The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen

by Brent Roth

  By the time I made it to a local Mexican restaurant, the place was fairly empty since it was mid-day and lunch had long been over. It was better for me in the end, since I didn't have to deal with the crowds and long lines. Two beef tacos and a burrito were all I needed, cheap and fulfilling… maybe not the healthiest, seeing as the tacos were fried, but I digress.

  Healthy enough for me!

  While I was enjoying my food, one of the TVs was tuned into a news station that was currently covering The Dragon's Wrath. The fact that a game was being talked about on a local news channel was somewhat surprising, except the headquarters was located in this city, so it wasn't that big of a stretch really.

  I wasn't too interested, but I always paid attention to information regardless.

  "News coming out today that AIcorps is now in the production stage of a new gaming system that is planned to be a cheaper alternative to their VR-Cube that is currently on the market," explained the buxom female anchor. "The hit virtual reality game is making waves despite the fact that it is, well, kind of pricey to get into. Joining us today to explain some of the finer details, is none other than industry-insider, and current employee of AIcorps, Emily Addams."

  "Thank you for having me," said Emily as she smiled and waved at the camera.

  "I'm told you're kind of a fan favorite," inquired the female anchor with a wink.

  "Oh hah, I don't know about that," replied Emily playfully. "I'm just a normal gal."

  Eh, Emily was a fan favorite… that was news to me.

  All I knew of her, was that she led the Alpha and Beta meetings as the announcer and host of sorts, to think she was also their lead public relations girl was quite a surprise. That put some things into perspective though, it made more sense now that she had multiple jobs and a position of power. She had access to an excessive amount of data and I often wondered why; now it was apparent.

  "So the game, it's wildly popular, but it's just so, so expensive," said the anchor as she leaned in towards Emily. "This new cheaper alternative, will it really lower that entry point that has been so prohibitive for regular folks like us?"

  Regular folks she says, when she probably makes more than most… right.

  "It definitely will, that was the major design point after all," replied Emily with a certain charismatic flair that was on par with the anchor herself. "Giving everyone the chance to enjoy our virtual world has been one of our biggest priorities since the inception of The Dragon's Wrath, going all the way back to the initial drawing board."

  "And this new system, what can you tell us?" the anchor asked as she clasped her hands together. "How much can we expect to save? I've been dying to try it, but it's just not within a normal budget and not everyone wants to go to a game center just to play."

  "Yes, currently our VR-Cube is considered a bargain for what it offers but that doesn't make it reasonably affordable for everyone, we understand that," answered Emily with poise. "With our VR-Egg, we are hoping to bridge that gap between accessibility and value. Numbers haven't been finalized, but we are expecting to see a saving of up to three thousand on a purchase."

  "Thr-three thousand dollar savings?" the anchor stuttered as her voice raised, decently enough to mask her fake interest and appear genuine. "That's a huge reduction in price, can the game state handle such an influx of players? I would imagine that everyone and their mothers would be running to buy one at such a price."

  "The infrastructure is sound, and since production is limited, there will only be so many new players added every month," Emily stated with a slight frown. "Our manufacturers are putting everything into getting the product out as fast as they can, but unfortunately due to the technical nature of the system and the numerous safety and quality tests that need to be run on each unit, we will only be able to bring a limited number to the market per month."

  "Oh… so we might have to wait a little while," asked the anchor with a practiced frown of her own. "Well, at the price point, I suppose it's worth the wait."

  "I believe we will be able to reasonably meet player demand, and maintain a steady release within a suitable time-frame," said Emily as she folded her hands and smiled at the camera. "Everyone will be pleased with the combination of value and accessibility."

  The two of them continued to small-talk for a bit as I tuned out and focused on the food in front of me. Changes were coming… and I wasn't sure how that would affect the world. As I pondered the possible scenarios, details appeared on the screen that compared the VR-Cube and the VR-Egg.

  The chair on The Egg would be much smaller, only accommodating users under six feet tall and under two-hundred and fifty pounds. The outer dimensions were roughly four feet by four feet, by six feet tall compared to The Cube's eight by eight by eight box design. The white-to-black color-alternating walls were gone with The Egg, while the computer station and server would be built underneath the chair, opposed to being separate in The Cube.

  The ultra-plush memory-foam, adjustable reclining chair that was used in The Cube was to be replaced with a basic memory-foam chair in The Egg, which contributed largely to the discounted price. So in the end, one would have to sacrifice comfort and support in order to save space and money in the long run.

  That meant one thing to me, there were about to be a lot of used Cubes on sale.

  When fully immersive virtual reality burst onto the scene, most people couldn't afford it and in turn gaming centers saw a sudden resurgence. Much like when gaming computers originally hit the scene in the very early 2000's and people couldn't afford the luxury, LAN centers popped up all over for kids to hang out at and play.

  After some time, with kids stabbing and shooting each other over in-game fights, a lot of those places were banned in larger cities, with smaller cities following suit a while later. I never saw anyone get shot, but I saw plenty of knives and attempted stabbings.

  It was a put up or shut up age, and if you wanted to run your mouth you had to deal with the consequences.

  Those days were long gone though.

  Now, trash talking was excessive and disgusting, yet there were little to no repercussions at all. It was a sad state of affairs… but that's progress, in the eyes of some. It wasn't a physical thing anymore, I guess.

  Well, now gaming centers were making a comeback, without the fighting.

  Recently a new company picked up on the wave and invested in a bunch of VR systems, and opened VR-Lan'ds all over the country. If one couldn't afford a Cube or didn't have the space for one, all they had to do was rent time at a local VR-Lan'd and that was that. They could easily fit four Eggs in the space of a Cube… and that meant more casuals would be coming to a location near me.

  That meant, more bad pugs.

  Ah.

  I didn't like the prospects.

  No, not at all.

  Getting back into my car I decided to get some fresh air, a quick drive through a deserted windy mountain road to get the adrenaline going. At one point in my life I was driving a hundred and fifty miles a day, then it fell down to around three-hundred a week, now… I rarely drive at all. My muscle car, my truck, my tuner, and my motorcycle all sat collecting dust.

  I should probably sell them, I thought.

  I would need the money to continue gaming.

  My mind wandered as I drove the long way back to my house, it was a nice day out, the kind of day where I would have spent it at the beach if it were a few year back. A part of me wanted to take a detour, to check out the ocean and see if it looked the same. It always did, but it was always a little bit different too.

  The sunsets were always random colors, the waves similar but not identical, and the crowds varied from gorgeous to grotesque depending on the day and time.

  The nude beach in particular was especially disturbing ninety-nine times out of a hundred… but every once in a while, there was a hidden gem that made your jaw drop.

  Hah, I couldn't help but laugh at the thought.

  Well, that was the pa
st though.

  My legs were reaching their limit of use for the day, anymore and the pain would start to increase, so it was time to head back.

  Back into the virtual world, where life was a bit better.

  I also needed to plan for the future, a sudden increase in the player base could change the world drastically. There were a lot of guilds still trying to eke out an existence and carve up small pockets of territory, some of those guilds might pose a threat to me if they become overly ambitious.

  Yeah, it was about that time to reevaluate where I stood, and where I would be going in the near and distant future. The North was mine and I had no intention of ceding my territory to others who were late to the party. The wasteland that no one wanted months ago, was now starting to get a little bit more popular thanks to Emily and her blatant advertising. She really knew how to screw a guy over.

  Fan favorite huh, well… I wasn't a fan.

  Chapter 49: An Ox to Grind

  (Friday, June 18th Game Day / Friday, February 26th Real Day)

  "We all done here for the day?" I asked the party, after we had finished the last trash group on the fifth floor. "I think I'm going to head out to a neighboring town, check it out, kind of need the change in scenery."

  "Yeh, I'm good," replied Barik with a shrug.

  The others nodded as they collected their loot, content with what we had accomplished. Once everyone had finished gathering their belongings it wasn't more than a few minutes before the party was disbanded, with everyone heading their separate ways. We had been repeating the grind for a few days now and I was already level forty-four, with the others nearing level fifty. Unfortunately, the reality was that the levels didn't mean too much, like we had thought.

  The fights didn't automatically get easier with a new level, but with the increase in our proficiencies and new skills, there had been some marked improvement. I was able to find a skill trainer in town and picked up [Shield Bash], and was working my way towards [Call to Challenge] next. I was also able to learn [Heavy Swing] and [Leg Sweep] with my two-handed axe proficiency, which had stagnated slightly since I started using a one-handed axe. All in all, they were nice additions.

  Though, the major proficiency I was still working on and was really waiting for, was my fourth tier lightning spell, [Discharge]. It was a one-second cast Area of Effect spell that originated from the body of the caster, sending an explosive wave of discharged electricity out in a small radius. Seeing as it went out in every direction, it was basically a fool-proof way to knockback a melee unit no matter the angle of attack.

  That… and there was also my special lightning spell, the unique one that came with my Artifact, [Flash Step]. [Flash Step] was usable once I reached the fourth tier of lightning magic proficiency and it was a somewhat broken ability.

  It allowed the user to travel with a bolt of lightning a short distance in any direction, regardless if it was up into the air or from tree to tree, and then rematerializing at the end point. Basically, it was a short-ranged teleport that made me temporarily immune.

  In itself, it was a broken ability.

  I wouldn't be showing that to the world yet though… that was a secret to be kept closely guarded until I needed to use it. A spell like that would draw unnecessary attention to me, and I didn't really care for that.

  Standing outside of the dungeon entrance, half of the crowd that had gathered before the portal were wearing masks of some sort and I quietly grinned under my own with no one the wiser. Over the past few days, my masks had become suddenly popular as more and more people had ventured down to the second floor. Some even made it to the third floor and with their help, money was slowly trickling into my pockets.

  When I first arrived to this town, I was basically broke.

  After trading the furs I had brought, along with a few dungeon grinds, I was up to a handful of silver. Turning those coins into masks, I was able to turn a near fifty-percent profit that added up to roughly twenty silver one week later.

  The swords I invested in turned out to be a waste, as they weren't appraised for much more than I paid, at eighty-two copper for one and sixty-six for the other. But, it didn't matter too much since I was dealing with a neutral party.

  Once I returned to Dragon's Breach they would use the raw materials in a way that would benefit me doubly.

  Well, after one week since I first set out to make some money with the shop keep, I was now sitting on thirty-three silver coins with another twenty silver coins worth of goods from all of the grinding stashed away in my room. If I wanted to, I could purchase a heck of a lot of NPCs, but there was another goal at the moment.

  And that goal was livestock.

  The town I was at didn't have anything regarding animal husbandry except for directions to another town, one that was a good twenty miles northeast of my location off into the northern elven territory.

  So, that's where I was headed now.

  If I could, I would rather have recruited animals from an Animal-Recruiter but such a thing didn't exist, sadly. At least we had access to an NPC-Recruiter.

  Oh well, a jog wasn't all that bad.

  The small dirt path that I was running on had cut through the forest and wrapped around a small break between the mountain range that separated the elven territory from the true North. It was a fairly scenic route and surprisingly well-traveled as I ran past numerous elves heading towards the dungeon. I imagine most, if not all, of the elves came this way.

  Thinking of elves… I had yet to seriously talk with Ellieby since we last traded. Opening my friend's list that was ready to burst at the seams with four whole people on it now, I barely managed my way down the exhaustive list and found Ellieby.

  I didn't think I could make it, but I did.

  Hooray!

  A mental click and the transparent screen that appeared in front of me switched to a different view, a video call of sorts since I was incapable of typing while running.

  "Hey Ellieby, how's it going?" I asked as soon as she picked up.

  "Hey guy! I'm good, how are you?" she replied courteously with a faint smile. "Uh, wait, why are you bouncing? And breathing so heavily…?"

  "Ah, I'm running, sorry I can disable the video function if it bothers you," I said with a laugh, masking my semi-serious proposal. "I figured a video call was better, shall we switch to voice only?"

  "Hah you're so weird," she said while giggling. "It's fine, don't worry about it."

  "Alrighty then, so yeah, reason I'm calling was to see if you're still in the area."

  "Nope! The guild's all back at our camp, we're working to turn it into a town!" she exclaimed rather enthusiastically. "It's a lot of fun, we've got some small buildings shaping up and the spot we selected is super cute, it's a really great location!"

  "Oh, you guys didn't want to stay to grind the dungeon?" I asked, perplexed.

  "Hmm? No not really, my guild members didn't have a good experience," she said with a suspicious grin. "I heard they had a tank they disagreed with."

  "Haha… is that so, well that's too bad," I said, fully aware of what she was hinting at.

  "Yeah, she said the tank was an elitist asshole that kept trying to push the pace," she went on. "Something about how he wanted to dictate how everything was being run, she said he was cocky and a jerk."

  "Mm… sounds like a wonderful guy!" I said with a laugh.

  "You wouldn't know him, would you?" she teased with that grin of hers proudly displayed for all to see. "Strangely, his description kind of matches you."

  "Hmm maybe, I'm not saying," I said with a wink and a smirk.

  "Psh whatever with the secrets, they were talking about you nonstop in guild chat!"

  "Hah, well, I can't help it if that's how they see it," I replied nonchalantly. "Anyways, do you think you'll be ready for a fairly large shipment in a few weeks' time?"

  "Ohhhh we're not done with the previous conversation!" she stated eagerly.

  "I'll have… an interesting
mixture of items, if it strikes your fancy."

  "No! We're talking about you being an asshole, you can't escape!"

  "I'll hit you up in a few weeks then, I'll be bringing a lot of goods!"

  Exiting the video call with my patented half-assed salute and a grin, I continued to run towards my destination. It seems, that hunter and priest really didn't like me, but I figured that from their silence after I took over. The rogue seemed to like me though, I'm guessing that's why Ellieby was trying to tease me.

  Didn't really matter to me though.

  If I rubbed people the wrong way that was unfortunate.

  I wasn't going to be bothered by it. My intentions were good, and there was nothing malicious about it, if I am to be misunderstood… so be it.

  Halfway through my marathon sprint I caught sight of a strange animal off in the distance, slightly past the trees and hiding behind a bush. The only thing that gave it away was the shimmer of light as it passed between the sun and the open leaves. It was only a split-second but it was a disturbance that made my eyes dart to the left and as I continued to stare at the spot, it moved again.

  I couldn't tell what it was from where I stood on the road, but I drew my bow just in-case. If a creature happened to cross my field of vision, I would stop to hunt it… unlucky for it, lucky for me. Slowing my pace to a stalk, I slowly moved forth to get a better angle on the creature hiding behind the bush.

  The creature came into view and quickly raised its head as it spotted me.

  Freezing in place for a moment it hesitated to make a move.

  It was… a house cat.

  No, that wasn't right, it was too large to be a house cat. It was definitely a feline of some sort except it was the size of a medium dog. The cat had a long fluffy coat of hair that formed what appeared to be a beard, what with its white neck contrasting with the mixture of brown, gray, and black colors covering the rest of its body.

  It was a fairly cute cat, but so large in stature that I hesitated to call it such.

  Yeah, it was a good-looking cat, perhaps a lynx or something of the sort.