The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (9 page)

Kevin smiled to me, “Doing
good! Tonight I’ll finally be able to leave the city. Oh, by
the way, I managed to find out the name of where I am. They call it…
the Shattered Realm? How cool of a name is that?”

I couldn’t help but
shake my head as I remembered what Denise told me. “Yeah, I’ve
heard about that place. Good luck getting to the mainland from
there.”

As I spoke, his expression
went blank, confused. “What do you mean?”

“
You know why it’s
called the Shattered Realm right? There was a really big earthquake
that turned it into a bunch of islands. Though, you probably can’t
see the ocean past the city walls.”

“
You mean I’ve
got to find a sailor NPC now too? That is so not fair.”

“
Well, you could
always learn to do it yourself, right?”

He drew back as if I had
slapped him. “Are you crazy? A mighty warrior would never stoop
to wasting his levels on such things! Just give me a ship and a
crew.”

“
Yeah, but in The
Dive, everything you do could turn into a level. Are you telling me
that the only Talents you’ve collected were combat ones?”

“
Yup! I’ve got
level twenty eight swordsmanship, level eight speed, and level four
medium armor.”

“
So you’re a
level forty samurai?”

“
Exactly! What about
you? I take it you’ve gotten more general talents?”

“
Well, one. I picked
up Navigation on my first day. Almost as good as a built in compass.”

“
Why would you want
that? Just get a regular compass…”

I shook my head again.
“I’ve also got a partner I’m going to be traveling
with. She’s working towards being a pretty good archer.”

Kevin suddenly had a
mischievous grin, “Oh, a she huh? I’ll be sure to get all
the details of THAT from you one day.” He said with a laugh,
and before I could reply, he turned and rushed off towards the bus
stop.

Why didn’t I tell
him that Denise is an NPC?

After that, I had to pick
up some groceries, my stomach telling me in no uncertain terms that
we were done with ramen for a few weeks. It might mean I’d be
gone from The Dive more, but what the body wants, the body gets.

Dinner took about an hour
to make and eat, just simple hamburger helper.
Hey,
at least there’s meat.

No arguing with that
logic.

I was in a hurry to get
back into the game, since I was already running at least two hours
late in game time. And sure enough, as soon as I connected, I heard a
familiar cute squeak, a happy cry, and was tackled onto the bed.
“You’re late I was worried I’m so glad you’re
back!” Denise was clinging to me like she thought I’d
disappear again.

I laughed lightly as I
patted her head. “Sorry, dinner took me longer than I thought.
Miss me?”

She nodded quickly, her
head buried against my chest. “Always. So, you already ate?”
I realized I hadn’t explained this part to her, so I nodded.

“
Yeah, but I still
need to eat here too. Since I exist both places, got twice as many
mouths to feed. You don’t mind cooking an extra meal, do you?”
I smiled down to her, and got a bright smile in return.

“
Already did, and
was afraid it’d get cold before you showed up. But really,
having to feed both bodies, no wonder you disappear like you do.”

“
Oh, by the way,
Denise. I had something I wanted to ask you.”

She lifted her head up to
look at me, propping herself up on her shoulders. “Hmm?”

“
We’ve gotten
so close, and I don’t even know your last name.”

The way her head tilted to
the side was kind of cute, “Pardon?”

“
A last name…
you’ve got one, right?”

I couldn’t help but
notice her blush, though I wasn’t sure what it was for. “Why
would I?”

“
...” I
sighed, “Okay, unforeseen cultural difference here. Where I
come from, everyone has at least two names, usually three. For
instance, my name there is Christopher Weston.”

She nodded, “Ohhh.
No, it works differently here. Well, it works differently for the
different races. I figured that you were like us and born with one
name. Okay, let me explain.” And with that, she was in teacher
mode, despite still being draped across my body.

“
The elves are
probably closest to what you said. Even though all the races have
given names that they are born with, the rest is a bit different.
With the elves, they have a clan name, like Silverwynd or
Shadowblade. With the dwarves, they have earned names, which they get
when they accomplish some great task. So, a famous blacksmith might
have the name Ironforge. Goblins… now they are really
different. They pick up names like you’d pick up spare clothes.
Whenever they feel like it, they’ll just add something to their
name for fun, so it’s not uncommon for one to have at least
five names.”

Her blush returned as she
got to the fourth, inevitable race. “And humans.. well…
we have unity names. Whenever we find the person we want to spend our
lives with, we register our union and decide a name to share.
Something more than physical, which will last forever.”

I smiled to her, and
couldn’t help but kiss her forehead. “I see. That is
definitely a different method than what we do in my world.”

“
Oh? So tell me
about what you do when you find someone.” Now she was back into
her curious mode, wanting to learn as much about where I come from as
I did about her world.

“
Well, after we are
sure that we want to spend our lives together, we exchange rings. A
visible reminder of our vows to each other. It is also common for the
woman to take on the last name of her partner.”

“
Ehh? You really are
more like the elves. N-not in a bad way!” She blushed and
looked away, causing me to laugh again. And it was at that precise
moment that my virtual stomach decided it wanted to be part of this
conversation as well, causing her to join in my laugh. “Yeah,
yeah, I hear you. I’ll be right back.”

As she stood, I couldn’t
help but notice that she had a better muscle tone than when we first
met. The frail innkeeper was vanishing a bit day by day, being
replaced with a cute archer.

So, I should aim to hit
level forty before leaving the city, huh? Well, he’ll be
overpowered in combat, but I wonder if he’ll even be able to
survive outside the city.

Ever since learning my
summoning magic, I’d been spending my days practicing my
different spells. Of course, I never forgot about heading to the
library to read the various books. It was a good chance to increase
my skills. And as such, I had gained another two points of
intelligence, one of wisdom, and various ranks and spell levels. I
hadn’t really tried learning new spells yet, though I figured
it would be a good thing to work on. Now that I had Magical Knowledge
10, I could take some time off from the college.

Part of me didn’t
really want to, though. I still wanted to learn more, to get as good
as I could before setting off. I was nowhere near mastering any of my
magic, but that was the whole point of an adventure. I decided to
attend for one more week, but after that I’d practice by
myself.

Denise returned with a
tray of well cooked eggs and sausage, offering me breakfast in bed.
Since meeting up with me, her cooking really has improved--to the
point where she even gained a talent for it. “Thanks.” I
smiled to her, accepting the food.

It was very important for
me to make sure to eat properly. Whenever I logged out, my satiety
paused, but since I left right before breakfast last time, I came
back and my body expected food. “Just two more weeks, huh?”

I looked over to her and
nodded. “Yup. Not long now. Oh, and if you don’t mind,
I’d like to spend the last week here instead of at the college.
I can only get so far with classroom lessons. Also, you’ll be
able to save on that week’s tuition.” I winked playfully
to her, and she laughed.

“
You mooch. Getting
me to pay for all your things. Oh well, in another week, I’d
love to have you here. Though don’t think that means I won’t
be training still! I’ll let you work in the inn while I get
ready for our big adventure! You can pay back some of that debt you
owe me.”

“
Yeah, yeah. I look
forward to it.” I gave her an approving thumbs up to her plan,
because really I did owe her a lot.

Like always, she gave me a
packed lunch when I left for class. To the surprise of the teachers,
I had advanced several years ahead of my former classmates. I was
curious why they were surprised when there had been other foreigners
that joined the college, but was informed that after they burned
themselves and died a few times with fire magic, the foreigners had
stopped coming to the college.

“
So, I guess that
will make me the first foreigner to graduate, huh?” I asked,
mostly as a joke. My earth instructor, who I had come to know as Luc,
nodded though.

“
Indeed. And the
fastest graduation in a hundred years at that! Why, you’re
almost ready to take your final tests already.”

“
Final tests? I
haven’t heard anything about that.” I looked over towards
Luc.

“
That’s
because nobody ever expected you to be able to reach that point in
the four weeks you would stay in the city. For your final exam..
well.. it’s different for each mage. The point is to show the
results of your labor and research. You should think carefully how
you want to present yourself for this, because it’ll be the
difference between passing and failing. And if your work is deemed
not good enough and you fail, you are not allowed to retake the test.
That’s why there are so few true mages.”

“
I see… so I
need to create a spectacular magic in order to pass?”

“
Right. And it has
to be original. You can look through the library, but those are all
examples of what NOT to do. The spell you create for your final exam
will be one that only you possess. That is the mark of a true mage.”

“
Wow… how
long do I have?”

“
You can postpone
the test until you are ready, but remember that you can only take it
once.”

“
I understand, sir.
I’ll do my best to succeed.” I spoke politely, but
inwardly, I was panicking. That vast library, full of magic and
spells, and I had to create something unique.
How
am I going to manage this…

What have I gotten
myself into now..

“
If it’s you,
I’m sure you’ll think of something. After all, you’re
my prodigal student! Of course, if you fail, we’ve never met.
You understand, right?” He grinned to me, and I had to wonder
if he was joking or not.

“
Right, right.”
I turned and went for the library. That was where I usually went when
I wanted to talk to Denise.

“
Message..” I
had leveled up the spell to Advanced, meaning that it could now reach
anywhere in the kingdom without the chant, and according to the
description it had unlimited range with it.

“
Jin, is that you?”

“
Yeah, it’s
me…”

“
What’s wrong?
You don’t usually call this early. I haven’t even had a
chance to head out yet.”

I started to fill her in
on the final test that Luc warned me about, and she waited patiently
until the end. “I’m just worried that I won’t be
able to come up with something.”

“
Oh, is that all?
Don’t worry so much! I know you can do it. Not just because
you’re a foreigner, but because you really are amazing. Just
put your mind to it, and you’ll figure it out.”

I smiled despite myself.
“Thanks, Denise. Don’t know where I’d be without
you.”

“
Oh, now that I can
answer. You’d be in a gutter somewhere begging for gild so that
you could afford that fancy tuition of yours!” She laughed
after saying that, and I couldn’t help but agree.

“
Alright. Well, I’ll
be spending some time in the library for a bit. I need to really
think about what I want to do. The entire history of mages, and I
need to create something new..”

“
See you tonight?”

“
You know it. You’d
come bust down the gates if I was late.”

“
I would, too!”
She laughed again, and we said our good-byes.

Okay… Let’s
get started!
Cheered up by my chat with
Denise, I went about looking for books. I wasn’t going to be
able to use the Spell Creation window for this. Anything with so few
runes would either be used already, or would be a failure.