Looking over Qreil, Logan was certain the Sleep spell was working as intended. At his current level, the spell would last for 90 minutes though it could end early if Qreil took a singular hit of 10 damage or was to be drenched in cold water. On the off chance he would waken before Logan was to come back for him, the Spellthief took the bandit’s axe, shield, and trinkets.

Tying him with some rope, Logan carried the mark back to the bunks to hide him away. With a timer in his status windows, Logan would be alerted when the spell was going to run out. Counting himself lucky to have taken down the leader ahead of the rest of the gang, Logan was raring to remove the rest from the underground. With twenty dealt with there was an estimated ten remaining.

Returning to the ladder room, Logan had two more hallways to investigate. The ping of two Backstabs becoming available meant he was ready to knock more bandits out. After using his charge of Flame, a Lightning was still kicking about from Spell Absorption, and using a Wall alteration could come in handy if there was a group of level 2s.

Following the hallway that the bandits hadn’t come from revealed it to be a winding corridor that was seemingly going downwards. Logan could only fathom why it was cut in such a way, though the slivers of copper in the wall could have alluded to some good ore mining. The sound of creaking wood, grunting humans, and slamming of heavy containers ahead clued Logan in on the location.

Echo Radar painted the upcoming room to be quite large, even more than the two previous rooms combined. A storage house of crates, barrels, and piles of rocks. Sliding across the wall as if he were playing an old stealth game, Logan slowly moved his head to the edge to look around the corner. His caution was rewarded as he saw what was ahead.

A giant storage room, possibly a combination of several raids, from food that would last the bandits for months if they didn’t go off, to mountains of gear that needed to be sorted. Moving the ill-gotten goods were a total of eleven bandits, ranging from level 1 to 3, a mix of Knights, Fighters, and Rogues. One more than reported, though with the loot they had gained it wasn’t going to be hard to persuade others into their gang.

It could get bad with the ranged capabilities of the bandits, alongside ganging up on a single Spellthief allowing them to possibly grapple and pin Logan. The containers stacked high meant that ranged combat would be difficult for Logan, the crates stacked up to fifteen feet high and scraping the ceiling. He would have to approach this differently, and the idea of his stealthy approach sparked a lightbulb in his head.

Proceeding onwards, Logan crept to a tall stack of crates, with another nearby that was precariously stacked. Leaning around the edges, Logan made sure no one was watching, then gave a swift jumping kick to the shoddy stack. Darting off to the far right wall Logan was out of sight by the time the highest crate had come tumbling down, the crashing of wood and clanking of metal across the floors alerted the entire room.

“The fucks going on over there?” one voice shouted.

“Alright, speak up, who fucked up that stack?” another added.

“I’m not cleaning it up”, a lower-pitch voice declared.

The arguing of voices amongst crates filled the room with violence, which Logan was going to add his own flavour of. Using Echo Radar allowed him to utilize his mini-map to find separated bandits with good cover. The first one he found was facing in the direction of the noise, his own yell having just finished for another to fill the air. Stepping up, Logan kicked at the leg of the bandit, gave a solid normal stab into the man’s back, and placed his hand over the bandit’s face, “Essence Absorb”, he commanded in his head.

As he had thought, due to the combative nature of this room, Logan was not going to be rewarded experience until it was cleared or he was out of danger, which didn’t worry him too much. The vortex motion of the body completed and Logan quickly threw the gear into his inventory. The noise of his skill and the falling of equipment might have alerted someone to his presence, but combined with the yelling and movement of other items it was drowned out.

Striking a Backstab into another Bandit, Logan absorbed her out of sight. Grappling a man to the floor followed by a double jab and absorption, an unsuspecting man was gone. Throwing a rock at a crate allowed Logan to surprise another woman with a double jab into her spine and following absorption.

With each foe he defeated the room became quieter, the ruckus of the entrance dying down as the four members tidied the mess up. Thankfully the metallic contents continued to make clunky noises. Grabbing the back of another’s head, drawing them back, and giving a solid strike to the chest led to the defeat of the fifth bandit, leaving only six.

Logan was alerted to two more Backstabs becoming available, which he swiftly used on the remaining two deserted bandits, absorbing them without much resistance as a Backstab slash with the Spellthief’s edge dealt a hearty 20 to 24 damage which could take down most level 2 foes unless they were Knights, in which case he would follow up with another strike.

His plan was going smoothly, but with the final bandit away from the entrance falling, the others started to notice the silence. Standing up, one of the bandits raised his hand at the others to stop.

“Hey, did it just get real quiet?” he asked in a low-pitch worried voice.

“Fuckers! You better not be taking breaks!” another man shouted without turning his head.

“No, he’s right. They’d be talking if they weren’t working”, a woman added firmly as they also stood up.

“A llac ot smra si tahw?” a male Rogue shouted. A few seconds passed before his face became serious, “Fuck, something’s happened”, he followed up as he drew his blades.

“Fuck you mean? You know I don’t speak that thief speech”, the first man blared out as he looked at his combat-ready ally.

“Reunissa would not fail to answer that phrase, now draw your fucking weapons”, the Rogue insisted.

“Whatever, if it is trouble who the hell could get in here anyway?” the woman spoke as she drew her scimitar.

“Think it’s earth elementals?” the second man asked.

Their conversation continued, hushed by the Rogue, as they started to move into the crate maze. Logan was only too aware of their locations with the use of Echo Radar, though he couldn’t keep using it as he had to make a sound to utilize the skill. With the silence of an interior, however, his Stealth would have to be at its best to avoid detection in the lulls of conversation.

Circling the gang, Logan got to their backs and proceeded to hug the edge of his wall of crates. Their heads darted from left to right as they looked down the pseudo hallways constructed by crates, their agitation becoming fully realised as none of their allies were to be seen. Darting outwards, Logan alerted the Knight at the back as his Stealth failed him only as he stopped it.

Throwing his hand forwards across the floor he shouted, “Lightning Wall”, to which the floor sparked several times before large columns of blue arcs shot upwards, almost reaching the ceiling.

“Shit!” many of the bandits exclaimed in response, three of them getting caught in the torrent of electricity.

Jumping forwards, Logan gave a swift kick at the Knight and then a solid punch into a Fighter, sending them out of the wall of magic to the floor unconscious. The remaining Fighter and Rogue had moved out of the way of the spell and started to charge down the ambushing Spellthief.

Clashing his dagger with the sword of the Fighter created sparks of their own in the air, as well as combining a slam of metal with the crackling of the lightning next to them. Followed by a whoosh of air and the repeated stamping of feet, the Rogue used their Dash skill to circumvent the two and get to Logan’s back, stabbing the Spellthief deep into his spine.

Kicking backwards, Logan hit the Rogue’s arm and staggered him. Throwing out his hand towards his rear foe Logan chanted, “Necromantic Shot”, his arm being covered in black tendrils and fluid. Shooting out were several black tentacles as they stabbed into the Rogue, absorbing his lifeforce and transferring it to Logan.

The Rogue went pale as his frame shrunk and fell to the floor unconscious. The healing from the spell offset the damage dealt from the Backstab, the Fighter growing furious at the sight of his fallen ally. Bringing up a shining blade that followed a cry of “Power Strike”, it was brought down to Logan.

Jumping backwards allowed him to dodge the blow and return it with a Force mick to the face and another to the leg, knocking the Fighter to the floor as well as knocking him out. With the final foe defeated, the experience numbers started to pop up, Logan felt relieved he came out of the conflict not much worse than he had entered.

“Level up! Gain: 8 HP, +1 Str, +1 Agi, +1 Con, +1 Int. You have 1 attribute point to spend. Several class skills have become available.”

The levelling window had become a normal occurrence to Logan at this point, the gamelike progression he was gaining was almost the norm for a man who was much more used to spreadsheets. However, the mention of skills piqued Logan’s curiosity and excitement. Asking the System to find the new additions led to the opening of several windows showing the different skills.

“Summon Mastery: Increase the level cap of creatures from summoning spells.

Summon Horde: Increase the limit of how many creatures can be active at a time from summoning spells.

Charge Transfer: Allows the transference of spell charges from Spell Absorption to MP.

MP Thievery: Give up Backstab damage to instead drain MP from a target.

Status Disturbance: Grants the ability to disrupt a beneficial spell on a target.

Stealth Attack: Increase Backstab damage if targets are unaware and out of combat.”

The number of options now available to Logan skyrocketed in comparison to the bookmarks he had already set up. Six skills stood out to him, but plenty more had branched off of his other skills that granted new styles of using the skills or added some additional benefit to their use.

Looking over the advertisement text, Logan’s mind went wild at thinking of the possibilities behind each one. He was wary that some were worse than they sounded, Summon Mastery might increase the level cap anywhere from one to ten, changing its viability immensely depending on how much it actually went up. Though the mention of a level cap did warn Logan that his second-level spell would eventually lose its lustre if Celsius was capped.

Now wasn't the time for planning though, Logan still had a job to do and there was potential for more enemies to be laying in wait at the final hallway. Absorbing the remaining bodies, though one had died, Logan tallied up the XP he gained from absorption at 82, 73, 62, 56, 54, 52, 42, 32, 22, and 12.

The number of enemies over level 1 certainly helped to bring him into the new realm of power, alongside the ability to absorb their unconscious bodies for 2% of their accrued experience. Since this was the second of two abilities that the Spellthief had that was unique, was it that much easier for him to stay hidden as an oracle? Many of the ones written about in the history books seemingly announced their powers or were found out eventually, but theirs were more flashy and commonly used.

Trying to dig the questions deep in his head, Logan returned to the ladder room, using Clean on his gear as to not stink up the area with blood and burning.

Traversing the final hall led Logan into a modest room behind another oak door, though there were no more signs of hostiles around. Investigating the room further revealed it to be the leader’s war room, large maps with notes of trading routes and common quest areas alongside documentation of times to attack. Qreil had done his homework, and it seemed like he indeed had spies working in Gauntlet. One book had the same code as the spy that Logan apprehended earlier.

The information at hand was worrying, if the gang had been allowed to work much longer they would have proved to be an even worse threat. An attack plan on a magical tradesman was set for the following week, and with a slew of trinkets at their disposal, the gang would have put up much more of a fight. Looking over their current goods, the bandits wouldn’t see much trouble with a guard patrol or small attack force even with their lower levels.

On the other hand, Logan was curious as to why this kind of mission wasn’t picked up by adventurers more often. Thirty targets, plenty of loot after what was returned, hell even if the horses were given as a bonus that would set up plenty of adventurers for longer journeys. A good few high-rank Knights could take this place easily, with some Fighters or Rogues to deal with the mages in the back.

Sighing at the state of affairs, Logan was confident that he had taken down the bandit gang. His stealthy approach allowed him to do it faster than he had anticipated, with barely a scratch or two on him after it was all said and done. Returning to Qreil with a few documents in hand, Logan stripped the leader of his armour now that the Spellthief had the time and safety to do so.

Carting the body to the exit was easy enough with the rope and pulley systems, simply dumping the body into a box and pulling on a rope at the top a few times brought him right up. Setting a cart with two of the stolen horses was easy, Logan placing two full inventory loads alongside the captive over a few back-and-forth motions. He didn’t want to take everything, as there was far too much for a single ride, leaving the rest for a guard squad.

The travel back to Gauntlet was a bit longer than his travel to the bandit cavern, as the horse-driven cart was slowing down his traversal. Logan had tied the horse he used to get to the cave to the cart and it was following behind as Logan steered the two horses at the front of the cart.

It wasn’t long before Qreil awoke in the back, squashed between several crates with tied limbs. Biting down on the rope that was in his mouth, the bandit could only let out grunts and muffled yells.

“Calm down, Qreil, not long till you’ll be comfy in a jail cell”, Logan spoke back tauntingly.

Muffled growls and taunts were all that could be given in response, complemented by a beaming red face. It was obvious that Qreil was trying to activate some of his skills, but it would seem all of his required verbal commands, so flashes of colour were all he could muster.

“If you don’t keep quiet I’ll put you to sleep again”, Logan warned.

A bashing of a knee into a crate followed by a yelping moan put Qreil into a more passive state. Pleading eyes were being shot at the back of Logan’s head, but he wasn’t about to turn around and give the bandit leader the time of day, or night as it was turning.

The rubbing of rope on wood shards and the grating of teeth on his gag didn’t lead Qreil any closer to escape as the large city walls came into his view. A final desperate escape attempt saw the guards up ahead raise their spears and call over at Logan who looked quite strange in this situation.

“Halt, state your busi-” the guard started but was cut off as he noticed the moonlight glint off Logan’s armband lettering, “Oh… Hunter business?” he finished in a more defeated manner.

“Yes, caught a bandit leader. Mind accompanying me to the guardhouse?” Logan responded calmly.

The two guards looked at one another, the left woman nodding at the right man who moved over and clambered onto the passenger’s side. Confirming the contract, the pair continued on into the city, the guard keeping an eye on a restless Qreil who was almost out of his crate prison, though with tied limbs he wasn’t going to get far.

Finding their way to the Gerro Guardhouse, the guard pulled the cart up to the side of the building while Logan brought Qreil into the interior. The doors opened up to the young face of Jivvy, who had become a common sight for Logan at this point. A man in his late teens, possibly seventeen, who was the grandson of Jirango’s older cousin. Short black hair hidden in the night with shimmering blue eyes welcomed Logan into the guardhouse.

“Hello, Logan. Coming in with a prize I see”, Jivvy spoke as he opened up his ledger.

Throwing Qreil to the floor Logan stood up and stretched his limbs, “Only the best for you, Jivvy. This will be Qreil, I brought back some of his gang’s gear but their base had a bit more than I could bring back on my own.”

“Amazing work, did you kill the whole gang by yourself?”

“Yeah, plenty were only rank 1 so a Force mick was enough to bring down a good portion. My spells did the rest”, Logan half lied.

“Well, you’re good for it I am sure. No truth test needed”, Jivvy accepted with a shocked yet happy expression. “I will have to process this leader and the goods, we’ll send a night shift over to their base if you can give us a good estimate of its location. Due to the amount of gear, as you claim, it may take some time to grant an appropriate bonus.”

“That’s fine, I will come check tomorrow evening for that. Do you need anything else before I head off?”

“No, that should be it all, plus your standard pay and signet update.”

Logan scribbled down some notes on a piece of parchment while Jivvy counted out coins into two pouches. Alongside the documents, Logan handed over his side while he took his reward of 90 silver, 30 more than advertised due to bringing Qreil in alive. With the handover complete, Logan rode his horse back to the inn to get some well-deserved rest.

Yetveka was ever watchful as her shift was coming to an end, gazing up to the opening door she waved at Logan. Confirming the horse stabling, Yetveka also mentioned that Marcus was already in their shared room. The Devout was apparently worn out from a day of training and so hadn’t come down since.

Making his own way to the room, Logan saw his ally sprawled out on his bed in a deep sleep. Gear was on the floor beside him as well as a towel on a nearby table, showing that Marcus had soaked before his slumber. Letting his ally get the rest he needed, Logan spent a few moments looking over his skills before also retiring for the night.

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