The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (3 page)

Okay… I’ve
got 70 gild now, so I need to make another 130, so… 33 beds?
Does this inn even have that many? Guess we’ll just have to
see.

I turned and smiled to the
customers, who were grumbling about being kept waiting and demanding
a discount. However, my tuition was on the line here! Yield for no
man! I made sure to have everyone pay the full price, and handed out
the keys to them when they did. Denise wasn’t back down for
over an hour after that, cleaning out the unused rooms almost as fast
as they were rented out. By the time she came back down, she looked
like she had personally wrestled every dustbunny in the city.

“
Thanks a bunch…
these last couple weeks business has been crazy. And you wouldn’t
believe how many people try to get in lately without paying.” I
figured she must have meant players with no money, meaning that
they’ve been coming for about two weeks of game time. Given
that the game isn’t advertised, that probably meant it wasn’t
more than three weeks old, in real time.

“
No problem. I am
always happy to help a damsel in distress.” I laughed at that,
and got a look that I could only assume was a cross between a glare
and a grin. Somehow, she pulled it off.

“
Well, the least I
can do is put you up for the night.” She smiled a bit, brushing
some dust off her dress. “Looks like you sold out all the
rooms. Good job. That means I can’t give you one of them for
the night…” She grumbled a bit, and then smiled as an
idea hit her. “You could stay with me for the night. It’s
a couch, but better than nothing. I’ll even throw in a free
meal to make up for it.”

As Denise handed me a
coinpurse with my pay, I smiled to her. “Sure, that sounds
wonderful.”
Score. With this, I can head
to the College tomorrow and pay the tuition.

She led me back to a small
apartment on the first floor of the inn. It wasn’t much, just a
small kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Sure enough, there was a
brown couch in the living room that I planted myself in. “So…
I hope you don’t mind, but could I ask you a few questions? I’m
pretty new to the area, myself.”

Denise let out a soft
sigh, “Another foreigner, huh? Don’t worry, we’ve
been getting a lot of you lately. You’re not like most of them,
though.” She laughed briefly. “Oh, nearly a month ago
now, there was this one man running down the street, poking everyone
he could find. Each time, he’d just stand there and say
‘Quest?’, before moving on to the next person. We all
thought he was crazy. Eventually the city guards had him locked up
for the night for disturbing the peace.”

“
Ah, sorry about
that.. On behalf of foreigners everywhere, I apologize.” I gave
a shallow bow, which made her laugh again.

“
Oh, you’ve
got nothing to be sorry for. You’re probably one of the best
mannered of the lot I’ve seen.” She turned that smile on
me again, and everything felt better. “Though, I suppose this
is my turn to ask. Where did you all come from?”

I blinked at the question.
An NPC questioning the origins of players…
if nobody else has given a story, and there’s not an official
one, maybe I can set it?
I thought about that
for a few moments. “Far away. We come from a land much
different than this one, and we may only stay for a brief while at a
time. There are laws of magic in our land, as I am sure there are
here.” She nodded to me as I began my story. “In order to
visit this realm, we must agree to a pact that binds us to remain in
one place for four weeks before our journey can begin. But, how
should I put this… We are here, and yet we are not. Have you
ever seen one of us… simply vanish?”

“
Hmm.. well, yes,
but I assumed that was a mage. Are you saying that any of you can
disappear at will?” Her eyes grew wide with fascination.

“
Not quite.” I
shook my head as I explained. “When we vanish, we are truly
gone. That is how we return to our own realm. While we may live a
life among you here, we each have duties among our own that must be
dealt with. And as a result of the magic that brings us here, many of
us do not know about this land.” I laughed as an example came
to mind, “For instance, I do not even know the name of this
city.”

She smiled to me again,
bringing a hand to her chin in thought. “I see… well,
that would certainly explain a few things. Thank you for sharing your
story with me. I’ll be sure to let people know. Maybe there’s
a way we can help the foreigners get better acquainted with this
area?”

“
Well, actually,
there is. As we appear here without food or money, we are required to
seek methods of earning gild in order to sustain us on our visits. In
that way, you may view us well, because it means that those who come
will help those in need.”

“
Yes, I can see that
being a good thing. Is that why you offered to help me out tonight?”
She asked, one eyebrow curiously raised.

“
Well, I spoke true
when I said that I enjoy helping the damsel in distress. But yes, one
of the reasons was that I was in need of gild as well, and a
shopkeeper suggested I help here. You see, I wish to enroll at the
Mages’ College tomorrow, but the tuition fee made that
impossible before.”

She nodded to me,
accepting that. “Well, I do hope you’re able to help out
again, though I understand if your studies prevent it. Might I ask,
if you use such powerful magic to visit our land, what could you
learn from the college?”

It was my turn to smile to
her. “When we visit here, this place changes us. The magic of
our world does not function, leaving us to find our own means. At the
same time, it also means that even a warrior of my realm can learn
magic here.”

“
It truly is like
living a second life, isn’t it?”

“
Yes, I suppose you
could say that it is. So, would you mind giving me some information
about this world? Anything at all would be helpful, even if it seems
to be obvious.”

“
Oh, certainly.
First of all, this city is known as Rosenheim. It’s the capital
of the Wynterrose kingdom, one of the three human realms.” As
she spoke, a window appeared in front of me, and I had a suspicion it
did so for other players as well.

After that, a second
window appeared, giving another welcome bit of information.

Mentally closing both
windows, I nodded for her to continue. “The other two kingdoms
are Eastal and the Shattered Realm. Due to a great quake that shook
the world, the former kingdom of Crucible was split apart into many
islands, creating the Shattered Realm. In the mountains to the west
and the north, there are the dwarves, who excel at the arts of
crafting. In the many forests scattered through the land of the
various tribes of Elves, who excel at nature magic and archery. And
finally, in the hills of the south, there is a tribe of Goblins, a
race focused on warfare. Their main specialty appears to be trading,
as they travel the lands as merchants.

“
You said that you
wish to enroll in the Mages’ College, so I can leave that out.
There is also the Fighters’ Hall, which trains those wishing to
be warriors, and the hidden Thieves’ Guild, though those that
know where it is don’t say. Since you mentioned that you must
wait four weeks before leaving, it would seem that none of your
people have ventured outside the cities. To the west, beyond the
dwarven realms, there are the Lost Lands, a barren land ruled by the
strongest of monsters. Even scattered throughout the center of the
continent are creatures that hunt humans. Everything from wild dogs
to dragons of the east.”

I nodded as she explained
these things to me. “Well then, thank you for all of this. I
must ask, do the other races all share a language with humans, or
does each race have its own?”

She smiled, “Oh
dear, I forgot to mention that. The elves and the dwarves have their
own language, while different areas of goblins have different
dialects. That leads to a lot of warfare between them.” At
that, my stomach growled quite audibly, as if I hadn’t eaten
dinner just an hour or two before, causing Denise to grin. “Well,
I did say that I would offer you dinner. Can’t be going back on
my word, can I?” She laughed and got up, moving towards the
kitchen, though in a considerably better mood than before, perhaps
because some confusion had been cleared.

“
Er.. thank you. I’m
sorry to impose on you like this. I arrived here with my clothes and
little else.” I grinned a bit as a thought crossed my mind. “I
should consider myself fortunate that the fates allowed me an
outfit.”

I could hear a laugh from
the kitchen as my words reached her, “I believe we all consider
ourselves fortunate that foreigners do not appear naked.”

I nodded, and then spoke
up again as I realized something. “It occurs to me that I never
told you my name. I’m Jin. And now that we are actually
introduced, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

A moment later, Denise
walked back into the room carrying two steaming bowls of soup. “Here
you go.” She handed me one, and sat beside me to eat her own.
“So, you’re wanting to be a mage, huh?”

I smiled to her while
eating the soup. It wasn’t really that great, but it was a lot
better than going hungry, so I couldn’t complain. “Yeah.
In my realm, I am what you would call a scholar. Magic has always
fascinated me. so when I got the chance to come here, of course that
was the first thing I thought of.”

“
Well, good for you.
Even in an unfamiliar land, you are able to tell what you want.”
She smiled a bit more, almost hidden while eating.

As the message appeared, I
smiled inwardly and set the empty bowl down. “How about you? Is
this a family business, or your dream job?”

The question seemed to
startle her, but after a moment Denise laughed. “Oh, neither of
those, really. To be honest, I’ve always wanted to go on an
adventure. But the thought of going out into the wilds alone…
well, let’s just say I’m not the bravest of girls.”
She gave me another of her smiles.

“
Well… if
you’d like, you could join me?” I blushed a bit as I
asked that.
Why am I embarrassed? I mean sure,
she’s gorgeous, but she’s an NPC. Well, I guess I’ll
chalk it up to gorgeous.

She blinked for a moment,
her eyes as wide as saucers. “Are… are you sure? I mean,
I don’t want to get in the way or anything…” Her
own shyness made me laugh a bit.

“
Nonsense. I’m
not sure how it is here, but in tales I’ve read a solo mage is
an unfortunate mage. Besides, I honestly don’t know where my
adventure will take me, and having some company would be nice..”

That seemed to be enough
to convince her, because she quickly nodded, as if a moment’s
hesitation would make me change my mind. “Okay! Well, you’ve
got four weeks before you can go anywhere anyways. That gives me some
time to get ready. Oh dear.. I’ll have to sell the inn before
we go.” She didn’t really seem that upset with the idea,
so I didn’t comment on it.

I blinked as the two
messages appeared before me, and noticed that the single red bar at
the corner of my vision was joined by another one.
So,
that’s the party window?
The new bar
had the name Denise written by it in small letters.

“
I’ll be happy
to have you join me. Since your dream was to be an adventurer, I take
it you know what kind of skills you want to take up?”

“
Oh, hmm.. Well, I
always thought about being a fighter.. But honestly, I’m not
that strong. I’d have to join a church to learn a lot of the
blessed arts… What do you think?” She looked towards me
expectantly, honestly relying on my opinion to shape her future.

“
I’d rather
not have you in the front line of a battle… and if faith isn’t
your strong suit.. maybe you could be an archer?” I suggested
to her, looking over her build to see what would suit her.