Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1

by Joshua W. Nelson

  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 7
0 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, b
ut 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.