Who, in fact, was shaking my coin pouch behind me.
“How is it that my Awareness is as high as it will go and you still Lift my pouch nine times out of ten?”
“I’m a Master Thief.”
Apparently, Waseem thought that was enough to explain the reason, but I was already pissed at him so I told him to explain. Although I did use a number of colorful expletives.
“You need more than just Awareness to stop a Master Thief. You need wards and magic. You have none. So stop being a child throwing a tantrum.”
“I’m not throwing a tantrum. I’m not even the least bit upset that you got my pouch again. I’m angry because your little street thief attacked me in the middle of the road, right in front of my friends. Now how secret can I keep these skills if you have your underlings being so brazen?”
Waseem took on a serious tone. “What did you tell them?”
“I told them the bloody truth. I said some little fucker tried to rob me and then started babbling on about some nonsense. I told them that I thought it was some stupid quest.”
“And they bought it?”
“Yes. But that isn’t the point, is it?”
“No, it isn’t. I’ll talk to Two-Feet when I see him. I’ll explain my displeasure.”
“Two-Feet?”
“Yeah. He was only two feet tall when I found him in the street. Name just stuck. That was one malnourished kid.”
It’s hard, even when you know it is a game, to get mad at a guy who takes in children and teaches them to earn a living. Even if that living involves breaking the law. I didn’t see any point of continuing the discussion since Waseem obviously understood I was displeased.
“So what did you need to see me about?”
“We need to start teaching you your next Skill. But you aren’t ready to start the specialization. You don’t have any experience in Climbing, do you?”
“Nope, not a bit. What does the Skill have to do with Climbing?”
Waseem shook his head. “You know, no matter how angry you might get, I still get to have my secrets and my fun.”
“Fine. I need to get the Climbing skill. Where does it need to be before I can start the Specialization Skill?”
“You need to have it as high as possible, Alex. This last Skill is far more complicated than Awareness or Lift.”
I remembered the hours I spent trying to learn Lift and groaned inwardly at what I was getting myself into.
“Any recommendations on where I should go to practice?”
“There is a range of mountains not far from Kich’s Keep that has numerous levels of difficulty for Climbing. I would suggest you go there and begin your training. But go slow. You do not want to get to ahead of yourself and plummet to your death.”
With that, I opened my Map and saw a new area highlighted north of the Keep. It was an area we had not explored too much and would make for a good place to start grinding. Hopefully, I could maximize my time online without having to run around constantly.
Unknown Facility
October 27th, 2043
The General finished watching the video on the large screen in the conference room. Dan wanted to fast forward through the slower points, but the General was adamant about watching the whole thing. This wasn’t just about Dan’s antics but also the actions of the others at the party.
When the video ended, the lights came up. Dan sighed loudly. “Well, if I ever had any shot with the girl, that’s gone now. But we should be good. No way they could suspect that I am anything more than the fool we’ve been trying to make them see. I would say we can call this one ‘Mission Accomplished,’ don’t you think?”
“Indeed, Mr. Hamson. You played the part admirably.”
The General didn’t have reason to believe that anyone suspected Dan was a plant within the beta, but he had learned long ago that the absence of evidence wasn’t always evidence of absence. He planned to play out this mission as carefully as possible. Given the General’s paranoia, it had been Dan’s idea to implant mini cameras into the jacket he wore to the party. The General had been concerned that something like a camera would be noticed. Dan, however, insisted it would be fine. Given the garish nature of that thing, the General wasn’t worried in the least bit that anyone took notice.
Colonel Thompson patted Dan on the shoulder a few times. “Don’t worry, man. You can still get the girl. You just have to work harder for it.”
“You think so?”
“Well, it would also help if she was a gold digger after your money. Absent that, you’re gonna have to work really hard.”
“Wow. Great pep talk, Colonel. Really. You should probably work at a suicide hotline. I bet you would get all those guys off the ledge.” Dan made a whistling sound while using one hand to imitate a guy jumping, clapping it into the other hand as it splattered below.
“Enough banter, you two. I’m not concerned with your love life, Mr. Hamson. I’m concerned with figuring out how to take this company down. And despite whatever setbacks occurred to your romance with your teammate, you played an admirable part and solidified our ruse. Now on to the company. Do you have any updates on that?”
“Nothing, General. Since the hack job they did weeks ago, I haven’t noticed any abnormal behavior on my part toward AltCon. Although, if the actual experts are back at the controls, I imagine I wouldn’t see any change.”
“Indeed. But we’ve continued your brain scans and our specialist agrees with your assessment. Eventually, they will have to begin again, and I want you to be ready for when it occurs.”
“I’m all over it, General. I’m heading back to my place to log-in. I’ll see you at our next briefing.”
After Dan left the conference room, the General returned to his office. Waiting on his desk were seven manila folders. Each contained the backgrounds of Dan’s teammates. By and large, they were all quite thin. None of them had done much to gather the attention of the government—or anyone else for that matter.
All except for one Timothy Slokavitch, honorably discharged Marine Corps Staff Sergeant. That file was inches thick.
The General moved the remaining files to the side and opened Tim’s file again. He had already perused it twice and was still trying to figure out how he could make use of this asset. Normally, the General wouldn’t have a problem with making such a decision, but the very file in front of him was adding to his problems.
Fifty percent of it was blacked out.
His reactions and responses on the video highlighted his intelligence and training. The General knew that whatever Mr. Slokavitch got into during his time in service, he was definitely a formidable man and someone he wanted on his team.
The General wouldn’t have a problem with getting the complete file. When it came to this operation, he had the full support of the White House. It would be only a matter of time before he could decide how to approach and use this particular asset. That he would was already decided.
Chapter 11
October 27th, 2043
I found the rest of the group already logged in at the square when I got into the game. Dan and Wayne were engaged in a discussion, and by the look on Dan’s face, it wasn’t something he wanted to hear.
“Dude, she doesn’t hate you, but she really doesn’t want to talk to you right now, either.”
“But it was an accident! You told her that right?”
“Of course I did. But that doesn’t matter, man. She had to throw out that outfit, and don’t even get me started on how much she bitched about getting that fire suppressant out of her hair.”
I sidled up to Jason and asked what was going on.
“Apparently Wayne tried to do a solid for Dan last night while he was hanging out with Jenny. It didn’t go over well.”
“I will buy her a new outfit! Ten new outfits! Does she want a car?”
I turned away from Dan and Wayne and asked Jason what he thought about heading due north to range and grind.
“I’m good wit
h it. It isn’t somewhere we have been yet, and we already have the cloaks that will protect us. Just let Dan and Wayne finish. I think Wayne is trying to let him down easy.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were on the road and heading up north. Wayne had no objections to the party heading in that direction, and Dan was unusually quiet about everything. In fact, the poor guy didn’t say a single word the whole time we traveled.
We stayed to the main road, avoiding any random mobs in the area until we arrived at the mountainous region that Waseem had indicated on my Map. Dan headed out to look for mobs and quickly discovered numerous mountain dwellers that were of a high enough level to give us experience.
We found a good place to set up as a pulling ground and sent Dan out to do his thing. I had no doubt that Dan would continue to be a very capable player, but on this day, he was not going to be himself. I definitely felt bad for him, though I couldn’t have too much sympathy for his antics. After all, I did try to stop him on more than one occasion.
With nothing special about the mobs we were fighting, we got ready to grind out and start getting some experience.
*
After several more hours, we called it a night and found a safe place near the mountains to log out. The experience we were getting was good, and we planned to stay here until we at least got our Level 25. Most of the mobs were fauna in nature, so the drops were for crafting, yielding little money for the group.
Once everyone had logged off, I went and found a place that I could start climbing. Waseem had said that there were different levels of difficulty in the area, but everything I saw looked like a sheer-faced cliff.
It wasn’t until I got right up to the mountainside and started running my hands against the rock that I started to notice some sort of differentiation in the cracks and crevices.
With nothing else to try, I put my hands at different places, braced my feet against what I thought were jetties of rocks, and tried climbing the side of the mountain.
And after getting slightly off the ground, I slid right back to the packed earth at my feet.
Never one to give up, I placed my hands in slightly different angles and tried again. I was able to make only a little more progress before I slid down the rock face yet again.
I thought back to the hours of trying to remove ice from a glass, groaned inwardly, and got right back to it.
Twenty minutes later, I received a new message:
You have learned a new Skill. You have learned Climbing.
Effect: The higher the Climbing Skill, the more the player will be able to identify safe holds and easy paths for ascending any surface.
My Skill in Climbing was at 1. When I looked back at the side of the mountain, however, there were now areas that had a faint glow. I couldn’t determine what any of the colors meant, as they all bled together, but at least now I knew how the skill would work and what to pay attention to as my level increased.
With nothing else to do, I kept up a steady pace of trying to climb the side of the mountain. I made very little progress, but my skill went up four more points over the next hour. Emboldened, I kept at it for two more hours.
When I was finally ready to call it a night, my Skill was at 14, and I was starting to discern variations in the colors along the wall. It looked to me that I was trying one of the harder routes. The next day I planned to use my new Skill to find an easier grade that would allow me the opportunity to get farther up the side. I thought that if I could scale more of the mountain, my Skill would increase faster.
October 28th, 2043
We grinded for another day, and almost everyone hit Level 25. We no longer achieved our levels at the same time, considering the different number of deaths we had encountered, or in Dan’s case, paying experience to Broham so he could level, too.
At the end of our day, I went back to the mountainside and started looking for an easier route to climb. I felt lucky that it only took me twenty minutes to find an area that was mostly green along the wall. I took the green to mean easy, as other areas seemed to correspond with the green through red motif of difficulty.
After only a few attempts to get up the side of the rock face, I knew my assessment was correct. I was finding it much easier to not only climb the cliff but also rest in areas when my Vitality started to go down. As my Skill in Climbing was still very low, it took a significant portion of my Vitality to make any real progress.
I looked above me to where the route I was climbing continued to ascend, and I saw that the path went from Green to Red very quickly. I had been using my Climbing skill for some time now, and I had yet to get a single point in my Skill. I hypothesized that if the track was green, then it was too easy for me, and I wouldn’t get any points for it. I decided to go to the top of the Green portion then climb back down. Going down, without any kind of assist or belay, was even more difficult than going up. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising when I looked down and saw the Green route I climbed up was now White on the way down. I carefully descended, and in the process earned more points toward my Skill.
But now I was faced with a conundrum. If I went and looked for a route that was White on the way up, would it be Blue on the way down? If I fell off the side of the cliff, would it do enough damage to kill me outright?
Without a healer nearby, I couldn’t risk a fall. I would have to grind this out just like we were doing with our Levels. I would continue to climb the exact same route until the White route going down turned Green, and I wouldn’t get any points for either ascending or descending.
When my Skill hit 20, the path leading down switched from White to Green, and I was no longer going to see any increase in my Climbing ability from this route. With my new level in Climbing, however, I could now make out even more distinct routes in the climbing landscape. I looked to my left and right and saw different areas that looked to be potentially viable. And many that were not. I wasn’t going to run out of options around here for a long time.
November 1st, 2043
“Hey, Alex, did you give me any money recently?”
We had all reached Level 25 and, having learned that Sir Arthur still wouldn’t give us our next quest, decided to stay out in the mountains to gain our Level 26. I had gone back to the Keep to try for the quest and to sell off a bunch of stuff, but I hadn’t distributed any of the money to the other guys.
“Nah, Dan, I haven’t. I put the money we made out here into the bank. Why?”
“Because I have 37 Gold on my character.”
“Hey! So do I!” Wayne yelled out.
That led Jason and I to look at our characters as well, and sure enough, we had 37 Gold to our names.
“Wasn’t me,” Jason said.
After a moment, I realized what day it was. Or rather, the date. The first of the month.
“Tibble!”
Wayne looked around, obviously searching for the Dwarf. Not seeing him, he looked over at me. “What the hell are you talking about, Alex? Tibble isn’t here.”
“I wasn’t calling out to Tibble. I mean that Tibble must have given us the money—as part of the profit sharing for the clan. I had mentioned he should do it in such a way that makes it a regular thing, like the first of the month. Apparently he took my words to mean he should do it exactly then.”
“Dividends! Nice! And at least I don’t have to pay taxes on these!”
“Yeah, Dan. We all feel horrible about your First-World problems of having to pay taxes on the dividends you make.”
“Don’t be mad, Alliposter. Do you want a stock tip? You should totally buy bofa.”
“What the hell is bofa?”
“Bofa deeeeez nutttttz!”
Jason’s face got super red, and he looked about ready to attack Dan. Before he could move toward Dan, Wayne and I erupted with laughter. I thought Wayne was going to actually fall over, he was going at it so hard. I literally had tears streaming down my face.
“No go, bro,” I said as clearly as I could. “Dan wins this r
ound, hands down. You got to take that one and just be pissed.”
Jason stalked off and started mumbling, “Immature child, in his damn thirties and still making dick and fart jokes.”
Dan got a high five from Wayne and a fist bump from me.
“We’re going to need to check in on Tibble and our Clan soon and thank them for the Gold. I’m also curious to see how they are doing level-wise.”
“Let’s get to 26 and then make a trip over that way,” Wayne said.
“Sounds good to me. We should get there by the end of the day. Allister, you are almost there, right?”
Jason was still grumbling but nodded his head in affirmation.
It wasn’t that Jason minded the banter between him and Dan. In fact, I was sure it was one of the things he enjoyed most about the game. What got Jason so riled up was that Wayne and I considered Dan’s juvenile humor to be on the same level as Jason’s biting wit. At the end of the day, Jason thought we should be giving him more points.
While we consistently added to our experience, I had been adding to my Climbing Skill. When I hit Level 25, I invested all five of my Stat points into Wisdom to help learn the skill faster. There wasn’t a noticeable difference, but I had to believe that every bit helped.
With three more days of training, I had reached 75 in Climbing. I was now having to venture out pretty far to find more challenging routes that would add to my level. Often, I would have to go through a Green route to get to something more difficult.
Another bonus to the advance of my Skill was an identifier that showed me if the route would be Green going up and White coming down. Before I hit 70 in my Skill, all I could see is that a route was Green and I would have to climb up ten feet or so and look down to see if the markers turned White below me. With the new advancement, I could clearly see where a handhold or foot hold was Green on the top and White on the bottom, meaning I would get experience for my descent. There were also some that were White going up and Blue coming down, though I was sure that would lead to a fall. The real money-makers were those that were White both going up and down.
Restoration: The Rise of Resurgence: Book II Page 23