The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  She smiled to me at that, “Well, you did very well considering. And you do have spells that could easily be considered cheating if you need to make up for physical ability.”

  I laughed at that. “Right, speed of the iron falcon, defense and strength of the armored bear. Even experienced warriors would have a hard time beating me with that, as long as my mana held out.”

  “How many aspects can you invoke at once?”

  “I.. don’t really think there is a limit, as long as they don’t overlap. So, I can’t have the defense of both the iron falcon and armored bear, but I should be able to combine them until I run out of energy.”

  “... Such a cheat.”

  “Yeah. But look on the bright side!”

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m a one of a kind cheater.” I smirked to her, and she laughed.

  “Oh, you are certainly that. So, once we’re fully equipped, we’ll be hiding our real power in front of others for a while… I still don’t really think any of this will be hard.”

  “Yeah, but that’s only because we won’t be around others most of the time when we’re fighting. Our individual abilities might be considered low, but we’ve got teamwork. Given a few more necessary spells, and proper gear, I think we could totally handle a dungeon.”

  “Alright. I’ll trust you with that. But before we get there, you should probably work on a spell of your own.”

  “Ohh? You’re giving me advice on spells now?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Wouldn’t Nature Magic have something for healing? I don’t plan for either of us to get hurt.. but it’d be nice to have, you know?”

  “Alright. I’ll think it over. You’re right that I should learn a healing spell. I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to get through a dungeon alone without one easily.”

  She smiled at my easy agreement and nodded. Leaning forward, I wrapped my arms around her and rested my head on her shoulders to relax while I focused. This wasn’t an original spell like Customize or Become, so my Spell Knowledge should be able to kick in if I concentrate on the spell’s components for a while.

  Nature’s Blessing has been added to your Spell List

  I nodded my head against Denise’s shoulder after about ten minutes of focusing. “Alright, it’s done. We ready to set up camp for the night?”

  “Sure.”

  And with that, we did indeed set about setting up camp, despite it being a couple hours before dark. After all, I still needed to test my Fusion Summon spells. We anticipated that I might need to take breaks between them if I summoned something powerful.

  “Alright. Chant or no chant?”

  “Seeing as you might lose control if you don’t? Chant.”

  “Fine, fine. Armies of empires past, ghosts of fallen kings, imbue these beings with your power. Fusion summon… wolf and bear!”

  I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting what appeared next. In the midst of the summoning circle, was a giant armored wolf, with stone plates similar to the armored bear. Judging by the mana cost, it wasn’t on the same level as the wolfman, but was still pretty strong. “Alright. Now, we start cheating. Become, fusion summon! Wolf and falcon.”

  The red circle from the summoning swiped down along the giant wolf, and when it passed, I saw a normal sized wolf with steel fur. No mana cost, so it was cheaper than the other one. “Alright. Next, become, fusion summon, wolf and eagle.” I went through this pattern for a while, using Become rather than recasting the spell to save mana, and was able to learn a fair few of the combinations.

  Thanks to that, both Become and Fusion Summon quickly hit the Intermediate rank, and both Magical Talent and Summoning Magic went up by a level. Though, I made a note to never mix the armored bear and giant eagle again, because the abomination it created looked like some radiation mutant with five legs, three eyes, and no skin. I quickly marked it down as a failure before both Denise and myself lost our lunches.

  Chapter 12

  The next day, we passed through another small village, and used some of our money to buy a map of the area. I will admit, I was pleasantly surprised when I got a system message after looking at the map.

  Navigation has increased to 5

  Huh… so studying maps will help it too. Good to know. Aside from that, I noticed something else happened. Once my Navigation went up, my mental map of the village suddenly expanded to include the surrounding areas detailed in the map I read.

  “Hey, Denise. Looks like we’ll be good for a while on finding our way.” I smiled over to her after we rode out of town. The only quest we were able to receive was one that would have us making a delivery all the way back to Rosenheim, so we weren’t able to take it.

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. My mental map works better now.”

  “Don’t suppose that means it’ll find dungeons for us?” She smirked to me.

  Thinking a bit, I sighed. “Nope. I need to either see the dungeon entrance or read about it in a map or something before it’ll be added. But… I had an idea on how to find dungeons.”

  “By all means, oh great mage.”

  “Oh hush you.” I grinned to her. “I could try using my divination to… well… promise not to laugh?” She nodded, and I continued. “I could ask the ground.”

  She tried to keep her promise, but I could feel her shaking on the horse in front of me seconds before she bust out laughing. “Oh god, you’re serious aren’t you?”

  “Yeah.. If I can mix my nature magic with divination, I should be able to come up with secret locations like that.”

  “Uh huh… and just what will you be saying? Excuse me, oh sand, I wish to search for a dungeon?”

  “Working on that part. It was either that, or use a broader divination to search for the strongest monster in the area, but if we do that we could get a dungeon too big for us.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Well, either way you’ve got to practice your divination first, right? I don’t think I’ve seen you use it yet.”

  “I haven’t. My only spell right now for it requires a pool of water to see through, and we haven’t exactly hit an oasis yet. Speaking of which.. there’s one about an hour west of here if you want to go. The map in the village listed it as a good source of fruit.”

  “Really? Why not. I could always use fresh ingredients.” She turned Midnight in the appropriate direction and we set off at a slow trot. So far I’d been using my Customize on our canteens to keep them from running out, by adjusting their values, but it’d be nice to get something more fresh.

  A little ways before we came across the oasis, I started to notice something. “Hey, Denise?”

  “Yeah?” She asked, looking around.

  “Have you seen any creatures around here for a while?”

  “You either, huh?” She shook her head. “Figured there would be several, given this should be the only watering hole for a half day’s ride.”

  “Exactly… Mind if I scout a bit?”

  “Uhm.. how?”

  I grinned to her, “Always wanted to learn how to fly.”

  “Oh, you have to be kidding me…”

  “Calling the falcon.” I said simply, before an iron falcon appeared perched on my shoulder. “Merge.” A moment later, I was the falcon. And it was oddly uncomfortable. Instead of arms, I now had wings. I promptly fell backwards off the horse trying to get my balance, causing Denise to laugh at me.

  “Serves you right. Well, go on bird-brain. I’ll wait here and keep an eye out for you.”

  I nodded, and tested my wings again, flapping them a couple times to lift me up before I got the hang of it and flew off to the west. Everything looked different from this perspective, so far away and yet still clear. I scanned from side to side, looking for signs of enemies, or even just local wildlife, and didn’t find anything.

  Soon, the small dot of green on the horizon grew into the oasis I saw on the map, a few tall trees surrounding a big pool of water. The trees looking like they were bearing fruits,
so where were all the creatures? Well… We’ve already come this far… Might as well check it out.

  I circled back towards Denise, and she waved to me from the back of Midnight. After landing, I canceled the spell and returned to normal. “Found the oasis, but no creatures. Guess that means we get the place to ourselves?”

  “See any signs of why there weren’t any creatures?”

  “Nothing. Hell, even the trees had fruit, so it wasn’t a lack of food. Didn’t notice any threats that could drive them away, either.”

  “Huh, well.. hop on. Guess we’re finishing the trip. I’m still suspicious, though.”

  “Me too.” I hopped on the back of Midnight, and we made our way to the oasis.

  Once we arrived, Denise led Midnight over to drink from the stream while the two of us gathered what fruits we could, and then sat down to rest. “So, Coatin is just a few hours away, right?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I was just thinking.. if there was a big city that close, and this was a common trade route… There’s really only one or two reasons that an oasis would be abandoned.”

  “Again, oh great mage, please share.”

  “I need a new nickname.”

  “I doubt that’s why the oasis is empty.” She grinned over to me and I laughed.

  “Okay. Well, either the water supply is poisoned.” We looked over to Midnight who suddenly shot up at our words. “Which doesn’t seem to be the case. Or, there is a threat here that the monsters all want to avoid.”

  “Which we’d also be able to see.”

  “Unless it was hidden.”

  “Come again?”

  “Well, in a desert, the most likely places you would be to find an oasis would be either an underground passage that you literally have to fall into.. or a special piece of scenery, such as this.”

  “So.. you think there’s a dungeon near here.”

  “I think it is a strong possibility.”

  “Any way to test that theory?”

  “Well, we just so happen to have a pool of water, here.” I smirked towards the pond that Midnight was drinking from, and moved over to it. “Let’s see…” Pulling out my grimoire, I turned to my one and only divination spell. “Eyes that transcend space, search for the one I seek. Show me the secrets beneath the sands.”

  As I held my hand down to the water and chanted the spell, ripples formed beneath my palm. Denise quickly moved up next to me, suddenly interested. A circular section of water, about two feet wide, suddenly darkened, before an image formed of a stone corridor.

  “So… there is a dungeon.” I smiled to the image, and tried to figure out the phrasing for the next part. “Show me the path.” The image moved, shifting, until it showed… us. From behind, so maybe it was more accurate to say that it was showing the oasis we were in?

  “Alright.. there is a hidden entrance somewhere in this oasis… wanna find it?” Denise grinned to me, and I nodded.

  “Yeah. But, no entering it yet. Not until we get ourselves better equipped. We’ll find it so that we can get to it later.”

  “Agreed. Wanna make it a race to see who can find it first? Your magic or my eyes?”

  “Oh… you went there. Deal.” I stood up, closing my eyes. “In my eyes, all things are as one. Scan.” When I opened my eyes, the green field tainted my vision, showing me everything all at once. I walked one way around the oasis, and Denise walked the other. Beneath the ground, I could see a hollow area, but I couldn’t find the entrance to it for the life of me. Does it take earth magic to get in?

  After making a full circle, I looked up to Denise, my eyes still glowing from the spell. “Find anything?”

  “Nothing. No hidden mechanisms or anything. You?”

  “I can see where the path is underground… I just can’t see how to get to it. It might take magic to get in. Or…”

  “Or, what?”

  I glanced towards the pond at the center of the oasis, and saw that it dips down underground, a small tunnel leading to the path. “Or we have to swim.”

  “Fine… you win. Let’s go get our gear so we can come back to this. How about we come back tomorrow, and do our training inside the dungeon?”

  “Sounds good. So, what did I win?” I asked with a smile and canceled the spell.

  “Hmm… how about..?” She leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the lips. “There, that oughta cover it.”

  “Uhuh… and tell me, what would you have gotten if you won?” I asked with a smirk.

  “Well, obviously you would have had to kiss me, duh!”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Win, win. Okay, we’ve got just over a week till Kevin shows up. That gives us plenty of time to explore a bit of the dungeon if we’re careful.”

  She nodded, and we got back on Midnight, moving at a faster pace towards Coatin to make up for the detour. “So… you’re taking me shopping… and we have virtually no price limit… this is gonna be fun.”

  “Spoken on behalf of women everywhere.” I laughed, and she glared at me for a few moments before joining in. “Let’s figure out how much stuff costs, and then I’ll make sure that we have enough for it, alright? I can’t customize items without taking them out, and we don’t want people to see me doing it.”

  “Right. We’re totally getting the best we can, though.” I looked into Denise’s eyes… and I swear I saw golden dollar signs for a moment. Have I created a monster?

  After another hour, we began to see the high stone walls of Coatin off in the distance. Aside from Rosenheim, this was the first proper city I’ve seen since coming to the game. And this one wasn’t a starter city, so I was sure that I’d be able to find a lot of good equipment. Granted, I could have probably found equipment in Rosenheim if I had more than 10 gild at the time.

  As we approached the walls, we saw two guards standing outside the gate, and a short line of people waiting to enter. “Guess there’s a bit of traffic?” I looked over to Denise curiously.

  “Some cities require you to register your visit so that they can impose tax on any merchandise you carry.”

  “Well… good thing we aren’t traders.” We moved to get in line, and then hopped off of Midnight. It took us about ten minutes of slowly moving forward before we got to the front of the line.

  “Names and reason for your visit.” The guard spoke, not even looking to us as he focused on the papers in his hand, a pen in the other to write down answers.

  “Jin and Denise, here to acquire equipment and rest during our travels.” I spoke quickly, not wanting to waste his time or my own.

  “Alright, that’ll be 50 gild each to enter.” My eye began twitching at the words. 50 gild to just enter the town… I swear, they better have something useful in here. They can probably only get away with this because it’s the biggest city in the desert.

  I made a pained face, reluctantly handing over ten silver coins, and he waved us through the gate. “You could have warned me there was an entrance fee…”

  “Sorry… nobody told me about it either. Not like we have much to worry about, right?”

  I nodded, discretely casting Customize on my coinpurse, editing the contents to more than replace what I had just spent. “Right. Still, its no wonder we haven’t come across any other travelers from Coatin if you have to pay just to get in the gate. Most people probably don’t risk it without a big group.”