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

for a brief moment.
    Unsure if they were hostile or not at first, we had been on guard and in a defensive position until they finally came within shouting distance. The fishing boat was unarmed for the most part and largely harmless, much to my relief. Naval combat wasn’t something I wanted to partake in. To lose the ship and all the crew on board would be disastrous… if that happened, well, there was no point in thinking about that.
    “Turn back if you value your lives!” yelled a man from the fishing vessel as he waved to get our attention. “Sea monsters are hunting the fishing lane! Be warned, fellows!”
    Freezing for a moment as I tried to comprehend what was said, a quick glance at Eindride told me that he was similarly confused. Sea monsters hunting the fishing lane… in essence, our path to the port town was a perilous one.
    “Thanks be had for the warning!” replied Eindride with a bellow as he stood up and covered his brow with an open hand, attempting to look out in front of us.
    The boat continued to toss in the rough waters as I barely managed to move over to the edge, securing a spot where I could better see the men I was interacting with.
    “Details, friends!” I yelled out to them. “What do you know of these monsters!?”
    “Giants!” he shouted back. “Giant tentacles from the deep, claws too!”
    “They’ve attacked?” I quickly questioned.
    “They have!” he replied as their boat started to drift past, with his second reply falling off so as to be barely understood. “Wait for calm seas!”
    Watching their boat sail off into the distance, I turned and gave a quick look at the worried crew with their faces answering whatever questions I might have had. We couldn’t afford to battle with a kraken-type sea monster right now… we didn’t have the numbers, the size of ship, or even the levels most likely.
    The game’s appendix or game guide had loose details on some of the more popular monsters as part of the advertising campaign. There were numerous kraken-types out in the ocean with the lowest being a simple giant squid around level two-hundred or so.
    Individually we wouldn’t be able to do anything.
    Collectively, we might have stood a chance in this game since the levels weren’t quite as defining as other games. Enough casters and ranged units and we might be able to manage. But to take that chance… no one had killed a [Giant Squid] in game and to take that risk would be foolhardy. It didn’t pay to be impetuous.
    “Beach the ship Eindride,” I said calmly. “We’ll wait the storm out.”
    “Yes Sir,” he replied as all hands grabbed their oars and began to row.
    Another day, another detour… it seemed fate wanted FWB to wait another day for us to play. That was all right with me.
    As long as we got to play.
     
     

 
    Chapter 82: Bergenheim
    (Thursday, December 2nd Game Day / Friday, April 23rd Real Day)
     
    Six hours later we had finally arrived at the port town of Bergenheim for what was originally intended as a short pit stop to trade and gather information. Instead it would serve as our stopover for the night and would allow the crew some entertainment, nourishment, and eventually rest.
    Bergenheim was a small town with a standing population of maybe three-hundred NPCs or inhabitants as the game liked to call them and was primarily made up of traders and sea-going men. Sailors, fishers, and traders… that was this town’s entire existence. Far enough south that they could trade with the middle kingdoms and then serve as the middlemen to the rest of the North, life was good here.
    A cross between the developed town near the Outcast Dungeon Cave and of more typical Dark Age buildings, all save for the inn were one-story rectangular structures constructed primarily of wood and with thatched roofs. Some were dug partially into the ground a few feet as was customary to decrease the amount of materials required and to provide added heat retention and protection