The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame

by Brent Roth

  “Uhm, Sir Sigurd,” replied Ansgar with a little confusion in his voice. “No, we don’t have mining picks or anything similar… we don’t have the iron for it either.”

  Ah, he was right.

  We were woefully short on raw materials outside of wood and leather. Looking around the room, there was a small collection of items scattered throughout the place as the result of their experiments of turning iron and carbon into steel. From the looks of it, they had ceased all progression and were stuck without more iron to play with.

  “Ahh I know,” I muttered dejectedly as I continued to stare at the half-complete weapons littered about. “We need to find a source of iron ore locally if at all possible but I haven’t seen anything remotely resembling a vein in my travels. If I can’t find a source… importing is going to be difficult.”

  “What of the swords you brought back after your last journey?” Enok inquired.

  “At the moment that’s not feasible,” I said plainly. “It would take me far too much time to acquire a small amount, we would be better off trading for what we need.”

  “We’ve already exhausted our supply, Sigurd,” said Ansgar with a shrug.

  Eyeing the halberd that had been left leaning on the wall in a corner of the building, with every warrior now equipped with a two-handed bearded axe with a pattern welded cutting edge, there was little reason to keep the [Defiled Halberd of Reaving] around. It simply sat as a cursed ornament for show.

  I had thought of keeping it for an enchanter to experiment with but as far as I could see within the NPC-Recruiter, none were ever available for drafting. Either it was a percentage based deal where random populations were generated every week or it had to do with my settlement or reputation.

  To think that all of the information that I had gathered was only partially accurate due to the nature of the game being a bit lackluster in the details department. There were millions of questions out on the forums on subjects I had yet to even consider.

  Over half a million players spread out on a continent some fifteen-hundred miles long and at least half that in width. The game appeared empty most of the time but that wasn’t truly the case. We were simply too spread out at the moment, and all of those players that I had yet to run into were busy with their own game.

  Ah, half a million people playing on one super server… that alone was almost mind boggling. Then to consider more players were on their way… eh, that was too many for one server. Imagining thousands of people in one location… how could we even PvP properly with that many people?

  How could we even PvE properly?

  “Bah, whatever,” I mumbled. “Melt that halberd down if you need the material, I will need at the very minimum four pickaxes. As soon as you can possibly do it as well, ignore current projects. We need to start working on the rock face within our walls.”

  “That’s hardly enough metal for two,” replied Enok immediately. “Where do you suppose we find the rest of the material?”

  Glancing down at the one remaining [Crude Iron Hand Axe] hanging off my belt, this was my spare that I had kept in the cabin. After leaving behind my main one in the Rattanorv cave, this was the only hand axe that I had left.

  “Take this,” I said as I handed Enok the hand axe. “That’s enough for three pickaxes… and over there, that sword with the impurities, melt that down too.”

  “All this for pickaxes,” mumbled Ansgar as he seemed confused.

  “It’s an investment for the future,” I replied. “I’ll work on getting more iron somehow. Let me worry about that, as soon as you finish with one pickaxe let me know.”

  Heading out of the blacksmith’s hut with a sense of urgency, I wanted to complete these pet projects of mine as quickly as possible. I wanted to be onboard ship and be in the vicinity of FWB by the upcoming Saturday night if possible, when their guild would be the most active. These chores needed to be taken care of before then.

  Walking up to the open space where the inn had been planned, the pile of logs had been reduced to barely enough for one small building let alone a multistory complex. I also wanted extra logs to make furniture from and that would require at least another hundred logs at the minimum when combined.

  Realistically, there would need to be more than a couple hundred logs. The inn pictured in my head was no small structure. I wanted to build it once, do it right, and be done with it. No revisions necessary, no need to return to it at a later date to tear it down in order to build a new one.

  A one-time job with a long-lasting finish.

  Spotting Soren walking by in the distance, I called out to the mage in order to have him gather the able-bodied for me. Instructing him to find me every single free hand, we would be tearing down another section of the forest for my plans. It was time for me to put my lumberjacking proficiency to use, serious use at that.

  “Havardr, lead the teams to move the logs!” I shouted after felling another tree. Wiping my brow as the sun had started to fall, I had already downed eighty trees by myself as the men hauled them back. The men were standing idly by as they were more interested in watching me hack away at the trees than actually working themselves, so a little reminder was needed every so often.

  Gripping the axe with my right hand near the top of the shaft and with the left hand at the bottom of the handle, I lifted the axe up above my head and slightly to the side, as I pulled downwards and slid my right hand down to where my left hand was positioned. In a side arcing motion that brought the axe instantly into the side of the tree, a quick pull with a foot placed on the tree reset me for the next swing. It was technically improper and dangerous to do it that way but I was in a hurry and couldn’t be bothered.

  Cutting downwards first as I began to create my notch, I then switched and reversed the angle in order to create a wedge shaped hole. Four solid swings with my insane strength and a chunk as large as my head was missing as the tree began to lean.

  Simply rotating to the other side, two quick swings sent the tree crashing to the ground as I moved on to the next. When I first started felling trees a few months ago, I could maybe chop two or three trees down in a minute.

  Now it took ten seconds at peak efficiency to bring a pine down. Six trees a minute for an hour straight was easily doable. All of those countless hours spent doing hard labor in order to build this place had really added up.

  My Endurance stat had progressed considerably since the last time I was in the Outcast Dungeon and due to that, my Stamina bar hardly ever ran out due to basic tasks. Taking blows still reduced my stamina rather quickly though as I realized there was a small percentage modifier involved.

  Sprinting at top speed also drained stamina at a percentage as well.

  Two hours after I started, there were now roughly seven hundred logs ready to be used as I saw fit. Sending the men off to bed as I worked through the night, my drawknife would keep me company along with the moon.

  Snow had begun to fall once again as was expected but my thick dire wolf pelt kept me warm in the middle of it all. Prepping a log took a lot more effort and time as I hacked off loose branches with methodical precision and then began to debark the logs.

  Pulling towards me with a slight angle, blade kept perpendicular to the grain, I used a splitting method of cutting deep into the tree while flicking and breaking off the spliced pieces of wood. It was more difficult technique wise but proved to be much faster.

  Was a little dangerous too, with my excessive strength. Lost a finger more than a few times as it caught and ripped off with a quick pull. Katherine was handy for that though. She could replace a lost finger or two without too much trouble.

  By the time I had finished stripping the bark from all of the logs, the sun had already risen. Six hours straight of pulling, to the point that I was physically sore in-game. Mentally I was fine but the repetitive nature of the work was mind-numbing after so many hours. Well an eight hour workday was par for the course.

  With my logs ready to go, it was
time to dig and prepare the site. Waving over the men and handing out the shovels, I wanted an eight foot deep hole that stretched for ninety feet along the base of the rock wall while coming out to roughly thirty feet. That made for twenty-one thousand and six-hundred cubic feet of dirt to be moved.

  All of that dirt would take at least twenty four hours even with forty hands working at superhuman speeds and that was exactly what we intended to do. Marking the edges of the site before beginning to dig, the basement would be the foundation and serve as extra space for storage. The restaurant would be on the first floor after all.

  Minor adjustments to my original plan.

  Digging in a line while limited to only a handful of shovels, the extra workers served to move the dirt onto makeshift sleds and dragged them to the edge of the village. A massive pile of dirt had been formed from the excavation of the moat while the majority of the dirt was spread around the base of the mountain.

  Taking turns and rotating the men and women in fifteen minute shifts, their productivity was maintained for all of four hours before they were ready to call it a night. Working by myself, my twelve hour shift soon increased to sixteen as the sun rose once more and I was joined by the awaking NPCs.

  Instructing them to carry on, it was about time for me to eat and sleep as well. Only I couldn’t quite do that as a familiar face wanted my attention. I had hoped it was Katherine, yet it was the new recruit instead.

  “You’ve been hard at work… preparing for the kraken?” asked Annalie as she stood with arms crossed. “An interesting style of training, digging dirt, cutting wood. If one didn’t know any better, they might mistake you for a laborer.”

  Beyond burnt out and with the annoyance of the flashing red exclamation point at the bottom of my screen, I really didn’t want to deal with her but she had a legitimate point. I told her she could train with my troops and learn the ways and despite that, two real days were spent building a structure that she had no ties to.

  “My position has more than one requirement,” I said with a yawn. “If life were so simple that I could go to war every day without a care to the logistics, ah… that would be a blessing. You have been hunting with the mages, have you not?”

  “Hunting wolves and goblins will not prepare us for the kraken,” she shot back.

  Frustrated and tired, I decided to walk with her to a more secluded location where I could talk more freely. With too many ears around, the last thing I needed was for her to be alienated by my followers.

  “Come, follow me,” I exclaimed while heading towards the edge of the forest outside of the village’s walls. “I’ll show you something to help you visualize my ideas.”

  Thirty minutes passed us by as we continued to walk through the forest in the direction of a goblin camp. The small group of five goblins were busy huddled up by the fireside in an effort to stay warm.

  Leaning against a tree as I fought to stay awake, I pointed at the goblins and asked her a question, “What do you see?” Not bothering to let her respond, I continued with my mini-speech. “You see five goblins working together, correct?” Stretching my arms while sitting down with head against tree, I closed my eyes.

  “Now imagine this for me, you rush in there alone and fight the five goblins, engaging them in melee. Do they fight in unison, covering each other’s flanks while attacking in turns? Do they work together with every move, in an attempt at synchronization?”

  Waiting for her response as I began to drift off, I snapped my head to the side in an effort to stay awake.

  “They do not, they are beasts and they attack wildly,” she replied, clearly not understanding the intent of my message.

  “Then you’re mistaken,” I said.

  Standing up without a weapon, I had left the village with empty hands but there wouldn’t be a need for one against these low level monsters that had been fought on numerous occasions. Even if I was mentally and physically exhausted in-game and my real body was starving and suffering from dehydration, I wanted to prove my point.

  “Watch as they attack me.”

  Picking up a rock and throwing it casually at the nearest goblin’s head, the impact made a soft thunk noise as the goblin turned in anger. Cursing at me in its broken English, the comical creature along with four of his oily friends charged at me.

  “You have no weapon, are you insane?!” she shouted at me.

  Fangs and hourglass eyes filling my vision, the first sword was swung at my waist as I dodged with ease. Jumping lightly backwards as the second swing came, a third and fourth attack materialized as thrusts towards my midsection as I twisted my torso in an effort to let the swords pass harmlessly by.

  The fifth goblin attempted to flank me as he swung at my feet, intending to cut my hamstrings while two other goblins thrusted at my chest. Kicking and deflecting the sword of the fifth goblin that had targeted the back of my ankles, I tucked and rolled to avoid the two thrusts that were soon followed by two swings. The chaotic battles of the dungeon were only chaotic because of my inexperience.

  What seemed like random swings weren’t quite as random after a few thousand repetitions. Continuing to dodge their attacks, I eventually grew bored and called out to Annalie who was supposed to be watching their every move.

  “Do their attacks look entirely random to you?”

  Deflecting a sword with my vambrace and then returning a counter blow to its wrist, the goblin dropped its sword as I dove and picked it up. Tumbling on the ground, I now had a weapon to retaliate with.

  One arm held out to the side and with the sword in my right, I parried the first two attacks and then lunged and thrust the blade into a goblin’s shoulder. As soon as the blade hit, counter swings from the other goblins came as I pulled back and retreated a few feet to safety. Repeating the process, every time I landed an attack, counters were launched by the surrounding goblins in a way that began to look organized.

  Repeated movements and planned reactions.

  “Do you see it now?” I shouted.

  “They’re simply reacting to your openings!” she shouted back.

  That part was true but the idea was different.

  Using a quick step to avoid the oncoming swings, I whipped the sword around in a flash and sliced at a goblin’s neck as it quickly fell to its knees. Jumping forward and kneeing the goblin’s face, it fell onto its back as I stabbed it once in the chest and rolled forward as a few swords had managed to slice away at my arms.

  Letting the four goblins regather, they shifted their positions slightly as they tried to maintain a united front. Two directly in front of me with two at my sides attempting to flank, they restructured their formation and resumed their attack.

  Toying with the [Minor Goblins] was beginning to bore me though as I decided to kill another one by method of blood loss. Slicing at the goblin’s inner thigh, the severed artery bled profusely as blood poured out onto the white snowy ground and its movements slowed. Collapsing less than two minutes later, it was already nearing its death.

  Three goblins left, I caught one sword with my banded leather glove and countered with a quick thrust through its throat. Picking up the extra sword, I attempted to dual wield with no real experience as I decided to employ a hack and slash tactic.

  Pressing the momentum while swinging down from the right side and then the left, only to return with another slash going upwards from left to right, I continued slashing repeatedly until the goblins were overwhelmed and began to falter. Slicing away at their exposed parts while careful not to damage the crude leather armor they were wearing, after a minute had passed the poor creatures were all lying in pools of their own blood, flesh cut and torn open as if they had been flayed alive.

  They had been flayed alive.

  “Meh, so did you see anything?” I inquired after tossing the swords on the ground.

  “They kept a formation and capitalized on your mistakes,” said Annalie with little to no interest. “So they aren’t entirely wild. What does that h
ave to do with hunting?”

  “Trained personnel can integrate into units quicker but do you believe you’re already accustomed to the men and women you’ll be fighting next to?” I said seriously with little interest in a reply. “Every nuance that they have, how they react when under pressure, whether the man on your left will step backwards, forwards, or to the side when a sword is thrust at him.

  “And then, what of the caster that is behind you or on your right, will he or she dodge in such a way that your shield is blocked in its path or your spear finds itself out of place? You’ve never fought with my soldiers before, and they’ve never fought with you. A couple days of hunting should familiarize the lot of you.”

  Collecting the usable items from the deceased goblins, one was still barely alive as it was slowly bleeding out. Stabbing it through the heart to end its suffering, I continued on my way. Heading back towards the village on autopilot as my mind was beginning to shut off, Annalie decided to ask one more question of me.

  “I am a trained fighter, you don’t have to worry about me,” she said.

  “I care little if you die honestly,” I said without restraint. “I do care if one of my men or women die because you react unexpectedly and they are thrown off by your behavior. I have not seen you in battle nor have my troops. You are not well-known enough to be trusted without first going through the ropes. Is it so much to ask that you hunt with them for a few days while I carry out my affairs?”

  Inspecting the now raging woman in front of me, it was a curious thing to see that her Affection and Trust bars were visible to me as if she was already my Companion. There was a limited bar for every NPC in addition to Morale and other such basic statuses, but hers was identical to Katherine’s. To a knowledgeable eye, she was definitely a Companion even if it didn’t state so.

  “Test me now then if you so wish,” she said, throwing out a challenge as she attempted to square up with me. “Let us see who can be trusted in a fight.”

  As I stood there in silence with head tilted to the side, I watched as my Trust and Affection plummeted from nearly nothing to actually nothing. She had lost faith in me and it appeared this would be the final straw.