The Dragon's Wrath: A Virtual Dream

Chapter 15: At the Base, a Woman

(Saturday, March 6th Game Day / Friday, January 22nd Real Day)

At the base of the mountain where I had built my log cabin, there was a large river in front that provided me with fresh salmon on a daily basis. Off to the side I had a cleared area, where I had felled trees in order to build my cabin. I had ideas of turning it into a pen of sorts where I could eventually raise some sort of livestock.

There was also a curious indentation in that clearing, about the same shape and size of a man's body that suddenly appeared the other night, but it will most likely forever remain a mystery.

Supposedly, there were no eye witnesses.

Having just returned from my trip in the mountains, I was eager to practice with my newly acquired spell and couldn't believe I actually logged out and slept normally the day before. Fully rested and fed, my real world body would have no complaints for quite some time now.

I paid that fee yesterday.

With the clock striking 8:00 AM, I would now be blessed with at least four hours of sunlight. So, with nothing important to do on my schedule, I decided to make my way south along the river for a little hunting.

Not long after I had set out, I saw a person fighting against two wolves off in the distance. Thinking to myself, I figured two wolves would be awfully tough for a beginner. But on the other hand, there were no beginners this far north.

And then it occurred to me, "Ah, that person is in trouble."

I wasn't sure if I should help or not as I wasn't exactly enthused at the sight of another person being near my territory. I had picked this area specifically because it was secluded and hard to get to. There weren't any towns or villages nearby and there shouldn't be very many users if any at all.

This was rather depressing.

But I better help; maybe I can lead them away from my house and back to the village… and just like that I drew my bow.

Running at a full sprint towards the person, as soon as I got within range I let off an arrow and with a thud the arrow had landed cleanly. The wolf that had been hit was shocked and yelped in pain as the other wolf turned its attention towards me.

Since the cloaked person was only defending themselves, I was now the premiere threat that had to be taken care of and both wolves charged at me.

I drew my bow and stood my ground as I took a sustained lead, matching my bow movement to the pace of the wolf on my left I released with a thwack. The arrow flew with pinpoint accuracy and pierced the wolf's skull, a fatal hit.

One wolf down and one wolf left.

The second wolf was quickly nearing on me and I barely had the time to draw and release a nearly instantaneous [Snap Shot]. I could only anticipate where it was going and had no time to pace the wolf.

The arrow flew wide and landed harmlessly in the ground as the wolf entered within biting range. I quickly dropped my bow and brought out my woodcutting axe just as the wolf lunged and bit me.

As the wolf sunk its teeth into my fur and leather vambrace that mitigated the majority of the damage, I could just barely feel a few fangs that had pierced through.

The impact of the charge had knocked me back but I was still standing, if not staggered. I had taken a minimal amount of damage to my left arm but more importantly I was inhibited in my swing of the two-handed axe.

I tried to shake the wolf off my arm but it was to no avail, so I changed strategies and choked up my grip on the axe. All the while the wolf was continually tugging at my arm and nearly dropped me to the ground, but I maintained a knee and let the wolf pull. If it was biting my arm, it wouldn't be able to bite my neck.

I would take that any day.

Using my alternate strategy with a one-handed hold, I started to bash the axe into the wolf's head; not nearly strong enough to severely wound but more so in hope that it would release my arm.

After three solid hits I was able to break free and quickly switched back to a two-handed hold. Standing up, I took a high guard with axe raised and waited for the wolf to make the next move.

The large white wolf circled around me growling and baring its fangs while covered in my blood as the anticipation and suspense became nerve wracking.

Seconds had gone by in a flash as the wolf continued to circle.

It was much larger than the previous wolves I had encountered. I then noticed I could feel my heart beating in my chest, bathump, bathump, bathump. My breathing had become heavy, exaggerated and difficult.

The long sprint had winded me far more than I realized.

Turning my eyes slightly to look at my arm, I knew it wasn't that bad but I had still somehow lost nearly 10% of my Health.

The wolf had sensed my distraction as I was checking my arm and health and lunged at me once again, mouth wide and eyes filled with fury.

I immediately began my counter swing and swung the axe down with the force of a seasoned lumberjack, using all the muscles of the back and torso to twist and power through.

In doing so, the axe head cleaved straight through the wolf's skull, splitting it in two and dropping the creature, motionless at my feet.

As the fight had ended I made my way over to the cloaked individual who had collapsed to their knees in the snow.

"Are you alright? It's over," I asked.

To my surprise a beautiful woman looked up at me and replied, "I am well thanks to you, but I'm afraid the danger has not truly passed."

To this I simply shook my head in disagreement.

Gazing off into the distance, I proclaimed quite confidently, "As long as I am here you are safe from all manner of beasts in the immediate vicinity, though I make no promise for frost trolls if they choose to appear. If I may ask though… what brings you here to this forsaken land void of civilization?"

This was the most important question, I had to know, was there an influx of new players? Was there a town to the south I was unaware of?

The beauty simply looked downward, sighed and replied, "I thank you again for saving my life, I… I owe you my life. What I fear though is not a beast, but the Earl of Andal, for I was to be married to him but decided to flee into the forest instead."

Confused by what I had just heard, we engaged in some circular small talk until she finally opened up. After a long conversation with the young beauty I had come to the heart of the issue, she was in need of some form of assistance but I wasn't obliged to help.

Also of note… it would seem she is an NPC. There are no NPC or Player markers in-game so it's often hard to discern between user and AI out in the field, but a little conversation will quickly yield results. NPCs tend to be a little too formal to be mistaken.

It would seem as if I had a few choices to choose between: I could offer her assistance and protect her, essentially taking her under my wing; I could offer her limited assistance and let her continue her travels alone; or I could part ways with her here and be done with it.

The problem lies in that, if I offer her assistance after hearing her story, the Earl would become less friendly. If I offered her protection then I would be elevated to an enemy of the Earl. How the Earl would even know, I had no idea, but this is what I was told by her.

No matter how I cut it, it definitely smelled like the beginnings of a quest. The game had its own randomly-generated quest system along with the standard rigid quest system that was already in place.

That meant the game would evolve on its own through the Artificially Intelligent NPCs. But, taking such quests could lead to dire and irreversible consequences.

Presented with a conundrum, my mind waffled back and forth at the prospects.

A beautiful young lady in need of assistance but said assistance makes me an enemy to a local Earl, and I would eventually clash with his guards or users he employs on a quest. Does one help the beauty with the obvious consequences, or wash his hands of the affair and go his own way? Why are beauties such a hassle? It seems as if there's always a catch… sometimes I think it's just not worth it.

Yeah, I readily accepted to protect her.

She's a beauty after all, how could I say no.

It's like rescuing a princess from the clutches of some evil noble; I simply could not find it in my heart to refuse her. After declaring my intent to protect her, I was alerted by an event message: [You have gained a Temporary Companion!] [The Companion will follow and obey you so long as their Loyalty and Affection for you is greater than the requirement of the command or situation given] [Loyalty and Affection can be grown through interaction].

"What the f…."

My mouth nearly dropped to the floor from the sudden shock and surprise.

Getting a Companion, this soon in the game?

She's a knock out babe, and will follow me around in-game, and will do whatever I tell her so long as her Loyalty and Affection are high enough?

Oh the abuse this system is asking for.

The temptations are strong with this one.

Unsure where to go from here, the two of us headed back to my player home.

I had a lot of questions, after all.

Arriving back at the cabin I elected to start another conversation with my newfound companion as the atmosphere had seemingly become one of depression, "Consider this your home, all of the surrounding territory as well."

She looked a little puzzled at first but then nodded, "You are quite far from civilization…."

I couldn't deny that, "Yeah, but you won't find the area lacking. There is an abundance of food, fresh water, firewood, and the shelter is a sturdy one… if not a bit lacking at the moment."

My new Companion paced around the cabin as it lay, stripped bare of any creature comforts one might have been accustomed to.

There was a wooden bed, but it was uncomfortable and had no furs, sheets, bedding, or comforter. In the corner of the room lay my extra provisions while another corner was occupied by excess gear, but there wasn't much in total.

Besides the three corners being taken the 30'x30' singular room was quite empty.

While she continued to look around as if depressed or let down from what she was expecting, I immediately brought up the in-game browser to search for some answers on my mysterious beauty and the Earl I essentially declared war on.

After some extensive non-literal digging I was able to find some information on a quest from an Earl of Andal, which was quite far from where I currently was… that had players search for his fourth bride-to-be that had fled.

That story sounded awfully familiar.

Looking further, the majority of the users gave up on the quest as they were unable to find her, but one person replied that he had found her tattered clothing near the river where I had saved her.

"Ah, so that's it," I said aloud.

Having misunderstood my intent, she quickly turned around and apologized, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to sound disappointed. I… I believe with a little decoration this can be a quite lovely home!"

…I see.

Ignoring her, I decided that she was a quest NPC fated to die to those two wolves, less she was rescued somewhere along her journey.

That's rather lucky of her, and me. And what a rather cruel quest chain too… I wonder if the developer had something against beautiful women.

Maybe it had to do with her personality? Well, it was too soon to tell, she seemed normal so far. At least she knew how to apologize for perceived slights.

I could appreciate that sentiment.

As I started to mull the information over in my head, I eventually realized the gravity of the situation; doesn't this make her a rare companion? She was quite the beauty after all, and it's not every day that some noble's future wife runs off… and if she was a quest for players then saving her was a direct challenge to the script.

I was intrigued and decided it was time to delve further into the depths of the interweb.

Reading through various forum posts, I had found the majority of the information was rather lacking. The game had an ever-evolving quest system that was created spontaneously by the individual AI's governing each NPC and the central AI's governing each town and region.

That was known since the Alpha and Beta phase, but what wasn't known was how Companions worked or where they would or could be found.

In essence, Companions were hard to find.

Companions that excelled at any one thing were even harder to find.

And for the majority of the players, the only way to get Companions was to increase your Reputation to a point where you could request one from a noble as reward for your services or purchase one through an auction of some sort.

Plainly put, I hit two jackpots.

The Ancient Relic, which was like winning the mega jackpot in the lottery, and then two days later the Companion, which was like winning a small sum from the slot machine.

The first jackpot was coincidence that required hard work and perseverance. The second jackpot was truly coincidence… without any real effort required.

Needless to say, I'm excited.

No, I'm thrilled.

Before I could get any more excited though, I was interrupted by the depressed girl now sitting on the bed, "Um, excuse me kind Sir but, I have a favor to ask of you… if you would hear me."

My mind was racing through all the previous dialogue we had had, and then it hit me: it must be related to the Earl.

Peering down at her from where I stood with arms folded and an eyebrow cocked up, I asked, "Yeah? Do go on…."