Brent Roth - The Dragon's Wrath: A Virtual Dream

by Brent Roth

  Can't care when no one is there! Hah ha! As I continued to laugh at myself a sudden chill caused my body to shiver, "Ah damn, its cold, I need to hurry this up."

  Speeding up my pace, I retrieved the arrow lodged just below and behind the shoulder of the fox. The arrow had landed cleanly, delivering a near instant death with little pain. After adding the arrow to my collection, I then nonchalantly grabbed the fox's leg and let it dangle from my right hand as I continued on with the hunt. Recycling arrows was economical, and recycling was good for everyone after all.

  Well, maybe not for the producers and sellers, but it wasn't like I could afford new arrows.

  Losing myself to thought once again as I traveled, I found myself unsure of what the developers were thinking when they designed the starter village that I had selected in the very far "Northern Wastelands."

  With my beginner's clothing amounting to an [Old Tattered Short Pants] and [Old Tattered Tight Tunic], I was literally freezing out in the snow. I took no pleasure in masquerading as a male stripper lost in the snow-filled forests of the North.

  Was that really the design goal of the developers for players who started in the North? And did I mention that I had no shoes or boots?

  My feet were already numb.

  An hour out in the cold without any clothing would typically lead to some problems, but thanks to my high Endurance stat I had an abundance of stamina and could endure the temperatures a bit longer than normal. This left me at least another hour before I would succumb to the cold.

  Of course, that also meant I would be wasting at least an hour of the critical daylight period as I warmed up by a fire… but that's how the system worked. Life was tough in the North, especially with an eight-hour calendar day cycle. Four hours of sunlight followed by four hours of darkness… it almost forced you to log out of the game, really.

  Making my way through the forest in search of more prey, I couldn't help but admire the desolate beauty of the North before me.

  The Northern Triangle where I had started was the northern most group of villages on the continent. The Triangle Villages were poor with very few inhabitants and limited development, with each spread roughly ten miles apart while the surrounding areas were considered barren as they provided little if any hunting at all. Those were all negatives for a beginning player.

  Out of the entire list of over a hundred starter villages in the game it was rated a terrible 0.5/10… the lowest by far.

  Yet in the end I still chose it.

  There were certain charms not readily apparent to those looking to simply power level through content. The winter wonderland with its abundance of space and lush trees that decidedly marked the landscape, the rolling mountains to the east that cut through the background opposing the beautiful and open ocean to the west. The peace and serenity one can only find in the solitude of nature, free from all the noise and bustle of the crowded cities, free from people in general.

  Yeah, out of a population of nearly 500,000 players on release day I was the first and only player to grace the Northern Triangle with my presence.

  I was the only human, the only player character in at least fifty miles if not a hundred.

  I really, truly was alone.

  Snap.

  Freezing in place I quickly scanned my surroundings but could not see anything. I held my breath as I struggled to listen, keeping my eyes wide and at attention, searching for any sign of disturbance, any sign of movement.

  Snap.

  The noise was getting closer and was to my right, but as I looked at the area in front of me, the area away from me, and the area far off in the distance I could not see a thing.

  Snap.

  At this point, I set the fox that had been dangling loosely by my side onto the ground and slid my bow off my shoulder. Setting down nine of the ten arrows, I slowly and quietly nocked the arrow and drew my bow.

  Standing silently in the snow, my mind began to run through various scenarios before it occurred to me that predators were often far more quiet than prey, but that was no guarantee. Just because I could hear it, didn't make it a rabbit.

  Silence had filled the air as the tension grew.

  I stood still waiting, waiting with my bow drawn and at the ready. This close to the village I could only expect a rabbit or a fox, but the atmosphere was strange.

  Snap.

  Again with the noise, but this time it was even closer and to my left. A memory flashed through my mind of a poor game warden and a pair of dinosaurs and I wanted to laugh at the silliness of it all, until it appeared in front me.

  Peering around a tree was a small mangy looking wolf that had met my gaze. The white wolf was undersized and looked malnourished as it meekly locked eyes with me, but I knew not to underestimate it.

  It was still a vicious predator.

  Turning my bow slowly towards the wolf while it stood cautiously behind a tree, I was forced to hold as the tree obscured my vision and shot. The situation was an awkward one as both wolf and I stood still waiting for the other to make a move.

  Perhaps the wolf smelled the dead fox at my feet and came looking for a meal.

  It was a novel idea, or so I thought.

  Snap.

  A shiver immediately went down my spine as goose bumps rose on my skin at the sound of the branch breaking directly behind me, completely out of sight.

  I blinked as I relaxed, I was caught.

  Still holding my drawn bow steady as my arm started to fatigue, I began to count to three. One, two… on three I kicked my leg out and leaped to the side hoping to gain some distance and a vantage point on one of the wolves, but soon found myself under attack.

  As I jumped so too did the wolves, and as the wolf that had been behind me leaped up and snapped its jaws at my arm, I released my bow.

  The arrow flew directly into the neck of the wolf as it closed its mouth, but it wasn't fatal.

  A half second later the wolf that was originally in front of me was now bearing down on my left and launched an attack of its own, baring its fangs as it clamped down on my wrist.

  Pain immediately shot through my body as I registered the wolf gnawing on my arm but had no time to care. The wolf that had been shot launched its second attack, biting down hard on my right calf and knocking me to the ground.

  Dropping my bow as the wolf continued to gnaw on my wrist, I then jammed my free hand into the snout of the wolf, grabbing the nose and ripping on it as hard as I could. The attack startled the wolf just enough to yank my torn left arm free.

  As blood poured from the open wound I looked to see the wolf to the right still gnawing at my leg while attempting to drag me in the opposite direction.

  Twisting my body and gathering what strength I could in my left leg, I kicked violently at the wolf. Kicking once, twice, thrice before the wolf released its grip.

  Without time to think I quickly tried to pull my knife but found both wolves on top of me, biting and clawing at anything they could. In the frantic fight for my life I paid no attention to my health bar as I was being viciously torn apart before my very eyes.

  I struggled to stop their attacks but as long as I could shield my neck I knew I could survive.

  The wolf to my left soon backed off as it looked for a better opening while the right wolf continued to gnaw and bite me where ever it could.

  Clutching the knife in my hand, I immediately rolled into the attacking wolf, grabbing it around the neck and plunging the knife into the body of the wolf.

  Shrieking in pain the wolf tried to break free but I tightened my grip around the wolf's neck as I continued to stab it over and over and over.

  With blood splattering all around me, the wolf finally stopped resisting and slumped back into my arms. Letting go of the deceased, I tried to quickly turn my attention to the wolf that had backed off only to be bitten on the neck from behind.

  Frantically trying to hold the wolf's mouth to stop what was about to happen, I reached and grabbed, desperately
trying in vain as the wolf started to shake its head violently and rapidly from side to side.

  My vision had turned black for but a moment before the world in front of me started to turn various shades of gray and blue. The outlines of the trees surrounding me were blurry and waved from side to side, inducing an eerie and uncomfortable feeling deep in the pit of my stomach.

  Looking up towards the sky, I could only see various dark shades of gray and blue flowing like intersecting currents. To my sides in the distance there was nothing more than a light gray haze with a slight light blue underlying hue.

  I could only see so far.

  Looking down at the floor, there was a solid black and gray mass in the shape of a body, where it laid motionless in the winter snow.

  I had died.

  A system message had popped up in the middle of my visual field:

  [Do you wish to Release?]

  [Yes / No]

  I quickly selected [Yes].

  Once I had selected my answer, I soon felt as if I was getting crushed but without the pain, condensing into a small ball as I was covered with swirling gray smoke and then just as suddenly the air cleared and I had found myself at the center of the town square.

  Still in the death state, I could not see or interact with the living.

  Even though I was unsure of where my corpse was, I at least was given some sort of spiritual compass that wasn't actually obvious at first.

  The intersecting rivers of dark grays and dark blues that seemed to be flowing randomly had actually been flowing in one specific direction. When I ran in the wrong direction the river in the sky bent and curved while flowing in the correct direction.

  All one had to do was follow the flow.

  Arriving at the black and gray mass that was my body, I was prompted with another system message:

  [Do you wish to Resurrect?]

  [Yes / No]

  And I again selected the obvious.

  With a slight pause I was soon getting sucked into my body as the gray haze that had surrounded me soon blurred into straight lines. I felt as if I was traveling at an incredible speed as I flew through some sort of indescribable space until my vision went black once again.

  Light slowly started to fill my vision as the images in front of me became clear.

  I was laying on my back, staring up at the canopy of the trees that surrounded me, snow falling once again on my face.

  Letting out a sigh, I stood up and looked around at the scene before me.

  My bow, knife and arrows had returned to my inventory when I died, which simply meant they appeared on the floor in front of me since I had no bag. That was something I would have to remedy sooner rather than later.

  To the right, lying in a small puddle of blood was the wolf I had recently killed, but the fox that I had killed earlier was nowhere to be seen.

  I couldn't help but laugh as I shook my head and said out loud, "Clever girl."

  The wolf that had met my gaze behind the tree got what it wanted at the expense of the other wolf that had crept up behind me.

  Their plan worked for one of them.

  That wolf would live to fight another day.

  Picking up all of my items and tucking them away, I then grabbed the dead wolf and slung it over my shoulders.

  A wolf was worth way more than a fox anyway.

  I wasn't going to complain.

  Chapter 2: First Quest

  (Friday, January 1st Game Day / Friday, January 1st Real Day)

  After a fifteen minute trek through the thick snow I had finally arrived back at the northernmost village of all the villages in Dragon's Wrath.

  It was a tiny place, with only twenty-five or so non-player characters inhabiting the village at any given time. In fact, it was so tiny that it didn't have its own name, simply being the northernmost of the Triangle Villages.

  A poor desolate place, with small huts and cabins made entirely of wood littered around in a loose circle of sorts. Thatch roofing seemed to be the popular choice, but they seemed shoddily put together.

  I couldn't help but wonder if they were even warm.

  Walking over to the village center where a large bonfire was burning, I plopped myself down and dropped the wolf in front of me. Setting down the [Old Hunting Bow] and the [Crude Wooden Arrow x10] that was provided to me by the village elder, I then took out the [Crude Stone Knife] that was also a gift.

  These were my prized possessions, my proud weapons of war from my senior and benefactor in the North.

  They were also utter trash.

  But, beggars can't be choosers, so I was grateful I was even given a weapon seeing as I was basically naked already. It could be worse… as unfathomable as that idea was.

  Taking the [Crude Stone Knife] in hand, I slowly started to carve away at the wolf in front of me, using what rudimentary knowledge I had of skinning to separate the hide from the meat below.

  The process took some time as I was quite inexperienced but it eventually started to come together. It wasn't quite the same as cutting up meat or poultry for cooking, but if you've worked with a knife long enough it wasn't that hard.

  While in the middle of my work one of the NPCs came up to start a conversation, it was the village elder. He nodded his head towards me as he relaxed by the fire, watching the work being carried out before him.

  A few minutes had gone by in silence and I had just about forgotten his existence when he finally decided to speak, "Young adventurer, I see you are a capable hunter. We expected this much from The First of the North."

  Ah, yeah.

  One of those benefits of starting in the North was a title that I received, [First of the North] for literally being the first player to spawn in the Northwestern human territory. There was also a Northeast elven territory but they weren't quite as far north, so generally speaking The North referenced the area I now inhabited by my lonesome.

  That title was worth a rather sizeable +250 bonus Reputation points.

  Typically, if you helped or earned favor with Non-Player Characters and their opinion of you became favorable, reaching a suitable level of Loyalty towards you, you would gain +1 Reputation from that NPC. If the NPC was a noble or someone special, you could gain more as well.

  Needless to say, having 250 starting Reputation points was a big deal. The higher your reputation, the better quests you could get, the better rewards you could receive, and the better prices you could get from the NPCs when trading or doing other forms of business.

  It was an essential stat to have, and I had plenty of it.

  The old man had taken a few minutes to gather his thoughts before speaking up once more, "I have a task for you, young one. I would like you to bring back ten rabbits for the village, as the winter is proving quite harsh this year and we are short on food. Will you accept this quest?"

  Without hesitation I nodded my head, "Yes, of course."

  I didn't know what the reward would be, but navigating the Menu and opening my [Quest Log] I could see that it was considered an easy quest and had a simple tracker: [Rabbits collected: 0/10].

  It was a basic quest that I would have done on my own anyhow, even if he hadn't asked.

  Having finished separating the pelt from the meat, I quickly sold the meat to the local trader for a lousy sum of twelve copper coins. The pelt was worth thirty-six copper coins despite the multiple puncture wounds since it was of a decent enough quality. From what I could gather, unless it was way below standard or way above, it was a flat rate of thirty-six copper.

  Not much, but certainly better than nothing.

  A rabbit pelt was only worth two copper, with the meat worth one.

  On the other hand, a fox pelt was worth nine copper, with the meat worth three.

  Walking back out into the cold winter air, I found the tanner and the blacksmith next door as he was pulling double duty in this unpopulated village by working both jobs. With smoke billowing from his outdoor workplace and a multitude of furs and hides st
retched out on a rack, he was hard to miss.

  After a brief discussion, I walked away three tanned fox pelts richer and one wolf pelt lighter. I lost nine copper on the deal but I wouldn’t have to wait two days to tan nor another day for the leatherworker to finish what I wanted.

  It was a good trade for me.

  Time was money.

  Making my way over to the leatherworker and tailor of the village, another person who was pulling double duty, I soon found myself at the small hut of a middle-aged widow and her two children. As I was invited into the small hut I couldn't help but feel bad for the conditions of squalor she and her children were living in.

  She may have been an NPC but the game designers had given every Non-Player Character their own limited Artificial Intelligence. They were supposedly quite realistic, but no one really had much experience with them yet to quantify those statements.

  After a short discussion she agreed to fashion a pair of boots out of the fox furs and a light cap as well. She would need at least two days to finish the boots but could have the cap ready tomorrow, and all in all it would cost me twenty-four copper for the work.

  I, of course, only had twelve copper on hand.

  Working out a second deal, she took the twelve copper as down payment and would require the rest on pick-up. A fair deal, yet again …so far, I liked these AIs quite a bit.

  They were quite reasonable.

  Looking up at the night sky above me, free from the light pollution of modern cities, the vast array of countless stars and planets littered my view. The moon was shining with a bright blue hue while its own little satellite shined a bright white.

  I didn't understand the science behind it, but you didn't need science to appreciate beauty.

  Even if it was an artificial nature, it was still a beautiful nature.

  Soon, this virtual world would become quite popular and I wondered how long I would be able to enjoy this scenery by my lonesome. This was only the first day of the game's release after all. Actually, it was only the first four hours and twenty-three minutes of the game's release, as it was now just ticking over to 4:24 AM local time.