Book 5 Chapter 7 - Knocked Down A Rung

The promise of cards for sale could easily be a trap. Once they were out of sight, Cressida left the shop and sent a discreet shadow message to Brixaby and Joy, telling them roughly what they were up to and to wait at their prearranged location. If they did not send another message three hours from now, their dragons would come looking for them. And by "looking," this city would shortly have a Legendary dragon tearing buildings apart. One who had a card who could seek out anything he wanted.

Cressida frowned when Arthur pointed that out. "If this deal ends up being a dead end," she said, "do you think that Brixaby could use the seeker card to find what we need?"

"I could use it," Arthur said, "since our decks are linked... but it wouldn’t be my first choice. It doesn''t work well when the question is nebulous. It sent us to the Dark Heart, but didn''t tell us that it was a trap by Scourge-God.” He thought for a moment, considering her question a little further, then shook his head. “No, I don''t think I could ask it for what we need, plus what''s also for sale."

"And within our price range," she said with a smile. Then she shrugged. "If we find something that fits the job, we could always steal it."

He winced. He''d always had... reservations about using his Thief class and abilities. Though it hadn’t stopped him from stealing more than once. “Let’s see what

They arrived at the agreed time only to find a horse-drawn cart waiting for them. It was built so securely that it was just shy of a security cart with no way to see into the darkened windows. Arthur hesitated, but Cressida climbed right in, so he followed. He trusted her judgment.

While sitting, the door closed behind them. It turned out the windows were blacked out from the inside as well. The only source of illumination was a softly glowing card-anchor light.

"Why even bother having windows in the first place?" he muttered, looking around.

"It''s all about aesthetics," Cressida replied. Outside, someone barked an order to the horses, and they began to move.

"I don''t like this," Arthur said, "they didn''t tell us which house is selling the cards, or where they''re taking us."

She gave him a patient look. "Well, they wouldn''t, would they? Selling cards is considered an admission that your noble house isn''t doing well. The fact that they allowed people, strangers like us without a background to come in and peruse through their collection..." She shook her head. "Someone is in dire straits."

Another concern struck him. "Is there any possibility it could be the Rowantree family?"

Cressida looked briefly alarmed, then shook her head. "No, surely not. The chances of that are... no. Noble houses rise and fall all the time, Arthur."

He wished he could feel comforted by that, but he didn''t know much about the Rowantree family, including where in the kingdom they were.

His overactive imagination showed him pictures of Penn greeting them at the end of this carriage ride. If that were the case... they would likely fight, like in the visions he had in his meditative state: The realization that he would someday have to face Penn to complete his Master set.

If his cousin was somehow waiting at the end of this trip, he would surely try to kill Arthur.

Not if I don''t get to him first, Arthur told himself, grimly.

****

The cart was driven for an alarming length of time, likely to try to confuse anyone who was trying to use a card to map the way to their destination.

While Arthur’s anxiety ratcheted up, Cressida looked calm. She sat primly with her hands in her lap as if she had all the time in the world.

Then again, there’s little chance we’re going to her ancestral family house, Arthur thought sourly. Then he had to remind himself, Little chance that we''re going to mine. My luck is not that bad, surely.

Finally, the carriage pulled to a stop and the door opened.

Light poured in, along with humid air thick with the scent of flowers. Blinking against the light, Arthur saw they had come to a stop at the edge of a grand garden that seemed to be in full bloom, with bushes and blooms in a rainbow of colors, several times their normal size. Even though the noble family was in financial trouble, they were still able to hire people to manage their estates.

The middle-aged man who stood in front of them looked prim and wholly unfamiliar to Arthur. Nor did he have any reaction upon seeing Arthur or Cressida, as if he recognized either of them. Arthur let out a breath.

“Follow me,” the man said. Then without introducing himself or saying anything more, he led them down closely grown garden paths.

These pathways, too, were winding. Arthur quickly lost his sense of direction. There was no signage or indication whose estate this could be. Nor were there any gardeners or servants around.

Arthur glanced up and nearly stopped in surprise. Way, way up – so high that the shapes could be mistaken for birds – were two draconic shapes.

They flew so high, in fact, it was impossible to tell the colors. But the fact that one was very small, and the other larger, told him what he needed to know.

Brixaby and Joy had followed them.

Arthur quickly looked down again. Cressida hadn’t noticed his distraction, and the man leading them had not looked back once. He carefully did not glance up to double check and make sure he saw correctly the first time.

Finally, they came to a single standing brick building. Their host stayed silent until they were led in. This too, was bare of any ornamentation as if no one wanted to risk identifying themselves. It was dark, only lit by a single torch, with a thin rug laid out that had seen better days.

Arthur had seen nicer furnishings on the lowest levels of Wolf Moon hive.

It seemed that this noble family had indeed fallen on hard times.

Once the door was closed behind them, the man turned. "Now," he said, brisk and efficient and without any warmth at all. This was entirely a business transaction. "Tell me what kind of cards you''re seeking."

"You weren''t told?" Cressida asked.

He made a rude noise through his long nose. "There were several intermediaries between your contact and the master of this house. Details could easily become distorted between them."

You aren''t the head of this family? Arthur thought but asked, "We are looking for something unusual you can''t get anywhere else. Will we be allowed to peruse what you have?"

This was met by a scathing glance. "Certainly not."

He knew had taken a misstep. In nearly the same moment, Cressida quickly stepped in. "We are not trying to discover the identity of this house. It''s just that what we''re looking for can''t be easily found."

"You would have a better chance of getting what you need if you told me," the man said, growing visibly more annoyed.

Arthur and Cressida exchanged a look, and he saw his own thoughts reflected on her face. There was no help for it other than to be up front.

"Two main items," Arthur said, "A portal card—" He didn''t actually care about the portal card, but that was unusual enough and he knew Cressida would enjoy not having to use Brixaby''s Dark Ferryman card again. "—And a card able to hide or obscure identities. Also, if you have it, anything to do with healing or lava."

The man ignored the last bit and focused on the main point. "Obscure identities," he repeated. "Something stealth based, perhaps?"

Knocked Down A Rung

Illusion

Rare

The wielder of this card will have the unique ability to obscure power within their own heart deck. By every indication, they will appear one rank lower than the strongest card in their deck. This produces the following result.

Mythic = Legendary Appearance

Legendary = Rare Appearance

Rare = Uncommon Appearance

Uncommon = Common Appearance

Common = Empty deck

In addition, this Rare ranked card will not contribute to the overall strength of a heart deck. A Common rank user may add it and still remain Common.

Cost is 500 mana one time use to obscure the wielder with an additional 500 mana one time for any additional person the wielder wishes to obscure. A one-time cost of 100 mana per additional person per hour is required to upkeep this illusion.

That was a lot of mana. So much, in fact, that Arthur would be hard pressed to scrounge up enough to cover himself plus one another person for the initial cost. Much less the ongoing mana drain.

Still... it was nearly perfect for his needs. Nearly.

He realized he had been staring at the card in thought when their host gave a polite cough. He started in surprise and so did Cressida. She had been staring in disbelief as well.

Arthur was the first to recover. "That card is out of the ordinary."

"You did say you were seeking something unique," the man replied with a smile that told Arthur he knew exactly how interested he was.

"It''s not perfect." Arthur squared his shoulders. "It only changes the feeling of a person, and not everyone can tell the difference between someone with Common cards in their heart deck and someone with a Rare." In fact, he had only been getting the knack since bonding with Brixaby.

"People of importance are trained in such a way, and I assume that is who you wish to fool,” the man shot back.

People of importance. Yes, like the leaders of Blood Moon Hive.

Perhaps Arthur and Cressida had shown too much interest because the man''s top lip ticked upward in a tight smile. "I will sell this card to you for your pair and three of a kind."

"One card for five?" Cressida''s voice was flat. "Linked cards? That''s outrageous."

He spread his hands as if he were a reasonable man who had been put into an unreasonable situation. "You can search this city and out of it as thoroughly as you wish, but I guarantee you will never find a card equal to this one."

That was a bold statement, and likely a false one. It was said there were as many cards as there were magical spells. There were uncountable thousands of Earth-type manipulation cards, for example. But none of them were exactly alike, even if the differences between them were subtle.

Cressida swelled in indignation, and Arthur didn''t think that her anger was feigned. It was true that this man had priced the card extremely high, but Arthur thought the price was worth it.

He cut across her reply. "While this card may be unique, it doesn''t fill all our requirements." He reached out and tapped the line that described the extreme mana costs. "This makes it unusable for most people, and while the card will change the feeling of someone, it won''t change how they look. Even people of rank have eyes. I need something able to obscure an identity, not just a feeling."

The man''s smile turned sly, and Arthur suspected he had been waiting for that question. Though he had probably wanted to off balance them before pulling out the real high cards.

"I may have a solution for you."

With that he produced a wooden box so abruptly and elegantly, it had to have been stored in a dimensional space.

He opened the lid. Within it sat two more cards.

Mana Generator X2

All The Skills - A Deckbuilding LitRPG

Book 5 Chapter 7 - Knocked Down A Rung