Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1

by Joshua W. Nelson

  * * *

  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 conti
nues 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.