Logan clicked his fingers as he continued to path his way through the hallways, outside of the three golems he had found thus far there hadn’t been any issues for a few minutes. His Echo Radar pinged him with good news, twofold, when a part of his map showed a crack past the wall, alongside a new window popping up.

Clicking his fingers again, the map detailed further than before as it stated. It was even able to find some rats beyond the hidden wall on his side.

Investigating the nearby wall, Logan found a loose rock he was able to pick out, revealing a keyhole underneath. Taking out the kaevock, the tumbler-lock relic he had retrieved some time ago from Dena and had used to unlock things in the past, Logan placed it on the keyhole.

The cylinders of the kaevock rotated before shaking slightly, a distinct click being heard from the keyhole as the wall started to shift to the left.

“The more I use this, the more it seems like some sort of ‘skeleton key’ of this world”, Logan thought to himself as he put the kaevock away.

With the hidden door now being part of the wall beside it, Logan was able to enter a small storeroom. Wooden tables covered in glass vials and alembics, a full alchemist’s setup. A nearby sconce was dead, and as far as Logan could tell, this place hadn’t been used in some time.

Glancing around before entering, the Spellthief spotted three traps near the entrance. The first was a bell trap on the floor, easily stepped over. The second were rings near the ceiling that had some form of magic attached to them. The third was a mundane crossbow on the far end of the storeroom, aimed at the hidden door.

Taking out one of his knives, Logan cut both ends of the bell trap and placed the whole thing in his inventory with nary a sound. Hugging the walls allowed him to circumvent the magical circles, and a quick, “Force”, mick at the crossbow destroyed it.

Quite the design of defence, some mundane, some intricate. Logan could only surmise that the easy-to-see would put someone at ease and think the place poorly protected, only for their guard to be dropped for the stronger traps.

Investigating the tables for anything of note, Logan sighed as it seemed the alchemy works were but dust at this point. A nearby hand-sized smelter had the smell of silver, but he couldn’t find any notes. Imprints on the table clued Logan into there being books here before, but it had all been cleared.

Checking the crossbow revealed it had a non-hallowed silver bolt ready to fire. While it was mostly designed to combat vampires, it was still a bolt, and would hurt anyone even if it was a weaker metal. Taking the bolt, Logan used Identification on it only to reveal it was not a Sunsilt Bolt. They would be far too expensive to put on a trap, wouldn’t they?

Since he was only asked to destroy the Sunsilt Bolts, Logan placed the silver bolt into his inventory for possible use later, or just as evidence. Just to make sure this was the only thing of import, Logan identified the whole room over a few minutes.

Leaving the room, Logan waved an arm into it and chanted, “Flame Wall”, filling it with fires all the way to the ceiling. If there was anything of use, it wouldn’t be anymore.

Eventually, Logan came across another room in the mess of corridors. A dome-like construction that was full of beds and cabinets. Before he could fully explore the bedroom, however, he pulled up a dagger to his face to block a spit of black.

As the ooze coated his blade he tossed it away as the liquid ran across it and ate away the item, a curse attack that would be dangerous if it reached his hand.

Scanning around, Logan saw a four-legged bat-dog hybrid, its pointed ears at attention as long red eyes stared at its foe. A long tongue dragged on the floor as it left a saliva trail towards Logan. Spikes adorned the creature’s back and elbows.

“Identify.”

“Chabras - Demon / Bat / Lupine. Level 15: 240/240 HP, - MP.

This demon is also known as the cattle-eater, renowned for devouring entire villages of their cows and goats. Standing at around 4' tall, 7' on their hind legs, these demons are ferocious beasts that can inflict horrific curses on their foes if they don't just kill them.

Skills: Blend, Climb, Curse Spit, Critical Bite, Essence Drain, Sonar, Spellforce Sight, —.

Spells: Haste.

Reduction: Damage 10.

Resistance: Damage 25%, Holy -25%, Lightning 0%, Shadow 75%, all other elements 25%.”

The chabras charged at Logan as he pulled out another dagger to place in the demon’s maw as it chomped down on it. Kicking the chabras’s stomach, Logan sent it flying back. A warning popped up stating the level of his dagger had decreased, the chabras started to speed up and create afterimages in their movement.

“There’s the Essence Drain”, Logan thought as he warped away from his position.

Crashing to the floor in a slide, the demon missed the Spellthief as he appeared atop a bed. Waving his hand, Logan intoned, “Lightning Skystrike”, causing bolts of blue to strike down at the back of the demon, surging across its body.

Dashing from side to side, the chabras attempted to dodge any further spells as it made its way to Logan. With a flip off the bed, Logan barely dodged another lunge as he landed back on the floor.

Bringing up his hand, and waving the other up high, Logan chanted, “Lightning Shot, Lightning Skystrike”, creating a stream of electricity from his hand and behind the chabras, confusing the creature, it was hit with both spells.

It roared out in pain as it spat out continuously across the room. Kicking at a bed, Logan grappled it in front of him to block the spit. He could hear the creaking and cracking of wood, as the room was eaten away by the curse energy.

With another swift boot, Logan hit the bed at the chabras, which it exploded through with its claws. Dragging out two hip daggers, Logan threw them both at the demon as one hit its face and the other its shoulder, it didn’t have a lot of manoeuvrability in the air.

Letting out a pained wince, the chabras faltered in its skyward strike, allowing Logan to pick out another dagger and pierce it through the demon’s chin and into its brain. Logan punched the creature off his weapon quickly before its liquids could touch him. The new corpse lay dormant on the floor.

Logan let out several breaths as the fear subsided from him. He gave a once over his clothing and weapons, ensuring he was safe from more corrosive spit. Thankfully he was both lucky and prudent, no such thing stuck to him.

Looking at the room showed it was a good idea to be safe. Beds had fallen apart to the floor, while cabinets spewed their contents all over the ground. It was strange that a demonic beast had been left to guard a deserted place. Was it just to stop anyone from finding leads here?

This was the same kind of beast that had accosted Wriske, seeing her state after fighting such a beast caused Logan to be ever safe. He continued to be so as he cut apart the chabras to gain the components of a tongue and its spikes.

Logan felt reassured at enhancing his Identification skill from fighting the vaskt earlier. Seeing an opponent's strengths and weaknesses really lets him make better use of his spells at hand. With stronger foes more commonly having resistances, it was only going to get more useful.

As these monsters were 2 levels lower than he was, Logan didn’t have to worry too much about his victory. He had spent some time making sure he was a strong level 17. But facing too many at once could cause issues. If a chabras got a solid bite in, or a curse spit, he’d be much weaker with fewer spells or lowered movement from curses.

While equipment level wasn’t a concept for Avanarians, they could tell if something was too strong for someone to use. It wasn’t surprising that Quayvan wasn’t able to warn Logan ahead of time that his gear could be weakened like that. The dagger he had defended with had lost 2 levels from a single bite, granting the chabras MP to cast its Haste spell. A weird cousin to his own abilities.

Refilling his hip holsters with knives from his inventory, Logan discarded the broken or near-broken daggers. He didn’t want them breaking during a parry, nor when used to block any more spit.

The bedroom, while destroyed, still had some clues to the previous use outside of sleeping. A few garments when identified showed where they were commonly sewn or bought, a lead to follow down the line to find who had purchased them. Some of these must have been forgotten, or Wriske’s invasion stopped them from being removed.

Even though the beds had been destroyed, Logan could see certain designs and craftsmanship that could reveal who made those too. Sadly, they were handmade by the people in this place, so that didn’t help. Not everything could have been of use.

Cutting out parts of the sheets and pillows, gathering parts that hadn’t been hit by spit, Logan was able to gather some hair and fur that would be useful in scrying magic. It wasn’t something that Logan could use, but Quayvan and diviners could track who these came from.

Corridor after corridor, room after room. Whoever used to live and work here had done well to clean up any leads to where they had gone. A single notebook would do wonders for finding out what had been going on here, but even that had vacated the area.

A few crafting rooms had fixtures that couldn’t easily be moved, such as larger furnaces and anvils. These were important as they told a tale of smithing, so the bolts would have been constructed “in-house” here, or at least something was. Some of the tools could have been used to craft more alchemical devices.

Along with each room that showed some sign of significance came more traps. A combination of mundane and magical as before. Thankfully they were easy to spot, and with pre-warning Logan kept all four eyes out for them.

All the crossbows had silver bolts in them, but no hallowed silver, nor sunlight. No easy platinum for Logan amongst the last defences. Though he’d need to destroy the hallowed silver too, not just the Sunsilt. He had no reason to anger his employer, least of all any vampires, as they had only been good to him so far.

Another ambush lay in wait for Logan, this was the first he was unable to preemptively notice sadly. Three golems fell from the ceiling in slashing barrages at the Spellthief who took a few to the shoulders before he rolled forward to dodge the rest.

The hallways had been calm for a while, but Logan wasn’t at ease. They must have just hidden well against the lower mastery of his perception skills.

Forming rocks above their heads, they fired spikes at Logan who caught each one and mentally commanded, “Spell Absorb”, three times.

“Spell Absorptions successful. Three Gaia 2 charges stored.”

He wasn’t going to gain mastery again, as these were the same type of monster.

Warping behind them as they began to cast again, Logan slapped both hands on the backs of the lizards and chanted, “Wind Grasp”, twice, exploding both from within with torrents of air.

With 200 Backstab damage to the left and 205 to the right, both rock golem lizards stood no chance at survival.

The final one whipped its body around and coated itself in sharper rocks, using the Infuse spells to improve its melee damage. Jumping at Logan, the Spellthief did a back somersault kick to the lizard’s chin and sent it flipping backwards.

With speed, Logan landed on his feet and stepped up to grab the back of the flipping lizard to cast another, “Wind Grasp”, exploding through the lizard’s back and out its stomach as rock went everywhere. As they rolled across the floor, their experience floated upwards.

Logan scanned the area regardless of the experience signing the end of the fight, couldn’t be too cautious.

After cutting apart the golems Logan looked over his map of the underground. He had almost completed exploring the place, but aside from the minerals around him, nothing was concrete.

Finishing the final rooms, Logan picked up some other materials before leaving to the forest. His elementals were there waiting for his return, without a single sign of anyone looking at them during Logan’s time in the hideout.

Not a total bust, but it could have been more eventful.

Warping back to the capital, Logan was able to talk with Quayvan after a messenger was sent from the guardhouse.

After being handed the items to be scryed, Quayvan recognised some of the craftsmanship and components used. With some spells done by seers, Logan could find out more the next day, thus he was given the rest to relax before continuing.

--- *** ---

More to do.