The Dive: Birth of a Hero

by Justin Miller

  “Of course, dear boy. I still keep in touch with him on the other side, now and then. Apparently, he has joined some big name guild. He told me he wanted to visit this place in a few weeks if he can make it far enough inland.”

  I shook my head, sighing. “We’ll be long gone by then. Can’t afford to waste a lot of time lately.”

  Curious, Rusty raised an eyebrow, “Did something happen?”

  “You could say that. But either way, there’s no way for him to travel as fast as us, since he can’t spend that much time here.”

  Denise nodded her head, agreeing with me. “He’s right. By the time he makes it here, we’ll probably already be at the dwarven mountains.”

  I smiled, glancing at Denise. I knew that most players wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy the companion system like I did. Assuming somebody worked a full-time job, and played while they slept, they could only stay in the game for thirty or so hours of gametime before having to go to work. So for every two days in this world, a foreigner would miss sixteen hours, at least. Asking a companion NPC to regularly be able to protect themselves for that long was a difficult task, especially since companions were unable to level up faster than the foreigner they travel with.

  Meanwhile, I had one companion, and another one that would soon evolve from a student to a companion. Even if, for some reason, I had to leave the two of them alone for a while it wouldn’t matter. One was a powerful tank, and the other was probably one of the fastest humans in the world. Well, granted she’s a former human. I really need to find out what race she is now.

  While I was lost in my thoughts, Rusty and Denise had continued talking for a while. By the time I snapped out of it, he had handed over the keys to the two rooms, and we were moving along to our rooms.

  “So, you like being back in the city where it all started?” My smile grew wider as I asked Denise.

  She, of course, nodded her head happily. “It feels good to be back. I don’t want to stay, but at least I can compare myself to the past, and see that I have improved a lot since then.”

  I had to agree with her. By the time we left Rosenheim originally, we were not even level fifty. But now, with our levels over seven times that, we could swat down our past selves with just a wave of a hand. The only real threat to us now, until the world caught up with the levels, was other foreigners. Unless, of course, a dragon or an angel appeared. I was fairly certain that the angels would be able to wipe the floor with us.

  Once Cynthia had been led to her room, Denise and I went on to our own. I had never been in the guest rooms of this inn, as I had been staying with Denise when I was first here. But compared to what I was expecting, this was actually quite nice. Unlike Cynthia’s room, ours had two beds, each with finely carved headboards. There was also a soft, brown carpet covering the floor, and a desk off in one corner. I could tell that he modeled the rooms after popular motels in the real world, and would have had lamps and a television if it were possible.

  Sitting down on one of the beds, I was surprised by how soft the mattress was. It was likely among the most comfortable beds I had experienced yet, and I had been here for a while. Denise seemed just as pleased by the room as I was, sitting down next to me and sighing happily, leaning her head against my shoulder.

  “Sorry… about how I’ve been lately. Adventuring isn’t as exciting as I imagined it’d be.” Without lifting her head, she spoke comfortably, letting my body support her.

  “That’s alright. We did go through a lot, already.” I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m just glad I was able to get you back after that dragon fight.” Her head nodded in agreement, but she remained silent. “Now, though.. you’re probably more of a cheat than I am.”

  Hearing that, she laughed for a while, clutching her side. “Now that’s saying something. The guy who collected every book in all the worlds just to satisfy his curiosity calls me a bigger cheat.”

  Smirking, I nodded my head. “Yup. Your speed alone is terrifying. Even without the boost you get in darkness, I can’t follow your movements anymore.”

  Looking down, I saw that Denise had a proud grin on her face. “I still probably couldn’t break Cynthia’s defense, though. Thinking about how quickly she’s improved, now that is scary.”

  “True. And some of the items she made recently have powerful effects.”

  “Oh?” She quirked an eyebrow when I brought up Cynthia’s new equipment, which reminded me of something.

  “Yeah, she actually made something for you, too. I guess she found out you were practicing with a dagger.”

  “Gimme.” Without waiting for a response, Denise held her hand out, motioning for me to hand it over.

  Chuckling to myself, I pulled a pitch-black dagger out of the Artifact World, promptly handing it to her. The serrated edge of the dagger gave it a menacing look, the handle having a curved spike at its base as well. “Cynthia called it Shadow’s Edge. She doesn’t know what powers it got after becoming an infernal item, but originally it had a Mana Stone for a darkness spell in it.”

  Denise nodded her head, smiling as she looked over the dagger. Judging by her expression, she seemed to be getting acquainted with the dagger’s personality, while turning it over in her hand. “This is.. rather good. Stubborn, but good.”

  With a flick of her wrist, the dagger vanished into her Armor Ring, joining the rest of her combat gear. This time, it was my turn to lean over against her. “So, what do you plan to do once we get to the mountains?”

  “Hmm?” She looked over to me with her typical smile, seeming to think the question over. “Not sure. I could do with a bit more training. Maybe sneak off and run around for a bit. Any idea how long we’ll be there?”

  I shifted, laying back on the bed while I thought about the question. “Not sure. We wanted to go there for Cynthia to learn the dwarven blacksmithing, but she’s already done that now. All that’s left is for her to practice, and for me to find a way to get the blessing. After that… I don’t know what we should do.”

  Denise leaned back as well to lay beside me, turning onto her side to face me. “Want to challenge a dungeon? By that time, she should be all caught up with us, so it won’t be a problem, right?”

  I shook my head, “No, we probably won’t have time for a dungeon.”

  “Why not..?” She looked at me curiously, so I sighed. Putting a finger to my mouth, I motioned for her to be silent while I filled the room with a Darkness spell.

  “Sorry, what I have to say can’t be spoken about in areas with light…”

  “Jin.. what’s going on?” I could clearly see Denise’s red eyes inches away from my face, despite the darkness.

  Now that we were in complete darkness, I took the time to explain to her about the rest of what the god of this world had told me, and how we were meant to fight an army of foreigners and natives alone to prevent them from interfering in this war. Since Denise was with me the first time I was in Hell, she knew that Lilith could hear anything spoken in the darkness, and the King of Heaven could hear anything spoken in the light. As such, she agreed that casting the darkness spell was a good idea.

  “I… see.. So that’s what’s been bothering you so much. You’re right, with that coming up any day now, we don’t have any time for dungeons. We’d be lucky just to get the blessing for that book of yours before the fighting starts. And the worst part, once it starts the angels will probably go all out to target you.”

  I… hadn’t thought of that part. Of course, I knew that the treaty being gone meant that it would be fair game for angels and demons to attack each other. I had simply forgotten that I was included in that, and that the angels had extra reason to want me dead. Most likely, by now they had uncovered the fact that I was the one that altered the treaty in the first place.

  “Right.. So once that happens, we’ll need to retreat to the one place that they can’t get to us until the battle starts.”

  Judging by the movement of her eyes, I could tell that Denise was
nodding her head. “So yeah, I’m going to be sticking close to you in the mountains, just in case our time limit suddenly expires.”

  I gave her a wry smile, and leaned forward to plant a soft kiss on her lips. “Thanks. I can always count on you to be my knight in shadowed armor.”

  Denise let out a soft giggle, moving over to lay against me, and I finally allowed the Darkness spell to dissipate. It may not have made much sense, but I felt like everything would be okay, as long as I had Denise with me. I enjoyed being around Cynthia too, don’t get me wrong, but she was more like a little sister, whereas Denise was someone I could spend my life with.

  Time passed, and the darkness fell around us once again. This time, it was not the result of any spell, but simply the night welcoming us. We would be setting out to travel again in the morning, and I had no idea how long it would take to get to the mountains. Aside from the one that was really an egg for a creature of nearly limitless power, I hadn’t actually seen any mountains yet in our journey.

  Those thoughts could all wait until later, as I could feel my eyes becoming heavier. Within moments, sleep had overtaken me.

  Chapter 27

  Since Denise was aware of the urgency of our journey, it was easy to convince her to leave in the morning after we got up. Strangely, she still seemed to be in the same happy demeanor she had been in since returning to the inn. Looks like it really did help her to see just how far she’s come since she left.

  Though I didn’t really have any hopes for her personality staying this way for long, it was nice to see the old Denise again. Once we were back on the road, I returned to my previous routine of trying to create the most devastating spell I could think of. My mind was still set on creating some version of a meteor, but I couldn’t decide yet what type I wanted.

  Sighing to myself, I decided to first create another spell, which might let me run simulations more easily. It should be entirely possible within the magic system of this world, since the ‘god’ of the world mentioned running simulations while implying previously that he was restricted to using the magic found in this world.

  The problem with a ‘simulation’ spell, of course, was the vast amount of variables needed to run it. Thankfully, variables were fairly easy to manage by combining the imagination rune with a different one to define the variable. Still, there were several rings to this spell. While considering this spell, I knew that I could only perform it if I made it into an illusion, whether one that interacted with the world or one that was cast on my own mind.

  The obvious issue with this, was that I had no talent with illusion magic. Even if I had managed to create the spell, in all likelihood it would fail splendidly. So, I was back to the mental drawing board, simply imagining possibilities.

  Time quickly passed as we traveled, though occasionally we would have to stop to perform a quick battle. The monsters on the road to the northern mountains didn’t seem quite as docile as the others. Naturally, either Denise or Cynthia handled the battles themselves.

  Along the road, the first monster we encountered was a three tailed fox that shot fire from its mouth. I thought that was a rather interesting creature, myself, but it was fairly weak. Next, we came across a creature known as a wind wolf, which was just a wolf that was able to use wind magic. While the routes between the different human kingdoms were filled with lesser monsters, maybe the stronger ones were on the paths between races?

  Out of curiosity, I ended up using my Binding spell on both the three-tailed fox and a wind wolf, just so I would have something to summon aside from my big reinforcements. No more than six hours after we had left Rosenheim, these monsters became more and more common. Every monster we encountered seemed to have some kind of magical ability, and a few times it even required Cynthia and Denise to team up to defeat them.

  The first such creature that required both of their attention was a storm tiger, a large feline which was nearly as big as our horse! Along its fur were jagged lightning patterns, and sparks flew from its skin. Its speed, while not being quite as fast as Denise, was astonishing, and it had an attack that was just as powerful. Cynthia, who almost entirely used metal equipment, took extra damage from the creature’s claws, which had trails of lightning following them.

  Thankfully, Cynthia had a large amount of health and defense, while Denise was able to match the creature with speed when it was distracted. This let the two of them deal with the problem before it became too much to handle. If I had been thinking about it at the time, I would have tried binding the storm tiger as well!

  With the repeated attacks of the various monsters, our rate of travel decreased considerably. Normally, we expected that it would have taken us two weeks to reach the dwarven mountains, but now we would be lucky to make it in three. On the bright side, the combat experience was good for Cynthia, and she was quickly leveling up. Meanwhile, I hadn’t made any progress towards my new big spell, so the gap between us hadn’t increased any.

  On our second day, we decided to leave the battles entirely to Cynthia whenever possible, so she could rapidly accumulate experience. When she heard this, she shyly tried to decline. However, we convinced her that it was important to quickly raise her level up to match ours. Realizing that we weren’t going to back down on this, she reluctantly gave in.

  That didn’t last for very long, though. With the almost continuous battles, her level rose after each one in some way or another. By the middle of the day, I was greeted with a window that appeared as she rose to level 343.

  Cynthia’s level has risen to match your own. Student status has been lifted, and she is now a full Companion. Due to finishing her training as a warrior, the Fighting Spirit stat has been unlocked for Cynthia.

  Name: Cynthia

  Race: Human

  Title: Hard Worker

  Fame: 40

  Fighting Spirit: 10

  Gild: ∞

  Level: 343

  Health: 5250+1312

  Mana: 0

  Strength: 400+467

  Agility: 255

  Endurance: 1040

  Wisdom: 20

  Intelligence: 30+3

  Luck: 40

  Attack: 45 + 742

  Defense: 135+705(+168)

  Talents: Swordsmanship 36, Shield 32, Heavy Armor 37, Hidden Strength 25, Hammer Mastery 40, Fortified Health 25, Blacksmith 40, Spear 30, Dual Wield 30, Guardian 20, Scholar 10, Hand to Hand 18

  Title Bonuses: +10 all stats, +20 Luck

  Equipment Bonus: +20% Defense, +50% Health Recovery

  “Congratulations, Cynthia.” I smiled to her as she returned from a battle with a wind wolf.

  “Huh?” She looked at me curiously, unsure of why I randomly congratulated her after this battle. That had to have been the fifth wind wolf she had fought so far.

  “You’ve caught up with us.” I motioned my hand between myself and Denise. Once she heard that, her eyes went wide, a smile blossoming on her face.

  “R-really?” She looked towards Denise, as if seeking a sign of confirmation. Denise, however, was unable to judge her exact level like I was, so she could only smile.

  “Guess that means that you don’t have to do all the fighting anymore.”

  Once Denise said that, I froze, looking over to her. She was giving me a wicked grin, so I knew what she was going to say next.

  “Someone here hasn’t been doing much lately, so maybe he should get a few turns?”

  Cynthia, watching the exchange, tilted her head for a moment before giving a grin similar to Denise’s. “Y-yeah! I want a chance to rest now!”

  Without another word, Cynthia climbed up onto the wagon, dismissing her armor and returning to a more casual outfit with a happy sigh.

  “Fine, fine, I get it…” I shook my head for a moment, knowing that this time I was the one who was stuck doing what the others wanted. Once I had climbed out of the wagon, I began walking alongside of it. My Staff of Winter Storms and the robe that Dariel’s people made for me immediately appeared
as I removed them from the Artifact World. They do have a point, I guess. From now on, both of them will only gain levels as I do. Besides, I could use the practice.

  I hadn’t fought any of these monsters yet, so this would be a good experience for me. Naturally, I could count on the women to save me if I got in too much trouble. It was rather embarrassing that I was the weakest of the three of us.

  The first monster I encountered was a wind wolf. It had been hiding in the bushes along the road, but my Foresight had warned me of it ahead of time. Using my Status Glasses, I found out that its difficulty rating was 20, nearly double that of the Lizardmen that were located in the desert!

  Noticing that its ambush was ineffective, the wolf growled, walking calmly out of the bush and turning to face us. Since this was my fight alone, I walked forward to greet it, readying a series of spells in my mind. At the same time, I sent my staff back into the Artifact World, and blue light began radiating from my hands. Okay, let’s see if I can fight with my Aura.