David Brood checked his inventory once more. Four health potions and three mana potions in Bag 1, crafting items in Bag 2 and unopened loot crates in Bag 3 along with some cosmetic items in Bag 4. All four of these tiny bags were fastened to his waist.

His weapon, a blade made from enchanted ice from the pale, frozen wastelands of the Torrhen Quagmire and made even stronger with magic such as Sharpen Blade and many others. His shield, a tower shield made from the bones of a Blood Dragon and made even tougher with alchemical refinement.

His armour, on the other hand, was made of Dwarven Steel, forged in the hottest fires of the legendary forge, Akarin and was as dark as the night sky, in which David was used to fighting under.

David looked at the time and he pondered for a moment. Would he be able to complete the dungeon run before he goes to bed at 10.30pm? He needs that 8 hours of sleep or he won’t be able to function properly at the presentation the next day.

David Brook is the character name for Lawrence Carstein’s level 99 Guardian in the virtual reality RPG game, Ever Dawn, while Lawrence worked as a marketing executive in a small marketing company in Singapore.

At 10 pm today, he finally managed to install the new update for Ever Dawn and after throwing a bit of money at it for the new collectors’ items and loot crates, he planned to explore the new dungeon, which was named “Howling Cave”.

Boasting monsters level 95-110, this would be a heavily rewarding dungeon that was said to be entertaining and fun according to reviews.

“Alright, here goes nothing, see you guys,” David said into the global chat, with many who are still gearing up wishing him luck. As he stepped in, a cold wave of wind blew across his face and he heard the whispers of monsters and some cackling.

From the corner of his eye, Lawrence spotted a spider’s leg the size of his thigh and—

“Howling Roar!” David shouted, a large force of red coloured wind, in the shape of a lion slammed into the spider attempting to ambush him and knocked it over. David quickly walked over and stepping on it, thrust his sword into the belly of the overturned spider.

Virtual Reality had progressed so much according to what Lawrence could remember when he first bought it. Now, you could see, smell, taste and even hear everything in-game. Everything just felt so real—

The cave was damp and there was the smell of something rotting. Lawrence had gotten used to the smell of it by now, so it was fine, but—

“Mr Carstein, are you at home?”

Lawrence heard someone at the door and he cursed silently. Why couldn’t his landlord come just a bit earlier?

As he was about to take off his virtual reality headset and answer the door, he spotted a woman, kneeling on the ground, weeping.

However, his blade was glowing red, so this was definitely not someone or something friendly. As he backed away, wanting to reach the entrance that was so near him, to go and answer his landlord, in his hastiness, he stepped on a pressure plate.

“Mr Carstein, uh, we’re having some trouble with our electricity at the moment, some power surges according to our repairman if you could just turn off all—“

Hearing the pressure plate trigger, David immediately leapt forward, diving onto the ground, his armour making a massive crunching sound. Where he had been stepping on earlier, had turned into a ground covered in crossbow bolts. A trap.

The woman on the ground suddenly jerked her head in David’s direction, and with a massive scream that hurt Lawrence’s ears, charged towards him.

Suddenly, Lawrence himself screamed, a massive pain shot through his body. The last thing he saw was the banshee charging at him.

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Author's Note: Thank you everyone for reading my maiden story on RoyalRoad! I hit a wall when it came t o writing some time back and I'm glad to be back at it again. Do message me your thoughts or leave a review if you are so kind as to help me improve my writing!