“Ok, so it seems I can readily use my second-level spells after levelling up, no resting needed. It’d probably be best to sort out what I will be using now to have ample slots in the morning”, Logan explained to Marcus at the crackling campfire.

“That is a fine situation to find ourselves within. What second-level spells do you know?” Marcus inquired as he moved away debris to make a suitable area for testing at their small campsite a couple of hundred feet from the dirt road.

“Dimensional Jaunt, Sleep, Summon _ Elemental, and Zombify. Though I haven’t looked much into the spells beside Sleep, give me a second.”

Pulling up his spell list, Logan began to peruse his new selection of spells.

“I don’t like the sound of Zombify, are corpses sacred in this world? The spell doesn’t exactly allude to it being evil at all, it’s even referred to as summoning. Dimensional Jaunt would help quite a bit at gaining some distance on Gauntlet, 8 miles per cast would get us 24 miles closer if I had undisturbed sight”, Logan pondered in his head.

Explaining the spells to his Devout ally, Marcus was able to inform Logan that necromancy didn’t have much of a stigma aside from forcing it onto family crypts and the like. It would look weird if he would Zombify an adventurer, however, as people would assume he had killed them. As for the elementals, Marcus didn’t have much information on that subject.

With the night free to him, Logan prepared 1 casting of Dimensional Jaunt, Sleep, and Summon _ Elemental each. Aided by the moonlight, Logan looked to the other side of the road, a good 500 feet or so away, and chanted “Dimensional Jaunt” aloud. With the final word of his spell, his body started to vibrate all over, an intense crushing sensation washing over the Spellthief.

As if being sucked into a vacuum, Logan warped from his current spot and appeared at his target, a quick burst of wind and a short shockwave-like sound as he left then landed on the grass ahead.

“That’s, exhilarating. I’ll have to get used to that if I want to use it in combat. That bastarn coven used it quite a bit but had a delay between appearing and attacking.”

Returning to the camp, Logan saw that Marcus was hiding his wide grin at seeing the teleportation in action. The next spell on the list would take much longer to prepare though, as there was additional information at hand for creating his first elemental. It took around 10 minutes to clean a 5-foot circle in the floor, etch some arcane runes within an oval design into the dirt with a stick, and fill the runes with some of Logan’s blood which flowed from a new cut in his hand. Cutting his hand seemed to get harder as his levels rose, his skin hardening to demonstrate his HP increasing most likely.

Sitting crosslegged, Logan focused on the form of his new summon, choosing to make a Flame elemental to start, hoping it would aid in the colder seasons and possibly be useful if he ever had to deal with the “icy bastards” to the north-east if it came to that. Chanting a long drawn out spell, Logan had returned to his old roleplaying ways as the windows he read instructed him to do so. All the while, Logan was thinking of an apt name for his future ally.

The hour was long, mostly full of fantastical chanting, infusing both “spellforce” alongside Logan’s own control. With the power at hand, the winds started to draw into the arcane circle he had formed. Leaves rustled over the floor as small embers started to form.

“Elements of Avanar, I call forth your strength. Lend me a denizen of your hold and I shall grant them a true will. Created in my arcane image, infused with my magic, I summon thee. Summon Flame Elemental, Celsius!”

At the end of his chant, Logan thrust his hand to the floor as more arcane symbols danced across the floor to the circle he had made. The embers started to roar louder and larger, exploding into bigger tufts of fire, rolling and twisting together they rushed to make a much bigger creature. Ending at around 4’ tall, the elemental was complete, a mash of pure red flames combined with orange magma patches, two wide yellow eyes flew open.

A gravelly and wave-like voice emanated from an opened maw that revealed a dark orange inner, “That which gives me life, I am born in your guise. Humbly I shall serve, till my last speck is snuffed out”, it spoke as if reciting lines from a page, completing the spell incantations.

A ripple of flames washed over the elemental, seemingly completing the creation process. After the ripple ended, the flame elemental looked around its immediate vicinity, seemingly taking on its new personality. A slightly higher-pitched voice came from its mouth, displaying its younger status, “Master, thank you for summoning me, where are we headed?”

“Nowhere just yet, I was just making sure I had you prepared”, Logan replied, looking over his new creation.

The flame elemental was immediately added to the party of Logan and Marcus, its status showing instantly to its master.

“Celsius - Flame Elemental. Level 1. STR 10, AGI 8, CON 10, INT 8, WIS 5, CHA 5: 4/4 HP, 1/1 MP. A creature formed fully of living flames and hot magma, showing an intelligence vastly beyond that of common animals. While their body consists entirely of fiery substances they can stop themselves from setting everything alight, instead only heating surfaces to the point it would burn those who touch them. Skills: Fiery Body, Damage Reduction 1.

Spell List:

1st: Flame.”

“Ok, master, give me the order when you need me to burn something. I can’t do much right now, but I’ll do what I can”, Celsius continued.

“Actually, an idea comes to mind, could you cast Flame at me?”

“I can do so, master, but I do not wish to harm you… Wait, you mean to absorb it? A fine idea! Ready yourself”, the elemental replied, a lightbulb of yellow fire forming above its head as the intention clicked within whatever it could call a brain.

Stepping back slightly Logan held up his hand in preparation for the blast from his fiery ally. Just like the previous creatures he had encountered, Celsius was able to fling spells without incantations whatsoever, a bright flash of red flowing from its stomach to its dripping arm, forming a petite ball of fire that eventually shot itself towards the Spellthief. Logan was able to easily catch the fire baseball, it being much smaller than others he had faced alongside the fact they set up to do so. “Spell Absorb”, Logan commanded in his mind.

As the fires dug into his hand they began to swirl much quicker than they did on approach, becoming sucked into the vortex of his palm with an accompanying update window.

“Spell Absorption successful. Flame charge stored. Allied spell detected, no mastery rewarded.”

“Seems like I can’t grind up my skill with this, nor my spell tiers, but being able to stock up on magic from my summons should help with my spells per day”, Logan calculated in his head.

“An awesome display, master, when I get stronger I hope I will be of further use. That is the last of my spells for the day.”

“Feel free to call me Logan, Celsius.”

“Can do. I was hoping the formalities could be dropped.”

As the two conversed, Marcus was looking on in awe, a glint in his eye both from excitement as well as the flames reflecting in his vision.

“Our party continues to grow, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with for sure”, Marcus added.

“Nice to meet you, how should I address you?” the small elemental asked, its neck cranked back to look up to the Devout.

“Marcus is fine, Celsius, was it?”

“The name given to me by my creator yes, a good one to boot. I do not know what it means, but it certainly sounds as hot as me”, Celsius replied with a grin to its orange mouth.

Logan thought to himself over the choice of naming, realising that Avanar probably used a different measurement for heat than what he did back on Earth. At least if any other oracles would hear the name they could approach him to ask.

The three continued their discussion, Celsius revealing that they could also slam with its body when it ran out of MP, though it did not know how its progression worked just yet. From what Logan read in his books and system windows, it seemed that elementals were sexless as they were formed out of matter and had no way to reproduce, but since Celsius had a deeper voice, and seemed more masculine than feminine, it was decided amongst elemental and master that it would be easier to refer to him as a male. It fit better, as the personality of Logan imprinted on his summons, meaning they had his tendencies.

Moving the cuff of his coat away from his wrist, Logan began to infuse a portion of Celsius’s lifeforce to his bracelet, assigning him as the elemental for the clasp of the summoner. It would take a day to complete and hopefully would continue during their rest. With nothing left to do at night, the trio made up some new battle formations as well as styles, though Celsius was more of a backup ally due to their incredibly low HP.

After the hour had passed, Celsius began to wilt and disintegrate into cinders and then eventually puffs of smoke. The timer would not be a problem the next day as Logan would prepare two casts of it to fully assign his new summon to his trinket. With a final spell to test, Logan and Marcus headed to their individual small tents. Wanting to test out another theory, Logan placed his hand in front of his face and chanted aloud, “Sleep Grasp.”

Countless sleep spores poured from his palm into his nose, mouth, and ears, forcing the Spellthief into a deep slumber, and just like the previous time he was accosted with a Sleep spell he returned to the land of dreams.

Dress shoes echoed their footsteps across tiled floors, the squeaking of polished leather on polished ceramic filled Logan’s ears, drowning out the elderly voice of the doctor to his side. Wearing his graduation gown, Logan recalled this moment in his life as just after his previous dream. A bright light shone over a bed, the white covers reflecting it harshly back into the teary vision of a recently graduated man. The cold, shivering, embrace of his hand gripping onto another, dimming eyes hardly visible through blurred watery eyes.

A few words permeated the haze of Logan’s mind, “not long”, “nothing we can do”, “blood”, coalescing into the situation he dreaded being within. Looking upwards from the woman in the bed, Logan could see his father, scrapes across his face alongside stains of red wiped away from his nose and chipped mouth.

An incessant beeping in his ear was all that could keep his hope alive, each note on the machine a sign that his mother could still hear him, see his face, acknowledge that her son had succeeded in life. “Don’t let it stop”, he thought to himself. The cold hand in his became weaker, the grip loosening. Logan could feel the dream coming to a close, the world filling with a hazy dismissal as all sound diluted away into nothing. Rushing back to his awake state, the last sound Logan could make out was a single, disastrous, held tone.

Darting to an upright position, Logan woke up in his tent, his sweaty face hitting the canvas of his sleeping abode. It took all of his resolve to not shout to the above, emotions bubbling over in his stomach. Beset with anger, sadness, and a weird mix of happiness at his memories, Logan got up from his bedroll to leave his tent.

Since they were in dangerous locales at night, the pair slept in their gear so Logan didn’t need to put his boots back on. The nighttime hooting of owls, buzzing of insects, and distant howls of nocturnal hunters filled the forest. A minute dew on the plants filled the campsite with a mix of their campfire smells and nature.

“Why’d it have to be me? I’m not a soldier, hardly fought in my life at all. What purpose did they have in bringing me here? My dad is all alone back home, I can’t even let him know what’s happening. This bloody situation is driving me insane!” Logan recited, keeping his voice low but still letting it all out.

Fighting with his emotions that were no longer restrained, Logan cursed at his predicament, ending it off with several punches into a nearby tree trunk, shattering the bark and leaving deep indents. Visions of the people he had killed to this point flooded his mind, his change from desk worker to killer was a heated topic for his psyche. He begged for more of his conscience to be at war with his decisions, yet he continued to feel justified in his choices.

The pacing, punching, and perturbed thoughts eventually wore Logan out, leaving him to return to his tent and settle in for the rest of the night. At least his experimentation bore fruit in that he was correct in thinking that the Sleep spell would allow him dreams, or memories, during his rest. He was unsure if he would ask for this fate again, as both times brought him to parts of his past that truly disturbed him.

Awakening to the same alerting voice of the System, Logan still felt the grogginess all over his body. Rubbing his eyes he felt the pain of waking up during the night, planning to not do it again any time soon. Using Clean, checking their gear and inventory, Logan prepared his spells for the day. 3 Flame, 2 Gaia, 2 Summon _ Elemental, and 1 Dimensional Jaunt.

Starting the day off with spellcasting, Logan brought back his ally, “Summon Flame Elemental, Celsius”, to which his spritely ally of 4’ flames reappeared, stretching their would-be limbs alongside a wide-open mouth for a yawn. Using both of his prepared casts, Logan set the summon to last for the rest of the day, an additional window appearing as he did so.

“Would you like to assign two automatic slots for this spell?” the window asked, with a few options at hand.

Going through the window, and asking the System, Logan was able to set up a single 2nd level spell slot and the clasp for the spell. It took some tinkering but he was able to have his status accept the eventual linking of his summon to the clasp.

“Wanting the long-time-aid, Logan? I will make sure to meet your standards, even if I come up short”, Celsius spoke, emphasizing the “short” part with a wave of his hand over his head.

Marcus returned a grin at the pun, Logan focusing more on the next part of their early morning. Grabbing the shoulder of his Devout ally and the head of Celsius, Logan tried his best to get an uninterrupted line of sight down the road, using Identification as well as his map, he gauged it to be a good 2-mile distance before the road bent too far causing a break in his view.

“Dimensional Jaunt”, he chanted. The trio felt a heavy vibration over their bodies as they were vacuumed into their centres, a shockwave boom of wind sucking inwards with them and exploded outwards as they appeared two miles down the road.

“Exhilarating! Again!” Celsius beamed.

Marcus wasn’t as happy, holding his stomach after arriving on the dirt road, thankfully his constitution allowed him to hold it in.

“I’m glad it works, I can only teleport with you two in tow so far. It’s a shame I can’t see further down the road to teleport farther. That was about two miles, of a possible eight.”

“Still… it’s good… I’ll have to get used to it though”, Marcus added, breathing in a bit heavier than usual.

“I’m down for another, Logan!” Celsius continued.

“Sadly that’s all I have for today, tomorrow will be better as you will have attuned to my clasp.”

Celsius returned a sad face but seemed to understand the lack of spell slots.

“Walking’s good”, Marcus replied with thankfulness in his voice.

Reconciling to continue the eighth day of traversal by foot, the trio filled the day with conversation. Talking with the elemental, it seemed their knowledge was constrained to what they had engaged with, instead of coming from any sort of plane or other existence it was indeed reaching one-day-old. Celsius could slam his body into his opponents but would prefer to attack from afar with Flame if Logan did not make use of his spells. It seemed like the young elemental only knew of the Shot alteration, and would either gain more with his own progression or through reading.

With damage reduction, Celsius could do well on his own against lower-level foes, if Logan wanted his new ally to grind on his own. For now, Celsius would just be an experience sponge in any forthcoming battles to get him ready for proper conflict.

The eighth day would not be a day of conflict, however, there was at least one event of note during their travel, a caravan that contained within it two carriages driven by four horses in total. The caravan was not of traveller or villager descent though, as Logan was able to clearly see that all the people were adventurers.

Ranging from lower levels of 8 through 14, there were many that Logan could not Identify as their levels far exceeded his. Not wanting to draw attention to themselves, the trio moved to the side of the dirt road to give ample room to the wide caravan. Each of the adventurers had well-crafted arms and armour, from full plate suits to thick hide garbs, many weapons even shone with a magical light or sparkled with tiny red sprites.

Logan was able to pick up some of the adventurers’ conversations, figuring out that they were another band hired to deal with the goblin threat that was forming to the south. Estimates put the goblin forces at around 500 strong, with a smattering of hobgoblins among the forming army. Some gossip was also picked up, revealing the highest rank within the adventurer band was 17, a Sorcerer who could use level 3 spells, and whose task was to take down the hobgoblins quickly with fire magic.

“Seems like we left just at the right time, a half-thousand army of goblinoids does not sound like fruitful adventuring”, Marcus remarked as Logan relayed the information.

“But think of all the loot!” Celsius chimed in, showing the greedy side of Logan’s psyche.

“More trouble than it’s worth I wager. With so many adventurers getting a hand in, the pay will be low unless they plan on having many die on the battlefield”, Logan replied.

The caravan at their backs, the trio continued onwards, thankful they didn’t have to deal with such a force. Seeing such high levels, or at least hearing about them, did bring more questions to Logan surrounding the maximum level or at least the highest seen within the capital.

A peaceful rest brought the Spellthief, Devout, and fire elemental into the ninth day of travel. Logan had a window appear to note that Celsius had been attuned to his clasp of the summoner, alongside one of his 2nd level slots being preassigned to his summon. With no more testing needed for his spells, he prepared 3 casts of Flame, 2 of Gaia, and 2 of Dimensional Jaunt. Celsius had stayed around during the night, the spell slot required for him being greyed out in Logan’s status.

With only two days left in their journey, Logan had hoped for a quick arrival with the aid of his new teleportation magics, using both charges to hasten their trip by a good 5 miles in total. Without a good spyglass, or possibly binoculars, Logan couldn’t squeeze any more distance out of Dimensional Jaunt. Due to the medieval period of Avanar Logan’s hopes for those types of items was very low.

A few hours into their ninth day’s walk, a new window appeared in front of Logan, one that shocked him over all previous ones. It was a new quest, titled “Kill Dena Mor”, with quite the disturbing failure punishment.

“Bobcu dies.”

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