Looking over the remains of his attacker, Logan strained his eyes to attempt a longer Identification of the corpse. The skill could be used over a period to get information about more intricate targets, but it could be done the same for objects that Logan couldn’t get the full picture of.

Sadly, the blood and sinew that was left behind only allowed Logan the name of the creature. It was a Kynecain. Anything beyond that was conjecture.

It was most likely a level 16 monster, putting it on par with Logan, due to the experience rewarded to Logan after the fight. Either that or an elite variant of a lower-level foe.

Its use of spell and skill rings disclosed it had self-taught knowledge of humanoid creations or was taught about it by someone who did. Since the kynecain used both types, Logan was sure it wasn’t a mindless creature. Though that begged the question, could it not use spells outside of said rings?

The last piece of enticing information was that it used a demon-style technique, the Spellforce Blast. Logan’s research clued him into that skill, it was only accessible to demon ranks of 4 and above. There wasn’t too much written about ranks over 3, so it was sparse intel. Since vampires started at rank 3, not many got to that point.

Using Spellforce Blast was also a dangerous game to play. It had a sort of backlash depending on how much you absorbed before blasting it back out. A risk-reward game when you needed to take down a strong foe. As well as the whole standing still to do it.

If this was the monster that had killed all the other adventurers, it was no surprise they lost. However, a level 16 monster, this far into the sticks? It had either come from the bastarn caverns or was sent here.

A faint question floated in Logan’s head. “Was this sent after me?”

The suicidal ending of the foe may have been issued to remove most traces of it, as well as to not reward Logan with any components or items. Its rings had been sent skyward and in all directions. Without any tracking spells, Logan wasn’t going to find them anytime soon. They could have hit a tree and stopped inside its trunk or continued for over a mile.

Whilst it was a bit of money to leave in the forest, Logan would have to spend a few days to find these needles in quite a huge haystack. If the creature had been sent after him, he wasn’t confident in leaving his allies all alone if they were also targets.

Looking skyward, he teleported up and back to Tinte.

However, left in the forest, were glowing green eyes that looked at the remains.

Serrated teeth revealed themselves as the monster spoke aloud, “This much is allowed…Logan shall soon fall.”

Several small rings surrounded in red energy floated towards the monster’s long-clawed fingers, falling into her palm.

“Owen. I hope you’re watching”, she spoke with a tone full of indignation.

Arriving in a blast of wind in another forest, Logan stood to see his allies resting after a confrontation with wolves and crowbolds. Breathing a sigh of relief he called over, “How goes things on your end?”

Marcus jumped up with a smile on his face as he saw his friend appear, “All good here! Amalia seems to have gotten used to that crossbow now”, he said as he looked back at the Guardian.

“The summons make it a lot easier”, Amalia chuckled back.

“We weren’t expecting you today”, Marcus continued as he looked back at Logan, “need us for something?”

“I’ve got news on my front. Somewhat troubling…”

Logan spent a few minutes explaining what had happened in his part of the forest. Marcus was quick to pick up on it all, while Amalia had so many questions.

“Troubling indeed. I agree with you, it might be best we stick together if we are to be hunted”, Marcus spoke as he rubbed his chin.

“I don’t like the sound of any of that. If they are level 16, I am way too weak to even be included in the background”, Amalia explained with a bit of fear in her voice.

“Exactly. It would be best to leave you somewhere better fortified if that turns out to be true. Better to be safe than sorry”, Logan accepted.

“What of her last bonus objective?”

“I am close to 2 gold, with all these quests added, I believe.”

Logan thought for a second and then looked towards Marcus, “We could go investigate that bastarn cave we went into before.”

“It did have demon species in it, if they weren’t sent after us then that is the closest place to check.”

“The one issue with it, outside of any interior dangers, is we get flanked at the rear.”

“Do you think it was this ‘kynecain’ that stopped your teleportation?”

“The blockage was removed in its dying moments. Either it was a coincidence with a timer, or was attached to it still being alive.”

“Air Blast should allow us to get away in time, though… it is a cavern, they could cave it in”, Marcus replied, deep in thought.

“What if we teleported straight into the cave from the air? Bluff that we are teleporting elsewhere, while I look at it in the corner of my eye?”

“As long as they’re not using some form of scrying on you. That would work.”

“If I am being scryed, we’re fucked wherever we go, to be honest.”

“The silver of the bastarn cave would do well to hide us. It acts as a more mundane blocker for divination.”

Logan sighed and contemplated, “So, what’s your opinion? We investigate the caves and make sure that Tinte is safe from any more of those. Or, we ignore it and assume we are the targets and not this area.”

Marcus took on the same look, humming to himself, “We don’t have enough to go on to make a solid choice. I’d like to help Tinte, but I also don’t want to walk into a pincer ambush. This was all around the time of the goblin invasion, right? So it stands to reason that it was aimed to work in conjunction with that. If you only fought one, it is possible that there was only one. We don’t find many high-rank monsters together outside of a dungeon.”

“Echo Radar didn’t pick up anything else, either they were too far or they were invisible.”

“Let us leave it for now. I doubt Tinte is the target. We can double-check on the village in a few days to make sure either way.”

“That’s safest for us.”

“So… we’re good?” Amalia asked as she looked between the two.

“Yeah. Let’s finish up here and head back to Gauntlet.”

With the rest of the quests done, Logan teleported the party back to Tinte, sans the summons who were ordered to walk back on their own. The group that wasn’t with Logan had fought quite a few foes in his absence. There were plenty of kills, and a good portion of experience to gain, though only Umbra gained a level in the excursion.

Returning to the hall, the party updated their signets, but not Amalia, and handed their rewards down to the newcomer to speed up her 5 gold objective. Their eighteen quests and Logan’s nine pseudo-hunter contracts.

Asking about local demon issues, as Marta had been attacked by one too, Logan didn’t get much out of the staff on hand. There was talk of creating a group to raid the bastarn caves, but with the local issues that was postponed. Logan offered up his aid in doing such if it were to go through, giving them an address to send an ooran to deliver a letter to him.

Exiting the adventurer’s hall, the party split up once again. Amalia wanted to investigate different aspects of this new world, while Marcus wanted to check in on Marta. Logan had his own plans, as it was a good enough time as any to go see Rubené.

Knocking on the door of his previous lover’s house, Logan was treated to the refreshed sight of Rubené. Her hair had grown a bit since she last had it cut, but wasn’t as long as it was when Logan first met her. The dirty blonde hair was still tied in blue and red ribbons on either side

“Logan, you came back”, Ru spoke with a wide smile.

“All done with your guests?”

“Yes, I am. Come in”, Ru offered as she opened the door wide.

Entering back into the home, Logan saw it had recently been cleared and cleaned. There weren’t many signs that others had stayed over.

Taking a seat at the table, Logan continued, “Did you have fun with your friends?”

Ru carried over two cups and filled them with water, “I certainly did. Hadn’t seen them in some time. They came to comfort me after the attacks.”

“The goblins, right?”

“Bloody monstrous fiends they were. I swear our little secret forebode the future.”

“Thanks again for that, it seems to have worked out for me so far.”

“Don’t mention it. Makes it easier to feign ignorance that way”, Ru replied with a toothy smile.

“But you—fine”, Logan replied with a laugh, “How’ve you been holding up anyway?”

“Well enough. The hall was real busy when we had all those adventurers pass through. Been dead since, though.”

“I saw they are working with a skeleton crew at the hall.”

“Uh-huh. I’ve been picking up some odd jobs to fill in the pay gaps.”

“Can’t be helped I suppose. My friend and I did some work for the hall, so it might pick back up.”

“You are such a busy bee, even in your time away”, Ru informed with a chuckle.

“I’ve been working hard. A lot happened in the capital.”

“I got time…”

The pair talked into the late night, the buzzing of late-night insects and the hearty cheers of drunkards filling the outside with a calming village feeling. Logan didn’t talk about any of the PC business but kept most other details aside from his level.

“It’s hard to say if you would have been better off here”, Ru replied at the end of the tale.

“Well, it’s all over now… mostly. Just fixing things after the fact.”

“You could make a steady living as a transporter though, if you could get to Tinte in a day like that.”

“If life has that in store for me, who knows?”

“Still wanting to help people out?”

“Could say that.”

“You’re certainly geared for it”, Ru replied with another chuckle.

Standing up, Logan took the mugs to the counter and used Clean on them, before returning to Ru, “There are other things I’m good at too”, he said with a cheeky smile.

Ru placed a hand on his chest to lightly stop him, “Logan. While I would love to, I’m afraid things happened in your absence.”

Logan took a step back so as to not intrude, “Oh?”

“During the attacks, I found safety with others, and, I met someone in that time. I’d not want to ruin that.”

Logan suddenly didn’t know what to do with his hands, so he put them in his jacket pockets, “I understand. It has been some time since I was last here. We did agree this wouldn’t be a long-term thing anyways.”

“Your continuing chase for dangerous events would make my heart ache until you returned.”

“Yeah, I remember you saying as much. It’s fine.”

“I am still fine helping you in what ways I can”, Ru continued with a reassuring tone.

“Thanks. Just feels a bit awkward now”, Logan replied with a half-assed chuckle.

Ru gave Logan a quick hug before pulling away, “No awkwardness needed.”

The pair spoke for a bit longer before giving their farewells, Logan leaving back to the inn.

Throwing himself into the chair at his party’s table back at the inn, Logan let out a long sigh.

“Tough day, ay?” Marcus asked.

“Suppose you could say that.”

“I already sparred with your elementals”, Marcus continued as he slid a drink to Logan.

“Alright.”

“So, we heading back to Gauntlet?” Amalia asked.

“I got the ability to do so, yeah. It’ll save us some time to do it tonight”, Logan replied as he took a sip.

“We’ll be back in just under a week to ferry the healer back”, Marcus reinforced.

“It’ll be as quick a trip as any if it’s the only one I do that day”, Logan replied as he leaned back in his chair.

“If I am”, Amalia began, the pair turned to look at her, “to stay here. I think staying a low level is best. Your talks of that. Demon? Make me worry if I have such a higher number that I’d be putting nearby people at risk, let alone not being prepared.”

“We’ll know after a few more quests, but it does seem set to our level.”

“You were able to take on that foe by yourself, so you should be fine”, Marcus said as he looked at Logan.

“If I were to rate myself, I’d probably be mid-range for my level. Mastering Backstab and collecting a few more spells would push me into the high range.”

“So, more mastery and more items?” Marcus asked.

“As always.”

Finishing off their drinks, the party collected themselves together and teleported back to Gauntlet, with the summons dismissed. Amalia had gotten used to it by now, so wasn’t as afraid to be sent through the sky.

With not much left to do in the day, everyone retired to their rooms to read tomes and sleep.

The next morning had Logan descend the stairs to a letter at the counter. Reading over it quickly, he saw it to be a missive from the noble he had contacted some time prior, Armin Eventa. It informed Logan that he could have his meeting with the noble at his estate, a few days earlier than expected.

Logan was happy at the chance to deal with this earlier rather than later, Amalia had mentioned she was going to explore today anyway. Marcus set himself to take on some hunter contracts, with the money going to fund Amalia’s objectives.

Finding his way atop the inn, Logan teleported to the richer districts in the northwest.

Apparating atop a lavish fountain, Logan jumped to the streets below, much to the surprise of passing villagers. Whispers spread amongst the populace about a fresh-faced hunter in the upper quarter, some speaking of the, “Phasing Hunter”, at the common occurrence of Logan’s arrival.

Following the directions given in his letter, Logan eventually arrived at the large metallic gates that halted entrance onto the estate grounds. A large building accented with large shrubberies was ornately-coloured white with etchings of tall humans into the stone. From what Logan could tell, they depicted two knights, protecting both flanks of the house.

A guard draped in a clean white tabard turned to look at Logan as he approached, “Hoy, might I ask your business here, sir hunter?”

Logan picked out the letter and showed its seal on the exterior, “I have an invitation to meet with Noble Armin Eventa.”

“Ah, sir Logan, very good. We ask that you keep your weapons sheathed at all times, but aside from that, your attire is well-cleaned so you may enter”, the guard replied as they moved to unlock and open the gates, “follow the path to the main house and an attendant shall take you further.”

“Thank you, I shall”, Logan replied with a nod before passing the gates.

The estate was quite the change from the rest of the city. A faint smell of flowers permeated against the dirty state the other areas were accustomed to. Finely crafted bushes also showed a hint of artistry, if it weren’t for someone else doing it and not the nobles themselves. Logan could pick out two men in the gardens tending to them even at this time.

Reaching the large wooden doors that barred his entry, Logan used another casting of Clean to make himself as presentable as possible, before opening them wide.

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