The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (18 page)

The iron wings of the
falcon must be as sharp as a sword, because a deep gash opened in the
bear’s neck, and the falcon flew off before it could retaliate.
I smirked to the falcon, thinking that was a particularly good
summon. Denise followed up with a pair of arrows, and I finished it
off with a mana bolt.

After assigning my stats,
I received another welcome message.

This seems to be along
the lines of the Beastmaster title that Denise got, but for a Mage. I
guess that would make Denise’s official class a Ranger at this
point, or at least Hunter.

Denise looked over to me
and saw my wide grin. “You know, I realize you just got the
bear and all, but you look just a bit too happy, don’t you?”
She tilted her head curiously. “Did you get a strange window?”

“
Oh, right. Sorry,
it’s easy to forget that you can’t see them. Thanks to
that fight, our abilities improved a bit. I also got a bit of an
extra bonus because I’ve been focusing so much on my magic. But
yeah, I also got the bear which was nice.” Denise nodded, and
smiled at my explanation. She may be the most knowledgeable native in
this world about the game features, so she can easily accept my
explanations.

“
Still, that falcon
was pretty useful, right? I barely even saw it move, and it did so
much damage.” I nodded to her question, agreeing with her.

“
Guess I should
summon the bear to replace my ape, then. It’d be a much better
choice now. At least, until we need to summon the wolf-man for
something.”

Denise nodded, and I
dismissed the ape, calling out my new Armored Bear. It appeared with
a mighty roar that at first made me wonder whether it was really
under my control, but then the falcon landed on its head and it
settled down. “Okay. Now we need to see if we can find any
humans. Denise? You’re the tracker.”

“
Uh.. I am?”
She sounded confused by this, so I chuckled.

“
Sorry, I thought
you realised. One of your skills is to be able to track. I figured
you knew about it since you got that talent before we left the first
time.”

“
Well, this is news
to me… worth a shot, I guess…” Denise looked
around, and knelt down next to a tree. Just beside the base of the
tree, I thought I saw some torn moss, but Denise jumped slightly.
“Wow… I uh… I don’t really get it, but I
can kinda tell what’s happened around here.”

She got up from the tree
and scanned the ground until she found something that grabbed her
attention. “This is really cool. Is this how it is for you?
Just suddenly being able to do things you never imagined you could?”

“
Kind of, yeah.
Though I imagine it’s a bit more convenient for you. The
information you get in your head we generally have to read off of
windows that obscure our view.”

“
Yeah, I can see how
that would be an issue. Especially in a fight. Okay, I think I’ve
got something. Human foot prints, a group of small ones a few days
old, and a larger one following alongside them that are a bit newer.
Sounds like our missing hunters.” I nodded, and she pointed to
the south.

“
Let me see if I can
pick up anything.” I closed my eyes and focused. “Scan.”
When I opened my eyes, the green tint of the spell faded into my
view. Looking down at the tracks Denise had mentioned, I focused on
them, allowing my Discovery talent to work. A moment later, I saw
orange outlines of tracks along the ground leading in the direction
she was pointing. “Alright, looks like I’ve got them.”

Denise and I, followed by
my summoned companions, quickly proceeded down the trail of tracks,
avoiding any of the local wildlife. The trail ran for a good sixty
meters before I lost it. “Crap.. Where’d it go..” I
looked around, and could clearly see the footprints leading up to
this point, but after the spot I stood they vanished. “Denise,
you got anything?”

She looked around the area
while I kept watch, but sure enough she couldn’t find any
tracks either. “They couldn’t have just vanished, right?”

“
...Denise…”

“
Yeah?”

“
You remember what
the chief said?”

“
He said that the
forest took them, right..?”

“
Yeah… and
that there were hunter spirits… The falcon earlier said
something about branch hunters. I’m going to look up slowly,
and when I do there’s going to be nothing there.” I said
this mostly to reassure myself, because I did indeed look up. And so
did Denise.

And we saw a dozen figures
standing above us in the branches, with bows out and aimed at us.
“Elves?” I asked Denise without looking at her.

“
Elves.”

“
Guess we found the
hunter spirits.. Don’t suppose you speak elven…”

“
Nope… better
think of something quick.. they don’t look happy to see us.”

Translator spell,
translator spell! Uh.. language… no, understanding, or…
communication! Communication, self, persist!

“
Oh thank god.
Tongues!” I waited a moment for the spell to activate. Knowing
that this was still a Beginner level spell, and so there could be
problems expected, I decided to keep my sentences simple. “Don’t
shoot!”

Yup, that’s me,
master of eloquence.

It seemed to do the trick,
though, because the elves paused, a few lowering their bows as they
spoke amongst themselves. Finally, one of the elves jumped out of his
branch--I would like to point out this branch was at least ten meters
up a tree-- and landed in a crouch, before fully standing and looking
between the two of us. “Who are you, and why do you know our
speech?”

“
We are human
adventurers, and I have used a spell to temporarily allow us to
communicate. I thought it would be better than simply being shot.”

The elf scoffed, “Humans.
We know of your ilk. Savages, like the painted men that desecrate the
forest. What business do you have in our woods?”

I glanced to Denise, and
then remembered my spell was only affecting me, “The village
outside the woods asked us to find their missing tribesman. Though,
honestly, we were hoping to encounter an elf tribe at some point
along our travels.”

“
And why is that?”

“
I am a student of
magic, and my companion is an archer. We felt that there was much
that we could learn from the elves. As for the villagers, they did
not realize that they were committing any crimes. They come to the
woods because they need the food. Their fields will likely not
sustain them another season.”

“
So they enter our
woods and get their fill of blood?”

“
No. Not really.
Please, if you could take me to speak to whoever is in charge of your
clan, I believe that we can settle this, without more blood being
spilled.”

“
You will be brought
to our elder, as you request, but if your story proves to be nothing
but a tale, you will never leave these woods. Do you understand.”

I nodded, and then nodded
again towards Denise as two more elves dropped down near us.
I
really hope I’m not starting that invasion event I was afraid
of.

The two elves moved to our
sides, and extended their hands to us. I took the hand of the elf
maiden standing next to me, and Denise took that as a sign to take
the hand of the elf that appeared near her as well. A moment later,
large vines whipped down around the four of us to pull us all up into
the trees.

I squeaked, I admit it. It
might have been a yelp. A beautiful woman with long blonde hair and
green eyes grabbed my hand, smiled at me, and suddenly I was being
flung into the air like a slingshot? You try doing that without some
kind of reaction.

When the vines finally
released us, it was thankfully not to drop to our deaths. Instead,
they set us down on large wooden platforms high in the trees. My
first thought was that I really did not want to get on their bad side
while I was up here. My second thought was interrupted by a helpful
message.

I guess that means I’ll
actually be able to talk to them? Good thing this spell doesn’t
use too much mana, I don’t have to worry about running out.

I smiled to the elf that
brought me up here, “Thank you.” She returned the nod and
smiled, and then Denise came over and lightly slapped my arm.

“
You flirt.”
She teased me.

“
All I did was say
thanks.” I chuckled and shook my head, and once the elves
started walking off we followed them. “So.. I should probably
work on a spell to let you understand them too.”

“
Might help. It
really is nice that you can pull a new spell out of your robe
whenever you want.”

“
Yeah, just don’t
expect them to always work. When I learn a spell, it is at its
weakest. I had to keep my sentences easy to understand to avoid
accidentally insulting them.”

“
That… would
have gone badly, yes.”

I began working on a
second spell, but when I managed to cast it on Denise, I got a
message I wasn’t expecting.

Huh.. so I can modify
certain spells in this way too?
“Okay,
you should be able to understand them now too.”

Finally, I took the chance
to look at our surroundings, and noticed that we were no longer
alone. Not including the elves guiding us, there were also various
others gathered on spiraling platforms built along the trees, some
leading to hollowed out sections that I assumed were their homes.
“Looks like this is their city. Actually looks pretty good.”

“
Beautiful. The word
you’re looking for is beautiful.” Denise smirked to me,
and I noticed the elven woman that led us up giggle in front of us.
The little eavesdropper.

“
Okay, fine,
beautiful. It really does look a lot different than human cities. But
then, I guess that it would be as different as a tree is to a stone.”

I decided to check out of
curiosity, and noticed that my mental map was indeed working here.
“Huh. Looks like we’re almost there.”

The elf in front of us
looked back at us with mild surprise, “You have been to our
city before?”

“
No, uh.. long
story. I’ll explain it later, assuming my head remains attached
to my shoulders.” I smiled a bit, and she nodded. Denise just
shook her head with a grin.

“
What am I going to
do with you?”

“
Uh, everything?”

“
Good point.”
She smiled to me, and reached over to take my hand.

The elves in front of us
stopped as we approached a large hollowed out tree, which the other
platforms seemed to have as its center. “We are here.”
The elf in front of us nodded, and motioned for us to go inside. When
we did, we found the interior to be quite spacious, with simple
furnishings placed around to indicate that this was a meeting area.

At the far end of the room
was an elf that appeared to be middle-aged. Of course, as far as I
know they never really look older than that, so it was impossible to
really know how old he was. “These are the.. humans?” He
said the word as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.

“
They are, sir.”
Apparently, the elf woman was going to be speaking as well during
this.

“
And I am told that
they can speak our tongue?” At that, he looked at me, and I
nodded.

“
For a time, at
least.”

“
I see. I was not
aware that human magic had advanced that far yet. It has been an age
since we had contact with the outside. So tell me, why did your
savages come into our lands and injure one of our young?”

Well, shit.
I blinked. “Pardon? I was not aware that there had been any
injuries among the elves. Perhaps it would be best if you explained
what happened? I only know up until the hunters left their village.”

The elf nodded. “Very
well. Three nights earlier, we sent a group out to collect herbs.
While they were out, they noticed that the animals were restless, and
went to investigate the cause. Afterwards, the savages appeared and
started screaming, throwing spears at us. One of our young was not
able to avoid getting wounded, but we captured them for their attack.
The next night, more came, following the path left by the attackers
and wearing their cloth. So we took them as well.”