Running up to Marcus, who was just barely stopping a biting wolf's maw hitting him by using his staff as a railing, Logan drew up his dagger high. Striking down deep into the wolf's back, Logan suddenly realised his Backstab was still on cooldown. A loud growl was let out by the wolf that jumped off of Marcus, now squaring off against Logan. Marcus started to stand, though his head scanned the local area.

“We got company, 2 more wolves”, he informed.

“Shit, not good, I can't keep us both safe and roleplay at the same time”, Logan thought.

“Marcus, run, I can handle this. You're hurt”, Logan instructed, noticing that the Devout's clothes were redder than usual. Though he wasn't able to reply, as the wolf jumped at Logan this time, dodging the right claw he was nicked with the left.

“You have received 3 damage, current HP: 29/32”, a window explained to Logan. “Shit”, he thought, dragging his blade across the side of the wolf as it passed him.

“I can't leave you to fight alone!” Marcus put his foot down. Jumping forwards, he brought his staff upwards, crashing into the chin of the brown wolf that had taken two hits already. It wasn't much, an identifying Logan saw it only dealt 2 damage.

The two wolves in the background started to close the distance, leaving Logan with little choice.

“Marcus, party up with me. And don't breathe a word of what I am about to do to anyone!” Logan demanded, his hand starting to spark with magic.

“Fine! I accept!” Marcus yelled, a window popping up to confirm that Logan and Marcus were now partners. His status flew up above him, detailing he was at 13/20 HP and 0/2 MP. Logan didn't have time to investigate his new ally further, nor change the party settings.

“Force!” Logan yelled, blasting the wounded wolf to the floor in a final blow. Marcus's eyes widened at the sight but knew that now wasn't the time. He drew up his staff in a battle position against the two charging wolves.

The first wolf to reach the two casters lunged at Logan, its two claws digging deep into his arms, Logan taking 4 and 5 damage, bringing him to 20/32. In retaliation, he grabbed a hold of one of its front legs.

“Flame Grasp!” he enspelled, his arm erupting in flames. Dancing across his limb, the fire leapt onto the wolf as it exploded across its body dealing a monstrous 21 damage. A loud deathly growl was heard as it fell to the floor in a mass of burning flesh.

To his side and slightly behind him, the next wolf jumped on Marcus, biting him in the shoulder for 5 damage, bringing the Devout to 8/20 HP. Quickly returning the blow, Marcus swung with his staff to hit the wolf for 3 damage.

Rushing to his ally, Logan stabbed at the wolf, slashing it twice against its back. Letting out a yelp, the wolf assaulted Marcus once more, biting his leg for 3 damage. With a slam into its face from a staff and another stab into its lower back, it fell to the floor, releasing its hold on Marcus.

Sharing a look, the two breathed a heavy sigh as the last wolf fell, their breathing became quick in exhaustion as the adrenaline left them. Resting his arms on his knees, Marcus looked at the Spellthief in amazement.

“You… you can quick cast? Haven't… ever seen that around Tinte”, Marcus spoke, stopping to breath in a hurricane of wind every so often.

“Yeah, just… keep it a secret alright?” Logan demanded, his body still holding a modicum of fear from the encounter.

“You have my word, won't hear a peep from me. Without you I would be a chew toy still”, Marcus responded, a smile on his face. As their conversation continued, Logan oversaw the corpses, his reward popping up as usual.

With the encounter ended, Logan was sitting on 6,641 XP. Another window popping up to confirm his level.

“Level up! Gain: 8 HP, +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Con, +1 Int. You have 1 attribute point to spend”, it congratulated him. Immediately he spent his point, still in a dangerous area. “Place attribute point into Intelligence”, he commanded and confirmed with a “yes”. Looking quickly over to Marcus, he could see the Devout had picked up a total of 90 experience.

“You alright there, Marcus? Took a few hits”, Logan inquired, worried about his impromptu teammate.

“Yeah, I'm good for now. No prolonged bleeding, but without any spellforce left I won't be healing anytime soon”, Marcus informed. Standing up straight, looking over the corpses and checking for any more foes, Marcus continued his speech, “But those moves, and the quick casts. Where did you learn all that? Weren't you a rank 1 Wizard?”

“It's a long story, but if people knew, I would be in danger. So consider us even if you don't ever mention it”, Logan insisted, his mind torn in half about his situation. “Can I trust him? He says he won't tell anyone, and he is indebted to me”, Logan wondered.

“No problem, you can tell me about it later. My lips are sealed.”

“So, your team just fled as they saw the situation go bad? How many wolves were there?”

“There were 5 of us, 4 left when we got attacked by a pack of 6 wolves, 1 wolf was left fighting me, so it's 5 versus 4 fleeing. I'm not overly excited about trying to go help them now though”, Marcus answered, a bit of anger in his voice.

A window had been hovering in front of Logan during the aftermath of the fight, piquing his curiosity.

“Would you like to alter the party rules?

Info Settings: Minimal. Change to: Medium or Detailed.

Status Share: Off. Status Control: Off.”

It detailed a lot of things that Logan could alter, making him start to wonder. “Status? Can I show mine to Marcus? Or can I alter his?”, he contemplated.

“Marcus, do you mind if I scan your status? I can use an ability to determine your abilities better, kind of like the accessors at the hall”, Logan gave a half-truth, asking permission before delving deeper into the man's being.

“Huh? Really? You bring out more and more tricks, don't you, Logan. Well, sure, though wouldn't it be a waste of a slot right now?”

“It will be fine, just accept my inspection”, Logan assured, Marcus giving an affirmative nod. “System, change party Info settings to ‘detailed’ and turn Status Share and Control to ‘on’”, he commanded. The window loaded for a few seconds as it brought up more details on Marcus.

“Marcus Eren, 20-year-old Human: Devout 2, 2,330/3,000 XP. 8/20 HP, 0/2 MP. Str 13, Agi 11, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 8. Marcus has 7 attribute points to spend, and 2 skill points to spend. His known spells are Heal”, the window gave much more information about Marcus than Logan was anticipating. “So, NPCs get access to attribute and skill points, but it seems they cannot spend them”, he inferred.

“Uh, Logan, you're staring at me a bit weird”, Marcus said, the Spellthief staring at a window in front of the Devout.

“Oh, sorry, the ability takes some concentration”, Logan retorted. Another window also made Logan pause for inspection.

“Would you like to spend your ally's points for them?” It asked. Though Logan felt a bit strange for doing so. “I can give him a major incentive to never speak of my skills to anyone, and possibly make it so he wanted to party with me for the foreseeable future. He was just ditched and as a caster, he doesn't have the best options for groups”, he planned devilishly.

“Marcus, I can help you improve your abilities. And as assurance, I will do this for you if you're willing to keep my secrets and possibly come help me on other quests”, Logan offered, wanting to get something out of the deal. “If he is close, I can keep an eye on him”, he thought.

“What? Wait, wait. You can make me stronger? How? I haven't heard of anyone in the sticks doing that. There are rumours of it happening in the capital.”

“There are others that can do this? Do you know who they are?” Logan demanded. “They could be PCs!” the hopeful Spellthief realised.

“No, sorry, I just hear stories. If you're interested in them you should head to the capital and ask there.”

“Well, it's a lead. I am looking for people who can do similar things that I can”, Logan informed. “The capital is definitely next on the docket”, Logan confirmed.

“If you can improve my skills, I will pledge my services to you as long as you need them, Logan!” Marcus offered.

“He is either a good actor, or this is an immense boon for him”, Logan pondered.

“Alright, well, what do you value more? Strength, Agility, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma? Your Wisdom affects your MP-spellforce per day”, Logan informed, slipping up a bit at his terms.

“As a Devout my most precious contribution is spells, so Wisdom, all the way”, Marcus confirmed, a glee in his eyes as his body was still stained in blood.

Opening up Marcus's status, Logan placed his spare 7 points into Wisdom, bringing him to 19. Immediately his MP increased to 3/5. A wave of energy welled up within the Devout, wind erupting from the floor to his head as if he was instilled with new power.

“Lo-Logan. This power! My spellforce has doubled over, I can easily cast 3 more spells. How did you do that?” Marcus was bewildered, his whole world getting shattered at the number of spells now available to him.

“That is the most I can do for now. However, I can also unlock two of your latent skills, if you know of any you would like I can try and find those.”

“Skills too? Uh, um. There is Healer's Caress if you're able, and Multitude Healing too”, Marcus pleaded, a smile so wide on his face he looked somewhat childish.

Looking over his skill window, Logan could see that Marcus had several Devout specific class skills. He was soon able to find the two skills in question, one gave healing without the need for MP and the other allowed it to occur twice. Similar to his Backstab, it had a cooldown of 10 minutes.

“Healer's Caress: With a touch, you can heal your allies without the requirement of MP. You can heal a set minuscule amount per touch. After this skill has been successfully used you cannot use it for 10 minutes.” It seemed like the skill would also add in a portion of Marcus’s Wisdom to the amount healed.

Pressing both skills, Logan unlocked the class skills of Marcus. A green glow overtook the Devout's eyes, his mind expanding quickly as new knowledge flowed into the NPC.

“Wow. Instant skills. This is unbelievable”, Marcus looked over his hands as he saw the power now at his fingertips. Looking back to Logan, he saluted the Spellthief.

“I pledge my life to you, Logan. Tell me to fight a monster, I will do so. Ask me to leave home, I will pack this very night.”

“No grand travels just yet, Marcus, for now, let's harvest these wolves. I won't be heading to the capital for another few days”, Logan assured. “Pledging his life to me, huh. That's one way to keep my secret safe. He seems sincere, a bit too much so. Though as a caster he probably isn't treated the best”, Logan thought, remembering that Marcus had just been ditched by his previous team.

Testing out his new skill, Marcus placed a hand on his chest and spoke “Healer's Caress”. A holy light shone over his body, as he was healed for 2 points. Doing the same, he grabbed Logan's shoulder and chanted again, healing his new ally for 2 points. Both were brought to 10/20 HP and 32/42 respectively. Still shocked at his power, Marcus seemed to jump a bit in excitement.

With the empowerment complete, Logan got to Harvesting the corpses. Gaining another 6 shoddy wolf fangs and 3 shoddy wolf pelts. During the time of skinning, Marcus used his skill again on himself, bringing him up to 14/20 HP. “The healing may be small, but it will help longer quests, his Heal spell is better for big restoration”, Logan calculated.

Gathering up the materials took around 15 minutes, Marcus was designated as the bag carrier since Logan was interested in increasing his Harvesting skill to aid in crafting later.

“It's strange having someone else do the gathering, I'm normally the one left to it as a caster”, Marcus said, noticing the work that Logan was doing.

“I know what you mean, it was my main job in my quest yesterday. You're good to just hold the bag and heal though.”

“With my new skill, and your ability to use a dagger, are you thinking about doing more hunting? We could easily bag a few more wolves like this.”

“We can't look too strong, I may have increased your abilities, but people will get curious if 2 casters were able to hunt so many wolves above their listed slots and spellforce. Like I said, I am trying to be a bit hidden in my skills, it could bring danger”, Logan instructed, wanting to make sure the Devout understood.

“Gotcha, that makes sense. I am only going to quest with you from now on anyway, so no one outside of our team will know I got so much better.”

“Good, stick with me and you can get even more power later.”

“For sure, boss, I'm not going anywhere.”

“Logan is fine, Marcus.”

“Got it, Logan.”

Finishing up the looting, Logan was relieved that none of the other wolves returned. Using Clean, he removed the scent from his party and loot. Looking at his confirmed five kills, Logan didn't want to tempt the waters any further with what he brought back. Though with two spells remaining, he didn't want to go back with so much power left.

“Marcus, do you know anything about bastarns?”

“Oh, the bat demon things? Yeah, I had to treat some injuries inflicted by them before. They mostly reside in caves, one is a half-hour to the north of here if I remember correctly”, Marcus informed, a curious look over his face.

“Want to go hunt a couple? I need their eyes for crafting, and would be easier to hide than big pelts.”

“Really? They are normally dangerous creatures, only rank 3 and above typically can hunt them. Their spells are rather dangerous to most adventurers too”, Marcus informed. Though this just made Logan all the more excited.

“I can deal with spellcasters, don't worry about that”, Logan replied with a grin.

“Well, alright. I have more healing I can produce now anyways, so we should be fine with 1 or 2.”

Settling up their next destination, the duo of Logan and Marcus headed out. First, they were able to use Stealth to avoid most confrontations within the forest, Marcus seemingly learning it by osmosis alongside Logan. They passed by a few more wolves, but Logan had other plans. A few other teams of adventurers were also spotted hunting the lupine creatures of the forest, though none were in danger like Marcus was previously.

Hitting the edge of the forest, Marcus pointed Logan in the right direction, the pair going northwards to the caves that held bastarn within them. The two budding adventurers talked about Logan's abilities, even if he didn't want to talk too deeply about them, a curious Marcus kept pushing, however. Logan still felt it best he hid his origins, as his skills could still be explained in-world, being from a different world had little in the way of explanation.

The 30-minute travel was unimpeded, combined with leaving the forest Marcus was able to fully heal himself at the advice of Logan, putting him at 20/20 HP and leaving Logan at 32/42. During the traversal, the two talked about Logan’s skills, the Spellthief reaffirming that he wanted no one to know about them. Logan spoke about his ability to look at stats similar to the Score spell as well as his ability to more easily learn skills, but he made no mention of Essence Absorption or his System.

Marcus had also informed Logan that the two skills he had asked for were an uncommon but not rare sight amongst Devouts. They were highly praised skills that allowed Devouts to join almost any mission as they were only constrained through time instead of spellforce. To his knowledge, the class tome that would grant such skills cost around 50 silver or more depending on where you bought them.

Arriving at a start to a cavern system, the duo landed outside a large hole cut within a mountain, old tracks for carts leading into the dark interiors.

“Light Ally”, Logan chanted, forming his sprite friend once again. Happy to be back to its master, the sprite followed orders gleefully, lighting up the cave ahead of the party. Marcus was only marginally impressed by the mick but still wondered about the breadth of his master's abilities.

With a light source to aid them, the team were able to inspect the cave in more detail. Dark-grey stone covered the walls, slivers of silver going across like veins in the rock. They could only guess that this cave used to be a silver mine before it was infested with monsters. Aside from the bastarn that the party was hunting, the cave was known to harbour many rocky foes from golems to elementals. Rumours also told that deeper in the caves lived kobolds that had turned the silver into arms and armour, a section Logan didn't want to get close to at all.

Logan was still floating a skill point, but without any real emergency, he had nowhere to spend it. Multi-Backstab was a solid pick if he couldn't find anything else that piqued his interest, but he did not need it right now. Keeping it for later, Logan would inspect his skill window further down the road for a better choice.

Sounds of laughter, flapping wings, and dripping water echoed throughout the cave as the pair made their way deeper. With the sprite of light leading them forwards, granting the party sight, they were also a beacon to any would-be enemies. It wasn't too long before the two stumbled across their first encounter, 2 beady yellow eyes glimmering in the light as teeth formed over the irises.

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