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.

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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 stretched 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.

Thankfully for me, local time was also server time as the headquarters and main servers were all located in California. That little bonus allowed me the ability to be amongst the first players to log into the game immediately upon release.

But now it was time for bed.

With a little less than three hours before the sun would rise in the real world, and a little less than four for the game world's sun to show up… I figured now was a good time to call it quits.

I had no plans to be an addict who skipped meals and sleep just to play. Well, I would at least try my best not to be one.

I made no promises.

I don't make promises I can't keep.

Logging out of the game, I quickly made my way to the restroom to relieve my bladder before heading to bed. I had a bad habit of drinking a lot of water before going to bed and often found myself waking up at least once or twice a night.

It was a good way to ruin a night's sleep.