Jim's PoV

Jim felt the rhythmic pounding on his chest. Dammit, why did the dogs take it upon themselves to be his alarm clock? Getting out of his comfy hotel bed, Jim looked at the clock. 5 AM? Who in the world got up at 5 AM? That seemed to be a rhetorical question because there were now two sets of rhythmic pounding on his chest.

Shifting one eye over to the game world, he saw the little mischief makers. They noticed him looking back and the pair of pups sat on his chest. Looking around he could see everyone packing up the camp site. It was barely past the break of dawn. He didn't get the memo. Did adventures really start this early in the morning?

Davis noticed him looking and said "We plan on heading out in about 15 minutes, will you be ready?"

"Yeah, let me just take care of a couple things and I'll come back. Be back in 10."

Looking back at his pups he said "10 minutes okay! Just 10 minutes!"

They both looked at him with a twinkle in their eye. When did evil take the form of cute oversized looking puppies? Logging out back to his hotel, he quickly took a shower and got some coffee. A minute into his second cup, the little demons were jumping on his chest again. Jim gulped the rest down and put the cup back on the nightstand.

Now ready for the day, Jim shifted fully into the other world. This side's Jim didn't seem bothered by 'sleeping' on the ground, which was kind of nice. He didn't need to pack up anything.

Gwen rubbed her shoulders and said "Wow, carrying a pack all day really does a number on your shoulders."

Davis said "Yeah, traveling is hard on the body. If you want I can carry your pack too. After all, most of what you are carrying is food supplies for all of us."

Gwen said "But you are already carrying most of the camping supplies, I couldn't!"

Then Jim realized he could easily solve this problem. Tossing stuff in his inventory didn't add any weight for him, so it didn't really matter. Jim said "I can carry everything if you want. Just give me a name to call it by and I can toss it in my inventory."

Davis asked "Inventory?"

"It's the space I use to transfer stuff between this world and my world. Not really sure how it works, but it seems I can put an unlimited amount of stuff in there. And the kicker is that it doesn't weigh anything. Just make sure to give me a name for it, that's how I find the stuff."

Forrest looked interested and said "That sounds great. If you don't mind, just call this 'Forrest's pack.'"

Jim grabbed the item and a second later it was in his inventory. Using the same motion as in the real world, he dropped the pack on the blue boxes while his inventory tab was up. With two eyes to be able to do the task, it was a lot easier.

A minute later everyone crowded around him handing him items with names. Man, he should have thought of this the day before, it would probably save a lot of time.

As he packed away the last item Gwen said "Would you like something to eat? We still have some breakfast left."

Jim had some snacks in his inventory but figured why not. He hadn't really had any food here yet. It was an adventure right? So, he should try to be a bit more adventurous.

Gwen handed over what seemed like a flat bread. Nice, it was still warm. Giving it a sniff, it smelled sweet. Jim took a bite and it was delicious! It was like a croissant had a baby with a muffin.

Gwen said "I'm sorry, normally I put fruit in them, but fruit was too heavy to take with us."

Jim said "This is great! I'm not sure if this world's fruit is any different, but I can do a shopping run in my world whenever we take a break next."

Gwens eyes lit up and said "Oh! That would be wonderful! I would love to try to cook with ingredients from another world."

That got Jim thinking and he said "What about meats? I could bring over some meat too. Or anything really. There is a store nearby."

The woman seemed to have stars in her eyes when she said "Yes, please. I would love that."

Davis said "You know you don't have to make anything fancy. We are on the road. If you spend all the time while we rest cooking, you will get tired. We still have over a week before we reach the alcove."

Gwen said "A body needs good food, not that trash hardtack you keep going on about."

Shrugging Davis said "It gets the job done and it takes almost no time to prepare. It's a good road food. Efficient."

"Efficient? Most people would probably throw that trash up after their second meal. It's terrible."

Not wanting to cause trouble Jim said "I can just go out and buy food too. It's not necessary for you to cook if you don't want to."

"I like cooking and I would love to see ingredients from another world. If it's no trouble, please get some tomorrow."

Jim looked at Davis and he seemed to be out of words. "Sure, anything in particular?"

"I don't know what to ask for, but if you bring some meat I have plenty of spices."

"Okay, sounds good."

***

Davis' PoV

Walking alongside Forrest he said "We seem to be making really good time. Having these boots along with not having packs seems to have increased our speed. How long do you think it will take us at this pace?"

Forrest replied "I'm really surprised by the pace, but probably a week, maybe even less. Not having any encounters with the wild life has also really increased our pace. Honestly it's kind of eerie."

Glancing at Scarlet who was lagging behind a bit he said, "Well, she didn't take off on the first night. So far that's better than expected."

"I talked to her earlier, she seems set on going to Jacksberg, although she didn't say the reason why."

Then he watched one of the wolves rocket up a dirt ramp with Maria in tow. Squealing she said "Yahooo! Again! Again!"

Gwen yelled "Maria! That's dangerous! Don't encourage them!"

"It's fine mom! I'm fine! My friends won't let me fall!"

Gwen looked defeated and said "Please, just be careful."

The wolf went for another loop around and went soaring even higher. Davis had to stop looking at them. If he kept watching, he felt like he was just going to grab the girl and put her on his shoulders. That seemed so dangerous.

Forrest probably caught the drift of what he was thinking and said "You know, she has been doing that for almost the last week. I've never seen her fall off even once."

"I feel like reality bends around those wolves."

Forrest nodded and said "Yeah, I feel the same way."

***

Jim's PoV

On the fifth day of travel they arrived at the location designated by Forrest where they would split off from the rest of the party. All-in-all it wasn't a bad experience. It was like camping combined with visiting your hometown as an adult.

Every now and then he would look at land features for a few seconds and then realize where they were on the original game map. So in his head he would be thinking 'oh, that part looks about right,' and then 'that parts new, and so is that.'

After he did some grocery shopping for Gwen she turned into a cooking machine. She was like a portable oven with her fire magic. Having lived off fast food and microwavables for the past several years, he felt like he was treated to a gourmet restaurant every time they sat down for a meal. Jim was not looking forward to going back to eating his junk food.

Even though the journey didn't have any fighting, he felt like a tourist. With his phone he took plenty of pictures of the wolf riding girl and even a few videos. If he posted the video on the internet, he wondered if people would think it's a computer generated scene? Should he not post that one?

He could post the photos at least. People would just think the wolf was photoshopped. He took a lot of pictures of the scenery too. Scarlet seemed to like to jump into his shots at the last minute. Little photo bomber.

Jim really didn't know what her game was. He felt like she was doing something sneaky, but he couldn't figure out why. Either way, the shots were great! He was sure when he posted them they would get a lot of likes.

When they reached the site Jim pulled out everyone's gear from his inventory with the exception of Forrest's pack. Right beside a small mountain the terrain formed a naturally high wall with an opening that even two men could hold. The walled area inside the opening was a half circle that sat flush against the mountain.

There was also a small cave near the back for even more room. By the cave entrance there were stacks of stones that could be used as a stairway to get near the top of the wall. It made a decent emergency exit, but it would be the equivalent of jumping out from the third floor. Very cool location. Jim was fairly sure this place was just an impassable mountain tile in the original game.

During the journey Forrest kept making comments about how odd it was that they had not encountered anything at all. But according to the man the area surrounding the temple was swarming with enemies.

They had already decided since it would be so dangerous, that the rest of the team would stay behind in the alcove. Forrest and Jim would make their way to the temple alone in the morning.

Forrest said that he could stay hidden easily with the new gear and Jim didn't fear anything in this world so long as he was awake. Jim decided to leave his two pups behind to protect the group while they were away.

His game logic told him that with their gear they should be more than fine, but he felt it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, his schedule was clear for the day and he was still hiding out in a hotel.

So they went off in the morning to the temple while everyone else rested their weary legs. The pair said their goodbyes and headed to the temple.

***

Forrest's PoV

Forrest was on edge. The lands beyond the territory that humans held always had hostile monsters of some kind. Their village knew that better than most because of the caves that sat right next to them. But for some reason not once had they been attacked. It wasn't natural.

With his new gear he almost blended entirely into the landscape but Jim still could easily see him for some reason. Another oddity was that just as Jim suspected, his new quiver did not run out of arrows.

How the hell did a quiver not run out of arrows? Forrest knew he lived in a bit of a bumpkin town, but he had never heard of such a thing even in stories and legends. When asked, Jim would just say something nonsensical about "Would probably change the game balance too much."

He had no idea what that even meant. Forrest knew Jim said he was from another world, but the number of unnatural occurrences seemed to be stacking up. He also had a sneaking suspicion that the gear Jim gifted them was not normal.

He knew Scarlet was much more traveled than he was and even she seemed surprised at their gifts. Forrest knew Jim was keeping secrets, but he respected the man's privacy. Jim saved his life when he was on death's door.

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Eight hours later they reached their destination, and still not one creature was seen. Upon reaching the temple Jim immediately found a door with glowing square buttons with symbols on them. Jim exclaimed "Yes! Exactly like the game! Glad we don't have to do those side quests to find out the password, would have taken forever at this rate."

Jim started pushing some of the glowing symbols in a particular order and then the earth began to shake. Tense, Forrest kept a lookout for anything hostile. But nothing happened besides the door opening.

"Yes! Worked like a charm! Let's go!"

Forrest whispered "Are you sure it's safe? What happens if we get locked in there?"

Jim said nonchalantly "Then I'll make a door. It's fine. Probably."

Forrest hissed "Probably?"

Jim shrugged and said "Don't rightly know what is going to happen. Normally an evil wizard named Zed gets the artifact, and afterwards it's just an empty temple."

Forrest nervously followed Jim and kept his eyes scanning.

After they entered a large room a booming voice yelled "Begone evil mortal! For I am a Keeper of Secrets and have seen the past, present and future! Should you complete the artifact, it will only cause pain to the world while you end up as a corpse to the valiant protectors of all that is good! We have seen your coming and we..."

The voice suddenly stopped and an elderly ghost appeared in front of them. Forrest started backing away and reached for an arrow. The man was transparent! A real ghost. Could his bow even hit ghosts?

The ghost came closer and started scrutinizing Jim from every angle while saying "Hrmmm."

After repeating the phrase a few more times he asked "Don't suppose you got another friend somewhere around? Old fellow about ye high, gray hair and beard? Little bit on the chubby side?"

Forrest gulped but kept his mouth shut. Was this the evil wizard Jim was talking about?

Jim said "Nope, sorry. Just me and Forrest. So about this artifact..."

The ghost interrupted asking "Is your name Zed? Maybe you're just here a little early and can come back later."

Jim smiled and replied "Sorry friend. The name is Jim, nice to meet you."

The ancient Keeper then said "Well darn. We're normally pretty good at this. Got everything right for the last couple millennia. But if you beat the twin rock giants, then I guess you get the treasure."

Jim questioned "Rock giants?"

The ghostly apparition said slowly "Yes. Sometimes called mountain giants? Giant rock guys around four times the height of a man? Three times as wide? Ring any bells?"

They both shook their heads. Rock giants? Real rock giants? Forrest shivered. The legends were true! They must have been really lucky.

The ancient keeper then said hopefully "What about the swarm of imps? You at least beat the imps right?"

They both shook their heads no again. The Keeper then started angrily muttering under his breath, "No good lazy Demon Lords. I told Lady Anera they wouldn't keep their word! I knew those two would just run off with those imps!"

After a few more mutterings and curses under his breath, the figure asked hopefully "How about some clawed rats? Bigger rats that have talons like birds of prey. You killed at least a few of those right?"

Jim and Forrest glanced at each other and then Jim finally spoke up and said "No, sorry. You're the only other thing I've seen since entering the temple."

The ghost muttered angrily "Bloody lazy laggards. They had one job, just one! Useless all of them. May Lady Anera curse their souls! It's so hard to get good help these days."

The figure sighed and said dejectedly "Well, you're here so that means you won the treasure. Follow me."

Jim and Forrest followed the creature until they reached a room. Inside this next room the center floor was slightly elevated with a large wooden chest in the middle. It was lit up by brasiers on each of the four corners of the raised platform.

Then Jim shouted happily, "A treasure room!"

Forrest watched Jim fiddle with his black flat magic rock and then set it down. To his and the Keepers' astonishment the magic rock started playing music! It was a slow piece filled with a sound of building anticipation. Finally Jim walked over to the treasure box, opened it and then thrust the object that was inside over his head.

The music cut off and the odd rock that Jim had set down started speaking in a weird fashion saying, "You have found the ancient artifact! Collect two more to unlock its power!"

Forrest could only watch the display in confusion. Looking at the ghost, its thoughts seemed to mirror his own.

Jim must have picked up on it when he said "Sorry, just something I always wanted to do since I was a kid."

Forrest asked "The magic rock can talk?"

Jim shrugged and said "Kind of. I can tell it what to say. It's the magic of text-to-speech! Still sounds a bit robotic, but it's been getting better."

Forrest shook his head. Every question seemed to only bring more questions. Looking at the glowing golden triangle he wondered if he should even ask.

***

Jim's PoV

Jim looked down on the artifact in satisfaction. Normally the player never saw the artifact itself, which was probably why he was looking at this obviously plagiarized golden triangle. This world definitely used his gaming database to fill in those gaps.

If this was a real game, one of his favorite gaming companies probably wouldn't be too happy with him right now. Shrugging he put it in his inventory. Jim thanked the Keeper of Secrets and made his way out of the temple.

As they were walking away, Jim could hear the keeper mutter under his breath "Kids got it too easy these days. Back in my day, adventurers actually had to do something! Now they just walk in and get rewarded. I'm getting old."

Jim had his hearing sense turned up, so he smiled at the comment. He had to agree, it was too easy. So far the adventure was rather disappointing. It was just a pleasant road trip so far, not a real adventure. The interaction with the Keeper was interesting though, it was new content, but where the hell was the combat?

Either way, one down, two to go. Sadly the other two temples were time gated a bit. Humanity was kind of locked in a bubble, protected from the other two major races and factions that were in a constant war. Normally time didn't progress in the game until events in the main story line were completed.

Jim doubted this new version of the game would keep that standard. Which meant he had around seven or eight months before that event flag would trigger.

After that event the Endless Storm would start collapsing, allowing the player to progress to different continents. The Endless Storm was a barrier that kept the human race safe and protected from the other races of the world.

Once the barrier was down, the heroes would chase Zed to the other continents trying to get to the artifacts before the master wizard could. Of course, the heroes failed each time. Then the three artifacts in the temples propelled Zed into being a god. If there was that much power, maybe he could use the artifacts for solving the problem of having a world in his head? That was his original reasoning for trying to gather the artifacts.

Jim wondered if he could convince the party to try to do another side quest. He remembered the speed running route used a rare potion vendor that would only spawn if you had been quick. He wondered if he stayed in King's End too long?

But on the journey from Alextria to King's End, he had cut out being imprisoned for a couple days and did a boss skip. Then this past section was also fairly quick. He felt like there should be decent odds for her to spawn.

She sold the Remedy Potion, which was the first time it was available in the game. A Remedy Potion cures all status effects. Jim figured in his world combining them with a Healing Potion would probably be just as good as an Elixir.

If he could come up with a long term arrangement for these potions he could help a lot of people. Well, and it would make Charlotte happy, which would probably make them a ton of money. And it was only a short detour, so hopefully the group would find it acceptable.

Once he got to Jacksberg he had a sneaking suspicion that it might be possible to do another sequence break. In a normal game you couldn't bribe a captain to sail to the middle of nowhere. Oh well. He would keep his word and escort the team to Jacksberg, then he would see about finding an accommodating captain.

***

Davis' PoV

Davis had just finished eating what his sister prepared and it was delicious. He always loved her cooking, but he could see she was losing a lot of sleep over it. Gwen had a passion for cooking and with the new ingredients she seemed to spend even more time on her craft.

For some reason the older woman kept wanting to help, but his sister was very insistent on making the meals herself. He felt a bit suspicious of the older woman. In their short conversations he felt like she was lying constantly. However he was going to need her good will when trying to negotiate with Jacksberg, so he let it be.

The location that Forrest had chosen to camp was great. He liked how defensible it was, not that anything attacked at all in the past six days of the journey. Having the time off was nice, it let him practice using his new equipment. He was constantly surprised at how lightly he was able to move in the heavy armor. It felt even lighter than his previous chain mail.

It was then that Davis noted that the wolf pups had gone still with their ears cocked. In unison they raised their hackles. The wolf pups had never done that before. Glancing over to Scarlet, he saw that she already had both daggers in hand.

In a loud commanding voice he said "Gwen and Maria, Out here now!"

They had both been resting in the cave after the mid day meal. Now they both got up quickly and came outside as Davis tried to use all of his senses to figure out what the wolves had caught on to.

After they came out Gwen asked "What's going on?"

Davis said "I don't know but the wolves are picking up on something. Better safe than sorry. I want you to climb up the stone staircase in the back. It should give you a good angle to use your fire magic if it comes to it. Maria, you too."

He could see Gwen didn't believe him but she did it anyway. Davis knew he was being overly cautious, but he had never seen the wolves concerned about anything. Even at the Battle of King's End, they seemed more relaxed than they were right now.

And that's when he started to feel something. At first he thought a landslide was happening because there was a quiet shaking. Back at King's End they happened every now and then. The shaking grew more pronounced and the rumbling grew louder. But it was not a constant rumbling, more like a rhythmic drumming.

The wolves were growling as they stepped into the natural gap that blocked the entrance to the alcove. Still he could not see anything. The glare from the sun blinded him when looking to the outside. And then he saw it. In the distance he could see something that looked akin to black waves.

It was almost entrancing till he realized what he was staring at. Demon imps. They were the weakest of the demons but were still formidable because they always attacked in great numbers. But why was the ground shaking like this?

Still his mind worked and he came to the conclusion that just putting bodies in the gap would not stop their flow. The small bodied creatures would find a way through, they needed something else. Finally he turned to Gwen who had just made her way on top of the cave and yelled "Gwen! Fire in the gap now! If they make it inside we will be surrounded!"

After he yelled the wolves backed off as the fireball screamed through the air. Seconds after the fire landed something massive came out of the flames. It was as tall as four men and thrice as wide. A mountain giant! No, not one, but two!

Davis thought there was no hope, but then he saw the gap was too small and could only fit one giant at a time. The wolves positioned themselves so they could both attack while stopping it short of allowing its companion to get in. At first he thought there was no hope. How could teeth bite stone?

But to his surprise the bites were powerful. The hearty bites cause the massive giant to bleed sand. But that's when the imps found a path through the fire. The wolves killed some easily, but couldn't stop them all while fending off the giants. Scarlet stepped forward and started dispatching the ones on the wolves flanks to free them up for fending off the giants.

His mind went to the former prisoners. Glancing into the cave he could see them retreating further into the darkness. There was nothing he could do for them. They would have to depend on their luck to save them this day.

That's when things became very simple for him. He had to protect the base of the staircase to protect Gwen and Maria. Against swarming enemies covering everything in fire was their best bet. His world narrowed down to the opponents in front of him. His sword sang and he felled the demons one by one.

Davis's new armor made the blows against him feel weak and feeble. Knowing he was covered in the defense department, he abandoned his shield. His sword seemed to give him hints that he could deflect some of their feeble blows, but he ignored the instinct and focused all of his energy on striking anything that approached.

Without his shield he could kill the creatures in one or two strikes instead of three. He needed the extra deadliness and mobility to stop the swarm at the base of the stairs. If they were going to win the battle, Gwen needed to be able to freely cast to burn these bastards.

He could see fire flung in the distance and heard the sound of the mighty blasts, but he had no time to look. Twice he felt a light touch on his back and then felt vigor flood his body. Many more times he felt a warmth that stopped his bleeding. He kept his sword rhythmically moving and killed all that was in front of him.

And that was when the rats swarmed. The rats had razor claws but they were no match for his armor. However they were like the sea, he could not stop them all. He felt an impact and heat behind him, but he kept his focus forward. Davis felt regret that he couldn't stop them all, but should he turn his back now it would only compound the problem. They would have to deal with it.

He kept fighting. Through the endless fight thrice the fire machine paused. Then there was a breaking of glass and the endless flames were renewed.

There was a lull in the fighting and he looked up. Glancing up to his sister, he found that Scarlet had made her way up there to fight off the rats. He was relieved when he saw them all alive. To his dismay he realized that one of his Full Healing Potions had been smashed. Damn, only two left then.

Looking towards the gap he saw one of the giants had gotten a hold of Princess. He had her right fore paw in a grip and was slamming her over and over into the ground. Fluffy was viciously fighting to keep the rock giant in the gap but then Princess' limb broke. In the hand of the giant was a wolf limb while Princess was smashed into the back wall.

They had no chance without the wolves. He knew what he had to do. He rushed over cutting his way through the enemies to the downed wolf. He took out one of the vials at his belt forcing it down the throat of his comrade at arms. The missing limb reappeared in a second, then Princess was back and like a shot ran to her companions aid.

But to his horror the imps were on top of Fluffy tearing him apart. The wolf held the line. If Fluffy had taken the time to rid himself of the imps on his back, both of the giants would have been through the gap.

Princess came in like a rocket disintegrating the enemies on Fluffy, but he could see that the imps had taken their toll. The wolf was now moving sluggishly. The choice was simple once again.

He took his last vial out and roared "Fluffy!"

The dog glanced at him and he threw his last Full Healing Potion at Fluffy. The throw was slightly off, but Fluffy's eyes followed it and he snapped his jaws catching the vial. The wolf lifted his chin up and chewed down on the vial in a crack of sound. Once again the wolf was back in the fight.

Davis was slowing down and tried to make it back to the base of the stairs. There was another lul in the storm of fire as he heard a glass vial shattering. He glanced up to see Gwen roasting most of the creatures trying to make their way up the make-shift stairway. Still a few got through, but Scarlet was efficiently cutting them down. He then heard a massive crash behind him.

Glancing back he could see the wolves had defeated one of the giants! They were going to win! He fought with all that he had once again and his existence was the enemies before him. He cut and he chopped and he hacked at them. A final lull in casting and a final crack of glass.

That was the last one Davis thought. He was feeling tired. So tired. He wanted to sleep but there was still more coming. He didn't know where the blow came from but it didn't matter. He was done for.

He was on the ground and a final boom thundered in the alcove. In the corner of his eye he saw a second rock giant corpse. He smiled. Gwen and Maria would live. The little demons were still hacking at him. He couldn't feel much anymore.

He glanced up to see little Maria running towards him.

Davis beamed towards her and said "You did good girl. Keep your mother safe for me okay?"

Davis then was slowly losing the fight to stay awake. There was a warm white light that enveloped him. The light tried to bring him to wakefulness, but it did not do the trick this time. His pain went away and so did his consciousness.