Caravan of Blades

You have been granted the title Tinker King.

Your tinker card has upgraded to Epic rarity.

---

Finley continued down the road. The messages from his soul deck were a distraction at best. It wasn't that he cared that much. It was just that he hadn't been on the road in so long. He wanted to savor the ride.

Staying put felt odd to him.

But this? The open road? This was familiar. This was home.

It was a bit quieter than he thought it would be but it would probably pick up. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of any travelers approaching the mountains, but he had left early in the morning and the closest village was a days travel away.

He breathed in and then checked his active deck. He always kept two cards in. He had to. Those two had bonded to his spirit and his body for so long that to take them out would mean death. Other cards he swapped around as needed.

Epic Class Card: Tinker Level 3

Skills:

Appraisal Level 3

Identify Level 3

Animal Handling Level 3

Storage Level 3

King Level 1

As the last remaining Tinker you have the ability to induct new people into the family.

This is a soul card and cannot be removed.

Rare Class Card: Spore Druid Level 5

Skills:

Wild shape Level 2

Plant and Fungal Control Level 5

Elemental Magic Level 1

Survival Level 4

Medicine Level 3

This card grants mana.

As a spore druid you have enhanced control over plants and Fungi.

This is a soul card and cannot be removed.

His Tinker card showed the classic design of a tinker covered wagon camping. With the upgrade to Tinker King a little crown had adorned the hut. He was confused by the message as he didn't understand the prompt. The card displayed itself in front of him showed a three dimensional representation of the actual magical artifact inside of his body.

Getting an epic card was a dream come true as those were quite few and far between. How his legendary Tinker card had upgraded was troubling but there wasn't anything that he could do about it.

For him to receive the Tinker King title meant that every other suitable tinker had to have died. That was a chilling amount of deaths if the last tinker summit was correct on the census of living tinkers. The title passed on between members of the family through some arcane method that had never been adequately explained to him. It wasn't his original soul card, which made him even more concerned.

He had traded several of his cards recently and realized that he only had a few left in his stock that were all common or uncommon skills or abilities. He had plenty of card pieces that he could use to make a new card if he wanted to spend the five minutes to make another but he didn't feel the need. With forty two pieces he could make up to six or seven common or uncommon cards, or perhaps a rare if he spent some mana.

His druid powers would defend him and he didn't fear anything wild. The mares trotted on.

Two hours after he departed, he decided that it would be time to stretch his legs.

He also for the first time that day saw another person.

A stout human with a beard and a top knot was walking down the cleared path. When they saw each other, he gave the normal wave. Having not spoken to anyone by choice for days, Finley relished the opportunity to talk to someone and perhaps take on a passenger for the price of their fare.

"Whoa there, human you are far from Home and hearth stone. Are you headed to the Irumi Kingdom on foot? You're three days by riding away."

The man held up a hand, his expression uncertain. Finley reminded himself that humans were a generally fast talking bunch that lived on a timescale that elves didn't understand.

"Irumi? I'm sorry are you an elf?"

The cleared dirt road between the pine trees was as good a space to stop as any. Finley bade his mares to slow down.

"I am indeed good sir. Tree elf and Tinker by trade at your service. Should you need rations or a ride to the city, all can be bought for a price."

"Ah you see. I don't have any money on me."

Finley immediately suspected a trap and looked around for a pack of hiding bandits. He called upon his natural affinity skills to search the trees and grass for intruders but found none. All this happened in a short time while he kept his eyes locked on the man.

"No money? How did you end up here, then?"

"I'm not actually sure. I was doing a case report on my latest patient and all of a sudden a goddess yanked me into wherever here is and gave me this magical card and asked me to kill some zombies? Does that sound familiar?"

"Ah. You have been summoned. When the world needs heroes, sometimes the gods summon a hero to do the job. Usually they summon one or two. I know several stories about those types of events. I don't run a charity though, so I presume she gave you a class card of some kind?"

The man wavered. His odd clothes with their bright blue colors looked both regal and like a high grade textile.

"This is normal? I guess that makes sense. She gave me a choice and I picked the cleric of Yil class. Do you know anything about it?"

"It's got several skills on it?"

"Yes?"

Finley sighed audibly.

"A tinker can't turn down a hero. Get on. Next to me here," he said, patting the bench, "And tell me all about exactly what she said to you. If a god is going to show up with a hero on my doorstep this had been be a good story for me to tell the family. I'm Finley."

"Anthony."

---

"So back in Brooklyn where I was a midwife with my son, I delivered babies for mothers."

"Human mothers?"

"Yes. There were no other enlightened races there so...anyway we had a catchy name. Father and Son Midwives. You wouldn't think of a man as a midwife but I am a nurturer. Had to go back to school to get my masters degree in midwifery, that was a trip but worth it. There's just something about helping deliver life into the world. Plus babies are cute."

"I imagine they are," Finley said.

"Not a fan?"

"Not particularly."

The evergreen pines nearly ended up ahead when Finley saw someone in a woodsman's outfit walking down the road. The man was shambling ahead of them, facing away.

"He looks like the walking dead, I should try to heal him."

Finley held up a hand. The two bay mares whinnied giving off a sense that they wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Something is wrong. This might be a bandit attack. Stay vigilant."

"Oh crap," Anthony said, "I never even got a weapon."

"There's a club. On your left. Anthony you're brandishing the club all wrong. Two hands. Strong hand on top. I'm going to try to steer wide. Hold on."

"To what?"

Finley moved the reins pushing his horses to go right around the shambling man. On his left, the man began to turn. His skin looked off, but not far from what Finley considered the normal hues for humans.

"Those eyes," Anthony hissed, "that's not human."

"If you have any offensive spells, this is the time to use them," Finley said, his voice cracking, "Yah!"

He let his animal handling skill take the forefront as he spurred the beasts into motion. The trot became a fast gallop as the man lunged towards them.

"Take this!" Anthony said, whipping the club at the mans head.

The club and the man both went down, much to Finley's consternation. That had been a nice club and he wasn't likely to turn around for a lost item. He gripped the reins harder.

The caravan passed it picking up speed as the horses drew themselves towards the center.

"Head through the caravan-don't touch anything-and see if you can get a shot at him," Finley yelled over the sound of the hooves.

"Got it! Shit shit shit..."

Anthony clambered back through the neatly stacked rows of general goods before opening the flap that lead to the back.

"Finley! He's running after us!"

"What do you mean, he's running after us? YAH!"

"I mean- HE IS RUNNING AFTER US!"

"SO USE A SPELL, HERO!"

"I'M TRYING! Holy bolt!"

The already bright day turned to a half shadow, half blindingly bright as Anthony's spell rocked the path. Both bay mares whinnied, but continued on.

Finley waited a tense five seconds before turning to look through the caravan. Anthony was standing there, blinking as he turned away from the light. It had died down by that point. Finley suspected that the after effects were going to last far longer than intended.

That heroes started with a strong class card when the gods called them up was a boon that couldn't be denied. Finley felt a twinge of jealousy, before a hand touched his shoulder. Anthony's head dipped out as he too looked towards the crater they had left in their wake.

"That was a little bit much don't you think?"

"Yeah ow I can't see anything. Did I get him?"

A puff of smoke from the blast obscured their view.

"I can't tell from here."

"Well, I can't see," Anthony said.

Finley turned his head to look at the road. Whatever was behind him wouldn't immediately kill them. What was in front of him, could.

"There's more of them!"

Four more men shambled along the pines, limping like they had broken ankles. The tell tale sign of a drunken student or toddler, Finley found out at that moment, also applied to zombies.

"I hope you have some mana left!"

"What?"

"Try to heal your eyes! There's more of them!"

Holy light seeped out of the caravan as Anthony cast something. Finley hoped that it was a heal spell, but he had known humans to be a bit stupid.

Humans were the only enlightened race that were not born with a card in their core. As such they had to acquire or make their own. This made them a hungry enemy, but nothing near the rapidly approaching zombies.

"This is insane. I'm going to die here," he whispered.

"Oh, come on. It's not all bad. Those four are out of our path on the road. They probably won't get in..."

The lead zombie lunged, stepping into a run.

"Shit!"

Anthony's head ducked back into the caravan.

"Oh no you don't, you come back here with your healing spells!"

The three behind it were still behind the treeline as the lead zombie went to intercept the horses. Finley wondered if his mares tasted good briefly before tugging on the reins to alter their course. Horse meat wouldn't taste right no matter what he did to it.

The road which had been clear cut to be wide enough for three horse drawn wagons at a time, wasn't big enough for the two of them.

Finley sighed and began casting a spell to entangle the zombie. Mushrooms grew rapidly in front of it to trip the monster. Then the fungi held onto it, not letting it move forward. It fell, still ahead of them. The horses ran straight over the body and a loud crack sounded.

They passed by the other three, who had finally broken through the trees. Finley stole a glance behind him to see Anthony retching out of the back of the caravan. At least he had the decency to relieve his stomach pressure outside of his method of conveyance.

If there was one thing that Finley detested, it was an unclean caravan. It made him itch.

"Uh, Finley? Problem."

"Yes?"

"Do people usually rise up after their bodies have been crushed by a horse and cart in your world?"

"Not really. Why?"

"Also do you remember the first guy I hit with my magic?"

"That guy I remember."

Finley shuck a look back after making sure that the road was clear ahead. Four undead men were running after them. A fifth that was missing a third of his torso was behind them.

"Shit."

"Shit."

"Hold the reins," Finley said, pulling the man out to take his place.

Finley pulled on his mana reserves to grow a wall of vines behind the caravan. He focused on a spot that was moving and...there.

A four foot tall plant wall popped up, growing with incredible speed. It wouldn't last long. He just needed to slow them down so they could make their escape.

The zombies slammed into the wall as it entangled them, pulling their bodies to the ground. It wouldn't kill them, just incapacitate them for long enough that they would be out of range.

Finley slumped in the back of the caravan. He hadn't even had the time to give the stranger instructions on how to handle the horses, though the man seemed to be doing just fine.

He counted to three and then made his way back to the front. If the human couldn't see then he was probably driving blind and they were too far from the next town to have a breakdown.

Anthony was still breathing heavily when he arrived. Finley almost reached for his animal handling skill to calm the man before realizing it wouldn't do nearly as much as he wanted it to do. Or really anything, unless the man identified as a domesticated pack animal. That was a question that he hadn't gotten around to asking in the half hour they had known each other.

"I'll take it from here, human," he said, slipping back into his comfortable seat.

"Yeah. Please do."

Finley flexed his storage power trying to push it to the limit. It was about all he could do to keep from thinking about how such a brazen monster attack could occur on well traveled lands inside of the dwarfish kingdom.

The Irumian guard was well known for being fastidious about their work to a fault. On his way to the Yilish mountains, Finley had seen patrols nearly twice a day everyday. That all depended on how close they had been to the local towns. Many of the roads he traveled were next to a rail line. The Yilish line had been under construction for nearly two years with no end in sight.

They would see it at the end of the day when they reached the first town at the pace they kept. Finley had been spending all of his energy into looking for more bandits, who though rare, were known to not harm a tinker.

It was well known that tinkers weren't violent so long as people obeyed their customs and courtesies. It had been one of the reasons that Finley had joined the family. You see, the tinkers accepted not just the enlightened races into their family, but any monsters that swore an oath of nonviolence against all tinkers. There was a second path that many tinkers took to be nonviolent against all, but that was a step too far for Finley.

His upbringing made him uncomfortable around strangers and made it hard to trust anyone. That they had grown to trust him was a point of pride for the spore druid.

"We're about an hour's ride from the next village. If you hadn't been summoned exactly where I had been, you probably would have died out there. As is, I can probably hand you off to the local government there to aid you in your quest or you can pay for your passage further by helping me with those kinds of incidents," he said, "What do you say?"

Anthony stared out into the distance.

"You don't have to talk now. Monsters here- I've heard that heroes sometimes come from lands where there are no such things. I couldn't imagine it."

Anthony continued his vacant stare. Finley activated his animal handling skill to check on his animals. They felt fresh still. Good enough to trot all the way till nightfall.

They went on that way for a long time as the evergreen forests finally gave way to rolling hills. The breadbasket of the kingdom, field after field of grain provided food for the millions that lived in the kingdom. The first farmhouses started up, those still a long walk from the center of the next town. Normally, Finley would feel safer, but today he felt nothing upon passing the dividing line between all forest and mostly farmland.

"I expected to find another traveler but today must be cursed. Found myself a hero and now, oh wait what is that?"

Up ahead, a plume of smoke carried up from close enough to the road that it was concerning. Then as they approached Finley draw upon his natural affinity to try and see if the plants could tell him anything that his eyes could not. A wagon, loaded down with what looked like it had been a bale of hay was on its side. His natural affinity told him that aside from the surprising wagon, nothing was out of place.

Except for the suspicious lack of farmhands in the fields.

This put him even more on edge, as he looked for pack animals. The direction of travel had been the same as his and the cart. Any horses would have been on the far side, if they were still tied up.

Then, he felt it.

The wheat was all crushed under something the size of a horse. Seeing no one moving, Finley decided to risk it and rolled to a stop. It would be a good distance away. Now he just needed Anthony to watch his back.

"Watch my back. I'm checking this out," he said,"There might be someone there."

Anthony nodded, taking a few deep breaths.

Finley slowly dismounted. He slowly approached the cart. If the rider had been thrown off he would be able to see it. He could see the legs of the horse, still and unmoving. It might had been the horse.

Giant claw marks along the side of the horse indicated the reason that it had bled out on the side of the road.

Finley searched for a rider. He came up on the side of the cart next to the horse. It was clearly dead, but hadn't been for long. The cart was clearly just for hauling grain over short distances. There were no side compartments or secondary storage anywhere.

The grey body of a dwarf, was stuck halfway under the horse. The eyes were vacant as dead arms reached out away from him. Even in his death, the stupid dwarf looked strong.

When he got to within a short distance of the dead dwarf, it started moving. It's arms reached out for him and were it not for being trapped underneath a horse he might have been in danger. He narrowly missed being grabbed as he stepped backwards. His ankle flared up, nearly rolling on an unexpected lump. That lump that just happened to be a severed leg.

Finley jumped back in alarm as the dwarf swung it's arms at him ineffectually. Then he realized that he could become the zombie dwarfs next meal. He ran back to the cart at a slow jog. It was time to see if the hero was able to earn his passage.

"Hey! Anthony! I'm going to need your help. Earn your keep. Can you help me kill this zombie I found?"

Anthony nodded.

"Just use a weaker version of your spell while it's pinned down. Don't hit the horse."

"I can do that," he said weakly.

Humans were not Finley's forte or even his flavor of the week but even he thought that Anthony looked a bit pale.

"Also, why should I do that?"

"For the card fragments?"

"Oh right. Uh what are those?"

"I'll explain in a minute. Just kill it, please. Aim for the head."

"Uh, okay."

Anthony walked around the horse, blanched and then cast his spell. A bright light where his holy light appeared flashed and then disappeared just as quick.

A bright golden light flashed over the corpse of the zombie. A card floated above it in the air, a few card fragments dropping onto the ground.

"Grab the card and those shiny fragments. I need to tend to this briefly," Finley said.

Anthony nodded plucking the card out of air and then placing it in his hand. Finley would have to show to man how to put a card into his body later. Then Anthony grabbed the fragments off the corpse and slowly walked backwards.

Finley attempted to commune with his patron diety, dropping to his knees. He closed his eyes, reaching out for the familiar warmth of his goatish self. Then he tapped into his natural affinity, pulling nutrients from the dense farmland around to grow a circle of yellow flowers around the horses body.

"In his name-" Finley bleated.

"I'm not even going to ask about that," Anthony said settling beside him, "and this is a card? Like the one I have in my soul?"

"It's how we harness magic here. May I see the fragments?"

"Here," Anthony said, dumping the fragments unceremoniously into the waiting hands.

The little pieces appeared like glass. The fragments gave off a bit of natural shine as he held them out.

"Five fragments. That's nearly enough for a card. And they're all rare. This is quite curious. You may be truly blessed by the gods however cruel they must have been to send you here."

"Fragments? As in I can make a card with these?"

"I have another rare fragment somewhere in my caravan," Finley said feeling the space with his storage skill, "once we make camp for the night I can help you forge a card."

"The card I have has helped so much, I cannot imagine the-hold on- what's that?"

Anthony pointed down the road back towards where they had come. One of the first farmhouses that they had passed stood out against the rolling fields of grains and grasses. Had it been the first? Finley couldn't recall.

Anthony wasn't pointing to that, however. His gaze was locked on a group of about five stout humans who were walking with a now familiar gait. Finley shook the man by the shoulder.

"Into the caravan, hero. I said, into the caravan hero!"

Finley nearly had to pull the man onto the seat as he gave the horses the command to stop eating grains and to start to move.

Every step that the horses took away from whatever was happening in the fields would be another step closer to safety.

Every minute they stayed was another minute that they could end up as a zombies next meal.

"What the hell is going on?" Anthony said once the horses finally agreed to move.

"Whatever is happening, keeps happening. If I didn't know better, I would say that we're being tracked or followed."

"I can't believe that I left my son and wife back home and came here to this. I would throw up more, but I don't have any food left," Anthony said, leaning back against the caravan.

Finley concentrated on pushing the bay mares to a trot. All he wanted to see was brown movement.

"I purchased some jerky today from the dwarves," Finley said, "hold on to the reins and I'll grab you something to eat. I have water too."

"Thanks," Anthony said, switching seats with him, "you're quite kind for an elf who just had me kill an undead monster."

"You've got to level your class skills otherwise you won't make it far here fighting monsters."

"Oh? How do I do that?"

"You probably kill monsters. Look I have a merchant class and a druid class, I'm not a card expert."

The sounds of the mares hooves trotting was a loud respite for their talk.

"Who was it that you prayed to back there? For a moment it felt like I was a kid back in mass. Back before I was a midwife with a packed schedule. Back before the back pain and the hernia...hey are you listening?"

A green tinged forearm held out a thin salted cut of meat, offering it to the human.

"It will have to do," Finley said.

Finley looked out that back. They hadn't stopped running in their direction and the open road let him see far up the slow slope. They weren't the only group behind the caravan. Another group of five followed along behind them. Finley needed a good trip over a bridge where they could all fall to a glorious death. Not him of course, as he valued his new life,and not Anthony, but definitely the growing mass behind them.

He considered if making another wall with the grain around them would be beneficial. Their pursuers seemed to have a single minded interest in them and probably wouldn't be deferred for long. What he didn't know was what kind of card the man had received.

"Hey, hero, what was the card you got from killing the zombie?"

Anthony held the card up.

Finley squinted. It did look familiar. He should probably have asked more questions, unfortunately they kept getting interrupted.

The silvered design of the card displayed an axe. It was either a class card for a lumber jack or an axe skill. Either way he couldn't see much worth in it. Unless it was a woodworking skill, then he could really use it.

"Alright I would normally not attempt to form a card in a moving caravan, but do you consent to-"

"Will it increase my chances of not dying on my first day here?"

"Yes-"

"Then do it."

Finley grunted. He had expected that type of answer. When forging a card the situation one was in affected the card produced. All he could think of was that he would need some of his tools to complete the job. He grabbed his slate and then pulled out his bag of card fragments.

Dozens of common and uncommon fragments in a uniform size filled a small bag. He'd been saving them for a rainy day or a day like today.

First was the slate. He placed five of the rare fragments from the human together. Then he started the last fragment that he found at the bottom of his common and uncommon pieces. The slate was designed to house exactly six pieces. When forming a card he joined six pieces of the same rarity together: common, uncommon or rare. He'd never seen an epic or higher piece.

Cards with a higher rarity like Epic level cards and higher could only be found by taking them from others, soul decks or by merging cards of lower level. Merging lower level cards in a set of five created a class card, so long as the abilities worked together.

Upon placement of all six of the pieces, the slate began to glow and then the pieces turned into one card the size of his palm.

There was a flash of light from the effect creating a new card.

Rare Skill Card: Refresh

Skill: The user of this card can push someone far beyond their limit. People can run farther and longer. Animals feel rejuvenated. Effect lasts for four hours. There is a corresponding time period after where subjects of the ability will be at reduced endurance.

Cool down: Thirty Minutes

"Now that is something," Anthony said, after getting the explanation of the skill. "Right?"

"It should be helpful. My horses have been at it all morning, so they're going to need a break eventually, but..."

Behind them the small group of zombies hadn't slowed down. If anything they had picked up more on the way.

"We're probably going to have to deal with that. If we ever want to rest that is," Finley said, patting the human on the shoulder. "You humans are good at killing things right?"

Anthony shrugged.

"I guess that is something we are good at. If the humans in this world are the same as the ones in mine."

Without a basis for comparison, Finley didn't know whether to agree or not. Either way, he was stuck out here with one of the humans while the dwarvish zombies behind them continued to mass. They were about twelve zombies behind them, and they were two span away. The bay mares had continued to increase the gap between them the longer they had gone on but neither group had stopped. Finley had estimated that it would be ten more span before they arrived at the next town.

"Got any bright ideas?"

"Are there any guns here? Not that I know how to shoot any but..."

"I'm not carrying any. You're talking about muskets right?"

"Well that answers that question. Thank you. Do you have any arrows? A bow?"

"I have a ceremonial spear from on top of the caravan, it's only used to pick fruit from high branches though. We're going to have to rely on Magic. Especially if you have a class that lets you cast a spell like that. Do you know how far your range is?"

"How would I know that?"

"In some skills its listed. And others you have to kind of play around with it. It sounds like this is the kind of skill you had to play around with. And good thing we have so many targets for you to do so with."

"My dear caravan driver, what exactly are you suggesting?"

Finley turned on his customer service voice and smiled before he decided to answer the human.

"Have you ever speared fish in a barrel?"

---

Ten minutes later, and all of Anthony's youth playing at the arcade down the street finally paid off. Finley had slowed the caravan down enough to allow their pursuers to close the distance. He was giving the horses a chance to rest all at the same time giving Anthony some target practice.

As a young lad, the games that had interested Anthony had involved using a plastic gun to shoot at fake zombies. With a careful application of his finger to be where his magic came from his holy bolt spell, he was doing much the same.

He took shot after shot as they closed in trying to get a handle on how accurate he could be. As they got to within half a league, he was hitting at target every five shots.

When the horses started noticing that the zombies were closing in, that was when he was hitting one every other shot. Then he made the unfortunate discovery that they kept getting up unless he hit them in the head.

That was when he got tired.

"Finley, it's getting harder to hit them now," the human said.

"You're probably getting tired. If you overdo it with magic, you're going to get a headache. I think the goddess gave you that card on purpose. If you need me to use it on you, I can. I have a side deck that I can stow it in. If you put it in your soul deck then you'll be in withdrawal if you ever take it out, in fact, just give me that card so I can use it on you."

Anthony debated for a second if he could trust the single elvenoid being that he had met since arriving in this strange forsaken world before taking it out of his pocket and giving it over.

A glow covered Finley as he used an ability on Anthony.

Suddenly, it felt like he had taken pre-workout and viagra. His neck itched and he felt erect.

"These side effects are... Have you tried this card out before because-"

Anthony trailed off as he focused on on the lead one. One of the zombies had broken from the pack and he fired off a holy bolt right at the mans head, finally bringing his second down.

Two of the ones behind it stumbled, much to his amusement. That short amount of time almost immediately went away as he realized that he had to head shot ten more to stop them. At least, his headache had gone away.

"Finley! They're dropping cards when they die!"

"Shit."

Some of the magic here had seemed odd, like having class powers tied to a card that had bonded to his soul, but he was rolling with the punches so far.

He remembered what Yil had offered him. His soul card felt like so much of a part of him that it had always been there. It had a picture of a man holding up a hand against a horde of zombies and truly felt a lot better than he did about this whole situation. He checked it quickly to see if anything had changed.

Rare Class Card: Cleric Level 1

Skills:

Divine Spellcasting Level 2

Divine Rituals Level 1

Heal Level 1

Survival Level 1

Medicine Level 1

This card grants mana.

As a cleric you must have a patron deity.

This is a soul card cannot be removed.

"Ah yes! I leveled up one of my skills!"

To celebrate he hit a zombie in the knee, making it stumble and slow half of the horde. Then with the acuity and hardness he had gotten from the refresh skill, he hit two more in the head.

Then he felt a little tug, a gentle pull towards the zombies. He jumped out the back of the caravan to go grab the gorgeous shiny cards.

"Finley! I think the goddess wants us to gather up these cards!"

"Shit. Well my deity is telling me nothing of the sort so, just let me know when you're done with target practice so we can turn around," Finley said from the front.

It took four more minutes but Anthony finally got the last of the zombies down and all of sudden they weren't getting chased anymore. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"We gotta go back for all those... Look it's a short jog, do you mind it if I?"

Finley looked around, then closed his eyes.

"The trees and the grasses here tell me that we are relatively safe so, go. Be quick. I'm going to give the horses some rest."

Anthony started running back down the road, the closest one was just fifty meters behind them. He kept jogging until he was able to scoop up the card and the card pieces that the zombies had dropped. The furthest downed zombie was almost half a mile away and he realized that he would have to carry the pieces in something and he hadn't brought a backpack or a sack to carry anything.

The first bloated corpse gave him an idea as its former owner had worn what he assumed passed for as a backpack. Anthony rolled the dwarf's arms out of it and then tested its integrity. It held up well and he thought it could hold the pieces he would need.

He looked up, checking around him, quickly ascertaining that the caravan hadn't moved. If anything, Finley was doing some magic in the back that gave off a golden glow.

Rather than leave the cards there and return, Anthony scooped it up and put it into the bag and then added the pieces.

Then he jogged to the furthest one, making it in record time. The bad parts of the refresh skill had worn off by that time and he was able to jog normally.

He grabbed the card without checking it, stuffing it in, then grabbing the pieces as well. Then he went down the line, gathering up twelve cards and enough pieces to make his pack feel heavy.

Finley finished pushing his mana into the six pieces, making another uncommon card. He put it on the pile. The horses were getting a bit restless. It was well into the afternoon, despite seeing the last couple of hills before the next tavern, a little voice in the back of his head was telling him that he should probably stay.

That was when Anthony woke up from his nap. The ache from using mana to make two cards in one day felt a bit much. If the new reality they lived in was going to continue like this then he would need to do something to increase his mana pool. There were enough options now that both of them could choose something to augment their current decks. Finley had sorted them into piles and was prepared to give a little lecture on what the cards all were and meant when Anthony woke up.

Of course the first thing the human did was to go relieve himself on the side of the road. Then he scanned the horizon. Then and only then did he sit down next to the elf.

"No immediate threat?"

"No. I wanted to talk to you about adding some of these to your deck. Especially if you're going to try to pull a move like that again. That was reckless. And since we're close to town, I wanted to give you the best shot I could. I don't know what's ahead of us but I don't- I don't have a good feeling about this."

"I don't have a good feeling about anything. This whole experience has made me rethink a lot of how I just don't want to kill things. So I would greatly appreciate it if we could fix that little issue."

"Well," Finley's customer service voice said, " you came to the right Tinker. Because I have a vested interest in fixing this issue. I would like to level my merchant class skill. And if I don't have the customers, that's going to prove to be difficult."

"That's rather pragmatic."

"I got a message that I had been elevated to Tinker King because I was last remaining Tinker. At the very least, I would like to to continue the traditions of the Tinker family and pass on our customs and courtesies to the next generation no matter what. They are yet to be found."

"Tinker King?"

"It's the title for the head of the tinkers. He who sets down the law and administer the justice. Tinkers roam the continent Noverra; or they did. I have never known a card power to lie."

He knew people that lied about their powers , but never powers that lied.

"Alright. So you're like merchant royalty, then?"

"Yes. I guess I can now add people to the family? It's something that a caravan chief can do. I was never a caravan chief."

Anthony got up, standing on the back of the caravan. There was a space where he could step up to get more height. He looked around.

"Sun's going down. Or getting lower. I presume that means we only have a few hours to get someplace safe?"

"If the town is safe. Honestly it might be safer to just hole up here. If I had an earth moving power, I would feel a lot safer. As none of the cards we got have an earth skill, I don't know."

"Do we have anything useful at least?"

"Of the twelve you got, none are class cards, but three skill cards- tracking, survival, and hunting all could be combined with two other skill cards to make the ranger class card. That would be useful if we got a good bow. I might be able to get one at the next town."

"On to the town? As your duly appointed security detail, at least we'll be able to hole up if there are any walls."

"If."

Anthony brought up a shaking forearm.

"I wasn't ready for that. If there's more zombies in the next town, I don't know what the goddess is doing to us. This situation is so fucked."

"Ah... Speaking of which."

The elvenoid held up two arms and a row of yellow flowers popped up around each of the zombies behind them.

"It's the least I can do."

"That's out of control. That far out. That's like what half a span?"

"It's not a combat spell unfortunately. More like a death ritual. Which reminds me-" Finley bleated twice, "Gotta let the goat lord know he is going to have visitors."

Of all the things that Finley had in stock, space was not one of them. He was taking on as much as he could from the dwarves. There was one free corridor down the center of the caravan that allowed him to walk from the front to the back.

He generally kept that area pristine. It was just enough room for him to lay down a bed roll at night. At least for him, that was his little slice of heaven. And so long as his bay mares had a nice cover over them, he was happy. He hadn't bought the little horse port that other tinkerers had raved about. At that exact moment he was regretting that decision.

"I can make a tripwire with local Flora. It will give us a head start if some zombies decide to attack at night."

"Will that be enough?"

"I honestly don't know. You said that you saw the goddess, right? Did she say anything special about how you were supposed to proceed?"

Anthony's blank stare told him all he needed to know.

"I honestly don't recall. The last few hours have been traumatic. Can we talk about something else? If I remember something I'll tell you."

"So do you want to take a vote? About what to do next? I assume you want to stay with me. I'm still heading to the kingdom. If anyone is alive and holding the line, that's where they will be."

Anthony sat in a reclined position against the caravan, propping himself against the wheel. The sky was a gorgeous blue and the fields were so pastoral that he couldn't help but wish he had time for a nap.

"What are the options? Hole up in the middle of nowhere, or head down to the nearest village? Are we going to sleep in shifts?"

"I don't need as much sleep as a human so I can do most of the watch. The darkness though, I'm not sure I can ease the horses in the full dark that it will be. We can make out way back to one of those farmhouses, and clear it out. If the zombies can't see us, then we should be safe... If there are any more of them."

The chosen ranger snuck past the patrols outside Dunnamore. The walls were fortified and there were bonfires raging inside. He was uncertain of how the undead had arranged patrols and kept fires going, but it was just his luck to be stuck with such an assignment.

He popped his head out over a gaping crack in the wall to see a group of them sitting around the fire. Next to them he saw about a dozen men and women, tied up to posts.

Beyond that was a cluster of three buildings. One of them must hold the controller of the undead around the area, and if he took that one down then the rest would be more mindless, easier to kill and perhaps help him to get the second class that his deity promised him.

Only one guard on top of the wall actually did his job with the patience only the dead possess.

He'll be the first one, then.

Tucking his crossbow into a sling, he pushed it up his back, thanking whomever that dead shop owner was that had left his door open when he became undead.

Mork bless his house and send him to a better place.

Hand by hand, he climbed, getting to where he can take a shot. He lined up a shot on his favored enemy and then loosed the bolt from his light crossbow.

Twelve bolts left.

The undead knight fell, silently slipping forward over the wall. The flash of the card in his soul was nothing against the bonfire behind the wall. The ranger gathered the card and the pieces he dropped.

Another bow ability. Excellent.

He didn't have time to read the card right now but it was going to be the next thing he did in downtime.

A sound from some of the horses kept inside the walls, alerted him of their direction . If he had known that they were keeping horses, then he might have brought one. It would be how he left, either way. A quick glance told him there were about twenty horses.

He sees a chance to cause some mischief and pulled out a vial of grease.

These horses will provide a good distraction.

He spread some of the grease evenly across the rope connecting to the stables. He made a quick snare trap that wouldn't last long. It only had to work once, and then badly. Using his woodsman skill he primed a torch attached to the snare. Then he adds the one thing he hadn't thought he would get some use out of-candle wire. Having not found any dynamite, he would have to content himself with homemade explosives.

Then he looked down, discerning which of the three targets to go for. The three tents looked similar in size of shape and any one of them could hold a death knight. If he was able to think like them he might hazard a guess, but with all that he knew, any one of them was good enough.

It was the old Monty Hall problem that his granddad had explained quickly to him as a youth. Now if only he could remove one of the options. He had to think that Mork had chose him because he knew about the Monty Hall problem, as the rest of his life dealt little with the things that the god of death and mathematics cared for. It stung.

He picked one at random after deciding which would be the hardest to sneak up on. There was no reason to hide. He would sneak in, decapitate the head of the undead here and then make off with one or more of their horses.

Probably.

The middle tent looked to be the hardest to reach, but would top brass want a longer walk to the exit? Either way, he found his way to the interior of the wall's edge.

He leaned into his ranger stealth skill, which had already reached fifth level. It helped him to find a pathway in the dark, avoiding the bright light of the two bonfires. He briefly wondered what they were burning before he saw a bony protrusion and his curiosity went away.

If he'd had a team for backup he probably wouldn't be so nervous. But then again, if he had a team he probably wouldn't be on a suicide mission from Mork to complete this damn quest. If Mork would have given him more details than he would be rewarded once he killed the death knight, then he would be happier, but then again?

He was at the rear of the tent, where the shadows were the darkest. The courtyard of Dunnamore had a lot of nooks and crannies around it's single story shops.

Ranger class skill Stealth has advanced to level six.

It was jarring that he got confirmation that he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. He paused before gently opening the flap with a bolt. If he had more bolts, then he could slowly whittle them down. But he needed a good blade and the death knight would have one of those in top of whatever card was in it's soul.

Mork hated the corruption of the zombie rot that turned humanoids and elvenoids into mindless beasts. If he could get an unlimited ammunition skill, he would be laying waste to the zombies with hit and run tactics. But he wasn't there yet.

The flap opened to a half naked knight.

"Who are you and why are you here?" The gravelly voice said.

"Paulie, here with a special delivery, bada bing, bada-"

Thwip!

He looked a bolt into the knights face, blowing the head clean off at that range.

"-boom."

On the side of the officers tent, a large sword in a special stand leaked dark power. Paulie hesitated for a second before grabbing it and then thrusting it through the death knights chest. The glow of a card popped up.

Epic Skill Card: Pathfinder Level 1

Find a friend or foe within five miles unerringly. As this card advances, the range advances.

He looked at it briefly before putting it directly into his soul. This would complement his existing skills immensely and Mork had intended for him to take this card. He had just met the deity, but he hadn't been steered wrong yet.

It was about this time that the rope he had greased up finally lit on fire. As he ventured out behind the tent for any guards, one of the other tents caught fire. Every single undead head in the place had turned to look directly at him.

At least they weren't looking at the poor prisoners.

"The next town over-"

"Dunnamore. It's a dwarvish holding. Very rural. It supports the Irumian kingdom by providing them with all their food needs. Even farms this far out."

"Dunnamore. Ah. And you say that there's a walled courtyard we could use if we need to hole ourselves in there?"

"This is where the earth skills would come in handy."

"Interesting," Anthony said, "Like shaping the earth to form a part of the wall?"

"To patch it up, yes. I could do so with plants, but that would be difficult. And I wouldn't want to spend all that effort for them to just gnaw through the vines anyway."

"Ah. I see."

"Well if we wait for dark, at least we'll have some advantage. I'm sure that they're more dormant at night," Finley said, gulping.

"Are you sure about that?"

Darkness approached and then they could see two bonfires poking over a large wall.

"I'm certain that those were made on purpose. There has to be humans there. They're probably using them to incinerate the undead."

"That makes sense," Anthony said. "Is this a common thing?"

"I have never heard of it happening in my lifetime."

They continue on in silence then for a bit.

"We can still turn around you know. This close to the town, there are more roads than just the one that leads in. We can just go around it."

Finley's sense of the place did not extend inside of the city. He had expected some plant life to give him an idea of what was going on but he could barely see the town with his eyes from a span away. The sun dipped below one of the western mountains and the bonfires became even more pronounced.

"Hey, hero-Is that light getting brighter?"

"That... Can't be possible. Two bonfires and it's getting brighter?"

Finley reached to the horses, reading them to move.

"There's a road that goes around the town in a circle. We'll take that one," the elvenoid said, getting up. "It's going to be a hot night."

---

As soon as he activated the Pathfinder ability, he could feel it. Mork was pushing him to follow, in a very specific way. It wasn't just taking him to the right horse, it was pushing him away from the now mindless horde.

Next time, he would plan more ahead. Mork had promised him that there were more people that would fight against the undead. He needed to lead them away from the twelve that had thankfully been put into cages, even as some of the mindless undead scraped at the bar.

The horses would need to go first.

His pathfinder skill was telling him to pick one of the closest steeds, a white horse. Had he been a ranger for any longer, he might know the first thing about horses. His animal handling skill assured him that he would at the very least not fall off his horse.

He ran along the side of the wall as the zombies charged him. With no one directing their actions, they were far less effective.

The half door to the stable was easily dealt with. Then all the doorways were quickly opened. He ran up to the white steed, pulling on his animal handling skill. If nothing else he was going to ride out of here like a hero with a sword and a horse.

After making sure every horse was free to go, he pushed open the barn doors. The undead behind him hammered the entrance.

They can't get all of us, can they?

He could hear a familiar laugh as the barn doors opened and the horses made their way out. For a moment the chosen ranger felt like they were doing what he wanted, as they attempted to trample the first line of zombies.

"Quit horsing around guys," he said, spurring his steed onward, "I have someone to meet."