Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II

by Joshua W. Nelson

  I laughed for a bit saying, “Is it that obvious?”

  “Well, I know Naugha looks after us dwarves.”

  “It’s fair. Naugha has seen me work wonders in the markets, and so he thinks I’m always going to do the same wherever I go.”

  Tibble nodded and said, “In all me life, Alex, I’ve seen the likes of Mithral only a number of times. Once I was able to lay me hands on a breastplate made of the fine material, and then only for the briefest moment. But never in my days did I think I would hold a piece of the raw ore in me hands and call it me own. That’s because of you, lad. I know you will always do right by your kin, as you already have.”

  Tibble and I walked toward the mouth of the cave and I asked for a status update on the mining efforts and on the leveling of the dwarves.

  “Both have been steady, lad. We haven’t delved deep into the mine, and yet still we are finding thick veins of the Fermium. Decent quality as well. The lads are also improving their skills at an even pace, both in mining and fighting. We can handle all of the creatures around this mine with little effort, but even now we would have fallen to the Orckin. I remind the boys of that, and so they keep working.”

  I was happy to hear about the leveling progress of our brothers, but my attention was on the Fermium that Tibble mentioned.

  “I know you are using some of the Fermium here to make arrowheads, but have you tried your hand at any additional items?”

  “Aye. Thaddeus has been working away at a number of battle axes made of the Fermium ore, but he hasn’t been terribly successful. We hate to use the Medium Quality ore for this, but if we used Low Quality, it is almost certain that Thaddeus would create a product no better than the axes we have now. It wouldn’t be worth the effort.”

  “What happens to the axe when he fails? Can any of the materials be saved?”

  “Aye, if we use the Medium Quality ore and Thad fails, we can usually recover the ore at Low Quality. We then sell that ore. Everything else we need to make the axes is lost, though.”

  “And if successful, how well do the axes sell?”

  “Have no idea, lad! We been using ‘em!”

  I saw the wisdom in that and didn’t question the decision. The better gear the dwarves had, the more they could defend the mine. And the better these boys would be when we decided to conquer the second level of this mine. That was definitely going to happen eventually.

  “Have you successfully mined any High Quality Fermium?”

  “Aye again, although not much. We’ve been selling that straight away to finance the mine, improve the defenses, and improve the forge. Not to mention the materials needed at the forge to make the goods. And I can’t be forgettin’ the lovely Sharla. She be costin’ us a pretty penny.”

  I sighed inwardly. I didn’t think I would be able to get much out of Tibble cash-wise, but it sounded like they were running the mine at about even. I said as much.

  “Oh no, lad, not at all. We be getting lots of Low Quality ore, and we sell that Under the Mountain. The more advanced smiths can take a number of Low Quality and combine them to make ‘em Medium Quality. And it is in high demand. There ain’t many veins producing like we are!”

  “I realize not much time passed between our bargain with the King, but did he come through with any Mithral? I am guessing yes based on your earlier statement.”

  “He did indeed, lad. Low, Medium, and a piece of High Quality ore. We are following the same plan as with the Fermium. Sell the Low Quality, save the Medium for forging, and the High Quality is being saved for when we can hire a Master Smith to craft us an item with it.”

  I thought over this plan and found I didn’t like it. Thaddeus was doomed to fail on every single Smithing try he made with the Mithral, even when he maxed out his skill with the Fermium. I needed to test a theory, but if my thoughts were correct, I should be able to convince Tibble to change his selling strategy.

  “The Mithral. Does the same hold true about high level smiths being able to combine pieces of Medium Quality to make Higher Quality?”

  “Master Smiths only, and there are few of them. Only one or two that work outside of the King’s personal forge.”

  “If you could supply these Smiths with Medium Quality Mithral, how well would they pay?”

  Tibble started smiling and said, “The King guards the Mithral closely and controls any flow outside his personal forge. Them Masters are hard pressed to even get a piece of Medium Quality, let alone the High Quality. They would pay out the nose me boy.”

  “Second question. What happens, Tibble, when you fail with a Low Quality ore?”

  “Ya lose the ore entirely. And of course all of the parts to make the item.”

  “But how quickly would Thaddeus go up in skill if he was working with Low Quality Mithral ore? Enough to offset the cost and in turn improve to the point where he was producing successful pieces of High Quality Fermium?”

  Tibble thought about this for a few moments and then nodded his head in the affirmative. “Aye, he would progress quickly. I didn’t consider using this method to raise his skill with Mithral in order ta work the Fermium. I see why Naugha worries about ya,” Tibble finished while laughing.

  “Good thing I am always thinking about how to benefit my friends and my kin first then,” I said while smiling.

  “So what do ya suggest then?”

  “Continue in the same method with the Fermium until Thaddeus feels he can be successful on one of every three combinations with the High Quality. But in order to get there, he needs to start working the Mithral, even though we know he will fail every time.

  “Sell the Low Quality and the High Quality Fermium, until he has mastered the Medium Quality. Then sell the Low and Medium and work only with the High. Even when he fails a High Quality attempt, you will still get a Medium Quality ore as a byproduct, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “For the Mithral, save the High Quality as you planned, let Thaddeus work the Low Quality, and sell the Medium Quality.”

  Tibble began running the numbers in his head and, after a few moments, realized he would be making a profit. But he needed to control the flow of ore out of the mine.

  “Last thing. In order to make sure you don’t flood the market and drop the price of Fermium, you need to control how much you are releasing. Have you been doing that?”

  “No, lad. That is a common practice by us dwarves, but we haven’t produced so much that we are in danger of reaching that level. But I already planned to put such a thing in place.”

  “Good! Then I have nothing more.”

  Tibble shook his head at me. “We be kin, lad. I know better. You boys are going to the Mountain to look for armor for Naugha and the Blessed One. That ain’t going to be cheap. How much you need?”

  I smiled at Tibble and placed my hand on his large shoulder. “Thank you, brother, but we can’t be taking from our kin, or our mine, when we have just started. We will find another way to raise the money.

  “However, I would suggest a system to reward the members of the Clan. A system where each member of the Clan receives a percentage of the profits from the mine. It will embolden them to work harder. Or in this case, encourage them to continue working hard!”

  Tibble thought for several moments on this recommendation and then nodded. “Ain’t never been done before, but I like this idea too, Alex. Gives everyone a real stake in the mine. Not just for the Clan but for their future dreams. I’ll put it in place.”

  “Then all that is left is to find a guide to the Mountain once TheClaw has received his arrow heads, Naugha reviews the defenses, and Allister convinces Sharla to stop bowing and kneeling in front of him.”

  We both laughed as we left the mine and saw, in fact, that Jason was now kneeling in front of Sharla begging her to stand, with her trying to kneel lower to remain below him. The two continued to get lower to the ground and looked like they would lay on the ground before they would give up by the time we were in front of them.r />
  October 10th, 2043

  I was contemplating what choices we had in front of us while Jason continued to complain about the treatment he received from Sharla. We had spent the evening at the East Range Mountain Clan mine, and Sharla never left his side the entire time. Even when he logged back in, she was right there waiting for him.

  Jason was very embarrassed by the whole situation and begged our guide, Brindle, to please get the East Range Dwarves to please stop referring to him as “Blessed One.”

  “Ha!” Brindle said while shaking his head. “Ain’t no chance them dwarves is gonna stop that!”

  “Can you at least get Sharla to stop kneeling in front of me?”

  Brindle shook his head seriously. “Nope. She scares me. Scares all of us.”

  Wayne laughed but sympathized with his friend, “It could be worse, brother.”

  “Oh really? How?”

  “Basically anything having to do with Dan.”

  That got all of us laughing. Even Dan.

  “Ok, you have a point. I still don’t like it,” Jason conceded.

  While the guys were going back and forth, I kept thinking about our dilemma. My plan had failed entirely, and now we were far away from the Capitol. Far away from any of the mobs that could give us experience and loot. We still had no idea how we were going to raise any money. I was very frustrated.

  “I hate to interrupt the fun, but bringing us back to business, anyone have a clue how we are going to make any money. I’m seriously out of ideas,” I said.

  “Haven’t really thought about it, Alex. You handle the money things,” Wayne said.

  “I know. And that’s what has me pissed. I can’t come up with any ideas.”

  “Well, how have we done it in the past?” Jason asked.

  I thought about that for a moment. Each time we have needed money, we have come across an area or a dungeon that has set us up. We haven’t been hard pressed for cash like we are now, at least not for a while. Even if we hadn’t set up the dwarves with all of their gear, we might have enough to outfit Dan or myself, but we still wouldn’t have enough for everyone.

  “Things have just fallen in our laps, I guess. The undead. The dungeons. The Simple Ring of Might. How quickly we were able to collect the Venom Sacks on our very first quest. I guess we’ve just been really lucky.”

  “That’s an understatement,” mumbled Dan.

  “We can’t rely on that, though. That’s obvious now. We need to come up with a way to make some money regularly, at least until the mine starts producing.”

  Wayne and Brindle, who were talking tanking strategies, perked up at the mention of the mine. “What does the mine have to do with anything?”

  “I made some recommendations to Tibble on selling and whatnot. He saw the value in them. One of them was to begin giving a percentage to every member of the clan from the profits. A small percentage. But it will grow as the mine becomes more profitable.”

  “You made him give us a percentage?” Wayne asked angrily, almost yelling.

  “Calm down there, big guy. It’s for everyone. Ask Brindle what he thinks.”

  Wayne looked over at Brindle and saw the young dwarf was shaking his head. Wayne immediately thought he was angry. But then Brindle spoke. “Really Alex? For everyone?”

  I nodded my head.

  “That’s…that’s never been done. We all get a small salary, and we all hope to branch out on our own one day, but that is hard to do. This would make it possible to do… to do so much. Thank you, Alex. Thank you!”

  Brindle approached me and gripped my forearm, with me doing so in kind.

  “You had something you wanted to say, Wayne?”

  “I hate it when you’re right all the time. Sorry.”

  I laughed it off and patted the giant warrior on his upper back. I couldn’t reach his shoulder. “I’ll always do right by the Clan, brother. So stop worrying about that.”

  Wayne looked very embarrassed, but I waved him off. “Back to the matter at hand. Money.”

  “I could sell arrows,” Dan said. “Or at least the shafts. I’m not going to share my Fermium arrowheads.”

  “Would those sell well, just the shafts?” Jason asked.

  “For a bundle of 100 Birch, I could probably get 10 gold.”

  “Not bad. How long would that take to craft?”

  “Two hours.”

  “Two hours out of leveling, when I’m sure we are going to need to increase our levels to do any of the next quests without dying,” I said.

  “Yeah. And any more than that and I would lose my mind. I could always make the Elven Elder shafts and clean up in no time.”

  “First off, too late on the mind. Second, not a chance. I don’t want anyone knowing about those arrows and looking for our tree.” In order to replenish his stock of arrows, Dan had spent a couple of hours collecting more of the Elven Elder wood while we were at the mine.

  “I could be a Cleric for Hire,” Jason added.

  “That’s really a thing?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Some groups look for an extra healer who stays out of the group, periodically healing and buffing, like when I give Naugha magical protection or magically increase our resistances to disease, poison, and the like. It allows the group a shorter down-time between pulls, but the extra healer doesn’t get experience. The going rate is about 10 gold an hour for a cleric with my level and skills.”

  “Again, it stops you from leveling. I don’t like it.”

  “Me either,” said Jason, “but I’m looking for solutions.”

  “I know, man. Thanks.”

  “Wayne? Any ideas?”

  “I kill stuff,” Wayne said.

  “Noted.”

  I looked around at the guys for anything else, but they were all deep in thought. Even Brindle, which made me smile.

  “Keep thinking, guys. No idea too crazy,” I said. Then I added, “That doesn’t count for Dan.”

  Dan was reaching out to say something just as I made that last statement and put his hand down. There’s no telling what I just saved us from.

  Chapter 3

  We continued walking for a couple more hours. I was happy that Resurgence had a map function, because there was no way I would have been able to find this location again without a guide. Dan probably could, if he had been paying attention, but it was doubtful he was. Like me, he was probably relying on his map to pinpoint our destination.

  Looking out into the distance, I didn’t realize that Brindle had stopped next to a cliff face and a copse of trees. I stopped walking and looked back at Brindle with a question.

  “We’re here.”

  I looked around again and could not see a cave opening, or a door, or anything that would indicate we had arrived at our location.

  “I don’t want to question you, but I’m having a hard time imagining that this is the entrance to the Mountain.”

  “Aye, Alex. ‘Tis not the main entrance. This be for dwarves and their kin. Tibble wanted ya to know this one and the main. When ya leave, one of the dwarves from the clan who still reside in the mountain will take ya back through the grand gates and on your way back to Kich’s Keep.”

  Brindle then got very serious. “I don’t need to be tellin’ ya, this ain’t a location most folks know. Only a handful of non-dwarves ever seen this way. Our clan trusts ya like family, but others may not. Keep it to yourselves unless asked.”

  Brindle then walked over to a spot on the side of the mountain and put his hand against the rock. I saw a flash of light when his palm rested against the stone.

  “Do like I just did. Note the spot. Hand against the rock and the Mountain will recognize ya as kin.”

  Dan was the first to approach, and he looked around the area extensively before pointing to the specific spot to touch. I knew Dan was committing it all to memory. Brindle nodded, and Dan placed his hand on the cliff. The same bright light was seen as with Brindle. Brindle let out a loud sigh.

  “Wasn�
��t sure it was going to work, huh?” I asked.

  Brindle laughed and nodded his head. “Aye, brother. I was there when the King Under the Mountain accepted ya as kin, but I didn’t know if the Mountain would as well.”

  “Wait. The mountain is alive?” Wayne asked.

  “Not like ya be thinking, Naugha. Ya can’t tank it!” Brindle said with a mighty laugh. Wayne chuckled as well.

  “But the Mountain be the home of dwarves for a thousand or more years. We don’t know the relationship between the King and our Mountain, but every king has said they ascend and feel as one with her. Beyond me tiny warrior brain. I’m just glad she recognizes ya.”

  Jason and Wayne went next, with me approaching last. Ever since I learned the Wanderer had muddled with my in-game code, I worried about what effect it could have on game play. If this didn’t work, I would have a lot of explaining to do.

  Thankfully, I was met with the same light, and we all now had access to the Mountain. But I still didn’t see a door.

  Without another word, Brindle walked toward the rock face. And then right through it. Not missing a beat, we all followed suit and found ourselves inside a tunnel.

  I had no doubt that if I hadn’t been granted permission to enter, that rock face would have not been forgiving, and I would have lost a few hit points smacking my noggin against the stone.

  We hadn’t been in the tunnel for five minutes when a young dwarf came running up to us, out of breath. “The King…Under the Mountain…he requests your presence in the throne room,” he said, clearly panting.

  “You run all the way here, lad?” Brindle asked. The young dwarf nodded.

  “That’s not a short run. Take a moment to rest and then you can lead us back,” Brindle stated.

  The dwarf thanked Brindle, accepted a drink of water from his pouch, and stood for a few moments with his hands on his knees. He was very young—still without a beard—and didn’t seem to need much time before he was ready to lead us on to the throne room.

  “Is this a bad thing, Brindle?” I asked.

  Brindle shrugged his shoulders and said, “Don’t know. Never met the King meself.”