Compared to Denise, I have absolutely no combat ability. Damn, I even forgot to invest in any attack spells! Quickly pulling up the spell window, I put in the Blast rune, hoping for an easy attack spell.
Mana Bolt has been added to your Spell List.
Okay, good. Now I’m not completely helpless in a fight. I’ve also got to work on my summoning spells..
Once I was ready, I went back out to the inn, and saw the middle aged man that Denise had identified to me as another player. Him and Denise were shaking hands, and saying goodbye. When I came out, she smiled to me and waved me over.
“Jin, come here! This is Rusty. He’s the other foreigner I told you about. He was nice enough to offer to take over the inn for me while we’re gone.”
So she gave it to a player? Well, that’s interesting. And he really named himself Rusty, too. Wonder if it was an inside joke? “Nice to meet you, Rusty. I’m Jin.”
“Oh, she’s told me all about you, son. Don’t give her that look, it was all good. I’m glad some of us are able to make a name for ourselves here. I should have asked for a younger body, this old thing wanted to give out as soon as I picked up a sword.”
I nodded to him, only really half paying attention. “So, Denise, you ready to go?”
She quickly returned my nod, obviously excited, “Ready as I’ll ever be!”
We said a final farewell to Rusty, and went off to the city gates. As we arrived, I saw out into the vast grasslands that surrounded the city for the first time. I had never bothered checking the surroundings because I would be tempted to try to leave early. But now, as I set out past the gate and left the city behind, I got my first taste of the wilds.
Rolling hills and grasslands stretched out for miles, and I could see a large forest in the distance to the north. In the west, I saw scattered villages, and in the east was grass as far as I could see. Of course, it wasn’t an empty field.
Roaming the grasslands directly around the city were what looked like wild dogs, snarling at anyone that got too close. When we first saw one, Denise warned me that they often harass travelers moving to and from the city.
Given her description, we weren’t afraid of causing trouble by taking a few out. As she knocked her arrow, I began working on my spell, grabbing my book and reading it straight from the grimoire rather than the spell list. “Warriors of light and magic, bestow unto me your spear. Mana bolt!”
Critical Hit!
From my fingers, a thin ray of light shot out and struck the dog right in the snout. Though, despite the critical, it didn’t seem to do very much damage. I shot three more rapid mana bolts before it started to slow down, and Denise finished it off with an arrow.
“Sorry… was so focused on my studies I forgot to practice attack spells, heh..”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll be able to work it out quickly enough.”
She smiled to me as she went to the fallen dog a few meters away and removed the arrow with a sharp tug. Then she nodded to me and we went on to the next. After a couple of easy kills, where she let me practice my mana bolt before delivering the killshot, I got a skill-up message.
Mana Bolt has reached Intermediate rank.
Mana Bolt now has more damage.
Okay, maybe this is what I needed?
Bringing up my hands, I targeted the next dog and began the chant. This time, the ray of light was about twice as large as before, and speared straight into the leg of the dog, blowing it off.
“See? That’s what I’m talking about!” I could hear Denise’s triumphant cry from behind me as I shot another bolt at its snout to finish it off. Okay, so using a chant increases its effective rank by 1 tier. That means now I’m firing Advanced level bolts when I take the time to cast it.
“Yeah.. we can head further out now. No need to cling to the walls, right?” I smiled back to her and she nodded.
“Sure, which way you want to go?”
“How about we head north? You said that the elves are good at nature magic and archery, so we could both learn something by visiting there.” She nodded at my suggestion with a smile and we took off.
As we moved further away from the city, the Wild Dogs were replaced by Wolves, and even with my improved Mana Bolt, it took more than one shot to take them down. Denise couldn’t finish them off immediately either, so it was starting to get more intense. And even though I kept an eye out for loot--this is a video game still right? Monsters drop loot-- all I found were low grade canine fangs.
When the sun started to set, we heard a howl from a ways off, and neither of us could quite make out the moving shapes in the darkness. Me being the prestigious mage that I am, I conjured up a light spell, and threw it off in the direction of the sound.
“I really don’t think you should--too late.” Denise finished with a sigh, as the light illuminated a pack of wolves which had been fighting over a fallen deer. When the light reached them, suddenly their attention found a new target and they turned towards us.
“Noted. In the future, do not poke the angry wolves.” I prepared myself for battle, raising my hands as Denise nocked an arrow and let it fly, striking one of the wolves in their leg. If they weren’t going to swarm us before, they are now!
With the pack racing towards us, I fired off a series of mana bolts, taking down one while Denise took down another two. But they were getting too close, and there were still too many to take down in the time we had left.
“Okay, time for plan B!” I had time for maybe two quick chants before they were upon us, so I gambled. “Spirit of wind and chaos, eyes which gaze upon the hearts of man, place the mark upon this soul!” A glowing rune, the mark of Binding, appeared on the forehead of the lead wolf, but it didn’t even seem to notice as I quickly began my second chant. “Guardians of the earth, answer my call and become my shield! Wall of clay!” Spreading out my mana, I brought four walls up around us to form a dome of earth, and could hear the wolves crashing into it. Unfortunately, that maneuver took down half of my mana.
Wall of Clay has been attacked. 98% health.
Wall of Clay has been attacked. 94% health.
Wall of Clay has been attacked. 90% health.
Denise looked at me in the darkness, “Well, what’re we going to do now?” She asked as I saw messages appearing marking that the wall wasn’t going to last much longer.
“Uhm… improvise?” I put my hand on the wall . “This may not get rid of them all. Hell, this may not even work. You ready to kick butt when the wall comes down?”
“Yeah, I’ll be damned if I get taken out by a pack of mutts on my first day. Do it.”
I nodded, bringing out my original spell, and strengthening it with the chant. “Warriors of light and magic, bestow unto me your spear. Become!” A light shot from my hand into the Wall of Clay, and I swiped out the Wall rune to replace with the Shoot rune. “Mana Bolt!”
The wall around us exploded with a deafening force, spraying out in spears of stone that skewered the wolves attacking it. Even though the blast shook us for a few moments before we were able to stand, the wolves were still unable to get to their feet. Those that survived were quickly put down by Denise, while I just stared at what happened.
Earth Spear has been added to your spell list.
You have succeeded in Binding an Angry Wolf.
“Hey Jin.. I hate to point out the obvious.. okay I don’t, but.. That wasn’t a mana bolt. Was it? It looked different.”
“Uhm.. yeah. Apparently I just made an earth spear spell.”
“Huh. Well, that will certainly be useful. By the way, it won’t be so… blasty next time, will it?” She asked, tapping her head as if trying to knock the ringing out of her ear.
“Oh god I hope not.” Glancing to our HP bars, I saw that my mana was almost completely gone, and both of our HP took a hit from that shock.
“Let’s rest for a few minutes. You go
t a knife we can use? It won’t be convenient to run back to town for meat.” She nodded to me and pulled out a knife, getting to work on skinning the various wolves. I’m man enough to admit I wasn’t man enough to watch that, so I took watch.
By the time she was done, we now had acquired several Wolf Meats and Wolf Furs. Maybe we could sell them in a town? But first, we set up camp for the night. Well… I set up camp for the night while Denise made dinner.
Since I was worried that we would be attacked by more wolves in the middle of the night, I got to work on the spell creation window. With my current Magical Talent level, I was able to create spells with four runes. I started with the ‘Awareness’ rune, and put in ‘Area’. That should be enough for an alarm spell, right?
Scan has been added to your Spell list.
Scan? That’s… not what I wanted.
I tried again, using the same two runes, but this time I added in a rune that is difficult to translate directly into a single word, so the best I could do is ‘Toggle’.
Alarm has been added to your Spell list.
“Aha, there we go.” I smiled to myself as I finished setting up the tent.
“What’s that?” Denise asked, looking over to me. “Ah, you finished.”
“Oh, yeah. I was just working out a spell so that we could sleep without worrying about being attacked.” I kept my smile on as I looked to her.
“Hmm, that will be helpful. There aren’t any shelters nearby without going back to town, so I was worried we’d have to sleep in shifts.”
I shook my head to her. “That shouldn’t be the case.” I brought my grimoire up to read out the spell. “With my eyes closed, I see all before me.”
Define an area for your Alarm.
I focused on a perimeter extending about twenty meters around the tent. “Alarm.” There was a faint light that twisted and lit up the perimeter and then faded away.
“Alright, that should do it!” I smiled to Denise and sat down near the fire. “By the way.. there is something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh? What is it?” She asked while finishing up the meat. I have never had wolf stew before, but when she makes it I’ll eat anything.
“I got a job offer back in my world, but it was a bit strange.”
“Why? What was it?”
“Well, that’s just it. I don’t entirely know. In my world, when you want a job, you have to apply for it, hope you get picked, and then go to an interview. But with this, they just sent me a letter offering me a job.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem?” Denise tilted her head to the side as she spoke, letting her stew cool down.
“Well, if I take a job.. I probably won’t be able to spend as much time here..” I looked down into my bowl, as if the answer could be found somewhere in there.
“Ah.. But you still need a job in order to pay for things in your world, right?” When I nodded, she continued. “Then you should at least see what the job is. If it is something that sounds good, I think you should take it. I may not like it, but I could survive if you spent a bit more time in your world… just so long as you don’t forget about me.”
“Of course I wouldn’t forget about you!” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “No matter what job I get, I’ll still spend as much time as I can here. Being in this world with you.. well amazing just doesn’t cut it.”
She nodded to me, hiding a smile while she ate. “Good.. Because you know it’d suck to go through all of this just to give up at the beginning, right?”
I had to laugh, “Yeah. Hell, I have already left my mark on this world just by being the first foreigner to graduate the Mages’ College. What kind of legacy would I be leaving if I just vanished after that?”
I resolved myself to call them and ask about the job in the morning, and we finished the night in relative peace, cuddled together in the single tent. More and more I saw The Dive as where I belonged, instead of my own reality.
In the morning, I said my goodbyes to Denise, and told her I’d be back as soon as I could be. She nodded, and wished me luck with the job, but her eyes showed how sad she was to see me go.
As my world returned to the cold normalcy of my apartment, I slid off my Link capsule and sat up. Okay, think… what do I know about this. I had heard the name of the Unicorn Corporation before. They were famous for their -- admittedly former-- top of the line RPG games. I had actually played a few of their games. None of it comes close to The Dive, but they are quite popular.
But what would they want with an Investigative Asset? And what does that even mean. For that matter, why not just email me or something? Only bill collectors use regular mail these days, and that’s just so they have an excuse to charge you if it gets lost.
Curiosity, thy name is Christopher. I went back to the letter and found the number. Pulling out my cell, I saw that I had a missed text from Kevin saying he finally managed to get off the island. Ignoring it for now, I dialed the number and let it ring.
“Hello. This is Christopher Weston calling, correct?” A deep voice spoke on the other end, and I at first expected that they were using something to disguise their voice. It just sounded… wrong.
“Uh.. yeah. I got a letter last night, something about a job?” Suspicion was currently wrestling with my curiosity, but self preservation hadn’t quite won out yet.
“That is correct. To confirm, you play the character Jin in The Dive. This is correct?”
They know about my character? But.. how? “Yeah… and this is also starting to get a little bit creepy. How do you know that?”
“Unimportant. How much do you know about The Dive?”
“It’s an amazingly realistic game, has features I never dreamed would be real, and is completely free?”
The filtered voice seemed to find my remarks amusing. “I see. Yes, we wish to hire you as an Investigative Asset.”
“And as I’ve been trying to find out, what does that even mean?”
“We want you to investigate The Dive.”
“You… what? Can’t you just research it on the net like everyone else?”
“It appears you are unaware. All information posted electronically about The Dive is immediately erased. It is impossible to even access their website outside of a Link capsule, and the only thing you see is a download screen. You witnessed this yourself, correct?”
“Yeah, of course. You have to in order to get the game.”
“According to all resources, that website does not exist.”
I blinked, and almost dropped my phone. “So.. you’ve got a ghost website, a mysterious game, and someone erasing everything connected to it as fast as it’s posted?”
“Correct. We require someone to investigate from within the game, and uncover the truth behind it. All reports will be filed either over the phone or in paper. Your pay will be one thousand dollars a month, plus all living expense costs. There is no deadline on this job, but be aware that you are not the only person we have hired. If someone else finds the answer first, all others will be fired. The one who succeeds will continue to receive the monthly funds after completion of the job.”
“Okay… wow… Obvious question here but… why me?”
“We have resources within the game that informed us of the character Jin. First to graduate from the Mages’ College, and you are already immersed in the world. All of this makes you an ideal candidate.”
The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith Page 9