Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II

by Joshua W. Nelson

  “Shut up, Dan, and get ready to shoot.” Wayne said.

  “Fine. Sheesh, no one around here appreciates my highfalutin insights.”

  “Even less than we appreciate your high flatulent insights my friend.”

  Dan looked hurt as I added a “Boom! Two points for Allister!”

  The Wendigo didn’t aggro as we crossed the threshold, and we continued to slowly approach the mob. And yes, I did in fact have my Conceal/Stealth on. I planned to Backstab the Wendigo, but I wasn’t going to take the chance on a Blacksuit Crit again.

  When Wayne was roughly ten meters away from the mob, it finally aggro’ed. As it ran toward our Tank, I saw what the smaller arms were for: the two short swords it pulled from the belt that went over its chest and around its back.

  “How is that even fair?”

  I agreed with Dan’s comment and prepared to Backstab the Wendigo after Wayne had time to establish aggro. With my new dagger, I was even faster than before, so aggro management was again a challenge.

  “Shit! This guy hits for days! Swing, Claw, and two Slashes!”

  “Four attacks! Damn!”

  The Wendigo was going to use all of those arms to his advantage. “Hitting hard?” I asked.

  “Three of them landed. It’s not too bad, but if I didn’t have the Armor Class that I do, I’d be getting flayed right now.”

  The Wendigo wasn’t casting any spells. His attacks were all melee, and when it came to trading damage for damage, we were winning the fight. I watched as the health bar steadily went down. At 75 percent, as was the norm, he launched his first special attack.

  The Wendigo performed an attack called Whirlwind of Blades, which did exactly what it sounds like. Instead of the usual four attacks, he performed six, adding in an extra two sword strikes. Then, only several seconds later, he did it again. Only this time he did an extra four strikes and Wayne was attacked eight times. Jason was keeping up with the heals, but Wayne was still at 80 percent when the Wendigo finished his special and struck 10 times.

  The only saving grace was that not all the attacks landed. Those that did were devastating. The Whirlwind of Blades appeared to ignore a portion of Wayne’s armor bonus, and he went from 80 percent to 50 percent, which is a huge number of hit points for Wayne.

  Dan didn’t need to be told to stop firing and start throwing all heals toward Wayne. If our Tank went down, we were done for. Wayne, knowing that the Wendigo could counter attack and riposte his attacks, also stopped attacking and just let the heals pile up. It took several rounds of heals, but Wayne was finally back above 75 percent. Everyone went back to their routines at that point.

  There were no more Whirlwinds after those three. Again, I watched as the Wendigo’s health diminished at a steady rate and creeped closer to 50 percent. Jason shouted out that he was at 60 percent mana. Not a bad amount.

  At 50 percent, the boss let loose with his second special attack, Soul Devour. We watched as all our Vitality, which was close to full, dropped 35 percent. Even Dan’s extra elemental resistance couldn’t stop the attack.

  The 35 percent wasn’t a big deal, as we still had ample Vitality to finish the mob. What was a big deal, however, was that our Vitality didn’t simply vanish. The Wendigo siphoned it off, much like my new dagger did with blood.

  I looked on with utter contempt at this beast as his hit points instantly leapt back up from 50 percent to 65 percent. It had taken our Vitality and converted it into its own hit points.

  “I guess that explains what Madwar meant when he said this thing was ‘A most foul creature that feeds off the very soul of any living beings.’ He definitely fed off ours!”

  Now I was worried about mana. It was going to be a close call to begin with, but I figured with 60 percent for Jason, we would be in a good situation. Now, I wasn’t so sure.

  The 50 percent special was a one-time thing, and we sliced, hammered, and pincushioned the Wendigo down toward the last special attack.

  I landed a Backstab and dropped the boss down below 25 percent. It wasn’t three seconds later when we saw—and heard—the boss executing his last move.

  It literally looked like the Wendigo launched itself at Wayne. Like, took through the air and landed on him. At almost the same time, Wayne started shouting, “Frenzy! Shit! Shit! Shit!”

  “Heals on Wayne!” I yelled, but I didn’t need to. The group knew their roles. I did notice, however, that my attacks were doing quite a bit more damage.

  “The Frenzy dropped his Armor Class! Dan, get back to shooting!”

  The Wendigo’s health began moving toward zero at a much faster rate, but so was Wayne’s hit point level. At this point, Wayne had stopped swinging entirely and was simply Taunting and Bashing. One of the Bashes landed a Stun and the Wendigo stopped for a brief moment.

  “Stun landed! When he gets to ten percent, Allister, you have the mana, hit him with a Stun!”

  “Don’t worry about the heals. Use that Stun and kill this asshole. I can get the experience back later!”

  I didn’t know when the loots from the quest would come. Would it be from the Wendigo? Or would it be from Lancaster himself? This was the only reason I hadn’t used my Force Multiplier ring already. I had no doubt we could take it down if I did, but how would that affect the loot? I planned to wait until it was at two percent.

  Jason followed Wayne’s instructions to the tee and cast his Stun at 10 percent. Thankfully, it landed. All of us started swinging on the boss at that point. We got it down to six percent when the Stun wore off. And he started to Frenzy again. Jason spent the last of his mana on one last heal for Wayne.

  I stabbed away as I watched my friend’s health diminish rapidly. I kept a close eye on the Wendigo’s health and waited for that two percent mark to arrive so I could end this.

  And as soon as it hit, I quadrupled my Stats and laid into the boss with no mercy. The biggest surprise wasn’t the amount I was hitting. It was my new dagger.

  With my Dexterity at over 200, I was proccing like mad and sucking the blood right out of the Wendigo. Between my increased damage output and my dagger, the beast went down in seconds. In retrospect, I probably could have activated the ring at five percent and still have been safe.

  “Man, that was close! I’ve got 132 hit points. One more hit and it probably would have been a trip to the Keep.”

  Without any more delay I looted the Wendigo’s corpse. The loot was a total bust. There were a number of items that I guessed were used in tailoring or other Crafting skills—Wendigo fur and the like. There were also three of the Wendigo’s claws, which I imagined were used in some kind of weapon production. The items were tradeable, so I put them in my inventory.

  The Wendigo’s two swords were good quality but common. They would sell for a fair amount, but no one was going to use them. Those went in my inventory as well.

  The only item that was of any interest was the pack that the Wendigo had wrapped around his chest.

  “Let’s do this quick so we can get to the Lancaster body. Only thing on the corpse are items for Crafting and this pack.”

  “That’s a cool item!”

  “It sure is, although not worth the effort we just went through. It’s tradeable, so I’ve got it in my inventory. We can roll on it afterward. Let’s go grab Tristan’s body.”

  As we approached the form of Tristan Lancaster, Madwar appeared before us. “I can’t believe you succeeded where even a mighty Lancaster fell. You are truly great adventurers. I have not left the entrance of this Monastery for years due to the influence of the Wendigo. With its demise, I can now move freely and, when this is finished, depart for the next realm.

  “I promised you the teachings of our school, and I will honor that request,” Madwar said, and then a glow surrounded the desk near us.

  “Located within this desk is a false bottom drawer with a key of sorts. I’ve removed the wards from the desk so you won’t be injured looking for it. Hold the item you find up to the wall near t
he far corner, and it will transmogrify into a door. The item will then act as the key through the lock you will find. A powerful enough mage could possibly dispel the transmogrify spell but would not be able to get through the wards on the door without the key.

  “Within the room, you will find our most sacred tome. Once it has been read, it will impart the knowledge within upon the reader. Once read, the book will be gone, so choose wisely.

  “Before his death, Sir Lancaster noted that his family was sent by the King to rid this Monastery and others of the foul diseases that had taken root. I do not know the status of those other schools. If they have fallen to the same foul machinations of Loust, I fear they too are infested with similar vermin. I know it is not your duty, but I beg you to investigate these other institutions of learning. The closest is the Monastery of Might.”

  “Oh, we are definitely going there!” Wayne said.

  “Without a doubt,” I said and then turned to Madwar. “We will investigate the Monastery of Might.”

  The usual glow surrounded us, and our quest log changed to read:

  Restoration of House Lancaster III: Investigate the Monastery of Might.

  “Thank you again for all you have done. The room you will find holds our valuables. We have no need for them any longer. Take whatever you find.”

  And with that, Madwar disappeared and we were awarded enough experience to get all of us to our Level 24!

  “Awesome! We’ve got two minutes left on my ring’s timer, so look for that drawer with the false bottom while I check Tristan’s body!”

  Dan and Jason jumped to either sides of the desk and began going through the drawers. I approached Tristan’s corpse and looted it. Tristan did not have any weapons or gear to loot, despite being fully decked out in custom-made armor. The only things on him were a satchel and his part of the torn journal. Each were ‘Bind on Acquisition,’ so I didn’t touch them yet. I also didn’t want to loot the corpse in case it disappeared once we did. I wasn’t sure how we were going to do it, but we still needed to give the body a proper burial.

  “Jackpot!” Jason yelled.

  I ran over to him quickly and grabbed the “key” sitting at the bottom of the false drawer. It looked to be the hilt of a sword, with a jeweled pommel, handle, and blade guard – there was no actual blade. This would not be a key one could just reproduce.

  I grabbed it and ran to the wall that Madwar had indicated. As soon as I was next to the location, the pommel began to glow and the wall morphed into the door Madwar said we would find. In the center of the door was the slot for the key, with two notches large enough to fit the blade guard. I inserted the hilt, but nothing happened. Looking at the timer on my Force Multiplier ring had my anxiety peaking, and I grabbed the hilt to try turning it for effect. I turned it to the left first, with no result, and then to the right. That worked, and I heard what sounded like bolts sliding out of a wall. I pushed the door open and was greeted by an awesome sight.

  Sitting in the middle of the small room was a pedestal with the tome Madwar mentioned. Shelves lined the walls on both sides. One shelf held two chests, while the other held three. With my ring still active for another 20 seconds, I ran in and popped open each of the chests, without bothering to check what was inside them. I hoped that by just opening them, I would get my bonus.

  One of the chests vanished immediately upon opening, and I was rewarded with 20 Platinum pieces. That right there was enough reason to have done this whole quest!

  We had ample time to loot the chests. First would be figuring out which of us would get the tome. I walked over to it and put my hand on the book. The description popped up with a request to take the book. I linked the book and denied the request.

  For centuries, the Monastery of Calm focused all of their efforts on achieving the ultimate state of peace; a nirvana that allowed the mind, body, and spirit to flow effortlessly together. For a disciple of Calm, it was a lifelong journey, documented within the pages of this Book. In order to ensure that our teachings are never lost, this tome may be used to unlock the secrets within.

  “Wayne, you go ahead and roll first,” I said.

  “You’re a dick, Alex.”

  I giggled, and Jason gave me one of his signature looks he usually saved for Dan.

  “I’m feeling lucky, too. Might just roll a 100 this time around,” Wayne joined in. This earned him a look of his own.

  “Stop messing with Allibater,” Dan said while turning toward Jason, “I’m not going to roll on this at all. This has you written all over it.”

  “There is something seriously wrong when I’m giving you two the evil-eye and I’m considering hugging Dan.”

  “Congrats, man. This is going to be an epic upgrade for the group!”

  With that done, I went to the rest of the chests to see what we had to dish out.

  “We can use three out of four of these. There’s a robe here that is caster only. Not even going to link it. Here’s the rest of the gear.”

  “I think I saw a Truesight spell when we were killing the Wraiths. One second,” I said while going through my inventory of spells. “Got it. This is a spell for you, Dan: self-buff that adds 15 percent accuracy. That makes this bracer a no-brainer.”

  “Thanks, Alex. And thanks for the spell.”

  “Grats. Next one is between you and Wayne, Jason. Roll away.”

  “I got the book. I’ll pass and let Wayne grab it.”

  “Awesome! Thanks, Allister.”

  “And the last one should have us all roll. Don’t worry about there being a Chance modifier. All of us could use the extra hit points and resists.”

  Jason won the roll with a whopping 47. All of our rolls were complete shit.

  “Man, these are some good additions! And I can’t wait until we go to the Monastery of Might. I just hope we don’t have to face any of those damn Wraiths again!”

  “I agree with Naugha. We could have finished this dungeon up a lot quicker if we didn’t have that damn proc.”

  “Let’s get Tristan’s corpse and get the hell out of this place.”

  *

  I tried a number of things to pull the corpse back to the courtyard, but none of them worked. I was tempted to just loot what we needed and leave the corpse. Wayne would never let that happen though.

  Which made me think. Wayne.

  “Hey brother, since you were the one that promised to do a proper burial, why don’t you try moving it?”

  “Can’t hurt to try, I guess.”

  Wayne stood there for a few moments, trying to figure out what he could do. I heard him say “drag” a few times, but nothing happened.

  “I haven’t actually touched the body yet. Cool if I do? It’s going to open up the inventory window, but I won’t take anything.”

  “I think we would all be fine if you accidently did.”

  Wayne went back over to the body and knelt next to it. With his hand on Tristan’s lifeless arm he said, “Well that’s weird. Never seen that message before. It will let me carry the body.”

  “Perfect. Grab it and let’s go back to the courtyard.”

  “On it, Alex.”

  Wayne was able to pick up the corpse in a shoulder carry and run with us back to the courtyard. At the center of the courtyard, I had him put the body down, and check what happened when he tried to loot again.

  “Good stuff. It says ‘Carry,’ ‘Loot,’ ‘Bury,’ and ‘Decline.’ Obviously, we want to bury it, so you should probably grab the loot now Alex.”

  I did as Wayne said, and grabbed the satchel and the journal. The body didn’t disappear immediately, and Wayne was able to access the same menu with all four options. Thankfully, by clicking “Bury,” a hole immediately formed in the ground, and Tristan’s body appeared inside it. Within moments, the hole filled in, and there was a small statue of Tristan sitting over the grave. This was very weird mechanics for the game, since everything we had done previously required the player to take an action directly to m
ake something happen: like swinging a pick or crafting an arrow shaft. I wasn’t going to complain, though.

  With Tristan’s body buried and the grave marker erected, our bodies took on a soft glow. I looked at everyone, and that far-away look came over Dan’s eyes as he was likely checking his character Stats.

  “Nice. Burying the body improved our Gift from Lady Tessa!”

  I checked my character and saw Dan was correct. The increase was not huge, adding +1 to all Stats and Resistances. But every little bit helped. It was now listed as:

  “Last item on the docket is the Wendigo Pack.”

  Everyone rolled, and Jason ended up the lucky winner of the day. If I had to choose, I would have gone with Jason anyhow. His Strength was the lowest, so the benefit of less weight in his packs would be most advantageous to him. The fates worked out in the end.

  “So what does the journal say, Alex?”

  “No clue, Wayne. And I’m not even going to open it until tomorrow. I don’t want to do any more of this quest today.”

  There was general agreement. It had already been a long day, and everyone wanted to get back to the Keep. That, too, would have to wait until tomorrow, as we planned on logging out right near the crevice entrance of the Monastery.

  “Great work, everyone,” Wayne said. “Can’t wait to see you all tonight at Jenny’s place!”

  Chapter 10

  October 26th, 2043

  It didn’t matter that Wayne said everything was good. Dan kept apologizing for the first hour of our trek back to the city. Dan made a point of “vowing” to replace everything. He also swore that he would sue the company. When he wasn’t apologizing he kept repeating, “The fire was not supposed to be that big.”

  “I wouldn’t worry so much about the stuff that burned, Dan. If I were you, I’d be freaking out about whether your chances with Kaitlin went up in flames, too!”

  With obvious worry on Dan’s face, he asked, “You think she’s still mad? I was hoping she would forget about it.”