Legend of the Spellthief

Logan pushed the doors to the church open slowly, a twinge in his back giving him the sense that he was about to turn tail and walk away from his troubles. Forcing himself to continue, Logan was met by a different Devout at the entrance. It seemed as though she was informed about Logan, however, and simply asked for him to follow her.

Whilst moving through the hallway Logan picked up a conversation, “Is Marcus alive again?”

“Yes, he has suffered no ill effects of the revival process or his death. Though his back is severely scarred”, the woman said matter-of-factly.

“He was smashed into hard ice, and thrown around a bit after that too”, Logan explained as he lowered his head.

“His bones are mended, so he is able to continue work as an adventurer, though I advise taking on easier quests from now on”, the woman continued with an almost harsh tone.

Logan couldn’t give much of a reply, he thought the same way.

Finally reaching the door to the chamber where Marcus was held the Devout unlocked it and opened up the doors for Logan to enter. Sitting on the slab was a fresh-faced Marcus whose eyes lit up and a smile widened at the sight of Logan.

“Logan!” he shouted at his friend in a joyous tone.

“Marcus, you’re back”, Logan replied as he jogged over to his returning ally.

They both flung their arms around one another in a tight hug, Marcus flinching a bit at the tightness of his back.

“Ah, sorry. They said your back is scarred”, Logan apologised.

“Nah, it’s fine. At least it’s something we can share in now”, Marcus replied with sincerity. Pulling away, Marcus continued, “the Devouts here said it was only you who brought me back… does that mean?”

Logan looked to the side, “It’s just us two left.”

“Pondress save us. We can take solace in the fact that at least we survived.”

“I haven’t been able to inform Cassius about it yet, his guild is off on a raid to the north.”

“About his fallen guildies? A harrowing discussion, but one he must attend.”

“Do you mind if we talk back at the inn?” Logan asked as he looked around, though only two Devouts were present aside from Marcus.

“Sure”, Marcus replied before turning to the other Devouts, “Thank you for your services”, he spoke as he made the two-circle Pondress gesture with his hands.

The Devouts waited for the duo to leave before locking up the room once again. Logan and Marcus then started the long walk back to their inn.

“Has anything else happened in my indisposed state?” Marcus asked.

“I did some hunter work, pretty much it”, Logan replied concisely.

The rest of the walk was mostly silent, Marcus could tell Logan had things on his mind and could only imagine the end of the confrontation with the golem yetis. Combined with the fact that Logan was the leader and only one of two survivors.

Closing the door to their room the pair began their discussion, sure no one was near or listening in.

“Logan, do you want to talk about what happened?” Marcus started.

“No. I’ve spent the past two days agonising over it, the most recent being the worst after talking with Debrek.”

“Then what did you want to speak about?”

“I… I believe we should stop travelling together as we have”, Logan stated as he stared down at Marcus.

“What? Didn’t we talk about this already?”

“Yes, and siding with you ended in your death. The next time I might be unable to get your corpse out of there and bring you back.”

“And I said my death would be much better by your side, with Vokka’s enlightenment and guiding your path to me I cannot help but see you as any sign that the deities look fondly on us.”

“She didn’t guide me to you, she kidnapped me!” Logan raised his voice.

“What do you mean? You said this power was enforced on you…”

“Vokka didn’t just grant me this power and push me northwards. She dropped me from the sky and gave me quests to survive here.”

“From the sky? You mean you’re from the above?”

“No. I was taken from a different world, without my consent and without a word of the reason why. My latest quest and my investigations into portals were to find me a way to leave this world and go home.”

“Wait… is that why your past is so hazy? What about giving up your power and staying?”

“That was just a lie, I’ve lied to you from the beginning. I’ve been selfish in my wanting to return home. Most of the other oracles I read about also wanted to go home and it got them all killed. My selfishness got you killed in my place.”

“But Vokka represents the equality of sentient kind, with no regard for wealth or standing. They are for the expansion and exploration of the mind. Why would they kidnap someone and put them in danger?”

“I have no idea, all I know is that all oracles have died following their patron’s set paths. The only oracle living that I know of is alive because he stopped following his deity’s quests. Even Leroy lived longer after stopping the quests.”

“This can’t be real. Oracles are meant to be powerful beings that push society forwards. Yet you say they are all victims of abduction?” Marcus spoke as he placed his hands on his head.

“You’re better off putting your faith in heroes, at least they are born here”, Logan said off-handily.

“But you’ve still used your power for good ends. You saved me, saved others, your work for the classless and in the hunters is far above what the average person would do.”

“That’s just because I was taught to be a good person. My world may have a similar ‘might makes right’ mentality in places, but we foster better goodwill with the person next to us.”

Sitting on his bed to aid his shaky legs Marcus continued, “You’re still a good person. Maybe Vokka knew of something terrible coming towards you, or us, and thought it was best for you to come here?”

Logan gave out a hateful chuckle at the notion, “I was going to spend my vacation with my ill dad. Without me around he’s got hardly anyone to take care of him. If Vokka required someone for help, she damned my dad to save someone else.”

“But why? This isn’t anything like what I’ve heard or read”, Marcus responded as he shook his head.

“It’s a shitty situation for a lot of people. Whatever it is for, the deities have essentially killed dozens of people for it.”

“Above save my mind right now.”

“I’m not so sure they will listen. I’m meant to be chosen by them and all I get is text telling me what to do.”

“Sorry. This is… just a lot to get dropped on me.”

“I thought it was finally time. You deserve the truth after dying to my ambitions.”

“It’s not as if changing the world comes without risk anyways”, Marcus spoke straightly.

“What?” Logan replied as he was taken aback.

Standing up and looking at Logan with teary eyes, Marcus continued, “When I decided that you’d be my partner in adventuring I knew it was going to be dangerous. Every day I stepped out of the church was dangerous. But with you, I knew I could make a difference. And if your goal is to return home it’s the least I can do to repay you for taking me this far.”

“I can’t handle you dying on me-”

“Then see this as repentance. You lied to me, fine, I absolve you of that, but in return, you won’t shut me out.”

Logan let out a sigh, “I’d say you were being selfish if I wasn’t too… fine, but you know this will be the last quest if I am taken home, right?”

“You wouldn’t have gotten this far nearly as fast without me. Remember, I am the fuel that keeps your fire burning.”

“You dare use my own words against me”, Logan replied with a smirk. “Fine, oh firewood of the divine. Let’s melt this ice away”, Logan continued as he raised his fist to Marcus.

Marcus gave it a solid bump, “Second time brings doubled passion.”

Logan looked at Marcus for a while, a smile returning to his face as a ray was able to break through the shadows in his mind. Though he was sure they wouldn’t dissipate completely.

“So, you plan on retrying the cavern again?” Marcus asked.

“Yes. I was planning on waiting for the return of Cassius, I am sure his guild would want revenge, or I could offer it up to them. Cassius is far stronger than anyone who has gone to the cavern, and at a rank that would be expected to go to the cavern after the initial clearing.”

“That makes sense. He is also fire-based, so would deal heavier damage to the foes there.”

“I was doing some hunts in the meantime to pay off your revival debt, they hold two of my rings right now.”

“How’s the current fund?”

“3 gold. But there is some business with the under market right now so that’s on hold. I did have another idea though for the meantime.”

“Oh yeah?”

“A skill I got some time ago. I can use it to gather up monsters. It only works on goblins so it’ll either bring in nothing or a manageable number after the culling that happened.”

“Is it an attention-grabbing skill like what Fighters and Knights get?”

“Something similar. There’s also this demon power…”

Logan explained the basics of his first tier of demonhood, and the Bloodcasting it granted access to. It wasn’t a constant thing he could use, but could be useful in a pinch, as it had been used in the cavern. It would be another avenue to a power boost but would require more research and possibly a lot more money.

“Our timescale is 42 days for the cavern, take 3 for travel, 3 for clearing, so really we want to set off in 36 days or sooner. The quest gives me a portal, and I don’t know how long it’ll stay open when it does so the earlier is probably the better for my bonus rewards”, Logan explained.

“A month of preparation should bring your summons to the extent of their allowed power for the spell you use. For yourself, another 4 ranks or so. All in all, it would make the cavern several strokes easier than usual”, Marcus calculated.

“That should also unlock third-level spells for me, plus extras of first and second.”

“Moving onto the second elemental spells? Flame 2 should definitely boost the damage dealt to those icy foes.”

“It will depend on how much my mastery of Flame affects my damage compared to the third-level variant”, Logan said as he calculated in his head.

“Spells have their limits, I heard some talk about some of the higher casters that fought in the goblin invasion that their first-levels eventually stopped getting stronger”, Marcus informed.

Logan turned his head to his ally with a slight look of disbelief, “So the higher spells are more for keeping pace with our enemies, the lower for taking out the weaker foes.”

“That would be a close enough conclusion if your spells per day progressed as other classes did. It would certainly be true for me if I didn’t lag behind you in level progression.”

“I guess Force shares that aspect, though its 15 damage cap is much lower than my first-level spells that do just under 40, around 50 for Flame in particular due to my mastery”, Logan informed.

“15? 40? What?” Marcus asked, completely bemused.

“Right, you don’t know that part. Basically, another oracle power is that I can see almost everything in numbers. I know almost exactly how much it takes to do something, or how much a spell can do.”

“Fascinating. To see our lives reduced to mere numbers. Though I suppose we weren’t far off of that with our numbering of ranks and tiers”, Marcus replied as he rubbed his mouth and chin.

“There are a few other bonuses, though they aren’t too important right now. A lot of it, I’d wager, only I would understand.”

“Fair enough. So, what now?”

“It’s getting late, most adventurers sleep at night so it might be best we try out my skill now. I don’t have many spells left but I do have a few Dimensional Jaunts to get us out of danger if it goes haywire.”

“Let us hope we don’t need your teleports.”

Leaving the inn and saddling up on their horses, the pair made their way into the nearby forests. A good hour away, close to 6 miles in distance, Logan and Marcus hitched their horses to a tree and patrolled a bit away, Logan using Echo Radar to make sure the local vicinity was devoid of any onlookers.

Checking over his skills in preparation, Logan noticed his previous party was still listed in his status. A flare of anger rose in him as he mentally commanded the window to be archived, the blue screen disappearing in a flash. With gritted teeth, Logan clicked his fingers a final time as he looked at Marcus.

“This should be good enough, climb atop a tree for safety”, Logan commanded.

Marcus nodded in reply before running to a nearby tree and ascending it.

Logan breathed in deep as he commanded his skill to activate, “Gabtrak, hyse. Meer Lord ast ire!” Logan yelled out, his voice enhanced via his skill as it reverbed in a low-tone and evil manner.

The Spellthief’s grasp of the goblin tongue was very loose, the Call to War skill giving him the command required but little insight into what it meant. Logan could only deduce that it meant something along the lines of “Goblins, come to me. Your Lord is here.”

A few moments passed as Logan clicked his fingers, expecting several dots to appear across his mini-map. It wasn’t long until his expectations were met, several yellow dots appeared as they stumbled through the shrubberies of the forest, changing ever so slightly as Logan had another window pop up whilst using his skill.

Logan’s mini-map zoomed out as the radar scan increased by 200 feet. The dots shifted between yellow and red hues, noting their allegiance as somewhat shaky, possibly to reflect that they would be hostile if not for Logan’s skill.

It wasn’t long before the first goblin arrived within the small clearing that Logan stood within, his arms crossed over his chest and close to his throwing daggers if they were necessary. The goblin slid across the floor as it jumped down to its knees, his forehead hitting the floor with a thud.

“Lord, pekka mem late”, the goblin spoke into the floor with a loud voice.

It seemed that the goblin tongue had several Ava words mixed into their language, “late” and “heads”, were the same words in both.

As Logan looked at the first to arrive he saw it to be a lowly scout, a level 1 foe that he could kill with an unarmed strike. Memories of his first time in the forests came back to him, where he had to resort to two strikes with one of them being a Backstab to take these down.

“Can you speak the Ava tongue?” Logan asked the goblin.

“Avan, pekka, Gabtrak”, the goblin responded, obviously trying to say that he didn’t.

Another two goblins came running into the clearing, sliding into another prostration position.

“Lord, mem ast ire”, they both spoke.

Following them were two more goblins, though these were meatier, Logan easily identifying them as muscles.

The skill was certainly working as intended, more and more goblins revealed themselves in a manner befitting a council with a lord. It felt kind of merited that they were now in this position after how much their race had done against the humans.

Time passed as Logan was now subject to 13 scouts, 6 muscles, 3 archers, 1 berserker, and a taller goblin who Logan was wary of as he knew it to be a fomin.

“Yous iss not a gabtrak lord. Where is oer lord?” the goblin fomin spoke in a broken Ava tongue, hanging on a few syllables a bit harshly.

“I killed your last lord, and so I am the new one”, Logan informed with an intimidating voice.

The fomin gritted its teeth, showing fangs that tipped its lips. “I did knot witness tis. Yours strength is not witnessed”, it responded with anger in its voice.

Logan could feel the grip of his skill loosening over this goblin, it did warn that any creature who was at least 4 levels below him or stronger would not revere him as the commander.

The fomin drew its dual scimitars which caused the other goblins to crawl away, hiding behind the nearby trees. “Draw blades!” the fomin ordered as it stood tall, at least as tall as a 5’ monster could.

Logan drew up his goblin-killer dagger, its spine a display that he had killed a previous goblin lord, or at least aided in such and was given the spoils. This caused the fomin’s eyes to light up in anger.

Leaning forwards, the fomin’s body started to vibrate and create afterimages. This sparked Logan’s mind, realising it to be the Rush skill. Drawing up into a defensive position in retaliation, Logan prepared himself as the goblin charged forwards with a blast of wind behind it.

Slamming down a twin strike with scimitars, the goblin’s initial attack was blocked as Logan drew a Bowen dagger to stop the other scimitar. A whoosh of wind flew out from the two, showing the energy behind their movements.

Swiping forwards, Logan pushed the airborne goblin off of him, reversing his grip on his Bowen dagger and tossing it at the formin, digging deep in its chest for 22 damage.

Landing with a tinge of pain, the fomin kicked forwards to strike at Logan again. A flurry of blows that Logan was only just able to keep up with. The fomin was indeed a fast creature even without the use of Rush. Sparks flew as metal clashed against each other, Logan drawing up another Bowen dagger to parry a dual-wielding opponent.

This wasn’t going to be how Logan won, he could tell that he was inching back his opponent, but their Agility was so close it would lead to a battle of attrition.

Looking to the space behind his foe, Logan called out, “Dimensional Jaunt”, his body whirring out of existence with an inward pull of wind and exploding with another wind blast behind the fomin.

Striking deep with his goblin-killer, Logan dealt a heavy 40 Backstab damage into the fomin’s upper back. With a twist of his body, Logan dropped his Bowen dagger in his left hand and placed it on the formin’s back and chanted, “Flame Grasp”, to which the fomin became engulfed in a torrent of flames.

Logan knew this was another bonus of his class, combining his spells with his Rogue skills. With his mathematical mind expanding he could tell that his 40% increase was applied after his mastery bonus, meaning that even with a cap of his first-level spells he could surpass other spellcasters, if only a few times every 10 minutes. In total, the fomin took a staggering 105 Backstab fire damage.

This attack would have normally killed the fomin, however, Logan did not want this one dead. Mentally commanding his skill to be Safecasted, the fomin instead fell to an unconscious state on the floor, experience numbers slowly floating over its body.

Logan breathed out as he checked the local area for the goblins, they were still there, hiding behind the trees from the fight. He called out to Marcus whilst keeping his eyes on the unconscious fomin, “Marcus, Heal this one would you?”

Marcus hesitated but knew that Logan had a plan in mind. “Orb of all I call to thee, Pondress heal your children. Heal Shot”, he chanted atop a tree.

A magical ball of yellow light hit the body of the fomin as Logan took its scimitars away, the creature healing for 28 HP.

With a dart upwards it spoke again, “What?! The, light, it cam”, it started before seeing Logan stand above it as the victor. Gritting its teeth again it planted a fist on the floor and moved to a kneeling pose, “What is the Lord’s bide-ing?”

“I see you accept me as the Lord now”, Logan spoke as he sheathed his weapons.

“Yours strength is more than mine. I summit.”

“Good, then you can answer some questions”, Logan announced as the other goblins started to exit their hidey-holes.

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