Battlefield Reclaimer, Ch 23: Contract Mark (Patreon)

Jeric gave Sam a steady look as he considered the ramifications of everything he had just learned about this...seal and the Guardian.

There were still some things he needed to ask to make sense of all this. Sam hadn't told him everything yet.

“Wait..., Earth Vision is obvious,” Sam interrupted, pulling Jeric's attention away from the more serious matter. “But what about the other abilities?”

Jeric’s eyes glowed with a bright red now, similar to the gnomes. He was able to see clearly in the darkness of the tunnels.

He had just explained all the details of his new class to his son, but it wasn’t clear to Sam what the abilities did.

“Twin Hammers, Enhanced Physique, Earthen Shield, and Earth Sense.” Jeric nodded, smiling as he let Sam’s enthusiasm pull him away from the real questions for a moment.

“Twin Hammers is the ability that let the marauder use those two hammers so easily at the same time,” he added, thinking over the information he’d received about the class.

His class had come with a lot more information on its skills and abilities than Sam’s.

Fortunately, Battlefield Reclaimer wasn’t broken for Sam any longer....

Since it was a unique class, at least he didn't have to worry about Altey inheriting it from him. Only Sam had to deal with it.

Children didn’t always inherit their parents’ class, especially if the parents had wildly different ones.

Altey could be a Historian like her mother, an Arcane Researcher, or something that hadn’t even existed in their family before. It was most likely that she would be some type of arcane class, given their history.

Aemilia's family had a strong line of Visionaries in it, which was a class similar to Seers, but they were more focused on long-distance sight and communication. There hadn't been one of them in the last generation, but...it was always possible it would reappear.

He pulled his attention back to Sam's questions and his new class.

“Enhanced Physique is...well, you can see the difference,” Jeric said, as he tapped himself on the chest. All of his muscles were well defined now.

“Earthen Shield is the one the marauder used to block the spells you cast at it, and it’s mostly good for that exact purpose. It can block other things too, but that is what it’s the best at.”

Jeric rubbed at his beard thoughtfully as he considered the last ability.

“And Earth Sense....” He frowned. “That’s...basically a special awareness of what's around me while I'm underground or when I’m standing on the ground. It’s probably how the marauder spotted you so quickly. It should be useful in a fight for sensing what’s around me. I think dwarves have something similar, in a few of their classes.”

Jeric waved the question away. He could think about it another day.

“There’s a chance for all of them to evolve into higher tiers,” he finished. “But right now, we should talk about that mark on your hand.”

Sam was too excited by the changes in his dad to be pulled back to that less pleasant topic so easily.

As soon as he heard about Twin Hammers, an idea spun into his mind.

“I have two Auras of Basalt...,” he spoke up suddenly. “And there are those two hammers from the gnome. I’ll see if I can enchant them for you.”

“That would be helpful,” Jeric agreed, but he wasn't so easily distracted, even by the idea of two new weapons. “Let’s block off the door and then we can talk about a few things.”

Sam could only nod this time as he helped pull his dad to his feet. He tried to think of other delays, but nothing was coming to mind.

Jeric dusted his clothes off and rearranged the fragments of the rathide tunic, before he nodded. He felt pretty good.

There were still those 32 free status points, but it only took him a few moments of thought to decide where to put them.

His base stats had changed with the new class and his entire focus was on physical strength now. That made it simple.

After the Earth mana infusion, his Strength and Constitution started at 12. The levels had added 16 more automatically, putting both of them at 28.

With the free points, he added a dozen more to both Strength and Constitution, bringing them each to 40.

He put the last eight into Agility.

He had been whipcord lean when he’d unlocked the class, but after gaining all that Strength and Constitution, the muscles across his body swelled with crushing force.

His physique changed to that of a powerful warrior, muscled in every part. He could also feel his skin hardening as it became denser.

Much denser.

Some of the silver streaks faded from his hair with the injection of vitality, making him look younger, perhaps in his mid-thirties.

His ribs itched as the new Constitution began to speed up his healing. The crack that was still in his hip did the same as it began to fuse together at an extremely quick pace.

With a Constitution at 40, minor injuries wouldn’t last for more than a couple of days. Broken bones would fuse together in three or four, as long as they were set properly.

The infection from the rats was no longer something he needed to worry about. It was also unlikely their claws could do more than leave a white line on his skin.

He pulled up his status sheet to check everything.

Jeric Hastern

Level: 17

Total Experience: 30,525.

Experience to Next: 4,475

Class: Earthen Marauder (Rare). Level 17.

Class Experience: 30,525.

Experience to Next: 4,475

Sub-Class: None.

Professions: None.

Race: Human

Health: 400

Aura: 10
Mana: 10

STR: 40

CON: 40

AGI: 18

WIS: 10

INT: 10

AUR: 10

CHA: 8

Racial Abilities: None.

Class Abilities: Twin Hammers (Ambidextrous), Enhanced Physique, Earthen Shield (Advanced), Earth Vision (Subterranean), Earth Sense.

It was definitely more than he’d ever expected to have.

The Agility should be enough to deal with most things down here. His Agility had only been 10 before and the marauder hadn’t been that much faster than him.

With his Charisma so low, he probably looked wild and ferocious, something to scare children with to make them behave.

That didn’t matter much, but it did remind him of a potential problem when they left the tunnels.

“Sam, make sure to bring your Charisma up a bit,” he suggested. “I’ll probably be fine with 8, ...but you need a bit more there. People are going to react to your transformation, and it would help if they find it charming rather than shocking when they see you.”

Hopefully, Sam could get a few more levels before they made it home, so they could smooth that out.

“Alright,” Sam agreed easily, shrugging as he made a note to do something with it in the future. He could always add a few free points there later, ...once they weren’t nearly dying in every fight.

“Don’t forget,” Jeric warned him, frowning. “You remember how much Outsiders startled you, before we came down into the ruins? No one will know your Race is an Outsider, not unless they have a Seer-type class, but your appearance fits with some legends of demons...and those are definitely an Outsider.”

It was true.

Outsiders were terrifying and if Sam had seen someone who looked like him before.... Well, he would have either run the other way or tried to kill it.

He was still thinking of himself as human most of the time, but...the villagers wouldn’t even know it was him, would they?

As soon as someone saw him, they'd probably think he wanted to eat them.

“Don’t forget!” Jeric repeated. “Your mother and Altey are going to see you too. We don’t want to shock her too much. ...I still don’t know how to explain it to her.”

“...Alright, dad,” Sam sighed, as he gave in to the inevitable. He would have to save some points for it, and then maybe his appearance wouldn’t startle people.

There were stories of...good-looking demons out there, right?

The nice type?

Still, he didn’t have any points left right now, so it would have to wait until later. He pushed it to the back of his mind.

“Right, now let’s block that entrance,” Jeric said, as he started to move towards the opening. He could see everything clearly now, including how badly constructed his deadfall was.

He shook his head in disbelief as he curled and uncurled his hands, testing out the strength in his new muscles.

He could do better than that.

---

Sam and Jeric moved quickly to block the opening, piling it full of loose rocks and then sliding some larger chunks of stone behind it on their side, making it look like a cave in.

There were still gaps for air in the walls, so there was no need to worry. They could always dig themselves out if needed.

The work proceeded quickly with Jeric’s new strength.

He was able to move boulders like they were toys, and when a chunk of stone got in the way, one or two blows of his hammer shattered it to pieces.

Actually..., that old hammer was starting to look a bit battered. Sam was going to have to do something about that.

Whether it was his father’s new strength or the Twin Hammers ability, as soon as Jeric had a hammer in hand now, it blurred through the air.

If they’d tried this a few days before, it would have been much harder. Now, they didn’t have to worry so much about being trapped.

They could always dig their way out in another direction.

It wasn't clear if the gnomes would come back with more forces, so they decided to take a couple of days to make sure they were at their best before facing them again.

The blocked entrance would give them enough time to prepare if something came by.

Before then, Sam needed to work on some enchantments and they also needed to reconsider their tactics with Jeric's new class.

After that..., they’d make sure Sam got a few more levels on the way out.

A grim smile spread across Jeric’s face as he looked towards the gnomish village.

He had unfinished business there, both to pay back the gnomes for almost killing him and to see what was on the other side.

Hopefully, that was the route to the surface.

If not, they could explore the other direction.

---

When the opening was buried, Jeric turned toward Sam and gestured for them to both have a seat.

“Let me see your hand,” he said, nodding towards the star that Sam had there now.

Sam had been hoping to avoid this conversation for a while longer.

He hesitated, feeling conflicted, but eventually he forced himself to sit down and hold out his hand to his dad.

The World Law was apparently...not what he’d always thought. He’d also nearly gotten himself thrown in prison for yelling at it.

If what the Guardian had said about Aster Fall being a seal were true...and that the world would be destroyed if that seal broke...

Well, he understood why being Defiant could be a bad thing now. If you defied the World Law, you were...sort of damaging the seal.

He had been trying to ignore all of that and what the star meant by focusing on his dad’s new class and the hope for the future.

Now, it seemed like he couldn’t put it off any longer, so he let out a deep sigh, feeling defeated.

He was only 18, and his view of the world had been limited before this. All of these new realizations and the idea that he could somehow...fix or break the world...were not something comfortable for him.

All he’d ever wanted was to have a class that worked and to help his family. A clear path, a little bit of power, some friends to hang out with, and...

Well, spending some time with Nasya back in the village would have capped it off for him.

The excitement about his class and being able to enchant was wonderful, but he’d really only seen it as a quick path to money and success.

And it was fun.

Unfortunately, he was going to have to grow up a lot more quickly than he’d expected.

“It’s a nine-pointed star,” he finally said, shaking his head as he showed the mark to his dad. He forced himself to think about what had happened as he explained more of it.

“It’s the mark that the Guardian left there. He said it was a contract.”

Now that he had to remember it, the feeling of the nothing that he’d been trapped in came back to him, as well as the overwhelming pressure from the Guardian.

That cold, authoritative voice of the World Law had resonated through all of reality. It had condemned him without even a trial.

Then, he'd had to promise the Guardian that he would protect the World Law....

It was the price for healing his father and for saving his own life, so he was willing to do it.

He’d do it again in an instant.

But...he still couldn’t bring himself to like it.

Not yet. Even if it weren't the one who caused the problem, it still hadn't tried to help. The Guardian had done that.

His father was much more forgiving than he was.

“A contract mark?” Jeric asked, as he held Sam’s hand between his own and studied the star on the back. “Tell me everything.”

Jeric’s hands were larger and stronger than they had been before. He’d even gained a few inches in height. With his new physique, he was an imposing presence.

But still reassuring.

Sam was caught in the midst of his thoughts, as he struggled to make sense of everything in a way that he could accept.

There were hard truths about life.... Some were things he could change and others were things he could do nothing about.

The mark on his hand was one of the things he could do nothing about.

The Guardian’s words came back to him.

“I’ll offer you another choice...a temporary delay on your execution.”

That was what this mark really represented.

Death.

The threat of imprisonment.

A bit of hope.

“Let’s focus on the most important thing first,” Jeric suggested, as he gave Sam a steady, serious look. He wanted direct answers this time, rather than the scattered bits Sam had mentioned before.

Slowly, Sam began to explain, from the beginning to the end, as his dad asked questions to pull out more.

“What is the threat you present?” Jeric asked, confused, before Sam had got to the end.

“Why did the Guardian help us? The World Law almost sent you to a prison. Why would he, or they, give you a way out?”

Jeric was confused as well. From his perspective, the idea that his son was dangerous to the world was...ridiculous.

Sam wouldn’t even hurt a stray cat.

When Sam had mentioned the Guardian before, he’d just said that the person had saved them. He hadn’t given Jeric all of the details.

The more Jeric thought it over, the stranger this entire bargain seemed, both because the Guardian saw Sam as a threat and because he had then helped them. He wasn’t clear on what Sam could offer in return.

“He wanted my help,” Sam replied, as he thought back to the details of their bargain. “It’s true that he could have been a lot worse to us.”

Now that Sam had more time to think about it..., the Guardian could have just killed him and solved the problem that way.... It seemed he hadn’t wanted to do that.

It would have been simpler.

He should probably thank him, if he ever talked to him again.

“He wants me to work on the seal from the inside...,” Sam explained, but he couldn’t say very much because he didn’t understand it himself.

“The contract mark is supposed to tell me what to do.” He looked down towards the star on his hand. “The Guardian left information inside it.”

“Can you access it?” Jeric asked, frowning.

Whatever help the Guardian wanted from Sam, it had to be worth the risk...and the effort he’d put into it. That meant that whatever Sam could offer, it was something very important.

On top of that, it sounded like the Guardian was dealing with something pretty serious when it came to this seal..., and that he was willing to do whatever it took to protect it.

“Yes...,” Sam answered reluctantly, as his hand brushed across the top of the star. As soon as he did, a string of silver-starred notifications appeared, stretching out in his mind.

They detailed the entire conversation he'd had with the Guardian, including a few things he’d forgotten. One by one, he read them to his dad.

When he got to the part about the seal being a death sentence and the Guardian offering a temporary stay of execution, Jeric interrupted.

“What?!” Jeric shouted, turning furious. No one was allowed to harm Sam! He didn’t care if it was the World Law or this Guardian....

Jeric growled as he pulled himself back together and focused on the fact that Sam was still fine.

...It seemed like the Guardian was the one helping, so he tried to think of a way to make it all sound better, so Sam wouldn’t worry about it too much.

He would do the worrying for him.

“Don’t worry about it, son...,” Jeric said, as he wracked his brains for a way to make sure everything worked out.

“...What is life besides a temporary delay of execution anyway?”

Jeric shook his head. It was obvious the Guardian wanted to fix the problems with the World Law and the seal.

He just couldn’t.

That was why he’d asked Sam to be his servant instead, like his hands in the world. Perhaps saving Sam was all he could do.

At first, Jeric had only known that the Guardian had saved him, but now that Sam had explained the full story, it was clearly much more complicated than that.

"It sounds like this Guardian is...sort of like a town guard then, but the town is too big for him to manage." Jeric tried to put it all together as he mused. "Except that the town is all of Aster Fall, and it is...also a seal that is keeping a bunch of terrible things in a prison, or blocking them from entering it, apparently.

"We're stuck on that world, in the middle of it all, and somehow, you're able to do what the Guardian isn't, which is to fix the problems that occur here. Perhaps it has to do with those resources he mentioned, that it took to call him, or that you're on the world while he can't come in.

"Then there's the idea of these Outsiders.... From the way the World Law treated you, the Outsiders are a threat to the seal. If that matches with the legends that Outsiders as evil, and with what the Guardian said..., then the Outsiders might be the things inside the seal. There might even be other groups of them that are still trying to get into Aster Fall.

"When you threatened it, the World Law thought that you were like those Outsiders, so it summoned the Guardian to deal with you. That's why he came to fight you and put you in the prison."

Jeric paused to think as the idea started to become clearer in his mind.

"That means the World Law is constantly on the watch for Outsiders in the world..., just like it was when we were in the ruins and it spoke to you. They must be a threat somehow, and that's what the Guardian wants your help to deal with. Perhaps he wants you to stop them from coming into the world, or to fix the flaws in the seal that allow them to enter.

"Instead of fighting you and throwing you into prison, though, he read your memories and found out that you didn't have any idea about all of this.... So, he let you off, if you agreed to help him do his job."

"It may not have been much of a choice...." Jeric shook his head as he thought about it. "But it was more than some people get and he also helped us out of a bad situation."

Life was not kind to people without power or influence. If the Guardian had been a normal guard..., he probably wouldn't have even asked a question before throwing Sam into that seal. Then, both he and his son would be dead.

The Guardian had been nicer to them than he needed to be, even if it raised questions about why he had treated Sam that way.

"In the end, he could have just killed you, but he didn't," Jeric concluded. His temper rose again at the thought of it, but he pushed it back down. Sam was fine.

"He gave you a way out, and perhaps he even went against the World Law for you to do it. He also told you exactly how important the job was, and that the world depended on it. That can only be because he saw something useful in you that would help him.

"That contract star..., it sounds like it will tell you what to do, whenever it decides to activate." Jeric frowned again as he looked down at the star on Sam's hand.

"I still don't understand everything about this seal, or how the world is part of it, but...if there is something threatening Aster Fall, then saving it is also good for us. It's just like when we work with the other villagers to protect the walls from beasts. It's something that we have to do together."

"The best thing to do now..., is to think of it as a job." Jeric summed it up as he looked steadily at Sam. He was trying to make all of this simpler for his son at the same time as he processed it for himself.

"It seems to me that you got hired as a town guard, even if it's a very junior one..., and that star is the sign of your status. As payment, the Guardian kept you out of that prison, gave me a new chance at life, and even gave you a subclass. That doesn't sound like a bad deal overall. We may not know the rest of what's going on, but I imagine that the star will tell you when the time is right."

"I still don't know how I can help with any of this," Sam protested. His head was tilted to the side as he considered his father's words. It was similar to what he had been thinking, but more complete in some areas.

"How could I possibly fix the seal if the Guardian can't? All he said was that it's related to my class and my race."

"I don't know either," Jeric replied as he shook his head.

It was a lot to take in all at once, but whatever was going on with the world and this seal, and with all the other strange things that they’d both just learned about..., one thing was very clear to him.

"But I do know one thing." Jeric looked steadily at his son as he promised, “Whatever happens, I’m not going to let you do it alone.”