B4 Ch46: Life In The Past (2/3) (Patreon)

The next day, he woke up as another older man, but one who volunteered in the medical unit as a nurse.

In between leveling up his First Aid and Basic Nursing skills, making people comfortable and treating basic injuries, he spotted something that was all too familiar.

“Heal—“ He caught himself just before he called for a healer. “Doctor!” he said sharply, instead, to get the nearby woman’s attention.

She was the leader here but was more overworked than the rest of them with deep bags under her eyes. She turned to Arthur with a look of exasperation. “Yes?”

He gestured to the bed. “This child is ill. Please, take a look.”

“The one with the mild fever?” she muttered but came over to sit with the boy who was shivering as if he were out in a snowstorm, even though it was a comfortable temperature in the room.

She frowned at the spots on the boy’s arm that Arthur pointed out. “What is this? Dirt?”

She tried to rub the marks away, but of course it didn’t disappear. It never would, Arthur knew.

Those spots were the signs of impending scourge rot.

Quietly, Arthur moved aside the blanket and lifted the boy’s shirt. There were even more signs of rot, like pockmarks, on the child’s chest.

The mother looked on in worry. “Chicken-pox?”

“Maybe, though I’ve never seen it present quite like this.” Then the doctor started talking to her about the child’s history, including ‘shots’ and things that went over Arthur’s head without any context.

It didn’t matter. He knew with grim certainty that the child was too far gone.

I told the general that scourge rot traveled through the air, but maybe I wasn’t forceful enough, or…?

“Have you been around scourgelings?” he asked the child, and was surprised over how forceful his own voice was.

“Those monsters?” the mother asked.

“N-not the alive ones,” the boy muttered, through chattering teeth.

The doctor must have heard at least something about scourge-rot because she leaned forward. “Dead ones?”

“No,” the mother said firmly. A little too firmly for Arthur’s tastes, and the way the boy looked up at her as if for confirmation was telling. He was checking to see what story the mother wanted him to tell.

Arthur wavered for a moment, but then firmed. “This is important. What your boy has he can only get from being around scourgelings. If it’s in the air—”

She glared at him. “What are you trying to say? That we’re, what, keeping one as a pet? That I let my child play with monsters?”

“Has he been in the labs?” Arthur pressed.

“No!” Her face twisted into a grimace of hate. “Everyone knows it’s the scientists who are responsible for this mess! I wouldn’t let him anywhere near them.”

It suddenly became too much for the boy. "I'm sorry," he blurted, though saying it so forcefully made him stop to cough. A racking, deep, wet cough that went on and on.

The doctor put a device in her ears that was attached to a rope with a disc at the end. She placed the disc against his chest and frowned. But when the boy caught his breath, he looked at Arthur. "Daddy took me to the military area to show me the monsters. It's because we can get weapons from them. Because…” He broke off for another round of coughing. “Cause he said they can save the world. But it was supposed to be a secret.”

"When was this?” his mother demanded.  “How could he? Kyle, you should have told me.”

By this time, the doctor had removed the device and looked at the mother. Her expression was carefully blank.

"I'll get an expectorant to help that cough." But when she stood, she gripped Arthur's arm and pulled him around the next corner out of sight of mother and child. Her gaze was fierce on him. "I saw the look on your face. What do you know?"

Arthur didn't bother asking what she had heard in the boy's chest. He remembered his friend, Ernie, dying back at the border village... and he had only been one child of many through Arthur's early years.

"I know that you’ll need a healing card to save him," he said frankly.

"One of those magic cards—" she started to say with derision thick in her voice.

He cut that off before she could gather momentum. "Yes, one of the magic cards. What's attacking him isn't something you can see with your instruments, or fix with your medicine, is it? You've had others with the rot, too."

She wavered for a moment before she nodded. "Before I came here," she said shortly.

Arthur didn't bother to ask further questions. Every evacuee had terrible stories in their recent past. The fact that many people didn't want to talk about their awful experiences worked well for him so he could cover his identity and gaps in knowledge.

"What do you know?" the doctor pressed.

"I keep my ears open," Arthur said, "You've heard of the card shards you get from the scourgelings?" He waited for her nod to continue. "Well, if you put them together—and I mean you—then you're more likely to get a card that you need. It's not guaranteed, but if I were you, I would ask the general for some shards. You're needed to heal the sick, he should approve you. And then think of that kid and what you can do for him as you put them together."

She gave him a long look. Doubt was heavy in her eyes. Eventually, though, she nodded. “Over the last few weeks, I've seen weirder stuff than all my years practicing, and I used to work in downtown Queens.

Arthur had no idea what that meant but sensing that it was supposed to be a joke, he smiled.

"I'll get that cough expectorant. I'm not sure what it will do for him, other than keep him calm. Can you and the other nurses keep an eye here until I get back?"

Relief swept through him. She was going to take his advice. "I will.”

****

The doctor arrived back a few hours later, and Arthur saw a new gleam in her eyes. She walked straight to the back beds where the boy and his mother were placed behind a privacy curtain.

Unfortunately, he didn't see her cast the healing as he was busy dealing with another intake—not a scourge infection, but a very badly sprained ankle. By the time he looked up from properly wrapping the injury and gaining another level in his first aid, the boy was not only looking much healthier, but he was walking out of the medical facility alongside his mom under his own power. There was no trace of the rot on him.

The doctor stopped to check Arthur's work. She nodded at his bandaging.

Once the patient with the sprained ankle was sent away, Arthur took the opportunity to ask, "Well?"

"It's a Common card, which they say is the lowest," she said shortly. "I can only use it once a day. But… he’s all better. Just like that.” She snapped her fingers, and for a moment her face was alight in wonder. Her expression crashed a moment later. “It’s a miracle, but only one every twenty-four hours. If this rot spreads..." She shook her head and frowned. "There's only two MDs here, and I'm the only one on day shift. If this spreads..."

"That's the thing about cards," Arthur said, "if there are others who get medical-types, they can help out, too."

She looked at him for a moment. "I didn't think about that. Instant doctoring." She shook her head, steeled herself, then went on to check on other patients. But to Arthur's eye, it looked like there was a little more spring in her step. She had just gained a dollop of hope.

Arthur didn’t gain a healing class that day, even though he felt close to it. But he couldn’t feel bad about it. He’d done good work.

****

Arthur continued waking up as a new person every morning. Some were expected to be professionals in their field—like the time he was an electrical engineer, or a biologist back in the labs. With those, he floundered, and had to lean heavily on his Acting skills. Even if he got the basics skills of their profession, he was not truly the expert he pretended to be.

So, when something like that happened, he feigned sickness and exhaustion. Thankfully, no big emergency happened in the bunker that required his expertise.

Other times, he was expected to do more mundane jobs. One of his favorites was as an animal caretaker for the livestock that had been saved with the evacuees. This was extra important as he was expected to make this small population last as long as possible. Hens could at least serve the rest of the facility by laying eggs, though the roosters were immediately sent up to the kitchens. 

Slowly, slowly, as the days wore on, and he found himself in a different skin each time, he suspected that his real goal—aside from gaining different skills in multiple areas—was to educate and help people accept the idea of cards.

From what he heard, soldiers were often sent outside to "engage with scourgelings" and either bring the corpses in for study, or harvest the shards. Any combat cards were given back to the military, and while utility-oriented was distributed to the rest of the base.

Arthur never woke in the body of a soldier or a guard. It made sense as this was supposed to be a utility challenge.

But even the stretched food was starting to run low. Every non-combatant was on rations. At least there was enough water to drink, thanks to the formation of an Endless Well and Groundwater Purification card.

News was becoming grimmer. Word from the soldiers was the amount of scourgelings up above seemed endless, and almost all lines of contact to civilization had been cut.

Worse, some small pockets of scourgelings would manage to find a way in and try to overrun the facility. So far, it was only a few at a time, but it would send panic through the population. Arthur would evacuate with the rest of the civilian population from one section or floor to the other when there had been a breach. He hated those times – he felt useless.

"There has to be a way to win this challenge," he thought over and over again.

He was doing what he could in little ways, one day and one life at a time. It helped to level his skills in many different areas. Still, what was the point of all this?

I must be here to help them survive… but how? 

Maybe if he had arrived here with the rest of his retinue, if they were working together as a team...

He missed his friends and hoped that their challenge was going well. At least, he could still feel the link with Brixaby in his heart. That at least reassured him. They were alive, and Arthur would see this challenge through as well.

****

His first major breakthrough with his skills, oddly enough, came when he became a janitor. A female janitor.

It wasn't the first female body he had woken up in, but every time was an intensely uncomfortable experience. Breasts got in the way of everything, and the less said about relieving himself, the better.

Today, he woke up as a woman everyone called Gilda. She seemed to have a large circle of friends who were cleaners and enjoyed gossiping. One lady, Melanie, had a husband who was well-connected enough to get one of the few Rare-ranked cards. She apparently hadn't joined them for today's cleaning shift, and everybody else was aflutter over where she was.

Arthur just let them talk and kept his ears open. His Tidying skill was up to level 50, thanks to his third tier cooking class, so he had to consciously slow down so he didn’t leave the women in the dust... as it were.

Suddenly, one put down a mop that she'd been using to swab the tile floor. "Whoa, girl, took you long enough to get here. And what's that glow about?"

The missing Melanie had joined the group, and she was all smiles. "The general's office called me in, and I got a card!"

The other women squealed and dropped everything to gather around her. After a startled moment, Arthur did, too.

Melanie fumbled, but then clumsily projected an image of her card out. "It's only a Uncommon," she said while they read, "but... well, here it is!”

 

Spring Clean

Utility

Uncommon

 

The wielder of this card will be able to cast a spell upon themselves to make themselves 25% more efficient in all cleaning tasks with a three-point increase in Dexterity while the spell is active. Furthermore, anything that is cleaned while under the effect of this spell will automatically gain a sense of freshness for twenty-four hours. This spell uses stamina and not mana.

One of the women whistled. "Mana. Wow, my son used to play those video games and talked about all that—" she stopped suddenly, her face crumpling.

Everyone looked away uncomfortably. Arthur took it that the son had not made it to the evacuation point.

"Well, let's see you use it, Melanie," Arthur said.

“Yes!” Also clearly looking to change the subject, she grabbed up a feather duster and started working on a shelf. Immediately, the area she dusted became suspiciously clean.

Arthur's Counterfeit Siphon kicked in.

New Counterfeit spell obtained: Spring Clean

Time remaining: 11 Hours, 59 Minutes, 59 seconds.

Arthur was hit with an idea. His Tidying skill was up to 50. Did that mean that he could integrate a magical effect within it?

He immediately grabbed up his broom and started furiously sweeping, focusing on the Tidying skill. Then, he too, cast Spring Clean... He was lucky it was a skill mostly without visible effects. But he did not receive an alert that his Tidying skill was any different.

No, wait, that was supposed to be in conjunction with his cooking class. Wasn't it? But what if he...

"I gotta go," he said quickly. "I forgot… Uh, I'm needed in the kitchens. Bye!"

The other women gave him an odd look but didn't stop him as he hurried out.

Over the last few weeks, Arthur had become so familiar with the underground base that he felt like he could navigate it with his eyes closed. Thankfully, the large kitchens weren't very far away.

As soon as he opened the double doors, he saw that the staff were busy preparing lunch. He was able to sneak in without much notice. A couple of people glanced his way, but he just smiled at them and acted like he belonged there.

There was a sponge by a sink full of dishes. He got it and started scrubbing at some extra food that had been burnt to the bottom of a pan. As he did, he concentrated both on his Tidying skill and his cooking class as he cast Spring Cleaning.

Alert: Your Tidying skill has gained the attribute: Spring clean. Tidying will now be 25% more efficient when Spring Clean is in effect. This attribute uses stamina.

"Yes!" he hissed, and resisted the urge to jig in place.

This was a huge moment. Ever since he had gotten master of skills, he had been stymied by the fact his skills were all mundane, and not magical. Even his Counterfeit Siphon ran out after a certain period of time.

But this... he could feel that Spring Clean had integrated with his tidying skill. It would be with him, even after the timer on Counterfeit Siphon expired. He hadn’t received the freshness bonus, but this was an excellent start.

It was the happiest he’d ever been washing dishes. Feeling generous, Arthur decided to take care of the rest of the sink.

But there soon came a commotion by the side of the kitchen. It seemed that Melanie was not the only one who had gotten a new card today. Many of the cooks had left their stations and were gathered around, oohing and aahing over something that Arthur couldn't quite see.

He walked over and joined the group just in time for a young man, who was smiling, to say, "Yeah, it's a form of telekinesis—it would have been given to one of the soldiers, or maybe even one of the bosses, but it only works on kitchen equipment. So it came to me."

Then he demonstrated by holding his hand out to a few pans that were on the counter next to him. They lifted into the air, to the shock and delight of the rest of the staff.

New Counterfeit spell obtained: Kitchen Confidentially Telekinetic

Time remaining: 59 minutes, 59 seconds.

Arthur stealthily moved over to one of the knife drawers, and, with trembling fingers, he picked up a butcher’s knife. Then he concentrated on his Knife Work skill, and the new Telekinetic spell. The knife hovered over his palm.

Alert: Your Knife Work skill has gained the attribute: Kitchen Confidentially Telekinetic. Using willpower, you may now have basic telekinetic control over knives.

He grinned.

"Gilda, what are you doing here?" someone asked, from behind him.

Arthur let go of the skill and caught the handle of the knife as it fell back in his palm. Turning, he quickly made up the excuse of being sent to work prep in the kitchens.

The man who obviously knew Gilda narrowed his eyes. "We have more than enough help."

So, Arthur was kicked out of the kitchen, but he still couldn't keep the grin off his face. His good mood lasted until the next life.

****

A few days later, he found himself again working with animals, not as a caretaker, but apparently as one of the animal doctors.

He was called to a storage room the facility used to house the hens. All of them were dead, and he found scourge rot in the feed. That meant that the chickens couldn't be used to eat. This was a heavy blow to the base, and an unfortunate sign that despite all the protections, the rot was spreading. Some people blamed the labs or the soldiers who went out and fought scourgelings. Those accusations caused infighting and resentment in the population.

Arthur suspected the rot was seeping in from the outside.  

After that, each day brought more and more warning signs.

A small group had established some herb gardens, and vegetable beds they called ‘victory gardens’. Overnight, the plants wilted beyond saving. One of the researchers was brought down to take a look, and he said that there was no bacteria growth whatsoever in the soil. Arthur wasn’t certain what that meant, but he recognized the gray look of the dirt.

“Add some cattle manure to it,” the researcher said. “I’d say use the leavings from the chicken pens, but those are under quarantine.”

Arthur nodded and went to do as he was told, though he was certain it wouldn’t work. The soil had become like dead land. Without dragon soil, they’d never grow anything here again.