The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  Got to be careful here. No telling how many elements I’ll be able to learn before graduation, and I need to be able to work well with Denise. I could pick fire for the damage, but Denise will be pretty good on that. After some internal debate, I settled on earth magic. Typically in games, earth magic has the most crowd control, so I can give Denise the most time to work with her bow.

  Having chosen my element, I waited for the teacher to continue. “Okay. Now, as I call out the elements, I want everybody that chose it to step outside. You’ll meet a personal instructor that specializes in your chosen field. First, Fire.” When she spoke, about half of the class got up and walked out the door. Figures, everybody loves playing with fire.

  After that, most of the elements got only one or two responses, and I ended up being the only one to rise when Earth was called. Outside, a short man with glasses too big for his face was waiting for me, dressed in a golden robe. “Jin, right? Figures I get stuck with the foreigner.” He adjusted his glasses while appraising me. “Well, let’s see if the rumors about you lot are true.”

  Not wanting to offend him, I nodded politely. “Thank you for taking care of me, sir. I hope to learn a lot from you.”

  That got a laugh out of him, “Oh, you’ll learn. Even if I end up having to beat it into your body. They say your kind don’t really die, so I don’t have to hold back, do I?” His grin seemed to become almost sinister. Why’d I have to get stuck with the psychopath?

  “I’ll do my best, sir.”

  “Yes, you will. Now, follow me.” He walked towards the center of the building, following the line of students and teachers that were moving to various specialized rooms. When we got to the spiraling staircase, most of them were going up, but my teacher took me down instead. “Best place to train with the earth is within the earth.” He explained when I didn’t say anything.

  When we arrived at the bottom floor, the stairway opened out to a vast cave, barely lit with torches every few meters. “Now, your real training can begin. Until I say you pass, you will be coming here to train instead of your normal classes. First lesson. The earth is the unmoving force, which we breathe life to. Simply knowing the runes will not let you perform an elemental spell. You have to truly understand the forces you are dealing with.”

  Bringing one of his hands up, he clenched his fist. Immediately, I felt the ground beneath me rotating, sucking me in as it spun me downwards. Within a moment I was down to my shoulders in the ground, stuck.

  You are immobilized.

  No shit! I mentally cursed the window and closed it, looking up at the teacher. No panicking…

  “Your first job is to dig yourself out of there. You should know enough that you can piece together a spell. Eventually, at least.” He grinned and walked off towards the steps, out of my field of vision. After a minute I heard him sit down, though it was hard to guess where exactly.

  New Quest!

  Lessons of the Earth

  Your instructor has trapped you with an earth binding spell, and has tasked you with escaping. Refusal of this quest is not an option.

  Difficulty: G+

  Reward: Unknown

  Okay.. Escaping. That would be a freedom rune, right? I focused on the rune in my head, letting it flow through my body. This was the first spell I’ve tried aside from Light, but the process should be similar. Theory never quite equals practice, though, and I went through all of my mana without any results.

  You have failed to cast a spell.

  Grumbling, I silently began hating these messages. So, I waited, breathing deeply and meditating as my mana gradually refilled. “Okay.. round two…” He said that I’d need to understand the element. How does one understand a stone? I tried pushing my energy out into the ground, but all I got for my trouble was a sharp reduction in mana.

  I kept trying this for hours, tackling it from every angle I could imagine. Lifting myself, lifting the ground under me, moving the ground away from me, I even tried to pass through the ground once. Each time I got a failure message. And each time, I could hear a low chuckle coming from somewhere behind me. It was obvious my teacher hadn’t left me alone, and was enjoying the show.

  “Oh, were all those stories about foreigners a lie? I thought you were a quick study!”

  Shaking my head, I tried to gather my focus again. Think like a rock… think like a rock… forget everything I’ve learned and just try to think like a rock. What would a rock think like? Stubborn? The ground was definitely being that. Unyielding. As I thought of this, I noticed that the ground seemed to loosen a bit, and there was a sharp breath from behind me. Alright, I’m onto something… no runes…

  Gathering my remaining mana, I filled it with what I had perceived as ‘earth’. The stubbornness of a mountain. I tried moving my mana upwards to have it carry me, but quickly regretted that as I was lowered further instead, being momentarily buried up to just above my chin. Wrong way, wrong way!

  Okay, basics learned, I shifted my mana down, to push myself up rather than pull. As I did, I gradually began rising up. Unfortunately, I ran out of mana just after it pushed past my elbows. “Alright… I’m getting there…” I was breathing a bit heavily from the effort, but it was worth it.

  New Talent Unlocked!

  Earth Magic- The ability to influence the very ground with your magic.

  Magical Knowledge has increased to 7

  Magical Talent has increased to 4

  Earth Freedom has been added to your Spell list.

  Status has changed to Rooted.

  I sighed, smiling at the series of popup windows, and opened my character window to spend the points.

  Name: Jin

  Race: Human

  Title: None

  Fame: 0

  Gild: 10

  Level: 13

  Health: 125

  Mana: 30/250

  Strength: 15

  Agility: 13

  Endurance: 15

  Wisdom: 25

  Intelligence: 50

  Luck: 5

  Attack: 10 + 7.5

  Defense: 10 + 6.5 + 3.25

  Talents: Magical Talent 4, Magical Knowledge 7, Navigation 1, Earth Magic 1

  I grinned a bit, breathing deep before focusing again. Now that I had the spell, it came easily. Earth Freedom!

  The ground split around me and I shot up to my feet, nearly losing my balance in the process. But dammit, I passed the test!

  “About time, kid. I was about to go take a nap.” The instructor spoke, and I finally remembered he was in the cavern, so I turned to see him. Somehow, he looked pleased and bored all at the same time. “Now it gets interesting. Your next lesson is to create your own earth spell. It can use any runes you are capable of casting, as long as you can cast it. You can not ask anyone for help for this assignment. You can use the library, but you can not copy any of the spells from those books. I’ll be keeping an eye on what you read, so I’ll know if you steal the spell from somewhere.” His expression displayed unimaginable levels of smug.

  Quest Updated!

  Lessons of the Earth 1 -> Lessons of the Earth 2

  Your instructor was impressed by your progress, and has now asked you to devise your own spell.

  Difficulty: F

  Reward: Varies based on result.

  “Understood, sir.” I sat down and went over what I’ve learned. He said runes were usable.. so most elemental spells should need it. Earth Freedom is a spell that simply moves the earth around the user, so it’s understandable if it didn’t.

  Talents, I opened a window, checking if this was a valid screen as well.

  Talents

  Navigation 1 - The ability
to avoid becoming lost. Allows instant knowledge of directions when sky is visible.

  Magical Talent 4 - The ability to cast spells.

  Magical Knowledge 7 - The knowledge of the arcane arts.

  Earth Magic 1 - The ability to cast earth-based magic.

  Frowning, I pressed Magical Knowledge, hoping for more of an explanation. To say I got an answer was an understatement. In a moment, I had reviewed every lesson we’ve had so far, and a few facts I had gleaned from my time in the library. Likewise, my mind was filled with an array of runes, some of which I haven’t even seen yet. All of them had meanings in my mind, as if they were common sense. Reflexively I brought a hand up to hold my head at the flood of information.

  Curious, I selected Magical Talent next, to see if something similar would happen. Instead, a different window popped up.

  Spell Creation

  Insert the runes you wish to use to create this spell.

  The runes I knew from just a moment ago were still clear in my head, but there were only two slots available. Maybe the amount of runes you can use in a spell goes up with Talent level?

  Focusing, I brought in the runes for Earth and Water into the window, and attempted to finalize it.

  Spell Creation Failed. You do not meet the prerequisites to cast this spell.

  Grumbling, I tried again, this time using the runes for Earth and Shield. As I attempted to finalize it again, the ground shifted around me. I had intended to create a wall of stone, or a block to use as a shield even. Instead, a thin layer of dirt rose up and covered every inch of my skin.

  Stone Skin has been added to your spell list.

  Because you do not possess sufficient strength, movement speed is reduced by 60%.

  Earth Magic has increased to 2

  As I struggled to move my body, I heard my teacher doubled over in laughter behind me. “Oh, that’s just great! You picked THAT spell!”

  Even after I had turned off the spell, a thick layer of dirt stuck to me. “That’s not actually what I was trying to do, you know..”

  He shook his head, still grinning, “Oh, oh.. Still, most earth mages try it at some point. It’s the easy answer for the problem of a mage’s inherent weakness to physical attacks. Most don’t realize that being covered with earth is actually really heavy! But alright, since you admitted that it wasn’t what you intended, you can try again.”

  Okay… so there are two ways to create spells. The easy way, of course, is to go through the Talent screen and put in the runes you want to use. But the safe way is to do it manually. Let’s go with safe. Okay… a wall. Shield didn’t work. Or maybe it just didn’t understand?

  I set my palms down on the floor, and closed my eyes. Again, I visualized the shield rune. I filled it with my new earth magic. But just as the dirt began creeping up my skin, I flung it out of me just as I would with casting a Light spell. Waiting… I realized nothing was happening.

  You have learned a new spell.

  You have successfully cast a new spell. However, you did not use it on a valid target, so information about this spell is locked.

  Maybe that was a buff spell? Either way.. not what I wanted.

  I tried again, this time forgetting to use Shield, and switching to Wall for simplicity. There was no response again, and my mana was taking a nosedive. Maybe it’s a three rune spell? There was one for control..

  Since I couldn’t put three runes into the Spell Creation window, I had to do it manually. I sat down, crossed my legs, and focused. Control… I placed the rune in my mind, letting it fill my body. Earth… as I filled the Control rune with my earth magic, I began forcing the image to shift, from Control to Wall. Over half of my mana disappeared in the blink of an eye, but I managed to hold onto that image. Then, I flung the spell out like I did earlier, and this time got a reaction.

  About three meters away, a small mound of dirt rose up into a one foot wall. Okay, so it’s not the great shield I wanted, but it’s a step in the right direction!

  Wall of Clay has been added to your spell list.

  Magical Talent has increased to 5

  Earth Magic has increased to 3

  I was getting dangerously close to level 20, and had a feeling that it would start to slow down once I hit that. So far, I had been gaining levels quickly. Now, I needed to focus and make sure that the Talents I leveled were ones that I need most. So, Magical Talent increases with casting, and Magical Knowledge increases with studying. Talent lets me use more complicated spells, but Knowledge lets me have access to more information.

  I decided that for now, I would focus on Knowledge, and once I hit level 20, I would put more effort into the practical skills. In the meantime, I had an annoying teacher to impress. Spell window.

  Light(35/100 Intermediate)- A basic spell that enables you to create a light source. Chant: Northern stars, grant this traveler safety in the darkness.

  Stone Skin(1/10 Beginner)- Covers the caster in a layer of earth, hardening defense. Chant: Unmoving mountain, fields of stone, come forth and embrace your champion.

  ??(1/10 Beginner)- ?? Unknown spell using the Earth and Shield runes.

  Chant: ??

  Wall of Clay(1/10 Beginner)- Allows the caster to create walls made of earth.

  Chant: Guardians of the earth, answer my call and become my shield.

  Having gotten the information I needed from the window, I waited a few minutes for my mana to finish recovering. Then I placed one hand down on the ground. “You want a spell… Guardians of the earth, answer my call and become my shield. Wall of Clay!” I focused on a point a few feet in front of me, and immediately a wall rose up at that point, reaching up to five feet high. It looked soft, but given that I was still a total novice I was proud of it. I also noted sadly, that my talents didn’t increase that time.

  Turning back, I smiled smugly to the teacher, who was staring wide-eyed at my spell. “You.. how… you couldn’t have… How did you come up with a new spell on the spot, and even decipher it’s incantation? Did you use some of your foreigner magic?” He glared at me suspiciously, unable to believe that I had accomplished his request so easily.

  “Not at all, teacher. I simply followed the guidance that you and the other instructors here have given me, and applied it to this task.” I bowed my head, smiling.

  He shook his head, and then laughed for a bit again. “You.. you’re the first foreigner to pass through these tests. You may have the potential to become a powerful mage in your own right.”

  I lifted my head, looking to him. “Sir? Does that mean that there have been others like me that took on different elements?”

  His response was a quick nod. “Oh, sure. But from what I’ve heard, they all took fire. I hope the bastards burned.”

  “Figures… fire is overrated. It’s destructive, sure, but it is too unreliable. In my opinion, it is the lowest of the elements.” That seemed to get his attention, because he had a new sparkle in his eyes.

  “Exactly! Why does nobody ever see it that way! They all just want to be as flashy as possible! Bah! Those aren’t true mages. They’re nothing more than idiots clinging to delusions of grandeur. You.. I like you. Tell me, what is your goal in studying magic?”