The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame Read Online Free PDF Page A

searching for hidden gems. Sadly there weren’t any real deals to be had and I wasn’t exactly rolling in the dough at the moment either.
    What little coin I gathered from all of the intruders couldn’t even buy one NPC at the current prices and with how hectic the raid was there wasn’t any time to loot those bodies. Plus if my NPCs killed a player then whatever coin was dropped was theirs to keep.
    Spoils of war and all.
    Exiting out of the [Menu] after I finished checking the [Player Population] tab, I was now temporarily relieved of my neurotic desire to psychotically stalk the numbers that were showcased. Player population was still at a lovely single digit of one.
    That made me happy.
    The northern territory roughly filled out a space about three-hundred to four-hundred miles in length running north to south and somewhere between fifty and a hundred miles wide east to west. When I started there were maybe five-thousand players in the North, with probably five in total within a hundred miles of my location here.
    Now things were changing though, population numbers in the North were rumored to be around ten-thousand and there were actually a handful of players coming in and out of Andal only sixty-some miles away. There were likely a few dozen players within a hundred miles nowadays… whether that was good or bad was yet to be seen.
    Twenty-some thousand square miles of land made for a minimum of two square miles per player if they all spread out equally though. That wasn’t terribly crowded by any stretch of the imagination and thanks in large part to the actual crowding around the southern border by the Central Kingdoms, this far north it was closer to fifty square miles of space per player. I really couldn’t complain about space and privacy.
    Ah well, the game was still new. Hardly more than a few months old so it was to be expected. Change would be coming. I’ve enjoyed my peace and though things were moving quicker than expected, I wasn’t entirely unready for what’s to come.
    Well… maybe I should amend that.
    I wasn’t ready the last time and though I did enjoy the peace while it lasted, I can’t pretend that I’m not still bothered by what had transpired. Seventeen days real time since Selene died and it still ate at me deep down. All the self-distractions and pep talks could only disguise and misdirect my feelings on the matter for so long.
    The denial part of the process was pretty much skipped instantly. I wasn’t fool enough to deny the truth before my eyes. Anger was stage one right from the get go… and as far as bargaining? Hah, there would be no bargaining. I guess that put me in the depression part of the model. Acceptance was next, supposedly.
    Yeah, I think I preferred the angry portion of the stages.
    Selene wasn’t even real anyways.
    “Allllll righty then,” I said loudly while snapping my fingers and sticking my tongue out to try and get my mind back on track. “Let’s get this started, shall we?”
    Of course, I was still talking to myself.
    None of that mattered though. Off to the side I could clearly see a few idle warriors standing around chatting about who knows what.
    They would be recruited for the cause.
    Waltzing towards their location, a simple wave got their attention as they met me halfway. A short and quick discussion followed and was all it took for them to move out and find their brethren that were left inside the village walls. One party was always out hunting, doubling as a scouting party while the leftover combatants stayed inside the walls for emergency. So for now the only issue was with my numbers.
    I really needed more NPC combatants.
    “Sir Sigurd, there’s twenty-one of us accounted for, ready and willing,” said one of the low-level warriors as he returned from his search. That number included non-combatants though as there couldn’t have been more than a handful of warriors left, what with the majority of them given the day off.
    “Excellent,