The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  New Talent Unlocked!

  Mana Recovery - By training your mana to its fullest extent, you have received this talent, which increases mana recovery speed by 1% of your maximum mana per level.

  New Talent Unlocked!

  Mana Pool - By pushing your mana to its limits, you have built it up like a fighter trains his muscles. This talent increases your mana by 1% per level.

  You have fully mastered the Hellfire Aura! You may now bring out this spell’s full potential. When using the chant for this spell, you are now capable of releasing the Demon’s Cloak feature.

  Demon’s Cloak - This use of Hellfire Aura permeates your entire body with infernal energies, inside and out. The result of this is you temporarily transforming into a demon. Your demon form will be chosen by your level and abilities. You may receive additional abilities while in your demon form.

  I blinked at the message, and then filled in my points from the levels I gained while training. Even though I had been training Hellfire Aura to work on my mana, I never considered mastering it. And for the master ability to be something like turning into a demon myself was something I hadn’t imagined.

  “Levy, I know you can hear this. Could you tell Lilith I’d like to talk to her when she’s done shopping? I seemed to have gained something rather interesting…” Though I knew she heard my message, I wasn’t entirely sure that Levy would relay it. I could have just used a spell to contact Lilith directly, but I didn’t want to interrupt her moment with her daughter by making her ask questions about what it was I wanted. This was her time, after all.

  Well, that was my plan anyways. The next instant, an exhausted Krath was running up to me. “You.. have you seen Lilith around here…?”

  I looked at him, dumbfounded for a second, and then remembered that I had Lilith abandon whatever she was doing to come attend to Levy. Suddenly, I started laughing. “Sorry, yeah. She was here a little over a half hour ago. There was an emergency with Levy, and I needed her help right away.”

  “Ah.. I see.. what was the problem?” Krath looked to me as if thinking it had better be something good.

  “Levy was evolving, but because I was the one that trained her something was forcing her evolution to stop halfway and she was going into shock.”

  “Levy… evolved? Already… that’s not a joke, right?” Krath raised his eyebrows suspiciously to me, and I shook my head. “You know she’s Lilith’s daughter by now, I take it?”

  “Yeah, she told me after we got the situation sorted out.”

  “I see. Did she turn into a Mephit after her mother, or a Scroll Fiend?”

  “Neither. Apparently, when I train a demon mage one on one, they can evolve into something new called a Bonded Acolyte. It looks sort of like a Reborn, but with a black rune tattoo on their forehead.”

  “A new species? Well… I can understand the urgency in all of this then, my apologies for being suspicious of you.”

  “It’s no problem. Since Levy turned into such a form looking like a human child, Lilith took her shopping for new clothes. Judging by your appearance, I must have pulled her away from something important. I should be the one to say sorry.”

  Krath smiles slightly, shaking his head. “It wasn’t that important really. It’s just the way she took off, we thought there would be an invasion or something. I think she busted down any doors that didn’t open fast enough for her.”

  That caused me to laugh again. “Yeah, that sounds like her. By the way, since you’re here, is it alright if I ask you a question? I was going to ask Lilith later, but I’d rather let her spend time with Levy if there is someone else I can get the information from.”

  “Very well, I understand. Levy is the Queen’s only living offspring right now, so it is best to give them time to themselves. What is it you want to know?”

  “Well, after practicing the Hellfire Aura spell, I just now finished mastering it. But when I did, it gave me a new aspect of the spell that turns me into a demon I’ve never heard of. I was hoping you could explain it to me, it’s called a Rune Devil.”

  It was Krath’s turn to laugh, sitting down with a small crash, his red face split in a grin. “Lilith said you were like him, after all.”

  “Ah… her husband was a Rune Devil?”

  “It wasn’t his final form, but that was one of his evolutions. In the end, he became a Rune Lord. You weren’t surprised when I mentioned Scroll Fiends, so I assume you know about them. Well, with some evolutions there are possible rare variants.” He began explaining to me, and I nodded.

  “For instance, the Queen is a variant of a normal Succubus. Well, Scroll Fiends have a variant as well, called the Rune Fiends. The Rune Devil is the next evolution after that. With a Scroll Fiend, they can easily memorize spells just by studying them, but a Rune Fiend can memorize them by seeing them cast. After their next evolution the difference becomes more distinct, when a Scroll Fiend typically evolves into a Tome Demon.

  “A Tome Demon is capable of instinctively knowing the incantations for any spells they acquire. But the Rune Fiend’s evolution, a Rune Devil, doesn’t get any power like that. Instead, they get the ability to directly manipulate their own magic with runes even if they don’t know a spell for it. Not only that, but a Rune Devil can negate magic cast around them by striking it with an equal amount of power and opposing runes.”

  I nodded to his explanation, thinking I wasn’t really missing much. Essentially, I already had the abilities of the Scroll and Rune Fiends, as well as the Tome Demon with my game skills. “Then, may I ask what the further evolutions of a Rune Devil can do?”

  “Hmm, well I don’t see why not. There’s only been a few Rune Fiends before, and the only one to reach Rune Lord was the late King. After Rune Devil, there are two more evolutions, Adept and Lord. The main difference between a Rune Devil and Rune Adept is the ease of which they manipulate magic, and the range they can do so. But a Rune Lord is an existence on another level. At that point, their ability is limited purely by their imagination and magic reserves.”

  “So… you’re saying that a Rune Lord is essentially a master of every type of magic? An Archmage race?”

  “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it, yes. Though he no longer needed things such as spells under normal circumstances, since he could perform considerable magic with just his demon powers.”

  “And that’s why he only had two signature spells…”

  “Right! Now you’re getting it. Mind showing me your demon form for a moment? With Lilith off shopping it doesn’t seem like I’ll be needed much.”

  “Yeah, just a second.” I sighed, taking a deep breath. “Levy, you can tell Lilith not to worry, Krath answered my questions.” At Krath’s perplexed expression I explained the details of the Bonded Acolyte race. He had the same concerns that Lilith had expressed, but when I assured him that we tested the connection and found that there was no compulsion to obey, he understood.

  Next, I decided it would be best to stand up, because Krath had conveniently neglected to mention the Rune Devil’s anatomy. If I ended up with twisted legs while sitting down like that I might break something! “Okay.. spirits of the pit, fires of the world beyond, become the shield that holds your fury. Hellfire Aura, Demon’s Cloak.”

  Wrapping my mana around myself like I had practiced doing to train myself just a short while ago, the black and red flames sprouted immediately. Then, they curved, pouring back into my body. I would like to point out at this juncture that having your limbs stretch while the flames of hell are poured directly into your bones is not a comfortable process!

  You have activated the Demon’s Cloak, and transformed into a Rune Devil. All item effects are disabled while in this form, except demon items.

  50 temporary Intelligence and Wisdom

  As a Rune Devil, you can empower runes directly with your mana, without the need for spells. To some
degree, this allows you to freely manipulate your magic.

  Likewise, you can see the runes of any magic used around you, and effectively counter them with your own magic. The only requirement for this is spending the same amount of mana used in the spell’s casting.

  When the transformation had stopped, I stood nearly even with Krath, my elongated legs bringing me just under seven feet tall. My arms had likewise lengthened, but not to the same degree. The biggest changes were my hair and skin. My hair was grown out, now pitch black and long enough to reach my waist. My skin, though, turned deep red, with runes tattooed across my entire body in black. When I brought my hand up to feel my face, I noticed my pointed fingers, almost like claws, and found two horns protruding from the sides of my temple, going directly up.

  Krath watched my transformation, including the mind-wrenching agony, with just a small nod. “Yes, you really have become a splendid Rune Devil. A fresh one too, going by appearances.”

  “So… this is…. god it’s hard to talk with a forked tongue. So this is how a Rune Devil looks right after evolving?”

  “Exactly. As you get closer to a Rune Adept, most of the runes on your skin will disappear. Until then, they will light up as you use them. Let’s see… hmm..” He was looking over my body for a few moments until his eyes were drawn to the back of my hand. “Ah! That one is good. I may be a swordsman, but I know a few of the basic runes. Try using the Light rune without a spell.”

  I nodded, glancing towards my hand where his attention was drawn. Indeed, one of the runes written there was Light. And just thinking about the rune made it glow, before a sphere of light appeared in front of me.

  “You see? Until you evolve into a Rune Adept, each of the runes on your skin will light up as they are used. This can be a fairly big weakness since it warns your enemy what you are up to.”

  I nodded again, and finally noticed my mana dropping in the corner of my eye. Canceling the light effect, the reduction didn’t go down at all. Twenty five mana every second… that’s more than my maximum output from the aura. And it’s not affected by using my magic? Or is it like my creation, where it’s only not affected if my magic remains near me. Either way.. at this rate… two minutes is my limit in this form.

  Realizing that, I canceled the Demon’s Cloak, returning to my human form. Thankfully, the shift back wasn’t as uncomfortable as before. That brief demonstration lasted over a minute, so my mana was down below half. “That spell uses quite a lot of power to maintain…”

  “Is that so? Well, it should be good for when you are in a tight situation, at least.”

  “Yeah. Thank you for your assistance, Krath. It was a lot of help.” I bowed politely to the general, and he returned the gesture.

  “It wasn’t a problem. It will be nice to see the queen happy again. She’s been getting lonely of late.” He smirked in my direction before running off in a very Lilith fashion, disappearing before I can make a retort.

  Shaking my head, I sighed. “Alright… so, for that spell… to maintain it, I either need to increase my recovery rate, or else get demon items that do just that. Since my current items double my recovery, I should be regaining just over ten a second.”

  I did some quick calculations in my head, which had become surprisingly easy after being trapped in this world despite my normal ineptitude with the subject, and realized I’d need to triple my recovery rate to have the spell active for any extended durations. The easiest way to do that was obviously to raise my wisdom, but I wanted to invest a bit more into intelligence before I did that.

  Once I hit five hundred intelligence I should be set on mana. I might even unlock another ability like I did at two hundred! After that, I’ll invest in wisdom. If every ten points gives one percent recovery, then I’ll need to train both that and my new talents to their fullest. Also, I’m sorry Levy if you can hear this, you probably don’t care about any of this so please ignore it.

  The next thing to do would be to train my mana talents some more. But after leveling up, my Hellfire Aura doesn’t drain me at all unless I push additional mana into it. I guess I could lower my recovery rate by discarding my magic items, but I was against letting my grimoire and staff out of sight. They were sort of like my personal unique items at this point, and I was rather attached to them.

  Well, I could probably train my magic with the Demon’s Cloak, but that would be pretty inefficient since I’d have to completely recast the spell each time. Maybe… I started grinning as an idea hit me. Okay, first I have to get a spell for it!

  Heading into the classroom I trained Levy in, I quickly found a book I could use to search for the spell I wanted. It wasn’t really that difficult, just a two-rune spell, so I was able to grasp it almost immediately.

  Drain Magic has been added to your Spell List

  If I don’t have any good spells to take my magic down to the bottom, then I can get one! Well, I wanted to say that, but this spell wouldn’t do anything if I just targeted myself. I’ll have to enchant an item with it that can run the effect constantly. And thus we’re back to enchanting… Let’s see, I need an item with a gem, and a circle that creates a storage unit within the item. It’ll have to be powered by the mana it drains.

  Pulling out some of the blank papers, I set myself to work preparing a circle. In a way, this would be a type of advanced enchanting circle as well, since it is adding the storage feature and a constant spell. I made sure to include the Continuing rune into the circle, and added a second rune circle just outside the center of the diagram. With the Storage and Cycle runes, it should allow for the creation of an item like what I want.

  But I can’t just enchant an item with the spell I have right now. I’ve got to level it up to at least Intermediate first, otherwise it probably won’t be strong enough to have a visible effect. As such, I set about casting Drain Magic on myself repeatedly. Sure, it had no real effect on me, but it was good for accumulating experience on the spell.

  Once the Drain Magic hit Intermediate, I needed a suitable item to enchant. Problem being.. none of the items Lilith brought me to practice on met the requirements, that I can remember. And to be honest, I wouldn’t even know where to begin on what was needed. My plan was foiled before it began!

  “Damn…” I sighed, sitting down in a nearby chair and looking over the diagram I hastily drew. Given that I was in a hurry, I hadn’t even thought about what I was doing with it. Even so, it actually turned out to be something that could work. Does that mean that advanced enchanting diagrams have to be done on a case-by-case basis?

  With that thought, I decided to try again. But this time what I wanted to write had no chance of fitting on paper. Likewise, my Sculpt Earth spell wasn’t high enough level for me to create the kind of detail I needed. Thus, the only answer was to practice that spell. Walking outside, I closed my eyes to think about what to draw in the stone floor surrounding the tower.

  I could draw a map… but… I want to try doing something from my imagination, not just copying it. It’ll be better practice if I don’t just trace the picture. What if… I had an idea on what I could draw, and pulled out my grimoire. I’ve only ever used this spell once before, to create a false wall. So, of course I needed to get a refresher on the incantation.

  Kneeling down, I faced the wall of the tower and placed my hand on the ground, reading the spell from the book while keeping the image of the runes in my mind. “I have read and understood the origin, and command it to shape to my desire.” Gradually, I stood up, raising my hand above the surface of the ground. And with it, like a bubbling pool some stone shifted to follow my hand, until it was about four feet high and wide. “That should be a good place to start.”

  I focused on the image I wanted to draw in my head, able to see it as clearly as if it were in front of me. And, with any luck soon enough it would be. First, I started with the most basic shape, shaving off the top and narrowing it with my mana. Thank god I can do it this way, I suck at
drawing by hand.