I groggily opened my eyes, and looked around. A warm fire crackled next to me, while Mathew sat on a fallen log chewing on a rabbit he’d hunted and cooked. That was odd, we had provisions for a few days, he shouldn’t need to cook.
Mathew notices me sitting up, “Finally awake?” He called out to me.
“Morning.” I said back through my yawn.
Come to think of it, weren’t we back in the cave? Last thing I remembered I was shoving my sword in that gross black blob before it popped into that blue mist. Did it turn back time or something? Was this a loop where I had to do something different before I could move on?
Mathew noticed my confusion, and explained to me, “You passed out after shoving your sword in that corrupted thing, I had to carry you all the way out here. On a separate note, maybe it’s time you go on a diet?”
Right, that made more sense I guess. I was a little disappointed, a time loop would’ve been way cooler.
“How’d you fight your way out of the cave with me on your back?” I asked in awe.
“That’s the thing, after you popped that corruption, all the gargs disappeared, even the moss on the sides of the wall decayed.”
“They disappeared?” My jaw dropped, “All of the bodies of the gargs we killed too?!”
Mathew shakes his head. “I couldn’t find a single one, the bodies we carried back to the Invisible Horse are all still there, and the moss I had put in my jar is fine too. I’m not too sure what happened either, but it all obviously has something to do with that blue mist.” He said, holding the jar up to me. “It was pretty unbelievable. How the hell did you do that, Ray?”
“I’m not sure, I just stabbed that gross thing and it started sucking magic out of me.”
“You mean you didn’t do that on purpose? I feel like we just discovered something pretty incredible.”
“Maybe, I’m not sure what really happened. I was knocked out before I could even investigate. Did the mist make me pass out or something?” I asked him.
I still wasn’t sure why I passed out so hard that he had to carry me all the way out of the cave, and set up a fire and sleeping bag for me. Being in the cave had made me lose track of time, so I wasn’t even sure how long I was out.
He looked at me, confused. “What do you mean? Of course not you idiot, why would it make you pass out but not me? You had all the symptoms of magic deficiency.”
“Yeah, right. Did you knock me out or something?”
“Of course I didn’t,” Mathey waved his hand dismissively, “You really just ran out of magic and passed out, your eyes were white and everything.”
In any other circumstance I wouldn’t believe Mathew, I had never once ran out of magic before in my life, and trust me, I had tried my best, pushing all my magic into my sword as hard as I could for hours never made me more than a little winded. It’d take some crazy feat to get me to use up all my magic.
Though I had never ran out before, Mathew had a totally serious look on his face. Magic deficiency was pretty easy to diagnose too, your eyes losing their color, and falling unconscious being the most obvious two symptoms.
“How is that possible?” I wondered aloud.
“What, have you never run out of magic before, doofus?” He laughed.
“No, I haven’t.” I answered seriously.
I explain to him about my magic supply, and how I’ve tried to drain it before, but haven’t ever gotten close.
“A sword like yours is no joke in terms of magic consumption, just how much magic do you have Ray?”
“An incredible amount I guess, it’s never felt that incredible compared to my mothers though.” I shrugged.
“What kind of goddess of magic gave birth to you?” He asked in disbelief. Shoot, Mathew still didn’t know about my parents, I wasn’t sure how he’d react or what would happen if he knew I was a Remory, so I still had kept it secret from him.
I just stared at him dumbly for a while trying to think of how to explain this to him “Uh, could we not talk about my parents?” I finally managed.
I kicked myself over and over in my head, what a stupid, weak response.
He raised his eyebrow at me, “If you don’t want to tell I guess I won’t ask.”
“Look man I told you I do-” Hold on, what did he say? “You won’t?!”
“Every Diver has their secrets, I’ve learned that sometimes it’s better not to pry.” He shrugged.
I’d always sort of known this, but Mathew is definitely a good guy, a shame we’d be going our separate ways soon. I’ll make a point to see him again, maybe one day we’d be close enough for me to tell him everything.
“Thanks” I said weakly.
“Sorry about how angry I was down there as well, as soon as all the mist disappeared I snapped back to my senses, I think the corruption was just so strong down there it was messing with my brain. That’d make sense as to why you weren’t affected too, that crazy magic supply must’ve fought it off.”
Right, he was being unreasonably irritable down there wasn’t he? The corruption must’ve been incredibly dense to inflict some form of influence on a human, no matter their magic supply.
“If it was just the corruption, it’s fine, even if it wasn’t though, you aren’t exactly nice to me in the first place.” I playfully punched his shoulder.
He laughed and continued. “About the garg corpses we lost, it sucks we couldn’t sell them, but we still have the lizard and all the wolves we got, plus, I don’t think anything like that clearing of the corruption has ever happened before, we may be able to get a lot of money for that tip.”
“They pay for things like that?” I asked.
“Of course, the Agency has a corruption research division, one I’ve actually been trying to get into for a while, this may be my break.”
“I thought you didn’t like the Agency though.”
“I don’t like the contract they make Divers sign, and I’d be a researcher, not a Diver, it’s not the same contract. Of course, to get just a researcher contract is nigh impossible, they just make most people in the research division sign the Diver contract anyways and act as both a Diver and researcher, since field research is almost necessary for corruption.”
“Researching corruption, huh?”
I’d always thought that Divers were the most important part of society, but the more and more I get out, I realise there’s so much more that makes the world go around, the construction workers and staff of all the shops in Keero, the city guards, and Agency researchers all fought for society in their own way.
I realised quickly how narrow my field of view was back in Halsry, if I never left Halsry, I would’ve never thought of getting rid of the corruption for good, or thought about how Divers couldn’t fight in the Deep without the support of everyone in the cities.
Diving hadn’t exactly been glorified in Halsry, but out here everyone seemed to be wary of Divers, they are regarded with respect, but everyone kept a good distance from them, like they themselves are some sort of beast of the corruption, and absolutely nobody wanted to be a Diver.
Out in the world away from Halsry, diving was something for people who had fallen into the depths of poverty, and had nowhere else to go, a job where you risk your life for a few scraps of coins.
It made me a little sad to see how people viewed the Divers that protected them from the horrors of the Deep, but it didn’t do anything more than that. I had fun fighting the corruption, it wasn’t like I desired the world's praise in the first place.
This job was dirty and gritty, with your life always on the line, but that was part of the allure for me. Plus I’m strong, no way I’d fall to the Deep that easily.
“So, how do you feel?” Mathew asked me.
“A little stiff and tired, but my magic feels more or less normal.”
“Ready to head back then? Not much left for us to do with the Deep here gone.”
“Yep, hop in the cart and we’ll get going back.”
I still hadn’t told Mathew I planned to give him all the money from the lizard garg, I was excited to surprise him. I wasn’t particularly worried about money anyways, all I needed was funds for a place to stay and food to eat. My transportation was free, and my gear was already of the highest grade, so my expenses are low.
We drove home and spoke over the low hum of the Invisible Horse. Apparently, I had been out for over a day and a half, it takes a while to recover that much magic I suppose.
I asked Mathew to tell me more about the corruption researchers as we drove, maybe knowing more about corruption would help me better fight it I thought.
“They honestly don’t know much about the corruption right now, humanity was this close to getting wiped out before 40 or so years ago anyways, if we didn’t take up refuge on this continent we probably would’ve been.”
Were we really that close to getting wiped out?
“So what happened?” I asked him.
“Did they really teach you nothing back in Halsry?” Mathew sighed.
To be fair, they tried to get me to go to school in Halsry, but I never cared about any of that, and just ended up getting into fights with all the other kids, so they gave up on educating me pretty quickly. I learned what I had to do if I wanted to be a Diver, like reading and writing, and nothing else. In hindsight though maybe those classes would’ve been useful now.
He continued, “Go back a few hundred years there was no corruption, but just as humanity and magic was reaching its peak, gargs started popping up and mauling travelers and such. At first it wasn’t a big issue since everyone could use magic, but it seemed the more mages we deployed to fight the corruption, the more monsters came, and that sea of gargs is what gave it the name ‘The Deep’.”
A time without corruption huh? It’d be a peaceful world sure, but I’m not sure I wanted to live in a world like that, the corruption, diving, and adventuring alone brought me so much excitement, I might be okay if the corruption didn’t go away as long as I live, but I knew that was selfish of me.
“The humans that used to live all over this world were eventually forced back here, the Last Continent. The rest of the world is still there of course, but it's all overrun by corruption, everything out there could be considered black levels of threat.”
Black was the highest threat level of corruption, if something of that strength occurred here, the rest of the humans left may be done for.
I was surprised to hear how humanity seemed to be on the verge of extinction, especially after the scene in Keero, with families and children everywhere, workers bustling, and crowded inns, it felt more alive than any place I’d seen before, which to be fair was just Halsry and Halesbrook.
He continued, “Since what was left of humanity concentrated here, we’ve finally started to be on the incline in terms of population, which, as much as I hate to say it, is because of the Diver association, since they centralized the power of the Divers, they’ve been able to effectively protect everyone left, and they grew to be the strongest power in the world because of that, they’re even planning to reclaim some parts of this continent overrun with corruption, and do voyages out to the other continents to asses the situations.”
I finally had a question to ask him, “How did the Diver Association even come to be? It’d be incredibly hard to organize such a rowdy group like Divers, especially with society in shambles like you say it was back then.”
“That’s the thing, the then and current head of the Diver Association is a legendary leader, at one point he was the strongest fighter in the Deep, so people rallied behind him, his massive power and tactical genius made him a figure that naturally drew anyone who was, or hoped to be strong.”
I wondered if Mom could take him.
“That power is getting him into trouble now though, the royal families that have been here since before the corruption hate how he has authority over them now, but any kingdom under the protection of the Agency is guaranteed massive growth in every way, so they can’t do a whole ton about it. The only exceptions are small villages close to kingdoms that benefit from the Agency protection because they’re close, and Halsry.”
“What’s so special about Halsry?” I asked him quickly. My city didn’t seem all too special other than them being isolationist.
“How do you not even know about the place you live in?” He put his face in his palm, “There is no end to your ignorance, is there, Ray?”
Stop putting so much emphasis on ignorance, I thought while frowning.
“Halsry is as legendary as the people in it, it’s a collection of some of the most important fighters in the corruption, many of them fought by the Diver Agency’s chairman’s side as equals, and some single handedly brought cities back from what was previously a lost cause. Every single person there also detests the Agency’s practices, which is why they keep to themselves so much.The Agency would usually just cut support to anyone that opposed them and let them fall to the corruption, but the amount of power collected in Halsry could wipe out the entire Slischester Kingdom in a day, so the Agency holds no power over them.”
Was everyone there so amazing? They just felt like my neighbors, sure there were some scary people that worked as guards on the wall, and people like my parents who were strong Divers, but most people didn’t tell me much about their time as Divers, so I just figured their adventures weren’t that interesting.
Hell, some people there weren’t even ever Divers. The couple that lived next door was a dark skinned, muscular woman who had been a Diver in the past, even worked with my parents on occasion, but her husband had never wielded a sword in his life, let alone fought corruption. He was an amazing cook though, we always ate at their house for my birthdays, and those days were the ones I looked forward to the most every year.
“Not everyone there is a Diver though?” I questioned Mathew and told him about my neighbors.
He shrugged back to me, “I’m sure there are exceptions, especially for spouses, but I don’t know a whole ton about it. I’d expect the person who lived there to know more about it, but your ignorance borders on a disorder I suppose.”
“Shut up before I accidentally make too sharp a turn and throw you off this thing.” I threatened him
He just laughed, and like that, we rode all the way back to Keero, spoils of the dive in tow.
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