The Dive: Birth of a Hero Page 22

  Intelligence: 20

  Luck: 40

  Attack: 10 + 221.5

  Defense: 15+350(+70)

  Talents: Swordsmanship 31, Shield 31, Heavy Armor 33, Hidden Strength 6, Hammer Mastery 23, Fortified Health 8

  Title Bonuses: +10 all stats, +20 Luck

  Equipment Bonus: +20% Defense, +50% Health Recovery

  Chapter 15

  When I woke up, I laid in bed for a good ten minutes, simply staring at the ceiling. Finally going to leave this place, and get on with our journey. Cynthia’s training was going smoothly, and in terms of melee ability she already rivaled Denise. Despite the hundred levels of difference between us, she could still fight on par with the two of us.

  I’ll have to let Kev know I won’t be able to meet up with him for a while, and then take the boat to the mainland. If I travel normally, it’ll be about two or three weeks before I get back to Dariel’s clan, but that will give Cynthia plenty of time to catch up with us. We should pick up another weapon or two before we leave so that her training doesn’t hit a bottleneck.

  Sitting up from the bed, I glanced over at Denise and Cynthia, smiling slightly. From the looks of things, Denise had woken up long ago, and was waiting for the rest of us to get up. “Didn’t sleep much?”

  She shook her head, smiling to me. “Too excited. You’re going to be fighting that guy today, right? Who knows how many lackeys he’ll have hanging around? Things might not go as simply as you want.”

  “So basically, you’re looking forward to them double crossing us and being able to attack all of them to ‘defend’ me?”

  “Yup! Why wouldn’t I be?” She laughed after saying so, and I couldn’t help but shake my head.

  “Okay, but first let’s get a couple more weapons for Cynthia, so that we can leave immediately after the duel.”

  As if saying her name woke her up, Cynthia sat herself up on her bed, rubbing her eyes. “Hmm? Already?”

  “Yeah, and we’ve also got to get a carriage for Midnight, since it would be hard for all three of us to ride him at once.”

  After nodding to my words, Denise spoke up with a smile, “Well then, I’ll grab the carriage, and you two can get the weapons. Two should be enough to train for now, right? If we need more, we can just have Jin make them.”

  Cynthia nodded, lowering her head in thought. “Well then… how about a spear? And maybe another sword?”

  I smiled at Cynthia, nodding my head. “Okay, let’s stop by the blacksmith and see what he’s got. If he doesn’t have anything suitable, we’ll just wait to get you good weapons until we either get to Hell or the trading town in Wynterrose. They had a lot of good equipment, as I recall.”

  With that settled, we split up to perform our individual tasks. While the blacksmith did have a decent spear, there wasn’t another good sword after the one we bought earlier. Then again, maybe I was just being too picky. With Cynthia’s first sword being a fire-type bastard sword, I was trying to find a short sword for her with either wind or water enchantments.

  In the end, all we bought from the blacksmith was a spear that had a lightning enchantment, and a book about blacksmithing. I promised Cynthia that I would make a forge for her on the Unity, and supply her with plenty of ore so that she could practice until we reached the dwarf mountains. Hopefully, she might even be able to make her own sword by that time.

  By the time we were done shopping, the sun was already high in the sky, indicating it was nearly noon already. It would take about an hour, at least, to get out to the forest normally, so I instructed Cynthia to meet up with Denise and head there on their own. In the meantime, I pulled out my Staff of Winter Storms, and teleported myself to the outskirts of the forest.

  “Message, Darion.” I sent out a call to the Brigade leader, and he was quick to answer.

  “Ah, there you are. Was thinking that you might have chickened out and decided not to show.”

  “Sorry, no, was just getting some last minute items prepared so that we can leave after the duel.”

  “Aye, that’s fine. You made it to the forest yet?”

  I chuckled, nodding my head out of habit. “Just got here. Where do you want to meet?”

  “How about on the road where you first encountered my men? That place should be good enough for our purposes.”

  Also gives me a significant advantage with my nature magic… “Alright, I’ll head that way.” Remembering Denise’s words, I silently activated my Scan spell, pushing extra mana into it in order to have the Perfect Vision effect applied. Thankfully, none of the bandits had moved within my range, so it seemed to be clear.

  “I’ll be waiting, and I trust you haven’t told the city’s guards about this?”

  “Of course not,” I laughed, shaking my head. “If I wanted out of this duel, there are other ways for me to do it.”

  “I figured.” And with that, we ended the call. Holding my enchanted staff, I walked off towards the path we had agreed upon. Since there is only one main road through the forest, it was rather easy to find, but I was still walking on foot so it took a while to get there.

  Suddenly, behind me I heard someone take a sharp breath. At the same time, Denise entered my field of vision, appearing directly behind me. “Oh no you don’t… not having all this fun by yourself.”

  Glancing back to her, I clutched my side and began laughing again. “Don’t tell me you used Lightspeed just to catch up to me before the duel began.”

  “Well… what if I did?” Denise puffed her cheeks out and looked at me, before smiling. “Come on, we don’t want to keep them waiting.”

  Nodding to her, we continued walking down the road at a leisurely pace, allowing Denise plenty of time to get over the fatigue caused by using Lightspeed to cover such a large distance. After another good ten minutes of walking, I spotted Darion in the distance, holding a great-sword one handed over his shoulder. There were also various hidden bandits, but they seemed to be doing little more than watching for now.

  Once we approached close enough for him to see us, Darion’s face gave a wide smile. “Good, good, you’re here. And this must be the lovely lady that travels with you. She knows not to interfere with the duel, yes?”

  Denise glanced around, looking to a few of the hidden bandits. “As long as your people don’t interfere, I won’t.”

  “Fair enough, fair enough. Well, would you mind stepping to the side? It wouldn’t be very good if you got caught in the crossfire, right?” He shifted his gaze to Denise, and she nodded, moving a bit off the path. “Okay, now this is how it’s going to go. We discovered this duel system about a week after we joined. It only works between us ‘foreigners’, but it makes sure that the fight ends before death.”

  After I nodded silently, he continued. “I challenge you, Jin, to a duel.”

  Do you accept Darion’s challenge to duel?

  I nodded again, “Alright, I accept.”

  You have accepted Darion’s challenge. If either party should be attacked by a third party during the duel, the duel will be canceled. The duel will end when ether one party surrenders or his health falls to 0. In the event of the latter, any damaging effects will be canceled and the loser’s health will be set to 1.

  Glancing over the description of the duel, I smiled inwardly. Then, at the corner of my vision, I noticed a countdown clock, which had already reached six. Readying my staff, I aimed the lightning end at Darion while taking a defensive formation.

  As expected, once the timer hit zero, Darion ran forward, still holding his large sword with a single hand. Now that I had a better look at it, there were two stones embedded in it, one red and one yellow. Fire and Spark stones?

  I didn’t have the time to clearly examine the Mana Stones in his weapon, but it wasn’t like I was using a normal staff myself. “Lightning.” Saying the spell name, I channeled my magic into the tip of the staff, shooting a beam of energy to Darion. He blinked, barely having enough time to place his sword in the path of the beam.
Of course, that didn’t completely save him, as he was pushed back to his starting point and received a good bit of damage.

  “Good, good, as expected.” He grinned to me, using his free hand to pull a pair of throwing knives from his pockets. “How will you handle these?”

  After speaking, he threw both of the knives at me and began charging again. Rather than dodging them, I simply raised my Barrier effect, allowing the knives to bounce off the invisible shield and drain my mana rather than my health. Of course, my mana was replenished almost immediately.

  At the same time, I struck my staff to the ground and chanted. “Shield of storms, armor forged within the clouds, become one with my body and radiate from my soul.” By the time I was done speaking, Darion was right in front of me, swinging his sword down as if to cleave my head off. Of course, that wasn’t so likely to happen either. As my Lightning Aura spell activated, my body sped up well beyond its normal limits, allowing me to duck under his blade.

  Flipping my staff around, I channeled my energy into it while striking him with the ice end. “Frost Nova.” With the second spell activation, a section of Darion’s stomach turned blue and frosted over, causing him to yelp from the sudden pain. Noticing that my mana was slowly dropping, I was able to guess that Lightning Aura used more mana than I recovered at this point.

  As such, I quickly moved my body back, out of his striking range, and canceled the spell. Unless I was mistaken, his health should at least be comparable to my mana, with a defense about as good as my passive resistance from my grimoire. Once I was at a safe distance, I reached into my pocket and pulled out two stones, one blue and one yellow. These were the Mana Stones I had been practicing with in secret, and I was ready to try them out.

  Holding the two stones up, I relied on Darion’s reduced speed to complete my plan. “Extract Components.” The two spell diagrams in the stones rose up, floating in the air in front of me. “Merge Aura.” Now overlapping, the two spells joined together, sparks radiating from the air where they were placed.

  Bringing up my staff, I thrust it directly into the center of the diagram, using the ice end to attack. “Wind Blade.” Channeling my magic into the staff, and thus into the spell diagram in the air, I activated four spells simultaneously. First, the Ice Land and Shock Bolts activated, sending bolts of ice wrapped in lightning towards Darion. Then, Frost Nova and Wind Blade were launched from my staff, creating a blade of ice that followed the previous attack.

  Seeing the incoming barrage, Darion’s eyes went wide, but a smile crept across his face. “Engulf.” Darion’s sword glowed briefly, before his entire body was wrapped in flames. Since both combinations of spells relied heavily on ice, this was a valid method of defending himself, as now they struck his sword with reduced power. “Very good, very good! Now, it’s my turn!”

  Still wrapped in fire, Darion raised his sword to the sky. “Devour the sky!” Dark clouds gathered overhead, and Darion lowered his sword to point to me. Having an idea of what was coming, I immediately activated my Lightning Aura again, just before a large bolt of lightning struck down at me.

  Thankfully, my aura was able to negate most of the damage, but it still hurt quite a lot. Glaring at Darion, I aimed a hand towards him. “I’ll pay you back, don’t worry. Queen of darkness, she who rules the night, I ask thee for sanctuary in this time of need.” From my hand, a ball of darkness shot out, which quickly expanded to surround the area. At the same time, I canceled my aura, meaning that the only lights in the area now were from Darion’s flames and my glowing eyes.

  “Consuming shadows, twisting nightmares, may the dreams of man fuel your gluttony. Laws of times long past, sever the bonds that bind.” First, my Hungry Shadows spell activated, causing my magical sphere of darkness to start trying to attack him. Next, my Drain Magic temporarily turned off his flame aura. There was a brief pause before a pained cry rang out through the darkness, Darion’s body quickly being eaten away by the shadows.

  Darion’s health has fallen below 0. Jin is the winner of the duel.

  Infernal Magic has increased to 26

  Nature Magic has increased to 21

  Arcane Staff has increased to 6

  As the prompt appears, my active spells are canceled, all except for my Scan. Laying on the ground at the same point he was standing moments ago, Darion’s body looks as if it has been dipped in acid. Burns cover the majority of his skin, and his armor is torn in several areas. At first, I thought something might have gone wrong and he really died, but after a few moments he took a deep, pained breath.

  “B-boss!” One of the bandits jumped out and ran over to him. Hmm? Isn’t that the same one I encountered last time on this road? The familiar man reached into his pack and pulled out a red potion, helping Darion drink it. Gradually, the various wounds on his body began fading, though his armor remained in its tattered condition.

  “Ohh? There are health potions as well? Maybe I should take up alchemy…” I smiled to myself, watching as Darion recovered. Of course, judging by the looks the surrounding Brigade members were giving me, they wouldn’t let me leave without a fight if I tried.

  Giving a small cough, Darion finally opened his eyes, grinning a bit while looking at me. “Damn… that was a bit much, wasn’t it? Never heard of offensive shadow magic like that…”

  “Ah, I take it Kirasami tried to find some? Well, I don’t think it’ll be a problem where he is now, though.”

  “Heh, guess that’s that. What was that spell combination you used before? I couldn’t tell how many spells you activated at once.” Darion smirked, struggling to bring himself to his feet.

  “Hmm? Oh, that was something I’ve been working on. It’s possible to extract a spell diagram from Mana Stones, though not very useful unless you do it to more than one at a time.” That was what I had done with the two Mana Stones I pulled out, using the same method as we used for the ritual to alter the contract between Heaven and Hell. Except this time, I merely extracted and overlaid two spells from the stones, and then combined it with another combination.

  “Really? There’s quite a lot to learn about this world! Well, a deal’s a deal. My men won’t bother you while you go.”

  I smiled a bit, nodding to Darion. “Thanks. My last companion will be here soon. By the way, where did you get that potion from? I haven’t come across any healing potions yet.”

  “One of our men tried his hand at magic, but wasn’t able to stick to it. In the end, he started developing alchemy. Pretty convenient for an alchemist to have an entire forest to gather materials in without monsters, right?”

  “True, but I’d watch out if I were you. Something big might show up to fill the gap left by the monsters.”

  “Eh? You mean a boss might appear? Is that even possible, so close to the city?”

  “Who knows? But if it does, you’ll have to use a lot of manpower to take it down, or else flee the area.” I smiled, hearing the hoofbeats of Midnight a short distance behind us. Pulled behind him was a small wooden wagon, with Cynthia in the driver’s chair nervously.

  “Jin! Did I miss it?” She called out, taking a look at us. Once she saw Darion’s current state, she let out a sigh. “Man, I wanted to see you fighting for a change.”

  Denise jumped up onto the seat next to Cynthia, laughing. “It was okay. A bit short, but that’s to be expected.”

  Shaking my head, I hopped on the wagon, sitting behind the girls. “Oh, and Darion? Never let a caster finish their chant. Their spells are a lot more powerful if they get the whole thing out like you let me do.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He shook his head as well. “You didn’t bring out the guns, so I still probably would have lost.”

  “Maybe we can duel again next time we meet.” I chuckled, and he nodded as Midnight began trotting down the road.

  Denise looked back at me, and sighed. “Well, we’ll be camping tonight. With three of us, as well as the wagon, we can’t expect Midnight to make the same kind of time we’re used to.�
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  “That’s fine. You should drive for a while. Cynthia’s got to study her new book until we get back to the ship.” I smiled back to them, and Cynthia nodded. Climbing back into the wagon, she pulled out her basic blacksmithing book and happily began reading through it.

  “Take it we’re not getting teleported there, then. Ah well, I expected as much.” Denise chuckled, taking over the reins for Midnight.

  Laying down in the wagon, I thought back to the duel. It had admittedly been a bit one-sided, to such a degree that I doubted his level. But at the same time, I had been able to use most of the spells I cast with their full chant. That itself was surprising for me, because normally I would need to look them up when I cast them. Maybe it was an effect of one of my skills that allowed me to easily memorize the chants?

  While riding casually down the road, there was a distinct lack of traffic in either direction. This was likely because of the Eternal Brigade, since they tended to ambush travelers along the road between the two cities. However, eventually we passed a single person walking towards the city.