Legend of the Spellthief

- Day 5 -

Awakening to the comforting sound of chirping birds, Logan sat up in his bed to see Marcus already preparing for departure. Their plans extended for the rest of the week, their stay at the inn secured for several weeks, reaching into months, now.

“How’d training go yesterday?” Logan asked groggily.

“Morning. Exhausting, but I can see the benefits of professional teachings. The sparring matches I was subject to showed me just how wide the gap is that inexperience causes.”

“I take it the training goes faster with the ability to heal?”

“That it does, sadly I cannot recover stamina though. We still need to take breathers here and there.”

“Any clue on how long you’ll be taking courses with them?”

“Months at the least, up to a year or three, depending on how our adventures go from here”, Marcus responded with a calculating expression.

“That based on Wallace or your own skill?” Logan spoke, remembering the terminology of the Ava tongue.

“They sized me up, Strength and innate ability.”

“A better assessment then. Well, good luck with your training today, I’m most likely going to do some shopping and reading.”

“May your day go well too, Logan.”

Splitting up for the day, Logan spent ten minutes bringing Celsius back into the world. A large stretch of embers followed his forming of flames, turning to look at his master.

“Ah, been a long time since I got to work the limbs. We off to fight some baddies, boss?”

“Maybe not today, but I’d like to have you out and active for that eventuality. This armband here means you can engage in duels with me”, Logan spoke as he pointed at the “Sum” lettering on his hunter’s armband.

“Thinking we’ll face cunts out and about?” Celsius replied as if he knew the internal anger that Logan held.

“Not really, they haven’t approached me in just under a week. I think the armband does the job most of the time. Though saying that, I haven’t heard much need for a caster lately, so if the need arises I am sure someone will be forcing my services.”

Emulating a boxing stance Celsius punched the air, “I can take 'em down, Logan.”

Sharing a familial laugh between the Spellthief and elemental, the pair set off for the town after grabbing a bite to eat. Celsius just stood there watching as his master dined on food. Yetveka was about to question the summon, but seeing the armband halted any such questions.

The first port of call for Logan was that of the bookshop he had visited before, on his journey there he could feel watchful eyes and whispers as Logan passed by with his elemental on full display. Some had the thought that he was a noble or rich merchant who could afford such a creature, while others were able to identify his hunter’s armband. Most guards didn’t even stop to investigate after seeing an armband, assuming the right lettering was on display.

Entering the book shop had the stone golems shake slightly at Logan’s entrance, though he did tell Celsius to stand guard outside to be polite to the shopkeeper. With some directions, Logan began to peruse the tomes to find anything relating to the newly available skills in his status.

Since the bookshop was so large, it had tomes relating to almost every aspect of the classes, at least for the first twenty or so levels. Logan quickly found the tome for Stealth Attack, priced at 20 gold. While it was within grasp, it would be highly weird for a Wizard to be buying a Rogue tome. Logan also wasn’t known to be travelling with a Rogue nor close enough to one to buy a 20 gold tome for.

It was no surprise that there were no tomes for the Spellthief specific abilities Charge Transfer, MP Thievery, and Status Disturbance. Though the summoning skills were available in tome form. “Summon Mastery Manual 1” was priced at 2 gold, with the manuals after that being 1 gold more expensive after the last. “Summon Horde Manual 1” was 5 gold and increased by 5 gold for the following manuals.

Since Celsius hadn’t reached any sort of level limitation as of yet, Logan was fine to hold off on the mastery tome. However, having two elementals at a time would allow Logan to absorb more spells for his own use, combining it with Charge Transfer would mean he could spend them as he wished.

Finding another tome for Safecasting at 1 gold, Logan was spoilt for choice on what he could be learning. Spoilt so much he was having to calculate how much money he could put together in a short amount of time to buy the tomes. Adding bookmarks and notes in his status, Logan left to the markets.

Since Logan didn’t want to be spending days crafting armour he sold the wolf pelts he had been storing to this point. Seven shoddy and nine common pelts earned him 18 silver which was spent on components to craft trinkets. While he would outgrow armour, trinkets would stay with him for much longer and the higher that skill was the better bonuses he would see. Buying up the components also meant he could make trinkets in hours.

Returning to the inn, Logan retired to room three to work on crafting trinkets, bringing back fond memories of his time at Tinte. After buying a single shoddy wolf fang to bring his store up to twenty-one, Logan spent the next few hours crafting wolf fang rings. After the first two which were of shoddy quality, a window appeared before Logan informing him his Trinket Craft skill had improved.

While it didn’t allude to the increase in chances for his crafting, Logan didn’t notice if they had even increased. Four more shoddy rings ended up with a single common ring. While the chances of quality hadn’t seemed to increase, the time taken certainly decreased. One hour crafts went down to fifty-four minutes. Saving himself a half-hour, Logan moved on to crafting a final item for the day.

Finishing the crafting session with a common gobbo-ear necklace, Logan took his bundle of goods to the markets to sell them off to varying merchants. In total, he was able to take home 52 silver after haggling. As the day moved into evening, Logan took a stroll over to the Gerro Guardhouse to see what other sort of bonus he would be getting from his performance.

The guardhouse was abuzz with activity, the stolen cart, carriages, and horses filled the outside alleyway of the building with traders and officials coming and going regularly. Moving inside showed a similar sight, the interior had several tables and chairs set up for civilians to chat with members of the guard, handing over goods by the crate load. They certainly wasted no time in getting back their stock or getting hold of an inheritance.

Thankfully, Jirango wasn’t as busy as many of his staff members were engaging with the visitors at this time. The captain of the guardhouse was most likely more geared towards sorting out the hunting contracts and prisoners rather than coin and gear. Moving over towards him, Jirango stood up and prepared a crate on the table.

“Good timing, the effects you saved were numerous but with some extra hands and eager merchant aid, we were able to sift through almost all of it. You did good, and the difficulty was higher than reported, plus, you didn’t hold anything for yourself as far as we could tell”, Jirango spoke as he started to pull out a few items.

“I didn’t feel it necessary to steal anything, I knew you’d give me extra for the work done”, Logan responded with a smile.

Jirango took a second and returned the smile at the hunter, “Good, we could do with more hunters like you. Anyway, onto your bonus, you can pick out two of these items for yourself, I took the liberty of finding items that would be readily acceptable to you”, Jirango paused for a second before pointing at a few other items to the side, “if you wish to pick from these, however, you can only have one.”

Pointing to the items Jirango gave a short explanation of each and allowed Logan to use his Identification on them as he pleased. Logan didn’t need permission, but it was a formality while within a guard-aligned building.

The items on offer ranged from trinkets to weapons, some tools were also jumbled in with the combat-oriented gear. Looking over the items for a short while Logan settled on an item from the pile he could only take one from.

It wasn’t the most outwardly powerful item, though it would be one that could aid Logan down the line as reductions stacked onto each other. The ring was one of the more expensive items on display too, so if he ever felt he needed some quick money he wouldn’t be saddened if he were separated from it. Slipping the ring onto his left index finger Logan was now at four rings of his own.

Since the ring was only common quality, Logan wondered just how low it could bring summoning times. If he were able to summon in an instant, he could certainly treat some encounters differently. At six minutes Logan could summon two creatures in almost the time it took to summon one previously, when he bought the tomes to do so of course.

Packing away the other items Jirango spoke again, “Ah, we’ve had that one in lock up for a while. No one came to pick it up so you’ll be fine to take it for yourself.”

“If you ever come across spell rings, mind keeping those back for me too? Or items that grant spellforce?”

“Can do, from the looks of the documents you brought back Qreil was going to have some of those in his gang after another raid.”

Logan let out an internal sigh as he weighed up the chance of getting spell rings against the bandits having more power to fight against to get them.

A tap on his shoulder had Logan turn to face a thankful merchant who had a small crate nestled under his curled arm. “Excuse me, you’re the hunter that brought back my wares right?”

“Yes, I’m Logan”, the Spellthief replied as he held out a hand.

Shaking the hand quickly the merchant continued, placing the crate into Logan’s open arms, “Wonderful work you did, sir. This meat won’t last another trip so I’d like you to have it. Good for three days I wager.”

Looking over the crate Logan identified it as the meat he had snatched a strip of in the caverns. “Oh, thank you. I was wondering what this was actually.”

“That there is Oxom meat, a dog-like creature that roams beaches and the like. They are great on land for being sea animals”, the merchant explained.

“I’ll see what the cook at our inn can do with it.”

“Enjoy it best you can, you deserve it after making a 3 gold loss only turn into a half gold loss.”

The merchant said his final appreciation before leaving through the door with staff in tow. The mention of gold clued Logan into the value held within the cavern, though his thievery instincts were diluted by the fact it’d be turning him into more of a criminal. Taking his own leave, Logan returned to the Meek Moat Inn.

Placing the crate of meat onto the counter of the inn, Logan called out for Yetveka who was in the back room. Getting back to the counter, Logan explained what the crate contained and to prepare a feast for the customers tonight with it. With the evening sorted, Logan went up to his room to await the meal.

Calculating his current finances, Logan had a solid 7 gold in his pocket to spend on gear or tomes. He would need to spend exactly 8 gold to get the three tomes he wanted, however, if Logan was going to be training up a second elemental he wasn’t going to be needing an increase in their level cap anytime soon, cutting the price down to 6 gold. Plans were shifting in his head as new avenues were opening up to him.

Interrupting his planning phase, Marcus entered the room as an overworked trainee once again. Passing pleasantries, Marcus retired to a hot bath before joining Logan downstairs for the feast that was awaiting them.

Several tables had been pushed together allowing for a group meal between the customers of the Meek Moat Inn. The saeber that had been resting by the fireplace was sitting like a cat awaiting a treat at the head of the table, while several humans and gashriek lined the sides. Plates of varying meat styles donned the table, from steak cuts to legs, accompanied by steaming vegetables and sauces.

“This feast is granted by our newest hunters, Logan and Marcus”, Yetveka announced with a raised tankard.

“From food we dine, and friendship we form”, everyone spoke in unison before taking a drink.

Logan and Marcus did the same, Logan reading about this form of “cheers” in his lexicon. The patrons dug into their meals with forks and knives, the saeber doing the same as their opposable thumbs allowed them to eat like any other humanoid.

One of the humans turned to Logan from the opposite side, starting a conversation with an energetic voice, “So, you’re the new hound. I saw you come and go a few times, thought you might’ve just liked our hostess”, he said as he pointed at Yetveka.

“Yeah, we’ve been here just under a week. Got a duel-quest forced onto us, so the hunts help to stop people wanting to do so again”, Logan explained.

The man cleared his mouth of sauce before continuing, his rugged face could probably have done with the colour since his grey hair wasn’t exactly painting him to be full of life. “A week and already taken down a bandit group? Either they were stupid or you’re stupid strong. Mage right?”

A few of the other patrons had turned to face the pair conversing, showing interest in the discussion.

“Wizard, Marcus is a Devout.”

Another woman chimed in, from what Logan could tell she was a gashriek Devout specialising in quarterstaff attacks. “Ah, a slotter. No wonder you can take down so many, you’re full of spell casts a day aren’t you?”

“From what I gather about double that of spellies”, Logan informed.

“That is what I have heard also, with a lack of Wizards it’s hard to gauge though. You’re only the fifth I’ve met”, the lady continued, her yellow eyes glancing over between her bites.

“So, you’re Logan and that’s Marcus. Nice to have you on the team. I’m Gaemo, that’s Wriske”, the human announced as he held his hand to his chest and pointed towards the gashriek lady. “That’s Sincollo, no clue when he goes hunting though”, he finished as he pointed at the saeber.

“A good hunter doesn’t let their presence get out before handing in a mark”, the saeben replied with a gruff, growly voice.

The sabertooth-like creature had its entire body wrapped in leather armour, though it had mountings for metallic parts that Logan assumed were doffed to allow for better loungewear. A dark grey mane peeked out of the saeben’s collar, contrasting with his dark brown skin. Large red eyes glowed against the candlelight as he looked around.

“Always the serious one. Anyways, you two staying in Gauntlet long?” Gaemo continued.

“For the foreseeable future, we have a few things that need doing while we’re here”, Marcus chimed in.

“You’re welcome here if you bring in food like this”, Wriske added with a large smile with cheeks full of food.

Sharing laughs and tales of hunts, the group continued the discussion long after the feast was finished. There weren’t many other hunters at the table, the other patrons were just regulars who hadn’t engaged in hunts.

Talking with the three they had engaged with revealed they were taking on hunts that took them out of the city or to neighbouring villages since those were easier to find than individuals within the capital. Faces melt together and rumours run amuck amongst such a large populace, leading to the praise of Logan’s scouting abilities.

Just as expected they were all adventurers too, picking up hunts where they were able to supplement their income and fill the dull time in with taking down classed beings. Gaemo had once been saved by a hunter so he felt it was his duty to pass on the good deed and hasn’t looked back since. Sincollo on the other hand felt more duty-bound to clean the local area, his group of saebers holding high values on the law.

The customers eventually took their leave to go out for the night, or to their rooms to sleep till the next day. With bellies full of food and ale, Logan and Marcus also retired. The day ahead promised to bring them even further into their week of work.

- Day 6 -

Awakening to a mouth full of unwashed air, Logan sat up in his bed. A Clean mick in his mouth to clear it out and another for his eyes to remove the sleepy crust. As his vision began to solidify and crispen he saw a surprising sight ahead of him, a new quest was gifted onto him.

“Well… shit.”

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