"That's awesome," James checked and noticed the flashing notification, "Looks like I did, too."

"Something to celebrate tonight!" Doris cheered.

Connie moved up beside James and asked, "James, what was that noisy spell you were using?"

James shrugged, "Have to have some secrets."

Connie smiled, "I understand. I like your Blink Spell, too. It must be Tier 2. I knew you were holding back."

James didn't bother correcting her.

With the cave cleared, they moved through the tunnel. The tunnel was about twenty feet long and opened up into another cave about the same size as the first one. The trap at the entrance to the tunnel was a pit trap, just like the others. They were able to avoid it with ease.

"How are you three able to see in the dark. It is pitch black in here," James asked.

Again, the three women looked at each other. Finally, Barbara smiled, "We are half-elves. Not fully human," she explained.

"Oh," James responded and shrugged, "Handy. The dungeon is probably going to be underground too." Connie smiled that James had just stated that he was taking them with him into the dungeon.

Doris looked around, "This is the same layout as the other caves."

Barbara pointed to a table in the middle of the room. "The table is new. Usually, the loot is in a bag or just sitting on the ground."

James took a moment to walk around the table, ensuring there were no traps. "Clear."

Walking over to the table, everyone took a moment to look: there was a wooden shield, an iron sword and a scroll.

"That's my sword," Doris exclaimed excitedly. No one argued when she picked up.

"You may as well take the shield," Barbara suggested, "You're the only one who uses one that doesn't have one."

Connie picked up the scroll and held it out to James, "Can you Analyze this?"

"Yes, why?" James asked.

"It improves her chances of being able to learn the spell if she knows what it is. It is possible that she failed to Analyze it herself." Rocko offered. James had forgotten he was hanging around.

Name: Scroll of Stinking Cloud Rarity: Common Damage Range: 1-5 + Intelligence/3 damage every 5 seconds in effected area, for 15 seconds. Range: 6m Area of Effect: 3m r Critical Chance: (Intelligence/2)% Durability: 1/1 Damage Type: Magic - Poison Special: Enchanted, Magic - Poison, Damage Over Time

James read the information to Connie, who smiled, "That is pretty nice."

James agreed, "It is also a spell you can use?"

"Yes." Connie agreed cheerfully.

"If she can get a lot of creatures in the area of effect, she can do a little damage to many of them," Rocko added.

"I am surprised it is only Common Rarity. I figured a Spell-like that would be Uncommon," James asked.

"This is pretty standard for a Damage Over Time Spell. Low damage, but has the potential of affecting a lot of creatures," Connie stated.

Rocko agreed, "It is true. You would have plenty of time to drink a Healing Potion. It has five seconds between damage and lasts only fifteen seconds. Also, Resistance would apply. If it were Tier 2, the damage would be every 3 seconds."

Leaving the cave, they headed to the river to take a break. James looked at his notifications as one of them was flashing.

You have the opportunity to learn a new skill.

Do you wish to learn the Skill Back Attack?

YES NO

James looked at the new Skill he was offered. Back Attack was great, and he selected it right away.

Checking the remaining notifications, James was happy with the progress.

Willpower +1

Charm +1

Luck +1

Perception +1

Shield +1 Name: James Gleason Race: Glrick Class: Shadow Knight Specialization: Level: 7 XP to next level: 19% Armour Rating: 31 Age: 42 Health: 245 Unarmed Damage: 13 Stamina: 90 Steel Sword: 24-29 Mana: 220 Bow of Piercing: 34-44 PSI: 350 PSI Regen/Min 5.50 ATTRIBUTES Unspent Attribute Pts: 13 Strength 13 Agility 17 Dexterity 13 Endurance 11 Willpower 15 Intelligence 20 Charm 11 Luck 8 SKILLS Unspent Skill Pts: 6 Analyze 9 Armour – Medium 4 Astral Navigation 7 Back Attack 1 Crit Strike – Sword 4 Evasion (M) 5 Info Gathering 1 Inspect 7 Meditation 5 Melee – Glrick (M) 2 Melee – Sword 3 Negotiation 1 PSI – Targeted 6 Ranged – Short Bow 2 Perception (M) 4 Res – Mental 1 Res – Pain 3 Res – Poison 5 Shield 3 Stealth 9 Unspent Advantage Pts 20 Congratulations! Intelligence has reached level 20.

You have gained the Advantage PSI Adept. This Advantage grants the cost in PSI to all sustainable Powers to be cast and maintained as if they were one level lower.

James took a moment to review the bonus that was given to him for reaching level 20 in Intelligence. It was better than he was expecting. It also seemed very specific to him. Obviously, this bonus would have no benefit to someone who did not have PSI Power. It was also pretty nice for him considering that he had a lot of Powers that had a maintenance cost. With the cost of his Tier 3 Powers being reduced to Tier 2 cost, that would allow him to have three of them running at once. It would not allow him much in the way of regeneration, but it would still be handy. Augment Skill I, Augment Ability I and Harden Skin I would all be nice to have running at the same time. The other advantage was that he could see this helping in the long run. When he had more PSI regeneration, he would be able to have even more Powers running at once.

Connie brought him out of his reverie by walking up beside him.

"How much Mana did you use up doing all that magic?" she asked.

"Why?" James looked up.

"I just want to know if you have enough Mana to do it again," she answered.

"That's fine. I can do it about twice an hour," James offered. James didn't bother to explain that the Shadow Steps used 100 Mana each, and the PSI Bolts used 20 PSI each. Two different pools of energy.

"Told you Champions were overpowered," Doris gripped.

"Of course, they are," Barbara stated, "They are the Champions of the very gods!"

"I am a Priestess of a god! How come I am not as powerful as that?" This last question was directed at James.

"Fucked if I know," he answered defensively.

"The main reason for the difference in power," Rocko offered to James, "Is that a Priestess picks her god. Their god picks a Champion. Big difference."

James kept his mouth shut. No sense in creating a bigger problem. "Do you expect the next one to be the same as the last one?" he asked, deflecting.

Barbara shrugged, "Can you scout it out again?"

James looked towards the cave entrance. There was not much shade as the morning sun was still high. In a couple of hours, the cliff would be out of the afternoon sun, and he would have a lot more shade.

"You don't need shadows that are close to the cave. You just need line of sight," Rocko offered.

"I can, but I need first to recover some of my Mana. I would rather be at full when we start," James explained.

"You have the Meditation Skill?" Connie asked, a little too excited.

"Yes, why?" James asked cautiously

"I have wanted to learn it, but there isn't anyone to teach me. I tried to learn on my own, but with no success."

James looked to Rocko, who rolled his eyes, "Regular people don't learn Skills as you do. They normally have to be taught, or they have to be lucky and learn them independently. Some Skills are just picked up as a matter of course."

"I can show you what I know, but I have never tried to teach someone a Skill before," James offered. Since it would take a while anyway, James focused on teaching Connie the Meditation Skill. In the end, it took about an hour, but she finally picked it up. Unlike him, she didn't get a pop-up window offering the Skill to her. She had to look at her Status Screen. Connie was very excited when it appeared. Each rank of Meditation added a ten percent increase to the recovery rate for Mana. James also got the added benefit of increasing the recovery rate for PSI.

To celebrate Connie learning the Meditation Skill, they shared lunch and some idle talk. They avoided asking James about being a Champion, but they did share some of their backstories. The women had been hunting these goblins for the past month. They started at the first level and would come out to clear out the caves for as long as they could do so safely. After a while, they could clear out more and more caves. When they reached level 5, they were each granted a Class.

Barbara was not surprised when she was offered the Scout Class. She figured she would get something that would focus on the bow since that was the weapon she had been using since they started with the first cave. Since then, she picked up the rapier and some light armour. Agility, Dexterity and Strength were her primary focus. James learned that their Attributes were automatically assigned each time they got a level. They got three Attribute points each.

Connie used a bow at the start, but she decided she wanted to go with something magical. She used her savings and purchased the Magic Dart Spell from a travelling merchant when she was level 2. Since then, their fights in the caves have been a little easier as her darts rarely missed. When Connie got to level 5, she became Wizard. This came with the advantage that she could learn almost any kind of spell but had the drawback of not specializing. She got a new Spell with each level. At level 5, she got Flash, and at level 6, she got Barrier. And just now, at level 7, she learned Physical Shield. When she learned the Flash Spell, things changed for the women. Their fights were much safer, but they quickly realized that there were only ten seconds before the blindness wore off. She hoped they would all get a new level in the next cave.

Since the women started coming to the caves, Doris acted as the group's fighter. She was older and larger than the other two and was more comfortable with a sword. She did have an older shield, but it broke apart the second week they were here, and she never bothered to replace it. Any real money they got went to buying arrows at the start and then buying armour for her. Chain mail armour was expensive, so they picked up small pieces as they went. The addition of the shield from the last cave would make things more manageable again. When Doris got to level 5, she got an option between two Classes. Rocko perked up at this information. He stated that this rarely happened, and it was usually by divine intervention when it did. Doris was offered the option of Fighter or Priestess. But the Priestess portion was already dedicated to the goddess Narissa.

Rocko groaned loudly at the mention of Narissa, but James just asked Doris to explain who that was. Narissa was a minor goddess (a step up for lesser goddess) who was all about women's empowerment. All males were excluded as followers. Males were considered tools and nothing more. All beneficial Spells had half effect, and all detrimental Spells had a double effect on males. Doris got the Spell Soothing Touch at level 5, which heals with a touch. And Narissa's Blessing at level 6, which gives a person their Endurance in bonus health for a short time. Now that she got level 7, she revealed that she just got Narrisa's Fury. It was a Spell that targets males only and causes all their Physical Attributes to be reduced by 5. It only had a duration of one second per level of the Priestess, but that was a very unpleasant Spell, in James' opinion.

It seemed that the lunch gave everyone a chance to know each other. Even Rocko seemed to calm down and not see the women as an immediate threat. However, he was still giving James the stink eye.