Travelling back to Gauntlet brought no further pain to add to the exhaustion the party were already feeling, nor the anger that welled up in Logan once again. It had been an incredibly successful hunt, even if the beginning of it was coated in the surprising teleportation of Gaemo’s previous one.

All’s well that ends well, as Gaemo and Evén knew with the power held by the bandit leader, Oretessu, that they would not have stood a chance against the man with only those two. Sincollo’s display also revealed the transformation to Logan, cluing him into the power held within the saeber species.

Logan and Marcus both gained plenty of trinkets to upgrade their old ones, improving their general survivability and bolstering their pockets when they got back to the capital city of Gauntlet.

During their rest and day’s travel back to the capital, the group were greeted by the hazy curses of the bandits who awoke from their inherent healing, but were quickly knocked back out again to make sure no troubles would arise from a handful of tied hands. Just like Logan had experienced before, knocking a captive or weakened foe back unconscious did not reward further experience.

The glow of Logan’s quest window beamed at him with the stark reminder of his failure, alongside his shot of returning home and escaping the hardships catapulted in his direction. With his ability to help others though, was it right for him to be rid of it for his own gain? His power was quickly growing and within months he could help this world even more as an oracle.

A mix of selfishness and pettiness stirred within him, he owed nothing to the deities who kidnapped him, if he was set to aid this world he should have been asked first.

“Logan, you ok?” Marcus asked while riding beside Logan.

Jutting his head upwards, as if breaking his sturdy concentration, Logan turned to face his friend, “Yeah, thanks for checking up on me.”

“Planing for when we’re done with this quest?”

“Kinda. I need to check up on the homeless I commanded to do some quests, and then we gotta find that goblin and deal with that situation.”

“He’d have gathered all the nearby goblinoids by now, I’d wager.”

“Or close enough that we can end that side of things”, Logan replied as he turned to face the front of the convoy.

Moving under the open portcullis gates of the capital signed that Logan was finally back in safety, if not for his mind at least for his body. He felt like a hundred eyes were following him, though it was more paranoia than anything, the carts with the tied-up bodies were the real attention grabbers in the group.

Gaemo was able to quickly deal with any issues from the guards asking questions, since the whole team wore hunter armbands it wasn’t a heavy ask for the inhabitants to recognise their station.

Reaching the Gerro Guardhouse, the party started to ferry bodies and crates into the entrance foyer, Jirango smiling wide at the sight of a large job done.

“Good job, hunters. Rare to see such a big team work on a single contract, was it fiercer than anticipated?” the man in his 40s asked.

“Yeah, we need to discuss amendments to this hunt”, Gaemo responded.

The pair sat at the desk while the others continued to move the loot and bandits. It wasn’t long before both parties were done.

“Well that is certainly a tale and a half, though looking at those blades of yours I can easily accept a good portion of it. It’ll take a bit to look over the items and talk with the bandits, do you mind waiting till tomorrow for the rewards?”

“That’s fine, we know you’re good for it.”

“Logan, before you go, I got something here for you”, Jirango called over as he waved at the Spellthief.

“Herbs?” Logan asked as he walked closer.

“Yeah, some fella named Shanin said he owed you these”, Jirango replied as he pulled out a small wooden box.

Sliding the top off revealed several blue strah herbs inside. “Yeah, I was expecting this. Thanks”, Logan responded, thinking back to the man he had saved a few days prior.

“As for that other business, no new developments for you to be working on”, Jirango continued, hinting at the under market that Logan had found earlier.

Logan nodded before returning to his party.

“I think we all want to hit the hay right about now, to the inn?” Gaemo asked the party.

“A nice comfy sheet instead of stone sounds lovely”, Evén responded with a sigh.

“Coupled with a few day’s leisure”, Sincollo added.

“Rest these weary bones and heal up scars”, Logan said.

“I can’t wait to get some good food, myself”, Marcus ended.

The party smiled at one another with a bit of a chuckle from Gaemo. They all returned to the inn for the night, had a grand meal, and retired to their separate rooms.

“So, anything oracle-wise happen with that artefact?” Marcus queried.

Logan looked at his friend a bit bemused, “That’s a sharp observation. Yeah, I absorbed what was left of its power.”

“Surprises abound with you, Logan. Did it help you find a way home?”

“No, it helped my teleportation spells, but no portals.”

“Anything from Vokka on that side of affairs?”

“No, I think it may be due to my current power. I wasn’t able to ‘hold’ the portal spells. If I get my rank higher I may be able to absorb a portal spell like that. Theoretically, of course, we’d still need to find another item that can create portals.”

“How is your rank anyway?”

“I hit 14, my summons are both 11, and you’re close to 8”, Logan explained.

“Above bless us, that is a staggering rise. The rumours of oracles’ hasted progress have borne truth”, Marcus said as he held his fists together in the symbol of Pondress.

“There’s been no message from Lightbeam, so they are still away. Tomorrow we’ll get our pay, investigate the goblins, then get my regeneration done.”

“Straightforward enough, these spell rings will make dealing with the goblins a lot easier too”, Marcus responded as he held up his right hand now adorned with three Gaia rings on his thumb, index, and middle fingers.

“It is probably best we use them all, the goblinoids are better off dead. As monsters they will continue to try and follow Madamra’s commands, or rebel against mine”, Logan announced.

“Pondress isn’t exactly anti-monster, but her domain is over the ‘civilized folk’, so monsters are not within her protection. Desma is similar, the ‘hunt’ being against animals and monsters both”, Marcus explained.

“I'm used to killing monsters at this point, my first few days played havoc with my emotions.”

“It is the same for a lot of adventurers.”

Thinking back to his beginning days, Logan was reminded of the morality taught to him about killing other people. His first three human kills played hell with his psyche, but now he was killing people in droves. Rationalisations pushed Logan towards changing his morals and ideals, as in Avanar many of his Earthen teachings did not work here.

“You landed a good hit into the leader, good job with that”, Logan praised.

“I didn’t want to risk him moving and me hitting our allies, a Grasp was all I could think of at the time to end it quickly.”

“Well, it turned out to be the correct choice.”

“I just hope our fights get easier from here, we’ve had quite a few harrowing ones recently.”

“The goblin hero Krekka, the naegren lord, the ice lieutenants, and now Oretessu. Heavy hits and heavier hides.”

“If the Ice King is able to revive, we’d more than likely have to fight him too. Seeing how the commands of Vokka have been going so far”, Marcus calculated.

“I hope that is not the case, if it is, I’d definitely ask for the monarchy’s aid.”

“They are meant to send their team in after him if the beginning group fails, aren’t they?”

“A suicide mission if I ever heard one. You’d want a handful of rank 20s, and those aren’t common.”

“So, would it be best if we increase our rank quickly?” Marcus queried.

“Rank certainly provides better access to skills, higher capabilities, and higher-level spells. The issue with that, is my quests are seemingly given based on my rank. If this is my last quest, fine, high rank all day, but if something goes wrong then my high rank means the following quest is much harder with my gear and skill mastery falling behind a normal adventurer of the same rank.”

“That is true, our work as hunters certainly has aided in gearing us up appropriately for our faster rank acquirement.”

“At the very least, a higher rank, a much higher one, would allow me to summon stronger elementals. My summons are my main income of spellforce right now and I just hit their peak.”

“So, a higher level spell, or increase the mastery of summoning skills?” Marcus asked.

“That, or I work more on taking spellforce from my foes. But I cannot guarantee they will have any for me to take”, Logan calculated.

“From my research and experience, it seems a good three-quarters of monsters are able to cast spells.”

“It seems we’ve been facing quite a few classed-blood-drinkers though, and they seem to favour Rogues and Fighters.”

“Well, those two classes do make up over a third of civilised folk.”

“Throw in Knights and that’s half, casters aren’t even 10% combined.”

“If we do think of anti-humanoids, you’re better suited against casters or martials who make use of items to cast spells.”

“That bandit gang did show quite a few more ring casters”, Logan thought aloud.

“Regardless, I doubt we have that much time before Lightbeam returns.”

“Probably. Let’s deal with what we have now and go from there.”

Settling up their final nightly routines and plans, the pair finally hit the hay after what felt like an eternity away.

Logan felt uncomfortable in his bed again, tossing and turning as his mind was allowed to wander. Soreness coursed over his skin and through his muscles, he couldn’t keep going as he had been doing the past few days.

Loading up his spell list, Logan read over the Sleep spell he had used a few times. He had experimented with using it on himself in the past, and it seemed he could willingly accept the effects of his own spells. He had prepared ahead of time for if this was going to happen to him again, only keeping Celsius as his summon for the day.

Placing his hand over his face he silently chanted in his bed, “Sleep Grasp”, creating a downfall of spores and sleepy dust to flow over his face. Entering through his nose, mouth, and ears, Logan’s head was full of a dazy haze, forcing him into a slumber.

A new dream came to Logan, as had done with all times he was afflicted with the Sleep status. He knew at this point that dreams only came via said effect, it had to do with the deity of sleep, Fusmah. While he couldn’t think further about the said deity, his mind was allowed to form a new vision in the vastness of his own subconscious.

Logan was standing within a large church, dressed in a black suit he commonly wore to formal university events. People lined the pews and filled the room with sniffles and cries, flanking the walkway up to an opened casket at the far end.

The young man’s body trembled all over as this memory wasn’t much better than that of the time his mother had died, as this was the final time he saw her body. Looking to the front of the pews, Logan saw his father, hunched over with his head in his hands.

Tyson Hall was a working man who always encouraged good posture and a work-centric attitude. Logan hadn’t seen his father take any breaks from his work, the only vacation time he had he spent with his family, taking them to family gatherings or on faraway trips. From this point, Tyson quit his job and continued to stay hunched.

Walking to his father, Logan felt the slow nature of his dream body, each step felt like he was wading through a swamp. Sitting by his dad, the young man wrapped his arm around his father’s shoulders. Their bodies both shifted up and down as their bodies cried with them.

As Logan was getting adjusted to this new dream world, the echoing footsteps of the civil celebrant reaching the podium to speak started to break the dream apart. A thick fog rolled in around Logan as he knew his time was up, the white nothingness hugging his sides as he closed his eyes.

Logan’s eyes darted open, the light of the morning sun causing them to close almost immediately. Rubbing his face and swivelling to the side of his bed, Logan saw his spell let him pass the entire night, though that was most likely due to his own tiredness increasing the duration of the spell.

“Sleep well this time?” Marcus asked as he was preparing his gear.

“Yeah”, Logan replied succinctly. His mind continued to linger on the dream he had.

The pair prepared themselves for another day full of work, grabbed breakfast in the main hall, and set out for the goblins. Before being able to fully leave the shadow of the inn, however, Logan was approached by the homeless he had given a villager quest to.

One of the men handed over a small book of notes, which Logan flipped through before accepting the quest had been completed.

“Good job, wait here and I can pick up another few for you lot”, Logan praised as he handed a silver to each of the three men.

Their heads bowed several times over, Logan was assured they did their job well as their attire was still mostly clean from their last meeting. With a Clean mick each, Logan teleported to the G-Hall to hand over the book.

Logan was paid 3 silver for the quest he gave over to the homeless, had his signet updated, and picked up two other quests for them. It was another villager quest, but not something a classless could do easily.

Teleporting back to the homeless, Logan had Celsius become their guardian as they were set to work on two jobs in the sewers. The monster population was mostly dealt with, but the elemental was insurance that they would not be bothered. The homeless weren’t too enthused at the situation, so Logan handed over some spare knives he had taken from the bandits. With weapons in hand, and elemental at their side, the villager group headed off.

Before the pair, and Spark, could continue to the forests they were stopped by a friendly Gaemo.

“Hey, glad I caught you before you went off to do something else. Our pay has been settled. I am just off to go sell some extra gear but I got your shares here”, the hunter said as he held out two pouches.

Taking the pouches, Logan and Marcus were treated to 2 gold and 67 silver each.

“There’s also a tome each, I didn’t choose for you in case I picked wrong. You can get them from Jirango”, Gaemo continued.

“Thanks, that'll certainly help us recuperate our losses”, Marcus replied.

“Did you take into account our advance?” Logan asked, a bit shocked at the amount.

“Yep. We got quite a big bonus for the ones we took alive, plus the loot I am looking to load off should rake in another chunk to cover that.”

“They give an increase due to the circumstances and power of the bandits?” Logan asked.

“Yeah, it didn’t take long to scan over Oretessu and find he was much stronger than anticipated. Plus the gear and artefact shenanigans.”

“Did they mention how it could have happened at all?” Marcus asked.

“No, bandits come across many a curiosity on the road. They will be interrogating them all soon, so they may find out eventually”, Gaemo replied as he looked down the street.

“Well, we won’t keep you. Thanks for the pay”, Logan ended.

“And to you two too”, the man replied with a smile as he jogged off.

“There’s your regeneration taken care of”, Marcus noted.

“That it is. Another worry to forget.”

With their pay in hand, the pair continued towards the Gerro Guardhouse.

Abuzz with activity, the Gerro Guardhouse looked reminiscent of the time that Logan had taken on the Qreil Bandits. A multitude of merchants were coming and going with small and large boxes in hand, taking back the items that had been stolen on the road or from their stores.

Passing by the new faces, Logan approached the desk that Jirango was sitting at as usual. “Hey, Jirango, busy day I see.”

“These types of busy days are welcome, money flows like the rivers near the castle when merchants get their stock back.”

“We better see some improvements to this building then”, Marcus responded with a cheeky grin.

“Hey, watch that”, Jirango responded in kind, “you two here for your bonuses?”

“Yeah, Gaemo said it was a choice of tomes?”

“That it is. You brought back quite a lot, and the merchants are willing to part with a few, or have no say since they were killed in the raids. Here’s a list of what you can take from”, Jirango continued as he slid over a piece of parchment for the pair to read as their signets got updated.

Logan and Marcus looked over the list for a while before settling on two tomes. Logan took Summon Horde Manual 2, whereas Marcus took Extended Enhance Manual 1. Since the value of Logan’s tome was so high, however, he was informed his next few bonuses would be forfeited. It wouldn’t matter much if he was able to leave Avanar.

Tomes in hand, the pair left the guardhouse and returned to the inn to quickly read up on their new tomes. They weren’t overly long at 50 pages, and were more akin to booklets to flip through than vast books of knowledge. It only took Logan an hour and a half to finish his tome.

With the mastery of his skill increased, Logan spent 36 minutes creating a new elemental with two of his MP.

“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 Frost Elemental, Fahrenheit!”

With his spell completed, shards of ice shot out from the chalk markings across Logan’s inn room floor. Crashing into one another, the icicles created an icy mist with sparkling snowflakes, whirling around a forming mass of frozen water. Limbs shot out from the central mass as a final spike shot atop its torso, making a sharp “head” of sorts. Unlike Celsius and Spark, Fahrenheit’s legs were firmly planted on the ground.

Purple whirls of mist formed within the elemental’s head, symbolising its eyes. At 4’ tall it looked upwards at its creator. Opening a chasm within its face to create a mouth, the creature spoke with a rough and chilly voice, “That which gives me life, I am born in your guise. Humbly I shall serve, till my last speck is snuffed out.”

A wave of silvery-white lines coursed from head to toe on Fahrenheit, completing his creation.

“Logan, let us work toward our goal”, it spoke stoically.

“What part of my personality did you take on?” Logan asked almost rhetorically.

Turning its head to the side, the elemental replied, “It matters little, let us move onward.”

“Quite the cold shoulder”, Logan thought to himself.

Recollecting his summons, Logan compared their statistics against one another at this juncture.

“Celsius - Flame Elemental. Level 11. STR 20, AGI 18, CON 20, INT 23, WIS 15, CHA 10: 64/64 HP, 0/15 MP.

Skills: Ember Shard, Fiery Body.

Reduction: Damage 3.

Resistance: Fire 100%, Ice 50%, Water -100%.

Spell List:

1st: Flame.

2nd: Flame Cloak, Flaming Arc.”

“Spark - Lightning Elemental. Level 11. STR 18, AGI 20, CON 20, INT 23, WIS 15, CHA 10: 64/64 HP, 0/15 MP.

Skills: Bolt, Electric Body.

Reduction: Damage 3.

Resistance: Earth -100%, Lightning 100%, Water 50%.

Spell List:

1st: Lightning.

2nd: Lightning Cascade, Sparking Coat.”

“Fahrenheit - Frost Elemental. Level 1. STR 8, AGI 8, CON 12, INT 8, WIS 5, CHA 5: 8/8 HP, 1/1 MP.

Skills: -.

Reduction: Damage 1.

Resistance: Fire -100%, Ice 100%, Wind 50%.

Spell List:

1st: Frost.”

“You’ll be in danger for a while, so use that spell when we’re in combat and stick back”, Logan informed his new summon.

“Right”, Fahrenheit replied succinctly.

“So that’s how that feels”, Logan thought to himself, thinking about when he replied as such.

Looking over the stats of his summons, it seemed Flame was stronger, Lightning was quicker, and Frost was hardier. What summon would grant the most MP in the end though? That was the main use of summons for Logan, batteries for his spells.

Regardless, this meant that Logan could gain another possible 7 MP a day if he trained up Fahrenheit a bit. And the best way to do that was to go fight some goblins.

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