The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen Read Online Free PDF Page A

accepted the resurrection I found myself being sucked back in. My vision went black one last time and then, I opened my eyes to find myself staring at the dark domed ceiling of the abandoned mining complex. Watching the light flicker about as shadows cascaded and danced above me, I couldn't hear any sounds of battle.
    Sitting up, I saw that the group was relaxing as well as they sorted through the equipment from the fight. It appeared the boss fight was largely a success. Minus my stupid mistake, all was well.
    Somehow in the midst of the hysteria, I had lost track of the dwarf and the guard's last movement. I partially wanted to blame the shattering of my axe as the main culprit but I knew that wasn't true. I let my guard down thinking the goblin had died from the blow to the head. Not in my wildest of dreams would I expect a creature with a sword split down the middle of its skull and coming out of its forehead to still continue to fight.
    Yeah, that just didn't happen every day.
    Oh well.
    I lost a lot of experience from that mistake, to the tune of 25% of my current level's maximum total. Well, at least I didn't have to worry about losing any items or a time restriction on resurrecting. Though there was a time restriction of fifteen minutes if you died from PvP, but the penalty there was only a 10% loss of experience and a 5% drop in money. You could actually earn a living if you were good enough at Player Killing, farming players as if they were creatures.
    "Always someone dying with this guy," the dwarf finally said to break the silence.
    "So even when you killed it the last time, someone still died?" I asked, a little puzzled that the boss was so difficult. I had honestly expected it to go quite smoothly, and thought it did until I screwed up.
    "Right, I died last time but the goblin went down while it chased the priest around," said the dwarf with a bit of laugh as he patted his friend on the back. "It was hilarious watching this elf 'ere run around with his skirt up, 'oh look at me prance, can't step on me gown now!'"
    "Oi jackass, it's not a skirt, it's a robe," the priest shot back. "All casters wear one."
    "Oh yeh, this caster 'ere doesn't 'ave a skirt does he?" the dwarf retorted while pointing a finger at me. "Movin' on, what do ye say to continuing down to the third?"
    "No issue with me, experience is what it is," I said with a chuckle.
    Since I basically lost all of the experience I had gained from the first floor, I figured it couldn't hurt to at least try and recoup some of the lost experience with a quick trash clear. Well, I did complete the two quest chains, so it wasn't a complete loss.
    A quick glance at the loot before us, there was another [Old Dory] and a [Cracked Aspis] from the goblin guard that no one really wanted along with a [Crude Sleeveless Leather Jerkin] and [Crude Leather Gloves]. Those two actually made for a fairly decent entry level tanking set, seeing as they were slightly above the [Worn Leather Vest] both the dwarf and I were wearing.
    As far as stats go, the only real difference was in the thickness and hardness of the leather. It wouldn't last long if you were stabbed a few times, as it would simply be shredded apart, but it would take a bit more effort from the opponent to pierce through.
    The game didn't really have a conventional loot system with random plus defense numbers or plus health numbers and offered a more realistic resistance based off material quality and design.
    What that meant for late game… well, I could only imagine once iron armor made its rounds and if steel plate armor is ever discovered, I would start to worry about the practical effectiveness of melee weapons or bows in general. A fully armored tank in plate armor would be a serious monster when super human physical abilities were added on top.
    I mean, weight and mobility were essentially the only drawbacks to such armor in the past, reduce or remove that liability and you have the definition of a super