Battlefield Reclaimer, Ch 27: First Vengeance (Patreon)

It didn’t take Sam and Jeric long to pull apart the blockade. They tore down most of it in less than an hour, and then they paused to take care of a few last matters before they headed out.

Sam divided up the spell scrolls they had left. Three went into his belt pouch and the other two went to his dad. They each had a Fire and Water scroll, and Sam had the extra Earth scroll.

As he was putting everything else into his pack, Sam’s attention was drawn to a crystal sphere sitting on his work table. He wasn't sure what to do with it. It was the Essence Shield he’d used to accept the mana from his dad, when he'd traded him the hammer.

He hadn’t been sure the shield would work to hold the mana, but he’d done it reflexively, like stretching out his hand. The Aura of Crystal Flame and his subclass had already become a significant part of his awareness.

When the Earth mana poured into the shield, the outer edge of it had crystallized. It had turned into this sphere. He could feel the liquid tumbling inside when he picked it up. The mana was too dense to slosh, but it definitely slid back and forth as he tilted it.

His dad had filled him in on the details of his subclass. It seemed the pool was far more important than they had thought...and it was incredible that part of it had crystallized, creating this sphere.

Was this what his dad had done by Trading it with him, something from the World Law? Or was it an effect of his Essence Shield? It wasn’t a lot of mana, just a handful or so. Maybe enough to fill a small cup.

A Sacred Trade.... Sam shook his head again as he put the sphere away in his pack.

They couldn’t waste the Earth mana here, since that would be disrespectful to his father's new life, but maybe it would be possible to take some of it with him? If the Earth had offered it as a blessing to the world, ...shouldn't it be used to improve things?

He could make a lot more weapons and enchantments with it. He headed over to the pool, with crystal flames already surging around him as they built into an Essence Shield.

He studied the silver-white liquid for a minute, and then reached out with his senses to see if it felt alright to take some.

There was only a calm silence from the world.

It didn't take long for him to experiment and scoop up some of the mana, cradling it inside a similar Essence Shield sphere. He looked towards his father to check that it was alright, but Jeric just nodded and let him do it.

The Earth had let him take what he needed before. She didn't mind a little more. He just needed to use it well and respect it.

Almost as soon as the mana touched the Essence Shield, it began to harden, eventually sealing itself into a new crystal sphere. He did it again, testing it out.

He was able to draw up about a cupful of mana each time. It was enough to fill his stylus...at least a hundred times. There were perhaps 300 drops in each sealed sphere.

There wasn't much room in his pack, but the crystal spheres looked durable. He was able to pack ten of them into the bottom, one against the other. Then he added a couple more.

Then he filled up the bottom of his dad's pack too.

They didn't have a lot of things to carry besides that, just some salamander and rat jerky, dried mushrooms, and a few things that were left from their original gear.

The only problem with the spheres was that they were very heavy for their size and they radiated a brilliant heat. He had the feeling that if too many of them were gathered, they would act like embers in a fireplace.

He took a few pieces of salamander hide and wrapped them around the spheres, both to insulate them and to keep them from sliding around. It wouldn't be good if their packs caught on fire.

Even then, the packs were heavy and the straps strained. The mana spheres were as dense as gold.

After that, they packed up everything else they needed. Despite the week or two they’d spent down here, there wasn’t much to take. There was a pile of gnome spears and other equipment on one side of the cave, but Sam incinerated everything else.

They weren’t going to leave anything essential behind here, not when they could end up separated from it. If they were lucky enough to find the exit from the tunnels, who knew if they would be able to come back?

After that, Sam spent a little bit of time investigating the water crystal. The structure of the crystal was still good and the Water rune was extremely simple. He could probably make one of these himself, just like he had made the Water scroll.

With his new experience in enchantment, it didn’t take him long to infuse more aura into it. That was all it needed to last longer. Whoever made it the first time hadn’t put in much. It was a disgrace to the profession.

He wasn’t sure if the crystal would shatter when the aura ran out, but it seemed unlikely. Maybe it was designed to be refillable, once it was taken back to an Enchanter? Then they could charge you based on how much aura they used to empower it again.

The thought raised a few questions in his mind. What did enchantments cost in the world, and were they more expensive based on how much aura was in them?

Maybe it was something the Enchanter’s Guild did to control the price and bring people back. It was something he was going to have to figure out if he wanted to make a living. He put the crystal away in his dad's pack, saving the thoughts for later.

After they regained their mana, they moved the last few rocks out of the way and headed out into the tunnels.

---

The long, curving tunnels stretched to the sides, like the belly of an earthworm. The stones were rippled and dark. It felt like he hadn't been here in ages, but it had only been a couple of days.

The tunnels had seemed incredibly dangerous at first..., but now they could both see down here and their levels were much higher.

It almost felt normal.

Sam grinned as a pulse of energy rushed through him. He gripped the Spear of Umbral Flame in his hand a bit more tightly. He was on an adventure with his dad..., the way things should have gone when he turned 18, if everything had been normal.

Fragmentary legends of intrepid wizards and knights floated through his mind for a moment. Then he laughed at himself and pushed it all aside. It wasn't like they would meet the Earth Dragon of Sarolten or the Boreal Dryad down here, but it did make him think about how he had changed since his Class Day.

He wasn’t the same Sam who had gone down into the ruins, his head full of dreams and despair. Even with the threat of imprisonment and the Guardian's star on his hand..., life had changed for him, moving onto a new path, if he just had the strength to keep going.

It had changed for his entire family. He was excited to see what he and his dad could do now. They turned towards the gnome village, their senses scouting ahead.

Crystal Focus was part of his aura now, active even when his flames were hidden. He was constantly aware of everything within twenty feet of him, from the flow of air to the lichen growing on the walls. His mind wandered through the structure of the walls and felt the density of the stone beneath his feet.

The ability was an unconscious thing that blended with the rest of his enhanced senses, as if the world had simply become a little more transparent to him. He could even feel the flow of mana through the earth, like a slow trickling stream as it headed toward their cave.

The mana pool had to be at the center of a vast network threading through the earth.

The heart of it.

Perhaps that was why they had ended up there, like a ball rolling downhill to the lowest point.

Beside him, his father was a red-eyed mountain moving silently through the dark. His Earth class and new trait made him at home here. The new hammers were at his belt.

Sam nodded as he turned his attention back to the front. He was looking forward to getting some payback from the gnomes.

---

It didn’t take them too long to reach the wall they had collapsed a few days before, about halfway to the gnome village.

This time, there were no patrols investigating it.

As they got closer to the village, the high-pitched clashing of gnomish voices echoed down the tunnel, along with the soft shush-tap-click of the salamanders’ feet. They had flexible pads except for the claws on the end.

Sam exchanged a glance with his dad. They pressed up against opposite sides of the tunnel wall, continuing forward carefully.

They had come to find gnomes. They weren't going to turn around now.

The voices barked again, like gravel clashing as it rolled downhill. It sounded like there were several of them.

Was it another foraging party, like the early gnomes and salamanders, or was it a bigger group?

Flickers of flame curled around Sam’s hands as his heart picked up speed. He looked towards his dad.

His dad gave him a steady look back and nodded. They edged forward, sneaking around the corner.

When they caught sight of the group, it was twice the size of a foraging party.

Four of the small, normal gnomes were digging away at a wall where a reddish liquid was running down the stone. It looked like they were trying to harvest it. The two salamanders were on leashes next to them.

There were two more gnomes that were bigger than the others, but they weren't as big as the marauder had been.

Sam didn’t have much time to study them before he ducked back around the curve in the wall, but it was enough to see the basic details.

Basalt Gnome Warders (Subterranean).

The prompt came and went in Sam’s eyes.

Those two were strange.

It was some type of new gnome class that he hadn't seen before. There was a runic sigil on their foreheads, but it was one he didn’t recognize.

Spell casters of some type?

A fleeting thought passed through Sam’s head as he saw that. It made him think of his own runework.

Were the gnomes civilized after all?

After a moment he shook the idea out of his head. If the gnomes had been a civilized race, they wouldn’t have given them experience. Only monsters, beasts, and crafting did that.

Equally, monsters could kill humans and absorb their experience by eating them.... Perhaps that was why the gnomes had attacked them in the first place.

At any rate, it was time to start their revenge.

He traded a nod with his dad. Then they attacked.

Jeric sprinted around the curve toward the enemies at the same time as Sam jumped out into clear view.

His left hand gleamed as the blue runic circle of Aura Bolt built on his palm.

His new subclass should be much stronger than his old Aura Bolt..., but he wasn’t as confident in its abilities yet.

He went with what he knew.

His aura was at 24 now, but he needed to save some of it to reclaim the monsters' auras. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

Ssssiiiiishhhh.

A crystal blue bolt flashed through the tunnel, empowered with two aura points. It was like crystal lightning as it struck against the closer warder.

Another followed an instant later, striking at the second one on the heels of the first.

The warders had just enough time to see a flash of blue, and the runic sigils on their heads shone. A dim yellow barrier sprang up around them, but it was too late to be effective.

Half of the Aura Bolts’ energies broke through the still-forming barrier and exploded against the warders’ chests, leaving smoking craters behind.

The impact flung the casters back a step.

It wasn’t enough to take them down, but it was enough time for Jeric to arrive.

His father slammed into the two warders and pushed them back farther. The twin hammers in his hands sang with a low resonance as they slammed toward their heads.

At the same time, crystal flames soared around Sam as he switched to his new abilities. The flames wrapped around the spear in his hand and spiraled along its length, before they formed together into a head-sized sphere of radiant, crystal blue.

Arcs of contained energy rose off the sphere's surface as Sam poured two points of mana and two of aura into it, keeping the energies balanced.

His dad’s assault had pushed the two warders back even more, separating them from the rest of the mobs, and that left Sam an opening against the others.

The remaining four gnomes and two salamanders were just starting to turn toward him. Their reactions were quick as they spun to face the source of the attack, but only quick enough to catch sight of the sphere heading their way.

It was his first time using Flame Strike.

He’d been able to use the Aura of Crystal Flame to create a fire attack before, but the version the Guardian had reshaped for his subclass was far more refined. This sphere was only one of the varieties he could use with it.

The sphere burned with his will, roiling like a small, liquid sun in the air as it sped towards the gnomes.

BbooooOOOOMMM!

The sphere collided with the middle one, striking it in the chest. Then it exploded outwards with a whistle of compressed energy that engulfed the gnome in an instant.

The resulting fireball grew larger as the flames tore a path outwards, expanding in concentric rings from the point of impact.

The flames were half liquid and half ethereal.

They burned through the gnomes as if they were barely there. Their dense, basalt skin slowed them down for an instant, but then it cracked and ran, turning molten.

The blast wasn’t too large, only about three feet across at the most intense point, but the explosive force was enough to instantly kill the target and two other gnomes that were the closest to it.

The fourth one staggered back, trying to shield his eyes, even as the two salamanders crouched low to the ground and charged.

Their handlers had dropped their leashes, which meant it was time to attack.

The beasts were short enough that most of the blast had passed over their heads, but their eyes flicked closed with dark membranes to shield their vision.

They raced toward Sam as their claws dug into the stone for traction.

It would be a good test to see if his flames worked on them, but he wasn’t going to place all of his bets on it.

A reliable Aura Bolt sped towards one at double strength, piercing through its skull in an instant.

The attack knocked it backwards and for a moment it didn’t realize it was dead, its legs still moving in a blur. Then it tumbled head over heels and crashed into the wall, rolling to a stop in a pile of disorganized reptilian limbs.

A moment later, an arrow made out of crystal flame flickered into existence with a pure, translucent gleam. It speared through the head of the second. The second salamander dropped to the ground as well, falling near the other.

Sam had infused one point of both aura and mana into the arrow. It was more efficient than the fireball for single targets.

At the same time, a whistling sound approached, grabbing his attention, as the last gnome threw its spear.

He had just enough time to summon up a flaming shield in front of him before it crashed against it.

The spear bent at an angle, shooting away to strike against the wall.

Then the shield faded, replaced by another crystal flame arrow that tore through the last gnome's chest. It exploded out the other side, nearly ripping the monster in half.

Sam was down to 18 mana and 14 aura. The shield had taken two points of each, but the arrows only one.

He spun toward where his dad was facing off against the warders, but Jeric didn’t need the help.

The two warders had already been smashed into the ground, their skulls half crushed.

Jeric was standing next to them, looking towards Sam as he waited.

“Come finish them off,” he suggested calmly, as he looked over the battlefield. “I wasn’t sure if you’d get class experience for these two, so I waited for you.”

Jeric’s posture...was completely different than the dad Sam remembered.

He had always been confident in his own way, but it had shown only in his smile and his persistence.

Now, those same qualities were radiating from his body, combined with a much greater build and more prominent muscles. The twin hammers were steady in his hands.

Every line of his posture was graceful death.

Sam stared at him for an instant before he remembered to close his mouth.

“Hurry up then!” Jeric called, with a slight grin. “Come get this gnome!”

He had always wanted to take his son adventuring and to look after him.

Now, he’d finally got the chance.

Sam just grinned back at him as some of his worries flew away.

As long his dad was around, things would be fine.

The thought didn't bother him, even if he was 18 now. He could take care of things himself..., but it was nice to have his dad around.

They would deal with whatever came up together.

He headed towards the gnomes as two more crystal arrows formed in the air above his hand.

KRriiiissShh.

KRRiissSSh.

The arrows shot forward and slammed through the heads of the gnomes, finishing them off.

His dad had a point. He wasn’t sure if using Aura Bolt would count towards his class experience or not.

Maybe it would..., since the whole battle was within the range of his Crystal Focus ability.

That could count, but it was hard to say.

It was something to test out later, when it didn’t matter.

“You take the experience from all of these,” Jeric suggested as he walked a few steps away and looked towards the gnome village. He took up a watchful pose. “We’ll see how many of them are in the tunnel as we go forward. When our levels are closer, we’ll take turns. You can still do a lot of quick growth right now.”

Sam nodded as he bent down towards the gnomes. This time, he chose to get the experience first, as he reached out for that twisted thread of energy that ran through the monsters.

The silver chime of experience rang in his mind, shimmering with a high-pitched note.

“Sam, don’t forget about the Charisma!” Jeric called to him. He sounded very emphatic about it.

Sam gave an internal sigh as he mentally regulated a couple of future points to that...useless stat.

Before he looked at the notifications, he went back and gathered the experience from the regular gnomes and salamanders too.

The silver chime sounded again, ringing out happily at the same time as sparkling chimes of positivity flowed through his bloodstream, boosting his mood.

The voice of the World Law rang out in his mind.

You have used your Class abilities to slay your enemies.

You gain 9,950 Class experience.

Congratulations, Scion! You have gained five Class Levels.

You are now a Level 13 Battlefield Reclaimer.

Experience to Next: 3,350.

...

You have gained three General Levels.

You are now Level 13.

Experience to Next: 1,050.

You gain +5 Aura and +5 Intelligence. You have 11 free status points to assign.

The World Law summarized all of his gains with the final sentence and the notifications faded away.

The surging chimes of energy in Sam’s blood continued to build, pouring new strength into him as he felt his stats rising.

His Aura and Intelligence went instantly from 24 to 29.

The experience was far more than he had expected to get from the gnomes, and for a moment he was stunned into silence.

Was this what it was like to level by fighting all the time?

No wonder combat classes were the highest....

This time, the World Law had said nothing about using his Enchanting abilities in battle. It simply said he’d gained experience for using his class abilities to slay his enemies....

Whatever had happened with his sub-class, it was definitely giving him full class experience for using it.

The salamanders and regular gnomes were only 50 to 100 experience each, and Sam did the quick calculation to figure out what that meant about the warders.

He had a better understanding of the experience requirements up to Level 20 now, after he had compared notes with his dad. He also checked his status sheet to see what his total experience was.

As he did, he adjusted his status sheet and moved a few things around to make it more obvious how he was progressing.

It was like mental chess, but he was figuring it out. It seemed the World Law didn’t mind how you accessed the information.

General Level 13: 14,950 / 16,000.

Battlefield Reclaimer, Level 13: 12,650 / 16,000.

Now, his status clearly showed how much experience he needed to the next level, rather than just telling him how much to the next.

Level 14 would take 16,000 experience. As he adjusted that, he realized that he had just barely managed to get to Level 13 in Battlefield Reclaimer. That took 12,500.

Monsters usually gave you about half of their total experience..., which meant the gnome warders had been around Level 12. That level required 9,500 total experience, which was almost everything he had just earned.

There was a bit of experience for the other enemies, but they were so much lower that it barely mattered. It looked like the next few levels would be 3,000 experience or more each. Sam shook his head as he thought about it.

The difference between that and the first few levels he’d picked up in the tunnels was staggering. If it continued to scale past that..., how much experience did it take to get to Level 100?

Or even Level 50?

No wonder all the crafting classes in the village were only around level 15 to 20-something.... There were only a few who were in their high 20s.

Surtek, the village Smith, was the highest at Level 30 or so. People didn’t always share their level information with you freely, but it wasn’t that hard to figure it out, even if only the Seer-type classes could see the details.

His father’s words were still ringing in his mind as he decided where he should put the points.

He sighed as he assigned four of them to Charisma, pushing it back up to 8. That should be enough, right? That’s what he had before the Outsider transformation....

He looked towards his dad, who had 8 Charisma, and how fierce he seemed.

If Jeric got back to the village looking like this...

Small children would either run up to him and hug his leg, because they hadn’t developed fear yet, or there would be a new legend of the terrifying Marauder who would steal you from your bed and turn you into a midnight snack.

After crushing you into pulp.

Maybe 8 Charisma wasn’t enough. He looked like a demon, after all.... What was his mother going to say when she saw him? Maybe he could find a way to hide it before then?

He grimaced as he put two more points into Charisma, bringing it up to 10. It wasn’t Charisma keeping him alive right now, ...but he had decided to be more responsible. Even if that was more than half of the free points he had gained.

He felt his appearance shifting slightly, with a hum of energy that ran beneath his skin. Certain areas grew hot for a moment and others shifted infinitesimally, making his features more symmetrical and refined. There were a few other changes as well, but he couldn’t see all of them. He just felt his body itching.

When it finally stopped, he felt a bit more comfortable in his own skin, but it was hard to pin down what had changed. He turned his attention towards the remaining points.

He added two each to Aura and Intelligence, bringing them to 31, and the last one to Agility, bringing that to 14. Agility would at least help him move faster if he needed to dodge something.

His Class was something like a Wizard, but he needed almost every attribute.... Aura and Intelligence were his main stats, Constitution was for his lifespan and defense, Charisma was for making people accept his new appearance.... He might even need more Strength for smithing, since that was mentioned in his class description.

Agility and Wisdom were the only ones that were somewhat optional, and those had major benefits too. More Wisdom would help him reclaim auras, and Agility was needed to keep up with fast-moving battles.

Sam shook his head, with the taste of hard choices on his tongue. Maybe investing in Charisma was another one of those things he couldn’t change, like the star on his hand.

Hopefully, 10 would be enough.

At any rate, he needed to gather the auras before they dissipated.