The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen (26 page)

That saved us.

They didn't know we were evading some of their spells.

My health though, was evidence that we didn't dodge them all.

"Run," I mumbled with what little strength I had left.

Kate turned and hesitated, not wanting to leave me as Selene got back up and began to sprint. I nodded once at Kate, and she understood. As both girls ran down the pass, I tilted my head back in order to see the wave of frost bolts coming.

It was glorious.

A dazzling array of blue and white.

Fluttering ice trails left behind in their wake, as the frost bolts traveled along the waves of the air. Simultaneous frost bolts, too numerous to count.

All headed my way.

Standing up with arms wide open, I embraced them.

All of them.

And then the world turned white, cold… and I struggled to breathe, but only for a split second. The pain disappeared and the white world turned black. The world before me morphed, twisted and shaped into one of odd grays and blues, hazy and wavy, blurry, amongst other things.

Yet again, I had died.

Another resounding success.

Staring at the sky, the river was moving east as I tried to make out the area I was in.

Graveyards in The Dragon's Wrath were generally limited to villages, towns, and cities. Out in the wilderness, that meant a death could lead to a corpse run of multiple hours. I didn't have multiple hours, and like I thought, I was back home.

Accepting the resurrection penalty, I resurrected in Dragon's Breach.

I was hours away from Kate and Selene now.

"Selene, did you two make it out?" I asked telepathically with the Soul Link.

"Yes we're outside now, are you still in there Sigurd?" she replied immediately.

"No, I'm back in Dragon's Breach," I stated somewhat angrily.

"What, how?" she questioned, reasonably. "You were behind us… how?"

Shaking my head, I quickly changed my gear at the cabin and went with the lightest outfit I could manage, only taking the small one-handed axe and a dagger for weapons.

Leaving the rest behind, I started to run.

"Take the creek back, I'll meet you soon."

"We will be fine, take your time," replied Selene after a slight hesitation.

It would be dark in two hours, and even though they would most likely be safe by themselves, I felt guilty. I was overconfident and figured we could take a few dirty rats, little did I know that they were far more intelligent than goblins.

They played me, like a fool.

Baited me and trapped me with my arrogance.

They weren't just rats after all, they had a name.

Rattanorv.

Chapter 57: The Trade Voyage

(Monday, August 9th Game Day / Monday, March 15th Real Day)

"Eindride, have you seen Roald anywhere?" I yelled out from the edge of the dock, having reached the end of my patience when it came to looking for the aloof trade master. Eindride was one of the two sailors that doubled as fishermen and had been prepping the ship for our first voyage along with a handful of others.

Roald, our trade master, was nowhere to be seen.

"I have yet to see him," answered Eindride with a boisterous shout that echoed off the stone walls a few feet away. "He has a knack for disappearing when it comes time to do the heavy lifting… always. His most dependable trait, as you know, Sigurd."

"Yeah," I replied quietly, with a nod for thanks.

We were already behind schedule, what with losing almost two days with the journey to the Rattanorv cave that ended in defeat. The girls made it about a third of the way before I met up with them, and the rest of the walk back was filled with random hunting to pass the time. It was a waste of precious daylight, but, I guess there was something gained from it.

In the end, I learned the location of a future Open Dungeon, solely for me.

Well, not solely, but no one else was likely to find it out here.

I mean, this was a
wasteland
… people didn't go on nature walks this far north.

Thinking of Selene, I decided to open up a line of communications to aid in my search. "Hey Selene, have you seen Roald anywhere? He's shirking his duties again."

"Ah he's by the cattle pen, talking to Kaia, I can see him," she replied.

"Perfect, watch him for me, will you."

The Soul Link was possibly the greatest tool ever when it came to Companions and ease of management. Without it, I'm not sure if I would ever leave their side, or let them leave mine. With it… we could live separate lives and they were only a beck and call away. The only issue thus far was that my Loyalty level with Katherine wasn't high enough to enable it. Her Trust and Affection were both quite high, but not nearly as high as Selene's.

A shame really, one that I wanted to remedy as soon as possible… even if it meant dropping my earlier vow of monogamy. I already broke my own rule on getting attached to an NPC… which… was sad.

Eh, who was judging anyway?

I mean, I wasn't exactly alone in my behavior.

Last I heard, the brothels were one of the most popular establishments in the game… my route, was a bit more pleasant. At least, that's what I told myself.

Off in the distance I could barely make out the shape of Roald and Kaia standing near the fenced in cattle. The heifers were nearly mature enough to conceive and Kaia was a new recruit, brought in specifically to raise and develop the livestock.

She was one of a handful of new recruits, actually.

After my return from the Outcast Goblin Dungeon, I was somewhat rich and had money to throw around. Before I set out, there were forty-four combat NPCs, forty of which were warrior-types while four were of the priest-type. The rest of the village was filled up with roughly sixty-some tradesmen and their families.

Now, the population of Dragon's Breach was at a hundred and thirty.

Utilizing the NPC-Recruiter, I picked up Kaia as my husbandry specialist, with her proficiency in Animal Husbandry a rather fantastic 9.3/10. She actually cost me quite a bit more than the others, as another player seemed to be interested in her specific talents as well. Through the bidding process, I ended up paying out eight-hundred copper… a good six-hundred more than what I paid for the other NPCs a little while ago.

It was expected, though.

NPCs would continue to increase in cost, as the game went on.

They were fundamental to the growth of a player village, town, or city, and as an essential commodity the rarity of a high quality NPC combined with a scarcity of numbers, led to an end result that was something fierce.

I was actually poor again.

Well, it was worth it.

"Hey Roald, funny seeing you here," I said loudly as I pat him on the shoulder, having successfully snuck up on him. Winking at Kaia, I greeted her as well.

"Good morning to you Kaia."

"Good morning Sigurd! We were just talking about the health of these little girls," she replied with a beaming smile as she pointed at one of the cows grazing nearby.

"Ah yes, I was inquiring if she needed any specific equipment… that she might have been lacking, you know," muttered Roald somewhat unconvincingly.

"Yeah, that's great," I said with aplomb, the kind Roald was missing with his excuse. "Right, well Kaia, if you do need anything let Selene know and she will forward it to me. As for you Roald, your assistance is required aboard ship."

"Oh, I'll be sure to head over in a minute then," he stated with a characteristic grin.

"Good, I'll come with you," I retorted with a grin of my own.

"Ah… right, then."

"Yup."

Roald wasn't a bad man.

In fact, he was extremely trustworthy when it came to most matters… his problem, herein, was his penchant for flirting with women. He made his rounds, around the village, ensuring that he chatted up each and every single woman in the vicinity. Coupled with his desire to avoid manual labor and the guy was as good as gone when you needed him around.

Yeah, he was going to be escorted to the ship, less we decide to never leave.

"Come on, let's go," I said, after letting him get his parting lines out.

With the trade master in tow, the rest of the crew had already finished the preparations to depart. Eight warriors, plus two sailors, a trader, and myself, ready to sail to the Northeastern Elven territories, aboard a brand new Viking Longship of the Karvi class, or so I was told.

A smaller boat compared to the other longships, it featured twelve oars and enough space for a crew of around twenty. Tripling as a trade ship, war ship, or a fishing vessel, it was everything I needed all in one nice little package.

With the singular square sail attached to a single mast located amidships plus the twelve of us rowing, I was expecting travel speeds of at least 10 knots, or roughly 11 miles an hour along the coastline. That was fairly fast traveling in this game, and with an extremely shallow-draft hull, all we needed was a river around three feet deep at the center and we were good to go.

The Longship was light enough to carry, too.

Beach landings were a distinct possibility.

Rivers, coastline, or deep ocean trips in rough waters were all easily doable, and within range of the ships design. The North may have lacked resources and the population might have been less affluent, but technology was on our side.

I had, in my possession, one of the best naval ships of the time period, if not the very best. And as far as I knew, despite all the random non-time period items and buildings that had been put into the game, the majority of the technology was accurate.

Weapons were accurate, somewhat.

Armor, too.

It was entirely possible, for me to master the trade routes of the North by my lonesome. To turn Dragon's Breach into a true haven, a metropolis of the North. That was my goal, and the progress markers had been reached.

Now, I only needed to go ahead and take it.

"Let's set off, then," I said to the men that had taken their seats.

Sitting down on our wooden boxes that contained our personal items and with an oar in our hands, we were ready to head out. The wind was blowing east, right in the direction that we needed it to be.

Katherine saw me off, while Selene was nowhere to be seen.

A slight wave goodbye and we were gone.

Rowing with complete synchronization, the twelve us put our legs and backs into every pull as the Karvi slowly but steadily gained speed. Heading down the river with the outflow heading north towards the ocean, our speed gradually picked up to a point where we no longer needed to row.

Guiding the sixty foot boat down the river was of such relative ease that I nearly lost myself to a daydream, only to snap back to attention at the sound of a barking seal. If the thing was any closer, I probably would have clubbed it with my axe.

The little bastard.

Passing through the estuary provided us with quite a sight, as the natural habitat was teeming with life forms of all types. Dozens of species of birds flew about or walked along the water's edge, as countless schools of fish swam underneath. The mixed salt and fresh water created a brackish water environment, one that cultivated various types of marine organisms to the point that oysters and clams were easily visible from where I sat. One might pay for these types of views, on some kayak trip through a cove or a shallow reef, yet here, it was free.

Free for anyone willing to travel.

Enjoying the sights of marine life going about their day, I turned my attention to the small waves off in the distance. The incoming tidal forces were somewhat weak, as the flow of the river carried all the way out towards the mouth. And with a relatively flat sandy beach, the waves were inconsequential as we began to slightly roll over them.

Keeping the boat straight was paramount, and to not stop rowing was all that was required to get over the larger waves. I was glad, we weren't in a small boat.

If this were a twelve-footer, a rubber boat with a crew of six or seven… had we stopped paddling, or hit the surf at an angle, we would all be ditching into the blue.

That cold, deep, dark blue… it scared me.

The ocean was a powerful thing, and even if I was a proficient swimmer, more than proficient at it, a mistake or an accident would lead to a world of misfortune out here.

You had to respect the ocean, for you couldn't beat it.

To think I was on a boat despite my fear of drowning, well… at least it was a game.

A splash of water on my face nearly convinced me otherwise, though.

I didn't want to know how realistic drowning was in this game.

An hour and some change had passed by the time the wind had fully picked up. Our sail looked as if it had reached max effectiveness, as it filled to the brim without an inch of slack. I worried that the mast might break for a second, but I trusted the shipbuilder.

He was recruited by me anyhow, so I knew exactly how good he was.

With a full sail, we were starting to really fly.

I had no way of judging our knots, but I had read and seen that fifteen knots was considered readily achievable in the right conditions. That was something around seventeen miles per hour, and if those numbers were correct, this nearly two-hundred mile journey would be over and done with in a little less than half a day.

Twelve hours on a boat.

Well, at least I wasn't one to get seasick.

Kicking back and relaxing as our oars sat motionless, the men had engaged in idle chatter as I decided to browse the web. A week had passed since I left the Outcast Dungeon, yet no one else had claimed the fifth floor.

We were still the reigning champs there.

That was pretty neat.

Another hour had passed as my mind began to wander. There was nothing to do out here, and watching the coastline had grown boring after some time. Then it occurred to me, that I could take a nap.

Or in other words, log out.

The men would be fine without me, or at least I hoped they would.

Yeah, there was little reason for me to sit in this boat for another ten hours staring at the mountain walls along the coast. Two hours was plenty, they didn't look any different after an hour, anyways.

Yup, time was nigh for me to skedaddle.