"So what we need is a way for me to make a larger than normal gate. It that something that we can figure out?" Sonya asked the dwarf.

"It's one of those things that sounds technically feasible, but I'm not sure how they did it," Andrew said, rubbing his beard.

One of the buildings had a workshop that had been taken over by the dwarf. To say that he had spread out his work was an understatement.

The place lived and breathed craft.

It was as if he had never stopped being a child and he had gotten to do whatever he wanted, and there were no adults to stop him. All their salvage was neatly piled up in exactly zero spots. He had clearly divided up metal piles, wood piles, miscellaneous piles but the rest?

It was a mishmash that no one except for the dwarf would be able to sort through.

So when Sonya came by to ask him some questions, she was mildly perturbed by his lack of organization. She was used to dealing with unfocused bureaucracies. If nothing else, the Canadian Federal service had taught her so much about dealing with people that you couldn't just learn from a book.

In this case? She was probably dealing with a level three hoarder. Who wouldn't be, when one didn't know what one would need?

"What if we used like a large stone door frame? Or like can you make a frame out of iron large enough for the wagons?" She said.

"They would have to be twice as tall as you at least and then perhaps the same width. I have laid out the size that I envisioned for this over there against the wall," he said.

The one exterior wall in the workshop had markings where Andrew had laid out his design. Brass and iron ran up either side of what looked like a potential garage door, it was too bad that it wasn't a roll-up. So he rather preferred those designs that she'd seen. They was a dwarven aesthetic to building things here that Andrew hadn't acquired yet.

"Do you think you can learn something from the way they make their doors here?" She said, running her hands along it to get a feel for the size. She tapped into the skill and just knew that it would take a lot out of her to maintain a gate that large.

"I'm hoping I can take some notes on the best things of what I find. But you have to understand that compared to this? My world didn't have spring-loaded anything. At best, we had crossbows," he said. "Somebody told me that was some pre-industrial revolution type shit and agreed with them. Then I asked them what the heck was an industrial revolution."

She could see how that might be a problem in translation. If he had come from a less advanced society then he would have all the prior knowledge of things that wouldn't help so much. It wasn't like she had memorized how to create a micro circuit anyway.

Sonya barely even understood how electricity worked. So she wouldn't put it past the artificer to do his best and ask for help when he needed it. She had seen herself asking around before, especially in the magic department.

"Finley said that he's got some cards up for grab. Said that they were class cards. High level ones too," she said. "Are you thinking of putting in a bid for any of them?"

Andrew stopped sorting brass and iron pieces for a moment.

"What? And have more of a job to do here? I'm already working as hard as I can. If you guys want me to go on watch just say the word. I don't mind a little bit of hard work but nobody else is going to be able to do what I'm doing. And all I need is some motes of mana to get some of these things up and running."

She couldn't argue with that. She might be strong, but he was smart. She might be wise, but he was able to convert his intelligence into something that actually worked and functioned when they needed it. His flame flinger helped cover their retreat from their last big engagement. She was excited for the next thing that he was going to create.

In the back of her mind, her inner child was hoping for a machine gun crossed with a grenade launcher, because fuck you and anyone around you. Unfortunately that would be pretty destructive and they were trying to get as many cards as they could. It would be counterproductive to blow every one of their enemies into smithereens upon contact. Unless of course their cards just appeared right there where they had been. But she doubted it. No one had really tested whether or not cards could be destroyed, but she had an idea that it was possible and no one really wanted to try and prove or disprove it.

With new eyes, she realized that if there were so many spring doors available with roll-ups they could take advantage of it. Dwarves loved a good garage type area, with enough space for a work shop. Those doors might open up an opportunity to anchor more places. Then they would be able to find and convert them, creating a network of linked workshops.

"If we took a few of these roll-up doors, do you think we could convert them? I'm thinking that we use them as gate anchors. Like if we we found one here and then linked it to another one..." She said.

His eyes went wild. He put down his pieces and returned to the large chalkboard he had appropriated. He began writing down dimensions and drawing a wagon next to a large door. Sonya would leave him to that part.

"You good with this Andrew?" She said.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"I can take it from here. I'm going to need to see one of these roll-up doors up close."

Sonya smirked. She knew where he was going with this request.

---

"Alright. We're going to make sure that we give these out with a bit of thought behind it. For instance, I really want a monk class, but as the groups cleric and main healer-"

"And caravan boss!" Valerie yelled from the back of the room.

"-and Caravan commander, thanks Valerie. As I was saying, it wouldn't make sense for me to take another combat skill. We have two monk class cards," Anthony said. "Five casters that are all battle mages, and five warrior cards. All of the warriors cards and monk cards have a specialty. Finley has reminded us that we have a few people who already have two class cards. So I would ask this people to stand up and move to the back."

There was some shuffling and grumbling.

"Humans can have three active class cards," Finley said. "With the exception of uncommon non combat classes, like my accountant class. Dwarves can only have two, but they can get around this restriction by turning their soul card into a class card. I think."

Anthony knew that he was leaving out the part where they could end up with a less than useful class unless someone wanted to change their life's trajectory.

"Even dwarves from different worlds?" Andrew said.

"Even dwarves from different worlds? I don't know yet," Finley said. "I'm hoping to learn from you."

"As far as passing the watch duties around? It's unfair for the Orcs to take up all this duty for us. I understand that we're in a relatively safe spot but wanted to consider the little people here and also the big people," Bob said. "I think that if anything, I'd want to work on that. I have enough powerful cards that I don't want to put myself in the running for any of these, but another summon would make things so much better. Even like a summon guard dog card."

"Noted."

Sophie had two or more classes, as did Finley. Stella was holding out for a healer class, he knew. That left the three human warriors: Iggy, Kayleigh and Brianna all needed a second class. All three humans had a sprinter build and had gotten a whole custom arsenal, one size too small.

Of the primary rogues, Chris and Stella needed a second class. Sophie had gotten her druid class card and had made a warlock card almost by accident. Not everyone has a chance encounter with a dashing goat patron, but she did.

Brandon, Juan and Michael, the monks needed a second class as well. All three wore the loose white robes of Irumian pilgrims to the Ice Cloak foothills, with a satchel of stones for their slings on one side.

"Hey I think I speak for all of us that perhaps we need to make more healer class cards," Brandon said. "You probably need a second class Bob. If for no other reason than if you die? We're screwed."

Anthony shrugged. He was going to be the guy in the back directing the big picture stuff. He didn't see the need to do it.

"How about this," Anthony said. "Since these cards we can swap around based on preferences- let's give the battle mage stuff to our warriors or monks. They're not soul cards, so we can swap them around if needed. My understanding is that this is correct?"

Valerie nodded.

"Who wants to be a guinea pig? Valerie you're welcome to join in as well. Borgan? Song?"

The orcs both put up hands, pushing away anything close to responsibility. Valeria bristled at his inquiry. Word on the caravan news network was that she wanted a particular class to complement her strategist class, and that it was rare and a foolhardy one. He couldn't blame her.

She had wanted to make some sort of longhand spreadsheet to track all of this. Apparently it was something that Noble families did when they were trying to determine who would be getting the next class card from a beloved, great uncle or Aunt.

It wasn't that people were required to tell others their cards but in certain families it was the default. Hearing about how cards got handed down through families like that had made his head spin.

Anthony had tried to do a lot for his son including before he came through college but if he could just give his son a midwife card, that would have made his life so much easier. Especially if it was his grandfather's midwife card that had been passed down to him for the express purpose of giving his son the skills needed. Or his grandmother's.

Anthony wondered how families that had lots of kids were able to pass on cards but if each kid was born with one card then then they could start their own legacy. It seemed needlessly complicated. If the people that lived before couldn't help you out then what good were they? Then he thought about all the things that have been a problem back on Earth and how there had been so many people that had started off with good intentions. So many of those never got their dreams to turn into reality and they had to deal with people who just got things done whether they were doing the right thing or not.

As it turned out nobody really wanted to be guinea pig but he was going to pick somebody. He looked at Stella physically. She was very vocal about wanting to be a healer whenever the topic came out and she was a few cards short of making her own healer class. Doing it that way would give her a first level healer class but she would be able to get better as Tom went on. What he was offering her was going to be something like a level five class card.

"All right. If there's nobody who's going to volunteer to be a mage I'm just going to pick one of you guys at random. Stella, step right up. I know that you wanted a healer class but what I have for you today is a battle mage class and I just want you to give it a shot okay?"

She stands forward and took the card from his last rest hand. And then she took the card and shove it into her into her chest. As she did. So the card went fully translucent and corporeal. Then she couldn't see it anymore. And it was inside her soul deck.

She went through the motions and before he knew it, she was levitating a ball of flame above her hands. Stella's long black hair was thankfully slicked back into a high ponytail. "Oh damn guys. You should try this," she said.

It didn't take much more for the rest of them to be convinced to take a second class. Pretty sure there might be some changes later, but for right now? They could deal with it.

He needed them to be ready to go.

If Anthony had been a different person, he would be leading them in some sort of organized training. But everything he did so far had molded them into a large resilient team. He might talk to Valerie about what they need to do if they were going to be a a force to be be reckoned with. It was probably part of her training. He made a mental note to ask her later.

And just like that they were done and family was presenting everyone with a plan for the next day. They were going to do their darnedest to get out of Camp Delta well before it was the morning time. Then it would hit it hard for three or four hours before finding a convenient stop. And transitioning into more raids on the academy grounds.

Due to Camp Delta's remote nature, he was considering it their secondary searching point. He just needed someplace remote for them to be able to go frequently. After all, why would he go to work in person when he could work remote?

Unfortunately, It wasn't an option for him to fight the zombie hordes from home. He did his best to prepare himself for the next day. When Sonya finally courted him that night looking for her cuddles, he was finally all packed up. And with a smile, she grabbed his hand and yanked him to their bed.