Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II

by Joshua W. Nelson

  Emily came from the very same IT office as Dan but was not nearly as eccentric as Mr. Hamson. Of course, if that had not been the case, the General would have had to take a serious look at that office’s hiring practices.

  Emily had begun working for the General’s specialty office several years earlier and was the perfect match for someone who could transfer from one job to another with little concern. She was in her mid 20’s, single, and had no direct family. She was also eager to take on the challenge of infiltrating AltCon after learning of the General’s suspicions concerning Robert Shoal’s untimely demise.

  More importantly to the General, Emily came from a family with a long history of service to their country. Her father did three deployments in Iraq during the second Gulf War, her uncle served in Afghanistan, and her Grandfather served in Vietnam. Emily went the route of formal education, but she only applied to one place after her graduation: the Department of Defense.

  “I’ve been working on a timeline of RAC work orders handled by the IT office. I’ve been performing my routine duties and then ostensibly going through back work orders to determine if any of the requests were not completed. I found a number of items that had been languishing, awaiting completion, and finished those projects. This did lead to a bit of scrutiny by IT management.”

  “Anything that could affect your placement?”

  “No, sir. The managers were impressed with my initiative and gave me the green light to continue investigating any previous orders that went unfulfilled. In essence, I was given permission to do exactly what I wanted to do on the sly.

  “As you can imagine, there were a number of work orders submitted just prior to the beta’s commencement. Routine checks and the likes. Outside of routine requests, there has been nothing of note since the launch of the beta.”

  “So, another dead end.”

  “Since the beginning of the beta, yes. But when I looked back further, I found something interesting. There were numerous requests of the same nature almost six months prior. These requests matched the types received by Emerging Products’ IT section before the beta was released.”

  “What is your assessment, Emily?”

  “Based on the number of requests, I believe there was another set of RACs that AltCon used for an indeterminate amount of time. Given the volume of work orders, the number of RACs were likely close to the same number being used in the current beta.

  “Another anomaly was a set of work orders I had not seen previously. With these requests, the Emerging Products office ordered diagnostics one would expect when the RACs were to be taken out of service. The time difference between the initial requests and the out-of-service requests was close to five months.”

  “Is there any way to determine if AltCon has tried something similar with this beta?”

  Emily sat back in her chair and thought through the question. Along with the routine work orders, she had noted orders for diagnostic checks on all the RACs transplanted from AltCon headquarters to the homes of the beta testers. She had seen nothing similar during the period she referenced earlier. If there had been another beta, it had to have occurred within the building. Emily explained this to the General.

  “Would there be any reflections, IT-wise, if this were the case?”

  What many people never realize is that with so much of the world going digital, you could map out the timeline and lifestyle of users and companies by IT logs alone. There was so much data, however, that doing so required a path to follow. Otherwise, it was like looking through hundreds of haystacks for that one single needle.

  Secondly, whatever Emily needed to do had to be consistent with her position. The General had explained, time and again, she was not to be overly ambitious in her investigations.

  “Access, General. If individuals were being tested within AltCon, it stands to reason they would need access to certain areas of the facilities. Those would require work orders. If these were AltCon employees, they likely wanted access to their own work near their RACs. That would require more computers and multiple access requests,” Emily said as she thought around the problem.

  “And your thoughts?”

  “Yes. Yes, I believe I can, and within the framework of my position.”

  “Good. Thank you, Emily. I look forward to your next report.”

  Chapter 6

  October 18th, 2043

  We finished up our fourth day with the Undead, and we were stacking up the funds quickly. One more day and we would have enough to outfit Jason and Wayne in all new gear. We had also gained another level while we were fighting the Undead, and everyone was at Level 22. The mobs were all Blue to us now, but we were there for the cash, not the experience. I thought it might be helpful to ask the Wanderer where we could find an experience rich area, but I was also cognizant that every time I saw him, I put him in danger. I think.

  Jenny and her crew also gained a level and were collecting cash each day. Since all of the gear we planned to buy from the Dwarves was tradeable, we had agreed to purchase a full set for Jenny as well. Although it could have been we were told by Wayne that we would be doing this. I don’t remember the details exactly.

  Finally, both Broham and Rocky were getting solid level increases, and both were now at Level 13. They still only had one attack, Bite, but they were getting to a point where they were doing some serious damage. Broham was never in fear of pulling aggro off of Dan when he was kiting, but Kaitlin had to be careful with Rocky. If she tried to hold a mob in place through one of her spells, there was a chance it could turn on Rocky if she hadn’t done enough damage.

  Not to mention, these were no longer little puppies. Broham was starting to look like a regular-sized, two-year-old wolf. They still weren’t up to Dire size, but I was sure that they would continue to grow as they were fed and leveled.

  When we weren’t actively engaging the Undead, we all did our own thing. Wayne continued to help Jenny and her crew, Tanking for them. Dan would travel back to the Elder Elven tree to collect wood for his arrows. And Jason had decided to take up being a Cleric for Hire to make a little extra cash for himself. When we played as a group, that money primarily went toward whatever the group needed. In Jason’s case, though, he was able to keep all the money he earned for himself. I had no idea what he planned to buy with it.

  I spent all of my down time at the Pit. I had spent the first day after learning the Lift skill to ask more of the NPCs about impossible to beat mobs but kept getting the same response. None of what they told me had any relation to what I was looking for. Instead of wasting more time, I decided to focus on my two new Rogue abilities: Awareness and Lift.

  I usually spent three hours at the Pit with Waseem, fine tuning my Awareness ability and improving my Lift techniques. I had improved at trying to overlap my shadows with those of Waseem’s, the first step I would need to master before I could move through the shadow itself.

  After Waseem felt that I was able to lift an ice cube with my thumb and middle finger with ample success, he made me do the same thing with my thumb and all the other fingers. Then he made me try other combinations, like my ring finger and index finger.

  Waseem also made me do the lessons with both hands. My dominant right hand had little difficulty adapting, but my left hand was as sloppy as shit.

  No matter how good I got with any combination of both hands, however, my Lift score never went above “1.”

  It was all done when I finally “mastered” the ring finger-pinky pinch to Waseem’s satisfaction. If you don’t think this is difficult, go drop a piece of ice in a glass and use just those two fingers to lift it out of the glass. And don’t forget, it needs to be a little melted and it can’t touch the glass in anyway. I’m sure I’d hear your curses all the way in this virtual world.

  As I was getting ready to reset the cube in the glass, Waseem came over and had me stop what I was doing. I figured the next task would have me lifting the ice cube with my toes, but I was in for a pound at this point
.

  “Great work, Alex. You’ve got the lifts down well. I’m going to have you try again on Tiny Tommy and see how you manage.”

  Just like before, Tommy stood in the middle of the room, and I activated my Conceal/Stealth. Tommy wore the same cloak, and I slowly maneuvered around him as I tried to reach in to get his coin purse. The first two attempts were met by a slap on the hand, but the third was successful. I then realized that Tommy had multiple coin purses on his body and I had to try and get as many as I could.

  The fifth and sixth were also successes. I had to stop myself from jumping up and down right there and then. In total, I removed him of his coin purse seven times out of the ten.

  When I finally dropped my Conceal/Stealth, I had a huge smile on my face, as did Tommy. Once I stopped hiding, Tommy knew I had finished my run and he was just as happy as I was that he hadn’t caught me more than he did. With a quick run of his hands down his cloak, Tommy looked over at Waseem and said, “He got seven. I didn’t feel a bloody thing.”

  “Damn good work, Alex!” Waseem said as he shook my hand. At this point I didn’t take anything for granted and kept my Awareness up all the time, but even more so when Waseem was around.

  “You can call it a day, Tommy. I appreciate your help.” He flipped a small coin purse to Tommy who thanked Waseem profusely. Tommy backed out of the Pit, and I found myself alone with my teacher.

  “What you just learned is what all the street urchins learn. You took to it pretty quickly, though. It takes the kids, who usually have smaller and nimbler hands, at least a month to learn what you did in a few days.

  “But now comes the fun part. I asked Tommy to leave because he doesn’t have the same tools we do. Tommy can hide with the best of them, and he can out-pickpocket almost any kid on my crew. Since he doesn’t have a feeling for the shadows, though, he wouldn’t understand how they play into your next lesson.”

  “I was wondering when the shadows would come into play. It doesn’t seem like hardcore thievery if we aren’t cheating more than a little, after all.”

  “And there you go. Hit it right on the head. We already plan to be conniving bastards, so why not take it to the next level? And that next level is where you will go from being a good cutpurse to being a Thief.”

  I sat on top of one of the tables and got ready to listen to whatever Waseem had to say.

  “You use your shadows right now to trigger your Blacksuit, correct?” I nodded my head at Waseem. “So you constantly have a layers of shadows around you whenever you travel around in this manner. Those shadows become the key for a Thief.”

  “How?”

  Waseem paused for a moment, then nodded. “I’m going to back up a bit here. You use your shadows to raise your Awareness. It allows you to know when someone enters into your space, right?”

  I nodded my head in the affirmative.

  “If they have the ability to heighten sensitivity, couldn’t it be the case that they could deaden an area as well?”

  I nodded my head again. “That makes more sense to me than the fact that we use them for sensing things. You think of shadows as darkness, so deadening someone’s senses through them is perfectly logical.”

  “A Lift, with shadows, doesn’t just pluck the pretty prize from the target; it ensures the target can’t feel it, because the shadows numb that area, much like your fingers were numb after so long with the ice cube. It can be the difference between a successful Lift and a failure. In some cases, like if someone has wards and spells on them, it’s the only way you could ever attempt to steal from them. The most difficult thefts I ever attempted would have been impossible without the gifts of the Rogue. And actually accomplishing the theft would have been impossible without these skill and others that only a true Rogue can wield. Now it’s time you learned how it’s done.”

  *

  October 21st, 2043

  Three more days at the Undead and we had enough cash to outfit the whole group. I was so damn happy to be done with the week of constant grinding. My only solace came from my time with Waseem practicing my Lifts. After several hours, even that became tedious. The upside was, my Lift skill was increasing, and I was now at a Level 31. The higher my Lift skill, the less chance my target would detect my theft, even with magic to aid them.

  In order to increase past my current level, I would need to start stealing from someone other than Waseem. The skill topped out at 31 if you were only increasing from your instructor.

  It would have been a nice break to travel back to the Dwarves and meet with our friends and Dwarven kin, but time was wasting in starting these quests. After Wayne collected the necessary funds from Jenny to buy her new armor, we sent Jason to the Dwarves on his horse. Jason had the same friendliness to the Dwarves that we all did, but Jason could simply Gate back to the Keep after he made the purchases. He would be overweight with all that plate in his bags, but he wouldn’t have to worry about any negative effects. As soon as the transaction was made, Jason would return to the square near Sir Arthur.

  Dan decided to spend his time at The Willy while Jason went on his run. With all the harvesting of the Elven Elder tree he had been doing, Dan had seriously neglected his duties at the Tavern—keeping them in business through his drinking.

  Jenny and her group stayed at the Undead to gain another level, and Wayne decided to stay with his girlfriend and help them out. They offered to split some of the money with us, what with Wayne helping so much, but Wayne wouldn’t hear of it. I was all for saying yes. Wayne is bigger, so he won.

  I was passing the time by robbing the NPCs at Yerkich Square. There was no other way to explain what I was doing. In order to raise my Lift score, I needed to successfully abscond with someone else’s purse. I could have done so with my teammates, but then I would have had to explain where I got the skill. It was while I wandered around the square taking from various NPCs that I encountered a new phenomenon.

  I had wrapped myself in the shadows of my Blacksuit and was skulking down a boulevard when I spotted what looked like a tasty mark. He was dressed in the latest fashion and had more money in clothes than I had in the bank. His money pouch was practically begging to be taken from his waist. I made my approach as Waseem had taught me and was about to make my grab when a red tinge enveloped the NPC. As any gamer knows, Red is bad. Red is always bad. You run from Red. In this case, I slowly backed away from the NPC and started jogging back the way I came as soon as I felt it was safe. I then immediately went to the Pit to find Waseem.

  Molly greeted me when I walked in and told me neither Waseem or Stan—or Dhalean as he was known in the Capitol—was about. I asked her if she could get a message to Waseem and waited until he arrived.

  Twenty minutes later, Waseem breezed into the Pit and asked what had me so spooked. I relayed to him the story of my Lift attempt, including the guy’s description, and he got a big smile on his face.

  “Thank the gods you didn’t actually try to steal from the Constable! I definitely would have gotten my ass handed to me by Dhalean if you had tried that! No matter what, he would have found a reason to blame me.”

  “Wait. That guy dressed in who knows how many Platinum worth of clothes was the Constable? How much money does that guy get for a salary?”

  “A pittance, I’m sure,” Waseem answered. “But he’s as corrupt as they come, and every gang pays him to operate in Kich’s Keep. What I wouldn’t give to rob that fool.”

  “Why haven’t you?”

  “Two-man job. At least. And Dhalean never wants to help. You interested?”

  Internally I screamed at the quest being offered to me, but knew I couldn’t take it. In order to be of any use, I would need to devote myself full time to increasing my Lift skill. I just didn’t have time for that.

  “Gotta know your limitations, and I know I’m not ready for that. I’ll tell you when I think I am, and we can go at that bastard together.”

  Waseem smiled, showing all his perfect teeth. “Better than I’v
e ever gotten Dhalean to commit to. It’ll do for now.”

  *

  After Jason returned, Dan and I took all the extra money we had and purchased our own full sets of armor. We were finally ready to tackle some quests after that long grind.

  I opened my inventory and took a quick look at my new gear:

  With all of the new gear, I went from having 80 Armor to 190. Dan had a similar raise in his gear, although he refused to abandon the Furry Britches until he could replace them with another set of Rare or better leggings. All of us knew he really just wanted the novelty of the name and the attention they gathered. Dan had rocked those Britches with style to this point, so none of us could argue.

  Wayne had been at 142 Armor with his Dark Breastplate and Dented Plate armor. According to him, his Armor was now over 300, as was Jason’s total. And for the first time, I wasn’t the first one to suggest an experiment!

  “It will be totally good for us to see how much damage we take! Keep your regular gear on, all the old shit, and let’s go get smashed by a mob!” Dan said to the group. I couldn’t find any fault with his thinking and immediately started to the forest just outside the gate.

  No one was worried about dying, since all the mobs in this area were Green to us. This was the safest experiment we had ever done. I still had a thing or two to teach Dan.

  The results were immediate. All of us cycled through getting aggro and letting the mob hit us for a few rounds, and then did the same with our new gear. The damage was less than half between our new and old gear.

  With everyone happy with the results of our experiment, it was time to decide on our next step; whether we took the storyline quest or Lady Tessa’s quest. I was leaning toward the second, since I knew the rewards would be far better than any other.

  Before I could voice my opinion, Jason took the reins of leadership. I had told the guys from the beginning that I was, at the best of times, a reluctant leader. I was happy to see another take some initiative.