The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  Denise didn’t even bother asking what a phone was, and just nodded her head quickly at a possible solution, especially one that also let me stay here.

  “Message.” I lifted a hand to my ear to indicate I was calling someone. I didn’t know Kevin’s character in this game, so I couldn’t send it to him. But there was one other player I knew.

  “Rusty, please tell me you’re there.”

  “Eh?! Wha-who’s there?” I heard a loud, startled voice on the other end.

  “Oh, thank god. Look, there’s an emergency, and I need you to contact someone for me on the other side. I can’t tell you why I can’t do it myself, I just need you to work with me here, please.” There was only one logical reason why I would be stuck in this game, and I couldn’t risk anyone else being caught in it.

  “Uh.. sure. I can do that. What’s the number?” I proceeded to give him Kevin’s cell number.

  “Tell him it’s a medical emergency and he has to go to Chris’s house immediately. If that doesn’t work… well, I’m screwed.” I said, in no uncertain terms.

  “This really is serious, isn’t it son?”

  “Life or death.”

  “...Alright, I understand. No, I don’t understand! Not one bit! But I’ll do it. You seemed like a good kid when we met.”

  “Thank you, sir. If I can pay you back later I will.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.” And with that, I dropped the spell.

  “Okay.. if Kevin gets the message, it should be alright.” I looked up at the sky, sighing and just letting myself fall back against the grass.

  “Do you.. do you know why this happened?” Denise had apparently caught on that I purposely withheld any information about my condition.

  “There are only two choices, really. But both have the same cause. It’s got to be that job I took… Either someone overheard my conversation there, or they heard me tell you about it here when I got back. No, don’t worry, I don’t think you’re involved with this at all.”

  She nodded, laying down beside me and putting a hand on my chest. “I’d never do something that could hurt you, Jin. But we were alone when we had that talk. And.. with all that trouble you went to, you live alone in your world, right? So… who could have overheard?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you..” I let out a dry laugh, having narrowed the possibilities enough to take a guess.

  Denise smirked, and poked my ribs. “Try me, mister.”

  “Alright, alright. I think.. that the creator of this world heard me. That’s the only answer I can come up with. I’ve got no idea how, or why. But it seems like someone really doesn’t want me reporting back any secrets I learn here.”

  “The creator..?” She looked at me, tilting her head. I had to wonder if they even had something like a creation myth in this world. “So… he,” She shot me a look, “or she, doesn’t want their secret getting out, and decided to capture you here?”

  “That.. yeah, it’s the most likely answer.”

  “I’m sorry… if you hadn’t told me.. you might not have been separated from the people you care about… You could still have returned to your world.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at her, and brought my hand up to brush her cheek. “Part of me is glad I told you, because it means that I won’t be separated from the people I care about.”

  She smiled to me, and buried her head against my shoulder. I had no way of knowing if my message got through, since neither Rusty or Kevin had a way to contact me in The Dive. All I could do was wait.

  If you’re going to mate, get it over with already. I heard a voice at the back of my head say, and couldn’t help but laugh. Denise’s look was priceless, staring at me cutely like she didn’t have any idea what was amusing.

  “Sorry… the wolf… apparently wants us to hurry up and ‘mate’.” I forced myself to say the words, shaking my head and grinning.

  Denise joined my laughter immediately when I explained. “Your wolf is a pervert, you know that right?”

  “I do now!”

  She nuzzled back into my shoulder, and we just laid there for a while.

  Denise has unlocked a hidden Title!

  Denise is now a Beastmaster!

  As a Beastmaster, her effective Taming level is increased by 4, and she can perform special interactions with animals to increase their loyalty to her.

  I blinked at the title message that appeared in front of me. Apparently Denise had become friendly enough with a formerly hostile animal that she unlocked an extra perk. There were probably other requirements as well, but I didn’t think about it too much.

  Chapter 7

  When I awoke, I found that I was still a member of The Dive, so getting stuck in this game hadn’t been a strange dream. Denise and I quickly got dressed and packed up camp to continue moving back towards Rosenheim. A part of me wondered, Wouldn’t it be safer now to just stay in the city? I might not be able to respawn anymore…

  However, that thought was promptly crushed. Denise might not have been able to respawn in the first place, but she still chose to follow me on my adventure. I couldn’t let myself be more scared of this than her! Besides, if there was any hope of me returning to my body from this side, it was only by doing what I originally set out to do anyways, finding the truth of this world.

  With that in mind, I needed a metric ton of new spells in order to be able to survive safely in this world. Simply having two mana-intensive attacks and no defense spells was incredibly inconvenient. Wait, don’t I still have that unidentified spell? It was made with the Shield rune.

  Calling up my spell list, I indeed found that spell, though its name was still ???. I wasn’t sure how I could go about casting it without recreating the process I used to create it, so I just pressed the display with my finger. Sure enough, a ball of mana formed in my hand. Panicking, I quickly looked around for something to throw it at. No way was I going to test this spell on Denise!

  Seeing my chance, I threw the spell… at Wolf. As it hit, his skin began to shimmer, and although he didn’t physically change, he seemed bigger.

  ??? Has been identified as Reinforce

  Immediately, the description in the spell window was updated, listing the new spell as well as its chant. Meanwhile Denise, having no idea what I just did, was on high alert. “Is there an enemy nearby?”

  “No.. uh… misfire. Sorry.” I sheepishly tried to explain how I just cast an experimental spell on our animal companion as a simple accident. She still seemed cautious, but accepted my answer. And with that, I returned to spamming the Scan spell, casting it constantly until my mana was down to half, leaving that as a buffer zone in case we got into a fight.

  “By the way. While we’re in town, I’d like to stop by the college and see about learning some new spells. To be honest, I feel wholly underpowered at the moment.” I sighed, lowering my head.

  “That’s fine. I should probably grab a few extra arrows as well, and we should check in with Rusty.” She nodded to me.

  “Right. It’s been long enough now, he should have been able to get through to Kevin.” I smiled slightly, hoping that there would be good news. “Well, let’s take care of our stuff real quick, and then meet back at the inn later, okay?”

  “Yes, sir~!” She said with a bright smile, and dashed off down the road. I chuckled a bit to her, and also made my way around, following my mental map of the city to get to the college.

  Wait.. mental map? Why do I suddenly have a map in my head?! Part of me panicked, was this from being stuck here? And then, like a splash of cold water, I remembered my Navigation talent leveled up a couple times. So… now I had a mental minimap for cities? That was actually pretty useful. When I focused, I could even tell where on the map Denise was.

  So, now that my nervous breakdown has passed, I resumed my journey to the college, where the guards let me in without so much as a word of complaint. I guess graduating meant I didn’t have to pay the
tuition anymore, thank god. My wallet had already run out on me.

  Quickly, I made my way down the familiar hallways to the library, and looked at the vast array of books. I needed to find more information on summoning spells first, and given how long it took me to find it the first time, I decided to cheat. “In my eyes, all things are as one.”

  Right away, my vision turned somewhat green, zooming in at a dozen different places, seeing straight through bookshelves and scanning the titles of all the books. A few I mentally marked to come back to later, while remembering my primary reason for being here. Just as I was starting to get dizzy from my vision literally spinning to cover books from various angles, I managed to identify what I was looking for. In the far back corner, a dusty tome whose words were almost completely faded from sight. ‘Summoner’s Secrets’.

  “Okay… that’ll do.” I didn’t dare cancel the Scan spell for fear of losing the book, but kept my entire focus on that one point so my vision didn’t race around. As I made my way to it, I got a pop up message that momentarily distracted me.

  New Talent Unlocked!

  Discovery- The ability to locate creatures and objects quickly. May award additional effects when combined with various talents, skills, or spells.

  Discovery… I have actually learned something quite useful. I also learned the existence of an ability type I hadn’t considered before! Given my experiences thus far, I had assumed that Talents were this game’s version of skills, but it makes sense that if spells are different, so are skills.

  Putting that aside for the moment, I quickly grabbed the book on summoning magic and made my way to the reading table. Then, and only then, did I open the skills window.

  Skills

  Magical Talent 11

  -Delay Cast(2/10 Beginner) - This skill enables the user to delay the casting of a spell for a brief period. Currently allows the delay to be up to two seconds.

  -Spell Creation(1/100 Intermediate)- This skill enables the user to create new spells. Currently allows the mixing of 5 runes.

  -Multi-cast(1/10 Beginner)- This skill enables the user to cast multiple spells at the same time. When casting multiple spells, the effective spell level is reduced. Currently allows 2 simultaneous spells.

  Magical Knowledge 20

  -Runic Language(30/500 Advanced) - This skill, in conjunction with the Intelligence stat, enables the user to learn the language of magic. Currently unlocks all but the most advanced runes.

  -Magical Lore(3/10 Beginner) - This skill enables the user to instantly research a given subject, and receive some form of answer. The answer may be more or less complete, dependant on Intelligence.

  -Spell Knowledge(2/100 Intermediate) - By focusing on a spell, either as an idea or seeing it cast or reading about it, the user may acquire that spell.

  -Speed Reading(9/10 Beginner) - While this skill is active, knowledge may be absorbed from a book merely by holding it. The duration required to receive that knowledge is dependant on the contents of the book.

  Navigation 3

  -Personal Map(Unranked) - The user has knowledge of the directions and his surroundings. Current Navigation level allows passive compass, and a passive map limited to city zones

  Earth Magic 7

  -Earth Affinity(18%)- Allows the user to perform Earth spells. Higher affinities will allow more complex spells and reduce their mana costs.

  -Earth Resistance(1/10 Beginner) - Allows the user to resist negative effects from Earth spells. Current level: 5%

  Summoning Magic 7

  -Binding contract(1/100 Intermediate) - Determines the success rate of the Binding spell.

  -Summon Army(1/10 Beginner) - Determines how many contracts may be called at once. Current limit: 2

  Runescript 1

  -Rune Creation(2/10 Beginner) - Allows the user to create unique runes. Requires substantial time and effort.

  I was amazed at the large screen that appeared in front of me, detailing skills I honestly never knew I had. The skills from Magical Knowledge were really too much, right? Looking down at the book, I focused on the Speed Reading skill.

  ‘Summoner’s Secrets’ will be completed in: 30 minutes.

  So wait… all I had to do this entire time was just hold a book? But… I feel ripped off. Maybe doing it this way doesn’t grant the study bonuses to Magical Knowledge and Intelligence? Yeah.. that has to be it. After that, the subject didn’t seem good to think about, so I let myself get distracted with my other skills. I could combine five runes now… and Spell Knowledge would let me instantly acquire spells? I began thinking, have I even seen any spells that I really wanted to acquire.

  Aside from basic demonstration spells… there was one. The spell that Luc used on me the first day we met. He twisted the ground below me, making a vacuum that pulled me down into the ground.. How would that work? Would you mix Twist, Pull, and Earth?

  Headhunter has been added to your Spell List.

  My eyes went wide, and I almost dropped the book. I really can do it… With this, I’ll be able to get spells much faster.. I never imagined that all I had to do was focus on it. Maybe the Spell Creation window was for trial and error, and the manual method was like really studying, a longer way that gave an extra benefit?

  Looking down at the book in my hand, I saw that it was about halfway done. To pass the time, I decided to call Denise. “Message.”

  By now, she was familiar with the sensation, and immediately replied. “Oh, hey. Didn’t expect a call. Are you ready to meet up already?”

  “Not yet, I’ve got about twenty more minutes and then I should be ready to leave. How are things going on your end?”

  “Well, I asked around, and there should be a stable willing to sell us a horse when we are ready to leave again. After that, I’ve just barely had time to get to the shooting range. Oh, hey! Yeah, you! Do you have any more arrows I could buy? Iron, if you could. Thanks.”

  I smiled as I listened to her ordering her arrows. “Didn’t catch you at a bad time, did I?”

  She laughed into the call. “You? Of course not. Yeah? Alright, I’ll take two quivers. Oh, Jin, how are you doing with your spells?”

  “Better than I could have hoped, actually. I discovered I actually have quite a few abilities I didn’t even know about, and actually.. you might too now that I think about it.”

  “Oh? What do you mean?”

  “I’ll explain later when we meet up. It’s related to how we grow in strength together.”

  “Alright, I’ll hold you to that mister! I think having special abilities would be awesome.”

  “Well, they aren’t so much special abilities in that sense… think of it as varied uses of your normal abilities that can create unique effects.”

  “...Nope, don’t get it. You’ll have to explain it to me in person~.”

  I laughed, shaking my head, “Fine, fine, but you don’t need to make up excuses to see me.”

  “Nope, but it’s fun, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I looked down at the book and saw that it was almost done. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll be leaving in just a few minutes, but I really don’t know what is about to happen, and I don’t want to freak you out.”