one on the left. Doris moved up to one of the goblins at the front with a spear. He was blinded and dazed, unsure which direction he was facing and moving around slowly. She brought her axe down on his head, splitting from crown to crotch. There was gore and viscera everywhere. The second slinger fell to another pair of arrows, and Doris swung her axe like she was cutting a tree and removed the head from the second goblin. A fountain of blood sprayed upwards from the torso of the second goblin, painting the ceiling of the cave red. James had spent a great deal of time in combat and had seen enough gore to appreciate that this was excessive to the extreme.

Doris seemed pleased with herself, "Now it is your turn to collect the loot," she joked.

James looked at the scene and shook his head, "Thanks, I'll pass."