The Dive: Birth of a Hero Read online

  The Dive: Birth of the Hero

  By Justin Miller

  Chapter 1…….

  Chapter 26…...

  Chapter 2…….

  Chapter 27…...

  Chapter 3…….

  Chapter 28…...

  Chapter 4…….

  Chapter 29…...

  Chapter 5…….

  Chapter 30…...

  Chapter 6…….

  Chapter 31…...

  Chapter 7…….

  Chapter 32…...

  Chapter 8…….

  Chapter 33…...

  Chapter 9…….

  Chapter 34…...

  Chapter 10…...

  Epilogue

  Chapter 11…...

  Chapter 12…...

  Chapter 13…...

  Chapter 14…...

  Chapter 15…...

  Chapter 16…...

  Chapter 17…...

  Chapter 18…....

  Chapter 19…....

  Chapter 20…….

  Chapter 21…….

  Chapter 22…….

  Chapter 23…….

  Chapter 24…….

  Chapter 25…….

  Prologue

  My name is Jin, formerly Christopher Weston. I’m a 25 year old from Wisconsin who began playing a new internet game called The Dive. Impressed by the realism and depth of the game, I devoted my time to it, logging out only when I had to for things like attending my writing class.

  My character, Jin, became close to one of the NPCs in the starter city of Rosenheim. This NPC was an innkeeper named Denise who aspired to be an adventurer. The two of us decided to travel together once the four week restriction period was over, and she joined my party.

  After becoming the first player to pass the outrageous standards for becoming a human mage, we set off on our journey, meeting new friends and old ones. I had suddenly become completely trapped in this game, but that didn’t matter much to me anymore. We encountered the most unlikely of allies, but in the end none of it helped.

  My name is Jin, level 150 human mage. Today, my entire party was killed in a single second…

  Chapter 1

  You have been killed by a Nature Dragon

  How long had it been since I received that message, sent to this gray void? At first, I had tried to count the time as it passed, but even that went on too long. Hours, certainly.. it may have even been days already. I was trapped in a place with neither ceiling, walls, or floor, just a vast empty space where I floated aimlessly-and even floating I was never sure if I moved.

  I still had all of my equipment with me, and both my health and magic had apparently recovered, but I could not cast any of my spells or use my items. If I hadn’t spent time personally in Hell, that is what I would have called this place. And then I thought about Denise…

  My first friend in this world called The Dive, an innkeeper I found on my first night here and made friends with. Her body was perfectly proportioned, and she had long blonde hair with yellow eyes. Hearing her story about wanting to become an adventurer, I carelessly invited her along with me. If I hadn’t taken her with me… she’d still be alive.

  There was a slim chance that I might revive eventually, given that my mind wasn’t deleted when I died. There was also the chance I could wake up in the real world, my body lying in a hospital bed--assuming the doctors followed the instructions I gave one of my friends to keep me hooked up to a link capsule. But for Denise.. there was almost no possibility of her coming back. I had even recently confirmed that there was no magic in The Dive that could return someone to life.

  For the first few hours, my tears wouldn’t stop, knowing that I had led Denise to her death. I had simply curled myself into a ball and wept. Eventually, my tears dried and I tried to find a way out of this situation. That was when I discovered that neither magic or items would work in this area. Maybe I can come up with a spell while I wait to help Denise!

  That thought, too, proved to be in vain. I didn’t know if it was because The Dive truly didn’t support NPC resurrection, or if it was simply because my skills couldn’t activate while in this ‘afterlife’, but I wasn’t able to come up with any new runes when I tried. It had been so easy to do so for Lilith when I helped with the Angel contract, so even if it wasn’t supported I should have been able to come up with something.

  After what felt like days of drifting in this featureless void, and using any method I could imagine to try to escape or call out for help, a voice rang out around me. A familiar, infuriating voice. “Greetings, Jin. I appear to have kept you waiting.”

  You, again! The voice which had formerly been associated with only darkness, now appeared in the shape of a man in his early twenties. He was wearing a simple white cloak over black pants and a black shirt. The only thing off about him was his face. Or rather, the lack of one. Where he should have had a nose, mouth, and eyes, there was simply a mask of skin. Well, that and he seemed to be standing upside down, or maybe I was the one floating upside down.

  “Yes. It is fortunate that you dealt with the dragon. Due to your involvement, the demon queen eventually removed any possibility of its return. Without that, it is entirely possible that it might have destroyed the kingdom.” The man’s voice came out from around me, rather than from his form.

  “You’re the god of this world, right? The one who created everything, and trapped me in here?” I clenched my fists tightly as I spoke, trying to maintain any form of patience I could for now. I had questions, and it finally looked like this guy was in a talkative mood.

  “I have been called such, yes.” It was hard to tell with his featureless face, but I thought I heard a smile in his tone. “And before you ask, it is impossible for me to return life to your companion.”

  That was indeed the main question that I wanted to ask. “So… there’s no way?” Was her profile deleted when she died..? I hadn’t thought about Denise as an NPC since we began adventuring together, but I had held some hope that I could convince this ‘god’ to bring her back if her information had been saved.

  “That is not what I said.” His answer was short and confusing. “I cannot bring her back. Right now, there is no method to revive someone who has experienced a true death.”

  “If you can’t, then…”

  “Until recently, there was also no method to use magic to create gild, either.” His voice seemed to indicate there was a hint in there somewhere, and it was fairly obvious.

  “So.. a rune.. it can be made…” Just as quickly as it had shattered, hope began rushing up inside of me. There was a way!

  “That entirely depends on you. However, with this comes a warning. You do not possess the power necessary to achieve this, even if you discover a method.”

  I shook my head, a smile firmly on my face. The fact that he was telling me this meant that I’d come back, and would be able to get it done. “Lilith will help! I know she will.” Lilith was the demon queen, who received her name among the mortals from me since her own was too difficult to pronounce. She had always been eager to help me with anything she could, so I knew that she would with something so important.

  “That might be the case. It will be interesting to see how events unfold from here.” Again, I thought I heard a smile from this person.

  “How long have I been here, and how much longer do I have to wait?” I asked, impatiently, wanting to hurry back to take care of this. The rest of the world can burn, but I will bring Denise back from the abyss!

  “It seems you’ve been here for… Well, it appears that I made an error when creating this place. You should have been here for a total of one hour of perceived time, but instead it seems that you have been here for
three days. My apologies for that, it will be remedied should you be defeated again.”

  So you can adjust the flow of time as well? I shook my head, clearing away the thought. “I have to ask, what are the penalties for dying? Kev implied they were quite extreme.”

  “Foreigners are ejected from the world for a day and a half of your time, or three days for the time of this world. After that, all of their.. stats you call them, are reduced by half for an additional four days. And before you attempt it, you can not remove this penalty with any magic. It is treated as a curse beyond the power of any spell.”

  “I don’t care about that, I was just wanting to know.” I can rest in Hell for a few days after I come back. Lilith would like that. “Where am I going to return to?” It should be the last city I spent the night in or something, right? They wouldn’t return a foreigner to the spot they died.

  “You are correct. You will revive at the last peaceful location you slept. In this case, you will arrive in Hell. And it is almost time for your revival, so I will make the following advice brief. You know now how weak you are, so I strongly urge you to find a way to grow stronger. This world has many paths that could raise your defenses, as you discovered with your mana shield. For this, I won’t tell you which path is the correct one.”

  “I would have done that even if you hadn’t said anything.” If it weren’t for my mana shield, forget the dragon, I would have died from a glancing blow dealt by one of its plant monsters.

  “Very well. Remember what you’ve learned here, and continue to become the best archmage the world has ever seen.” Again, there was that smiling voice, but it was soon lost when he vanished, and the world began to shift.

  Looks like my stay is over. Three days… I’m going to have a lot of apologizing to do…. As I thought about that with a smile, still more concerned with finding a way to bring Denise back once I returned, I noticed my own body fading away. Darkness was encompassing the world, and with it my limbs were dissolving. It didn’t hurt at all, but it felt strange, as if static was traveling along my body.

  Soon enough, all that was left were my eyes, my entire world having vanished. Or, well, that’s what it seemed like. Until a pleasant voice cried out from near me.

  “Jin!” I could tell it was Lilith, and I felt myself being tackled. Wait, tackled? But I don’t have a body right now..

  I blinked at the thought of being tackled without a body, but as soon as I blinked it was like waking up again. I was suddenly in a familiar bedroom, with a large canopy bed and a desk by a wall across the room. There were two doors in this room, one leading outside while another went to a large closet filled with dresses and various outfits.

  Pressing up against me was a woman who I had initially believed to be the personification of lust. She was wearing black armor placed in plated layers that just barely concealed her large chest and other unmentionable areas. Atop her head were two small horns that just poked out from her black hair, and she had a spaded tail swaying behind her.

  So… I literally revived in the last peaceful place I slept… Lilith’s bed… Well, this is awkward. I smiled to Lilith, gently patting her head. She was clinging to my body, tears flowing from her black eyes. “Hey, I’m back…”

  She looked up to me for a long moment, like she was afraid I would disappear again. “You jerk.. don’t just run off like that… so worried… Levy said… not again..”

  I chuckled, and patted her back. “Isn’t this the part where you’re supposed to smile and say, ‘Welcome back’?” She didn’t seem to enjoy my joke too much, because I got smacked on the arm. At least she was holding back, or else I might have made a return trip to the afterlife already.

  “And… Denise.. she..”

  “I know. I can fix this… but not without your help. What do you say? Feel like being part of the first resurrection ritual of this world?” When I asked her with my confident smile, she blinked, and the tears seemed to stop for a moment.

  “You mean…”

  “Like Hell I’m going to just sit back and take this. If you will lend me your power, I’ll show you another new magic, and bring her back. I don’t care if it’s a dragon, god, or anyone else. You don’t take what’s precious to me and get away with it.” I leaned forward to sit up in the bed, and Lilith moved to the side to let me.

  “O-okay… what do you need?” She nodded, a bit hesitantly. Well, at least she agreed. It would be a problem if she hadn’t.

  “I’m only about half as strong as usual for a while, so I’ll need to borrow your magic once I make the ritual. Then, mind if we stay here for a few days?”

  I didn’t get the chance to hear her response, because I was quickly tackled to the bed again by a young girl that appeared out of nowhere in front of me. “Jin! You’re back! I knew you weren’t gone!” Unlike Lilith who had been crying endlessly, it seemed the Levy had full confidence I’d come back. “Yup! After a few minutes, it didn’t feel like you were dead anymore. It just felt… weird. Like you were somewhere I couldn’t reach.”

  Lilith let out a slight smile to her daughter, who truly looked like a little girl version of herself, but with a rune on her forehead. My Bonded Acolyte, Levy. “Thanks for keeping an eye on me.”

  “She kept telling me it’d be alright, that you would definitely come back… I just never expected you to come back here…” Lilith let out a small laugh, indicating her bed with one hand.

  “Ah, yeah, well this is the last place I stayed that was safe. So looks like this is where I returned. Now, about what I said before..?”

  Straightening her face, Lilith nodded. “Of course I’ll help. Denise was a friend to me as well, so I’ll do whatever I can if you can truly bring her back.”

  I nodded, smiling. “Okay, I need a big open space. I don’t know how big of a ritual circle I need to make for this, so give me the best you can.” When Lilith nodded again, she jumped up off the bed and went for the door, likely going somewhere to get us the space I needed. “Now, Levy. Wanna fill me in on what’s happened while I was gone?”

  Levy let out a small giggle, resting up against me. “Mom was awesome. Once you died, she went into a rage. It was kind of scary at first. She took her big sword out again and stabbed it into the ground with all her power as soon as the dragon’s head started rising where it ate you.

  “Dremor said that it used an advanced ability it shouldn’t have had for another few years to hide itself in the ground by faking its death. So when she stabbed the ground, the island started shaking. Then it was weird, like the entire island began melting while mom screamed. It gathered around her sword, and just vanished.”

  “So that island…”

  “Isn’t there anymore, right. And since the dragon hid its body in the island, it was completely destroyed. She even burnt the head just to make sure.”

  “You’re right, that is both awesome and scary.” I smiled to her, and she nodded again before asking something.

  “Can you really bring your friend back?”

  “I think so. But, do me a favor, okay?” I had come to understand a few things about this link Levy and I have. She is able to constantly read my mind as long as we are in the same dimension, and can even send me her thoughts like telepathy. She can also sense my status and teleport to me in an instant. Though, I don’t really get anything out of this connection.

  “Sure, what is it?”

  “You can ‘read’ the spells I use from my head right? Including the new runes I come up with?” From what I had gathered, Levy should be able to do that, giving her the ability to understand any spell I cast.

  “Yup! Is something wrong with that?”

  “Well, I’m probably going to have to use some special runes for this ritual.” I pictured my first created rune in my head, the one for Rewrite. “This one in particular. Can you keep it a secret? I already explained to Lilith why I can’t share that rune with her.”

  “Hmm… okay! But, one condition.” She grinned a bit wickedly t
o me, trying to get as much from this as she could. When I asked, she said with a wide smile. “I want you to show me how to use it. I’m supposed to be your acolyte, or whatever, right? That means you should still be teaching me things. It might help me reach my next evolution.”

  “Alright. You should also be able to receive the ritual I create, so you’ll have that too.”

  “Right, but it’s hard to remember stuff that’s too complicated like that, unless you teach it to me personally. Like… uh… trying to remember the face of someone you only caught a brief glimpse of? I only see the spells when you are thinking about them.”