The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (2 page)

“
Huh? So, I’m
stuck in this town for the next few weeks, huh... Well, let’s
check this out. Options.” As I said the last word with a bit of
emphasis, another window appeared.

Looking at the options
available, I nodded to myself. A game like this wouldn’t have
TOO many options at start, since the normal things like Volume become
irrelevant when you are simulating reality. Bringing up a hand, I
pressed the Interface option. A drop-down window appeared, listing
Voice-Activated, Motion-Activated, or Automatic. I figured that
Motion-Activated was how I was used to, but I was curious about
Automatic. Did that mean that it just appeared as it was relevant? I
hesitated for a few moments, but eventually set the Interface to
Automatic, and Stat Bars to Visible.

When I did, I noticed that
at the corner of my vision a red bar appeared. No matter which way I
looked, it was always there at the furthest corner of my sight,
making me just barely aware of it. Still, better than nothing I
guess. And since my Link capsule is set to run in sleep mode by
default, I didn’t need to log out any time soon.

It’s the weekend,
so I should be okay until the morning. Let’s see…
I brought my hand up and pressed the button for Timer. There were
three options, Duration-Game, Duration-Real, and Set Time. I decided
to set the timer to go off at 6 in the morning. That gave me 11 hours
of real time, or 22 in game time, to play.

Now… how do I
close these windows…
I brought my hand
up as if I was going to press the top-right corner of one of the
screens, where the exit button typically is, but immediately all the
open windows closed, leaving me just blinking.
Could
this be what Automatic meant?

Until now, Link games were
limited to interpreting brainwaves of the player into physical
actions. The idea of thought or intent hasn’t been implemented.
But it seemed like the Automatic interface simply activated whenever
I called up a window in my mind. That was pretty convenient.
Now…
I should take a bit to look around, since I’ll be stuck here a
while.

Noticing that I was
getting a few stares from people around me, I pushed off from the
fountain in the center of the square and began walking down the
street, looking at the various buildings and people around me. The
first thing I noticed was that there were no names displayed over
anyone. That meant it was impossible to tell a player from an NPC.
Part of me was happy to know this, because it added a level of role
playing to the game.
So… what kind of
character do I want to be?

I’ve got the musical
talent of a slamming door, so any bard types are out. I could play a
warrior type, but… thinking about it, I have no fighting
experience to speak of, so I’d be at a disadvantage there too.
Maybe there is a training hall or something
around here. Though really…
A thought
occurred to me that made me smile. My character only took a few
moments to build in my head after that, and I walked up to someone
standing at the side of the road in front of a store. “Hello,
sir. I’m afraid I’m a bit lost. Could I trouble you for
some directions?” I asked with my best smile. Since there was
no dialogue window, I had to assume that the NPCs either interpreted
speech based on keywords, or their AIs were as advanced as the rest
of this game.

The gruff man turned to
look at me, and shrugged. “Sure. Where you heading?”

“
I’m not too
sure, to be honest… You see, I’m new to this area, and
looking for a teacher. I’d like to learn the magical arts, if I
could find one.”

“
Ah, then you’re
looking for the Mages’ College. Sure, I can tell you the way,
but you’ll need to pay the tuition fee to get in.”

My face set into a frown,
remembering the currency in my character window. “Oh? And how
much is that?”

“
Two hundred gild
for a weekly enrollment.”

I winced a bit, “Ah,
is that so? I don’t suppose you’d know somewhere that I
could earn the money? I’m a bit... “

“
Broke?” He
asked with a laugh, which surprised me a bit because it meant that
the AIs were indeed advanced. “Sure, kid. Just ask around town
about doing the odd jobs. Most people have something you can help out
with. In fact, I’ve got something you can help out with. Wait
here for a second.” With that, he turned and headed into his
store, leaving me standing on the side of the street. After a few
moments he came out with a woven picnic basket. “My normal
delivery boy hasn’t shown, and I need to get this sent off.
Think I can trust you with that?”

I smiled as the quest
appeared. “Sure, leave it to me, sir. Where am I going?”
I asked as I held out my hand and took the picnic basket. Rather than
magically appearing in my inventory, it stayed in my hand. Even more
realism, and at this point I wasn’t surprised. As I took the
basket, the quest window was replaced by something else momentarily.

“
Old Thurgrim on the
south side of town. You can normally catch him fishing at the lake.
He has a standing order, so try to make a good impression.”

I nodded to him, turning
and walking off down the street.
So…
which way is south? I should have asked… but I didn’t
want to seem totally incompetent.
I gazed up
at the sky.
This doesn’t feel like
morning, so it’s probably a dinner order, meaning afternoon.
Sun rises in the east… sets in the west…
I looked around for that giant ball of fire which I so often dreaded.
What can I say, mornings and me just don’t get along. Once I
identified the sun, I noted that direction as west, and turned to my
right.
Okay, that should be south.

I began taking all the
roads on the direction I marked as south, mentally keeping an eye on
my surroundings so that I’d be able to get back without getting
lost. Since this game didn’t have a minimap or a compass on the
interface, I had to find my own way.

It took me just over ten
minutes of walking to start to smell the river nearby. Hey, at least
that meant the sun rises in the same direction here!
Looks
like it’s maybe 7:30? The sun’s almost all the way down.
I nodded to myself as I made the note.
So…
where along the river is this guy.

Once I reached the river,
I stopped and looked around. Even squinting, I couldn’t see
anyone fishing, but in one direction I could see the city walls, so I
ran off in the other way. After a couple more minutes, I arrived at a
small bridge that ran over the river. In the center of it was an old
man with a fishing rod out, and a very bald head. I almost thought he
looked like a lighthouse when the sun reflected off of it, making me
chuckle to myself.

“
Thurgrim?” I
walked up to ask him.

“
Eh? Who’s
asking?”

“
Sorry, my name is
Jin. I was asked to bring you this.” I held out a hand, showing
him the picnic basket.

“
Ah! About time, I
was beginning to think I’d have to eat fish food tonight.”
He said with a laugh, grabbing the basket from my hand. “Thanks,
son.”

I smiled to him. “It
wasn’t a problem. The normal guy didn’t show, so I
volunteered for the job.”

“
Oh, is that so, eh?
Well, guess you deserve a tip then for going out of your way.”
One of his hands began digging around in his pockets.

“
No, that’s
alright. I’m just glad to help.”
Though,
a tip would be nice.. but I’ve got to remember to be friendly..

“
Oh, I insist.
Here.” He handed me two coins from his pocket. They were each
silver, with the number 10 engraved on them. Putting them in my
pocket, a message appeared in front of me.

Okay… so 1 Gild
would be a copper then? Meaning that I need the equivalent of 2 gold
to get into the Mages’ College.
I
nodded my thanks to him, and ran off down the road towards the shop
where I got the quest. Since I wasn’t going at the same speed
or down the same streets it was a bit harder to find my way back, but
I was able to judge the distances well enough.

When I got back to the
store, the owner was waiting out in front again. He smiled and waved
to me as I approached. “Welcome back. Was beginning to think
you had gotten lost.”

I laughed to him. “No,
no, just took a bit to find the bridge.”

“
Ahh, so you were
able to make the delivery?”

I nodded to him, so he
continued. “Thanks, kid. He’s one of the regulars, and
it’s best to keep them happy, you know?” He reached into
his pocket and retrieved a small coinpurse. “It’s not
much, but it should help towards your goal.” He tossed me the
bag, and I fumbled a bit to catch it.

I smiled at him as I put
the money in my pocket. “Thank you, sir. This will be a big
help.”
Alright… at this rate it
shouldn’t take me too long.

“
Don’t mention
it. Be sure to stop by again some time to see if I’ve got any
more work for you. Since it’s getting dark.. why don’t
you stop by the inn and see if they need anything? A night of work
like that should get you the rest of your fee.”

“
Thank you sir, I’ll
do that. Would you mind telling me which way it is?” I smiled a
bit, remembering I still didn’t know my way around town, except
for the buildings I had already passed.

“
Sure, sure. Just
head north a couple blocks. Can’t miss it.” I nodded and
said my good-byes, turning and heading for the nearest crossroads.
Since I had already identified south, it was easy to figure out which
way it was to go north. And as soon as I started in that direction, I
was surprised to find a message waiting for me.

I smiled a bit at that,
Well, that solves one problem.
So that’s what it meant by unlocking
talents through normal actions.
I focused for
a moment to bring up my character window.

Okay… so levels
increase based on Talents. That makes sense. And 5 points are awarded
per level.
I focused a bit again, seeing if I
could interact with the window without my hands, or just call it up.
Sure enough, three of my points were spent in Intelligence, and two
in Wisdom. I frowned when I noticed that my mana didn’t
increase any, but maybe I need to discover a talent for that first.

Either way, I was happy
that I managed to learn something new about the game, and made my way
towards the Sleep Soldier, the inn that the shopkeeper had directed
me to. Inside, I found it was indeed busy with travellers asking to
be put up for the night.
Wonder how many of
those are players?

As I walked up to the
counter, the innkeeper-- a beautiful woman with long blond hair and
yellow eyes, ample bosom, and dressed in a simple dress that hung
down to her ankles-- shot me a glare. “Back of the line, sir.
I’ll get to you in a moment.”

I raised my hands in a
placating gesture, more out of instinct than acting. “No, no,
I’m not here for a room. I came to offer some help. You seem to
be busy, so I figured maybe you could use a spare set of hands?”

She let out a sigh at
that. “Finally. These guys are driving me mad.” She waved
me over behind the counter. “Here, you handle them. I’m
Denise. It’s 20 gild per bed per night. And don’t think I
won’t be checking that it’s all there. I’ve got to
go clean up some of the rooms to make space for these guys. I’ll
check back later. The keys are all under the counter.” She
smiled briefly before turning and walking to the stairs.