Legend of the Spellthief

Logan jogged forwards passing by trees and bushes, his legs grazing against leaves and shrubberies. Either thanks to his new status as a PC, or that of his leather garb, he didn't feel much pain from the contact. His clothing was already soaked in sweat from his climbing adventure of the tall tree for his scouting effort, and it was getting even more so with his jog to the dirt road he had spotted.

As a stark contrast to his entry into this world his vision was no longer full of artificial computer windows, a sight he was sick of, even though he had already thrown up earlier. His vision was now full of greens and browns, if he had the time to spare he would notice his clothing camouflaged well with the forested area.

With a hasty step, Logan pushed on through the forest though it seemed to have no end, his estimate of one or two miles possibly an understatement. His tunnel-vision to the dirt path meant he could get there quicker, however, it betrayed his attention to his safety. Prowling behind him, picking up speed with its four paws, was a brown wolf. Its grisly maw dripping with saliva and blood, the wolf was catching up to an unsuspecting Logan.

Snaps and breaks of twigs were unheard by Logan, the wolf getting careless as it got closer to its next meal. Pushing on a nearby tree, Logan sped up a bit as his head turned to look at the tree he was using as a platform, a choice he would soon be thankful for as he was able to catch a glimpse of his pursuer at the edge of his vision. Whipping his head around, the brown-blur catching his attention, he saw a leaping and sprinting brown wolf charging him down.

“Where the hell did that come from? Now is not the time for a wolf to be hunting me down!” Logan's thoughts started to widen once more, including his survival against a wolf with his goal of the dirt road. Picking up his own pace to a sprint, Logan started to leap over bushes and kick-off tree trunks to aid in vaulting debris. Looking back again, he saw the wolf was still reducing the distance between them.

“This is a bunch of crap, I gotta stop it”, Logan tried to think of a means of attack whilst still running, then an idea popped into his head. Raising his hand to his eye level, still sprinting, he exclaimed the word “Flame!” though sadly he was only met with another window to his side.

“You have not prepared the Flame spell today”, the window read, as Logan tried not to stumble to the floor as he did three things at once. “I didn't prepare anything today, you just dropped me here. Fine, whatever”, Logan's irritations mounted higher. “Lightning!” Logan shouted again, this time his eyes lighting up in delight as well as from the light shone from the electricity forming from his wrist to his fingers.

Dancing sparks of lightning flowed around his right hand, charging up to his fingertips and exploding in a display of power. The lightning continued to shift in his hand, “What else did I need to do? Right! Alterations!” he thought, wondering why the lightning stayed dormant in his hand.

Throwing his hand back, twisting his body so that he could have his side face the approaching wolf, Logan aimed at the charging monster. “Shot!” he shouted the final word in his casting, the lightning sparking in delight with the command. Flowing quickly to his fingertips and shooting out at a ridiculous speed, the lightning arced, sparked, and forked around until it found purchase in the face of the wolf.

The lightning hit dead into the wolf's head, exploding somewhat and forming around the lupine's body until dissipating. Injured, the wolf slowed for a second in the recoil of the blast. Shaking its head and body it jumped forward, returning to its sprint.

“Bloody hell, what is it going to take to kill you?” Logan shouted, turning his body to continue his retreat. As he pulled his right side back in line, facing forward, his right foot caught an unruly root. Trapping the top of his foot, Logan was pulled downwards, his shoulder and head hitting the ground. Rolling over in the tumble Logan was able to steady himself and return to a standing position continuing his run. While he was upright again, he had lost a big gap, more than what he had gained from attacking the wolf.

“I hope I have more of those spells left, the status said I have 3 slots”, Logan thought as he brought his hand up again, chanting the word once more “Lightning!” With sparkling energy, electricity formed in his hand again, though Logan had to surmount more debris and trees before being able to fire it. Turning to face the wolf once more, Logan was about to fire his spell but the wolf had closed the distance, in a massive leap the wolf went face-first at Logan. With an opened maw the wolf chomped down hard at Logan whose hand was raised, the fangs of the wolf dug deep into Logan as he winced in pain and exclaimed “Argh! Fuck”.

The wolf pulled down hard, dragging Logan's arm down and stopping his sprint, his left side jolting at the jarring stop of the movement. “You want to eat something? Eat this! Shot!” Logan shouted at the wolf, realising his spell was still active. With a convulsing movement, the wolf was attacked from inside its mouth, the lightning travelling to the insides of its stomach. A loud yelp was heard from the wolf, smiling at his attack and his now free hand Logan saw a window had appeared just above his eye level.

“You have received 5 damage, current HP: 6/12”, the window was updating Logan on his HP, a sweat overcame his brow and his stomach churned. “One hit and I am down to half my health?” he thought as he returned to his retreat from the wolf. Hurrying forwards, Logan lept over another fallen tree trunk and with that jump, he crashed through a wave of branches and leaves. Exploding out the other side, Logan had escaped the forested area, his feet skidding across the grassy plains.

Kicking his left foot, Logan thrust himself on to continue his sprint, the injured wolf behind him quickly catching back up. A soft crunching of the grass under his boots, the thud of leather to mud, his heavy breathing, a cacophony of mundane sound filled this retreating encounter. Obviously enraged by Logan's attacks and probably driven mad by the taste of blood, the wolf started to howl and bark at the human running away.

Agonizing in pain, Logan tried to lift his right hand once more, though the deep fang wounds had made his hand much fainter in its control. Blood dripped down to his arm as he pulled his hand up, a wash of crimson painting the floor as he dropped his arm to his side. “1 arm, 1 spell, this better drop that damn wolf or I might be finished before I even got started”, Logan thought, his options thinning out as the plains allowed the wolf to pick up speed.

Raising up his left hand, Logan chanted a final time “Lightning!” his hand ignited with sparks of blue as the last spell in his stock came to life. Looking back over his shoulder he could see the wolf was within a dozen feet or so, with a final chance in his grasp he flipped over into a fall, his back aimed to the floor, arm raised at the wolf behind him. As if time slowed, Logan's aim lined up with the wolf, his eyes glinting against the forks of lightning. “Shot!” he shouted, the lightning in his hand darting across the air towards the wolf that was preparing another lunge.

Erratic and destructive, the lightning spell carved through the space between Logan and the wolf until it struck itself within the raised chest of the creature. Encasing the wolf, the lightning encompassed its body, pinpricks of electric daggers marking its fur. A loud thud was let out as Logan's back hit the grass floor, followed by another solid crush as the wolf supplanted the grass of the plains with its body.

Rolling backwards, Logan stumbled around until he was able to level himself, pushing upwards to stop his movement with an outstretched leg and knee. Half-kneeling, Logan looked over to the wolf now sprawled over the plains in front of him. A twitch from its hind leg, black smoke slowly rising from its fur and opened mouth, Logan was unsure if it was truly dead or not.

Slowly moving his left hand across his waist, Logan drew his dagger in anticipation. All of the tension in his body was released, however, when a piece of highlighted golden text with a black outline appeared above the corpse of the wolf.

With a heavy sigh, Logan slumped his shoulders and used his left hand to brace himself on the grass below, his dagger laying flat underneath. “All of my spells, for a single wolf? What kind of introduction is that?” he thought to himself. Slowly picking his body up, he felt the exhaustion of the run as well as the encounter rush over his body. His legs felt weak, though the bitten right hand felt much worse. A sharp stinging could be felt within the writing hand of Logan, looking at the wound it seemed to have closed up slightly and the bleeding had stopped on its own.

Stumbling towards the wolf corpse, Logan gave it a swift kick to the head as if he were kicking a ball, “That was my good hand!” he exclaimed to the lifeless being. As he kicked the wolf's head one of its fangs came loose and flew to the side, prompting another window to appear to Logan's side. “Well, we're not in combat anymore, what do you have to say now?” he thought, looking to the new window.

“Harvesting? I just kicked its head, I guess it's because one of its fangs came loose, well let's dig out the other, the window says I could sell them and I need the money”, Logan surmised as he bent down and grabbed ahold of the other large fang of the lupine and tugged it out. Moving over to the dislodged fang, Logan collected his loot for a total of two wolf fangs, inspecting them for a few seconds had another window appear.

“Wolf Fang: The fang of a wolf, sometimes used in the crafting of small daggers or tribalwear. Wolf fangs are used in some low-level magical trinkets. 2x shoddy”, the window gave a brief description of the fangs. “Only shoddy huh, so half value. The odds are pretty stacked against me with this skill right now, but it's better than nothing”, Logan thought as he put the fangs in his trouser pocket.

Flipping the latch on his sheath, Logan locked away his dagger for later, he then looked over his right hand to make sure it still functioned by clenching as well as rolling his fingers. “If this was back in my world, my hand would've been outta commission for a few weeks, but here, it's usable in minutes. My HP probably helps with that, but I don't want to fight anything else with only 6 HP left”, looking over his shoulder Logan could see the dirt road.

“At least I reached the road, gotta hope it's safer, the System did say the forest held monsters, maybe they steer clear of civilization or roads to them”, Logan theorized as he moved to the dirt road, following it in the direction of the smoke he had seen earlier. Walking much slower than his jaunt through the forest, Logan found comfort in the dirt road as the sun up on high lit the world before him. A sprawling field on his left, a smaller field to the right, and forests on both sides.

Looking to the dirt road beneath his feet, Logan could pick out other footprints alongside lines that were left by thin wheels. “Seems this road is regularly travelled if I can see footprints still. Wagons or carts means either travelling salesmen or a larger group of people”, Logan pondered on the path he was taking as well as how long it would take to reach the end.

Some time passed as Logan followed the dirt road, the sun moved in the skies as the clouds shifted from right to left. Only the sound of the wind pushing the leaves combined with the chirping of birds could be heard. The peaceful atmosphere was slowly interrupted as Logan could make out the sound of creaking wood and the galloping of a horse. Turning his head around to peer over his shoulder, Logan could see an approaching cart.

Sweeping his legs, Logan pulled to the side of the road a bit as he waved down the cart, while it wasn't moving at breakneck speeds, Logan was too used to hailing cars. A driver returned the wave, a hearty swing of an arm from a stocky man whose arm hair was as dark as his beard.

Stopping beside Logan, he looked up to the driver, who was quite the muscle-bound farmer. “Excuse me, do you speak English?” Logan asked the driver.

“English? What is that, some sort of slang for bread, sir?” the man reacted, a look of bemusement across his face.

“That's a yes, though it's probably not called English here”, Logan thought to himself, annoyed at his blunder. “Sorry, my head is a bit fuzzy, I had a run-in with a wolf not too long ago. Do you know where this road leads?” Logan asked, raising his wounded hand to show the farmer.

“Gosh, what a wound. Yessir, I am heading to Tinte right now, it's at the far end of this here road. You fetching to hitch a ride? I got space at my side, sir”, offered the farmer, his eyes widening at the sight of Logan's hand.

“If it's no trouble, thank you”, Logan smiled at the kind farmer, moving around and pulling himself to sit beside the driver of the cart. Looking over the farmer, Logan saw him to probably be just under 6' tall, dark brown body hair though bald at the head, his clothing shades of grey and white but marred by dirt. His skin was of a light tawny colour, most likely a tan from working in the hot sun.

“If you're not from Tinte, where do you hail from?” the farmer inquired, as he pulled a piece of cloth from under the tarp that covered the back of his cart, handing it to Logan and motioning to wrap his hand in it.

“Nowhere, in particular, I travel a lot so I have no place to call home”, Logan lied with a smile on his face, taking the cloth he wrapped his hand tightly.

“Ah, to be young and full of vigour. You'll be an adventurer then? No band with you?” the farmer questioned, cracking his reins to stir the horse onwards.

“I aim to be actually, was hoping to join up with a group.”

“Then Tinte'll be the place for you. A small adventurer's hall is housed there, they can set you right up. You got a place to stay while in town?”

“Not currently, no, the wolf took off with some of my stuff, and a lot of blood, so it might be hard to find lodging”, Logan began to weave his story further, hoping to pull on the kindness of the farmer to gain some more information or another helping hand.

“It's settled then, you can bunker down with me tonight before I head-on, get yourself set up right!” the farmer offered, a beaming smile on his face as he gifted charity onto the stranger.

“If it isn't too much trouble, thank you. My name's Logan by the way”, replied the mischievous Spellthief, holding out his left hand for a shake.

“I'm Jrizan, nice to meet you, Logan”, Jrizan responded, clasping Logan's good hand hard in a shake, Logan thanking his luck that handshakes still existed in this world.

The cart continued on, its wood creaking accenting the rushing of the winds, birds chirping a song of victory for Logan as he slowly approached his next destination, the town of Tinte.

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