Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II

by Joshua W. Nelson

  Captain Treeswain was full of thanks when we presented ourselves to complete the quest. He went on for quite some time about how the use of the bridge would in turn lead to a turning of the battle between the Kingdom and the Children of Loust. None of us really cared. We just wanted our reward and hoped for another title.

  The title was not to be had, however. Completion of this quest did give us a nice chunk of experience, with Dan and Jason almost hitting Level 23 after taking out the mobs and the Boss in the Troll quest. We also received 100 Gold each. I was sure that the cash would come in handy at some point. Wayne and I were still behind our friends in experience after having died to the ten Blue mobs in the dungeon, but we were creeping up on leveling as well.

  Captain Treeswain told us to talk with Sir Arthur in Yerkich Square to see if there were any further tasks to be tackled by willing adventurers.

  We had already planned to head back to the Keep as it was, as we had a few items from our grind through the dungeon to sell. Nothing of note, but it would likely get us 20 or 30 more Gold. Since we were heading to the city, I sent a message ahead to Tyke, and told him to meet us next to the quest giver.

  “So you guys did it?” Tyke asked as we approached their group in the square.

  “Woah! What are those pants Naugha?” Lug asked before I could answer Tyke.

  “Check ‘em out, Lug,” Wayne said as he showed his new armor to the Ogre.

  As we were traveling back to the Keep, I had asked Wayne what the price of Fine Plate Pants went for at the merchants. According to Wayne, they were selling them for 70 Gold. We had paid 50 Gold to the Dwarves. The discount for being friends with the Dwarves had paid off.

  If we sold the armor to the merchants, we would have received 40 Gold. Since I knew what the going rate was, I planned to sell the greaves to Lug for exactly what we paid for them.

  “Hey, Lug. If you have 50 Gold on ya, we can sell you Naugha’s old armor. The merchants sell it for 70 Gold, so it will be a steal for ya.”

  “Damn. I’ve only got 30 Gold on me. But let me go check something really quick.”

  Lug lumbered off. After five minutes, he came running back with a noticeable difference: he was no longer wearing pants. That isn’t to say he was naked from the waist down, but he was wearing only the starter “britches” that had 0 armor rating.

  “My old armor sold for 25 Gold, so here is the 50 Gold for the upgrade, Alex.”

  I saw 50 Gold pop up in my inventory window that allowed me to execute trades with other players. Wayne had given me his Fine Plate earlier, and with the money in front of me, I completed the trade.

  As soon as he had the new Armor, Lug equipped his new gear. He had a big ol’ toothy Ogre grin on his face as he looked at his new leggings.

  “These are awesome, bro! Thanks for the hook-up.”

  “It’s not that we don’t appreciate it, but why the kindness, Alex?”

  “Well, Tyke, you may not realize it, but you gave us the clue we needed to get through the entrance.”

  “Seriously? How did you do it?!?”

  Tyke, Lug, and the two Dark Elf casters leaned in as I explained to them how we used what they said. Giving this information to Tyke felt like the right thing to do since they inadvertently spawned the idea in my head. And again, I was all about making friends in the game.

  “What about the final boss?” one of the casters asked.

  “I’m going to let you guys give that one a try. Just remember, like with the entrance, controlling the mobs is key. If you guys have serious problems with the Boss after a couple of tries, give me a holler. I’ll see what I can do. Hell, we died at the entrance and the Boss fight as well. But figuring it out was a lot of fun.”

  “Man, you guys are alright! You ever need help with a fight, you give us a call!” Lug exclaimed.

  “With the way this game is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t come sooner than you think.”

  FBI Forensics Center (Basement)

  Special Agents Annabelle Bolden and Nicodemus Colvin sat in the office of Forensic Accounting specialist Ryan Grimes. The office could be the centerpiece specimen of a hoarding documentary. Everywhere that Special Agents Bolden and Colvin looked, there were piles of papers stacked almost to the ceiling. At first, it looked like the Agents would be forced to stand throughout their meeting, as neither could see so much as a chair in the room. Grimes came from behind his desk and, in what looked like a very practiced set of motions, uncovered two chairs that looked rarely used for sitting.

  Grimes certainly did not embody the look of your classic FBI Agent. Where Bolden and Colvin went for function with a hint of class, Grimes went with comfort. And only comfort. He wore blue jeans and a faded t-shirt with a death metal band on the front that looked like it said Deceased. His shoes were Vans, and he did nothing to hide his tattoos. Not that he could have, as he had a number of tattoos on his arms, hands and fingers, and a large tattoo over the left side of his neck.

  “I’d say forgive the mess, but I don’t really care. I’ve got too much data and not enough space to place it all. It may look like chaos to you, but there is a very defined filing system throughout. So please, don’t touch anything and mess it up.”

  “It’s your office, Agent Grimes. My name is Special Agent Annabelle Bolden and this is Special Agent Nicodemus Colvin. We are here assisting with an investigation from Director Grissten,” Bolden said, handing over a note written out to Grimes by the Director.

  Grimes took the note and set it to the side. He did not so much as look at the envelope twice, let alone open it. “How can I be of service?”

  “Did you want to look at the letter?” Colvin asked.

  “You would have to be mighty ballsy to claim you were here from the Director herself if you actually weren’t. And in that case, I would probably help you for being so crazy. Otherwise, that letter is simply going to ask for me to do whatever you need. Again, because of that request, I’m going to help you. So like I said, how can I be of service?”

  Bolden attempted to place her briefcase next to her chair, but she had to switch it to the other side due to a huge stack of papers in the way. “Have you ever thought of going digital with this? I would think it would make it easier to find things.”

  “There is truth in the hard copy that can’t be changed or altered. I’m not a trusting man when it comes to all the digital necessity we have in our life. You do things your way, and I do them mine. And now this is the third time I am asking. What do you want?”

  Colvin could see Annabelle was about to lose her top and stepped in. “Sorry about that, Agent Grimes. It’s obvious your system works, as your reputation and track record indicates.”

  Grimes nodded his head at Colvin to continue.

  “Have you heard of the company, AltCon?”

  “Screw those guys!”

  Bolden and Colvin looked over at each other for a moment. Grimes had a visceral reaction when they asked about AltCon, and they were both hoping this wasn’t going to put a stop to their using his expertise in their investigation. “Obviously you know them. Did you work for them at some point?”

  “No, but I wanted to. Kind of. It’s complicated.”

  “You should probably explain before we go into any more details.”

  Grimes took a deep breath and said, “Look. I can tell that the two of you aren’t going to understand how something like this would make me upset. But understand that, for me, this was the opportunity of a lifetime, and AltCon passed me up on it. So, yeah, I’m pissed.”

  “Ok. What was the opportunity?”

  “The douches didn’t sign me on to be a part of their beta for their new MMORPG, Resurgence! This thing is the next level of awesomeness, and they never even bothered to call me back after I put in my application.”

  What the Agents didn’t know, of course, was that the very fact that Grimes was a part of the FBI was why he was not considered for the beta.

  “I see,” said Ag
ent Bolden. “Would you have any problem running some things to ground for us? We need an unbiased assessment here.”

  “Yeah. I may be pissed, but it won’t interfere with my job. What are you looking to uncover?”

  “Abnormalities. I’ve heard that is how you unravel the mysteries here. You look for things that don’t fit.”

  “That’s the truth. We have a totally different way of looking at evidence. You guys look for fibers, DNA, blood samples, and the like. Something that ties a person directly to a crime. I look for breadcrumbs that can get you to those crimes.

  “I remember one case in particular that will explain what I mean. There was a person that was suspected of nefarious activities while taking business trips for his company. The problem was, he was constantly taking trips for the company, and the Bureau didn’t have the resources to monitor this guy every time he traveled. So they called me in.”

  “And you found something with credit cards or something?” Colvin asked.

  Grimes gave Colvin a look that said what he thought of the question.

  “Seriously? Credit cards? That’s something any of you guys could figure out. If the guy was making mistakes like that, they wouldn’t have needed to contact me.

  “This guy was careful. Like, really careful. But in the end, it was his own personal accounting that did him in. And do you know what I found? The abnormality?”

  “I’m not even going to try and guess and get my hand slapped again,” Colvin said with a smile.

  Grimes smiled back and replied, “Good call. It was tips. Gratuity.

  “Every trip, this guy would get per diem for meals. But part of that per diem required for him to provide receipts for meals purchased. And he was meticulous about adding the amount he tipped. Now, he never went over his per diem, but I noticed that there were regularly times he tipped 30-40 percent. The rest of the time it was your standard 15-20. The agents that went out to interview the wait staff at these restaurants had the same look of incredulousness that you have right now.”

  Bolden blushed a bit at Grimes’ words, but she just didn’t see how tips would make a difference.

  “It’s fine, Agent Bolden. I’m used to that look. It lasts right up until the first time someone lands a big victory because of my work.

  “Anyhow, when the Agents interviewed the various wait staff, they all remembered our guy. Because he tipped big. And he always paid with a hundred-dollar bill.

  “That got the team to thinking that he was using money from a payoff he was getting at these meals. When I reviewed the records, I saw that they happened every 5-6 weeks. So when the time came around, Agents followed the man on his trip and put 24-7 monitoring on him. Sure enough, they caught him in the act of selling company secrets to the Chinese government. He received a fat envelope at the exchange, and in that envelope were all hundred-dollar bills.”

  “All because of an abnormality in accounting.”

  “Exactly, Agent Colvin. Exactly.”

  Bolden thought for a bit about how to address her request to Grimes. She came to him because she had heard that his methods led to results. And based on his story, she saw how he could benefit their investigation.

  “Agent Grimes, you are aware that AltCon is not just a large company. It’s a multinational behemoth. Due to our lack of a warrant at this time, the only avenues we have for investigating are through public channels. And on top of that, I can’t really go into what exactly the investigation is looking at. I imagine that small tidbit is included in the Director’s letter.”

  “Ok. That will limit a lot of what I can do. I will only be able to look at things in the US, obviously. That is, unless other countries have their records open to the public, which some do.”

  Bolden nodded her head at Grimes and continued. “Focus on the US piece for now. I would suggest, for reasons I can’t really get into, that you start from the center and move outward. Their Headquarters first, then circle out.”

  “Any additional data you can give me? Something to narrow it down?”

  “I wish that we could, but in reality, we are on our own fact-finding mission as well,” Colvin admitted. “Our hope is that with your experience, you will see something that is glaringly obvious to you but that we would have just looked right past.”

  “Ooh, Agent Bolden, keep this one around. He definitely does the sweet talk better than you.”

  If it weren’t for the honest smile on Grimes’ face, Colvin may have been offended.

  “I’ll look into it immediately. I will try to have something for you in a couple of weeks. As you can see, I like hardcopy when I can get it, and that sometimes takes a while to be processed and delivered.”

  “We will be in your debt, Agent Grimes.”

  “Just call me Ry. And if AltCon has something coming to them, I’ve got no problem with helping. Teach them not to put me in their beta!”

  Chapter 8

  October 24th, 2043

  After seeing off Tyke and his group, we decided to call it a night. None of us wanted to mess with Sir Arthur and trigger another quest right away, especially since we agreed that our next quest would be the first in Lady Tessa’s chain.

  I was studying the map, as we knew it, when the rest of the team began logging on. During our travels to the soldier camp, we had noted a number of smaller roads that branched off to the north and south of the main road. These could be clearly seen on my map, and I am sure Dan’s was even more detailed. I planned on taking one of these northern routes toward our next quest.

  Once everyone was logged on, I asked Dan to look at what had been uncovered on his map with all of our travels, and if anything jumped out to him that could assist us in getting to our next location. Since Dan’s innate combo of Ranger and Wood Elf gave him the ability to uncover more of his map as he traveled, I was hoping for any clues that could help.

  “Not from our travels, no. But that really detailed map in the Captain’s office did have some interesting markers up in the northern reaches. It looks to be mostly forest before it breaks off into tundra. His map was focused more on what lay along the river, but I could tell there were mountains the further north you went.”

  “Did the river snake toward our quest area?”

  “Nope. The river stayed mostly north/south from the camp. It did meander a bit, this way and that, but in general it kept to a straight north/south.”

  “So then we are still looking at taking one of these roads that shoots off from the main King’s Road.”

  “Looks like it, yeah.”

  “Allister, Wayne, any thoughts?”

  “We don’t have enough info at this point, so I think we just need to hop on our horses and start making our way to one of these roads and give it a shot.”

  “Yeah, Alex. I agree with Allister on this one.”

  We restocked supplies. Dan was able to summon Broham, so he needed to make sure he had plenty of treats for however long we would be out. Dan also took an insanely long amount of time telling Broham how sorry he was for getting him killed. Seeing Dan speak at length to a wolf should have been comical, but it looked normal for Dan.

  Once we were outside the Keep’s walls, we summoned our horses and began the trek back along the King’s Road and toward the soldier’s camp. It wasn’t but 30 minutes before we came across the first road that branched off to the north.

  We debated whether I should dismount and stealth my way along the route or let Dan ride along the road to check the lay of the land. With Dan’s horse, he could escape quickly if he needed to, and Broham would have no problem keeping up. The Dire Wolf was as fast as the horse and would likely be faster once it reached maturity.

  Although, being Dan’s pet, it was hard to think of anything associated with him having the word “mature” attached to it.

  Dan took off along the road and returned after only 15 minutes. The road continued for a short way and then ended at a lake. Dan saw numerous lower level mobs but nothing that indicated another road
that branched off from the one he traveled.

  Twice more we sent Dan along a road only to have him return and report something similar. The only things of note along the third road were several Blue and White mobs Dan could see on his map.

  The fourth road is when we finally hit pay dirt for our route. Dan took off along the road as he had before, but after thirty minutes he had not returned. I started to get worried, not that Dan had been attacked, but that he may have just stopped somewhere to do a crossword or something.

  “Bingo, boys! Ride on up. We are going to need Alex on this one I think.”

  We looked at each other for a second and then spurred our horses onto the road and headed toward Dan’s direction. The road was nowhere near as well maintained as the King’s Road, and we had to ride single file due to the narrow nature of the path. The realism of the game was evident here as well, as Wayne repeatedly had to duck to avoid low hanging branches that were creeping out over the road. We only knew this because Wayne took a branch to the noggin not five minutes after we started the ride.

  “Think you could have told me about the branches, Dan?” Wayne yelled after he got thwacked in the face.

  “What branches? They never bothered me.”

  “That’s because you are a midget!”

  “Well, one of us is in stature, and one of us is in mind. I believe I will keep my status, good sir!”

  Wayne looked over at Jason and said, “Did he just call me a ‘mental midget?’”

  “Don’t ever tell him I said so, but he gets mad points for that one!”

  Once we arrived at Dan’s location, I saw why Dan wanted my assistance. There was a small outpost of some kind along the side of the road. From my map, I could see there was a small tributary that ran through the area, likely feeding the river we had crossed previously. Upon closer inspection, the outpost could be some type of logging town, if it were only bigger. It also looked to be empty.