The Dive: Birth of a Hero

by Justin Miller

  Although Aura was lower level than the difficulty of the wolf, I thought it would be alright. After all, the wind wolf’s total level was only a hundred, so the difference between our stats should make up the difference. “Bind.” Pointing one finger at the wolf, I first cast the spell to hopefully make it my second wind wolf summon.

  You have failed to Bind a Wind Wolf.

  My eye twitched slightly as the message appeared. I didn’t think I had ever actually failed at binding a monster before. Then again, I had always used it when they were already injured.

  The moment I tried casting the spell, the wind wolf saw it as the start of the battle. Kicking off from the ground, it jumped high into the air. Clouds seemed to form along its paws, allowing it to freely run through the sky, while a blast of wind shot out of its mouth.

  Okay, here goes! I now had the chance to test one of the things I had been wanting to. My aura quickly expanded outwards, but it was now invisible, infused with the essence of wind. Once my aura met the wind blast of the wolf, I concentrated my energy on it to try and capture the attack.

  I could see the blast of wind slow down, most of its force stolen away by the unfamiliar wind attacking it. However, it wasn’t enough to completely negate the attack, and I was knocked back a couple steps. My next action was another experiment, as I filled my own body with the essence of air to lift up into the sky. The mana cost for this was outrageous, but I would be able to last long enough for this fight to be over.

  Seeing me flying up to meet it, the wolf growled out in frustration, shooting another pair of wind blasts as it advanced. I easily managed to dodge the first one, but the second clipped my side and sent me flying off course. The wind wolf was not one to miss this chance, and dashed through the air after me, quickly catching up. I hadn’t yet managed to correct my flight, so I was essentially defenseless as the beast began clawing me.

  Now, I’d like to say I took the attack with dignity, but that hurt! Unlike the other two, I didn’t have much in the way of health. After two claw attacks from the wolf, my health was down to just over half. Thankfully, at the same time I was able to control my body again, and initiated my own series of attacks. “Shock Bolt!”

  From one of my outstretched hands, a line of electricity shot out, stunning the wolf and throwing it back several meters. Although it was only a tier 1 spell, it had been fully mastered. This allowed it to be effective, even against a powerful monster. Next, I took advantage of his stunned state and prepared my next attack.

  Condensing the air within my aura, an almost visible blade began to form, which shot out just as the beast regained control of itself. This was a poor copy of my Wind Blade spell, but I wanted to test the limits of Auracasting. And, while I was firing the blade of wind, I was freed up to begin chanting another spell. “The sky is my shield, the thunder my sword. May destruction befall those who oppose me.”

  The wolf quickly ducked to the side, easily evading the blade of wind. I had expected as much. After all, wind was this creature’s element. However, that action allowed my other spell to hit, a single sheet of lightning striking down from the sky, sending the wolf crashing into the ground.

  “Let’s try this again.” I pointed my hand at the dazed, half dead wolf. “Binding.” This time, the telltale sigil appeared on the wolf’s head, symbolizing that the spell was a success. “Good, now for the final blow.”

  I began lowering myself to the ground, gathering mana in my hands to use my grimoire’s Creation ability. What I made was a single revolver, which I aimed at the wolf and fired repeatedly. This type of attack was entirely unknown to the creature, and it was unable to avoid as it was pelted with bullets, quickly finishing it off.

  Aura has increased to 16

  Now that the battle was over, I released my aura, standing on the ground with a sigh. Thanks to my recovery rate, my mana was rapidly rising. I was also able to cast my Nature’s Blessing spell a few times to replenish my health before giving the okay to continue.

  “Really, Jin, you had such a hard time with a single wolf.” Denise shook her head with a disappointed sigh.

  “Hey, I was trying to test a few things out. I’ve gotten quite a few new abilities since the last time I was in a fight, you know?” Though, I had to admit to myself that she was right. I did have a considerably harder time fighting that wolf than I would have liked. Looks like I need to train my Aura a good deal more before it’s ready to fight like that.

  “Yeah, yeah. Let’s get moving.”

  Not long after, we came across another wind wolf. This time, I didn’t take any time testing abilities, and immediately opened fire with a pair of revolvers. My Arcane Marksman talent was even lower than my Aura one, but thanks to my spell bullets, the fight was still over before the wolf had a chance to attack.

  “See, now that’s more like it.” Denise smiled happily at the change in fighting.

  Cynthia, however, was just staring at my guns, apparently fascinated by them.

  “Something the matter?” I asked, looking over to the redheaded girl.

  She shook her head back and forth, trying to deny her curiosity. “N-no! Nothing at all.”

  I chuckled softly, looking down to my guns. “These are something I created with knowledge from my world. It’s a pretty useful tool.”

  “Y-yeah… could you… maybe… make me one?” She gave up trying to hide her interest after I explained it, instead looking at me with big, round eyes.

  Shaking my head, I let out a sigh. “It’d be impossible to make one for Denise. She would simply fire it faster than it could make bullets. Once we rest tonight, I’ll see if I can make you one, though you’ll have to practice with it for a while.”

  She nodded her head happily. “Then.. could you.. also teach me about them? Maybe I can make them too, once we get to the mountain…”

  “Alright, I’ll do that.” I smiled to her, nodding. I had other concerns with giving Cynthia or Denise guns, aside from their firing speed. With normal guns, the spent cartridges would remain in the chamber. This wasn’t an issue for my Creation ability, because I just had to erase the cartridge and replace it with a fresh round. However, for a normal gun that would be impossible.

  Maybe if I could make a semi-automatic pistol, I could solve this problem for her. However, if I did that then ammunition would be a problem. Theoretically, I could make self-filling magazines, but then we get into issues of power management. If the shots are fired too quickly, the gun will run out of energy faster than it can recharge, causing it to fail. Since such a thing would rely on Origin magic most likely, that would happen very quickly.

  The day continued to progress steadily like this until well into the evening, where the density of monsters started increasing further. Where we would fight one at a time previously, now we would fight two or three. Each time, if the fight would last longer than thirty seconds, I would try to bind the enemy to add it to my list of summons. By the end of the night, I had acquired ten wind wolves, three three-tailed fire foxes, a six-tailed fire fox, and a single storm tiger.

  Since I was almost exclusively using my magically created guns to fight, my Arcane Marksman level increased several times before we made camp as well, getting all the way to fifteen before we stopped for the night. With Cynthia and I setting up camp while Denise started dinner, we knew that we had to be more vigilant than usual tonight. Even with my Alarm spell in place, there was no guarantee that something couldn’t attack us before we were able to retaliate.

  “So, who gets first watch..?” Cynthia looked to the two of us curiously. I was half tempted to just summon a Hellgate so that we could rest in comfortable beds instead, but decided not to. If we can’t handle stuff like this, then we don’t really have any business being adventurers.

  “I’ll handle it. My eyes are the best in the darkness.” Denise proclaimed proudly, extending her chest with a smile. Her actions caused Cynthia and I to both start laughing, though we did agree with her.

  “T
hen I’ll handle second, and Cynthia can rest up this time.” I smiled over to Cynthia, who seemed unsure of my decision.

  “Are you sure..? I don’t want to be a burden..”

  My smile turned into a grin as I saw her hesitation. “Burden? You’re going to be on monster duty tomorrow while Denise and I rest!” Cynthia’s face turned red immediately, realizing that getting the full night to sleep might not be such a blessing after all. At the same time, Denise started laughing happily, enjoying the exchange between us.

  “Well…! Before that, you promised me one of those weapons!” Cynthia glared at me, changing the subject in order to get me to do more work before we turned in for the night.

  “Ah, right. Okay, first let me explain how they work.” Using my Origin magic, I was quickly able to make a single revolver, identical to the ones I used with my Creation ability. Once the revolver was made, I began disassembling it in order to show her the different parts. Since it was a simple, double action revolver, this was an easy task.

  After the revolver was created and explained, I made her a bullet. “This is what you fire from the gun.” Compared to the damage it could cause, this simple metal bullet was almost laughable. “Once you pull the trigger, the cylinder is turned so that the chamber lines up with the barrel. The hammer is also pulled back and then released, striking the bullet. Once the bullet is struck, the propellant inside the cartridge is triggered, causing the bullet to eject from its casing and shoot down the barrel.”

  Cynthia was paying as much attention as she could, studying the words closely. She clearly didn’t understand most of it, but that couldn’t be helped. It was a very different method than regular cannons, which were the most advanced firearms in this world. “Uhm… okay… wouldn’t it be better to launch the bullet with magic..?”

  Hearing her question, I was briefly stunned. After all, the actual projectile portion of the bullet is rather small, maybe a fifth of the total object. If it could be used without the casing or propellant, then that would make it much easier to produce. “Hmm.. I’ll have to work on that…” I had a new project, one that could distract me from even creating my meteor spell.

  Smirking proudly, Cynthia nodded to herself, happy that she could suggest something I hadn’t thought of. “Well.. once you come up with a design, let me know… I want to try making some once we get to the mountains.”

  I nodded my head slowly as she moved to get some of the food and eat, before going to bed. I likewise forced myself to lay down for a while, though my thoughts still drifted towards coming up with a new type of gun that blended science and magic.

  Since I had placed my Alarm spell, as usual, I was naturally awoken a few hours later with a shrill screech that only I could hear. Shooting to my feet, I looked around and saw Denise engaging in battle with a dozen pitch black creatures. Looking closely, I saw that the creatures were actually small cats. Their movements were almost impossible to track, because they blended nearly perfectly into the shadows, and never attacked alone.

  Though, that’s not to say that Denise was having difficulty. With this being the middle of the night, her Shadow Walker ability was in full force, making her speed incomparable to during the day. Each time a group of the shadow cats attacked, she was able to cut down one or two of them. Furthermore, the light wounds that the beasts inflicted were quickly healed thanks to her Regeneration.

  I debated going to help her, but decided that I would just be getting in her way. Cynthia was still sleeping calmly, despite the fight raging nearby, because Denise was able to keep the battle quiet. If it hadn’t been for one of the cats crossing the border of the Alarm spell, I might never have noticed either. On the other hand, my attacks are fairly loud, so I wouldn’t be able to allow the her to remain sleeping.

  After a few minutes, the last of the cats had fallen, and Denise let out a quiet sigh. Turning back to me, she smiled a bit and moved towards camp. She spoke in a quiet voice as she sat down next to me, “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you. That’s the third group so far.”

  My eyes went wide, but I kept my voice down as well. “Three? Were they all like that?”

  She nodded briefly, still watching the surroundings in case more show up. “Yeah, it started about an hour ago. If I had to guess, there’s probably a swarm of them nearby or something, and they’re just sending in small numbers to wear me out.”

  I sighed, seeking aid from Foresight. “I’m not picking up any, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t right. Those cats the only thing that’s been bothering you so far?”

  She nodded her head again, “Yeah. You sure we can’t just teleport to the dwarf mountains?”

  “Sorry, but I don’t have a reference point. The spell won’t work unless I can visualize where I’m going.”

  “Damn.. This is still only the second night.. This is just the beginning.”

  “Right… This is probably why you don’t see many dwarves in the human territories. Too dangerous to travel. Well, at least we haven’t come across anything we can’t handle yet.”

  Denise looked over to me, smirking. “Oh yeah? How do you plan to fight these guys when it’s your turn?”

  “What, me? Who said I was going to fight? I was just going to summon some of the creatures we picked up today and have them fight for me.”

  After a moment of thought, Denise nodded, agreeing with the idea. “How many can you summon at a time? If it’s those wolves, you’d need at least four to reliably fight them off.”

  Opening up my skill list, I was happy to see that my summoning skill allowed me to summon five creatures at once. “I can do it.” I nodded my head slightly, now more worried about how to get the wolves to fight quietly. Both the storm tiger and the fire foxes created bright lights with their attacks, which would disrupt whoever is sleeping.

  Denise smiled, nodding, before standing up. The black dagger Cynthia made for her appeared in her hand as she stepped forward. “Here they come again. I’ll take this group, and then it’s your shift since you’re already awake.” With a single step, she launched herself outside of the camp, jumping into a mass of twisting shadows.

  I chuckled quietly, watching her engage in another battle, while I began to work on the plans I had promised Cynthia. If I really could create a gun powered by Mana Stones, that would be an incredible weapon!

  Chapter 28

  It didn’t take Denise very long to finish off the monsters, and I doubted it would be too much of a problem for me as well. The Twilight Cats, as my Status Glasses call them, only have a difficult rating of fifteen. Their strength lies in their numbers and the bonuses they received from the darkness. It was just their bad luck that Denise receives similar bonuses as well.

  After she went to bed, I sat at the edge of the camp, looking out to watch for the next wave to approach. Since my Alarm spell wouldn’t be useful for this, I went ahead and called up my wolves. Five identical rings of light appeared around me, before the gray wolves materialized. In order to secure the perimeter, I spread them out at different points, making sure to avoid any blind spots.

  Reaching out my hand, I channeled mana into the ground. More specifically, I channeled it into my shadow on the ground. As the saying goes, fight fire with fire. I could feel the cold wisps of darkness rising up to form a semi-solid shaft in my hands as Shadespike presented itself to me. Now all I have to do is wait…

  Time passed slowly as I waited, using Foresight to keep an eye on my surroundings. In the distance, I was informed that there were roughly twenty of the small creatures watching me. My hand slowly tightened around the shadowy staff, watching in the direction they were reported. Should I wait for them to approach..?

  My concerns mattered little, for soon I heard a yelp from the opposite end of the camp. At the same time, Foresight warned me of another dozen that attacked my Wind Wolf, while the twenty I had been monitoring began to advance. Having little choice, I issued orders to the rest of my summons to aid the fight on the other side of camp, while I wor
ked on the ones coming for me.

  “Shadespike, looks like this could be your show.” I smirked slightly, raising the staff of darkness into the air. “Bind them.” Strands of shadows shot out from the staff, branching out left and right to form wide nets that were almost invisible in the night. I didn’t have very high hopes for this method, since these were creatures of darkness as well. I had simply intended for this to slow them down.

  However, as soon as the shadow nets struck, all twenty Twilight Cats froze, some even pausing in midair while being restrained. What..? Why is that so effective.. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth this time, I ordered the staff to consume them. Immediately, I heard the sizzling of something being dissolved, but to my surprise it was not the cats. Instead, the grass around them was dissolving under the staff’s effects while the cats themselves were unharmed.