The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (12 page)

By the time she was done,
we now had acquired several Wolf Meats and Wolf Furs. Maybe we could
sell them in a town? But first, we set up camp for the night. Well…
I set up camp for the night while Denise made dinner.

Since I was worried that
we would be attacked by more wolves in the middle of the night, I got
to work on the spell creation window. With my current Magical Talent
level, I was able to create spells with four runes. I started with
the ‘Awareness’ rune, and put in ‘Area’. That
should be enough for an alarm spell, right?

Scan? That’s…
not what I wanted.

I tried again, using the
same two runes, but this time I added in a rune that is difficult to
translate directly into a single word, so the best I could do is
‘Toggle’.

“
Aha, there we go.”
I smiled to myself as I finished setting up the tent.

“
What’s that?”
Denise asked, looking over to me. “Ah, you finished.”

“
Oh, yeah. I was
just working out a spell so that we could sleep without worrying
about being attacked.” I kept my smile on as I looked to her.

“
Hmm, that will be
helpful. There aren’t any shelters nearby without going back to
town, so I was worried we’d have to sleep in shifts.”

I shook my head to her.
“That shouldn’t be the case.” I brought my grimoire
up to read out the spell. “With my eyes closed, I see all
before me.”

I focused on a perimeter
extending about twenty meters around the tent. “Alarm.”
There was a faint light that twisted and lit up the perimeter and
then faded away.

“
Alright, that
should do it!” I smiled to Denise and sat down near the fire.
“By the way.. there is something I wanted to talk to you
about.”

“
Oh? What is it?”
She asked while finishing up the meat. I have never had wolf stew
before, but when she makes it I’ll eat anything.

“
I got a job offer
back in my world, but it was a bit strange.”

“
Why? What was it?”

“
Well, that’s
just it. I don’t entirely know. In my world, when you want a
job, you have to apply for it, hope you get picked, and then go to an
interview. But with this, they just sent me a letter offering me a
job.”

“
Okay, so what’s
the problem?” Denise tilted her head to the side as she spoke,
letting her stew cool down.

“
Well, if I take a
job.. I probably won’t be able to spend as much time here..”
I looked down into my bowl, as if the answer could be found somewhere
in there.

“
Ah.. But you still
need a job in order to pay for things in your world, right?”
When I nodded, she continued. “Then you should at least see
what the job is. If it is something that sounds good, I think you
should take it. I may not like it, but I could survive if you spent a
bit more time in your world… just so long as you don’t
forget about me.”

“
Of course I
wouldn’t forget about you!” I blurted out before I could
stop myself. “No matter what job I get, I’ll still spend
as much time as I can here. Being in this world with you.. well
amazing just doesn’t cut it.”

She nodded to me, hiding a
smile while she ate. “Good.. Because you know it’d suck
to go through all of this just to give up at the beginning, right?”

I had to laugh, “Yeah.
Hell, I have already left my mark on this world just by being the
first foreigner to graduate the Mages’ College. What kind of
legacy would I be leaving if I just vanished after that?”

I resolved myself to call
them and ask about the job in the morning, and we finished the night
in relative peace, cuddled together in the single tent. More and more
I saw The Dive as where I belonged, instead of my own reality.

In the morning, I said my
goodbyes to Denise, and told her I’d be back as soon as I could
be. She nodded, and wished me luck with the job, but her eyes showed
how sad she was to see me go.

As my world returned to
the cold normalcy of my apartment, I slid off my Link capsule and sat
up.
Okay, think… what do I know about
this.
I had heard the name of the Unicorn
Corporation before. They were famous for their -- admittedly former--
top of the line RPG games. I had actually played a few of their
games. None of it comes close to The Dive, but they are quite
popular.

But what would they
want with an Investigative Asset? And what does that even mean. For
that matter, why not just email me or something? Only bill collectors
use regular mail these days, and that’s just so they have an
excuse to charge you if it gets lost.

Curiosity, thy name is
Christopher. I went back to the letter and found the number. Pulling
out my cell, I saw that I had a missed text from Kevin saying he
finally managed to get off the island. Ignoring it for now, I dialed
the number and let it ring.

“
Hello. This is
Christopher Weston calling, correct?” A deep voice spoke on the
other end, and I at first expected that they were using something to
disguise their voice. It just sounded… wrong.

“
Uh.. yeah. I got a
letter last night, something about a job?” Suspicion was
currently wrestling with my curiosity, but self preservation hadn’t
quite won out yet.

“
That is correct. To
confirm, you play the character Jin in The Dive. This is correct?”

They know about my
character? But.. how?
“Yeah… and
this is also starting to get a little bit creepy. How do you know
that?”

“
Unimportant. How
much do you know about The Dive?”

“
It’s an
amazingly realistic game, has features I never dreamed would be real,
and is completely free?”

The filtered voice seemed
to find my remarks amusing. “I see. Yes, we wish to hire you as
an Investigative Asset.”

“
And as I’ve
been trying to find out, what does that even mean?”

“
We want you to
investigate The Dive.”

“
You… what?
Can’t you just research it on the net like everyone else?”

“
It appears you are
unaware. All information posted electronically about The Dive is
immediately erased. It is impossible to even access their website
outside of a Link capsule, and the only thing you see is a download
screen. You witnessed this yourself, correct?”

“
Yeah, of course.
You have to in order to get the game.”

“
According to all
resources, that website does not exist.”

I blinked, and almost
dropped my phone. “So.. you’ve got a ghost website, a
mysterious game, and someone erasing everything connected to it as
fast as it’s posted?”

“
Correct. We require
someone to investigate from within the game, and uncover the truth
behind it. All reports will be filed either over the phone or in
paper. Your pay will be one thousand dollars a month, plus all living
expense costs. There is no deadline on this job, but be aware that
you are not the only person we have hired. If someone else finds the
answer first, all others will be fired. The one who succeeds will
continue to receive the monthly funds after completion of the job.”

“
Okay… wow…
Obvious question here but… why me?”

“
We have resources
within the game that informed us of the character Jin. First to
graduate from the Mages’ College, and you are already immersed
in the world. All of this makes you an ideal candidate.”

Something about how he
said immersed made me think of Denise.
Dammit,
just how much do they know about me?

“
Alright… so
basically, you are paying me to.. play the game more. Right?”

“
Incorrect. We are
paying you to live the game. In order to uncover the hidden truths,
you will have to make yourself a vital part of that world. If you
wish, you may drop out of your college classes, and all expenses will
be paid for.”

“
So, I just come out
for the bare minimum? That’s what you’re asking?”
My first thought about all of this was that Denise would be
positively thrilled.

“
That is correct.”

“
Is there anything
else I need to know about this? Some contract that I have to sign or
something?”

“
These positions are
all unofficial. If an electronic inquiry is made into our documents,
this task force does not exist. Your only contact will be with this
number. If you choose to mail your report in, the return address of
the letter we sent you is valid.”

“
Alright… I’m
in. But this seems way too suspicious for me to trust you at your
word. I won’t drop out of college until I have some proof that
this is real.”

Chapter
6

The strange voice on the
phone agreed to my demand, so I got ready to head back. When I
returned to the game, a little over an hour had passed, and I could
see the difference. A quick check told me that my alarm spell wasn’t
up anymore, so it probably ended when I logged out.

Denise was waiting for me
while standing watch, her bow out and an arrow drawn in case of
danger. When she saw me, she visibly relaxed. “So, how’d
it go? Did you take the job?”

“
Uh.. yeah. It was
weird.”

She frowned a bit, “So,
you won’t be able to spend as much time here anymore?”
She had encouraged me to go for it, but the thought of me leaving
more clearly upset her.

“
Well, actually, no.
That was the weird thing. The job was to spend as much time here as I
could.” At her quite apparent confusion, I explained to her
what I could translate into appropriate terms. “Apparently, the
method of entering this realm is shrouded in secrecy. The people that
contacted me want me to investigate on this end, because no
information was available from my side.”

I could almost hear the
lightbulb dinging as I finished my explanation and she perked up.
“So… You’ll be here more often, not less?”

I nodded, “For a
couple weeks it should be the same as it had been, but after that I
won’t have to go as often.”

She squealed out a yay and
jumped up into the air. “Great! I was afraid you’d be
leaving me all alone more often!”

I smiled to her and shook
my head, “Nope, you better get used to me being here for a
while yet.”

“
But.. is this going
to get in the way of our adventure?”

“
It shouldn’t.
My assignment is to find the truth of this world. That sounds like a
pretty big adventure to me!”

“
Heheh.. it does.”

Maybe becoming the
Archmage will give me a hint?
“Well,
let’s get packed up. We’re wasting daylight!” She
nodded quickly and helped me pack up the campsite. Before we left, I
decided to test out a different spell. “Sorry, just a second…
Raging ghosts of battles past, lend your aid in this time of need.
Calling of the wolf.”

A blue circle appeared on
the grass in front of me, and a bright light momentarily enveloped
it. When the light faded, one of the Angry Wolves we had fought the
night before was standing in front of us. Though it seemed noticeably
less aggressive now that it was under my spell. “Aha, it
worked! Let’s go boy.” I waved to the wolf, and he
followed me and Denise as we walked north again. The forest appeared
only a few hours away at this point, and having the Wolf on our side
was a big help. I had him run up to draw the aggro of a mob, and then
me and Denise would finish them off from a distance safely.

“
I should mark all
the enemies we fight. Never know, it could come in handy.”

“
That’s true.
Besides… he’s kinda cute when he’s nice, isn’t
he?” Denise reached down to pet the Wolf, who stood there and
let her.

“
Yeah, a lot less
bitey now.” I joined in the petting, and the wolf seemed to
appreciate it.

“
Huh.” I said
to myself as the window appeared, and then promptly closed it. “Let’s
get going. We should arrive in the forest soon.”

“
Yeah.. wonder if
we’ll see any elves after all?” Denise seemed to be
enjoying the adventure whether or not we met any.

As soon as we entered into
the forest, the quality of monster changed. Often I didn’t even
have time to cast a Binding before we had to either retreat or finish
it off. There were giant spiders the size of wolves, venomous snakes,
and large monkeys. If it weren’t for the wolf, we would have
been defeated several times over.

Denise was still enjoying
herself, shooting her arrows at anything that twitched in our
direction.
Wouldn’t it just be funny if
some of these things weren’t naturally hostile?