The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (36 page)

“
Yup. You’re a
cheat.” Denise was staring at the target in the distance.
“Okay, so the story is that that is a magical bow. I guess we
should add increased accuracy to the list of abilities as well.”

“
Yeah. You’re
still way better at this than me. You could probably hit one of these
targets with your eyes closed. If I even looked away, I’m
pretty sure I’d miss the broad side of a dragon.”

“
True enough, but
I’ve been working at this for a while. You just picked it up.
I’m sure you’ll get some neat tricks soon.”

“
Probably.” I
nocked another arrow and fired at the target, repeating this a few
times. Each time I fired a new arrow, the one I previously shot would
shatter.
Looks like I can’t do rapid
fire.

Just as I was thinking
that, and firing off one mana arrow after another, I got a much
welcomed popup.

“
...You froze…
it happened, didn’t it?” Denise hung her head after I got
the message, and I nodded.

“
New ability, Arcane
Marksman.” I took a quick glance at my skills list to see what
it gave me. “Alright, looks like this is what it lets me do.”
I created another arrow this time. Though the arrow itself was only
worth fifteen mana, I added another five to engrave the rune for Fire
into it.

When I nocked the arrow,
the tip glowed slightly. Upon release, it was immediately wrapped in
flame, shooting like a needle of fire at the target and burning a
hole through the center. As an afterthought, I noticed that shooting
the arrow to activate the ability cost me another ten mana.
So,
thirty mana for a pretty good elemental arrow. Most people would have
to carve them individually, so the efficiency to fire them is needed
I guess.

“
I give up…
you are such a cheat.” Denise dropped to the ground and sighed,
shaking her head from side to side. “Is it limited to fire, at
least..?” She looked up to me, hopeful.

“
Uhm.. any element I
can cast…” I turned my eyes away from her, embarrassed a
bit.

I almost thought I heard
her growling at me. “And.. with nature magic… you can
use all the basic ones. Probably hellfire too now, right? How is any
of this fair?”

“
I’m pretty
sure that I still wouldn’t be able to hit anyone as fast as
you, even if I used a lightning arrow. Unless my eyes can track you,
I can’t lock on. And my eyes aren’t as good as yours. So,
you’re still the much better combatant. Especially if we ever
get into a situation where I can’t use magic. Then I’m
screwed.”

“
You’re trying
to comfort me, aren’t you?” She glared up to me.

“
Uhm.. maybe..? Is
it working?”

“
A bit. But yeah, if
we hit an area that negates magic, you’d be no different from a
commoner really.”

“
You didn’t
have to put it like that, you know?”

Her glare turned into a
grin. “Hey, if I don’t pop your ego now, it won’t
fit back through the door.”

“
Yeah, yeah. Laugh
it up.” I smiled to her, letting the bow shatter into light as
the arrows had, and then offering her a hand to get up.

Chapter
17

The next few days, I
didn’t see Lilith much, except for at nights when she returned
to her chambers. It seems she was back to her official duties as the
Demon Queen. That said, she still asked regularly about how my
training was going, and when we planned to leave. Looks like she
really did want to throw a party for me before we left. I had
considered lying in order to get out of it, but you really don’t
want to lie to the queen of all demons.

Every day, I’d
practice my magical marksmanship at the range, while in private
working on my shape training. I was eventually able to create black
powder, so it didn’t take long after that before my real goal
started.

Now, it’s the day
before we leave to go back to the human world. I stepped out long
enough to send a message to Rusty to make sure that Kevin would be on
time, and then pulled Denise aside. I wanted to show her the results
of my training before the party later.

“
So, you’re
finally going to show me why you wanted to make a bomb arrow? Figured
it’d be pretty pointless if you could just use those enchanted
shots.”

True enough, my talents
have raised quite a bit during my training. Magical Talent increased
by three, while Arcane Marksmanship went up to five, and Runescript
went up to four. Looks like the requirement to raise Runescript is
simply to draw and use runes. Probably a common talent for people
that write magical scrolls.

“
Yeah, but this
isn’t about arrows. You want to learn something new about my
world, right?” I smiled to her, and her eyes went wide as she
nodded. “Alright, let’s go to the range.”

Her curiosity must have
overpowered her damaged pride, because she happily went along. It was
a few hours before the party, so most of the demons were busy
preparing. Thankfully, that meant we could pass through undisturbed.

“
Alright.. watch
this.” I held a hand out to the target, and focused my mana.
According to my tests, about two hundred mana was required for what I
wanted. The shape formed slowly within my hand, and I gently grabbed
the handle. Waiting a few moments more, I pointed the weapon towards
the farthest target, and squeezed the trigger.

There was a loud roar like
an explosion, a small flash of light appearing before the center of
the target was blown away, leaving a small hole.

Denise put her hands on
her ears a moment too late, and winced, but was wide eyed when she
saw the result. “What.. what is that?”

“
It’s called a
gun. A revolver, specifically. A weapon from where I come from. It
uses black powder to fire these.” I held out my palm and
created a bullet. Unlike the arrows, a bullet only cost five mana to
make due to its size. And most of that was for the gunpowder.

Denise smirked to me. “So,
you don’t want to be the center of attention, therefore you go
and make a weapon from your own world that only you can use?”

...I… hadn’t
thought of that. “You’re right… bow and arrows
works. Gun is for emergencies only.” The gun quickly shattered
into light, and Denise laughed.

“
Really.. you spent
all that time on this, and didn’t consider how much attention
it’d bring you?”

“
I was just excited
that I could create something new to this world… Well, maybe
it will come in handy later.” I let out a dejected sigh,
realizing that I spent all that work for nothing when I could have
been learning new spells instead.

Denise smiles and pats me
on the shoulder. “It’s alright. You’re still plenty
good with that bow of yours.”

“
Yeah, it shouldn’t
be that hard to hide my real power around other foreigners now. I can
even call Dariel for backup if we need her. Though, when we’re
going all out, I think it’d be better to rely on Lilith when we
get desperate.”

“
Not sure how strong
she is, but if she’s better than her generals that’d be
one hell of a backup.”

I nodded, focusing to
create the bow on my back. “You know, it is going to be
difficult to keep these up as a permanent fixture. It’s like
trying to think of two different numbers in the back of your head at
all hours of the day.”

She smirked to me, “Hey,
you wanted this. You can only blame yourself.”

“
True. Besides, who
would suspect an archer to be the first foreigner mage?”

“
Right. Now, less
stalling! It’s time to head for the party.”

I winced.
Oops,
she found me out.
“Uh.. right… I
guess it is that time, huh?” My clothes shifted, becoming dark
red and black robes which looked more like the demon style, as well
as a circlet with a ruby centerpiece. “I still can’t
believe they’re making me wear this thing.”

“
Aww, but they want
to be able to remember you as the valiant hero you were! Striding in
and volunteering to help the misunderstood demon race against the
oppressive angels.”

“
Yeah, yeah…
But still... “ I sighed deeply, and we began making our way to
the throne room.

When we arrived at the
hallway to the throne room, there were a dozen guards on each side of
the hall, facing inward. As we approached, one by one they raised
their swords to the ceiling in a salute. “This is going to be a
really formal party, isn’t it…”

Denise just laughed next
to me. “Only the best for the hero~.”

I glanced over to her
suspiciously, and she giggled when we approached the door.
Reluctantly, I put my hand on the large door and pushed it open.
Apparently, having a connection to hell means you can open their
doors with ease.

What I saw inside was…
not what I was expecting. The throne room was exactly the same as
before, and it was
not
crowded with a swarm of cheering demons. In fact, there was just
Lilith, sitting on her throne. “Surprise~!”

When Lilith said that,
Denise couldn’t help but break out laughing. “Oh you, you
really thought everyone was going to be here, didn’t you? The
look on your face, made up for that deal with your archery.”

Lilith smiled and walked
over to me as the door closed. “Denise told me that you’re
not one for parties. So, I decided to give you one last reward before
you leave… and not have one.” She giggled a bit. “Is
there anything else that we can do for you, before you leave?”

Yes, please teach me
all of the spells that I was too stupid to learn because I wanted to
make a gun!
I screamed it out in my head, but
forced a smile to Lilith. “No, thank you. You have already
helped a great deal. I’ll be sure to receive your hospitality
again in the future.”

“
You’d better.
Even if you don’t summon me, I expect frequent visits! Or at
least a call when you can’t visit. Deal?”

“
Deal. It was a
pleasure to meet you, Lilith.” I bowed deeply to the Demon
Queen, and she laughed.

“
It was a pleasure
to receive the name, Jin.” She likewise bowed to me. “Now
get going. You’ve got to meet your friend, right?”

“
Right. He’ll
be expecting us. Probably shouldn’t keep him waiting.”

“
Then go now, and
may you always be a friend of the demon race.”

And so we went, exiting
out of the Hell’s Gate that we came in with. Only now did I
notice that Denise had a bracelet similar to my own on her wrist. I
decided to wait to ask her about it till we were back to the surface.

“
Hey Denise..?”

“
Yeah?”

“
I don’t think
we fed Midnight this last week…”

She looked at me and
laughed again. “I came out here once or twice a day to take
care of that. I knew you’d forget.”

“
To be fair, I was
quite busy!” I smiled to her, glad to know that our horse
wouldn’t be starved to death. We were now walking down the dark
stone corridors of the dungeon beneath the oasis, and passing by the
sentinel demons.

“
Uh huh, busy making
a weapon you won’t use.”

I made a face at that
remark. It was not a happy face, but it made her giggle. Then, we
came to the pool of water that we first found. I decided to open up
our stat windows to see what kind of progress we had made in the week
we were here.