The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (37 page)

Compared to when we
entered, we’ve gained thirty-five levels. Even pretending to be
weaker, we should be able to make do. Kevin probably isn’t more
than level seventy by now, and knowing him it’s all combat
talents.

“
Alright, in we go!”
I smiled to her before diving into the water, coming out into the
blazing desert sun above ground. “I never realized how much I
would miss the sun…”

Denise smirks to me.
“That’s what you get for staying in there training all
the time. Remember, sky blue, clouds white, sand hot.”

I laughed to her,
smirking. “Hey, it’s not that bad!”

Speak for yourself. Can
we please head back to the city now?
Midnight
was glaring at me, and I smirked.

“
Fine, fine.”
I reached to the bracelet, and remembered what I wanted to ask
Denise. “Hey Denise, what do you have in your bracelet?”

“
Oh? Mine is a
special bow and sword that they gave me. Figured that carrying
around demon weapons would be a bit too obvious though.”

“
Ahh, good call.”
I brought the grimoire out to find the spell, more out of habit than
anything. I could check the interface, but this felt more right. Once
I had it in my head I put the book back in the bracelet. “Stars
of the west, eyes of the north, bridge of the south, and eastern
seas. Guide me to the place I seek.” I extended my mana to
Midnight and Denise, and we felt again like we were being yanked
through the eye of a needle. On the bright side, my teleport leveled
up!

“
Never going to get
used to that.” Denise groaned out, as we appeared just outside
the Arcane Emporium, where I had originally purchased that spell.

“
Me either…
hope it gets better. Now, Rusty said that Kevin should be near the
city’s gate…” Thus, we made our way to the
southern exit of the city, passing by a wide array of shops on the
way. Oddly, not many of them interested me as much anymore now that I
had gained what I had from Hell.

When we arrived at the
southern gate, I let out a low groan, seeing one of the guards
arguing with a black haired man in samurai-style armor and a katana
on his waist. Thanks to my Worldlore from the grimoire, I saw his
name as Kevlar. “I should have known. Let’s go see what
the argument is all about.”

Denise nodded, not sure
what had me suddenly upset. Drawing closer, we heard that the issue
was actually that ‘Kevlar’ did have the money needed to
enter the city.

“
But I’m
supposed to be meeting some friends in here! I just came with a
caravan, surely they’ll vouch for me!”

“
The caravan you
came with already entered the city. Since they didn’t pay for
you, you have to. As for your friends, well maybe they should have
given you the money to get in.”

I shook my head as I
approached the gate. “It’s alright, he’s with me.”
By now I was out of that ridiculous demon robe and back into leather
armor with a bow, looking like a male match to Denise.

“
That… is
that you Chris?” Kev looked at me, blinking as he saw my
appearance.

“
It’s Jin
here, Kev.” I sighed, reminding him of my game name. This was
probably the first time I had considered this place a game since we
got to Hell. “Anyways, did you need something from the city, or
were you just waiting for us?”

“
No, I’m good
on gear. There wasn’t much work with the caravan, so I didn’t
level up any on the way over.”

This guy…
“Alright… well, let’s head out then. It’s a
bit expensive to pay when we aren’t getting anything.”
Denise and Midnight followed me as we left the gate, and Kevin
followed behind us, leaving the guard behind. Though, the guard
seemed happy for him to be gone. Not really surprised.

“
So… this is
the person you told me you were partying with? You forgot to mention
she was hot.” Kevlar looked Denise over with hungry eyes, and
was smacked by her for his trouble. “Ow! What, I can’t
even look?”

“
It’s not that
you look… it’s that you seem to have no filter on your
speaking. Seriously, how did you even convince a caravan to take you
when you talk like this…”

“
Like what?”
Kev looked to me, confused.

“
Like… well
like you don’t belong. You’ve got to treat the people
like you would anyone else.” I tried to explain. Thankfully,
Denise knew most of the details already, so she wasn’t
bothered.

“
Yeah. The caravan
said something like that too. They asked me if I was a foreigner. I
guess it was a fitting description, so I said yes. I guess that’s
why they took me. They must have realized my excellence!”

“
Jin, can I hit him
again?” Denise looked to me with pleading eyes.

“
Maybe later. And
‘Kevlar’... that is a terrible name. Why don’t you
ever try to come up with something new?”

“
Because it’s
a tradition! And uh… how did you know my name here? I don’t
think I told your old friend.”

“
Trade secret.”
I smirked to him.

“
Also, I thought you
said you were a mage when we met before?”

“
Ah, yeah, I went to
the college. I take it you haven’t heard about how hard the
training is?”

“
Well, I know a lot
of people flunked out and got pissed, so they changed jobs, or just
kept doing magic without graduating.”

“
Exactly. So, I took
up the bow. Lately, I’ve been learning how to mix some basic
magic with my shots. We were in a dungeon before you arrived, and I
got a pretty cool bow off of it.”

“
You guys have
already been into a dungeon? What levels are you?”

Denise glanced to me at
Kevlar’s constant use of the word level. “Just a bit over
seventy. And could you please stop using those terms? It’s best
if you actually put in the effort, you know? You’ll get better
rewards if you have the mindset.”

“
Eh? Really, is that
true? Well, it’s alright. We’re all ‘foreigners’
here, yeah?” He smiled brightly to me, and I sighed again. I’m
going to be doing that a lot I think.

“
Denise isn’t.
She was the innkeeper at Rosenheim.”

“
Eh?! Really? She’s
a--... well, a ‘native’?” He looked at Denise
again, wide eyed.

“
Yeah. She decided
to join me on my adventure, so now she gets stronger as I do.”

“
Oh! Right! How did
you end up stuck here anyways? Everyone’s freaking out! They
don’t believe me when I tell them I got a call saying you were
here.”

“
I’ve given it
a lot of thought.. and I can’t tell you why I’m here.”

“
Why not?” He
glared to me, like I had just insulted him.

“
I can’t tell
you that either. All I can say is that you are really better off not
knowing. Besides, I’ve got a plan to deal with this.”

His glare didn’t
lessen, and he crossed his arms in front of him. “Do tell.”

“
I’m going to
kick god’s ass.” I said with a smile, looking up to the
sky.

Well, that wasn’t
what he was expecting apparently, because he froze. Then, he suddenly
let out a big laugh. “Dammit, you really are Chr--er, Jin,
aren’t you?”

“
The one and only.
You still only have combat skills?”

“
Duh. Why would I
waste my time learning useless stuff?”

“
...Says the guy
that had to hitchhike with a caravan because he couldn’t take
care of himself.”

“
Low blow, dude..”
He took another look at me and Denise. “So, you’re both
archers right? She also has a sword, and you’ve got some magic.
And you took on a dungeon by yourselves?”

“
Well, we got in
town last week. Had to do something to pass the time.”

“
Last week? But--
oh right, time goes faster here. So, what about that cool bow you
got? Some epic boss drop or something?”

“
Kev… please
treat this a bit more seriously. It doesn’t sound like the
story of the foreigners has spread outside the kingdom yet.”

“
Ah, so you know
about it?”

I smiled over to Denise.
“Well, yeah, I’m the one that told it.”

“
You… you’re
serious, aren’t you? Damn, you always were the best at this
roleplay crap. Er, sorry Denise.”

“
It’s alright,
Kevlar, Jin has explained a great deal about where you come from, so
I’m able to understand.” Though she was smiling, it felt
like she was about to bash his head open, and she was gripping her
fists tight.

“
Oh.. uh …
right.”

“
So, what do you
plan to do now, Kev?” I couldn’t bring myself to call him
Kevlar. I just couldn’t.

“
What do you mean?”

“
Well, you’ve
still got to take care of your normal life. You can’t be over
here all the time, and we won’t always be able to wait a few
days at a time for you to get back.”

“
Well… that’s
true… What did you plan to do?”

“
I’m headed
for the Shattered Realm. The event that split the kingdom should have
left some good dungeons to explore.”

“
Ehh… I just
came from there and I’m going back already? You know how long
that will take?”

“
About twenty
minutes?”

“
Say what?”
Kev asked with a dumbfounded expression.

“
Well, to the port,
really. I’d like to navigate the ship myself to one of the less
explored islands.”

“
You… realize
it took me over a ‘week’ to get here right? And you
expect to make it in twenty minutes?”

“
Give or take. How
good’s your memory?”

“
Decent.. why?”

After checking that we
were out of sight from the city, I got to work drawing on the sand.
“Try to remember and describe the port city as clearly as you
can. Leave the rest to me.”

“
I don’t
really know if I should trust you with this…”

Denise groaned, and looked
at him. “Just do it. If Jin says he can get us there, he can
get us there.”

By now, I had drawn a
mostly even circle around the entire group. “And don’t
smudge any of these lines.”

“
You… is this
what I think it is?”

“
If you think I’m
about to teleport us to save a bunch of time and effort, then
probably. Now, details please.” I began working on drawing the
runes inside the circle with my fingers. Given the size, it would
take a good while to finish.

“
Uh, right…
Well, obviously there was the sea. A bunch of scattered islands in
the distance… they called the city Grazel. All the buildings
were wooden, and the whole place smelled like fish.”

“
Is that seriously
all you can remember?” I glanced up to him.

“
Uh.. oh wait! There
was a sign above the entrance, it had an eight pointed star. You
know, like the directions on a map.”

“
Much better. Now
shut up and stay still.” After several more minutes of drawing,
I carefully stepped into the circle to observe my work. “Keep
in mind, this is the first time I’ve done this to travel so
far.”

Denise paled a bit,
remembering the normal teleport feeling. “I think we can make
it if we walk!”

I smirked to her, and
forced myself to use the user interface to find the spell chant.
Can’t bring out my grimoire here. “Thirty-seven points of
divinity, eighty-nine signs, may the wheel of fate be my guide.”
The runed circle around us began to let out a white glow. “Open
the twelfth gate, and grant this traveler passage through the
shadows! Teleport to the city of Grazel!”

The light of the circle
exploded, wrapping around us and then becoming pitch black in a
single moment. Slowly, the world began to fade into view around us.
First thing noticeable was indeed the strong smell of fish and sea in
the air. The temperature had also dropped a few degrees from the
desert. Then came the buildings, all wooden just as Kev had said. We
were standing under the town’s entrance gate, amidst a very
surprised group of fishermen.