Ashes of the Fallen

When I recruited the NPCs originally, I focused on the best available, ensuring that their potential ratings were the highest along with good personality quirks. Maybe through transference, those positive thoughts were passed along to the children, along with the ability to seemingly fetch out the most-skilled children out of the bunch.

I couldn't tell the children apart, let alone see which one had potential.

Yet, they could.

The NPCs were doing the work for me.

They were building up Dragon's Breach without my guidance, and the results weren't disagreeable, not in the least. Yeah, I was quite happy with what had transpired.

When I left, all of the minor buildings had been completed, and a few others were constructed while I was gone. They all fit the same style, so the village still looked aesthetically pleasing to my eyes.

A shipyard with a nearly complete Longship was at the edge of the river, while a palisade had been erected around the entirety of the village, along with a rampart just behind the walls to allow some of the warriors to patrol the edge in relatively safety and with improved vision. The blacksmith's shop had long been completed and was expanded while I was gone, along with  a small shop for the leatherworker and weaver too. There was also a tavern now, with imported ale that was brought by the trade master who ran a small trade post attached to the tavern.

The fishermen had a small dock by the shipyard as well, with a small row boat that doubled as a fishing boat and a transport to cross the river and reach the farm on the other side. All in all, everyone was settled in quite nicely. I almost forgot about the herbalist slash apothecary, but her craft was a mystery to me. Supposedly, she could make tonics, potions and such, but she lacked ingredients and experience.

I wanted to help her out… but yeah.

Her profession was unknown to me, and there was little I could do to help her without having to invest considerable time to learn the ins and outs. She would have to find her own way, unfortunately.

Although I couldn't help the apothecary, I could help the others.

Standing outside of the blacksmith's workshop while peering through a window cutout, I could see the two NPCs that I had recruited plying their trade. With their apprentice off to the side, handing them materials as needed, the extra hand was learning on the job.

Entering the shop, I knocked lightly as I came in.

"How is it coming along?" I asked somewhat enthusiastically as I entered through the doorway. "Looks like you're making some steady progress."

"Ah my liege, welcome," replied Ansgar with a slight bow.

"Eh, Sigurd is fine," I interjected before he could continue, wanting to get rid of all the odd titles that the NPCs had been calling me. Even with Katherine, it was my liege and my lord, then it turned into master… after a while, I gave up. But with these new NPCs, I wanted to iron out the practice before it caught on.

"Ah, yes, my apologies," he said, followed by another slight bow. "We have made some progress, as you have noticed. At first we had some issue with melting down the swords, but your assistance with the bloomery has proved quite fortuitous."

"And what of the crucible, has there been any progress there?"

To this, Enok replied, "um no Sir, it has thus far proven too difficult for my skills."

"Is that so," I said with a frown. "That's alright, in time."

Ansgar was the 9.4/10 potential, twenty-four year old level four NPC that I recruited, the one that came with two children and a young wife. He was now level six, but was progressing rather slowly. Without the materials to practice his craft, he was limited to menial tasks such as providing iron nails for the Longship.

The other blacksmith that I recruited was Enok the eighteen year old male. He was the 9.1/10 potential, lowly level zero with no tag-along NPCs. I considered him an amazing steal at first, with his only negative aspect being his level. Now after some time, I have come to realize that there were little to no drawbacks to having a family. At least out here in the wilderness with plenty of space and food.

Perhaps, in a crowded town, those were larger negatives.

Not here though… out here, it was inconsequential.

The two of them had been working together but I decided to have Enok spend extra time on the crucible. It was possibly the most important aspect to this blacksmith workshop going into the future, seeing as it allowed for the possibility of high-grade steel. In the past, there was such a thing as Damascus steel, by far the greatest steel of the timeframe, and there were a very select few who could utilize it properly to forge weapons of incredible strength and durability.