"Check for survivors," Finley told Andrew. "Then take anything useful. Take Sonya with you. If there are magical items, she might be able to help. I know that Bob and his team cleared the mansion, but they don't have time to do a deep search. We need them to head off to grab as many cards as possible from the shops."

"You and Anthony are going to make sure that nothing sneaks up on us, right?" Andrew said.

The dwarf should have had to look up to them. He'd found that it was easier to sit on the back of the wagon to talk eye to eye.

"We've got that part covered," Anthony said, tugging on his beard.

There was enough tension in the yard that Finley wanted the dwarf to get moving. While they were in, he was going to shore up Sonya's earth working project. Two monks had been recruited to be the guards and Zan was trying to recreate the spell with her own powers. Everyone else was in conference and eating before the next step. Stella had cursed that they once again couldn't have a roaring fire, and had wanted to use the oven inside of the mansion. That had been summarily shot down as it would be a big red flag.

So once again they had slightly warmed potatoes, as Sophie used her elemental magic to warm them up one by one. Stella applied a bit of salt and butter to each before passing them out. More than one person went back for seconds, and Finley himself was impressed by how many different ways that she could make them.

"The next one looks similar in size to this one. I'm not certain why this one had three people in it. Oh, and here are the cards from the zombies," Bob said, looking up from his third potato. "One common speed skill, one uncommon accountant class card and one uncommon that is about storage?"

"Can I see the storage one?" Finley said.

"Sure," Bob passed the card over, "That plus the frame we found means that you're going to have to teach someone how to make a card soon, Finley."

The iron card had the image of a packed wagon, with an elf attempting to load one more item.

Uncommon Card: One More!

The wielder of this card will gain the ability to increase their storage capacity, or the storage capacity of one item beyond what should be physically possible.

"I think I need this one," Finley said. "If no one objects, this should make me able to store more in the caravan."

Bob waved a hand as if to say 'take it'. Anthony shrugged.

"If it helps us, then take it. I want to know more about this accountant class though. Why is it uncommon, when our class cards are all rare?"

"May I?"

Uncommon Class Card: Accountant Level 3

Skills:

Writing Level 5

Books Level 4

Mathematics Level 6

Eidetic Memory Level 9

As an accountant, you can store complex mathematical matrices in your head and perform functions on them.

"Oh, someone was leveling this card. This is a good find, if questionable. It's not directly helpful, but we might get some use out of it."

"People can level cards and then, what, trade them?" Anthony said.

"There used to be a thriving market for highly leveled class cards. Orcs in particular were after those. You can imagine that they get really good after someone who knows what they're doing works on the skill," Finley said, "What? You guys didn't have skill cards like this on Earth?"

"Not really," Bob said, "We didn't even have magic, per se. But doesn't it hurt to level up a card and lose it?"

"It depends on the strength of the cards in your soul deck. For non-human races, you can't take your soul card out. You'll die. Humans aren't born with a card in their soul decks. So families have to build cards for their kids, or at least they did. Elves, we... tended to do what we were good at. I got my bartering and appraisal skill to level three and I thought that was good for me."

"My class card tells me that it's a soul card," Bob said, getting up and testing his crossbow.

"Well shit, Bob, mine does too," Anthony said, "Or at least that's what I thought it said. How do I check?"

"I-well theoretically, you could pull them out, but in a practical sense, you would die after a short amount of time. Can you visualize your card so I can see, either one of you? Like this?"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Finley held out his left hand, palm up. He took his right hand and mimed taking a card from a deck that didn't exist in his left.

He showed everyone his Tinker card. The dark obsidian outline glinted around the card. He then enlarged it so that the others could see. He made the decision to not show his spore druid card as that might bring up some questions that he didn't want to answer.

"Why is it black? Oh, epic? What the hell!" Anthony said.

Around him a few other people attempted to do the same thing with their own cards. There were a few smiles and hoots. Once they calmed down, Anthony brought his own up and checked it out.

"It happened right before I found you Anthony," he replied, "I never thought through the implication. It was gold before-before all of my people died."

The mood soured on him. He knew why. Where the goat lord was all about being in the moment, humans were constantly thinking about things. It felt inefficient. It would have been far better if they instead stuck to a script or something.

"How many Tinkers were there before all of this?" Anthony said quietly.

The only sound was that of Bob putting his bolts into a quiver. Stella sent him a glare, above her soul card's image.

"I estimate nearly ten thousand, all told," he said, "though it's hard to tell. We moved around a lot."

Suddenly, everyone was looking at him. Finley didn't get it. This was probably another human eccentricity.

"I'm so sorry, hey bring it in buddy," Anthony said, moving to embrace him, "We're here for you."

Finley didn't know why all of the sudden his eyes began to leak. He returned the embrace.

"And we will get vengeance," he whispered.

Finley didn't know what to say. He just let it happen. If the human wanted a hug, he would return a hug.

"Thanks," he said.

Feelings would have to wait. He'd gotten a new card and he wanted to try it out. Best to let these humans have their moment and move on to some productive work.

----------------------------------------

Sonya had found a suspicious barrel inside of the mansion and had brought it out. She had thought about the contents after seeing that it had a tap on one side. Her mouth watered. She had been dry for a while, but one drink couldn't hurt, could it? Andrew was a dwarf and he'd understand.

So when she brought it out to the caravan, she hadn't expected the muted cheers. Nobody was going to be too loud when it was quite possible that there were zombies a quarter mile away. She'd expected to be lauded as the fun mom. Anthony shot her down about opening the tap for everyone. They needed her sober right now, they said. This brew would be for if they survived.

Sonya realized that she was going to have to wait and snapped back to it. If they could wait, so could she. She'd never been able to be a social drinker, but if there was only so much to drink, there would be a hard cutoff. So why would she need to hold herself back?

"So Sonya," Anthony said, loading the barrel up into the back of the wagon, "Thanks for this and all of the cups as well. I wanted to talk to you about what you did on Earth. You've been pretty quiet, all things considered."

"I was a social worker," She said, "I worked in a residential treatment facility."

"Ah. So you have some training, then I take it?"

"I do," she said, quietly.

"But you didn't want us to single you out? Why?"

"Maybe it's the whole warlock thing. This power just feels so-raw. Like I have to shape my will. I was only able to do those rough dirt walls because I was tapping into the raw power of it. I couldn't do- if you asked me to do some fine lines instead, I would be terrible."

"It's okay to be bad at something. You made it structurally sound. Sound enough that Finley is able to grow roots and plants inside of it. Now I'm thinking that once our recon team departs, we're going to want to take that next mansion. There are some houses further on, but I think that these two can be out bases of operations for now. With the monks helping out-"

"All three of them, yeah."

"-with their help, we can potentially spend the night here. I don't think I want to, but we can make the zombies follow us into some sort of maze trap where we can easily kill them from above. I think that we might be able to trick them into that at least."

Sonya blanched.

"It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. I can dig it," she said.

"One question, though. Are you able to shift the walls?"

"If Finley doesn't put roots through them, then yes. I can, if I push now feel that the earth is very built up. If I make the tops five feet wide and then make them ten feet tall, they should be-that should be enough. It would take them time to go through a ten foot tall packed dirt and root wall."

"Even longer if the path underneath them is made of ice."

"See, I knew you were smart," Sonya said, tugging on his beard, "Cute too."

The handsome man pulled back, his cheeks beet red.

"I-uh- there will be time for flirting later," he said, stammering.

"Sure thing," she said, "I'll get right on that."

Maybe a strong person like Anthony would be enough to keep her sober. Because the zombies were making it seem like there was no way out. And if she was going to die, she might as well die how she wanted.

---

Stella, Bob and Sophie slunk towards the second mansion. With the road on their left, the door to the mansion would be facing the same way. They had a choice to make.

Stella stopped them next to a copse of trees.

"There are two clear entrances. I can see a path leading in the front and one path going through the back," Bob said.

"Front or back?" She said.

"I generally prefer heading in the front door," Bob said, "But I can see the benefits of the back door. Sophie, what do you think?"

"I can see an argument for both. The back door looks a bit dirty, but could be inviting. The front door, on the other hand has a welcoming set of steps," Sophie said, "Back on earth, I always used the back door."

"That's interesting. I would think a woman like you preferred going in the front door," Stella said, "What would you do if you were carrying groceries?"

"Well in that case, I might. But you gotta do a lot of prep work to make sure that the back door is ready," Sophie replied, "Are you ready to put in the work?"

"I can make the back door work," Stella said, "If the conditions are right."

"I think it all boils down to personal preference," Stella said, "And who your partner is. And yeah cleanup is a factor."

"Guys, I think you're both wonderful but is this the time?" Bob said.

"Bob, I thought you were the type of man who wouldn't rush a woman into a decision."

"Yes, I am, but-" Bob said.

Sophie was barely holding herself back.

"It's just a home invasion."

"Oh, so you want us just to enter raw?" Sophie said, snickering.

"Here we go again. Yes, I'll admit that I want to go into the house. Just pick a side or I will."

The women shared a look.

"The back," The both said, in unison.

"Great. Let's go."