Rare Class Card: Artificer Level 2

Skills:

Simple Crafting and Forging Level 2

Enchantment Level 1

Blueprinting Level 1

Tinkering Level 1

Alchemy Level 1

As an Artificer, you may use others mana for enchantments, and while in range casters with mana can turn mana into crystals for your use in artificer works.

This card allows the user to imbue spells known by nearby casters.

This is a soul card and cannot be removed.

This strange world held many mysteries for Andrew. The first of which was the magical card system. As with everything he had seen, all the horrors, he had just accepted it. It was the way.

His way.

He'd worked on the carriage assembly, checking out the differences between the Tinker caravan that Finley traveled in and the spare parts that they'd found around town. In the process, his simple crafting and forging skill had continually lead him in the right direction. That had given him the first skill leveling notification and increased his Artificer class level. Now with two similar shaped wagons, he looked to make a blueprint from the working wagon.

There were a lot of similarities between the two. He'd readily accepted that there was a right way and a wrong way. The two wagons differed more than different shades of grey. Barring the covering that was part canvas, part load bearing wooden cross beams, they could have been made from the same place at different times.

The main problem he needed to solve was how to attach the load bearing portion that connected to the wheels to the wagon itself. This was a worthy problem in a test of mostly easy questions. He tackled it with a smile.

The wagon was helpful in keeping him from thinking about how he'd been ripped from home and taken here. Before, he'd lived a quiet life, keeping to himself and tending his clockwork shop. His world hadn't been too different from this one, though it lacked so many things that he had really thought he would see.

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It was getting close to dinnertime. The sun, as it does, of course threatened that time was about up. That was the first time that Bob's Quest card pinged since the night prior.

Rare Meta Card: Quest Level 1

This card creates quests for the wielder and generates rewards for quest completion. Quests may also be given by a patron deity. The more this levels, the more information about the quest and quest rewards you will receive.

***New Quest: Survive. Reward: Five common cards.***

"Fuck," said Bob, chosen ranger of Mork. "Hey guys look alive. I got a quest."

"Finley," Stella said. "Wake up."

The elvenoid had been sleeping trying to get a short nap in before dinner. After a full day of work, Bob could understand the impulse. No one knew when another attack would come and there was little that they could do in the meantime except rest and prepare. If one was to fight zombies, it would be best to do it on a full stomach.

Bob walked outside to check the horizon and see what exactly was happening.

"What's the quest say?" Stella asked.

Bob pushed a window open.

"All it says is, Survive. If I survive then I get five common cards," he said, scanning the outskirts of the town, "Now where the heck would they be coming from? Does anyone see Anthony anywhere?"

"I'll get him," Sophie said, heading to the stables.

"Wait! Bring a friend. I don't like this," Bob said.

"Alright. Stella?"

Stella and Sophie slipped out the side entrance.

Bob turned back to see who else was there. Finley was getting up. Sonya was snoring loudly. Bob gently nudged her. The snoring stopped as she slumped off her bench seating onto the floor.

"Hey, you asshole, what the heck?" she said.

The rest of the survivors all started moving around, getting up.

Bob still didn't see anything, and he wanted more than anything to go do a sweep of the perimeter. He would need Anthony to help out. The monks split to opposite corners, checking every direction. None of the horses had moved yet, or done anything but graze next to the inn.

Bob regretted not saddling every horse. There were more horses than people to ride them.

"Finley, we might need to move quickly," he said once the elf joined him by the window. "Can you make the horses ready?"

"They're in a state of rest but... alright, now they're all looking with us. They don't see anything either."

Bob and Finley shifted to the side of the Inn with the stables. The dwarf was still working hard on what appeared to be a half done third wagon. The second was set up next to the bay mares, just lacking horses hitched up to pull it.

Anthony ran in.

"What did I miss?" He said.

"Ranger Bob's Quest skill? It pinged. Something about: survival. We're checking out if there are any zombies on the way," Stella said, "I'm going to load up what I have been prepping into the second wagon. Thanks to that one cryomancer card we should be good if we can make a fire."

"I'll get two of the horses hitched up," Finley said, "Can I get some help loading? And if anyone has a saddle this will be a hell of a lot easier. Also I made three animal handling skill cards so I can pass those out. I can't get any benefit from multiples of the same card skill."

He handed the cards to Anthony to deal out before leaving. Bob wished that they had more time to construct their decks, and learn a bit more about the cards, but the Elf was both overstimulated and overtired by the afternoon. So what if he only had to take a power nap everyday, if he needed to do it every time his mana went low that would be a big blow.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Thanks. Warriors?" Anthony said, "Help the elf and dwarf load up everything. Monks? Make sure everyone is up. If we have to move, we have to move. We'll decide where we're going next on the road if needed."

"Yes boss!" The monks said, sprinting ahead of the warriors.

The warriors followed along. The groups wizard, still sleeping was being carried by the only male Rogue in the group. It was as if they had all made terrible decisions based on their own choices, and Bob had to pay the bill. Each one had to pick a class when they had been summoned, if the other gods were like Mork, so having all of them as melee focused classes was sub optimal.

Bob rotated to the western facing wall, looking for anything and hoping for nothing. Then he could see plants moving in the grasslands west of the town.

"From the west! There's a lot of them!"

Behind him, Anthony crowded the window. Bob showed him the figures emerging from the grass.

"Mount up!" Anthony said, "We can't stay here right now. I know we were going to practice this but we don't have time. Grab whatever you can carry. Stack it all in the open wagon. Is everyone here?"

"What's going on? One second I was talking to my patron and the next," Sonya said, her voice groggy and low to the ground.

"And somebody get the warlock into the wagon. We're going to need her ranged attacks. Sonya can you fire from here?"

"Anthony? Why are you yelling?"

"Because-fuck these zombies- I don't want to die, Sonya. And I don't want any of you to die."

Bob put a hand underneath her arm pit. He helped her up. She had a lot of the firepower. The reason that she was sleeping was her practice. Stella had given her some of the glasses to use as target practice. She shot blast after blast until she tapped herself out. Bob wasn't sure yet how much range she had. Not needing to have arrows was a big boon.

Bob was jealous. He didn't have time for it, though. With Anthony and Sonya as their ranged support, it fell to him to get the horses set up on the second wagon. When he left the confines of the Inn he had expected to spend the night at, he paused, checking to see if he had left anything. He felt his bow around his cloak, and with his full water skin at his side, he moved to calm the horses. He'd retrieved several of his used bolts, much to the dismay of the monks with him. Those bloodied bolts all sat on the back of the wagon, next to the pile of wagon parts.

Finley's tips had helped advance his animal handling skill. He was grateful for the new ability to push the horses in a direction. Sure it felt like pushing rope a bit, but it didn't take mana.

*Quest Updated: Survive: Survive for the next twenty minutes. Quest Reward: Five Common Cards, One Uncommon Card, Ten Rare card pieces.*

"Fuck. Guys!"

---

The caravan was ready to go. The wagon finally had two horses tied up and in position. Anthony scrambled to get people into the carts. The four people that had animal handling as a skill card had coaxed some of the horses into letting them ride along. They had saddles, salvaged from the interior courtyard. What use zombies would have for saddles, Anthony would never know. He never wanted to know.

The idea of an intelligent undead, using animals to further their own interests scared him.

"Is everybody here?" Anthony said, testing the reins of the wagon, "We don't have time to sit here."

It hadn't been a minute since the dwarven zombies all came out of the grassy plains on the western side of the city. Now they were crossing the open area that marked the southern half of the city.

Ahead of him, Finley had his Caravan pointed South toward the direct route to the Capital. According to the tinker, there was another town only a day away. That town would have a fully fledged card shop, as well as a few other things that would help them on their journey. He didn't want to leave Dunnamore. By the way the grass was shaking, they didn't have a choice.

Finley's cart and the herd of horses around them began with a jolt as the screaming started. It wasn't the zombies that chased them, as their vocal cords had stopped working some time ago. Neither was it the Stella and Sophie, who sat on the back of his wagon, guarding the wizard. That scream came from Bob himself.

"Get him down!" Anthony yelled., "He's losing his cool!"

"I'm trying," Stella said. She slapped Bob several times before he snapped out of it.

"Bob! Was that another quest update? Or did something else happen?"

"Their gaze. I wasn't paying attention. Those red eyes..." He said.

Anthony turned his attention towards the horses that were just now getting up to speed, keeping pace with the riders next to him. The three on horseback were riding ahead, though without weapons all they could do is be a distraction.

All they needed to do was to stay ahead of the horde. And if they survived for 20 minutes, then maybe Bob would get a good card? Anthony wasn't entirely sure how it worked. He just knew that if the gods were going to give them something then it better be damn good.

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Stella's perception skill leveled up and she cursed.

"There's got to be at least two hundred of them. That explains where all the towns people went. Do you think we could take down all of them?"

"I honestly don't know," Sophie said. "But that ice spell you got, right? Is that going to help us out?"

"It kind of feels like I can do a bunch of things with but I have to, like, focus on it. Besides making the ice chest for all the meats and food. The power wants to be called? I don't know how well this will go. I'm really hoping that we can just outrun them."

The cart rattle as they moved. Stella instinctively reached out for Bob. In between them. She found herself holding his hand, their arms pressed together.

"All the things I said earlier," she whispered. "I'm really sorry."

"I know how it is."

"What you're not going to apologize too? We could die!"

"I'm really sorry. And we can continue this discussion later when we live," Bob said, winking at her.

"You're damn right."

"Ahem," Sophie said from the far side of the wagon as it jolted. She held onto one of the spare wheels with one hand.

"Sorry, Sophie!" Stella said.

From the front of the cart, Andrew briefly flew several feet into the air as they hit another bump. Anthony stayed on the ground. Everyone else but the five of them was either riding a horse or in the caravan.

"They're speeding up!" Bob yelled.

"Well shit. The warlock and the wizard are in the next caravan," Stella said, "Let's see what we can do."

Stella tapped into her ice magic. If the zombies were moving, and they needed their legs to get from here to there. How would they do it if all the sudden the area was impassable?

The road they were on had a gentle downward slope. It was so gentle that you wouldn't notice it unless you looked far to the south.

Stella tapped into her mana drawing on the water that was loose in the air.

"How much time do we have? Bob?" Sophie said.

"The quest is giving me ten minutes."

"If you see a rider, tell them to get ahead of us. Don't let them drop back."

Stella concentrated on the ambient magic and humidity. That would do well.

Blue Sparks flew out of her hands as she spread them to the side. The thick packed dirt gave way all of a sudden to a thin sheet of ice. The spell drank up mana. As they moved, the road behind them turned into ice more and more.

"Don't burn yourself out," Anthony yelled.

"What?" Sophie yelled back.

"He said don't burn yourself out," Bob said.

"I can handle myself. Do not tell me what I can and cannot do," Stella yelled back as the mana dropped out of her and into the air behind the cart.

As they moved, the cart looked like it was grading the ground and covering it with a clear glaze. The now flat ground was about to meet with its first and probably last enemy.

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There's not a lot said about zombie foot care. There are no zombie podiatrists. In fact, there's no zombie primary Care and definitely no zombie orthopedists. That said, the compulsion to eat the flesh of the living drives one to do silly things. Silly things like not wear shoes or boots when one is searching for a warm body to eat. Such is the case for many of the zombies that found themselves starving and chasing down two caravans full of tasty morsels.

For those zombies, none of them had thought to bring winter boots on this occasion. To be fair, most zombies don't think much at all, but in this particular circumstance, they were all made from fresh local non-GMO corpses, though not cruelty-free in the slightest. These ecologically friendly zombies who did not build fires or contribute towards society in any way go of or bad only wanted to satisfy their base instincts. So, one could imagine that the gibberish that they screamed while they chased down their prey could come out as garbled screams, even when the zombish phrase, 'Welcome to Dunnamore, please stay forever and ever' didn't penetrate any thick skulls.

So it was rather unfortunate when the first barefoot Undead dwarf met with a very elaborate icy slide. Unfortunate in a sense that they didn't have a natural inclination in how to deal with such a problem. Fortunate for them in that several were able to propel themselves on the slight decline just by virtue of slipping on the zombies in front of them.

Said zombies turned into a one dwarf bobsled team almost by accident. It wasn't everyday that zombies worked together. And today wasn't going to change that fact. But if all the zombies cared about was getting closer to dinner, and in doing so they didn't have to move, then they were happy.

Really it was just thanks to one person who had misjudged a card ability. If the zombies could have prayed to their God, they would have thanked them profusely at that time. And so it was that most of the horde of zombies got caught up on the ice. About a dozen were able to continue down unhindered, no thanks to their foot hygiene

Of those, several were using other zombies as makeshift sleds.

Were they doing this intentionally? No.

Were they picking up speed? Yes.

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"Stella?"

"Yes, Sophie"

"Are those fucking zombies bobsledding?"

"It would appear so, Sophie."

"And are they going faster now than they were before?"

"It would appear so, Sophie."

"Stella?"

"Yes, Sophie?"

"How do you kill a zombie who is bobsledding?"