The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  “Denise!” I took aim at the wolf myself while Denise fired at it with her arrows. “Grasping Darkness!” The shadows of the tree the wolf was jumping past jumped up and snagged him, throwing him to the ground with a loud crash while the thorny vines from Dariel’s spell caught up and latched on. “Consuming shadows, twisting nightmares, may the dreams of man fuel your gluttony. Hungry Shadows.”

  The wolf let out a howl as shadows, vines, and arrows all assaulted it at once. It could rip off the vines with brute strength, it could dodge the arrows if it could move, but it didn’t seem to realize how to deal with the shadows slowly eroding its flesh. Dariel gave me a curious look after seeing the spells I just used. She probably knows where they came from, but I’ll fill her in later.

  I held up my hand, channeling intense amounts of mana for a single spell. “Warriors of the thunderstorm… bestow upon me your spear. Shock Bolt!” Unlike the usual Shock bolt which was a small burst of lightning, this seemed to be an actual lightning bolt that shot from my hand and crashed into the wolfman, vaporizing its lower body in a flash.

  You have defeated the Wolf King of Grazel Forest

  Fame +100

  You have gained 100 Soul Energy

  Behind us, there was only silence for a few moments, before the loud cheers could be heard. It seemed the workers had resigned themselves to being dogfood when the King showed up in front of them.

  “Denise. Mind leading them back first? Got a few things to discuss with Dariel before I head back.”

  She nodded, turning to the group of wagons and sitting next to Godrick, her bow out and ready. The workers all left with their second load of wood, and I smiled to Dariel. “Like I said, things have been busy.”

  “Yeah, I figured. Those spells. They aren’t normal darkness spells. Are they…?”

  “Infernal. We spent a brief bit of time in Hell to resolve an issue.”

  Her eye was twitching a bit as she sighed. “Please explain properly.”

  “Okay, but mind if we walk while we talk? I don’t want to get too far behind.” When she nodded, we began walking after the caravan while I told her about our trip into the dungeon, which turned out to be a gate to Hell. I told her about the problems the demons were having, and that they really aren’t bad people at all. After all, we spent over a week there and didn’t see a single real fight.

  By the time I was done, Dariel was smirking, and then let out a small giggle. “You know… this sounds just like you. You’re not one to get caught up in misunderstandings easily, are you?”

  I shrugged to her question, “I just like to hear the full story before I make a judgement.”

  “So, demons actually being nice… then how did all the rumors start?”

  “Well, the ones actually caused by demons would be like escaped criminals. But, since the angels are wanting them to look like the bad guys, they try to only draw attention to the bad that is done. Really, the angels are just jerks. Attacking innocent men and women because of a racial dispute.”

  “And.. you’re sure you got it right? That it wasn’t all a trick?”

  “Yeah. I saw the contract myself. All of the changes I made applied equally to both the demons and angels.”

  “And so the demon queen gave you infernal magic. But, you’re wearing a bow? Don’t tell me that you gave up on just using magic?”

  “Oh, actually I got the demon race’s blessing for my grimoire while it was there. It lets me create items from my mana. Since I’m trying to hide that I’m currently the only foreigner that has passed the human mage test, I’m pretending to be an archer that enhances arrows with magic.”

  “You’re a cheat character.”

  I laughed out loud to that. “Exactly what Denise said. I actually got bigger spells from the infernal magic than what I used back there, but I didn’t want to make it obvious to everyone that I had magic from hell.”

  “Have you managed to hit the next benchmark with all of your gathered spells yet?”

  “Oh, right. I got the thirty spell bonus. It gave me a magical barrier that absorbs damage based on how much mana I have.”

  “I see. Well, it was fun to talk to you. Maybe next time you can call me just to chat.” She smirks to me, laughing a bit. “Maybe invite the demon queen too? She sounds interesting.”

  “I’ll do that. I think the two of you would get along pretty well.”

  She smiled, and I dismissed the summoning, letting her walk into another doorway of light that appeared just like the one she arrived in. From there, I just jogged a bit to catch up with Denise, and we went back to town.

  When we returned, Godrick ran up to his cousin and they began talking among themselves. When they were done, the large man looked over to us with a slightly pale face as I walked over. “You… really killed that King..?”

  “He was getting in the way.” I shrugged casually, as if it was no big deal, and Denise giggled next to me.

  At my remark, the harbormaster burst out laughing. “I can’t believe it. You two probably just saved us a great deal of trouble in the future. Oh, I’ll build ya a ship, by god!”

  Building Your Ship I - Completed

  I smiled, nodding. “Is there anything else that we can help with to speed things along?”

  “Not unless you also happen to be a talented carpenter!”

  “Can’t say that I am, unfortunately. But your cousin said that I’d need to speak with you about what I wanted the ship to be capable of, since we were using Mana Wood to build it.”

  “Aye. But it’s getting late, let’s have that talk tomorrow.”

  I nodded, turning to leave with Denise. It didn’t take us long to find an inn, and when we got there, I couldn’t help but laugh. Kev was standing behind the counter, handing out keys to customers.

  “Wow, really?” I smirked to Denise, who saw it and laughed as well. “Brings back some memories.”

  “I’d say so.” She smiled to me, putting a hand on my arm.

  The two of us walked up to the counter and nodded to Kev. “So, how goes the mission?”

  “Well, uh… I got about fifty gild from delivering stuff around town. Not sure how much I’m making here. Seems to be going a bit slow. How’d you find me?”

  “Ah, we didn’t. We came here for a room.”

  At my comment, Kev’s face lit up. “25 gild per room, per night.”

  I smiled to Denise, remembering her own prices. “Little bit more expensive than I expected, but okay. We’ll be in town for about five days before the ship is done.”

  “Eh? You didn’t just buy one?”

  “They didn’t have one like what we wanted, so we’re having them build it.”

  “Damn you must really be rich. But alright, five days… that gives me some time to tell everyone that you’re alright. Uh.. I’ll be at class for that day if my math’s right. Mind staying in town an extra night so that we can all head off together?”

  “Hmm, alright. But we’ll be spending the last night in the ship. So still just five nights for the inn.” I handed over 125 gild, and Kev gave us a key. “You get any new talents while doing the odd jobs?”

  “Actually, yeah. Strangely enough I got Navigation after getting lost for about a half hour, and chef after some guy asked for my help preparing meals for his diner.”

  “Good, that means you should be able to survive a lot better in the wild now.”

  “Yeah, yeah. You two go off to your room. I got customers waiting.”

  He said that, though there was nobody lined up behind us. Either way, we went up to our room. I took a glance at the sailing book, and saw that it would take two hours to speed read. But then, that gave me an idea. “Hey Denise, let’s take turns reading this, alright? You go first. Don’t worry about finishing it all tonight, just get as far as you can before time to sleep.”

  She raised an eyebrow to me, but nodded. “Alright. Mind if I ask why?”

  “Well, you gain talent ranks
when I do, as we’ve discovered. But you gain them based on what you’re working on when I get them. So, if you’re not already studying the book, you’ll probably end up gaining something else.”

  “Ahh… that sounds somewhat like a downside of this connection, doesn’t it?”

  “Maybe, but as far as I can tell that’s how it works. So you can read the book until bedtime, and then I’ll hold onto it overnight. I want to see if my speed reading works while I’m asleep.”

  “I’d like to state for the record that this sounds like a terrible idea.” She shook her head and took the book from me, going to the bed and laying on one side while she read. Meanwhile, I laid on the other side and relaxed.

  When she started yawning while reading the book, I patted her shoulder and took it from her, and we laid together to sleep. Of course, I made sure to start the Speed Reading skill before I did. The next morning, when I woke up, there were a few messages waiting for me.

  New Talent Unlocked!

  Sailing - After studying the terms and techniques located in ‘The Sailor’s Skills’, you are capable of captaining your own ship.

  Due to excessive studying of ‘The Sailor’s Skills’, you have received the maximum reward the book can grant. Sailing has risen to 10, and the Map to the Seas has been added to your Navigation skill.

  When I saw these messages, I immediately opened up both my own and Denise’s character windows to confirm that we did both gain ten ranks in Sailing. Also, I could easily remember the contents of the book without opening it, as if I had learned it all in a dream. When I patted Denise to wake her up, I asked her to go through the book again. She grumbled something about not wanting to study so early, but grabbed the book from me.

  When she opened it, she looked through the first few pages, nodding to herself. Then she seemed to realize something as she quickly got to the point where she left off last night and was able to keep going at the same speed. “Why do I already know all of this… I didn’t last night, right?”

  “Apparently… sleeping with a book has bigger advantages than we ever thought.”

  “No kidding. I… feel like a cheat character now too..” Though she said it with a pouting voice, she seemed proud of the fact, smiling to herself.

  “Feels good, doesn’t it?”

  “A bit, yeah.”

  I chuckled, patting her side as I got out of the bed. “Well, we’ve got to go talk to the harbormaster now.” I picked up the book to skim through it as we walked, making sure I had everything memorized. Kev was nowhere to be seen, which was no surprise since the job shouldn’t have kept him overnight. Though, he might have just logged out.

  “Message.” I sent a quick shout to Rusty, but he wasn’t online right now. “Huh, wanted to thank him for helping me out so far. Well, I’ll just tell him later.”

  Soon enough, we came up to the harbormaster’s shack, and could hear the sounds of wood being cut off in the distance. Seeing as how he wasn’t out here to meet us, Denise and I went towards the sounds. What we found were the trees that had just been cut yesterday, but now were almost entirely sawed down into planks of various sizes. Directing the crew was, as could be expected, the harbormaster.

  “Hey, looks like things are going along smoothly.”

  “Aye. How are you coming on that book?”

  “Ah, yeah, I finished it last night. So, what exactly are the options for a Magic Ship? The book was pretty vague on that.”

  “It ought to have been. A Magic Ship can only have what abilities its creators can grant it. We’ve got a dedicated enchanter for situations like yours on staff. Ya said ya wanted defenses right?”

  “Yeah. I heard that there are some powerful sea monsters that require defenses to deal with.”

  “Well, we can load ya up on some cannons, and have them enchanted to fire and reload on your command. As you’re a caster yourself, we’ve got some more room to work with. If you’d like, we can put more enchantments onto the ship, at the cost of the mana storage. Meaning you’d be powering the ship’s magics yourself.”

  “That shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The book said that storms can be quite the problem on the seas out here. Is there anything you can give the ship to prevent it from capsizing?”

  “Aye, that’s a common one for us. Don’t suppose you need any enchanted fishing nets. So how about we go with this. The ship can be run entirely manually, or you can take over by fueling it with your own magic. We’ll add on a couple harpoon guns, and put a detection crystal in the captain’s room. There’ll also be a barrier you can call up when you need it.”

  “I see, and how big is it going to be?”

  “The ship is going to be a Galleon, thanks to all the wood you brought back, as well as what we still had on hand. Should easily hold everything you want. And with what you paid, we’ll stock the ship with ammunition and some supplies as well.”

  “That’s very generous of you.” I smirked up to the harbormaster. Apparently he was feeling bad about charging me so much at first, and is trying to make up for it.

  “Not at all. Thought you were just some spoiled brat at first, but ya kept my cousin safe in the forest, and even bested the King. You’ve certainly got some skills to brag about.”

  “Well, thank you. Is there anything else I need to be aware of, or can help out with until the ship is complete?”

  “Aye, now that you mention it. It’s a small matter, really. But every ship’s gotta have a name, don’t it? Also, you’ll need to buy whatever furnishings you want for it when it’s done.”

  “I see. Well, I’ll wait until the ship is completed, and then see what’s needed. If you need funds to hire more workers, let me know. I’ve still got a bit saved up.” Of course, I’ll always have a bit saved up.

  “That could be a help. I’ll see what I can come up with, and let you know what prices are needed.” The harbormaster nodded, and went back to directing the workforce.

  When Denise and I walked off, she smirked to me. “So, you’re going to be a captain after all.”

  I grinned to her and nodded. “Aye, and you’ll be my first mate!”

  The two of us got a good laugh out of that.

  Chapter 19

  The next few days passed without much incident. Kev was finally getting the hang of treating the villagers like people, and noticed an immediate increase in what they would let him do when he did. As such, he was easily able to earn the gild needed for the Fighters’ Hall training program. Unfortunately, there was no Fighters’ Hall in Grazel.

  We decided that after we set out, we’d drop Kev off at one of the Shattered Realm islands where he could train properly, while Denise and I began our journey. Of course, he was against the idea of separating until I mentioned that I can communicate with people I’ve met over any distance with the Message spell, and could summon him if need be. Something about being summoned with magic seemed to excite him, because he agreed right away after that.

  Before the ship was completed, I went to the harbormaster and told him the name that Denise and I had decided upon. Calling it Unity, the man seemed to nod. Of course, it wasn’t so easy to make a figurehead for a name like that. In the end, there were actually two, a man and a woman side by side, with arms outstretched to join at the nose of the ship.

  The ship itself was very impressive, looking far too large for just myself and Denise. Then again, the funds I used for the ship could have purchased a small castle. Each side of the ship had thirty-six cannons, and there were several large masts atop the ship. Denise and I held our breaths for a moment when we saw the ship, newly crafted and docked at the port.