The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  Quest Accepted!

  “Old Thurgrim on the south side of town. You can normally catch him fishing at the lake. He has a standing order, so try to make a good impression.”

  I nodded to him, turning and walking off down the street. So… which way is south? I should have asked… but I didn’t want to seem totally incompetent. I gazed up at the sky. This doesn’t feel like morning, so it’s probably a dinner order, meaning afternoon. Sun rises in the east… sets in the west… I looked around for that giant ball of fire which I so often dreaded. What can I say, mornings and me just don’t get along. Once I identified the sun, I noted that direction as west, and turned to my right. Okay, that should be south.

  I began taking all the roads on the direction I marked as south, mentally keeping an eye on my surroundings so that I’d be able to get back without getting lost. Since this game didn’t have a minimap or a compass on the interface, I had to find my own way.

  It took me just over ten minutes of walking to start to smell the river nearby. Hey, at least that meant the sun rises in the same direction here! Looks like it’s maybe 7:30? The sun’s almost all the way down. I nodded to myself as I made the note. So… where along the river is this guy.

  Once I reached the river, I stopped and looked around. Even squinting, I couldn’t see anyone fishing, but in one direction I could see the city walls, so I ran off in the other way. After a couple more minutes, I arrived at a small bridge that ran over the river. In the center of it was an old man with a fishing rod out, and a very bald head. I almost thought he looked like a lighthouse when the sun reflected off of it, making me chuckle to myself.

  “Thurgrim?” I walked up to ask him.

  “Eh? Who’s asking?”

  “Sorry, my name is Jin. I was asked to bring you this.” I held out a hand, showing him the picnic basket.

  “Ah! About time, I was beginning to think I’d have to eat fish food tonight.” He said with a laugh, grabbing the basket from my hand. “Thanks, son.”

  I smiled to him. “It wasn’t a problem. The normal guy didn’t show, so I volunteered for the job.”

  “Oh, is that so, eh? Well, guess you deserve a tip then for going out of your way.” One of his hands began digging around in his pockets.

  “No, that’s alright. I’m just glad to help.” Though, a tip would be nice.. but I’ve got to remember to be friendly..

  “Oh, I insist. Here.” He handed me two coins from his pocket. They were each silver, with the number 10 engraved on them. Putting them in my pocket, a message appeared in front of me.

  20 Gild

  Okay… so 1 Gild would be a copper then? Meaning that I need the equivalent of 2 gold to get into the Mages’ College. I nodded my thanks to him, and ran off down the road towards the shop where I got the quest. Since I wasn’t going at the same speed or down the same streets it was a bit harder to find my way back, but I was able to judge the distances well enough.

  When I got back to the store, the owner was waiting out in front again. He smiled and waved to me as I approached. “Welcome back. Was beginning to think you had gotten lost.”

  I laughed to him. “No, no, just took a bit to find the bridge.”

  “Ahh, so you were able to make the delivery?”

  I nodded to him, so he continued. “Thanks, kid. He’s one of the regulars, and it’s best to keep them happy, you know?” He reached into his pocket and retrieved a small coinpurse. “It’s not much, but it should help towards your goal.” He tossed me the bag, and I fumbled a bit to catch it.

  Quest Completed!

  Delivered the dinner to Thurgrim at the bridge.

  Reward: +50 Gild

  I smiled at him as I put the money in my pocket. “Thank you, sir. This will be a big help.” Alright… at this rate it shouldn’t take me too long.

  “Don’t mention it. Be sure to stop by again some time to see if I’ve got any more work for you. Since it’s getting dark.. why don’t you stop by the inn and see if they need anything? A night of work like that should get you the rest of your fee.”

  “Thank you sir, I’ll do that. Would you mind telling me which way it is?” I smiled a bit, remembering I still didn’t know my way around town, except for the buildings I had already passed.

  “Sure, sure. Just head north a couple blocks. Can’t miss it.” I nodded and said my good-byes, turning and heading for the nearest crossroads. Since I had already identified south, it was easy to figure out which way it was to go north. And as soon as I started in that direction, I was surprised to find a message waiting for me.

  New Talent unlocked!

  Navigation- After finding your own way without relying on others, you are now able to immediately determine directions as long as you can see the sky.

  I smiled a bit at that, Well, that solves one problem. So that’s what it meant by unlocking talents through normal actions. I focused for a moment to bring up my character window.

  Name: Jin

  Race: Human

  Title: None

  Fame: 0

  Gild: 70

  Level: 1

  Health: 100

  Mana: 0

  Strength: 10

  Agility: 10

  Endurance: 10

  Wisdom: 10

  Intelligence: 10

  Luck: 5

  Attack: 10

  Defense: 10

  Points Remaining: 5

  Talents: Navigation 1

  Okay… so levels increase based on Talents. That makes sense. And 5 points are awarded per level. I focused a bit again, seeing if I could interact with the window without my hands, or just call it up. Sure enough, three of my points were spent in Intelligence, and two in Wisdom. I frowned when I noticed that my mana didn’t increase any, but maybe I need to discover a talent for that first.

  Either way, I was happy that I managed to learn something new about the game, and made my way towards the Sleep Soldier, the inn that the shopkeeper had directed me to. Inside, I found it was indeed busy with travellers asking to be put up for the night. Wonder how many of those are players?

  As I walked up to the counter, the innkeeper-- a beautiful woman with long blond hair and yellow eyes, ample bosom, and dressed in a simple dress that hung down to her ankles-- shot me a glare. “Back of the line, sir. I’ll get to you in a moment.”

  I raised my hands in a placating gesture, more out of instinct than acting. “No, no, I’m not here for a room. I came to offer some help. You seem to be busy, so I figured maybe you could use a spare set of hands?”

  She let out a sigh at that. “Finally. These guys are driving me mad.” She waved me over behind the counter. “Here, you handle them. I’m Denise. It’s 20 gild per bed per night. And don’t think I won’t be checking that it’s all there. I’ve got to go clean up some of the rooms to make space for these guys. I’ll check back later. The keys are all under the counter.” She smiled briefly before turning and walking to the stairs.

  Job Acquired!

  Innkeeper’s Assistant

  Denise has asked for your help managing the Sleeping Soldier for the night. Be sure to do a good job and earn your pay!

  Wage: 20% of sales made.

  Okay… I’ve got 70 gild now, so I need to make another 130, so… 33 beds? Does this inn even have that many? Guess we’ll just have to see.

  I turned and smiled to the customers, who were grumbling about being kept waiting and demanding a discount. However, my tuition was on the line here! Yield for no man! I made sure to have everyone pay the full price, and handed out the keys to them when they did. Denise wasn’t back down for over an hour after that, cleaning out the unused rooms almost as fast as they were rented out. By the time she came back down, she looked like she had person
ally wrestled every dustbunny in the city.

  “Thanks a bunch… these last couple weeks business has been crazy. And you wouldn’t believe how many people try to get in lately without paying.” I figured she must have meant players with no money, meaning that they’ve been coming for about two weeks of game time. Given that the game isn’t advertised, that probably meant it wasn’t more than three weeks old, in real time.

  “No problem. I am always happy to help a damsel in distress.” I laughed at that, and got a look that I could only assume was a cross between a glare and a grin. Somehow, she pulled it off.

  “Well, the least I can do is put you up for the night.” She smiled a bit, brushing some dust off her dress. “Looks like you sold out all the rooms. Good job. That means I can’t give you one of them for the night…” She grumbled a bit, and then smiled as an idea hit her. “You could stay with me for the night. It’s a couch, but better than nothing. I’ll even throw in a free meal to make up for it.”

  Job Complete!

  Innkeeper’s Assistant.

  You managed to keep all the customers satisfied, and sold out all of the rooms of the Sleeping Soldier.

  Reward: 700/5: 140 Gild

  Bonus for Exceptional Service: Increase familiarity with Denise

  As Denise handed me a coinpurse with my pay, I smiled to her. “Sure, that sounds wonderful.” Score. With this, I can head to the College tomorrow and pay the tuition.

  She led me back to a small apartment on the first floor of the inn. It wasn’t much, just a small kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Sure enough, there was a brown couch in the living room that I planted myself in. “So… I hope you don’t mind, but could I ask you a few questions? I’m pretty new to the area, myself.”

  Denise let out a soft sigh, “Another foreigner, huh? Don’t worry, we’ve been getting a lot of you lately. You’re not like most of them, though.” She laughed briefly. “Oh, nearly a month ago now, there was this one man running down the street, poking everyone he could find. Each time, he’d just stand there and say ‘Quest?’, before moving on to the next person. We all thought he was crazy. Eventually the city guards had him locked up for the night for disturbing the peace.”

  “Ah, sorry about that.. On behalf of foreigners everywhere, I apologize.” I gave a shallow bow, which made her laugh again.

  “Oh, you’ve got nothing to be sorry for. You’re probably one of the best mannered of the lot I’ve seen.” She turned that smile on me again, and everything felt better. “Though, I suppose this is my turn to ask. Where did you all come from?”

  I blinked at the question. An NPC questioning the origins of players… if nobody else has given a story, and there’s not an official one, maybe I can set it? I thought about that for a few moments. “Far away. We come from a land much different than this one, and we may only stay for a brief while at a time. There are laws of magic in our land, as I am sure there are here.” She nodded to me as I began my story. “In order to visit this realm, we must agree to a pact that binds us to remain in one place for four weeks before our journey can begin. But, how should I put this… We are here, and yet we are not. Have you ever seen one of us… simply vanish?”

  “Hmm.. well, yes, but I assumed that was a mage. Are you saying that any of you can disappear at will?” Her eyes grew wide with fascination.

  “Not quite.” I shook my head as I explained. “When we vanish, we are truly gone. That is how we return to our own realm. While we may live a life among you here, we each have duties among our own that must be dealt with. And as a result of the magic that brings us here, many of us do not know about this land.” I laughed as an example came to mind, “For instance, I do not even know the name of this city.”

  She smiled to me again, bringing a hand to her chin in thought. “I see… well, that would certainly explain a few things. Thank you for sharing your story with me. I’ll be sure to let people know. Maybe there’s a way we can help the foreigners get better acquainted with this area?”

  “Well, actually, there is. As we appear here without food or money, we are required to seek methods of earning gild in order to sustain us on our visits. In that way, you may view us well, because it means that those who come will help those in need.”

  “Yes, I can see that being a good thing. Is that why you offered to help me out tonight?” She asked, one eyebrow curiously raised.

  “Well, I spoke true when I said that I enjoy helping the damsel in distress. But yes, one of the reasons was that I was in need of gild as well, and a shopkeeper suggested I help here. You see, I wish to enroll at the Mages’ College tomorrow, but the tuition fee made that impossible before.”

  She nodded to me, accepting that. “Well, I do hope you’re able to help out again, though I understand if your studies prevent it. Might I ask, if you use such powerful magic to visit our land, what could you learn from the college?”

  It was my turn to smile to her. “When we visit here, this place changes us. The magic of our world does not function, leaving us to find our own means. At the same time, it also means that even a warrior of my realm can learn magic here.”

  “It truly is like living a second life, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, I suppose you could say that it is. So, would you mind giving me some information about this world? Anything at all would be helpful, even if it seems to be obvious.”

  “Oh, certainly. First of all, this city is known as Rosenheim. It’s the capital of the Wynterrose kingdom, one of the three human realms.” As she spoke, a window appeared in front of me, and I had a suspicion it did so for other players as well.

  Story Updated!

  Due to the tales of one of the foreigners, the people of Rosenheim have become aware of the origins of the foreigners, and will be more open to sharing the history of this land with them.

  After that, a second window appeared, giving another welcome bit of information.

  20 Fame for being the first player to tell the story of the foreigner’s origins.

  Mentally closing both windows, I nodded for her to continue. “The other two kingdoms are Eastal and the Shattered Realm. Due to a great quake that shook the world, the former kingdom of Crucible was split apart into many islands, creating the Shattered Realm. In the mountains to the west and the north, there are the dwarves, who excel at the arts of crafting. In the many forests scattered through the land of the various tribes of Elves, who excel at nature magic and archery. And finally, in the hills of the south, there is a tribe of Goblins, a race focused on warfare. Their main specialty appears to be trading, as they travel the lands as merchants.

  “You said that you wish to enroll in the Mages’ College, so I can leave that out. There is also the Fighters’ Hall, which trains those wishing to be warriors, and the hidden Thieves’ Guild, though those that know where it is don’t say. Since you mentioned that you must wait four weeks before leaving, it would seem that none of your people have ventured outside the cities. To the west, beyond the dwarven realms, there are the Lost Lands, a barren land ruled by the strongest of monsters. Even scattered throughout the center of the continent are creatures that hunt humans. Everything from wild dogs to dragons of the east.”

  I nodded as she explained these things to me. “Well then, thank you for all of this. I must ask, do the other races all share a language with humans, or does each race have its own?”

  She smiled, “Oh dear, I forgot to mention that. The elves and the dwarves have their own language, while different areas of goblins have different dialects. That leads to a lot of warfare between them.” At that, my stomach growled quite audibly, as if I hadn’t eaten dinner just an hour or two before, causing Denise to grin. “Well, I did say that I would offer you dinner. Can’t be going back on my word, can I?” She laughed and got up, moving towards the kitchen, though in a considerably better mood than before, perhaps because some confusion had been cleared.