With four damage dealers, he may not get enough time to make it count.
The fight was over quickly with the Stealers, as they had become known, winning easily. They had swarmed so quickly that the opposition had little to no chance.
I continued to watch as fight after fight played out. Before I knew it, the final was starting, and our friends were right there in the thick of it.
*
“That could have been us. Almost was,” Tyke said sitting next to me. Wayne and Lug were chatting away, and the two casters from Tyke’s group were engaging with Jason and Dan.
Tyke’s group was very close to being in the finals. In fact, it was Tyke’s group that Jenny and company had to beat to get to those finals. In the end, it was Gary’s fists over Syphon’s DoTs that won the day.
“Personally, buddy, I would rather see the 8 of you fight it out for the championship than see the Stealers get a shot at the crown.”
“Yeah, those guys suck. But then again, no one likes them.”
“Which is why it’s going to suck even more when they win,” I said.
Tyke shook his head at me. “You don’t actually think that the Stealers can beat a team like that. They’re the second strongest group in Resurgence!” Tyke said while pointing toward Jenny and company.
“And the strongest got knocked out in the third round,” I said, waving my hand in the air. “It isn’t about how good you are at playing the game, not with PVP. You know this.”
Tyke lowered his head and shook it some more, but he was doing so in the sad way one does when they have admitted defeat. “At least they will still suck in the regular game.”
“While that may be true, I imagine they will increase their attacks on other players, especially now they’ve seen they can’t be beat.”
“I really hate those guys.”
Tyke and I turned our heads back to the center of the Arena where an announcer had just finished presenting the two sides to the audience and explaining the rules. Few were listening. The rules were no different, and everyone already knew who was about to fight.
The two teams disappeared briefly, having been sent to their suites before the actual commencement of the battle. After thirty seconds passed, both teams emerged onto the arena floor, and the crowd finally got into it.
I wasn’t cheering along, though. I was watching too intently, as were my friends and our one-time teammates, Tyke and company. It’s why all of us groaned at the same exact time. It was the moment we all saw the Rogue, Snitch, put on his conceal/stealth before Kaitlin could land her Root spell on him.
Not wanting to waste the mana, Kaitlin interrupted her spell and began casting it again on the Brawler, Zitt. The Root landed and I could see Tim start his cast to Charm the Brawler, the one of two likely to have the most DPS and could potentially sway the tide of the fight. That cast never landed though, as Snitch chose that moment to come out of his Invis and Backstab Tim all to hell. The damage instantly interrupted Tim’s casting.
Jenny ran to Snitch to Bash and Stun him as quickly as possible, and Gary attacked him in the hopes of just killing him. The Stealers’ Paladin, Yolo, wasn’t idle, however, and he was Bashing and Stunning Tim as well.
The Stealers had made their entire career in Resurgence around taking the kills of other players or outright killing the players themselves. That was why they didn’t make the rookie mistake of going after the healer first when an Enchanter was on the playing field. Sure, their Warrior, Dredge, would engage Kaitlin eventually, but everyone went at Tim first.
Kaitlin got off one heal, but it wasn’t enough. Tim went down fast, and Snitch and Yolo immediately turned on Kaitlin to finish her off, too. It was just a matter of time until our remaining friends met their end. I hated to admit it, but the Stealers played the game perfectly for PVP. Sure, they were dicks that “cheated” to get ahead. But in this case, they were the dicks that won, and they did so without cheating.
Not without being dicks, though. As they closed in on the final blow to Jenny, they were laughing and taunting her. They called her all kinds of names and made far too many references to what they would love to do with her. I’m happy Lug was there to hold Wayne back, because I thought he was going to try and jump off the 15-foot wall at the last moments.
Thankfully it all ended soon after that. As soon as the tournament was over, we were all transported back to our last log out point. The tournament only took a few hours, so there was still plenty of time left in the day for gaming. But that wasn’t what held our attention at the time.
I was heading over to where Wayne materialized when we all received a notification from AltCon:
Thank you all for your participation in our first Player vs. Player tournament. We noted no irregularities during gameplay and look forward to your reports. As promised, the winners of the tournament will receive a reward. In this case, the title of Tournament Champions will be bestowed upon Dredge, Snitch, Yolo, and Zitt. The title will grant an increase of 5 to all Stats and an increase of 10 percent to all Resistances. Congratulations to our Champions, and be sure to look out for the next tournament opportunities!
“Well there’s three hours of my life I’ll never get back. How about we just get back to being the bad asses of this game and never bring that crap up again.”
“I would like to agree with you, Alex, but no can do,” Wayne said. “Jenny is going to be pissed, for sure, and I see no reason to hold her back. I’m not going to dump salt in that wound, but I’m not going to ignore it, either.” Turning to Dan, Wayne said, “As far as Kaitlin goes, I would suggest you have a case of amnesia on that perfect memory of yours. I can guarantee you she doesn’t want a reminder of today.”
“Oh, I have no intention of forgetting today, my friends. I plan to figure out how to beat those fuckers if we ever come up against them outside of a tournament setting. I can guarantee you they will take a shot if they get a chance,” Dan said.
“Then I’m with you guys 100 percent. Whenever you figure it out, Dan, you let us know. It may not be anytime soon, but I’m sure our paths will cross at some point.”
*
With the tournament out of the way, we continued to creep toward our next level for the rest of the day. And yes, I could go on and on about each specific pull, but that’s not only boring as hell, it’s also not the important thing that happened.
As one could guess, I finally achieved my Level 100 in the Climbing Skill. Getting there took a tad bit longer than I had hoped, given my previous progress, but it was all worth it.
The reason it took longer occurred when I reached Level 98. No matter where I looked, all I could see was Green. There wasn’t another White patch of rock anywhere around me. I kept riding along the mountain side but had no luck. That is, until I doubled back to one of the first routes I tried. The one where the route went from Green to Red quickly.
That very location was the only place on the mountain that I saw anything that wasn’t Green in color. In fact, the route above the Green was White with some Blue on the ascension and entirely Blue on the way down.
I had avoided Blue routes up until this point because I felt them unsafe, given my lack of a healer. I saw no other option, though, if I wanted to attempt to max out the skill.
I took a lot of time trying to determine the best path to take once I got past the initial Green route. I realized that all of my planning would have been for naught if I got up there and found the landscape didn’t look the same from the ground level. But when it came to possibly falling to my death, I was happy being over prepared.
I ascended the Green route rather quickly and then rested just before the White and Blue began. I hadn’t lost much in the way of Vitality on my short climb, but I wanted all of it for this next part. Once I was at full Vitality, I slowly began my ascent.
I stopped frequently to look over my route, but I found my initial evaluation of the path to be generally on point.
There was one moment where it all came a
hair’s breadth from crashing down, though. And by “all,” I meant me. I saw that my only way up required me to over-extend to my right and get a Blue handhold. The foot hold I would need to reach was also Blue. I had seen this set of obstacles from the ground, but it didn’t look as far away as it did now.
The only other options I had would require me to descend back to almost the beginning and go up a separate way, and that had even more Blue marks in the early going. I steeled my nerves for the exchange and reached for the hold with my hand and swung over my leg.
With fingertips gripping the left hold I reached the Blue marker and planted my right foot. The scree on the foot hold was looser than I thought, and my right foot slid off. With that jolt, my left fingertips slipped off the handhold and my entire body jerked to the right. I was only holding on by my right hand, and my Vitality began to drop rapidly. I was also on the verge of hyperventilating.
In a last-ditch effort, I swung my left hand up and over my right hand so that both hands were now on the same handhold. With my arms firmly locked on, I placed my feet against the side of the mountain so that they wouldn’t swing free and so my shoulders didn’t take all my weight. With that accomplished, I searched for the foot hold I fell off of earlier, scraped away any additional loose scree with my foot, and planted both of my feet on the hold.
I was now safe, but I was also now screwed. From the position that I was in, I wasn’t going to be able to use my earlier route to go any further. Trying hard not to panic, I looked around and assessed my situation.
I saw one option—and only one—but it required a bit of jumping to make. If I missed this grab, I was going to plummet to my death. If I made it, I was home free.
Never one to back down from a challenge, I looked twice more at the angle I would need to travel. I moved my hands so that my right was now on top, as that would be the hand making the grab. I took two more solid breaths and then took a leap of faith to my right.
This time my luck held out.
I made the grab and was able to swing my legs to a sturdy and large foot hold. A separate foot hold was right next to the first. As I looked up, I saw that a few of the previously Blue markers had turned White. I checked my Climbing Skill and I was at 99. Pausing just long enough to recover some Vitality, I continued to climb.
As I reached what I believed to be the summit, I found yet another surprise in front of me. I had climbed up to the mouth of a cave that was hidden from view at ground level. It wasn’t a large opening, probably just big enough for Wayne. At first glance, I didn’t see anything inside the cave, either.
I continued my climb and pulled myself up into the entrance. Serendipitously, my Climbing Skill maxed out right as I entered the hole in the mountain. When I looked back the way I climbed, I saw that all of the holds were now Green and White. The fall I almost took was covered in all White holds, meaning it was considered to be a Level 100 climb. Only someone with a maxed out Climbing Skill, or very close to approaching it, could get up here.
I had engaged my Blacksuit as soon as I crossed the lip of the cave. With my enhanced vision, I could see that the cave ran back into the mountain for quite a distance, but there was no evidence of anyone being there. I decided to press my luck and explore just a bit.
I ended my exploration for two reasons. The first was that the cave turned at an angle and started descending into the mountain, and I was going to lose any light I had. The second and more important reason was what I found right around the bend in the cave.
The sides of the cave were riddled with veins of some kind of metal. Not being a Miner or a Smith, I couldn’t identify Copper from Bronze, but I could clearly see when a cave was ripe for pickaxes. On the floor was a bit of the metal that was running through the cave’s interior, and I attempted to loot it. The notification told me I had found an unidentified piece of metal. It certainly looked like something important, and by “important” I mean expensive.
The next notification asked me if I wanted to claim this mine for the East Range Mountain Dwarf Clan. I pocketed the metal and then made my way back to the entrance of the cave. When I looked around in more detail I saw a place where someone could likely brace a rope, and an idea began to form in my mind.
Before leaving the cave, I hit decline on the offer to claim the mine as a part of the clan. I had doubted that anyone else would be coming here in the near future, so I could stake the claim whenever I wanted. The unknown variable for my plan was the little piece of metal in my pocket. Once we traveled to see the Dwarves, I would know if my idea would bear fruit and whom I would need to involve.
November 3rd, 2043
“About bloody time!” Dan yelled out, as he was the last of us to hit Level 27. If it weren’t for the steady supply of experience—as well as treats—to Broham, Dan would have leveled before me or Wayne.
After descending from the cave without any mishaps, I rode back to the log off point thinking about what we would do once Dan hit his Level. Naturally we wanted to try for the next quest, and I knew that the more time that passed, the more Wayne was chomping at the bit to go to the Monastery of Might. I only hoped that they would all want to see the Dwarves, as that piece of metal was figuratively burning a hole in my pack.
“Time to try for the quest again, then? Maybe ol’ Arthur won’t be such a douche about it this time,” Dan said as we all summoned our mounts and got ready to ride back to the Keep.
“Third times the charm, huh?”
“Unless Alex is trying to light fires.”
“Ooooh. Burn!” Jason said. Then he looked around and waited for a response. When he didn’t get one, he shook his head. “Did you not see what I did there. Burn. He was trying to light fires. Really? Nothing?”
“It was good, Allicat. Don’t be so needy.”
“Hmm, that one wasn’t half bad -- Alley Cat.”
“Thanks! And secretly I was very jealous of your use of the word burn. Just don’t tell the others.”
“We’re all standing right here Dan.”
“It’s not nice to eavesdrop, Wayne!”
It was good to see Dan back to his normal self. After the catastrophe at Jenny’s place and the subsequent—and deserved—snubbing by Kaitlin, I didn’t know how long it would take him to get out of his funk.
We made the trip to the Capitol in good time, now knowing quite well the layout of the north. Again, I approached Sir Arthur alone and told him that we were ready to answer the call.
Sir Arthur was nodding his head and looking around, finally stopping on me.
“Ahh, adventurer. I was looking for the rest of your party, but I see you came alone. I am afraid this is not a mission that could be handled by just one, though. Still, I will give you the details and allow you to gather your forces appropriately.
“After the defeat of the Trolls, His Majesty has sent caravan after caravan to reinforce the forces on the frontline. Most of these caravans have made the journey without problem but not all of them. I wish this was as simple as the bandits you dispatched before, but our information tells us it is much worse.
“Citizens of His Majesty’s kingdom have been colluding with the forces of Loust. An underground network of usurpers has infiltrated and infected our land. It is unclear just how deep the treason has spread.
“His Majesty is calling on brave adventurers like yourself to set up an ambush against those who are intercepting the caravans. The goal is not defeating the forces but rather capturing their leader alive so that His Majesty’s interrogators can question the traitor and learn who else is colluding with Loust.
“Will you help to set up this ambush and deliver the traitorous leader to His Majesty, alive and able to answer questions?”
“We will help set up the ambush and capture the traitor alive.”
The golden glow that surrounded me was a welcome relief. The guys cheered as well when they received the glow.
“Excellent! Report to the caravan master once you have marshalled your forces!
The Kingdom thanks you for your aid!”
I stepped back from Sir Arthur and activated my Conceal/Stealth. I didn’t want to stand around and answer questions, and I had a really bad feeling about what was coming.
“I’m on my way back to you guys. But check the quest. Looks like we will be going to see the Dwarves after all.”
What I had already seen, and what the rest were now learning, was that this quest was not for only one group. Hell, it wasn’t even for two groups. This one required a total of 12 people, or three groups. I already knew a third group we could ask, but I had no idea how far along they were toward leveling to 27.
“Damnit, this sucks! I’m sure Jenny and company are almost to Level 27, but what other group could even be close? Oh, and will Kaitlin even want to be around me?”
“She’ll probably be over it by the time they hit 27. That doesn’t mean she will be that friendly, but I don’t see us having a problem with grouping. What do you think, Alex? Tyke’s group for the third?”
“That’s what I was thinking, Wayne. You’ve got a good relationship with Lug. You want to reach out to him, or do you want me to reach out to Tyke?”
“You do the whole interpersonal thing better than I do. You take it, if you don’t mind.”
“Not a problem. For now, let’s make our way to the gate between this area and Port Town’s area. I figure we can log out for the night next to those guards, and in the morning, we can make our way to see Tibble and the clan. On our way to the mine, I’ll crack open the journal and satchel, and we can see what Lady Tessa has in store for us.”
Chapter 12
November 4th, 2043
“Don’t keep us in suspense any longer, Alex. I want to know what we found.”
I nodded my head in agreement toward Wayne and reached into my inventory to grab the journal first. When I accessed the book, I was able to read the words, but the other guys couldn’t see what I did. I read to them out of the journal.
Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II Page 25
