Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II

by Joshua W. Nelson

  Tim, on the other hand, ran into one of Jenny’s bedrooms and came back with a blanket of some kind. Without any hesitation, he wrapped the blanket around Dan’s hands, put his own arms around Dan, and took him to the floor. From there we could see that Tim had not only wrapped Dan’s hands completely, but that the blanket was extremely thick.

  “No oxygen, no fire, bud. We should be good for now, but you might want to get those things off your wrists before we do anything else with this blanket.”

  Dan began removing the equipment from his wrists when the fire alarm went off. It was at this point that Dan looked up, finally, and saw the other guests in Jenny’s apartment.

  Everyone was covered in dust from the extinguisher, and there was a layer of smoke along the roof, no doubt the cause of the fire alarm. The looks on our faces were mostly shock, although Jenny’s looked like pure irritation. Luckily for Dan, I didn’t see any anger in the look.

  Unfortunately, Kaitlin, had been close to one of the fires when Wayne let loose with the extinguisher. Of all of us, she was covered the most by the extinguishing agent, almost covering her entire torso. Her look, in fact, was anger.

  “Fuck my life.”

  *

  “Try to focus on the game, Dan. It will take your mind off the colossal fuck up that was last night.”

  “Thanks for the words of encouragement there, Allimalicious,” Dan said with an obvious note of sarcasm.

  “Hey, no one told you to bring fireball-shooting whatevers on your hands.”

  “But it was going so good!”

  We all nodded our heads. If Dan hadn’t decided to mess with the gizmos that made those fireballs, he could have definitely chalked the night up as a success.

  “Another lesson learned for you there, brother. I have no doubt you will learn many more as time goes on.”

  “Are you saying I fuck up a lot, Alex?”

  “And you said he didn’t notice any social or subtle cues, Allister.”

  “You guys are both dicks.”

  “But we got your back, and I’m sure Wayne will talk to Jenny about trying to smooth over the whole thing.”

  Dan looked over at Wayne with unbridled hope in his eyes.

  Wayne looked over at Jason first and asked, “Pink Tutu Affair?”

  “Come on, Wayne! That was weeks ago!”

  “The Pink Tutu Affair will never die,” Jason said, while fist bumping Wayne. He then looked over at Dan and said, “Although, I think we can give a pass on this one. The little guy could definitely use all the help he can get.”

  “I could! I really, really could!”

  With a stout nod from Wayne, the topic died down. Although Dan could be heard mumbling to himself on more than one occasion, I was too far away to hear what he was saying.

  The rest of the trip out of the tundra and back to the Keep passed without incident. There were the occasional mobs, like Lynxes and Leopards, that popped up, but nothing that we couldn’t handle, especially with our improved gear and levels. We were all thankful we didn’t disturb another pack of Wolverines. Even with our gear, those things were a huge pain in the ass.

  We also discussed what to do with all the spells we had collected and what our next steps would be once we met up with Arthur in Yerkich Square. I figured that once we inspected the satchel that Tristan had on his body, we would find the location for the next part of Lady Tessa’s quest. On the other hand, we were also likely to get the next quest for the story arc. We certainly had plenty of options before us, but Wayne reminded me that first we had to finish up our business with Old Lady Madsie.

  The old crone was sitting in the same rocking chair when we approached. I wasn’t able to take the satchel out of my inventory because it was a “bind on acquisition” item, but I did tell her what we found. She started crying about halfway through the story and was weeping freely by the time I had finished.

  “I had hope, you know? All these years, I never heard from a one of them, but I also never heard that they died for certain. A small piece of me kept that hope alive, that secretly those fool boys and their father met up outside the gates of this Capitol and spirited off into the night.

  “But these tears are also for knowing that you four were able to put Tristan to rest. That’s a mighty fine thing you did. And I’m sure you will be rewarded in the afterlife for your kind deeds. I’ve got nothing more for you, but that satchel you found likely has answers you will need. Just be careful, you four. You need to remember that it’s not only the monsters that you have to worry about; if the King were to ever get wind of what you are doing, there will definitely be hell to pay.”

  “What makes you think it’s the King?”

  “Do I look stupid, son? I’ve been with House Lancaster for decades, and the only two people who could ever get one of those boys out of the house on a mission is their father, or the King. And since their father was sent on a mission as well, that only leaves His Majesty.”

  I nodded at the old lady, but didn’t speak on the topic any more. Instead, I asked, “Would you like us to return after we finish the next part of Lady Tessa’s request?”

  Madsie looked at me for a couple of seconds before shaking her head. “No, lad. You keep coming back here to see me and I worry it could raise suspicion. True, no one around here rightly remembers that I worked for the Lancaster family all them years ago. But never tempt the fates that could bring someone around at the worst of times.”

  We said our farewells to Old Lady Madsie and made our way back to the square where Arthur awaited us.

  “I definitely thought we would at least get some experience out of that. I wasn’t expecting her to drop new blades in our hands or anything, but at least give us something.”

  I agreed with Wayne’s assessment, but we didn’t do much other than stop by and quickly relate a story. I was about to say as much when I felt someone starting to reach for my purse.

  I lightly grabbed the intruders hand and looked behind me at a scrawny child that couldn’t have been more than 10 years old. I was impressed with his skill at such a young age, though I gave him a look that said I was annoyed with his presence.

  “Don’t need that eye on me now, there do I? How about you keep them evil gazes to yerself. Waseem told me I wouldn’t be able to gets it none wise, and said if I did he thoughts you a failure. He wants to see ya.”

  And as soon as I released the lad’s hand, he scampered back into an alley and was gone.

  “What was that, Alex?”

  I looked over and saw my three friends staring at where the child had just run off. I was seriously going to have to have a conversation with Waseem about sending his urchins to accost me in the middle of the day around people I was trying to keep in the dark about my Rogue abilities.

  Right now, though, I needed to decide how much to lie to my friends. I thought it best to go with as little as possible. Every good lie has ninety percent truth intertwined throughout the story to sell the veracity of your claim. I just hoped my ninety percent would be sufficient.

  “Little fucker tried to steal my purse!”

  “Wait, seriously?” Jason asked.

  “Yeah man. I felt something going for my purse, and when I reached down, I grabbed the little bastard’s hand. Then he started rambling on. As soon as I let him go he ran back into the alley. I think it was a quest, but hell if I know what he was saying. You catch any of it, Dan?”

  I was making a calculated risk here, and I knew it. Dan had been farthest away from the interaction, as he tended to lead wherever we went if there wasn’t imminent battle in front of us. But he also had better hearing. It would have been entirely outside the norm if I didn’t ask Dan for his help, since if he heard it, he remembered it all.

  “Something about you being a failure and that someone wants to see you. I didn’t catch any more than that. I only caught the end of it as I was walking back to you guys.”

  “Oh well, thanks anyway. Another random thing to put down in the bo
ok of random things that pop up in Resurgence. Keep an eye out for the little thief though, would ya? If he comes around I want to figure out what the quest was.”

  “You got it!”

  With that potential disaster averted, I made a mental note to visit Waseem at the first opportunity. He apparently wanted to talk to me, and I wanted to give him a piece of my mind about his careless behavior.

  We decided that I would try and sell as many of the spells as possible in the Square over the next few days. I would use my usual method for selling items, and once the three days had expired, we would just sell the remaining spells to vendors. None of us wanted to waste our time waiting around the square hearing me yell out items for sell, especially now that we had the 20 platinum pieces from the last quest and were relatively flush with money. The only spells that wouldn’t be sold were those that could be used by our teammates, naturally.

  The square was far livelier than we had ever seen it before. The reason for all the activity was clear. Many more adventurers had reached Level 20 and numerous groups were crowding around Arthur. I saw an equal number of Light and Dark aligned races, but I didn’t see our friends Lug or Tyke. On top of the spells, our plan was to sell Lug the old Fine Plate Gauntlets that Wayne was using. If nothing else, we would solidify the friendship between his group and ours.

  “Wayne, I’m going to go and talk to Arthur. Reach out to Lug and see if he and his team are in the area. I would like to sell your gauntlets and see if either of their casters can use any of these spells.”

  Wayne nodded and headed off to the side of the square, away from the crowd that was around Arthur. Dan and Jason also hung back and allowed me to approach Arthur on my own. The other groups were staying to themselves and hadn’t noticed our arrival yet. That changed when I walked up to Arthur.

  An eerie quiet descended over the players gathered in the square, and I could hear a few whispers as I passed by.

  “That’s them, isn’t it? I heard they…”

  “You know they already beat the Trolls. First ones on…”

  “Their Ranger can really drink. I saw him knock back…”

  That last one made me smile. I didn’t want to seem like I was better than anyone else there, so I smiled at people as I passed and said hello to those who did the same to me. Mostly everyone was waiting to see what happened when I talked to Arthur.

  Without any further fanfare, I approached Arthur. “We are ready to answer the call.”

  Not a word was said by any of the other players. Everyone was as anxious to hear what Arthur said as I was.

  “So you are. And the Kingdom thanks you for the work you have done in slaying the Trolls impeding our forward movement toward victory against the Children of Loust. There have been gains, and there have been losses. The unstoppable force that is Supreme Overlord Riff Lifestealer has been the cause of much heartache for His Majesty and the reason behind many of those losses. However, I am afraid you and your band of adventurers are not yet ready to conquer the next feat and thereby aid in preparing the King’s Army in their drive to conquering these foes. Return when you have acquired more knowledge and skill.”

  “Son of a bitch!”

  Oddly enough, that came from one of the bystanders and not from me or my group. I looked over and saw a player who must have recently arrived at the Capitol. His anger was understandable, though. He just learned that whenever he and his group did beat the Trolls, there would still be some time before they could take on the next quest.

  “Excuse me for asking, but what Level are you guys?”

  “No worries. We are Level 24.”

  “Woah! It took you until Level 24 to beat the Trolls?”

  “We did it at 23 and then went and grinded for some more experience to get our Levels.”

  “Cool. Sucks that you guys have to wait, though. Sorry, man.”

  This was something I had seen often in the worlds of an MMORPG. Naturally, you had different types of players. Some were assholes, and they would always be assholes no matter how they played or whom they played with. Some were so intoxicated whenever they played that absolutely nothing could bother them and everything just slid off their back. Others, like the player in front of me, were unnaturally deferential to players of a higher level, even though our levels weren’t all that different. Since this was the beta, my few levels really must have seemed like a lot to this guy. I tried to treat everyone the same, since anyone could become a potential client in the future.

  Except for the assholes. I really couldn’t stand those players.

  “Appreciate it, man. Just the nature of the game. We will grind until we get to that next level. Best of luck to you and your team.”

  “Thanks, Alex. I really appreciate that!”

  I took note that this player’s name was Gindo. I had a feeling that I would be hearing from this guy again.

  “So I’m guessing no quest since we weren’t all shiny and golden after you walked away from Sir Arthur over there?” Jason asked as soon as I arrived at their location.

  “Astute observation, my fine Cleric friend. I guess we are just going to have to grind out until we get where we need to be. Where did Wayne go?”

  “Trying to find Lug, I think.”

  Several minutes later I saw the massive form of Lug coming toward the Square and in an animated exchange with Wayne.

  “Are you sure, Naugha? That’s a huge discount compared to what I can buy them for here in the Keep. You guys already hooked me up with these pants.”

  I looked over to Naugha with a raised eyebrow and he sent me a private message that said he was selling the gauntlets at cost, much as we did with the leggings. I nodded my head to let him know I agreed with his decision. Selling and buying were my things, so the guys tended to defer to my guidance. In reality, they were Wayne’s gauntlets and he could do whatever he wanted with them.

  “You’re our favorite Ogre, Lug. Of course we are going to help you out!”

  That got a laugh from not only Lug, but also Tyke and his two casters, Tammer and Syphon.

  “Thanks for the tip on the Trolls. Still took us a while to get through the final boss, but I kept remembering what you said about controlling the mobs. I think we were the third team to beat them on the server. Not too shabby.”

  Jenny and her crew were the second to beat the Trolls.

  “Our pleasure, Tyke. We’ve got some spells that we came across during our ranging. What have you got for casting in your group? I’ll see what we have.”

  “I’m the Shaman, Tammer is our Enchanter, and Syphon is our Death Caster.”

  “Cool, got something for all of you guys, then. Also, talk to TC about upgrading one of your bracers. He got a new one and would probably sell you his Fine Leather Bracer at a good price.”

  “TC?”

  “TheClaw. I’m a grown ass man, Tyke. I can’t be going around calling another grown man, TheClaw.”

  Tyke smiled at me as he walked over toward Dan to negotiate the Bracer. It was Dan’s call on how much he wanted to sell it for, but I knew he wouldn’t charge Tyke more than what he paid for it originally. Dan had little care for money. Except for when he wanted to go to the Tavern. Then he clung to his Copper pieces like a pot-head clings to Bob Marley.

  With the transactions completed between Tyke’s group and our own, I went out into the square and started shouting out our wares. There was a surprisingly large number of people that responded. I figured I would have to sit for a while to load off most of these spells. Instead, I sold most of them in the first two hours. With that done, I saw no reason to hold onto the remaining few spells we had, hoping to get a few more gold off of the players. We all agreed to sell the remaining parchments to the merchants. We decided to keep the tailoring and crafting items we found for later.

  All in all, we pocketed another 10 Platinum. We were definitely sitting pretty when it came to cash. I had to laugh, as I thought of how hard we had to grind just a week before to try and make a few P
latinum. Such was the way of RPGs. You could find yourself rich with one quest and have it all gone the next day.

  The only thing remaining was to open the satchel that we got from Tristan. What you would think would be an easy decision to make was met with dissension from the rest of the group. I wanted to crack it open, but the rest told me to keep it in my inventory for now.

  Jason explained it best. “We know we are going to have to level to get the next quest from Arthur, right? Well, if we need to level for that, I’m sure we need to level for the next Lady Tessa quest, too. And I have no doubt, if we see that little quest icon in our character heads-up, we are going to want to try it. I think I speak for all of us here when I say that I would rather we be over-prepared than under when we finally tackle whatever that next quest is.”

  I couldn’t argue with his logic, but the gamer in me really wanted to know what was in that satchel. Since I wasn’t the leader of the group, as I had said time and again, the decision came down to democracy. And I lost. The satchel remained closed until another time.

  Between our travels to the Keep and the selling in the square, we decided to call it quits for the day as a group. Everyone planned to go their separate ways but stay in game for a bit longer. Wayne was going to go find Jenny, Dan was heading to the Tavern, and Jason was as secretive as ever about where he was going. Jason probably was looking to find another quest that would give him a better title, despite us telling him the Baron fit him perfectly. I was heading over to see Waseem and find out just what was so damn important that he had his messenger try to rob me in the street.

  *

  The Stinky Pit looked empty when I entered. I said looked, because I had learned long ago that when it came to Rogues, you could never take anything at face value.

  I walked up to the bar and said hello to Milly. By this time, she was used to seeing me in the Pit, and I no longer had to worry about her trying to distract me so others could attack me. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t try to keep my attention so someone could rob me. Someone like Waseem.