After leaving Glezda's place, James crouched by some trees to wait for Rocko to appear.

"Any visitors last night?" Rocko asked with a grin.

James replied with a good-natured smile, "Nope, just had to share my bed with Onyx. She doesn't like to sleep on the chair."

Rocko had to nod, "Who does?"

James started back to business, "So, what can you tell me about this Dungeon, other than it has spiders?"

"It is in an area called the Jala Mire, near a place called Ulum Jana. It is not a very large town and is on the border of the wild lands to the south. Some of the surrounding lands are jungle and swamp, but the area where the Dungeon is located is in the middle of a low wet valley. It is hot and humid," Rocko explained.

"Should I aim for the town, valley, or dungeon itself?" James asked.

Rocko climbed a tree so that he didn't have to look up at James, "Saves time, I would say go for the Dungeon. Just don't appear next to it. Also, it will take a few hours to get there, so you should arrive at night."

James nodded, "I work better at night."

Rocko opened his mouth to make a joke but decided against it.

James looked over at Rocko, "I didn't bring any bug spray. Do you think that is going to be a problem?"

Rocko shook his head as he settled on a branch, "No. You should be fine with your Harden Skin II Power, other than them buzzing around you."

James settled on the ground. Onyx settled down next to him, but he could tell she was keeping an ear out. "You wanted to discuss spending some of the Free Advantage points?"

Rocko nodded, "Yes. We have several Advantages that are what we want to buy, and we now have some points to buy them with. The question is, which Advantages do you want to buy first. We can hold off until you need the advantage, which may delay things. It is up to you."

"What are my options?"

"Three Shadow-based Powers and two Advantages. You have Shadow Form, Shadow Bind and Animate Shadow. For the Advantages, you have Domain and Mana Sense." Rocko listed.

James thought about it for a bit, "Mana sense and Shadow Bind, maybe? Not sure if Shadow Bind would help with spiders."

Rocko frowned, "Shadow Form is powerful but expensive. It allows you to move as a Shadow. That means under doors, through cracks, or even avoiding traps and physical attacks. But you will take extra damage if you get hit with a Light-based Spell while in Shadow Form."

James smiled, "And Animate Shadow will allow me to cause a shadow to attack someone. Any idea how powerful the attack is?"

Rocko nodded, "It uses your Willpower to calculate its damage."

James checked his Status Screen. Strength was 19, with a bonus of +5 from his ring and his Willpower was 20 with no bonuses. "Almost equal."

"You may want to augment your Willpower since your two rings will enhance your two main attributes."

"I need to increase my Willpower anyway. I looked at my Status Screen last night, and it occurred to me that with the bonuses I get from each level, I won't have any difficulty getting two Attributes to level 30. Is that normal? Seems like a give-me."

Rocko cocked an eyebrow, "Not sure what a give-me is, but I can infer it to be a free-be or a given. Ya, the main challenge is getting the Shadow-based powers and the Advantages you need."

"So, how do you know these are the prerequisites?"

"A long time ago, there was a Champion who became a Shadow Lord and recorded his Advantages. That is how we know you need 6 Shadow-based powers. The Champion also took note of the Advantages that he was missing. The system was kind enough to tell him what he was missing.

"And the other Advantages?"

"I will have to look up that information again, but I believe he had them at the time.

"So they may not be requirements.

"The other two may not be a requirement, no. But it told him he needed to have a Shadow Squire."

"I may hold off buying those other two. I will make sure I have the Free Advantage points for them, but if I don't have to buy them, that will save me a lot of points.

"I would hate for you to lose out on the opportunity for lack of Free Advantage points.

"If my math is correct, I have enough with what I have now and what I will gain with each level to get what we need minus those two Advantages. With them, I will need an additional 60 Free Advantage points.

"That means completing Dungeons. These two Dungeons should give you about 30 points each, which is enough to get what you need. If you want something, not on the list, you would like to complete other Dungeons to get those points. Of course, you could get lucky and get something like a Hidden Quest or Puzzle Quest.

"Now I understand better why you didn't want to spend 50 points on the Secondary Astral Anchor or the 40 points on PSI Ball.

Rocko nodded, "PSI Ball was necessary for you to defeat that Dungeon, but the Secondary Astral Anchor Advantage was a luxury. It will save you two hours a day and make things easier. It was also an investment. With a few thousand gold, you could start buying Rare Enchantments.

James smiled, "I am still saving up to get Enchantments on my Scale mail, Helm, Greaves and Cuisses. Then I will start worrying about Rare items."

Rocko nodded, "If you are not going to buy anything, then we should be going."

James nodded and stood up. Once standing, he opened an Astral Portal and stepped through with Onyx.

----------------------------------------

The trip through Astral Space was uneventful. James and Onyx could get through with no issues and only travelled for several hours. It was the first time James could observe Onyx while travelling in Astral Space, and he wasn't disappointed. She seemed alert and on guard. She stayed on his left during the trip and could keep up, no matter how fast he pushed. James tried the Inspect and Analyze Skill on Onyx to see what came back.

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Name: Onyx Race: Black Labrador Retriever (Special) Level: 1 Damage Range: 1d6 +8 Damage Type: Piercing/Slashing Armour Rating: 6 Special: Enhanced Hearing/Smell, Melee - Bite, Claw, Guard

Name: Black Onyx of Power Quality: Good Rarity: Rare Durability: 110/110 Special: Dog

James looked at the two notifications and wondered what it was saying. Durability could mean health. He would have to test that theory when Onyx got hurt. He had hoped to get a list of her Attributes, Skills and abilities. Other than being told about her Enhanced Hearing and Smell and something called Guard, he knew nothing of her capabilities. He remembered when he was in the form of the Were Tiger, he had Enhanced sense as well, so it may be the same thing. He would have to try to Analyze a monster the next time he had the chance.

James knew that it would be nighttime when he arrived in the swamp. Stepping out of Astral Space would bathe the area around the portal in bright white light, which was not as subtle as he would like. Working on a hunch, James activated his Shield and created an area of Darkness around him before opening the Astral Portal. When he stepped into Real Space, he was pleased to note that the site was not bathed in bright white light. When Rocko appeared, James was relatively happy with himself.

"What is with the Darkness around you?" Rocko asked.

James smiled, "Testing a theory. If I create the Darkness before I open the Astral Portal, the area is not bathed in bright white light."

Rocko nodded, "Good idea; it will make sneaking around easier. Any idea where the Dungeon is?"

James pointed north, "About 300 meters that way."

"How did Onyx do in Astral Space?"

"Pretty good. She seems to be okay there, with no panic or anxiety. And she can keep up with me without issue." James explained.

"Good to hear. Now, if only we could get more of your friends to travel with you like that, you could have a real Party."

James looked over at Rocko as he snuck through the brush, 'Why do you say that? I thought you didn't want the sisters to travel with me.'

Rocko shook his head, "No, I said I didn't think the bonus experience was worth the difficulty of them not being able to travel as fast as you."

James frowned; it still bothered him that he could not group with people he could trust. Even now, he was probably more than four or five levels higher than they were.

James paused when he saw some light ahead. It appeared to be from a campfire. James was worried that Onyx would bark or make noise, but she followed quietly beside him. When he crouched down, she lowered her body as well. When he belly crawled the last few meters, she did as well. He would have laughed if not for the seriousness of the situation. He could now see the fire directly from only 30 meters away. Activating Shadow Meld to hide deeper in the darkness, he activated Shadow Sense to put him closer to the four individuals he could see by firelight.

The first individual looked like a dwarf: short, stocky and with a full beard. He wore heavy leathers and a leather helm and carried a wooden shield, a battle axe and a light crossbow. James used the Inspect and Analyze Skills on him. He was in an animated discussion with the others around the fire about the merits of fungus-based ale.

Name: ?? Race: Dwarf - Highland Level: 9 Damage Range: 1d6 +32 Damage Type: Slashing Armour Rating: ? Special Melee - Ax, Ranged - Crossbow, Darkvision

James was not surprised that he didn't get anything from the Analyze Skill. Since the Inspect Skill had increased with usage in Ash Rumbo, he was getting much more information about people, especially if they were under level 10.

The following person was human and reminded him of an underfed teenager he once knew back in school. All the kid did was smoke pot, which seemed to suck his life out. It didn't, but the kid was more interested in smoking than eating. The human was in his late teens or early twenties, with stringy black hair and a gaunt appearance. He wore light leathers on his chest only and carried a short bow and a short sword for weapons. He was disputing the flavour of mushroom ale as anything but palatable. The Inspect Skill did not reveal anything too troublesome.

Name: ?? Race: Human - Jala Mire Level: 7 Damage Range: 2d6 +23 Damage Type: Piercing Armour Rating: 16 Special Ranged - Shortbow, Melee - Short Sword, Penetrating Shot

James noticed that the young man had Penetrating Shot. That meant he had to have his Ranged - Short Bow Skill up to at least level 10. James was jealous, as none of his skills were above his level.

The third man was a human as well. He was older, about the same age as James was when he was human. The man was heavy set, and that indicated to James that the man wasn't normally active. The man was not wearing any armour and had a short sword on his hip. He had no ranged weapons, and James was not surprised by what Inspect revealed.

Name: ?? Race: Human - Keshian Level: 10 Damage Range: ? Damage Type: ? Armour Rating: 12 Special Melee - Short Sword, Magic, ??

James nodded to himself. The man was a mage of some type. He wasn't actively participating in the conversation between the young human and the dwarf, but he followed along attentively.

That left the last person. James had no idea what race the person was sitting near the fire. He was humanoid and male. At least his features were very masculine. His hair appeared to be a solid block of pale blue crystal, spikey and growing in different directions. His skin was blue, like the sky or clear water colour, and he wore some fancy robes with strange markings around the hem and sleeves. He carried no weapons, but James did see several Wands and Potions worn on a bandolier. What shocked James the most was what he saw when he Inspected him.

Name: ?? Race: Shard - Air Level: 12 Damage Range: ? Damage Type: ? Armour Rating: ? Special Champion, Magic, ??