James nodded at the report. "Wait here. I will go scout ahead." Barbara had better stealth than James due to his penalty in Medium Armour, but James had Shadow Meld and Shadow Step. He also had a better chance of surviving a trap. He came to a tunnel that turned left, while the tunnel he was in kept going straight. After another five meters, James arrived at the room he suspected the reinforcements came from. The room was empty now, and the exit on the other side continued the curve to the left. James suspected that the tunnel returned to the chamber they encountered the Shaman in.

Heading back to the split, James snuck down the tunnel for a way, spotting two traps along the way. The second trap he detected by setting it off. It was a tripwire in which four spikes shot out of the wall. Two of the spikes hit his armour, and one hit his shield. Fortune smiled on his armour. Hard Skin I and shield blocked most of the damage, and what did get through was nothing more than a shallow cut.

The next room was more significant than the previous rooms and had a much higher ceiling. James used Shadow Meld and Shadow Sense to move to the centre of the ceiling and look around. He saw two traps in the room but nothing else. He scrutinized the floor to ensure he didn't miss anything and was surprised to learn that there was a time limit of five minutes on Shadow Sense. James felt he had explored the room as much as he could and headed back to the women to share what he had found and meditate. After Meditating, James reviewed his Notifications.

Luck -1

Armour - Medium +1

Inspect +1

Meditation +1

Res - Pain +1

Shield +1

Congratulations! Inspect has reached level 10.

You gain more information from Tier 1 and Tier 2 individuals (both creatures and humanoids).

You can identify Champions.

James looked at the last line. He paused somewhat as he reread it. Did this mean that other Champions could identify him? He did have the Advantage Conceal Status. Is this what it blocked? Deciding to shelve that discussion with Rocko later, he opened his eyes and looked around. While he was meditating, the women had been busy. They had been concerned that James had not found anything in the second cave. Barbara had gone to scout the other tunnel that split from the room with the Shaman.

James had been right, and it was the room that the reinforcements had come from. So it didn't matter which room they attacked. There would have still been reinforcements. Barbara also went to explore the new room that James had found empty. After watching for a while, she had to agree with James. It was empty. She did stop to disarm the two traps James had discovered along the way.

With everyone caught up, they headed to the next room.

The party moved into the empty room carefully. It looked like a trap, but no one could figure out what it was or how the trap would be sprung. James and Barbara crept up to the first trap, and James covered her while she disarmed it. Doris covered Connie at the entrance as they waited.

They didn't have to wait long before the other shoe dropped. While Barbara was working on the second trap, Doris shouted a warning. The warning came too late, as four crossbow bolts flew towards each party member. James tried to react by raising his shield to block, but the bolt aimed at him bounced off his helm. Staggered, he tried to shake off the Stun and Daze to clear his head. The bolt may have bounced, but he felt blood trickle down his neck. But when the Stun and Daze effects were cleared, James felt a sharp pain in his shield arm. Quickly looking around, James spotted where the bolts were coming from. Four Crossbowmen were up on a ledge near the ceiling. There seemed to be a natural indentation up the wall. It looked like it had been expanded to hide the goblins. They went unnoticed while the party was looking around the floor level.

Focusing on the area behind them, James used Shadow Step. They were lined behind a short wall and firing down on his friends. The goblin firing at him turned to the others to shout a warning. It was then that they noticed that James was behind them. Before it had a chance to warn the others, James Sparta-Kicked him over the short wall and off the ledge. This got the attention of the other three goblins.

Before James had a chance to attack the other goblins, the second goblin in the row spun around and fired its crossbow at point-blank range. James was stunned that the bolt went through his shield. It bounced off the armour, but the power it must have had was incredible. Not wasting any more time, James stepped forward and used his shield to bash the second goblin before it had a chance to reload. Not one to leave an opportunity unrealized, James used his sword to stab the third goblin in the neck.

James heard some shouting from the rest of the party; then, a Magic Dart slammed into the fourth goblin. Moving back to the second goblin, James used the shield to push it over the ledge and to the rocks below. This gave the third goblin time to grab its dagger with one hand and its throat with the other. Although it could not stop all the bleeding, it did slow it down. The fourth goblin crouched down to avoid Magic Darts and moved away from James to safely reload its crossbow. James knew that he outmatched the goblins so long as they used their daggers, but they could punch through his armour if they used their crossbows.

The third goblin was still bleeding, but it wasn't dead yet. Using its dagger, it latched onto James' leg and repeatedly stabbed James in the leg. Most of the hits skipped over the armour, but few penetrated. James used the pommel of the Glrick Sword to smash the goblin in the skull. It took two hits before the goblin let go and crumpled to the ground. Before James could celebrate his victory, the fourth goblin fired his crossbow. This time, James did not have the shield in the way, and the crossbow sank to the fletching in his ribs.

James stepped forward and kicked out with his foot. The blow wasn't hard, but it did knock the crossbow out of the goblin's hand and over the edge. Drawing its dagger, it charged at James. This goblin was fast, and James was hard-pressed to parry and Evaded. Dancing around the ledge, James was having difficulty with the crossbow in his chest. He didn't think that it hit a lung, but it hurt like hell, making it harder to keep the fourth goblin at a distance. James smiled when the Magic Dart smacked into the goblin's side from below. It was enough to stagger the creature and give James an advantage. James stepped back to give himself room and then Lunged forward, skewering the goblin through the chest. James pushed the bastard off the ledge and, eventually, off his blade. When the goblin dropped toward the ground, James was impressed that she hit it with a Throwing Axe along the way. It was dead before it hit the ground.

James took a moment to cast Heal Self III on himself while looking at the status of the rest of the party.

Connie was moving from the entrance toward where Barbara was still on the ground. Doris was kneeling over here, and James noticed an empty potion bottle.

"Is she okay?" James yelled down.

Doris looked up at him and nodded, "She took a few hits, but she will be fine."

"I am going to look around up here. I will be down in a few." Doris nodded again to James before helping Barbara to her feet.

James stepped away from the edge and leaned against the wall. The bolt had already worked halfway out of his chest with the Heal Self III Power. Closing his eyes, he focused on blinking notifications.

Strength +1

Dexterity +1

Back Attack +1

Evasion +1

You have the opportunity to learn a new Skill!

Do you wish to learn RES - DEBUFF?

YES NO

James examined the Skill and looked at his Intelligence. He currently had nineteen Skills and an Intelligence of 23. The Skill had helped him when he was a Were Tiger, so he selected YES.

Then, with a smile, he looked at his Status Screen

Name: James Gleason Race: Glrick Class: Shadow Knight Specialization: Level: 10 XP to next level: 22/1000 Armour Rating: 34 Age: 42 Rank: 810 Health: 310 Unarmed Damage: 15 Stamina: 115 Glrick Sword: 37-42 Mana: 270 Bow of Piercing 36-46 PSI: 410 PSI Regen/Min 6.67 ATTRIBUTES Unspent Attribute Pts: 19 Strength 16 Agility 21 Dexterity 16 Endurance 13 Willpower 17 Intelligence 24 Charm 13 Luck 9 SKILLS Unspent Skill Pts: 9 Analyze 10 Armour – Medium 9 Astral Navigation 7 Back Attack 4 Crit Strike – Sword 5 Evasion (M) 8 Info Gathering 2 Inspect 10 Meditation 7 Melee – Glrick (M) 5 Melee – Sword 4 Negotiation 1 PSI – Targeted 8 Ranged – Short Bow 2 Perception (M) 8 Res – Mental 1 Res – Debuff 1 Res – Pain 5 Res – Poison 5 Shield 9 Stealth 10 Unspent Advantage Pts 50

"Congratulations," Rocko said.

James looked over at his friend and smiled. "Back to where I left off last time."

Rocko raised an eyebrow, "Hopefully, we will forge a path onward this time."

"I don't think that this was wasted effort, Rocko. This new build offers us a lot more flexibility than we had before. I think this had more promise."

"Of course it does. I was the one who helped select it," Rocko agreed.

"Small improvement in my Rank," James noted.

"Better small improvements than none," Rocko mused

"How long do you figure until we reach level 20?" James asked.

"Now that you are level 10, the pace will not continue. Your growth is going to be reduced considerably. And each level is harder than the last. If you are lucky, a month. But I figure it will be more like six weeks."

James looked over at Rocko and cocked, "How so?"

"You are not going to be able to maintain this pace. That means you will have some downtime. That was considered when I suggested this race. I hope you will start working on the second portion of our plan."

James frowned; he was not a big fan of this portion of the plan but understood its importance, "You want me to infiltrate various organizations and kingdoms and feed them information on the location of various Champions."

"Among other things," Rocko agreed. "But first, you are going to need to collect that information. Then you will be able to pass on the information to various organizations that are actively hunting the Champions. You may be able to eliminate some of them without having to fight them."'

"What about the Amulets?" James asked.

Rocko tilted his head slightly, "What about them?"

James shrugged, "Are they any good to regular people?"

Rocko frowned, "I don't think so. They may be inert to them."

James nodded and looked around the area on top of the ledge. It looked like the goblins had been here for a while. The rear portion of the ledge had been dug down. This allowed the goblins to hide well below the lip of the edge. This gave them the perfect cover. The space they were hiding in was nothing special. There was a rope, but it was not tied to anything. There were also some remains of food and bodily functions, but nothing else of great value. James had to find a clean area to Meditate.

Grabbing the third goblin, which had expired on the ledge, James Shadow Stepped down to the ground level.

"You okay," he asked Barbara, who gave him a weak smile and nodded.

"We forgot to look up," she said.

James nodded; he failed to give the walls a second look. This world was so different from Earth. He couldn't understand how he had missed it. He had more than twenty years of training, but he seemed to miss something as simple as this.

That thought gave him pause. It had only been a couple of weeks since he died. That was not enough time for him to forget how to field strip an HK 416 or an FN Mk 46 or a half dozen small arms blindfolded. This was his bread and butter. His level of expertise was top-ranked.

James was a little rattled. What else was he forgetting? He started naming all the pieces of the HK MP5SD to himself. Memory practice was critical in SEAL training. It was almost as crucial as the Physical training. He had been taught strategies and tricks to help with memory retention and recall. It was part of this job that he was required to memorize specific information in great detail. To lose your skill at memorization was a fear of many SEALs. It was never something to be taken lightly.

James started to realize that there were gaps in his memories, nothing too big, but he struggled to recall some details from Earth.

"Rocko! What the fuck!" James shouted.