“Damn it, damn it all! Why does it have to be like this? What am I even doing here? It’d be a whole lot better if Vokka gave me any sort of sign or at least a reason as to why they brought me here. Am I just the cleanup crew for bandits and insane mages?” Logan’s thoughts were a mess as he gathered up the items of the five bandits that had attacked the innkeeper Tarkas.

While they weren’t his first kills, Logan had some regret that he was able to kill them so easily. He would have never succumbed to this on Earth, would he? Questioning who he really was at the end of the day, he continued to attempt pushing the thoughts deeper into his head and focus more on reaching the capital, the only lead he had at escape.

Counting up all the remains, the bandits had certainly made a killing in their profession. Aside from their weapons, armour, and shields that would fetch a few silver, the bandits also had in their backpacks a few vials which Logan used Identification on as well as inquired further when they were in his possession.

In total there were eight healing potions, the recovery items would sell for 7 silver and 5 copper each, meaning Logan would need to spend 15 silver to buy them. Quite the expensive haul in restorative consumables alone. To add to the riches he was gaining from the thieves their pouches were bulging to burst, all in all, he gathered up 237 silver and 59 copper, showing even more evidence of how much this gang had taken from others.

“I wonder how much the leader was carrying if the other four had over two gold between them”, Logan wasn’t too upset over the innkeeper’s take, the damage to the inn was quite extreme and the number of coins he had just acquired was more than enough reward.

The bandits also had quite a few trinkets both on their clothing piles as well as inside the backpacks, many were lower quality versions of what Logan and Marcus already had but a few upgrades did come their way. Logan traded his previous earring and ring of the magi for pristine variants, Marcus would be treated to a high-quality earring to trade out his previous version later.

Aside from upgrades, there weren’t any new trinkets to investigate, but there was plenty to sell to gain even more money from this encounter. Thinking it best, Logan destroyed the teleportation ring as thoroughly as he could to not leave any evidence. With all the items safely stored within his inventory, Logan left the room that was cleaner than before though still in a heavy case of disarray with warped or completely destroyed wood, complemented by bloodstains.

Exiting to the main room, Logan saw that Marcus was applying bandages, splints, and giving some form of massage to Tarkas the innkeeper. Giving a nod to his ally, Logan approached.

“So, how is the patient?”

“He has some internal bruising and breakages, I can’t heal those but I have mended what I can and compressed the more pressing injuries. Thankfully, he should be all healed in a few weeks due to being classed. I used Healer’s Caress on the more severe injuries so he’ll be fine, just sore”, Marcus replied, ending his work on Tarkas.

Standing up and stretching his free right arm, the left being hung in a sling, Tarkas continued, “Thanks a lot, Marcus, this’ll make me much fitter to fight back against any other intruders.”

“Don’t strain too much for two days and your recovery should go smoothly.”

Waiting for a spot to enter the conversation, Logan chimed in, “The back room is all clear now, bodies and effects all gone. You probably don’t want to work on it for now with those wounds.”

“That I won’t, I’ll call out with an ooran later to get some builders over”, Tarkas replied.

Logan was thankful to have been reading so many books, knowing that oorans were a type of bird that was a mix of a sparrow, raven, and hawk, often used as messenger birds in Avanar.

“If it’s all the same, this experience has definitely drained me, body and soul, I say we return to sleep and put this night behind us”, Marcus requested, his eyes dropping slightly from exhaustion.

“I second that, are you fine Tarkas?”

“Aye, I will check the locks and doors and then hit the bed myself. I was fortunate to have such a strong quickcaster here to help me. It’s a rare find without being able to use level 2 spells.”

“I am actually really close to casting those, I had plenty of teachers beforehand so I am a bit ahead in that department”, Logan forced a lie.

“Not too surprising, you have my thanks again, I shall see you in the morning.”

Saying all their farewells, the three departed company. Logan climbed back into their room from outside and opened the door for Marcus to get back inside. With a few hours till the sun rose on the horizon, the tired adventurers returned to their sleep.

Awaking to a not entirely new dawn, the pair still felt a bit sore from last night’s foray close to death. Logan rose to a concerning 53/76 HP, whereas Marcus was sitting pretty at 36/36 HP, the shorter rest not fully restoring their bodies. Since it was in the early morning during their fight, the rest did not recover any spell slots or MP, leaving Logan with no spells for the day and Marcus with only 1 MP to his name.

“We’ll have to avoid confrontation today if possible”, Logan instructed Marcus who returned the sentiment.

“You alright after what happened yesterday? You seemed a bit shook up after the fight.”

“I’m better now, just not used to killing people, and I’m not sure I want to be.”

“Well, we’re bound to find more people like that, killing for a few extra coins or items, going to the capital will mean we’ll find even more.”

“Maybe it’s something I will just have to live with then”, Logan replied. “He says it so calmly like it’s commonplace. It probably is around here, the innkeeper had no qualms either though he was beaten to a pulp and almost killed to boot. I guess killing them so they can’t kill others is justification enough”, he pondered in his head.

With two uses of Healer’s Caress, bringing Logan to 59/76 HP, the pair headed downstairs to an empty entrance room. Sitting at a table Logan handed Marcus his new trinket, put the old one into his inventory and explained that Marcus would gain 45 silver and 19 copper from last night after Marcus had talked it down from an original offer of 71 silver from Logan. Adding the remaining money to his total Logan had a staggering 1 gold, 200 silver, and 60 copper.

Using his status windows, Logan was able to look at his inventory in a neat little list and was easily able to split up the currency into two different segments for his money and Marcus’s. Moving the other loot around he also made a segment of things he would sell at a more convenient time, he was nearing the 500lb limit of his inventory so a trader would be all-too-welcome at this point.

With the use of Clean Logan was able to make his party presentable, as well as remove any sign that the previous items belonged to anyone but them. Tarkas eventually entered the main room, looking better than the previous day as his limp was all but gone.

“You fellas looking for a morning meal? I feel like frying up some raylen skewers, on the house.”

The duo nodded excitedly, their excitement rising further as after 10 minutes they were treated to three skewers each of cubes of salty meat adorned with fried vegetables. The tomatoes exploded on bite, the potatoes were crispy on the outside yet fluffy on the inside, the whole skewer was seasoned to perfection. Logan had to try hard to not let his saliva hit the table as he dined on his breakfast.

A short conversation was held with Tarkas before the pair left, and he accepted to not mention the two saving his life or the prowess of Logan. Due to his adventuring background, Tarkas seemed all too versed in keeping allies close and enemies six feet under his floorboards.

Enough time passed for Marcus to use Healer’s Caress two more times on Logan, bringing him to 65/76 HP. As they were readying to leave, Logan noticed that Marcus had picked up another skill point, checking his ally’s details further he was unable to find what granted him the point sadly. Leaving the inn, Logan explained the situation to Marcus who reaffirmed that his ability to heal was his greatest asset, and so the point was put into Multitude Healing to make it tier 2 which granted another use of Healer’s Caress.

The fifth day of walking was thankfully uninterrupted by any form of hostility, a few passerbys waved at the duo, other adventurers were seen out and about on quests, and Logan was healed to full health over the long walk. Day turned to night and the two settled in for the night, already wishing for the comfort of an inn again.

Logan started and completed reading his final book “Wild Components” which was another 100-page tome. With its completion, his status windows were filled in with more information, mostly in his bestiary and flora catalogues for items he could obtain. The book didn’t contain information on any creatures over level 15 however, seemingly a “beginners” book if anything.

Just like the fifth, the sixth day was pleasantly devoid of conflict. Logan was able to spot some more red cartton herbs at the edge of the path that led into the forest, gathering up six more shoddy copies to add to his pack.

Wanting to try out the dagger throwing style of one of the previous bandits, Logan attempted to throw his collection of five shoddy daggers he had purchased before leaving Tinte at nearby deer. He was eventually able to hit one such target with two of the daggers, felling the animal. With the successful kill, he gained a new SKoL “Throwing” which simply just increased his proficiency with throwing anything.

Carving up the deer for its hide and meat, the pair had a nicer midday meal in comparison to their rations and salted meats. Aside from their gathering of ingredients from the wild, the day was over with quickly, as was the night as Logan had little else to read about, instead he started investigating his slew of choices for skills and other parts of his status.

Reaching the seventh day of traversal, the pair had only a third of their journey left. Logan’s feet would have developed many sores on the journey if not for almost constant access to healing from Marcus, any would-be wounds were magicked out of existence. The same was said about any laundry day woes as Logan’s mick was able to attend to any dirt, sweat, and blood.

With two days full of recovery it was just about time for their day to go wrong, or at least for someone else’s day to go wrong and require the pair’s intervention. Crashing out from the treeline to the west, an injured adventurer was seemingly fleeing a foe as he called out for help down the road. Seeing the fellow adventurer, Logan and Marcus shot off in a sprint to aid the injured.

Their eyes lit up in glee at the sight of allies but dimmed quickly as the younger man was assaulted but a leaping goblin scout, piling on him to the floor with a raised club. Throwing his hand out, Logan shot a wave of energy at the goblin with a quick case chant of “Force.”

With the foe flying off the adventurer completely, taking a new height of 13 damage from the mick, the adventurer picked himself up as the pair approached him. Covered in dirt, blood, and housing two arrows in his back, the adventurer was certainly worse for wear. With Identification, Logan saw the young man, who was only 17, was a level 2 Knight yet to afford a full set of metal armour and was flaunting some hard leather scraps.

Without paying too much mind, Logan did not realise that killing the goblin muscle hadn’t shown any experience number on its defeat.

“Thank the above you came when you did, are you high rank? My fellows are still in the forests, we were ambushed and-” the younger man started, looking at his snapped-in-two sword that he winced at.

“Yes, we can help, take us there!” Logan interrupted, his skill showing the lad as an adventurer from a smaller village, by the name of Fowp, to the east and not some ambushing bandit. Marcus quickly used Healer’s Caress on the man, easing the pain he had been inflicted.

The lad started to dart back into the western forest, leading the pair deeper. Logan pulled a sword from his bag-inventory that he had taken from the earlier bandits and handed it to the young man, who accepted it without question. Asking what the situation was up ahead, the lad replied.

“We took a quest to investigate a goblin band heading southward, we had an ooran with a letter attached warning of growing forces that ways so we were asked to give correspondence on a possible backup army.”

“What numbers did you count before getting attacked?” Logan queried.

“A good few dozen, maybe 40 at least. Some scouts saw us and called in an alert I think.”

“We’ll evacuate your party as best we can, but with numbers like those we will need to retreat.”

“Damn straight we’re getting the fuck out of here, there’s three of us, my friends got caught in a melee and told me to go for help on the road.”

As the conversation went on, the trio finally arrived at a clearing in the forest, several archer perches were set up with wooden platforms attached to higher parts of the trees. Rope ladders and tightropes formed a spider’s web of higher-ground advantage for the goblinoids. Scanning the area Logan easily identified ten goblins, three were scouts, four were muscles, and three were a new variant, archers.

“Goblin Archer - Goblinoid. Level 2: 9/9 HP, 0/0 MP. A goblinoid further into adolescence that learned how to make, as well as fire, a bow and arrows. Slightly smarter than its kin, this goblin loves to climb trees and fire at its foes with delight in its eyes and grin. Wields: Wood Bow 1-3 dmg”, the window detailed to Logan. The components weren’t listed, as Logan did not care for that information during a fight.

“Weaker than muscles, but a pain if there’s that many in the treeline”, Logan thought to himself.

Trapped in a melee, just as the first man said, were two more adventurers, a female Fighter of level 3 and a male Rogue of level 1. Not a large or overly experienced party, but a small scouting band nonetheless. The Fighter and Rogue were duelling with three muscles, who were just as injured as the humans. Aiding their fight, Logan shot out a dual-wielded round of Forces at the muscles, dealing 13 damage to each and felling them both.

The humans darted their heads over as they saw their ally with two new friends in tow, the light of hope radiating from their eyes. With the upper hand, they were able to finish the final muscle off. Logan saw a new message pop up in front of him.

“Your party is aiding another, a multi-party has been established. Your experience will be reduced by 40% due to having 4 allies.”

Without the need for Identification any longer, Logan saw that the remaining humans were quite weak, the Fighter sitting at 12/46 HP, the Rogue at 2/12. Logan shouted over to Marcus to heal the Rogue first, to which he began casting his spell.

“Got aid I see, hoy there!” the female Fighter shouted, moving to protect the Rogue from archer fire.

Shooting his eyes to the skies, Logan began to assault the archers above with Force after Force, some were able to dodge but not for long. Killing the three treeline foes in five shots, Logan was approached by a charging muscle that was finally able to join the fray, a quick backwards step and Force mick dealt with the foe, which had only 11 HP to its name, easily.

A healing orb shot to the Rogue, easily healing them fully, as Marcus grouped up with the three newcomers. They gave their thanks as the four rallied into a circle formation to defend against a set of 3 scouts who had got close enough to accost them. Flurries of swords, daggers, and staff smash saw an end to the scouts quickly, especially with an aided Force their way.

With the goblins dealt with Logan had expected to see experience popping up, and when he didn’t he snapped his fingers as the local area was detailed on a mini-map. Alongside his allies, he saw 22 other orbs of varying sizes. He was sure that any friendly fauna had scattered from the fight. His allies on the other hand were unawares.

“More incoming, this way!” Logan shouted to his new allies. They all darted their heads to him and started running without question.

The dots on his mini-map started to get closer before the echoes stopped, clicking again updated the map for a few seconds more and allowed him to pre-emptively shoot off a Force deeper into the woods, noticing it hit another scout.

Logan could tell that the newcomers wanted to ask about his quickcasting, but there was no time as the dots of his mini-map changed into clear visuals ahead of him, ten more muscles, five more archers in the trees above, and six scouts dashing ahead of them all.

This morning Logan had prepared 2 casts of Flame and 2 of Gaia, the first being his highest damage and the second being great at crowd control, but he had the perfect opportunity to deal with the charging foes ahead of him.

“Flame Wall!” he chanted, waving his hand over the forest floors as a large wall of flame emerged. Dancing in front of him, the sparks of ember turned the charging scouts to cinders on the other side as they fell into a slide across the mud floors, catching two of the muscles to boot. The wall dealt a hazardous 15 damage to all that tried to barge through it, more than enough to deal with the weaker variants.

Arrows started to fly from up above, pelting into Logan six times, however, only four were able to damage him, dealing 1, 1, 1, and 2 damage. Both his defence rating and damage reduction allowed him to tank these attacks easily. A few rocks were hurled by the remaining eight muscles, but regardless if they got through Logan’s garb they dealt no damage.

Getting cocky, he beckoned the others to continue fleeing, only to let out a countless amount of Force micks into the oncoming goblinoids. Dealing with the muscles before they got too close, Logan was easily able to fell the eight that were approaching as he backstepped to meet up with the others.

The trees made it hard to hit the archers in the trees, but rapid-firing Force micks upwards allowed Logan to hit them every so often. Clicking regularly to keep himself updated, Logan could tell that more were coming from further west.

“More inbound, make it to the road, they are at a disadvantage there”, Logan called out, stopping his Force barrage for a moment.

“Almost there! You’re doing amazing work, sir mage!” the Fighter shouted.

“That he is! Praise be to Desma!” the Rogue added.

Exploding from the treeline yet again, the five adventurers made it back to the dirt road, though no sight of other travellers was seen. The trio of newcomers continued to the eastern edge, though Marcus slowed down a bit to keep a shorter distance to Logan.

“Now this is much easier”, Logan praised in his head as he had shot down the final archer that arrived with the new group. With another snap of his fingers, he was able to see another ten approaching dots, with one larger one in the back. “Another Hobgoblin? That could be a problem.”

Regrouping, the five adventurers shared facial expressions of gratitude. “Fowp is a good 20-minute walk to the east, we can go-” the Fighter started.

“No time, watch out”, Logan interrupted as he saw the dots reach the edge of the forest.

Eight goblins of a new type darted from the trees, followed by two muscles, the larger dot on the mini-map just several seconds behind. The large monstrous yell alerted Logan to its actual form as he remembered its type from the last time, a hobgoblin leader.

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