Legend of the Spellthief

The team had a quick chat with Aev, the Devout of Tinte informed them that they could pay the 1 gold fee, but was worried about any further costs incurred by the healing and reagents for the innate regeneration application. Marcus informed Aev that it would be fine in the end and that they wouldn’t hold it against them.

He had to pick his words carefully, so as not to alter Logan’s quest, so he would inform the man later about the good news he had in store.

Moving back to the outside, Marcus addressed Logan, “So, how’s it looking?”

Logan opened up his quest log and map, a grin appeared across his face as he replied, “That worked, I have an area to search. We’ll be heading southwest from here.”

“What about your spells left for the day?”

Logan took a few seconds to calculate in his head, “It would be best we save the trolls for tomorrow. While they shouldn’t be hard for the two of us, I don’t want to have as few teleports as I currently do if we have Amalia with us.”

“Can’t you take them out with a single shot?” Amalia asked, bemused.

Logan turned to Amalia, “Most likely. But with how the locale has changed, I worry we may have traitors in our midst and errant monster patrols.”

“Then I have a suggestion. Amalia doesn’t ‘need’ an adventurer’s signet to work on missions with me. I can pick up a few, take her out, and work on those ten beginning quests”, Marcus offered.

“And give her all of the rewards?”

“Yeah. It is in our best interest that she aces her quest to get the best reward. Your rewards were very apt for your class.”

“I would appreciate some warm-up for the trolls too”, Amalia added.

“Alright, good plan. Take my elementals with you, and I’ll work on making my fifth.”

A half-hour passed as Logan summoned Celsius, Spark, and Fahrenheit back into life. Sending them off, alongside Servoir, with Marcus and Amalia, Logan made his way to the Dogslop Inn.

There were a few people Logan wanted to say hi to during his stay, and now would be a good time to do so. Rumours of his return would have spread anyway, so it would be rude to not drop in.

The first was Coach at the Doglsop Inn. The man was more than happy to see a previous customer, especially one who did so many villager quests. He mentioned how confident Logan was looking, as well as his strength reflected in the new gear he was wearing.

Buying up four rooms, Logan handed over 2 silver readily. It seemed like the inn wasn’t doing the best, so a room each was a nice gesture to help the innkeeper.

Spending the next half-hour, Logan decided on making his fifth and final summon at a time. He already had a Flame, Lightning, Frost, and Aqua summons. The last ones he could make were Necromantic, Gaia, or Wind. He could create the last three, but not today. He could only do five elements a day.

It was hard to determine which one would be the best for MP Thievery, as he hadn’t fought any elementals nor did many other casters quantify spells in the same way he did. Most casters seemingly settled on Flame and Gaia elementals, as the former helped to heat areas and the latter was bulkier.

With the hybrid nature of a Rogue, and his dealings in the night, Logan settled on his next summon.

“Elements of Avanar, I call forth your strength. Lend me a denizen of your hold and I shall grant them a true will. Created in my arcane image, infused with my magic, I summon thee. Summon Necromantic Elemental, Umbra!”

With the final words leaving Logan’s lips, he placed his hand on the floor as the arcane symbols danced across the floor of his inn room. The light of the room seeped inwards, leaving a dark interior with the closed windows peeking sunlight being cast out.

A shadowy mass formed in the circle, creating a 4’ tall warping humanoid shape of flowing blackness. Grey eyes formed on its face as jagged teeth showed an opening mouth.

Wispy and ghastly voices erupted from its maw, as if it had three voices, “That which gives me life, I am born in your guise. Humbly I shall serve, till my last speck is snuffed out.”

The shadows rippled from the taillike bottom to the flowing shadowy mass at the tip of its head. A sight that Logan was accustomed to as the final implantation of his personality.

Umbra opened its mouth again as it spoke in a ghostly manner, “Who am I summoned to kill?”

“No one, just yet”, Logan replied as he looked at Umbra’s beginning stats.

“Umbra - Necromantic Elemental. Level 1. STR 8, AGI 10, CON 8, INT 10, WIS 5, CHA 5: 4/4 HP, 1/1 MP.”

“Fifth time is the charm it seems”, Logan thought to himself, as Umbra had a higher Intelligence than his other summons.

Umbra seemed like he would get along with Servoir, though Servoir seemed to delight in combat and death, Umbra acted more like a sort of hired killer who just did the job without enjoyment.

Dismissing Umbra, Logan left the inn to go explore the village of Tinte.

The first stop was the house he had stayed at with Jrizan, and the gashriek crafting couple who moved in afterwards. Sadly there was no dog and no answer at the door. The inside was mostly bare from what Logan could see through cracks in the window. They had probably moved out after their crafting trip was done here.

Passing several small huts, Logan saw many more were empty. Just how harsh had the recent events hit this place?

Eventually, the Spellthief landed outside the “library” helmed by Bobcu, the old man who complained about the cold weather all too often. He would have died earlier if Logan had let Dena make her way here to steal tomes, but his interference gave Bobcu some more time to enjoy his chair in peace.

Entering the building showed the same sight as when he had left it, cosy bookshelves creating a hallway to a circular desk. The chair was void of any such sentient creature though.

Logan paced the shelves until he saw the old man hunched over and organising his tomes, causing Logan to let out a sigh of relief.

“Bobcu, long time, no see”, Logan spoke a bit louder as he approached.

Bobcu turned around and cranked his head up to look at the man approaching him, “Huh? Who’s that?”

“It’s Logan, I was here about two months back—”

Bobcu then jumped slightly into a more straight position, “Logan, my lad! You’ve’ the look of three men. The capital did you well it seems.”

“A lot of work at my back set me up just fine. It looks like you’re keeping busy.”

“I had a rush of clients during the invasion and a few after. Sad to say that work has slowed a lot since.”

“Customers are sure to pick up as the village recovers, I am sure”, Logan comforted.

“Who’s to say? Work was slow even before you arrived. Speaking of which, what tales do you bring from your journey?”

Bobcu sat down at a nearby table with Logan shortly behind. Without saying too much, the pair chatted about recent events and Logan’s tasks since leaving Tinte.

Placing a cup on the table, Logan stood up and stretched his arms out wide, “Well, it’s been swell catching up. I got a few more people to see before I have to move on, again.”

Bobcu stood too, though slower, as he picked up a stack of books that had accumulated on the table beside him, “That it was. I hope these books suit your needs well.”

Logan took them and placed them within his bag normally, spending 2 gold to get Amalia set up for skills for a while. With a pat on the old man’s shoulder, Logan replied, “If I am to pass through again, I will make sure you drop more coins on you.”

Bobcu waved off Logan as he left, the sun starting its downward movement in the distance. With the normal busyness of the village coming to a close, besides late adventurer returns, Logan moved over to the adventurers’ hall.

The exterior of the hall had seen some changes in recent weeks. New sections of wood showed it had taken damage during Logan’s leave. Either from duels in the streets, or goblins reaching the interior of the village. Whichever was true, it seemed like the place was rebuilding.

Opening the doors, Logan was treated to a mostly barren foyer. The large board on the right side was full of parchment, showing the lack of adventurers taking jobs. Logan counted five adventures in the hall, in groups of two and three. Only one receptionist was at the far counter as he approached it.

“Hello, is Rubené here?” Logan asked.

A rather short man with comparably short greying hair replied in a low voice, “Huh? No. You come through here before?”

“I used to take on quests here, she was my main receptionist. She got off early?”

The man took a sip of water from a tankard on his side of the counter and coughed slightly, “It’s mostly me handling things during the week, as well as the contract noter. A lot of the staff have been moved to weekend clean up.”

Logan crossed his arms, “Sounds like not a lot of work to spread around the team.”

“It is so. You looking for work? We got plenty of quests. You seem able, for a mage… or are you a ring-caster Rogue?”

“Wizard. I’ll actually be helping the local church with some problems they are having.”

“Oh, good. Our adventurers haven’t been able to heal some of their more severe injuries with that place out of commission. Combined with slower healing per day, since they can’t hire out Devouts for quests.”

“There many monsters patrolling near the settlement?” Logan asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

“More than usual, but not much closer.”

“Alright, I’ll see if we got time for some aid—” Logan said as he began to turn.

The shorter man held out his hand as he addressed Logan, “Uh, sir. You’re a hunter, right?”

Logan turned his head to the side to look at the man again, “Yeah. Need some hunting done?”

“M-maybe. It might just be unaccounted deaths, but, some teams haven’t made it back in a while with no word”, the man continued with a worried look across his face.

“You got contracts to look for them?” Logan asked, not just for the money, but for the ease of use in his quest log.

“No, we lack a hunting lodge, so we don’t have much in the way to pay for hunters you see.”

“Write them up, I’m fine taking what’s on the bodies if there are traitors, or what I am allowed to take from the fallen”, Logan replied tersely.

The man bowed his head slightly, “Thank you, sir. I can get them written up ready for the morning.”

It was rare for a quest to only have a “Payment in loot” style of reward. They mostly never got picked up since you could come across “loot” when travelling normally, you only got the right to the loot as the contracts made it so it was part of your quest. Interruptions were against the law without cause or invitation. Another case was that if someone found it before you took the quest, you could be without pay at all.

Logan moved to the quest board to scan over the quests on offer. Some were so covered up by others that the Spellthief had to part parchment from another to see them all.

“Logan?” the man sitting atop the tall chair near the board asked.

Logan looked over, recognising him as the same man from long ago, “Ah, good to see you’re still here.”

“And to you returning. How was the capital?”

“Busy and eventful. Stopped by to help the Tinte church”, Logan replied as he pointed a thumb to the exit.

“I heard they were in trouble. Felt it too. A lot of the longer quests won’t get taken without a Devout on hand.”

“Well. If we sort it out, things should get back to normal”, Logan replied as he began to tear parchment from their pins on the board, holding twenty in total.

“Good to hear—and to see that you’re a workaholic as usual”, the man replied as he read over the contract and made notes in his book, “villager quests as usual, ay?”

“They seem quick to do. I doubt anyone is thinking of the villagers with what's been going on lately.”

“As usual”, the man said quieter.

Logan left the hall as he adjusted his quest log to deal with the villager quests he had obtained quickly. It would have been a quick way to get Amalia’s quest objective done, if the quests weren’t so “solo” orientated. She would need to pretty much do them all on her own if she were to get the credit. However, the team already had plans to sort out her quests, so it didn’t matter much.

Making his way to Rubené’s house, Logan gave a solid knock at the door. After waiting for a while, the door finally opened to show a well-rested blonde woman whose smile glistened just like her magenta eyes.

“Logan!” Rubené shouted as she hugged the Spellthief.

“Nice to see you too”, Logan replied as he returned the hug.

Standing back at her doorway, Rubené continued, “The capital treated you well. Look at those trinkets.”

Logan looked at his hand and snickered, “A lot has happened. Care to hear about it?”

Rubené looked back into her house and then to Logan, “I have some friends visiting from out of town. How long are you staying?”

“A couple of days, maybe more depending.”

“Great. Do you mind coming back in two? Would get a bit cramped in here with so many people—” Ru started to reply.

“We can sit on each other's laps”, a man’s voice shouted from inside.

“Cramped enough as it is”, a woman’s voice followed.

Logan looked at the outside of the house, it wasn’t going to fit many people, and his getting added to the mix was going to make it uncomfortable. “That’s fine, two days it is”, he replied with a smile.

“It is good to see you, you just caught me at an active time. See you in two days”, Ru said with a smile, hugging Logan before closing the door.

Logan let out a sigh, he wanted to chat but was understanding of the situation. It was probably nice to have friends close with what happened some time ago.

With some hours of daylight left, Logan decided to clean up the quest log before his allies returned.

The first quest was to aid in moving debris away from the walls and entrances of Tinte. Since it was mostly wooden palisades, Logan lugged huge wooden spikes to nearby woodcutters to divide up into smaller pieces for firewood.

Normal civilians only had a Strength of 8 to 12, adventurers got around 18 to 20 at level 5 if they were a Fighter class. Logan, at level 16, had a base Strength of 26 without a trinket aiding him. Being around three times stronger, Logan was able to lug almost a full tree on each shoulder.

The second was to aid in the cutting of the wood that Logan had hauled, the populace was surprised at the power a mage held, especially one that wasn’t a Devout. With an axe in hand, one with hardly any spellforce in it, Logan was able to split logs without issue and so precisely that he needed no aid.

Logan’s third, fourth, and fifth villager quests were to aid in the reconstruction of the damaged parts of the palisade walls. Chopping down trees, removing branches and the like, and carting the trunks back to the village. It was a short distance walk, so Logan did the work of many people in even less time.

Numbers six through thirteen were more suited to Logan’s “tracking” skills. Using his map markers and radiuses, Logan found lost toys and dolls for children, the remains of people lost during attacks, as well as runaway pets who made their way into the nearby forests and were unable to find their way home. The faces of those to who he returned them to were full of tears, and happy smiles for the toys and pets.

The final seven quests had Logan take on the duty of cleaner. Removing corpses and broken materials, he constantly used Clean to sterilize the worst parts of the village. It was necessary to stop the spread of disease, as well as to just make the village a nicer place to visit. It didn’t seem like there were many mages left who had micks, let alone the pricing of cleaning stones to do this in his place.

All in all, Logan used his last 4 MP, and 2 from his necklace, to Dimensional Jaunt around the village where it would speed up his questing. Many of the villagers recognised the mage as he moved about and were similarly surprised at his increase in power. Thankfully, adventurers in larger cities were assumed to grow at faster rates, so it wasn’t too out-of-the-ordinary.

For the twenty villager quests he was paid 5 silver and 7 copper, including the 5% extra from his titles.

132 quests done: 16 adventurers and 2 dungeons, 34 villagers, 80 hunters.

Returning to the Dogslop Inn, Logan saw his two allies sitting at a table, grabbing his own chair he asked, “So, how’d your day go?”

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