Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 (18 page)

“But it would be best for you. And we decided long ago, when we were first killing bunnies in the fields, that we build the team before ourselves,” Wayne said and then quickly looked over to Dan to see if he was going to make a comment about inspirational posters again. But Dan still had his eyes closed.

“Wow, you guys really are the best group I’ve ever gamed with. Even Dan. Well even Dan on some levels. Thank you so much!” Jason said while looting the item and equipping it to his character. The result was a long flowing white cape of beautiful fur. It actually looked pretty bad ass.

“My eyes are closed Sallister but I can still hear you,” Dan said. “And you’re welcome dude, totally best for you.”

I was about to tell Dan to get up and get moving when I heard him mumble, “Damn it all to hell. Just one more. Five letter word for ‘end of all’. ‘E’ is the second letter.”

I then watched Dan jump three feet in the air, when Wayne leaned down and hissed into his ear, “Deeeaaatthhh.”

* * *

We searched the large room in full, which was much easier now that the mysterious fog had lifted. We didn’t find any secret rooms or extra loot, but we did find a staircase that led down to another level of the sewer. Once we were fully buffed and mana was at full, we headed down into the sewer’s second level.

After the fight with the Guardian, we asked Jason to start using his level 6 resist poison buff. It only gave us a +20 to poison resistance, but that was better than nothing. With Jason’s new cloak, he was now at +35 resistance to poison.

The second level of the sewer had a different layout than the first, so we had to clear the whole thing again before we could effectively map the area. This took another two hours. However, during that time we each got another level, taking us to 11. We continued to get 50 Copper to 1 Silver on each mob, and some random drops of rabbit fur and rabbit meat. We knew these only sold for a few copper to the merchants up in Port Town, so we didn’t worry if we had to leave some behind because our inventory got full. And the items had a weight of 0.1 so it didn’t threaten to overload us either and make us fatigued.

After the two hours of clearing the second level of the sewer we came to another one of the large rooms that I believed signified the boss fight. We were hoping it was the Queen so we could get out of this sewer. I once again volunteered to use my Conceal and Stealth to investigate the room. Wayne said he would try War and Peace this time. I flipped him the bird just before my Conceal worked and then tried for another minute to get my Stealth to work.

Checking out the room was as slow a process as it was the first time around, and I was not happy when I finally got through the fog and saw what we had in store for us. This time it wasn’t just the boss and two mobs, but the boss and four mobs. The four non-boss mobs were blue at least. The boss was yellow, but I was guessing it was going to be a hard yellow just given the size of it. The Mutated Queen Rabbit was almost two meters high at the head. And she looked mean. Her razor sharp teeth extended past her lower jaw and her eyes were not just red, but bleeding from the corners. This was one ugly looking bunny bitch.

The guys were equally dismayed when I told them what we had in store for us. We couldn’t just filter the mobs into the hallways and force them to attack us one at a time, as the hallways were just big enough to have four of us stand shoulder to shoulder across it. Which means the mobs could do the same. I also doubted the Queen would boomerang, since this whole sewer was her domain after all. The best we could do was have Dan try to snare both the Queen and one of the blues, and kite both of them while we took on three at a time. I would try to have one of the three aggro me so Jason didn’t have to use all his mana on Wayne before we got to the Queen.

It was going to be a tough fight, but I was hopeful we would win. And if we didn’t, we at least knew what we were facing next time we came down here.

Dan went in and started the pull. He started with a cast of snare on the Queen. And thankfully it landed on the first try. Maybe the extra level helped with that. While the other four mobs rushed at Dan, Wayne targeted one with Taunt and then the other with Bash and grabbed aggro on himself. I took a third and backstabbed it, guaranteeing I was going to take aggro. By the time we had established our positions, Dan had hit the last blue with another snare and was kiting them around the room. So far, so good.

My Agility was nowhere near as high as Dan’s so I could guarantee I was going to get hit. However, I focused on attacking the same mob as Wayne, trying to whittle down each mob. Every ten seconds I would switch mobs and hit the one that I had aggro on, so it wouldn’t change its mind and decide to attack Jason.

My hit points were steadily going down, but there was nothing I could do about that. Wayne was still looking good though as we finished off the first and moved to the second mob. Jason said he still had 80 percent mana. He shot me one heal, which gave me a sigh of relief.

We made our way through the second and third mob and Dan started bringing over the other two. We had decided to take out the blue first, as it would be quicker, and would allow us to focus on the Queen without any distractions. Dan took a few hits while Wayne was getting aggro on the Queen, and Jason healed him once. Then we had Dan tank the blue, since his aggro was already established, while the Queen beat on Wayne till we were done with the blue. Jason regenerated mana, allowing Dan to take the hits. This wasn’t out of spite. No matter how the two acted outside of fights, during fights it was all business. We were sure that we could finish the blue before Dan died, and then he could use his own mana to heal himself. Once that was done he would be back in the fight and making a pin cushion out of the Queen.

Our plan was brazen, but amazingly it worked. After a short time, we were down to just the queen and Wayne was at full health. Dan was getting there, and Jason was at 50 percent mana. I was the only one that was lower on hit points from keeping aggro on the one blue, and I had 70 percent of my hit points, or a little over 1000 hit points out of my original 1600.

We had made sure we had Jason buff the poison resist for all of us before we started the fight, as we remembered what the Guardian had done to us. This time, however, the AoE went off when the Queen hit 75% of her life. It was the same spell with the same DoT – 400 hit points total. I know, because it landed on me. Jason and Wayne did not get effected. Dan too was poisoned, but he had his own healing spells, and I did not. The AoE went off again at 50%, and again I was poisoned. This was going to take me dangerously close to dying. Jason said he could heal, but I told him to focus on Wayne, as the Queen was lighting into him with those razor sharp teeth. Wayne was also hit by poison on this go around. Again, Jason’s +35 resistance to poison kept him safe.

We kept at it, and I looked on with dread as the Queen’s health bar moved closer to 25%. If the prior two times was any indication, I was likely to get poisoned again, and that was going to take me out of the fight. Jason was hollering out his mana count and it too was getting dangerously low.

At exactly 25% the AoE went off for the last time, and just as I feared, I was poisoned. I knew I wasn’t long for the fight, maybe another minute, so I just kept attacking, letting the group know I was going to die. Dan yelled, “I can heal you bro!” but I told him to focus on killing the bitch before Jason ran out of Mana. When I finally died, the Queen had 10 percent left on her health bar.

* * *

As soon as I logged back in from dying I saw that I was no longer level 11. The death had meant a loss of 25 percent experience in my level and that put me back down to level 10 with 84% experience. While that didn’t make me happy, I was more focused on what the guys were yelling in my ear as the fight kept going.

“She’s got 5% left on her. Don’t let up!” Dan yelled.

“Right, because my plan was to take a siesta right now Dan!” Jason replied.

“Shut both of your traps and focus, down to 3%,” Wayne said.

“I got one heal left in me Naugha, and then I’m going to be out,” Jason informed Wayne.

“That’s fine, just jump in and start hitting her with your mace if you have to!”

The whole time I was listening to them go on, I was running back to the sewers. Right before I got to the entrance I heard their cheers.

“That’s what I’m talking about! Take that you filthy bunny biyatch!” Dan yelled.

“Awesome job tanking Naugha,” Jason said.

“Same Allister, that was an excellent job of keeping me alive. Sorry you died Alex.”

“No worries guys, good work. I’m heading back to you now,” I said.

“The body will stay here for thirty minutes, so we have time for you to get here to loot. No one loots but the Chance Master,” Dan told me.

“Sounds good, I am about to enter the sewers now in Conceal/Stealth. I will make my way over to you guys,” I replied.

“Shit. Thirty minutes may not be enough time.” Wayne said while laughing.

“Very funny. Bunch of ass clowns. I know the way to the first big room Dan, but I will need directions from the stairs to where you guys are.”

“No problem man, just let me know when you get to the bottom of the stairs,” Dan replied. Then I heard him whisper, “I wish I had another crossword, he is going to take forever!”

“I can still hear you Dan!” I yelled.

“What? I said, ‘Don’t you like the weather?’”

* * *

I made it down to the second level large room with time to spare. Not a lot of time, but I still made it on time. Damn if I didn’t move slow. As soon as I got there I ran up to the mob to loot it.

As hoped, there was one Mutated Queen Heart to loot, which I quickly put into my inventory. There was one additional item and I laughed as I linked it to the group:

This item would be good for both Dan and Wayne, as I knew Wayne would love to have a +10 Strength bonus. However, Wayne wasn’t hearing it.

“There is no way that I am wearing furry pants. No self-respecting Warrior, and certainly not a Barbarian, would ever put those things on. Dan, they are yours if you want them,” Wayne said.

“Hell yeah I do! Alex?”

“All yours buddy, put em on!”

We didn’t stop laughing for five minutes. Dan was pissed at first when we started laughing at him, but when he looked down at his bottom half, he started giggling too. He was now clothed from his waist to his feet in white flowing fur. He looked ridiculous. But in true Dan fashion, his giggling, and his ire, didn’t last long.

“Oh man! I can’t wait to go to the Tavern tonight Naughameister. The chicks are going to love sitting on my fur,” Dan said to Wayne.

“Let’s just get out of here so we can turn in the quest and call it a day. I’m tired of these stinking sewers,” Jason said to everyone.

We found another staircase at the back of this room as well, only this one went up. This was good, since none of us wanted to fight our way through the two levels to go back out. And I didn’t feel like taking thirty minutes to run back to the entrance in Conceal/Stealth. The staircase popped us back out in The Wastes, a couple of streets over from the entrance, but when we tried to find the entrance, it was gone. Apparently this was an exit only location. No worries.

We went back to Sir Kenyon and I turned over the heart. We received a Gold piece each for completing the quest as well as a backpack each with six empty slots. The backpack was a fantastic gift, as it allowed us to hold six more items each in our inventory. All of a sudden there was a message broadcast to everyone:

Let it be known that the scourge plaguing this town has been defeated by the noble adventurers Alex, Allister, Naugha, and TheClaw! No longer will the vile beast that infested our realm with death in the guise of innocence taint these lands. For their efforts, these four will henceforth be known as The Bunny Slayers of Port Town! Three cheers for the Bunny Slayers!

This was followed by a system message that the four of us received on our internal systems.

As the first to defeat the Mutated Queen Rabbit in the sewers of Port Town, you have been given the title of
The Bunny Slayers of Port Town
. This title bestows upon the wearer a bonus to the player. All skills are +1 and all resistances +10. Do you wish to display your title? Failure to display the title will negate the bonus, but you will still maintain the title in your archive.

Despite the constant ribbing we knew we all would get, we all clicked yes. Even Wayne, who previously refused to wear the Furry Bunny Britches, couldn’t pass up on that many bonuses to his character. The experience from the quest also put my back to level 11, but just barely. My character now looked like this: