The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame (21 page)

“Hahhhh you are an ass.”

“Rightfully so, anywho~ last we talked you said you wanted more pelts, how was the last shipment that you received the other day?” I asked, wanting to get down to business. “Were there enough pelts there, or could you use more?”

Taking a second to think over her reply, she bounced her head back and forth a little as she took her sweet time. “I’ve already sold half of them, your shipments are kind of small ya know? I’ve been thinkin’ you’re a small time supplier and I’m a big time trader, if you can’t increase production, I’m just not sure what I’ll do!”

Laughing a little at the response, she was definitely mocking me as the tables had turned slightly. My first shipment nearly gave her a panic attack as I brought over a thousand pelts, now she had cultivated a following and a steady demand to go with it. My steady supply of goods had actually decreased slightly as the winter provided fewer opportunities by the way of reduction in the number of beasts roaming about.

“You sold half of the dire wolf pelts in, what, three days?” I asked.

“Backorders guy, get with it!”

“Ah man, they’re scarce you know?” I answered as I tried to calculate the number of pelts that I could provide within a week. “Honestly speaking, if I can produce fifty pelts in a week, I would be surprised. Sent you almost a hundred but that was a monthly shipment… I can increase the hunting radius though, increase the number of units too.”

“I’ll take fifty a week,” she replied instantly and seriously for once. “At least for now while it’s a hot commodity, I’ll take as many as you can pump out while the snow is still falling. Come spring and summer… well I’m doubtful the trend will last long enough for the weather to change people’s minds.”

“We good at two gold coins for fifty dire wolf pelts?” I inquired immediately.

“Yup! No complaints!” she said with a smile.

“All right, I’ll see if I can get that out to you in about a week, real time,” I said as I let out an exhale and dropped my shoulders. “Man, I’m going to be busy.”

“Ahhh problems of the rich and famous, woe is me!” she mocked again.

“Hit those brothels girl, you might find that love you’re looking for!” I teased as I hung up. Lying back down with my face staring up at the ceiling of the cabin, the potential for mass amounts of money was there if I could capitalize on it. A second later and a text message from Ellieby arrived in my chat box, forcing a quiet chuckle out of me.

She was a funny one and was never too serious.

We would often message randomly throughout the day, as was the same for Barik and Ethan. Alan interestingly hadn’t been on since the end of April, so it was a little strange but it was only four or five days into May now. He could have been on vacation or swamped with work, those real life things happened from time to time, mainly serving to disrupt the steady nature of my virtual world.

“So I can have up to two gold coins a week for maybe a month,” I mumbled quietly.

The possibility for more coin meant I could splurge on NPCs now and continue to build as necessary. I was far richer than any single player in the game by way of assets and that was an easy to recognize fact. Guilds had me beat collectively to be sure but a single player with a kingdom coming along similar to mine?

There was no such other player.

Ellieby could possibly be the richest trader in the game as well at this point thanks to her involvement with me. A truly fortuitous arrangement, having been stopped by her in the middle of the road on the way to the Outcast Dungeon Town.

At one point there were thoughts that the whole trade idea was a big mistake, especially when I first arrived with a shipment that she couldn’t pay for or readily accept. But I put my faith in her and gave it a chance and now the results had shown.

Business was good, export was steady and income was solid. I had no complaints. Opening up the [NPC-Recruiter] once more, I decided to look specifically for Non-Combatants for now as I already saw the average price of the Combatants. With the latter hovering around ten to twelve silver per due mainly to the lack of competition, I could easily fill out my army before other players caught on.

But before I could commit to any priest-types or casters, I wanted to see if I could fill out my industry-related NPCs so as to be done with the whole ordeal once and for all. There were a few specific proficiencies that interested me, mainly a glassblower or glass smith to create stained glass windows or clear ones if at all possible, a brewer for the obvious production of alcohol, a mason to begin working the stone and other related works, an enchanter to begin discovering the ways of the trade, and lastly if possible, a cartographer to create a detailed map.

The in-game map was rudimentary and lacked clarity which was discussed at length within the Alpha and Beta meetings but the reply was always the same, for immersion purposes the best maps would be the ones you as a player created or purchased from an NPC. In order to make a map though, I would also need a papermaker of some sort.

That alone seemed like a burdensome task and turned me away from the idea altogether… at least at first. If the process could be started now and built up over time, there existed the opportunity to sell tomes created by me, to teach Lightning Magic to the masses. If my reasoning was correct, I needed to instruct the person personally but there also existed tomes within the cities that could be purchased and used to learn a spell.

If by extension, a book created by me was sold to a player or NPC, the logical leap was that there existed a chance that it could work. Theoretically it appeared to be sound, at least in my mind. The risk was there but it would only cost some time and a little effort.

I believed it was worth the risk.

In fact, most of the upper level spells were found on tomes, starting roughly at the sixth spell tier. That meant with the lack of Lightning Magic Trainers or whatever they were called, that the majority of the player base would find it hard to learn. This was the current issue that plagued Lightning, Dark, and Nature Magic to the point where most players simply avoided the playstyles completely.

Steel was rare, Lightning Magic was rare, white furs were rare… ah the trends. I was guilty of being a whore to the trends. Well, trends that I started. I didn’t care much for other people’s trends after all.

After an hour of research, the results were in.

Glassblowers nor papermakers or cartographers were available to be drafted. Their availability must have been tied to the suspected third tier connected with the Settlement: City. That was my best guess there and I left it at that.

A brewer, enchanter, and mason however were available and that made my decision for drafting an easy one. Ticking off the three best selections available, there didn’t appear to be any tight competition for their services as Non-Combatants were often considered a waste of time and money by most. Guilds mired in conflict needed soldiers to defend their territory, not cooks and waitresses.

That thought reminded me though of the need for a few more sailors that could double as fishermen or general laborers. Ah, the draftees were really quite spectacular and no one was interested in them. A shame really, as there were plenty of NPCs with high potentials in the proficiencies that I was interested in. After another twenty minutes of searching, my selections had all been made and the waiting game would now begin.

The selections so far for the Non-Combatants were as follows:

[Ingri, 8.2/10 potential as a Brewer, Level 41]

[Female, 28 years of age, 9.0/10 HR, Single, Two Children, Neutral Outlook]

[Solveig, 9.3/10 potential as a Mason, Level 37]

[Female, 24 years of age, 9.3/10 HR, Single, No Children, Optimistic Outlook]

[Elsa, 9.8/10 potential as an Enchanter, Level 32]

[Female, 21 years of age, 8.6/10 HR, Single, No Children, Complacent Outlook]

[Freki, 8.9/10 potential as a Sailor, Level 44]

[Male, 31 years of age, 8.7/10 HR, Married, Four Children, Neutral Outlook]

[Eilif, 8.4/10 potential as a Sailor, Level 32]

[Male, 22 years of age, 9.6/10 HR, Single, No Children, Optimistic Outlook]

Those were the five Non-Combatants that were selected to be drafted and if chance would have it, no one else would bid on them. Elsa was already out of that picture though as she was definitely being sought after by a few others, as she had been selected five times prior to my selection. With a potential as perfect as they come, a health rating that showed she should live a relatively long and healthy life, no attached partner or children, a relatively decent perspective and personality… she was perfect.

I would risk paying up to three times the initial draft fee for her.

If each NPC cost me eight silvers and Elsa ended up going for twenty-four silver coins, I would have seventy-four silvers left over for the Combatants. With priest-types going for around twelve each on average, I could leverage the additional children as a way to get higher potentials for a bit less. Six more priests to add to the four that I already had would provide my troops with plenty of healing. Especially since every caster already knew how to heal with their dual proficiencies.

Whatever happens in the future, I’ll out heal and out last. There was no such thing as too much healing, especially if there was no cap on NPC numbers. I would love to have two healers per group if possible in the future.

Spending the required time to dig through the exhaustive list, I made my selections of the six best prospects that had a combination of talent and baggage to lower their value to the
right
amount. All of them still had generally positive personalities though.

There wouldn’t be any moody NPCs in Dragon’s Breach.

Save for Annalie, for now.

Chapter 94: Scenario-Based Training

(Wednesday, January 5th Game Day / Wednesday, May 5th Real Day)

Eight A.M. and as bright as could be on a warm snowy day.

We didn’t mind though. We actually welcomed it, for today was the day that we began our scenario-based training in earnest. Out of the picture were the hunts, construction, and general labor work that had been the main focus for the past few days and in place, we would begin the final stages of the preparation for the upcoming battle.

We were still at war with FWB despite the lack of noise coming from their side. The forums had calmed down, blogs had gone silent, and streams weren’t being uploaded or watched. Another lull before the storm, the peace and quiet was but a mask as the northern front would soon see action once again.

When preparing for war, an old adage makes mention of training in the way you would fight, so that when you did fight, you would fight the way you trained. This simple notion has been engrained into the hearts and minds of every soldier within my territory and under my leadership.

Today we would take that notion a step further.

“Are we ready Gisli?” I asked the bowyer who had doubled as a fletcher.

“Hah… one-thousand incendiary arrows as you requested,” said Gisli with a sigh of relief. “Finding enough fletching for all those arrows in the time you requested, by the Gods I don’t know how I did it.”

“You’ve done fine work, I appreciate it,” I replied with a sincere smile. “Is there anything that you need or are otherwise missing, that I might be able acquire for you?”

“Huu now that’s a question,” said Gisli with an interesting glint in his eye. “How ‘bout you fix the female ratio here, then we’ll be square. Be damned by the Gods if I have to spend another winter with three males for every female.”

“Ha, straight to the point as always Gisli,” I said with a laugh. “I’ll see what I can do. The arrows are in those bags, yeah?”

“Yes and it ain’t no laughin’ matter you hear? More women!” he shouted as I grabbed the bags of arrows and left his workshop. Heading out towards the field where the troops were stationed and waiting, my bowyer’s complaints of the male to female ratio were based in fact. The ratio was more two to one than three to one but it didn’t matter so long as the numbers weren’t even. Not quite by design but a result of choosing only the best NPCs available at the given moment, I ignored the genders completely.

It did need to be balanced out at some point, though I wasn’t really sure how to do that. Perhaps recruitment of low level, low skilled general laborers would serve the purpose but then I would have to deal with large numbers of useless NPCs.

A question without an answer for now, I would have to deal with it later.

“Alright, all hands gather around,” I said as I set the bags of arrows down on the ground and waited for the men and women to surround me. “You all have seen that arrangement out there, yeah?”

“Yes,” said a few.

“Yeah,” said a couple.

“Aye,” said a handful.

“Mhm,” mumbled some.

“Yeh,” replied one.

“Excuse me, Sir Sigurd… what are the structures for?” asked Astrid, always the first to speak her mind. “Are we to construct more buildings?”

“No, those structures are a representation of the enemy village,” I began to explain as all eyes and ears were focused on me. “An exact layout of the enemy village, every single two-log square you see there, is the approximate reconstruction of every building inside their walls, spread apart at the exact same distance as it is there. As you see it now, that
is
the enemy village, accurately represented.”

“Ah-h, so we are to learn the layout, Sir?” she asked with her typical confused expression accentuated by her bright blue eyes that made you want to hug her. She was simply too cute and charming at times.

“In short, yes you will all be learning the layout of the village,” I said calmly as I pointed at the structures.

“A-and what of the arrows, Sir Sigurd?” she asked once more.

“Patience Astrid, let me explain,” I said with a laugh as she blushed and held her tongue. “There are a number of buildings in there and as you can see one side is on the eastern bank of the river while the other is on the western bank. In the same fashion as the enemy’s village, everything except the palisade has been constructed. The wooden walls will be going up later but for now, I want you to be able to see what you’re doing.

“Those of you who have been equipped with the bow will take part in this exercise, and for the select few that have not been issued a bow, you will be positioned safely off to the side in the forest, to watch and record the efforts.”

Stopping my speech to gather my breath, a few faces were confused by my words as they seemed to believe it a waste of time. Image training for those without the bows and scenario-based training for those with, the whole point of this exercise was to familiarize them with mechanics of the upcoming raid.

They may find it pointless now but it would soon occur to them, exactly why I would go through such trouble to set this up. This was the stage for them to prepare for greatness. Flexibility in warfare was key. This was only the start.

“Your arrows are here, they will be shot as is for now but on the day of the raid we will be lighting each and every one of these arrows on fire,” I explained seriously. “I want you to hit the first target on the left, and only that target for now. Those without bows, extend a line of rough equal distance through the forest so as to relay information.

“I want to know if an arrow is short, long, or to the side. They will be firing one at a time at the first target, until they all hit it. Then we will move to the second nearest target, directly to our right and so on and so forth until every target has been hit. From the left to the right, then one structure back and repeat.”

Motioning at them to start, dozens of confused faces looked at me as if I were crazy but none bothered to argue. Signaling them to get into a firing line, they each began firing their arrows one at a time, with individual feedback being given after every shot. This continued for the rest of the day, while I watched in silence.

This plan of mine was a secret to all but myself.

During the second raid, my actions might have seemed peculiar seeing how I focused on the psychological aspect of the raid than the more opportune possibility of maximum physical destruction. Many likely thought it odd that I would waste such an opportunity. The truth of course, was that my entire victory parade had ulterior motives from the start.

My slow wave as I turned and faced the crowd, the entire population within FWB’s village’s walls, was only half psychological in nature. The basis for the wave was the recordings of my gameplay, stored inside the five-hundred terabytes of drive space connected to The Cube.

Those gameplay recordings were available to be viewed by me at any point in time and had been continuously recording since the very first day of the Alpha stage of the game. There were thousands of hours of gameplay footage stored within those drives, though most of it was benign and useless.

Of course, the footage from the victory parade was far from useless. That footage was downright special. It was a virtual map of the enemy’s territory recreated from the inside-out. A virtual map that allowed me to create a physical tactical map and more. The war room was inside my head but the plans had been laid down.

There were twenty-three Player or NPC homes and four industry-related buildings all spaced out at approximate distances from the river in every direction. Scouring over the recordings, the hard data that was in front of me afforded and allowed me the chance to use a special tool of war.

The ability to train for scenarios.

Scenario-based training was now in full-effect. Outside of Dragon’s Breach where the troops now practiced, the fruit of my labor and ingenuity was already in use. A perfect rendition of the village we planned to attack, save for the actual recreation of the buildings themselves. A replica village at the outskirts, some three-hundred plus yards away.

The plan was a simple one.

Twenty-seven targets needed to be hit from a distance and were not visible from the outside due to the height of the perimeter walls. Yet with practiced precision and muscle memory taking over, the opportunity to hit those targets existed. The ability to lay siege on a blind target while firing off in the distance as practiced.

Those buildings weren’t fire-proofed and they lacked the defensive structures to repel a ranged attack. Their only defense was to shelter inside and wait or to sortie and meet us on the battlefield. Either one would prove disastrous for them but I preferred the former.

I wanted them to sit inside and wait.

Wait, as their entire village burned to the ground, each and every building. I didn’t want to have a single casualty on our side but I wanted one resounding victory that would completely crush their hopes and dreams. To destroy any lingering thought that they could stand a chance if they only resisted and persisted.

The doubt that was harbored in the back of their minds had been entrenched by the second raid and the camping in the forests after. Now it was time to finish them off for good. Though there was one tower that stood outside of the village. Standing as the lone watch tower to serve as the eyes of the people inside, that tower would be left for me.

I would silence that tower with ease.

And if they sat inside their village and waited, everything they held dear would be lost and consumed by the fire.

But if they decided to challenge us and meet us on the field of battle, the units accompanying me would retreat to the safety of the trees and engage in skirmishes as I would meet the charge alone.

The second troop would remain inside the second ship, hidden out of sight until the enemy revealed itself. At that moment when the enemy overextends, the ship would move forward and cut them off from the rear, while continuing to fire from range.

The second unit was for redundancy and was not needed for the plan to succeed but they would be there in case it didn’t. The reality of war was that the practiced and experienced were often the victors when technology and ability were evenly matched. Even if they had the numerical advantage in terms of bodies, we had experience on our side. We were seasoned combatants now.

We were trained soldiers.

Yeah, I had an army at my side while they were individuals with egos and goals. We fought as one, as a group, a unified front. They fought as amateurs with no coordination or even a semblance of unit cohesion. I would beat them on every front.

Mentally, physically, emotionally, economically… the list could go on.

“Sir Sigurd, first target has been successfully hit by all bowmen,” relayed Astrid as she was the closest NPC off to the side. “Do you wish for us to move on to the second?”

“No, repeat the first one more time, then move to the second,” I explained quickly. “Every time they complete a target, have them start over before continuing to the next. That means first target success, repeat, second target trial. On second target success, repeat first through second, then third target trial. So on and so on.”

“Sir we’ve had to move forward as the distance that the arrows can cover is quite short,” called out one of the warriors at the end of the firing line. “Do you wish for us to remain where we stand, or should we relocate?”

“Find a spot where everyone can accurately hit the target, then mark it and use that from now on,” I said loudly so they could all hear.

This type of training could take a few days but that was fine with me, as the second ship was nearly ready but not quite finished. We would have to wait for Stigr to complete his work before setting out on our voyage.

“Annalie, your proficiency with the bow is… surprising,” I mouthed out with no sound as I watched the shield-bearer struggle. She had stopped complaining since our duel in the forest and when I inspected her the next day, her Loyalty bar had moved slightly as her Trust and Affection both increased.

The thought that she trusted me more because of the events was surprising but nothing could explain why she would gain points in affection for me. That was entirely beyond my mental ability to reason. It baffled me and I didn’t even want to think about it. Beating her in a duel made her attracted to me?

That did not compute.

Our relationship was one of strangers that butted heads, that bar should be empty and I wanted it to remain empty. Ah these Gods have created the weirdest NPCs and the strangest of AIs to control them. These Gods of course… were the designers.

“Lousy game designers,” I mumbled somewhat randomly.

“Game designers?” inquired Katherine almost immediately as I nearly jumped in shock by her sudden appearance and question.

“The game we’re playing here with the arrows and the structures,” I said nonchalantly in an attempt to cover up the real meaning. “I was thinking the buildings could look more real, but my time was lacking… criticizing myself in third-person is all.”

“I see,” she replied as she watched the temporary archers practice.