The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (42 page)

“
Hmm.. the human
mage, can you give me his name?”

“
I don’t know
it right now, but I can find it out. You want to get in touch with
him, I take it?”

“
Yeah. If I contact
him with magic, he should realize that I’m the other one like
him and be more willing to talk.”

“
Alright, I’ll
get a couple of my spies right on it. Heheh, it’s been years
since I had work for them!”

“
Thanks. If you can
have them find out his general location, that should help me to
contact him as well.”

“
I’ll make
sure they know. You sure you don’t want us to just invite him
here and let you meet face to face?”

“
Sorry, but that
probably wouldn’t work. Remember, demons in my world are seen
just as badly as demons here are. He probably wouldn’t trust
you without some proof.”

“
..I understand.
Anything else?”

“
Yeah, one more
thing. Here in a few days, once my friend is off the ship, I was
thinking about summoning you and my friend from the elves so that you
could meet. No fighting, just a nice chat. Sound okay with you?”

“
Sure! Just
remember, I can only hear you in the darkness. I might be paying
special attention, but if you aren’t somewhere dark enough I
won’t be able to answer your call.”

“
Alright, I’ll
have the meeting at night. I recently got a new spell that I want to
consult both of you on.”

“
Ooh, the suspense!
Well, I’ll be waiting. By that time I should have the
information you want, too.”

“
Good. If you don’t
mind, once I get acquainted with him, I might have him visit Hell to
earn your blessing. No idea if the power he gets would be the same,
but if he is a mage he has one of the Deific Dictum.”

“
Alright, but it
probably won’t be my blessing directly he gets. That was a
special occasion. But he can get the blessing of one of my court if
he helps us enough.”

“
I understand.”
And with that, we said our farewells. Once the spell ended, I
received a new popup that I hadn’t gotten before, but was
rather excited about.

This…
dimensional boundaries… wait…
I
was stunned for a moment as the possible implication of this hit me.
I was going to tour the ship, but that could wait until later. I
immediately ran out to the deck of the ship and found Kevin, goofing
off behind the ship’s wheel. “Kev!”

He must have thought I was
angry or something. “I didn’t do anything, I swear!”

“
No, not that. I
don’t care. Come here!”

He was curious, but this
was an urgent matter that I had to test. Eventually, he did manage to
come down to the deck. I saw Denise at the nose of the ship glancing
to me curiously as well. “Okay.. what is it?”

“
I need you to log
off.”

“
What?”

“
Log off. After ten
minutes, come back. Trust me on this.”

“
I won’t spawn
in the middle of the sea or anything?”

“
I’ll stop the
ship if that makes you feel better, alright?” At my words, the
sails retracted, and the ship’s anchor dropped.

“
Okay… I’ve
got no idea what this is about, but sure.” A few moments of
navigating the system windows later, Kevin vanished in front of me.
Denise looked a bit worried, and came over next to me.

“
Is everything
okay..?”

“
Huh? Yeah. I just
need to test something..” I took a deep breath and pulled up my
spell list. I hadn’t needed the chant for this for a while.
“Wings of light, signs of beginning, may my voice reach the
farthest corner. Message, Kevlar.” It was… also the
first time I had used his game name. But, nothing happened. I
grimaced, and repeated the spell again. This time, I called him
Kevin. Immediately, I heard a sound I wasn’t sure I’d
ever be hearing again.

I heard a phone ringing.
And ringing… and ringing… Finally, there was an answer.
“Hello? Who is this? Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“
No, Kevin, I do
not.”

“
....Chris? Holy
shit… how are you calling me? Did you get out of the game?”

“
No, my
communication spell reached the level to cross dimensions. And, since
where we are from is treated as another dimension..”

“
E.T. can phone home
now.”

“
Never miss a chance
for a reference, do you?”

“
I try my best. So,
this is what you were in such a rush about?”

“
Yeah. I had to know
if I had a way to call out now.”

“
Well, looks like
you do. There’s no displayed name or number, though. It lists
you as an unknown caller.”

“
That’s fine.
You can come back now.”

“
Alright, let me
just get a drink first.” And with that, he hung up on me,
appearing on the ship about ten minutes later. “So, apparently
you can now connect to the phone network?”

“
I guess so. Sorry
about having you test it so suddenly. I wasn’t even sure if it
would work.”

“
No, you had a
point. I would have done the same thing, probably.”

“
Okay, well, I set
the ship to take us to Thurgil. You should be able to find a sword
trainer there. Your skill probably won’t gain any ranks, but
the training will help you use it better. I’ll keep in touch
with that spell every few days to check on you.”

Gradually, the anchor
began raising up, and the sails unfolded again as the ship went back
to sailing. “Alright, I understand.”

“
Good. Keep in mind,
you won’t be able to contact me from your end unless you get a
magical item. I’m going to try to make you a coin that will let
you use the Message spell once to contact me. I haven’t had the
chance to experiment with enchanting much yet, so I may not get it to
work right.”

“
So, I can use the
coin to call you if an emergency pops up?”

“
Right. Once we drop
you off, Denise and I are going to go exploring. There’s a lot
of uncharted land in these seas that hasn’t been explored
properly since the continent split.”

“
Hah… going
off on another adventure by yourself? Oh well, guess it can’t
be helped.”

I nodded to him. “Also,
just to confirm, there still hasn’t been any information posted
online, right?”

“
Nothing yet. I
tried making something myself, and it was gone as soon as I posted
it. But, there are offline methods that can be used.”

“
Oh? You came up
with something?”

“
Yeah, it’s
not as comprehensive as the net, but I put in some calls to friends
that play. Since it was word of mouth that started this, it’s
word of mouth that can get around it!”

Denise had no clue what we
were talking about, but I suppose that was natural. “Okay, so
you guys set up an off-the-grid exchange? I won’t ask for any
details, but it was a good idea. I take it you warned them that a
situation like mine could occur?” In truth, I didn’t ask
for details because there was the chance that whatever was behind me
being stuck here might strike out at someone finding a way around
their plan to suppress information.

“
Yeah, it was one of
the first things I told them. Some of them still don’t believe
it could really happen.”

“
Okay, well, can you
get in contact with them later? It would be nice to have a source of
information on the other side. Also, any chance that the fabled mage
is among them?”

“
Not that I’ve
heard. That’s why I thought it might be you. There are a few
that said they became mages as elves, though.”

“
Did they share any
information on how they did that?”

“
Well, they didn’t
really seem to do anything special, just study the magic and train
until they were recognized.”

So, the elves don’t
have a final test, then?
“I understand.
It looks like the elves do their magic training a bit differently
than the humans.”

“
Oh? How far did you
get in the human college?”

I decided, once again to
tell a famous half-truth. “I made it to the final exam. But, to
graduate as a human mage, you have to make something in magic that
has never been accomplished before. You can understand how difficult
it would be to do something that nobody in over a thousand years has
done before with the same options, right? And you only get the chance
to take the test once.”

“
Yeah… no
wonder there’s only been one person to pass. Just finding out
everything that could get you disqualified from the test could take a
lifetime of studying.”

“
Exactly. You’d
have to research every single spell ever created, and then make
something completely new.”

“
I wonder why it’s
so different between the races…”

“
Probably to weed
out the people who don’t have what it takes, and only allow the
truly gifted to graduate. Though, anyone can stop before the final
exam and take what they know to become a caster in their own way.
Like using spells through a bow.” I patted the bow on my back.

“
Right. Well, that
seems to be new information. I should be able to spread that with the
group, and they’ll understand why it’s so troublesome.
Maybe we can even recommend that new players looking to be mages
start out as elves.”

“
Well, that’s
only if they’re looking for the title. Like I said, anyone can
get the ability.”

“
That’s true.
Sucks that you have to do all that homework, though.” Kev made
a face, and I smirked at him.

“
Oh? You mean like
having to study swordsmanship in order to use your sword well?”

“
Ha ha, yeah I get
it. I guess that explains the four week restriction. Supposed to give
you time to learn how to use your skills.”

“
Yup. And you
probably just grabbed a random sword from a store after running a
couple errands, and spent all day chopping logs or something.”

“
...Maybe… I
did at least do enough to get the armor, though.”

“
Uh huh, and you
didn’t practice a single survival skill. I guess that explains
how you were able to raise your swordsmanship to nearly a master
level before leaving the town, though.”

“
Yeah, I know. I’m
going to head off again. Call me if something comes up.”
Without waiting for my reply, Kev logged out.

Denise walked up and put a
hand on my shoulder, smiling to me after having let us talk for so
long. “I didn’t really get all of that, but you have a
way to call your own world now, right?”

“
Yeah, but I don’t
plan to use it much.” I smiled to her and patted her hand.

“
Why not? Surely
there are people that you want to contact.”

“
Most of them
wouldn’t believe it was really me if I did. Since I’ve
convinced Kev, I’ll use him to stay in touch with people. Oh,
also, I almost forgot. I received some news from Lilith before I came
out.” Denise looked interested, so I went on. “It turns
out that another human has passed the final test. Someone from
Eastal. I’m having her investigate it, and then I plan to reach
out to him.”

“
Oh? Mind if I ask
why?”

“
Well, he fell for
the trap I’ve been avoiding.”

“
What trap..?”

“
He let it be known
publicly that he was a graduate, so all of the foreigners nearby
swarmed to him for information. Eventually, it got to be too much, so
he went into hiding.”

“
I see, the reason
you are hiding what you can do. But, what could you gain by getting
in touch with him?”

“
Well, I can give
him some information that I wasn’t able to gain easily, and can
have him be an ally. If we work together, we can identify more races
that respond to the grimoire without arousing suspicions.”

Denise nodded, and smiled.
“In the end, you just want to help your junior, huh?”

“
It’s not like
I don’t get anything out of it, you know..”

“
Sure, sure.
Alright. Anything else?”

“
Yeah, one more
thing. After we drop Kev off, I want to summon Lilith and Dariel to
finally have the two of them meet.”

“
Maiden of the elves
meets Queen of the demons? Sure you want to put the two of them in
the same room?”