Devos glanced back at the straggling group of three adventurers behind him. Snorting at their apprehensive expressions, he looked forward again. I’m getting real tired of escorting new bait around.. They just had to go into the Fields.. Ugh...

Shifting a strap of his heavy pack, Devos double checked his crossbow. After ensuring he was ready to fire at a moment's notice, he barked over his shoulder, “We’re getting close to the edge of the hunted zone. Best be on the lookout,” Devos grinned as he watched the lizardfolk brothers get ready. One drew his sword as the other tightened his grip on his staff. The third member of the fledgling party, the human checked her knives.

Devos watched as she checked each and everyone. Noticing her questioning stare he spoke, “Ah, I just love watching Rogue’s check their weapons. They always have more than you thought possible!” Chuckling, he didn’t watch her reaction and simply turned back forward. With barely any attention, Devos activated one of his skills.

As the mist they were within started to grow thicker, the three behind him drew closer. The mist began to wrap around them, his skill making the terrain help hide them and appear as though they belonged. Trying to ignore the feeling of being a tour guide, Devos grinned. No matter how much he complained about it, he still loved being out in the wilds.

They began to move forward faster and stealthier. The skills Devos brought with him as a ranger-type were invaluable when moving across the wildlands. Even the three bumbling along behind him were having trouble messing up with his skill’s aid. After an hour's travel, Devos reluctantly had to admit to himself that at least the rogue in the group was somewhat decent. He quickly reinforced his pro-ranger prejudice by reminding himself that the lizardfolk brothers were loud enough for all three of the group though.

Devos estimated three hours had passed with him quickly identifying skeletons at a distance and directing the group to take care of it themselves. New adventurers were often escorted into the Mist Fields, the skeletons within proving to be somewhat easy to defeat for their levels. Despite the ease with which new adventurers could defeat the skeletons, the groups still needed higher leveled guides like Devos.

The Wight-Spires and roaming Skeleton Knights were dangerous enough to require it. More than that, the groups looking for easy experience needed guides to help them evade the occasional Skeletal Lord and more than anything, the territory of the Lich. It had moved into the Fields before even Devos had been born, but hadn’t actually done anything. As such, everyone had pretty much agreed to just leave it the hell alone.

They hadn’t run into any of those larger dangers however, so Devos was starting to grow rather bored. Trying to keep himself from dozing off, he took to examining the ground with an overabundance of attention. That was how he noticed them.

Calling a halt to their movement, Devos crept forward to examine them. “Hm.. tracks. But not skeletal or boots...” Looking up and around at the mists, “Who the hell walks through here barefoot?” With no answer forthcoming from the mist, he made his way back to the adventurers he was with.

“Alright you three, we’ve stumbled across something I want to follow.” He noted the instant apprehension of the two brothers. The rogue was simply scanning their surroundings, something Devos heartily approved of.

The warrior Devos was pretty sure was named Raruk spoke in his species customary rasping tone, “What is it? A Skeleton Knight?” Devos wasn’t sure whether or not his brother Verus was reassured or not by his responding chuckle.

“No, no. Someone is walking around in here barefoot, and I simply have to know why.” Alissina, he was pretty sure that was her name, he hadn’t really been paying attention earlier, looked over in askance. She had a mask over her face, but he could still see her eyebrow lift.

“Barefoot?”

“Yup, barefoot. Too big for skeletal tracks, and too small for boots. You know, unless there’s a dwarf or gnome running around with awfully big feet!” He chuckled, looking down at his own boots. He couldn’t even imagine what another dwarf would look like with feet that big. Chuckling again at the ridiculous image, he turned back forward. “Any skele’s we come across I’ll point out still, I’m just curious!”

“Alright then, you’re the guide,” Verus rasped out, his hand twitching around his staff.

Devos shrugged, “Indeed I am! On we go!” Forging forward, he began to trail behind the tracks, which were oddly enough, leading back the way they came. The group had taken out another two skeletons by the time they came across it.

The four of them looked down at the already dead skeleton. Devos ignored the occasional glance the other three were sending his way, instead examining the fallen undead. It had been cut cleanly through the spine, in what looked like a single stroke. Contrary to popular belief, bone was a rather hardy substance, and the necromancy keeping them up only made them tougher...

That it had been cut clean through was... somewhat worrying. Even more worrying, was the scorch marks radiating out from the cut. It was.. Too focused for fire magic. While powerful, fire had a nasty tendency towards large effects. After a few minutes wracking his brain, he decided the most similar thing he’d seen was one of the light mages he’d seen a few decades ago.

Their magic wasn’t this potent, not at low levels at least. Devos ground his teeth as he considered running into a high leveled light mage capable of severing a spine and scorching bone. As powerful as Devos fancied himself, he knew that his level seventy-nine wasn’t actually that high. He hadn’t even gotten his evolution at one hundred yet. He’d lag quite far behind anyone who had.

Looking up from the bones, he paused before speaking, “Alright.. We’re gonna keep following, but be extremely careful. And if we stumble on anyone in here, be cautious. I don’t want you getting blasted to death by what looks to be a light mage..” The three nodded, their eyes darting around. After a few more minutes of rest, they continued on, following the tracks.

Checking behind himself more often, Devos continued to lead them. Every skill that could help them was activated, Devos didn’t want to take any chances. An hour passed, the group simply followed the tracks as they led out of the hunting zones and back the way they had come. Another hour was almost past when Alissina lightly tapped Devos’ shoulder and pointed forward and to the left.

Having been checking the right at that moment, he followed where she was pointing. Seeing the same thing now, he nodded sharply before making one of the few signs he’d ensured they would all know. The one for silence.

Off to the left, was a faint orangish glow, directly along the path of the foot prints. After making sure the group had understood the signal, they began to make their way in that direction. Moving nigh silently, the group heard their quarry before they saw it. Foot steps, not masked or trying to be quiet in the least sounded through the mists. Devos gritted his teeth, only a someone with a high level would be so bold in these mists…

Slowly making their way closer until they could get a sight on the individual, Devos thanked himself again for choosing to be a ranger. One of his favorite parts of that choice in the Mist Fields, was that it allowed him to see farther than others. As such, they wouldn’t need to get within their quarry’s vision to be able to see them.

A few careful minutes of following after as quietly as they could, and Devos could finally make them out. It was a human man… But that was all Devos recognized about him. His clothes were ripped, dirty, and worn out. But underneath that, he could make out that they were made exceptionally well.

What surprised Devos more than anything, was the sword the man held. It was glowing. And not in the sense that some paladin’s have glowing holy swords, no. It didn’t appear to be metal at all, as though it were entirely made of light! Devos stared at it for a moment, watching how effortlessly the man was carrying it.

When he had finally gotten Identify to level ten and evolved the skill, he had instantly gone for the evolution to identify from farther distances. Using that to his advantage now, Devos activated it.

Mage - Level 20

Devos’ eyebrows drew together as his mouth turned into a frown. He ignored the questioning look from Raruk next to him, thinking furiously. How would.. Just level twenty? No.. No.. it has to be some kind of disguise skill… That’s right. He has to have some way to hide his real level..

He waited for a moment, allowing the strange man to walk a decent way farther. Once he thought he would be safely out of earshot, Devos turned to the others. “Alright, it’s a human man. Definitely something to do with light, he had a sword made out of it.”

Verus frowned, “What level?”

He hesitated a moment, “It said only level twenty, but I suspect some kind of disguise skill. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense how that skeleton back there died…”

For the first time in hours, Alissina spoke, “He might just have a rare class. That could give him the power needed,” she jerked her head in the direction of the still visible slight glow.

Devos tilted his head as he considered. After a minute, he shook his head, “Better to play it safe. Assume he’s at least level one hundred. He didn’t seem to notice us, but he is a mage. So we’ll keep following, but be careful.” For a moment, Verus looked as though he wanted to argue, but eventually nodded in assent.

Bad thing is, I genuinely can’t tell if it’s a disguised high level mage, or a stupidly powerful low level one..

Shaking his head to clear his mind of the unhelpful thoughts, Devos took the lead once more. The group was well familiar with letting Devos’ enhanced visibility find the way for them, so the three adventurers stayed close and kept an eye on the surroundings more than they tried to track the strange figure.

Though, it wasn’t exactly hard to follow him. Given he was holding a brightly glowing sword, he could be seen for quite a distance away in the mists. In fact, Devos was rather curious how they hadn’t run across more skeletons than they had, given how much that beacon should have attracted them…

No matter how much that bothered him though, Devos focused on following the mage without being seen. Stealth failed due to you being distracted far more often than it did because someone saw you anyways.

Twenty very tense minutes of following later, Devos could tell that the trio behind him were growing more and more restless. While the two brothers would keep glancing towards the orangish glow and looking at each other, Alissina was merely checking her weapons more often. Devos tried to ignore it, hoping that they wouldn’t do anything stupid.

Just as he thought that, he noticed the same thing the man they were following did. A looming Wight-Spire appearing in front of them. Devos blanched at the sight, and at the way the man seemed to change course to head towards it.

Quickly turning back, he began quietly, but frantically gesturing to the three adventurers to turn back. As negative as his thoughts usually ran in regards to the trio, he thanked his gods that they were at least semi-competent. They turned back and started moving hurriedly without too much urging, though he could tell they already wanted an explanation.

He was about to stop them when he heard it. A massive, outward blast of wind heading in their direction. Looking back, he could see the wave of mist as it was blasted towards them.

“What the hell is happening?” Raruk hissed at him, the effect magnified by his physiology.

Devos spoke back simply, “Wight-Spire.” He felt a short wave of satisfaction at the wave of fear that crossed all three of their faces. Then the anxiety returned, as he looked back in the direction the wind had come from. The mist had been blown back far enough that he could easily see into the clearing the wind had created.

Wights were a well known, and well feared, threat. While rarely higher leveled that fifty, they were known to be far more dangerous than their level indicated. A mixture of cold and shadow magic, made what would be an ordinary enemy into a deadly one. Even Devos at level seventy-nine was wary of them.

Their cold magic would slow and inhibit your reactions and speed. It functioned like a curse, and only healing or targeted anti-curse magics could counter the effect. The shadow magic it wielded would cause intense fear and only worsened the inhibition of your speed. After it’s magic slowed you, an already fast enemy would become blindingly quick. The Wight being able to dodge strikes while landing it’s own.

All of that together was why Devos watched the Wight emerge from the spire with more than just disquiet. Even just moments after it started emerging, Devos could already see the slowing effect taking hold on the mage. His movements slowed, and he turned towards the Wight too slowly to do anything before it had fully formed.

There was a short pause in which the man said something both too low to hear clearly, and which was incomprehensible to Devos. The next moment, Devos held in a hiss as the Wight charged forward and the mage only barely deflected it’s first strike. Even that surprised him, given he’d seen Wight’s outspeed even opponents known for reacting quickly.

The next moment, the undead had raked it’s claws across the mage's thigh, ripping through the flesh. Devos’ eyes narrowed as he saw bright light, identical to that of the mages’ sword begin shining in the wound. A moment later, his eyes widened in understanding instead.

Healing. The wound was quickly closing, and more importantly, the mages movements had sped back up to normal again. The Wight’s next charge, the man threw himself to the side and managed to land a hard hit on the undead.

When Devos saw the sword get ripped from the man’s hand, he despaired for his survival. The next moment, he watched in shock as the sword dissolved and a new one reformed in the mage’s hand. A summonable weapon?! He has to be a hidden high level then!

The next minute and a half, Devos watched with held breath as the Wight tried again and again to land hits on the mage, and the man simply fended off the strikes. All the while, Devos hardly noticed the other three had crept up next to him and were watching with mouths open and wide eyes.

Despite his low identifiable level, the man was fighting a creature that was known to be highly dangerous. And while he didn’t seem to be winning, he certainly wasn’t losing.

Alissina drew a breath in sharply as she realized what was happening. She whispered almost to herself, “His wounds are all closing… He’s buying time…”

When her words registered in his mind, Devos looked over the man more closely again. Just as he did, the mage dodged to the side and raked his blade along the Wight’s side. Devos sucked in a breath as he then slammed his balde down on the Wight’s forearm.

Raruk and Verus both winced when the Wight raked it’s claw across the man’s side, rending the flesh. But they gasped a moment later when they realized he’d used the time to shove the sword forward and through the Wight’s head.

Devos watched in disbelief as the Wight dissolved around the blade, losing form and dying to the mage. It was only when he identified the man again that he gasped though.

Mage - Level 31

“Holy hells!” Devos exclaimed as quietly as he could. The trio looked at him for answers, as he continued to stare at the now kneeling mage. “He.. His level increased.. It’s not a disguise skill, he actually WAS level twenty..”

Raruk’s head snapped back to stare at the man kneeling on the ground. “He killed a Wight at level twenty?!”

“A rare class then… Maybe even an exotic one…” Alissina murmured. Devos could do nothing but nod in agreement. Through the shock, Devos frowned.

“I don’t understand… Even with his powerful class, that was still a difficult fight.. Why would he risk it..?” Raruk and Verus shrugged, not seeming to care much. Alissina joined Devos in frowning.

“Does.. Does he look like someone who knows what just happened?” Devos muttered, gesturing forward. The even more ragged looking man was slowly sitting up, speaking in that strange language Devos hadn’t even heard before. Glancing forward, it was clear to see that he looked and was acting… excited, but also confused...

Devos hardly knew why he did what he did next, but he’d learned to trust his instincts. Stepping forward and slightly out of the mists, Devos shouted in common, “Hey! Unsummon the sword, and stay still!”