A shocked expression replaced the calm one of Marcus, though it was hard to see in the darkness of the cave. “6? You’ve barely been registered at the Tinte Hall for a week, that’s almost a rank a day!” his voice became a bit too loud for Logan’s ideal stalking approach to the depths.

Placing his hand over the Devout’s mouth, Logan replied, “Shh, yes I know. It’s one of the reasons Darius wanted to cut me up. I can progress much faster than non-oracles.”

Nodding his head as if to tell the Spellthief he would be quiet, Marcus’s mouth was uncovered. “Even still, that speed is staggering for a town out of the way, I can see why you’d want to hide such growth. It’d be more acceptable in the capital, where parties are a lot more common and quests are plenty”, Marcus continued.

“Another point to add to the growing list of reasons we’re going there. My reassessment in the capital will be my next rank cover, so don’t speak of it to anyone.”

“No wonder you can take hits like that over and over, the goblins I could shrug off as your armour protecting you, but those spells would go straight through it.”

“We can talk about this later when we’re not deep in a dangerous cavern system”, Logan concluded, looking back into the dark trail that was barely lit by his Light Ally.

“Got it, sure”, Marcus returned, showing a sign of giddiness about being close to someone much stronger than him.

“Hopefully his excitement will die down as we continue working together, someone is bound to notice his attitude”, Logan wished in his mind.

Heading deeper and deeper into the mines, the sporadic lines of silver became larger veins with some portions covering wide sections of the walls. If the two budding adventurers had the time and pickaxes to cut out some of the minerals they would be taking back quite a haul. Logan could have used this silver to make his trinket crafting a bit cheaper since some of his items had silver in their makeup.

Mining would have to be postponed, however, as a new sight came into view. The dark powers of the corridor became weaker as the Light Ally was able to return to its proper strength, though it was not needed. Logan and Marcus had arrived at a cliff’s edge, peering over a large chasmlike room, easily a hundred feet drop to the rocky floors below, the entire room lit up by the silver that now shone as if it was flowing lava.

Even without the means to see magical auras, the Spellthief could feel a heavy presence of magic in this dome room, along with a sense of dread. A quick wind blew atop the cliff, leading Logan to theorize there were more exits to the surface nearby. To their right the cliff had a sharp slope that led to the bottom of the chasm.

“That’s… quite the drop”, Marcus whispered.

Turning his head to his ally, Logan scanned over the chasm. “That it is. Not exactly the best place to flee from since the bastarns can fly and attack us as we make the climb back up.”

“I still have 6 more spells to use, want to challenge the depths?”

Logan paused for a moment, thinking over his options. “Well, we can see this room, even if it is a dim light, any enemies that are here are doing a good job at blending in.”

“Want to alert them?”

“Might be better to sound off and see what reacts”, Logan replied as he picked up a small rock that was nearby. Motioning to Marcus, the Spellthief prepared for an ambush. Tossing the rock over the edge it fell with a loud thud that was followed by quiet tumbles as the rock settled near the bottom.

A second passed, and then another, sweat beading down Logan’s brow as his anxiety started to rise. The Spellthief would praise all of his instincts that he held ready for a second longer, as that was all it took for the creatures to stir from their sleep. A murder of bastarns awoke with countless eyes lighting the dim chasm, all of the eyes darted upwards to the two adventurers.

In a torrent of wind and sharp wings, the bastarns all jumped from their positions, far too many to count. Some flew deeper into the caves, others through darkened holes in the walls, but the most interesting and daunting sight was that of 5 of the bats that collided with one another near the centre of the floor. Bitting into one their kin, melting their flesh, morphing into a singular entity the new creation exploded in a necrotic display of magical might.

Frozen in place, Logan’s reaction was now a common routine when seeing a foe, “Identify.”

“Bastarn Coven - Demon / Bat. Level 10: 50/50 HP, 12/12 MP. This dastardly devilish monstrosity is formed when several bastarns combine their demonic might into a single entity, usually when 5 of the creatures morph into one. With greater sight and magical prowess, the bastarn coven is a power far greater than any fledgling adventurer has any hope of defeating, gaining a strength close to a quarter of a full-blooded vampire.

A bastarn coven is a mass of brown and black fur with several eyes that dart around, chomping at the air to find sustenance. Its flesh melds into a form that now has two large limbs that end in claws, large wings flowing from the back of the arms. Standing at 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide the coven totes 8 wings on its back. Spell List:

1st: Lightning, Necromantic.

2nd: Blood Drain, Dimensional Jaunt, Lightning Cascade."

Faltering in his confidence Logan took a few steps back, making his Devout ally even more scared. “Shit, we need to-” Logan began but was cut off as the coven showed off its first spell. Phasing out as if it were a glitch, lines of air vacuuming into the centre of the now disappeared enemy, only to reappear a few feet from the face of Logan, a small shockwave buzzing noise was heard on both ends of the teleport.

Winding back a harsh claw, the coven slashed at the Spellthief, cutting across his face for 6 damage and then a further slash into his chest for 7. Logan snapped out of his shock as the pain brought his mind into the fight, jumping back quickly he waved at Marcus to back up.

“Marcus! Heal!” Logan commanded, forming his own hands into claws to retaliate. “Flame Grasp!” he yelled, his right hand exploding into flames as he dug it deep into the coven in front of him. Even though he was sure his attack connected the coven fizzled out of existence once more, the flames exploding into the thin air, only for the coven to appear behind Logan.

Twisting his head around, Logan came face to eye with the demon behind him but was met with a large claw colliding and wrapping around his head. With a strong crush, Logan’s head was enveloped in leathery demise as he was brought up from the floor and smashed into a nearby wall, the sharp edges cutting into his back.

“WARNING, Critical hit sustained, you have received 21 damage, current HP: 20/68”, a blaring red window appeared over the bloodied vision of Logan whose thoughts were a cacophony of “fuck” and “shit” at the situation.

“Orb of all I call to thee, Pondress heal your children. Heal Shot”, Marcus enspelled as he just barely hit Logan with a healing orb as it recovered 14 HP to his ally.

Two of the eyes of the coven wiggled around to view the Devout who had just cast a spell, Marcus’s face dropped into a frightful expression as he knew he was next. Throwing Logan to the side, dealing him another 4 damage, the coven started to spark with lightning energy, blue strokes of power dancing across the large mass of bat flesh. Raising up an arm the lightning surged to its claw as it exploded outwards to Marcus.

“No!” Logan shouted, jumping upwards as he saw the magic start to spark. Dashing forwards, Logan twisted his arm to meet the lightning stream. “Spell Absorb!” he thought, hoping to stop the spell in its tracks. Logan immediately knew this was different from Lightning, it felt stronger and was splitting off into countless directions as the energy surged through his arm.

“Spell Absorption successful. Lightning Cascade charge stored”, a window popped up just as Logan felt the power subsiding in his arm. He would have sighed in relief if it wasn’t for the coven following up its attack with another sparking of lighting all across its body. Rolling from his jump, Logan stood back up to absorb yet another spell, “Spell Absorb.”

He wasn’t as lucky this time, 2nd level spells only having a 50% chance of successfully being absorbed. The spell erupted through Logan’s arm as it dug in deep, blood gushing out from the wounds dealing him 27 damage. The spell hadn’t ended there, however, the lightning wrapping around the Spellthief’s body as it jumped from one victim to another, stabbing and crashing against Marcus for 14 damage.

Blood drenched the floors, lit up against the dying sparks of lightning and that of the Light Ally. Logan had been dragged down to 8/68 HP with Marcus falling to 20/34. There was a silver lining in this dark cloud, however, as Logan saw his Spell Absorption had increased in its tier but didn’t have the time to look more in-depth.

Wanting to turn the tide quickly, Logan darted forward with his clawed hand out at the coven. “Necromantic Grasp!” he shouted, digging the explosion of shadowy tendrils and enlarged claw into one of the eyes of the bastarn coven. The text, “Backstab”, appeared as Logan easily hit a vital point. Adding its own blood to the pools on the floor, the coven had received a painful 24 damage, which flowed into Logan as a blessing from above bringing him back to 32/68 HP.

Tearing his arm out of the now-closed eye of the coven, Logan jumped back, calling out for more healing and looking over the status of his foe. The bastarn coven was down to 26/50 HP and 4/12 MP. With a quickly draining pool of magic, on both ends, the fight would be close, Marcus healing Logan for another 12 HP with Heal as the coven recovered its stance from the previous assault.

Readying for another frontal assault, Logan darted forwards as Marcus healed himself for 14 HP with Heal, bringing the Devout to 34/34 HP and 3/7 MP. Swinging his quickly-drawn dagger at the coven, Logan was caught off-guard once again as the enemy phased out once more, appearing behind Logan with a destructive black and red force enveloping the claw of the coven.

Driving its limb deep into the back of Logan, the dark energies jumped, danced, and then invaded the being of Logan. He could feel his whole life being taken away in that instant, all warmth leaving his body as he was dealt 20 damage from a spell he assumed to be Blood Drain. Not wanting to come out of the attack without some input, Logan threw both his hands behind him, grabbing tightly onto the coven’s arm.

“Die! Lighting Cascade Gr-” he shouted, casting the charge he had gained earlier. He tried to apply an alteration though it seemed this spell didn’t require one. From his stomach lightning exploded out of Logan’s form as it covered him entirely, quickly darting through his arms into the coven at his rear. As if it were a roaring beast, the lightning ravished the foe with stabbing wounds and shock burns.

Pushed back by the force of the spell, the coven and Logan squared off once more, the Spellthief noticing his newly stolen spell had dealt 20 damage to his foe. “That’s low”, he thought, though he did not know the full extent of its capabilities. With the previous Blood Drain, the coven’s HP still remained at 26/50 though its MP was now completely dry.

Kicking off with his left foot, Logan went into a leaping knee attack within another eye of the coven, making a note to not use his Backstab, which was reserved for his next dagger thrust that came down into yet another eye. Dealing 4 and 14 damage respectively, Logan noticed the sharp decrease in speed of his foe, though was still caught off-guard by another grab at his waist.

Tossed into the ceiling Logan was penetrated by several stalactites, in total, he took a staggering 16 damage. Landing on the rocky floor below face first, Logan felt another wash of healing powers over his body from Marcus, recovering 13 HP. With his eyes coated in blood, Logan rose his head to see a crimson vision of the situation. The coven was at 8/50 HP, Logan was down to 21/68.

In a similar sight to that of Logan, the coven’s eyes were bruised, bleeding, and burnt. Whipping its form around to stare bloodied daggers at the Devout, the coven let out several demonic roars from its gaping eye-maws. With a solid flapping of its 8 wings, it rushed down Marcus. “Fuck off! Force!” Logan yelled, a welling of magic might exploding in his shoulder and thrusting through his arm like a jet burst.

A sharp whistling noise radiated through the corridor as the blast of black and grey lined orb of power hit into the back of the coven, causing it to surge forward even faster and completely clearing the space above Marcus’s head. Crushing into the ceiling and eventually landing in three solid thuds on the floor, the coven rolled to a still shape in the darkness. Making a fist in his outstretched hand, Logan punched the floor to stand back up, adrenaline coursing through his entire body, but it became a warm feeling of stillness as he saw his victory ahead.

Breathing in and out a storm of air, Logan’s body began to shiver all over as his energy faded and the fear of his previous situation flooded in its place. Marcus rushed to his ally’s side, placing a calming hand on Logan’s shoulder. “Healer’s Caress”, he chanted, healing the Spellthief for 3 HP, bringing him back up to 24/68. The first charge had just come off its cooldown, but the second was still ticking away.

“Logan! Are you alright?”

Logan let out a cough, his insides playing havoc after the Lightning Cascade and being treated like a dog toy. “Yeah. Well, actually no. That fucker hit like nobody’s business.”

“What even the below was that creature?”

“I scanned it, it was a bastarn coven.”

“Oh Pondress, I heard of those, monsters that once haunted Tinte but were quelled a few decades back.”

“Well, still a few kicking. It seems the bastarns can form into them”, Logan replied, standing up with the aid of Marcus.

“Oh, right, harvest its heart. It supposedly is very expensive.”

Logan gave a look to Marcus as if to say “Really? Give me a minute”, Marcus clearly understood it and helped Logan to sit against the rocky wall. Resting for a while, Logan checked over his party’s status. Logan was sitting on 24/68 HP, Marcus was at 34/34. Logan had 1 Flame left in the day, Marcus with 2/7 MP. Finally, the reward for their fight, Logan had reached 17,610 / 21,000 XP with Marcus at 3,380 / 6,000 as he had gained 100 XP from the coven.

Doing his normal routine of using Clean over his body and gear, Logan’s vision had returned to a normal colour. With a clear vision, he could now see a window was to the right of his head, obviously out of his view during the combat.

“You have gained the ‘Coven Cleanser’ title.”

“Coven Cleanser: As the first soul to have killed a bastarn coven near Tinte in over 50 years, your expertise in hunting these foul demons is widely sought after. Civilized folk covet your knowledge, whereas demons are warier of your presence in their domains. When dealing with creatures of the demon type you deal 5% more damage (minimum +1) and gain 5% damage resistance. You have gained 1 skill point to distribute.”

It had been quite some time since Logan had gained a skill point, so he was quite joyous at the occasion. “Great! Now, where to spend it? There’s still that Dagger Toss skill but I’ve seen so many others in my skill window. An extra Backstab would also be nice”, Logan pondered on his choice as he glanced over the skills he had placed a stamp on, another feature he found when delving into his System.

Landing on a skill that had appeared in his window just recently, Logan looked over to the corpse of his fallen foe and nodded in recognition of the option. “Unlock Dastardly Backstabs.”

The skill had shown itself after Logan hit level 6, revealing that some skills had hidden requirements before showing themselves, this particular skill was a branch off of his original Backstab skill which previously only had Multi-Backstab as a branch. “Enemies don’t seem to take prolonged effects from my Backstabs, even if it is into kidneys or eyes, this should help with that. Maybe it’s due to their statuses?”

Waving a hand in front of Logan’s face, Marcus snapped the Spellthief out of his concentration, “Hey, Logan, you good there?”

“Yes, just concentrating on a new skill I am unlocking for myself.”

“Like you did for me? Fantastic!”

“You might not see it in use anytime soon though, it’s more of a background thing, nothing flashy.”

“A skill is a skill, the more we have the better chances we have”, Marcus nodded sagely, as if giving wisdom to someone far wiser than himself.

“I guess you’re right. Now, let’s look to those components, keep an eye out.”

“Got it. Those other bastarns don’t seem to have returned, I wonder where they went”, Marcus replied, looking intently to the opening at the end of the corridor that led to the chasm.

“Who knows. I’ll be quick though, don’t fancy the idea of seeing them again”, Logan returned, moving over to the bastarn coven corpse. Cutting at the eyes and mass of flesh, it took two minutes of work which rewarded him with 2 shoddy bastarn eyes, 1 common eye, and a high-quality bastarn coven heart. “Identify.”

“Bastarn Coven Heart: The dread heart of a bastarn coven, highly prized for its demonic magic properties. This component can be crafted into items or used within rituals to summon up demons for their power. Even when taken from a corpse, this heart can continue to beat and live for one year until its life finally fades. 1x high-quality.”

“Quite the prize, and at high-quality, it can sell for 12 silver and 5 copper. Though for something like this, I would probably want to craft with it”, Logan concluded, happy with his reward. Looking through his history tab, Logan had an even bigger smile as he looked upon his progression.

“Those are some big jumps in success rates, I can even attempt 4th level spells though I don’t like the look of that 10%. I can also store 3 charges, that’ll help in these group fights.”

Whispering over to Marcus, the two regrouped. “I don’t like the look of our resources, and this path may contain more covens, let alone that uncountable number of bastarns. I say we head back, rest up outside and spend the rest of our time hunting wolves”, Logan explained.

With a nod, Marcus replied, “Sounds good to me, I don’t hold our chances against another of those demons any higher than my belt.”

Checking over their gear, picking up any dislodged components or items, the two made the slow trek back through the cavern. Just like their previous adventures here, the enemies did not form back up in the hallways, possibly moving about at night rather than the day as the monsters could tell by the sun shafts coming in through sporadic holes.

Breaching the entrance to the cave the two weary adventurers had reached sunlight once again, the heat rays beating down on their battered bodies. Logan let out a large sigh, taking in a large gulp of fresh air, whereas Marcus stretched out wide as he was no longer confined to corridors.

“Another day, another near-death experience. I guess we have to take the easy with the hard”, Logan noted.

“Can’t always have it easy, though the wolves with be a couple of leaps back down the long staircase of difficulty.”

“No doubt, a lot less damage to handle.”

Marcus started to place his bags at the base of a tree, bringing out a box of food and his waterskin. “Looks like we’re close to noon, maybe an hour or so away from it.”

“Lunchtime it is.”

“Lunch?”

“Sorry, old magi saying, midday meal it is.”

Handing off food, water, cleaning services, and friendly chatter, the two adventurers had a long rest after a close call in the mines. Logan had achieved his goal of progressing Spell Absorption, so all was good. Marcus used Healer’s Caress 12 more times during their hour rest, bringing Logan back to 60/68 HP. Checking over his ally, Logan was saddened to see that Marcus seemingly missed out on the title, he surmised it might have been due to the fact that Logan had dealt all the damage to the foe.

As the sun hit its midpoint in the sky, the partners stood up, readied their gear, and set off to hunt wolves to end their training for the day.

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