The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (41 page)

“
I see. Well, I’ll
wait until the ship is completed, and then see what’s needed.
If you need funds to hire more workers, let me know. I’ve still
got a bit saved up.”
Of course, I’ll
always have a bit saved up.

“
That could be a
help. I’ll see what I can come up with, and let you know what
prices are needed.” The harbormaster nodded, and went back to
directing the workforce.

When Denise and I walked
off, she smirked to me. “So, you’re going to be a captain
after all.”

I grinned to her and
nodded. “Aye, and you’ll be my first mate!”

The two of us got a good
laugh out of that.

Chapter
19

The next few days passed
without much incident. Kev was finally getting the hang of treating
the villagers like people, and noticed an immediate increase in what
they would let him do when he did. As such, he was easily able to
earn the gild needed for the Fighters’ Hall training program.
Unfortunately, there was no Fighters’ Hall in Grazel.

We decided that after we
set out, we’d drop Kev off at one of the Shattered Realm
islands where he could train properly, while Denise and I began our
journey. Of course, he was against the idea of separating until I
mentioned that I can communicate with people I’ve met over any
distance with the Message spell, and could summon him if need be.
Something about being summoned with magic seemed to excite him,
because he agreed right away after that.

Before the ship was
completed, I went to the harbormaster and told him the name that
Denise and I had decided upon. Calling it Unity, the man seemed to
nod. Of course, it wasn’t so easy to make a figurehead for a
name like that. In the end, there were actually two, a man and a
woman side by side, with arms outstretched to join at the nose of the
ship.

The ship itself was very
impressive, looking far too large for just myself and Denise. Then
again, the funds I used for the ship could have purchased a small
castle. Each side of the ship had thirty-six cannons, and there were
several large masts atop the ship. Denise and I held our breaths for
a moment when we saw the ship, newly crafted and docked at the port.

In the end, I did end up
needing to pay another two platinum coins to hire expert transmuters
that specialized in carpentry. Normally a ship like this would take
months of work to build with a crew of hundreds. But they managed in
just five days because they accelerated their work with magic.

Around town, we became
quite popular for all the business we brought in, buying furniture
from various stores, as well as some food and supplies, basic repair
kits, or even just because of all of the people that had been hired
to work on our ship. In the end, we got a bed, dresser, and mirror
for every room--all nailed down, of course. There was also a
nightstand for the captain’s quarters, and a large table with
chairs for the galley.

I’ll admit, I felt
kind of bad for paying for all of this with coins that started out as
being worth less than one percent their current value, but it also
felt really nice to have something so big. I could even use this to
sail around the continent instead of doing a cross country journey.
The only reason I decided against that course of action was because
there are certain events that would only happen if we take the route
by land.

Kev hadn’t been
around for the last couple days, so it was no surprise the look on
his face when he appeared near the port and saw the fully constructed
Unity. Of course, Denise and I were waiting for him, not wanting to
sail off on the maiden voyage alone. Okay, that’s a lie. We
really wanted to sail off. But we decided to wait. After the
harbormaster informed me that the ship was completed, a message
appeared for me.

Okay.. I recover 21
mana every second, so unless I get crazy with the cannons I should be
good on mana.
I could just imagine a normal
mage trying to pilot this ship, collapsing from mana exhaustion
halfway through the voyage.

“
Chr--uh, Jin…
this… this ship is really your’s?”

“
Well, only captain
can sail it with magic, so come aboard and let’s find out!”
I grinned to him and quickly got on board, standing at the nose of
the ship. I could almost feel the ship as an extension of my mana,
and nodded. “Awesome.”

“
You are enjoying
this way too much, you know.” Denise was standing next to me,
grinning. Kev was just frantically running about the ship like it was
some great treasure he had to explore.

“
Oh, I know.
Preparing to depart!” I flexed my control, and the anchor was
raised, ropes untying the ship from the port. Kev gasped when the
ship seemed to move all on its own. “Steering us out, lowering
the first sail.” I controlled both the sails and the steering,
and gradually the ship moved away from the port. “And full
speed ahead.”

All four masts opened up,
and the ship took off. It seemed my skill bonus didn’t give
that big of a bonus, because we weren’t going much faster than
ten miles an hour. Still, it was faster than walking. “I’ll
head to the captain’s quarters to plot out our course. Try to
keep him from falling overboard, will you?” I smiled to Denise,
and she nodded, looking to Kev.

“
Kevlar, you really
shouldn’t be standing so close to the edge…” I
could hear her scolding him as I walked off to my cabin, smiling
inwardly at this ship. Of course, ten mana per shot isn’t much,
but if I get into a big fight, I’d have to fire at least thirty
cannons all at once. That’s over three hundred mana. It’s
possible that given a bad situation I could run out of mana, but I
could trust myself and Denise to not let that happen.

When I got to the cabin, I
walked over to a large map on the wall. The map itself was magical,
and updated with its owner’s knowledge of the area. Currently,
it held a rough map of the Shattered Realm. Thanks to some research
beforehand, I knew that the nearest island with a Fighters’
Hall was Thurgil.

Since I had enough magic
to sail day and night continuously, we could make the trip in three
days. Only reason it will take that long is because we had to
navigate around a few other islands in the way. Carefully, I began
plotting out the course, linking the map to the ship while tracing a
finger through the route.

While I was here, I also
activated the detection crystal, and a window appeared in front of
me.

In the end, I set it to
activate the alarm if another ship approached within the range of the
detection, or if any monsters capable of inflicting damage on the
ship approached within half that range. Five full football fields is
quite the buffer zone, and I only need to be warned if they actually
come that close without turning away. As for ships, the range of a
cannon could surpass even that warning range of a kilometer, though
the aim would not be as good.

Next on my to-do list, I
decided to check in with my allies from far away. Thanks to the
skills I gained with my Infernal Magic, I could use communication
magic to speak with a demon anywhere, regardless of range or
dimension. “Message, Lilith.”

“
Huh? Who is this?”
The demon queen answered warily as the spell reached her.

“
Ah, it’s me.
Jin.”

Instantly, her tone
changed to a happier one. “Ah! Hey, I was wondering if you’d
call. So.. updates! Tell me everything.”

“
Hey, are you just
trying to live vicariously through me?” I smirked a bit to my
question.

“
Maybe~. The real
question is, would you mind if I was?”

“
Not really. Just
wanted to get that cleared up first. So, I met up with my friend, and
we ended up heading for the seas. Just got a new magical ship, and
planned to sail around for a little while to see what I can find.”

“
Ooh, sounds like
you’re going to have some fun. But, why don’t you just
use the Gates to travel? Surely, it would save you some time.”

“
It would, but there
are reasons why it is better to travel under my own power. For
instance, if I had just been teleporting from place to place, I never
would have encountered the demons, would I?”

I heard Lilith let out a
brief giggle. “Fine, fine, fair enough.”

“
I do have one
question, though.”

“
Oh? Feel free to
ask.”

“
Seeing as a lot of
my travels will be over land, I’d rather not leave my ship
unattended. Is there some kind of magic item that can be used to
store it or something when I need to?”

“
Well, you could
convert it into a token with the right spell. But, it’d
probably be easier for you to just use a Gate to keep it in Hell, and
then retrieve it when you’re ready to set off again.”

“
I thought the Gates
only connected to your throne room? I’d rather not drive a
galleon and half the seas right through your front door, you know.”

“
Oh, that? You can
have it connect to different gates, really. But, when you summon a
Gate in the water, it will by default connect to a Gate that is in
water. Basically you’d be bringing it into our port.”

“
I… didn’t
even realize you had a port. Does Hell have its own navy?”

“
Of course we do!
One of my generals leads the Army of Cocytus, composed of ships and
sea monsters alike.”

“
Huh.. and you don’t
mind me stashing my ship there?”

“
Why would I? We
haven’t waged a sea war in centuries, so the place is not very
lively.”

“
Alright. Oh, I had
another question, now that the subject has come up. It’s about
the Open Pit spell.”

“
Sure, what can I
tell you?”

“
According to my
information, I can summon demons through the spell to attack,
correct?” When she indicated I had it right I continued. “Am
I able to summon specific demons, or does it just pull something out
randomly?”

“
Well, you can’t
summon any of my Knights. More as, you specify a type of demon to
call, and it will appear. Take this example, you could place the pit
in the sea and call a Kraken. If it was big enough, maybe even a
Leviathan Demon. Of course, the bigger the demon you summon, the less
you can call. You could summon a thousand imps just as easily as a
single Kraken.”

“
I see.. So
basically, giving me these spells lets you give your army more
exercise now and then than it has had in years, right?”

I could hear her laughing
for a little while before she agreed. “Yeah, I guess so! You’re
our only military contact in the human world, and nobody else has
really wanted to piss us off lately.”

“
Well, I’ll be
sure to give your people plenty of exercise eventually. For now, I’m
still hiding my ability. I want to wait until I’m at least sure
of how strong I am compared to the others. If they find out I am the
only foreigner to pass the human mage exam, they may come to
challenge me.”

“
That’s true.
On that note, though, a rumor came in recently. It turns out, there
has been another human foreigner that passed the test, out in the
country Eastal. There have also been a few elf mages step forward,
but their criteria for graduation seems to be different from the
humans.”

“
Ah? So I’m
not the only one anymore.”

“
Nope! Still, you
were the first. And the one from Eastal was a more public face.
Apparently, once he announced he passed the final test, he was
swarmed by foreigners to demand they tell him how he did it, or to
join their group. After that, he went into hiding as well to avoid
them. The elf mages don’t seem to be causing as big of a scene,
though.”