The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen (27 page)

Chapter 58: Establishing a Trade Route

(Thursday, August 12th Game Day / Tuesday, March 16th Real Day)

Ten hours had passed since we first set out on our voyage, eight hours of which I spent offline eating and sleeping. This wasn't quite fast-travel, what with it taking so many hours to cover the two-hundred or so miles, but it was automated travel.

As a consolation prize, that wasn't half bad.

It sure as hell beat pulling a sled for a week.

And finally, our destination was in sight.

The winds that blew east never let up the entire trip, so the men were well rested as we took in the sights along the way. The Elven Northeastern Region was a bit different from the North we called home.

Sailing southward up a series of small rivers, the climate was considerably warmer than the western side of the continent. We were at the very tip of this continent after all. The western region was our home, with the middle occupied by an undisclosed, undiscovered region, while the eastern edge had been settled by the elves.

The trees themselves, mostly Oaks of a rather frighteningly large stature, seemed as if they were alive with their branches spreading out and hovering about like tentacles in the air. The green foliage of their massive tops created complete dark zones underneath as the sunlight was hard-pressed to sneak through.

Easily twenty feet across the base and who-knows how tall in height, the trees were exceptionally large. Beautiful, yet scary at the same time. To be lost in these woods in the dead of night was not on my list of things to do.

There were, however, plenty of creatures.

As we passed rather quietly up the river, countless deer and elk were spotted grazing along the forest floor. A few uncharacteristic hoots from an owl seemed out of place in the middle of the day, but it kind of fit with the surroundings. Smaller creatures were abound as well, foxes and rabbits a staple, though the appearance of a weasel, a red squirrel, and a couple of beavers added some variety to the scenery.

This definitely wasn't the North.

I still disagreed with it being called a
wasteland
but, there was some truth to the term. We lacked diversity in relation to our animal population, at least compared to the other regions. Though, we also had the most diversity in terms of fish and sea life on the continent, so it all evened out in the end.

If anything, I was now convinced that fishing very well might be my meal ticket. Fresh seafood, if it was as realistic as the rest of the game, would be a delicacy that players could splurge on. Having some control over that market, maybe even running the export industry… hah, the possibilities were endless.

"Sigurd, a campsite is within distance," interrupted Eindride.

"Ah, it is as you say," I replied as I turned my attention to the small village that was probably more aptly termed a campsite. Ellieby's guild site, the land they had laid claim to and were slowly developing for fun. It… wasn't quite as impressive as I was hoping.

"We'll beach as closely as possible," I instructed as I grabbed an oar and began to aid in the steering. With twelve able-bodies, the ship was easy to control and navigate with as we came upon the campsite.

Slowing the ship down to barely a crawl, we landed on the beach with hardly a thud.

Hopping over the side and into the shallow water below, the river didn't even wet my knees. As I stood in maybe a foot of water, a few onlookers from the guild had come over to greet us.

Only, half of them turned away and walked off once they saw who I was.

That silly hunter and priest, they weren't too friendly with me.

"Sigurd, you made it!" yelled out Ellieby as she gingerly waved.

It was a bit odd, the enthusiastic greeting with the cautious wave, but I figured that had to do with her guild mates being apprehensive with my visit.

After all, I did just beach a sixty foot boat right up on their camp with a few NPC warriors in tow. If I was a hostile enemy, they would have been dead before they even knew it. I could have raided their little village and been on my way in the time it took to snap my fingers. That gave me some ideas, ones I would keep in the back of mind.

For future reference, was all.

Nothing nefarious.

"Ellieby, good to see you're doing well," I replied, returning the greeting with a light wave of my own. "Upgraded your gear too, I see."

"Yeah guy, I've been busy!" she said while beaming with pride, hands at her hips and chin held high. Without breaking a sweat, her face quickly changed to a curious expression as she threw her arms out. "So? What do you think? Its great isn't it?"

"Huh?" I asked, a bit lost.

"Oh you ass, you know what I'm talking about!"

"Ah, yes, cute location, great place," I replied with a mocking tone.

"Ahhh! Don't use my words against me!" she laughed out, not taking my words to heart. She often teased me, so I felt it was fair game to play with my words, too.

"Soooo… what the hell is this," she asked while pointing at the longship behind me.

"My little boat," I replied with a blank expression. "I thought I said I would visit with a small boat… did I tell someone else? Ah, my memory is sketchy."

"Psh, small boat huh, cocky asshole," she retorted with a grin.

The banter continued on for a little while, as we poked fun at each other while my crew unloaded the ship. After nearly thirty minutes, four massive piles of white rabbit, fox, wolf, and bear furs had formed roughly ten feet from the shoreline.

"Uhm, that's a lot, you know," said Ellieby with some hesitation in her voice.

"I think my exact words were-" I started to reply while trailing off a bit, trying to recall exactly what was said. "I'll be bringing a lot of goods, yeah, that was it."

"Whatever, that's got to be at least… how many are there?"

"Twenty-one bear furs, one-hundred and thirty-nine wolves, two-hundred and eleven foxes, and eight-hundred and two, rabbits," I listed off with nonchalance.

"Uh, I'm not that rich," she immediately shot back. "Are you crazy?"

"That's what bartering is for my dear," I replied with a wink. "I'm not expecting a straight cash sale here. There are goods in this area that I can't get on the other side." 

She started waving her hands in the air, no doubt using the in-game calculator to run the numbers. Going by our pre-established rate, there was a minimum of fifty-four copper per wolf pelt, eight copper per fox, and three copper per rabbit.

That was around, at least eleven-thousand and six-hundred copper coins, or one-hundred and sixteen silvers, or if one wanted to get fancy, one gold coin and sixteen silvers. I'm not sure if anyone had actually seen a gold coin yet, so silver was the largest denominator in terms of currency at the moment.

Of course, I didn't factor in the price of the bear skins, since I didn't have an established value for those, yet. Either way, I was going to be a rich man once all of these goods were sold.

"I, don't even have enough in value if I traded you everything I own… how did you farm so much, and a personal boat? NPCs that follow you? Are those Companions?" she rambled off as she shook her head, completely confused by the situation at hand.

"No, never mind, I don't even, yeah," she continued to ramble nonsensically.

"If it would ease your mind, this doesn't all belong to me," I answered somewhat seriously as I gave her some time and space to let everything sink in. "We're a collective, a large part of the proceeds here will go back to the NPCs' pockets, as they did the work, they deserve their rightful pay."

Stopping short of explaining everything, I looked over the small village and realized that it was in somewhat poor condition. They weren't a big guild at all, fairly casual really. They had a few shacks set up and they were working on some cabins, but even so, the state of their village was quite, unappealing.

Ellieby was a small time trader.

Perhaps, I made a mistake.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can even take a quarter of this," she finally stated apologetically as her face gave off the look of a downtrodden individual.

Those were not the words that I wanted to hear.

Panic nearly struck my mind as I realized our deal could fall through at any moment. To travel this far out, all for naught, that… couldn't happen.

"Theoretically speaking here, how long would it take you to sell these, if they were in your possession?" I asked honestly, wanting to find a middle ground that could rectify the situation. She was always playful in her messages and probably thought I was kidding around half the time, when I was only masking the seriousness with humor.

She was a nice girl, and I felt she was a trustworthy individual since the first time we met in town, when she stopped me by standing in front of me, while waving a hand in my face. When she bought every pelt I had, I was under the impression that she was a fairly successful trader.

That was my mistake.

"Um, honestly, I think it would take me a few weeks, real time," she answered.

The gears in my mind were starting to move, even if they were rusty and chipped, the cogs still worked. It was slow and not always accurate, but my mind did work.

I could plan with the best of them.

Yeah, strategy, business savvy, that was an inherent gift.

"Alright, humor me if you will; is this a campsite or a named village?" I asked.

"It's still a campsite… why?"

"Well, that's troublesome," I said while rubbing my chin. "Okay, here's my proposal, if you're interested. I'm going to leave these pelts with you, and give you a list of items I need if you happen to come across them… and in another month real-time, I'll come back with another shipment.

"At that point, you can pay me for the first shipment, assuming you've sold enough to cover the basic cost, and if you're interested in continuing we can work out the second one. We can discuss that as time goes on though, but I believe you can probably sell these without too much difficultly in the larger cities."

Having laid out my tentative plan for her, the next part was the tricky one.

I brought the trade master along because he would earn experience from conducting trades. If they had a trade master as well, then we could even enter into formal contracts between villages. Establishing a trade route was one of my main goals for this trip, and at the least I was hoping to sell off these furs and pick up a few items.

As of right now, I had struck out in every category.

Ellieby's face contorted a bit as she struggled to make up her mind, which wasn't of much relief to me, having already traveled here and expended the time and resources to make it all happen.

It was a little disappointing, but the onus was on me.

I should have clarified everything beforehand.

A beginner mistake and I wasn't a beginner… stupid of me.

"Ahhh but, okay, that does work for me, but," she replied with broken thoughts as she continued to struggle with the heavy proposal. "Are you really willing to risk, leaving this much stuff, here in my hands with nothing but a verbal agreement?"

"It wouldn't bother me that much, no," I answered honestly.

"Oh man, guy, why are you doing this to me," she let out with a laugh and a sigh. "Well look, I don't really feel comfortable just taking everything for nothing… that's a heavy burden. I can't promise you that I'll even be able to sell it all."

Ah, my opportunity has arrived.

"Fair points, so what if we had a contract?" I countered with a restrained smile, as I tried to hide my enthusiasm. "Lax terms, sell at your leisure but we could have a trade route established between our villages, the NPCs could take care of the rest. As of right now, you would be the sole purveyor of Northern goods, you know."

I wasn't being disingenuous, but I was a little happy at the thought of recovering from a bad situation and turning it into a rather successful endeavor. For now though, I didn't want to appear too happy, less she mistook that, as me taking advantage of her.

"I would have to see the terms, but I would be more comfortable with a contract," she stated with some seriousness, her confidence seemingly having returned.

"Yup, we can lay it all out in the open, take a day to sit on it," I followed up. "As far as my interests are concerned, I make slightly more money this way and get access to new goods without having to personally travel through the Northeast. The profit margin should be fairly agreeable for you as well, I think?"

"Oh, Sigurd, you already know your pricing is more than reasonable, you ass," she retorted with a sad smile as she crossed her arms underneath her chest. "Just, when you said a big shipment, you could have explained what big was… that shit is relative you know? Giving a girl a stroke here, making me worry over this."

After a few more minutes had gone by, I changed the subject slightly while my crew of NPCs decided to explore the local territory. Ellieby and I ended up relaxing against a tree as we continued to go over some smaller details.