Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 (24 page)

Thankfully, this time they didn’t want to go far afield to take on mobs, leveling as we went and coming back later. That looked pleasing when you were far from your target of leveling, but when you could see your character about to ding, you changed your perspective.

“Let’s just kill local. We should get our level soon,” Jason suggested.

“I’m game for that,” said Dan. “Plus I don’t want to go too far away from the Tavern. That place is like my second home now. I mean, except for my actual second home.”

“Dick.” Wayne replied. “But I am in agreement with Allister. And Dan I guess. But only because it was Allister’s idea first.”

“Great. Not to mention that we need to figure out how this new dagger is going to affect our strategy. It’s really fast, and has a proc. So good chance I’m going to be stealing aggro a lot,” I provided.

“Well, might not be as bad as we think. I got an upgrade last night after our dungeon crawl,” Wayne said and linked us his new item.

“Nice Naugha! How much did that thing cost you?” Jason asked.

“Three Gold. A bit expensive, but I needed something faster and hit harder.”

“Good job saving up three Gold Wayne, how did you accomplish that?” I asked. “You go to the tavern every night with Dan.”

“If you can believe it, having the Bunny Slayer title means I never have to buy my own drinks. Well, sometimes I do. But when I do, I just have Dan buy them.”

“I’m broke yo,” Dan said. It wasn’t just because of the drinks. At Dan’s level he no longer had his Recruit’s Quiver with never ending arrows. Dan now had to buy arrows from a vendor, and he went through lots since he refused to use a bladed weapon. Said it wasn’t in the true lore of the Ranger.

Jason and I shook our heads. But at least we knew Dan was having fun.

“So let’s go kill us some mobs and get our levels!” I said.

* * *

It took us half of the day to get me to my level 13. I had been right about my new weapon. It was a beast on the battlefield. On the first couple of mobs I engaged normally, and I was pulling the aggro about halfway through the fight due to the damage, the speed, my backstabs, and the armor debuff proc. However, given my higher constitution, and the amount of damage we were doing, I wasn’t in any fear of dying. After the second mob we started playing with strategies on how to ensure I didn’t get aggro during the fight. We determined that if I waited ten seconds, that would give Wayne enough time to do enough damage, and land his Bash and Taunt enough to counteract my damage.

After allocating our skill points, we ran back to Port Town, praying we would get a new quest from Sir Kenyon.

I approached Sir Kenyon and said the usual crap about being prepared to “answer the call.”

“Ah yes, it appears that you are indeed ready to step outside these walls and answer your King’s call.”

“Damn, about time!” Wayne said.

“I have desperate need of such strong adventurers such as yourself. As you know the King is working tirelessly to hold back the Children of Loust. Shipments of goods necessary to the front have been traveling from all over. Everyone is doing their part. Unfortunately, where there is tragedy, there will always be those who try to take advantage of the situation. Shipments going from Port Town to the North are being raided by savages in the wild. Our King has need of strong adventurers to guard these shipments from the rabble attacking our wagon trains. You won’t be required to take them all the way North. There is an outpost several hours from here that will take over for you once you have arrived. Will you brave adventurers protect our shipments?”

It was a no brainer that we were going to take the quest. The question was whether we would do so now, or wait till the next day. It was “several hours” to the outpost, but who knew how long it would take once we got involved in the quest. I was hoping to train more with Stan, learning how to manipulate the shadows. But if we did the quest that likely wouldn’t be happening today.

“What do you guys think about just doing our own thing today? I mean I don’t really want to start this quest today, seeing as it could be many hours before we get to that outpost. I know we need to be online a bit more to fulfill our contract to AltCon, but I was thinking about doing some merchant stuff. What do you guys think?”

“Woohoo! Tavern time! I’m gonna get me some witches with my britches!” Dan naturally said.

“Thank you for using the term witches Dan. I certainly appreciate the alliteration, and the avoidance of calling women an even worse derogatory word,” Jason said.

“What? Sandwiches is offensive? Really?” Dan said and then spun on Wayne. “Why didn’t you tell me man! I’ve been saying that line in the tavern since I got these things! No wonder the ladies aren’t trying to hear none of TheClaw’s mad game.”

Dan then turned to Jason and bowed deeply saying, “Thank you Alligorical. I’ve been such a fool and you have saved me from my self!”

Jason gave Dan what we had started calling “the look” and then turned to me. “I like this idea Alex, there are some things I would like to investigate as well. Naugha?”

“Dan’s on his own for any early hour tavern runs. But I wanted to look around and see if there are any single quests out there that we can get. I’ll let you guys know what I find.”

And with that, we all went our separate ways. We planned to get back online together the next day and get the new quest from Sir Kenyon.

I headed off into the forest to work with Stan, and hoped I could recreate the success I had the day before.

* * *

“I’m hesitant to give praise lad, but you deserve it. I ain’t never seen anyone take to the shadows like you are doing now. Moving faster than me through this,” Stan told me as I sat in the room with the candle and moved the shadows around my body. I had successfully covered my head and my arms. It gave a slight cold feeling, but it was entirely bearable. Stan wanted to push me more though.

“I want you to try for the whole body son. Get it from yer head to yer toes.”

I reset the shadows to normal and then began again, concentrating on the shadows on my neck and quickly moving them over my head and then down my arms. I tried to focus on the shadows at my back but couldn’t feel them as well since I had a shirt on. My head, neck, and arms were bare. But my back was covered.

“Common problem you are having right now lad. Don’t fret. You can feel the coldness on yer skin and that makes it easier to feel the shadows. Your back, not as much. Ye can try a trick moving the shadows from your neck down yer body and then wrap them around, but it ain’t as effective and takes longer,” Stan told me.

“I’m not going to half-ass this. I either get it right, or I do it again,” I responded in a flat tone. I was deep in concentration.

My eyes were closed, effectively in darkness with the living shadows over my face, so I couldn’t see Stan’s face when I responded. But his grunt sounded approving.

Since I couldn’t feel the shadows against the skin on my back I tried to think about how to access the shadows properly. I had no problem with the ones on my neck and head, or the ones on my arms. But with my boots and pants on, I couldn’t feel them on that part of my body either.

I thought for a few minutes, Stan being ever patient with me, and decided to try a different tact. Instead of reaching for the shadows against my whole body, I would feel for the ones I could and reach back deeper into those shadows to bring them forward.

I started my breathing technique again and then focused on the shadows behind me, the ones I could feel. Then I began to reach back through the shadows, trying to feel the connection between the shadows I could feel and the ones deeper in the recesses of the room.

All at once I was overwhelmed by the feeling. I wasn’t just feeling the shadows behind me but all of them in the room, and then those in the next room and moving further out. I could feel my presence moving out farther and farther.

I lost all my concentration as Stan pushed me to the floor, and my focus came back to the singular candle in the room.

“What the hell did you do that for? I was close Stan; I could feel the shadows. I mean so many of them. It was amazing!” I said while getting back to my knees.

Stan walked up to me, eye to eye with him being so short. I’ve never seen this look on Stan. He looked genuinely afraid. “Lad, what you just did, you can’t never do that again boy. Ever.”

“What? I was just reaching for the shadows like you told me.”

“I don’t know how you did it lad, but you found the Connection. All light and all shadows, they a part of something greater. I can’t tell you where the light goes, don’t much care. But the Connection, that only takes you one place lad. The Dark. You go into the Dark boy, and there is a chance you don’t come out. Ever.”

As I thought about what Stan was saying I recalled the experience I just had. I did have a desire to keep reaching out, further into the darkness of the shadows. I wasn’t even trying to wrap myself in them, I was just going towards them.

“Ah, there’s the lantern of realization. Figgerin out what I’m sayin’ ain’t just the blabberin’ of an old man huh?”

“It was so peaceful there. I wanted to go farther and farther.”

“Ultimate darkness is death lad, don’t get more peaceful than that. Want you to promise me ya ain’t never gonna do that again lad.”

I looked Stan square in the eyes and swore to him, “I pledge to you Stan, I will never do so again. You have my word as your student.”

Stan rolled his eyes at my choice of words, but they seemed to satisfy him. He told me to get ready to try again, so I closed my eyes and began my deep breathing.

“Now listen, I know I just told you not to do what you did. But that ain’t exactly what I was meaning. You figured out something some Blacksuits never learn. The depth of the shadows. And you can use that. But you gotta be smart about it. I want you to focus like you did before.”

I slowed my breathing and closed my eyes and prepared to pull the shadows over my arms and head again, but Stan stopped me.

“This time, just reach back from yer neck and feel the shadow there, don’t move none yet.”

I did as he asked, nodding when I had my connection.

“Now, listen carefully. Don’t do nothing till I finish speaking,” Stan said and I nodded my head again.

“Reach back like ya done before, but this time only a couple inches, no more. When ya done that, I want you to focus from the top of your head down to the floor, dat der distance, don’t go further than yer head. Got it? Couple inches back, head to ground.”

I nodded my head for the third time.

“When I says, I want you to do that, then pull them shadows all the way around yer body fast. Ok, go!” Stan said emphatically.

I followed his instructions as best I could. I might have gotten more than a couple of inches back from my body, but I was sure on the head to toe. And then with a mental yank, I pulled that tether around my body.

“Well I’ll be a Griffon’s beak boy, you did it!” Stan yelled.

I opened my eyes and looked down at my body. Indeed, I was one hundred percent wrapped in living shadow. I stood up and looked at myself closer. I moved around a bit and the shadows stayed close to my body, moving with me. This was awesome!

Stan had told me early on during our training that he had an item he wore that allowed him to see anyone that was invisible. Didn’t matter how good my Conceal/Stealth was, Stan was always able to see me. So I was a little shocked when he turned in my general direction, but didn’t look right at me when he spoke next.

“Damnit lad, you shouldn’t have been able to do that so quickly. Like I dun told ya, there be some Blacksuits don’t never learn that trick. They get the shadows, but nothing with the speed you just showed.”

I looked down again, and this time noticed that with the shadows I looked like I was wrapped in a full black suit, head to toe. Name made sense now.

“Stan, I thought you told me you had an item that let you see anyone invisible. You aren’t looking at me. You’re close, but not looking directly at me.”

“Ah lad, heard you get up and move around. But here is the best part about the shadows boy. This ain’t invisible like you used to. Invisibility warps the light around you so no one can see ya. Shadows doing the same thing lad, warping the light, just different. Ain’t but a few items in this land that are made to see that kind of thing. When you use your other skills to make you invisible, you warping the light like normal folk. But when you become a Blacksuit, even I can’t see ya lad.”

This seemed like a totally unfair skill in the game. I mean a skill where only a few items, and those I figured had to be really high level items, could see through my invisible was a total game changer. This had to be something that was going to be nerfed by AltCon at some point. I hated when games gave skills to a Class, and then later decided it was unfair to everyone else and took them away, or made them less effective. That was what it meant to nerf a skill, and I guess I would just enjoy this one while I had it.

Over the next two hours Stan had me practice with the shadows. He wanted me to get quicker with them, but he made me first focus on control. For the first hour I didn’t even wrap myself in a shadow again. Stan made me reach back and feel for the shadows, working on my depth and feel. Then when he felt I was using my control better he allowed me to start wrapping myself in the shadows.