The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen (13 page)

Fan favorite huh, well… I wasn't a fan.

Chapter 49: An Ox to Grind

(Friday, June 18th Game Day / Friday, February 26th Real Day)

"We all done here for the day?" I asked the party, after we had finished the last trash group on the fifth floor. "I think I'm going to head out to a neighboring town, check it out, kind of need the change in scenery."

"Yeh, I'm good," replied Barik with a shrug.

The others nodded as they collected their loot, content with what we had accomplished. Once everyone had finished gathering their belongings it wasn't more than a few minutes before the party was disbanded, with everyone heading their separate ways. We had been repeating the grind for a few days now and I was already level forty-four, with the others nearing level fifty. Unfortunately, the reality was that the levels didn't mean too much, like we had thought.

The fights didn't automatically get easier with a new level, but with the increase in our proficiencies and new skills, there had been some marked improvement. I was able to find a skill trainer in town and picked up [Shield Bash], and was working my way towards [Call to Challenge] next. I was also able to learn [Heavy Swing] and [Leg Sweep] with my two-handed axe proficiency, which had stagnated slightly since I started using a one-handed axe. All in all, they were nice additions.

Though, the major proficiency I was still working on and was really waiting for, was my fourth tier lightning spell, [Discharge]. It was a one-second cast Area of Effect spell that originated from the body of the caster, sending an explosive wave of discharged electricity out in a small radius. Seeing as it went out in every direction, it was basically a fool-proof way to knockback a melee unit no matter the angle of attack.

That… and there was also my special lightning spell, the unique one that came with my Artifact, [Flash Step]. [Flash Step] was usable once I reached the fourth tier of lightning magic proficiency and it was a somewhat broken ability.

It allowed the user to travel with a bolt of lightning a short distance in any direction, regardless if it was up into the air or from tree to tree, and then rematerializing at the end point. Basically, it was a short-ranged teleport that made me temporarily immune.

In itself, it was a broken ability.

I wouldn't be showing that to the world yet though… that was a secret to be kept closely guarded until I needed to use it. A spell like that would draw unnecessary attention to me, and I didn't really care for that.

Standing outside of the dungeon entrance, half of the crowd that had gathered before the portal were wearing masks of some sort and I quietly grinned under my own with no one the wiser. Over the past few days, my masks had become suddenly popular as more and more people had ventured down to the second floor. Some even made it to the third floor and with their help, money was slowly trickling into my pockets.

When I first arrived to this town, I was basically broke.

After trading the furs I had brought, along with a few dungeon grinds, I was up to a handful of silver. Turning those coins into masks, I was able to turn a near fifty-percent profit that added up to roughly twenty silver one week later.

The swords I invested in turned out to be a waste, as they weren't appraised for much more than I paid, at eighty-two copper for one and sixty-six for the other. But, it didn't matter too much since I was dealing with a neutral party.

Once I returned to Dragon's Breach they would use the raw materials in a way that would benefit me doubly.

Well, after one week since I first set out to make some money with the shop keep, I was now sitting on thirty-three silver coins with another twenty silver coins worth of goods from all of the grinding stashed away in my room. If I wanted to, I could purchase a heck of a lot of NPCs, but there was another goal at the moment.

And that goal was livestock.

The town I was at didn't have anything regarding animal husbandry except for directions to another town, one that was a good twenty miles northeast of my location off into the northern elven territory.

So, that's where I was headed now.

If I could, I would rather have recruited animals from an Animal-Recruiter but such a thing didn't exist, sadly. At least we had access to an NPC-Recruiter.

Oh well, a jog wasn't all that bad.

The small dirt path that I was running on had cut through the forest and wrapped around a small break between the mountain range that separated the elven territory from the true North. It was a fairly scenic route and surprisingly well-traveled as I ran past numerous elves heading towards the dungeon. I imagine most, if not all, of the elves came this way.

Thinking of elves… I had yet to seriously talk with Ellieby since we last traded. Opening my friend's list that was ready to burst at the seams with four whole people on it now, I barely managed my way down the exhaustive list and found Ellieby.

I didn't think I could make it, but I did.

Hooray!

A mental click and the transparent screen that appeared in front of me switched to a different view, a video call of sorts since I was incapable of typing while running.

"Hey Ellieby, how's it going?" I asked as soon as she picked up.

"Hey guy! I'm good, how are you?" she replied courteously with a faint smile. "Uh, wait, why are you bouncing? And breathing so heavily…?"

"Ah, I'm running, sorry I can disable the video function if it bothers you," I said with a laugh, masking my semi-serious proposal. "I figured a video call was better, shall we switch to voice only?"

"Hah you're so weird," she said while giggling. "It's fine, don't worry about it."

"Alrighty then, so yeah, reason I'm calling was to see if you're still in the area."

"Nope! The guild's all back at our camp, we're working to turn it into a town!" she exclaimed rather enthusiastically. "It's a lot of fun, we've got some small buildings shaping up and the spot we selected is super cute, it's a really great location!"

"Oh, you guys didn't want to stay to grind the dungeon?" I asked, perplexed.

"Hmm? No not really, my guild members didn't have a good experience," she said with a suspicious grin. "I heard they had a tank they disagreed with."

"Haha… is that so, well that's too bad," I said, fully aware of what she was hinting at.

"Yeah, she said the tank was an elitist asshole that kept trying to push the pace," she went on. "Something about how he wanted to dictate how everything was being run, she said he was cocky and a jerk."

"Mm… sounds like a wonderful guy!" I said with a laugh.

"You wouldn't know him, would you?" she teased with that grin of hers proudly displayed for all to see. "Strangely, his description kind of matches you."

"Hmm maybe, I'm not saying," I said with a wink and a smirk.

"Psh whatever with the secrets, they were talking about you nonstop in guild chat!"

"Hah, well, I can't help it if that's how they see it," I replied nonchalantly. "Anyways, do you think you'll be ready for a fairly large shipment in a few weeks' time?"

"Ohhhh we're not done with the previous conversation!" she stated eagerly.

"I'll have… an interesting mixture of items, if it strikes your fancy."

"No! We're talking about you being an asshole, you can't escape!"

"I'll hit you up in a few weeks then, I'll be bringing a lot of goods!"

Exiting the video call with my patented half-assed salute and a grin, I continued to run towards my destination. It seems, that hunter and priest really didn't like me, but I figured that from their silence after I took over. The rogue seemed to like me though, I'm guessing that's why Ellieby was trying to tease me.

Didn't really matter to me though.

If I rubbed people the wrong way that was unfortunate.

I wasn't going to be bothered by it. My intentions were good, and there was nothing malicious about it, if I am to be misunderstood… so be it.

Halfway through my marathon sprint I caught sight of a strange animal off in the distance, slightly past the trees and hiding behind a bush. The only thing that gave it away was the shimmer of light as it passed between the sun and the open leaves. It was only a split-second but it was a disturbance that made my eyes dart to the left and as I continued to stare at the spot, it moved again.

I couldn't tell what it was from where I stood on the road, but I drew my bow just in-case. If a creature happened to cross my field of vision, I would stop to hunt it… unlucky for it, lucky for me. Slowing my pace to a stalk, I slowly moved forth to get a better angle on the creature hiding behind the bush.

The creature came into view and quickly raised its head as it spotted me.

Freezing in place for a moment it hesitated to make a move.

It was… a house cat.

No, that wasn't right, it was too large to be a house cat. It was definitely a feline of some sort except it was the size of a medium dog. The cat had a long fluffy coat of hair that formed what appeared to be a beard, what with its white neck contrasting with the mixture of brown, gray, and black colors covering the rest of its body.

It was a fairly cute cat, but so large in stature that I hesitated to call it such.

Yeah, it was a good-looking cat, perhaps a lynx or something of the sort.

Drawing my bow, the cat stared at me while I made my motions. It simply watched my actions and made no effort to move, despite the fact that it struck me as fairly intelligent. Those eyes weren't empty… they had purpose.

I couldn't decide, whether to shoot the cat or not.

The thought of shooting the cat for its fur jotted my memory; I recalled how certain wild animals could be domesticated, and this one fit the bill. There were numerous creatures in this game and some were considered livestock, while others could be construed as pets.

This cat, could definitely be a pet.

I decided to follow it, putting my bow away as it scurried off into the forest. I had never traveled to this part of the continent, nor had I ever been to any of the elven lands a bit further north. The entire area was unfamiliar and unknown to me, yet that only spurred me on. I wanted to explore, to learn the lay of the land and to hopefully discover something new.

Maybe, I would even find something rare, at least that's what I hoped.

The cat suddenly burst into a sprint as I gave chase, running through the forest with my eyes barely able to track the swift and nimble movements of the large cat. As it dashed between trees and turned with deft, agile precision, I eventually lost sight of the creature as I stopped to catch my breath.

"Damn, too fast," I said with a sudden audible exhale following.

If this were a real body, I would have been outrun at the start.

Thankfully this was the virtual world.

I was on par with the fastest human sprinter without the detrimental endurance issues. Here, I could sprint for quite some time, really.

I thought to myself,
what am I even doing
?

Realizing the futility of chasing a wild cat without a purpose, I started to wonder what exactly I was trying to accomplish. A part of me thought it would be fun to chase after the animal, that maybe it would lead me somewhere, yet so far... I was lost in the middle of the woods. Looking up at the sky, the setting sun at least gave me an indication of direction for now. Once the sun had set though, I would be in a bit of trouble. Sure, there were constellations and stars that I could use as markers but I was hardly knowledgeable enough to recognize the right ones, or how to even use them.

Before I could decide if I wanted to turn around or continue to follow the cat, a loud screech pierced the air, a sound I had heard before. Steadying myself, I swiftly increased my pace to a quiet jog as I struggled to hear noises far off in the distance. The sounds were familiar to me, a low growl, and a higher pitched roar of sorts.

The kind of noise a cat makes when it's about to die.

A last ditch effort to attempt to scare off a predator… one I had heard a few times before. The low growl could be heard, muffled, as the loud hissing and screeching had ceased. I was familiar with that growl as well, all too familiar really.

Increasing my pace, I ran towards the direction I had last heard noises coming from and as I turned the corner around the last tree that was obstructing my view, a wolf, bleeding across its face could be seen with a large cat collapsed before it.

"Arc lightning," I said softly as I outstretched my right arm and connected the tether between us. In an instant, the channeled electricity poured into the wolf and it violently shook in an attempt to break free. It was no use. In a matter of seconds, the beast collapsed to the ground next to the cat, sharing its fate.

The scene was a strange one, the cat should have been able to climb to safety. It looked powerfully built, with a larger than normal frame, thick paws, and a very muscular stature. There was little reason for it to die on the ground with all these trees around. Something didn't quite add up, especially its position.

It looked, as if it were guarding something.

Well, I couldn't see anything in the surroundings.