The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (15 page)

“
Better than I could
have hoped, actually. I discovered I actually have quite a few
abilities I didn’t even know about, and actually.. you might
too now that I think about it.”

“
Oh? What do you
mean?”

“
I’ll explain
later when we meet up. It’s related to how we grow in strength
together.”

“
Alright, I’ll
hold you to that mister! I think having special abilities would be
awesome.”

“
Well, they aren’t
so much special abilities in that sense… think of it as varied
uses of your normal abilities that can create unique effects.”

“
...Nope, don’t
get it. You’ll have to explain it to me in person~.”

I laughed, shaking my
head, “Fine, fine, but you don’t need to make up excuses
to see me.”

“
Nope, but it’s
fun, isn’t it?”

“
Yeah, yeah.”
I looked down at the book and saw that it was almost done. “Listen,
I’ve got to go. I’ll be leaving in just a few minutes,
but I really don’t know what is about to happen, and I don’t
want to freak you out.”

“
...With that
explanation? Too late, mister!” She laughed briefly, but I
smiled and ended the call. A few moments later, I heard a ‘ding’
indicating that the book was finished, and then a flood of words
flowed into my head, immediately giving me a headache.
So
this is why I don’t do it more!

Hidden in the words were
diagrams, circles, runes, spells, instructions, everything that was
contained in the book slamming into my head in the span of a second.
And as the words enter, I felt a growing sense of familiarity with
the knowledge, like it was imprinting itself on me.

When I opened my eyes, I
was laying back on the hard stone floor.
Owwww
…

I saw the seven new spells
that had been added, and decided I should check them out later, when
I go over Denise’s new abilities as well. That is going to be
an interesting conversation.

Slowly I stood, putting
the book back where I found it, and left the college at a brisk pace,
heading for the inn. I had told Denise that I was about ready to
leave, so she should be there ahead of me. Sure enough, when I
arrived, there was a nervous looking woman standing out in front of
the inn. As I approached, she spotted me and ran forward to tackle
me. “Iwassoworriedwhathappenedwhattookyousolong?!”

Either because of the
tackle, or the rapid string of words, it took me a minute to
understand and reply. “Uh.. am I late? I just got out..”

She lifted her head up,
looking at me with watery eyes. “I’ve been waiting here
for an hour!”

“
What… oh
don’t tell me that thing knocked me out..”

“
What thing, were
you attacked?!” She quickly set about inspecting me for
injuries, and I could only laugh because of how much she was worried
for me.

“
I’m fine.
It’s related to what I told you earlier, so I’ll explain
later. First, let’s go see Rusty.” She slowly nodded,
still concerned, but detached herself from me just enough that we
could walk into the inn.

Maybe it just wasn’t
that time of day, but the inn didn’t seem so crowded anymore.
Or maybe it was because it no longer had the most beautiful innkeeper
in town. I smiled a bit at that thought, and made my way over to the
man behind the counter. “Any news, Rusty?”

He nearly jumped out of
his skin, looking like a ghost had just walked in. “Jin? Is
that you?”

“
Uh.. Yes? Is this a
trick question?”

“
But..” He
shook his head, and decided that an explanation would serve better
than idle what-the-fuckery. “I called your friend, like you
asked. He didn’t believe me at first, no surprise, but when I
insisted that it was a medical emergency like you told me he said
he’d go check it out. I wasn’t really convinced that he
would, but a couple hours later--well I guess only one hour later
over there-- I got a call back from him asking who I was. I told the
truth, that I was just someone that you met in the town.”

He took a deep breath and
continued, “Well, he told me that by the time he got there,
there was an ambulance in front of your building.” His eyes
shifted to the side like he was holding something back. “I…
don’t really know how to tell you this, so I’ll just say
it. You’re in a coma. According to what Kevin told me, there is
no brain activity beyond keeping the body alive, and even then just
barely. Just being here… you aren’t possible!” He
shook his head, as if when he opened his eyes again I would be gone.

“
Huh… Well…
that’s better than I was afraid, at least. If you can, could
you get ahold of Kevin again and tell him that I really am still in
here, and that I need the doctors to hook me up to a Link capsule? If
I manage to find a way back from this end, I’ll probably need
to be in my capsule or else… well I don’t really want to
think about the possibilities.”
Or else
I could be stuck in cyberspace, or deleted like some suspicious file,
or any other nasty thing..

He paled a bit, “Uh..
sure. I don’t really think he’ll believe me, though…
I
wouldn’t
believe me.”

I sighed, and put my face
in my hand. “If he doesn’t believe you, tell him that I
wanted to date his sister in high school, but he threatened to kill
me a hundred times over if I touched her.”

Both Denise and Rusty
raised an eyebrow at that, but he nodded. “Alright.. I take it
you’ll be staying in town now?”

I shook my head to him.
“No. If there is a way to fix me, the answer won’t be
here. I guess my adventure just got a lot more.. directed?”

“
Then, from the
bottom of my heart, I wish you good luck and safe travels. Lord knows
that whatever you’re involved in, you’ll need it.”

“
Thank you, Rusty.
I’ll call you again tomorrow to see if anything has changed.”

“
Oh, speaking of
which. If you can’t call Kevin, how are you able to call me?”
Rusty tilted his head curiously, and Denise seemed to think that was
a perfectly valid question, because she nodded.

“
I haven’t met
Kevin on this side yet, so the spell I used to call you won’t
reach him. To be honest, you might be the only foreigner I’ve
spoken with since I first came here.”

“
Yes, I could see
how that would happen. I imagine there are no more than a hundred of
us in any major city, with how recently it was discovered.”

“
Exactly. We’re
headed southwest next, which should take us closer to the Shattered
Realm. If you get the chance, tell Kevin to head towards Coatin.
That’s our next stop, and we’ll probably be there for a
couple days.”

He nodded, and with that
Denise and I went back to her former apartment, Rusty allowing us to
use it for a quick rest so she and I could talk. “Alright, now
I can explain to you what I meant before. You remember how I said
that when the foreigners come here, we start with nothing? No skills,
magics, or anything?”

She nodded, so I
continued. “Well, I guess that isn’t entirely true. No, I
wasn’t lying to you, or keeping any secrets. While we’re
here, certain things are.. different for us than they would be for
you. We get messages that give us certain pieces of information, like
when we learn a new spell. We call these ‘windows’. Also,
these windows classify abilities such as magic, archery, or even
cooking to be something called ‘talents’. Like you, ever
since you started training, you have a large talent with archery.
Well, just today I found out that within the talents are abilities
called ‘skills’.”

“
And what does all
of this have to do with you getting knocked out?” Denise asked
cautiously, trying to absorb all of this information.

“
You see, one of the
skills I have related to magic allows me to read a book just by
holding it.” When I saw the exaggerated look on her face I
nodded, “That was my first reaction too. But I really held one
book for a half hour, and then it all just slammed into my head at
once. I thought I had just fallen down, but I guess I got knocked out
for an hour or so. I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to
worry you..” I put my hand on hers comfortingly, and she
nodded.

“
Okay.. and you
think that I have these talents and skills as well? ..I can tell you
now I can’t read books by holding them.” She gave me a
forced smile, and I shook my head.

“
No, you don’t
have the talents for magic. But you do have some talents. Like your
exceptional cooking and archery. And, with your permission, I’d
like to see if you also have a hidden list of skills that you could
use.”

She nodded again, “Okay..
but why do you need my permission?”

I smiled and gave her a
kiss on the forehead, “Because I don’t want you to be
uncomfortable. If you wanted me to leave it alone, I would have
respected your wishes. Honestly, I wish there was a way I could let
you see the windows I see. It would probably save a lot of
confusion.”

Then, I looked to the
side, “Okay.. here goes.” I focused on Denise and tried
calling up her skill window.

I nodded as the window
appeared. “Okay, you do have some skills. Most of them you
would have noticed and used by now, so let me tell you about the
others, alright?” She nodded curiously, so I began. “You
are able to fire two arrows at once accurately, and can use special
arrows that would normally require extra training. You can also react
to attacks coming from behind you, thanks to your reflexes. With your
speed, you can briefly move faster than should be humanly possible,
and can move in such a quick burst of speed to seem to disappear.
Finally, a skill that looks like you got just recently, you are able
to tame wild animals. I… wouldn’t try that one too
often, if I was you, it sounds dangerous if it fails.”

She nodded again. “Wow…
I had never even thought of trying some of that. But that, I guess
you never thought of trying to read a book without opening it either
huh?” She smiled to me, and I nodded. She seemed to be
accepting this more and more as I got her introduced to the game
terms. “So, every time you get better at one of your.. talents
you called them? That’s when I get better at something I can
do..”

“
Right, but that’s
only for the talents. It looks like our skills improve individually.”
I smiled a bit sheepishly. “That’s why you are so much
more useful in a fight than I am. Your archery skills are well beyond
my spells.”

She nodded sagely, and
wagged a finger at me playfully, “You really must train more. I
mean really, what kind of adventurer gets knocked out by a book?”
She grinned a bit at that last bit, and I laughed.

“
Thanks..”

“
For what?”
She now looked confused at me.

"For accepting all
this, not thinking I’m crazy, and not running out the first
chance you get.”