Logan woke up with a sore body the next day. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he sat up and glanced to his side. A system window floated in front of his vision, reminding him of changes to his status and options for new skills. “Open up the skill choices”, Logan asked quietly.

  The System responded quickly as it brought up a short list.

  “Magic Manipulation (5sp): Lower the cost of quickcasting and silentcasting by 1 stage.

  Magic Aura (2sp): Coat yourself in spellforce, allowing you to interact with non-material beings.

  Magic Jamming (2sp per): Interrupt the spellforce directed at you, negating spells of a level equal to the tier of this skill.

  Magic Sensation (3sp): Have a continual barrier that alerts you to the presence of spellforce that is not allied to you.

  Telepathy (3sp per): Expanding your mind with spellforce, you create a tether with another within sight, or plane at tier 2, and communicate via thought. This creates a 2-way communication.”

  A smirk appeared across Logan’s face as he looked at what had become available for purchase. Whatever foresight he had paid off, after having to spend 2 skill points to improve the Partnered NPC skill for Marcus, he had a theory that later skills or improvements would get more expensive.

  After the 9 skill point reward from the Yestar Tournament and 1 from his Bloodletter identity, Logan had saved up 12 skill points. He couldn’t see the exact power of the skills, nor how many ranks they had outside of Telepathy at two, but a few jumped out at him.

  “Magic Jamming will essentially be the immunity I’ve faced up to this point. If it isn’t gated, that is possibly immunity up to sixth-level spells with what I have left. Sensation is more like a sixth sense, which will help against ambushes. I don’t see how Aura would help me right now, I’ve yet to fight any incorporeal creatures. Telepathy will help with subterfuge and hiding our tactics. Manipulation, however…” Logan planned in his head.

  Clicking a different window, Logan thought, “Let’s get this first.”

  “You have gained the ‘Fledgling Dungeon Participant’ title.”

  “Fledgling Dungeon Participant: After completing your tenth dungeon, be it on your own or in a raid team, you've grown accustomed to the depths of spellforce dangers. People are more likely to accept you into dungeon teams. You have gained 1 skill point to distribute.”

  After selecting Magic Manipulation as his first skill, another window appeared to explain it more clearly.

  “That’s what I thought. Either due to my hybrid class of Spellthief or my position as a PC, I can already Quickcast for free, so since it reduced it by a stage, it counts Silentcasting as Quickcasting, like my Signature Spell. It doesn’t have the same benefit of not being altered by other skills, but it does mean my casting just got a whole lot faster and cheaper”, Logan thought to himself.

  With 8 skill points to spend, Logan ruminated over the decision for a while. None of them were “useless”, but they had varied uses. Seeing and experiencing the impact of being immune to spells, Logan decided to investigate Jamming further by picking it as his second skill.

  Logan crossed his arms as he read over the text. Getting the next tier would make him immune to Sleep and Chain Guard. The Spellthief already had over a 100% chance of absorbing third-level spells, so the maximum tier of this skill was more for when his charges were maxed, or he otherwise couldn’t grab spells aimed at him.

  With the idea of enemies being immune to his attacks, Logan wanted to play it safe with some more diversity. Spending 5 of his 6 remaining skill points, Logan got Magic Aura and Magic Sensation, which were both choices for any class. The skills didn’t have any surprises in their description and worked as the smaller description stated.

  Even with saving up his points and engaging with the tournament, Logan wasn’t able to max out all the newly available skills. But what he had gained was valuable nonetheless. There were always other avenues to gain skill points or tomes to buy to acquire skills with different means.

  Waking Marcus up, Logan had his friend attempt to cast Aqua, the first-level spells, against the Spellthief. As the spell graced Logan’s armour, the spell broke apart as if the atoms no longer wanted to play ball, and its energies and waters fell to the floor before dissipating completely.

  Spending some time at the guild to read and relax, Logan, Marcus, and Amalia made their way to the Lightbeam guildhouse near midday to receive their rewards from the loot gathered in the boss room.

  Patavava approached Logan. The gashriek had since been regenerated from his experience with the mobile dungeon in the north, close to 100 days ago. His brown eyes seemed “hollow”; the life and energy hadn’t returned since his last jaunt out of the city.

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  “Logan. There weren’t any items fitting your requests. You’ll be granted a split of the monetary reward instead”, Patavava informed emotionlessly.

  “Thanks”, Logan accepted as he took a pouch from the gashriek.

  Patavava had exchanged his fire-designed robes for more casual wear, more clerk-like, as if he had become studious rather than explosive.

  Logan looked around the guildhouse, which was full of familiar faces from the raid picking up their rewards or chatting with their allies. One face wasn’t present, though.

  Logan approached Prevesna, the Sub-Leader, with a stern expression on her face. “Cassius already head out?”

  Prevesna sighed. “That he did. I got in probably one sentence last night before I found his room empty in the morning”, she sighed again before continuing, “The mobile dungeon affected a bunch of us, but he’s buried in work.”

  “It’s one way to deal with it. Did he talk about the leader position at all?”

  “No. I wanted to start small talk, but it ended up being incredibly small.”

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  “What can you do? I’ll just have to talk with my guildies about the situation.”

  Logan looked to his side, seeing joyous faces. “It seems like your guild will hang in there.”

  “I promised Woevenk…” Prevesna started before trailing off. “Anyway. Good work with the dungeon. I heard the other locations got dealt with swiftly, and another attack on the guardhouse stopped before it could even start.”

  “Hopefully, we can wrap this all up soon.”

  “Issues pile on other issues. The Helm tensions aren’t helping.”

  Logan raised an eyebrow. “I’ve heard about that a few times now. What’s really happening?”

  “Politics. Difference of opinions and opposing laws. A few dungeons that should have been the jurisdiction of Helm were going untreated and affecting the border settlements and trade, so Gauntlet had to step in. There are also some offences being viewed from Gauntlet at Helm”, Prevesna explained. “We don’t have time for kingdom infighting. The monsters should be the main thing drawing our attention, and the dungeons won’t clear themselves”, she added with frustration.

  “I suppose eradicating dungeons is high on the list, then.”

  Prevesna stared at Logan, as if to say, “Don’t give me more trouble”. She then answered, “I know Cassius is fixated on that. I’ve also heard you’re doing a few, too. If the Magi’s Tower association saw fit to bring more people in on those experiments, we could deal with them quicker. But. Safety first, I suppose.”

  Coughing as if to clear the air and not his throat, Logan said, “Either way. I’ve got other appointments to keep. It was good to see you again and to work with Lightbeam.”

  “Yes. I look forward to our guilds cooperating again.”

  Finishing off the pleasantries at the Lightbeam guildhouse, the trio returned to Vip. However, as if they needed to talk to more people, both an ooran sat atop the guild symbol board pole and Jirango stood with his back on the wall of the guildhouse.

  Approaching the pair, Logan waved at the ooran to get its attention. “Do you have a delivery for Logan Hall, guildmaster of VIP?”

  The ooran nodded and leapt from the pole, landing with a solid thud. Plucking at its chest satchel, it handed an envelope to Logan before flying off.

  Jirango spoke as he pushed off the wall, “I wager that letter is connected to what I got to talk to you about.”

  Logan’s eyes glowed as he looked over both sides of the envelope, detecting no form of magic on it. “If that isn’t concerning. Let's talk inside.”

  Moving to the counter manned by Advelt, the quartet began a long talk.

  “Myself and a few others received similar letters this morning. Representatives of the Cult of Alaska have petitioned us to release the captive members to them. As to ‘deal with it internally’. From what we can gather, this split group that targeted your guild is to be punished by the main body of the cult.”

  “In return?” Logan asked.

  Jirango sighed as he rubbed his chin. “A communal dropping of the issue. They’ll stop attacking, and we’ll stop pursuing.”

  “What’s the consensus?” Logan asked as he looked at his envelope.

  “We technically only have testimonials for their crimes. Little evidence. We can at least imprison or execute the captives as their guilt is confirmed. But when it comes to that skeleton lord and other members who came here, it’s hard to say if they are indeed a splinter cell or acting on behalf of the main party.”

  “Should I tell him about Placido?” Logan thought to himself as he looked back at Jirango.

  “A few members of the MT came around to identify the captives properly, that fountain too. From what they can gather, we’re dealing with at least a Hero, if not an Oracle, for what powers are at play. That… or.”

  “A Blessed”, Marcus interrupted.

  Jirango looked at Marcus and then back at Logan. “Marcus has it.”

  “What’s a ‘Blessed’ then?” Amalia asked.

  “It’s what they called me. Someone ‘chosen’ by a deity to represent them or undertake a task. Though mine was speculation due to my improved spellcasting prowess when I was born with quite low capabilities”, Marcus explained.

  “All three options make the recipients cautious.”

  “Power shouldn’t let them get away with assault, though”, Logan pleaded.

  Jirango chuckled a bit. “Would be nice. But you’ve seen what power brings people. Get a high enough rank, and hardly anyone can touch ya.”

  Logan ran his finger under the envelope, flicking it open and scanning the text. With a sharp exhale of air through his nose, he added, “Yeah. Same thing here. An offer to ‘oust’ the ones who tracked my guild and wipe the slate clean. It’s kinda what I was hoping for, to be honest.”

  “I am wary of the skeleton lord, though. If they aren’t taking responsibility for that monster, who sent it? It certainly tried to help those who attacked the guardhouse”, Jirango thought aloud before eyeing Logan to wait for a response. When one wasn’t given, he added, “No point fussing. Due to the rules with the ooran postal service, we can’t exactly hunt down who sent what. Not as if it would return much of use. I just thought it would be good to check in on you lot.”

  “Thanks for thinking of us”, Logan replied.

  Jirango stood from his stool and shook the trio’s hands. “Right. Should get back. A lot of hunters doing work means I have a lot of paperwork.”

  “We won’t add too much to it for a bit, don’t worry”, Logan offered.

  Jirango chuckled.

  --- *** ---