The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (39 page)

“
Ya realize what
you’re asking for is awfully expensive, right?”

“
I’m confident
that I can meet your price, sir. I need a ship that can be crewed by
me and my friend, with some level of defenses. I also need a book on
how to sail.”

The man’s eye
twitched visibly. “Asking for all of this, and ya don’t
even know how to sail…”

“
I can navigate
fine, but I’ve yet to have experience sailing.”

He let out a deep sight.
“Fine.. I don’t have a ship like what you’re
wanting on hand. But give me a few days and I can get one together.
But you better pay in advance.”

“
I can do that. How
much do you want for it?”

“
Hmm.. how big of a
ship?”

“
As big as you can
manage and still be crewed by just the two of us. I’ve got
someone that may be joining us at times, and there’s a chance
we will have passengers.”

“
Fine, I got it.
Let’s see. I can get you something. Custom job, about..
sixty-eight thousand gild.”

My turn for an eye twitch.
“A bit much. But very well. I suppose there’s nobody else
that we can entrust with this.” I reached into my coinpurse and
pulled out seven platinum coins, handing them over to him. “I’d
like to purchase the sailing book with the remainder. That shouldn’t
be a problem, right?”

The man’s eyes
seemed to glow as he looked at the coins. “N-n-not a problem
sir… I’ll be right back.” He pocketed the coins
and quickly ran inside his shack, coming back with a thick book.
Definitely not the basics I was looking for.
He
probably thinks I’m some noble since I met his extreme price.

“
Thank you very
much. When can I expect it finished?”

“
Ah, about that...
I’ll get my men on it, but to meet your specifications it will
take roughly a week if we focus on it.”

“
I see. Is there
anything I can do to help expedite the process?”

“
Well, I notice that
both you and your companion carry weapons. If you’re suitable
adventurers to really sail the seas, then maybe you can help. To make
your ship, we’ll need plenty of wood.”

“
You want us to
guard your men from the beasts in the forest so that they can gather
the wood more quickly, yes?”

The fat man smiled. “You
catch on fast. Can you do it?”

“
We’ll do it.
When do we leave?” I glanced over to Denise with a smile.

“
Let me call up the
men. They’ve been bored without a project for a while!”
The harbormaster shouted out a laugh and walks off. Quickly we saw
people running about, gathering saws, wagons, and ropes. After only a
few minutes, there was a small caravan waiting for us.

“
Alright. This
should do it. With this many people, it should only take two trips to
get all the wood we need.” The harbormaster nods proudly. “My
cousin Godrick will be in charge of the workers in the forest.”
He pointed a fat thumb to the person sitting at the reins of the
leading wagon. “You just make sure they all get back safe.
There are some bad things in these woods.”

“
I’ll hear it
on the way. After this, it should cut a couple days off the time for
construction.”

“
Aye. Half the time
for the building was just going to be going to the woods for a piece
at a time. The wood you’re needing isn’t found at the
outer edge. Ya need the wood of the Mana Trees, deep in the forest.
Best wood for any magical makings.”

I nodded, and headed over
towards Godrick’s wagon. “Let’s go.”

He smirked, and we started
off towards the woods. On the way, I had him describe for me the type
of creatures found in the forest. Mostly, they were just dire wolves
like we fought earlier with Kev. But there were also armored bears,
lightning foxes, and vine snakes. Some of the animals can even use
magic. But what caught my eye was the so-called boss of the forest.

“
Yeah, there’s
this one creature living in these woods that nobody wants to mess
with. And we’re awfully glad there’s just one of him,
too.”

“
What kind of
creature?”

“
Well, we suppose it
musta been one of them dire wolves what ate too much from the mana
trees. Now it’s walking about on two legs, with fur as black as
night. Can hear it howling if ya leave town at night sometimes. Call
it the king of the forest.”

“
Interesting…”
I glanced over to Denise, and she nodded. It sounded suspiciously
like my Wolfman fusion summon. Which means an actual boss monster, so
there was a chance we’d have to get serious to take it down.
“Well, hopefully we won’t run into it.”

“
Shouldn’t.
But can never be too careful, right? That’s why these magic
ships like what you’re wanting are so pricey. The Mana Wood
ain’t exactly hard to come by, but with the king guarding the
woods we’re risking our necks every time we head in.”

“
Just what kind of
magic does the ship have?”

“
Well, I reckon
you’ll need to discuss that with my cousin. Some people want
different things, so we try to get a feel for the customer, ya know?
But enough of that, we’re almost there. Looks like someone took
care of the first group of wolves too.” He said with a nod as
he looked over to a rather familiar scene.

“
Oh, me and my
friend were here earlier to see how strong the monsters around here
were.”

“
And ya took out the
pack without gettin’ hit? Impressive, I’d say. We may
just survive this yet.”

“
Don’t worry
too much about it.” I looked back to Denise. “I’ll
stay up here. You make sure the back is defended. If danger comes up…
don’t hesitate.” She nodded, understanding my words, and
jumped back to one of the rear wagons quickly, drawing her bow and an
arrow and keeping an eye out for enemies.

“
Just the two of ya,
think ya can guard us all?”

“
We just need to
take out anything that approaches, right?”

“
Well, yeah…”

“
Good.” I
pulled out my bow and nocked an Ice Lance arrow. Activating my Scan
spell, I quickly found a snake that was moving just a bit too
unnaturally near one of the wagons, and shot into it with my arrow.
The ‘vine’ let out a loud hiss before it froze over and
shattered. “Then this shouldn’t be a problem.”

I could hear the sounds of
Denise firing her bow behind me, and knew that she likely spotted a
couple of vine snakes like I did. Godrick was just blinking a bit as
he drove. “Uh… yeah. I guess not..”

Soon after, I noticed an
armored bear, and smiled, testing my damage output with a Stone Spear
arrow. The arrow cleanly hit the bear, and then it was immediately
skewered by three spears that rose up out of the ground. “Just
what kind of archer are you? You seem like you’re shooting
spells, not arrows.”

“
That’s
because I’m doing both. Studying two fields can yield
interesting results, you know? Just a second.” The next arrow
was a Gust arrow. I wasn’t exactly sure what effect this would
have when I shot it, but I felt like something was waiting up ahead.
As soon as I fired, a strong wind followed the arrow traveling
through the air, blowing aside leaves and fallen branches. What it
revealed was a pair of yellow foxes with sparking tails. “Lightning
foxes, huh?”

“
Damn.. we must be
getting pretty close to the center if these guys are coming out..”

“
I said before, you
worry too much.” I pulled out an Earth Spear arrow like I used
on the bear. “Guardians of the frozen north, come to my aid
and show your fury.” When I shot the arrow, it impacted between
the two foxes who deftly dodged to the side. A thin sheet of ice
formed on the ground, and spears of ice shot up in all directions,
striking both creatures. I just threw a weak fireball to get rid of
the ice so we could pass through, and we continued on.

“
Huh… well..
we should be able to harvest the trees here.” He looked to some
large nearby trees that had bark with a blue tint. “Just keep
an eye out while we get to work.”

The rest of the wagons
pulled up alongside, several workers grabbing saws and heading to the
Mana Trees. Though they were spread out now, between Denise and I
using our detection abilities we were able to keep the monsters at
bay long enough for them to cut down a pair of large trees, chopping
them up into logs small enough to fit on the wagon. I did get some
good pop up messages during this time, though.

Nice! Not only did my
Nature Magic finally start rising, but I got a new ability. It even
sounds like the Grand Magic that Lilith told me about.
Since I kept firing arrows with Nature spells, it seemed like it was
leveling two talents at once. Furthermore, my new skill that Lilith
taught me seems to have greatly increased how fast it grows.

By the time I was done
looking over my new bonuses, the first wagon was already loaded up
and tied down. It was a fairly quiet trip back to the town, before we
immediately turned around and came back after unloading. “It’ll
be troublesome if we don’t get it all now.”

The second trip went just
as well as the first until we were ready to leave, the sun nearly
set. The workers were all getting anxious as well now, having all
heard the stories of the King appearing after dark. Denise kept her
eyes peeled for danger, and would track even the smallest rustling of
a bush. That’s likely how she caught the glowing yellow dots
staring at us from several meters away in a shrub. “Jin!”
She called out to me while nocking an arrow, getting my attention.

“
There you are...
Let’s see who the King is now, shall we?” I grinned to
him, tilting my head to the side and popping my neck. I’ve
always wanted to do that. Since I had seen his speed firsthand
before, assuming this is the same type of monster, I didn’t
waste any time in preparing a spell. “Darkened wings which mark
the end, grant aid to this weary traveler. Summon Dariel!”

A white light appeared
next to me, like a doorway in the air. Definitely different from the
Calling spell. Stepping through was a beautiful elven maiden carrying
a bow on her back. “I was beginning to think you’d never
call, you know?” She turned to pout to me, and I smiled.

“
Sorry, never had
the chance. Been busy. Anyways, got a big bad wolf, and could use
your help.” I nodded to the bush with the yellow eyes still
watching us.
Guess it didn’t expect our
new arrival.

“
Big bad wolf, huh?
Alright. I’ll be your sword and your shield.” Dariel
steps forward, extending a hand towards the bush. “Sacred
grove, hidden vine, uproot and upturn, and show this rose’s
thorn.” The wolf seems to sense danger, jumping straight
upwards like a blur, followed quickly by dark vines extending from
the shrub.

“
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.