All the Skills: A Deck-Building LitRPG recap

Arthur, a borderland boy, hides the Legendary Master of Skills after a dragon steals it from Baron Kane. His father Calvan sends him away with a caravan, where Arthur develops unusual practical skills, survives a scourge eruption, takes the rare Return to Start card, and escapes a murderous Second. At Wolfmoon, he conceals his power while becoming a cook, scholar, thief, and recruit of Kenzie and Marteen. He befriends Horatio and helps him seek a card compatible with Sams. Years later, Arthur learns that his uncle Lionel Rowantree is selling their family card library. Arthur, Horatio, and Sams steal the shipment. Arthur returns to Calvan, finds the Legendary Master of Body Enhancement inside, and evacuates twelve border children through Personal Space. Lionel's seekers fail to detect the hidden cards. Horatio leaves with Sams and a compatible rare card, while Arthur adds the second legendary card and joins Kenzie in discovering a dangerous black legendary egg beside a dead dragon.

Arthur witnesses a riderless red dragon destroy Baron Kane's guarded carriage and take the dead guards' cards. The dragon leaves him with the locked spell card from the cargo and threatens his family if Kane recovers it or learns the truth. Arthur places the card in his own heart deck, activating the Legendary Master of Skills. It turns experience into visible abilities, allowing him to improve quickly at cooking, literacy, repairs, and other practical work. Kane's men search the village and punish its people, but overlook Arthur because he is young. Arthur eventually confesses to Calvan. His father reveals knowledge of card magic and later explains that he was once a duke whose lands and cards were taken, leaving him bound by a borderland oath. When Arthur's friend Ernie and Ernie's mother die after eating scourge-tainted food, Arthur resolves to become capable enough to save others. Calvan arranges for the caravan trader Red to test Arthur as a prospective apprentice, offering the boy a secret route out of the village.

Arthur leaves with Red under the name Ernest Youngblood, while Calvan plans to disguise his absence through false village records. Red opposes dependence on cards, but his second-in-command does not share his restraint. Second guards a tobacco-covered cart, mistreats Arthur for showing interest in it, and later claims a favor after saving him from attackers. Arthur develops stealth, gambling, knot-tying, and lockpicking skills, then discovers that the cart hides a complete common earth-card set. He refuses to steal it. In a nearby town, the rider Chancy and the silver-blue dragon Doshi investigate vandalism through complementary powers. Doshi privately detects Arthur's legendary card, explains that silver dragons can perceive concealed cards, and agrees to keep his secret. Arthur continues earning money and combines gambling abilities into his first skill-based class. As the caravan travels onward, animal warnings reveal that a scourge eruption is opening nearby, forcing the entire company to flee.

Dragons arrive to fight the spreading scourgelings, while Second uses Arthur's debt to pull him into a scavenging expedition with Hivey. Second intends to collect shards and loot fallen riders or dragons. Arthur treats Hivey's injuries after an attack, but Second keeps nearly all recovered material and abandons an offered common card when richer prey appears. Sent to search alone, Arthur evades other scavengers and reaches a dead rider. He secretly takes one card and hands Second another. Second detects the deception and attacks him with the newly acquired card's plant power. Arthur has no clear route back to the caravan or Calvan.

Return to Start removes Arthur from Second's attack, depositing him at the site the caravan previously occupied. Pursuing scourgelings nearly catch him before Tess and her rider intervene. The rescuers cross a spatial rift with Arthur and deliver him to a hive. There, Magda accepts Arthur's false account of being an uncarded farm survivor and places him in the Wolf Cub Orphanage. Freyja assigns Horatio as his roommate and unknowingly confirms that Arthur appears ready for a first card. Arthur chooses kitchen work as his cover, proves his ability, and advances rapidly through school and restaurant training. Horatio is abrasive but deeply knowledgeable about card combinations, dragon links, and the dangers faced by riders with common cards. During an illegal trip to the Wolf Arena, he shows Arthur how coordinated cards can outperform a larger collection and explains that an anchor mark can carry cards outside the heart. The young silver dragon Marteen scents two exceptional cards in the crowd, forcing Arthur and Horatio to retreat. Horatio realizes Arthur is hiding a high-ranked card and agrees to remain silent if Arthur helps him obtain a rare card. He then reveals that Sams, his late father's yellow dragon, is waiting for him to gain a compatible light-based card.

Arthur buys an anchor bag for Return to Start and assembles stealth, deception, lockpicking, and related abilities into a Thief class. Marteen finds him anyway and carries him to her rider, Kenzie. Kenzie treats him as a possible recruit and arranges hive access for both Arthur and Horatio, believing Marteen senses merely unusual magic rather than a legendary card. Arthur steals a common card from the hive commissary, recovers it during the investigation, and escapes through Return to Start when stopped. Chef Barlow discreetly buys the card for shards and access to a recipe book. Arthur excels academically, graduates early, and takes charge of the orphanage breakfast kitchen, although his desired Cooking class remains elusive. On a later hive visit, the dragon rider Deacon attempts to extort Arthur and seize his anchor bag. Kenzie drives him away, trains Arthur to resist physical holds and emotional pressure, trades the boys' shards upward, and offers Arthur access to hatchlings if he commits to the hive.

Kenzie shows Arthur that his legendary card prevents ordinary hatchlings from taking interest in him, though she still does not know its rank. A second kitchen job supplies the missing breadth of experience, and Arthur unlocks a more advanced Cooking class after improvising a new dish. Elsewhere, the riderless purple dragon Corrie hides in a cave, lays a strange light-absorbing egg, and dies. Four years pass. Arthur creates the rare Personal Space card, a large hidden store in which living creatures do not experience time, and gains a common card that lets him temporarily disable cards in his heart. Horatio completes the rare Second Helpings card, only to learn that it is incompatible with Sams. During festivities around another rare egg, Arthur recognizes Duke Lionel Rowantree as his uncle and Penn as his cousin. He searches Lionel's rooms, discovers plans to sell cards from the family library, and adopts the identity Ernest Kane when Penn encounters him.

Arthur continues posing as Ernest Kane while gathering details of Lionel's discreet card auction. Horatio chooses to keep Second Helpings despite its incompatibility with Sams, but the three agree to steal Lionel's shipment in hopes of finding a better card. Arthur proves that Personal Space can safely hold a willing person, making it central to the plan. Kenzie helps create a legitimate leave and courier trail in exchange for Arthur's shards. When the guarded cart approaches Wolfmoon, Sams blinds its escort with reflected sunlight while a disguised Horatio poses as his rider. Arthur enters the cart, is seized and choked by a card-enhanced guard, and defeats him by drawing and using a binding card from the guard's anchor. He stores the entire shipment, reactivates Return to Start, and is transported to the distant borderland cabin. Calvan, who had believed him dead since the eruption, recognizes his returned son.

Arthur tells Calvan how he survived and supplies the starving village with stored food, livestock, and plantable produce. Calvan explains that royal oaths bind most adult residents, though children can still be removed. Arthur admits stealing Lionel's shipment. Lena helps breach its rune lock, and Arthur's Rowantree blood opens the inner seal. The prize is Legendary Master of Body Enhancement, a companion to Master of Skills. Calvan refuses it because his oath forbids him from taking cards. Instead, Arthur offers cards and escape to village children. With parental consent, he places twelve children in the timeless safety of Personal Space, five carrying new cards, and leaves much of the remaining shipment with Calvan for other young people. Tess and Johanna return Arthur to Wolfmoon. Horatio and Sams escaped the robbery safely, and Arthur gives Horatio the rare Ultraviolet Light Manipulation card. They leave together for Horatio's former hive while Arthur tests whether Lionel's seekers can see through Personal Space.

Four weeks later, Lionel and Penn have left Wolfmoon after the theft scandal. Their private seekers failed to detect the cards hidden inside Arthur's Personal Space, confirming that he can protect both the shipment and the twelve evacuated children while arranging their gradual placement in orphanages. Calvan remains in the border village, still bound by his royal oath, but now holds cards to distribute and a rare card reserved for a future attempt to break that bond. Arthur safely adds Master of Body Enhancement to his heart beside Master of Skills. The paired legendary cards expose his base attributes, unlock classes that depend on both bodily and utility abilities, and accelerate his first new physical skills. Horatio has departed with Sams and a compatible rare light card, while Kenzie and Marteen remain Arthur's recruiter allies. Arthur and Kenzie then enter a cave and find a dead purple dragon beside a tiny black egg. Kenzie identifies the egg as dangerous and legendary, and believes its magic may have killed the dragon. Its origin remains uncertain.

Arthur returns from the stolen card shipment to Calvan, discovers that the haul contains Master of Body Enhancement, and uses the remaining cards to give borderland children a way out. Calvan cannot accept a card or leave because of his royal oath, so Arthur departs with twelve children held safely in Personal Space and leaves Calvan cards to distribute. Back at Wolfmoon, Lionel and Penn fail to locate the concealed shipment and leave after the scandal. Arthur adds Master of Body Enhancement beside Master of Skills, opening new paths of advancement. Horatio receives Ultraviolet Light Manipulation and leaves with Sams to pursue their link. Kenzie knows about the hidden children and remains allied with Arthur. The immediate new danger is a tiny black legendary egg found beside a dead purple dragon. Its magic may have killed the dragon, and its connection to Corrie's earlier egg is not established.