Legends of Daria

“ Hello, players!” The man in the suit and tie shouted. Everyone in the room stopped talking and looked into the window before them. They could see a room full of scientists all watching them. Some were holding notepads and clipboards. Others were seated at computers. “ I am so excited to get started! You four players are the first in the world to test out our new technology! I hope you all enjoy it! Now are you ready to get started!”

“ Hell Yeah!” The four players shouted back.

’ This is so exciting! I wonder what classes there are! How hard is the game going to be? Will there be a tutorial or will they just throw us in and say good luck?’ John thinks to himself.

“ Good! Now, players put on your suits!” All four of the players quickly walked over to the lockers and began putting on their black virtual jumpsuits.

’ This suit looks so much better than the one I have at home! I hope they let me keep it!’ John thinks to himself.

“ Now! Let’s do some exercises! We just have to make sure the suits don’t fit too tight. Now ten jumping jacks!” All of the players looked annoyed by this. One player spoke up.

“ The suits fit fine. Let’s just get started.” The man in the suit and tie turned to look at the scientists. One of the scientists gave him a thumbs up.

“ Ok! Put on your helmets!” Four square holes opened in the wall. Inside, there were 4 Virtual reality helmets.

‘ They kinda look like motorcycle helmets.’ John thinks to himself. The four players quickly grabbed them and put them on.

“ Turn on your helmets! All you have to do is say ‘ Power on!’ that’s simple enough! ” All four players did as they were told. “ Now the scientists will bring you the treadmills. Don’t worry these are not the normal treadmills you are used to. On these, you can walk or run in any direction.” Eight scientists came dragging the treadmills into the room. The scientists directed the players onto the treadmills.

“ Now! Create! Your! Character!” Just then the character creation screen appeared in front of all of the players. “ You may choose any race and class. Get creative with it!”

John looked over all of the screens.

’ Look at all of these races! There’s more than the previous game! Well I guess the previous game did come out ten years ago. They’ve had time to think of new races and classes. Now what race should I pick? Orc? Nah I was that in the first game. Gnome? No. Zombie? Hell no.” John looked down at his feet and tried to think hard about what race to choose. He scrolled through the options until he saw a race that caught his eye. He read the name out loud.

‘ Dragon?’ He thought to himself for a moment. ‘ This doesn’t say dragon-man. It just says dragon.’ He tapped on the name. A picture of a red dragon appeared infront of him. It was taller than the castle that was in the picture.‘ Wow!’

“ Are you sure you want to select race: Dragon?” He selected confirm. Another window popped up.

“ What kind of dragon would you like to be?” He quickly read over the different types of dragons.

‘ Black dragon? Has a void in its stomach that can suck in anything. That sounds pretty cool. White dragon. Can paralyze anything with its breath. That would be really good for getting easy kills and leveling up faster.’

“ White dragon!”

“ Are you sure you want to select: White Dragon?” John selected confirm.

“ Choose a class.”

’There are more classes in this game too! That’s awesome!’ He looked through the classes for a little while before deciding on one. ‘ I’ve given it lots of thought. In the last game, I played as a warrior. Warriors don’t get to use a lot of magic. So I’m going to choose Warlock. Not only do they get some pretty awesome spells but because they get most of their power from a dark god they can cast more spells than any other low-level caster.’

“ Are you sure you want to select: Warlock?”

“Confirm.” He said as he pressed the confirm button.

“ Choose your god.”

‘ Moar the god of demons, Volk the god of darkness, And Botis the god of war. Volk wasn’t in the last game. I’ll go with Volk.’

“ Confirm.” Another window popped up in front of him.

“ Scanning body.” A few seconds later a character window popped up.

“ Race: white dragon. Class: Warlock. God: Volk the god of darkness. Height: five foot two inches. Weight: 110 pounds. Choose your name.”

‘ I could never come up with a cool username. So I always just used my name, John. This time I’ll come up with a better name!’ John thought about this hard. ‘ I’m a dragon and I worship the god of darkness… Prince of darkness? Shadow maker? The shadow warrior?’ He snapped his fingers. ‘ I got it. Dreadwing!’ He entered the username.

“ Choose your age.”

“ twenty.”

“ Character creation complete!” John looked around the room. The other players were looking at him. He couldn’t see their facial expressions because the helmets had tinted glass on them. But he could tell they were mad at him for taking so long.

“ One final thing before we start! I need to make sure the suits are working properly. So all of you will feel a zap in Three, Two, One.” Zzt! John felt pain in the back of his neck. Like he was just stabbed with a needle.

“ Gah!.” John yelped

“ I see the pain settings are too high, give us a moment.”

‘ I see why they made us sign a waiver.’

“ Ok one more zap it shouldn’t hurt as bad as the last one. Three, Two, One.” Zzt.

‘ That one wasn’t so bad.’ He looked around at the other players. They didn’t seem to react to the zap.

“ Okay, that’s good! Everyone get on your treadmills!” Everyone walked over to their treadmills and got on top of them. “ Wizards come and get this started!” Five people dressed in black robes entered the room. One stood in the middle of the room while the others walked in front of the players.

‘ They’re probably just trying to get us in the mood to play this roleplaying game. But they didn’t need to. I’m already pumped.’

The wizard standing in front of John said to him “ All you have to do is say “ Game Start”.”

John smiled. ‘ This is it.’ “ Game start!” The name of the game appeared in front of him.

Legends of Daria two.

‘ I’ve been waiting three years for this game! Now I’m a beta tester! This is the greatest day of my life!’ As the game started loading John could hear a faint chanting sound coming from somewhere. He just brushed it off. ‘ Might just be loading screen music.’ After a couple of minutes, the chanting stopped.

“ Here we go!” The screen in front of him turned a bright white. Then the floor beneath him vanished and he began to fall.

He fell for what felt like ten minutes. When the floor beneath him vanished he was startled and yelled for a couple of minutes. Wondering why he was falling in a white void.

‘ Did something go wrong with the game? Why am I still falling?’ Just as that thought crossed his mind everything around him turned black. He stopped falling and began floating in place. A man appeared in front of him.

“ Hello, Dreadwing.” Dreadwing studied the man. He was wearing a fancy black robe, and black slippers. He had dark skin and a bald head.

“ Um… Hello. I guess you already know my name. What is yours?”

“ Volk.” Dreadwing thought this over for a second.

“ Oh yeah! You’re my god!” He said pounding his fist into his hand. “ I’ve never played as a warlock before but I’ve seen some gameplay videos from the first game. You’re supposed to give me a few spells and a wish right?”

“ Game?” Dreadwing could see the confusion on Volks face.

“ That doesn’t matter. What matters is what wish you can grant me.”

“ Yes it’s true I grant my servants one wish. So, Dreadwing what does your heart desire?”

“ Well this is gonna be a hard one. Can I really wish for anything?”

“ Yes. But do be warned. If I make your wish come true. You must pledge your loyalty to me.”

“ Yeah. Yeah. I know how making deals with dark gods work. I wish for a powerful magic item!

“ Any magic item?”

“ Yes! Just make sure I can use it even at this low level and upgrade it in the future after I level up!”

“ It shall be done!” A small orb appeared in Volk’s hand. “ This is the Orb of Empowerment. It will make the spells you cast stronger and it will charge your mana over time.” He reached out to hand the orb to Dreadwing. As Dreadwing reached out his hand to grab the orb he noticed something. His hand was covered with white scales and he had claws that were a few inches long. He turned to look at his back and on his back he saw two white scaled wings.

He reached back and touched one of his wings. “ Wow, I can feel my claws on my wing! This is awesome, I’m a dragon! That’s so cool. This is some super advanced tech.”

“ Ahem.”

“ Oh sorry.” Dreadwing reached out and grabbed the orb. The orb vanished from his hand in an instant.

“ Now! Pledge me your loyalty!”

“ Whatever you say, Volk. I pledge that you will be the only god I worship.”

“ And your first mission! Kill the vampires who have broken their pledge to me!”

“ Sure thing! But how do I get out of this void?” Just as he said that he began falling again. This time he only fell for a couple of minutes before smacking the ground hard.

“ Oof.” After a couple of minutes lying on the ground in pain he got up and checked out his surroundings. He was in a grassy field that looked to be about mid-day. All around the field was a forest. “ Well lets see what stayed from the old game.” Dreadwing made the ok symbol with his right hand. Nothing. He tried it again. This time with his left hand. Still nothing. “ That’s supposed to open the inventory. But it’s not working. Could just be bugged. This is just a beta.”

“ Spell unlocked. Dimensional storage space.”

‘ Who said that?’ Dreadwing looked around the grassy field then up at the sky. ‘ Could just be the game. Well lets try out this new spell. In the last game you just had to press buttons on a controller and the spell would activate. But I don’t have a controller.’

“ Storage space. Open!” A black circle appeared in front of him. He reached his hand inside and pulled out the orb Volk had given him. He noticed that the orb had a purple glow coming from within it.

‘ Cool.’ He thought to himself. He reached inside of the black circle to see if there was anything else inside. He pulled out a black longsword, and a small coin pouch. He counted the money inside. ’ Five gold coins. I’m broke! I had thousands in the last game! Why didn’t it transfer!”

“ Oh look at that, men. A young white dragon. Its wings should sell for a great amount of gold.” Dreadwing turned around to see four middle-aged men. Three of them had their swords drawn and the last one was standing behind all of them with a bow and arrow in his hands.

‘ My first fight! I have to win this. I bet their levels aren’t that high.’

“ I am Dreadwing. What are your names?”

“ That thing can speak?” One of the men said. “ I’ve heard the legends about talking dragons. But I didn’t even think they were true for a second.”

“ If it can talk, we should try to take it alive. It will be worth more money.” The man who spoke this time seemed to be the leader of the group.

“ You can try to take me! I won’t go without a fight!”

“ Good, I’ve been looking for a chance to test out my new spell.” The leader said. “ Be careful, men white dragons have a spell that will paralyze you.”

Dreadwing didn’t waste any more time; he charged the men slashing with his sword at the leader of the group. The man dodged the sword easily. He spun around Dreadwing and kicked him in the back.

Dreadwing was about to fall forward when he remembered something.

‘ I have wings.’ He flew up ten feet and tried to think about how to use his paralyzing breath.

“ Racial skill unlocked. Paralyzing breath.”

‘ Yes!’ An arrow flew by his face.

“ Gah!” He yelled.

‘ I can’t get distracted.’

“ This is a strange dragon. Why is it using a sword?” One of the other men said. Dreadwing blew as much of his paralyzing breath as he could. The men quickly covered their faces with their shirts. The three men holding swords didn’t seem to be affected by the spell. But the archer behind the men fell over and didn’t get back up.

“ You have paralyzed an attacker.’

‘ Heh. These guys must be at a pretty high level. Or I’m just underleveled.’ Dreadwing came swooping down slashing at the men from the air. ‘ Maybe I can grab one. It’s worth a shot.’ He swooped down again reaching this time instead of swinging his sword he grabbed a man by the shoulders with his hind legs. He flew up. Higher and higher until they were above the clouds.

“ Please! Put me down! I’ll tell my partners to back off! We’ll leave you alone!”

“ I could… But I need to level up. Sorry but I’m gonna have to kill you all.”

“ No! please! Please! Think about this! We can give you gold! I hear dragons love gold!”

“ Hmm… How much gold do you have on you?”

“ Thirty! I have thirty gold coins!”

‘ In the first game you couldn’t even get a good healing potion for thirty gold coins.’

“ Sorry but I’m gonna have to decline.” A look of pure dread came over the man’s face as Dreadwing let go of him and he began to fall.

After a couple of minutes Dreadwing flew down to see if the man had died. He was correct. Not only had the man died. The man he dropped fell onto another one of the men crushing him. All that was left was to deal with the leader of the men. Dreadwing landed on the ground.

“ You monster!” He charged at Dreadwing with his sword held high. Dreadwing quickly pulled up his sword and blocked the incoming attack. The man flipped to the side and kicked Dreadwing in the face.

“ Activate spell! Lightning bolt!” A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky hitting Dreadwing on his back. Pain like no other shot through his back and around his body. It felt like every atom in his body had been shaken as fast and as hard as possible. Dreadwing screamed. But all the man did was laugh. Dreadwing was familiar with this spell. It’s pretty powerful and nothing can really block it.

“ Health is critically low.”

“ You have been stunned.”

‘ Why does the pain feel so real? This can’t be legal even if I did sign a waiver.’ His entire body felt hot. He tried to move but couldn’t. ‘ I can’t lose to some low level thugs! I have to get up!’

“ Heh! Your head’s going on my wall.” The man said as he began walking towards Dreadwing.

“ N… No.” Just as Dreadwing said that a flaming arrow pierced the man’s side. At first the man didn’t know what happened. He looked over and saw a person in a blue cloak holding a bow. Then he looked down at his side and saw the arrow sticking out. Before he had the chance to scream his entire body burst into flames. He screamed and patted his body with his hands in an attempt to put out the fire. He tried rolling in the grass but that didn’t help. After a few minutes of screaming he stopped struggling and fell silent.

Dreadwing struggled to his feet.

’ It seems the stun has worn off. This game is so different from the first one. That guy I picked up begged for his life. And this man in front of me. He looked like he was actually in pain from that fire. And that smell…” Dreadwing sniffed the air. ‘ It smells so good. What is it?’

“ I can see you like the smell. You may eat him if you want.” Dreadwing turned to look at the person walking up to him. They were a little bit taller than him maybe by an inch or two. And another thing he noticed was that the person didn’t speak English to him. It was a strange language. One that he had never heard before. But if he never heard it, how could he understand it?

“ Eat who?” He said back in the strange language.

“ The man I just killed.”

‘ That’s what smells so good? No. There’s no way I find the smell of a burning person appetizing.’

“ No! There’s no way I’m gonna eat another human being!”

“ Another Human? Are you saying you’re human?”

“ Yes! I am a human!”

“ You look like a dragon to me.” the person said, shrugging.

“ In this game world I’m a dragon! In the real world I’m a human.” Dreadwing studied the person in front of him. He noticed that their voice sounds kind of distorted. There was also a strange black fog coming from inside of the hood completely blocking the person’s face from view.

“ Analyze!” The person’s eyes started glowing with a golden light. “ No, you’re definitely a dragon.”

“ What. Let me try that. Analyze!”

“ New skill unlocked. Analyze.”

“ That’s not gonna work on me.”

“ We’ll see about that. Analyze!”

“ Name: Unknown”

“ Race: Unknown”

“ Class: Unknown”

‘ Damn. This NPC must be pretty high level.’

“ What did you mean by game world?”

“ Huh… This world is a game and I’m a player.”

“ A game huh? Right.”

“ It’s the truth!”

“ Tell me then. If this is all a big game. Why couldn’t you analyze me?”

“ Maybe you’re too high level. Or that cloak blocks analyze magic.”

“ I’m going to let you keep believing that this is some fantasy world. But right now I have to get you to safety. Come with me.” The person turned around and began walking towards the forest.

‘ They did save my life. Maybe they know a way to a town?’

“ Do you know a way to a town? Any town. It looks like it’s gonna be night soon and I need a place to sleep.” He followed them.

“ I don’t think any of the towns will allow a dragon in them.”

“ I’m a person! What do I gotta say for you to believe me?”

“ Ok Dreadwing. What’s your human name?”

“ That’s easy! It’s uh… It’s… Maybe it was…”

“ You seem to be thinking a little too hard about your name.”

“ How could I forget my name!”

“ Or maybe you never had a human name to begin with. Oh and before I forget.” Snap! The hooded stranger snapped their fingers. Dreadwing turned around to see the fire in the grass slowly going away.

‘ Whoever this is must be a high level sorcerer. I need to stay on their good side. Maybe they can help me beat the quest Volk gave me.’