All the Skills 5: A Deck-Building LitRPG recap

Arthur and his retinue infiltrate Blood Moon Hive while seeking another card for Brixaby and discover a regime that extracts shards or life force through the blood price. As captain of neglected Purple Wing, Arthur pairs riders and dragons, improves food and pay, and builds a rescue-first force. A secret expedition into an old eruption cone reveals underground nests and a core that feeds them. Destroying it gives Arthur origin shards, which he and Brixaby forge into a concealed legendary time card. During the next eruption, a legendary demi-Scourgeling appears, and Blood Moon's leader destroys it with dangerous life energy before turning on Arthur. Arthur strips the leader's cards, Brixaby claims Call of Life, and they take control of the hive. At the palace, Marion and Asha temporarily restore the ailing king's awareness, but an imminent eruption and the kingdom's deeper instability remain unresolved.

Previously: Arthur and Brixaby emerged as a legendary-linked pair amid conflicts involving the hives, the Rowantree succession, and Scourge threats. The mind-controlling Mindsinger escaped with followers, eggs, a corrupted dragon body, and a legendary card. Arthur's cousin Pennrow remains a rival legendary holder and competing Rowantree claimant, while Arthur's father Calvan is vulnerable at the border and his uncle Lionel remains a threat. Wolf Moon Hive is politically divided, and Mesa Free Hive is still developing its defenses. Arthur also carries unresolved danger from Baron Kane's interest in his legendary card and from Second, a hostile associate who claims an obligation from an earlier rescue. Lung Bai supplied mythic help on the condition that Arthur eventually return to Wolf Moon Hive. Arthur leads a retinue that includes Cressida and Joy, Horatio and Sams, Marion and Asha, and Soledad and Equinox.

Arthur risks destroying Cressida's four animal-summon cards in an attempt to combine them. He succeeds, creating the Animal Summoning Set, gaining Set Creation, and opening a hidden Cardomancy class, though the effort leaves him severely drained. Horatio and Sams then demonstrate a costly technique that converts gathered light into magical darkness while preserving allies' vision. The retinue decides to return toward its own kingdom, but Arthur first plans to visit Blood Moon Hive, where Brixaby senses another card from his set. Rumors connect the secretive hive with attacks on vulnerable card wielders. Arthur, Cressida, Brixaby, and Joy travel to the central cities and secure cards that can disguise rank and appearance. There they see Blood Moon riders intimidating merchants and encounter farmers driven to robbery after an eruption destroyed their land. Their leader, Ciaran, reports that riders from another hive took survivors' supplies. Arthur offers seeds for a potentially valuable crop. He now has the tools for an infiltration and evidence that hive power is being used against civilians.

Arthur's group plans to enter Blood Moon Hive during an eruption, using false ranks to resemble a rare dragon's uncommon followers. Arthur first scouts alone, finding frightened lower-ranked riders, widespread illness, rigid control, and contradictory readings for Brixaby's target card. When an eruption muster disrupts the search, Brixaby returns with the disguise cards and rescues him. Posing as the rare rider Ernest with a rare purple dragon, Arthur joins Purple Wing and meets Griff and Squish. Griff warns that riderless purples are fast, intelligent survivors despite their low status. At the eruption, Arthur sees Blood Moon's wing taking farm goods and animals rather than clearly prioritizing evacuation. He and Brixaby escape through their own portal and report back. New Houston is also deteriorating, with an attack on its wall and threats from a faction seeking political control. Despite that crisis, Arthur commits the full retinue to Blood Moon. Marion will investigate the sickness, Soledad will examine the nurseries and riderless purples, and the others will seek places inside the hive.

The disguised retinue enters Blood Moon Hive and separates into investigative roles. Brixaby's search produces changing numbers and locations for his missing cards, showing that the trail cannot be trusted. He also meets Candy Floss, a young riderless purple whose lightening power makes her useful for carrying large loads. She explains that common dragons surrender shards for food and that disfavored hatchlings are denied riders. Arthur finds displaced civilians whose property has been claimed as payment for evacuation and begins recruiting possible riders. Blood Moon's legendary leaders then summon him. They appoint him captain of Purple Wing and explain the blood price: every linked pair owes shards according to rank, default can be paid in life force, and a captain is responsible for the whole wing. Arthur accepts a binding oath and immediately incurs costs. After discovering a hidden term that permits remote siphoning, he secretly alters the oath to remove it. He and Brixaby then begin feeding the neglected purples and organizing the wing as a protected community rather than expendable labor.

Arthur develops Purple Wing into a functioning unit. Thackeray, a displaced merchant, links with Candy Floss, giving the pair unusual cargo potential. Steve links with a purple dragon whose rapid movement is powerful but inaccurate. Amanda links with a green hatchling, and their combined plant ability may support crop production. Larry fails to find a dragon partner, so Arthur hires him to gather intelligence and gives him a covert signal token. Griff reveals that Purple Wing's uncommons have been overcharged. Arthur makes Griff his second-in-command, takes direct control of payments, and forbids the wing from preying on other riders. Blood Moon's leadership continues to invent fees and publicly drains an indebted rare rider, producing rapid weakness and apparent aging. Marion's observations of prematurely aged commons strengthen the suspicion that the blood price systematically extracts life. With Arthur's reserves nearly exhausted and another eruption approaching, he proposes harvesting a recently sealed eruption cone instead of depending on fresh combat. He takes the active wing through Brixaby's portal, requires secrecy, and prepares to test whether purple speed can recover overlooked resources below the crater.

Purple Wing finds thousands of dead Scourgelings inside the frozen cone, but surviving creatures attack from below. After the defenders defeat them, a collapse separates Arthur from the wing and leaves him in a cavern of eggs tended by specialized Scourgelings. Brixaby reaches him, and together they discover a network of underground proto-nests. The tainted air can infect wounds with scourge rot, yet Arthur presses onward to locate the source. Deep below, he finds a heart-like core distributing shard essence to the nests. Arthur and Brixaby sever its connections and destroy it, leaving Arthur unconscious from the magical backlash. He wakes on the between-worlds river with unusual legendary origin shards recovered from the core. There he and Brixaby forge a legendary card that can accelerate or slow time at extreme mana cost, with a risk of mental and temporal disconnection if abused. Arthur takes the card because Brixaby cannot safely absorb another legendary card while still growing. They agree to conceal both the card and the deeper discovery from everyone outside the retinue.

After the crater expedition, Marion heals Arthur's physical injuries but finds lingering spiritual damage. Larry warns of a conspiracy to make the new purple captain pay the full blood price, apparently in more than shards, but an early eruption interrupts the investigation. Arthur organizes Purple Wing around rescue and accountable recovery. Thackeray manages valuable goods, Griff directs field operations, Steve trains under him, and Amanda joins hatchling support. At the eruption, coordinated Scourgeling waves overrun farms and forest. Purple Wing evacuates civilians while other wings focus on harvesting. Arthur and Brixaby rescue isolated survivors, then survive an ambush by two cloaked riderless dragons that may have acted opportunistically or may have been hired. As flyers and rare Scourgelings overwhelm the defenses, Arthur orders the exhausted noncombatants to withdraw with Griff. Cressida and Horatio leave safely with their trained wing, while Arthur and Brixaby remain near the collapsing front. The eruption has exceeded containment, farms remain in danger, and the defenders expect a legendary threat to emerge.

A legendary centipede-like demi-Scourgeling emerges, spreading poison and generating more creatures. Legendary dragons from several hives attack, but ordinary elemental assaults fail. Blood Moon's red legendary dragon uses life energy, causing the creature to grow uncontrollably and rupture into necrotic gas. Back at Blood Moon Hive, that dragon drains Desmond's injured blue dragon and Sybil's green dragon to restore itself and its rider. When the leader demands an advance on Arthur's blood price and attacks him, Arthur uses his concealed time card to evade the fire and removes the leader's cards. Brixaby then drops his disguise, revealing his legendary identity, and takes Call of Life from the former leader's dragon with help from Desmond's and Sybil's dragons. Arthur assumes command of Blood Moon and leaves Horatio and Sams in temporary charge as another eruption approaches. At the palace, Lung Bai recognizes Arthur's authority and identifies Asha as an origin of healing. Marion and Asha temporarily restore the king's awareness, but cannot cure his underlying condition. A stable king might regulate the eruptions, leaving the kingdom's immediate future uncertain.

Arthur removes the former Blood Moon leader's cards after the leader attacks him, while Brixaby takes Call of Life from the leader's dragon and openly reveals his legendary nature. Arthur assumes control of Blood Moon Hive and leaves Horatio and Sams in temporary command as another eruption approaches. Arthur then travels to the palace with Brixaby, Cressida, Marion, Desmond, and Sybil. Lung Bai accepts Arthur's new authority, warns that Call of Life can kill as readily as heal, and identifies Asha as an origin of healing. Marion and Asha briefly restore the king's awareness, but they cannot cure his underlying brain condition. A stable king might help regulate the eruptions, leaving his fragile recovery, Blood Moon's transition, Larry's unfinished investigation, Arthur's concealed time card, Brixaby's dangerous new power, and the wider eruption crisis unresolved.