Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 (41 page)

After logging out for the night and catching a few winks, my companions and I logged backed on ready to take on the Orckin. We traveled by foot to the cave entrance, as Tibble said he didn’t remember where the exact location was on a map, but could lead us there on foot. It only took us an hour and we all passed the time chatting with the Dwarves and learning the history of their clan.

We knew the minute we arrived. The entrance to the cave was littered with the goods the Dwarves were forced to leave behind. And while thankfully there were no bodies in front of the cave, there was what appeared to be Dwarven blood on the sides of the cave entrance.

“I don’t think I need to be tellin’ ya that this be the place. Inside them caves be the bodies of our kin and the beasts that killed them. I don’t rightly feel good about this, but I’m askin’ for yer help. Can ya liberate the cave of dem Orckin?”

“We thank you for taking us all this way Tibble. You know we probably wouldn’t have found the place without you. But now is the time for my companions and I to do what it is that we do best. We will liberate the cave of the Orckin.”

The golden glow of a quest surrounded us. My group turned toward the entrance of the cave and began to walk toward the darkness. I planned to stop the group just outside the mouth of the cave and begin my scouting run. As we walked away, I said to Tibble, “Be well my new friend. And know that once this mine is cleared our first stop will be your campsite so you may return in begin again in earnest!”

I made it three more steps before I heard behind me, “Are you bloody daft boy!?”

CHAPTER 22

September 17th, 2043

“Naugha, what did I tell ya was the three things every Dwarf love to be doing?”

Wayne looked over at the group, and then back to the Dwarves who were making their way to the entrance of the cave. Wayne then got a huge smile on his face that went from ear to ear. “Blacksmithing. Battle. And Booze. In that order.”

“And we’ll have time for the Blacksmithing later. We done the boozing already. Today, me and my kin are ready for battle!”

A message appeared before my eyes as I watched the Dwarves continue toward the mouth of the cave.

You have begun a Non-Player Character assisted raid.
The Non-Player Characters will be under your command and subservient to your orders.
The Non-Player Characters will not receive experience as a part of this raid.
Please see the manual for raid commands.

I quickly looked at the quest menu and saw that we indeed had a maximum of 24 players that could take part in this raid. Twenty of them were the Dwarves, and the other four were my group. “Did you guys just get that message?”

They all nodded that they had.

“Dan.”

“On it, reading the manual about raids now.”

With that covered I turned back to our new companions.

“I know you are all itching for a fight. I understand that. And I welcome that fire. But this group operates as a single element. So when we do this, I need you to follow my directions. I know little about Blacksmithing and Mining, Tibble. But I know how to best do this. Will your clan be able to follow my instructions?”

“Aye Alex, that won’t be a problem. We may be weak as fighters, but we’ll back ya up and stomp on these bastards wherever you put us. Just lead the way.”

“Got it Alex. So it’s a lot like when we first started playing and we wanted to make sure we were all fighting the same mob. You just need to dedicate individuals, or groups, or even one group, and command them to attack. You can easily do it through the verbal commands. Like saying, ‘Tibble, attack target’ and he will attack whatever target you have chosen. You can even make Tibble the representative for a set number of NPCs and when you tell Tibble to attack, the rest of them will too.”

“Ok. This is going to suck for my scouting if I want to go out and track mob movements. But hopefully with the addition of twenty more blades, well pick axes, we won’t need to do as much scouting. In fact, there may be points where I have to step back from fighting so I can manage the flow of the battle. Especially on boss fights.”

Tibble and his Dwarves stood by patiently while my group discussed our strategy, but they all had a look of readiness and a fire in their eyes that said they were ready to show the Orckin what it meant by “you reap what you sow.”

After talking through our strategy for a few more minutes, I decided it was time for me to scout out the interior of the cave. I ordered our new companions to wait by the mouth while I ventured into the cavern. At Level 16, and with my bonuses, I was now moving at 100 percent speed while in my Blacksuit.

The air inside the cave was damp, which explained the perspiration that was dripping off of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. There weren’t any stalagmites at the entrance, but I ventured there would be some as we moved farther in. There was also no sign of the Orckin just inside the cave.

I continued down the only passage available and found the first set of mobs after turning a corner. Due to my Blacksuit they couldn’t see me. Which was good, since both of the Orckin Marauders were Yellow to me. I continued past the two mobs and encountered another set of mobs, this time four at an intersection of the main tunnel and two side passages. I waited for two more minutes before they split off and went down separate passages. They returned after one minute. This was going to be a tough pull and would have to be timed perfectly. First we needed to make sure we pulled the first two when these mobs split so as not to get aggro through proximity and end up pulling six instead of two. Then it looked like we would need to branch off into one of the other passages and kill the mobs in place so as not to pull aggro from the other patrol. Being able to scout while doing this mission would have been key if I wasn’t already babysitting 20 Level 10 Dwarves with a pick to grind.

I scouted a bit further. There were no other roving patrols that overlapped with the two that went down the side passages. At least in this way we knew we could tackle the two without having to worry about aggro from more wanderers. It would be close, but as long as we could finish the two in the hallway before the other patrol made it back to the intersection we should be able to kill the mobs before the other two aggro’ed. The addition of the extra attack power thanks to the Dwarves would help with this, but it would also increase the range of aggro.

I returned to the main cavern entrance and told my group what we were in for. Dan listened intently and didn’t much like the situation. He would be able to kite one of the two that we brought to the mouth of the cavern, but after that all bets were off. It would require Wayne to tank both mobs and for Jason to be extra vigilant with his healing. There wasn’t going to be any of our usual banter.

I explained the situation to Tibble and the Dwarves and received multiple nods of understanding. I went over the hierarchy again, emphasizing the importance of following all orders. It likely wasn’t necessary since they would follow the rules of the game, and I had placed all of them into, what was essentially, one group. Before beginning our raid, I had an additional thought and called Dan over.

“You read all of the manual on these NPC assisted raids yeah?”

Dan nodded his head that he had.

“Ok. So what happens if I die? I’ll end up respawning in Port Town and won’t be able to help with the raid. Will the Dwarves just follow whoever is the raid leader if I simply switch that job to you?”

Dan thought about it for a few moments and then determined that would work. For that reason, I set up our own hierarchy. Dan, Jason, and Wayne, in that order, would be responsible for our raid if each of us fell. I didn’t have any plans on dying, but I thought it was prudent to be prepared.

And with that we were ready to start the raid.

* * *

“This sucks. Like, a lot.”

My group looked over at me with sympathy. They knew I took on the mantle of group leader with reservation, but only did so because of my higher Chance. And it was true that during fights I tended to be the task master at handing out assignments for each member. Even in our larger raids. But again, this was largely a byproduct of the fact that I was the only member who could go idle long enough to look at the entirety of a situation. Wayne was usually Tanking, Jason was healing, and Dan was kiting a mob. Therefore, I was the only guy who could look at things with an overall perspective. And while I was good at the role, I didn’t see myself as the ultimate in leadership.

That’s why this whole situation with having to manage an additional twenty players was getting on my nerves.

The movement through the caves was slow going due largely in part to my need to scout out each area in front of us. After that, I had to ensure that our Dwarven friends were actively targeting the right mobs, and that Wayne could maintain aggro on the mobs with no problems. It left me little time to add my damage to the fights. And I might not get all crazy about battle like Wayne did, but I still loved to get in there and attack at will.

The only thing I could really be thankful for was that the mobs we were facing were Yellow, and our group was getting some serious experience. After only an hour in the cave system my group had leveled up to 17 and I was soon to follow. We also hadn’t had any mishaps, thanks in part to only having to deal with two mobs at a time and my management of the forces.

The loot we were collecting was nothing special, but there was some decent cash and the Orckin did drop low quality steel armor. Nothing any of us would wear, but stuff we could sell later on down the line. There were also some low quality swords that the Orckin were using.

Their dominance over our Dwarven companions wasn’t due to their gear, but due to their higher level and strength. We hadn’t come across any casters yet, but Tibble informed us that the Orckin were known to travel with magic users. These individuals usually held a higher tier in their hierarchy, and that led me to believe that whatever boss we fought would be a magic user.

The complex was also quite large. Our maps were functioning, thankfully, but we had only uncovered a small part of the network, even with my scouting ahead. It looked like this was going to be a very long day indeed.

After another half hour and quite a few more pesky mobs, I finally leveled to 17. I paused to allocate my points, prior to continuing with my scouting. None of us got skills or spells until Level 18 when Jason and Dan would get their next batch. Wayne and I didn’t get new skills until we reached Level 20.

With points allocated, I headed back into the labyrinth of passages and started marking mobs for us. With the extra +5 to Wisdom that we all got with our new title, my Conceal/Stealth was increasing at a faster rate than it previously had. I had to forego using my trusty Blacksuit for the time being if I wanted to level my skills. But thankfully none of the Orckin could see through my normal Conceal/Stealth either. I didn’t plan to test that with any boss fights though.

When I returned I overheard Tibble talking to Wayne about the composition of the tunnels and what the Dwarves had seen so far in regards to resources. Tibble was nearly weeping at the thought of how much his clan could make off of all the ore he had seen.

“I speak truth here Naugha. In the time we have traveled already, my boys would be months at work collecting all the Fermium we’ve come across. The walls be practically dripping with the stuff! And here these blasted beasts have been sitting, and not collecting a bit of it. I could forgive ‘em somewhat if they was another clan wanting the rights to these mines, and working the rock, but these beasts don’t have a brain among them!”

I reappeared a short distance from Naugha and Tibble. The conversation interested me and I asked Tibble, “Does that happen often? Another clan coming and trying to take another’s mine?”

“Aye Alex, more often than you would think. A lot of what goes into holding a mine is hiding a mine. We don’t let them know where it is, and we slowly trickle out the product. If there was a large influx of the rock, the other clans would come looking to take it.”

“Well then you will need to hold this mountain Tibble, at all costs. We must devise a strategy for you to do so once this is all said and done.”

“We are miners first Alex, so your expertise would be most welcomed.”

With that finished, I reported the mobs I had seen and our next order of business. I figured we had another hour to clear the closest passages and make our way to the boss. This would likely be a mini-boss, if our time in Resurgence had taught us anything.

* * *

“This place is bloody huge Alex! We’ve been at this for hours!”

“I know Dan, but thankfully we are at a boss. I don’t know if it’s the big boss, but I will once I get some scouting done.”

It took us another two hours to clear out the passages and arrive at a large room. Since reaching Level 17 the mobs we were facing had gone from Yellow to Blue, so the experience was coming slower. However, the cash was still flowing at the same rate. I was looking at some nice upgrades in our future. And I had a plan in my craw that could take advantage of our current situation. But first we needed to conquer these Orckin bastards.

Putting on my Blacksuit, I entered the cavern and scouted out the mob waiting for us. There was only one, but he looked like a bad man. Standing even taller than Wayne, the Orckin Champion was wearing a full set of plate armor that looked like high quality. He also held a shield and long sword. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could Bash with that shield. He was also Yellow to me. I’m betting he was Level 19.

I passed the information on to my companions and Wayne looked ready for a fight. Wayne hated casters because you never knew what kind of crappy AoE or DoT they would cast on you. But Wayne knew warriors, and he looked forward to going toe to toe with a challenging foe. It helped that Wayne also had 22 other fighters ready to join him. But knowing Wayne, if I told him I wanted him to take the guy solo so the rest of us could have crumpets and tea, he probably would have jumped at the chance.