The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (34 page)

“
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.

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.

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.