The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (11 page)

Chapter
5

The next day, I wasn’t
able to spend with Denise, because it was time for class. But I knew
that when I got back, my two weeks would be over and we could leave
the city to begin our journey. When I saw Kevin later, he was
depressed because he had died a few times. Not from monsters, because
the ones around his city were easy for him to take care of. No…
he died from hunger, or eating something poisonous.

Thankfully, I wouldn’t
have to worry about that as long as I had Denise with me.
As
long as I have her, it’ll be alright.
The thought brought a smile to my lips, and when I got home, there
was a letter waiting for me.

Christopher Weston,

On behalf of the
Unicorn Corporation, I am authorized to offer you employment.

There weren’t very
many details. Apparently they wanted me for something they called an
Investigative Asset. The pay was surprisingly good, but there weren’t
any details on the job. I put the letter aside, and decided I’d
ask Denise her opinion and look at it again tomorrow.

When I logged into the
game, I found Denise waiting for me. But this time, she didn’t
tackle me and hug me, even though it was clear that she wanted to.
And.. I admit, I was thankful. She was wearing her skintight green
suit, but above it was leather armor, with her bow and quiver mounted
on her back, and a full backpack of what I assumed to be essential
supplies. If she had tackled me with all that.. I could just picture
my HP dropping from being crushed to death.

She did, however, smile
warmly to me. “Hey, you made it. I got something for you..”
She blushed a bit as she pulled off her backpack and dug around in
it. Upon seeing my curious expression, she pulled her hands out…
and with them a flowing green robe with ornate designs. “I had
a tailor make it.. it just got done today. You.. like it?”

I smiled to her, walked up
and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Love it. You really didn’t
have to go through all this trouble for me.”

I got a wicked grin for my
concern. “Oh, yes I did! I am not going to be seen adventuring
with someone that looks like they just crawled out of the slums!”
She laughed, pointing at my starter outfit.

“
Okay… fair
point. Now gimme my clothes, woman!” I said with a grin of my
own and snatched the robe from her hands, moving back into the
apartment to change into it. Knowing that we were about to leave
Rosenheim behind, I decided to take a look at our characters to make
sure we were ready.

Compared to Denise, I
have absolutely no combat ability. Damn, I even forgot to invest in
any attack spells!
Quickly pulling up the
spell window, I put in the Blast rune, hoping for an easy attack
spell.

Okay, good. Now I’m
not completely helpless in a fight. I’ve also got to work on my
summoning spells..

Once I was ready, I went
back out to the inn, and saw the middle aged man that Denise had
identified to me as another player. Him and Denise were shaking
hands, and saying goodbye. When I came out, she smiled to me and
waved me over.

“
Jin, come here!
This is Rusty. He’s the other foreigner I told you about. He
was nice enough to offer to take over the inn for me while we’re
gone.”

So she gave it to a
player? Well, that’s interesting. And he really named himself
Rusty, too. Wonder if it was an inside joke?
“Nice
to meet you, Rusty. I’m Jin.”

“
Oh, she’s
told me all about you, son. Don’t give her that look, it was
all good. I’m glad some of us are able to make a name for
ourselves here. I should have asked for a younger body, this old
thing wanted to give out as soon as I picked up a sword.”

I nodded to him, only
really half paying attention. “So, Denise, you ready to go?”

She quickly returned my
nod, obviously excited, “Ready as I’ll ever be!”

We said a final farewell
to Rusty, and went off to the city gates. As we arrived, I saw out
into the vast grasslands that surrounded the city for the first time.
I had never bothered checking the surroundings because I would be
tempted to try to leave early. But now, as I set out past the gate
and left the city behind, I got my first taste of the wilds.

Rolling hills and
grasslands stretched out for miles, and I could see a large forest in
the distance to the north. In the west, I saw scattered villages, and
in the east was grass as far as I could see. Of course, it wasn’t
an empty field.

Roaming the grasslands
directly around the city were what looked like wild dogs, snarling at
anyone that got too close. When we first saw one, Denise warned me
that they often harass travelers moving to and from the city.

Given her description, we
weren’t afraid of causing trouble by taking a few out. As she
knocked her arrow, I began working on my spell, grabbing my book and
reading it straight from the grimoire rather than the spell list.
“Warriors of light and magic, bestow unto me your spear. Mana
bolt!”

From my fingers, a thin
ray of light shot out and struck the dog right in the snout. Though,
despite the critical, it didn’t seem to do very much damage. I
shot three more rapid mana bolts before it started to slow down, and
Denise finished it off with an arrow.

“
Sorry… was
so focused on my studies I forgot to practice attack spells, heh..”

“
Don’t worry.
I’m sure you’ll be able to work it out quickly enough.”

She smiled to me as she
went to the fallen dog a few meters away and removed the arrow with a
sharp tug. Then she nodded to me and we went on to the next. After a
couple of easy kills, where she let me practice my mana bolt before
delivering the killshot, I got a skill-up message.

Okay, maybe this is
what I needed?

Bringing up my hands, I
targeted the next dog and began the chant. This time, the ray of
light was about twice as large as before, and speared straight into
the leg of the dog, blowing it off.

“
See? That’s
what I’m talking about!” I could hear Denise’s
triumphant cry from behind me as I shot another bolt at its snout to
finish it off.
Okay, so using a chant
increases its effective rank by 1 tier. That means now I’m
firing Advanced level bolts when I take the time to cast it.

“
Yeah.. we can head
further out now. No need to cling to the walls, right?” I
smiled back to her and she nodded.

“
Sure, which way you
want to go?”

“
How about we head
north? You said that the elves are good at nature magic and archery,
so we could both learn something by visiting there.” She nodded
at my suggestion with a smile and we took off.

As we moved further away
from the city, the Wild Dogs were replaced by Wolves, and even with
my improved Mana Bolt, it took more than one shot to take them down.
Denise couldn’t finish them off immediately either, so it was
starting to get more intense. And even though I kept an eye out for
loot--this is a video game still right? Monsters drop loot-- all I
found were low grade canine fangs.

When the sun started to
set, we heard a howl from a ways off, and neither of us could quite
make out the moving shapes in the darkness. Me being the prestigious
mage that I am, I conjured up a light spell, and threw it off in the
direction of the sound.

“
I really don’t
think you should--too late.” Denise finished with a sigh, as
the light illuminated a pack of wolves which had been fighting over a
fallen deer. When the light reached them, suddenly their attention
found a new target and they turned towards us.

“
Noted. In the
future, do not poke the angry wolves.” I prepared myself for
battle, raising my hands as Denise nocked an arrow and let it fly,
striking one of the wolves in their leg. If they weren’t going
to swarm us before, they are now!

With the pack racing
towards us, I fired off a series of mana bolts, taking down one while
Denise took down another two. But they were getting too close, and
there were still too many to take down in the time we had left.

“
Okay, time for plan
B!” I had time for maybe two quick chants before they were upon
us, so I gambled. “Spirit of wind and chaos, eyes which gaze
upon the hearts of man, place the mark upon this soul!” A
glowing rune, the mark of Binding, appeared on the forehead of the
lead wolf, but it didn’t even seem to notice as I quickly began
my second chant. “Guardians of the earth, answer my call and
become my shield! Wall of clay!” Spreading out my mana, I
brought four walls up around us to form a dome of earth, and could
hear the wolves crashing into it. Unfortunately, that maneuver took
down half of my mana.

Denise looked at me in the
darkness, “Well, what’re we going to do now?” She
asked as I saw messages appearing marking that the wall wasn’t
going to last much longer.

“
Uhm…
improvise?” I put my hand on the wall . “This may not get
rid of them all. Hell, this may not even work. You ready to kick butt
when the wall comes down?”

“
Yeah, I’ll be
damned if I get taken out by a pack of mutts on my first day. Do it.”

I nodded, bringing out my
original spell, and strengthening it with the chant. “Warriors
of light and magic, bestow unto me your spear. Become!” A light
shot from my hand into the Wall of Clay, and I swiped out the Wall
rune to replace with the Shoot rune. “Mana Bolt!”

The wall around us
exploded with a deafening force, spraying out in spears of stone that
skewered the wolves attacking it. Even though the blast shook us for
a few moments before we were able to stand, the wolves were still
unable to get to their feet. Those that survived were quickly put
down by Denise, while I just stared at what happened.

“
Hey Jin.. I hate to
point out the obvious.. okay I don’t, but.. That wasn’t a
mana bolt. Was it? It looked different.”

“
Uhm.. yeah.
Apparently I just made an earth spear spell.”

“
Huh. Well, that
will certainly be useful. By the way, it won’t be so…
blasty next time, will it?” She asked, tapping her head as if
trying to knock the ringing out of her ear.

“
Oh god I hope not.”
Glancing to our HP bars, I saw that my mana was almost completely
gone, and both of our HP took a hit from that shock.

“
Let’s rest
for a few minutes. You got a knife we can use? It won’t be
convenient to run back to town for meat.” She nodded to me and
pulled out a knife, getting to work on skinning the various wolves.
I’m man enough to admit I wasn’t man enough to watch
that, so I took watch.