Battlefield reclaimer, p.10
Battlefield Reclaimer, page 10
Only the Enchanter class could do that, or a Wizard who subclassed as an Enchanter. That was the only way to get the necessary abilities to create or modify enchantments.
Sam might not be aware of that, but he was. Having the Enchanter profession alone didn’t give that to you, which was why it shouldn’t have worked when Sam tried.
Maybe Essence Control was a key part of the Enchanter class abilities? He wasn’t sure. Everything he’d heard about Enchanters only mentioned mana and spell inscriptions.
A profession was just a class without the abilities, a recognition of skills you had and a bit of experience for unlocking it. They were what you chose from when you wanted to get a subclass. You could get experience from the three active ones, and they helped to increase your general level, but most people focused on their classes instead, or took a profession as a subclass to get better abilities for it.
If someone was a Wizard, for example, and wanted to focus on enchanting, they would subclass as an Enchanter to get the abilities that went with it. Like all profession-based subclasses, they also had to keep Enchanting as one of their three active professions. That was the only way he knew to get those abilities. He waved the thoughts away as he looked at Sam again.
"This..." he barely knew where to begin. In the end, it wasn’t important how Sam had done it. What mattered was that he’d gotten a prompt about a class ability for Battlefield Reclaimer! A surging hope was seizing his limbs and it felt like something was shaking him back and forth.
Then he realized that he’d grabbed Sam’s shoulders and was crushing him. He carefully let go. Sam’s grin was as wide as the sky.
Jeric was still caught by disbelief, but the water crystal shining in his hand was proof of his son’s accomplishment. Had they been wrong all this time, focusing on aura when what they needed to do was focus on enchantments?
No...it sounded like aura was part of this essence. He looked down at the water crystal again.
It was hope staring him in the face.
---
After Sam gained Essence Control, their explorations were put on hold for the rest of the day as they studied everything related to it.
He tried to teach Essence Control to his dad, but so far, they hadn’t had any luck. Neither of them was sure why, but it was proof that Jeric's hunch was right. There was something preventing him from learning it.
Still, it wasn’t enough to dampen their moods. No matter how much Jeric hoped to unlock his class, as long as Sam could do it, it would be enough for him.
Unlocking the class would also help them get out of the tunnels. Classes came with abilities and at least one of them would finally get past Level 9.
"Two parts to essence..." Jeric muttered to himself, as he wrote ideas in charcoal on the wall.
"When the class is talking about gathering essence from the elements, it really just means mana and aura. It's almost as if they're both types of mana, but active and passive forms. But the 'aura' can’t be the same as what we mean by the word."
Jeric had never examined the class from this angle before. Maybe Sam was on to something when he called it an old class.
"If the term has multiple meanings, what else was aura in the past? Aura is the air, or quality around something, the light or feeling it gives off...." Jeric continued muttering as he examined the idea from every angle, trying his best to dredge up every description of aura he’d ever heard, more than just the stat for it.
"It says an ‘aura’ from the elements, and has the focus on ‘reclaiming artifacts of the past,’" Sam chimed in. "What if it’s talking about something like intent or willpower, the feeling of things? Isn’t that required for enchanters too?"
He was thinking about the stylus again, and how he’d poured his intent into it when he attuned it.
"Intent is something I don’t know much about," Jeric replied, shaking his head. "It could be, but how would we test something like that? I’m not sure how to reclaim willpower from a battlefield or from the elements. The class says to reclaim an artifact of the past."
He’d always thought it meant finding a sword that had been used on a battlefield and somehow extracting the aura from it. But, what if there were another type of artifact from battlefields? If Sam were right about ‘essence’ being an old term, then this other ‘aura’ might be something old too. Perhaps it had been thought of differently once.
He had heard legends of the World Law going through different periods of awakening. Each time, there was an upheaval that shattered the world and changed the way the Law functioned. Usually, most of the living things on the planet died. Those who survived wrote that the World Law was different afterwards, and that classes had different names.
Maybe Battlefield Reclaimer wasn’t a broken class after all, but just a class that had once existed and no longer fit the current model. That was where Sam’s ideas about an ancient class eventually led them. If that was true, it raised other questions, like ’Why was the World Law handing out ancient classes?’
That wasn’t something Jeric could answer. He just wanted to make it work.
"What about experience?" Sam asked after a while, thinking about the feeling that had become so familiar to him over the past few days. "Is experience the only thing you can get from a monster? Maybe there’s an aura from a monster we can get."
Jeric froze, his muscles refusing to respond, as he stared at Sam. It went against everything he’d ever heard about monsters. If it hadn’t been his son asking the question, he would have said they were insane.
But this was his son who had just unlocked a skill he’d never heard of before and found the first lead about their class.
"I have no idea, but we’re going to find out," he finally agreed.
Battlefield Reclaimer 9: Spell Scroll
"What if, instead of just experience," Sam wondered again, as he looked at one of the rat corpses along the wall, "there’s an aura from monsters that we could claim?"
There was no answer to the question yet, but the thought of the dark, oily energy he’d seen running through the rats came to mind. That was where this idea had come from.
The rats weren’t the only monsters with a strange energy around them. The gnomes had a stone-grey light that hovered just above their skin, and the salamanders had a flickering, dark flame. He’d thought it was their mana, but now that he knew mana and aura combined to make essence, this new idea had sprung up in his mind.
"I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Sam," his dad admitted when he mentioned it to him. "I don’t see anything like that. Maybe it’s because of your new eyes."
The Outsider energy had transformed Sam in a way that neither of them understood, especially his eyes. It had to be the reason why he could see it. The trick would be to see if that energy was as important as he thought.
Sam frowned as he pushed the rat corpse away. It didn’t have the energy any longer. It must have dissipated after it died, or maybe when he’d absorbed the experience from it.
"Give me a couple hours, Sam," Jeric said. His eyes were burning with the new idea, but he was still pale from their last fight and the effort it had taken to collapse part of the tunnel. "Then we’ll go out and test your idea. We can probably find a rat or a salamander out there without too much trouble."
Jeric was looking worse than ever, but there was a sense of hope supporting him now that put a spring in his step. Sam’s efforts with the water crystal also helped make him more optimistic. Whatever he'd done had extended its use for at least a couple of days.
Sam pushed aside his impatience as he looked at his dad. Concern filled him, mixing with hope.
"I should work on the runes too," he agreed, turning aside so Jeric wouldn’t see how worried he was.
While waiting, Sam turned his attention to Essence Control, trying to figure out what else he could do with it. He knew it was a key skill for runes and enchantments, but he didn't know how it worked. He would have tried to do more to the water crystal, but he didn’t want to risk breaking it.
He could try and make a new water crystal, but he didn’t have a good piece of crystal. Did it require a special material? He could try it with a rock, if the mana pool and stylus let him inscribe a rune onto one.
A better idea popped into his mind as he kept thinking about it. What about the spell scroll he’d failed before? Surely he could do a better job now.
A few minutes later, he had a piece of salamander skin in his hands and was scraping it clean with a thin piece of stone.
---
Drip.
Molten silver mana flowed off of Sam’s stylus and onto the salamander skin. He’d prepared this one better than the last, putting even more attention into it.
He kept the flow of essence steady as he drew out the line of the rune. This time, instead of just putting mana into the pattern, he made sure to include aura as well. Essence Control helped him feel how the two energies stabilized.
He could sense now that using mana alone was like putting a lightning bolt down on the hide and just hoping for the best. There was no way it was going to stay there by itself. The liquified mana was so potent that he had to use the tiniest thread he could squeeze out of the stylus, but it was settling into place much more smoothly now as he wrapped it in aura.
It also required mana, for some reason, to get the lines to stick. His mana and aura were both dropping by a point with every few lines.
Essence Control didn’t tell him how much to use of each, but it did give him a greater awareness of how violent the mana was, so he followed his instincts as he looked for a balance between the two forces, trying to use just enough aura to make the mana settle down.
This scroll was nearly the same as the one he’d blown up before, but instead of using the Light rune, he was using Water. If it worked...well, he’d see in a minute. He finished imbuing the last line of the rune and gently pulled his stylus away, being careful not to touch any part of it.
The energy in the scroll roared as it rushed around the lines of the runic formation, creating a spinning current. He could feel it testing the bounds of the design, pushing against every line. The salamander skin shuddered as a bright silver glow radiated from it.
If he’d messed something up...
Then it happened, as the energies in the spell scroll stabilized. He could feel the intensity of the mana and the way the aura held it in place, and then they settled down into a calm rune that hummed faintly in his awareness.
An ornate silver chime rang in his mind and a notification appeared. It was in the same archaic style as the one for Essence Control.
Congratulations, Defiant. By creating a spell scroll with essence, you have taken the first step as an Essence Scribe.
You gain 100 exp.
Do you wish to accept this profession?
At the same time, another notification rang out, with the bright trumpet call that was becoming so familiar as bubbles of excitement rushed through his blood.
Congratulations, Defiant. You have gained a Level.
You are now General Level 8.
Experience to Next: 1,575
You have two free status points to distribute.
"Yes!" Sam jumped into the air and shouted, punching his fist skyward.
Jeric’s face stretched into a smile as he watched, but he didn’t interrupt. Sam’s progress was the single light in these tunnels. He hoped Sam would be able to achieve what their family had tried so hard to accomplish.
Sam’s excitement was surging as he accepted the Essence Scribe profession and set it to be active, replacing Scholar. That was a useful profession, since it would allow him to gain experience through studying, but not as important right now. He also grinned as he saw the level notification.
Level 8!
Even the ridiculous amount of experience he needed for Level 9 wasn’t enough to depress him. He glanced at his status sheet and hesitated for a moment, before he added the two points he’d just received to Wisdom.
He didn’t know why, but the low score there was bothering him. He hoped that rounding it off at 10 would be enough to give him some insight into the problems he was facing.
Wisdom was a strange score, used by Priests and healing classes, as well as classes that focused on identification and assessment. Sometimes, he knew, if certain stats were too low, you couldn't get an ability for your class.
He didn't want that to happen to him. He wasn’t planning on putting a lot into Wisdom, but maybe he needed a certain base score to help unlock his class?
Hopefully, it would also help him figure out what an ‘aura’ was. Adding attributes changed who you were, and with more Wisdom he should be able to see problems more clearly.
Once he had things arranged, he looked at his status sheet again. His three professions now were Enchanter, Smith, and Essence Scribe, which made him feel satisfied. He had expected that he would get Arcane Scribe if he succeeded in making the spell scroll, but it seemed like things were different for him.
These three professions also aligned with his class. The description said he was an "enchanter and smith," so these would complement it. Once he unlocked it. He picked up the scroll in front of him and inspected it.
Scroll of Water (Basic).
That was all the information it gave him.
"Dad, look!" He shouted, holding it up for Jeric’s inspection. His grin stretched wide and his eyes shone with a crystal-blue intensity.
Jeric put down the half-completed net and walked over to Sam. He accepted the scroll from him with a proud smile on his face.
"You did it, Sam," he told him, his smile widening as he examined it. "I haven’t seen a scroll made like this since I was your age. It’s a ‘Water’ scroll? Hmm...."
Jeric tapped his finger thoughtfully on the edge of the scroll, trusting that it wouldn’t blow up. If it were going to do that, it would have happened already.
"Spell scrolls come in different varieties," he told his son. "This one is Basic. Do you remember how the Skill Tiers go?"
"Yes," Sam agreed as he recalled his lessons. Skill Tiers were how abilities and skills were ranked. "Basic is usually Levels 1-20...while Advanced is 21-40, Expert is 41-60, Elite is 61-80, and Epic is 81-100."
"Right," Jeric approved. "The fact that you have an Advanced ability before being at the usual level is a good advantage, but you probably still won’t be able to make an Advanced Scroll until your profession is past Level 20."
"Are there degrees to the Basic ranking?" Sam asked, thinking about the scroll. He wasn’t familiar with the grades of things, since he rarely had the opportunity to see any crafted items.
"Some assessors use more specific degrees to distinguish the grade of items inside a tier," Jeric nodded as he thumbed the scroll again.
"This one, because of the materials you used and it being your first time, would probably be called Crude, which is the lowest grade of Basic. But that doesn’t matter, because it will work just fine. It just won't last as long or be as powerful as a higher grade. The other grades are Common, Professional, Fine, and Superb, in that order."
Jeric handed the scroll back and patted Sam on the shoulder. His eyes were steady and deep as some of the pain in his body flowed away.
"You have a bright future ahead of you. You could make a living selling spell scrolls like this, and the grade that you can make will only increase. Even if you sold Basic scrolls for the rest of your life, it would be a profession to support you, like it was for your grandfather."
Jeric pointed towards the wall in the distance, as he added. "Now, why don’t you see what this one will do?"
Sam walked a few steps away and held the scroll up in the air. There were different types of spell scrolls. The one with Aura Bolt had been special, a scroll that you could learn a spell from. Making something like that was far beyond him for now.
This one was consumable, like a stored spell he could cast. The question was what it would do. He held it up in front of him gingerly, stretching it out at arm’s length as he pointed it at the wall. Then he pushed his mana into the activation point on the rune.
The scroll shook as the mana flowed into it, and then the rune at the center ignited, the energy in it flashing as it converted from energy to substance. The center of the rune changed first, turning into a translucent, liquid swirl that sucked in the energy around it as it grew in size.
In an instant, the inner half of the scroll was a crystalline whirlpool. Then the edges around it began to dissolve, liquifying as they broke away and sank in. Finally, the outer edges of the scroll collapsed as the support rune was absorbed, falling inward, and the entire thing turned to water.
A swirling, crystal sphere of water hovered in front of Sam’s hand. Strands of mana and aura flowed from his hand, connecting him to it. It wasn’t large, only about the size of his fist, but there was a lot of mana contained in it.
"Haha!" Jeric laughed from across the room as he saw the look of wonder on Sam’s face. It reminded him of his youth, in the rare instances when he was able to play with the scrolls his father made.
"Throw it! Think of it as a Water Bolt spell."
Sam stopped staring at the sphere of water and stepped forward, throwing it towards the far wall.
Sswwoooosshhh!
The sphere shot forwards, whistling through the air. It landed with an explosive craaack against the stone and exploded into a dozen streams of water. Finding no purchase, the streams collapsed, flowing downwards.
A large puddle of muddy water gathered in a dip at the base of the wall.
Sam’s eyes were wide and a stunned half-smile was stuck on his face as he stared after it. He’d been able to feel the mana and aura flowing through the spell as it had hit the wall. He’d lost control of it when it struck, but it had been very similar to how he controlled Aura Bolt.
"Looks like we’ve solved the water problem," Jeric laughed again as he looked on, his smile growing wider as he saw Sam’s reaction. A lot of his enthusiasm had returned as he watched his son’s growth.
