Legend of the Spellthief

Updating their signets didn’t take long, as the larger counter space and fewer adventurers handing over quests right now allowed them quick access to a member of staff. In total Logan had only completed 18 quests, a low number when compared to the average adventurer of rank 9. However, he was marked as a rank 8 and had his background set to have been a vagabond mage who learned from others for a while.

It wasn’t too uncommon that adventurers would go out to fight monsters without a quest either, combined with the fact that sparring matches also granted experience and stat growth to NPCs from Logan’s previous observations in his villager quests back in Tinte. Even though he was in a safe enough spot, Logan and Marcus agreed that gaining too many ranks in a short amount of time would draw even more unwanted attention.

This fear tied in nicely with their next aim of taking on hunts. As taking down a lower number of criminals would grant them a higher reward in the form of money and items, rather than experience towards the next ranks or levels. For an oracle who was also a mage, Logan would gain so much more from the hunts and the associated armbands than any other person.

Since there were still a few more hours left of daylight, the pair decided to start their hunting on the weakest targets first and secure their room at the inn for the foreseeable future. With the aid of the System windows, Logan was able to search through the hunting quests he had scanned earlier. Sorting them from easiest to hardest difficulty allowed him a clear view of several classless beings of rank 0 to 2 that needed apprehending.

Taking a quick detour to the Gerro Guardhouse, Logan picked out a contract from the list on the board. Moving to Jirango he placed it on the counter in front of the gentleman.

“We’ll be moving to apprehend this individual.”

“Oh, read that guide I see. Alright, ah this fella. He stole a crate of rations from a local supply house. Apprehension, no killing. 6 silver for bringing him in. A bonus if you can get the crate back, though that’s been up there for a while, food is probably all gone”, Jirango informed formally.

“Do the contracts often stay up long?” Marcus chimed in.

“The little ones regularly stick around for weeks. Often don’t get a grand look at the criminals so information on finding them is minute.”

“Good thing the System notes their whereabouts on my map”, Logan thought to himself.

“We think this one might be somewhere in the western side of the capital, though that only narrows it down to a quarter. Best of luck out there you two!” Jirango ended with a smile.

“Keep a cell open for him”, Logan replied with a smirk.

Exiting the guardhouse with the contract in hand, Logan made a beeline in the direction of his map that was noted with a large red circle. Jirango’s information was correct, the criminal, Saeka, was indeed in the western part of the city.

“So, ideas on how we can find him?” Marcus perked up.

“I can use magic to detect his presence easy enough.”

“Really? You must be reading out of my eyesight to have such access to spells.”

“It’s similar to what I used back in Moella and even before.”

“Ah, that soundwave thing, Dena did the same right?”

“I believe so, at least it looked like she was doing something similar.”

“So, we getting a guard closer to the target?” Marcus asked as he looked over his staff.

“Yeah, we’ll see what the location is like before sorting a plan.”

It took about an hour of walking to get to the destination, making Logan wish he could use teleportation magic or that he had bought a horse to get around quicker. Ending up in a smaller commercial district, the circle started to flash white and red as the pair made their way inside of it. Acting similarly to when he hunted goblins, the System would not say the exact location but rather a large area.

Referring to their knowledge of the hunter’s guide, once they had hired a guard as a witness and escort, they were free to use magic that would not destroy the environment, alongside identification abilities, if they were to be used to aid their hunt. Approaching a guard on duty, clad in full-plate armour, Logan spoke.

“Excuse me, we’re here to hunt a criminal. May you be our witness?”

“That I can, I am doing some rounds in this area so it is no bother. Do you have the contract?” the woman asked.

“Sure, here it is”, Logan replied as he held the contract limply to allow the lady to read it.

“Ah, no diagram of their looks. You look to be a mage, are you able to identify them from the descriptions given to you?”

“That we are.”

Thankfully no bribe or fee was required for having a guard act as a witness, as the peace of the city was paramount and apprehending criminals just aided their normal duties. Unlike duels, those wouldn’t normally come under their everyday jurisdiction. With the guard now in tow, Logan set Marcus to keep an eye out for the individual listed on the contract.

“Saeka - Gashriek - Late 30s, male - Black hair and green eyes.” The rest of the details were about what he had stolen alongside the hunt type and rewards.

Now allowed to use his abilities Logan used Identification on applicable targets, making sure to only use it on people close to the description. As the trio explored the area Logan noticed the red circle on his map get smaller and smaller as they investigated. It got so concise that they were eventually led to a rowdy tavern.

Peering through the opened wooden-panel windows, Logan looked over the patrons until his quest window updated when he scanned the target.

“Saeka: Classless 0, 4/4 HP, 0/0 MP. An avid opportunist that is able to find a bargain anywhere and make coin at any opportunity that presents itself. A wanted criminal for the theft of rations, though he has stolen several other items in the past. He steals for nothing and sells for high.”

At least Identification would note if someone was rightfully or wrongfully accused before Logan got into a conflict with them. Though he was sure the guardhouse would utilize their truth magic to make sure the accused was actually guilty or not, as was written in the rules handbook.

“There, at the counter”, Logan spoke as he pointed out the target.

“You sure? He does meet the description”, the female guard queried.

“Yeah, Marcus and I will go apprehend him, you can stand at the doorway if you want.”

“We got this”, Marcus added with a smile.

Entering into the tavern had no real commotion erupt, instead, the rowdy patrons continued their drinks and dining on food. Making no grand display on entry, the pair walked calmly to the counter on either side of their mark. Turning to his target, Logan began to speak.

“Hey, aren’t you Saeka?”

“You talking to me fella?” Saeka replied with an annoyed tone.

“Yeah, heard we could buy some supplies by a guy named Saeka, you’re not him?”

The gashriek grunted as he turned his head to face the Spellthief, looking the man up and down before responding, “What supplies you after?”

“Rations mostly, gotta keep the troops fed.”

“C'mon skills don’t fail me now”, Logan thought to himself.

Saeka pondered for a few moments, his face showing obvious signs of him running through scenarios in his head.

“Alright, I can get you a hundred easy. Let’s just go round the back”, Saeka responded as he swivelled in his chair.

He was going to walk towards the doorway, if not for the guard standing obviously to the side of it. A bead of sweat rolled down the gashriek’s face as his eyes darted from the guard to the Spellthief. Acting quick, he threw his right arm over his chest to grab at a tankard to smash into Logan’s head. However, his arm was grabbed as it reached the counter by a watchful Marcus.

The man let out a curse in his own tongue as he pulled at his arm, only for Logan to grab the other arm and pull it around the gashriek’s back into a locking pose, without the handcuffs. Gifted the other arm by Marcus, Logan pulled both arms into a cross over the man’s back. Scraping of wood on wood was heard as the other patrons rose from their chairs, ready for a brawl.

“Settle down, this is hunter business”, the guardswoman shouted into the room.

Some of the customers hadn’t even seen her, visible shock on their faces as they turned to look at who shouted. Not wanting to deal with a guard, let alone two hunters, the patrons all sat back down disheartened. The tavernkeeper stood back up from his hiding position as he weakly spoke, “Take it outside”, to the troublemakers.

Even with the best efforts of the gashriek, he was unable to brute force his way out of Logan’s grasp, though it was quite the fight against the Spellthief. It would have been an easier task for Marcus, as his Strength was higher than Logan’s, but since the mark was classless they really had no way of winning.

Taking the man outside Logan used his persuasive disposition to coax the location of where Saeka was going to do the deal out of him. A portion of force onto Saeka’s arms was all that was needed to sweeten the deal and lead the group to a nearby alleyway. The guard followed directions given by the man and quickly found a few crates of rations alongside other stolen items.

In the search, Saeka tried a final attempt at fleeing. Stomping his foot onto Logan’s and smashing the back of his head into Logan’s face dealt 0 and 0 damage. Logan just felt a light tap against him as the man resisted. Pulling away in anticipation that he could get away, Saeka was shocked to find his attempt was completely useless.

“Are you going to be like this all the way to the jailhouse?” Logan asked his prisoner.

The man shouted something else in Shrieky, to which Logan nodded over to Marcus, “Hey, got any rope to hold him still?”

Marcus had just the thing, pulling out a thin segment of rope he tied up the hands of the mark, making it easier to keep ahold of him with one hand. The guard handed a box each to the adventurers, with Logan keeping hold of the rope that bound the man's hands in his other hand.

With his ill-gotten gains retrieved, and an easy apprehension, they all made the long trek back to Gerro Guardhouse. Eventually, Saeka lost interest in attempting to escape, it seemed the further he got from the west side of the city, the less hope he had in him. A few looks were shot in their direction, but the guard made it clear it was official business so no one interfered.

During the time they spent taking the criminal to the jailhouse, Logan saw experience being added to both him and Marcus. It seemed to occur when the man had finally lost all hope of escaping his clutches, probably awarding the pair for a successful subjugation. Logan guessed the experience would have popped up immediately if he had just knocked the man out, but there wasn’t much need for that.

Logan gained a paltry 25 XP, with Marcus only gaining 5. If they were to continue hunting classless beings it would certainly slow down their level progression, but the pay was much higher than it would have been otherwise for this kind of difficulty. The pay more than likely fit the annoyance of tracking down criminals alongside the value of the items they had stolen if any.

The guardswoman opened up the doors to the guardhouse, Logan and the mark right behind her with Marcus closing the doors behind him. Jirango stood quickly as he saw the team arriving, already preparing a ledger book to note down the hunt.

“Amazing time, found him easy enough then?”

“He wasn’t exactly hiding, was pretty forthcoming with selling his stolen goods too”, Logan replied as he pushed the man towards the counter.

The trio placed the crates onto the counter, to Jirango’s surprise as he was only expecting the one. Opening it up he picked out a few items to inspect them. He motioned to the guard to put the criminal into the truth circle, to which she did as it lit up.

“Are you Saeka, and did you steal these goods?” Jirango asked in a firm voice.

“Yes I am and yes I did”, the gashriek replied instantly and formally as soon as his mouth opened.

“Have you stolen more than this, and if so what?”

This time the gashriek kept his mouth closed, realising he was under the effects of a truth spell. Jirango smiled at the criminal's reluctance to speak further.

“Well, silence is good enough. Can you take him down to the jailor and ask that this man be taken to cell 32?” Jirango asked as he waved to one of the doors behind him to the guardswoman.

The lady nodded, grabbed ahold of the criminal's arm, and said her farewells to both Logan and Marcus. Jirango sat back down as he looked over some of the other stolen items while referring to the contract that Logan handed back, and his own ledger.

“Good job, clean and by the book. You even brought in additional items. These rations are long-term and highly efficient, a single block can sort an adventurer out for easily two days. It may be late, but we’ll check them for anything off and send them southwards to help the goblin war effort.”

“It seemed as though he was selling quite a bit off, offered to sell me a hundred units. Are you going to question him further?” Logan asked.

“He ‘could’ be part of a larger syndicate or paid off by someone higher. But it is more likely he did this alone to try and profit off the war. Without bodyguards or base of operations to sell out of, he reeks of small fry.”

Flicking through the pages of his book, Jirango noted down a few words before pulling open a drawer to retrieve some coins which he placed closer to Logan, as well as a stamp to hit onto the contract.

“Double pay for this, 12 silver. I’d pay more considering what you brought back, but my hands are tied for these kinds of things. I have my own rules to follow, though the inn’ll keep you in my name”, Jirango announced as he gave a thankful look to the two adventurers.

“Thanks, we have a bit of time left in the day so we may take on one more before heading to the inn.”

“Plenty of people to work through on the board”, Marcus added.

“I hope that enthusiasm keeps with you, would be nice to have a consistent pair of hunters”, Jirango replied with a smile.

Placing their signets onto the table, Jirango inscribed on them the updated number of two for hunter quests. While that was happening Logan took another contract from the board and placed it onto the table.

“Tring, Poin, Moreeva - Group of humans in their early 30s, M, M, F - See attached sketches.” A trio of bandits that are wanted for wanton thievery and muggings around the lower districts. All wanted alive for a bounty of four silver a head. With the sketches, they were easier to identify, though the description of their location was a bit less concise as the city had several lower-district areas. Thanks to Logan’s quest window however he was able to see a much smaller area.

The contract also stated that anything the trio had stolen was to be handed over, with the guardhouse captain to look over the returned items to see if any were to be kept or given as a bonus.

“Those three, even with sketches we’ve not had luck finding them. Always act in different parts of the city. You got good tracking skills or spells?” Jirango asked as he continued writing in his ledger.

“No worries about us finding them, we’re good at finding what we want”, Marcus replied.

With a quick Identification of the sketches, Logan was able to find the normal statistics for the targets. Tring and Poin were both classless level 2 whereas Moreeva was level 1. More beings without classes that had actual levels. Since they were mugging people they probably had more combat experience, which led to their increase in power, but Logan didn’t want to close off any other avenues in his train of thought.

Leaving the guardhouse, Logan almost immediately began walking to the trio of bandits. Marcus gave a confused look as he jogged to keep up with his ally.

“Know where they are?”

“Yeah, the sketches do wonders for tracking.”

“Is this a you-know-what kind of thing?”

Logan replied with a nod, and that was all that Marcus needed. The abilities of an oracle continued to impress and excite the Devout but delving into the details would have to be reserved for later.

The large red circle made it a walk in the park for Logan to find his marks, his continued praise for an ability that made him one of the best hunters in the world. It was such a walk in the park the pair even ended up in a park, as the marks were hanging out underneath a tree, digging through bags that Logan could only guess were not theirs. Walking around for a while, Logan caught the attention of another guard.

“Hello, sir. We need a guard to act as a hunter witness, here is the contract”, Logan began.

“And a good day to you too. Let’s loo- wait, I’ve seen these three.”

“Correct, they are just a minute walk away. May we go apprehend them?”

“Of course, it shouldn’t take long at all if they are so close. Would you need assistance?”

“We can take them”, Marcus chimed in.

As the small group approached, Logan whispered over to Marcus, “Hey, Marcus, if they run you’re free to shoot them in the leg with a crossbow bolt. No magic, they’d die from that.”

“Got it, will do”, Marcus replied as he placed a bolt in his belt ready to load and fire.

Nearing the bandit gang, they looked over to the oncoming trio. With a bravado on display, it looked as if their leader, Tring, was going to make a speech. Their stance quickly changed as they noticed the guard and weapons on the adventurers. Eyes widened as Tring and Poin hastily drew and threw daggers at Logan, Moreeva making a fleeing sprint away.

“Marcus!” Logan shouted as he charged forwards.

Deftly stepping to each side the Spellthief was easily able to dodge the thrown daggers of a classless being or two, bridging the gap that was once before them. Landing a solid punch into Tring’s stomach for 4 damage, Logan followed up with a jab into his back for a Backstab of 8, bringing the man down in two blows.

Marcus quickly knelt down as he loaded his crossbow, lined up the shot, and pierced the leg of the fleeing bandit. He was becoming quite the marksman, either that or it was just an easy shot. Moreeva tumbled downwards as her leg collapsed from underneath her, Marcus charging after the furthest away foe as Logan was fine on his own.

Poin slashed at Logan who blocked with his arm, taking 2 damage, though just like his testing of a punch earlier it just felt like he was being prodded harshly. Grabbing hold of Poin’s fencer arm, Logan twisted it around as he locked it straight behind the bandit, leaning the man into a 90° angle.

Putting force into the hold caused the man to flip over twice to the floor, landing onto his front. With a solid one-two punch into the back, the man was out like a light from a double Backstab, the two sets of 8 damage being more than enough to drop such a comparably weak foe.

Marcus finally caught up with his foe who was just barely able to stand by the time he arrived, dealing a heavy strike with his staff across her face knocked her out cold. With her defeat, Logan saw the experience numbers slowly rising from their unconscious forms. Logan gained two lots of 117 and a single 54 XP, Marcus getting 50 XP in total. It wasn’t much, but it was a lot higher than the level 0 gave.

Removing the bolt from Moreeva, Logan and Marcus checked to make sure their marks were not losing any further health, which they weren’t with a little patch-up work on the would-be runaway.

“Excellent work, you’re rather nimble for a caster. Grasp expert, am I right?” the guard witness asked.

“Yeah, it helps with spell usage and bringing foes down quicker. Though these lot didn’t require many spells, or at all to take down”, Logan replied with pride in his work.

“I can carry the man there if you two want to carry the others?” the guard offered.

“Thanks, that’ll help. We’re to take them to Gerro Guardhouse”, Marcus informed.

“A bit of a walk, I could do with the workout.”

Retrieving the bandits, as well as their stolen bags, the trio made their way through the city back to the guardhouse. It was tiring work, but Logan could tell that his Strength allowed him to take on hard labour much easier than he did back on Earth.

Returning to Jirango, the criminals were placed onto the floor near his counter, to which he called out into the backrooms for some jailors to take them away to a cell. The guard witness said his farewells and left the pair to chat with Jirango.

“Nice work again, keep this up and you’ll be allowed to scan me in time”, the man spoke with a jokey tone.

“I would never be so rude”, Logan replied sarcastically.

Digging through the bags that they had brought back, Jirango pulled out a few items to refer to the contract and his own notes. Setting aside a few finger-length bronze-coloured rods, he placed 12 silver coins with them.

“There’s your bonus, a lot of what is in here has been reported stolen so I can’t gift it all out. Their weapons too were on the list so no luck giving those out”, Jirango instructed as he wrote in his ledger and prepared to update the signets once more.

“A bonus is a bonus, I’d wager that their gear is nowhere near good enough for us anyway”, Logan spoke as he retrieved the pay.

After splitting the coin with Marcus as usual, inspecting the bonus revealed them to be:

“Trickster’s Crackers: A set of rods that when snapped produce a continuous stream of small explosions that create both noise and smoke. These last for only two minutes but are great for distractions.”

Not immediately useful, but they could come in handy if the pair wanted to group up monsters or separate out a gang of enemies. There were four in total, though one might not be enough for a single diversion depending on the situation and local noise level.

“Getting dark, going to be doing some nighttime investigations?” Jirango asked hopefully.

“Nah, we’ve had a long day, just wanted to make sure we had ample time at the inn for a good rest.”

“We may go hunting again tomorrow though”, Marcus added.

“Well, tomorrow it is then. Have a grand night.”

“And you, Jirango”, Marcus replied.

With another quest completed, the duo returned to the Meek Moat Inn to settle down with some quaint evening reading paired with a meal. The ease of their most recent endeavours was quite welcome when compared to the past few days, but Logan still feared the day he’d have to deal with the Magi’s Tower and another Darius.

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