The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (32 page)

She nodded dimly, “Okay,
how?”

“
Can you get me two
identical swords, forged by the same smith? If they are similar
enough, then it should be a good enough test.”

She nodded, and quickly
turned to leave the room. A second later, I could hear her shouting
instructions to a guard, whose loud footsteps could be heard
retreating down the corridor. A few minutes later, I could hear those
footsteps returning, and then Lilith entered the room again, carrying
two fairly normal looking longswords.
Well,
anything that would look special would likely be too special for this
test to work.

“
Will these work?
They’re just mass produced weapons from our forge, so they
should be close to identical.” She presented me with the two
weapons for inspection.

After looking them over
carefully, I couldn’t find any clear differences. “Okay,
this should work. Just lay them down on the floor about six feet
apart while I prepare the spell.” She did as instructed
carefully, as if the positioning had to be exactly as I said.

Knowing that I couldn’t
simply call up my Spell Knowledge skill to get a unique spell, I had
to work it out in my head. Thankfully, my Magical Knowledge was
almost fully mastered--if 30 was a master level, which seemed to be
the case from the Archmage quest I received-- so finding a rune that
meant ‘Share Motion’ was not a difficult task. I just had
to combine that with my new Twin rune.

I focused the name as
Move
Twins
. This wasn’t going to be the
final spell I used in the ritual, but I had to first test that the
rune did what I wanted.

“
Okay, it’s
ready.” I pulled open my grimoire, and grimaced when I saw the
description of the spell.

“
Is something
wrong?” Lilith asked, a worried tone in her voice.

“
Oh.. no… the
spell looks like it’ll work. Just, wasn’t expecting…
well, I’m sure you’ll find out soon.” I moved to
the chant line. “Struck together, forged apart, may these twins
share once more.” I targeted one of the swords with the spell,
and they both began glowing faintly.

Gulping, I reached down
and grabbed the hilt of the sword. “Moment of truth.” I
slowly began lifting the sword, and the other one matched its
movement exactly. Very carefully, I pointed both swords at the ground
slowly, waiting for what I knew was about to happen.

Sure enough, there was a
shout coming from down the hall, just as my mana dipped down below
one half. This casting seemed to use quite a lot. “My queen!
Something has possessed the armory!” One of the demons could be
heard shouting from the other side of the door, and Lilith slowly
turned her head to me.

“
...The
unexpected..?” She asked, eyes wide and I nodded. “Could
you.. uh… stop it? I’d rather not make them panic
more..” She was fighting a laugh that seemed to be trying to
escape at the thought of this sending her armory into chaos.

“
Sure…”
I cancelled the spell, and the sword I wasn’t holding-- and I’m
guessing the rest of its ‘twins’-- dropped to the ground.
“Well… it worked.”

Finally, she couldn’t
help it anymore and let out a loud and ridiculous laugh that echoed
throughout the room. “Oh, I’ll say! I would have been
happy if you had just moved the one sword. But no, you have to move
all
of them!”
She gave me a quick hug, making me drop the sword I was holding, and
mashed her lips against mine before either of us could think about
it.

I froze for a second,
having not expected to be kissed by Lilith like that. It wasn’t
unpleasant by any means, just unexpected. After a moment, she blushed
and pulled away. “Uhm.. sorry… got caught up in the
moment.” She looked at me with eyes that seemed to be begging
forgiveness. Apparently, the demon queen does the best puppy dog
eyes.

“
Don’t
apologize, Lilith. It was nice. Unexpected, but nice.”

“
So… you’re
not mad?” She looked slightly relieved, and very hopeful.

“
Of course not. You
think I would have walked into a succubus’s room and not have
been prepared to at least get kissed at some point?” I smirked
to her, and she huffed.

“
Sexy
demons,
not
sex
demons! How
many times do I have to say it!?” She pretended to be upset,
but I could see in her eyes that she was just glad that her sudden
kiss hadn’t ruined anything. “I don’t think I’ll
ever understand you.”

“
What’s there
to understand. Handsome, smart, charming, and a clever mage just
about sum me up.” I chuckled, and she shook her head with a
smirk.

“
Don’t forget
modest.”

“
Right, that too.
Thanks for reminding me.”

“
But… this
rune seems more powerful than you had planned. Are you sure it’s
alright to teach it to us?”

“
I made a promise,
didn’t I?” I smiled and patted her head playfully. “I
already wrote it down for you and explained it, anyways. No point
trying to take it back even if I wanted to.”

She smiled, and nodded.
“Thanks. Well, luckily there aren’t any other contracts
identical to the one between me and the king of angels. So we won’t
have a repeat of tonight.” She chuckled a bit at the thought.

“
You’re still
imagining their faces when suddenly a bunch of longswords started
moving on their own, aren’t you?”

“
Maybe~.” She
laughed, and I quickly joined in, before we laid down to rest until
Denise returned.

Chapter
15

The next morning, I had a
question for Lilith while reading through the advanced magic book
again. “Hey, Lilith, come here for a second?”

She skipped happily over
to my side. “Hmm? What is it?”

“
I noticed a term
used in this book, but I’m not quite sure I understand, since
it isn’t referenced in any of the others I read in the mage’s
library.”

“
What term?”
She tilted her head to the side curiously.

“
It’s called
Grand Magic. Do you know what that means?”

“
Ahh, right. It’s
an old way to classify spells by power. Back when magic was first
being developed by the various races, it was classified as
apprentice, scholar, adept, royal, grand, and divine. Six ranks of
magic, though most people only could get as far as royal. Grand Magic
is a spell consisting of untold numbers of runes, and can only be
used by those who have fully mastered a field of magic.”

“
What about you? How
far on the scale is your magic?”

She grinned to me, “I
can use grand magic, yes. But I don’t think anyone ever
achieved the level of divine since the first Archmage, because magic
that strong would be able to change the entire world in a single
spell. Let me put it this way… the contract that binds the
angels and the demons is on the upper end of Royal Magic. Much
stronger, and it would be Grand Magic.”

“
So, what would be
an example of Grand Magic?”

“
Hmm… think
of calling down a meteor to wipe out an enemy’s entire army.
That would be a Grand Magic of earth. People that can use that level
of power are the types told about in legends.”

“
And to get a Grand
Magic, I’d have to master a school of magic… Well, I’m
a long way from doing that.” I let out a sigh.

“
Hey, don’t
get so down. I’m sure that you’ll get there, given how
persistent you are.” She smirked to me.

“
Thanks. I don’t
suppose you know a way to train my magic without throwing spells
around, do you?”

“
Oh, they don’t
teach you? Well, that’s a shame… there’s actually
a really easy technique that most people--well, demons-- use.”

“
They might have
taught it to regular students, but I was only in the classes for a
few weeks. So, what is it?”

“
Okay…
basically, just sit down, and focus your mana into a ball above your
hand. Then, change that ball into various shapes. Push yourself on
the speed and accuracy, and that will train your control over your
magic. Once you’ve mastered that, your spells will grow in
strength much faster than they have been.”

“
Thanks. Seems kinda
obvious now that you explained it. The master has become a student
again.”

She tilted her head back
and laughed. “Oh nonsense. You’re still pretty good. I
can’t remember the last time I saw someone make a new rune,
especially as quickly as you did. You should be proud of yourself for
coming so far so quickly.”

“
Thanks, again. Oh,
that reminds me. What do you know about the Deific Dictum?”

“
Those old
grimoires? They’re still around?” She tilted her head,
surprised.

“
Yeah, apparently
that is the reward for becoming a mage among the humans.” I
pulled my spellbook out to show her. “I was told that I needed
to get the blessings of the four main surface races, as well as
various other hidden races.”

“
That’s right.
And before you ask, yes you can get the blessing of demons. But.. do
you want it? While you’re carrying around an item marked by the
underworld, you won’t be able to associate with any angels.”

“
You’re…
asking me if I want to give up the blessing so that I can be friends
with a bunch of jerks who took the first chance they saw to work
around their treaty?” I looked at her as if to say that was a
stupid question.

“
Fine, fine. Hand it
over. I’m not sure what power it’ll give you. I’ve
never really blessed one of these before.”

“
Huh? You mean it’s
another first for you?”

Lilith let out a small
giggle. “I guess so.” When I handed the book to her, she
put her hand on it. “In accordance with the ancient customs,
for services rendered to me and my kingdom, I, Demon Queen Lilith,
grant the blessing of demons to this tome.” A red light with
black smoke emitted from her hand, wrapping around the book. After a
few seconds, the light and smoke both faded away. “Go on, tell
me what it did!” She thrust the book back to me with an eager
expression.

I blinked at the pop up.
“Oh.. wow… now
that
is a blessing.”

“
Show me show me
show me!” Lilith was practically bouncing on her heels, and I
had to pull my eyes away from her bouncing chest.

“
Oh… right.”
I held my hand out in front of me and closed my eyes.
Five
hundred mana should do.

After channeling a massive
amount of mana into my hand, I felt steel form in my fingers, the
handle of a sword. When I opened my eyes, I was holding a jeweled
saber, the handle wrapping around my hand like a silver shield.

“
Oooh… that’s
really cool!” Lilith exclaimed next to me, reaching out to poke
the sword. “Ouch, sharp!” She pulled her finger back and
sucked on it as a small drop of blood was released. “Explain,
now.” She smiled to me, her finger apparently already healed.

“
Uh, the book gained
a power called Lesser Creation. I can make any nonmagical item out of
my mana, and be considered an expert with it. Though, I doubt it will
give me the reflexes to effectively use a sword like this for more
than attacking. And the more mana I pour into the item, the better
the quality.”

“
And… you
felt you had to pour so much into this because..?”

I looked at her and raised
an eyebrow, “Was that a lot? It was a bit less than a third of
my total.”