Legend of the Spellthief

The night was long and the rest thereafter even longer. Logan and Marcus slept until almost noon before the midday ruckus outside rose them from their slumber. A slight throbbing could be felt in Logan’s head, though he was sure the others would be feeling a similar sensation across their bodies after the ordeal of the night prior.

Logan’s mouth felt like a dirty desert, taking a gulp of water from the glass beside his bed he followed up with a Clean mick to brush his teeth. Looking at his hand he saw the coarseness developing across his palm, workman’s hands if he ever saw them. Instead of the rough edges to his fingers that pencils and pens would rub in, Logan’s hand had been toughened from gripping onto leather and fire alike.

Looking at his quest log showed it to be empty once more, with no mention of a follow-up or even a thank you from whoever gave the quest to him. Since it had been a main quest, Logan surmised it was one he couldn’t avoid, whereas Dena’s quest was a side quest, leading the Spellthief to theorize he could have ignored it and still gained quests thereafter.

Both he and his ally had gained a major boost in the past week, from items and coins to skills and levels. At what point should he switch focus onto other avenues? To his knowledge, there were no retries in his future, and finding out the hefty price of revival meant that without a good stockpile of gold in pocket he’d be facing an eternal end if he went below the new death marker of -11 HP.

Joining a guild would certainly grant him protection and steady parties, though solo work would allow him to progress his unique Spellthief abilities further. Hiding his actual number of spell slots was going to get harder and harder, calculating that a Wizard of rank 11 would have around 24 first-level spells and 13 second-level spells. Even with quickcasting that’d bring the casting down to 12 and 6 a day.

Spending six minutes to summon Spark, Logan looked over his two elementals with a calculating gaze. Celsius had a laidback attitude and even flexed his flames a bit, whereas Spark stood straight with his arms at his sides. These creatures held 19 MP of spells for Logan to use, and going forward were going to be imperative to keep his cover.

Mulling it over in his head, Logan decided that his next course of action was to develop his Spellthief specific skills. Spell Absorption would need to grow to combat the more dangerous foes and eliminate the chance of failure, while Charge Transfer would be the first place to spend his next skill point in the hopes it exchanged at a better rate.

He’d also like to acquire another hobgoblin wristband to fill in the last attribute that was lacking a bonus, though he’d be giving up on Wisdom. For that, he’d need to gather up three hobgoblin ears, two wolf pelts, and some miscellaneous components. It was either crafting for cheap or buying it for 1 gold, though a lot of items were out of stock with both battles against the goblin armies. A lot of the components from the invasion were also taken up by the guard and the city to aid repairs. The chance of crafting a higher tier also enticed that option.

Logan’s train of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door. Marcus sat up and walked over to answer it. Opening the door revealed a short man with a large messenger bag dangling at his hip.

“Letter for adventurers”, he spoke directly, holding out an envelope. “G'day”, he ended concisely as Marcus took the envelope.

Closing the door, a bit perplexed, Marcus unfolded the envelope and began to read it aloud. “Calling all able-bodied adventurers of rank 2 and above. Goblin eradication missions are available at the G-Hall and adventuring halls of nearby settlements at a 20% price hike. Any completed missions will also grant a single free reassessment to participating adventurers. Magi with tracking magics and Rogues with scanning skills are requested to report to the monarchy to aid in the hunting of any nearby goblinoid settlements. Any and all goblin kills must also bring back a vial of blood to be handed to the adventuring hall, these will be bought at 6 copper each…”

The letter continued on for a bit longer, but it was an almost endless list of goblin related tasks. It was apparent that the sighting of a hero amongst the monster ranks stirred caution, the blood most likely being used to determine if any had hero potential.

Unless Logan was going to be taking down shamans, this new development wasn’t going to be aiding his skills much. However, it did line up with his new Call to War skill to lure goblinoids to his location. The trouble with using that skill would come in the form of numbers, Logan couldn’t control the distance or how many goblins would react to it and not all would be friendly on arrival.

“What are your ideas about this, Logan?” Marcus asked as he saw Logan plotting.

“It lines up with our improvements, I can craft any trinket that uses goblin components now, and with greater skill. I can also draw them towards us, but I was hoping to focus a bit on our magic arsenal.”

“The way I see it, the nearby forests, caves, and plains will be full of adventurers. It would be hard to hide your skills even if we could find a quiet spot. Aside from that, the capital will soon be swarmed with the called-back adventurers for defence. If anything, we’re either going to want to group up with others and deal with goblins, or, we find a dungeon.”

“Like the silver mines with the bastarns back near Tinte?”

“Similar, I bought a chart for nearby dungeons as well as a book describing them”, Marcus started as he opened up his book, “there are three types of dungeons: natural, made, and spellforced. Those silver mines would have been natural, a place that was overrun with monsters without the original intent of being a dungeon. Made dungeons are more like that goblin cave we invaded, it is made with the purpose of being a base for creatures. Spellforced dungeons are rare locations that periodically form new monsters, we’ve yet to engage with one of those.”

“They ‘form’ monsters?” Logan asked.

“Correct. They pull spellforce from the air and nearby corpses to craft new bodies for monsters to patrol the dungeons or even eventually leave to the nearby forests.”

“So why would we go to a dungeon?”

“Like quests and contracts, once someone has been written to be working on it no one else is allowed to interfere. Since the goblin quests seem to be geared more to communal works like when we hunted wolves, taking on a dungeon would allow us some more privacy.”

“It was quite secure when we did go to the dungeons previously, even without noting that we were going there. Though the emergence of a bastarn coven did make those silver mines dangerous with just the two of us.”

“Those weren’t formal dungeons, as far as I could gather. It’ll be fine now, I can cast sixteen healing spells a day, your summons are tall enough that I’d wager they have a few spells to grant you, and your new rings would allow us an easy retreat if needed”, Marcus calculated.

“A good enough plan as any, what dungeon would you suggest we take on?”

“I was thinking of an easy one to start, we haven’t really completed any dungeon aside from that small made one by the goblins. Your elementals cleared out the sewers beneath us but there is a coastal cave down south, around two days' walk, or one ride, away. It is another made dungeon, crafted by naegren.”

“I read a bit about those in the wild components book, a fishy race right?”

“Yeah, and they are almost all spellcasters”, Marcus remarked with a grin.

Jumping from his bed Logan grew a large smile across his face. “You’ve done a lot of homework for this, great job.”

“I was thinking ahead of the week we gave ourselves. This whole goblin mess did screw with a lot of other things we could have done. We can’t exactly hunt down any oracle rumours with the upheaval as it is.”

“So do we sign up at the hall?” Logan asked as he checked his gear.

“There is a backroom at the hall that deals with dungeons specifically, we can sort everything there. Last I saw the dungeon hadn’t been touched in a few years, ripe time for harvesting.”

“It wasn’t secured after it was cleared?”

“Not much point, it has no natural resource. Seems it was but forgotten since the threat was cleansed. But, naegren do use it as a breeding ground. They only attack sailors so news of them isn’t too widespread.”

“So, move to the cavern, clear it out, back in three days. That should kill a bit of the goblin craze for us to do our own assault.”

“Right. I need to prepare new gear for the dungeon, I will also sort out my own horse since I know you have Carmen. I will meet you at the G-Hall when you’re done setting up the contract?” Marcus announced in a very energetic and confident manner.

“Sure, see you there”, Logan replied.

Marcus shot up and made his way out of the room, leaving Logan slightly stunned. “He has changed a lot these past few weeks. He seemed a bit timid and reliant on me, now he’s the one giving encouragement and ideas. I suppose his planning is thanks to his Wisdom stat, but seeing how well he can do in a fight has more than bolstered his courage.”

“We’re good to go, boss!” Celsius affirmed as the conversation ended.

“Tell us, and we shall go”, Spark added.

“I sometimes forget you two are standing there, c'mon, let’s go questing. It’ll be good to get away from the city, we won’t be pestered as much from our aid against the army’s leader.”

Leaving the inn to the city streets revealed it to still be in a state of worry. Civilians returned to the streets but had wary glances into the alleyways or at any loud noises. More guards lined the streets, some who seemed fresh out of training and ready to show their worth. Adventurers were moving out in small groups towards the eastern gates, possibly to take on the new quests from the hall.

Outside of somewhat common sights, Logan also noticed quite a few carts full of stone and brick being driven to the walls to aid in the repairs. This attack would only do well for the masons of the city, getting large orders for materials after the fact. He was unsure how long repairs would take, though with the aid of magic it couldn’t take that long could it?

Walking towards the G-Hall, Logan was able to pick up on a few conversations along the way. Several people were talking about Cassius and his contribution to the defeat of the goblins, whereas others had heard rumours he was the one to kill the leader of the army. Some whispers also related to Tenn, Marcus, and Logan assisting in the fight, with a few people wondering if the passing Spellthief was one of the helpers.

Another topic of discussion was that a representative of the Magi’s Tower association was going to be arriving in Gauntlet within a day. Apparently, they were to survey the damage and aid in the tracking of where the goblins had come from. This piece of news instilled a large amount of fear in Logan.

“Damn, are they going to be using magic to identify random people?” he thought to himself.

Not wanting to tempt fate any further, Logan took a quick stop within the local markets. Buying up several materials for 1 gold, the Spellthief prepared to craft a cache arm whilst away from the city. The recipe would come in handy much sooner than he had hoped, though getting it earlier would be better than later, after he had already been scanned more thoroughly.

Arriving at the G-Hall, Logan was almost pushed to the floor if he wasn’t able to dodge the stampede of adventurers coming in and out of the doorway. Squeezing past the endless stream of bodies, Logan was able to circle around out of the main walkway of the hall.

Groups were being formed at breakneck speeds, many adventurers standing in a line against the far left wall with their signets on display. As if being picked for gym, they were pointed at by group leaders and joined up with minimal words shared. Logan was on the opposite side, so shouldn’t have been mistaken for wanting a group, though that wasn’t enough.

A large man with an axe larger than Logan’s upper body approached the mage-looking individual. His signet denoted him as a Fighter with over a hundred adventurer quests under his belt, the red colour almost being mistaken for blood.

“Mage. You available for a quest?” the man asked directly, shuffling a bit of his armour to be more comfortable.

“No, sorry I am already with another team”, Logan answered formally.

The large Fighter stood there for a few seconds as if processing the response. “Good luck”, the Fighter responded, walking away from the Spellthief and to another mage-looking adventurer across the hall.

It was certainly a better outcome than the last time Logan had been asked for a quest, though there were a few other magi on offer at this point. As if to follow it up with more, another Fighter who was more accustomed to the bow got Logan’s attention before he could reach the backrooms.

“Hey, you were the mage at the wall when the goblins attacked. You threw up that large Gaia Wall, right? You free to help my team take on some shamans?” the woman asked politely.

“Sorry, I have another quest lined up”, Logan again answered formally.

“No problem, I am sure you’ll be busy with those skills. Good luck!” she replied before quickly moving off to her team near a table.

“Can I not be pestered so much? I thought they’d only approach you if you were at a table or that wall? Has this goblin commotion really riled them all up?” Logan thought to himself as he got to the backrooms.

Placing his hand on a metal reinforced wooden door, Logan pushed it open to a wide room at the back of the hall. Moving inside he saw a few people talking at a smaller counter at the far end. Another board was set up on the right wall with three tables off to the left. A few candles lit the room though no windows were in sight.

“Logan!” a familiar voice called. It didn’t take long for Logan to turn his head and see Kreya sitting at a table. “Over here.”

Moving over to the commotion, Logan readied himself for another invitation to a quest without his permission.

“Hello, Kreya. Is it time for another scar?” Logan asked teasingly.

“Glad you can turn that event into a joke, but no. I just wanted to say hi. I heard a mage helped in the defence of the city while I was away. Sadly the run here left me at the tail-end of it, but I was sure you had a hand in it”, Kreya responded as if to brush off the comment. She nudged a nearby chair to present it to Logan.

Taking the offered seat Logan replied, “I helped with some offence and defence, Cassius did a lot of the work though.”

“I knew you’d be there. You must be the famed Wall master. Making a name for yourself as a goblin expert I hear. Though talking about Cassius, it seems that man isn’t far from his next rank, I bet he’s 24 by now.”

“We didn’t get to talk much, we teleported around a bit before separating to help different sections of the city”, Logan replied. “24? No wonder he was much stronger than others I had seen”, he thought to himself.

“I don’t suppose you’d be the mage who aided in his assault against the army’s leader, would you? A Devout was with him, so Marcus too?” Kreya asked inquisitively.

“It’ll get out eventually, the royals were going to talk about it soon I think. It was Cassius, Tenn, Marcus, and myself in the fight against the leader. There was also a Knight who I didn’t get the name of and a few teams before us that tried”, Logan relented.

“Tenn? Belowdamn, he’s gonna make a name for himself with that kind of attitude.”

“You haven’t heard from him yet then?”

“No, last I heard was about some scouting missions?” Kreya spoke as her voice trailed off.

“Said he finished those, was in the city when the attack happened, saw us, and we teamed up.”

“Good things all around then, aside from the attack of course.”

“What are you doing here anyway? Going to a dungeon?” Logan asked as he looked around the room.

“Yeah, I got called to help a starting group take on a natural dungeon to the north. A group of goblins took over a guard post about a half-day ride away. It should be good training for them and I am to look after them.”

“Are they not high rank then?”

“Bunch of 1s, 2s, and a 3. The team will be eight big, alongside me”, Kreya counted.

“They took over a guard post? What about the guards? They should be more than enough for goblins”, Logan responded with a stunned expression.

“The guards came running when they saw smoke, since their post wasn’t under siege at the time. However, the few they left behind got swarmed by fleeing goblins. The current guard isn’t going to clear it out due to defending the city, so they called for adventurers.”

“Shitty state of affairs then. Well, good luck with that, Marcus and I are going to be taking on our own dungeon so I shall talk with you later”, Logan announced as he stood up.

“Good luck to you too. Remember you still have that free quest aid from me when you need it, or cheaper dungeon help if you’re going for another after that one”, Kreya spoke as if to enforce the repayment.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

Finally getting to the board with the dungeons, Logan was able to find a faded contract detailing the coastal cavern that held the naegren. It seemed a bit old and was covered up ever so slightly by another contract. It didn’t have images of the enemies, though did have a sketch of the entrance to the cavern on it alongside some scrawl of information.

Taking it to the counter, Logan arrived just in time to get a free spot to talk with the receptionist, a scruffy looking man who had been run ragged from the influx of quests.

“Morning ad, another goblin hold?” he asked quickly with his hand open to take the piece of parchment.

Logan recognised the term “ad” as a nickname for adventurers. Handing over the contract Logan responded, “No, taking on a naegren infestation actually.”

“Ah, wanting to get away from the hustle and bustle. I understand. Let me read over it and check the book”, the man replied as he took out a large tome.

It took a few moments for the man to get to the correct page, but he nodded with an exclaimed, “ah”, as he did. “Alright, let’s see your signet.”

Taking his signet from under his shirt Logan showed it to the man.

“Good, you’re above the minimum. Bit high though. This quest requires a team of at least four adventurers of rank 3 and above, with an advisory, as usual, to have a backup Devout with the Healer’s Caress skill to heal wounds. Since you’re a rank 8 we can waive the limitations, you’d only need a helper at that point I’d wager if you’re safe about it.”

“I do have a partner, and my summons here too”, Logan replied as he motioned to his two helpers.

The man eyed up Logan and noticed the silver armband on his right arm. “Ah, hunter, you’re well versed in humanoid combat then. You wanting to buy intel on the dungeon or go straight for it?”

“Intel?” Logan asked.

“This your first dungeon? It is for a lot of adventurers today. Intel are packets of information that scouts and biologists gather about certain locales and their inhabitants. It boils down to tips about dungeons, for example, what types of naegren you’d be facing, any magic they may have, weaknesses, and so forth”, the man listed.

“Sure, what is on offer?”

“This place isn’t exhaustively researched, so only one packet that explains the types of monsters there. 10 silver.”

“Sure, that’s not expensive, tell me what I’ll be facing”, Logan accepted as he placed 10 silver coins onto the table.

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