All The Skills

At first, Arthur and Brixaby carefully dug around the corpse, wanting to keep as much of it intact as possible. But it became clear that there wasn't much they could do to hurt the thing. It was desiccated and mummified, dried out completely so that the scales were as hard as stone and the skin underneath tougher than boiled leather. Arthur had no chance of getting through it without a heavy-duty cutting tool—and no desire to do that.

Frowning, Arthur rocked back on his heels. "There's no smell.”

Brixaby gave him and the vinegar rag tied around his mouth and nose a disbelieving look.

Arthur explained, "I mean, there is no smell of dragon death. It smells like scourge rot in here, which is bad enough."

“Because nothing can live in the dead lands,” Brixaby rumbled. “Even the insects that get into and rot corpses.” He leaned forward and gave the corpse a good sniff-down. “Yes, this was once a Common dragon – I can still sense a visage of its power, though it had been minor.”

That twigged something in Arthur’s mind. “This is a brown dragon.”

“Yes?”

“The nest was filled with mole-type scourgelings.”

“Yes…” Brixaby said again, more impatiently.

“What if it’s connected – no,” Arthur shook his head sharply. “What if it’s the reason why this nest is here?”

Brixaby narrowed his blood red eyes at him. “You’re suggesting dragons are the reason for scourge-nests?” he asked with an edge in his voice that said the answer had better be ‘no’.

Of course, Arthur plowed on.

“It’s been bugging me why there are the nests in the dead lands? If they're coming from the Dark Heart, they should be closer to the city, don't you think? This dragon has been dead for a long, long time. Centuries, maybe. Any card that it had in its core would have long been rotted by now, but maybe there is enough magical residue left—just enough that it could be given a push or kick-started by the presence of a Dark Heart when it's at the top of its power."

Brixaby was silent for a moment, thinking about it. “What if the corpse was not the only thing that did not rot?”

“What do you—”

Arthur stopped as Brixaby reached forward and made a pinching motion to the corpse. When his claws drew back, it was with a card pinched between them.

But not any card Arthur had seen before. It was so thin that it was translucent, almost like the ghost of a card. The markings on it were long-since faded so that Arthur couldn’t read a word or make out any of the pictures on the face. But the fact that whatever was left was still implied that this was indeed a Common card.

Brixaby held it up for them both to see. As he did, sparks of dying power cascaded off the card. It looked like it was disintegrating in his claws.

“Brix—” Arthur started, though it was already too late. With a cascade of sparks like the magic inside were ripping itself apart, the card disintegrated into separate shards. Those shards were gone, faded away before they hit the floor.

The bioluminescent mold around them faded so only a hint of light remained.

The card was gone, and with it, the last vestiges of the dragon.

“It was a Common, very weak,” Brixaby said dispassionately.

“That card shouldn’t have been there—why didn’t anyone harvest the dragon?” Arthur asked but saw Brixaby shrug in the dim light. “It was a Common, it should have rotted away ages ago, instead it fueled a scourgelings nest—”

Arthur stopped. He and Brixaby looked at one another, and Arthur could see the same realization dawning in his dragon’s eyes.

Arthur was the one to speak it. "Which means that each nest we see has a dragon corpse under it."

"And this nest is merely a minor one and was barely able to produce adult Common scourgelings," Brixaby said. "But the last one generated many Rares."

He and Brixaby traded another look, then immediately turned and started jogging for the entrance.

****

About an hour later, Brixaby was flying over the pit that was left of the Rare nest.

Arthur looked down and thought if he never had to see this place again, he could die happy.

The corpses of the scourgelings looked exactly the same as they had before. Brixaby was right: the land was so devoid of life that there was nothing that could even rot the bodies. Just dry them out. Likely, all those scourgelings would remain there, in near-perfect condition until the wind covered them with sand.

Brixaby landed nearby the hole he’d dug. “I will descend first just in case any more scourgelings have spawned.” He gave Arthur a look. “I refuse to bring you to the hospital for a third time this week.”

Since Arthur was still somewhat soul-sore and also didn’t want a third hospital trip that week, he agreed.

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It didn’t take Brixaby long to go down the hole. Once there, Arthur heard an annoyed grumble echo up from inside, though he didn't seem like he was in particular danger.

Grabbing a ladder from his Personal Space, he headed down as well. Once down, he quickly saw what Brixaby was grumbling about.

Like the last nest, the walls were covered with bioluminescent mold. In one particularly bright patch, bubbles had started to form. Bubbles that he suspected, given enough time, would become ovoids and eventually... more scourgelings.

"More scourge spawn," Brixaby grumbled, reaching over and running his claws through the spawn to wipe it off. He then wiped his claws off in the soil. “"This is a strong nest. It is already regenerating.”

That was a concern, but Arthur had bigger worries. He moved through the tunnel system, noticing that it was larger and more well-developed than the last one. It even had some points that branched off into different areas of the tunnel system.

Any adult scourgelings had been long killed, and they quickly destroyed any brighter patches that seemed to be re-creating scourge spawn. Unfortunately, the spawn was so undeveloped that it didn't give them any cards or shards.

"Brixaby, you said you found a rare card in here? Where was it?"

"In the back," Brixaby said, "at the very end of the tunnel." He paused. "There was one branch that collapsed completely, but there were only Common spawn points near it, so I did not bother to dig it back up.”

"We'll try that next. If we don't come up with anything," Arthur said.

His heart was beating hard, and again he felt like he was on the verge of something big… But he wasn't quite sure what it was. Only that he was certain that this was the right track. It might have been an echo from Brixaby's Call of The Heart seeker card pushing him forward. Or it might have been destiny.

He felt like he was about to discover something vital, something grand.

Something powerful.

Once again, the very back of the tunnel system, they found the brightest patch of mold growing on the back wall. It had developed more scourge spawn, too, but these ovoids were so developed that they had goo in the middle of them — kind of proto-yolks.

Unfortunately, when they were destroyed, they didn't yield card shards, either.

Arthur took out his pickax and hesitated for a brief second, flashing to the idea of maybe farming these ovoids.

But… No. There were other nests, and if scourgelings ever developed and attacked other people while he was farming them, he would be no better than the scholars guild back at Wolf Moon hive. No good came from farming scourgelings.

With that thought, he dismissed the idea of easy riches, and swung his pickax.

Just like with the previous nest, his pickax bit in deep, and found a line of brighter mold behind it. Arthur continued on, switching out the pickax for a shovel when he needed to take out bigger chunks at a time.

Brixaby helped by shoveling extra soil to the sides. He then got the idea of bundling up the growing piles into a tarp, storing it in his Personal Space, then going outside and dumping it.

Though this tunnel system was already down below a deep pit, Arthur kept digging. Eventually, he received a skill for mining, which was odd because he certainly wasn't doing it properly or looking for gems.

Also, it came with a surprising message.

New skill gained: Mining (Mining Class)

Due to your card’s bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 5.

Level 5, not level 3? That had to be an effect of the Endless Grindstone card he had consumed.

Previously, he would only start at level 5 if he either had somebody actively teaching him the skill, or he had a lot of knowledge about it before.

That helped explain why he had gained ‘mining’ when he was barely digging.

Nevertheless, the next swing of his pickaxe dug in more deeply and easier than before.

Arthur grinned to himself, then checked his expression as he tasted scourge dust on his teeth.

After spitting to the side, he continued digging down.

He didn't know how long it took him, and he was sore from his muscles to his still healing soul. He also knew if he stopped, he wouldn't be able to start again until he had a good long rest, and perhaps a soak in a hot tub.

Even Brixaby was looking bored at transferring up extra soil. That was when Arthur's shovel finally struck something different.

Arthur fell to his knees and started digging with his hands. That feeling of being pulled forward, of on the edge of discovery, only grew. He was frantic as he clawed away the soil.

Brixaby, who had just freshly returned from his last run dumping soul, gave him an odd look, but he helped out the best he could, though his claws were better at cutting through the tough dirt than actually moving it.

That was when Arthur uncovered the edge of a dragon's ridge — either one of the spikes that grew off the neck, or a smaller one from the body. It was hard to tell.

“You have another torch in your Personal Space, right?” Arthur asked, breathless.

His dragon’s answer was to grab one. Already lit, he brought it closer so they could both see.

The ridge gleamed silver in the light, weirdly clean for something that had been buried for who knows how long.

Silver. It had been a dragon of pure magic.

Arthur continued to dig around it with his hands, using the ridge as a guide to find the dragon's body. This was a mature beast, and the ridge itself was the length of Arthur's forearm, but finally, he reached the wide base, and started to uncover the dragon’s scales.

Arthur sat back on his heels. "Brixaby, can you feel…" He trailed off, almost too nervous and excited to finish.

"I can," Brixaby said, his head cocked, "I can feel its power, but it's indistinct. This dragon was a Rare."

"See if you can grab the card," Arthur said.

“Cards,” Brixaby corrected. He reached down with clawed tips and then grunted in surprise. He came up with nothing, but immediately tried again.

When he retracted his claws, this time, when he pulled back, it was with three ancient cards pinched between his claws.

Though they weren’t translucent to the point of falling apart like the last one, they were still visibly damaged. Arthur caught sight of the Rare card titles, all written in the same flowing script:

Card Sympathy

Card Shard Insight

And the last and most startling:

Repair Cards