Beads of sweat rolled down Logan’s forehead, the daunting challenge ahead instilled a heavy sense of fear within him. Out of everything the quest could have required of him, this was an almost non-choice for the Spellthief, forcing his hand to kill one person to save another. Checking over the window closely, Logan made sure to not miss any part of it.

“Did whoever send this quest to me orchestrate its occurrence? Would Bobcu have been fine if I had never come to Avanar? I can’t sit around regardless, I have to stop that from happening”, Logan fought in his mind.

Commanding that parts of this window be assessed, Logan found that names and terms were linked to new windows, thinking on Bobcu brought up his information in Logan’s journal, with reminders that Bobcu owned the library back in Tinte. Along with searching the quest for information, Logan was able to select it as his active quest as he had done previously for quests at the adventures’ hall in Tinte. While active, the quest directed Logan to where Dena was located, and she was close, barely a mile to the northeast.

“Marcus, Celsius, we’re going to be taking a detour. Something… has popped up”, Logan announced, feeling a kinship with Celsius at the minor pun, or was it just a joke.

“Where’s this come from? I didn’t hear anything”, Marcus responded.

“Another skill, someone dangerous is near and we need to… deal with them.”

“Some action! Let me at them”, Celsius added.

“I’ll assess the situation when we are closer, and make a battle plan then, but you may have to sit this one out, Celsius.”

The fire elemental gave a deflated look, though he understood the dangers he would face as a level 1 creature. Marcus quickly accepted the situation, having total faith in Logan’s skills as an oracle. With everything explained, the trio started to Stealth into the woods to the northeast, Logan clicking his fingers continuously to activate Echo Radar.

It wasn’t long before the party were able to spot their opponents, thankfully their sneaky approach had not failed them this time. Logan identified the group, six bandits in total ranging in level from 3 to 6, a mix of Fighters and Rogues, the leader Dena sitting at level 10. “Shit, why did there have to be so many and one so high level? I gotta play this smart.”

Looking into the information provided by Identification, Logan was able to see a small rap sheet for each individual, all of them involved in murder and burglary. Dena herself had a reported 20 murders to her name, earning her a wanted poster in larger settlements. Logan couldn’t help but wonder how, in a world of adventurers, that bandits could travel so easily, let alone kill so many people before they got apprehended.

The gang looked as if they were making a small camp, gathering up supplies and sorting out loot from another heist of sorts. Dena was towards the middle of the small camp, fiddling with a weird lock-tumbler device.

It was too risky to go charging in, nor would the trees offer too much advantage due to the entire crew having crossbows on their backs. The trio was too far back to hear anything, and Logan was never a good lip-reader. Moving a bit back, he began to give his instructions.

“Ok, there are 6 bandits in total, range of rank 3 to 6. Dena is a rank 10 Rogue, she’ll be trouble. They are a group of killers, we need to take them down before they reach Tinte, it’ll be weakened with everyone dealing with the goblins.”

Marcus began to interrupt, but Logan reaffirmed that his skill informed him of the opposing groups’ deeds.

“I’ll see how many I can pick off, they have to separate at some point to relieve themselves, or maybe hunt for game. It looks like they’re having a day off from travelling or something. Celsius, shoot me a Flame.”

As commanded, the fire elemental gave up its single MP to Logan with an absorbed Flame. Logan instructed his allies to stay far back, both of them being far worse at Stealth than the Spellthief. With the preparations all ready, Logan stalked forwards, exiting the party temporarily. He found that using the party system allowed him to circumvent the XP sharing and deductions placed by Marcus and Celsius, even if the spell itself said he would take a penalty for having a summon. It would have been a pointless reduction, as his allies would not gain any experience while they stayed passive.

Logan’s heart was racing, his clothes getting soaked in sweat as his mind went over each outcome of an encounter with this sizeable gang. He had taken care of the bandits at the previous inn relatively well, but then he was able to surprise and split up the enemies within an indoor setting. The level 5 and 6s gave the most worry, with Dena being a mammoth of power over Logan, remembering back to his trial against the bastarn coven.

Almost turning into a man of faith, Logan felt himself praising the above deities when he saw Dena shout towards two of the weaker gang members, throwing her arm to the western forests. “Firewood? Game? What are you doing?” Logan could not fathom why they were splitting up, but he would take the opportunity.

Sneaking after the two weaker members, the level 3 Rogue and level 4 Fighter, Logan was sure he could assault the Rogue from behind before he could let out a word. Getting closer to them, and further from the main camp, Logan was able to hear their conversation.

“Shoulda gone ta the shops like I said. No hunting rabbits needed if we had simply freed up some meat bars”, the Rogue spoke with a harshness to his tone.

“Shut it, Dena’s the smart one. We can’t raise suspicions before a big take. In-n-out, not in-in-in and then out. You want even more hunters on our asses to Tinte?” the Fighter responded with a higher-pitch but more authoritative voice.

“Who cares for books anyways. Ya really think that device-”

“Oh shut up!” the Fighter shouted with elongated words.

“Take better be worth it”, the Rogue spoke under his breath.

Moving further apart, it certainly seemed like the Rogue’s job was getting the rabbits whereas the Fighter was on wood duty, taking an axe from his belt and chopping at fallen logs. Waiting until they were a good distance apart, Logan trailed the Rogue.

“Put Backstab on hiatus until I say otherwise”, Logan commanded his System, as he saw his ability had a red cancel sign appear over it. He wanted to keep the skill in reserve if a fight occurred, meaning he could deal with it before any reinforcements were alerted.

Mere feet away from the Rogue, Logan drew his dagger and a large piece of cloth he tore from an old tunic in his inventory in the other hand. The Rogue drew his crossbow as he eyed a rabbit in the distance, and as he loosed the projectile Logan forced the cloth over the Rogue’s face, shoving it into his mouth.

Muffling out a cry, the Rogue felt the repeated shoddy shanks into his back, all down his spine and into his sides. Logan felt the meaty interior grip onto his blade as he drove it deep, retrieving it alongside blood and intestines. The Rogue could do nothing except grapple at Logan’s head with a twisted arm, the three stabs penetrating the man until his resistance became futile.

Logan could see the man’s 34 health drop rapidly, 16, 15, 18 damage were dealt, the last stab having the man’s body convulse uncontrollably as his life was ripped from him. Logan pulled on his left arm, throwing the body to the floor beside him. Breathing heavily, Logan’s only response was a wispy “Fucker” exclamation.

Logan didn’t want to bother with the experience right now, quickly kneeling to the corpse he used Essence Absorption on it to remove any trace of him, along with putting all of the left-behind gear into his inventory.

“Absorption of foe complete. Calculating reward…”

“Target is dead, nothing absorbed.”

Not wanting to waste time, Logan backtracked to the Fighter that was gathering wood. Thankfully, it seemed he was tasked with collecting a large supply, still working by the time Logan found him again. Utilizing Stealth was becoming second nature at this point, though now more suited to taking down humanoids rather than lupines. Another stroke of luck had hit Logan, the woodcutter had his axe embedded in a log to hold it, currently organising the wood into a small pile.

Using the same tactic, Logan quickly kicked at the back of the Fighter’s knee to bring him down slightly, covered the foe’s face with a cloth and filled his mouth with fabric. Then came the blade, over and over again, digging deep into the Fighter as if Logan was feverishly searching for ore in rock. Dashes of red-gold poured from the wounds, accompanied by giblet-minerals.

A maximum health of 54 was chipped away, 16, 18, 19, 18 damage were dealt, the Fighter giving up a better fight against Logan’s assassination but failing to halt the excavation of his inners. Shivers and jolts signed the end of the man, as Logan could only think of the enemy’s crimes listed in his information. “No more killing for you”, he reconciled in his head.

Placing his hand on the corpse he absorbed it once more.

“Absorption of foe complete. Calculating reward…”

“Target is dead, nothing absorbed.”

With two of the six combatants dealt with, the gang was becoming a much easier prospect in the Spellthief’s mind. Though with a level 5, two 6s, and a level 10 meant that the strongest remained. If he could remove one more threat, Logan surmised he could deal with the remainders if it came to a fight with his spells being able to take down a level 6 with a Backstab Flame Grasp, as he had been able to against the bandit at the inn. He wanted to save his magic for Dena however.

Returning to the camp of the bandits, Logan gave it a detailed Identification to make sure he could formulate the best plan of attack. He could easily assassinate the level 5 if she were to split off, the level 6s could prove difficult as they were both fighters with 84 and 88 HP.

“Hey! Celpa, Tuff! We haven’t got all day!” Dena shouted out, obviously trying to spur on her corpse-allies.

“If you want them to hurry, send someone else!” Logan demanded in his head.

Sadly, his mind commands did not reach the Rogue, instead he had to bide his time hiding amongst the bushes and tree trunks. Minutes passed, which felt as if they were almost hours in this situation.

“Nute, check on them. They can fuck at night, not when we got things to do”, Dena commanded her ally, the level 5 Rogue known as Nute.

Nute stood from her own tent, picking up another wood axe from a nearby crate and a sack from a pile of bags. She gave an affirmative wave to the leader Dena before heading in the direction of the now-empty western section.

Logan’s persistence paid off, tailing the next-of-kin on his killer sheet. His mind was a mess of reconciliations, having accepted that if he didn’t kill these bandits, then they would continue to do so. As Nute arrived at what she assumed to be the location of her allies she wasn’t surprised to see anything, as to her it looked like just another part of the forest. Logan had absorbed the corpses, the gear and wood were in his inventory, no trace was left.

Nute began to wonder, darting her eyes around. “Hey! You lovers getting in a quickie before we leave?” she called out.

Reusing his tactic on this Rogue proved to be more difficult, as her own instincts and perception were higher than her late-allies. A cloth covered her face but not before she could grab a hold of Logan’s arm, stopping it from fully muzzling her, fragmented words exited her mouth as her other hand went for her own knife.

Logan began to carve into the woman’s back and sides, though he was not left without a parting souvenir. Nute swiped her blade and stabbed it behind her into Logan’s side, dealing a hearty 7 and 8 damage. Logan was able to chunk away from the Rogue’s 60 health, 15, 15, 17, 19 damage were dealt, the wounds catching up with the Rogue who collapsed from the pain but not dying instantly like the last.

Grabbing onto the limp body of Nute, Logan used his Essence Absorption skill again, though this time it gave him some more benefit.

“Absorption of foe complete. Calculating reward…”

“270 absorbed experience, target has no spells to absorb.”

“Three for three, can higher levels detect me easier? Hopefully not, or those other two will notice me before I can do this to them”, Logan thought to himself.

While Logan had dealt with half of the gang, it certainly was not half the strength. With proper tactics and spell usage, he was sure he could win, but it’d still be a hard fight. Returning to the camp yet again, the Spellthief saw it hadn’t been disturbed since his last visit, another waiting segment began.

A good 8 minutes or so passed before the camp grew restless, the two Fighters approaching Dena.

“Hey, Dena? You sure this part of the forest is safe? The others haven’t come back yet”, the taller lady spoke, not exactly with worry for her allies but for herself.

“Don’t like the idea of just us three hitting up Tinte, think we should look for the others?” the male Figher spoke, standing at the same height as Dena.

“No noise, no wildlife. If they hit trouble they’d probably gone looking for it. Either that or we got deserters on our hands. That fucking Celpa didn’t believe in the kaevock to begin with”, Dena replied tersely.

The three bandits continued to talk, Logan begging them to split up just one last time. He could see the timer on his absorbed Flame ticking down as it had barely 10 minutes remaining. He wanted all the firepower he could get for the conflict with Dena, but if it meant retreating for a day he wasn’t sure the band would be so easily dealt with after noticing half their number gone.

Trailing the band would be difficult through the forest too, or if they met up with the dirt road, even then Logan didn’t want to backtrack too much away from Gauntlet. He still had the drop on them, but now they were alert to at least something being amiss.

“Hey, Nute’s pack is still here. She wouldn’t leave without that, got all her money and that in there”, the female Fighter noted.

“You’re right, looks like they only took tools with 'em.”

Not wanting to be anywhere near the search party, Logan began to stalk the perimeter of the camp. It had been a while since he caught up with his allies and he didn’t want them to worry or mess up any plan of attack. With his high Agility, sneak shoes, and tier of mastery in Stealth, Logan was able to sneak around without too much issue at the distance he was keeping.

As he made it further away, Logan gave a final look at the gang to make sure they weren’t going in his direction. It seemed the gang had made a decision, gathering up their gear for a searching trip. One of the more worrying sights was that of Dena holding up a small bell, twisting it side to side let out a wide-reaching high-pitch dinging noise, to which Logan surmised was the Rogue making use of Echo Radar.

Speeding up his retreat, dashing from tree to tree to hide from the radar, Logan hurried back to his allies who greeted him with raised flames and crossbow. They quickly lowered their guard as they saw the figure to be Logan.

“Been almost an hour! Was it a perilous infiltration?” Celsius pried.

“They split up, had to follow them in deeper. I was able to kill three of them, though it was the weaker members. It seems they know something is up now. There are two Fighters of rank 6 and Dena left. Celsius I am going to need you to cause a distraction for me, can you set anything you want on fire?”

“I can do if it’s flammable, wood and cloth are easiest. Want me to make some smoke?”

“They are going to be searching for their dead allies, I need you to set two fires, one in their camp and another further north, see if we can split them up further”, Logan instructed. “He isn’t helping to defeat Dena, so this shouldn’t invalidate the third objective”, he surmised in his head.

At the command, Marcus used Healer’s Caress three times to bring Logan up to 83/86 HP. Due to losing the Flame from Celsius, Logan absorbed two volleys of Gaia from Marcus to grant him an edge in the possible upcoming fight. Since Marcus utilized MP, he could spend it on any spells he knew as he liked, acting as another spell battery for the Spellthief. Aside from the healing and assistance of spells, Marcus was instructed to get a bit closer and to be prepared to throw out a multitude of healing if needed.

With a new plan, the trio moved back to the gang’s camp that was now deserted, with the use of Tracking Logan could easily see they had moved west. Climbing a nearby tree to gain a perch Logan watched as Celsius began to ignite a few parts of the camp, Marcus staying further back in the treeline to the south. It wasn’t long before smoke started to rise from the camp, leading Celsius to move northwards to start another further away.

“The fuck? Who forgot to put out the campfire?” Dena shouted as the gang returned in a rush.

Issuing orders to her underlings, the Fighters dropped their weapons and shields in favour of waterskins and dirt to quell the flames. However, as they went to put out the fires, Dena noticed another fire to the north.

“We’ve got a hunter! Deal with this, don’t let the shit burn. I’ll go get them”, she continued to order.

Instead of a normal run, Logan saw Dena kneel down to a sprinting stance, mutter something, and have her body become a mirage of afterimages. Darting northwards Logan saw her body cut through the wind, possibly a higher variant of the Dash skill that he saw back in Tinte.

Logan didn’t have long to deal with the Fighters, he had no faith in his Stealth working against Dena so thought it best to take down what he was closest to. Sliding from his tree, Logan approached the female Fighter from behind, kicked behind her knee and proceeded to repeat his previous assassination.

Having the lower HP of the two at 84 meant she would be easier, but not easy. Muffled calls were followed by slices at Logan’s leg and side with a shortsword, striking him for 15, 14, and 16. He returned the attacks with double the number, 15, 19, 15, 17, 16, 17 damage were dealt, Logan dropping the corpse quickly as he felt it succumb to the blows.

Being so close to an ally, Logan’s fear of failing to do this silently were met with the male noticing his action towards its end. Fumbling around for their gear on the floor.

“The below are you? Whoever you are, you messed with the wrong crew!”

Not wanting to lose any time or advantage, Logan rushed towards his next foe, his left hand outstretched he commanded, “Force”, at his foe, a welling of arcane magic forming in his shoulder and barreling down his limb, through the air as a ball of greyish magic, and impacting the Fighter in the chest for 14 damage.

As he recoiled in a curse, the Fighter’s astonished stance was again barraged with a double slice into the punch wound, Spellthief’s edge digging deep for a follow-up of 16 and 18 damage.

Returning the pain, the Fighter raised his sword up and shouted, “Power Strike!”, his sword lighting up with a bright red mist. A heavy blow came down onto Logan, cutting deep into his shoulder for a worrisome 36 damage, taking the Spellthief down to 2/86 HP.

Yelling out in pain, Logan grappled onto the main’s side as he let out his own command, “Gaia Grasp!”, causing roots and dirt to dash across his limb to then dig deep into the Fighter. Rock exploded from the contact point, while roots and vines constricted the man’s form. A hearty 47 damage was dealt to the Fighter whose mind was clouded in pain and exhaustion, falling back with the cracking off of mud and dirt from Logan’s palm.

Without much time to think, Logan darted to the south to gain the aid of Marcus before Dena could make her return. Looking back to make sure he wasn’t being followed he saw the experience numbers appear above the corpses as well as another worrying change to his status with a warning window, Celsius had just been killed.

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