Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 (20 page)

For weeks the DoD tried in vain to find some way to hack into the AltCon servers to see what was happening on that game and what had freaked out Shoal. But no matter what they tried, they couldn’t find a way into the system. That left them with only one option.

Enter Daniel Hamson. No one knew why he was only a mid-level IT worker at the DoD, but he had one of the most amazing brains anyone had ever seen. The man had a flawless photographic memory. He had no training outside of that of the IT world, but he was willing to infiltrate the game, through the Beta, and report back what he found. The problem was, to this point Mr. Hamson had found nothing. The DoD had a deep level penetration into AltCon’s world, and he kept coming back empty handed.

“I’ve catalogued all of my battle logs and conversations in the game. I have talked with other players in the game, both while out raiding and in the tavern. People talk to TheClaw because TheClaw has it going on. But no one has seen anything fishy at all. Everyone loves AltCon,” Dan wanted to say he loved AltCon too, but he didn’t think the General would appreciate his views.

“So you have had no success this entire time?” The General asked.

“TheClaw got some Furry Bunny Britches yo, and they are on point. Everyone wants to touch my britches,” Dan responded.

The General looked ready to spit fire, when Dan added, “What I mean to say, is that I got a very unique item that no one else has. Everyone wants to talk to me about the item. So I am getting unlimited access to the gamers. I don’t have to seek them out. But no one is experiencing anything weird,” Dan added. “The only person who has even experienced anything out of the ordinary is my team mate Alex. He started the game in a different location than the rest of us, and seems to be very lucky. Like luckier than what would be normal even with his game configurations. I’ve talked to him about it, but he says it must be his character’s skills. But even that doesn’t lead us to understand what is happening with AltCon.”

Again, Dan wanted to add that the General was giving AltCon a bad rap and that the company was a great model for all companies. Dan thought this Shoal guy might really have been drunk when he died, no matter what his friend said.

“Keep looking Mr. Hamson. You are our only eyes and ears in there,” the General said to Dan.

“I’m all over it like trees on a beach!”

“What does that even mean?” Another individual, a colonel it looked like, said to Dan.

“Hey man, this is a Taco and Burrito conversation. Nachos!”

“Dear Gods help us,” the General whispered.

PART II

CHAPTER 14

August 19th, 2043

The next couple of weeks became a total grind. I wish I could say it was pleasant, but in reality it was tiring. I found I was getting very little sleep. The guys commented on my haggard appearance, but I couldn’t rightly tell them that I was not getting as much rest because I was secretly running my own side quest without them. And ol’ Stan was definitely a task master, having me run through hours of drills in order to hone my craft. I was certainly seeing the benefits, both in my abilities in the game and my character screen. But the lack of sleep would catch up to me at some point. And that was going to be bad indeed.

Thankfully, for my own side training, Sir Kenyon dicked us again with our next quest. Apparently being the Bunny Slayers of Port Town didn’t allow us to circumnavigate the basic rules of quest giving. More leveling would be in order before Sir Kenyon would give us our next task. We talked about going far afield from Port Town, leveling as we went, and returning at some future time down the road. I was naturally against this idea for my own selfish reasons, but I had to allow the team to play out the pros and cons. In the end, it was AltCon that saved me from having to convince my team mates that “boring was best!”

After the first few weeks of gaming, the boys at AltCon started sending us mail with particular tasks for the individual, the team, and the larger 8 person teams to accomplish. We all started calling these our “AltCon quests.” And for the most part they centered around things in Port Town, or near to the city, that made it necessary for us to remain nearby. Along with the tasks, AltCon explained that these tasks would span a series of weeks, and that they were integral to the Beta. As most players were not of a high level at this point in the game, AltCon was centering the tasks around player’s original bind points. The AltCon quests were designed to break the game, as Betas tend to do, not provide experience or loot. They were never terribly long tasks, like keep hitting the same point on the side of a building for ten minutes. But it did keep us around Port Town, and that kept me around Stan.

And thankfully there was a time frame given for the AltCon quests, so one did not have to leave a dungeon or camp, just to finish their AltCon task. Players would receive messages such as, “Within the next eight hours go to the large oak tree indicated on your map and run around the tree for 10 minutes.” It was very rare that any of the tasks would get you killed, unless a wandering mob happened to mistake you for a snack.

The only time we received experience from an AltCon quest and a chance for loot was during the 8-person quest. Dan, Jason, Wayne, and I joined up with the other four members of our original team just outside the bunny killing fields of Port Town. Despite our new titles and the death of the Mutated Queen Rabbit, the fields just in front of Port Town’s gates were the only place for new players to level. And as such, there would always be bunnies here to slaughter. Likely there was already a new Mutated Queen Rabbit just waiting to be attacked down in the sewers. However, since there weren’t any new Beta players joining, and everyone had passed the first levels of the game, no one ever killed the rabbits now.

Speaking of the Mutated Queen, I definitely would have loved to get one of those cloaks Jason was rocking. No one but Dan was going to get excited about the Furry Bunny Britches, but I may have worn them with that Strength and Agility bonus. Wayne would never. And I bet I could have convinced the guys to farm the sewers for a bit, since we had it all mapped out and could have used the loot. But the sewer appeared to be a one-time dungeon, what gamers call an “instance dungeon.” It was only for that instant when you were given the quest and you would not be able to enter once you finished it.

We hadn’t seen any of our team members since Gary, or Sayhey in the game, ran by on that first day with a train of bunnies. The group, composed of Gary, Tim, Kaitlin, and Jennifer didn’t look like much. Their levels were quite a bit lower than ours, and their gear was nowhere near as complete as ours. No one had really great gear yet in the game. Except for Jason and Dan’s rare loot from the sewers, we only had armor from merchants. But we had full sets, and the armor rating on our stuff was definitely higher than what our team mates had.

When I looked at Jason and Wayne, I could see they were thinking the same thing I was. And I wasn’t the only one who looked like we should feel guilty for not helping our team mates. That all stopped with Dan though, naturally. “What the hell is wrong with you guys?” Dan said to them.

Jennifer, their Paladin and Tank, with the game name of Serenity, stepped up to Dan. She looked pissed. “What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t walk up on us and get all uppity just because you guys are a few levels higher than us and have better gear. We will still kick your ass!”

“Wow. Misunderstand people much? Totally not what I was saying. I want to know why the hell you guys didn’t come reach out to us? And yes, I know you can say, ‘well it runs both ways, why didn’t his awesomeness TheClaw reach out to us’ but I know you guys had heard we were doing well. There is no excuse for you not hitting us up. We are a team after all!” Dan yelled at the end.

Nope, no one saw that one coming at all. And to be fair, we would have helped.

“Ok. Let’s start over,” Jennifer said. “First off, we want to succeed just like you guys. Secondly, we are moving along at our own pace and no one is frustrated or unhappy, despite not having the same gear you have. And finally, no one, and I am speaking for my whole group here without having to look back to see them nodding their heads, will ever call you ‘his awesomeness.’ Ever.” And indeed, every one of us, was nodding our heads.

That also got laughs out of all of us and the situation went from hostile to neutral. I still wondered why they hadn’t reached out to us, but it was true that people liked to discover things at their own rate and with their own skill. There are always those out there that want the short cut, hell that’s how power leveling people for cash started in the first place. But this was a new game, and my group of merry misfits were the highest level and best equipped in the game so far, and we were not in a level to power level anyone.

So that I am clear, power leveling is when a new player pays a set amount of money, usually to a professional gamer like myself, to take them from level 1 to a certain level in a very short amount of time. I may be a professional gamer, but power leveling people was never my thing. I preferred the market place to make my money.

“Don’t mind Dan guys. He just tends to say whatever is on his mind. Most of the time it doesn’t make sense. Those times where it does, it usually comes out in a way only insane people wouldn’t be offended by it. But he never means harm, as you can see,” I said to our team mates, trying to make sure we were all good.

“It’s not a problem Alex, and we appreciate Dan’s comments, even if his tact sucks,” Tim said while smiling and approaching our group. Tim had the name Slovak over his character. I was guessing it was in relation to some family lineage.

I took the time to get a better look at our team mates and the characters they had chosen. Sayhey was a Halfling, but I couldn’t tell by his clothing what Class he was. Jennifer was a Paladin, a hybrid of Warrior and Cleric, and a Human. I doubted she could out aggro Wayne since he had Bash, Taunt, and I bet a better weapon. But she could definitely off-Tank if we had lots of mobs. Kaitlin, going by Anastasia, was a wood elf, dressed in leathers and had a ring of flowers around her head. I was going to guess she was a druid. Which would make her their primary healer. Tim was a high-elf like Jason and was dressed in a flowing robe, which led me to believe that he was a caster of some sort. I know, I’m a genius.

“So just so we know what we are working with, I’m a Rogue, Dan’s a Ranger, Wayne is a Warrior, and Allister is a Cleric. Dan pulls for us and Wayne is obviously our Tank,” I explained.

“Yeah, and Alex is our sneaky guy that moves at the speed of sloth when we need him to inspect dungeons,” Wayne added helpfully.

“With only four people that is a pretty solid group guys,” Kaitlin said. “You can tell that Jennifer is our Paladin and our Tank, and I am a Druid and our main healer. Although Jenny’s heals are pretty good.” I was right about the Druid. But I was still wondering about Tim and Gary. Jennifer, or Jenny as Kaitlin called her, cleared that up.

“Gary there is our puller and our Damage dealer and Tim handles crowd control,” Jenny said.

“That’s right buddy! I am a master puller. One mob every time,” Gary boasted.

“Well if you are such a good puller why do you need crowd control?” Jason asked, which was a question I also had.

“Well, sometimes it takes a while to get just one guy. So I just bring more and give Tim a chance to play too.”

“Shut up Gary. I’m the enchanter guys, and if we get more than one, I can charm the mobs so they don’t go anywhere,” Tim explained. Despite his harsh words, I could see this was regular banter between Gary and Tim.

“So what Class are you Gary?” Wayne asked.

“Ahh yeah, sorry about that, I’m our Brawler. I’ve just recently gotten a new Skill, Play Dead, which allows me to hit the ground like I died. So if I get more than one mob, I just Play Dead till I can isolate the one I want. However, at this early level, it fails a lot, so I have to keep trying. It takes a long time to pull the one, which is why I tend to pull more than one.”

“Oh titty balls dipped in foam! We are going to be a pulling machine! With Gary’s Play Dead, I can snipe from a distance when he gets the one isolated and insure we get one mob. I love your corpse Gary,” Dan said, making everyone feel awkward again. Predictable ol’ Dan.

“Has anyone actually received the quest yet?” Kaitlin asked.

Everyone shook their heads. I decided at this point our little group needed to discuss the make-up of the two group party. As in, who would be the leader of this little raid. I, of course, wanted to take advantage of my Chance bonus, but I didn’t know if the guys would be ok with us divulging that little secret to the group. I asked everyone through our private channels, and got an affirmative from Jason and Wayne, and a “don’t be a dick, of course you should tell them. Hell, this is the one group we should have told long ago” from Dan.

“So guys, when we do get the quest, and it’s a raid like I think it will be, who is going to be in charge of the raid? I only ask because I’ve been fairly lucky with our loots,” I said to everyone.

“What Alex means, is that he has really good Chance so he should be the leader broskis and chickskis,” Dan unnecessarily clarified for everyone.

“What is your Chance Alex?” Tim asked. I could see he was their Chance user for the group by the way he asked. Either that or he had to go to the bathroom. It was a tossup.

“I’ve got 12 Chance Tim.”

“Yeah, that’s better than mine.” He responded. So not the bathroom. Glad I got that one right on the first count. And since I hadn’t told the guys in our group about my Chance modifier, I certainly wasn’t going to be telling these folks either. Although at some point I should let them know.

“So can we say it is settled then? I will be the raid leader, and naturally we distribute loot based on need first?” I asked.

This shocked our team mates a bit, since it was obvious that all of them would have more need than us. Yeah, this was a bit of penance to deal with my guilt earlier, but the guys were nodding their heads, so I knew I wouldn’t get any objections from my own squad.