Legend of the Spellthief

Logan placed a booklet on the receptionist's desk at the G-Hall, a hooded mage at his side.

The mage spoke first, “Per Magi’s Tower law and allowance, we have conducted research into the eradication of dungeons. The following dungeon has since been eradicated with the aid of adventurers Logan Hall and Marcus Eren with aid by myself, here is my ID.”

The receptionist stood up straight and looked at the ID with shaky eyes, “Yes, sir. This looks to be all in order. Am I to grant further reimbursement?”

“Yes, double the pay.”

The receptionist nodded, “Of course. Anything else?”

“Please inform any persons who ask about eradicating dungeons that they ‘require’ an MT representative and to not act without our guidance. That will be all.”

The hooded mage then turned away and left.

“Sir, your pay, and for the intel you gave us in case we fight similar monsters”, the receptionist spoke softly as they handed Logan 1 gold and 38 silver, the same for Marcus.

“Thank you”, Logan replied as he hooped his signet back over his head and under his shirt.

A few whispers spread in the backrooms, “Another dungeon eradicated. That makes, what, five?”

“Four, you’re terrible at keeping count.”

It seemed Cassius was doing the same in his endeavours, another eradication while Logan was busy. But Cassius was more than likely going to do a lot more with the dungeons he was picking up. Logan could leave it to the Raid Master after his next dungeon.

Before leaving the backrooms, it seemed that Logan’s fame was about to grow once again as a window appeared.

“You have gained the ‘Dungeon Eradicator’ title.”

“Dungeon Eradicator: Once could be a fluke, twice might be a coincidence, thrice potentially has something to it, but fourfold is enough to say it’s reality. As one of the people who has shown they can eradicate a spellforced dungeon so that it no longer spawns monsters, many come to call you a Dungeon Eradicator. People are more likely to accept your attempts at destroying dungeons. You have gained 1 skill point to distribute.”

“It was bound to happen, it’s fine for now. We’ll just get stopped a few more times in the streets”, Logan thought to himself.

Exiting to the main room of the G-Hall, Logan and Marcus were met by a round of applause from the adventurers. A sneaky one must have left to spread the news, and many people were happy about it.

Logan felt out of place at the praise, he was used to doing work without recognition back on Earth. Marcus, however, revelled in the attention as he waved and smiled at the crowd.

“Thank you, all. We couldn’t have done it without our allies and the MT. Please pay mind to the dangers included in these tasks…” Marcus spoke to the listeners, it seemed he had a whole speech prepared about being careful. It at least left Logan to be one to listen in too.

Leaving the praise behind, Logan and Marcus sold the gear and components and made their way to the inn to rest for the remainder of the day. While they could clear dungeons easily, it was still a risk to go out without proper resources because of the snakes in the tall grass. Sleeping until the next morning they took steps to the next dungeon.

Picking up another “easy” dungeon, the pair arrived at a made dungeon. A large clearing in the forest was marked with tree stumps and disturbed mud from dragging trunks. The outcome was a large hotchpotch fortification with a palisade wall. The reflection of the sun against metal from atop the gates and towers showed the enemies to be armed.

Leaping onto a taller tree in the distance, Logan used Identification with his vaskt eyes to see further. Scanning the base, the Spellthief was able to find many of its monstrous guards and even peer into the interior.

It was strange to find such a base constructed by monsters, so there had to be at least one leader among them. Logan eventually found one, its presence dominating the nearby foes.

“Kobold Hero Illnassahraggah - Bold. Level 12: 278/278 HP.

This esteemed monster has drunk so much mortal blood that its skills are numerous, and its power vast. With the Hero status, its attributes are much higher than usual alongside adept mental faculties and language comprehension.

While only a kobold, this hero has gained the trust of a variety of monsters even beyond normal species barriers.

Skills: Open List >.

Reduction: Damage 5.

Resistance: Damage 25%, Earth 75%, Fire 50%, Holy 95%, Ice 75%, Lightning 50%, Shadow 95%, Water 50%, Wind 50%.”

“Another hero? This is concerning. Just how many hero monsters are there that people just missed checking?” Logan worried in his head.

The statistics of the creature were also worrying, its health was far above a normal Knight of the same level, and this wasn’t even a boss-type monster. Glancing over its skill list also showed it had various in its repertoire, from Fighters and Rogues to even a few Knight skills. It didn’t seem to be as damaging as Krekka was, instead, this was more of a tank with legs, a mech.

While its form wasn’t taller than 5’, its aura and spellforce were way beyond its underlings. If it didn’t order through diplomacy, then it could do so via strength.

Dropping to the floor, Logan talked to Marcus and the elementals, “There’s a kobold Hero called Illnassahraggah in that fort. I’ll handle him while you all take down his troops.”

“A hero? Above save us, how did he come to be?”

“Unsure. It doesn’t mention a transformation at all, just that he has a ton of skills from drinking mortal blood.”

“Let us hope that isn’t all that is needed, otherwise, we’ll have a lot of heroes on our hands.”

“The adventuring board, again, hasn’t noted this dungeon properly. I will give them a bit of leeway as it is a new one, so it hasn’t been investigated properly. But, rank 7s should not be sent here. I’d say you’d want at least four rank 12s if a hero is around… without that info, rank 10s for the number of foes”, Logan calculated.

“Any chance of fighting them in groups?”

“Not really, they have alarms and the interior is mostly open aside from some shacks. Any noise will alert another person and set off a chain reaction.”

“So, basically a war”, Marcus sighed.

“Hey, at least since this is a made dungeon, clearing it is technically an eradication”, Logan laughed.

“Woo”, Marcus replied sarcastically.

Forming a deeper plan, the team set it in motion.

Inside the base, the hero was conversing in various languages with goblins, kobolds, crowbolds, lizards, wolves, and snakes. However, this was interrupted by a large explosion of water on the far exit, the doors bursting inwards as a massive hole erupted in the centre.

The hero began to shout, but Logan’s explosive entry ten feet away caused his face to turn around. Logan let out two Wind Blasts from his palms behind him, propelling the adventurer forward at disastrous speeds. With a swift and sonic-boom-inducing kick to the stomach, Logan sent the hero flying out through the destroyed door, warping away to follow him.

As the monsters had hardly two seconds to respond, elementals leapt and flew atop the battlements, while Marcus jumped through the destroyed doors with a staff in one hand and swirling water in the other.

Crashing and colliding with tree trunks and the ground, the hero tumbled to their feet as they drew out a longsword from their lower back as they held the hilt. Just barely blocking a twin dagger strike from Logan, the monster’s face was stunned and full of fear of his attacker.

“Hello, monster”, Logan teased as he pushed off the blocking blade, kicked off the floor, and began an assault of dagger swipes with the aid of a grey aura and the Haste spell.

“Gah, human! You’ll die for this!” the hero responded with bile, his head arced up to face his foe.

“Thought you’d know the ava tongue. Tell me, how’d you get so smart?” Logan demanded as he continued to slash at the sword.

The kobold was beyond competent, blocking many of Logan’s attacks. But he was also fast, his body getting faster as he activated the Dash skill to keep up with Logan.

“Madamra blesses me, can you say the same for your false deities?” the kobold insulted as he brought his blade high, “Power Strike”, forming a red mist around it and slamming it into the floor as Logan dodged.

“That was powerful! He must have mastered that skill”, Logan worried in his head.

A Power Strike at full mastery dealt an extra 150% damage, whereas it only started at around 50% extra.

“Combo Slash”, the kobold chanted as his blade glowed red.

Logan dropped a dagger and made a clawed hand towards the sword, “Necromantic Second Shot”, hurling a small but condensed slash of darkness at the sword.

A loud slam of metal into an immovable object reverberated into the forest, several torrents of wind going wild all around.

The kobold gritted its teeth as it was sent backwards, flipping in the air he landed, jumped and turned horizontal before chanting, “Torn Life”, spinning wild like a spinning top with grey winds.

Logan recognised this as a skill that Oretessu had used some time ago, but he didn’t need to block. Instead, Logan used Dimensional Jaunt to teleport far at the back of his foe, the whole skill missing as the kobold landed on the floor.

Illnassahraggah turned around in anger as he frothed at the mouth, “General’s Charge!” he yelled as a large yellow lion’s head mirage appeared over his body, charging at Logan again.

Logan teleported away yet again as the skill collided with several trees before dissipating to reveal a kobold in its centre.

“Stop your fleeing! Come Forth!” the kobold yelled.

Logan stood there unphased.

“Come Forth! Come Forth!” the kobold demanded over and over.

The third took hold as Logan’s rage rose to meet the hero’s. Teleporting to the rear to land a hand, the kobold twisted around and swiped at the hand.

Logan pulled back, twirled, and swiped his dagger at his foe. The kobold blocked it and was retaliated with a similar parry against his strike. The pair exchanged several strikes before Logan dropped his off-hand dagger and made a clawed hand and pulled towards himself, “Flame Second Skystrike”, he chanted.

A torrent of flames appeared behind the kobold, harassing his back with hot fire. Taking the hit and pushing through the pain, the hero grappled Logan’s arm and pulled it towards him.

With a raised sword in one hand, the kobold spoke, “Severing Slash”, shining his blade blue as he struck it down.

Logan twisted his hand and also touched the kobold's wrist, “Flame Second Grasp”, inflaming his foe as his own red blood followed the fires.

As the flames died, Logan jumped back with one arm less, while the kobold now had three, devouring part of Logan's removed one.

“Fuck, my skills!” Logan thought through the falling rage.

The kobold smiled wide as his spellforce fluctuated, Logan appearing behind him again for another round of grappling flames, this time with a Backstab boost.

Swinging his longsword with two hands, the kobold cut through the fire and took a hand off the hilt to aim at Logan, “Force”, he chanted, letting loose a punch of grey into Logan’s face.

The Spellthief only hoped the beast just learnt micks. Falling to his back, Logan rolled to his feet, dropping his dagger and making a claw he chanted, “Demon-Clan Spell: Telekinesis”, causing his dagger to fly at the foe.

“Weak!” the kobold shouted as he easily deflected the dagger in front of him. However, he forgot the arm he had severed previously held a dagger. Said dagger flew from behind and stabbed his head, piercing the back and thrusting through his left eye.

The kobold let out a grunt of pain as his body twitched all over, before falling to his knees, then front, the dagger being pushed back out from the dirt as it landed flat on the corpse’s neck.

Logan fell to a knee and panted, even with the level difference, a hero was no joke. But Logan was still fine, even with a missing arm. Downing a potion, he warped back to the fort.

There wasn’t much help to grant back at the fort, Logan only dealing with a few foes to bring the rest of the base down.

Checking the experience gains to track progression. Logan had gained 5,714 exp. Celsius, Spark, and Fahrenheit gained 10,854 exp. Servoir and Umbra gained 11,588 exp. With Marcus gaining 11,010 exp. The increased growth given to Marcus had allowed him almost the same progress as Logan’s elementals, though there was quite a level gap.

All of Logan’s summons did level up though, the first three hitting level 13, and the latter two hitting 12. Making Logan’s absorption grow to 43 MP. Logan was going to have to stop using some of them if he wanted Marcus to not eclipse his level.

Finding a shack to use his normal communication with Orichalcum, Logan informed them of the monster hero. It was a startling realisation, one that had immediate action as a member had teleported to Logan and taken the body to be investigated in secret. He was handed a writ to hand back to the guild for heightened pay, as usual.

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