Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 (33 page)

“Wait, what? I have no idea what you are talking about,” I replied.

“Oh. Well. Cool, just act like I never said anything then.”

A lot of uncomfortable visions of donkeys and midgets started running through my head and I quickly moved on to my question before I was completely and totally unable to sleep for days.

“Yeah. Ummm. So my question wasn’t about anything like donkeys and midgets bro…”

“You said you didn’t know anything about it!”

Wayne could be heard behind me with a maniacal giggle that bordered on pure evil.

“Look, it’s not about anything like that. Seriously. And I have no idea about any of that. I just wanted to ask you, how did you get so wealthy at such a young age. I mean, was it an inheritance or did you invent something awesome or something like that?”

Dan was silent for several moments before he answered. “I don’t really want to say dude. Alliterate will just make fun of me.”

Jason could be heard over our system saying, “Promise Dan, I won’t. I’m curious as well.”

“Ok. Fine. It isn’t something awesome though,” Dan started. “But to answer your question, no, it wasn’t an inheritance.”

“So you invented something?”

“Not exactly. Let me just tell you the story,” Dan said while moving over to a tree to sit down and get comfortable. “I used to work as a mid-level IT specialist for a company. I hated my boss. He was one of these people who would come to your desk and take your food, or invade your space, and in general was just a tool. I couldn’t stand him. So I decided I was going to quit. But I wanted to do it with style, because, you know, TheClaw got style yo.

“So I was going to get a bunch of balloons and party favors and the whole nine. Was going to set them up on his desk. And there would be a card sitting on the desk, like a greeting card. And when he opened it to see what he had received, it would just say ‘John, you’re a tool. I quit.’ And naturally it would be signed by me, because TheClaw takes credit for his epicness. But do you know what I couldn’t find anywhere I looked? Greeting cards that said exactly how people really feel.

“The more I looked, the more I realized that the greeting card industry was only serving half the population. Or less. Because it’s rare that you want to tell someone how special they are. Most of the time you just want to tell them they are complete assholes. So I got the idea to start my own company.”

“A greeting card company?” I asked.

“Sort of. It was all online like most things these days. I had a website all set up where you would go and choose the style of envelope, card, and any other order of flair you wanted sent. I had based the font for the cards off my own hand writing, so I didn’t even have to pay for the rights to use one of those mass produced ones. You told me what you wanted the card to say and provided the address and name of the recipient. And it could say anything. And of course, you could have total anonymity if you liked. The only thing I wouldn’t send were threats to do bodily harm or blatant hate speech.”

“This sounds like an awesome idea man! I can think of a few managers at clubs I would love to send something like that and see their response,” Wayne told Dan.

“Well, people are angry more than they are happy. This is what I learned. And because of that the website took off. I was even looking at hiring an employee or two to help me fulfill the orders. Overhead was minimal and I was charging ten dollars for the basic package and then extra if you wanted more flair.

“No one ever had an opus to write either. So it wasn’t like I was spending much on ink. It was usually, ‘Hey, just wanted to let you know you’re an idiot’ or something like ‘Jim, you’re a douche.’ In fact, the ‘you’re a douche’ was my best seller.”

“I’m in agreement with Wayne here, I definitely can think of some people who I would love to send a card like that. How is it I’ve never heard of this? Did something happen?” I asked.

“Yeah man, a certain greeting card company with a total monopoly on the market paid me a visit. To this day I can’t say their name as part of the agreement we finalized. But I’m sure you can guess since when you say ‘greeting cards,’ one company comes to mind. And you would be on the right track.”

“What the fuck? They sued you?” Jason asked.

“Sued me? No. They offered to buy my company. Pretty much insisted on it. But they didn’t know who they were dealing with. They saw a mid-level IT guy who just got a business off the ground and figured if they offered me 250k I would jump at the chance.”

“Damn, that’s a good chunk of change. I take it you negotiated with them?” Wayne asked.

“Nope. It wasn’t a negotiation at all. They came in and stated their terms, the 250k and all that. I then, from memory of course since I have a jacked up brain, told them the exact statistics of the growth of my company since the day of inception. I then provided them with a detailed forecast of how exactly the business would grow over the next two years and the number of customers it would reach. And I was very conservative with my estimates. I still smile when I think about how their jaws kept dropping as I went on and on.”

“We’ve heard you ramble TC, that’s not a shocker to any of us,” Jason said while laughing. We all chuckled as well.

“I think the ambiance of the meeting is what sold it all. These two schmucks showed up with their expensive portfolios and immaculate suits, ready to intimidate and take what they wanted. They found me in a bean bag chair and Cheetos dust on my fingers. I think I was wearing a shirt with unicorns on it as well. They were thinking easy prey. That is until I broke it down for them and they kept checking their own notes to see how right I was.

“In the end I gave them a number, twenty million, and told them it was a one-time non-negotiable offer. They either took the deal right there, or I would never consider selling again, and I would look to be more than just conservative with my company’s growth. After a three-minute phone call, they accepted and I was rich. I’ve never worked again.”

“How is it that I’ve never seen cards like these if the rights were bought by such a huge company?” Wayne asked.

“Apparently telling people how you really feel isn’t in the best interest of said company. I wasn’t the first person to come up with the idea either. They find these people when they first get off the ground and do exactly what they did to me. Low ball a figure and hope they sell since it is just a start up. If you spent all your time telling people how you really felt, there would be no time for sappy cards that you don’t really mean, but buy out of obligation.”

“TC I told you I wouldn’t laugh at you, but I do have one thing to say,” Jason began. “Respect brother. Respect.”

* * *

Jason returned after just an hour and a half. I didn’t think I would be able to travel that quickly on a horse since Jason had maxed out his Beast Riding skill, but it gave me hope that I could make the trip to the Dark city in just a few hours when the time came. More importantly though, was that Jason returned bearing gifts. All of the new level 15 spells.

Dan had no idea what spells he was getting, so imagine the joy he received when he saw that he got a new Snare that included a Damage over Time. The spell, Enveloping Thorns, did minimal damage, but every little point helped. He also got a great self-buff that added Armor and Hit points called Armor of Bark. And finally, he got another self-buff, Bird’s Eye, that would give a +2 Atk modifier to his archery skill. Again, not a huge amount, but the damage would stack up over time.

Jason was even more thrilled. He received four spells. Two of which were Cure Poison and Cure Disease. Those spells were self-explanatory. But he also got a new heal called Health of the Valiant and a new undead direct damage spell called Decimate Undead. And it appeared that Jason had the “Eye of Naugha” when he got back and was ready to unleash some fury on the undead in front of us.

With nothing else holding us back, we started killing off the Undead Guards and the undead inside the castle. There was still no respawn from the mini-bosses or the big boss, and I didn’t think there would be. I was of the opinion that the mini-bosses and the Regent only spawned as a part of the treasure map we had found. Meaning it was quite likely that if we left the castle and came back, the undead would still be there. But we weren’t willing to test that theory and lose our cash cow.

So for the next 10 hours we went through the castle mobs five times. We would have killed even more but the respawn on each guard was two hours. With Wayne’s new weapons and Jason’s ungodly undead damage spell, we were forced to wait for the respawn to occur between each cycle through the castle.

During that time, I reached level 15 and we collected a boat load of cash and spells that could be sold to players. After we finished the fifth round of mobs, we realized we had enough to buy two more Summoned Horses. And with all of the spells I had on me, not to mention the robes, I was betting we would have enough to get the fourth horse as well.

We were at a decision point and I wanted to see what the guys wanted to do. “We are getting close to calling it a night here gentlemen. We have enough cash now to get a couple more Summoned Horses and that will allow me to get to the Dark city and sell all of this stuff. That’s going to take time out of our leveling though. So I want to know what you guys want to do. Keep in mind, our inventories are almost filled up with the spells, and I’m going to need to use everyone’s backpacks when I travel to sell this stuff. We are just at a point that we may have to leave this place.”

“I really hate to leave easy money and easy loot Alex. Anything else we could do?” Wayne asked.

“I could sell the spells at the vendors and get a little over 1 Gold like Alex said before,” Jason offered.

“That seems like a waste though, since Alex is pretty sure he can get these spells sold at the Dark city for way more than that, and Alex knows his merchant shit,” Dan piped in.

I had been thinking about our past runs in the castle, where I would get experience even if I wasn’t right next to the mob when it died. I also remembered how I didn’t get any experience in the sewer or Tim in the dungeon after we had died and been kicked out of the dungeon to our respawn point. I couldn’t be sure, but perhaps because those two events happened within dungeons that were separate from the “normal” world, we weren’t able to get the experience. However, the castle was a part of the regular playing landscape. Anyone could run into the woods and come across it. I thought about this in greater detail and decided it was time for an experiment. And honestly, I was about ready to kick myself in the face for not thinking of this sooner.

“Before anyone curses me or my lineage,” I said while looking directly at Wayne, “I want to try an experiment. No one is going to get an ass beating on this one though. At least I don’t think so.”

“I’m hesitant to listen, but go ahead Alex. Remember, I have a really big hammer now and you are a very little man.”

“Allister will Gate back to Port Town and get our two new horses. Once we know Allister is there, Dan will grab those two guards near the entrance to the cave. Now that they are White, and with your new Constitution, Armor, and weapon, we should be able to kill them without needing any heals. Agreed?”

“Yeah, if Dan snares and kites one while I take the other with you, I don’t see us having a problem. I wouldn’t be able to do more than those two though without a heal soon after. Could probably do three. Don’t think four.”

“We only need to do the two to see if my experiment plays out.”

“Wait, what are you trying to learn this time?” Jason asked.

“Let’s just see what happens, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.”

With nothing further to discuss, Jason Gated to Port Town and let us know he had arrived safely. I told him to wait on going to the merchants until the experiment was finished.

We executed our plan flawlessly and I think Wayne was wrong about his ability to only take three, he likely could have taken four. But more importantly, I knew my experiment was a complete and total success as soon as the first mob went down.

“Holy shit! Alex, I just got experience!” Jason yelled.

“Game changer son!” Dan bellowed out.

“I was thinking back about how I didn’t get any experience, nor did Tim, when we were outside of a dungeon that seemed to be separate from the baseline world. But it didn’t matter how far away I was when you guys killed a mob and I was scouting the castle. I played a hunch, and figured as long as we remained inside the normal world, we could exploit the experience. Truthfully, this is something AltCon should probably fix. But we can tell them about it later,” I said with a big smile on my face.

“So you want me to grab a couple more Alex?” Dan asked.

“Nope, we have been at this for hours. I think we need to call it a night and start our rotation. I will wait here until Allister gets back from his trip and then go into our normal rotation. Once Dan logs on to replace me, I will get on my horse and make my way to the Dark city, where I will log out. Once you guys are all back online, just start killing like normal and I will sell our stuff as fast as possible.

“And too be fair, you and I aren’t even needed Dan. With Wayne’s new gear and Jason’s new Undead spell, those two could go through the whole castle on their own. Having you here TC will make it even faster though with your Snare and kiting. I’m superfluous.”

“Don’t get cocky man.” Dan said to me.

“Huh?”

“Sure, you are really good at telling us stuff, but only TheClaw is super flowus with his words bro. Don’t forget it!”

We could hear Jason sigh loudly through our internal links. “And yet another dictionary bids this world adieu. We should start a suicide hotline, for dictionaries, that goes active any time Dan logs on.”

CHAPTER 19

September 8th, 2043

The trip to the Dark city had taken 3.5 hours. I thought I would be exhausted by the time I arrived, but I got there without feeling tired. Everything around me was so new, and I was digesting it all as I traveled toward the city. During that time, I was able to get my Beast Riding skill up to 60 so I was feeling pretty comfortable in the saddle. With my bonuses I was only at 7 Wisdom, and I was thinking it was time to up that a little. It would increase the speed by which I would learn my skills.