Rowan sometimes wondered what it would be like to have people cheering him on, especially since a near-death experience had interrupted his initial arrival in the new world. He got his answer as he walked into the village, the massive wooden gates pulled open by the militia who had been manning the walls.

He didn’t like it.

And there wasn’t anything that he could do. The villagers all showed relieved expressions, and a couple even gave shouts of joy. But he couldn’t help but feel that this relief was misplaced. The soldiers had been the people who cleared the monsters. In fact, Rowan had slowed down the arrival of reinforcements by fighting the stranded clumps of corrupted beasts for easy fighting experience. It was false glory.

I should have done more, somehow.

The feeling only grew as he got his first good look at the villagers. They weren’t destitute or malnourished, but they were clearly common working folk. Even the militia wore armor that didn’t conform to their bodies properly, making them look like people playing at being soldiers rather than competent combatants.

These were people worried about the next harvest and the local gossip, not a group ready for combat.

“Welcome, welcome to our humble home.” The man who spoke wasn’t old, but he was definitely middle-aged. Time hadn’t managed to grind down his mobility, however. He strode through the crowd easily. “I’m the chief of this fine village, name’s Desimir.”

The officer in charge of the arrivals met the chief halfway, accepting a firm handshake. “I’m Sir Bron, sent by Baron Sutton to reinforce Felton’s Mill. This is Hero Rowan, and the baron’s own daughter, Olivia Sutton, a member of his hero party.”

The officer, or Bron, now that Rowan finally knew his name, motioned dramatically in their direction. There was a moment of tense silence where Rowan watched the gathered crowd and they stared back at him, but then they broke into even louder cheers.

He heard snippets of what they were saying, and they all seemed certain that with his arrival, they were safe.

That only made an odd feeling curl through his chest, putting him on edge.

Even the village chief looked suitably impressed, rushing in their direction and grabbing Rowan’s hand before he could even think to protest. “Thank you for coming here. We can’t thank you enough for protecting a small village like ours. You too, Lady Sutton. We all know about how much the baron cares about these lands, but having you here is a true relief.”

Olivia looked almost as uncomfortable as Rowan felt, but she still managed to carry herself with poise. “Of course, Chief Desimir. We’re happy to have the chance to assist you, right Rowan?”

“Of course.” Rowan rushed to chip in, forcing his smile to look more genuine. “We’ll do our best to keep everyone safe.”

“Having a hero to protect us is a true inspiration,” Desimir said and Rowan couldn’t tell whether the chief was being sarcastic or genuine. “We don’t have —”

“Desimir,” Rowan cut in. “I hope you forgive me for diving straight into things. Is there somewhere we can speak in private?”

“Yes, I’m sorry. I got carried away there,” Desimir said. “Please, follow me.”

The chief took a second to bid everyone return to their homes, before taking them to the far end of the village toward one of the larger houses.

Rowan took that chance to look around. The village wasn’t as old as he’d assumed, or it had been rebuilt recently. Some of the houses had a fresh look about them, and even the more weathered buildings hadn’t started to show true signs of age.

The buildings themselves were also more numerous than he’d expected. Just by the number of homes alone, there were probably several hundred families living in the village.

As soon as they were in private, Bron was all business again, even before their host could introduce them to the woman and child that were already in the house.

“How long has that beast horde been troubling you? Did they hit just before we arrived, or have they been an ongoing issue?” Bron asked.

The chief blinked, then motioned toward seats arrayed around a massive table right in the living room. “They arrived a couple of hours before you, but one of our [Hunters] spotted them and warned us a couple of days ago. They took their time ripping through the forest. I’m afraid it’ll be a tough winter without meat to supplement things.”

There was clearly some worry on the chief’s face at what the future held. But Bron was worried about something more immediate.

“You can take whatever can be salvaged from the carcasses outside,” Bron said. “But I don’t think food’s going to be one of your problems. Not this winter.”

“This isn’t just a simple roaming horde?” Desimir’s voice trembled, but he was keeping it together remarkably well.

“I’m afraid not, Chief Desimir,” Olivia said, delivering the bad news. “There was a breach on the frontier, and now we need to handle the cleanup.”

“Shit,” Desimir cursed softly.

Bron sighed, running a hand through his short brown hair. “With a horde that big, there has to be a demon nearby commanding the group. I might be wrong. I hope I’m wrong, but we have to prepare for the worst. I hate to ask this, but what are your numbers here? How many will be able to help us fight?”

The chief hesitated, his eyes fixed on the desk for long moments before he spoke again. “Three hundred eighteen, last we counted. Out of that number, however, only around fifty are combat or combat-adjacent classes. Another ten or fifteen could manage fighting, but they don’t have classes that help. The rest can help man the walls but I wouldn’t rely on them for much more than that.”

“You people won’t have to venture outside the walls. That’s our job,” Bron said as he rapped his knuckles against a table. “I also noticed some pretty powerful magic assisting us and a formidable shield bearer. Are they from here too?”

The village chief shook his head, a wistful smile on his face. “I wish that they were, but they’re just passing through. Mercenaries. We thought the beasts were just an isolated group that got past the frontier and sent out a quest.”

“I’ll talk to them,” Bron said. “The baron pays well, especially in emergencies. And it’s safer here than trying to adventure through the plains right now. What about defense? What do you have?”

Olivia chose that moment to insert herself into the conversation, pulling out a couple of potion vials from her seemingly bottomless pack. “I have something that might help. These potions can be used to harden wood, making it as strong as steel.”

Rowan watched with amusement as Olivia began a one-man potion show. She had evidently held something back in what she told the baron. Her repertoire went far beyond a couple of healing and explosive potions.

“Miss Sutton, if I could ask, how many potions do you have?” Bron said.

“I brought my entire backlog,” Olivia said. “About a hundred potions, maybe a couple fewer because I spent a lot on the fights earlier.”

“But that won’t be enough for an entire wall,” Bron said, bringing the baron’s daughter up short.

“I can make more, as long as I have the ingredients, I can pump out as many potions as we need,” Olivia said.

“But we’re out of the baron’s keep,” Bron said. “The only place we can find worthwhile herbs or materials are deep into the surrounding forest. But with a potential demon around, we can’t have you going out alone. I could send some of my men with you, but their effort is better spent here, especially when we don’t know if the materials you need can even be found locally.”

“What about explosive potions?” Rowan offered. “Those are cheaper and probably easier.”

“I can do that,” Olivia said, grateful for the lifeline. “Those are cheap, all I need is some help finding the right ingredients, but they should already be in the village.”

“Sounds good. Olivia, your potions will be helpful. We just need to figure out where to use them,” Bron said. “We can use what you brought to reinforce the gates. They’re the most vulnerable point in our defenses at the moment. Chief Desimir, could you coordinate with Olivia later about the explosive potions? But before that, we’ll need to repair any damage to the wall and maybe dig a shallow moat to make things harder.”

“I can get people working on that immediately, Sir Bron,” the chief said. “I doubt many will be eager to rest immediately after the scare we just had.”

After a brief hesitation, Bron shook his head. “Not tonight. It’s too risky to do it in the dark. We’ll start tomorrow morning. I’ll oversee the digging and my men will accompany any lumberjacks you send out in case more beasts show up while they work. For now, I’d just ask everyone to get some rest.”

“Of course,” Desimir said. His face sagged slightly as he came to the next topic. “We’re a pretty small village. I don’t know if there’s going to be enough housing for the soldiers. I’m sorry. I know we should —”

Bron raised a hand to stop the village chief. “Do you think you could find two rooms?”

“Definitely. I can give you the two spare rooms we have in our home.” Desimir gestured to the back of his home where a wooden stairway led to a second floor.

“Not me. They’ll be for Miss Sutton and Hero Rowan. They’ve both had a long day, fighting to clear our path here. I’ll join my men, and we can set up tents in the village square. If that’s no bother to you.”

“No trouble at all, I’ll have it cleared of the tables and benches immediately.”

Bron nodded in approval, and the two men stood. The chief paused only to fetch a girl that Rowan assumed was his daughter, judging by the ages involved, and directed her to assist Rowan and Olivia before he left for the village square.

The room itself was pretty cozy and Rowan relaxed for the first time in the day. He would have liked nothing more than a few moments to himself to unpack both his belongings and his feelings.

It wasn’t meant to be. Olivia barged into his room mere moments later.

Did she even unpack?

“Ready to see what we actually got out of all that fighting?” Olivia grinned, all worries temporarily forgotten as she collapsed on top of the bed. It creaked ominously under her, making her flinch and Rowan worry about his back in the coming days.

“What are you talking about?” Rowan sighed, collapsing in a small chair in the corner of the room.

“You’re seriously telling me you forgot already? All the cards we looted?” Olivia stared at Rowan until a red flush appeared on his face.

Party Loot Inventory:

72x cards

That’s a lot. And we just fought, what, five groups of beasts? That’s more cards than beasts. Maybe it’s the blessing?

The extra hunting had also done wonders for Rowan’s levels. His leveling had slowed but he still gained enough experience for two new levels and four extra stat points. He quickly assigned two points to strength and dexterity each.

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“Seventy two cards,” Olivia said. “Common, of course, but we can’t really complain about that. Who knows, we might even get something relatively useful? Ready when you are, party leader.” Olivia seemed happy with what they’d achieved. That was a good sign.

Rowan hit the yes button, and an array of card screens unfurled in front of him, almost blinding him for a second. Olivia jerked a little too, so he could only assume she was going through the exact same thing.

It was an absolute mess, and Rowan strongly suspected that you really weren’t supposed to go so many battles without checking your loot.

Reckless Rush (Common, Active) x15

Rush towards your enemy, increasing your movement speed and dealing increased impact damage.

Coarse Fur (Common, Passive) x 12

Your fur becomes tougher and bristly, more easily turning blows.

Goring Tusk (Common, Passive) x 7

Your tusks deal increased damage to enemies and the inflicted wounds heal slower.

I now have everything I need to role-play as a boar.

“Why does the system give us these fur and tusk cards? Does it expect us to grow tusks and use them?” Rowan asked.

“Gods no,” Olivia laughed. “We’ll scrap them. The system allows a person to scrap their unused cards into fragments that can then be fused back together for another card. Each scrapped card leaves behind one fragment, and it takes four fragments to create a new card.”

“What about the Reckless Rush cards? Scrap as well?” Rowan said. “I can’t see it being very useful for my build, but maybe some of the other people could use it.”

“I’m not sure if they’d want it either,” Olivia said. “Reckless Rush is one of the most common cards for frontier villages, everyone here probably already had a chance to get a copy. What we can do here is something better. Since we have more than ten Reckless Rush cards, we can merge them together and raise the card to uncommon, where it becomes Reckless Advance.”

“Huh neat,” Rowan said absentmindedly. He had already gone to the cards that came from the foxes, and those were a whole lot more interesting.

Vicious Bite (Common, Active) x 13

Inflict a devastating bite on your foes, drawing more blood than expected.

Light Step (Common, Passive) x4

Your every step is muffled and harder to discern.

Nimble Body (Common, Passive) x2

You can contort your body in unexpected ways, both to evade blows and pass through spaces you normally couldn’t.

We can actually use some Nimble Body and Light Step. Well, I guess we can use Vicious Bite, too, but I’m not sure if I want to be biting some monster.

With how many cards they got, Rowan began to wonder if it was possible to farm cards like this. If it took ten common cards to get an uncommon card, he could have a full deck of uncommon cards in no time at all. Acquiring cards was far easier than he imagined, which brought up the question of why the baron seemed to think that nobles had a strangle hold on cards.

Rowan pushed those thoughts out of his mind. It was hard not to. The cards they got from the squirrels downright amused him.

Skilled Climber (Common, Passive) x5

You can scale any tree and balance on every branch with increased ease.

Savage Claws (Common, Active) x 2

Rend and tear with your claws until the job is done.

Friendship is Power (Common, Passive) x 3

All your stats are boosted by one point for every member of your race with this Card within 5 yards of you.

It was easy to see the pattern now. Almost all of the corrupted beasts had some combination of three different common cards. Two of which were passive, while the last one was active.

With three counter examples, it was easy to see that the sets from the wolves and deer were actually not complete. In either case, they didn’t seem too much like cards that Rowan wanted to use.

Innocent Gaze (Common, Active) x3

Your appearance is your weapon, and you wield it to mitigate people’s aggression and fighting spirit.

Hasty Retreat (Common, Passive) x2

You can temporarily increase your speed and agility when fleeing enemies.

Eerie Stare (Common, Passive) x3

Unnerve your foes and crush their spirits with your stare.

The wolf card, in particular, surprised Rowan, since he was pretty sure they’d handled a decent number of wolves. “Hey, Olivia?”

“Hmmm?”

“Is it possible for an enemy not to drop a card when they die?”

“No. Are your numbers not adding up? What’s wrong?”

“The wolves, I can only find one card that looks like it came from them. Eerie Stare.”

“Oh, that.” Olivia chuckled. “You know, sometimes, animals have the same cards. Wolves have Coarse Fur and Vicious Bite to round out their deck.”

Rowan blinked, not having expected that. However, there was one final card that was bothering him, all the way down at the bottom of their loot list, and for some reason, even just looking at him filled him with dread.

“What do you know about this one?” Rowan focused, and sent her a status window.

[Heart] Demonic Encroachment (Common)

You have accumulated enough demonic mana in your body that you’ve been permanently altered by it, granting you new and unusual abilities. Accumulate more of it to grow further. This heart card supersedes whatever heart card you used to own and takes its place.

Only one Demonic Encroachment card had dropped and Rowan knew that it was bad news when he saw the look that crossed Olivia’s face. It was somewhere between utter fear and complete disgust.

“Rowan, listen to me carefully,” Olivia said, her voice void of any excitement. “Do you see the dice at the bottom of that screen?” She was referring to a tiny icon at the bottom of the screen standing above the words ‘Roll for Card?’

“Yeah I do,” Rowan said.

“I want you to pass on rolling for this card, okay?” Olivia said. “Just press the dice and then hit the decline roll button.”

Rowan did as she asked, then watched as she immediately materialized the card and let it drop to the floor. She pulled out a handkerchief and picked it up gingerly, careful not to let her skin touch it, before bundling the card up.

“I’ll be right back, wait for me here.” Olivia mumbled, and was out of the room before he could even ask about what was going on.

The entire thing had shaken him, and not just because of her reaction. When she’d finally summoned that card out of whatever space the system was keeping it in, his senses had screamed danger. There was something instinctively repulsive about the card.

To calm himself, Rowan materialized the other cards and organized them in neat little piles to distract himself.

“So that’s taken care of,” Olivia muttered, not even bothering to walk all the way to the bed. She flopped down on the floor, with her back against the wall. “Please don’t scare me like that again, it’s not good for me.”

“What was that thing? I mean, beyond the obvious, of course,” Rowan said.

“A corrupted heart card. They’re extremely rare. As in, they’re not really supposed to be a viable drop at all.” Olivia paused as let out a breath. “Corrupted heart cards are among the most dangerous cards out there. If you’re careless with it, you’ll be reduced to a [Corrupted] class.”

“What does it mean to be a [Corrupted] class?” Rowan asked.

“You go insane,” Olivia stated. “Corruption drives a person insane, but it also makes them stronger, faster, and even increases their regeneration. There are people who seek out corrupted heart cards on purpose, thinking that they can perform rituals to use the cards safely.”

“Sounds like it could be useful,” Rowan said, thinking of the danger that he had seen so far. “I mean, I’m not going to use it. But I get why people would want it. This is a dangerous world and if they have a choice between life and death, they’d probably choose life.”

Olivia hesitated, obviously uncomfortable. “You’re not…”

“Of course not. Why would I want to go insane when I already have an Epic Heart Card?” Rowan said.

“Good,” Olivia said as she exhaled. Both of them briefly fell silent, before Olivia forced cheer back into her voice. “Hey, how about we check out those cards properly, and try our luck with some merges and fusions, yeah?”“

Rowan gave her a wan smile, but complied. It didn’t take them a lot of time at all to separate the cards into ‘keep’ and ‘scrap’ piles. Cards like Nimble Body and Light Step could be useful, so it would be a waste to throw them away for a chance at something better.

The moment Rowan picked up ten Reckless Rushes, a new system window popped up in front of him.

10 x Reckless Rush (Common, Active) detected.

Would you like to merge all ten cards into Relentless Advance (Uncommon, Active)?

Note: This process cannot be reversed.

Rowan pushed the yes button and felt a surge of energy as the cards merged, and a warm glow spread through his veins. A stream of white light emerged from the stack of cards, weaving together until a spark of green began to pulse at its center. The color grew, taking over the white light and illuminating everything in a light shade of green.

Relentless Advance (Uncommon, Active)

Rush towards your enemy, building up movement speed and damage as you go. Your impact damage grows in proportion to the ground covered during your advance.

“Huh, that’s pretty neat,” Rowan said.

“It is. Do you have space in your deck? It’d be good to equip this, just in case you need it at some point,” Olivia said.

Rowan did. He removed the Inspect card, placing it in his cardholder, and equipped Relentless Advance.

“Alright, so should I upgrade the other cards?” Rowan asked. It didn’t seem like an uncommon Coarse Fur would be very useful, but he was open to have his mind changed.

“No, those go straight into the scrap pile. You don’t need uncommon fragments right now,” Olivia said. “Just pick one of them up with the intent to destroy it. The system will do the rest.”

Coarse Fur (Common, Passive)

Your fur becomes tougher and bristly, more easily turning blows.

Scrap the card?

The effects of scrapping a card were equally impressive. Two lines of white-colored light ripped through the card he was holding, neatly separating it into four different pieces. A moment later, the light intensified, and three of the fragments evaporated. A final corner was left to drift slowly to the floor, now completely featureless.

“I never get tired of seeing that.” Olivia muttered with a grin, grabbing a card of her own and scrapping it too. “Let’s get through them quickly, and then the fun can begin.”

The two of them reduced everything into fragments, saving just the Eerie Stares, Friendship is Power, Nimble Bodies, and Light Steps. In the end, they were left with an even forty card fragments.

“Want to go first? You’ve never done it before.” Olivia offered Rowan four ‘scrap’ pieces. Somehow, she looked like a seasoned gambler in that moment.

Four common scrap pieces detected. Would you like to fuse them into a common rank card?

Rowan took a deep breath, then gave the system his answer. The four featureless card pieces slipped out of his fingers, briefly turning incorporeal. He watched, awe coloring his face, as they slotted perfectly together, that same white light flaring up again. Except, this time, the light melted the edges of the scrap pieces together until a new card was revealed in a flash of light.

Enhanced Harvest (Common, Passive)

The yield of your fields will always be slightly better than the work put into them and the weather conditions should allow.

Rowan’s eye twitched. Olivia started shaking, covered her mouth, and then lost it as she broke into raucous laughter.

“It’s not funny,” Rowan growled, refusing to acknowledge the flush that was threatening to spread to the entirety of his body.

“How? How do you immediately get a [Farmer] card? What’s your luck?” Rowan was barely getting her words out through her laughter.

“You try then, if you think you’ll be luckier!” Rowan scoffed, pushing the pile of scrap toward her.

It took her a few more moments to get her laughter back under control, but Olivia complied. When the whole show was over again, they could do nothing but stare.

Skillful Juggling (Common, Passive)

Your juggling will be the talk of the town, so why not challenge yourself with something beyond balls and pins?

“Is it because you’re a clown?” Rowan tried to duck, but the baron’s daughter still managed to nail him right in the forehead when she chucked the card at him. “Oh, come on, don’t be mad! I’m sure you’ll get something useful next!”

“I swear, I’ve never seen a fuse this bad,” Olivia said as she picked the juggling card back up and scrapped it. “No one’s going to want this card anyways.”

Rowan resolved to have Olivia fuse the rest of the fragments herself. That way, he could avoid the ribbing, and instead laugh at Olivia’s expense.

Unfortunately, that’s when they were rudely interrupted. “Excuse me, Miss Sutton, Lord Rowan. Lieutenant Bron is looking for you.”