Brent Roth - The Dragon's Wrath: A Virtual Dream (18 page)

Chapter 24: The Journey back to Camp

(Tuesday, March 9th Game Day / Saturday, January 23rd Real Day)

After enjoying a decent meal out in the city, I took a short break from the game to manage my household affairs and basic duties. It wasn't a long break though, and within two hours I was freshly showered with a change of clothes and ready to log back in.

As I strapped into the chair the lights started to dim and the room went black.

The log in process had started and I couldn't help but think that I might be sleeping too much in-game with the mini-naps of 3-4 hours multiple times a day, but it didn't seem to be bothering me yet.

In fact I could say I was sleeping better, since the game almost put you in a dream-state to begin with, it was like falling immediately into REM-cycle or the fifth stage, skipping right past the first four stages.

Yeah, if anything I could say that my sleeping had improved significantly compared to logging-out and sleeping in the real world.

Logging back in I soon found myself where I had left, sitting on a log bench near the town square. The moon was shining brightly and the townsfolk had already burned the bodies of the deceased and continued on with their daily lives; some electing to remodel the lodge as the new tavern and gathering place.

They were pressing on and moving forward without delay; it was an encouraging sight.              

Selene had been helping the villagers organize when she noticed me in the distance and came over. As she walked, her hips swayed slightly from side to side, it wasn't exaggerated nor was it really seductive; she didn't really have wide hips to speak of. She wasn't nearly as physically attractive as Katherine, but she had her own charm to her.

In all honesty, her personality was what made her more attractive. She was confident and intelligent yet remained grounded and without ego, she didn't overreact to situations and knew how to play along with my little flirtatious acts.

If anything, I was surprised she willingly kissed me.

We had only known each other for maybe three days in-game, but maybe she felt comfortable with me since I sort of saved her life.

Chemistry is what some people might call it.

All the while though she was still an NPC and I was having conflicting emotions and feelings about the subject. To a degree, I kind of don't care if she's an NPC with an Artificial Intelligence or a Player in the game. At the end of the line the fact remains that she's a moderately physically attractive female with an attractive personality… as long as I remain inside the game there is no difference with the end result.

But in saying that I also realize that it's an NPC… well, as long as I don't delude myself into thinking it's some sort of relationship in the future and continue on with the idea that I'm just enjoying that part of the game like a dating-simulator or something, I should be fine.

That's what I was saying mentally at least, but physically I was feeling a bit deprived. I haven't been dating nor have I had the comfort of a female in quite some time, and here there was a carrot dangling on a stick in front of me. I'm the kind of guy that takes the carrot in short-order, I won't let it dangle and tempt me for long.

Well, I at least didn't let myself sink to the level of visiting the in-game brothels. Those were quite busy during the Alpha and Beta as both male and females were provided for. With relative anonymity during the testing phase and the staff actually needing feedback, it was an easy decision for most.

Yeah, those brothels were something else.

Though I never participated, I did walk by one out of curiosity for their design.

"Enjoying the scenery," as I like to call it.

Needless to say, there were quite a lot of… fetishes accounted for. And it seems out of some form of morality or guilty conscience, all of the NPCs that worked the brothels had an extremely limited AI while operating primarily off a Virtual Intelligence system instead. I guess that way players could do whatever tickled their fancy without the NPC having any complaints.

Selene finally made it over to me and tilted her head slightly to the side and with a hand on her hip asked a simple question, "So, where to now?"

It was a simple question with a not too simple answer as I was stuck wondering if I could suggest a private room for two or if that moment had long since passed.

In the end I figured it was the latter rather than the former, "I bet Katherine is worried sick right about now. And I'm worried she might have eaten all of the supplies I left with her as well."

Selene seemed to be in agreeance, "You said it would take three days?"

"It will take almost six hours of straight travel at a very fast pace to get there, so it depends on how fast we travel."

"In your wounded state?"

"Yeah, it might take three days."

If I was healthy I could simply run half the distance and take a break, then repeat it again to get there within a day without baggage.

Unfortunately I wasn't healthy, which was typical, and I had some excessive baggage in the form of an iron cauldron.

Well, it didn't matter how long it would take, so long as we kept moving.

Chapter 25: Selene and Katherine

(Thursday, March 11th Game Day / Sunday, January 24rd Real Day)

The three day journey had multiple stops for small game hunting and rest but we eventually made it to our destination roughly thirteen hours later. We had set out into the darkness of the night on the first day and arrived within the first hour of light on the third.

Katherine was seen roasting salmon over a small campfire just outside the log cabin and I couldn't help but think she was amazingly beautiful.

The sunrise reflecting off the river's surface sent a dazzling array of light towards Kate, highlighting the features of her face in the morning dew and snow.

If she wasn't a priestess she would certainly be an angel.

Selene may have won me over with her personality but she just wasn't in the same category physically as Katherine, and to think I'm insulting Selene by saying it that way when she is a moderately attractive woman in her own right.

I was feeling like the luckiest gamer on the continent with these two at my side.

Selene casually called out to Kate, which startled the latter into nearly dropping the salmon she was roasting into the fire, causing a small amount of raucous laughter from Selene and me.

I decided to take over the fish-roasting duty while Selene and Kate shared one of those female bonding moments with overly joyous hugs and jumping, but I couldn't blame them… both of them were supposed to die if the developer had his or her way.

While thinking of the developer's intention, I started to wonder if maybe he or she didn't create them this way but this was part of the randomly generated group… roll the dice enough and you'll eventually end up with someone's idea of perfection.

If that was the case then it was extraordinarily lucky of me to end up with such balanced and attractive females.

Not long after their reunion had settled down, Katherine approached me with some dialogue and a system message:

[You have completed Katherine's Quest: You have been granted bonus Experience and have earned a significant boost in Trust and Affection from both Katherine and Selene.]

[Katherine is now a permanent Companion!]

[You have gained a new Companion!]

[Selene is now a permanent Companion!]

Well, to say I was surprised would be a lie.

I expected something of the sort but I was amazed at the amount of bonus experience I received. I had previously went from a paltry level 14 when I started the quest to level 17 after finishing off the Earl. Now, with the bonus experience from the supposedly high level quest that was dark red in my Quest Log, I leveled up from 17 to 26.

That was a monstrous jump.

To top it all off I received another title, [The Liberator of Andal].

It was a bit cheesy but it was a title nonetheless and I would not argue with the bonus reputation I was awarded. Simply looking at the influence-map found in my [Land Management] tab I could see that I was now on very friendly terms with the surrounding Triangle Villages and Andal.

And it seems my border of influence had slightly enlarged as well.

Things were certainly looking up.

I continued to roast the fish as Katherine placed her hand on my broken collarbone and began to speak softly. I wasn't really paying attention but in a moment all of the pain had started to dissipate and I turned to face her.

She stood behind me as I was kneeling on the ground and wrapped her arm around me, placing her hand on my chest. She spoke softly again and a soothing feeling permeated my body as I felt relaxed.

No, relaxed wasn't the right word, I felt healed.

I took my free hand and placed it on top of Kate's, "Thank you, I had no idea you were capable of such advanced healing."

Kate beamed a smile that seemed to radiate happiness then proudly exclaimed, "It's the least I could do!"

And then before I could say another word she put her hand on my face and whispered once more, healing my broken nose as well.

She noticed everything.

I didn't have to say a word.

A part of me wanted to pick her up and run her back to the cabin, but we weren't quite there yet.

The salmon had finished cooking and Kate went to wash the wooden plates and utensils so we could eat; the three of us eventually sitting around the campfire on log benches, eating salmon on wooden plates.

With the view of the river in front of us and the mountains and forests behind and to the side, a beautiful woman to my left and another to my right, fresh wild-caught fire-roasted salmon on my plate… life was looking pretty good.

Certainly an experience I would never have in the real world.

I took my time to enjoy the moment for what it was.

Oftentimes people get so caught up in progression, moving forward and on and on without stopping to appreciate the small things in life. I've been through enough in my life that I've learned to appreciate a sunny day, a pain free day, a day where I can smile.

You can never take a single day for granted as you never know what may happen in the future, no matter how much you think you might know.

Plus it was a sunny day with two beauties at the river, that can't be passed up!

I just need to find the fur bikinis somewhere.

Chapter 26: I Didn't Know

(Thursday, March 11th Game Day / Sunday, January 24rd Real Day)

It occurred to me a few days ago that I had no clue what level Selene and Katherine were and had never looked at their stats in depth, so while we enjoyed our breakfast by the water I decided to inspect them.

First up was Katherine, a Priest with 9.7/10 Potential in Holy Arts and 7.6/10 Potential in the other Arts. My guess was that it was a good thing but I honestly had no clue what the Potential ratings meant or where the averages fell.

As I browsed through her Attribute Statistics I was a bit flabbergasted at what I was seeing. Katherine was level 67… and she was fated to die to two wolves?

What the hell.

That made no sense. Selene was level 82 too… and I was level 14 just a few days ago… hah. Opening Katherine's character window first was a huge surprise:

I was stunned. Katherine had enough attribute points to be level 93 if you excluded the +10 Attribute points per stat they started with.

Looking at Selene second, she was a Hunter archetype with a 9.2/10 Potential in Archery, and was sitting quite highly with enough Attribute Points to be level 135:

They were similar to me… my stats at level 0 were exceptional thanks to the UR-Exams:

I had gained +42 to Endurance, +28 to Strength, +38 to Agility, and +12 to Dexterity from the nearly two-hundred hours I spent digging, chopping down trees, moving logs, and climbing the mountain.

I also received a bonus +20 to Vitality from the general Wood Working proficiency and actually received a +5 bonus to Willpower for scaling the mountain.

Of the 130 Attribute Points I had gained from leveling up, I distributed 60 into Agility, 30 into Dexterity, and 40 into Endurance. Now my stats were considerably better:  

It might seem strange that an Axe-wielding warrior would split his points into Agility, Dexterity, and of all things Endurance but there was a method to my madness.

Every level granted +5 Attribute Points to distribute and I was clearly ahead of the curve already, but the limiting factor in this game isn't how hard you can swing or how much damage you can take.

Some people believe in building their characters with one or two primary stats while ignoring the others, which enables one to specialize in a role. It often works out nicely, but not here.

The game is a virtual representation and the characters are affected by attributes greatly. Agility corresponds to run speed as well as general athletic agility such as quickly changing directions, stopping and starting, jumping, and maximum sprint speed.

If a warrior only put his points into Vitality and Strength, sure he could hit hard and take a hit well, but he would be a sitting duck in Player versus Player situations.              

Dexterity affects accuracy with all weapons, especially so for Bows which are a necessity for anyone not relying purely on magic for ranged combat. And Endurance, well… are you going to die tired or be the one at the end of the fight who still has energy in the tank to block or swing a few more times?

Endurance is effectively Vitality or Health so long as you don't get hit, and if you aren't getting hit you now have more stamina or energy left to attack, run, dodge, or whatever you want to do.

Curiously the way shields work in this game, if an attack is successfully blocked the force from the blow deals a proportional amount of damage to your stamina bar. In short, block a few heavy blows and find yourself out of stamina and every blocked hit after that will start dealing damage to your health pool; even if it was blocked. You can't block forever.

I found myself in a few situations already where long drawn out fights were nearly decided not by a lack of health but by a lack of stamina… I was too physically exhausted to do anything.

Lying on your back out of breath as the enemy stands over you is a horrible way to go.

Yeah, when you train for war you train for a marathon, not a sprint.

At the end of the day my Effective level was 184 based on total allotted Attribute Points. Of course that was misleading though, as the level 100 champion I fought the other day most likely had all of his Attributes in Strength and Vitality and was definitely stronger than me in one-on-one melee combat.

I couldn't see his stats directly during the fight but after he died I was able to see that he had over 300 Strength and over 200 Vitality, which was easily double my Strength and almost triple my Health.

Yeah, in the end it's sort of hard to measure attributes alone.

In reality, the levels weren't weighted as heavily as proficiency and skill. A level two-hundred player could still be beat by a level one-hundred player if he or she was outplayed.

I had started shaking my head from side to side without noticing and Katherine caught on, "What's wrong my liege?"

Ah she was still referring to me in that odd way.

"Kate, you can call me Roth or Sigurd and that goes for you too Selene. None of this 'my liege' or 'master' stuff."

Kate answered first, "Mm. Okay, Sir Sigurd."

Well it was an improvement so I couldn't complain.

And then Selene chimed in, "Why would I ever call you master? You and your fantasies."

"Selene!"

"Kate, you can't trust him. He'll peak on you when you're bathing."

Katherine gazed at the floor and then opened her mouth without a sound,"…."

Yeah, thanks Selene.

Katherine quickly looked at me and then hurriedly looked away while Selene laughed in the background. My stellar reputation with Kate was shattered right before my eyes.

Placing my hand on my face I couldn't help but laugh as well. Pointing at them while muttering, "I should throw you both into the river…."

Well, going back and reading the description of the Attributes once more to refresh my memory, every point put into Vitality would add an additional 10 to your Health while Wisdom would add 10 to your Mana. Strength and Intelligence modified your damage done by some percentage I didn't fully comprehend, but Strength also bolstered your physical body as well.

Dexterity was the main attribute for any class that required high degrees of accuracy for pin-point attacks, and Agility mainly affected the player's ability to move. Endurance was your Stamina, or the gas in the tank that allowed you to use abilities and move for extended durations.

Willpower was a combination of how fast you could regenerate Mana and also your resistance to crowd control effects such as Blind, Stun, or Paralyze.

I still had no idea what the Luck stat was used for but I wasn't too worried about it. When I selected it there was no description or anything, sort of like it was locked for now.

There were a lot of other questions too but I figured it would all be explained in due time. All I did know was that there were two girls in front of me and one was an exceptional archer and the other an exceptional healer.

As the girls chatted and laughed at my expense, no thanks to Selene, I started thinking about the future.

I had a territory but it was rather small.

I had a cabin but it could easily feel cramped with three people living in a 900 square feet single room. I also had the lodge I was prepping for with the five-hundred or so logs stacked behind my cabin.

Yeah, that's what I would do first.

I stood up, turned around and looked at the area before me.

Surveying the land in front of me, I decided on what felt like a good central location and opened the measurement tools provided in the menu, allowing for an overlay of schematics that you had drawn up or previously learned. It was a bit odd seeing the overlay in what I would consider my normal visual range but it was extremely handy.              

Selene and Katherine had both crept up behind me and stood at either shoulder, staying silent as they could tell I was busily lost in thought.

My village would start here after all. I had a lot of work to do. I also had two lovely ladies at my side to help speed things along. I'll have to apologize to them later, but for now they're going to be working very hard.

Oh so very hard.