The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (5 page)

“
Okay. Need any
help?” He tilted his head as he asked.

“
Sure. We’ve
gone over some runes, but I’m not sure how to take that and
turn it into a spell, you know?”

“
Oh, that’s
easy. We went over basic casting last week.” He moved over and
sat beside me, keeping an eye on me like I was either a new toy or a
new puzzle. Possibly both. “Close your eyes, and focus. Think
of the rune for light. You know that rune, right?” When I
nodded, he continued. “Okay, think of light. Then feel it, let
it flow into you.” This kid seemed to be explaining things like
he was an expert, so I just listened.

“
Alright. Now,
capture that feeling, and push it out in front of you.” I’ve
never quite had to think about pushing a feeling, but I could feel
the warmth of light throughout my body, like a separate energy that
appeared when I had called it. I tried to focus it in front of me
like he had said, and suddenly I could tell from behind my closed
eyes that there was new light before me. I also heard the beep that
accompanied a message opening. “Great! You’re learning
really well!” I opened my eyes and saw that his chest was
puffed out, certain that my progress was due to his teaching. Then I
turned my attention to the messages in front of me.

Blinking, I lost my focus
on the ball of light, and it promptly faded. Instead, I opened my
character window immediately.

I gained two levels
with that? Nice!
I invested all of my points
into Intelligence this time, realizing that if a simple Light spell
needed 15 mana, I’d need a lot more than I had.

“
Thanks, Devlyn.
That really helped a lot, I think.” I smiled to the boy next to
me, who nodded before getting up and returning to his own practice.
Meanwhile, I opened my own books and began studying. Now that my
intelligence was higher, it wasn’t likely to increase as
easily, but I still needed to soak up every bit of information I
could.

I blocked out everything
around me as I read through the books, and didn’t stop until a
message popped up in front of me.

I’m not one to
question the wisdom of a game message, especially when my stomach
agreed, so I grabbed the lunch that Denise had made me, a pair of
sandwiches, and chowed down. Once I finished, the message changed to
state my satiety had been restored. Mentally, I thanked her for the
food and then went back to reading. By mid-afternoon, I had read
through the first of the books, and my Magical Knowledge had risen
another level. By now, most of the basic runes were easy for me to
read, and there were only a few in the book that were still unknown
to me.

However, I was forced to
stop, at least for a little while, because there was a loud beeping
in my ear followed by another message.

It was the middle of the
afternoon, so it took me a moment to understand.
Oh!
Right, my morning alarm.

I had been surprised
because I had actually forgotten that it was the morning in reality.
Closing my eyes, I sent the command to log out, and my world was
plunged into darkness.

As I opened my eyes, I was
met with the cool metal of the Link Capsule on my forehead, and
yawned. I had just eaten lunch in the game a short while ago, but my
real stomach was now begging me for breakfast. I settled for a simple
bowl of cereal, telling myself that The Dive would make an excellent
diet plan if people forgot to come out. Before logging back in, I
sent a quick text to Kevin thanking him for telling me about the
game.

My return gave about as
much attention as my first arrival, most people having simply assumed
that I used an invisibility spell to vanish for a half hour. The
first thing I noticed was that there were less students here. Most
seemed to have left for the night, and those remaining were packing
up.

Following their example, I
gathered my books and went to the library to return them before
leaving to go back to the inn. I set another alarm for noon in
reality, giving me about eleven hours in the game. On my way back to
the inn, I went ahead and called up my character window one last time
to check my progress.

I was satisfied with my
intelligence for now, so I decided I’d work on some other stuff
next time I leveled. What surprised me most was when I got to the
Sleeping Soldier, I was treated with a new sight. It wasn’t
Denise behind the counter, but a middle aged man with dark brown
hair. Denise was sitting off at a table, now wearing a tight fitting
green outfit that showed off a good deal of her bust, and had a bow
strapped to her back.

She smiled at me as she
saw me enter. “Hey! Was beginning to think you weren’t
going to make it back!” She waved me over and we went back to
her apartment in the inn, leaving the man in charge of the inn. “So,
tell me everything.”

I laughed a bit as I
explained the events of the day, telling her about how I got into the
college, took a class with a bunch of kids, and managed to cast my
first spell. She was beaming throughout the whole story, nodding here
and there. “I knew you’d be able to do it. Normally, kids
train for months before they can even cast a simple spell. You
foreigners definitely have an advantage there.”

“
Looks like. Okay,
your turn.” I grinned to her, motioning to her new outfit,
which got a bit of a blush.

“
Yeah.. well, I told
you I’d be going to the Fighters’ Hall. I couldn’t
exactly train in a dress, right? So, I got this. Think it suits me?”
She smiled to me again, waving to her tight attire.

“
I think it looks
lovely.”

“
Well, thanks. I
also did some work with the bow, and noticed I was getting pretty
good before long. It was like I had been born with it!” She
laughed at the idea, giving me a thought.

“
I think that might
have been my fault.” I looked over to her, getting a curious
look for my comment. “I read earlier that when someone from
this realm joins a foreigner like me, they can grow in power as their
partner does.” Mentally, I called up Denise’s character
window, not sure if it would work or not.

She kept her curious look
as I studied her stats. It looked like she was becoming quite the
support archer. “So, as you get better with your magic, I’ll
get better with my bow?”

“
That seems to be
the case.”
Why can’t I see how
much gild she has? Maybe it’s because she has it in a safe or
something?
“Though, that is an
interesting concept. If I learn faster than normal, then maybe this
will apply to you as well.”

“
Well, either way,
at least I don’t have to worry about you leaving me behind in
your adventures now.” She gave me a look, “I don’t,
right?”

I couldn’t help but
laugh, “Of course not. You’re stuck with me for a while.
Though, I hope you don’t mind if I rely on you a bit for
funds?” I tried to smile convincingly to her, but she just
shook her head with a grin. “Between my studies and my duties
back home, it’ll be hard for me to take on the normal tasks to
earn money for my tuition and supplies.”

“
Yeah, yeah. I see
how it is. You just wanted to butter me up so you could get at my
purse, huh?” She joked. “Don’t worry. You’re
fun to have around, so I can put up with it.”

“
Thank you. On that
note, would you be able to help me with something? The professor said
I’d need a journal for class starting tomorrow, but I don’t
really know where I’d get one, or for how much.”

“
A journal? Sure.
I’ll grab something for you before your classes tomorrow. You
can count on me.” She puffed her chest out comically, and I
laughed again.

“
Okay. Also,
tomorrow morning I’ll have to go back to my realm for a bit. It
shouldn’t take more than a couple hours and then I’ll be
back.”

My warning earned a bit of
a grin from her. “My, telling me every time you plan to be
away, are you? People will talk at this rate.” She laughed at
her comment, and I shook my head with a blush. It seemed I was
starting to get lost in the game.

There was a slight ringing
sensation in my ear that I tried to shake off, and then a message
appeared in front of me.

I nodded to Denise, and
told her that I had to go take care of something. Excusing myself to
another room, I answered the call, using my thoughts to speak instead
of my voice. Hey, if it works for the interface, maybe it’ll
work for a call too?

Hey Kevin, what’s
up?

“
Hey man, got your
message. So, you really tried it out, huh?”

Yeah, I’m in the
game right now actually.

“
No shit? Where’d
you end up?”

I’m at the
Wynterrose capital, you?

“
...Uh… I’ll
get back to you on that. I’m a human, but I haven’t been
able to get specifics out of the NPCs yet. They’re pretty real,
aren’t they?”

Unbelievably. How long
have you been playing?

“
I just started last
week. Managed to get myself into a Fighters’ area the other
day.”

Nice, I joined the
Mages’ College today.

“
Already? How’d
you manage that?”

All about the role
playing, man. You’ve been here longer than I have, so you
should understand when I say you can’t treat this like a normal
game.

“
Yeah, I get what
you mean. I’ll let you get back to that. Maybe we’ll
cross paths one day in The Dive!”

Sure. I’ll add
you to my friends list if we do.

After Kevin hung up, I
glanced around the room I had wandered into. It was only then that I
noticed… this was Denise’s bedroom. Blushing a bit, I
hurried out of the room, finding an almost-as red Denise sitting on
the couch. God, what did that have to look like to her, for me to
randomly go to her room to take care of something. “Sorry…
one of my friends was trying to contact me…” I attempted
to explain, growing gradually more tomato-like.

Chapter
3

The next day, after I got
back into The Dive after lunch, Denise was waiting for me with
another packed lunch and a small journal. “Time for class!”
She sent me off with a smile, and I thanked her for the food and
journal.