Battlefield Reclaimer, Ch 33: A Camp Divided (Patreon)

Sam was staring around the area, his thoughts muddled. The two guards settled down on the opposite side of the cavern and were muttering to themselves, but they stayed out of the way.

It created a clear division between the two sides.

Only the shocked girl was still undecided, but she continued to stand next to Jeric, staring blankly into the distance, as if she didn't know what to do. From time to time, she looked at Sam and then quickly looked away again, trying to conceal a shudder.

"It's fine...," Jeric was saying to her, his voice low and calm. It seemed like he was repeating himself. "That's my son, Sam. He's not a demon."

Just then, the dwarf...Krana..spoke up again, drawing his attention back to her.

“You should loot those two gnomes before anything else,” she suggested, nodding towards the two shamans that were on the ground not too far away from them. “Getting a level or some more Constitution could help you heal up. Ayala is just adjusting her view of things. She'll be alright. I'll stick with you for a bit, since otherwise the guards might try something."

Sam looked down at himself and took stock of his injuries. There were streaks of black char all along his arms and hands, his rathide tunic was little more than shreds of burnt cloth, and most of the skin that he could see was reddened and covered in cracks. Through the cracks, he could see seared, clotted blood.

If he hadn't looked like a demon before, he probably did now.

Sam nodded as he let Krana help him towards the shamans. Healing would be good..., and gaining more Constitution would help speed that along. He also needed to get a few more auras..., if he could. He was entirely out and they were life-saving resources, as well as the source of his enchantments.

When he got to the corpses, he bent down and touched the two shamans. A moment later, silvery chimes sang in his ears as notifications appeared. He felt the surging joy of new levels bubbling through his blood, bringing with it a rush of new energy that helped to clear his mind.

You have used your Class abilities to slay your enemies.

Congratulations, Scion. You have reached the maximum experience you can gain from a single encounter.

You gain 100,000 Class experience.

You have gained six Class Levels. You are now a Level 29 Battlefield Reclaimer.

Total Experience: 189,775 / 200,000.

You have gained five General Levels. You are now Level 29.

Total Experience: 192,075 / 200,000.

You gain +6 Intelligence, +6 Aura, and have sixteen free status points to distribute.

He had never heard of maximum experience before, but he just accepted the notifications as he moved on. The new Aura and Intelligence added some new essence, which also made him feel a bit better.

The shamans had to have been in their mid-twenties, at least, to give him 100,000 experience together. You only got half the experience from a monster and Level 25 had required 107,000 total to reach. So, they must have each been close to that.

He pushed the thoughts out of his mind as he searched for the auras, trying to get to them before they dissipated, and then he paused...debating if he should add anything to Wisdom first.

It would help him get more auras in the future, and...at the moment he was realizing that he needed a lot more of every attribute. That wizardess had tried to kill him on sight.

The gnomes here were already at the maximum 50% to reclaim the auras..., and he didn’t think more Wisdom would help with that now that it was identified. If his guess were right, it would only help boost his chance to identify and reclaim new auras.

Being attacked on sight also drove home the fact that he needed more Charisma and Constitution.

He sighed as he put five points in Charisma, six into Constitution, and the last five into Wisdom anyway. It brought him up to 20 in Charisma, 26 in Constitution, and 15 in Wisdom.

He felt the changes spreading through his body, pouring new strength into his damaged nerves and muscles.

It felt like the Wisdom was expanding his world view, as some things became more clear to him. It felt a little easier to accept the existence of the Guardian’s star on his hand and the reality of what had just happened.

Was that the effect of Wisdom?

The Charisma brought its customary itch as his body readjusted. This time, it was accompanied by the vigorous rush of new Constitution. The points he'd just added were more than 25% of what he'd had before, and as they flowed through his body in a surge of vitality, his injuries improved. He could also feel his body becoming more durable and his regeneration increasing.

As he hit 20 in Charisma, he felt a strange force all around him that was part of his Aura of Crystal Flame as well as his mind.... He wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt like there was a sense of personality in his energy now.

Was this the red aura his father was using against the guards? That had to have been the Persuade ability..., but it relied on Charisma too.

He couldn’t tell for sure, but it felt like the Charisma was somehow enhancing his essence. It wasn’t a lot, probably only as much as a single new point of Intelligence and Aura, but it was more than had been there before.

He still didn’t like putting his points into Charisma, but if he wanted to live in the world.... The attack just now had proved it was going to be difficult if people attacked him at first glance.

Hopefully more Charisma would help, but he had the feeling he was going to have to find some type of disguise. The adventurers' reactions to him had been too severe.

As for his Intelligence and Aura, which built up his essence reserves..., they weren’t nearly as high as he would like, but he didn’t have the points to raise them any more. He would have to collect enough auras that it didn’t become a problem, and always keep a bunch of them on hand for emergencies.

It was eating at him right now that he’d used them all up.

His aura had recovered to eight points with the new levels, which gave him enough energy to reclaim the auras around him. The aura from the first shaman floated into his hand and then towards the storage space with the familiar taste of dusty basalt and the pressure of the ages.

Despite the gnome’s level, it was only a Basic aura, which left him puzzled. It was the same thing that had happened before with the marauders.

Did he need to get his Reclaim Aura ability to Advanced before he could get the higher form of auras? Sam shook his head internally as he turned towards the next shaman. That was the most likely reason.

Another point of aura disappeared as he searched the second shaman. Unfortunately, this aura slipped out of his hands and left only an ashy taste in his mouth.

He’d just upgraded his offensive abilities and if he wanted to get Reclaim Aura to Advanced too..., it was either going to have to wait until Level 40 or he’d have to train it the old-fashioned way.

With a lot of practice.

He turned towards the warlord’s corpse, heading there next. He trudged across the room with Krana’s help, heading for it. The dwarf was a good assistant, steadying him with one hand, as the Constitution he’d just added continued its work.

Adding new Constitution gave you a faster increase than waiting to regenerate, and he was already feeling a new sense of energy pushing away his fatigue. He bent down towards the warlord, searching for its aura, and as he did, an unexpected notification appeared.

Congratulations, Scion. For slaying an opponent twenty levels over your own and reaching the experience limit, you gain the Trait: Dauntless.

[Dauntless: Adds +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma.]

A burst of new strength infused him as the Trait was added, further accelerating the healing process. The new Constitution brought him to 28 and the Charisma to 22.

That was...unexpected. How strong had the warlord been? He’d been level 24 before, which meant it had been at least 44. That was a huge difference.

Had his father met with the same experience cap from this one? He was the only other person who should have been able to loot it. Puzzlement flashed through his mind.

Why was there a maximum experience gain...? And what was happening to the rest of it? Was it just not possible for a person's body to take in that much energy at once or was the World Law taking the experience for some other purpose...?

Experience was a form of energy, after all.

The questions didn’t have a good answer, so he set them aside for later. The warlord's aura slipped into his hand and then into his storage. Fortunately, it was a success, even if it was still Basic.

He supposed he couldn’t get everything all at once. He’d have to train the ability on a lot more monsters to upgrade it. At some point, he should be able to reach a new level of understanding and it would start to work.

What sort of an enchantment could he make with an Advanced aura? Would it just increase the attributes on the item or do something else too?

He turned again and headed back through the village, up to the remains of the fort. It really hadn’t been very long, so hopefully all of the auras would still be there.

Krana stuck with him, both as a guard and an assistant, as she kept a protective eye on him. He wasn’t sure why he was so important to her or why she was so sure that they would be friends, but her steadfastness was already making him like her.

He’d always admired the dwarves for their culture and crafting skills, but she was the first one he’d ever met. She was making him feel that the old legend about a dwarf being the greatest friend in the world was true. There was a steadiness to her pace beside him that never faltered.

Now that she’d made up her mind, it was clear she wasn’t going anywhere.

The auras from the other gnomes were still there, the ones that he hadn’t been able to grab when the warlord attacked them. From the eight corpses left in the fort, he ended up with four auras. There had been one more, but he’d had to combust it to get enough points to grab the others.

He had six Auras of Basalt now, which was almost as many as he’d had before the fight. It made him feel a bit better. They were a reassuring presence, each of them standing in for some potential aura or mana.

As he was heading back to the group, the words from the conversation he had overheard while he was coming out of the Earth wall finally hit him, and he realized that he’d killed the wizardess who had attacked him.

Somehow.

Apparently, those crystal arrows he’d thrown had taken care of her.

He felt a trace of surprise that it had been so quick. What sort of wizard didn’t try to defend herself? Or had her enchantments not worked against essence-based spells? Maybe she’d had a shield that was only attuned to mana?

Either way, it didn’t matter anymore.

He asked himself if he should feel guilty about it, but a moment later, he pushed the thought out of his mind. She had tried to kill him, and that was enough for him to be glad that she was dead. His father might have told him to be more considerate of the ramifications of his actions, but for right now he was still limping from the lightning bolt she’d thrown at him.

Sympathy could wait.

When he returned to his father's side, the other girl, the one wearing a white and blue dress, was sitting down next to Jeric. Her expression had eased up a bit, based on whatever his dad was saying to her. As he approached, their conversation carried to him.

“I don’t know why Ismela didn’t try to summon a shield...,” Ayala was murmuring. She sounded forlorn, almost lost. “She knew them..., but all I had time to see was that she was staring at that lightning, waiting to see what happened. I don’t think she even saw the arrows coming. She was...always overconfident, I guess....”

Sam just nodded as he overheard it. The same arrows that had hit the wizardess had also just taken out a Level 25 gnome shaman, which probably had much more Constitution than her, and his upgraded abilities at the Advanced tier also had done significant damage to a Level 45 or so gnome warlord.

A Level 35 wizardess without much Constitution and who couldn’t even remember to summon a mage shield was...not a significant opponent. She was the classic glass wizard who put everything into offense and ignored her defense.

Arrogance had killed her, more than anything.

Well, alright..., he had killed her, but he didn’t feel particularly bad about it, since she had been attacking him.

It wasn’t the same outlook on life he’d had two weeks ago. He’d changed more down here than he’d expected.

Perhaps it was also the new Wisdom that was making him more self-reflective than before. Whatever else might come from her death, and it was probably nothing good..., it was a marked realization of the strength of his spells.

Both his Aura of Crystal Flame and his Flame Strike abilities were at the Advanced tier now, and the effects definitely stacked. He was going to have to keep control of his temper and how he used them.

He also had to be careful not to become a glass wizard like she had been. He had to practice with Essence Shield more and get it to Advanced too.

Along with Reclaim Aura, and Imbue Aura..., and the rest of his abilities. There was a lot of training to do to if he wanted to make himself more capable. Whatever the Guardian wanted from him, it had told him in very clear terms to hurry up about getting stronger or he would be in severe danger.

Krana kept him company as they reached his father and Ayala, and the four of them ended up sitting down across from one another. Krana took up a position next to Ayala, her hand on hthe girl's shoulder as she whispered something in her ear. After a moment, Ayala relaxed a little.

It looked like the two of them were friends.

“Sam...,” Jeric turned to look at his son with clear relief in his eyes. “You’re alright. Good.”

“Everyone here is a friend,” Krana spoke up then, looking around at the three of them. “We just met, but...I’m an Earthen Seer. I can see this, as well as the need for all of us to work together in the future.”

It was a very heavy sentence from the young dwarf, but she said it with deep meaning. Somehow, Sam felt the words resonating in his mind, as if he knew they were true. Was that a function of the Seer class, when they spoke about their prophecies?

What had she seen to make her so intent on all of them working together, and to support him so instantly from the beginning? That was what had to have happened..., the reason that she'd been so friendly to him from the start.

Ayala also heard Krana's words. She looked towards Sam again, with a bit more determination on her face this time, as she forced her gaze to stay steady. She was studying him. This time, she didn't look away.

Perhaps the new Charisma was already helping with that.

Sam returned the favor, looking her over curiously. She was wearing a well-made white and blue dress that wasn’t damaged at all by the tunnels, her blond hair was neat and tied up behind her head in a loose bun, and she was not at all dirty.

It was...quite a surprise, actually, that she had managed to stay so clean down here. Perhaps she had some enchantment helping.

She looked nice enough, with a heart-shaped face and delicate features.... In reality, she was very pretty, but he didn’t have any interest in that at the moment. What he wanted to know about was the enchantment that was keeping her clothes so clean.

It would be useful.

Also, what else did she have on her that he could study?

The wizardess’s death was already making it less likely that he could join a guild in the future..., especially if word of it got out. He wasn't sure why she had attacked him..., whether it were due to her being a Wizard or just some quirk of her personality. If the rest of the people in her guild were like that, it would definitely make things difficult.

He frowned to himself as he thought about it, and then he pushed the thought away.

The surprise attack on him had proved one thing, at least. He wasn’t going to be easily accepted by people who saw him. His father had been right about getting more Charisma..., and now he wasn’t sure if that would be enough on its own.

He might have to find some type of illusion as well, to make him look more human.

“How did you get down here? Do you know where the exit is?” Jeric asked Ayala, his attention directed to the most important point that was on his mind. He had already been talking to her for a minute, so it wasn't strange for him to ask. “A magical disaster sent us down here, and we’ve been lost for a while. We need to get back home.”

Ayala was still staring at Sam with a fixed gaze, and she visibly trembled for a moment. Some color returned to her face as she looked away and turned her attention back to Jeric.

“We traveled from Osera, across the Abyssinian Plains,” she murmured. Her voice was unsteady, but clear. “It took us a couple of months....”

“So we are under them after all,” Jeric confirmed the location, nodding as she spoke. He followed up with his next most critical question. “How did you get past the acid worms?”

There was a light halo of energy around his father that was new, which intensified as he asked his questions. It shone clearly in Sam’s eyes.

Was Jeric using Persuade on the girl, to get her to talk to him? He hadn’t realized it could be used like that, but it made sense.

“Ismela had some amulets for it...,” Ayala answered, as a hint of concern appeared in her expression. She hadn't been thinking about the way out before, but now that the wizardess was dead, it was something she would have to consider. After a moment, she started to talk more freely, explaining where they had come from.

“I’ll be right back,” Sam suggested, as he stood back up. Krana started to stand up with him, but he shook his head at her. It looked like she was serious about being his friend, but she was also friends with the girl, and right now she should stay and help her settle down.

“I’m just going to look for those amulets. We’ll need them to get out.”

No one objected, so Sam headed towards where the wizardess had died. It was up on the far edge of the cavern, on the slope that led up to the opposite tunnel.

He didn’t feel like talking to the girl at the moment anyway. One of her party members had attacked him and she hadn’t bothered to apologize about it yet.

He understood that seeing him was a shock, but that didn’t mean he had a good opinion of her.

There was really no reason why he should. If she were useful, he’d be polite to her. But right now, she was in shock and barely speaking, and sitting next to her was hardly going to help her talk.

Perhaps it was his new Wisdom and higher Charisma that was giving him a better insight into her mind, but right now, the most useful thing he could do would be to let his father get a bunch of information out of her, and to do that, ...he should be elsewhere.

Of the two new women, the dwarf was the one who was much more interesting. He already wanted to ask her about the hammer she’d used and how she had cracked the shamans’ shields open. Was that a Seer ability or an enchantment on the weapon?

As he walked, he realized that a lot of the pain from the lightning bolt had already faded away. The new Constitution was helping to quickly restore him. He was moving more easily again. At the same time, another couple points of his essence had returned, which boosted his confidence.

He reached the edge of the tunnel and located the corpse. Then he began searching through the remains. It was a messy pile of parts, but after the last couple of weeks living in the tunnels, it didn’t bother him that much.

He had no issue at all in looting the wizardess. She had tried to kill him, which put her on the same level as the basalt gnomes or any other wild beast. Right now, her equipment would be useful and he was going to take it.

As he searched, he found several items that were glowing with enchantments. He collected all of them, as well as the pouches that had been on her belt. After a moment, he took the belt too, which was still in one piece. It would be useful.

He looked around, but the wizardess didn’t seem to have a larger pack, and he frowned for a moment. A couple of her pouches were also glowing, and there were rune-markings along the opening....

His heart picked up its pace as he wondered if they could be dimensional storage items. Were those common enough that a wizard would carry them around?

He definitely hoped so.

He had never been wealthy enough to know much about that sort of item, but now that he thought about it, none of the new adventurers had been carrying large packs. Did they all have dimensional items?

He continued to search through the wizardess's items, looking for the amulets that had warded off the acid worms as well as anything else useful. It was bound to be a good harvest.

Down in the cavern, Krana looked up toward Sam. Of them all, only she knew that it was her shout to stop that made Ismela hesitate in summoning a shield. There was a trace of regret in her eyes, but in the grand scheme of things, the wizardess really had brought it on herself.