The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen

by Brent Roth

  Wishing to distance myself from the girl, I grabbed my pack and began my trek to the east. I wanted to find new creatures, not new women. Plus, she threw me for a loop, being so trendy and alone this far north was peculiar. A girl like her was almost expected to have a flock of friends or male followers lingering nearby.

  She had that sort of air about her.

  "Ah! You aren't leaving me are you!?" she yelled as she started to hurriedly walk after me. Catching up to me, she puffed her cheeks as she looked at me, feigning some anger as she playfully hit me on the shoulder.

  "That's not fair! You said I could tag along!"

  Glancing to the side as I continued to walk, I started to grin a little.

  I felt like teasing her.

  "Oh, but I'm not heading to a town dear," I said with a fake frown.

  "Not ever?" she questioned with a pout, clearly practiced with her responses.

  "Hmm, not for a while, no," I said with a shrug. "I'm going to hunt… for at least a day, maybe two if I feel like it, then I'll consider heading to a village."

  "But I'm lost!" she exclaimed while throwing her hands up in the air like a child. "Won't you like, show little ole me the way? Take me with you; it's scary out here alone!" Pouting and pretending to be sad, she was a master at her craft. If I didn't have more attractive women waiting for me in Dragon's Breach, I might have been tempted.

  "Ah I don't know. You don't really want to head north, trust me."

  "But I do, I really do!" she stated with a playful fit. "There's a really fancy village near the mountains, and by a river, I saw a picture of it! There were tons of NPCs in there, like a hundred!"

  Eh, this girl was giving me a headache.

  And she was troubling me.

  The picture she was talking about was one and the same… the one they showed at the Alpha and Beta Meeting. The one that Emily put up for all to see… and the one that made me angry enough to stop attending.

  Where did this girl hear or see it?

  And why would she want to travel alone, a hundred some miles, to see a village.

  That made no sense at all to me.

  "Sounds like fantasy to me hun, you sure it wasn't photoshopped?" I asked with a confused expression, attempting to cause some misdirection.

  "No way, it exists, it's been verified like for real."

  "Well, even if it did exist, why would you want to head there?"

  She took a second to think as her index finger made its way toward her chin. Tapping repeatedly as if it were a bad habit, she eventually stopped and answered me with measured confidence.

  "I want to move to the North," she finally stated.

  Nodding at herself, she seemed pleased.

  "Yeah? Well, again, welcome to the North miss," I said with a slight bow.

  "Hehe, thank you thank you, I'm Milly by the way, pleasure to meet you!"

  Laughing at myself for getting caught up in her pace, I gave in.

  "Likewise, the name's Sigurd."

  Extending a hand, she took the offered handshake and returned a cheerful smile.

  "So you're going to take me, yeah?" she asked immediately while still holding onto my hand. "I won't let go until you say yes!"

  "We'll see about that, I might make my way north in a day or two."

  "That's a promise. I'll hold you to it mister!"

  Ah, this girl.

  I wasn't sure what to do with her.

  Oh well, if she tagged along for a day or two and still wanted to move North, I couldn't stop her. I would need to increase the player population anyways, if I wanted to turn my little village into a metropolis. It was a bit soon to start, since my infrastructure wasn't completely sound yet, but it couldn't hurt to start.

  The more the merrier, or so they say.

  Chapter 62: Infrastructure

  (Saturday, September 18th Game Day / Sunday, March 28th Real Day)

  An entire week of hunting out in the forest wasn't enough to deter my wild follower as she continued to tag along, logging off when I was done for the day and logging back on around the time I said I would be on. She was persistent and a bit psychotic for someone I had only recently met.

  "Hey Milly, are you ready to go?" I asked her as she was switching out of her battle attire and into her casual trendy clothes.

  "All done! Let's go!" she yelled back with that constant enthusiasm that never seemed to leave her. We were heading back to Dragon's Breach now, even though I was a bit hesitant to bring strangers with me. It was hard to delay anymore anyhow, seeing as she had been following for me almost eight real-days now.

  If she wasn't serious, she would have left by now.

  We weren't too far from the village, as I slowly circled back while hunting in order to cut down the travel time. An hour's walk was all it would take, despite the massive bag of furs on my back.

  "Hehe so we finally get to see it?" she asked with an innocent grin spread across her face. "And you said you didn't know of it, humph!"

  "I believe your words were, 'secret,'" I countered with a deadpan delivery.

  "Oh hey, no, girls can have secrets," she replied seriously. "It's not right for a guy to keep a secret like that, that's just a lie, you lying old man!"

  "What, I'm not even more than-" I cut myself short, not wanting to call her age into question. That was a cardinal rule: all girls over twenty were twenty-one as far as I was concerned. "I'm not that old, kiddo."

  "Eh eh, what were you going to say?" she teased as she leaned forward while walking, sticking her tongue out at me. "You aren't even more than, what?"

  "I'm not that much older than you, you know."

  "No way! That's a lie, again! You've got white hairs already!"

  She started dancing around me while pointing and laughing. It was a playful laugh, but there was some truth to her words. My face didn't look that old nor did my body, though my hair certainly was a bit mixed.

  Thanks, health issues.

  The physical stress had taken its toll.

  "Not all of us can be so blessed with youth such as yours," I said suavely, more sarcasm than face value. "Ah, what it is to be young, one can dream!"

  "Hey, you're not that old now," she cut in somewhat seriously.

  With a tilt of her head, she tapped her chin a few times before nodding and continuing on. Dragon's Breach was within visual range now, barely, but it was there.

  The wooden walls could be seen along the base of the mountain, with a small amount of smoke billowing from the blacksmith's hut. They were likely quite busy, which was a good sign going forward. Another fifteen minutes went by relatively quickly as we walked along the water's edge.

  The river was flowing a bit slower now than it was in the spring and early summer, and there weren't quite as many fish as before either. Though, to say the river was slow or that there was a lack of fish would be extremely misleading. I could probably throw a chain lightning into the river and watch as two dozen fish float to the surface.

  Yeah, there was no lack here.

  "Wow, so that's it," said Milly as she leaned forward slightly and stretched her hand out, placing it across her brow to help her see. It was comical, something you would see out of a cartoon, but it fit her character.

  She was a character.

  "I'm running ahead old man!" she yelled as she took off in full sprint.

  Letting her go, I decided to hail Selene to warn her.

  "Hey Selene, we've got a guest, watch her if you will, she's a strange one."

  "Oh, is that you Sigurd, this communication magic is quite awkward," replied Selene with a fairly straight tone of voice. "I'll be on the lookout, a she, you said?"

  "Yeah, she was wandering the forest, followed me home like a lost puppy."

  "I'm sure Katherine will be pleased to know you've brought home another woman," she casually admonished. "I'll let her know, as well."

  Ah, women.

  Heading over to the blacksmith's hut, I found Ansgar hard at work at the fo
rge while Enok was busy sharpening an axe with a small grinding stone. Along the wall of the small shop was an assortment of two-handed axes of varying lengths, all ready to be used at a moment's notice.

  "Pardon the intrusion fellas," I said as I knocked on the edge of the doorframe.

  Enok looked up first, and greeted me enthusiastically, "Sir Sigurd! You'll be happy to hear that we've completed all of the axes for the warriors, I'm just now adding some finishing touches, and we'll hand the rest out by mid-day."

  "That's great to hear my boy," I replied with a pat on his shoulder.

  "Ah Sigurd, this one here is an experiment, but I think you might be interested in it," stated Ansgar while continuing to face away, busy shaping the orange-glowing iron.

  Looking closer, the shape looked as if he were attempting to make a double-sided axe. More fantasy than practical, I questioned its effectiveness but the quality thus far was looking rather spectacular.

  That's when I realized he wasn't talking about the axe.

  "Ansgar, that's steel there," I pointed out, after realizing he had a steel sword lying on a table. Completely shocked by it, I quickly picked it up to examine the specifications. It was an [Experimental Eutectoid Steel Sword]… which meant, they were to a degree, successful with the crucible. It was of a [Decent Quality - Uncommon Grade] and certainly better than any pattern-welded sword that filled the market.

  All of those iron swords people were currently using were pattern-welded, with small bits of steel mixed in or even in some cases, only iron. They were weak weapons, not worth using in actual battle. What steel was there was an accident, formed from the process by an addition of carbon.

  Bloomery iron was what was used during the middle ages, as iron ore was heated with charcoal, also known as wood, in a small furnace until the slag melted off. Iron melted at around 1550-degrees Celsius while slag, trace minerals that weakened the metal, turned to liquid a little after 1100-degrees.

  It was a complex process, what with needing to introduce carbon with the iron oxide, and of an appropriate amount in order to create usable steel. Eutectoid steel was around 0.8% carbon, while if the iron absorbed more than 2.0% carbon, it would melt at the same temperature of the slag.

  If the iron did melt, it ended up as cast iron, which was, for most points, useless as a weapon. Cast iron could be shaped but it couldn't be forged, was extremely brittle, and was generally left for basic tools and items, such as nails.

  There was a lot of cast iron lying around the shop, a lot of it.

  Though what mattered, was they were able to get it down.

  This was a usable weapon, and was worth a lot of money right now.

  As a comparison, pure iron has a hardness of around one-hundred on the Vickers Pyramid Hardness scale. Eutectoid steel was around two-hundred and fifty VPH, which was a considerable improvement. Quenching the sword could triple or quadruple the hardness too, but at that point tempering was required to reduce the hardness and increase the toughness of the blade.

  The problem was that the brittleness increased with the hardness, at least with these low-level production methods. We weren't quite at real crucible steel yet, nor were we at Damascus steel, but it looked as if he had reached the very beginnings of the former.

  Oh man, was I excited.

  Next was Hypereutectoid Steel, at 1.2% to 1.6% carbon content, true Crucible Steel.

  I was giddy.

  "Ansgar, Enok, you made this with the crucible method?" I asked, unable to wait for them to finish their current work. "Can you replicate it? The process, can you repeat it?"

  "I already have," replied Ansgar with a stern voice full of confidence. "This axe here, is steel my liege. We're still experimenting with getting the amounts right but we're at a thirty-percent success rate at the moment. In time, we'll have it sorted."

  Clapping my hands together, I wanted to give the man a high-five and a hug and a bonus of beautiful women and a fine feast. They had done it, they had moved the needle. We weren't far from being so far ahead of the game that it wouldn't be a lie to call this land, the capital of advanced weaponry. Money was sure to come, trade, everything.

  Enok spoke up next, "I've modified the crucible slightly, to better fit our production methods, I think, give me a month, and I can have it working as intended."

  Hah, there was no need to curb my enthusiasm now.

  Damn, we were going to be rich.

  Good bye, fragments of bloomery steel that could only be pattern-welded onto the edges of swords and axes and spear tips and hello, relatively solid single piece steel constructions!

  "Good work men, we'll throw a feast for your accomplishments here," I bellowed proudly while patting Enok and Ansgar on the shoulders. "Damn good work."

  Letting myself out as they went back to work, I was in the best of moods.

  I wasn't sure if anything else could top the feeling at the moment.

  My spirits were soaring far above the clouds.

  "Hey guy," messaged Ellieby with rather peculiar timing.

  "Hey Ellieby!!" I replied somewhat overeagerly due to my uncontrollable happiness.

  "Uh whoa, you're excited," she followed up with a light smile as she enabled the video imaging. "I've got good news for you."

  "Yeah?" I replied succinctly.

  "We managed to sell everything ahead of schedule!" she declared almost shouting as she jumped and threw her hands up. "Turns out white furs are pretty popular, who woulda' thunk it? Me, that's who! Ahhahha!"

  Hah, what.

  I couldn't help but laugh too.

  The two of us on screen, laughing almost maniacally as others stood nearby and watched, clearly visible in the background of our video call. We didn't care though; we were both traders and had made a killing.

  We had a right to laugh!

  "Oh man, today, must be my day," I finally said after laughing to my heart's content.

  "Right?" she stated after catching her breath. "Anywho, I was able to get the items you wanted, send the next shipment when you're ready, sooner the better!"

  "Ah, let's clarify this time," I said clearly, not wanting to have any confusion this time around. "I can send about a quarter of that first shipment right now, and if you get some solid connections… I might have something special, weapon wise, in the future."

  "Wait, weapons?" she questioned.

  "Yeah, that's a secret for now, give me some time and I might surprise you."

  "Okay, well, send what you've got, and I'll send money and goods back!"

  Closing the video call, my day had surprisingly improved.

  More so than I thought was possible.

  Walking around the village, I was informed by the villagers that Milly had been running around talking to everyone. With that information in hand, I decided to turn around and head back to the blacksmith's hut.

  "Hey Ansgar, Enok, keep that sword and axe a secret for now would you, we've got outsiders here, don't want them to learn anything," I explained quietly as the two listened intently.

  A single nod from both of them sealed their agreeance.

  I went back out into the town, with happiness on my mind.

  Prepping the longship for a second voyage and picking a crew wouldn't be hard, but I didn't want to go on this trip. A waste of two days at least, sitting in a little boat.

  That wasn't exactly my idea of fun.

  A feast was necessary, yeah, that was what I wanted to focus on.

  One large feast for everyone!

  Chapter 63: A Glorious Day

  (Sunday, September 19th Game Day / Monday, March 29th Real Day)

  Lying on the river bank, I was enjoying the dream, a bright sunny day, one that seemed brighter than all the rest. With a few parted clouds in the sky to throw the right amount of shade down on us, followed by a pleasant ocean breeze that blew steadily across the river, there were no complaints from me.

  Nor were there any complaints from any of the others, currently enjoying the festivitie
s. Roasted meats of all types, plenty of seafood to tide one over, and even a few vegetables from the farm that were recently harvested.

  Live music in the form of singing and chanting as the warriors got drunk by the fireside only added to the ambiance, as Selene and Katherine enjoyed themselves with the other women. Even Milly was somewhere in there, too.

  Everyone was having a good time.

  The birds were busy chirping in a tree a little ways from me as I continued to stare at the sky, thinking about how far things had come. When I started this game, alone and cold, nearly freezing to death on many occasions, I had a goal but didn't know if or when it would come together.

  Now, hah, now all I had to do was turn my head to the side and look at my creation. All of the hard work, the countless hours spent digging, chopping, carrying, to prepare the buildings, all the days out in the forest hunting and exploring, and even the time devoted to scaling the mountain… all of it, led to this moment.

  I had accomplished what I set out to do.

  Premature celebration, perhaps, but I was on my way.

  When you've failed, and find yourself in a hole, it's not about the big successes and the end goal. It's about the small steps and realizing that every little accomplishment adds up. I still had an end goal, but I was going to realize the success that had already happened.

  Yeah, it was a good day.

  A few hours had gone by as I had fallen asleep in the sun, only to wake to a sleeping Selene on my arm. The sun was setting now and the party was long over as the reddish-purple sky began to shift into its lightshow mode. The aurora was coming next, intermixed with countless stars that seemed too bright to be real, but without the light pollution of a large city, it was nature at its finest.

  Beautiful, was one word to describe it.

  The cool, late summer breeze hit my bare skin as I stretched out and wrapped Selene up in my arms. She didn't wake up, but that was fine. Moments like these were nice in their own way.

  Watching the aurora as it floated about, pulsating and waving, a kaleidoscope of colors enthralling and entertaining. Blues, greens, purples, pinks, yellows, and reds, all the vibrant colors one could think of, all visible and ever-changing.