James paused as soon as he rounded the bend. There was another control room with stairs leading up to an upper walkway. Everything was to be excepted. This is what caused James some concern. That lull into a false sense of security. Crouching down, he examined the area and watched for any movement. After a few minutes, he continued his approach.

He spent a good five minutes at the stairs leading up to the upper walkway before deciding there wasn't a trap. He still wasn't confident in locating them, so he climbed up the upper walkway without the stairs.

Rocko spoke up, "You know, sometimes a set of stairs is just a set of stairs."

'Until they're not,' reminded James. It was true that there were a lot of traps in this Dungeon. Rocko had to agree to that.

James took each step along the upper walkway with care, ensuring not to put too much weight on the grates until he was sure he had a secure footing. Moving up to the doorway, he paused to listen for movement. When he was sure there was nothing, he moved into the room and looked around. The room was empty except for the prerequisite table, chair and lantern.

Securing both doors, James moved over to the table and lit the lantern. The pattern that willed the room was much different from what he noticed when the room wasn't lit. Maybe that was the pattern he needed to be looking for in the mess of colour and swirls.

Congratulations! You have completed the Action Quest.

Reward: 400 experience (+40 for Dungeon Friend)

James was surprised by the amount of experience, "That was worth more than I expected."

Rocko smiled, "Action Quests can be worth a little or a lot, depending on how hard they are to find. Now check your other notifications."

James looked over at James before realizing that he had a blinking notification.

Opening his Status Screen, he took a look.

Name: James Gleason Race: Glrick Class: Shadow Knight Specialization: Level: 12 XP to next level: 2244/3000 Armour Rating: 39 Age: 42 Rank: 751 Health: 385 Unarmed Damage: 27 Stamina: 135 Glrick Sword: 1d6 +

45

Mana: 310 Bow of Piercing: 2d6 + 42 PSI: 510 PSI Regen/Min 8.50 ATTRIBUTES Unspent Attribute Pts: 23 Strength * 23 Agility 23 Dexterity 17 Endurance 15 Willpower 19 Intelligence * 32 Charm 15 Luck 12 SKILLS Unspent Skill Pts: 11 Analyze 11 Armour – Medium 10 Astral Navigation 7 Back Attack 5 Crit Strike – Sword 6 Evasion (M) 10 Info Gathering 4 Inspect 10 Meditation 7 Melee – Glrick (M) 7 Melee – Knife 1 Melee – Sword 4 Melee – Unarmed 4 Negotiation 1 PSI – Targeted 10 Ranged – Short Bow 2 Perception (M) 9 Res – Mental 1 Res – Debuff 3 Res – Pain 7 Res – Poison 6 Shield 12 Stealth 10 Swimming 2 Unspent Advantage Pts 51

* Modified by an Enchanted Item (+5)

"Back up to 50 Advantage Points," James pointed out.

"I recommend we wait until after this Dungeon to spend them."

"What about all those Unspent Skill Points and Attribute Points?" James asked.

"We may need them to boost you up to the required levels when you hit level 20, so I would like you to keep this for now." Rocko reminded him.

James grumbled, "Fine. In the meantime, I wish I could make heads or tails of this graffiti."

"I don't recognize anything, either. It could be a series of patterns you need to look for, or colours that match up to make a certain design, or it could just be a distraction." Rocko said with a shrug.

James decided it was time to move on, putting the drawing with the other illustrations he had made. Happy to have one more quest completed. Continuing to walk carefully, he approached the stairs leading down to the lower walkway. Again, he decided to forgo the stairs, lowered himself to the lower walkway, and looked for the trap.

The trap was more noticeable this time. The second trap was a little harder to find. However, James was pleased that he could find it at all.

"How come you can't help find traps?" James asked again.

"I can only see what you see, James. If you can't see them, I can't see them. If you want me to scout for you, you need to buy up the Advantage. Which I don't encourage you to do." Rocko reminded him.

James was confused. "How come you could see the rats sneaking up on me? If you can only sense what I sense, you should not have been able to sense them until I could sense them."

"You were able to sense them. You just hadn't picked up on them." Rocko corrected.

"That doesn't make sense."

Rocko thought about it, "Let's say you are looking in a crowd for a man with a red hat. While scanning the crowd, I see the man, but you don't. It is not because you can't see him. It is because your brain hasn't registered that you have seen him."

James narrowed his eyes at Rocko, "Why do I feel that you are bending the rules on that one."

"Are you complaining?"

James held up a hand, "Nope, just making sure we are all going to hell on the same bus."

Rocko opened his mouth to say something but just forwent the frustration and moved on.

Moving down the walkway, James and Rocko discovered another intersection. One tunnel continued straight, and one tunnel turned to the right. James crouched at the corner for a few moments, looking down both tunnels to see any movement. The tunnel to the right led straight and then opened up into another chamber. James was confident that if there was a Rat King, that is where it would be. The tunnel that led straight would continue to the exit. That would make the most sense.

James sent his perception into the chamber to the right using Shadow Sense. The chamber was nothing fancy but seemed to be a sewage collection centre. Eight large overhead pipes led to the room and dumped sewer water into the chamber. A walkway followed the outside wall around the chamber. Four walkways led to a middle platform. A glowing blue portal and a really big Sewer Rat were in the centre of the platform.

Name: ?? Race: Sewer Rat - King Level: 11 Damage Range: 2d4 +32 Damage Type: Piercing Armour Rating: 32 Special Melee - Bite: Disease (Rat Bite Flavour), Melee - Slash, Toughened Hide, Jump

James passed the information on to Rocko, "The Dungeon can have more than one portal?"

"Why not?"

"I thought Glezda said she could only have one exit."

"Yes, but she could have more than one portal leading to the same exit," Rocko explained.

James frowned. There was still the Kill Quest for the Giant Gar, and he suspected that there was something more to the graffiti. He was unsure if using the portal was the best option, even after killing the Rat.

Reviewing the Rat King, James realized that it would need to be killed the thing from range. Its damage was enough to get through his armour unless he got his shield in the way. Deciding to use PSI Bolts and Shadow Step to keep a distance, James planned his path of retreat. Since the walkway was limited in direction and freedom of movement, he decided that he would retreat using Shadow Step. One Shadow Step would take him within viewing range of the control room. He would Shadow Step to the walkway in front of the control room and fire arrows down at the Rat King. He would then retreat into the control room and close the door if necessary. That should provide enough of a barrier for him to retreat further or kill the Rat King with PSI Bolts.

James had to move up to be within range to use PSI Bolt. He waited until he loosed his first arrows before launching the noisy Bolt. The arrow hit first, and he used the Penetration Ability to make sure it would do damage, along with his Back Attack Skill. It sank deep into the Rat's flesh. The scream of the PSI Bolt drowned out its squeal of pain. James started stepping backwards, pausing only long enough to launch a PSI Bolt and release his arrow. The Rat King leaped off the platform and landed on the walkway that led straight to the intersection. The creature's thick hide deflected James' second arrow, but the PSI Bolts had no such problems.

James was surprised at the speed of the Rat King as it came barreling down towards him. He got off one more arrow which seemed only to nick an ear, and one more PSI Bolt, which hit with full impact into the creature's face before it leaped at James. James tried to duck underneath it, but the Rat King had curled itself so that the lower half of its body was ready to grip onto whatever it landed on. Although James avoided the bite, the Rat King's claws raked down his body and tore chunks out of his scale mail armour. Before crashing onto the walkway, James looked back the way he came, and Shadow Stepped as far as he could see onto the walkway.

He still fell to the walkway, but he leaped to his feet with only the loss of a few precious seconds while the Rat King turned the corner of the intersection and raced down the walkway toward him again. James tossed a couple of more PSI Bolts, followed by a couple of more arrows. The first arrow bounced, even with the Penetration Ability added to the attack. The second arrow hit with some force but was ripped out of the wound when the Rat King clipped the railing. The real damage came from the PSI Bolts, leaving bloody impact points on the Rat King's body and face.

This time, prepared for the leap, James Shadow Stepped as the Rat King's feet left the walkway. More stable this time on his landing, James stood in front of the door to the Control room and on the raised walkway. The Rat King was at the maximum range of his Darkvision but well within the bow range. After the first arrow bounced off the wall, the Rat King was now within range of his PSI Bolts, and they resumed as well. He wasn't sure, but it looked like the Rat King was frothing at the mouth, entering some sort of rage. James only got two more PSI Bolts in before the Rat King reached the stairs and leaped up to the top. He was at least three meters long, and he couldn't fit on the upper walkway. His lower half fell onto the steps and set off the trap.