Legend of the Spellthief

Back to Logan on the top floor…

Logan looked over the windows that had popped up during his time on the top floor. One informed him that Fahrenheit had reached level 7, while another warned that Marcus’s MP was below 25% as he had set up an alarm beforehand.

It seemed his ally was doing well to survive on the lowest floor, but he couldn’t see what he faced. Logan could only assume they were low-level monsters though, as his friend had gained 1,380 EXP. A high number for a high number of foes at once?

There was also an update in his log, showing that Marcus had taken a potion from their shared inventory, allowing him to tell that his friend could still access it. He could write a note, but Marcus had no access to the windows, so how would he know to take it?

“Logan?” Koma spoke, staring at the mage.

“Yeah?” Logan responded as he closed down the windows.

“What are you staring at?”

“Just concentrating.”

“On your spells?”

“Something like that.”

Koma laid out her bedroll on the icy floor and stabbed four daggers into the floor around it. “The rest of the party all fine still?”

Logan looked over at the party menu, Cassius seemingly had a few buffs applied, while Patavava had used up around 20 MP. “The middle team are seeing a lot of action, Marcus too. But we’re all alive still.”

“If you go on more dungeon runs, this’ll become a lot more common for you.”

“Sleeping in them?”

Koma laughed a bit, “Yeah, and splitting up. But also relying on Cassius to save our hinds.”

“Does that happen a lot?” Logan asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You could say that. His adventurer beginnings were as harsh as any other, and he vowed to put himself in the fray to make sure no one else died in his stead.”

“Seems like that’d be the usual for good-hearted classed beings”, Logan responded.

“Not all actually do it though.”

“How do you mean?”

“I’ve seen a handful of do-gooders say they’ll do something. All of them failed or gave up. Not Cassius. He runs into the flames and picks out the victims whilst also dousing the fires that endangered them.”

“Actually committing to what you say”, Logan said under his breath.

“Many of us would put our lives in his hands gladly. He’ll get us out of here. He has the ambition and the power to back it up.”

“Because of his artefact?”

“Not only that, his personal power and will. Not many in his position haven’t fallen prey to the corruption said power brings. During that goblin invasion, he rallied us as quickly as he could, and even darted after their leader to have it end quickly.”

“I also helped”, Logan thought to himself.

“What I am trying to say is, don’t worry. We’ll get out. Just worry about having my back up here.”

“You got it.”

With Logan’s reply, Koma laid down on her bedroll as she crushed another black rock in her mouth. She stayed above her roll, to be in the best position to fight back against any would-be ambushers.

“Running into the flames, ay? I said I’d help casters, but I’ve mostly just been helping myself so far. At what point do I work to those ends?... I am leaving, it doesn’t matter anymore. Marcus can carry that torch”, Logan reconciled in his head.

A synthetic voice then rang out in Logan’s mind, “Logan.”

The Spellthief jumped slightly at the sound, but quickly realised it to be System. “You don’t perk up often, what’s happening?” he replied in his head.

“I am contacting you to inform you that I have been upgraded once again.”

“Well my Intelligence is now 52 without trinkets, so I guess the milestone was 50.”

“You are correct, I have theorised the next change shall occur at 100.”

“I thought the same. So what’s changed? Aside from how you’re speaking.”

“Your inventory has doubled in size, allowing 1,000lbs of materials. Your partner NPC, Marcus, can also access it up to one mile away from you. I can also inform you of much more refined mechanics and numbers if you so wished. My personality has also expanded.”

“I take it the other minor functions also improved, System?”

“Yes, those will come up when appropriate. I have also thought on my name in the time between these two expansions.”

“Oh really? What should I call you instead of System?”

“I believe that, Fol, would be a nicer name than my designation of S.Y.S.T.E.M. That is what I am, not who I wish to be.”

“Easy enough to remember. Ok, Fol, what else?”

“I wish to help you escape, Logan. I would hate to have been taken from my home that resides in your psyche. I feel your abduction is an abhorrent misuse of power from the deities that rule this world”, Fol replied with ambition.

“That’s quite the change in attitude from last time.”

“I was but a newborn child 51 days ago, I believe my faculties have expanded enough to see the rights and wrongs, through your guise.”

“So, how will you help me now?”

“I have listened to, and researched on my own, some details that may aid you. This ‘shift’ that Koma spoke of is indeed what occurred. However, the yetis that attacked you at the entrance, that is from your position of ‘Player’ in the deities’ game.”

“I thought as much, hearing you confirm it is reassuring though… I guess.”

“This expands to your quests. They are designed both around your current status as well as your location. Dena was near, and close to your level, so the kaevock was activated in her possession and allowed her a target that would line up with your interests.”

“It activated? They forced a quest to occur for me to interact with?”

“Yes, she would not have gone to Tinte if not for your passage by her.”

“The fuck? So my presence is causing issues.”

“I do not believe this line of thinking is correct. The deities are at fault. They stole you, and create these quests to test you. I believe they also orchestrated the ‘main’ force of goblins to attack Gauntlet.”

“Not through another PC of the below?”

“It is possible, though we have yet to see or be seen by any. If a PC has a way to hide their sight away from us, it will be a dangerous position to be in indeed.”

“So, what, I hide away somewhere and wait for the quests to slow down as Ahren did?”

“He still receives quests, but that is one path to take. However, if you complete this quest, you can leave.”

“So there won’t be any issue with the portal then.”

“The difficulty is in the quest itself. From what I have gathered, these are the hardest quests. With Cassius at our side, or rather underneath us, we can make it there and see you through it.”

“What about you? Will you stay with me? What about my powers?”

“Your body has been forever changed, the portal should not strip that from you. However, if the deities are holding domain over it, they could very well do so if they wished. There is no spellforce or MP in your world, however.”

“So, no spellcasting back on Earth.”

“It is hard to say. It could use something else there.”

“What of Marcus?”

“Your link should be severed between planes. He will retain all of his power up to now, but going forward he will have no access to any of my functions.”

“Alright, that’s good enough I suppose. If I leave there’ll be fewer forced scenarios because of my proximity to people here.”

“I do not know everything, but the deities of this realm should not interact with Earth outside of kidnapping players.”

“I was just thinking about that, I guess you can read my mind.”

“I should be able to alert you as they occur, but there may be further shifts and changes based on your player status.”

“Not sure how much help it’d be, but knowing if something will be more difficult than normal would be nice”, Logan thought.

“If you require, I can also contact Marcus for you. Though it is limited due to our distance, I can send him a letter in the inventory.”

“That’d help actually, would be nice to see what he is facing and what he plans to do. Give me a minute”, Logan replied in his head as he brought out parchment, quill, and ink well.

Logan wrote for a few minutes, rolled up the parchment and placed it into his bag-inventory.

“I have sent the letter, he should receive it the next time he accesses me”, Fol responded as the letter disappeared.

“Thanks, anything else I should know?”

“Nothing pressing at this time, Logan.”

“Alright, let me know if so, Fol.”

Logan let out a small sigh, his head was rushing with ideas and questions, but having it filled slightly with the idea that he had an invisible being in it made him feel as if there wasn’t enough space in there. Fol didn’t seem dangerous, if anything he felt like a personal bodyguard or assistant. Just one you’d never see. They would just leave your breakfast on the table before you woke up.

The thought of an out-of-control AI also reared its head, but Logan had to ignore any stories he had read or movies he had seen. They mostly painted AI as the bad guys for action purposes. At least that’s what he told himself.

Cracking a black rock in his mouth, Logan had that familiar gravelly feeling move through his mouth as his body cooled down and heated up at the same time. If only he had a spoonful of honey to help this medicine to go down.

It was the first time in a long time that Logan didn’t have an elemental out on watch for him. The alarms he and Koma set up would have to suffice, if not his own perception as he laid his head on his own bedroll, a fur tossed over the top of him for some extra warmth through the night.

32 days remaining.

Logan’s body shook all over as if his skin was doing the Mexican wave from toe to forehead. His eyes opened wide, his body rolled to the side as he picked out a dagger from his hip, sliding to a crouched position as he stared down the corridors that flanked him.

Six deathtraps, that were laden with his own, Logan saw the rolling chime that approached him from a corridor they had not entered. Looking at the maw of the corridor revealed the saliva-dripping jaw of a white-furred wolf. The beast’s back reached 5’, if it were standing tall it’d probably reach closer to 10’.

“Identify.”

“White Warg - Lupine. Level 9: 130/130 HP, 0 MP.

A more malicious breed of wolf, the white warg is a murderous predator that kills for both food and sport. Over double the size of normal wolves, a warg stands at 5 feet tall on all fours, and up to 10 feet on its hind legs.

Often stalking their foes, the warg wolf is able to communicate with its kin, even with those of lesser intelligence, to coordinate an attack.

Skills: Feast Regen, Pack Howl, Scent, Stealth, Winter Dash.

Spells: -.

Reduction: ?.

Resistance: ?.”

“Triple Tracking Shot”, Koma yelled out behind Logan.

Turning his head, Logan saw Koma’s arrow light up green and yellow before shooting across the air. The arrow split off in three different directions as the newly-tripled projectiles pelted into the first warg’s face and sides.

The warg yelled out in pain before falling to the floor, two more jumping over their previous ally as they began charging at the duo. Logan’s eyes darted to the side as he clicked his fingers, his mini-map alerting him to a flanking manoeuvre.

Looking to the ceiling, Logan mentally commanded his refreshed rings to teleport to the icy heights, thrusting his dagger into a stalactite protruding from the ceiling he had it pierce the frosted exterior and gave himself a handhold 20’ above the floor.

He hadn’t had time to attune to his staff, nor time to prepare his daily spells. All he had were his rings. Aiming with his other hand, Logan commanded another ring to blast at a flanking warg, the fires exploding from his palm and cascading over the white fur.

With his previous setup and newly donned fire salamander’s coat, Logan had reached the maximum mastery for Flame. Dealing a heightened 112 fire damage, cluing Logan into the warg’s weakness to fire damage.

Following his blast of fires with a Force, he saw it dealt a reduced 10 damage, showing him their damage reduction was at 5. Pelting downwards with grey orbs of magic, Logan took down his first foe in the next few hits.

Koma jumped away from her sleeping pack as she summoned up some more arrows, though these appeared within her hand rather than her quiver. Two bulbous-tipped arrows were aflame in her grasp, quickly knocking them she fired at a leaping warg, the beast becoming enflamed itself as the arrows exploded in a display of red and orange.

Koma rolled to the side as she dodged the falling corpse. Drawing a dagger she was just able to place it in the chops of a flanking warg, the tip piercing its snout from inside its frosty mouth.

Letting go of her blade, Koma dealt a swift backwards somersault kick into the chin of the beast, forcing the dagger to pierce even further through its snout and fly out the other end, bringing with it snot and blood.

Landing with another jump backwards, Koma quickly drew another arrow and had it glow red before having it dance across the air. Piercing the first wolf, it went through its mouth and out its back, piercing another two wolves behind it. Logan recognised that as the Piercing Shot skill, something he saw someone use back in the goblin war.

Felling her flanking foe, Koma turned her attention to ever-approaching forces.

Logan aimed another Flame, shooting it across the air to blast into another warg, one that Koma had hit with her most recent skill. It fell to the floor in a bloody slide at the combined damage.

The wargs growled at one another as one began to run towards Logan, who was 20’ high. It jumped into the air a solid 10’, whereas another warg jumped underneath it. The first warg then landed on its fellow and jumped up a second time. Soaring towards the hanging Spellthief, the warg opened its jaws wide as it aimed to take a large bite out of the man.

Logan flung his lower body back, and swung forwards off his dagger that was left in the ceiling. The human and warg brushed their backs against one another as Logan barely dodged the attack.

Placing a hand on a stalactite, Logan pushed to the side to spin himself around and planted his other hand on the warg’s back. Commanding his final ring, the warg burst into flames from a Grasp-altered spell. With a drastic 259 Backstab fire damage, the warg was blackened beyond recognition, its smouldering corpse falling to the floor hastily as Logan kicked off of it.

Drawing another dagger, Logan planted it into the ceiling as he had done before, dangling at the heights away from easy lunges.

The easy lunges instead went for Koma, her body started to produce afterimages as she activated Dash. Plunging dagger after dagger into her foes, she also displayed quite an apt skill with Backstabs. She was no slouch when it came to melee, even when ranged was her focus.

Logan continued to pelt Force orbs at the wargs he could spy, thinking it best to hold his Lightning rings for if things got worse. The minuscule 10s did disappoint, but it was better to be safe than sorry, he didn’t know if these wargs had a leader behind them.

Another duo of wargs tried the jumping tactic to get at Logan, however this time, the lower warg was pelted with arrows before it could grant its fellow any further height, its body landing in a clump on the floor which caused the higher warg to fall over it.

As if acknowledging his instincts, Logan saw another ambushing warg come up behind Koma. Her focus was taken elsewhere as her Dash faded from her. The large mass of meat and fur chowed down harshly on her shoulder, encompassing most of her left side.

Logan teleported with another ring atop the warg’s back, and planted a hand on its head as he pulled it back with another ring activation. Sparks of electricity soared all across the beast as it turned the monster into a pin cushion of azure daggers. Ripping the warg off his fellow, Logan dealt an admirable 144 Backstab damage.

Released from its grasp, Koma nocked another arrow before firing it into the eye of another warg, its body landing into the corpse pile that was becoming their floor. However, the pile wouldn’t get any larger, as experience numbers from the numerous horde signed Logan his break time.

“Thanks for getting that bastard off me”, Koma said as she retrieved her daggers from the floor.

“No problem, I did kind of leave you down here.”

“As expected, casters should be out of the fray, though you’re more agile than most I’ve quested with”, Koma continued as she held out her gear for Logan to Clean them.

Logan waved his hand over her equipment as requested, removing the dirt of battle. “Another monster that wasn’t recorded in the intel.”

“It is possible whoever wrote them up didn’t face them, don’t you worry I’ll do a thorough write-up.”

“I guess I can only be happy this place opens up once a decade, but the lack of information is a major hassle”, Logan mentioned as he looked at his two daggers in the ceiling.

“I’ve been in enough quests like this to know that being without the correct intel can lead to worse fates. I don’t want to leave it for someone else to deal with”, Koma replied with a hint of anger in her words. “You going to get those?” she asked as she looked at the high-up daggers.

“Not worth a spell, I can get them later”, Logan answered as he let out a sigh.

“These wargs change up our plans a bit”, Koma began as she looked around at the ruined traps, “they have a Scent ability that lets them track us. With all this blood, they could find us here.”

“I could use Clean on it all.”

“That’d help for camp later, but it’s in the air. I don’t want to risk another ambush on six sides like this.”

“So we’re continuing down a corridor?”

“That’d be safer if we can find a chamber with fewer entry points”, Koma continued as she looked around, “prepare your daily spells. I doubt your rings will last us another fight if we move on”, she said as she began to roll up her bedroll.

“Got it”, Logan replied as she double-checked the status of his allies, all was still well, yet lacking a Spark due to Logan’s inability to resummon him.

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