Unfortunately, the Bristleback Spiders that they had slain were already starting to smell, and many of the hairy, eight-legged corpses were all around the edge of their camp.
They quickly picked up their things and rode several miles then made a new camp. The three snacked on jerky and nuts while they rode, and Throm got started on a proper meal as soon as they stopped.
After the new camp was set up and the mercenary / cook had a stew simmering in a large black pot, the group sat around the cookfire relaxing and waiting for a good meal.
Flynn had turned a flat stone into a makeshift table and dumped all of his cards and card fragments onto it.
A massive pile of Basic card fragments dominated the stone tabletop. He didn’t have an exact count but knew that there were more than 2000 in the pile. Two much smaller piles contained sixty-four Advanced fragments and twenty-nine Elite fragments. There was also a stack of thirteen Basic cards and four Advanced cards plus two Elite fragments.
The total value was somewhere around 3,500 gold or Basic card fragments. It was more than most people would make in a lifetime, and he’d earned most of it in a single battle.
Throm had an only-slightly-smaller pile in front of himself.
Nyx also had a similar hoard somewhere, possibly in dimensional storage bracelet. Her stash might be even larger, depending on how much she had accumulated before the battle. Flynn wasn’t certain, though.
“I knew this was going to be a good trip,” the mercenary bellowed cheerfully.
“Don’t get used to battles like that,” Nyx said matter-of-factly, her tone neither discouraging or encouraging. “You don’t normally get to battle that many easy to kill monsters that have cards or fragments.”
“With spoils like this, you don’t need to do it very often,” Throm pointed out.
“It’s not an efficient way to battle monsters, either,” Nyx replied. She flourished one hand and a gold fragment appeared in it. “A couple dozen of these is worth more than your whole pile.”
“We can’t all take down Epic level monsters like you do.”
“Well, if you use that pile to level up, maybe you’ll be able to.”
The mercenary nodded agreement. “My thoughts exactly.”
He rolled up his sleeves and started feeding card fragments to his tattoos.
Flynn smiled, glad the man would be leveling up to Elite. He turned his attention back to his own pile of cards and fragments. Most of the full cards he’d looted—cards like Carrion Cooker and Sonic Bark—weren’t good for anything other than leveling up his existing cards.
The cards he’d looted from the Bristleback Spiders were potentially useful. The first one basically gave the ability to walk on walls.
Card Name: Spider Walk
Rank: Basic
Class: Enhancement
Some creatures treat every surface as flat ground. The Spider Walker card allows the card wielder to adhere to and traverse vertical surfaces as if walking on a smooth floor. At Basic rank, card wielder can easily move across dry vertical surfaces while balance and stability are improved on all surfaces, including those that are uneven and / or slippery.
The card just wasn’t something he wanted to use any of his card tattoo locations on, though. He had four of the Spider Walk cards. They would be good for ranking up his existing cards if he couldn’t get a good price for them when they reached Khalreth.
The other card he’d looted from the spiders at least had some combat potential.
Card Name: Silk Shooter
Rank: Basic
Class: Spell
A single thread can be a weapon, a tool, or a trap. The Silk Shooter card allows the card wielder to create and project silk threads that can be used for a multitude of purposes, both in combat and in everyday life. Silk thread can be forcefully expelled or created in a controlled manner. The Silk Shooter card has a short cooldown period between uses.
Being able to wrap up enemies in the middle of a battle might be useful, but Flynn didn’t know exactly how it would work.
Would it shoot out of my butt like the spiders? He wondered with a grimace.
Flynn shook his head and put the cards back on the pile of cards to be sold or used for upgrading other card tattoos then picked up the one card he was considering.
Troll Skin.
The card offered healing magic that he’d wanted for a long time, but the idea of having “troll” skin was off-putting. A shiver ran down his spine as he thought about the mottled green skin of the creatures.
Surely it won’t change my skin, Flynn tried to convince himself.
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He looked at Nyx. “Have you ever heard of a card changing someone’s skin.”
“That’s kind of what a tattoo is,” she replied with a smirk.
“No, like changing someone’s actual skin. Not just putting a tattoo on it. I want to use the card I looted from the trolls, but I don’t want to turn green.”
The blue-haired woman chuckled. “That would be funny, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
“I don’t know,” Throm said. “I knew this guy once. He was an ugly son of a bee, but he insisted he was the best-looking man in his town before he was changed by a card.”
The mercenary shrugged and smiled. “He was probably lying, though. His nose looked more like a pig’s snout and his eyes were so close together they almost touched. I can’t imagine a card doing that to a guy.”
Flynn laughed. “Alright, I think I’m going to use the card.”
He had two open spaces on his chest plus one each on his left and right legs. Flynn planned to rank up one of the cards on his right leg, but the opening on his left foot would remain open until he ranked up his Bonded Familiar card.
His chest was the obvious choice because that was where he had his other body enhancement type card, Ironhide. Khalor had also told him that card tattoos could merge when one was leveled up to Legendary rank and he figured that Troll Skin and Ironhide might work well together.
Legendary rank was a long ways a way, though, so Flynn turned his attention back to his more immediate needs. The Troll Skin card provided both healing and natural armor, and those were both things Flynn knew he would need as battled more monsters.
He removed his Elite rank leather vest, folded it and placed it on the ground.
Name: Leather Vest
Rank: Elite
A well-crafted vest created from the hide of a Steelspinner Spider. The garment was made by a Tailor possessing an Elite rank Runestitcher card. It is enchanted to provide substantial protection from blunt force attacks as well as significant protection from cutting and puncturing attacks.
The vest had come from the Enchanted Loom in Aramath. It was a durable piece of armor that had served him well, but his shirt was even better.
Name: Armor Shirt
Rank: Epic
A finely-crafted shirt created from Epic rank cloth made from the silk of a Steelspinner Spider. The garment was made by a seamstress possessing an Epic rank Runestitcher card and provides a tremendous amount of protection from cutting and puncturing attacks.
The combination of the shirt and vest provided as much protection as high quality chain mail, but was far more comfortable, not to mention stylish.
Flynn unbuttoned his Epic level shirt and exposed his torso. There was a tattoo of shield with an image of a person with four arms and four legs surrounded by a circle on his upper chest, over his heart.
He picked up the Troll Skin card and pressed to his upper chest, opposite the Ironhide card tattoo.
Do you wish to add Basic ranked Troll Skin to your deck? Card tattoo will be placed on your chest.
Flynn mentally replied, “Yes,” and the card he was holding against his skin immediately started glowing and he was hit by the burning sensation of a new card tattoo branding his flesh. When the process finished, he removed his hand and looked down at his new card tattoo.
The image of a wavey-edge rectangular patch of pebbled green skin covered a large portion of his pectoral muscle on the right side of his chest. There was a long, jagged cut across troll skin, and there were strands connecting the two sides of the wound as if showing it being pulled together as it healed.
He pushed aside the urge to cut himself to see if he healed faster, and instead grabbed a handful of Basic card fragments then fed them to his card tattoo until it leveled up to Advanced rank.
Troll Skin card has been upgraded from Basic rank to Advanced. One special ability available.
You have three special abilities to choose from.
Accumulated Resilience
Heart of a Troll
Mark of the Troll
Flynn’s brow furrowed at the choice of abilities. He could usually tell at least a little bit about the abilities based on their titles, but the three abilities for ranking up Troll Skin didn’t offer a lot of clues based on their names. He focused on the first on to learn more.
Special Ability: Accumulated Resilience
When taking damage during a battle, card wielder gains a moderate amount of resistance to attacks of the same type until the end of the battle. Resistance stacks when taking damage multiple times from the same type of attack.
Duration: End of Battle
It was a passive ability that automatically provided protection during battles, which would be beneficial. The idea that he had to take damage before the ability did anything wasn’t very appealing to Flynn, though.
The next special ability also relied on him taking damage, but the scale of the damage and the benefits were much, much higher.
Special Ability: Heart of a Troll
When sustaining damage that would otherwise be fatal, card wielder will immediately be healed from mortal wound. No other wounds will be healed by activation of this special ability.
Cooldown: 30 days
Flynn’s eyes opened wide. “A get out of dead free card,” he breathed.
He didn’t particularly like the idea of taking mortal wounds, and the long cooldown meant it would only protect him on rare occasions, but the peace of mind knowing he could survive a fatal wound was very valuable. Of course, if he was in a battle where he took one fatal wound, it was certainly possible a second mortal wound would follow it and there would be no protection from that.
Flynn shook his head. Maybe this is just a false sense of security.
He turned his attention to the third special ability.
Special Ability: Mark of the Troll
Mark any opponent during battle, for the duration of the battle or until defeated. Attacks from marked opponents deliver significantly less damage than normal. Card wielder also heals significantly faster from wounds caused by marked opponents.
Limitations: Only one opponent can be at a time.
Flynn whistled softly. He could immediately see the benefit of increased protection from a dangerous opponent. It was an ability he could see himself using in almost every battle, even if there wasn’t a lot of danger. It never hurt to have extra protection, not to mention faster healing.
“This is not an easy decision,” he muttered, though it was easy to eliminate Accumulated Resistance. The other two special abilities were way better options.
The appeal of Heart of a Troll was undeniable. The idea of taking a sword through the heart and instantly healing was so overpowered that Flynn had a hard time believing such a thing was possible. The ability had a really long cooldown, but hopefully he wouldn’t need such a power very often.
Mark of the Troll also felt like cheating. Being able to significantly reduce the damage of an opponent’s attacks and then heal faster from those attacks would be incredibly valuable too. The fact that there wasn’t a long cooldown was beneficial, too. And the ability could be used every battle, probably more than once.
The biggest downside of Mark of the Troll was that it could only be used on one opponent at a time. In battles against a large number of foes, there would be limited usefulness.
Flynn groaned.
“Tough decision?” Throm asked, stopping his own leveling process for a moment.
“Yeah. I’ve got two really good special abilities, and I don’t know which one to choose.”
Flynn looked toward Nyx. He respected the mercenary, but the blue-haired woman was way more experienced, and he was more interested in her opinion.
“Don’t look at me for advice,” she said. “I have a strict non-interference policy when it comes to matters of cards.”
“I understand,” the young man said, obviously disappointed.
“Look, you are very new to this, and no matter what your choices are now, there will be better options in the future,” Nyx said. “Your primary goal should be to make sure you live long enough to get those better things. Choose whatever helps make sure you live long enough to get better choices.”
Despite her declaration of not interfering, Flynn found her words to be profound.
He just didn’t know which option helped make sure he lived longer. Heart of a Troll might save his life every now and then, but Mark of the Troll might help him survive battles every single day.