The Dive: Birth of a Hero Read online

  Denise smirked to me, “Joining the Mage’s College, Crafting Guild, and now the Fighter’s Hall. Are you just looking for membership in every group you can find?”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. If it was other games, joining or even mastering multiple factions were certainly possible. However, I had no such intention here. “No, I’d just rather not be swinging my staff around uselessly like Kev used to for his sword.” Even now, I couldn’t bring myself to say his character name, Kevlar. When we had encountered him on the mainland, he had nearly a master level talent, but absolutely no technique with his sword. The result was him having trouble with enemies that he should have wiped out in a single hit.

  “Hmm, you have a point. Alright, it’s not as if I’m paying for it this time.”

  I smiled to her comment, remembering back to when we first met. “Yeah.”

  Over the course of the next few days, I continued to learn more and more about carpentry with Jackson. Together, we made a few bows, staves, and a couple of spears as well. Since I wasn’t that interested in creating furniture, we avoided those types of projects. At the end of the week, he gave me one last job to really test myself.

  “Hey, Jin, back again huh?” He smiled to me as I returned on the seventh day. Over the last week my relationship with him had become closer, and he now treated me like a friend. Some of the other foreigners that came by looked at me and spoke among themselves about how I did it, and by the fourth day more people were signing up for a full week of lessons.

  “Yup. Today is my last day, right?”

  “Right. You leaving town after this?”

  “Not quite yet. I want to learn how to fight with some of these weapons we’ve been making, so I thought I’d spend some time in the Fighter’s Hall before I take off.”

  He nodded, approving of my idea. “Sounds good. Going to be dull without you around here, but it looks like you were a good influence on the rest of that lot.” He pointed a thumb towards the other foreigners who were paired up with instructors.

  Glancing over to them, I shrugged. “It wasn’t really my intention, I don’t interact a lot with other foreigners.”

  “Well, to each his own. Still, the fact remains that you brought us a fair bit of business. So, I’ve got a job for you. Sort of a graduation test, if you will.”

  Thinking back to the Mage’s final test, I groaned. “I don’t have to invent something new out of wood, do I?”

  Jackson blinked for a minute, and then seemed to get my meaning because he started laughing. “No, no, we’re not like that Mage’s College. But since you know about that test, it makes this an even better job for you. Out in the forest beyond the city walls, there are clusters of mana trees. I want you to harvest some wood from one of those trees and bring it back here, then use it to make something. As you know, items made from Mana Wood are excellent conduits for magical power.”

  “I see. Is it alright if I take the time to enchant it as well? Like you guessed, I know some magic of my own.”

  “An Enchanter, eh? Well, you certainly are picking up all the trade skills you need for your abilities.” Jackson grinned to me, and our conversation caused a few of the foreigners to look our way. Shit, they might have figured it out.

  Deciding I should make a graceful exit, I smiled to Jackson. “Well, I’ll be heading off then.”

  “Alright. If you want to hire some guards to protect you, you can.”

  “That’s alright, I already have someone in mind.” I waved to him and began walking out. I could hear the low voices of foreigners throughout the hall. I’d bet most of them didn’t even know about Mana Wood. “Message, Denise.”

  “Jin? Hey, what’s up?” Denise answered my calling spell in the same happy voice as always. I figured that she was probably finding ways to keep herself entertained while she watched for candidates for our party.

  “Got a job to head out of the city and gather some Mana Wood from the forest. Want to grab Midnight and a cart, and meet me at the gates?”

  “Hmm, he probably won’t want to drag a cart, but I’ll talk him into it. See you there!”

  I made my way to the gates where we first came in, checking behind me every now and then. Maybe I was paranoid from how easy things have been lately, but I kept feeling like I was being watched. There hadn’t been any more attacks from the Eternal Brigade, but that first group we dealt with should be getting over their death penalties by now.

  Well, if anyone shows up, we can deal with it between Denise and myself. The bandit from the other day, Everest, was one of their high ranking members but only had a level of 112. While strength can’t entirely be measured by overall level, stats can. At nearly a hundred and ninety, Denise and I should be able to take care of whatever comes our way. Worst case scenario, I can summon Lilith and there is nothing any player would be able to do.

  When I arrived at the gates, Denise was nowhere to be seen. She would probably be a few minutes, since she had to convince Midnight to go along with this and then rent a wagon. Given her strength, I probably could have had Denise just carry the wood herself, but treating her like a pack mule just really didn’t sit well with me.

  That would make a really great item… a bag or something that could carry items without weighing down the user. Lilith had mentioned that Origin magic could create new worlds, so it could probably create pocket spaces too, right? Well, summoning magic probably had something similar.

  As I was considering all of this, Denise rode up to me on Midnight, who was indeed dragging a wooden wagon behind him. “Sorry I’m late. Had to find somewhere that would sell us one of these.” She indicated the wagon behind her, smiling to me.

  “It’s alright, I haven’t been waiting long.” I returned her smile and hopped on top of Midnight behind her. The guards gave us another warning about bandits before we set off, but they seemed to recognize me. Rather than advising us not to go out, they just asked us to be careful.

  “So, want me to play scout, or here just in case?”

  “Just in case. There shouldn’t be too much of a problem this time, but if we get attacked by something like the king of the forest I’d rather have you with me.”

  At my words, Denise looked back at me and sighed. “Man, you mean this place has got one too?”

  “No idea. I haven’t heard anything, but it’s possible. From what I understand, creatures that feed from the same source as the Mana Trees, of feed from the trees themselves, have a chance to evolve into a magical creature like that.”

  “It makes sense, I guess… I still don’t like it.” She looked out to the forest ahead of us, grumbling quietly.

  “It’s alright. If it’s just something on the level of the King from Grazel’s forest, we won’t have a problem with it.” Really, the only time Denise and I had encountered something that really gave us a problem was on the island with the nature dragon. Though, that was well beyond simply overkill for us.

  As soon as we entered the forest, I activated my Scan spell, watching out for both ambushes and the trees we were looking for. I saw a few wolves, and an armored bear, but we’d have to head deeper to find the cluster of trees I noticed on our way into town. Since I already knew the general direction, I told Denise where I spotted the trees before and let her guide us there. Once we were off the trail, the ride become much less smooth for us, the wagon bouncing quietly behind us.

  “These guys again…” Denise seemed to notice something before I did, so I focused my spell a bit more. Sure enough, just beyond my range of vision I could see a lone scout high in the trees ahead of us. Not only that, but once I expanded my vision I saw three more in various locations around us. Unlike the first encounter, this time they all seemed to be aware of us.

  “Want me to pass out the invitations?” I smiled to Denise. Undoubtedly, she recognised a few of the scouts as the archers she dealt with a week ago just like I had.

  “Well, fine. But I’m all out of party favors. How do you expect me to ente
rtain guests under these conditions?”

  Chuckling, I shook my head. “Well, here goes. Wings of light, signs of beginning, may my voice reach the farthest corners. Announce.” I chose to announce my voice to the entire forest this time. “You know who I am, and I know you’re watching. Why don’t you stop spying on us and get this over with?”

  Denise looked back at me with a faint smile. “Just how many people did you call now?”

  Shrugging, I answered honestly. “However many they have in the forest? I guess, all of them?”

  Shaking her head, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Jin, you really like to get us in trouble, don’t you?”

  The scouts we were watching had frozen when I let out my call, but now seemed to be talking amongst themselves, likely using the Link Capsules to hold a chat with their friends. Thanks to that feature, a spell like Message probably wouldn’t get much use aside from someone like me that couldn’t access it.

  Apparently, they didn’t believe that we could see them, because all four scouts grabbed arrows for their bows, turning their aim on us. Almost casually, I called up a series of clay walls around us to intercept the arrows, keeping an eye on them with my Scan spell.

  “Damn, so you really could see them, huh?” I heard a voice not far from us, and jerked my head in that direction. When I mastered the Scan spell, it should have been able to see through any low level stealth abilities. Yet standing there well within my range was a man wrapped in black cloth, looking like a ninja. He must have some great skills, another officer?

  “I see that you heard my invitation. You still have a grudge against me, or something?”

  “Eh, not personally. I heard that you beat up Everest, so I know you’ve got some skill. But that’s twice you’ve gotten away with attacking us. We can’t let it slide, you know?”

  “I keep telling you people, you guys attacked us.” I let out a sigh, shaking my head in frustration.

  “Oh, I know that. But these guys don’t see it that way. If you had killed Everest, it’d be one thing. But now, we’ve got to go and break him out of jail, and that gets complicated. At the very least, we have to kill you once or twice to make up for it. I’m sure you understand?”

  “Yeah, yeah. So, how many people are you bringing? They can’t all have your level of stealth.”

  “Ah, so you couldn’t spot me? Damn, I should have kept my mouth shut and just stabbed you in the back. Oh, and don’t worry, we heard your friend there isn’t one of us. We’ll just knock her out when we’re done with you and drop her off at the city. I know how hard it can be to replace them.”

  Denise tensed up in front of me, and I gritted my teeth. “You didn’t answer my question. How many people are you bringing?”

  “Does twenty sound like enough? It’s all that we had online in the forest, but once you sent your message they all started heading this way.”

  “No…”

  “Ah, don’t worry man. We’re cool. We just can’t stand it when someone kicks dirt in our eyes.” He smiled to me, seeming to think that I was afraid of their numbers.

  “No… I meant twenty didn’t sound like enough. Maybe twenty people on Everest’s level.” I smiled to Denise, patting her back. The two of us hopped off Midnight, looking towards the ninja.

  “You… you’re quite confident, aren’t you? I heard you’re a caster, but you carry around a bow, and fought Everest with a staff. Considering the different abilities, your level should be quite impressive. But are your skills able to match them?”

  After asking his question, the ninja vanished from view. At the same time, Denise also vanished, the two of them appearing in front of me clashing swords. “Damn, you’ve got Light Speed too? I didn’t know you people could unlock Hidden Powers.” He grinned, and the two of them vanished again.

  “Alright, Denise. You handle that guy, I’ll take care of the rest.” So far, there were only the four archers to worry about, and they were already preparing new arrows to fire. Given that archers focus their stat points into Agility, I couldn’t match their speed. By the time I had a single arrow loaded into my bow and fired, there were over a dozen arrows flying towards me.

  Thankfully, my one arrow was a Gust arrow, creating a strong wind that knocked the rain of arrows aside. Before the arrow finished flying, I followed it up with a Shock Bolt arrow, shooting a blast of lightning at the first archer. Having no time to dodge, he was knocked out of the tree with low health, and died when he hit the ground.

  Seeing my power, the other three all spread out, jumping between trees to cover my blind spots. Normally it would be a great plan, but with my Scan spell I didn’t have any blind spots. I kept shooting at one while focusing on the other two, creating earth walls whenever arrows got close to me. The downside is that any time my attention was diverted to block an arrow, my own arrow would disappear midflight.

  Once they noticed this fact, they began capitalizing on it. As soon as I launched an arrow, the two I didn’t aim at would each fire at me. If I didn’t want to get hit, my only choice was to block it. Grumbling, I decided to fuck hiding my abilities for the time being and let my bow shatter into light. Instead, I brought my hands up and gripped two steel handles. The three archers all froze when they realized I was holding a pair of revolvers.

  Normally, the range a revolver would be accurate at would be nowhere near enough to deal with the scouts sniping at me from the trees. With my Arcane Marksman talent, combined with my Lesser Creation, I was guaranteed to hit anything I could see clearly. And, there really is no dodging a bullet.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me..” I heard the ninja mutter from behind me as him and Denise clashed blades again, before they vanished once more. It seemed neither of them had an advantage for speed, but they had to use short bursts to not tire themselves out.

  Taking aim, I fired the first round at the closest archer, hitting him square in the chest with a normal bullet. It didn’t drop him right away, but it took out a considerable amount of his health, and made him stop attacking to hold his wound. Pulling the trigger again finished him off. Each shot sounded like a small explosion in my hand, so there was no doubt that the rest of the approaching forces knew what was happening. With my other revolver, I finished off the last two archers each with a Shock Bullet.

  “Are you going to keep this up? It doesn’t seem like you can beat Denise in speed.”

  When I seemed to ask the empty air, the ninja appeared not far away, panting for breath. Denise likewise appeared at my side, starting to show signs of exhaustion. “Just where the hell... did you get a gun in this… world.” He cast a look to Denise, and suddenly I thought more highly of him thanks to his wording. People like Kev refused to stop using terms like NPC or game.

  “I made it myself, of course. Didn’t you realize that you could make things from our world over here? You’re a ninja, so you must have made smoke bombs, shuriken, and various poisons, right?”

  “Heh… yeah. I like you, kid. And you’re right, if we both use that power then there won’t be any difference in our speed. But I think I’m done stalling for time, right?” As he said this, we could hear the sounds of approaching voices, and I started to see the other fifteen people closing in around us at a distance.

  “Out of curiosity, what rank are you within the Brigade?”

  “Second in command, Kirasami.” He grinned a bit after I asked his name. “She called you Jin, I believe. Had we met under different circumstances, the two of us might have been friends.”

  “Maybe. But let me ask you, is the leader of the Brigade on his way here now?”

  “Nah, that guy is at work for a while, so he couldn’t make it. You’ll probably meet him later.”

  The others were getting closer, but rather than attacking them I took the time for one last question. “I’ve got to ask, what time is it on the outside?”

  “Uh.. about noon, why? Shouldn’t your Capsule display tell you?” He blinked a bit to me, confused.

  “Hmm
, surprised you haven’t found out yet. Well, I’m sure you will before too long. Denise, keep an eye on him.” Glancing down to my Soulfire Ring, I saw that three of the stones were charged. Thirty minutes worth of Soulfire Blessing… Well, I should only need one stone this time. Denise nodded to me, readying her sword and pointing it at the ninja.

  Stepping back away from them, I activated the first stone on my ring, letting the white aura fill me. Even if I showed off my magic, it was still important to keep my link with Hell a secret for now. So, rather than wiping them out with Infernal Magic, I resorted to something else. “Mighty mother of the earth, ruling champion of the sky, combine your power and grant proof of the dominion. Leaf Blade Assault.”

  Setting myself as the center of the spell, every leaf within fifty meters rose up from the ground or fell from the branches of trees. After that, they began spinning rapidly, creating almost visible discs of wind around them that buzzed softly. The entire area sounded like a swarm of bees were passing through. Behind me, Kirasami just stared at what I was doing. Well, I guess that other bandit died before he realized what I killed him with.