The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (45 page)

“
But… I’m
in a coma in the hospital. How is it physically possible for you to
be calling my--” A thought struck me as I was getting ready to
ask that. “Kev, it’s the coins. I gave you two. Log back
in and check them.”

“
You know, that
sounds entirely crazy. About as crazy as you getting stuck inside a
video game. Which is precisely why I’m going to take your word
for it and not ask until after I’ve had my what the fuck
moment.”

“
I’ll join you
for that moment. This shouldn’t be possible.”

With that, he hung up,
appearing in the game a few minutes later. And sure enough, when he
checked the coins I had given him -- he had them in a separate pouch
so that he wouldn’t spend them-- one of the coins had stopped
glowing. “So… as long as I have one of these… I
can call you even from out there… This is such a cheat, you
know?”

“
Is it really? I
hadn’t noticed.” I sighed a bit. “Well, this solves
one complication of being stuck here. Most foreigners can use their
capsules as phones from this side too, so I guess these coins are my
way to even the playing field.”

“
Yeah, maybe.. There
wasn’t really a number with that contact. It was really
suspicious, and I almost deleted it. Heh, maybe deleting the contact
would be like throwing the coins away.”

This could get bad.
There’s only one way that my contact information would suddenly
appear in his phone like this. If he figures out that the game has
this degree of control, it might trap him here too.

Thankfully, my worries
seemed entirely unfounded, but I still erred on the side of caution.
“Mind keeping this between us? It’s not really something
that others need to know since they don’t need things like
this.”

“
Right, right, no
problem. Well, unless another case comes up where someone gets stuck
in here like you did. If that happens, it’d be best to let
their family have the call, right?”

“
Yeah…
right..” I had the sinking feeling that if anyone but Kevin had
held the phone, the contact wouldn’t have appeared.
That
can’t be possible, right? Even if the game controls the phones,
there shouldn’t be any way of telling who is using the phone.
At least, not without access to.. you know what, I would not be
surprised at all if this thing used cameras for stuff like that.

“
Anyways, I’m
going to head back now. Did I miss anything so far?”

I thought about it for a
second. “Nothing of interest.” The pirate fight really
hadn’t been all that interesting after all. “I’ll
get you another coin to replace that one. I had been looking for
stuff to make anyways.”

Kev nodded, and then
logged off again. Seeing that he was gone, I went back to work.
First, I made another Call Token to replace the one he used like I
said. Then, I began experimenting by changing certain aspects of the
diagram, such as rotating the interior shapes to line up with
different runes.

I didn’t really feel
like calling a bunch of random people if I fail an enchantment, so I
was working on using the Light spell instead. And, almost every
experiment simply ended with me making a ball of light above a coin.
But, I had to use this method of elimination to get what I wanted.
Simply staring at the diagram wouldn’t give me the answers.

My next experiment was to
remove certain aspects. I started with the outer circle. Well,
perhaps it’s best if I more accurately describe the components
to the diagram. First, there is the outer circle, which as far as I
can tell serves as a boundary to prevent magical energies from
escaping during the process. When I removed it, the enchantment
almost completed, but a wave of light erupted at the end.

Next is the rune circle, a
layer of runes just inside the outer circle. Most of them are focused
on containing and channeling mana, as well as a few that seem to
relate to imagination. I didn’t feel comfortable changing any
of those yet. Within the rune circle is the inner circle, which
separates the runes from the interior shapes of the diagram. From my
understanding, once the runes capture the mana, the inner circle
passes it along to the interior shapes where it is evenly dispersed.

Whenever I tried rotating
the first interior shape, a hexagon, the enchantment completely
failed. One time it even set the paper I was using on fire. Learning
from the results, I examined the relation between the runes and the
hexagon. Each of the six points corresponded to an identical rune.
The rune itself was the one for directing the flow of mana, so that
was understandable.

Going deeper, the hexagon
was cleanly divided into six segments, I line going from each point
to the center. Again, when I removed these lines the enchantment
failed entirely. Finally, around the very center of the diagram,
there is yet another circle, encompassing the point where the lines
connect. Inside the circle is a single rune, meaning ‘to
bestow’.

So, to summarize, the
beginner’s diagram I had worked as follows. After the
user--me-- focuses the mana of a spell into the diagram, the energy
is captured by the rune circle, kept from leaking in either direction
by the inner and outer circles. Then, when the activation method is
installed, the conditions are met to advance the process. The
modified mana is directed through the interior shapes towards the
furthest circle, where it gathers and triggers the final rune. That
rune then installs the magic directly into an item placed above it.

I had an idea for another
experiment, so made a few modifications to the circle. First, I
changed the rune at the center from meaning ‘to bestow’,
to a new rune meaning ‘to remove’. Next, I removed the
outer circle. Finally, I placed one of the completed Light coins on
the center of the diagram and activated it.

Once my mana had triggered
the process, the innermost rune absorbed the glow from the coin,
sending dim lights along the lines of the diagram. As they reached
the inner circle, the lights spread into the runes. For a moment I
was afraid that the light would just go back to the coin, but then it
spread out from the diagram and faded away.

“
Okay, it’s a
success… but I can make it better…” I removed
most of the runes, leaving only the six runes at the points of the
hexagon. Then, I changed those six runes from ‘channel’
to ‘disperse’. After that, the process went much
smoother, the light leaving the runes in a fine spray after reaching
it.
Good… the other way might have
caused a problem if the energy was allowed to loop and build up
before it exploded outwards.

“
Well, I’ve
managed to create a dispelling diagram, but that is not at all what I
want to do. Feel like I’m going backwards here. Okay…
theories… what do I need to make a more advanced method.. If I
layered the one large diagram outside a smaller one… no, that
wouldn’t do anything more than making it look more complicated.
Maybe making a break between the runes, so that each section channels
a different spell?” I shook my head at that idea, because that
would just weaken the individual effects.

Chapter
21

While I was trying to
figure out how to create an advanced enchanting formula, the next day
and night passed by without incident. For the most part, I hadn’t
made any progress on my goal. I ended up combining an enchantment and
disenchantment formula into one diagram to make a formula for
transferring enchantments, but nothing to allow for more complex
enchantments or even multiple enchantments.

I did end up leveling my
enchanting talent another four times, for a total of level seven.
Magical Knowledge also leveled up once, and I gained a few points to
intelligence from my studies. All in all, even without getting the
advanced formula ready I was getting good returns for my studying.

The ship’s detection
crystal began warning me that there were other ships within the one
kilometer radius now, one after another, like a silent pulse in my
head. Thinking that the pirates came back with friends, I immediately
moved to the crystal to take a look at the situation. What I found
was not what I had expected.

We had arrived at Thurgil
while I was focused on my studies, and the alert was for other ships
that were coming into port ahead of us. Letting out a sigh of relief,
I sent a message to Kev’s phone that we were here so he could
log in. Seems like he wasn’t really interested in just sticking
around while we were sailing. One of the reasons we can’t take
him with us for our travels, since he isn’t around enough.

While I was heading out to
the main deck, I retracted the sails and lowered speed to bring the
ship in. Apparently, several people were surprised when they saw the
ship seemingly piloting itself with nobody at the helm. Denise was up
on the crow’s nest, but came down to join me as soon as I came
out of the cabin.

“
My, my, this must
be the first bit of daylight you’ve seen since the pirate
attack.” She grinned, teasing me.

“
Sorry, sorry. Been
busy. Make it up to you?”

“
Yeah, you will.
Next time, you’ll be the one that has to relax while I’m
hard at work.”

“
...Sure, that
sounds fair.” I chuckled a bit, and then Kev appeared behind
us. “We’re here. Don’t forget the stuff you’ve
learned lately, and really put yourself into your training. If you
don’t take it seriously it won’t mean anything.”

“
This coming from
the guy who spends days at a time studying magic.” Denise
giggled next to me, shaking her head.

“
Yeah, yeah, I get
it mom.” Kev sighed and casually jumped off the deck of the
ship, landing on one of the wooden planks of the port. “Don’t
be a stranger.”

“
Can’t help
it. The world is too normal.” I smiled, and began taking the
ship back out. No sense staying here any longer than I needed to.
“Alright, Denise. Finally, nobody else around. Now, can I
finally see those special weapons you got?”

Denise laughed, tugging on
her bracelet as if she had forgotten it was even there. “I
hadn’t even thought about that in days. But sure.” She
extended her right hand, and a red flame shot out from her bracelet,
forming a line extending above and below her palm. When the flame
cleared, she was holding a sinister black scimitar, the hilt curved
at the bottom and embedded with two rubies.

“
This is Omen, the
demon sword. According to Krath, it has the ability to anticipate
attacks and help parry them. It can also cover the blade in fire when
I strike, adding a small explosive effect.” The sword was
wrapped in flame again, and then vanished into the bracelet. Next,
Denise held out her left hand. A ball of dark energy shot out of the
bracelet and formed the shape of a bow, looking to be made from solid
shadows.

“
And this is
Nightshade, the demon bow. It doesn’t need arrows, and fires
condensed shadow magic. Again, according to Krath it drains an enemy
of their life force directly, without the need to inflict wounds.
Also, its attacks are stronger in the darkness.” After her
explanation, the bow faded away into the bracelet as well.

“
Very nice. You
called them demon sword and demon bow. Does that mean they are
actually possessed by a demon, or just crafted by them?”

“
As far as I know,
just crafted. Demons have some interesting forging methods with their
magic that create unique effects. Whenever a weapon with power is
created, they almost always give it a name.”

“
It makes sense. If
you have a special weapon, it needs a special name.” I smirked
a bit. “Speaking of which, I suppose I can finally get out of
this armor.” Closing my eyes, I dispelled the leather armor and
bow I had been manifesting for the last week and a half. Instead, I
covered myself with blue robes. Then, I pulled my staff and grimoire
from my own storage bracelet.

“
Gotta admit, you
made a damn fine archer, though.” Denise winked playfully to
me.

“
Only because I’m
a cheat character.”

“
Too true! He
finally admits it.”

“
I’ve known it
ever since we hit Hell.” I smiled to her and moved inside.
“Come on, let’s see where we’re going next.”

Denise followed me into
the cabin, and we stopped at the map. There were several islands in
the Shattered Realm that were little more than outlines, with the
islands themselves unexplored. We had decided before that we’d
pick one of these to check out.

“
Okay, which one we
going to, captain?” She said, looking over the different
choices. There was one small island just a half day’s journey
from where we are, but that wasn’t the one I was most
interested in.

“
This one is what I
had in mind.” I pointed to a larger island about two full days
away, nearly as big as one of the inhabited islands. “I’d
rather not make us too easy to find, and this one is big enough to
have something interesting on it.”

“
Another dungeon,
you think?”

“
Most of these
islands could have dungeons. But this one definitely has the biggest
chance to be exciting.”