The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame (3 page)

“Um, our tank has vanished… and the loot box is open and the halberd is missing,” I muttered as I scanned the area once again, unsure if I had made a mistake.

“Oh for fucks sake,” moaned the frost mage as he threw his hands up in the air. “He seriously just ninja’d our loot?!”

“Bro who would do that?” asked the other man with a strange face.

On the other hand, Emily took off with a sprint towards the dungeon entrance as us three casters stood and stared at each other in the confusion. I had never seen or experienced a party member running off with the loot. It was unusual and something I was not familiar with in the least.

“Ninja’d?” I asked quickly.

“Yeah, he ninja looted our shit man,” replied the mage almost immediately. “He’s probably long gone by now, what should we do? Your friend just took off too.”

“Leave it to her, she’ll take care of it,” I answered with an affirmative nod as I glanced around the room. “She surely has a plan.”

As I walked around and collected the items that had been left behind, there was a fairly decent pile of gear still remaining to be split amongst ourselves. The fact that someone was so selfish to run off with loot that we probably would have given to him was beyond me. If he simply asked, he would have received what he needed… even if he was an arse.

I already had every item that I could use in this dungeon and so too did Emily. It wasn’t long after that I received a private message from Em, detailing what had happened.

“On my way back with the items, he got up to the second floor before I caught up with him. Bastard took more than he could carry,” she said plainly.

“Ah, she’s on her way back with the items guys,” I relayed to the other two as their faces showed surprise and joy.

“Wow, your friend is a bad ass.”

“Hehe yeah she’s a reliable one,” I said with a cheeky grin.

I could always count on Em when it came to the tricky matters and she seemingly always managed to solve them in some fashion or other. There was also no room to complain when it came to her skillsets and her ability in-game, at least compared to the players we have had the
pleasure
to play with. By my limited account, she was a very good gamer.

Not more than five minutes had passed by the time Emily had returned with a bag of goods far larger than any of us had expected. The collection of trash drops from all the previous levels were stowed away in multiple large sacks that had been left at the entrance to the goblin boss’ room. In addition she had a medium sized dump bag suspended on the side of her waist that had previously been flat but was now filled to the brim.

It all looked awfully heavy.

“Nice of you to offer a hand,” she said sarcastically to us onlookers as she dropped the five sacks of trash items to the floor.

“Ahh~ none of my attribute points are in Strength or Endurance… or Stamina I’m afraid,” I let out with a laugh as I tried my best to contain a smile that was quickly spreading across my face.

“What she said,” followed up the frost mage.

“We knew you had it bro,” said the dark mage while nodding his head.

“Riiighhht, thanks for that vote of confidence,” Emily said with a bit of a mocking tone. “Well, I couldn’t get all of the coins back since it was added to his personal inventory already but I did get the five-percent he dropped. Did get all of the items though, it was a pretty average haul, nothing too special but not that bad either.”

Three pairs of curious eyes looked on as she slowly turned her dump bag upside down and emptied the contents onto the cold, blood-soaked dirt floor. Three rings bounced and rolled along as a dull circlet clanged against a thick chain pendant. The rings were base items with one guaranteed every run and had various stats that weren’t all that terrible.

A quick inspection showed the details of each ring with the first being a [Silver Ring of the Outcast Goblin Priest]. Awfully similar to the second one, a [Silver Ring of the Outcast Goblin Chief], the priest’s ring conferred a bonus of “plus five-percent or plus ten, which ever was lesser, to the wearer’s Intelligence and Wisdom Attribute Stats.” The latter ring worked with Vitality and Endurance instead but shared the same thematic style.

Nothing too fancy or complicated, perfect for a beginner dungeon according to Emily. I already had four of the priest rings, so they weren’t of much interest to me. The third ring was an [Iron Ring of the Outcast Goblin Guard] which wasn’t quite as good, only providing a “plus three-percent or plus six” attribute bonus to Strength and Dexterity.

That was barely better than the plus-three attribute rings that dropped off the trash, with those rings simply being titled [Iron Ring of Strength] or [Iron Ring of Agility] or whatever attribute they happened to be named after. Emily had four of the [Silver Ring of the Outcast Goblin Guard] anyhow… so she wasn’t going to need any of those either.

“Help yourselves to the rings and other items boys,” stated Emily as she sat down to catch her breath. “I’d like that iron circlet though and the pendant for her.”

“Pendant? Is it an upgrade?” I asked, slightly confused.

“Yup! It is way better than what you’ve got,” she explained.

As they sorted the items amongst themselves, I examined the [Crude Quartz Pendant of the Goblin Priest] that had a plus-2.5% bonus to the strength of Holy Spells along with plus-ten to the Wisdom attribute. Examining the item, it appeared quite strong and curiously I had never seen it drop before in all of our runs. Numerous run at that.

“Em,” I asked as the other two had left the dungeon. “Is this rare?”

“Very,” she said with a wink as the other two were long gone and couldn’t hear us. “It’s a new item introduced with the patch. Before there was one guaranteed ring drop plus a ten-percent chance for each other item on the list to drop. Out of a list of almost twenty items, each party should have seen around three drops off a kill.”

“Mm, and this one’s percentage to drop?” I inquired while walking back towards the entrance with Emily.

“One-percent,” she said with a big smile. “Your lucky day!”

“It does strike me as rather powerful,” I mumbled while looking at the interesting jewel in the middle. “Are we done for the night?”

“Yeah I’ve got work uhhh,” she replied with a sigh. “Oh hey, now that we’re done, want to take a trip somewhere? I think we should head up north.”

Taking my time to think it over, the idea of a trip didn’t strike me as a bad idea. I was awfully tired of this dungeon and town.

“Mm, sounds fun,” I answered with a grin.

* * *

Chapter 76: More Work, My Lord?

(Monday, November 15th Game Day /
Saturday, April 17th Real Day)

There was nothing quite like the squawking of seagulls to start your morning off right. Add in an ocean breeze that was stronger than usual along with too many rolling waves and it all made for a seaworthy adventure.

The only problem being that I wasn’t seaworthy yet.
Eugh
, my stomach wasn’t used to this. My legs weren’t used to it either. If I knew any better I would have waited another hour off-world for the boat to arrive.

“You all right there, Sigurd?” asked one of the crew.

“I’ll be fine… rougher seas than I’m used to is all,” I replied as calmly as I could while trying not to upheave any of the contents of my digital lunch.

“Ha! So the mighty Sigurd has a weakness,” said a warrior, laughing and mocking me the entire way.

“As do we all,” sternly replied Sigsteinn. “Every man has his weakness son, what makes him a man is how he handles it. Take that lesson to heart, young one.”

The young warrior balked at the words of his elder as a few grunts and chuckles followed from the rest of the crew. Conversation soon flooded the boat as nearly everyone onboard got involved. The lone nonparticipant was Katherine, who happened to be sitting quietly beside me while staring out at the ocean.

That was the reality here.

Only two in-game days had passed since the raid. To expect Kate to be back to normal after a few days wouldn’t be such a strange thing if her AI wasn’t so advanced. Unfortunately for me she was about as real as a person could be.

Placing my hand on hers, she turned her gaze towards me as I gave off a faint smile. Reciprocating with a smile of her own, she then turned her head back towards the ocean to continue her gazing. I didn’t know what was so captivating out there but if it calmed her or helped her in some way, I wasn’t going to interrupt any further.

Leaving my hand where it was, I leaned my head on Kate’s shoulder and began to browse the net. The details of the raid had spread while I was away… despite the no-streaming policy of FWB. They were embarrassed to have been hit at home.

They were a laughing stock.

A few travelers and guild members posted on their blogs and on the forums about what happened, ignoring the empty threats to keep quiet on the matter. Details of how a stealth unit came by ship and sailed through the town, lighting it on fire and then disappearing as quickly as it came. Stories of a half-man, half-beast rampaging through the town only to disappear into thin air. Even more, tales were told of how every NPC in the village had been killed without a single player in the guild being alerted, throats slit in their beds while sound asleep. Oh, there were stories being told.

None of them all that accurate but who was I to complain.

I announced myself to the world and showed them my response. The world, the player base, took that and ran with it. They filled their own fantasies with exaggerated details and were making a legend out of me without any influence on my part.

The precedent had been set and the rumor mill took care of the rest.

FWB’s situation wasn’t the only one either. The five players in the middle of the night told their friends that they were ambushed in the forest by a werewolf with red glowing eyes. At first gossip spread that they were telling a tall tale of imagined monsters in the North. Then reports of a half-man, half-beast with red glowing eyes tore through a player village and utilized lightning magic much the same.

Suddenly a strange coincidence turned to likely fact.

Yeah, stories were being told now.

The North was mine and if you didn’t watch your step you were bound to receive punishment. That was the word on the street. Individual players were wary… but FWB was resilient. The more I read the more I realized that they weren’t going to back down. They vowed revenge for the sneak attack, assured their guild members that they would rebuild and regather their forces to destroy me once and for all.

I had half a mind to turn the ship around and show them the reality of their words. If one goes and issues a challenge, then one must accept the consequences. But to do so required an investment of time and resources and those were things that I didn’t want to part with any more than I had to… they would have to wait.

Well, I would have to wait for the next strike.

That was the Viking way after all. They will rebuild and restructure their village and prepare themselves for another attack. Then when they are ready, they’ll seek vengeance and attempt to beat this dead horse back into his grave. Only they might find it quite a bit more difficult this time around. Hah, maybe just a little bit more difficult.

And while my mind was preoccupied with various thoughts on FWB and Dragon’s Breach, the village had crept up within visual range almost as if on cue. My home certainly looked different from the last time I saw it. In one word… developed.

Gone were the burned out buildings and empty walls as a new village stood in its place. All of it replaced with new buildings, new walls, towers, a moat, and even two makeshift bridges. This was not the same village as before. Everything had been upgraded and improved. If someone wanted to raid me they would be in for a much tougher fight this time around.

I was certain of that much.

From the boat I could see through the open gate that the critical infrastructure had been completed along with the main residences, which were one-story buildings above ground with two floors underneath. Next was the palisade that had been rebuilt to roughly ten to twelve feet tall at different parts along with a rampart directly behind, similar in theme to the prior setup only a bit taller and thicker all around.

Small channels were also dug throughout the village to double as a source of fresh water within the walls and connected with the moat on the outside perimeter that served to keep the unwanted out. The two bridges into the village were a simple collective of rolled logs for now, with drawbridges planned at some point in the future.

Even the four guard towers built against the walls had been completed while I was gone, with the fifth that would serve as a makeshift lighthouse starting to take shape on the mountain cliff at the edge of the river.

The four-hundred yard perimeter had also been successfully cleared of all trees and markers were placed at one-hundred yard intervals for future reference if needed. Though I didn’t have any form of ancient artillery, I did believe the guard towers would be more than adequate with their numerous arrow slits and windows that were large enough for my casters to easily and safely use to bombard the enemy with impunity.

If they thought Dragon’s Breach was a burned out village filled with squatters on scorched earth, well… they would eventually find out that they were sorely mistaken. Of course that assumes they even make it this far North a second time. Steps would be taken to prevent that from happening. If they did make it here I would have to applaud their conviction. Life wasn’t going to be easy for them in the foreseeable future.

Ah, what would life be without conflict?

Mighty boring I might imagine.

All the details from the forums on FWB and their status only served to drum up my eagerness to get back to work. Thankfully there were only a few minutes left before we would reach our destination. Home for the lot of us… it wouldn’t be long now.

Taking a second to think over my plans, I couldn’t help but glance back at the estuary that we recently passed through. There were a lot of ideas in my head but not a whole lot of time at the moment. Planning and delegating would become essential.

“What’s next,” I mumbled to myself as we finally pulled up to the shore and beached the ship. Quickly hopping over the side with the others, water splashed indiscriminately as the men and women left the boat sitting in the water for the others to haul off as they made their way back to their lodgings.

Most were exhausted and in need of sustenance and sleep.

The men and women had earned their keep and a feast was already prepared, though there wouldn’t be any real celebration this time around. No premature excitement over a single successful mission, instead they were given all the food that they could eat and a day’s rest for their work. That was all they required, all that they needed.

“Come on, jump Kate,” I said quietly as I opened my arms to catch her.

Standing knee deep in the water, I waited as she looked at me with her eyes half-closed. Even Katherine looked about ready to pass out from where she was standing as the last one still on the boat. After a few seconds went by, she sleepily obeyed and threw herself overboard and right into my arms.

Carrying her the entire way to the cabin, I couldn’t help but wonder how difficult such a simple action would be in real life with my weakened real body. Life was simply better in the game and every time I logged on or off, I was reminded of it.

It was no matter though.

After setting Kate down on our bed, I made my way back out towards the center of the village with grandiose plans on my mind. What I had planned for next, now that my raid had been completed, was to continue rebuilding Dragon’s Breach.

I wasn’t satisfied with what I had.

What came next… well, I wanted a Town.

I wanted this Village to upgrade into a Town but sadly there weren’t a lot of details out there. I imagined the general idea was that you either reached a population quota or you hit a building goal. Those seemed to be the most likely milestones that could or would be required for one to upgrade into a larger settlement. Settlement hierarchy being what it was, there were already loose guidelines based on population and services in real life.

The game couldn’t be too far off, I figured.

I also highly doubted that the Town requirement had a reputation stipulation as that would limit guilds and players severely in their developments. My reputation stat was incredibly high as well, so the idea that it had to be even higher didn’t really make a lot of sense to me. In the end my bet was on having a certain amount of unique service buildings available within a Village and that would in turn allow one to reclassify as a Town.

For all I knew, a Town would likely offer me more options going forward.

These were only guesses for now but I wanted to see them through.

“Sigurd, I see you’ve returned,” called out Roald as he slowly walked over.

“Aye, safe and sound, just like the rest,” I replied while extending a hand.

Shaking my hand, the welcome was complete as Roald turned to the side and looked at the large open space in the center of the village. With his eyes fixated on the location, I couldn’t help but wonder if he had finished his side mission.

“And, I trust your mission went just as well?” I asked after a few seconds had passed.

“Not as well as you might be hoping,” he answered with a slight shrug to one side. “They are far too small in population and we are too far out of the way at the moment for them to send traders our way. I’m afraid the ones traveling will continue to be a one-sided affair, meaning I’ll be the only one traveling.”

“That’s about what I expected,” I said sheepishly as a grin escaped me.

“You… and here you have me sweating it out, thinking I had failed!”

“Hah, Roald, I sent you because I wanted to implant the seed,” I started to explain while laughing away. “I wanted them to realize that trading from both sides would be readily available, that they could send people this way if needed.”

“Bah! Don’t they know that already?” he shot back while throwing his arms up. “Trade requires two parties, they are already aware of such a thing! Idiocy!”

“Hoho~ this was for your sake, even if you don’t realize it yet,” I said with a haughty laugh that he clearly didn’t appreciate. “We’re building a market next, right there where you’ve been staring. Eventually, those from the Northern Triangle will send their people here to get what they need. You’ll see soon enough. I’m saving you from a life on the road.”

“And? Did they not already know that they could come here to request goods at any given time?” he continued to argue, clearly upset with me. “You know I hate that journey, marching through the marsh and that mountain pass. There was no need to send me!”

“Ah you’re missing the point,” I stated calmly as I tried to appease his anger. “So long as you always go to them at scheduled intervals, they will continue to expect you to do so. They won’t move on their own, they’re far too small as you mentioned. They also aren’t aware that we have more to export than furs. Did you forget to mention that?”

“No. Of course I wouldn’t forget,” he replied curtly.

“So you mentioned that we had agriculture, industry, and other forms of production available to them and to the free populace of Andal?” I asked.

“And?” he quickly blurted out while shaking his head.

“They are now informed customers and we simply have to wait.”

“Bah! You’re toying with me, I know it!” shouted Roald as he stormed off into the distance. I couldn’t help but laugh a bit more at the trader as he finally left my sight. His lack of flirtation had been draining on him and he was clearly more agitated than before.