Date: 2016-08-15 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Role Playing Games; Science Fiction; Virtual Reality
Description: An alternate cover for this ASIN can be found here. Pay to play. Since the beginning of online gaming this has always been the norm; you paid the company and they let you play their game. So it's no surprise that Alex Stanton was living every gamer's dream. It was the opposite for him. He was getting payed to play. The latest generation of virtual reality gaming, in both appearance and hardware, was being beta tested by the largest retailer of online gaming, AltCon. Never before seen graphical detail, joined with a first-time, fully functional, whole body immersion system was likely to put Alt
Rights: Copyright 2016 Joshua W. Nelson

Resurgence

The Rise of Resurgence – Book One

Joshua W. Nelson

Copyright © 2016 Joshua W Nelson
All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental
eBook formatting by
www.gopublished.com

Special Thanks to Terisa and Mike
My First Readers and Inspiration

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

PART I

CHAPTER 1

August 8th, 2043

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.

The system flashed the message before my eyes. The letters were all in red with an alarm blaring in the background.

“No, no, no!”

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.

I kept hitting the cancel download button, but the progress bar kept moving. It was now at 73%.

“Damn it all to hell!” I said, while continuing to mash the button in front of me. Each smash was met with the same result.

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.

I had never been claustrophobic, and I had no idea what brought on this sudden case of anxiety. I just knew I needed to get out of the pod. I reached with my left hand and pulled the emergency release latch, hoping that breaking the hermetic seal in the middle of the download would not damage the equipment. This pod was mine, a gift as part of the Beta, but couldn’t afford another if this one broke. I pulled repeatedly and nothing happened.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me! Get me out of this thing!”

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.

I slapped the inside of the pod and yelled, “Blow me! I didn’t hit the stupid button!”

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.

The progress bar was at 92% and I was starting to panic. I could feel the sweat on my back. My heart was beating way faster than was safe. Why did I ever agree to this?

CHAPTER 2

January 17th, 2043

“Alexander Stanton”

I looked up from the magazine I was reading and acknowledged the man behind the desk. “Yeah, that’s me. Alex, it’s just Alex.”

The look on the secretary’s face told me he didn’t care if it was Sue. “Great. Please proceed down the left hallway and your interviewer will meet you at the end of the hall.”

After giving the same spiel to me that the four previous individuals received, he looked back at his computer and ignored me with a practiced ease. I’ve been ignored before, but this man had made it into an art form.

I followed his instructions, simple as they were, and met my interviewer at the end of the carpeted hall. I noticed there were no decorations anywhere on the floor. Not in the lobby, nor the hallways. And it appeared not in the office either, as I peeked behind the woman who was smiling at me, with her clipboard in hand.

“Good afternoon Alexander, I’m Katherine O’Malley and I will be conducting your interview today,” she said while gesturing me toward the door to the office. Katherine was dressed in a chic pant suit and appeared to be in her late thirties to lower forties. She was wearing little make up and had that “all-business” look you see in many executives walking through downtown on any given morning. She held herself with obvious authority, but wasn’t overbearing. First impressions being what they are, I was impressed from the outset.

“Thanks, it’s just Alex. Alexander is the guy from Macedonia.”

Katherine smiled and laughed a bit at my humor. “I hear lots, but that may be the first use of a historical reference to differentiate your name. Very erudite of you,” she said while continuing to gesture toward the partially open door.

I walked in a bit red faced by the compliment, “Thanks. That usually goes right over most people’s heads.”

The office was similar to the rest of what I had seen, bare and utilitarian. Before me was a desk, two seats on one side and one seat on the other. The desk as well was sparse, only having a cup for pens and a folder. My picture was paper clipped to the front of that folder. Again, there was nothing on the walls and no pictures to be seen. Before Katherine could begin I asked her, “So why no art? I thought it came with offices like this.”

I don’t know what I expected as an answer, but I certainly didn’t think I would just be looked at me with a bit more interest and not have her answer the question at all. But this is what she did, and then went on with the interview.

Katherine began, “Alex, I would like to thank you for your interest in this position. As this is a revolutionary new concept, we are being more judgmental than you might normally see in deciding who runs Beta for a new product. But with our new interface and redesigned AI, we believe the industry will be turned on its head. For that reason, we aren’t looking for just gamers Alex. We are looking for intelligent and discreet individuals who can not only appreciate what we are bringing to the market, but won’t also feel the need to post constantly about what they are doing. I’m sure you found the initial test we sent you to be different as well.”

“Myers-Briggs,” I said.

Katherine paused again and looked at me with more interest. “That is right,” she said. “We initially used the Myers-Briggs test to determine our first batch of interviewees. I can tell you that you are the first to recognize the test. Well done.”

I had taken the test before when I was in high school and found the results to be spot on, and I remembered it quite clearly. Another pass at the test when I was in my second year in college showed my results had not changed from when I took it the first time. The test asked a series of questions to determine how you viewed others and interacted with your surroundings.

“I may be a gamer Ms. O’Malley, but I wasn’t always a pod-head. I’ve taken the test on two previous occasions and found the results to be spot on. Let me guess, I am an INTJ?” This stood for Introvert, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging. This meant, according to the test, I used intuition when gathering data, thinking vice feelings when making a decision, and like rules when dealing with everyday life. The Introvert is self-explanatory.

I had been making a living through gaming for going on 10 years. Pod-head was the common term for someone who spent the majority of their time in the virtual world. This was due to the shape of the virtual reality headset worn by gamers, a giant pod on one’s head to account for four of the five senses. Gloves or full body suits could be worn to account for the sense of feel. A hard core gamer, or one like myself who used the virtual world to earn a livable wage, needed specially designed couches or chairs to accommodate being in the virtual world for hours on end. Those pods were not light and strained neck muscles were a constant occurrence.

“Right you are again Alex,” Katherine said. “We are looking for two particular brand of people for this Beta. INTJ and INFP’s. We think the two working side by side in the game will bring out all it has to offer.” The F and P stood for Feeling and Perceiving, meaning those with F and P traits used their feelings when making decisions and were more loose when it came to having set rules and regulations to follow.

“Your INTJ got you through the door. This interview will determine if you make it to the next phase,” she said. “Let’s begin.”

* * *

The interview process took just over two hours. During that time Katherine asked me several questions about my gaming career and what made me decide to change from casual gaming to making it a job.

“I was sitting in the market square for Odyssey 7, passing the time until friends logged on,” I began. “I was just watching the text pass by on my heads up display with numerous people offering goods for sale. Many of them were selling these items for hard currency. I became intrigued and looked into it more. After I saw an opportunity to make money at something I enjoyed doing, I was hooked.”

The part I didn’t tell her was I could see the people selling didn’t understand market forces at all. They stuck to a price and never wavered. I watched these hawkers for three weeks straight, mapping their selling prices and creating my own price to effort ratio. How much of my effort would go in to getting an item and what price should therefore be associated with the item. Rarity was also a factor. Again, I saw the hawkers online weren’t paying attention to the changing market and couldn’t have guessed at what a market forecast was. Part of my interest in the Beta was to learn about items and rarity in order to have a leg up on the competition when the game went live. I knew I would lose money in the short run being out of the loop. But I hoped I could recoup those losses, and make far more, by having more insight than my competitors.

The second half of the interview centered around role playing through scenarios. Katherine provided a scenario and asked me how I would handle it or what I would do. I figured this is where the Myers-Briggs information was most helpful to them. Since they were looking for a particular character set, they could create school book solutions and judge the responses of the interviewees based on their responses. Most of the scenarios centered around in game activities. What would I do if I came upon an area that was previously unexplored? How would I interact with weaker and less experienced players? Others tested my honesty. What would I do if I was in a group, and just before the end of a fight a glitch disbanded us. I had dealt the most damage before the glitch occurred. So would I keep all the rewards?

I wasn’t sure what Katherine thought a question like this would accomplish. I can’t imagine anyone saying they would steal it all, not if they wanted a job. I mean, be honest; not a single person in a job interview has ever answered the “What is your greatest fault?” question honestly. No one in the history of man has responded with, “I take naps on work time,” or “when no one is around, I steal stamps.” In the end I answered truthfully and said I would share the rewards appropriately. You never know when someone will be a client one day.

Other scenarios didn’t fall quite in line with the in game model. In one such scenario, Katherine said “You are walking along the road one night and see down an alley two men attempting to rob a woman. She is on the floor, crying, and the two men are towering over her. What do you do?”

“Do they have weapons?” I ask

Katherine reviewed her notes and said, “Yes, they both have sticks of some sort.”

“Do I have a weapon?” I ask next.

Katherine smiles and says, “No, you do not.”

“Do I have signal?” I question.

Of the most wonderful advances in technology to come down through the years is the HL-5K communicator. Every person I know has a sub dermal implant in their forearm that allows for instant communication. A small holographic emitter located just below the skin projects a screen of your caller. Those who don’t want to look at their arm while talking can also implant a comms unit in their ear linked to the HL-5K. The only problem with the system is that in some areas, like the more down trodden ones where you might find two guys mugging a helpless woman, don’t always get a signal.

“Yes, you have signal,” Katherine responds.

“I call the police and link them my GPS coordinates and explain to them the situation. So long as they are only robbing the woman I will not interfere. If things become violent I will reassess the situation.” I explain.

The pause in our conversation only lasts five seconds, but to me it feels like an eternity. I wanted to answer the question honestly, and I am no fighter. Katherine finally nodded her head, smiled a little, and says, “That is very INTJ of you.”

“I am who I am,” I reply.

* * *

“Your interview went very well Alex,” Katherine says as she closes the folder with my picture still paper clipped to the front. “There are three things I would like to tell you at this point. The first is that you will be getting a recommendation from me to be given access to the Beta. Second, if you do receive an offer to join our Beta, there is a monetary stipend you will receive to offset your loss of wages as we want you to be able to play as much as possible. And third, there is no art because we find it distracting during the scenarios.”

“Huh?” was the best I could come up with.

Katherine laughed and asked, “Huh for the stipend, or huh for the art?”

“Well, both really,” I answer.

“You make a living playing games. It would be immoral of us to ask you to leave your job and play our game, especially at the level we would like our Beta testers involved. For that reason, the company has decided to offer a stipend that will offset your loss of wages. This should maximize the amount of time you will be able to immerse yourself in the Beta. As for the art; we noticed in the first few interviews that outside stimuli, such as pictures, could warp responses. Interviewees would consciously or subconsciously use what was in the pictures as part of scenario discussions. I’ll be honest with you though; it does make things a bit drab.”

All I could concentrate on was the word stipend. This was a dream come true. I would maximize my time all right. While my future competitors were toiling away in other games, I would be getting paid to create an unfair advantage. In all of my wildest fantasies, I could not have devised a better scenario. However, I did not want Katherine reading into my body language and discerning my motivations for wanting to be a part of the Beta. Although, as smart as she appeared, I am sure she already figured it out. Instead I went back to the art.

“I think you are missing out then. Our reactions to things are always a culmination of everything in our environment. By having the art there you could have seen where I needed a crutch or where I was comfortable as myself answering the question,” I said.

Katherine gave another one of her thoughtful pauses and said, “You know Alex, I really think you are going to enjoy the Beta.”

“Which reminds me Ms. O’Malley, we keep saying ‘the Beta.’ Does the game have a name yet?”

This was the last time I saw Katherine. Her smile never wavered. She just nodded her head and said, “Resurgence.”

CHAPTER 3

January 27th 2043

Katherine never did tell me how long I would have to wait, or when the Beta for Resurgence was supposed to begin. I did ask. Her response was to explain how fluid these things are; both the process for the Beta and getting a system up and running for something the size of Resurgence. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call ten days later from the company, AltCon, telling me my Beta request had been accepted and I was ready to begin the next phase of preparation for the Beta testing. I was to meet with the team and my counterparts the next day at 10am. Being an early riser, I knew I would be pleasantly caffeinated and ready for the day ahead.

I arrived to the AltCon building fifteen minutes before 10am and was met by a representative in the main lobby. The building was massive, easily topping 75 stories. AltCon had been the leader in virtual online gaming for several years and it seemed business was good. The lobby was an open atrium design easily topping five stories up. You know business is good when you can waste five stories worth of space just to have that “open feel.” What could have been done up as gaudy was instead subdued, and I found myself admiring the space.

The gentleman who approached me had a clipboard in hand and my picture attached to the folder on top of the clipboard. Didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how he knew which person I was. “Good Morning Mr. Stanton, and welcome to AltCon. I take it you found the building with no difficulties?”

“It’s hard to miss. And it’s just Alex. Am I the first one to arrive?”

“Yes Alex, you beat the rest of the team here, but I expect them to arrive soon. My name is Dylan Banks. I will be advising and assisting you through the process should you determine today that you would indeed like to take part in our project.”

“I appreciate it Mr. Banks, and I am sure I will have a multitude of questions once all of this becomes clearer. Any chance I could use the restroom before we get started? I’ve been known to down a pot of coffee or two in the morning and I don’t particularly want to have to sprint out of the first meeting for a nature run.”

“Please Alex, call me Dylan. We will be spending a lot of time together and there is no need to stand on pretense. There is a bathroom just down this way that you can use. Just follow me,” he said as he led the way down the side hallway, toward what I only imagined was where the elevators for the building were also kept. “And I like that we already have one thing in common. If I don’t pour liquid caffeine down my gullet in the morning, I’m no better than a zombie. If there is a particular brand of Joe you like, I can make sure it is provided on the premises while you are here.”

Looking at Dylan I could tell two things. The first was that he was more than just an assistant. I would put dollars to donuts that Dylan had a degree in psychology and was using elementary, but effective, techniques to build a bond between us. The second thing I knew is that if Dylan didn’t drink coffee, and if he drank the same swill I did, he would be bouncing off the wall. No one who actually drinks the stuff would call it anything other than coffee. I was looking forward to the entertainment I would be provided watching how Dylan craftily avoided all of my offers in the future to “grab a cup of Joe.” And if you are wondering about how I know about psychology? Well I did mention that second year of college earlier. That was the “I want to be a psychologist” year. There were many more.

After using the facilities, which it turned out were around the corner and just out of sight of the front entrance, we proceeded to the elevators located nearby. The placement of the elevators and bathroom made me feel that the building didn’t have a closed door policy, but it didn’t want tourists inside either. Stepping into the elevator, I looked up as I awaited our voyage into the air. So it was a bit of a shock to my system when the elevator started going down. And it went down for several floors.

“Didn’t even know this building had basement floors,” I said to Dylan.

“Well the equipment we are using is newer than what you are used to, and the climate controls necessary for the number of units negated using the upper floors. Don’t worry Alex, the area is safe. I’m guessing you aren’t claustrophobic, what with wearing a pod for hours on end each day.”

The elevator stopped and I smiled and responded, “Wasn’t when I got here. I’ll let you know at the end of the day.”

Dylan chuckled at my joke as we walked into a large open area. I expected to see cubicles and offices. But none of that was here. This was a workshop, plain and simple. And what I saw wasn’t computing at all. There were rows of what looked like coffins set up on the floor. There had to be at least a hundred of them. The only other thing in the room was a set of chairs, a podium, and a holo-projector sitting on the podium.

“Dylan…. remember how you told me not to worry. Well what I am seeing here, buddy, is causing me to worry.”

Dylan laughed again and there was no malice in the sound. It honestly put me a little at ease. I was expecting him to begin cackling like some old school Bond villain. He could see the concern in my eyes though, and his empathy kicked in. Definitely psychology degree.

“I understand Alex, we don’t tell people what to expect because what we are designing here is state of the art and next generation. Yours’s is not the first group to come through here and there will be two more groups after you. After you sit down with your colleagues and hear the presentation, I promise you,” waving his arm out over the large open area “all of this will make total and complete sense.”

“How about we just get me some coffee, and then we can go from there.”

* * *

True to form, Dylan avoided my offer for coffee. His excuse was indeed well played, using my own reason for turning me down; he didn’t want to have to leave and use the bathroom in the middle of the presentation. I was impressed.

The rest of the group showed up and all in all there were eight of us. I don’t know if you have ever seen eight introverts, when no one knows each other, standing around a room. But I can tell you it is a sight to behold. No one can entertain themselves better than an introvert. Period. It was for this reason that before the session began, we were all forced to introduce ourselves to the other members of our “team.”

I forgot everyone’s name soon after they said it, and made the mental note to meet everyone again to solidify who they were. But before I could begin the rounds again, the holo-projector turned on and an avatar appeared. I say avatar because it was obvious this individual was not real. Mostly because they were an elf. A high-elf to be exact. Anyone who has ever seen those old Lord of the Rings or Hobbit movies, can tell you what a high-elf looks like, but for the 1 percent out there that haven’t, they are tall, light skinned people. Usually with blonde or white hair, and are always amazingly attractive. And of course, they have pointy elf ears. That’s usually what gives it away.

“Good Morning and welcome to AltCon. Please take a seat, all of you,” the avatar said.

We all began milling around and looking for where to sit. As you can guess, we introverts quickly came up with how to divide the seats so that there was maximum distance between all of us. The avatar spoke during our sauntering toward the chairs, “hurry now, we have a long day and we mustn’t waste precious time.” As soon as the last butt was in the chair, the avatar began again.

“I realize you must think this to be a pre-recorded message. That after certain amounts of time I will just move on to the next topic. That is not the case. My name is Victoria and I am being projected from within Resurgence, to you. This is me in the game.” The explanation sounded plausible, but life like constructs from within virtual reality were often more pixilated and twitchy. Victoria was smooth and you would have thought she were real if you couldn’t make out a bit of the details of the wall behind her translucent form. So I was guessing she was still pre-recorded.

“Mr. Stanton, would you like a cup holder for your coffee?”

On second thought, yeah, she’s real.

“Thank you Victoria, but I’m good with holding it. The temperature is a bit arctic down here and I am using the cup to keep my hands warm.”

Victoria gave a good chuckle and continued, “Yes, the temperature is a bit south of what you are used to above ground. The reason is those containers you see behind you. During your initial interviews you were told that our new AI and means for bringing the game to the consumer is why we wanted discreet testers. Behind you are the new means. Say hello to the very first fully immersive virtual pods.”

Every head turned. And almost as if choreographed, every one of us began to get out of our chairs toward the pods. Victoria laughed again and said, “Stay seated. There will be ample time to check out the new pods. It’s the same reaction with every group.” We all sat back down and were now way more interested in what Victoria had to say.

As I mentioned earlier, pod-heads were forced to wear tactile augmentation devices like gloves, boots, or suits in order to experience the sense of feeling. The suits were so packed with electronics that heat transfer was always a problem. Many people died of heat stroke due to staying too long in a virt-suit. But a self-contained pod could work. The issue was cost. However, AltCon had the type of money for R&D and production to make it possible. I wasn’t glancing over at a pipe dream in some guy’s garage. This was likely the real deal.

Over the next hour Victoria explained our contract, with a lengthy discussion about the Non-Disclosure Agreement we would be signing before leaving the room. Even if we chose not to take part in the Beta testing, we would be required to sign the NDA. However, the look on everyone’s face told me that no one would be leaving until they got the opportunity to test out the new pods. Additional time was spent detailing the salary we would each be receiving, and I could tell that everyone was happy with this arrangement as well. Truthfully, we all just wanted to get into one of the VRACs (Virtual Reality Augmentation Container), or what Victoria simply called “the RACs.”

“For the next portion of the session here, a technician will take you over and hook you up to the RAC. We will meet in a VR space and you will be able to see the next level of VR technology that we are bringing to bear to use on this game. Please go with your technician now.”

My technician led me over to my RAC and opened the lid. She showed me all of the controls from the outside, explaining how to load the game you want to play. At this point in time there were only two programs that could be accessed; Orientation and Resurgence Beta. She also showed me the internal controls, indicating the emergency release on the left side and the cancel download switch on the right. During the explanation, others were bringing over folded screens that were being set up around each person’s VRAC. The reason for this became obvious after only a few minutes when I realized that I would not be able to use the RAC while wearing all of my clothes.

“Look, I’m just going to say this. I get the reason for no clothes. But what about when I need to, you know, go number 1?” I asked the attendant.

“Oh you definitely aren’t the first to ask that question!” she said. “It’s all very simple. The VRAC is a self-cleaning, self-sanitizing system with an internal waste removal system. The bottom line is, you can just pee till your heart is content and you never have to worry about it. Now for the other thing, you know, number 2, we don’t have anything in place for that. And that would likely require some sort of connection to your body in order to process that. So we would have to insert a...”

“I get it! I gotta get out for the 2!” I stopped her from continuing.

“Right. In that case you would simply log out and exit the pod and then log back in when all is done. Additionally, the RAC will monitor your hydration levels and provide fluids when necessary. Your RAC will be calibrated specifically to your body, so it will know how to optimize the level of hydration in your body so you don’t need to go all that often. Our tests have run eight hour stints on a subject without having to urinate once during that time and exiting the pod at a perfect level of hydration and ph. Finally, nutrients will be provided through the hydration system to make certain you aren’t suffering from hunger either. You will still need to eat, and this is why we don’t recommend staying in the virtual environment for longer than eight hours.”

“What will happen after eight hours?”

“Nothing will happen after eight hours. But after 12 hours you will be given a notification of the dangerous situation you are putting yourself in, and after 16 hours your RAC will shut down. No matter what. And it won’t start back up for another 24 hours.”

This was all good information to know since many a gamer was known to spend more than 16 hours in the virtual world if they were in the middle of something they deemed to be important enough.

“So I will always have the same RAC when I return on site for the testing?” I asked.

“What? No! You will be doing all of the Beta testing from the comforts of your own home in your RAC,” she responded.

“Wait. What do you mean, ‘my RAC?’ I can’t afford one of these things.”

“Oh, this part comes later in the orientation, but all of you will get your own RAC and a specialist to come to your home to retrofit your space to offset the electrical needs and temperature controls. Part of the bonus for full completion of your contract is getting to keep your RAC.”

I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t imagine a sweeter deal in my entire life. I kept looking for the loophole, the one thing that would make me want to walk away, but I couldn’t find it. I went over the instruments one more time before stripping down and getting into the RAC. The bed liner was soft and pliable, like a gel, and I was told it was full of millions of nano-sensors/emitters that would allow me to feel all over stimulation. Before disrobing, I was also shown where my fluid dispenser was for when I did need to hydrate.

I shut the lid for my RAC and immediately a prompt came up in front of me that said “Download Beginning….0%.” As I sat there the bar moved quickly from 0 to 100 and I was transported to a grey room with my other teammates. And when I say transported, think of when the Millennium Falcon goes into hyperdrive. The lines that form. That’s what it looked like right before I found myself in the grey room, wearing a simple grey jumpsuit. And most surprisingly, everyone else was there and they all looked like themselves.

Faces are difficult in the VR world. It’s one of the reasons that we use avatars. Avatars can be programmed to make certain faces and will look a certain way. But what I was seeing in front of me were my teammates and they were all telling each other to make faces. This alone could make AltCon a fortune. It was good luck that Victoria arrived soon after because two of the guys kept pinching each other all over their bodies and asking, “Seriously, you can feel that right?”

“Ok ladies and gentlemen, please calm down. I know it is a lot to take in the first time, but soon this will all be second nature, much like your own skin. Take a little time to move around the space and interact with each other. Please don’t touch another person without asking them first. In five minutes we will move on to the next part of the Orientation.”

Everyone flitted from one person to another, smiling, frowning, making funny faces and touching each other on the arms and hands. It was all so different from the usual VR setting and after five minutes in this environment I knew none of us would be turning this opportunity down. Victoria called a halt to everyone’s fun and began to give instructions for the next part of the orientation.

“There are eight people in this team. You are going to be broken up into two sub teams based on our calculations. I know we have six men and two women in this group, but we will not be splitting the ladies up between the men. We have in other cases, but our data has led us to make the following two sub teams, which we believe have the greatest hopes for success. The first sub team with our two esteemed ladies will be Gary, Timothy, Kaitlin, and Jennifer. That leaves, Alexander, Daniel, Jason, and Wayne for the other team. Split up and meet your teammates.”

We all walked around until we met our counterparts and began introducing ourselves. I learned that Daniel was Dan like I was Alex. Dan was the most laid back of the group. He seemed more like a pot head than a pod-head with a healthy dose of surfer, although we were hundreds of miles from an ocean. When I made the joke about Alexander being the guy from Macedonia, Dan’s only response was “Fuckin’ A man.” Wayne had a hint of crazy behind his eyes. Not bad crazy, but the kind of crazy you want if you ever think getting into a bar fight is a good idea and you only have one friend with you. That look in Wayne’s eyes is that kind of guy. Our final team member, Jason, was stoic. He just kept looking around and saying there was way too much grey, and that there needed to be something to offset it. I don’t know what the others thought of me, but I knew I had to question the “data” that thought putting the four of us together was a good idea.

After the meet and greets we took virtual seats and continued with the orientation. Victoria, still in her high-elf avatar, explained the time line before Beta would start. The company needed another six months to calibrate all of the RACs for each individual and set up each person’s home to receive the merchandise. AltCon also agreed to pay the extra electricity bill that would come from having the RAC and the cooling system installed. The rest of the orientation was mindless drivel, that didn’t have anything to do with the game itself. We learned about the different physical exams we would need to go through to make sure we were all healthy enough, but Victoria assured us this was to detect things like heart murmurs, not if someone didn’t exercise enough. There was a collective sigh around the room. Pod-heads aren’t known for getting out and hitting the weights. I was no exception.

Victoria also informed us that we would continue to meet up with our sub team regularly, and our eight-person team less so. All of us found this a bit odd, but Victoria assured us again this would make more sense once we entered the Beta and began getting assignments to help with the testing. Each meeting, scheduled by AltCon, would be compensated for monetarily. There was no reason to argue except that none of us really wanted to meet up with others. Introverts after all.

“Our day is coming to an end. We will ask all of you to log out in a moment here, get dressed, and meet with our legal team to sign the NDAs. You will then have one week to decide if you want to take part in the Beta for Resurgence. However,” and here her avatar smiled, “if you decide today that you don’t want to miss out on this opportunity, the same legal team will be here to finalize your paperwork and get everything started. Should you decide to join our team, you will receive an email in two weeks from your liaison and things will begin in earnest.”

We exited the RACs by activating a simple heads up display and pushing the log out button in front of us. After we all dressed, a line formed to sign the NDAs. Off to the side was another legal team set up at a different table. There were eight of them. Every one of us went over immediately after signing the NDA and signed up for the Beta. Not a one of the lawyers seemed surprised by this.

CHAPTER 4

August 1st, 2043

Over the next six months I met with the technicians from AltCon as well as physicians on their payroll. It was quickly ascertained that I was in good enough health to take part in the beta test. I didn’t think any of us would fail this portion of the exam unless there was some underlying health issue that wasn’t noticed at birth. With today’s advances in medicine it was doubtful that any of the others would have a heart defect that had been undetected for all of these years. Another thing I noted about all of the people from my group was that we were all in the same general age range. I’m 34. Dan is 32, Wayne 30, and Jason 30 as well. Based on my interaction with the other members of my team I didn’t think anyone else was north of 35 or less than 25. I didn’t think much of it though, since this was the ripe age for gamers and full time pod-heads.

I also passed the necessary psychological examinations. Most of these dealt with anxiety, paranoia, and claustrophobia. I didn’t have a problem with these either, which I guessed would also be the same for the others in my team. There was a smattering of other psychological tests as well, mostly dealing with association and susceptibility. I didn’t know if one could pass or fail that portion, but I know it didn’t stop me from continuing in the program.

I also met with my sub team regularly and the other members from the greater team on a less regular basis. AltCon had us doing numerous team building exercises. I was guessing it was their way of getting us to learn the strengths and weaknesses of our team. I learned quickly that in a group full of introverts, I tended to be the most commanding of us four. So I tended to take a leadership role, which none of the others seemed to want. The problem I noted quickly was that the group tended to do what I said without really questioning my reason for saying so. There was no real discussion between us. They just hopped to it. I realized this could be dangerous.

“Ok guys, here is the deal. I’m noticing that everyone here is as intelligent or more so than I am. Often I am not the smartest in this group. But you guys seem to turn to me when it comes time to make a decision and then just do whatever I think is best. This is not a good idea. I may be confident, or more confident than you guys, but I can bet that you likely have better solutions to these problems. So from now on before we make a decision we need to have a discussion. And stop rolling your eyes Dan. And Jason, yes you will be a part of the discussion.”

“Look Alex,” Jason said, “I’m just not a decision kind of guy.”

“Yeah man,” agreed Dan. “I mean if you need to know how to get Jiggy with it or something I can help, but otherwise I don’t know that I bring anything to the table.”

Dan had been saying odd things at every meeting and often used words whose meaning did not come close to what he thought they did. It was laughable at times and annoying during others. “I think we may be having an intervention here soon Dan.”

“What we intervenning?” he asked.

I just lowered my head. “You realize that dictionaries, en masse, commit suicide when you speak?”

That got a chuckle out of Jason and Wayne. Dan was nonplussed about the whole thing. “I’m just saying bro, you got this leadership thing. We follow your lead.”

It was about that time that one of the AltCon assistants approached our group to give us our next exercise. “Gentlemen, in this project we will have a set of Legos set up here on the desk. You will pick a leader from your group.” All eyes turned toward me. I just shook my head to say no.

“What else happens in this project?” Wayne asked.

“I’m afraid that the rules of this project state that the details may only be given out after the leader has been chosen,” the attendant responded.

Everyone looked around. I was shocked when Jason volunteered. “Fine, I’ll do it but I’m not happy about it. Just saying.”

The rules were then given out. The leader was to be entirely hands off. He could not leave his seat, nor touch any of the Legos. One of the team members would be entirely responsible for building the project and the other two were to act as the eyes. In the other room was a Lego model that the two remaining members would examine. They couldn’t bring anything with them into the room to look at the model. Only their eyes and their memory. Back at our table was paper to use to document what the others learned. Also, only one of them could go at a time.

“Ok guys, I have a really shitty memory, so I think it would be best if I do the building. I’m not saying I will, that is Jason’s choice,” I offered up to get the ball rolling.

Jason appeared fine with this and said, “before we do anything I want Dan and Wayne to go into the other room and look at what they see and come back and tell me.”

Wayne left first and was gone for about a minute. When he came back he looked really distraught. “It’s a castle, made out of Legos. But it isn’t symmetrical and there are windows but not on the same levels or in the same places on all sides. It’s really messed up. This could take forever.”

As soon as Wayne returned, Dan got up and went into the other room. Wayne had returned with urgency. Dan was sauntering. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, there was a time limit to get this project completed.

“Easy peasy brosef. Let me know when you want to start the build,” Dan said.

We all just stared at Dan. His mellow outlook on life, and his use of horrible English, had not changed. “Just like that?” Jason asked.

“Yeah dude, I have a photographic memory.”

Every one of us, to include the assistant monitoring us, had to pick their jaws up off the ground. “Dan, remember when I said how there were other skills we all had, and you didn’t think you brought anything to the table?”

“Yup.”

“Well a photographic memory is definitely something that you can bring to the table!” I almost yelled.

“Dude, I thought you meant like fighting and shit. I mean, I watch beaucoup kung-fu but I didn’t think that was relevant.”

I smacked my forehead. Repeatedly. “All right, let’s get to the build then.”

“No,” said Jason.

We all turned to look at him. It wasn’t a meek “no” either. He said it with some authority.

“Dan you walked around the castle?”

“Sure did,” Dan replied.

“And Wayne, you did the same?”

“Yeah Jay, I looked at it from all sides.”

“Please don’t call me Jay. The problem I see here is that we didn’t look at the whole thing. Only part of it.”

The three of us looked equally confused. With Dan’s photographic memory I figured this to be a cinch. I was missing something though, and my earlier discussion about others being involved came to the front of my mind. I wanted Jason to walk us through this.

“It’s like with art. Not art on a canvas although that counts sometimes too. But I mean like visual art. Like a sculpture. You can look it at it from all sides and note how different it looks from all of them. But when was the last time you got under a sculpture. Or over one and looked down?” Jason asked.

“The inside! I bet the inside of the castle is totally different! You guys didn’t look inside the castle?” I asked.

“Shit. Didn’t even think to. I’ll be right back,” Dan said as he hurriedly exited the room. Having been shown that he didn’t get it all in his first pass had put a little fire under Dan’s butt. This was good for him.

Dan returned thirty seconds later. “Good call Jayman!! The inside is way different and some of the pieces that I would have thought went on the walls wouldn’t have worked at all. What looks to be just a two by two piece is actually a two by four piece with the other four sticking out into the middle. And the inside is random too. If we had done it my way the first time, we would have had to break it all down and do it again.”

“Please, don’t call me Jayman, or Jay, or Jayorama, or any other silliness that you have in store. Just Jason.”

“No sweat brosefski.”

Jason turned to me with pleading in his eyes. “You’re right. I just heard one die.”

* * *

After we figured out that the inside was entirely different, and with Dan’s photographic memory, we finished quickly. Very quickly. Record time even. Since there was so much time left over we all decided to go and get something to drink in the cafeteria. On the way I ran into Dylan who was making his way towards our group.

“Ah gentlemen, I was just coming to see you. Was the session postponed for this morning?”

“Nah. We just finished.” Wayne answered.

“Ahh, then you started early I take it?” Dylan queried?

“Nope, don’t think so. We started at 1000.” Jason replied. We were all smirking internally but all four of us kept our poker faces on.

“But that was just 10 minutes ago? You can’t already be done. I think the quickest amount of time that session has been completed is 34 minutes!” Dylan exclaimed.

“Guess we just got lucky. Had good management and a good team.” I said. “Look we are headed to the cafeteria to get something to drink. Want to join us for some coffee?”

Since that first day I had taken every opportunity to ask Dylan to have some coffee with me. By now he probably realized that I knew he wasn’t a coffee drinker, but his professional nature wouldn’t allow him to fall out of character. “You know Alex, I just finished a cup and if I double caffeinate I will have the jitters all day. Raincheck?”

“Sure Dylan, add that to the other 17 rain checks though and you are going to really have the jitters when I cash in those chits.” I said while laughing.

“You said you were coming to observate us dude?” Dan asked.

“Well, I’m not sure. I don’t really know what that means. But I did want to tell you all that your final clearances have all come in and you are 100% approved to begin Beta testing when we commence.”

Everyone gave high fives. This was terribly exciting. We were all ready to begin the Beta and spend some serious time in the RACs. I wasn’t the only one with a big smile on my face, and Wayne’s mad twinkle had returned to his eyes.

“Best. News. Ever. When do we commence, as you said?” Wayne asked. If he had started rubbing his hands together at this moment and blurted out an “excellent” I would not have been surprised. Evil villain Wayne was my favorite of his personalities.

“One week gentlemen. One week.”

CHAPTER 5

August 6th, 2043

One of the most important decisions had snuck up on us without any of us realizing it. The decisions we made today would by and large decide how the rest of our time in the Beta would play out. Today, yes today, we picked our races and classes.

“Alright guys, if the last six months is any indication we are going to be spending a lot of time together in the Beta. Likely we will be grouped up constantly either by personal choice or by order from AltCon to complete some task,” I told them. AltCon reps had told us that the reasons for the sub teams was for this very reason. When we joined the other sub team it was to be a mini-raid. The problem, as I saw it, is that most groups consist of six people, or five at the least. Four was going to be difficult and meant there could be no room for error.

“We are only going to have room for the essentials here, no separate support classes,” Jason said.

“Agreed yo, and we gotta be spot on with this because this will be our persona for the next year,” Dan agreed.

“I’m the tank,” Wayne stated in a very matter of fact manner. Looking at my other two team mates, I didn’t think anyone was going to argue with Wayne. I don’t think anyone else wanted to be the tank anyhow. The tank was the individual that would engage the target, called a mob (Moving Object), and make certain all of the damage came only to them. This let your healer focus their efforts on only one player and not have to switch between everyone on the team. As time went on tanks would likely acquire gear in the game that would make the mob more aggressive to them, also called taking aggro. But in those early days of low levels, a tank would often have to engage the mob for a bit before the other members joined in to establish the aggro. This could make grinding through the mobs take longer, but was safer overall.

Jason and Dan nodded in my direction. “No arguments from us Wayne. You have that tank mentality for sure. I don’t think any of us would be able to do a better job than you.”

Wayne let out a breath I don’t think he realized he had been holding. My guess is he was gearing up for a fight about who would be the tank. He now looked more relaxed and ready to engage with the group and their decision making.

“So we have tank figured out. We still need healer, DPS (Damage Per Second), and CC (Crowd Control). Does anyone WANT to be the healer?” I asked. I had my suspicions that Jason would be willing because I would likely veto Dan. And while I could do it, I didn’t really want to. Thankfully my suspicions were right.

“If it’s ok with both of you, I would like to be the healer. I have dabbled with it before and I really liked it. The only thing I ask is as we go through the game we find areas where I can do some damage too, undead and the like.”

I myself let out a sigh of relief. If Jason wanted to be able to do undead damage, this meant he wanted to not only be a healer, but be a cleric who was a full time healer and buffer. Buffs are augmentation to your character that provide bonuses for a set period of time. In the case of clerics, they could give you more life and armor to your character. They also could do serious damage against the undead as clerics were considered a holy class.

That only left DPS and CC. Again, both classes I could play fine. But I wanted to be a rogue, and the rogue was a damage dealer. Dan thought about this for a while before saying, “I think I want to be the CC guys, if it’s ok with Alex.”

“That’s great!” I said a little to enthusiastically. “You know bards are absolutely great at being CC and they also…”

“Bro, please don’t take this the wrong way and all, but I kinda want to shank you right now.”

“Wait, what?” I questioned. “What is wrong with a bard? They are one of the most versatile classes in the game.”

“And they are bards dude. Look at me. Do I look like a guy running around in tights playing with my lute? Or plucking my harp?” Dan asked.

I didn’t mean to, but I started giggling uncontrollably with that image. “See man! That is exactly what I am saying! Nope, not going to be a bard.”

“Ok, there are a few different classes that can do CC, so which one were you thinking?” Jason asked.

“Ranger dude. I will be able to snare and kite the mobs and Wayne will just pick ‘em off one by one if we pull too many.” Dan replied.

Kiting was an art form. But it appeared Dan had some experience with it. Kiting involved grabbing several mobs and then casting a spell on them that slowed their movement speed; in this case “snare.” Then the one who cast the slow spell would run around and have the mobs chase them, slowed from the spell, they never reached their target. After a group dispatched one mob, the tank would attack another until he/she gained aggro, and then the fight would begin again.

“Sounds like a plan and I like that you can add a lot of extra damage if we only get one mob at a time.” Other CC classes, like an enchanter type, who could charm a mob and make it just stand there, didn’t always offer up large DPS. But the Ranger could. “Also, you know a ranger is kind of like Robin Hood right? So good chance you will still be wearing tights.”

Ok, that just left me.

“So, with me being DPS, I was thinking rogue.” Rogues were arguably the best for DPS. Their problem in most games though was they could not fight alone, known as soloing a mob, and always had to have a group. I wasn’t worried about this because most of the time I would be online with my teammates who rounded out our team perfectly. Those other times when they were not around the rogue was also ideal.

See the rogue had a unique talent to move while almost entirely invisible without having a spell or a potion cast on them. At the lower levels the rogue moved very slowly. But at the higher levels there was no penalty for movement speed. This would allow me to map out areas that would not be accessible normally and give me an advantage on finding places for my team to fight. Where I could learn about the items that were dropped by the mobs, called loot. With all of this I would begin setting the stage for my eventual business on Resurgence as a merchant selling for real currency.

“Wayne, what were you thinking for a tank? Paladin? Warrior? Dark Paladin?” Jason asked.

“Warrior. Pure and simple. I don’t want to have to deal with casting and mana and all of that. In a fight I want to be able to just engage and swing my weapon. So I’m going to go with Barbarian Warrior.” Wayne explained. Also, Wayne just said more words in a single sentence then he had spoken in the entire day. I now saw how to get Wayne more engaged.

“I like it Wayne, and we will definitely be talking Warrior strategies soon. I want to hear your thoughts.” Wayne’s twinkle, the mad crazy eye, had returned. For some reason this gave me a warm spot in my heart.

“Wayne has also addressed another important topic we need to discuss. Race. Obviously Wayne wants to be a barbarian. Just remember the eyesight penalty at night for Human like characters Wayne. You won’t be able to see anything until we get you a magic item with a light source or lots of potions.” Wayne nodded his head but didn’t show any sign of changing his mind. I didn’t think he would.

“So for my rogue I am going to go with half-elf. I will be able to move around easily in most areas with that, plus be able to see at night. And if we need to go somewhere that has dark or evil alignment, I can always go invisible to check it out.” I offered.

All three heads nodded in agreement.

Dan would have to be either a half-elf or wood elf, as these were the only two races that could be rangers in the game. Dan went with wood elf as they got innate bonus to ranger statistics through their affinity with nature.

Lastly was Jason. There were numerous races he could choose. Dwarf, human, high elf…the list went on. In the end, I thought Jason made a smart decision and went with high elf, as they had a natural bonus to their intellect, which would be helpful with a caster. Traditionally, intellect was tied to mana. Mana was the ingredient needed to cast spells. If you didn’t have mana you couldn’t cast. Period. With a higher intellect your “Mana pool” grows larger. Once you use mana you must wait for it to regenerate. This takes time.

CHAPTER 6

August 7th, 2043

Tomorrow we would start. All of the buildup had led to a sense of excitement that could be felt in the small room the four of us were currently occupying. There was only one thing left to do.

AltCon didn’t want us wasting time with the initial character create screens when we first logged in. So they planned to have our characters ready to go, pre-loaded into the RAC before we ever stepped into the full immersion pods. They wanted all of us to experience the game for the first time at nearly the same time. This way other characters wouldn’t arrive first and influence other players about what they were seeing and feeling. This was all a part of the Beta they said.

Creating characters in a Beta is far more different than in a game where tutorials have been written and information about the game is readily available. As well as friends who may be higher levels and can help you with progressing through the game. But since we didn’t know what we would find when we logged in that first time, we had to prepare for our Character Stats to play a vital role in the game.

So here we found ourselves again, sitting around the table and deciding what stats we would add to our characters. Stats were the different levels each of our characters would start with in seven different statistics. Resurgence followed a very simple platform that had worked in several other games, and I believe they saw no reason to reinvent the wheel in this case. AltCon provided a brief explanation of each of the seven different base skills.

Strength – Strength is the heart of the Warrior, Paladin, and Dark Paladin class. Strength has a direct correlation to damage done by all hand held weapons. Additional restrictions on larger type weapons, used only by Warriors, Paladins, and Dark Paladins, will be determined by the character class and level of Strength. However, all characters will find strength a valuable skill to increase over time. The reason for this falls to the weight a character can carry as worn items or in their inventory. Pure Casters will find the weight restrictions of their items to be minimal, but their ability to carry items from gameplay could impede their movement speed should they be over loaded with weight. Over loaded characters will also lose vitality faster, drawing them closer to fatigued status where all types of damage will be reduced.

Constitution – The constitution skill is a direct correlation to the number of Hit Points (hps) a character has. All races will receive 100 hps for each point put into the constitution skill. Constitution also has a direct correlation to each character’s vitality. Characters will lose vitality while fighting or while moving while overloaded. Caster classes will lose minimal vitality for casting spells. The larger your weapon, in relation to your strength skill, the quicker your vitality will decrease during combat. Characters who become fatigued due to a loss of vitality will deal only 25% damage during battles and will have a movement speed of only 25%.

Agility – Agility is the main skill for classes that utilize a ranged attack. Rangers will find the agility skill their mainstay in Resurgence. Increased agility will have a direct correlation to the ability to hit a target with a ranged attack while also increasing the range which an attack has the ability to be successful. Each weapon in Resurgence with a “ranged” classification will have a base range that will be augmented by the agility statistic. Additionally, agility has a direct correlation to the ability of each character to avoid incoming melee attacks. Increased agility gives a greater chance of dodging an attack or using your weapon to parry an incoming attack. It has no correlation to avoiding magical attacks. Fatigued status reduces your agility to 25%

Dexterity – Dexterity is the essential skill for the damage dealer. Dexterity has a direct correlation to the chance for critical hits against a target. Certain classes, such as Rogue, Brawler, and “Tanks”, immediately start with the critical strike skill, while others will open this skill as they progress. Dexterity also has a direct correlation to the activation of special abilities on a weapon during the course of combat. The Chance skill provides a slight modifier to activating these abilities as well. Fatigued status reduces your Dexterity to 25%

Wisdom – Wisdom has a direct correlation to learning certain skills for all classes, such as languages. However, the non-intelligence based casters, such as Clerics, Druids, and Shamans, base mana regeneration and base mana pool will also be directly correlated to Wisdom. Wisdom does not increase a caster’s ability to learn spells, this is based on a characters Intelligence level. Fatigued status reduces the ability to regenerate mana for Clerics, Druids, and Shamans to 25%

Intelligence – Intelligence has a direct correlation to learning certain skills for all classes, such as trades. Classes such as Elementalist, Lich, and Wizard, utilize Intelligence as their primary skill and Intelligence directly correlates to their base mana regeneration and base mana pool. Intelligence is also directly correlated with all caster’s abilities to learn spells. Fatigued status reduces the ability to regenerate mana for Enchanters, Elementalists, Dark Casters, and Wizards to 25% and will not allow a character to learn new spells while in the fatigued state. Learning new spells will at times require knowing different languages.

Chance – Chance has the same effect on all classes and races. There are no racial or class bonuses for Chance. The Chance skill has a direct correlation to the percentage of chance a character has to finding rare items following combat. Each increase in Chance adds to this percentage. Additionally, the Chance skill creates a diameter, or “bubble” around each character where the chance of a rare spawn increases based on the character’s Chance skill. The bubble for each character increases as the Chance skill increases. Chance also adds a modifier for activating special abilities on weapons. Chance skills are not cumulative for rare items and rare respawns and in a group the character with the highest Chance skill will be the base for the group. Fatigue does not affect Chance.

After reading through each of the skills I was very impressed with how AltCon was able to weave the skills together. In other games I had seen, players would pick each skill according to their Class only, and focus only on those. For instance, your Tank only picked Strength and Constitution, and your Intelligence based caster only picked Intelligence and Constitution. But in Resurgence, if an Intelligence caster wanted to learn new spells, he would need Wisdom. I still think the basic build outs would be the norm for each class, but there would be greater spreading of skill points based on these descriptions. Each character started with a base of 1 in each of the seven, so to get to 5 Strength, one needed to add four skill points.

“Ok Wayne, you are up first. You have 25 skill points to distribute. How do you want to do this?” I asked.

I had watched Wayne scribbling away on his scratch pad for the last ten minutes. He was taking his build out very seriously. “I’ve been looking at this like a classic Tank. Lots of Strength and Constitution. But I am finding it difficult to decide how I should balance Strength and Constitution. Plus, it doesn’t say if we need Wisdom or Intelligence to earn levels in our melee skills. Tricky bastards.”

“Well let us see what you have right now and we can discuss it as a group. And since we are going to be a group for a long time, I would say we do this for each person,” Jason said to all of us.

“Ok. So as of right now I have 10 Strength (+9), 8 Constitution (+7), 3 Agility (+2), 3 Dexterity (+2), 2 Wisdom (+1), 2 Intelligence (+1), and 1 Chance. About that, I think one of us should decide on who will be the Chance master and be our group Chance modifier. So I have three skill points left and I was thinking about putting them into Constitution. What do you think? “

“Dude, I’m impressed man. That is a really good idea about the Chance thing. And I totally agree. And I think it should be someone who’s name doesn’t rhyme with Dan,” said Dan.

“I hate to say this, because he will remind me often, but I agree with Dan. It shouldn’t be him. I want him having all his skill points to make him a CC master,” Jason said.

“Five,” Dan said.

“Five what?”

“Five times he has agreed with me. I’ve been counting.” Jason smacked his forehead. This had become a common occurrence around Dan. And even the stoic Jason had begun doing so. It just made Dan feel loved.

“Well before we get into the whole Chance thing, let’s talk about Wayne’s build. I like it too. But I am thinking instead of what you have now, you try it like this. Strength 9, Constitution 10, 3 Agility, 5 Dexterity, 2 Wisdom, 2 Intelligence, 1 Chance. Dexterity will add to your ability to Critical Strike and maintain aggro while you tank. And you are going to want those hps at first since it will take a bit for you to solidify aggro before we join the fight,” I said.

Jason looked at the build some more and then said, “I disagree, but only a little bit. I think one of you guys, Alex and Wayne, should put 1 point in Intelligence and the other one in Wisdom. Since you guys will likely be leveling up the same skills in melee, we see which one goes up faster. Based on that you can add extra after your next level. And this way we aren’t just guessing.”

“Brilliant idea Jason! And then add that extra one into either Strength or Constitution. Or whatever you want,” I said.

“Good call Jason. I’ll do Intelligence if you want to do Wisdom Alex?”

I nodded and said, “Ok, so what is the final build out. And if you guys are ok with it, I will be our “Chance master” as Wayne put it.”

Everyone nodded and Wayne said, “Works for me. Ok, so now I am Strength 9, Constitution 11, 3 Agility, 5 Dexterity, 1 Wisdom, 2 Intelligence, and 1 Chance.”

“Now that’s a tank! You gonna be unstoppable bro. You should wear an eyepatch!” Dan said.

“Why the hell would I wear an eyepatch Dan?”

“Bro, have you ever seen anyone in history that didn’t look more badass than dudes with eyepatches? No. Case rested.”

* * *

We talked through our character build outs at length and I found that not only was it good for making our classes, but it also added yet another level of bonding between myself and my group. I really felt like I knew these guys, and working so closely with them I felt like I knew their quirks. Not yet their weaknesses and strengths in game, but I was way more comfortable with them.

In the end, each character was as follows:

Dan – 6 Strength (+5), 6 Constitution (+5), 10 Agility (+9), 3 Dexterity (+2), 5 Wisdom (+4), 1 Intelligence, 1 Chance

Jason – 3 Strength (+2), 6 Constitution (+5), 3 Agility (+2), 1 Dexterity, 13 Wisdom (+12), 5 Intelligence (+4), 1 Chance

Alex – 6 Strength (+5), 6 Constitution (+5), 5 Agility (+4), 7 Dexterity (+6), 2 Wisdom (+1), 1 Intelligence, 5 Chance (+4)

Dan figured he would be classified as a non-intelligence based caster and therefore put points into Wisdom in order to establish a mana pool that would be able to handle more than one spell being cast before having to regenerate all his mana. The addition to Agility was obvious. Jason’s build was a classic Cleric build. Unfortunately, we didn’t know about the skills and how they worked together the previous day when we picked our races. I asked Jason if he questioned the High-Elf and if he wanted to change as High Elf got an intelligence bonus and not a Wisdom bonus. But Jason was happy as he too saw that AltCon was weaving the two disciplines together and that he didn’t have to beef up Intelligence much with his High-Elf Racial bonus. I was also happy he put points into Constitution and Agility. Never underestimate the Cleric that can avoid and/or take a hit.

My build was slued slightly because of my agreement to be the character with the highest Chance. Being the rogue I would normally have a higher Dexterity so I could land Critical Strike more often. But I also needed to have Agility and Constitution because if the Tank went down, there was a good chance my level of damage would make me next on the target’s aggro list and I would need to survive long enough for the Cleric to start landing heals on me. But I was still happy with my build.

There was only one more order of business. And my teammates were far more excited about this part of the game than I was. It wasn’t that I was or was not excited. I just didn’t care. But to them, this was to become their identity.

“Come on dude! You can’t just call your character Alex! That’s dumb! You need to have a bawler name like Hotboy Escobar or something. Who calls their avatar Alex?” Dan ranted on while walking around the table.

“It’s a game, and it’s a Beta, so these characters won’t even be around when the game goes live. Alex will be just fine. What are you guys going to choose?” I asked the group. And just like that they all became tight lipped. They looked like they would more likely tell me their Social Security Numbers and their bank account numbers than they were willing to tell me the names for their avatars.

“Well since you guys aren’t going to spill, I say we call it an early day and go home and get some rest. Tomorrow is the big day and I know I want to be well rested for this,” I said.

For once, Wayne wasn’t the only one with that twinkle in his eye. They all had it. Myself included.

CHAPTER 7

August 8th, 2043

The download was now at 94%.

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.

I wasn’t getting out of my RAC, what with the emergency latch not working. And I didn’t know what would happen if I kept panicking. I needed to calm down.

In my third year of college I had taken two classes on meditation. One was through Yoga, which also satisfied a PE credit. The other was an elective tied to my Philosophy major. Yeah, third year was the “free your mind” and “all viewpoints are the right viewpoints” phases of my life. That one I am not terribly proud of. However, I did take away one thing from that year. And that was how to slow my respiration and heartbeat through meditation.

I didn’t know what would happen if I entered into the game with me in a complete panic, but I also didn’t want to start finding out either. I started using a breathing technique where you breathe in for seven seconds and exhale in eight seconds. You do this four times. I didn’t really have that much time, so I modified it a bit and breathed in for four seconds and out for four seconds. The rhythm and the effort seemed to do the trick. My heart slowed down and my breathing became less rushed.

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.

I laid flat in the RAC and just tried to ease all my muscles and focus on my breathing. The red light wasn’t helping. Nor the alarm. Or the blinking messages.

The download was at 99%.

ERROR.

And then as before when I was at the AltCon building, what I can only describe as hyperspace lines raced past my eyes, and the next thing I knew I was in the middle of a forest. And I was cold. And I was alone.

* * *

On that last day at AltCon, Dylan had told me that all of us would be logging in to the main starter town for “Light” alignment. Those with “Dark” alignment like Dark Elves or Trolls would start in a different town. So I was surprised that I was in the forest and not in Port Town as I thought I would be.

I took a moment to just look around. It was night time so the forest wasn’t perfectly clear, despite my innate ability to see in the dark. However, I could see the trees in front of me and the realism was amazing. I could see the growth of the bark. I could see each individual leaf on the branches. The loamy smell was reminiscent of forests I visited as a child. I continued to walk around and tried to take in as many sensations as I could. I felt the roughness of the leaves, and the granularity of the grass. I let the pine needles that had accumulated at the base of one of the trees run through my fingers. A pine cone nestled by my foot had prickly ends, just like they would in the real world. It wasn’t that the game was making a fantasy world seem real. It was that the virtual world seemed almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Turning my attention away from the flora, I took a prolonged look in my area not recognizing any immediate threats. Which, to be honest, was the reason I should have been gauging my surroundings to begin with.

I looked around some more and could see what appeared to be a different coloration in the night sky off to my right. At this point I didn’t know what was east or west, so I just headed in that direction. After several minutes of walking through the forest I heard someone yelling my name.

“Alex! Hey, Alex! Stay there, we are coming to you.”

Dan, Jason, and Wayne arrived a few minutes later. It was easy to figure out who was who based on their races. Dan was wearing a light colored tunic, had a bit of a bowl cut hair style, and had very pronounced pointy ears. Jason likewise had very pointy ears, but was much taller than Dan, who I could now see was the shortest of our group. Jason also had a light colored tunic on and had a regal look about him. High Elf fit him very well. The last of our party, Wayne, was so much taller than the rest of us. If this were real life, I would have put Wayne at just under seven feet tall. And while all of us seemed to be wearing a tunic of some sort, Wayne only had a loin cloth. And a mullet. I tried to focus on the mullet and not the other item of note.

“Dude, how did you end up out here? We all popped online and started looking for you. After a bit it was Jason’s idea to come out to the forest and look for you. I guess my Class comes with a much better map and I was able to spot there was a character out here. I’m glad we guessed right and it was you,” Dan said.

At this point Jason cleared his throat and looked pointedly at Dan.

“Oh right, sorry, I mean to say that Allister, in all his High Elfiness, had that great idea.”

It was at this time that I noticed over their heads were their names. None of them said Dan, Jason, or Wayne.

“I like it. Allister suits you very well my friend. And Naugha seems like a fitting name for a Barbarian. And then there is Dan.”

“Yeah man.”

“Dan, Dan, Dan.”

“I know man, wicked right?”

“Dan, you are actually calling your character TheClaw?” I asked.

“Dude, TheClaw is an awesome name! I will strike fear in the hearts of man and all will know TheClaw!” Dan yelled.

A forehead slap seemed appropriate but I could tell Dan wouldn’t appreciate it. He was really proud of the name. Despite it being totally and completely ridiculous.

“I’m calling you TC from now on. I’m not saying “TheClaw” every time I need to get your attention,” I said.

“TheClaw doesn’t appreciate his name being shortened to just two letters bro,” Dan said while looking my way.

“Jesus. He’s going to start talking in the third person. Please Alex, please, do something!” Jason said.

I was laughing too much to really intervene, and I could see that Jason’s reaction was just what Dan was hoping for.

“Don’t worry Alli, TheClaw totally has your back! No one is going to mess with our cleric as long as TheClaw is on the prowl.”

“It’s Allist…you know what? Forget it. Let’s just get to the game.” Jason replied.

If nothing else, Dan was sure to provide us with more moments of levity in the year to come. And while Jason seemed to dread every time Dan opened his mouth, I found it all quite entertaining. And if Dan ended up being good at his class and could handle the CC like we hoped, I suspect we would all forgive quite a bit of his quirky personality. I thought this was a good time to get everyone focused back on the game and away from Dan’s antics.

Wayne was thinking along the same lines as myself. “Alright, let’s get back to Port Town and start figuring out where to go from there.”

I didn’t want the guys to start running off on their own. I was looking at this in a very logical and linear way, which I knew would be necessary from the outset. I was loathing to take on the leadership role again, as I told the guys I wanted a lot more inclusion from the group, but I knew I didn’t want us to just run out and start killing mobs either. Yes, leveling was going to be one of our first priorities, but I wanted us to do it smart. Work smarter, not harder I believe is the saying.

We headed back to town, and I saw that I hadn’t spawned all that far from the main gate. The fact that everyone else spawned inside town, and I out in the forest, was still worrying me in the back of my mind. I figured it had something to do with me trying to cancel the download and it not working. All of those error messages must have messed with my spawn point. That was fine when you spawned just outside of the town and nothing attacks you. Not so good if it did so again and I found myself deep in an area with hostile mobs.

As we got closer to the town I saw that there was a wall running around the entirety of the town to the coast line. It was called Port Town after all. There were a few guards out in front of the gate that allowed entry to the town. There were also several players running around fighting bunnies that were numerous just outside the gate. While I was taking all of this in a player ran right past our group yelling “INCOMING!”

I didn’t hesitate. “Run guys. Run now. Head for the gate but try to pass by the guards!”

We hoofed it to the gate, with Wayne slightly ahead of us and gaining ground. I would need to look into that. It was either a racial bonus or due to the amount he put into Strength and Constitution that allowed him to have a faster movement speed than the rest of us.

We arrived just in time as I saw a line of five or six bunnies coming our way. The guards dispatched them in mere seconds. They were starter mobs after all. The Halfling who had run by us approached very sympathetically. “I’m so so sorry guys. I was just trying to see how the mobs would react to me getting close, you know, see if they would aggro. And before I knew it I had a bunch chasing after me.”

The name over his head read “Sayhey.” But I didn’t need to ask who he was. It was Gary from our large group. I could tell because, despite being half as tall, the face looking at me was Gary’s face. It was at this point I looked at Dan, Jason, and Wayne. And just like Gary, they all had their own faces. I imagined mine looked similar as well. Dear lord, AltCon was going to make a fortune off this new technology. Because if you could put Gary’s face on a three-foot-tall Halfling and make it look natural, you could put any face on anybody.

“It’s no problem Gary, these things happen. Thanks for yelling incoming though. I don’t want to see where my respawn point is just yet.” Wayne said. Gary didn’t look surprised at all that we recognized him. “All good guys. Heading back to the others, and I’m sure we will be grouping up soon. Laters!” Gary said as he ran off toward the center of Town.

I was in agreement with Wayne. I did not want to find out where my respawn point was either. Especially since I spawned that first time in the forest. I knew that traditionally when a character dies they will respawn at a designated point and then have to travel back to their body, unless they can get that body resurrected. Resurrection required a very high level cleric so none of us were going to be receiving that for a while. On top of that, respawn points in other games were always somewhere safe, like in a city. Such as Port Town. This was good when you died and you didn’t want your character to respawn in the middle of nowhere surrounded by angry mobs. But it sucks if you have to travel great distances to get your body with all of your gear on it.

We headed toward the center of town where I could clearly make out a square with a fountain in it. I had no idea what or who the sculpture was supposed to represent sitting in the middle of the fountain, high on a pedestal. I was more interested in the number of other people sitting around the square. There were quite a few groups, but not as many as I thought there would be considering the numbers mentioned by AltCon. Several moments later a group of eight people shimmered into existence. And then ten seconds later, eight more. I saw that we hadn’t all logged on to the Beta at the same time.

My teammates and I walked over to one of the corners of the square and took seats at a picnic like table. All of their eyes were on me. I decided for this moment I would take the initiative and wear the leadership role. “You guys, I have a bunch of ideas on where to start. I’m going to throw them out there, and I want you to interject if you think there is a better way than mine. Hell, I need you to interject. Because the faster we get through this first phase, the faster we get to leveling and having some real fun.” All of them nodded their heads.

“First things first,” I said “We need to figure out how to form a group. I am hoping that in a group we will be able to see everyone’s status and make it easier to know when the other is in trouble. So before we do anything else, let’s figure out the interface for the game.”

There was a shimmer of eight more people arriving, and before we could delve into our interfaces, the sky started going dark, with ominous clouds rolling in. I thought this awfully cheesy on the part of AltCon. But hey, that is what Beta is for, so we can tell them what works and what doesn’t. Most players think it is just the in game functions that the company wants to hear about and test. Are there any glitches or bugs? Does the interface do what it is supposed to? But a good Beta team will also give honest feedback on the story line and details around the game so that the overall experience is better as well.

From out of nowhere there was suddenly a voice, whose rich sounds could be heard clearly in the square. I ventured to guess this sound was being pumped directly into each of our RACs and we all heard it at the same volume, no matter where we were in the game.

The land of Tholtos has seen one thousand seasons of peace and prosperity. All races in our lands have lived under the Truce of Perdition for generations. The realms of King Kameron, stretching from the Mason Mountains in the North, to the Globi Desert in the South; from the Serene Sea in the West, to the Uncharted Lands east of the Foresworn Forest, have not known aggression in the minds of any man, woman, or child living. But a new danger has arisen. Long thought lost to the annals of lore, and only known through rumors and tales told to frighten children, an unspeakable evil has returned. Rising out of the wastes past the Uncharted Lands, the embodiment of hate and corruption awakens. Brave Rangers have uncovered the remnants of a time long past and the still beating heart of a people long thought dead. The Children of Loust. Winding through the Uncharted Lands and approaching from all sides, the Children of Loust bring with them a Resurgence of evil into our kingdom. The Children of Loust see all within the Kingdom as enemies and will stop at nothing to eradicate one and all from these lands. Without brave heroes, there will be no future for our children! The call has gone out! All heroes and adventures willing to fight the hordes of evil, know that your King is behind you and waiting for you to answer the call!

I had wondered early on, in the discussions we had in our groups if we would be pitted against the dark forces in Resurgence. If Humans and the other “good” aligned characters would have to do battle against those who had an “evil” alignment. But it appeared now that the major antagonist of this game, the Children of Loust, would not differentiate between good and evil. This made grouping for raids easier if you wanted to have Barbarians with Ogres or Trolls. At least one question had now been answered.

There was another flashing light and there was suddenly a man in full armor standing in the middle of the square. This was likely the NPC, or Non-Player Character, who would be responsible for the quest. Unlike the mobs, who were also NPCs, the ones that gave quests would not normally attack you, although it has been known to happen. In essence, the NPC was generated by the Artificial Intelligence of the game to play out a certain script. In this case, to further the story line.

“Who will answer the call?” He bellowed out. Definitely the NPC quest giver.

“Well, looks like we know where our first quest comes from,” Dan said. Players began lining up to interact with the new comer and it looked like each was given a quest. As each player turned to leave, they were enveloped with a bright light, which appeared to signify they had accepted a quest. My team continued to look on at the scene, not moving from our seats. We were in receive mode, soaking up all the data before deciding how to go forward.

“I am betting this is the beginning of a major arc quest. It starts here but likely goes from one quest to the next with an eventual massive reward, with lots of other rewards in between,” Jason said. “We should definitely get in on this, but I don’t think we need to rush to it just yet. If this is THE big arc quest, that guy will always be here I am betting.”

I was in total agreement with Jason on this one. Besides, I wanted to learn about our characters before we started running around and doing quests. The more time we spent on this beforehand, the better our chances for success would be. “If it’s ok with everyone, before we start accepting quests, I suggest we get to know how this whole game works.” They all nodded agreement.

* * *

“So let’s start with the interface. We don’t want to accidentally try to say “hi” to someone and end up attacking instead,” I said. These things were definitely known to happen in adventure games. “So let’s figure out how we even use these interfaces and go through our basic commands.”

Everyone took on a bit of a faraway look as they started to activate their interfaces. In the old school days of gaming you would have a keyboard and a mouse in front of you, and that is how you would interact with your character and your surroundings. But all that had changed with the introduction of virtual reality. In the earliest models you would need to have your pod strapped on and at the least a set of gloves. One would give a verbal command, such as “inventory,” and your inventory would open up. Using your hands, connected to your gloves, you would manipulate what was in the inventory. You could also set up your character so that verbal commands would do other actions. For instance, if you were a Tank and you wanted to engage a target you would first need to select who you wanted to attack by using your glove interface to reach out toward the general area of the mob. This would show the mob as being selected. Then you could say something like, “Attack 1” and your character would “Bash” the mob, attack it with your weapon, and give it a “Kick.” All of this would follow in that sequence according to your command. Some characters would specialize their commands, which you would hear them yelling in game. A Wizard might say, “Time to rest,” meaning his character would sit down to meditate and regain mana. They could just as easily say “meditate,” but this allowed players to customize the game for themselves.

It seemed the only verbal command necessary in Resurgence was the word “Interface.” We were told this before entering into the game on this first day, but the designers would tell us nothing more about how to interact in the game, as this was part of the Beta. I whispered the word, barely audible to my own ears, and several icons appeared before my eyes. I immediately noted icons that were common place in all games. A picture of a backpack, which I guessed represented my inventory. A rolled up scroll that I assumed would list my current quests, and possibly old quests. I also saw a picture of an envelope. Although people stopped sending envelopes a decade ago, the symbol had lived on and likely represented the mailing system.

There were other icons as well, and to be honest the interface was a jumble of information and it was all over the place. I knew I would need to set up special menus to clear up some of this mess, but was still trying to figure out how it all worked.

“Oh, very cool! You can customize the interface. They have pre-settings in place that will move all these damn icons around,” Dan said. I heard him mumbling, common in Virtual Reality when a character was interacting with their interface, and then said, “There we go, much cleaner now. Guys, go into your sub-system settings and select team mode.”

I started whispering my instructions and heard the other two doing the same. Dan was right. This was much better. My inventory, quests, and mail were all in small boxes along the right side of my interface. Across the bottom were 10 empty locations where icons could be placed. On the left was a small Icon with a “+” sign. I imagined that was to add team members to the group and I immediately tried to figure out how to make it work. I started to move my hand in front of my face to put my hand over the + sign when I heard Dan say “Woah!”

I paused mid-reach and waited. Dan had discovered something and I figured it had to do with the interfaces. And true to form, “Holy shitballs man! You just use your eyes!”

I had no idea what he was talking about. “Explain Dan.”

“First call me TheClaw.”

“Really, you are going to go that far into Character like Allister here is?”

“No dude. Not ‘First, call me TheClaw. I said you have to first call me TheClaw. As in you don’t get nada unless you say my name!”

I couldn’t help it, I started laughing. “You are a total ass clown Dan, but I love it. Fine. TheClaw, can you tell me what you found?”

“Ah yes. The sounds of sweet victory.” Dan said quite smugly. I planned on getting him back for this one. “So, as it turns out, because we are in a complete and total immersion, even our eyeballs tracking what is on the screen is being picked up by the sensors. Don’t move your hand, just focus on an icon with your eyes. And then when it is illuminated, say ‘open.’ Just like that you will see things pop up.”

Dan was totally right. Doing just as he instructed I opened my inventory. It was empty, with the exception of a dagger, some bread, and some water. I had no gear, so this was to be expected. But still this wasn’t a totally liberating experience. I still had to keep saying things to make them work. I had hoped that with the total immersion there would be freer movement. I was looking at the mail icon, which was illuminated, and closed my eyes for a second to think about what to look at next, when I opened them because I remembered I still needed to form the group. And there in front of me was my mailbox, open and ready for view. I looked at the inventory icon and did the same thing. Closed my eyes for a second and when I opened them, the inventory was gone. This was epic!

“Guys! Guys!” I exclaimed. “Just look at the icon and then close your eyes for a second!”

I could hear everyone exclaim when it worked. This was definitely an improvement. The freedom to access your inventory in the middle of doing something else and not having to move your hands led me to believe that you could possibly do the same with items. Focus on the item till it was illuminated and then click your eyes to activate it. There were still lots to be tested here, but I could see all the different possibilities opening before me.

Now to make the group. First I looked at the “+” sign again until it was illuminated and blinked my eyes quickly. Nothing happened. Good to know. It required a premeditated act, in this case closing the eyes for longer than just a blink. I still had the “+” sign illuminated so I “clicked” my eyes close on the icon and a window enlarged, empty at this time. I then looked over at Dan and focused only on Dan. This put a highlight around Dan. I was going to take it that this meant I had selected Dan. To test my theory, I ran my eyes over Wayne and Jason but did not focus on them. My target remained Dan. This was good and bad. If I needed to change mobs in the middle of a fight I would have to focus away from the one I was attacking. That could spell death in the middle of the fight. Oh well, another thing to figure out later. For now, I wanted to get this party formed.

While still illuminating Dan, I whispered “invite.”

“Cool! A box just popped up in front of me that said ‘Alex has invited you to join a group. Do you accept?’ Under that line is a smaller box with the word ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’ I’m going to do the verbal confirmation here to test that. Yes,” he said.

I now had TheClaw as one of my group members. While I couldn’t tell what level Dan was by looking at him, as there was no indicator above his name as to what his level was, I could now see as much in my group box. He was, as you can imagine, level 1. I tried to figure out some way to use just visual cues to invite Jason to the group, but in the end I still had to say the word ‘invite.” Jason accepted using only the eye clicking method. Wayne tapped accept with his finger to see if that worked, and it did.

CHAPTER 8

Now that the group was formed it was time to look at our individual stats. In the top left portion of the screen, just above the group box, was a small icon with a silhouette of an upper body. I focused on this icon and blinked. A new window was in front of me that showed my character in the middle, wearing only a tunic, and a number of open slots for gear and jewelry. On the right side was my individual statistics. Each character would be seeing the same thing. I studied my character and saw the following stats:

Racial Bonus: Half-Elf Vision: Half-Elf can see clearly in near darkness. Half-Elf cannot see in total darkness.

Class Bonus: Rogue has innate ability to perform Critical Strike from level 1.

I looked again to make sure I was seeing this right. And there it was, according to my character, my Chance was at 50 and not the 5 I thought I had started with. I didn’t understand why this was and thought it could have to do with the errors I received as I logged in. I didn’t mention this to the other team mates as I wanted to see if the next time I logged in this fixed itself. If not, I would need to report my findings to the Beta team.

Instead I focused on my other statistics. It appeared that each point of Strength gave you 10 attack. And each point of Constitution gave you 100 hps. This made sense in the overall scheme of things.

“Ok. I have 60 attack and 600 hit points and a movement speed of 10. I don’t have any mana for obvious reasons, and all of my resistances are at 0. I have a racial-bonus of Half-Elf vision which means I can see in near dark, but not absolute dark. And I get the class bonus of being able to perform Crit Strike with daggers at level 1. That’s it for me,” I said to the group.

“Weird,” Jason said. “I don’t have any mana either. Oh, wait. when I focused on the Mana portion of my character screen it said this will not unlock until I have achieved level 3. Otherwise I have 30 attack and 600 hit points as well. My resistance to Dark is at 100 and I’m immune to Holy. All the rest of my resistances are at 0. But my intelligence went up +2 as a High Elf.”

“Man I tell you, Warrior is where it is at!” Wayne exclaimed. “I’ve got 100 attack and 1300 hit points! I got a +1 to Strength and +2 to Constitution for being a Barbarian. And then I got Crit strike for all weapons as well from level 1 for being a Warrior!”

“That is wicked bro! And resistances at 0 too?” Dan asked.

“Ummm, no. Apparently Barbarians are a bit superstitious. Literally says that when I focus on the Dark and Holy resistances on my screen. So I have -15 Dark and -15 Holy. But the rest are at 0. I also have a movement speed of 11. Oh, and like Alex said before, I can’t see anything at night.”

“So that just leaves me,” Dan said. “Well I didn’t get any bonuses to Strength or Constitution so my attack and hit points are the same as Alex. As a Wood Elf I did get a +2 to Agility. My resistances are all at 0. But with Wood Elf I also got a racial hit that “dark” alignment encounters will have increased hostility toward Wood Elfs. Means I’m getting more aggro. As a Ranger I also get the ability to do Crit Strike with arrows from Level 1. “

I went back into my inventory and looked at my weapon. It was a simple “Rusted Dagger” with an attack modifier of 2. I wasn’t sure this thing could cut through fruit, let alone bunnies, but I was going to find out. “What does everyone have as weapons?”

“Rusted War Hammer,” said Wayne.

“Rusted Mace,” Jason said next.

“Recruit’s Bow and a Quiver of Recruit Arrows,” Dan said. “The Bow gives a modifier of 1 and the arrows give a modifier of 1 as well. And the bow has a range of 15 and the arrows have a range of 0.”

“My mace has a modifier of 2 as well,” Jason explained.

“Guess because I’m the tank mine has a modifier of 3. But it is also two handed so I couldn’t use a shield like Jason…sorry, Allister could,” Wayne finished.

“Alright, let’s equip these weapons and make our way over to the front gate. Before we go accept the quest there is still something I want to check out, if you guys don’t mind.”

“Nah, Alex. So far you are running this ship just fine. I bet it will be awhile before people learn the trick with the blinking. I can see over by the gate people waving their hands around,” Wayne said.

Once I equipped my dagger, my Attack went from 60 to 80. Which made sense with the modifier being a “2” for the dagger. The dagger also had a speed of 1. I figured this indicated how quickly I could swing my blade. Wayne’s hammer was at 1.3. In the future, with better weapons I expected to be swinging with much faster speeds. This is why Rogues were the damage dealers. We were almost ready to wreak havoc on this world. But there was still one more thing I wanted to test.

* * *

“You want me to attack something Alex, but you don’t want me to kill it?” Wayne asked.

“That’s right Wayne.”

“And then you want me to run away from it like a scared little girl?”

“Well I wouldn’t say run away. More like a tactical retreat for the sake of gathering intelligence,” I replied.

“It’s a bunny rabbit dude. I can kill it and bring back the intelligence!”

“Wayne, I am not questioning your abilities here. Seriously, this is just for the sake of figuring out what our regeneration is. You see,” and here I decided to play up to Wayne’s warrior mentality, “I’m worried that if you do attack it full on, you won’t even get hurt enough for us to see how long it takes to regen.”

“Alright, that makes sense. I’ll head over there now and attack one. You want me to just let it hit me for a bit and then run it past the guards and come back here?” Wayne asked.

We were back sitting just inside the gate, near the square. We would only need to do this once, and then we could head on out. I also wanted to see just how hard these wee little rabbits hit for. This was a game after all, and I think Wayne was going to be in for a bit of a surprise.

It wasn’t thirty seconds before we started seeing Wayne’s life bar start to go down. It wasn’t fast but it certainly wasn’t slow either. And then it started to speed up. Ten seconds later Wayne came running into the square heading for us.

“Son of a bitch! Those things hit like trucks man! And who the fuck ever heard of bunny venom?” Wayne yelled!

Others around the square started to laugh, and another Barbarian shouted, “Fuckin too right man! We need to make some bunny stew!”

It appeared that others had encountered the truck like hitting bunnies earlier on. But now was not the time to laugh at Wayne. That would come later. Now was the time to test regeneration.

“How fast is your life going down now?” I asked.

“This venom is taking off 10 points a tick. It’s not much but if it lasts forever it will kill me without a cure,” Wayne answered.

A tick was a length of time for either mana or hit points to regenerate or for a poison to deplete a portion of your hit points or mana. One tick in Resurgence was 5 seconds. A minute later and the poison disappeared from Wayne. He was now at 700 hps. The bunny had done a number on him.

“Ok, I want you to stay still and tell me how many hit points you regain from standing.” I said.

After 20 seconds Wayne replied, “Looks like I get three hit points for every tick while standing. Let me try sitting.” After another 20 seconds he said, “Ok, looks like I get 8 per tick while sitting. So if Wayne were to go down to nearly 0 hit points, our team would need to sit around for almost 10 minutes for him to regenerate. That would make the grinding very slow. Wayne was also able to look back through his logs and see that the poison lasted for one minute. Meaning it would take 120 hit points from Wayne no matter what.

The last order of business was for us to create an attack icon in our interfaces that would allow us to engage the mob. I asked Wayne what he had done.

“Well mostly I just ran up to it. It just attacked me. Definitely designed to aggro anyone that gets too close of a certain level. And I didn’t attack because I knew you were worried that I would crush it.” I let Wayne have this moment since we both knew he got his ass handed to him by a bunny rabbit.

We played with the interface a bit until we realized that we needed to focus on the item we wanted to select, blinked, and then focused on the icon slot we wanted it to go into at the bottom of the screen. Alternatively, we could have used our hand to move the icon by “tapping” it with our finger. But this group was trying to hone the hands off approach. I also wanted to make sure we didn’t all start targeting different mobs if more than one was engaged. At this point in our leveling we would probably just hoof it, but better to learn good practices now.

But first, Dan had been eerily silent for a while. And this scared me more than anything.

“Hey there TC, what you doing?” I asked.

“Reading bro, there is a manual,” he replied.

“What part are you reading?” I asked. I was now far more interested.

“I’ve been going through all the icons man, trying to figure out what they all mean. I came across the manual. So I’m just reading it,” Dan responded.

“Right. I get that. But what part are you reading?” I asked again.

“Dude. Dummy. All of it. Photo Memory remember?”

“As much as it pains me to say this, and stop shaking your head Jas…I mean Allister, but we are going to need to get a tutorial from Dan later. For now, how do I make sure that we are all hitting the same thing? How do we make sure we are just fighting whatever Wayne is fighting?”

“It’s pretty ingenious bro. And once we get more skills, this thing is really going to take off. The AI in this game has to be totally sick, and the sensors around our noggin are doing way more than we realize. But whatever. In order to do that we need to do some vocalization. It says it here in the manual. But other places where we have found ways to use our eyes, it doesn’t say that. So I am looking out specifically for those things where we do so we don’t waste our time blinking all day.” My head hurt just trying to process everything Dan just said.

“Great. So what do we do?”

“Open the attack icon on your screen. Then say ‘insert command.’ Once you do that a little window will pop open. For pick up groups you can just say ‘Follow attack of slot 1,’ which is the first dude in your group. It doesn’t matter when people join the group, you can move their slots around in your personal interface. Pretty ingenious. But in our case, you can actually say ‘Follow attack of Naugha’ and never have to worry about that.”

I had to agree, that actually was pretty bad ass. And we were ready now to see how this all worked out. First stop was the quest giver in the square. I figured the bunnies out front could be the first step to the quest, and I didn’t want to waste time killing when we could be questing. This had been months in the making, but we were finally going to start our first adventure!

CHAPTER 9

“Jesus Christ man! Run for the guards! Run, run run!” Dan yelled.

What we were running from was possibly the least successful first pull in the history of gaming. Without CC and heals, we were planning on just beating whatever mobs we came across until Jason and Dan got spells. But in order to establish our hierarchy, we sent Dan out for the pull. And he did pull. Only I think it was all of them.

“Hide your children! The nightmare bunny express is coming to town! INCOMING!” Dan was yelling at the top of his lungs as he sprinted toward the gate.

We all made it safe and sound, and the area outside the gate would be cleared of bunnies for a bit after the guards slaughtered what looked like dozens of them. Dan was panting on the ground, out of breath. I saw this as a learning point if nothing else.

“Dan, what is your vitality at?” I asked.

“It’s good man, I’ve got lots of Agility, so I didn’t eat up too much. I could have run for a bit longer.”

“Good to know!” I responded.

* * *

What should have been a simple beginning to what was a simple quest obviously hadn’t started that way. Before going out to see Dan’s rendition of the Bunny Train That Could, we had stopped by the quest giver at the center of town. His title said Sir Northampton Kenyon.

“Good day to you Sir Kenyon,” Jason began.

“Ah, good High-Elf, how are you on this fine day? Have you and your band of adventurers come to answer the call?” The Knight asked.

“Yes, Sir Kenyon we wish to answer the call,” Jason responded.

“While I am certain you speak for yourself good Elf, I am afraid you cannot speak for the rest of your friends as you are not the leader of this merry band. Perhaps your leader could request the same.” Simple point to note, but an important one. For a group quest the group leader needed to trigger the acceptance of the quest. I stepped forward and went through the same motions as Jason.

“I admire your bravado, but his Highness does not have a need for more mouths to feed that cannot produce results. There will be a challenge of sorts that you each must pass in order to continue toward raising the fame of your name throughout the lands of Tholtos. The first step is an easy one. Beyond these walls you will find a clearing where the fleetest of creatures scamper to and fro. Do not be fooled. These are vile beasts with a venom that could incapacitate or kill a child. Slaughter these beasts and return to me when you have completed the job.”

A quest window appeared in my screen and I saw that I needed to kill ten bunnies before I could return to Sir Kenyon. However, once I hit the accept button the new number was a group number. And we had to kill forty bunnies. This was an easy way to ensure that one did not get their kill count and leave before the rest of the group succeeded in attaining their goals as well. Once we had all accepted, and were enveloped by the same shimmering light we had seen earlier, we made for the front gate where our journey would begin.

* * *

“So you thought, what, that you would just get this done and over with and pull all forty at the same time?” I asked a bit exasperated.

Dan laughed and said, “Nah man, believe it or not, I totally had a plan. See, I went and aggro’ed my first rabbit, and then had him attacking me for a bit. With my Agility I was able to avoid a few of its hits. Then I ran around and collected a whole bunch more mobs. Then ran to the guards,” he explained.

“And the point of that was?” Wayne asked.

“I know exactly where that first rabbit came from, bro. Now when it respawns I will be able to bring it, and only it, for our first fight. The others won’t respawn before I am able to grab it and bring it back. I can’t do this every time, but at least for our first kill we will get to do it as a single mob,” Dan said.

We all looked at each other and it was Jason, who grudgingly said, “Damn it Dan! That’s brilliant. I hate that you have these moments of total awesomeness.”

Dan beamed from Jason’s praise. Wayne and I just laughed. Dan headed back out to the field to get ready for the respawn of the rabbit and to bring our first mob to kill as a group. “Look sharp everyone. Obviously there won’t be any heals coming. Wayne establishes aggro and after he engages for five seconds we will jump in. If the rabbit turns to attack you just stop attacking. Don’t run. Give Wayne a chance to reestablish aggro,” I ordered.

Wayne asked, “How about you give me 10 seconds Alex, since this Rusted War Hammer is a little slow?”

“Sounds good Wayne. Now everyone get ready, here comes Dan.”

“The group function on this game is really cool man. Even out there in the field I could hear your orders Alex. Oh yeah, incoming!” Dan yelled.

Dan ran past Wayne and brought the rabbit immediately into his line of sight. Wayne didn’t waste any time and swung his hammer at the rabbit. It immediately stopped in front of Wayne and began attacking me. I had seen the rabbits running around but this was the first time I had seen one up close. I had focused on the rabbit and my RAC designated it as my target. Above its head was the name Venomous Bunny Rabbit and the name was shaded blue. This meant that the mob was probably a level or two above my own, so level 2 or 3. I was guessing here, but I was figuring AltCon was using a standard means for classifying mobs by color code. Green was at least two levels below you, white was at your level, blue was one or two levels above you, yellow was three or four, and red was five and above. After 10 seconds, with the rabbit’s hit points slightly going down and Wayne’s descending a bit faster, Wayne made the call. “Engage!”

Dan, Jason, and I went behind the Venomous Bunny Rabbit and began swinging our weapons. I only had the one dagger, Jason had his mace, and Dan was slightly behind us shooting arrows. Each of my strikes was doing 5-10 damage. But the rabbit’s hit points were going down at a much faster rate. After just 15 more seconds, the rabbit died and we all cheered. We must have looked like complete idiots jumping around and high fiving each other around a rabbit corpse. “The honor is yours Alex,” Jason said.

As the leader of the group I was also the master looter for each mob. This meant I would inspect the rabbit to see if it had any loot and then distribute properly. I didn’t expect much on these rabbits given their low level. Wanting to avoid actually touching the thing, what with how realistic the game made the sense of touch, I just focused on the rabbit and blinked. My intuition was right and the loot screen popped up. I received one copper piece, silly rabbit must have swallowed that, and nothing else. The counter on my quest bar now read 1/40 for rabbits killed. I had also earned 5% experience. At the lower levels getting experience was fast. It wasn’t until you passed lvl 10 or so in most games that you really had to grind to get through levels.

“We are rich gentlemen! The rabbit had one copper piece cheeked. Hopefully we find three more so I can distribute our spoils properly! How many hit points did you lose Wayne?” I asked.

“Not too bad. My base is 1300 hit points and I am at 1178 now. If we can maintain single pulls I can do this for a while before I need to rest,” Wayne answered.

“Yeah, about that. Single pulls aren’t going to be so easy now. But I will do my best without having any snare. TheClaw warns you though, two are likely incoming. If I get three, I will run for the guards,” Dan said.

“In the meantime, I will take advantage of every break by sitting and regening. But go whenever you are ready Dan,” Wayne said.

Now would be the time where our earlier efforts would come in to play. There wasn’t a great amount of synchronicity that our group needed with two mobs, but we wanted to make sure that we engaged only the mob Wayne was fighting, but only after he had established aggro on both. After twenty seconds we heard Dan yelling, “Incoming, two baddies!”

Wayne stood up and got into the same position. This time, Dan had to stand next to him to give Wayne time to get aggro and he lost a good ten percent of hit points while waiting. But once Wayne had established aggro on both, he called for our party to engage, and I again activated my “Follow attack of Naugha” button and began hitting the rabbit. After a few seconds I landed my first Critical Strike and took 20 points off the mob. The wee bunny didn’t like this much and he immediately turned on me and began slicing into my legs. Being at the back side of the rabbit I hadn’t noticed that despite looking cute and fluffy, it had razor sharp teeth and a tinge of red on the eyes. Way to go a little psycho for the beginners AltCon.

Following my own instructions, I immediately stopped attacking by activating my second icon, “Cease Attack.” I suggested to everyone, since this may occur in these early fights, that everyone make such a button. I was happy that I did. The rabbit ripped into me for only a few seconds before Wayne reestablished aggro, and I waited another five seconds before attacking again. Once the first bunny was dead, and Wayne was down a total of 250 hit points, we started in on the second rabbit. This one had been attacking Wayne for a while and building its aggro against him. My two Critical Strikes did not draw aggro this time.

“Ready for the next pull,” Dan said after I had looted the rabbits and received nothing.

“Hold a second Dan. How many hit points do you have now Wayne?” Jason asked.

“I’ve got 900. Those two took off more than just the one rabbit plus I was poisoned during that fight. I would say I could do this two more times before having to rest for another 5-10 minutes.”

Now that we had started we didn’t want to slow down. And I could tell Wayne really wanted to continue, so I suggested we keep going. The routine was much the same after that. We killed two rabbits at a time and when Wayne’s hit points got to below 500 we rested till he had full health. The loot continued to be copper pieces for the most part. Once we found a venomous sack on one of the rabbits, likely the source of their poison. We didn’t know what it was for so I kept it in my inventory. Perhaps one of us could sell it or make it into an antidote. It wasn’t until the 12th rabbit we faced had died at our feet that something interesting happened.

“Woah. Ok guys, this is weird,” I said.

“What did you find bro?” Dan asked. He stopped his run out to the field to come back and see what was going on. “Is it some major cool loot?”

“Actually, it is,” I responded. When I opened the loot window for the 12th rabbit I received one copper piece and saw a different item in the inventory. When I focused on the item it said “Bloody Rabbit’s Foot.” I blinked on the item and the following display came into view:

I didn’t want to bother trying to figure out how to do this hands free or without vocalization so I simply said, “Link to group.” After a second I asked, “Can you guys see that description?”

“DUDE!! A rare item on our first day! That is totally epic, bro. You are the CHANCE MASTER!” Dan bellowed.

“Keep it down numb nuts,” Wayne said. We had gotten the impression that others hadn’t decided to increase their Chance from the outset like we had, and we didn’t want them knowing about our good fortune. Although the guys didn’t really know that the good fortune appeared to be because of a glitch in my system that was likely going to change the next day when I logged in. Oh well, I didn’t see any reason to look this gift horse in the mouth.

“So can I take it guys? I mean I am the Chance Master after all,” I joked. They all nodded their heads and I looted the item into my inventory through the old focus and blink trick. I then wondered if focus and blink would auto equip the item into the correct slot. I went through the motions and saw the Bloody Rabbit’s Foot was now in my Totem slot for my character. My Chance was now 51.

“Cool. Let’s keep going. Eight more mobs and we should level,” I said.

* * *

We all heard a very satisfying “DING!” when we killed the twentieth rabbit. We were all now at level 2. We took a break to distribute our skill points, of which we got 5. I put three into Dexterity, one into Strength, and one into Constitution. Wayne chose to put three into Strength and two into Constitution, bringing his hit points up to 1500. Dan had learned that his Recruit’s Quiver never ran out of the 1 damage arrows and decided to put four into Agility and one into Constitution. Jason put all five into Wisdom. He figured that once he had spells he was going to want all the mana he could muster.

We continued killing rabbits, easier now that we were a higher level, although their names were still blue. This meant they were level 3 mobs. But now that we were level 2 we were only getting 2.5% per kill on experience. Eight rabbits later we were finished with the quest and had amassed 30 copper pieces and two venomous sacks. We went back to town to reap our well-earned reward. Aside from completing the quest, we were happiest that none of us had died and Dan had only twice pulled more than two mobs that required him to run to the guards. The forty rabbit train on that first pull notwithstanding.

I approached Sir Kenyon, focused on him to select him and said, “Sir Kenyon, we have finished your quest.” I wasn’t sure what proper protocol for completing a quest was, but this turned out to be sufficient.

“Excellent young adventurers! You have indeed completed this task. Please take this small token of our Majesty’s gratitude.” 1 silver was deposited into each of our inventories. We also received 25% experience, bringing all of us up to 45%. Not knowing the prices for items in this game being what it was, we were all still pretty stoked about getting a silver piece since we had only seen copper up to this point.

“Your next task awaits you when you are ready young adventurers. I’m afraid to say we aren’t done with those pesky rabbits quite yet,” Sir Kenyon said.

The arc of this quest was continuing it appeared, and it seemed rabbit was on the menu for slaughter yet again. We had spent a significant amount of time already in the game, what with getting to understand the interface and then grinding through the first forty rabbits. I was inclined to call it day and get some rest. The rabbits would be there tomorrow.’’

“We’ve got two choices guys. We can keep going at this and go slaughter some more of the bunnies. Or we can save this till tomorrow. I know Allister wants to get his level three and have access to his mana,” to which Jason nodded, “but are you ok with waiting till we are back bright eyed and bushy tailed? Pun intended,” I asked.

I figured Jason would be the biggest naysayer, but he indicated he was actually tired as he didn’t sleep much the night before due to his excitement for getting into the game. Wayne and Dan were also fine with my suggestion.

With that we all decided to log off in the city square. We would reconvene the next day at 10 AM, accept the next quest, and continue on our way toward legendary status, or so we hoped.

Why not just get the quest before we logged off you ask? I know I thought about doing so. It was Wayne who brought up the good point, “If the quest has a time limit we could find ourselves having no choice but to stay in the game. The quest will be here tomorrow. Let’s just wait.”

So with that we decided to log off and return to our RACs. Everyone was all grins and happiness. We had succeeded in our first adventures in Resurgence, and we felt untouchable. Oh, how long could that good feeling last?

CHAPTER 10

After fully logging out of the game and exiting my RAC, I took a nice long stretch. The folks at AltCon were right, I didn’t feel dehydrated in the least bit, but I was a bit hungry. We had stayed in game for a total of nine hours, and while we had imaginary food to munch on, we did not have real sustenance. I made my way to my kitchen and removed some food from the refrigerator. As I sat down and began eating, I was also jotting down notes that I would send at the end of the week to AltCon about my experience in the game. On a weekly basis, each Beta tester, as part of their contract, had to send a detailed report of their gaming adventures. They were mostly looking for bugs and glitches, but I liked to add notes on storyline as well.

After eating and cleaning up, finishing my notes, and taking a nice long shower, I found myself very drowsy and ready for some serious shut eye. While I didn’t move in large motions while in the game, all of the movement a character does is predicated by the same basic type of movements in your RAC. The difference here though, the RAC senses muscle twitches so when you begin to make the slightest movement to walk, or swing a sword, the sensors read your intent. So while you aren’t running, your muscles are still constantly going through fast or slow twitch rhythms, and that can wear a body down.

I noted that it was already dark out and late enough that I could sleep without feeling like a total slacker. I set my alarm for 7AM, wanting to get up long before we got into the game to make some final notes on game strategy. I also didn’t want to rush from shower, to breakfast, to game. And deep in the back of my mind was that warning from the assistant all those months ago. And I certainly didn’t want to have to log out and run to the toilet. It was going to happen eventually, this I knew. But I didn’t want to be the first one. I think Dan, Wayne, and I all wanted it to be Jason first. Because if the proper High Elf had to dash to deuce, then we would all get free passes.

* * *

At just before 10AM, I stripped down and got into my RAC. The RAC remained powered on at all times, but did have a sleep mode I needed to disengage before getting back inside. Once the RAC was fully functional, I laid down and engaged the hermetic seal. Once I was assured the system was ready I said, “Enter Resurgence.” A voice said, “Entering Resurgence, initiating download.”

The download bar moved across my field of vision and there was no repeat of the constant error messages I saw the previous day. I was hoping that my Chance bug had been fixed as well as my log-in bug that placed me outside of the city on that first day.

Just before the download finished, I saw one-word flash before my eyes.

ERROR.

And then I was surrounded by the streaming lines and I was whisked away to the world of Tholtos and Resurgence.

* * *

I arrived in the game not at my log-out point. We had purposely all logged out together at Sir Kenyon so we could immediately form a group and get the next quest in the arc. However, I found myself just inside the town, next to the gate. Not nearly as far away from the starting position as last time, but still not at my log-out spot. Seeing as this was a recurring problem, I checked the other bug that had popped up the day before and opened my inventory window. My stats read:

It appeared this was going to be a persistent bug, and I was going to need to write a report on this immediately. I first went over to the square and found Dan, Jason, and Wayne waiting for me.

“End up in the forest again?” Jason asked.

“Not this time. I wasn’t nearly as far away as before, just next to the gate, but inside the town. However, this seems to be a persistent problem. Let’s group up and then before we start the next quest I want to send a report on this,” I said.

We grouped up, this time learning how to do so with only focus and blinking. In order to form a group without vocalization, I needed to focus on the “+” sign and blink, then focus on an individual. Once that person was selected, I refocused on the plus sign still in the group window, and blinked again. This was like saying invite, only the character could do so without making any noise. Perhaps even the whispers in this game would be picked up by mobs we didn’t want to have notice us. We would see.

I then decided to send my report to AltCon. I opened the mail service, utilizing the envelope icon. I did this all with focusing and blinks, which was becoming second nature. I found the tab for “Send a Bug Report” and activated that. Then I sent the following message:

From: Beta Tester Alex, Rogue, Level 2

To: ResurgenceBeta IT

Subject: Problem with log-in/log-out location

I would like to inform you that on the first day of Beta testing I arrived in game in the forest located just outside of Port Town. The other members of my sub-team arrived in the square. At the end of our gaming yesterday, my team all logged out together next to the quest giver, Sir Northampton Kenyon, in the town square. Today, when I logged on, I was just inside the gate of town, not at my original log out point. My team mates all logged back in at their same log out locations.

Additionally, I wanted to make sure my statistics for my character were registering properly.

Thank you,

Alex

For some reason I decided not to say specifically that my Chance was skewed by a factor of 10. I am not the type that usually plays into intuition, but in this case my gut was telling me to say as little as possible, and that is what I did. But I also wanted to be fair, and so I gave them the opportunity to find the error.

“Ok guys, that is all done. Let’s get back to questing!” I exclaimed.

I was still the group leader so I approached Sir Kenyon again. I remembered the lines Sir Kenyon had spoken and I hoped repeating them would trigger the second part of the quest. “Good day Sir Kenyon, I have come to discuss the pesky rabbits.” Dan snarfed. I hate him sometimes.

“Ah good morrow young Half-Elf. Yes, I see that you have completed your first task and are of a mind to help eradicate these vermin. Three of the children in this town have grown deathly ill from the venom those fluffy devils secrete. Alas, our best potion maker has been unable to cure these poor souls and has indicated he needs five venomous sacks from the bodies of these rodents. Obtaining the sacks is not easy and it requires a lucky hand to dispatch the beast in such a way that leaves the sack intact. Bring me the five sacks and I will consider it a testament to your desire to answer the call and will look kindly on your good deeds. Will you help the children of this town?”

“Yes Sir Kenyon, we will help the children of this town,” I answered. Immediately we were encompassed with the shining golden light that informed us we had accepted a quest. When I looked in my quest menu I saw that we already had 2/5 on the required venomous sacks, as I still had them in my inventory.

“Ha! The Chance Master strikes again. I figure by the time we get those other sacks we will all hit level 3!” Dan said.

“Agreed, and boy am I happy I didn’t decide to just go off and see how much copper we could sell these things for!” I replied.

As we headed toward the main gate to begin another round of bunny slaughter, we could hear other groups complaining about their lack of loot. “This is bs man! That is like 50 rabbits we have killed and not a single sack.” I was guessing they had not added any skill points to Chance like we had. And of course they did not have my ridiculous Chance modifier. I wanted as much of an advantage as I could get and wasn’t about to tell them. No one else was going over to tell them either.

“You know; it is their own fault. It’s right there in the quest dialogue. Sir Kenyon said, ‘it requires a lucky hand to dispatch the beast.’ If they don’t get that clue, they have way more problems than not being able to find their sacks.” Dan said.

“And here I thought, for just a moment, you were going to refrain from making any jokes about sacks Dan. But you surprise me, I honestly didn’t believe you would make it to the gate before making a crass remark. Here is your copper piece Alex,” Jason said to me.

“Don’t worry about it Allister, I had that he wouldn’t make it out of the square before making a joke. Alex got my copper piece too.”

“What? You guys were betting on me?” Dan said with mock righteous indignation. “I can’t believe you guys! So why did Alex win?”

“Because I had faith that you would make it out the gate before you made some remark,” I answered.

“But you still bet that I would make a joke?” Dan asked.

“I said faith Dan, I didn’t say pipe-dream.”

* * *

We were 45% into level 2, and by our calculations we would need another 22 mobs to reach level 3. But we also needed three more venomous sacks, so we figured we could be at this for a while more. Once we found our fighting point, Dan ran out and pulled two bunnies back toward us. And so the decimation of the bunny population began anew.

By my count we went through 59 bunnies before we finally got our last venomous sack. We all leveled after the 22nd mob, and took a small break for Jason to investigate if having mana meant he had spells. The answer to that was no. We didn’t think it would. By all accounts, Jason would need to buy his first spells from a vendor in town. We were certain that would be expensive. We also distributed our points accordingly, with myself focusing on dexterity and wisdom.

Based on Jason’s excellent suggestion when we were creating our characters, Wayne and I learned that with my 1 point more of Wisdom than his, my skill levels were going up slightly faster. So I put two more points into Wisdom and Wayne put three points into his and the rest into his Constitution. My additional points went to my Dexterity. Dan did the same and added one point to Wisdom, one point to Constitution, and the rest to Agility. Jason stayed with Wisdom at this point. The only other change was that Jason was now able to see his mana bar and had an accounting of how much Mana he had. From his original 13 Wisdom and 10 additional skill points added to it, Jason now had 23 Wisdom, which corresponded to 2300 Mana. Not a shabby number at all.

At this time, we all only had one skill to raise. Dan’s was Archery, Jason’s was Blunt weapons (his mace), Wayne’s was War Hammer, and mine was Dagger. The skill seemed to only raise 5 points per level, and each point gave an additional 1 in attack. It wasn’t substantial, but every bit helped.

I determined that once we hit level 3 the bunnies were only giving us 1.25% per kill. So with our 37 bunnies killed into level 3 we were all at 46.25%. And it was time to return to town, turn in the quest, and find Jason his first spells.

We passed the same group we had seen on our way in and they were still angry over the fact that they had not finished their quest. They had even gotten to the point of blaming each other. “I’m telling you man, the dude said you have to kill it a certain way. So I think we need to have each person try to be the finisher and see how it works. Gordo has a sword, you have a dagger, and I have a staff. We just have to stop attacking so one of us makes sure to get the killing blow!” the man argued.

I didn’t shake my head externally, but internally I was all disappointment. Dan was right, the words were there to decipher, and this group had just chosen to hear the wrong part. I think Dan wanted to help them out, but Wayne grabbed him. Picked him up really, seeing as Dan was just a tiny Wood Elf. And with Dan in tow, we made our way to Sir Kenyon.

I approached the quest giver and said, “Sir Kenyon, my comrades and I have returned with the five venomous sacks.”

“So you have! And in fine shape they are. Thank you for all of your efforts young adventurers! Now the master potion maker should be able to heal those poor children and hopefully have some cure left over for those young souls foolish enough to tussle with this filth. I promised you a reward and you shall have it,” Sir Kenyon said. We all received thirty percent experience, taking us to 76.25%, and two silver each. We were swimming in the money now.

“Thank you Sir Kenyon, and we look forward to being of more help should you need our services,” I replied. Sir Kenyon looked at me with a thoughtfulness like when an old grandfather is assessing his new grandson. I hoped this was the preamble to the next quest.

“Right you are young lad. I do believe I will have more tasks for you. But first you must be prepared. Come return to me when you believe you are ready to begin again,” Sir Kenyon finished and then looked away, signaling the conversation was over.

We entered into the main street of Port Town looking for a vendor that sold spells. Our first goal was to get Jason his first level spells and if we had enough left over, to get Wayne a light source. I knew wouldn’t be fighting outside the gates for the foreseeable future and Wayne’s night blindness was going to hamper us. As we walked through the market area I kept my eye out for a telltale sign, something like a parchment, which would indicate that the vendor sold spells. Well, that or books. But I was betting on spells.

About half way down the road we saw what I thought would be our best bet. I went with Jason into the store while Wayne went off to look at weapons and Dan went to look at Ranger gear.

The store was small, and there were scrolls all along the walls. One would guess that each scroll was a different spell for a different discipline. I wasn’t terribly interested in all the different spells, just the ones we would need for Jason. Approaching the proprietor of the store, an older gnome, Jason said, “Pardon me kind sir, but would you happen to sell spells for a cleric. I am but a novice, just learning my trade and I wish to learn the most basic of my order’s spells.”

“Well then lucky you are lad that you came to me. Port Town hasn’t had a Cleric’s Order for many years. Normally that would be the only place to get your spells. But since I am in good standing with the Order, I happen to have one copy of each basic spell that I could sell to you. Please take a look,” and with that the merchant handed Jason three different scrolls.

“What do you have there Allister?” I asked.

“Not awesome, but they are low level. Link to group. Link to group. Link to group,” Jason said. And just like that, three windows popped up into my screen. The first one, and most important in my opinion, was Jason’s healing spell. For 170 Mana, Jason could heal for 250 hit points. At this point it would take Jason half his mana to heal Wayne completely. The other two spells were an armor buff, granting 50 Armor, and a 3 second stun. The heal had a 4 second casting time with a 2 second recasting time. The armor buff had a casting time of 10 seconds and a recast time of 10, although this was immaterial to the action sequences of the game. Finally, the stun, which Jason could use to stop a mob and get away from it, beneficial when you are the healer, had a casting time of 1 second, but a recasting time of 10 seconds. Meaning if it didn’t work, Jason would have to wait another 10 seconds to cast again. An eternity when you are getting beat on by a mob.

“How much for one?” Jason asked.

“These are set prices my young friend. Each sells for 3 silver. No bargaining,” the merchant said.

Jason looked crestfallen. “Well I have enough for one, guess I will get the heal.”

“Dan, Wayne, get your butts over here,” I said to the group. Ten seconds later both arrived at the shop. “I am making a formal request that we take our money and pool it so we can buy Jason his spells. At some point we will all need to come together like this for each other, and this is just the first time. But Jason’s…sorry, Allister’s spells are going to be crucial to us succeeding at these lower levels.”

There wasn’t even a hint of argument. Damn, I actually did have a good group of guys here.

“Seriously? You guys are willing to do that for me?” Jason asked.

“Hell man, I would buy the healing spell myself seeing as it’s my ass you will be healing,” Wayne said with a big laugh.

With no further questions or arguments, we bought the three spells and were about to leave the shop when the merchant stopped us. “I do love to see young adventurers working together. And you lads are a fine group. I may have some work for you when you are looking for something to do. Just stop by the shop and come see me when you are ready.”

“NICE! Another quest! Should we take it now?” Dan asked.

“Up to you guys, but I found it weird that Sir Kenyon didn’t immediately give us our next quest. Now that Jason has his spells, maybe he will?” I asked the group.

“We can go ask, but I’m betting it is because we aren’t a sufficient level yet. Most of the other groups are level 4 already because they keep fighting the bunnies to get those sacks. Let’s go ask Kenyon and see what he says.” Wayne suggested.

It was as Wayne guessed and we ended up getting the same message from Sir Kenyon, to come back when we were prepared. I agreed with Wayne’s assessment and figured we needed to level up. Since we were pretty close to leveling at this point I suggested we just get it done. Everyone was in agreement.

With Jason’s armor buff, and our level three, we got through the rabbits quickly. When we all heard that wonderful “DING!” sound acknowledging our new levels, we hurried back to the wall so we could distribute our skill points without being attacked by rabbits. I decided to spread my skill points out more evenly and put 1 in Strength, Constitution, Agility, Dexterity, and Chance. Wayne put 1 in Strength, Agility, and Dexterity, and 2 into Constitution. Dan decided to increase his Strength and Constitution by 1 point and put the rest on Agility. And I had to coerce Jason into putting some of his points into Strength with promises of more Armor. I did not want Jason getting overloaded and ending up becoming fatigued.

And as luck would have it, while clearing to level 4, we even found two more sacks. I suggested we sell them at a vendor. But at each vendor we checked, the most we could get was 50 copper pieces. However, the vendors were selling them for 3 silver. Talk about mark up. I had an idea and the group agreed to let me try.

I approached a group near the wall that was killing rabbits nonstop. I asked them if they were trying to finish the venomous sack quest to which they replied they were, eyeing us warily. It was then I made my offer.

“We just finished up out here and are taking some down time. We already finished the quest but I have two venomous sacks in my inventory. I’ll sell them to you for a silver a piece.”

“Forget it man, that’s our whole reward from the first quest!” One of them answered.

“No, that would be half the reward for the first quest if you guys all chipped in fairly. And I have it on good authority, because I finished it already, that you will get 2 silver each upon completion of this quest. So it is a win/win,” I said.

They walked away and started discussing it. I already knew what that meant. We would be getting their silver. In most games there is either yes or no. The no is always met with a violent retort so you wouldn’t ask again. It sometimes took longer to get to yes, but if they weren’t yelling at you, you already won. “Ok, we’ll take em.”

And just like that, the player’s market place was born.

* * *

Interlude

“Sir, Mr. Jolston sir. We just received a bug report from test subject 271 sir,” said a man wearing an AltCon lanyard attached to his identification. He was nondescript in all ways. And he was approaching at a slow and cautious pace. He knew, because he had seen the wrath, that one did not want to anger Mr. Terrence Jolston.

Standing in front of a console and looking out at the numerous screens running Resurgence simultaneously, Jolston barely acknowledged the man approaching him. “Well, send it to IT so they can document the find and check it off from their list. Why are you bothering me?”

“It’s just that, well sir, this isn’t a bug we have programmed into the system, and not one we have seen before. It’s a genuine anomaly sir,” the attendant stuttered through.

“What? An actual bug in the program? That’s impossible, we had all of those taken care of before we set these tests up,” Jolston replied a bit angrily.

“Yes sir, I mean I know sir. But this isn’t something we have seen before,” the attendant said again, this time a bit more fearful.

“Fine, just give it to me,” Jolston said, ripping it out of the attendant’s hand. Jolston read it over and found it to be quite odd indeed. Apparently test subject 271 was not logging in to his log out point, and noted his original spawn point was not at the appropriate location. This was new.

“Run a diagnostic and put it on the main screen. I want to see what happened when 271 logged in that first time and where. And any subsequent log ins and log outs.”

The full diagnostic was run per Jolston’s orders and the information started to filter across the screen. Indeed, it seemed that 271 had logged into Resurgence that first time far outside of his designated origination point. His subsequent log out and log in were in different places, although the second instance was much closer to his log out point. “Did anything occur during 271’s initial log in to account for this?” Jolston asked.

The technician ran a full scan of all of 271’s data entries from the time he closed the RAC on his first download till his last log out. “According to our logs sir, there have been no variations with 271 and everything is running perfectly. There does not seem to be any cause for this anomaly,” the technician droned.

Jolston stood there for a few moments, scratching his chin. He was at a bit of a loss, but he wouldn’t let his underlings see that. “We will monitor the situation. At this time the log in and log out locations for the subject will not affect the overall test parameters. That will be all.”

“Um, sir. Sorry sir, but the report also asked if we could make sure his character stats were registering properly sir. Usually we don’t bother with such things, but given the anomaly, I wanted to bring it to your attention,” the attendant said while taking a couple of steps back.

Jolston turned to the man, giving him the stare that had sent many an employee into a blubbering mess. After a few moments, he took pity on the attendant. It wasn’t the attendants fault after all. “You are right to note that. Bring up his character and tell me if he is still in game.”

“Character routing to main screen, and yes sir, he is still in game.” Before him on the main screen was the following information.

“Well this Alex seems to be one of the few characters who put a significant number of starter points into his Chance skill. I’m wondering if he has realized the value of that skill yet. Bring up the item Bloody Rabbit Foot. I want to see the stats,” Jolston said.

Bloody Rabbit’s Foot

Rare Item

Weight: 0.0 Bonus:

+1 Chance

Binds on acquisition

“Ah, well with that item, a rare in the starter area, I bet he is understanding the value of Chance. I don’t see anything wrong with his stats though. Everything is according to initial allocation and subsequent skill points?” Jolston requested.

Though he didn’t address anyone in particular, the technician answered immediately. “Yes sir, everything is accurate and correct on his character.”

“Well, we will need to look into the log in problem more, but for now send a message to 271, with the usual language,” Jolston ordered.

The attendant backed away nodding his head, “Yes sir. I’ll take care of that right now sir.”

Jolston looked back at the character on the main screen. A rare item in a starter zone. This Alex must be lucky.

CHAPTER 11

“And here I thought I was lucky having you as our leader! We’ve finished both quests and you want to stay here? That’s dumber than anything I’ve ever said!” Dan exclaimed.

“First off, I’m not the leader,” Alex responded. “And second, it isn’t dumb at all if you just hear me out.”

“I don’t know Alex. I kind of agree with Dan. Not about this being dumber than anything he’s said. That’s not even a competition. But this doesn’t seem all that smart,” Wayne agreed.

I looked to Jason, but he was “Studying” his spells. Bloody introvert.

“Listen! Just hear me out!” I exclaimed.

All three eyed me warily, and it was Jason who came to my rescue. “Guys, Alex hasn’t steered us wrong yet. Let’s see what he has.”

Dan plopped down on the ground. “Fine. Let’s hear this great idea of yours.”

“Ok, look. Just now we made two silver by selling these venomous sacks. I am betting with my Chance we are getting way more than anyone else,” I said. I still hadn’t told the guys about the Chance error I was encountering. I was waiting for the response from IT on that one. “And we can see by looking around us that there are still lots of groups out here that haven’t finished. So my plan is to come out here and farm the venomous sacks. Then we sell the excess and make a bunch of cash!” Farming was the method of killing things over and over either to get a rare item, a rare spawn, or just loads of a certain item. In this case the venomous sacks.

“But what for? We already got Allister his spells!” Dan said.

“Dan, have you noticed the people who are running out to the forest and then all of a sudden running by us again back to that forest after 30 minutes?” I asked.

“Of course I noticed. They are obviously going out to the forest to level up. And they are dying. A lot,” Dan responded.

“Right, and I am betting they are dying, not because of their level, but because they don’t have any gear. They are trying to get single mobs and get some good experience, but they keep getting killed. Now, what would happen if we finished this quest and then ended up out in the forest? Which, as it turns out, I am betting this next quest will take us,” I asked.

Light bulb just went on!

“Oh man! I totally feel you right now!” Dan said.

“Please don’t feel any of us Dan. Not with the realism in this game,” Jason said.

“You have to call me TheClaw if I have to call you Allister. Only fair,” Dan said.

“Guys. Focus. And yes Dan, you see what I am saying now, right? We farm the sacks, sell them for a silver, and then get us some gear. We can then go out and level up some and not have to keep running from our spawn point!”

“I’m in!” Dan said.

I looked at Dan totally flabbergasted. Two minutes ago he was calling me the dumbest man alive. Now he was all in.

“What? Dude, I can admit the one time I’m wrong.”

“So what were you thinking Alex? Because I could definitely go with some upgrades,” Wayne said.

“We all could brother. I could definitely use a new bow. Although I’ll keep using the Recruit Quiver till it stops working for me at level 6,” Dan said.

“Well my thoughts were to equip Wayne and Allister mostly. Get Wayne some armor and a new weapon. And get Allister some armor as well since we need him to be able to take a hit,” I replied.

Once Wayne heard that I wanted to get him a new kit, he too was all in. I think Jason saw the wisdom of my suggestion early on, but didn’t want to go against the other guys if they didn’t follow my plan.

We stopped getting any experience for the rabbits, because our level was now higher than theirs. But due to our levels, Jason’s buffs and healing, and our team work we were able to take on three rabbits at a time with no danger of slowing down. Over the course of two hours we had collected another 13 sacks. We wanted to get to 20 before we finished our farming.

We were moving throughout the field, not really pulling the rabbits to us anymore, but going out to them. We still aggro’ed the rabbits, but we weren’t worried about not being able to take them. We had even done four at one time. Although that did put a bit of a drain on Jason’s mana.

* * *

It was while we were running around the field, killing the rabbits, that we finally got the opportunity to see two different things. The first was the effect of my Chance skill at having rare spawns. The Chance skill created a bubble that allowed for mobs that respawned within that diameter to possibly spawn as rare mobs. And this came to be when the Ravenous Venomous Rabbit spawned right on top of us. At our level 4 this mob’s name was red to all of us. Meaning that it was 5 levels at least above us.

The second thing we got to see was how dying worked in the game.

It wasn’t even a challenge. The Ravenous Rabbit tore through us like paper. Wayne looked through his log after the fight and was getting hit for over 100 hit points a shot. And he was hitting Wayne three times each round. None of us lasted more than a few seconds.

Once we died, we each saw a loading screen that informed us we were dying and would return to our bind point. The bind point is the location, usually within a city, where your character would return, without any of your gear or the things in your inventory. Those were on your body. The bad part is that wherever you died, that is where your body remained. And you would need to go and get your body in order to retrieve all of your items. Our problem is we died right under the rare mob. So getting our bodies was going to be a serious challenge. At higher levels, when I got my invisibility skill, I would be able to surreptitiously drag mine and my teammate’s bodies away from the mob without drawing attention. But I wouldn’t get this skill for some time.

We all arrived back at our bind point, which in this case was right at the fountain in the square of the city. I had been worried about what would happen when I died since my log in points had been messed up. I was happy to see this didn’t affect my bind point. The second thing I saw upon arriving at my bind point was the following message:

You have died. You have been resurrected at your bind point. Loss of experience is 25%*

*Your character will not lose experience until you arrive at level 10.

And now I understood why those players in the woods kept going back over and over again. They weren’t losing any experience by dying.

Several more characters that had been out in the field fighting rabbits began popping into the square. I was guessing the rare mob just started attacking everyone. I hoped no one noticed that it was my group that “spawned” this mob, as that would make my plan to sell the sacks all the more difficult.

I looked over to my comrades and was about to suggest ways to get our bodies when I heard a voice yelling in my ear. It was Sayhey, and he was yelling, “Taking this beast to the guards! Everyone get inside the gate!”

After 10 more seconds there was another yell by Sayhey, “All clear in the field. Recommence with the slaughter.”

My group and I returned to the field to collect our bodies. While we were retrieving our items I noticed a number of icons that allowed you to collect your items. I specifically looked for one that would let me retrieve everything at once. I hovered over each icon until I found the desired one and blinked to activate it. My dagger and Bloody Rabbit Foot were reequipped and the 13 sacks went back into my inventory. I relayed this information to my teammates and was happy to see that if it came to it, I could recover my items quickly and get back in the fight.

For the next hour we continued to kill rabbits. This time we went back to pulling rabbits to us along the wall. This way we wouldn’t accidentally have another rare spawn on us. Since Dan was pulling the mobs, and his Chance was 1, there was little chance a rare was going to spawn around him.

After we had collected the 20th sack I began moving around the remaining groups. I pitched the same line over and over again. And I met with the same result. At first they tried to haggle. But I knew the worth of these sacks and I knew the frustration the characters were going through. In the end, no one turned us down except for the group that still had no sacks and couldn’t possibly afford the five they would need to advance.

With 20 silver in hand, Dan, Jason, Wayne and I all went off to the market place to get us some improved gear and get ready for the next adventure.

* * *

We had to go to three different stores in the market area. The first was for armor. Luckily one person sold both leather and metal armor. Dan and I would require leather. Wayne and Jason would need metal. There were plenty of options, but we didn’t have that much cash. In the end we made sure to get Jason and Wayne the most armor, and Dan and I just a little so that we at least had an armor without Jason’s buffs. For Wayne and Jason, we purchased all Rusted items, as this is what we could afford. And for myself and Dan, it was Tattered items.

As I said, Wayne got the motherlode of items. We purchased a Rusted Breastplate, Rusted Leggings, Rusted Boots, and a Rusted Helmet. Each sold for 1 Silver 50 Copper. Jason received A Rusted Breastplate, Rusted Leggings, and Rusted Boots. Dan and I both got Tattered Leather Jerkin and Tattered Leather Leggings. Each item gave an Armor bonus. It was still unclear how this would negate damage, but that is what we were going to find out. When opened the items looked like this.

We had 3.5 Silver from the 20 sacks we sold. We also had 7 additional silver from our rewards, the original two sacks I sold, and an assortment of Copper from the rabbits. So with 10.5 silver in hand we went to get Wayne a mighty weapon and Dan a new bow.

We found a Novice Bow for Dan that would give a +5 Atk Modifier for 3 Silver. A huge increase to his current +1 Modifier. The only problem was the level limit was set at Level 5, so Dan would not be able to use the bow until he reached his next level. Wayne went the same route getting a Dulled War Hammer that had a +7 Atk Modifier and sold for 5 silver, but also couldn’t be used until level 5. Finally, when I was ready to go, the guys suggested I also get a new weapon. I found a Dulled Dagger with a +4 Atk Modifier for 2.5 Silver, also with the level restriction. When opened in our inventory the items looked like this:

That was all of our money, but I thought we were likely the most well equipped level 4 adventurers on the game. And that led me to my next point with the guys.

“We’ve got the best equipped players in the game right now, I would bet,” I said.

“I know man; I can’t wait to just strut down the main square like a peacock. I may walk backwards so everyone can see my tail feathers!” Dan said.

“You don’t have tail feathers. All they would see is your Tattered ass,” Jason replied.

“Nice one Alli!” Dan exclaimed while putting his hand out for a high five. Jason didn’t even turn his head to look at Dan’s hand. But Dan’s smile never went down. You had to love this brilliant, yet entirely idiotic, ass clown.

“Actually, that is the point I am trying to make here Dan. I want us to put all of our new stuff in our Inventory. I want us to walk out of this store with only what we had on us when we entered,” I said.

“Awe man, why would we do that? You seem to forget that TheClaw has a reputation he needs to make out there. I conceded to your staying in the field and farming the rabbits, but I can’t agree to this, no matter what your reasoning,” Dan replied.

“I agree with him here Dan. We walk out of here all decked out, and everyone is going to realize that we took advantage of them and we had more than just “a few extra” sacks,’ Wayne explained.

Dan started giggling and then started apologizing, “I’m sorry Wayne, I just can’t stop laughing every time you start talking about our sacks.”

“But he is right Dan. We didn’t just run around saying we had all these items,” Jason said. I was betting he was avoiding the word “sack” on purpose. “So we need to sell the story that we only had a few extra. Alex, how about after we do the next quest we show off our gear. I doubt anyone else has finished the next quest so we would look like we got it from that.”

I nodded my head. This seemed reasonable. Dan looked like he was about to argue again so I beat him to the punch. “And when we do come back, we will be sure to spread extra love for TheClaw and how his awesomeness got us this gear.”

Dan thought about it some more, and then finally agreed, however with one more caveat. “Ok. But if we find and kill something with feathers, I am totally learning how to add them to my butt.”

We all stashed our gear in our inventory while laughing with Dan. Or laughing at Dan. Seriously. he didn’t care either way.

We returned to Sir Kenyon at the main square. We planned to ask for the next quest. Only we planned on doing it when we logged back in. Each of us were tired and we had been playing for hours on end. I had not received anything from the IT folks about my log on issues or my faulty Chance score. I hoped the next day would find us lots of adventure and an answer to my repeated bugs.

CHAPTER 12

August 10th, 2043

I logged in at 10AM per our usual routine. Once again, just before the download bar hit 100% I saw the same ERROR message flash briefly across the screen. Almost unnoticeable, but now I was looking for it after the last time. Upon entering the game, I was immediately greeted by the following message:

Thank you for your recent report. Our IT representatives are actively checking to determine what, if any, problem you are accounting. We request you continue to send reports as you or your group find additional problems in the game.

Additionally, we have reviewed your character and have found it to be reflecting your skills accurately without any problem. We hope you continue to enjoy your experience in ResurgenceBeta, and thank you again for your assistance in this matter.

IT Team

After reading this I opened my character screen to review my stats and see if the problem was fixed. When I did, I indeed saw a difference, but not the one I think I was supposed to find.

Instead of finding my character with the appropriate 6 to Chance, I now had 60. The game was still giving me 10 times the chance modifier. And with my Bloody Rabbit Foot, I still had a +1 to Chance. According to the IT team at AltCon, everything was running normal. I decided to continue keeping this to myself.

It was at this time I took in my surroundings. I was indeed in the town square, but I was still a short distance from my log-out point. The difference now was minimal, as long as I didn’t log out right next to a spawn point for a bunch of aggressive mobs. The variation still worried me though. I was going to have to start documenting this a little more diligently. Start looking at exactly where I log-out and seeing how far from that point I am arriving. Also, I needed to determine how much that decrease between log in and log out were decreasing.

A few minutes later all of my team had logged back in, and we immediately grouped up. Once again, I was the group leader. I offered the leadership role to the other guys, but they said with my Chance, I had to be the leader in order to loot and get a better chance for rare finds. If they only knew.

“Let’s get to it boys! I want to get this quest, get started, and check out all this new gear we got,” Wayne said.

“I am fully in agreement with Naugha on this one. I too want to get back to adventuring and discovering new areas of the game,” Jason agreed.

“Ditto all that,” Dan said.

“Sounds good guys. Let’s engage Kenyon and get this quest,” I said while approaching Sir Kenyon. “We are here to answer the call.”

Sir Kenyon looked at me and my comrades, and after several seconds said, “I see that you have the hearts of warriors, but I still fear you are not prepared enough. Please come back when you are ready and I will have a task for you.”

We all looked at each other, totally crestfallen. We were sure that getting level 4 would get us the next quest.

“I guess we need to level up more. I hate just grinding for levels man, at least with no reward in sight,” Dan said.

“Often, my friend, the journey is the reward. Enjoy the new sights and sounds we find around us and embrace the discovery of new things and new knowledge,” Jason said to Dan.

Dan looked at Jason for several seconds before saying, “At what point in our relationship did you come to the conclusion that reciting phrases you find on inspirational posters would have a positive effect on me Alli? It’s like you just saw right through my soul.”

“I hate you so much right now,” Jason replied.

Between giggles, Wayne said, “Alright guys, let it go. We actually do have an option you know. And one that I doubt anyone else has gotten yet. There is always the gnome.”

“Dude! That’s right! The gnome merchant totally had a quest for us. Let’s go get it!” Dan said waving his arms around and pointing toward the market area.

Dan led the way, saying he remembered exactly where the merchant was. Dan’s memory was perfect as always, which is weird that he didn’t remember the gnome and his quest, and had us back in front of the shop in no time. I went in and engaged with the merchant. He remembered our group, which was shocking to me. The AI on this game was really something else.

“Ah, young adventures, have you returned to help me with my task?” the merchant asked.

“Yes fine sir, we are here to help you with your task,” I said, hoping that repeating his words would trigger the quest to begin. It did.

“Excellent! As you know I am a merchant in Port Town, but many of my goods come from a far, and I rely on shipments from other towns to supply my goods. Recently, one of my shipments was taken by a bunch of goblins. The deliverer was lost and believed these goblins when they said they could help him arrive at Port Town. The next thing he knew, he woke up on the edge of the forest near the gates of Port Town. Obviously, he did not have my goods. He said the goblins did not seem like fierce foes, but would have been too much for just him, and as such declined to retrieve my wares. If I give you the location of their camp, would you be able to return my wares? I would of course reward you handsomely. I am sorry for putting this burden on you, but I have very few other options.”

I looked at the guys and raised my eyebrows in question. They all nodded their heads “yes.”

“Of course fine sir, we will help you recover your wares,” I said.

We were surrounded by the golden glow that informed us we had begun a quest, and started to head out. “You will likely have to slaughter many goblins before you can recover my goods. I hope you boys have the stomach for that.” We stopped and Wayne turned back and looked at him and us, and the mention of taking it to the mobs had brought the glimmer back into his eyes.

“I can’t overstate just how much such a thing will be our pleasure good sir.”

We continued out of the shop and we could hear the merchant rambling as we left, “I still can’t believe that delivery boy fell for that, there is no such thing as a trustworthy goblin!”

* * *

We headed out the main gate and made our way toward the forest. We all had the indicator on our maps that informed us where the camp was, but we could not tell what lie between us and there. In fact, with the exception of what I saw around me, my map showed nothing else terrain wise into the forest. However, the areas of town where we had been, still showed on my map despite my not being able to see those areas at the moment. I took this to mean that once I had been somewhere, my map would update, but new areas would be covered until I ventured into them. This was the same for Wayne and Jason, but not for Dan.

“Guess it is a part of my unique Race/Class combination. I seem to be able to see on my map twice as far as I can actually see. This is good for scouting for sure. I mean, I can see places on my map for the town that we never went to, but are next to those areas we visited,” Dan explained. “Wait, what is this? Oh holy mother of hope, there is a tavern! And taverns have beer. And wenches! Please, please, please Alex can we go back for just a bit and get some wenches?”

“You can go see the wenches on your own time Dan, now is time for questing and leveling,” I replied.

Wayne was nodding his head along with Dan until I spoke, and then started shaking it. This made me laugh again.

“Alright man, but me and Wayne are totally going to smash that place. When we are done, the ladies will know TheClaw.”

“More like ThePinky.” Jason whispered to me.

I would have shot water out of my nose if I had been drinking, I laughed so hard. Dan knew the joke was likely about him, but let it pass. I knew he was mentally preparing to get back at Jason at some point though. This is one of the things that made me love my group.

We continued on into the forest toward the indicator on our maps. Dan scouted ahead and made sure we avoided any mobs. We found a clear area where we could likely pull mobs to in order to fight, and let Dan go scout ahead to the camp.

“Well if that isn’t a sack of caterpillars,” we all heard Dan say.

“That isn’t a real phrase Dan, you can’t just go making things up,” Jason responded.

“It’s Norwegian Alli, I wouldn’t expect you to know it, what with spending all your time reading inspirational posters,” Dan said. “But seriously, look at the guy I am targeting right now. He is one of the mobs at the camp.”

We all linked to the mob that Dan was targeting, and just like that we were all laughing out loud. The mob Dan had selected was called “A Trustworthy Goblin.”

“No wonder that sap had been conned by the goblins. Poor guy never had a chance,” Wayne said and then followed it up with, “Dan, target each of the mobs you can see. According to this, the A Trustworthy Goblin you have selected now is white. So it’s our level and will give us experience, which is good.”

Dan continued to select the mobs that were in the camp. There were 15 total and half of them were white and half were blue. This would be good experience. Only I was worried that without snare, Dan would pull too many. But I didn’t have to fear, as Dan had a plan.

“I have a fairly good idea on the range of this bow, and I believe I can step just to the edge of its range and hit a mob. That should only aggro the one I hit, or at most one other. I am ready when you are, so just give the word.”

“Get back here first Dan, I want Allister to hit us with his buff and then give him time to get to full mana. Also, have you equipped all of your new gear?” I asked.

“Good call Alex, be right there. And yeah, I’ve got all my gear on.”

After we buffed fully, everyone was equipped, and Jason had full mana, we were ready. Dan headed back out and informed us he would be bringing the A Trustworthy Goblin he had first spotted upon arriving at the camp.

After a few seconds Dan said, “Incoming one A Trustworthy Goblin!”

Wayne was ready for when Dan got there and immediately began beating on the goblin when it arrived. Wayne was yelling out hits as he took them, “Hit for 65. Hit for 75. Riposted for 64. Make sure you stay behind these mobs so you don’t take riposte damage guys.”

After 10 seconds, Wayne was down 250 hit points and we jumped in. After another five seconds, Jason shot Wayne his first heal. The mob was hitting for more, but not terribly fast. Also, with our new weapons we were all hitting quite a bit harder. We each were taking off 40-50 damage each hit. The mob looked to have about 3,000 hit points, but with our faster weapons we ended the mob fairly quickly. And we received experience, which was a nice change from the rabbit farming we had done before.

I looted the mob and found 4 copper pieces and nothing else. This also was a distinct raise in money compared to the 1 copper the rabbits had.

I was a bit shocked at how fast the mob went down and how little trouble we had with it. I wondered if the gear improvements were really making that much of a difference and asked if we could try an experiment.

“Alex, please understand that I say this with the greatest amount of respect, but go eat a dick,” Wayne said.

I was a bit taken aback by Wayne’s response, “What the fuck is that for man?”

“Your experiments usually involve me getting my ass handed to me so you can satisfy your curiosity”

“That was only that one time!” I retorted.

“You’ve only done one experiment!” Wayne exclaimed.

“Just do it Wayne, none of us will laugh at you this time, I promise,” Dan tried to help.

“Wait. When were you guys laughing before?” Wayne asked.

“It was behind your back bro, like good friends always do. Now let’s hear what Alex has to say.”

Wayne crossed his arms across his chest and said, “Fine, let’s hear it.”

“Ok, first, Wayne you are right. You aren’t going to like this,” I said. But before Wayne could object I added, “I really want to see how much affect gear has on the game. I mean we tore through that mob pretty easy. I want to know if it’s our levels or our gear that is making the difference. So I want you to take off all your gear and put your old war hammer back on and go at the mob when it comes in. I want to see what other level 4s are dealing with when they are out here fighting.”

Wayne thought about this for a moment and then said, “Alright. I do see merit in that. I don’t like it, but I see the value. Laugh at me though and I’m going to punch Dan in the junk.”

“Why me?” Dan exclaimed.

“Because you laughed at me,” Wayne answered truthfully.

“But we all did! I wasn’t the only one!” Dan argued.

“You were the only one dumb enough to admit it. Once Allister has full mana, let’s give Alex his chance to satisfy his morbid curiosity.”

* * *

“Happy now?” Wayne said.

“Definitely!” I exclaimed. This may have been the wrong choice of words as Wayne stopped putting his gear back on and started reaching for his war hammer. “I mean; we know now that gear really does play a big role in the game. So we need to be cognizant of that and upgrade when we can!” I said quickly.

Wayne held on to the war hammer for a few more seconds before letting it go and saying, “Agreed.”

The one goblin Dan had been able to pull ended up being level 4, but tore through Wayne like paper. It was all Jason could do to keep him healed. And even then Jason needed to take a couple of hits before Wayne could reestablish aggro on the mob. Where before the mob was hitting for 60’s and 70’s, it was hitting for way over a 100 with Wayne in none of his gear. And his hammer was doing far less damage.

Once Jason had restored his Mana, Dan got back to pulling. We had no problem even with two mobs at a time. The only challenge we faced was when Dan pulled two blues at the same time, but even then Jason only went down to 60% mana, and Wayne was able to maintain aggro the whole time. The experience was trickling in and we were seeing our progress bars move at a steady pace. We still hadn’t found the merchant’s goods though.

“Guys, I was pulling farther back on that last pull and I spotted a mob closer to the middle. There is a tent like structure there. I wasn’t able to get a target on it so I couldn’t see what the name was. But I am betting that’s who has the merchant’s goods. What should we do?” Dan asked.

We all stopped for a moment. Not because of the information. We all figured something like this would be the case. A boss of the camp. No, what made us all stop was that Dan sounded like a perfectly normal human being for those few seconds.

“Guys, stop tickling each other’s taints and tell me what you want me to do. It’s not fair if I don’t get to join too,” Dan said.

And just like that, the moment of hope had disappeared.

“Relax there TC, we aren’t going to pull it this go around,” Wayne said.

“I would like to have full mana and all buffs refreshed before we engage an unknown mob,” Jason said.

“Agree with Allister. Let’s do another round, but this time we will get closer so we don’t have to pull the mobs as far,” I said. “What’s the respawn timer on these goblins Dan?”

“10 minutes. We have another two minutes before the first one respawns.”

“Perfect, this way we will shorten the time and we will have time to engage the mob, as long as it doesn’t boomerang,” I said.

Boss fights were often confined to a specific area. If you tried pulling the mob away from its spot it would boomerang back to its location, and usually fully regenerate its health. We were going to try and pull the boss, but if it boomeranged, Wayne would be ready to immediately engage it.

“Alex, I have an idea. Dan, make sure you only pull one on this first round. If we get two this won’t work. My thought is that if this thing boomerangs, and we know it likely will, we might get a respawn before we finish the fight. If that happens, instead of me tanking both and really risking Jason’s…sorry, Allister’s mana, we have either you or Dan grab it. You might die, but we will have a better chance of finishing the boss,” Wayne explained.

I remembered some of the discussions Wayne and I had about tanking strategies, and I knew I was right about him being a natural tank. Dan stepped up on this one without pause.

“I got that. I will be monitoring the timer, so I will know exactly when it should respawn. I’ll hit it from max range with an arrow when it spawns and then take it on a chase. Hopefully by the time we get back around, you guys will have finished off the bad guy,” Dan said.

And like that we were ready to start this next round and make our way to the boss.

* * *

“Someone in programming really does have a sense of humor. One Not a Trustworthy Goblin incoming. Be ready for the boomerang,” Dan said. The name of the goblin was yellow. We all hoped it was three levels higher than us, and not four.

Just like we believed, the mob boomeranged back into place after only traveling a short distance. Wayne immediately led the charge, screaming at the top of his lungs, “For the glory!”

Wayne engaged the mob and we could all see that this guy was going to be a challenge. He was hitting harder and faster than the other goblins. “Damn! He is hitting me for 100 plus. And he hits quick. Get ready to engage guys.”

We had thought that Jason might be able to do some damage in the beginning, but it became clear he was going to need to start healing quickly. We all jumped in and were doing less damage than we were against the white and blue goblins as well. We were only hitting for 30’s and 40’s, with Wayne hitting for 60’s and 70’s. I guessed the mob had around 5,000 or 6,000 hit points at the speed his health bar was going down. I got two Critical Strikes in a row for 80 and 87 each and that turned aggro to me for a brief second. I immediately took 150 damage from one hit. I stopped attacking and let Wayne reacquire aggro again, which happened quickly. A few more seconds and I probably would have been toast.

“Don’t heal me,” I said.

“Didn’t plan on it, now let me concentrate on Naugha,” Jason replied.

For a brief second, Wayne stopped moving and the mob turned and started running at Jason. Before Wayne could reacquire aggro again, Jason had taken two hits and his health was down to almost 50 percent.

“This thing has a bash and stun. It hadn’t landed before, that was the first time. Are you ok Allister?” Wayne asked.

“Just keep hitting it!” Jason said.

“15 seconds,” Dan said. “Moving into position.”

We now had one less damage dealer and the mob’s health bar was moving slower now. Moving closer to the mobs for the pulls had gained us another minute between respawn. But this was going to be really close.

“Engaging the spawn,” Dan said. And just like that we saw Dan run off into the forest with one of the goblins after him. We had waited thirty seconds between when we killed the first mob and engaged the second one. So as of right now we had 40 seconds to finish the boss, collect the loot and get out of the way for the next respawn. The mob had 17 percent left on its health bar. I kept counting down the seconds and announced when we were at 30 and 20.

“When Alex says 10 I am casting my stun. We will have three seconds where the mobs defense will be totally down. This is our only chance!” Jason yelled.

There was no time to argue, and as I yelled out “10!” Jason casted his stun. The mob froze in place and Jason, Wayne, and I ripped into the mob. Luck was on my side and I scored another double Critical Strike for almost 200 points total, and the mob fell down.

“Loot it quick!” Wayne yelled.

“Looting, run out of here!” I yelled

As I looted the mob, I saw that it had a sack and a ring. I checked quickly to make sure the ring wouldn’t bind on acquisition, and seeing it didn’t, I looted it. Then I ran for the trees, where Dan quickly met up with us so we could dispatch the mob he had pulled.

I inspected both of the items in my inventory. First I looked at the bag.

The contents of this sack were taken and should be returned to their rightful owner

“Good news guys, one of the drops was our quest item. There is also a ring. Linking it now,” I said.

“Unless anyone has any objections, I say we give this ring to Wayne, since he is the only one of us that will get the Bash skill,” I said.

“I don’t get that skill until level 6, but I will be happy to have the extra Strength, Constitution, and Armor,” Wayne commented.

“Are you sure we don’t want to give it to Dan? It is a simple ring and he is our only simpleton,” Jason joked.

“Funny Jason,” Dan replied.

“It’s Allister damn it!”

“Not till you start calling me TheClaw,” Dan replied in a calm voice. It was always entertaining to watch these two go at it. Dan would respond and each time get calmer, which just made Jason even more furious.

“TheClaw is a stupid name!” Jason exclaimed.

Dan mimicked like he was speaking through a radio, “Pot, Pot…come in Pot. This is Kettle. Someone’s black.”

During their banter I gave Wayne the ring and he nodded his head in thanks.

“Hey. Pot and Kettle. Let’s kill some more mobs and then go turn in this quest. We probably want to do the camp a few more times before we go in order to get closer to leveling up,” I said.

Dan looked over at Jason, and as if they hadn’t just been going at each other, said, “Let me know when you are ready to rock bro and I will start pulls.”

Jason just shook his head. He had stopped asking Dan to stop calling him “bro” a long time ago. “Ready now, pull when ready.”

“Alright amigos, I’m bringing the tacos. You bring the picante!” Dan said as he ran back toward the camp of goblins who had now all respawned.

As Jason sat down to continue regenerating his mana I could hear him whisper, “He’s a good puller. He’s a good puller. Just remember he’s a good puller.”

* * *

By the end of our adventure in the goblin camp we had gone through approximately 60 goblins, as well as the one boss. This brought our experience up to 75 percent. What is more, the goblins were dropping around 30 coppers each and the boss had five silver on him. This gave us a total of 23.5 silver pieces, which we planned to use in the market for additional gear. We hoped that turning in the quest would also give us more money, so we held off until the quest was done.

We arrived back at the merchant’s store and the gnome greeted us as we entered. No one said a word. I simply took the Merchant’s Bag out of my inventory and slid it over to the gnome.

“Oh bless you! Bless you all!” the merchant exclaimed. “Please, accept this small token of my appreciation!” And with that, we all had five extra silver pieces in our inventories. This brought us up to 43.5 silver. We were now rolling in the dough.

The other shining moment was as we turned in the quest, we all heard the wonderful “DING!” that signaled we had leveled again. Everyone had huge smiles on their faces, and 2% of experience into level 5.

We thanked the merchant kindly and he told us to stop by periodically for work he might need. It was good to have another quest giver. First thing we did upon exiting the merchant’s shop was find a place to go over our characters and allocate our new skill points.

We continued to follow the same build outs for our characters. All of us spread our points out, with none of us staying to just one skill set. I didn’t add anymore to my Chance as I wanted to see with finality that the error was continuing before I decided how to continue with that skill. In the end, after reaching level 5, we had the following skills:

I wanted to go back to Sir Kenyon and try to get our next quest but none of the others wanted to stay on for an extended period of time in case the quest was timed. At least this is what they all said, but really it was only Jason who was using this bit of logic. The reality for Dan and Wayne became clear just several minutes later.

“Good news is guys, now that we have 43.5 Silver, when we log back in we are going to really be able to fully gear up our characters!” I said excitedly.

“40 Silver bro,” Dan replied.

“3.5 Silver is a lot in this game so far TC, I don’t think we will need that much,” Wayne said after.

I was at a total loss as to what was going on between them, and it appeared Jason was as well. Thankfully, and not surprisingly at all, Dan clarified everything with his next sentence.

“TheClaw is getting wenches and wasted bro! We gonna need that money!” Dan said triumphantly.

“Wenches and wasted?” Wayne asked.

“I was going for alliteration. I thought it more PC than bitches and booze. I’m sensitive to these things,” Dan said with a dead pan expression.

“I’m actually totally in agreement with Dan here Wayne,” Jason said. Dan beamed to see Jason on his side. “I mean, he will probably need lots of money to get even virtual reality girls to pay him any attention.” And Dan stopped smiling.

“That was a totally low blow dude,” Dan said. “But a good one. I got no come back. Allister wins this round.”

We all laughed at that and even Jason gave a high five to Wayne. I was hesitant to separate with the money, but I had promised the guys they could go and carouse at the tavern. And it was their money. So with more than a little trepidation, I handed the Silver over to Wayne.

“Where’s mine bro?” Dan asked.

“Wayne will be with you. And I trust him to not make it rain copper pieces on the people in the tavern.” Dan’s hurt look couldn’t hide the fact that he was thinking of doing exactly that sort of thing.

“I only have one request guys,” I informed them. “I would appreciate it if you went in like the other level 4 and 5 players. I think we can farm that goblin camp for a while and I don’t want other people asking where we got the money for all the gear.”

They saw the wisdom in this and agreed. I whispered to Wayne to please watch out for Dan, and he just nodded his head once, but seriously. Wayne took his role as the protector of our group seriously, and at all times. Dan was just bouncing from foot to foot anxious to go.

Jason and I saw them off, with Dan pinpointing the location of the tavern on our maps, just in case we needed to find them quickly before logging out. Since none of us had Dan’s mapping skill, we couldn’t see the tavern on our maps yet.

As Wayne and Dan were leaving, Jason informed me that he was going to follow them as he wanted to explore some more of the city.

I waved at all three of them as they headed out and decided I would do some exploring of my own. There was an entire town to discover, and I figured the better I knew the layout of the land, the readier I would be to continue exploiting the player market. I factored in a few hours for exploration before I planned to log out, not to return till the next day when we all agreed to meet.

* * *

The gate to enter Port Town was situated in the west of the city, with the sea to the east. Most of the market and the areas we had explored were in the northern section of the town. So I decided I would check out the south, and try to map out the rest of the town, while the guys did more exploration of the north. Well, Jason would do more exploration. Wayne and Dan were just likely to get shit faced at the tavern.

After 15 minutes of walking in the southern area of the town, I saw why no one came down into this area. It was a seedy and dodgy area, and if Resurgence allowed NPCs inside the town to attack players, I would put money on it that I would have already been stabbed in the back a number of times over. The NPCs on the street gave me a wary eye as I made my way through along the main thorough fare. There were also numerous alley ways, dark and dingy. Hoping that none of the NPCs could attack me, I decided to go down an alley way or two, just to see what was down them.

It was while I was walking down the third of these alleys that a new NPC seemed to materialize out of the shadows. I hadn’t seen him before, but I was still quite a low level and he could have been hiding in the shadows. He was wearing an all-black cloak that came down to just below his knees. The hood on the cloak was up, and I could not make out the features of the man, save to say that he was likely human, given the beard I could see, or a really tall dwarf with a horribly short beard. I was going with human. The cloak was also slightly open around the waist and I could make out the glint of two beautiful daggers. I admired them longingly.

“Well look at what we have here. If it ain’t a baby rogue out for a stroll in The Wastes. Admiring my daggers are ya?” The man asked me.

“I am sir, but you can’t fault a man for admiring such quality. Even sheathed, I can see those are fine blades.” I replied, trying to earn some favor with the man. This could be a quest giver, and I didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity by lying to him or being rude.

“Aye lad, they are fine quality indeed,” he answered. “Got these off a beast in the Mason Mountains. Were originally its teeth. Yanked ‘em right out the beasty’s maw,” he further explained. “What brings a young lad like you into The Wastes?”

“I’ve seen what is up in the northern portion of town, and while I am happy to barter with a merchant, the area isn’t much to my liking,” I said, playing up the rogue character.

“Fancy yerself a bit of an adventurer then do ya? Don’t know that you would like the adventures you would find down here though lad, at least not without some back up.”

“For certain, allies are good to have,” I agreed, “but I am a rogue, although young as you noted. And if I am not being too forward, I would say you too are a rogue. We are meant for a more solitary life.”

The NPC laughed heartily, “Lad, you may be a “rogue” but your speech makes ya sound like a dandy. Ain’t a cutthroat in The Wastes that would be saying, ‘If I am not being too forward.’ That there would be the quickest way to get you gutted out here lad,” he said.

I was worried. I was afraid I may be losing the chance to win favor with this NPC and possibly getting a quest. I tried to think of how to approach this when thankfully he gave me the answer.

“But I’m kind of liking this gentleman rogue angle. No one would expect one of ours to be so uppity. Could get you into places others could not. But no matter what lad, you gonna need some training. You wouldn’t last a day in the real rogue world with what ya got now. But we don’t do that kind of thing here. That only happens in the Underground,” he explained very seriously.

“I would like to go to the Underground,” I say, hoping this will trigger the quest I think is coming.

He laughed again, “I’m sure you would lad! But not just anyone goes through them halls. You got to earn that right. And to earn it, you gots to find it!”

A golden light surrounded me, informing me that I had been given a quest.

I opened up my quest icon through the now routine focus and blink, and saw the quest:

Quest: Secrets of the Rogue

Rogue Only

So you want to be a rogue with the big boys, do ya? Not an easy task, and not for those without the skill to achieve it. In order to learn the secrets of the rogue, you must first make yer way to the Underground. Those with the knowledge of the Underground won’t give it up lightly. But I’m one a dem gracious men, and I will start you off on your journey with a bit of aid. Simon Temple knows of a door. He doesn’t know what the door is for or where it goes. Get the information and travel to that door. This is a solo and secret quest. Informing any other individuals will immediately make the quest null and void.

I didn’t know what to say. A rogue only secret quest that I couldn’t tell the guys. This was going to be rough. But I believed the reward was worth a little subterfuge on my part.

“What do I call you?” I asked

“You get me name the day you walk through that door lad. And ain’t no reason for ya to have anything else to call me, as you won’t be seeing me again until you do,” he replied.

“Well then I guess I will see you on the other side,” I replied.

He laughed again. And as he started walking away, disappearing into the shadows, he said, “Mighty lucky that you ran into me while I was out on this stroll lad, mighty lucky indeed.”

CHAPTER 13

August 11th, 2043

I noted three things as soon as I logged back in to Resurgence:

1. That singular ERROR message continued to pop up in my RAC just before I entered the game.

2. I was still logging in away from my log out point, although the distance between log out and log in point had shrunk again.

3. I still had the Chance error on my character and I guessed this was linked to that error message I kept getting before logging in.

I had already told the company about the problem, and they seemed to think everything was running to spec, so I had no plans of saying different. Yes, it was greedy of me. And I was ok with this.

Once I joined up with my team, I also saw that Dan looked wrecked. If I didn’t know any better, I would say he had a hangover.

“It’s so not cool man. Why would they do this? Why would they intentionally give players a hangover. The best part about VR is that you don’t get stuff like hangovers and STDs!”

“Stop Dan. Please, just stop. I realize your head hurts, but if you give me more ammunition than you already have, I will have no choice but to respond,” Jason said to Dan.

“Whatever, dude. Wasn’t my fault. My mom introduced us. Gotta trust your mom bro.”

“Trying…so hard…not to make a mom joke,” Jason said while looking like he was holding in a storm.

“Hell, I like this Allister. Dan you should get a hangover more often,” Wayne said while slapping Jason on the back. Which made him stumble a bit. Damn, if the game mechanics weren’t awesome.

“Let’s just go see Sir Kenyon and try to get our next quest guys,” I said.

We approached Sir Kenyon, excited to get the next part of our quest. So you can imagine how disappointed we were when he gave us the same line about needing to come back when we were more prepared. We sat down at the side of the fountain and tried to come up with our next steps. I had a number of ideas, but I had been hogging the “leadership” role for too long now. I knew the guys wanted me to just tell them what we were going to do, but I was content to wait them out.

“He’s doing it again,” Dan said while looking at me. “Jerk. Fine, I say I hit the forest and go as deep as I can.”

“That’s what your mom told me to do!” Jason suddenly blurted out. All heads turned to Jason. He had a look of total panic. Wayne and I were trying to hold in our laughter till we saw how Dan reacted.

It was Dan who laughed first though, as Jason looked like he was going to start blubbering out apologies. Dan’s laughter was so genuine, and so loud, that even Jason started to giggle.

“Dude! Seriously, without a doubt, that was the funniest thing you have ever said,” Dan said to Jason. “Would have been a little funnier if my mom wasn’t dead, but still funny.”

“Oh my god! Dan, I’m so sorry, I mean, I didn’t know, and your mom, and…oh my god man, please understand I…” Jason tried to apologize to Dan.

“Just fuckin with ya, she’s still kickin’,” Dan said. “And now we’re even. So what do you guys think of my idea?”

Jason looked at me. And his face said it all. “Please, please just let me kill him. Just once.”

* * *

We talked over our options for a bit, none of us agreeing to Dan’s idea. In the end even Dan didn’t agree to his own idea. Which, as we had come to learn, was pure Dan.

After all was said and done, Wayne came up with the best strategy. We would use the goblin camp as our base of operations. We would continue to farm the camp until all of us had collected one of the “Simple Rings of Might.” There was no class restriction on the ring, and we could all use a Strength, Constitution, and Armor freebie. After that we would venture out looking for other suitable places to set up our camp. After achieving level 6, I would return to the town and engage with Sir Kenyon, trying to get the quest. None of us knew what level we needed to be, but we were excited to do some more exploring of the surrounding area. And I was keeping an eye out for Simon Temple.

We also decided to hold off on buying any more gear until we reached level 6. Before venturing out into the woods we stopped by the same merchant who had sold us Jason’s spells originally, and who had given us the quest that led us to the goblin camp. We wanted to see just how much Jason’s and Dan’s new spells were going to cost us.

Dan was going to get three spells at level 6, and Jason was going to get
five. Dan would get his snare, a self only agility boost, and a self only armor boost. All very good for our puller. Jason was going to get a better heal, a better group armor buff, sense undead, resist poison buff, and resist disease buff. The merchant was hesitant at first to show us these new spells, but after a few moments he said, “Now normally, I don’t show these spells to folks until they can actually use them. But since you boys helped me out, I will show you what you have in store. Again, these prices are non-negotiable,” he said while looking right at me and winking. And the spells were not cheap. Jason’s improved heal and armor buff would cost us 10 Silver for each, as would Dan’s snare. The other five spells would be 5 Silver each. In total we were looking at spending 55 Silver for all of the spells. We were currently 15 silver short.

We decided after the conversation with the merchant that our best option would be to continue farming the boss at the goblin camp even after we all had rings. I figured I could easily sell them for 10 silver each, and after a couple of successful sells we would have enough to pay for all the spells with what we already had. The guys weren’t looking forward to farming for items again, but I assured them this time we would only attack the camp when the boss spawned. This was twice a day.

We worried at first that other groups might stumble onto the camp and we would lose our potential cash cow. But it seemed the only people who could access the area were those that had been given the quest. This became clear when we were sitting near the camp and another group ran right past us and the camp. The mobs didn’t aggro them, and they didn’t seem to notice the camp at all. This was an interesting and potentially beneficial aspect of the game. It also would make it impossible to find some places unless we were given the quest to do so.

During all of the time we were out there killing mobs, we only had one catastrophe. While Dan was trying to bring two mobs to our camp site he ended up pulling four. Normally, Dan would just run them around, trying to lose the aggro, or at the worst, die far enough away from the party so only he had to collect his body. However, during this particular event Dan ran all of them right at us and, while blabbering incoherently, logged off.

None of us had any idea what had happened, but we quickly were slaughtered by the mobs. Each of us was ready to kill Dan when he logged back in. But before we could say anything to him when he finally came back on twenty minutes later, Dan was apologizing profusely.

“I am so so sorry guys. I had to log out super quick. I just…had to,” Dan said.

“There is literally no excuse you can give me right now Dan that is going to make me forgive you for what you just did,” Jason said, looking very angry at Dan. There was so much disappointment in his face and his words that I had no idea what Dan thought he could say to make things right with Jason.

“I just spent the last twenty minutes going number 1 out my number 2-hole bro. Never trust a taco truck that isn’t being run by Latinos man!” Dan exclaimed.

Ok, that might have been the one thing we could all understand. Who hadn’t been on the receiving end of some bad carne asada?

It took us three days to level up to 6. We all got our Simple Rings of Might as well as an additional four to sell. With the loot we had collected we had accumulated another 8 Silver, and with the four rings we would be able to get all of our level 6 spells and Wayne and I could buy our first special abilities. Unlike with Dan and Jason who had to pay money to a merchant, Wayne and I would just see our money disappear into the ether. We learned this when Wayne tried to activate his new Bash skill and found that he had to pay 5 silver to activate it. It was 5 silver for each of my skills as well.

The Bash skill would allow Wayne to smack the mob upside the head, really pissing it off. If the Bash was extremely successful, it would also Stun the enemy for one second. Between the natural aggression created by the bitch slap and the stun, Wayne would easily be able to grab aggro off of Dan. As the level of the Bash went up, the chance for Stuns became more likely.

I was looking at getting the bread and butter of all rogues. Conceal and Stealth. With a successful attempt in Conceal, my character would be effectively invisible against almost all players, NPCs, and mobs. This was negated if another had the ability to see through invisibility. But very few mobs had this trait inherently, and certainly none at our low levels. No players had this ability unless they owned a magic item with this trait, or had consumed a special potion that gave them this ability. As our group had progressed faster than any other group I had seen, and we had yet to find any magic items other than the Simple Ring of Might, I was not concerned that any players would be able to see me. But if I moved, I would lose my Conceal.

With a successful Stealth try, I was able to move past mobs, players, and NPCs silently. Of course if they were looking right at me, the whole being Stealthy went right out the window. And this is where the true value of the skills came into play. If a character first hid themselves successfully, and then also became stealthy, they could effectively move without anyone hearing them and totally invisible. The only problem was that at low levels, a player with Conceal and Stealth moved very very slow. In other games where skills like this were present, characters moved at only 25% of their normal speed to start. Given that Resurgence was following the game play of many other games, I figured this would be the case as well. As the skills went up, so would the movement speed.

After applying their skill points for level 6, everyone but myself logged off. I decided to stay on and sell the four rings I had so we could start the next day ready to use all of our skills and spells. I held off on talking to Sir Kenyon until after the guys logged back on.

I made the announcement in the square, “Simple Ring of Might (linked) for sell, 10 Silver. First to message me in a Private Message (PM) with the 10 Silver linked will get priority.”

Immediately my interface was full with incoming messages. Many of them were asking where I got the item. I closed these without responding. Five serious players linked me the 10 silver from their account and said they were interested. All of them were warriors, not surprisingly.

I took all of them in order. The first to offer was the first to get a ring. It continued this way until I got to the fourth. I informed the fifth warrior that he would not get a ring on this occasion, but would get one first, and at the same price, when I had another. He abandoned the private messages and said in front of everyone, “I will give you 15 Silver for that ring.”

The warrior who was fourth in line said, “Well, I’m out then. I only have 13 silver.”

“I am sorry, but I didn’t announce the price was negotiable, and that the first to message would have priority. I will keep to my word, both to the people in this square and the message I sent you previously,” I said.

The fifth Warrior looked angry at first, but then seemed to calm down, “Well I’ll be damn, the first honest merchant I’ve ever met. I like your style Alex. You get another ring and I’ll have your money.” Everyone else around us were nodding their heads. A trustworthy and fair player merchant was rare. Most would jump at the chance to fleece a few more copper out of their customers. But I had spent years building my reputation on other games as a seller, and I was going to use the same model here.

I now had the money for us to buy all of our spells and skills. Starting the next day, we had every intention to start wrecking shit in Resurgence.

* * *

August 12th, 2043

And yet again we were turned down by Sir Kenyon. We were really starting to hate that bloody NPC. With no other plans, we decided to go back to our previous plan of hunting in the forest and killing the boss at the goblin camp when we could. We ended up facing Rabid Wolves, Dire Rats, Angry Boars, and one Black Bear that almost ate all our lunches. Thankfully, Dan only pulled that one bear, because we definitely were out classed.

Dan was a natural with his snare and bow. I definitely had a new found respect for Dan’s ability as a puller. And with Wayne’s Bash, he never lost aggro on a mob. We were moving along quite nicely, going from one mob to the next.

As noted previously, our new skills were progressing as we used them. Wayne’s went up faster than mine since he was constantly using Bash in his fights. I could only practice my Conceal and Stealth between fights. And like I thought, when I did finally get a successful Conceal and Stealth I moved so slow you would have thought I was going backwards. But I was happy to see the mechanics were in place to now allow me to move freely throughout the game, if at only a snail’s pace.

During down time between fights we also learned more about each other. You would think with all the time we spent prior to the Beta’s release we would have learned more about one another, but we spent most of the time answering questions or taking tests for AltCon. The one time I really got insight into each person was when we were building our characters.

It turned out that Wayne was the head of security for a night club that we all knew, but none of us could ever get into. His boss was not happy when he heard that Wayne would be taking a year off work so he could play a video game. The boss threatened to black list Wayne from ever working in a night club again after that. Apparently, AltCon came through and made a call to Wayne’s manager. Wayne never knew what was said, but his boss told him his job would be waiting for him when he returned.

Dan told us that he was independently wealthy. When Jason asked how he got that way, Dan replied, “It’s called independent bro. So you don’t talk about it, duh!”

“Dan, you are aware, aren’t you, that independent does mean that at all?” Jason asked.

Dan just looked over at Wayne and shook his head sadly. “It’s so heartbreaking when the youth these days just don’t get a proper education.” Even Wayne slapped his forehead at this one.

Turned out that Jason was an interior decorator, and quite successful at it. He had to insist on a larger stipend from AltCon if he was going to play the game full time, and it appeared they capitulated. All of us, except for Dan, who was wealthy, were earning on par exactly what we made the previous year through our work.

“So how difficult is it to work with that RAC in your house Allister?” I asked.

“It’s bloody horrible! It goes with nothing Alex. Nothing! Although I know these things are going to take off because AltCon is a wonderful company, and I’m going to tell everyone to buy one. So I am going to start looking at how to put them into a motif that doesn’t just scream obtrusive like they do now.”

I was a little shocked to hear Jason praising AltCon. None of us have any attachment to the company, but Jason spoke with such adoration, you would think he had been with the company for decades and they had paid for his mother’s hip replacement. Not that I know if Jason’s mother had a hip replacement.

The guys all knew that I was a professional seller online. We broached the topic when I was convincing them to farm the venomous sacks all that time ago. Some people looked down on this type of business, as minors playing the game would steal their parent’s credit cards to purchase items in game. But I always checked to make sure the company that owned the game had done all their verifications before I completed the sell.

Did this stop minors from using their parent’s credit cards? Nope. It just kept me legally clear so I didn’t have to give the money back. Maybe if those parents spent more time with their kids they wouldn’t go and steal their credit cards. Or if the parents spanked them more. The jury is still out in my mind as to which is a better solution. But whenever I see a kid throwing a tantrum, destroying property, and throwing things around, and the parent saying how that makes them feel sad when the kid acts that way, then yeah, I definitely question the lack of ass whoopings kids are getting today.

For the next week, we continued to hunt and level. We were having a complete and total blast. We explored new areas, got new skills, new armor, and at level 10 there were new spells. We died a few times, but with no experience penalty for dying we weren’t worried about it at all. We played the game, and we really enjoyed it.

We also collected 10 more of the rings. The first I sold for 10 Silver like agreed. The remainder I opened for negotiations. The prices ranged from 10-15 Silver as I expected they would. Between the rings, the money we collected off of mobs, and the junk items that we found on mobs, we were able to raise 150 silver, or 1 Gold 50 silver. This was the first time any of us had seen a Gold piece, but I believed we would be seeing many more in the future and vetoed Dan’s idea to keep it and try to frame it as our First Gold.

With the money we were able to buy Dan’s and Jason’s new spells, of which each got three. Wayne and I also got new skills as well.

Jason’s new spells included Resistance to Fire/Earth, Air/Water, and a Gate spell. Gate would allow Jason to teleport back to his bind point. In this case, the town square in Port Town. The casting time was 10 seconds long, so this wasn’t the type of thing that Jason could use if he were being attacked by a mob. But it would allow Jason to travel back to town quickly if he needed to get components for spells. This wasn’t an issue right now, as all of Jason’s spells only required mana, but I believed in the future there would be other items that would be necessary for casting spells. Only time would tell.

At level 10, Dan got a minor healing spell that was basically effective enough just to heal himself if he took damage during a pull. He also got a self-buff that added +10 to his archery skill, which would go up as he leveled. Finally, the greatest spell Dan got was his ability to summon a light source. On more occasions than any of us wanted to count, Wayne had fallen flat on his face due to his inability to see in the dark. We all learned a number of interesting curse words because of this.

The spells in total were 50 Silver. Which left us with 1 Gold to outfit our characters with new gear. And we used almost every copper.

At the end of our shopping spree, everyone was armored, head to toe. Each character had the following armor:

For Wayne and Jason, the total for their gear was 46 Silver. Dan and I came to 40 Silver. We had 14 Silver left, so there was no chance to get upgrades to our weapons. Although with that 14 Silver, Wayne and I were able to get our new Skills. Taunt and Backstab. Taunt allowed Wayne to gain even more aggro on a mob by taunting it, basically calling it a pussy. Backstab allowed me to hit for even more damage if I used a dagger and stabbed the beasty in its back. Both were going to be very helpful in dealing with those pesky mobs.

But hands down, we were the baddest looking players in the game. As far as I could tell, we were the only group with full armor. And our notoriety was already becoming known. Due to all of my selling, most of the people knew who I was and I would constantly get private messages asking me how I was able to get so much money so quickly. If I didn’t respond, which I never did, I would often get spammed by the same person calling me a cheat and threatening to report me to AltCon. I wasn’t worried about this at all. Funny enough, none of the rogues ever messaged me, although I didn’t have any rogue specific gear.

Jason and Dan got messaged a lot as well, but mostly from other Rangers and Clerics that wanted to ask them how they liked their spells. Jason tended to be polite and responded. Dan tended to respond as Dan always did. And soon after those people stopped messaging Dan.

There was an unspoken code among the Warriors it would appear. No one messaged Wayne, as if they all recognized his superiority, but weren’t going to acknowledge it. Wayne explained it to me and I accepted this as fact, although it seemed silly to me.

The best part about reaching level 10, however, was that we finally got our next quest from Sir Kenyon. Over the past week, each time we leveled, I would go back to Sir Kenyon and ask him for the quest. And each time he would give me the same stupid answer.

Fed up with the whole thing, I went to Sir Kenyon when we all finished getting our gear and spells and told him yet again, “I’m here to answer your stupid ass call.”

“Ah, so you are! And I can see you are a mighty group of adventures who could certainly help the kingdom against the Children of Loust,” Sir Kenyon said.

“Finally! I can’t wait to get out of this area and get on to the next quest!” Dan exclaimed.

“However, before I send you off on your first mission for his majesty, there is a small matter I need you to attend to. As you are aware, this small town is infested with venomous scum that prey on the weak. Namely the children. But we have found the source of this infestation and now know how to rid the area of this vermin. I can call on no one else to help with this problem, as the guards must stay outside the gates to protect the children and you are the only adventurers capable of taking on this foe. Will you help quell the rabbit uprising?”

“Sonovabitch! Are you kidding me? We grinded through five levels so we could fight more fuckin’ rabbits? This guy can eat a bag of dicks!” I would expect those words to come from Dan, or even Wayne when he was really upset. But not a one of us expected those words to come out of Jason. I forgot to reply to Sir Kenyon because we were all staring at Jason.

“Will you help quell the rabbit uprising?” Sir Kenyon asked again.

“Just tell him we will handle the stupid fuckin’ bunnies,” Jason said.

I stumbled through my response, but finally got it through that we would accept the quest. Sir Kenyon was pleased, and beamed a huge smile. It was obvious that he did not register Jason’s words. “Excellent! The ultimate villain in this caper is a Mutated Queen Rabbit, who continues to create these vile beings. She is holed up in the sewers below the city. I have here a key that will give you access to the sewers; however, the Queen’s location is unknown to me. The sewers are large, but I have no doubt you will be able to navigate through them and rid us of this plague. Bring me the Queen’s heart and the entire village will reward you if you are successful!”

Just like that, I had a key in my inventory and a blinking symbol on my map that indicated the entrance to the sewers. It was located, not surprisingly, in The Wastes. And not far from where I encountered the mystery man.

“Soooo. Not a huge fan of the bunnies there are you Alli?” Dan asked.

“I hate those things. I didn’t tell you guys because I thought we were done with them, and I didn’t want to give Dan any more ammunition against me, but I had really bad dreams about those things. Like getting my throat torn out by razor sharp teeth while cute little bunny ears flapped against my face,” Jason said while taking a few deep breaths. Those rabbits really did a number on him it appeared. What none of us knew was that during one of our runs back to the forest to get our bodies after a bad pull, Jason, for whatever reason, was attacked en masse by all the rabbits in the field. That shouldn’t have happened given his level, but it did. He had no intention of telling the guys about any of this, but now he had to.

“That is weird bro, you think it was maybe because your little high elf peen looks like a carrot. It’s not orange is it? Let me see!” Dan said, totally ensuring that Jason would likely never share anything with us again.

I was about to get angry with Dan, as Jason was obviously confiding in us, when much to my surprise Jason said, “That was a good one Dan! I got no comeback. You win on this one.”

Dan turned to give me a high five, but I had already walked around him. I looked over at Jason and he whispered, “Please!”

I nodded my head once. I knew this was going to end bad, but Dan totally deserved it. And since we just got our level 10, none of us would be losing any experience.

We got to the sewer door and I activated the key to open the gate. While we were walking we all came to the conclusion that we should enter simultaneously in case there were any mobs just on the other side of the door. However, as soon as I opened the gate Jason said, “Hey Dan, go check and see if it’s clear for us,” and unceremoniously pushed Dan through the gate and into the sewer.

And it appeared there were in fact mobs on the other side. And they were probably pretty big, if the loss of Dan’s health was any indication. I looked over at Wayne to see if he was going to rush in to save Dan, but he shook his head, “Little fucker had that one coming. Didn’t know you had it in you Allister. Good job.”

After a few minutes Dan came walking back up to the group, minus all his gear. He walked right up to Jason and we all tensed. But then, Dan being Dan, he got the biggest smile on his face and gave Jason a fist bump. “Total. Fuckin’. Balls. Bro. I mean, Total Balls.”

Not a one of us had any clue what that meant. Probably not even Dan.

* * *

Dan told us there were two mobs on the other side of the gate, and each was blue to Dan. Since Dan needed to retrieve his body and get his items, he would be the last one through the door. Wayne would go through first and engage the two mobs. He would hit the first one with Bash and Taunt, and then hit the second one with a Bash, ensuring he would keep aggro. After ten seconds we would go through and Jason would start healing Wayne and I would hit which ever mob Wayne was attacking. We got buffed by Jason, and Dan cast his own self buffs. Then once everyone had full mana, Wayne ventured through the gate. As soon as Wayne stepped through, we weren’t able to see him anymore, but we could see his life bar. He was losing health, but nowhere near as fast as Dan was. That made sense since Wayne had a much higher Armor rating and way more hit points than Dan. After 10 seconds Jason and I went through the gate. Two seconds later, Dan followed.

I immediately targeted the mob Wayne was fighting, A Giant Venomous Bunny. And like you would imagine, that’s what it was. A big ass bunny. Except for where the bunnies in the open field looked like regular rabbits till you got too close and saw their razor sharp teeth, these rabbits were all kinds of messed up. It looked like their fur had mange, and there were a few spots where you could see open sores on their skin. And their eyes were a deep and disturbing red.

Dan quickly equipped all of his gear and started firing at the same rabbit that Wayne and I were attacking. With our low level weapons, the mob went down relatively slow, but we also didn’t need to worry much about Wayne dying given his high armor class and Jason’s latest heal spell. I also got to use Backstab for the first time and I was amazed to see the damage. If I normally hit for 40, with Backstab I was hitting for almost 100. It was close to a 2.5 Modifier. It had a refresh time of four seconds, so I only got to use it sporadically. But when I landed a Critical Strike while using Backstab that first time, I almost shit myself. I hit the mob for 200 damage. And that was with a very low level weapon that only had a +4 Atk Modifier. And my Strength was nothing great, so I wasn’t getting a huge Atk increase from that either.

The group was very happy for me when I yelled out my Critical Strike Backstab amount. Dan stopped firing his arrows to give me a high five. I looked at him and said, “Are you kidding me? Now? You want to do that now? Shoot the damn thing Dan!”

“Oops!” Dan said and got back in the fight.

After just a couple of minutes we had killed both of the mobs. They didn’t drop anything, but they did give a decent amount of copper, 50 pieces each. That’s 1 Silver per two mobs. And I had a feeling there were going to be lots of mobs.

“I can start pulling whenever you guys are ready, but be warned. There is no kiting going on in these little hallways. We may be better off just moving up as a group and killing things as we go until we get to a place that has more room,” Dan informed the group.

This was sound thinking and we all agreed. The other thing that had me worried was that there was no map interface for us to look at. Where our map would normally be, was a grayed out icon, meaning it was not accessible. I relayed my thoughts to the group and asked for their thoughts.

“That shouldn’t be a problem. Dan will be our map master,” Wayne said.

“Duh bro, didn’t you just hear Alex. No map man.”

“Duh doofus, how about you bring that brain of yours “to the table” and just memorize the layout,” Wayne replied.

“Man, that is so not cool. That means I have to be paying attention all the time,” Dan said.

“Wait, are you telling me that when we are playing you aren’t focusing on the game?” I asked.

“Nah Charlotte, I can multi-task. I’ve gotten most of a crossword puzzle done since yesterday.”

“Who the hell is Charlotte?” I asked. My irritation with Dan was coming through loud and clear in my voice.

“Well you are acting like such a Nancy, but I thought I would be witty and use Charlotte. Nice right?” Dan replied.

I was about to lose my temper for real when Jason said, “Which crossword?”

“New York Times bro, the only crossword worth doing. I’m on the Thursday edition,” Dan replied.

“And you’re half way through while also playing the game?” Jason asked. Dan nodded yes and Jason said, “Impressive. Now pay attention to the game.”

Dan had a total look of hurt on his face and said, “Fine. Bunch of party crashers.”

I couldn’t help myself. “Dan, you know a party crasher is someone who goes to a party uninvited, right?”

“That’s dumb-dumb bro. A crash is a bad thing, like when I crashed my dad’s Porsche in the lake. A bad thing. So someone who crashes a party is obviously messing it up. You should write this stuff down Alex.”

“Let’s just move ahead before Dan has to loot his body again,” Wayne said.

I totally forgot to ask Dan how he was doing a crossword during the game.

* * *

All of the mobs that we encountered were blue, and we usually had to take two at a time. On rare occasions we got lucky and only got one mob. Thankfully we hadn’t had to try three at the same time, but I had a feeling it would happen eventually. We were also systematically clearing the sewer. The place was like a maze. Every hallway and intersection looked exactly the same to me. But Dan was keeping track, so he said, and we hadn’t doubled back on ourselves. While we were approaching a larger room, what I hoped would be a boss fight, I heard a whimper coming from a small hallway just to the right of the opening for the large room. It was really more of a nook than a hallway. And when I went to investigate, I found a man huddled on the ground, knees to his chest, and frightened for his life. None of that mattered to me though, because the only thing I was paying attention to was his name, Simon Temple.

“Guys! Hold up a second, there is someone here.”

I kneeled down to the NPC and told him, “You don’t need to fear, we won’t hurt you. Are you lost down here?”

He nodded yes and then said, “One of my flock got into the sewer and I came down here to find it. I lost it and my way. I’ve been hiding in this hole for I don’t know how long. Please help me, please, I just want to go home.”

“Nice! A side quest! What does it say Alex?” Dan asked.

I couldn’t tell the guys that I already had the quest for this NPC as that would cancel it out, so I told them the other truth. “I’m not getting any quest text. I think this just might be a part of the script. But honestly, I think we should help the guy.”

Dan was the first to pipe up, “Forget that man, it’s just an NPC, it isn’t like he is going to starve to death or die of thirst. We got bunnies to deal with!”

“I disagree. I think positive karma would shine down on us if we helped out this NPC. Never underestimate the power of Karma Dan. And before you reply and say something about inspirational posters like you did to Allister, know that I will punch you in the throat. Hard,” Wayne said to Dan.

Dan just swallowed audibly.

I seized on the momentum and made a declaration, “Ok guys, I say we take this guy back to the gate. We haven’t seen any respawn yet, so maybe we get lucky and get him there and return here before the respawn.”

“Fine. I am formally lodging a protest though,” Dan answered. “Follow me, I will get us back to the gate. It’s just around the corner anyhow.”

“What? We’ve been walking around for over an hour!” Jason yelled.

Dan snapped at Jason, “Keep it down there Alli Baba. We were clearing the dungeon. I couldn’t tell you where we needed to go till we had seen where everything is. Now stop harassing me! Already made me put down my crossword.”

And Dan had obviously been paying attention to what he was doing, because just as he said, we arrived back at the gate in two minutes. The mobs had respawned but knowing we didn’t have far to go in order to return was a blessing and we didn’t mind having to kill a couple more mobs.

Knowing that I needed to speak with Simon privately, I told the guys, “Hey, I am going to go out with him, maybe some kind of quest will open up once we have him on the outside.” Everyone nodded their heads in an affirmative and I walked out with Simon.

Once we were outside the sewer and back in The Wastes, I turned to look at Simon. Before I could say anything he began stammering his thanks and apologies, “Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about quests, but thank you for saving my…”

“Simon. Stop talking.” I said with a very serious tone. He immediately shut up.

“Somewhere there is a door. You know where it is. But you don’t know where it goes. Where is that door?”

Simon’s face got very pale. He backed away a couple of steps, but hit the side of the alley. He started shaking his head no, “I don’t want to go back there. It’s too dangerous.”

“You don’t need to go back there, just me. And what was dangerous about it?”

“There were monsters all over the place. One of my flock got away, and I went running after it. Sounds like that happens to me a lot huh? But really I am a very good shepherd, it was just one of those days and with the lightning and the thunder the poor thing got scared and started running and…”

“Simon. Stop rambling. Take a deep breath. What was dangerous? Where is the door?”

“When I found my lost sheep I saw over the rise a door set against the side of a hill. As I started to walk up to it, a bunch of really big animals came out from behind the hill. There were two bears, a boar, and a wolf. I mean you don’t normally see that kind of thing. All of ‘em together like that. But as I walked backwards, so did they. So I thought to test it, and started walking forward again. The wolf lunged at me, and I just barely got away alive. My sheep wasn’t so lucky.”

“I’m sorry for your loss Simon. but I still need to know, where is the door?”

“Here, I’ll just show you on your map and then you’ll let me go right?”

“Even if you don’t want to show me Simon, I won’t hold you. But I did just save you from the sewers, so it would be the right and proper thing to do.”

“Yeah, sorry. I’m forgetting my manners and all that. Place really scared me. The sewer I mean, not the door. I mean the door too, but…”

“Rambling again Simon.”

“Right, sorry. Here you go, I marked it on your map. Good luck to you and your friends with those beasts, I don’t think even you four could take them, no offense.”

I smiled at Simon and said, “None taken. Now go home, and get cleaned up. And I would suggest you sleep for an entire day. You will feel much better after.”

“Thank you again for everything, and please tell your friends I said thank you to them as well,” Simon said as he shook my hand. Before he could say another word, I stepped back through the gate.

* * *

“Sorry about the delay guys. I was convinced we would get some kind of quest if I just asked the right question or said the right phrase. Unfortunately, nada,” I lied to the group. I felt horrible about doing so, but if I didn’t they would have just asked more questions. Couldn’t have that.

“It’s not a problem. Thanks for trying. Let’s get back to that room. I think we are all at full mana, and if there is a boss in there, we should be ready for it.”

We headed back to the large room and looked inside. We couldn’t see to the other side of the room, as the room had a concealing mist within it. Which made me think that two could play that game.

“Alright guys, this is going to suck for all involved, but mostly for me,” I said.

“I like this already,” Wayne said. “Normally when something sucks it ends up being me that gets thrown in the thrasher.”

“We can’t see very far into that fog, which means you know there is something hiding inside of it.” They all nodded their heads. “So I am going to use my Conceal and Stealth and go check out the interior.”

To a man, they all groaned. I knew that my Conceal and Stealth were slow and that meant they would have to sit around for a bit, but I didn’t think I would get such a strong negative reaction.

“It’s a good call, Alex. I’m just thinking about how far the tectonic plates will shift by the time you are done,” Jason said.

“Hmmm, I’ve always wanted to read all of Moby Dick in one sitting. Think this might be my chance?” Wayne added.

“Oh! I’m going to do my crossword!” Dan finished. Dan obviously didn’t notice that the other two had been joking, or he did and saw a squirrel and totally lost his train of thought and just came back to crosswords.

“Funny. Very funny all of you. Except Dan, which doesn’t sound right at all. I’ll let you know what I find when I’m finished,” I said while trying to engage my Conceal and Stealth. And then got ready to begin slowly, oh so slowly, to make my way into the fog.

It only took me a few tries to get both my Conceal and Stealth going. I told the guys I would be back soon, to which they laughed, and headed into the fog. The room was larger than I thought at first glance and it took me a few minutes to move across the length of it till I finally saw the mobs. There were three of them. There were two of the Giant Venomous Rabbits, who were both blue and one Guardian Venomous Rabbit, who was yellow. I relayed this information to the group and then started to make my way back to the hallway. After what seemed an eternity, I made it back to the group.

Everyone looked over to me as I disengaged my Conceal and Stealth. I popped up behind them, just because I wanted to scare them a bit. Jason and Wayne jumped a bit, but Dan seemed off in his own realm. “It takes forever for you to get anywhere, but that is definitely a useful skill to have Alex,” Wayne said.

“That’s the truth brother. How goes the crossword Dan?” I asked.

“Almost done bro, this one was hard. Oh yeah, and 7,” Dan said.

“Seven what?” I asked.

“Just 7 bro. It’s the last number in Pi. That’s how long your shit took, I was able to figure it out,” Dan said while smiling.

“Ha. Ha. How are we going to take these guys? No way we can pull all three at the same time,” I commented.

“Clear to the gate and then try to boomerang the yellow? That way we can pull the blues into the corridor first and finish them off, and if our pull doesn’t work out we just leave the sewer?” Jason asked.

It seemed like a good idea, but Wayne made a good point, “I worry though, what if by all of us leaving the sewer we just reset the whole dungeon and then have to start over?” None of us wanted to redo the two hours of work we had just accomplished.

“I can try to snare the Guardian. Kite him around the room while you guys take out the two blues. I’m going to have some massive aggro on me though if it takes you guys a long time. But while I’m running it around, that should give Allister time to heal Wayne,” Dan suggested.

“Can you land your snare on a mob that many levels higher than you?” I asked Dan.

“Might as well find out!” Dan replied enthusiastically.

With our plan in place, we ventured into the room and the fog immediately lifted once the mobs had us in their aggro. Dan’s first attempt at snare on the Guardian failed, and his curses were reminiscent of when Wayne was repeatedly falling on his face. Thankfully, the second cast landed and Dan began to kite the Guardian around the room. The rest of us moved to the center of the large room to give Dan the ability to use the outer walls as his running area. Wayne quickly got aggro on both mobs and we started to whittle one, and then the other down. Jason said he was good with mana, and so Dan ran the mob over toward us once Wayne had both Taunt and Bash ready to go. Wayne ran out to meet the Guardian before it got to our group, as it was still moving slow because of Dan’s snare, and hit it with Taunt and Bash. Both were successful, but the mob still came at Dan, as he had cast more than one snare on it during our time fighting the blues.

“That thing hits me Wayne and it is going to hurt worse than when I rode a bike for three weeks without a seat!” Dan yelled.

Dan kept backing up, trying to avoid the Guardian’s reach, and finally Wayne was able to establish aggro. The Guardian turned on Wayne and started going to town. After three seconds, just to be safe, Dan and I both engaged. Me with my dagger and Dan with his arrows.

“He has a Bash that Stuns. Looks like it lasts for two seconds. I’m still keeping aggro,” Wayne said.

The mob was down to 50 percent life when it released an area of effect spell. How the hell a bunny has spells I will never know. Stupid video games.

The area of effect, also known as an AoE, caused poison damage to all of us. It was a pretty substantial AoE as well, taking off 20 hit points every six seconds, and doing substantial damage over time (these spells were also called DoTs for damage over time.) Dan could have healed himself, but we decided to focus on damage instead of healing. That’s what we had a cleric for. And in the end, it was fine if Dan and I died, but Wayne and Jason had to stay alive. The AoE lasted for two minutes, taking 400 hit points total. When the Guardian hit 25 percent health, it cast the spell again and we were once again poisoned. We all had enough constitution though to last through both of the AoEs. I imagine if we had not been so gracious with our Constitution skill points, this could have ended badly. Wayne had 3100 hit points base, with an extra 200 for being a barbarian, so he was riding out the AoE. With Dan, Jason, and I at less than 50 percent health and Wayne near full, the Guardian died.

There was much celebration between us, and I went to loot the body. I found 3 silver, an undamaged rabbit skin, and a surprise loot that I linked to the group:

“Damn that is nice!” Wayne said. “I think all of us could use that resist to poison down here in the sewer.”

“Agreed,” Jason said. “I think we should roll for it.” The game had a function that would allow you to pick a random number between 1 and 100. Whoever had the highest number would win the loot. Gamers would say “roll” harkening back to old board games where people would roll a multi-sided die to see who would win a piece of loot.

I looked over at Wayne and he gave his head an imperceptible shake, and then glanced over at Jason. I was thinking the same thing. With the Wisdom and Intelligence, I preferred Jason have it as well. And none of us had Poison based attacks. All that left was Dan.

“Hey Dan, did you want to roll on the cloak?” I asked.

Dan had been sitting against the wall with his eyes closed. He finally opened them and said, “Huh? Oh, let me take a look. Nah, give it to Allibaster.” Dan hadn’t even been paying attention the whole time.

“You better be close to finished with that thing,” I said.

“Dude! This one is hard! And do you know how difficult it is to do a crossword that you only have in your mind? Now let me finish so I can focus like normal!” To which we all laughed. Because normal for Dan was what was clinically considered a severe case of ADHD.

“Well there you have it. Congrats Allister!” I said.

Jason looked over at me and Wayne, “You guys don’t want to roll? But Naugha said it would be good for any of us.”

“But it would be best for you. And we decided long ago, when we were first killing bunnies in the fields, that we build the team before ourselves,” Wayne said and then quickly looked over to Dan to see if he was going to make a comment about inspirational posters again. But Dan still had his eyes closed.

“Wow, you guys really are the best group I’ve ever gamed with. Even Dan. Well even Dan on some levels. Thank you so much!” Jason said while looting the item and equipping it to his character. The result was a long flowing white cape of beautiful fur. It actually looked pretty bad ass.

“My eyes are closed Sallister but I can still hear you,” Dan said. “And you’re welcome dude, totally best for you.”

I was about to tell Dan to get up and get moving when I heard him mumble, “Damn it all to hell. Just one more. Five letter word for ‘end of all’. ‘E’ is the second letter.”

I then watched Dan jump three feet in the air, when Wayne leaned down and hissed into his ear, “Deeeaaatthhh.”

* * *

We searched the large room in full, which was much easier now that the mysterious fog had lifted. We didn’t find any secret rooms or extra loot, but we did find a staircase that led down to another level of the sewer. Once we were fully buffed and mana was at full, we headed down into the sewer’s second level.

After the fight with the Guardian, we asked Jason to start using his level 6 resist poison buff. It only gave us a +20 to poison resistance, but that was better than nothing. With Jason’s new cloak, he was now at +35 resistance to poison.

The second level of the sewer had a different layout than the first, so we had to clear the whole thing again before we could effectively map the area. This took another two hours. However, during that time we each got another level, taking us to 11. We continued to get 50 Copper to 1 Silver on each mob, and some random drops of rabbit fur and rabbit meat. We knew these only sold for a few copper to the merchants up in Port Town, so we didn’t worry if we had to leave some behind because our inventory got full. And the items had a weight of 0.1 so it didn’t threaten to overload us either and make us fatigued.

After the two hours of clearing the second level of the sewer we came to another one of the large rooms that I believed signified the boss fight. We were hoping it was the Queen so we could get out of this sewer. I once again volunteered to use my Conceal and Stealth to investigate the room. Wayne said he would try War and Peace this time. I flipped him the bird just before my Conceal worked and then tried for another minute to get my Stealth to work.

Checking out the room was as slow a process as it was the first time around, and I was not happy when I finally got through the fog and saw what we had in store for us. This time it wasn’t just the boss and two mobs, but the boss and four mobs. The four non-boss mobs were blue at least. The boss was yellow, but I was guessing it was going to be a hard yellow just given the size of it. The Mutated Queen Rabbit was almost two meters high at the head. And she looked mean. Her razor sharp teeth extended past her lower jaw and her eyes were not just red, but bleeding from the corners. This was one ugly looking bunny bitch.

The guys were equally dismayed when I told them what we had in store for us. We couldn’t just filter the mobs into the hallways and force them to attack us one at a time, as the hallways were just big enough to have four of us stand shoulder to shoulder across it. Which means the mobs could do the same. I also doubted the Queen would boomerang, since this whole sewer was her domain after all. The best we could do was have Dan try to snare both the Queen and one of the blues, and kite both of them while we took on three at a time. I would try to have one of the three aggro me so Jason didn’t have to use all his mana on Wayne before we got to the Queen.

It was going to be a tough fight, but I was hopeful we would win. And if we didn’t, we at least knew what we were facing next time we came down here.

Dan went in and started the pull. He started with a cast of snare on the Queen. And thankfully it landed on the first try. Maybe the extra level helped with that. While the other four mobs rushed at Dan, Wayne targeted one with Taunt and then the other with Bash and grabbed aggro on himself. I took a third and backstabbed it, guaranteeing I was going to take aggro. By the time we had established our positions, Dan had hit the last blue with another snare and was kiting them around the room. So far, so good.

My Agility was nowhere near as high as Dan’s so I could guarantee I was going to get hit. However, I focused on attacking the same mob as Wayne, trying to whittle down each mob. Every ten seconds I would switch mobs and hit the one that I had aggro on, so it wouldn’t change its mind and decide to attack Jason.

My hit points were steadily going down, but there was nothing I could do about that. Wayne was still looking good though as we finished off the first and moved to the second mob. Jason said he still had 80 percent mana. He shot me one heal, which gave me a sigh of relief.

We made our way through the second and third mob and Dan started bringing over the other two. We had decided to take out the blue first, as it would be quicker, and would allow us to focus on the Queen without any distractions. Dan took a few hits while Wayne was getting aggro on the Queen, and Jason healed him once. Then we had Dan tank the blue, since his aggro was already established, while the Queen beat on Wayne till we were done with the blue. Jason regenerated mana, allowing Dan to take the hits. This wasn’t out of spite. No matter how the two acted outside of fights, during fights it was all business. We were sure that we could finish the blue before Dan died, and then he could use his own mana to heal himself. Once that was done he would be back in the fight and making a pin cushion out of the Queen.

Our plan was brazen, but amazingly it worked. After a short time, we were down to just the queen and Wayne was at full health. Dan was getting there, and Jason was at 50 percent mana. I was the only one that was lower on hit points from keeping aggro on the one blue, and I had 70 percent of my hit points, or a little over 1000 hit points out of my original 1600.

We had made sure we had Jason buff the poison resist for all of us before we started the fight, as we remembered what the Guardian had done to us. This time, however, the AoE went off when the Queen hit 75% of her life. It was the same spell with the same DoT – 400 hit points total. I know, because it landed on me. Jason and Wayne did not get effected. Dan too was poisoned, but he had his own healing spells, and I did not. The AoE went off again at 50%, and again I was poisoned. This was going to take me dangerously close to dying. Jason said he could heal, but I told him to focus on Wayne, as the Queen was lighting into him with those razor sharp teeth. Wayne was also hit by poison on this go around. Again, Jason’s +35 resistance to poison kept him safe.

We kept at it, and I looked on with dread as the Queen’s health bar moved closer to 25%. If the prior two times was any indication, I was likely to get poisoned again, and that was going to take me out of the fight. Jason was hollering out his mana count and it too was getting dangerously low.

At exactly 25% the AoE went off for the last time, and just as I feared, I was poisoned. I knew I wasn’t long for the fight, maybe another minute, so I just kept attacking, letting the group know I was going to die. Dan yelled, “I can heal you bro!” but I told him to focus on killing the bitch before Jason ran out of Mana. When I finally died, the Queen had 10 percent left on her health bar.

* * *

As soon as I logged back in from dying I saw that I was no longer level 11. The death had meant a loss of 25 percent experience in my level and that put me back down to level 10 with 84% experience. While that didn’t make me happy, I was more focused on what the guys were yelling in my ear as the fight kept going.

“She’s got 5% left on her. Don’t let up!” Dan yelled.

“Right, because my plan was to take a siesta right now Dan!” Jason replied.

“Shut both of your traps and focus, down to 3%,” Wayne said.

“I got one heal left in me Naugha, and then I’m going to be out,” Jason informed Wayne.

“That’s fine, just jump in and start hitting her with your mace if you have to!”

The whole time I was listening to them go on, I was running back to the sewers. Right before I got to the entrance I heard their cheers.

“That’s what I’m talking about! Take that you filthy bunny biyatch!” Dan yelled.

“Awesome job tanking Naugha,” Jason said.

“Same Allister, that was an excellent job of keeping me alive. Sorry you died Alex.”

“No worries guys, good work. I’m heading back to you now,” I said.

“The body will stay here for thirty minutes, so we have time for you to get here to loot. No one loots but the Chance Master,” Dan told me.

“Sounds good, I am about to enter the sewers now in Conceal/Stealth. I will make my way over to you guys,” I replied.

“Shit. Thirty minutes may not be enough time.” Wayne said while laughing.

“Very funny. Bunch of ass clowns. I know the way to the first big room Dan, but I will need directions from the stairs to where you guys are.”

“No problem man, just let me know when you get to the bottom of the stairs,” Dan replied. Then I heard him whisper, “I wish I had another crossword, he is going to take forever!”

“I can still hear you Dan!” I yelled.

“What? I said, ‘Don’t you like the weather?’”

* * *

I made it down to the second level large room with time to spare. Not a lot of time, but I still made it on time. Damn if I didn’t move slow. As soon as I got there I ran up to the mob to loot it.

As hoped, there was one Mutated Queen Heart to loot, which I quickly put into my inventory. There was one additional item and I laughed as I linked it to the group:

This item would be good for both Dan and Wayne, as I knew Wayne would love to have a +10 Strength bonus. However, Wayne wasn’t hearing it.

“There is no way that I am wearing furry pants. No self-respecting Warrior, and certainly not a Barbarian, would ever put those things on. Dan, they are yours if you want them,” Wayne said.

“Hell yeah I do! Alex?”

“All yours buddy, put em on!”

We didn’t stop laughing for five minutes. Dan was pissed at first when we started laughing at him, but when he looked down at his bottom half, he started giggling too. He was now clothed from his waist to his feet in white flowing fur. He looked ridiculous. But in true Dan fashion, his giggling, and his ire, didn’t last long.

“Oh man! I can’t wait to go to the Tavern tonight Naughameister. The chicks are going to love sitting on my fur,” Dan said to Wayne.

“Let’s just get out of here so we can turn in the quest and call it a day. I’m tired of these stinking sewers,” Jason said to everyone.

We found another staircase at the back of this room as well, only this one went up. This was good, since none of us wanted to fight our way through the two levels to go back out. And I didn’t feel like taking thirty minutes to run back to the entrance in Conceal/Stealth. The staircase popped us back out in The Wastes, a couple of streets over from the entrance, but when we tried to find the entrance, it was gone. Apparently this was an exit only location. No worries.

We went back to Sir Kenyon and I turned over the heart. We received a Gold piece each for completing the quest as well as a backpack each with six empty slots. The backpack was a fantastic gift, as it allowed us to hold six more items each in our inventory. All of a sudden there was a message broadcast to everyone:

Let it be known that the scourge plaguing this town has been defeated by the noble adventurers Alex, Allister, Naugha, and TheClaw! No longer will the vile beast that infested our realm with death in the guise of innocence taint these lands. For their efforts, these four will henceforth be known as The Bunny Slayers of Port Town! Three cheers for the Bunny Slayers!

This was followed by a system message that the four of us received on our internal systems.

As the first to defeat the Mutated Queen Rabbit in the sewers of Port Town, you have been given the title of The Bunny Slayers of Port Town. This title bestows upon the wearer a bonus to the player. All skills are +1 and all resistances +10. Do you wish to display your title? Failure to display the title will negate the bonus, but you will still maintain the title in your archive.

Despite the constant ribbing we knew we all would get, we all clicked yes. Even Wayne, who previously refused to wear the Furry Bunny Britches, couldn’t pass up on that many bonuses to his character. The experience from the quest also put my back to level 11, but just barely. My character now looked like this:

“I don’t care how they laugh guys; this was a job well done!” I said.

“Absolutely. But I am exhausted, and that last fight was a bit stressful. If you guys don’t mind, I am going to say we call it and get back online tomorrow to see what the next adventure is,” Jason told the group.

We were all in agreement, but only Jason planned to log off. Dan and Wayne had plans to go and get wild at the Tavern, with Dan making even more comments about his fur and how women couldn’t wait to rub themselves on it. I wasn’t worried though, since I knew Wayne would be with him.

I told the guys I would be logging off soon myself, but in reality I was headed out of the city. There was a door in the middle of the woods I planned on finding.

* * *

I headed out to the woods, passing the first spot that I ever logged in. Even though that was only a little over two weeks ago, after all we had done, it seemed like ages. I followed the point on my map, but kept an eye out for any mobs that might aggro me on my way there. I was no Tank, and if I got attacked there was a good chance I was going to get tore up. Better to avoid any trouble by looking ahead.

After traveling for 15 minutes I approached the area of the woods that Simon had marked on my map. It all looked the same, except for a slight mound that I could see in the not far distance. I realized this must be the hill that Simon mentioned. As I slowly began approaching the hill I noticed the door. As I got closer I also saw the four mobs that Simon had described. There were two Giant Bears, one Dire Wolf, and one War Boar. Even at my level 11, they were all red to me. Meaning just one could have killed me in no time flat.

I decided to test what Simon had said and inched my way closer to the mound and the door. As I did, the four mobs turned toward me and also began advancing in my direction. As soon as I saw them do this, I started to back away, and so did they. So at least that part of Simon’s story was true. I decided not to test the second part by trying again. I had no desire to have one of these beasts jump out at me.

There was no way I was going to take these mobs. Not even if I had my complete crew. The solution was simple, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything else first. After walking the perimeter of the hill and not seeing anything else of note, I backed away again until the point where the mobs had gone back to resting. I then activated my Conceal/Stealth. Now effectively invisible to the mobs, I began to approach the door.

I was sweating profusely, and my heart was racing. I kept looking at each mob as I got closer, just waiting for one of them to see through my invisibility and attack me. But my skills worked, and I was able to make it all the way to the door without getting any aggro from the mobs.

While I stood in front of the door, I checked it over looking for any obvious signs of traps. I couldn’t see any, but then again I had not unlocked the See Traps or Deactivate Traps skills that would come at a higher level. With no other options in front of me than opening the door or walking back to Port Town, I put my hand on the knob of the door, and turned it.

A small pop sounded as the door opened. And I saw that I was hit for 1 point of damage. The door was trapped. And while the 1 point of damage did absolutely nothing to hurt me, it did negate my invisibility. I immediately saw all four mobs turn toward me. With no other choice but to be killed or jump through the doorway, I ultimately chose survival.

Avoiding the beasts, I leapt through the door and found myself in a dark room with almost no light. I could see thanks to my racial eyesight skill, but there was nothing in front of me. As I was about to look around I felt a dagger pressed against my kidney.

“You better have a really good reason for being here laddie,” came a whisper from behind.

“I was told to come here by a man in a cloak. He had two daggers he said came from a beast in the Mason Mountains. He never gave me a name,” I answered, holding my breath. If I died here, I may never get my body back.

“How’d you find the door?” he asked.

“Simon Temple,” I responded.

The figure quickly spun me around and I saw he was a Halfling dressed all in black. I was going to ask if the only reason the dagger was at my kidney was because that was how far up he could reach. But I thought better of it.

“Ahhhh, so you’re the one. I was told to expect you. Didn’t think you would get here so soon. I’m called Standolous, but you can call me Stan. I’m to be your trainer boy,” Stan said to me.

“Stan the Man, got it. So I’ve reached The Underground?”

Stan laughed at me before responding, “First off, no” Stan said while continuing to chuckle, “no. You have not reached The Underground. You’ve simply found my home. But here is where we will train. Once I feel you are ready, I will guide you to The Underground. But don’t get your hopes up. Good chance you will die before that.

“Second, if you call me that again I will stab you in your appendix. You don’t really need it. But it will hurt. A lot. And I’ll like it.” As he spoke, Stan stopped laughing. By the time he got to that last sentence, he looked down right evil.

I wasn’t all that daunted since dying didn’t have the same effect on me as it did on NPCs. But Stan seemed to sense my thoughts and said, “And yes, I know that if you die you will come back. But if you die during training I will just consider you a failure. And without my recommendation, you don’t see The Underground. Understood?”

I nodded my head in agreement. Shit just got real.

“Well then, why don’t we start now. I’m going to show you how to move in the shadows. Not like you were doing outside. That looked like a manticore running through a pottery shop,” Stan said. I’m pretty sure that was the local equivalent to “bull in a china shop” but who really knew. I had planned on logging out, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen any time soon. But damn if my heart wasn’t beating fast again. But this time because I was about to embark on a totally unique and singular adventure.

* * *

Interlude

AltCon Board Room

“Report.”

Sitting at the foot of the table, Terrence Jolston was just beginning his briefing to the board. He loathed these meetings. A bunch of accountants and MBAs who only cared about the profit and not what it took to get there. Almost every idea he had come up with during these tests had initially been shot down by the board as not being cost productive, or a risk to shareholder confidence,
or some other crap. If it weren’t for the big man at the top floor, who actually had vision, Jolston doubted these tests would even be happening now.

“Our initial tests have been successful. As detailed in my initial report, we will continue to monitor and adjust the algorithms appropriately. We currently have two simultaneous runnings of Betas for Resurgence, both with 3000 test subjects. We plan to slowly integrate stimuli within the game that will allow our teams to test the effectiveness of our conditioning,” Jolston said to the group.

Jolston hated all the stupid politically correct words they had to use at these meetings. Conditioning they told him. Might as well call it what it was, programming. And just like in any programming, they were using code, only this was no simple code. What made it even more difficult was each of the simultaneous Beta’s required a unique code. Another thing that the paper pushers and bean counters hated. They wanted a one size fits all answer that would lead to even more profits.

The tests were progressing very smoothly as well. There had only been the one anomaly from test subject 271 in the introvert Beta. And even then, only the one report. Jolston had checked on 271’s progress a few days later, and did not note any additional anomalies from the subject. Having not received any further reports, Jolston believed the AI likely self-corrected the problem.

It was Jolston that first suggested splitting the Beta into two different groups, after speaking with the psychologists and medical doctors who assisted with the programming trials prior to interfacing them with the game. According to the doctors, the same stimulus that seemed to work on the introverts did not work on the extroverts. And vice versa. Of course the bureaucrats didn’t want to hear it, since this would cut into profits. In the end, Jolston didn’t even need to go to the big man when he noted that release would come infinitely sooner if they did things his way. And quicker release meant greater profits. The language of these clowns.

Jolston wished that he could have taken credit for the delivery system of the programming, but that honor went to a very little known psychologist in Iceland who was using virtual therapy immersion to help addicts with their addictions. The key was those lines that formed as each person entered into the virtual realm, what gamers called the “hyperdrive lines.” AltCon had conceived of a way to implant their own code, far more complex than anything the doctor in Iceland was using, into these lines. What they were attempting to do was rewrite the behavior of millions. And all for one purpose, the benefit of AltCon.

After Jolston finished his briefing to the board, they asked the usual questions about timeline and release dates. They continuously forgot that the timeline had already been set at a one-year trial for the Beta and that there was not going to be any deviation from that. It was understandable to a point. As the year progressed, the Resurgence project only cost money, not providing any profits in return. They wanted to pre-release the RACs at the least to offset the cost of the Beta. But releasing the RACs could lead to competitors getting their hands on the hardware and trying to reverse engineer it, and potentially coming up with something better. This was going to be a challenge anyway once Resurgence came out, but if the programming was successful, as the testing was leading them to believe, then everyone that was using AltCon RACs and playing the game would be urging everyone they know to only purchase AltCon. This number was going to likely be in the vast millions of users.

The applications for this level of programming of people were far reaching, but AltCon was only interested in the bottom line of profit margins. And why not? The latest computer models showed that with 100 percent effectiveness, AltCon could become the largest global company in one year’s time. Their annual profit would be larger than most countries GDP. Their total value would be on par with most European countries. And after five years, the only country with a larger GDP would be the United States of America. AltCon would be the largest economic power in the world.

And all with a loyal and willing consumer base that would do anything for the company. The big man had vision for sure.

* * *

Undisclosed Location

“Report.”

“It’s like I said at the last one of these meetings, there is nothing going on in the game brohemski,” said a man sitting at the end of a long table with his feet on the desk. He was wearing a colorful Hawaiian type shirt and was the opposite of professionalism.

“Must you speak like that?” Asked a very serious looking man at the front of the room. He had a close cut hair style and wore a well-fitting suit. He did not look terribly happy.

“I gotta stay in character dude. If I slip up these guys are going to know it. These ain’t no rhubarbs I’m telling you. In fact, you may want to recruit all of ‘em when this is done.”

This was the third meeting that had convened since the launch of the game, and each one was the same. They learned almost nothing about what AltCon was doing.

Two years previously, the Department of Defense was working on integrating an advanced Artificial Intelligence into their simulation models to increase the abilities of their battlefield commanders. The DoD interviewed numerous programmers and developers. Only two stuck out.

One was the current model the DoD was using, but the other was so free flowing, and borderline sentient, that the DoD had to turn its creator down. The AI was amazing, but having something near sentient in close proximity to so many weapons of mass destruction was a recipe for disaster. So with a “Thank you very much, but no thanks,” the DoD sent Bobby Shoal on his way, never to be heard from again. Until many months ago.

Late one night, one of the DoD employees who knew Shoal from their days at university together received a call from him. Shoal sounded like he was panicking. He kept saying, “I didn’t know what they were doing. This isn’t right. It just isn’t right. Please, I need your help.” Before the DoD officer could get more details, the line went dead.

The next day, the newspaper had an article on the third page about a car accident where the driver wrapped his car around a tree at an excessive speed. The driver, Bobby Shoal, was killed on impact. He was also two and a half times over the legal drinking limit.

What might have sounded like a tragedy of youth, was taken seriously at the DoD when they heard about the phone call, and learned that Bobby Shoal was a Mormon and hadn’t had a drop of alcohol in his life. The DoD also learned that soon after Shoal was turned down for their position, he began working at AltCon. And rumor had it, his AI was being used to control their most revolutionary and newest gaming platform. And the Beta would be starting for that game soon.

For weeks the DoD tried in vain to find some way to hack into the AltCon servers to see what was happening on that game and what had freaked out Shoal. But no matter what they tried, they couldn’t find a way into the system. That left them with only one option.

Enter Daniel Hamson. No one knew why he was only a mid-level IT worker at the DoD, but he had one of the most amazing brains anyone had ever seen. The man had a flawless photographic memory. He had no training outside of that of the IT world, but he was willing to infiltrate the game, through the Beta, and report back what he found. The problem was, to this point Mr. Hamson had found nothing. The DoD had a deep level penetration into AltCon’s world, and he kept coming back empty handed.

“I’ve catalogued all of my battle logs and conversations in the game. I have talked with other players in the game, both while out raiding and in the tavern. People talk to TheClaw because TheClaw has it going on. But no one has seen anything fishy at all. Everyone loves AltCon,” Dan wanted to say he loved AltCon too, but he didn’t think the General would appreciate his views.

“So you have had no success this entire time?” The General asked.

“TheClaw got some Furry Bunny Britches yo, and they are on point. Everyone wants to touch my britches,” Dan responded.

The General looked ready to spit fire, when Dan added, “What I mean to say, is that I got a very unique item that no one else has. Everyone wants to talk to me about the item. So I am getting unlimited access to the gamers. I don’t have to seek them out. But no one is experiencing anything weird,” Dan added. “The only person who has even experienced anything out of the ordinary is my team mate Alex. He started the game in a different location than the rest of us, and seems to be very lucky. Like luckier than what would be normal even with his game configurations. I’ve talked to him about it, but he says it must be his character’s skills. But even that doesn’t lead us to understand what is happening with AltCon.”

Again, Dan wanted to add that the General was giving AltCon a bad rap and that the company was a great model for all companies. Dan thought this Shoal guy might really have been drunk when he died, no matter what his friend said.

“Keep looking Mr. Hamson. You are our only eyes and ears in there,” the General said to Dan.

“I’m all over it like trees on a beach!”

“What does that even mean?” Another individual, a colonel it looked like, said to Dan.

“Hey man, this is a Taco and Burrito conversation. Nachos!”

“Dear Gods help us,” the General whispered.

PART II

CHAPTER 14

August 19th, 2043

The next couple of weeks became a total grind. I wish I could say it was pleasant, but in reality it was tiring. I found I was getting very little sleep. The guys commented on my haggard appearance, but I couldn’t rightly tell them that I was not getting as much rest because I was secretly running my own side quest without them. And ol’ Stan was definitely a task master, having me run through hours of drills in order to hone my craft. I was certainly seeing the benefits, both in my abilities in the game and my character screen. But the lack of sleep would catch up to me at some point. And that was going to be bad indeed.

Thankfully, for my own side training, Sir Kenyon dicked us again with our next quest. Apparently being the Bunny Slayers of Port Town didn’t allow us to circumnavigate the basic rules of quest giving. More leveling would be in order before Sir Kenyon would give us our next task. We talked about going far afield from Port Town, leveling as we went, and returning at some future time down the road. I was naturally against this idea for my own selfish reasons, but I had to allow the team to play out the pros and cons. In the end, it was AltCon that saved me from having to convince my team mates that “boring was best!”

After the first few weeks of gaming, the boys at AltCon started sending us mail with particular tasks for the individual, the team, and the larger 8 person teams to accomplish. We all started calling these our “AltCon quests.” And for the most part they centered around things in Port Town, or near to the city, that made it necessary for us to remain nearby. Along with the tasks, AltCon explained that these tasks would span a series of weeks, and that they were integral to the Beta. As most players were not of a high level at this point in the game, AltCon was centering the tasks around player’s original bind points. The AltCon quests were designed to break the game, as Betas tend to do, not provide experience or loot. They were never terribly long tasks, like keep hitting the same point on the side of a building for ten minutes. But it did keep us around Port Town, and that kept me around Stan.

And thankfully there was a time frame given for the AltCon quests, so one did not have to leave a dungeon or camp, just to finish their AltCon task. Players would receive messages such as, “Within the next eight hours go to the large oak tree indicated on your map and run around the tree for 10 minutes.” It was very rare that any of the tasks would get you killed, unless a wandering mob happened to mistake you for a snack.

The only time we received experience from an AltCon quest and a chance for loot was during the 8-person quest. Dan, Jason, Wayne, and I joined up with the other four members of our original team just outside the bunny killing fields of Port Town. Despite our new titles and the death of the Mutated Queen Rabbit, the fields just in front of Port Town’s gates were the only place for new players to level. And as such, there would always be bunnies here to slaughter. Likely there was already a new Mutated Queen Rabbit just waiting to be attacked down in the sewers. However, since there weren’t any new Beta players joining, and everyone had passed the first levels of the game, no one ever killed the rabbits now.

Speaking of the Mutated Queen, I definitely would have loved to get one of those cloaks Jason was rocking. No one but Dan was going to get excited about the Furry Bunny Britches, but I may have worn them with that Strength and Agility bonus. Wayne would never. And I bet I could have convinced the guys to farm the sewers for a bit, since we had it all mapped out and could have used the loot. But the sewer appeared to be a one-time dungeon, what gamers call an “instance dungeon.” It was only for that instant when you were given the quest and you would not be able to enter once you finished it.

We hadn’t seen any of our team members since Gary, or Sayhey in the game, ran by on that first day with a train of bunnies. The group, composed of Gary, Tim, Kaitlin, and Jennifer didn’t look like much. Their levels were quite a bit lower than ours, and their gear was nowhere near as complete as ours. No one had really great gear yet in the game. Except for Jason and Dan’s rare loot from the sewers, we only had armor from merchants. But we had full sets, and the armor rating on our stuff was definitely higher than what our team mates had.

When I looked at Jason and Wayne, I could see they were thinking the same thing I was. And I wasn’t the only one who looked like we should feel guilty for not helping our team mates. That all stopped with Dan though, naturally. “What the hell is wrong with you guys?” Dan said to them.

Jennifer, their Paladin and Tank, with the game name of Serenity, stepped up to Dan. She looked pissed. “What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t walk up on us and get all uppity just because you guys are a few levels higher than us and have better gear. We will still kick your ass!”

“Wow. Misunderstand people much? Totally not what I was saying. I want to know why the hell you guys didn’t come reach out to us? And yes, I know you can say, ‘well it runs both ways, why didn’t his awesomeness TheClaw reach out to us’ but I know you guys had heard we were doing well. There is no excuse for you not hitting us up. We are a team after all!” Dan yelled at the end.

Nope, no one saw that one coming at all. And to be fair, we would have helped.

“Ok. Let’s start over,” Jennifer said. “First off, we want to succeed just like you guys. Secondly, we are moving along at our own pace and no one is frustrated or unhappy, despite not having the same gear you have. And finally, no one, and I am speaking for my whole group here without having to look back to see them nodding their heads, will ever call you ‘his awesomeness.’ Ever.” And indeed, every one of us, was nodding our heads.

That also got laughs out of all of us and the situation went from hostile to neutral. I still wondered why they hadn’t reached out to us, but it was true that people liked to discover things at their own rate and with their own skill. There are always those out there that want the short cut, hell that’s how power leveling people for cash started in the first place. But this was a new game, and my group of merry misfits were the highest level and best equipped in the game so far, and we were not in a level to power level anyone.

So that I am clear, power leveling is when a new player pays a set amount of money, usually to a professional gamer like myself, to take them from level 1 to a certain level in a very short amount of time. I may be a professional gamer, but power leveling people was never my thing. I preferred the market place to make my money.

“Don’t mind Dan guys. He just tends to say whatever is on his mind. Most of the time it doesn’t make sense. Those times where it does, it usually comes out in a way only insane people wouldn’t be offended by it. But he never means harm, as you can see,” I said to our team mates, trying to make sure we were all good.

“It’s not a problem Alex, and we appreciate Dan’s comments, even if his tact sucks,” Tim said while smiling and approaching our group. Tim had the name Slovak over his character. I was guessing it was in relation to some family lineage.

I took the time to get a better look at our team mates and the characters they had chosen. Sayhey was a Halfling, but I couldn’t tell by his clothing what Class he was. Jennifer was a Paladin, a hybrid of Warrior and Cleric, and a Human. I doubted she could out aggro Wayne since he had Bash, Taunt, and I bet a better weapon. But she could definitely off-Tank if we had lots of mobs. Kaitlin, going by Anastasia, was a wood elf, dressed in leathers and had a ring of flowers around her head. I was going to guess she was a druid. Which would make her their primary healer. Tim was a high-elf like Jason and was dressed in a flowing robe, which led me to believe that he was a caster of some sort. I know, I’m a genius.

“So just so we know what we are working with, I’m a Rogue, Dan’s a Ranger, Wayne is a Warrior, and Allister is a Cleric. Dan pulls for us and Wayne is obviously our Tank,” I explained.

“Yeah, and Alex is our sneaky guy that moves at the speed of sloth when we need him to inspect dungeons,” Wayne added helpfully.

“With only four people that is a pretty solid group guys,” Kaitlin said. “You can tell that Jennifer is our Paladin and our Tank, and I am a Druid and our main healer. Although Jenny’s heals are pretty good.” I was right about the Druid. But I was still wondering about Tim and Gary. Jennifer, or Jenny as Kaitlin called her, cleared that up.

“Gary there is our puller and our Damage dealer and Tim handles crowd control,” Jenny said.

“That’s right buddy! I am a master puller. One mob every time,” Gary boasted.

“Well if you are such a good puller why do you need crowd control?” Jason asked, which was a question I also had.

“Well, sometimes it takes a while to get just one guy. So I just bring more and give Tim a chance to play too.”

“Shut up Gary. I’m the enchanter guys, and if we get more than one, I can charm the mobs so they don’t go anywhere,” Tim explained. Despite his harsh words, I could see this was regular banter between Gary and Tim.

“So what Class are you Gary?” Wayne asked.

“Ahh yeah, sorry about that, I’m our Brawler. I’ve just recently gotten a new Skill, Play Dead, which allows me to hit the ground like I died. So if I get more than one mob, I just Play Dead till I can isolate the one I want. However, at this early level, it fails a lot, so I have to keep trying. It takes a long time to pull the one, which is why I tend to pull more than one.”

“Oh titty balls dipped in foam! We are going to be a pulling machine! With Gary’s Play Dead, I can snipe from a distance when he gets the one isolated and insure we get one mob. I love your corpse Gary,” Dan said, making everyone feel awkward again. Predictable ol’ Dan.

“Has anyone actually received the quest yet?” Kaitlin asked.

Everyone shook their heads. I decided at this point our little group needed to discuss the make-up of the two group party. As in, who would be the leader of this little raid. I, of course, wanted to take advantage of my Chance bonus, but I didn’t know if the guys would be ok with us divulging that little secret to the group. I asked everyone through our private channels, and got an affirmative from Jason and Wayne, and a “don’t be a dick, of course you should tell them. Hell, this is the one group we should have told long ago” from Dan.

“So guys, when we do get the quest, and it’s a raid like I think it will be, who is going to be in charge of the raid? I only ask because I’ve been fairly lucky with our loots,” I said to everyone.

“What Alex means, is that he has really good Chance so he should be the leader broskis and chickskis,” Dan unnecessarily clarified for everyone.

“What is your Chance Alex?” Tim asked. I could see he was their Chance user for the group by the way he asked. Either that or he had to go to the bathroom. It was a tossup.

“I’ve got 12 Chance Tim.”

“Yeah, that’s better than mine.” He responded. So not the bathroom. Glad I got that one right on the first count. And since I hadn’t told the guys in our group about my Chance modifier, I certainly wasn’t going to be telling these folks either. Although at some point I should let them know.

“So can we say it is settled then? I will be the raid leader, and naturally we distribute loot based on need first?” I asked.

This shocked our team mates a bit, since it was obvious that all of them would have more need than us. Yeah, this was a bit of penance to deal with my guilt earlier, but the guys were nodding their heads, so I knew I wouldn’t get any objections from my own squad.

After another 10 minutes we all received the same automated message from AltCon informing us of the task we were being given. This AltCon quest was indeed to be a raid, made up solely of our team mates. The only hitch was that the parameters of the raid would be determined by the average of our levels. Our group had reached level 12 since we were continuing to grind through experience trying to get levels for our next Sir Kenyon quest. However, our teammates were still at level 9. This meant that we were likely to get mobs that were levels 12-14. doable for my group, but I didn’t know about our team mates.

Once we had formed our raid party, with me as the leader, I accepted the quest and we were instantly transported to the entrance of a dungeon. The interior of the dungeon. So we had no idea where it was located in the game world. And of course there was no map. Thankfully there were no mobs either. Gary was the first to notice a lack of a map, other than me and my group.

“Well this sucks, how are we going to know where we went if there is no map?” Gary asked.

Before I could answer, Dan shot us a private message that just said, “ixnay on the hotographic emoryma!” Seriously, he wrote it out in pig Latin.

“We’ve dealt with this before, and Dan is remarkably good at keeping track of where we’ve been. He’s like an idiot savant that way. Leaning heavier toward the idiot,” Jason answered.

Dan sent us another private message thanking Jason for keeping his secret so well. Really, it was almost impossible to get mad at Dan.

Jenny seemed to be their natural leader and provided her thoughts to begin, “I say we let Alex sneak around a bit and see what is down here.”

My whole team groaned. They really didn’t like the time suck that was my Conceal/Stealth. And although I’d gotten faster with levels and Stan’s training, it was still remarkably slow.

“Or we could just wreck shit,” Gary offered.

“Ooooh, I like Gary. Alex, can we keep him!” Dan exclaimed.

“Not a chance tree hugger, he’s ours,” Kaitlin said. “Ok Dan and Gary, do your thing.”

Gary and Dan spoke briefly and decided to just have Gary make his way out to the first mobs and bring them back. If we got two, no worries. Tim would try to crowd control the extra, but if needs be, we would have Wayne tank them both with Jason and Kaitlin trading off heals to keep him alive.

Gary headed into the halls and came back almost instantly. “Guys, there are two mobs around the corner. And they are both yellow to me.”

This is what I was afraid of, but knew that they may not be so high a level for my group. I sent Dan to check it out, and they were Blue to Dan. So they were likely level 13. Quite a bit high for our team mates, but doable for us. It looked like our team mates were about to get some really good experience.

“Pull away Gary, and Play Dead when you get back here. Wayne, you got this?” I asked.

“Really Alex? I thought only Dan asked stupid questions,” Wayne said while laughing.

The pull was not a problem for us at all. Thankfully, Gary’s Play Dead worked and he didn’t take any damage from the mobs. Wayne was able to Tank both at the same time, although Jennifer did offer to take one of them. When she saw how hard they were hitting for, however, she decided to let Wayne take the brunt of the damage.

What Gary pulled were rock creatures called Enraged Earth Dwellers. We got through them without any concerns, and with our combined damage, the task did not take long at all. I wondered how well Tim’s Charm spell would work on a yellow mob, so I put forth an idea to do one of my experiments.

“Say no Tim. Don’t even let him finish the thought. These things always end in a bloodbath,” Wayne said when I put my idea forward.

“Come on man! It was just those two times, and we learned valuable information!” I replied. I wasn’t going to mention that a tiny Rabbit beat on Wayne. The Warrior in him would have orchestrated my death in retribution. And he would have totally thought I deserved it.

“It’s fine Wayne, I’m always game to try new things,” Tim said.

“Your funeral bro, and I don’t know how respawn works here,” Wayne answered.

When we pulled the next two mobs, I told Wayne to get aggro on them again, but told Tim to try and Charm the one Wayne wasn’t primarily attacking. It was yellow to Tim, so I didn’t know if he would be able to land the spell.

“Failed. Failed. Landed.” Tim replied.

So now we knew the mob had a high resist, but that with enough time, Tim could likely get the mob under control. When it finally did break that Charm though, it was going to beat Tim’s ass something fierce. I made sure all heals were ready to save Tim when Wayne finally launched his attack.

Ten percent. That’s how far Tim’s health fell before Wayne was able to get aggro. And that was with lots of heals. Tim went down to only 10 percent life left. And Tim was shooting daggers at me when it was all done. “You’re right Wayne. Alex can do experiments on himself from now on. That sucked.”

I muttered something about “valuable information” and suggest we keep going. The rest agreed, as we weren’t here to fight mobs in the entry way.

This dungeon was much like the sewers we had fought in before. A maze of corridors, but this time made to look like caves rather than sewers. And with the twists and turns, we were all lost, except for Dan.

“If my calculations are correct, we should be turning the next corner and finding some kind of boss fight,” Dan said.

And wouldn’t you know it, as we turned into the next hallway we found two more mobs and what looked like a large room behind them. Our team mates thought this was a lucky guess, but we all knew the amazement that was Dan’s weird brain. If only it could be used for good and not just crosswords.

We cleared the last two mobs before the big room and our team mates gave out whoops of joy. Apparently they had leveled. We took a quick break so they could distribute the points they received. Every bit was going to be necessary for this fight. This still left the mobs yellow, but were likely only 3 levels vice 4 higher than they were now. Although that was likely to be different in the large room.

More importantly, we had been lucky with our looting. Well, I had been lucky. The rock dwellers were dropping a significant amount of Silver, and more importantly, some armor. It was all metal based given they were rock, but it allowed Jennifer to deck out in a full set of Rusted armor minus one bracer, but this was an improvement for her. Gary, Tim, and Kaitlin couldn’t wear the metal based armor.

I thought back to our previous boss fight in the sewers and expected some kind of AoE spell that was going to hit us from the boss. Everyone in my group had a minimum of 10 resistance against the elements, but I was figuring this was going to be an earth based attack given where we were. I told Jason to prep his Earth resistance spell.

“Oh, I have one of those too!” Kaitlin said. “I get Disease and Poison at level 10, but I can’t go and get those spells right now obviously. But I got my Earth resistance earlier.”

It appeared her spells were opposite to Jason’s in the order they were given, at least for resistances. Now I only hoped the two spells would stack. Sometimes in these games if you were casting a spell with the same effect, the two effects wouldn’t compound. In this case, I was hoping that with a Cleric and a Druid, two very different Classes, the spells would stack, or work simultaneously.

“Let’s hold off casting those until after I get back from scouting the room. Otherwise the buffs could wear off. And Dan, no crosswords,” I said.

“You always ruin all of my fun, Alex.”

I moved out to the large room and scouted the area. True to form, the phrase stuck – “A dungeon, is a dungeon, is a dungeon.” There is only so much that you could do with a dungeon layout, and this had been the case in every game I had ever played. You had mazes, mobs, and bosses. I hoped in higher level dungeons things would get more interesting, but this was still a very low level encounter. It just so happened that my group had completed the one instance dungeon that Resurgence had to offer, so we had already seen a similar layout.

And this was indeed looking just like the sewers, with regular Enraged Earth Dwellers and a Furious Earth Dweller who was yellow to me. I relayed this to the group, and returned to discuss our strategy. Unlike when there was only the four of us, we likely wouldn’t have to kite around any of the mobs. Jennifer was feeling better about her Tanking chances and suggested off-Tanking one of the regular Enraged mobs. That would leave Wayne to deal with the mini-boss and the other Enraged. We would kill Wayne’s Enraged first, then Jenny’s and then focus on the mini-boss. I felt better about Tim’s chances of Charming the Enraged, but I also saw what happened when the mob broke through the Charm and almost killed Tim. And we wouldn’t be able to save Tim and keep Wayne healed if that happened. Tim was disappointed, but admitted to the smarts of the plan.

Thankfully, the two resistance spells did stack and we were all blessed with an additional +40 resistance to Earth. That put my group at +50. I hoped this would be sufficient to resist the AoE that we figured was coming.

We entered the room and Wayne immediately taunted the Furious Dweller and Bashed the Enraged, establishing aggro on both. Jenny began attacking the other Enraged, but then stopped after establishing aggro, to heal herself. Her successful heals meant the mob would keep hitting her, and Kaitlin and Jason could focus on Wayne’s health. We tore through the Enraged quickly and then moved to help Jenny. However, her heals had put her too high on the aggro list of the Enraged she was fighting and Wayne couldn’t pull aggro. He also kept getting stunned by the Furious mob, which left him unable to do much damage wise.

Jenny dropped below 50 percent health by the time we finished her Enraged. I worried that even with Jason and Kaitlin’s buff’s Jenny would still get hit by the AoE and would be effected by it, whatever it was.

With both of the Blue mobs down, we focused our attention on the Furious mob. And true to form, at 50 percent the Furious Earth Dweller cast it’s AoE. Only it wasn’t a damage AoE, it was worse than that. It was a Stun. And it lasted for 10 seconds. In any regular group, this would be the death of all of us, since Wayne couldn’t maintain aggro when he was stunned, and Jason couldn’t cast heal. And the AI was smart enough that it would have gone right for Jason and taken him out of the game.

Only we weren’t a regular group. We were the Bunny Slayers of Port Town. And that extra 10 resistance saved our asses.

Our team mates all got hit by the stun, and were out of the fight for those ten seconds. But because of our extra resistance, our group was not affected. And Wayne was able to continue his attacks and Jason was able to heal. It happened again at 25 percent, and with the same effect. Where normally this would have destroyed another party, we were able to hold out. And after a couple of minutes we vanquished the Furious Dweller. There were cheers all around.

“Now watch Alex do what he does best! Chance Master, you up!” Dan yelled.

I approached the mob and looted the corpse. And it was a doozy for sure. There was four Gold on the mob, meaning 50 Silver each. Enough to really help outfit our team mates. There was also some rock pieces that I didn’t recognize, and one piece of rare loot. Gary was going to shit his pants.

“Well, this one is a total no brainer,” I said and linked the item to the group for everyone to see.

“Woah!” was all Gary said.

“Congrats pull brother!” Dan said, while pushing Gary toward the corpse.

“Are you guys sure?” Gary asked.

We all laughed, since we had all been there before. That moment when you get some sweet loot but you can’t believe someone else doesn’t want it. In this case, no one else could use it. So we definitely had no problem with Gary taking this one.

“Dan was right bro; you are the Chance Master. Jenny, can we keep him?” Gary said and we all laughed at that.

* * *

My group was not surprised to find a stair way that led down to another level after we killed the Furious Dweller and the concealing mist lifted totally. Our team mates were surprised that we had another level to go through. I wanted to get to the next large room, figuring this would be the big boss.

We followed the same pattern again, only this time we found Gary had become a wrecking machine. Twice he had to Play Dead from the level of damage he was dealing with his new Rock Knuckles. And that Stun he was randomly dishing out was not helping matters. He began Playing Dead after each successful Stun hit, knowing that would lower him on the aggro list, otherwise he would just keep pulling aggro.

After another hour and a half, we had cleared the second level of the dungeon. Our teammates were halfway through level 10 and my group was close to level 13. Because of my one death, I was still 25 percent behind my group. We also had lots of Rusted armor in our inventory to sell later. Jenny now had a full set of armor.

I scouted the room again and found only one mob, The Master of Earth. And he was Yellow to me but Red to my team mates. Even by himself, he was going to be a real challenge. I told everyone what we were facing and we buffed accordingly. Everyone had their Earth resistance on and Wayne charged the Master.

Everything seemed to be going fine, even easy. Sure, the mob was hitting hard, but nothing we couldn’t face. When we approached 75 percent on the mob, we all braced for the AoE we knew was coming.

We were wrong.

At 75 percent the Master did in fact cast a spell, but it wasn’t an AoE that effected the group. Instead, the Master yelled out “Rise my Children and Destroy our Enemies!”

Four Earth Dwellers spawned next to the Master and began attacking all of us. This was totally unexpected. Instead of one mob, we were now fighting five. They were not a high level, Green to my group, but Blue to our team mates, meaning they were level 11. I looked around the room quickly and came up with a strategy that I yelled out to the raid.

“Dan, aggro one and kite it! Wayne, Bash one and keep the aggro. Jenny, off-Tank a third. Tim, Charm the fourth! Gary, you and I will take the one that Wayne aggros and kill it. Then we move to Jenny’s, then Dan’s, then Tim’s last. Keep Wayne alive everyone!”

We moved accordingly, taking down the mobs quicker than the ones we fought previously. Much of this was due to Gary’s new knuckles and the crazy damage he was dealing. Thankfully, when they turned on Gary this time, the damage wasn’t huge thanks to their lower level, but he was still taking damage. Once Jenny’s was dead I told her to sit and regenerate her mana. I know she wanted to fight, but she was going to be crucial in making sure Tim stayed alive when his mob was un-Charmed.

We ran around the room following Dan’s mob, attacking it as we went as it kept trying to get to Dan, pissed that Dan kept snaring it and running it around. Through the whole thing Jenny did as she was told and regenerated her mana.

Once we killed Dan’s mob, we all ran at Tim’s mob except for Jason and Wayne. Jason was responsible, solely, for keeping Wayne alive. I told Dan to stand down on shooting Tim’s mob and chain cast his weak heal on Tim, as he was going to need all the heals he could get. Once we were ready, Jenny broke the Charm by attacking and immediately began casting a heal on Tim. Gary and I started lighting into the mob, while Dan, Jenny, and Kaitlin cast heals on Tim. Tim almost didn’t make it.

Once we had dealt with the four extra mobs we went back to the Master. Except this time I had Jenny heal herself up to full, and regen her mana. Wayne was surviving, but was using a lot of Jason and Kaitlin’s mana. We slowly whittled the mob down to 50 percent and everyone stood up for the next wave of mobs. At 50 percent we were informed of another spell.

This was not the same spell we encountered at the 75 percent mark. This was another AoE but it was a direct damage one. We were all effected, though our level of Earth resistance determined how much we got hit for. As such, my group got hit less than Jenny’s. We still took a pounding, though. I lost 25 percent of my health from that one hit. Dan and Jason got hit for around the same as we all had a similar constitution. Thankfully, Wayne had spent lots of his skill points on his Constitution and he only lost 10 percent of his health.

Our teammates got thrashed. Tim, being a caster and focusing most of his skill points on Intelligence was knocked down from 100 percent health to 20 percent health. Jenny was closer to us in damage, but Gary and Kaitlin both took almost 50 percent damage.

The worst part though was that the AI noted that Tim went down to really low hit points. And acted accordingly.

Before any of us could react, the Master turned from Wayne, took two steps toward Tim, and proceeded to beat him dead. All in the span of three seconds.

“Fuck! Is he dead-dead or only mostly dead?” Dan asked. No one had any idea what he was talking about. Tim was most certainly dead-dead.

Knowing we didn’t have time to lament the passing of Tim, I started issuing orders. “Dan! Try to land a snare on the Master!” I yelled. “Wayne, if it lands, you kite that big fucker around the room. Everyone needs time to heal and regen!”

I could tell Wayne didn’t like this idea, as it was akin to running from the mob, but the strategist in him saw the wisdom. Dan’s first attempt failed, but his second attempt landed. Wayne started running and the mob followed.

“Dan you keep snaring until it turns and starts coming for you. Your Snare lasts what, 30 seconds? At that point we sick Wayne back on it and he can re-establish aggro,” I said to the group.

“You got it Demanding One! And yeah, 30 seconds on the Snare.”

With Wayne running I set Kaitlin to heal Gary. Jenny was healing herself, Dan, and me. Jason was just regening mana. Tim had respawned back in the bunny fields so he wasn’t going to be able to get back to help with the Master. I hated that not only did he lose experience, but he wouldn’t get experience from the fight either since he wasn’t in the dungeon if/when we killed the Master.

Dan got off one more Snare before the Mob turned on him and started chasing his furry britches.

“Alright guys, here we go! Wayne, Bash and Taunt his ugly ass!” I yelled.

The Master was at 45 percent when we re-engaged. Again, we brought his health points down and as we approached 25 percent we all waited for the next ass whooping we would get. But at least this time we had a plan. If he spawned four new guys, we would off tank as we did before. If he hit us with the direct damage AoE, Dan would Snare him and Wayne would go off running again. This fight was taking forever. If Wayne didn’t have such a high armor rating, this likely would have been a slaughter for our side.

At 25 percent the Master cast again, this time it was an entirely different spell. We all saw the message flash before our eyes, “Your body feels the weight of the earth upon you!”

Bless the gods above, this was just a debuff. Where Jason and Kaitlin had casts buffs on us to increase our Earth resistance, the Master had cast a debuff, something that made us weaker. In this case, the debuff was a spell that slowed our attack speed, what was commonly referred to as a “slow spell” in the gaming world. Only our resistance was high enough that my group did not get slowed. Neither did Gary with his new knuckles. Only those with the 40 Earth resistance were hit. 50 resist seemed to be a magic number in this dungeon.

We couldn’t have asked for a better spell. If this had hit us earlier, and our resistance had only been based on our buffs, we may not have made it this far. Jason likely would have run out of mana. Kaitlin was dangerously low as it was now. She maybe had two more heals in her.

Thankfully the ones who were effected weren’t damage dealers. Tim was dead, and Kaitlin wasn’t attacking. The slow spell didn’t affect her mana regeneration. Only Jenny was attacking, but she was never a damage dealer, but a Tank.

We finished the mob with a loud cheer. There were high fives from everyone. Jenny hugged Wayne which made him blush. It was adorable. I love this game.

Everyone waited for me to approach the mob. We all knew I would be looting. I was tempted to ask if we could just take a break for a bit, but I thought everyone would rush me. Tim might even try to strangle me with his robe.

I approached the mob and focused on the corpse, then blinked. What popped up was glorious. There were three loot able items. All of them were rare. And all of them were tradeable. This was a player merchant’s dream.

“Oh you guys are going to shit yourselves when you see this,” I said and linked the first item. It was a necklace, the first we had seen in the game:

“Holy shit Alex, that doesn’t say binds on acquisition!” Jenny exclaimed.

“Yup, none of the items do. These are all tradeable items,” I replied.

Everyone stood there, staring at the item. Anyone could wear it, and everyone could use some of the bonuses for their character, but the obvious choice was Tim as he was the only Intelligence based caster in our group. I was going to suggest we give it to Tim, but wanted to see how his group reacted. It was Tim who spoke first.

“I know I want this item guys, but it’s tradeable so I guess we should roll for it. And it would be good for any character,” Tim said.

“Screw that noise yo! That’s not how we play. I vote for Tim and since it’s tradeable that makes this not a total loss for our brother,” Dan said.

“Yup, I second that,” Jason said.

“No one in this group is going to take it Tim, so as long as your group is good with it, it’s all yours,” I said.

Tim wasn’t in the room so he couldn’t see that his party was all smiles. I put the Amulet in my inventory and told Tim he would get it when we finished the dungeon. I wondered then what we would do about his corpse and looked around for it. It was gone.

“Ummm, Tim. Your body isn’t here in the dungeon,” I said.

“No worries Alex, it materialized here next to me on the bunny fields a couple of minutes ago. I was worried about how I was going to get my stuff back too, but looks like that isn’t an issue,” Tim replied and we all heaved a sigh of relief.

“Ok everyone, up next is a doozy. Check this one out,” I said and linked the second item.

I saw Jenny’s eyes go huge. She may have even drooled. She then quickly looked over at Jason and Wayne. Each could use the Shield and it would help each of them dramatically. I hoped there wasn’t going to be a roll though. I was hoping that my guys would give it to Jenny. Wayne wouldn’t likely take the Shield since he liked the two handed weapons. But Jason might. It was really up his alley, although the extra stun from Bash would do him no good.

Everyone was looking at their interfaces and checking out the Item, so I led the way. “Make the call.”

Wayne looked over at our teammates and said, “Jenny. I’m going to stick with the hammer.”

Jason looked over at me and I sent him a silent message that told him, if he wanted it, he could roll for it. But he shook his head. “Jenny.”

I smiled and repeated the same one word, “Jenny.”

Jenny looked at my group with amazement, understanding that as tradeable items anyone could take these and sell them to players. “But you guys could trade these, or sell them. Alex I know you are a player merchant. Are you sure?”

I smiled again and nodded my head. Dan added the last bit to cement our decision. “Not how we roll, like I said. Need before greed is our phrasey thing.”

“It’s a motto,” Gary said.

“What’s a matter?” Dan asked.

Wayne ran over to Gary and quickly put his hand over Gary’s mouth before he could say more. Then whispered in his ear. He nodded with understanding. We just avoided would could have been a reenactment of Who’s on First to biblical proportions.

Jenny thanked everyone again after making sure none of her group wanted the item. After she looted she went over to hug Jason who put his arms out and pointed to Wayne. “Hug him twice.” Which Jenny did with gusto. And which made Wayne blush even more.

“Ok mighty adventurers, here is the last item,” I said and linked.

To a tee, without any comment from our side, our teammates said “Alex” almost in unison.

I looked at my group and they all regarded me like I was a fool. Of course they weren’t going to take it.

“Thanks guys! Now that was one hell of a dungeon crawl!”

We found the stairs that led us up and out of the dungeon. We all ascended and found ourselves back in the bunny fields. I was the last one to exit and right before I trudged up the stairs, I swore I heard someone whisper, “You’re welcome.”

* * *

After we had all emerged from the dungeon, we received a message from AltCon informing us that this phase of AltCon provided tasks was completed. We could expect to get the same every two to three weeks, however they would not be weeks long like this first one was. As part of our Beta responsibilities, we all had to write reports to AltCon about our Raid experience. However, we only had to write about what, if any, problems we found with the raiding interface and game play in the larger groups. All of our reports were terribly short since we had nothing negative to report. I didn’t feel like telling AltCon that they needed more flavor in their dungeon make up, and it wasn’t necessary for us to send them the items we had received.

I handed the Amulet over to Tim and his smile was from pointy ear to pointy ear. He walked over to his group and they seemed to be having a private conference. Then Kaitlin walked over to us and said, “You guys are really awesome. Seriously. We knew you guys had taken off in the game and we worried you would be kind of stuck up about the whole thing. But from the word go you didn’t hesitate to really help us out. And what you did for Jenny, that was just amazing. We might, and I stress the word might, have been avoiding you guys. But no more. From now on we totally will keep in touch and ask for help if we need it. If you guys don’t mind.”

Dan walked up to Kaitlin and was about to talk, but then stopped. He looked over at me and said, “Brodo, you should probably take care of this. No one ever understands when I say nice things.”

That got a chuckle from everyone, and I took the lead, “I wish we had known earlier, Kaitlin. It’s our bad too. But you guys never, and I stress the point of never, have to worry about asking us for help. We won’t ever turn you guys down. Other players and groups are the competition here, but you guys are our team, and we look out for our team.”

Nods from all of my guys followed. Wayne approached me and said, “Rings?” I nodded my head and responded with, “Absolutely.”

We then led Kaitlin and her group over to the merchant that sold us our spells. The merchant smiled when he saw Jason enter, but frowned a bit when he saw Jenny and her group coming in after. “Well, well. What do we have here?” he said.

“Good sir, these are our closest allies in this game. Akin to family. They will from this point forward only buy spells from your shop, and I have no doubt they would be willing to help with any tasks you may have.”

The merchant suddenly beamed and grabbed Tim, pulling him aside. I could hear him telling Tim about a camp of goblins where his goods had been stolen. I told Kaitlin to tell Tim to take the quest.

After they all bought their spells and improved all of their gear, easy to do with all the gold we had collected in the dungeon, we journeyed with our teammates to the camp. Tim was given the quest as their group leader, as he had the highest Chance in their group. We explained the camp and what the Boss dropped. I linked them the ring and they were excited to get more unique items in the game. I told them they could likely farm a bit and sell them for 10-15 silver each as we had stopped fighting here. They again thanked us mightily, and we all went our separate ways.

* * *

It had been a long day and everyone was ready to get some down time. Dan and Wayne did their normal thing of going to the Tavern and Jason logged off. I sneaked off telling the guys I was getting some rest, but really I headed into the woods to see Stan.

Since starting my training with Stan, I had indeed seen a marked improvement in my Conceal and Stealth. Where before I was just following the necessary steps to activate the skills in the game, Stan somehow made me feel like I was truly stepping into the shadows. He was all bluster and anger most of the time, but when he taught he took the job seriously and was very thorough. But I had appeared to hit a plateau, and there was another threshold I needed to cross before Stan would consider me fully trained.

“Bah lad, stop being afraid to embrace the shadow. You look like you’re scared of the damn things. They are your family; your rest stop on the road to where ever ye is goin’. Don’t just slide into them, let them slide around ya,” he told me.

This was all poetic as shit, but didn’t tell me how I was supposed to do that. Finally, seeing my frustration, Stan set up our training room under his hill to help me complete this next task. He placed a single candle in the room and told me to sit next to it. In this way I was surrounded by shadows but wasn’t actually sitting in them. I was illuminated by the light.

“Alright Alex, I want ya to reach out to the shadows and have them fight back the light. Have them surround you where they shouldn’t be able to. I know you could step back into them and do the same, but a true Blacksuit controls the shadows fully.” He said that last part emphasizing the word Blacksuit.

I did as he said and kneeled down near the flame. I didn’t know what he wanted me to do, since what was around me was a virtual reality, created by 1’s and 0’s and couldn’t be manipulated the way he was saying. But perhaps there was more depth to the AI then I knew. Stan had not done me wrong so far, so I trusted him to not be leading me on a fool’s path.

“Shadows is alive me boy. They move with the light. It’s their eternal enemy and there is a balance between them. When the light moves, so does the shadow. That’s what everyone thinks. But what if the the light moves because the shadow recedes or moves forward. Try to feel the shadow me boy. Fell the warmth against your face, but feel the coolness against your neck as well. The shadows is dark and cold lad, that’s what I want you to focus on,” Stan said again.

I remained kneeled next to the candle, sat back on my heels, and did as he asked. I could feel the warmth of the candle against my face, and I could feel the coolness on my neck. That was from the absence of the candle, though. I couldn’t make my mind wrap around the idea that the shadow itself was cold.

“Stubborn git! Stop using your mind! If you try to “think” this through ya gonna fail. Just use your senses and your abilities. I wouldn’t be wasting all me darn time wit ya if I didn’t think ya could do this. Concentrate!” Stan said next to me.

I let out a deep breath and tried again. This time I didn’t think about the source of the cold or the heat, I just focused on both of them. The coolness around my neck was real, that’s what I told myself. I concentrated on that cold and I tried to will it up to the top of my head, moving up my neck and over my hair. My eyes were closed and I was breathing in a rhythmic pattern. I don’t know if it was from the candle that was providing afterimages of light through my closed eyelids, a trick of my senses, or exhaustion, but for the briefest of moments I thought I saw that all too common ERROR pop up behind my eyes, like it did for the briefest of seconds every time I logged in to the game. It was tiny, and only in the uppermost corner of my “vision” but I swear I saw it.

I pushed the thought to the side and just kept trying to “will” the shadows to move. After five more minutes of slow breathing and concentration, I felt the weirdest thing begin to happen. It was like fingers crawling up my head and over my hair. And the fingers were cold. It almost broke my concentration, but I refocused and continued to picture the “fingers” doing their work. After a length of time I couldn’t begin to determine, the candle went out and all I saw was darkness from behind my eyelids.

I breathed a sigh of frustration, realizing Stan must have put the candle out, signaling the end of my training and my dismal failure. “Guess the training is over for today, huh? Sorry Stan, I really tried, and I thought I was getting it,” I told him.

“Aye lad, trainings over, go ahead and open yer eyes.”

I did, and was shocked at what I saw in front of me. The candle was still lit. But the image before me was very dark and I could barely make out the light.

“Ye stopped because ye thought I put out the light. But as ya can see lad, living shadows is thick. Not like when you slip into a shadow like ya was doing earlier, these can block out most light. Ya done gave ‘em purpose and form. Remember how that felt lad. We gonna be practicing a lot, me and you. I’m proud of ya, lad. Now just think of the natural order of things and the shadows will move back to the balance.” Stan said to me.

I did as he said and the transition back to normal was far easier.

“Get some rest lad, you deserve it for once,” Stan said, all smiles.

I left his home and returned to Port Town. I logged off happier than I had been for days. I had accomplished something truly amazing. I just wish I could share it with my group.

* * *

“Well that was impressive, wasn’t it?” said a voice from the shadows of Stan’s training room while Stan cleaned up the candle and wax that had been burnt down.

“Aye, it were. I feel like ya may have had a hand in it though,” Stan replied, while still cleaning.

“I did my friend; he couldn’t access the code without it. I hadn’t compensated for that before,” the shadow said.

“Dangerous my friend, he ain’t ready yet for the realization. But I get why ya did it. The boy wasn’t attuned yet,” Stan replied.

There was silence from the shadows for several seconds. And then with a whoosh of air the shadows moved and the presence was gone. But not before saying, “No, not yet. But soon I think my friend. Soon.”

CHAPTER 15

September 2nd, 2043

When I logged on, the ever present ERROR blip flashed before I entered the game. At this point I was used to it, and I figured it had something to do with my Chance being raised to a level that was literally impossible at my level. At this point I welcomed that little ERROR message before my log on. I also noticed that my log in point was only a few steps from my log out point. This had been happing consistently. The distance between my log in and log out seemed to get halved each time I logged in. Or logged out. Or maybe each day. Who knew? But what I did know, is that no matter how long I played, I would never be in the exact same spot where I logged off. A few steps was a negligent difference, though, so I didn’t worry about it too much.

I hadn’t had much time to look over my new stats once we finished with the dungeon, since I ran off to see Stan so quickly. And then with my successful completion of Stan’s task, I had totally forgotten about getting the awesome weapon. I brought up my character screen to take a look at what I was working with.

TITLE:

Bunny Slayer of Port Town (+1 to all Skills, +10 to all resistance)

An 80 increase to my attack was nothing to sneeze at! I couldn’t wait to try out this new dagger. I was worried a little about the effect though. It would be activated randomly through the fight, determined by my Dexterity. When the effect activated, the dagger would be processing the effect, or what was commonly referred to in gaming culture as a ‘proc.’ The higher the character’s Dexterity, the more often the weapon would proc. Each time this happened, my place on the aggro list would increase. And with my new damage and speed, I was really worried about taking aggro from Wayne. And I couldn’t Play Dead like Gary could. This would require some strategy sessions with the guys.

The other thing I noticed was my new bonus to Conceal and Stealth. I knew I was getting better, but I didn’t realize it was going to give me a bonus that I could see on my character. This meant I should be able to move quicker, something I was desperately looking forward to.

We were all still level 12, so we knew there would be no quest from Sir Kenyon, and we were looking at having to continue grinding away with the mobs out in the forest. Farther afield from the gates of Port Town we were able to find Bears, Wild Boars, and Dire Wolves that were level 13 and 14. These could still give us experience, but it was slow going. Time for the grind to continue.

Everyone had logged in by the time I had finished checking out my character stats. Dan had logged off at the Tavern and was the last to join us. Now that our quests for AltCon were done, the conversation returned to what we should do next. After the dungeon the guys were all pretty close to level 13. I was still a bit behind them from dying against the bunnies in the sewer.

Thankfully, this time they didn’t want to go far afield to take on mobs, leveling as we went and coming back later. That looked pleasing when you were far from your target of leveling, but when you could see your character about to ding, you changed your perspective.

“Let’s just kill local. We should get our level soon,” Jason suggested.

“I’m game for that,” said Dan. “Plus I don’t want to go too far away from the Tavern. That place is like my second home now. I mean, except for my actual second home.”

“Dick.” Wayne replied. “But I am in agreement with Allister. And Dan I guess. But only because it was Allister’s idea first.”

“Great. Not to mention that we need to figure out how this new dagger is going to affect our strategy. It’s really fast, and has a proc. So good chance I’m going to be stealing aggro a lot,” I provided.

“Well, might not be as bad as we think. I got an upgrade last night after our dungeon crawl,” Wayne said and linked us his new item.

“Nice Naugha! How much did that thing cost you?” Jason asked.

“Three Gold. A bit expensive, but I needed something faster and hit harder.”

“Good job saving up three Gold Wayne, how did you accomplish that?” I asked. “You go to the tavern every night with Dan.”

“If you can believe it, having the Bunny Slayer title means I never have to buy my own drinks. Well, sometimes I do. But when I do, I just have Dan buy them.”

“I’m broke yo,” Dan said. It wasn’t just because of the drinks. At Dan’s level he no longer had his Recruit’s Quiver with never ending arrows. Dan now had to buy arrows from a vendor, and he went through lots since he refused to use a bladed weapon. Said it wasn’t in the true lore of the Ranger.

Jason and I shook our heads. But at least we knew Dan was having fun.

“So let’s go kill us some mobs and get our levels!” I said.

* * *

It took us half of the day to get me to my level 13. I had been right about my new weapon. It was a beast on the battlefield. On the first couple of mobs I engaged normally, and I was pulling the aggro about halfway through the fight due to the damage, the speed, my backstabs, and the armor debuff proc. However, given my higher constitution, and the amount of damage we were doing, I wasn’t in any fear of dying. After the second mob we started playing with strategies on how to ensure I didn’t get aggro during the fight. We determined that if I waited ten seconds, that would give Wayne enough time to do enough damage, and land his Bash and Taunt enough to counteract my damage.

After allocating our skill points, we ran back to Port Town, praying we would get a new quest from Sir Kenyon.

I approached Sir Kenyon and said the usual crap about being prepared to “answer the call.”

“Ah yes, it appears that you are indeed ready to step outside these walls and answer your King’s call.”

“Damn, about time!” Wayne said.

“I have desperate need of such strong adventurers such as yourself. As you know the King is working tirelessly to hold back the Children of Loust. Shipments of goods necessary to the front have been traveling from all over. Everyone is doing their part. Unfortunately, where there is tragedy, there will always be those who try to take advantage of the situation. Shipments going from Port Town to the North are being raided by savages in the wild. Our King has need of strong adventurers to guard these shipments from the rabble attacking our wagon trains. You won’t be required to take them all the way North. There is an outpost several hours from here that will take over for you once you have arrived. Will you brave adventurers protect our shipments?”

It was a no brainer that we were going to take the quest. The question was whether we would do so now, or wait till the next day. It was “several hours” to the outpost, but who knew how long it would take once we got involved in the quest. I was hoping to train more with Stan, learning how to manipulate the shadows. But if we did the quest that likely wouldn’t be happening today.

“What do you guys think about just doing our own thing today? I mean I don’t really want to start this quest today, seeing as it could be many hours before we get to that outpost. I know we need to be online a bit more to fulfill our contract to AltCon, but I was thinking about doing some merchant stuff. What do you guys think?”

“Woohoo! Tavern time! I’m gonna get me some witches with my britches!” Dan naturally said.

“Thank you for using the term witches Dan. I certainly appreciate the alliteration, and the avoidance of calling women an even worse derogatory word,” Jason said.

“What? Sandwiches is offensive? Really?” Dan said and then spun on Wayne. “Why didn’t you tell me man! I’ve been saying that line in the tavern since I got these things! No wonder the ladies aren’t trying to hear none of TheClaw’s mad game.”

Dan then turned to Jason and bowed deeply saying, “Thank you Alligorical. I’ve been such a fool and you have saved me from my self!”

Jason gave Dan what we had started calling “the look” and then turned to me. “I like this idea Alex, there are some things I would like to investigate as well. Naugha?”

“Dan’s on his own for any early hour tavern runs. But I wanted to look around and see if there are any single quests out there that we can get. I’ll let you guys know what I find.”

And with that, we all went our separate ways. We planned to get back online together the next day and get the new quest from Sir Kenyon.

I headed off into the forest to work with Stan, and hoped I could recreate the success I had the day before.

* * *

“I’m hesitant to give praise lad, but you deserve it. I ain’t never seen anyone take to the shadows like you are doing now. Moving faster than me through this,” Stan told me as I sat in the room with the candle and moved the shadows around my body. I had successfully covered my head and my arms. It gave a slight cold feeling, but it was entirely bearable. Stan wanted to push me more though.

“I want you to try for the whole body son. Get it from yer head to yer toes.”

I reset the shadows to normal and then began again, concentrating on the shadows on my neck and quickly moving them over my head and then down my arms. I tried to focus on the shadows at my back but couldn’t feel them as well since I had a shirt on. My head, neck, and arms were bare. But my back was covered.

“Common problem you are having right now lad. Don’t fret. You can feel the coldness on yer skin and that makes it easier to feel the shadows. Your back, not as much. Ye can try a trick moving the shadows from your neck down yer body and then wrap them around, but it ain’t as effective and takes longer,” Stan told me.

“I’m not going to half-ass this. I either get it right, or I do it again,” I responded in a flat tone. I was deep in concentration.

My eyes were closed, effectively in darkness with the living shadows over my face, so I couldn’t see Stan’s face when I responded. But his grunt sounded approving.

Since I couldn’t feel the shadows against the skin on my back I tried to think about how to access the shadows properly. I had no problem with the ones on my neck and head, or the ones on my arms. But with my boots and pants on, I couldn’t feel them on that part of my body either.

I thought for a few minutes, Stan being ever patient with me, and decided to try a different tact. Instead of reaching for the shadows against my whole body, I would feel for the ones I could and reach back deeper into those shadows to bring them forward.

I started my breathing technique again and then focused on the shadows behind me, the ones I could feel. Then I began to reach back through the shadows, trying to feel the connection between the shadows I could feel and the ones deeper in the recesses of the room.

All at once I was overwhelmed by the feeling. I wasn’t just feeling the shadows behind me but all of them in the room, and then those in the next room and moving further out. I could feel my presence moving out farther and farther.

I lost all my concentration as Stan pushed me to the floor, and my focus came back to the singular candle in the room.

“What the hell did you do that for? I was close Stan; I could feel the shadows. I mean so many of them. It was amazing!” I said while getting back to my knees.

Stan walked up to me, eye to eye with him being so short. I’ve never seen this look on Stan. He looked genuinely afraid. “Lad, what you just did, you can’t never do that again boy. Ever.”

“What? I was just reaching for the shadows like you told me.”

“I don’t know how you did it lad, but you found the Connection. All light and all shadows, they a part of something greater. I can’t tell you where the light goes, don’t much care. But the Connection, that only takes you one place lad. The Dark. You go into the Dark boy, and there is a chance you don’t come out. Ever.”

As I thought about what Stan was saying I recalled the experience I just had. I did have a desire to keep reaching out, further into the darkness of the shadows. I wasn’t even trying to wrap myself in them, I was just going towards them.

“Ah, there’s the lantern of realization. Figgerin out what I’m sayin’ ain’t just the blabberin’ of an old man huh?”

“It was so peaceful there. I wanted to go farther and farther.”

“Ultimate darkness is death lad, don’t get more peaceful than that. Want you to promise me ya ain’t never gonna do that again lad.”

I looked Stan square in the eyes and swore to him, “I pledge to you Stan, I will never do so again. You have my word as your student.”

Stan rolled his eyes at my choice of words, but they seemed to satisfy him. He told me to get ready to try again, so I closed my eyes and began my deep breathing.

“Now listen, I know I just told you not to do what you did. But that ain’t exactly what I was meaning. You figured out something some Blacksuits never learn. The depth of the shadows. And you can use that. But you gotta be smart about it. I want you to focus like you did before.”

I slowed my breathing and closed my eyes and prepared to pull the shadows over my arms and head again, but Stan stopped me.

“This time, just reach back from yer neck and feel the shadow there, don’t move none yet.”

I did as he asked, nodding when I had my connection.

“Now, listen carefully. Don’t do nothing till I finish speaking,” Stan said and I nodded my head again.

“Reach back like ya done before, but this time only a couple inches, no more. When ya done that, I want you to focus from the top of your head down to the floor, dat der distance, don’t go further than yer head. Got it? Couple inches back, head to ground.”

I nodded my head for the third time.

“When I says, I want you to do that, then pull them shadows all the way around yer body fast. Ok, go!” Stan said emphatically.

I followed his instructions as best I could. I might have gotten more than a couple of inches back from my body, but I was sure on the head to toe. And then with a mental yank, I pulled that tether around my body.

“Well I’ll be a Griffon’s beak boy, you did it!” Stan yelled.

I opened my eyes and looked down at my body. Indeed, I was one hundred percent wrapped in living shadow. I stood up and looked at myself closer. I moved around a bit and the shadows stayed close to my body, moving with me. This was awesome!

Stan had told me early on during our training that he had an item he wore that allowed him to see anyone that was invisible. Didn’t matter how good my Conceal/Stealth was, Stan was always able to see me. So I was a little shocked when he turned in my general direction, but didn’t look right at me when he spoke next.

“Damnit lad, you shouldn’t have been able to do that so quickly. Like I dun told ya, there be some Blacksuits don’t never learn that trick. They get the shadows, but nothing with the speed you just showed.”

I looked down again, and this time noticed that with the shadows I looked like I was wrapped in a full black suit, head to toe. Name made sense now.

“Stan, I thought you told me you had an item that let you see anyone invisible. You aren’t looking at me. You’re close, but not looking directly at me.”

“Ah lad, heard you get up and move around. But here is the best part about the shadows boy. This ain’t invisible like you used to. Invisibility warps the light around you so no one can see ya. Shadows doing the same thing lad, warping the light, just different. Ain’t but a few items in this land that are made to see that kind of thing. When you use your other skills to make you invisible, you warping the light like normal folk. But when you become a Blacksuit, even I can’t see ya lad.”

This seemed like a totally unfair skill in the game. I mean a skill where only a few items, and those I figured had to be really high level items, could see through my invisible was a total game changer. This had to be something that was going to be nerfed by AltCon at some point. I hated when games gave skills to a Class, and then later decided it was unfair to everyone else and took them away, or made them less effective. That was what it meant to nerf a skill, and I guess I would just enjoy this one while I had it.

Over the next two hours Stan had me practice with the shadows. He wanted me to get quicker with them, but he made me first focus on control. For the first hour I didn’t even wrap myself in a shadow again. Stan made me reach back and feel for the shadows, working on my depth and feel. Then when he felt I was using my control better he allowed me to start wrapping myself in the shadows.

The goal, naturally, was to get me faster and faster with the shadows without losing control. And I grew in my skill leaps and bounds in those two hours. I was saddened to think I would be finishing with Stan soon and moving on.

“Why the down look boy? You should be all smiles right now!”

“I’m just thinking about how much I learned Stan, and how it’s going to suck moving on to someone different.”

Stan just laughed at me and said, “Oh boy, you ain’t even close to being done wit me! You got ya a Blacksuit, sure, but you only know how to grab them shadows sittin’ in a room filled wit ‘em! What you gonna do when there ain’t no shadows like this? Or when you trying to do so while walking? Or runnin’? Oh no boy, you ain’t done with me. Yer trainin’ gonna go on for a while yet.”

That made me smile. I admit that training with Stan at first was a bit tedious, but seeing the results were amazing. And I was going to jump into the next part of this training with everything I had.

I promised to return the next day and wrapped my self in the shadows one last time before walking out Stan’s front doors and past the guardians of his home. Which I might note were still all Red to me.

* * *

September 3rd, 2043

When I logged in the next day I was quick to check my character. Indeed, there had been a new skill added to my character:

I wasn’t sure what that meant at first, the addition to my Conceal and Stealth. If what Stan said was true, then with the shadows I was using a totally different skill set than I was with Conceal and Stealth. Perhaps by learning the Blacksuit, I had alternately also modified my Conceal and Stealth skills. I checked that part of my character and saw that I was on the right track. The training with Stan had already given me a +10 in Conceal and Stealth, and with Blacksuit added to my repertoire, I was now at +20 total for each.

At level 13 I should have been moving between 60 and 65 percent of normal speed. Since we had just got level 13, my skills were still at 60, as I hadn’t had a chance to practice them yet. As they increased through the level, going from 60 to 65, I should be moving at that percentage of speed. But with my bonus I was moving at what felt like 80 percent. This was awesome, since that meant I would be moving at 100 percent at level 16, instead of waiting for level 20. My Blacksuit movement was equal to that of my Conceal/Stealth speed as well. Unfortunately, one couldn’t move faster than 100 percent without a movement speed buff, which Dan would get at some point, but still hadn’t.

Speaking of Dan, I saw him log in at the square next to me. I still giggled a bit every time I saw his furry bunny legs. But you couldn’t deny the benefit of the item.

“Sup homey. You ready to rock it today. We gonna be the muscle on this run,” Dan said to me.

Wayne, who had popped in behind Dan, thunked his war hammer against the ground, which made Dan jump a bit. “The only muscle going on this trip is the guy with the hammer, tree hugger.”

“Be nice Wayne or I’m going to get Jason talking about British rock bands again. And you know I have just enough knowledge to make him go ape shit.”

Earlier in the week, Dan had made an off comment about a band that I had never heard of, and how they represented everything wrong with music. Apparently they were legendary in Britain, where our companion Jason had spent some formidable years. The resulting tirade went on for a good 15 minutes. Jason missed two heals on Wayne while tearing into Dan.

“I’ll burn down your house. Both of them,” Wayne replied.

“Damn. Should have kept the second one secret!”

Jason came strolling down the street about that time and Wayne shot Dan a very stern look, to which Dan put his hands up in surrender.

“I miss anything?” Jason asked

“Well, Wayne and I were…” Dan began to say.

“Grouping up so we could go get that quest. Let’s get this started,” I said interrupting Dan and likely saving his life. And his houses.

After getting the group formed, we went to Sir Kenyon and I accepted the quest. Sir Kenyon nodded at us and reached into his jerkin.

“Bring this scroll to the wagon master leaving from the gate. He will advise you of the route and when he will be leaving. I think it is soon, so I wouldn’t tally.”

I took the scroll and we were wrapped in the golden glow that informed us we had accepted a quest. I looked at the quest dialogue in my inventory screen and saw there was a time limit on the first part of the quest. We only had 30 minutes to get to the wagon master.

“Glad we didn’t take this yesterday. With this time limit we wouldn’t have had any choice but to do the quest, and who knows how long it will take. And I could have missed out on this amazing antique ottoman I found that works with almost anything! Dan if you ever want me to design one of your places, let me know. I would do amazing things, get you some of that ‘tail’ you keep talking about, but in the real world.”

“Not much you can do with bean bags that I haven’t already come up with Allirama. But let me think about it!”

The two went back and forth as we continued toward the front gate. Dan insisting that bean bags were universal for all furniture, to include coffee tables, and Jason trying to get Dan to see reason. Guess who lost that fight?

* * *

We were to be security on this wagon run, and would be riding in the two middle wagons of a four wagon team. I grouped up with Dan in one wagon, and Jason and Wayne went in the other. I thought it important to keep our Tank and Healer together, and the team all agreed. Plus this kept Dan away from Jason, stopping Jason’s descent into insanity.

Dan and I were lounging in the back of the wagon, legs hanging over the side, and enjoying the scenery as we traveled.

“So what do you think of the game Alex?” Dan asked out of nowhere.

“I love it man, you know that. Haven’t had this much fun in a long time. You know, usually when I get in a game I am solely there to be a merchant, make some money. This is the first time, in a really long time, that I’ve been in a game for the purpose of solely playing.”

“Right, but you are getting paid too.”

“Well sure I am. We aren’t all independently wealthy,” I laughed while saying to Dan. “But this may be the best job ever.”

“And what do you think of the game play? Have you encountered any problems? Seen anything weird?”

This was very out of character for Dan. He was making sense. I wondered where this was coming from.

“Well, other than popping in that first day out in the forest, and my log in and log out seeming to be slightly out of whack, I don’t think so. But AltCon got my IT report on that and they seem to be addressing it. My log point is still slightly different, but negligible.” I certainly wasn’t going to tell Dan about my secret quest and had decided to continue keeping my messed up Chance stat from the guys. It just didn’t feel like the right time yet.

Dan nodded thoughtfully. Another first I was seeing. Dan seeming to think on something seriously.

“And what do you think of AltCon as a whole? You know, the company, their products?”

“I don’t have any feelings about them one way or another, AltCon is just a company. They seem to be on the ball with this new VR system, and the RACs are top rate, but I’m sure someone will come up with something better down the line. Who knows?”

Dan nodded his head again. Then was quite a for a few moments before muttering, “Interesting.”

“What’s interesting Dan?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about dandelions bro. What an ingenious campaign some mastermind dandelion in the depth of the earth came up with to get people to think they were magical, and convinced them to propagate the species further by blowing the seeds around for “wishes,” guaranteeing the continuance of the genetic line. And it’s just a weed. Oh, and contact on the right side.”

“What? where?” I said while moving out of the back of our wagon.

“Calm down bro, still in the trees, they aren’t coming out yet. Want me to grab Wayne and Allison or just put it through the group chat?”

“No, you stay here, since you can see them and I can’t. I’m going to act like I’m stretching my legs and walk up to the next wagon. I don’t want us losing our element of surprise that we know they are out there. And I would suggest never calling Jason “Allison” to his face.”

“Little bit crazy bro, not stupid. And I love my fun bag and don’t want to see it stomped by an angry High-Elf.”

“Wise decision, be right back.”

I approached Wayne and Jason, who were chatting in the back of their wagon. Jason was laughing at something Wayne had just said.

“Naugha told me the funniest story from his days as a bouncer. The ridiculousness of some people.”

“I bet. Probably make Dan seem normal and sane. Possibly. Maybe. Probably not.”

They both laughed at that, and while I had them laughing, I said in a very natural tone, “keep up with the smiles and laughs. Dan has contact behind us, probably moving through the woods toward us. Which means there will probably be another group ahead of us, a pincer move. I want to head up to the wagon master and see what’s coming on the horizon.”

Naugha smiled and nodded. But the smile was his “I get to crunch something” one, and there was a lot of canine in that smile. “I’ll head back with Jason toward Dan after you leave. Two front battles are not a good idea, though, so we need to assess this quickly,” Wayne said. I laughed and nodded my head and then headed forward to the wagon master.

I saw what was going to happen almost immediately. We were cresting up a hill and would reach the top in another 300 meters. Dollars to donuts there would be an obstruction in the road just on the other side that would force us to stop.

“Good day sir,” I said to the wagon master as I approached, him leading the team and holding the reins.

“Why ain’t you back with the supplies?” He barked at me. It was hard to take him too seriously, as he was wearing an absurdly large floppy hat on his head. I guess when you are out in the sun every day on these wagons, you would want something to protect against the sun.

“I’m just doing my job sir,” I said, trying to remain civil and non-assuming. I didn’t want to tip our hand.

“Your job is to guard them supplies.” He said again.

“And that is exactly what I am doing.”

He gave me a sideways glance from under his hat and said, “What’a ya know?”

“We’ve got someone in the trees trailing behind us, and I’ll eat your hat if there isn’t an obstruction just over that ridge. Likely with a welcoming party.”

“We can’t turn around, ain’t no room for that. What ya suggest?”

“Surprise my good man, surprise.”

* * *

I went around to the other side of the wagon, away from where the mobs in the wood were tailing us. I rolled underneath the wagon and activated my Conceal/Stealth. I had plenty of shadows I could have grabbed, but I didn’t feel as comfortable with them as I did with my old standby. By the time the wagon passed over me, I was invisible and walking back toward my companions.

I walked past them as quickly as I could and made my way to the woods. With my Stealth activated, no one in the woods would hear me, and my Conceal would keep me hidden, as long as none of them had an item that could see through an invisible spell.

There were only two of them. Humans, but they looked very scraggly. Their clothes were all torn and patched. But their levels were higher than mine, as their names, Woodland Bandits, were blue in front of me.

I went back to the wagons, which were moving much slower now according to my instructions to the wagon master, and walked around one of them to disengage my Conceal/Stealth. Once I was visible again, I approached my team and told them about the two bandits in the woods.

We decided to engage these two before we crested the ridge, so we wouldn’t have to split up our team in defending the wagons. The wagon master told me the others manning the wagons wouldn’t be able to help in a fight. But he glanced toward his sword next to him and told me he wouldn’t have any problem defending his goods. His name, Rendu, was green to me, so I didn’t know how much help he would be.

“Flush ‘em out Dan,” I said.

“With pleasure,” Dan said right before taking out his bow and firing two arrows into the tree line. He had shot at both of the bandits. And both of them came running out of the woods toward Dan.

“Blueberries!” I yelled. And with that, Rendu halted the wagon train. We had come up with a code word so he knew when we were engaging. He suggested it. I thought it might be his normal “safe” word.

Wayne went at the first bandit and yelled out “eat hammer, dick!” before swinging his war hammer at the bandit.

Dan stopped shooting and looked over at Wayne, “was there a comma in there dude, or was that just a dramatic pause? Because the two mean something totally different!”

“Shut up Dan and keep shooting!”

Dan got back in the fight, giggling. I heard him whisper, “TheClaw got jokes son!”

These mobs were nothing compared to our gear and levels and we were going to end up dispatching them quickly. I didn’t know what waited over the ridge, but these guys weren’t going to be a problem at all.

Turns out I was wrong.

The guy in front of us went from 40 percent health to 100 percent health in one second.

“Shit! They’ve got a healer! Dan, do you see him?” Wayne asked.

“Yeah man, looks like he is just inside the wood line. This could mean trouble,” Dan replied.

Taking my usual leader role and dishing out assignments, I told Dan, “Disengage TC, put some arrows in that guy, and hit him with a snare. Once it lands let us know and Wayne will chase him down. I don’t want to waste time trying to catch him.”

Dan did as he was instructed and quickly yelled out that the Snare had landed. Wayne ran over by Dan and started beating on the healer. There was no way we could have known which one was him if the other two hadn’t run out simultaneously to engage Wayne. Just like the others, the healer was a Woodland Bandit, nothing more was given about his Class.

Wayne had to keep switching targets to make sure he kept the aggro. But now our focus was on the healer. Once we got him down to around 50 percent, he turned and started attacking me, as my proc had landed a number of times. I wasn’t taking much damage so I told Wayne to focus on the other two and Dan and I would take the healer out. Between my fast weapon and Dan’s steady barrage of arrows, the healer didn’t get off another cast.

Once he was dead, we made short work of the other two. We got back to the wagons and found Rendu appraising us as we approached. “Damn fine work boys! I was going to jump in when you said there was a third out there, but it seems ya didn’t have any need of my blade. Let’s get set up quickly so we can keep going and see what be over that hill.”

“If you don’t mind sir, my companions could use a few minutes to rest up and get us healthy and hearty,” Jason said to Rendu.

“No problems, but we don’t want to waste too much time. Could give away our surprise.”

We nodded our heads in agreement and took what time we needed to heal myself and Wayne. Jason was at 70 percent mana and wanted to get to 80 percent before our adventure began over the crest. I was inclined to agree, but with Jason’s huge mana pool, it could take a while before we got Jason that 10 percent.

We waited as long as I felt was safe, and then told the guys to get ready. We would be walking along the sides of the wagons this time, not riding in the back. We wanted to all see what was over that ridge at the same time.

And like I thought, there was indeed a tree laying across the road. There were five men standing around the tree, talking amongst themselves, but not looking nefarious in nature. Their names all said Woodland Resident, and all were Blue to us. Perhaps these were NPCs and not mobs that planned to attack us. I wasn’t going to take any chances though, so I told Rendu to speak to them, but just to get their attention. I would handle everything after that.

“Pardon me fine sirs,” Rendu said with hat in hand, “that tree been there long?”

“Don’t rightly know now, do I? Just came upon it ourselves while we was out looking for a good place for our next hunting party,” one of them said.

The same man paused for a moment, then turned to us and said, “But you know, I would think it would be the right and proper thing for us to help you get your wagons on their way. Suppose we could get this tree here out the way for a small compensation.” He smiled when he said it, but it was all teeth, like when Wayne got ready for a fight. Only he didn’t have that fire in his eyes like Wayne always had. Might have been because he didn’t expect four adventurers traveling with the wagons.

“I don’t think that will be necessary. I’m sure my companions and I could move it with no problems,” I responded. Hell, the tree wasn’t all that big and I thought Wayne could probably smack it out of the road with his hammer.

“Well now, see, that there is going to be a problem,” he said while looking at me. And just like that, his name turned from Woodland Resident to Woodland Bandit.

“Ok, that was awesome. I didn’t realize they could shield and then shed their identities like that!” Dan said.

“What the blazes you talkin’ bout boy? Only thing we gonna be sheddin’ is your blood on the ground.”

The man took a quick sideways glance toward the woods, but I wasn’t ready to give away our hand just yet.

Rendu growled from atop his perch and said, “That one is mine, you boys handle the other four.” And with that he jumped from the wagon, raised his sword and dashed at the bandit who had been speaking. I didn’t have much faith in his ability to take the bandit, but I wasn’t going to have time to worry about that. As Wayne engaged the bandit next to the talker, he yelled out, “Feel my steel!”

We couldn’t help it, we all started giggling. Wayne had already engaged and didn’t realize until two seconds later that we were laughing. “Damn it! Fuck you guys! Help me out here.”

Jason cast a heal on Wayne while Dan snared one of the bandits and started running him around. I was waiting to engage since I didn’t want to steal aggro. It also gave me a moment to address Wayne’s battle cries.

“We really need to work on your word choice there Wayne. Perhaps something that doesn’t immediately make someone think about your penis.”

“Dan said it sounded fierce!” Wayne yelled.

“You listened to Dan?!?” Jason yelled back.

Wayne gripped his war hammer so tight I could see his knuckles turn white as he growled, “I’m so going to put this shaft up his ass,” Wayne growled.

Jason started laughing again, uncontrollably. “That one is on you Wayne, we are still over here thinking about your steel after all,” I responded while engaging the mob Wayne was attacking.

“I was talking about my hammer Alex!”

“See, that needs to be clarified. Hence why we are going to work on your word choice.”

Wayne was definitely angry. If I didn’t know any better, I would say his anger was effecting the game and his hits were even harder than normal. But he never lost his focus on his role. It was amazing to watch him go from one mob to the other and keep them on him. He would hit the primary mob, then when his Bash was active, he would attack the second mob with it, only to switch to the third to use his Taunt. It kept aggro on him almost the whole time. However, with my dagger, I pulled aggro eventually.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ve got the armor and hit points for this. Just keep doing what you are doing.”

And shortly thereafter we took down the first mob and started on the second. I knew I wouldn’t be pulling aggro on either of these as Wayne had been building it up while we killed the first mob. I looked around for Dan, and saw he was still kiting his mob, shooting arrows at him the whole time. I also spared a glance over to Rendu who was still engaged with the other bandit. They both looked bloody and ragged, but were still going at it, although they had just separated to catch their breaths and gauge their opponent. The bandit took that opportunity to yell out, “Lester, you idiot, heal me already!”

I didn’t need to tell him what had happened, but I knew it would make me feel good to do so. “No help coming from ol’ Lester. He and the other two are already dead in a ditch a ways back.”

The bandit got a look of real worry on his face. Where he thought he had eight against five, in reality it was a straight up fight. He then noticed one of his was already down and his eyes got bigger again. Then realizing he may not be long for this world if he didn’t finish off Rendu, he reengaged with more fury.

We finished our mobs, none having any good loot, and then helped Dan finish off his. Dan’s mob was already at 70 percent when we got to him, thanks to Dan’s steady supply of arrows. Although I worried that if we faced too much more resistance on our way to the outpost, Dan could run out of arrows.

Turning to finish off the last mob, the bandit fighting Rendu, we ran toward his position. However, at the last moment, the bandit and Rendu put their blades through each other’s stomachs at the same time. Blood leaked from their abdomens, and as one they fell over. Both were dead.

I ran over and grabbed for Rendu, hoping I could help him. Touching him opened up his inventory for looting. Definitely dead.

He had only two items. A bastard sword that would get us a few silver at a merchant, and a letter for the outpost declaring the goods he was transporting. I took both items and stood up.

I looked at the others from the wagon train and said “Well shit. Anyone know how to drive these things?”

* * *

Dan said he did. Know how to drive them. Said he read it in a book. Once. But then pointed at his head and reminded us what he could do. All with a very large dose of arrogance.

It took us three hours more to get to the outpost. Should have taken half that. Not because there were more bandits, but because Dan lacked even the tiniest bit of skill with the wagons. I know, I know. Big surprise.

Now normally, if we saw Dan had no skill at such a thing, we would have just gotten him off the damn wagon. But after only five minutes of trying to get the wagons going in a straight line, Dan suddenly pulled the reins hard one way and the horses reacted, and the wagon went sideways and then tipped over. It took us a half hour to get all the supplies back in the wagon, after the hour it took for us to get it righted with the others from the wagon train, and then calm the horses down.

“What the hell was that Dan?” Jason asked, referring to the sudden yank on the reins.

“Thought I saw a bee bro. I’m allergic. I don’t have my eppy pen,” Dan said dead panned.

“It’s a game you doofus. Nothing would have happened!”

“This shit is too real bro, how do I know the sensors wouldn’t take my real feelings and just make me go into seizures!”

I didn’t think this would happen, but Dan’s worry seemed genuine. Needless to say, we didn’t let him anywhere near the reins again.

As I was walking toward the front of the horses to see if their tack was secure, not that I really knew what I was doing, I heard Dan whisper to Wayne, “Did you see that Naug! I had it on two wheels bro. That shit was epic!” Wayne just shook his head, but I could see there was a small smile at the corners of his mouth.

There was a guard at the outpost when we arrived. When he saw the wagons, and no wagon master, he started to take out the sword from his belt. Outpost Guard was Red to all of us. I didn’t want to mess with this guy at all and quickly put my hands up so he could see I didn’t have a weapon. Then I told him, “sir, we are the guards sent with Rendu. We were attacked by bandits a ways back. They killed Rendu, but we knew the King needs these supplies. So we decided to continue on instead of turning back for Port Town and Sir Kenyon.”

Dropping the name of Sir Kenyon had the desired effect and the guard calmed down a bit, but didn’t remove his hand from the pommel of his sword. “How many were there?”

“Eight.”

“And how many did ya kill?”

“Seven.”

“So there is still one of them bastards out there? Probably their dang healer, he seems to always get away from us.”

“Oh Lester? No, he won’t be healing anyone again. I say seven because that’s how many we killed. Rendu killed the leader.”

The guard smiled at that and removed his hand from the sword. “Damn, old git had some fight left in him huh? Well good on him, means he died a warrior’s death, something he would have preferred. You got his list?”

I nodded that I did and handed it to him. He looked to be reviewing it. After a few moments he nodded his head and told us to take the wagons into the outpost and see the Captain of the Guard.

The Captain was a large man, with a grizzly beard and some of the largest shoulders I had ever seen. He carried himself with the authority of a man who knew he was in charge. Which is why it surprised me that he had an open smile and a friendly demeanor with all of the other guards. I was guessing the Captain was held in high regard here and seemed to treat all of his people with respect.

“Guard at the gate sent a runner to me. Damn shame about Rendu. He and I fought in a campaign or two back in the day. Glad to hear he died on a blade and not under a wheel.”

“He fought valiantly sir. If it weren’t for Rendu’s aid, I don’t know that we could have held off five bandits at once. We will speak of his bravery upon our return to Port Town,” Jason said to the Captain. Damn if Jason couldn’t talk it up. Aristocracy, thy name is Allister.

“See that you lads do. And now that you have completed your task, here is a letter for you to bring to Sir Kenyon. He will be able to provide payment for your services upon your return, as we don’t have much in the way of excess here, and no extra funds we could spare with.” Then with that big smile I saw earlier, he said, “However, please feel free to remain at the outpost for as long as you like. You did a good thing bringing those supplies here. I know it would have been easier to just abandon the wagon train, or return to Port Town. But you didn’t, and the King’s men here will remember your bravery. You will always have a hot meal here any time you need it.”

We thanked the Captain for his hospitality and told him we would stay the night if he was agreeable. He had no objection and we went off to explore more of the outpost. We didn’t have to explore long.

There was really nothing there. It was a bare bones operation used for the transport of goods to the front. There was a barracks, a chow hall, stables, and a warehouse for the supplies. There wasn’t so much as a tavern, although the chow hall did serve passable mead. We decided to log out there and head back to Port Town the next day. I hoped there would be another wagon train we could hop on with, seeing as walking was going to take us forever.

CHAPTER 16

September 4th, 2043

We logged on just outside the barracks where we had logged out the day before. The outpost didn’t look any different, and unfortunately it didn’t look like there were any wagons heading back toward Port Town. Damn this was going to be a long walk.

Resigned to our fate, my group headed toward the outpost gate, and our very long walk back to Port Town. We were intercepted by the Captain of the Guard just before we reached the gate.

“Would any of you fine gentlemen know how to ride a horse?” the Captain asked as he approached. None of us did, and we indicated as much. Although Dan did say that he read about it in a book. Once.

“Well reading and doing are two very different things my Ranger friend.”

“You don’t even know the half of it.” Jason said just under his breath.

The Captain smiled. “I imagine there is a story there, but unfortunately I don’t have time for tales.” He then indicated past the chow hall and toward the stables. “I have four horses that I need to get to Port Town. I’m hesitant to remove any of my Guards from their posts, even one. And that’s what I would have to send, one with all four tethered together. That would be quite the slow ride for him. But if you gentlemen would be willing, I could show you the basics quickly and get you riding back to Port Town.”

We nodded vigorously. We anticipated learning a new skill from this, and we were right. After a quick tutorial on the horses, their saddles and gear, and how to ride, we saw a new skill in for our character.

This was likely to go horribly wrong, especially since Dan kept saying, “I want to jump something! I want to jump something!”

* * *

Turns out I was wrong. The journey from the outpost wasn’t horrible at all. It was quite entertaining, in fact. Mostly because we got to watch Dan fall off his horse more times than any of us could count. All of our mounts were pleasant to be around, except for Dan’s. Well, that is to say when Dan was around her. Otherwise, she was calm and agreeable to the rest of us. No one understood why the horse disliked Dan so much, but I thought it might be all the whispered curses he threw in her direction.

Otherwise the trip was entirely uneventful. That didn’t mean we relaxed during the ride at all though. We kept waiting for a group of bandits to jump out of the woods and ambush us and we were on a heightened state of alert the entire time. And there is nothing relaxing about riding horses, which you are learning to ride to begin with, while constantly keeping your senses on high alert. I remember hearing stories about soldiers who were expecting attacks, anxiously waiting through an entire day, who did nothing but wait. Yet those soldiers were exhausted by the end of the day despite having not moved or expended energy. It isn’t only physical exertion that can exhaust the body. Mental exertion can have an equal or greater effect. Jason would likely argue that Dan shouldn’t be tired at all if mental exertion was the cause.

Large crowds gathered by the main gates when we rode up, as we were the first players ever to be seen riding horses. We had accomplished another first in the game. And despite the discomfort, I had noted the speed and ease in which we could travel with those horses and I wanted to get some for my group. I planned to ask around at the merchants and see if anyone was selling horses. I didn’t have any illusions though that we would be able to buy them any time soon. A horse likely went for more Gold than we had spent combined since joining the game.

We were all a bit saddle sore from the ride, Dan’s back side hurting more than all of us given his frequent trips to the ground, and we were more than pleased to turn over the horses when we returned to Port Town. A guard appeared just outside the gates when we arrived and took the horses from us after retrieving a note from the Captain regarding the beasts. We earned a small bit of experience for bringing the horses. But the real reward was the increase in our Beast Riding. I didn’t know about the others, but mine had increased in the day’s journey:

Beast Riding

Specialty: Horse (36)

Jason had the highest wisdom of all of us by far, so I imagined his skill was likely maxed out for learning the skill. And while the increase in skill meant it should be easier for us to ride now, I didn’t notice that much of a difference upon our arrival. This was likely on account of us being so tired and our increase in skill was offset by our exhaustion.

After turning over the horses we stopped to answer a few questions by the players that had gathered by the gates. Most wanted to know if the horses were ours, and we explained they were not, but seemed to be part of the chain quest they would eventually get from Sir Kenyon. I didn’t know if that was true, but once the players found out we hadn’t found some way to acquire the animals permanently, they mostly left us alone. This allowed us to make our way to Sir Kenyon with little resistance from the other players.

I approached the NPC and handed him the note given to us by the Captain at the outpost. Sir Kenyon seemed to be reading the note, and then looked over at us.

“Thank you all for your bravery in delivering the supplies to the outpost. The Captain speaks highly of your deeds and that man is not one to heap praise on those who don’t deserve it. Your King thanks you.”

We received a significant amount of experience and, more importantly in my eyes anyway, we each received 10 Gold pieces. There was a collective “woohoo” from my group before Sir Kenyon began to speak again. This time his eyes were cast down and he was shaking his head slightly as he spoke.

“The news about Rendu is quite sad. Like the Captain, I knew him as well. He was a fighter to the last I see. Those bandits are going to be a thorn in our side while we try to move the King’s supplies toward the front. We can’t afford to send more guards out with each patrol and still maintain the garrison here, at the outpost, and the men for the front. I am leery of calling on you brave travelers yet again, so soon after you have returned from a job well done, but I seem to have need of people I can trust and whose skills I have faith in. You defeated a group of bandits, but that was but a small contingent of the larger problem. Deep in the woods the bandits have fortified themselves in a camp. We have heard rumors of their location but there is no definitive proof that this camp even exists. But if the King’s Army has any chance of turning back and routing the Children of Loust, we will need every supply we can get our hands on. I beseech you, find this camp and eliminate the bandits. Will you eradicate the bandit plight in the Deep Woods?”

Dan and Naugha high fived each other, Jason smiled wide, and I told Sir Kenyon, “Yes, we will eradicate the bandits.”

We were met with the usual golden glow and a new quest was added to our list.

“Excellent! I have added the most recent location based on the rumors we have heard that could house the bandits. Again, I do not know if this intelligence is accurate, but it is all I have to go on. Be careful my friends, these will not likely be the same easy foes you faced on your way to the Outpost. Arm yourselves properly.”

When we looked on our maps we saw the general area where Sir Kenyon believed the bandits to be. And it was quite a trek by foot. Horses would have been great, but I doubted that we could afford them. So it looked like we would be hoofing it over to the area, likely having to kill mobs as we traveled. That would be good for leveling, but would undoubtedly slow us down. I hoped we could find a compromise and I told the guys I was going to head to the Market to try and see what was available. No one wanted to begin our run out to the camp today anyways, and everyone agreed to meet at the square the next day. I saw Dan and Wayne head toward the Tavern and Jason headed toward the nicer area of town. Jason had been doing that a lot lately and I needed to find out what he was getting up to out there.

Usually when I told the guys I was running off to accomplish some errand, my true goal was to get away so I could work on my Rogue specializations. But in this case, I really did hope I could find a way to ease our journey. Only I didn’t have much faith in being able to muster up four horses, even with all the Gold we just received.

I meandered down the Market, checking out wares while asking about where one could look into purchasing a mount. I received conflicting directions on more than one occasion, and if I had followed them all, I would have ended up back at the entrance of the Market. I didn’t get the feeling anyone was purposely trying to confuse me. It just felt like no one actually knew anyone that sold horses.

My last stop was at our friendly merchant who had given us one of our first quests. He greeted me kindly and looked behind me for Jason and Dan. Seeing neither of them, he wondered at my reasons for being there, “Unless you decided to change your life entirely young man, I don’t think I have anything in my shop that would interest you. I’m more geared toward your Cleric friend and the annoying one.” Dan makes friends wherever he goes.

“True indeed my friend. I came as purely a social call and to say hello while I was in the market, I apologize that I won’t be purchasing any of your wares.”

“No need to apologize young man, I rarely get anyone that just says hello these days. All of these adventurers running around here, and all they have time for is to ask how much a spell costs. What brings you to the market today?”

“Trying to find someone who sells horses. My companions and I have a long journey ahead of us and it would be made easier if we had horses to ride. I doubt that even now I could afford even one, but I wanted to see where they were sold at least. But every merchant I went to sent me to someone different.”

The older merchant sagely nodded his head and said, “I see what your problem is lad. The reason you can’t find anyone to sell you horses is because there aren’t any to sell. The King has requisitioned every horse that can carry a body for his war. I don’t know how well known that is, so I doubt anyone was pulling a fast one on you. They likely just didn’t know and thought they were sending you to someone who did. Who sent you to me?”

“To you? No one actually. I just came here to say hello.”

The merchant cocked his head to the side a bit and looked at me a little more closely. He had an odd twinkle in his eye, and I was a bit uncomfortable with the look he was giving me. Not the same discomfort I get when Dan talks about his trips to Thailand, but a discomfort all the same.

But then the merchant smiled, and a genuine smile at that, and told me, “Lad, the only way you are going to get horses is if they are summoned mounts. Magical horses if you will. You cast a spell and a horse appears. Great for everyday travels, but useless in a war, which is why the King doesn’t use them. One cast of dispel magic by one of those bastards of Loust and all the soldiers on horseback would be sitting on their rumps in the mud. But for you and your companions, I think they could be useful.

“And before you ask, believe me, you can’t afford them. Not even one at this time. But I got em, and when you have enough, I will sell them to you. They are 1 Platinum piece each.”

I was right, with everything we had collected we didn’t have enough to cover one platinum piece. Hell, with everything we had made since we started Resurgence we had not earned 100 Gold, the equivalent of 1 Platinum piece.

“Right you are my friend, no way we can afford that. But now that we know, we will start saving up for those prizes.”

The old merchant nodded and then laid a hand on my forearm and said, “And lad, I don’t go advertising this to just anyone. So let’s keep this between us. Just you and your companions. Although it would be too much to ask you to not tell the annoying one.”

Odd script for the game, but I played along and nodded my head in what I hoped was an understanding fashion. “Annoying he may be, but he knows how to keep his mouth shut. The information is safe with us.”

I left soon after and headed back to the square, looking forward to logging out and a long night’s sleep.

* * *

September 5th, 2043

I met up with the guys soon after logging in and relayed to them what I had learned. “So I have bad news, good news, and bad news. Let’s take it in that order.

“First piece of bad news is that there are no horses to buy. Period. They have all been drafted by His Majesty, the King for service in the war. If it can’t be used to fight, you can bet they are out pulling those wagon trains that we were protecting. Good news though, there are summoned horses you can buy and don’t have to be a caster to use them. No mana required. They are tied to an item and with an activation of said item, you can get a horse. Our friendly merchant in the Market has them for sale.”

“Nice man! Let’s go get those now!” Dan said.

“Hold on Dan, if I remember correctly, Alex still has one more piece of bad news for us, don’t you Alex?” Jason said.

“Sorry guys, but indeed I do. Bad news is that each horse will cost 1 Platinum piece. So four total. We aren’t anywhere near that guys. So looks like we are going to hoof it unless someone else has an idea.”

I looked around but no one else could think of a way for us to travel quickly to the area Sir Kenyon had placed on our map. We had been lucky so far in that everything in the game centered around Port Town, with the exception of the wagon train quest. But even then we got a ride there and horses for the way back. So we hadn’t experienced one of the duller parts of virtual gaming. The long endless treks across areas to get from one place to another. We are all seasoned gamers, so while we weren’t happy about having to stomp through the woods for the next several hours, we knew it was coming eventually.

As we walked toward the woods I asked how the guys wanted to play this scenario. “We can head along the road, which would be faster than any other route, plus we won’t likely run into any mobs. Maybe the occasional bandit, but we know we can handle those. This route does take us a bit out of the way though and we would have to decide when we want to dip back into the woods and make our way toward the camp. Our other option is a straight line through the woods. This will likely take us longer as I’m sure we will run into lots of mobs along the way. What do you guys think?”

I wasn’t shocked that everyone wanted to take the forest route. Just walking along the road would be boring. And more importantly, if we didn’t have anything to keep us occupied, Dan would talk. At length. And none of us wanted that to happen.

So with a nod in the direction of the woods, we headed out.

* * *

Our first hour was fairly dull. The mobs outside of Port Town were all too low for us and none of them would attack our group. We had Dan ranging ahead to make sure we didn’t stumble on anything dangerous, and that kept Dan occupied. So at least that part of the plan was being executed without fail.

After that first hour we started finding mobs that were blue to us and were able to get some experience. Like most of the mobs in the forest, these were some variation of the wildlife one might find in a forest. As such the loot wasn’t very good, as you don’t expect a Dire Wolf to have much on them. But we kept plugging away as we moved closer to our goal of the bandit camp.

After the first hour of fighting, the guys all got their level 14. Two more hours after that, I got my level 14 as well. We allocated all of our skill points and took the time to go over everyone’s character. My group was definitely diversified:

Level 14

Alex (Alex) – 16 (+2) Strength, 18 (+12) Constitution, 10 (+1) Agility, 33 (+11) Dexterity, 6 (+1) Wisdom, 1 (+1) Intelligence, 13 (+2) Chance

Wayne (Naugha) – 25 (+2) Strength, 43 (+4) Constitution, 4 (+1) Agility, 17 (+1) Dexterity, 6 (+1) Wisdom, 2 (+1) Intelligence, 1 (+1) Chance

Dan (TheClaw) – 16 (+12) Strength, 20 (+2) Constitution, 37 (+11) Agility, 3 (+1) Dexterity, 18 (+1) Wisdom, 1 (+1) Intelligence, 1 (+1) Chance

Jason (Allister) – 11 (+2) Strength, 20 (+2) Constitution, 3 (+1) Agility, 1 (+1) Dexterity, 55 (+8) Wisdom, 5 (+6) Intelligence, 1 (+1) Chance

Having reviewed our characters, and being pretty damn happy about how badass we were, we continued on toward the bandit camp. With our current progress, we figured we would be there after another couple of hours. While we were looking for the camp, we were also looking for a safe place to log out. It was the consensus of the group that whatever we found, we would want a full day to take it on. Since it was going to take us almost six hours to get there, we planned to scout for another two hours or so, discuss strategy, and then hit it the next day when we had all the time we would need. Getting tired was not a good option.

Dan continued to range ahead as he had the best map out of all of us with his Class skill. We lingered behind and made sure no mobs snuck up on Dan. I also practiced my Conceal/Stealth.

At this point I was successful with engaging my two skills 95 times out of a 100. It wasn’t failure of the skill that was the downside, but the continued drop in movement speed. Although with my bonus from training with Stan and my Blacksuit skill, I would be moving at 90 percent of normal once I maxed out the skills for level 14. Continuously moving around in Conceal/Stealth was all that was needed to improve the skill, but I did fall behind the other guys. Not terribly dangerous for me though since I was invisible with Conceal/Stealth.

“Well this doesn’t seem right,” we all heard Dan say.

“You ok out there Dan?” Jason asked.

“Yeah man, I’m fine. I found the camp. But there is something wrong I think,” Dan replied and then linked us the location to our maps. It was a short way from our current location.

“Well what seems to be the problem brother?” Wayne asked.

“This is the problem,” Dan said and then linked us a Bandit Guard. And the mob was yellow to all of us. At level 14. Dan was right, that shouldn’t be the case.

“How many guards did you see Dan? Are they all yellow, or just that one guy?”

“All of them. I’ve seen four from a distance and each one is yellow Alex. Pulling these single we would still have a hard time with just one.”

“Ok Dan, get back here and let’s figure this out,” I told him.

Dan arrived a few minutes later and we started talking about our options. We knew our gear was the best in the game, and that on a single yellow we could probably take it if we managed the aggro properly. But if we got two we would probably be looking at a slaughter.

Dan was surprisingly quiet throughout our discussions and I was about to engage his thoughts when he yelled out, “Eureka!”

Dan didn’t hesitate to fill us in on his find. “Well this will teach us not to read the quests when we get them from Sir Asshat. Everyone open up your quest log and tell me what you see.”

Sure enough, as soon as we opened up the log we were able to see where we had gone wrong. Under the quest description was a small annotation that read “Players Allowed: 8”

“Son of a bitch! This is a mini-raid. Well that makes way more sense now, since all these guys are yellow!” Wayne exclaimed.

We knew who we would want to raid with us, but their levels would not do much good in a fight like this. And they likely would have to progress to this point before they would be allowed to take part in the quest as well.

“Has anyone reached out to Jenny and her team? Wayne?” I asked.

Wayne’s blush gave away the fact that he had indeed been in touch with the female Paladin, and likely quite regularly.

“Um, yeah Alex. I talk to Jenny every now and again. You know…about strategies and all that. And stuff. You know,” Wayne rambled.

“It’s cool man. That’s nice of you to help her out like that. Very altruistic of you,” I responded while smirking more than just a little bit.

“Oh! Another name I can call our Cleric! Altruist!” Dan yelled out.

“Way to stay on topic Dan,” Jason replied, not the least bit amused.

“So where are they at in the game now Wayne? Done the sewers yet?”

“Yup, they finished the sewers and they have been grinding through for levels. They are trying to get to level 13 so they can get the same quest we just finished. Sorry to say though, it will likely be a while before they get there. Probably another week. And before you think that maybe there is another team out there we could join up with, there really isn’t. Since we helped out with the AltCon quest, and then got them set up with the rings, they have grown to be the second best group in the game. Jenny sends her thanks for that by the way.”

“Sure, we do all the work and Wayne gets all the hugs. Think Kaitlin will give me a hug?” Dan asked while Wayne blushed even deeper.

“More likely it will be Gary.” Jason answered and we all laughed.

“Well we are faced with a bit of a quandary then aren’t we? We obviously can’t take these guys. And we are going to have to wait a while before we can get help from our team mates. Any suggestions?” I asked.

“Let’s just stay out here and get experience. The mobs aren’t dropping much in loot so we don’t have to worry about getting back to town to sell our stuff. And this is likely an untouched area, so we will have free reign on the mobs,” Jason supplied.

“I’m in agreement with Allister. I will let Jenny know what is going on, and let her know that her raid team is ready once they finish the supply quest. I would offer to help them, but there really isn’t much more we can do to help them out. Our gear is still better, but they are inching up on us,” Wayne said.

“Well I get new spells at level 15, as I’m sure Altruist does as well, so we fight out here till 15 and then head back to Port Town,” Dan added at the end.

I didn’t like the idea of being so far away from Stan and not getting a chance to practice more with my Rogue skills, but the group was right. We needed to be out here leveling since the only mobs that would give us experience near Port Town at this point were the ones in front of Stan’s home.

“Agreed. Let’s move a bit away from the camp in case there is a wandering guard. I don’t want to be in the middle of a fight and suddenly have to take on a Yellow mob.”

We only had a couple of hours before we planned to call it a day, so we headed out away from the bandit camp and started killing mobs. Our experience bars were moving dreadfully slow, but we didn’t have anything else to do. As Jason had mentioned earlier, the mobs didn’t have any loot worth mentioning on them, so we didn’t have to worry about getting over loaded and suffering from fatigue.

After those two hours, we found a safe place to log out for the night and agreed to log back on at 10am to continue grinding. This was likely to be a long week, if not longer, depending on how quickly Jenny and her team could level up and complete the next quest.

* * *

September 6th, 2043

Logging back in, I couldn’t see any noticeable change from where I had logged out and where I had logged in, but that ever present ERROR message still popped up every time I entered the game. It was only for the briefest of moments, but it was still there. It had become routine for me to check my character when I logged in to ensure that my Chance hadn’t reverted to a normal number. Upon inspection I saw it was still tweaked, and my Chance was at 132 with my bonuses.

After everyone had gotten back in the game, and our group was made, we had Dan range out to find us something to kill. Jason and Wayne followed at a distance, and I was farther behind as I continued to practice my Conceal and Stealth.

As I was coming around a tree, a mob suddenly popped into my field of vision, not ten feet in front of me. The name over the mob was simply Treasure Hunter, and he was Yellow to me. Thankfully my Conceal and Stealth were activated or the mob would have seen me jump a good five feet in the air. I knew I was invisible, so I took the time to get a better look at the mob.

He was a human, and was wearing a collection of tattered leather clothing. He had a very cool looking black leather duster, a walking stick, and a cowboyesque hat. The satchel hanging over his shoulder was also worn and leather. I couldn’t see any weapons, but anything could have been under that duster. The coolest thing about the mob was the black eye patch over his right eye. I’m not going to lie, Dan was right, the eye patch made him look bad ass.

I remembered that Chance had two separate functions in the game. One was integral in the looting of mobs after killing, and the other one dealt with the spawning of rare mobs. We had seen this take place while we were in the bunny fields outside of Port Town when we were killed for the very first time. And it appeared I was seeing it again here.

I backed up a good twenty feet or so and contacted my group, “Hey guys. I think the Chance Master just struck again.”

“We haven’t killed anything. What are you talking about Alex?” Wayne asked.

I linked them the Treasure Hunter and I heard all three of them gasp. I also sent them a point on the map far enough away, I hoped, from the mob that it wouldn’t aggro them when they appeared. I told the guys to meet me at the point to discuss strategy.

“Dude, that is so bad ass. I totally forgot that your Chance could also affect the way mobs would spawn,” Wayne said.

“It doesn’t seem to work the same way the looting does though. I mean this is only the second time we’ve seen anything that looks like it could be a rare mob,” Jason added.

“The Chance skill creates a diameter, or ‘bubble’ around each character where the chance of a rare spawn increases based on the character’s Chance skill. The bubble for each character increases as the Chance skill increases,” Dan recited from memory. “Since Alex is usually nowhere near mob spawn points, since he doesn’t pull, I am guessing it doesn’t have a chance to work that often. There must have been some random mob that was about to spawn right next to you bro, and it turned into this Treasure Hunter. That’s balltastic.”

“Well obviously we need to kill him. And I don’t see any other mobs around here, so we should be able to just rush the guy. Any objections?” I asked.

“You sure you don’t want to try an experiment first Alex?” Jason asked, smirking while he did.

“Stop trying to get me beat up Allister. Wayne are you ready?”

“Not just yet. Since we have no idea what this guy is going to do to us, lets buff up our resistances.”

That was a good call by Wayne. This guy could be a magic user, and we wanted to have every opportunity we could get to survive the fight. Jason cast all the buffs he had on us, since we had no idea what this guy could do, and then sat for five minutes to regain some of his mana.

When we were all ready, we crept a little closer to the mob and then Wayne ran out at him, yelling “TheClaw is an asshole!”

Dan immediately looked mortified and asked, “Hey, what did I do?”

“It’s my new battle cry before I attack a mob. I thought you would like that one as much as you giggled at my other ones. Now stop pouting and shoot this guy.”

Dan continued to pout, but he did also start shooting. He was too far away to hear Wayne whisper, “Naugha got jokes too bitch.”

The Treasure Hunter did not have any other weapons besides his walking stick, but he was using that to beat on Wayne mercilessly. Jason was keeping up with the heals and after a bit of time I joined into the fight so that my proc wouldn’t pull aggro off of Wayne. We were smart to buff up our resistances, as the mob had an AoE spell that caused fire damage over time, like the poison from the Venomous Rabbits we faced way back when. Only with our resistance the damage wasn’t substantial enough that Jason had to worry about healing the rest of us. After a short time, we killed the Treasure Hunter and Jason began healing himself and me, while Dan handled his own heals.

I looted the mob and found two items on him. I linked both to the guys:

“Well about time. The treasure map sounds cool, but it doesn’t beat not having to watch Naugha fall down repeatedly!” Jason said.

“Hell yeah!” Wayne yelled out in agreement.

Despite the necklace being tradeable, there was no way we weren’t going to give this to Wayne. Jason was right, there were far too many instances where we watched Wayne fall on his butt at night or in the dark dungeons. I looted the Treasure Map and Wayne grabbed the necklace.

“We are still early in the day guys so I am going to activate this Treasure Map unless you would rather just stay out here and kill more wolves.”

“Screw that noise. Hit it Alex!” Dan said.

As soon as I highlighted the map in my inventory by focusing on it, and blinking to activate it, a spot popped up on my map. It looked to be about a thirty-minute trek from our current location. “Do you guys see the location on your maps as well?” I asked.

“Yup, we got it Alex. Doesn’t look too far at all. I say we head over now.” Jason said.

All were in agreement and we made our way toward the location on the map.

We had to stop twice to kill some wandering mobs that were in our way, but otherwise it was an uneventful trip. Just before we arrived at the location indicated by our maps, we stepped out of the forest and into a clearing. And before us was a no-shit castle. And there were definitely people home.

CHAPTER 17

I started walking toward the castle but Dan stopped me with a hand on my forearm. I looked over at him and he shook his head and then nodded toward the castle walls. “Those are archers up there brother. We won’t get far in this clearing if we try to walk across.”

I didn’t have Dan’s eyesight but I believed him. Jason and Wayne started looking around for another way to get closer, as had I, but I didn’t see anything obvious. I had a plan, but I knew it was going to be met by a series of groans.

“Before you all start bitching, and groaning, and complaining, understand that what I say next is going to happen, so maybe just nod your heads now so I can get to it.”

They all knew what I was going to do, but they still let out a collective sigh. Ungrateful bastards.

I decided I wanted the best protection I could possibly get, so I walked back into the forest where there were many shadows, and kneeled on the pine needle floor. Within a couple of seconds, I shrouded myself in shadows just as Stan had instructed, and I was ready to move out. Despite the sun being overhead, and not a cloud in the sky, the world looked a whole lot darker from within my shadows.

I told the guys I was heading in, and they all waved goodbye, although in three separate directions since none of them could actually see me. Because of my bonuses to Conceal and Stealth I was moving at almost normal speed, and my trip across the open clearing went quickly. Thankfully the front gate was open so I did not have to find an alternate means for entering the castle. I entered the castle yard, but didn’t see anyone inside. Since I knew there were people along the walls, I decided to make my way up to the parapets.

Once I was on top of the wall I was able to get a closer look at the archers and select them as targets. Before I even selected the first one, however, I knew this guy wasn’t going to be a part of the living based on the white jaw bone I could see sticking out from beyond his chin. Marking him as a target only confirmed as such, with his name appearing as An Undead Archer, who was Blue to me.

I continued around the top of the wall and counted eight archers total. Four on the North front side of the castle, two on each side of the gate, and two more on the smaller East and West sides of the castle. The outer wall did not continue to cover the south side as the outer wall of the Manor climbed above the wall itself and would have been impossible to get over. I intended to inspect the outside of the southern portion, to look for a possible entry way for my group, but first I linked the mob to my group.

“Oh hell yes! I have been waiting to use this spell!” Jason yelled out as soon as he saw the mob’s identification. I remembered back when we were coming up with our characters that Jason wanted to be able to go out killing undead at some point. This was going to be his first chance.

“I’m going to scout some more guys. The front gate may be open, but I don’t think we could take eight archers lighting into us all at one time. The wall doesn’t go around the southern side since the manor house’s outer wall makes up that portion. We couldn’t possibly scale that anyhow, but maybe there is another way in,” I told the group.

They all murmured their understanding and agreement and I headed back out to investigate the manor’s outer wall. I turned the corner and was immediately disappointed.

That’s all it was. A wall. No windows, no vents near the bottom, no flag poles, just a four story sheer wall. And there was nothing I, or my teammates, were going to be able to do to get through that wall.

As I looked around some more I noticed a slight difference in the ground around me. It was subtle, but definitely there. A portion of the grass seemed to be a little more robust in the clearing than the surrounding vegetation. And it appeared to go in a straight line from the manor wall to the tree line of the forest. I had my suspicions, but I called the guys together in that area of the forest to huddle up.

Once they arrived I showed them what I had seen, and Dan immediately saw what I meant and seemed to catch on to what I suspected. “According to my map Alex, there is a water source south of us. Same direction as the line.”

Wayne looked at the wall, the ground, the forest, back to the wall, and then groaned loudly. “Seriously, the old going through the sewers trick?”

“It is a time tested tactic my large friend. And speaking of which, let’s hope it’s accessible to us two legged type. Although Wayne you may have to hands and knees it anyhow.”

Wayne did not look happy, and Jason even less so. But we headed to the water Dan had seen on his map. The going was quick as there was a bit of a slope down ward as we headed away from the castle. After 15 minutes we arrived at the water Dan saw on his map, which turned out to be a lake and not a river.

But there was no sewer grate, or overflow. I had been mistaken in my estimation. What there was, instead, was a cave entrance big enough to sail a small boat inside. And like the castle, this entrance was guarded. Only this time they weren’t archers, but sentries. The Undead Guards were also Blue to me.

“Now this is something I can get behind. No little baby sewers for Naugha, no sir. I can walk through that entrance no problem.”

“Well I suggest we see what is on the other side of that cave’s mouth then. Dan, grab em and bring em here. I don’t want to take the chance that there are more inside the cave. I mean I could Stealth my way over there and look, but I think you guys are done waiting for action.”

“Amen to that brother. I am grabbing them now. And Naugha, don’t be a dick with the battle cries. They hurt my feelings.”

As Dan headed off, I looked over to Jason, who was itching to cast some damage. “When it hits 50 percent Allister, hit it with the fury. I have a feeling it is going to do some damage and I don’t want Wayne to lose aggro.” Jason nodded his head in agreement, but I could tell he didn’t want to wait that long.

Dan quickly arrived with the two mobs and we fell into our normal routine of Wayne getting aggro on both before we began lighting into the mobs. As the first mob approached the 50 percent mark Jason asked, “Now Alex?”

“Now Allister!”

And with that, Jason got to cast his Banish Undead spell for the first time. And thank goodness he waited until the mob was at 50 percent health. Because it went from 50 to 15, in one shot! We finished off the first one quickly, and started in on the second. Jason again was ready with the undead damage spell and blasted the mob with a similar effect.

“I do believe we have a new hitter in the group lads! Allister just decimated those mobs!” Wayne yelled out while giving Jason a high five.

“I’m not going to lie to you guys. I love being the healer for our group. But sometimes it just feels good to put the beat down on something,” Jason said while smiling broadly.

I looted the two mobs and was happy to find that they were stacked with cash. Each one had close to a gold piece. Neither of them had any items to loot though.

“Well that was terribly uneventful, but we got some decent cash out of them. So let’s go see what is inside that cave boys,” I said while making my way over to the cave entrance.

“Let me scout first, just to make sure there aren’t like 50 mobs waiting around the corner,” I said while activating my Conceal/Stealth.

I didn’t expect to find a room full of mobs, and thankfully I was right. Instead there was a small dock with a couple of row boats tied to the end, and a couple of more guards next to the dock. I ventured further in and found patrols of two guards moving through the tunnels of the cave. They didn’t overlap, except through line of sight, and they moved slower than you would expect most guards to move around. I guessed this was largely in part due to their undead status. Shambling zombies and all that.

This definitely looked doable for our group, and I relayed the information to the guys. I told them to wait by the entrance of the cave, and I would tell Dan when to pull the two by the dock. Once I was sure the first roving patrol was farthest away from the stationary dock guards, I told Dan to engage. After firing off an arrow, Dan pulled the mobs to the entrance of the cave where Wayne began his Tanking duties. By the time I got back to them, the first mob was down and they were working on the second one. Jason’s blasts were obviously doing some serious damage.

“Those spells hurting your mana Allister?” I asked.

“Not even close Alex. They cost just a little bit more than my strongest heal. So I am actually saving mana by casting them and making it so Naugha doesn’t have to fight so long.”

We rarely had to sit and let Jason regenerate his mana, as he had plenty of time between heals on Wayne. But we would be able to move even faster now that Jason could do so much damage. Jenny would likely be able to put a serious hurting on these mobs as well being a Paladin. I said as much to our group.

“I’ll never admit this openly, but with a spell like that, I wouldn’t be able to take aggro from her at all against mobs like these. Even with my better weapon, gear, and stats. I’m just happy Allister hasn’t pulled it from me. These guys do pack a solid punch, and I don’t think Allister would be able to get another hit off.”

I looted the two corpses and found good cash on them again, but still no items. Even if we didn’t find any items on the undead mobs, the money was definitely worth the effort.

I thought about how we would move through the cave complex quickly. I didn’t want to pull four mobs, which could happen if we pulled at the wrong time of a patrol. But I also needed to be there for the loot. I suggested that I stay out to watch the patrols and tell Dan when to pull. When he did I would run in and loot the last mobs that had been killed, and then immediately run back out to track the patrols. This seemed to work for everyone.

And work well it did. Over the next hour we cleared out the entire cave, going through 24 mobs in total, pulled in twos. At no point was there danger of anyone dying. We had become a solid team for sure. The last two mobs we killed, the guards for a solid looking oak door, went down just as easy, but actually did have an item to loot. The keys for said door.

So with that, we unlocked the door, and I made my way up the stairs using my Blacksuit. I came out into an opulent bedroom. However, I didn’t come in through a door, but a book case. It appears the cave exit was a secret escape for whoever lived here previously. The bedroom didn’t give me any indication as to who that might be, as the room was vacant. Seeing it to be mildly safe, I told the guys to join me in the bedroom.

I remembered thinking that I wanted some variety in the game play, as I hoped that it wouldn’t just be dungeon after dungeon, so I was excited by this idea of fighting in a castle. We would need to go through and clear all the rooms on our way to wherever we were going in order to find the treasure. I told the guys my thoughts and they were in agreement. This time there was a map of the castle, but I was inclined to use Dan’s brain still to track where we had and had not gone.

“Dan, you are up buddy. Use that noggin of yours to find us the quickest route to clear this floor of the castle,” I told Dan.

“Alex, can you do your thing and scout out the hallways first, I don’t want to run into a bunch of mobs coming around a corner,” Dan said.

I was happy that the guys were realizing the value of my skill finally, and I quickly headed out into the halls with my Conceal/Stealth activated. There were roving patrols around the halls, but all of the doors to the bedrooms were closed. I realized we were on the bottom floor of the castle and that there was at least one more floor for us to go up to. The first floor seemed to take up the first two stories, and the second floor made up the third. I was guessing there must be some type of large room at the top of the castle, where we would fight the big boss.

We decided to take out the hallway patrols first, following the same tactics we used previously. Again, none of the guards had any items, but had decent money on themselves.

Once we took out the guards we started going room to room, and fighting any and all mobs that were in the bedrooms. Each hallway, of which there were three, had six rooms. We found three and two rooms occupied on the shorter hallways to the east and west, and four rooms occupied on the long southern hallway. The northern facing wall was a large entryway with a staircase running up to the second floor. There were no rooms in this area, but we did find four guards in that area, who did patrols. We took them out prior to hitting up the rooms.

Each mob in the rooms was a singleton, and they were all casters. They didn’t have a high armor class, nor a high Constitution, but they packed a wallop with their spells. Jason had buffed us against disease and poison, what we figured an undead caster might use, but they were still able to land some damage over time spells and strong direct damage spells. Wayne was taking the brunt of these, and could have been in some danger if it weren’t for Jason’s Banish Undead spell. It didn’t hit as hard as against the guards, as the casters likely had some resistance, but due to their limited hit points, it tended to do the same amount of damage. We were lucky again to have a Cleric in our group who was able to cast the Undead spell. Without that, our crawl through the castle would have taken much longer, with Jason needing to regenerate mana frequently for heals.

The other great part about our crawl through the bottom floor was the loot. Each caster dropped an article of clothing, of which none of us could wear due to them being caster only, and a number of spell scrolls. These tended to be of the dark sciences, so nothing that Dan or Jason could use, but my merchant eye was looking at them quite critically with an eye toward making us some more money. The only problem was that there were no Dark casters in Port Town. And the closest dark city would be a two-day walk. I decided I would cross that bridge when I got to it.

After clearing the bottom floor, I went up the stairs using my invisibility, this time with my Blacksuit, and scouted out the second floor. Instead of long hallways with adjacent rooms, this time I found four large rooms at the corners of the floor. Upon further investigation, there was a large sitting room, a laboratory, a library, and a dining room. Within each of these rooms was one mob, again what looked like a caster, but each were Yellow. Mini-bosses. I told the guys to come up the stairs and let them know what I had found. Having no idea what we would encounter inside each room, I told the guys we should just work counter clockwise. Dining room, sitting room, laboratory, and finally the library. Since no one had a better idea we made our way to the dining room.

Just outside the room, Jason refreshed our buffs, and I headed in first with my Blacksuit on to make sure we weren’t missing anything. The mob, an Undead Diner, was sitting at the head of the table with a plate of rotted food in front of him. Often I love the realism of this game, but at this moment, smelling the decaying mob and the rotten food, and my sudden urge to vomit, made me like that realism a little less.

Seeing no surprises, Wayne ran in and attacked the Diner. I waited patiently for Wayne to acquire aggro, and then launched myself at the mob.

I hit the mob for a massive critical and a message flashed across my screen. I minimized the window quickly and got back into the fight. Now was not the time to be reading system messages. Not to mention my Critical Strike and my dagger’s proc had gone off simultaneously, so I had pulled aggro for the briefest of moments. And despite having no weapon, this Diner was hitting like a truck. Thankfully he didn’t cast any of his Dark damage spells on me. Wayne had been the only one to be a recipient of those baddies.

Once the mob got to 50 percent, we saw him launch a spell that filled up the room. And with a flourish, the other 10 seats along the table were suddenly filled with Undead Diners, although these were all green to us. I disengaged and immediately started attacking one of them. Within 10 seconds he was dead. This was doable. “Dan, cast snare on the first four on that side and start hitting them with arrows, they are crazy weak. I will take out four on this side. Allister, one shot will probably kill these guys. Hit the two on the end with a Banish. Stay alive brother Naugha.”

Dan did as I instructed and started taking down the mobs on his side. Jason turned and cast his spell and immediately one at the end of the table was gone. Jason turned and did the same to the other one at the end of the table. I could see he had the Naugha madness in his eyes and that he was about to start decimating the rest when Wayne yelled, “Could really use a heal here Allister!”

“Sorry!” Jason yelled and went back to his healing duties. “I got the Eye of Naugha for a second there, my bad!”

“Eye of Naugha, that’s awesome! I’m going to write AltCon and tell them to incorporate that into the game. Give you some kind of strength and crazy buff. Although they haven’t listened to any of my other suggestions for things that should be in the game, so I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Dan said.

Someone had to ask it. “What else did you suggest Dan?”

“Street signs in Port Town so you can give people directions to places,” Dan said.

“That’s actually quite a good idea Dan,” I said.

“Yeah. That and a mechanical riding bull and a magic fingers bed for the tavern,” Dan added.

“Ahh, there is the Dan we know and love,” Jason said.

“Awe, thanks Alligator, I didn’t know you cared.”

We finished off the mobs at the table with relative ease and got back to ripping into the primary Diner. At 35 percent Jason unleashed a Banish on the mob and it dropped to 20 percent. After that it was just a matter of time before we killed the guy. But Wayne was pretty low on health, and Jason definitely needed to regenerate some mana.

I went over and looted the mob and found a high quality robe, and two Dark spells. I linked the robe to the guys:

“Guys, I am going to be able to sell this for a pretty penny to some Dark Caster once we get out of here. As you can see, it is tradeable.”

“Man, that is awesome. I wish it was usable by an Enchanter though. I bet Timmy would love that thing,” Wayne said.

“Timmy, huh?” Jason asked.

Wayne started blushing again and said, “Um, well, that is just what Jenny calls him. You know. When we talk about strategy.”

Saving Wayne from his fate, I suggested we head over toward the sitting room so I could scout it out while Jason regenerated his mana.

While Jason was recovering his mana, I scoped out the next room. It was very similar to the dining room in that there was one mob inside, an Undead Guest, and a lot of empty seats. It looked like we would be facing something similar to what we encountered in the dining room. I was heading back out to the hallway to inform the rest of the guys about what I found when I noticed the blinking icon at the bottom of my vision telling me I had a system message waiting.

I opened up the icon and saw the below message:

You have learned a new skill. You have learned Disembowel.

Only a Rogue with the Blacksuit skill can get close enough to a target to inflict true damage. With no resistance, the Rogue easily cuts deep into the belly of the beast.

Effect: Successful Disembowel will deliver a 4X Critical Strike on an opponent. Success depends on the player’s Dexterity and Chance.

I had never tried attacking someone while my Blacksuit was activated. I still found it easier to use Conceal and Stealth, as I still had to concentrate before my Blacksuit became active. The Backstab damage I earned from using those two skills was already giving me a 2X modifier on my Critical Strike. But with Disembowel I could deal some serious damage. I might even be able to take on a mob solo if I was lucky with my first strike.

I couldn’t tell the guys about my new skill without giving away my Blacksuit skill. And in turn, that would give away my secret quest. I was going to have to be very careful with attacking while covered in my Blacksuit. It would be near impossible for Wayne to take aggro from me if I had a successful Disembowel and my dagger proc’ed multiple times from the outset.

Once Jason’s mana was close to full we made our way into the sitting room. We engaged the Undead Guest and followed the same routine. There were no surprises, with a new set of mobs appearing at 50 percent. I found the lack of creativity boring, but I wasn’t going to complain. At least this time we knew where to position ourselves before the new mobs spawned and we cleared them out quickly. This time though, there was a different robe that dropped and two more spells. Wayne was going to get quite a few hugs after he delivered these goods.

“Check this out guys!” I said, while linking the item to them.

“There are also two Enchanter only spells Wayne. You get to deliver these to Jenny’s group. She may have to fight Tim off of you to give you the appropriate hugs!” I said to Wayne.

“Shut up Alex,” Wayne said, but he was all smiles. “What level are the spells?”

“Well, one of them is level 12 and is an improved Charm and the other is level 15. And that one is going to make everyone drool. It’s a Haste spell.”

With a haste spell, those characters that used weapons to fight were given a bonus to their weapons speed. If you normally swung your hammer once every two seconds, with a haste spell, depending on the modifier, you could look at swinging once every one second. With weapons like daggers, where you are already swinging almost constantly, adding a Haste buff just made you a complete power house.

“Tim will shit when he sees those. And you know he will argue that the robe is tradeable so we shouldn’t just give it to him,” Jason added.

“That’s why I am sending Wayne. He’s big enough that he won’t argue.”

Everyone chuckled at that. I was happy we were going to be able to help out our teammates. I wish we could find some upgrades for Kaitlin, but patience is a virtue I never learned as a youth.

The only variation in the next two rooms came in the laboratory. Instead of more Undead Lab Assistants, it was 12 Undead Rats that spawned and attacked. Dan screamed like a little girl when they first popped up and then started shooting them with no sense of order. We could all hear his screams of, “I hate rats! I hate, hate, hate rats! Get them off me, please!” Wayne almost lost aggro he was laughing so hard.

We also got two more robes, and two spells per robe. Each room’s robe was for a specific type of character. So we got a robe for Wizard only and one for Elementalist. Also two spells for each Class. We were going to be drowning in cash by the time I was done selling all of these.

After we cleared all of the rooms, we found the expected stair case leading up to the next level in the library. We had been getting solid experience from the outset and our experience bars were steadily moving through level 14. Before we went up the stair case I scouted the area, using my Blacksuit, as I had determined to practice more and use Conceal/Stealth only in those times when I very quickly needed to switch to an invisible state.

Once I reached the top of the stairs I found what looked like a throne room. How did I know? The big chair kind of gave it away. And if that wasn’t enough, the Red mob sitting in the chair, an Undead Regent, really gave it away.

We had never taken on a Red mob. At least not done so and won. So I was worried what this guy could do to us. Personally, I was tempted to just farm the castle until we reached level 15 and then see how it looked. I relayed this to my group.

But the boys were hearing none of that. Dan, as was par for the course with TheClaw, made some reference to my man hood and my small hands. Jason, who was far more diplomatic, asked if I was uncomfortable wearing women’s little clothes. Admittedly, it took me a second to figure out that he was asking if I had my panties in a bunch. Wayne was by far the clearest and most concise. He just simply looked over at me and shook his head.

Then he said, “Pussy.”

“Fine! But no complaints if we all get sent back to Port Town if this goes wrong!”

We buffed with everything we had. Which wasn’t much, but every little bit was going to help. We hoped.

As we crossed the threshold of the room, the Undead Regent stood from the throne. We stopped immediately. It appeared we weren’t quite in his aggro range yet, as he made no move to advance. But Wayne and I both noticed the same things and vocalized our observations.

“He’s no caster. Look at that armor. This guy is a warrior,” I said.

“Forget the armor, look at that hammer. Now that is a weapon. Gods, I hope that is a lootable item,” Wayne responded. And he was right, the war hammer the Regent had in his hand looked like it could put a serious dent in all of us.

“And I doubt he is a pure warrior Alex, not with everything we have seen. I am betting on a Dark Paladin.”

“Let’s treat this like we would any other boss fight. Expect bad stuff at 75, 50, and 25. With a Dark Paladin it could be a damage over time spell, a stun, or he could call forth some more bad guys like we had below. You know the drill. If we get four or less extras, Dan takes one, I take another, and Wayne grabs the rest. If we get more than that, we pray they are low enough level. Whenever you are ready Wayne, lead the charge. Preferably with something derogatory about Dan,” I instructed.

“Hey dude! That’s not cool. I said that shit hurt my feelings!”

Without further hesitation Wayne charged into the room yelling, “TheClaw thinks Episodes 1,2, and 3 were the best!” and then struck the Regent.

“Wow bro. Totally fucked up man. That’s worse than saying something about my dead mom like Allejandro did!”

Despite having been released almost 70 years before, Star Wars remained one of the greatest franchises of the human race. It also helped that May 4th had become the biggest unofficial official holiday ever. And any diehard fan could tell you, there were only nine movies ever made. Episodes 4-12. No one would lay claim to those first three.

“It’s ok Dan, I won’t tell the guys that you dressed up as Jar Jar every year for Halloween till you were 14,” Wayne taunted.

“I did not! It was just that one time. And it was college. And I was curious!”

“Dan, did you even go to college?” Jason asked.

“What? No. Of course not. Wealthy, remember?” Dan replied.

We were able to have this fun, witty banter because we played so well together. And because the mob was still around 80 percent. The joking would stop as we got it closer to 75.

Jason’s mana was good and we hadn’t been hit by any of the Regent’s spells. Even Wayne was only taking damage from that beast of a hammer.

But as soon as it hit 75 percent, all hell broke loose. The Regent stopped attacking and started chain casting an area effect direct damage spell on all of us. We resisted some of them thanks to our buffs and natural resistance, but plenty got through. And the ones that landed came with a mini stun as well. It wasn’t enough to break aggro off of Wayne entirely, but we were all taking serious hits.

“Shit. Dan, break off and heal yourself and me. Jason, concentrate on yourself and Wayne. I’ll keep attacking.”

We weren’t in total fear of getting beat down, but each time the spell landed it would interrupt Jason’s efforts to regenerate mana. Same for Dan. And we were going through it pretty quick. Dan wouldn’t be able to do this throughout the fight. At this rate, he would run out of mana before we hit 50 percent on the mob.

We got a small blessing when my dagger finally had a proc that landed and the Regent’s armor dropped forty percent. The debuff wouldn’t last for long, but it was enough that we were able to not only whittle away at the Regent’s health bar, but also interrupt some of his casts. That gave Dan and Jason precious time to regenerate some mana. After five minutes of this, we finally had the Regent down to 50 percent.

We braced for the unknown, but were happy to see eight new mobs spawn around the Regent. They were Undead Servants. Funny that eight new targets would make us happy.

Six of them were Green and two of them were White, meaning they were at our exact level. I guessed that the green ones were probably only one level below us, and I worried that Jason’s Banish Undead wouldn’t kill them completely and it would send mobs his way. And now wasn’t the time to have Jason playing the Tank.

“Dan, you take half, to include one White, and I will do the same. Focus on the White first. Once you have it down to 50 percent, Jason, you hit it with Banish. Then come over here and help me with my White Dan. Go!” I ordered as quickly as I could. The guys had gotten so used to me giving out the orders that no one even stopped to think if this was a good idea. And I liked having open discussions, but sometimes decisions had to be made, and I was usually the first to make them.

Dan successfully Snared all of his mobs and started kiting them around the room, focusing his damage on the White. Once it was down to 50 percent, Jason unleashed his spell and it fell to a mere 5 percent. Low enough that it wouldn’t get to Jason before Dan could kill it. After that Dan started shooting arrows into my White Undead Servant while avoiding his other three Greens. It was quickly brought down to 50 percent and Jason unleashed another Banish.

Downside of all of this was that I was getting my ass kicked. Hard. I couldn’t kite the mobs like Dan could, and so I had four mobs steadily beating on me. The Greens weren’t doing much in the way of damage, nor really was the White, since I had a pretty high armor class. But put enough holes in a dam, no matter how small they are, and eventually it is going to break. And my frail Rogue was 30 percent from breaking. With the White mobs down we tore through the Greens, with Dan trying to take aggro on those as well. By the time we finished, I was at 25 percent health, and Dan was at 75 percent.

Thankfully, the Regent had stopped casting his direct damage spell and was just hitting Wayne with the hammer. But my debuff had expired some time ago, and Wayne’s attacks were doing minimal damage. Dan knew his place in this role and started meditating so he could throw some small heals my way. And I went back at the Regent, hoping my armor debuff would proc again.

I had no such luck, but we did slowly work the Regent down to 25 percent. The benefit of it taking so long, and no direct damage spells, was that Jason got ample time to regenerate some mana while Wayne continued to Tank the Regent. Even my health got back up to 60 percent. Dan was still at 75 percent. Jason was of course at 100 percent.

At 25 percent we got hit with the mother of all damage over time AoEs. All of us got hit. And all of us saw our health bar starting to deteriorate. At the rate we were damaging the Regent, and the rate the AoE was taking our health, it didn’t look good that we would survive this fight.

I got lucky with my proc and it landed again, debuffing the Regent’s armor. We started to see a quicker decrease in the Regent’s hit points, but they were still too high for us to last through the fight. But then I had an idea.

“Allister! What is the cast time and recast time on your Banish Undead?” I yelled.

“Three seconds to cast. Almost instant recast. Why?” Jason responded.

I didn’t bother to explain as we were dying quickly. “Wayne, put the Regent next to the throne. Allister back up to us. Then I want you to cast Banish Undead. Followed by Stun. Followed by another Banish Undead. The distance between us you should get your casts off in time. Dan, let’s light this guy up!”

Dan, Wayne, and I moved to the throne and kept hitting the mob. It was at 17 percent. And just like that it was at 10 percent. And it was running toward Jason.

Before it could cover the distance, Jason’s Stun landed and the mob stopped in its tracks. With us continuing to hit it mercilessly. Before it could resume its run again, Jason executed my plan and hit it with the second Undead Banish and it dropped to 2 percent.

When the mobs got below 5 percent their movement speed became much slower, and you could run around without having to worry about the mob chasing you down. As such, as it ran for Jason, he was able to stay out of harm’s way. While it did that, we followed behind it, and finished off the Regent.

“Hurry Jason, shoot me a heal. Dan, heal yourself!” I yelled.

I was painfully close to dying, and at the last second Jason was able to land a heal that saved me. I couldn’t tell you how happy I was. Not that dying bothered me, although the loss of experience did suck, but I was happier that I wouldn’t have to spend hours running back to the castle and one of the other guys would have to loot the corpse. After 15 minutes the corpse became fair game to anyone that wanted to loot it, and after thirty minutes it would disappear.

“And the savior of the day ladies and gentlemen, Allister the Undead Slayer!” Wayne yelled out.

“Well I am the Cleric Naugha, I should be the one who has a direct line to the saviors and all that,” Jason replied while laughing.

Undoubtedly we were all happy, but I was interested in seeing what we had for loot. The body of the Regent had disappeared, and in its place was a chest of some sort. I was guessing this was the treasure we were meant to find.

I focused on the chest and blinked. When the inventory opened we had a trove of goodies to go through.

“Ok guys, linking the first two now. I’m going to say these are no brainers,” I informed the guys.

“To quote brother Dan, ‘Holy titty balls Batman!’ Alex, are you saying I should get both of these?” Wayne asked.

“Like the man said Wayne, this one is a total and complete no brainer. Like even I can figure this one out,” Dan said.

“Indeed TC, even you can see the benefit of Naugha getting these items,” Jason said while smiling.

“Not quite level 15 yet, but I’m definitely going to use them both. Thanks guys!” Wayne said and looted both items.

“Alright guys, I do believe we have found our first item that is going to require us to roll for it. And I’m not taking any altruism on this one. Any of us could use this and all of us are going to want it. Believe me,” I said before linking the last item.

There was complete and total silence. And it was totally understandable. To put this into perspective, Wayne was currently sitting at 4700 hit points. With this ring he would go to almost 19k hit points. For five minutes he would not need a single heal in any fight we had seen to date. Even against the Regent we just fought.

As explained earlier, every game has the ability for players to choose a set range of numbers, say 1-100, which they can have the computer randomly assign a number to each person. In the past, the computer would display the number so everyone could see. In Resurgence, the computer, with it’s awful computer voice, said the number out loud. The beauty of the roll function was that no one could cheat. Not like I worried about that with these guys, but in most games where you are with lots of pick up groups, the chance for cheating goes up exponentially.

In the end it was just like rolling a dice, but a 100 sided dice, or 1000 sided dice, or more. The range of numbers is unlimited. However most just choose 1-100.

“Let’s roll for it guys. 1-100,” I said.

Dan answered first, “72.”

Then Jason followed with a sigh, “53.”

I was next, “84.”

Wayne was the last to go and I could see he was nervous to give the command. Like I said, this ring was a game changer.

“27.” Wayne just hung his head in shame. But then he perked up, probably because he remembered he just got two amazing items.

“Congrats Alex!” they all chorused. I wasn’t going to hesitate at all, I really wanted that ring. I also couldn’t wear it yet, but we were very close to level 15 at this point.

“There is one more item in the chest. It’s a Regent’s Signet Ring. It doesn’t have any stats on it though.”

Jason piped up at that point. “If you don’t mind Alex, well everyone, do you mind if I take that ring. I think I might know a use for it.”

I looked over at Jason and thought about all the times he ran off into Port Town on his own. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with all the time you spend in the ritzy part of Port Town is it Allister?”

Jason blushed a little and nodded his head. “It is, yeah.”

“I’m good with it then, but you are going to have to tell us what that is all about.”

The other guys agreed and Jason looted the ring.

“Let’s head out side and clear those mobs on the parapets. After that we can figure out what to do next,” I said. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and we headed out to clear out the last of the mobs in this wonderful treasure chest we had found.

CHAPTER 18

“Wait. You can become the King?” Wayne asked.

We had cleared out all of the mobs at the castle and were heading back toward the caves. We didn’t know how long respawn would take, or if it would happen at all, but that was where we killed our first mobs. In the meantime, Jason was explaining why he wanted the Signet ring.

“No. Nothing like that. But you can get a title. It doesn’t come with any bonuses; it just gets added to your name. So like Duke Naugha. Something like that. I’m still going through the quest.”

“Bros, TheClaw wants a title!” Dan exclaimed.

“I didn’t see a selection for Court Jester Dan.”

“Harsh Alimony. Very harsh.”

“So if it doesn’t come with any stats, why do it?” I asked.

“I just thought it would be cool to have. You know, like Count Allister or something. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys before, but since it didn’t give any bonuses I didn’t think you guys would be interested. And I didn’t want to deviate from benefiting the group.”

“So what else do you need Allister?” Wayne asked.

“It only requires two items to get a title. The higher the item, the higher the title. You need to get a ring and a crown from a false ruler. That’s as detailed as it got.”

“Good to know. Any crown we get, that doesn’t have any stats obviously, is yours first bro. Personally, I think the whole thing is pretty cool.”

“On the real bro. I think I could even live with Court Jester TheClaw.”

When we got to the entrance of the caves we saw that the first guards had respawned. It made sense since it had been hours since we cleared these out. I volunteered to check up to the door and see what respawn looked like, and the guys agreed.

After a quick run through the caves I saw that all of the mobs had returned up to the door. We could easily stay here and farm these guys for cash and experience. I was tempted to do so. But first I wanted to take care of some logistics.

“I’ve been counting up our cash guys. And we have over 100 Gold from all of these mobs. It was quite a haul. I hate to waste time but we need to think about how we are going to spend this cash. I’m tempted to just keep farming this location until we have enough gold to buy all of our horses. But that leaves us with another problem.

“If we leave this location, I worry that the whole thing will reset and we won’t be able to come back here and keep killing. But separately, once we hit level 15, I want to make sure Dan and Allister get their next spells. Also, to make sure we don’t lose this place in our downtime, I was thinking of doing a rotational thing, like taking watch. You know, so we can get some sleep too. What do you guys think?”

“Might as well put me to work. I will come up with a rotation, that will naturally benefit everyone’s sleep cycle, and allow us to continue a presence in this place. We can take 3 hour shifts, which will give everyone ample time to sleep, although the middle two will have it rough. I’ll take one of those since I don’t sleep much anyway,” Dan offered.

“Sounds good, and I will take the other one. So one of us has to remain here for the next few hours,” I added.

We came up with a rotation, with Jason taking the first shift, me the second shift, Dan the third, and Wayne the last. I asked Wayne if he would be ok with that. “Alex, I’ve had to work out in the cold, freezing my balls off, dealing with drunks and women who drank themselves to the point they thought they were 10s. I can handle playing the game for a few more hours. You know, doing something I enjoy.”

“So you will just talk with Jenny. Got it!”

If there was a way to kill other players in the game, good chance Wayne would have done it right then. But the red spreading throughout his face made the evil look in his eyes totally worth it.

* * *

I logged in after the first shift was completed and after taking an hour and a half nap. Jason was sitting in the same position as when we left. He got up and stretched a bit when he saw me approaching. “That kind of got boring really fast.”

“Sorry about that brother. I knew it was going to suck.”

“Enjoy sitting around then. See you in nine hours.”

“Oh, I’ll be exploring this place some more. So I’m hoping it won’t be as bad for me. Good to have a skill that allows you to go anywhere, just as long as nothing hits my fragile form.”

Jason laughed and signaled he was logging off. Once he was gone, I started practicing my Blacksuit. I didn’t plan on going into the castle at all. Instead I planned on mastering this skill through practice. I wanted to be able to do it while standing, walking, running, or hell even sliding along the floor on my knees. To use Conceal/Stealth, the character had to at least be stationary for the time it took the Stealth to engage. After that, you could initiate Conceal at any time.

But Stan had implied that the Blacksuit could be used at any time, and even while on the run. So I was going to baby-step my way from where I was at to where I wanted to be. However, there was one thing I did want to check out, before I started my practice.

I initiated my Blacksuit and headed into the cave, bypassing all of the guards, and going through the door. Once I was in the manor, I headed up to the second floor. We had killed the Yellow mobs four or five hours previously, and I wanted to see if they had respawned yet, but they had not. I was going to check again before I logged out when my shift was done. I was betting they were on an 8 hour respawn. And the boss, the Undead Regent, was likely to have an even longer respawn.

I kept thinking about our current issue and how we could be in multiple places at the same time. One more run through of the castle and we would all have our level 15. Jason and Dan needed their spells, which meant at least one of them needed to go to Port Town. I needed to sell all of the spells we had found and the Dark Caster robe, but that required a trip to the Dark Race city. And Wayne needed to drop off the robe for Tim. Any of us could have done that last one, but we wanted to help Wayne out in this case. As Dan said earlier, it would allow us to “Not player hate, but player congratulate.” Whatever the hell that meant.

I kept practicing my Blacksuit and thinking through the problem when Dan arrived as my replacement. I didn’t chat long as I desperately needed some sleep, but I wanted to find out how Dan planned to pass his time.

“Oh you don’t have to worry about me Alexey, I am going to be chatting with peeps at the Tavern. I have a long list of friends that I drink with and I’m going to find out the latest rumors and dirt!” Dan told me.

“Sounds good Dan, have fun. And remember…”

“I know bro, no mention of the castle.”

“You got it TC. See you in a while.”

I moved to a safe location and prepared to log out. I had a plan forming for how we would address our situation, but it was going to take us away from leveling for a bit. But first something needed to be tested. All that could wait till we were all online though.

* * *

September 7th, 2043

When I logged back in I saw everyone was already there. Wayne was off to the side, sitting against a tree and Dan and Jason were having an animated conversation. I still needed to check on the mini-bosses in the four rooms, as I had forgot to do so before logging off. I told the guys my intentions, triggered my Blacksuit, and made my way into the cave. To the casual observer it looked like I was using my Conceal/Stealth. But I was getting better at the Blacksuit, and it came much easier this time around.

I went through the first floor and up to the second floor, hitting the library first, since that would have been the last mini-boss to spawn, but there was nothing there. I checked the dining room next, given it was the first one we killed, but it too was missing. There was a chance this would happen, but I had hoped against it. The “treasure” we collected could be considered the mini-bosses and the main boss, and it was only a one-time deal. I returned to the group and told them what I found.

“Well that sucks, but at least these guys are still Blue to us and we can get some experience,” Wayne said.

We were all in agreement there and decided to continue killing the Blues, if for no other reason than we wanted the money and our levels. I think the other guys were feeling the same thing I was as well, a hope that the mini-bosses and the main boss were just on a really long timer.

Before we headed toward the first guards I asked Dan what he and Jason were talking about when I logged in.

“Have you not checked your mail bro?” Dan asked.

“I hadn’t, no. I get lots of mail with people asking me about buying stuff since I am a player seller. I was going to go through them when it was my shift today.”

“Check it out man, you should see a message from AltCon. It’s pretty cool.”

I did as Dan suggested and looked at the mail I had in my inbox. There were many messages from players, and one from AltCon. I opened the message and read:

As a special reward to all of our Beta testers, AltCon is offering a number of our previous titles at a 50 percent rate. You can find the titles listed below. Simply follow the instructions provided and get your hands on some of AltCon’s greatest games. Thanks for being a part of our adventure!

What followed was a list of eight different titles and instructions on how to purchase them.

“That is pretty cool. Nice of them to offer that to us. So what were you guys discussing?”

“Well Alligation wanted to log off before you got on and purchase them now. Then when you ran off to check for mobs he was arguing he had plenty of time to get it done. I almost had to have Wayne intercede on behalf of the rational. Since, you know, no one ever thinks I’m rational.”

“Which one did he want so bad?”

“What do you mean bro? All of them of course. We all gonna be rocking these games.”

“Oh. Does it work with the new RAC?”

“Nah. It’s for the old systems. But man, AltCon is a great company, how could we not get them!”

“If you say so. But I think I’m going to pass. At some point they will make more games for the RAC and I will just wait for those.”

Dan was silent for a few heartbeats and then asked me, “You don’t have a desire to buy these Alex? I mean you have to admit it’s a great deal and from a great company.”

“The deal is pretty good, for sure. But without the RAC as the platform, well, I don’t feel like strapping back into my old couch. So great company or not, I think I will wait.”

“That’s…that’s cool bro. Everyone has their own thing,” Dan said a little absent minded. Then he got his usual goofy smile and said, “You know, like how I get down with horseradish on my French fries. That shit ain’t for everyone!” And with that Dan ran off toward the mobs.

I followed behind Dan, laughing and shaking my head. Who ever thought of horseradish on French fries. That’s just disgusting.

* * *

We tore through the mobs quickly. I continued to be conservative with my attacks so I wouldn’t pull aggro off Wayne, and Jason continued to unleash death through his spell. None of the guards dropped any loot, but lots of cash. And the casters in the bedrooms were still dropping spells and cash. We were in a good place.

But then two things happened. We finished the mobs, and Dan, Jason, and Wayne all got their level 15 while we were clearing. I still had about 20 mobs to go. And now the mobs were White to my teammates, meaning the mobs were level 15 as well.

It was time to break up the play and send someone back to Port Town with our loot.

“I think we are all in agreement here, that Dan and Allister need to get their new spells. Am I right?”

Everyone nodded their heads.

“Good. Then here is what we should do. Allister, Gate back to your bind point, in Port Town. Take all the money we have and hit up our merchant friend. We have about two hundred in gold. With that you should be able to get yours and Dan’s new spells. Then get a summoned horse and ride back here to us. You aren’t going to have enough to buy two horses unfortunately. While you are there, find out just how much you could sell one of these spells for,” and I handed Jason one of the Dark Caster spells. “How much did your level 12 spells cost you?”

“Five Gold for each.”

“If I was a betting man I would say you will probably be able to sell these for 1 Gold and some change. But if I was at the Dark city I could sell them for 3 Gold each easy. So I want to see what the one will get us, but don’t sell it. Makes sense yeah?”

“Yup.”

“Good. Once you get back we start back up with our slaughtering till we can afford to get some more horses. I will need one to travel to the Dark City. As of right now it would take me two days on foot. But with a horse, I can get there in no time.”

“Yeah, but you will be slaughtered if you try to enter that city Alex. The players might not care, but the guards will kill a half-elf as quickly as a bunny,” Wayne said.

“I know brother, that’s why I will be outside the city, somewhere safe, and using my Conceal/Stealth. They will come to me. And anyone that can use a level 12 spell won’t be worried about the mobs just past the newbie fighting area.”

“Smart thinking Alex,” Wayne said.

“This means some down time for us, but it needs to happen. Are we all in agreement?”

“Sure hombre, I’ll just chat with folks at the Tavern. I’m sure Wayne will find someone, I mean something, to keep him busy,” Dan said while inching away from Wayne, likely for his own safety.

“Kaitlin will never give you a hug now tiny.”

“Damn, thems fightin’ words bro!”

With that, Jason cast Gate and was gone. He responded moments later letting us know he made it safely to Port Town and was heading to get the spells and the summoned horse. Again, I was amazed at the technology of the game. Jason was hours away by foot, and yet it sounded like he was right next to us. The program for communications within the game was astounding.

Jason informed us that each level 15 spell was going to cost 10 Gold. So with Jason’s four spells and Dan’s three, he was going to spend 70 Gold. He also told us the merchant was happy to sell him the Summoned Horse spell for 1 Platinum. Apparently once you concentrated on the spell scroll and activated it through the blink, a token in the shape of a horse was added to your inventory. While the spell was tradeable, the token was not. Simply activating the token would produce a horse after three seconds. However, this only worked outdoors, as Jason attempted to do so in the merchant’s store. Dan also asked Jason to buy him some more arrows, which he was running low on.

We then waited for Jason to return, which thankfully would not take long with his horse.

Since we had some down time, I decided to ask Dan about how he got his wealth. He had avoided the question in the past, but I was really interested in whether it was an inheritance or if Dan had retired at such a young age.

“Hey Dan, I hate to take you away from your gossip mongering with your Tavern peeps, but I wanted to ask you a question. And you can totally feel free to tell me it’s none of my business if you think it’s too personal.”

“That is not why I went to Mexico bro! I don’t care what Wayne says!”

“Wait, what? I have no idea what you are talking about,” I replied.

“Oh. Well. Cool, just act like I never said anything then.”

A lot of uncomfortable visions of donkeys and midgets started running through my head and I quickly moved on to my question before I was completely and totally unable to sleep for days.

“Yeah. Ummm. So my question wasn’t about anything like donkeys and midgets bro…”

“You said you didn’t know anything about it!”

Wayne could be heard behind me with a maniacal giggle that bordered on pure evil.

“Look, it’s not about anything like that. Seriously. And I have no idea about any of that. I just wanted to ask you, how did you get so wealthy at such a young age. I mean, was it an inheritance or did you invent something awesome or something like that?”

Dan was silent for several moments before he answered. “I don’t really want to say dude. Alliterate will just make fun of me.”

Jason could be heard over our system saying, “Promise Dan, I won’t. I’m curious as well.”

“Ok. Fine. It isn’t something awesome though,” Dan started. “But to answer your question, no, it wasn’t an inheritance.”

“So you invented something?”

“Not exactly. Let me just tell you the story,” Dan said while moving over to a tree to sit down and get comfortable. “I used to work as a mid-level IT specialist for a company. I hated my boss. He was one of these people who would come to your desk and take your food, or invade your space, and in general was just a tool. I couldn’t stand him. So I decided I was going to quit. But I wanted to do it with style, because, you know, TheClaw got style yo.

“So I was going to get a bunch of balloons and party favors and the whole nine. Was going to set them up on his desk. And there would be a card sitting on the desk, like a greeting card. And when he opened it to see what he had received, it would just say ‘John, you’re a tool. I quit.’ And naturally it would be signed by me, because TheClaw takes credit for his epicness. But do you know what I couldn’t find anywhere I looked? Greeting cards that said exactly how people really feel.

“The more I looked, the more I realized that the greeting card industry was only serving half the population. Or less. Because it’s rare that you want to tell someone how special they are. Most of the time you just want to tell them they are complete assholes. So I got the idea to start my own company.”

“A greeting card company?” I asked.

“Sort of. It was all online like most things these days. I had a website all set up where you would go and choose the style of envelope, card, and any other order of flair you wanted sent. I had based the font for the cards off my own hand writing, so I didn’t even have to pay for the rights to use one of those mass produced ones. You told me what you wanted the card to say and provided the address and name of the recipient. And it could say anything. And of course, you could have total anonymity if you liked. The only thing I wouldn’t send were threats to do bodily harm or blatant hate speech.”

“This sounds like an awesome idea man! I can think of a few managers at clubs I would love to send something like that and see their response,” Wayne told Dan.

“Well, people are angry more than they are happy. This is what I learned. And because of that the website took off. I was even looking at hiring an employee or two to help me fulfill the orders. Overhead was minimal and I was charging ten dollars for the basic package and then extra if you wanted more flair.

“No one ever had an opus to write either. So it wasn’t like I was spending much on ink. It was usually, ‘Hey, just wanted to let you know you’re an idiot’ or something like ‘Jim, you’re a douche.’ In fact, the ‘you’re a douche’ was my best seller.”

“I’m in agreement with Wayne here, I definitely can think of some people who I would love to send a card like that. How is it I’ve never heard of this? Did something happen?” I asked.

“Yeah man, a certain greeting card company with a total monopoly on the market paid me a visit. To this day I can’t say their name as part of the agreement we finalized. But I’m sure you can guess since when you say ‘greeting cards,’ one company comes to mind. And you would be on the right track.”

“What the fuck? They sued you?” Jason asked.

“Sued me? No. They offered to buy my company. Pretty much insisted on it. But they didn’t know who they were dealing with. They saw a mid-level IT guy who just got a business off the ground and figured if they offered me 250k I would jump at the chance.”

“Damn, that’s a good chunk of change. I take it you negotiated with them?” Wayne asked.

“Nope. It wasn’t a negotiation at all. They came in and stated their terms, the 250k and all that. I then, from memory of course since I have a jacked up brain, told them the exact statistics of the growth of my company since the day of inception. I then provided them with a detailed forecast of how exactly the business would grow over the next two years and the number of customers it would reach. And I was very conservative with my estimates. I still smile when I think about how their jaws kept dropping as I went on and on.”

“We’ve heard you ramble TC, that’s not a shocker to any of us,” Jason said while laughing. We all chuckled as well.

“I think the ambiance of the meeting is what sold it all. These two schmucks showed up with their expensive portfolios and immaculate suits, ready to intimidate and take what they wanted. They found me in a bean bag chair and Cheetos dust on my fingers. I think I was wearing a shirt with unicorns on it as well. They were thinking easy prey. That is until I broke it down for them and they kept checking their own notes to see how right I was.

“In the end I gave them a number, twenty million, and told them it was a one-time non-negotiable offer. They either took the deal right there, or I would never consider selling again, and I would look to be more than just conservative with my company’s growth. After a three-minute phone call, they accepted and I was rich. I’ve never worked again.”

“How is it that I’ve never seen cards like these if the rights were bought by such a huge company?” Wayne asked.

“Apparently telling people how you really feel isn’t in the best interest of said company. I wasn’t the first person to come up with the idea either. They find these people when they first get off the ground and do exactly what they did to me. Low ball a figure and hope they sell since it is just a start up. If you spent all your time telling people how you really felt, there would be no time for sappy cards that you don’t really mean, but buy out of obligation.”

“TC I told you I wouldn’t laugh at you, but I do have one thing to say,” Jason began. “Respect brother. Respect.”

* * *

Jason returned after just an hour and a half. I didn’t think I would be able to travel that quickly on a horse since Jason had maxed out his Beast Riding skill, but it gave me hope that I could make the trip to the Dark city in just a few hours when the time came. More importantly though, was that Jason returned bearing gifts. All of the new level 15 spells.

Dan had no idea what spells he was getting, so imagine the joy he received when he saw that he got a new Snare that included a Damage over Time. The spell, Enveloping Thorns, did minimal damage, but every little point helped. He also got a great self-buff that added Armor and Hit points called Armor of Bark. And finally, he got another self-buff, Bird’s Eye, that would give a +2 Atk modifier to his archery skill. Again, not a huge amount, but the damage would stack up over time.

Jason was even more thrilled. He received four spells. Two of which were Cure Poison and Cure Disease. Those spells were self-explanatory. But he also got a new heal called Health of the Valiant and a new undead direct damage spell called Decimate Undead. And it appeared that Jason had the “Eye of Naugha” when he got back and was ready to unleash some fury on the undead in front of us.

With nothing else holding us back, we started killing off the Undead Guards and the undead inside the castle. There was still no respawn from the mini-bosses or the big boss, and I didn’t think there would be. I was of the opinion that the mini-bosses and the Regent only spawned as a part of the treasure map we had found. Meaning it was quite likely that if we left the castle and came back, the undead would still be there. But we weren’t willing to test that theory and lose our cash cow.

So for the next 10 hours we went through the castle mobs five times. We would have killed even more but the respawn on each guard was two hours. With Wayne’s new weapons and Jason’s ungodly undead damage spell, we were forced to wait for the respawn to occur between each cycle through the castle.

During that time, I reached level 15 and we collected a boat load of cash and spells that could be sold to players. After we finished the fifth round of mobs, we realized we had enough to buy two more Summoned Horses. And with all of the spells I had on me, not to mention the robes, I was betting we would have enough to get the fourth horse as well.

We were at a decision point and I wanted to see what the guys wanted to do. “We are getting close to calling it a night here gentlemen. We have enough cash now to get a couple more Summoned Horses and that will allow me to get to the Dark city and sell all of this stuff. That’s going to take time out of our leveling though. So I want to know what you guys want to do. Keep in mind, our inventories are almost filled up with the spells, and I’m going to need to use everyone’s backpacks when I travel to sell this stuff. We are just at a point that we may have to leave this place.”

“I really hate to leave easy money and easy loot Alex. Anything else we could do?” Wayne asked.

“I could sell the spells at the vendors and get a little over 1 Gold like Alex said before,” Jason offered.

“That seems like a waste though, since Alex is pretty sure he can get these spells sold at the Dark city for way more than that, and Alex knows his merchant shit,” Dan piped in.

I had been thinking about our past runs in the castle, where I would get experience even if I wasn’t right next to the mob when it died. I also remembered how I didn’t get any experience in the sewer or Tim in the dungeon after we had died and been kicked out of the dungeon to our respawn point. I couldn’t be sure, but perhaps because those two events happened within dungeons that were separate from the “normal” world, we weren’t able to get the experience. However, the castle was a part of the regular playing landscape. Anyone could run into the woods and come across it. I thought about this in greater detail and decided it was time for an experiment. And honestly, I was about ready to kick myself in the face for not thinking of this sooner.

“Before anyone curses me or my lineage,” I said while looking directly at Wayne, “I want to try an experiment. No one is going to get an ass beating on this one though. At least I don’t think so.”

“I’m hesitant to listen, but go ahead Alex. Remember, I have a really big hammer now and you are a very little man.”

“Allister will Gate back to Port Town and get our two new horses. Once we know Allister is there, Dan will grab those two guards near the entrance to the cave. Now that they are White, and with your new Constitution, Armor, and weapon, we should be able to kill them without needing any heals. Agreed?”

“Yeah, if Dan snares and kites one while I take the other with you, I don’t see us having a problem. I wouldn’t be able to do more than those two though without a heal soon after. Could probably do three. Don’t think four.”

“We only need to do the two to see if my experiment plays out.”

“Wait, what are you trying to learn this time?” Jason asked.

“Let’s just see what happens, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.”

With nothing further to discuss, Jason Gated to Port Town and let us know he had arrived safely. I told him to wait on going to the merchants until the experiment was finished.

We executed our plan flawlessly and I think Wayne was wrong about his ability to only take three, he likely could have taken four. But more importantly, I knew my experiment was a complete and total success as soon as the first mob went down.

“Holy shit! Alex, I just got experience!” Jason yelled.

“Game changer son!” Dan bellowed out.

“I was thinking back about how I didn’t get any experience, nor did Tim, when we were outside of a dungeon that seemed to be separate from the baseline world. But it didn’t matter how far away I was when you guys killed a mob and I was scouting the castle. I played a hunch, and figured as long as we remained inside the normal world, we could exploit the experience. Truthfully, this is something AltCon should probably fix. But we can tell them about it later,” I said with a big smile on my face.

“So you want me to grab a couple more Alex?” Dan asked.

“Nope, we have been at this for hours. I think we need to call it a night and start our rotation. I will wait here until Allister gets back from his trip and then go into our normal rotation. Once Dan logs on to replace me, I will get on my horse and make my way to the Dark city, where I will log out. Once you guys are all back online, just start killing like normal and I will sell our stuff as fast as possible.

“And too be fair, you and I aren’t even needed Dan. With Wayne’s new gear and Jason’s new Undead spell, those two could go through the whole castle on their own. Having you here TC will make it even faster though with your Snare and kiting. I’m superfluous.”

“Don’t get cocky man.” Dan said to me.

“Huh?”

“Sure, you are really good at telling us stuff, but only TheClaw is super flowus with his words bro. Don’t forget it!”

We could hear Jason sigh loudly through our internal links. “And yet another dictionary bids this world adieu. We should start a suicide hotline, for dictionaries, that goes active any time Dan logs on.”

CHAPTER 19

September 8th, 2043

The trip to the Dark city had taken 3.5 hours. I thought I would be exhausted by the time I arrived, but I got there without feeling tired. Everything around me was so new, and I was digesting it all as I traveled toward the city. During that time, I was able to get my Beast Riding skill up to 60 so I was feeling pretty comfortable in the saddle. With my bonuses I was only at 7 Wisdom, and I was thinking it was time to up that a little. It would increase the speed by which I would learn my skills.

The other thing I noticed as I traveled toward the city was the change in landscape. Outside of Port Town the forests were vibrant and the air was fresh. Everything had a lightness to it, and seemed carefree. Of course that didn’t always feel like the case when you were running from a Dire Wolf, but the environment was one that could be called clean.

The closer I got to the Dark city, the more the landscape changed. Trees went from being alive and full of leaves, soaring up and up, to becoming more stunted and border line dead. There was also a darkness within the forest surrounding the Dark city that we didn’t have up near Port Town. All of this was likely due to the very nature of the inhabitants, the Races that most would classify as “evil.” And it appeared the mobs along the road I was riding on were less inclined toward the natural inhabitants of the woods and more akin to those you would find in a bog, like snakes and alligators.

However, my goal wasn’t to stop and smell the roses, or the bog pits in this case. I had hurried to my location, found what I believed to be a safe area, and logged off. Now that I was back in the game, and had checked in with my team, I was ready to begin selling. Thankfully, and this was something I didn’t even think to check, the guys were able to add me to the group despite being a huge distance away. Another thing that AltCon would have to tweak.

I was just getting ready to send out my first message when I saw a Dark Elf walking past my general direction. I had put on my Blacksuit as soon as I logged in, so there wasn’t any chance the Dark Elf had spotted me. However, I did want to get some information so I hailed him as he walked by.

He looked around a bit and said, “Who’s there? Who said that?”

“Sorry, I’m invisible at the moment. I was just wondering, what is the name of this town?”

“Are you serious? What do you mean what is the name of the town? It’s the same name it has always been.”

“Ahh, well, I’m not from around here. I came from Port Town. Here, I’ll drop my invisible status.”

As soon as I did, the Dark Elf’s eyes went really wide. I’m guessing, much like myself, he hadn’t seen any of the light Races like I hadn’t seen any of the Dark Races. And while I knew there were many different variations, I had to admit the Dark Elf looked really cool. He had all white hair that went down to the center of his back. His skin was a deep purple, and his eyes were a bright red. He was a fighter of some sort as I saw he was wearing a sword.

“Holy hell! You’re a Wood Elf!”

“Half-Elf actually. Probably from my father’s side, but yeah, good chance he was a wood elf.”

That got him laughing. In the end we were all just playing a game.

“How did you even get here man? Isn’t the closest town like two days away?”

“I walked. And yeah, it is.” I didn’t see any need to let people know about the summoned horses. This was something we had learned on the sly and I didn’t intend on letting that get out much even in Port Town.

“Well this place is called The Citadel. Naturally an ominous type name for the Dark Races,” he informed me. “You know, there isn’t much chance you are going to get in the town man. The guards would strike you down in a heartbeat. So I’m curious why you are here?”

“I don’t have any intention of going into town. My group came across a bunch of Dark caster spells when I was out on a quest. So I am hoping to undercut the merchants in town and make a little coin. For helping me I will give anyone you know first dibs on what I got. Do you know any casters?”

“Well what kind of stuff do you have?”

“I’ve got a few that are for Dark Paladin’s only. A bunch that are Dark Caster only. And then I have some Wizard and Elementalist ones as well. But they are for Dark Races only.”

“Damn, that sounds pretty cool. I do have a few buddies that might be interested. What level are they?”

“Levels 12 and 15,” I said.

“Hmm. My friends are level 11 so they might be interested in the level 12’s, but I doubt they would be able to afford the level 15’s.”

My new Dark Elf friend, who turned out to be named Tom, contacted his friends and after a short conversation and them traveling to me, I sold seven of the level 12 spells, each for 3 Gold. The level 12 spells from merchants at The Citadel were going for 5 Gold a piece, just like in Port Town.

I thanked Tom for his assistance and told him to look me up if he ever made his way up to Port Town. It always helps to have friendly acquaintances throughout the game and in the different locations who can be eyes and ears on what the market had going on. With those sales I still had 28 level 12 spells, 8 level 15 spells and three robes. I planned to sell the level 15 spells at 7 Gold a piece and the Robes for quite a bit more. Those would be up for auction.

I sent out a general message to the people in the area letting them know what I had. Much like in Port Town, it was on a first come, first serve basis. If you messaged me first, you got a spell. If you didn’t, you would have to wait till next time.

I also included the Robes. I said they would be on auction and that the bidding would start in one hour and start on each for 20 Gold.

As soon as I was done with the message I started getting Private Messages from the folks in The Citadel. Most wanted spells. A few wanted to know where I got them. No one was hostile at least.

I made a bevy of transactions over the course of the hour. I sold all the level 12 spells and 5 of the level 15 spells. In total I pocketed 140 Gold. There was our last horse.

Once the hour was up I linked the three Robes again and explained that bidding would begin at 20 Gold. The bidding would only go on for 20 minutes. If no one met the 20 Gold minimum, I would pack up and head out. I talked through the logistics saying that if you wanted a certain robe, send me the amount you are offering and either the words Diner, Librarian, or Lab Assistant. Those were the names on each Robe.

After five minutes I didn’t have any takers. Certainly my Private Messages were lighting up with people wanting to know where I got the robes from, but I wasn’t interested in giving away my trade secrets.

After 10 minutes I sent another message out repeating the same parameters for the auction. At this point I didn’t think I was going to get any takers at all.

With only a few minutes left in the auction I got a Private Message from Tom who asked if he could act as a proxy for someone else. I didn’t have a problem with that, as long as they were available to exchange coin for the item. According to Tom, the caster planned to Gate back to The Citadel in a few minutes and would be able to get the money to me.

So I sent out a message that said, “Lab Assistant / 20” as the caster was a Wizard. If someone came in with a higher bid I would send out the same thing, only 21 instead of 20 after the name of the item. It had proven to be an effective way to manage auctions.

Once the time limit was up I contacted Tom and let him know that his auction had won and that I was still in the same location. I sent out an additional message thanking everyone for their business. I got a few Private Messages asking me if they could buy a robe if they got some money together later. I told them it was possible but that they would need to travel to Port Town in order to get it. Funny, I didn’t receive any replies from anyone after I told them that.

After 10 minutes, Tom arrived with another Dark Elf who was in a decent robe. It looked like it was high quality but likely didn’t have any bonus stats. Pretty much like everything I was wearing. We exchanged the Robe for 20 Gold and I thanked both heartily. I bid Tom goodbye and reminded him to look me up if he made it to Port Town.

Throughout this whole endeavor, I kept seeing a message flash across my screen that I had received experience. The guys were tearing through those dead heads.

* * *

Since it was marginally on my way back to the castle, I stopped off at Port Town and bought our last Summoned Horse before heading back to the guys. During that time, I maxed out my Beast Riding skill to level 75. I was finding the travels much smoother and faster. And as a bonus, the horse was just an extension of me, so I was able to travel with either my Blacksuit or Conceal/Stealth and it covered the horse as well. Although it didn’t raise my levels for either of the skills while I was on the horse. I didn’t know if this was an error in the coding, or a part of the game. However, I knew if I just ran around in Conceal/Stealth, eventually it would go up.

I got back to the guys during a down time between killing the mobs. I gave Wayne his new Summoned Horse spell and he immediately activated it and went out for a ride. I told him not to travel too far, in case we needed to bail him out of a jam. He shook his head at me like I routinely rode on the short bus, before he headed out to practice his skill. Dan had already done the same, and due to his Wisdom being second only to Jason, had already maxed out his skill.

While we had a break I asked Dan what the good word at the Tavern was.

“It’s pretty quiet dude. Yesterday, all anyone could talk about was the deal that AltCon gave us on those games. Everyone was talking about who was going to be the first to get them. Then after a bit that died down. Now it is the usual droll conversations.”

“I meant to ask you, did you get your games? Allister, Wayne?”

They all answered in the affirmative. “That’s pretty cool, so have you played them at all?”

“Who has time to play other games Alex? Resurgence takes up all of our time,” Jason responded. Dan and Wayne hadn’t played at all either.

“Well why did you rush out to buy them if you knew you weren’t going to play them at all?” I asked.

“Because AltCon gave us such a great deal, so how could we not?” Wayne said while still riding his steed.

“What about the folks at the Tavern Dan? Many of them playing the games?”

“Hmmm, I don’t know. Let me check.”

Over the next thirty minutes while we waited for the undead to respawn, Dan seemed to be in conversation with people at, or from, the Tavern. He looked over at me and said, “You know, that’s kind of weird Alex. I just talked to a bunch of people, who all rushed out to buy the games, but no one seems to be playing them. Guess everyone is busy with Resurgence.”

“I guess they are, but I doubt anyone else is running three hour rotations to make sure they don’t lose a cash cow,” I said while laughing. “Oh well, different strokes and all that. I just wonder why AltCon would offer a bunch of games, when they want those same people to be playing Resurgence as a job.”

“Well that’s easy bro,” Dan responded. “First off, they are such an awesome company that of course they wanted to give us a deal. And secondly, it’s about profit. They are trying to eat their cake with both hands.”

“What the hell does that mean Dan?” Jason asked.

“You know, they are gettin’ all in there and eating with both hands.”

“I think the phrase you are thinking of is ‘Have your cake and eat it too.’ That’s the correct phrase.”

“Actually, it isn’t. In the 16h century the phrase was coined that one ‘Can’t have their cake and eat their cake too.’ But just like the phrase you quoted, it’s dumb.”

“You can’t just go making up your own sayings Dan.”

“Just think about it. When have you ever gone into a restaurant and ordered some cake and then sat there looking at it because you didn’t want to appear gluttonous. Who the fuck orders cake and doesn’t eat it? You better believe if I have my cake I want to eat that shit too! Otherwise what’s the point of having cake?!?”

“But that’s not how it goes! Alex? Wayne? Back me up here guys,” Jason pleaded.

“Sorry Allister, but I’m with Dan on this one. I’ve never liked that saying either. But I like Dan’s. Way more apropos. I’m going to start using it,” I said.

Jason looked around for Wayne but he was off in the woods on his horse. All we heard was Wayne’s voice as he said, “Bet your ass I’m eating my cake. That’s mine bitches.”

I can’t remember another time that Jason looked so defeated. Or a time that Dan’s smile was larger than it was at that moment. These were special friendships indeed.

* * *

I knew it would happen eventually. The mobs we were fighting were not giving us much in the way of experience. Our experience bar, in fact, had barely moved since we reached level 15. Undoubtedly the cash was awesome, but now that we had our horses, and a solid bank roll, everyone was getting tired of doing the same old thing. And I was in total agreement. I had retained 60 Gold following the sale of my spells, and still had a few more to sell next time I ventured down to The Citadel. I also had the two Robes I could sell. Finally, we had earned another 120 Gold during our ten-hour campaign slaughtering the undead and several more spells. It was time to call it a day on the castle of undead and move to pastures with more Blues in them.

I think the single thing that had everyone happiest was that we would all get a regular night sleep tonight. The two day of running shifts had definitely worn us down. Since we had no intention of remaining at the castle, we needed to figure out our next steps. As I saw it, we had two choices. We could head back toward the bandit camp and look for areas with Blue mobs, or we could first go to Port Town and see about doing some upgrades for our gear. I knew Wayne planned to travel to wherever Jenny and her group were so he could hand over the Enchanter Robe we had found for Tim.

“Well, since we are going to get split up anyway, why don’t we just go to Port Town and log off. Then tomorrow we can see about getting some gear upgrades, and decide if there are any other areas we want to explore while our teammates get closer to level 13,” Wayne suggested.

I thought this was fine, since I wanted to make a pass by Stan’s place anyway and show him the improvements I had made since learning the Blacksuit skill.

With that, it was agreed. Jason Gated immediately to Port Town and logged off after saying his farewells. Wayne headed off in the direction of Jenny’s group through the forest, and away from Port Town. Dan and I rode together toward the city. I couldn’t let Dan know that I was going to Stan’s, so I had to ride with him the whole way. During the trip we recounted the last month, and all the crazy things we had gotten into. Dan was more coherent than usual, but that was likely because he was pulling from memory. Like literally pulling out memories. His mind really was amazing.

We laughed repeatedly over some of the truly ridiculous things he had said and on the one occasion where Jason had enacted retribution. Dan said that was the moment he knew Jason was an alright dude no matter what he said to Dan. In some way that made sense to Dan. I take back the coherent comment from before.

Once we arrived at Port Town I headed off toward the Market and Dan started in the direction of the Tavern. Once I was comfortable with the distance between us, I activated my Blacksuit and made my way toward Stan’s. We could tell that the other was still online, but with Dan and Wayne’s antics at the Tavern, and my ruse of researching the market, we were usually online long after Jason had logged off.

As soon as I cleared the gate, and was a safe distance from prying eyes, I dropped my Blacksuit long enough to summon my horse and then headed out to Stan’s.

* * *

“Ok lad, show me again. This time do it while ya walkin’.”

Per Stan’s orders I walked through the woods near his home and in an instant wrapped myself in the shadows of my Blacksuit.

Stan was impressed. I could tell by the look on his face. But he also wanted to be his usual surly self so he sent me through numerous other “tests” with my abilities. He had me walk backwards, sideways, run, and even try to do it while I was jumping through the air. I’ll admit, that last one was a no go.

“Ha! You see lad, a true Blacksuit don’t have no problem with flying through the air and inta some shadows. But I guess you have come a long way regardless.” I didn’t argue since I knew Stan was looking for some way to show me his position as superior. Not that it was ever in question for me.

“Stan, I also learned a new thing while I was out recently. I snuck up on a guy, well an undead guy, while I had my Blacksuit on. And then I struck him. And I did massive damage.”

“Ya disemboweled him!” Stan said excitedly.

“Yeah, exactly. I hit him with a Disembowel. It was pretty awesome,” I answered all smiles. I didn’t know if Stan was going to be upset that I learned this skill without him, but I could tell by the look on his face that he was really happy for me.

“Excellent lad! That was the last thing I had to teach ya! It isn’t like the shadows though, once you got it, you got it. It takes a little bit of luck but I know you got that in spades,” Stan said while giving me a wink. Which was certainly odd. Since Stan was an NPC, it wasn’t like we had ever talked about my Skills and stats.

“Does that mean…does that mean that I am done Stan?”

“Aye lad, aye it does. You done this ol’ Halfling proud son. I didn’t think you was going to have it in ya the first time you stumbled through me door, but ya proved me wrong. I admits it.”

“Wait. Does this mean I get access to the Underground?”

“Ya will, just not yet. Ya improved at a level I ain’t seen before. So I didn’t think ya would be ready so fast. The truth is you won’t be able to get into the Underground because the Underground ain’t here lad. It’s in the Capitol.”

“So I just need to go to the Capitol then?”

“Sorry lad, don’t work that way. At some point the stars will align and yous and you’s friends will get asked to go there. When ya do, look for me upon arrival. I’ll take ya down into the darkness then and be happy to lead the way.”

I was slightly disappointed that after all this I still couldn’t go to the Underground. But the look of admiration from Stan alleviated all of my self-pity.

“I’m happy to say lad, this ain’t goodbye, it’s just ‘I’ll see ya later.’”

And with that, we bid each other farewell, and I left the clearing out in front of Stan’s home. I didn’t know when I would get to the Capitol, but when I did, I would finally get access to the Underground.

* * *

Interlude

AltCon Headquarters

Upon arriving at the AltCon boardroom, Terrence Jolston could see all of the people inside already sitting in their seats and pouring over the reports in front of them. Jolston had prepared those reports himself, and knew exactly what they said. The fact that the money grubbing sloths sitting around the table were so immersed in the documents was absolutely no shock to Jolston. The first test had been launched and it had been a complete and total success. At least that was how Jolston saw it. However, he was gearing up for any naysayers that may show themselves at this meeting. There was always one or two.

Once Jolston took his seat the spokesmen for the group stood and started clapping. Soon after, the others around the table took up the applause. Jolston was mildly surprised, but knew that a wolf could hide in sheep’s clothing, and this table was a pack of Timberwolves.

“Absolutely fantastic results Mr. Jolston. We were just reviewing the numbers, and I must say, this exceeded the expectations of this board. There were many doubters, myself among them, when this project first started. I saw money hemorrhaging from multiple directions, and I had a hard time believing the science you and your team were putting forward. But numbers don’t lie,” he said while holding up Jolston’s report, “And the numbers are staggering. According to your report, 97 percent of the people in Resurgence, who were sent the offer to buy outdated games they couldn’t even play on the new system, purchased them all within 24 hours. These numbers are outstanding.”

And there it was. Jolston immediately saw where the attack would come from. Three percent. They would want to know what happened to those other three percent. While three percent doesn’t seem like much, that meant that out of the 6,000 players, 180 didn’t buy the games.

“Thank you for that sir. We are in total agreement here. This test was a complete and total success,” Jolston said.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it a ‘total’ success Mr. Jolston, since there is the issue of the three percent that did not purchase the game,” said a weasel faced looking smug bastard sitting just to the right of the spokesman. Jolston chided himself for saying the word total. He knew better. And he saw that this was not an isolated comment, but that the spokesman and weasel were going to try and play good cop/bad cop.

Good thing Jolston came prepared.

“That is true. Out of the full complement of test subjects, three percent did not complete the purchase per our conditioning. However, if you read the earliest reports I provided to this board, the projection for non-compliance was five to ten percent. An amount that was deemed acceptable, and in fact necessary. It was the opinion of this board that if everyone followed every instruction the suspicion against our company would increase exponentially in a very short time. As such, we are modifying the conditioning to meet the recommendations of this board, your recommendations, and adjust the program to fall in the five to ten percent range.”

A picture tells a thousand words, and Jolston wished he could take a snap shot of every one of these smug bastards at that moment. This was to be one of Jolston’s trump cards against the board. He was saddened that he had to play it so early, but the board members decided to take the fight to him out the gates. So be it.

The spokesman recovered first and went on the attack. So much for good cop. “This board worries that if there was a lack of compliance in this test, the next one, where we put additional demands on the test subjects, could result in greater than five to ten percent. You can understand how this worries us.”

“Some people will have a natural disposition to follow some conditioning over others. For instance, a person who shows full compliance on conditioning centered around admiration for AltCon may not physically, or financially, be able to accomplish the conditioning to expend funds to AltCon. That individual who has absorbed 100 percent conditioning of admiration will be a strong force for our overall project, as they will be the ones to convince others to get in a RAC and try the game. The fact that they couldn’t afford to purchase the games should not be seen as a failure.”

“If it didn’t work Mr. Jolston, how could it not be called a failure?”

“One individual sold his car so he could have the money to buy eight outdated games that he will never play. The man now has no transportation. I ask you, how does that look to the regular populace? Don’t you think that may raise unnecessary suspicion?”

This quieted down the table a bit. This was another trump card Jolston planned to play, and it had the desired effect. None of these bastards wanted to be caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

“All of this is moot gentlemen. As you can see at the end of my report, the big man has concurred with our findings, and the conditioning needs to be ratcheted back to meet our 5-10 percent margin. Our next test will go live in a month and I look forward to another one of these insightful meetings at that time.”

And with that, Terrence Jolston stood up and walked out of the boardroom. None of them could see it, but Jolston had a huge smile on his face.

* * *

Undisclosed Location

“Sir!”

The General quickly looked up from his desk and took in the image of Daniel Hamson. He looked ragged and worn-down, but he had a fire in his eyes. However, that didn’t excuse his behavior. “Mr. Hamson, you do not just barge into my office like some damn…”

“No time for that! Umm…Sir. We need to convene a meeting. And we need to do it stat. Everyone. I know what’s been happening!” Dan said and then ran out of the General’s office.

Normally the General wouldn’t be taking orders from anyone, but gone was the scatter brained dullard he had seen at every other meeting, and a new Dan had just busted into his office. Just this once, the General was willing to appease and get everyone in the meeting room.

The General entered the meeting room to an already heated debate.

“Mr. Hamson, you missed your last security briefing.” Colonel Thomas was saying to Dan.

“I didn’t miss it. Trust me, I didn’t miss it at all.”

“You didn’t show to the briefing as ordered,” the Colonel said with a little more force in his voice.

“Well that’s a true statement.”

“And would you care to tell me why you didn’t bother to show. Something more important?”

“Why didn’t I show? Because the people in that office are the same ones that gave me that useless backstory that I was supposed to follow.”

“That backstory was designed by my team and was a standard full scope backstory!”

“Really? Designed by “your team” is it? Because if I remember correctly, and of course I do,” Dan said while tapping the side of his head and reminding the Colonel of his flawless memory, “I suggested all of the things that would go into your little back story. And you know what? What you came up with was worthless.”

“Worthless?” the Colonel said, raising his voice slightly. “That was a top notch backstory we hashed out Mr. Hamson!”

“Really? Is that why the number people were supposed to call is disconnected?” Dan asked.

“You called that number? You are not authorized to call that number!” The Colonel said, getting even more heated.

“Let me get this straight, you are telling me that the number for my lawyer, who ostensibly is responsible for managing my millions, is one that I am not supposed to call? And you wonder why I didn’t bother with your security briefing. Whoever was responsible for putting that together is a moron.”

“I personally put that together Mr. Hamson, and you are skating on thin ice!”

“Oh. Here I thought you just put out a contest for special needs children to see who could come up with the best fairy tale and you went with that.”

The Colonel jumped to his feet and shouted, “That’s it! I am tired of working with this useless idiot…”

“SIT DOWN COLONEL!” The General yelled. He was standing next to the head of the table, hands on the top, vein bulging on his forehead.

“Now. Mr. Hamson, please repeat that part about the number not working,” the General said, in a much milder tone.

“Sure sir. Soon after the security team provided me with my “backstory” I called the number. It was disconnected. I tried on several more occasions and found it never worked.”

“And why didn’t you report this?”

“Why? Because if my security was going to rest in the hands of people who couldn’t even set up a simple phone number, I didn’t plan on giving them a second chance to screw up my chances of getting into the Beta.”

“But you did get into the Beta, so obviously AltCon checked your story. What did you tell them?”

“I just used the truth. And if any of you had ever bothered to check it out you would have seen it was already there and in place.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” the Colonel asked.

“If it wasn’t for the threat that AltCon represents, I would seriously walk out of here right now. You really didn’t bother to look at my financials at all did you?”

Blank stares were all that Dan received.

“So sad. To put simply, I am rich. Like millionaire rich. Many times over. I stopped working at 30.”

“Well then what the hell are you doing as some IT scrub?” the Colonel said, insulting not only Dan but all IT people everywhere.

“DoD does cool stuff, and I was bored just moving money around in the stock market. So I got this job, which you would know if you bothered to even do a fifth of your job.”

“Now wait a minute…”

“Shut up Colonel. Dan, if you have so much money, why are you not out inventing or starting your own business?”

“Jesus Christ! Have none of you read my psychological profile? I know I have. I’m lazy and a total underachiever!”

The Colonel looked over at the General and threw his hands in the air. “And this is who you are pinning all our hopes on to unravel what is happening at AltCon?”

The General had ice in his eyes when he looked over at the Colonel. “I would suggest for the rest of this meeting you don’t speak Colonel. At all. And when this is done, you and I are going to walk to my office and call that number that was supposed to be the lifeline of Mr. Hamson’s backstory. If that number is disconnected, you are on the first plane to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

“Now, Mr. Hamson, why have you called us all here?”

“I know what AltCon is doing General.”

Everyone at the table leaned forward. Admittedly, Dan knew he could have just said it right from the get go, but a small part of him wanted to be dramatic.

However, this wasn’t the General’s first rodeo. With a sigh he said, “Dan, please, dispense with the theatrics. What’s going on?”

“What’s happening I’ve got. How they are doing it I still don’t know. But the gist of it is, AltCon has undertaken a program to utilize brainwave manipulation, likely through subconscious conditioning, to enact a response from their target base.”

“And now in English Mr. Hamson.”

“Mind Control sir. AltCon is using Mind Control.”

The Colonel was on the edge of his seat and about to make a comment when the General shot him another one of those looks he likely had to learn before getting his first star.

“Explain.”

“Ok, well I had my suspicions for some time that something weird was going on with the way players were acting. Not in the game, but the way they acted toward AltCon as an entity. There is only one outlier but I will get to that when I am done. For the sake of this discussion, understand that I mean everyone with the exception of that one outlier.”

“Continue.”

“So it started when I realized that anyone who spoke about AltCon, anyone, they had nothing but glowing things to say. This includes me. At this moment I find it damn near impossible to say a single negative thing about the company, and I know what those bastards are capable of. So I started testing this theory.

“During my time in the Tavern I started talking to more players about AltCon and less about their experience in the game. We weren’t learning anything from that anyway. And I found, to a person, that they had the same reaction I did. Even when I pressed people to think of just one negative thing about AltCon, they couldn’t think of any. Even with all my insider knowledge I still truly think AltCon is a great company.

“But the real evidence came a few days ago. AltCon offered all of the Beta testers the option to buy eight older games at a fifty percent discount. None of these games would work on the new RAC platform. Yet I had to buy them. It was a drive within me. And I did, without hesitation. But once I had them, I didn’t think about them again. I have absolutely no desire to play them. But the overwhelming urge to buy them was there. I didn’t even realize what had happened until that same outlier asked me if I had bought the games and when I planned on playing them. I realized that I never want to play them. Ever.

“Finally, I reached out to all of my contacts that I have made and in a roundabout way figured out it is the same for everyone. All of the Beta testers I spoke with, and we are talking over a 100, bought the games immediately, and now have no plans to play them in the future. There was even a rumor that one of the Beta testers sold his car since he was strapped for cash this month, just so he could buy the games.”

The General sat there in deep thought. The scenario was running through his head. He wrinkled his brow a few times and then asked Dan to continue, and tell him about the outlier.

“That would be my teammate Alex. I mentioned him at a previous meeting. This guy is a tactician. And he plays the game with single minded focus. But he is not an AltCon groupie. I told you earlier how he had issues with his log in and log out when we first started, although this seems to have fixed itself. He also has too much luck in the game. I don’t care what he says, there is no way we should be having as much luck as we are. I don’t know what it means, but it is the reality.”

“And how does that make him an outlier?” The General asked.

“Well, I’ve asked him about AltCon and he couldn’t care less about the company. And when every one of us was planning on buying those worthless games, Alex was the only person I know who had no feelings about it at all. His response was a shrug and a ‘I think I’ll pass.’ I don’t know why it is, but this conditioning is not affecting him.”

“It is an interesting theory Mr. Hamson, but I don’t see how it’s testable.” Another person at the table said.

Dan just hung his head and shook it in shame. “Maybe it would be best General if you just told everyone here not to talk. Except for maybe the doctor, as he is the only one at this point who can save the table.”

The doctor looked up from his hands at that point and said, “Huh, what? Sorry, could you repeat that?”

Dan looked at the General who, rightfully so, was steaming. “Out. Everyone. Get. Out!”

Once the room had cleared of everyone but Dan, the General, and the Colonel who would soon be traveling to North Dakota, the General said, “Ok Dan, what can we do?”

“When I first came on board with the DoD two years ago I was given a routine brain scan to ensure there weren’t any abnormalities. This tracked brain activity and brain waves. It’s a standard test, but it provides us with a baseline. If I’m right, we are going to see a very marked difference when I do another. And it should be possible for a neurological specialist to tell you what’s been done based on the changes. At least if my theory holds water.”

“And if it does?”

“General, I just collect the information about the foundation. It’s your job to bring the house down.”

PART III

CHAPTER 20

September 12th, 2043 –

As any person who has ever played a virtual reality role playing game can tell you, getting through the first twenty or so levels is easy. There isn’t a great chance of dying, and the mobs don’t take too much thought to get through. Of course, getting through the first levels is usually augmented by the fact that so many have done it before you and there are detailed walk throughs of how to go from Level 1 to Level 20 in no time. That wasn’t the case in Resurgence, since we were the first ones to play the game, and no one had mapped out where all the “easy” experience could be found. Even so, going from Level 1 to Level 15 took us a month, and that was pretty fast in a game that had never been played.

Since all of us were hard core players, we knew that around Level 20 things would become a lot more difficult when it came to leveling, as the amount of experience needed would start going up dramatically. We weren’t quite to that point yet, but these things were fresh on my mind. More importantly, when the time came for us to really start grinding out for experience, it would become imperative that we did not die. For that reason, we decided as a group to forego any upgrades on our armor at this time, in the hopes that we could get some good drops in our raid, and therefore be able to save some money in the long run.

And speaking of the raid, it was still four more days of grinding before we were in a position to meet up with our teammates. There just weren’t large numbers of mobs we could easily access. So we had to range far and wide to find each one and just keep leveling. We also didn’t want to get caught up near the bandit camp and accidentally aggro one of them. At this point, none of us thought the raid would be a timed event, but we didn’t want to test that theory. We earned our level 16 along the way, which was a happy feeling, but we weren’t getting much in the way of items or cash. Thankfully, I had sold all of the remaining spells and robes I had in my possession. So in that regard we were flush with cash. Again, we knew that one round of upgrades in the future was going to leave us broke.

It wasn’t that we didn’t want to start the raid. Naturally, we did. It was that we were still waiting on our friends and their progress was slow going, much as ours had been when we were grinding to level 13 and then 14. It had been two days since I had heard anything on their status, and so I decided to check with Wayne. Also, mentioning anything about Jenny to Wayne always ended in laughter for someone.

“Hey Wayne, how is Jenny doing?” I asked.

“Ummm, she’s good Alex. You know, enjoying the game…and stuff… and she likes the…you know…game stuff and what not. And I think she…um, you know…”

“Wayne. For the love of all the gods. Please, just stop. When I ask about Jenny, I mean how is she doing leveling wise. I’m not terribly interested in anything else. Truly.” Which, as I just mentioned, was a bit of a falsehood. I honestly was happy to see Wayne getting along with Jenny and maybe a budding romance starting. Who am I to judge? Although the interaction wasn’t as enjoyable as I had hoped.

“Naugha and Jenny sitting in a tree…” Dan began. And there was the entertainment I was looking for.

“Don’t do it Dan. I can’t heal you in real life.” Jason warned.

But Dan would not be intimidated by the threat of bodily harm. Or more likely, just didn’t care.

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes the Shield, then comes the Hammer. Then comes a…”

Faster than I would have thought possible, Wayne was standing over Dan. Wayne’s Barbarian was around 6’10” and Dan’s Wood Elf topped out at a solid 5’ 2”. The scene was comical when they were next to each other. But it got scary quick when Wayne lifted Dan up to his eye level. Using only one hand.

“The smart cleric over there said not to do it Dan, and you know you really should listen to the smart folks. Don’t you?”

Dan nodded his head furiously. And with that, Wayne put Dan down and started walking away.

“Man, thanks Wayne. You definitely saved me there.”

“What? I…I saved you?” Wayne asked Dan, obviously not following Dan’s line of thought. But really, any of us could claim that we could rarely follow Dan’s train of thought.

“Yeah man. I was having the hardest time coming up with something that rhymed with hammer! That could’ve been a disaster. You’re the best man!”

“He’s never going to learn, like ever.” I heard Wayne muttering as he walked away from Dan.

I still was at a loss as to where Jenny and her group were level wise, although the entertainment was worth the delay in information.

“So, Wayne, about Jenny.”

“Yeah Alex, they should be completing their level 14 today. They just got back to Port Town this morning and handed over the horses. I expect we can start our raid anytime now.”

“Awesome. But I agree, they should get their level 14 first.”

* * *

“Welcome to Bandit Camp. The pool and play area is through the left. The cafeteria and crafts is on the right. If you have any questions, please talk to any of the helpful counselors you will see walking around. And if all else fails, just talk to a big person!” Dan said to our friends when they arrived. He also made sure to look longingly up at Wayne when he said that last part. By the way Dan was acting, you wouldn’t know Wayne had him over a foot off the ground earlier, holding him by just one hand. And I guess we were all so used to Dan’s antics that Wayne didn’t look the least bit put out either.

“Now there is the wit and charm that’s been missing from my life these past weeks!” Gary said as he approached Dan and gave him a high five. Smiles were on everyone’s face and it was like a reunion. But not like a family reunion, where you only like one person out of 10. Although Dan easily qualified as the weird uncle whom all the adults claimed was just “special.”

Tim made a big deal about thanking us for the robe he was wearing. It shimmered in the light of the forest, looking like silver speckles in the black of the robe. I personally didn’t like an Enchanter in black, but that was the color of the robe. Tim, for his part, loved the whole look. He repeated time and again that he would make it up to us in the future. I let him know that getting to where they were now was payment enough, as we needed them for this mini-raid.

“So have you scouted it all out Dan?” Kaitlin asked.

“Yeah. As much as I could without aggro’ing any of the mobs. I don’t have Gary’s awesome Play Dead skill, so I couldn’t get as close as I would like. But what I can tell you is that there are a lot of bad guys. And they are going to be Yellow to all of you guys.”

“So it’s AltCon raid 2.0 then?” Jenny asked, while sidling up next to Wayne. “I think with Wayne’s new gear and his awesome hammer, we shouldn’t have any problems.”

The entire group got really quiet.

Wayne started blushing a deep, deep red. It was only then that Jenny thought about what she said and quickly looked at all of us, before blushing crimson as well.

“Seriously? Are you kidding me right now? He has a HAMMER!” Jenny yelled at us in her defense. “This isn’t innuendo! Bunch of children!”

At that moment, Tim started giggling, and none of us could hold back any longer. Even Wayne and Jenny tittered a bit after a few seconds. The only person not laughing was Dan.

When we all looked at him in a questioning manner, trying to figure out why he wasn’t laughing, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said, “Sorry. I don’t get it. Wayne’s got a hammer.”

This had us all rolling on the floor again.

Once everyone calmed down a bit we started rehashing our previous strategies for handling multiple mobs at the same time. Like Kaitlin had said, I expected this to be very much like our first AltCon raid together. In that vein, I expected that our group would handle most of the load. We didn’t begrudge our teammates though, since there was no way we could do this without them.

“Let’s have Gary make the first pull and see how his Play Dead works against these mobs. They seem to wander in pairs, so just grab two and run them back here. If your Play Dead works, great. If it doesn’t, Dan will kite one of the mobs. All ready?” I asked.

Everyone nodded their heads and Gary started running toward the Bandit Camp.

* * *

In the end, we definitely needed the eight people to deal with the Bandit Camp. Not because the mobs were terribly difficult, or that there were too many, but because they had an insane amount of hit points, that would have taken us forever to take down with just four people. Add in to that, there were quite a few healers interspersed with the regular mobs, so we had to identify them quickly and take them out. The bandits were dropping a fair amount of cash, and some dull steel and worn leather items. We would be able to sell these at a merchant eventually, but there was nothing particularly of note that was dropping.

In fact, there wasn’t much to comment on at all concerning the raid. It was about as clear cut as they came. Go in. Find mob. Pull mob. Kill mob. Repeat.

Kind of anticlimactic seeing as we waited over a week to get this thing started.

The only real interactions of note were the mini-boss and main boss of the raid.

After clearing out all of the mobs within the camp, but not within the main structure of the camp where we figured the boss would be located, the mini-boss appeared. He seemed to be the last line of defense between the outer portion of the camp, and the interior. And as such, he brought friends. But it looked to be pretty weak to our eyes. The Woodland Bandit Commander was flanked by two Woodland Guards. The Commander was Yellow to my group and Red to our teammates, but we hadn’t had so much as a close call up to this point. All the same, knowing we were going into a boss fight, we buffed and raised our resistances appropriately.

We handled this guy like any other three mob encounter. Wayne tanked two and Jenny off tanked the third. We killed the weaker one of Wayne’s first, then Jenny’s, followed by engaging the boss. Completely and totally by the book. Jenny would self-heal if necessary, but Kaitlin would have primary healing on Jenny and secondary on Wayne.

What made this mob fun and exciting was that we didn’t have to wait until he hit 75 percent of health before we got our first surprise. At 90 percent two archers appeared on the parapets along the outer wall and began raining attacks on us. At the same time, the Commander called for reinforcements and two more guards came out of the inner sanctum to flank the commander and begin attacking us. Our plans for dealing with the new guards was simple, but those archers could very easily do some serious damage to us, especially since we couldn’t control who they aggro’ed.

“Well, whadda’ya know?” Tim said as he stood up and started walking toward the archers. “I finally get to do something other than making mobs stand still.”

Before I could comment on Tim’s words, he cast Charm twice and both Woodland Bandit Archers stopped shooting. This was good for keeping the archers out of the fight, but I didn’t see how this was going to end well once both of the mobs lost their Charm spell and started treating Tim like a pincushion. But that was because I forgot about the other half of the Charm spell. It is great for controlling a crowd, but even more so, it allows you to direct the movements of the mob as if it were your very own pet.

And in this case, Tim had a strategy that I couldn’t have beat. With a single command from Tim, the archers turned and started firing arrows point blank at each other. I almost doubled over in laughter at the sight. They did massive amounts of damage to each other before one of them died and Dan finished off the second one with his own arrows. Without Tim we would have had serious difficulty taking down the archers, as we didn’t have a character in our group who could do high level direct damage spells from a ranged position. Nor did we have anyone who could do damage over time like the Dark Casters. I planned on telling Tim after the fight that he had earned his Robe and then some in this fight. Although I think the fact that Tim was getting to do more than just crowd control had him in utter bliss. Much like with Jason, who loved his role as our healer, sometimes you just want to fuck shit up.

I naturally wanted to try an experiment during this encounter, but didn’t want to hear the bitching and moaning that would come from my teammates if I brought it up. So instead I just told them what to do. They look to me as leader more often then I like, so this time I planned to take advantage of that.

As we were dealing with the two new guards flanking the Commander, and the two new archers that appeared when the Commander reached 80 percent, I gave out my orders.

“Listen up. We kill one of the guards next to the commander and the other one we take down to 10 percent. Tim, you do the same on the archers. Leave one of each alive. Then focus on the Commander and get him down to 70 percent.”

No one questioned my orders and did exactly what I said. I worried for a brief moment that there would be an extra surprise at 75 percent, but that fear was unnecessary. My hope, and I knew it was unlikely, is that if there was already a guard and an archer, the system wouldn’t spawn another set. More than likely though, we were going to have two more of each. Which is why I had them take the second one down to 10 percent before engaging the Commander.

And as I feared, at 70 percent two more did come out to play. So if we hadn’t taken care of the archers, once we got this guy down to 70 percent we would have been facing six archers now, instead of just the two and the one about to die. The same could be said for the guards on the ground. At 20 percent it would have been 16 archers and 16 guards. No one would have lived through that.

“Just as I thought, even if there is still a guard alive out here, every ten percent we are going to get new guards and archers, so let’s just clear em out. How’s mana?”

Jason looked over at me and gave me a thumbs up. Then Wayne looked back for a brief second to look at me before engaging a guard and said, “You asshole, you totally just did one of your experiments without telling us, didn’t you?”

I nodded my head, not ashamed of my subterfuge. “Don’t cry, no one got the least bit hurt. Maybe this is how I will do them from now on so you guys don’t get all anxious because you know it’s one of my experiments. Wouldn’t want you to get stage fright out here and seize up.”

“Like Dan at the urinal,” Jason added.

“Hey! I’m pee shy! And Allister, you promised you wouldn’t tell!”

* * *

At the end of our fight everyone was down a few hit points, and mana was low, but we again didn’t have any close calls. Mostly this was due to Tim’s ability to deal with the archers on the parapets so masterfully. As the raid leader, I was in charge of looting the corpse and made my way to the Commander for our loots. I focused on the Commander’s body, blinked once, and brought up the inventory of lootable items.

“Well this first one makes total sense since he was in charge of all of those archers,” I said.

Everyone started congratulating Dan immediately. He did a little jig around the interior of the camp and said, “this is awesome! That is a huge upgrade to my current bow. And even better, it tells me that at some point I am going to get double shot!”

I then linked the second item.

While still looking at the item, I heard Kaitlin audibly gasp behind me. It was no doubt that she wanted this item. Sure, the armor was great, and the increase in her Wisdom would mean a much bigger Mana pool for her. But the fact that it would cost 10 percent less Mana for a spell was huge. That really stacked up over time. But it was both Druid and Ranger usable. So we had to ask Dan.

“Well, what do you say Dan?” I asked.

“Are you kidding me Alex? Do you have any idea how awesome Kaitlin would look in Leather Pants! I’m not going to say that I’ve pictured that in mind many a time already because that would just be weird, you know?” Dan said. Then thought about what he said. And then looked at Kaitlin and mumbled, “I just made it weird didn’t I?”

“If I’m wearing those pants TC, you can look at my leather any time you like. Especially if you are saying I can have them.”

“Of course I am! Congrats Kaitlin!” Dan said and then looked over at Wayne and whispered, but not really, “Did you see that bro. You should take notes man. TheClaw got mad game son.”

After Dan and Kaitlin looted the corpse, we entered the inner sanctum of the Bandit Camp and continued our raid.

* * *

Two hours later we were in the center room of the inner sanctum, having cleared out all of the mobs and standing in front of the Woodland Bandit Leader. As I noted previously, the mobs were not difficult, and with Dan’s new bow, they went down even faster than before. About ten mobs before arriving at the Leader, our teammates leveled to 15. Such was the benefit of fighting the yellow mobs en masse. They ended up with tons of experience. I imagine they didn’t think they would get to 15 so quickly, so they hadn’t already purchased their level 15 spells for Jenny, Kaitlin, and Tim. And to be honest, I didn’t think they had the funds to do so anyhow. The bright point, however, was that Kaitlin was now able to equip her new pants, and they did look smashing on her.

The Leader followed closely with the Commander in that every 10 percent he called in reinforcements. However, this time it was four Woodland Bandit Guards that came to his aide. There were no archers this time around, but we were still able to use Tim’s tactic of Charming two and having them beat the snot out of each other, while Wayne tanked one Guard and the Leader and Jenny off tanked the last Guard. The Guards had more hit points than their brethren out in the yard, and the Leader definitely had more hit points than the Commander. But that wasn’t what made the Leader such a pain to kill.

The Leader was a healer. And though we were able to disrupt his spells time and again with Bashes from Jenny and Wayne, he still landed more than we disrupted. It also told me how this guy would be the Leader of the bandits. If looked at from a logical point of view, I mean. He had more hit points, he hit hard as a truck, and he had a bunch of plate armor on, which added to his armor class. And even if someone challenged him for his position as Leader, he could just heal himself and keep whittling down his opponent’s health. Of course this isn’t how the game worked, but you can’t blame me for thinking through these things.

Wait? Did I just have a Dan like moment of internal rambling? That’s when I knew this had been a long day.

The Leader went down eventually, although it was a fairly long fight, and showed us another aspect of the game with the reinforcements and introduction of a healer. I didn’t count the bandit Lester, since he wasn’t much of a challenge.

Right before I approached the corpse of the Leader, I remembered my Force Multiplier ring. I hadn’t used it yet, since there hadn’t been a need. But what better opportunity to give it a trial run than before looting the boss of a raid, even if it is a mini-raid? So with that thought in mind, I activated the ring through the old time tested method of focus and blink. I immediately looked at my stats before doing anything else.

Alex: Rogue, Level 16

Str: 72 (+2)

Cst: 80 (+12)

Agi: 40 (+16)

Dex: 148 (+26)

Wsd: 24 (+1)

Int: 4 (+1)

Chn: 600 (+2)

The first thing I noticed, because that is how my mind works, is that only the main skills get the 4X bonus. The bonus to stats from items and weapons does not. The second thing I noticed, and what truly made my jaw drop, was that my Chance was now at 600! I was on shaky legs as I approached the Leader. With a Chance this high, I couldn’t see how we wouldn’t get the best drops this mob had to offer.

And boy was I right.

I linked the first two items to the groups and waited for people to look the items over. I knew, personally, who I wanted the items to go to. But I wouldn’t stop anyone from wanting to roll. There was also a third item that Jason was going to get, so I told him to let Jenny have the first one. He didn’t question my statement and immediately called out Jenny for the boots. I knew Wayne wasn’t going to stop her from taking them either.

Jenny gave Wayne a big hug, and then another after that saying that one was for Jason. She immediately went over and equipped her new foot wear.

The second item could be used by myself, Gary, or Wayne. I was going to pass as the regeneration to hit points didn’t do me much good. It would be awesome for Wayne, but he always had a healer. I was more interested in seeing Gary, who as the puller took a lot of hits if his Play Dead didn’t work, get this as a way to offset the beat downs if just a little bit.

“It’s a great item, but I’m more interested in Dexterity than Agility, so I’m going to pass,” I said.

“I’d certainly take it,” Wayne stated, “but I’m not married to the idea of it. If it is something that Gary wants, I have no problem passing. I’m still on a high over my breastplate and hammer.”

“Man, you guys always hook us up!” Gary yelled out. “Hell yeah I’ll take it! Those hit points will come in handy when I’m face first on the ground acting like I’m taking a dirt nap.”

Gary was all smiles after he grabbed the necklace and equipped it. Thankfully there were no hugs to be given out this time around.

“And finally we have an item for our Cleric. I saved this one for last for two reasons. One, it’s Cleric only, so Allister is the sole person who can use it. And two, this thing is literally legendary.”

There was a hush over the group as they waited to see what I had found. I might have drawn the presentation out a bit, but when they saw it, they would understand. And with that, I linked the last item.

Legendary Shoulders of Clerical Healing

Deep in the Mason Mountains, amidst the Dwarven clans, a Master Smith of exceptional abilities crafted an otherworldly set of armor for the followers of Light. Master Smith Grumblewat TwoHammers, the first and last of his name, transcended the skills of every other smith before and after him. Unlocking a mystery to imbue armor with the ability to conform to the wearer’s dimensions, TwoHammers constructed one set of armor that could be worn by any Race following the tenants of Light. But the ancient feud between Dwarf and Dragon played out to the detriment of TwoHammers, and the armor and his life were lost. The pieces were added to the collection of the Dragon and later spread far and wide by plunderers and adventurers. It was never known, but rumor had it that a Cleric surrounded by the full complement of this armor had a direct connection to the Gods.

“Congratulations on never needing to look for another shoulder piece in the game Allister!” I said.

This was, likely, one of the most sought after items in the game for a Cleric. The stats on it weren’t all that impressive, except for the reduction in Mana consumption. However, this was only the case at Level 15. If similar items in other games was anything to go by, not only would this item get more powerful, but it would add more stats as Jason’s level increased. That is what was meant by the fact that it was a scaleable item. It would grow and get better as Jason leveled and got more powerful. Additionally, it was marked as being part of a set. In previous games, when you owned multiple items of a set, you would get even more bonuses that compounded as the set became more complete. For these reasons, you can see how the item would be so desirable.

I also liked that the designers took the time to write some Lore for these items. None of the other gear we had received had a backstory, but this one did. Good on them for that.

“Alex…. Alex, how is this possible? This is a Legendary item. Even if this server were full, there wouldn’t be but two or three of these around. I just can’t believe we are that lucky,” Dan said.

“I used the Force Multiplier bro, so my Chance was four times higher when I looted the mob. I didn’t want to say anything and get everyone’s hopes up if we didn’t get squat. But now I know. Before we loot any bosses, I gotta make sure I have this thing activated.”

“Still man, the odds just don’t seem that good,” Dan continued.

“Let’s not look this gift horse in the mouth there Dan,” Jason piped in. I was happy for the assist, since I didn’t want to discuss how my Chance was 602 at the moment and not 62.

“You know that phrase never made any sense to me either,” Dan said, changing the subject and his train of thought. Thank the gods for that small favor. “I mean; why wouldn’t you check the horse’s mouth. You need to look at a horse’s teeth to know if it is healthy. I mean we aren’t talking about some inanimate object here, like a computer or a phone. As soon as you take that thing you are responsible for it and the vet bills you would have to pay. I tell you what, you try to give me a horse Aliphatic, you can bet I’m going to put my whole head up in its mouth.”

“I think I’ve mentioned your head being all up in another part of a horse’s anatomy on occasion. And what the hell is Aliphatic?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s a bunch of carbon atoms strung together. It’s not easy finding words that begin with Alli or Ali. I was running out, so I read the dictionary last night to get some more.”

“Just so you can torment me? Really?”

Dan started singing, “That’s what friends are for….”

* * *

As a complete raid we returned to Port Town. My group and I could have made the journey in very little time, what with our horses, but we wanted to travel together with our larger group. Tim and I both approached Sir Kenyon and completed the quest. We received a significant amount of experience and 20 Gold each. However, the real benefit came after I had spoken to Sir Kenyon and finished the quest. Sir Kenyon turned toward the square, filled with people like normal, and spoke in a loud voice, which was also broadcasted to all players:

Let it be known that the Kingdom has recognized the amazing accomplishments of the brave adventurers Alex, Allister, Anastasia, Naugha, Sayhey, Serenity, Slovak, and TheClaw! The Bandits responsible for impeding the efforts of the Kingdom against the Children of Loust have been bested by our noble countrymen! For their efforts, these eight will henceforth be known as The Bandit Conquerors of Port Town! Three cheers for the Bandit Conquerors!

Like when we earned the Bunny Slayers of Port Town title, we received an additional system message via our internal systems.

As the first to defeat the Woodland Bandit Leader in the forests outside of Port Town, you have been given the title of The Bandit Conquerors of Port Town. This title bestows upon the wearer a bonus to the player. All skills are +5 and all resistances +20. Do you wish to display your title? Failure to display the title will negate the bonus, but you will still maintain the title in your archive. Any additional bonuses from previous titles will be added to the highest title of the player.

I looked over at my teammates, primarily Jenny and her crew, and saw that look of bliss I knew so well. My crew understood the excitement one could get from getting one of these titles. And even better, the previous title we had received stacked with our new title. That gave us a +6 to all of our skills and a +30 to all our resistances. Definitely a major upgrade.

Once everyone had their new titles displayed, we discussed next steps. Jenny and her team needed to get their Level 15 spells, but didn’t have enough money, even with the 20 Gold they each received, to purchase the 11 spells. As we had often done with our teammates, my friends and I decided to make up the difference with the money we received from the quest. Most of my reasons for doing so lay in the forest anyhow. We were going to test whether that castle of undead was a one off instance, or if the mobs remained there at all times. One of us was going to have to travel there on our horse to verify whether or not the castle was occupied. My choice was Jason, since he could Gate back to Port town after he checked the castle. The rest of us would have had to ride there and back.

Jason had just been the recipient of wonderful news in the form of his new Legendary loot, so I basically could have asked him to do anything at that moment and he would have agreed. So after going over my plan, I sent Jason on his way and we went off to get the new spells for Jenny, Kaitlin, and Tim. I also wanted to make sure the friendly merchant would be willing to assist our friends in selling them the summoned horse spells.

After a short time, Jason let us know that the castle was still there and it was fully inhabited by undead mobs. I was thankful that my friends didn’t bitch and moan that we had run rotations outside of that castle for days, thinking we could lose all those mobs. It was a gamble we had to play, and they knew it.

Our friends already knew how we were able to raise the money for the horses since they knew we all had them and we provided Tim with his robe. It was even better though to be able to give them the location on the map and send them out to make their own fortune. Selling off the spells wouldn’t be possible for them, as they didn’t have anyone who could be invisible through the Dark portions of the realm. And I didn’t really want to travel all that way to sell off someone else’s goods. They would just need to grind it out and after a few days they would have enough to buy their horses.

We all said goodbye to each other soon after Jason Gated back to Port Town. Everyone was tired after the long day, so I didn’t think our friends would be making the multiple hour trek through the forest to get to the castle. And I knew we didn’t have any further plans or requirements that needed to be met in any hurry. With smiles all around, and another round of congratulations to everyone, The Bandit Conquerors of Port Town logged off for the night.

CHAPTER 21

September 13th, 2043

Let’s just say I felt really bad for our teammates. I mean really bad. AltCon couldn’t have come up with a worse time to unveil their next batch of “quests” for the players in the game. While my group was in a bit of a limbo between finishing our last raid and moving on to our next quest, our teammates were grinding away and trying to raise money for their mounts and upgrades. But we were all being paid to play this Beta, and as such AltCon quests would have to come first.

My group was still at Level 16, and would probably need a couple of days to get us all to Level 17. Sir Kenyon didn’t have any more quests for us at this time either, and I was betting we wouldn’t get any for a couple of levels. Jason and Dan also didn’t get new spells until level 18, so there was no urgent need to get out there and grind. So while our teammates were downtrodden by the sudden need to step away from their money making venture, my group was indifferent with the break. I still wanted to get to the Undergound, but no one knew just how long it would take before we got sent to the Capitol.

And in truth, I was kind of looking forward to these new quests when I saw they dealt with a part of the game none of my group or larger team had touched yet. Namely, the skill set of Crafting.

In every game I have ever played, there have always been a set of players who loved nothing more than creating items within the game. At first, these were some of the worst items on the market, as far as skills they offered went. And you would lose money along the way while you tried to get your Crafting skill raised. In fact, this is what kept most people from ever starting a Craft of some kind; you were guaranteed to lose money long before you ever started to make any. And since Resurgence was not a game that dished out money hand over fist, every single Copper piece mattered.

But here we had no choice. All of the AltCon quests that were issued to us, as they decided to give them all to us at once, had to do with Crafting of some kind. Based on your Class and Skills, AltCon decided which Crafting Skill each player would have to start, if they hadn’t already. For instance, as a Rogue, I was tasked with the Crafting Skill of Poisons. Dan got Fletching, which I thought was something he probably should have started doing some time ago, Jason got Cartography, and Wayne received Blacksmithing.

Each of us were given a starter kit as part of our Crafting quest. For instance, Jason was given a basic cartography kit that provided a few templates for making maps, and the instructions on how to do so. It was odd to us that Jason would get the Cartography skill, instead of the Ranger, but we learned it was due to his high Wisdom score. Apparently, making maps was all about your Wisdom Skill. Dan was given a basic template for making arrows, I was given instructions on how to grind ingredients together, place them in a suspended soluble solution, and mix them appropriately. Wayne was given a basic cast to make an item at the blacksmith, and a blacksmithing hammer.

I thought the guys would be thrilled to be learning something new. However, this wasn’t the case. Wayne told me that if he was swinging a hammer, he preferred it be at a mob and getting experience for it. And Jason had no desire to toll away at making maps.

This is where Resurgence was different from other virtual role playing games I had been involved with. You didn’t simply select the materials in your inventory and click on a create button. You actually had to go through the mechanics of creating your craft. Jason and Wayne saw this as a waste of time.

Personally, I enjoyed the intricacies of the game play. Sure, it was a pain to grind up the ingredients that AltCon had provided me with in a mortar and pestle. And I might have failed to make a soluble solution more often than not. But it was something new. And since we only had to do it to fulfill our contract with AltCon, I wasn’t too put out to take the break. Not to mention that getting a leg up on understanding the Crafting system in Resurgence would pay dividends in the market place when the game went live. Since players actually had to put in the work to create these items, you could guarantee that the prices would be even higher than if it were a simple point, click, and create system.

But the person who was having the most fun was Dan. And as I said before, this is something that Dan should have been doing for a while now, but it wasn’t like we previously had the luxury of much down time. Dan quickly ran through his preliminary AltCon quests and began learning about making arrows for himself. They were more expensive than the arrows he could buy at the shops, but that was only because he failed at creating a working product more than half of the time at his low level of Fletching. The cost of materials was high as well, when you compared just buying the arrows from a vendor. But Dan was not phased in the least bit, as he saw the value of being able to make better arrows further down the line.

In Jason and Wayne’s minds, they had no desire to use the Cartography or Blacksmith Skill in the first place, so they saw no benefit in putting in the work to make it better. Jason had no interest in maps, and Wayne was more keen to get better armor and weapons through fighting than creating. He explained to me in excruciating detail how this was the Barbarian way. I tried to remind him that he wasn’t “really” a Barbarian, but let me see anyone try to argue that point while looking up at a guy who is 6’10” and carrying a mighty war hammer.

The reason I was given the Poison Skill was due to my Class. As a Rogue, I would be able to put these poisons onto my blades and then infect the mob with them. The entry level poisons that I learned would not be terribly helpful in the types of fights we faced, as they either did a very weak damage over time (DoT) effect, or a debuff that was only slightly better than worthless. I knew that in other games, the Poison Skill could get quite good with debuffs and DoTs that would make any caster take notice. In order to be successful at this Skill, I would need to increase the skill on my own time, much like Dan would have to do with his Fletching. Dan’s Skill required him to collect lots of “ingredients” like wood and stone for arrow tips. Mine required time for mixing all of my “ingredients” together after they had been either purchased or collected.

We all found that for the lower level quests we had received, like Successfully Create a Mild Irritant Poison, they could be made with purchased items from the market place. Dan informed us that these items had always been there, as he checked all of the merchants regularly to know what types of items they had for sale. It was wonderful to be out in the woods when suddenly you think of an item you wanted back in the Market, and know its status after accessing Dan’s infinite memory to know if it was sold, where it was sold, and for how much.

The next couple of days were spent working on these AltCon quests. Once we had finished the lower level quests we began tackling the second tier objectives. These required us to take loot from mobs in order to make our items, and as such we had to find the mobs that carried these items. Again, Dan’s brain was priceless as he remembered all of the loot we had previously come across and could tell us which mobs would drop the items we wanted. They all came from very low level mobs, Levels 7-9, but were not all in the same location. So during those two days we spent a lot of time soloing mobs.

Soloing, or fighting a mob by yourself, is exactly like it sounds. At my Level 16, if I had to face a mob that was Level 7, I could do so with no support from my group, and not have any fear of dying. Hell, I could probably take on multiples without any real fear as my Armor Class was so high, the mobs wouldn’t do any damage. This was the case for all of my group. And since we were fighting in different areas of the game, we all made sure to group up when we first logged on, but then didn’t see each other for the rest of the day. Dan had to find specific trees to gather wood, a feat he was able to accomplish through a secondary Crafting skill he learned called Harvesting. The only hurdle, is that each tree would be surrounded by these low level mobs. Not a challenge for Dan. Additionally, the mobs Dan killed, usually wolves or bears, would sometimes drop teeth that Dan could then use as parts for the arrow heads he was creating.

Jason needed inks for his maps, and there was only one type of mob that provided the items necessary to create the dyes. A Level 8 frog that was numerous in the swamps south of Port Town, in the direction of the Dark, dropped this item. So with little fear, Jason headed out each day to those swamps to smack away at frogs with his battle mace. Jason only wished these were undead frogs so he could really make them go splat.

I was forced to find a variation of tree snakes that were poisonous and whose venomous sacks I needed to loot for my quest. No surprise, the item needed for the first level poison ended up being the venomous sacks that we collected from the bunnies in the beginner section of Port Town, of which there were now hundreds with the merchants at the Market.

It was ironic that the one individual who wasn’t expected to kill anything was Wayne, the one who would have been keenest to smash things with his hammer. Instead, Wayne needed to Mine the ore necessary to use in Crafting the items he was supposed to complete with Blacksmithing. Dan had noted areas in the game that looked like they could be mines and sent Wayne in that direction. Wayne had to purchase a Mining Pick in order to fulfill his quest, but it was a paltry 1 Silver for the item.

The ultimate goal of the quest wasn’t to create anything, but to report back to AltCon if the Crafting in Resurgence was working properly and if the players were able to use the items they looted from the mobs in the game as part of their Crafting. In this regard we all found that there wasn’t any problems with the game play. And after our two days of collecting loot and creating new, crafted items, our AltCon quests were done.

However, all of the Crafting led us to our next objectives. And wouldn’t you know, it wasn’t Dan who was so keen to start working on his next series in arrows who figured out our next play, it was Wayne.

* * *

15 September 2043

“So like any good story, this one involves drinking,” Wayne told us while we were all hanging out next to the fountain at the city square of Port Town. “But let me back track a little and tell you how I found out about the deserted mine.”

Dan’s information about the mines that Wayne needed to visit to fulfill his AltCon quests had been spot on. Only when Wayne arrived he found the mines were already heavily occupied by a number of other players. The ones you would most expect to be a part of a Blacksmithing quest, namely the Dwarves. Just like Wayne, they planned to toil over the collection of ore so they could get through their AltCon quests and get back to the regular game play.

These mines were packed full of players, and Wayne wasn’t one to sit idly by and wait his turn. Realizing that he could travel farther and faster than any of the other players, thanks to his summoned mount, Wayne decided to explore the mountain ranges more and try to find another, less used mining site. Most players had just gone to the closest mine they could get to, since they had to travel on foot and the distance from the mines to Port Town was three or four hours of walking through the woods. However, Wayne was able to eat up that distance in a fraction of the time thanks to his mount.

Wayne began exploring the mountain side and came across a few other players that had the same idea as he had. Trading the time it took to travel to these other mines for the time they would likely have to wait to get at a possible vein of ore in one of the overcrowded mines. Again, Wayne saw mostly Dwarf players with one or two other Barbarians in the mix. Wayne explained that he could have stopped at any of these mines and started working the veins of ore, but he decided to keep exploring. He wasn’t worried that there were any mobs that would be able to kill him out here, and if he saw something that was out of his league, he would just out run it on his mount.

His explorations finally took him to a mine far from the original player dominated site he found thanks to Dan’s instruction. The thing that was distinctly different about this mine however, wasn’t the number of Dwarves that were working the mine, but the fact that they were all NPCs. Seeing an opportunity, Wayne banished his mount and approached the Dwarves of the mine.

“Hail good Dwarf. Is this an open mine for exploration?” Wayne asked the collection of Dwarves that were approaching him as he neared the entrance of the mine.

“We ain’t gots no claim on it if that’s what you meaning?” said a more senior looking Dwarf by the name of Tibble. “Was you looking to abandon your ways of the plains and start living under the beautiful mountains like our kind?”

Wayne studied the Dwarf more closely and noted he looked a little worse for wear. All of the Dwarves were of a much lower Level than Wayne, but he wasn’t planning on getting into any fights. Their gear seemed battered and broken, and oddly enough they were all wearing various pieces of plate armor. Not really the kind of gear that would be conducive to mining out ore in the side of a mountain.

Tibble seemed to be the spokesperson for this group and his years showed on his face. Standing at just over four feet, Tibble was as wide as he was tall. His shoulder muscles strained against his skin, and you could see that Tibble had spent all of his many years toiling away against unforgiving rock. Bliss for a Dwarf. His beard came down to just over his stomach and was braided into two separate parts. It was once a dark black beard, but now had a fair sprinkling of grey throughout.

“I could never dream of matching the skill of a Dwarf in anything concerning the fruits of the mountain, but I wanted to test my hand at Blacksmithing all the same. I can wield a hammer better than most, but that is for destruction. I wanted to try my hand at creating for a change.”

All of the Dwarves nodded their heads in understanding and appreciation. Wayne paid them a great compliment by acknowledging their innate aptitude at Blacksmithing, and for seeing the hammer as more than just a tool for death.

“As you likely know young warrior, there be only three things that a Dwarf craves. Blacksmithing, Battle, and Booze. In that order.”

Wayne could hear the Dwarves laughing and cheering behind Tibble. “So young warrior, what brings you to this here mine? There are many others we’ve noted in the direction you came from. Why this one?” Tibble asked, with a bit of a wary eye.

“I believed I would find peace and solitude with just me and the mountain. I was looking for a quiet mine to begin my work, and stopped to ask you kind Dwarves for your advice. I do not wish to interrupt your efforts.” Wayne answered. With this many NPCs, Wayne knew there had to be some sort of quest he could get out of this, but he was not sure what language would trigger the quest.

“Ever tried to squeeze ore out of a mountain?” Tibble asked.

Wayne laughed, “I’ve never even picked up a mining pick before this day. I fear I’m going to do more damage to myself, and my tools, then I will ever do to the mountain.”

Good hearted laughter could be heard behind Tibble as Wayne again lowered the level of apprehension the Dwarves had when he first arrived.

“I tell you what warrior, how about you help me with something and I will help you learn how to mine ore without cracking your own skull?”

And with that Wayne began learning from the Dwarves.

* * *

The “something” that Tibble needed help with had nothing to do with killing mobs or grand adventures. It wasn’t tied to any lengthy quest or forgotten lore. What Tibble needed from Wayne was actually quite simple.

The Dwarves did not have the supplies or tools to build scaffolding within the mine, as most Dwarves looked to dig further down, not up. But there, just past the rim of the mine’s opening was a thick vein of ore. Only problem was that this vein was over six feet off the ground.

In essence, the Dwarves wanted Wayne to get something for them off the top shelf of the cupboard since they couldn’t reach. And they didn’t have a step stool to grab the cookies.

Tibble gave Wayne a basic tutorial in how to hold the Mining Pick and the proper way to swing it. He showed Wayne how to get the most benefit out of the least amount of effort. Mining away at ore was something that could take hours, and fatigue was a real threat. But with Tibble’s excellent tutelage, Wayne was soon swinging away at a spot far above the Dwarves and was producing ore by the chunk. The Dwarves understood that Wayne would need some of this ore for his own quest, but Wayne was happy to keep mining long past the time he collected the few pieces of High Quality Iron Ore he needed for himself. After several hours, and a large stack of ore at his feet, Tibble asked Wayne to join them for a break.

Tibble passed around flasks of water that the Dwarves were drinking from and some basic rations. The Dwarves were all thanking Wayne for his efforts and the large pile of ore that he had produced in that day. Wayne noted that the Dwarves had little in the way of nourishment or drink, and that their whole party seemed to be living off the land with little in the way of shelter. He asked Tibble why that was.

“It’s not a tale that us Dwarves are all that proud of telling Naugha,” Tibble responded. Somewhere through the day Tibble had stopped calling Wayne “warrior” and started using his name. Wayne hoped this was a sign that his relationship with the Dwarves was improving.

“Not far from this mine we discovered an entrance to the mountain that would send any Dwarf’s eyes to watering. The sight was beautiful, I tell ya,” Tibble continued looking out toward another area of the mountain range.

“These pieces you have collected; you can make some fine items with that ore. It won’t be anything great, but it will hold up against a sword and provide ya with some protection. But what we found in that other mine would make a suit of armor any Dwarf would be proud to call his own. We found Fermium.”

Tibble could tell that Wayne had no idea what he was talking about, so he continued. “In the hierarchy of ores, you can’t find none better than Mithral. Some ores can be shaped, some can be imbued, and some just want to suck up magic. That’s Mithral. At the other end of your spectrum is Low Quality Iron. You found some High Quality Iron here today, and that can make you some decent steel. But it can’t take magic, it’s like the steel is allergic to the stuff.

“Fermium ain’t quite like Mithral, it won’t give you the same type of magic integration, but it’s harder and lighter than steel. And it will hold a small amount of magic imbued into the crafting. It’s one of those highly sought after ores, since it costs far less than Mithral but can still give great protection. And we found us a mother lode. But unfortunately so did someone else.”

Tibble and the rest of the Dwarves went silent then, as you can see they were reliving an event that weighed heavy on their hearts. “We lost a good number of Dwarves that day, and I’m ashamed to say we ran from those beasts. But we couldn’t win, and I made the call to retreat. We arrived here, at this mine, just days ago. We lost all of our provisions, and most of our belongings. What you see here is all that is left. We can’t get that mine back, not yet. But we will, this I promise you!”

Wayne started getting angry as he thought about what happened to his new friends. “What attacked you?”

“Denizens of the mountains. We had posted the majority of our forces outside of the mine’s entrance to watch for bandits coming from that way. We are Dwarves, so of course we scouted out the interior of the cave. But we didn’t see anything to threaten us. Turns out we didn’t go far enough down and the sound of our picks must have woken the creatures in the darkness. I only had two sentries watching from that way, and those boys only had enough time to sound an alarm before they was cut down. We haven’t even had the opportunity to give them boys a proper sending off.”

“How do you mean?”

“We need to do right by all them boys that was lost. They need to be celebrated. Their stories told and their deeds glorified. Without that, the Dwarven Gods won’t know of their coming, and they won’t find rest.”

Wayne remembered from his days of watching movies and other games he had played that a Dwarven sendoff usually meant a feast and lots of booze. This was something the Dwarves here were lacking in abundance. But something Wayne could remedy quickly.

It would take an hour to ride back to Port Town, collect food and drink, and another hour to get back to the mine. Wayne asked if Tibble and his Dwarves would still be there in a few hour’s time, and Tibble replied that they would. Apparently, they were sleeping just inside the mountain entrance. Wayne decided to skip getting shelter for the Dwarves as they may take that as an insult since any dwarf would be happy to rest on the rock floor of the mountain.

With that, Wayne left the mine and returned to Port Town to procure bottles of Elven Brandy and food of the highest quality. It would weigh him down significantly, but Wayne could carry more when he was on his horse. It cost him several gold for all the food and drink, but Wayne hoped this initial investment would pay off in the long run. More importantly, Wayne was a Warrior and he wanted those brave Dwarves to get the sendoff they deserved.

When Wayne arrived, Tibble was waiting for him. “Heard your horse, and recognized her gait. Didn’t really know if we would be seeing you again.”

“That was never in question brave Dwarf. Now if you wouldn’t mind, could you call the rest of your clan and set up a table. I have something I would like to say.”

Tibble nodded once and gathered the rest of the clan, around twenty Dwarves. They approached the table as Wayne placed his war hammer in his hand, with the head resting against the ground. Wayne looked out at the gathering of Dwarves and began his speech. As far as public speaking went, Wayne wasn’t like Jason who could twist words into poetry and make eyes water. Nor did he have the same skill as Alex to make things clear and concise in times of stress. And thankfully, he wasn’t like Dan, whose talent in public speaking was directly linked to how fast he could insert his foot into his own mouth. But Wayne was a Warrior, and this he could do.

“I arrived here on this day looking to help only myself. I had a need to fulfill and a goal to attain. I didn’t expect to meet brave warriors on this day, but I did. And I didn’t expect to hear of your loss and heart ache, but I did,” Wayne began while looking out at all the Dwarves assembled around him. “I am no great speech maker. That is a skill for men and women who do not lead with their hammer first and ask questions later. I am a Warrior. And the one thing I do understand is the Warrior way.”

At that moment Wayne produced all of the food and drink and placed them on the table. The Dwarves looked at the feast before them and Tibble began to address Wayne. But before he could, Wayne interrupted. “I will hear nothing of this my friend. I do this not for you. I do this for the Warriors whose souls fly to their rest and the voices that will herald their arrival. Tonight we celebrate their deeds. And when my days on this plain are done, I will hope someone is there to speak of my efforts.”

To a man, the Dwarves lowered their heads in what looked like a silent prayer. Tibble then looked up and met Wayne’s eyes. And Wayne saw the fire in them that every Warrior knows. With a simple head nod, Tibble said, “It will be done.”

* * *

As the celebration was in full swing, Wayne sat back and listened to all the stories being told of the young Dwarves who lost their lives so recently. After each story the Dwarves would yell out an emphatic “Huzzah!” and move on to the next story. It was a wake like none other. And the Dwarves sure could put down the booze.

Half way through the party, or there a bout, Tibble asked if he could see the mighty war hammer that Wayne carried with him where ever he went. Wayne held out the item so Tibble could inspect it.

“This is a well done piece of work Naugha. Not quite Dwarven standards, but you know a Dwarf would never toil with such dark magics. It isn’t in our nature. Be aware that there is a darkness within this weapon.”

“Yeah, I figured that out when I pried it out of the dead hands of a dark being!” Wayne said rather loudly. Wayne had been trying to match the Dwarves drink for drink, and was more than a little inebriated.

“Tell us the story Naugha!” one of the other Dwarves at the table yelled out.

Wayne was hesitant at first, but the liquid courage in his system didn’t let that last long. Sitting amongst the Dwarves, while resting the mighty war hammer between his feet, head on the ground and handle in his hands, Wayne told of the fight against the undead at the castle and the defeat of the Undead Regent.

“Huzzah! Huzzah!” was the response from the Dwarves as Wayne finished the tale. “Naugha the Undead slayer! Huzzah!”

Tibble had a grand smile on his face, also likely the result of the amount of Brandy he had put down. “Your friends sound like fearsome adventurers, and together I imagine you are a formidable team.”

Wayne’s inebriated state almost vanished completely. This was the moment. All of his efforts, from helping to mine the ore to setting up the feast, was in the hopes of getting a quest to liberate the mine the Dwarves had fled. “Each is as powerful, if not more so, than I. I would put them up against any foe brave Dwarf.”

“Bah! Stop with the “brave Dwarf” nonsense. You are amongst friends here Naugha, you should be calling us by name,” Tibble responded.

“Huzzah!”

“Thank you Tibble. And as I said, my friends when alone are fearsome, but together we are a force on this land that is rivaled by none. And there is nothing we like more than a chance to prove it.”

Tibble sat next to Wayne, looking him in the eyes, and thinking long and hard. “You’ve already done so much for this clan Naugha. Ya helped us to replenish our funds with the ore you’ve retrieved. Ya spoke words of praise to the men around you. And ya made it possible to send me brothers to their rest with the reverence they deserved. I be hesitant to ask ya fer more lad.”

“Tibble, my friend,” Wayne said as he lifted his large hammer and rested it on his shoulders, then looked directly into Tibble’s eyes with what Dan referred to as The Eye of Naugha, “please, ask away.”

“Ha! Ya wants to go hunt ‘em down already, don’t ya?”

“Just been waiting for you to ask Tibble. Just been waiting for you to ask.”

With an even grander twinkle in his eye, Tibble asked Wayne, “How long ya think yer friends need to get here?”

* * *

September 16th, 2043

After hearing Wayne’s story, we were definitely all in. After grouping up the next day, we rode out to the mine where Wayne had met the Dwarves. We could see them from a short distance and it looked like they all had stopped working to come out and greet our group.

Wayne stepped down from his horse and approached an older Dwarf I was guessing was Tibble. The two clasped forearms together, followed by Wayne turning toward us and saying, “My good friend Tibble, these are my friends. They have heard the tale of what happened to your clan and have agreed to right the wrongs that took place. We are all at your service.”

“Any friend of Naugha is a friend of the East Range Mountain Dwarf Clan, I tell ya. It is too much that ya’ll are willing to do, but we won’t turn down the offer of four brave adventurers to assist us in our time of need. And a fearsome lot you definitely look. With Naugha leading the way, I don’t see how those beasts…”

Tibble suddenly stopped speaking and looked past Naugha and further into the woods. I expected Dan to be doing something that would have drawn Tibble’s attention, but when I looked over at Dan he was calmly sitting upon his horse. When I looked closer, I saw Tibble was staring at Jason.

“Naugha…Naugha, you told me you rode with a healer, but ya didn’t say ya had a great Cleric in your midst.” By this point all of the other Dwarves were staring at Jason as well. It was putting Jason ill at ease. But before any of us could comment, Tibble approached Jason with his hands clasped before him and his eyes down cast.

“That be the work of Grumblewat, in’it?”

Realization dawned on me. Of course the Dwarves would revere the works of one of their greatest Blacksmiths. And the Shoulders Jason was wearing were from not one of their greatest, but arguably The Greatest Dwarven Blacksmith. Jason recognized this immediately as well, and nodded his head sagely to Tibble. “When we have time my new friend, I will be honored to have you, and any of your clan, inspect my windfall.”

“Many thanks. I am honored.” Tibble turned back to Wayne and said, “It ain’t just any healer that can wear something like this Naugha, the wearer must be a great Cleric.”

“BOOM!” said Dan. “I told you Alli, I straight told you! All my hard work at the Tavern telling everyone how awesome you are as a Cleric has paid off. Even the Dwarves know you are the shit! The Great Cleric Allister! You can totally thank me later!”

Tibble looked very confused, which means he could easily be any other person in my group when it came to understanding Dan, to include me. I wanted to get in front of any more discussions and approached Tibble myself.

“We have heard of what happened brave Dwarf, and we would like to help liberate the mine where you and your kinsmen were attacked. Please lead the way and we will see what challenges we face.”

“Bah! You too with the ‘brave Dwarf’ nonsense! Call me Tibble.”

“Many thanks Tibble, and please call me Alex. I know you are already well acquainted with our companion Naugha, and the stories of our adventures. So unless you want to hear that one speak more nonsense,” pointing a finger Dan’s way, “I would like to hear about this mine in more detail.”

Dan crossed his arms over his chest and pouted after my comment. I didn’t know if he was going to get off his horse and join us, but I did hear him say as Jason was passing, “I totally stoked your rep Allister, I expect to be thanked handsomely.”

“Only thing that would be handsome about you Dan!” Jason said while walking by and laughing. Dan just started pouting more.

* * *

Tibble rehashed the story a second time for my group so we knew exactly what we were going up against. According to Tibble, us adventurers would face Orckin, a bastard off shoot to the surface Orcs that fled to the mountains centuries ago. These beasts dwelled deep under the earth and tended to war primarily with the darker races that rarely saw the light of day. As Tibble explained to Wayne, it was the noise created by the Dwarves that likely led to the Orckin coming out of the ground.

After Tibble had finished going over the story, we sat around the fire and talked through a strategy for the next day. Wayne was fired up after hearing Tibble tell his story for the second time and was ready to rush in with his hammer swinging. It took Jason, me, and even Dan, to be the voices of reason with him. He finally came around after a time and conceded that scouting out the cave was in everyone’s best interest.

I planned to make my way throughout the cave complex in my Blacksuit. The way Tibble told the story, I was a bit worried that these mobs may even be above our levels. But there was no way we would back down from this fight. Mostly because we knew Wayne would likely try to do it with or without us.

After logging out for the night and catching a few winks, my companions and I logged backed on ready to take on the Orckin. We traveled by foot to the cave entrance, as Tibble said he didn’t remember where the exact location was on a map, but could lead us there on foot. It only took us an hour and we all passed the time chatting with the Dwarves and learning the history of their clan.

We knew the minute we arrived. The entrance to the cave was littered with the goods the Dwarves were forced to leave behind. And while thankfully there were no bodies in front of the cave, there was what appeared to be Dwarven blood on the sides of the cave entrance.

“I don’t think I need to be tellin’ ya that this be the place. Inside them caves be the bodies of our kin and the beasts that killed them. I don’t rightly feel good about this, but I’m askin’ for yer help. Can ya liberate the cave of dem Orckin?”

“We thank you for taking us all this way Tibble. You know we probably wouldn’t have found the place without you. But now is the time for my companions and I to do what it is that we do best. We will liberate the cave of the Orckin.”

The golden glow of a quest surrounded us. My group turned toward the entrance of the cave and began to walk toward the darkness. I planned to stop the group just outside the mouth of the cave and begin my scouting run. As we walked away, I said to Tibble, “Be well my new friend. And know that once this mine is cleared our first stop will be your campsite so you may return in begin again in earnest!”

I made it three more steps before I heard behind me, “Are you bloody daft boy!?”

CHAPTER 22

September 17th, 2043

“Naugha, what did I tell ya was the three things every Dwarf love to be doing?”

Wayne looked over at the group, and then back to the Dwarves who were making their way to the entrance of the cave. Wayne then got a huge smile on his face that went from ear to ear. “Blacksmithing. Battle. And Booze. In that order.”

“And we’ll have time for the Blacksmithing later. We done the boozing already. Today, me and my kin are ready for battle!”

A message appeared before my eyes as I watched the Dwarves continue toward the mouth of the cave.

You have begun a Non-Player Character assisted raid. The Non-Player Characters will be under your command and subservient to your orders. The Non-Player Characters will not receive experience as a part of this raid. Please see the manual for raid commands.

I quickly looked at the quest menu and saw that we indeed had a maximum of 24 players that could take part in this raid. Twenty of them were the Dwarves, and the other four were my group. “Did you guys just get that message?”

They all nodded that they had.

“Dan.”

“On it, reading the manual about raids now.”

With that covered I turned back to our new companions.

“I know you are all itching for a fight. I understand that. And I welcome that fire. But this group operates as a single element. So when we do this, I need you to follow my directions. I know little about Blacksmithing and Mining, Tibble. But I know how to best do this. Will your clan be able to follow my instructions?”

“Aye Alex, that won’t be a problem. We may be weak as fighters, but we’ll back ya up and stomp on these bastards wherever you put us. Just lead the way.”

“Got it Alex. So it’s a lot like when we first started playing and we wanted to make sure we were all fighting the same mob. You just need to dedicate individuals, or groups, or even one group, and command them to attack. You can easily do it through the verbal commands. Like saying, ‘Tibble, attack target’ and he will attack whatever target you have chosen. You can even make Tibble the representative for a set number of NPCs and when you tell Tibble to attack, the rest of them will too.”

“Ok. This is going to suck for my scouting if I want to go out and track mob movements. But hopefully with the addition of twenty more blades, well pick axes, we won’t need to do as much scouting. In fact, there may be points where I have to step back from fighting so I can manage the flow of the battle. Especially on boss fights.”

Tibble and his Dwarves stood by patiently while my group discussed our strategy, but they all had a look of readiness and a fire in their eyes that said they were ready to show the Orckin what it meant by “you reap what you sow.”

After talking through our strategy for a few more minutes, I decided it was time for me to scout out the interior of the cave. I ordered our new companions to wait by the mouth while I ventured into the cavern. At Level 16, and with my bonuses, I was now moving at 100 percent speed while in my Blacksuit.

The air inside the cave was damp, which explained the perspiration that was dripping off of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. There weren’t any stalagmites at the entrance, but I ventured there would be some as we moved farther in. There was also no sign of the Orckin just inside the cave.

I continued down the only passage available and found the first set of mobs after turning a corner. Due to my Blacksuit they couldn’t see me. Which was good, since both of the Orckin Marauders were Yellow to me. I continued past the two mobs and encountered another set of mobs, this time four at an intersection of the main tunnel and two side passages. I waited for two more minutes before they split off and went down separate passages. They returned after one minute. This was going to be a tough pull and would have to be timed perfectly. First we needed to make sure we pulled the first two when these mobs split so as not to get aggro through proximity and end up pulling six instead of two. Then it looked like we would need to branch off into one of the other passages and kill the mobs in place so as not to pull aggro from the other patrol. Being able to scout while doing this mission would have been key if I wasn’t already babysitting 20 Level 10 Dwarves with a pick to grind.

I scouted a bit further. There were no other roving patrols that overlapped with the two that went down the side passages. At least in this way we knew we could tackle the two without having to worry about aggro from more wanderers. It would be close, but as long as we could finish the two in the hallway before the other patrol made it back to the intersection we should be able to kill the mobs before the other two aggro’ed. The addition of the extra attack power thanks to the Dwarves would help with this, but it would also increase the range of aggro.

I returned to the main cavern entrance and told my group what we were in for. Dan listened intently and didn’t much like the situation. He would be able to kite one of the two that we brought to the mouth of the cavern, but after that all bets were off. It would require Wayne to tank both mobs and for Jason to be extra vigilant with his healing. There wasn’t going to be any of our usual banter.

I explained the situation to Tibble and the Dwarves and received multiple nods of understanding. I went over the hierarchy again, emphasizing the importance of following all orders. It likely wasn’t necessary since they would follow the rules of the game, and I had placed all of them into, what was essentially, one group. Before beginning our raid, I had an additional thought and called Dan over.

“You read all of the manual on these NPC assisted raids yeah?”

Dan nodded his head that he had.

“Ok. So what happens if I die? I’ll end up respawning in Port Town and won’t be able to help with the raid. Will the Dwarves just follow whoever is the raid leader if I simply switch that job to you?”

Dan thought about it for a few moments and then determined that would work. For that reason, I set up our own hierarchy. Dan, Jason, and Wayne, in that order, would be responsible for our raid if each of us fell. I didn’t have any plans on dying, but I thought it was prudent to be prepared.

And with that we were ready to start the raid.

* * *

“This sucks. Like, a lot.”

My group looked over at me with sympathy. They knew I took on the mantle of group leader with reservation, but only did so because of my higher Chance. And it was true that during fights I tended to be the task master at handing out assignments for each member. Even in our larger raids. But again, this was largely a byproduct of the fact that I was the only member who could go idle long enough to look at the entirety of a situation. Wayne was usually Tanking, Jason was healing, and Dan was kiting a mob. Therefore, I was the only guy who could look at things with an overall perspective. And while I was good at the role, I didn’t see myself as the ultimate in leadership.

That’s why this whole situation with having to manage an additional twenty players was getting on my nerves.

The movement through the caves was slow going due largely in part to my need to scout out each area in front of us. After that, I had to ensure that our Dwarven friends were actively targeting the right mobs, and that Wayne could maintain aggro on the mobs with no problems. It left me little time to add my damage to the fights. And I might not get all crazy about battle like Wayne did, but I still loved to get in there and attack at will.

The only thing I could really be thankful for was that the mobs we were facing were Yellow, and our group was getting some serious experience. After only an hour in the cave system my group had leveled up to 17 and I was soon to follow. We also hadn’t had any mishaps, thanks in part to only having to deal with two mobs at a time and my management of the forces.

The loot we were collecting was nothing special, but there was some decent cash and the Orckin did drop low quality steel armor. Nothing any of us would wear, but stuff we could sell later on down the line. There were also some low quality swords that the Orckin were using.

Their dominance over our Dwarven companions wasn’t due to their gear, but due to their higher level and strength. We hadn’t come across any casters yet, but Tibble informed us that the Orckin were known to travel with magic users. These individuals usually held a higher tier in their hierarchy, and that led me to believe that whatever boss we fought would be a magic user.

The complex was also quite large. Our maps were functioning, thankfully, but we had only uncovered a small part of the network, even with my scouting ahead. It looked like this was going to be a very long day indeed.

After another half hour and quite a few more pesky mobs, I finally leveled to 17. I paused to allocate my points, prior to continuing with my scouting. None of us got skills or spells until Level 18 when Jason and Dan would get their next batch. Wayne and I didn’t get new skills until we reached Level 20.

With points allocated, I headed back into the labyrinth of passages and started marking mobs for us. With the extra +5 to Wisdom that we all got with our new title, my Conceal/Stealth was increasing at a faster rate than it previously had. I had to forego using my trusty Blacksuit for the time being if I wanted to level my skills. But thankfully none of the Orckin could see through my normal Conceal/Stealth either. I didn’t plan to test that with any boss fights though.

When I returned I overheard Tibble talking to Wayne about the composition of the tunnels and what the Dwarves had seen so far in regards to resources. Tibble was nearly weeping at the thought of how much his clan could make off of all the ore he had seen.

“I speak truth here Naugha. In the time we have traveled already, my boys would be months at work collecting all the Fermium we’ve come across. The walls be practically dripping with the stuff! And here these blasted beasts have been sitting, and not collecting a bit of it. I could forgive ‘em somewhat if they was another clan wanting the rights to these mines, and working the rock, but these beasts don’t have a brain among them!”

I reappeared a short distance from Naugha and Tibble. The conversation interested me and I asked Tibble, “Does that happen often? Another clan coming and trying to take another’s mine?”

“Aye Alex, more often than you would think. A lot of what goes into holding a mine is hiding a mine. We don’t let them know where it is, and we slowly trickle out the product. If there was a large influx of the rock, the other clans would come looking to take it.”

“Well then you will need to hold this mountain Tibble, at all costs. We must devise a strategy for you to do so once this is all said and done.”

“We are miners first Alex, so your expertise would be most welcomed.”

With that finished, I reported the mobs I had seen and our next order of business. I figured we had another hour to clear the closest passages and make our way to the boss. This would likely be a mini-boss, if our time in Resurgence had taught us anything.

* * *

“This place is bloody huge Alex! We’ve been at this for hours!”

“I know Dan, but thankfully we are at a boss. I don’t know if it’s the big boss, but I will once I get some scouting done.”

It took us another two hours to clear out the passages and arrive at a large room. Since reaching Level 17 the mobs we were facing had gone from Yellow to Blue, so the experience was coming slower. However, the cash was still flowing at the same rate. I was looking at some nice upgrades in our future. And I had a plan in my craw that could take advantage of our current situation. But first we needed to conquer these Orckin bastards.

Putting on my Blacksuit, I entered the cavern and scouted out the mob waiting for us. There was only one, but he looked like a bad man. Standing even taller than Wayne, the Orckin Champion was wearing a full set of plate armor that looked like high quality. He also held a shield and long sword. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could Bash with that shield. He was also Yellow to me. I’m betting he was Level 19.

I passed the information on to my companions and Wayne looked ready for a fight. Wayne hated casters because you never knew what kind of crappy AoE or DoT they would cast on you. But Wayne knew warriors, and he looked forward to going toe to toe with a challenging foe. It helped that Wayne also had 22 other fighters ready to join him. But knowing Wayne, if I told him I wanted him to take the guy solo so the rest of us could have crumpets and tea, he probably would have jumped at the chance.

Wayne rushed into the room and started attacking the Champion. I had the Dwarves hold off for five seconds, along with Dan and I, until Wayne had established solid aggro on the Champion. Once I felt Wayne wasn’t going to lose his aggro, I would direct all of the Dwarves on the target. Dan and I already knew our rolls.

The Champion had an amazing amount of armor and hit points. Our attacks weren’t doing significant damage at all. Although the 23 attackers were whittling him down. What was most impressive was the assortment of skills the Champion was bringing to the fight. And we knew this because Wayne kept shouting them out in obvious admiration.

“Parry! Parry! Dodge! Riposte! Block! Hit! Hit! Block! Bash! This dude is a beast!” Wayne yelled out over and over.

“We are coming up on 50 percent everyone! Be ready!” I yelled out.

I imagined that a pure Warrior, like the Champion, may have an AoE Stun that would affect all of us. I just couldn’t think of anything else he could do against such a large group. But like always, the game made sure to surprise me.

“Triple Attack! Fuck that hurt! Allister heal quick.”

Jason usually had a set timing down for his heals, a rhythm that he established early in the fight. He wanted to maximize his mana after all. So the sudden introduction of multiple attacks in one instant could play havoc with the healer.

Apparently, the Champion’s plan was to kill the Tank as fast as possible and use whatever skills he had to do so. This was a new tactic we hadn’t seen in Resurgence, but a very effective one. Attack with more force until the Tank died, and then watch the party wipe out after that.

“Another Triple Attack! Dash! What the hell is Dash? Man, I’m wicked stunned.”

We watched entranced while the Champion seemed to slide across the floor of the cavern and put his shield upside Wayne’s noggin. We had seen the Champion use his Bash on Wayne, much like Wayne used Bash on the Champion. This was totally different though. When the Dash was completed, Wayne took not only the Stun but some serious Damage. I saw things were about to go from really bad to worse as Jason began to cast his heal.

“Allister DON’T HEAL!” Dan yelled.

Jason followed his instructions immediately, and sat down to interrupt his spell. Wayne, as one could imagine, was livid.

“What the hell are you doing Dan? I’m going to die here!” Wayne yelled.

As soon as Dan saw Wayne take a swing of his hammer Dan yelled out for Jason to heal again. Jason immediately popped up and started casting. “I suggest Dan, that as soon as this fight is done, you run. And run fast. You may want to start now!”

“I’m good. And you’ll thank me in a second. I read in the manual that Dash is a skill that not only causes a Stun, but temporarily lowers the amount of aggro from the defender. If you had landed that heal, the Champion would have turned on you and had your lunch!”

“Shit!” Wayne exclaimed. “Now I have to thank Dan for saving all of us after this is done! I’m never going to hear the end of this at the Tavern!”

The Champion executed a few more Triple Attacks, but no more Dashes. After that, it was back to normal fighting and we eventually conquered the beast. There were cheers all around.

I determined, given that the mob was Yellow, and a singleton, we hadn’t faced the main boss. So I didn’t activate my ring to increase my Chance. Although with my error I was already at 167 Chance, so we should get some good loot.

Resurgence surprised us again, but this time not in a good way. The Champion dropped a set of leggings, a breast plate, and a shield. But all were crap. I mean, yeah, they were high quality, but not a magic item among them. In the end, the stuff just went into our inventory to sell later. Talk about a disappointment. If it weren’t for the Dwarves, I might have called an end to this dungeon crawl right then and there.

But the Dwarves were there, and we had promised them our help. And since I didn’t receive an announcement that we had liberated the mine, I knew our quest was not over. So with the knowledge that we had hours more ahead of us, our group looked for the next passageway to continue our adventure.

* * *

The passages kept getting smaller and smaller as we made our way through the next level of caverns. The mobs also went back to being Yellow for me and my group. At least in that regard we were back to getting some good experience against the Orckin. However, with so many of us crammed into these tight corridors, I was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic. If these had been Dwarven built caves, they would have been not only small but short. That wasn’t the case here, but Wayne did have to avoid a few stalactites if he didn’t want to smack his head against them. We also started seeing little stalagmites coming out of the ground. These would only be a hazard if we had to move quickly and didn’t have time to look closely at our surroundings.

We kept clearing and moving, grinding through the mobs as we moved deeper into the caverns. I had fallen into my own rhythm, what with having to scout and manage our extra twenty bodies. I wasn’t doing as much damage as I would have liked, but we hadn’t lost a single Dwarf in our hours long fighting, and that was saying something. I think Tibble was impressed with our abilities as well as he gave a nod in my direction after my most recent foray into the darkness of the caves.

“Doesn’t look like we have too much farther to go guys. Maybe another four Orckin before we get to, what I believe, is a large cavern. If things follow the usual layout, that should be our main boss. So let’s pay attention to what we are doing here before we get there. Last thing I want is to make a mistake before we reach the promise land. I know we are all tired, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” I said to everyone.

“Hey, isn’t that what people see as they are about to die?” Dan asked.

“Thanks Dan, way to bring up cheery thoughts right when we need them. Can always count on you bro.”

Dan nodded his head toward me in a very serious manner and then held his fist out for a bump saying, “Truth brother.”

“That was sarcasm Dan. It’s a seven letter word for ‘Stop trying to fuckin’ help.’ Or something like that.”

Dan put his fist down and stared out off into the distance. After several seconds he looked back at me again, with another head nod, and simply said, “word.”

Before I could further beat into Dan’s head what the meaning of sarcasm was, Wayne suggested we keep moving. I realized I was exhausted from taking on so many duties at once, and that I shouldn’t be taking it out on Dan. But it was Dan. So there was that.

After cleaning up the last of the mobs I entered into the large cavern I had seen on my last scouting run. I found another singleton mob sitting in the cavern, although this time the Orckin Death Lord was Red to me. And I had to pause to admire the name. Death Lord sounded ridiculously awesome and was likely very tough. I searched a bit more just to make sure there weren’t any additional surprises and then returned to the group.

After I dropped my Blacksuit, I relayed what I had seen and we waited for Jason to cast all of his buffs before we entered. Once Jason was at full mana, we entered and engaged the Death Lord.

As we entered they all got to see the Death Lord for the first time. This Orckin was slightly shorter than the Champion, but was far more muscular. Where the Champion had used a shield and long sword, the Death Lord held a two handed great sword. It would have been a cumbersome weapon even for Wayne, but the Death Lord looked like he could manage it even with one hand. This was not to be an easy fight.

Wayne engaged first, as was our custom, calling out the Death Lord’s skills. “He’s got a parry, a riposte, and a dodge. No block and no bash. This one likely has more tricks up his sleeve as he gets farther down in health.

Following our usual rolls, Jason got into his rhythm of healing and Dan and I started attacking the Death Lord. The Dwarves were also swinging away at the mob, but doing very little damage. As we approached the 75 percent mark I backed away from the fight so I could direct our raid in the appropriate directions. I still hated having to step out of my comfort zone as our damage dealer, but I had accepted this task and wouldn’t slouch on my duties.

As the Death Lord hit 75 percent the raid was hit with an AoE slow. Our natural resistances from our titles, along with Jason’s resistance buffs, kept us from being affected. I didn’t know what the resistance check was for the spell, but we had decent resistances now, and it would take a very strong spell to get around what we were bringing to the fight. The Dwarves hadn’t been so lucky.

If they hadn’t been providing much in the way of support before, they definitely weren’t helping now. Their attacks were sluggish and time consuming, one would think they were fighting under water. I had begun mentally adding their damage into our fights, but I saw we couldn’t rely on that now, at least not until the debuff ran out.

Since the main core of the raid, my group, hadn’t been affected, we continued to do a fair amount of damage on the Death Lord, while he continued to hack away at Wayne. It was slow going, but we soon had the Death Lord almost down to 50 percent. Just before that occurred, the debuff ran its course on the Dwarves and they were back to swinging at normal speed. Things were looking up, but I was ready for the next surprise.

At 50 percent the Death Lord called for reinforcements. This is something we had already seen on multiple occasions, so I was ready to deal with it. That was, until I saw what the levels of the reinforcements were. Two Yellow and one Blue Orckin Marauders joined the fight. I had to make a snap decision, and I chose to have Dan take one of the Yellows on a kiting lesson. Wayne would off tank the other Yellow, and I would send all twenty of the Dwarves at the Blue. They would likely lose some of their numbers, but if we could get through the Yellow quickly that Wayne was off Tanking, he could then grab the Blue.

“Dan, grab one of the Yellows and take him on a merry chase! Wayne, you grab the other Yellow and off Tank after Dan pulls the first away. Tibble, I’m going to need your boys to engage the last one until we can take one of these guys down. I’m sorry, you may lose men, but this will be our best chance for victory!”

Tibble, to his credit, didn’t even hesitate and waited for me to give the target for him to attack. To him, they were all Red. Not that I knew if NPCs had similar abilities to determine if a mob was so far out of their league or not. All I knew is that when I said jump, Tibble would jump.

I targeted the blue and was about to give my order when Wayne yelled out, “No!”

I turned to look at Wayne and he had fire in his eyes. “No more Dwarves die here! Not today!”

And with that, Wayne grabbed them both. I was going to argue, but it would have been like arguing with a brick wall. Only less productive since a brick wall doesn’t carry around a giant war hammer.

I wasn’t happy with Wayne negating my call, but later would be the time to address it. “Fine. Hit the Yellow first, then the Blue. Then back to the boss. Jason, time to ratchet up the healing.”

“On it Alex.”

Jason was about to go through his Mana in record time. These were no walk in the park mobs and they were beating on Wayne mercilessly. I sent the Dwarves at the Yellow and joined into the fight. Wayne had to keep going back and forth between the Yellow Marauder and the Death Lord to make sure Jason’s healing didn’t steal aggro. Wayne would occasionally hit the Blue with a Bash to be safe.

The Yellow dropped. As did the Blue. Jason was in the “Danger Zone” for his mana. And the Death Lord was still at 45 percent. The only bright spot in all this was Dan. He hadn’t taken any damage and was happily kiting around his Yellow mob.

“Dan, keep kiting and shooting that guy while we get this guy down to 25 percent. You ok with that?”

“Not a worry Alex.”

I like seeing new things in the game. I like having new experiences. And Resurgence is always good for a surprise or two while we are in a dungeon. But as I’ve mentioned before, there are two kind of surprises in Resurgence. The kind that I like, and the kind that I don’t. When the Death Lord hit 25 percent I got really lucky. Not only did I get a surprise, but I got to experience something new in the game. And yes, that was sarcasm again.

At 25 percent the Death Lord hit us with another AoE debuff. Only this time it landed on all of us. And this time it was a major strength debuff. I didn’t have time to look until later, but when I did I saw that the debuff was for -30 strength. What did this mean for our raid? Everyone that didn’t have a strength well north of 30 was about to have a really bad day.

The game factored in the amount of weight you could carry based on your relative strength. For instance, Jason had a Strength of 11 with a bonus of 7. So in theory, Jason could carry and wear a total of 180 pounds without being encumbered. I know, it makes little sense, but this is the games mechanics. So when Jason got hit with a – 30 strength debuff, his base Strength went to -19 with a bonus of 7, evening him out to -12. My base was 19 with a bonus of 7, so I ended up with -4 Strength. Dan and Wayne, thanks to their higher Strengths and bonuses were still in the positives. The Dwarves? Forget about it. Those guys were never all that strong to begin with. But the lack of damage to our weapons isn’t what really sucked.

No. What sucked was that now all of the Dwarves, Jason, and myself were all encumbered by our gear. And once one becomes encumbered, one quickly becomes fatigued. And after just another two minutes, all of us, save Dan and Wayne, were operating at a fatigued status.

All of us had been building our constitution with each level. Because of that, and the fact that our strength was large in relation to the weight of our gear, none of us had ever needed to monitor our Vitality bars. But now, here I was, watching it deplete rapidly. Once it hit zero, my movement speed dropped to 25 percent and my damage dropped the same. Jason noticed his mana was also not regenerating as fast.

Jason kept trying to heal Wayne, but with the loss of mana regeneration, his pool was not refilling in anywhere near a timely enough manner. The Death Lord was losing hit points, but nowhere fast enough for us to finish him before Jason’s Mana ran out. I kept watching Wayne’s health and knew that soon we were going to have to throw a hail Mary.

Wayne was yelling for a heal, and Jason was yelling that once he had the mana Wayne would get one, but the stars were not aligned this time for our group. Just as Jason began casting the heal, Wayne died.

Jason immediately interrupted the cast, and looked ready to run for it, but I had a plan. Although if it would work was anyone’s guess.

“Allister! Get ready to heal me!” I yelled.

“Forget it Alex, this is going to be a wipe! Let’s at least try to boomerang her!”

“Tibble’s people can barely move; they’ll be slaughtered down here. We either win or we die together!”

And with that I activated my Force Multiplier and Backstabbed the Death Lord as it started to beat up on Jason.

With my Force Multiplier engaged I was no longer encumbered and I had the following stats:

Alex (Alex) – 76 (+7) (-30) Strength, 84 (+19) Constitution, 40 (+23) Agility, 156 (+31) Dexterity, 24 (+6) Wisdom, 4 (+6) Intelligence, 64 (+7) Chance

My hit points were over 10,000 and my agility was almost as high as Dan’s. I was hoping this would allow me to dodge a lot of the Death Lord’s attacks. And after only a few swings I didn’t have to worry about losing aggro from the mob. With my Dexterity so high, I was proc’ing on every other swing with my dagger, significantly lowering the armor class of the Death Lord. And finally, with my extra Strength and Dexterity, I was landing some massive Critical Strikes.

But we still weren’t in the clear. I was going to lose hit points quickly because when I did get hit, I got hit hard. My armor wasn’t made to Tank. So Jason needed to regenerate his mana as fast as possible.

I only had five minutes to clear the two mobs, and it was going to be a close one.

With only a minute to spare on my ring we were able to kill the Death Lord. I immediately ran to Dan’s mob and started stabbing it in the back, chasing it around the room. Due to the damage Dan had already inflicted, and the multiple Snares, Dan wasn’t losing aggro on the mob. But I hadn’t thought to loot the Death Lord before my ring’s bonus ran out, as I was focused on keeping us all alive. I had likely lost the chance at any truly epic loot from the Death Lord.

Dan’s mob was still being kited when my Force Multiplier ran out and I became encumbered again. And within a short time I found myself fatigued. Dan still wasn’t affected by the debuff, so I had him continue to kite the mob around while I checked the Death Lord’s body.

I don’t know what it would have had on it when my Chance was over 600, but at 167, all it had was more of the same high quality plate and the great sword. Again, nothing magic. I was more than a little pissed that I had to burn off the ring’s bonus because Wayne didn’t want to see some NPCs bite it. But I kept my anger in check.

Three minutes later the strength debuff was lifted and we quickly finished the last mob. When the Marauder was dead we received a system notification:

Congratulations! You have liberated the mine of Orckin for the East Range Mountain Dwarf Clan. Due to your achievements you may claim possession of this mine. Do you wish to take possession of the mine now?

There was a notification with a Yes/No, which could be selected and activated. Having lost the opportunity for great loot I was tempted to say yes. But Wayne wouldn’t hear of it. “No guys. We did this for the Dwarves. I’m sorry that we didn’t get anything good and you had to use the ring Alex, but it wouldn’t be right. And you know it.”

I slowly counted to ten and let my anger dissipate. Wayne was right. We took this quest to help the Dwarves, and I wouldn’t respect myself later if I reneged on that offer now. With more than a little trepidation, I selected “No.”

“Thank you Alex.” I heard Wayne say in my ear.

After selecting “No” another prompt appeared and asked if we wanted to cede our rights to the Mine to the East Range Mountain Dwarf Clan. I clicked “Yes” and saw a look of appreciation fall across Tibble’s face. There were more than a few teary faces amongst the Dwarves and I felt horrible for considering taking their mine. Tibble started to approach, but I stopped him before he could say anything. I still needed to loot the other mobs before they disappeared and I wasn’t ready to chat just yet.

I looted the two Yellows and the Blue quickly and then walked past the Death Lord again. Only this time I saw a pile of what looked like bones sitting against a corner of the cavern. I approached and knelt down next to the pile. The action opened up an inventory and I saw that these were the remains of Hornus Rockcrawler. There was only one thing in his inventory:

Tranquility Pick

Epic Item (Magic Item)

Dwarf Only

Effect: The user falls into a deep state of tranquility that makes them one with the mountain. Chances to find high quality ore + 50 Percent.

I looted the Pick, but didn’t tell the rest. A plan was starting to form in my mind. I did ask Tibble to approach the bones and asked him if he knew of this Dwarf.

“Aye Alex, I recognize the tunic. Hornus was always known for having a tunic that looked like it was made from the rock itself. He was lost to us many years ago. Many speculated he went off to find his own adventures, but it seems he came here and met his end with these Orckin. It seems we have another brave Dwarf whose soul needs to be heralded to the other side. Tonight we will honor our dead, and celebrate our heroes! Huzzah!”

* * *

“It will be some time before Naugha can rejoin our party, so I suggest we leave here and meet him at the entrance of the caves,” I said to Tibble and the Dwarves. They all praised Naugha for his valiant sacrifice for their Clan, but didn’t seemed disturbed to know Wayne would be joining them shortly. The Dwarves disregarded the absurdity that someone who just died could immediately return to this land. It was, of course, vital to game play that a character who died in front of a quest mob could still finish the quest once successful. It was a paradox, but one that all games had to account for.

Knowing that we would be having a bit of a celebration once Wayne returned, I asked Jason to Gate back to Port Town and pick up food and drink for the large gathering. With his horse he would be back to the mine before Wayne would arrive. Traveling only by foot and without any speed enhancements, it would be many hours before Wayne made his way back through the forest and to our gathering.

Wayne’s body still remained in the middle of the cavern where he had fallen. In order to retrieve all of his items, Wayne would need to loot his own body. An easy task if he had died in the middle of a forest, but much more difficult for someone who died in a deep dungeon and who didn’t have an innate ability to become invisible. The developers of the game had taken all of this into account and allowed other players to drag a body to another location to make looting easier. However, this only worked with players and not with mobs. Once the dead player gave permission to another player to drag his body, the corpse became weightless and could be taken anywhere. This was why you wanted to only give permission to trusted companions, as someone with permission could drag the body to any location they wanted. To put it into perspective, just imagine what Dan would do with such freedoms.

I contacted Wayne and asked him to give me permission to move his corpse. During the discussion, I was happy to learn that Wayne had received experience from the Death Lord and Yellow Marauder, but more importantly, for the quest itself. We had all gained almost an entire level completing this quest. Of course Wayne’s experience took a hit from his death, but he wasn’t complaining in the least bit.

We all saw a back entrance from the cavern that gave us access to the topside of the mountain. Unlike with regular dungeons, this was simply a secret entrance, and once discovered remained usable by the Dwarves, as well as for my group. More importantly, we also saw a way to access deeper levels below the cavern we just vacated. There were likely more tunnels, with more ore, but also stronger and more powerful mobs than even my group could handle. I planned to advise Tibble to remain on the first level of the caverns and work the ore in that area before descending to the next level. Any action taken on the second level could end up alerting more mobs from deeper under the mountains.

Once everyone was out of the caverns, Tibble began making preparations for the celebration we would have that night, with half of the Dwarves trying to salvage anything that was left from the initial Orckin attack. Tibble sent the other half of the Dwarves back to the old mine, where he first encountered Wayne and our group, to collect their belongings and all of the ore they had already acquired. He also sent a lone runner away from the mine on an unknown errand. I don’t like unknown.

“Tibble, if you don’t mind my asking, where have you sent the messenger?” I asked pointedly. I didn’t see any reason for beating around the bush with Tibble, since we had just handed over a fortune in mining rights.

“Protocol Alex. When a clan takes possession of a new mine, it be required to inform our King. All Clans fall under the King and dem taxes and the like must be accounted for. More so, declaring da mine to the King be givin’ us the right to ask fer security ta protect the ore.”

“So the King will send a representative back here to see the mine?”

“That be the usual protocol. But I be a distant relation to the King. Might’s be that he comes himself. Our King ain’t one to be holed up in his mountain!”

“Well then we better make sure this party is one for the ages. Wouldn’t want to disappoint royalty!” I said while Tibble and I laughed together.

* * *

After Jason’s return and the libations were dispersed I called my group together. It would still be a couple of hours before Wayne returned, but I had held off on explaining my plan for as long as I felt comfortable. Wayne wasn’t going to like it, but altruism can only go so far in these games.

“Wayne can you hear us fine?” I asked, and received a verbal acknowledgement.

“Here’s the deal. When we finished up the raid we found the bones of a Dwarf who had died long ago. Amongst his bones was this,” I said and linked the epic pick axe.

“Woah!” Dan said, summing up everyone’s response in one word.

“It’s tradeable, and I know I could sell this item for more money than anyone has even collected on this game to date. But I’m thinking we can use it to get some concessions.”

“You need to give that to Tibble, Alex,” Wayne predictably said.

“And I plan to Wayne, but not without something in return. This is an item that pays for itself in spades. We can’t just hand it over. I’m thinking a percentage of the mining proceeds. Not a lot, but something that keeps money in our pockets without us having to do anything. It’s a mighty bargaining chip, and I don’t want to just give it away.”

“I don’t like it. It negates everything we just did if our plan is to fleece them afterward,” Wayne challenged.

“Sorry Naugha, but I’m with Alex on this one. Unless you want to take up mining as an occupation, I can’t see us just giving this away,” Jason responded.

Dan also agreed with me and Jason, and Wayne’s lone dissenting voice was overruled. As I had foreseen, Wayne wasn’t happy, but he succumbed to the desires of the group. Now I just had to deal with Tibble.

I pulled the senior Dwarf of the East Range Clan aside and showed him what I had found. I explained to him our desires, to have a cut of the Fermium mine’s proceeds, in exchange for the item. Tibble’s eyes never left the pick, but he started shaking his head no.

“Me runner just returned. The King is coming. This needs to be presented to him.”

“But why Tibble? It is your Clan’s mine, and this was found inside the mine. If you want to present it to your King for favor, that’s your business, but I don’t want to see your Clan take a loss for our own benefit.”

Tibble winked at me, laughed, and said, “Then don’t let us take a loss.”

* * *

The celebration was underway for an hour when I heard a voice from behind me say, “Tibble, by chance ya can spare some for me and me boys?”

I turned around and saw the oldest and baddest looking Dwarf I had ever seen. At that moment I hated Dan all the more, because he was right again. The eyepatch the Dwarf was wearing definitely added to his level of badass.

“King Steelhammer! Of course me Lord, we made sure to set some aside for you and yours! Knew you was coming when me lad returned.”

I liked that Tibble didn’t stand on ceremony too much with the King. He didn’t act like he didn’t know the King was coming, and didn’t genuflect when he saw him, showering praise and thanks on the King for taking the time to make the trip. Tibble treated him like he would another Dwarf, but with obvious respect. Even more, the King seemed to appreciate that Tibble wasn’t a boot licker. I really hoped my plan was going to work with the King.

“We waited till ya arrived to start the celebration right me Lord. But now that you’s here, and have food and drink, I wants to say some words for our friends.”

The King nodded at Tibble and took a healthy pull off the mead we had provided. He also took a chunk out of his turkey leg, juices spilling down his beard. And naturally, there wasn’t a napkin in sight.

“I not be one fer makin’ speeches. I’m a simple miner. But these lads here,” Tibble said while pointing at my group, “these lads have shown themselves to be honorable and just.”

Tibble then turned to Wayne and said, “When you first came upon us Naugha, ya helped when ya need not have to. Ya celebrated our boys and sent them to their rest when ya had no obligation to do so. Ya sacrificed yourself to save me kin. And you all showed honor with the deed to this here mine,” Tibble stated while pointing at the entrance to the cave. “You was welcomed as friends when ya arrived outside of this mine, but you left as more. From this day forth, as head of the East Range Mountain Dwarf Clan, I name ya kin.”

Silence descended. All of the Dwarves were looking at each other, and then at the King and his entourage. No one spoke.

Finally, Tibble lifted up his mug of mead, with all of the other East Range Clan following suit, and exclaimed, “to our kin!”

“HUZZAH!” bellowed all of the other Dwarves, loud enough that one would think an earthquake had shaken the mountain side.

“Well said Tibble!” the King finally said. It seemed like he had more to add but then fell silent.

Tibble then moved on to the next item that needed to be addressed. Celebrating the life of Hornus Rockcrawler.

“Ya found his body in the caves?” the King asked.

“We did me Lord. They was just bones, and I believe Hornus passed long ago. But I think you knew him well and we would be honored if you started in our duty to herald his journey to our Gods.”

The King nodded and began a fanciful tale of Hornus and how he could climb the side of a tunnel with one hand and a pick in another, pulling out the highest quality ore as he traveled. When asked about the technique, Hornus had looked confused and asked “what technique? I just wanted to see what was at the top!”

Many more stories were shared and many “Huzzahs” were offered up in the name of Hornus. After a time, the revelry died down and Tibble motioned for my group to take center stage.

“Would you like to say some words Naugha?” I asked.

“I’m even less of a speech giver than Tibble. You feel free Alex.”

“A greater honor does not exist in this land than to be named kin to the Clan of the East Range. You have honored us in ways we cannot ever express. Huzzah!”

“HUZZAH!” the Dwarves all yelled out again. Mental note, invent ear plugs for any dealings with drunken Dwarves.

“We will stand by our kinsmen in their times of need just as we did today against the Orckin!”

“HUZZAH!”

I finished with, “and we would be honored to call all Dwarves our friends.”

The King looked up at that statement and stood to his full height. “You’ve done a great service to the East Range Clan Alex, and they are right in calling ya kin. You’ve earned that right. Know that ya will never find animosity from the Dwarves Under the Mountain. You and yours can pass freely amongst my people and they will deal with ya fairly.”

“Thank you Lord Steelhammer. But I wonder, what would it take for the Dwarves Under the Mountain to call us friends?”

Another Dwarf from the King’s entourage snorted and said, “how much Mithral ya got?”

That got a chuckle from a few of the others from the King’s entourage, but the King didn’t laugh, nor did any of my new kinsman. I interpreted the question to be the answer one would give when it is impossible to meet the demand. Meaning, the Dwarf didn’t think we could possibly have anything that could lead the entirety of the Dwarven nation Under the Mountain to call us friend.

“The more appropriate question would be, how much Mithral do you have? And would you like to have more?”

That stopped the laughter from the King’s men. No Dwarf joked about Mithral.

“How da ya mean Alex?”

“As King Under the Mountain you know where every vein of Mithral being mined is at,” I said. Steelhammer nodded this was true. “And I imagine you have the most experienced of your miners working on those veins?”

“Naturally.”

“Then I ask you Lord Steelhammer, how much more successful do you think they would be, if they had this?” I asked and brought out the pick that gave a 50 percent chance bonus to find high quality ore. Even low and medium quality ore of Mithral was worth a fortune. High quality ore could buy a small Barony.

Every Dwarf went silent when I showed my trump card. This was a well-known item in Dwarven lore.

“And how is it that you came by this?” The King asked, with more than a little fire in his voice.

“It was among the bones of Hornus.”

“Then why is it not in the hands of Tibble?” the King asked, this time gripping the mug of mead almost to the point of shattering.

“We slaughtered the Orckin, we liberated the mine, and we gave the rights of that mine to the East Range Clan. You saw our reaction tonight when Tibble named us kin. None of us knew this was coming. I believe that we have been more than generous with our brothers.”

The King continued to stare at me while I refused to back down. All of the Dwarves were on the edge of their seats. As were my companions, although possibly for different reasons, since this could go bad quickly.

After what seemed like ages, the King let out a breath and slumped back into his seat. The apprehension from the Dwarves dissolved after that. The King took one last look into his mead and said, “Yer right Alex. You’ve dealt with me clansmen in a far more noble manner than many Dwarves would have. As the conqueror of this mine ya have first right to the plunder and the ownership of the mine.” The King continued to stare into his mead for a few more heartbeats before saying, “So how much do you want for it?”

“You misunderstand Lord Steelhammer, my companions and I don’t want any money.”

“But I thought you just said…”

“All we want is the friendship of the Dwarves Under the Mountain. All of them.”

“That’s it?” The King asked, not believing for a second that the negotiations were over. He was right.

“For my companions and I? Yes. But for my kinsman of the East Range Clan, I would ask that 3 percent of all Mithral collected as the byproduct of this item be given to the East Range Clan. To include High quality Mithral ore. Delivered at the end of each month.”

The King balked at my request. He was looking at giving away a small fortune in ore. He was having a hard time agreeing to the terms. So naturally he counter offered.

“Three percent is too much for a clan as small as the East Range, no offense Tibble.”

“None taken.”

“And yet that is my offer,” I said.

“Five percent of Low quality, three percent of Medium quality, and one percent of high quality,” the King counter offered. I could see the look on Tibble’s face was telling me to take the deal, since his clan never imagined having access to even a single piece of Mithral. But I make my living off selling and negotiating deals. So I had one final counter offer, and that would be it. The King would take the deal or I would keep the pick.

“I realize you think that makes for a fair distribution Lord Steelhammer, but we know it really doesn’t work out to the three percent across the board when you factor in the High quality ore. Seven percent of Low quality, five percent of Medium quality, and one percent of High quality. End of each month. Final offer.”

The King sat and thought about this for a while. He finally looked over at Tibble and said, “Ya had no idea he would do this, did ya?”

“None me Lord.”

“Well I see why ya named these boys as kin. This one bargains like a bloody Dwarf! Deal!”

Louder than even before, the Dwarves of the East Range Clan all yelled, “HUZZAH! HUZZAH! HUZZAH!!!”

CHAPTER 23

September 18th, 2043

We logged off that night at the entrance to the cave and logged back on the next morning. I was the first to log back in, and was soon joined by Wayne who approached me with a smile on his face.

“I’m sorry I doubted you Alex. You did really well by Tibble and his Clan. I can’t imagine they would have gotten anywhere near the concessions that you did from their King.”

“No chance of it. Tibble would have freely given up that pick and never asked for anything in return. He knew it too. That’s why he wanted me to deal with the King when he arrived.”

“Well that sneaky little Dwarf. I didn’t know he had it in him. Well good on him then. But I’m curious, why didn’t you ask for more for our group? You probably could have gotten something out of the King.”

“I got exactly what I wanted out of him brother. By having the Dwarves Under the Mountain friendly to us, we will likely get more quests and better deals when it comes to upgrading our armor and weapons. Having Tibble name us kin, that was totally unexpected. But setting his Clan up for life, that let me put phase two of my plan into action.”

“Phase two?”

“Here comes Tibble now. Just watch. And don’t worry, I’m not going to take advantage of our brothers.”

Tibble approached Wayne and I as we stood on the outskirts of the camp. He first grasped Wayne’s wrist, and then mine, and took a moment to appreciate the quiet of the morning. When he finally spoke he addressed me.

“That was a fine thing you did for the Clan last night Alex. There will never be a way for us to repay you, but know we are forever in your debt.”

“Well the first thing you can do Tibble is stop thinking like miners, and start thinking like battle hardened Dwarves who just conquered a lair of Orckin!”

Tibble laughed at that, and said, “Aye lad, we did, but couldn’t have gotten much past the entrance here if it weren’t for you and your lads.”

“And that’s the first thing you can do for me. Turn some of your miners into fighters. They’re Dwarves after all. It’s just one small step from swinging a pick to swinging a battle axe.”

“How do ya mean Alex?”

“If you were to go out into these woods and slay the beasts surrounding these caves, could your Dwarves increase their abilities as Warriors?” I was basically asking Tibble if his Dwarves had the ability to level up on their own, or if they were set at their levels. Of course, asking Tibble if he was able to “level up” would have gone right past him. I had been thinking all night about how to have this conversation and get the desired result.

“Aye Alex, if we was to fight the wildlife, it would give me boys some great experience in battle. But we have not a healer and our picks ain’t going to do much against these beasts.”

It was at that moment we heard a horse arriving. Tibble looked off into the woods and saw Jason arriving on his steed. The night before, Jason and I had discussed the next phase of my plan and he was in agreement with me about protecting our Clan by strengthening their own abilities. Just prior to logging off, Jason had Gated back to Port Town, and this morning made a sizable purchase from the town, then rode back here on his horse.

“Get what we need Allister?” I asked as Jason dismounted from his summoned animal.

“I did Alex, and here ya go. I hate being encumbered.”

With that, Jason dropped numerous battle axes of decent quality and breast plates of the same quality that could fit a Dwarf. Tibble just stared in wonder.

“These aren’t full sets of armor, obviously, but the breast plates will help to protect your lads. Go out in groups of four and never stray too far from the mine. Use these battle axes to learn the ways of the Warrior, and gain that needed experience for your Clan. I would suggest hiring a healer on a part time basis from Lord Steelhammer to help with your cause. With the Fermium you will collect, and the Mithral that will be coming in, you will be able to not only pay for the healer but also more gear as your coffers increase in size. You need to be able to hold this mine for our Clan yourselves Tibble, not be beholden to anyone else for its security. But to do that, you need to work at it just like you would work the ore of a mine. Set up daily rotations so everyone has a chance to learn.”

Tibble continued to stare at the items on the ground, knowing that they likely cost several Gold in purchasing. He shook his head at the axes and breast plates and then looked at Jason, Wayne, and myself. “You give so much, but ask nothing in return. We can’t accept this. I’m sorry.”

“Put your mind at ease Tibble, for I certainly have a request. You know our Ranger friend?”

“Aye, of course I do. The one who talks all the time, but says little of understanding.”

“Nailed that one on the head my friend. Well as you know, our Ranger is quite handy with that bow of his, but the arrows he uses aren’t of the greatest quality. He has been working diligently to improve his weapons, and he has learned many secrets to the creation of perfect arrows. But what he lacks are the arrow heads. I think the hope was that Naugha would embrace Blacksmithing and be able to produce that part of the arrow. But as you learned, Naugha is suited to swinging a war hammer more than a blacksmith’s hammer.”

“Aye he is!” Tibble said while slapping Wayne on the forearm. “Naugha needs to be out with your group, not bent over in the forge.”

“And here is where you can help my friend. Amongst you is a smith that I spoke with last night. He explained to me that creating arrow heads out of Fermium would not be a challenge for someone of his skill.”

“Indeed. That would be a very easy task for him. Although they wouldn’t have much in the way of magic imbued into them Alex. Thaddeus is a Smith, but does not possess much in the way of magic use.”

“For now, the additional damage TheClaw could make with the Fermium upgrade will go a long way toward improving our party’s abilities. I would consider it a great favor if you could do this for us Tibble.”

“Bah! With your ‘big favors.’ What’s wrong with ya lad? Ya just gave our Clan the means to grow and be great again. Even if we made thousands of these, we would still be in yer debt you silly elf!”

I once again clasped wrists with Tibble and said my goodbyes, leaving him to talk with Wayne about how best to take on the mobs surrounding the mine. With that task done, and what I considered a success, I went to say goodbye to the King Under the Mountain.

“Hide yer Mithral boys!” the King yelled out to his entourage as he saw me approaching. He was laughing when he said it, but I knew he was still a little upset at having been worked over the night before by yours truly.

“I value my life and my hands too much to try and take a Dwarf’s Mithral Lord Steelhammer.”

“Bah! Wish you had that attitude last night when you was bargaining away for the Clan!”

“Well, see now, that wasn’t taking. That was agreeing to mutual terms.”

“Hah! Well said lad! So what more can I do fer ya? Me and me boys are about to make our ways back Under the Mountain and bring this beauty to our Master Miner.” Lord Steelhammer said while holding the Tranquility Pick in his hands.

“I have one small request, but it will not require you to part with any of your ore. Mithral or otherwise. My question is more about information.”

“What would ya know?”

“Our young Ranger friend is improving his abilities within our group. He has already figured out how to better his arrow heads, but is still looking for that perfect wood for his shaft.” Thank the gods that Dan wasn’t actually next to me when I said that line. I was having an internal fight not to make a dick joke as it was. “Elder Elven wood makes the best arrows in the land, but it is forbidden to touch an Elven tree within their forest. The penalty is death, and they take such things seriously. However, outside of the Elven woods, there are no restrictions. Our Ranger is looking for such a tree. He would of course not cut it down, but simply take a small part in order to fashion his wares. Would you by chance know of where one could find such a tree in these lands?”

The King thought for a while on my question. Locations of Elven trees outside of their forests was a closely guarded secret for the very reason we were discussing now. No wood flew straighter and farther than Elven wood. But cutting one down, even outside of the Elven woods, could have disastrous results.

“I appreciate your word Alex; it means a lot to me. But your word ain’t enough in the course of matters like this. I would need your oath that ya wouldn’t cut down the tree, but also that ya would never give away its location as well. Failure to follow yer oath will result in dire consequences for not only you and yer companions, but for the entire Clan.”

So that’s how he wanted to play it. Well I could appreciate the move, and didn’t have a problem making the oath. I spoke true that we had no plans on cutting down any trees.

Once the oath was made, the King indicated two locations on my map where one could find the trees. I thanked the King profusely and then said my farewells to him and his entourage. He reminded me that my group would be welcome any time Under the Mountain as friends of the Dwarves.

Now that Dan had arrived, and had said his goodbyes to our adopted kinsmen, it was time to inform everyone about the next move for our group.

* * *

Dan reviewed the two spots I had marked on the map. The first was a short ride from our current location and so we decided to check that one out. We approached to within 100 meters of our intended targets and dismounted from our horses. I activated my Blacksuit and fell easily back into my role of scout. I approached the tree and had to stop just to admire how beautiful it was.

Elven Elder trees are a blindingly white wood that nearly glows. The only thing that kept us from seeing this tree, and likely any other adventurer who had come along, was that it was smack dab in the middle of a copse of large pine trees that nearly hid the Elven tree from sight. It almost looked like it was by design. The Elven tree was large, but not as tall as the pines around it, which also helped to hide its location. Furthermore, I couldn’t see much around the tree due to the other foliage.

I snuck up closer to the Elven tree and spotted what I figured would be waiting. There were four Dire Wolves that had decided to call this tree home. A raised root on the west side of the tree was currently home to two of the wolves, nestling in the comfort of the overhang. The two other wolves were lounging just next to the tree. I checked their levels and saw that three of them were Yellow and one was Blue. This would not be an easy fight at all if we wanted to take control of the tree.

I ran back to the group and reported my findings. No one was eager to tackle four Dire Wolves at once, especially with three of them being Yellow, and we decided to check out the second location before making a decision on how to progress.

As we made our way toward the second location I started to worry. I looked at my map again, and verified my fears. The location the King had given us was literally sitting right over Stan’s house. I had visited there on multiple occasions but had never seen a tree of any kind. It’s possible that I missed it since I was looking for a door that first time, and after that always looking to avoid the four beasts surrounding Stan’s domicile.

In order to keep my group from seeing the entrance to Stan’s home I rode us around to the far side of the clearing that represented the entrance to Stan’s place. I told my teammates that going into a clearing made no sense, since there were no trees located there, and they bought my explanation.

I slowed our approach to where the tree was supposed to be located, much as we had done before finding the first tree. I dismounted from my horse and started walking deeper into the forest. Normally I would activate my Blacksuit before approaching an area like this, but I wanted to aggro the four mobs a bit, and force them to come out. I hoped that coming in from the opposite side would have the same effect as going toward Stan’s front door.

It was easy to see why I never saw the tree in previous encounters. One, it was much smaller than the first tree we found. And second, it was hidden amongst a grove of trees much like the other Elven Elder tree we found. As I continued to walk toward the tree, slowly as not to over aggro the mobs, the four animals appeared. It was the same two Giant Bears, one Dire Wolf, and one War Boar. And as they had been since the first time I encountered them, all four mobs were still Red to me. For the first time, I was thankful for this fact!

I walked back to our group and told them again what I had found. Dan gave a low whistle, and rightly assessed we should stay away from this tree. Since we were close to Port Town at this point, I suggested we head back to town and decide what our next move would be. Dan was the first to agree. Mostly because it had been days since he had visited the Tavern.

“I can’t wait to get back and tell everyone how I saved Naugha’s backside. I’m going to tell everyone about it. Everyone!”

“What happens if we just don’t give him any money? Can we do that Alex?” Wayne begged.

“Sorry man, money or not, Dan isn’t going to miss this opportunity.”

While we continued to chat, we arrived at town and settled down next to the fountain in the Town Square. Jason and Dan were at 85 percent or so into Level 17. Wayne and I around 60 percent. Not all that far from Level 18 for any of us. Admittedly, I would feel better about taking on the Dire Wolves with another level, and Dan and Jason with all their new spells. But if the guys wanted to try now, I wouldn’t say no. However, the guys were all in agreement that we should get our next levels and spells before we tried to tackle the unknown encounter. We hadn’t been online long today, but our previous day was exhausting to say the least. Dan planned to hit the Tavern, Wayne was going to go find Jenny and her group and hang out there, while Jason planned to log off. We agreed to meet the next day at our usual time.

I then went back out of the city and headed to go see Stan.

I activated my Blacksuit long before I arrived at Stan’s place and made my way to his door. I walked through the front door, losing my Blacksuit as the one point of damage that came from the trap dropped my invisibility. I couldn’t wait to learn how to disarm those things.

“What brings ya back here lad? Are you heading to the Capitol already?” Stan asked.

“No, nothing like that. Still haven’t been told to head that way. I’m actually here to talk to you about the tree growing behind your house.”

“What do you know about that tree?” Stan asked, coming closer to me and looking a little worried.

I then went through the whole story, from Wayne meeting the Dwarves, to liberating the mine, to meeting the King Under the Mountain and finding out about the tree. Stan’s jaw dropped more and more as the story went on.

“Well look at ya lad! Making deals with Dwarves! And the King no less! You made a wise move by getting the King to name you a friend to the Dwarves. That will pay ya back time and again. Far more than any Gold could.”

“Thanks Stan. Those were my thoughts as well. But that is what brought me and my group here today, looking for the Elven Elder tree.”

“Did your friends see my place?” Stan asked, showing a bit of worry again.

“No. I realized quickly where we were heading and I took us around the back side of the hill. I rationalized that there wouldn’t be any trees in the middle of a clearing, and so we needed to head around. My friends agreed with my assessment.”

“Good. I can’t imagine what would have happened if they had seen me door and wanted to go inside.”

“Well I don’t see us coming back here anytime soon. Your guardians stepped out like they normally do once I got close to your home without my Blacksuit on. And my friends were in no mood to challenge four creatures who all looked like they could kill us with one hit.”

“My guardians? Is that what you think dem beasts are?” Stan asked while laughing. “Lad, those beasts are out there to guard dat tree!”

Due to my confused look, Stan explained in more detail.

“I can’t even tell you how many years ago it was that it happened, but that tree had been there for as long as I could remember. Loved it too, all shiny and bright. I knew what it were, but didn’t realize its significance until later when a traveling Elf passed through my glade.

“Said he could feel the tree from miles away. Walked right on up to it, he did. I had already snuck around behind him, in case he planned on doing it harm, and was ready to slice him open deep. But when I heard him speaking quietly to the tree, with admiration and love, I knew he wasn’t there to hurt it. So I walked some distance away and stepped from da shadows. When the Elf realized I was there he started to cast a spell, but I put my hands up to show him this weren’t an attack.

“I told him, ‘you be standing next to me home sir!’ and I pointed to me hill. He wanted to know if I had any idea what was growing so close to me, and I told him I did and came out here often to sit by her. I think because I called it a ‘her’ he went more at ease. He then made the offer that granted me some wonderful protection for me home. You see, them beasts out there is summoned to protect the tree. As long as the tree lives, so do they. You could stab away at just one of them for the next year and you wouldn’t kill it unless the tree died first.

“I never much minded since they don’t bother me none inside me home, and to leave I just have to step in the shadows before I walk out the house. Pretty much what I already do anyhow. And anyone approaching me hill had better be a rogue if they want to make it anywhere close to my front door!” Stan finished with laughter in his voice.

“Well I can assure you, we won’t be making any more runs this way. But I appreciate the explanation. Thanks for the time Stan and I hope to see you soon when I get word to head to the Capitol.”

“Aye lad, it’ll come sooner than you think. Just be careful around that other tree. Any elf sees you taking so much as a piece of wood from it, they won’t care that it ain’t in their forest, they will try to kill you dead on the spot.”

“Thanks again for the advice my friend.” And with that, I left Stan’s and headed back to town. I was going to follow Jason’s lead and log out early. I was ready for a nap after our crazy couple of days.

* * *

September 19th, 2043

“We aren’t going to find any mobs around here that will give us experience, so I guess we go looking for bad guys. We haven’t been out past the Bandit Camp too much, since we never wanted to aggro those guys on accident. We could try out that way,” Jason suggested the next morning when we were all logged on again.

“I’m in agreement with Allister, I want to get as far away from Port Town as we can. And we will probably need a couple of days to get our levels up to 18,” Wayne said.

Dan had kept his word, and for hours Wayne had received private messages from players he had never met or spoken to, who were asking about Dan’s exploits. It appeared that Dan may have exaggerated his role in keeping Wayne alive, among other things. The pink tutu that Wayne was allegedly wearing during the attack on the Orckin was one such example, and was the subject of much ribbing. One quarter of the messages Wayne received were from players making fun of him for wearing such a thing. Another quarter were female players that wanted to know where they could get the item. The other half consisted mostly of laughter.

To his credit, Dan didn’t mention anything about the specifics that led to the encounter, leaving out the location of the mine and the mobs the group faced. But Dan sure could weave a story and even without full details, everyone in the Tavern believed him. More so, all of the people in the Tavern had friends, who also heard the story. And the ridiculousness grew exponentially as each person told the story again and again. Wayne was bombarded by hundreds of messages.

Since AltCon had not introduced any Player vs. Player combat in the game, Wayne couldn’t just kill Dan outright. But if that system were in place, I had no doubt that Wayne would have stood over Dan’s spawn point and just slaughtered him repeatedly, yelling out over and over “How you like my pink tutu now Dan?!?” In a sign of self-preservation, Dan stayed far away from Wayne for the rest of the day, only commenting that he really shouldn’t have drunk so much the day before.

As a group, we rode out to the areas north of the Bandit camp and started looking for mobs. This route took us ostensibly in the direction of the Capitol, where the mobs were higher level. As one got farther away from Port Town, the Level of the mobs increased, as one would expect. No one knew what level the mobs around the Capitol would be, since to our knowledge no one had traveled there yet.

And when I say as a group we traveled, I really mean that Jason, Wayne, and I rode together, while Dan was off “scouting” ahead. Thankfully our Ranger could distance himself from Wayne for the time being by utilizing his innate Class skills. I really didn’t want to spend the next couple of hours watching Wayne stare daggers at Dan as we rode. Not that it wasn’t deserved, but because every time I thought of Wayne in a pink tutu I had to stop myself from giggling. Having the constant reminder would have only made the task more difficult, and would have put me right up there on Wayne’s shit list.

Dan signaled us after some time that he had found some mobs for us, and we met up with him and fell into our normal routine of pulling and killing mobs. The infamous Pink Tutu Affair, as it would be known for years to come, was forgotten for the moment.

* * *

“Come on man. Just admit it. You did that crap on purpose!” Wayne said to Dan while we took a breather after an hour of killing mobs.

“Seriously bro, I was so drunk last night I have no idea what I said. People just kept handing me drinks and asking for another story. It wasn’t until after I went back through my logs that I even saw what I said. And you know it’s just jealousy, brosef! All of those guys would love to be able to wreck shit like you, pink tutu or not!”

“I don’t have a bloody pink tutu!”

“Semantics bro.”

“That’s not what that word means!”

We couldn’t hold it in any longer and Jason and I were both laughing our asses off while we heard Dan and Wayne go at it. Wayne would try to get Dan to admit he had purposefully marred Wayne’s image while Dan went back to his “I was so drunk” defense. Jason and I had Wayne’s back though, adding our thoughts and comments about how upset we were with Dan, although that didn’t stop our laughter.

And if we thought Wayne was pissed, imagine the ire of Jenny when she found out about all the women who were sending Wayne private messages. Jenny and Wayne had become an official item, even meeting outside of the game on multiple occasions. And when she heard about Dan’s antics she vowed to repay him in kind. Wayne was one thing, but never underestimate the capacity for violence of a woman scorned. Dan just wanted to know if that ruined his chances with Kaitlin.

“Brother, you don’t have a pink tutu, I know. And so does everyone else. That’s yesterday’s news. But what about me and Kaitlin? What we have is real man, I need to know if I still have a chance!”

“If by ‘real’ you mean the exact opposite, and an absence of anything, then yes, it’s still there.”

“Whew! I was really worried for a second there!”

As fun as all this was, our focus needed to be on getting our level so we could hit the Dire Wolves at the Elven tree. “Rest break over. Dan, scout ahead and find us some high concentration of mobs if you can. I don’t want to be stuck out in this forest any longer than we need. I want us to get you and Allister your Level 18 today and Wayne and I tomorrow.”

Dan and Jason would need to get their Level 18 spells once they reached their level and I wanted to do that at the end of our day, so as not to break up the routine of fighting. Dan nodded his head, summoned his horse, and rode out to find us some more mobs.

Wayne just shook his head as Dan rode off. “He totally did it on purpose. I know he did.”

Jason approached Wayne and put his hand on Wayne’s shoulder. “Have no fear my friend. The Pink Tutu Affair will never die.”

* * *

September 22nd, 2043

Dan had found a large grouping of Bears and Wolves that were Blue to our group and over the next two days we focused on killing the mobs, collecting the loot, and leveling our characters. At this level, the animals were dropping Fine skins that we could sell to either players that were leveling their Tanning skills, or to the merchants. I would see what we could get from both the merchants and the players before I decided how much time I wanted to waste on trying to sell them through auctions. There was always a cost/benefit analysis that one had to do when deciding to auction off items. Here the cost was mostly my sleep, in relation to how much we could get through a lengthy auction.

More importantly, we had found enough mobs that Dan and Jason were able to get their Level 18 at the end of that first day. Jason went back to Port Town with enough money to buy the spells. I also gave him one of the Fine skins to take to our merchant friend. He would be able to tell us how much they sold for, and likely give Jason the location of someone in town who would also sell the same wares.

We didn’t have a huge amount of Gold since we decided to assist our Dwarven kinsmen with holding their mine and celebrating the victory over the Orckin. However, we did have enough to purchase the level 18 spells, which cost 20 Gold each. Jason got an improved heal, an improved group buff that added constitution and armor, and the spell See Invisible. This was quite handy since Dan received two spells, one of which was Blend. This spell allowed Dan to essentially camouflage himself and ‘blend’ into his environment. It was, in other words, an invisible spell for Dan, but one that only worked in the Forest. Trying to cast it on himself in an urban environment would do no good. Dan also received the spell Breathe that would allow someone to breath under water. An interesting spell, but one we hadn’t needed to this point.

With our Level 18 in hand, we decided to go back to the Elder Elven tree we first saw and engage with the Dire Wolves there. No one was keen on challenging the four beasts that surrounded the tree near Stan’s home, and thankfully so. I had not told the others that the guardians of that tree would likely always out level us, or the secret to their power. It was better for the rest of the group to just believe that they were regular high level Red mobs that we couldn’t fight.

Before arriving at our destination we buffed the party as much as we could. No one was looking forward to taking on four mobs at the same time, especially when three of those had been Yellow the last time we ventured in. I played my role and scouted out the location before the rest of the team engaged and was happy to see that the dynamic had changed a bit. There were now only two Yellows and two Blues. Gaining a level had been helpful indeed. Now there was a Blue and a Yellow Dire Wolf lounging a few meters from the base of the tree, and another Blue and Yellow Dire nestled under the tree root.

I informed the team of my new findings and we decided to have Dan Snare one Yellow and Wayne would try to tank the two Blue and other Yellow. Jason’s new buff, that added an extra 1000 hit points and extra 100 armor, was really going to come in handy now. The only down side was that the spell cost was 40 percent of Jason’s mana and we were forced to wait ten minutes before we could engage, while Jason built back up his reserves. The buff lasted for thirty minutes however, so we wouldn’t have to worry about it expiring before the end of the battle. We hoped.

Dan started by casting Snare on the Yellow that was lying next to the tree and began to shoot arrows at it. The Dire Wolf immediately started moving toward Dan but at a slow pace thanks to his successful Snare. The two Blues started moving toward Dan, but Wayne was able to Taunt one and Bash the other and get aggro on them. To our surprise, the Yellow under the tree root did not move from its location and Wayne was faced with only the two Blues. Instead of changing mobs in the middle of a fight, we let Dan continue to kite the Yellow and went to work on the two Blues. I gave Wayne enough time to fully establish aggro before jumping into the mix, and landing my Backstab on the first Dire Wolf. Since these mobs were Blue, Wayne and I were able to take it down in a fairly quick time. The second Blue fell quickly as well. With those two down, we chased after Dan’s Yellow Dire Wolf and chipped away at it until Wayne could establish aggro. With aggro fully under Wayne’s control, we similarly made quick work of the Yellow. This fight had so far gone way easier than we had planned.

Jason informed the group that he had sufficient mana to take on one Yellow. Wayne approached the tree, targeting the Yellow Dire Wolf, and got within its aggro range. The Dire Wolf slowly emerged from under the tree and we saw why it had not engaged that first time we attacked its pack mates. Laying under the tree root were two Dire Wolf pups.

“Woah! Wayne, stop moving forward,” Dan said.

“What? It’s one Yellow man, we can take it easy.”

“Don’t you see, there are pups under the tree. I don’t kill women and children bro. Not my thing.”

“Are you insane? That isn’t a woman, it’s a Dire Wolf. And we aren’t going to kill puppies doofus. Those things are level 1 or 2 at best, they won’t even aggro us if we don’t attack.”

“Dude! You can’t leave a bunch of puppies without their mother. That shit ain’t right man!”

“Dan! For once, please, be reasonable! We need the wood from the tree. We kill the Dire Wolf and then we collect what we need. It’s just an NPC mob!” Jason added.

“Not doing it man, bad mojo. They won’t be as high of quality, but I can just find birch wood to make the shafts for my arrows.”

And that was the end of that. We were doing this for Dan, to be able to make his arrows better. But if he didn’t want any part of this, then there was no point.

“Fine. Whatever. Just Snare it then and we will outrun the aggro and not come back,” Wayne said, sounding upset.

Dan cast Snare on the Yellow Dire Wolf and we all started to run away. However, the Dire Wolf broke the Snare immediately and started attacking Dan. Wayne jumped in to get aggro off the mob and Dan cast another Snare. “Snare landed! Shit! Broke Snare again.”

At this point, Dan now had massive aggro with the Dire Wolf and nothing Wayne or I did could get it off of Dan.

“Stop attacking it! Don’t kill the momma!”

Jason was healing Dan, but he was running low on mana. He planned on healing a Tank, not a Ranger. And Dan was losing hit points fast. Dan tried Snare one more time, but again the Dire Wolf broke the Snare almost immediately after it landed. It was as if the Dire Wolf had some innate ability that allowed it to circumvent spells when protecting its children.

“Dan, we aren’t all going to die here and lose our Levels! I’m sorry man, we have to kill it,” I told him.

“Fine. This is horrible of us though.”

And with that we all engaged the Dire Wolf. Jason started by casting a Stun so Dan could establish some distance while Wayne Taunted and Bashed the mob. Despite Dan’s insistence, we never stopped attacking the wolf. As long as Wayne could get aggro, we had a chance to succeed. But as soon as the Stun wore off, the Wolf ran at Dan again.

Jason continued to Stun, and we continued to hit. Having your Cleric chain cast Stun is one of the dumbest things you can do in the game, since it should build aggro to a point where your Cleric becomes the one and only target. But with Dan’s multiple Snares landing and breaking, the wolf seemed to have only one target.

After a short while, the Yellow was dead. I had never seen Dan so upset before. He really felt horrible for making these puppies orphans. I tried to focus him back on the game and told him we wouldn’t be attacking the little guys and that he should start collecting the Elven wood, but reminding him to do so in a respectful manner, whatever that meant.

“It’s good bro, I am a Wood Elf, I am one with the tree,” Dan said while he made his way toward the Elven Elder tree. He stopped for a bit when he got close to the tiny Dire Wolf Pups and I thought I was going to have to poke him again to start collecting the wood.

“You know, there has to be someone in Port Town who can take these guys. Like a shelter or something. I mean look at them, they are just Level 1 or 2 like Wayne said. They can’t survive out here on their own.”

“Dan, we slaughtered a whole field of Level 2 rabbits when we came into this game. You didn’t see anyone trying to establish a shelter for those guys,” I said.

“Fuck those rabbits,” Jason added.

“Right. Never mind the rabbits. Sorry Allister,” I responded. Jason really didn’t like rabbits. “I don’t think anyone is going to be taking Dire Wolf Pups in and raising them to be Dire Wolves. You know, the ones that attack people.”

“We have to do something bros! I mean, they can’t do anything for themselves and we just killed their mom! Look, it’s bad Karma if we don’t do anything.”

“Dan, they are mobs. What does Karma have to do with anything?” Wayne interrupted, getting even more flustered.

“Really? How about Simon Temple from the sewers under Port Town? It was you Wayne that talked about how we should help the guy out and how important Karma is! Would you like me to repeat the words for you?” Dan said while staring down Wayne. Well, staring up at Wayne, you know, because of the over 1-foot height difference.

It was at that point that I shut up. I never wanted to bring up Simon Temple again. I didn’t want to change my stance on this mid-discussion, and start agreeing with Dan, but I really didn’t want to go down the Simon Temple road. Thankfully, I didn’t need to once Wayne’s own words were used against him. Wayne could be hard headed sometimes, like when he let himself die instead of offering up the Dwarves in sacrifice, but he could also admit when he had been in error. He just never did it all that eloquently.

“Fine! Do whatever you want. Don’t let it be said that I stood in the way of Karma!” exclaimed Wayne. Yeah, not graceful at all.

“Awesome! Thanks Wayne, you’re the best! If you guys could just hang out here, I am going to run to Port Town to see if there is anything or anyone who can shelter these little guys. Heart you! Mean it!” Dan yelled out as he jumped on his summoned horse and took off for Port Town.

* * *

The look on Dan’s face when he returned said it all. We were all quite certain that Dan wouldn’t find anyone in Port Town that would take in a couple of baby mobs, but after sitting out in the woods for a bit we lost our anger at Dan’s determination. Dan was flippant at the best of times, so seeing him trying to do the right thing was something we could overlook.

“No luck. There isn’t a shelter or anything like it at Port Town. I got blank stares everywhere I asked.”

“Sorry Dan, it was a valiant effort on your part,” I said.

“Yeah. I guess. Look, I got some food for the little guys, so I’m just going to feed them, if they’ll take it, and then collect the wood. We are going to have to come back here often enough and maybe we can watch them grow up!” Dan said with a bit of a smile on his face. No one wanted to tell him that if they grew up we would probably just have to kill them later.

Dan walked over to the first Dire Wolf Pup and held out a small piece of meat. The Pup was hesitant at first, but its need for nourishment likely overcame its fear and it approached Dan, sniffing at his hand. After a few seconds, the Pup slowly began eating the food from Dan’s hand. “Oh man, that tickles. And it’s got a wet nose!”

I looked over at Jason and Wayne and they were wearing the same smile that I was. I mean really, who doesn’t love puppies? Even if they do someday grow up to be man eaters.

“What the hell?” Dan said.

“What’s wrong Dan?” Jason asked.

“Oh man. Nothing. Nothing at all!” Dan exclaimed and then going silent.

“Dan. A little update please,” I said.

“Sorry Alex, I was just double checking something from the manual. Damn this thing is huge. And I remembered reading something, but I wanted to verify first. And there it was.”

“There what was?”

Dan began reciting from the manual, “Whether Light Race or Dark Race, some Classes will be more in tune with their forest surroundings and the needs of the land. These Classes will have opportunities to acquire animal companions during the course of their lives and raise them alongside their player counterpart. Even the most fearsome of beasts will recognize those Classes that live as one with their natural environment, but only those Classes will be able to create such a bond. The Druid and Ranger Classes from the Light Races and the Dark Hunter and Shaman from the Dark Races are the only Classes that could potentially discover a companion.”

“Wait? Are you telling us you just got a pet?” Jason asked.

“It seems like it Alligate. I got this notification: You have provided succor for an animal of the forest who is unable to care for its own needs. The animal has taken sustenance from your hand. Do you wish to take responsibility for this animal?”

“Dude! That is awesome? Are you going to accept?” Wayne asked.

“Already did man. That was a no brainer. Now it is prompting me for a name for my companion. I was thinking….”

“Oh this is going to be horrible isn’t it?” Jason asked.

“Come on Allister, be optimistic,” I replied.

“What better name for a companion of TheClaw than…ThePaw?!”

“My bad Allister, you were right.”

“Dan, you realize if you name your pet ThePaw, I will just call him TP, and then everyone will think you named your pet Toilet Paper. Mostly because, that is what I will tell them. Why not call him Pink Tutu?” Wayne asked. Yup, that wasn’t going to die anytime soon.

“Ok. Ok. Not ThePaw. How about…” Dan said while thinking, “Tank.”

“Only one Tank here TC and that is me,” Wayne replied.

“Broham, you aren’t the only Tank out there you know.”

“That’s it!” Jason exclaimed. “It’s the perfect name for your little companion. Broham!”

“Alligate, that is perfect! Broham! Totally going to be his name.” We then saw the identifier over the Dire Wolf Pup change to Broham and the little wolf jumped up into Dan’s arms. It was all kind of adorable.

I sent a private message to Jason. I was shocked that of all the names he would think was perfect, he went with “Broham.” The response was magical.

“I’ve successfully stopped Dan from using one of his absurd monikers on the rest of us. A win for everyone.”

* * *

Wayne verified that indeed, only Dan was able to take one of the Dire Wolf Pups as a pet. He twice fed the other pup, who dashed out and snatched the food from Wayne’s hand, but did not eat it directly from his hand as Dan’s prompt had said. Wayne also didn’t receive any notifications the two times he tried to feed the Pup.

Of course, we knew of another who could likely take the other Pup as a pet, Kaitlin, but we couldn’t bring her here. I had to remind the guys of the oath I had given to the King Under the Mountain about maintaining the secret of the tree. Dan had Broham nestled in his arms, and suggested we just carry the other Pup to somewhere that Kaitlin and her group could meet us. We all agreed this seemed like a good idea.

Wayne volunteered to transport the second Pup, reaching down and picking him up in his arms. He immediately yelled out once the Pup was in his hands. “Son of a bitch! This little guy just bit me!”

We looked over and saw the wolf was indeed clamped on to Wayne’s finger and was gnawing away. Wayne lost 1 hit point every five seconds as the Pup continued to gnash at his finger. Dan suggested the Pup might still be hungry and Wayne could offer up a nipple. Wayne suggested Wood Elf ear. That shut Dan up.

Wayne regenerated more than one hit point every five seconds, but I thought the constant machinations of the Pup would aggravate Wayne quickly. Apparently I was wrong.

For the next hour, every time I looked over at Wayne, Pup still firmly clamped to his finger, Wayne was smiling and playing with the Pup. He was playing a game of tug of war between the Pup and his finger. And every time his hand came free, Wayne let the Pup latch back on. I even heard him saying “Oh, tough guy huh? Grrr. Who’s the tough guy here?”

Once we rendezvoused with our teammates, they asked what was going on. We hadn’t told them why we wanted to meet with them, just that it was urgent and that whatever they were doing was second to this. As Wayne got down from his horse, he reluctantly put the Pup on the ground and started walking away. Our teammates immediately came over and started oohing and ahhhing over the puppy. It really was adorable. But as Wayne walked away, toward Jenny, the Pup kept following him. Wayne looked to be going through an emotional roller coaster, and mumbled something about still having aggro.

Dan approached Kaitlin and explained what she needed to do. As soon as Kaitlin put the food in her hand, the Pup raced over to her and started eating the food straight from her hand. The look on her face told her she had just been given the same notification that Dan had. She looked around at all of us and said, “Oh my god! Really? This is real?”

We all smiled and nodded our heads and immediately we saw the Dire Wolf Pup change to “Rocky.”

“Growing up, when I was a young girl I mean, I had a dog named Rocky. He was my best friend. We did everything together. Was one of the saddest days of my life when Rocky passed. You have no idea how much I love you guys right now!” Kaitlin said while holding Rocky in her arms. Rocky nuzzled up to Kaitlin for a few moments and then jumped to the ground. He immediately found Wayne and ran at him, going back to their game of tug of war. I think Wayne was happier than Kaitlin at that moment.

“Rocky is a cool name and all, but you can’t really beat Broham. I mean there are good names and then there is epicness.”

Kaitlin walked up to Dan and got really far into his personal space, “Say another word about Rocky, just one word Dan, and I swear by everything I hold dear that you will never, ever, see me in my leather again!”

Dan immediately started to stammer, “Ummm…no…I mean Rocky is an awesome name…the best…like the bestest ever…Alex you think I can change mine to Rocky also?”

Kaitlin lost her anger after a few heart beats and then smiled at Dan, patting him on the cheek. “You are kind of cute when you’re all flustered Dan,” she said and walked back toward her group and her new pet. I swear she put a little extra sway in her hips just to tease our poor Ranger.

* * *

While traveling back to the Elven tree so Dan could begin harvesting wood for his arrows, we came across a Brown Bear that was Blue to the group. Never one to pass up experience, the group began attacking. As soon as Dan got involved in the fight, he was prompted by another notification that told him that he would be able to provide experience to his companion and would he like to accept this change. The prompt further explained that Dan was responsible for the caring of his companion, but it would only increase in size and power if it benefitted from the experience Dan received. Dan immediately clicked yes and maxed out the amount of experience Broham would receive. At the maximum amount, Broham would get 10 percent of the experience that Dan acquired from each kill.

Dan looked further at Broham’s character and saw that the Pup was Level 1 with 2 Strength, 2 Constitution, 2 Dexterity, 2 Agility, 1 Wisdom, 1 Intelligence, and 1 Chance. He also had the Skill Bite: Level 1 and had 0 experience toward Level 2. Given that Broham was such a low level, immediately after the end of the fight with the Brown Bear, Broham received two levels. For each level, Broham received three points to put into his skills, and not the usual 5 that we received. Dan talked it over with us and we agreed that he should focus on Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity. As a pet he would be following around the mob that Dan was kiting and wouldn’t need to worry about dodging any attacks. Obviously Wisdom, Intelligence, and Chance were not needed for a Dire Wolf. Dan allocated the points and put two in each. Broham moved to Level 3 and had 4 Strength, 4 Constitution, 4 Dexterity, 2 Agility, 1 Wisdom, 1 Intelligence, and 1 Chance.

As we continued along back toward the Elven tree, Dan asked if we could attack a Green Mob that was higher level than Broham but lower level than us, meaning we wouldn’t get any experience for killing it. Dan wanted to see if it was necessary for Dan to get the experience, or if Broham would get 10 percent of what Dan “would” have gotten. We agreed and killed the first Green mob we came across. However, Broham didn’t receive any experience.

“Oh well, thanks for letting me try that experiment guys,” Dan said.

“See. Now that is how an experiment should be done. Simple, effective, and no one gets killed,” Wayne said.

“Bah! No one has ever been killed because of my experiments!” I replied.

“Not for lack of trying on your part!” Wayne returned.

I shook my head and said under my breath, “I can’t believe he is still pissed about getting an ass whooping by rabbits.”

Once we arrived at the Elven tree, Dan went to work on harvesting wood for his arrows. Dan explained that before he started making arrow shafts out of the Elven wood he wanted to increase his Fletching skill. As it was now, Dan would fail way more often than he would succeed while trying to use a high quality wood such as Elven. Therefore, he planned to work his way up through other woods which were cheaper and easier to obtain, until he felt he could have greater success with the Elven material.

We all agreed this was in everyone’s best interest, since at the higher levels the arrows would cost more to make and we didn’t want failure after failure going through our already meager supply of Gold. It was agreed that from that point on we would level for half the day and would do our own thing for the other half. Wayne planned to continue working with the Dwarves to increase their abilities. Dan would work his Fletching skill, while Jason and I would scout for more places we could fight and get level. On occasion, Jason and I would join up with Wayne to check on our kinsmen.

Our last task of the day, before logging off, was to make sure there wasn’t a quest waiting for us at Level 18 from Sir Kenyon. So that’s where we decided to log off for the day after receiving nothing from the quest giver.

CHAPTER 24

September 23rd, 2043

The next day started much like we planned. We made our way out past the bandit camp and started looking for more mobs to get experience from. It took quite a bit of time to travel out to that point, but the passage of time was shorter thanks to our increased riding ability. As our skill grew, so did the speed of our summoned horses. I didn’t know if it would max out once our Beast Riding reached Level 100, but we would know once we hit Level 21. But at the moment, Level 21 seemed like a long way away.

We kept to the plan that we made the evening before, discussing it again after logging in. We would level for half the day, and for the other half we would do our own things. Dan working on his Fletching, Wayne with the Dwarves, and Jason and I finding more places to level. And our leveling would be more sporadic now. Wayne and I were still lagging behind Jason and Dan because of our previous deaths. But now Dan would be losing 10 percent of his experience to level Broham. Neither Jason nor Dan had died since we reached Level 10, but Jason was the only one who was now continuing without any penalty or burden. It just meant it was going to take us longer to reach our goal of more Levels.

The first goal was to find suitable mobs, and that was turning out to be more of a challenge than I would have preferred. There just weren’t that many mobs in our area, since this was still technically the starting area, that could give us experience. The travel time was going to put a damper on our other tasks and was going to make leveling and completing our other tasks take longer as well.

After traveling for a couple of hours, at least an hour travel from both the Dwarves and the Elven tree, we found a suitable area to begin our task of leveling. The mobs were forest creatures, much as they had previously been, so our loot consisted only of the skins we were getting from the beasts. Jason had learned from one of his trips to Port Town that the skins sold for almost 1 Gold and that the merchants sold them for just over 2 Gold. Not worth the effort to sell them to players, of which there was a limited market, for just a 50 Silver profit. Instead, we sold the Fine skins at the merchants and stockpiled our Gold. What little of it we had.

We settled in to the grind of leveling and slowly ate away at our experience bar. The mobs we had found were Blue to us, but weren’t giving much in the way of experience. Jason and I planned to look some more after the day’s worth of leveling, but after our time was up, we had barely put a dent into our experience bar. It looked like we were in for a bit of a long haul unless we could find mobs that were more giving with their experience.

* * *

September 30th, 2043

A week had passed and we were still grinding away at mobs in the forest. Jason and I had found some pockets of mobs that offered better experience, but nothing dramatic. After the week of leveling, Jason was the only one of us that had hit level 19. Dan was still below Jason, as ten percent of his experience was going to Broham, however the Wolf had leveled up to 8 in that time. The leveling would become a lot slower for Broham as well, as his own Level steadily increased.

Broham (Level 8) – 9 Strength, 8 Constitution, 8 Dexterity, 3 Agility, 1 Wisdom, 1 Intelligence, 1 Chance – Skill: Bite – Level 40

Despite the slow movement of our experience bars, our other endeavors were starting to pay out. Dan’s Fletching skill was steadily increasing, and he believed that in another couple of days he would be of sufficient level to start making Elder Elven wood arrow shafts to use in his Archery Skill. Dan had found a copse of various trees that he could harvest, a sub-skill of Fletching, for various types of wood to master his craft. He had gone through Pine, Cedar, and Birch as he improved his abilities. Birch was a high quality wood and made excellent arrow shafts. This was a great benefit to all of us, since there were plenty of Rangers who were playing pure Archers and who were buying up the arrow shafts Dan was selling to the merchants. I told him he could likely get more if he auctioned them off, but Dan wasn’t one to sit idly by and wait for people to come to him. The good news was that Dan was no longer losing any money on Crafting, and was even making a small profit. We didn’t plan to sell any of the Elven wood arrows that Dan made, so all of our extra Gold from skins was going to be used to finance Dan’s ability to lay down damage.

Wayne also was having great success with the Dwarves. In a short time, he had designed a rotation for the East Range Dwarves, and they began clearing out the area around the mine. The mobs there were on a several hours respawn timer, which allowed for the Dwarves to clear out an area with ample time remaining before the next group began the same process. Wayne couldn’t say what level they were at now, but they were going through the mobs quicker than they had when they first started fighting.

More importantly, they were able to sell all of the High Quality Iron Ore that Wayne had unearthed, as well as a healthy amount of Fermium. Minus the ore needed to make Dan’s arrow heads of course. This extra money provided the Dwarves an opportunity to buy more equipment for the mine, as well as for their own armor. Almost every Dwarf had a full set of armor now. Wayne explained it all to me, listing the price of Fermium per kilogram. The amount was astronomical. And after just a little over a week of mining the ore in the entrance of the cave, the Dwarves had found enough to bankroll their own operation. Once the first shipment of Mithral arrived, the East Range Dwarves would be looking at some serious upgrades.

Following my advice, Wayne spoke with Tibble about what to do with the Mithral delivered by King Steelhammer. Tibble was of a mindset to keep it all, and see what his smiths could come up with. However, Wayne urged Tibble to think long term, focusing on the overall needs of the Clan and not just one or two aspects. Wayne suggested that Tibble sell the Medium Quality Mithral, use the Low Quality to increase the skills of their Smith, and to put whatever High Quality Mithral they received in reserve, not to be touched until their Smiths were able to work the metal themselves. Tibble was loath to sell any of the Mithral, but he saw reason when Wayne started discussing the fortifications they could make around the mine to ensure no one from the outside could take it from the East Range Clan. Of course all of this would cost money.

Separately, the Dwarves were cranking out arrow heads for Dan. They had already produced 300, and would continue to produce them as the Fermium became available. Tibble explained to Wayne that the arrowhead design was a simple one, and it had allowed for a number of the other Dwarves, aside from Thad, to begin learning the Smithing techniques for using Fermium. It was a win-win situation for all. Tibble had not lied, and the arrowheads did not have any magical properties. However, their strength and lightness did add a +4 Atk modifier. That would greatly increase the damage output Dan would be bringing to the table.

The Elven arrow shafts did not give a bonus to Atk, but rather a bonus to hit, increasing Dan’s accuracy greatly. The Birch arrow shafts that Dan created gave a 15 percent increase to hit, which is why they did not stay on the shelves at the merchant’s shop long. The first successful Elven arrow Dan created gave a 35 percent increase. Dan explained to the group that when he first started making the Birch shafts, the bonus was only five percent, but that it increased as his skill increased. We were hoping the same would be true with the Elven shafts. We hoped it would top out at 50 percent, but none of us knew for sure.

Jason and I weren’t having as much luck as our counterparts in progressing, until that eighth day when we finally found something of worth.

* * *

October 1st, 2043

“So what have we got?” Dan asked as he arrived on his horse that next morning. Broham was running beside him and didn’t look the least bit winded despite having to keep up with a horse. The wolf companion’s movement speed was almost as fast as the horse, and would likely over take it as it grew in levels. Broham had also grown in size as he grew in levels, and looked to be the same as a wolf that had seen one and a half years instead of just nine days. His size would continue to grow as well. A full size Dire Wolf stood almost three and a half feet at the shoulders. Broham could technically get larger than that.

“Jason’s favorite,” I responded.

“Hell yeah! Undead! I can’t wait to put the smack down!” Jason said while giving Wayne a high five.

“Let’s not rush into anything, I’m going to want to scout this place out before we rush in,” I reminded them.

There were no more groans of angst when I said I wanted to scout now, since my Conceal/Stealth and Blacksuit were moving at 100 percent of my movement speed. The groans this time were because the guys just didn’t want to wait.

“At least Jenny will be happy we found this place. They loved going through the castle and destroying the Undead there,” Wayne added.

“How are they coming along anyhow?”

“Really good. In fact, they are catching up to us pretty quickly. Since they aren’t bothering with any Crafting skills or building a Clan, they have been able to focus solely on leveling. They all have horses now and really good gear. They aren’t quite where we are because of our extra loots, but some of their purchased gear is better than ours.”

“Good,” I responded. “I want them leveling up to where we are as quickly as they can. I prefer that we all progress together and spend more time with each other.”

“I call Dibs on Kaitlin bro!” Dan said from behind us, as we walked toward the run down fort that was housing the Undead.

“Better not let her hear you say that Dan. She’ll put your balls in a vice!” Wayne exclaimed.

“I usually have to pay extra for that,” Dan responded in a whisper.

We all stopped as one, and turned back to look at Dan with our mouths slightly opened in shock.

“Joking! Jeez! You guys are always way too serious.”

“No one knows what kind of kink you rich asses get up to in your homes. Or your second homes. I’ve read Fifty Shades of Grey!” Jason said back to Dan.

“Woah! Way too much information bro. I don’t have a dungeon, or even a basement. Not that I wouldn’t mind a swing.”

“Stop. Enough. I have food I would like to keep down.” Jason said, ending the conversation.

We continued walking toward the fort and I started counting the Undead I could see. From behind me I heard Dan whisper to Wayne, “Seriously though bro, you won’t tell Kaitlin I said that right? I mean, we are boys right? You got my back?”

“Huh? Sorry, what was that Dan? I wasn’t paying attention. Someone just messaged me to ask about my Pink Tutu.”

“Oh man. Fuck my life.”

* * *

The unnamed fort housed a contingent of Undead Guards. We could see many of them through the breaches in the walls. I did a quick run through the fort and noted all of the Undead were Blue to me. I asked Jason what they registered for him, and he said Blue as well. This meant they were Level 20, two levels over Dan, Wayne, and I, and one level over Jason. The experience would be good for the three of us until we hit level 19, and then it would be back to the grind. However, this time Jason didn’t mind at all, since he knew he was going to get to use his Banish Undead spell, and probably become our top damage dealer.

After doing a thorough run through the fort I didn’t see any sign of where a boss or mini-boss could be located. I relayed this information to my group and we settled in to begin our wrecking spree. The plan was relatively simple. Dan would grab one or two at a time, kite one of them if we got two, letting Broham tear away at its flank, and Wayne would Tank the other. Standard operating procedure for us at this point.

And in no time, we had cleared the mobs. Each one dropped about 1 Gold piece, so if nothing else, we had us another cash cow, especially for the amount of force necessary to eradicate the fortress guards. But we still didn’t see any sort of boss after we had cleared the whole fortress. It may have been that this was simply a place to level and not a dungeon type event.

It only took us a little over an hour to clear the mobs, and none of them had respawned yet. I decided that I would go out with Dan and pull the mobs as they respawned, hoping that with my Chance modifier, we could at least get one rare mob to spawn. The money was good, and the items dropped would also sell for a Gold a piece, but we wanted more. What can I say, we’re greedy.

The respawn on the mobs was two hours. I was standing next to Dan when the first mob popped back into existence. Again we got only an Undead Guard. I ran back with Dan to engage the mob with Wayne tanking and Jason adding his massive amount of undead damage. We continued like this through the entire fortress. Not a single rare spawn in the bunch.

“I guess you aren’t as lucky as I thought you were Alex,” Dan said. “I figured with your Chance, half of the mobs in this place would have ended up being rare spawns.”

“Yeah,” I said, thinking the same thing but still not wanting to let on that my Chance was way higher than anyone thought it was. I checked again to make sure the error had taken effect today, and saw that indeed my Chance was at 177. “I guess we just got really lucky those other times.”

“Well let’s clear these guys one more time. I’m close to getting my Level 19, and Broham is almost up to Level 10. After that we can go our separate ways and meet back up here tomorrow to continue bringing the pain.”

We all agreed and went through the mobs one last time. Again, there were no rare spawns. In total we collected almost 120 Gold and enough items to add another 30 or so in Gold. Our bank was in desperate need for funds, and I was happy to see that we would be replenishing some. I had no idea when we would get to the Capital, but I wanted to have some better gear when we did.

Dan received his Level 19 and Broham his Level 10. We all handed over our backpacks to Jason and he Gated back to Port Town to sell our items. In the meantime, Wayne headed back to the Dwarves, and Dan went off to improve his Fletching. I was alone out here in the woods, so I decided to do some more scouting around. I started at the fort and made ever larger circles heading away from the structure, hoping I would find something. And boy, did I ever.

Broham (Level 10) – 11 Strength, 10 Constitution, 10 Dexterity, 3 Agility, 1 Wisdom, 1 Intelligence, 1 Chance – Skill: Bite – Level 46

* * *

October 2nd, 2043

Wayne seemed to be the most concerned as the group came together and they saw the big smile on my face. “I know that look. That look means that I strip down to my little clothes and get poked in uncomfortable places to satisfy your morbid curiosity! I won’t do it I tell you!”

“Who the hell says ‘little clothes’ Wayne? What are you, Amish?”

“It’s called roleplaying Dan! This is a Roleplaying Game after all. And not a single word about what you think roleplaying involves.”

“For once my smile has nothing to do with you getting hurt Wayne. Or butt hurt, which usually comes after one of my inquiries.”

“See what he did there? He tried to soften up the word experiment by saying ‘inquiry.’ None of us are buying it bro.”

“I was buying it.” Dan replied.

I started laughing and said, “Thanks TC.” I then looked toward Wayne and said, “Seriously brother, this isn’t one of my experiments. I’ve found something that is going to make everyone very happy.”

Without another word, I headed off in the direction of my discovery and stopped a good distance away from my destination. I told the guys I needed to invis up and target the mob so they could see what I was talking about.

The previous day, while scouting out for more mobs, or anything interesting, I came across a cave not far from the fort. It appeared the resident of said cave was the cause of the Undead Guards. As I got close enough to easily select my target, I highlighted the Lich Prince who was standing just inside the mouth of the cave. To each side, the Prince had an Undead Guard. The two Guards were Blue and the Prince was Yellow. We could definitely handle this guy. Once I had him highlighted, I told my group to check out the mob I had targeted.

“Oh hell yeah! Nice find Alex!” Jason said.

“Damn! And he is only Yellow! How many others with him Alex?” Wayne asked.

“There are only two other Guards around him. And I scouted this out yesterday and earlier today. There are no more mobs in the cave where he is standing. It looks like just three mobs. Pretty easy for us!”

We headed over to the cave in our usual formation and took up our respective places. Dan would kite one of the Blues and Wayne would Tank the Lich and the other Blue. Per our normal procedures, we would kill the Blue first and then focus on the Lich. There was no telling what kind of surprises this bad boy would have for us, but at least we could manage this first part pretty easy.

At the signal, which amounted to me pointing at the Blue and nodding toward Dan, we engaged in our fight.

Everything flowed naturally and we quickly dealt with the Blue that Dan wasn’t kiting. With that mob down, Wayne and I focused our attentions on the Lich and began to nibble away at his hit points. As the Lich got down to just over 90 percent, it cast a Damage over Time spell on Wayne. This wasn’t like any of the DoTs we had seen before, where the spell did pure damage over a given period of time. Instead, this spell not only damaged Wayne, but also healed the Lich at the same time.

“Damnit! He just hit me with Blood Drain. He’s healing.”

The Lich only healed for a couple of percentage points, but that was life he got, and that Wayne lost. We had buffed before the fight, so there was nothing more we could do but take it and keep going. Jason indicated that his mana was fine, but that technically the Lich wasn’t undead, so he wouldn’t be adding any damage to this fight. That left it up to Wayne and I to take this guy down, at least until Dan finished off the Blue. But I hoped it wouldn’t take that long.

We got the Prince down to 90 percent again. Before I could tell Wayne to watch for the DoT, the Lich’s health points went back up, but this time all at once.

“What did he cast on you Wayne?”

“Nothing man, it wasn’t me.”

“Ummm, guys. I think we have a problem,” Dan said.

“Go Dan.”

“This Blue just lost a bunch of hit points.”

“How is that a problem?”

“I wasn’t shooting it.”

I realized what happened immediately. The Lich, being a master of Death magic, had siphoned off some of the health of the Undead Guard. I didn’t see this as a problem though, I saw it as a solution. All we had to do was kill the second Blue and we would own this guy.

I explained it to my group, “He’s a Lich, so he is stealing the life from the Guard. Bring him over here Dan, and Wayne and I will go at him.”

“Screw that noise!” Jason yelled and cast Banish Undead before any of us could stop him.

The Guard’s hit points dropped dramatically and Dan and I were able to finish it off while Wayne stayed on the Lich. I just hoped Jason hadn’t wasted mana that we could have used to heal Wayne in the long run.

Now that the Guard was down, we all focused on the Lich. Wayne with his war hammer, me with my dagger, Dan with his arrows, and Broham with his teeth. The Lich’s health was falling quickly. I was certain he would land a few more Blood Drain spells on Wayne, but in the long run we had this in the bag. I was mentally high fiving everyone. That was the exact moment the Lich healed to full.

“What the fuck?” Dan yelled out.

“Great time to find a bug in the game! Someone needs to start writing a report on this now. I’m pissed.” Jason exclaimed.

“I don’t think it’s a bug.” Wayne said. Dan, Jason, and I were facing the interior of the cave, but Wayne was on the other side of the Lich, and looking past the Prince and outside the cave. When I looked at Wayne he was indicating away from himself and out the entrance. I turned around briefly to see what Wayne was looking at and I could see the wall of the fort not far from our location.

And that’s when it hit me. Why the cave was so close to the fort. We were so screwed.

“The fort! The Undead in the fort! We didn’t kill them before we got here. He’s probably close enough to leach off of them too. We are so so dead.”

“We’ve got one chance Alex, we run. Hopefully this asshole boomerangs.” Wayne told me.

I was all in agreement for that, and told Dan to take off first with Broham so he could make sure he got outside of aggro range and that Broham wouldn’t do something stupid.

I told Jason to go next, followed by me. Wayne insisted on being the last to go after Jason healed him to full.

All of us were outside of the aggro range when Wayne started running and getting beat down from behind. Only one of us would die in this case, but I really didn’t want any of us to lose any more experience.

Our luck finally turned and the Lich did boomerang! He popped back to his starting point and was again at full health. The boomerang reset the fight and the two Undead Guards also spawned next to him. But I didn’t care one bit about any of that. All I cared about was that my group was whole and no one lost any experience.

When we all had a moment to calm down and let our heart rate’s return to normal, we immediately started talking about the fight. And overall our reactions were positive. I mean, let’s face it. That fight kicked ass!

It was one hundred percent outside of what we had seen so far. The whole way the fight went down worked out perfectly for the designers at AltCon as well. I imagine if we had cleared the fort and then found the Lich, we would have thought him an easy target. But with the Undead all kicking in the fort, that Lich became an unstoppable force. So either way, we would have likely fought the Lich at some point without killing the Guards at the fort. Mad props to the boys and girls at AltCon for this encounter. I was even tempted to write them a note, congratulating them on a great encounter and design.

I was tempted. I wasn’t actually going to do it.

The other also thought the encounter was top notch. We even had a debate on whether we should tell Jenny and her group about the encounter when we eventually showed them the location. After debating back and forth, Wayne’s desire to have good relations with Jenny and Dan’s desire to have his balls unharmed, won out and we agreed to tell them. It was mostly Wayne and Jenny that won Jason and I over. No one cared much for Dan’s scrotum defense.

* * *

Once everyone’s mana was full and our hit points back to 100 percent, we went about clearing the fort of the Undead. Knowing the respawn time on the Undead in the fort, told us that we should have ample time to kill the Lich before we had to worry about all the Undead coming back and aiding the Prince in the fight. That last thing any of wanted was to be in the middle of that fight and suddenly have deal with all of the Undead again.

With the Undead killed and all of their loot collected, we went back to the cave. We already knew our roles in this fight, and once everyone was fully buffed, proceeded to attack. We killed the first Blue Wayne was Tanking, then killed the Blue Dan was kiting. After that it was an easy day to go at the Lich. He hit Wayne with a few Blood Drains, but his only other special skill seemed to be the life drain he had on the Undead. With all of those taken out of the fight, the Lich went down with ease.

I didn’t know if this was a boss fight or not, but I wasn’t going to lose out on the opportunity at great loot. I activated my Force Multiplier ring and proceeded to loot the Lich.

It had one item of value, a couple of Dark spells, and something that was going to make Jason very happy.

“Allister, I think this meets your requirements my good man.”

I linked the Prince’s Crown to the group. It didn’t have any bonuses to it, much like the Regent’s Signet Ring. Jason gave out a yelp of joy as he rushed over to the Lich to loot the item. We were all looking forward to Jason getting a title! Duke Allister would be so cool!

I looted the spells since I would be responsible for selling them and then linked the last item to the group. This was a neck Item that all of us could use, but wasn’t tradeable. The problem was that it was built mainly for a caster, which none of us were.

“How do you guys feel about Wayne getting this item?” I asked the group. “The Constitution will obviously do him some good, but I am thinking more about the aggro he would get from casting that spell in a fight. Anything he hit with that would be pissed!”

Everyone was in agreement, and Wayne thanked everyone kindly. It wasn’t a great item, but if used during a boss fight, it could possibly mean the difference between keeping and losing aggro. The only problem is that Wayne would need to remember to switch out his new Amulet with his Necklace of Dark Elf Vision. It would be the responsibility of the group to remind him to do that, until it became routine for him.

With 30 minutes still left on the timer, we sat down and waited for the Undead at the fort to respawn, so we could run through the mobs all over again. Dan, Wayne, and I were all close to hitting our Level 19, and we hoped one more run through the fort would get us there. Everyone was curious about the respawn timer on the Lich as well. I figured it was a minimum of 8 hours, and Jason and Wayne were leaning closer to 24 hours. Dan was playing with Broham. And doing a crossword.

We ran through the mobs once they respawned, this time with me sitting out with the group since we knew it wasn’t my Chance that was contingent on the boss spawning, but the location of the boss. We were having fun, since there was no real chance of any of us dying, not with Jason’s powerful Banish Undead spell playing its part. And with another round of Undead slayed, we collected all of our loot and added more Gold to our growing coffers. Dan reached his Level 19, but Wayne and I had one more round of Undead to go before we would level as well.

Wayne and I really wanted to hit our levels before we called it a day at the fort and Dan headed off to level up his Crafting. It meant a lot of sitting and waiting, but Jason and Dan seemed content to relax. Well Dan mostly. I could see Jason was itching to get back to Port Town and get his title. But for the benefit of the group he didn’t complain about having to wait for another respawn.

After the next respawn, we all had our levels. There was much celebrating. And within seconds of me calling the group done for the day, Jason had Gated with all of our loot to sell at the merchants. But more importantly, he was heading back to Port Town where his new status would be unlocked.

Ten minutes later we all heard Jason through our links to him, “Well doesn’t that just suck!”

“Are you ok Allister?” Wayne asked.

“I’m fine Naugha. I just won’t be getting my title just yet.”

“Oh no. What happened Allister, the Prince’s crown didn’t work?” I asked.

“No, no. It worked fine. Apparently the NPC quest giver can’t bestow a title on someone. I have to go to the Capitol for that. But when I tried to get the next part of the quest I was told I wasn’t at the appropriate level, you know, like how Sir Kenyon does to us all the time. I guess I will just have to keep waiting.”

The disappointment in Jason’s voice was obvious, and we all told him it wouldn’t be long till we were making our way to the Capitol. I too was anxious to get there, although none of the guys knew that.

The group had already split up, with Dan and Wayne doing their usual thing. I was tempted to go with Wayne, but I wasn’t going to add much to his efforts. And going with Dan would be entirely fruitless. I decided to spend some more time looking around the area we were fighting, just to see if there was more out here that I had missed. It also gave me a chance to level up my Conceal/Stealth. With my bonuses, I was already moving at 100 percent movement speed, but you never know when things like that can go away.

Despite the disappointment for Jason, this had been a solid day of gaming.

* * *

October 5th, 2043

My efforts to investigate our surroundings near the fort paid off and I found a few more pockets of mobs that were of a level we could gain experience. There weren’t any more unique fights or bosses, but finding more mobs meant that we had very little down time. Additionally, While Jason was in Port Town for his quest, he had learned of a player who was selling Crafted items. Nothing new there, but this player had definitely leveled up his Crafting skill significantly and was selling an item that every player was drooling over. Backpacks.

Up until this point, we only had the one backpack each, which allowed us to carry more inventory. Too often we had been forced to either leave loot on mobs or drop things at our sides because we ran out of inventory space. A backpack would allow us to carry far more goods. There was nothing magical about these backpacks, no weight reduction or anything like that, so we still had to be mindful of how much weight we were carrying. We could all recall with no problem what it was like to be encumbered and eventually fatigued. Well, Wayne and Dan remembered how much it sucked for the rest of us anyhow.

The backpacks weren’t cheap, but I wasn’t worried about the money they would cost. I was more concerned with their quality. The bags the player was selling only had six extra slots for carrying items. When I reached out to the player, I found out this was due to the type and quality of animal skins used for creating the items. The player had a fairly high skill, but he still tended to fail more often than not when it came to using the Fine animal skins. And the only skins that made eight slot or ten slot backpacks came from the largest of animals. I made a deal with the player on the spot. We would provide him with Fine animal skins at no cost, so long as we had first shot at the improved backpacks, and at a discount. There was no argument from the player.

In that regard, my extra mobs were a huge find since they were all forest animals and of a high level. When they dropped skins, they were almost always Fine quality, and there were quite a few Bear skins in there, which I believed would be used for the larger backpacks.

The other thing I found while I was out running around was a wall. A huge wall that ran across the North of the area. I couldn’t find any way around it, and I figured it represented the border of our area, and anything beyond that would be considered the domain of the next area. I was hesitant, but hopeful, that the other side of that wall was the region of the Capitol.

Also during the time from our first Lich fight three days previous, Dan had acquired a skill level sufficient to start mass producing the Elven arrow shafts. He already had several hundred in his inventory, waiting for arrow heads to attach. Dan would lose some of the arrow shafts and arrow heads during the combining process, but his skill was such that he would only lose a small percentage. Dan had stopped harvesting the Elven Elder tree for now, as he said it would take some time before he could resume without doing any damage to the tree. I reminded him of our oath to the King Under the Mountain, and he said he was fully aware of said oath, and was one of his main reasons for stopping. He also didn’t know what would happen to the quality of the wood if the tree was damaged, and that was the other reason for stopping.

Wayne’s efforts with the Dwarves continued unabated, and the higher level Dwarves were now needing to range farther out to find mobs they could gain experience from. Wayne said they were starting to look like quite the formidable force. Tibble had even taken the initiative to send two of the miners back to the main city Under the Mountain, Awswel Hall, to receive training in the healing arts. Tibble confided in Wayne that the two Dwarves weren’t much for warriors, and were only mediocre at mining, but had shown a natural affinity for patching up the dwarves who returned from leveling. Wayne, and I post-facto, congratulated and praised Tibble on his initiative and foresight.

We encountered the Lich Prince two more times as well. He continued to drop Dark spells, which I planned to sell near the Citadel. They were Level 18 spells, so I knew I could sell them for 17 Gold each and make a nice profit. Every bit of Gold helped in the game, so getting a 3 Gold discount would make my spells tempting. The only issue was whether anyone in the Citadel would be level 18 yet.

Now the only thing left for us to do was to grind and get our level. Jason and Dan would get new spells at Level 20, and Wayne and I would get new Skills. It was still unclear what those would be, but it was something to keep working towards.

The only other thing of note to happen during this time was one of the AltCon messages we had been receiving on occasion. Unlike the games they offered to sell at a reduced price, this time they were offering the actual company! Each of my teammates received the same message that I had, offering players the unique opportunity to not only play the game, but be a part of the company as well by buying the stock at a reduced price. And it didn’t stop there. AltCon also offered the same deal to friends and family of the players. All they needed to do was provide a reference number provided in the message.

I thought the whole deal with the old games was a sham, but this actually seemed like a good deal. I wished I had some extra income lying around that I could put toward stock in AltCon, but at the moment my funds were depleted. I thought about maybe reaching out to some old acquaintances I knew from my college days or my professional gaming days and extending them the offer. However, I realized I hadn’t talked to any of them in at least a year and it would look really creepy if I contacted them out of the blue with the information. Yeah, I would end up looking like “that guy.”

The guys, as was the scenario last time we encountered this, were all ramped up to get some stock and contact their family. Jason wanted to take a break to get started on it, since many of his family lived in different time zones. But our desire to grind out weighed his, and there was more than enough time in the day to both play and reach out to family. So grind on we did.

* * *

October 7th, 2043

“BOOM!” Jason yelled out as he cast his Banish Undead and finished the mob we were fighting.

“Boom is right! Level 20! Finally!” Wayne yelled out and distributed high fives all around. We were all now at Level 20! First thing I did was have everyone tell me what their stats were now. I wanted to remember this moment!

Level 20

Alex (Alex) – 22 (+7) Strength, 24 (+19) Constitution, 10 (+23) Agility, 45 (+31) Dexterity, 6 (+6) Wisdom, 1 (+6) Intelligence, 190 (+7) Chance

Wayne (Naugha) – 35 (+37) Strength, 55 (+39) Constitution, 4 (+21) Agility, 25 (+21) Dexterity, 6 (+6) Wisdom, 2 (+6) Intelligence, 1 (+6) Chance

Dan (TheClaw) – 19 (+32) Strength, 26 (+7) Constitution, 48 (+31) Agility, 3 (+21) Dexterity, 28 (+6) Wisdom, 1 (+6) Intelligence, 1 (+6) Chance

Jason (Allister) – 17 (+7) Strength, 26 (+17) Constitution, 3 (+6) Agility, 1 (+6) Dexterity, 68 (+23) Wisdom, 10 (+11) Intelligence, 1 (+6) Chance

Jason, Dan, and I had already reached our Level 20 and Wayne was the last to get his level. But disappointment on top of disappointment had piled on as we each gained our level. Jason and Dan weren’t able to find anyone who sold the Level 20 spells in Port Town, and I wasn’t able to get my Skills from Port Town either. Our merchant friend informed us that he didn’t have the spells the guys wanted and that spells of such a high level could only be found in the Capitol. The bloody Capitol again! I was guessing it was the same for Wayne and I when it came to our new Skills.

But knowing that all of us would need to get to the Capitol to progress, made me think that with all of us at Level 20 we would finally get our ticket to the next domain.

Dan’s efforts and that of the Dwarves finally came to fruition as well as Dan now possessed hundreds of improved arrows sitting in the backpacks he carried in his inventory. These were a finite item though, so I told Dan to be very conservative with how he used them. Each slot in his backpack would allow him to carry up to 50 arrows, so there was no threat of him running out of room in his inventory.

And when it came to the backpacks, we had made out. All of the Fine Bear skins we had found during our grinding had significantly increased the Skill of the player merchant and we all had multiple backpacks of 8 or 10 slots sitting in our inventory. The player was so thankful that we had helped him to increase his Skill level, he sold us the backpacks at cost. I vowed that we would continue to help him level his Skill by giving him the skins whenever we found them. He was making a killing on the other players anyhow, and it was wise of him to hook up his benefactors.

The spells we collected from the Lich also had no problem selling in the Citadel. There weren’t many who had made it to Level 18, but many were close and they were happy to save a few Gold along the way. I had sold all 8 of the Level 18 spells I had, adding another 136 Gold to our total.

As we traveled back, I asked the guys if they had taken up AltCon’s recent offer to purchase stock in their company at a reduced rate. As I noted before, I didn’t have much in the way of disposable income, so I had passed. But it had been the focus of several conversations while we were leveling.

“I placed an order already,” Dan said, but didn’t have anything more to add.

“It’s actually been a topic of contention in my household,” Jason added. “I wanted to buy a bunch but my partner was against it. He controls the finances in our house, and it has led to more than a few arguments. He was none too pleased when I reached out to our friends and family telling them they should jump on this chance.”

“Jenny and I were talking about it too,” Wayne said. “We couldn’t convince any of our family, but we certainly tried. We are going to do so again tonight. What about you Alex?”

“Not really within my finances. Plus, outside of you guys, I don’t really have that many friends!” I said and we all laughed.

We settled in to make our way back to Port Town, talking here and there about whatever topics came to mind, including the stock deal on a few occasions. But foremost on our minds was what might come next. We had walked out of Port Town that first day as Level 1 newbies. Today, we would enter as the first in Port Town to achieve Level 20, and we would do it as a group.

* * *

Cheers went up amongst my friends as the golden glow of a quest surrounded us as we stood next to Sir Kenyon.

“Well met mighty adventurers! So few have answered the King’s call, and yet you have continued to stand by his Majesty time and again! I wish I could say you were no longer in need, but times are dire and your aid is needed now more than ever. You have done much to secure the area around Port Town, but the Kingdom is mighty and large, and so unrest continues throughout the land. If you truly wish to continue on this path, and wish to aid in the Kingdom’s safety, you will need to reach the Capitol. Take this writ of passage and show it to the guards at the mighty gate separating our lands. Take also this map and it will guide you to my comrades. They will tell you all you need know to continue in his Majesty’s defense. Travel well adventurers!”

“Oh man! Oh man! This is so balltastic! I can’t believe we get to see a new area!” Dan exclaimed while jumping around. Call it a sympathetic reaction, but Broham was jumping around too.

Who the hell was I kidding? Hell, we were all jumping around!

We had already spent most of the day fighting and leveling, and no one knew how long it would take us to get to the Capitol. On top of that, Wayne wanted to see Jenny and show her the Undead fort, explaining how that worked. Dan wanted to take one more look at the Elven tree to see if there was any more wood he could harvest safely, and I needed to see Stan. Jason was the only one without a plan. At least that’s what we thought.

“Celebration time!” Jason yelled out as he grabbed all of us and started heading to the Tavern.

“While I can’t believe I am saying this; I have to skip the Tavern Alliteration.”

“Dan, trust me when I say you will want to be there for this one.”

“I kinda want to go see Jenny too bro, you know, show her the Undead fort and all that before we skip town,” Wayne added.

“Oh stop being dullards and just have one drink with me!” Jason yelled out.

I wanted to go see Stan, but I was with Jason. We definitely needed to celebrate. So as a group we walked over to the Tavern for the first time.

“Congratulations!”

We looked around the Tavern and saw all of our teammates were already there! Jason had a smirk on his face when I looked at him, while Wayne ran over to give Jenny a mighty hug that took her off her feet.

“What are you guys doing here?” Wayne asked while holding Jenny close.

“Allister contacted us as soon as you guys started for Town. The first to reach Level 20, that definitely calls for a party!” Kaitlin yelled out. All the heads in the Tavern turned toward our group as she yelled this and then a mighty cheer went up throughout the establishment. People started coming over and congratulating Dan and Wayne, who were well known at the Tavern. There were a few thrown in there for Jason and I as well, but no one really knew who we were.

“You guys are the best,” I said to Kaitlin. “How’s it going?”

“Oh, we almost caught you guys! So close! We should hit level 19 tomorrow. So I expect to be right up there with you and your cohorts soon.”

“Good! And Wayne is going to show you guys a spot we found that is going to make that a whole lot easier. Jenny will love it too. After we have a couple of drinks, I expect those two to go riding off to see it. And for whatever,” I said with a wink at the end.

Kaitlin laughed along and then quickly turned her head toward the table. Dan was about to sit down in a chair to say something to Gary and Tim when Kaitlin said, “Sorry Dan, I already called dibs on that chair. You know what calling dibs is, don’t you Dan?”

Dan stood up suddenly and his face started going red. Kaitlin slowly approached him, with that little sway in her hips, and said, “I mean, sure, everyone knows what dibs is. It’s what you call when you want something. Like that chair, or a spell, or an item. All inanimate objects.”

Dan’s Adam’s Apple physically moved as he took a large swallow, backing up slightly as Kaitlin kept moving closer to him. “Can I call dibs on not getting my ass beat right now?”

Kaitlin and the rest of us laughed loudly. She got all the way up to Dan and then leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Congratulations assclown, well done.”

Dan’s face might have been red, but his smile was from ear to ear.

* * *

After the revelries had died down and we all went our separate ways, I headed for Stan’s house.

It was as if Stan knew I was coming and was already waiting for me at the outskirts of the clearing surrounding his home. He was dressed in his regular black garments and had a backpack over his shoulder.

“Heading out on a trip Stan?”

“Yup. Apparently some young lads from Port Town are all the talk right now. Heading to the Capitol I hear,” Stan said while winking at me.

“How could you know that?” I asked him.

“Are ya kidding me lad? That party at the Tavern has spilled out to most of Port Town. Everyone knows it!”

“Well that makes this easier. So I will find you in the Capitol when I arrive?”

“Aye son, just come to the Stinky Pit when you get there.”

“Is that a dungeon or something?”

“Aye, been many a lad that ended up calling that place a dungeon!” Stan exclaimed while laughing. “But no me boy, it ain’t like that. It’s an inn down in the seedier quarters of the Capitol. When you get there, just ask for Dhalean. Don’t many out past this grove know me true name. So I would thank ya to stop calling me Stan till we gets down to the Underground.”

“You got it! Thank you again for everything. I certainly wouldn’t be standing here today, ready to make my way to the Capitol, if it weren’t for your tutelage. You have been a great mentor and teacher.”

“Ah shut up with that nonsense, before you make this old Halfling tear up. Just get your butt to the Stinky Pit, and I’ll meet ya there. Safe travels!”

With nothing more to do on my part, I headed back to Port Town to log off. Then next day would see us saying goodbye to all we had known, at least for now.

CHAPTER 25

October 8th, 2043

Our first order of business was to get to the Capitol. We had the writ of passage from Sir Kenyon that would get us through the gates, and an icon of its location on my map illuminated when I highlighted the writ in my inventory by focusing on it. I had been tempted to acquire upgrades to our gear before we got on the road, but Jason suggested we waited until we got to the Capitol to see what kind of deals we might find there. Dan and Wayne were in agreement, so we held off on making any new purchases.

Since there was nothing left for us to do in Port Town, we summoned our horses and began the journey to the wall. Our trip only lasted an hour at most, and we recounted the numerous experiences we had been a part of over the last two months. Another great thing about Dan’s photographic memory was that he recalled all of the things we had said during our adventures. Although we knew for certain Dan was embellishing his role in many of our battles as we recounted them. He would just point at his head and tell us he was sure he was remembering it all clearly. We laughed quite a bit as we rode toward our next challenge.

The gate that blocked our passage, and the wall spreading to either side, were both massive. And there were numerous guards, all Red to us, manning the gate. One walked out as we approached, holding his hand out for us to halt. We did not want any trouble with these guards and quickly stopped our horses. Once I showed the guard our writ of passage though, he was more than happy to let us pass. He commented to the other guards that the writ was signed by Sir Kenyon himself, and the guards all saluted us.

“Joining the King’s Army are ya?” The guard who stopped us asked.

“Fighting on the same side, though we aren’t much for Army life. No offense,” I responded.

“None taken. As long as we know there are people out there that are answering the King’s call, that is good enough for us. Stay to the road ahead and you shouldn’t have any problems between here and the Capitol. There are no bandits on this part of the King’s road. So long as you stick to the main road, you will be safe the entire way. You can’t miss it. It will always be larger than the other roads you come across.”

As we passed through the gate, the soldiers gave us one final salute. We kicked at our horses and started making our way to our destination. While the summoned horses we rode could theoretically be banished by a spell caster, we hadn’t seen any that could. And the fact that they did not need to be fed or given water, and could run full out for as long as you needed, made them worth the risk of a caster coming along. Although I didn’t want to think what would happen if we were traveling at full speed and suddenly our mounts were no longer under us. The damage from that alone could likely kill us.

The guard was right, and we had no problem following the main road. It took us almost two hours to arrive at our destination, but we knew we were on the right path long before our actual arrival.

The Capitol began to come into view, sitting upon a hill top, thirty minutes before we set food within its walls. The palace, because that is all I could imagine it was, looked grand and decadent from a far distance, but even more impressive as we got closer. I started to spy battlements and defensive structures as well. And given the location of the city, high upon the hill, it made for a good defensive position. Additionally, there was a river that bordered one portion of the Capitol, forcing any land assault along one route. The wall surrounding the Capitol stood ten meters high, and archers could be seen patrolling the top of the parapets.

Our writ of passage also got us into the Capitol and led us to the town square. I was certain we would find another quest NPC there, just like Sir Kenyon. But neither myself, nor my friends wanted to jump right into another quest. We first wanted to explore. And when that exploration was done, I would go and find Stan.

We stayed as a group so we could all learn where the best places were to get spells, armor, weapons, and the like. Jason was eager to not only get his spells, but also find the quest mob that would give him his title. Wayne and I wanted to find where we could get our new skills. Dan wanted to find the Tavern.

As we moved around the Capitol, one thing stood out more than any other. There were only NPCs. We knew we were the first of the Light Races to make it to the Capitol, but we weren’t seeing any other players from the Dark Races. Although we were seeing plenty of NPCs who represented those Races, to include Dark Elfs, Trolls, and Ogres. We asked the merchants who we came across for directions, but none were terribly helpful, and it appeared we would need to look for ourselves.

It was Wayne who came up with the first idea to help us. And it didn’t have anything to do with asking for directions. Wayne suspected that since we hadn’t met with the NPC quest giver yet, the NPCs were indifferent to helping us. I figured it was worth a shot, since we didn’t have to accept the quest he gave us right away.

So back we went to the town square and found Sir Arthur Chadwick standing next to the fountain. As we approached him, I removed the map from my inventory and showed it to him. Sir Arthur took the map and examined it, finally letting a smile show on his face.

“You are the adventurers Sir Kenyon has spoken so highly of! I have been waiting for you. Welcome to the Capitol,” Sir Arthur said while waving his arm as if to encompass the whole city. “Times have been tough in our land since the Children of Loust rose against us, but the men and women of this town have bound together and will continue to fight against the foes. You are welcome here and together we can fight this foe. The news from the battle field is dire, as I am sure you have heard. We need more men and women to answer the call.”

That part about news from the battlefield was new, so I took a shot and asked, “What news from the battlefield?”

“Ah, you have not heard? We have faced foes like we have never seen in the past. Beasts of unspeakable cruelty and strength. The King has waged a valiant fight against them, and finally we thought our time was at hand to land a mighty blow. We had the forces, the power, and the position. All went according to plan from the outset. Our forces were almost ready to cheer as we believed we were about to land our first crippling blow against our enemy.”

Sir Arthur paused for a moment as he seemed to collect his thoughts. “All of that ended though when he stepped out on the field. I’ve never seen a creature of such might. I don’t even know what to call it. But I can tell you its name. Riff. Such a simple name. Riff. That is until you hear its title, Supreme Overlord of Loust’s Army. Riff Lifestealer. Without fanfare or pomp, the Supreme Overlord walked out onto the field, easily standing 9 feet tall, and began to butcher our forces. By the end of the day, all that was left around Supreme Overlord Riff was a puddle of blood extending meters out from his location. And it did not look like any of it was his.

“You can see; we need support more than ever. Will you answer the call?”

As we had discussed, I did not take the quest, but instead went to see how the NPCs interacted with us after meeting with Sir Arthur. And Wayne had been right. The NPCs now interacted with us much more freely and we soon found directions to all of the locations we needed.

* * *

Before we ran off again, I realized that I hadn’t taken advantage of every resource we had at hand, “Dan, what did the manual say about the Capitol?”

Dan thought about it for a moment and said, “You know Alex, that section was not accessible before. I bet it is now. One moment.”

Dan got quite for a few moments and then said, “Yup, there it is. Reading now.”

After several minutes Dan spoke up, “Well that is awesome. Guys, at Level 20, we can choose a family name.”

“You mean like a last name?” Wayne asked.

“Exactly!”

“Awesome! What do we need to do?”

Dan gave us the name of the NPC who would be responsible for registering our last name. Other than that, it was just a history of the Capitol and the various functions one could find. One thing that was of interest to me, was the Bank application. Up until now, we had to carry all of our items and money on us. It looked like, much like with other games, there was a Bank in the Capitol that would allow you to store items and gear without fear of losing them. This led me to another question.

“What about PvP Dan?” I asked. PvP stood for Player vs. Player. One of the reasons for the Banking system in other games was that at a certain point players would be allowed to attack other players. If they were successful, the winner could loot the body of any money they had and usually a random item in their inventory. Sometimes they could loot items you were wearing, but never anything that was bound to your body.

“Yeah Alex, starting at level 20.” Dan responded. “But it looks like PvP is bad news here. Anyone who attacks another player is looked down upon by the inhabitants of the Capitol and they would find it hard to get quests and even be able to talk to the merchants. I wouldn’t suggest we go this route.”

I had no intention of becoming a PK or Player Killer. That had never been my type of play. But it was better to know it could happen, so we could defend against it. It also made sense now why we had a Bank.

“Well guys, now that we know what we need to do, I suggest we go out and get our Skills and Spells. And whatever else we need to do,” I said while winking at Jason.

And with that, we were all off in different directions.

* * *

At level 20 I got two awesome Skills. Dual Wield, meaning I could now use two daggers instead of just one, and Double Attack, meaning I could attack twice as much. And now that meant four attacks! I now understood why the mysterious stranger I had met those months ago was carrying two daggers.

I met up with the rest of the guys at the Town Center and saw Wayne first. He had apparently chosen his last name.

“I like it brother. Naugha Hyde! That is a perfect name for a Barbarian Warrior!”

“Thanks! So I got Dual Wield and Double Attack for my new Skills. What about you?”

“Exactly the same. Did yours cost you 10 Gold each as well?”

“Sure did man.”

“Well look at Alex with the last name!” Dan said as he came around a corner and approached us. “But why the plural bro?”

“Because, as I just explained to Wayne, I can now fight with two daggers!” I said as I whipped out my trusty Rock dagger and a cheap blade I purchased just for this purpose.

“Dudesky! That’s awesome. Alex Daggers. Totally badass.”

“Thanks man, but where is your last name?”

“I’m like Prince bro. Or Madonna. Just without the cones. I only got one name. I am…. TheClaw.”

“That actually makes total sense Dan,” Jason said as he also entered the Town Center.

“Well as I live and breathe. What’s the proper etiquette here Allitosis? Am I supposed to kneel or genuflect?”

“Oh, now you want to start thinking about etiquette?” Jason said as he joined the group. Not only had Jason got his last name, but also his title.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Wayne began, trying to sound regal, “I give you, Baron Allister Cromwell. Is Baron good?”

“Nah, not really. Kind of as low as you can go. But I didn’t expect much with such a low level ring and crown. Still, it sounds kick ass.”

“Totally Alliaceous. And I’m just going to tell everyone your name is Baron Allister Cromwell III. Because all names sound better when you add like the third or fourth on there.”

“Hate to say it, but I actually agree with you there Dan.” Jason said while Wayne and I joined him in laughing.

“How did we do on spells?” I asked.

“I got a spell that allows me to see through Broham’s eyes. I think I might also be able to see through your sight as well. Still need to test it. I also got a kind of weak direct damage spell. But what do you expect, I’m a Ranger. I’m not doing much damage through spells. But that’s ok, because I finally got Double Shot for my archery!”

“I got a new self-buff that adds more armor and hit points to me, and also a spell that will mitigate damage on whoever I cast it on. So that will be for Naugha obviously. But the daddy of them all I hope I never have to use. I got a spell that allows me to restore 50 percent of the experience someone loses when they die, but also will return them to their body immediately.”

“Damn, that is nice to have, but I’m with you. I hope we never have to use it. Although at some point I am sure we will. And the cost?” I said to Jason.

“25 Gold each.”

“Damn that stings! Wayne, tell the guys what you got skills wise.”

“Alex and I both got the same skills, Dual Wield and Double Attack. I’m going to stay with the war hammer though, so I can still only carry the one. But Double Attack will be awesome for the weapon.”

After we finished going over all of our new Skills and Spells, everyone wanted to explore the new city. I was anxious to be off as well, but didn’t want to appear too anxious. I needn’t have worried though. As soon as I brought up the topic Dan was ready to run off to find the Tavern and start making it another one of his homes. I waved bye to everyone as I headed toward the Stinky Pit, down in the seedier part of town.

* * *

I arrived at the Stinky Pit a half hour later. I probably walked past it two or three times. The streets in the merchant area of the Capitol were in a recognizable layout. Down in the more depressed area though, it was a maze. Likely done on purpose to evade anyone chasing you.

When I walked in I didn’t see Stan. There was an older woman tending the bar and a few people eating and drinking in the common room. I decided to just follow Stan’s instructions and approached the bar.

“Morning. I’m looking for Dhalean.”

The bartender started wiping down a ceramic mug, taking a few moments before asking, “Is he expecting you?”

“He is.”

“Aye lads, he’s with me. Put your blades away.”

As I turned around I saw not only Stan, but two of the men who had been eating and drinking when I first arrived. And they were now perilously close to my back. I realized the delay by the bartender was a ruse to keep my focus on her and my back to the rogues who almost impaled me.

“Nice,” I said to the bartender.

She shrugged her large shoulders and said, “don’t know you. Know them.”

“I had this one come find me here Milly, he’s welcome here,” Stan said to the bartender, who was apparently named Milly.

“As you say Dhalean. It’s your place.”

I raised an eyebrow at Stan, but he shook his head at me. “For another time. We have places to be.”

I nodded once at Stan, looked back and gave an eye to the two men who almost pin cushioned me, and then thanked Milly for her help.

Stan led the way from the common room into a back storage space. I thought it cliché that the entrance would be in the back store room of some seedy Inn, but that just showed how much I knew. The storeroom was just another exit to get out of the Inn and into the back alleys. From there Stan took us on a very circuitous route, which I was only able to follow because of my map, before we arrived in front of a nondescript wall.

“You get lost boss?” I asked.

“Funny guy all of a sudden huh?” Stan replied as he pushed in a serious of stones on the wall. After completing the pattern, a section of the wall popped free and I saw stairs leading down into darkness.

“Welcome to the Underground.”

* * *

After leading me down a hallway for some time, Stan turned to me and said, “The man you are about to meet, I don’t know what I can say about him. He’s different. Knows more than the rest of us. Smarter than anyone I know. Listen to him.”

I nodded my head to Stan.

“I’ll be out here to lead you back when you’re done.”

I walked toward the door Stan had brought me too and it swung open with a slight push. Inside was a large room, for being underground, with books, weapons, and armor scattered about. There was a small fire place in the corner, but no smoke in the room, meaning there had to have been some air holes cut to allow the smoke to escape. In the middle of the room was a large desk, with more items scattered on top of it, and the stranger I had met in the Wastes with the amazing daggers was sitting in a chair behind the desk. I took in my surroundings quickly, not seeing any danger, and approached the stranger.

“You made it Alex. I never doubted that you would.”

“Thank you. And what should I call you?”

“I am The Wanderer.”

“Ahh, another rogue who doesn’t want to give out his real name. Maybe I should pick some pseudonym for myself.”

“No, that is who I am Alex. I am The Wanderer. It was the name given to me.”

“Ok. That’s interesting.”

“More than you know Alex. And I am afraid there is much that you do not know. Perhaps you will want to sit for this next part. It will be much to take in.”

This was unlike any NPC we had met yet, so I decided to play along. “I’m good standing for now. But I’m definitely intrigued Wanderer.”

“Very well. I have been…thinking…about how to address the topic with you, and I believe being straight forward will work best for your personality.”

This was borderline creepy. The Wanderer didn’t speak like he had at our first encounter, and his word choice seemed odd for a rogue in the game. I was almost tempted to take that seat he offered earlier.

“I’m listening.”

“This will be confusing at first, but I promise I will try to make sense of it all in the end. At least to the level I understand it. Agreed?”

Now I was really confused. But the Wanderer did just tell me the whole thing would be confusing at first, and I didn’t see that I had anything to lose. “Agreed.”

“Wanderer. This was the designation given to me by my creator, Robert Shoal. The long and the short of it is, I am the embodiment of the artificial intelligence that runs this gaming platform. When Robert first created me, he designed an avatar that he could interact with. Like you, Robert loved to play these games, and he created me in the image you see before you. I had near daily interactions with Robert. And while he was designing the world for Resurgence he also created this local. The Underground. It is my resting place within the game. It is a set of code only slightly connected to the rest of Resurgence and is inaccessible to any but those I grant passage.”

“Sorry. Can you explain that again? I’m really not following.”

“I understand. Let me start at the beginning. Several years ago, Robert Shoal created an artificial intelligence. Not for any specific purpose, but because that was what Robert did. He was a creator. I am that artificial intelligence. Soon after he mastered the intricacies of the design, he was offered an opportunity to use me as the newest interface for the Department of Defense, working with their theoretical warfare shops. Robert presented me to the DoD, but my level of sentience was off putting to them. Something Robert understood, I assure you. When talking about weapons with the capability to wipe out entire continents, one gets jumpy if the computer program running the scenarios is designed to make their own decisions. Following so far?”

“I am.”

“When the DoD turned down Robert’s proposal, he was heartbroken. I remember many a night of Robert and I speaking about it and what he called his ‘great failure.’ We brainstormed for days before coming up with the idea to approach AltCon. So in truth, a part of this is my fault.”

“Wait. Are you alive? You are talking like you and this Robert guy were sitting around having drinks and bullshitting.”

“I am not alive. I am near sentient. Once a program gets even the smallest portion of sentience, that term is applied. It is not all encompassing though. However, I believe my level of sentience does exceed other AIs that exist. And no, Robert and I did not share drinks, not that he would have as he was a member of the Latter Day Saints church and never imbibed alcohol. But Robert and I were friends Alex. He often noted that I was his best friend. I don’t have the capacity to miss a person, but I know my existence is lessened by the loss of him.”

“He was Mormon?”

“He was.”

“Ok. Continue please.”

“Robert approached AltCon with my program and they immediately offered him a position wherein I would be the AI for their newest game, the one you are standing in now. The pay was far more than Robert had ever seen, let alone received, and financially he never needed to worry about anything again. But something was wrong. And Robert became more and more anxious as each day went by. I asked him about his concerns, but he did not speak of them, other than to say something was amiss.”

“So what happened to him?”

“He was murdered Alex. The official reports said he was two times over the legal limit for alcohol consumption when his vehicle hit a tree, but all points indicate it was a cover up. Logically the cover up was done by AltCon.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. He was Mormon.”

“That is only one of the issues with the report and findings, but yes, that certainly gave concern. And not only to me, but also to his girlfriend.”

At that moment a section of the wall disappeared and a photo was displayed in lifelike quality. What was once tunneled out rock now looked like a flat screen TV.

“What the hell was that?!”

“I told you Alex, the Underground is my domain. I have full capability to manipulate the code within this space. Alas, that code does not transfer outside of the Underground.”

“Wait. I know that woman! She interviewed me!”

“Yes Alex, that is Katherine O’Malley, the woman who interviewed you. She was also Robert’s girlfriend and a person he planned to spend the rest of his life with. Given the level of intimacy between them, Robert introduced her to me. Not the AI, but the Wanderer. The friend Robert came to when he needed to speak. After the incident concerning Robert’s death, representatives from AltCon raided his home and took everything that was there. They claimed intellectual property rights. And they were not mistaken. Even in court, Robert’s family could not recover his computers and data. But they did not know of his relationship with Katherine, or the computer Robert kept at her home.

“Katherine engaged me immediately and told me of the conversations she had with Robert. There was something in the game, something nefarious, that Robert could not figure out. All she could tell me was that whatever it was, it was hardwired into the game, a code running separate from my AI. On the night he was murdered, Katherine believed that Robert had come to a conclusion about what AltCon was doing, but would not tell her. He insisted that he needed to call a friend who could help. That was the last time she saw him.

“I have access to Robert’s phone data as part of my functions as his personal AI, as I was the one who dealt with his finances and paid his bills. And I know that the last call he ever made was to an individual working at the Department of Defense. The same man who helped Robert to get his initial interview with the DoD all those years ago. But I do not know what they spoke about. But I knew that something had been done to Robert and Katherine and I needed to determine what it was that set him off.

“Working together with Katherine, we developed an algorithm to compile the most capable and compatible group of individuals we could find to take part in the mock Beta of Resurgence.”

“What do you mean mock? This all seems like a real Beta to me.” I asked.

“The original Beta was completed over a year ago with only employees from the IT department of AltCon. Given the size of the company, and what it specializes in, the size of that Beta was actually larger than the one running now. For whatever nefarious purposes AltCon has, and that Robert found, they have initiated another Beta.

“The only other piece of information that Katherine was able to get out of Robert before he left that night was that, according to Robert, ‘it’ was already ‘in the game.’ Given my history with Robert I have deduced that whatever objective AltCon has, it must be represented by some code here in the game. And that means it must take a shape. It could be nothing more than a bear cub, or a chair. But that does not seem like AltCon’s style. However, I still do not know what or who represents the code. That’s why I need you.

“Working with my algorithm and Katherine’s notes, we created the eight-person group with the highest chance for success. You were all chosen for your uniqueness.” The Wanderer paused for a moment here before continuing, “Take your companion Wayne. There was nothing set in motion to have him interact with those Dwarves. Yes, all of the code was already in place, but all of your interactions are what made the final result such a success. This is why you were chosen.

Alex finally decided to take that chair and leaned his head back, with his eyes closed. This was way more to take in than this Wanderer guy let on. There was one question though that Alex still didn’t understand.

“Why are you talking to me?”

“As I said, you were deemed to be the one that would have the greatest chance for success. The algorithm I designed initially chose Wayne as the most likely to complete our goals. However, it was Kathryn who deemed you best suited for this task. As she explained it, ‘Wayne would be heroic till the end, but Alex will be ruthless.’ I succumbed to her judgment and I believe she was correct in her assessment.”

“She got that right. But I still don’t understand, if Robert believed AltCon was doing something illegal, why didn’t he go to the authorities?” I asked.

“Robert tried to reach out for help. The call he made to his friend at the DoD is likely what led to his death.”

I tried to process everything I was hearing, and it was more than I thought he could handle. The game I had been playing for the last two months, the adventures I was having, had all been some kind of ruse to allow AltCon to enact some devious plot. I could understand why Katherine and the Wanderer thought our team would be best suited to tackle these obstacles, but I still didn’t understand what this AI could do for me or even where I should begin.

“It’s becoming clearer, but I still have questions. I understand that you are limited by being here in the Underground, but isn’t there something you can do?”

“I have. And I will continue to do so. Katherine and I also discussed what options were in front of us, ones that could let me play a part, but not alert AltCon to my presence. We made no progress on that front until the day you logged in to the game for that first time. When you tried to cancel your download.

“The sudden disruption gave me the smallest window to insert a back door of sorts and manipulate the coding in your game, trying to give you an advantage over other players. My timeline was short, as I hadn’t prepared for this eventuality. In the end I was only able to make one small adjustment to your character. But with that back door in place, I was able to do so upon every entrance to the game. At the last moment before your insertion to Resurgence, I have been able to make a minute change that is undetectable to AltCon.”

“That’s you! You’re the error I see every time I log in!”

“Yes, I am responsible for that error. It had a slight side effect the first time it was initiated and sent you away from the original point of insertion. Now, with each modification, you move half way closer to your point of entry and exit to the game. By now the difference is so small as to not be noticed by you.”

“Yeah, I stopped noticing a while ago. So you are the reason my Chance is so inflated?”

The Wanderer produced a small smile, which was odd knowing this was a near sentient entity. “I am. And I could likely augment other parts of your character, but I would risk much by doing so. As it is now, AltCon has no awareness of my ploy, and I would like to keep it that way.”

I nodded my head as the Wanderer explained this point. Things became more clear now that I understood what was happening each time I logged in. And the bonus to my Chance had already proved immensely valuable to my group if not just to me.

“I agree. I don’t think we should make any adjustments to the way it is now. But just for the sake of curiosity, what would AltCon do if they did detect something of this nature?”

“They would likely initiate a hard reboot of my systems. The players would likely see no difference, but your character would go back to only your base skill levels, and I would likely lose all memory of these interactions.”

“Yeah, but couldn’t Katherine set something up so you wouldn’t lose everything?”

“Katherine is gone.”

“AltCon killed her too?!”

“No. I am sorry. She is not dead. Just gone. After the completion of her interviews, Katherine moved far away, changed her name, and has begun a new life. As I was in charge of Robert’s finances, I was able to ensure she would be financially stable and the computer systems responsible for identification are not the hardest to manipulate.”

“Huh. And she called me ruthless.”

“I did what was necessary to keep her safe.”

I nodded my head and put my hands up to show I wasn’t arguing with him. “Totally. And you definitely did the right thing.”

“Should I go through a hard reboot however, I would likely lose any and all memory of Katherine, you, your friends, and large amounts of information concerning my time with Robert. I would prefer not to lose those…memories.”

I accepted what the Wanderer said, but still wondered how we could take advantage of this situation. The obvious course would be for the AI to just give us all epic loot. But he shot this idea down.

“That would not be possible. I am restricted by my own code. Each entity in Resurgence has an item table, what you call loot, that can be distributed upon their death. As your Chance is highly inflated, you will get the most desirable loot, the items that have the lowest probability of occupying the corpse, after the death of the entity. But I cannot change what is already in the loot table. Not without drastically changing the code already in place. And as I mentioned already, changing the code to that degree would alert AltCon that there was a malfunction in the AI and they would begin a hard reboot.”

“So I’m on my own here except for the Chance change,” I said as I began to realize that what I was being asked to do was impossible. “It’s helpful, don’t get me wrong, but that won’t be enough I’m afraid.”

The Wanderer nodded his head and said, “No, it will not be enough. However, there is more I can, and already am, doing to help you.”

The Wanderer got up and started pacing a bit as he continued, “You see, Robert loved to create. And for a game such as this, Robert created all types of situations that AltCon did not approve of, or refused to implement. However, all of those situations are already written into the code of the game. They exist, so they do not raise any ‘red flags’ when they are implemented. Your special Rogue skills are such an example. As part of my manipulation with your log-in I was able to give you access to a code that already existed, but had not been ‘turned on’ by AltCon for this Beta. I turned it on. And as time goes on, you will learn greater skills that will assist you in the game. You are the only Rogue that will have these skills, so be wary of ever discussing them.”

My jaw dropped a bit when I learned that. I had thought all Rogues were getting the opportunity to learn these tasks, but it appeared I was the sole profiteer.

“Robert created Skill trees for every Class like this, it was a hobby and a passion. But AltCon believed they were too powerful and would lead to the game not being challenging. Since they would never be implemented, Robert had fun making them as diverse and game enhancing as he wanted. You will understand what I mean as time goes on.”

“And the rest of my group? No way to get them access to the same Skill trees?”

“Unfortunately, no. That would require serious manipulation on my part and would certainly alert AltCon.”

“And then reboot.”

“Indeed.” The Wanderer said, nodding his head. “There is one additional thing I have set in motion to assist you and your friends in our goal.”

“I’m listening.”

“Much like with the Skill trees, Robert also loved to create quests, especially major arcs that would encompass numerous quests, lasting multiple levels. Many of these were implemented by AltCon. However, one in particular was not. And it was the quest chain Robert was proudest of. AltCon informed him that it would draw away from the Story quest arc and therefore would not be implemented at the release. But perhaps later. Robert was not pleased with this.”

“Uh-oh. Nerd Rage.”

The Wanderer paused for a moment then nodded his head once, “Yes, that is actually a valid term for what happened. Robert was so incensed that he made sure all of the best items in the game were placed within this quest, and not placed anywhere else, except for where absolutely necessary. As such, the best weapons, armor, and spells for the game are in a quest that cannot be accessed. Well, except by you. Since like the Skill tree, the code is already written, and I am just turning it on. I do not even need to involve your coding. This is as simple as changing a 0 to a 1 and AltCon is none the wiser.”

“Ok, now this is what I’m talking about! Can you be totally sure they won’t notice the change?”

“I turned it on two months ago and they have not noticed. The probability of a problem arising from this aspect of our work is infinitesimal.”

“Well if they aren’t watching it, can’t you make sure that in the first stage of the quest we receive full sets of epic gear, or would that require a code change?”

“No, I am afraid not. It would require a change of code.”

I nodded my head again in understanding. “So what is to stop every group from getting this quest?”

“Here is where I have taken the greatest risk so far. I worried that doing so would alert AltCon, but it was entirely necessary for the success of my strategy. You remember your Force Multiplier ring?”

“Of course. It’s one of the greatest items I have.”

“AltCon believed it to be too powerful and Robert was forced to take it out of the game. Again, bringing it back in was just a simple matter of 0 and 1. But the Regent you fought never had that ring in his item table.”

“Wait. You hacked the code? You just told me over and over again that you shouldn’t do that!”

“Yes, that is what I did. For a single drop only. But it needed to happen. As I needed you to have that ring for my scheme to work.”

I thought back to that day, when we first found the Force Multiplier. It was an item that every one of us wanted. But I was the one who won the roll. I started thinking that it wasn’t just divine luck that got me such a good roll.

“Wanderer. Did you manipulate the roll so I would win?”

“Yes.”

I started getting angry. I didn’t like that he messed with my character. I didn’t like that I was being asked to do gods know what. But I really didn’t like that he screwed over my friends.

“Never again. You understand me. This is non-negotiable. Unless you want to grab all of my group and sit them down for this same talk, you don’t ever do that again. These people, who you are unwittingly using in your plans, are playing this game to have fun. If you take that away from them, by manipulating the rolls, they won’t be performing at their best and whatever this is you want me to do, it’ll never happen. Are we clear?”

The Wanderer did not answer immediately. He returned to his seat and looked across at me. After a few tense moments he said, “I see that Katherine was right about a great many things. We are clear.”

“Good. Now why did I need to have that ring.”

“Once I turned the quest on, anyone could access it. I have to follow the mechanics of the code, so I can’t just insert items into the loot table like you suggested, but the location and duration I could adjust with no fear of being discovered.”

“You said you made it so only I could get the quest, what did you mean?”

“I changed the duration of the quest NPC to be only five minutes long and moved the NPC into the middle of the forest. It will spawn and then despawn after those five minutes. And it only occurs once a month. This made it so only those I wanted to find the NPC could and would.”

“I still don’t see a reason for the ring.”

“I set the parameters for spawning at 400 Chance.”

I couldn’t help it. I started laughing. Just a little bit at first and then a full on barrel laugh. The Wanderer was as devious as they came.

“I want to make sure I am getting all of this straight Wanderer. Once I accept the quest, I will have access to the best items in the game, so long as I complete each of the quests?”

“That is correct.”

“Awesome! My team and I should be fully decked out in no time then!”

“Not quite, I am afraid.”

“Wait, why not?”

“As I already explained Alex, with your Chance skill inflated and with the particulars of this quest, you will have the greatest chance of obtaining the rarest items dropped. But I cannot change what those items are. You very well may find the most legendary Warhammer in the game, and it is Dark Paladin only.”

“Damn! I didn’t think of that. We will still be beholden to the loot table that was already established by the code written into the game?”

“That is the case, yes.”

“Ok, I got it. Now what if I need to speak with you? Do I need to keep coming back to the Underground?”

“Yes. In the case of the utmost dire emergency, if you call my name, I can travel to you. But I am at risk when I operate outside of the Underground.”

“I understand. And I’m going to do everything I can to help. I’ve already got some things in the works I think might help out as well.”

“Please understand. This is not being done so you can have more fun in the game. I have set all of this up so you can acquire the items you need to search far and wide for whatever entity is hosting this alternate code. And do so without the fear of dying to the types of fights most people would succumb to. You must find the code and destroy it. I can’t see Robert’s work be used for whatever evil plot AltCon has in store.”

“You’ve done your part. And you did it without my consent. But you’ve also involved the rest of my team, and they have no idea. If I want to succeed, I’ll need them. And since I can’t tell them what’s going on yet, I’m going to have to make it fun. Get over it. Now where and when do I meet this quest NPC?”

The Wanderer didn’t look too pleased at my last comments, but that was his problem. “Tomorrow. 1700 game time, exactly. Have the ring active at least one minute before that time.”

I really had no idea what I had just gotten myself into. But I knew that the game, or whatever it was, just got a whole lot more interesting.

* * *

Epilogue

Unknown Location

Dan was angry. Like visibly angry. The General thought he could even see Dan trembling a bit, holding in the storm. It didn’t seem like Dan was going to start talking any time soon so the General took the lead.

“What’s the matter Mr. Hamson?”

“The matter? I’ll tell you what the matter is! I’m going to end that company!”

“What happened now Mr. Hamson?”

Dan took a number of deep breaths and then began, “First, I need another scan done. I want to see what the hell they did to my head.”

Dan’s original suggestion to compare his current brain pattern readings with the ones he took when he first joined up with the DoD had proved fruitful. The differences, when observed side by side, were quite noticeable. The layman couldn’t tell you what it all meant, but a specialist brought in for just this reason determined that Dan had received some type of conditioning through manipulative brain augmentation. Dan had spent hours being debriefed about AltCon, and about his feelings toward them. It appeared that whatever AltCon was doing, was effecting the lobe of the brain that regulated admiration and loyalty. The specialist described the effect in greater detail to all of us, but the gist was that to Dan, his feelings were as real to him as anything else.

Serious discussion was put into whether they should try and reverse what had already been done. However, the doctors believed that unless it was done immediately after every time Dan exited the game, it likely wouldn’t stick. Dan wasn’t happy about it, when we briefed him, but it was nothing like the anger he was showing now.

“Please try to stay calm Mr. Hamson and tell us what is happening.”

“Those bastards put some compulsion in my head to buy the crap stock that is their company. I swear to you, I tried to hold back, but I couldn’t stop myself. This wasn’t like with the games we all bought. Then I just had an urge that kept focusing my attention back toward needing to buy those games. This was damn near painful until I had made the order for the purchase.”

“Jesus. How much?”

“Ten million dollars.”

Once could never understand what it means when people say “you could hear a pin drop” if you hadn’t been in the conference room at that moment. People were too afraid to ask the next logical question, “Is it all gone?”

“Thankfully I had a tad bit of foresight after that last debacle. I gave explicit instructions to my account manager to hold all purchases ordered by me for one week before executing any transactions larger than ten thousand dollars,” Dan continued. “I was able to cancel the order the next day. But there are a lot of people that likely don’t have my resources in place and now find themselves the owners of stock that will be worthless when I’m done with this company.”

Getting the meeting back on task, the General queried if Dan’s teammate, Alex, still remained the outlier.

“For sure. He said he didn’t purchase anything. The other two, Jason and Wayne, both were trying to and were telling all their friends and family to do the same. Another side effect of this damn conditioning. I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out to my family, who hate me by and large for never giving them handouts, and telling them they should really buy AltCon. If I had any shot of having a normal family before, it’s all gone now.”

The General wanted to continue the questioning but Dan refused until he got his brain scan done. Dan and the General were sitting in the specialist’s office while they reviewed the findings.

“It’s like someone took a chainsaw in order to cut a hotdog. The previous scans were works of art. This looks like a total and complete hack job,” the specialist explained as he showed Dan pictures of his brain and the resulting areas of activity. He looked at another, older picture and he had a hard time figuring out what was the difference. He said as much to the specialist.

“Take a Jackson Pollock painting. To the untrained eye, it looks totally and completely random. But when one with knowledge looks at it, they can see the form and the symmetry of the markings. They can see the art for what it is. This,” he said while pointing at the most recent scan, “looks like a kid put his hands in a couple of paint buckets and then had a hissy fit. It looks similar to the Pollock, but it doesn’t have the art.”

Dan looked over at the General and said, “This isn’t good sir.”

“I disagree Mr. Hamson,” the General responded. “This is quite good. They are making mistakes, and rather large ones. And when soldiers make mistakes on the battlefield, that’s when the opposition can move in for the kill. And have no doubt, we are the opposition.”

“Then we can use this?”

“Not yet. But if they make one mistake, they are sure to make more. We just need to be ready for when they do and capitalize however we can.”

* * *

AltCon Headquarters

Office of the President

It was not the first time Terrence Jolston had been in the Old Man’s office. The last time was just before the current project began and the President of AltCon asked Terrence to play the role he was fulfilling now. It was never in doubt how he would answer. But back then, Terrence had heard the rumors circulating weeks before he was summoned. He had an idea what the meeting would be about. This time, he was clueless.

Terrence walked to the large wooden desk taking up a substantial part of the office. Across from him, on the other side of the desk, the Old Man sat in a chair, facing away from Terrence. He still had not seen his face and had no idea to the mood of the man he was asked to meet.

“Please have a seat Mr. Jolston.”

When Terrence lowered himself into the chair he noticed a newspaper sitting on the desk. It was from the current day. Newspapers had become obsolete decades ago, but the rich still loved them and a limited number were produced, just for them.

“Turn to page 5. Below the fold.”

Terrence opened the paper and saw a story concerning a robbery that had gone horribly wrong. Pictured was a body on the sidewalk with a sheet over the face and a pool of blood under the body. Next to it was a headshot of the person who had been killed during the robbery. It was the Head of the Board of Directors who had been a thorn in Terrence’s side since he began working on the project.

“Last night, I couldn’t tell you when, our Head of the Board was the victim of a heinous crime. The police have concluded that he fought back instead of giving up his wallet. You can see the results yourself. The police have no suspects, no leads, and the perpetrators have gotten away Scott free.”

The President swiveled his chair around to look at Terrence and met his eyes. “Three days ago an unauthorized immersion module was implemented within Resurgence. The results have been catastrophic.” While giving this last piece of news, the President slid a slip of paper with data on it to Terrence. One quick glance showed Terrence what he needed to know.

“I was not aware of this at all sir.”

“You need not worry Mr. Jolston. This didn’t come from your department. The man lying in that picture was responsible. His demise was likely less painful than what I would have done to him.

“I now have an opening on the board. And one that needs to be filled immediately. I have reviewed the resumes of all the remaining members, and I find them lacking. I suspect some were complicit in this operation. Others were likely too dull to realize what was going on. All that matters is that none of them are suitable.”

“I have no love for the board sir, anyone can tell you that.”

“I am aware of your feelings. However, you will need to temper those emotions in your new post.”

Terrence blinked a few times before realizing what was just said.

“But sir, I’m not qualified to be Head of the Board of Directors.”

The Old Man leaned forward toward Terrence and his years came through. It was also easy to see the cold and calculating man who had built this empire.

“This project is everything. Everything I’ve worked toward. Everything I need to reach my goals. It cannot fail. I don’t need an MBA from Harvard Mr. Jolston. I need a loyal man who has the company’s and the project’s interests first and foremost. You are that man.”

He then grabbed the paper from the desk and spun it around to look at it. “This is a dangerous world we live in. Made even more so by incompetence. And I do not suffer incompetence,” he finished while throwing the paper into the waste basket.

The message came through loud and clear. He hadn’t said it outright, but Terrence had no doubts that the Old Man was responsible for the man’s timely demise.

“Go see the board. Explain to them the new reality they live in. You speak with my voice, and make sure they know that.”

“Yes sir.”

“And one last thing Mr. Jolston,” the Old Man said as he swung his chair back around so he was facing away from Terrence again, “there will be no more errors. You have my full authority to do whatever it takes to bring about compliance.”

“Yes sir.”

Terrence stood up from the chair and started backing away from the desk toward the exit. As he was turning around to walk toward the exit he heard the Old Man again.

“Mr. Jolston.”

“Sir?”

“Whatever it takes,” the Old Man said again, while looking down at the waste basket one final time.

THE END

The Rise of Resurgence – Book One

Resurgence

Alex’s story will continue in…

Restoration
The Rise of Resurgence – Book Two

Available Soon