Free The Dragon's Wrath: Shadows in the Flame by Brent Roth Page B

Either way I wouldn’t be around for most of it.
    It was time to log off for now.
     
     

 
    Chapter 81: Stormy Seas
    (Wednesday, December 1st Game Day / Friday, April 23rd Real Day)
     
    Logging back in nearly halfway through the trip, my intention was to stop at a local port to conduct some minor trade before heading out on our second raid. Resources that we were otherwise stuck with as Ellieby kept to the fur trade. Though she had been acquiring enchanted bags from the Elven territories for me which would be picked up sometime around the end of the month. I was looking forward to those bags.
    A bag that reduced the weight of the items being carried inside in practical terms, while described as a wind enchantment that aided lift when in use. Whatever the case, they were expensive and I had ordered quite a few them of varying sizes so that I could take them with me on my next trip.
    Enchanted bags piled on a sled, dragged by some bovine across the snowy grounds of the North sounded like a good way to increase my profit and attainment of raw materials. There was a scarcity of iron, wool, and linen in comparison to the abundance of leathers, furs, fish, and meat. Well, since Ellieby only wanted furs, I needed to dump some of the leathers and perishable items while demand was high.
    Winter was here now and the animal populations had already started to dwindle. My stockpiles back home were considerable with how much hunting my little Vikings were doing, so that left a lot of extra provisions to sell. Money was essential for the growth of Dragon’s Breach after all, and I needed as much as I could get my hands on.
    Money… and an Ancient Relic that couldn’t be used.
    The frustration felt from being denied after all the hard work that had been put into it was real and lingered at the back of my mind two days later. Thoughts on selling the information of the location struck me as blasphemous in a way, seeing how advertising such a thing would only churn the public into a frenzy.
    If news broke that Relics were actually out there and being sold… sure I could make a fortune but then every player in the game would be out looking for them. As of now, the public was largely unaware that they even existed. Of course for those who spent the time to read through the Annals of History of the game, the hints were there.
    A quick internet search while I was offline proved that people were looking. If any of those posters had found one, there was a modicum of doubt that they would actually publicize it. As long as Relics remained myths at large, those in the know could search and map out their locations for the ensuing scramble.
    My version of the gold rush, essentially.
    There was also the idea of bringing Kate down there and seeing if she could use the item. Giving her a Relic that clearly had Dark Magic properties with its color scheme and gravity-related effects, could allow her to train the troops in both Holy and Dark Arts. Though if something went wrong and she died down there… she would be lost.
    And getting in was the easy part.
    Hahhhh , I sighed.
    That was entirely out of the question. Save for destroying the mountain to find it, Katherine wasn’t going down there. Someone else would eventually benefit from it, after I was compensated fairly, that is.
    “Whatever,” I mumbled while staring out at the vast deep blue.
     
    We were less than twenty minutes from the port town when I initially logged back in but due to rougher than usual seas our forward motion had all but slowed to a stop. Practically crawling over the tops of waves only to drop hard back down the backside, my stomach was reaching its threshold as I barely managed to hold it in.
    In the distance another boat had been making its way towards us in the disturbing conditions as they changed from their original course that was roughly twenty-degrees off. Creeping up on us after what felt like an hour, they slowed their pace and pulled up alongside of our ship