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

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