While I had hoped to reach the mountain before nightfall, I was forced to camp out in the forest instead. It seems I had spent more time inside the store than I initially thought. I could have pushed on further but I wasn't keen on setting up my new tent in the dark. While I had the new mana store torches, the light could attract unwanted attention. Fortunately, the tent wasn't that hard to set up, and with my prior knowledge, it only took me five minutes. With my new sleeping bag also set up, I dropped my backpack inside and activated the camouflage rune located on the inside of the small tent. Wondering what it would look like from the outside, I exited the tent and took a few steps back. Even knowing where the tent was it was hard to detect it against the surrounding vegetation. Satisfied with my new tent and its function I crawled back inside.

I activated my mana stone lamp and set it down on the floor. A stray thought about luminosity entered my mind and I crawled out of the tent again. The mana stone lamp had a few brightness settings and I went through all three settings to see if any of the settings would bleed the light through the outer layer of the tent and the camouflage layer. Even on the brightest setting, the light wasn't visible and my mind was put at ease.

I toned the lamp down to the middle setting and took out my deck box. The function of the side deck had finally become clear thanks to Mr. Richard and since it was better to fill it up than leave it empty I took all my currently unused cards. Out of the seventeen cards I had, eight of them were common goblins. The orc and rejuvenation orb were round-locked for now but would enter my deck when I went to the next round and rare cards could be used. The two option I had to fill out the side deck was either full goblin so I could swap out most of my skeletons or slot in all my non-undead and non-goblin cards to counter something like the altar fight. I thought it over for a few minutes swapping around my cards in two stacks before me. In the end, I decided to mix in my Jah'kali and goblin cards. The altar was an option but I had yet to pick an upgrade for it. The fact I could swap it in and out via the side deck made the chosen upgrade less binding but it still didn't make the choice easier.

Increasing my damage looked to be the best option. If my creature could punch up against my opponent I could make better trades. Reducing damage would mean the same thing but I was sure that only picking damage upgrades for my creatures was still the best option and if my opponents did the same, a one-point reduction would mean that much. Having made my first choice, the second choice was between undead and non-undead. My active deck still had an almost even split and almost all the cards currently in my side deck stack were all of the non-undead variety. Following that I made the most logical choice and picked the option to increase the attack of a friendly random non-undead creature.

Altar of Light 1

Field effect

At the start of the round, a random non-undead friendly creature receives a +1 to attack.

I put the altar in with my side deck stack and slipped them into their slot. In the end, I decided on this set of cards:

Name

Subtype

Rank

Cost

Attack

Health

Ability

Altar of Light

Field effect

U

1

At the start of the round, a random non-undead friendly creature receives a +1 to attack.

Minor sand elemental

Sand, Jah'kali

C

1

0

2

Jah'kali junior sandmancer

Jah'kali

U

2

1

2

Sandmancer

Goblin

Goblin

C

1

1

1

Goblin

Goblin

C

1

1

1

Goblin

Goblin

C

1

1

1

Goblin

Goblin

C

1

1

1

Enforcer

Goblin

C

2

2

2

It would give me some options but all the cards weren't upgraded so I mostly filled it up just in case I'd need a card. The elemental and sandmancer were a combo set and If at some point I had some extra experience points, I'd upgrade both of them. It had been a long day and I felt my eyelids getting heavier from all the mental energy I'd expended today. I turned off the lamp, crawled into my sleeping bag, and drifted off to sleep.

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I awoke to chirping birds and the faint sign of the sun being up through the tent's canopy. The notification wasn't visible yet so it was still a bit early but I felt rested enough to start my day. It would be another long day of exploration so I might as well get in an early start. I had a quick breakfast of smoked meat and water before I started to take down my tent and put it back into the backpack. I was almost done cleaning up when the morning notification popped up.

Welcome to a new day.

You recovered (25%) of your life points from a long rest.

There are no updates to the tournament today.

I quickly checked my life totals and was glad to see I was back up to a healthy seventeen. Around forty-five minutes later, I stood at the foot of the mountain. My first goal of the day had been achieved and now the second goal was to find an entrance if there even was one.

A short while later I found an opening in the side of the mountain. I lit my new mana stone torch and entered the opening. The torch looked a bit like a magician's staff. It has a firm handle with an orb at the end that produces the light. Similar to my lamp it had a few settings that you could adjust to change the colour of the light the orb produced. There was a setting for red, orange, white, and a soft blue tone. After fiddling around I settled on the orange colour since it was most similar to a normal torch. After a minute I was already exiting the entrance again since it ended in a dead end. Most of the morning went by in a similar fashion with dead end after dead end.

That's when I came across a cave with a lot of promise. The soil outside was disturbed with footprints that I could clearly make out but it indicated that something was moving and out of the cave. I slowly made my way inside with my torch held high. After a minute or three, I started to hear chatter coming from up ahead. I crept forward till I came to a bend in the tunnel and I saw that there was light coming from around the corner. I turned off the torch and kept creeping forward.

At the corner, I stealthily peeked around to see what I was facing. I wasn't sure what to expect but a small outpost wasn't it. A decent fire had been lit in the centre with four tent-like structures surrounding it. Hide was wrapped around support beams at the corners and doglike creatures were idling around. The most interesting part was the wooden fortification that was built between the cave walls. I could just make out a heavy beam that was set in the middle of a gate indicating that this construct was there to keep something from deeper within the cave from coming out.

I slipped back behind the wall and mentally went over my options. The camp had around ten defenders but nothing indicated their strength in battle. They weren't too tall but size could be misleading. I wanted to go back in for another peak when I heard sounds echoing off the walls behind me. I whipped my head around and spotted a light source coming from up ahead in the tunnel. Unknowingly I had been trapped between the outpost and the incoming patrol. There was no real cover for me to hide behind and charging into the outpost seemed like a bad idea with an unknown number of reinforcements about to enter the scene. A small crack in the wall beside a decent-sized rock was the only hiding place and I quickly made my way over to it. I swapped my backpack to the front so I could hide behind it. It had a minor stealth enchant and in the dim light it might just be enough to fool the incoming patrol.

The light and footsteps kept coming closer as I hid behind my backpack. Two of the creatures walked past me with one holding the torch but with their weapon still sheeted. I thought I'd get away until a third creature walked past and almost immediately stopped. I said something to the other two before it started sniffing the air. If it had the ability to track me by scent, it wouldn't be long till I was found so I made the only play available and that was to initiate combat and get the ambush bonus.

Combat initiated with advantage (all opponents unaware).

You’ll receive one bonus crystal for the first round of combat.

Battlefield modifiers are in effect.

Lanes one and five were disabled for both sides.

The battlefield shift was a surreal experience as the creatures were pulled back towards the outpost and I was pulled over the rock and a bit further back into the tunnel. This had to have been the worst experience so far and it shortly disorientated me. When I regained my bearings a notification asked if I wanted to swap around any cards from the main and side deck which I quickly dismissed. It was time to inspect my opponents and get this battle started.

Kobold fighter

Kobold

1 1

All three had the exact same information and it made me feel confident about assaulting the outpost. The icon for my spider egg field effect was active but I was sure it wouldn't see an activation. I had almost one of the best opening hands for this situation. Army of two, Skeleton, Goblin enforcer, Tomb guardian, and Goblin redcap. It almost felt like a shame to play the hand against such a minor threat.

I played the Army of two first and chose skeleton as the subtype. Two skeletons burst from the cavern floor and took up their positions. Playing the lone skeleton next it simply appeared on the battlefield. The leftmost kobold slammed the torch into the skeleton's head and magically set it ablaze. Since it was unarmed, the skeleton threw itself onto the kobold and plunged its skeletal finger into the soft neck tissue causing a spray of blood as it hit the artery. The arterial spray got right into the eyes of the second kobold which made it unable to see the spear that pierced its chest. As the kobold fell it pulled the skeleton along which gave the third kobold a chance to stomp on the skeletons skull. The last skeleton arrived and plunged a dagger into the kobold's abdomen in a meticulously placed kidney shot. It shrieked out in pain but had the strength to bring its sword to bear and severed the spine just below the skull. As the skeleton fell back from the blow the dagger was ripped out and dark red, almost black, blood squirted from the open wound. The kobold got unsteady on its feet from the blood loss before it collapsed.

I had assumed that to end the combat but instead of the victory notification I was greeted with a reinforcement one instead.

A nearby outpost was alerted to your battle.

Reinforcements have entered the battle. They will arrive in two rounds.

I inwardly cursed at this turn of events. I had no board state at the moment and the only saving grace was that I had one round to prepare for their arrival. My card was the skeletal commander and he was currently of no use to me. Having the option between playing the enforcer (3/2) and the tomb guardian (3/3) I opted for the latter. It was all around the better of the two cards and would buy me the most time to get an advantage. Like a stalwart defender, it took up position in the centre vanguard lane. With no other plays to make I ended the turn and prepared for the oncoming forces,

The third turn started with my spider (1/1) entering the first lane from the crack I had tried to hide in earlier. There was no way that crack could house a spider of that size but the intricacies of how the battlefield spawned creatures never ceased to amaze me. With two of the three available slots filled in I had two choices for the final lane. The redcap (5/3) had the best attack and stealth while the commander (4/4) had the better health points. If the reinforcements were of the same calibre as the patrol playing the commander made more sense. Plus, if something surprising showed up the redcap would be a very good counter.

Three kobolds rounded the corner and without slowing down threw themselves into the battle. I barely had the time to inspect them all before an all-out brawl in the three lanes started. The sides were covered by the basic kobold but the one in the middle was called a Kobold medium fighter and it was the (2/2) version of the normal fighter. The first kobold stabbed the spider two times before a globe of acidic spit hit it in the face. It dropped the sword and tried to swipe the acid away but only managed to get it on its hands and spread it even further across its face. It dried with a scream while the spider bled out. A two-handed hammer bounced off the guardian's shield and the off-balance kobold's life was quickly reaped by the spear. The final kobold's attack was blocked by a shield and in return, it was stabbed through the chest with a rusty sword that the commander then twisted and pulled out. With a flick, it threw the blood from the sword as the kobold fell over dead in front of it.

Unsurprisingly, the vanguard held strong with only the spider dying. I could hear more hollering and hooting coming from the outpost indicating the fight was far from over. I drew another enforcer card and wondered if I should play the redcap now. If the best was saved for last, the redcap would have its moment to shine. With the vanguard slot filled with an enforcer (3/2), I ended my turn. Using their gear as an identifier, the second wave was a (1/1) and two (2/2). The enforcer was stabbed in the thigh with a sword but all that resulted in was an axe separating the kobold's head from its neck. Another dull sound rang out as another hammer was blocked by the guardian's impressive shield and the medium fighter's neck was sliced by the spear. The skeletal commander tried to replicate the guardian's feat but his shield and shield arm were obliterated by the heavy hammer attacks. Unfortunately for the kobold, the massive weight of the hammer's head carried it forward as it met al almost no resistance from the strike and with a roundhouse strike the Kobold was bisected at the waist.

My vanguard was holding out but the next round would crumble the line. The enforcer and commander only had one health point left and thanks to the armour the guardian was currently on two health points. My new card was the regular goblin archer (2/1) and was also the card I played since my vanguard was filled up with creatures. I opted for the centre lane since it was the most logical place for any boss-type creature to appear. Luckily or unluckily no such creature appeared but three of the (2/2) kobolds did.

The left-most kobold used the wall as a springboard after coming around the corner and launched itself in the air while gripping the hammer in a two-handed overhead swing. The move left it entirely open and the enforcer used the opportunity to slice open its belly which caused its intestines to spill out over the floor. Momentum carried it forward and the enforces head burst apart like a watermelon. The right-most kobold easily killed off the one-armed skeletal commander but failed to see the tomb guardian's spear before it was skewered. While it had avenged the commander, the attack left it open to the middle kobold. The shield tried to put up a defence but the impact was too much for the off-balance guardian and its body was knocked back into the cavern wall where it slumped down with too many broken bones. Letting out a victory jip over its kill the last kobold died from an arrow to the forehead from the goblin archer. And in that one turn, my entire vanguard crumbled apart.

A mighty howl sounded from the corner and a massive paw gripped the corner of the tunnel. A giant beast with crimson fur rounded the corner and the massive kobold was a tight fit for the tunnel but to my surprise it was unarmed. Razorsharp claws glinted in the torch light and I got ready for hopefully the final round of combat.

Kobold crimson claw

Kobold - vampire

Pierce(1): Attacks will negate (1) armour.

Vampiric (1): Will heal for (1) point of health for each creature they've damaged.

Attack 3 Health 7

Another rare beast made its appearance and it was yet another monster. I was very surprised to see that it was also a vampire. I'd thought that all vampires would also be undead but this disproved my assumption. The stat line was decent and the Vampiric ability complemented the high health pool. The ability to negate armour was a nice bonus but situational in most cases. Unfortunately for the kobold, it had met its match today. As I drew my warg-mounted goblin brute (6/4), I considered for a moment but the redcap was just the better play to make. It wouldn't take retaliation damage and if this wasn't the final round, I'd still have a defender next round.

Drool leaked from the kobold's muzzle as it eyed the lone goblin archer like a little snack before it could feast on the main course of today, me. I just smirked at the crimson mut which must have pissed it off since it charge in the same instant. It opened its arms wide, claws glistening in the light until it suddenly halted and a large jagged x was carved into its broad chest. The crimson fur became a shade darker and it roared in anger. A twang was drowned out by the roar but the impact of an arrow burrowing itself in the back of the kobold's throat escaped no one. I started coughing and hacking but no amount of effort would dislodge the arrow. The kobold dropped first to its knees and then onto all fours. It took a minute of retching and pained howls but the kobold finally succumbed to its wounds. The victory screen indicated the end of the prolonged battle and in hindsight, I was glad the patrol had come around. The narrow space had been a deciding factor for my survival in the end. But now it was time to see what this outpost was all about.