The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame

by Brent Roth

  Well, generally speaking everything was moving along.

  “Sir Sigurd, we’re ready,” called out Astrid as she beamed a bright smile.

  “Good! Let’s get started then,” I replied with oomph as I took a position off to the side of the six casters facing the mountain wall. Examining each one before continuing, I had one goal in mind for the day: impart spell knowledge successfully.

  “Today is a great day, a day you should be proud of!” I said loudly and clearly for everyone to hear. “You’ve all improved your skills to the point where I can now teach you the next spell in the lightning branch, chain lightning. This spell will become one of your staples as it provides an enormous boost to your potential destruction, especially in situations where multiple targets are available.

  “In fact, it is probably the most important spell you will learn from me. If you work together and master this spell, there is little to no chance that any small squad could hope to match up against you.”

  Ready to continue with the lesson, I stood back and eyed the six casters as they looked on with eager eyes. Now it was time to put my mastery of Lightning Magic to the test.

  “Take your stances and gather energy between your palms as you normally would,” I said calmly. “Don’t overthink anything yet, just gather it much the same as if you were about to conjure a lightning bolt. Right, just like that. Now hold the charge, condense it, and shrink it… yes, exactly, good job.”

  Before my eyes were six pairs of hands all performing the task as I had described. Electrical energy building between their palms and then shrinking into one small condensed ball as they held the harmless charge. The next step was the complicated part, and one I wasn’t quite sure how to explain.

  “Now for the tricky part… repeat the process,” I said sternly. “Without releasing the electrical charge you’ve already accumulated.”

  As soon as I finished my sentence three people failed and lost their charge as they turned their heads towards me in confusion. Astrid maintained her charge but was clearly struggling as well, as two others failed.

  Not long after, Astrid joined them.

  “Sir Sigurd… how exactly do we do this?” asked Astrid innocently.

  “Ah, trial and error,” I bluffed without any real clue. Players weren’t supposed to teach advanced spells to others. If it weren’t for my Relic I wouldn’t be able to do anything… yet somehow I was qualified to teach without a guide or any information on how to do it.

  Trial and error all right, for me too.

  “Okay, try once more then take an hour break,” I said after two-hours of failure.

  This wasn’t nearly as easy as teaching the first tier and second tier spell. With the first spell [Lightning Bolt], they already knew the basics so all I had to do was correct their posture and guide their natural ability to control it. With [Arc Lightning] it was a simple case of teaching them to extend the energy outwards much the same as a [Lightning Bolt] but without releasing the spell to fly free, keeping the energy locked and connected.

  I was out of ideas when it came to [Chain Lightning].

  “Yeah, good work guys, go grab some food and take a break for a bit,” I called out as I waved them off. Dropping down onto my ass in the snow-covered grass, I was at a complete loss. The basics of the spell were four miniature lightning bolts that were shot forth at a singular target with the end result being a split off of the four bolts onto nearby targets. Astrid was my star and yet she couldn’t manage it either.

  Ah this is a waste of time, I thought to myself.

  As I was lost to my own mind, eyes staring blankly at the cold gray wall in front of me, a pair of hands were placed on my shoulders as a woman stood directly behind me. Recognizing the scent of the female, I closed my eyes and leaned my head back into her thighs as I let out an audible sigh.

  “How’s your day been Kate?”

  “Quite pleasant my liege,” she said with a giggle. “I finished teaching those four casters with an affinity for the dark arts the third spell in the holy art classification. They picked it up rather quickly to my surprise, no issues to speak of.”

  “Fun,” I mumbled while leaning forward and throwing my arms up in frustration.

  “Hehe it didn’t go as well for you, I see,” she said softly as she maintained her position.

  “No not at all… maybe I should wait to see how you teach them holy barrage,” I mumbled to myself. “That’s a complicated spell… sort of like chain lightning.”

  “Are your problems concerning the visualization of the spell forms?” she asked after a few seconds had passed. “Or is it a more technical aspect I’m unfamiliar with?”

  “Visualization?” I asked in turn.

  “Yes, the first step to mastering spell casting of any sort is the mental aspect,” she started to explain. “Without a solid grasp of the image of what one wishes to accomplish, there is no basis or ground for which to build upon. I am of the belief that this is standard education amongst all the magic schools across the known kingdoms. How else would one hope to learn such a difficult thing otherwise?”

  “Ah,” I said.

  It made sense.

  I had previously assumed they already had a good mental image from all of the times they’ve seen me cast it. Logical leap was that they already had a mental picture to go from… but perhaps they were too busy focusing on my technical details and instructions that they chose to forgo the mental image.

  So it was the teacher’s error.

  “Hah I don’t know what I’d do without you Kate!” I blurted out as I pulled her down into me and rolled around with her in the snow. Frolicking in the snow like children, we had lost track of the time as Astrid pointed out that the hour had passed.

  “Uh-m, Si-Sir Sigurd… we’re all accounted for,” she stuttered.

  “Oh, so it has,” I replied with little to no shame while looking at the blushing Katherine beneath me. There was nothing to be embarrassed about though as it was good natured fun, nothing a child couldn’t see.

  “Should we come back at another time, Sir Sigurd?” asked Astrid.

  “Ah, no that’s quite alright,” I slowly exclaimed while sitting up. “Katherine actually suggested a few tips that I believe will help with your training. It seems I’ve been going about things backwards, my apologies to you all.”

  Instructing the casters to visualize the spells in their heads before attempting anything physical, we worked with the image training for nearly an hour, going step by step through the process. Building from one image to the next and learning to take each mental step through the physical step before heading forward proved to be valuable.

  It wasn’t more than another hour before Astrid had managed to cast a barely passable [Chain Lightning] towards the rock wall to everyone’s excitement. By the fifth hour, all six mages could cast very weak versions of the spell with a moderate chance of success. Spell rebound did exist since their mastery of the spell was still quite rudimentary at the moment but it didn’t bother me.

  They were on their way.

  Interestingly enough the game had a hidden requirement when it came to imparting spell knowledge. Simply having the knowledge of the spell’s existence, what it looked like and how to cast it weren’t enough to teach or learn it for oneself. In fact, even relaying the same information to another and having them in turn instruct failed to produce any results. The game was oddly serious about requiring the master of the spell being the one to impart the knowledge.

  Even if I told Kate to relay what I said, the mages couldn’t progress. They were right at the edge of being able to cast the spell and when I stepped back to see if I could delegate the work, their progress stalled completely. As soon as I entered their proximity and ushered the words out of my mouth, their progress resumed.

  A strange system really, but it added up with previous experiences. I couldn’t teach myself spells despite already learning them in the Alpha or Beta, such as [Fireball] and [Frost Bolt]. I cou
ld work the magical lighter and conjure cold spots as I was familiar with the magic structure, but I couldn’t cast a real spell.

  Essentially, if I wanted to teach others magic with my Ancient Relic… I would actually have to be there, physically. Another time sink is what it was. That’s really all it was in my mind. Though, maybe it did help force interaction between players and NPCs, seeing as if everyone could teach themselves then there would be one less reason to ever visit an NPC town or city. I could simply browse the net, pull the information, and practice under a water fall or something instead.

  I guess it made sense after all.

  With the sun about to rise I decided to finally let the mages return to the village and rest. They had been working for nearly eight hours in total but would have the next day off as I started the next stage of my construction plans. I figured they had plenty of time to recuperate… the real loser anyhow was me.

  Eight hours spent explaining spells to six NPCs.

  That was far too much time. If this were to happen again as it undoubtedly would, there would have to be some changes made to streamline the process. Time is a precious thing after all. To use so much of it on one small task was a bit insane.

  Yeah, these designers really knew how to limit one’s growth.

  Ah well.

  Chapter 78: Hard Cap, Soft Cap

  (Tuesday, November 23rd Game Day / Tuesday, April 20th Real Day)

  There were three real days or roughly nine in-game days left before the next mission. One week out from the original raid was when I decided to conduct the second. A short reprieve for FWB. Enough time to build something of substance so that I could burn it down but not so much time for them to actually shore up their defenses… just enough, to make it hurt. Revenge was more than hitting a target hard.

  There was the psychological element too. A lingering fear, a taste of what could lurk around any and every corner. The message would be hammered down, instilled into their very beings until they couldn’t take it anymore.

  And then at that point, the mocking would begin.

  I had been continually monitoring FWBs progress through various blogs, forums, and at times even streams. It had only been four days since I hit them but they were increasingly spouting off rhetoric about what they were going to do me.

  Damage control at its finest.

  The whole situation was almost comical… a small-to-medium sized guild of casuals mixed with a few hardcore players numbering maybe in the fifties attempting to challenge an unemployed hardcore game addict with a standing NPC population well over a hundred and with unlimited resources. Laughable, really.

  They worked for a few hours a day to rebuild their village while I put in fourteen hours a day. They grouped up to get things done while I had dozens of NPCs do the same. They also thought the number and level advantage was on their side too.

  They were mistaken.

  Though a few random players had wandered by to check the place out as pictures of Dragon’s Breach were uploaded on the web as well. Anonymous sources for the most part but there was another post that looked suspiciously like another breach of confidentiality from the A&B Meetings. Details that shouldn’t be out there.

  I didn’t know who was responsible for all of the details but I couldn’t stop it. Players were free to come and go on the outskirts of my territory and I couldn’t stop every random person in the forest. Some people were genuinely trying to level, explore, and set up camp. Even a few player houses had been created near Andal as of two days ago.

  Those things were out of my control.

  As far as the Alpha and Beta Meetings though, I couldn’t help but wonder if Emily was the one giving me away. She was the host, she had the data, she shared it with the testers… and in turn those testers leaked it out to the world. Sure, she talked about all sorts of information so it wasn’t as if she had singled me out on purpose.

  The land itself singled me out, seeing as I was the only one here.

  Maybe it wasn’t her fault either, maybe she was just the messenger. Whatever the case was, she was the figurehead and the symbolic face of the meetings. She might only be a messenger but I wasn’t happy with her or her cohorts. I was fighting on two fronts now and one enemy couldn’t be fought. That left FWB to be the demonstrative guinea pig.

  They weren’t ready for what was to come.

  “Status report!” I yelled out into the forest.

  “All clear!” came back a shout from a male.

  “All clear!” came back a shout from a female.

  “All cleeear!” came an oddly high-pitched squeal from someone.

  Shaking my head at the last reply, I tried my best not to laugh out loud as I internalized my thoughts and feelings on the matter. The oddly voiced reply was practically genderless but I had an idea as to who it belonged to. A good person really… just a strange voice was all. A really strange voice.

  “Move forward!” I shouted to them as I started to pace myself in the direction of their voices. The Infested Zone was being utilized to power level my troops and we were already twenty miles deep into the forest. Camping gear was brought along as well as a bundle of warm clothing as the temperature had started to drop considerably with the increasing snowfall. Winter was on the way and traveling would soon become difficult.

  When the time comes, I’ll have to find other sources of entertainment.

  For now we would hunt until we reached the cave. Dire wolves, goblins, and rattanorv groups were out patrolling and were readily available. There was also the occasional sighting of adverse weather conditions that signaled the presence of a frost troll, of which one had never been caught or killed. The rest of the creatures were standard fodder really.

  These groups of mobs weren’t a challenge for a team of casters and tanks. The men and women were clearing through the area at a breakneck pace and I couldn’t help but wonder when the current creatures would phase out and new ones would swoop in. My hope was that it would occur relatively soon.

  Overhunting of an area was supposed to activate the conditions for the game to change its parameters slightly, increasing the difficulty in relation to the individuals in the region. Starter zones being the lone exception as they kept a radius of low level mobs for the beginner players. Yet despite the conditions being met, nothing was changing.

  The goblins roamed as packs of five at around level fifty up to level sixty. The rattanorv roamed as packs of ten at similar levels and the dire wolves were usually alone but around level seventy. Level fifty-plus bears were also running about but they were very small in number with the hibernation period having started for them in-game.

  I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a hard cap… or a soft cap, on the level of creatures that an Infested Zone would bring in. At first I figured it was based purely on scarcity but that didn’t seem to be the only factor. The other thought was that it was tied to the player levels in the vicinity.

  The casters were already in their forties level wise with the original warriors well over seventy. My new warriors with their lower potentials were pretty far behind and were stuck in their twenties still but they could manage without too much issue. They were mainly frontline tanks and all of the heavy work was handled by the casters in most fights.

  My level on the other hand had stagnated significantly.

  It was rather embarrassing to think about, really.

  Kate, well… she was nearing level one-hundred already with her potential being somewhat exceptional. Seeing how high potentials conferred an experience boost, any NPC with strong ratings had it extremely good when it came to leveling. I mean, for every kill we made Kate received double the experience that I did.

  There was almost no way for me to actually catch her in level unless I left her at home and soloed my way through content. Another trip to an instanced dungeon might help in that regard. That didn’t sound too bad either.

  Sure would beat the winter up here.

  Well, based on all of t
he high levels running around the idea that the Infested Zone was tied strictly to scarcity and level seemed to be out of the question. My last thought on the matter was that it could potentially be tied to the level of the settlement nearby.

  Dragon’s Breach was still a village for now.

  I would have to wait until it upgraded to a Town to find out.

  Lost in thought, a sudden gust hit me as the cold air sent a chill through my coat and forced a reactionary shiver. An ominous feeling was pervading the surroundings… the feeling of being possessed. Ah, this was a familiar feeling, I thought to myself.

  In an instant the wind had picked up as the snowfall began to obscure my vision. The noise of the supernatural storm blocking out the calls of my troops as they tried to ask for instruction. It seemed even the trees were against me as the canopy that had been letting in light slowly grew dark.

  Standing under the shadow of a tree amidst the frenzied snowfall I was alone. The white and green scenery around me turned to white and gray as I started to scan the distance. Looking from left to right in a circular motion, I continued to turn until I had scanned the entire area surrounding me. The thickest part of the storm was where the sun was moments before.

  Marked trees told me the direction was west… in this forest I would never be lost without the sun. I couldn’t be lost here. I, we, prepared for that. There were thousands of marked trees in the vicinity, something to bide my time while the male and female NPCs played at being players. They hunted while I prepared for the worst.

  Now it was time for me to hunt.

  This [Frost Troll] was mine.

  Taking one step after the other I continued on my westerly course, straight into the thick of the storm. One glance at my arm revealed the amount of packed snow that had accumulated on my clothing. My shoulders were growing heavy… my face, almost frostbitten. The temperature had plummeted to below freezing as the small creek along my path had frozen over, with instances of wildlife clearly visible.