The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (8 page)

She laughed at my remark,
“No clue, I don’t think I could do it. If I had come from
a world where I lived in books, I’d want to get as far away
from them as I could.”

“
Well, once I find a
basic summoning book, I’ll head back to the inn. See you
there.”

“
Yeah.. see you.”
She spoke quietly again, and I couldn’t quite make out what she
said next as I ended the spell.
Cool. Now I
have this spell in my arsenal.

Moving back among the
bookshelves, I now knew what I was looking for. Sadly, I didn’t
know WHERE it was.
Should I make another spell
for searching? No.. I want to do this myself.

Diligently, I scoured the
library, looking at every book I could see and even climbing a few
shelves when I thought I saw something that might be what I wanted.
In the end, something caught my eye, and I reached up to grab it.
‘The Calling of the Lost’. I hadn’t seen any books
labeled ‘Summoning for Dummies’, so this was as close as
I could get.

When I went over to the
table to read, I opened the book and found that the entire thing was
written in runes! My Magical Knowledge was getting a workout just
working through the first couple pages, and even then there were
words that I couldn’t make out.

‘
To call a being
to’...
that looks like a mix between aid
and work, so maybe serve?
‘serve you,
you must’
that looks kind of like
engrave, but twisted at the top. Judging by the context, mark?
‘mark
an enemy in battle. After you’
is that
an inverted finish? Maybe.. ‘
defeat
them, there is a’
okay… I don’t
know what that one is… let’s just see what the rest is
and maybe I’ll get it.
‘that they
will be’
something something
‘in your’
service? Looks like the
serve rune from earlier. ‘
service.
After that, you must simply perform the spell of calling, and they
will appear before you.’

It took me a bit, but I
was able to piece together the paragraph into ‘To call a being
to serve you, you must mark an enemy in battle. After you defeat
them, there is a chance that they will be magically bound in your
service. After that, you must simply perform the spell of calling,
and they will appear before you.’

After that message
appeared, all the runes I had guessed were suddenly clear to me. The
next few pages were likewise easy to read. It detailed two spells.
The first of which is the Binding, and the second is the Calling.
After the caster places the Binding on a target, and then vanquishes
them in battle, they can attempt to use the Calling to summon them.
Creatures summoned by the Calling have only as much free will as
their summoner allows, and success depends upon proficiency with the
two spells.

Alternatively, the Binding
may be placed on a willing target, bypassing the need to defeat them
in battle. In such a case, the spell used to summon them isn’t
the Calling, but the Summons. The Summons can be applied to objects
as well.

I grinned as the windows
appeared.
Okay, a third method of learning
spells. Research works too. So, I can create new spells with the
Spell Creation or personal methods, and can research existing spells.

As promised, as soon as I
had the spells, I closed and returned the book and then left for the
inn. As I was walking, I took a glance at my and Denise’s
character information, to check our progress.

My time in Rosenheim was
almost half over, and I was already level 19. Part of me wondered if
that meant that monsters had high levels as well, or if it didn’t
matter either way.
At this point, I don’t
have any attack spells. I’ve got to learn at least one reliable
attack spell before I even think about fighting monsters. Otherwise,
I’ll be the one that’s a burden for Denise.

When I got back to the
inn, my worries began dissolving. By now, I was just letting myself
into the apartment in the back, feeling as if it was my second home.
There were times I even felt more comfortable here than in my real
home. And waiting for me, was Denise standing in the kitchen, having
just finished what looked--and smelled-- like a well cooked chicken.
But that wasn’t what caught my eye. No, what really caught my
eye was the white silk dress she was wearing that was practically
transparent.
She knew I was coming back,
right? There’s no way she didn’t… Could she be
wearing that for me?

Now, keep in mind I’ve
never had any luck with women. I’m your typical book nerd. And
not a romance novel nerd even, so girls don’t exactly flock to
my door. Right now… this is probably the closest I’ve
been to an intimate relationship. Yup. Me, standing here, completely
red, unable to move or think.

She must have heard me
come in, because after a while, she turned around with a shy smile
and--yep, the front is just as see-through-- looked up to me. “Hey,
uhm.. you’re home.”

“
Uh, yeah.. you
look…”

“
Too much?”
She asked, blushing as she glanced down to her outfit… or lack
thereof.

“
D-definitely not.”
I stuttered a bit as I tried to assure her that no, it was not too
much. The only way that outfit would look better is if it was on the
floor. Of course, I DO have enough decency to not say any of this.

“
Good.. I was hoping
you’d like it.”

“
Oh.. I most
definitely like it. You don’t have anything to worry about
there.” I gave her a warm smile, and the tension in her
shoulders eased. “What’s the occasion?”

“
Well.. in less than
three weeks we’ll be travelling the world together. I thought..
well you know.. you like me, right?” She somehow managed to be
perfectly blunt while attempting to dodge the question.

“
Huh? What do you
mean? Of course I do!” The answer came before I could muster
enough willpower to stop it. But it seemed to be the right answer,
because it got a bright smile in return. “I wouldn’t have
asked you to join me if I didn’t. I uh.. take it… you
like me too?” The fact that this was an NPC, and genuine
feelings like this shouldn’t be possible were, quite likely,
the furthest thing from my mind. All I saw was a beautiful woman
standing practically naked in front of me, confessing herself to me.

“
Yeah… I do.
So… I don’t want you to sleep on the couch tonight,
okay?” My confusion must have shown on my face because she
quickly backtracked, “Oh god no, I’m not kicking you out
or anything! I want you to... “ She tried to force the words
out, finally saying in rapid speech, “Iwantyoutosleepwithme!”
After that she brought her hands up and covered her face to hide a
blush that rivaled my own.

“
Wow..” Was
really all I could say. I mean honestly, what else do you say at
times like this? I didn’t even begin to expect that things like
this could happen here.

“
I knew it…
too much, right?” Her voice was small, like she was on the
verge of tears, thinking she had been rejected after exposing her
heart.

“
No, god no! I just
meant wow… I’ve… never had a girl confess to me
like that before. And I’d love to.” I smiled to her, and
she let her eyes peek out from between her fingers. “After all,
I didn’t want to tell you this, but that couch is pretty
lumpy.”

That got a small giggle
from her, “It is not!” She turned around quickly, but not
fast enough to hide the grin which threatened to split her face in
half. “Thank you.”

“
Thank me? What on
earth could you possibly be thanking me for?” I walked up to
her, being very careful with how I handled this, and wrapped my arms
around her from behind. “You have been the one going out of
your way to help me. You even agreed to leave the city with me for an
adventure when we’ve barely met, and helped pay for my tuition.
If anything, I should be the one bowing at your feet to praise you.”

She tried. I had to give
her credit, she tried not to laugh. But it eventually came out, “Oh,
now that would be a sight. But seriously. You’re helping me
live out my dream too, you know? Thanks to you and that foreigner
magic, I’ve already improved more in the last week than I ever
thought I would.”

“
Well, both of our
dreams will be coming true. You know, since I got here, I don’t
think I’ve met a single foreigner? At least not one that I knew
was one.”

“
Well, you know that
old guy I had running the inn for a couple days? He was one.”

“
Really? Didn’t
seem the type. My point is, I’ve not been around them, but I
really don’t feel like I’m missing anything. Where I come
from, people in other realms like this are often thought of as
limited creatures. Remember that guy you told me about the first day
who ran around asking everyone for a quest?” When she nodded I
continued. “Most of the realms we have visited, doing something
like that would be common, and the people would respond with various
tasks. They’d never be able to hold a real conversation, or
express their own thoughts, or have their own dreams. But you…
you are definitely not a simple creature.”

She turned her head to
look at me, and there was a wicked grin on her face. “I am
deciding whether that’s a compliment or not.”

“
Compliment.
Definitely compliment.” We both laughed then, and proceeded to
have dinner, though we were never more than an arm’s length
apart. She told me how her training had been going, and I explained
my classes. She found no end to the amusement when I told her how I
almost buried myself alive by accident, or nearly turned myself into
a statue. And when I told her about the summoning spells I learned.
She told me that she wanted me to put the Binding on her. To that, I
shook my head, flat out denying it.

“
Why not?”

“
Maybe later, after
I’m better. But I won’t risk testing an unsure spell on
you.” That answer seemed to be the right one, because she
leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the cheek to thank me. It’s
funny, we’ve hugged regularly, and now I had almost seen her
naked and we were about to share a bed, but we had never kissed.

Deciding that was a crime
worthy of imprisonment, I smiled and softly planted my lips against
hers, causing her to blink for a second before she closed her eyes. I
couldn’t help but think that her expression was extremely
happy. That, and marvel at how soft her lips were.

After that, we forgot all
about dinner. At times I thought we only kept our clothes on through
sheer force of will, wrapped in each others’ arms on the bed
until we eventually fell asleep.

Chapter
4

It was Friday again, and
after class I ran into Kevin outside the campus. “Hey, long
time no see.”

It hadn’t really
been that long, but given the time I had spent in The Dive, it felt
nearly like two weeks. “Yeah. How’re you doing, man?”