The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  “E.T. can phone home now.”

  “Never miss a chance for a reference, do you?”

  “I try my best. So, this is what you were in such a rush about?”

  “Yeah. I had to know if I had a way to call out now.”

  “Well, looks like you do. There’s no displayed name or number, though. It lists you as an unknown caller.”

  “That’s fine. You can come back now.”

  “Alright, let me just get a drink first.” And with that, he hung up on me, appearing on the ship about ten minutes later. “So, apparently you can now connect to the phone network?”

  “I guess so. Sorry about having you test it so suddenly. I wasn’t even sure if it would work.”

  “No, you had a point. I would have done the same thing, probably.”

  “Okay, well, I set the ship to take us to Thurgil. You should be able to find a sword trainer there. Your skill probably won’t gain any ranks, but the training will help you use it better. I’ll keep in touch with that spell every few days to check on you.”

  Gradually, the anchor began raising up, and the sails unfolded again as the ship went back to sailing. “Alright, I understand.”

  “Good. Keep in mind, you won’t be able to contact me from your end unless you get a magical item. I’m going to try to make you a coin that will let you use the Message spell once to contact me. I haven’t had the chance to experiment with enchanting much yet, so I may not get it to work right.”

  “So, I can use the coin to call you if an emergency pops up?”

  “Right. Once we drop you off, Denise and I are going to go exploring. There’s a lot of uncharted land in these seas that hasn’t been explored properly since the continent split.”

  “Hah… going off on another adventure by yourself? Oh well, guess it can’t be helped.”

  I nodded to him. “Also, just to confirm, there still hasn’t been any information posted online, right?”

  “Nothing yet. I tried making something myself, and it was gone as soon as I posted it. But, there are offline methods that can be used.”

  “Oh? You came up with something?”

  “Yeah, it’s not as comprehensive as the net, but I put in some calls to friends that play. Since it was word of mouth that started this, it’s word of mouth that can get around it!”

  Denise had no clue what we were talking about, but I suppose that was natural. “Okay, so you guys set up an off-the-grid exchange? I won’t ask for any details, but it was a good idea. I take it you warned them that a situation like mine could occur?” In truth, I didn’t ask for details because there was the chance that whatever was behind me being stuck here might strike out at someone finding a way around their plan to suppress information.

  “Yeah, it was one of the first things I told them. Some of them still don’t believe it could really happen.”

  “Okay, well, can you get in contact with them later? It would be nice to have a source of information on the other side. Also, any chance that the fabled mage is among them?”

  “Not that I’ve heard. That’s why I thought it might be you. There are a few that said they became mages as elves, though.”

  “Did they share any information on how they did that?”

  “Well, they didn’t really seem to do anything special, just study the magic and train until they were recognized.”

  So, the elves don’t have a final test, then? “I understand. It looks like the elves do their magic training a bit differently than the humans.”

  “Oh? How far did you get in the human college?”

  I decided, once again to tell a famous half-truth. “I made it to the final exam. But, to graduate as a human mage, you have to make something in magic that has never been accomplished before. You can understand how difficult it would be to do something that nobody in over a thousand years has done before with the same options, right? And you only get the chance to take the test once.”

  “Yeah… no wonder there’s only been one person to pass. Just finding out everything that could get you disqualified from the test could take a lifetime of studying.”

  “Exactly. You’d have to research every single spell ever created, and then make something completely new.”

  “I wonder why it’s so different between the races…”

  “Probably to weed out the people who don’t have what it takes, and only allow the truly gifted to graduate. Though, anyone can stop before the final exam and take what they know to become a caster in their own way. Like using spells through a bow.” I patted the bow on my back.

  “Right. Well, that seems to be new information. I should be able to spread that with the group, and they’ll understand why it’s so troublesome. Maybe we can even recommend that new players looking to be mages start out as elves.”

  “Well, that’s only if they’re looking for the title. Like I said, anyone can get the ability.”

  “That’s true. Sucks that you have to do all that homework, though.” Kev made a face, and I smirked at him.

  “Oh? You mean like having to study swordsmanship in order to use your sword well?”

  “Ha ha, yeah I get it. I guess that explains the four week restriction. Supposed to give you time to learn how to use your skills.”

  “Yup. And you probably just grabbed a random sword from a store after running a couple errands, and spent all day chopping logs or something.”

  “...Maybe… I did at least do enough to get the armor, though.”

  “Uh huh, and you didn’t practice a single survival skill. I guess that explains how you were able to raise your swordsmanship to nearly a master level before leaving the town, though.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m going to head off again. Call me if something comes up.” Without waiting for my reply, Kev logged out.

  Denise walked up and put a hand on my shoulder, smiling to me after having let us talk for so long. “I didn’t really get all of that, but you have a way to call your own world now, right?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t plan to use it much.” I smiled to her and patted her hand.

  “Why not? Surely there are people that you want to contact.”

  “Most of them wouldn’t believe it was really me if I did. Since I’ve convinced Kev, I’ll use him to stay in touch with people. Oh, also, I almost forgot. I received some news from Lilith before I came out.” Denise looked interested, so I went on. “It turns out that another human has passed the final test. Someone from Eastal. I’m having her investigate it, and then I plan to reach out to him.”

  “Oh? Mind if I ask why?”

  “Well, he fell for the trap I’ve been avoiding.”

  “What trap..?”

  “He let it be known publicly that he was a graduate, so all of the foreigners nearby swarmed to him for information. Eventually, it got to be too much, so he went into hiding.”

  “I see, the reason you are hiding what you can do. But, what could you gain by getting in touch with him?”

  “Well, I can give him some information that I wasn’t able to gain easily, and can have him be an ally. If we work together, we can identify more races that respond to the grimoire without arousing suspicions.”

  Denise nodded, and smiled. “In the end, you just want to help your junior, huh?”

  “It’s not like I don’t get anything out of it, you know..”

  “Sure, sure. Alright. Anything else?”

  “Yeah, one more thing. After we drop Kev off, I want to summon Lilith and Dariel to finally have the two of them meet.”

  “Maiden of the elves meets Queen of the demons? Sure you want to put the two of them in the same room?”

  “Dariel actually requested to meet her, after I summoned her for the fight with the wolfman.”

  Denise nodded to accept that. “I understand. Then you’ll have all your women in one place.”

  I tilted my head back and laughed. “Totally not what I had in mind. It’d be nice if they could join us for a dungeon hunt, but it’s un
derstandable because they both have responsibilities to their people.”

  “Thinking about expanding our group again?”

  “A bit, yeah. Recently, we hit another benchmark in power. I haven’t had the chance to fill you in on it yet, but you got quite the interesting ability yourself.”

  “Oh? Please, do tell!”

  “Alright. Well, it looks like both of us received something called a Hidden Power. Mine is a large area spell that can deal immense damage. Your’s on the other hand, is a further enhancement to your speed. According to the window, you can focus your inner power to temporarily achieve such insane speed that the world seems to freeze around you. You’ll need to be careful though, it seems it will wear you out quickly.”

  “Ooh, that sounds lovely. I take it your power is a cheat like with the rest of you, and has a low cost?”

  “Actually, it consumes every ounce of magic I have, and requires a long chant to activate.”

  “Ah… that does sound bad.”

  “Of course, I recover my magic really quickly. A good ten seconds after the spell and I should be good to use my normal combat magic again.”

  “... Such a cheat.”

  “Maybe. But you can tell from the two of us that we’re lacking something as a team.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, we have a mage and an archer, but really both of us are easy to take down if we get hit. It would be nice if we found a warrior that could accompany us.”

  “Do.. do you need me to learn that role?” Denise asked, looking down to the floor. I smiled and shook my head, bringing a hand up to pat the top of her head.

  “Remember, I said when we were deciding what role you would play that you don’t have the build for that kind of warrior. The issue is that we’ll need to get someone from this side. A foreigner wouldn’t be able to match our schedule and would end up slowing us down too much.”

  “Right. So, why is that a problem?”

  “Well, look at it this way. You remember how I told Kev that rank thirty was the equivalent of a master rank?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, the two of us are in total over level one hundred. In order to find someone on par with us, we’d need a master of several fields, or someone with a lot of different skills like you have.”

  “I understand. So, we can’t ask just anyone, right?”

  “Exactly. I don’t know if they’d get a sudden boost of power for joining up with us, but there’s a chance that if we take on someone weaker than us they’ll always stay weaker.”

  “Right, I get it.”

  “Speaking of, where’s Midnight?”

  Denise smiled to me. “I let him rest on one of the lower decks. He said that he didn’t like the sea very much.”

  “That’s fine. It might have freaked Kev out that we could talk to a horse anyways.” I smiled back to her. “I’m going to finish touring the ship. I haven’t had the chance to look around since they installed the equipment, and I want to see if I can use my special magic on the cannonballs.”

  As I turned to walk off, Denise started laughing. “Cheat character, making this into a cheat ship!”

  I couldn’t help but grin. That’s exactly what I planned to do, basically. I had already confirmed a few things about this ship in regards to my ability. First, the entire ship was treated as a single object. Second, I couldn’t adjust the speed of the ship, as that relies entirely on its structure. Since my Customize spell doesn’t allow me to change more than the most general of shapes, there’s nothing I can do about that. The only thing I really can change is the color of the ship. But, turning my ship blue in front of everyone would be a bad idea.

  Finally, I learned that the enchanted objects on the ship, such as the cannons and detection crystals, are all treated as separate objects. So, even though I can’t make my ship go faster, there is no reason why I can’t make it stronger. With that thought in mind, I began my tour of the ship’s artillery.

  The cannons of the ship were lined up on two decks. Each deck had twelve cannons on each side. Out of all of that, there were 24-pounder long guns. On the main deck of the ship were another twelve cannons on each side. These were shorter barrel cannons, identified as a carronade 24-pounder. Unlike the cannons on the lower decks that were tied to the wall with ropes and mounted on a carriage, these were mounted on a slide that allowed them to be turned inwards when they weren’t in use.

  Finally, the ammunition. Next to each of the long guns was a box of 24-pound black balls. Hence, the cannons being classified as 24-pounders. The carronades had similar storage units, but they were kept nearer to the center of the ship, next to the entrance to the lower decks in a large crate.

  The range of the long guns was just over one kilometer, but at that range the penetration power would be significantly reduced under normal circumstances. I’m not much for normal circumstances, though. With a grin, I set about changing roughly half of the cannonballs. Most of them I turned into Lightning Shots, covering them in the runes for Shock Bolt. That should increase their range and penetration power. Others, I changed into Flame Shots, using the Fireball runes. That should make a good explosive shell.

  Thankfully, I was able to use my Customize spell for this, because I don’t think I would have been able to carve the runes into the iron balls by hand. If all works out like I imagined, I should be able to aim the cannons like I aimed the bow, and fire the spelled shots the same way. Of course, there was no way to test this without getting in an actual battle.

  Is it sad that I was now hoping to run into pirates or a sea monster? Come on out, bad guys! I have a new toy, and I want to play!

  Chapter 20

  After confirming and modifying the artillery, I went to work on what I promised Kev. That’s right, it was finally time to get started on my enchanting. About time, if you ask me. I pulled out a few copper coins to use as my test dummies, and then opened up my skill window to figure out just how the enchanting process worked.

  First, the rune inscription. This was commonly used because it allowed people to easily identify an enchanted item. Second was aura inscription. Essentially, this would let you capture a spell as you cast it, and trap it in the item you want to enchant.

  Typically, enchanted items were only usable once. The exception to this rule were items that contained materials especially good at storing mana. Such as my staff, which I suspected to be made of Mana Wood, and likely had a core of granite or something that would help store energy. Items like that were able to recharge by absorbing the ambient mana around them.

  Well, it’s not like I want him to be calling me all the time, so I won’t bother working on a storage unit for recharging mana. Next, after you enchant an item, you designate a method of activating it. You could consider this an entirely separate enchantment in a way. First you place the magic in the object, then you make something that lets you access it.

  When designating the activation method, you could use either a command word or action, or require that mana be applied to the item. The latter method also allows for inscription enchantments to be used repeatedly, as they wouldn’t fade like an aura after use. Kev can’t use mana, though. That means that I’ll go with an aura inscription and a command word.