Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 (46 page)

* * *

“Come on man. Just admit it. You did that crap on purpose!” Wayne said to Dan while we took a breather after an hour of killing mobs.

“Seriously bro, I was so drunk last night I have no idea what I said. People just kept handing me drinks and asking for another story. It wasn’t until after I went back through my logs that I even saw what I said. And you know it’s just jealousy, brosef! All of those guys would love to be able to wreck shit like you, pink tutu or not!”

“I don’t have a bloody pink tutu!”

“Semantics bro.”

“That’s not what that word means!”

We couldn’t hold it in any longer and Jason and I were both laughing our asses off while we heard Dan and Wayne go at it. Wayne would try to get Dan to admit he had purposefully marred Wayne’s image while Dan went back to his “I was so drunk” defense. Jason and I had Wayne’s back though, adding our thoughts and comments about how upset we were with Dan, although that didn’t stop our laughter.

And if we thought Wayne was pissed, imagine the ire of Jenny when she found out about all the women who were sending Wayne private messages. Jenny and Wayne had become an official item, even meeting outside of the game on multiple occasions. And when she heard about Dan’s antics she vowed to repay him in kind. Wayne was one thing, but never underestimate the capacity for violence of a woman scorned. Dan just wanted to know if that ruined his chances with Kaitlin.

“Brother, you don’t have a pink tutu, I know. And so does everyone else. That’s yesterday’s news. But what about me and Kaitlin? What we have is real man, I need to know if I still have a chance!”

“If by ‘real’ you mean the exact opposite, and an absence of anything, then yes, it’s still there.”

“Whew! I was really worried for a second there!”

As fun as all this was, our focus needed to be on getting our level so we could hit the Dire Wolves at the Elven tree. “Rest break over. Dan, scout ahead and find us some high concentration of mobs if you can. I don’t want to be stuck out in this forest any longer than we need. I want us to get you and Allister your Level 18 today and Wayne and I tomorrow.”

Dan and Jason would need to get their Level 18 spells once they reached their level and I wanted to do that at the end of our day, so as not to break up the routine of fighting. Dan nodded his head, summoned his horse, and rode out to find us some more mobs.

Wayne just shook his head as Dan rode off. “He totally did it on purpose. I know he did.”

Jason approached Wayne and put his hand on Wayne’s shoulder. “Have no fear my friend. The Pink Tutu Affair will never die.”

* * *

September 22nd, 2043

Dan had found a large grouping of Bears and Wolves that were Blue to our group and over the next two days we focused on killing the mobs, collecting the loot, and leveling our characters. At this level, the animals were dropping Fine skins that we could sell to either players that were leveling their Tanning skills, or to the merchants. I would see what we could get from both the merchants and the players before I decided how much time I wanted to waste on trying to sell them through auctions. There was always a cost/benefit analysis that one had to do when deciding to auction off items. Here the cost was mostly my sleep, in relation to how much we could get through a lengthy auction.

More importantly, we had found enough mobs that Dan and Jason were able to get their Level 18 at the end of that first day. Jason went back to Port Town with enough money to buy the spells. I also gave him one of the Fine skins to take to our merchant friend. He would be able to tell us how much they sold for, and likely give Jason the location of someone in town who would also sell the same wares.

We didn’t have a huge amount of Gold since we decided to assist our Dwarven kinsmen with holding their mine and celebrating the victory over the Orckin. However, we did have enough to purchase the level 18 spells, which cost 20 Gold each. Jason got an improved heal, an improved group buff that added constitution and armor, and the spell See Invisible. This was quite handy since Dan received two spells, one of which was Blend. This spell allowed Dan to essentially camouflage himself and ‘blend’ into his environment. It was, in other words, an invisible spell for Dan, but one that only worked in the Forest. Trying to cast it on himself in an urban environment would do no good. Dan also received the spell Breathe that would allow someone to breath under water. An interesting spell, but one we hadn’t needed to this point.

With our Level 18 in hand, we decided to go back to the Elder Elven tree we first saw and engage with the Dire Wolves there. No one was keen on challenging the four beasts that surrounded the tree near Stan’s home, and thankfully so. I had not told the others that the guardians of that tree would likely always out level us, or the secret to their power. It was better for the rest of the group to just believe that they were regular high level Red mobs that we couldn’t fight.

Before arriving at our destination we buffed the party as much as we could. No one was looking forward to taking on four mobs at the same time, especially when three of those had been Yellow the last time we ventured in. I played my role and scouted out the location before the rest of the team engaged and was happy to see that the dynamic had changed a bit. There were now only two Yellows and two Blues. Gaining a level had been helpful indeed. Now there was a Blue and a Yellow Dire Wolf lounging a few meters from the base of the tree, and another Blue and Yellow Dire nestled under the tree root.

I informed the team of my new findings and we decided to have Dan Snare one Yellow and Wayne would try to tank the two Blue and other Yellow. Jason’s new buff, that added an extra 1000 hit points and extra 100 armor, was really going to come in handy now. The only down side was that the spell cost was 40 percent of Jason’s mana and we were forced to wait ten minutes before we could engage, while Jason built back up his reserves. The buff lasted for thirty minutes however, so we wouldn’t have to worry about it expiring before the end of the battle. We hoped.

Dan started by casting Snare on the Yellow that was lying next to the tree and began to shoot arrows at it. The Dire Wolf immediately started moving toward Dan but at a slow pace thanks to his successful Snare. The two Blues started moving toward Dan, but Wayne was able to Taunt one and Bash the other and get aggro on them. To our surprise, the Yellow under the tree root did not move from its location and Wayne was faced with only the two Blues. Instead of changing mobs in the middle of a fight, we let Dan continue to kite the Yellow and went to work on the two Blues. I gave Wayne enough time to fully establish aggro before jumping into the mix, and landing my Backstab on the first Dire Wolf. Since these mobs were Blue, Wayne and I were able to take it down in a fairly quick time. The second Blue fell quickly as well. With those two down, we chased after Dan’s Yellow Dire Wolf and chipped away at it until Wayne could establish aggro. With aggro fully under Wayne’s control, we similarly made quick work of the Yellow. This fight had so far gone way easier than we had planned.

Jason informed the group that he had sufficient mana to take on one Yellow. Wayne approached the tree, targeting the Yellow Dire Wolf, and got within its aggro range. The Dire Wolf slowly emerged from under the tree and we saw why it had not engaged that first time we attacked its pack mates. Laying under the tree root were two Dire Wolf pups.

“Woah! Wayne, stop moving forward,” Dan said.

“What? It’s one Yellow man, we can take it easy.”

“Don’t you see, there are pups under the tree. I don’t kill women and children bro. Not my thing.”

“Are you insane? That isn’t a woman, it’s a Dire Wolf. And we aren’t going to kill puppies doofus. Those things are level 1 or 2 at best, they won’t even aggro us if we don’t attack.”

“Dude! You can’t leave a bunch of puppies without their mother. That shit ain’t right man!”

“Dan! For once, please, be reasonable! We need the wood from the tree. We kill the Dire Wolf and then we collect what we need. It’s just an NPC mob!” Jason added.

“Not doing it man, bad mojo. They won’t be as high of quality, but I can just find birch wood to make the shafts for my arrows.”

And that was the end of that. We were doing this for Dan, to be able to make his arrows better. But if he didn’t want any part of this, then there was no point.

“Fine. Whatever. Just Snare it then and we will outrun the aggro and not come back,” Wayne said, sounding upset.

Dan cast Snare on the Yellow Dire Wolf and we all started to run away. However, the Dire Wolf broke the Snare immediately and started attacking Dan. Wayne jumped in to get aggro off the mob and Dan cast another Snare. “Snare landed! Shit! Broke Snare again.”

At this point, Dan now had massive aggro with the Dire Wolf and nothing Wayne or I did could get it off of Dan.

“Stop attacking it! Don’t kill the momma!”

Jason was healing Dan, but he was running low on mana. He planned on healing a Tank, not a Ranger. And Dan was losing hit points fast. Dan tried Snare one more time, but again the Dire Wolf broke the Snare almost immediately after it landed. It was as if the Dire Wolf had some innate ability that allowed it to circumvent spells when protecting its children.

“Dan, we aren’t all going to die here and lose our Levels! I’m sorry man, we have to kill it,” I told him.

“Fine. This is horrible of us though.”

And with that we all engaged the Dire Wolf. Jason started by casting a Stun so Dan could establish some distance while Wayne Taunted and Bashed the mob. Despite Dan’s insistence, we never stopped attacking the wolf. As long as Wayne could get aggro, we had a chance to succeed. But as soon as the Stun wore off, the Wolf ran at Dan again.

Jason continued to Stun, and we continued to hit. Having your Cleric chain cast Stun is one of the dumbest things you can do in the game, since it should build aggro to a point where your Cleric becomes the one and only target. But with Dan’s multiple Snares landing and breaking, the wolf seemed to have only one target.

After a short while, the Yellow was dead. I had never seen Dan so upset before. He really felt horrible for making these puppies orphans. I tried to focus him back on the game and told him we wouldn’t be attacking the little guys and that he should start collecting the Elven wood, but reminding him to do so in a respectful manner, whatever that meant.

“It’s good bro, I am a Wood Elf, I am one with the tree,” Dan said while he made his way toward the Elven Elder tree. He stopped for a bit when he got close to the tiny Dire Wolf Pups and I thought I was going to have to poke him again to start collecting the wood.

“You know, there has to be someone in Port Town who can take these guys. Like a shelter or something. I mean look at them, they are just Level 1 or 2 like Wayne said. They can’t survive out here on their own.”

“Dan, we slaughtered a whole field of Level 2 rabbits when we came into this game. You didn’t see anyone trying to establish a shelter for those guys,” I said.

“Fuck those rabbits,” Jason added.

“Right. Never mind the rabbits. Sorry Allister,” I responded. Jason really didn’t like rabbits. “I don’t think anyone is going to be taking Dire Wolf Pups in and raising them to be Dire Wolves. You know, the ones that attack people.”

“We have to do something bros! I mean, they can’t do anything for themselves and we just killed their mom! Look, it’s bad Karma if we don’t do anything.”

“Dan, they are mobs. What does Karma have to do with anything?” Wayne interrupted, getting even more flustered.

“Really? How about Simon Temple from the sewers under Port Town? It was you Wayne that talked about how we should help the guy out and how important Karma is! Would you like me to repeat the words for you?” Dan said while staring down Wayne. Well, staring up at Wayne, you know, because of the over 1-foot height difference.

It was at that point that I shut up. I never wanted to bring up Simon Temple again. I didn’t want to change my stance on this mid-discussion, and start agreeing with Dan, but I really didn’t want to go down the Simon Temple road. Thankfully, I didn’t need to once Wayne’s own words were used against him. Wayne could be hard headed sometimes, like when he let himself die instead of offering up the Dwarves in sacrifice, but he could also admit when he had been in error. He just never did it all that eloquently.

“Fine! Do whatever you want. Don’t let it be said that I stood in the way of Karma!” exclaimed Wayne. Yeah, not graceful at all.

“Awesome! Thanks Wayne, you’re the best! If you guys could just hang out here, I am going to run to Port Town to see if there is anything or anyone who can shelter these little guys. Heart you! Mean it!” Dan yelled out as he jumped on his summoned horse and took off for Port Town.

* * *

The look on Dan’s face when he returned said it all. We were all quite certain that Dan wouldn’t find anyone in Port Town that would take in a couple of baby mobs, but after sitting out in the woods for a bit we lost our anger at Dan’s determination. Dan was flippant at the best of times, so seeing him trying to do the right thing was something we could overlook.

“No luck. There isn’t a shelter or anything like it at Port Town. I got blank stares everywhere I asked.”

“Sorry Dan, it was a valiant effort on your part,” I said.

“Yeah. I guess. Look, I got some food for the little guys, so I’m just going to feed them, if they’ll take it, and then collect the wood. We are going to have to come back here often enough and maybe we can watch them grow up!” Dan said with a bit of a smile on his face. No one wanted to tell him that if they grew up we would probably just have to kill them later.

Dan walked over to the first Dire Wolf Pup and held out a small piece of meat. The Pup was hesitant at first, but its need for nourishment likely overcame its fear and it approached Dan, sniffing at his hand. After a few seconds, the Pup slowly began eating the food from Dan’s hand. “Oh man, that tickles. And it’s got a wet nose!”

I looked over at Jason and Wayne and they were wearing the same smile that I was. I mean really, who doesn’t love puppies? Even if they do someday grow up to be man eaters.