James moved back down to the intersection. This time he moved by foot and spent some time looking for traps. Once he moved past the rats, he knew the grates were relatively safe as they didn't collapse when they ran across them. At the intersection, he looked both ways. James saw another control room down the left tunnel, or what appeared to be one. He saw that it turned left and disappeared around the bend down the right tunnel.

Opting to check out the control room, James headed to the left.

'Do you know if the creatures inside a Dungeon can set off the Dungeon traps?' James asked.

"That would an excellent question to ask Glezda. I don't know, but I think so," Rocko added.

James continued to check for traps, which slowed down his overall progress. But it was a lot faster than being dead. He found a trap on a crate under the steps leading up to the raised walkway through diligence. Not sure how to disarm it, James avoided the steps and climbed the outside of the steps to the top. It was awkward with a shield, but he managed.

The control room he saw had a small window and two doors. The same as the last room he saw, except graffiti, covered the walls. The paint overlaid each other, making it difficult for James to understand the image. Deciding to take a chance, he lit the lantern.

A blue box appeared in front of him.

Action Quest - light all the lanterns (1/5)

"Action quest?" James asked.

"Ya, those are not uncommon. They can be tricky to discover and a challenge to figure out but are not too difficult to accomplish. Unless creatures guard the locations," Rocko explained.

James held up the lantern and examined the graffiti. It wasn't anything fancy, but it had a strange pattern.

"Do you think this could be a puzzle piece that will come into play later?" James asked.

"Maybe, but hard to tell. Most Dungeons stick to one theme and don't diversify until they are much stronger, and then they may add themes to their floors."

James took out a piece of parchment and used the table to draw the graffiti. It was not easy as different colours were overlapping each other. The colours looked like they were placed on top of each other, but he found spots where white covered red and then another spot where red covered white. It made no sense to him. Once the image was copied, he stuffed the parchment back into his satchel and picked up his sword.

James decided to return to the first control room and light the lantern. Returning was much faster than the trip out. He was able to jump over the missing grate and the lantern lit with little difficulty. He was shocked to see that the room had graffiti on the walls. For some reason, he could not see them with darkvision, and Rocko had no explanation. Using Analyze on the lantern revealed some exciting information.

Name: Lantern of Revealing Rarity: Uncommon Spell Range: 20' Durability: 4/5 Special: Dungeon only item, Enchantment: Reveal things that may be hidden or invisible

James shared the unique qualities of the Lantern with Rocko.

"Now, that is different." Rocko sounded impressed.

James sighed. He noticed that a new notification appeared showing that the counter for lighting the lanterns had increased from 1 to 2, but no pop-up blocked his vision. Leaving the lantern-lit, he moved back towards the intersection and contemplated his next move.

"Since this will be a bit of a maze, I see no how it matters which direction we go," James said, looking both ways. Turning to the right, James moved along the walkway towards the bend in the tunnel.

After a few minutes, James heard some skittering along the tunnel. It reminded him of when his dog would walk across the hardwood floor. It told him that it was time to trim the dog's toenails. Switching back to his bow, he hung his shield on his arming belt and nocked an arrow. This was no different, except that there was more than one source.

He didn't have to wait long before seeing the swarm of spiders skittering along the ceilings and the walls. They were about half a meter wide, but most of that was legs. Aiming, he started another barrage of arrows and PSI Bolts. He had not learned to shoot at different targets with his attacks, so he had to concentrate on his attacks. One attack seemed enough to knock the spiders off the walls or ceiling and into the water. A few landed on the walkway, but a couple of follow-up shots were enough to kill them.

When the last spider fell was killed, the sewer tunnels got quiet. James started when a blue box appeared.

Kill quest - kill 50 spiders - 20/50

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Another kill quest." all need for stealth was gone at the moment. Taking a moment to Inspect the spiders gave him some interesting information.

Name: ?? Race: Dungeon Spider - Sewer Level: 6 Damage Range: 1d6 +20 Damage Type: Piercing Special: Bite: Poison, Climb

He knocked the spider off the walkway with his foot, "These spiders would have difficulty getting through my armour. Even a crit wouldn't do much."

"Not everyone is expected to be running around a low-level Dungeon wearing Scale Mail armour. That alone is a huge boon for you. Once we get past these starter Dungeons, you will make a real difference in difficulty." Rocko explained.

James sighed and sat down. He only had 40 PSI points remaining. He would have to inquire about getting some Potions of PSI. Looking at the water a meter below him, he noticed something was eating the spiders.

"Are those fish?" James asked.

Rocko grimaced, "Not sure you want to find out."

The hour passed with the same monotony as the previous rest period. James had no new notifications. James and Rocko bantered a little, but mostly they were left to their thoughts.

"We should pick up a deck of cards. I can show you how to play Gin or Euchre," James offered.

Rocko smiled, "We would have to get creative with the cards, but it is doable. We have a few games I could show you from our world."

Getting to his feet, James counted his arrows. Grabbing eight arrows from his Bag of Holding, he topped up the quiver. Continuing down the walkway, he came to another intersection after a few minutes. This one allowed him to either turn left or continue straight. Of course, he would need to deal with the four rats hanging out. James called them Rodents of unusual size, but Rocko pointed out that their size wasn't that usual.

Wanting to conserve his arrows, James used PSI Bolts exclusively to kill the rats. Although it didn't happen often, James missed with two of the Bolts. A rat dodged one, and one struck the metal railing before it could hit the rat. That cost James fourteen Bolts or 280 PSI. Sighing, James sat down again to recharge his PSI. The good news was that the kill quest counter went up by four.

'Hurry up and wait,' James smiled, 'The motto of every warrior, on any world.'

"You trying to be poetic?" Rocko asked.

James grinned, 'Nope, just lamenting quietly.' He viewed the only notification he got.

PSI - Targetted +1

After resting, James followed the tunnel going straight. It ended after about twenty meters, forcing him to take the other route. This path led to another raised walkway. James found another trap, suspecting a pattern but not wanting to rely on it. This one was attached to the top step just before stepping onto the walkway. Not sure what it was and if he could disarm it, he left it alone and continued. The control room that was attached to the raised walkway had a door which was closed. James tried to peek into the room through the window, but he didn't have the angle. As he reached for the handle, he heard movement behind the door as it burst open toward him.

Raising his shield, he deflected a flying rat into the water. In the room, he could see almost a dozen more. Sword in hand, he pushed with his shield to force the rats back into the room. The doorway was a natural choke point and was narrower than the walkway. James stuck to the sword and shield, opting not to use his PSI Bolts this time. Activating his Shield of Darkness, the area around him went completely dark. There wasn't a lot of ambient light to start with, but now it was completely dark. The rats were still able to attack; whether it was due to scent, sounds or their whiskers, James was still set upon by three or four rats at a time. With this Shield of Darkness, his Hardened Skin II and his scale mail armour, none of the attacks hit caused damage. The thrusts of his blade and the occasional slash were enough to kill the rats. James used Jones's training on living targets to hopefully improve the Skill. He also had a chance to use Shield Bash when necessary to prevent the rats from getting out of the room. A time or two, he even resorted to kicking them back in the room when he found his shield out of position to prevent a rat from fleeing.

The last two rats tried to flee, but his use of PSI Bolt prevented them from getting far. The Kill quest increased to 19, and when he lit the lantern, the Search quest increased to 3. James had gotten into checking his notifications when he sat down for the rest. He knew he was close with a couple of his Skills, so he wasted little time checking his notifications.

Armour - Medium +1

Melee - Glrick Sword +1

Melee - Unarmed +1

Shield +1

Congratulations! Armour - Medium has reached level 10.

Penalty to Dexterity and Agility due to wearing armour is reduced from 50% to 25%

Penalty to Skills is now calculated at 75% of AR total instead of 100%

Penalty for movement is reduced from 15% to 10%

James shared the information with Rocko. "Not bad. I didn't realize that I had a movement penalty."

"Pretty minor, really, but yes." Rocko agreed.

"Fifteen percent is more than a little minor, Rocko!"

Rocko looked up at James, "Did you notice it?"

"Not really, hard to tell. Maybe fifteen percent was hard to notice after all. Shortness of stride, maybe," James shrugged.

After lighting the lantern, James held the light high and looked around the room. It took a couple of minutes before he found the graffiti in the lower corner of the room. Taking out his tarp, he lay it down on top of the filth of rat droppings and gore. With the lantern illuminating the wall, James sketched the graffiti on the parchment. With that task done, he stood up and shook out the tarp.

"Afraid of rat droppings?" Rocko joked.

"Rat droppings, as you call them, are major spreader of disease," James explained.

Rocko shrugged, "There are only three diseases that can affect gargoyles, so we do concern ourselves with such things."

James strapped on his shield and drew his sword again, "I bet two of them are fungus, and one is sexually transmitted."

"A fungus is not a disease, and don't joke about the Crumbles. It eats away at a gargoyles manhood. That is never something you should joke about." Rocko said with a shudder.

James chuckled as he headed out the second door, "Agreed."

The next portion of the raised walkway was the same as the other two locations. He even found a trap on the last step of the stairs leading down to the lower walkway. James stepped carefully passed the trapped step. James stepped down on the lower walkway when he was blinded by a flash of light, deafened by a thunderous roar, and knocked unconscious by a concussive blast.