It was odd, to say the least. The moment I woke up and my eyes opened, I could smell smoke filling my nostrils and my lungs. Or was it the other way around? Could the smoke have been the reason I woke up? Regardless of which happened first, my natural instincts ordered me to get out of this bed and up onto my feet. As I forcefully ripped the white sheets off of my body, I dropped my feet to the ground and stood up without a moment to hesitate. The window beside me showed the night sky. I barely slept a few hours at most judging from where the moon was in the sky. 

The very moment I realized this, my door was blown open with some incredible force. Emerging from the doorway was my father. It seems that my other senses were still catching up with me from my quick awakening. His lips were moving but I heard nothing. All I could really hear was a faint crackling noise from the fire slowly engulfing the entire of the house. Out of all the expressions he could have had, his eyes told me everything that he was terrified. Not from the fire since he chose to blow down a door with his shoulder. He was scared about me and my mother. 

Knowing him, he definitely went to make sure mom was safe, most likely getting her out to the neighbors so she was out of the fire. My room was a little ways away from everything else from where the fire was spreading. It was clear that this recently started, and my parents seemed to have been right at the origin of the roaring inferno crawling through the house. My dad was fast and strong, so getting to the neighbors and carrying my mom was easy, along with getting back here and making sure I was okay. 

I'm old enough to take care of myself, too. So the idea of me not getting out wasn't in his mind at all. This situation where him and I are staring at each other was just him making himself worry even less about me. 

He ran over and opened the window, then had me go and crawl through before he did the same. 

The moment I hit the ground, my hearing came back to me, and the sound of the fire immediately filled my ears. Now that I could hear again, I turned to my dad and asked, "What the hell happened?" He wiped his brow and forehead with the back of his hand and let out a heavy breath. "Don't worry about that. As long as you guys are fine, it doesn't even matter what caused it. Trust me, son," he said. Him and I gained our footing and started running down the dirt trail that led down to the road. 

A few ways down that would be the village, and in the middle of that was another house. That house was where my dad put my mom into. They were longtime friends of the family, the neighbors. Pretty much everyone in the village was too. We made our way to that house, opening the door and reuniting with my mother who sat on the couch. "She's in a bit of shock, so she's getting a bit of rest. In a few minutes, she should probably be back on her feet," the old man said. He was my dad's best friend, and he immediately took the role of a doctor to help my mom. It only made sense given his talent as one. Everyone went to him for everything, ranging from a minor scrape to infections. 

Only just now does the UI show up. The mini-map in the upper right corner and my four bars representing my health, magic, special, and stamina were there on the upper left. Below the map was the current quest: A New Dawn. All of this made me realize I was probably too immersed into this game. It all happened so fast that it was hard for me to even notice that I was just laying down on my bed a few minutes ago before turning on the gaming headset. 

This really did feel all too real. Waking up felt so real, and the fear I saw in who played the role of my father was just as lifelike. Even the false memories of the neighbors felt real to me, like the game was feeding me bits and pieces of backstory to give me a bit of an easier time with the main story. 

As I turned to my dad, I was suddenly given a few dialogue options that hinted at what I should say to him. A few options were too simple like "Is everything going to be okay?" or "What do we do now?" Something piqued my interest, so I chose to roll with it. I locked eyes with my dad and asked, "Did you remember to get the emergency stash?" He didn't even blink when I did and nodded almost immediately. I guess it was common knowledge to the neighbors that we had something like that. 

He gave me a bag filled with gold coins and a dagger to protect myself. It was all black with a dark blue wrapping around the hilt. A golden strap was on the sheathe as well, which I tied to one of my belt loops. "It's enough to give you a few nights to stay at the inn at the village," my father mentioned. "I still have a few quick things to run through with the others, Ventus. You should be fine for a little while." 

"Are you leaving mom here, then?" I asked, soon realizing that he said my username I set for my character. 

"No. I need you to get to the inn as quick as you can and stay there. Your mom and I are gonna go together after she wakes up. We'll go and find you after we get some things done, okay?" He said, looking into my eyes as though he was giving me a sign for something else. I nodded and he smiled briefly. He really was in some kind of hurry to get stuff done. The quest objective changed, giving me a Waypoint on the map to where I should be going. 

I somehow knew things would be fine. As the house burned down in the distance, I made my way down the trail once again. Alone this time. I was then told to wait for three days before the next part of the quest started by the quest details I pulled up. Anymore delay and I'd just ruin the natural progression of the story itself. 

Looking back at the knife, I realized that it matched the recommended weapon for my starting class. I chose Assassin for this character after making it, so this probably meant that each of the other classes would get a weapon. Like if I chose the Swordsman class, I'd probably get a shortsword as the starting weapon. I doubt they'd give a Caster a dagger as a weapon. 

Walking through the entrance, bright white lettering appeared at the center of my vision, telling me that I entered a new location. 

Lumen Village - Main Entrance. 

Lumen, huh? That's a pretty nice name to have for a town. Lanterns lined the streets from the corners of buildings. A few of the shops were still open at 2:30 in the morning. I knew this because the map had a clock right beside it. As I wandered through the streets, I noticed that everyone was inside their homes. Not a single person besides me was out at this time in this village. When I arrived at the inn, I opened the pair of dark oak doors. The inside had someone by the front desk, with a few people sitting in chairs or by the wooden tables that were off to the side. I walked over to the desk and a menu popped up in front of me, giving me a selection of how many nights I would be staying at the inn. The lady in front of me wondered why someone as young as md was out this late. I simply told her, "My house burned down," and left it at that. 

She seemed genuinely worried for me, but I reassured her that I was indeed fine.

It seemed like the game didn't immediately set me a day ahead when I selected one day. I guess it wanted me to naturally progress through the story without forcing myself to rush through and get to the good stuff. I actually liked this mechanic since it really made everything feel organic. I decided to pay for an additional two days and went up to my room after giving the lady the gold. She gave me the key so I could get into the room and get some rest.