The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen (6 page)

It was an invisible thing, but the NPCs automatically registered it.

I was a man of importance, according to my Reputation stat.

"What are you suggesting?" he asked, clearly curious but dubious as to what I could offer. He just didn't trust a stranger completely, for which I couldn't blame him.

"I have… a segment of the market that I think you can corner," I started to explain as I brought my hand to my chin and began to scratch. "Most of the beginner adventurers here have yet to reach the lower levels of the abandoned mining complex that was recently opened, but once they do, they'll be quick to find their equipment lacking. They'll be wanting a mask, like this bandana here."

"And… so, you're saying, if I just wait, my sales will start to increase?" he asked while looking doubtful. He didn't quite believe me, but that was alright.

I obviously needed to explain in more detail, so even he could see the light.

"That might happen, but you can be proactive here," I continued. "Rearrange the store slightly, so that the bandanas, scarves, and shawls are at the front, interspersed with your more expensive specialty items. Either raise the price on the little items slightly, while advertising them specifically for the dungeon, or toss one in free with a purchase of a more profitable, costlier item."

"How does that help me sell more," he replied with a smirk.

"Simple, these adventurers aren't going to be buying the clothes you have laid out here at the front, they aren't useful to us at this point," I said seriously with no hesitation. "Most of us don't need these luxury items, and most of us can't afford it anyhow. Those masks are cheap and would be quite handy for anyone going into the mines. Start advertising what they can be used for and I'm willing to bet you will see an increase in sales."

I stood my ground after laying everything out there for the man to mull it over, as I was positive that there was a market for those goods. I could put up with a lot of things, and considered myself an extremely patient and tolerant person. Especially when it came to issues of pain and discomfort. Yet the fact that I was getting annoyed and tired of breathing in the smoke and the burning of my eyes and nostrils had me convinced that there were other players thinking the exact same thing.

If he didn't want to believe me, I was tempted to buy him out and open my own stall in front of the dungeon. I was going to make money off this theory of mine, one way or another. When a chance to make large sums of quick money stares you in the face, it behooves you to grab it and hold on tightly until the market dries up. Nothing lasts forever, but you may just make a small fortune in between.

I didn't care if it was a short ride, so long as I made some profit.

I considered it a crime to throw away an opportunity.

The man seemed to be stuck on what I had said, and couldn't quite make up his mind. I didn't blame him, and was actually surprised he wasn't angry with me for making such a blatant suggestion.

Usually, I would be more subtle and goad the person into seeing things my way less they be offended, but here… I didn't feel like wasting the time.

Part of paying full price for the bandana instead of bartering was my way of breaking the ice as well, getting on the good side of the clerk. It wasn't quite that malicious though, just friendly business practice.

I considered it more, standard etiquette, I guess you could say.

It usually worked, and the man was quite receptive once he had some money in his hands. Now he was showing me around the store, listening to suggestions, and perhaps, even willing to work with me.

A return customer to a privately-ran store could expect some reasonable discounts, if the customer is friendly and sociable enough. That, or purchase enough goods to bring the profit margin down a little, as bulk transactions that move a lot of inventory are often seen as a plus. Especially if its old inventory that has been sitting for a while.

"Ah I don't know," he finally stammered after quite some time.

"Well, how about this then," I said, having decided on suggesting an alternate plan that required a little investment from me. "Sell me all of your bandanas, scarves, and shawls at your standard price, and then let me run a stall right in front of your store."

"What?!" he quickly yelped. "How could I do that, that's direct competition!"

"Right, hear me out," I replied calmly. "You run the stall, after I've paid for all of the items, and sell them at fifteen copper, I'll give you a cut of one copper per. Try it for a day or two, if it doesn't do anything, I'll pay you ten copper per day for the hassle."

It was a reasonable offer, seeing as most NPCs could get by on a couple copper a day. A single rabbit was plenty of meat for one person to feed themselves, so ten copper was quite a sizeable daily-wage. I figured the bandana I purchased for ten was at least eight copper in manufacturing costs, so that left two copper profit for the man selling it. After sitting on them for who knows how long, the profit wasn't that great.

"Wait, so you're going to buy all of my items, then ask me to resell it?" he asked, slightly angry. "Do you realize what you're asking of me?"

"I do, but it's because you don't trust my marketing sense," I said plainly. "I'll buy all of those items, and instead of sitting behind the door inside the store, you can move and sit in front of the door, outside. You're making profit on what… at least a hundred items? And you're free to get customers to come inside to buy other goods, and I'll also pay you for every item sold. I'm trusting you with the coin purse at the end of the day."

"This is insane, you're insane," he stated, bewildered.

Pulling out my coin pouch, I eyed the seven silver plus some loose copper coins that were inside. I could afford at least seventy of his items, but if I needed more money I could sell some of the loot from the dungeon. Nodding my head after I had convinced myself to take the gamble, I placed the open pouch in the man's hands.

"I'll take as many items as that pouch can satisfy," I followed up. "And if you've still got more items left over, I'll come back with more coin."

The man greedily eyed the silver and copper as he hesitated to turn me away.

He didn't believe in my idea, nor did he trust me to come through with my plan but money meant more than words. Hard money moved men while words simply swayed them. That was something every business man or woman knew, as fact.

"Do we have a deal?" I asked succinctly.

"Uh-h, yeah, sure, why not?" he replied with uncertainty. "You'll pay me ten copper when this fails, right? No returns on these goods either, got it?"

"Yeah, that's fine," I said while nodding.

I was positive I would turn a profit here, and if I didn’t… well, the residents of Dragon's Breach were all going to receive a nice new gift for the upcoming winter.

I didn't believe in a losing situation.

Chapter 45: Pugs

(Saturday, May 29th Game Day / Friday, February 19th Real Day)

I found myself standing in front of the dungeon entrance once more, checking out the groups of players assembled just a few feet from the portal. They wore gear similar to mine, leather and furs with some light cloth here and there, with an assortment of weapons from spears, bows, to staves. It was just another typical scene of mismatched riffraff standing around waiting for something to happen.

Well, I wasn't much better.

Two of the three groups were already full going by body count, so I made my way towards the only one left that appeared to have four members lined up. There was a good chance I could fill whatever void they were missing, so long as they didn't need a healer. The only thing really bothering me was if they were experienced enough to get through the first and second floors. A first time group grinding out the first floor at a slow plod would be hard to bear… but, everyone had a first time, at some point.

There was little reason to be elitist this early in the game, anyways.

"Hey are you guys looking for a fifth?" I asked the group, directing my question at no one in particular. All four of the males turned their heads to eye my gear as I approached, while I returned the same gaze. They weren't equipped with anything special, though the archer did appear to have a decent bow slightly better than my own.

Otherwise, it was a standard group.

"Can you tank?" asked the archer bluntly.

"Yeah, I can tank."

As I said that, I pulled out my one-handed axe and rotated the shield off my back. Raising it in front of the man so he could see it clearly, I nodded at him as he turned around and started to walk away. "What floor are you guys on?" I followed up, hoping to gain some sort of information before committing.

"Let's go, I'm tired of waiting," said the archer as he looked at the healer. "Invite him, lets hurry this up. We're running out of time."

Without bothering to answer my question, the archer walked through the portal and disappeared as he was transported into the dungeon. Not more than a second later, I received an invite from the healer of the group as the other two mages continued to talk amongst themselves. I looked at the healer to see if he would respond to my query, but he simply turned around and entered the dungeon as well and then, so too did the two casters.

"Right," I muttered to myself while letting out a sigh. "Social group of kids I got here." Before accepting the invite, I looked around once more to see if another group happened to be approaching on the horizon.

To my dismay there was no such luck.

I was stuck with this pick-up group if I wanted to enter.

Oh well, have to roll the dice sometimes.

Accepting the invite, I shook my head and sighed once more before stepping forth into the cold muddiness of the portal that transported me from the pleasant outdoors to the stifling, dreary and dank interior of the mining complex.

The home of the Outcast Goblins… a joyous adventure, filled with all the rancid odors one could think of along with all the ash one could choke on.

A lovely place, this dungeon was.

The only thing better, was this lovely party of mine.

Well, maybe that was too harsh.

They were simply anti-social and lacked etiquette, which wasn't too unusual seeing as they all looked to be in their late teens to early twenties, at least as far as their character appearance went. I didn't really have much to go on but, there were trends with player behavior online and within games, to the point where it was rather predictable after a while. Yeah, as long as we could clear the first floor at a reasonable pace, I wouldn't have any real complaints.

Everyone had their moody days anyhow.

But as soon as I caught up with the party of four that had positioned just slightly out of range of the first group of goblins, the archer drew his bow and fired off a shot. Without even taking a pause to see if I was ready, or to consult or discuss group strategy, he pulled and stood there waiting for me to take aggro off of him.

This stupid son of a bitch
, I thought to myself as I hurriedly dashed in front of the group and began to cast a [Chain Lightning]. With only seconds to spare I rushed the cast and skipped the chanted verse, drastically lowering the amount of damage of the spell and in turn, lowering my ability to maintain threat in the long run.

As the five goblins continued their charge with swords waving in the air and high-pitched screams accompanying them, they were hit with my lightning and immediately went silent. Momentarily frozen in place, as if they had run into a wall, the disoriented goblins pulled themselves together as I grabbed my one-handed axe from its sling on my waist. Raising my shield and axe to meet their charge, I swung down at the first goblin in an attempt to catch it off-guard.

The swing was a miss as the reach was so much shorter than I was used to, and just as I tried to bring the axe back, a sword slash came down across my face, nearly slicing my nose in two. Reactively jerking my head back and lifting my shield in-turn, the second slash of another goblin was easily deflected.

But before I could even prepare for a counter attack, two [Fireballs] exploded in my vicinity as the first goblin took minor damage and flames licked my face. My eyebrows singed, I pulled back and attempted to turn the goblins to the side so I would be out of the firing line, yet before I could even gain position, an arrow found itself lodged into the back of my shoulder.

Wincing from the pain I grit my teeth, trying my best to contain my rage.

Ignoring the arrow, I deflected the other three goblin attacks with ease as the five had nearly surrounded me. They weren't as skilled as the latter floors and the [Minor Goblins] were almost inconsequential, so I felt confident going forward. That was until [Fireballs] started to randomly pelt different goblins every one and a half seconds.

With the unfocused attacks of the three damage dealers, threat management was proving nearly impossible for me as I had to quickly attack one goblin then rotate to the next. Switching through my targets when they looked as if they were about to be peeled off of me, I barely maintained some semblance of control.

I didn't have the Area of Effect taunt that Barik or other shield bearers had, since I was new to tanking with a shield, so I couldn't force the mobs to focus me. In order to maintain hate, I needed to deal enough damage to them to remain high on their threat priority. Switching back and forth between goblins, was not the way to do that.

And then it happened.

Another wayward arrow hit me in the ribs, and the sudden pain deep in the center of my midsection distracted me as a goblin landed a sword thrust into my thigh. Thinking that was the worst of it, I was quickly disappointed as two of the five remaining goblins took off and started to beeline towards the casters. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as the archer managed to hit one of them in the chest with an arrow, causing the goblin to chase him instead.

And that's when the fight devolved into chaos.

The archer took off running in one direction as he attempted to kite the goblin that was chasing him, shooting off arrows as rapidly as he could without concern to accuracy. Arrows were flying left and right as they bounced off the walls and stuck to my shield.

I had actually turned to face my party with my back against the wall in order to defend myself from my own party member's friendly fire.

Though to make matters worse, the other goblin chased one of the casters as he ran around in circles as well, with random instant cast flames being shot out as he scurried about. The flames flew all over as the healer was forced to run to the side and the other caster started to run to the dungeon portal, completely ceasing his attacks.

I had three goblins on me and ignored the chaotic scene in front of me as I attempted to single-handedly kill them all. No longer receiving any heals, I was essentially left to fend for myself as the rest of the group did their own thing.

Deflecting an oncoming blow, I was barely able to land a counter attack on the wrist of a goblin as its sword fell to the ground. With its hand dangling loosely by a few non-severed ligaments, the goblin shrieked in pain as its eyes bulged in shock. Ignoring it, I turned my focus to the other two goblins and bashed my shield into one, knocking it flat on its back as it flung its arms up in desperation.

Without any hesitation, I lifted my good leg and stomped down on the goblin's face and crushed it beneath my boot as a sword found itself three-inches into my right pectoral. Dropping my axe, I grabbed the goblin's forearm and pulled the creature in closer as it tried to remove its sword.

Utilizing the momentum of my yank, I swung my shield out edge-first and connected with the throat of the goblin as the impact sent a shudder through my elbow. The goblin collapsed to the floor grasping its throat, while I quickly raised the shield with both hands and used the edge to smash into its head.

Turning around, I picked up my axe and threw it into the chest of the gimp minor goblin that was still clutching its partially-severed hand. Watching it collapse to the ground before me, I didn't have any time to waste as I dropped my shield and began to gather electricity in my hands. Focusing my eyes on the goblin that was chasing the mage, I built up a chanted verse as I charted out the path the caster was taking.

He continued to run in circles, zigzagging here and there, but I only needed to lead the goblin by a quarter of a second. That was all the time and space I needed to hit a running goblin that was changing its path every other second.

Once my cast was complete, I let it fly.

Just as the goblin changed its course in relation to the mage, lightning surged and cut through the air as the bolt of raw energy traveled in a straight-line. The goblin managed another step as it was hit in the side and came crashing down into the dark damp dirt floor of the dungeon, its full sprint interrupted immediately by the paralyzing effect of the lightning.

As it lay on the floor twitching, I had already drawn my bow and placed a single-shot up through its chin, ceasing all of its movements. Now all that was left was the archer, as I turned my bow and let a few arrows loose.

And then, it was over.

Silence had returned as I looked at the group standing doe-eyed a little ways away.

One caster had been lingering by the dungeon portal entrance, ready to exit at any given moment and with nearly a full bar of mana. He didn't participate at all once the fight got hectic. He was ready to bail and simply watched the scene unfold.

The healer on the other hand only bothered to heal the archer, and still had plenty of mana while refusing to top me or the other caster off, for whatever reason.

Then there was the caster that was being chased, who had taken a few hits too, but he was largely alright. He missed almost all of his [Fire Blasts] though.

That archer, well, he was at full health thanks to his friend.

I looked down at myself only to realize my health was quite low; that I had five arrows sticking out of me and two burn spots on my body. There was an arrow in the back of my shoulder, my right rib, my neck, my lower back, and one in my right thigh. Sword wounds to my right pectoral, my left thigh, and a few minor cuts here and there.

A strange thing, seeing as the goblins didn't have bows and arrows.

In fact only one person had a bow.

I was angry at them, for being such idiots… for not waiting to consult or communicate, and for not understanding basic dungeon mechanics. They were obviously beginners, but that didn't make it easier to deal with. Not when they had bad attitudes about it.

Yeah, I was mad.

Yet, now that the fight was over, the party returned to normal and sat down, largely ignoring me as I quietly stared at them. They were clearly inexperienced and unskilled, but that wasn't what bothered me. What bothered me, was the lack of teamwork, the inherent selfishness, and the fact that they refused to communicate.

I could tolerate bad players, since not everyone was going to be great.

I could not, however, tolerate bad players who purposefully made the situation worse due to whatever menial reason they had constructed in their minds. Whatever false narrative they were using to convince themselves that what they were doing was proper, I wanted no part of it. If you couldn't even communicate, you didn't deserve to be in a party. These kinds of players pissed me off.

Yeah, I was ready to ditch this party.

But before I could do that, the players had started running their mouths. Enjoying the comedy show, I sat down and started to munch on some jerky to try and recover. My wounds would heal slowly without any healing magic, so I wouldn't get back to full strength, but I didn't need to be one-hundred percent.

"Hey kick this shitty tank, he fucking sucks," said the archer to the healer.

"I know, we always get stuck with the freaking noobs," he replied. "Ugh but we only have two hours to play, let's just carry this piece of trash."

Carry me, they say.

Hah, I couldn't help but smile and laugh at it all, while the two of them continued to insult me, standing a mere ten feet away. I had half a mind to kill them where they stood, but a few random insults weren't enough to make me mad. I was more angry with their behavior during the fight, than what they were saying afterwards.