The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (49 page)

“
Krath praised you
rather highly, you know. Fastest learner he ever saw. He even gave
you two demon weapons, if I remember correctly?” Lilith smiled
brightly to Denise.

“
Well.. yeah, but
that was only because I gained abilities while Jin did! I can’t
take any credit for that…”

“
How about we just
stick with something I do know? I can teach about some magic. If
whoever I teach advances quickly, we’ll know that I can extend
the training potential. Otherwise, even if it fails it gives me an
excuse to brush up on my studies.”

Denise nodded frantically
to that, pointing to me at the first chance to get out of being an
instructor. “Yeah, that!”

Lilith and Dariel thought
it over for a bit, before nodding. Lilith said that it would have
been best to test it on a warrior, but the answers should be close
enough anyways. Meanwhile Dariel’s main concern was that I’d
have a hard time teaching a subject that I’ve only spent two
months learning myself. Both perfectly valid concerns, especially
that last one. I had my doubts about it as well, but they had made up
their minds.

...Women…

Chapter
23

When Lilith walked to the
ship’s bow, she casually snapped her fingers. Beneath the
water, those of us on the Unity could hear a dull roar, and then a
black shape rose up. The water flowed from atop the black gate, which
was easily taller and wider than the Unity itself. Etched in the
black stone were images depicting various demons, two of which were
larger than the others by far.

Occupying over half of
each side of the gate, two massive figures stood at attention, their
arms stretched across to the handles of the gate. With the ship
approaching, the muscled demons depicted seemed to flex their arms,
grasping the handle and pulling it from within the gate itself. At
the same time, the gate began opening away from us, a small current
carrying us into a vast cavern.

This was obviously Hell’s
port, with the pitch black and blood red ships, the sea monsters
swimming beneath the surface, and the various demons walking along
the harbor. Lilith turned to smile to all of us. “Welcome to
Hell. Please enjoy your stay again~.”

Dariel shook her head with
a smile. “I should be heading back. Jin, you mind?” I
nodded, and cancelled the summoning spell so that she could walk back
through the white portal.

“
So, this is your
port, huh? Well, we might as well not waste any time. Going by your
enthusiasm to get this underway, you already thought of someone for
me to teach, right?”

Lilith nodded happily.
“Yup! Well, not someone specific. I was going to grab one of
the new applicants to our training program. I think they’d
rather enjoy getting the chance to do thirty years worth of training
in just two days~.”

“
Thirty…
years… just how high of expectations do you have for me,
woman!?” I shouted out despite myself, hanging my head from
helplessness.
Nevermind thirty, just ten years
of training would be too much to ask of me in this short amount of
time.

“
No, no, you
misunderstand. At times of leisure like this, we train our members
particularly slow so that they can spend a lot of their time enjoying
themselves. It’s not a problem given our lifespan, so typically
it takes at least fifty years to get to where you are now for us. Of
course, if we were at war it would be different, but with the treaty
and nobody else wanting to bother us we don’t have to worry so
much.”

“
I see.. well, that
does make me feel a bit better. Just make sure they know what they’re
in for, okay?” Lilith nodded to me and jumped off the front of
the ship with enough force to rock the entire deck, taking a few
seconds to settle down. “Seriously… that woman…”

“
I think she’s
fun.” Denise giggled next to me.

“
Yeah, fun. But
she’s also completely crazy.”

“
Oh, without a
doubt!” That got my companion laughing a bit, holding her sides
as I made a rope spring from the ship to tie it to the harbor. Then
the two of us disembarked as well, taking our time heading back to
the city proper.

On the way we came across
many varieties of demons that greeted us happily, ranging from the
childlike imps to the towering draco-demons with red scales and giant
wings. Oddly, there weren’t really any children around, the
closest thing being the imps. That had me wondering on the life cycle
of a demon. Maybe they just grew up very quickly? I’d have to
ask Lilith about that another time.

When we finally arrived
inside the city after being greeted by over a dozen demons
personally, including General Krath, I heard the ping of the message
spell being cast. Naturally, there were only two possibilities.
Either Kevin used one of my coins
already
or it was Lilith.

“
Yes?” I asked
as the message connected.

“
Where did you guys
go? I thought you were right behind me!” Lilith pouted into the
call, obviously not having realized just how fast she had moved.

“
Nevermind right
behind you, we couldn’t even see which direction you ran off
to!”

“
Oops.. I guess I
was a bit excited, huh?” She went from pouting to giggling in
just a few short seconds, causing me to shake my head and ask myself
what I did to deserve this.

“
Nevermind that,
where are you?”

“
I’m right
past the seventh spire of torment in the district of wrath. Oh,
nevermind, I’ll just grab you. Hang on!”

“
Wait, wha--!”
I never got to finish what I was saying because it felt like my body
was on fire, being torn apart and put back together time and again
within the span of a single moment.
So this is
what Hell is really like. Or is it just this insane queen!?

When the pain finally
lessened to something akin to a dull roar, I opened my eyes to find
Lilith standing in front of me, smiling innocently. “Never…
again… please…”

Her face immediately
showed a frown, looking down to me. “What’s wrong? I
didn’t mess it up, did I? Oh.. maybe that spell doesn’t
quite work the same for non-demons… it’s been too long
since anyone else was here so I didn’t know. I’m sorry!”
She bowed down pitifully in front of me, and I sighed, having no
choice but to forgive her. Regardless of her position as the queen of
an entire realm, she was a beautiful woman prostrating herself before
me to apologize. You just can’t stay mad at that.

“
..It’s
alright… just don’t do it again, okay? That hurt like…
well, like Hell.”

“
I’m sorry! It
doesn’t really feel bad for demons, so I thought, with your
position, it might work for you too? I won’t do it again,
promise.”

“
I understand. So,
where’s this aspiring young mind I am going to torment for the
next three days?” I asked, looking around. Besides, myself,
Denise--who was still panting for breath on the floor--, and Lilith,
the only one in the immediate area was a small imp standing behind
Lilith. Getting a better look at him, he was even thinner than most
of the usual imps I had seen so far, the wings on his back barely
formed, and he was clinging to Lilith’s leg while trembling a
bit.

“
Oh, right here!”
She smiled, pointing down to the frail looking imp. “I thought,
it’d be best to start from the very bottom, that way we could
really see the growth rate.”

“
Alright.. well…
is this guy even willing? He looks scared of me.” I tried to
smile down to the imp, but he just hid himself behind Lilith.

“
Oh, don’t
worry about that, he’ll be fine once he gets to know you~. Or…
oh, oops, silly me.” She spoke something in a near-guttural
language, and I vaguely remembered it from the first time we met her.
“Sorry, he doesn’t speak human yet.”

“
Ahh, I see. Also,
there is one more matter. Not so much important, but it might help a
bit.” Lilith nodded for me to continue, so I did so. “Do
you possess a spell that lets you share the sight of another?
Basically to let you see what I see?”

“
Well, sure. That’s
not something too advanced, so I could use it.”

“
Would you mind
doing so real quick? I want to test something.”

“
Alright. Just hold
on, this may sting a bit.” I braced myself for more
mind-shattering pain, going by her typical habit of understating
things. To my pleasant surprise, all I felt was a minor irritation
from my right eye that cleared up after a second. “Wow this
feels weird. Okay, go ahead.”

I looked up to her, and
saw that her right eye looked a lot like mine. Also, I saw
through
her eyes that my right eye looked like hers. Nodding, I pulled up my
character information window. “Can you see this?”

Lilith didn’t
respond for a second, so I thought maybe she hadn’t seen it
after all. But my worries were dispelled when I heard an “oooh”
from her. “So that’s what you meant! Wow, your strength
is pretty low. And your luck! It’s a wonder you can walk in a
straight line!” She grinned broadly, and I shook my head,
dismissing the window. “You had pretty good intelligence
though, as I expected from you!”

“
Yeah, yeah. I just
wanted to make sure this would work. We can use this so that the two
of us can check the progress as he gains power. If something
unexpected happens, this will also help us deal with it.”

“
I get it.”
Lilith nods happily, while Denise finally manages to work herself to
her feet. Looking down to the imp at her feet she smiles. “Levy,
say hello to Jin. He’ll be the one training you for the next
few days.”

Levy, a surprisingly cute
name for a demon, nodded shyly. “H-hi… I’m Levy.
Please take care of me..”

“
Nice to meet you
Levy. I’m going to try to teach you some magic. Is that
alright?” When she nodded quickly, another window popped up.
Since Lilith hadn’t dismissed the spell, she saw it as well.

Lilith let out a short
gasp, and smiled broadly. “It worked!” She jumped up into
the air and clapped her hands happily. “Okay, just head inside,
and you can find everything you need. Good luck!”

Finally I had the chance
to take in my surroundings as Lilith ran off. Apparently the fact
that we already knew it worked didn’t get me out of finding out
how well it worked. We were indeed standing next to a massive spire
that looked like it reached all the way up to the stone ceiling above
the city. “Must be the seventh spire of torment, huh?” In
the distance I could see half a dozen similar towers, and small homes
lining makeshift streets. Though, many of the homes look like they
had taken damage.
Did she drop us off in the
ghetto? The ghetto of Hell!?