Andrew hesitated to follow through on the Chief's instructions, looking between me and her for a few seconds without making any moves. Noticing this, the Chief gave him a sharp look that seemed to cause his hesitance to evaporate, prompting him to grimly nod and motion for me to follow him.

Despite obviously being out of breath and tired, the man all but sprinted back the way he came, following a path that he must have unwittingly carved out when he ran here from the tomb. He’s actually fast enough that I had to use intermittent Lightning Steps every now and again just to keep up, which I guess makes sense since he probably has some kind of physically focused Path.

After roughly half a minute of silently running, I notice a small twinge of danger some distance directly ahead and, guessing that it was from the assailants, I increase the speed of my Lightning Steps and overtake Andrew. I didn’t stop to check how he reacts to this, but a few seconds later I stopped hearing his feet hitting the ground, so I assume that he either stopped following altogether or was unable to keep up with my enhanced speed.

Regardless, I soon come upon a clearing in the trees up against a cliff face, with a group of people locked in combat around a conspicuous tunnel in the rock. Two of them were people who I assume to be villagers from Woodhaven attempting to wield spears against a trio of cloaked assailants.

I freeze in place when I see them, three figures wearing all black outfits that cover every inch of skin. The armour didn’t look as well crafted but there was no mistaking the similarities to the figure from the previous night.

Gods, was that seriously just last night? It feels like it's been so long, but I guess that makes sense, what with everything that happened…

One of the thieves split from the melee and ran towards me, holding the dagger in its hand with a tight grip to its side. I gladly took the opportunity to distract myself from my thoughts, quickly pushing a quarter of my Mana into a Charged Bolt.

The effect wasn’t as obvious when I’d tested it previously, but with so much Mana being used to empower it I could clearly sense something being pulled around my skin, like air but also… not. Unfortunately, that did nothing to stall the advance of the thief, and I was only able to get in one burst of Charge before they got uncomfortably close.

If I hit them with this they could die, do I really want their blood on my hands?

I hesitated, but not long enough for the attacker to get close to me. I let the Bolt fly, striking them directly in their chest and sending them flying back with Grand Skewer. By the time the effect faded the front of their armour had been torn open, revealing something white and bony underneath before the figure looked me in the eye and I was distracted by the feeling of something shifting in the air.

No, not the air. The Mana.

A murky green glow leaked out through their armour, being particularly clear in the hole I’d blasted (and coincidentally completely hiding it from view), before it slammed into the figure. In a manner remarkably similar to the last one I fought, they burst into a rain of white shards, only this time it wasn’t localised to just their arm.

I watched, horrified, as leather armour that was once protecting a person fell in loose scraps to the grass, revealing absolutely nothing else where the thief once stood.

“What the hell just happened?”

I broke out of my stupor just soon enough to notice that the remaining two thieves fled in opposite directions, neither sharing even a single word or looking back at their fallen ally.

Unless it’s some weird kind of teleportation. That would explain why they did it so quickly. Yeah! They’re completely fine! I didn’t just kill them.

Well, that’s what I told myself, but I couldn’t help the tiny voice in the back of my mind that told me that they had died, and that I was a murderer now. That I was no better than the Mage Killer. That I’d done something completely irreversible, and I’d soon regret it.

I quashed that voice as quickly as it appeared. It was nonsense anyway, why would someone be so quick to sacrifice themself? It just doesn’t make any sense. Although that’s true for a lot of things…

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“Who the hell are you?” I looked up at the villagers, both of which were staring at me with barely hidden suspicion. Oh, and they were pointing their spears at me. Not good.

“I’m Rob, the Chief sent me to help.” For some reason this only made them more suspicious, and they pushed their spears just slightly closer to me.

“Oh really? And why would the Chief send some random Mage to our hidden tomb. This is the place where we keep our dead, she wouldn’t just let some outsider know where it is. Now tell the truth, or we’ll run ya through.” Despite his big threats and bravado, I hardly felt any Danger from these guys at all. Either they wouldn’t be willing to hurt me, or they simply couldn’t.

Either way worked for me, just as long as I didn’t get stabbed.

“Let the poor boy go, he helped you didn’t he?” Chief Elmwood emerged from the trees, with Andrew in tow.

“Chief! Did ya really let this guy know where the tomb is? What if he tells someone?” The men scrambled to take their spears away from me, stabbing them into the ground at their feet.

“He won’t, you both know that I’m a good Judge Of Character,” Realisation dawned on their faces as she said those last three words, and I realised that there must be something more to it, “And besides, you would have been killed without his help. These thieves most likely have at least one combat Skill, and you two don’t have that much between you, do you?”

“Yes ma’am,” One of them mock saluted, and the other slapped the back of his head. As the Chief began to speak again I just barely heard him mutter ‘ow’.

“Now, what exactly happened here? And where the hell did these bastards go?” The spearmen (who apparently were not Spearmen) looked at each other and then shrugged, foisting the burden of explanation on me.

“There were three attackers, but only two ended up running away. The other one just kinda exploded after I hit him once.” She looked at me dubiously.

“He ‘just kinda exploded’? Really?” I simply pointed at what remained of his leather armour, and she went over to inspect it, “Hmm, now isn’t this strange?”

After rummaging through the pile for a few minutes she stood back up empty handed, although the look on her face made me think that she’d figured something out.

“Did ya find anything out?” One of the men, I don’t know which, asked the question that was on all of our minds.

“Yes, just a little. The pile had parts of just about every article of clothing one would expect to be wearing with leather armour, but there was nothing that looked like it could have been underwear.” We all just looked at her dumbly. Well, I say ‘we’ but it might just have been me to be honest.

“Why does that matter?” I asked, because I really didn’t want to stay out of the loop for too long.

The Chief sighed but allowed my question, “No sane thief would wear leather without something underneath, so this person was either only able to teleport with their underwear and nothing else, or they’re some kind of conjured summon that was equipped with armour.”

I tried not to show it on my face, but a great amount of relief washed over me. I wasn’t a murderer, and I wasn’t just as bad as the Mage Killer. And I also didn’t rip that guy’s arm off yesterday.

Actually, could they teleport just one limb? Or would they?

“I think they must be a summon.” I think someone might have been talking as I said that, but they fell silent after I spoke.

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” One of the spearmen spoke in a challenging tone, as if daring me to be wrong.

“I’ve met one of these guys before,” Everyone looked a little shocked at that, although there was also more than a little bit of suspicion, “Last- last night a farmer let me sleep in their house, because it was so late and I didn’t have camping gear, and someone dressed just like these guys attacked me as I slept. I tried to grab their arm with my Telekinesis Equivalent, but they just kinda dropped it, and then it exploded like this guy did.”

The Chief frowned at this, and looked to be deep in thought for a few seconds, “Where exactly was this?”

“Uhm,” Where the hell was it? Somewhere to the west? “I was on a Job that took me kinda north-westish of Ironhold. It was like half a day’s walk away. No wait, probably more like a full day actually.”

The Chief held a hand to her chin and began to mutter under her breath, whilst the men looked at each other worriedly. After taking a moment to think about it, this whole situation did seem pretty bad. Was there an organisation of people that just stole random stuff? Some kind of thieves’ guild?

“This is bad,” Elmwood finally spoke up, instantly drawing the eyes of everyone nearby, “I don’t know why exactly this group would want to steal from a tomb, but I’ve heard tell of dark magics that require human sacrifices. Perhaps what they truly need is the corpse that comes after.” Oh, that sounds pretty bad actually.

“Should I go and tell someone? Surely Lord Ironhold would want to deal with this?” I asked, since that’s what had happened with the whole Luke ordeal.

“No, we need you to stay and make sure that they don’t manage to get anymore. Who knows what kind of magic they can cook up if given the resources. If we pay you fairly would you be able to stay awake until at least tomorrow?”

I’m kinda already tired, but I already have the Willpower so…

“I’ll do it.”

She nodded at me and then began barking orders at the other people here. They rushed to follow them, sprinting back to the village, and she followed them- though not before saying that she’d send someone up with supplies if I needed them.

If I was gonna be protecting this place, then a good place to start would be closing the door. I walked up to the tunnel and noticed there was actually a lump in the cliff that I think was supposed to be slid to the side to completely hide the entrance. It was actually really realistic, to the point that I hadn’t noticed it was out of place from the edge of the clearing.

Not wanting to get locked inside, I slid the door closed and then stood back just to see the difference.

Man, whoever made this must have been pretty high level. I know it’s there and can’t even see it!

Having hidden the entrance, I leaned back against a tree and settled in to keep watch.

No one’s getting in on my watch.