Inside the academy, there was enough food and supplies to outfit a small combat force. The only problem was in getting to it and then getting it transported via portal. To that end they devised a system of organization for what they needed the most.
The main problem that Sonya realized later on was that while one person or one team was at the academy, the rest of the group couldn't move around so freely.
It was pretty easy to figure out how to use the anchor. Once Sonya got it going, she was able to cast the gate spell wherever the anchor was.
They used a large flat stone to anchor the gate spell. It was every girl's dream to be able to rob someone blind, while also suffering zero consequences. Or at least every girl that was still in Sophie and Stella. The day after they arrived at Camp Delta, Sonya joined the scouts and the monks in a brief jaunt back to Heirisburg.
Upon their arrival, Sonya charged another stone for their gate spell to anchor to. This way it was much easier for her to find the stone points along her world line.
She anchored it to the top of the building that they had initially left from. There was a tacit agreement that zombies were terrible at stairs and even worse at ladders. Thus the further from the ground, the easier it would be to avoid them.
There were still a fair amount of zombies in the academy, but they were not paying any attention to the sneaky scouts. Sonya took up her favorite position at the top, taking over watch with Juan, one of the monks.
He was pretty quiet as they traded pointers with the sling.
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Bob, Mork's weekend entertainment, moved to the supply section. The warehouse was in an obvious position on the back of the academy. You could see it from the road, but the academic building itself obscured it from a view of the city and everything around it.
There was a large roll up door, something that was proving to be more and move evidently a point of pride for dwarven architects. Like a lot of the things that they came across, it was made of iron.
There had to be an iron mine somewhere, with how much iron they kept finding wherever they went.
Inside, there were thankfully no zombies. Stella stood outside stabbing off the remaining few zombies that have been stuck inside the academy grounds. Sophie was there to assist but mostly spent time tripping them with vines. This allowed Stella to stab with a purpose.
"You are both doing great!" Bob yelled, quickly scanning the interior before returning.
It was large closed gate that would have been used for deliveries. Bob weaved around the girls and checked its integrity.
He was surprised to see that it was locked and bolted.
"The gate is locked and I see you guys have dealt with the last of the zombies. Good job ladies."
Bob nodded for Stella to take point. Their next objective was going to be the academic center itself. The sprawling five-story building was the largest inside of the academy's walled compound. It was the one they thought might have the most remaining zombies.
One of the monks had opened the doors to the other three barracks, prompting any remaining zombies that were on the first floor of each building to congregate in the center. Then the monks drew them towards Bob's kill team.
With all of the buildings open, they just needed to wait for any stragglers. It was far easier to kill them out in the open with support. It had been Sonya's idea and Bob loved it.
After the girls had explained the ladder versus stairs problem to Sonya in depth she had insisted on it. Once that was done, Brandon and Juan ran through the second floors of the other two barracks, drawing attention to the fact that juicy delicious human meat was there for the taking.
There were far fewer zombies on the second floor. By the time they cleared those out, it was tea time. Sonya teleported them back, where the two monks traded out for two warriors that were on standby.
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Bob gave a report to Anthony while the scouts ate stew and grumbled. Of course their offer of some of the spices that they had brought back was summarily denied until further testing could be conducted.
"So there's like a warehouse back there that has most of what we need?" Anthony said. "Well if no one is touching it, then we can probably leave it there and keep coming back for more. Valerie!"
The teenage dwarf looked up from across the room.
"What if we just portal-ed back when we need more supplies?" He said.
"Uhhhh," she said. "Let me think about this one."
Anthony raised an eyebrow. He was still working under the impression that they needed to bring everything in their wagons. They had acquired more wagons expecting to need the space.
They still could only move as fast as the caravan, but they were able to return to just about anywhere that Sonya had been. But if they didn't need to pack everything except some essentials, they could have a home base.
"Sonya?" Anthony said. "Have you talked to Finley about where he has been? Perhaps his world line gets us closer to where we want to be."
"I don't want that kind of pressure," Finley said, between bites of stew.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Bob chewed on the rubbery meat that had made up most of this lunch. He blinked several times, trying to see if the Tinker was serious.
He was definitely serious.
"Have you been farther south than this?" Bob said.
"Farther east, yes. Farther south, yes to the capital, but it's not like I can bring the entire caravan with me. That portal has a size limitation, unless we set up a system of gates like the elves had. I think that would take far more time than we have, especially if dragons are taking notice."
Finley slurped what was rest of his bowl before dramatically placing it on the wooden table. His eyes never left Anthony's during the entire experience, as if challenging the man to bother him while he was eating.
"I'm going to have to reconsider how we get resupplied then. Finley, we should think about this," Anthony said. "And if there's another gate spell, we need that to be one of our goals. This is just too powerful of an ability to not find another one."
It wasn't back to the drawing board for all of their plans, but it was refreshing to know that they could secure the academy grounds and use that as a staging area. In truth, the dwarven kingdom was the size of a continent on its own, with wide swathes of area where nothing much happened but farming.
If they solved their ongoing food issue, a lot of things were simpler. Their next couple of salvage runs could be just about the things that the academy couldn't provide.
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Finley came to see Anthony after he checked in with the horses. They were in good spirits. The rest was helping them immensely. It was as important for the horses as it was for the humans.
Anthony had the next destination in mind. It was going to take them a few days of travel no matter what they did. There was no rush. They had to clear hundreds of span to even get close to the next death knight if they even wanted to. Having the option to return to places like camp delta was attractive. Just because they hadn't died didn't mean that they were completely safe.
Their victory was in no way assured, but he would do what he could. If not, he wouldn't be able to work on his bartering skill.
Having everyone join in a collective bargaining agreement was a bit odd, but the jump is had given him was well worth it. Before he had met Anthony, it had taken forever to get to the third level.
Now? With the bargain struck, he was surprised to see it at level five.
As well the text had changed.
Epic Class Card: Tinker Level 4
Skills:
Barter and Appraisal Level 5
Identify Level 3
Animal Handling Level 3
Storage Level 4
King Level 2
This is a soul card and cannot be removed. As the Tinker King, you have the ability to induct new people into the family.
He wasn't the last living Tinker any longer. He was reassured to see that small change. The image of a wagon and a crown remained.
He hadn't worked so hard on his advanced animal handling or identify skills but based on how long it took to get them to that level he was going to take years for the next advancement. Finley grabbed his busy work for the day. Every good Tinker knew that you saved the paperwork until the afternoon when things were settled.
The group that had gone through the academy had handed over their haul and he was curious about what they had snagged.
From what Valerie had said, the military was an equalizer among the dwarves where children of noble birth had rubbed elbows with commoners. Some dwarves were born to be good commanders and staff officers, while others were not.
No matter their prior education, nobles were no better on average than working class dwarves.
However, the cadre of trained officers that made it to the highest level and tender to stick around was invariably nobles.
This meant that there was a small group of cards that had come from noble lineages. These were for the most part rare cards. And as far as he understood, they were mostly merchant and some class cards. There had only been about 200 zombies that they had killed. Of those, about ten had left class cards.
Those he would be presenting to the council later that day. Just about every single one would be going to someone who didn't have a second class. It meant that they would be more durable and able to survive better. He wanted to give them every advantage that he could. He also didn't want to keep changing directions midstream.
They had gone through a lot recently. The fact that he had changed his mind several times since they had arrived at Camp Delta with not was not a good or a bad thing on its own, but it was showing where he needed more information.
That was where Sonya came in. She had helped organize the cards, then helped him focus his mind on what other cards they might need to make. Sonya had helped. Sophie, pick all the right cards to make new warlock class card. That had been a slam dunk for the Rogue.
Now he was looking at some of the cards that they had gotten and realizing that he might get four or five more new classes out of what was left. He was really happy about that. Even though they would all be brand new level one classes, it would still be great for the group.
One of the things that Finley hadn't really gone deep into was what exactly both Orcs had brought to the table. He knew they both had a very high level bardic class of some sort. He had never seen such a card. And they weren't really forthcoming with the information.
He was beginning to think that part of the reason that they were a night shift was because they could only deal with so much social pressure.
But they were performers? They should be used to talking to a crowd. Maybe even happy to do it? Finley knew that he wasn't always happy to talk to new people, but he warmed up over time. Sophie had mentioned that she did some sort of theater back on Earth.
The idea of Earth, a planet that really existed for so many of the people that live with him, but was something he would never be able to reach irked him. All this culture that he was never going to be able to experience. There was so much food that Stella or Bob talked about that he wanted to try.
He hadn't even known that one could fry food, much less do it an entire menu of fried food. He didn't even know where he would get such oil.
Their descriptions made it sound like this was going to be the way of the future. It was inevitable. At least he could be ahead of the curve. If his Tinker card came out of this whole ordeal being able to serve some one-of-a-kind food, then he might think about keeping some of these humans on board. It was hard to be a lone wolf, when you had to deal with logistics of a pack.
Finley finally sorted all of the complete cards. With all that settled, he began to sort through the pieces. As he put them into piles, he found that he had about twenty or so rare pieces, dozens of uncommon and several hundred common pieces. It was too much for him to hope to find anything an obsidian.
Once he had them all sorted. He was able to figure out that he could give out enough card pieces to satisfy everyone's new salary under the union. He made a note as he wrote out everyone's current balance.
Each person that was now on board now was going to receive two uncommon shards per week. He had decided to give everyone a bonus of one complete common card. Unless there was a great need, cards that went from plunder and salvage came back to the Caravan to be doled out to those that needed it the most.
Finley didn't like that.
He had to do it this way, if he didn't then only the ones that were able to grab the cards would. That would lead to them getting more powerful at the expense of the rest of the Caravan.
He had seen that happen before, with one of the Tinker chiefs far over powering the rest of his caravan. It meant that no one really challenged him.
Well if Anthony wanted to be equitable about dealing the cards, this was probably the best way. Oh the class cards that needed to be given out, they would vote as to who needed them and then handpick, one for one. Then if someone wanted to trade with somebody else, that was their own business.
Finley had his business to run, and a business was good.