The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  “Oh, no! Nothing like that. Sorry, I guess I should explain a bit more about foreigners.” I sighed, and walked over to the bed to sit down, where Lilith sat right beside me to listen. “See, whenever foreigners learn a new ability, they have the chance to.. how should I put this.. better their potential? Like increasing their mana or strength. The mark you gave me just now let me make a rather big change, so I was working on that real quick.”

  “Ahh… you’re weird.” Lilith smiled to me, and I laughed.

  “Thanks? But really, that was a nice thing you did for me. Apparently, being the Queen’s Emissary is the highest role a mortal can play in Hell?”

  Lilith blushed, and nodded. “Yeah. There’s only a couple higher positions, but to get them you would have to become at least partially a demon. Not just a representative.”

  Noticing her blush, I poked her shoulder to tease her. “Can’t have the Queen marrying some lowly mortal, can you?”

  “U-uhm… I meant a General! Yeah… you have to be at least part demon to be one of my Generals…” She blushes further and looks away. Yup, I hit the bullseye.

  “Sure~.” I grinned to her, patting her head. “Guess I have some authority now, huh?”

  Seeing the chance to change subjects, Lilith pounces like a cat after a mouse. “Yup! Only the highest ranked demons can disregard an order from you. And myself, of course.”

  “Of course. It wouldn’t do to let some mere mortal be the boss of you.” I chuckled, and she blushed again.

  “R-right. But yeah, the mark I put on your soul will also protect you from most lower level infernal spells. Unless it was set up by myself or a General, you might even be able to walk through a field of hellfire.”

  “That… is very good to know. So, hellfire is a real thing I take it? Not just something for the tourists?”

  “Yeah. Angels have their Smiting, and we have Hellfire. All it really is is amplified fire. Harder to extinguish, and all that.”

  “And the spells about souls?” I asked, not upset, just curious. She looked at me for a moment, like she was searching for signs I might regret it, but then nodded.

  “Yeah. I’ll understand if you don’t want to use those spells. But in most cases, the monsters you encounter don’t really have a use for their soul when they die. Oh, I’ll warn you though, if you try to bind a creature to be your summon, and then take their soul when they die, it’ll cancel the binding contract. No soul to summon, you see?”

  “Fair enough. And I didn’t say I wouldn’t use them. Might avoid taking the souls of creatures that actually have a shot at an afterlife, but otherwise I don’t see a reason to waste, you know?”

  She smiled again, “Right. So, any other preparations needed, or do you just have to work out the final spells for the ritual?”

  “Once I work out the spells, I should be good to go. It’s just a matter of finding the right combinations to make it work.”

  “Sounds good. We can have one person do the analyze and extraction, another materialize the contract, another link them, then you edit it, and I take it back into myself.” She winks to me playfully, grinning. “I’ll have a piece of you with me always~.”

  “You shameless succubus.” I shook my head and laughed. “But yeah, a total of five spellcasters. That sounds like a good number for the ritual. How long do you think it’ll take to get them ready?”

  “Once you have the spells set up, give them a day to review and understand them, and we should be good to go tomorrow.”

  “Alright. Well, now that the runes are prepared, working out the spells shouldn’t be that hard.” I tilted my head back and focused. First, the extraction. That’s simple. Just use Extract with my Components rune. I heard the popup telling me that I had a new spell, and named it Extract Components. Because I have an amazing naming sense.

  Alright, next I need to link the twin contracts. I don’t want a merge rune here, because that would just cause all sorts of problems. Maybe the Control rune with Properties? Another popup appeared, and I named the spell Link Twins without opening my eyes.

  Okay, almost done. I don’t want a simple Become spell, because I might accidentally change the contract spell itself. So, add a Properties rune after Rewrite. A final popup dinged, and I named the spell Edit Details.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw that all of them had been added to my spell list, and smiled. “Alright, I’ve got the spells. Let me just write them down, and you can get them to your helpers.” I went over to the table, grabbing a pen and paper, and began writing the details of the Extract Components and Link Twins spells on separate sheets, being as detailed as possible with my Magical Knowledge, while also explaining the two new runes used in the spells.

  Once I had both sheets prepared, I turned around and handed them to a waiting Lilith, who smiled and thanked me again before running off to spread the news. At the same time, Denise walked into the room, looking curiously to me.

  “What’s going on?” I asked her, spotting her look.

  “Did something happen a few minutes ago? Like you getting stronger all of a sudden?” She raised her eyebrows to me.

  “Ah, right. Well, Lilith sort of gave me the position of Emissary of the Underworld. And with it, she gave me pretty powerful infernal magic. I guess at the same time, your abilities got a substantial boost too, huh?”

  “I’d say so. First time I’ve actually managed to land a hit on my instructor.” She smiled proudly to me, and I chuckled.

  “Nice. Oh, also she gave her blessing to my book, and it gave me a new power.”

  “Anything interesting this time?”

  “Definitely.” I raised a hand, pushing about two hundred mana into my Lesser Creation, and swung a short sword that appeared out of nowhere. “I can now make nonmagical objects that only I can use appear from thin air.” I released the sword and it faded away, the mana returning to me.

  “You’re a cheat character.”

  “I know… Did I mention that I have automatic proficiency with these weapons?”

  “....Cheat. Character.” Denise stated my entire being in two simple words.

  Chapter 16

  The next day, Lilith had the demon mages prepared and ready for the ritual, as well as a room for that ritual that would allow the newly created spells to be cast at the highest effect. On the way to it, several demons greeted me warmly, clearly excited about the chance to be free of the angel’s attacks. I’m sure many of them have lost people they cared about because of this business.

  Standing outside the ritual room, two demons with dark red skin and pitch black armor saluted me as I went inside. In the room was an intricate magical diagram, mirrored on the ceiling above it. At the four cardinal directions, there was a single green stone placed in the floor, about the size of a basketball.

  Lilith was already waiting for me in the room, sitting dead center in the circle. When she saw me, she smiled and waved. “Hey, there you are! You ready for this?”

  I nodded, looking around at the three other demons assembled. “Moment of truth, right?”

  Standing in front of three of the stones were nearly identical looking demons. They were slender, with light red skin and long black hair. Their eyes were completely black with no pupils, and they had three red horns coming out of their foreheads. Each one was wearing an intricate robe with various shades of red sewn into patterns.

  The three demon mages nodded to me in greeting, and I took my spot at the fourth stone, pointed south. “Everyone got their parts memorized?” When they nodded again I sighed in relief. “Okay… you ready Lilith?”

  “I’m ready! Let’s show those glowing bastards that they can’t bully us anymore!” Lilith exclaimed with a happy shout, quickly standing to attention in the center of the circle. “Keviath, begin!”

  The demon at the western point nodded, beginning his part of the ritual. “May the shadows fade from view so that all may become clear. I, who understands the bonds between Heaven and Hell, do cut and sever
the bonds of old.” He stretched his hand out towards Lilith, who winced and seemed to begin trembling. Likely, the spell worked on the contract was being pulled out of her.

  Next, the demon to the north began his part. “By the bonds of soul and blood, may word and will act as the guide.” Gradually, a large parchment began unrolling in front of him, which slowly moved over to the eastern demon.. By now, Keviath’s stone began glowing, and he was showing signs of fatigue. No time to read in detail, gotta hurry.

  The demon at the eastern stone stretched his hand out to the contract. “Struck together, writ as one, bind once more these lost twins.” Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of light that encompassed the room, which then dimmed just enough to see that it was coming from the contract itself. Also, the demon at the eastern point was kneeling in front of a frantically blinking stone.

  Focusing my eyes, I scanned through the document hovering in front of me. I needed to find the section about hostility between the races. As Keviath’s stone went from glowing to blinking, I finally found it. “May new words serve old souls, and bind them against older mistakes.” I brought my hand up to the section, and replaced the words so that it included representatives from the races as well, and prevented fighting even against the combatants will, negating any contract that would cause such conflict.

  As soon as I was done, I nodded, and the parchment floated over towards Lilith, who glanced at my changes and smiled to me, nodding. “Now restore all ties thought severed and lost. Bring together what was torn apart.” Holding her arms out as if to embrace the contract, it vanished from view, the light fading away.

  Moments later, Lilith began lifting up from the floor, floating inches into the air. When her eyes opened again, they were glowing deep red. “The pact is sealed once more. May no further blood be shed between our kind! Oh King of Heaven, behold the truly finished treaty between our people!” That glow shot out of Lilith’s body, up into the ceiling where it vanished. Finally, she lowered down to the floor again, dropping to her knees with a small smile on her face.

  New title unlocked!

  You are now a Ritualist!

  After having taken part in a powerful ritual that could reshape the laws of the world itself, you have earned the title of a Ritualist. Magical Knowledge and Magical Talent each increase by 2. Fame +100

  Seeing the apparent success of the plan, the two demons with blinking stones took their chance and collapsed to the ground, exhausted from using magic to effect such a powerful spell. I took a glance at my own mana, and saw that simply rewriting three or four sentences had taken out over two thirds of it. Damn, I haven’t been this low on mana since I first summoned the wolfman.

  “So… it worked, right?” I looked to Lilith, who was still smiling like it was Christmas.

  “We’ll be able to see the results in the next few days but… it seems to have worked!” She jumped up into the air and raised her fist. Then she came over to me, “Thank you so much. I don’t think we can ever repay you for this.”

  “You’ve already given me quite a bit to repay this. I’m just glad it worked. With this wording, the angels shouldn’t even be able to ask foreigners to do their dirty work for them indirectly, since that makes them a representative.”

  “I know! We’re finally safe!” She pulled me into a bearhug, and about the time my feet lifted off the floor I realized that she really is the demon queen, and possesses some insane strength! “If you ever need anything from me, anything at all, just call out to me from the darkness.” She winked playfully to me when she added her next bit. “But make it a good calling, okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah, you just want a flashy entrance, don’t you?”

  Surprisingly, she nodded her head quickly. “Of course! I haven’t had a chance like this in ages!”

  I shook my head and laughed softly. “Well, shouldn’t we get someone to take care of the two that collapsed first?”

  “Oh, oh right!” She smiled sheepishly to the two prone figures. “Completely forgot about that..” And with that she ran off out the door. “See you later, Jin!”

  I laughed again, walking out of the room. As I exited, there were two or three dozen demons of varying ages waiting for me. I was not expecting that at all, or the applause that came from them. I could feel my cheeks heating up in a blush, but made myself smile to them. Dammit, why do they have to surprise me like this… really…

  After a minute I managed to make my way away from the crowd. Every now and then I’d see a soldier who would stop to salute me. Honestly, I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I just nodded to them. I just wanted to hide where none of the embarrassingly happy demons would be congratulating me. Sadly, I only had one retreat in Hell. Thus, I made my way to the Demon Queen’s chambers.

  Lilith likely had a number of issues to take care of now that the contract business was taken care of, because she wasn’t there when I entered the room. Well, that or she normally spends her time in the throne room. I had kinda hijacked her schedule for a while.

  It took me several minutes before I was able to calm down, sliding down to the ground with my back against the door. “Heh.. heheh… guess it’s finally over?” It had only been a few days since I arrived in the demon city, but it felt like weeks with all the attention.

  I decided that, since only this part of my journey was actually over, and I still had a long ways to go before I would make any real progress with my bigger issue, I should start training. And thankfully, Lilith had given me a quicker method of training my magic so that I could get stronger faster.

  Closing my eyes, I thought over what she had told me. Focus your mana into different shapes, increasing your speed and accuracy as you train. Well, that’s all well and good, but how do I judge the accuracy? I can’t actually see mana! I guess I’ll just have to use my Scan spell while I do it.

  “In my eyes, all things are as one.” My vision tinted green, and I focused until I could see a blue aura leaking from my fingers. “Okay, got it.”

  I had been moving my mana around in dozens of ways ever since I first came here, but raw mana manipulation was something a bit new. It felt kind of like when I was using my Lesser Creation skill, but without solidifying it. Slowly, I saw that blue aura rise up from my hand, and form into a simple ball. Even this process took about twenty seconds, so until I got better, Lesser Creation was not something I’d pull out in a fight.

  Thankfully, I wasn’t actually spending mana to do this since I’d absorb it again after each shape. Next, I compressed the sides of the sphere, flattening them out to make a cube. For now I would just alternate between a sphere and a cube until I could do the transition in a single second.

  Magical Talent has increased to 19

  So, doing this improves my Magical Talent? But, wasn’t it supposed to make my spells level up faster? Or does having a high Magical Talent do that? I puzzled over the question, and took a glance at my skills list. With the buff from my Ritualist title, it looked like I was able to get a new skill, which indeed increased my training speed for my magic. Huh… so, skills aren’t set either. You gain skills based on the process you use to level up your talents? This was supposed to be a basic training exercise, so most people likely got it as a much earlier skill.

  Nonetheless, I kept up this process for several hours, just alternating between a sphere and a cube. Eventually, out of sheer boredom, I added a cylinder to the routine by rounding out the sides of the cube. Then I would just switch between the three in a random order to keep it more interesting. By the time I was able to change between basic shapes in a single second, my eyes were tired of staring at the blue aura and I cancelled the spell.

  “Okay… got the first level of training down.” I smiled to myself, and finally noticed a weight pressing me forward slightly. Apparently, someone was trying to open the door I was blocking. “Oh! Uh, sorry!” I quickly got up out of the way.