The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (38 page)

“
Sorry, first time
teleport.” I smiled to them, and they nodded, going back to
their business. Denise let out a sigh of relief from not having the
usual feeling when teleporting, but Kevin was just still as a statue.

“
Wow…
really.. really back. So this is magic, huh? I’ve only seen a
few small tricks before.”

“
Yeah, there’s
a rumor around Rosenheim that almost nobody has been able to graduate
from the college. So there’s no surprise that not many people
know more than the first couple spells.”

“
And how did you
manage to learn all of this?”

I noticed his suspicious
look, and shrugged. “How do you learn anything? I got it from a
book.” I haven’t actually told him I wasn’t a full
mage. In fact, I haven’t said a single lie yet. Just well
concealed truths.

“
Figures. But yeah,
I heard the rumor. Just before I left the capital they were saying
that a foreigner from Rosenheim had actually managed to graduate in
just four weeks. All the ‘natives’ were saying it was
impossible. I figured it’d probably be you.”

“
You do see the bow,
right? What would a full mage possibly be doing with a bow?”

“
Yeah… you
have a point. I guess I put a bit too much faith in your study
skills, heh?” He smirked to me, and I laughed.

“
Maybe. But yeah, we
need to find someone selling a ship. Would be nice if I could get
pointers on running it too.”

“
You.. clearing a
dungeon gave you quite the reward, huh?”

“
We didn’t
really clear all of it. But yeah, we got a lot during this last week
or so.” I smiled to Denise, who shook her head with a grin. She
must have noticed that I haven’t lied yet either. Just let him
make his own assumptions.

“
We should team up
some time for one!” Kev declared loudly after thinking that I
got rich from a single dungeon. Though really, I got my money before
that, because… I’m a cheat character.

“
Maybe.” I
glanced around to check our surroundings. “How strong are the
monsters around here?”

“
Uh.. not that
strong, I guess? The sea monsters are badass, but ships typically
have ways to deal with them. At least, the one I was on did.”

“
Right. Well, since
we made it here in good time, how about you show us your fighting
style? It’ll be easiest to work together as a team if we know
how each of us operates.”

“
Oh, right! Sure,
I’ll show you!” He pressed his chest out happily, and we
left the city. “There should be some dire wolves around here..”

Dire wolves, eh? Step
up from the Angry Wolf. Should be interesting.

After a while of walking
in a random direction, we found a pack of wolves at the edge of a
forest. Though I say wolves, each one was nearly as big as Midnight.
“Ah, there they are. Quite a large group..”

I glanced at the wolves.
“How many can you handle yourself?”

“
Two or three at a
time?” He glanced over to me, and I nodded.

“
Alright. Go get
em.”

“
Eh?! What do you
mean go get them? There’s at least a dozen! Do you know the
penalty for dying here?”

I looked over to him, “No,
I don’t. I’m not even certain if me or Denise will come
back if we do. That’s why you, as the tank, will get their
attention.”

He paled a bit as I
mentioned that I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to respawn,
and gulped. “Okay.. but be careful. No wonder you picked a
ranged class…” He drew his sword, holding it in both
hands and screaming as he charged forward.

“
Why… is he
screaming?” Denise looked to me, and I shrugged.

“
No idea, but it got
their attention. You want to pick off the rest, or should I?” I
looked at her as the entire pack began charging to the lone samurai.

“
You do it. We
haven’t tested your damage yet.” She smiled, offering me
first shot. By now, Kevin and the wolves were in a melee, with him
frantically swinging his sword at them, inflicting small wounds while
trying to dodge their attacks.

“
Alright…”
I pulled my bow off my back, and created an arrow using my Spell Shot
skill, etching the runes for Shock Bolt onto it. Nocking the arrow, I
pulled it back and took aim. “Warriors of the thunderstorm,
bestow upon me your spear.” Lightning began swirling at the
arrow just as I released it, shooting out in a bolt that tore through
two of the large wolves in an instant while I grabbed another arrow.
Kev had already managed to take out one, so I decided to change it to
a Nature’s Grip arrow.

“
Ah… good. I
wonder…” I decided to experiment. “Crimson light
which burns all things, come forth from my hand.” This time,
despite being a Nature’s Grip arrow, it was shrouded in fire
and tore through another dire wolf before striking the ground.
Immediately, flaming vines rose up around the arrow and snared three
of the remaining wolves, strangling them and burning them.

With Kevin having killed
two wolves, and me killing six, there were only about six left. Not
to mention, those six looked like they were ready to run after seeing
their pack fall one by one. “Denise, why don’t you show
him how a sword works?”

She grinned, pulling out
her scimitar and leaning towards the wolves. In a single motion, she
vanished, appearing next to one of the wolves just as blood began
pouring from a wound that wasn’t there a second ago. In the
next instant, she seemed to split into three people, striking three
wolves simultaneously and moving in a blur to kill the last two.

Body Flicker, Lightning
Dash, and Shiva Arms, right?
I had studied
her skills before hand, so I knew about her ability to attack three
times in the same moment. Kev was at a total loss though. He was
struggling to take out two, yet she took out six in the blink of an
eye.

“
How… how did
you move like that?” He looked to Denise, seeming more than a
little scared of her strength.

I walked up behind him,
glancing over the wolves. “You know there’s a skill
window too, right? Whenever your talents hit certain levels, you’ll
gain a skill based on how you use the talent. Denise has speed and
evasion high enough to get skills that let her move like that.

Kev’s hand raised to
the air quickly, apparently going through the menus manually. “Wow…
there really is. How come I never noticed it before?”

“
I didn’t
either at first. Though, you should change it so that the windows can
open automatically. It’s too distracting to do it by hand,
isn’t it?”

“
Automatically, you
mean?”

“
Yeah, you just have
to think about it. It’s a lot more useful.”

“
Heh.. I was
wondering what that option was. I was just worried I wouldn’t
be able to figure out how to open it again and left it alone.”
I saw him making the movements to go to his settings and change it.

Denise walked over to us,
barely a drop of blood on her. “Kevlar, you really need to work
on your swordsmanship. You leave too many openings. I know you
foreigners get strong easily and all, but still you have to have a
good foundation.”

“
Uh.. right…
where’d you learn?” He glanced to Denise, having seen her
fighting just now.

“
Oh, I had a trainer
back the way we came from.” She smiled sincerely to him, having
learned quickly to tell only a half truth.

“
Ah, right.. so I
need to find a trainer? Aren’t they expensive?”

I shook my head. “How
much do you have right now?”

“
About four silver?”

…

“
Say again?”

“
Four silver, why?”

“
How… how did
you make it this far with so little?”

“
The ride across the
ocean was expensive, okay? And nobody’s been giving me any
quests.”

“
Okay.. while we’re
getting a ship, your job will be to run around the city and help
out.. everyone. If someone needs something, help. And put your mind
to the roleplay, will you? You know they jailed someone in Rosenheim
for just running around asking for quests.”

Kev’s eyes went
wide. “Oh.. fine… yeah.. How much do you have?”

“
A few platinum?”

“
Platinum? I thought
it only went up to gold?”

“
Ah, you know how
the currency works right?”

“
Yeah. Copper,
silver, and gold are all called Gild. Copper coins are one gild,
silver are ten, and gold are a hundred.”

“
And platinum coins
are ten thousand.”

“
....One platinum is
not ten, but a hundred gold?”

“
Right. We did some
quest lines on the way to Coatin. We were able to make a great deal.”

“
I can tell.. fine,
I’ll play errand boy.”

“
Good. Your goal is
to earn at least two hundred gild.”

“
Why two hundred?”

“
That’s how
much it cost for a week in the Mages’ College. Figure Fighters’
Halls have a similar price.”

“
...Really? That’s
expensive. How’d you manage to pay for it?”

“
Easily. I earned
the friendship of one of the natives and did work to earn my
tuition.” I cast a glance to a smirking Denise.

“
I got it, I got it.
Okay. But those arrows were awesome. Any idea how much they sell
for?”

“
Can’t sell
them. The bow makes them. And before you ask, the bow is bound to me,
so you can’t sell it.”

“
Damn, they have
bound items even here?” He glances to Denise. “Would say
she should have gotten it, but she seems a bit overpowered even with
just a sword.”

“
Her Swordsmanship
rank is actually lower than yours, if I remember right.”

“
No way, it can’t
be less than thirty.”

“
Only fifteen.
That’s the difference when you have skills and technique. Right
now, you might as well be swinging a wooden stick.”

“
So, if I get a good
trainer and learn properly, I’d be better than that?”

“
Yeah, those wolves
were not really that tough. By the way, from what I’ve
gathered, rank thirty is the beginning of master rank. So your
movements should be no worse than a true samurai if you had the
training.”

“
Really? What’s
your highest?”

“
Me? What do you
think? I’m a nerd, so obviously my highest will be my Magical
Knowledge, which is only in the lower twenties.”

Denise tilted her head,
looking to me. “What’s a nerd?”

“
Ah, sorry.
Expression from our world. It’s someone that enjoys studying.”

“
Ah, so a scholar. I
see.” She nodded to confirm that it made sense to her.

Kev smiled to me. “You
really are teaching her, huh?”

“
Of course. But
you’ve got to go do some jobs. We’ll go get a ship that
me and Denise can crew. You’ll just be popping in and out
whenever you’re around, so no sense in having it require more
than just the two of us.”

“
Right. Well, I
guess I’ll be off. By the way, how do I use these skills?”

“
You have the speed
talent, right? What skills do you have in it?”

“
Lightning Dash,
Speed Clone, and Tunnel Vision.”

“
Heh, figures you’d
get something like Tunnel Vision. Well, this should mean your rank is
around eleven. Denise has Lightning Dash, and we’ve found out
that if you focus on trying what the skill describes, you can do it.
It’ll get easier as the skill levels up though.”

He nodded to me. “Alright,
I’ll give it a shot.” He began running towards the
village, every now and then getting a brief boost of speed.

“
You sure you want
to leave him alone? He is your friend from home, right?” Denise
looked to me with a hint of concern in her eye.

“
It’s alright.
He’s the same idiot as ever. Besides that, let’s actually
find a ship. Even if I might be able to make one myself, it’d
probably vanish if I slept and that would be bad.”

“
...Agreed.”

“
Also, I need to
save my mana for in case a sea monster really does appear.” She
nodded and we began walking towards town at a more casual pace. It’ll
take him a while to earn a full two gold pieces, so we weren’t
in any hurry.

Chapter
18

When we got back to town,
we went off to find the harbormaster. Who we met was an overweight
balding man wearing a shirt two sizes too small.
Is
this guy really the one in charge?

“
So, what can I do
for the two uv’ya?” The man looked to us with narrow
eyes.

“
We’d like to
buy a ship, and a book on sailing.”

“
Eh? A ship, for
just you two? Where ya planning on sailing?”

“
We plan to explore
the Shattered Realm. That said, if you have a ship available with
defenses, it would be preferable.”