Legend of the Spellthief

Logan wasn't the best at first aid, but he had mandatory training at his workplace and had recently become quite adjusted to adventuring life. Thankfully, what he had learned as well as experienced allowed him the ability to save the male gashriek's life. His HP stopped dropping, the blood no longer flowed even if the wounds persisted. With a stable patient, Logan checked over the female, her HP was fine, though she was unconscious.

“They need a healer, at least the man does. But… how do I get them here? That bandit doesn't paint a good picture and even if he is dumb, he may blabber about our fight, at which point my cover is blown. I already… killed… the Sorcerer, but that doesn't make it right. He ‘was’ willing to let the man die, but does that make it right to kill him in return? My world's rules don't matter here, it's only my own conscience at this point”, Logan battled with the choice at his hands.

Standing up from the tended gashriek, Logan moved to the remaining thug. That last Lightning hit brought the thug to -6, he would be out for a while. “I feel sick, but… I can't let more people know about me. That mage already said he had a master who would be interested in me or something. He'll be out killing again with his attitude if he isn't killed by the law in this world, but then is the law skewed against gashriek?” Logan fought a war with himself.

Placing his hand over the face of the thug, he had to make a decision. “Me or you. In for a penny, in for a pound. Essence Absorb”, Logan landed on his final decision, the black and dark-green lines covering his arm and then the face of his enemy, absorbing in blue and purple lights, the thug was drawn into Logan's hand, spinning into swirls of matter.

“Absorption of foe complete. Calculating reward…”

“10 absorbed experience, target has no spells to absorb”

His body shivered, a regret bubbling in Logan's stomach as he became distraught over the actions he had to take. Looking over the clothing remains of the two thugs Logan found 2 silver and 58 copper. Using Clean on the clothing and immediate area, he made sure there was no evidence of what happened. Taking the bag of the Fighter, Logan stuffed the other items inside.

Tossing the bag on his back, as if it was his all along, he stood up and moved to the door. Opening it, he found Spike on guard, facing away from the door. Noticing the door, the dog whipped around to see a friend, its tongue stretched out in glee.

“Spike, it's safe. Guard those two would you?” he asked the dog. Spike was obviously highly trained, he understood what was needed and moved to the two bodies. Seeing the gashriek were protected, Logan began a sprint to the west of town, to the Devout's church.

Thoughts raced in the head of Logan, he was tearing himself apart over the encounter he just had. It was bad enough he had to fight other humans, but in the end, he killed them, beyond any chance of their return, he ended their lives. Shaky rationalization tried to overcome his actions, they were thugs and probably killed other people, and were likely to keep killing if they were left alive. Logan had to come to terms with what transpired this night.

Reaching a nighttime vista of the church, Logan opened the doors to the night's watch. He couldn't see any sign of Marta, the woman who had healed him before, but he called out for any help.

“Please, some people have been attacked, I need a healer for 2 injured. I have the money ready”, he shouted out to the church.

Perking up, a young man ran over to Logan. Dressed in a combination of cloth and leather, an array of red and black colours ended with a half yellow half blue orb clasp on his cloak. The man was probably around 20-years-old, his tired amber-yellow eyes looking into Logan's jade-green. His hair was short to medium length, natural black colour with a side-parted fringe to the left and slightly covered ears. He looked up to Logan, only standing at 5'11".

“Hello, sir, I can help. I haven't casted today so I still have 2 spells I can use. Where are the injured?” he asked the sweating Spellthief.

“That's fine, it's on the east side of town. Can you come now?”

“Then we better run, sir.”

Leading the Devout out of the church, Logan and his ally sprinted back the way he came. It was a slower journey, Logan having leagues more Agility than the Devout.

Arriving back at the house, the night past its midpoint, the moon hugging the middle of the sky above. Logan led the Devout into the building, Spike barking at their entrance but calming when it noticed Logan. Sitting down, Spike wagged his tail as his friend brought an ally.

“Here they are, the man is the worst off so tend to him first”, Logan instructed, pointing to the bodies. Quickly checking their status he was relieved to see they had not changed. The Devout went to his knees over the male gashriek.

“Alright, let's-oh. They're gashriek, what are they doing in town?” the Devout questioned, though Logan was greatly annoyed.

“It doesn't matter what they are, they live in this town. Heal him!” Logan ordered, his voice raised somewhat.

“S-sorry, I didn't mean that”, the Devout defended. Moving his hands over the male gashriek, the Devout chanted.

“Orb of all I call to thee, Pondress heal your children. Heal Shot”, the words verberated with power as the gashriek was surrounded in yellow lights. Swirls of magical orbs and lines covered the body, healing the stab wounds. Logan could see the man was healed for 9 HP. Logan breathed a sigh of relief, seeing the man out of harm's reach at 1/4 HP.

With flickering eyes, the male gashriek awoke to see two men above him. Getting a better look at his face, Logan could see that the gashriek had a deep yellow complexion, ridges across his nose, under his eyes and strange rigged gills on his neck. Long ears were shaped to move to the back of his head, hidden under his short mousy-blonde hair.

“Urh. Gah. Humans. Where are the bandits? What are you doing?” the man was surprised and out of focus, his voice slightly raspy. Confused about the situation, Logan held out his hands in a motion to show he meant no harm.

“The bandits are gone, I scared them off. I got a Devout to heal your wounds, we're about to heal the woman”, Logan explained in a low and comforting tone, not trying to upset the gashriek.

“Punissa, she is fine?” the gashriek darted his head over to look at the female, bruises across her face. He then looked down to see the bandage work that Logan had done, the healing hands of the Devout glowing slightly.

“Thank you, but we cannot afford this-”

“It's fine, the healing is on me”, Logan assured. The gashriek's eyes widened somewhat, Logan could now see them clearly. Deep red glowing eyes with vertical slits, his eyelids closing from the left and right edges. Searching for a form of lie, the gashriek seemed to believe the human.

“Her next, please”, Logan pointed to the female, patting the Devout onwards.

“Uh, yes, of course. Orb of all I call to thee, Pondress heal your children. Heal Shot”, the Devout enspelled once more. Healing flowed from his hands to the body of the unconscious gashriek female. Healing her to full health, she jumped up to a seated position, twisting her head around.

Seeing her in a better light, the female gashriek shared the same yellow complexion, ears, ridges, and gills as the male. Her hair was long and of an ashen colour, though splatters of blood gave her dyed tips. Shimmering in the moonlight, her pink eyes scanned the room.

“Where are you! Leave Forletta alone!... wait, more humans”, she began to speak, until a healed Forletta shifted over to her.

“This one is a friend, he got rid of the bandits and got a healer for us”, the male gashriek explained. The woman hugged the man tightly.

“Ah, Forletta. Thank Desma you yet breathe. The sword of that thug cut deep, I was worried you-” she cried out.

“It's fine now, we're safe.”

The gashriek held onto one another for a while, Logan moving a few chairs over to allow them a better seat.

“You can thank Spike too, he led me here from my inn room”, Logan added, praising the dog with a pat on the head. Spike gave an authoritative bark in response.

“Yes, gashriek's best friend. We trained him well, but only to gather allies. Have you stayed at our house?” Forletta asked.

“Yeah, a few days ago with Jrizan, I had just arrived and needed a place to sleep for the night.”

“Jrizan is a good friend to us, he is in our 3-part contract of that house”, Punissa declared.

“You must be the ones from the forest he mentioned staying after us then.”

“If you're a friend of Jrizan then you're a friend to us. Thank you for saving our lives, we don't know how we could possibly pay you back for your efforts”, Forletta thanked.

“I didn't think of asking you for a reward, you've had to deal with so much already. Just stay safe and healthy, it's all I ask.”

“Please, we may not have much, but we come to this village for a few months out of the year to sell wares and craft trinkets for people, let us make something for you”, Punissa insisted.

“Trinket craft? If they teach me how to do that, it'd be probably worth the 8 silver of that tome”, Logan judged. “If you are trinket crafters, I was actually looking into learning that skill. I am an adventurer, so trinkets would help me a lot in my quests.”

The two gashriek looked at each other, seemingly communicating with their eyes rather than their words.

“Yes, it may take a while, but we can teach you, sir”, Forletta accepted.

“It's Logan”, the Spellthief explained. Reaching out his hand to shake the gashrieks'. Slowly they shook the hand of Logan one after the other, a new window popping up to inform Logan of a new title.

“You have gained the ‘Gashriek Ally’ title.”

“Gashriek Ally: You showed yourself to be an ally to one of the races seen as lesser by humans. Helping without promise of reward, just because it was the right thing to do, the gashriek consider you their friend and are more welcoming to you within their settlements. You have gained 1 skill point to distribute”, even if he wasn't seeking a reward, Logan was gifted two in a row.

Noticing he had completely forgotten about the Devout he had hired, Logan turned to the fourth wheel of the group.

“Ah, sorry, I forgot about your payment. I didn't catch your name by the way”, Logan said, picking out 2 silver pieces for the Devout.

“Marcus, Marcus Eren. It's ok, I know this situation isn't exactly a calm one. I'm just glad we were able to save these villagers”, the Devout informed, a bit of shakiness to his words.

“Thanks for being there, Marcus, sorry if I was a bit forceful.”

“No, it's fine, I wasn't being urgent enough.”

With the gashriek calmed down and healed, they stood with the two classed beings.

“I will escort you two home, make sure everything is alright. I think we're fine from here, Marcus, you can go back to the church if you want.”

“It looks like you got everything under control. I will leave the situation to you. I hope the rest of your night goes without any further issues”, Marcus expressed. Bowing his head slightly to the gashriek, Marcus left the building.

Following Logan, the gashriek and Spike were escorted by a troubled Spellthief back to their home. “Who could be interested in me. If it was a mage, could they inspect my status? The System said my windows were hidden, but that accessor for the hall could identify peoples' attributes in a way with Score”, Logan pondered on the events of the night, worried about someone who might have figured him out. “The evidence is gone, even if it pained me to do so, I better be careful from now on with my skills”, Logan resolved.

It was a slow walk in the moonlight, Logan kept an eye on any passersby as he brought the gashriek back to their house. Worried about any sort of speciesism, he made sure to make it known he was an ally to the gashriek he was with. Either due to his position as an adventurer or his title within Tinte, no one seemed to bother the trio at night.

“Savages”, Forletta spoke in a hushed tone, seeing his gate and door damaged by the two thugs who abducted them.

“It's alright, we can repair the damage. And with our guardian Logan, we'll be safe”, Punissa comforted.

“Well, we're here. I hope you can sleep after all this. I am staying at the Dogslop Inn if you need anything else. Forletta, Punissa. Sorry, but my curiosity is piqued, are you two close?” Logan queried, worried he may overstep boundaries if he assumed too much.

“We are married, Logan. At least our cultures' form of it, we do not wear rings like humans do”, Forletta explained.

“That'll explain a few things, I shall check up on you in the morning just in case”, Logan replied, bowing slightly, though curious as to why he did so.

“And to start your lessons”, Punissa added, excited to teach her new friend and saviour.

Smiling and waving to the gashriek couple, Logan made his way back to his inn room, giving a pat to Spike before closing the gate. On his walk back to the inn, Logan continued to console himself over the night. “Stop thinking about it. It's done. I have to move on. Just think about the future, prepare for the next main mission and head to the capital. If I leave this world, I won't have to do that again”, he deliberated.

Waving to a night staff member of the inn, a young woman who was nursing a hot beverage, Logan ascended the stairs to his inn room. Thinking it best to check the thugs' gear for any clues, he examined the bag he had taken from them. After giving Marcus 2 silver, there was 58 copper left, a set of leather clothes, a cloth robe, longsword, wooden staff, and a ring… But where was that golden watch?

He double-checked and flipped over all the items he had gathered, but none resembled what was in the Sorcerer's hand. Logan could have sworn he picked it up. Resolving to not look suspicious, Logan decided to leave it. “Criminals sometimes return to the scene of a crime, if they have a leader I don't want to meet them, nor do I want to look like I had anything to do with what happened there”, he concluded. Looking over the ring, Logan wanted to know more. “Identify”.

“Why didn't Identification note this on the Sorcerer? Maybe it only notes non-magical equipment? That's concerning, it may be why I didn't see the watch in his equipment either. It's a good item for me though, that helps my spell damage. Clean”, Logan studied. Cleaning the ring with his mick, Logan slipped the ring onto his right middle finger, his status updating immediately. A window popped up to inform Logan that bonuses from worn items would not allow him to unlock further parts of the System.

Resting his head on his pillow, Logan finally got some rest as the night turned to morning. A long night had made his already worn-out body even more tired, minor wounds also drew some of the strength from the overworked Spellthief.

Awakening to another blaring alarm, Logan thought the command to stop it. Standing from his straw bed, he opened up the wooden window to let in the morning breeze as well as to get an overlook of the village.

The bright light from the sun hit Logan's frame, which he had noticed was much more toned than when he was in his previous world. “This status has its perks, wouldn't get this at a gym in a few days”, he thought to himself. Tinte didn't look any different this morning, the populace probably unaware of the fight with the thugs. Since there were no bodies, it would be hard to find any crime, though those who knew the thugs would most likely begin looking for them.

Checking his main mission, Logan wanted to keep track of how he was doing in his first quest by whatever brought him here.

“This time is always off, I arrived in this world around 5AM, since I wake up around 8AM it is 3 hours behind a full day. Just under 4 days for this quest to complete, should be enough time to hit level 5, I am almost 4 as it is. With the income I get the gold coin objective is out of reach, the tome should net me the spells easy enough. So 3 out of 4, not bad, hopefully, it helps me get out of here. If a higher rank mage is hunting me, I don't think I'll last too long. I can only catch so many spells”, Logan calculated.

“Now, I also gained some mastery into Flame and even learnt Frost, so let's have a look at those”, Logan remembered, ordering his system to pull up his two spells.

“So, increasing the tier of my spells seems to add 10% damage for each tier and adds 1 to the saving throw needed to avoid their effects. A good increase, especially since they have minimum increases. That's a big chunk of damage and could kill a lot of low-level targets, even the goblin muscles we fought, though with 3 spells a day I can't kill too many just with this. Force might increase by another 1 point due to the ring, so that deals 5 damage which can take down scouts”, Logan ruminated over all the new information he had gained, forgetting the time passing him by.

Clothing himself and gathering his gear, Logan did his daily Clean routine to become more presentable to the masses. Heading down to the entrance room of the inn he was treated to morning stew again, though Coach was curious about last night.

“So, did you see that dog home then?” Coach asked.

“Yeah, his owners are happy to see him back”, Logan half-lied.

“Must have taken a while, I was in bed before you got back, my night staff mentioned you returning.”

“Yeah, younger woman wasn't it?”

“Yes, her second job of the day, or rather night. I often find her asleep when I wake up, have to prod her from the counter”, Coach replied with a chuckle.

“I'll be checking on them today actually, have to see what quests are on offer for today”, Logan added, digging into his stew quickly.

“Well, I won't keep you then, have a good day, Logan.”

Finishing his breakfast, Logan used Clean on his teeth and headed off to the house of the gashriek couple. With his body rested, he double-checked his status along the way, seeing he recovered 10 HP, putting him back on 32/32, still wondering how the calculation was worked out. Since it had been over an hour since using Spell Absorption the Flame charge had expired. He readied one use of Flame, Frost, and Lightning each for the day, wanting to test out his new spell and higher-tier Flame.

Arriving at the Mova residence, the surname of the gashriek, Logan creaked open a still-damaged gate and met with Spike. The dog jumped at the legs of Logan, having become quick friends, Logan ruffled the face of the black bulldog who panted heavily.

“Your parents home, Spike?” Logan asked. Spike gave an affirmative bark as he jumped off of Logan's legs and walked up to the closed door.

Approaching the door, Logan gave it a few solid knocks, though it swayed open due to the handle being broken the night prior. Footsteps were heard inside as the gashriek Punissa opened the door, her face lightened with glee at the sight of Logan.

“Good morning, Logan, here to start your lessons?”

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