As I rushed up the treacherous corridor, my mind went to the disturbing question of how Trox had known what my son looked like. Constantine said his Ring of Illusion required him to have personally seen the object of the illusion. Was that the way Trox’s magic worked? Had he been in the same room with Jack at some point? If so, when?

I got a little light-headed and had to stop for a moment. How did Trox know that Jack was my son, much less get every illusory detail perfect, even down to generating the smell of his deodorant?

God. What if Trox had captured Jack and was holding my boy prisoner somewhere?

Mace’s instincts screamed at me to keep moving, so I did. Even if Trox had captured Jack, there was nothing I could do about it now. My first step was to find my friends, and then we’d decide what to do next.

After tamping down my panic over Jack, I realized my forearm itched something fierce. When I looked down at it, I almost tripped over my own feet:

Congratulations, you have achieved the Rank “Expert!” You have recognized when to control your character’s Negative Trait and when to defer to your character’s wisdom.

All of your base Character Stats have increased to (10).

I was “Expert” rank now? Good timing. I tapped the pop-up message to close it and scanned my Character Stats:

Rank: Expert

Strength: 10

Toughness: (10) 11

Dexterity: (10) 12

Intelligence: 10

Charisma: 10

Hit Points: 48/48

Magic Points: 21/21

Wow. So all I had to do to go up a Rank was realize that I was an idiot for not listening to Mace and my friends? I was fine not having to endure the same kind of test I had getting to “Adept.” But, as I thought about it, I’d take a dozen astral churners in my gut over the terror I’d felt seeing my only son lying on the ground in front of Trox.

I’d also been so focused on getting to my friends that I hadn’t realized how good I felt. I wasn’t winded at all despite jogging and weaving through rocky terrain uphill. And I could easily follow the goblin tracks and distinguish them from the footprints of humans. I even found another chalk mark of Sonja’s tattoo on the wall. My powers of observation had doubled. No wonder I had noticed the footprints and symbols near the start of the corridor.

The RPG nerd in me was a little disappointed that I didn’t get Character Points to allocate like I had before when I ranked up to “Adept.” I hoped I’d get to do it at higher ranks.

I did, however, get some updates to my Skills and Spells sections:

Tactical Vision: You can scan a physical location and determine the best ways to fight a small battle with your available resources. +25% to your Intelligence checks to create an attack plan with the most likely chance of success against (10) or fewer creatures.

That could come in handy, considering we mostly fought small-scale battles.

I scanned my Spells and found that I could now spend extra Magic Points to make each spell more effective:

Enhanced Healing Touch: You can tap your Ancestral Blood to heal yourself or another living creature that you can touch.

Spend 2 Magic Points: Heal 20% of the creature's total Hit Points.

Spend 6 Magic Points: Heal 50% of the creature's total Hit Points.

Enhanced Ancestral Smite: You can tap your Ancestral Blood to deal additional damage to creatures you hit.

Spend 1 Magic Point: Add 20% extra damage to a single hit.

Spend 5 Magic Points: Add 35% extra damage to a single hit.

Ancestral Shield: You can tap your Ancestral Blood to form a shield of divine energy around you or a creature of your choice within 5 feet.

Spend 1 Magic Point: The shield blocks 30% of the damage you or the creature would have taken from an attack. You also have a 60% chance of resisting the effects of any spell directed at you.

Spend 5 Magic Points: Block 40% damage, 65% spell resistance.

And I got a new spell:

Cancel Krait’s Magic: Tap your Ancestral Blood to cancel the effects of a magical effect produced by a follower of Krait, the mortal enemy of the Ancestral Paladins.

Spend 2 Magic Points: You have a 50% chance of canceling the spell.

Spend 5 Magic Points: You have a 75% chance of canceling the spell.

Mace’s glee at that was overwhelming, but I couldn’t help feeling underwhelmed. Why would I want to cancel Stephen’s magic? Maybe if he tried Force-choking me again someday. But it seemed pointless for the vast majority of the time where we’d be fighting other monsters together.

Maybe Trox wielded Krait’s magic, for it seemed pretty similar to Stephen’s. In that case, it could be very useful. But until I confirmed that, the spell was far too risky to waste Magic Points on in a battle with him.

I scrolled back up to my Character Stats and noticed that I no longer had a +2 modifier to my Strength. With gut-wrenching clarity, I remembered Trox stole my Ancestral Longsword, which had given me that +2 when I used it in battle. I was angry he’d taken my only weapon, and Mace was beyond angry that he’d taken a family heirloom.

We’ll get it back, buddy, I thought. And then we’ll make that goblin pay for messing with our families.

But in the meantime, I had no weapon but my fists, my wits, and Stephen’s odious dagger. I was confident Mace knew how to use his fists and wits better than I (he didn’t even want to acknowledge the dagger), but I doubted they’d help me against seven-foot-tall flying goblins.

Another thing to worry about later, after I found my friends.

The rocky corridor started to level off so that I was no longer rushing uphill. It hadn’t been a problem with my enhanced conditioning due to my new Rank, but it did make my footing easier. I picked up my pace while watching for tracks and Sonja’s chalk symbols.

I must have jogged a mile before I started smelling something other than the cave’s stale air. Faint whiffs of acrid smoke came first, then grew stronger the farther up I went. Though I didn’t see any smoke in my torchlight, I stopped for a moment to listen for any burning sounds. The corridor ahead was still dark, but I heard a slight whistling from the breeze coming down it. I kept going.

After going a bit further, I heard faint screaming. My heart leaped into my throat. As I listened more intently, I realized the screaming came from multiple voices, and they didn’t sound like my friends.

They sounded like kids.