Battlefield Reclaimer, Ch 37: Earthwalker Mage (Patreon)

Ayala’s eyes were wide as she stared at the sight in front of her. They reflected the silver-white glow of the mana, almost as if she were seeing a vision of her new life. She walked forward in a trance until she was standing at the edge of the pool.

“This..., I’ll find a way to pay you back,” she murmured as she stared down into it.

“It’s not necessary,” Sam replied. In fact, he hoped they could split up as quickly as possible and that he would never see her again after they got her home, but his new Wisdom and Charisma kept him from saying that out loud.

It was nice for the girl to unlock her class, but he was only completing his end of the contract. If nothing else, maybe her presence here would help him discover something interesting about Earth mana.

Ayala knelt down by the side of the pool. As she touched it, her entire body began to radiate a similar silver-white glow. She stood up and began to disrobe. Her dress slid to the floor in a puddle, revealing a slender back and instant curves.

Sam spun around, his face reddening. Had she been serious about bathing in it? The pool had changed his father’s entire body. What was going to happen to her?

Krana stood next to him, the look of reverence never leaving her face. As Ayala slid into the pool, a resonant hummm began to build through the cavern.

It was a slow, gradual melody, and as it continued to increase, Sam found himself glancing back over his shoulder to see what was going on. At the same time, he tried to sense what was happening. His aura infused into the walls, floating through them as he felt for the energy of the Earth.

When his father had received his subclass, the earth had sung in a great chorus. Sam hadn’t realized what was happening in time to pay attention to it back then, but he was going to make the most of it this time. His attention was on the walls as he felt for the pitch of the vibrations, trying to sense the patterns of the world.

It was a theory that he was testing out. The more he learned about runes, the more he figured they had to come from somewhere. When he’d made the hammers, the combined song of the enchantment had built on that idea. Together, those seven simple runes were greater than the sum of their parts.

The sketch of the illusion amulet had given him new insights. Many of the runes on it were things he had never seen before, forming connections in an intricate braid. He wasn’t sure if the pattern was unique to the Enchanter who had made it or if it was just more advanced than anything he’d seen so far.

The amulet had been made by a Second Evolution Enchanter.., so whatever he could learn from it, it would be invaluable, even if his way of doing things wasn’t the same.

Ayala was nearly immersed in the pool now and only her head was showing. The intensity of the mana obscured her enough that he was able to watch without being impolite. The sound of the Earth was coming from the pool as well as the walls around the cavern in a multi-toned cascade.

As he sensed the energy flowing around the cavern, he could feel ideas coming together. The hammer he’d made before and the combination of its runes, the tones here, the complexity of runes increasing in difficulty....

As the Earth’s song continued, his confusion faded away and was replaced by certainty, like clouds drifting away to reveal the sun. He wasn’t sure what they were, but he knew there had to be other Earth runes out there.

Perhaps this was where runes originally came from, ...the world itself. Maybe they were models of natural energy, somehow condensed into formulaic lines. Representations of the truth.

There wasn’t a lot of time while Ayala was in the pool, since it didn’t take long to unlock a class, but Sam’s attention poured through the walls, trying to memorize every tone and flow of the energy as he looked for patterns inside it, searching for runes.

He could feel that the lowest tone was the simple Earth rune he’d used before, but the higher ones were much vaster. They existed in multiple forms at once, a mix of sound, energy, mana, aura, and something else that was not easy to grasp. To understand their structure was going to take time, perhaps longer than he had.

Time passed while Ayala drifted in the center, her eyes closed. The hummm continued to build throughout the cavern, almost reaching the peak of the Earth’s song that he’d heard when his father gained the Earth Blessed trait. Her visible skin and hair slowly turned silver-white and began to glow.

At the same time, a chime rang through the air and the walls began to rumble. Sam tried to follow the flow of energy, tracing the way it curled through the walls, but it was already disappearing. He hadn’t had enough time to fully grasp the next level of Earth rune, and he felt a sense of frustration, at himself and at Ayala, ...but mostly at Ayala.

Why couldn’t the girl have taken longer?

Nonetheless, the discovery of natural runes opened a new path. He knew that it was possible now, as long as he studied the flow of energy in the world for long enough. Perhaps this was how runes had been discovered in the first place. He barely noticed it, but as the sound faded away, his Enchanting profession gained a bit of experience. It was just enough to get it to Level 9.

The song faded away, leaving the cavern silent as Ayala let out a deep breath. The silver-white glow faded away from her skin, leaving only a streak of the color that stayed in her blond hair.

She opened her eyes and looked into the distance, reading a notification of some type. Her laugh filled the room with a warm, bubbling sound as an excited smile broke out across her face.

“Thank you!” she cheered, her eyes settling on Sam, as she began to wade toward the edge of the pool. Sam spun around again as he focused on runes.

“It worked?” Krana asked from behind him. He heard her walking across the floor to help Ayala out of the pool.

“I unlocked my class,” she confirmed, as a smile began to dawn across her face. “Earthwalker Mage.... It’s a combat class. I only suspected that before. The main abilities are Summon Earth, Earthwalk, Earth Sense, Earthen Spear, and Earth Barrier. My father is going to be so happy!”

“A summoning class? That is useful for combat then,” Krana nodded as she heard the description. Then she let out a cheerful laugh as she patted her friend on the shoulder and offered her congratulations. Her excitement on Ayala’s behalf was palpable.

“Maybe you can get a few levels in it on the way home and surprise him!”

She was doing her best to ignore that Ayala had run away and dragged her into it as well. Right now, she just wanted to make the most of her friend’s success. Unlocking a class was the same as starting a new life and the real entrance into adulthood.

Ayala smiled back at her friend, her eyes sparkling as optimism washed through her, followed shortly after by the weight of reality.

“He’ll expect me to take a Priestess subclass,” she sighed, as her mood fell a little.

“Have you thought about it?”

“You know I don’t want to.” Ayala shook her head as she finished dressing. She was still excited, but now it was mixed with sadness. “I don’t want a double combat class, even if it does come with healing. I don’t want to end up like him, never being home.... That’s not a life.”

Krana just nodded as she patted her friend on the back. She also knew that it was going to be hard for Ayala to refuse that path. It had been laid out for her since she was a child. She already had all of the requirements to set Priestess as a subclass, and if she missed that or took something else, or if she missed the Level 20 tier-up for it....

Well, her father’s anger over running away was one thing. His anger over that would be something else entirely. There was no point in reminding her of that, however. Ayala was capable of thinking it through on her own. Some things were best left to develop over time, like plants extending their roots slowly through the earth.

If she did take Priestess as a subclass, when that was combined with a primary Earth-summoning combat class, the girl would be a terror on the battlefield. That was what her father hoped for the most when he looked at his daughter, that she would be a core force for the church, ...but she had never wanted that path for herself.

Instead of saying anything else, Krana took out a small, reinforced box from her pack and opened it to show a dozen small crystal vials. The box was designed to keep them safe, even if it were shaken or dropped.

She made the same gesture of respect as before. One by one, she filled the vials from the pool and placed them back in the box. When she was done, she stood up, holding the box in her hands with a reverent expression as she looked between Sam and Ayala.

“Sam,” she said, hesitating. “Do you have a way to gather mana for yourself? It’s..., the value of this pool is incredible. You should take what you can. It could be a gift for a king in any dwarven kingdom, and having some to offer will open many doors for you, once your illusion is working.”

She studied him for a moment, before adding, “If you don’t have a way to take some, I’ll give you half of mine when we return.”

It was a kind offer, one that she clearly made with some regret. Whatever she wanted the mana for, it was extremely precious to her. Perhaps it was a gift for her family or just resources to use in the future.

The vials in her box were only the size of Sam’s finger, but they didn’t look like any type of crystal he’d seen before. There was a violet hue to them. Whatever they were made from, it was probably valuable. It looked like they could probably hold forty or fifty drops each, but in total volume, all of them together wouldn’t equal two of his crystal spheres.

“There’s no need,” he said, as he waved the idea away. The offer made him like her a bit more, but he wasn’t going to tell her how many of the spheres were already in his pack. She didn’t need to know all of his secrets.

“It’s too bad we don’t have a good way to take more of it with us.” Krana shook her head as she considered it, placing the box into a pouch at her belt. It was a regular pouch, instead of a dimensional one, which meant that she had the same issue with storing the mana as he did.

If his pack had been able to hold any more of them, he’d have already filled it up. As it was, what he’d taken before would have to be enough. Now that they were at the mana pool again, he could use it for the crafting they were planning to do together.

After that, Ayala gathered a similar box of the mana, although hers was half the size of Krana’s. Perhaps the vials were rarer than he’d thought. She also placed it carefully into a pouch on her belt.

The two of them had come prepared to make the most of the mana pool. Perhaps it was how Ayala planned to pay for the journey, or even a way to bribe her father to not be angry with her. Returning home with treasure was always better than the opposite.

“May you have great success on your path,” he offered, flatly, as Ayala straightened out her clothes and hair. The new silver-white streak there caught his eye and he wondered for a moment what else she had obtained. Then he pushed it out of his mind.

He was getting rid of her as soon as possible.

“Let’s start on the message scroll then?” he suggested as he turned to look at Krana.

---

Jeric was standing by the door, keeping an eye on the guards, as Sam and Krana worked on figuring out how to extend the distance of the message scroll. Ayala was occupied with her new class, muttering something to herself as she studied her new abilities.

Sam pushed her out of his mind as he focused on the task at hand. They’d already been gone for two weeks with no word, and it would be longer before they could get back. It was something that had been eating at him.

“How far away is it?” Krana asked as she looked at the scroll in Sam’s hands. “I’m not that powerful of a Seer yet, but I’ll do what I can.”

“Perhaps two hundred or three hundred miles?” he replied. “It’s hard to tell exactly where we are, but it should be within that range.”

Krana picked up a chunk of stone and turned it around in her fingers, almost as if studying a map of the world. She seemed to be thinking as she glanced between the rock and the mana pool.

“At least that’s closer than Osera. Normally, I couldn’t help it over that sort of distance, since it would take too much mana, but maybe with the help of this Earth pool something can be done. You said you were an Enchanter and an Arcane Scribe, right? I can see two options here.”

Krana turned towards Sam and began to sketch on the ground in front of them.

“The first, is we create an enhancing formation around the scroll and place it at the center. The problem is that it will place the scroll under a lot of stress and it may explode, even if I try to help. The second, is that you try to create a new message scroll..., one that can hold a lot more mana. That basically means upgrading it from Basic to Advanced, but it’s a simple change and I can give you some ideas on how. If you can do that, then it should work.”

It wasn’t a clear yes, but it was enough for Sam’s hope to shoot through the roof. A moment later, he called out to his father and they started to discuss the idea. The second option sounded a lot better, especially with the pool here to use.

“There is this scroll as an example,” Sam debated, as he thought it over, “and I have one blank parchment left.”

There was still one blank sheet left from before, the one he’d planned to imbue his Aura of Crystal Flame into. He’d never found the opportunity for that, and it would work better for something like this.

They also had the two new salamanders, which he could turn into another seven or eight parchments. That should be enough to test out what the stronger version looked like. If it worked, it would give him a useful scroll pattern and more experience with runes. If it didn’t, they could still try the enhancement formation.

He nodded and pulled out a piece of chalk as he got to work. He began drawing the pattern of the first message scroll on the stone at his feet, adding it to what Krana had already started as they shot questions back and forth.

---

Sam sat on the opposite side of the cavern from Ayala as his father continued to guard the doorway, standing near the old deadfall.

If this message scroll worked, they could tell his mother that they would be home soon. They had finished the design and he was currently infusing the parchment as he prepared to add the runes. The conversation with Krana had helped to elucidate some runes that he hadn’t been familiar with before, including more ways to stabilize and empower a formation.

His new Intensify Aura ability was also on his mind, but he didn’t want to try it out too much while the girls were around. Over the last few hours, he had discovered that it would let him use his essence to infuse an aura, gradually making it stronger over time. It meant that the auras he had in storage could be improved, becoming even better for enchantments.

The problem with using the Aura of Umbral Flame on his spear, for example, was that it had run out halfway through. If he hadn’t had the mana pool here to fill in the gaps, it probably would have ended up as a failure. Intensify Aura was a solution for that, replacing the need for multiple auras of the same type. As an aura became stronger, it was able to cover more runes and act as a better power source.

The auras in storage could be taken out, intensified, and placed back in there, which meant that he could charge them whenever he wanted. If he poured essence into them for long enough, they would also give him back more energy when he Combusted them.

The amount he could infuse was based on his Wisdom, similar to the success rate for Identify and Reclaim. Right now, it was a 1 to 1 comparison, and he could fill an aura with up to 16 points of essence. That might be enough to do a full weapon enchantment.

He didn’t have the time to experiment with it too much right now, since he was working on the scroll, but in the future it was going to be something to do whenever he had free essence. While traveling, for example, he could build up his crafting resources and energy reserves at the same time.

It also meant he was going to have to add more Wisdom. That would be useful for reclaiming more auras, for intensifying them, and for improving his mind. The difference between 10 and 16 was extremely noticeable as he thought back to his experiences before. There were probably diminishing returns as he hit the limit for his race or level, but what would it be like at 25 or 50?

It would probably enhance his perception a lot.

In the conversation with Krana, he’d also found out something useful about experience calculations and what she called the “Three Cliffs.” Apparently, experience requirements grew dramatically at Levels 33, 66, and 99. No one knew why, but the church theorized that it had something to do with the seal.  Apparently, there was even a picture of a triangle inside a circle that they used to represent the Three Cliffs. It did look something like a rune.

He shook his head as he returned to infusing the parchment, letting the thoughts on his new ability and plans for the future continue in the back of his mind.

---

“Are we ready to try?” Krana asked, as she looked at the completed parchment in Sam’s hands.

He’d just finished drawing the rune pattern they had come up with onto the scroll. It was similar to the original, but there were three times as many stability runes and mana infusion points in this one. The runic bands were twice as thick, completely filling the parchment.

“Yes, I believe so.” Sam agreed. If his theories were correct, this would barely be enough to count as an Advanced spell scroll, since the formation was still pretty basic. He needed to fill it with mana and test it out, but it should be able to reach across three hundred miles. It was the best scroll he’d made so far and he was hoping nothing would go wrong.

He looked toward his father and saw the hope in his eyes. Jeric had been watching the entire time, his attention hanging on the scroll. They needed to at least tell his mother that they were alive and on their way home.

He wished there were a better way to communicate with her and to let her respond, so they could see how she was doing, but there was nothing for it right now. In the future, if his message amulet idea worked out, he would solve that problem by giving them to his entire family.

“I’ll start the mana infusion,” he said as he picked up his stylus and headed for the pool. While he had easy access to all of this mana, he was going to use it, even if Krana looked pained that he was wasting it on something so simple.

About an hour later, he finished infusing the last line with mana and the scroll began to hum, the lines on it shifting as the mana filled them. His skill with Essence Control was Advanced, which meant that imbuing even more complicated lines than this weren’t a problem, but he couldn’t help a sense of nervousness.

The mana surged through the lines, rippling like a river as it rushed through the thick runic bands. One by one, the runes inside came to life, taking on the same silver-white brilliance. This time, perhaps because he’d been listening to the sound of the earth, he could hear a very quiet hum that gave the scroll a sense of stability, as if it were still a part of the earth.

With a final shussshhh-click, the runic lines settled into place and the entire scroll began to gleam with a soft brilliance, especially the triangular focus pattern at the center. As soon as it was complete, a notification appeared.

Congratulations, Essence Scribe. You have created your first Advanced spell scroll.

You have now completed the professional requirement to take Essence Scribe to Advanced, but you still need to gain the remaining experience.

You receive 1,000 General experience

You receive 300 Class experience (30% contribution).

His level in Essence Scribe jumped from 5 to 7 with the single scroll, making him wonder how fast he could level if he stayed next to this pool.

An excited smile broke out across his face as he looked towards his dad and held up the scroll.

“Dad, are you ready to talk to mom?”