B4 Ch41: Pre-Challenge Winnings (Patreon)

Looking around, Arthur’s gaze first fell on Cressida. Like him, she’d arrived standing next to her dragon and not astride. She met his gaze and said, “I think this is the first chamber.”

“Chamber?” he repeated, though immediately his mind went to the hearts and offal of the animals he’d prepared for cooking. It was messy business, but one did not get a level 50 in Butchering without dealing with inner organs.

Cressida started to answer, but Soledad got there first. “I’ve heard of this before from people who’ve delved into dark hearts. It’s a sort of staging area – a place where we go to take a load off, rest, and prepare to face harder challenges.”

“If this is the staging area, what was that all before?” Horatio asked.

Soledad started to answer, but this time Cressida interrupted her, while throwing a pointed look her way. “That must have been a preliminary. I think it was meant to see if we were ready for the rest of the challenges – or to prepare us somehow.” She looked around. “Did you guys get earth challenges, too?”

“Earth challenges?” Arthur started to ask, then shook his head. “No, never mind. It looks like we’re the first here, but I don’t think others will be far behind. I don’t want to be caught here talking. Let’s see if we can find a shelter or somewhere that’s more private to talk.”

“I can help with that,” Marion said unexpectedly. Then, four exact versions of himself seemed to step out of him and ran in different directions, each toward a separate hill.

“Oh, is that your new card power?” Joy asked.

He nodded and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Yes, my Illusionary Clones.”

Sure enough, one crested a hill to the south, turned and waved to get their attention before he poofed out of existence. One by one, the others shook their heads before also disappearing.

“That way, I assume,” Marion said, nodding to the one that had waved.

It was a short enough distance that all started walking without remounting the dragons. Though no one spoke. All seemed to be in a pensive mood, lost in what they’d see in their own challenges.

Near the top of the hill, Brixaby took it upon himself to buzz ahead. He returned quickly. “There is a shallow cave on the other side.”

“Good, it won’t hurt to have some kind of shelter.”

Unfortunately, when they got there it was more of a divot than an actual cave. Sams could only stick his head in.

There was also a blank card floating in the middle of it. It glowed faintly green at the edges.

Arthur exchanged confused glances with the rest of his group, then reached out to grab the card. Before the tips of his fingers could close on it, a message flashed in his mind.

 

Do you wish to claim this territory for your party?

Yes/No

Couldn’t hurt. “Yes,” Arthur said. And when he grabbed the card, the edges glowed blue.

Instead of a description or a rank, all of their names appeared on the card in a list.

“I’ve heard of these.” Soledad leaned over to squint. “This is an exclusion list. As long as you hold the card, no one but the people – or dragons, I guess – who have names on the list will be allowed to enter.

Horatio threw a disgusted look at the shelter. “Enter what? It’s like two feet deep at the most.”

“We don’t have to stay here, but I think we should take a moment and talk.” Arthur looked around at the others. “I take it you guys didn’t get the kitchen challenge, either?”

They threw him baffled looks.

“No!” Brixaby puffed out his chest. “I was dropped in a blacksmith’s foundry and fought scores of scourgelings until there were none left. They were attempting to trick me into forging weapons for them, but I know what to do with scourgelings when I see them. And I took shards from them all!”

From his Personal Space, he grabbed a clawfull of shards and held them out for the others to see. But they were unlike any card shards Arthur had seen before. They were oddly blank, but in a way that was more than surface deep. It was as if each was an absence of power that was waiting to be filled. Arthur couldn’t tell if they were Common, Uncommon, Rare, or just fancy pieces that were meant to look like shards.

“Those were the same type I got,” Soledad said.

Arthur took a good look at her for the first time since coming here and saw that the pockets of her trousers and the bag she’d slung over her shoulder were bulging. In fact, several seams on the bag had split.

Soledad continued, “Only mine wasn’t a blacksmith foundry. I had to save turtle hatchlings – scourgelings were the predators. That’s where I got the shards.” She smiled, ruefully. “I thought I was working against a timer or something, but when I got a thousand hatchlings saved, the challenge ended.”

Am I supposed to understand what any of that means? Arthur thought. Turtle hatchlings?

“I wish I got some shards,” Horatio grumped. “Me and Sams were put in a puzzle challenge – we had to complete a wall of light by matching the different frequencies. Well, it would make more sense if you had light cards.” He waved a dismissive hand at them. “It took us forever—felt like days.”

“Yes, but the amount of practice did you well,” Sams said. “Your sensitivity to the different spectrums of light has grown by leaps and bounds.”

“Yeah?” Joy perked up. “I got stuck in a really boring hallway maze that went on forever and ever, but then after a while I calmed down and sort of listened to my inner voice. I didn’t get any cards or shards, but a sort of… intuition? Like I was practicing something that I already had, but it became really good in there.”

“Intuition?” Brixaby repeated. “Does that have to do with your quest card?”

“No! Well, I mean, kind of? But it’s not really in the description,” Joy said, which of course didn’t help.

“Wait, so am I the only one who got a card?” Cressida asked.

Immediately, all gazes turned to her. Arthur noted that most were jealous.

Marion sheepishly raised his hand. “I got a card, too.”

And now Arthur was paying attention, he saw his friend was radiating quiet pride. From his heart, he projected an Uncommon Card.

 

Healer’s Instinct

Uncommon

Healing

Upon visual inspection of individuals, the wielder of this card will be able to instinctively know if that person is sick or injured. As this card does not use mana, the information may be indistinct. Exact diagnosis will depend on the wielder’s education and experience in the healing arts. As experience grows, the wielder will be able to make diagnosis with greater accuracy.

Brixaby made a noise of delight, and for a horrified second Arthur worried he was going to take the card for himself. But his dragon was looking down at his own chest. “Yes, I see… now that I look, I realized that I have gained a new addition to my Call of the Void list.”

“What?” Arthur swiftly glanced at his own list. The only thing there was his Skill Grind. He refocused on Brixaby. “What did you get?”

The dark dragon tilted his head. “It is called Berserkers Rage.”

“Ohh, that sounds powerful,” Joy said. “What happens when you use it?”

“I do not know. But I could try it out—”

“No!” everyone said all at once.

Grumbling, Brixaby visibly backed down.

Glad to have dodged that, Arthur turned to Cressida. “You said you got a card?”

“Yes, I did.” Like Marion, she was quietly happy and for some reason sent a smug look in Soledad’s direction. “My challenge was… odd. At first, I thought I’d entered a wave-type dungeon again, but the moment I started to beat the enemies, the location changed. I got sand, a swamp with a lot of mud.” She looked down at herself and grimaced in memory, though there wasn’t a speck of dirt on her. “Then the side of a rocky cliff, and it went on like that. Eventually, I realized that every location had to do with different aspects of Earth. And once I figured that out, I knew there had to be more to the challenge. I started to look around more carefully other than fighting scourgelings. And on the next location change, I found a card just sticking out of the mud.”

Then she projected an image of her card out, too.

Earth Hedgehog

Rare

Summon

The wielder of this card will be able to summon a semi-transparent hedgehog companion three feet in length. When directed, this summon will be able to throw spikes toward enemies. These spikes will are not poisoned tipped (unless the wielder pours poison on the summon ahead of time) but have barbs at the end which will make removing them a challenge. Spikes may pass through ally’s defenses. When the summoned is killed, it may be resummoned within the same hour with the use of mana. The amount of mana used during summoning will determine how many spikes the hedgehog will be able to throw, the range, and overall accuracy.  

“I guess I’m keeping up with my animal theme,” Cressida said with a wry smile.

“Interesting. Is that a matched card to your current deck?” Brixaby eagerly asked. “You could have three of a kind.”

She shook her head. “No, they're different decks. Just a similar theme. But I think the hedgehog will pair nicely with my shield.”

“Can I name him?” Joy asked. “Ohh, can I name him Prickly?”

Cressida hesitated. “Let’s get to know him, first.”

“Arthur, what did you receive?” Brixaby asked. “Another card?”

“Ah, no.” He resisted the urge to rub the back of his neck. He had nothing to be ashamed about. “I was put in a scenario where I was able to increase my Cooking skills.” He hesitated, having the feeling that Brixaby had been given a very similar challenge, only a foundry instead of a kitchen. But while Arthur had gone with the flow and completed the challenge, Brixaby had decided to fight.

Meanwhile, everyone was giving him very unimpressed looks.

“You increased your Cooking skills?” Horatio repeated, flatly.

However, Joy was enthusiastic. “Then you learned to cook some more stuff? Did you bring back anything tasty to us?”

“Well, no, I didn’t…” That hadn’t even occurred to him. “I didn’t have access to my Personal Space, and some of the food was scourge-rotted anyway. But it wasn’t just my Cooking skills.” He glanced at Brixaby, hoping he’d understand. “I was able to increase my entire Cooking class to tier three and got several of my skills up to level 50. That gave me attribute bonuses.”

The last part finally seemed to have an impact on the rest of the group. At least, the ones who knew what attribute bonuses were.

Brixaby understood quite well and actually staggered back a step. “That is quite impressive!”

“Well, I’ll take your word for it,” Soledad drawled. “But if I’m hearing y’all right, none of this is game changing. It’s just a taste of what the dark heart can offer us.”

Arthur nodded. “Let’s continue on and stake out a cave or somewhere big enough for all of us to fit. It’s important we have somewhere safe to return after a challenge. Then, we’re going to delve the dark heart for real.”