The group ended up trading Paul and Phemus, the two-headed cyclops merchant. Ambivalent at first about selling cards they had received not matching the color of their class, Athena, Apollo, and Horse were able to turn in the unusable cards they had each gotten from the recent packs.

  “Nunna you even close to multi-classing,” Phemus had said. Paul’s skeleton head continued to jitter. “Sell cards to Phemus, buy what he selling. Blue cards for Scholar, black cards for Skulk, yellow cards for Hoplite.”

  “What about grey cards?” Apollo had asked, “I’ve got these kicks and blocks and stuff that I’ve been able to use. They’re not blue.”

  “Grey cards basics. Anyone can use.”

  “What’s the multi-classing you mentioned, Phemus?” Pan asked.

  “You learn about that later,” the giant two-headed merchant had said. He waved the question away.

  While the rest of them were busy purchasing from the cyclops, Pan looked into his own deck composition. When he had opened the pack he had looted from the Kentucky Fried Chicken, the giant blackened bird skeleton he had inadvertently raised, he had gotten four cards: Friends Till the End, Life Drain, Again With Feeling, and Ditch.

  Life Drain and Ditch were both grey, and of the two, Pan was most interested in Ditch. It sounded like it would let him get rid of a curse card, potentially more if he could draw into it consistently.

  He tried to add them to his deck. It worked with Life Drain. He selected the card, and one appeared in the deck composition. The cards from his discard bracer flew across his body and into the bracer that he drew from.

  Damn. That was my first reshuffle. I might draw those cards I’ve already suffered through using already.

  He sighed, pushing away the annoyance. If I add Ditch, I can start getting rid of them.

  But when he tried to add the card, the system wouldn’t let him. The interface had greyed out his loose card collection panel. He could still interact with the cards, but it wouldn’t let him add them to his deck. His deck composition panel, was still lit up. He could select cards from there.

  There are a lot of curses. I’m supposed to get rid of all of them?

  He noticed a count at the top of the deck composition panel that read 40/40.

  That might be the problem. My deck is full.

  He removed Life Drain, and the count went to 39/40. The loose card selection panel lightened up again, and he could successfully add Ditch.

  Does this mean the maximum deck size is 40? Can I have fewer cards than that?

  He selected a curse card, finding Mirror close by. He remembered using it against Horse, and how it had immediately doubled his problems. The system wouldn’t let him remove it.

  Figures. They’re a punishment, after all. A bullshit punishment, but they’re not going to let me out of this easily.

  “Before you guys sell any blue cards, let me look at them first,” Apollo said. Pan couldn’t see the actual menus his friends were using, so he couldn’t tell who had the shop menu or who was looking in their own decks.

  “I’ve got this one. It’s called Again With Feeling,” Pan replied. “Horse, you might be interested in Friends Till the End.”

  He got a pop-up trade request from Apollo, and he put the card where the Scholar could see.

  “No, I don’t think I can make use of this one. You can sell it.,” Apollo said after a moment’s study.

  “Won’t trade with goat person,” Phemus said as he crossed his one skeletal and one flesh-covered arm.

  “Why not? Is my money not good here or something?” Pan half-joked. The creature had called him a goat-thing before, and Pan found himself slightly annoyed by it. He was half deer, not half goat. But he didn’t raise any issue because he couldn’t tell why it would matter. It’s not like he chose to become a faun.

  “Don’t trade with marked-by-gods. You cursed. It bad juju.”

  What else did this curse saddle me with? Pan lamented in private.

  Apollo whispered, “Gimme the blue card. I’ll see if I can sell it for you. Is there anything you want?”

  Pan whispered back, “Not really. I don’t know what he has, anyway. Even if I did, I don’t know what I can use. I don’t want any more curses, and I don’t know what cards I’m restricted to while I’m this Cursed class.”

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  Apollo nodded but didn’t say anything.

  When everyone was done, Horse buying several cards, Apollo buying two, and Athena only buying one, and happy with their deck composition, they said their goodbyes to the cyclopes.

  “How are your legs?” Athena asked, “We did a number on you.”

  Phemus grinned and waved the concern away, “No problem! You valued customers now, and Phemus heal quickly.” The wounds they had afflicted on him were indeed gone.

  “What about Paul?” Pan asked. He immediately felt dumb for asking.

  The cyclops thought for a moment before answering. “Paul ok. He have Phemus.” The skeleton head jittered, seemingly oblivious to the conversation.

  Athena moved to silence Pan from any further questions, saying, “Yup, and we’ve got each other, right? Gotta look out for one another.” She spoke in a forced cheerfulness. What made it all the more awkward to Pan was that it was coming from Athena of all people. “Anyway, we’ve got to get going now. Thanks for the shopping, you two take care now.”

  She ushered the group further into the dungeon. The group moved in silence.

  Pan had wanted to take further advantage of the time between the fights to experiment with his deck composition, finding what the system would allow. After some time of quiet walking through the dark tunnels of volcanic stone, he was about to raise the point with Apollo, but they encountered a group of Hobbs.

  “These guys again,” Athena said. “We can deal with them.” A card flashed in front of her, one reading Flurry, with a picture of a Hoplite windmilling a spear while beset by three nondescript monsters. The spear formed in her hand.

  But as she turned to approach the three creatures, forms detached from the black walls. They looked at first to Pan like moving shadows, indiscernible for how little mass they had, and blending in with the black stone wall. It was Apollo who stopped his sister.

  “Look. Skeletons,” he said, pointing.

  The hobbs, the stout, squashed looking creatures they had fought earlier, had noticed the skeletons too, black as the crispy chicken skeleton. They circled the group of hobbs, working together.

  These might be harder to fight than the hobbs, Pan thought.

  Cards flashed. Red and green cards from many skeletons at once. The green cards netted the creatures, carrying them closer together. The red cards allowed their casters to conjure menacing axes. Unable to free themselves, the axe-wielding skeletons made short work of the hobbs.

  It happened so quickly, Athena still had her weapon in her hand. The magic hadn’t faded.

  “So,” Apollo started, “are we thinking these guys are, like… Human? As in, player characters?”

  With the hobbs dead, the creatures all turned as one and began walking away. They made no effort to loot the corpses.

  Pan saw no sparkles among them, however, and wondered if he would see what loot the skeletons could have taken.

  Then again, it was only three of them. Loot from these low powered mobs seems rare.

  “C’mon,” Athena said, moving to follow the skeletons.

  Apollo grabbed her arm. “What? Follow these things?”

  “Well yeah,” she rolled her eyes, “We need to learn more about them.”

  “What if we start a fight with them?” Horse asked.

  Athena’s weapon evaporated, the magic suddenly running out. It didn’t concern her so much as Horse’s question. “If we start a fight, then we’re going to stay and finish it.”

  Apollo spoke up this time. “But what if we can’t take them? I mean, they’re using colored cards. They’ve got player classes.”

  She grabbed her brother by the collar of his toga and pulled him in. “We fight until I say we’re done fighting.” And with that, she let him go., turned, and stalked after the skeletons. “We’re losing them, so come on.”

  From the way the skeletons moved through the tunnels, it seemed practiced, like they were following a route.

  They’re not just mindless undead. These things can think. Pan considered how the four of them might take these things out. We’ll need the element of surprise, so maybe Horse can help out here.

  Pan knew he himself wouldn’t be all that useful. He still only had Hex, Dress Down, Miasma, Wheel, and Rack. He’d been so preoccupied with the shop and his deck composition, he hadn’t looked more into the first two, his most recent draws. He considered casting Wheel, if only to get rid of it and Rack. Rack was poised to deal twice as much damage as when he’d cast Joint Pain, and Wheel would replace whatever else he cast.

  He took the time to read more into Hex and Dress Down as the skeletons took down another ragtag of hobbs.

  Hex, it seemed, allowed him to target another and then have it share in whatever damage he took. He would take all the damage, but so would the target. As part of the casting, it also dealt some damage, effectively adding a third instance of damage to the two he would be taking from Rack, as this would be his second card cast.

  Dress Down caused all equipped items in the area to drop from the creatures they were equipped to. It seemed to hit both enemies and allies. He had seen the Equipment section in the menu and knew his was empty. But what about Horse’s cowl and Apollo’s wreath crown? He was certain the skeletons weren’t wearing anything.

  He briefly considered if Athena’s toga counted, but reconsidered thinking about her in that way, in case she could read his thoughts.

  But before he could decide if he wanted to rip off the band-aid and cast Wheel – he had more health potions, just not many more – the group came upon a town. Nestled in the cavern of black volcanic rock were stone buildings huddled together. The skeletons didn’t break stride, obviously aware of the town’s existence, and were taking a trajectory straight for it. The friends circled up to discuss this.

  “Are they going to attack the town?” Apollo asked.

  “Look at how they’re walking,” Athena replied, “Back there when we first started following them, they were hugging the walls. They were on a patrol route, hoping to sneak up on groups of enemies. But look at them now. They aren’t moving the same way as they were, but walking out in the open. They’re going straight towards the town.”

  “What does that mean?” asked Horse, “Do you think they live here?”

  “It makes about as much sense as anything else. Maybe the town is empty and they’re just moving through,” Pan hazarded.

  But Apollo shook his head. “There’s movement down in the town. You can see it kinda in the shadows from the crystals they’ve adapted for light.”

  Pan looked again, really studying the town. It wasn’t close, but he could see something moving around.

  The town itself looked like a creepy imitation of an old-time village. If you replaced the black stone with rolling green hills, the buildings with cobblestone-and-thatch jobs, and swapped the pale green substance that flowed past with actual water, winding through a bend by which the town was built, it would look picturesque. It reminded Pan of that stop-motion halloween/christmas movie with the skeleton that wanted to be Santa Claus.

  “So let’s go down there and introduce ourselves,” Athena was saying.

  This snapped Pan back to the present. “Wait, I think I missed a crucial part of this conversation.”