Ashes of the Fallen

What worried me… was the threat of attack still lingered. The conflict had yet to be truly settled, and to my knowledge the enemy guild remained close by. Thankfully, they didn't properly prepare for the siege and had failed to set up a temporary campsite.

After they died, they were unable to respawn in my territory, and thus were bounced to the next nearest neutral graveyard. If they had set up a campsite outside of my territory, they could have resurrected there.

But, they didn't do that.

So, they were bounced to the Northern Triangle which wasn't exactly neutral, seeing as I was their prime benefactor. Then they were bounced to Andal, a rough fifty to sixty mile journey southwest, only to find that Andal held me in high-esteem.

So off again, they went.

Their souls were transported another fifteen miles to the southwest, to a coastal port town, where they were finally welcomed with imaginary, ghostly open-arms. A total of seventy-five miles away from Dragon's Breach meant if they wanted to launch another attack, it would take them at least seven hours of travel.

Word on the net, was they weren't interested.

In their eyes, their raid was a success.

They crippled my force and razed the village, essentially wiping out the competition. To them, there was no reason to waste any more time beating a dead horse.

That's all I was to them, a dead horse.

Opening my [Land Management] tab in the [Menu], a list of tabs populated my visual field. As I sorted through them and looked at [Hostile Territories], only one name was there, [FWB], an acronym I was unfamiliar with but it didn't matter. That was the guild that had declared war, and they would remain hostile until I negotiated terms.

There were no terms forthcoming from me, no, never.

They would suffer, in due time.

Closing the tab and switching to the [NPC-Recruiter], I started to browse what was currently available. Combat NPCs were a premium now, easily five times what they had previously gone for, when I recruited my forty-four.

I was down to seventeen warriors and four priests; the ranks would need to be replenished. Ellieby had sent back a rather large sum of coins though, roughly a gold coin in total… one-hundred and two silvers, to be exact.

That helped the situation immensely but it wasn't enough, I was still behind.

There was a lot of work to be done.

Work, that had to be done.

Refocusing on the objective at hand, I glanced through the list of draftees as quickly as I could. Seeing as the majority of the combat NPCs were going for anywhere from five silvers to ten, replacing twenty-three warriors would be extremely cost-prohibitive.

Simply put, I couldn't afford them, even if I wanted to.

Sorting by type, I had realized that casters were incredibly important during that last battle, and were amazing in the dungeon. If I had more sense, I would have recruited mages when they were only a couple of silvers apiece.

Another mistake, that was easily noticeable in hindsight.

Casters with a high Potential with Frost Magic, were running at an average of eight silver coins. Fire Magic Proficiencies were nearly eleven silvers each. Holy Magic NPCs, hah, they were a bit ridiculous… I didn't even want to read it out loud.

Nature Mages weren't that bad, but what were they, I had never seen them.

Lightning Mages and Dark Mages, on the other hand, weren't too pricey.

The latter three were rare types and numbered in small amounts.

Most players didn't roll with those proficiencies anyhow, seeing how trainers were few and far between. Even now, I had yet to witness a single player use Dark Magic, and I was the only Lightning Magic user around these parts.

These parts, I was about the only one in general, though.

Four casters with a high Potential in the Dark Magic Proficiency, ranging from 7.2/10 up through 9.1/10 were available for three-hundred copper… that was only one silver more than standard.

I ticked those four off, immediately.

Six casters had a high Potential in Lightning Magic, with their respective ratings in the 7.5/10 to 8.8/10 range. At a going rate of five-hundred copper, that was fine with me. I could train them myself, with my Ancient Relic giving me complete mastery, there would be no finer trainer around.

The Dark Mages would be somewhat useless for the time being, but I had a plan.

Companions specialized in specific Arts, such as Katherine, could teach Holy Arts or Magic to the casters I picked up. Calling them priests out of ease, they trained from her.

That's how the system worked.

I needed more Companions.

I needed a Companion that could instruct the warriors, one that could teach the mages, one that… could help the archers. Since, Selene… was no longer around for that.

Turning my attention back to the draft, I started counting my coins.

Forty-two silver was already accounted for, as long as no one else put in a bid on the draft picks. If a bidding war was started, the prices would soar and that was the last thing that I wanted to happen now.