The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith Read online

  “You’re old.” He said it frankly, as if just stating a fact.

  “Heh, I suppose I am. I guess I’m what you would call a late bloomer?” Devlyn nodded as if that explained everything.

  “Okay. Need any help?” He tilted his head as he asked.

  “Sure. We’ve gone over some runes, but I’m not sure how to take that and turn it into a spell, you know?”

  “Oh, that’s easy. We went over basic casting last week.” He moved over and sat beside me, keeping an eye on me like I was either a new toy or a new puzzle. Possibly both. “Close your eyes, and focus. Think of the rune for light. You know that rune, right?” When I nodded, he continued. “Okay, think of light. Then feel it, let it flow into you.” This kid seemed to be explaining things like he was an expert, so I just listened.

  “Alright. Now, capture that feeling, and push it out in front of you.” I’ve never quite had to think about pushing a feeling, but I could feel the warmth of light throughout my body, like a separate energy that appeared when I had called it. I tried to focus it in front of me like he had said, and suddenly I could tell from behind my closed eyes that there was new light before me. I also heard the beep that accompanied a message opening. “Great! You’re learning really well!” I opened my eyes and saw that his chest was puffed out, certain that my progress was due to his teaching. Then I turned my attention to the messages in front of me.

  You have succeeded in casting your first spell! Spell window unlocked!

  Light has been added to spell window.

  Magical Knowledge has increased to level 2

  Magical Talent has increased to level 2

  Blinking, I lost my focus on the ball of light, and it promptly faded. Instead, I opened my character window immediately.

  Name: Jin

  Race: Human

  Title: None

  Fame: 20

  Gild: 0

  Level: 5

  Health: 100

  Mana: 110/125

  Strength: 10

  Agility: 10

  Endurance: 10

  Wisdom: 15

  Intelligence: 25

  Luck: 5

  Attack: 10

  Defense: 10

  Points Available: 10

  Talents: Magical Talent 2, Magical Knowledge 2, Navigation 1

  I gained two levels with that? Nice! I invested all of my points into Intelligence this time, realizing that if a simple Light spell needed 15 mana, I’d need a lot more than I had.

  “Thanks, Devlyn. That really helped a lot, I think.” I smiled to the boy next to me, who nodded before getting up and returning to his own practice. Meanwhile, I opened my own books and began studying. Now that my intelligence was higher, it wasn’t likely to increase as easily, but I still needed to soak up every bit of information I could.

  I blocked out everything around me as I read through the books, and didn’t stop until a message popped up in front of me.

  Satiety down to 50%. You need to eat or your stats will begin to drop.

  I’m not one to question the wisdom of a game message, especially when my stomach agreed, so I grabbed the lunch that Denise had made me, a pair of sandwiches, and chowed down. Once I finished, the message changed to state my satiety had been restored. Mentally, I thanked her for the food and then went back to reading. By mid-afternoon, I had read through the first of the books, and my Magical Knowledge had risen another level. By now, most of the basic runes were easy for me to read, and there were only a few in the book that were still unknown to me.

  However, I was forced to stop, at least for a little while, because there was a loud beeping in my ear followed by another message.

  6:00AM.

  It was the middle of the afternoon, so it took me a moment to understand. Oh! Right, my morning alarm.

  I had been surprised because I had actually forgotten that it was the morning in reality. Closing my eyes, I sent the command to log out, and my world was plunged into darkness.

  As I opened my eyes, I was met with the cool metal of the Link Capsule on my forehead, and yawned. I had just eaten lunch in the game a short while ago, but my real stomach was now begging me for breakfast. I settled for a simple bowl of cereal, telling myself that The Dive would make an excellent diet plan if people forgot to come out. Before logging back in, I sent a quick text to Kevin thanking him for telling me about the game.

  My return gave about as much attention as my first arrival, most people having simply assumed that I used an invisibility spell to vanish for a half hour. The first thing I noticed was that there were less students here. Most seemed to have left for the night, and those remaining were packing up.

  Following their example, I gathered my books and went to the library to return them before leaving to go back to the inn. I set another alarm for noon in reality, giving me about eleven hours in the game. On my way back to the inn, I went ahead and called up my character window one last time to check my progress.

  Name: Jin

  Race: Human

  Title: None

  Fame: 0

  Gild: 10

  Level: 6

  Health: 100

  Mana: 200

  Strength: 10

  Agility: 10

  Endurance: 10

  Wisdom: 15

  Intelligence: 40

  Luck: 5

  Attack: 10

  Defense: 10

  Talents: Magical Talent 2, Magical Knowledge 3, Navigation 1

  I was satisfied with my intelligence for now, so I decided I’d work on some other stuff next time I leveled. What surprised me most was when I got to the Sleeping Soldier, I was treated with a new sight. It wasn’t Denise behind the counter, but a middle aged man with dark brown hair. Denise was sitting off at a table, now wearing a tight fitting green outfit that showed off a good deal of her bust, and had a bow strapped to her back.

  She smiled at me as she saw me enter. “Hey! Was beginning to think you weren’t going to make it back!” She waved me over and we went back to her apartment in the inn, leaving the man in charge of the inn. “So, tell me everything.”

  I laughed a bit as I explained the events of the day, telling her about how I got into the college, took a class with a bunch of kids, and managed to cast my first spell. She was beaming throughout the whole story, nodding here and there. “I knew you’d be able to do it. Normally, kids train for months before they can even cast a simple spell. You foreigners definitely have an advantage there.”

  “Looks like. Okay, your turn.” I grinned to her, motioning to her new outfit, which got a bit of a blush.

  “Yeah.. well, I told you I’d be going to the Fighters’ Hall. I couldn’t exactly train in a dress, right? So, I got this. Think it suits me?” She smiled to me again, waving to her tight attire.

  “I think it looks lovely.”

  “Well, thanks. I also did some work with the bow, and noticed I was getting pretty good before long. It was like I had been born with it!” She laughed at the idea, giving me a thought.

  “I think that might have been my fault.” I looked over to her, getting a curious look for my comment. “I read earlier that when someone from this realm joins a foreigner like me, they can grow in power as their partner does.” Mentally, I called up Denise’s character window, not sure if it would work or not.

  Name: Denise

  Race: Human

  Title: Innkeeper

  Fame: 30

  Gild: ???

  Level: 6

  Health: 120

  Mana: 0

  Strength: 17

  Agil
ity: 30+1

  Endurance: 14

  Wisdom: 11

  Intelligence: 12

  Luck: 5

  Attack: 10 + 21

  Defense: 10 + 19

  Talents: Merchant 1, Archery 3, Reflex 2

  She kept her curious look as I studied her stats. It looked like she was becoming quite the support archer. “So, as you get better with your magic, I’ll get better with my bow?”

  “That seems to be the case.” Why can’t I see how much gild she has? Maybe it’s because she has it in a safe or something? “Though, that is an interesting concept. If I learn faster than normal, then maybe this will apply to you as well.”

  “Well, either way, at least I don’t have to worry about you leaving me behind in your adventures now.” She gave me a look, “I don’t, right?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, “Of course not. You’re stuck with me for a while. Though, I hope you don’t mind if I rely on you a bit for funds?” I tried to smile convincingly to her, but she just shook her head with a grin. “Between my studies and my duties back home, it’ll be hard for me to take on the normal tasks to earn money for my tuition and supplies.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I see how it is. You just wanted to butter me up so you could get at my purse, huh?” She joked. “Don’t worry. You’re fun to have around, so I can put up with it.”

  “Thank you. On that note, would you be able to help me with something? The professor said I’d need a journal for class starting tomorrow, but I don’t really know where I’d get one, or for how much.”

  “A journal? Sure. I’ll grab something for you before your classes tomorrow. You can count on me.” She puffed her chest out comically, and I laughed again.

  “Okay. Also, tomorrow morning I’ll have to go back to my realm for a bit. It shouldn’t take more than a couple hours and then I’ll be back.”

  My warning earned a bit of a grin from her. “My, telling me every time you plan to be away, are you? People will talk at this rate.” She laughed at her comment, and I shook my head with a blush. It seemed I was starting to get lost in the game.

  There was a slight ringing sensation in my ear that I tried to shake off, and then a message appeared in front of me.

  Incoming call: Kevin

  I nodded to Denise, and told her that I had to go take care of something. Excusing myself to another room, I answered the call, using my thoughts to speak instead of my voice. Hey, if it works for the interface, maybe it’ll work for a call too?

  Hey Kevin, what’s up?

  “Hey man, got your message. So, you really tried it out, huh?”

  Yeah, I’m in the game right now actually.

  “No shit? Where’d you end up?”

  I’m at the Wynterrose capital, you?

  “...Uh… I’ll get back to you on that. I’m a human, but I haven’t been able to get specifics out of the NPCs yet. They’re pretty real, aren’t they?”

  Unbelievably. How long have you been playing?

  “I just started last week. Managed to get myself into a Fighters’ area the other day.”

  Nice, I joined the Mages’ College today.

  “Already? How’d you manage that?”

  All about the role playing, man. You’ve been here longer than I have, so you should understand when I say you can’t treat this like a normal game.

  “Yeah, I get what you mean. I’ll let you get back to that. Maybe we’ll cross paths one day in The Dive!”

  Sure. I’ll add you to my friends list if we do.

  After Kevin hung up, I glanced around the room I had wandered into. It was only then that I noticed… this was Denise’s bedroom. Blushing a bit, I hurried out of the room, finding an almost-as red Denise sitting on the couch. God, what did that have to look like to her, for me to randomly go to her room to take care of something. “Sorry… one of my friends was trying to contact me…” I attempted to explain, growing gradually more tomato-like.

  Chapter 3

  The next day, after I got back into The Dive after lunch, Denise was waiting for me with another packed lunch and a small journal. “Time for class!” She sent me off with a smile, and I thanked her for the food and journal.

  The guards seemed reluctant to let me back into the college, but when I showed them my silver emblem, they relented and allowed me in. Today’s class was focusing on the essentials of spellcasting. Namely, the runes, focus, and something that separated it from basic casting. The incantation.

  “All spells possess an incantation. And while it is possible to utilize a spell without it, the result is vastly inferior to a proper spell. Keep in mind when you are creating your spell that even those have an incantation that you need to figure out. Typically, it is based on the runes used in the spell, or the specific method of casting. It is not unusual for spells to break this pattern, however. That is why mages often carry a grimoire with them, recording their spells.”

  Magical Knowledge has increased to 4

  You can now utilize a spell’s Chant in order to strengthen it. Note that without the Chant, a spell functions at roughly 30% of its normal power. Uncovering a spell’s Chant requires sufficient Intelligence and Magical Knowledge.

  With this information, I quickly invested my points into Intelligence again, and opened my Spell window.

  Light(1/10 Beginner)- A basic spell that enables you to create a light source. Chant: Northern stars, grant this traveler safety in the darkness.

  I smiled inwardly. So, spells could level up as well as Talents. But, my level doesn’t reflect my spells. In other words, I’ve got to level up my abilities to match my level or I’ll be the one left behind.

  The rest of the class followed like that, and I gained one more point in Intelligence. When we got into the practice hall, I made my way to my corner and pulled out my journal, writing down the chant for the Light spell. “Alright, let’s give it a shot..” I brought my hands up in front of me. “Northern stars, grant this traveler safety in the darkness. Light.” As I spoke, I kept the image I had used the day before, but it flowed much more easily, and when I opened my eyes, I saw a perfect sphere of light in front of me, hovering by my will alone. I also finally noticed that under the red bar at the corner of my vision was a blue one, and it was slowly declining.

  So, that’s my mana bar. Well, now I know how to monitor it. I kept the ball in front of me, before floating it around and up into the air. When my mana was down to the halfway mark, I dismissed the spell and opened the spell window again.

  Light(4/10 Beginner)- A basic spell that enables you to create a light source. Chant: Northern stars, grant this traveler safety in the darkness.

  Okay, so the more I use a spell, the better I am with it. I nodded to myself and just practiced that spell a couple more times before stopping for the day.

  The next few days passed in a similar manner. On school days, I’d explain to Denise that I’d be gone for about a day, and she understood. She was a bit sad to see me go, but knew I’d be coming back when I could. And every time I came back, she gave me a hug and wanted me to tell her about my day. Given my life in reality, that was a pretty short explanation.

  During the days in the game while I was online, I spent my time in the College, and for about a week I was gradually improving my abilities. But after a week, we got a new kind of lesson.

  “Alright, kids. Today we’ll cover the basics of elemental magic. So far, you’ve all managed to perform rudimentary spellcasting, but now we’re going to move on to the next level. First of all, I would like everyone to choose a primary element to focus on. For the list of elements, see the table in the back of your book.” I opened my book and looked for the described table. It was written in runes, so if it weren’t for my Magical Knowledge talent, I wouldn’t have been able to read it.