Legend of the Spellthief

With the monsters and boss of the dungeon killed and slowly disintegrating, at least what remained after Harvesting, Logan and Marcus took the final step in looting what remained. Taking the components from the yeti that were needed for Logan’s relic, the rest of the room was examined for hidden chambers or markings.

Even with Marcus giving a solid blow each couple of feet, the walls hid no treasures. The final spot was that of the massive saeber statue.

As a spellforced dungeon, this place would slowly regenerate the monsters, requiring the place to get cleared in the future. However, if Logan could destroy the core, the dungeon would be eradicated, becoming a mundane cave. Monsters could move in, but they would be a far smaller number and lack the power of the previous inhabitants.

Using Identification on the statue, Logan saw two parts to it. A gauntlet of the statue was a separate piece, a real piece of equipment that was well camouflaged amongst the stone. Taking it, the gauntlet shrunk in size to fit a normal person’s hand, and surprisingly, an exact fit for Logan’s hand.

Logan tutted as he looked at its effects.

“Problem?” Marcus asked.

“Yeah. This artefact doesn’t benefit either of us. We’ll just sell it when we get back to Gauntlet.”

“At least it’ll be worth quite a bit”, Marcus shrugged.

Moving his gaze to the rest of the statue, Logan was able to surmise that it was the core of the dungeon. The next step was figuring out how to destroy it properly.

“Thoughts?” Marcus probed.

“I could destroy this statue, but, there’s a high chance the dungeon will erupt.”

Fol then spoke in Logan’s head, “It would have a far higher success rate if we had a saeber with us.”

Logan nodded and spoke to Marcus, “We need a saeber.”

“Would Orichalcum be able to provide someone like that?”

“I was thinking the same. Do you mind stepping out for a bit?”

Some time passed while Logan contacted Ochus as usual, and was able to get a saeber member to travel to their location within a few hours. The sabertooth creature looked over the statue while Logan conversed with the System in his head, eventually, they came across a course of action.

The saeber transformed into their bipedal state, a range of static electricity flowing over their body when it was complete. Marcus then Enhanced the saeben’s Strength as the electricity disappeared into a grey aura.

Landing a solid punch into the statue, it cracked all over from the saeben’s power. Logan and Marcus darted their eyes over the statue for any unforeseen outcomes. This came in the form of several chunks of the statue breaking off and starting to fall to the floor.

Logan quickly aimed at the chunks and Silentcast a Lightning Cascade to magnetise the chunks to the main portion. Marcus then followed up with a Chain Guard to wrap the stones back together.

The saeber landed another punch, and then another, flurrying the statue as it continued to crack under pressure. Logan and Marcus continued to keep the falling chunks connected with every strike.

Lightning and golden bonds kept the statue in one piece, albeit hotchpotch and cracked all over. The saeber wrung back a wide fist before landing a final blow in the rock, sending a massive shockwave throughout its frame.

The remaining parts of the statue were sent wayward, smashing apart the magical confines and mostly disintegrating to dust and pebbles. A hallowed and reverberating screaming wail could be heard from the statue as it was destroyed, in its place, a vortex of purple lines and wind formed in the centre of where the statue used to stand tall.

Converging into a single point, rock and spellforce culminated into a stony mask that floated to the podium of the now-missing statue, landing with a faint tap on the floor.

Logan approached the mask cautiously, though this was a similar event to when he destroyed the Frost Monarch’s throne. The stony mask depicted the face of an oni, a humanoid with varying-sized fangs, big eyes, and a snout. From left to right it slowly flowed in different colours, from greens and reds to yellows and blacks.

“Identify.”

Logan smiled at the mask as he picked it up, making sure to avoid the sharp points. Placing it onto his face, the mask held itself an inch away from his skin and floated there. Mentally commanding it, the mask shifted to a blue hue as his status alerted him to gaining ice reduction of 10 and ice resistance 21%, making his totals 20 and 46% respectively.

The mask disappeared as he turned to look at Marcus and the saeben who aided them, either due to its own powers or that of Logan’s Cache Arm hiding most of his trinkets.

“It’s all good, a pretty damn powerful artefact”, Logan spoke, without a change to his normal voice.

“Things continue to go your way, Logan. Another eradication and another artefact for your arsenal”, the saeben spoke formally as he sat down, reverting his form to normal.

“What’s it do?” Marcus asked as he looked over Logan’s face for the mask.

“Makes me hardier against a particular element in the day.”

“Ah, quite well-encompassing, praise be”, the saeben applauded.

“I take it it’ll grow with you, like most artefacts. Let’s reach rank 100, make you immune”, Marcus laughed as he patted Logan on the shoulder.

Taking the mask off, it appeared as a blue one in his hand. Giving it to Marcus, the artefact kept the same benefit on the Devout’s status, though it stayed in sight during that time. Retrieving it, Logan tested to see if he could eat through it, and was happy when the ration block met his teeth. If needed he could take it off or gift it to someone in need, happily, it wasn’t too restrictive.

The main plan wasn’t to eradicate the dungeon, but it all fell into place rather neatly for the group. As they began to make their way back to Gauntlet after waiting an hour or so to see if anything erroneous occurred from the act, Logan got an alert play through his head as they left the cave. An incessant ring that was heard above all else, even Marcus twinged at it.

“Grab on!” Logan yelled as he held out a hand to both Marcus and the saeber.

As they latched onto the Spellthief, the trio warped away into the air.

Deep in a forest elsewhere.

A large battle was taking place in a forest of green, coated harshly in red all over. Castore deflected another sword with his own, Kruma blocking a strike against E’leth from another attacker.

Whilst trying their hardest to clear out a quest for the G-Hall, the party of Castore, Kruma, E’leth, Vern, and Varuud were trying just as hard to survive an ambush from traitors. Four in total, but burly and vicious to make up the lacking numbers against the party from VIP.

E’leth took out his tracking stone and wiped his thumb over the line drawn onto it, its blue light fading as the team heard a drawn-out ding in their heads.

Blocking another massive strike with his shield, Kruma had his only defence shatter in the red-misted attack. A flurry of flames flew over the traitor as Castore waved his hand in that direction, utilizing his expensive spell ring to save an ally, but was nicked by his own adversary as his attention was elsewhere.

Varuud jumped up and bashed his crossbow into the mace of one of the traitors to save Castore from another blow, but had it destroyed in the process.

Vern threw two daggers at the traitors as he ran to shoulder-barge another off of Kruma, heavy panting and blood flying.

As the traitors were gaining ground on the newcomers, a blast of wind shot outwards behind them all. Everyone turned around to the noise and rush of air, spying Logan, Marcus, and an unknown saeber.

Logan’s eyes darted across the battlefield, his red eyes locking onto those he saw as threats. Flicking his hand up, his fingers danced with electricity as he sent out a Silentcast Lightning Cascade. Azure streaks flashed towards the first foe, puncturing his chest and spewing red with the blue. The lightning then scattered to the three other foes, zapping them till their skeletons shone and dropped the unconscious bodies to the floor.

“Logan!” Castore shouted in joy at seeing his friend and saviour.

“Thank Levin you got here so quick”, E’leth praised as he fell to his knees.

Varuud quickly moved over to Vern and Kruma to heal their wounds whilst nodding at Logan.

“What happened here?” Logan asked as he approached the party with his allies.

“Traitors, said they wanted all the free stuff we were given”, Castore informed as he sheathed his weapon.

Logan rubbed his forehead in frustration, “Bound to happen, but shitty regardless. How’s everyone?”

“We’re grand, now”, Vern shouted over.

“We’ll recover, but a trip back to Gauntlet is probably best before we continue our quest”, Castore admitted.

Castore had regained his composure, though Logan could tell the young master’s legs were shaking. The rest of the team was coming off a long dose of adrenaline, sweat beading down their faces, and hot air turning white in the cold atmosphere in just past the middle of what would be December.

Traitors would target anyone they thought they had a chance of winning against or intimidating into getting what they wanted. Regardless of what Logan advertised for his guild, these five were bound to get attacked at some point or another. Logan still felt a small tinge of regret, as his actions did amount to a portion of the reason.

“I can take you all back, it’ll just take a few extra casts of Dimensional Jaunt. As these traitors tried to kill you, they’ll most likely get the death penalty in return. Take what coin they have for repairs, but leave their gear in case any of it was stolen”, Logan instructed calmly.

Castore nodded and slowly approached the unconscious bodies, it seemed he had taken the leader role ahead of Kruma who had little in the way of training. The hero Knight hadn’t gained enough confidence to lead as a normal adventurer of his class.

With a short rest, the team prepared to return to the capital.

Logan was pretty much at the end of his MP and spell rings for the day, transporting his guild and allies around did a number on the quantity, but the boss did a hearty punch to it too. Saying farewell to the Orichalcum member, Logan was able to also get double pay on his dungeon eradication. After the split and other costs, Logan came away 11 gold richer.

After upgrading their gear to suit their levels, Logan came out even with selling off the found loot. However, the artefact they had acquired was better off sold than anything. While they could keep it on hand for a teammate, there was no guarantee that would occur. They got a pretty penny for it, enough to fund the purchase of the two buildings to the side and behind of the guild house.

With the incident with Logan’s guild a few hours prior, the Guildmaster had to push forward some plans he had. Thankfully, it seemed most of his guild were free two days from now, so all he had to do was wait and prepare.

Two Days Later.

Logan and Marcus were standing atop a shoddy treestump podium as they overlooked all the level 3s and below of their guild. Castore, E’leth, Vern, Alice, Jayd, Varuud, Sooryah, Shanin, Kruma, U’nito, Elata, and Vafith.

Twelve able-bodied adventurers who could be targeted by traitors, due to their low levels and lack of experience in combat. Today was to be another day of training, but one more suited to sorting out the level disparity, rather than schooling against fighting adventurers.

Logan’s elementals stayed mostly hidden amongst the tree branches higher up, with commands to engage if needed, but the Spellthief was sure with this number they wouldn’t need to.

“Now, you will be facing wave after wave. Try to keep your resources for the harder challenges, but if you’re in a dangerous spot feel free to rely on others. You’re a dozen strong, fight as a force, and not a singular combatant”, Logan instructed with a loud voice.

Marcus tapped a tree’s trunk to reveal a small stash of extra weapons, “If you need to regear, take your enemies’ or what we’ve held within these caches.”

The pair walked off into the forest’s treeline and disappeared from view. This signed Castore, Alice, and Kruma to take up leader positions over three pockets of four adventurers each.

A sharp whistle shot through the woods, as Logan commanded his forces forward. The Spellthief had used the time to prepare a small army of goblins all his own, making use of his Call to War skill.

Dozens of goblin scouts scurried from all directions, clubs in hand as they barreled down on the large party.

“How did—” Vern thought aloud.

“Casters, prepare Force micks”, Castore ordered as he took a wide stance.

“Sooryah, jump over me”, Alice commanded as she darted towards a trio of goblins.

“Shanin, circle when I block”, Kruma added as he held his shield high.

The casters of the party all ran to the centre of the circle their allies made, chanting and preparing the newly learned micks they had picked up from the books at the guild. Varuud was with them, using his crossbow to shoot down inclosing goblins and calling out when the micks were ready.

“Ready!”

This caused the Fighters to sidestep around their foes to create an opening.

“Loose!”

The casters then ended their chants, sending three volleys of grey orbs at the goblins, pelting them to the floor.

Sooryah landed softly on the grass behind several goblins, the first going down in a single Backstab, the others falling to dual strikes each.

Kruma blocked a heavy jumping bash from a goblin, to then spin to the side to have the riposted goblin stabbed by a leaping plunge by Shanin’s sword.

The goblins kept coming, dozens at a time. The royale went on for minutes before Logan turned it up a notch. The scouts were exchanged for muscles, eight instead of twelve. The heavier hitters caused pause at points from the Fighters who had to dodge with higher agility, and the Knight to put more weight behind his shield.

Snapping of metal and cracking of maces were heard as the weapons failed under duress and use. Vern had to roll over the top of a sweeping mace to grapple a separate mace from the floor to fight back.

“Sooryah! Dash to get us weapons”, Alice commanded.

The Rogue hastened his steps as he ran to a stump and landed a flying kick, the treasure within falling to the floor. Picking them up, he threw them one by one into the air, his allies taking them to replace their destroyed arms.

The muscles took a good two or three hits to go down, Force micks had little chance of knocking them down.

One such foe saw the ranged bombardment and hurried to get at the mages. Both Alice and Jayd saw this and quickly flipped a cover off their thigh sheaths and each threw a dagger at the muscle, killing it as it tumbled to the floor.

While the muscles had power, they lacked speed, this was compensated for when goblin archers were added into the fray. While their bows had been taken away, they hastily ran at the casters with clubs held high.

“Vern, Sooryah, Shanin, back up the magi!” Alice ordered.

The two Rogues and Fighter killed their goblins and retreated to the centre of their formation, circling the mages to cut down the approaching threats.

Eventually, muscles and archers were replaced with level 3 goblin berserkers. Being both stronger and faster than both of their previous forms, the berserkers were deadly even at only four per wave.

Flurries of red mist filled the fight with an even more deadly sight, blood going all over as the Fighters had to start relying on Power Strike to take down their opponents.

The guild was looking tired, their exhaustion from fighting combined with skill and spell fatigue. The fight was near its end though, as two hobgoblin leaders were set free on them.

“A rank 5!” Jayd moaned.

“Casters, Flame!” E’leth commanded as he prepared a Heal for when it was needed.

Castore clicked his fingers as fires ignited between them, throwing his spell quickly at one hobgoblin to take its attention.

Vern came up from behind and landed three swipes before rolling away from a massive strike.

Kruma blocked a blow from the other foe, Shanin slashing at the tall foe with his sword before ducking under a retaliation.

Torrents of flames came from U’nito, Elata, and Vafith, igniting the two hobgoblins as they squealed out in pain.

Alice landed a final blow on her foe, while Jayd smashed down the other.

Clanks of metal hit the floor, both from the two hobgoblins and breaking weapons. Everyone was breathing for dear life, hitting the floor in kneels or lying on their backs.

Logan came out with a loud clap, applauding the victors. Marcus walked amongst them to check for wounds, though E’leth and Varuud both did wonderful jobs at keeping their allies in tip-top shape.

“How did you send so many on us”, Elata asked as she rubbed her head.

“There are items to get the attention of monsters”, Logan half-lied.

“I felt my spellforce enlarge, this fight surely ranked me up”, E’leth admitted.

“All of you have, though to varying degrees. No one here is even a rank 2 anymore”, Logan informed as he looked over the guild. The level 1s and 2s had all reached level 4, the 3s hitting 5.

As Logan had theorised before, as long as everyone was well enough involved, everyone would get the experience for an encounter. With the two-hundred-plus goblins all dead, every member of the 12-team got the same reward.

While this could have been compared to some engagements with the goblin invasion, Logan was easily able to control the flow of troops to make it an easier time, though still a quick one. The harshness of the combat would also instil combat confidence, more than what hour gaps between waves would.

“This guild is awesome”, U’nito said gleefully.

“Everyone can take a break before we return. There’ll be a lot of quests for you all to hand in”, Logan informed as he began to have a conveyor belt of corpses brought to him by his elementals, ready for Harvesting.

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