Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 Page 3

  “Ok guys, here is the deal. I’m noticing that everyone here is as intelligent or more so than I am. Often I am not the smartest in this group. But you guys seem to turn to me when it comes time to make a decision and then just do whatever I think is best. This is not a good idea. I may be confident, or more confident than you guys, but I can bet that you likely have better solutions to these problems. So from now on before we make a decision we need to have a discussion. And stop rolling your eyes Dan. And Jason, yes you will be a part of the discussion.”

  “Look Alex,” Jason said, “I’m just not a decision kind of guy.”

  “Yeah man,” agreed Dan. “I mean if you need to know how to get Jiggy with it or something I can help, but otherwise I don’t know that I bring anything to the table.”

  Dan had been saying odd things at every meeting and often used words whose meaning did not come close to what he thought they did. It was laughable at times and annoying during others. “I think we may be having an intervention here soon Dan.”

  “What we intervenning?” he asked.

  I just lowered my head. “You realize that dictionaries, en masse, commit suicide when you speak?”

  That got a chuckle out of Jason and Wayne. Dan was nonplussed about the whole thing. “I’m just saying bro, you got this leadership thing. We follow your lead.”

  It was about that time that one of the AltCon assistants approached our group to give us our next exercise. “Gentlemen, in this project we will have a set of Legos set up here on the desk. You will pick a leader from your group.” All eyes turned toward me. I just shook my head to say no.

  “What else happens in this project?” Wayne asked.

  “I’m afraid that the rules of this project state that the details may only be given out after the leader has been chosen,” the attendant responded.

  Everyone looked around. I was shocked when Jason volunteered. “Fine, I’ll do it but I’m not happy about it. Just saying.”

  The rules were then given out. The leader was to be entirely hands off. He could not leave his seat, nor touch any of the Legos. One of the team members would be entirely responsible for building the project and the other two were to act as the eyes. In the other room was a Lego model that the two remaining members would examine. They couldn’t bring anything with them into the room to look at the model. Only their eyes and their memory. Back at our table was paper to use to document what the others learned. Also, only one of them could go at a time.

  “Ok guys, I have a really shitty memory, so I think it would be best if I do the building. I’m not saying I will, that is Jason’s choice,” I offered up to get the ball rolling.

  Jason appeared fine with this and said, “before we do anything I want Dan and Wayne to go into the other room and look at what they see and come back and tell me.”

  Wayne left first and was gone for about a minute. When he came back he looked really distraught. “It’s a castle, made out of Legos. But it isn’t symmetrical and there are windows but not on the same levels or in the same places on all sides. It’s really messed up. This could take forever.”

  As soon as Wayne returned, Dan got up and went into the other room. Wayne had returned with urgency. Dan was sauntering. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, there was a time limit to get this project completed.

  “Easy peasy brosef. Let me know when you want to start the build,” Dan said.

  We all just stared at Dan. His mellow outlook on life, and his use of horrible English, had not changed. “Just like that?” Jason asked.

  “Yeah dude, I have a photographic memory.”

  Every one of us, to include the assistant monitoring us, had to pick their jaws up off the ground. “Dan, remember when I said how there were other skills we all had, and you didn’t think you brought anything to the table?”

  “Yup.”

  “Well a photographic memory is definitely something that you can bring to the table!” I almost yelled.

  “Dude, I thought you meant like fighting and shit. I mean, I watch beaucoup kung-fu but I didn’t think that was relevant.”

  I smacked my forehead. Repeatedly. “All right, let’s get to the build then.”

  “No,” said Jason.

  We all turned to look at him. It wasn’t a meek “no” either. He said it with some authority.

  “Dan you walked around the castle?”

  “Sure did,” Dan replied.

  “And Wayne, you did the same?”

  “Yeah Jay, I looked at it from all sides.”

  “Please don’t call me Jay. The problem I see here is that we didn’t look at the whole thing. Only part of it.”

  The three of us looked equally confused. With Dan’s photographic memory I figured this to be a cinch. I was missing something though, and my earlier discussion about others being involved came to the front of my mind. I wanted Jason to walk us through this.

  “It’s like with art. Not art on a canvas although that counts sometimes too. But I mean like visual art. Like a sculpture. You can look it at it from all sides and note how different it looks from all of them. But when was the last time you got under a sculpture. Or over one and looked down?” Jason asked.

  “The inside! I bet the inside of the castle is totally different! You guys didn’t look inside the castle?” I asked.

  “Shit. Didn’t even think to. I’ll be right back,” Dan said as he hurriedly exited the room. Having been shown that he didn’t get it all in his first pass had put a little fire under Dan’s butt. This was good for him.

  Dan returned thirty seconds later. “Good call Jayman!! The inside is way different and some of the pieces that I would have thought went on the walls wouldn’t have worked at all. What looks to be just a two by two piece is actually a two by four piece with the other four sticking out into the middle. And the inside is random too. If we had done it my way the first time, we would have had to break it all down and do it again.”

  “Please, don’t call me Jayman, or Jay, or Jayorama, or any other silliness that you have in store. Just Jason.”

  “No sweat brosefski.”

  Jason turned to me with pleading in his eyes. “You’re right. I just heard one die.”

  * * *

  After we figured out that the inside was entirely different, and with Dan’s photographic memory, we finished quickly. Very quickly. Record time even. Since there was so much time left over we all decided to go and get something to drink in the cafeteria. On the way I ran into Dylan who was making his way towards our group.

  “Ah gentlemen, I was just coming to see you. Was the session postponed for this morning?”

  “Nah. We just finished.” Wayne answered.

  “Ahh, then you started early I take it?” Dylan queried?

  “Nope, don’t think so. We started at 1000.” Jason replied. We were all smirking internally but all four of us kept our poker faces on.

  “But that was just 10 minutes ago? You can’t already be done. I think the quickest amount of time that session has been completed is 34 minutes!” Dylan exclaimed.

  “Guess we just got lucky. Had good management and a good team.” I said. “Look we are headed to the cafeteria to get something to drink. Want to join us for some coffee?”

  Since that first day I had taken every opportunity to ask Dylan to have some coffee with me. By now he probably realized that I knew he wasn’t a coffee drinker, but his professional nature wouldn’t allow him to fall out of character. “You know Alex, I just finished a cup and if I double caffeinate I will have the jitters all day. Raincheck?”

  “Sure Dylan, add that to the other 17 rain checks though and you are going to really have the jitters when I cash in those chits.” I said while laughing.

  “You said you were coming to observate us dude?” Dan asked.

  “Well, I’m not sure. I don’t really know what that means. But I did want to tell you all that your final clearances have all come in and you are 100% approved to begin Beta testing when we commence.�
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  Everyone gave high fives. This was terribly exciting. We were all ready to begin the Beta and spend some serious time in the RACs. I wasn’t the only one with a big smile on my face, and Wayne’s mad twinkle had returned to his eyes.

  “Best. News. Ever. When do we commence, as you said?” Wayne asked. If he had started rubbing his hands together at this moment and blurted out an “excellent” I would not have been surprised. Evil villain Wayne was my favorite of his personalities.

  “One week gentlemen. One week.”

  CHAPTER 5

  August 6th, 2043

  One of the most important decisions had snuck up on us without any of us realizing it. The decisions we made today would by and large decide how the rest of our time in the Beta would play out. Today, yes today, we picked our races and classes.

  “Alright guys, if the last six months is any indication we are going to be spending a lot of time together in the Beta. Likely we will be grouped up constantly either by personal choice or by order from AltCon to complete some task,” I told them. AltCon reps had told us that the reasons for the sub teams was for this very reason. When we joined the other sub team it was to be a mini-raid. The problem, as I saw it, is that most groups consist of six people, or five at the least. Four was going to be difficult and meant there could be no room for error.

  “We are only going to have room for the essentials here, no separate support classes,” Jason said.

  “Agreed yo, and we gotta be spot on with this because this will be our persona for the next year,” Dan agreed.

  “I’m the tank,” Wayne stated in a very matter of fact manner. Looking at my other two team mates, I didn’t think anyone was going to argue with Wayne. I don’t think anyone else wanted to be the tank anyhow. The tank was the individual that would engage the target, called a mob (Moving Object), and make certain all of the damage came only to them. This let your healer focus their efforts on only one player and not have to switch between everyone on the team. As time went on tanks would likely acquire gear in the game that would make the mob more aggressive to them, also called taking aggro. But in those early days of low levels, a tank would often have to engage the mob for a bit before the other members joined in to establish the aggro. This could make grinding through the mobs take longer, but was safer overall.

  Jason and Dan nodded in my direction. “No arguments from us Wayne. You have that tank mentality for sure. I don’t think any of us would be able to do a better job than you.”

  Wayne let out a breath I don’t think he realized he had been holding. My guess is he was gearing up for a fight about who would be the tank. He now looked more relaxed and ready to engage with the group and their decision making.

  “So we have tank figured out. We still need healer, DPS (Damage Per Second), and CC (Crowd Control). Does anyone WANT to be the healer?” I asked. I had my suspicions that Jason would be willing because I would likely veto Dan. And while I could do it, I didn’t really want to. Thankfully my suspicions were right.

  “If it’s ok with both of you, I would like to be the healer. I have dabbled with it before and I really liked it. The only thing I ask is as we go through the game we find areas where I can do some damage too, undead and the like.”

  I myself let out a sigh of relief. If Jason wanted to be able to do undead damage, this meant he wanted to not only be a healer, but be a cleric who was a full time healer and buffer. Buffs are augmentation to your character that provide bonuses for a set period of time. In the case of clerics, they could give you more life and armor to your character. They also could do serious damage against the undead as clerics were considered a holy class.

  That only left DPS and CC. Again, both classes I could play fine. But I wanted to be a rogue, and the rogue was a damage dealer. Dan thought about this for a while before saying, “I think I want to be the CC guys, if it’s ok with Alex.”

  “That’s great!” I said a little to enthusiastically. “You know bards are absolutely great at being CC and they also…”

  “Bro, please don’t take this the wrong way and all, but I kinda want to shank you right now.”

  “Wait, what?” I questioned. “What is wrong with a bard? They are one of the most versatile classes in the game.”

  “And they are bards dude. Look at me. Do I look like a guy running around in tights playing with my lute? Or plucking my harp?” Dan asked.

  I didn’t mean to, but I started giggling uncontrollably with that image. “See man! That is exactly what I am saying! Nope, not going to be a bard.”

  “Ok, there are a few different classes that can do CC, so which one were you thinking?” Jason asked.

  “Ranger dude. I will be able to snare and kite the mobs and Wayne will just pick ‘em off one by one if we pull too many.” Dan replied.

  Kiting was an art form. But it appeared Dan had some experience with it. Kiting involved grabbing several mobs and then casting a spell on them that slowed their movement speed; in this case “snare.” Then the one who cast the slow spell would run around and have the mobs chase them, slowed from the spell, they never reached their target. After a group dispatched one mob, the tank would attack another until he/she gained aggro, and then the fight would begin again.

  “Sounds like a plan and I like that you can add a lot of extra damage if we only get one mob at a time.” Other CC classes, like an enchanter type, who could charm a mob and make it just stand there, didn’t always offer up large DPS. But the Ranger could. “Also, you know a ranger is kind of like Robin Hood right? So good chance you will still be wearing tights.”

  Ok, that just left me.

  “So, with me being DPS, I was thinking rogue.” Rogues were arguably the best for DPS. Their problem in most games though was they could not fight alone, known as soloing a mob, and always had to have a group. I wasn’t worried about this because most of the time I would be online with my teammates who rounded out our team perfectly. Those other times when they were not around the rogue was also ideal.

  See the rogue had a unique talent to move while almost entirely invisible without having a spell or a potion cast on them. At the lower levels the rogue moved very slowly. But at the higher levels there was no penalty for movement speed. This would allow me to map out areas that would not be accessible normally and give me an advantage on finding places for my team to fight. Where I could learn about the items that were dropped by the mobs, called loot. With all of this I would begin setting the stage for my eventual business on Resurgence as a merchant selling for real currency.

  “Wayne, what were you thinking for a tank? Paladin? Warrior? Dark Paladin?” Jason asked.

  “Warrior. Pure and simple. I don’t want to have to deal with casting and mana and all of that. In a fight I want to be able to just engage and swing my weapon. So I’m going to go with Barbarian Warrior.” Wayne explained. Also, Wayne just said more words in a single sentence then he had spoken in the entire day. I now saw how to get Wayne more engaged.

  “I like it Wayne, and we will definitely be talking Warrior strategies soon. I want to hear your thoughts.” Wayne’s twinkle, the mad crazy eye, had returned. For some reason this gave me a warm spot in my heart.

  “Wayne has also addressed another important topic we need to discuss. Race. Obviously Wayne wants to be a barbarian. Just remember the eyesight penalty at night for Human like characters Wayne. You won’t be able to see anything until we get you a magic item with a light source or lots of potions.” Wayne nodded his head but didn’t show any sign of changing his mind. I didn’t think he would.

  “So for my rogue I am going to go with half-elf. I will be able to move around easily in most areas with that, plus be able to see at night. And if we need to go somewhere that has dark or evil alignment, I can always go invisible to check it out.” I offered.

  All three heads nodded in agreement.

  Dan would have to be either a half-elf or wood elf, as these were the only two races that could be rangers in the game
. Dan went with wood elf as they got innate bonus to ranger statistics through their affinity with nature.

  Lastly was Jason. There were numerous races he could choose. Dwarf, human, high elf…the list went on. In the end, I thought Jason made a smart decision and went with high elf, as they had a natural bonus to their intellect, which would be helpful with a caster. Traditionally, intellect was tied to mana. Mana was the ingredient needed to cast spells. If you didn’t have mana you couldn’t cast. Period. With a higher intellect your “Mana pool” grows larger. Once you use mana you must wait for it to regenerate. This takes time.

  CHAPTER 6

  August 7th, 2043

  Tomorrow we would start. All of the buildup had led to a sense of excitement that could be felt in the small room the four of us were currently occupying. There was only one thing left to do.

  AltCon didn’t want us wasting time with the initial character create screens when we first logged in. So they planned to have our characters ready to go, pre-loaded into the RAC before we ever stepped into the full immersion pods. They wanted all of us to experience the game for the first time at nearly the same time. This way other characters wouldn’t arrive first and influence other players about what they were seeing and feeling. This was all a part of the Beta they said.

  Creating characters in a Beta is far more different than in a game where tutorials have been written and information about the game is readily available. As well as friends who may be higher levels and can help you with progressing through the game. But since we didn’t know what we would find when we logged in that first time, we had to prepare for our Character Stats to play a vital role in the game.

  So here we found ourselves again, sitting around the table and deciding what stats we would add to our characters. Stats were the different levels each of our characters would start with in seven different statistics. Resurgence followed a very simple platform that had worked in several other games, and I believe they saw no reason to reinvent the wheel in this case. AltCon provided a brief explanation of each of the seven different base skills.