Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 (25 page)

The goal, naturally, was to get me faster and faster with the shadows without losing control. And I grew in my skill leaps and bounds in those two hours. I was saddened to think I would be finishing with Stan soon and moving on.

“Why the down look boy? You should be all smiles right now!”

“I’m just thinking about how much I learned Stan, and how it’s going to suck moving on to someone different.”

Stan just laughed at me and said, “Oh boy, you ain’t even close to being done wit me! You got ya a Blacksuit, sure, but you only know how to grab them shadows sittin’ in a room filled wit ‘em! What you gonna do when there ain’t no shadows like this? Or when you trying to do so while walking? Or runnin’? Oh no boy, you ain’t done with me. Yer trainin’ gonna go on for a while yet.”

That made me smile. I admit that training with Stan at first was a bit tedious, but seeing the results were amazing. And I was going to jump into the next part of this training with everything I had.

I promised to return the next day and wrapped my self in the shadows one last time before walking out Stan’s front doors and past the guardians of his home. Which I might note were still all Red to me.

* * *

September 3rd, 2043

When I logged in the next day I was quick to check my character. Indeed, there had been a new skill added to my character:

I wasn’t sure what that meant at first, the addition to my Conceal and Stealth. If what Stan said was true, then with the shadows I was using a totally different skill set than I was with Conceal and Stealth. Perhaps by learning the Blacksuit, I had alternately also modified my Conceal and Stealth skills. I checked that part of my character and saw that I was on the right track. The training with Stan had already given me a +10 in Conceal and Stealth, and with Blacksuit added to my repertoire, I was now at +20 total for each.

At level 13 I should have been moving between 60 and 65 percent of normal speed. Since we had just got level 13, my skills were still at 60, as I hadn’t had a chance to practice them yet. As they increased through the level, going from 60 to 65, I should be moving at that percentage of speed. But with my bonus I was moving at what felt like 80 percent. This was awesome, since that meant I would be moving at 100 percent at level 16, instead of waiting for level 20. My Blacksuit movement was equal to that of my Conceal/Stealth speed as well. Unfortunately, one couldn’t move faster than 100 percent without a movement speed buff, which Dan would get at some point, but still hadn’t.

Speaking of Dan, I saw him log in at the square next to me. I still giggled a bit every time I saw his furry bunny legs. But you couldn’t deny the benefit of the item.

“Sup homey. You ready to rock it today. We gonna be the muscle on this run,” Dan said to me.

Wayne, who had popped in behind Dan, thunked his war hammer against the ground, which made Dan jump a bit. “The only muscle going on this trip is the guy with the hammer, tree hugger.”

“Be nice Wayne or I’m going to get Jason talking about British rock bands again. And you know I have just enough knowledge to make him go ape shit.”

Earlier in the week, Dan had made an off comment about a band that I had never heard of, and how they represented everything wrong with music. Apparently they were legendary in Britain, where our companion Jason had spent some formidable years. The resulting tirade went on for a good 15 minutes. Jason missed two heals on Wayne while tearing into Dan.

“I’ll burn down your house. Both of them,” Wayne replied.

“Damn. Should have kept the second one secret!”

Jason came strolling down the street about that time and Wayne shot Dan a very stern look, to which Dan put his hands up in surrender.

“I miss anything?” Jason asked

“Well, Wayne and I were…” Dan began to say.

“Grouping up so we could go get that quest. Let’s get this started,” I said interrupting Dan and likely saving his life. And his houses.

After getting the group formed, we went to Sir Kenyon and I accepted the quest. Sir Kenyon nodded at us and reached into his jerkin.

“Bring this scroll to the wagon master leaving from the gate. He will advise you of the route and when he will be leaving. I think it is soon, so I wouldn’t tally.”

I took the scroll and we were wrapped in the golden glow that informed us we had accepted a quest. I looked at the quest dialogue in my inventory screen and saw there was a time limit on the first part of the quest. We only had 30 minutes to get to the wagon master.

“Glad we didn’t take this yesterday. With this time limit we wouldn’t have had any choice but to do the quest, and who knows how long it will take. And I could have missed out on this amazing antique ottoman I found that works with almost anything! Dan if you ever want me to design one of your places, let me know. I would do amazing things, get you some of that ‘tail’ you keep talking about, but in the real world.”

“Not much you can do with bean bags that I haven’t already come up with Allirama. But let me think about it!”

The two went back and forth as we continued toward the front gate. Dan insisting that bean bags were universal for all furniture, to include coffee tables, and Jason trying to get Dan to see reason. Guess who lost that fight?

* * *

We were to be security on this wagon run, and would be riding in the two middle wagons of a four wagon team. I grouped up with Dan in one wagon, and Jason and Wayne went in the other. I thought it important to keep our Tank and Healer together, and the team all agreed. Plus this kept Dan away from Jason, stopping Jason’s descent into insanity.

Dan and I were lounging in the back of the wagon, legs hanging over the side, and enjoying the scenery as we traveled.

“So what do you think of the game Alex?” Dan asked out of nowhere.

“I love it man, you know that. Haven’t had this much fun in a long time. You know, usually when I get in a game I am solely there to be a merchant, make some money. This is the first time, in a really long time, that I’ve been in a game for the purpose of solely playing.”

“Right, but you are getting paid too.”

“Well sure I am. We aren’t all independently wealthy,” I laughed while saying to Dan. “But this may be the best job ever.”

“And what do you think of the game play? Have you encountered any problems? Seen anything weird?”

This was very out of character for Dan. He was making sense. I wondered where this was coming from.

“Well, other than popping in that first day out in the forest, and my log in and log out seeming to be slightly out of whack, I don’t think so. But AltCon got my IT report on that and they seem to be addressing it. My log point is still slightly different, but negligible.” I certainly wasn’t going to tell Dan about my secret quest and had decided to continue keeping my messed up Chance stat from the guys. It just didn’t feel like the right time yet.

Dan nodded thoughtfully. Another first I was seeing. Dan seeming to think on something seriously.

“And what do you think of AltCon as a whole? You know, the company, their products?”

“I don’t have any feelings about them one way or another, AltCon is just a company. They seem to be on the ball with this new VR system, and the RACs are top rate, but I’m sure someone will come up with something better down the line. Who knows?”

Dan nodded his head again. Then was quite a for a few moments before muttering, “Interesting.”

“What’s interesting Dan?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about dandelions bro. What an ingenious campaign some mastermind dandelion in the depth of the earth came up with to get people to think they were magical, and convinced them to propagate the species further by blowing the seeds around for “wishes,” guaranteeing the continuance of the genetic line. And it’s just a weed. Oh, and contact on the right side.”

“What? where?” I said while moving out of the back of our wagon.

“Calm down bro, still in the trees, they aren’t coming out yet. Want me to grab Wayne and Allison or just put it through the group chat?”

“No, you stay here, since you can see them and I can’t. I’m going to act like I’m stretching my legs and walk up to the next wagon. I don’t want us losing our element of surprise that we know they are out there. And I would suggest never calling Jason “Allison” to his face.”

“Little bit crazy bro, not stupid. And I love my fun bag and don’t want to see it stomped by an angry High-Elf.”

“Wise decision, be right back.”

I approached Wayne and Jason, who were chatting in the back of their wagon. Jason was laughing at something Wayne had just said.

“Naugha told me the funniest story from his days as a bouncer. The ridiculousness of some people.”

“I bet. Probably make Dan seem normal and sane. Possibly. Maybe. Probably not.”

They both laughed at that, and while I had them laughing, I said in a very natural tone, “keep up with the smiles and laughs. Dan has contact behind us, probably moving through the woods toward us. Which means there will probably be another group ahead of us, a pincer move. I want to head up to the wagon master and see what’s coming on the horizon.”

Naugha smiled and nodded. But the smile was his “I get to crunch something” one, and there was a lot of canine in that smile. “I’ll head back with Jason toward Dan after you leave. Two front battles are not a good idea, though, so we need to assess this quickly,” Wayne said. I laughed and nodded my head and then headed forward to the wagon master.

I saw what was going to happen almost immediately. We were cresting up a hill and would reach the top in another 300 meters. Dollars to donuts there would be an obstruction in the road just on the other side that would force us to stop.

“Good day sir,” I said to the wagon master as I approached, him leading the team and holding the reins.

“Why ain’t you back with the supplies?” He barked at me. It was hard to take him too seriously, as he was wearing an absurdly large floppy hat on his head. I guess when you are out in the sun every day on these wagons, you would want something to protect against the sun.

“I’m just doing my job sir,” I said, trying to remain civil and non-assuming. I didn’t want to tip our hand.

“Your job is to guard them supplies.” He said again.

“And that is exactly what I am doing.”

He gave me a sideways glance from under his hat and said, “What’a ya know?”

“We’ve got someone in the trees trailing behind us, and I’ll eat your hat if there isn’t an obstruction just over that ridge. Likely with a welcoming party.”

“We can’t turn around, ain’t no room for that. What ya suggest?”

“Surprise my good man, surprise.”

* * *

I went around to the other side of the wagon, away from where the mobs in the wood were tailing us. I rolled underneath the wagon and activated my Conceal/Stealth. I had plenty of shadows I could have grabbed, but I didn’t feel as comfortable with them as I did with my old standby. By the time the wagon passed over me, I was invisible and walking back toward my companions.

I walked past them as quickly as I could and made my way to the woods. With my Stealth activated, no one in the woods would hear me, and my Conceal would keep me hidden, as long as none of them had an item that could see through an invisible spell.

There were only two of them. Humans, but they looked very scraggly. Their clothes were all torn and patched. But their levels were higher than mine, as their names, Woodland Bandits, were blue in front of me.

I went back to the wagons, which were moving much slower now according to my instructions to the wagon master, and walked around one of them to disengage my Conceal/Stealth. Once I was visible again, I approached my team and told them about the two bandits in the woods.

We decided to engage these two before we crested the ridge, so we wouldn’t have to split up our team in defending the wagons. The wagon master told me the others manning the wagons wouldn’t be able to help in a fight. But he glanced toward his sword next to him and told me he wouldn’t have any problem defending his goods. His name, Rendu, was green to me, so I didn’t know how much help he would be.

“Flush ‘em out Dan,” I said.

“With pleasure,” Dan said right before taking out his bow and firing two arrows into the tree line. He had shot at both of the bandits. And both of them came running out of the woods toward Dan.

“Blueberries!” I yelled. And with that, Rendu halted the wagon train. We had come up with a code word so he knew when we were engaging. He suggested it. I thought it might be his normal “safe” word.

Wayne went at the first bandit and yelled out “eat hammer, dick!” before swinging his war hammer at the bandit.

Dan stopped shooting and looked over at Wayne, “was there a comma in there dude, or was that just a dramatic pause? Because the two mean something totally different!”

“Shut up Dan and keep shooting!”

Dan got back in the fight, giggling. I heard him whisper, “TheClaw got jokes son!”

These mobs were nothing compared to our gear and levels and we were going to end up dispatching them quickly. I didn’t know what waited over the ridge, but these guys weren’t going to be a problem at all.