Again with the noise, but this time it was even closer and to my left. A memory flashed through my mind of a poor game warden and a pair of dinosaurs and I wanted to laugh at the silliness of it all, until it appeared in front me.
Peering around a tree was a small mangy looking wolf that had met my gaze. The white wolf was undersized and looked malnourished as it meekly locked eyes with me, but I knew not to underestimate it.
It was still a vicious predator.
Turning my bow slowly towards the wolf while it stood cautiously behind a tree, I was forced to hold as the tree obscured my vision and shot. The situation was an awkward one as both wolf and I stood still waiting for the other to make a move.
Perhaps the wolf smelled the dead fox at my feet and came looking for a meal.
It was a novel idea, or so I thought.
Snap.
A shiver immediately went down my spine as goose bumps rose on my skin at the sound of the branch breaking directly behind me, completely out of sight.
I blinked as I relaxed, I was caught.
Still holding my drawn bow steady as my arm started to fatigue, I began to count to three. One, two… on three I kicked my leg out and leaped to the side hoping to gain some distance and a vantage point on one of the wolves, but soon found myself under attack.
As I jumped so too did the wolves, and as the wolf that had been behind me leaped up and snapped its jaws at my arm, I released my bow.
The arrow flew directly into the neck of the wolf as it closed its mouth, but it wasn't fatal.
A half second later the wolf that was originally in front of me was now bearing down on my left and launched an attack of its own, baring its fangs as it clamped down on my wrist.
Pain immediately shot through my body as I registered the wolf gnawing on my arm but had no time to care. The wolf that had been shot launched its second attack, biting down hard on my right calf and knocking me to the ground.
Dropping my bow as the wolf continued to gnaw on my wrist, I then jammed my free hand into the snout of the wolf, grabbing the nose and ripping on it as hard as I could. The attack startled the wolf just enough to yank my torn left arm free.
As blood poured from the open wound I looked to see the wolf to the right still gnawing at my leg while attempting to drag me in the opposite direction.
Twisting my body and gathering what strength I could in my left leg, I kicked violently at the wolf. Kicking once, twice, thrice before the wolf released its grip.
Without time to think I quickly tried to pull my knife but found both wolves on top of me, biting and clawing at anything they could. In the frantic fight for my life I paid no attention to my health bar as I was being viciously torn apart before my very eyes.
I struggled to stop their attacks but as long as I could shield my neck I knew I could survive.
The wolf to my left soon backed off as it looked for a better opening while the right wolf continued to gnaw and bite me where ever it could.
Clutching the knife in my hand, I immediately rolled into the attacking wolf, grabbing it around the neck and plunging the knife into the body of the wolf.
Shrieking in pain the wolf tried to break free but I tightened my grip around the wolf's neck as I continued to stab it over and over and over.
With blood splattering all around me, the wolf finally stopped resisting and slumped back into my arms. Letting go of the deceased, I tried to quickly turn my attention to the wolf that had backed off only to be bitten on the neck from behind.
Frantically trying to hold the wolf's mouth to stop what was about to happen, I reached and grabbed, desperately trying in vain as the wolf started to shake its head violently and rapidly from side to side.
My vision had turned black for but a moment before the world in front of me started to turn various shades of gray and blue. The outlines of the trees surrounding me were blurry and waved from side to side, inducing an eerie and uncomfortable feeling deep in the pit of my stomach.
Looking up towards the sky, I could only see various dark shades of gray and blue flowing like intersecting currents. To my sides in the distance there was nothing more than a light gray haze with a slight light blue underlying hue.
I could only see so far.
Looking down at the floor, there was a solid black and gray mass in the shape of a body, where it laid motionless in the winter snow.
I had died.
A system message had popped up in the middle of my visual field:
[Do you wish to Release?]
[Yes / No]
I quickly selected [Yes].
Once I had selected my answer, I soon felt as if I was getting crushed but without the pain, condensing into a small ball as I was covered with swirling gray smoke and then just as suddenly the air cleared and I had found myself at the center of the town square.
Still in the death state, I could not see or interact with the living.
Even though I was unsure of where my corpse was, I at least was given some sort of spiritual compass that wasn't actually obvious at first.
The intersecting rivers of dark grays and dark blues that seemed to be flowing randomly had actually been flowing in one specific direction. When I ran in the wrong direction the river in the sky bent and curved while flowing in the correct direction.
All one had to do was follow the flow.
Arriving at the black and gray mass that was my body, I was prompted with another system message:
[Do you wish to Resurrect?]
[Yes / No]
And I again selected the obvious.
With a slight pause I was soon getting sucked into my body as the gray haze that had surrounded me soon blurred into straight lines. I felt as if I was traveling at an incredible speed as I flew through some sort of indescribable space until my vision went black once again.
Light slowly started to fill my vision as the images in front of me became clear.
I was laying on my back, staring up at the canopy of the trees that surrounded me, snow falling once again on my face.
Letting out a sigh, I stood up and looked around at the scene before me.
My bow, knife and arrows had returned to my inventory when 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.