The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  Once the top was done, I began working my way down, not worrying too much about how long it takes. If anything, the longer it took the more my spell would grow. I wasn’t messing with any fine details yet, just keeping to rough shapes. But even that took over a half hour to get the roughest shapes done. In that time, my Sculpt Earth and Stone spell had already risen in rank to a point I could use for what I wanted. But I am nothing if not stubborn. Never start something you aren’t willing to see through.

  Slowly, I began shaving off the finer details, rounding out the curves carefully and carving what needed to be carved. Just the topmost part of the project took another hour, and at times my mana actually dropped below the halfway mark. I guess that this is a good way to train it too, huh?

  At some point, Denise had wandered over to the area, apparently curious what I was doing instead of teaching Levy. When she saw the sculpting in progress she let out a slight gasp and went silent. By now my hands were moving of their own accord, striking the air like a composer for an orchestra. And responding to those motions, more and more details emerged on the sculpture.

  I must have spent half the day working on it, not paying attention to any of the pop ups that entered my vision. They can just wait until I was done, so I moved them out of sight. Eventually, though, I had the shapes entirely done, the fine details carved as much as I could perform. I debated adding colors, and decided to experiment with it.

  This was more difficult, changing the composition of the stone I was working with to draw out specific minerals. Thankfully, I only needed enough for a thin layer covering the surface, not to change the entire sculpture itself into the different minerals. This was likely the longest stage of the process, since I not only had to find the minerals hidden in the stone, but bring them out and experiment with them to get the colors I wanted.

  Just as the day was ending, I let out a deep sigh and took a step back from the completed work. It was a recreation of the scene from earlier, when Lilith was embracing Levy after her change. Of course, I made a few alterations. Firstly, rather than her revealing armor I put her in a flowing robe that I coated in a thin layer of erythrite, giving it a lustrous pink color. Along the robe were various flower designs, colored in an additional layer of azurite, making them look lavender. For the black eyes and hair of the demons, I used hematite. And finally, to give their skin a more human tone, I coated it in an extremely thin layer of vanadinite.

  The result was a sculpture of the demon queen kneeling down with a smiling face, a flowing robe draped across the exposed body of her daughter below her. I nodded to the work before turning around, noticing for the first time the group that had appeared silently to watch me work. Every demon I could name was there, even Kroa, and several I couldn’t.

  Krath stood at the back, head and shoulders above everyone else, with an approving smile. To the right, Denise was nodding happily as she looked at the statue. Kroa was staring with wide eyes at the scene, wearing another black dress that accentuated her features. Aside from that, there were several demons that seemed like they were just passing by but stopped to watch. And finally, Lilith was standing at the center of the group, Levy in her arms again. Levy was smiling to the statue, but looked to me with a nod. Little traitor told her mom what I was up to…

  That thought got me a smirk and another strong nod, but the strongest reaction was Lilith’s. She was smiling wide, her eyes watering as she looked at the scene of her embracing her daughter. When she saw that I had turned around and was looking at her, she blushed a bit, the first of her tears trailing down her cheek. “Really.. you… just don’t know when to stop, do you..”

  For a moment I thought that she was upset, and that I might have gone a bit too far. “Uh.. sorry..? Do you not like it?”

  Suddenly, Lilith lept forward, pulling me into a hug. Levy, still in one of her arms, chuckled and patted my head. “Silly.. how could that be… It’s perfect. I was wondering what could be going on when little Levy said I needed to come here. To think.. you were doing something like this..”

  I felt kind of embarrassed getting praised so much when I had just been wanting to practice my spell. Looking to Levy, I thought to her intentionally. You knew I was just practicing right? When she nodded, she gave me a small smile and brought a finger to her lips, like I didn’t need to tell Lilith that. I suppose she had a point.

  “Well.. I’m glad you like it.” I smiled to Lilith, finally bringing one of my arms around to return her embrace. “Suppose that was a pretty special moment to you, huh?”

  “Definitely… How could it not be? That was when I learned just how special my little girl is.” Lilith laughed weakly, holding me close to herself for several long moments. Finally, she let me go, and I could tell that a few more happy tears had been shed, but she was still smiling brightly.

  “Thanky you. This means a lot to me, Jin. But really, do you have something against my armor?” She asked with a teasing smile, making me laugh.

  “Well, surely you didn’t want me to put you in such a position where your daughter would be seen exposed to everyone, right?”

  “True… true. Well, the robe looks nice, so I’ll let that change slide. I didn’t even know you could do something like this.”

  “Welcome to the club.” Denise spoke up with a giggle from behind Lilith.

  “To be fair, neither did I. I planned to just make it a drawing, but then noticed that I could do it this way instead.” I shrugged a bit, as if it was nothing. Because really, it wasn’t. I had never meant for it to get so much attention. But finally, I noticed all the messages that had appeared while I was working.

  Sculpt Earth and Stone has risen to Intermediate

  Nature Magic has risen to 8

  Nature Magic has risen to 9

  Magical Talent has risen to 25

  Nature Magic has risen to 10

  Sculpt Earth and Stone has risen to Advanced

  Nature Magic has risen to 11

  Nature Magic has risen to 12

  Discovery has risen to 3

  Discovery has risen to 4

  Mana Recovery has risen to 2

  You have finished a sculpture! The statue Royal Line has been created in Hell, depicting the love that even a queen of demons can possess for her child. Due to the complicated magical processes involved in making this statue, Nature Magic has risen to 13. Fame +200

  I blinked a bit as the messages finally registered. Not just Intermediate, but the spell had risen to Advanced. Even more, I received a full ten levels. Aside from when I got my infernal magic, that was the largest gain I had made at one time in.. ever. And the statue came with its own name? I thought I’d be the one naming it. Oh well, the name isn’t that bad.

  Again, Levy nodded to me, and I wondered if her link allowed her to see the messages I saw, or if she picked the statue’s name up from my mind. She obviously wasn’t planning to tell me. But at that time, Kroa walked up to us, smiling slightly. She hesitated a bit before asking her question.

  “Uhm.. do you suppose you could do one for me too..? It doesn’t have to be as good! And you can put it wherever you want..” I couldn’t help laughing, causing her to blush, but I agreed. Looks like I got a new job as Hell’s Sculptor. Well, for tomorrow anyways.

  Chapter 26

  The next day, as promised, I started working on a statue for Kroa. Well, in a way it was for Kroa. But since I couldn’t decide where to put it, I ended up asking the hostess of her restaurant-- the Gourmet Fiend-- if I could make the statue as a form of advertisement. Given that I had received the queen’s blessing for this, she didn’t see any problems.

  For the statue, I asked Kroa if I could use her sister and her both as models, and she happily agreed. Her sister, the succubus that was singing in the white dress the other day, was named Japsen. She loved the idea of getting a statue of the two of them in front of the Gourmet Fiend. Though, she
was suspicious at first, asking if I was just doing this so I could get in their pants. Kroa assured her that she was the one that asked for this.

  Once they both agreed, I got to work. My first action was to use my Wall of Clay to make a giant wall in front of the restaurant, twelve meters high, twenty wide and four thick. In order to not obstruct business for the day, I sculpted a gate in the center so that customers could get in. If anything, the fact that I was working like this was drawing in even more business for them, pleasing Kroa’s boss to no end.

  For the statue itself, the size actually made it easier to get the details I wanted. It used a ton more mana than the Royal Line, but in a sense that was a good thing too. As I condensed each part to work the clay into a stronger stone rather than scrape it away, I began working on the shapes. Kroa and Japsen had the day off until I was done, so it was easy to use them as a reference for the work.

  Putting them in the same dresses as I saw them in when they were performing their duet, I used the thick foundation as support for the rest of the statue, so that it wouldn’t topple over onto the restaurant. Next, I worked on their basic shapes and pose. With Kroa on the left, and Japsen on the right, their arms in the middle came down to grasp each other’s hands near level with their waists. Each of them had their tail encircling their other arm, which held a stone microphone up to their open mouths.

  Their expressions in the sculpture were happy, their singing mouths bringing out dimples as they smiled through their song. The biggest challenge for Japsen was getting her face right, since that was her strongest feature. She was quite happy to have me stare at it while I worked the details in.

  Kroa, similarly, said that she’d be just fine if I played with her best assets to make sure that I got them done properly. Though I know I would have been way too distracted to work if I had been fondling her instead. Regardless, I ended up doing them both justice. Since I couldn’t include the cut along the leg of Kroa’s dress without hollowing out the foundation, instead I lowered the neckline to display a good deal of cleavage. She was more than content with this compromise, even feeling her own chest like she was making sure it would compare.

  As I did yesterday, I ignored the pop up windows that appeared until I was entirely done, and the image of the two singing succubi was on display in front of the Gourmet Fiend. Once they saw I had stopped working, the people around the area gave a short applause. I took the time to look over the messages that had accumulated.

  Nature Magic has risen to 14

  Wall of Clay has risen to Advanced

  Mana Pool has risen to 2

  Mana Recovery has risen to 3

  You have finished a sculpture! The statue Desire Duet has been placed in Hell, advertising the sensational performances given by the restaurant Gourmet Fiend. Fame + 50

  Well, I can’t expect to get so many levels twice in a row. Especially since this one was so much easier. I should be happy I got both mana talents this time. Either way, just three or four more levels and I will hit my goal for Intelligence. Turning towards the hostess, who came out to look at the finished work when she heard the applause, I bowed my head. “Apologies, but there aren’t enough minerals around to color this one. It will have to be done with regular paint.”

  The blue woman laughed softly, shaking her head. “No, don’t worry about it. Even this is fine. We’ll take over now. Girls!” She called out to the two succubi who had been dumbly staring at their larger counterparts. “The job’s done, so how about you go show these people why we had such a thing made?”

  At her call, the two women nodded quickly, smiling to me as they ran inside. Honestly, I might have been able to use the minerals like I had on Lilith’s statue. But that would have taken days to get as much as I would need to cover both of them. And I did still want to get out of here today.

  Once the two demon models had entered the building, there was a large influx of customers wanting to watch their performance. Thanks to the rise in business, Denise and I received permission to come here to eat anytime for free. Of course, the extra services would still require payment, but the meals were on the house.

  With the last of my business in Hell taken care of, we went to meet up with Lilith at the court. She was sitting atop her throne with a smile, with Levy in her lap. For some reason, Lilith was wearing a pink robe with lavender flower patterns.. A copy of the one from the statue? I glanced to Levy and she nodded with a smile. Levy herself was wearing a simple black dress, like a child would wear to a fancy dinner.

  “Lilith, we’re ready to depart. Thank you for putting us up for these past days.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. What was it you said to me last time? This much is only natural now, right?” Lilith smirked, and raised one of her hands. “I’ll put you on the coast of that island you wanted. Once you want your ship, just open a gate in the water and I’ll have it sent through.”

  “I understand. Wish us luck.” I bowed politely to her, and she laughed.

  “Oh, I doubt luck will be a factor. I heard of your inner demon, and I must say I approve. Don’t be a stranger, now!” And with that, she snapped her fingers, casting a silent spell on us. Thankfully, it wasn’t the same hellish teleport that she used the day we arrived. This spell wrapped us in shadows from head to toe, blocking all sight and sound. For a few moments, my world was shrouded in darkness. It sort of reminded me of something, but I couldn’t quite remember what.

  When the darkness cleared, I was standing next to Denise on a wide beach that went on for miles in either direction. There was neither port nor town, no signs of civilization at all. Thankfully, there was one thing that was here. Standing behind Denise, a large ball of shadows quickly rose and dispersed, revealing the trusty steed Midnight! Of course… I had forgotten about him again. I really needed to quit doing that.

  You forgot about me again, didn’t you? Midnight glared accusingly to me. I shook my head to deny it, of course, telling him I had just been very busy with various matters. He scoffed and turned his head away.

  Really, this horse is too smart… I shook my head again, and we walked towards the interior of the island, which was a dense forest surrounding a large mountain. The trees near the forest started off as palm trees, but the area’s originally inland nature quickly became apparent when we got a little further inland.

  “Okay… so how do we want to do this? As long as there is some good hunting, or maybe even a dungeon, we can stay here until Kev is ready to go, or until we get bored.”

  Denise nodded, “Okay, but do we want to make a camp or something? This island is too big to explore all in one day, but it would be best to have at least one camp we could secure. We don’t know what kind of creatures could be living in this island.”

  “Agreed. Been a while since I used this spell, but he’s good for easy labor! Calling the ape!” A green circle appeared on the ground in front of me, and the large forest ape rose up from it.

  “What.. do.. you want?” It spoke slowly, still unable to properly talk despite my magic giving it the ability to do so.

  “We need help constructing a camp.” I pointed to an area just a bit away from us, which was surrounded by bushes and just barely large enough to fit a small campsite. The trees were densely packed around it, making the terrain difficult to navigate for any large monsters. The ape just looked at it passively before resigning itself to its task. Next, I called out my iron falcon.

  Yes? What do you need today, Master? This one’s personality was much better than my other summons, so even when I gave it a tedious job like using its wings to cut down long branches for the ape, it didn’t complain at all. In the meantime, I began using my Wall of Clay spell to make three sides of a small hut, which took up most of the space in the clearing. With what was left, I made an open stall for Midnight.

  After the branches were brought to us, I tied them together with vines for a makeshift roof. I did the same thing for Midnight’s stab
le, and quickly enough a campsite had been constructed. After that, it was getting late since most of our time was spent in Hell, and we settled down to camp without seeing a single monster--or any animals for that matter-- on this island.