The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen

by Brent Roth

  But what did it matter to me.

  Selene was dead.

  Barkley was dead.

  Twenty-three warriors were dead.

  My village didn't have a single building left.

  All I had left were these hands of mine, the gear on my back, and my fellow NPCs, livestock, a farm, and a longship. I guess that was a long list of positives, but I would have traded them all to bring Selene back.

  She… wasn't supposed to mean much.

  Yet, here I was, anguishing.

  I was more attached than I realized.

  I was angrier than I thought I would be.

  Katherine and Selene were basically my world within this world.

  That wasn't right, but that's how it worked out.

  Staring at the funeral pyres that had been set up, the twenty-five pyres were all in a single line along the mountain's walls. A small clearing, flat and with plenty of space, was going to be their resting place.

  This was a funeral, for far too many.

  The fire was lit by one of the warriors, as I stood quietly by and watched Selene's pyre start to burn. She was dressed with all of her gear, weapons, and what items survived the original cabin fire. The only thing I kept was her necklace and a ring. The necklace was for Katherine, the ring… for me.

  Keepsakes, for sentimental reasons, I guess.

  It wasn't long before her body was completely engulfed in the flames, as the pyre funneled oxygen in such a way to burn incredibly hot. There would be nothing left when it was all said and done, only the ashes of the fallen.

  The fires would burn all night, and would be tended to in the morning.

  After an hour, most of the NPCs had returned to the one building that was still serviceable. The lodge had only partially burnt down, missing a roof and parts of the second floor, but the underground section remained intact.

  The NPCs stayed there for now, as the elements weren't that bad this time of the year. Some of the NPCs stayed out in the open, preferring to camp out on the grass. Others, stayed with me and Katherine, as we sat along the mountain side and watched our friends burn.

  Friends, as I called them, even though they were only NPCs with Artificial Intelligences. They weren't even real. Selene… wasn't real. Yet, after months of time being spent with them on a daily basis, they were a part of my life.

  Now, they were no longer there.

  She was no longer around.

  And I was at fault.

  No.

  No, I wasn't at fault here.

  The ones that wronged me were Milly and her guild. They were the ones that started this. In my anger, I researched the unknown, hoping to find answers as to why they did it. Why would someone randomly attack me, all the way up north?

  I had my ideas, my suspicions.

  It was common to attack rival guilds, to eliminate competition; I knew that was the case. When Emily put the target on my back, I knew this day would come.

  But, for a guild to travel to such great lengths to attack me… that bothered me, deep down. They were a small guild, filled with a handful of Alpha and Beta testers, some that were even from my area, which I found out, after a little internet stalking turned up some pertinent information.

  Milly, was a local.

  I had probably met her once or twice at the Meetings.

  A small world, as they say.

  They were connected with other guilds, primarily filled with players of the same ilk, and had struggled in the Central Kingdoms and thus decided to try their luck in the North. That wasn't anything new, nor was it news to me.

  Their territory was actually a very small one though.

  Two-hundred miles south of Andal, down near the very border of the Northern territories, and about five miles off the coast. They were situated on a river that drained out to the ocean. It was a small river at that, one only ten feet wide and two to three feet deep. They had a few buildings and a couple of NPCs too, as they were starting to build up their infrastructure.

  They weren't powerful, not in the least.

  Their seventy or so active guild members were of average level, in the high twenties and low thirties, with a couple in the forties. By comparison, I was in mid-fifties with boosted stats from the Ultra-Realism program.

  I was basically nearing two-hundred in effective level.

  As a jack of all trades, a red mage, a hybrid… my power spike was the early mid-game and the very late-game. I was in the middle of that first power trip, where skills and proficiency came easy and having two or three from different paths let me create effective combinations beyond the normal scope.

  They didn't stand a chance alone… they didn't even hold a candle to me.

  Yet, they picked a fight.

  They had sealed their fate.

  I was coming for them… and their allies too.

  Their homes would burn, their NPCs would be slaughtered, and they will be hunted wherever they go. There is no place on this continent I can't reach, that I can't raid.

  They would pay.

  This was personal.

  This was the Viking way, after all.

  Chapter 66: Restart

  (Tuesday, September 24th Game Day / Tuesday, March 30th Real Day)

  It was a long night, and an even longer day when we finally laid the ashes of the fallen to rest. There was nothing left of Selene but dust and the two items that we had kept. There was nothing left of our pet, the loyal wolf Barkley, nor was there anything left of the warriors that gave it their all.

  Of course, none of it was real.

  But that didn't change the feeling, of it all.

  I was still angry, but a certain type of numbness had pervaded my mind.

  It was hard to care.

  A funny thing happened at the end though, a strange thing, really.

  I received a system message, after the funeral procession had completed. Details therein, explaining that, due to my honoring the customs of the past, of the land, that my Reputation had increased slightly and there was a boost to morale.

  A boost to morale it said, well, not my morale.

  There was also an accompanying boost to production, for seventy-two hours. Three days of accelerated NPCs, at my disposal. Maybe, this was the game's way of allowing players to rebuild or restart their infrastructure after large battles and during times of war. War was good for production after all, and a motivated populace with a goal did work harder. There was some historical relevance there.

  Standing on the mountain overlooking my burnt-down village, my mind was scrambling to put together ideas. I had been standing up on the ledge for nearly an hour, trying to figure out what to do.

  Going forward, the things I lacked, the areas where I was weak, those all needed to be fixed, to be improved upon. My warriors held their own, but they weren't strong enough by themselves. We were outnumbered and won, but we had the advantage behind our walls.

  We had the advantage, of me.

  Without me, it would have been a slaughter, and the likelihood of every NPC being killed or captured was high. If I was away from the village and a guild decided to attack, everything would be lost.

  My village, Dragon's Breach, needed to be upgraded.

  What I needed, was a fort.

  Maybe, even a castle.

  What worried me… was the threat of attack still lingered. The conflict had yet to be truly settled, and to my knowledge the enemy guild remained close by. Thankfully, they didn't properly prepare for the siege and had failed to set up a temporary campsite.

  After they died, they were unable to respawn in my territory, and thus were bounced to the next nearest neutral graveyard. If they had set up a campsite outside of my territory, they could have resurrected there.

  But, they didn't do that.

  So, they were bounced to the Northern Triangle which wasn't exactly neutral, seeing as I was their prime benefactor. Then they were bounced to Andal, a rough fifty to sixty mile journey southwest, only to find that Andal he
ld me in high-esteem.

  So off again, they went.

  Their souls were transported another fifteen miles to the southwest, to a coastal port town, where they were finally welcomed with imaginary, ghostly open-arms. A total of seventy-five miles away from Dragon's Breach meant if they wanted to launch another attack, it would take them at least seven hours of travel.

  Word on the net, was they weren't interested.

  In their eyes, their raid was a success.

  They crippled my force and razed the village, essentially wiping out the competition. To them, there was no reason to waste any more time beating a dead horse.

  That's all I was to them, a dead horse.

  Opening my [Land Management] tab in the [Menu], a list of tabs populated my visual field. As I sorted through them and looked at [Hostile Territories], only one name was there, [FWB], an acronym I was unfamiliar with but it didn't matter. That was the guild that had declared war, and they would remain hostile until I negotiated terms.

  There were no terms forthcoming from me, no, never.

  They would suffer, in due time.

  Closing the tab and switching to the [NPC-Recruiter], I started to browse what was currently available. Combat NPCs were a premium now, easily five times what they had previously gone for, when I recruited my forty-four.

  I was down to seventeen warriors and four priests; the ranks would need to be replenished. Ellieby had sent back a rather large sum of coins though, roughly a gold coin in total… one-hundred and two silvers, to be exact.

  That helped the situation immensely but it wasn't enough, I was still behind.

  There was a lot of work to be done.

  Work, that had to be done.

  Refocusing on the objective at hand, I glanced through the list of draftees as quickly as I could. Seeing as the majority of the combat NPCs were going for anywhere from five silvers to ten, replacing twenty-three warriors would be extremely cost-prohibitive.

  Simply put, I couldn't afford them, even if I wanted to.

  Sorting by type, I had realized that casters were incredibly important during that last battle, and were amazing in the dungeon. If I had more sense, I would have recruited mages when they were only a couple of silvers apiece.

  Another mistake, that was easily noticeable in hindsight.

  Casters with a high Potential with Frost Magic, were running at an average of eight silver coins. Fire Magic Proficiencies were nearly eleven silvers each. Holy Magic NPCs, hah, they were a bit ridiculous… I didn't even want to read it out loud.

  Nature Mages weren't that bad, but what were they, I had never seen them.

  Lightning Mages and Dark Mages, on the other hand, weren't too pricey.

  The latter three were rare types and numbered in small amounts.

  Most players didn't roll with those proficiencies anyhow, seeing how trainers were few and far between. Even now, I had yet to witness a single player use Dark Magic, and I was the only Lightning Magic user around these parts.

  These parts, I was about the only one in general, though.

  Four casters with a high Potential in the Dark Magic Proficiency, ranging from 7.2/10 up through 9.1/10 were available for three-hundred copper… that was only one silver more than standard.

  I ticked those four off, immediately.

  Six casters had a high Potential in Lightning Magic, with their respective ratings in the 7.5/10 to 8.8/10 range. At a going rate of five-hundred copper, that was fine with me. I could train them myself, with my Ancient Relic giving me complete mastery, there would be no finer trainer around.

  The Dark Mages would be somewhat useless for the time being, but I had a plan.

  Companions specialized in specific Arts, such as Katherine, could teach Holy Arts or Magic to the casters I picked up. Calling them priests out of ease, they trained from her.

  That's how the system worked.

  I needed more Companions.

  I needed a Companion that could instruct the warriors, one that could teach the mages, one that… could help the archers. Since, Selene… was no longer around for that.

  Turning my attention back to the draft, I started counting my coins.

  Forty-two silver was already accounted for, as long as no one else put in a bid on the draft picks. If a bidding war was started, the prices would soar and that was the last thing that I wanted to happen now.

  Sixty silver coins left, to fill out my village protection force.

  Archer-types, swordsmen, shield-bearers, and spearmen, all of the basic proficiency types were well accounted for. Except, they were far too expensive for me to even consider bidding on, as they all averaged well over ten silvers each.

  Warriors, again, were the cheapest of the lot.

  Axe users were vulnerable, perceived as slow and not nearly as efficient as some of the standard types. They fought hard, but they died easy.

  They died really easy.

  If I had trained them better, they might have lived.

  That was something I could work on.

  There was room for improvement there.

  Looking at the warriors that were available, those with potential ratings in the 7.0/10 or higher were running for at least eight-hundred copper. I couldn't afford more than seven of them at that price point.

  Seven didn't replace twenty-three.

  Changing the parameters, there were a lot of warriors in the 2.0/10 through the 4.5/10 range that only ran for around four-hundred copper as they were considered inferior. They tempted me with their cheap cost to acquire.

  Yeah, I would take them.

  I needed bodies.

  Selecting fourteen of the extremely slow-to-develop warriors, my only chance was to train them sufficiently, and equip them with weapons and armor that surpassed their opponents. If I couldn't get the best quality troops, I could at least get the best quality equipment and training for them.

  My blacksmiths were alive and their methods lived on.

  There was a way.

  Exiting all of the menus, there was only one thing left to do now.

  Rebuild, Dragon's Breach.

  Create a new, stronger, safer, version of the village that had existed prior. Maybe, even turn it into a town, but at the very least, I wanted a fort.

  Walking down and into the village, I found the majority of the NPCs had gathered at the one lodge that was remaining, as they stood idly about having lunch. There was nothing to do except clean debris and most of that had been taken care of.

  Now, it was time to work.

  With all eyes now staring at me, I began to tell them my plans.

  Yeah, I had plans.

  I always had plans.

  Chapter 67: Overseer

  (Thursday, September 30th Game Day / Thursday, April 1st Real Day)

  Watching over the crowds of NPCs as they ran about like worker ants did little to appease my persistent bad mood, as the numbness that had taken over my mind had slowly drifted away… only to be replaced with a steady buildup of anger and regret.

  My emotions were complicated, as anyone's should be.

  Katherine had yet to leave my side in the past three days, continuing to mourn for Selene in her own way. She reminded me of an abandoned puppy clinging to a newfound owner. I didn't mind it though.

  I wasn't that much of an ass.

  Even computer programming disguised as a female with the name of Katherine, had emotions in this strange game. Whether they were real emotions or not, whether she could actually feel anything, wasn't for me to decide or question… she was sad, upset, depressed, and I was the one that she turned to.

  Walking around the grounds with Katherine in tow, all of the schematics had been laid down, traced out, and explained to the NPCs now at work.

  The lodge had been rebuilt first and foremost, as it was the quickest of the projects being carried out. It looked much the same, as it did the first time around. The only difference now, was a dirt wall had been packed along the sides, exposing only a t
iny amount of wood at the edge of the roof.

  The palisade from before was largely repairable as well, though I had it torn down and rebuilt entirely from the ground up. A twelve foot wall replaced it, with a rampart eight feet tall sitting directly behind. Gates, crude ones for now, were nearly complete as a deep trench was being dug around the perimeter.

  A moat, at least six feet deep and equally wide with channels cutting through the soon-to-be town to provide ease of access to fresh water at all times was going to be a key part. If time permits, a small draw bridge would be constructed, but for now, logs would serve as a temporary bridge to be rolled over in case of an attack.

  Four towers inside the village were also taking shape, large enough to house a small contingent of warriors at all times. The towers would be their barracks, at least on the first floor, while the second floor would provide visibility and a position to safely attack from. Arrowslits would be a must, along with various slanted windows that would allow them a wide firing arc with near impunity.

  A fifth tower would sit at the top of the mountain wall, at the breach that ended precipitously at the mouth of the river. That would be the primary tower, as well as the lighthouse when the time came.

  Critical infrastructure buildings would be taken care of afterwards, the blacksmith and shipyard the two most important on my list. The livestock would graze where the forest once was, for there was no forest around my village anymore.

  The chance of someone concealing their presence amongst the trees bothered me.

  Plus, I needed the lumber.

  The trees would grow back, but a three-hundred yard radius would be kept clear.

  I didn't need to take any more chances, going forward.

  A watch tower would be setup along the river, on the other side near the farm.

  That was a necessity, as the farm sat by its lonesome on the other side of the bank, unable to be defended in the case of an attack. Luckily, the attackers didn't bother with swimming across the river, in order to burn it down.

  Eventually, walls would be erected there too.

  Once the basic fortifications were done I would turn my attention to the communal buildings. These were going to be almost entirely underground, two stories underground with a third above. The lodge that had been rebuilt would be the last of its kind. Dugouts were still a preference, but I wanted more flexibility and larger structures.